"There's got to be something in here."

I couldn't help but sigh as I leafed through the Ultimate Neurologist's book, once again trying to find something to explain what I had heard about during the night before, while occasionally looking at the dozens of monitors to see how the students were holding up.

Even though they were all currently in the cafeteria having an emergency meeting, it never helped to be too cautious. After the motive was given, and both Sayaka and Makoto took off, Taka had requested for all of them to meet up at lunch time to discuss what they were going to do about it. While his request was met with a few grumbles, they were all far too shaken up to really argue against him, so with heavy hearts they all left the A/V room; some, faster and with either more fear or purpose in their step then others.

Unfortunately, while I knew I should be listening in to make sure nothing bad happened, I was still distracted. Last night's events had left me feeling rather fatigued and it made focusing rather difficult. Then if that wasn't a factor, there was the exhausting conversation I'd had.

"Alright, just got to get a few more and we are set."

Walking out of one of the dorm rooms with a small box held under my arm and kicking the door close, I let a sigh of relief pass though my lips. After the Monokuma unit had finally delivered the armbands from Soda, I had decided it would be a wise idea to get them put onto the students before things got too dicey. While I didn't really want to be putting these bands on them, I had no intension of letting a bunch of exploding armbands stay near me for any longer than necessary.

Call me what you will, I have no intention of dying a second time if I could help it.

Now, normally I wouldn't have been able to do any form of circumstance. Not only would I have to slip these things onto someone like the Ultimate Solider, whose reaction might not have been very good for my wellbeing considering what nearly happened to the Ultimate Luckster, but some of them were unknowingly following the example of said luckster by staying awake to toss and turn with anxiety.

It always amazed me to see how in sync some of them were with each other, even with the memory wipe.

Of course, these weren't normal circumstances, were they? Whereas before I never would have been able to get into their rooms to put these on them, now I had access to a terminal that had an excessive amount of tricks and traps to use on them. Like, for example, a massive amount of knock out gas that just so happens to be connected to all of the rooms of the dorm.

Now obviously, despite what I just said about it being a 'massive amount of knock out gas', there was a limit to how much I could use before it ran out. This was especially true when I was spraying it into a bunch of rooms at once instead of one. By my estimate, I could maybe do this kind of thing two or three more times; more if I managed to get them into one room. Why Junko had never used this, I'll never know.

Anyway, after making sure that they were all asleep, I carefully picked up the box of dangerous heart monitors and continued the task of giving them to the others.

"Just got to take care of Toko, Sayaka, Makoto, and Kyoko and I can finally get some shut eye." Doing my best to suppress the yawn that tried to escape, I readjusted the much lighter box in my grip, and moved from in front of the little programmer's room in favor of the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

I was thankful that when Junko had taken over that she had possessed the foresight to grab the headmasters E-handbook before his brutal demise. Not to say his death was a good thing, hell no. A good man got killed to allow a twisted megalomaniac free reign over his school. Nothing about that was any good.

But, thanks to that I was able to go where ever I wanted and unlock any door, even those of the students. Combined with the key to the Monokuma tunnels and I was basically all but uncatchable. Yeah, it was kinda cheating to use them, but I'm the mastermind right now. If I can't use all of the tools in my arsenal to get things done, then what's the point in continuing to try to keep them safe?

Forcibly removing the thought from my mind, I held my handbook up to the almost invisible electronic lock, and after hearing the click of the tumblers unlocking, I swiftly pushed open the door and began to scan the room for my bookish target.

Similar to the others, Toko hadn't had much in the way of personalizing her room just yet. A small personal shelf filled with several hardback books, most likely copies of her works, a few massive stacks of clean paper alongside some piles of crumpled paper in the bin next to them which were likely some failed story drafts she didn't like, a small pile of discarded clothes that needed a wash, a small single bulb night light plugged into the wall, and scarily enough, a small sharpening and honing tool poking out from under her bed.

A shiver passed through my spine. I knew all too well what those things were for.

Ignoring the tools and books, I started making my way over to the bed, pulling Toko's new armband out of the box as I did so. As I approached, I couldn't stop from looking at the lump on the mattress.

For some reason she had completely covered herself from head to toe in her sheets. Now, I had seen my fair share of sleeping habits over the years, especially now since I got a front row seat to watching these guys, but I always found it strange when someone covered themselves like this. With the sheets covering your head, you ended up limiting your air flow and for some people it made them overheat from both their hot breath and natural body heat reflecting back at them. I myself had done the same this many times.

To be honest though, it seemed like she was comfortable like this. Why, if I didn't know better I'd say she looked so calm that you'd think she wasn't even alive from how much she wasn't moving.

"…Wait a minute."

Quickly grabbing the corner of the covers in a panic, I quickly threw them off of her. I then stared blankly at the small mound of pillows occupying the space of what should have been the Ultimate Writing Prodigy. While I felt a sense of relief that she wasn't dead yet, I couldn't help but realize something terrible.

"I've been had."

This thought would have continued had I not felt someone's arms quickly snake their way around my stomach and shoulders, a warm body pressing bodily to my back and restricting my movements. Warm breath tickled my ear as my holder's embrace slowly tightened in an almost loving way. I say almost, because I was acutely aware of something long, silver, and noticeably sharp, being pointed at my throat, held in the dainty grasp of slender fingers.

