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?

4. Chapter 2: Savagery & Death - Daily Life

When did I even walk to my room? When did I ever fall asleep? Oh well… maybe sleep was what I needed after seeing all of this. It was too much to handle all in one day, so I was better off resting right now. I think the morning announcement went off at one point, but like usual, I ignored it. Why would I want to hear it?

I think I finally woke up at one in the afternoon. That was much more fitting to me. Waking up this late. That's what I would have done on a weekend. Getting out of bed, I mumbled to myself as I headed to the bathroom. Was it a weekend? Probably, not that time had any meaning here. The date and year slipped my mind. There was no indication of the seasons here. If it was Winter, we never really got snow in the first place, so it would only feel slightly colder. After taking a shower and getting ready, I finally headed downstairs. Of course, when I got there, there was barely anyone there. It was almost two, so anyone having lunch was already gone.

"Aren't you up a little late?" A voice snapped me out of whatever trance I was in.

When my eyes finally gained focus, they drifted towards who said it, revealing to me that it was Historia. A small smirk appeared on my face. "Isn't it a little late to be eating."

She put her hand on her hip. "Pfft, I can eat whenever I want. But you shouldn't be sleeping till this late."

I looked at her for a few seconds before walking over to the buffet table. "Yeah… whatever…" I mumbled as I took some food. After that, I took a seat next to Historia. "I'm guessing everyone else is off doing their own things…

She remained silent for a few seconds before looking back at me. "Most of them are just staying in their rooms like you. Of course, a select few are still going outside…" She glanced over towards the lobby, staring out the windows on the doors. "What Marcus said during the trial about the temple interested me, so I'm thinking of going to explore there."

I used my fork to play with my food, not really feeling all that hungry. "Well, we'll probably get killed by traps, so we should go find Stephan or Serena…"

"Tsk, as if I knew where any of them wandered off to…" Historia brought a hand to her hip. Seems those are some of the people that went outside.

"Well, you don't need to look far…" A voice called out from the entrance of the cafeteria. My eyes drifted to who said it, but I already knew it was Stephan. He was leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed.

"Back so soon?" Historia sounded annoyed.

He kicked himself off the frame and made his way over to our table. "Yeah, I actually found something cool." He smiled earnestly before heading towards the stairs. "I'm going to get everyone else. Meet up by the entrance."

"But I just started-" I never got to finish my sentence, because he had already vanished off to who knows where.

Silence filled the room, only broken by Historia. "Should have eaten sooner."

"Oh shut it." I took a bite of my food. I tried to wolf it down so I would be done by the time Stephan came back.

When we were done, we waited in the entrance.

"Honestly…" The historian brought her hand to her hip. "What's so important that we need to stop what we are doing for this right now?"

I shrugged. "I don't know what you expect me to answer. We'll just have to find out when he takes us there." I looked over at the stairs to see the parkourist leading everyone.

"Do we really need to leave our rooms…?" Bella mumbled to herself.

"It'll be fine!" He announced. "You can't spend the entire day in your room; That's no way to live."

The ecologist looked at him for a few seconds before a small smile appeared on her face. "You're right."

He turned to look outside. "Serena is already at where I was, so let's just go meetup with her." And then, he left.

"What do you think he found?" I looked around at the others.

"Oh… so you can ask stuff like that, but I can't?" Historia mumbled to herself as she followed the parkourist.

Jean crossed his arms. "If I had to guess, maybe something opened up."

"Or another dead body, like the one we found in the apartment." Enima added.

Lily hugged herself, shaking a bit. "Don't remind me…" She mumbled.

I shook my head. That was a terrible sight to see… as well as… I shook my head again. No, I shouldn't think of that… I just want to forget it. Cast it away from my mind.

"Is this?" Cameron asked, looking up.

Following his gaze, I also looked up. There was a gate in front of us, well. The gate was always here, but now there was a handle on it. "Can this be opened now?"

"Seems like it." Said Stephan, who was standing on top of the gate.

"How did you-" Lily started to ask.

He simply shrugged. "Ultimate Parkourist, remember?"

She looked at him for a few more seconds before nodding. "Fair enough."

Stephan let himself drop onto the handle. "Well, let's open this thing up." He put more weight on it until the handle turned, allowing the giant gate to swing open.

On the other side was a small portion of the city, but what really got our attention was the fact that it looked like we could reach the forest.

"Wait…" Bella took a step forward. "This isn't a way out… is it?"

The parkourist looked over towards the forest. "I highly doubt it would be that easy." He stepped out of the way. "But you are all free to find out."

"The unknown awaits!" Cameron declared as he went through the gate first.

"Tsk…" Jean mumbled to himself. "Guess we have no choice but to explore, huh?"

I watched everyone walk off and let out a small sigh. Well, might as well go with them. See what this new area holds for us.

Most of the buildings here were like the ones in the previous buildings, mostly apartment buildings, so it wasn't worth our time. I shivered slightly, remembering the first time we went to one.

Although, one building caught my attention. It seemed nicely kept. And, a little too fancy. I couldn't quite tell what kind of place this was. I moved over to the door, slowly pushing it in. There was some nice ambient music playing. Looking around, there were various things like video games, books, movies, and different music discs around. Then, I smelt it. The smell of coffee. Was this some sort of cafe? I moved over to it to notice that it was freshly made. "Oh, don't mind if I do." I poured myself a class, taking a sip of it. It's a shame that they don't serve any in the cafeteria.

"Who said you could have any." A voice said from behind me. Turning around, I saw that it was Jack, who had his own cup.

I took a long sip, staring at him the entire time. I took a long breath after my sip was done, before finally asking. "Can I have a cup?"

He looked slightly annoyed. "Well, you already have, but next time, ask before." He placed his cup on the table next to him. I noticed that there was a book there.

"Why are there books here anyways? Don't we already have a library?" I asked him, taking another sip of the coffee.

He simply let out a cold laugh. "Well, the difference is, this is some of my favourite books, music, movies, games. It's all stuff I gave high reviews too. So better than anything you can find in a common library like that." He crossed his arms.

Full of himself, as always.

"Hey, I take offense to that…" Jean said, walking over to the table. "That library has a wide collection of books, it's not just some common library as you described it. Probably has all the books you love in there." He countered.

"It probably does, but I don't feel like sorting through all the filth to find them." The critic countered.

The librarian paused for a moment. "It's not filth, it's art."

"Hey, let's not fight." I looked at the two of them.

I decided to look around the room. I looked through all the books, and yeah, most of these were highly regarded by everyone. Probably because someone like Jack praised it so highly. There were several fantasy novels here. I looked over at the video games. In fact, there were also a lot of video games too. I looked over at Jack. "Jack, are you a nerd?"

I asked that question when he was taking a sip of coffee, so he almost spit it out. After a few seconds, he looked over at me. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

If you say so… I put the books back to where I found them. So this must be the Ultimate Critic Lab, huh. Not at all what I thought it would look like. Looking around some more, I found a door leading to the back. Opening it, showed a nice room. It had an ambient light that wasn't so bright. This looked like maybe where he did his reading, and watching movies. In fact, this looked like pretty much where he could potentially review any entertainment. Speaking of entertainment.

Cameron was sitting down at the table, looking through a bunch of sheets. "Do you always do this kind of stuff?"

He looked up at me. "Well, not always." He looked around the room. "But this room is perfect for this stuff. Jack really knows how to relax. He is an Ultimate after all." He chuckled as he wrote some stuff down. "If someone like him is participating in my campaign, it's my obligation to make this a story worthy of his time."

A small smile formed on my face. It was nice to see someone so motivated by this. "Well, I may not be as into DnD as you are, but I am looking forward to what happens in it."

He looked up at me, a very happy smile on his face. "Like I said, I'll make it a story worth everyone's time." Well, technically you said you wanted to make it worth Jack's time, but whatever.

Well, I should head off, and see where everyone else wandered off to.

Heading outside, I didn't see any interesting buildings in view yet, so I decided to head over to the open field. It really was an open field. From a distance, I swore I could see some animals too.

But first, something else caught my attention. It seemed to be a greenhouse of sorts right off the field. This had to be an Ultimate Lab too, right? And if I had to guess, it was Lily's.

Opening the door to it, I was met with a heat wave. To be fair, I'm not sure what I was expecting when I entered this place.

"Riley!" Lily cheered, running up to me. "Look at all of these lovely flowers." She grabbed my hand, guiding me away.

"H-huh! Lily! I can walk on my own!" Even if I said that, she still dragged me along.

"Look at these tulips!" She said, pointing to an array of different coloured tulips.

I looked at them for a few seconds. "Well, yeah, they are very lov-" And then I was dragged off again.

"And here-" She started to say.

"Hey, leave her alone, why don't you?" Enima called out, annoyed.

The florist let go of my arm. "Oh, right…" She rubbed her arm.

It was adorable to see her this excited, but still, I would prefer to have free reign over where I walk. "I can view these at my own pace…"

Enima picked up a flower. "I wonder if Historia would get angry at me if I put this in her hair."

The three of us looked at each other before smirks appeared on our face. "Oh Historia!" She called out, turning to head further into the greenhouse.

She was in the back, looking at some flowers. She had her back turned towards us, so she didn't see us approaching. Although she did hear us. "What do you want?" She huffed, running her hand through the petals of a flower.

Enima grabbed a hold of her shoulders.

"H-hey!" She called out, falling back a little bit. "Wait! No! Stop that!" After a few seconds, she had managed to place the flower neatly in Historia's hair.

She didn't seem too happy about it. "Why did you put a flower in my ha-"

"So cute!" Lily's eyes sparkled.

I couldn't help but laugh at her misery. But, I had to explore this place a little more. Venturing further into the place, I eventually found a tool shed all the way in the back, slowly opening the door, I glanced inside.

There were some rakes, some watering cans, some fertilizer.

"And a hoe." Lily said, having followed me.

I looked at her for a few seconds. "Did you just call yourself a-"

She closed the door, revealing a ho. "No, this is what I'm talking about."

"Suuuure…" I rolled my eyes. "This seems like a nice place. Although, it's still unbelievably hot in here…" I wiped my forehead of some sweat. "How can you live in temperatures like this?

She simply shrugged.

I shook my head in amusement. "Anyways, shouldn't you be tending to the flowers?"

"Oh, you're right!" She declared before quickly leaving.

I watched her leave, frowning slightly. There doesn't seem to be much else here. Then, I heard something flapping in the wind, My attention shifted to it, and then I saw it; A page flapping on the windowsill. And, from what I could see, it had the same handwriting as the journal entry I saw the other day. I quickly reached over for it, but a strong gust of wind blew it off the windowsill, and then it flew through an open part of the greenhouse. "Dammit…" I mumbled to myself. "I really needed that…" I left the tool shed and ran into Historia.

"What's got you so upset?" She crossed her arms. Despite saying she didn't like it, she still had the flower in her hair.

I glanced off to the side. "I found another paper like the one I gave you the other day."

