My brain felt like it was flickering in and out of existence as I laid unconscious. I was only vaguely aware of my surroundings, but it felt like I was on a… bed? The sheets wrinkling under my weight confirmed that, indeed, that was the case. It looked like I was once again lying on a soft bed, sleeping the day away. My head ached in pain whenever I tried in vain to move around. It was like my body was forcing me to stay down, but I managed to open my eyes at least. A nondescript ceiling with white rafters greeted my vision, definitely not my room for sure. A tilt to the right revealed ornate red wallpaper, contrasted by the cool blue carpet below. Right… Even though my head felt like it was caught in a vice, I still had enough brainpower to recognize that I was still locked up in Hope's Peak Academy. And if I was still in Hope's Peak, that meant…

"Ah good, you are awake then?"

My gaze shot to my left, coming face to face with a pair of familiar piercing crimson eyes. Celeste sat to the side of my bed, smiling as she crossed one leg over the other. I shot up in surprise, only for the pain in my head to skyrocket to unimaginable levels.

"I'd heavily advise moving too fast, Tony," Celeste said, playing with one of her locks. "You've only just awoken, after all. How are you feeling?"

I sat myself down slowly with a grimace. "I feel like I got into a fight with a train and lost."

Celeste let out a chuckle. "I'd imagine that's how anyone would feel after a fight with someone like Mondo Oowada. I would suggest getting up a bit more slowly for now, you almost certainly suffered a fair concussion."

I did just that, slowly propping myself against the frame of the bed as I let out a sigh. This was definitely not how I pictured things going, that's for sure. I certainly didn't expect Mondo to go attacking me instead of Makoto or Byakuya. I turned to the Ultimate Gambler, the confusion visible on my face. "Celeste, where exactly are we? And what happened?"

"Yes, I imagine you have a few questions," Celeste began. "Shortly after Mondo attacked you, Sakura and the others helped carry you to this room. It seems that each of us has been assigned a dorm room for our time here. After dropping you off, the others opted to begin exploring the school for a way to escape. I decided to keep an eye on you until you awoke from your concussion."

Celeste… offered to watch me? That was oddly out of character for her. And here I thought she was just a heartless gold digger. "That's very kind of you, Celeste, but why?" I asked. "Don't misunderstand, I appreciate the gesture, but why not just go with the others to explore?"

"I'm afraid that gamblers don't make for good detectives, Tony," she smiled. "That and I know you would've been horribly confused waking up alone. Hence why I decided to wait for you. A fairly economical use of my time, no?"

I supposed, but something didn't quite sit right with me that I couldn't explain. Originally, Celeste was just waiting around with Hifumi and Toko until everyone met up, as far as I can recall anyway. And why the sudden interest in someone like me to begin with? Did Celeste just know something wasn't right with me? Or was I just being paranoid already? Or maybe she just didn't want to be near either Hifumi or Toko?

Slowly but surely, I stood up and did a couple of stretches, just to get the blood flowing again. My headache seemed to have subsided at least, so that was a good sign. Celeste took this as a signal to get up herself, dusting off her dress a bit.

"So, where is everyone?" I asked, turning to Celeste.

"We all promised to meet in the dining hall following our search," Celeste answered. "If you'd like, I could show you the way."

Once again, there was that odd sense of friendliness from Celeste. On the one hand, it was good to have at least one person who didn't seem to hate me like Mondo. But on the other hand, it unnerved me. Celeste was always a peculiar character to get a handle on, but it didn't help matters when she seemed interested in you. I didn't even know if I could understand the Ultimate Gambler in the short time I had here, but I guess there was only one way to find out.

"By all means," I nodded, "lead the way, Celeste."

As usual, the halls were eerily empty, though the occasional bit of fragmented conversation occasionally drifted me and Celeste's way, probably from the others still investigating. During our short walk, I found out that since I was replacing Mukuro in the Killing Game, that meant me and Celeste were next door neighbors. How quaint. I recognized the entrances to the locker room and laundry room at first glance, but opted to keep my mouth shut until we got to the meeting with everyone. I opened and held the door for Celeste, who giggled a "Thank you," as she entered first. It was a bad habit of mine, I always tended to hold the door open for people first even as an adult.

