"M-M-Monokuma!?" Kaede shouted in shock, nearly dropping her plate when she saw the cursed bear.
"What are you doing here!?" Keebo yelled while pointing at the bear angrily.
"What am I doing here?" Monokuma repeated before giving us a contemplative look. "What am I doing here? What are any of us doing here?" He then turned to me while tilting his head. "Hey, Wakuri, ever wonder why we're here? Like, do you think it's some sort of cosmic coincidence or that there really is a God who has a plan for us?"
"Why are you asking me!?" I asked with a glare. "That's not even what Keebo meant! He meant 'why are you here right now'!"
"Neither of those apply to you anyway. You're a robotic bear made to keep us here, aren't you?" Himiko questioned.
"Oh, I just thought I'd say some fun stuff since I'm back and all." Monokuma giggled.
"You say that, but haven't you been here the entire time?" Maki asked.
"Yeah, like, you were all depressed and not talking and stuff." Kokichi said in a curious voice.
"Oh that? I'll happily explain all of that, but first…" Monokuma began before he took a deep breath and started yelling. "KIDS! GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE ON THE DOUBLE!" Not even a few seconds after that did the dining room doors slam open to reveal three extremely worried and terrified Monokubs, who immediately took notice of their father.
"Eeeeh!? Father!? What is father doing here!?" Monotaro shouted.
"Pupupu! I'm baaack! Were you good while I was away?" Monokuma asked his kids with a twisted smile.
"Away?" Monophanie asked. But before she got an answer, Monokuma grabbed them and started licking them…again.
"Thank you so much, my adorable, darling cubs! With you running the academy, I was able to fully enjoy my relaxing vacation!"
"Heeheehee! Oh, that tickles! Father's intense love is getting me all soaked!" Monotaro shouted happily, completely forgetting why he was even scared that his father was back.
"Daddy, your tongue feels amazing! This better not awaken anything in me!" Monophanie added, seemingly enjoying the 'love' Monokuma was showing them. I couldn't help but shiver. Disgusting…
"NOOOOOOOOO…" That was all Monodam could cry out during the entire exchange, not wanting anything from his abusive father. "YOU… YOU-WERE-SUPPOSED-TO-BE-AN-EMPTY- SHELL! SO-WHY…!?"
"Man, that vacation was just what I needed." Monokuma said as he put his cubs down, ignoring Monodam entirely. "It's important to take time off to relax. Normally, most companies won't even let you take time off to go on vacation, but I was able to do it! The secret is to just leave whether you get permission or not!"
"So you left? No wonder things were calm around here." I mumbled to myself.
"But if you left, then who was that bald you that was here the whole time?" Monotaro asked. It was then that the 'fake' Monokuma who was balding walked in, still as silent and dead-inside as he had been for the past few days.
"Oh this guy? He's just a part-timer I got to cover me while I was gone" Monokuma answered while taking out a fat stack of cash and handing it to his double. "Here's your pay, like we agreed on! Now take it and get outta here!"
"I thought you said you were supposed to be relaxed now. Did that vacation not help with that?" Angie asked curiously as the fake Monokuma took the money and left.
"Well, the vacation was nice and soothing. It's been so long since I was on a tropical island resort, after all. It brought back fond memories." Monokuma said before giving a nostalgic sigh. "Man, I sure do miss the good ol' days. Having fun with my stupid, gullible sister, messing with those stupid, hopeful kids, watching them all have the time of their lives while also ending them was such blast!" Monokuma then shook his head out of his thoughts. "But now's not the time for remembering that stuff. This ain't that island and there isn't any hope obsessed bagel-heads here!" He then turned to the cubs with an angry glare. "You three! What do you think you're doing!? Why hasn't anyone died yet!?"
"Eeh!?" Monotaro and Monophanie made sounds of confusion and shock, while Monodam just stood there motionlessly.
"What do you mean 'eeh'? Your job was to make sure one num-nut here killed someone else! If nothing happens and they just live here peacefully, then things will become boring! And you know what that means? We'll be outta a job! So I'll ask again. WHAT WERE YOU THREE DOING!?" Monotaro and Monophanie didn't know what to say, as they were petrified by the anger of their father, but Monodam didn't seem fazed at all.
