Saya's mother walked into the room, a bowl of fresh popcorn in one hand and a wad of paper towels in the other. She sat next to her daughter, smiling comfortably.

"Huh, American Grafitti," Saya said as she regarded the splash intro on the screen. "Didn't we watch this already? No wait, that was American Hustle."

"No, this is a classic," Saya's mother replied. "I've only seen it once, though."

"Hm. What's it about?"

Saya's mother tossed a kernel of popcorn into her mouth and considered the question. "Your grandparents, basically. If you've ever wondered about Maw-maw or Granddad, this should clear things up."

"I think everyone's wondered about Granddad," Saya commented dryly.

Her mother chuckled. "I also like it because it's got a really young Harrison Ford in it. I have always had a crush on Harrison Ford."

"I know, mom," Saya said, rolling her eyes. "Everyone knows all about your Harrison Ford thing."

"Well, look at him!" Saya's mother defended. She gave her daughter an unreadable look. "I never hear you talk about actors you have crushes on. Don't you have a Harrison Ford? Some young guy I've never heard of?"

Saya looked down at the bowl of popcorn. "Um," she said. She looked back up at her mother with an embarrassed grin. "I mean, I don't know. Not really."

"Oh." Her mother sat back a bit, the unreadable look staying on her face. "That's okay, not everyone's as thirsty as me."

"Mom!" Saya nearly coughed up the popcorn in her mouth. "Don't say 'thirtsty' like that! I don't even say 'thirsty' like that!"

"Don't be mad because my... twitter game is more... fleek... than yours?" Saya threw her hands up over her face in shame, but they both laughed.

"But really," Saya's mother said, "you can talk to me about these things. Whatever you have to say."

Saya didn't say anything for a moment; she looked down at the floor, chewing the inside of her cheek. Then she looked back up with an unconvincing smile. "Did dad ever get jealous of your Harrison Ford thing?"

Saya's mother paused but recovered from the conversation topic change gracefully. "No, I don't think he ever knew about it."

"Maybe I'll ask him about it," Saya said breezily. "I mean... if he ever decides he wants to see me again."

Her mother did not say anything.

"Um." Saya sighed and shrugged. "Want to start the movie?" she asked. Her mother just nodded.

ROTC: ARMORY

We just stood in the doorway for what felt like hours, taking in the rows and rows of horrible machinery. I had never seen anything like it.

"Whoa, step back," Giuseppe said harshly, snapping me back to the moment. He was glaring at Nicole, who had moved toward a rack full of machine guns. "It's not you, Nicole," he clarified. "My hard-ass side just comes out when I find Belgium's entire military stockpile during a murder game. You get it, right?"

"Not really," she replied, shrugging. "But whatever, do what you gotta do."

"I don't think I can do anything to make us really safe," he said. "Even I have never seen anything like this."

"Is... is it really that bad?" I asked hesitantly. "I know you're all trained, but most of the rest of us aren't. I wouldn't know how to use any of this stuff."

"Have higher standards for yourself!" Monokuma's voice suddenly bellowed from the hidden speakers in the room, causing me to nearly have a heart attack. "We've deliberately chosen the simplest and most user-friendly weapons that were available! And if you're still confused, we've supplied helpful instruction manuals in the filing cabinet on the opposite wall."

"Well, shit," Nicole said. She glanced at Giuseppi. "That right?"

Bepi nodded grimly. "It looks like it is." He glared at a nearby rocket-launcher, Monokuma's face smiling back. "Most of these are... not exactly pick-up-and-use, but pretty close."

"Pardon me," Rodrigo said politely. "But has anyone else noted that sign? It may change things."

We turned to where he was looking; the inside of the door we'd come in through. In big, white letters, a sign there said, NOTICE: ANY VIDEO FOOTAGE OF STUDENTS REMOVING WEAPONS FROM THIS ROOM WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS UPON REQUEST

Nicole rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Huh. Hey, Mr. Bear! Is this sign true?"

"Yep!" Monokuma sounded almost manic in his excitement. "No tricks, either! I won't make you search through hours of tape or anything. If someone takes a weapon, I'll give you the exact footage of it, from any angle you want! And if they wear a mask, I'll show you the tape of them putting the mask on, wherever they did it!"

"Wait," I said. "You give us all these weapons, but you'll expose anyone who uses them? What's the point?"

"College is about teaching critical thinking!"

I started to argue, but at that moment, there was a muffled but still surprisingly loud whoop from outside the building. I went to a window; we were on the second floor, so I could see the quad spread out below me. As I suspected, Earl jumped up and down next to the tank, with Katy and Lucina standing by, their poses awkward. "He saw it," I announced.

"Shit," Bepi announced. "Okay, look, we need to gather everyone and deal with this as soon as possible. Does anyone disagree?" He gave maybe two full seconds for argument before continuing. "Right. Saya, could you go get the people outside? Rodrigo, could you go get Jane? Nicole, you mind staying with me?"

It was weird to see him taking charge like this, but I remembered what he'd said earlier: the thing he was good at was keeping everyone in his unit alive. Maybe this was how he did it. "Okay," I said, and the others nodded agreement, too.

EAST QUAD

As I approached the Tank, Earl was nowhere to be seen. Katy and Lucina each waved to me, both seeming relieved that they had help with the situation. "Where'd he go?" I asked.

But a hatch opened in the top of the tank and he suddenly launched himself outward, landing in a stance that, in anyone else, would have looked like an incredibly artificial pose, but with him was just, yeah, the way Earl would stand on a tank.

"Wild!" he shouted. "Our captors have shortsightedly supplied us with the means for our liberation!"

"It's a tank," I replied, unsure of what else to say.

"Unfortunately, it's not currently functional," he announced. "But fear not! With my expertise, it won't be long before we're crashing through the cruel walls surrounding this campus, on our way to freedom!"

