Danganronpa MV 3: At Destiny's Edge

by Otterplay

Sixteen Ultimate Students wake up in the remnants of a long abandoned city only to find out they are going to be forced into a killing game. What choices will they end up making. And will it even matter, or is there something bigger at play here?

2. Chapter 1: Against All Odds - Daily Life

I would sleep tranquilly until I was awoken by the sound of pounding at my door. Slowly sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. I glanced in the mirror behind the TV and saw that my hair was a mess. "I'll be out in a minute!" I called out, half asleep. I moved over to the bathroom and drenched my hair in water in an attempt to fix it. I should probably take a shower, but I'll take one after eating. Food… right… I looked around. This didn't look like my bathroom, now that I think of it. And since when did my room have a mirror behind the TV? I shook my head. That was a question for when I was more awake. I straightened my hair and looked at myself in a few seconds, a small smile forming on my face. Until I remembered where I was. I dashed out the door, looking around the room I was giving. Moving over to the window, I looked outside and saw the city still pretty much in ruins. Although, less so now, for some reason.

The knocking at the door started again. "Riley! Are you going to wake up?" It was Marcus.

I sighed internally as I walked over to the door. I opened it. "It's early." I told him.

"Early?" He repeated, shaking his head. "You've been sleeping in! You even missed the morning announcement!"

Morning…? "Announcement?" I asked him.

He nodded, then turning to look at a monitor on the wall. "At around seven, there was an announcement to wake us up."

I rolled my eyes in amusement. "I doubt that. I would have woken up."

"It's 9:30." He said, turning around to walk away. "Come on! Let's have breakfast."

I watched him walk off, frowning slightly. He didn't have to come to wake me up…

We made our way downstairs to the lobby.

"Just beyond these doors." Marcus said as he opened them. I was greeted with a lovely looking dining hall. I expected this place to look like a disaster, but with how the rest of the hotel looked, it made sense. Some of the people were still here, despite it being later. Bella, Enima, Historia, Robin, and Volvo were still here.

"A fine morning, girl!" The hairstylist glanced at me with a bright smile.

I waved at him before getting some food. After that, I sat at the table with everyone else.

"There's the sleepy head." Historia commented with a small smirk.

Enima glanced down at her. "Didn't you sleep till nine?"

"S-shush!" She quickly said.

I laughed a little bit before looking around at everyone else. "Did you all sleep well?"

Bella nodded with a gleeful smile. "I thought I would have some nightmares, but the bed was just so soft."

"And this food…" Volvo took another bite. "Is magnifique!" Alright, don't get too French.

"Any other words like that?" Robin asked, looking at him.

He thought for a bit. "Nope. That's all I got." Well, at least there's that.

"The others went out exploring the place again, apparently some construction noise was heard early in the morning." Enima told me. Oh. Good, I was just going to ask where everyone was.

I tilted my head slightly. "Renovations? Like, he's making it look less ruined."

Suddenly.

Bear.

"That's right!" Monokuma announced with a smile. "I thought that if you are all going to be here, the least I could do is provide quality service like this hotel."

"Aren't you trying to get us to kill each other?" Robin asked him.

"That's besides the point!" The bear replied. "This city has been in ruins for months, maybe even years. I think it's finally time I spruce it up and remove any and all ev- Whoops! Said too much!" He covered his mouth, hiding a huge grin. "Well, you all enjoy your endless supply of food. Monokuma! Out!" And just as quickly as he appeared, he was gone.

I finished up my food, slowly getting up.

"Already heading out, darling?" Volvo asked me.

I slowly nodded. "I want to check out a few things before today ends." He was going to say remove any and all evidence. Was there something hidden around I could use to my advantage to figure out what's happening?

Marcus stood up too. "I already ate, so I might as well go exploring with you."

Yeah, the Ultimate Explorer could prove very helpful in my search. "Sure." I turned towards everyone else. "What about all of you?"

Bella was still eating. She glanced up at me. "I think I'm just going to go back to my room after this."

"Nonsense!" Volvo shook his head. "The day is young, and there's so much to see in the city of New York!"

"I doubt this is New York City." I shook my head with a small smile.

He simply shrugged. "Well, it's somewhere. And until it's proven otherwise…" He trailed off.

I shook my head again, heading for the exit. "Well, I'll see all of you later." Hopefully. I frowned a little bit. No one was going to do what Monokuma said, so I should have nothing to fear, right?

Stepping outside, I saw that some of the ruin was already starting to go away. There was still some presence of it, like cracks in the road and ruined cars. But the walls of some of the buildings were starting to look better.

"So, where to first?" Marcus asked me.

Right, I needed to figure out where to go. "Well, I don't exactly want to explore a building yet, maybe just check in places less likely to be renovated."

He looked at me, a little intrigued. "You want to explore the great unknown?

"Well, I wouldn't say the great unknown…" I mumbled. I looked back at him. "I want to try and figure out where we are."

Marcus glanced down at the ground, frowning slightly. "Yeah, I want to find that out too. I don't think whoever is doing this just built a city to keep us in." Right… The city must have already been here.

"And why is it in such ruin…" I turned down an alleyway, hoping to find some remnants of ruin. There was some graffiti, but it was hard to read it since some chunks of the walls were missing.

"Not sure we'll find anything here…" Marcus shook his head slightly.

But soon, we found a door that seemed slightly open. And, some noise could be heard from within. "Someone's there…" I mumbled, slowly opening the door.

The interior of the building seemed to be like a shop. Different things lined the walls, but they were all behind glass cases. They all appeared to be deadly weapons of sorts, and I hoped no one would even try and take them. I saw someone standing in front of the display case. It was Daniella. "Huh… I hope you aren't thinking of taking one."

She glanced at me before shaking her head. "No, I don't think I will. I just saw this door and decided to go inside."

Marcus shook his head slightly. "We should lock this place up. This is just asking for disaster to strike."

Daniella simply shrugged. "If there was a way, I would have done so already. But even blocking it won't stop anyone who wants to murder to come here. Besides…" She walked over to a glass case containing a bat. "It's not like they are very dangerous weapons."

Fair enough, maybe a knife or two. But most of these required bashing. "Still…" I trailed off. "Not exactly a place we want everyone to find."

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Nononononono!" Monokuma yelled out. "You should be wanting people to find this place!"

"Why…?" I asked him.

He remained silent for a few seconds. "Good question. I don't know. But I sure want everyone to find this place." He laughed a little bit.

"Is that all you came here to say?" Marcus asked, pulling down his hat to cover his eyes a bit.

"Nope! I'm here to say that I've made renovations on some Ultimate Labs." He told us. He lifted up an arm. "And before you ask, an Ultimate Lab is a building made specifically for one of you Ultimates. I was generous enough to make five for you this time."

Ultimate labs…? "Wait, were they buildings that were always there?"

He nodded. "Yes, they were here originally, but I've repurposed them for you."

Repurposed, huh… "We should go check them out." I said, looking at Marcus.

He nodded. "Yeah, I think I saw one that was for me."

From what I remember, I don't think I saw one for myself. I glanced over at Daniella, who was just moving from display case to display case. "Are you coming?"

She shook her head. "No thank you, I think I'd rather stay here. The shop has a nice atmosphere."

I can't say I personally like the atmosphere of a shop full of weapons, but to each their own. I waved at her as I left. "See you later."

"Have a nice day." She smiled with her eyes closed.

The two of us left the building and soon found our way back onto the main street. "So where to next?"

"Well, I think we should save the best for last…" Marcus thought for some bit, tipping his hat down. "Hmm… Didn't we see a daycare here?"

Daycare? Right! "Yeah, let's go there first." I smiled. We spent some time walking before we reached it. And already, it was a much more welcoming atmosphere than yesterday. The colours were brighter now. I opened the door and saw what I thought was a child running around. But, on further inspection, it was just Bella being chased around.

"She doesn't need to wear it." Caren sighed, standing off to the side.

Lily was running after the poor small girl. "Yeah, but it will be super cute!"

"I'm not wearing the child's outfit! I am fifteen!" The girl ran around, before grabbing a chair to block Lily from getting to her.

She pouted in defeat. "Fine, you win."

"Lively aren't we…? I shook my head with amusement. Well, at least some of the people were still having fun. I glanced over to Caren, who also seemed content just watching.

Lily mumbled some inaudible things under her breath as she returned the clothes to the closet. "They would have been cute too…" She sighed sadly.

"Well, you've had your fun, ladies." Marcus said, shaking his head. He looked around the place. "Well, this seems better than how it was yesterday!"

I nodded at what he said. The creepy pictures were also absent from the walls. If I didn't know any better, I would think this daycare was set in a normal city. Yet, I know better than that.