Then, as if just to disgust and disturb me, a long, slimy, thing brushed up against my ear causing a violent shiver to rush down my spine. Then a voice, high in pitch and oh so deeply disturbed whispered into my ear. "Oh, undoubtedly so."

In this moment I think my 'flight or fight' response kicked into overdrive. I didn't think. I didn't breathe. I only reacted.

Instantly, my hand shot up between the gap between her arm and my neck, blocking the sharp blades access to my jugular. Then, with my life momentarily secured, I slammed the heel of my foot into the toes of my captor, inducing a grunt of pain from them. Not giving them a chance to respond more, I quickly snaked my arm around theirs and after securing it under my armpit, I used my other hand to grip their wrist.

Now that they couldn't use their weapon, I took a slight step back to keep them pressed against my back. Bending my knees, a bit, I then balanced them on my hips before twisting and dropping them to the ground like a stone, never letting go of their arm as I did so. With my attacker winded, I quickly positioned myself so that their shoulder was right between my knees and then I twisted the arm and bend their wrist just enough to cause them a little pain whilst also making sure that I could both keep the death weapon from getting near me, and to make it so that I would only need to move ever so slightly to break the arm if necessary.

I was so caught up in my adrenaline induced high that I had plumb forgot to examine the person I was holding on to, I was even about to bust up their arm just to show how much I meant business. Fortunately, for my female attacker, it could only be a girl considering the pitch, her spontaneous and rather out of place laughter snapped me out of my trance.

"Kyehheheh!" She laughed loudly despite how much pain she should be in. "Boy, you still don't mess around with the foreplay, do ya Shiro-chan? Or is it Kuro-kun running the helm right now? How's my old cut-cut buddy today?"

"Toko?" I stared down at the unmistakable form of Toko Fukawa, utterly confused as to what she was talking about. 'Shiro-chan? Kuro-kun? Cut-cut buddy?' my mind was completely lost as to what she meant by these terms.

But as I gazed upon her form, I noticed that there were somethings out of place. For one, her eyes had changed from her normal off purple hue and almost eternally nervous expression to a dark blood red color with a completely twisted look in them. For another, in addition to her unsettling grin, her tongue, which any KISS fan would probably nod in approval of at its absurd length, was dangling out of her mouth completely. Finally, looking at the weapon that had been at my throat mere moments ago, I saw that they were a long pair of unnecessarily long scissors that had been sharpened to a point on both sides, including the side that is normally dull to prevent accidents.

"No, you're that Genocide side of hers. What are you doing out?" It was strange. From what I could remember, the only things that could make this side of Toko come out was either the sight of blood, when she sneezed, and when she was knocked unconscious. Of course, there also that Taser gun as well, but that wouldn't be a factor for a long time. So, just what was she doing out?

"Who knows." She shrugged, or at least she tried to despite the difficultly such an action was with my knees buried into her shoulder. "Got to say though love, it's nice to actually wake up in a bed for once. First time that's happened!"

I stared down at the serial killer with my brow raised, trying to think of why she would have shown up while Toko was sleeping. Not once while I was watching them did Toko switch over to this side of hers. If she had, I should have noticed.

Then a thought occurred to me. "Hey, Genocider, you wouldn't happen to come out from knock out gas too, would you?"

Again she laughed in her maniacal way, then she turned her head to address me. "What kind of question is that? Of course it would! Whenever miss bore goes for an unscheduled nap, you can bet that I'll be up to play! Though that does explain why I feel so much more sluggish then normal."

Ah, so that's what happened. "So when I gassed the place, you came out in response. That makes enough sense to me."

She nodded in confirmation, wicked smile still intact. "Now is that something I'd never thought I'd hear; mister miss no fun gassing a poor girl in the night. Such a naughty person you are. Now, could you get off me? I mean, I'm all for some kinky fun, but this serial killer doesn't swing for the girl on girl action. Especially when I'm in the sub roll."

Ignoring her perverted commentary, I'd heard worst on my many adventures to the internet, I acknowledged her request and let go. Holding out a hand, I then helped her stand up with her free arm.

Now, you might think I'm insane to let a professed, proud, and proven serial murderer go, let alone help them up after they had me at scissor point. But in my case, I knew I wouldn't have to worry. After all, I'm not a pretty boy. Genocide Jack, or Jill, or Sho, whichever you called her, was only interested in utilizing her crucifixion fetish on men in their teenage years that just so happened to be either real hot, or really cute; never anyone else.

So while she did scare me a little bit, I mean, who wouldn't be terrified of an infamous serial killer; I knew I didn't have any reason to be afraid for my life, even with her around.

"So," she said in an inquisitive tone, looking me in the eye a bit too deeply for my tastes as she briefly rotated her wrist a bit to work out any kinks that might have popped up from my rough handling. "Kuro-kun, how's my favorite cut-cut buddy doing on this dark and foreboding of nights, hmm? Sneaking into a girl's room all on your own, doing who know what kind of things to her. So daring!"

