"You must kill someone if you want to leave."

My mind froze and my breath caught in my throat as I thought about that. I could feel a paralyzing fear slowly making its way through my body, dominating every last nerve. The air hung heavy on me, pressing down like a weight around my neck. It took everything I had to endure that weight…

But for as heavy the air felt, all it took to pierce it was Kirigiri's sharp words.

"So? What are you going to do now? Just stand around glaring at each other?"

Her pointed comment was directed at everyone in the room. It helped pull us all back to reality.

"R-Right…" Stammered Ishimaru. "She's right! Sometimes even if you're nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward! To forget such a simple fact… I can't forgive myself. I'm so ashamed! Please, someone hit me! I get forgive myself! Somebody hit me! Punch me!"

"Jesus." Mondo complained. "If you have time to yell about it, you have time to DO something about it."

"Perhaps, but… What is the mission, exactly?" Asked Yamada.

"Idiot! To look for a way out, duh!" Said Leon.

"And we totally need to find whoever is controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of 'em!" Exclaimed Junko.

"…B-But before we do all that, maybe we should take a look at the handbook…" Chihiro spoke up. "It's probably best to check out the school regulations Monokuma mentioned before doing anything else."

"True." Celeste added. "If we stumble around with no clue what the rules are, something like that might happen again…"

"Shit…" Mondo said under his breath.

"Fine." Said Junko. "Then let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already."

We all did the same thing and turned on our e-Handbooks. After turning on mine, the first thing that appeared was my name. so just like Monokuma said, the owner's name showed up front and center. Then from the Main Menu that popped up, I selected the School Regulations icon. An itemized list appeared on-screen. It was the school regulations.

In other words, the rules are being imposed on us all.

The rules read:

Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.

"Nighttime" is from 10 PM to 7 AM. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.

Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is the destruction of surveillance cameras.

Anyone who kills a fellow student and become "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.

Feeling a slight dizziness, I raised my face up from the screen. As I looked around, I saw the same stormy expression on everyone's faces.

"This is bullshit!" Yelled Mondo. "What the hell kinda rules are these!? I'm not gonna let them control ME!"

Celeste chuckled. "Well then, why don't you wander around the school without a care in the world and see what happens? Personally, I would love to see what happens when someone breaks one of the rules."

"But if he got punished like what we saw before I don't think there'd be a respawn waiting for him…" Said Yamada.

This put Mondo into a state of shock. Eventually, he spoke. "I…" He began. "Ever since I was a kid, I grew up with my older brother pounding this into my head… When a man makes a promise, he has to keep it, even if it kills him."

"…So what?" Junko eventually asked.

"I've made a ton of promises that I still have to keep, that's "so what"!" Mondo explained. "So I can't afford to die in here!"

"None of that made much sense to me, but you are saying you will follow the regulations, is that it?" Celeste asked.

"Huh?" Mondo questioned before realizing what she just said. "Oh, well… Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Hey, um…" Maizono spoke up. "I have a question. For regulation number six… What do you think it means exactly?"

Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

"You're talking about the second half, right?" I asked her. "Where it says "unless they are discovered"? I was wondering about that myself."

"It's saying that if you want to graduate, you have to kill someone without finding out it was you." Togami explained.

"B-But why…?" Fukawa asked nervously. "Why do we have to do that?"

"I don't see any reason to worry about it." He replied. "Just worry about to following rules as they've been explained to us. Frankly, I don't want to hear anything from someone who waits for others to decide what to do for them."

"D-Don't jab at me…" Fukawa said while… Blushing?

"More like a full-on stab…" Leon muttered under his breath.

"Well for now, let's forget all that silly junk about murderers or whatever." Said Asahina. "Now that we know the rules, let's start exploring the school!"

"True." Added Ishimaru. "We need to find out where exactly we are. Is there any way out? What about food and supplies? There are tons of questions we need to answer!"

"Damn straight!" Exclaimed Leon. "Okay, then let's start looking around!"

"…I'll be going alone." Said Togami.

"What!? Why?" Junko asked him. "That's a pretty stupid idea, don't you think?"

"Someone here might have already started thinking about murdering one of us." He replied. "Are you saying we should stand around with them in our midst and make it that much easier for them?"

"W-Wait, hold on a second." Maizono spoke up. "That would never-!"

"Don't bother saying it couldn't happen." Togami chillingly said. "You can't deny the possibility. That's why you all seized up in fear when that graduation rule was made clear to you. Am I wrong?"

"B-But…" Began Maizono before going quiet again.

"So, I'm simply acting in accordance with what I think is best for me." Togami said as he began walking towards the exit.

Mondo cut him off. "Hold on! Like hell I'm gonna let you run off and do whatever you want!"

"Out of my way, plankton." Togami stated.

"Wh-!?" Mondo said with a loss for words. "The fuck's that supposed to mean?!"

"One tiny bit of plankton, drifting across the sea." Togami continued. "So miniscule, so insignificant, they couldn't possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean."

"I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Panicking, I then got in between the two of them. "S-Stop it!" I said. "We shouldn't fight!"

Mondo didn't take kindly to that. "The fuck did you just say? You some kinda goody-goody little bitch? Who do you think you are, talkin' to me like that? You think you're mu fuckin' dad or something?!"

"N-No, I wasn't-!"

"Fuck you!"

WHAM!

He punched me, and I flew back in a heap. It was like something straight out of a comic book. I didn't even see the punch coming. It was just suddenly right there in my face. One second, I was just standing there, the next I was soaring through the air.

Now that I think about it, maybe I'd just kinda forgotten the kind of people I'd been trapped here with. My common sense had just… Stopped functioning. Bing around all these "ultimates" had just blown my fuses. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised it lead to something as absurd as this. But I'd just… Lost track of that sense of reality.

That was my last thought as my consciousness began to fade before it finally cut out completely.