I stepped outside of the train and onto the concrete platform below, side-by-side with Masaki. This first station we arrived at was inside a large closed space, with a flat concrete ground and a rounded, concave ceiling, like a half-cylinder. The bright, yellow sun shone through the transparent window which made up the station's ceiling. One would be able to see tree branches and various shapes of green leaves brushing against the roof window, giving a natural vibe to the area. Flowers, bushes, and small trees of all kinds were planted all around the station, directly underneath the window ceiling to absorb sunlight.

Right in front of us was a short, thin sakura tree only around 159 centimeters, only two centimeters taller than myself. The pale, pink blossoms were radiating with their color, appearing to be healthy and watered to perfection. It was the type of tree you could never take a real picture of, just one you would create in Photoshop or some editing program such as that. Something like this was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I pulled my camera out of my bag and turned it on, positioning it for a photograph of the perfect sakura tree. With the satisfying "Click!" of the camera taking a picture, I had saved a photograph of the tree.

"Oh my Kami, it's a sugoi sakura tree! It's soooooooo kanari!" Amy-chan raved, her eyes gleaming as she gazed at the pink-blossomed tree before us all.

"Welcome to the MonoGarden!" Monokuma announced to all of us, leaping out of the train and facing us. "We take great care of our flora here! Feel free to explore this station at your own leisure!" Before any of us could say anything else, or acknowledge the fact that it was nigh-impossible to make ourselves comfortable knowing that we had to kill each other in order to graduate from Hope's Peak Academy, Monokuma jumped back into the train. "At 10 pm tonight, meet me inside the main seating area of the train, and I'll show all of you your rooms!" He ran to the left, disappearing without saying anything else.

There was a long pause after that. We all eyed each other, glancing back-and-forth at one another.

Suddenly, one of us spoke up. Michiru pushed her glasses back, before walking up to the sakura tree. "If the sakura is in full bloom, that must mean it is in the middle of winter..." she noted. "Very interesting. Didn't we come to Hope's Peak Academy during the summer?" she asked us all. Everyone murmured among each other, conversing with each other at varying volumes. I could not make out any words anyone was saying, but it seemed that everyone was agreeing with Michiru. I thought she was probably correct - after all, I did receive my letter in the middle of July.

"I think you're right," Daquan spoke up, scratching his chin. "I remember it like it was yesterday. It was sometime in July. My uncle was so proud that I got that letter and he told me not to even worry about the cost."

"Yes, yes!" Lorenzo added. He clicked his tongue, looking at the ground and then back up. "We were in the middle of our July sale when I got that letter."

A wide, creepy grin spread across Aiko's face as she gave a sinister giggle. "Maybe we've entered a time warp! The Dark Lord loves to do that. He's told me about it." She suggested.

I raised an eyebrow at Aiko, still unable to make heads or tails of anything she said. Ignoring her, I stepped in the middle of our group, pulling my phone out of my bag. While it had clearly displayed the current time (3:48 PM), today's date was missing, even though it always displayed that as well. "It's not..." I couldn't even get the words out as my hand quivered, my heart pounding out of my chest. "Even showing the date?!"

Masaki gave a sigh and scratched his chin. "That's the thing, no one really knows what day it is today. We've all tried looking at our phones, going on the internet to find out... nothing is even showing up."

Unable to comprehend my current situation, I placed my hands to the sides of my head, my phone dropping out of my hand and cracking the screen upon hitting the concrete ground. I didn't care enough at the moment to be upset at that.

"We... don't know how we got here... or what day it is... or where we are..." I whimpered, my legs trembling as I struggled to keep myself on my feet. I felt a hand rest onto my shoulder, and I turned around. Masaki gave a warm smile, even though I could tell as well as anyone that it wasn't genuine. I definitely appreciated him trying, though.

"Kanon," He began. I gulped, looking into his gray-blue eyes as he forced a smile in my direction. "It'll be alright. Just... trust me on this."

I sighed in response, unable to say anything else. I even though Masaki wasn't exactly helping me feel better about my current situation, I was at least glad he was there to help me through it. I took a deep breath, sitting beneath the sakura tree and looking up at the windowed ceiling overhead. The tree branches and leaves swayed with the wind, occasionally brushing against the building and letting out a muffled scratching sound. If Michiru had been correct, then the winter air would be cold to feel if we had been outside. Instead, it seemed to be rather warm in here, like a perfect summer temperature.

