"Oh, why did he have to bring that up?"
Asahina bemoaned as she floated lazily in the school's pool, all of her usual energy completely drained from her. Her emotions had been fried, to be blunt, and all that was left was a feeling of burnt out depression. It was so bad that she couldn't even find the motivation to swim more than ten laps in the pool instead of her usual hundred. So instead she floated in a lazy drift, her face, bust, and stomach the only part of her sticking out of the chlorinated waters as her legs slowly kicked to help keep her afloat and her eyes stared blankly at the celling, absolutely unfocused.
The only solace she had was that, despite the trying time, she still had company.
"Hina, thou know that there is naught that can be done." Her best female friend, possibly best friend period, Sakura stated from her own similar laid-back position, though she was moving much more then Hina was to stay afloat due to her heavy muscles weighing her down.
"I know."
"Monokuma will do as he pleases. The ursa seeks to see us give in to his manipulations, to give in to the desire to leave even if it costs the lives of our comrades. I fear he will do anything to see that take place."
"Yeah." Hina agreed with the burly woman afloat with her, feeling comport in her presence. A small smile found its way to her face as she turned her head slightly to look at her friend, ignoring the water getting in her ear as she did.
"Hey Sakura?" She softly said, "Thanks for staying with me while like this. I know you'd rather be training with that tire then this."
"Nonsense. There is nothing that I would prefer more than helping my friend."
Hina smiled just a bit wider at that. That was one thing she could always trust about Sakura, she would always look out for her.
She tried to avoid sighing again, but she couldn't help it. What Monokuma had done to them, to her, it was horrible. It was bad enough that he had brought out their dirty laundry, but to outright say them aloud with the express promise of sharing it with the world. Even now, despite having torn her letter apart and scattering its remains through every other trash can she could find, the words that had been on it still appeared whenever she closed her eyes, and embarrassing prank that she still regretted to this day.
"Aoi Asahina once slathered a rival's swimsuit in laxatives."
It was a stupid whim of hers when she was still a novice swimmer. She had been having difficulty defeating a rather experienced swimmer, two years her senior, nothing that major. However, the girl had the single most obnoxious personality of any girl she'd ever met, constantly bragging and gloating over her incredible times and how she was practically guaranteed a position into Hope's Peak Academy all while putting down anyone and anyone who couldn't beat her lap time; Hina especially. Worst yet, it was a well-known, yet unproven fact that she was constantly slipping laxatives into people's food before practice whenever they slighted her, either herself or by seducing someone into doing it for her. One of these people she'd spiked had actually been a friend of Hina's, and she got threatened to be kicked from the swim team for contaminating the pool, so it was personal for the ultimate swimmer. So, one day when Hina had been left alone in the locker room with the girl's swim suit, in a moment of surprising vindictiveness, tried to repay the favor.
Unfortunately, Hina hadn't known how laxatives worked at the time, so she slathered the girl's swimsuit in the same chocolate laxatives she spiked people with in a hope that it would do something. It hadn't exactly worked as she'd planned, it didn't even do anything to her. However, when the girl had jumped in the pool and chocolate started wafting off of her in waves, it still managed to catch people's eyes. And in the poorly discarded wrappers being found in the girl's locker and bag it wasn't long before people put two and two together.
It didn't make Hina feel good though. She hadn't meant for the bully to get expelled and even banned from every swimming pool within a hundred miles of the school, she just wanted her to stop being such a jerk. But that was a minor concern compared to the second thing it had listed.
"Aoi Asahina regularly strips down on her balcony to preform Kanpu masatsu, and flashes her neighbors in the process."
Oh god, she could feel her cheeks burn even now. It wasn't even because she had been called out on preforming her daily towel treatment. It was how blatantly misleading it had been written. It made her seem like some sort of pervert who got off on being an exhibitionist! But that wasn't true, in fact up until now she hadn't even realized that she had been essentially flashing every one of her neighbors and giving them a free show every single day. She felt utterly mortified now that it had been pointed out.
But as embarrassing as that all was, she was still more concerned by what other secret had been written down for her eyes only.
"Someone here regularly kills and harms people without remorse in a vain attempt to earn their sibling's approval."
That…that was just…horrible. Who would do such a thing? Who would ever think that hurting someone, killing people, would be something that someone would want them to do!? Who would think that doin such a terrible, horrible act would make someone like them, let alone a sibling. The whole idea was absolutely insane and made her feel sick to her stomach.
Worst still, if Monokuma was to be believed, then it was one of them that held such a twisted, corrupt idea in their head. One of them held this disturbed belief that they had to kill people to please their sibling, and had no qualms about doing so. They could and would kill everyone here without a single care for the lives they snuffed out.
Hina dunked her head under the water and let out a shout of frustration. No! the bear had to be lying about that. They were all friends here, all working together in an effort to escape together. There was no way that one of them would willingly kill anyone and not feel anything! Even Byakuya, for all of his pompous attitude, would struggle to get over killing someone. Hopefully.
It had to be another one of the mastermind's tricks. He was just trying to make them doubt in one another, forget about the bonds they'd made or were currently forging. He had practically said as much!
Silence.
All was silent after Monokuma's announcement. The promise that he would be telling the world, everyone, their darkest, most hidden secrets. Shameful, horrible things that they had either done, or said that they wanted no one, no one, to ever find out about. For if they were, they all knew that they would suffer from complete and utter humiliation. What was worst being that, at least one of those secrets would be announced for all of the captive students to hear. And as if that hadn't been enough, the thing that made them all nervously glance at each other was that he had given someone here one of those secret, and no one knew who had which secret. It made them feel conflicted, concerned as to what the others had been exposed to.