Then, I remembered what Monokuma had said. "If this perchance an Ultimate Lab?"

The florist closed the closet door before turning to look at me, perplexed. "Ultimate Lab?" There was a hint of interest in her voice.

"Yeah!" Marcus called out with excitement. "Monokuma said that we would each get a special place to showcase our talent!"

A small grin appeared on the face of Caren as she walked over to the wall full of children's drawings. "Well then, I guess this one would be mine."

It was hard to disagree with that, since she was the Ultimate Babysitter.

Lily pouted slightly, crossing her arms. "Aww, but I didn't see any gardens anywhere!"

"I'm… I'm sure not everyone got one right away." Bella told her, trying to stop her from pouting. "There are some places in the city that are blocked off." Oh yeah, I had noticed some gates were in the way, but I didn't pay them much attention.

"Gates huh…" Marcus mumbled to himself. He was looking at the ground, his hat obscuring his face. "Seems we are just gonna have to climb over them."

I smirked slightly, already knowing that's a bad idea. "Oh yeah, and what about the first rule that said if you are caught leaving, you will be terminated?"

He froze for a second before thinking of a counter. "It only said if we left the city. If the other side is still part of the city, then-"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Alright there, smart man! You wanna play like that?" The bear seems aggravated. He took out a E-Handbook out of seemingly nowhere and tapped away at it, which was weird because it was working, despite him being a stuffed bear. "There!" He shouted.

I took out my own E-Handbook to look at what was updated.

.

Rule #1: Students may reside only within the enclosed parts of the city that they have access to... Anyone caught leaving will be terminated immediately

.

"Dammit!" Marcus shouted out. "Foiled!"

Like it was going to work in the first place. I turned my attention to Monokuma. "So you can edit the rules all you want?"

"Yeah, that doesn't seem fair!" Lily joined in. Tag team.

"Pleeeeease! I only updated the rule for clarity. Wouldn't want someone dying unfairly." The bear looked down at the ground.

"Yeah right, aren't you just waiting for us to die." I told him with a small frown on my face.

He put his hands behind his back, sweating a little bit. "Well, yes, but…" He trailed off. "I want you all to kill each other! It's much more fun when I get to watch!" And then he laughed.

Bella frowned, before covering her face. "You're cruel…" She mumbled.

"All in a day's work!" He shouted before disappearing.

Well… that killed the mood. I sighed internally. And then I sighed externally, which ruined the point of sighing internally. "Well, I guess we should go see what the others are doing." I turned around to walk away. I then stopped to look at the three girls. "Are you going to stay here?"

Caren nodded with a sweet smile. "Yes, I quite like it here, so."

I nodded understandingly. "Then let's go, Marcus."

He still seemed upset that his plans were ruined, and I could only giggle at him. Even though deep down, I knew I shouldn't even be laughing at all about anything.

The next place we found ourselves was the hair salon, which also had a better looking exterior already. There were still some worn out spots, but it should be better by tomorrow, right? I opened the door and saw only two people in it this time. Volvo and Historia were there.

"Why would you want your hair changed?" Volvo had his arms crossed with a small frown on his face. "Your current hairstyle already suits your personality from what I can see, girl."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Historia frowned at him, a little bit of anger in her voice.

The hairstylist could see the faint feeling of hostility. "I'm just saying your hair is perfect. Is there a problem with that?"

I shook my head a little. "What style would you even want?"

"Well…" Historia trailed off before mumbling something under her breath before looking at me. "I just wanted him to make a suiting hairstyle for me."

Volvo smiled sincerely. "And I told you none is more fitting than what you currently have. Hair can be an extension of one's personality."

I walked over to one of the seats of the building and sat down, turning to face the mirror. "Well, what about me. Think you can make a better hairstyle for me?"

Volvo sighed loudly. "You are all being way too vague. What's a hairstylist like me supposed to do?"

"Ugh!" The historian sounded annoyed as she walked over to the chair next to me and sat down. She crossed her arms. "I don't know, just braid my hair."

"Oh finally, someone is giving me actual instruction; I thought I would die with vagueness." Volvo positioned himself behind her and began working on her hair. "So, how exactly do you want me to braid it."

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" She huffed, annoyed.

The hairstylist shook his head with a small smirk. "It's part of the job, darling."

Historia was silent for a few seconds. "I want a ring going along here." She traced her fingers along a path on her head.

"Certainly!" He said with great excitement as he started to work on her hair.

I looked back at the mirror with a small frown. I wouldn't even know what kind of hairstyle I would want. My parents are the ones who wanted my hair straight, and I didn't have any complaints about it. I guess I just let things happen…

After a few minutes, Volvo had a smirk on his face. "Perfection!" He declared as he stood away.

And yeah, looking at Historia, it made her look cuter.

"How's that?" The hairstylist asked.

She started playing with her hair, a small blush on her face. "It… it looks nice. Probably won't keep it too long since it'd be a hassle to maintain."

Just say you like it. Soon, Volvo made his way over to me. "And what would you like?" He smirked at me.

I quickly shook my head, standing up. "N-nothing… I can't think of anything good." I took a step back. I was always indecisive…

"Well then…" Marcus looked serious as he took a step forward. He placed one hand on his hat before removing it. "Think you can fix my hair?"

His hair, best I could describe it, was messy and curly without his hat. With it on, his hair actually looks straight.

Volvo looked at it with a deadpan expression. "What's the point of making your hair look nice if you wear a hat?"

The explorer didn't say anything for several seconds before putting his hat back on. "You know what? You bring up a valid point."

I once again couldn't help but laugh. "Well, if I ever do get an idea for my hair, I know who to talk to."

"Just know that you don't have to have it changed. Most people are perfect how they are." He told me with a smile.

"Well, we should head off, I want to see where the others are at." I smiled back as we left the place. The next stop I wanted to go to was the library. I was pretty sure that one was also an Ultimate Lab, made for Jean. Walking into the building was refreshing since now, it was actually looking more like a library.

"Welcome to the establishment." Jean greeted, sitting behind a desk of sorts with his feet on the counter. "You will find any books of your desire." He wasn't looking at us, and instead was too busy reading.

I had a small amused smirk plastered on my face. "Are you just going to stay there and read?"

He lowered his book slightly, finally making eye contact. "Isn't that the life?"

Marcus shook his head. "Of course not." He placed his hand on the tip of his hat, obscuring his face. "Life isn't being cooped up in a building. The real adventure comes from exploration!"

The librarian shook his head, unamused. "Everyone has their own definition of life. I want one where I can stay indoors and read out fantasies."

"Why stay indoors when you can live out those fantasies for real?" The explorer countered.

Jean let out a long annoyed sigh as he slowly closed his book, placing it on the table. It was placed lightly, but due to the silence, it echoed a little in the room. "When will you get it that not everyone wishes to actually partake in the fanta-"

He never got to finish his sentence as something was slammed down on the table right next to him. This caught him off guard and he leaned back in his chair too much, falling down with a painful groan.

"Alright! I found it!" Cameron shouted out with glee. What he had slammed down was a gold and red book with what looked like to be leather on the cover. However, on closer inspection, it was just the image of the book. The cover read: Dungeons and Dragons. Players Handbook.

Jean slowly got up from off the ground, rubbing his back. "Not this again…" He mumbled as he looked down at the book.

"Hey, you said if I found it-" The dungeon master started to say.

Jean grabbed his own book and tossed it to the side in annoyance. "Fine, go find Jack."

"Already found…" The critic's voice could be heard. He was leaning against a nearby bookshelf that was fully stocked.

Marcus looked at the book, then at Jack, then at the book, then at me, then at Jack again. "Oh, so you're a nerd?" Yeah, let's go with that.

"Tsk." The critic couldn't help but smirk. "Not a nerd, but the thought of being part of a story like this is entertaining. And the thought of judging a story made up by the Ultimate Dungeon Master sounds fascinating. I am by no means a nerd." He gripped the sleeve of his shirt, looking down at the ground. "You're free to join us."

"Well… maybe-" I started to say.

Marcus had already turned around to leave. "Well, I'm off to explore what might be my Ultimate Lab." Thanks for leaving me here. I let out a small sigh before turning my attention to the three still in the room. "Well, I've never exactly played before-"

"It's easy!" Cameron shouted out with enthusiasm. Can I finish a sentence?

Jean grabbed the book, tucking it under his arm. "Describe easy... Took me a few weeks to even get the hang of it."

"Wait, so you have played it before?" The dungeon master asked him confused. "But you didn't seem interested."

The librarian shook his head. "It's more so I like being alone, so." He walked over to Jack. "Come on mister judgmental."

"Hey, being a critic is my job, while yours isn't being an ass." Jack countered as he followed him.