"Hooray!" Katy said, though she sounded more confused than excited.

"Hey," I said, "I'm happy you found a tank, but we have kind of a situation in one of the buildings. We have to gather everyone to figure out what to do."

"Is it serious?!" Earl bellowed.

"Uh. Kinda, yeah."

"Very well, then!" He jumped down off the tank, landing on the concrete with his hands on hips hips. "I know where Coelho is; I will fetch her!"

"See if you can find anyone else!" I called after him, and he simply held out his arm in a thumbs up as he walked confidently back to the main quad.

The three of us left shared a confused moment. Finally, Lucina held out a note: Are we all going to get run over by a tank?

"Yes," I replied.

"No!" Katy replied at exactly the same time.

There was another pause, but this time we all giggled together. "All right," I said. "Let's go inside; there's more horrible things in there."

ROTC: ARMORY

We pretty quickly all gathered in the armory, though Ashley and Earl were unable to find DJ Rocky. Deciding having most instead of all of the group was good enough, Bepi explained the situation to everyone.

"Wait," Barrett scoffed. "Motherfucker presents all this on a silver platter, then makes it impossible to use any of it without getting caught?!" He doubled over in coarse laughter. "That's hilarious!"

"Does seem like some kind of stupid prank," Nicole agreed.

"This is still serious!" Ashley fumed. "Someone can still use the weapons, just not without risking near-certain execution. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not in the mood for getting murdered by someone who happens to have a death wish."

"I volunteer to stand permanent guard," Rodrigo offered.

But Earl shook his head. "Not necessary, Diaz! You are more useful around campus. I suggest we simply catalog the contents of this room and regularly check for anything missing. That will allow us to identify the thief before the weapon is used!"

It sounded sensible to me, but I noticed Barrett and Nicole giving one another a look.

Ashley noticed, too. "What."

They just regarded her innocently. "Nothing," Nicole said.

"No," Ashley insisted. "What is it? Do you have something to share?"

"Oh, nothing," Barrett replied. "How do you expect us to react watching Punch and Judy coming up with another plan that's gonna get someone killed?"

Earl took a step back as if physically attacked, but Ashley balled up her fists and faced Barrett head-on. "Another plan?"

Earl reached out to her. "Coelho..."

"No!" she snapped, then whirled back to face Barrett. "Say your piece, Bomberman. What do you mean, 'another plan?'"

"Didn't realize I was being subtle," Barrett replied. "I'm just saying you and Earl got Emily killed with your stupid party idea. You just decided you're top of the totem pole and led us right into the fucking frying pan instead of listening to everyone else."

"That's simply false," Ashley shot back, "and I'm not sure if you're misremembering or simply being dishonest. If we had left it up to a vote, the party would have happened anyway, remember? I was the leading voice against the idea!"

"Must be nice, huh?" Barrett asked nobody in particular, looking around the room. "Getting to be the bigshot leader, but at the same time saying it's not her fault when shit goes wrong. Always the way with these folks, right?"

Ashley just glanced at her wristwatch. "This is boring. Your argument contradicts itself, and you know it. Because it's bad for someone to impose their will onto the group, you want to force the group to change in the way you want. I don't even need to try, with that."

"It ain't imposed when everyone equal!" Barrett snarled. "That's just the way things should work before tyrants like you started stepping in!"

"Ugh," Ashley grunted, rolling her eyes. "And a fallacious appeal to nature? Just pathetic." She glanced over at Nicole with a smirk. "You wanna try? Meathead here obviously isn't the brains of the little rebellion you kids are planning."

With a roar, Barrett suddenly flung himself towards her, fist raised. Just as quickly, Earl dashed in front of Ashley, hand raised to block the punch.

But Barrett didn't get that far. He was suddenly jerked backwards, and he just stood, glowering and growling. Faster than I could even see, Bepi had moved behind him and grabbed his arm out of the air with one hand. He didn't even look like he was straining at all as he held Barrett's arm in place.

"I really don't want to take any sides, here," Bepi hissed. "But let's all just keep cool, all right?" He glanced forward. "Earl? You back off too, buddy."

Earl slowly relaxed and took a step backward. "Indeed." Ashley just grinned, though.

"Fuck this," Barrett growled, pulling his arm out of Bepi's grasp. He stormed out the door without another word.

Ashley surveyed the room, completely unshaken. "All right, unless there's any other argument, the smartest move is to catalog the contents of this armory and and check that nothing is missing several times a day." She glanced over. "Giuseppe, I'll need your expertise to help identify the weapons. Saya, you're organized, come deal with the instruction manuals. I will now pause for five seconds to allow anyone to voice objections to this group of people initially cataloging the weapons." She looked at her watch. No one said anything. "Very well. Dismissed." Everyone just stared at her. "Dis fucking missed."

Still, no one moved.

Half an hour later, the three of us were alone in the room. Ashley grimaced at a particularly nasty-looking giant cannon-looking thing. "What's this one?" she asked, glaring over her shoulder.

Bepi looked. "Mortar. P44a, 60 millimeter."

She nodded and jotted it down in the little book she carried. I flipped through the stack of instruction manuals until I found the right one, which I took and placed in the 'found' pile.

"At first this was so weird," I remarked. "Like I was in a video game, or something." I sighed at a Monokuma-faced rocket launcher, which had a Monokuma-faced rocket sticking out of it. "But rigid cataloging kind of takes the excitement out of everything, doesn't it?"

"Welcome to the army," Bepi replied. He looked over at the piece of equipment Ashley was indicating. "Wolfsbane howitzer A23."

"You're a couple of idiots," Ashley grunted as I searched through the stack of manuals. "This is exactly why you're at the mercy of the world, instead of the other way around. We're going from ignorance of everything in this room to complete, organized knowledge, all at our fingertips whenever we need it! You should find this energizing." She pointed at the rocket launcher I'd just been eyeing.