"So? What do you think?" The frustratingly terrible bear mocked, "There're all pretty terrible, trust me. None of you want me to reveal this stuff to the world, right?"
"…Wait, that's it?"
Monokuma turned to look at the luckster who'd spoken with a confused tilt of the head. "Saywha?"
"Well, it's definitely not anything I'd like people to know about." Makoto admitted, his face scrunched up a bit at the idea. The first two alone were pretty bad enough, he was almost afraid of whatever else the mastermind had scrounged up on him and the others. Still though, "But we'd never kill someone over something like that!"
"He's right!" Taka interjected with force, his fist clenched to show just how determined he was. "Your plan was doomed from the start! No one would murder someone over something like that!"
The bear seemed to have been caught off guard, actually flinching back from their proclamations. "O-Oh? Really? Is it because you view your secrets as another connection to the outside world? That, for better or for worst, those memories allow you find reason to want to leave? I mean, I have all sorts of things that I'd absolutely do anything to keep from getting out, so I assumed you were all the same."
The bear then let out an absolutely depressing sigh that almost made some of their most soft-hearted feel sorry for him. Almost, being the key word since whatever sympathy they nearly raised had died with the master puppet's next words. "Man, and to think I had put so much time into this. So many hours, wasted."
"I'll say." Leon agreed, doing his best to hide the sweat pouring down his face.
"Oh…Oh? Oh!" Monokuma suddenly shouted, and there as his mood seemed to rise the others felt their spirits fall that much further. "Oh, now I remember! The other thing!"
It was with no small amount of concern him voice when Hifumi repeated, "Other thing?"
"That's right! The whole reason I had the third part of your motives put in! You see, all of this bonding nonsense has started to piss me off, so I decided to show you all just how little you should trust in one another. As I've shown you, there are two really nasty secrets of yours, and more, about to be told to the world. If you want to stop it, then someone has to die before twenty-four hours pass. However, being a lover of options as I am, I've decided to give you the opportunity to avoid spilling the beans on one of those two secrets."
"You see, the unnamed secret does in fact belong to one of you here, and since everyone loves a good mystery, I'm giving each and every one of you a chance to solve one on your own. Exciting, right? Your own personal mystery! If you can find out who exactly your secret belongs to before my announcement, then I will allow you to choose which of your two secrets will not be announced."
"A-Are you serious!?"
"Deathly so." Monokuma stated with a darker, more serious voice that actually made them feel real terror beyond what they'd been exposed to thus far. And he was just getting started. "Oh, but you can't just randomly guess. That would take away the whole point. Instead, you have to bring forth proof of who's secret you've uncovered. It can be anything from pointing out a reaction from them, or actual evidence to support your theory. If you can get them to confess on your own, that counts too! I'll even accept it if you blatantly tortured someone for the answer! Whatever it takes to keep one of your secrets, secret."
"You son of a bitch!" Mondo growled as he took a threatening stomp forward ready to clobber the bear and damn the consequences. Taka took a step forward himself, his fists clenched hard as he raised one forward with a determined glare. "Don't mock our commitment! We have no intention of ever doing such appalling things!
"Oh well." Monokuma stated as he stood back upright, completely disregarding the slight. "Guess I'll just have to expose those secrets of yours tomorrow. Maybe that'll make me feel a bit better. So depressed…"
And with that, Monokuma left, taking with him the distraction of his presence and leaving them all to stare at the envelopes and letters still within their grasps. For a while, no one spoke, as if they were afraid that if they said something, anything, it would inspire a revolt so overwhelming that it could not possibly be stopped or contained once it was unleashed. They were struggling to come up with a way to properly describe what they had been forced to bear witness to.
Finally, though with a bit of trepidation in her voice, Hina spoke her opinion. "Well, I don't know what I expected but…maybe we dodged a bullet with this. I mean…" She glanced down at the two secrets that belonged to her and the one belonging to someone else with a conflicted look. "I mean, yeah, I really don't want anyone to learn about this stuff, I mean these are really embarrassing, but I wouldn't kill anyone over this."
"She's right." Taka agreed, "I don't think anyone would ever consider giving in to murder for such a simple thing. In fact, I have a great idea! Why don't we all just confess the secrets in our envelopes right here and now!? That way, we will eliminate any and all motive! Plus! It will also meet Monokuma's scheme of getting us to prevent at least one of our secrets from being found out! And to make it fair for everyone, whoever is the owner of the unnamed secret will then tell us that its theirs, tell us their secrets on their letter, and we can continue like that until everyone is done. Pretty smart, right?"
The was a large amount of reluctance on the other's faces. None of them really wanted to tell anyone these secrets of theirs, the shame would have been too great for them. But, it also made some semblance of sense. If they could stop Monokuma's plan in its track, then the chances of there being a murder would drop significantly. Yes, they would feel embarrassed, but it would be either tell each other, or risk the world learning of their secrets.
Convinced that the others would follow at his side, Taka started. "Okay, my most embarrassing secret is…"
"I don't w-want to hear your s-stupid story!" Toko cut him off just before he could say it, the venom in her voice startling him as well as several of the others. With how quiet she'd been, they hadn't expected her to be so loud all of the sudden. It even derailed Taka's train of thought so thoroughly that all he could manage in rebuttal was a simple, "What? Why?"
"B-Because, I don't…I d-don't want to…t-to talk about it…" the novelist stated, the heat in her voice was gone, but now it was full of terror the likes of which even she hadn't had before now. "I-I don't care what anyone says…I r-refuse to talk about it."
Suddenly her finger snapped out as an accusatory expression appeared, the contempt in her voice practically palpable. "B-Besides, how are we supposed to know that y-you won't just tell us the third person's secret instead of your own, h-huh!?"
