*Ding dong, dong ding* "Good morning everyone. Rise and shine. The time is now seven 'oh clock AM. Time to start the day."

With the morning announcement acting as his alarm clock, Makoto was forced to rise from what had to be the best night sleep he'd had since this school adventure started. He didn't know why that was, the fact that the bed felt the slightest bit softer than his own, the smell of the pillow that made him feel like he was in a field of flowers, or the fact that he was only in this room because of the trust his female friend put in him to allow him to stay here. No matter what the reason was, the lucky student couldn't help but feel well rested and ready to take on the day.

With the fog of sleep fading from his mind, he smiled softly at the thought of Sayaka. Switching rooms with her had been one of the better ideas he'd had. With her in his room, he knew she would be safe from any would be attacker's intent.

'After all,' he thought to himself. 'I have to keep my promise. She's my assistant after all.'

His musings were cut short the a sudden, yet polite, knocking on his door. Startled, Makoto sat up quickly, turning towards the door with confusion in his eyes.

'Who could that be at this hour?' he wondered as he though the covers aside and made his way to the door. Idly, he thanked his stars that he wasn't the kind of person to sleep in the buff, as it would make things really awkward for both himself and the person knocking.

Opening up the door, Makoto was met with the face of the "Ultimate Moral Compass", Ishimaru, who was surprisingly excited this morning.

"Good morning Naegi-san!" the student council member greeted him enthusiastically, a wide smile stretching across his face. "it's a glorious morning, is it not?"

A little exasperated, the luckster replied, "Well, you're starting the day with a bang. Huh Taka?"

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Of course!" Kiyotaka countered with plenty of pep. "It's a fact that humans are fundamentally more energetic during the morning!"

Then, Taka seemed to take on a more sympathetic look and continued, "…Not that I blame you for being tired. With the sun being blocked from us, it makes it difficult to differentiate from night and day. It wouldn't be a stretch to see everyone fall into irregular sleeping and eating habits in the coming days."

Swinging his pointer out dramatically, the red eyed teen doubled his tone and passionately stated, "With that said! That is why I proposed that we all meet for breakfast every morning, to prevent such unhealthy habits from forming in the first place! Having said that, we're beginning our first meeting in the cafeteria soon. I'm going to finish waking up the others!"

And with that, he was off, leaving the luckster behind to begin his daily routine. Sighing slightly, Makoto temporarily retreated back into Sayaka's room to get properly dressed, having removed his coat and shoes the night before, then started making his way after the moral compass.

"I didn't even say I'd go." He mumbled, his tongue instinctively running over his teeth as the feeling of residue from last night's meal reminded him that he hadn't properly brushed the night before. Between Monokuma's motive and Sayaka coming to and switching rooms with him, he hadn't had time to take care of his personal hygiene.

Making a mental note to brush after he ate, he continued his trek to the cafeteria. As he walked, he glanced at the door to his room with a smile, happy to know that even though they were in this situation, he was still able to help out a friend in need.

However, as he walked pass his door, he couldn't help but notice something was... off. Looking closer, he noticed that, for some reason, someone had switched out Sayaka's name plate with his own. Unusual, but not really all that bad.

Thinking about it, that would explain why Taka had been so lacks when he found the luckster in the idol's room. If the plates had been correct, there was little doubt in his mind that the Ultimate Moral Compass would have gone on a tangent about this not being acceptable in a school environment; or something along those lines.

It didn't explain why they'd been switched, but he supposed he could look into it after breakfast.

As he arrived in the cafeteria, he noticed that he wasn't the first one there. Asahina, Sakura, and Chihiro were all at the main table with their own breakfast laid out in front of them. Not wanting to be rude, He gave them all a small wave, smile, and a pleasant, "Good morning."

"Morning Naegi!" cried back Hina excitedly, pieces of doughnut sprinkling out of her mouth as she spoke. Taking a moment to finish swallowing the rest of her bite, she asked much more clearly, "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I slept fine." The luckster replied before heading over to the kitchen to grab something for himself. After that, he continued to talk with the others while they waited for the others to arrive.

True to form, each person came in at the own pace, some not bothered by their wake up call, though several were rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Soon, almost everyone was seated in their preferred spots. However, two people were noticeably absent.

"Hmm. I wonder what could be keeping Masters Maizono, and Hagakure." Inquired the portly Fanfic writer, "They're not usually this late."

"While I can't say the same about Hiro," Commented Mondo as he used his feet on the table to lean his chair back. "That Maizono chick's always been ahead of me in the mornings. So yeah, where are they?"

"Well," Started Kiyotaka while holding his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, I rang and knocked on their doors several times, but neither one answered. I'd assumed they were just exceptionally tired, so I let them be. Still, it has been a while longer then I'd anticipated."

A feeling of unease gripped at Makoto's soul, a primal feeling that something wasn't alright. Terror gripped at his heart as his heart pounded against his ribs painfully as dread wove its way into his mind, filling his head with images that did nothing but worry him. Could it be…?

"I'm going to go check on them!" the luckster shouted, rushing out the door as he did so. He barely registered Taka's shouts of approval of him, "Setting an excellent example by going without being asked!" the luckster was to focused on making sure his friend was okay.

As he rushed down the hall, he tried to reassure himself. He was likely just overreacting, she was probably just tried, like Taka said. It had been a stressful day yesterday. Between Monokuma's motive, the stress of someone trying to break in her door, and sleeping in an unfamiliar room, anyone would be exhausted. It was probably just his imagination going haywire. They had swapped rooms after all, she should be fine.

Yet, that thought didn't even slightly slow his running legs as he rushed to his friend's aide. It didn't stop the lump from forming in his throat when he found the door to his room unlocked. And it didn't stop his heart from skipping a beat when he opened the door and saw the mess in his room.

Everything was trashed, long and deep cuts marring every surface that he could see. The sheets of his bed tossed haphazardly as a large cut dug right into the mattress, spilling cotton all over. Several spots of the walls had long lines of missing plaster revealing the special sound proof material behind it. Even the floor showed signs of a struggle with thick tears carved right down through the carpet.

Laying almost innocently in the middle of the carnage was the very gold colored blade that he and Sayaka had taken for protection, only now unsheathed, with bits and pieces of paint chipped off on the ground. The sheath bore a couple of new cuts in the wood, resulting in tiny splinters in a few spots on the floor.

However, despite this gruesome sight his room had become, Makoto didn't even register it as important at the moment. What was important was one simple fact.

Sayaka wasn't here, something had gone wrong.

For a moment he simply stood there staring at the ruination that his room had endured, his imagination tormenting him with thoughts of what had happened here, but he slowly forced himself to turn away and looked at his bathroom door. In that second feelings of hope and trepidation hit him hard.

'Could Sayaka have hidden in there?' He wondered, hoping that whatever had done this hadn't thought the same. That she was simply sitting in there, alone and alive instead alone and… dead. Whatever waited for him in there would likely answer his question of whether his friend was okay or not.

Slowly, he gripped at the knob of the door, his hand shaking as his palms began to sweat. He was stressed out beyond belief as he swallowed the lump in his throat, and swiftly ripped open the door…

But nobody was there.

