Soon after, everyone else came strolling in one after another. And after a few minutes, everyone had gathered in the dining hall.
"Okay!" Proclaimed Ishimaru. "It looks like everyone's here. Time to start the meeting! Let's all go around and share what we found out during out respective investigations! The sooner we find out what's going on, the sooner we get out of here!"
"Wait, hold on a sec!" Said Junko.
"What's wrong?" Asked Ishimaru.
"What about, uh…" She began. "What's her name? You know, the silver-haired girl. Uhh… Oh yeah, Kirigiri!"
"What about here?" Ishimaru asked suspiciously.
"She's not here."
"What?!" Ishimaru exclaimed. I took another look around the dining hall. Sure enough, she was nowhere to be seen.
"I wonder where she went. Has anyone seen her?" Asked Asahina. Everyone shook their heads.
"Wait, so nobody's seen her?" Asked a worried Chihiro.
Why hasn't Kirigiri shown up yet? Could it be because…?
"Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting, how you do it doesn't matter. You must kill if you want to leave. It's as simple as that. The rest is up to you. Give it your all to achieve the best outcome in the worst way possible."
Remembering what Monokuma said made my blood turn to ice. Is it possible? Was she really…? No, no. I'm just overthinking things.
"Darn it, Kirigiri!" Ishimaru finally exclaimed. "You're really going to be late like this on the first day of school?! Not only is she late, she didn't tell anyone she would be late! A most unbecoming personality trait…"
"You're being a real jackass right now, you know that?" Said Junko.
"Well what do you want me to do!? Punctuality is everything!" Exclaimed Ishimaru. "Now then, I declare that the first session of the Hope's Peak Academy briefing meetings has begun!"
"Naegi…" Began Maizono. "Actually, first of all, I've talked enough. Mayb ewe should listen to what everyone else has to say."
"Okay, let's do that." I agreed.
"Hmhm." Maizono suddenly giggled. "You know…"
"Huh?" I gasped. "What's up?"
"I feel like I really have become your personal assistant, don't you agree?" She asked. "I may not be the best assistant in the world, but I'll give it everything I've got."
No… You've already done so much as my assistant.
"Okay, so since you're in the dark about all this, let me lay out on what's going on." Maizono began. "Everyone split up to investigate different parts of the building, but Togami and Ishimaru went off on their own, and so did Kirigiri."
"I wanted to try and find some clues as to who's responsible for imprisoning us here…" Togami stated. "But unfortunately, I made no such discoveries. That's all from me…"
"Really? That's it?" Asked Ishimaru.
"If I'd uncovered anything, naturally I would have more to say. But I didn't. so I don't"
"R-Right, understood." Said Ishimaru. "As for me, I spent some time looking around the dormitory, and there I made the discovery of the century! I found that there was exactly one room for each person!"
"Well yeah, I figured that out before anything else…" Asahina embarrassingly said.
"Each door already has a nameplate on it, so I guess all the rooms have been assigned already." Suggested Junko.
"And each room key was attached to a keychain with the owner's name precision-etched onto it." Added Sakura. Which confirms that that the room I was in earlier is, in fact, my room.
"And Chihiro and I found out that all the rooms are totally soundproof." Junko continued.
"Your next-door neighbor could scream their lungs out, and you wouldn't hear a thing…" Chihiro worried.
"Well, each bedroom also had a private bathroom, which could also lock." Said Celeste.
"But it looked like there were only locks on the bathrooms in the girls' dorms." Added Junko.
Huh? But when I checked my bathroom door before, it definitely seemed like it was locked… That's weird… I should double-check that later.
"Okay, so they got a bunch of rooms ready for us." Said an agitated Mondo. "They're assuming we're gonna be here a while…"
"Well, better to have than have not!" Stated Ishimaru. "At least we don't have to worry about surviving like wild animals."
"Th-That can't be all you have to r-report, can it Mr. Honor S-Student?" Asked Fukawa.
Ishimaru was silent for a while before he finally spoke up. "That's all for my report! Let's move on to whoever's next!"
"Anyway, like I was saying…" Maizono continued. "Togami and Ishimaru went alone, but it looks like Leon, Kure, Junko and Chihiro all grouped together."
"We all went up and down the school, double-checking the windows in all the hallways and classes." Began Junko. "We wanted to see if we could get any of those metal plates to come off. And what happened was…"
"Nothing." Leon cut her off. "Not a damn thing. We couldn't get a single one to budge even a little bit."
"There wasn't any hope of escape anywhere…" Chihiro trembled. "The school really has been totally cut off."
"This sucks…" Junko began panicking. "It REALLY sucks! It sucks sucks sucks sucks SUCKS! What the hell are we gonna do?!"
"Goddamn, calm down!" Leon exclaimed. "You're starting to make me nervous!"
Maizono cleared her throat loudly to gain our attention. "As I was saying: Leon, Kure, Junko and Chihiro all grouped together. The same thing goes for Asahina, Sakura, and Mondo."
"We thought maybe we could find some way to communicate with the outside, so we went looking all over!" Explained Asahina. "But… We didn't find a thing. Sorry…"
"I went back to the main hall, thinking maybe we could do something about that giant hunk of metal." Mondo added. "But even with Sakura and me both, it wouldn't budge. We hit it with desk and chairs, and nothin'… It was hard as, like… Metal."
"Well yes, it IS metal…" Celeste spoke up.
"Anyway, if we're gonna get outta here, it's not gonna be through there." Said Mondo.
Asahina began tearing up. "I feel like I could just cry… But no, I have to hold it in! I have to manage my hydration…!"
"I shall tell you what happened next…" Sakura began. "It has nothing to do with communicating with the outside world, but it's still worth worrying about. In both the school and dorm areas, there was a set of stairs leading up to another floor."
"But there were gates there, and we couldn't find any way to open them, so we couldn't check it out." Said Asahina.
"In other words, at this point we are only able to search the first floor." Stated Sakura. "We can further assume that there is potentially something above the second floor, as well. And if that's the case, there is at least a chance it may lead to a way out."