Chapter 2 – A Fine Death
Jack's eyes flew open as a small jingle played in his room. The monitor that faced him on the opposite wall flashed on and displayed Monokuma sitting on a rather large chair for the bear. "Alright you bastards, night-time is officially over! Better get up 'cause you got a lotta killing to do!" Jack groaned, rubbing his head.
Last night had been hectic for everyone. Okami had been telling the truth about all the rooms. There was one room for each student, they had nameplates on them so nobody would argue over who got what room. Jack was second on the right which was between Brittany and Kiki. The room itself was rather bland, it had a small wooden table with a matching chair and had grey walls. There was a small bathroom but it didn't have a lock on it, only the girl's rooms had a lock. He also found a room key sitting on the table when he entered so he could lock his room door.
God…so all that wasn't just a crazy dream…I'm really stuck in here and being forced to kill to leave… Jack sighed as he got out of bed, getting dressed and heading out of his room into the empty hallway.
He glanced back at his room. It was probably the only place that could be a 'safe haven' if you were cautious enough. Even with the night-time rule everyone had agreed on, that didn't mean people wouldn't disobey it. It was only a verbal promise after all.
Jack sighed as he felt something…or rather someone, bump into him. There was a girlish 'oof' and a small thud as the figure hit the floor. Jack bit his lip as he turned to see who walked into him instantly recognising the blue-haired Italian skateboarder, Marzia.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Jack apologised quickly as he helped Marzia get off of the floor.
"No, no. I am the one who is sorrier…" She shook her head as she brushed some dust off of her short-shorts. "I was not looking where I was going…" Her English may have not been the best but at least people could still understand her.
"Its fine, I was just heading to the cafeteria...are you doing the same?" He asked with slight curiosity growing inside him when she shook her head again.
"No…I have been walking through the floor since five o'clock…I could not get back to sleep after I had awoken up." She explained. That made sense since there were small bags that were visible underneath her eyes. "Did you just wake up?"
"Yeah. So, do you wanna come with me to the cafeteria? We can get something to eat…" Marzia blushed slightly.
"Oh…my…" She turned away for a second. "I never thought…"
"Marzia? Is something wrong?" Jack raised an eyebrow at the Italian's sudden bashful nature. "You seem a little…red…"
"Urp!" Marzia faced Jack with a small smile. "S-so…we were going to be going the cafeteria, no?" She started to fidget.
"Umm…yeah. Let's go." Jack started to head over to the cafeteria, Marzia now in tow. There was a small giggle as Marzia walked dangerously close to Jack on the way leaving very little space between the two. "M-Marzia, careful or I'm gonna trip over your foot…" Jack treaded cautiously.
"Mhmhmh!" Marzia smiled sweetly. "Most sincere apologies…I'll try not to trip you…" She giggled once more.
What is with this girl…? Jack bit the inside of his cheek as they walked into the cafeteria. Most of the other students had arrived already. Those missing included: Okami, Kouya, Kiki and Lewis.
"Morning you guys!" Satoshi greeted rather cheerfully despite what they learned yesterday. "Did you all sleep well?"
"Hardly…" Ishida sighed. "There's no way anyone could have slept easily last night, not after everything…"
"I slept just fine, actually." Whitney remarked. "Geez, you're all such babies, this is probably just a tasteless joke that's being set up by Hope's Peak!"
"Whitney, there is a chance that it isn't. Don't be so light on the subject like that…" Brittany folded her arms as she leaned back into her seat. "Even with all that, we still don't know what exactly our situation is…Monokuma hadn't explained it very clearly last night, did he?"
"No, I suppose he didn't…" Kirito shook his head. "That doesn't mean we don't understand why we've been put in here though. It looks like it's just to kill each other!"
"Well, we can easily prevent that from happening! Leave it to me and I'll find a way!" Hiko saluted determined to escape. "All we have to do is work together!"
"Therefore, we have to exclude Okami from anything we do. I have a feeling that no matter what we try to do, she's gonna try and mess with our heads…" Jasmine suggested.
"What? You think hesitate to kill one of us while we have our backs turned? You heard how she spoke about this yesterday!" Kristopher reminded her.
"I have to agree with…Jasmine, was it?" Abigail fixed her glasses. "Okami's a cautious sadist…she isn't going to make a move unless she's provoked. If we keep our distance, we should all be just fine. I have to admit that she will most likely try to manipulate the rest of us into killing each other. She seems to be obsessed with the idea of seeing another dead body."
"So are you saying that she won't kill because if she does, that'll be the end of the dead bodies she sees?" Ishida asked.
"In a nutshell…yes." Abigail nodded.
"Hey, where are Lewis, Kouya and Kiki?" Jack looked around. "Are they still sleeping?"
"Lewis is a very heavy sleeper. You'd probably need more than Monokuma's simple morning announcement to wake him up." Brittany explained. "That and he takes like an hour to get ready…"
"Not even I take that long and look at this hair." Whitney pointed to her huge hairstyle that looked like something from a 60s movies.
"Kouya said he was going to look around the floor a little bit more before he drops by…" Satoshi folded his arms. "He's really freaking dedicated to get out of here…I wonder why though."
"Kiki's shut herself in her room…she's refused to come out unless she's forced to by Monokuma." Ishida rubbed his forehead, indicating he had a very interesting conversation with her. "She seems much more scared than everyone else…"
"Yeah, even the flamewanker managed to drop by!" Whitney giggled as she gestured to Hiroyuki.
"F-f-f-f-f-flamerworker…" Hiroyuki corrected quietly.
