In an instant, we were standing in the other world. Yes…we were definitely there. "Is…this really it?" I heard Kaede ask in a surprised voice.
"Looks like it." Rantaro replied.
"So this…is the virtual world?" Kaito mused as he looked around.
"Yep." I nodded before sighing. "This is completely different from what I thought it was going to be like. It's sort of disappointing."
"These graphics are really disappointing, too." Nyeh… I thought this would be better than the real world…" Himiko complained as she looked at her avatar. It was true. These graphics were certainly…lackluster. Within seconds, we went from being in the computer room into some kind of salon or living room. Kaede, Rantaro, Shuichi, Kaito, Keebo, Himiko, and myself all appeared within a circle of light before we began to regain our bearings. It was certainly a strange feeling, and it was odd seeing everyone. We weren't in our real bodies, but the avatars. However, while they did look like us, they were more…chibi-like than I initially thought they would be. We seriously look like low budget video game characters.
"I still have a robot body as well. I must admit, I was secretly expecting more…" Keebo sighed as he looked at himself.
"I'm a little glad you're still like that though. You look more like yourself, Keebo, and that's a good thing." I told the robot.
"But…this feels weird. I can move this avatar like I could move my own body." Kaito mentioned as he moved his arms around. "And with this body, I don't have to worry about all that stuff…"
"Hmm? What stuff?" Kaede asked.
"Uh…no, it's nothing." Kaito quickly told her with a forced laugh. Before Kaede could press further, three more circles of light appeared, and out of them came Maki, Kirumi, and Tenko. Maki looked around for a bit before frowning.
"...I want to go back."
"Th-That was quick…" Shuichi noted.
"W-Woah! This is…super cool!" Tenko exclaimed before she ran up to Himiko. "And look at Himiko! She looks just as cute here! Maybe even cuter!"
"S-Stop it! Don't say embarrassing things like that!" Himiko shouted, dodging all the attempts Tenko made to pull her into a tight hug.
"This is certainly different, but it feels just like the real world. It would be hard to imagine this being a fake world if it were not for our avatars' appearances." Kirumi noted before placing a hand on her chest.
"Don't worry. Even if you feel that stuff while we're here, you can still come to me for help." I told her quietly as I walked over to her. She nodded with a small smile before three more circles appeared, and Kokichi, Gonta, and Ryoma replaced them.
"Huh? How strange. I thought it wouldn't actually be like we were in a game." Ryoma noted as he looked around. Kokichi, meanwhile, moved his hands a little before he nodded with a big grin.
"Ooohh, so this is the virtual world. I see, I see. And this is my avatar. Mm-hm, mm-hm. I get it now." He mused a little before he walked over to Keebo and smacked him across the face.
"Ouch! What did you do that for!?"
"Ooh, so that hurt." Kokichi noted, getting a gasp from the robot.
"Oh, well, now that you mention it…I felt genuine pain just now…" Keebo confirmed.
"That's pretty impressive. If you felt pain, then that means our senses are connected." Kokichi said.
"...Our senses are connected?" Maki repeated with a thoughtful look. I couldn't help but think about that too. Our senses are perfectly connected to our avatars, huh? That means that we'll feel everything that happens to our avatars. Then…with a name like the killing game simulator, could that mean-?
"Nyahaha! What an exciting looking place!" My thoughts were then interrupted by Angie, who then appeared from her own circle of light. "So, what are we going to do now? Are we going to look for those clues Monokuma told us about?"
"That would be a good start, but I think we should try to understand this world better first." Rantaro stated.
"Yeah, like what do you mean when you say our senses are connected?" Tenko asked, who was now done with harassing Himiko. Kokichi then smacked Keebo again just like before, though this time it sounded like it hurt a lot more.
"OUCH!"
"It means that this goes way beyond the realm of virtual reality! Just like Monokuma said, we're actually connected!" Kokichi then answered with a childish look of victory.
"We get it, so stop hitting me!" Keebo yelled, his face getting red with anger as he did. Guess his avatar is able to express emotions better than his real body if his skin can change color like that.
"No can do! Even if they are avatars, I could never hit a person!" Kokichi replied to the robot, only getting a loud groan out of him.
"E-Even here…I can't escape your robophobia!"
"How are our senses set up?" Maki then asked.
"You know, for all that stuff Monokuma told us, he didn't actually tell us how any of it really worked." Kaede sighed.
"Oh, I think this might help!" Angie then said as she took a piece of paper that was sitting next to a phone that was on top of a drawer nearby. "This seems to be a note from Monokuma explaining things here!"
"What does it say?" Shuichi asked.
"It says that our senses are connected 'cause those devices we put on our head send electrical signals to our brain to replicate the senses we experience here."
"So even if we're not really being punched, the brain senses pain cuz of those signals…" Kaito summarized.
"And since it won't leave any bruises, you can hit all you want!" Kokichi added.
"That's a bully's twisted logic…" Keebo grumbled.
"Hey! Why our bodies like this!? This Himiko's magic!?" Gonta then shouted, now noticing how different things were here in the virtual world.
