Everyone exited the dining room, though I stood in place. I couldn't shake the thought of the horrors that Monokuma had unfolded right before me. I couldn't even approach Masaki about this; I knew that would cause more trouble than it would solve. I also wasn't the best at commiserating.

Trying to get my mind off of things, I took a deep breath and exited the dining room myself. Perhaps I would spend some time with some of my friends in order to forget about what I had just seen.

As I walked through the corridors of the train, I found Asa in the kitchen, wearing an apron spotted with cake batter and frosting, undoubtedly baking something. "Oh, hello dear Kanon!" she called out to me. I smiled at Asa, then gasped as I saw someone else sitting down at a table - Masaki. He looked right at me, and I stopped cold. Now that I knew, there was no way I could approach him so casually.

Of course, now he would think it was weird that I wouldn't talk to him, seemingly from out of nowhere.

"H-Hi Asa..." I muttered to her, trying to keep my eyes off of Masaki. He didn't say anything, and turned away to look down at the table. All I could do was wonder what exactly he was thinking at the moment, and if it had anything to do with Monokuma's twisted motive.

"I'm baking a cake! I think it will help us get our mind off of things!" Asa informed me. "Would you like to help me out?"

Ignoring Masaki, I nodded and gave a smile at Asa. I decided I would spend some of my free time with her.

"Great!" She replied with a warm smile on her face. "Here, put this on!" She instructed me, handing me a white apron like the one she was wearing. "I absolutely require that you wear this, I can't let your uniform get covered in cake mix!"

I smiled at Asa's concern as I put the apron on. It was a little big on me, but if it would keep my clothes from getting dirty, it was worth it.

"Now, I still need to make the second layer, so I'll have you mix that for me!" Asa said, handing me a large mixing bowl filled with a cream-colored liquid cake mix and a shiny metal whisk. I nodded in return, whisking the cake mix as vigorously as I could. "Oh, you're quite good at that!" Asa noted.

"R-really?" I asked as some of the mix splashed onto my apron. "I mean, all I'm doing is mixing-"

Asa gasped. "Oh dear, there's simply far more to it than just mixing! This is a process, it needs to be respected as an art! I believe you're doing that art justice!"

I giggled a bit at Asa's compliments. Just like the baked goods she would make, Asa really was rather sweet. She helped guide me through all the motions, assisting me with the mixing, pouring, and spreading. Even if I spilled a little here or there, she was so patient and supportive.

After about an hour or so, it was all ready to be put in the oven.

"There we go!" Asa announced. "Thank you for all your help, Kanon! I'm sure it will turn out wonderful!"

"Yeah!" I replied. "I mean, you did most of it, so of course,"

"Aw, don't say that!" Asa told me. "Please, take credit when it's given to you! You have so much more to you than you think!"

While it seemed a little over-the-top to give me such high praise for simply helping bake, I still appreciated every last word of what Asa said to me.

"Anyway, I'm going to need to pull this out in an hour or so, would you mind waiting here with me?" Asa asked.

"Well-" Before I could finish my sentence, I turned to see Masaki looking at us again. I jolted a little bit, and suddenly stood up. "I, uh... have to go," I replied to her.

"Oh, it's okay! I understand!" Asa replied. "I'll come get you when it's finished!"

I nodded and walked out of the kitchen, trying to think of my next place to go. With haste, I headed toward our rooms. While the hallway was rather empty, I noticed Saeko exiting her room for a brief moment. Then I realized, I didn't actually know Saeko too well yet.

"Hey, Saeko!" I called out. She looked my way and grinned.

"Hello!" Saeko responded. "What's up?"

I had to think of some way to engage in conversation. What would Saeko be interested in? Given that she was a collector, she was bound to have rather eclectic tastes. "I, uh... I'd like to see what sort of things you have collected!"

Saeko's eyes gleamed the moment I expressed interest in her collection. While I now knew I would probably be here a while, it still would help me get my mind off of... well, that. "Absolutely!" Saeko exclaimed at once, grabbing me by the hand as she pulled me into her room. No, she literally pulled me off of my feet and into her room.