There's that name again. Kuro-kun. In all honesty, she shouldn't even know who I am since it was implied both in the game and the animation that she had never actually meet Junko face to face. Though even with that, it was unusual that she didn't know Junko's name, despite the fact that aside from Mukuro, she should be one of the only ones in this school who would have at least heard of it; even with me dressed in the blue jacket and pants.

"First of all," I stated in a matter of fact tone. "I'm only in here to give Toko her heart-monitor arm-band, not to get frisky. Second, why are you calling me Kuro-kun and cut-cut buddy? And finally, how do you even know who I am?"

In the reason for the last question, again I point to the game. In this case, when Junko had revealed herself to the survivors, she had the group bring out Genocider to prove a point about the outside. As Genocider is a completely different personality in Toko's head, they didn't share memories, so despite one of them losing their memories of the Tragedy, the far less sane one still had them. However, again, when Genocider came out, she didn't recognize who the mastermind was, despite having all of her memories intact.

At first she didn't say anything, simply tilting her head slightly in confusion. Then, her face brightened up with a look of realization before she snorted and broke out in laughter, hands pressing flat against her ribs as peals of chuckles rolled out at her. Giving her a minute to compose herself, I crossed my arms over my chest and began tapping my foot impatiently.

"You done?" I questioned her. After a moment of brief chuckles, she nodded once and at my signal for her to continue, began her explanation.

"The woman called Junko, is a face of two. A woman with a white heart of despair, who only loves the allure of the immoral pain she brings to all with her half-truths of hope. Alongside her is the boy with blackened heart of hope, whose twisted mind is always trying to bestow onto others healing hope with despairing lies. They clash and fight. Their goals becoming twisted in their strife, but alas, there's never a peaceful day for you or your plight."

Well, it was more a kind of twisted poetic verse then an explanation. It did simultaneously explain nothing that I'd asked for, and yet answered so much I hadn't even thought about.

No, it didn't tell me about the names all that much, but it did confirm my suspicion that I had apparently had some form of prior influence on Junko's actions. It also brought to light that this strange person before me knew far more then she possibly should have.

There was more to this situation then I'd initially thought.

"How do you know all of that?" Again, my question was met with crazed laughter, causing my face to scrunch up in irritation. What on earth could she keep finding so funny about my questions? Oh how I hate being left out of the joke.

After another minute of waiting for her to calm down, or at least as calm as she could get, she looked me right in the eye, and while trying to resist bursting out in laughter again. "Oi, she really did a number on you Kuro-kun. Can't even remember that you were the one who asked me to tell you that bunch of dribble."

… What?

"and after all of the fun we'd had, the time you brought me out to meet my master on the veranda, the first time you helped me cover up my little moment in the showers, actually making my gloomy self, negotiate with me for times of freedom, and the times we would spend carving up cuts for the slack-jaws of our class when we weren't plotting against your other half. All those happy memories, gone like all those halfwits in the wind. Pity."

For a brief moment, my mind crashed as a terrible thought occurred to me. Memories. If what this psychotic, blood lusting girl was talking about was accurate, then the students weren't the only one who lost the last two years of their lives. I mean, I figured that I wouldn't be able to recall some of it because of my awakening. But to hear that I was actually missing those memories was radically different then beliefs biased on assumptions.

It also meant that, with these holes in my memory, there was chances that what little I did know about the past thanks to the novels and plot pieces during the games could be all but worthless now. If I had possessed that much more influence before the tragedy, then what I had originally thought of this situation could be radically different.

Take Soda for example. Even when the others were being influenced to change physically, he was one of the ones who remained the same. If the changes the other members were undertaking were accurate to what their real bodies had to endure, then he should have remained the same here too. However, as the robot arm and various scaring he had were drastically different from the original game, it was clear that things were changed somewhat here.

'But,' I thought to myself as I glanced at the jabbering serial killer next to me, the gears turning in my head. 'maybe that's why she knows me in the first place.'

It would make sense, of all of the students here at the school, she would be the best one to choose to help me along the way. Well, maybe 'best' is a bit too strong a word here; but logically she'd be the only real choice. As Genocider doesn't share memories with Toko, anything I'd tell her would immediately be safe from whatever sort of mind erasing that the others would have gone through. So just like Mukuro would be Junko's spy and knife, the crazy girl would be mine if I had been able to convince her.

Also, if the pre-sequel was any indication, Toko could freaking tank anything thrown at her! Seriously, in my time running through the game she was smacked, trashed, sliced, stabbed, clawed, electrocuted countlessly, freaking blown up on multiple accounts, nearly crushed, and chewed on with exploding chattering teeth; and that was only during easy mode! She may not be the Ultimate fighter, or solider, but if I needed someone to back me up, then I would pick the psycho tank every time!

But that begets the question, "So, since you know who I am, what did I do to get you to want help me?"

Ever since then the questions had been piling up. What all was changed? What did I manage to influence during my time? When and why did I gain control of this body, and for what reason was I the only occupant now?

I just kept running those thoughts in my mind, and similar questions kept running through my mind while my flipping through the neurologist's journal, looking for some kind of confirmation to the rather… bizarre tale. No matter what I said about her, I wasn't going to blindly trust a serial killer.