After a minute or so passed, I could see Yuki's face turning a beet red and dripping with sweat. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth as her eyelids twitched. "It's so... hot..." she gasped, her body swaying side-to-side.

"Hey, Yuki?" I asked her. She jumped back inside the train, and then turned back toward me.

"The heat is no good for me," She muttered, gasping for air between words. "I need to get to a room with air conditioning!"

Before she had the chance to run off, I heard Guadalupe's voice from behind. "Yuki!" she called out. "I found a room with air-conditioning! Come on, you've gotta see this place!" Guadalupe then ran toward Yuki, who was still swaying from side-to-side. The poor girl could barely stand. Guadalupe then picked up Yuki, carrying her like a princess, and began to dash away, running off in the distance toward a darkened room in the left corner, away from the train.

I leaned against the sakura tree, wondering exactly how used to the cold one would have to be in order to get heat stroke from lukewarm temperatures. Masaki sat right next to me. Only a few feet away from us sat Tame and Kenji, sitting beneath a plum blossom tree. Tame appeared to be sketching something in her notebook as she bobbed her head back-and-forth with the music she was listening to (which was loud enough for Masaki and I to hear, and most definitely Kenji as well), while Kenji was still reading that Lao Tzu book. It was a picturesque scene, really - the two of them seemingly in bliss, relaxed and beneath the same tree. I pulled out my camera again, and snapped a picture of Tame and Kenji beneath the plum tree.

That's when it hit me - I had plenty of photograph opportunities in this place! Who knew what gorgeous plant life I would find, and which beautiful locations I would see, which people would allow me to snap candid photographs of them? I wanted to find out. A dorky smile spread across my face as I pondered the endless opportunities a place like this would give me.

"Hey, Masaki?" I asked the Ultimate Thief, whose eyes were closed as he leaned against the sakura tree. He opened one eye and turned his head to me.

"Hmm?" He barely even moved his mouth. Oh no, was he annoyed with me?!

I gasped, frantically pushing my glasses back up against my face and standing up. "Umm... I'm gonna go, uh... check out the place, and see if I can get any good photographs! You wanna come with?"

Masaki inhaled, and then shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, not right now," He replied. He then looked at me, and opened his eyes up and this time gave a genuine smile. "But I'd like to see all the pictures you take when you're done! I know they'll look amazing."

First, I approached Tame and Kenji, still in the same position they were just five minutes ago when I snapped their picture. "Umm..." I began, trying not to disturb their peace too much. It was at that moment that I was at a loss for words again - how would I say anything without being too invasive or forward? Then, both of them looked up at me as Tame's J-pop music stopped, and Kenji put his book down. My heart pounded as I struggled to finish my sentence.

"What do you want?" Tame asked me, mumbling with her words.

"I, uh..." My tongue felt frozen in position - I simply could not finish my sentence. What was I supposed to say now? Two of the most antisocial, quiet people among us, and neither of them seemed particularly interested in talking to me. Crap, I really did make this every bit of awkward as I imagined I would. Stupid Kanon...

Kenji looked away from me, burying his face in that Lao Tzu book again. "One should not open their mouth should their tongue hold words of no value." Kenji mused, his voice trailing off as he finished his sentence.

I tilted my head at him and raised an eyebrow. "Is that a Lao Tzu quote? Or is it Confucius? Or someone else you've read?" I asked him.

Kenji rolled his eyes and sighed. "No, I just made it up right now."

"O-oh..." I turned back to Masaki, and then looked at Kenji and Tame again. The two returned to their silent activities as Tame's J-pop music blared again. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, I walked away from the two of them, deciding it was better to just let them sit in peace.

I walked a little further away from the train, looking around at all the beautiful plant life surrounding me. Up ahead, I saw a wooden platform, standing no higher than a foot but being at least a meter long and two-thirds of a meter wide. It was painted with a crude gray, and pieces of the coat were chipping off. I saw Amy-chan, Daquan, Asa, and Azizah standing in front of the platform, which I now realized to be a rectangular stage of some sort.

"This stage is perfect!" Amy-chan exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "I was going to hold my performance on the train, but I think I'll have it up here on this stage!"

