DORM: UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

Bepi wasn't kidding when he said he gets touchy when he sleeps. The slightest contact made him tense up, and anything more than that cause him to flail out an arm or leg like an attack from someone doing drunken kung fu. I also had forgotten he slept with his eye open, and even when I couldn't see it, it creeped me out knowing he was right there, glaring at nothing.

So, it wasn't long before I borrowed one of his T-shirts, which draped down over me like a dress, and I bundled up my own clothes and slipped out into the hall.

I paused for a second, reminding myself I had known these people for like two weeks. Bepi was my best friend (with… benefits…?) and Lucina was the love of my life, and Katy was the most horribly annoying person in the world, all from two weeks? My mom told me, a few months before I came, that everyone latches onto people at the beginning of freshman year and then, by spring, moves on to actual friends and never talks to that first group again in their lives. I'd just laughed it off, because the idea of me making any friends, much less two distinct sets, felt pretty outlandish.

I heard a creepy snicker, and I jumped in surprise. Juliet sat a few feet away, leaning her back against the wall, grinning. "Well, what do you know?" she leered. "It worked."

My heart kept pounding, but I quickly just glared.

"Hey, Saya," she drawled. "I want to talk to you. Come here."

"Why would you even ask that?" I wondered. "The machine today told us: you know I'm not stupid."

She went blank again. "I just want to talk. Go get that taser of yours if you need it to feel safe. I'll wait. It's important."

I did not particularly want to deal with her shit. But… I remembered how I felt earlier, with Katy. Did Juliet feel that way all the time? Maybe, if I associated that way of thinking with a person I hated, I could learn to hate that part of myself, too?

Without saying a word, I turned and walked to my room. I slipped inside, got my stun gun and put on a pair of pajama pants, and I went back into the hallway. Juliet didn't look like she'd moved a muscle.

I went closer to her, tightly holding my stun gun, feeling awkward all of a sudden. I stiffly sat down across the hall from her, leaning back against the opposite wall. "What."

"I wanted to talk about the information Monokuma gave me," she said, voice smooth as milk chocolate. I realized suddenly she was wearing, like, casual business attire: slacks and a nice, tucked-in blouse. I tried not to think about it. "When I was in the freezer."

I raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Well. It wasn't just everyone's life histories. It was insights, too. Interpretations of all of you. Unsourced, but after that… announcement tonight, I figured out who it was from. Tamir Azzus and Natasha G. Greggs."

"Um." It felt enormously stupid to admit any ignorance to her, but I also knew I couldn't hide it. "Who?"

"Tamir Azzus, who I presume is the Ultimate Personality Psychologist, and Natasha G. Greggs, who… let's say… Ultimate True Crime Writer. Alumni. You've met Tamir. All of us have. Remember? 'If your life was a story, what genre would it be…?'"

"Wait… he did my application interview?" I asked, eyes bugging out. "That's why he asked us all those weird questions, to get our personalities?"

"To get your stories," she clarified. "The cause-and-effect that's defined you up to this point. And the… plot twists that would need to happen to make you want to kill. Or die."

I felt my hand squeezing the stun gun tightly. "So those fairy tales you wrote were supposed to get us to kill each other."

She laughed cheerfully. "Cutie, everything here is supposed to get us to kill each other. Do you think it was a coincidence we got a tank and an anti-tank weapon at the same time? Do you think you really just by accident stumbled upon a Monokuma escape tunnel?"

I felt my face going pale. "Even that…? Wait. Was Monokuma ever really even malfunctioning, or is that a game, too?"

"Dunno," she replied, shrugging. "Haven't figured that out, yet. It's a long con, if it's not real. I think he might have just underestimated Barrett, the way I underestimated Emily. Evil geniuses aren't perfect." She grinned proudly for exactly one second. "He didn't really have any reason to be too worried, though. Not with Girish Premachandran, class of 2013, Ultimate Computer Engineer on call."

I glared at her. "Am I just literally the only person here without, like, encyclopedic knowledge of every person who's ever graduated from this place?"

"Don't blame me if you don't research colleges before making a decision where to go."

I sighed. "So, what, you're saying Nicole was right? Everyone who graduated from this program is in some sort of cabal, working for the mastermind?"

"The man said it himself," she hummed. "They're all set to do something when commanded. Or from the dead man's switch. …You do know what a dead man's switch is, right cutie?"

Oh lord, she had figured out that I felt stupid admitting ignorance to her. "Ggh. Remind me."

"Remind the girl with eidetic memory, well, okay." She grinned, one hundred percent pleased with herself. "As you clearly know and have just forgotten, a dead man's switch is a failsafe. It's when a machine stops… or starts… when someone gets incapacitated or unable to respond. It's a dead man's switch that the security systems here turn off when the mastermind dies."

I squinted at the floor, working it out in my head. "So… the alumni are supposed to do something if the mastermind doesn't check in with them by a certain time. Which means… the mastermind is actually in danger, here. They probably really are one of us." I looked back up at Juliet, trying to figure out how she was playing this, what evil goal she could accomplish, but I couldn't come up with anything. "So, we're on a time limit. The mastermind can't check in with the alumni until the game is over."