"Uh…how should we explain this to Gonta?" Rantaro asked with a chuckle.
"Don't worry about it too much, big guy. There's a lot going on, but it's only temporary. We'll be back to normal soon." I told Gonta before turning back to Angie. "Are there any other things that note mentions about this place?"
"Yes. Apparently, there's a special rule here. Objects cannot break."
"Hm? Objects don't break?" Shuichi questioned with a surprised tone.
"Yep yep! Monokuma said that in this world, there are no rules that govern whether objects can break." Angie explained.
"So any object, no matter what it is or what happens to it, won't ever break. Interesting." Ryoma noted with intrigue.
"So, if we take a rubber band and stretch it to the point when it would usually snap, in this place, it would not break. It would instead remain as it is." Kirumi said before placing a hand on her chin. "But will the rubber band return to its natural state? Even if objects cannot break, can they be deformed or damaged at all?"
"That's a good question. Objects have something called an elastic limit, which is the amount of stress that can be put on them before they start becoming permanently deformed or break. If objects can't break, can enough force or stress still cause something to dent or be permanently deformed if we manage to cause enough force?" I asked.
"Hmm… It doesn't say." Angie replied.
"Well, that's fine. It's not like we're here to see how objects behave in this world." Rantaro said.
"Anything else?" Maki asked.
"It also says that our avatars can't get injured, though we'll still feel pain." Angie answered.
"That sounds like something Monokuma should have mentioned before we came here…" Himiko muttered.
"You know how he is. He's the type who likes making things harder for others." Kaede sighed.
"So, other than objects not breaking and our avatars not getting injured, I guess that means this world still works like the real world in terms of physics." Ryoma pondered. "It's not too special, but it's simple and easy to remember."
"There's one last thing about our avatars. It says here that everyone's avatars are given the same physical strength." Angie then said.
"Wait, that means there's no difference between any of us in terms of power?" Tenko exclaimed with wide eyes.
"So in this virtual world, I'm just as strong as Tenko and Gonta?" Himiko asked with a new gleam of excitement in her eyes.
"What!? Gonta weaker!? That also cuz of Himiko's magic!?"
"More like Monokuma's magic." I laughed.
"T-This no laughing matter! If Gonta not strong, Gonta no can protect everyone!" Gonta shouted.
"I'm with Gonta! This is a huge issue! I said I would protect Himiko, so being weaker is a huge problem!" Tenko shouted.
"There's nothing we can do about it. It's just how the virtual world is." Shuichi told the two of them, only getting a sigh of defeat out of Tenko and worried fidgets from Gonta.
"Is that everything, Angie?" Kaito asked.
"Yep! That's all the note said about the rules of this world!" Angie responded. "The only other thing it says is how to log out when we're done here."
"Log out?" Kirumi repeated while tilting her head.
"We just have to use the phone over there." Angie said as she pointed to the phone. "Monokuma's note says to just pick up the receiver and say your name, but the phone can't be removed from this room."
"That means we can only log out from here." Rantaro noted.
"So that's everything. How exactly are we supposed to find these clues Monokuma left for us?" Shuichi asked.
"We don't even know where to start looking." Kaito muttered.
"Is there a map we can use?" Kirumi asked.
"Maybe there's one outside the room?" Kaede suggested as she moved to the room's exit. She opened the door and peeked outside before her face lit up. "Yep! There's one right here beside the room!"
"Then let's go and get a good look at it." Ryoma said as we all moved outside the room. Just as Kaede said, there was a map of the virtual world, as well as a map of the building we were in.
"Hmm, this smaller map has 'Mansion' written on it. Guess this building is a mansion." Rantaro noted.
"Judging from the map, we're in the main hall right now. The room we were just in was the salon." Kirumi said as she looked at the map.
"There's also a dining hall, a kitchen, and even a bathroom here." Keebo said.
"...Does this place even need a bathroom?" Himiko asked.
"I'd rather not think about that." I responded before something caught my eye. "There isn't a second floor, but it does mention that there's a roof we can go to."
"That could probably give us a better view of the world. That'd be a good start to our investigation." Shuichi said.
"What about the bigger map?" Kokichi asked as we all looked over to the second map that showed the entire world.
"It looks pretty expansive. There's another building, a forest, and even a river here." Ryoma stated.
"And apparently, this place is called 'Mirai Hills'." Keebo said as he read out the words that were on the map.
"Mirai Hills?" Gonta questioned.
"Isn't 'Miria' the Japanese word for 'Future'?" I asked.
"Yeah, so this place's name means 'Future Hills'." Shuichi noted.
"What a strange place…" Himiko commented.
"Hmm, it says here that the second building is a chapel. It's right next to the mansion." Maki noted.
"Maybe those clues are hidden over there?" Kaito asked.
"It's definitely a place we'll have to cheek out." Kaede nodded.
"What are those black lines around the map?" Angie asked.
"I imagine that's where the world ends. Games usually have walls that block players off from unfinished areas that aren't meant to be accessed, so that's probably what those are." I explained.
"So even here, we're still trapped…" Kaede lamented.