As I continued to think about what she'd told me, I stopped trying to rush through the book and found my next entrée. However, after skimming though it I had to pause a moment to check and see if what I'd read was what I'd thought it was.

"Things have been getting rather weird during the last week. Junko has been experiencing several moments of lost time, each one of different length then the last. The first time that happened, I found her at the gym not too far from the school doing a yoga class for about an hour. Then the next time she vanished on me I found her in the school's cafeteria with that fat little cook making an Italian dish of some sort. The next, she went to an arcade and spent three whole hours on some dance game they had. All things that she had never done before, and every time I asked her what she had been doing, she would respond as if she hadn't a clue what I was talking about.

That wasn't the only thing weird thing she's been experiencing. Yesterday she came to me talking about the single most bizarre dream she'd ever had where she was in some kid's room at night with only a flashlight. While she was there, she had to run to either the closet, the bed, or the two hallways on either side of the room and use the torch to keep away these unsettling depictions of a bear, duck, rabbit, and fox of all things. But when I tried to comfort her about it she said, 'It was scary as all hell, but that was the most fun dream I'd ever had.'

Not a single one of those events top the most resent one though. Today I caught her chatting with one of the kids from my class, some kind of crazy musician I've been avoiding like the plague. But this wasn't like when she normally talks with people. Junko was using these strange quotes I couldn't ever recall her using before, and for what feels like the first time since we were kids, she was laughing sincerely; for a moment it was like she was an entirely different person. It only stopped when she walked away, and when she did, she looked around like she didn't know how she'd gotten there.

I've been watching her ever since and I believe I may have a theory as to why she has these moments. See even with the parts of the brain that I removed, the ones I replaced them with must still have parts of that guy's memories stored away in the neurons. Therefore, it could very well be that the times where she lost control could possibly be parts of his mind trying to reestablish itself and the conflicting memories are causing her to try and act out the old memories in an attempt allow them to properly anchor them into the new brain, but because they aren't supposed to be there, she's subconsciously suppressing them afterwards when she leaves the location that brings up these memories.

That's just my theory though, I'll have to do some more investigating to know for sure."

Well, that certainly helped. So I did apparently have moments of control, maybe not consciously as he suggested, but they still happened none the less. And if what he was saying is accurate, then the reason I couldn't remember was because Junko herself couldn't remember. It was very likely, but only considering one little fact.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Reading fiction and playing games is far from the only things I have decent knowledge of. I know a lot of little things brought on by bursts of curiosity and access to various books, people willing to share their knowledge, or more recently and extensively, the world wide web. One of those things is the fact that the idea of 'swapping minds' is scientifically impossible; and yes I realize my situation may make you believe otherwise, but here me out.

I once had a conversation with both a psychologist and an actual neurologist on the subject, and according to them, when your memories form they are stored, not through simple electric impulses as most fiction writers tend to believe, but as a physical cluster of neurons that are set to fire in a specific sequence that when fired in a way similar to how the original experience was arranged create memories. In other words, your mind and the memories that make you who you are isn't a simple signal ricocheting around in your head, but is a solid set of circuits that collectively make up who you are.

That's why I could believe this journal and what its author was telling me. Since he transferred parts of my brain into hers, as ludicrous as that sounds, then it would only make sense that things that my mind remembered as important to me would cause my part of the brain to try and make her do things that she would have no memories of herself.

Her attending a yoga class? I always attended one every chance I could to keep myself limber. Cooking with Teruteru? I was majoring in culinary school and was almost always responsible for the pasta or grain dish during most presentations since it was my best field of study. Even her nightmare could be attributed to one dream that I may or may not have been having after failing to beat a curtain game; yet finding joy in trying anyway.

So I sucked at a game, I was not playing to impress anyone, I was there for fun.

My inability to best horror games aside, with my actions causing her to act out like me, then there was a good possibility that in one of my moments of takeover she could have induced the event that lead to Genocider swearing to assist me in my time as the mastermind.

It also kind of explained the naming thing she did with me. While she was out, she had this strange habit of giving out bizarre names that vaguely fit whomever she'd give it too. Calling me that strange name was most likely her way of remembering me properly instead of Junko.

But that also raised the question, if it only lasted for a few hours before, why did I not switch back long ago? Not that it isn't sort of appreciated, but unless something drastic happened to cause this change in status quo, then I really should have swapped back with her long before now. So what gives?

As I pondered, I turned my attention back to the cameras as the students seemed to be finishing their meeting and were heading back to their dorm rooms for the most part. Hina decided that she needed something to calm her nerves and had recruited Sakura for security and to share a cup of tea or two before they went to bed. If what I knew of the game still applied, then it was likely she was going to ask the fighter to sleepover with her afterwards to help them remain safe.

Kiyotaka was planning to do a few last sweeps of the rooms to make sure nothing could possibly come out and get anyone, and had somehow managed to get Mondo to join him. And finally, Hiro decided to try the same thing, but with the intent of finding his missing crystal ball more so then looking for tricks and traps that I didn't even hide.