Apparently Makoto and Sayaka had arrived first, the duo already knee deep in conversation as we walked in. As soon as they saw us, however, they immediately rose to meet us, looking notably worried at me in particular.

"Tony!" Makoto called. "You're awake! Are you feeling alright, no bumps or anything?"

"Nothing's bruised except my pride, and that'll heal just fine." I joked, taking a random chair at the table as Celeste sat next to me. "Jeez, how long was I even out to begin with?"

"Well…" Sayaka's eyes motioned to the clock that sat above the doors to the kitchen, the hands reading sometime roughly around six or seven at night.

"You're kidding me," I deadpanned. "Just how hard did Mondo punch me?"

"Pretty hard…" Makoto winced. He stared back at the clock before turning back to me. "But I can give you a quick little rundown on me and Sayaka's investigation, if that's okay with you."

I nodded. "By all means, please. So what's the situation over here, we have enough food to last us?"

"More than enough," Sayaka affirmed. "There's enough food in the kitchen to last us two years, maybe even more. There's meat, vegetables, fruits, just about any kind of ingredient you could think of in there."

Celeste let out a small hum. "That's all well and good, I suppose, but two years worth of food is still ultimately finite. How will we subsist once those supplies have been exhausted?"

"So you ask, and so I shall answer!"

Makoto let out a sharp yelp as Monokuma appeared out of nowhere behind Makoto, hopping onto the table. I nearly jumped out of my seat as well, having forgotten for a moment that Monokuma could do that. Jesus, I would never get used to that.

"W-where did you come from?!" Makoto demanded as he regained himself.

"Oh?" Monokuma tilted his head curiously. "Makoto, did your family not tell you about the birds and the bears? Well, I'll be more than happy to explain it! You see, when a mother bear and a father bear love each other very much-"

"That's not what I mean!" Makoto sharply cut him off. "How did you just appear like that?!"

"Ohhh!" Monokuma chuckled. "Let's just say we bears have far more practical means of getting around compared to you humans. I can be just about anywhere, anytime!"

My head was beginning to ache from listening to Monokuma speak. It was like if nails on a chalkboard had been meshed together with a child wailing for some kind of candy or toy. "Enough," I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Did you have something useful to say or not?"

"Well, if you wanna be a party pooper…" Monokuma glared at me for a moment before turning back to Makoto and Sayaka. "I'm just here to clarify that the kitchen is restocked fully before each and every morning! So no need to worry about going hungry here! Feel free to eat yourselves into a coma, or better yet, put someone else into a coma!"

Celeste ignored Monokuma's challenges and focused on the main talking point. "So in short, we do not have to worry about going hungry? Interesting, it truly does seem like you intend to keep us here long-term."

"Well obviously," Monokuma turned to Celeste. "Just because I've got you all locked up doesn't mean I'm going to starve you. Besides, what fun would that be?" His red eye gleamed just a bit brighter as he giggled. "While not a terrible idea, I'd get a wayyy bigger kick out of watching you all break down yourselves, all while having as little interaction from me as possible. After all, isn't that just a bit more despairing?"

"Oh for the love of…" I groaned, feeling myself getting just a bit more heated than I intended. "Just get out of here already!"

"Roger dodger!" Monokuma mockingly saluted me. "Monokuma, signing off!" He hopped off the table, disappearing back into nothing once again as I let out a small sigh of relief.

"He seems to get under your skin quite easily, Tony," Celeste noted. "You know that is exactly what he desires, no? It's obvious he's waiting for anyone to break the rules again."

"Yeah, Celeste is right," Makoto nodded, looking at me with concern. "I know how you feel, Tony, but we gotta keep calm. Don't give that dumb bear what he wants."