Taka recoiled at the suggestion, the idea that he would do such a thing actually stunned him silent. The others weren't much better, though she had only been accusing Taka, the idea was now out in the open and it made them all feel tense. Anyone here could just shout out the hidden secret of someone else and claim it as their own, all while keeping their own secret safe. It they went with Taka's plan, they'd have to trust that everyone would cooperate and tell the others their darkest secret, and that they wouldn't give in to the temptation of speaking about the hidden one instead.
"I would have to agree." Celeste stated, cutting off any of the responses that Taka could have come up with. "We do not know what we have on each other, nor can we trust that we would be honest in our response. Besides, I for one would prefer not to speak of what I've found either. Not because it is embarrassing mind you, rather, it is because it is impossible."
The choice of words intrigued the attention of the open Otaku, and he stated as such. "Well, when you put it like that, now I only want to hear it more. After all, it's just human to want to hear it if someone says it impossible. Come on, it'll be good for you."
"Absolutely not." She denied bluntly, her arms crossed in defiance. Unfortunately, that did nothing to dissuade the interest of Hifumi as he chanted in her ear, coming closer with every word. "Come on, come on, come on."
Finally, with a thick vein in her forehead visibly pulsing, she turned to the podgy teen and with her metal covered finger jabbed into his round nose, she snarled out, "I said I don't want to talk about it, you fat tub of lard!"
The sudden aggression was already enough to catch the poor boy off guard as it was, but the brief loss of her posh accent only accentuated the fear the boy felt for his life as he squealed and back-peddled as fast as his stubby legs could go. Once he was significantly far enough away that she couldn't smell his putrid breath, the gambling queen took a deep breath to calm herself down again, and returned to her neutral expression. While the others stared at her with shock at the abrupt change, they couldn't help but feel that the otaku kinda deserved it.
With that out of the way, the ever so condescending voice of the blond progeny proceeded to grab their attention as he turned on his heel and started to take his leave. "Regardless, I have to agree. It's pointless to discuss about this."
After that, any discussion regarding the letters quickly turned to a mostly mutual agreement that, no, they would not go through with Taka's plan. Even Mondo, who had been calling the teen his bro, didn't agree, though he'd made it clear that it was solely because everyone else had said no first. He knew when he was outnumbered. The only exception had been Chihiro of all people, though she said she wanted to wait a bit to get a bit stronger first. In the end, they all left without any answers.
"Still, I'm glad you're here Sakura." Hina stated as she pulled her face back out of the water. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
With her face turned to the sky she was unable to see the expression on her friend's face, but she was sure that there was a smile on the buff women's face. After all, with all of the time they'd been hanging out and training together, there was bound to be some kind of bond at the very least.
Unknown to her, however, there was a conflicted expression on the muscular women's face. It was only there for a brief moment, but it was a moment too long in Sakura's mind. Steeling her emotions, she regarded her friend's disclosure with one of her own. "Aye, I feel the same."
Hina's smile became all the brighter, the dark fog of shame of their secrets being possibly exposed pushed aside for the moment. The simple fact that she had such a cool friend like Sakura making her feel much better. The others were great too, of course, with the possible exception of Byakuya and maybe Toko, they were all great friends. Chihiro was super sweet, if a bit shy. Kyoko was mysterious, yet really smart. Hifumi had interesting stories, even though he was very weird. Even Hiro, for all of his stupid stories and really bad smell, was rather interesting to listen to in small doses.
Makoto especially was a really great. He was really easy to talk too, always ready to offer up advice whenever he could, and he was super reliable. His reliability could be best seen during the last trial where he shot down everyone's arguments to help them find the truth. Sure, he stumbled a bit when they found out that it was Sayaka who tried to frame him for murder, but he quickly recovered to revel that Leon had in fact messed with the crime scene. The luckster had been so into it at the end when he ran through the case one last time that she had felt like she was swept away, the truth finally reveled and the culprit now known to everyone. It had been so amazing to see just how dependable the usually more quiet and reserved boy could be in a pinch.
Speaking of Sayaka and Leon, Hina still found herself amazed and somewhat a little scared at their story of lust, fear, attempted murder, and despair. To think that one of them had actually given in to the temptation that damn bear had given them, and worst that the other had tried to hide that fact. It was so terrifying to think about, that two of them almost had died that night, and again when the trial concluded, that she still found herself struggling to talk with the two even though several days had passed.
And with this whole thing about secrets she wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to talk with them, which was a shame because she actually found herself missing the afternoon tea sessions she and all of the girls had been partaking in, as Celeste liked to call it. While she hadn't interacted with Leon all that much, Sayaka had been her friend, or at least she hoped that the musically gifted girl thought the same of her. She actually kinda missed the discussions she and Junko had gotten into with Celeste about various fashions, make up styling techniques, and the one's she liked the most, dietary habits and exercise routines.
Who would have guessed that a fashionista would go on four mile runs in heavy combat boots to keep herself in shape!
She cringed. Poor Junko. She wouldn't be doing that again for quite a while.
That cringe quickly turned into a determined glare. Well, she wasn't going to let a little fear hold her back! After all, "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." – Seneca. She would go and get them all together for their tea once more soon, and they would all have a good time! She'd even get Toko and Chihiro to join in if she had to drag them both to the dining hall!
"I have an idea!" With her new-found determination in hand, she submerged herself into the water and quickly swam to the edge and practically leapt out of the pool like a fish with a loud splash. With water practically pooling at her feet, she turned back to her friend with a pumped-up expression. "No more of this dreary attitude! Let's get the girls together and heave some of that tea again to get our minds off of this whole secrets and murder nonsense! You with me!?"