Briefly, he felt a bit of relief that he hadn't just walked in on his friend in the shower, or a bloody corpse of his close friend, but that feeling quickly faded when he realized that this meant she was out there in the school where anything could happen to her. Throwing the door closed, he quickly hightailed it back to the others. Maybe one of them would be able to find her.

'Maizono, I promised I'd protect you.' He thought to himself despondently. 'I swore that I'd get you out of here. I gave you my word.'

Oh, it wasn't as if he wasn't worried about Yasuhiro as well, he really was! But Sayaka took priority at the moment. He thought a silent apology to the Clairvoyant, but continued to rush back to the cafeteria room where he slid to a halt, his rushed entrance and heavy breathing immediately catching everyone's attention.

"Whoa, dude. Where's the fire?" Asked the Ultimate biker exclaimed when he caught sight of the luckster. Similar questions were tossed his way, but he shook his head and shrugged off their worries.

"I can't find Maizono," He explained, "and when I went to check on her, the room was trashed. I think something happened to her!"

"WHAT!" came the startled cry of several of the more excitable members of the group, though that didn't stop the looks of shock of the others as well. None of them had expected that to be the first thing out of the herbivore boy's mouth. Quickly, panic spread amongst them.

Shouts of worry and concern flew everywhere, none of the students quite prepared to hear such news delivered first thing in the morning. When asked about Yasuhiro, Makoto simply said that he couldn't find him either; unfortunately causing more mass hysteria from the others. For a moment, it looked like havoc was going to ensue.

"Calm down, all of you." Came the stern words of one Kiyoko, piercing the vail of panic and fear flooding her fellow student's minds. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. Our best option right now is to try and work together here to find Maizono and Hagakure before anything else."

"Miss Kirigiri is right!" proclaimed Kiyotaka animatedly, his fist clenched with determination. "If we let ourselves panic at the slightest notion, then we my risk our ally's safety. I suggest we form two groups, one to investigate the school grounds, and another to check their rooms for any clue as to where they might have gone!"

One after another, it seemed that the others seemed to feel the motivation to assist in the search for their wayward classmates. Though, their reasoning for doing so were drastically different. Byakuya especially was being uncooperative, but stated that, "I have no desire to waste my valuable time searching for a couple of wayward rabble. However, I also don't want that disgusting bear on my case for the foreseeable future. That's the only reason I'm lending my assistance."

So, with some modicum of struggle from the others, it was decided that Makoto, Asahina, Kiyotaka, Mondo, Junko, Byakuya, and Sakura would search the rooms, while the others would check the bedrooms. There was a bit of a surprise struggle from Toko who'd wanted to help search classrooms with the other's, though she vehemently refused to state her reasoning. However, with a brief word of, ahem, "encouragement" from the ultimate heir, and a spoken plea from the ultimate luckster, she was quick to change her mind.

After that, the search was on.

"So Booooored."

Have you ever really stopped to actually look at an investigation? No, I don't mean those on cops shows and dramas or what have you where they amp up the suspense with music and dramatic camera angles over quick passed observations by the actors. I mean, an actual investigation where people ran around either with a purpose or like a chicken with their head cut off, looking at every nook and cranny they can to find whatever, or in this case whoever, they were searching for.

Yes, at first, it was a bit exhilarating to watch, the worries of, "will they get there in time", "are they heading the right way", or the ever popular, "how are they missing that? It's so obvious!" driving a sense of excitement and intrigue into every witnessed movement.

However, those feeling quickly fade when you're the one in the know. To have all of the answers before anyone else and have to be quite about it. To know most of the answers that they seek but being unable to give them up because you're supposed to be the bad 'guy' in this situation. It really caused the suspense factor to take a nosedive into aggravatingly boring.

Even if I wasn't in charge and still somehow managed to play the part of one of the others, I still wouldn't have been able to help out properly without the risk of incriminating myself. That was one thing I definitely didn't want.

As I watched the group run around looking for the two injured classmates, I found myself suppressing yet another of the yawns that had plagued me all morning. With everything that had happened last night between Sayaka's bout of insanity, her stabbing of both herself and Yasuhiro, and the stress of saving the two of them with Leon's reluctant help, I had barely gotten any shut eye. Add in the boredom I felt watching the group blindly search the first floor, and I was ready to say, "forget it" and go right back to sleep.

Unfortunately for my wants and desires, not only was I not going to be able to catch up on my sleep, but thinking about why I hadn't been able to get said sleep left a bitter taste on my tongue. Patching up the two idiots of the night may have left me with mixed feelings, but that had been nothing compared to the conversation afterwards.

"What do ya mean, 'who are you?' what kind of question is that?"

Now, normally I wouldn't be so snippy with whomever I was talking to. Needlessly sarcastic, maybe, but snippy was something altogether. But, right now I was tired, frustrated, and had just finished using a girl's flesh for stitching practice. I was, in short, not up for stupid questions.

Evidently, Leon wasn't able to take the hint. "It's just, I've never seen you around here before, and I thought I'd already meet everyone in here. So, yeah. Who are you?"

Harshly rolling my eyes, I gave him a frustrated reply of, "Seriously?" then after quickly removing my bloody gloves and mask before putting them in the trash, I turned to him and pulled off my hood before pulling my bleached locks into a pair of ponytails. Flashing him a Cheshire grin, I gave him a closed eye look and said in the sweetest voice I could, "Hi~ It's a pleasure to meet cha! Charmed, I'm sure."

Letting the locks fall down my back, I crossed my arms and leveled his stunned expression with a deadpan glare. "That answer your question?"

"Y-you're Enoshima?" Evidently not, judging by his stammering.

Rolling my eyes again, I gave him a raised brow and a sarcastic comment of, "No~ I'm your friendly renegade serial killer out for a casual stroll~ Of course I'm Junko, moron. Just because I changed outfits, doesn't mean I'm any less me."

'Though I certainly wish that was the case' I thought to myself, still a bit miffed about my mind's current dwellings. What can I say. If there's a few things I can admit I have in common with the ultimate fashion icon, it's our quickness to become bored, and our ability to obsess over things.

"B-but your eyes!" He argued back, pointing at the parts in question. "Last I checked, Enoshima had blue eyes! What gives!?"

I felt the desire to roll the very eyes he was so focused on again, but I resisted for the sake of not wanting to make it redundant. "I wear colored contacts, obviously. Honestly, between the makeup, hair accessories, and all the fashionable dresses I've been in, is it really so much of a stretch?"

Ignoring his conflicted expressions, I turned to the hobo laying on the cot and started examining Leon's handy work. Much to my pleasant surprise, the all-star had managed a pretty good job. The bandages were properly tightened to prevent any more blood from escaping, and it seemed like he had managed to use the sticky tabs correctly; though they were slightly off kilter, and there was a bit more bandages then truly necessary, but not bad for someone who'd never done this sort of thing before.

Feeling a bit calmer now that I knew there wasn't a risk of anyone dying here at the moment, I turned back to look Leon in the eye and tried to explain thing as best that I could.

And by that, I meant that I was going to make it up as I go along and hope he buys it.

"Look, this might be a bit of a stretch for you since you want to become a famous musician or whatever, but not everyone enjoys being in the spotlight. Sometime I need some time to myself, but since I'm such a popular icon, I'm always at risk of getting mobbed by some creeps whenever I leave a studio or school. Sometimes it's so bad, I end up just hiding in my room for hours while I wait for the heat to die down. And that's no fun."