"E44 Defender," Bepi said. "It's an anti-tank weapon. Don't tell Earl."

"It's just depressing to think about how many people all this equipment has killed," I said, looking for the Defender manual.

"Oh, boo hoo," Ashley sneered, rolling her eyes. "The world's a nasty place; none of us are dumb enough to pretend it isn't. How do you expect to be president if you can't take a little violence?"

I frowned at her. "I... don't expect to be president."

"See?!" She threw up her hands in simultaneous victory and frustration. "You say things like that, of course you're going to be a loser."

"Ashley," Bepi chided. "You're doing that thing again, where you make it as hard as possible for people to like you."

"No, it's okay," I said, a bit surprised to find that it was true. "I probably am a loser compared to her."

She nodded at me smartly, then sneered at Giuseppi. "And recognizing that is the first step to liking me. So you're wrong."

I started to speak, then caught myself. Had she actually just made a joke? Her tone had been snappish and sharp, just like always, so I almost couldn't tell. But if this was a side of her she hadn't shown in bigger groups, I was beginning to understand Giuseppi's friendship with her a little better.

Bepi rolled his eye. "Refusing to compete with you isn't the same as losing to you, which is something I've explained about a hundred times."

"A fantastic attitude," she replied, very dryly sarcastic. "Next time someone's shooting one of these rocket launchers at you, just refuse to compete; I'm sure it'll work out great."

"Isn't that the attitude the mastermind wants us to have?" I suggested.

Ashley just shrugged. "Probably. Doesn't mean it's wrong."

"Maybe," I said, remembering what happened the last time someone had tried to argue with her. Frowning, I suddenly found myself recalling what Giuseppi said about the two of us being the only people here he trusted. "...Um, speaking of that... have either of you thought about who the mastermind might be?"

Ashley gaped at me. "Wait, you mean we can speculate about who the mastermind might be?! The person it's desperately important we identify?!"

I sighed. "Okay, okay. Dumb question. But... come on, you know where I'm going with this. Who do you think it is?"

"You," Ashley replied without a single moment's pause.

"Um." I gaped at her. "...Really?"

"You're on the suspect list, for certain." She tapped her bottom lip with her pen and regarded me carefully. "Think about what we know of the mastermind. They're a skilled organizer, capable of seeing the big picture. They're clearly a good actor, playing the role of the innocent student with few, if any, mistakes. They're an ideologue. And, they're at least decently skilled with programming or have access to others who are, to make the bear." She shrugged casually. "I'm gathering information, but there are too many holes to know anything for sure."

"Eh, this psychoanalysis kind of thing is pointless," Bepi said. "Anyone can be anything, deep down. The important thing is just practical: the mastermind has to be older than a typical first-year student, because they've done this game multiple years."

I blinked. I somehow hadn't thought of that. "That has to be true for whoever this holdover student is, too," I said. "Right? Because they're coming back."

"Mm-hmm." Giuseppi folded his arms across his chest. "I know that three students are in their twenties: Earl, Jane, and me. And JP, but he doesn't count anymore, because, you know, sploosh."

"I'm eighteen," I said.

"So am I," Ashley grunted. "And I'll have you know I had access to several accelerated schooling programs, I and my family decided it was best to go the traditional route, despite my fervent objections!"

"I don't know about anyone else," Bepi said, deciding to ignore Ashley's outburst. "I suspect Lucina and Barrett are older, and that Katy and Rodrigo aren't, but that's just guesses."

"Hmm. Well, it's not Barrett anyway, right?" I ventured. "He's exactly not what the mastermind would be. He hates authority and hierarchies and all that stuff Monokuma keeps playing up."

"Ugh, you're smarter than that," Ashley said sharply. "Besides trying to throw us off the track, a persona like that can be really useful. 'Hey, look how dangerous it is when you fight authority, you get really crass and blow things up all the time.' Be the example of what you want people to move away from, and you're leading them right where you want."

"Oh, whatever," Bepi said. "We can make little stories about how anyone is the mastermind, and it'll make sense." He thought for a moment. "Except Juliet, because who the fuck even knows, with her."

"What about the party?" I asked. "The mastermind wouldn't let their guard down, right? Did everyone who seemed drunk actually drink?"

"Guh," Bepi gurgled, "don't mention drinking at the party."

"The kegs were, indeed, emptied of much of their contents," Ashley answered me. "And the clothing and breath of all who were drinking smelled strongly of alcohol. I think it's safe to assume everyone who intended to drink actually did so, JP excluded and Jane included." She grimaced. "But, because of everything that happened, it doesn't even matter."

"What? Why?"

"Because of the murder." Ashley glared down at the floor. "The mastermind probably can't know what's happening on campus moment-to-moment, but they could easily get frequent updates from Monokuma. So whoever it is probably knew Juliet was acting suspicious. Maybe even figured out what she was planning and who the victim would be."

"I get it," I mused, frowning. "They knew Juliet was planning something and that no one else was, so there wasn't much danger in drinking. They knew the party was going to end early when we found the body."

"It's fucking ghoulish," Bepi said. "Cheerfully going along with a party when you know someone's going to get murdered during it."

"What do you expect, with an overfed psycho like Juliet?" Ashley sneered. "She wears no make-up. None. Perfect skin." She put her hands on her hips and glowered. "I bet her parents let her sleep, too. Do you believe that? There's kids out there so pampered and spoiled, they sleep like little babies every night, even if they aren't doing well in school?"

My mouth fell open as I looked at her. "Your parents didn't let you sleep?!"

"Not when I needed to learn my lesson!" she snapped back at me.

Bepi held up a hand. He looked resigned, like he'd tried to have this conversation with her before. "Hey, Saya, you know what a big fan I am of arguing with Ashley, but let's just all take a deep breath, okay?"

