The next day comes around, and Chiaki is more than familiar with how it goes for her now. Groggily wake up and then crawl out of her bed while still feeling a bit cranky about having to go the morning. Then after that, let all her grumpiness melt away after a nice warm bubble bath, get herself dressed, and then finally, drag herself out of her cottage to officially start the day.

It's just another ordinary day in an abnormal situation.

As soon as she's dragged herself to the dining area, Chiaki starts mentally counting everyone who's present. She blinks, confused at first, and as she recounts them, she realizes that aside from Alter Ego's weird absence, two more people are missing. After that realization, she then winces, quickly remembering the reason for that.

Even now, Kuzuryu and Pekoyama are still nowhere to be seen. While yeah, it's true that Kuzuryu hasn't been pleasant at all since the very beginning, it's still a little disheartening to see, in a way. The only thing she can really do for now is to hope that both of them are still doing okay somehow.

Chiaki takes a seat along with the others. She looks around, slightly frowning as she senses the more…quiet and depressing atmosphere around them. It's not something she can blame anyone at all; the latest motive is still fresh in their minds.

Even Nidai doesn't seem as loud and energetic as he usually is, while he's preparing everyone's breakfast at the moment.

And so, that's more or less how it went. Just everyone taking their breakfast, and it seems like no one has the energy to make even small talk like how they'd usually do.

It's all so…gloomy.

Some more quiet moments go by.

Koizumi takes a deep breath, and then leans back in her seat. "You know, do we even have any long-term plans for this situation at all? Even if no one…" She winces. "…Even if no one dies, we can't just live out the rest of our lives in here."

Souda coughs. "We're still trying to escape the island, but there hasn't been any luck so far."

"Yeah, there's those, whatcha call it…the Monobeasts blocking the exits, and I think they're blocking the entrances to the other islands too?" Owari chimes in with a slight shrug. "Tried to see if I could fight 'em, but the old man isn't having any of it."

Ibuki raises an arm. "Oh yeah, doesn't this island have an airport right here? Everyone can easily just hop in one of the planes there and fly outta the island, right?"

"I've checked them out, and none of the planes have any working motors. It looks like they've been tampered with. Maybe even quite some time before we got here." Hinata points out, sadly shaking his head.

"Damn it. So we can't even use them to get out of here?" Souda grits his teeth, clenching his fist on the table. "What else can we do, then?"

"I don't know. Maybe wait for someone to die?" Saionji sarcastically suggests while crossing her arms.

Souda's eyes bulge out wide open as he glares at her. "Hey, you can't just joke about that, you know! And aren't you supposed to be a nurse?!"

"So?" Saionji shoots back with a huff. "If anything, I don't even need to be one to see that's where our situation's heading."

Hinata coughs, gently interrupting that conversation before it comes to blows. He then stands from his, getting everyone's attention as he begins,"I know it's not exactly the solution everyone's looking for, but there is something I've been thinking about."

"Go on ahead. Whatever it is, it might as well be better than what Saionji suggested." Mitarai says, but he doesn't bother to look back at Hinata's direction.

"Okay, so, I know that our situation hasn't been good at all, and the…motive didn't help with it at all. It all must be so stressful for everyone right now?"

"And what exactly are you trying to suggest with this?" Koizumi questions, raising a brow at him.

"Yeah, I guess I should get to the point right now." Hinata admits. "I've been thinking of throwing a party for our class this evening."

"A party?" Ibuki repeats. It looks like her whole body's practically vibrating with excitement about it.

"Yes, a party." Hinata affirms with a chuckle. "I think it should happen maybe around nine-thirty or ten PM at the earliest. It'd also probably last all night long, possibly even until past midnight, if it goes really wild. I thought it'd be the best way to get everyone to unwind a bit. And not to mention, if everyone's in the same place, it'd be easier to keep any potential murders from happening."

Koizumi gets up from her seat. "Wait, hold on just a minute right there! Assuming it does go as planned, that kind of party would be ignoring the curfew that Monokuma set up, wouldn't it?"

