Chiaki tentatively looks around their surroundings, making sure to keep herself close to the others as much as possible. She makes sure that she sticks in the middle of the bridge as much as possible as well. It wouldn't be good to slip out and fall into the water. Even if the bridge has some railings at both sides, still better to be safe than sorry.

Thankfully, no one's close enough to the edges to risk falling off. At least, for now.

She isn't sure how long they've all been walking on the bridge, but at the same time, she can't help but be surprised on how she hasn't collapsed yet; especially with how much she's been walking right now.

No one's been saying anything ever since they've started walking out here, and so, Chiaki glances at the rest of their class, checking on them from her spot, just in case. From what she can see so far, the others look just as tense, if not even more so.

Alter Ego is walking ahead of everyone, still taking on his role as their TA despite everything, and in a way, no one can say anything against that otherwise, not right now. His face looks serious yet so anxious at the same time, and the way he's walking a bit unsteadily adds even more to that.

Everything that happened up until now must've stuck really close to him.

There are beads of sweat running down the side of Hinata's head as he looks around their surroundings as well. At the moment, he's walking rather close to Chiaki, yet also somewhere far enough in the middle to keep an eye out for everyone else.

It's a bit harder to read Komaeda's face since it looks like he's trying to stay calm as much as possible. But at the same time, he isn't as relaxed or carefree as he usually is; there's something more intense and calculating underneath that. Just like Hinata, he's also been staying really close with her since they started walking on the bridge together.

There are barely any signs of Ibuki's usual high energy. While she isn't exactly super still and quiet, her flighty movements are more of a sign on how uncomfortable she is. She isn't able to walk exactly in the same place, and she constantly looks over at the others every other moment she can.

People like Souda, Tsumiki, Hanamura, and Mitarai are somewhere further behind. From how they all have varying levels of anxiety and shiftiness, the tense and eerie atmosphere is starting to get to them, with Tsumiki being the most fidgety and nervous of them so far. Not to mention, Souda's holding on to his beanie a lot tighter than he usually does.

On the opposite end, there's people like Tanaka, Nidai, and Owari. While they're still tense and cautious like the others, there's also a more determined look on each of their faces. It's like they're putting up more strength in their forms, probably to help secure themselves and maybe, even provide some more morale to everyone else as well.

Kuzuryu and Saionji are completely still and quiet for the most part. Yet, at the same time, they're both still closely watched over by Nidai and Owari, as well as anyone else close to them. It's just in case either of them tries to attack the other once again. Though, so far, there are no signs of either trying to restart it. Hopefully, it stays that way for a long time.

And then there's Sonia, who seems…kind of different, in some way. And yet, she also feels a bit similar on how she was after witnessing Monokuma destroy the Gorilla Monobeast. There's something about her that gives off a more cautious approach, like how tense her body is, but in a way that looks like she's preparing herself in case if something pops out and attacks them all.

Even the way she looks around is telling her that there's something else going on with her, like she's intently scanning every last centimeter of their surroundings.

Suddenly, Alter Ego stops walking. Nearly everyone gets confused by that, and as they stare at him, he turns around to face them all.

From there, they can all see an unusually grim look is on Alter Ego's face. He slowly breathes in and out. And then, once his nerves are cleared out, he tells them in an uneasy voice, "It looks like we're here."

As they all walk forward and leave the bridge behind them, it's just like what Alter Ego said. They're all finally seeing the entrance of the Second Island up close. Though they haven't fully explored the whole island yet, it already feels so different from the First Island and the Central Island.

"Huh, I wonder what's up with that weird place."

As Owari points that out, they all turn to where it was.

It turns out, it looks like some kind of tall building up ahead of them. Though, that building looks so worn and abandoned, overrun with so much dust and debris, and even from here, it's easy to see that so many trees have been growing out of it too. Overall, those factors give it a look that makes it so much more ragged and abandoned, even when compared to the old cabin back at the First Island.

Komaeda hums, before suggesting, "Maybe he has an idea about that." And while saying that, he glances over at someone's direction.

Alter Ego notices the questioning look he's getting from Komaeda. He awkwardly coughs, before shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I don't know much about it either."

Komaeda raises a brow after hearing that. "Oh, is that so? That's a shame, then." Judging by how he kept looking at him some more before turning away, he didn't look so convinced about it.

As Chiaki stares off into those ruins, she thinks to herself, 'Somehow, I can't shake off that really ominous feeling I'm getting from it. There's just something about that place that feels so…off.'

"Since even Alter Ego has no idea, do you think we should investigate it further?" Mitarai asks.

Sonia grimaces for a moment, before composing herself back to a more neutral expression. "Honestly, I'd rather not. But, as long as everyone stays careful, then I suppose I wouldn't oppose it too much."

There aren't any further arguments about that, and once they're all up closer to these ruins, the entire place's shabbiness only got even more obvious. Like, for example, there's a big mess of dried up vines and roots just right around the entrance, which looks like a vault of some sort.

The sight of it all sends a lot of shivers up the spine.

"Yikes. This place just gives me the creeps." Souda mutters with a slight shudder, stepping away from there.

Compared to him, Tanaka didn't seem too disturbed about it. He just crosses his arms and then scoffs. "I can sense unholy presence within these ruins. But it is still no match for the fearsome might coming from me."

Owari takes one good look at it. She flexes the side of her neck, and then cracks her knuckles. "Well, what are we waitin' for? Let's go and bust in already!" She tries to rush towards the entrance, only to immediately be stopped before she can take even a step away. Turning to the one who blocked her, she shouts out, "Hey, what gives?!"

Sonia shakes her head, having raised an arm to block her from going any further. "We should tread far more carefully here. That place could be filled with all sorts of traps, and not to mention," She points a finger somewhere. "They've already placed a gatling gun right next to the entrance."

'A gatling gun?!' Getting very alarmed by that, Chiaki looks around, and sure enough, it's just like what Sonia said.