"Oh?" She put her hand on her hip. "What did it say?"

"I don't know, the wind blew it away." I told her. "So who knows where it is now…"

She let out a sad sigh. "Dammit, I kinda wanted to know what else the entries said…" She looked back up at me. "Well, if you do happen to find it, make sure you bring it to me."

I nodded. "Will do." And with that, she left.

Alright, I should probably go see what other areas are opened up. I was heading out of the greenhouse when I passed by Enima, who was looking at all the flowers. "I didn't know you loved flowers…"

She glanced over at me before looking back at the flowers. "Well, maybe flowers have to do with my talent. Still really curious on what it is."

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure whatever it is, you'll like it. After all, you had to devote your life to a talent to become an Ultimate."

She tilted her head slightly, frowning. "I don't think that's always the case. Not everyone devotes their life to a talent. Some people are just Ultimates. Like you, you didn't devote your life to being the Ultimate Lucky Student."

Ouch, that stung. "W-well, yeah, but I'm a bad example." I shook my head. "But either way, you look like you would be good at a lot of things. The Ultimate Jack-of-all-Trades!"

She stared at me for a few seconds before pushing her finger into my forehead. "No, I don't think I'd want to be that."

Rubbing my forehead, I glanced away. "I'm just trying to cheer you up…"

She shook her head. "I don't need to be cheered up. Have you ever seen me sad?"

"Well… no…" I tilted my head slightly, looking at the ground. True, she always seemed to be moderately happy. "Anyways, I'm going to move on. There's some more places I want to explore."

"Fine by me." Enima told me. "Don't get lost."

I waved her off as I left the greenhouse. Alright, now, the next place to head to was the open field. There might be a way out over there.

The open field looked beautiful, and there seemed to be two areas of interest. One of them seemed like a building with a shooting range, so I decided to head there first. The field was actually cut off into two. This section, and the other one I'll check out later.

Approaching the building, I noticed an archery symbol on top of the building. If I had to guess, this seemed like it might be Serena's Ultimate lab.

I headed inside, and it wasn't long before I saw her practicing her aim. I approached her and watched her get a bullseye on her first try. "You make it look easy."

She glanced at me for a few seconds. "Well, after years of training, it does get easier."

"Years of training, for how long have you done this?" I asked her.

She looked away, thinking. "Well, since I was six. My father would take me out hunting with him all the time." She drew her bow again, aiming at the target again. "So naturally, I would become amazing at it by the time I reach my teens." She let go of the arrow, and it got another bullseye. Although, it didn't quite split the arrow in two, only hitting beside it.

"Can I try?" I asked her.

She looked at me for a few seconds before handing me her bow, and one arrow. "Sure, but don't hit something you shouldn't."

"Please, if I manage to hit myself with this, there's a problem." I pulled the string back with the arrow, making sure to aim carefully.

When I shot the arrow, it didn't quite get the distance and stuck to the ground. "Dang…" I mumbled.

Serena looked at the arrow for a few seconds. "Is this your first time doing archery?"

Oh, got me there… "Yeah, I've never done it before."

"That explains it. Don't expect to be good at it first try."

I had a small smile on my face. "Yeah, I might keep practicing in the future if you allow me."

She smiled. "I would love it if you came back to practice."

"May I try?" Daniella asked, walking up and grabbing a bow.

"I don't see why not?" Serena crossed her arms, looking at the secretary intently.

She drew the bow back, aiming carefully. She took more time to aim than I did, and it seemed to pay off, because when she shot it, it landed right under the bullseye. She frowned slightly. "I missed…"

"But, you still hit the target." I told her. "T-that's better than I did."

She shrugged. "Yeah, but it wasn't the bullseye, so I missed."

Serena mumbled something about perfectionists before speaking up louder. "Well, you must have done archery befo-"

"First time." Daniella answered.

This caught the huntress off guard. "That good on your first try?"

"I pride myself on perfection, so it's only natural." She did a courtesy. She then placed the bow back. "I think that's it for me today." And then, she left to go further into the building.

I turned to look at Serena. "What else is here?"

"This building opens up into part of the woods." She told me, but she didn't seem too excited.

"Does that mean-?" I started to ask.

She shook her head. "No, there's no way out. There's a wall at the end, so we can't actually leave."

"Oh…" The disappointment in my voice was very apparent.

"But…" She trailed off, looking away. "It's still nice to be able to see some animals. Although I wouldn't get too close to some of them."

Well, I might as well be thorough with my search. I ended deeper into the building until I reached the other set of doors. I took a deep breath and opened it up.

The scenery was actually really nice, and it was like I wasn't even in the city anymore. The trees seemed to stretch on more miles. I started walking further into the woods. The wind blew gently in my face, rustling the leaves around me. I looked over at a tree when I heard birds chirping. A small smile appeared on my face. Maybe I should spend some time here?

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice came from above me.

I looked around for a bit, before finally spotting Stephan in a tree several feet above me. "Enjoying the view?" I called out.

He sat down on the large branch he was on. "Yes, the view from up high is always great." He looked straight ahead. "I love seeing nothing but trees."

I snickered slightly at his remark. "Do you always love climbing things?"

"Well, it's kinda my talent to stay high up. Parkouring is boring if there's no danger to it." He stood up, stretching his legs slightly before jumping over to another tree, then another, and another. In fact, he was rather fast.

Then, he jumped down the tree, rolling when he got to the ground. "You should join me one day!"

"N-no… I don't think that would be a good idea…" I looked away. "I'd probably fall."

"You think I didn't fall when I first started. We'll start on some basic stuff. It's not too late to start now."

I looked back at him for a few seconds. "Well, as long as it's safe, then sure."

"Great!" He flashed me a smile. "Well, I'm going to get back to exploring the forest." He ran his hand through his hair. "Don't get too lost." And with that, he ran in further into the forest, before climbing some trees in the distance.

I let out a small sigh, looking around some more. I missed the sounds of nature. Just birds chirping, and the other animal sounds. Although, it also was a little unnerving. "I should go…" I mumbled to myself, before I found an animal I didn't want to encounter, like a bear.

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Oh? You should stay a little longer, I'm sure none of the animals would hurt you." Monokuma said, trying to push me further into the forest.

Luckily, he wasn't making any progress. "I'm not going in deeper. I'm not stupid. I already know there's no way out, so there's no point in going to the end."

"But do you know for suuuure?" He tilted his body.

I looked at him for a few seconds, frowning. "If there's something to be found, Stephan and Serena can find it." Then, I turned around and started heading back to the building.

"You are no fun at all…" The bear mumbled.

Leaving that area, I passed by Serena's lab again. There was still an area I hadn't checked in it, which is probably where Daniella went. I opened the door and was greeted with an equipment room.

And as I thought, Daniella was standing there, looking at all of the bows and knives.

"What do you have with weapons?" I said, noting she always seemed to be near them.

She simply smirked to herself. "I think they're lovely."

Well, some fascination, I guess. "But you've never used any of these, right?"

"What reason would I have to?" Daniella brought her hand to her chin. "Like I said, I just think they're neat. A lot of craftsmanship went into some of these." She grabbed a knife off the wall and examined it. "Although, I could never think of cutting up an animal." She shook her head, putting it back.

Right, that's probably what it's used for. Serena is a huntress, after all.

I walked over to some of the knives, picking one up. This one was made from bone it seemed. "Interesting."

"Like I said, the craftsmanship in these are really interesting. A knife from bone is very intriguing. Although, slightly primitive. But perfect for hunting, I would say." Daniella smiled. She picked up the knife, looking at it. "Maybe I should start a collection." She joked.

"Maybe…" I said back. A collection would look nice, but I don't think that's something to waste one's money on. "Anyways, I have one more place I want to check out, so I'll be seeing you around."

"Stay safe." Daniella smiled as she went back to looking at the collection.

I left the lab and made my way over to the other side of the field, which actually had brighter colours. Entering the building that was on this side, I saw that the bright colours were also inside.

"Welcome!" Bella called out, seeing me walk in.

I walked over to her. "Is this your lab?"

"Sure is!" She turned around to walk around. "This place is filled with a variety of different ecosystems. That means I can study them." Her eyes light up a bit.

"Don't get too excited." I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. She sure was energetic.

Bella walked into a room, which had much more of an arid feel to it. "I've always wanted a place like this."

Further into the room, was a dome with a desert climate. There seemed to be some animals in it, like a scorpion I saw crawling all around the place.

The ecologist pressed herself against the glass. "Aren't they cute."

"They seem more deadly." I replied.

She stepped away from the glass. "Well… yeah…" She glanced away. "Anyways, there's a variety of different biomes in this building, so feel free to check them out." Then, she started to walk away.

Before she was fully gone, I managed to catch her attention. "Why did you want to become an ecologist."

She stopped walking, thinking for a bit. "Well, I guess I just really liked nature in general, so a study on how stuff like that worked really interested me. Seeing how an ecosystem could support itself was really fascinating."

"Isn't that cute." Caren said, walking into the room.

Bella turned to look at her, a blush on her face. "I-it's not cute!" She quickly said.

I chuckled a little, looking back at the dome. I frowned at the scorpion. Hopefully there aren't any more dangerous animals around…

I left the room, letting the two talk, or more so, Caren teasing Bella. The next room I entered was rather cold, so it was probably a biome with snow. One look at the dome told me I was right. Another thing to note was that Josef was standing in front of it, looking at all the animals.

"Hey there… Josef." I said, trying to strike a conversation with him. But in reality, I didn't want to talk to him. Not since how he was acting before the murder occured. But… "How are you feeling?"

He didn't respond, instead, continuing to look beyond the glass.

I let out a small sigh. "Look, I don't know why you acted like that, but what happened happened…"

"Why I acted like that…?" He repeated with a small sigh. "I think I knew deep down this whole thing was real. The way I acted was just me not wanting to come to terms with reality. I guess my way of coping…" I couldn't tell what facial expression he had on because of his glasses, but he was frowning.

"Your coping mechanic?" I asked. "If I can be honest, I don't think that was a very good one. There's no point in denying reality. And making up a fantasy to explain anything isn't a good idea either." I told him.

He remained silent for a few seconds. "Yeah, you're right." He tilted his head slightly. "You know, I never thought I'd be so relieved to see animals."

I looked beyond the glass. "Yeah, I guess it was reassuring. Serena has a similar area, and it was nice to see birds chirping."

"Oh, well I will have to go check it out." Josef had a smile on his face. He twirled his cane. "There's no point in being sad!" He declared to himself. "What kind of host let's something like that get to him? If the host is saddened, that will only sour the atmosphere for everyone else!"

I smiled slightly. "Yeah, no use in being depressed. So…" I trailed off. "See anything interesting?"

"I saw a polar bear eat a seal." He replied.

"..." I didn't have any words to say, so I just slowly made my way out of the room. "Have fun doing that." Welp, onto the next biome, I guess… The next room I made my way to had a very humid atmosphere to it. Which made sense because beyond the glass, was a jungle biome. Robin was standing in front of this one.

