Hello, and welcome to the official start of Chapter 1. Glad you all like the format change, someone pointed out it would make reading my stories easier so I took their advice. And thank you to everyone giving me advice to being a better writer, it's a slow but steady process.
Also, it looks like a few of you are trying to guess who the first victim will be, and let me just say you've got that wrong! Sorry, I had to, I'm not revealing anything, but the victim might surprise you. With that being said, I have a victim and killer in mind for the first chapter, but that may change. Oh, and a hint to the couple I'm favoring to make, they're the same gender. Anyways, hope you all like this chapter!
Chapter 1-1: Of Trust and of Dissonance- Daily Life
Daisuke and Soleil started exploring their part of the theater, seeing that the theater appeared to be in good shape, if unused for a long time, the windows were blocked by large metal slabs that were screwed into place and the hallways had a faint smell of dust, as if the place had been cleaned recently. There were old posters on the walls, showing famous theater shows, but altered to show Monokuma as the star of each one.
"That bear sure does love himself." Daisuke commented as they looked around.
"Looks that way, doesn't it?" Soleil said quietly.
They walked down the hallway before Daisuke noticed a door that didn't look like the others. It was an ordinary door in shape but the colors on it made it look like it was hand drawn with crayon and markers, like a little kid was let loose on the door with an array of coloring supplies.
"What's up with this door?" Daisuke asked as he walked up to it.
"Why it's an Ultimate Lab, of course!" Monokuma said as he suddenly appeared.
"Where did you come from?" Soleil asked, startled by the sudden appearance.
"That's none of your business! Anyways, the door you're looking at is the entrance to an Ultimate Lab, a place for you all to refine your Talents. There's one Ultimate Lab for each one of you here." Monokuma said before he smirked. "I even left little hidden weapons in each Lab if you ever feel like killing anyone."
"We aren't killing anybody!" Daisuke said, glaring at the bear.
"Geez, why are the littlest brats always so stubborn? Fine, I'll go, I need to watch if anyone has fallen into despair yet." Monokuma said before he disappeared.
"I don't like him." Soleil said as Daisuke nodded in agreement as he went up to the door and opened it.
The room was fairly large with fun, bright colors on the walls, while the room was filled with coloring supplies, board games, video games, and other such items that young children would enjoy.
"This must be my Lab." Daisuke said.
"Oh right, you're the Ultimate Little Brother. This does look like something a younger sibling would enjoy." Soleil said as he looked around.
Daisuke looked around his Lab as well, seeing everything it had to offer before noticing some items in the corner of the room. He walked up to them and noticed they were all blunt items, a baseball bat, a pipe, a hammer, a wooden sword, all sorts of weapons that created blunt physical damage, cleverly disguised as children's toys but obvious enough for those who look closely.
"Guess he was right about there being weapons in our Labs." Daisuke said in disgust.
"Um, I think this is everything interesting we can find in our area. Maybe we should try to find the others?" Soleil suggested.
"Yeah." Daisuke nodded before they left the Lab.
The two started looking for where the others went. It wasn't long before they heard the sound of pounding and a voice yelling.
"Fujin! Come on! We're supposed to stick together!" They heard Harumi shout nearby. Daisuke and Soleil headed towards the sound and discovered several dressing rooms, with their names in the star of each door, and at the door with Fujin's name on it was Harumi, trying to get the door open.
"Harumi?" Daisuke asked as they walked up to her.
"Oh, hey! Guess what? Me and Fujin found all these rooms, and when we looked inside, they were bedrooms! Looks like we'll have a place to sleep while we're here." Harumi smiled.
"Oh wow, that's good. But why are you trying to open that door?" Soleil asked.
"Fujin decided to be a party pooper and lock herself in her room. Geez, it's like she doesn't want to be friends with anybody." Harumi pouted, looking at the door.
"She probably just needs time to come out of her shell." Daisuke said.
"Maybe. Anyways, I'm gonna keep trying to get her out of there. You guys find the others." Harumi said with a determined look on her face.
"Good luck with that." Daisuke said as they left, Soleil waving slightly to her before they walked out of sight.
"It's nice to see Harumi trying to be friends with Fujin." Soleil said as they walked.
"Yeah, though I don't think Fujin appreciates it." Daisuke said.
Soleil couldn't help but to nod in agreement as they saw Bertrand step out of a room with a double door.