There's a gatling gun hanging just right in front of the vault door. It didn't blend in well with the rest of the surroundings; in fact, it's so ridiculously obvious it's there. Yet, at the same time, it's hard to tell if it's still working or not, but no one's willing to risk getting closer to it. It looks far too real to simply dismiss it a bluff.

There's also a keypad over there, and aside from that, Chiaki can't help but notice some kind of symbol that's on top of the vault door. It's a bit hard for her to see it from here, so she points it out. "Hey, I think there's something written there."

Komaeda turns to her. "Oh? What is it, Nanami?"

"It's right there." Chiaki replies, pointing at the vault door. "But I can't make out exactly what it is. It's too far to see."

"Looks like we might have to take a closer look at it, then." Nidai concludes.

And so, everyone wastes no time getting closer to the vault, albeit at a relatively safer distance; they can't dismiss the gatling gun just like that.

Chiaki looks over the symbols on the vault a few more times, tilting her head to the side. She then ends up squinting a bit while trying to decipher its purpose. 'What is that supposed to mean? I know that some part of it has something to do with 'future', but other than that, I'm getting very lost with it.'

"I wonder if this is the logo of some kind of organization, since it looks like they have 'future' in their name." Sonia muses, before commenting, "Though, if it was, I don't think I've ever seen or heard of them before."

"That's because Future Foundation is pretty new to this kind of game!" Monokuma exclaims, suddenly popping up again with no warning. "Oh, but if you ask me, I think there are plenty of other corps that are so much easier to deal with. Like the one owned by this one guy who also owns this biiiiigggg artificial island city in the middle of the ocean." He spreads his arms around at each side to further emphasize that point.

While the others nearly jump back from seeing him again, Komaeda didn't even bat an eye at him. Instead, he thoughtfully comments, "Oh, so that's what they're called. Though, from how you're talking about Future Foundation, it sounds like you've heard of them before, didn't you?"

Monokuma raises a paw up to protest, only to go quiet as he lowers his that paw down. He turns his back on Komaeda, muttering to himself, "Oh, drat, you got me right there. Looks like I'll have to give you that one, just this once." He grumbles before turning around to face him again.

Komaeda simply smiles at the bear. It's a rather thin, eerie kind of smile, the one that a person would use to subtly intimidate or threaten someone. "For someone who put us in an unfairly despairing game, you're a rather sore loser."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep gloating there, will ya?" Monokuma shakes a paw at him, before gesturing towards the vault. "By the way, you see that keypad right there? Lemme just say, if you put the wrong password there…TATATATATATATATATATA!" He shakes and twists his body and arms around, miming a machine gun getting fired off.

Understandably, that new information ends up disturbing nearly everyone. To think that such a grisly death would await them if they try and fail. Not to mention, Monokuma more or less confirmed that the gatling gun there is the real deal.

Though, Komaeda remains undeterred by that. Instead, he confidently states, "Then it's safe to assume you know what the password is."

Monkuma manages to give off a blank stare at him, somehow. "Do I look like I'm the bear who knows everything? Of course I don't know what the password is! You kiddos are on your own with this one." He grumbles some more. "Just be happy I'm nice enough to keep you all from getting pumped up with lead there."

Upon hearing him mention that again, Chiaki glares down at him. "So you're the one who put that gatling gun there too, didn't you?"

A red vein pops at the side of Monokuma's head. "So what if I did?! Do you have a problem with people putting up security over stuff?!" He huffs and stomps around in place, before calming down somewhat and shifting the topic away. "Anyways, you shouldn't worry too much about those Future Foundation guys. They're just a bunch of good-for-nothing world destroyers, you know."

Hinata's body starts shaking a bit as he sputters, "W…What did you just call them?"

Monokuma's grin widens and he unhelpfully repeats himself. "A bunch of good-for-nothing world destroyers! I mean, just look at what they decided to call themselves. If that doesn't scream 'evil organization' to you guys, then I don't know what would!" He holds his belly while cackling at the end of that.

Komaeda stares down on the bear, further surmising, "So, aside from you orchestrating this despairing killing game, an organization called 'Future Foundation' is heavily involved with our current situation as well. That's what you're trying to imply with that, aren't you?"

That bear doesn't answer. Or rather, he doesn't even acknowledge that question at all, in one way or another.

Instead, he looks at his wrist like he's looking at a nonexistent watch that's on top of it. "Well, well, well, I think that's enough screen time for me now. I may be everyone's old despair buddy and favorite mascot, but even I know it's no good to be such a spotlight-stealer! Toodles again!" He mockingly waves at them before suddenly disappearing from their view once again.

"That's awfully disappointing." Komaeda comments with a slight frown, still staring at where Monokuma used to stand.

Hinata keeps glaring at that spot where Monokuma was. "God damn. I'll never understand what's going on in that bear's head." He grumbles under his breath. Then, he palms over his forehead and shakily sighs. "And honestly, I don't want to ever know."

Chiaki inwardly nods at that. 'I feel exactly the same way there.'

As for the others, they're all getting very confused exactly what just happened. And then there's everything they've heard from that bear just now, which didn't help with that either.

None of it makes any sense. Even if Monokuma stays true to his word in his own way and leave them alone for now, it isn't exactly comforting. Everything he mentioned just now still left them all with even more questions, and not even a single answer.

Not to mention, the one possible answer they'll ever get for those questions is blocked off by a literal death trap, for god's sake.

Kuzuryu suddenly starts chuckling, albeit in a clearly bitter kind of way. "First we got sent off to some island in the middle of nowhere, then we got stuck in some sick killing game by some tryhard evil teddy bear. And now, this shit with a fucking evil corp, of all things? God, what has my life come to? This sounds like the kind of bull a crackhead would come up with."

"Yeah, it's a really weird turn of events when you put it that way." Souda mutters.

Nidai slightly shakes his head with that. "We'll have to worry about it when we get the time."

"That's if we ever get any time for it at all." Saionji rebukes with a sharp huff.