"That makes sense. It makes things easier for us too. It would be a pain if we had to search in a world that was the same size as the real world." Kokichi added.
"Speaking of searching, we should get started. Even with this world being smaller, there's still a lot of ground we need to cover." Kaito said.
"Then let's head to the roof to get a better view of the world!" Angie shouted as she raced up the stairs.
"H-Hey, Angie! Wait for us!" Himiko shouted as she ran behind her, with Tenko following close behind the mage.
"Geez, Angie really does things at her own pace." Kaede sighed as we all walked up the stairs to the roof. It didn't take too long despite it being three flights of stairs, but we eventually made it up there. The roof was pretty sizable, though it was barren of anything. Well, there were three girls up here who were throwing snowballs at each other. Correction, two of them were throwing snowballs while the third was acting as a meat shield for Himiko. It was an amusing sight, but the snow was what surprised me.
"It's snowing?" I asked as I looked up at the gray sky above us.
"Whoa! It's snow! Look, Maki Roll! It's snow! Look! Snow!" Kaito exclaimed when he saw it, acting like a little kid as he did.
"Are you a dog?" Maki then asked him with an unamused expression.
"Huh… It's cold." Ryoma noted. "So we can still feel temperatures. It really is similar to reality."
"Hmm…" Kaede hummed thoughtfully as she scooped up some snow in her hand. A mischievous grin then began to form as she slowly made her way to where I was, making sure I couldn't see her by staying behind me. But although she tried to be sneaky, I still noticed.
"Don't even try it." I told her just as she was preparing to throw the ball of snow at me at point blank range.
"You're no fun." She sighed before she started giggling. "But you can't stop me anyway!"
"Wha-?" That's when she pressed the snow against my neck. A fridget sensation crawled all over me as I made a sound that was more feminine than I would honestly admit. I quickly scraped the snow off me as I shivered the chills out of my body. I then turned towards the laughing pianist with a glare before grabbing some snow for some revenge.
"You want to play this game right now? Then let's play!" I shouted as I charged at her with a much larger snowball than the one she used on me. Noticing my swift approach, Kaede made an 'eep!' sound as she dashed away from me as I carried the large ball of fluffy ice over my head.
"You both are so childish…" Maki sighed as she watched us.
"Well, snow is pretty fun to play around with. I've had plenty of fun in snowy areas myself in the past." Rantaro chuckled.
"Well, we should start investigating here, shouldn't we? We'll be fine if a few of us are just having fun. The rest of us should look around a little." Ryoma said as they all began looking around. Kaede and I joined the search right after I managed to drop the entire ball of snow I had on top of Kaede. It was one of the most satisfying moments in my life, but I couldn't bask in the glory of my victory and revenge for long. Well, it wasn't like the search was very hard for us. With the roof being so barren, there were only two things to take note of. Those were the binoculars that were mounted on the roof, and the storage shed that was next to it.
"Binoculars, huh?" I muttered as I looked through them. "I can see pretty far, but I can only see up to the wall at the edge of the world. Other than that, this is pretty impressive. I can even see the forest that's next to the mansion."
"What about this shed?" Kokichi asked.
"Nyahaha! I already looked inside when I got here. There's only normal things inside like shovels, a rolled up carpet, and even a lattice." Angie told him as she continued to throw snowballs at Himiko, only managing to hit Tenko who was striking the snow in mid air with precise strikes.
"Really…" Kokichi said as he looked at the shed. He then opened the sliding door anyway and quickly peeked inside. "Hmm…yep. Seems pretty normal here. Just a normal shed."
"So there wasn't anything of interest here, then?" Keebo asked.
"I guess not." Ryoma sighed.
"A-Anyway. It's really cold. Can we go back inside now?" Kaede said as she held her shoulders with a shiver.
"Yeah. Let's head back inside. Sorry again, Kaede." I told her with a big grin.
"No you're not." She grumbled.
"Snow and a strange mansion… How ominous." Maki said before she sighed. "Great job, killing game simulator."
"Yeah, no kidding. This really does seem like something out of a mystery or horror story." Rantaro noted.
"It also strange how we no leave footprints in snow. Why footprints not appear?" Gonta asked.
"It was probably programmed to be like that. If we could make footprints, it would be easier to find the culprit if a killing happened." I explained.
"But this is just a simulation, right? It's not like anything bad will really happen here, right?" Tenko asked, wanting some reassurance that no one could die while we were here. Unfortunately, no one was confident enough to give her that reassurance. This program was called the 'killing game simulator', after all. Plus, there are already a good chunk of fictional stories where 'if you die in the game, you die in real life' sort of stuff, so in a place full of advanced technology, I wouldn't put it past Monokuma.
"Let's start heading over to the chapel now." Shuichi suggested, trying to break the tension.
"Yeah. It's close by, so it won't take too long." Angie nodded. So, we all walked back down the stairs and left the mansion. We then moved together to the chapel that was to the left of the mansion. It looked old, even older than the mansion since it was made of some kind of stone that was starting to decay and wither. Kaito pushed open the large doors, and we were met with a cluttered mess. There was stuff everywhere inside, which only made most, if not all, of us deadpan at the amount of crap we would have to sift through.
