A certain wave of dread filled my heart and head as Hideki walked off. Of all people to get my secret, why did it have to be him? I asked myself. Now there was no way I could approach Masaki, not with our secrets up in the air like this. I couldn't afford to make things worse for him, or for myself.

All this thinking was beginning to make me feel lightheaded and lethargic. I stumbled toward my room, my eyes twitching as the world around me began to feel slow and heavy. I trudged into my room, shoving aside the door as I plopped down onto my bed, looking at the ceiling. I was too tired to change into my pajamas, or to even take off my glasses for that matter. Before I could even process another thought about Masaki or Hideki, I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Not too long afterward, however, I heard an obnoxious "DING-DONG! DING-DONG!" at my door. I yawned and rubbed my eyes as I stepped up and held the door open, to see Utamuro standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hey..." I greeted Utamuro in a whisper, giving a lazy hand wave.

"Hey Kanon," Utamuro greeted me, handing me a slip of paper from inside his sleeve, folded into quarters. "Uh... I was told to give this to you," He informed me as I took the slip of paper from him. I opened up the paper to read, "Meet me in the dining hall - M.D.".

"Who's... M.D.?" I asked Utamuro. He opened his mouth to answer me, but I suddenly pieced together who it would be. M.D. - Masaki Domoto. Of course, who else? "Wait... Masaki?" I asked him.

Utamuro nodded in return. "Yeah. He says it's really important," He told me.

No. I couldn't.

If I were to meet up with him and Hideki was to find out, my secret would be out.

There was no telling how everyone else would feel about me then.

"What's it about?" I asked him, clenching onto the slip of paper, which was beginning to moisten beneath my sweaty palm.

Utamuro shrugged. "Not sure, he never told me," He replied as he turned around to walk out. "Also, your clothes are all wrinkled, I'd suggest you change or iron them. Just sayin',"

I looked down at my uniform. He was right, there were wrinkles everywhere. I guess that's what I get for sleeping in them.

Before I could say anything else to Utamuro, he walked out and left me in the room. With a sigh, I walked out into the dining hall to see Masaki leaning against the wall, out of view of the doorways.

"Kanon, there you are," Masaki whispered to me as he gestured for me to come closer. I jumped, looking behind to see if Hideki was around. After looking around, I couldn't see the interrogator anywhere. I gave a sigh of relief as I inched toward him, afraid of what he would say.

"What is it?" I whispered to him, looking into his gentle and caring eyes.

Masaki gave a sigh and turned his head away, looking at the ceiling. "This isn't going to be easy, but... you got my secret, didn't you?" He asked me.

I felt as if someone had pierced a hole through my heart as he asked me this question. I gulped down my anxiety and gave a sigh before I looked up at him and gave a slow nod.

"I see," Masaki replied to me. "What was it?" He asked.

"Y-You..." I felt my forehead sweating as he asked the question, as I tried to muster up all the courage I could to answer him. "You... attempted to commit suicide... and sometimes you wish you succeeded..."

Masaki nodded, looking like he was avoiding showing any emotion. "Ah, I had a feeling," He whispered to me. "Look, don't let that get to you, okay?" He tried to comfort me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "No matter what... it's not anything you did, or ever could do. It's a problem much greater than myself, it's nothing you can help on your own,"

I gulped again, looking down at the ground. Of everyone aboard this train, no one had yet been so helpful to me as Masaki had. He was one of the only people here I could trust, and even during the times where he tried to turn me away, I felt close to him. He was my best friend. Words wouldn't be able to express how bad I would feel if I were to ever lose him.

"B-But... what if you try again?! I can't let you do that! I... I'd miss you..." I told him, trying to hold in tears.

Masaki sighed and let go of me before he walked away. "I understand," He replied to me. "I don't want you to ever have to see that," He told me, looking down at the ground as he headed back toward the hallway. "If anything bad happens to me, I don't want you to feel responsible for it. It's not your fault I'm a selfish, depressed wreck of a human being," He whispered, walking away.

"But you're not-" I tried to call out to him as he walked off. I stood there in silence, feeling my arms and hands trembling as he headed out. What if this triggered something in him that might make him actually do it? All I could do was just hope he would stop himself again. I couldn't risk making it worse.

That's when I had an idea.

What if all of us got together and said the secrets we were given aloud, so that no one was singled out? I would no longer have to worry about anything Hideki could say or do to me, and Masaki wouldn't have to feel alone in all this. Man, if Michiru were alive right now, she would know exactly how to handle this.

I walked past the dining hall and into the scenic room, where I saw Rai, Hikooki, Tame, Kenji, Ryo, Shiro, Asa, Saeko, Toko, Daquan, and Kaemon sitting in a group.

"Hey, everyone!" I called out to them, excited to present my idea to them.

"Howdy, Kanon!" Toko greeted me. "You joinin' our secret-findin' group?" They asked.

I shook my head. "I have a better idea," I replied. "What if we get everyone to meet up, and then say all of our secrets aloud, including who has the secret?"

Kaemon scoffed. "Sounds boring," He replied, playing a game on his laptop. I wanted to point out his absolute hypocrisy, but something stopped me.

"Dear Kanon, we're doing the best we can to figure out who has whose secrets," Asa informed me.