"Tick tock, tick tock."

I gasped, my stomach suddenly feeling hollow. "And… I don't think we're done yet. Like, I'm not feeling like someone willing to join a secret society to protect society from deviants. So… if we reach the end like this, the mastermind can't let us graduate, and…" I trailed off, not wanting to say it.

"Tick tock, tick tock."

I looked back up at her, narrowing my eyes into a glare. "What's your angle, here? Why are you talking to me about this?"

"Staying here would just be committing suicide," she admitted. "And I told you, I can't ever do that."

"Or," I said, "the mastermind is your new sweetheart, and this is somehow helping them."

"Or that."

Everything felt very pointless all of a sudden. "Juliet," I said helplessly, "what even is wrong with you? Why are you like this?"

She opened her mouth, oddly hesitant, and then closed it again. She looked away, almost shyly. "This is the other thing I wanted to talk about. I got a lot of information from the bear, but there were also things I figured out. Things between the lines."

This was too ambiguous to make me any more than slightly nervous, but I still felt a hitch in my breath. "Like what?"

"Just…" She paused, then took a deep breath. "Did you read my fairy tale?"

"Yes. The Wicked Princess."

She nodded. "It's basically true. I was just born… wrong. A bad seed. And I had no idea until I was ten, and my parents found a journal I'd been keeping, and they saw the… the horrific things I'd written there. Desires I had." She looked up at me, almost smiling. "I'd thought it was just normal, but it was monstrous. Just in case you thought innocent and evil couldn't go together."

She tossed up her hands helplessly. "But you can't change someone's nature. They tried and tried, but I was still… dirty inside. And they realized I was smart, too, and that I couldn't kill myself, and they got really scared. But my mom came up with the answer: if I had to be evil, I could at least be evil in service of something pure and good. And that's how it happened."

I shook my head in disgust, not wanting to get into the insanity of her supposed life story. "What's your point?"

"My parents." Juliet had her arms wrapped around herself. She looked weirdly vulnerable in a way I somehow could tell wasn't real. "See, we all have something in common. Something none of us have spent a lot of time thinking about. We're talented."

I raised an eyebrow. "I think all of us have spent a long time thinking about that."

"No, see, we're very talented. And when you're a very talented child, there's something you probably don't realize. Your parents, these people who lead you and rule you and guide you… are your inferiors." She chuckled. "They're everything to you, but compared to you, they're losers. And they know it. You don't, but they do. And how they react to that determines everything."

I wanted to argue with that; it felt really wrong. But I couldn't argue with it when I tried; it felt too right.

"My parents accepted the situation. They saw my potential and dedicated their whole lives to somehow turning my talents from evil to good. But not all are like that. Some find the quickest way to profit, some just get confused, some try to build a second self they can live through. And some… get bitter."

Her face was blank and doll-like again; she just looked at me. "Your friend Lucina was a musical prodigy. Absolute genius, mastered every instrument put in front of her. And her parents just couldn't stand it. They'd sacrificed so much for this helpless little thing, and she repaid them by growing into a constant reminder of their own insignificance? One day, they would die, and this ungrateful whore was going to still be alive, laughing and successful? They couldn't let that happen. So… they conditioned her."

She just shrugged. "Therion's parents never understood him; they left him alone to have to make his own meaning, all the time. Barrett frightened his parents, so they tried to suppress him; he rebelled. JP was spoiled, Earl was built up to represent his family in his greatness, Ashley… christ, what can we even say about Ashley? I just need to know the first sentence, and I can tell you everyone's whole story."

"Nothing is all pat like that!" I argued. "You think you're this great criminal trickster god, or whatever, but the truth is, you don't understand people at all; you're not capable of it! You come up with these simple stories, and you fill in the blanks by bluffing, but it's just guesses you're making because you can't do what everyone else can do, you can't empathize!"

She raised her head and looked at me sharply, what really appeared to be honest confusion on her face. "Can't empathize…?" she asked. "But that doesn't make any sense. If I couldn't empathize, then none of the stuff I do would hurt. And if it didn't hurt, how would I know it was evil?"

I squinted back. "If it hurts, why do you even do it?"

"I just said that!" she snapped, annoyed. "Because it's evil!"

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Jesus christ, Juliet." I started to stand up. "No. I can't do this, anymore."

"Wait!" Her voice was weirdly uncontrolled and her eyes were a little frantic. "Wait, Saya, you didn't let me finish what I was saying. And you need to hear this, you do."

I felt myself hesitating, and I internally swore at my own willingness to listen to her. But after a moment, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked down at her. "What."

"Among all of us here, you're different," she hissed. "Because you're the only one of us with a parent who cared so little, he never even knew you were special. You didn't grow up with one of our stories, and I think that makes you something the mastermind has never seen before."

I scanned her face for some sort of deception or manipulation, but deliberately or not, she had flicked a beauty switch and that was kind of blinding everything else. "What are you getting at, Juliet? Just say it straight out, or I'm leaving."