Sakura was silent for all of three seconds as she contemplated the swimmer's words, before a fond smile formed on her lips. "Aye. It will be nice to relax with the others again. I'm sure that the others likely feel the same."
With that, the large women swam to the edge and in a similar fashion climbed out of the pool with water practically flooding the edge. Taking a moment to wring out her hair, Sakura smiled down at her peppy friend as she started making her way to where they'd laid out their towels, the smaller tanned girl adjusting her school swimsuit where it had started riding up on her as she walked. Once their towels were in hand, the two friends started making their way out of the pool room.
However, with the reminder of the near mutual refusal to expose their own secrets, Hina couldn't help but frown with the reminder of what had also happened at the end. "Hey, do you have any idea what was going on with Hiro?"
"Nay." Sakura denied, a frown growing on her face as well as she tried to think of the reason that had Hiro do what he had.
At had been as they were leaving the gym that one of them, Junko, had noticed that the clairvoyant hadn't looked away from his letter the entire time. Even as everyone else was leaving, he hadn't budged an inch. She had gotten Sakura and Hina's attention when she had noticed and together they had gone to talk with him to see if he was okay.
They hadn't expected it to go as bad as it had.
For Yasuhiro, there wasn't much of a reason to not feel terrified when it came to secrets. He was a fine collector of the rare and valuable OOPs arts and with that came a lot of secrets that many would want his head to obtain. There were also his many customers, many of whom wanted him to keep quiet about what he'd seen in their futures; some of whom even went as far as to swear him under various forms of blood oaths to outright bribing him to ensure his silence. So, despite his desires to earn lots of money, he felt pretty confident in his ability to keep a secret.
So, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise to say that he was appalled to find out that one of his secrets was about one of his predictions he'd done for a customer.
"Yasuhiro Hagakure once gave a prediction that has ruined the lives of a famous All-girl Pop-idol group through their manager."
Well, that was a bit disheartening to find out.
He wasn't even sure of who exactly this was referring to since he had been with so many influential clients in the past that no one face stuck out. Furthermore, there were even more customers that were one shots that hadn't liked what he was seeing or felt satisfied with the one curiosity and had decided that they wouldn't need his services as a fortune teller again. Those were even harder to remember then the ones that gave him a glance and decided that they wanted nothing to do with him.
But to think that one of his fortunes had ruined someone's life was something that he'd never considered. Sure, his interpretations could be off some of the time, but generally he tried to steer people towards the futures that would make them and others around them live fulfilling lives. Not necessarily happy lives since everyone struggled through life at some point or another, but at least better then it could have been.
So, it was rather disheartening to hear that one of his predictions had hurt someone like that. Had hurt someone at all. His only hope was that it was one of the ones that had skipped out on paying him.
Maybe he could ask Sayaka about it later. She was in an idol group after all, so she likely could point him in the right direction so that he could apologize to whomever his fortune telling had hurt. Then he could offer them a discount reading as an apology. Make it like, twenty percent off or something.
Regardless, while it was sad to know, the first secret at the very least gave him some feeling of elation. At the very least, he knew that he would never kill someone over this. Yes, he felt ashamed for what he'd done, but it wasn't like he was able to change the past at all.
Well, it wasn't like there was anything he'd done that could really come back to bight him in here, now was there?
Confident in his belief, he didn't even think to hesitate to read the second line. After all, there couldn't possibly be anything that the mastermind could dig up on him that would be worst then the first one. Right?
"Yasuhiro Hagakure owes eight million yen to the yakuza group, Kuzuryu."
Instantly his breath caught in his throat and he almost crushed the paper in his grasp. His teeth bit into the inside of his cheeks to keep from screaming out in shock.
How could they know about that? He thought he'd covered his tracks so well. There shouldn't be anyone here that could possibly know about his most dangerous debt to date. Did that mean that the one in charge of this killing game was associated with the yakuza gang that wanted his head? It made the most sense to him, and it would explain why all of this horrible stuff was happening to him. They had a grudge against him so of course they would be so cruel to him and those associated with him.
Yeah, that made sense! The yakuza were the ones responsible for this killing game! That was why they could afford to outfit this abandoned school with robot bears that exploded and boobytraps to enforce the rules. He'd figured it all out!
And! That would also explain why Sayaka had stabbed him in the hallway. Clearly, she was working for them and had been told to make it look like his death was a spur of the moment type thing. They must have paid her off somehow and had her try to assassinate him!
A scowl formed on his face at the thought. And to think that he was willing to give her a discount earlier, the traitorous witch! To think that she was working with the mastermind. Well, now that he'd figured her out, he could keep an eye on her to make sure that she never gets another chance at his life!
Unfortunately, as exciting as that was, it also meant that he had to keep his trap shut. If he was right, then that meant that someone else might be on their pay list as well and would try to silence him if he started pointing out the truth to the others. The best thing that he could do is to keep quiet and avoid attracting attention for now.
"Hey, Hiro? You okay?"
The voice of a girl startled his out of his thoughts, and he turned to look at the concerned faces of three of his friends, three girls he knew he could trust. Sweet donut-lover, Hina. Big strong, Ogre. And finally, good old Jun-
*THUMP-THUMP*
PAIN!
His hands leapt to his scalp, the sudden spike of pain overwhelming his senses. It was like fire had been put to his scalp and his own skull felt like it was constricting his brain, crushing down on the delicate gray matter like a vice. And within that burning agony, a fuzzy picture manifested itself behind his eye lids.