I took a deep breath through my teeth and sighed. I knew they were right. At this point, there was nothing I could do about Monokuma, let alone Junko. If I attacked Monokuma, all that would happen was me getting a Jason Todd special, and there was no coming back from that. No, if I wanted to get home, I'd have to go about this rationally. I took a moment to think, trying to visualize the basic layout of the school in my mind. There had to have been some kind of secret passageway or something that Junko and Mukuro overlooked after they took over Hope's Peak. I vaguely recalled some kind of hidden room on the second or third floor that had a bunch of secret files that Junko went out of her way to knock out Makoto for, so maybe that was the key. Not the room itself, but searching for hidden passages like that. Even someone like Junko Enoshima needed escape plans on the off chance things went awry. Of course, there was always a good chance that Junko had a Monokuma standing guard at such an entrance, but it was better than just waiting for everyone to start stabbing each other.

The main issue with this plan? The second floor wouldn't open until after the next trial, the trial of Sayaka Maizono. Without someone to kickstart the game in earnest, we'd just be stuck on the first floor until someone finally caved. So with that in mind, I settled on a plan. Try and find some kind of secret passage or tunnel out of here that might have been overlooked in the actual game. It was a serious long-shot for sure, but I had to do something. Plus if I acted fast enough, maybe I could get everyone else out as well, no killing required. If I could just stop Sayaka's plan to kill Leon...

Alright then, Junko… Let's see how thorough you really were.

While I planned out my strategy, Makoto and Sayaka had their own little talk, Celeste idly playing with a strand of her hair. As I tuned out Makoto trying to deny himself being the protagonist, the rest of the group slowly funneled in. First came Hina, Sakura and Mondo, followed by Leon, Chihiro and Taka, who were then followed by Byakuya, noticeably being tailed by a barely inconspicuous Toko. Lastly came the lazy figures of Hiro and Hifumi, obviously having done little to no investigation at all. Figured, Hiro still assumed that this was all some big joke, somehow, and Hifumi… well I wasn't sure about Hifumi in general.

"Tony!" Hina chirped in a concerned tone, the rest of the class having noticed my presence at the table. "Glad to see you're up and about! Are you still hurting?"

"Me? No, no, I'm fine," I said, waving off Hina's worries while keeping an eye on Mondo. Yeah, I wasn't exactly going to be forgetting that punch anytime soon.

"Good to hear," Sakura nodded. "I believe Mondo here has something to say?"

She urged Mondo forward, who looked just a hint embarrassed by the whole thing. He did punch me in plain view of everyone after all, and right now a lot of people were on edge with the whole "kill your friends to leave" business. Monokuma might've put the powder keg there, but Mondo didn't exactly help matters either.

"Right… Sorry for bashing yer skull in, man." Mondo's apology was rather curt and gruff for an apology, but I didn't really care. So long as I could help keep the tension in the air down, that was enough for me.

"Don't worry about it, Mondo. All water under the bridge."

If I didn't know any better, I could've seen the very subtle corners of a smile form on Mondo's face, but he just gave me a nod and sat down right next to Makoto, leaning back casually with his legs on the table. The rest of the others took their seats as well, Leon and Sakura to my left. Byakuya notably took a seat away from the main table, choosing to observe from one of the side tables it seemed. Figured he wouldn't be down to dine with the "peasants" as he'd call us.

"Right! It looks as if we're all here!" Taka boomed from the end of the table. "Let us begin our first meeting and share what we discovered during our investigation. The sooner we can figure out what's going on, the sooner we can leave!"

I nodded before I realized a certain tuft of lavender hair was missing. "Hold on, where's Kyoko?"

Taka paused as he scanned the room, realizing that the Ultimate Mystery Girl was indeed missing from the proceedings. "W-what?!"

Right, Kyoko was always one to do investigations on her own. I don't know how she managed it, given the layers upon layers of complexity built into the design of the school, but I figured it had something to do with her talent. I turned to everyone else. "So Kyoko didn't go with any of you?"

Everyone present shook their heads. "Nope. Me, Sakura and Mondo didn't run into her at all… I hope she's alright…" Hina said with a worried look.

"So, no one's seen her?" Chihiro asked for clarification. Again, nothing but shaking heads. "That's… really worrying."

"Darn that Kyoko!" Taka slammed the table with his fist in a melodramatic fashion. Not only does she have the gall to be late on the first day of school, but she didn't even bother telling anyone where she'd be?!"