"You're a mystery," she whispered, her voice almost dreamlike. "The mastermind doesn't know what you're going to do next. That's why it has to be you who saves them."

"Saves 'them?' Who's 'them?'"

"The other students." She went blank again. "I'm not including myself, of course. This place is everything I've dreamed of. I'd never leave after getting here, never. But you can set the rest of them free."

"Why do you care?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

She lolled her head to the side. A malicious grin slowly spread out onto her face. "Because you'd be doing it for love, cutie. Selfless, pure love. I can't imagine anything more beautiful."

I decided enough was enough. Without another word, I turned and walked off down the hall.

I got around the corner before I realized I had actually gone the wrong way: my room was behind me. I had to go down one elevator and back up the other to make it back. I tried not to think about how much effort I'd expended recently to pointlessly avoid giving Juliet any satisfaction.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

I fell asleep easily, too distracted and tired to be anxious about what my dreams would be.

Earl lounged on a bean bag, blood dripping down from the side of his head. "Free... free will is a choice!" he said, his eyes bloodshot and his pupils dilated, but his voice still sharp. "It is when a person could do several things, and they choose one!"

Therion's head smirked, lolling on the seat of a nearby chair. "No. Everything has cause located back in time. Know all the causes of event, then know event. Like programming."

"Nein!" Earl snapped. "I choose things I want!"

"Desire comes from somewhere, too," Therion said. "Would shrug, but currently cannot."

JP poked idly at the knife in his chest as he lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "I read something once, like... okay. Plants, right? You put a plant in a room with an open window, and it'll turn toward the light, you know? It needs the sunlight, so it turns to get it. And... like, it didn't choose to do that; it's a plant."

"Plants don't have free will!" Nicole's lips, smushed against the wall, chirped.

"Yeah. " JP said, then he paused. "Whoa." The pause continued. "Anyway, but what if it did have free will, you know? It still would turn to the light! It'd get sick and die if it didn't. The only difference is, now, it could choose to die. So! Is free will just, like... the ability to do dumb, pointless shit?"

"Ha!" Nicole's lips, jostled by the movement, began to slide slowly down the wall. "I kinda like that. 'Cause being rational is just following rules, you know? And freedom says fuck that."

"I... I cannot understand," Earl growled. "Even if it remains a mere matter of faith, I must continue to believe I am free to choose for my own good."

"Uuh... really?" JP asked, glancing over to him. "Isn't it better going around thinking you didn't ever have a choice, really? Everything... had to happen the way it happened? That's, like, all I got left."

"Of course not!" Earl sat up straight, as least as well as he could in the bean bag. "Everything I've done was the result of my own will. I'd be lost if I couldn't know in my heart that was true."

"Disagree," Therion mumbled. "Good author writes ending to story first. That way, everything put in place from start to reach inevitable conclusion. Nature is best author there is. Only dignity is to play the role honestly."

A sudden, loud squealing noise woke me up; my shock was so great, I actually flung myself onto the floor.

"asdaskUDENTS!" Monokuma's voice suddenly cut into the feedback. "Please gather in the main quad for an emergency meeting! Now!"

I blearily pulled the blanket off my head and sighed.

MAIN QUAD

We groggily all stumbled out into the quad. Monokuma sat on top of Rocky's DJ equipment, twiddling his paws in what appeared to be nervousness.

Bepi gave me a warm smile, which was nice, but he had come out of the building with Rodrigo, and they chatted slightly. I subtly tried to position myself away from Katy and Lucina (who were wearing what couldn't possibly have been matching bathrobes but they sure looked like it) and I found myself standing next to Barrett. As we waited for Rocky, the last arrival, I glanced over to him and tried to smile in a friendly, nonthreatening way.

"Bear bear," he said. His platinum-blonde hair actually didn't look too bad, all told, but in combination with his new personality(?), it just made him look like some kind of confused alien.

Finally Rocky staggered out, wearing boxers and a tank top. "Thank you for joining us!" Monokuma snapped. "Well!" He hopped off the turntable and started pacing back and forth like a military instructor. "So! It has come to my attention that there have been some... rumors recently about a voice mail that was accidentally played over the public school speakers at some point over the past few days." He stopped and pounded a fist into his paw. "Well, I'm here to tell you, it's all lies! There have been no voice mails! In fact, voice mails are nothing but a lie concocted by elites to confuse you!"

"Tell the truth," I said, "you meant to play that thing for us, didn't you? It's just another stupid thing that's supposed to make us kill each other, somehow."

"Hey, that's a good point!" Rocky said. "This is all some game you have totally planned out."

"Yes right yes!" Monokuma agreed hastily. "Anything you may or may not have heard last night was just a kooky game motive! I... I really hope you pay close attention to it! Because then you'd fall right into my trap! Murder trap!"

"Oh, this is simply asinine," Jane muttered. "I'm going back to bed." She turned to go, and I was just admiring her gall, when there was a sudden, shockingly loud sound. Jane froze, but it wasn't enough: before I knew it, she was knocked to the ground.