I sighed to myself for what felt like the hundredth time, "At least they're trying to keep themselves safe better than they did in the game."

I hated that I kept returning to the game as my point of reference for their future actions, but even with the changes that I'd caused, things seemed to be progressing in a similar fashion to the canonical story. From the introductions, to Celeste offering them a supplementary rule of not leaving their rooms after lights out, they seemed to follow the same general pace. Oh, there had been some deviations from the standard affair like with Mukuro and Toko, but for the most part things had been progressing rather similarly.

Glancing at the cameras again I quickly checked out their rooms to see what was going on. As I mentioned before, with the exception of the afore mentioned Taka, Mondo, Hina, Sakura, and Hiro, all of the students had gone straight to their dorms. While there, several of them had taken to lamenting their despair in their own way.

Makoto had taken out his frustration on the paper bulletin that explained the rules of lights out, and had thrown the crumpled up sheet into the trash before sitting miserably on his bed, staring at his band all the while. Leon had violently beat on his pillow for about ten minutes, before collapsing in an exhausted heap. Celeste, meanwhile, was swearing up a storm so massive that I doubt a seasoned sailor would be able to withstand the on slot, and Chihiro was trying to break my heart with her teary face as she tried to get a hold of herself.

Both Hifumi and Toko were taking their frustrations and fears out on several piles of paper with either their writing or drawings, while Byakuya was trying to compose himself by running himself through several strategies; at least I assume so, since he was muttering to himself as he wrote on his notepad. Kyoko was the only one who seemed unfazed by the events, and had gone straight to bed. Though, I should mention that I didn't like how Mukuro was looking at her closet with steely eyes.

Lastly there was Sayaka who had been freaking out the most since the motive was shown. After Makoto managed to catch up with her, he managed to calm her down with a promise to help keep her safe and to help her escape. Unfortunately, she'd been quite and withdrawn since then, even going as far as to turn in early, and now she was…

"… Where did Sayaka go?"

With a start, I quickly started looking at all of the cameras trying desperately to find the Idol. When I did though, I glared with contempt were she was headed.

"Looks like someone needs a talking to."

Sayaka was distraught, lost in her despair as she walked towards the kitchen whist reviewing her plan in her head. After seeing that video, she knew in her head that she needed to get out, but to do that, she would need the death of another student on her hands. Right now, that only gave her one opinion. The only person who would willingly let her in to their room was Makoto, so as much as she wished it didn't have to come to killing off her old acquaintance from her previous school, it was the only thing she could think of on short notice.

'I'm sorry Makoto,' she apologized mentally, 'but I have to get out of here, no matter the cost. I hope you can forgive me.'

It tore her up inside even as she slowly made her way to the only place in the school that had anything close to a weapon, but she had come too far and given up too much to let these thoughts and grievances hold her back. For everything she'd worked for, he had to die. But for that to happen, she needed a weapon.

Call her morals what you will, but she was far from stupid. She knew that if she attempted anything unarmed, even with his rather lacing physique, she had no doubt that she'd be overpowered by him fairly easily. Since after he had eventually caught up to her after her freak out, he was able to hold on to her despite her panicked thrashing about, so she couldn't deny that fact.

If she was going to do the dirty deed of ending his life, she would need something to assist in the process; despite how sickening the idea was.

Shaking her head to momentarily clear her thoughts, the idol walked into the cafeteria room with a quickened pace. With nighttime just around the corner, she knew she'd have to work fast if she was going to get a kitchen knife before she ended up locked in the kitchen till morning. And considering that the rules stated sleeping anywhere other than the dorms would result in punishment, she definitely didn't want to be there all night.

Opening the doors to the kitchen, she was momentarily stunned to find the massive form of Sakura, and the swimmer Aoi were still in the kitchen. She hadn't known that they would be here at this time of night, and for a moment she was worried they had somehow caught wind of her plans beforehand. However, a quick glance in front of Asahina quickly revealed a still steaming pot and an assortment of boxes labeled for tea quickly assured her that it was just a coincidence that they'd run into each other.

"Oh, hey." The idol said with an eye closed smile, easily hiding her anxiety form the two much more physically powerful girls. "Sorry to interrupt, I just needed to get a drink before I went to bed. Something to calm the nerves, you know?"

For a moment, she felt herself tense up at their questioning gazes, terrified that they would call her bluff. Thankfully for her and her nerves, Hina nodded her head with a smile of understanding.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, Sakura and I were doing the same thing. I figured if we were going to do this anyway, I'd go all out and make some Royal Milk tea. Do you want any, Maizono?"

Thankful for the tan skinned girl's naiveté, Sayaka shook her head in negative. "No thanks, I'm just going to grab a water bottle from the fridge if it's all the same to you."

Without another word, the idol walked passed them, purposefully ignoring their gazes as she did so. After grabbing a water bottle from the fridge to avoid suspicion, she slowly made her way back to the doorway, ready to swipe one of the knifes from the magnetic holster hanging above the counter top…

Only to find they were all missing.