Standing up, I stretched a bit to pop a sight kink in my spine, before continuing. "I wanted to be able to do things other than just strutting my stuff in front of the crowds of cameras. I mean, that might be fun for a while, but not all the time. So, I started dressing up in bargain bin clothes, wearing contact lenses, and not using make up when I went out. Suddenly, I was just another face in the crowd. I could go where I wanted without being hassled. It was… nice."

I gave him a moment to digest that load of nonsense and draw his own conclusions. For once, he didn't disappoint. "So, then why didn't you say anything earlier?"

I gave him a shrug, and said, "Well, it's not like any of you would have believed me. Fashion icon of the world just wants to spend time alone and learning other things? Yeah, no. That just sounds like something a stupid tabloid mag would cover."

Turning away and adopting my arms crossed over my head thinking pose, I continued, "Besides that, there's also this blasted, quote, unquote, "game" going on where one of us could snap at any moment. In a life in death situation like that, staying quite about yourself tends to be the smarter option. I mean, for Pete's sake, look at Say-Maizono. One video that might be true, and she flips out. No, it's better to stay silent and safe, then loud and dead."

Turning back to him, I was somewhat surprised to see him actually thinking over my words. No doubt, it was something that he'd never had to think about considering his goals right now revolved around getting noticed as a puck rocker. But, I did have time to let him think too hard on it, I still needed something from him.

"Hey, Leon?" I asked, catching his attention. "Could you do me a solid?"

He gave me a questioning gaze, his brow raising to emphasize his curiosity. "What is it?"

"Could we not tell any of the others that I was here? Please?" If I didn't have attention before, I certainly did now.

"Huh? Why would you want that?" he asked, "Shouldn't you, I don't know, want them to know about this?"

"Oh, I have no intentions of hiding most of what happened here." I elaborated to the all-star, waving my hand in dismissal. "But, if it's all the same, I'd rather not give Mono-Prick a reason to come after me anymore then I already have."

He gave me a sound of understanding and looked away. For a minute he was silent, thinking about what I'd said with a contemplating look. Then, that looked slowly faded for a look of confusion as he turned to me once more. "Why would Monokuma be after you?"

"Because I'm now a threat to his game." I stated plainly. "whoever this mastermind is, they're going through a lot of trouble to make sure we die. Locking us up, giving us a motive to kill; all that noise. But, it's not likely that he was even considering that one of us knew anything above basic first aid. Now, not only did two people NOT die tonight, but it's going to be clear that someone in here can save people's lives; something they're definitely against."

Looking him dead in the eyes, I stated as calmly as I could, "The second Monokuma finds out I was the one to save these two..."

I watched as a violent shiver rushed down Leon's spine, his face turning an ashen white at the implications of my unfinished sentence; just as planned. Now that he thought my life would be in danger, it would be unlikely that he would bother Mukuro, or 'Junko', about this in the future. With any luck, this means that there won't be any unwanted questions till I'm ready.

"So, you see what I'm dealing with, right?" I asked bluntly, to which he dumbly nodded his head. "Good. Then we're not going to mention it again."

Turning back to the unconscious hobo fortune teller, I started working on removing his coat so that I could wash it of the blood. Unfortunately, I was once again interrupted by the baseball player.

"Hey, where'd you learn this stuff anyway?" groaning, I turned to him with a glare with the hope's that he'd drop the subject. Unfortunately for me, he wasn't willing to oblige my unspoken request. "I mean; I've never seen anything like this before. You were so calm back there while I was ready to pass out in panic. Even now, when they're just sleeping there with those big cuts, you're so calm about all of this. So, what gives?"

I shook my head exasperated. Of course he'd want to know about my actions back there. The Ultimate Fashionista acting like a doctor and jumping into the fray to save someone's life when up until this point the person he thought was her acted completely stubborn and bitchy? Yeah, that'd raise anyone's eyebrows at least.

But, maybe I could work this to my advantage. I couldn't just tell him that I picked it up on a whim as, despite Junko's finicky nature, she wouldn't normally go out of her way to learn something like this. Telling him I learned it from 'my' sister Mukuro wouldn't work either since it would just open up more questions I wasn't quite ready to deal with quite yet. So, my best bet would be to tell him something that I could meld with what I know from my own life with Junko's.

After all, to quote a phrase, "the best lies carry an element of truth within them".

"Alright. First of all, don't mistake my 'being calm' as fact. I'm actually quite scared right now. I just know how to control it better than some people. Second, I learned this all from my mother."

Seeing as I had his attention, I leaned up against Hiro's bed and began the true parts of my story. "See, my mom worked in one of the volunteer fire departments as an EMT. That's "Emergency Medical Technician". She was basically an on sight doctor, without being a full doctor. Unfortunately, when I was younger, there were a few times she wasn't able to find a babysitter in time, so I would be dragged along on several of her medical calls. Over time, I picked up on a few things and started learning a bit on hand."

Pausing to make sure I still had his attention, which I did, I closed my eyes and continued. "Learning to sew actually came from one of my several hobbies that I enjoy. See, next to drawing, I really liked to make up characters and give them their own little stories, and sometimes I'd fall so in love with them that I would make a plushy of them. I kinda went overboard sometimes, I'll admit that."

Opening my eyes, I glanced up at the tiles on the ceiling, thinking how best to explain the next part without conflicting to much with too much more of Junko's actual past. "Anyway, one day we had to go to the hospital because some idiot cut his hand open while woodworking and I ended up having to stay with the guy while they stitched him up."

He cringed at the information, and I didn't blame him. Wounds on the body that warrant stiches tend to be a real game changer depending on the severity and the person's lifestyle. As a baseball star, and as a wannabe rock star, if he were to get such a wound, he defiantly would be retired for several months, weakening his ability to perform, damaging his reputation, and maybe even forcing him to retire completely.

I should know; I was the idiot that cut open his own hand. Long story.

"I was fascinated that they were using what I thought was string to put his hand back together, so I spent my time asking questions about it. After a while we left, but I kept thinking about it. I could use my sewing skills to help people? Sounded like a good thing to me."

Leon looked at me with a look of confusion, seemingly questioning something I'd said with his eyes. When I didn't continue, he asked, "So, if you wanted to be a doctor or something like that, why'd you become a super model? It just seems… Really out there."

"Oh, I wanted to be many things besides that. Wanted to be an artist, a sculptor, a writer, a doctor, a chef, even a teacher at one point." I admitted, before switching to a more disappointed face as I tried to guess why Junko was a fashion model at all with her admittedly incredible analytical skills. "But, my family wanted me to go into fashion, so they packed on the books and had me working my ass off to make myself as hot as possible. Moment I hit hot enough for the camera, my hair gets bleached, the contacts go in, and my first face cam gets taken. Next thing I know, I'm so popular that I'm getting shipped place to place, studio to studio, and being homeschooled all the while."

He looked at me with the most pitying look he could muster, wincing when my tale hit him to close for comfort; again, as intended. By making it seem like she had no choice in the matter, he would have trouble bringing it up to 'Junko' at a later date. Just repeating steps to hold back the undesirable outcome.