"While we're on that topic," Sonia interjects, "Now that Monokuma brought them up, what exactly is Future Foundation? What do they have to do with our situation, and why did he call them world destroyers?"

That question got everyone thinking rather quickly. Their voices intermingle into one single noise, and only a few of their rushed-out sentences can be somewhat understood.

"W-Were F-Future Foundation really the o-ones behind a-all of t-this?"

"They're not some kind of terrorist organization, are they?"

"That bear did call them 'world destroyers'. Hard to imagine anyone like that being a good guy."

"If I'll be honest here," Hinata suddenly speaks up, getting into that conversation, along with everyone's attention. "I don't think that whatever this…evil organization he's talking about, even exists at all. They're just something that he bullshitted on the spot to further mess with us."

"Hinata, so you're saying that Monokuma made them all up?" Souda repeats, and then after some pause, he then adds, "Wait, I think I can believe that. It honestly sounds a lot more believable—"

Komaeda suddenly cuts in. "That's a very interesting conclusion for you to reach, Hinata." Shortly after saying that, he then smiles sheepishly and backtracks a bit. "Ah, but I'm not doubting you are anything like that, I know you're capable in your own right. But I am very curious on what made think of that. As far as we know, Monokuma hasn't directly lied to us."

Hinata slowly breathes in, and then he breathes out. "Okay, look, even if that bear's telling the truth—which I highly doubt, mind you, think about it this way. Why the hell should I believe a word he says when he's been doing nothing but trying to get us to kill each other? So yeah, so what if he hasn't directly lied to us once? There's still no reason to trust him at all in that case."

Komaeda didn't reply to that, at least, not immediately. He looks away for a moment, deep in thought about it, and then he smiles. "Well, when you broke it down that way, then it does sound rather reasonable." His relaxed tone then shifts into a more serious one. "But even so, I'm not going to dismiss everything he said because of simple but negligible factors. Not until we can be a little more sure about it,"

Hinata snorts and he shakes his head. "Suit yourself, then."

Just when it looks like that conversation is ending, Komaeda suddenly turns to face her. "You know, now I'm curious. What about you, Nanami? What do you think about Future Foundation's existence?"

"Hey, Komaeda!"

Komaeda turns to him for a bit. "Ah, looks like you're getting the wrong idea here, Hinata. But don't worry, I'm not going to try to convince her on whether Future Foundation exists or not. I just want to know her own thoughts about it."

Hinata doesn't look convinced about that at all. But other than that, he doesn't argue any further.

Chiaki stares at them both, going quiet while trying to think of how she should answer that. 'I don't know. They both have a point there, though I don't think anyone would be satisfied with that answer.' She mulls over it some more, before deciding to just be honest about it. "I'm sorry, but I think you're both right, in a way."

"You're not going to take a side at all?" Komaeda asks in a bewildered tone.

She nearly shrinks back from his reaction; something about it felt surprisingly intense. Though somehow, she manages to stand her ground and replies with, "I guess I am. But it's nothing against either of you two. It's just that, well…sticking close to just one conclusion isn't necessarily a bad thing. That said, it does run the risk of clouding your judgment. It all depends on how much you want to believe you're right about it and how far you're willing to throw other, valid alternatives to further support the one conclusion you want to be right about."

Komaeda stares at her, and then he presses a bit further. "Is that why you're choosing to stay neutral about it?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Chiaki replies, maybe a bit too hastily.

That makes Komaeda go quiet, probably thinking about her answer. After a moment or so, he faces her again, finally smiling back at her. The smile he has is the familiar, relaxed one he usually has. "Well, I think you've convinced me. Sorry for making you answer such a question."

"Okay, so, you're not gonna ask anythin' else about Future Foundation now?" Owari asks. She was kinda lost about the whole topic for the most part, but she seems to have picked up on that.

Komaeda chuckles. "Of course, I'm never going to stop questioning anything about them. But for now, I think I'm satisfied with the answers I have right now."

Chiaki quietly breathes out in relief. 'I'm glad that should be the end of it, then. At least for now. We'll think about Future Foundation some other time.'


With that topic about Future Foundation put to rest, at least for now, everyone quickly gets back to exploring the rest of the island.

The next stop on the Second Island is yet another massive building. Not only that, the entire area is also surrounded by so many massive trees. Though, unlike the trees back at the ruins, these trees are far more presentable. As in, they make the place look a lot classier in some kind way. Somehow.

As they approach even closer, they also notice that, unlike the ruins, it isn't locked up with a vault or filled with potential traps. They get inside, and from there…

"Woah." That's all Chiaki could say as she looks around the highly fancy, kind of old-timey interior of the building. And not only that, even from here, it's easy for her to see that the entire place is overflowing with books from just about every corner.

That actually makes her squint a bit.

'Huh. That's a lot of books.'

While the others get to exploring the rest of this…library, Chiaki keeps looking around, looking back now and then to make sure she can still see everyone else is still nearby, and also keep herself from getting lost.

It didn't take long for her to see what else is inside besides the books and cameras, and seeing them up close…actually made her blink a bit. Once she's sure that what she's seeing is real, she puffs her cheeks up. She barely, just barely, manages to stop herself from just wrecking them all on the spot.

'Of course that bear just had to put up statues of himself too.'

It might be against common sense, but there's no way she's going to just leave it like that. And so, as soon as she's sure no one's looking, she gets close to one Monokuma bust. She glares at a nearby camera for a second or so before turning away. After that, she gathers all her power, and then, she flicks it straight on the forehead with a finger.

Predictably, her index finger starts stinging a bit from that. But, it was totally worth it.

Once she's done with that, she glares at it one last time, huffing as she walks away from it. 'Hmph. Stupid bear.'

She checks on how the others are doing, and from what she can see so far, they've split up into small groups.

As Chiaki walks to a particular section of the library, she sees Sonia browsing around some books. And, as she gets herself a bit closer, there's something she can't help but notice about this; Sonia's looking like the happiest she's even been since they got here, and she isn't as overly guarded or tense as she was during those two previous occasions. It seems she's even more relaxed and truly content now, even more so compared to her usual self.