I shook my head. Why did I get involved in this. I would much rather be exploring a temple right now then be playing DnD. Nevertheless, I followed them.

Cameron placed down the book on a table, flipping open until he reached the introduction page. "Alright, now making a character isn't too complicated-" Oh god. Oh fuck. I'm going to be here for hours.

Jack sat down, confidently. "I already know what kind of character I want. I'm going to be a half-elf ranger."

"That's great, that helps the process out a bit!" He turned to look at me. "And y-"

Jean tapped his finger on the table. "I'm thinking of being a tiefling rogue."

Cameron stopped to think for a bit. "Yeah, I can work with that." He was going to ask me again, but Jean started talking again.

"What about you, what class and race for you?" He smirked, before throwing me an understanding glance.

The dungeon master went silent for a few seconds, trying to think. He waved his hand dismissively. "It will be chosen at random. I can do any class or race."

The librarian slowly nodded before closing the book for Cameron. "Well, I think we should also see who else would like to join us before we start anything. Robin looks like he'd love to be a part of this." He grabbed the book, placing it under his arm.

This seemed to have distracted him from what he was going to ask. "That's a great idea!"

Jean looked at me, flashing a small sincere smile. I've been saved.

"Well…" Jack said, standing up, his voice drenched in disappointment. "It's a shame we won't be able to figure out anything concrete because not everyone knows what they are doing." He glanced over at me, his eyes like daggers.

"Hey, don't blame this on me." I frowned slightly. I didn't want to get dragged along into this. I slowly stood up. "Anyways, I should probably go find Marcus." I quickly excused myself as I left the building. I wouldn't mind playing DnD, but don't just push me into a corner like that. I shook my head as I walked around the town aimlessly. That's when I realized the city didn't really have any noticeable landmarks. Most buildings looked plain. Although, I stopped outside one that held a neon sign that said: "Welcome!" It seems that it is now working. Although you couldn't really tell that much because it was still light outside. This is where we met Monokuma yesterday. I took a deep breath before stepping in. The interior looked much better than it did yesterday, as the red at the entrance had more life in it. Heading to the doors, the staircase heading to the stage seemed to be in better shape, and the seats had more life to them. The lights on the stage were on, and the spotlight seemed to be moving constantly. Down on the stage, I saw two people standing there. Heading down the stairs, I would see that it's Enima and Josef.

I continued down the stairs and made my way to the stage, before stopping. I looked up at the two.

"Of course all of this is just for show!" Josef announced, without a care in the world. "I'm pretty sure I saw a camera in one of the buildings."

Enima shook her head, frowning slightly. "Yeah, sure, just pass it off as that. Why would they go to the effort of making all of this if it's some reality TV show. And what if people actually kill each other?"

The host couldn't help but laugh. "Well obviously this is just some sort of Truman Show situation where everyone is in on it but me." Yeah, keep dreaming.

He pressed the cane he had against his head. "There's no way someone could just kidnap a bunch of Ultimates like that and get away with it. Especially since most of us don't live in the same city. Hell, I hadn't even moved to attend Hope's Peak yet."

It was unlikely to kidnap so many people from far away. I was several towns away from Hope's Peak.

The mysterious girl was about to say something when she spotted me looking at them. "Oh, glad you could join the conversation, Riley."

Josef looked at me, pointing his cane at me. "And what say you? How do you think we all got stuck in this mess?"

What's with people putting me on the spot? "Oh… well, I don't really know. Probably just someone who has a bone to pick with Ultimates." That's… the best I could come up with.

The host hummed in thought before smirking. "That could be a possibility. But I still think my theory is the most profound one."

"The one where apparently you are the star of the show?" I asked him, in a somewhat mocking tone.

He hummed in thought once again. "You know. When you put it like that, it makes me sound self centered."

"Probably because you are." Enima chipped in.

Josef shook his head. "Nevertheless, none of this makes any sense, and it's what my brain rationalizes as the truth. Nothing wrong in what I believe."

I frowned slightly. "But on the off chance that this is real, and someone does kill someone?" I frowned slightly. I didn't want to think about it. But it sure was a possibility.

He looked at me for a few seconds, a deep frown forming on his face. Despite wearing sunglasses, I could still feel his gaze on me. "Well, if that's the case…" He said, somewhat somberly. "Then I grant you both permission to pester me until I too, die."

Enima frowned, glancing away. "Way to somber the mood." She turned to look at the back of the stage. "So, do you think anything is behind it?"

The host shook his head slightly. He pressed his cane against his forehead. "There's not much. Only two changing rooms, probably for male and female. And then there's a backstage area for props and such. And also lighting. Not really much of an Ultimate Lab."

"Well, at least you have one as of now. I think there's only five so far." I told him, bringing my hand to my chin. "Who knows when anyone else will get one."

A small smirk appeared on his face. "Excellent point. I should consider this a blessing in disguise."

Sure, whatever you say. "Anyways, I'm going to be heading off." I turned around to walk away.

I was with some rather odd people over here. Oh well, there were some rather normal people here, I guess. I stepped over a crack in the road as I made my way to where Marcus would logically be. When I finally got to the building, I'd realize that the vines on the outside were somewhat cleared up. As well as all the grass that had been growing outside. Guess Monokuma was really trying to clean this place up. I stepped over another crack, probably left over from the overgrown flora.

Finally, I had reached the building, and once inside. I would realize that nothing changed. It still looked the same as yesterday. But then again, it added to the aesthetic that was the temple. I saw a group of four at the temple entrance. I made my way over there, stepping over several overgrown roots. Slowly, I climbed up the stairs.

Marcus turned to look at me. "Oh, you finally came!" He turned to look back at the entrance, placing his hand above his eyes, like he was trying to block the sunlight. "I wonder what lies in there.

Sunlight… huh? I looked around and sure enough, the top of the building had a fake sun in the corner. I covered my eyes slightly before my attention drifted towards the other three people. Robin, Serena, and Stephan were here.

"So, are we going to go explore it or what?" Stephan asked with a big grin on his face.

Robin nodded. "I'd like to see what we find. Probably nothing of value, but just looking at any inscriptions would be fun."

"Not like they'd be genuine…" Serena frowned slightly. "It's probably just an attraction the city has for tourists."

I looked back at the entrance. That seemed to be the case, since this was held inside a building likely used to just replicate a temple.

The tactician simply laughed at that. "Yeah, but if we think of it like that, the fun of it is ruined."

The huntress didn't say anything.

Marcus shook his head slightly, seeming slightly annoyed. "We won't get to find anything just standing around here. Let's go!" He cheered as he made his way inside. The four of us all looked at each other before we followed him.

The inside of the temple, despite being built for a tourist attraction, really looked genuine. The stone on it was corroded and also covered in moss. Although, not like it would be that hard to replicate this.

"I'll lead the way!" Stephan called out eagerly, stepping in front of Marcus.

"Hey, wait a minute there." He lowered his hat, covering his eyes. "I'm the one leading this party. Especially since this is my attraction, and my expertise."

Robin shook his head, amusingly. "Does it really matter who goes first? You can stay near the back to check anything we might have missed."

The explorer kept his hat obscuring his face for several more seconds before he tipped it up. "You know what, I like the sound of that." He moved over closer to Serena, who also seemed to be staying towards the back.

The parkourist smirked to himself. "Then it's settled." He took over the lead.

I glanced around, taking in the walls and all the inscriptions. They were making me rather uneasy. But not enough that I would just turn around and walk away. Robin walked beside me, also looking around. Although, he'd probably be better than me at spotting anything of interest. We turned the corner and walked down some stairs. The torches down here seemed to be dimly lit compared to the ones upstairs. Like they hadn't been changed in a while. Because of that, the room was much darker than before. We also didn't have any sunlight pouring in from the entrance anymore.

Suddenly… I felt a weird sensation. Like time was slowing down slightly. It wasn't the first time I've felt something like this, but, let's just say it's been a while. I'd have to explain it another time because right now, I had more pressing matters.

I slowly glanced down at the floor, where I was stepping as I slowly pushed in a stone slab. Faintly, I could hear some mechanism turning inside the wall, and realized it couldn't be anything good. Robin was still beside me, and he hadn't noticed anything. While my mind was racing quickly to get my body to move, my body was reacting slowly.

Suddenly, someone placed a hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. Time reverted to normal, and a bunch of arrows shot out of the wall, where my head used to be.

"That was a close one." Marcus shook his head, watching the arrows hit the wall.

I frantically looked around, looking for Robin. My eyes landed on him, and he was fine. Serena had managed to get him out of the way.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, slowly getting up. I dusted myself off, which wouldn't help much because I would just get dirty walking further in.

