Welcome back everyone to a new chapter. Not much to say this time around so please enjoy the FTEs.

Ichiro's Dorm 9:57 PM

Ichiro's POV

After counseling Fuyuhiko I had returned to my room intending to shower and go to bed. What I wasn't intending for was for someone to be knocking at my door before curfew. But with this class of characters that should be expected at this point.

Bang, Bang, Bang

"Who could that be," I wonder aloud to myself. Not taking any chances I grab my pocket knife out of my dresser drawer and stuffed it in my right jeans pocket prepared to use it if need be. I open the door a crack to see Kaito's smiling face staring at me.

"Kaito, what the fuck are you doing here. It's almost curfew," I say angrily as I narrow my eyes at the "luminary of the stars"

"Well… heh heh heh, I wanted to ask if you wanted to join a nightly work out group?" Kaito asked me.

"I'm all for working out but you really wanna add onto what Nekomaru has already got us doing," I say, raising an eyebrow.

"Well I mean yeah. I've gotten Shuichi and Kaede to agree to it. I was planning on asking you and Maki tonight to join us."

"Give me a couple days. I really just want to get some sleep these next few days. After what we've been through I think some rest and relaxation is in order." I paused for a moment rethinking my answer before continuing.

"Actually… yeah I'll show up tonight see what you guys are about."

"Really? That's fantastic dude. I appreciate it. We plan on meeting in a few minutes in the gym."

"Alright man I'll meet you there," I say, waving to Kaito as I shut my door as he leaves.

"Well I wasn't expecting that, but establishing relationships with people may save my ass later down the line," I mumble to myself. "But sometimes relationships can bite you in the ass sometimes as well. But we shall see."

I decided to grab a tank top and a pair of shorts out of my closet for the workout. I waited a few minutes figuring that Kaito and the others wouldn't be at the gym right away before leaving my dorm. After what I felt was a suitable amount of time I left for the gym. The hallway was eerily quiet. My footsteps echoed throughout the hallway as I walked making it seem like I was being followed. Considering the situation we were in that wasn't too crazy to think. I sped up a bit as I walked but my footsteps seemed to multiply as I did so. I turned around to see Kaito's smiling face staring down at me.

"KAITO! Kaito are you fucking kidding me!? You scared the fucking shit out of me! I thought I was going to die there for a second!" I yelled.

"Woah woah there big fella, I'm not going to kill you," Kaito said a bead of sweat going down his face but still smiling.

"Well yeah because I would beat your ass. But the point still stands. You shouldn't sneak up on people. Especially in this situation."

"Alright I got you."

"Good, I'm glad that we're on the same page now."

We enter the gym where Kaede and Shuichi look up from their discussion to look in our direction. "You didn't get Maki?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah," Kaito begins rubbing the back of his head, "She really wanted no part in this."

"I mean she's even more distant than Byakuya, did you really expect anything else?" I ask.

"Hey it was worth a shot."

"We heard some commotion outside. You guys know what that was?" Shuichi asked.

I shoot a glare at Kaito before answering, "Yeah, Kaito thought it'd be funny to sneak up on me in the middle of the night."

"Seriously Kaito? You do realize that this isn't exactly the time to pull those pranks," Kaede lectures raising an eyebrow.

"It wasn't on purpose I swear," Kaito says, raising his arms up in defense.

"Uh huh," I say, shooting one final glare at the astronaut. "So, what kind of workout are we doing?"

"I was thinking something simple. Like running and pushups. Stuff like that," Kaito explains.

"Sounds simple enough. Why not do like five suicides and a hundred pushups. We should probably get some sleep tonight, who knows what will happen tomorrow," I suggest.

"I agree with Ichiro here. This motive will probably get a lot of people to consider killing someone because you can get out without a trial," Shuichi explains, with a nod of agreement from Kaede.

"Well in that case, let's get started," Kaito says, giving a wide smile.

Kaito lined us up along the gym's baseline preparing us for the five upcoming suicides. After a pause he sent us on our way. Being the only major athlete in the room I finished the drill quite quickly and well before Shucihi and Kaede. I was already a quarter of the way through my push-ups by the time the other two had finished their suicides. Kaito was cheering us on as we did our exercises not doing any himself. It bothered me a little but everyone has their reasons for not doing something.