"Man, that's rough." Leon stated sympathetically, to which I just shrugged.

"Yeah well, parents, what can you do?" He nodded at that, and we fell into an awkward silence for a few minutes. After I got tired of that, I broke it with a simple statement of, "But seriously, we need to do something about all of this."

After some time clarifying just how much trouble we, and by that, I meant 'he', would be in when the others awoke, we went to work fixing up the place as best we could to prevent the others from finding out what had happened. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do much for Makoto's room aside from cleaning up the hairs that he'd lost during his fight with Sayaka in the short amount time we had. Mostly since we both needed to be able to get at least a few hours to rest so that we weren't too tired, as it would make us, read 'him', seem suspicious in the long run.

Soon after we went our separate ways for the night, myself waiting until he had closed the door to his room before sneaking back to close the gates to the other floors, both of us agreeing to pretend we had nothing to do with this. As far as we were concerned, we were never there.

However, while that situation had been settled, there was still the situation with Sayaka and Hiro to take care of. Obviously, the first thing I needed to decide on was how to proceed with the delicate problem that is the pop idol's betrayal. On the one hand she had tried to kill one of her classmates, might have succeeded too if it wasn't for her shortsightedness. That alone would cause her to land on several people's hate list and might even result in one of them trying to do her in, just to 'make sure she doesn't try again' as it were; which is something I'm trying to avoid here.

On the other hand, she only did that because my motive made her feel desperate. I take full… okay, majority of the blame for that. Thing is, I knew I shouldn't have used that blasted video. I've beaten up myself a lot over that already, but I felt the need to remind myself. Anyway, she wasn't completely at fault here, and there was a good chance the others would understand that.

Well, maybe not so much the other's as a whole, but Makoto and the more softhearted and understanding of them, hopefully.

Unfortunately, either way I looked at it, she was going to be in a whole lot of trouble when they found out what had happened. If I handled this too carelessly, someone would be getting axed and it would be my fault. So the question is, what can I do to lessen the blow.

Now, obviously if I were vanilla Junko, I would just force them into an investigation of the crime followed by a class trial. Simple as that, let them figure it out, then execute the guilty party. And also, not an option.

But, simply telling them, "Oh, FYI, Sayaka did it. She's the guilty one, she stabbed them. She did it." Wasn't going to fly, not in the slightest. Oh, I could whip out the security footage and give them irrefutable proof, but it wouldn't do anything other than making them hate her more. It would also prevent them from simply believing in her if she should try to reform afterwards. Not that they would, but the hope is there!

Fortunately, as they seemed to congregate back in front of the cafeteria to announce their findings, I felt like I had an idea on how to proceed.

"Let's hope this plan goes better than the last one."

"Alright everyone! Does anyone have anything to report on our fellow classmate's whereabouts?"

The shouted question of the Moral Compass was expected to be met with either excited exclamations of success or at the very least a calm statement of failure. Unfortunately for the large browed student, these weren't the kinds of people to deliver organized thoughts.

"What do you think, idiot!?" shouted Leon, the lack of a proper night's sleep combined with having to do all of this exercise without getting a chance to eat first making him testy. "If we'd found anything, someone would've said something already!"

Gesturing towards the others reveled the worried faces of the rest of their classmates, each showing various levels of worry at their inability to find their remaining number. Makoto was especially distraught at their inability to find his friends, and it ate at the heart of the Ultimate all-star like some kind of parasite. A large part of him wanted to confess what he knew of what happened last night.

But, Leon had already promised both his friend and himself that he wouldn't be telling anyone about what had happened last night. As they were cleaning up Sayaka's room as best they could, Junko had explained her concerns with what would happen to the idol if they were going to reveal their little spat. Needless to say, she had a point; as much he didn't want to believe it.

Seriously, the girl had tried to kill him. If it hadn't been for the fashionista, he didn't know what he would have done given the chance.

"I understand your frustration mister Kuwata," Taka tried to placate the all-star. "but, we it would be best off if we still report our findings. Some detail might make itself known through our combined reports!"

From across the room a scoff of contempt came alongside a comment from the biker gang leader. "Easy for you to say. We looked in all of the classrooms and couldn't find a damn thing."

"Sakura and I looked in the kitchen and the laundry room, but we didn't see anything either." Reported the swimmer with the Ultimate Fighter giving a nod of confirmation.

"Kirigiri, Naegi, and I didn't find anything in the gym, the A/V room, or the school store." Stated 'Junko' as she stood next to her stated group, a hand on Makoto's shoulder in a vague gesture of comfort. The luckster was particularly upset at his friend's disappearance and it was only her grip reassuring him that was keeping from going on a panic.

"And we looked all throughout the bedrooms, and Hifumi checked the trash room." Came the calm voice of Celesta, a small amount of concern on her face. "but, we too were unable to find any clue as to our classmate's whereabouts."

This wasn't something any of them wanted to hear, and it showed on each person's face. With a few exceptions, everyone had a look of concerned worry for their missing members. Those that didn't, held a look of concentration as they attempted to think about what they might have missed in their investigation for their colleagues; what clue there could have been that would have revealed the location of the missing two.

Unknown to the others, Kiyoko had come up with her own theories as to the locations of Sayaka and Yasuhiro. There had been a few things she'd noticed along the way, most noticeably in the hallways, but with her decision to have both Naegi and Enoshima investigate alongside her, she didn't feel safe checking her findings; not because of Naegi, the poor boy didn't seem to have a dangerous bone in his body and was far too busy trying to find they others to be a threat at the moment.

For some reason, the amnesiac girl didn't trust Enoshima being alone with the boy right now. Maybe she was being overly cautious, but when the fashion model had pretty much forced the luckster into coming along with her when he was pretty much alone, alarm bells had gone off in Kiyoko's mind, all but demanding that she follow the two. Even though that meant she wasn't able to properly examine the various signs she'd seen because of Naegi's impatient searching, she trusted her gut feeling to avoid leaving the two alone.

If she could have seen the thoughts of the girl she'd been suspicious of, she would have applauded her instincts on being right.

In the mind of Mukuro, as she held Makoto's shoulder, she was cursing both herself and Kiyoko for her failure to complete her mission. It had taken her all night to work out her plan to fulfill her sister's demands, to come up with an idea on how to get him alone so that she could kill him. After that, she would make it quick. Walk up behind him, snap his neck, then hide the body in one of the classroom lockers for a few days to 'discover' later with some evidence to pin the blame on one of the others. Maybe swipe a bit of hair from one of them and put it in his hands.

It wasn't the only idea she'd had, but it was the only one she had that allowed her to avoid seeing his face at her betrayal.

She may want her help her sister feel despair, but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt the first boy to look at her with a sincere smile. She didn't know why, but the idea of that very smile dying caused her heart to hurt and made her stomach clench up tightly. Even now, just seeing him like this was making her feel something she couldn't understand, and it made her promise to her sister feel harder to do than any mission she'd ever been on before.

However, that didn't stop her from feeling a bit upset that the only reason she hadn't been able to complete her mission wasn't due to divine intervention on part of her sister, or Makoto's luck making it impossible, but because the mind wiped detective decided to follow them. Now, normally she would have just killed both of them and been done with it. No muss, no fuss, just finish them off and move on. Hell, if she had the time, she could have even framed it so that it looked like they had killed each other and without Kiyoko, the others wouldn't have a chance in hell to solve it.

