Present. Naegi Makoto's P.O.V.

I woke up the next day to Monokuma's normal morning announcement. Then he called us all to the gym.

"What's he gonna do to us this time…?" I asked myself.

We were particularly frozen with fear. But Monokuma was determined to get us involved in his little game…

"Okay! Life your arms up, and down!" Instructed Monokuma. "One, two, three, four!"

"One, two, three four!" Repeated Ishimaru. As he mirrored the same movements.

"Now reach waaay up, and bend waaay down! Tighten those muscles! Let's add a little strength, a little speed to those young bodies of yours!"

I sighed to myself. How was he teaching P.E after what we just went through?

"Ahh, doesn't this feel just great!?" He asked to no one in particular. "Being stuck inside like this, you gotta make sure to stay healthy!"

"You're the o-one keeping us "Stuck inside"…" Muttered Fukawa.

"Don't sweat the small stuff! That's my motto!" He laughed. "Whoa, I sounded pretty cool just now, don'tcha think? Did you just fall in love with me? Am I to die for? Am I just to die in writing agony for?"

"So, why did you call us here?" Asked Sakura. Slightly frustrated. "Certainty it wasn't just to make us exercise…"

""Just" to make you exercise?" Monokuma asked. Clearly agitated. "JUST to make you exercise?! If exercise makes you laugh, exercise will make you cry! Now, if you keep doing those exercises, you will uncover the secret of the Assassin's Fist! Passed down from generation to generation in the empire of darkness… The power can be yours!"

"That sounds like the kind of junk a middle schooler would come up with…" Yamada said under his breath.

"It doesn't matter!" I exclaimed. "Just get to the point. Did you really call us down here just to exercise?"

"Of course not!" Growled Monokuma. "You think I have that kind of free time on my hands!?"

"Okay, so then-" I began. Monokuma cut me off.

"Ahh, I'd like to make an announcement!" He said. "Every time you overcome a class trial here at Hope's Peak, a whole new world will open up to you!"

"A whole new world…?" Repeated Hagakure in disbelief.

"It'd really suck if you had to live here forever with nothing new to stimulate you!" He continued. "Besides, I know how you kids get these days with your ADD and ADHD. I gotta keep you motivated! So go ahead, look around all you want! Enjoy the brave new post-trial world till you explode!"

With that, Monokuma disappeared. Leaving us even more confused than when he'd shown up.

"A new world…?" I asked myself.

"Is he talking about… A way to get outside?" Asked Asahina.

"That seems… Unlikely." Assumed Celeste.

"Well we don't know till we look!" Complained Mondo.

"Whatever he meant; it seems we'll have to search the school one more time." Said Sakura.

"Okay, then let's split up and start investigating!" Ishimaru proclaimed. "When you're done, everyone meet back up at the dining hall and we'll share what we found!"

"You're basically a one-trick pony, you know that?" Smirked Togami.

"More like a staple food source!" He replied. "Now let's get moving!"

Seeing his words as their signal, everyone scattered and left the gym. Sighing, I left as well.

I walked out of the gymnasium and into the trophy room. Only to find Hagakure looking at the display case. When he noticed me, he motioned for me to come over.

"Hey, Naegi!" He called. "Did you see what's inside the display case!? Bad… This is super bad, man!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I didn't notice anything all that weird in there…"

"Sure, to the untrained eye, it's nothing. But this is awful… A bad, awful, terrible trap!" He panicked. "That stuff you see lined up there? Any god could come by and use it to send a message!"

"Huh…?" I questioned confusedly.

"Ahhh!" He screamed. "I've been struck with knowledge! It's an ill omen of total devastation and ruin!"

He then got onto his knees and began praying. "L-Let me outta here! Let me ouuuut!"

I have no idea what he's talking about, so… Maybe I'll just leave him alone.

When I exited the trophy room, I noticed that the stairs leading up were now unblocked. Is this what Monokuma meant by "A new world"? If so, what's up there?

Curiosity got the better of me as I began climbing.

Here it was; the 2nd floor of the school. It didn't look that much different than the first floor, but I had a sneaking suspicion that there's some kind of clue here…

Just then, I heard footsteps fast approaching I turned and gasped, but it was only Asahina looking extremely excited. "Naegi, guess what!" She began. "Guess what I found! A pool! There's a pool here! A POOL! Pool pool pool!"