I had managed to finish my pushups by the time Kaede and Shuichi were at around forty. They were struggling some but were still trying to persevere. I decided to take this opportunity to talk to Kaito a bit more.

"Hey Kaito, why aren't you doing this bro?" I ask the astronaut.

"Man, I'm just not feeling well, but I'm going to do this tomorrow I swear," He replies giving a light smile.

"Alright bro, but maybe you should get some rest. And take all the time you need, no need to rush back and make it worse."

"Thanks man that means a lot."

"No problem bro. Just speaking from first hand experience coming back from an injury or issue or whatever early is never good."

"Yeah I bet. But don't worry I'll be back as soon as possible."

"That's all I ask. I'm going to head out guys, this was kinda fun, see you guys in the morning," I say waving to the trio as I exit.

"Bye Ichiro, stay safe," Kaede replies.

"See ya Ichiro," Shuichi says waving goodbye.

Ryoko's Dorm 7:00 AM

Ryoko's POV

"GOOD DESPAIR EVERYBODY! THE TIME IS NOW SEVEN O'CLOCK A.M.! NIGHT TIME IS OFFICIALLY OVER SO GET TO IT WITH YOUR EATING AND KILLING!" Monokuma's voice echoes through the halls and wakes me up with a start. I grumble as I look over what the wretched bear gave me. The label on it says Candelabrum, which is a way too fancy name for this candle holder. It'll be easy to use this as a weapon outright, but I can't let the others know about it.

My mind is made up and I shove the candle holder under my pillowcase. Without much thought I head into the bathroom and strip off. I feel like I'm losing a lot more of my strength as the days go on. I really should eat a little more today. I'll see if some of the other guys would go on the track with me. I spend longer than I like in the shower, rubbing my hands over my trembling legs and arching my back under the shower stream. Under the warm water I push my hair back and lather myself with shampoo.

I step out of the shower into a warm towel that I wrap around my chest. I head in front of the mirror and count the bags that have appeared over my eyes. I don't know how it's possible that I look so worn after several short days but I guess two murders can sap the life out of you. I begin putting on today's clothes, just a high school shirt and accompanying pants.

Just as my hair dries off I open the door to see a mass of students walking to the cafeteria. One of them, Chihiro, lets out a small yawn and stretches out rather awkwardly. She waves hello to me before skipping off to join Mondo, for some reason. I raise my eyebrow briefly before I pay it no mind. The rest of the morning is a bit more of the usual rabble.

I enter the cafeteria with a tray in hand and look around the stalls of food for today's breakfast. Pancakes, waffles, steak, eggs- Steak. It's a weird choice for breakfast but I'm gonna go for it. I take my tray to the stand with the assorted meat and grab bacon, steak, and sausage. "A light meal I see," Twogami says when he pulls up next to me.

"I'm still getting some grains to balance it out," I reply politely. "Am I in your way? I'm just about to go."

"Oh no, take your time miss Katsumi." I take a glance at his plate and see that it's already rather full of meat and assorted breakfast items. Some of them fall off and he sighs before he picks them up.

I make my way through the rest of the stands then find some grains available. I lather butter on a roll and head to a table of mine. I bite into the roll and slice into the steak rather quickly. The juice flows out and I take a peace. "Hmm," I muse. I lick my dry lips together and realize that I do need something to drink. Most of the others are crowded around the canisters of drinks and are fighting over some cups.

I leave my food at my table… no, I guard it with some napkins and an extra plate, before I head into the kitchen. "Hello Ryoko," a voice calls out. "What brings you here?"

I whip around to see the swimmer with a cup of rather fragrant tea. "Looking for some coffee."

"Coffee is best enjoyed with donuts but we don't have enough donuts to spread," she jokes. "Want me to make some tea for you?"

"Maybe next time." I open the fridge to find some cold, fizzy, orange juice in a bottle. "Is there a bottle opener out there?"

"Here's one!" she chirps. "Hey, you did track right? How do you do it so fast on land? Like does the sweat not get to you at all whatsoever?"

