A/N: As you're probably expecting (this IS a DR fanfic, after all), things are going to start heating up this chapter. I should point out that, while I thus far haven't really spoiled anything in regards to the actual series, I have made some allusions to the series in the story and characters, and starting with this chapter, expect to see a lot more. So yeah, consider this something of a spoiler warning for the DR games.

Also, while I don't want to spoil the story itself, starting with this chapter, I'm going to have explicit references to some rather sensitive topics. While this chapter doesn't have that much in the way of such references, expect some more to appear soon. I'm not intending to offend anyone or portray these topics inaccurately, so if how I portray said topics comes across as insensitive, I sincerely apologize.

Talking to Bankei was an unpleasant experience, that was for certain. After having to deal with that, Naoko made the observation that it was almost nighttime. There wasn't much difference between daytime and nighttime in the facility, but the rules and regulations highly recommended going to bed once nighttime arrived. The fact that it was more of a guideline than a rule caught Naoko's eye, as it meant that people could probably sneak off at night if they wanted to. He'd probably have to talk to people about it tomorrow morning, as they hadn't yet done so. There'd probably have to be some rules in place for that.

Naoko stopped by Eryu's room one more time to explain to him what had happened with Bankei. His reaction was fairly subdued, all things considered.

"That...certainly is strange," Eryu commented. "Clearly, she's not a team player. Maybe I should rescind what I said earlier, that she'd have to cooperate with us."

"That sounds like a good idea," Naoko replied. "One of us should still keep an eye on her, shouldn't we?"

"Definitely."

"Who should, then?" Naoko asked.

"I'll have to think about it," Eryu replied. "I know quite a few people that shouldn't fill that position. Kimi's too bad-tempered, Sasa's too timid, and you'd probably be too conspicuous at this point."

"Well, I'll leave you to that. I should probably go to bed soon."

"Okay. See you in the morning."

*Dong, ding, dong!*

"THE TIME IS NOW 10PM. IT IS NOW NIGHTTIME. YOU MAY CONTINUE YOUR CURRENT ACTIVITIES, BUT I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS AS SOON AS YOU ARE ABLE. SWEET DREAMS."

The "sweet dreams" part was kinda weird, but the message it conveyed was clear. Naoko had to go through a lot already, and getting some sleep sounded like the perfect escape from all of it. Escape. That word was certainly on everyone's minds. It'd come in time, hopefully.

Naoko shook his head, banishing those thoughts. He could worry about that once he woke up. He returned to his room and got ready for bed. Of course, once he was ready, he collapsed onto his bed. And that was how his first day in the facility ended.

*Dong, ding, dong!*

"GOOD MORNING. IT IS NOW 8AM. IF YOU ARE ALREADY AWAKE, THEN HELLO. LET US ALL WORK TOWARDS MUTUAL HARMONY TODAY."

Naoko rubbed his eyes as he slowly got up. He had had the weirdest dream last night. IMONO was speaking directly to him about something that Naoko couldn't quite understand. It was strange, to be sure, but he didn't pay much mind to it. The situation he was in was already like a bad dream, and he couldn't wake up from it.

With that in mind, Naoko left his room and went straight to the cafeteria. He had hoped that he'd see a good number of the other students on his way there, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The only people he saw on his way were Takeshi and Keiko. Takeshi looked glum, while Keiko looked like she was in okay spirits. Naoko greeted both of them.

"Hey, you two," he said. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, I did," Keiko replied with a light smile.

"Wait, you did?" Takeshi asked. "I swear, it took forever for me to fall asleep. Hate to admit it, but this whole thing has gotten me frazzled."

Keiko's expression shifted to empathetic sadness. "I'm sorry to hear that, Takeshi. How about I make breakfast for you all? Would that help?"

"That'd be great, thanks," Naoko replied.

As it turned out, they weren't the only ones already awake. Yasuo in particular seemed to have either gotten up early or was simply very quick when getting up in the morning, because he was already in the kitchen preparing breakfast for his fellows. Keiko still decided to help him, while Naoko sat down at a table, paying notice to the other students in the cafeteria, those being Takeshi, Mine, and Ishi.