"Hello Riley." He said without turning around.

"How did you know it was me?" I approached the glass.

He shrugged. "I guess I just memorized everyone's footsteps."

"That's… not creepy…" I mumbled.

He shook his head. "I don't think I'd consider it creepy, but everyone is unique, so after a while you learn to differentiate that." He looked over at me. "Sometimes, you don't have much time to think."

"Insightful." I said, not really caring all that much. "This whole building is really amazing, honestly."

There was a long silence before he answered. "Yes, it really is. I wonder how long this building has been standing for. If Monokuma added it recently, or was it always here."

I looked into the jungle. "Well… it looks like it's been here for a while, self sustaining… it seems."

Robin remained quiet for a little longer. "You're right. Besides, some of these trees probably took a while to grow."

"Ah, didn't even think of that." True. It's possible all of these buildings were repurposed for Ultimate Labs.

"Well…" Robin turned around. "I should head off now." I watched him leave. I looked back at the jungle biome and sighed to myself. Well, I should probably leave the building now. There were a few other biomes in this place, but they would probably be similar. Heading out, I spotted Caren, who was just walking around. "Hey Caren." I called out.

She looked at me, walking over. "What's up?"

"Where's Bella? You done teasing her?" I couldn't help but laugh a little.

She smiled too. "Yeah, plus, she wanted to check on other biomes." She looked away. "Teasing ain't as fun if it's just me anyways."

"Well, Lily has her own lab, so she's been there ever since." I told her. "Lovely flowers, there."

"I will have to go see myself." Caren looked out the window. "Ah, it's getting late. Almost time for dinner."

"A-already?" I blinked a few times. "But it's only been a few hours…" Wait… "Crap, I was in bed till two, wasn't I?"

Caren laughed at me a little. "Yeah, try not to sleep in so much, next time."

"Right…" I mumbled. Hopefully I'll wake up earlier tomorrow.

"Go to bed early too, don't want to be tired when you wake up early." She told me.

I chuckled a little. "Who are you, my mom?"

"I wish I could be a mom, I love dealing with kids, so I guess I just have the natural mom vibe to me." She smiled sweetly. "Although…" She trailed off. "Some people our age can be a little… annoying."

Ah, a bigger fan of children than teenagers. "Understandable."

"But still, they are cute in their own way, like Bella. And Lily." She giggled.

"So, why do you think you are so good with kids?" I asked her.

She tilted her head slightly, a warm smile on her face. "I have a lot of younger siblings, so I kinda had to take care of them a lot."

"Aww, that's kinda sweet. So you just grew up around kids, huh." I smiled.

She nodded. "And I wouldn't have it any other way." She turned around to walk away. "Anyways I should go eat now."

My stomach started to grumble, despite having eaten recently. Who knew you used so much energy sleeping. "Yeah, I think I'll go join you." Today has been an interesting day. A new area opened up, and while there didn't seem to be a way out, we shouldn't let that ruin the mood.

I made my way back towards the hotel, realizing I walked much further than I thought I did. Turns out you don't really realize how far you walk when you are too busy looking at everything. When I got there, everyone else was already eating. I didn't know I was that slow.

After grabbing some food, I sat down at the table. I prompted to eat alone, and no one bothered me. After I was done, I figured I should head to my room.

"Now hold on there!" Someone called out to me. I let out a small sigh and turned around to look at them. It was Cameron.

"What now…?" I mumbled, obviously not wanting to do anything.

"Well, because of the last motive, we never had time to start the campaign…" He rubbed the back of his head. He probably realized this was a bad idea.

I frowned slightly. I was in no mood to do anything DnD today. I just wanted to relax after what happened yesterday. But… I tilted my head to the side slightly. He had been working on this for several days, and he was finally ready to start, and we couldn't. "Alright, I'll be at the library in a couple minutes."

"Oh, we aren't going to the library. Jack's Ultimate Lab is way better suited for this. Plus, he has snacks and coffee!" He said excitedly. "Say we meet up in ten minutes over there."

It's like a five minute walk, but whatever. "Sure." I smiled at him, and when he was out of sight, I simply frowned.

"If you don't want to participate, you can just say so." Another voice said from behind me.

I nearly jumped, turning around to see Robin. "How long have you been here for?"

He looked at his watch, staring at it for a few seconds. "Oh, just all of it." What was the point of looking at the watch?

He thought for a few seconds before shrugging. "Because it wasted time."

Glad to know he's a time waster… I let out a small sigh, bringing a hand to my head. "You're a handful."

"I try my best." He replied before leaving.

I can't deal with most of the people here. Well, that wasted most of my time, so I guess there's no point in not going there right now. When I walked outside, I could see that the sun was still bright out. Must be sometime in the Summer… I thought to myself. Since it's around six right now, it can't be Winter.

After five minutes, I finally arrived at Jack's Ultimate Lab.

Upon entering the building, I saw Jean getting some snacks ready. "Everyone's serious about this, huh?" I walked over to him.

He glanced at me, pouring some popcorn into a bowl. "Well, yeah. It's something to keep our mind off things." He trailed off, seemingly thinking a bit more. "Although, I'm not sure if this is the best time for stuff like this." The microwave beeped.

"Jesus, how much popcorn did you make?"

Jean opened the microwave door, taking out the next bag. "Enough." He replied.

I looked over at the door that led to the darkened room. "I guess everyone is waiting there."

The librarian emptied the next bag into the bowl. "Yup, you can go wait with them."

I nodded at him before making my way there.

The room was a little different, the table in the middle was now bigger. It seemed it extended.

"Ah, there you are." Jack had his arms crossed. The room was now lit with candles, which did give it an old medieval time vibe to it. It was really neat, actually. It got a small smile from me.

"Another contender has appeared." Cameron said, wearing some weird wizard robe.

"Is that… really necessary?" I asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

He quickly took it off. "No, not really, just thought it would be cool." He took a seat next to Robin. "Guess we are just waiting for Jean to bring back the snacks."

I took a seat next to Daniella. Might as well sit besides the other person who hasn't played yet. "I guess we're both noobs at this."

"Actually…" She trailed off, a confident smile on her face. "In the few days since we made my character, I read up on a bunch of stuff on it, so I know a lot, and I mean a lot more now."

Why would you do this to me?

Soon, Jean entered the room, placing the snacks on the table.

"Hey, not on the table!" The dungeon master said. "That's my play area."

The librarian rolled his eyes before moving the bowl and the bags over to the smaller tables. "Happy?"

"Very!" He replied, placing something to obscure our view. "Alright. This is where the fun begins." He handed all of us our character sheets back. "You are all going to need this."

I started re reading my character sheet; I hadn't seen it since I first wrote it.

Cameron was placing tiles on the ground, as well as some small character pieces of different colours. "If you've noticed, I've given all of you a colour on your character sheet." I looked at mine, and sure enough, I was green. Interesting, since that's my favourite colour. I glanced around and at everyone's paper to see what colour they had. Daniella had purple, Robin had black, Cameron had orange, Jack had yellow, and Jean had red. And my lord. "God Jean, your writing is hard to read. It's not easy on the eyes."

He looked down at his writing, frowning slightly. "Well that's not very nice."

"He can read, but apparently can't write." Robin smirked to himself.

He took his character sheet, hiding it out of view. "Can we just start the campaign?"

Cameron nodded. "Then let's get right into this!" He flipped through some pages, coughed a few times, and then finally, started.

"You find yourselves in the middle of a battlefield. Your memories of what happened are hazy, but you know one thing." He looked at everyone. "This isn't something you wanted. None of you are very good at fighting, so it's not something you signed up for. Two different armies decided to fight each other in the city you live in, and you were caught in the crossfire." He placed the pieces down.

"So, do we not associate with either faction?" Jack asked, looking at him, before glancing away to look at everyone else. Seems he was trying to analyze some stuff.

The dungeon master shook his head. "Nope, you don't. All you know is that you hate both sides." He took out some dice, handing them to us. "Roll for initiative."

Crap, I have no idea what that means. I looked around and they all seemed to grab the twenty sided dice. I grabbed mine, rolling it. It was sixteen. Which from what I've learned, rolling high is obviously better.

From the looks of it, I rolled the highest, so yay me, I guess.

"Sucks that you went first, since you probably would have preferred to see what we did first." Jean said with some amusement in his voice.

Oh crap. I go first. "Huh… where are the enemies?" I started to ask as Cameron started to place a bunch of enemies down. "Ah." I mumbled. I looked at my character sheet. Probably for the best to keep my distance, so I'll use my bow. "I aim my bow at this one." I pointed to one of the random characters.

"Alright, roll to see if you hit." Cameron told me.

This was going to be a long night, wasn't it?

.

"Alright, you've finally all left town." Cameron told us.

We had a long hard first fight which left us almost all dead. However, thanks to the others, we pulled through. I managed to kill a few enemies too, so I wasn't completely useless. Sadly, we didn't level up at all like I thought we would.

"My character turns towards the group." The dungeon master continues. "And he asks all of you which faction should we go after first?"

"What faction should we go after?" Jack hummed in thought. "So we are taking the fight to the factions themselves. They did wrong us, after all"

Daniella hummed in thought. "Yes, but going to kill them isn't exactly the moral thing to do."

"Tsk, why not?" Jean asked, a small smirk on his face. "They basically leveled our town to the ground and killed the people who lived here. We should take the fight to them."

The secretary simply shook her head. "I say we find them and bring them to justice."

She was definitely playing a lawful character very well. "Well, picking a fight with just whoever isn't exactly a good idea either." I told everyone.

Robin stroked his chin, deep in thought. "Yeah, we want to play our pieces right. If we take one faction out, the other one will simply overrun the other. So we want to make strategic plays to weaken both at the same time." And that's him using his talent. I've never seen him so invested in something, and we had a trial of life and death.

Cameron looked eagerly at everyone. "Well, you raise some good points. We wouldn't want to have an imbalance, so it's probably best if we take them both out."

"The tough part is figuring out how to do that." Jack crossed his arms. "They aren't exactly easy opponents, and if I had to take a wager, this was simply a smaller, weaker portion of their army meant for scouting. They probably weren't expecting to see the other army here." These people were seriously way smarter than me. All I had was math. And I wasn't even an Ultimate Ma- Nevermind...

"We could simply just split off into two groups and make our way down their lines." I suggested, trying to be helpful.

Robin shook his head. "We have a hard enough time against a weakened army, splitting off will only make us more likely to be killed." He turned to look at Cameron. "Do we perchance have a map of the land?"

The dungeon master nodded. "My character pulls out a map from his bag, and unravels it. He then points at the map, showing everywhere where the village is currently located." While saying that, he also did the actions his character did

The tactician looked at the map for a few seconds. "Right, well, according to the map, we are directly between both armies, but their main base is a couple miles away from our area. So it would be a day of traveling."