"I'd rather not think about sweat this early in the morning," I say, trying to placate her. "I'd ask the same about swimming, like if you have to throw up in the water."

She chortles. "Sakura and I were going to talk about our relationships back home. I'm sure you have a lot of boys gunning for you- or do you have someone here?"

"Well I still need to eat, so why don't the two of you join me?"

"Sure," they both say.

As we're about to leave, Sakura takes a knife from the knife block and uses it to cut open an orange. She takes the pieces and puts it into a heavy glass container. "I feel like you intend to train later."

"Yep," I say, sipping my tea as we head out into the cafeteria.

The three of us entered a conversation about the merits of training before we got into this school. I learn that Sakura's been entering competitions from her elementary school days while Aoi raced with her brother across oceans. "What about you Ryoko?"

"I honestly never did training that stood out," I stutter in between bites of my steak. "But I did run five miles with my track team in a day for two weeks straight."

"What training was that for?" Aoi asks.

"Had a double marathon for charity," I say nonchalantly. "You must have done some water marathons or something, right?"

"Just swam across the bay and that's it. Wait, no, there was that time my team and I had to swim down the entirety of a river, but it was a relay race so it wasn't that bad. What about you Sakura?"

"I unfortunately have some details that I cannot disclose, but let it be known that I did in fact enjoy training with my long term partner," Sakura replies.

"You have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend?" I ask.

"It is not common knowledge but all I'm comfortable to disclose is that I wish for his safety," she laments.

The conversation continues as more and more people seem to finish up their breakfast. By the time Sakura, Aoi, and I finish our meal most of the others have cleared out. "Wow where has the time gone?!" Aoi perks."Do you still want to train with us? We have to kick it into overdrive if we want to finish by lunch."

"Sure," I reply. "We can just have a late lunch. Hopefully we can lighten up the mood just a bit."

Cafeteria 7:22 AM

Makoto's POV

"What a good breakfast," Sayaka comments. "Maybe this time I'll be able to keep it down through the day."

"You threw up?"

"Well, we did see two executions. I was one of many who lost their… meals that day. Better to lose our meals and keep smiling right Naegi?"

"I guess so." She flashes me a warm smile as we return our dishes to the receptacle. "We don't have a lot on our agenda today, unless you count polishing our Monokuma weapons."

"I'm not sure if I even want to think about it," she says sadly.

The two of us begin to walk out of the cafeteria when Leon runs in front of us. "Hey, Sayaka. Hey Makoto. Where are you two going?"

"We'll just be looking at the different classrooms again. beats just sitting in our rooms," Sayaka says.

"Mind if I join you? I don't know if I can really spend the rest of my time looking at the video game controller that bear gave me."

"Sure!" Sayaka perks up. I nod in agreement and the three of us head off.

I turn into one classroom with a globe on it. "Is this the classroom where we stored all of our things?" Leon asks.

When I look around the room it does bear a striking similarity. A chill runs over my shoulder as I look down at the floor. Sayaka points to an outline of the pile that has imprinted itself on the floor. "That's weird," I comment. I crawl on my feet and feel the weird texture. "It's like it's part of the floor."

Without warning a weight jumps on my back and seems to move around my back. "Please ignore the crater behind the curtain! And get killing! We're all on a budget dammit!"

"You can't tell us what to do!" Sayaka shouts. I roll Monokuma off of me and spring to my feet.

"This room needs repairs because you're so concerned with stupid talks of peace!"

"Let's just go," Leon says, pulling Sayaka out. "We're obviously not going to find anything here. And I don't wanna think of what.."

"It's okay Leon." The three of us walk out of the room as we hear Monokuma whirring and fixing the room. "He's hiding something, but I don't think we're going to be able to find out soon."

"I hope we're able to find out," Leon sighs. "Ibuki, Teruteru, they all need justice one way or another."

Sayaka places a calming hand on his back as I open the door to another classroom. It's the encyclopedia room I remember heading into a couple of days ago. Some of the encyclopedias are flipped open to random pages that feature different horror films and murder methods. "The Abbotsford killer, 1967," Leon begins to read aloud.