A dark alleyway. The sounds of pouring rain. Three muscular men laying on the ground either unconscious, or dead. With them the wary form of his friend Makoto looking to him. A red eyed woman with waving blond locks took the forefront of his vision as she held the clairvoyant by the front of his collar and stared straight into his eyes with a fire full of promise of his imminent demise.
"You fucked up, Hiro." She stated to him with cold hard steel in her tone, her grip preventing him from running no matter how he could have struggled. "You made your last mistake today. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but no more. I've paid your debt, but now that means you owe me those eight million bucks. If it wasn't for him, the guy you were about to sell the organs of, you wouldn't even have the chance to pay me back. And I'm not gonna let you run from it like your other moronic debtors did. From now on, you work when I say you work. You will not spend a single. Fucking. Cent, without my first say so. You won't even be allowed to go to the god damn toilet without my express say so. I don't care if I have to put a god damn pet tracker in your hide. Until you pay me back, you are my bitch. Got it?"
Hiro had frozen up, his eyes shooting wide open as his jaw dropped. The memory, vision? Whatever it was, it filled his heart with absolute terror. And his head, oh his head! It felt like someone had put it in a vice that was on fire! His body lurched back as if he'd been struck as he stared at the now confused girl before him. It didn't seem like she was aware of it, she'd said nothing about this thus far, so it must have been a vision. But what the hell kind of vision was that!?
It had none of the usual vague symbolism he was used to. It was so clear, so concise and blunt.
Wait. Does that mean he managed to get a higher percentage than his usually did because of his headache? Yeah, that had to be it. There was no other idea he could come up with, so that had to be the case.
But what did that mean? Did it mean that they would be able to escape from this horrible place only for his debtors to catch up with him? That seemed to be the case, otherwise why would he have tried to sell Makoto's organs? And it had to have been Makoto, he was the only one there that made sense since even he wouldn't be so stupid as to try that kind of transaction on one of the very buff looking men in the vision.
However, did that mean that Junko would be the one to save them? Obviously, it seemed like the deal had gone south somewhere for there to have been a need for their rescue, otherwise there wouldn't have been so many injured beefy men lying unconscious on the ground. But, if that was the case then someone had to have rescued them, and he highly doubted that Makoto would have the ability to be that kind of badass, so it had to be Junko who saved them both. That is what she had implied in the vision after all.
But, what did this mean? If this was the future, then that means that not only did he still go to try and pull of this dangerous transaction against his buddy's will, but that he did so knowing that it would get him in hot water with someone much, much more vindictive then even the yakuza. He knew that his predictions weren't a hundred percent accurate, but he would have likely seen something like this before.
And why were her iris red, so bloody red? As far as he'd seen, they were blue. So, why were they red in this vision?
There were too many questions, too many things to think about. He'd never had to interpret so much with such a clear insight before and this headache wasn't doing anything to help! He couldn't stop it. It hurt. It hurt more than anything he'd dealt with before. And the more he looked at her, the girl who would one day save(?) his life, the more intense the pain got!
He…He had to get away. He had to get away from her. Find a place to calm down, to reorganize his messed-up thoughts.
He needed to get to his stash.
But more importantly, he had to get away!
"UHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
A primal scream of pain and horror tore its way out of his throat as he gripped his hair in a panic, succeeding in nothing more than making his head hurt even worst. With that failing, he pushed himself up and out of the wheelchair. He could barely feel the twinge in his side acting up, the pain in his head far overpowering it and making it hard to think. He couldn't even hear if anyone had shouted after him from the hammering of his heart in his ears. He threw open the doors to the gym, and rushed through the halls. He didn't even know if he'd run into anyone on his way to his room, all he cared about was getting to his room.
Once there, he slammed the door behind him, and pressed his body to it. His heart pounded in his chest as sweat poured down his face. His lungs burned almost as badly as the space he'd been stabbed in and it hurt to breathe almost as much as the ungodly pain in his head.
He could barely walk any further without his mind swimming when he tried to push himself off of the wall. His vision was no better, the edges going black while the rest of had turned fuzzy and distorted. Despite how he'd run all the way here, his feet felt like lead as he stumbled forward. He barely managed to take a few steps before his legs gave out from the pain in his head and he collapsed onto his carpet floor, barely managing to avoid the various fortune teller junk…Artifacts! That lay on his floor.
And that was where he blacked out.
Kiyotaka walked through the halls of the second floor with his head slumped down, his gaze on nowhere in particular as he paced the halls of the school lost in thought over the events of the past few hours. It was no exaggeration to say that he was disappointed in the results, though he could see the reasoning behind it. It had just been truly upsetting to hear that none of the others would be willing to go along with his plan to simply talk about their secrets that Monokuma had presented them. He truly believed that he had been on the right track with having them simply read out what the bear had scrounged up on them and get it all over with, like ripping off a bandage.
Maybe he hadn't worded it right. He thought he had, but maybe there was something lost on the others. All he had meant was that each of them would take turns announcing everything on the list and once they got to the third secret then whoever it belonged to could take it from there and recite their secrets. It would be embarrassing airing out all of that dirty laundry, yes, but they could have used it as a bonding moment.
Besides, it wasn't like any of them would be able to go gossiping to anyone. With them all locked up in this school tighter then Fort Knox for the minimum of a year with no way to contact anyone let alone gain access to the media, it wasn't like they could go telling anyone even if they wanted to. Plus, by the time they would get out, he had no doubt that they would all have at least some decorum to not sell out their friends.
That was why he had claimed that the Mastermind had screwed up, because he felt that by playing the secret card this early they had played themselves. With the only risk being that their secrets would be exposed to the world at large, it only made sense for them all to quickly get it all out in the open amongst their peers so that they could get all of their resentments and hostilities taken care of before it could escalate to murder.