"If everyone does show up, it should probably be okay. Besides, just as Hinata said, it's a lot easier to watch over everyone and prevent murders if we're all in the same spot." Mitarai replies with a short shrug.

"…That's a good point you made there." Koizumi admits as she sits back down. "Though, wouldn't Monokuma try to enforce that curfew anyway?"

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see if he does. Even if he does try something, it wouldn't be anything lethal. He still has to play by his game's rules, and he wants to keep it fun and thrilling for him." Komaeda calmly surmises, and then he smiles. "Either way, it's just like what I've said before. I know everyone's combined hopes will always overcome whatever Monokuma's capable of."

"In that case, then the party is a go!" Ibuki declares as she pumps a fist up in the air. A few others join her in hollering and cheering for it as well.

With that party suggestion taken in, it didn't take long for everyone to start discussing even more about it, to the point that some of them even added their own suggestions with it. Everyone's truly thrilled about it, and it's not hard to see why.

As for what Chiaki thought about it, well…

'I'm not really sure about it. But, well, if everyone's coming, then I guess it won't hurt if I come along too.'


Once breakfast, and the meeting that came along with it, officially ended, everyone has scattered around again, probably to do their own thing as usual. Chiaki saw some of them decided to hang out together in small groups, while others went on their own.

In her case, she's in the latter category. For now, she can't help but keep thinking about their most recent discussion. Even though she did agree to go along with it, now that it's certain to happen, there's one thing she neglected to think about until now.

'Come to think of it, I've never been to a party before. Will I really be okay there?'

Her grip over her bag straps tighten. The closest things she has as references for parties are some events in games. Even then, she isn't sure if those will help her, as most of the parties in the games she remembers tend to be…really fancy. Really, really fancy.

Like, there's a big ball, everyone's in extravagant costumes, and then there's fancy orchestral music and everyone dances in perfect synchrony.

And…she's sure that the party Hinata's planning isn't going to be anything like that. If it was, then at least she'd know what to do. Maybe.

She bites her lip, forcing herself to calm her nerves down. 'Oh well, I guess I'll find out once we get there. Hopefully, I don't screw anything up.'

After checking the time, she notices that it should be at least a couple of more hours before twelve noon comes in, and so, she should have some more free time for herself. She could go back to her cottage, play some games, or maybe explore some parts of this island again.

'Hmmm, what should I do now?' Chiaki thinks over her options, her eyes squinting, and her fingers lightly pinch at her chin.

She mulls over it some more, and finally, after thinking every option through, she has made her decision.

'I think it'd be nice to check out the airport. I haven't been there since we got to this island, and I've always wanted to see the planes up close.' Satisfied with her decision, she happily hums and skips along as she heads her way towards that destination in mind.

Once she's there, she can feel her eyes practically widen as she takes the sights in.

"Woah." Chiaki breathes out, recognizing the model. "I never thought I'd see a Boeing Commercial Airplane like this," She steps forward, feeling her heart practically go still as she lifts her head up. "And they're so much bigger in person too."

"Yes, they truly are breathtaking pieces of aircraft." Someone cheerfully comments, right beside her.

Chiaki nearly jumps back, having not expected anyone else to be here at all. She turns around, and as soon as she sees who it is, she breathes out, putting a hand over her chest. "Oh, uh, hey hey, Sonia. I didn't see you there." She hurriedly says with an awkward smile.

Sonia puts a hand over her mouth as she giggles. "I apologize for startling you like that, Nanami."

'You don't look so sorry about it, though.' Chiaki thinks to herself, barely resisting the urge to puff her reddening cheeks up. "It's fine, really. Though, I really didn't think I'd see you here."

"Oh, how so?" She raises a brow. There's nothing hostile about her tone or body language, yet it still felt a bit intimidating, in a way.