"Good morning, you two," Naoko said to the latter two. "You girls got out of bed quick, huh?"

Ishi shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, there wasn't much I wanted to do in my room. It's kinda boring right now."

"I didn't feel like staying in my room, either," Mine added.

The four were served breakfast and spent a short while speaking to each other before they were joined by more people. First it was Haru, who busted in and immediately demanded food, Mariko, who fortunately asked much more politely, and Eryu, who lingered at the door.

"Before I come in, is everyone okay with what happened yesterday?" Eryu asked.

"It wasn't your fault, dude," Haru assured him. "If I were you, I'd do the exact same thing."

"Yeah, and she's not here, so no big deal," Ishi added.

"Cool," Eryu said, walking in and sitting down.

"So," Naoko began, "Eryu, did you put any more thought into what we talked about?"

"Of course," Eryu replied. "I know who should be watching Bankei for the time being."

"Okay. Who is it?"

"Mine, I'd like you to fill this position."

"Huh?" Mine said, confused. "Aren't I supposed to be on guard to break up fights? Do you want me to do both?"

"We'll have someone else replace you," Eryu explained. "Michio is on trash duty, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a little extra work. If he does, I'll just have someone else take out the trash."

"All that reassigning sounds like a lotta work," Ishi commented. "Why not just have someone else watch her? I could do it. Or what about Mariko?"

Eryu looked almost offended for a moment. "No. I'm not interested in giving Mariko such a task. As for you, I've thought about it, and my mind hasn't changed. Mine, you're a strong woman. I'm sure that if Bankei tries something, you'll be able to stop her."

"Woah, that sounds scary," Mine responded. "You think she'd actually try to attack me or something?"

"She might," Eryu replied. "We need to be cautious."

"Okay! I can keep an eye on her if you need me to," Mine agreed.

Hoshi and Yori showed up at that point, and the conversation shifted to them. After a few minutes, everyone showed up, Bankei included. As soon as she showed up, the mood definitely shifted towards being unpleasant, but fortunately, there were no significant incidents. Everyone either kept to themselves or joined others for casual conversation. It was a much-needed contrast to what had happened the last time they'd gathered together in the cafeteria.

Eventually, people finished their plates and left. At Yori's request, Naoko stuck around for a while longer than he otherwise would have. She apparently wanted to tell him something.

"Hey, Yori," Naoko said, sitting down across from her. "You wanted to tell me something? What is it?"

Yori looked around the room before speaking. "Don't say anything about this," she said quietly, passing him a folded sheet of paper. "Just read it."

Naoko's eyes widened. He wasn't expecting her to pass him a note. He picked it up and began to unfold it.

"Make sure the camera can't see what it says," Yori whispered. Naoko nodded and made sure it was hidden from the camera's view. He then began to read.

"I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Eryu has decided on writing to each other in order to talk privately. Consider this a test run. We'll be doing this until we find another, less conspicuous method."

Naoko folded the paper again and nodded. "Got it. Thanks for telling me."

After that, Naoko left the cafeteria. While things weren't quite ideal, it was clear that people weren't yet ready to distrust each other...well, with the obvious exception of Bankei. And with a new method of communication decided on, it felt like they were starting to move forward.

"Alright," Naoko said to himself. "I guess I have some free-"

*Dong, ding, dong!*

"ATTENTION. ALL STUDENTS, PLEASE ASSEMBLE IN THE GYMNASIUM. I WISH TO MAKE AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT."

The familiar text-to-speech voice rang out through the facility. Naoko was unsure of what to think of the "announcement" that it spoke of. Maybe the other floors were going to be opened up? That, or IMONO was going to bring their escape efforts to a screeching halt. In Naoko's head, it was likely that it'd be either a good announcement or a very bad one.

With nervous anticipation, Naoko moved to the gymnasium. Within minutes, he was joined by all of the others, whose expressions varied from looks of curiosity to looks of dread. The doors closed behind them, and for the second time, a large screen was lowered from the ceiling, which turned on to reveal a familiar image. Half black, half white, with an eye that was half red, half blue. There was no mistaking it.

"THANK YOU ALL FOR GATHERING HERE. I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT I'D LIKE TO MAKE."