"...I-DID-WHAT-I-SAID-I-WOULD."
"What?"
"MY-GOAL-WAS-TO-HELP-EVERYONE-GET-ALONG. THEY-GOT-THROUGH-THE- MOTIVE-TOGETHER, AND-NOW-THEY-ARE-TRYING-TO-WORK-TOGETHER-AGAIN."
"You…! So you were serious about undermining me?" Monokuma grumbled. "Well, no matter. Not like you were super important anyway." Monokuma shrugged. "I still have two other precious kids, after all. Isn't that right, you two?"
"H-Huh?" Monotaro questioned.
"NO. THE-THREE-OF-US-AGREED-THAT-WE-WOULD-RUN-THE-ACADEMY- TOGETHER." Monodam stated.
"Really? Then they won't mind if I blow them up, right? After all, if you kids betray me, that's the only fate you have."
"B-B-Blow us up!?" Monophanie cried out. Monokuma then took out a small remote that had a large red button on it that he was hovering his paw over.
"Yep! If Any of you do something I don't like, it's 'BOOM!' for ya!" Monokuma threatened. The message was clearly received by both Monotaro and Monophanie, who immediately rushed towards their father and started begging for forgiveness.
"W-We're sorry, daddy! We just wanted to help you!" Monophanie cried.
"Y-Yeah! We were only doing what Monodam was telling us to do! It's not our fault no one died!" Monotaro added.
"Is that right? What do you have to say about this, Monodam?" Monokuma asked his third child with a knowing grin. Monodam just stood where he was, his expressionless face still the same as always; however, this time, there was a sense of confusion, hurt, betrayal, sadness, and anger all mixed together in him.
"I…I-JUST…"
"I know. You just wanted to show your pops that you were capable, right?" Monokuma cut him off before giving him a menacing glare. "But now you know better. You know you shouldn't disobey your father, riiiight?"
"Y-Yeah, Monodam. Just listen to Daddy. It's for the best." Monophanie told the green cub.
"That's right. Father is always right, unlike you Monodam!" Monotaro added. Monodam just stood there in silence before his head began to droop downwards in defeat.
"I…UNDERSTAND." He eventually muttered.
"Good! Now then," Monokuma said before turning to the rest of us. "As you all heard, you all surviving and living this peaceful, hopeful, joyful, fulfilling life was not part of our schedule, so let's all fix that right now, shall we?"
"What do you-?" Before Shuichi could finish asking his question, Monokuma rushed at us so fast he became a black-and-white blur. As he dashed at us like a super sonic hedgehog, I felt something clamp down around my right wrist the moment he ran by me. I quickly brought my wrist up and felt my eyes widen in shock at what I saw. It was an arm bangle of some kind that had Monokuma's black and white color scheme. Immediately feeling a sense of dread and terror from having this thing on my, I grabbed it with my other hand and tried to pull it off, to no avail. It was completely stuck on my wrist, and just pulling it wouldn't get it off me.
"What the hell is this!?" I turned my head to see Kaito yelling, which isn't a weird thing to happen, but what got my attention was how he also had a bangle stuck on his wrist as well.
"I can't get it off!" Tenko then shouted as she pulled a bangle that was clamped onto her wrist.
"Nyeeeeh! What is this?" Himiko cried out. That's when I quickly realized that all of us had one of these bangles on us. None of us could get it off, and we all somehow knew that keeping these things on us longer than necessary was going to be detrimental to our health. Well, all except one person.
"Wow! Neat bracelet! It matches my style!" Kokichi smirked as he flashed his new 'accessory' at the people around him.
"Now's not the time, Kokichi!" Kaede yelled.
"Monokuma! What are these things?" Rantaro asked the bear in an angry voice.
"Oh those things? Nothing too special. I just thought you all could use a new motive now that the Necronomicon is gone." Monokuma told us.
"N-New motive?" Gonta questioned hesitantly.