'I think I should go and talk to her, just in case.'

Her mind is made up, and so, she comes closer to her.

She isn't even able to say a word in when Sonia suddenly turns around to face her, with the other girl grabbing her hands and holding them in her own. And if that isn't enough, she does that all with a heavenly…er, heavily beaming smile too.

Chiaki feels rather heated up by that, though she tries not to make her reaction super obvious. She's sure that she's already failed before she even tried.

"Nanami, you won't believe what's in this library!" Sonia exclaims, her eyes shining a lot more than she ever did.

As much as Chiaki wouldn't mind getting lost in that sight, hearing what the other girl said makes her blink. She turns away from her for a bit, looking around, before facing back to her. "Books?"

Sonia giggles, and it's a really pleasant sound. "Not only that, these books are both local and international ones! They even have my favorite occult magazines in here!" And then, without any warning, she brings that magazine closer to her face, letting her see the contents within it at a very intimate level.

Chiaki likes to think she might've been kinda desensitized to those kinds of things; she's seen all kinds of stuff from a lot of games, plenty of them claiming to be horror ones, though most of them are more on the shameless gross-out side rather than anything actually scary. But, these images on…that magazine, they actually make her shudder a bit.

Sonia definitely noticed her reaction, as she quickly pulls the magazine away from her and sheepishly bows her head. "Ah, my apologies for that. I tend to forget that not everyone can stomach such content."

With how happy Sonia looked about it a while back, Chiaki can't comment anything bad about that; even the idea of it is enough to make her feel a lot of guilt about it. She gently shakes her head. "It's okay, really. I get that kind of feeling too, actually. And it was kinda startling at first, but I think I'm curious to know more."

"You really mean so?" Sonia asks, with a slightly teary yet hopeful look in her eyes.

Chiaki nods at her with a slight smile. "Yeah, I really do. You know, I didn't even know such things existed until you showed it to me, and now I think I want to learn more."

"I'm glad to have introduced it to you, then, even if it was in a rather unconventional way." Sonia delightfully clasps her hands together. "Perhaps I can show you more about them once we have time, though of course, I'll make sure we start off lightly. It wouldn't be good to scar you too much." She laughs at the end of that.

"Heh, yeah. That's fair." Chiaki replies, fully smiling back at her. "I'll be looking forward to that, then."

"As do I." Sonia cheerily affirms back to her, before glancing around their surroundings and gesturing at them. "That said, I'm very impressed not only with the sheer size of this building, but also the wide variety of options they have in their catalogues. I'd say it even rivals the library I often visited in my hometown, and it certainly isn't a slouch in that department either."

Hearing that piques Chiaki's interest, with her tilting her head a bit at that. "Oh, really? I wonder what it's like."

"I'd be very happy to show it to you someday." Sonia says with a good-natured laugh, before pausing as she glances at a direction. "Though, it appears we'll have to go for now, otherwise we might get left behind by everyone."

Chiaki glances at where Sonia's looking at, and sure enough, the others are preparing to leave. 'It looks like they're done looking around too.'

With that confirmed, she follows Sonia out of there, wasting no time catching up behind everyone else.


The next area is a bit…unconventional, to say the least. Out of all placess on an island, a pharmacy is the last thing Chiaki expected. And not only that, once they all got inside, it feels kinda like Rocketpunch Market, but with stuff like drugs, medicine, cosmetics, and all sorts of other things, rather than groceries.

'But then again, I think it does kinda make sense in a way.' Chiaki thinks to herself as she takes a closer look at some items on one of the shelves. 'Anything could happen here, and it'd be really hard to get proper medical attention on time if it does.'

Upon thinking of that, she then remembers the kind of situation everyone's still stuck in, as well as what happened back then. Once it hit her, she suddenly looks down on the floor, with an intensely heavy feeling weighing her down.

'Oh, that's right…' With a quick, but deep breath, Chiaki forces those thoughts out of her head for now. She's got to focus for now.

She continues walking around, before she suddenly stumbles upon one small group of her classmates. Though, since she's behind one of the stalls, she didn't get noticed by any of them at all.

Saionji pulls out a bottle. She turns it around in her hand, and then her eyes narrow as she checks on its label. "Huh, this place even has anesthetics lying around."

"Wait, why do they even sell that kind of thing here?" Souda asks as he steps slightly forward, staring at that bottle.

Instead of answering his question, Saionji suddenly turns to him with a dark smile. "You know, wouldn't it be really, really funny if some of these suddenly went missing for no reason at all?"

A horrified look makes its way onto Souda's face as he jumps back, getting himself into a defensive posture. "Hey now, don't ever joke about something like that!"

Things didn't get to escalate any further, as Owari's still close enough to keep an eye on the nurse. She wordlessly snatches the bottle from her, ignoring Saionji's protests. And then, rather than just returning it, she puts it at the topmost shelf, one that's impossible for Saionji to reach by herself.

As soon as Chiaki sees that's been taken care of, she discretely leaves that spot. At some point, she nearly stumbles upon Hanamura, and there's no way she's going to let him say a word to her. So, she ends up mostly sticking by herself for the rest of it, until it's time to leave again.

By then, she joins behind everyone else, heading off to whatever the next place would be.

As they continue on with walking down the street, Chiaki spots something, and the sight of it makes her tilt her head a bit. 'A diner?' As looks around even more, she notices that aside from the diner itself, there's also some kind of pig mascot on a sign right next to it as well.

"Woah, they even have free parking here!"

She glances at where Hanamura's looking at, and yeah, it's just like what he said. There really is free parking right close to the diner for some reason. Though, for obvious reasons, none of them would actually be able to use that.

As soon as everyone gets inside the diner, Chiaki gets almost taken aback by just how….familiar it all feels. In a way, it reminds her of the typical fast food setup. The cushioned seats, the scent of something vaguely oily, those blinds on top of those windows, and not to mention, the way how everything feels so densely packed together.