Monokuma stood on top of her chest, pointing his shotgun right at her face. "I am a patient bear!" he shrieked. "But I just can't stand it when someone isn't showing me the respect I deserve! I am a distinguished faculty member of the most prestigious university in the country! Don't you think I deserve to be taken seriously?!"

"Bear bear!" Barrett yipped.

Jane stared up at him with wide eyes, frozen and shaking. She didn't say anything. I noticed Bepi had moved behind him, but he didn't step too close.

"Well?!" Monokuma snapped, poking the gun closer. "Don't you think I should be taken seriously?! Shouldn't you appreciate my kindness? Wouldn't anyone else have just burned you all after one of you tried to kill me?!"

"Yes!" Jane stammered, breathing quickly. She tried to pull back away from the gun muzzle. "P...please don't point that at me..."

Bepi softly took a step closer, body tensed like a snake, but Monokuma whirled on him. "Yes, Mr. Perfetto? You appear to be wanting to insert yourself into a situation that doesn't involve you. You enjoy that particular past-time, don't you?"

Bepi didn't move, he just hunched, watching the bear like a predator. "I guess I do," he said.

"You worthless children don't understand what it's like for me!" Monokuma hissed, stepping closer. "I have to keep track of everything happening here, all your stupid, worthless little actions, all the tricks, all the bullshit. And at the same time, I have to put on a facade of humanlike behavior!" He was right up against Bepi now, pressing the gun right against his face.

"Fiend!" Rodrigo bellowed, limping forward. "Point your weapon at me!"

"You just have to kill each other!" Monokuma snapped, ignoring Rodrigo completely. "You have it so easy! Meanwhile, I show up and have to figure out what's even going on, and I gotta keep this whole school running, and I let one voice mail slip out and all hell breaks loose! Not a single one of you ever thinks about anyone but yourselves, and I am sick of it!" And with a mighty boom, the gun went off.

There was frantic motion and chaos, and it took a few seconds for me to catch back up. Bepi was lying on the ground on his side, and Monokuma was gone.

I ran up to him and knelt beside him; a second later, Rodrigo and Rocky joined me. With relief, I saw that Bepi was breathing and grunting. His face was screwed up in pain, but I didn't see blood anywhere.

"I'm fine!" he grunted, pressing his hand against his head. He let me pull him to a seated position. "Goddamn it!"

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"I can't hear shit, Saya," he snapped. He groped at his ears, as if to check they were still there. My own ears were ringing, but I couldn't imagine how loud the blast had been right there near his face.

I suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing his baseball cap anymore.

Juliet appeared over my shoulder, holding out something red. Bepi looked at it in confusion for a few moments, then he snorted and grabbed it. It took me a few seconds longer, but I realized what it was. It was Bepi's hat, the brim blasted into oblivion.

"Fucking bear," he growled. At Rodrigo's concerned expression, he finally relaxed slightly and shook his head. "I'm fine, really. This has happened before. I just... give me a couple of hours, and I'll be able to hear fine."

"Two centimeters," Jane said, looking horrified. She was just staring at the demolished hat. "And that... that was me, first."

"He's just going to kill us," Rocky muttered from behind me. "That's how this ends."

"No, wait!" Bepi waved his hands around, frowning at all of our distressed expressions. "Really. Look, don't freak out. We're fine! He should have killed me, but he didn't. Right? He's probably not even programmed to be able to kill is."

No one responded, but he pushed himself to his feet and unsteadily grinned. "This is good news," he insisted. "I can't hear if any of you are arguing about it, but really, it is. I don't think he's so messed up that he can hurt us. If we keep it together, we're fine. Right? We're all fine."

His attempt at an encouraging smile didn't fade, but it did start to waver. I went over and put my hand on his back, guiding him away. "You should go lie down," I said, for the sake of everyone else rather than him. He let me guide him back into the dorm.

DORM: ELEVATOR HALL

We stood outside the elevator; he leaned on me slightly and it was still almost enough to send me crashing to the ground. I glanced down at the destroyed hat in his hand and immediately wished I hadn't.

"They didn't believe me, did they?" he asked.

"I think,' I began, but of course he couldn't hear me, so he just kept talking.

"I'm no good at this." He sounded tired. "Well. Almost dying, I'm good at. Keeping up morale, not so much. Ashley was the one who specialized in that."

He grinned at me. I suddenly got the pun, and I couldn't help a laugh escaping my lips. This was all just so stupid.

He stopped grinning and sighed. "Really, though. If Ashley was here, she'd be yelling at everyone and keeping them focused. Even if it was to make everyone mad, she knew how to lead. Don't think I'm going to be able to take her place, there."

"I'm so sorry she died," I said again, even though I knew he couldn't hear me.

He didn't say anything. The button lit up and the elevator doors opened, and I helped him stagger inside.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

After dropping Bepi off in his room, I went back to try to nap some more myself. I wasn't all riled up like the day before, but I still couldn't sleep.