"Hello you two, it seems that I've discovered the cafeteria." Bertrand said as he held the door open to let them see. The cafeteria was small, with only one long table that would be able to seat the sixteen of them. On the side was a door that made them assume lead to the kitchen. "I checked the kitchen and we appear to be fully stocked with food. So, no worries about starving while we're here."
"I don't like the idea of us getting comfortable here, but that's good." Daisuke said.
"Um, wasn't Kafsi supposed to be searching around with you?" Soleil asked.
"Yes, but we encountered an Ultimate Lab that appeared to be his. I couldn't get him to leave." Bertrand said, pointing to a door down the hall, which was made of iron and had flame designs around the outside of the door. "You can try, but I don't think you'll have any more luck then I did."
The two walked up to the door and went inside. When they did, they felt like they stepped into a blacksmith's shop, with a forge in the middle of the room, tools hanging on the walls, and various ironworks on display around, along with all that, they found Kafsi admiring the forge.
"Kafsi?" Daisuke called out.
"This forge is almost like the one back home, I don't have to worry about getting rusty while we're trapped here." Kafsi said, distracted.
"Kafsi!" Daisuke called louder, which seemed to get through to the enamored blacksmith this time.
"Have you two seen this Lab? It has everything I could ever need while I build and create my work!" Kafsi said, surprisingly excited and more talkative.
'I was right when I thought he would talk more when it was about his Talent.' Daisuke thought as Kafsi continued his rant.
"H-hey, I think I found the weapons Monokuma put here." Soleil said, drawing Daisuke's attention. He went over to where the chocolatier was and found various tools that created fire or some kind of burn in a pile, like a flamethrower, torch, even a box of matches and a can of gas, all of them having iron, or at least painted, on them to make it look like they were just metalworks.
"All things that can cause severe burns." Daisuke said, before he looked back at Kafsi and saw that he was distracted again. "I don't think it's any use trying to get him to leave now. Let's just go see where the rest of our classmates are."
They left the Lab and continued their search for the others.
"What do you think this elevator might be for?" They heard Xeno asked from around the corner.
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Torahiko said before they turned the corner and saw the runner and actor standing in front of an elevator, though it only had one button on the side, which was just Monomuma's face. Xeno noticed them and waved them over.
"Hey guys, you two have any ideas about the purpose of this elevator?" Xeno asked.
Daisuke looked at the elevator and thought for a moment. "Maybe it has something to do with that Class Trial that Monokuma mentioned?"
"Hm, if you're right, then we'll know where to go if someone ends up dead." Torahiko said.
"How can you say that so casually?" Soleil asked, disturbed.
"It's no use trying to avoid the topic, so why stop ourselves from talking about it?" Torahiko countered. There was a bit of a silence as the atmosphere felt a bit more heavy.
"Anyways, that doesn't matter. As long as we overcome any despair that bear gives us, we'll only end up stronger for it!" Xeno said, trying to lighten the mood.
"I guess, well, we're going to keep looking." Daisuke said.
"Okay, we'll be here if you need anything!" Xeno said as they walked off.
The two passed by doors before they came up to what looked like another Ultimate Lab, with this one being more elegant and having art of two people sword fighting on it.
"Looks like the Ultimate Duelist's Lab." Soleil said before they headed inside. The room was decorated like a duelist arena, a circle on the floor in the middle for dueling, a few practice dummies littered around the room, and various weapons hung across the walls, most of them looking plastic but a few had a sharp shine to them, showing metal instead of plastic.
"It seems obvious that the weapons hidden here are all ones that can cut and stab." Daisuke said.
"It looks that way." Kazuko said, making the two boys realize that Kazuko and Kuroko were there as well.
"Monokuma informed us of what Ultimate Labs were and what was hidden inside them when we discovered this." Kuroko said, drawing Kazuko away from the weapons on the walls.
"Yeah, us too when we found my Lab." Daisuke said.
"We also saw Kafsi's Lab." Soleil added.
"Hm, three Labs so far." Kuroko said. "You would think he would reveal all of them to us now."
"Who knows what that bear thinks? Though, maybe if I talk to him, I could get him to show us where all the Labs are." Kazuko said.
"Not to sound rude, but I don't think your Talent would make things any easier concerning him." Daisuke said.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Kazuko said.
"You two should keep looking elsewhere, we already searched for anything that may help in here." Kuroko said.
"Alright." Daisuke said before they left the room.
"This is quite the collection of items." They heard Koyumi say from an open door. The two looked inside and saw Koyumi and Micheal standing inside what looked like a warehouse with a variety of items on shelves.
