As the rest of the day goes on, Chiaki can't help but keep thinking back on a few things that's happened today. Mainly, the fact that everyone's memories have been erased, and that Alter Ego, their supposed TA for this school trip, is the one responsible for it.

She isn't sure if she's managed to truly process, even until now. Honestly, it's all too much for her to take in. As she walks on, her minds flashes back on what Komaeda told her after that, and she frowns.

'Special, huh? I don't know. That doesn't sound right at all. I don't know if I can ever believe in that.'

She pauses from her steps, letting herself take a deep breath. 'Just don't think about it too much. It's no use mulling over it.'

With that out of her mind, she realizes that she still has some free time, and so, she decides to head off to Rocketpunch Market. Maybe she can get a couple of snacks from there if she can. It wouldn't hurt to stock up a bit, just in case.

Once she gets in the store, something catches her eye; it'd be impossible for anyone to not notice it, given that it's displayed right in the middle of the store. From what she can see, it's a very peculiar product, and it also looks like a large container of some sort .

Out of curiosity, she comes forward to take a closer look at it, and then she reads its label. "Quick-dry cement?" She tilts her head to the side.

Inside the large container, it really does look like wet cement that got mixed in recently.

'Woah, I never thought that something like that existed. It looks the world is still overflowing with strange things.'

For a moment, she feels a bit tempted to stick her finger and see if it's really true, but then she decides not to do it. It's probably just her, but she somehow got the feeling she's gonna regret it so much if she did go through with doing that.

So she decides to leave the…'quick-dry cement' be and goes back to what she's supposed to be doing. As soon as she got the snacks she wanted (she still can't get over the fact that she's able to buy stuff without anyone actually running the store), she makes her leave.

As the store's door closes behind her, she sees that there's someone outside. Judging from that person's recognizable antenna, which she can clearly see even from here, there's no doubt it's Hinata. Though, since his back is facing her, and he hasn't shown any reactions at all, he probably hasn't noticed her yet.

Come to think of it, she hasn't really talked to him that much since their introductions.

"Hey, Hinata?" She calls out to him.

His body tenses up and he yelps. As he then turns to face her, and while doing so, his face looks like he got spooked for a moment there. He coughs for a bit, trying to regain his more relaxed composure. "Ah, yeah. What is it, Nanami?"

"I…" Her breath hitches in her throat. 'Why is this so much harder than it looks?' Keeping her eyes on the ground, she manages to make herself say, "I, uh…I was thinking, that maybe we can talk for a bit? Like, right now?" At the end of that, she slightly lifts her head, in order to check on Hinata's response to it.

Hinata opens his mouth to say something, only to close it back up. He's gone mostly quiet, blinking and staring at her, like he's trying to process what she told him just now.

Chiaki's heart sinks at seeing that. 'Great job, you initiated things for once and you blew it.' She shakes her head with a sad smile. "Sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you. I think I'll have to go now." She turns away from him, doing her best to ignore the heavy feeling in her chest.

"No, wait!"

At that moment, Chiaki's steps come to an abrupt stop. "Hinata?" She turns around to face him again, completely surprised to hear that, as well as feeling so confused about what she's seeing too.

Hinata breathes out, retracting his outstretched hand. His eyes seem to shine a bit as he stares into hers. "Please don't go. I should be the one apologizing to you. I guess I was just really surprised by it, but," He gently smiles at her. "You're not bothering me at all. I'm more than happy to pass the time with you."

It took everything within her to not break eye contact and stare onto the ground again. "Really?" She quietly swallows.

He nods. "Yeah, I really mean it."

"I," Unsure how if she can properly process it right now, she faces away from him for a moment. She then ends up whispering, "Thanks so much."

"Hm? Did you say something, Nanami?"

"Ah," She blinks and then shrugs. "It's nothing, really. I guess I just said a thought out loud. So, uh…" she begins, moving that away from that topic and racking up her brain once more, to try to think of a way to start their conversation.

"Oh, yeah, I was, thinking about, well, where do you want to hang out. Or maybe here is okay, but…" Hinata stutters, like he's trying to find a way to start their conversation too, only that unlike her, he did manage to land on a topic, albeit very awkwardly. His cheeks have gone red all over too, which somehow makes him look even more adorably awkward.