I got up and went over to the window, looking out over the quad. For the first time, I consciously noted that the Ultimate Vandal's message, spelled out in white letters, was still there... interrupted only by the crater he and Barrett made, so it spelled out NHU FEARS US. FIGHT THEM. KILL

I'd walked over and around these letters countless times, but I'd just stopped noticing them. But I couldn't help think about how weird it was... Monokuma made such a fuss about the Vandal's rebellion, but he never did anything to get rid of that message, staring us right in the face.

I noticed Rocky standing alone by his music equipment; it was set up directly next to the word FEARS. I watched him fiddle with his electronics for a minute or so. The guy was dedicated to his music, and I realized that was kind of the extent of what I knew about his personality, which was suddenly really embarrassing. I set myself and headed downstairs.

MAIN QUAD

Rocky gave a friendly wave when he saw me coming, one headphone over an ear, the other ear exposed. My first impulse was to be suspicious; this dude had been a mess just a couple of days before... but I really did see nothing in his manner that seemed duplicitous even for a second.

"Hey, Saya!" he greeted cheerfully. "You okay after this morning? Crazy shit, huh?"

"Yeah," I answered, still vainly trying to search for some kind of hint he was secretly malicious. "You?"

"Oh, y'know," he replied unhelpfully. "The usual, freaking out, trying to just take it one minute at a time. That's my life strategy: take it one minute at a time."

"Hmm. Does it work?"

"Dunno. I'll tell you in one minute."

I laughed. "Yeah, fair enough." I glanced up at the sky, feeling the cooling autumn air. "Isn't it risky to set up your stuff outside? What if it gets rained on?"

"Hasn't rained yet," Rocky replied blithely. "It's been cloudy, but it hasn't rained." He shrugged and twisted a knob on his equipment. "Roddy said it was weird and, like, 'unnatural' or something, but I'm used to NYC, I don't know what 'natural air' is supposed to be like."

I nodded. "Miami's pretty polluted, too. What part of New York are you from, anyway?"

"Kinda all over!" He pressed the headphone against his ear, concentrating for a moment, and then turned another dial. "Grew up in Chinatown, past few years I've had an apartment in East Harlem. You ever been there?"

"Only a couple times, for chess tournaments. I... never really left the hotel, pretty much."

"Whaaaaaat!" He pointed at me suddenly. "Hey, real quick, better one..." he played one clamoring drum beat... "or better two?" he played another.

"Two. Yeah, people have told me I'd like New York, but... I think that's just because that's what everyone says to someone who doesn't really fit in where they are."

"Hell yeah, that's what the city's for!" he enthused. "Dude, this is perfect! If you're going in pretty much blind, I can show you all the best places!"

"Um. Really?" I couldn't keep myself from blushing slightly under his enthusiasm. "I mean, your music is great, but I'm not super into nightclubs."

"It's not just nightclubs," he assured me, fiddling with one little switch and then another. "Trust me. These are neighborhoods where, like, being gay is practically built into the DNA of the buildings. I guarantee, there's parts of you that have been needing that your whole life."

I found it very easy to focus on his horribly mixed metaphor than on the message of what he was saying. It was always very easy to just be thinky instead of just feeling whatever it was I didn't want to feel.

I'm in college now, I reminded myself. "You know what's dumb? You just said that, and I got really anxious. I saw a human being explode like two days ago, you'd think I'd be numb to, like, 'Oh no, people are gonna know I'm into girls.'"

"Trust me, I get it. Check it out." He played a little snippet of a song and I almost couldn't keep myself from automatically dancing... but he frowned and shook his head. "Way off-balance," he mumbled, then looked back up at me. "Hey, you gotten anything out of Luce about what Juliet said in the elevator before the trial?"

I blinked, startled by the change of topic. "About her parents?"

He took a deep breath and then nodded. "Yyyyeah," he said uncomfortably. "I mean... it's super shitty trauma bullshit, of course she doesn't want to talk about it. But like... I get a little worried sometime. Like, her parents were lying, right? They made her think she could only make awful sounds, but it wasn't true?"

I frowned, remembering what Juliet told me and remembering its source was a good reason to doubt that information. Still, I nodded. "Yeah, I think they must have been lying."

"Yeah." He paused for a moment, tinny beats coming out of his one earphone. "Like, but I'm not sure if she actually believes them or not. And Katy..." He trailed off.

"What about Katy?!" I asked, realizing a moment later I was sounding far too excited.

"Uh, no, nothing. I don't wanna talk shit. Katy's super-nice, and I really don't think she's gonna try to murder me, so..."

"It's okay," I said, trying to smile genuinely. "Katy's my best friend here; I'm not going to get the wrong idea."

He squinted at me and then sighed. "Okay. Like... Luce seems really happy with Katy, and that's great! But I heard her... like, I didn't hear what Luce said, obviously, but Katy told her something like, 'If you're telling me every sound you made is ugly, I believe you.'"

"What?" I asked, feeling my jaw clench up. "Why would she just let Lucina keep believing something so awful?"