Her eyes widened in fear and realization as a terrifying sound of grinding metal sang from across the room, startling both her and the other girls. All eyes shot over to the corner of the room were the unwanted figure of Monokuma sat, carefully sliding one of the very knives Sayaka had been looking for over a flat sharpening stand. Sitting next to their plush looking captor was the rest of the knifes, all arranged by size, the largest being held by the bear as it slowly and methodically slid the blade across the oiled stone.

As if just noticing them for the first time, the bear paused in its work to give them an almost dead panned look. "Looking for something?"

Sakura was the first to recover, stepping in front or the others in a protective stance in case the bear tried to harm one of them. "What are you doing here, Monokuma?"

"My job. What else?" the bear stated rudely before returning to its work, continuing to talk as it did so. "I don't think you quite realize this yet, but this place needs constant maintenance in order to run correctly. While the basic choirs are up for you guys to keep up with, it's my job to do literally everything else. Keeping the utensils nice, clean, and sharp at the end of the day is just one of these tasks, since I highly doubt any of you know about proper knife care."

The bear paused in its care to hold up the blade and look down the edge to see if it seemed correct, before flipping it over to work on the other side. "I know that it's a thankless job. But if I didn't do this kind of thing every other night, then you'd all just have shoddy equipment all the time. Which, I assure you, is far more frustrating than it might sound."

Taking another look at the blade, their captor nodded satisfied before wiping the blade clean of the oils and metal fragments. Then, after placing the tool down grabbed the next one in the row before starting the process again.

Despite how intimidating the sight was, Aoi took a slight step forward while still remaining slightly behind Sakura. "I-If you don't like it so much, then why don't you just let us go?"

Again the bear stopped in its work to regard her, but it returned back to its patient grinding with a sigh of frustration. "Geez, I'm starting to think water isn't the only thing in your ears. It's like I told you, the only way out of here if to ether successfully kill someone without getting caught, or to go a year without making an attempt; not even I am exempt from that, and I'm only allowed to kill rule breakers, so unless one of you breaks a rule were no one will see you die, I'm stuck here just as much as you brain hampered clods. So even if I wanted to leave, I can't unless one of you bests this game."

That certainly caught their attention. "So, even you have to follow the rules? Then we shouldn't worry about you killing anyone of us, right?"

This time the Bear didn't even look at the swimmer as it finished sharpening up another blade. "Nope, I'm not going to kill anyone, barring rule breakers, I can promise you that much. So if you find a corpse lying about, you can bet that sweet ass of yours that it wasn't directly my fault."

Though she shouted a disgruntled "Hey!" with a deep blush, Hina couldn't deny that it did give her some reassurance that they wouldn't have to worry about the bear using those knifes on them. Though it didn't stop the apprehension she felt seeing it with the bladed culinary utensils in the first place.

"Anyway, I've still got to finish fixing these up, so unless either of you know how to sharpen a blade, I'll remind you that it'll be lights out soon. If any of you wish to stay help clean up then I'll overlook the lock down for a few extra minutes; but, only a few."

The two athletes took the hint and proceeded to take their recently finished drink and headed out with their pot and cups to Aoi's room. Sayaka, however, decided to walk over to the bear and after staring at the bear in worry, slowly bend over and picked up the knives that had already been sharpened and carefully stepped back away before turning away and began putting away the bladed instruments.

As she was doing so, she occasionally glanced back at the bear to make sure it didn't notice as she slowly lifted up her shirt, ready to slip the blade into the seam of her skirt. However, it was at that moment that the bear spoke up.

"You know, if you do this you'll never be able to take it back. A simple, 'I'm sorry' won't cut it. The blood on your hands won't be something you will be able to just wash off and forget about like a little bit of dirt and grim, you will have to live with it for the rest of your life. Can you really say that you'll be okay with that?"

The cold words gripped into her soul as she clenched her hand tighter around the handle of the knife, a cold sweat ran down her face. She had known what the bear was saying was true, she had thought about such things herself. But where she could simply push the thought away before, now the bear was forcing it to the forefront of her mind.

Was she okay with this? No, she could never be fine with what she was about to do. It was murder and betrayal, plain and simple. And worst, it would be the murder of a close friend who trusted her, one who had promised to help her in her time of need.

It was like a knife twisted in her gut at the thought of it, the sweet boy who's smile could light up even the darkest of moods twisted with a look of betrayal and loathing as the light would fade from his eyes, but if she was to continue her life and rejoin her fellow Idols, then his would have to end here.

So, without a word she slipped the bladed weapon out of sight, and with a heavy heart she marched out, ignoring the sudden weight she felt and the disappointed glare she felt burrowing into her back.

I glared at her back with so much loathing. Of flipping course she would be the first one to try anything. She was the first one in the game to make an attempt then, so obviously she would be the first one to attempt a murder.

In hindsight, I should have seen this coming. Of all of them, she had been the least mentally prepared for this kind of thing. She had put everything she'd had into her band, even once admitting to have done some bad things just to help them get as far as they did. After all, in such a cut throat career path that her group had taken, most people that really wanted to rise to the top had to step on a few heads to get there; sometimes even literally.

While it wasn't likely that she would have gone to such extremes as offing her competition, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility that she might have done some other reprehensible actions that went unnoticed. It was even possible that she might have even tricked or cheated it some way to boost her ratings.