As soon as she saw that, she can't help but giggle a bit. "Heh, we're both pretty bad at this, aren't we?"

Hinata stares at her with a really incredulous look. A couple of seconds pass, and he gets into a full-blown laughing fit.

She looks at him, her confusion only growing as she watches him wheeze. As she keeps hearing him laugh, she puffs her cheeks. "Hey, what's so funny? Was it something I said?"

"Sorry, sorry." Hinata tries to apologize in between his laughter. He's still wheezing so much from it, so much so, he has to take several deep breathes to finally calm himself down. He takes one more deep breath, before finally facing her again. "But yeah, I guess so. It's been a while since I had a talk like this, so I guess I must've been really rusty." He softly says, all with a really thoughtful look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I get that feeling too." Chiaki agrees with a nod. "So, about that thing you're asking. I think here is okay, but if you want to go somewhere else, then I'm okay with it too."

He hums. "In that case, then yeah, I think here is fine too."

Things go silent between them again. Chiaki tries to think about a topic to keep their conversation going, and after hitting a mental block, she asks him, "So, Hinata, how have you been doing?"

A tiny grimace goes over his face. "Aside from the…well, really messed up situation we're in, I guess I've been doing fine. I keep getting dragged out and along into hanging out with our classmates. It's pretty funny in a way." He lightly chuckles at the end of it.

"Heh, yeah," She smiles. "It really does sound funny. Though, they didn't really drag you out, did they?"

He snorts with a smile. "Not literally, no. I did have fun spending time with them, so there's that. Even though honestly, Souda can be so hopeless sometimes."

That piqued her interest. "Oh, what did he do?"

"Ah," Hinata coughs. "I think it's better if you see it for yourself."

She puffs at him again. "Hmph, you're no fun, you know."

He only chuckles at her, slightly shaking his head. "Yeah, that's what he said to me too."

Soon, the skies above them started dimming, and so, they've got to part ways for now. Chiaki watches Hinata wave goodbye at her, and somehow, she manages to shyly wave back at him.

As soon as Chiaki no longer sees him around, she hears the jingle. She takes her e-Handbook out of her bag, and just as she expected, she's obtained a Hope Fragment from Hinata. 'I still don't know much about him, but I think I've learned a bit more. He's really nice too. I think I'd like to talk to him again when I get the chance.'

Satisfied with how it went, she heads back to her cottage for the night.


With the island days continuing to pass by, it didn't take long before Chiaki got settled into a new routine of some sort. Mostly, it consists of her pretending she doesn't hear Monokuma's stupid morning announcements (which, as expected, are still the same ones), sparing some time to take care of her virtual pet; and maybe even hanging out with some of her classmates if she has the time and mood for it. There were some awkward moments here and there, but she got along with them, for the most part.

In a way, she's kinda starting to get used to this new life. Like yeah, they're still stuck in a twisted killing game, and though nothing truly bad has happened yet, they can't get too complacent with everything since anything can still happen. But even so, there's now this some kind of weird sense of normalcy around them.

Though it doesn't seem likely right now, she's still holding out for some hope that this will soon end without anyone dying.

So right now, it's another new day for them at this island. Chiaki tightly holds onto the straps of her bag. She faintly realizes that's a new habit she's starting to develop these days, once it's clear that she's not going to find her hoodie again any time soon.

She shakes her head, forcing those thoughts out of her as she begins walking to the dining area of Hotel Mirai. Even now, it's still a little hard for her to believe, if she's being honest. She never thought that she'd be sharing a table with other people.

'It does feel nice, and it also makes the food taste a lot better. But, I shouldn't get too used to it, I think.'

It didn't take long for her to get there. When she sees her classmates at the table, she immediately counts them in her head, and then she breathes out a sigh of relief when she sees that everyone's still complete.

As she goes to take her seat, she frowns once she sees a certain someone standing in close proximity around them.

Alter Ego didn't try to take a seat with the others, nor is he really that close to anyone's tables. Aside from him checking attendances, he hasn't done much since then. Though, she isn't sure if she can ever be comfortable being around him again, not after the fact that he admitted to being responsible for erasing their memories.