Junko would be so proud of her despairing thoughts.

Unfortunately, with everyone running around in groups looking for Maizono and Hagakure, and all of them knowing that she was the only other person with Makoto and Kirigiri, it didn't paint a pretty picture for her survival. Oh, if she was forced to fight, she could take most of them on and win without breaking a sweat; baring Sakura and maybe Owada, of course. However, that would go against Junko's plans and may result in disappointing her beloved sister; something she was desperate to avoid happening again.

"This is truly a conundrum," stated Hifumi, his hand gripping his round chin as he posed thoughtfully. "What kind of force could have resulted in our comrade's disappearance? Could it have been some kind of fairy? Or has some kind of mysterious figure removed their forms from our sight?"

His comment was met with a glare from Toko, "O-Only you w-would think something like a f-fairy would be responsible for this."

In that moment, Makoto's eyes lit up in realization. There was only one figure who would know where his friends were. "Guys, what about Monokuma?"

All eyes turned to him instantly at his question, each one regarding him with confusion.

"What about him?" snapped the ultimate baseball all-star, not wanting to even think about the accursed bear. The two sided bear had been absent thus far this morning, and he was happy to keep it that way.

Unfortunately, the luckster had other plans. "He's got all of these security camera's all over the place, so he's got to know where Hiro and Maizono are, right?"

Looks of realization passed over several faces at his comment, but many of them were replaced with looks of concern afterwards. Chihiro cautiously stepped forward with a concerned, "but, how would we get him to tell us where they are?"

"I don't know," admitted Makoto with his head dipping slightly, before snapping back up with a determined glare. "but we have to try something."

In all honesty, he didn't want to rely on Monokuma helping them. If anything, he wanted to avoid the demented bear at all costs and find their missing members themselves. However, with all of the others being unable to locate the two, he was feeling the worry reach a level that was making him desperate.

The others couldn't deny that feeling of worry either; however, that didn't mean they liked it, as one ultimate heir made very clear when he said, "Very well then, we'll ask our captor for the location of those two. However, since it was your idea, you should be the one to ask."

At the lucky student's questioning "Huh?" Byakuya leveled him with a stern glare. "You were the one to come up with the idea to request aid from the one who has trapped us here, so it should be expected that the one who asks is the one who wants to know this information. Or, are you saying you expect one of us to step up in the face of your cowardice and risk our own safety in your stead."

At that, the luckster began shaking his hands in denial of the heir's accusation. "N-No no, I'll ask him! I don't want anyone to risk anything, I've got this!"

Byakuya glared at him, seemingly unconvinced. However, after a quick glance behind the luckster, the heir seemed to relent, turning away from the shorter teen with a scoff. "Very well, I hope you were already prepared then."

"Huh?" glancing behind himself, Makoto practically leapt out of his skin at the sight of the very bear they'd been talking about standing no more than a few inches away from him. Clenching at his heart, the herbivore boy was about to speak, when the two-toned bear began laughing hysterically.

"Heheheh, you should see your face right now! Oh man, I didn't know faces could turn that pale! And that jump, ha! Looks like the Ultimate Gymnast has some competition for her title now! Heh!" Poor Makoto could only stand there with his cheeks burning in embarrassment as the bear continued to laugh at his moment of nonobservance. The only solace he felt was that none of the others joined in on laughing at his expense.

After taking a moment to compose itself, the bear made a show of wiping away a nonexistent tear before turning back to the collected students. "Oh, but seriously, what's up? I've been watching you guys running around all morning, and I have to admit, I'm curious as to why."

Of course, no one was convinced by the bear's innocent tone, but they weren't willing to play around with its act. Getting his blush under control, Makoto walked right up to the animatronic and looked it dead in the eye; a feat only possible thanks to the table the bear stood on.

"Where's Maizono and Hiro." He asked, doing his best to seem threatening; a feat that only came off as silly considering he was trying to intimidate what basically looked like an oversized plushy. That was more apparent when said plushy look-a-like chuckled.

"What, you don't know?" the bear asked almost mockingly, causing a surge of rage to course through each other students.

"Cut the bullshit and just tell us!" Mondo demanded as he growled, despising the fact that he couldn't just rely on his out fallback of beating the answers of this annoyance.

"Jeez, someone needs a chill pill… and maybe a mint." Their irritating captor muttered, nearly causing the biker to try throttling the explosive plush if it wasn't for Leon and Taka quickly rushing forth to hold him back from making a, most likely, lethal mistake. After a brief chuckle at the biker's swearing form, the bear continued. "Well, if you're really determined to find out what happened to them, then you only need to head over to the infirmary."

Several eyebrows were raised at that, though many then glared in suspicion.

"Why would they be at the infirmary?" asked the strawberry blond model, genuinely confused as to why their classmates would be in the medical ward. If anything she would have expected to hear that at least one of them was no longer amongst the living.

The bear grinned wider, almost as if it found something funny about the fashionista's question, and said, "Well, that is where people tend to end up after someone tries to stab them to death."

All were silent at the bear's announcement, a cold feeling of fear gripped at the student's hearts once more. Their classmates had been stabbed? When did this happen? If this bear was being honest, then their classmates had been attacked be someone.

"Y-you're lying!" claimed Toko, pointing accusingly at the two faced bear on the table. "T-there's no w-way they would be in a r-room none of us have seen unlocked yet. Y-You're probably just saying that they're in the infirmary s-so we'll waist our time on a l-locked room."

The bear waved his paw in dismissal of the novelist's claim, stating, "Of course not! I may be many things, somewhat psychotic, a homicide enthusiast, and maybe even a little bit deranged, but I don't lie about people's lives."

Calming down a bit, their captor turned slightly with a paw to its chin. "Besides, why should you be concerning yourselves with me and my words. I'm just here to keep this class from braking rules, after all. What you should be concerned with is the state of your fellows. Right?"

The bear's words made them pause, uncertainty passing between students as they looked to one another for answers. As much as they didn't want to except it, he had a point. Their classmates were missing and they were wasting time chatting with a plush like bear.

"Come on guys." Stated the baseball star, waking around the bear as he did. "let's just go."

The others hesitated, but only momentarily, and then followed after him; some glaring at the bear as they passed. Soon, as the door closed with a resounding slam, leaving the bear as all that remained in the empty room. Unheard by anyone, the bear sighed aloud as its controller spoke her thoughts, no longer acting like the demented psychopath they'd been portraying.

"I have to do this… I have to."

"Maizono!"

The concerned cry of several of the students echoed through the hall when the students opened the door to the nurse's office and caught sight of the unconscious idol in one of the beds. Seeing this, Makoto pushed his way to the front and rushed to his friend's side. Tears of relief pored silently down his cheeks at the sight of her still breathing form. Internally, he thanked whatever deity out there that was listening that she was still alive, that he hadn't broken his promise to her, and that she was okay.

Well, 'okay' might be a bit of a stretch when he considered her sleeping in the infirmary with several bandages wrapped on her, but it was far better than the alternatives in his opinion.