"We have weapons to catalog, anyway!" Ashley said. She gave me a sideways look. "Unless you want to take a nap?"

Bepi's easy-going expression kept me from taking the bait. "I'm fine," I said. "Let's get back to work, I guess."

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

That night, I fell asleep easily, though not without some apprehension about what might happen in that night's edition of Murderer's Theater. This time, there was more detail, a wider scope. Therion stood in some kind of television studio, a fancy film camera in front of him. JP huddled behind him, ignoring Monokuma, who shrieked silently, waving his little paws around.

"Narrative like games," Therion was saying, somehow directly talking to the camera but also at me. "Difficult to define. Some theorists believe two basic elements of narrative: change over time and intentionality." Monokuma stomped right up to JP, pulling vainly on his arm. Therion did not react to this. "Both necessary. 'There is a greedy man.' No change over time; not a story. 'A tree branch rotted and fell to the ground.' No intentionality; not a story."

He shrugged. "Some researchers found, same parts of brain active when reading story as when remembering past experiences. Project self into stories, or remember self as hero of own story? Stupid question. No distinction. Own life is story. Story is own life."

JP, without looking up, smacked Monokuma in the arm. The little bear flew into a silent rage, shouting and spitting, but JP didn't react.

Therion took a step forward. "Smart people try to take pieces from external stories to make up self. Build patchwork narrative, borrowed collection of changes and intentionalities. Almost-smart people try to write own story from nothing." He walked directly up to the camera, his face just inches from it; somehow, his face filled my whole vision, blank and cold. "How smart are you, Saya?"

I was woken by a sharp knock on my door. I blearily heaved myself to my feet, noting that based on the light out my window, it was morning... but very early morning. I stumbled to the door and leaned my head against it. "Who is it?"

"It's Bepi," his voice replied. "Uh... I can't think of a pun right now. Hey, you should come out here; something's happened."

Fear pulled me awake. "Was it a murder?"

"No. A murder would be less nonsensical. Just come out here."

DORM: UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

As I stepped into the hallway and the door closed behind me, everything looked normal, except for Bepi's odd expression, standing there alone. I gave him a quizzical look, and he nodded his head back toward my room.

Confused, I turned back, and I saw what he'd been referring to. Someone had stenciled on the outside of my door, in ugly black letters, The Peculiar Princess.

"That mean anything to you?" Giuseppi asked.

I shook my head. "This is... bizarre." I glanced over and saw Jane's door, to my right, said The Shrewd Princess. Juliet's door, to my left, said The Wicked Princess. I frowned. "...Peculiar? Why am I peculiar?"

"I'll assume you don't really want me to answer you," Bepi said. "And before you ask: No, I have no goddamn idea where any of this came from. It was all here when I woke up. Everyone still alive has a... title."

"Oh, hey!" a voice called, and I turned to see Nicole rounding the corner and waving to us. "Weird, huh?!" She walked right up and looked at my door. Then she looked at me. "Oh, I get it!" she said.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Social anxiety was stupid in this context, but I couldn't help it. "How do you get it?"

"Good morning, Nicole," Bepi interjected quickly, before she could answer me. "Do you know anything about this?"

"No way. Kinda cool, though." She grinned at us proudly. "I'm 'The Tenacious Princess.' Bad-ass, huh? What are you?"

Giuseppi took off his hat and rubbed his shaved head. "Uh... I seem to be... kind of a weird exception. I don't know."

"Huh." Nicole scrunched up her forehead in confusion. "What kind of exception?"

"I'll just show you." He gestured, and we followed him down the hallway.

Around a corner, we came across Rodrigo staring at his own door in consternation. The Insolent Prince stared back at him.

"Uh, hey," I said awkwardly.

"Insolent?!" he barked, startling us. Nicole let out a shriek and Bepi, seemingly on instinct, positioned himself in front of us.

Rodrigo, blushing, rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, my apologies! I lost my temper and acted dishonorably. I am... unsettled by this insulting and specious label."

"I get it," I said. "I was 'peculiar.'"

Rodrigo tilted his head in thought as he regarded me. "Well..."

"Aggh," I grunted, raising my eyes to the ceiling. "Not you too..."

"I wouldn't take any if it too seriously," Nicole said, doodling idly into her design sketchbook. "We don't know what the hell any of this even means. But hey, check it out." She held her notepad out for Rodrigo to see. "Evocative shit, gives me great ideas. This is inspired by the Insolent Prince thing; don't you think you'd look super awesome?"

Rodrigo turned slightly pale as he looked at her sketch. "Those clothes are... very insolent."

I resisted the surprisingly strong urge to look, myself. Instead, I looked down the hall at the door next to Rodrigo's, which led to Lucina's room. I was distressed and a bit offended to see The Ugly Princess.

Nicole noticed my reaction. "Oh, yeah, saw that. Not sure what they're smoking; Lucina's super hot, right? Like, model hot." She gasped. "I should totally make out with Lucina!"

"Please don't," I said, walking over to Lucina's door. I knocked, and a few moments later, the door opened a crack, revealing a suspicious and then a smiling face.

"I think you should come out here," I said. When she emerged, we explained what we knew and she seemed to take the 'ugly' thing pretty well.

I think peculiar is a compliment, she wrote to me, which helped.

We continued on to Bepi's room (Nicole wandered off in the opposite direction for no reason I could perceive), and when we arrived, I saw what he meant when he said he was a weird exception.

"...The Pauper?" I said.

"I have no clue," Bepi said. "I'll be the first to tell you I'm no prince, but beyond that, I dunno."

Rodrigo shook his head darkly. "I fear these messages are evil manipulations."

"Well, that's a given," Bepi said. He glanced up to the ceiling. "Hey, bear! Are these messages here somehow supposed to make us want to kill each other?"

"Partly!" Monokuma's shrill voice answered from a hidden speaker.

We waited for any more information. There was none. But we did hear a giggle.