"Taka, relax," I said, trying my best to soothe whatever worries the Ultimate Moral Compass had. "Kyoko's probably still doing some investigating, just give her some time. No need to freak out."

Taka sucked air through his teeth before taking a deep breath. "You're… right, Tony, I apologize. I suppose we'll just have to start without her. Now then, I hereby declare the first session of the Hope's Peak Academy briefing sessions is now in session! All rise!"

I almost wanted to congratulate Taka on the court joke, but I refrained. The floor was open, so Sayaka opted to go first. "Well to start us off, me and Makoto discovered a massive pantry in the back of the dining hall," she said, pointing to the double doors. "There's enough food in there to last us all at least two years."

"Whoa, you serious?" Mondo smirked. "I'd say that's pretty damn good news!"

Hifumi nodded. "All well and good, Miss Maizono, but just two years worth of food is still finite. How will we survive after that?"

Toko rolled her eyes. "Y-you could always just eat s-sesame seeds…" she sneered, much to Hifumi's chagrin.

"D-do I look like a parakeet to you?!"

No, but now that I look at you, your face is very gerbil-like. I mused to myself at Hifumi's expense.

"Actually, we don't need to worry about that either," Sayaka continued. "All the food gets restocked automatically each day, according to Monokuma."

"Hold on, back up!" Leon interrupted. "You're saying that sadistic teddy bear actually came up to you guys?"

"Yup," I nodded. "Right after me and Celeste arrived in the dining hall. And he disappeared just as fast. Seriously, I don't know how he does it."

Hina still looked notably concerned. "But like… everything was okay?" she asked. "He didn't try to eat you guys or anything, right?"

As soon as Hina said that, Hifumi's eyes went wide as he slowly turned to Sayaka and Celeste with a certain glint in his pupils. "E-eat? Um… what do you mean by that? By 'eat', what definition are we referring to, exactly?"

Every eye in the dining hall was trained on Hifumi, everyone's face recoiled in disgust. Sayaka looked outright disturbed while Celeste's eyes narrowed to a dangerously thin margin. Without even needing a prompt, Sakura gave Hifumi a smack on the back of the head, her glare threatening to burn a hole right through the chubby young man's face.

"Consider that your first and only warning." Sakura growled menacingly. Her voice was perhaps the lowest I've heard so far.

Like magic, the terrified young man immediately clamped his mouth shut, backing away just a few inches from the intimidating form of the Ultimate Martial Artist.

"R-right," Taka coughed, breaking through the awkward atmosphere. "Continuing on…"

Byakuya was next, pushing up the frame of his glasses. "I attempted to find some clue to the identity of whoever is responsible for keeping us here… However, I am embarrassed to say that my efforts came up short. That's all from me."

Taka's brow raised. "Really? Is that it?"

Byakuya shot the stridgent student a glare. "If I had uncovered anything, naturally I would've said something. But I didn't. That's all."

"Right, of course!" Taka gulped. "Then I shall take the floor! During our investigation; me, Leon and Chihiro discovered that we have all been assigned dormitories!"

"Pretty sure we all discovered that first thing after Tony got knocked out..." Hina mumbled, Taka either not hearing her or not caring about her comment, continuing with his report.

"It looks like the dorms were assigned to us beforehand, there's a nameplate and a small picture of us on each door, complete with a key with the owner's name on it."

"What's more," Chihiro added, "is that they're all soundproofed. Taka tried screaming his lungs out, but Leon and I couldn't hear as much as a peep from him."

"Along with that, each room has its own private bathroom," Celeste said. "But it seems that only the girls' bathrooms can truly lock. Tony's own bathroom, for example, lacks a lock."

Gee, thanks for giving that away, Celeste.

"I also checked my own bathroom, and it seems Celeste is right," Taka nodded. "None of the boys' bathrooms are equipped with locks!"

"The fuck?" Mondo moaned. "Why the hell did they go and do that?"

I pretended to think for a moment. "It probably has nothing to do with Hope's Peak itself. If I had to make a gamble, it's probably Monokuma's doing. Think about it for a second: the soundproof rooms, the selective locks, it's all to create an ideal scenario for murder."