"Huh," Sayaka notes. "Used a baseball bat to attack two people."

"And look at this one," I say, pointing to another encyclopedia. "Genocider Syo. A serial killer who used scissors to pin and kill."

Almost immediately Leon closes both of the encyclopedias. "I don't want to think about that."

"Well, we have to, don't we?" The words escape my mouth as I see him turn angrily to me. "I mean, like it or not we have to think about how we should kill or not kill. If we do this then we can get into the minds of people and help prevent them from killing?"

"Heh," Leon chuckles. He unclenches a fist he was holding and the temperature in the room seems to drop. "I'm still worried about another… another Ibuki incident happening."

"Well that's why we have to stick together," Sayaka says perkily. "Leon, you're handling her death well and she wouldn't want you to punch the living daylights out of Makoto."

"No I don't think so, would be a fucking crazy way to go out though," Leon muses. "Hey, sorry about that Makoto, no hard feelings?"

"None yet," I say. "I think there's two more classrooms left to check out. Might as well go through them again."

Cafeteria 7:33 AM

Ichiro's POV

I had a slower morning this morning which left me with few seating options. I could either sit with Taka who was relatively alone at the end of the table or with Togami who was all alone at his own table.

'Loud or asshole? Taka means well, I could probably stand him longer than Togami, so I guess that answers my question,' I thought to myself.

I took my seat next to the Ultimate Moral Compass. He looked up from his food to greet me, giving me a smile and a wave to which I returned the gesture. I had already picked up my food and begun eating. Taka and I hadn't exchanged so much as a word for the next few minutes as we awkwardly and silently ate our food,

"Alright I think we got off of the wrong foot. You want to try this again," I say to Taka.

"What do you mean Ichiro?"

"Like we re-introduce ourselves. Like I mean we talk as if our previous encounters had never happened," I explained.

"I guess that could work," Taka says unsure.

"So, how'd you become the Ultimate Moral Compass?" I asked.

"Through hard work. I… blocked out all distractions more or less to achieve what I have."

"Really? No TV, video games, parties?" I asked.

"No… I've actually never watched TV or played video games," He states leaving me wide eyed.

"Seriously? I gotta say that must take some serious dedication," I praised.

"Yeah… I never really had many friends growing up… so I tend to come off as I guess socially awkward," He admitted shamefully.

"Hey we all have our quirks. You got here off of hard work which is admirable. We all got here somehow, whether it be talent, luck, or hard work, we all gained a spot here and now as that Moral Compass you have to step up and lead."

"I understand that, but I'm not exactly respected. I mean our relationship is less than ideal."

"If you're a great speaker it doesn't matter. People will respond to you if you lead them the right way."

"I guess… I just have my own fears about leading that… that I don't really want to talk about," He says shame crossing his face for a moment.

"Fair enough. But this group needs a leader and maybe it should be you. But what else do you want to talk about."

"What about you? How did you gain your talent?" He asked, staring intently at me which was slightly unsettling with his piercing red eyes.

"I was born in Japan but moved to the states at a young age. I got into football as a sport and just stuck with it. I guess for me hard work combined with talent is what got me here. I moved back here early into my Freshman year of highschool where I was extended an offer by Hope's Peak to come here to which I accepted," I explained to the Moral Compass.

"What's American Football like, I've never seen it or played it?"

"It's kinda complicated. But the basics would be there's a ball and the objective of the offense is to score either by throwing the ball or handing the ball off to a running back…"

"Running Back?" He interrupted.

"A position on offense that mainly runs with the ball but can also go out for passes as well," I explain.

"I guess that makes sense but I'm still confused."

"It's fine really, but anyways there's a defense trying to prevent the offense from scoring. Each side of the ball requires strategy, like what is the offense going to do and what is the defense going to do to counter that and so on."

"Sounds extremely complicated."

"It is. But once you understand the premise of it, it's pretty fun."

"I can imagine."

"So about the committee thing…" I began after a brief moment of silence.

"No no, what you said was entirely valid. We're all entitled to our opinions," Taka says stopping me mid sentence.

"Oh… well I was just going to apologize for lashing out. It was uncalled for really."

"No, what you said was true and needed to be said."