"That is simply a marvelous idea!" Asa replied, beaming at Amy-chan. "I'll provide catering~!"

Azizah gave a warm smile as well, as she pulled a pair of metal pliers and a black wire wrapped in a circle from her pockets. "I can be your stage manager! Leave light and sound to me!" Azizah assured them.

"And I can build structures to hold up the lights!" Daquan added on, giving a sort of half-smile.

Amy-chan cheered as she jumped up, striking a few poses and blowing a kiss. At one point in her posing, she kicked her leg upward, giving us a full view of her hot-pink panties. I stood back a little bit, blushing slightly as I approached her. She's tall, energetic, busty... and I'm short, tired all the time, and only a b-cup... I thought to myself as I approached the four of them.

"Um, excuse me," I began, pulling my camera out of my bag.

Amy-chan gasped as a huge smile plastered onto her face. "Kanon-chan!" she cheered as she ran up to me and squeezed me in a tight hug. I tried to push against her, but she was simply too strong for me. She was far stronger than one would expect! I struggled to breath as my face went in between her massive breasts.

"Let go!" I tried to yell. Though it came out sounding muffled and unintelligible.

After a few seconds passed, Amy-chan finally let go of me. I panted, trying to catch my breath. "Amy, what was that about?" I asked her.

"Are you okay?" Asa asked me, putting a hand atop my shoulder. "Your face looks awfully red..."

What? Of course it was red! Not only does the face typically get redder after a few seconds of suffocation, but I was also being asphyxiated inside of Amy-chan's gigantic boobs! It was embarrassing, to say the least... though under the right circumstances, perhaps a bit comfortable.

"Well, I guess I'm alright," I replied, taking the time to catch my breath. I flicked my braids behind my ears again, before thinking about what it was I was going to say. "If you'd like, I can take pictures for the show! Amy, you'd be a fantastic model!"

Amy-chan giggled and blew another kiss in my direction. "Arigatoo~!" she cooed, winking at me in return. Though she was annoying, I had to admit - the girl was adorable. Tall, slender, curvy in the right places, with a cute and approachable face. Man, if she were a little bit less obnoxious, I might have had a bit of a girl-crush going on.

Daquan cracked his knuckles, and began heading back to the train. "I'm gonna start making some rods and beams," He told us all as he walked away.

"I wonder if Utamuro would be willing to make me a kawaii outfit..." Amy-chan muttered as she also ran off, her arms at her sides as if trying to replicate the stereotypical "girly run" of anime series.

"Good heavens, look at the time!" Asa called out, looking at her phone. "I better get back inside so that my cookies don't burn! Wouldn't want that, would we?" She similarly dashed off as well, leaving me with Azizah at the stage.

Azizah pushed her glasses back up, and put her arms to her sides and gave a sort of half-smile. "So Kanon, you wanna help me set up?" she asked me, reaching into her pockets and pulling out a pair of pliers.

I gave a nervous chuckle as I stepped back, and shook my head. "O-oh, not really," I replied. "I haven't spent a day working with electricity. Photography is more my thing, really-"

Azizah chuckled at me before putting the pliers back into her pocket. "I'm just teasing," she assured me. "But really, I've got some time to kill before Daquan's done with all his work... I think I'll just sit over here and read a little bit." Azizah then moved underneath an oak tree as she pulled out a small travel-sized book, though the wording of the cover appeared to be in a completely different language. I would have never been able to read a language like it - it just appeared to be scribbles to me.

"What language is your book?" I asked Azizah. She looked into her book for a couple of seconds before she looked back up at me.

"Huh? Oh, it's just Arabic," she replied. "This book isn't anything too special - it's just a math book in Arabic."

I tried to say anything else, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. Who reads a math book for fun? Someone like Azizah must have been a much more diligent and hardworking person than I could ever be. While she was still absorbed in her book, I snapped a sneaky photograph f her as I saw a rounded doorway situated to my left, just across from Azizah's position. There wasn't a door to speak of, but it seemed that another room would be waiting for me on the other side.