Mondo let out a small grumble before calming down. "Okay, so they got a bunch of rooms waiting for us. Guess they're assuming we're gonna be here a while…"

"Well, better to have them than not!" Taka blurted out. "At the very least, with beds and food, we won't have to worry about surviving like animals."

"S-so, is that a-all you have to s-say, Mr. H-Honor Student?" Toko stammered.

Taka thought for a moment before his eyes lit up. "Wait a moment, there was one more thing I forgot to mention!" He reached into his pocket, thumbling around before he produced what looked to be some kind of toolkit. "Here! I found this in my room, and Leon found one in his! It looks to be a set of hammers, pliers, those kinds of items."

"Ohhh right!" Hina nodded, pulling out a similar object. "Me and Sakura found these in our rooms too! I think these are sewing kits."

"That appears to be the case," Sakura said. "Threads, needles, very sharp objects indeed."

"So, not only has Monokuma gone out of his way to create a perfect murder environment, he's also given us a set of starting tools to do just that." Celeste giggled. "My, but he is trying to force something out of this, isn't he?"

With Taka done, Mondo took the floor. "Well, Sakura, Hina and I doubled back to the main hall to see if we could find any way to force that big door open, but…"

"It wouldn't move one inch," Sakura finished for him. "No matter how hard we struggled, neither me nor Mondo could force it open. And with no control panel to speak of, it's very unlikely we'll be escaping via that avenue."

"We even tried forcing the hunks of metal off the windows in the hallway and classrooms, but no dice on that either," Hina said, looking a bit dejected.

"Following that, me and Hina made our own discovery," Sakura said, taking reign of the conversation. "It's not necessarily related to escaping the school, but near the gymnasium, we found what looked to be a set of stairs to the second floor of the school."

"But there's a big gate blocking the way," Hina clarified. "And it wasn't budging either."

Makoto seemed to be taking most of the conversation silently, but seemingly found his words. "So, there's more to explore then?"

Sakura nodded. "That would appear to be the case. But without a clear means of forcing the gates open, we appear to be confined to the first floor for the time being."

Taka nodded, his gaze now turned to Hiro, Celeste, Toko and Hifumi. "Right then, who else?"

"Well," Celeste began, "I couldn't contribute much to the investigation, having to watch over Tony. But perhaps the Ultimate Writer has something to say?"

Toko nearly jumped out of her own skin, glancing warily at the gambler. "W-why are you singling me out?! I-I didn't even do anything!"

"Wait, so Toko, you didn't even try to investigate?" Makoto asked, raising a thin eyebrow.

"I-it wasn't like anyone asked! I-it's all of your faults for not inviting me along!"

"That's a bit rude!" Hina countered. "We would've been fine with you coming along, you never tried talking to us!"

Toko opened her mouth to say something, but bit her tongue, just looking angrily at Hina. "W-whatever. As i-if I'd want to go a-anywhere with a d-dirty slut like you…"

Now it was Hina's turn to slam the table, looking outright offended. "Excuse me?!"

"Y-you heard me. Your b-brains have gone completely to your c-chest, haven't they?"

I was almost amazed that Toko could talk that way about someone who she just met only a few hours ago directly to her face. However, I was not in the mood for another argument. "Alright Toko, dial it back now. Hina literally did nothing to you, you have no reason to just insult her like that."

"Hmph," Toko leered at me. "I-I figured y-you'd take h-her side…"

"C'mon guys," Hiro urged. "Let's just calm down, yeah? All this stress is hell on your skin!"

With that, the table fell silent once more, everyone deliberating once more. "So," Taka continued. "Is that truly all we have to go on?" No one said anything, either because they were still trying to think or because they had truly drawn blanks. "Well then... I suppose I must-"

Suddenly the doors to the dining hall flew open and in strode Kyoko Kirigri, looking no worse for wear and not even appearing to care that she arrived extremely late to the meeting. "I apologize for my absence."

Taka stammered on the spot, trying to regain his train of thought as he turned his gaze toward the lavender haired late arrival. "K-Kyoko?! Where have you been?!" he demanded. "We had to start our meeting without you."