Still, Chiaki isn't sure how to exactly interpret that, so she awkwardly backtracks. "Ah, I didn't mean anything bad by that, I swear. It's just that, well, this is an airport, and uh," Her hands start to awkwardly gesture around without her even realizing it. "Yeah, you know."

Sonia's once unreadable face softens, and then she giggles a bit more. "Yes, it is rather unexpected, now that you've mentioned it."

"I think it's really great, though," Chiaki adds, now feeling the topic steer to a more light-hearted tone. "I mean, it's nice seeing other people come here and appreciate planes. It's probably just me, but not a lot of people really appreciate just how much work is put into them."

Sonia nods. "That is true, and yes, I agree. The topic of aircraft as a whole is rather fascinating indeed. Though, with that said," She solemnly looks at the planes in front of them. "It's such a shame none of these have any functioning motors at the moment."

"Ah, yeah. It really is a shame." Chiaki agrees, a slight frown making its way onto her face. "It would've made everything here so much easier."

"Truly. It could've been so much helpful if they were." Sonia shakes her head with a sigh. "And not to mention, it would've felt so amazing to drive one. I may not look like it, but I certainly have some experience with other kinds of aircraft before!" She says as she playfully flexes an arm.

Chiaki tries to picture what it's like, and she grins, nodding in agreement. "Heh, yeah, it'd really be something else. Though I don't have any experience with it in real life, I did learn a few things from Ace Combat and—"

"OH! You know about Ace Combat too?" Sonia exclaims as she leans in closer. Her hands hold on even tighter with Chiaki's, and she's practically meeting her face-to-face- in the literal sense.

From there, Chiaki can clearly see that Sonia's eyes are shining so much. While trying her best to ignore the flushed feeling she's getting from her cheeks and chest, she looks away from her for a bit. "Er, yeah. I've played and completed the whole series a few times, actually."

"And so have I!" Sonia excitedly replies.

So, from there, without even giving Chiaki the chance to reply, Sonia continues. She continues to go on and on about the series. Like talking about her favorite plot lines, her favorite characters, her favorite planes, and even her favorite soundtracks and boss battles. It feels like her voice is increasing with volume and enthusiasm with each passing second.

And yet, despite that, Chiaki has never felt so happy. Even when she couldn't exactly talk right now, she doesn't mind it at all. If anything, she's glad to hear someone talk about what they love, especially with this current topic. It helps that she can totally understand on the same wavelength too.

At the near end of that sudden happy rambling, Sonia breathes out. "Honestly, the series' themes of compassion, war, peace, and freedom heavily resonates with me, if you get what I mean."

"Yeah, I really do get it." Chiaki says, finally managing to squeeze in a few words in the conversation at last. "I think it's neat the series a lot of surprisingly subtle commentary about real life conflict too, especially when the enemy pilots talked about not letting you reach their hometowns."

"Yes indeed, I know!" Sonia practically squeals with pure excitement as she says that. "When I saw those lines, it actually hit me rather hard, and made me mull over my actions for a bit," Her face softens into a more solemn one. "Though, sadly, I still have no choice, but to put my sworn duty above everything, even if it means having to play deaf to some voices out there."

Chiaki inwardly frowns. 'It's probably just me, but with the way she looks right now, it feels like she's talking about something in real life, rather than anything that happened from the games.'

"Ah, sorry for getting sidetracked for a moment." Sonia apologizes with a short chuckle. "I've noticed that you went rather quiet, so I thought I must've made it rather awkward on my end."

"No, it's okay." Chiaki reassures as she slightly shakes her head. 'It looks like I shouldn't bring any of that up. At least, not right now.'

The two of them talk a bit more, and soon, it didn't take long for their topic to sorta end.

"Well then, I think that it's time for us to part ways for now." Sonia announces, before facing her with a smile. "I'll be looking forward to whenever we should talk again!"

"Same here." Chiaki replies, returning a small, yet warm smile to her.

After parting ways with Sonia for now, rather predictably, Chiaki hears her e-Handbook jingle again.