I took a second to catch my footing again as I entered her room, and all I could do was gasp in awe at everything all around. Any sort of collectible, whether it be anime figurines, old comics, stamps, rare coins, vintage video games, it was all there. Everything was organized by group, with some of the more rare items behind protective glass or plastic. It was almost like walking into a museum of valuable collectibles.

"Whoa..." I whispered to myself. "How did you acquire all of this?" I asked her. "Some of these things must be worth millions..."

Saeko smirked at me, then did a twirl as she gestured toward her anime figurines. "These weren't so rare when I first bought them, but they discontinued them after only the first wave, so now getting your hands on even one is almost impossible!" She informed me. "In fact, this one right here," She began, motioning toward a human-sized robot figure. "Actually was painted wrong, it's supposed to have red arms, not white. For this reason, it's a one-of-a-kind! Worth over one million yen!"

I gasped at Saeko's claim. One million yen, for that? It just couldn't be real.

"And that's not all!" Saeko continued. She did another twirl, before stopping in front of her dresser, where a golden, rectangular cartridge for an old video game was erected. "This is a limited-edition version of the video game World Championships, there's only around 26 of them in the world!"

Only 26?! How did she even get a hold of that?!

"What?! They stopped producing games like that before you were even alive!" I exclaimed, still in disbelief. At this point, I needed to get a lot of pictures of Saeko's room. Her collection would have made for an excellent article.

Saeko gave another smirk. "It's amazing what you can do with the internet and a little bit of exaggeration!"

"What do you mean by that? A little bit of exaggeration?" I asked her, while starting up my camera.

With a nervous chuckle, Saeko grabbed both of my cheeks and looked me in the eye. "Okay, don't tell anyone I told you this, but," She whispered. I nodded, my eyes darting back-and-forth as my temples began to sweat. What was she about to say? "I'm..."

She was...?

Saeko leaned in closer, whispering right in my ear. "There's no way I could afford any of this stuff. I'm actually over one billion yen in debt,"

I gasped as Saeko let go of me. One billion yen in debt?! How was that even possible?!

"How are you one billion-"

"Shhh!" Saeko shushed me before I could finish my question. "If anyone hears, it'll be the end of me!"

I sighed. I suddenly didn't want to write an article about Saeko, given the dishonesty of her collection. It was quite impressive she owned all this, but was it really right, owning all this without paying for it? It was physical piracy.

The two of us went silent for a moment, before she smiled at me and scooted closer. "Y'know, no one really takes the time to talk to me like this. I hang out with Toko and Daquan, obviously, but even they would much rather talk about their talents than mine. You're a good listener, y'know?"

I smiled at Saeko's compliment. Perhaps she wasn't the most genuine of us, but she had a good heart. At least I think she did.

The two of us went silent again, and I looked at the time on my phone. It looked like I had spent a decent amount of time with Saeko, so I decided to see who else I could spend time with. "Well, I guess I'll see you later!" I told Saeko as I exited her room. Saeko waved back at me as I left, and walked outside the train to see who else I could find.

Just as before, I saw Yuki and Guadalupe playing around in the snow, wrestling each other and throwing snowballs. I smiled at the sort of childlike horseplay the two would engage in, hoping that maybe innocence like that would come back to me. I took a picture of Guadalupe pinning Yuki down in the snow, and all I could do was smile at the sense of playfulness the picture had to it. Of course, I also had to get out of there before the two of them spotted me.

I looked in through the window of the lounge to see Amy-chan, Utamuro, Ryo, Rai, and Hikooki at the tables. Amy-chan would walk out in different outfits, while Utamuro and Ryo were watching her. Rai seemed to be going off about something to Hikooki, who kept looking back at him with a bored expression on his face. It looked like all of them were preoccupied, so I left them be.

I walked past the lounge and then to the shack, where a loud grinding noise was coming from. I covered my ears as I walked inside, trying to determine the source of the sound. Inside, I could see Daquan wearing a clunky welder's mask, filing some long metallic object with a saw. Almost as soon as I got in there, Daquan stopped and pulled his mask off. "Oh, good to see you, Kanon!" He called out to me. "What brings you here?"