"Yeah, this is the best way of really knowing who might kill someone else," said Rai. "Now, where could Aiko be? She said she would be here by now,"

Hikooki shrugged. "I haven't the faintest clue. Perhaps she just forgot, again?"

Rai shook his head. "She always seems to forget anytime I ask her to hang out,"

"Well Kanon, I think you have a good idea," Shiro informed me, ignoring Rai. "If we get everyone together to reveal their secrets, we can beat Monokuma's little game,"

"That's easy for you to say," Hikooki replied. "The one you got was no big deal at all,"

No big deal?

But weren't these supposed to be life-threatening secrets or something to that effect?

"I, for one, believe that if I let go of who I am, I become what I might be," Kenji informed me, crossing his arms. "Our secrets may be holding us back, including myself. However, once we get past that, we will become greater than ever before. You can consider me an attendee of your meeting,"

I nodded at Kenji with a smile, pleased with his decision.

"Uh, I'll go too," Tame added on. "I mean, I don't really have much to lose from all this,"

Daquan nodded along. "Yeah, and I think it'll bring us closer together. We won't kill each other if we're all good friends, right?"

Toko nodded and gave a grin. "I reckon we're gettin' somewhere now! Kanon, that was a mighty fun suggestion you made! You can count me in now,"

"I guess I can go too," Rai stated. "I mean, I'll try and see if I can get Aiko to come with me, but I'll do my best,"

Saeko stood up and shook her head. "I'd love to go tomorrow, but..."

Toko and Daquan looked at her, raising an eyebrow. I raised an eyebrow at Saeko as well, wondering what she was going on about this time.

"I'm meeting up with somebody tomorrow," Saeko announced.

"Who is it?" Ryo asked her. "If it's not Toko or Daquan, then who could it possibly be?"

Saeko smiled and shook her head. "It's not important," She replied. "Actually, I shouldn't have brought that up. Moving on?"

Toko and Daquan gave a little side-eye to Saeko as Ryo was the next to speak up. "I, uh... don't think I'll have any problem attending," He told us. "Just... please don't laugh at my secret when it comes up, okay?"

I nodded at Ryo's request. "Of course not, this is for us to get closer together. I would never be able to laugh at you for that,"

"I should be able to attend too, dear," Asa informed me with a smile. "In fact, I'll make my special cookies for this event!"

Kaemon looked up from his computer and then looked at all of us. "Uh... maybe I'll go..." He whispered. "Just... don't get any ideas. I still hate all of you,"

I sighed, but I guess it couldn't be helped. I didn't think there was anybody who actually liked him among all of us anyway.

From here, I decided I should present my suggestion to everybody else as well. I had to see who else would be attending this event. I walked away from the group in the scenic room and headed back up to the hallway, where I found Tomoe, Utamuro, and Amy-chan.

"Man, this floor is just disgusting!" Tomoe called out, looking down at the ground with a face of disgust. I looked down to see that she was right - footprints, hair, and other assorted junk littered the floor. "That's it, we need to set up some sorta cleaning schedule for us. I can't stand looking at this ground anymore,"

"That's a perfect idea," Utamuro replied to her. "I think I'll handle it tonight. Who should handle it tomorrow?"

"What about Kaemon?" I half-jokingly whispered.

"Perfect!" Amy-chan exclaimed. "He's so kitanai, just like this floor!"

"Will he even do it?" Utamuro asked. "He doesn't seem like the type of person who would clean up so willingly,"

Tomoe gave a grin. "Ah, that's where this chart comes in," She began, drawing a chart with everybody's name on it. "Technically, he doesn't have to do it. But then that means the person cleaning the next day has to clean up everything he didn't clean up, so that's just bad for him in the end. In fact, I think I'll make it someone who hates his guts, somebody like... I dunno... Yuki?"

Yuki was a good choice, she seemed to hate Kaemon more than even the rest of us.

"Perfect idea," Utamuro replied. Tomoe hung up the chart in the hallway, reading:

"Hallway Cleaning Chart:

*Today: Utamuro

*Tomorrow: Kaemon

*Day After: Yuki"

"And then every day, we just bump everyone to the next day, and then we add the next person from there," Tomoe informed us.

I thought she had a good idea going on. I had to hand it to her - that girl was totally organized all the time. Before I walked off, I had to present my idea to them.

"Hey, uh, would anyone be interested in attending a meeting tomorrow? It's to discuss all of our secrets, so that we can beat Monokuma's motive," I suggested to them.

Utamuro nodded. "Not a bad plan. The sooner we can meet up, the better,"

Amy-chan's eyes darted back-and-forth. "The idea of my secret coming out... it's so... kowai..." She muttered. "B-But... I guess if it's to beat Monokuma..."

Tomoe shrugged in return. "I dunno. The secret I got was... well, it was real bad. Like, the kinda thing that nobody else should know," She informed us as she walked away. "I'm staying outta this one,"

I sighed, but I knew I had to remain vigilant for this.

"Anyway, I'm going to bed," Utamuro whispered with a yawn. "I feel sleepy all of a sudden,"

Amy-chan gave an exaggerated yawn, stretching her arms out. "I'm going to bed too... Oyasumi, Utamuro-kun and Kanon-chan..."

The three of us walked away from the scene as we all headed back to our rooms. I changed into my pajamas and waited for the next day to come, hoping desperately that no one would be dead in the morning.

We had to make sure everybody was safe for this meeting.