If Monokuma had done it about a month or two later he might have been more inclined to believe that someone might resort to such extremes since one of the books on relationships he'd studied claimed that most people learn by that point if they truly would be able to stomach each other's personalities. That was because it was around that point that people start getting more comfortable around each other and the cracks in the first impressions mask start to show. When that happens, that was when the more human parts of who they were truly began to be revealed.
Once the ugly parts became known, only then could the comradery he'd been trying to show the others could truly blossom as they all worked to understand the various quirks and nuances of everyone while also finding a way to compromise and coexist.
Or so the book claimed.
Plus, after that much time had passed, they would also be a lot more restless by that point from being held in this school without any form of natural light and the constant presence of their very understandably unlikeable captor. If there was any point where they would be most likely to lose their morals even momentarily, it would be then.
If he were the sick minded individual running this show, and he was so thankful that he wasn't, he would have done this at this point when they had only just truly started to find frustrations with each other's personalities. Exposing secrets of each other would have been much easier when everyone was already bighting at each other's heels from how stir crazy they would have been at that point. Any later and they would be able to put aside their differences once and for all.
But maybe that was why he did it now instead of later. Yes, they would have been more easily frustrated with each other by then, but that was still a point where they would have truly started to bond as equals. Maybe he feared that they would be able to overcome their petty squabbles quicker if they had been given the time to bond beforehand? That would be the most likely thing that the moral committee board director could think of.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He couldn't allow himself to start doubting in the others now just because of some secrets. It didn't matter if it had been now, tomorrow, next week, or even a month from now. He refused to believe that one of his fellow classmates would fall for such a pathetic scheme.
He needed to relax, to have a chance to reorganize his thoughts. And the best way to do that was to expand his knowledge with a good old-fashioned study session. So, with that in mind, he made his way to the biggest source of information here to relax his mind.
The library.
Now, after what had happened with Byakuya, he and the others had made an unspoken agreement to leave the library alone whenever he was there on his own. It was just easier for everyone in the short term since he had been nothing but irritating to everyone who tried to talk with him. What made it more irritating was that they couldn't even try and take out a book for themselves without him passive aggressively mocking them or bluntly degrading them until they left.
Fortunately for Taka, after Monokuma's blatant threat of exposing their secrets had been made, Byakuya as well as a few others had completely locked themselves up in their rooms and refused to come out for the rest of the day, even going so far as to snatch up some of the snacks from the storeroom to help in this endeavor. On the downside, this made his plan to get them all to all reveal their secrets much more difficult to achieve, but it also made it significantly easier to get some much-needed studying done without the distraction of Byakuya's unwanted snark.
So, with that thought in mind, Taka opened the door to the library and made his way inside.
Once inside, he took a brief moment to stop and inhale through his nose, taking in the calming scent of old but cared for books, dust, and a little hint of Mahogany from the desks and shelves everywhere and instantly felt like the stress of the day fade away. There was just something about that combination of scents that never failed to relax him when he was feeling upset and or anxious. Maybe it was because they let him know that here, in this place, in this sanctuary of peace, he could study to his heart's content without having to worry about such things like, socializing.
It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to people, far from it. he would have loved to have someone to discuss any number of topics with. However, as he had admitted to his new Professor Makoto, he wasn't really all that good at keeping the conversation going. He just didn't know of any topics that would keep them interested very long.
Regardless, at least he didn't have to be out of his comfort zone here.
"Hey there Taka. What's up?" he was suddenly and abruptly pulled out of his musings by a voice that he would never have expected to hear in a place like this. A friendly, cheery tone that was both friendly and yet stern in just the right balance and reminded him of his mother. And once he'd opened his eyes, he realized that he wasn't mistaken.
"Ah, Miss Enoshima." Taka politely spoke, once he noticed her sitting in the softly lit room at one of the desks with a book in hand, her crutch leaning right up against her chair as she smiled at him. "What brings you to the library today? And why are you out of your wheelchair?"
It was a bit unusual of her to be here of all places all things considered. After Hiro had taken off, it had been decided that, since he was apparently able to get up on his own and likely wouldn't need the wheelchair anymore that they would give it to Junko since out of all of them she needed it the most. She had expressed thanks, but even as she sat down she told them that she would still use the crutch from time to time till she could walk on her own. They had been supportive of her and both Chihiro and Makoto took her to her room so that she could recover.
So, it could be easy to understand that he was surprised that she was not only back on her crutch in such a short time, but that she had managed to get all the way to the library seemingly by herself. In was rather impressive in his books, to see just how much she was willing to push herself to recover.
Speaking of whom, Junko shrugged slightly in response. "Eh, you know. Just trying to find something to occupy the time, and since the royal pain in the neck finally decided to hide out in his room, I decided to try and do some reading. As for the chair, well, can't really climb stairs with that thing weighing me down, now can I?"
While he didn't exactly approve of her choice of description for their blond-haired heir, and that she would be so quick to leave behind her mode of transport, he honestly felt a bit of joy knowing that he hadn't been the only one to come to that conclusion. But before he could voice his praise at her applying herself, she lifted up her book slightly asked a question he had never anticipated. "Want to join me?"
Him? Join her? As in, she wanted to study together for the sake of studying? That had never happened before! Most people went out of their way to avoid his study sessions since they thought he was to intense so to hear someone actually want to hang out with him outside of cram sessions before exams made an uncontrollable smile force its way across his lips. "Y-Yes! I would very much like that!"
Quickly, though not so quickly that he would look desperate, he grabbed himself a chair and, prompted by her smile sat not a respectable distance from her and looked towards her book. "Now, what is it you need help with?"