"Where?" I asked. Asahina pointed to a set of light purple doors with an anchor on the left one, and without a chance for me to object, she dragged me off towards the pool.

"Here we are!" She proclaimed as we entered. Chihiro and Celeste were also there. "Also, there's a ton of exercise equipment in the locker room! Sakura's gonna go nuts when she finds out!"

"Yeah, you're right about that…" I answered. She seems way more excited than usual, but that's to be expected when she's the Ultimate Swimming Pro.

"N-Naegi?" A small voice called. I turned, at it came from Chihiro. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure. What'd you want to talk about?" I asked.

"U-Um…" She began nervously. "If I'm honest, I don't wanna check out the pool…"

"Huh? Why?"

"I… Don't like wearing swimsuits." She shyly explained.

I nodded understandingly. After all, she does seem like the type who might not be into that kind of thing.

"But still…" She continued. "It sounds like the locker rooms here have all the exercise equipment you could ask for. Maybe I'll give it a try. I'd kind of like to get a little stronger…"

"You want to get stronger?" I repeated. "I have to say, that's kind of unexpected…"

"But…" Chihiro began. "I'm not even brave enough to step foot into the locker room…"

"Huh? You don't even wanna go in the locker room?"

"It's not that I don't want to. It's just…" Chihiro trailed off. I don't get it. Is she afraid of locker rooms or something? That's a pretty weird phobia, though…

"Oh!" Gasped Asahina. "I almost forgot; we might need our handbooks to get into the locker rooms!"

"Really?" I asked.

"Really really!" Replied a voice I've been dreading since this whole thing began.

"Uwaah!" Screamed Asahina in fright.

"If you wanna unlocker the locker room, you'll have to swipe your personal e-Handbook across the card reader next to the door." Explained Monokuma. "However, to ensure maximum security within each locker room, only a boy's handbook can open the boys' locker room, and the same goes for the girls'! And that's the bottom line!"

"But what if someone opens the door, and then someone else sneaks in?" Asked Asahina.

"Anyone who commits such indecency will be punished without mercy for their scandalous sexual depravity!" He growled. And then he pointed to a troubling sight that almost made me faint:

On the ceiling, aimed towards the doors to the locker rooms, was Gatling gun!

"See that?" Continued Monokuma. "If you try and do such a thing, it'll be all DUKKA DUKKA DUKKA DUKKA!"

"I bet it'd really hurt to get shot by that thing!" Gasped Asahina.

"Um, no…" Worried Chihiro. "I think it'd be a little worse than that…"

"But what happens if someone loans their handbook to someone else?" Asked Celeste. "A boy could borrow a girl's handbook, and that would get them into the girls' locker room, would it not?"

"Wh-!?" Stammered Monokuma. "That never even occurred to me! To think someone could be so low, so cowardly, so devilish! Hmm… Okay, then how's this sound? Time for a new rule! As of this moment, loaning your e-Handbook to another student is strictly prohibited. There! So now nobody can give their handbook to anyone else, right? You like that? I'm kind of a genius, right? It's cuz my brain is 100% cotton!"

"I do not imagine that anyone would have lent their handbook out in the first place." Assumed Celeste. "After all, they would likely be held responsible for anything that person might do using the handbook…"

"But ya know, you seem awfully concerned with all this locker room security stuff…" Stated Asahina.

Monokuma didn't like that one bit. "It's cuz all you teenagers are sex-crazed maniacs!" He exclaimed. "You're at that age you'd try humping a plastic bottle! So, to keep anything unseemly from happening, I have to maintain a rigorous watch!"

"Then in that case, I would ask that you keep the same close eye on our dorms." Said Celeste. "If some man and some woman decided to share a room, there would be nothing stopping them."

"All I care about is protecting the holy image of the school itself!" He explained. "I don't care what happens in your private dorms! By force or by cunning, do whatever you want!"

"I hate you so much…" Asahina complained under her breath.

"Okay so the new regulation is now in place! See ya!" He said before disappearing again.

A/N: Phew! Almost 1600 words! I so need a break!