"Some traps set by whoever made this place." Serena picked up the arrows. She twirled them around in her hand before shaking her head, discarding them. "Seems this place is a little more real than I thought."

I hadn't realized, but I was breathing heavily. I took some time to calm down my breathing, and after fifteen seconds, it was back to normal. "How did you two see that?"

Marcus rubbed the back of his head. "Honestly, Serena saw it before I did because she reacted first. But after she reacted, I noticed it."

The huntress had a small smile on her face. "I deal with traps a lot, so I know what to look for. This hallway is lined with pressure plates and wire traps." Her attention went towards someone further down, who was walking back. "Stephan." She said, a bit of coldness in her voice.

He leaned down, picking up the arrows. He poked the tip, quickly removing his finger when it hurt. "Yup, real." He looked over at the wall that shot them out. "How did I avoid that?"

Serena shook her head, a small annoyed sigh coming out. "We probably shouldn't explore further. At least not now. It's too dangerous."

Robin picked up an arrow. "But if we can learn to avoid them, we could totally go explore further down."

Marcus turned around. "As much as I want to explore more…" He started to walk away. "There's no point if one of us dies on the way. We gotta keep the team alive." He gave a thumbs up.

I smiled slightly. "Right, let's not put ourselves in dangerous situations." I followed him. "Besides…" I sighed, a little tired. "I'm still tired, and now I'm hungry…" It was probably around noon by now. I glanced over at Robin, who seemed to be leaving the temple. From what I saw yesterday, he might be the type who would like to join in with Cameron. "Hey, I was wondering if you'd play DnD with Cameron and the others." I suggested.

He looked at me for a few seconds. "DnD? What's that?" Oh god, don't make me explain.

"Oh… well… some nerdy thing, I guess. A tabletop RPG, I guess. I just thought someone known as the Ultimate Tactician would enjoy playing that."

He pondered my request for a few seconds before a small smile appeared on his face. "You know what, that doesn't sound too bad. Maybe I can stop by tomorrow." Well, maybe he can hide how bad I'm going to be at it. Suddenly, I felt my stomach growl. Right, food. I had been walking so much I had forgotten about lunch. I quickly returned to the hotel.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful, I mostly stayed at the hotel in my room. I didn't really want to talk to anyone, and instead, wanted to lie down and think of what was happening.

.

I awoke the next day, feeling more tired than I was before. What was the point of sleeping if I didn't feel rested? Ah, whatever… I shook my head and started to get ready to head down. After about half an hour, I went down to eat with the others. It was already ten by then. I wasn't one to wake up early.

When I reached downstairs, a few people were still there. I say still there because I always wake up late, apparently. I noticed that Marcus was still there. He seemed to be talking with Serena and Robin. But, by the time I got myself some food and sat down, it was just Marcus that was left.

"There you are!" He grinned. "Been looking for ya!""

"You should know by now that I sleep in." I told him with a small smile. I started eating my food. I had grabbed some bacon and eggs this morning. Not like there was much choice in what to grab. I glanced back over at him. "You were talking to Robin and Serena, how come?"

"Ah, that!" He tipped his hat with another grin. "We talked about going back to the ruins to see if we could make it further."

I didn't like what I was hearing. "Going back? Didn't Robin and I almost die?"

He remained silent for a few seconds before raising his hat back so I could see his eyes. "That's why this time, Serena and I will lead the charge. We should be able to spot anything and warn you two about any traps."

I glanced around, looking at the room. Who I was looking for wasn't there. "What about Stephan?"

Marcus let out a small sigh, scratching his head. "I couldn't find him, so he might not show up."

"Ah, that's fine. He went and did his own thing anyways…" I looked at the clock on the wall. "What time do you want to go?"

His attention shifted to the clock I was looking at. "Good question. Maybe sometime in the afternoon. Much too early to go exploring right now. I'll give you time to wake up." He stood up, grabbing his tray.

I let out a small happy sigh. Well, at least he had some decency to let me relax.

And that's when I felt it.

A hand on my shoulder.

Right… This.

I turned around to see Cameron standing behind me, a big smile on his face. "Please, it's never too early to get started on stuff!" He called out.

"But…" I glanced at my food, but quickly realized I had finished eating, so I couldn't use that as an excuse. "Huh… I guess we can go now…" I sighed, realizing that I wouldn't get to relax anymore.

We made our way to the library, where Jack, Jean, and Robin were already waiting.

Cameron stopped, seeing the tactician. "Oh, you came here too?"

He nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, Riley invited me."

The dungeon master glanced at me with a smirk. "Alright! Making our group bigger!" He walked over to a table, sitting down. "Alright, I know most of you have the characters you want, but we still need to work on the character sheet."

"I could have done that overnight." Jean sounded slightly annoyed. "But you didn't let us take any papers…"

A smirk appeared on his face. "Well of course, I want everyone to make them at the same time."

I let out a small sigh as I sat down at the table. I would probably need to ask Cameron for help.

Suddenly, I heard someone walking. The sounds of heels clicking against the ground could be heard walking towards the table. I glanced up and saw Daniella, who seemed interested in what we were doing.

"Can we help you?" Jean didn't seem too enthusiastic.

She seemed to be carrying some books. "Oh, I was just stopping by for some reading material." She had her eyes closed. When they opened, the first thing she noticed was the Player's Handbook in the center of the table. "Oh, and what might you five be doing?"

"We are getting ready to set up a campaign for DnD!" Cameron announced cheerfully. "It's to pass the time, and it's a bunch of fun." Seems like he was trying to advertise it to her.

The secretary continued to look at the book for a few more seconds before a smile appeared on her face. "Very well, maybe I shall join."

"I figu-" Cameron started to say, clearly expecting to be rejected. "Wait, that's a yes."

Jean shook his head, slightly annoyed. "Isn't our group getting too big?"

"Tsk… What's one more person going to hurt?" Jack asked, looking over at the librarian.

I smiled, looking over at Daniella. "It would be nice if you could join." Finally, not the only girl.

She took a seat across from me. "Well, I've never tried this before, so you'll need to show me what to do."

Wait, but I don't know what to do eith- And they were all helping her. Great. I grabbed a character sheet and just stared at it. I didn't really know what information to fill up where. I mean, a name would be easy, but everything else seemed rather foreign.

Suddenly, someone sat down beside me. I glanced over at them, and it was Jean. "Well, since you have no idea what you're doing."

"Didn't have to put it that way…" I mumbled, glancing away. "But yes…"

He looked over at Cameron and Robin, who were helping with Daniella, and then Jack wasn't actually helping, he was just making his own character. The librarian shook his head. "Like they were going to bother helping you." He reached over on the table and grabbed some dice. "Alright, first off, what race and class do you want to be?"

I glanced over at the book, hoping magically that the answer I wanted was right there, but sadly, it was only the index. "Huh… what races are there?"

Jean let out a small sigh. "You don't really know anything, do you? Why did you agree to this?"

I glanced away, nervously. "It would have been rude to deny the invite, right?" I tried to escape, but it didn't really work.

He looked at me for several seconds, trying to figure out something. After a few more moments, a small smirk appeared on his face. "Maybe you should try an Elf Ranger."

"Elf Ranger?" I repeated.

He nodded at me. "Yeah, Elf Ranger. Or you know… just a Human Ranger…" He scratched the back of his head. "In the end, it's your character, so you get to decide. I was just making a suggestion."

"N-no! I'll take it!" Alright, now to figure out how to play an elf ranger…

He looked at me for a few seconds. "Now, you're going to ask me how to play that?"

He read me like a book.

"Alright…" He looked through the book. "Well first, let's figure out your stats." He took four of the regular looking dice. "So what's going to happen is we're going to roll four of these, and you will keep the three highest ones, add them up, and you can use that for one of your stats. We will do that six times. The states you have are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma."

I slowly nodded. "I know what most of those mean. But just to be sure, what's constitution?"

He snickered slightly, like he knew I was going to ask about that one. "Well, that's like your health and stamina and such. Think of it as your vital force." He looked back at the book. "Well, since you're going to be playing a ranger, I say you should put your high state in Dexterity. It's the most useful for you. But first, let's roll the dice." He handed them to me and I rolled them. I got two fours and two threes.

He slowly nodded. "Well, that's an eleven not bad, but not the greatest. Roll again."

I did just that and got two ones, a four, and a five. "That's just a ten, and it doesn't feel any better."

He looked at me. "Aren't you the Ultimate Lucky Student?" He deadpanned.

I took the dice again and rolled them. One two, two threes, and one five. "That's still only eleven…" I mumbled.

"Blow on the dice." Jean told me, holding back a small smirk.