She smiled back at him and scooted the book closer to him so that he could see it better and pointed at a paragraph that he recognized as one from an English/Japanese translation book. "Right here, I'm having a bit of trouble translating this one right. I keep getting stuck about at this point."
"I see." He commented with a nod of his head. "Well, I can see where it could be difficult. I myself had had difficulties with that one myself for a while. But, not to worry! What you got to do is…"
And from there they continued, for a good while they both sat there together, going over the various passages and lines from the book and bouncing off of each other what they believed to be how it was pronounced. For about an hour they continued to do this, occasionally though they would stop because the pronunciation one of them had used sounded so off of the mark that it would make one of them, usually Junko, laugh and sputter which would cause the other to start laughing out loud at how outrageous it sounded.
Taka, recovering from their most recent bout of laughter, took a moment to reflect on this moment. It was rather surprising to him, but this had to have been the first time that he'd ever laughed during a study session like that. It was also the first time that he'd had spent so much time actually communing with a person without them suddenly remembering that they had something important to take care of. While he'd been sad to see them go, it had been nice to know that they had taken time out of their busy schedules to chat with him. "I must say, it's quite a welcome sight to see you being so studious!"
To his concern, Junko's smirk suddenly died and she gave him a lidded glare. "What? Did you think I was an idiot because I dress like this?"
"A-Ah! No, my apologies!" he immediately backpaddled. "I meant no offence. I simply wished to express my relief to find that these trying times haven't taken away your desire to improve yourself!"
It was strange, but for some reason the moment she started to scowl, he felt a sharp chill run up his spine. Though he wasn't quite sure why, something about that face made him feel an unholy amount of dread. Maybe it was how it reminded his of his own mother's glare when she'd seen his father do something he really should have known better then to do, or maybe it was how it seemed to make her already somewhat squinty eyes become more angular and threatening, but whatever it was, it made him feel like he would regret upsetting her in the long run.
Just as he was feeling concerned that she might do something to him, she suddenly snorted and a big smile formed on her face as she gave him a shove. "Heh, I know. Really, no offence taken, don't worry 'bout it. I was just messing with you."
"A-Ah, I see." He did his best to not sigh in relief in the off chance she would be offended. It wouldn't do to leave on a sour note after all. Standing up and properly replacing his chair, he gave the fashion model a slight bow. "Well, I'm glad that I could assist you either way."
He gave her a polite smile which she returned with one of her own, and started to make his way to the door. He'd had a good time, but it was time to check up on his bro to see how he was doing and if he was fortunate then maybe Professor Makoto would be willing to have another discussion on how he could make friends.
However, just as he was taking a step, he was suddenly stopped from moving by a sudden grip on his arm. Turning back, he saw that it was Junko had been the one to grab him by his sleeve, and she looked at him with an unusual look in his eyes that he couldn't describe. The fashion model continued to smile though as she tugged on his arm lightly. "Seriously though, I was only funning. If you'd like, I wouldn't mind some company if you wanted to talk some more. I mean, it's not like you have anything pressing to do, right?"
Taka was momentarily stunned at the invitation, it being the first he'd ever gotten to stay after a study session was over. He'd always supposed that once the studying session was over that he should leave. At least, that was what he'd been led to believe from the way his classmates always packed up and left when they'd finished for the day. So, the fact that she was still wanting to talk with him caused his eyes to light up in excitement. Mondo would understand, but he didn't want to make Junko feel like he didn't want to hang out with him.
"Thank you. I will." He stated as he retook his place in his chair, ready to 'hang', as it were.
Junko started it off simple enough, a simple, "So, how goes it?"
"I'm well, thank you for asking." He replied, the response swift and reliable. "How about yourself?"
Junko gave him a softer smile in return, to his concern. "I'm as well as I can be, thanks. But, that wasn't what I meant."
"Ah, of course." What was he thinking using such a traditional response like that? Of course, she would be asking about something specific. "What did you mean then?"
In that moment, Junko's smile which had seemed to be unwavering throughout the past hour, suddenly fell for a look of concern. "I was talking about what happened in the gym. I mean, they really railed against you back there. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
The moral compass cringed at the memory. He hadn't even realized that she had seen how he'd felt with everything going on. "O-oh…right. Well, I appreciate the concern, but you don't need to worry. They were right, in was presumptuous of me to assume that we would all be okay with sharing our deepest secrets so easily. The others are right. I overestimated how much they would value their privacy and was inconsiderate of their desires."
Junko's concerned look faded slightly, but they didn't completely disappear. Even as she shrugged he could see it still in her eyes. "Eh, what can I say? People don't like to talk about their private life. I mean, if what that half-baked freak put in mine is accurate, I can see why they didn't want to share."
"Yeah…" He stated as he ducked down his head, turning away so that she couldn't see how ashamed he felt.
She was right though, he knew that much. For all of his blustering that he could easily tell the other's his secret, he was still terrified by the idea of exposing something so personal so soon into his friendships. Even though he'd said that he could tell anyone without hesitation, he hated to admit that he'd been among those that shredded their letters once they had felt no one was looking. It wasn't even the embarrassing secret that had elected the response from him, but rather what it could mean for the bonds he was trying to build up.
"Kiyotaka Ishimaru was originally a complete and total slob."
Starting off, the first one listed was of a time he'd rather had forgotten. It had been before he'd been told about why his family was in such crippling debt, when he still had the gall to think that he didn't need to work hard to get by in life. Constantly pleading to his mother to give him a toy or game that they couldn't afford and never thinking about the pain she and his father had to endure to get it. His grades were terrible even as a kid, and he never tried to push himself in anything. He had been the very definition of a lazy, waste of space, always asking for what he couldn't have and whining when he didn't get his way.