Kyoko didn't even bother looking at Taka, instead unfolding a paper on the table. Upon leaning forward to get a better look, I could make out the details of what looked to be a dusty map with the Hope's Peak logo.

"Huh…?" Makoto followed my lead, being a bit closer to Kyoko. "What is this?"

"It appears to be a map of Hope's Peak Academy." Kyoko said simply.

"A… map?" Makoto carefully took the map into his hands, angling it so Mondo and I could get a look as well. Faded and dusted though it was, it definitely looked to be a map of Hope's Peak Academy, one you'd probably find on some brochure or another to draw in new talent.

"Kyoko, where exactly did you get this?!" Taka asked in his booming tone.

Kyoko just looked at him. "It doesn't matter where I found it."

"I'd say it does matter!" Leon exclaimed. "A lot actually!".

"Guys, calm down," I said. "More importantly, look at the map and the portable one in your handbooks."

A few raised eyebrows followed my request, but Makoto seemed to understand exactly what I meant. Flipping to the map section of his handbook, Makoto's eyes went wide. "Huh? Hold on… this layout, it's…"

"Precisely," Kyoko nodded. It's nearly identical to that of the handbook version, barring some minor alterations."

Makoto hummed, taking in this information bit by bit. Finally the revelation seemed to dawn on him. "So… this is the real Hope's Peak then? No tricks?"

"That's what I'm assuming," Kyoko nodded, holding her chin in between her thumb and index finger. "But it seems as if the school has gone under several odd renovations."

"That's putting it pretty friggin' mildly," Mondo said, shaking his head. "Seriously, this is where the country's elite come to study?"

"Plus, if this is the real Hope's Peak, where're all the other students gone?" Hina wondered. "You don't think they're all…?"

Hiro seemed to sense immediately where Hina was going with that line of thought. "H-hey guys, come on. Let's just stop talking about all this negative stuff, y'know?"

I felt my eye twitch as I stood up immediately, rounding off on Hiro. "Mind if I ask you a personal question, Hiro?"

Hiro blinked, unsure of how to respond. "Uh… depends on the questi-"

"Were you born dense, or do you seriously not understand what's going on?"

The gears in Hiro's head finally seemed to click as he stood up a bit, backing away from me. "W-what? C'mon dude, what're you talking about?"

I knew that I was being a hypocrite right now, I knew that I couldn't afford to start any drama or conflicts, but I had to make a point to Hiro that this was not some elaborate prank. I knew he was endearing to some, but when you were actually living with him and facing him with the complete, total truth and he still refused to believe it, it made you angry. Especially with the other bullshit you had to deal with, like living with Byakuya or getting your lights punched out by a Japanese bike gang leader.

"Hiro, I have nothing against you personally, nothing at all, but you need to wake the fuck up and face reality," I began. "I know you think this was all some wacky entrance ceremony, but it's not. This is reality, plain and simple. That robotic teddy bear is not part of the act, the faculty are not playing a joke on us, we are stuck here, period. The industrial-welding on the windows, the self destructing robot teddy bear that you were present for that nearly incinerated Mondo, the military grade mounted machine guns at the entrance hall. Does none of this seem just the slightest bit off to you? At all?"

For a moment, Hiro was utterly speechless. He just looked at me like I'd just dropped the atomic equivalent of a truth bomb onto his forehead. "D-dude, it's fine, really," he stammered out, not feeling remotely confident in his words now. "Come on, if I freaked out over every creepy future I've seen, I'd have ectoplasm coming out of my ears!" To prove his point, Hiro tried letting out an extremely forced laugh, looking to see if anyone was laughing with him.

They were not.

Hiro quickly turned back to me with a smile. "Besides, I'm still sure the folks in charge of Hope's Peak were the ones who put all this together! Any minute now, they're gonna jump out and surprise us-!"

"Then why haven't they jumped out yet, Hiro?"

That seemed to trigger something in Hiro's mind. Even if he was still stuck in his own personal delusions, it was pretty clear that some part of his mind was telling him that something wasn't right. For a moment, the dining hall was dead silent, seemingly looking between Hiro and I, waiting for someone to do something.

And then Celeste started to laugh. A self-assured laugh that caused all eyes to fall on her.