"Is it that we can go home?" Keio asked naively.

"NO."

Keiko frowned. Naoko felt sorry for her, but he wasn't really expecting IMONO to respond any other way.

"So, what is it?" Michio asked. "Are you angry with us or something?"

"NO, I WOULD NOT SAY THAT I AM ANGRY. STILL, I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS AN INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED YESTERDAY. A SMALL INCIDENT BETWEEN KIMI AND HARU LED TO A GREAT DEAL OF EMOTIONAL TURMOIL."

Some of the students looked at Kimi and Haru. The former looked defensive, while the latter seemed unphased.

"I BELIEVE THAT THIS INCIDENT PROVES THAT YOU ALL REQUIRE AID IN YOUR EFFORTS TO BOND WITH EACH OTHER."

"Aid? L-like...what?" Sasa asked, confused.

"I HAVE GIVEN IT SOME THOUGHT, AND I BELIEVE THAT YOU ALL NEED TO LEARN ABOUT ONE ANOTHER. BY LEARNING ABOUT AND UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FORM BONDS OF MUTUAL TRUST AND AFFECTION."

"So, basically," Mareo spoke up, "you want us to talk to each other more."

"YES. AND I HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE EACH OF YOU A POTENTIAL CONVERSATION TOPIC, THAT YOU MAY USE TO FORM CLOSER BONDS."

Bankei giggled. "Eh-heh. That's quite an interesting little scheme. Do tell, IMONO, what sort of conversation topics have you prepared?"

"Maybe we could talk about something fun," Mariko suggested. "Y'know, like movies, or music."

"Any topic other than politics or religion would be a good place to start, in my opinion," Hoshi commented.

"Why do we have to talk about stuff to bond?" Ishi asked. "Couldn't we play games together? I'd be down for that."

"YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY GAMES WITH EACH OTHER SHORTLY. THERE IS A GAME ROOM LOCATED ON THE FLOOR BELOW. AS FOR YOUR CONVERSATION TOPICS, I'M GOING TO SEND A MESSAGE TO THE INBOX ON YOUR PHONES. EACH OF YOU WILL RECEIVE AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT ONE OTHER STUDENT. ONCE YOU LEARN THIS FACT, YOU SHOULD SEEK OUT THE STUDENT IN QUESTION AND DISCUSS IT. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE I DISMISS EVERYONE?"

"I have a question," Yori said.

"YES?"

"What kind of interesting facts are you going to share with us?"

"THESE FACTS ARE HIGHLY VARIED. THEY MAY RELATE TO PERSONAL OPINIONS ON VARIOUS TOPICS, OR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR PASTS."

"Wait," Michio cut in, "personal experiences?"

"YES."

"How would you know about those things?" Naoko asked.

"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THAT. NOW, ARE THERE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?"

The room fell silent.

"THEN THAT IS ALL. YOU MAY GO."

The screen turned off and rose up into the ceiling. The students were able to leave, but didn't do so right away. Instead, they remained to speak to one another.

"It never answered my question," Naoko pointed out. "How would IMONO be able to know about our thoughts and experiences?"

"It may have something to do with our missing memories," Yori suggested. "IMONO didn't elaborate on that topic, either."

"Maybe we all knew someone who we shared these things with," Keiko posited. "That could be possible if we all went to the same high school."

"We're back to that, huh?" Takeshi asked. "I guess that could be it, but-"

*Ding!*

Everyone's phones rang and vibrated, interrupting their discussion. In unison, everyone pulled out their phones and saw that each of them had a message in their inbox. Each was titled "IMONO's Fun Fact Message (Please Read)". Naoko held off from reading it, though. First, he looked up and spoke to the others.

"Should we read them?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Mariko replied. "They could be very personal. I don't want to pry into people's secrets."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it," Bankei suddenly said. "I already looked at my message."

Everyone immediately turned their gaze to her. She didn't seem uncomfortable about it, though, as she just smiled.

"Already?" Mine asked. "Wow, that was quick! What's it say?"

"Eh-heh, well..." Bankei paused, looking down at her phone screen. "It says it's Hoshi's. It says… 'Hoshi Kurafuto is comfortable with nearly every horror subgenre. The only he isn't comfortable with is comedy horror'."