A good number of the class share the same sentiment, with most of them whispering about it. It's hard to hear exactly what they're talking about, especially from this distance. But judging by their expressions, it's nothing good at all.

She can't blame them for it at all.

"You know, why are we still keeping him around anyway? You all know that he's the one who erased our memories, right? Unless if he erased that too," Koizumi huffs. "I wouldn't put it past him, to be honest."

Alter Ego didn't say anything, but from the way his eyes trembled for a split second, it's clear that those words hit him a lot harder than anyone realized.

"I mean, it's much better to keep a closer eye on him than letting him be free to do…I don't know, whatever he might be doing when we take our eyes off him." Hinata slumps back in his seat. "At least for now." He sighs and puts a hand over his forehead.

"You do have a point there, Hinata." Komaeda interjects with a nod. "Though, now that you mentioned it, do you think that Monokuma and Alter Ego could be working together?"

As soon as Komaeda suggested that, to say that it caused an uproar among the class would be a big understatement.

And then there's how Hinata reacted to it. Without any warning, he violently coughs, choking on his drink for a couple of seconds or so. He slams a fist on his chest a few times, sputtering some more as he shoots a really nasty look at Komaeda. "What the hell made you think of that?"

Komaeda's calm expression didn't falter as he shrugged. "I guess you can say it's just something I noticed."

"And what makes you so certain about that?" Tanaka questions, raising an eyebrow at him.

Komaeda simply smiles at that. "Think about it for a moment. We know that we got invited by Hope's Peak Academy, but just as we all entered our classroom, we all ended up on this island for our 'school trip'. Though, of course, we all know by now that Alter Ego has erased our memories between that and our arrival here, with Nanami receiving the worst of it to the point she can't even remember her own talent."

"Yes, I am well aware of that." Tanaka stares him down. "However, don't tell me you intend to lecture us about it for hours, do you not?"

"Ah, apologies for that, but I'll get to the point very soon." Komaeda replies sheepishly, before continuing on. "So, as I was saying. Alter Ego erased our memories and once we arrived here, introduces himself as our TA despite clearly not being qualified at all. Then after that—"

"The cursed bear abomination makes his appearance." Tanaka finishes that sentence with a snort, and then he crosses his arms. "However, I fail to see the connection between them."

"Don't you think it's odd that Monokuma immediately showed up after that, though? Alter Ego told us to come to the Central Island's park for our orientation, and then when Monokuma showed up, he popped up right from the statue, didn't he? Not to mention, despite what Alter Ego promised, he didn't really try to protect us from Monokuma, didn't he?"

Tanaka goes quiet. Suddenly, his eyes widen as if he got struck by utter disbelief. "Are you saying that he deceived us from the start?"

"No, you've got it all wrong! I would never work with him!" Alter Ego screams, finally speaking for the first time since that day. His voice is sharper, a lot harsher than anyone is used to.

From somewhere, Tsumiki's surprised squeals can be heard.

Komaeda didn't react to it at all, other than with a questioning look. "Then who are you working with?"

"You know what, who the fuck cares about this? Does it matter whether Alter Ego and that bear are working together? It's not going to change anything anyway, and I'm so sick and damned tired of this shit." Kuzuryu slams a fist on the table, standing up from her seat. "So, here's a better idea. What if I killed everyone? Wouldn't that instantly make me the winner of this Killing School Trip, then?" She flashes a smile, but it isn't a friendly one at all.

"You can't be serious." Koizumi's lips tremble.

Saionji grits her teeth, standing as straight as she can, like she's trying to make herself look taller than she actually is. "Do you think I'm scared of you?"

Kuzuryu didn't get angry or annoyed at that. If anything, her malicious smile only grows wider.

"And do you think I'm joking?" She chuckles. "I know that Peko can take out a whole mafia's worth of men by herself without breaking a sweat, so taking down any of you won't be a problem for us. I think I'll save you and Koizumi for last. And for the first one I'll take out…"

She starts humming in thought, like she's choosing an item at a grocery store, instead of choosing who she should kill first among her classmates.