"Yep! This one is an old favorite that I haven't used in a while! I call it Forbidden Actions!" Monkuma laughed menacingly.
"Forbidden Actions?" Kirumi repeated with a narrow glare.
"Yep! Basically, each one of you schmucks have a specific action you can't do anymore while these bangles are attached to you. Go ahead and check it out. Just click the small buttons on the side of the bracelets and you'll see." As soon as he told us that, all of us quickly looked at our wrists and clicked the buttons on our bangles to see our 'Forbidden Action'. I turned my wrist over while I clicked the buttons and nearly gasped when I saw my Forbidden Action.
Forbidden Action: Falling Asleep
"What…What the hell?" The question left my mouth in a hushed whisper drenched in fear. Why is this my Forbidden Action? Not being able to sleep is pretty detrimental! Especially with how I haven't been getting much rest for the past few days. I got plenty of rest last night, but that wouldn't make up for days with little to no sleep. Did Monokuma plan it that way? Did he make it so my Forbidden Action would be something I would more easily break due to my circumstances right now?
"So whatever our bangles tell us is our Forbidden Action? That implies that something happens if we do happen to do whatever our Forbidden Action is." Maki noted.
"Correct! If you do perform your Forbidden Action, that's like breaking the rules, you see!" Monokuma explained. "If you do happen to do whatever it is your Forbidden Action is, whether intentionally or accidentally, those bangles on your wrist will immediately inject fast-acting poison into you and you'll die within a matter of seconds!"
"Wh-WHAT!?" I yelled along with a few others who had shouted at the explanation.
"Y-You can't be serious right?" Kaede asked.
"Oh I'm very serious." Monokuma told her swiftly with a huge smile.
"But then what about Keebo? He's a robot. Poison doesn't work on him." Kokichi pointed out.
"That's robophobic, but also a good question!" Keebo shouted.
"That's an easy one. Mister Boring Robot there will just get the biggest electrical shock of his life, one that will easily fry all his systems in one go and might even cause him to blow up!" Monokuma answered, which caused Keebo to pale even more than his metal skin could allow. "Here, let me give you an example of what will happen." Monokuma then slapped one of the bangles on himself and turned to us. "Suppose my Forbidden action is 'laughing out loud'. Pupupupu! Hehehehe! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Monokuma then started bellowing loudly, which caused the bangle on his wrist to make a loud electronic jingle of some kind.
BOOOM!
Monokuma then was shocked by a powerful electric current before blowing up.
"Holy shit!" Kaito shouted as metal parts flew across the room. Nothing but Monokuma's remains were left, but before anyone could say anything else, a new Monokuma popped out of nowhere.
"As you can see, breaking the rules and doing whatever it is your Forbidden Action would be really bad for any of you, robot or otherwise!" The new Monokuma told us. "Oh, and about the bangles, don't try too hard to remove them. Do that and the poison will just inject sooner than you would like!" All of us were left in shock as Monokuma began laughing at us again. Here it was again. That terrible dreadful feeling of the killing game. That gnawing atmosphere that we all had forgotten due to the bear's absence. We had grown complacent in a way. We forgot that Monokuma would have no problems with adding or changing motives as long as it gets one of us to break and kill another. And if everyone has a Forbidden Action like mine, this is a damn good way to ensure one of us will break eventually.
"...So we're just going to be stuck with these things until someone dies?" Rantaro eventually asked.
"Yep! You guys are stuck with them until one of you drops dead!" Monokuma laughed. "Welp, I've got a ton of other things I need to take care of now that I'm back, so I'll be heading off now. But before I do," He then turned to Kirumi and gave a wide, crazed grin. "Let me officially welcome you back, Miss Tojo. It's a pleasure to have you here to experience the killing game to the fullest along with everyone else who's survived so far. I'm rooting for you, so don't die right off that bat like last time. It would be such a shame for Rin and the others to have brought you back just for you to die so easily again, right? Hahahahahahaha!" With another cruel fit of laughter, Monokuma left the dining hall.