This place even the circular seats that are right in front of the counter.

The only thing she didn't really expect is that large jukebox, though that's probably because she didn't see one that much, not in places like this. And then there's also that camera hanging around there too, but she chooses not to acknowledge that this time around.

Aside from Nidai and Owari investigating the kitchen and stock at the back (and again, no one's running the place), there's not much to be found aside from supplies and such.

And so, they all leave the diner and prepare to go reach their next possible destination, whatever it might end up being.


To say that their next stop is the last thing anyone ever expected would be some kind of understatement. Somewhere close to the diner's parking area, there's a really ominous-looking tunnel right before them. Not only that, there's a sign right in front of it too.

"Chandler Beach?" Chiaki reads that out loud. She glances over at the tunnel, squinting at it. 'So I guess it's somewhere behind that, then. It looks kind of sketchy, though.'

"Don't tell me we seriously have to go there."

And so far, it looks like almost everyone's echoing similar sentiments too. Hard to blame any of them for that at all, really, especially with the kind of situation they're all still stuck in.

As everyone continues to voice out their wariss towards that tunnel, Alter Ego steps forward. He then turns to face everyone with a serious expression on his face. "If it's okay, I'll go in first, and I'll let you know if it's safe to come in or not."

"U-Um, a-are you s-sure about that?" Tsumiki asks, nervously pointing at the tunnel right there.

"I'll be okay." Alter Ego reassures her, at least, as best as he can with how tense he looks. "And besides, everyone's safety is a far bigger priority for me. I can't let any more terrible things happen to you, not under my watch."

"Yeah, right. Might as well let him be the bait here, then." Saionji mutters under her breath.

Alter Ego stiffens a bit at that comment, but other than that, he didn't say anything. He turns around once again, taking a deep breath as he goes into the tunnel, slowly disappearing in the darkness.

Moments pass by. There isn't a single sign of Alter Ego. No sounds, no movements, nothing. Just pure silence and stillness. Everything keeps getting more and more tense and eerily quiet as each second goes on.

Chiaki looks over at the tunnel, internally debating on whether she should go up there or not. 'Is he okay?'

And then, suddenly, they all hear him call out, "It's completely clear, everyone! There's nothing much here aside from the beach, as well as a beach house nearby."

Owari forms an 'O' with both of her hands, putting them on top of her mouth as she shouts back at him, "Hey, wait! Think you can come back here first?"

"Ah, alright. Give me a moment." Alter Ego replies, sounding rather sheepish at that moment. It took some time, but soon he shows up from the tunnel's entrance, completely unharmed. "I apologize for taking a while to come back. I thoroughly investigated the area just in case if there were any…anomalies around. There aren't any that I've noticed."

"So I assume it's safe to proceed, then?" Sonia asks.

He nods. "I think so, yeah. Though of course, none of you have to go any further if you don't want to."

Sonia lowers her head, mulling it over, before nodding at him. "Well, if it's as safe as you say it is, then I suppose there wouldn't be any problems with it." She steps forward into the tunnel.

Souda stares at where Sonia used to be, and then towards the tunnel. "W-Wait, Miss Sonia!" He calls out, running after her into the tunnel as well.

"Hold on, you shouldn't be running like that!" Alter Ego sputters, chasing after him. At least, as best as he can with his build.

Tanaka scoffs at that sight, simply shaking his head before proceeding to join that oddball group as well.

After those three get in the tunnel, plus Alter Ego once again, the next group to follow is Nidai and Owari. And then after them, it's Mitarai and Hanamura. And soon, it didn't take long before nearly everyone comes inside the tunnel, until finally, it's just her and Hinata who are left outside.

Hinata walks on, about to enter the tunnel. But then, just as he's about to step in, he turns around and asks her, "Nanami, you're not coming along?"

Upon hearing that, Chiaki instinctively turns away, facing the ground as she often does. "I…I don't know."

"Alter Ego did say that we don't have to come along if we don't want to."

"Yeah," She admits, and then she shakes her head. "But, it wouldn't be fair if I just stand back and leave it up to everyone. They're all in the same position, and yet, they managed to push forward despite the unknown up there." She quietly breathes out, thinking to herself, 'I'm nothing like them at all. I guess I'm still a coward.'

Hinata looks over at the tunnel for a moment or so, before turning back and approaching her with furrowed brows. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, not if I can help it."

That makes her lift her head up. "Hinata…" That's all she's able to say, staring at him with a bewildered look.

A couple of seconds pass by between them, and Hinata's face start getting red, all the way from the neck up. "Oh, uh, please forget I said that. Man, I must've sounded so lame right now." He hurriedly mumbles, looking away from her while covering his face with both hands. It's like he's realizing the implications of what he just said to her.

Chiaki isn't sure what to make of that, but whatever she's feeling about it, it isn't anything negative at all. If anything, there's something about that which made her feel a bit…lighter, so to say.

"It was really nice to hear that." She insists, shaking her head with a smile. "Besides, I've heard of way cornier lines. What you said there isn't even close to their level of shamelessness."

That must've snapped Hinata out of his embarrassment, as he turns to face her. His face is still slightly red, but he isn't a stuttering mess either, so there's that. "Hah, yeah, that's right." He chuckles, starting to slightly shake his head in amusement too. "There's a lot of cheesier lines out there, especially in visual novels."

She ends up laughing at that. "Don't get me started with those. They're something else entirely."

As both of their mutual laughter die down, the tension she's been feeling is waning away somehow. She glances at the tunnel once again, and despite how she still feels about it, she goes on and slowly approaches it closer; though, she's still a bit hesitant in that.

Hinata must've noticed that, since he gently walks towards her and holds out his wrist. "If you want to, you can hold my wrist. That way, you won't get lost or trip while we're in the tunnel."

Chiaki looks over at his wrist for a few more times, and then she nods. "Okay, thanks." With decided, she takes his wrist, letting him guide her along the way as they both enter the tunnel.