As expected, she's gained another Hope Fragment, further progressing her friendship with Sonia. At least, according to how the whole system works here, for some reason. She still doesn't fully get it, but she supposes it's a lot better for her to just roll with it and stop questioning it too much.

In any case, she's learned a lot more about Sonia. Chiaki thinks back on the time they've spent, and she faintly smiles. 'Sonia's a really interesting person indeed. I never thought I'd meet another fan of Ace Combat.'

Though, once she thought back on a certain topic, she slightly frowns. 'But, at the same time, I wonder if there's also something else going on with her. I think I should try to ask her once I talk to her again.'

As she heads away from the airport, she takes a look at the time. It's still early, and she's still got a lot of more free time to spend. She could go back Hotel Mirai and try out the other games or play the ones she already did, or maybe she can even talk with some of her other classmates if she wants to.

It wouldn't hurt to get to know the others a bit more.


It feels like late evening came around a lot faster than she expected.

'It looks like I've got a party to attend.'

Since the party is going to start in maybe a few minutes now, she decides to go to the cabin, even if her body would rather tuck in her bed and doze off for the night. It's just as she and everyone else agreed to.

Just as she's about to step inside, she muses to herself, 'Come to think of it, this is my first time going to a party, isn't it? I really hope I don't make things too awkward.'

Chiaki closes the door behind her, and now that she's in here, the only thing she can really say about the party is that it all feels so…overwhelming. Even if the only people in there are her classmates, there's something about this that made it feel so much bigger than it actually is.

And it's loud too.

So, so loud.

At that moment, Chiaki's hands instinctively reaches out to pull the hood over her face—

Her eyes widen, making herself pause as her hands felt nothing but air. 'Oh, yeah. I don't have my hoodie anymore…' Closing her eyes, she forces out the overwhelming surroundings away from her mind, all while taking steady, deep breaths.

She opens her eyes, and then walks forward. Her hands are fiddling and fidgeting around the straps of her bag. It helped in calming her nerves down, even if just a little bit.

As she looks around, she notices she's probably the last one to get in here, since just about everyone has already made it inside. Though, they're still missing two classmates, and Alter Ego is nowhere to be seen either.

Chiaki frowns. She has mixed feelings about that, if she's being honest. On one hand, it's true that he is sorta responsible for their situation in the first place and he did take everyone's memories away and so, it's really hard for her to trust him. But on the other hand, she can't help but worry about him too in some way. Despite everything he's done, she still doesn't want anything bad to happen to him.

"Woo! Great to see you here, Chi!" Ibuki loudly greets as she practically bolts towards her direction. Not even a few seconds after that, she goes on ahead and wraps her arm around her without any warning, even holding her so close.

Chiaki blinks, feeling her cheeks heat up a bit. She didn't exactly dislike it, but she can't help but feel…something about it. She isn't sure exactly what it is, though.

After a few more seconds of silence, she then realizes that she's supposed to reply to that. "Oh, yeah. I can say the same thing, I think."

"Hey, Ibuki! Mind giving us a hand here?" Someone calls out.

"Oh," Ibuki perks up. "It looks like Ibuki's needed for something real quick. Talk to you later, Chi!" She waves at her before running off to whoever might need her assistance right now.

"Yeah, I'll see you later too." Chiaki replies, even if Ibuki is nowhere nearby anymore to hear her.

Now that it's just her, she takes a glass of orange juice, deciding to stay by herself at the corner for now, watching everyone else talk with each other and have fun. 'I guess the party's not as bad as I thought, but I'm still not sure if I'm doing this right.'

She then watches as some of them start passing the chopsticks around and gathering them into one box. Her eyes grow wide, shining from sheer excitement because she can recognize what's going to happen.

"Ooh, I know this one! This is the King's Game, right?" She blurts out, finding herself heading towards where everyone's gathered.