"Dude, I dunno. Maybe she didn't want to pick a fight, or she was trying to be supportive? Felt fucked up, though. Oh!" He looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Then she called her 'My broken flower,' or some shit like that?"

"Broken flower?"

"I dunno, maybe I misheard. Just like, if you can talk to Luce about this without her biting your head off, give it a shot, okay?"

"Yeah." I tried to keep myself from stewing. Was Katy being malicious, or was she just so bad about people that she thought this kind of thing was okay?

I started to say something, but Rocky waved in my direction. "Oh hey, dude."

I blinked, looking at him blankly, then turned to look behind me. Barrett stood less than a meter away, smiling and giving a thumbs up. I shrieked and jumped away.

"Goddamn it, where did you come from?!" He must have walked up completely silently; I hadn't heard a thing.

"Chomp chomp," he said.

I gazed at him, looking for some sign of sapience, and I found nothing. "Uh." I glanced over at the DJ. "Uh, Rocky, I really don't think he's okay."

Rocky just shrugged. "It's a death game. He'd be fucked up if he was okay."

Barrett's face changed like a ventriloquist puppet's would. "Saya," he said, and it seemed like a herculean effort to say the word. "Don't." He took a pause, then, "be scared. I'm trying to be..." He looked up and around as if searching for the right word. Finally, he fixed his eyes back on me: "...better."

I paused and then nodded. "Is it working?"

"No." He ran a finger across his lips and then looked at his hand, as if he expected there to be blood there. "But soon. Soon."

SOUTH QUAD

With nothing else to do, I decided to explore. I wandered around the quad for a few minutes, trying to figure out if any seemed better than any others. They were all equally mysterious, no hint to the contents except for the one near the entrance that promised special secret information (I had taken to calling it the Asshole Cube because of the judgment it'd made against my personality).

I was just about to walk into a random module, when I heard a loud shriek. I froze, and the noise cut off suddenly and was replaced with another sharp wail. Every part of me said to go hide somewhere, but by the time I realized that, I was already running full-speed towards the sound, rolling my eyes about what an idiot I was.

I turned a corner and found myself at the cube Bepi had taken me to, the one with the secret weapon inside. Rodrigo stood by the entrance, leaning against the door, looking dazed. "Hail, Friend Saya," he groaned, creakingly forcing himself to a standing position.

"What was that sound?" I asked. "Was that you? Are you okay?"

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Ay. I attempted to bear the brunt of the terrible machine, but… I found myself unable." Surprisingly, he grinned. "But, I neared the top. With proper preparation, I'm confident I could do it."

"You wanted to get the secret weapon?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"Of course! Such a thing is too dangerous to simply be available. Whatever it is, it must be destroyed."

"You… think one of us would use it?"

"No! I trust my classmates and colleagues!" He sounded deeply affronted, sticking out his chest at me, but then he quickly deflated. "However, it can be difficult to resist temptation. I have been specially trained at such things, however."

"Hmm." I glanced into the cube and saw that yes, the door was still closed. "Maybe it's better if no one gets it."

To my surprise, he laughed. I glowered, feeling weirdly made fun of. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nay, Friend Saya, I apologize if my laughter appeared to be at your expense! But I said a similar thing earlier today, but about the secret information in the other cube. I was relieved when it said my personality was defective, and a part of me hopes it remains so for us all."

"What? Why? And why is it funny?"

He bowed his head, sensing my irritation but still smiling. "I was merely struck by differences in our situation. To me, a weapon can be dangerous, but it can also be contained. But information and secrets? Those are uncontrollable, mad, mysterious! But to you, it seems, things are reversed! You feel confident to handle information, no matter what it is."

"Huh. Maybe." I thought about it for a minute and then shrugged. "Jane said yesterday that it's better to get all the info we can, even if we think it might be lies. Knowing's always better than not knowing. I had kinda thought that was a recipe for being overconfident and getting tricked, but… I think I just realized I agree with her."

"'Tis a good thing!" he asserted, nodding confidently. "The monks meant to convince me of many foolish things, and one of them was that my training as a Paladin would leave me suited to handle any challenge. Even as a child, I knew such a lesson was nonsense. Just as Moses and Aaron needed one another to convey the word of God to the people, my skills must be complementary to others'."

"I guess that makes sense." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you going to try again?"

"In a bit. I must recover emotionally from my previous attempt. In the meantime, would you like to accompany me to seek new secrets?"

I felt myself getting swept up in his enthusiasm and I smiled. "Sure."

SOUTH QUAD: RED AND WHITE MODULE

We stepped into the module we'd randomly selected. There was a screen on the wall, a button with a little microphone next to it, and instructions: Read ten colors in ten seconds!

"Read colors?" I mused. "Weird. Want to try it?"

"You try first, I distrust buttons and switches."

"Um. Fair enough." I walked up to the button and pressed it. Instantly, a column of words appeared on the screen: GREEN RED ORANGE and so on. But, each word was a different color, and the color didn't match what the word spelled! "Uh…" I took in the blue word that spelled GREEN, bewildered. "Green? … Red. Blue…" A loud buzzer sounded, startling me, and the screen went black.