As expected, the tunnel's really dark. As in, almost pitch black kind of dark. There's something about it that reminds her of Rock Tunnel and Granite Cave, except that unlike that case, she doesn't even have a flashlight here. It makes her tighten her hold on Hinata's wrist, at least, out of instinct.

That makes Hinata slow down a bit in walking. "Nanami, you're doing okay there?"

"Yeah, I think so." She replies, maybe a bit quicker than she should.

Hinata breathes out in relief. "That's good to hear." He slowly resumes walking, while also letting her catch up with his pace. "I think we're almost there."

And it's just like what he said. It didn't take long for them to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Soon, both of them emerge from there. Chiaki squints for a moment or so, letting herself adjust to the sun again after being in the tunnel for a while.

From what it looks so far, the others are already spread out in multiple groups while exploring the beach. Some of them have even started going down and playing with the sand a bit.

"Oh, uh, Nanami," Hinata sheepishly turns to her. "You can let go now if you want to."

She contemplatively hums. "Hmm, but do I really have to?" As she says that, she squeezes his wrist a bit more.

"N-Nanami?!" He squeaks, and his eyes look like they're about to bulge out right then and there.

Chiaki ends up giggling at his reaction. "Hehe, I'm kidding." She teases, letting go of his wrist at last.

Hinata sputters something out, but it's a bit hard to make out exactly what he's trying to say. Still, she decides not to press on that any further. It'd be a little mean if she were to tease him more about it.

She looks around, taking the sight in. 'So this is Chandler Beach.'

With all that high-quality white sand around the shore, it's obvious that it's a very luxurious kind of beach. So much so, it'd even put the shore back at the First Island to shame. At the same time, though, it's also just like what Alter Ego said. There isn't much here aside from the beach itself and the beach house nearby.

Some time passes by, and soon, she sees nearly everyone head towards the beach house.

'Looks like it's time to explore that, then.'

She wastes no time following everyone inside, and from how it looks and feels so far, the whole place is rather fancy too, in some way. There's even a chandelier hanging around. Then, of course, there are the cameras hanging around, as usual. But, they're far from the weirdest things she can see in here. Instead, it's something else entirely.

Chiaki walks towards that strange thing, squinting her eyes at it. 'The drinks are free on this vending machine, huh?' She never thought that something like that would be a real thing here. But then again, a lot of weird stuff just keeps unraveling here more and more, so those free drinks are probably nothing special compared to all of that.

She decides she's done with checking over that vending machine, and so, she goes back to where everyone else is. Though, once she did, she sees them gathered around for some reason. Even from here, it's clear that they're all fussing over something.

"What's going on here?" She asks once she gets there, looking all over to see if whatever they're looking at is still around.

"It looks like Monokuma left some kind of note here." Mitarai explains to her, pointing at something that's decently high up. "And from how it looks, he went a bit overboard there."

Chiaki lifts her head up, and it's just like Mitarai said. There's a note up there, alright, but that's not all. The note is also framed up in some kind of fancy picture frame for some reason. She squints her eyes as she tries to read it as best as she can.

You kiddos better not get indecent and change your clothes here. Because if you do, I'm not gonna hesitate to pop up and turn your lives into something straight out of a Predator movie, upupupupupu!

'…Did he really have to reference that?' Chiaki blankly stares at it, less than impressed with that threat. She can't even dignify that with a verbal response. It's a really weird rule, and the punishment for that is even more unreasonable. Then again, knowing who this is, she supposes she shouldn't have been surprised.

On the plus side, that stupid bear didn't suddenly pop up like he usually does, so there's that, at least.


'Looks like that's every place in here.' Chiaki thinks to herself after they all left the beach house. Other than that weird note detailing that really absurd rule, they didn't find anything else further than that. They've pretty much explored everything on the Second island.

And so, she isn't sure exactly what to do now. She tries to consider her possible options, and so far, there's really only one that she's heavily leaning on.

'I can go back to the First Island right now. I could either stop by Hotel Mirai, or go back to my cottage.' She eyes the distance, and then muses to herself. 'And besides, it's not like it's the first time I've walked by myself.'

"Man, I'm starvin' here." Owari comments as she stretches her arms above her head. "All that walkin' around and other stuff really took a lot out of me."

That quickly got almost everyone to start talking. Some of them even start agreeing with that, more or less echoing Owari's original sentiment.

"It's true that we didn't do much other than walking around the whole day."

"Now that she mentioned it, I guess having dinner now wouldn't be so bad."

'On second thought, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have dinner with everyone.' Chiaki thinks to herself, reconsidering her initial decision at that last second. When she thought about it, it probably wouldn't look good if she tried to leave by herself now.

At that moment, Ibuki quickly turns around at someone's direction. "You should come in and join us!"

Chiaki gets curious at that, and so, she turns towards that direction as well. From there, she ends up seeing exactly who Ibuki is talking to.

Alter Ego pauses, nearly jumping back with a yelp. Judging by the shocked look on his face, as well as how he reacted, it looks like he got caught in the middle of walking away from everyone. He composes himself somehow and then shakes his head. "Thank you, but I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't join you."

Ibuki gets deflated by that. And yet, she also remains surprisingly composed at the same time as she asks, "Oh, why not?"

"I…" He looks away from her, hesitating before finally telling her, "I have my own duties to attend to."

"Oh, that's very interesting of you to say." Komaeda suddenly comments out of the blue, interrupting Ibuki from replying. He remains still on his spot while continuing to stare at Alter Ego, which makes the other boy nervously shuffle a bit.

Hinata steps in, putting a hand over Komaeda's shoulder. "Hey, Komaeda. Don't tell me you think he's still working for Monokuma."

"I mean, he hasn't done anything to prove otherwise, hasn't he? And not to mention," Komaeda turns around, facing Hinata with a smile. "Why should I believe someone who took our memories away, and was most likely planning to keep that hidden from us for as long as he could?"

Hinata tries to say something, only to end up closing his mouth, unable to retort against that. The most he can do is to regretfully stare at Alter Ego.