"Y-Yeah. E-Enjoy the killing game…yeah." Monotaro weakly said as he and Monophanie left. Monodam stayed still for a bit, having returned to his silent state like when the killing game had started. He didn't say anything. He just stared weakly at the floor with a blank expression before leaving as well. We all were silent for a while, just taking in our new situation as most of us stared at the cursed thing now stuck for us for the foreseeable future.
"...We were careless." I muttered after a while. "I knew they would add in a new motive, but I never expected it to be so soon, and such a horrible motive."
"So what are we going to do?" Ryoma asked.
"Should we discuss what our Forbidden Actions are?" Kirumi asked.
"That sounds like a good idea." Kaede nodded. "Well, mine is-"
"Don't." I stopped her before she could say anything. "These Forbidden Actions will kill us if we do them, so what if someone who knows our Forbidden Action forces us to perform it to kill us?"
"By that logic, the Forbidden Action and the bangles themselves become the murder weapon, right?" Keebo deduced logically.
"It just gives us another way to kill each other." Kaito spat out angrily. That's when I noticed Shuichi fidgeting with his bangle a bit with a nervous expression. He seemed to want to say something, but just kept looking away from us.
"Hey, Shuichi? Something on your mind?" I asked. As soon as I asked him, Shuichi seemed to give a sigh of relief for some reason. He quickly turned to me and nodded.
"Yes, actually. I wanted to add to what you said." He told me. "Well, these Forbidden Actions could be anything as far we know, right? So there might be a chance that one of us has the Forbidden Action of revealing their Forbidden Action right? For all we know, just revealing our Forbidden Actions could set someone's bangle off."
"That's a good point. That would be something Monokuma would do, since he doesn't want us working together and stuff." Kokichi smirked.
"Then what would you suggest we do?" Angie asked with a bit of a miffed look. "You always talk big like you know everything, so go on. What's your plan?"
"A-Angie? You okay? You seem upset." Himiko asked. Angie just sighed before placing a hand on her forehead.
"Oh, Atua, forgive me. I let my temper get the better of me. I was just so happy we all were getting along, but now all of that's ruined because of this new motive." Angie's put a new smile on her face, though I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but to me, her smile looked a little bit forced. Cracked, even. "Not to mention, my Forbidden Action is somewhat…irksome."
"Angie does have a point though. Kokichi always talks about how he wants to win this game." Tenko then stated before pointing at the midget. "So go on, you de-I mean, Kokichi! Tell us what your big plan for this new motive is!"
"Well, if you really want to hear it, I'll tell you the honest truth. I can't lie when you honestly ask me a question like that, so here's my plan for dealing with the motive." Kokichi began, causing all of us to lean towards him with immense curiosity. Kokichi then smirked before putting both of his hands behind his head. "My plan… I honestly have no idea what we're supposed to do." All of us nearly fell over at his answer.
"Are you serious!?" Kaito yelled.
"Yep!" Kokichi answered before his childish expression turned into a more serious one. "I told you I would answer truthfully, and I honestly don't know how to beat this motive. I mean, this is pretty much Monokuma's way of twisting our arms right?"
"You say that, but I doubt you would tell us the truth so simply like this." Keebo sighed, only getting a laugh out of the little gremlin.
"B-But what if Monokuma's bluffing, like with the first motive? What if these bangles don't really have poison in them?" Kaede suggested.
"Does that mean you're willing to be the guinea pig and test that theory?" Ryoma asked.
"I hate to admit it, but we shouldn't assume this is a bluff." I told her. "The only reason I assumed Monokuma was bluffing was because of how he worded the time limit motive back then. Despite how he is, Monokuma and, by proxy, whoever the mastermind is, has complete integrity when it comes to motive details. These people have never lied about them. Sure they might hide details from us about the motives, but when they tell us something about the motive, it's never a lie. The Necronomicon was the real deal after all. Despite how it ended up helping us, it was still a motive, and they didn't lie about what it could do. Same with the motive videos, right? Kiyo, Shuichi, and Tenko got their own videos, and they were correct with details, right?" I asked, to which Shuichi and Tenko nodded.