"Hey, look!" Called Asahina as she moved the curtain aside, revealing the clairvoyant in a similar predicament to that of the blue haired idol; though, his was more obvious since his jacket and shirts were missing, revealing a large amount of bandages wrapped around his stomach. "Hiro's here too!"

The luckster found it a bit disconcerting that there wasn't much in the way of reaction to Hina's discovery, but he was too concerned with Maizono to give it much thought. Looking at her, he clenched his teeth as a thought forced itself to his lips. "Who could have done this to them?"

As he made his statement, another student made their way to the front. Turning slightly Makoto watched as Kiyoko and, surprisingly enough, Byakuya made their way to the side of Maizono and Hiro respectively, and placed their fingers on the two unconscious student's necks. After a couple of minutes, they each moved to look at the bands on their wrists. After a few moments of that, they each pulled back and let the others come close.

"Are they…?" Hina started to ask, but was unable to finish, not daring to say what she and many others were worried about. That the two might have departed from this world well before their time. Thankfully, the prodigy broke the fearful atmosphere with a scoff; as weird as it is to be thankful for.

"No, they're still alive, if barely." With that, several sighs of relief were heard. As this was going on, the moral committee member stepped forth. His face was pale and sweaty, and his wide eyes were focused heavily on the two. To those that could see his expression, they were given a face full of self-imposed guilt.

"This is my fault." Stated Taka in a depressed whisper, his eyes clenched tightly shut as he hung his head. "I should have watched the rooms for anyone acting suspicious. I should have just stayed up longer and kept watch. I could have stopped this. I tried so hard to keep this from happening. The morning meetings… the plans I made to keep everyone safe… So, why…? Why did this happen?"

The others were quite stunned by the bushy browed teen's admission of self-doubt, none of them having realized that he was putting this kind of pressure on himself. Oh, in hindsight there had been signs for those willing to think about it, his decision on the morning meetings to help them stay together and foster relations, his insistence on using the last few minutes before night shift to run a check for suspicious activity, plus the strict watch he tried to keep up during the day to prevent anyone from attempting to murder. He was trying his hardest to lead the others as an example to follow and seeing his attempts fail were crushing him slowly.

There was a moment of stunned silence at Taka's words, but as tears of frustration started to form in his eyes, there was a surprising moment of support from the ultimate biker gang leader as he stepped forward and grabbed the red eyed boy's shoulder with a tight grip; not roughly, but still strong.

The Moral's eyes opened wide at the feeling, and he turned back to look his pompadour haired classmate with confusion. "Hey man, this ain't your fault. You couldn't have known shit was going to go down last night. Hell, you and me combed this joint best we could for hours, ya know. If anything, it's the bastard who pulled this bullshit that needs to take responsibility!"

Taka didn't know what to say to that, this being the first time anyone had been so … encouraging towards him. It was especially strange since it was coming from the very man he thought was nothing more than a mindless brute. He was about to comment on the manly teen's sudden shift in behavior, when another student spoke up.

"Mondo's right!" Called out another surprising interruption, this time from the usually meek and quite Chihiro. "You did everything you could, you couldn't have known this would have happened."

"It is true what they say." Stated the muscle bound Ogami, speaking up for the first time since they arrived at the infirmary. "You need not blame yourself solely for this travesty. We all should have tried to be more aware of our surroundings."

There were several nodding heads at her words, as a majority of the others agreed with the fighter's words. Taka looked at his fellow students, stunned by the feelings of comradery he witnessed from the others that he'd been trying to foster for the past week. The very sight caused a spark of joy to bloom in his chest, and after taking a second to wipe the tears that hadn't fully formed in his eyes, brushed himself off and adjusted his uniform.

"Th-thank you! Thank you my friends. I can't let myself falter from one failure. I can't believe my own foolishness had blinded me so. Everyone! I want you to slap me for my failing!"

"L-Let's not go that far, man." Leon summed up their thoughts on his request quite nicely.

"It's curious though." commented Celestia, looking at the blood soaked bandages that wrapped around the two injured teens. "Considering our current situation, I find it quite surprising to find them in this state."

The others turned to her as the otaku spoke up. "What do you mean? They're here in in the infirmary in bandages. I don't see what's so strange."

The gambler gave one of her fake grins and stated, "You misunderstand, it's not so much that we found them in such a condition; that's to be expected. No the curious thing is that they're still alive to begin with."

Several jaws practically hit the floor at the bombshell she had dropped oh so casually. As if she was doing nothing more than talking about the weather. Asahina ended up unintentionally voicing several of their thoughts when she asked. "How can you say something like that?"

"Let me rephrase that." Stated Celest, calmly closing her eyes to gather her thoughts. "considering their current state, there is no doubt someone attacked them last night. Most likely, this person was trying to kill them. However, we have found them this morning, not only still alive, but their wounds have been treated and dressed. It's quite strange, wouldn't you say?"

Several of their classmates were shocked further by her observation, but as they thought about it, none of them could refute her. Not only did they never heard word about this room being opened, this was the place that their classmates ended up at. The whole thing was rather suspicious to a majority of them.

Unknown to the others, however, one Leon Kawada was sweating metaphorical bullets. When Monokuma had shown up and told the others that Maizono and Hiro had been found and that they were in the infirmary, he had almost had a panic attack. It was just like Junko had said, Monokuma knew that someone had defied his desire to have them kill each other. And now they were at great risk.

As he thought this, he couldn't help but look at the very student who'd warned him in the first place. Strangely enough, she seemed rather calm in spite of all of this drama going on. Immediately, Leon felt like slapping himself for forgetting what she'd told him last night. Of course she looked calm to him, she had said that she was good at pretending to be calm.

However, looking at her more closely now that he had the chance, there was something… different about her calmness from last night. When she had told him about it he had noticed her hands had started shaking, but she seemed oblivious to it. It was like she truly did do this kind of thing only often enough to control herself during the fact before falling apart afterward. Here though, it felt more like she was immune to this kind of thing, almost… numb, if he were to describe it.

It was rather unsettling… and since when did she have freckles? He didn't remember that.

"The chick does have a point." The biker gang leader threw out. "I may not be the kinda guy to do something like this, but I don't think whoever did this would try an' patch them up after. What gives?"

Fujisaki spoke up with a worried tone in her voice. "Maybe it was an accident and they tried to help them?"

"Hardly." Stated Togami looking at the two prone students as he did so. "these wounds are far too large to have been made in error. Even if it was the case, then there should only have been one victim last night. Instead, we have two."

"Yeah, but, why are they in this room then?" countered the fashion icon glancing about as she did. "I'm pretty sure that this room was blocked off before this. So, like, why the hell is it open now?"

The girl's question was left unanswered, none of the other students able to think of a reasonable response. A token pondering came from Hifumi about some kind of mythical creature being the responsible party, and another was made by Leon that maybe Monokuma opened it for kicks, but both ideas were shoot down immediately. The former for being ridiculous, and the latter for being really unlikely considering what all they'd seen so far.

Just before their questions could go further, Makoto spoke up regarding something he'd just noticed. "Hey, has anyone seen Toko?"

His innocent question caught them off guard, none of the others having noticed the novelist's disappearance before now. This was mirrored by Hina, "Hey, yeah. Where is she?"

"O-Out h-here." The meek voice of the purple themed novelist came from the hallway, drawing eyes to her location.