"It is!" Sonia affirms as she takes a seat. Clearing her throat, she turns her attention to everyone. "The King's Game is rather simple. Once you receive your chopsticks and find out your roles, all you need to do is to remember this one rule." She pauses for dramatic effect, before going full ham and pumping her fist up, looking even more fired up than she ever did before. "The king's orders are absolute! No ifs and buts!"

Owari raises a hand. "So, that's all how the game works? That's really it?"

"Yes." Sonia replies with a grin. "Now that we got that out of the way, let the King's Game begin!"

With that officiated, everyone gets their share of chopsticks. They all flip them over to reveal the number or role they got, and so…

"Woo, Ibuki's the king!" Ibuki cheers, presenting the chosen chopstick to everyone. She closes her eyes in concentration. "Hmm, Ibuki's order as the king is gonna be…" After several tense seconds, she opens them and then proclaims, "Number twelve has to pick up number nine and carry them like a bride!"

"Oh my. It appears my number has been taken." Sonia remarks with a laugh.

"Well, it could've been a lot worse." Koizumi comments as she gets up from her seat. Her face is a little red, though.

The two of them comply with it, and so, Sonia ends up carrying Koizumi in her arms like she didn't weigh anything at all. Sonia looks really proud of herself, while Koizumi's face got even redder and she's trying not to make eye contact with the other girl as much as possible.

"Hey, that's no fair! You can't just pick big sis Mahiru up just like that!" Saionji screams in pure indignation, standing up to her full height and trying to make herself look more intimidating. It obviously doesn't work.

As for her, Chiaki feels the heat in her cheeks while staring at them with heavy longing in her eyes. There's only one simple thought that's on her mind. '…I wish that was me.'

After that's been done with (to Chiaki's heavy disappointment), it's time to draw up the new king. Everyone returns the chopsticks, scramble them around in the box for good measure, and then they all take one chopstick each once again. They turn the ones they got over, and so…

"Oh ho ho ho! It looks like the king for is yours truly." Hanamura haughtily laughs, presenting the chopsticks with the red marking in front of everyone like he's gloating about it.

On the outside, Chiaki didn't do much, other than to stare so blankly at him and those cursed chopsticks. On the inside, she's already dreading whatever he might force any of them to do. 'Please, whatever it is, don't say my number.'

Mercifully, Hanamura didn't get her number. He did, however, somehow got Nidai and Komaeda's numbers, and then predictably, orders them to serve as his chair and footrest, respectively. Chiaki didn't want to see or think about it any more than she already did, so she tunes him out, as she usually does whenever Hanamura says or does something dirty.

Thankfully, with that brief round done with, the chopsticks are rotated once again. Everyone turns over their respective chopsticks, and a moment of silence goes by as they all check which one they got this time.

"Oh, it looks like I'm the king for this round. I don't think I deserve such a prestigious position." Komaeda remarks as he turns over his chopstick, signifying that yeah, it's his turn now.

Saionji palms her forehead. "It's just a game, so just shut up and roll with it."

"Alright, as you say so." Komaeda earnestly replies before proceeding with his order for the round. "Number Five, please lay down on Number Eight's lap."

Chiaki feels the faint heat rushing up to her cheeks again. 'That's my number, isn't it?'

"You bastard…" Hinata stands up, glaring at Komaeda's direction. "You set us up, didn't you?!" He growls. Several angry red veins being to pop up on his twitching fist and on the side of his head.

Komaeda puts his hands up while laughing so innocently. "What are you talking about, Hinata? You know that I can't possibly cheat on this game without anyone noticing anything's off."

"You might as well hurry up and get it over with." Saionji dryly comments. "The king's orders are absolute and all that junk."

"I never felt so tempted to start a revolution until now." Hinata mutters as he gets to position. Taking a deep breath, he lightly pats on his lap. "Alright, looks like my lap is yours."

With that, Chiaki stands up from her seat and walks towards Hinata's direction. She takes a seat near him. "Like this?" She asks, proceeding to lay her head down on his lap, and she can hear his flustered sputtering from there.