"This chapel is really messy…" Himiko moaned.
"How disrespectful to whatever deity this chapel is for. If this was Atua's chapel, he would throw a tantrum and destroy another island." Angie said in a disappointed voice that quickly changed into one of cheerfulness. "Nyahaha! Atua has given me another insightful task! I shall clean this chapel off and dedicate it to Atua! That way, we all have an official place to worship the lovely Atua!"
"None of us other than you really pray to Atua, though. And cleaning all of this seems a little improbable" I told her as I grimaced at the sight. I'm not a neat freak, but this is making me itchy.
"Wow, they even have an organ here. Well, I guess that makes sense." Tenko said as she saw the instrument near the other end of the building.
"I wonder if Kaede can play the organ as well as she can play the piano now. You should try it out, Kaede." I said as I turned to the girl in question.
"Well, I wouldn't mind playing for a bit, but if I do, I'll forget all about searching for clues until someone stops me and pulls me away." Kaede said as she pressed the ends of her fingers together bashfully. Oh right. She was like that when she played piano for me that one time. Well, that side of her is really cute. It's what we all love about our resident piano freak.
"Well, that will have to wait. We need to look around for those clues Monokuma left for us." Angie then said as she turned to us with an excited look. "We should split up since this world is so big. That'll be much faster than all of us staying in one spot."
"Yeah, that's probably better." Kokichi nodded as he put his hands behind his head.
"I wonder what these clues even are." Ryoma pondered. "Monokuma was purposefully vague about it. We don't even know what these clues look like."
"Do you think we'll be able to find whatever Monokuma left for us today?" Kaito asked.
"Don't be such a wus-er, I mean, I'm sure we'll be able to find it in no time." Tenko responded.
"Tenko's right. There's no point worrying about it when we're already here. All we can do is try our best in our search." Rantaro added.
"All we need to do is look for anything suspicious or out of place. I'm sure if it's important enough for Monokuma to use it as bait, we'll notice it easily." Shuichi nodded.
"Even so, we have a difficult task ahead of us, but I guess we have to see it through." Keebo stated.
"So how are we going to decide how we split up?" Maki asked.
"Just leave it all to me! I'll figure out how everyone should split up in a flash!" Kaito exclaimed before Kirumi stole his thunder.
"I believe it would be best if we split up into three main groups." She began. "One group will search the chapel. The second will search the mansion, and the third will search outside both areas. I believe that would be best."
"That sounds like a plan." Kaede nodded happily. The others also agreed with Kirumi, leaving Kaito to sigh a little since he couldn't show off his leadership skills.
"So who will be in each group?" Ryoma asked.
"Well, whoever is searching the outside area will have to be people who don't mind the cold." I said before raising my hands. "Which means that'll be the group I'm with. My avatar has my thick winter jacket after all, so I'm well equipped for that."
"Then Rin will be a part of team 3!" Angie said before she gave me a knowing smile. "If that's the case, then Kirumi should be a part of the outside team too!"
"Huh? Why?" I asked her.
"You and Kirumi work well together, so it would be good for you two to be on the same team." Angie told me before she walked closer to me and told me something else in a whisper. "I've also noticed how you both are spending a lot of time together, so I figured I would give you the chance to get even closer. Make sure you stay close to her." Angie then winked at me, which only served to fluster me.
"W-Wait, it's not like that!" I whispered back to her. "She just needed help adjusting to coming back, and I-"
"I know, and Atua approves of this ship! He wishes you both the best of luck in your future. Nyahaha!" Angie told me before she started laughing again. I felt an eye twitch at the implication she just made between me and Kirumi. Great… just what I needed. Now I feel like I'll have to apologize to Kirumi later because of that.
"Look, it's up to Kirumi to decide which group she wants to be a part of, so-"
"I do not mind being a part of the outside search team." Kirumi interrupted me, causing my mouth to dangle wide open when she did. I turned to face her with my surprised expression, but she only returned it with a serious and calm look that she usually had. Even without her saying anything, I could tell that was her way of saying 'I won't budge on this'.
"Alright then. I guess Kirumi and I will head the outside search team." I sighed.
"I believe I should also join you. After all, I don't mind the cold. It's a new sensation for me, so I quite enjoy it, actually." Keebo said.
"I'll go. It'll be good training for me." Tenko added. Himiko then looked at Tenko for a second before she pulled her hat down.
"Then I'll go with Tenko. She'd be lonely without me." Himiko said softly, though that didn't stop Tenko from squealing at her cute voice.
"Oh, Himiko! I'm so glad you're my friend!" Tenko shouted as she brought Himiko into a tight hug.
"N-Nyeh…!? H-Hey! Stop! You're suffocating me!"
"Hmm, that seems like it'll be enough people for the outside." Rantaro stated.
"W-Wait. I'll search outside too if that's the case." Shuichi quickly said.