I decided to remain silent when they planned. I didn't really have any good ideas, so I wouldn't be of much help. Besides, they were all professionals, even Daniella, who was a first timer too. Wish I could have read as well as she did to be able to come out a master.

.

By the time we stopped playing, it was almost midnight.

Cameron let out a small yawn. "I think that's it for today" He seemed rather tired. "I do not want to pull an all nighter again, so I'll be heading to bed."

"Oh?" Daniella smiled. "But we were just getting started."

"You weren't expecting me to continue all night, were you?" He asked her.

She quickly looked away. "N-no, of course not." Seems like she did,

I let out a small yawn too. "Yeah, I'm getting pretty tired too."

Jean got up, stacking his character sheets neatly. "Didn't you sleep almost all day?"

"H-hey, I'm allowed to be tired." Also, it was a very long day.

"Well, I'm probably going to stay up and read like I normally do." The librarian said.

"Weren't you chloroformed last time?" Daniella asked with a small smirk.

He looked at her with disdain before walking out of the room. "Have a nice night." He waved us off.

"Well, that was rather fun." Robin stood up. He didn't seem tired. "I think I'm going to head to bed too."

Everyone else eventually left too, leaving me and Cameron alone. "How… How did I do?" I slowly turned towards him.

He slowly turned his head to look at me, trying to formulate an answer. "Well, you survived, if that's worth anything."

I looked at him, crossing my arms. "What, were you actively trying to kill me?"

He shook his head.

"Then it's not really worth anything. I just felt like I was there." I frowned.

He patted my shoulder. "Hey, it's your first time. I'm sure you'll be better a few more sessions in!" He tried to comfort me. "Besides, the first time I ever played, I died in the first encounter."

I couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that. "Oh really, sucked that bad?"

He laughed with me, and eventually, we headed back to the hotel.

I waved him goodnight, and I headed back to my hotel room.

.

The next morning, I was awoken by the sound of someone knocking on my door. "Goddammit…" I mumbled to myself. Who could it be this early? Although I say early, it was nine.

Opening the door revealed Historia, who looked at me for a few seconds before saying anything. "Nice bed head." She commented.

I blushed slightly, trying to fix my hair. "What do you want?" I quickly asked.

She walked over to the table in the room, placing the journal entry on the table. "Well, I managed to get some info from it. It took some reading through Jean's library to get the exact type of wood."

"Exact type of… Why does that matter?" I asked her, crossing my arms.

"If I can figure out what type of wood it is, I can more easily figure out where the paper is printed, as well as also figure out how old it is based on the condition the paper is. What I also managed to find, was a closer area to where we might be."

I listened to her, getting more interested. "You'll be able to pinpoint our location?"

The historian glanced away. "Maybe, it could just be wrong, but the type of paper matched up with all the local books, so it's likely that we are in the same area." Why was everyone here smarter than me?

"But from the looks of it, the wood seems to be Aspen wood, which means the surrounding area must have a high enough amount that they would warrant making paper out of it." She started walking back and forth. "Checking Serena's lab, there seemed to be a decent amount of Aspen trees. Assuming we are still in the states, we must be in the Northern part of the country."

I blinked a few times. "Wait wait wait… How do you know about tree location?"

She stopped walking to look at me. "Oh, that's easy. I asked Bella."

You know what, that makes sense. "So what state, exactly?" At least we might still be in America.

She hummed in thought. "This type of tree is found a lot in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So one of those states."

I rubbed my head. "That seems rather far away… How would we have even ended up in one of those states?"

Historia looked at me for a few seconds. "I don't know. But it means whoever we are dealing with isn't someone to take lightly."

"I thought that was already obvious." I deadpanned. "Anyways…" I trailed off, rubbing my arm. "What about how long ago it was written?"

She nodded, a small smile on her face. "I can see that based on it's condition, it must have been written about five years ago."

Five years ago? I would make well to remember that. "Is that everything you could tell me about it?"

The historian tilted her head to the side. "I would like to see any more of those if you find them. I know you happened across one of them."

I let out a small sigh. "Yeah, I let that one escape me. But I swear I'll find it. It should be in the new city area anyways." Hopefully not torn or anything.

Historia turned her body towards the door. "Well, I will be heading out now. I have some books I want to read from the library. Maybe I can find more clues."

I watched her leave and let out a small sigh. I glanced over to the window and saw just how messy my hair was. I tried fixing it, but only a shower could fix this. Which is what I went to go do.

.

Heading downstairs, I saw a group of four discussing.

"I want to go see the forest in Serena's Ultimate Lab." Bella said, some enthusiasm in her voice.

Serena had her arms crossed. "No. I can tell there's a lot of dangerous animals in there."

She had a small pout on her face. "But I'm not a kid, I'm an ecologist. It's my thing to go out in nature and research stuff like this." She shuffled over to Lily and Caren. "Besides, I've got these two."

The huntress looked at the two of them, clearly annoyed. "Ah yes, the meat shields. Some animals won't care how many you are, especially if they are bigger, or they outnumber you. They may try and separate you from the rest."

I walked up to them, realizing I should probably help deal with this. "Then how about you go and join them?" I suggested.

"A- what?" She was caught off guard. Although, it seems like she was trying to avoid that suggestion the entire time. "I mean… i could…" She glanced away. Bingo.

"Well, if she goes with you." I turned my attention to Bella. "Everything should be fine."

Her eyes sparkled a little. "Yeah, that's a great idea." She walked over to her. "You can join us."

Serena had a semi angry expression, which was clearly geared at me. "No, I won'-"

She didn't get time to finish her sentence as Caren and Lily walked over to her. "Join us, join us." They chanted. That would drive her crazy.

"Fine!" She shouted out, heading towards the door. "Let's go, before I change my mind." She grabbed onto my arm.

"Huh?" I started to say as I was dragged away.

Serena smiled at me, which was unnerving. "Since you got me stuck in this mess, you are coming along." But wait, I didn't ea- And we were already out of the cafeteria. Dammit…

.

Eventually, we made it to Serena's Lab, and going back there was just as refreshing this time, as it was the first time.

Bella took a deep breath. "Alright…" She trailed off, taking out some papers. "I'm going to take some notes."

Caren wandered off on her own, soon stopping right in front of a table. "Say, there's some traps here."

Oh, those weren't there yesterday. I walked over, and sure enough, there were some traps neatly laid out on the table. I glanced over at the huntress. "Oh, I get it, you didn't want anyone to go there because you were planning on hunting."

She had her arms crossed, looking away. We received no answer from her. Cold.

"Let's just go…" The babysitter sighed as she made her way towards the forest area. Like yesterday, the atmosphere it provided was still there. And it felt nice to go to it after all the time spent in the city.

Bella's eyes darted around everywhere. "Ah, nature." She smiled sweetly. "Cities just aren't a place for me. Nothing to really research there."

"How can you still be focusing on your talent at a time like this?" Serena asked, having loaded her bow with an arrow in case.

"Weren't you just getting ready to go hunt?" Lily tilted her head slightly.

That seemed to have shut her up.

"The animals won't come out…" Bella frowned slightly. Yeah, we hadn't really seen any animals yet. That was off, I felt their presence the other day.

Just as we noticed that, the sound of a bird could be heard.

Serena's eyes darted up at a bird diving towards her. She was ready to shoot it, but for some reason didn't.

It flew around her for a few seconds before landing on her right shoulder.

"Lucky!" Lily commented, approaching the bird.

The huntress took a few steps back. "Don't scare it off." She took a close look at it before fiddling with it's foot. Then, she put her hands in her pockets. "A black falcon, it seems."

Bella tilted her head. "What's one of those doing here? Aren't we in the states?"

"Why should that matter?" I asked. What? I'm not a bird expert.

The ecologist took a step towards Serena, but stopped when she stepped back. "They are endemic to Australia."

"That can only mean one thing." Lily realized. "We're in Australia."

"No." Was everyone's reaction to that.

She pouted slightly, sad that no one thought it was a good idea.

Serena scratched the beak of the bird, which seemed to enjoy it. "I think I'll keep it." She smiled softly. This one was a genuine smile, so it was nice to see.

Bella was writing some stuff down. "None of this really makes sense, but there should be a reason for it."

After walking for a bit more, we started to see animals again.

"Ah, there we go." Lily smiled sweetly. "Seeing all the cute critters is always great." We looked over as a bunny hopped away, obviously startled by our presence.

My eyes shifted towards Serena, who seemed ready to kill any animal. Dangerous or not. I place a hand on her shoulder, hey, calm down. We aren't here to kill anything. Just to enjoy nature at it's finest."

She looked at me, with thoughtfulness in her eyes. "Very well," She then lowered her bow.

"This is a nice spot." Lily said, pulling out a basket that I swore wasn't there before. Was I just that tired?

"What's the basket for?" I tilted my head slightly.

She pulled out a cloth and placed it on the ground. "We're having a picnic, obviously."

"Picnic?" Serena turned back to look at her. "You didn't say anything about that…"

The florist giggled. "I thought it would be nice if all of us sat down to eat." She placed the basket on the ground before sitting down.

Bella and Caren sat down on the blanket too, eager to start the picnic.

I glanced over at Serena, who seemed skeptical at first. To be fair, I was a little unsure, but sat down too. I hadn't eaten yet, so who was I to say no?

"Is it really alright to be having a picnic at a time like this?" Serena frowned slightly.

That kinda killed the mood slightly.

I was going to say something, but someone else said something before I could.

"I know people recently died…" Bella frowned slightly. "But do you think they'd just want us to sit down and sulk the rest of our days away?"

Lily nodded. "She's right, we should still enjoy ourselves. Sure, we're in an awful place, and we shouldn't be truly happy. But staying depressed won't help us any."

The huntress looked at the ground, frowning slightly. Then, she grabbed a sandwich, taking a small bite from it. It was a little cute.

"I went and made the picnic food." Caren said with a smile, taking a sandwich for herself. "There's also some salad in there if you want."

You know, this wasn't that bad. I reached into the basket and pulled out an apple. I'm sure I would have been even greater friends with these people if the looming threat of murder wasn't pending over us. "So, how's the garden of yours going?" I turned towards Lily.

She giggled slightly. "I found some interesting flowers. Some were poisonous!"

"Poisonous…?" Bella's face drained. "What are you doing, that's dangerous!" She stopped briefly. "Cool, but very dangerous!"

Lily couldn't help but giggle even more. "Don't worry, I'm an expert in handling them, so I should be fine."

Serena shook her head. "Still, that seems highly reckless." She took another bite of her sandwich. "Be sure to exert a lot of caution in handling them."

"Will do!" The florist replied eagerly.

Caren looked at the ground. "I'm more worried someone will use the plants to kill someone." Everyone grew silent, thinking of the possibility. She quickly looked around, realizing she killed the mood. "Wait, no, just forget what I said!"

We slowly nodded, going back to eating. The rest of the meal was just gossip and what not, but I was mostly concentrating on the food.