I stepped through the doorway, and walked out onto another concrete platform. The soothing, therapeutic melody of water rushing in a stream echoed throughout the chamber. To my right was a small canal where a stream of water was surging from one side of the room to the other, with not a single obstacle in the stream to obstruct the passing water. On the other side of the stream was another window, which spanned across the back wall. One would not be able to get near the window, however, as it was situated directly above the cascades below. I took a deep breath, looking down at the stream below, when I jumped at the sound of a gunshot.

BANG!

I basically had a heart attack upon hearing that. My limbs trembled as I got myself on my feet, and then noticed Toko standing in the corner of the room, holding up a smoking pistol.

"Gotta say," they began, spinning the gun in their left hand before pointing it at the window behind me. "Wasn't expectin' the window to be bulletproof."

"Toko!" I practically screamed at them. They raised an eyebrow at me, and frowned. "You can't just go around scaring people with your guns like that! It's dangerous!"

Toko sighed and rolled their eyes. "Alright, alright. Sorry 'bout that, didn't mean to spook ya or anything," they assured me. "Anyway, there's just a lot more room to practice shootin' than in the train."

I gave another sigh, trying not to be too upset with them. Toko seemed like the kind of person to stay as far away from as possible, especially given the conditions we had to graduate. If anyone had massive potential to kill every single one of us, it was Toko.

Suddenly I heard loud, echoing footsteps approaching us from behind. Whoever was approaching us had to be wearing high heels, judging from the sounds of the footsteps.

"Toko, what are you doing?" We both heard at once. I turned around to see Michiru, with a stern and annoyed expression on her face, and holding a thick textbook at her left side. She pushed her glasses up and scowled at Toko. "I do not mean to be rude, but some of us are trying to study here."

Toko just gave a chuckle and twirled their pistol around again. "Sorry, brainy, I'm just doin' my own studyin'!" Toko laughed.

Michiru then rolled her eyes and huffed. "Well, can you keep it down? I have eighty-six subjects I need to be studying right now, and in the past hour, I've only studied about twenty-seven. I'm falling behind quickly. The last thing I need is your noisy gunplay distracting me."

Toko shrugged, about to pull the trigger on her gun again. Suddenly, a monitor up in the corner of the room turned on, to reveal Monokuma sitting down in a chair.

"I have an announcement to make!" Monokuma stated, crossing his arms. "Thanks to complaints, we will no longer be allowing the carrying of ammunition on your person during the daytime! Thank you!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the screen turned off. Michiru gave a sigh of relief. "Thank god."

Toko sighed as they reached into their pockets, pulling out two large, rectangular boxes of bullets. "Great. I guess I'll be back." Without saying anything else, Toko ran off, dashing aback to the train.

Michiru sighed, pushing her glasses back up. "Oh, Kanon..." she muttered, sitting down and looking out the window. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person here who's just... sort of ordinary," she said to me, lying down and looking up at the ceiling. "I could probably get some of my studies done here. It's a nice place." She told me, seeming to forget about the previous statement about considering herself mostly ordinary. Of course, I didn't quite believe that. If Masaki was to be believed, Michiru was able to do anything all of us were. If anything, she was the least ordinary out of any of us.

"But Michiru, you're the Ultimate Scholar! What makes you think you're ordinary-?" I asked, but before I could finish my question, she gave an obviously faked cough.

"We're on a different subject now, Kanon," she interrupted me. "I humbly request that you allow me to catch up on my studies for now. If I have any time, we may converse later."

I sighed, walking out of the canal room as I let Michiru sit there and study. Back in the main garden room of the station, I saw another doorway to my right, and behind the still-reading Azizah. Making my way past the Ultimate Electrician, I walked to the doorway on the right, and found myself in a blindingly bright room, with transparent walls and ceiling. This room had significantly less trees, only a large bush in the corner and three bonsai trees planted in a triangle, and in the middle of the three trees stood a large, stone circle hued with a faded bronze color, etched with a compass inside the circle and a metallic beam angled upward at 45 degrees sticking out in the center. Roman numerals were etched around the outside, in clockwise order: VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XII, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX. A shadow was being cast from the beam in the center, in between the IV and the V. It took me some time to figure out, but I soon realized that it was a sundial.

"Oh, hey Kanon!" I heard a baritone, nasal voice from behind. I turned around to see Rai standing behind me, holding a black, metallic briefcase in his right hand. "I see you've found the sun room."