Of course, that was all just speculation. As there was no proof of any form of misdeed or sabotage, then there was no need to assume so much bad about her actions.

Except, the file containing her profile said exactly what bad things she'd done to get them to the top, but I wasn't the kind of person to look at people's dirty laundry, nor do I socialize with the spooky, scary skeletons lurking in their closets.

That being said, now that she was armed, I had to pay even more attention to her movements to keep her from killing anybody.

Now you might be asking, "If you really wanted to stop her, why didn't you just get rid of the knifes in the first place?" Three reasons.

One, if I were to take away the kitchen knives, then that would mean I'd have to remove all of the forks, spoons, butter knives, pencils, keys, pillows, blankets… Basically, anything and anything a desperate person could use to kill someone. That would have caused a lot of suspicion that I didn't need brought up, and even then she could simply do something like choking someone out. So, unless I did something drastic like isolating her in her room, which goes against the rule that lets them explore the floors unhindered; with the exception of the locked off floors, of course.

Two, even if I did break my own rules after clearly telling her about how even I had to follow them, then I'd have to do the same for all of the others. If I did that, it would make my words seem even less trustworthy then before, and might inspire them to do something even more reckless to escape. It would be complete anarchy trying to reign them in after that, and would likely result in some truly desperate actions.

Finally, even if she didn't try anything, Mukuro was going to be after Makoto's life from here on out. It was likely that if this hadn't happened, she would have taken him out within the next few days; provided someone else didn't kill someone else first.

Now, one could say that wasn't true considering that Mukuro didn't kill the luckster during the I.F. novel when she was alone with him in the nurse's office. But in that case, everyone knew she was watching over him at the time, so she'd be called out instantly.

Anyways, with all that in mind, I had very little doubts that little miss idol would actually kill the boy. I knew she didn't before, but just to be on the safe side I turned on the Monokuma in Makoto's room, which was incidentally under his bed, and briefly stepped out to watch the show and wait for my cue.

For the boy called the Ultimate Lucky Student, this was the worst day of his life so far. Even when he counted the day of unfortunate events that led to him joining the school he had admired so much, it still didn't measure up to the emotional turmoil going through his mind right now.

After he had tracked Maizono down after she had rightfully freaked out he had been racking his mind to think of a way to help them all escape from this school turned prison. However, aside from doing as the bear said and simply waiting it out, he hadn't been able to think of a single thing.

At first, he had considered the metal plates again, but as Sakura and Mondo could attest there was no simple way to brute force them off of the windows. Even the bolts were impossible to remove thanks to some heavy welding that locked them up tight. The door was a no go either even without the turrets mounted above the massive barrier of lead.

Briefly he considered begging, but tossed the idea as soon as it came. No way would it be so easy to escape by simply throwing away their pride like that, and plus he doubted most of them would have even agreed to accept that option anyway. He may not know much about them yet, but even he wasn't optimistic enough to think they'd all just follow along with that kind of embarrassment.

Unfortunately, even with the many other options and ideas he could be thinking of, he couldn't focus. His mind was too wrapped up in another matter.

'Why did they kidnap Komaru?'

There was no real gain that the mastermind could have by kidnaping her that he could see since his family was about as average in every way he was. They weren't high-class, none of them were famous, and none of them made nearly enough money to warrant kidnaping her. So, aside from getting to him for some reason, there wouldn't be a point. But, as far as he knew, he'd never had an enemy that would be willing to go to such absurd lengths to get at him for some obscure reason; he didn't even know he had an enemy to begin with!

While he was greatly concerned over his missing parents as well, he now knew that his younger sister was being held against her will like he was, only she was under threat of being killed by excessive explosive. Then there was the fact that her life was now tied to his survival that really rattled his chain. There was no telling if she was going to be alright, despite what the bear said.

The entire thing just made him want to scream in frustration at his helplessness, but he didn't since he knew it wouldn't help anyone. But, that didn't stop the tears from forming at the outer edges of his eyes.

The only solace he found in the entire situation, was that their captor seemed to have the decency to make sure they'd be well taken care of while under their watchful eye. But even that was a small comport to the great amount of anguish they were experiencing.

Just as he was about to continue his depressing thoughts further, the electronic buzz of his doorbell went off, startling him.

'Who could that be at this hour?' he thought to himself, as he stood up and started making his way to the door. Despite these excruciation circumstances, he didn't have any desire to be rude to his fellow students.

Opening the door with a question of, "Who's there?" he was immediately taken aback at the sight of the blue haired idol. But as he looked closer, he could see that she under some kind of distress, clutching at the bottom of her skirt with the most disheartening look he'd seen on her face.

"M-Maizono!?" he questioned, not having expected to see her at any point that night. After she had freaked out like she did, he had assumed that she would have stayed in her room for the night. He hadn't the slightest idea of what she would be doing here at this time of night.

"Neagi, would you mind if I come in for a while?" she asked him.

I rolled my eyes as the naïve boy opened the door for the idol and let her in, wiping at his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking. The fool even closed the door behind them, making it so that their conversation wouldn't be heard from the soundproof room. And coincidentally, if either one of them died, no one would hear them scream.