STUDENT UNION: CAFETERIA

Breakfast was tense, even though the room was mostly empty. Rocky sat by himself, apparently not eating anything; just glowering.

Rodrigo had excused himself before we had even gotten to the cafeteria, claiming he had no appetite, and when we arrived, Giuseppi just took an apple and casually left with no more than a wave goodbye.

Lucina and I walked in with equal amounts of awkwardness and comfort. We got ourselves some cereal and went to find a seat.

Chewing thoughtfully, Lucina slid a note to me. Should we invite DJ Rocky to sit with us?

I glanced at him. He looked like he was in a very bad mood. "Um, I don't think so," I replied quietly. "Seems like he wants to be alone."

I'm sympathetic, she wrote. His space was ruined. He can't go back to his studio without thinking about the murder, so he lost his outlet. I've tried to talk to him, but he just changes the subject.

I raised an eyebrow. "You get him that well? He's always been a mystery."

She shrugged. Well, yes, he opens up to me. Like Bepi opens up to you.

"Hm. I didn't realize that was unusual."

She squinted at me for a moment. Giuseppi is always nice, but I think he scares everyone but you and Ashley. Even Barrett backed down from him, remember?

"I guess..." But I didn't get a chance to say more, because I heard someone clanging a piece of silverware against a drinking glass.

I turned to see Katy standing near the door. When she got everyone's attention, she cleared her throat. "Hi, everyone. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to do something I think is really important, and it's important everyone do it with me."

"Oh, what the fuck is this, now?" Rocky complained.

Katy did not waver. "It'll just take a minute," she said. "And it'll be good for everyone." Her gaze was unusually serious. "I absolutely insist."

He didn't seem to like it, but the three of us gathered in front of Katy, who seemed relieved.

"We all need to go to the roof of the new science building," she explained.

"Um, all right," I said. "What for?"

"I'll explain when we're all there. I'll try to find everyone else and meet you there." She gave us a small, genuine smile. "Thanks."

SCIENCE CENTER: FIFTH FLOOR

We ran into Jane on our way up to the building and managed to drag her out of the lab with us. The building was odd: the bottom floor was super-modern, full of new-looking computers and equipment, but as we climbed the stairs, each higher floor looked more and more out-of-date. When we finally emerged from the stairwell, on the fifth floor, we just found a huge room full of tall, boxy modules. They didn't stretch all the way to the ceiling, but they were taller than us, so the whole place was a confusing maze.

"What are these things?" I asked, poking at one of the modules. It had flashing lights and switches and spools and was very strange to look at.

"They're computer drives," Jane replied, making it as clear as possible that she did not actually care about informing me of anything. "This is an old computer room."

"Seriously?" I looked around, baffled that this is what computers used to look like. "So this entire room is... my phone?"

"This entire room is a billionth of your phone." After some twists and turns, we finally reached the other end of the room, where there was a ladder leading up to an open hatch. "Ugh, are we going to have to climb up there like monkeys?" Jane glanced at us and sniffed. "I'm wearing a dress, so I'll go first."

That did not make much sense to me, but I was fine to let her go ahead. Lucina and I shared an amused look and we followed. Rocky waited until last, not saying a word.

SCIENCE CENTER: ROOF

The roof could not have been more different from the fifth floor. Instead of ancient, slow equipment, everything looked shiny and new. Ahead of us, there were two rows of telescopes creating kind of a hallway which led to a large dome at the other end of the roof. On our left and right, there were glass cubes with no visible doors and shiny, brand-new-looking computers in them. The floor was even painted black with little shiny, glowing stars.

Lucina held up a note that said, This is beautiful, and I had to agree. I walked over to the edge of the roof and leaned on the chest-high railing, looking down at the quad below me. There was a nice breeze and, despite the odd sight of the tank reminding me of the violence of this campus, I felt kind of peaceful. I noticed Lucina standing next to me.

A voice rose up from below, and I looked down to see Katy standing in the quad, waving up at us. She was with most of the other students that I could see. The Barrett/Nicole contingent was not standing close to the Ashley/Earl group.

'Hey!" she called. "Is Jane with you? We couldn't find her!"

"I'm here!" Jane called back, suddenly appearing on the other side of me and causing me to jump. "But I won't fuck you!"

"Wait until I make my move!" Katy replied. "Okay, we're all coming up, see you in a minute!"

SCIENCE CENTER: OBSERVATORY DOME

When they finally all arrived on the roof, Katy led us into the dome. It was huge and white inside, empty except for a ladder leaning against one wall, a small control panel near the door, and an enormous, central module of tubes that I assumed was a very high-tech telescope. It pointed up to a closed shutter spreading across the roof of the dome.

Katy stood solemnly as we all gathered, some of us very impatiently, in a group next to the telescope. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded us seriously. "I don't know what's going on with everyone," she said. "I'm sure like five of you are planning to do something awful the next time you get a chance. But I don't care about any of that. Because this?" She waved her hand around the room. "This is obviously for astronomy."

"This is a waste of time," Ashley muttered, rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure it is," Katy snapped. "I'm sure this is all just a dumb, pointless, sentimental thing that is going to get me killed. Whatever. None of us really had a chance to know Morgan, and JP and Therion are... complicated to remember. But Emily? Everyone loved Emily. Emily was going to be our friend, and it's not fair she got taken away."

Stomping feet and a slamming door startled me. We all jumped and looked around in confusion. Eventually I realized: Barrett was gone. He had stormed out.

"Seriously?" Rocky grunted.

"Forget him," Katy said. "Look, after this, you can all go on with your weird power struggles. But right now, in this place she would have loved, we are all going to spend sixty seconds in silence to remember and honor Emily. We can all do that, right?"

"Yes," Rodrigo said, confidently. Looking around, I saw that no one else seemed to have much heart to disagree.