"Oh," Naoko said. "That's true, actually. He told me so himself when we first met."

"And I haven't told anyone else since then," Hoshi added. "It's not that I don't like it. I just have trouble writing it. Comedy diminishes the impact of the horror, and that makes me uncomfortable when I try to write it."

"Well, you don't have to write comedy horror if you don't want to," Bankei pointed out.

"True, true," Hoshi replied. "Okay then. That wasn't bad at all."

"Then I guess it's safe to read our messages, right?" Keiko asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Naoko agreed.

At that, everyone, Naoko included, opened their message and read its contents. Naoko couldn't see anyone else's screen, but he could see his own just fine. It read: "Mine Yamashiro, due to various incidents that have occurred during her life, has developed a severe case of claustrophobia."

Naoko was surprised. Not necessarily because of the secret itself, but because he wasn't expecting something so...heavy. He was about to say something along the lines of "wow, this is pretty serious", but barely got out the first word when he looked up and saw that everyone else had some grave looks on their faces. For the most part, anyway. Kimi didn't seem at all bothered, and Bankei was still smiling.

"Hah!" Kimi exclaimed. "Now this is a juicy little secret. Anyone wanna hear this one?"

"Pipe down, Kimi," Mine said. "That's not...oh, wow. Sorry, this is really heavy."

"Gotta admit," Haru added, "the one I got's pretty bad, too."

Everyone else began murmuring in agreement. It seemed like all of the facts were quite serious. Nobody looked like they wanted to share what they were given. Naoko reflected on this, and quickly realized something, that being that there was one person that was okay with sharing, and one secret that ended up being pretty tame. Naoko had a hunch, and decided to go with it.

"Bankei?" Naoko asked. "Was the secret you told us really the one you got?"

Once again, Bankei became the center of attention, and once again, she seemed perfectly content about it.

"Oh? Are you calling me a liar?" Bankei asked. "How would I lie about something I didn't know?"

"I feel like that's wrong," Mareo commented. "Hoshi, you said that you didn't tell anyone else about that. Is that true?"

"Yes, it is," Hoshi confirmed. "Still, I suppose she could've overheard what I said. It wasn't like I whispered it."

"I'm afraid that I didn't hear you say that," Bankei claimed.

"Yeah, I kinda doubt that," Haru said. "Guess there's only one way to know for sure." Haru began to walk over to Bankei. Once he closed the distance, he swiped Bankei's phone before she could react.

"Wha? How rude," Bankei condemned.

Haru ignored her and walked over to Hoshi, handing him the phone without looking at the screen. Hoshi examined the screen and gasped.

"Oh god," he let out. "IMONO knows about this? This…" Hoshi cleared his throat. "Sorry. I'm just a tad surprised, is all. IMONO must've pulled these secrets out of our minds or something. That's the only way I think that it'd know this."

"Wow," Haru replied. "Must be a pretty dark secret. Don't know what to say, man."

"Don't worry, Haru," Hoshi assured him. "Thank you for that."

Haru gave Bankei her phone back without a word. After that, Eryu took the initiative.

"Well," he said, "it sounds like the facts that IMONO have given us are a lot less tame than Bankei's deception led us to believe." He eyed Bankei angrily as he said this. The kimono-clad girl didn't seem to care. "I think that we should keep these to ourselves."

"Are you sure?" Keiko asked. "Maybe things would be better if we air out what we know."

"Wait, you actually wanna take IMONO's advice?" Ishi asked. "I mean, I dunno if I'm comfortable sharing what I got."

"I know I can't speak for everyone," Keiko admitted. "Maybe some of these facts are too personal to share. Still, if anyone's comfortable with sharing, I think doing so would go a long way. Just ask who's got your secret, and tell us what they were given."

There were no volunteers. Instead, people began to leave, troubled looks all around. Naoko could tell that Keiko didn't like that people were doing that, and it made him wonder whether the secret that IMONO shared about him was as bad as he was suspecting. Would it be best for everyone if he shared? Maybe, but he was as worried about it as everyone else. Mentally cursing out IMONO, Naoko left the gym with everyone else.