Koyumi was looking curiously at a tablet that she took off a shelve, though it wouldn't turn on, while Micheal was looking at some cameras.
"You guys found a warehouse?" Daisuke asked.
"Oh, yes we did. There are very many items here, but it seems most of the electronics that connect to the... internet was it, don't work." Koyumi said, putting the tablet back down.
"Yeah, that bear is seriously bogus for that. We need to beat feet out of here as fast as we can." Micheal said.
"Y-yeah." Soleil said, slightly confused on what Micheal was trying to say.
"You two dears keep looking, we've got this." Koyumi said, smiling at them.
The two walked away from the warehouse.
"Is it just me, or did talking with those two make you feel like we were talking to our grandparents?" Daisuke asked.
"Well, I guess, but they're both nice." Soleil said, making Daisuke nod in agreement.
They came to the end of another hall, where they saw the entrance to another Ultimate Lab, with the door looking like the entrance to a library. They opened the door and saw the room had an ancient look and feel to it, various books and scrolls littered the tables along with busts of people's heads on pedistals along the walls.
"Seems like this belongs to that philosopher guy." They heard Jackson say as he stepped out from behind a large pile of books.
"His name is Bertrand." Kokomo said as she came out from behind another pile, before she noticed the two newcomers. "Did you just get here?"
"Yeah, I think this is the last Ultimate Lab for now." Daisuke said.
"It would look that way." Kokomo said.
"Heh, I was kinda hoping to find my Lab but I guess that'll have to wait." Jackson said.
Daisuke and Soleil looked around the Lab, seeing that all the books were about famous philosophers and philosophy. Daisuke picked up a book from a small stack, noticing it felt heavier then normal. He opened the book and found it was hallowed out, and inside was a brick. He opened the other books and found other similar heavy objects, like a shot put and some weights, items that could easily crush a person's head in.
"Bertrand's Lab has all the heavy items." Daisuke said as the others had gathered when they noticed.
"So, that bear was serious when he said weapons were hidden in the Labs." Kokomo said.
"Yeah, we saw the same thing in the other three Labs." Soleil said.
"Well, I think that's all we can find. Let's find the others and discuss what we found." Jackson said.
"We can head to the cafeteria to gather and tell everyone." Daisuke suggested.
The others nodded in agreement before they headed to the the cafeteria, where most of the others were waiting. Katsumi and Angelo were there, though they were glaring at each other, while Fujin wasn't there. Harumi's pouty face confirmed that she was unable to get Fujin to come out.
They all gathered at the table and discussed what they found.
"Well, it's obvious we're not going to use the weapons, no matter what that bear tells us." Katsumi said. "We should gather the weapons and lock them up somewhere."
"I don't understand who you're talking to but I will not allow you to violate my Lab. It's best we just ignore their presence." Angelo said.
"That will only lead to the killings that evil bear wants!" Katsumi argued.
"Gathering the dangerous weapons will just make it all the more easier for the would be assassin to get whatever they desired!" Angelo argued back.
"Hey, why don't why all just calm down? Why don't we just compromise? We'll just ignore them for now, and at the first sign of trouble, we lock them up." Kazuko negotiated.
Katsumi and Angelo glared at each for a moment before turning away from each other. "Fine."
"Even with all our searching, we still couldn't find an exit." Kuroko said.
"Hey, don't give up! As long as we keep going strong, we'll get through this!" Xeno said. Everyone couldn't help but feel more energized after that.
"Well, we should just do our own thing for now." Torahiko said, with everyone else making various sounds of agreement before they all left the cafeteria, with only Daisuke left there.
"What should I do?" Daisuke asked himself.
And here's the beginning of fhe first chapter. Took me a while because of life and also because I kinda changed this chapter halfway through. I was just gonna have them meet up and discuss what they found, but I decided against that and allow you guys to see the other parts of the theater yourselves.
Yes, I stole the Ultimate Lab idea from V3, but it fit with the idea I had in mind for them. Also, about future updates, so you guys don't think I'm putting this story on haitus due to long periods between updates, I'm going to say that I'm going to update this at least once a month or at least try to.
Anyways, next chapter is the start of the Free Time Events, with three Free Time Events next chapter, and three more the next. And with that, I'm gonna have a poll for who's Free Time Events you guys want to see the most. You can vote for up to three people, keep in mind that two of them will die soon, so choose wisely. You can send your votes through Review or PM, as I have no idea how else to do polls. Hope you like this chapter, and leave a review please. Chaos, out!