"Okay," Katy said. "Just sixty seconds." She pulled out her tablet and pushed a button. "I'll tell you when it's over."

It was weird. Remembering Emily was like remembering several different realities superimposed upon one another. We had only known each other for such a short period of time, so it felt silly that I missed her so, so much. But this was such an intense situation, and... I kind of hadn't known friendship could be as easy as it had been with her.

My mind drifted to Morgan, too, and I felt a fresh pang that I'd never gotten to know the Vandal at all. He'd been challenging to be around, but looking back, he hadn't been dangerous at all. Just... odd. Like me.

My mind faded over to chess then, which is typical. Shifting moves and possibilities and outcomes, and before I even knew it, Katy looked up from her tablet. "Okay, that's time," she said. "Thank you, everyone." I felt my hand being squeezed and realized that at some point Lucina taken it in hers. She let go and we smiled sadly at one another.

"Phew!" a voice screeched, and Monokuma suddenly bounded into sight from nowhere. "It was soooo haaaaard not to interrupt your little moment! But if there's one thing I respect, it's ritual!"

"Oh, what the hell are you doing here?" Nicole asked irritatedly.

"Just a quick visit!" He rubbed his paws together with manic glee. "I finished the second part of your motivvveeeee!"

"Motive?!" Earl pointed a finger out at Monokuma harshly. "Your duplicity failed you long ago! There's no motive you can give us to commit murder!"

"I'm a professional," Monokuma defended. "This is a group I have to be a little more subtle with, but believe me, there's no one who won't be a murderer with the right push."

A beeping sound went off around the room. "Aha!" Monokuma cackled. "It arrived!" He jumped up and down in excitement. "Did you all like the preview I left you this morning, on the doors to your room? The... identities I revealed? Well, in the Monomail I just sent you all, you'll see what that's all about! I've supplied you all with one another's life stories!"

Rocky had his tablet out and was scrolling through in confusion. "Uh... I don't get it. This is just a bunch of, like, weird fairy tales."

"Symbol and metaphor carry the wisdom of the ages!" Monokuma fumed. "We dressed up the details with some genre expectations, but believe me, those stories capture the true, deep-down facts about who you all really are. Ohh, I hope you like them. They were a collaboration between myself and a... talented colleague."

Bepi squinted at him. "Talented colleague? Who?"

"Pu hu hu! Why, Miss Mountebank, of course! You've all just isolated her, so I had to give her something to do, didn't I? So I supplied the details and she wrote the stories themselves."

I had, by this point, found my story, the story of The Peculiar Princess. I read it, an uncomfortable feeling settling into my stomach. It really did pretty much nail me.

"This is foolish," Earl insisted. "Mere stories won't induce us to kill!"

But as I glanced around the room, I saw the same unsettled look on almost everyone's faces, looking down at their tablets.

Bepi was an exception. He fixed his eye on Monokuma. "Uh, how come I don't have one?" he asked.

"Oh, right." Monokuma brought his paw up to his chin, rubbing it thoughtfully. "I can only expose the true identities of people with identities! But you? You're just a soldier."

Bepi glowered at him. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the dome. "Oh dear!" Monokuma taunted. "Unfortunate emotions getting stirred up already! I hope things don't get too dangerous!" He spun and disappeared.

Looking around the room, there was a wide range of responses. Rodrigo appeared furious, Ashley was completely blank, Nicole was horrified... and Lucina had tears in her eyes. I walked closer to her, reaching out my hand, but she shook her head quickly at me and dashed out the door.

SCIENCE CENTER: ROOF

Earl tried vainly to rally people, but after only a few minutes, the group had just uncomfortably dispersed. He stood glumly in the 'hallway' of telescopes, looking up at the cloudy sky. Ashley and I were the only ones left, and we glanced awkwardly at one another. Depression was not a vibe that fit very smoothly onto Earl.

"Look, it doesn't even matter," Ashley ventured. "Nobody's gonna pull any shit, and even if they try, we'll stop them! There's nothing we can't accomplish without a little focus and organization!"

Earl didn't reply.

"Look, this is bullshit," Ashley continued. "Just stupid little stories!"

Earl looked back at her, frowning. "There's deep truth in these stories. Paths of life that they've worked to keep concealed; they wove a tapestry of roles and jobs and habits to distract from the face within."

He sighed. "I am not a foolish man, but I am a simple one. I fear I am at heart incapable of understanding those who are more complex." He began to walk towards the hatch leading down to the fifth floor. "I will speak with you later, Coehlo," he called over his shoulder.

We watched him go. Ashley's face was unreadable. "This is just so dumb," she muttered. "Imagine being so affected by a fairy tale!"

"Uh, well..." I knew I had to be tactful, but I had no idea how. "...I mean, mine did kind of hit close to home. Stuff about my dad and... ways I've felt. It wasn't so bad, but I can see how it might be, for some people." Ashley just glared. "Um. You're the Obedient Princess, right?"

She eyed me suspiciously. Trying to be casual, I leaned my shoulder against one of the telescopes, but it was on a pivoting hinge. It swung around loosely from my body weight, and I stumbled, nearly falling to the floor.

"I don't know why I even talk to you," Ashley muttered, beginning to walk away.

I recovered and took a step after her. "Wait, but that is you, right? The Obedient Princess?"

She whirled on me. "So what?"

I felt myself melting from the look on her face, but I continued, "Is it true? I mean... not literally, obviously, but the basic idea?"

"You keep wanting to talk about my stupid childhood. What's your deal?"

"Uh." I was losing confidence about this whole thing. "I don't think I have a deal..."

"Look, fine, let's just get it over with," she snapped. "My dad's a fucker. An outright psychopath. But." She crossed her arms and glared at me defensively. "He just had high hopes for me, and he wanted me to reach my potential. If he didn't think I was better than the rest of you lazy, worthless dirt, he wouldn't have done what he did. It was necessary."