"So you're saying Monokuma wasn't lying about the poison?" Maki asked me.
"I'm saying that it's highly unlikely when he tells us flat out about it like that. If he had said it in very specific words that could be interpreted in different ways, then maybe it could be a bluff, but when he just says 'there's poison in the bangles', that's hard to refute out-right, isn't it?" I explained. "I'm with Kokichi. We're in a delegate situation. I'm not sure there's anything we can do but hope that Monokuma isn't going to keep these things on us forever."
"Wh-What? That can't be all we can do!" Kaede argued. "C'mon, there has to be a way out of this!" Feeling compelled by Kaede's words, I tried to come up with some way to beat this, but…there's no way out of this. Not that I can think of. But just as I was about to give up, someone I wasn't expecting spoke up.
"There is one way we could beat this." Maki said. "None of you will do it, though. I'm not sure I would either."
"Huh? What are you talking about? If there's a way out, I'll do it! Now c'mon, tell us!" Kaito told her.
"Kaito's right. If you have any idea how we can avoid this, I would at least like to hear it." Rantaro told her. Everyone nodded in agreement with what he said and waited for Maki to tell us her plan, but she just sighed before she scratched her cheek nervously.
"Well, the poison only will work on us if the bangle is on us." Maki explained. "Of course, Monokuma told us that we shouldn't try to take them off us, but he never said it was impossible to take them off."
"So you know way to get rid of bangle?" Gonta asked.
"Well, if we can't directly remove the bangle from our wrist," Maki began. "We could just remove our wrist. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?"
"Wait…are you suggesting that we cut off our hands to remove the bangles!?" Shuichi asked in a horrified voice.
"You wanted a solution to the problem. You didn't say it couldn't be an extreme one." Maki sighed. "Again, I don't know if I could even do something like that, so I suggest that we don't do it."
"Y-Yeah. Cutting off our own hand is way too extreme!" Tenko shouted.
"Still, we should keep it in mind in case of an emergency." Rantaro noted.
"Nyeh? Emergencies?" Himiko questioned.
"He's talking about if someone gets poisoned." I explained. "Even if someone does their Forbidden Action, and even if the poison is fast-acting like Monokuma said, once someone is injected with the poison, it still has to circulate through their body. So if we're fast enough when it happens, we could save that person's life by…cutting off their arm." I shivered at the thought before I continued. "So that's some good news. We have a safety net. It just comes at the cost of one of our limbs."
"Fantastic…" Kokichi muttered with a frown.
"Even so, we should avoid doing our Forbidden Action at all costs. It would be best if we don't have to take such drastic measures. It might not even save us since we could still die from blood loss and shock, so it's better to play it safe." Shuichi added.
"So do we just have to accept this outcome? Is there truly nothing we can do?" Keebo asked. No one answered. None of us had any idea how we were going to beat Monokuma this time. It frustrated me to no end, but he got us. Again.
Ding dong ding dong.
At the familiar tone, the monitors turned on, showing the Monokubs, now relegated back to their unimportant side-character roles. Well, it's not like they ever became more important than that anyway. "Umm…This is an official announcement for the Ultimate Academy." Monotaro started, seeming to be unsure of what exactly to say now.
"I-I-It is now 10 pm. Nighttime has officially started." Monophanie stuttered.
"..." Monodam just kept to himself, staring blankly at the screen.
"S-So long, b-bear w-well." Monotaro and Monophanie said in nervous voices as the monitors shut off.
"It's already nighttime." Kaito said in a tired voice.
"Grrr…! Gonta angry!" Gonta shouted with grit teeth. "Gonta have so much fun today, but it all ruined by Monokuma!"
"I know, big guy. I was having fun too." I said while patting his back. "You all should get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
"Y-Yeah. You're right." Kaede nodded, though it didn't look like she was thinking of anything other than the motive. It was obvious to tell it was weighing on all our minds. That's expected. We all have a weapon strap on us that could kill us the moment someone deems we broke the rules of this game now. Our lives are no longer in our hands now, not that they ever were in this academy.