After several tense moments pass by, she then carelessly jabs a thumb in a certain direction. "Yeah, I think I'm going to start with you."

Chiaki's eyes widen as she stares down at the thumb that's pointing towards her. "Kuzuryu, you can't…"

Kuzuryu clicks her tongue. "Does it look like I care? Are you forgetting what kind of fucked up situation we're in right now? If the only way to leave this godforsaken island is to kill someone and get away with it, then killing everyone in here, right now should guarantee it." She turns to the bodyguard by her side. "Peko, you know what do, right?"

Pekoyama simply nods. "As you wish." She gets up from her seat as well. There's something different about her body stance; it's like she's completely prepared for a possible killing blow.

Chiaki can't bring herself to look away, no matter how much her instincts screamed at her to run.

But before anything can happen, a familiar face pops in.

"Out of the question!" Monokuma yells, popping out from clearly out of nowhere once again. "You only get to have a maximum of two victims, no more than that!"

"Hmph, that was worth a shot." Kuzuryu mutters sitting herself back down and crossing her arms.

Pekoyama ends up going along with it too, relaxing her body and sitting herself back down again.

Monokuma grabs a megaphone from possibly somewhere. On where he got it from or if he even had pockets to keep it in (even if it looked physically impossible), no one will ever know for sure. "Testing, testing, testing." With the megaphone in front of his, it amplified his voice to the point that no one else can be heard, even if they tried to talk.

"Okay, now where was I? Oh yeah," He then continues his lecture. "We're not doing any of that Battle Royale stuff in here, you know! I mean, sure those kinds of killing games are fun and all, but we're going to be a little more classy this time."

"Classy my ass." Hinata grunts.

"Also, by the way, it's been days since the killing game started, and none of you bozos have tried to spill any blood at all! Not even a tiny pinch of it, for bear's sake!" Monokuma angrily stomps for a couple of seconds or so, and then he takes deep breath. "Whew, that took out a lot of me. So anyways, I figured you kiddos would need a little more...upupu, the right push with a tiny bit of gentle motivation, if you get what I mean."

"Is the bomb at the Central Island not enough for you?!" Sonia balks.

"Considering how there are no murders yet AND you guys keep pretending that this is some silly slice-of-life romcom show instead of the high-stakes thriller it's supposed to be, even after I put that thing up, mind you, then yes! It isn't enough for me! Do you have any idea how much thought and work I've put into this?!" His arms violently shake around while several red veins comically pop up at the sides of his head.

Mitarai didn't even bother to lift his head up as he asks, "Are you done talking yet?"

That only enrages Monokuma even more. "See, see?! Look at the utter disrespect you guys are giving me right now. It's unimaginable!" He deflates a bit, like he's going to start moping around. "No one understands what it's like to be a genius like me." Without any warning, his mood suddenly shifts back. "Anyways, yes, motives are going to be a thing now, whether you like it or not. Also, the first one should come around soon, so hope you all look forward to it!"

And just like that, Monokuma tosses the megaphone off in the distance; it lands on Souda, since his yelp can be heard even from here. And then, just like that, the bear disappears from everyone's sight again somehow. No one's able to recognize exactly where he has gone to.

Despite that, Hinata stands up and angrily shouts for him; it's clear that he's probably considering chase after the bear. "Come back here, you bastard!"

Meanwhile, Owari's currently being held back in place by the group of Mitarai, Nidai, Sonia, and even Tanaka. "Let me at him! Let me at him!" She tries to kick herself free, which doesn't work at all.

As she slowly grows numb to everything around her, Chiaki realizes that her heartbeat's been racing for a while now. She stares off into the distance. 'Kuzuryu really meant what she said back there, didn't she? If Monokuma hadn't arrived, then…'

She forcefully swallows the forming lump in her throat. There's no point in thinking about what might've happened instead. But, even so, the fact that it didn't end that way because Monokuma still gave her all sorts of mixed feelings.


Before anyone realizes it, it feels like the rest of the day has already passed by.

Chiaki has already retreated back into her cottage, even before the official curfew announcement. Just like everyone else, she can't help but feel so worried about what kind of motive Monokuma would push onto them.