.

I was on my way back from the picnic when someone blocked my path. And not in the way you should think. The person in question was hanging upside down from a light post. "Heya Riley!" Stephan said with a flashy grin.

I looked at him for a few seconds before finally giving him a smile. "What are you doing here?"

He let himself drop down onto his feet. "I was just gonna do some parkouring. Want to join me?"

That sounds rather dangerous. "No, I don't think I would be any good at it."

He looked at me, tilting his head slightly. "Aww, you don't need to be good at it."

"Yes, I do, who parkours when they aren't good at it?" I quickly replied.

He simply shrugged. "Well, there's no way to know you are good without trying." He grabbed my arm and started dragging me off.

"H-hey! Wait!" I blushed slightly. I mean, he was rather cute… I quickly shook my head. "This is dangerous."

"What seems to be the problem here?" Enima blocked our path. "You better not be thinking of doing anything to her."

I mouthed the words 'help me' towards her, hoping she would understand what I was trying to say.

She noticed me say something, but turned towards Stephan. "So, where are you taking her?"

"Just going to parkour with her. Show her the art and all." He said, glancing away.

The mysterious girl looked at him for a few seconds. "Well, in that case." She leaned her body down slightly, letting her guard down seemingly. "Shall I join you two?"

"This is the opposite of helping." I deadpanned.

The parkourist eagerly nodded. "The more the merrier!" He continued to drag me off. What's with me being dragged to places against my will? Is my destiny just set in its path like this?

Soon, I found myself on top of a building. I slowly peered off the edge. Now, I wasn't afraid of heights, but death was still death.

Enima walked over to the edge, letting a bit of her feet hang off the edge while the rest of it supported her weight. "See, not that scary."

I gave her an annoyed look before walking away from the edge. "This was going to be horrible. And there was no escape. I feel like Stephan was going to make me do no matter what.

"Hey! What are you guys doing up there?" A male voice called out, peering off a different edge, I saw Josef crossing his arms. "We don't need someone else to end up dead, so get down from there."

"No." Stephan said shortly before jumping to the next roof with ease. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" He was like a damn child. I let out a defeated sigh and ran over to the next roof. Luckily the buildings were close together, so it wasn't that much of a jump.

Enima seemed to make the jump with ease. She wasn't as good as Stephan, obviously, but it still made me wonder about her talent. There were so many possibilities.

I heard an annoyed sigh, which I thought was mine, but looking down, it was Josef's. "Don't make me have to catch one of you. Because I will drop you."

"Gee, thanks." I looked at him annoyed. My attention turned back towards Stephan, who climbed up halfway up the next building. He stopped and turned towards us. When Enima lept up, he grabbed her arm and pulled her above him so she was on the next roof.

For me, he did the same thing before climbing up for himself. You know, it was scary, but it had some certain feeling of adrenaline to it. Which was probably why he did it.

"A fall from that height will kill you." Josef yelled out at us. However, he made sure to keep up with us.

Stephan stopped running, instead heading to the edge of the building. "You're free to join us. Or are you a coward." He taunted with a calm smile on his face.

"I simply value my own life." The host responded, which was a good response. I didn't want to be doing this either for the same reason. But I was going to get dragged into it no matter what. And Enima was no help at all.

The next building was rather high up, and this time, Stephan didn't stop halfway. He made it all the way to the top, clearly forgetting about us.

Enima seemed rather confident in her abilities and started moving up.

Although she had proven to be good at most things, she still made it look rather easy, so I followed suit.

Which would probably explain why I fell. Not just me, but Enima fell too.

Thinking quickly, Stephan took out a hook-like thing from under his shirt and tossed it at the mysterious girl, who caught it before slamming into the building with a pained groan.

I didn't have such a lifeline to grab onto. Instead, someone caught me.

"Pathetic." Josef commented as he held me in his arms.

I looked at him for a few seconds before cracking a small smile. "Huh… tha-"

"I'm dropping you." He said coldly.

"Huh?" And then he dropped me.

The host made his way to the side of the building. "I told you someone could have gotten hurt. If she died, I hope Monokuma would have deemed you the blackened."

Stephan looked down at him, a frown appearing on his face. Although, it was more of an annoyed one. He turned around before jumping to the next building.

Enima had been safely dropped to the ground. "Well, that was fun. We should do it again."

I quickly shook my head, slowly getting up. "Never again…" And then I walked away. Not sticking around for that shit.

.

It was night time now, and it was really exhausting with all I did today. I should probably head to bed… I thought to myself. I reached my room and glanced out the window. It showed a part of the city we still hadn't been to. When would we, anyways? Something that still interested me was the rather large building that seemed to be directly in the center of the city. "I'm sure we'll explore it eventually…" I told myself before going to bed.

.

The next morning, I would awake to a nice warm breeze in my room. Which was odd because it didn't feel like the air conditioning we were provided. Also this felt like a warm summer breeze, not at all like the air conditioner. I quickly sat up, looking around. And I was horrified to find out what the hell it was.

Well, for one, my window was broken open, but that wasn't the concerning thing. The concerning thing was what broke it. A long vine like thing had grown into my room and was on the ceiling. "What the…?" I mumbled out before walking up to go to the window. Outside wasn't any better. The plants had overgrown and were occupying most of the streets. I blinked a few times before heading to my door. Did the others see this? Either way, I had to tell them.

When I headed downstairs, it seemed everyone was in the process of gathering too.

"I'm not sure if I should see this has a dream come true, or a nightmare." Lily mumbled, poking a root with her foot. "This would be great if we weren't in the killing game. But this can only mean one thing…"

The motive… I looked around all the other areas. Luckily, the entrance was still accessible, so we could leave the building. But there was no telling just how awful the rest of the city was. "What's his game plan here?"

Josef was tapping his cane on the ground. "I wish I could tell you, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason."

"The reason is to get us to kill, obviously." Daniella noted, walking over to a window to peer outside.

The host shook his head, tilting his head over towards her. "Except who out of their right minds would kill over some foliage?"

The secretary looked at him for a few seconds before sighing. "I guess you are right." She had a smile on her face. "We are all rational people, after all."

Enima shook her head, making her way towards the exit of the building. "I say we go see what the hell is going on. This has to originate from somewhere."

"Don't just head out recklessly." Stephan grabbed her arm, seemingly tightly.

The mysterious looked at him for a few seconds before pulling her arm away. "We won't know what we're dealing with if we don't go."

I bit my thumb. "But maybe staying here is the safest option."

She glared at me. "I don't want to take the opinion of someone as indecisive as you." That hurt… She looked up at everyone. "We can try and go find out what's causing it, or we can stay here and eventually let it kill us."

A gasp came from Lily. "I just realized something! Where's Bella?" She called out.

I quickly looked around, and sure enough, the small ecologist was missing.

Josef groaned, putting his head in his hand. "If I had to hinge my bets, she's already out there. So we don't have much of a choice now, do we?"

Stephan seemed slightly annoyed, but crossed his arms. "Then let's go…"

Our group of thirteen headed outside into the wilderness.

"I know I said I would prefer a more wild place…" Serena looked around, crouched down slightly as she had an arrow ready to shoot. "But I think this is too much."

A lot of the buildings were inaccessible because of the roots and foliage blocking the entrance and some of the windows.

"Tsk, this place has gone to ruin even more than before." Historia said, looking around with disgust. "I would have rather stayed inside. I don't think one person is worth all this trouble."

"Then why didn't you?" Robin tilted his head over to the side.

"Well…" She couldn't really think of an excuse. Seems she didn't want to be left alone. "Whatever…"

Jean jumped over a root, keeping his hands in his pockets. "Where exactly are we heading? I hope you aren't just wandering aimlessly."

Enima rolled her eyes playfully, turning around to look at him. She continued to walk, but now backwards. "Did you seriously only explore the nerd cafe?"

This seemed to hit Jack. "It's not a nerd cafe…" He mumbled. He looked at her smugly. "I'm sorry someone as simply as you can't see what kind of collection that building is. Everything in there is perfect, as dictated by me."

The mysterious girl couldn't help but snort, patting his head. "Oh, but your opinion is invalid."

This seemed to only make him madder. "Listen here."

And she was off, a smug smile on her face. "We should almost be here…" She looked out onto the off skirts of the city.

"Oh…" I realized where we were going. "The nature part of this place."

Enima nodded, turning her attention to a building. Or more so, the greenhouse that was a little further away. "If I had to take any guesses, I'd say our problem originated from there."

Lily frowned, bringing her hand to her chest, closed in a fist. "My lab…? Then I think I should go there myself."

From the looks of it, the lab did seem to be where they were coming from, since a lot of roots and vines came out from it. Or going inside there. It was hard to tell.

Josef looked at the place before sighing. "Well, let's go." He walked off over to the greenhouse.

The rest of us followed right behind.

Once we arrived there, we reached our first hurdle. "Ah, so there's not really a way in now…" Lily mumbled, seeing the main entrance completely blocked off by various plants and roots.

"Wasn't there a backway?" Historia suggested.

The florist nodded. "But it's locked from the inside."

"Can't we just break any panel of glass?" Jean suggested, knocking on the exposed part of the house. "I'm sure we can find a place where there's no plants in the way."

"And destroy my lab?" Lily yelled out, shaking her head. "No, I won't allow that. Eventually this place should turn back to normal."

"Probably after Monokuma's wish is complete." Daniella said. Didn't have to say it like that. "But I don't think the building matters right now, so we should probably just break in."

Cameron grabbed something off the floor, using his free hand to roll a dice. It landed on a 20, and he threw the object, which was now obviously a rock. It hit the glass pane, which shattered into a convenient doorway shaped entrance.

"Jesus!" The secretary called out, being caught off guard briefly before going back to her calm expression. Seems she could lose composure too.

"Nat twenty!" He called out, before walking over to the doorway he made. "Come on, don't be shy."

All of us funneled into the greenhouse. And, to be honest, it was both a beautiful site, and a terrifying one. The flowers that I saw last time were still here, but they seemed more overgrown, and there were even more of them.

"Beautiful… and horrifying…" Lily walked over to one, tracing her finger on the underside of a petal. She looked around. "I forgot just how big this place is…" She sighed as she headed further inside.

Historia hugged herself, shivering a bit. "This place gives me the creeps… What did Monokuma do to cause this."

I placed my hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "It's going to be alright…"

She looked at me with slight annoyance. She stopped shivering and hugging herself. "I'm not scared or anything. I'm perfectly fine."

I rolled my eyes amusingly. "Sure, whatever you say."

Cameron pressed his hand against some wood. "This could totally be a dungeon of sorts…"

"Oh? Are you thinking of adding it to our game, that would be pretty neat." Jean had an interested look on his face. "Bet you could make a really cool layout."

"Alright, nerds…" Enima mumbled as she reached the back. She then bumped into someone, who fell to the ground.

"Ow…" The girl mumbled, looking up. There she was.