"Sooo, how does it feel?" Souda asks with a huge grin on his face.

"Hmmm." Chiaki hums, thinking on how to articulate exactly how she feels about it. "Ah, he's really hard."

"He's WHAT?!" Koizumi yells, immediately getting up from her seat. Judging by how absolutely offended she looks, it's like she's about to rush out and slap Hinata for some reason.

"He's really hard." Chiaki reiterates, not getting why Koizumi's getting so hostile over it. "I mean, he really is a boy."

"Nanami, please, you're not helping!" Hinata pleads, putting his hands up.

On the other hand, Sonia's eyes are really shiny for some reason. "Ah, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly do mean by that?"

Chiaki tilts her head in confusion. "Hinata's thighs are hard. I thought it's expected, since he is a boy."

"Ohhh, so that's what you meant by that." Sonia remarks, though she looks like she got very disappointed for some reason.

Chiaki thought that was kinda weird, so she asks, "What did you think I was talking about?"

Hinata coughs. "It's nothing you should worry about."

"Yeah, it's nothing at all. You don't have to think about that." Koizumi hurriedly replies.

Chiaki blinks at seeing that, wondering to herself whether that was actually real or not. 'Huh, it's kinda weird to see Koizumi agreeing with Hinata for once.'

"Oh, yeah." Hinata glances down at her. "You can get back to your seat if you want to. The next round's king should come up soon."

"Hmm, I don't know." Chiaki muses as she instinctively leans closer, making herself snug and comfortable. "It's hard, but it's also kinda comfy."

"Nanami, please, I swear." A tiny drop of sweat drops from the side of Hinata's head.

As much as she would love to spend the rest of the game laying down on his lap, in the end, she went along with his wishes and got back to her seat.

A couple of more rounds pass by, each one becoming a bit funnier and more absurd than the last. Once they all reached the end of the King's Game, the class decides to relax for a bit, letting the party go on to a wilder direction. The music got louder, and soon, aside from her, almost everyone's gone feral, just dancing and grooving away to it.

And then, right when time is starting to slip away from them, the speakers start buzzing again.

"Alright, that's the end of the day for you kiddos. Now it's time for your curfew, mandated by yours truly! Don't forget to lock your doors, your windows, and any other stuff that can get broken into. Most importantly, good night, hope you all sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite!"

'Oh, of course. That stupid curfew announcement finally came in.' Chiaki thinks to herself, feeling her mood already sour after hearing that dumb bear's voice again. 'I wonder what he's going to do now that no one's following it in here.'

It feels like a flash. Before any of them knew it, the music gets cut off with a loud flash and a pop, and then, the lights go out. Everything has gone dark and quiet.

"Oh come on, seriously?!" Souda loudly whines.

"Damn, it looks like the power went out." Hinata mutters, before sighing and clearing his throat. Judging by how his footsteps shuffled, he's facing everyone, or at least, he might be doing that if everything isn't so dark. "Okay, everyone. Just stay calm and don't move from your spots."

As confused as Chiaki is by how sudden it was, she's also feeling cautious too. So much more than how she usually is. She can hear some footsteps shuffling around, but she decides not to pay any mind to them for now.

She isn't sure how much time has passed, but eventually, the lights return.

'That was really weird. What was up with that, anyway?'

Suddenly, the cabin's door gets forcefully pushed open. Everyone turns their attention to it, and they can see Alter Ego outside it. He's panting and coughing so hard; putting his hands over his knees like he's completely out of breath, to the point he might collapse from exhaustion any time soon.

"Alter Ego, what's wrong?" Hinata asks, his brows furrowing from concern and worry.

Alter Ego gulps a deep breath, before forcing himself up and faces them all. "Please, you have to hurry! Pekoyama's cottage is on fire!"

Pure horror dawns its way across everyone's faces. Everyone starts to talk among themselves, completely unsure on what to make of it.

"What do you mean by that?" Koizumi murmurs in a mortified tone.