"What are you doing out there?" asked the luckster, his question followed by the Moral's statement. "Miss Fukawa, we need all able bodies to assist our fallen comrades right now. What reason could you have for not being in here with us?"

"S-Shut up. I-I don't d-do well w-with b-b-blood." Her statement was met with an "Ah." Of understanding, and the white dressed Moral committee member dropped the subject, turning back to the others as he did so. "Right then. Now, how about we go about finding the culprit! Everyone close your eyes, and I want the guilty party to raise their hand!"

"Like hell anyone's that stupid!" shouted back the combined efforts of Junko, Leon, and Mondo, actually insulted that he thought that would work. Just before it could escalate further, they were all caught off guard by a cheerful jingle playing over the intercom, followed by the voice of their furry captor.

*Ding Dong, Dong Ding* "Ahem, this is a message for all able bodied students. Emergency! Emergency! Please head to the gymnasium post haste. Your headmaster has an announcement to make regarding the current situation. I repeat, please head to the gymnasium post haste. Your headmaster has an announcement to make regarding the current situation."

The students were silent for a moment, waiting to see if the bear had more to say, and when it appeared that wasn't the case, the Biker sneered in disgust. "What could that bastard want now?"

"I don't know," admitted Kirigiri, her arms crossed. "but, I believe it would be best if we do as we're told for now."

The others were aghast at her statement, but before they could argue against it, Monokuma's voice chimed in again with, "And just a reminder, anyone who doesn't show up at the gymnasium without an actual reason not to attend, I.E. having a stab wound, will be punished to the fullest extent. So, don't keep me waiting. That is all."

That news certainly upset several of them. "Who does he think he is? Telling us what to do like that."

Kirigiri turned to look at the fashion model and said, "Right now, he's the one who holds the cards. Unless we want to risk being executed for being late, it would be best for all of us if we hurry."

"Tch. I hate having to listen to that damn bear." Stated Mondo, his fist clenched by his other hand as he popped his knuckles. "What I wouldn't give to wipe that smug look of their face."

"Well, right now we can't mister Owada," stated Taka, his fist clenched just as hard. "It pains me to say this, but it needs to be said; our comrades have been harmed, and if we don't wish to cause them further strife, we'll need to follow miss Kirigiri's advice and head for the gym."

The biker sneered, but didn't argue as he headed for the door. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

As the others followed the biker out, Makoto stopped to look once more at his friends laying on the hospital beds, a surge of furious determination filled him. He had already failed to protect Maizono, but he would make it up to 'Don't worry Maizono, Yasuhiro, I'll find the one who did this to you. I swear it!'

I watched the students as they trickled into the gym with a feeling of trepidation. There was a feeling of unease coming off of each of them as they walked into the room, and a small few of them were giving the others looks of distrust and suspicion. I didn't blame them of course; I would have been doing the same in their position.

However, that wasn't what was causing my feeling, not fully anyway. No, what was upsetting me was the plan I had made in order to keep the peace here. Right now, there was only one person amongst them that couldn't be trusted; either by me, or by the others. Thanks to the first motive, I knew for a fact that at least one of them were going to make an attempt at ending another's life, there were more than a few signs indicating such.

After I had helped Leon clear up some of the evidence, I had tossed my, at the time, blooded hoody into the wash and gone back up to check the cameras. As I observed the students, and watched Leon use Makoto's lint roller on the carpet, I had noticed another student had been awake. For a good hour, I'd watched them make preparations for murder. The most concerning was when they'd pulled out a knife eerily similar to that of the one in my drawers, and began cleaning and sharpening it.

Though they had ultimately left it behind when they'd gone for breakfast, they still had sharpened a weapon with the intent to use it. If it was anyone else, I might have just thought they'd done it to act as a deterrent. But I was not so foolish.

I might have ignored it and let them be, had they not tried to lure one of their fellow classmates off during the search for Sayaka and Hiro. If it wasn't for Kyoko, we would have likely been down one unlucky student.

Unfortunately, that meant she needed to be taken care of now rather than later. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but I guess that's what I get for wishing for small mercies. Now, I could only hope this plan didn't backfire like the others.

When the last of them stepped in and the doors closed, I made my way into the control room once more and activated the gym Monokuma. I was then about to begin small spiel about making me wait, but before I could one of the students immediately interrupted.

"Monokuma!" angrily cried the Luckster, fitting the bear with one of the most intense glares I'd ever seen from him. "You did this, didn't you? You attacked Maizono and Hagakure!"

Needless to say, I didn't like being accused of that. "Sorry boyo, but you're barking up the wrong tree here. Unless you break one of the rules, I'm not allowed to even touch a hair on your teeny bopper heads. I can't believe I have to keep saying that."

"Well if you didn't do this, who did?" he rebutted, clearly not convinced in my innocence. I didn't hold it against him, I wouldn't have believed me either if I was in his shoes.

"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" I asked rhetorically, not even pausing to let him speak. "It's just as I told you, right at the start. This is entirely within the rules, otherwise, I'd have intervened personally. One of you guys were the ones to attack those two."

My heart clenched at the looks they gave me at my announcement. The knowledge that one of their own had attacked another, it was something they hadn't been ready for. I ended up clenching my teeth alongside them, not really happy with the news myself. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning.

"Hey, I want to confirm something." Sated Byakuya, stepping forward with his arms crossed, a look somewhat between intrigue and boredom on his face. "Assuming the attempted murderer succeeded, that would mean that they'd get to leave, correct?"

I couldn't keep the glare off of my face at that. I knew he wasn't stupid enough to actually have forgotten about the point in the rules that kept them here; he was far to cunning for that. No, he must have had a reason to ask me that, but I didn't want to think about it right now.

"Not so fast blondie," I stated, feeling a bit of joy at his returning glare. "that would be too easy. 'just kill someone and get out, no hassle.' No, that would be far, far too easy. After all, you're supposed to live here forever. No, the show only really starts afterwards. The next stage of the game would be the class trial!"

Having the bear hop off of its spot on the podium I continued. "Remember the part about, "must not let the others find out? Once you actually kill someone, then it falls on your heads to determine who done it. Who is the guilty perp hiding among you? If the class can find out who it is by the end, then the guilty party will be "punished" for disturbing the peace… Of course, the punishment will be of the permanent kind."

Stopping just to have the bear pose menacingly with his claws out, I turned up the brightness of his red eye and stated, "However, if you guess incorrectly or run down the clock, then I will be forced to believe that our murderer has bested you, and will "punish" everyone besides the blackened soul. Then they will be allowed to leave."

To a few of them who understood my meaning, the implications were terrifying. Kill someone and get away with it. The thought was stomach turning as it was. But, adding a threat of being killed for failure just enhanced that feeling.

For the few who didn't understand the repercussions, they had Chihiro to thank for asking, "Um, what exactly do you mean by "punished" …?"

"Simple, I mean execution of course." I explained, ignoring their increasingly horrified faces as best I could as I listed some ways. "You could be zapped, bashed, crushed, smashed, burned, drowned, minced up, stabbed, drained of blood, shot by cannons, poisoned, used as a pincushion… anything really, I've got a LOT of things ready to do you guys in."

