Assignment 3, Part 2

The Divide Worsens

Mondo woke up earlier than usual and threw open his blinds to a dark sky. He began to shiver and his teeth chattered together, which often happened to him when he woke up in the early morning for some unknown reason. The hole in his stomach had grown deeper and ever wider overnight and was immediately apparent when Mondo first woke and felt it. He pondered on whether if one were to throw a rock down it if that stone would ever see the bottom. The width and depth of the hole consumed even the anger and contempt he felt towards Fuyuhiko which still frothed and bubbled within him. He quickly took a shower to stop his shivering and made sure his pompadour his in perfect form, before throwing on his jacket and watching as the sun began to rise. The thin rays that shone forth and cast their golden radiance on Mondo's skin through the bare-naked branches of the school grounds' trees warmed him greater and – upon the sphere being three-quarters of its entire glory and the clock striking nine, Mondo decided he would make good on his promise and headed to Chihiro's room.

He gulped down his dread – which he resented being attached to someone such as Chihiro – and knocked on his door with a feathery rap-tap-tap. Chihiro opened the door around half a minute later, blushing profusely for a reason Mondo didn't know about but found disconcerting anyway. "Oh, hello Mondo." Chihiro smiled up at him and bounced on his tiptoes.

"Hey, you're awake. I take it you read the notes your friend left you?" Upon this query, Chihiro blushed deeper which caused a slight acid reflux in Mondo's throat which he had to quickly swallow down, slightly burning his throat in the process.

"Yeah." Chihiro nodded then pulled a confused look. "Wait, how'd you know about those?"

"He came knocking at my door at my door early this morning." Mondo lied, trying to paint Kazuichi in a less caring light then he cared to admit. "Seemed pissed. Turns out, I hadn't returned that wrench of his… Anyway, when I was about to slam the door in his face, he softened up a bit and asked me to check on you. Man, you've got lucky you got a softie like that to do your project with you." Mondo tried to hide his real feelings by rambling and stringing together compliments.

"Mondo…" Chihiro tried to interrupt.

"If you'd got paired with an asshole I'd make sure he'd get beat to a fucking pulp before he'd lay a finger on you!" Alas, that word vomit led to Mondo revealing his true intentions and hoping Chihiro wouldn't catch on.

"Mondo!" Chihiro interrupted successfully this time, catching Mondo's attention with his outburst.

"Jeez, that was unusually aggressive. Whaddya want?"

"It's fine, honestly. The project's going well." Chihiro looked vacant when he said that, turning his gaze towards the floor and smiling sweetly.

"You sure? The ass beating's still on the table." Mondo was as subtle as a bull in a china shop and had to avoid winking at Chihiro to reveal his emotions. This slightly disturbed Chihiro, who wasn't a fan of the implied violence against Kazuichi and scolded Mondo:
"Seriously, cut it out! It's fine!"

"Tch. Better than how it's going for me, at least. I and that little Yakuza shit haven't talked since one." Mondo changed the subject quickly.

"Well… maybe you should try talking to him?" That suggestion made Mondo feel sicker still.

"Yeah, right. Well, see you around." Mondo was done with his conversation with Chihiro and as he left the room, he realised his dread had turned to something else – fear.

Fuyuhiko groaned and opened his eyes – which felt superglued together – and breathed shallowly as his eyes burned and adjusted to the light, which streamed through the buildings of the city and hit his irises with an oppressively harsh shade of yellow. His aching neck hit him like a bullet made of ice and he wrapped his hand around it in a desperate attempt to warm it with his numb fingers – which themselves felt like they had been left in a freezer – which proved fruitless. He got up from the bench, which took a while due to how much his body seemed to be soldered to the wooden frame and stretched. Looking behind him from the hill, he saw the academy and remembered he had to be at Kazuichi's dorm. At least that meant warmth, he thought to himself, seeing how his fingers felt like they were icicles and he was pretty sure he could feel frost particulate in his lungs whenever he breathed in air slightly above zero degrees centigrade.