"Come on!" Hajime orders, facing everyone with an unusually stern air around him. "We don't have much time to talk more about this. We should get there immediately!"


"Hurry! This way!"

Everyone wastes no time following after Alter Ego's lead, rushing out of the cabin and heading off to the cottage as fast as they all can.

As they all get closer to the area, a heavily intense burning smell hits her nose. Chiaki immediately covers the lower half of her face with both hands out of instinct, barely stopping herself from coughing at the smell.

There's so much smoke coming from Pekoyama's cottage. Bright flames are engulfing the place, and the surrounding darkness made it feel even more intense. Some of those flames has already started to spread and damage other cottages nearby.

'Oh god…'

It's all too much to bear. The sheer heat and brightness from those flames is more than enough to make Chiaki instinctively step back and try to shield herself.

The others are just as terrified too, if not even more so. Most of them are visibly flinching from the carnage the fire is causing. Tsumiki's reaction is possibly the worst of them all, with her helplessly crying and whimpering from it all.

"Everyone, stay back and don't panic!" Hinata's sharp voice cuts through the tension that's engulfing everyone.

That got everyone's attention, and without wasting a moment, they all turn their attention towards him.

Hinata's voice sounds so strained as he continues, "I'll go and look for a fire extinguisher, anything to keep the fire from spreading any further! If anyone wants to come along, then follow me!"

After that, he doesn't wait for anyone to reply to him, wasting no time and running off to wherever he can find a fire extinguisher, or anything that can be used to minimize the roaring flames somehow.

"I'm coming with you! There's no way I'm letting you handle this by yourself." Souda exclaims as he hurriedly joins in with Hinata too.

He isn't the only one, as shortly after that, Alter Ego, Tanaka, Mitarai, Sonia, and even Koizumi and Komaeda go on to run behind them. With that, it looks like the only thing left for their remaining group now is to watch by and wait for Hinata's group to come back, hopefully with something that'd help lessen the fire, by then.

Owari's hands clench into fists she growls. "I can't just stand here and do nothin'."

Just as she walks towards the burning cottage, Nidai puts a hand on her shoulder, immediately keeping her from going any closer to it.

She shoves his hand away and angrily turns to him. "You can't stop me, old man!"

Nidai smiles at her. "Actually, I wasn't going to. If you're going to do what I think you're going to do, then we must do it TOGETHER!" At the end of declaring that, he smacks his fist against his palm, and then cracks his knuckles too.

"Alright, then let's do this!" Owari beams up at him, pumping one of her fists.

Tsumiki starts to rapidly shake as she weakly protests at them. "W-W-Wait! Y-You can't just—!"

The two of them ignore Tsumiki's panicked cries, immediately running towards the still-burning cottage. It doesn't look like the flames would deter either of them any time soon. They both proceed to do the unthinkable; using their own bodies to try and break the door open.

Their punches and kicks continuously collide with the door in an attempt to break it open, but no matter how hard or frantic either of them tried, it just wouldn't budge from its place. Even when they both go to try and tear the hinges together or even bash their entire body weight against the whole thing together, nothing seems to work. It's like the door itself got fused solid shut with the rest of the cottage's exterior.

"Come on!" Owari shouts as she lands another futile kick at the door. "Why won't this thing open up?!" She grunts as she bashes her entire body weight against it, only to bounce back with a pained yelp.

Chiaki's eyes remain glued on them. As she quietly observes for now, she can't help but remain worried about Nidai and Owari the whole time, especially with how dangerously close they are to the fire. She watches as they continue to hit against the door and even the windows as hard as they can, with little-to-no progress still being made.

Her eyes look up, and upon noticing something, they immediately widen. There are some parts of the roof that are falling apart. Dangerously close to falling apart, and from how they're positioned, it looks like they're about to fall on top of them at any moment. "Owari, please look out!"

"Huh?" Owari pauses from punching the door, and then turns to her with a really confused look.