It didn't help that Komaeda isn't alone with that. Although the others haven't said anything, with the way they're staring or glaring at the shorter boy, it feels like they're all still rather suspicious towards him, even if only a little bit. There are a few exceptions to that, like Hinata and Ibuki, but compared to everyone else, they're overwhelmingly outnumbered.

"I…I see. I shouldn't trouble any of you further, then." Alter Ego bows for a bit, before turning to leave.

No one's able to stop him from doing otherwise. And so, they all watch him walk away from their group, slowly disappearing from their vicinity until he's gone, just like that. Even though he isn't around them anymore, there's something about the way he left feels so…wrong and quiet.

Owari looks over at where Alter Ego used to be. "Ya know, we might've gone a little too far there."

"It's not like he doesn't deserve it. He's the reason why we're all in this shit together in the first place." Saionji scoffs.

No one says anything else after that, and so, that topic gets quietly dropped.

Soon, everyone starts heading towards the diner, though the mood did get a little down after that. Nidai gets to work as soon as he can, and as soon as he does, Owari goes along with him too. It's probably to assist him in case he needs her to.

While waiting, everyone goes ahead and takes their own respective seats. Some, like Saionji and Kuzuryu, take a seat by themselves, while a few others sit together as a group.

For Chiaki, she decides to go on one of the cushioned chairs with a table in between them. Right now, it's only just her sitting there, and honestly, she doesn't mind it at all. If anything, there's something comforting about that.

Though, that didn't last long.

"Nanami, is it okay if I talk with you for a moment?" Komaeda asks with an apologetic smile, not even giving her a warning before he arrived. And before she could even say anything, he immediately takes a seat right in front of her.

Chiaki blinks, still in the middle of processing exactly how that happened. Figuring that he's already there right in front of her, she shrugs, "Oh, sure. What is it?"

Komaeda didn't immediately answer that. He keeps staring onto the table, like he's very deep in his thoughts. Several seconds of nothing but quiet pass by, and then he finally faces her back with a heavily contemplative look. "I've been thinking about your Ultimate title a lot more recently."

"Huh…" Chiaki absentmindedly replies while she thinks back on that, and then she realizes, 'Oh, yeah. Come to think of it, we still don't have any answers about that, even until now. Though, I'll admit that I kinda forgot about that for a while.' Straightening herself up, she then clarifies, "You said that I might be the Ultimate Gamer back then, right?"

Komaeda smiles and nods at her. "Yes, I did mention that before. And the Ultimate Gamer title still sounds very likely, but…I can't help but keep thinking more and more about it." He clasps his hands together, and then he rests his chin on top of them. "And now, very recently, I've started considering a second option of your Ultimate title."

'I don't know if it'd feel right, but I guess I should hear him out first.' Putting all her skepticism aside for now, she then asks him, "What do you think is it?"

Komaeda's positively giddy from his seat as he tells her, "You might not believe me at first, but, please take my word for it. I think there's a chance you might actually be the Ultimate Detective."

She stares at him, wondering if she heard that right. 'Huh? Where did he get that from? I can believe the Ultimate Gamer title, just a little bit. But me, as the Ultimate Detective? I…I highly doubt I'm ever going to be qualified for that.'

A bashful look makes its way on his face. "It's just something I'm theorizing based on what I've noticed so far." His expression suddenly turns serious. "I've already mentioned it back then, but when Alter Ego erased our memories, you received the worst of it, no doubt to make you forget about that part of your life. And if you can't remember any of it, then it's reasonable to assume it'd also dull the talent you had."

'...I'm not sure if I'm completely following any of that.' As much as Chiaki thinks that, she keeps quiet, simply nodding and letting him continue.

He pauses for a second or so, before continuing on with a light chuckle. "Though, as we saw from the class trial back then, obviously it didn't work so well. Even with you being unfairly handicapped compared to everyone else, you were still able to expose the blackened and then saved the remaining Ultimates."

"So you think I'm the Ultimate Detective because of that?" She questions, tilting her head a bit.

Komaeda keeps smiling. "Why wouldn't I? You even took well to investigating the crime scene and correctly deduced the true blackened from that. When you think about it, it doesn't sound that farfetched, doesn't it?"

That makes Chiaki bite the inner part of her cheek. She's not sure how she should reply to that. She can't deny the logic that Komaeda presented to her, and it does sound very believable. But, at the same time, someone like her as the Ultimate Detective? Not to mention…

The loud ding of a bell interrupts the now flow of their conversation.

"Ah, looks like our meals are ready. Please let me go get them." Komaeda tells her while getting up from his seat,

As Chiaki watches him leave their table for that, she rewinds back to their conversation for a bit. With a quiet sigh, she stares out at the window. There's actually another reason why she'd rather not think about that some more, and why she let it remain unsaid instead of bringing it up.

'If that's true, then it'd mean that my entire life is a lie. I don't know what I'd do if that ever happened.'

It didn't take long for Komaeda to come back to their table. "I'm back, Nanami. I hope I didn't take too long." He happily proclaims, all while carrying two plates in his hands. He hands over her meal to her side first, and then once he takes his own, he puts his hands together. "Thanks for the food."

"Thanks for the food." Chiaki quietly repeats, preparing to dig in for her meal.

As she lets herself eat, she desperately reassures to herself, 'Yeah, what Komaeda said back there is only something hypothetical. There's no way something like that can ever happen.'


Evening is starting to set in.

A lot has happened today, and Chiaki's going to be very honest here. She just got really drained by everything; far too many things happened since the day started, and even without all the…nightmarish things in mind, she's sure that her limited social battery is past its limit by now. That's why, instead of hanging around the new areas at the Second Island, she goes and heads back to the First Island.

It did feel a little weird walking back on the bridge by herself, but she supposes she'll get herself used to it overtime. While she's on the way back, she nearly stops when she comes across the remains of the Gorilla Monobeast.