"W-what's so funny?" Toko mumbled.

"I'm just elated is all," Celeste said with that unwavering cheshire smile. "I suppose our investigation has borne some fruit after all."

"W-what are you talking about?!" Looking around w-was a waste of t-time!" Toko half growled. "T-there's no exit, w-we couldn't find who p-put us here and we s-still don't have any idea w-what's going on!"

Toko's outburst didn't faze Celeste in the slightest. "I'm sorry, is it not obvious to you, Toko? It's plain to see that we've been trapped in an isolated location with no visible means of escape. I would say our investigation has all but confirmed that fact."

"D-don't go saying that!" Toko screamed, gripping her head in a bout of stress. "I-I know we're trapped in here, but w-what are we supposed to do now?"

Byakuya sat up in his seat, giving off a cocky smirk. "That's easy. If you want to leave, then kill-"

"Don't you even dare finish that sentence!" Hina warned, looking genuinely angry again.

"Everyone, please just calm down!" Sayaka stood, making calming gestures with her hands. "We can't afford to bicker like this! We need to think about what we're going to do from here."

"There is something we can certainly do," Celeste stated. "We must simply adapt to our new lives here."

"A-adapt?" Leon nervously asked. "What, are you saying we should just accept it or something?"

"Yes, I am." Celeste's tone was considerably more blunt and serious than usual. "If one fails to adapt to their current situation, their chances of survival will drop drastically. No matter the game, no matter the setting or stakes, one must be willing to change their strategy accordingly. Survival does not come from being the strongest or smartest, it all comes down to how one can adapt."

There it was, Celeste's means of coping with the killing game. And I hated to admit it, but she had a point. If you couldn't work with change, change would work you into a grave. For now, there was little to be gained in trying to butt heads with everyone. The first thing we all had to do was establish some form of normalcy, ease tensions in the group before they erupted like a volcano. My arguments with Byakuya and Hiro definitely didn't help matters, especially when they were two of the original survivors from the game proper. For now, I was going to try and focus on finding some way out of the school, and if I failed that, I'd just have to roll along with the plot and adapt as needed. Assuming the motivations from each chapter still lined up, it was likely that without some kind of intervention, everything would stay the same. Everything sans the absence of Mukuro, which would definitely cause issues further down the line.

Celeste continued. "While I still have the floor, I would like to make a suggestion, if I may." She pulled out her handbook, flipping to what I could presume to be the rules section. "Regarding the matter of nighttime…"

"Huh?" Mondo raised his head, eyes blinking. "What about it?"

"Considering we are to be trapped here for the time being, this means having to spend the night together to an extent. But as things stand now, we might just spend every night gripped by panic, worrying if someone will try to kill us. Regardless of the fact that our primary doors are lockable, just stepping outside at night could easily mean death for anyone caught unawares. As such, I would believe it best to implement our own rule; no one is to wander the halls at night."

Sakura nodded. "In other words, you wish for us to limit our nighttime activity as a measure against any who would desire to kill."

"Precisely," Celeste nodded. "However, this isn't something that can necessarily be enforced like the school regulations. We would all need to agree on as a group."

"I see, I see!" Taka eagerly said. "Then on behalf of all the men of the group, I would be happy to comply!"

"Dude, don't just go saying stuff like that," Leon grumbled, rubbing his hair. "But it ain't a bad idea, I guess."

"I agree," Chihiro nodded with a tiny smile. "It'd definitely make me feel a lot safer at night if we all knew that everyone was sleeping."

There were some further murmurs of agreement, but I could already see a fatal flaw with Celeste's idea, a flaw that Makoto had fittingly enough decided to point out. "Hold on a second, Celeste. I get what you're saying, but if even one person decides to ignore the rule, then it really won't work."

"I do see your point, Makoto," Celeste admitted. "But allow me to ask you this: what must you do during the night that cannot be done during the day? You cannot eat with the dining hall closed, you cannot bathe with the water off. If anything, it would be much safer to move about during the day, when you are far less vulnerable, no?"

Now it was Makoto's turn to look a bit embarrassed. "I… guess you're right." I forgot that Makoto could be a bit of a pushover sometimes.