"Well, damn it," I said. "That is much harder than it looks."

I pressed the button again and got a new list of words, and this time I didn't make any mistakes, but I only got halfway through before time ran out. Rodrigo gave it a shot next, without much luck.

"This is… really frustrating," I grunted.

"Try again?" he offered. "You were getting better!"

Heartened, I tried again and failed spectacularly. I didn't like this.

"It's all right!" Rodrigo said, clapping me on the back. "'Tis better than I can do. I just recently learned these words are not Spanish!"

I nodded, not feeling much better, but his comment reminded me of something. "Hey," I said, "you said you got sent to the monastery really young, right?" He nodded. "So… you don't remember your parents at all?"

He squinted. "Why do you ask?"

"Um. I was just thinking recently about how little things your parents do can make a big difference later. But… I guess your parents only did one big thing."

He was silent for a moment. "I truly have no hatred in my heart towards them for sending me away. I am led to understand they were rewarded greatly, and they truly believed themselves incapable of raising a child anointed as a great paladin."

"Really?"

He took a deep breath and then looked straight at me. "Ay. I cannot feel anger towards the weak, merely sadness."

I frowned. "Do you want to track them down… you know, once we get out of here? Ask them about it?"

"No." His voice was stark and his jaw tense. "No, but not because I do not have questions I wish to ask them."

"Then why?"

"Ahh…" he had an oddly evasive expression on his face, but then he shook his head, as if getting rid of a bad thought. "It is merely… ah. You see, the monastery rarely had visitors, and when they came it was usually other monks. But once, when I was on the cusp of manhood, there was a… man and a woman that I glimpsed across the courtyard and through a window. They were watching me very curiously. I rose and reached out a hand… but they turned away. A brief moment, but…. ah. Sometimes brief moments leave deep impressions."

I didn't say anything.

He sighed sadly. "In my heart, I know those were my parents. When they turned away, I lost something. Or perhaps gained something? Or both at once." He paused. "But. I cannot face the idea of finding them, seeing them, and knowing it for sure."

I paused but then nodded. "I get it," I said, and I think it was true.

He looked down at his feet, took a deep breath, and then suddenly lurched back up, fire in his eyes, holding a fist outward. "Introspection has filled me with energy and strength!" he enthused! "Friend Saya, let us leave these horrible colors behind! I feel I am ready to conquer the challenge of pain!"

"Okay!" I agreed, his energy infectious. "Let's do it!"

SOUTH QUAD: PINK AND YELLOW MODULE

Before we even walked in, I felt like something was weird. As our eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, I instantly saw what it was: the door net to the pain machine was ajar.

"Ods bodkins!" Rodrigo bellowed. "What has happened! Is it a devilish illusion?!"

But no, the door really was open. "It was sealed tight when we left!" Rodrigo insisted.

"Yeah, I saw it myself." I hesitantly walked forward and pulled the door open, half expecting a monster to jump out and attack me. There was just a nondescript room on the other side. Shrugging, I headed inside, Rodrigo following.

SOUTH QUAD: PINK AND YELLOW MODULE: BACK ROOM

The room was small and almost totally empty. There was a large sign on the wall saying HELP YOURSELF TO THIS SECRET WEAPON! and an arrow pointing to a table. The table contained nothing but a small device with a slot in it… like some kind of cradle or charger.

"Is this the weapon?" Rodrigo asked, bewildered.

I picked up the device, examining it closer. "I don't think so. I think the weapon was hooked in to this, but someone took it." I set down the charger, frowning. "Weird. Whatever it was, it was small and electronic."

"Electronics," Rodrigo glowered. "Darkness and danger around every turn in this mad, computerized world!"

I nodded, not sure what to say to that. Since there clearly wasn't anything else in the room, I turned to go, but I froze. The inside of the door had a sign on it we hadn't seen It read, in big, black letters, YOU GOT THE POWER NOW, YOU LUCKY DUCK. GET TO MURDERING!

I shared a grim look with Rodrigo, and we left.

SOUTH QUAD: WHITE AND GREY MODULE

Rodrigo decided to head off to help Rocky with his music, and I wasn't quite sure what else to do. I couldn't really convince myself none of us were in danger anymore, so it felt reckless to wander around alone in this quad, which was full of hiding places and dead ends. But as I walked past the Asshole Cube, I saw movement inside, so I investigated.

Lucina bent over the table, filling out one of the personality surveys. She was thinking about one of the questions, the little tip of her tongue stuck out as she concentrated, and it was so endearingly cute, I nearly fell down.

"Hey," I said, keeping it as cool as possible.

She turned and waved, smiling genuinely but not quite warmly. She held up a note saying Did you do this? I hate answering questions about myself.

I giggled. "Me too. Yeah, I did it. You only get one chance, but I have no idea what they want."