I shook my head in amusement. "I'm not going-"

He rolled his eyes, his smile turning to a small frown. "Just do it."

I grabbed the four dice again and blew some hair into them as I rolled them again. Four fives. "That's fifteen!" I declared.

"Like, magic." He looked at the table. "Alright, two more times…"

I blew into the dice again and rolled them. This time… the result wasn't that great… Three two's, and a five.

"Seems like you used all of your luck on the last roll." Jean shook his head.

"H-hey, I barely had any to begin with." I grabbed the dice again, and shook them. This time, with a little more force. The first three landed, revealing a one, and two fours. The other one bounced away and hit Cameron in the forehead, who mumbled something in pain, before landing back on the table to reveal a six.

Jean and I looked at it for a while before he turned to look at me. "So, that counts. There, fourteen. Wasn't completely bad." He took out a piece of paper and wrote down, nine, ten, eleven, eleven, fourteen, and fifteen. "There."

"Well, like you said, I should put my highest number into dexterity…" I wrote down fifteen next to the number. "Health sounds important…" So I wrote down the fourteen next to constitution. I looked at the remaining four stats and wrote down eleven next to wisdom and intelligence. "I don't want to have that be below ten…" And then I looked at strength and charisma. I never was good at talking, so I probably wouldn't do good in DnD, so I put the nine in charisma, and the ten in strength. "There…!"

Jean slowly nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. Seemed he approved of the choices I made. "Well, then, I think we should start working on other stuff for your character now."

"You mean we aren't done yet?" Oh god, no wonder it felt too easy.

We spent the next hour or two working on equipment and such. Jean didn't seem to really work on his character, not that it would take him too long anyways. He seemed to really know what he was doing.

After all that, Cameron stood up. "Alright, we should be ready to start tomorrow!"

"Tsk, tomorrow?" Jack crossed his arms, looking away. "All that and we don't even get to start today. Then why not have us do it overnight?"

The Dungeon Master remained silent for a bit. "Huh… Good point… Ah-ha! Because then I could check on your characters right now and work it into my campaign!" Sounds like he was just bluffing…

"What time shall we meet up tomorrow?" Daniella asked, slowly standing up.

Cameon thought for a few seconds. "Well, I'll figure that out tomorrow. I'll gather everyone when I'm ready."

Then, we all stood up and headed our own ways. However, Cameron seemed to stay behind, seemingly looking at all of our character sheets. Well, he had a lot of planning ahead of him.

.

The next place I was heading towards was the temple. Once I got there, the three of them, Marcus, Robin, and Serena were already waiting. "So, what's the plan for today?" I asked, walking up to the group.

Marcus tilted his hat downwards. "I just want to see if we can make it to the end today. Or at least, see if we can discover something."

"Not very reassuring…" Serena shook her head. Then, she started to head inside. "I don't want to waste too much time today, so let's go."

I watched the other two follow her lead and quickly followed them.

The temple still seemed the same as last time.

"This time, Marcus and I will go first and warn you about any traps we happen upon." She glanced at us.

I rubbed the back of my head. "How was I supposed to know?"

She shook her head. "They are pretty obvious if you took just a second to look."

"Not everyone has keen eyes like you." I replied.

She stepped over something I couldn't see, and I also stepped over it. "Being a huntress, you learn to make your own traps, so you have to be keen to spot them when the surroundings don't look familiar. You don't want to trap yourself."

"I'd say!" Marcus avoided a tile that looks slightly different from the other ones.

Robin looked around, trailing a finger on the walls of the temple. "This place is kind of a work of art." He commented. "I wish my house was made from the same stone."

"Do you even remember your house?" I asked, a small joking smile appearing on my face.

He looked ahead for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No, but if I did, I wish it was made of this material."

We walked for what felt like half an hour, turning down corridors and heading down stairs. But before long, we reached a dead end.

"What?" Marcus called out, pressing his hand against the wall. "That can't be it? What kind of lame experience is this?"

"Well, we survived, so shouldn't that be enough?" Serena asked.

"Don't we still have to make it back?" Robin asked, turning around to look at the way back.

I let out a small sigh. "Guess we should start heading back."

"Wait!" Marcus called out, grabbing one of the torches on the wall. He brought it over to the wall, shining some light onto it. There were some rather weird symbols that I couldn't quite read. "Anyone know how to decipher this?" He asked.

Serena shook her head. "Afraid I can't…"

The explorer turned to look at Robin. "And you? Ultimate Tactician."

He walked over, examining the symbols. He looked at it a little longer than he should have before shaking his head. "No, not any known language…"

He pressed his fist against the wall. "Then I guess we've reached a roadblock." He placed the torch back and started to head towards the entrance. "Well, we don't want to get trapped down here forever, so let's go."

The way back was rather more annoying, because we weren't exactly going anywhere exciting.

It wasn't long before we made it back out, however.

I let out a small yawn and stretched slightly. "You know what, I'm tired. I think it's time I head to bed."

Robin slowly nodded. "Same, I don't like being up for too long. I find dreams comforting. I hope to remember something from them." And then, he walked away.

I waved goodbye at Marcus and Serena before heading to my room.

.

I slowly open my eyes, looking at the ceiling. Still here, I see. I slowly got out of bed, stretching slightly. Right, today is when we start the campaign with Cameron. I let out a small yawn, deciding to get dressed. I glanced over at the alarm clock in my room and noted the time. It was only nine this time, which was earlier than normal. After I got ready, I headed downstairs and saw a lot more people than I normally would. Probably because I'm earlier. I got some food and sat down. I got ready to eat when Cameron sat down in front of me.

I stared at him for a few seconds, hovering the spoon right in front of my mouth. "Can I atleast eat first?"

"Yeah! Sorry, I was just talking to everyone. Going to schedule it for after lunch." He told me with a smile. "Now I just need to find Jean and tell him the same thing."

"Oh, he isn't up right now?" I asked, glancing at the clock. Still wasn't 9:30. I glanced to the side. "I thought he was normally up early. Is he already at the library?"

The dungeon master shook his head. "Nope, I went there earlier this morning to read on some extra stuff and he wasn't there."

"Perhaps he just decided to sleep in late today." Daniella said, sliding down the bench of the table. "He told me he was going to stay up late reading, so he might not have gone to bed really late."

Cameron stood up. "Then I guess I should go wake him up."

I took another bite of my food before standing up. "I'll go too." He might be mad if Cameron goes and wakes him up.

"Perfect!" He grinned as he turned around to head back to the stairs.

The climb up the stairs was spent with me not saying a word. Not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't. Cameron was talking.

"I have a lot planned, I know it's your first time, but I hope you enjoy it. Even if you aren't in to it." He looked over at me.

"You… can tell?" I asked him. Then why did he act like I was.

"Please, I'm not an idiot!" He grinned like an idiot. "I just wanted to show someone else the wonder of it." He opened the door leading to the hallway. "Also, making friends isn't that bad." We headed down the hallway. He only stopped talking when we reached Jean's door, which seemed to be ajar.

With caution, Cameron slowly pushed it open to see what was inside. And we would find nothing.

Not even Jean. He was missing.

"Wait, where is he? I don't think he would just leave his door open like that!" Cameron freaked out, running around the room, looking for him. He went into the bathroom and came out a few seconds later. "He wasn't in there either."

"Cameron…" I stepped into the room. "I'm sure he's just gone somewher-"

Then suddenly, the sound of an announcement could be heard.

.

Ding Dong! Bing Bong! Ding Dong! Bing Bong!

.

The TV in the room lit up to show Monokuma's face. "Hello everyone, I have an announcement to make. If everyone could meet me in the lobby of the hotel. Puhuhuhuhu! It's going to be a great one!" And then, the screen turned to black.

"This…" Cameron looked at the TV, slightly frozen. "This can't be good." He quickly ran off, leaving me behind. Thanks.

With a small sigh, I left the room and headed downstairs to the lobby. By the time I got there, everyone was there.

Everyone… but Jean.

"What's going on…" I looked over at Monokuma, who was lounging on a chair in the lobby. He seemed to have a drink with him.

He slowly got up, letting his drink fall to the ground. "It's been a few days and still, no one has murdered anyone."

"Yeah! Of course! No one would actually do that!" Lily yelled out.

He simply laughed. "Well, maybe you are right, but maybe I'm simply lacking a key element. Yes! A key element! I am lacking motivation."

"You're lacking motivation? Are you depressed?" Robin asked, trying to keep his face serious. But I could see him holding back a small grin.

"No!" Monokuma yelled out. "I mean you are lacking motivation to actually kill! Sooooo…" He trailed off, covering his mouth. Another laughter escaped him. "I decided I should give you some. Another reason to want to kill."