"BELLA!" Lily squealed, seeing that she was safe.

She closed one eye and covered her ears. Man could she yell. "I'm fine… These plants won't harm us."

"They won't?" Robin said, poking a flower.

Bella looked away. "Unless it was a poisonous one."

"..." Robin stopped poking the flower. "Ah…" He put his hands in the pocket of his cloak.

Daniella took a few steps towards her. "I take it you went to investigate what happened?"

The ecologist nodded, turning her attention to the back. "There's something new here…" She walked over to it.

Yeah, there was. That was definitely not there when we first explored the place. I walked over to it, tapping on the glass. "What if we just break it."

Josef walked over to it. "Seems like an easy solution." He lifted up his cane and thrusted it downwards like he would a sword. Unfortunately, it simply bounced off the glass and hit him in the leg, sending him to his knees. "Well, that was ineffective…" He mumbled to himself, seemingly trying not to let out a pained sound. He stood up. "So we can't get rid of this machine."

Jean walked over to some of the vines. He whipped out a lighter, flicking it on. "Why can't we just burn them all. It should get rid of our problem, right?"

Daniella shook her head. "These vines are everywhere, we would cause a city wide fire that would probably kill us all."

The librarian looked at her for a few seconds, before finally putting away his lighter. "Alright…"

"They don't seem to be moving much." Serena noted, playing her hand on a vine coming out of the machine. "Maybe it won't get worse… The foliage at least."

"The foliage?" I asked. "Is there something else we should worry about."

The huntress started to walk away. "Figure it out yourself."

Bella frowned slightly. "It's possible a new environment like this could bring animals that could coexist with it."

So we have animals to deal with…? Great. I shook my head. "Have you seen any yet?"

"W-well…" The ecologist poked her fingers together. "No, not yet, in fact. There seemed to be a lack of any in this area."

"Well, there was never any in this area to begin with." Jean pointed out. "From what I've heard, the animals are reserved for the off skirts of the city."

Stephan covered his mouth, thinking. "But there's no saying it's going to stay that way." He looked outside, which he couldn't see much. "We should probably head back to the hotel and figure out what to do next…"

That seemed to be the general consensus of the group, so we all headed back.

The hotel didn't have any new vines or roots. And the ones already there hadn't grown at all.

"It's probably best to not wander too far away from the hotel." Cameron noted. He turned towards me, and the nerd gang. "I think we can hold the rest of the sessions in the cafeteria or my room-"

"Your room is fine." I quickly said. I did not want to do nerd stuff just out in the open where anyone could watch.

"Oh." Daniella smirked. "Seems you just want to spend time in his room."

I let out an annoyed sigh at her before heading back to my room. Waking up this early ruined my sleeping schedule. I just need another hour or two of sleep…

.

I woke up a few hours later, yawning slightly. Alright, time to actually do my morning routine. I glanced over at the clock, seeing that it was one in the afternoon. "What…?" I looked outside. But it wasn't that bright outside. In fact, I don't remember actually seeing much sunlight in the first place. I took a quick glance outside and saw that the reason why is because some dark clouds obscured the sky. And not just any grey clouds. These ones had a magenta hue to them. Is any of this even real? I shook my head. Forget that. I need to get ready and have a normal day…

I headed downstairs, intent on having lunch.

"Riley!" Cameron called out, sitting at the table. The rest of the nerd gang seemed to be there too. And from the looks of it, he had his DnD stuff on the table.

I walked over to him, letting out a small sigh. "I thought we were going to do this stuff in your room…?"

"Well… yeah… but…" He looked like he was trying to think on how to formulate the answer. "My room is too small, and it's better this way because we got an easy place to get food."

My eyes trailed over to the side, seeing some fresh food. "True…" I couldn't disagree there. We didn't want to go back to Jack's lab, so we lost out on a quick food source.

Cameron let out a small laugh. "Glad you could see things from my perspective." He looked at everyone else. "You all ready?"

"Of course." Daniella smiled smugly, probably already ready to carry the entire team after having only played one session.

Jean was already shaking his dice in his hands. "What does it look like?"

Jack was writing down some things on his character sheet. Was he… adding more things to his backstory? I shook my head. It didn't really matter.

However, Robin didn't seem to answer anything. Instead, he looked to be thinking of something.

"Robin?" I tilted my head slightly.

That shook him out of his trance. His eyes darted at everyone before his smile returned. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready."

Cameron had a big smile on his face. "Good, then let's begin." He started placing tokens on the map. "Last time we left off, you had just survived a battle between two opposing armies who you had no affiliation to. After some discussion, you decided that it would be best to take them out simultaneously." He looked at us. "So which army would you like to fight first?"

"I think we should go from left to right. Like reading a book." Robin said.

Jean snapped his fingers. "I like that logic, and we can also work our way down."

Daniella hummed in thought. "No, I think we should go from right to left. The right army seemed rather weaker, and it could help us level up earlier to face the other side."

Jack nodded. "Yes, we have to think of this in a more logical way than that, Jean. We don't want to march to our deaths because we are underleveled."

I looked at all four of them. I was the only one who didn't really care much. "Well, I guess we can…" I hummed in thought. "I looked over at Cameron. "What do you think we should do."

He covered his mouth, trying to stay in character. "Personally, I don't know, they all bring good points." I let out a small sigh. Great, that doesn't help at all.

I looked over at Jean, and since he's been the most helpful for all this. "I think we should go from left to right first."

The librarian couldn't help but smirk. "Well, we got the popular vote."

Cameron couldn't help but smirk. "You are forgetting about my character…" He turned to look at him. Coughing a few times to get back in character. "I can definitely see why we would want to do both, I'm going to lean with going to the left, since they have seemingly a bigger army, so we want to eliminate them first so they don't overrun the other side."

Oh, seems like I made a good decision. I sighed happily to myself.

"Then it's decided." Robin smirked to himself. "Let's head out."

Jack and Daniella simply mumbled stuff to themselves, unhappy that their option wasn't taken. It's alright, it's not like this matters too much.

"How far is the closest enemy camp?"

Cameron took out a map out of seemingly nowhere. "Well, let's see here." He hummed in thought. "A half day worth of traveling."

"Then we should arrive there and camp out for the night." Daniella smirked to herself. "That way, we are able to take a long rest right before we attack."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, we'll probably need to fight stuff on the way there." He sent a glance towards Cameron. "Knowing how rough this world is."

The dungeon couldn't help but silently laugh. Yeah, there were probably a lot of monsters out there.

Jean hummed in thought, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, I don't have anything against that."

Robin looked at them for a few seconds before simply shrugging. What reason would I have to go against that?"

"Alright, then let's set off." Cameron announced as our group set off.

It took a long time, like five hours of encounters just to finally reach the army camp.

"That's way too long…" I mumbled, tired. Five hours of playing this game? I wanted to do other stuff today, but I guess not.

Cameron let out a small sigh. "I think we should stop here for today." He smiled.

Daniella was caught off guard slightly. "S-stop? And here I thought you would continue for a few more hours."

He let out a laugh. "I would, but I'm not sure I want to keep going. I think we should all prepare for the battle mentally."

I stood up, relieved we were stopping for the night. It was like six in the evening and I didn't want to spend all my time doing this. "Well, I'm going to head back to my room." I shuffled over to the stairs. Who knew sitting down for that long was going to be this hard?

.

Apparently I passed out, and it was the next day. Talk about being tired huh? Maybe I shouldn't spend my life sleeping away. I got up and looked at the time. Oh, eight. I actually woke up early today. I let out a yawn, getting ready to head downstairs.

When I got downstairs, everyone was already up. "There's just no winning with these people…" I mumbled to myself. Why am I always the last one awake?

"This is getting serious…" Bella frowned.

Huh? "What's going on?" I approached them.

"What I've feared has come to pass…" Serena had her arms crossed, looking away.

What she feared…? I blinked a few times. "Oh no, you don't mean…"

"'Fraid so…" Josef walked over to the window.

When I glanced out, there were several animals, but they didn't seem normal. They seemed more savage. "What's going on…?"

"I don't even know…" Bella held her hands together. "It just doesn't seem normal. They aren't acting at all like they should be."

Robin hummed in thought. "Could be rabies."

Daniella walked over to Serena, grabbing her bird before she could even react. "If all the animals are going crazy, shouldn't we just kill this thing before it does too?"

"H-hey!" Serena pulled out an arrow and aimed it at the secretary. "Let the bird go, or I shoot you."

She didn't really seem scared. "Oh honey, we all know you wouldn't do that. Especially not in front of all of these people." But she resigned anyways, letting the bird go. "But believe me, if that thing goes wild, we should dispose of it." She walked away, heading towards the window.

"This doesn't seem like a safe spot anymore…" Stephan sighed, heading over to the lobby. "Sure, we can lock the doors and stuff, but the animals could break it down…"

"Well, it beats going out there." Caren looked away. "Can't we just stay in here and pretend nothing is happening?"

The parkourist clenched his fist. "No, we need to find a better place. If they get us in our sleep…"

"Stop worrying, we have food here. What else would we need?" Historia asked with a sigh.

Cameron walked over to the doors. "There is that temple we could block off."

"What good would that do… It's probably infested with snakes or something." Daniella told him.

He shook his head. "We could still go there. I know there's traps and such, which makes it perfect."

I hadn't even thought of that. "Yeah! The traps should keep the animals out."

"I could also make new ones to snar the other animals that get through." Serena said a small smile forming on her face, but it soon turned to a frown. "But we'd have to go to my lab, since that's where all my trapping gear is."

Bella let out a small frown. "Still, killing them."

"It's kill or be killed." Josef said, walking over to the doors to the lobby. "If this is our safest bet, then let's do this." He unlocked the door and took a deep breath. And then he opened it dramatically.

Serena rushed out, already having an arrow ready. She managed to shoot an animal in the forehead, killing it instantly.

"Where did these all even come from?" Caren yelled out, slightly annoyed as she ran.

"Probably from my lab, and Serena's." Bella mumbled out. "We had animals in ours, so it's likely they got out from there."

I shivered slightly, having remembered the type of animals I saw. For the most part, it seemed to be animals from a jungle biome. Probably to match with the foliage.

Soon, we made it to the temple. Luckily it really wasn't that far.

"Alright, I'll guide you through the traps since I remembered them. Serena, you go get some more traps." Stephan said, turning to her.

The huntress looked at everyone. "I'll need at least two people in case things get bad. And also to carry stuff.

Enima stepped forward. "I'll go." Her eyes drifted towards Daniella. "And I'm sure miss secretary here wouldn't mind."

"Yes, I would be fine with going." She replied.

Serena looked really annoyed, but she wasn't going to say no. "We'll be back soon."

God, what an awful day this has turned out to be. We are going to be crammed inside a temple. Maybe I should have slept in?

.

We eventually reached the area of the temple, which wasn't any better since it was teeming with snakes. Luckily, we managed to avoid them before they noticed us. We went inside the temple, which Stephan closed the doors of.