"So then, we are all in agreement then? Good." Celeste broke into a small bow, walking to the door. "Then with that, I shall take my leave."

"H-huh? Where are you going?" Chihiro timidly asked.

"To my room," the Ultimate Gambler said simply. "I hope to have a shower before bed, given how close it is to night time already." With that, Celeste flashed us all a smile as she disappeared through the doors back to the dorm area. Again, I don't think I'd ever quite understand that girl. Then again I don't think she understood herself half of the time.

"Well, it is getting late," I said, turning to Taka. "What now, Taka? Do you wanna call it a day?"

Taka seemed a bit flustered by Celeste's sudden departure, but managed to recompose himself. "I believe that to be an excellent idea, Tony! Let us rest for now and reconvene first thing tomorrow morning!"

"So we really do have to stay here…" Chihiro sniffled, looking outright dejected.

"B-but what about t-tomorrow?" Toko asked with that nervous tic of hers. "W-what do we do t-then…?"

"The only thing we can do," Sakura stated resolutely. "Continue looking around for anything we may have overlooked and let everyone know if we find anything."

"Mhm!" Hina nodded eagerly. "Sounds good to me!"

"Very well," Taka said. "I hereby bring this meeting to order! Group adjourned!"

Seriously, dude could make a better lawyer than me.

I let out a deep, tired sigh as I let the door behind me close. I feel as if I've been awake for far, far longer than I should've been. Maybe that was the punch from Mondo talking, but my brain just wanted to collapse in on itself like a black hole, never to worry about the art of thinking ever again. As I flopped onto my bed, I sat up to take a more thorough look at what would be my room for the foreseeable future.

As far as I was aware, each room generally shared the same basic design of a deep blue carpet, red patterned walls and a deep, dark ceiling with white rafters, equipped with a desk, bed, bathroom, and closet. Of course, the ever present TV monitor and security camera stood ever vigilant. But given everyone's talents, each room was specifically given a few extra touches in regards to the student. For example, Toko had stacks and stacks of books off to the corner while Sakura had a ton of martial arts equipment. And it looked like the same applied to me. A shelf stood to the side crammed with law book upon law book, probably far beyond my comprehension. Still, it wouldn't hurt to at least crack one of them open for a gander, I supposed. Out of curiosity, I stood up to check my closet, only to find an extra suit for me. Nice to know we had extra sets of clothing, I suppose. At least we wouldn't be smelling like pigs or wearing the same outfit for weeks on end.

"Fuck man…" I shut the closet with a bit more force than intended, leaning against the wall for support. Now that I was properly alone, I had some time to digest what exactly I had gotten myself into. Here I was, an entire universe away from home, stuck in a school with fifteen other people scared for their lives with extremely volatile personalities. On top of that madness, the ringleader for this carnival of suffering seemed to know who I was and what could happen in the near future. And for the cherry on top of the shit sundae, the world outside wasn't any better, with people killing and maiming each other all in the name of despair.

It was, without question, the single biggest load of horseshit imaginable.

"Fuck… FUCK!"

With a newfound sense of rage and frustration, I kicked myself off the wall, screaming. I looked for something to punch, something to break, anything to take out my frustration. In the end I settled on my wall, beating my fists against the obnoxious red patterns, visualizing it as Junko's stupid smug face. I hated this, I fucking despised every bit of it. Why the hell was I here? Why, out of the billions upon billions of humans stuck on this ball of misery, was I chosen to be dumped into this death game? I didn't even have any choice in the matter, I was just here. And I didn't even know if I could get home. Or if I'd even make it out of here alive.

Eventually the pain forced me to stop as my knuckles ached and bled. I spun around to look at the security camera in my room with a hateful glare. I knew she wouldn't respond, but I didn't care. I had to say something. "I'm fucking coming for you, Junko. I don't care what happens to me, but I will find you. God willing, you will not leave this school alive."

Obviously, nothing happened, but I expected that much. I threw off my suit jacket to the side, plopping down onto my bed. Rage gave way to drowsiness and eventually to sleep. But in the back of my mind, I could've sworn I heard something…

"Puhuhuhu…~"