The sun room? Well, it would explain the large sundial.

Rai set his briefcase down and looked up at the ceiling. "Yep, not a single cloud to be seen. Just as predicted." He sat down on the sundial and stretched his arms out. "Honestly, I needed some fresh air and free time outside of the train. Hikooki is honestly a nice guy, but man he's depressing!"

I chuckled a bit at Rai's statement. He was absolutely correct. Even though I might have talked to Hikooki only once, it was still true that just talking to him seemed to suck the energy out of the room. Rai was definitely an upbeat individual though, even if he went on about meteorology way too long for anyone else's patience. "So, uh..." I tried to think of a conversation topic not directly related to meteorology. "What's in the briefcase?" I asked him.

Rai gave a forced, nervous half-smile as he turned away, not answering my question immediately. "Well, uh..." He chuckled a bit before rushing back to his briefcase and picking it back up. "Don't take this the wrong way, Kanon, but, well... I can't tell you." He murmured, before bowing in my direction. He cleared his throat and took a moment to adjust his tie, then fixed his glasses a bit. "S-sorry, I guess I'm not really the best at social interaction."

I smiled at Rai, giggling a bit at him. There was a sort of geeky, awkward cuteness about him that I liked quite a bit, even if I didn't really like to listen to him rave about meteorology all day.

Before I could say anything to Rai, we heard loud voice screaming, "Spirits, tell me how to harness the omnipresent energy of the sun!". The two of us jumped upon hearing that, though Rai was visibly a little more shaken up than I was.

I laughed a little bit, seeing Rai's red face and maladjusted glasses, which he rushed to readjust immediately.

"H-hey, don't laugh at me!" Rai nervously told me. He turned away, still flushed.

"Why don't we go check behind the bush in the corner?" I suggested, trying to get his mind off of the subject. I had a feeling that he knew just as well as I did who was there, but I still wanted to see what was going on.

I pushed back the leaves and branches of the shrub, and peered behind the plant. Rai looked over my shoulder as well. Behind the bush, to no one's surprise, was Aiko, sitting in the middle of a pentagram surrounded by a circle drawn with red chalk. Three purple candles lit with an ominous blue flame stood at three different points of the circle, forming a triangular shape around Aiko. As soon as we spotted her, Aiko turned around and jumped, flailing about before she turned a beet-red.

"Hey!" Aiko shouted at us, before turning away and hunching over. "Don't scare the spirits away!"

Rai chuckled a bit, scratching his head. "It's kinda cute how she really thinks she's invoking spirits like that."

Cute? To me, Aiko seemed like the last person who would be considered conventionally "cute". She had ratty hair, her mouth always seemed to be fixed in an eerie grin, and her eyes were a deep red and bloodshot. Even her irises were a blood red! Was that even possible? In what universe could Aiko be considered "cute"?!

"You... think she's cute...?" I whispered to Rai, trying not to focus on him or Aiko. "A-anyway, I probably should be headed out of here... I'll leave Aiko to do whatever it was she was doing." Before I could give Rai or Aiko the chance to say anything else, I bolted from the scene and ran out of the sun room right away.

Trying not to think about Rai or Aiko, I hurried back to the middle station. I wondered if Masaki was still there? Before I could have an actual answer to that question, though, I bumped into a tall, marble statue carved in the shape of Monokuma, standing tall and crossing his arms. I stepped back, a bit intimidated by the imposing statue.

"So the statue makes you uncomfortable too?" asked a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around to see Hikooki, with his arms crossed and staring down the statue. "Gotta admit, that statue is creepy as all hell. It's like he's saying 'I'm your god now' or some shit like that. Gives me the creeps."

I nodded, agreeing with Hikooki as he said that. I looked at the statue's ugly, haunting face as I backed away a bit. I didn't want to spend too much time here with Hikooki, as I figured I would more than likely become depressed just by listening to him.

"This place would be awesome for a movie!" I heard Tomoe call out from our right side. She walked up to us, and put her hands at her sides as she grinned at the statue. "Kinda gives it a dystopian feel, y'know? Like one of those young adult novels that become movies. I bet I could direct a really good one, if someone wrote a nice script."

Tomoe scratched her chin, and I backed away a bit. There was something the slightest bit unsettling about the way she was so happy about the statue. Though, I doubted there was anything too wrong with her.