"Isn't there normally more lights here?" Caren asked, looking around.

Jean rolled his eyes, taking out his golden lighter again. "I've got this." He ignited it, illuminating the hallway. "Alright, mister trap expert." He turned towards the parkourist.

Stephan stepped forward, leading the way. "Watch your step here…" He pointed towards a trip wire which we all avoid.

Despite us all being nervous, we managed to get through the main part. And beyond this part, was the wall with the weird symbols. Although, like mentioned several days ago. It was gone.

"This place hasn't been explored yet." Stephan said as he grabbed an unlight torch, before bringing it up to Jean's lighter. "Shall we go?" He stepped inside the room.

The room itself was rather large, and on both sides of the wall, there were eye symbols. The difference was that the eyes on the right were blue, and the one on the left were red. Odd choice… .

At the end of the room, there was a statue of sorts of a young looking girl. Half of her seemed to be of an angel, while the other half of her seemed to be a demon. "What is this…?" The statue was holding its hand forward, like it was holding something. Except it's hands were empty.

Historia walked over, a little bit of interest in her eyes. "This is really nice…" She mumbled, looking around. "I want to find out more."

Jack walked up besides her, looking at the statue too. "A lot of meaning can be taken from this…" He looked over to the right, noticing that there was a hallway there, with the blue eyes going down that one.. "Shall we head further down?"

Caren pointed out the other hallway, this one had the red eyes going down it. "What about this one?"

The critic crossed his arms. "I don't like the atmosphere I'm getting from that one. So I say we explore it later." He started heading down the blue eyed hallway.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Bella asked, glancing behind her.

Cameron rubbed the temples of his head. "As much as I would love to explore, I do think we should wait."

"Tsk." Jean rolled his eyes, making his way towards the hallway. "We can just leave a note saying what way we went."

"Does anyone have any writing tools with them?" I asked, looking around. The answer was probably n-

Camron took out pen and paper, because of course he had some. "I'll leave them a note!" Once he wrote the directions on it, he placed it down in front of the statue. "Hopefully they aren't blind."

Heading down this hallway, it seems much brighter than the other one would have been. Was this to represent something? Well, blue probably meant good, right?

"What are these…?" Caren mumbled, walking over to the wall, where a bunch of symbols were.

Stephan brought the littorch closer. "These are the same symbols that were on the door before it was opened up."

Jean looked around at the group. "Anyone want to admit to being able to read this kind of stuff?"

But there was only silence.

"Hmm, I thought someone like you would be able to read it." Jack crossed his arms. He was speaking about Jean, but then his attention shifted towards Historia. "You too."

"Once again, only an historian. Not an archeologist." She told him. "Learn the difference. You all try and get me to do the wrong field!"
I think I might be slightly guilty of that.

Josef rubbed the back of his head. "You know, the temple was probably a good choice, but still, staying inside a temple till this blows over isn't actually something I'm looking forward to."

Caren let out a small annoyed sigh. "Yeah, I gotta agree with him. This isn't that great."

"Oh, suck it up…" Jean crossed his arms, leaning against the wall with the symbols. "We'll do this for a few days, and hopefully the animals kill themselves out there so we can pick off the rest of the-" He glanced over at Bella, who didn't seem to like the idea of going out and killing them off. The librarian hummed in thought. "Or hopefully they aren't as savage…" He mumbled.

Nice save… I sighed to myself. "Well, we might as well make the most of it. Let's see if there's more to this temple. It seems to continue on further." Although, I'm more curious on what this temple is about. That statue seemed to be of a goddess.

Cameron was stopped in front of another statue. This one had both eyes be blue, and there were slight differences, like the clothes looked neater. "Hmm…" He hummed. It's like I could see his idea gears turning.

"What are you thinking of?" I stopped beside him, looking up at the statue too.

He didn't answer right away. Instead, opting to look at it some more. After a bit, he looked down at me. "Just trying to think of the Gods of my campaign.

Right, he is probably always thinking of what should happen next. "Any ideas coming to mind?"

He blinked a few times, probably realizing nothing was popping up. "Maybe I just like looking at it because it's a nice statue."

I feel like you are lost half the time. "Well, let's keep going…" I told him as we headed further into the temple. The next place seemed to be a dead end however. But it had the appearance of a church.

"Tsk, church…" Jean mumbled, leaning against the entrance way. "What's something like this doing all the way down here?"

Stephan walked over to the end, opening the bible that was on the table. "I don't know… But something happened to this city for sure…"

That was quite obvious by now. What happened to everyone in the first place? They all just up and vanished… or died… The image of the hanging man came back to me. I quickly shook my head. I didn't want to think of that right now.

The parkourist closed the book. "Just a typical Bible. Nothing off about it." He looked around at the mosaic paintings.

"Doesn't that one look like the statue?" Lily pointed to one in the back of the room. If that's the case, the Goddess had blonde hair.

"Doesn't this feel weird?" Jack asked, walking around the room. "She's not any Goddess that I know of. Nor of any Saint."

"There's no way you know all the Gods." Jean countered him.

He sent him an annoyed glance. "You read enough literature, and you get to learn the Gods from multiple religions. They just present themselves in stories a lot. And this one is one I haven't passed by."

"Not to mention…" Caren stopped right in front of the mosaic art of her. "Doesn't it seem a little weird? The first statue had both a red eye, and a blue eye."

It was weird, but… "Maybe it's just two different Gods? And to represent them both, they were made into one statue like that?"

"They looked too similar." Josef pointed out before turning around. "Why don't we just go and find out what's on the other side."

"Yeah, I guess we can just do that…" Lily mumbled off, starting to leave.

On the way back, we would run into three people.

"This place goes rather deep, doesn't it?" Serena looked around the place. "Took us a bit to even make it here."

A small smug laugh came from Daniella. "Not like it was that hard to do so."

I glanced over at Enima, who was just staring at the symbols on the wall. "What are you doing?"

She blinked, before turning her head towards me. "Nothing, just looking at the pretty symbols."

They were indeed pretty symbols. If only I could read them…

"So what's the plan now?" The huntress asked as she made her way towards the door. Seems she was setting up some traps.

Stephan rubbed the back of his head. "Honestly, this is all I can think of for now. The only problem with hiding here comes with no food."

"No food?" Lily grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "Why didn't we just grab some on the way here!"

"R-r-r-relax!" The poor parkourist tried to say. "Robin is collecting some food from the cafeteria."

The florist stopped shaking him. "Oh."

That's right, I didn't even notice that Robin wasn't with us. Guess he doesn't really stick out that much.

"We will need to make supply runs every so often." Stephan crossed his arms "and I volunteer for that when it comes to it."

"Why didn't you just do it today?" Caren asked him.

"Well, I had to guide everyone into the temple to avoid the traps. I have a sharp eye, so I can see them from pretty far away." He explained.

Jean had a small smirk on his face. "Can Robin see the traps?"

The parkourist shook his head. "No, since he and Riley set one off the first time we were here."

The librarian looked at him, putting his hands in his pockets. Waiting.

"Oh." Stephan finally said before quickly leaving.

Hopefully Robin wasn't already dead.

But that didn't bode well for the rest of us, if these were the hands we were in.

Serena let out a small annoyed sigh. "I guess I'll wait to place up traps." She moved over her stuff. "What even is this place?"

"Cool, isn't it?" Cameron was back to looking at the statue. "Some kind of Goddess."

Serena looked at it for a few seconds before turning away. "I don't really care about that stuff."

He just couldn't hold a decent conversation with any girl. Wait, I'm a girl.

"So what do we do to pass the time, exactly?" Caren asked, looking around.

"Org-" Lily started to say, but was promptly cut off by Jean.

"I don't know about you, but I brought a book along. Have fun." He pulled out one and excused himself to go read.

It didn't seem like the others had thought of stuff to bring. I looked over at Cameron, feeling desperate. "Hey-"

"Forgot my DnD stuff." He answered before I could even ask.

Well, I guess that I got nothing to do. My eyes trailed over to the red section of the temple. I could go, but I didn't really want to yet. Maybe another time.

The rest of the day passed with extreme boredom. So much so that I thought I was just going to die. Robin eventually came back. He didn't seem hurt at all, so it was nice to know he was fine. He had a decent bit of food, but it was done by the time the day ended. We would already have to make a supply run. Maybe being here was a terrible idea. Oh well, it's too late now.

Before I knew it, it was already night time. Guess I should sleep again. I feel I do too much of that, though.

.

The next day, I would wake up with a sore back. It made sense, though. The temple didn't exactly have beds. Although I guess I could have used the church pews, but that sounds like an awful idea.

"Welp." Stephan stretched as he got up. "Supply run time."

"This early?" I groaned. Although, I didn't have a reason to do so; It's not like I was going on this run.

The parkourist turned towards me. "You're coming with me."

"I hate you." I said without missing a beat.

He blinked a few times, looking at me. "That's good!"

I was going to kill him… I walked over to the entrance. "Alright… let's go. But do know that if I die, I hope they hold you accountable."

"Alright there, Josef." He countered.

Did he say something similar like that? Probably.

When we reached outside, it was rather calm, only the birds were singing. But how long would that calm last?

"So, to stay safe." He walked over to a building that had vines growing around it. "We are just going to take a route via the roof.

I could just see myself falling already. And this time, Josef probably won't be there to catch me. "Are you sure about this."

He climbed a decent amount before turning towards me. "Last time I had to worry about two people." He extended his hand to me. "This time, I only have one person to worry about, so it should be fine."

I looked at his hand for a few seconds before grabbing it. Oh, what the hell, with a line like that, how could I say no?

Once at the top, however, my fear came back. "This is a bad idea…" I mumbled, looking around.

"It's only a bad idea if we die!" He ran off, jumping to the next building.

Maybe this time would be better? The buildings were much more even, so if I just got a good running start, I should be able to clear most of the gaps. I ran after Stephan, jumping over to the next building. Yeah, maybe this would be easier. As long as we didn't do anything crazy, it should be fine.

The one thing I didn't expect to happen was for something to go flying past my head. Nothing dangerous, but something I needed. It was a piece of paper, and as if time slowed down, I was able to recognize the writing. It was the entry from earlier! I turned on my feet and started running after it.

"Riley?" Stephan called out, turning around to look at me. "Where are you going?" He started running after me.

I jumped from building to building before finally, I managed to catch it. "Yes!" I called out. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Why did you run off?" Stephan asked, looking down at me.

I paled slightly. I wanted to keep this note between me and Historia for now. "Huh… I saw a pretty butterfly." I lied.

He didn't seem to buy it one bit, however… "Oh really, what colour was it? Butterflies are amazing." He laughed a little. Either he was playing along, or he was also an idiot. I couldn't tell.

I stealthily put the piece of paper in my pocket. "Let's go get some food." I told him. I couldn't read it now, but I would get to read it later, so it's fine. As long as I had it in my possession.