"Hm? Really? How come?" Kaito asked Shuichi, but Shuichi didn't answer. He just turned his gaze to the floor. I was confused at Shuichi's lack of a proper response, but I just shrugged.
"Sure. We'll have an even amount of people that way." I told him, to which he gave me a thankful nod. "So who'll be searching the mansion?"
"I'll go then. The mansion looked cool after all." Angie said swiftly, her smile never leaving her face as she did.
"Guess I'll go too. I want to see what else that place has to offer anyway. Maki Roll, you should come with me." Kaito said.
"...Fine. Whatever." Maki grumbled as she crossed her arms.
"Nee-heehee, then I guess I'll go to the mansion too. After all, If I can't bug Keeboy or Rinny, I'll just have to bother our Space Idiot here while we search." Kokichi said with a snicker.
"Hey! Don't call me an idiot, and take this seriously! If you're coming with us, you'll have to investigate!" Kaito yelled at him.
"I can already tell that leaving those two together is a bad idea." Ryoma groaned. "I'll go to the mansion too, if only to make sure you both stay away from each other."
"That should be enough people for the mansion. That means me, Kaede, and Gonta will stay here at the chapel." Rantaro said.
"That sounds good. With Gonta, we'll be able to check even the large boxes here." Kaede noted.
"Yeah! Gonta help however Gonta can!" Gonta exclaimed with a big smile. He's so sweet.
"Alright! That means we have our three groups. We'll head back to the mansion now. You guys have fun with searching!" Kokichi said as he left the chapel with his group.
"We'll be heading off as well. Good luck, you guys." I said as I left with my group. After we left the chapel, we decided that we should split up further so that we could cover as much ground as we could. We had to search all of the outside areas in this world, which meant we had the largest area to search. In the end, we split up to cover three main areas. Tenko and Himiko stayed near the chapel to search the area around it, while Shuichi and Keebo decided to do the same with the mansion's exterior. That left Kirumi and I to search the large forest area behind the mansion.
"It's a little funny how we've been ending up getting paired together lately." I said with a chuckle.
"Yes, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing." Kirumi replied.
"You're back to speaking casually." I noted with a small grin. "That's fine. I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to relax when it's just us."
"I don't see why I shouldn't, since you've made it clear plenty of times that's what you'd prefer." Kirumi told me as we entered the dense forest. "This forest is much bigger than I thought it would be."
"Yeah, it's pretty dense. It's like a real forest." I nodded. "It looks really cool, though. A snowy forest where all the trees are covered in pure white snow…It's quite the sight."
"It really is." Kirumi said in agreement. She then began rubbing her shoulders a bit. "It's colder than I thought it would be." She murmured. I bet she didn't intend for me to hear it, but I still did. So, I did the only respectable thing any real gentleman would do.
"Here." I told her as I took off my jacket and handed it to her. Her eyes widened a little as she took it from me.
"But what about you? Won't you be cold?" Kirumi asked.
"I'll be fine." I told her before looking away while scratching my cheek. "I'm…actually from Aomori."
"Aomori? As in Aomori City? You remembered that?"
"Yeah. It was something I also remembered when I remembered stuff about a really old friend I grew up with. It was never important, so I never brought it up. It's not like knowing where I grew up really matters. It doesn't really factor in on details like a potential talent I have or anything." I said as I stretched my arms now that they were free from my jacket. "Aomori is known as one of the snowiest cities in the world, if not the most. So I've dealt with colder weather than this. Still, I feel a little naked without my jacket. Luckily, my avatar has my long sleeved shirt here, so that's nice. I guess the breeze feels better now."
"I suppose you have thick skin." Kirumi mused as she slowly put on the jacket.
"You have to when you live in a city that gets covered in 26 feet of snow per year on average." I told her. "So, are you ready to start searching?"
"Yes. Let's begin." Kirumi said as she finished wrapping the jacket around her, her cheeks now slightly red from both the cold and what I assume was embarrassment for needing my jacket. That got a little laugh out of me as I turned to face the forest.
"Good. Make sure you check everything. This isn't the real world, so there might be clues hidden by quirks of the virtual world, like a fake tree or something. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled."
"Right." And so, the two of us began our search, not going too far away from each other so we didn't get lost and end up alone. However, despite how long we searched for it, we didn't find anything. We must have been searching for hours before I began to lose hope that whatever clues were in this world were in the forest.
"Man, what awful luck." I groaned as I checked what was probably the hundredth tree I've come across. "Have we just been walking around in circles? Is that why we haven't found anything?"
"That is a possibility, since we don't leave any footprints in the snow, but I'm fairly certain we haven't gotten lost." Kirumi said. I only groaned as I ran a hand down my face.
"Urg…this sucks! There's nothing here." I shouted before sighing. "Whatever. If that's the case, we should go meet up with some of the others. Maybe someone else has found something interesting. What do you think, Kirumi?" I turned around to face her, but I felt my skin turn pale. Kirumi was no longer behind me. All that was there was my jacket, lying on the snowy ground by itself. I slowly walked over to the jacket and picked it up, examining it quickly before I found myself tightly gripping it. I felt my heart begin to pound violently against my chest. I felt my vision narrow and darken just at the thought of history repeating itself. No… No, no no no! Not again! NOT AGAIN!