"Hmm?" Kokichi hummed before turning to me. "What do you mean, Rinny?"
"Huh? What do I mean?" I asked him.
"You said 'you guys should get some rest'. Are you not including yourself for some reason?" Kokichi asked me with a smirk. That got everyone's attention. Shit…
"Well yeah. I'm on night guard duty today, aren't I?" I asked with a small smile. Thank god that's how things turned out. Otherwise, I would have just let everyone know what my Forbidden Action is. Everyone seemed convinced by that, except for Kokichi, who just had his usual knowing grin on his face. How he would know that I'm hiding behind a fact that's true to hide the real reason I'm staying up tonight is beyond me. I was about to ask him about that face he was giving me, but he just turned around and started walking towards the dorms with everyone else. I shrugged again as I followed behind the group. Once we got to the dorms, everyone entered their rooms, while I stayed outside near the entrance doors. I leaned against one of the walls and slid down into a sitting position.
"What am I going to do?" I whispered the question to no one but myself. This is bad. Very bad. My Forbidden Action freaking sucks! Not being able to sleep might literally kill me! Not only might I die from lack of sleep, but not sleeping for who knows how long is going to make me delerious and easy prey for whoever does want to commit a murder. All in all, I'm screwed 6 ways to Sunday. "It's almost like whoever did this planned for me to be the one to take the fall this time around." I mumbled that jokingly, but I wasn't kidding. Each motive so far seemed to target a specific person more than the others. The time limit pushed Kaede to do her murder trick, while also putting preasure on Tsumugi. The videos definitely were targeting both Ryoma, by taking away any hope that there is someone outside waiting for him, and Kiyo, by showing him something that completely broke him. This time around, it seems like I'm one of the targets they want to boot from the game. It makes sense. I've been a pain in the ass, haven't I? If something is causing problems, it's best to get rid of it as soon as possible. "Unfortunately for you, I'm stupidly persistent. I won't die that easily." I smirked.
"And what do you mean by that?" I nearly jumped when I heard Rantaro's voice. I turned my head to see the avocado walking over to me before plopping down next to me.
"Rantaro? What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"Well, I asked Keebo if I could take over for him tonight. It gives him a break from being on guard duty, and it also gives me the chance to talk to you." Rantaro told me while flashing me a smile.
"Well, it's not like I mind, but what do you want to talk about?" I asked.
"You got stuck with a pretty nasty Forbidden Action, huh?" I froze when he said that, but all he did in response was give his usual smile. "Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I have a feeling I have a good guess."
"And why do you say that? We just got our Forbidden Actions, and I haven't done anything to reveal my hand."
"True, and like I said, I don't know for certain what it is. Just a guess." Rantaro told me. "I'm not going to ask you what it is, since that's just as dangerous as doing it yourself as far as I know, but know that we're behind you no matter what. If you need help, just ask." Rantaro then put his hand in his pocket and took something out and handed it to me. "Besides, I mainly wanted to give you this."
"Your Monopad?" I asked as I took from his hands. "Wait…This isn't-!"
"It is, and I'd rather you not turn it on right now just in case." Rantaro told me with a weak chuckle.
"Don't tell me your Forbidden Action is-"
"Yeah. It sucks, though it's better than what it could be." Rantaro laughed. "That's why I'm entrusting this to you right now. I hope you don't mind."
"Of course. I'm the only one you can come for something like this after all." I said as I put the Survivor Perk Monopad into my jacket pocket. "Still, this was pretty risky of you. Just from this, I know what your Forbidden Action is, and if I wanted to, I could have tried to make you do it to kill you."
"True, but I trust you." Rantaro immediately told me, which made me smile.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. It's like I said. We're friends, so we'll rely on each other. Now, how are we going to pass the time?"
"Good question. Whatever it is, we should hurry up and figure it out. It would be pretty problematic for me if I end up nodding off for whatever reason." I said, giving Rantaro a smirk when I said that. He immediately understood and nodded before returning the smile.
"Well, I'm sure we could come up with a few things to do." And so, my long night began, though it was more enjoyable than I initially thought it would be.