She nodded, still filling in bubbles while, with the other hand, she jotted out and held up, Katy thinks this was supposed to be some killing game motive, but it's not working right or isn't fully set up. Makes sense to me.

I did not frown, which I'm proud of. "Where is Katy, anyway? I'm surprised you're not together."

She paused a moment, but then she just showed me, Writing. She says I inspire her, which feels pretty great.

"Yeah, I bet." We lapsed into silence, but before I could get too awkward, she nodded smartly and stood up, the bubble sheet in her hand. She slid it in the slot and we waited.

"Good luck," I said, and she grinned at me.

But, familiarly, the screen just displayed INCORRECT PERSONALITY. Lucina just shrugged and held up a note that said Rats.

We stood facing one another for a moment, and that time it did get awkward. But luckily I remembered the important part. "Oh! I need to tell you something. You know that secret weapon at the other end of the quad? The one with the pain machine? Someone got it. I don't know who."

Her head jerked up in alarm. Could you tell what the weapon was?

"No. But it was definitely made to be used in a murder. So just… be careful going around alone, okay?"

She took a deep breath and nodded. Thank you.

"Oh. Um… yeah, of course." More awkward silence, but this time I barreled through. "Hey, do you remember the first night here, we played chess together?"

I remember being really bad at chess.

"Oh, c'mon, you were pretty good for someone who doesn't play all the time!" I tried to laugh; it didn't really work. "Um… anyway, that was really fun and it felt normal. I wanted to ask if you wanted to do it again? Katy can come too, of course."

She considered that a moment, then wrote, Really? You'd be okay with me and Katy?

"Yeah!" At her skeptical look, I withered slightly. "I mean… I know it'd be worse to not be able to be around people I trust."

She considered that and then shrugged. OK, but I'm going to figure out a way to turn conducting into a competition so I can demolish you and get you back.

I laughed. It felt pretty good.

DORM: SAYA'S ROOM

We collected Katy, who seemed delighted about playing with us, and we all went upstairs. My tension level went from an eleven to about a three as soon as I touched my first pawn to make the first move. It was just right to be sitting here, playing this game.

Lucina was still awful. Katy was actually really, really good. Like, really good: she made me switch strategies twice midgame to beat her.

"Aww," she said when she finally lost the second time. "I felt like I was getting it, too."

"You definitely already got it," I remarked. "You could win tournaments! I thought you'd only played a couple of times before!"

She blushed and shrugged. "Well yeah, but… I guess I get a whole narrative going? It's easy to see how all these pieces are different characters in a story, and then they just… do what they'd do. I can't really describe it."

Lucina stood up and gave Katy a quick smooch on the lips, then she signed something I didn't understand and Katy smiled. I felt my tension rising back up to double digits, but I didn't feel angry, and that was at least a step in the right direction.

Katy said, "Aw, my sweet broken flower," and she held Lucina's hand lovingly. I tried not to react.

Katy then pounced on me, wrapping her hands around my waist. "Thanks so much for playing with us, Saya!" she enthused, pulling back and giving me a kind grin. "This was really fun. I'm exhausted now, but let's do it again tomorrow night!"

"Sure, I said, as neutrally as I could. She and Lucina, holding hands, went to the exit. I followed them and waved goodbye as they left.

I laid my forehead against the door and took a deep breath. I tried to remind myself: I'm staying safe, and that's the important thing. Help the angel break up with her evil, manipulative girlfriend later. Right now just don't get murdered.

I walked over to the window and looked down. It was already pretty dark, but I could see two figures… what I assumed were Rocky and Rodrigo… standing by the musical equipment. I suddenly realized how frustrating it must be for an expert to try to work with a total neophyte on something like this… but Rocky was keeping his temper. And I realized how intimidating and weird it must be to work with crazy future technology… but Rodrigo was still open and curious.

It suddenly and starkly occurred to me that every single one of us was trying to grow. Even in the midst of all this danger, we were working hard to be better people. I felt renewed determination: whatever the mastermind wanted, I was not going to let them destroy all this effort.

I turned and walked to my bed, but I noticed something odd and paused. There was a small piece of paper near the door to the hallway. I walked closer and saw it was a note. Was it one of Lucina's communications that she'd dropped on the way out? Or did someone slip it under my door…?

I picked it up and unfolded it. It said, Saya, meet me in the South Quad at 1:00am. Come alone. It's about L. It's important. Please. –Katy

I stared at the note, feeling my forehead creasing. I was forced to consider a question I'd never asked about myself, but it was clearly relevant now.

Just how stupid was I?

FACT 16: According to Juliet, all the alumni are working with the mastermind and were involved with our recruitment.

FACT 17: Also according to Juliet, the mastermind finds me intriguing because they can't figure me out.

FACT 18: Monokuma threatened us with a gun and almost shot Giuseppi, but he pulled back at the last second.

FACT 19: Someone got access to the secret weapon. I don't know what the weapon is, but I think it's probably pretty small and electronic.

FACT 20: I received a note, supposedly from Katy, inviting me to the south quad late at night. I'm not certain it's actually from Katy, but it might be.