"Kirumi!" I screamed as I put my jacket back on swiftly. "Kirumi! If you can hear me, just shout! Kiru-!"
SMACK!
Before I could even process what was happening, my field of vision then changed suddenly as a loud sound echoed through the forest. H-Huh? W-What's…going on? Why…am I lying on the ground now? Why do I hear ringing in my ear? Why do my eyes hurt now? And…why does my head feel like it just exploded? Why…does my head hurt so much? I…can't move. I can't move… My body feels like heavy lead bricks. I'm losing focus… I can't comprehend anything anymore. Am I hearing something? It sounds like people shouting at each other, but the ringing is too loud. I'm so…tired now. And that's when I let my eyes shut, and everything went dark. Darkness…sinking…drowning…gasping…lost. And then, not even the darkness existed. All that was left…was nothingness.
"Hey, Kaede. Have you found anything yet?" Rantaro asked after he put down another box that was full of a bunch of useless junk, though none of it had anything to do with possible clues that could help them.
"No. Sorry." Kaede replied as she continued to search through a box of her own. "What about you, Gonta?"
"No. Gonta not find anything." Gonta said with a disappointed look as he put a much larger box to the side of the room where they had been putting stuff they had already searched. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I haven't found anything either." Rantaro reassured Gonta before taking a deep, yet soft breah. "Maybe we should take a break. We've been searching for clues for a while now."
"Y-Yeah, I guess you're right." Kaede said, though she didn't seem to like the idea of stopping. Despite that, she stopped searching through the box she had and took a seat on a chair near her.
"Hmm, this hard. Gonta not sure what he should look for." Gonta said as he sat down on the floor.
"Yeah, that definitely is an issue." Rantaro nodded as he leaned against the chapel wall. "I wonder if anyone else has found anything."
"Maybe. Should we go and check on them?" Kaede asked.
"That sounds like an idea. Even if they haven't found anything, I think it would be best if we stop searching for now and go back to the real world. That'll let us rest for a bit before we come back to finish sweeping the place." Rantaro said.
"Then let go talk to others. Gonta sure they found something." Gonta said as he began to stand back up, but that's when the door slammed open. Everyone turned to the door and saw Tenko rushing in.
"Guys! You have to check this out! Himiko and I have-!" She didn't get to finish as she tripped over a box and face planted onto the floor, knocking the box over as she hit the ground.
"Tenko! Are you okay?" Kaede shouted as she rushed to help Tenko up.
"Never mind me!" She shouted as she showed something to Kaede. "Look! We found something big!"
"Is that…a book?" Kaede asked as Tenko handed it to her. She then opened it up, and nearly dropped the book out of shock. "Th-This is…!"
"What is it?" Rantaro asked.
"It's a photo album!" Kaede exclaimed as she flipped through the pages.
"A photo album? What's in it?" Rantaro asked as he and Gonta moved towards the two girls.
"W-Well… I don't know how to say it. Just look." Kaede said as she let the two of them look at the photos.
"That's…" Rantaro muttered with a little surprise in his tone as he saw the first photo.
"Rin?" Gonta questioned. "And who those people with him? They look familiar…"
"That's because these are some of the people Tsumugi was cosplaying as during the first class trial! The book is full of photos of all of them!" Tenko shouted. "These photos are of Rin's past!" It was true. The first photo in the book was one that looked like a graduation ceremony for a middle school of some kind. The photo was in front of the school with some cherry blossoms in bloom. In the foreground were three people. The first two were girls who were giving wide, bright smiles as they hugged each other while posing and showing off their diplomas. Meanwhile, the third person didn't look like he cared much as he stood a little farther away from the two, his own diploma in his hand as he fiddled with his black uniform's high collar. With his white hair that was devoid of any color, those crimson eyes, and that familiar ahoge, there was no doubt that it was Rin. And the other two… If Rantaro remembered what happened during the first trial correctly, the one on the right who had the short, blonde hair and the gray-blue eyes was Yuna Tamura, and the one next to her with the long, blonde hair, the teal bow, and the emerald eyes was Asuka Wada.
"So is this one of the clues Monokuma left behind? Clues about Rin's past?" Rantaro asked.
"It must be!" Tenko shouted. "I mean, Rin looks really young in these photos! And he's wearing a middle school uniform in this one!"
"And there's a bunch of other photos too." Rantaro added as he looked at the multiple photos on the pages they had the book opened up to. The photos varied greatly, and while Rin wasn't in all of them, they all certainly felt like they had a connection to him. Why else would the people Tsumugi called his friends be in them. There were even people they didn't know at all that Tsumugi didn't cosplay as, meaning this was probably the biggest source of information on Rin at the moment. As these photos showed scenes from the past, Rin looked a lot younger, even during his highschool days, but it didn't look like he was much different. In one photo showing him with Asuka at their highschool entrance ceremony, it looked like Asuka had to drag him along to get the photo with him, as Rin looked both upset and flustered to be in the photo. He was also pulling his tie in what looked like aggravation, so it was easy to tell that Rin didn't care for formal uniforms back then either.