"Ah, it appears that you are afflicted with an overlying fear, or anxiety. Do you suffer from depression or anxiety? It appears that you do." I heard a voice behind the three of us. We all turned around to see Sen, holding a yellow file folder in his gloved hands.

I tilted my head at Sen. I didn't necessarily believe I suffered from depression or anxiety, but I wasn't exactly quick to disregard the idea entirely. "Um... I'm not sure..." I whispered to Sen. It didn't take a genius to figure out that I wasn't super comfortable around the Monokuma statue, but at the same time, part of me was genuinely curious about whether Sen could diagnose me at a distance, similar to Rai's ability to predict the weather months ahead.

"Egad!" Sen shouted, flailing his arms about and stepping backward. "How have you not had a thorough diagnosis yet? Your mind could be in jeopardy as we speak! Well, you're a photographer, right?"

"Well, I'm more of a photojournalist, really-"

"Then it's settled!" Sen interrupted me before I could finish. "Why don't you snap a picture of that statue? That way, you can face your fears at any moment, and it will be a reminder of how there are bigger and scarier things in life, always."

I looked down at the ground, and then at my camera, and then back at Sen. It made a little bit of sense, honestly. Although part of me thought that since he was a doctor, Sen would be better suited for physical ordeals. At the same time, what kind of Ultimate would he be if he wasn't qualified to take on mental health issues as well? I sighed and snapped a picture of the Monokuma statue, and Sen nodded in return.

"Look, I'm going back into the train," Hikooki announced. Hikooki, now that was a person Sen would have to diagnose and help out. The guy seemed to drain all the happiness out of the room with his presence alone. Just like that, Hikooki disappeared.

"Hey Sen!" called Tomoe. Sen turned his head toward the Ultimate Film Director.

"Hmm?" He asked, opening up his folder and flipping through the files.

"Is there an official name for film addiction?" she asked him.

Sen scratched his head for a few seconds before speaking up. "The official term is 'Filmomania', or, if it becomes sexual, 'Filmophilia'." He replied. Tomoe chuckled in response, giving a side-grin.

"Interesting," she replied. "Filmomania sounds like the name of a movie to direct! We gotta get a script written on that, stat!" she called out before running back toward the train. Feeling that I had explored the area just enough already, I decided to head back to the train myself.

Sen stayed behind as I made my way back to the train. No one was inside the main car, but I noticed a familiar group of faces in the food car - Kaemon, Saeko, Shiro, Hikooki, Ryo, Lorenzo, Hideki, and Utamuro. Each of them were sitting at the table, with plates filled to the brim with food.

"Oh, hello Kanon!" Lorenzo called out to me. "Why don't you take a seat? We're discussing something I believe to be rather important at the moment."

I took a seat between Lorenzo and Saeko, who was seated next to Utamuro. Across from us sat Shiro, Ryo, and Kaemon, and Hideki and Hikooki sat at the end.

"What's going on?" I asked Lorenzo.

"We're having a group meeting!" Saeko replied, smiling wide. "Lorenzo decided to hold a group discussion."

Utamuro nodded. "Yep. We're just trying to figure things out, that's all. We wonder if there's a way to get out of this without having to kill anyone."

Hideki chuckled at Utamuro's statement. "That's funny, kid. Like anyone's gonna kill anyone under my watch. That's just not possible. Nothing slips past my eyes."

Saeko's eyes lit up at Hideki's claim. "Do you have a photographic memory too, Hideki?" she asked. "I never lose anything in my collection, because I just feel it all, wherever I go? If someone were to touch anything without my permission, I'd unleash hell on them!"

"Hey, I get the same way with my cameras!" I replied to Saeko. "Looks like we have something in common!" I probably shouldn't have said that though, because immediately she squeezed me tightly. If she were any strong at all, she would have snapped my back in two.

Hideki glared at Saeko and I. "A-hem. I was talking to you."

Hikooki sighed at Hideki's statement. "What are we even doing? It's not like anyone listens to authority these days."

Hideki laughed in return. "They do if you scare 'em right!"

"Hey!" Lorenzo called out, slamming his hands on the table. "I called this meeting because we need to figure out if there's a way out of here that doesn't involve killing others! Bribing Monokuma didn't work, so that's out. Ryo, Hideki, are either of you strong enough to break those windows?"