'Monokuma didn't even bother to clean that up, huh. I wonder if he's keeping that around as a message not just to us, but to the other Monobeasts too.'

She stares at it for a while, before making herself run out of there as quick as she can. There's something about that fact that made her even sicker about it than before.

Thankfully, it didn't take long before she got back to the First Island. And now that she's back here, she's also been thinking of getting back to her cottage before it gets fully dark. But at the same time...there's also something else she's been thinking of.

'I wonder if I can play a few rounds at the game machines before heading back. It wouldn't hurt to treat myself for now, and besides, it shouldn't be that long, I think. Maybe.'

Her mind is made up, and so, she heads exactly towards Hotel Mirai's lobby. And as soon as she's there, she pauses from walking any further. Even from this distance, she can see Ibuki's hanging around, but aside from her, there's no one else in the lobby.

'Well, there goes my plan of enjoying myself.' Chiaki muses to herself, and then as she thought more about it, she then wonders, 'But hmm, on second thought, maybe I can talk to her before going back. Just a little bit won't hurt, right? Besides, it might be more awkward if I left just like that.'

With that change in plan, she carefully approaches the other girl, and after deliberating for a moment or so, she softly calls out to her. "Hey, uh, Ibuki?"

Ibuki perks up, and she turns to face her. "Oh, hey there, Chi!" She grins, enthusiastically waving at her, and from the looks of it, she still looks full of energy about it.

Chiaki admits that even seeing that is a bit overwhelming; she hopes that doesn't look really obvious that. "Hey hey, Ibuki."

Ibuki walks towards her. Her head tilts from up to down, like she's eyeing everything about her. "You know, I've been wondering something."

That makes Chiaki tilt her head. "Oh, what is it?"

A very seductive smirk makes its way on Ibuki's face. "What brings a cutie like you around here?" She playfully asks with a giggle, and she's even wiggling her eyebrows for extra effect.

Chiaki tries to ignore the heat rising up in her cheeks, even if she's holding onto her bag's straps a lot tighter than she usually does. "You know, this might be a bit sudden, but, uh, I've been wondering if we could…you know, hang out together?"

Ibuki's eyes go wide, and she puts a hand over her mouth in shock. "WOAH, you really wanna hang out with me?" She repeats in a disbelieving, yet also somewhat pleasantly surprised voice.

"Yeah, I think so." Chiaki affirms with a nod.

"You're making Ibuki feel really honored with that." She confidently smirks while crossing her arms together. And then she relaxes, back to a more playful mood, so to say. "But alright, now that's enough about me. Now tell me a little bit more about yourself!"

Chiaki nearly jumps back from how sudden that was. "Um, are you really sure about that?" She fidgets over the straps of her bag. 'I don't think I'm that interesting at all.'

Ibuki rapidly nods, a big, goofy smile on her face. "Of course I'm sure!"

'Looks like I don't have much of a choice there, then.' Chiaki tries to rack her mind up for an answer, and so far, it, well…doesn't look so good so far. "Er, uh…" While thinking about it some more, she then admits to herself, 'I'm going a bit blank here, and I don't know if I should tell her about my love for games. Not everyone's into them, and I can't say for sure with her. At least, not this early.'

"Hmm, how does Ibuki make this easier?" Ibuki suddenly speaks up, and then she scrunches her face, closing her eyes and thinking out loud. After a few seconds pass by, her eyes open up again, and she exclaims, "Ooh, I know! Is there any instruments you like to play around with?"

'…Instruments?' Chiaki internally repeats. "Um…" She tries to think of something, but other than most of the not-so-real instruments from rhythm games, her mind is going blank at that. "I…I don't think I have any experience with real ones, actually."

"Oh…" Ibuki blinks, before turning back for a moment and slightly whispering to herself, "Oh boy, Ibuki just dug herself into a hole, didn't she? Gotta remember that not everyone's into that kind of thing next time."

'I messed up right there, didn't I?' Chiaki quickly thinks of a way to save the conversation from getting any more awkward than it already is. She puts her hands up, backtracking from that with, "But, you know, I wouldn't mind learning more about them from you."

"Woah, woah, woah, you really sure about that?" Ibuki asks, and now, her cheeks look a bit pinker than usual.

Chiaki sincerely nods. "Yeah, I really do mean it. I've never held a real instrument, but I've seen a lot of other people play all sorts of different ones, and I thought that they looked kind of fun. I just, you know, never really got the chance to ever learn much about it, I guess."

And just like that, Ibuki doubles down on her cheery, hyperactive self. "You better prepare yourself for next time, then! I'll try not to flirt with you too much during those lessons, but that ain't a promise!" She winks, playfully sticking her tongue out and striking up some kind of pose.

'Wait, what?' Chiaki processes over those words in her mind again, and as soon as she did, she couldn't stop her face from heating up even more. "I...uh...oh...oh my..."

That makes the other girl burst out in full laughter, to the point of holding over her belly and wiping at her eyes. "Ibuki's totally kidding with that! Oh boy, you should've seen the look on your face!"

Chiaki stares at her for a good second or so. As it dawns upon her, she scrunches up her face, puffing her cheeks and huffing at her. "Hmph. That was really mean, you know?"

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist it. You're just way too adorable, you know." Ibuki shamelessly giggles, poking at her cheek with a finger.

As they both part ways for now, Chiaki hears her e-Handbook beep once again. She takes it out of her bag, and as she expected by now, she got another Hope Fragment in there, this time from Ibuki. She looks over it a few more times, and then puts it back in her bag.

A lot of terrible things happened, but maybe the next day on this island wouldn't be so bad.


A/N: Hoo boy, I swear writing this ended up a LOT longer than I expected, and we're not even halfway through in-game Chapter 2 just yet with this. Here's to hoping that this doesn't become too much of a recurring pattern, otherwise this whole chapter might become one heck of a doorstopper, even way more compared to my plans for it haha.

But yeah, for now, things might stay on the more light-hearted side. Can't torment everyone too much with the Despair™, after all.