"Does it have to do with what happened to Jean?" Cameron asked, taking on a more serious expression than what he normally showed.

The bear slowly turned to look at him. "Why yes, you won't find him anywhere here!"

"What did you do with him?" I quickly asked. For someone I met a few days ago, I felt really concerned.

"He's safe… for now." The bear smiled wickedly. "But… just having one person taking away obviously isn't enough!" He walked over to us. "So, each day, someone else will go missing. Now, even if you don't care about the people who go missing, what's stopping you from being the next person who vanishes!" He laughed.

"I have a question." Stephan said, looking up. He was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. "What happens to the people who disappear?"

The bear looked over at him. "Well, you see, they are stuck in a small room with no food or water. So if someone is there for more than three days, they'll probably die."

"And what if no one does anything still?" Jack asked, shaking his head. "You won't get to play your little game if everyone dies of dehydration."

Monokuma remained silent before laughing again. "Yes, but do you want to risk dying of dehydration? The more people go missing, the more likely it is you'll be next. So you might want to do something about that before it happens." And with that, he was gone.

"Jean…" Cameron clenched his fist. "Dammit!"

"Calm down. This is nothing to fret about." Josef shook his head with a small smile.

Marcus turned to look at the host. "What do you mean it's nothing to worry about? Of course it's something to worry about!"

"But…" Stephan stopped leaning on the wall. "There's not much we can do. Jean is probably not anywhere we can reach him."

"And, that doesn't mean we can't do anything." Serena glared at him with a frown.

He lifted his hands up defensively. "I'm not saying we shouldn't try and do something. I'm just saying it's inevitable."

It was a harsh reality of this. We were powerless here.

Jack turned around. "Well, I'm heading back to my room. No need for me to be out here if someone is more likely to kill now."

"Hey!" Marcus yelled out. "Come back, we need to figure out what to do." This is the angriest I've seen him. But unfortunately, his request fell at deaf's ears as Jack turned the corner towards the stairs.

Bella held her head, shaking it. "Nonononono… I don't want to disappear…"

Caren put a hand on her shoulder, reassuringly.

I let out a sigh, looking at the ground. Why did I think things were going to turn out alright? No one seemed like the type to murder. But now with this motive here, all thoughts of that are out the window. "I'm… I'm going to head to my room too. I need to think." And it's a safe place. As long as I keep my card with me, no one should get in my room.

Marcus looked like he was going to stop me, but only sighed instead. From what I saw, most people went back to their room. The only people who didn't were Josef, Stephan, Enima, Marcus, and Daniella. They all seemed to stay in the lobby.

.

The next time I came downstairs was when it was dinner time. I wasn't that hungry for lunch. When I arrived downstairs, I saw a few people there. Bella, Enima, Josef, Lily, and Volvo were downstairs.

"I don't want to vanish…" Bella mumbled to herself. Lily was sitting next to her. "Nothing will happen, everything will be fine." She glanced to the side and spotted me. "The odds aren't that bad yet." Guess because I'm the lucky student, people think of probabilities for some reason. Not that I blame them… I grabbed some food and sat down beside them.

"I'm sure we'll be able to pull through this." I tried to sound reassuring, but deep down, I didn't think that at all. If Monokuma wasn't lying, one of us would go missing tomorrow.

Josef waved his hand dismissively. "I've said it once, and I'll say it again. This whole thing isn't real."

"Keep telling yourself that." Enima glanced away before looking back at him. "Well see what you say when you stumble upon a corpse." That's… one way to put it.

He glanced down at his food, slowly taking a bite. "Well, I won't have to react to that because it'll never happen."

Volvo shook his head, looking at the host. "When will you stop saying that? Someone is missing, and you have shown no empathy."

The host leaned back in his chair slightly. "That's just how the world is, sometimes, you can't show empathy like that." He says that, but I could tell he was still very worried.

"Are you just telling yourself that so you don't worry?" I asked him.

Josef glanced at me, shaking his head. "If that's what you truly think, then sure." He slowly stood up. "Anyways, I'm heading back to my room."

I frowned slightly, watching him leave. I glanced down at my food, and suddenly didn't feel hungry anymore.

"Hey! Don't make me feed you!" Lily called out, seeing me lower my fork.

I looked over at her for a few seconds. "What…?"

She grabbed my fork. "You heard me. If you don't eat, I'll forcibly feed you."

"Huuuuhhh-" I glanced over at Bella who simply shrugged.

"She will." She replied.

Enima couldn't help but snicker. "Come on, open wide."

I took my fork back. "I can eat perfectly fine on my own." The florist simply pouted.

Volvo couldn't help but smile, watching us. "See, this is the type of atmosphere we need here. Not whatever was here a minute ago."

"Yes, very much." Lily giggled a little, covering her mouth. But then, her smile turned into a frown. "What will we do about Jean? We need to find him soon. What if he hasn't eaten today?"

I looked down at my food. "Feels bad to be eating if he can't…" I don't know why I'm thinking of that.

Enima shook her head. "I think you'd only make him feel worse if you didn't eat. So eat."

I brought the fork to my mouth. She made a good argument. Speaking of good; the food was good.

"Well, from what I've seen from Jean, he mostly spends time alone." Volvo said. "So maybe this is refreshing for him? But still, to live a life of loneliness."

Well, when we were getting ready for DnD, he seemed rather happy. Maybe he doesn't want to be alone all the time?

"Well, either way, we should try and find him before someone truly does murder someone." Enima looked away. "Who knows what some of the people are thinking?" She glanced away, looking off into the shadows. I glanced over, but I didn't see anything.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her.

She slowly nodded with a reassuring smile. "Yeah, just thought I saw something." She stood up, pushing her chair towards the table. "Alright, well, I think I'm going to head off for the night. Stay safe everyone."

I watched her leave, my attention turning to Lily and Bella. "Yeah, you stay safe too."

"Fine, I won't stay safe!" Volvo said, dramatically.

I quickly turned to look at him. "H-hey! I was getting to you!"

He simply giggled. "I know darling! I was just kidding."

The rest of dinner went by quickly, and I soon returned to my room.

.

I woke up, looking at the TV. I was still here, it seemed. I did my normal morning routine and headed downstairs to see who was still around.

"Bad bad bad bad bad bad!" Lily yelled out as I got downstairs.

I stopped walking just to look at her. "Huh… what seems to be the problem…?"

"It's Bella! Her door was open and she isn't down here!" The florist called out.

"She… isn't…?" I mumbled, looking at her. Bella was the second one to be gone? No… that can't be! We were just telling her it wouldn't be her!

Marcus slammed in his fist down on the table. "I'm sick and tired of not doing anything."

Volvo shook his head. "And what do you propose we do?"

He glanced outside the window. "They probably aren't in this area, but I say we go looking around the buildings we haven't explored yet. We owe it to them to look."

Lily slowly nodded. "It might be pointless, but I think we should go!"

Caren shook her head. "As much as I agree that we should, like Lily said, it's pointless."

She quickly turned towards her. "Don't use my own words against me!"

I stood up from my chair. "What harm could it do to go look? It's not like we were going to do anything else."

The explorer clenched his fist. "Alright then, since most of you don't want to go, then let's say we split off. Anyone who wants to come along, follow me."

I glanced over at the people who wanted to come. Only, Cameron, Daniella, Enima, and Lily wanted to come along. Everyone else seemingly couldn't be bothered.

Marcus looked at the ground, tipping his hat slightly. "Very well…" He turned around and started to head towards the door. "Then let's go…" And with that, he walked out of the lobby.

I let out a small sigh. Honestly, I knew we'd be a small group, but this little people? Sheesh, it's like no one truly cared.

"I'll never forgive Monokuma." Cameron said, looking at the ground.

Daniella glanced over at him, a small smile forming on her face. "I'm sure the others are fine. There's nothing to worry about. I doubt Monokuma would simply let them starve. I don't think he'd gain any enjoyment from that."

"That's a twisted way of thinking of it…" Lily mumbled. "Even if he doesn't let them out right starve, he'd probably give them the bare minimum…"

I let out a sigh. "Can we stop talking about whether he would let them starve or not." Despite being in the back of the group, I heard some footsteps behind me. I turned to look at who it was.

"I might as well accompany you all?" Volvo said as he walked behind us.

"The more the merrier!" Cameron smirked to himself. "We'll find them in no time!"

Marcus stopped walking, tipping his hat down, he turned his head slightly to look over at us. "Well, since we have a group of seven, how about we split off into two groups. One of three, and the other of four?"

Daniella had a small smile on her face. "I think that would work out nicely. More ground to cover." She looked around. "Alright, I think the groups should be Cameron, Marcus and I. And the rest in the second group."