… boy, that got morbid quick.

In any case, as the idol made her way over to bed and sat down, I couldn't help but groan when she started weaving a tale of someone attempting to get into her room by forcing her lock. Of course, the power of the cutesy won against any suspicion he really should have had at this point, and he not only bought it hook line and sinker, but he swallowed the hook as well.

Honestly, even I had my suspicions about her story the first time I'd heard it, but I had only believed her as well as Makoto did simply because he did. Of course, when she turned up dead in his shower the next morning, despite promising him that she wouldn't open the door for anyone, I immediately got suspicious of her. And when my suspicions of her betrayal were proven correct later, I simply shouted, "I freaking called it!"

The only thing that confused me was, why hadn't she simply stabbed him the moment he let her in and taken his key so that the others couldn't find the body. Call me cynical all you want, but if I'd been given the chance in her shoes I would have taken it the moment he turned around.

Maybe she realized that she would have been pointed out by the female athletes and decided against it, or maybe when Makoto had sworn that he would keep her safe, something in her clicked and she decided that she couldn't just kill off her only friend in this extreme situation. There was no way for me to tell.

Then, the luckster offered to let her stay in his room for the night to help keep her safe. Of course, he hadn't meant for it to sound sexual, so innocent his intentions, but that didn't stop her from insinuating.

Incidentally, that was my cue, so I had the bear crawl out from under the bed while they were lost in each other's eyes, and had the bear stare at them awkwardly until they inevitably noticed and screamed like a couple of little kids getting jump-scared while playing their first horror game. I won't lie, I got a bit of a kick out of that.

"M-Monokuma!" Makoto shouted in shocked anger as he spread his arms defensively in front of Sayaka protectively. "What is it!? What do you want!?"

I rebutted with a shout of, "Like you have to ask!" before leaning in and said with the most serious voice I could muster, "Incidentally, if you guys are planning to do something naughty I can bring you some 'protection' if you'd like."

He glared at me with a fierce blush on his face and he shouted, "I don't need your kind of protection!"

"Oh so daring!" I cried back with an obviously fake shocked tone. "To think you'd be the kind of man to go straight for the raw despite the risks, you truly must be completely lucky to believe that would be safe. Hope you're ready to take responsibility afterwards."

It took him a moment longer then I thought it would, but his face erupted in a full face blush at my accusations, "D-Damn it! We weren't doing anything like that!"

I gave a chuckle at his flustered face, and decided to let him off lightly. "Oh, I know. I just couldn't resist messing with you a bit. You're too much of an herbivore to do that yet. But I really do have a reason for popping in like this."

Walking around the room, I made a show of looking under the bed for something. "See, the thing is one of my personal items has gone missing, and I've been driving myself up the wall looking for it. I couldn't find it in my usual haunts, so I was thinking I might have left in in one of your rooms when I gave you guys your lifelines."

Standing the bear back up, I had the bear 'suddenly notice' the gold dusted Katana on his desk. "Oh hey! I was wondering where Peko's ol' trophy disappeared to."

"Peko?" they asked, having never heard of the name before. Turning back to them slightly, I proceeded to explain a little bit.

"Peko Pekoyama, the 'Ultimate Swordswoman' your senior by about a year. Won that beauty in the international sword fighting competition a couple years ago and donated it to the school afterwards. It's actually funny, she didn't want it because it worthless as an actual sword. Or, at least, that's what I was told."

Walking over to stand in front of the two of them, I put the bears paws on its hips and puffed out its chest. "Well, now that I know that it's safe with you, I can rest a bit easier. But, as I was saying, if anyone finds a serrated combat knife, would you kindly return it to me; preferably blood free if at all possible."

Their eyes widened at the implication, but I ignored that to hop onto the bed and turn to address them. "Any who, now that you know about my missing stuff, I gotta ask something… Any chances of getting the kid named after me?"

I immediately high tailed it out of there, laughing my head off at his embarrassed shouting. He was really to innocent for his own good if he was going to let such mild teasing get to him. I knew messing with him like I was wasn't doing his blood pressure any favors, but it was just far too much fun to stop.

With that little moment taken care of, I went back to the monitor room to see how the others were.

From how it looked, it seemed that the Mon-Taka duo were on their way back to their rooms for the night. Asahina and Sakura had bunked in Aoi's room for the night, and Sayaka convinced Makoto to switch rooms with her for the night by exploiting a loophole in the rules. Everyone else had gone to their beds for the night with the few exceptions of Toko, Yasuhiro, Leon, and Sayaka.

Toko and Leon were too stressed out to go to sleep at the moment and were trying to exercise their mind and body respectively to help relax themselves. Yasuhiro was determined to find his glass ball, and was currently looking though and under all of the desks in the classrooms, one time mentioning thinking someone was pulling a joke on him. And Sayaka was beating herself up about not having the fortitude to stab the luckster while she had the chance.

I suppressed a yawn as I watched, hands folded in front of my face as I watched the idol. Now that I knew who was most likely to be killed off in this game, I could make preparations to prevent it.

"Sorry Ms. Sayaka, but I'm not going to let any of you die tonight. Not by a long shot."