And then his mother passed away.
On that day, even with tears in his eye, his father finally sat him down and explained everything to little Taka, about the story of his grandfather and the debt he'd caused them to be left in, the work that he and his mother had had to endure just to get by, the mocking behind their backs for being related to the former Prime Minister, about how much it broke his mother's heart to hear him ask and ask for toys instead of books and be unable to give him anything. He'd long since grown out of the belief by this point, but the way his father had said it made his little kid mind think that he had been the reason that she died, and that his grandfather's so-called genius was to blame for her getting sick in the first place, unaware that it was just from overworking herself.
That had been the starting point of his change into the man he was today, the point where he'd sworn to prove that he could remake the families name by being the best moral student in the world. Overnight, he had practically reinvented himself, changing his appearance, his attitude, even his outfit. Gone was the boy who couldn't care about his grades, and in his place, was a determined youth who swore never to let himself fall for the same trappings his grandfather did and retake the title of Prime Minister so that everyone would be able to see that he and his family were more than that one mistake.
It was something that he wanted to reserve for when he really got to know someone, even more so then what he'd experienced with Mondo thus far. Maybe later in life, but not now when he barely knew anyone really. Even Mokoto, the professor, he didn't think he could gather up the courage talk about this.
However, for as much as he hated that secret, he hated the other one more.
"Kiyotaka Ishimaru once got an innocent teen suspended for something he didn't do."
That had been his greatest embarrassment and shame. Early in his time as a part of the moral's committee, he'd found a student had been in possession of drugs and did his job to report him. No matter how much the boy had claimed himself innocent, that it wasn't even his, Taka had not been swayed. He felt that the boy needed to accept his punishment no matter what.
However, this destroyed the poor kid's reputation at school, and when he returned it was to nothing but scorn. Taka had even felt that it was fine, he'd done something bad, so he had to work hard to get back the people's trust. Simple as that.
However, the boy ended up transferring schools instead because he couldn't handle it any longer, and then it turned out that one of the other students had actually been the one who the illegal drugs had come from. They'd slipped it into the poor boy's bag when no one was looking and let Taka pin the blame on him. Fortunately, Kiyotaka hadn't been blamed for the mistake since they had everyone fooled, and the boy's name was cleared of all charges, but it still gnawed at him that he'd fallen for such a simple trick and got an innocent hurt in the process.
The only secret he hadn't read was the unnamed one, his desire to uphold the other's privacy easily outweighed his curiosity. And really, he should have realized that they wouldn't want their secrets spoken out loud when he himself didn't want to say anything about his own. How could he be so foolish to think that they would willingly go along with it?
It was then that he felt a warm hand placed on his shoulder, and he turned to look at Junko as she gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, don't look so down. If it's any conciliation, I thought it was a good idea."
Taka's eyes shot right open at that as he jumped, not having expected that from her. "Y-You did? Really!?"
"Totally!" She replied with a million-wat grin on her face full of sincerity. "Hell, I honestly believe that if we to just sit down and, like, talk about things and stuff like this, we could totally find some common ground and we wouldn't be able to play his twisted game. Right?"
"Y-Your…your absolutely right!" Taka exclaimed, her words easily reigniting the fire in his heart. "If we were to talk about our problems, we could come to an understanding and prevent another incident from ever occurring! We would be able to learn from each other, united against our common enemy and able to reach new levels of bonding!"
Just as his passion started to overflow, the memory of what had happened in the gym reared its ugly head once more and he bit his lip in frustration. "I just don't know why they don't understand that we need to get along."
Junko shrugged once more, her eyes closed as she explained, "Eh, that's just how things are. As long as the walls of mind and body exist, people will always have a difference of opinion. Everyone is built on their experiences in life, and everyone handles it differently. The only thing you can do is try and find ways to work around them."
"That's…a fair point." He hated to admit it, but she was right. He didn't know much if anything about how the others were, nor how they had been growing up. The bonds they'd all made were still fresh and so none of them really had a reason to trust one another fully and utterly. Not really. He should have known better.
"Well, what can you do? People are gonna people." Junko stated, dismissingly. As if it was such a simple fact that putting any energy into it was never an option. Then it was gone as she suddenly slammed a hand down on the table, startling him terribly while her eyes suddenly lit up. "Actually, I have an idea that I think you'll like."
Startled though he was, Taka was still her friend and decided to hear her out. "What did you have in mind?"
"Maybe you and the strongest people here should get together and form a kind of night watch."
It took him a moment to think about it, but once the idea had run through his mind a couple of times, Taka's eyes started to light up. "Interesting…yes, I see! By having one of us watching out at night, then it won't matter if one of us decides to commit a murder! We'll be able to prevent the event before it even happens! I must tell bro right away!"
Quickly, he stood up again, ready to dash off to find his bro so that they could get it all set up. Already plans were forming in his mind about how they could manage to do this and the steps he'd need to take to make it a reality.
However, just as he was about to take the first step, he instead found himself being yanked back and almost slamming his head on the table. Taking a moment to look up, he was about to chastise Junko for being so rough when he found himself staring speechless at the unamused expression on her face. "Hold on there, bucko. At least let me finish before you rush off like you're a single house wife on black Friday at the mall."
"Y-Yes, of course." He blushed in embarrassment. "Forgive me, I was a bit over excited. Please, continue."
Junko smiled as he straightened back up, adjusting his uniform, and started to explain. "Thank you, so, here's the idea I had in mind. First, you need a chair. When night time comes around, you and one other person…"