The bomb at the Central Island is already bad enough, and honestly, she isn't sure if she even wants to imagine what Monokuma would do next to escalate things further.

'But thinking too much about it now won't do any good, won't it?'

Chiaki closes her eyes, inhaling and then exhaling.

'Well, time to do what I always do in here.'

And so, she does. Which, of course, is spending hours onto playing Gala Omega for maybe the...well, even she has no idea how much she's been playing it now, as she always does.

Before she even realizes it, she ends up losing track of time. Once her game had ended, she checks over the time. She squints, seeing that it's already two in the morning, and then she loudly yawns. "Looks I'll have to call it a night, then."

With that, she carelessly plops herself on top of her bed, practically what little energy she had fade away as soon as she made contact with the soft sheets.

Yawning once more, Chiaki buries her face into her pillow, letting herself sleep everything off again.


Several loud, high-pitched beeping noises are the first things that Chiaki hears in the morning. The first thing she does is to instinctively try and cover her head with the pillow, all while grumbling the whole time. She could turn it off right now, but she doesn't feel like getting up right now for that, so she's got nothing much to do, other than to wait it out and hopefully the alarm snoozes.

The alarm didn't do any of that. Somehow, it keeps up with its annoying beeping noises for possibly minutes now, with no signs of stopping at all. Realizing that there's only one way for her to deal with this, she sits up from her bed with another grumble, and then she yawns.

She narrows her eyes at the alarm clock on her desk, briefly taking in its form for a bit, and then she slams a fist on it to shut it up. It didn't really work, since it's still beeping in that obnoxiously high-pitched ringing, so she slams it a few more times, not caring if it's gonna break because of her.

It finally does go quiet. Surprisingly, it's still intact despite the repeated beatings done to it. 'Guess I'll have to remember to throw it out later. Alarm clocks are always the worst.' Chiaki thinks to herself with a quiet huff, glaring at it; at least, as best as she can, with her still currently at a half-awake state.

She then gets up from her bed, figuring that a warm, bubbly bath would help her calm her nerves. She isn't already a morning person, and that alarm clock didn't make it any better at all.

And so, she does the preparations for that. Mainly by wiping the tub first as best as she can, letting the water warm up for a bit, and then putting the bubble bath in it.

She dips a finger in it, and once she's sure it's ready, she wastes no time getting her clothes off, letting it fall into a pile outside the door of her bathroom. She's going to pick them up and put them in a basket later on once she's done with her bath.

Shortly after that's done with, she steps into the bathtub, settling herself in it and letting out a satisfied sigh as the warm water makes contact with her skin. Slowly but surely to keep herself from slipping or tripping over, she leans back, submerging most of her body in the relaxing bubble bath. The only thing poking out from the water would be the upper half of her face at the moment.

From the corner of her eyes, she notices that a lot of big bubbles are already forming. For no reason at all other than for the fun of it, she blows at them, giggling a bit as she watches the bubbles dissolve into smaller ones as they fly off and then disappear.

'I can never get tired of this.' She hums from pure contentment, letting her eyes close for a bit as she slowly breathes in and out. She's so relaxed right now, it feels like the rest of the world is melting away from her mind.

As tempting as it is to stay in the bubble bath for possibly hours or more, she knows there's no way she can do that. Not unless if she wants Koizumi and Saionji to summon Ibuki to get her up from her room again. So she gets up from it, slightly lamenting the loss of warmth for a couple of seconds or so, before going on to unplug and drain the tub.

Then here comes the not-as-relaxing part of the bath. Which is, of course, after drying herself and other necessities (including cleaning up the bathtub again), she gets a fresh set of clothes, which of course, is completely identical with her previous one. And then as promised, she goes on to drop her used clothes into the basket.

'Now that's all done with, time to deal with…the other thing in here.'

As she takes a quick glance at her desk, she doesn't resist puffing her cheeks up at the sight of that cursed alarm clock. She then comes closer and then picks it up in her hands, still squinting and glaring at it.

Now that she's no longer half-awake like she was before, she's able to take in its features a lot better, like its black and white color. And then there's the fact that there's a red streak of lightning in place of its hour hand.