A loud, sickening snap is heard as those burning pieces of the roof finally come undone. Owari didn't even have the time to turn around and look at the debris about to fall on top of her.

Nidai dives and pushes her out of the way; the debris narrowly misses hitting him, but it's a close call nonetheless, and they both land on the ground with a loud thud.

Their remaining group rushes towards them, with Saionji shoving the others away in order to take a quick look at the two. From the way it looks, both Owari and Nidai are fine, and the worst they both got are just a couple of scrapes and bruises from the impact.

Then, in the next couple of moments, everyone can hear the noises of cracking glass. Someone had dropped out from the cottage's back window, and then landed face down onto the ground. It's a bit hard to see from there, but there's no doubt that's Pekoyama.

Chiaki didn't even stop to think about it. She ignores the others' shouting as she runs to check on her. She couldn't hold back her wince as she sees Pekoyama twitching on the ground. If it weren't for faint rise and fall of her chest, she would've assumed the worst had already happened. She kneels down and calls out to her. "Hey, Pekoyama?"

Pekoyama rolls over with a loud groan and from there, she can see her face.

Chiaki nearly finds herself stepping back with a gasp."K…Kuzuryu?" She whispers, blinking in shock and confusion. 'What is she doing here? This was Pekoyama's cottage, isn't it?'

Kuzuryu didn't reply to that, at least, not until after a moment passed by. By then, she must've regained enough consciousness, as she's now violently coughing and hacking her lungs out as she forces herself to sit up somehow.

Chiaki snaps herself out of her confusion, and she begins to pat down and rub on Kuzuryu's back to help soothe her somehow. "Hey, Kuzuryu, are you okay?" She asks.

Kuzuryu coughs one last time before directing a glare towards her. "Do I look fucking okay to you?" After saying that, her glare immediately changes into a look of fear and worry. "Oh god no, Peko's still in there."

At that moment, Hinata and the rest of his group finally returns, each one armed with a fire extinguisher in hand. Their don't waste any more time; everyone in the group spreads out and begins to aim their respective fire extinguishers at the burning areas.

Their semi-coordinated efforts work in putting some flames out, to the point that at least more than half of them start to shrink down to tiny sparks. With that, Nidai and Owari resume their efforts of trying to bust the door open, and this time, they both manage to crack it somehow, possibly thanks to the damage it's accumulated since it started.

Another person comes crashing through the remains of the door, and this time, there is truly no doubt who it is. Just about everyone who are still present in the area rush towards Pekoyama, and some of them begin to gasp or scream out loud, completely horrified by the sight.

Compared to Kuzuryu, to say that Pekoyama is in a bad shape would have a huge understatement. Her body is twitching. The way her chest is rising and falling is so faint, so weak, with each deep breath she's taking having longer and longer pauses between each second. It's clear that she's barely clinging to life as she is now.

Kuzuryu shoves some of them away as she rushes towards her side. "Peko, come on, Peko, please say something."

This is possibly the first time everyone has seen her harsh face softening.

Pekoyama softly gasps, but other than that, nothing else but more weak wheezes come out from her chaffed lips. She weakly coughs one more time, her arm reaching out to her companion, before she quietly breathes her last, her body finally going limp.

"Peko?" Kuzuryu repeats, her voice slowly cracking as she desperately shakes her bodyguard awake. But, no matter how she tries to beg, it's no use.

Pekoyama isn't with them anymore.

It all happened too quickly for everyone, and they all felt so helpless as they watch Kuzuryu go quiet. No one knew what to do next, and even if they did, it's clear that no one is allowed to have even a moment of silence to process it.

The speakers buzz up and ring once again. It feels like Monokuma's voice's sickening voice is taunting them as he happily proclaims,

"Ding ding! A body has been discovered!"


A/N: Apologies for taking a while to get back to this! Let's just say, the first couple of weeks this May were...really eventful, especially thanks to recent events. Though hopefully, I should get things back on track now, and to anyone whose fave is the first victim here, I humbly apolgize.