"Works for me!" The Dungeon Master seemed more than happy with how that turned out.

"No complaints here." I shook my head in amusement.

She turned around to start walking away with her group. "Very well then, let's meet up in an hour or so…"

"Where should we check first?" Volvo asked, turning his attention at some of the taller buildings. "Maybe they might be in one of these buildings?"

Enima shook her head slightly. "They are probably in a building further into the city that we don't have access to, if we are being realistic."

"Then why are you here? This is the unrealistic gang!" Lily quickly said.

The mysterious girl snickered slightly at that response. She ran her fingers through her hair, twirling it around slightly. "Well, if I'm ever wrong and we find them here, I can't say I was useless…" She started walking towards one of the abandoned buildings.

Lily mumbled something under her breath, and quickly followed Enima.

I glanced at Volvo, before we both walked in after them, although a little slower.'

The inside of this building seemed to be a lobby similar to the hotel one. But also different enough. As in, it was a lobby for a building like an apartment. There was a desk at the front, but the wood of it seemed to be badly damaged, like it was burnt. Guess not all the buildings got fixed up. Only the ones we were likely to go into. After all, who would go into an abandoned building for fun?

"This reminds me of when I went into abandoned buildings for fun." Lily said excitedly. Thanks. She hopped on over to the desk, hitting the little desk bell a few times as a loud ding drowned out the silence. "It still works!"

"Of course it still works…" Enima shook her head. "It's a bell, not a TV."

The florist jumped away from the counter with a hop. "Alright, where should we go first?"

I walked over to a wall holding a floor plan. There seemed to be three floors, plus the ground floor, in this building. "Well, this is an appartement complexe, so it's likely that many of these rooms could be used to hold someone in."

"Well…" Volvo hummed as he approached the map. He trailed his finger on it slightly. "Four floors, four of us? Shouldn't we just take a floor each?"

I glanced behind me, taking a peek at how the hallway looked. It was giving me such a bad vibe that I just couldn't consider the idea. I shook my head. "No, we should definitely stay together. Who knows what lies in wait in this abandoned building."

The hairstylist glanced over to where I was looking and slowly nodded. "You know what darling? I agree. I would not want to be alone in that."

"Then it's settled." Lily said as she headed first towards the hallway.

"Heading first, my, aren't you brave." Enima joked at her. But then a small frown appeared on her face. "What do you think happened to this place."

Volvo trailed his finger on a wall, getting dust on his finger. "Hard to tell, this place seems abandoned for a few years. I don't believe we have an expert here who could even tell us."

An expert? Well, one person does come to mind. But I'm not sure if their talent extends to stuff like this. I'll have to ask them later.

Lily stopped in front of a door, slowly grabbing onto the doorknob. "Here we go!" She opened it with a loud creak, and we all quickly glanced inside. But there was nothing. "Disappointing…" She mumbled as she slowly closed the door.

We checked all the rooms on the first floor, and we had gotten no results. They were all empty. Same with the ones on the second floor. However…

While exploring the third floor, we were going around checking all the rooms, when suddenly, a loud scream could be heard.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Lily shouted out, backing away till she hit the wall behind her. She had quickly shut the door behind her, not wanting to see whatever she saw.

In no time at all, the three of us quickly made it there. But I stopped before reaching the door. I… I didn't want to see what was in there. I slowly looked at Volvo. "Shouldn't you go first… Protect… the girls?"

"No way no way!" He quickly looked the other way. "What if whatever is in there gives me a heart attack! Ladies first."

"N-no!" I quickly shook my head. "I insi-"

Enima walked over to the door. "You're taking too long." She opened the door and looked inside. "Oh, it's not actually that bad."

I slowly peeked in just as she said the next part.

"Just a dead body." She added.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" I thought that scream was from me, but it was from Volvo. I hadn't screamed yet. Inside the room, hanging from a noose, was a male adult. The body seemed to be in a bad state, and looks like it had been there for a long time, insects had dug holes into his skin. The smell inside the room was awful.

Volvo quickly closed the door, shaking his head in his arms. "This isn't a place for someone like me! Nononononononono!"

Lily was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees. "I want to go home…"

Enima looked around at everyone. "I want to go back to, but we still have one more floor to go…"

Volvo bit his bottom lip, contemplating what they should do. He placed his hand on his hips. "As much as I hate it… I think we should continue. Just get it out of the way and never return to this building."

Lily slowly stood up, dusting herself off. "Yeah… After this, I never want to come back here…"

I glanced over at the staircase. Just one more floor, huh. What the hell even happened here. A dead body in here? So people actually lived in this city. So it's huge. What could have happened to have this whole place abandoned… Without knowing it, my body started walking up the stairs.

By the time I realized I wasn't where I was originally, I was walking into a room. I looked around quickly, trying to figure out how I got here. Suddenly, the sound of rustling, or at least something fluttering in the wind caught my attention. I glanced over to the window, which seemed to be open, and a nice breeze was covering in. This room didn't smell as bad as the other ones, probably because the window was left open. As for the sound I heard, I saw a piece of paper slowly lower to the ground. It must have been picked up by the wind and brought here.

I slowly approached it, picking it up. It had a few tears in it. The writing was in what appeared to be cursive of sorts. It read:

.

Day 1

.

This is the first day of the tragedy. Wait… no, that's a lie. The tragedy started a long time ago, but no one has the full story. If someone knew how it would have turned out, we wouldn't have let it get to that part. The city mayor insisted they would have the problem dealt with, so most of us went on with their regular lives. But they didn't stop them. We couldn't stop them. Like children born from the fire of hells, they came. A building here, a building there, they attacked. Leaving nothing but ashes in their wakes. At first most of us went with our daily lives. No one liked the business, as they were run by terrible people. And that was the only kind of place they attacked. No one really died, since it was in the dead of night, and the stores were closed. However, when the police put a ransom on their head for anyone who could bring them in, that's when it truly started. Not long after that, the police station was attacked. The attackers said it was in the name of justice, and the place was corrupt. Corruption. They talked about that a lot, how they were going to change the city to make a better one. A lot of people here wanted change. But not the change they ended up bringing.

.

Day 2

.

A bank this time. A bank was hit, the vault was blown open by some means, I don't know, I didn't go check. I felt it safer inside my house, but it was all over the news. No casualties again, it seems. They made sure no one was injured. What kind of message were they sending. The mayor personally went to face

.

And then it cut off, that was the end of the page. "What…?" There needs to be more! I frantically looked around the room, in hopes of finding what I needed to. But, I had no luck… My initial guess was probably right. It probably came from outside. I walked over to the window, looking outside. I had a decent view of a few roads I hadn't been to. There was so much of this city left to explore. How long would it take to find them. This view also ended up giving me a better view of the large building in the center. "What's that building all about…?" It seemed really large, like forty floors large. But I had never once seen or heard of that building before. You'd think something like that would pop up in a landmark.

"Hey…" Someone said from the doorway. I quickly turned to see who it was and saw Enima, leaning against the door. "We're done over here, are you done here?"

I quickly nodded, placing the piece of paper neatly in my pocket. "Yeah, I'm done here."

She looked at me for a few seconds. "What do you have there?"

I quickly shook my head. "It's nothing, let's head back." I walked past her, trying my best to not notice the gaze she had on me.

The walk back to the meeting spot was met with no chatter. We didn't really want to say anything after what we saw. Soon, we met back up with the other three. "Any luck?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Marcus tipped his hat downward. "No… nothing… Not a single clue."

Cameron rubbed the back of his head. "We tried our hardest, but came up empty handed. We rolled so many low numbers…!"

Daniella shook her head slightly, turning her focus to us. "What about you four?"

The florist slowly grabbed onto her arm. "Well… we… we found…"

"A dead body." Enima cut in. "Not from one of us, but someone who had been here for a long time.

"It… it was horrible…" Volvo blocked his face slightly. "He had hung himself. But it's the only body we found here. And since it's still there, that means no one else ever found it. Just how long has this place been abandoned?"

The secretary tilted her head slightly, her eyes looking away. "Hard to tell with Monokuma trying to renovate the place. Won't be much longer till no evidence is left behind."

Evidence… right, I found something. But I don't think I should show it to anyone yet. Well, there is one person I want to show it to… Maybe she could shed some light on when it could have been written.

All seven of us made our way back to the hotel and made our way to the cafeteria. I spotted who I wanted to talk to and excused myself from the group. I walked over and sat down in front of them. "Hello." I smiled at them.

Historia slowly looked up at me, clearly annoyed that I disturbed her. "And what do you want?"

Such hostility. "I was just going to ask you a question."

"The answer is no…" She went back to eating her food.