Fuyuhiko's bones and joints creaked and ached like an old door all the way to Kazuichi's dorm, though the warm interior of Hope's Peak granted slight solace and began to thaw his body just slightly. By the time he had gotten to Kazuichi's dorm most of his right hand had regained enough feeling for him to clasp the doorknob, turn it slightly and open the door to find Hajime looking dejected, slumped on an armchair and Kazuichi sprawled across the couch like a cat. He nodded at the two, who nodded back and sat himself on a chair opposite Hajime. "What's gotten into the both of you?" Fuyuhiko spoke through blue lips.

"Hajime's all depressed because the 'Servies just do regular schoolwork and not cool shit."

"Well, Makoto may as well just be a 'Servie like me considering how he even got into this place to begin with."

"Hey, if it's any consolation I'm pretty much doing nothing this term."

"Well, at least you guys get a whole term to just do something. God, the reserve course is just mind-numbing right now."

Fuyuhiko felt a bitterness rise in his gut as he thought about exactly why he was doing nothing.

"Yeah well in my case something means nothing, because that biker punk thinks he can talk down to me because he's a foot taller. Who the fuck does he think he is?!" Fuyuhiko punctuated this anger with a hearty punch to the varnished oak of the chair-frame.

Kazuichi, who was usually ever-present in most conversations seemed unusually distracted and seemed eager to get onto viewing the film. "…I called you both here so we could watch a movie, not have a group therapy session…" Seconds after saying this Kazuichi blushed and pulled odds and ends from his pockets, his pupils buzzing and fingers lacing around them. He seemed to momentarily forget he was even there and repeated himself. "Well, I invited you both here so we could watch bad movies, and we've not done that yet. Let's get started, okay?"

"Whatever you say." Hajime and Fuyuhiko responded in unison.

"Mondo."

"Kyoko." And then silence. Deafening silence. Kyoko had called Mondo here for a reason, though God knows what it was considering she'd only said his name and nothing else past that as of yet. "You're probably wondering why I asked you to meet me here." The two were sat on the stage of the auditorium, looking at the vast seating area spread among them.
"This one of your detective flicks? If you've got something important to tell me, cut the BS."

"Hmph. Well, I suppose I've never much much been one for the dramatic, so I suppose I'll cede to that request. Put simply: I've taken the duty of warning people I consider trustworthy or useful about something over the past few days."

"'Something'? Listen, if you're gonna warn people about anything you gotta be a bit more fuckin' specific than just 'something'." Mondo scoffed.

"You sound like Byakuya right now." Kyoko pressed her index and middle finger to her forehead, closed her eyes and pursed her lips. "Okay, I can only describe it as a something because I don't know what else to call it. A conspiracy, perhaps?"

"Conspiracy? Like the Bermuda Triangle or the Illuminati or some shit?"

"You've been watching way too many Western shows. I mean conspiracy as in conspiracy to commit a crime – and before you ask, no I don't what crime but I do know it has the possibility of being a danger to us all."
"Oh yeah? And why exactly do you think that?"
"Mondo, do you know what's underneath this auditorium?"
"Uhh… the places where they keeps props and shit."
Kyoko scoffed in much the same way Mondo did earlier. "No, I mean the room below it."

"Ummm… the library?"
"Why would there ever be a library underneath an auditorium?"

"You were the one that fuckin' asked!"

"The boiler room! It's the boiler room." Mondo was confused.

"What's so special about the boiler…?"

"Not much. But your… partner-"
"That little shit is not my-"
"Why do think I was being tentative? My point is, Fuyuhiko was wandering down there in a state of delirium after being dosed with something by Mikan. I decided to check it out a few hours later – what attracted him to wander down to the boiler room?"

"Do I care…?"
"Zip it and let me speak. It was there I heard voices that confirmed my suspicions."

"Where exactly did those suspicions come from?"
"Hope's Peak – like a lot of other institutions – has become too comfortable in their position these past few years. They do a lot of shady things, put bluntly. One of these happened to come in a few months back. I wasn't here at the time."

"Ah-! You mean when you were on loan to that police station?"