"What did he do?"

"Just normal things!" she barked. "When I didn't measure up, I was punished!"

I took a step back. "With... lack of food and sleep?"

"Punishments with consequences, unlike whatever your spoiled little ass had to deal with. Growing bodies need nutrition." She glanced down at her own tiny little form. "If I'd been better..." She shook her head as if ridding it of an unpleasant thought. "...But I wasn't, so this is what I have to work with now. Consequences."

I just looked at her, completely blank on what I could possibly say. "I know it was extreme!" she growled. "I know most parents wouldn't do that! But it was good. He was good for me."

I waved my hands around in confusion. "You say you know it was extreme and he's a psychopath, but it's good?"

"He just had high standards!" she nearly shouted. "He believes in me. It was probably abuse; I know that. But as long as he believes in me... as long as I know he did it because he thought I could be the best... I know what he was doing was right. I'm not going to go around complaining, I'm not some spoiled baby." She smacked a fist into her palm. "It's lessons I had to learn. He taught me, as long as you follow the rules, you'll be fine. No, better than fine; you'll reach your peak. But step out of line?" She shrugged casually. "Die."

STUDENT UNION: STUDENT STORES

I went for a run to try to de-stress, and it helped a little bit. Afterwards, I headed to the student stores to try to get some mental stimulation. Glancing at some of the other students' fairy tales, I could see they were darker than mine (I had no earthly clue how to ask Lucina about hers). But I still felt anxious and unsettled.

"Goddamn it, Saya," he had said. "You just make things as hard as fucking possible for everyone. You think it means you're smart. If you're so smart, how come no one can stand to be around you?"

I had tried to argue something then, and he cut me off. "No. No. It's you. I used to think it was me, and your mother trained you to do this to me as some kind of petty revenge. But no, it's all you. It's all just... thinking you're impressing anyone, like some smug genius. Jesus fucking christ, I can't deal with it anymore. No one can fucking deal with you."

I ended up buying an energy drink and some snack cakes, which was absolutely not the kind of mentally stimulating thing I'd come in there for. But the first taste of that oatmeal creme pie told me it was the right choice.

As I completed my purchase, I heard a voice coming from the cafeteria. I decided to take a look.

STUDENT UNION: CAFETERIA

Rodrigo sat with Lucina, both with cups of coffee and donuts; apparently I was not the only person who needed junk food at the moment. Surprisingly, Rodrigo looked happy and enthusiastic, and Lucina smiled too.

Rodrigo waved gregariously when he saw me. "Oh, friend Wild! Lucina was explaining to me the reason we honored friend Voss on the roof of the new building. That entire temple was devoted entirely to a device to peer into the heavens! It's astounding!"

Lucina held up a note, He wanted to know how it works, and I realized I have no idea. Do you know?

"No clue," I said. "It involves computers somehow, but that's all I got."

"Computers!" Rodrigo wailed, frowning. "Cubes of Abbadon! The accursed contraptions have tendrils everywhere in this modern world!"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. But... well, Monokuma's basically a computer, but most places in the modern world aren't controlled by evil murder-bears. So it's not that bad overall."

Rodrigo nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I will tamp down my fear of the new and strange. I may never understand such machinery, but my heart glows from knowing of it. To peer into the gloom between the stars and find new suns and worlds! This is God's love, you see?" His voice and face made him seem far younger than he was, despite his heavily muscled body. "We are born ignorant in order to be given the gift of learning. God gave us infinite dimensions to explore."

He blinked and seem to suddenly realize he was not alone. He blushed and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "My apologies. I become carried away when I am reminded of the scope of the world I'm pledged to protect."

"That's the way it always fuckin' works, huh?" a voice growled from the entrance. We turned to see Barrett strolling in, squinting and suspicious like always. "We got ways to see and know everything, but they make it so obscure and complicated, only a tiny little group of special people get to be in on it. And in the meantime, the rest of us fuckers are down here fighting, with no way to know what we're really fighting for." He came up to us and smirked; it was the friendliest expression I'd ever seen on him but still pretty scary. "Just the folks I was looking for; lucky me."

We glanced at each other. Lucina held up a card that said, Us?

"You three. I been trying to find you. C'mon, I got something to talk to you about."

"Where are we..." I began, but he had already turned around and begun walking away. With more confused looks among ourselves, we followed him.

ROTC: CLASSROOM

As Barrett led us into the new quad and then into the ROTC, I was worried he was taking us to the armory, but instead he led us to a small classroom on the ground floor. He was silent as he walked, and the whole trip was awkward... especially when we passed the tank in the quad and saw Earl standing next to it, his head and arms in some panel, doing some obscure kind of work on the machine insides. Everything felt like just before a storm hits.

Nicole was waiting for us in the classroom, doodling in her sketch pad. She waved casually as we came in. We stood in an awkward circle, and I wondered why we were there. Barrett walked up to the blackboard at the front of the room, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote FUCK EVERYONE. That did not clear things up for me.

"Yo," Nicole said. "Glad Barrett was able to find everyone."

"Uh, yeah," I replied. "He said he had something to talk to us about."

"We all got a problem," Barrett stated. "Two problems, really. One, that hanging bitch and the army guy think they know how to run things, and it's gonna get more people killed. And two: us here in this room? We're the ones what gonna die."

Rodrigo took a step forward. "Why do you say such things? Do you know of nefarious plans?"

"There's always gonna be nefarious plans," Barrett insisted. "You notice the bear opens up a new area every time someone dies? This shit is on a train track; it's all planned out. At the end, they go from sixteen dangerous kids to four or five easy-to-control little puppies."

Lucina's expression was puzzled as she held up her note: You're saying Monokuma knows exactly who's going to die and when?

"Fucker knows enough," Barrett spat. "You gotta be an idiot to not see there's a plan. Little motives and opportunities, handed out like candy to the right people at the right times. Think it's a coincidence we ended up with that psycho bitch in here with us?"