We encountered a few animals on the way there, and they tried to attack us. But Stephan managed to help me avoid them. He was surprisingly good at this. Then again, he was the Ultimate Parkourist for a reason. It took five minutes to finally make it to the cafeteria. And the vines around it had grown even more. Soon, we might just be trapped in the temple if things keep growing like this…

"Let's try and grab enough for today and tomorrow." He said as he dropped down in front of the entrance.

I tried to do the same, but slipped and fell down, faceplating the ground.

"You enjoy your fall?" He looked down at me.

"... Thanks for the save…" I mumbled, not even trying to get up.

He couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, I only help with things that will kill you, I knew this wouldn't have killed you."

Yeah, but it fucking hurt, Jesus… I slowly got up. "Le's just grab the food and head out of here.

We gathered as much as we could, which made the trip back rougher. We had to take the actual roads. Luckily, Serena showed up to help us. She made sure to keep any savage animals away from us.

When we made it back, everyone was happy to see us. But I think that's just because we had food. Honestly, I would be more happy about the food than the person who brought it. It had only been about a week since I met these people anyways.

Once I took some food for myself, I made my way over to Historia. "I've got it." I took a bite of an apple.

"Yes, I can see you have an apple. And why should I care?" She asked.

I swear, these people. If you aren't specific, they will misunderstand you. I took out the journal entry from my pocket. "I meant this."

Her eyes lit up slightly. "I want to read it. What does it say?"

"Calm down…" I deadpanned, sitting besides her. "I haven't read it yet either." I looked around, quickly standing up. "Let's go to the church. I'm sure no one will follow us." If no one heard me say that, that is. I quickly glanced around and saw that no one was paying attention to us. "Come on, let's go." I snuck away with Historia right behind me.

"So what do you think this will reveal?" She asked me. She was following awfully closely.

I didn't quite know, but anything would help right now. "Someone witnessed what happened to this city, so hopefully they have something to point at who did it." Maybe whoever caused this city to crumble like this, is also the one who is keeping us trapped here.

Finally, we reached the church and sat down near the front. I took out the journal entry again. "Alright, I'm ready to read…" I mumbled.

This is what the journal entry said:

.

was no escape for them anymore. They would be trapped forever. Some other people decided to go down into one of the city's attractions. It was like a temple of sorts that the city was founded around. It's basically what the city was known for, since there shouldn't be one this far up North. They placed traps in the place to keep outsiders out. It worked, as anyone who went there was shot by arrows. Although, they didn't have to do too much since the traps were already mostly there. Just make a few adjustments and add a few new ones. It took several hours for them to stay away from it. I didn't get much words on the duo who had caused all of this. Were they laying low now? After all they've done? Did they deserve to? No. They caused this city to collapse. And deserved to suffer like we did. Of course, you know that what we consider fair, will never happen.

.

Day 7

.

I just got word from a few friends of mine about the temple. Seemingly, the people inside were very desperate to get answers. Someone who wandered out started talking about how God abandoned them all. How God had forsaken them, left them to die. In their desperation, they looked for someone new to follow. I don't have the full story, but it was awful, from what I heard. Apparently they tried some rituals and… No… I don't want to write about it here. Just thinking about the things the person told me was awful. According to my friend, he was lit on fire by a group and left to burn. Soon, the name "Church of the Shattered God" arose. It wasn't something good. I knew my days here were numbered, but I knew I had to at least and try to survive.

.

This was definitely not the next page… I thought to myself.

Historia held it in her hands. "If I had to take a guess, this is the fourth or fifth page."

"The fourth or fifth page?" I looked back at her. "Just how many are there?"

She read it over again. "We are still missing some stuff, so there might be another one after this."

My right eye twitched slightly. "You're telling me there are still three or four pages out there?!" I started shaking her.

"H-h-hey!" She started to call out as she was being shaken. "Stop it!" She grabbed onto my arm. "Jesus… I'm just saying what I think. It's possible some days were skipped, or some were short."

Then an idea popped in my head. "It's also possible that there were some days that had a full page." Which also wasn't a great thought to have.

"Calm down, Riley." She crossed her arms.

I let out a small sigh. "I had to run across rooftops for this one. I hope I don't have to do that again…" I mumbled.

She had a small frown on her face, before shaking her head. "It will be fine, I'll help you look for them too. And who knows, maybe there are other journals like this around? For now, we should talk about the contents of this one."

That's right, we completely ignored the contents. "Alright… let me see here…" I took the page back. "Oh, convenient…" I mumbled, reading over it again. "It mentions the temple…" I remember that Marcus wanted us to check out this place. Maybe he knew that this would be of great help. I kept reading. "But some rituals…" I mumbled. "Like… sacrifices…?"

Historia bit her lip. "I'm not exactly sure, but maybe."

"Now the question is, what kind of God did they worship? There's no way they assumed God wanted that." I told her. But… Stuff still happened. "Just thinking about it makes me sick."

The historian slowly got up, walking over to the statue. "Want to know what bugs me about this?"

I stood up, following her. "What's that?"

She kept her eyes on the statue for a little longer before turning her head towards me. "Doesn't she seem a bit young?"

She… Did seem young. I shook my head again. "Let's just forget it. This whole entry is horrible… The Church of the Shattered God thing… Shattered God…" I repeated. "Who's this Shattered God?"

Historia shook her head before thinking of something. "I don't know, but maybe it's something in literature. Maybe Jack or Jean knows about it."

I thought for a moment. Out of the two, Jean was the most approachable. "Let's just ask Jean. He's bound to come across that term somewhere."

We started to head back towards where everyone else was. We stopped when we saw Jean reading, sitting against the statue.

"Don't you think a church would be a much more comfortable place to read." I told him. Didn't want to say what I wanted right away.

He lowered down his book a little. "Churches don't really give me great vibes, so I'm fine here…"

Historia wasn't playing any games and simply grabbed his arm. "You're coming with us."

"He-!" He started to call out before realizing it was pointless. He instead chose to have a blank expression and go back to reading. He was committed to some bit, and I applaud him for that.

When we finally got to the church, he looked around. "Alright, I looked at the place again, and I don't think it vibes with me, so I'm going to go back to the sta-" Historia placed the paper in front of his face.

"What's this?" He asked, slightly annoyed. But the more he read it, the more worried he looked.

"See anything?" I asked him.

Jean kept staring at the page, like he was trying to formulate his words. "Church of the Shattered God?" He finally said. Yes! We're going somewhere.

"Does the name sound familiar to you?" I asked him with maybe a little bit too much eagerness.

He scratched the back of his head, trying to think. "It does… maybe I… I must have read it in a book somewhere."

"You don't remember exactly where?" Historia put her hands on her hips. "What the hell?"

Jean glared at her. "I've read so many books in my life, can't expect me to remember every single one of them. I'm not Jack."

Oh… Then I should have probably asked Jack, then. "I-"

"But…" He read over the note again. "I would keep this thing hidden. Don't want everyone knowing about this yet." Well, that's the same mindset we had anyways. Keep it between us for now. "I'll look into the Church of the Shattered God." He looked over at the statue at the end of this room. "This must be that church…" He walked over to the Bible, picking it up. "I don't want to, but if the answers are in here, I'll read it." He closed the book, putting it under his coat. "Well, I'm leaving." He then walked away.

I looked over at Historia. "I guess that's it for today."

She nodded. "Now to find something to preoccupy myself."

Right, there would be nothing to do.

And there was in fact, nothing to do. I was bored out of my mind. The thought that maybe someone would kill did cross my mind. But only for a second, and then it was gone. Couldn't be thinking about that kind of stuff right now.

Before I knew it, it was already night time.

.

The next day, I would be woken up by someone. I groaned as my eyes slowly opened.

"You know what time it is?" Stephan asked with a huge smile.

Another groan came out of my mouth. "Time for you to die?"

"Yup!" He said excitedly. "Now come on." He helped me onto my feet. "We need to get more food for today. We already ran out."

"We sure do eat a lot…" I mumbled, rubbing my arm.

Stephan started to make his way out of the temple, I glanced behind and noticed that Serena was following us. Probably for the best. "Well, to be fair, we are fourteen people."

Yeah, I guess there's that.

I looked back at Serena. "You gonna join us?"

She nodded. "Yes, in case anything dangerous happens." Which it probably will.

Soon, we exited the temple, and the plants were worse. But hey, at least the animals were still probably all sleeping.

We headed towards the cafeteria.

"Stop." Serena said, looking around.

I turned to look at her. "What's the problem?"

She kept turning around, looking for something. "You can't hear it?"

I tried listening, but honestly, I couldn't hear anything. "No…? I hear nothing."

She sent her bird up. "Exactly…"

Right, there were no sounds! What about the animals?

"Do you think someone died…?" Stephan asked, in a more serious tone.

The huntress tilted her head slightly. "No way to be certain, but I think we should head over to the outskirts of town."

The parkourist nodded before running off in that direction.

I tried my best to follow, but they were rather quick.

They soon reached the greenhouse, which seemed in better condition than last time. "It's like the vines are retreating." Stephan noted.

Serena nodded, heading into the building. "Not just that… But there seems to be some missing flowers…"

Missing flowers. "Probably eaten." I concluded.

The huntress kept still before nodding. "Most likely. There doesn't seem to be anything here of interest, let's keep going."

The next place we stopped by was Serena's lab. "Odd… she noted, looking at the door."

"Odd… How?" I walked over to it, not really seeing anything wrong with it.

She crossed her arms, looking away. "I set it up in a way that I could see if anyone entered my lab without my permission. And oddly, there seems to be indications that someone came through here recently."

"Can you really tell if it's recently…?" I deadpanned.

She moved her hair out of the way. "W-well… I stopped by yesterday, so…"

Stephan walked past her. "What reason would you have to come here?"

Serena followed him. "Well, I wanted to make sure everything over here was fine. And no one had passed by here at that time."

But what reason would anyone have to come here?

Soon, we found ourselves in the outdoors segment of her lab. "What are we doing here?"

"Can't you smell it?" Serena asked me, heading deeper into the woods.

"The smell of nature?" Stephan asked, probably trying to make a joke.

"Blood…" She said after a long pause. Yeah, I figured as much, but still…

Stephan grew a more serious expression, before running off.

"H-hey!" I called out before Serena also ran off. "H-HEY!" What gives them the right to run off without me? I quickly followed suit.

Soon, we reached a gathering of animals, and my heart sank slightly. Now, I too could smell the obvious blood. And the animals that were there weren't there to help them…

.

Sprawled on the ground, in an unnatural way, their right arm was twisted slightly. As for their left arm, it was under their body. Their face was faced down in the dirt, and their hair had been torn off slightly. Their legs were crossed over each other. The animals had gathered around them, and were picking them apart. A grim reminder of the reality that is this place. There's no way any of this can be real. There's no way the animals could have killed them. But still, the proof was right there, deceased on the ground, was Bella Fiore, the Ultimate Ecologist.