Ryo shrugged. "And risk breaking my hands? That would hurt. What good is a basketball player with a broken hand?"

Hideki sighed. "Didn't Monokuma already say that trying to get out of here is against the rules? I'm not even gonna try to chance it."

Lorenzo sighed, sitting back down. "Man, you really are a killjoy, Hideki. Always a stickler for the rules."

Hideki chuckled again. "Look, kid, I don't make the rules. I just enforce 'em."

"Alright, we're clearly getting nowhere," I spoke up. Everyone turned toward me, and quieted down. "We need to think of something else. Does anyone know how we even got here in the first place?"

Everyone took a deep breath. The place was silent for a few seconds, before Shiro spoke up.

"I know that different types of benzodiazepines can cause memory loss, but the idea that all of us just got collectively drugged at once seems rather silly, if you ask me." They stated, tapping their fingers on the table.

"All I can remember is going into the school, and then somehow I was on this train," Utamuro spoke up. I nodded in response, as that was how I got here too. Everyone seemed to agree with Utamuro's notion, nodding and speaking amongst themselves.

"I see we have a meeting in session," called a voice not currently at the table. We all turned around to see Michiru, still holding that book in her arm. "Everyone, allow me."

Lorenzo sighed. "What do you know about group meetings that you specifically think I don't?"

Michiru simply pushed her glasses back up as she took a seat at the other end of the table. "I got everyone to shut up for a minute, didn't I?"

Lorenzo just gave an irritated "tch!" as he turned away.

"Um, Rakuyama-san, what ideas do you have?" asked Saeko.

Michiru set her book down onto the table. "Listen up. Monokuma's own rules aren't enough. What we need to do is make sure no one kills anyone else. We can ensure this by setting our own ground rules. First, I'd like to propose that every morning, we meet up here, at this table, every morning."

"Sounds reasonable to me," replied Shiro. "I'm usually up early to do some work anyway."

"Same!" Ryo called out. "Gotta get my morning routine in!"

"So that settles that," Michiru noted.

Kaemon rolled his eyes and slumped back. "I'm not sure, I do livestreams really really late. I don't think I'll even have the time to get up early."

Michiru glared at Kaemon. "Don't make me have to think of a punishment for breaking the rules."

Hideki grinned as he pulled his baton from his belt and smacked his palm. "I've got a few ideas,"

Ryo glared at Hideki. "I'm going to mess you up real badly if you even entertain that idea any longer."

"Anyway!" Lorenzo called out, trying to get everyone's attention again. "We've got a meeting here."

We spent the next few hours bickering amongst each other, and the rest of the students came in and argued with us. We weren't able to figure anything out, though - and that's when the monitor turned on again.

"Attention class!" Monokuma announced. "It is now nighttime!"

As Monokuma announced that, a metal sheet folded over the windows of the hotel room and the station. "Everyone, follow the arrows to your right, and keep going until you reach your rooms!"

We made our way through the different cars, until we found our bedrooms. The rooms on the top floor belonged to, in order, Utamuro, Amy-chan, Kenji, me, Masaki, Guadalupe, Hikooki, Asa, Toko, Kaemon, Saeko, and Daquan. The rooms on the bottom floor belonged to, in order, Aiko, Lorenzo, Shiro, Yuki, Ryo, Tame, Rai, Tomoe, Sen, Michiru, Hideki, and Azizah.

"Now, remember," Michiru began. "Everyone is to meet up in the dining area tomorrow morning! Anyone who is not there will be considered dead."

We all nodded in agreement as we went into our respective rooms. I opened my door and saw... well, I guess I shouldn't have expected much. It was nothing more than a compact room with a single bed in the corner, and several shelves loaded with cameras. My jaw dropped as I eyed every single camera in the room in awe - vintage and modern cameras, each of them I had to try out at some point! I yawned, and put my camera down as I unbuttoned my shirt and slid my skirt down, then changed into my pajamas and laid down in bed.

I sighed, hoping that I wouldn't be the victim of a killing that night. We all agreed that no one would kill, didn't we? I couldn't be bothered to ask myself any longer, though, as my eyes felt so heavy that they closed themselves, and I drifted off into a deep slumber.