I frowned slightly, having not even been given the chance to ask it. "But you don't know what the question is…"

She glared at me. "Well, whatever it is, it's probably no."

My hands clenched slightly. "Listen, you are going to listen to the damn question! Alright?"

She froze up slightly, mumbling something under her breath. She avoided eye contact and just replied with a simple. "Alright…"

Oh, I was actually getting somewhere. "Well, as a historian, I was wondering… Are you able to date when something was made?"

"Date when something was made…? Historia repeated. She glanced away. "Well, somewhat. It's something I can do, but it's difficult. Did you find something in the temple that you want me to date?"

I took out the piece of paper I had hidden away in my pocket and slid it towards her.

She slowly grabbed this and started reading. She was a much quicker reader than me apparently as it took her no time to get through it. "Where did you find this…?"

I looked around and saw no one paying attention to us. "I found it in an apartment complex. It flew in via the window. I want to know if you can tell me when it was written.

Historia spent a little longer looking at it. "Well, it's hard to say. I'm used to dating historical artifacts and such. This still seems rather new. Maybe a few years?" She looked at it some more before putting it away in her pocket. "I'll give it back to you in a couple days… Was that the only part of it?"

I slowly nodded. "I think they all ripped off from a journal or something, so I think we should keep our eyes peeled for the rest of them. But they can be anywhere in this city. Especially since the wind probably took them away."

Historia slowly got up. "Well then, I should head to my room and start working on this." and with that, she was gone. I guess I should probably head back to my room too. Maybe come back around dinner time...

.

Later that night, I came down to eat some more. When I got there, the scene wasn't exactly the most peaceful.

"Oh please, you're just booing me because I'm right." Josef stood with a sense of grandeur. His hand twirled with one of his strands of hair.

"Dammit!" Marcus yelled out. "That's enough. None of this is a damn game."

Caren shook her head. "Try not to get too angry with someone with that." She had a small frown on her face.

He looked over at her. "But you've been hearing him for the past couple of days, right?"

Stephan walked over to the ground, stepping on top of the table to block off the two of them.

"Manners…" Historia mumbled.

He ignored that and looked at the two arguing. "That's enough from both of you. This isn't going to go anywhere, so please stop."

Marcus clenched his fist slightly, before sitting down. "Right."

Josef let out a small laugh, twirling the cane he had. "Perfect." He sat down. "Anyways. I think we should all gather at my Ultimate Lab tomorrow, for the people who are still around, that is." How insensitive.

I walked over, sitting down at the table. "Why are you like this?"

He glanced at me, his smile disappearing. "Because I'm a realist. None of this can be real. It's too out there." He pushed his chair into the table. "Well, I'm off, make sure you can join me tomorrow! It will all be over." And with that, he was off.

I shook my head. Why couldn't people like him just learn to be nice and think of others? I looked around, and for the most part, people were eating alone. Some people were in small groups of two or three. I glanced over at Cameron, who had started to get up. "Well, I'm going to go do some work in the library. See you all later." I waved at him goodbye.

Nothing much else happened while eating, and I shortly returned to my room.

.

The next morning, I awoke way earlier now. It was now only eight. Was I just getting used to this? Or maybe I was worried I would wake up gone. Or worse, someone else would be gone. I quickly got ready and headed on down to see who was still around.

"Morning!" Lily cheered, seeing me head down the stairs.

"You don't have to be excited about everyone who comes down…" Caren shook her head, with a small amused smile on her face.

"Shush!" She said to her before looking at me. "Sleep well?"

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, although I would have rathered sleep some more." I glanced around, and saw that Jack, Stephan, Daniella, and also Josef were there. "Is this everyone so far?"

"Unfortunately, for now, yes." The secretary spoke up. She looked around, her eyes focusing on each and everyone of us. "We will just need to wait to see who went missing."

Josef stood up, dusting himself off. "Well, I have things to attend to, so I'll be heading off. Remember." He smiled. "I want everyone to show up at my Ultimate Lab in an hour and a half." I shook my head slightly as he walked away. "We aren't actually going to go there, right?"

Daniella simply shrugged. "We can at least humour him, can't we?"

"Yeah… but…" Something tells me I wouldn't get anywhere with this argument.

Not before long, others started to come down. Enima, Historia, and Volvo were the next people to come down.

"Morning ladies!" Volvo announced to everyone there.

"Alright, fuck me I guess…" Jack glanced up, looking at him.

"Ah! I didn't see you there." The hairstylist replied.

He shook his head before going back to his food.

That means Cameron, Marcus, Robin, and Serena still hadn't shown up… I said that as Robin descended the stairs.

"Sleeping in is nice." Thanks.

"Seems we are still missing multiple people…" Enima noted looking around. "More than we should be missing."

"Only two, it seems." Daniella said, not looking at her. She tilted her head slightly, glancing at the ceiling. "I ran into Serena this morning, she said she had stuff to do, so she left early."

Then that only leaves Cameron and Marcus, I don't want either of them to be the one who disappeared today! I quickly stood up, and I was going to head towards the stairs, but the sound of someone heading down them stopped me. I froze slightly, waiting to see who it was.

"I shouldn't have stayed up that late…" A yawn was heard coming from Cameron.

Wait… Marcus is gone…? Wait no!

"Oh, seems like Marcus." Enima mumbled, taking a bit of her food. She didn't seem to care all that much.

Cameron plopped down at the table, his head almost hitting it. "So, what's the plan for today…?"

Daniella shook her head in amusement. "Well, Josef wants everyone to meet up at his Ultimate Lab, so maybe we can all head over the-"

The sound of Cameron face planting the table could be heard.

The secretary looked at him for a few seconds before smiling softly. "Maybe we should let him rest." She stood up. "Let's not keep Josef waiting." And then, she was gone.

I shook my head and reluctantly, but everyone else eventually seemed to go. The only person that didn't was Cameron, Serena, and Stephan.

.

We soon made our way to the Ultimate Host Lab. Still looked pretty much the same as last time I had been there when it was just Enima and Josef.

At the center stage, was the host himself who was waiting for us. A small grin plastered on his face. "Well, it seems almost everyone has showed up." He counted us. "Although, we seem to be seven short. Three from the people missing, and four of the people still here. Makes the total of you eight." I quickly looked around. I could have sworn we were nine…? Oh well, maybe I counted wrong.

Historia took a seat in the middle so she wasn't too close. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. None of us wanted to come here to begin with. It was all miss obedient over there." She pointed to Daniella, who just waved politely.

"Get along with it." Lily looked down at Josef from a seat a little higher up than Historia.

The host shook his head slightly. "Jesus… no patience anymore. Enima is probably well aware of what this is about." His glance turned towards her.

She simply rolled her eyes. "You think that all of this is fake…"

"Precisely!" He twirled his cane around with a smirk on his face. "To organise this. To have a city like this available. It's impossible if it was real. This is obviously a movie set." Movie set… but what we saw yesterday… The image flashed back to me.

The host turned around so his back was facing the audience. He started to walk away, still talking. "Let's think rationally here people. Whoever this is just so happened to have stumbled upon an abandoned city?"

"They are quite easy to find on EBay." Robin replied, his response riddled with sarcasm.

He quickly turned around. "Zip it! I don't need your sarcasm here."

Caren shook her head. "No, you should stop talking nonsense…"

He started walking towards where Caren was, and suddenly, I felt time slow down. What? What was happening? What bad thing was happening?

Without even thinking, I quickly stood up.

Josef stopped walking and looked over at me. "Yes, Riley?" Time seemed to go back to normal. What… what just happened?

I quickly shook my head. "I-it's nothing…"

He turned around, walking away from the stage. "Then don't stand up."

"R-right…" I slowly sunk back into my seat. I still don't know why that would happen at a time like this? Nothing bad happened, so…

"Alright, that's enough…" Volvo stood up dramatically. "Can you at least learn some sensitivity?" He walked over to the stage, slowly climbing on.

There it was again. Why? Why now? What was happening. I don't know! I never once had to worry about this.

"Hey dude, get off my stage!" Josef took a step back, which only prompted Volvo to take one forward.
When suddenly…

.

Volvo took a single step, and something seemed to latch onto his leg. None of us had time to react as he got pulled up into the air with a scream. We all looked up and saw what awaited him up there. Some sharp weapons of various lengths were attached to the ceiling and when he ran into them, they stabbed him, before the cord dragged him away even more. His blood spilled all over the stage. Being dragged more, he was smacked into a wall, before being dragged away again. Suddenly, some faulty mechanics could be heard, before the sound of something busting rang across the room. And then, his corpse was suspended in the air by his foot. With a loud snap, the cord broke and he came falling down. None of us could believe what we just saw. But Volvo Hiuk, the Ultimate Hairstylist was dead…