"Hey, what's with number on this photo? No other photo here have it." Gonta asked as he looked at the highschool entrance ceremony photo. Just as he said, on the top right of the photo was the number 1 written with a black marker.
"That is strange. What is it supposed to mean? It's not the first photo in the book, and it's not the first in chronological order." Rantaro pondered.
"That doesn't matter right now! We need to show this to Rin! If anyone would want to see this, it'll be him." Kaede said.
"Himiko is already heading over to get him and the others right now. I'm just here to let you know." Tenko told them.
"That's good. Then we should go join them." Rantaro suggested.
"Hmm? What's this?" Gonta asked as he looked over to the box that Tenko had tripped over. He bent down and picked something up.
"Huh? Did you find something, Gonta?"
"Gonta think so. This has same name as 'ver-chew-ual world'." Gonta said as he showed them what he found. It was a wallet with a badge that looked like it was made of pure silver inside of it. The badge looked incredibly valuable, but the thing that caught everyone's eyes was the symbol engraved on it. 'Mirai', the Japanese character that means 'future'. The same world that was used to name this world.
"Mirai, again? First Mirai Hills, and now this badge? Is this a coincidence, or something else?" Kaede asked as she crossed her arms.
"Wait, there's a message inside the wallet." Tenko said as she took out a piece of paper that was sticking out of one of the wallet's pockets. "Huh? 'Even in the face of terror and despair, we will reach towards the future. Just as the star gazers did before us, we will look towards the sky and reach towards the stars. Count the immeasurable, and you will have the key to the truth of despair'."
"What does that mean?" Rantaro asked as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Count the immeasurable? Reach towards the future? Does this have anything to do with why we're here?" Kaede asked. "Did someone bring us here because we're the only ones who can reach this future they're talking about?"
"If that's the case, then why are they forcing us to kill each other!? That doesn't make any sense!" Tenko shouted. Rantaro thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"We can think about this later with the others. We should go now. We've found two clues. We have to let the others know about them." He told them.
"R-Right! Let's go!" Kaede said as she ran towards the chapel doors with the other four. However, as soon as they left the chapel, they heard someone scream.
"S-Someone, help!"
"Himiko?" Tenko nearly yelled when she saw the young magician running towards her with Keebo and Shuichi. Himiko then tackled Tenko as she began bawling. "Himiko? Himiko! What's wrong?!" Himiko couldn't say anything as she continued to sob into Tenko's chest.
"Keebo, Shuichi, what happened?" Rantaro quickly asked them, easily seeing that something must have happened if Himiko was so horrified. He could even see that the two of them were also baffled by whatever had happened, so it was important that they hurry up and explain.
"I-It's…" Keebo began before he trailed off, at a loss of words or so it seemed.
"...It would be easier if you came to see it for yourself." Shuichi told the adventurer. "Keebo and I will get the others from the mansion. You guys head to the forest and…brace yourselves."
"Brace ourselves? What do you mean by that?" Kaede asked him with a terrified voice, but Shuichi didn't respond as he gave her a sad look. He then turned around and walked towards the mansion, with Keebo trailing behind him silently. Rantaro felt a sudden chill after seeing just how affected by whatever this was those two were. The forest… if Tenko and Himiko were here, and Keebo and Shuichi were going to the mansion, then where were the other two people who were searching outside?
"...We need to go." Rantaro stated with a dark expression as he began running to the forest.
"Wait, Rantaro! Wait for us!" Kaede shouted as she ran after him, with Tenko following behind her with Himiko still wrapped around her. But Rantaro didn't slow down. He couldn't. Not when the one person he trusted more than anyone else could be… He didn't want to finish that thought. If it is that bad, then he needs to hurry. Without realizing it, he had started going faster and faster, until he had broken out into a complete sprint. He hadn't even fully realized he had already entered the forest and was dodging trees as he ran to find his friend.
"Rin? Kirumi?" He shouted as he ran through the snowy forest. "C'mon, say something, please." He muttered to himself as he continued to move through the forest. And that's when he heard Kaede scream. It was a scream of visceral terror, as if she was about to cry her eyes out from a heartbroken sorrow. Rantaro felt his heart drop into his chest as he turned around and headed towards where he heard the pianist's voice. "Kaede? What happened? Did you find…" That's when Rantaro found her, in a little clearing in the forest. "...Rin…" Rantaro finished as he trailed off at the sight. He…didn't know how to feel about what he was seeing. He wasn't even sure what exactly it was that was there in front of him right now.
"Rin! Rin! C'mon, wake up! Please wake up!" Kaede was shouting as what looked like tears formed in her avatar's eyes. In her hands was the limb avatar of Rin, his eyes closed as he laid on the snowy ground. But it wasn't just him there.
"Why are Ryoma and Angie also here?" Rantaro found himself questioning as he stared at the other two avatars in the clearing who weren't moving. All three of them were lying on the ground, though they weren't all right next to each other. With how their avatars couldn't get visible injuries, one would first assume they were just sleeping, but Rantaro knew that would just be a hopeful thought with how things usually went in this academy.