The faces they made, the looks of terror, the horrified screams of "NOO! "from Chihiro and Hina, the shouted "WH-WHAT THE HELL!?" of Leon and Mondo. All of it made me sick to my stomach. I had a lot of feelings of self-loathing going on before this, but that image would be among them many that would be haunting my nightmares in the future.

"D-Do I get this right?" stammered Ishimaru as sweat poured down his face. "If we correctly identify the culprit, you will only kill them, but you'll execute us all if we guess wrong?"

"Is there an echo in here?" I mocked. "Yes, you little chimpanzee, that's it exactly. Though the way you casually implied that you might be innocent was a nice touch."

His flinch at my words would have been painful to watch, if it wasn't for the sudden interruption of a particularly infuriated women.

"All right, I've had enough!" angrily shouted the disguised solider, her acting was convincing for anyone who didn't know what she was doing; unlike me. "This is all a bunch of crazy bullshit! Why the hell should I play detective for you!?"

I pretended to act confused, giving a simple "Huh?" to add to the effect. She wasn't having it. "Don't give me "Huh?" I absolutely refuse to participate in your messed-up trial!"

I gave her a look, but continued to play along. "I said "Huh?" because I was genuinely confused. If you won't participate in the class trail, then nothing but punishment awaits you…"

"Get stuffed, teddy-bear!" she shouted, turning on her heal and storming off, yet not taking her eyes off of Monokuma. "I don't care what you say, I'm sitting this one out!"

And so she marched, ignoring the calling of her name by some of her concerned classmates as she came closer to the doors. At this point, if I was to continue this act, I would have Monokuma rush ahead of her, confronting her on her actions and allowing her to retaliate in a way that would be considered breaking the rules. From there, if I followed the original plan that she expects, I'd then open up a trap door and 'send her to the dungeons' where she would then be the hidden blade that would kill someone and hide, preventing the others from properly guessing the killer. If I went Junko's way, then Mukuro would be shish kabob.

Guess we're doing it my way then.

"…is what I would say, if we actually were going to have a trial." I said plainly, stopping her in her tracks. "Unfortunately, that won't be the case right now."

That hadn't been in the script, nor was it something she would have expected. She turned back with a muttered, "Huh?" and stared at the two-toned bear as I made it shrug.

"Well, come on. What would be the point right now? As you've all seen, we are sorely lacking in dead bodies to hold a trial over right now. No, unless one of you wants to volunteer to finish killing one of the two in the infirmary, then there would be no point."

The seventy-eight class didn't know how to respond to this bombshell. Oh, they were unsure as to my intentions, that much I could guess from their looking at each other for answers that they didn't have, but other than that, none of them could think of a reason to say anything.

"Bullshit!" Well, okay, maybe 'Junko' could. "Then what was the point of telling us all that!?"

Having Monokuma shrug, I spoke with a condescending tone. "Well, someone asked a question. Is it not my job as a headmaster to inform you of things where I can? Honestly, blame the ones who couldn't keep their gabs shut if you want to be upset at someone."

She growled rather convincingly as she stomped up to the stage, a deep glare on her face as she came close. "And what's to stop me from just walking out right now?"

I shrugged at her, continuing to ignore her attempts to provoke me. "Aside for the fact that you would be incriminating yourself as miss Sayaka's and or mister Yasuhiro's attacker, not much really. As I said, there isn't really a reason to hold a trial at the moment. Honestly, the reason I called you here was to warn you of the attacker being at large, and to inform you of what would happen if they succeeded."

Several of the students were grumbling about how I had wasted their time with this when they could have been helping their comrades, but I wasn't done yet. Hopping off the stage, the Monokuma unit brushed past the false Junko and walked towards the exit with its paws behind its back. "In any case, the one who attacked your fellow classmates is still here in the school. I should know, I had a front row seat to the action. And I must say, I was sorely disappointed in the performance last night."

Turning the animatronic around a good ten feet from the class and catching the glares of angered disgust from the students, I resisted the urge to gag at the nonsense I was spewing and continued. "It was disgraceful! And the worst part was that one of you actually used my caring nature against me to save those two idiots! Not cool. So, I'm going to make an example of last night's fiasco and impose a new rule! Until our titular attacker has been caught, all students are forbidden from sleeping in any dorm room aside from their own and their dorms will be locked during night time hours…"

Unsurprisingly, a few of them didn't take it well. Hina was especially miffed considering she had rather enjoyed her impromptu sleepover with Sakura last night and may have wanted to host another. And I knew that Kiyoko was upset as the forced lockdown would force her to have to say in her room during the times that she tended to investigate the most, lest she planned to stay awake all night to avoid being punished for sleeping in the school and breaking a rule. But then, things took a turn for the worst.

"How's this for an example?" at that upset call from the fake Junko, I was caught off guard when the camera for the Monokuma was suddenly shifted to facing upwards. Continuing to watch, I was soon greeted with the sight of Mukuro leaning over the bear and glaring down at the camera. Attempts to get Monokuma to stand up were futile since she had planted her boot smack dab in the center of its face and was using her whole weight to keep it pinned. All and all, not good.

"…" I honestly didn't know what to say to that. I honestly didn't. Should I have responded with confusion, with anger, respect for standing up to me? Should I slap myself for actually forgetting that she needed me to get Monokuma off the stage to initiate their plans, shortly after deciding I wasn't going to do that? I didn't know. But, what I did know, is that I wasn't going to stand for it.

"You happy now?" She asked, her tone nether happy nor taunting. If I were to describe it, it was more like a stern parent upset with a child than anything else. Yet at the same time I felt insulted.

Who was she to stand there like she was better than me? Acting like she knew anything at all about what would make me happy. What gave her the right to talk down to me like that when she didn't have the slightest idea of what I was going through trying to keep these people alive? No, I was not taking that from her.

"Are you?" I replied to her, no longer really feeling anything about what I was about to do. But, I still felt the desire to warn her about what I was going to do. "You do realize that, on top of the fact that this does nothing but give me an excellent shot up your skirt; and seriously, those have got to be the most boring set of panties I've ever seen, but you are basically standing on top of a talking bomb."

There wasn't a response from her; aside from some pink dusting her cheeks, so I continued. "On top of that, violence against head master Monokuma is strictly prohibited! You just broke a big rule there, missy! I know you aren't stupid as your hair color would imply, but come on. Use your head!"

I sighed as she refused to budge, so I began pressing buttons to prime her 'punishment' for breaking the rules. I was not dealing with this. It was time for plan B. "I didn't want to do this; I told myself, "Monokuma, I really don't want to do this," but now, I have no choice but to make an example out of you. Sorry."

I made sure that everything was aimed up properly. I checked to see if it looked like she was going to move; she wasn't, but she was noticeably caught off guard by my impromptu apology. Then, when I felt it was set as loud as I could, I shouted, "DODGE THIS! SPEARS OF GUNGNIR, I CALL UPON YOUR AIDE! SLAY THIS WENCH WHERE SHE STANDS FOR HER TRANSGRESSTIONS AGAINST YOUR MASTER, MONOKUMA!"

In that moment, faster than even she, the Ultimate Solider, could react, a flash of something flew at her, crossing the room in less than a second. Then, there was a scream, a wet sound of flesh being punctured, blood splattered the ground, and most of all…

A feeling of despair.