I shrugged at Daquan's question. "Just passing the time. I see you found a new place to work?"

Daquan gave a chuckle. "Yeah, I didn't wanna disturb anyone back on the train," He replied. "So I'm doin' all my work here!"

I looked around Daquan to see various steel beams and other pieces of metallic equipment strewn about. It looked like he had gotten quite a bit done in the short time he had to do this.

"Wow, you work fast, don't you?" I asked him.

Daquan shrugged. "This is just normal speed for me. My uncle told me to follow this passion no matter where it guided me, so I just kept goin'. I just do it so much that I forget I'm even doin' it!"

I just gasped as I looked at all his creations. While it was mostly just frames and support beams, it was still impressive how he had gotten all of that done. "Where do you get all the materials to make this?" I asked him.

Daquan shrugged. "Mostly just junkyards and dumpsters," He replied. "Back where I come from, people throw that shit away all the time," He informed me. "Actually, most of the time my uncle just comes by and gives me stuff to work with,"

I nodded at Daquan's claim. I thought it was quite sweet how close he was with his uncle, it just furthered my initial impression of him. He was a nice boy, I liked him.

"What are you working on right now?" I asked him.

"Oh, this?" Daquan replied, holding out the steel beam he was working on. "Oh, just a frame for a shelf I've been working on. Saeko wanted more shelves to put more stuff on, because her she thinks her room is getting cluttered,"

Wow, he was a good friend too! Was there any shortcoming he had?

"So, Daquan, what made you want to get into this?" I asked.

Daquan sighed. "I... don't know if I want to tell you," He replied. "I got involved with the wrong people, at the wrong time... if I could change who I was then, I'd be happy, but I don't know if I woulda ever gotten into this,"

I nodded at his statement. I really didn't want to push his buttons, or pry him for information. It was nice of him to talk with me, though. "I'm sorry about that," I apologized to him. "Well... I think I'll go now. It was nice hanging out with you!" I told him. Daquan gave me a warm smile as I walked away from the shack/his new workshop, and headed back onto the train.

What was greeting me there was... quite the surprise.

"Kanon Amari," I heard a tough, overtly confident voice call out. From my left side, Hideki walked toward me with a grin on his face. "Now that it's gotten later, I think I should approach you about this,"

"Wh-what is it?" I asked Hideki, feeling a chill down my spine as I tried to fake a smile.

"Is this true?" He asked, pulling out a slip of paper from his pocket. It read,

"Kanon Amari sent nude pictures to her ex-boyfriend, who still has the pictures."

I gasped. No, there was no way Monokuma should have known that! In fact, I had forgotten all about that!

"Th-that's not true..." I muttered to him.

"A likely story," He replied, putting the note back into his pocket. "How old were you when you sent that?" He asked me.

Oh no. I began to sweat, tugging on my collar as I tried to think of an answer to his question. I had to come up with something that wasn't true, but could sound true.

Hideki smirked at me and crossed his arms. "Kanon, look. In this digital age, it's normal for girls like you to want to send pictures like that to significant others, or even to friends. Lots of them do it,"

Something about Hideki's wording calmed my nerves a bit. I gave a sigh. "He... begged and begged me to send some, and so... I did. It was a little embarrassing, but I'd honestly forgotten all about it..."

Hideki shrugged. "Kanon, I asked you how old you were when you sent those,"

"Oh, right. Well, I was sixteen, and-"

Hideki tilted his head. "Sixteen, huh? How do I put this... that's illegal,"

I gasped again. "B-But you just said it was perfectly normal!"

He shrugged yet again, and turned away. "Yeah, normal, but I never said it was legal. Look, there's not much I can do here, but I imagine you wouldn't want a secret like that going around," Hideki informed me. "Now, I'm an honest guy. I won't tell anybody about this, but I expect you to hold up an end of the deal too,"

I raised an eyebrow. What could Hideki be talking about?

"Don't get involved with Masaki anymore. That boy is trouble. He'll only lead you further down the road of bad choices you're already going down,"

I wanted to protest, but Hideki made off with great haste before I could even say anything. I just stared at the wall and gulped down my insecurities, shaking with a sense of nervousness.

What was I to do now?