Now that she thinks about it, there's something else that's…off about this alarm clock.

'Wait, did I always have that alarm clock in this room? I don't remember having one.' She turns the clock over, checking it again a few more times just in case. She then shrugs it off, still keeping it in her hands. 'Oh well, maybe I didn't notice it the first time around. Either way, I'm definitely going to get rid of this thing once I go out.'

Just as Chiaki's about to head outside, she hears another set of beeping noises. She turns around, seeing that this time, it's coming from her e-Handbook. Sighing, she puts the alarm clock back onto the desk for now, before going on to take a look at the still beeping e-Handbook.

She grabs her e-Handbook and then sits herself back on the bed. Her eyes squint, trying to take in the cause of it as best as she can. 'Some kind of file got downloaded in it? I wonder what's that about.'

As she thinks about it some more, she squints and hums in thought.'Should I even check it out? For all I know, this file could be something that'll destroy my e-Handbook.'

Against her better judgment, she goes to take a look at the sender. As soon as she sees who it is, she glares at it even more. 'Hmph, of course it came from him. Please don't tell me this is the first motive he's talking about. Whatever it is, I'm not going to even bother wasting my time with it.'

Her mind is officially made up, and so, she goes on ahead and deletes that file, not even bothering to check what it was. Once she sees its gone, she breathes out and puts her e-Handbook back in her bag, preparing to head outside once again.

Chiaki hasn't even stood up from her bed when she hears the same beeping noises again. Groaning, she takes her bag off, taking her e-Handbook out from it. 'Of freaking course. That dumb bear just doesn't give up, doesn't he?'

She doesn't even hesitate, moving on to swiftly deleting it again. As soon as that's been dealt with, she huffs, figuring that's going to be the end of it now.

But then, before she can even blink, she sees the file coming back, all while accompanied by an even louder beep. And then, before she can even do anything, somehow, the file opens by itself. Her heart starts to beat faster as she panics. 'Wait, hold on, I didn't even try to look at it!'

It's like Monokuma's taunting her.

No matter what she tries, she just can't seem to close it. So for now, she has no choice, but to wait and see what the file is all about. A couple of moments pass by, and she blinks, a bit surprised by how high the video quality is.

Her eyes then start widening, recognizing the building shown in there. "That's…that's my house…"

The video abruptly cuts to another shot. Her heart practically freezes when she sees what, or rather, who are shown in there. It's her parents; physically, they seem to be fine, but their clothes looked ragged and a bit tattered in some places.

Her mother's usually calm face looks like it's on the verge of cracking to a more fearful one. She's whispering in a hushed voice, "What have they done to our daughter…"

Meanwhile, her father is standing right in front of her mother, glaring at whoever might've been in front of them. "Stay away from us!" He shouts as he feebly tries to stand up, now revealing that his leg has a slight bent to it.

His mouth is still open, like there's more he's going to say, but the video cuts to static before it can show what happened next.

Eerie silence pass by as Chiaki stares at the now-blank screen, completely horrified by what she had just witnessed, with it now being embedded into her mind. "Monokuma, what did you do to them?!" Her fists start shaking. She barely resists the urge to throw the damned e-Handbook away from her.

Yet, as awful as that video was, there's a part of her wonders if she should take a look at it once again. It all went so fast, it's still so hard for her to believe it's real. With a heavy heart, she makes the video play again. Her eyes widen, her heart still racing at what she's seeing.

The video doesn't play. Instead, a big ERROR pop up gets displayed on the screen. She thinks that can't be the case—she refuses to believe so, and so she tries to look for it within her e-Handbook. As she keeps turning at blank results, a sinking realization dawns upon her.

"Oh no. It's gone…"

The file is truly nowhere to be seen, like it deleted itself somehow. She wonders why, and then thought that maybe Monokuma had done that on purpose, to draw out as much despair from his victims as possible. For now, there's nothing else Chiaki can do at that moment but to sit there, still reeling from it all.


A/N: I'm honestly thankful that this chapter didn't end up getting a lot longer than it should be haha. Also, I'm gonna apologize real quick for sorta borrowing the first motive from THH in here. But don't worry, I promise that the next ones would be a bit more original, hopefully.