"I appreciate that man. In this place the last thing you need is enemies," I said lowering my voice a bit.

"I know you're right, but we can look at it that way. We can work together as a group and get out of here it'll all be worth it."

"With the likes of Togami and Kokichi I don't know if that's possible but one can hope."

"One can hope," Take repeated.

Hallway 8:17 AM

Makoto's POV

"So Makoto did you find anything new?" I take a quick glance over Leon and Sayaka. They were singing while we were searching so his voice sounds a bit hoarse. Sayaka still remains as bubbly as ever, but she looks rather despondent. I wonder if she saw something.

"Nothing of note," I reply.

"So what now Naegi?" Sayaka asks.

"I was thinking about going to the arcade. Anything to get my mind off of this world."

"Ooh I heard they had some karaoke machines, Leon let's go and check it out!"

"Actually I promised some of the other jocks and Kaito that we could try some baseball," Leon interrupts. "Come to think of it we'd be short some people so you're more than willing to join us."

"You fine with that Naegi? You're more than welcome to watch."

"Sports aren't really my thing. From what Nanami said I heard they had some dungeon crawlers. I found some mono-coins in the search."

"Well have fun Makoto," Sayaka says.

The three of us part ways in the hallway. There aren't many people heading to the arcade today, or halls for that matter, today just seems kind of quiet for some reason.

I head into the arcade and hear that some of the machines are on. I peer around the corner to see that Namami and Yamada seem to be focused on some kind of racing game, though Yamada seems to be splitting his time with a drawing pad and the screens in front of him. As I continue walking through the rest of the arcade I decide to sit down in front of a racing machine that seems to turn on just as I take a seat.

After spending some time adjusting the seat I manage to get to a comfortable position and insert my coin. The racetrack is the familiar streets of Tokyo. I put my hand on the gearshift and felt something crawl up my arm. Surprised, I look up and down my arm to see a little hamster crawling up. "What are you doing here?"

The hamster tilts its head and runs up my neck. "Hey! Where'd you even come from?" On the arcade machine I experience a horrid crash and get a score of negative fifty.

"Now," I say, grabbing the hamster as gently as I can. Both orange and white, its eyes sparkle in the low light of the arcade and it seems to be apologetic. "I can't stay mad at you. But where is your owner?"

No sooner do I ask that a voice thunders in response. "Supernova Silver Fox has looked kindly upon your soul Mister Naegi." Gundham Tanaka peers from the side of my arcade machine and holds out his hand. Silver Fox runs up and down his arm before they land on my shoulder again. "I must apologize, but they say that hamsters are a meditative spirit. And Sunny-D is the most invasive of them all."

"How do you keep track of them all?" Sunny-D jumps from my shoulder and lands on the arcade machine. Gundham and I look at Sunny-D while she gets to a score of one hundred thousand. "How did he do that?"

"Sunny-D is a madam of the dark winds," Gundham ominously corrects. "At their core all that is needed is a reassuring hand around their little round and fluffy bodies. My four Dark Devas of Destruction all need attention day by day, but it is simply unique."

"I see, so why are you all in the arcade?"

"Reward for Sunny-D and Cham-P." He shows me a rather rotund hamster that is rolling in mono-coins. The orange hamster puts one to its chubby cheeks before it rolls down Gundham's sleeves. "After we spend our waking hours in the arcade I intend to conjure a test of agility and flexibility for both Maga-Z and Jump-P to test their mettle."

"With what?"

"My creativity knows no bounds mister Naegi!" The lighting turns an ominous purpose just as the sounds of thunder roll around. I look behind to see that an arcade game about avoiding lightning has automatically turned on. "Would you care to join?"

"I just got here but give me like thirty minutes. I'd love to learn more about raising the Devas." He nods, satisfied, and the devas all scatter to different parts of the arcade. "Shouldn't you watch them?"

"They will be able to take care of themselves. Now that my devas are off, how about the two of us engage in a competition befitting the modernized roads of Nihon?"

Thanks for reading. A murder is around the corner. Who will it be? Again writing is very slow right now so please be patient we'll try and get stuff out as fast as we can thank you. And please review.