"I-I don't know! We just found them like this, and none of them are moving!" Tenko shouted as she tried to stir Angie's avatar. Himiko couldn't even look at Angie as she bawled into Tenko's shoulder.
"This…can't be happening." Rantaro muttered in a voice of disbelief. "Don't tell me…something happened in the real world to them." That's when another thought hit him. "Where's Kirumi?"
"Gonta not sure. Kirumi not here when Gonta and others arrived." Gonta replied before Tenko gritted her teeth angrily.
"...She should have been with Rin." Tenko muttered.
"With Rin? Then…could what actually happened be…" He was about to suggest something unthinkable but he quickly stopped himself. No, that couldn't be. Kirumi and Rin were really close. Kirumi wouldn't do something like that…right?
"Rantaro! Kaede! Tenko!" Rantaro turned around and saw Kaito and the others from the mansion running towards them, all of them following Keebo and Shuichi. That's when they saw the scene, and nearly everyone's face dropped. "What the hell?! What's wrong with Rin, Angie, and Ryoma!?" Kaito shouted with a terrified expression.
"We don't know! We only just found them ourselves!" Kaede yelled before turning to Shuichi. "Shuichi! What happened? Were you, Keebo, and Himiko the first to come across this?"
"..." Shuichi didn't say anything as he turned his head, his eyes closed shut in anguish as he tightened his fists and gritted his teeth.
"I believe we were the first to find them." Keebo explained for the detective. "That's why we rushed for everyone to come here."
"You should have just told us to log out. If they're like this, then something might have happened to them in the real world, so we have to log out and go back to the real world. We're wasting time." Maki chided them with a glare.
"Th-Then let's go back to the mansion. The sooner the better! We have to help them!" Kaito yelled in a panicked voice. Everyone nodded, and they were about to run back to the mansion, but that's when they noticed how Kokichi hadn't moved from his spot. He had completely frozen up upon seeing Rin and the others just lying on the ground, his expression, even though it was his avatar's basic and chibi-like face, was completely blank with wide eyes.
"Kokichi? What are you doing?" Rantaro asked the violet haired youth. Kokichi didn't say anything as he began to slowly walk towards the three motionless avatars. He then suddenly stopped before crouching down and picking up something.
"...It's a flip phone." Kokichi muttered in an emotionless voice. And, as if someone flipped a switch, Kokichi's neutral and emotionless demeanor changed to one of swift panic and action as he opened the flip phone up and pressed it against the side of his face. "Angie Yonaga! Ryoma Hoshi! Rin Wakuri!" Kokichi then shouted in a panic. That's when something surprising happened. A circle of light formed under Rin's avatar, and swallowed him whole, leaving nothing behind.
"Wh-What just happened!?" Tenko shouted as she stared at where Rin used to be.
"He logged Rin out…" Rantaro gasped in shock.
"But if you can log others out, why aren't Angie and Ryoma logged out either?" Maki questioned, but no one answered her. The only thing that happened next was Kokichi shouting out another name.
"Kokichi Oma!" And with that, Kokichi was engulfed in another circle of light, leaving only the flip phone behind on the snowy ground.
"H-Hey! Don't leave us behind!" Kaito shouted as he ran over and picked up the phone. "Kaito Momota!" Kaito then disappeared, and everyone realized that it would just be faster to log out using this flip phone instead of rushing back to the mansion's salon. And so, everyone began to log out one by one. Keebo, Himiko, Maki, Gonta, Tenko, Kaede, Shuichi, and then finally, it was Rantaro's turn. He grabbed the flip phone and stared at it before turning back to the avatars of Angie and Ryoma. If they couldn't be logged out, then that could only mean one thing, right? He gulped nervously, before speaking.
"Rantaro Amami." And with that, light engulfed him, before everything was dark. Even though his eyes were opened, all he saw was dark colors. He was back in the real world. The helmet he used to enter the virtual world was still on his head, blocking his vision. It didn't take long for him to yank the device off his head and move his head towards the people who were motionless in the virtual world, and he felt nausea take a hold of him.
First was Angie, who had her device taken off by Maki and Tenko. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so peaceful, almost like she was just in a serene sleep. And yet her chest wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't even reacting when Tenko tried to get her to wake up. Angie Yonaga, despite all appearances, was gone. Dead, taken in what looked like her sleep, unaware that she had even died.
And that's when this horrible situation became worse, because Rantaro turned his head to see the other who was motionless in the snowy clearing, Rantaro almost choked on his own vomit in disgust. Ryoma Hoshi's skin was purple now, his eyes completely red and bloodshot and saliva trailing down his agape mouth. Blood was coming out of his eyes as well, and his veins were popping out of his skin in a disgusting manner. His expression, in contrast to Angie's peaceful face, was one of complete agony, horror, and confusion. Ryoma Hoshi is dead now too. For the third time, there had been another death, but unlike before, there were two victims. The death game had begun again, and it was worse than ever before.