"But why us?" I asked. "Why do you think we're the ones who are going to die?"

"Did y'all read those little fairy tales we all got?" Nicole asked. "Fucked up stuff, right? Me and Barrett were looking through them, and we noticed something." She held up her tablet, scrolling through screens we couldn't see. "Peculiar... Ugly... Insolent... Churlish... Tenacious. Our stories. You notice how they end? With us getting fucked over." She sneered. "Katy gets to, like, live forever, and I'm here melting myself."

"Seems kinda obvious," I mused skeptically. "Do you really think they'd give it away like that?"

"It just makes sense," Barrett said. He indicated Rodrigo and Lucina. "You two trying to break outta the boxes they put you in, right?" And he smirked at me in a way I somehow found a little flattering. "And you. You get a kick from wrecking the bear's trials, I can tell. Just for the sake of wrecking something, even if you don't wanna admit it." He slammed a fist down on a desk with a roar. "That's us! We're the ones what'll pick justice over rules."

"Jane wants to play the game," Nicole continued. "Katy's got all sorts of bullshit ways she thinks things have to go. The DJ's got an animal in him, but he only wants to rein it in. Earl and Ashley I don't even have to talk about. These are the bad guys. At the end of the day, they're the ones that'll hold fast to the way things have always been, even while everyone's drowning around them."

Lucina held up a note: What about Giuseppi and Juliet?

"Oi, fuck Juliet," Barrett grunted. "And the soldier's one of us at heart, but he wouldn't come to this meeting, so fuck him too."

Rodrigo held up a hand. "Please... friends, give me a moment. I do sympathize with your overall message, but to make our classmates into enemies is dangerous."

Barrett started to respond, "They're already your..." but Nicole held up a hand and he stopped. He snorted and nodded to her, letting her speak.

"We're not going that far," she said. "We just wanted to get everyone together to make sure we found a way to watch each other's backs. The others don't know it, but they got the Man on their side. All we got is each other."

Lucina and I shared a skeptical look, but I sighed and shrugged. "Fair enough. I don't have the feeling Monokuma really wants me to survive, either. As long as we don't go out of our way to increase tensions, a little extra safety can't hurt."

"Indeed, especially with a trained protector such as myself!" Rodrigo agreed. "I will continue to protect everyone, of course, but I will also support our common goal!"

Lucina frowned. She held up a note that said, Does this mean you think one of the others is the mastermind?

"Um, duh," Nicole replied. "But even if it's one of us, who cares? What's it change?"

Lucina kept frowning, but after a moment she sighed and nodded her head.

"Fuck yeah!" Barrett yelled. "We are going to fuckin' kill them all!"

"Whoa hey," I yelped, alarmed. "Wait, what? We just said..."

"It's a figure of speech!" Barrett defended.

Rodrigo started to talk, but at that very inconvenient moment, the door to the classroom opened. Rocky stood there, looking a little unsettled.

"Oi, private meeting!" Barrett shouted.

Rocky held up his hands. "Um, yeah, I don't know what you all got going on here, but I, uh, found something in this building. I think you should check it out."

"Ugh, is it just the room with all the weapons?" Nicole moaned, rolling her eyes. "Get with it, DJ, everyone already knows about that."

"Um, no. Seriously, you'll want to see this." Rocky beckoned us and walked away without another word. Barrett grumbled about it, but all of us followed him.

ROTC: HALLWAY

Rocky led us to the end of a hallway on the ground floor. There was a trash can lying on its side, which he gestured at casually. "I was kicking the shit out of that thing, and something happened," he said.

"Uh, why were you kicking a trash can?" I asked.

"Because the goddamn thing pissed me off," he replied, again very casually. But he went past it and pointed at the wall, near the floor.

We gathered around. There was a rectangular hole, about the size of small TV screen. It led to a sloping, smooth chute that appeared to open up into a larger, lit-up space; I could make out a concrete floor, a white wall, and the edge of something metal and cube-shaped with a single, green light on it.

"When the trash can hit that spot, it just... opened up," Rocky explained.

"What the hell is down there?" Nicole asked. "This building doesn't have a basement, right?"

"No," Barrett answered. "That ain't..."

"Wait, shh!" Rodrigo hissed quickly. Barrett glared, but we all complied; we huddled in silence around the open hole. I wasn't sure what Rodrigo meant, but after a few moments, I could hear it, coming from the space down below.

It was clearly Monokuma's voice, quiet but getting louder. He seemed to be... singing.

"...like nothing's wrong. Just get ready fi' work work work work work. He said me haffi work work work work work. He see me do me work work work work work..."

I found myself unable to really react.

Lucina held up a card for us all to see. It said, You have got to be kidding me.

FACT 7. The weapons in the armory are easy for even untrained people to use, but Monokuma will expose the identity of anyone who takes one.

FACT 8. As suggested by Ashley, we cataloged all the weapons and will check several times a day to make sure none are missing.

FACT 9. There is serious tension brewing between Ashley/Earl and Nicole/Barrett.

FACT 10. Monokuma enlisted Juliet to write all of our personal histories in the form of fairly tales. Everyone is a prince or princess except for Giuseppi, who's a pauper.

FACT 11. The fifth floor of the science building is a literal maze of huge computer modules. You have to walk through this to access the ladder to the roof.

FACT 12. The roof of the science building is for astronomy. There is a large telescope dome, rows of telescopes on swivels, and lots of modern computers.

FACT 13. Nicole and Barrett recruited me, Lucina, and Rodrigo to be on some kind of anti-rules squad.

FACT 14. Rocky accidentally opened up a panel in the ROTC hallway. It led to a sloping chute, which opened up to a room with computer-looking things in it. Monokuma was down there.

FACT 15. Monokuma likes Rihanna.