"Yes, the Shibuya prefecture transfer. That's where Hope's Peak sends all of its documents, so they tried to stop me from being transferred and stationed there for the month but were unsuccessful. One night a document came through to be put immediately into the shredder, bearing our academy's insignia. I was interested in what it said and smooth talked my superior's into allowing me a peek. It was mainly just redactions, to protect the identities of people, but there was a list totalling thirty-two. I have an inkling that was a list of Class 77 and 78's students."
"And what you heard yesterday confirmed those suspicions, right?"

"Mmm hmm. It was muffled, but there was a voice, faintly audible, speaking behind one of the walls. I'm still trying to piece together what I heard but someone was giving instructions to another person regarding Byakuya and something to do with his father's company. I couldn't stay long, though."

"And…? What am I meant to do with this fuckin' information?"
"Be wary…? I don't deliver warnings for fun, you know." And with her footsteps echoing throughout the auditorium, Kyoko took her leave.

"Uhh, thank you?"
"Well, I'll take my leave now. If you can find out anything – anything at all, do not hesitate to tell me. We need to be proactive rather than reactive now. I can't shake this feeling in my gut that what's about to happen is very grave indeed."

Fuyuhiko blinked twice, three times and let his eyes adjust to the light outside Kazuichi's dorm and yawned, stretching as Hajime wandered away to the side of him. "Oh, you're tired too Fuyuhiko?" he heard a familiar voice question. Chiaki was standing at the door of Nagito's room, trying to reach the peephole which was slightly above her height due to Nagito's door – nay, his entire being – happening to be slightly defunct. "Get on my shoulders and help me out with this." She held up a reflective spyglass that would allow him to see through the peephole.

"Whoa, why are we spying on Nagito?"

"Last night I was in the middle of a practice speedrun and then the power cut out. I checked this floor's breaker and Nagito's room was eating it alllll up. I wanna see what he's doing in there."

"Ummm… okay…" Fuyuhiko grabbed the spyglass and began to clamber on top of Chiaki's shoulders. When she had clasped his legs, he put the spyglass to his eye and peered into Nagito's room. He was always naturally suspicious of the guy, a tad influenced by Kazuichi's similar suspicions. But what he saw through the warped image was beyond weird. A Lovecraftian mess of wires curled and weaving, dipped and bobbed and snaked their way around the room, all leading to a location behind the standard dorm partition.

"Well whaddya see?" Chiaki inquired.

"Uhhh… wires. And a lot of 'em. Looks like they're all hooked up to something around the partition."

"Hm. Well, typical Nagito." Chiaki murmured as Fuyuhiko dismounted her.

"T-Typical Nagito?! He's got a fuckton of wires hooked up to God-knows-what and you're just shrugging it off?!"

"It's Nagito." She said, wandering away. "He's always like this."

Evening struck the academy and Yasuhiro had begun to to make his rounds, wishing to invite his available classmates to game night, in order to break the ice. The first room on his list was Mondo, which was apparent to the student in question when, upon his door being opened, he inquired about the guest list. "I can't say who and who won't be there, because you're kind the first dude I asked." Yasuhiro chuckled.

"Well, d'you anyone who won't be there?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"C'mon, think! Use what little brains you have."

"I think Kazuichi is occupied with Chihiro, so they won't be there."

"O-Occupied? With Chihiro?" Now, dear reader, you may have picked up on the fact that Mondo is what is colloquially known as a 'helicopter parent'. And most of these parents, as a matter of fact, would not enjoy their child becoming close with a boy who could pierce flesh with his teeth and looks rather like a neon light display or scene album-cover.

"That's what I just said, right?"

"I'll think about it." Mondo said, feeling as if he'd been hit with a ten-ton truck and was now going through an out-of-body experience. Yasuhiro closed the door behind him as Mondo collasped onto the bed and fell asleep with exact same feeling of dread as the night earlier.

Meanwhile, Fuyuhiko avoided game night for much the same reason – he feared Mondo being there and as such decided it would be best to forego the whole sore experience and slept, confused thoughts of Nagito's room racing through his head, disturbing him greatly.

(And this is the part where I apologise for my month-long hiatus. I truly am sorry, especially about this chapter being extremely short. I hopefully won't disappear for weeks on end now, I'll try and cough out chapters at most weekly now. Thank you, reader, for being patient.)