"Brittany, do me a favour and get Lewis…he should be here. This is worse than being late to band practice…" Whitney pointed to the door.
"Yes…Lewis can't be late at this time…" Brittany nodded, heading off to get the drummer.
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do now anyway?" Kirito asked. "We can't exactly go anywhere. The staircases to the other floors have been blocked off by Monokuma. I kind of wish we had someone looking out for us…"
"The police must be doing something to help us! If not…" Jasmine beamed a smile. "The almighty Patricia will help us all the end!" She received a few confused looks from the other students that surrounded her.
"Who the hell is Patricia…?" Whitney tried to hold a laugh in.
"Patricia is the holy and almighty goddess that I worship! If it weren't for Patricia, my life would not have any meaning! She and her holy mole will save us all!" Jasmine threw a punch in the air all too enthusiastically.
"…you aren't okay in the head, are you?" Jack blew his cheeks out.
"Of course I am!" Jasmine yelled, clearly offended. "I'm just explaining my love for Patricia which should not be discriminated against because that counts as racism!"
"Wow…" Kouya simply said, entering the cafeteria with Kiki at his side. "That's defiantly something to hear when you walk into the room."
"Jack was being racist towards Jasmine's made-up religion." Whitney explained.
"How dare you insinuate that Patriciaism is made up?!" Jasmine's eyes filled with fire as she pointed furiously at Whitney. "Patricia is our lord and saviour and will be here to save with her almighty powers!"
"Patricia…" Abigail tapped her chin. "Sure…we'll roll with it…just to stop any further quarrels…" Jasmine smiled triumphantly. "But anyhow. Did either of you see Lewis on your way here?" She turned her attention to Kiki and Kouya.
"No. We saw Brittany though, I said hi to her but she just ignored me…" Kiki frowned. "I don't think she likes me very much…"
"Aw…" Kristopher smiled. "Don't worry about her, she's just forever focused on keeping Lewis, Whitney and I in line, that's all…" Kiki blushed at his words.
"Of course, Kristopher, though I doubt you would do anything to make her mad…"
"He's the most disruptive out of all, actually." Whitney said on the contrary. "Most self-centred, most pretentious, most everything…"
"Most good looking…" Kiki said aloud, presumably unintentionally.
"Y'know, we also saw Okami when we were on our way here as way…she was making her way to the main building…" Kouya informed. "I think we should keep her distance from her. For sure, but…I want to know what she's up to. It can't be anything good, can it?"
"Not a chance!" Ishida exclaimed dramatically. "That girl is nothing but trouble!"
"But…she is still one of the group, no?" Marzia asked. "We don't want her to be injured or worse…but of course the same for the rest of all the group…"
"Marzia has a point." Hiko agreed. "Even if she's the biggest threat to everyone's safety…that in itself is motive enough to kill her. But we don't want that happening, obviously…"
"Maybe we'll get lucky and Monokuma will kill her for violating his rules…" Kouya mumbled. Everyone looked at him with shock. "What? You can't say that her not being here wouldn't benefit everyone!"
"That was a lot of negatives…" Jasmine frowned. "Still! You shouldn't be hoping someone dies! That's the worst thing you could think right now!"
"Jones-san is right!" Kirito's fists clenched. "We need to unite, that should include Okami as well! The problem would be trusting her though…wouldn't it?"
"Maybe it's best if we don't worry about for now and try to look for a way out of here…" Jack suggested breaking the conversation away from Okami as the topic.
"Well…the thing is…" Satoshi started awkwardly. "I kind of already did. The main door is blocked off with this heavy iron plating and these big guns are hanging from the ceiling."
"And not to mention that all the windows are sealed off with metal plates as well…" Kiki added disgruntled. "So what's the point in all of this!? I refuse to just sit around and wait for someone to die! I'm gonna get to the bottom of this right away!" With that, she turned with passion in her eyes and stormed out the room.
"She's a fiery one…" Hiko smiled. "Though what exactly are we supposed to do now…? Should someone go after Kiki to see if she's gonna do something stupid…?"
"I will." Kouya volunteered. "I have nothing better to do with my time plus I might run into Okami on the way…I have a few questions for that girl."
"Alright then. See you later…" Abigail put her hands in her lab coat pocket as Kouya left the room. "Well it seems we won't have much to do from here on out. So I say we do what we want and see what happens…"
"See what happens?!" Kristopher almost yelled. "All that's gonna happen is a murder! That's undeniable so I ain't sitting around and waiting on one of you people to off me!"
"Well if that's how you want to spend your time." Whitney giggled. "Paranoid about being killed. That's such an early victim sign."
Kristopher's eyebrow furrowed as Whitney continued to mock him. "I seriously loath you right now…" He spat.
"Yeah and so does my entire family, what's your point?" Whitney replied obnoxiously.
"I think you should just drop the argument before Brittany gets here…she doesn't seem to be in the mood for something like this." Satoshi speaks up. "Seriously, she's super sneaky, we don't know when she's gonna show up."
"I've been here for five minutes, you know." Brittany's voice came from the corner of the room. "I said hello when I walked in but it seems that none of you heard me."
"Geez you really are sneaky, aren't you?" Jasmine frowned.
"Lewis wasn't in his room." Everyone's faces stiffened. "I think we need to find him quickly, we don't know what could have happened to him."
"Alright then. I'll go off and look for him then…if anything happens I'll alert you all." Abigail volunteered.
"You want to go by yourself? Is that a good idea…?" Satoshi frowned. "I mean…y'know…" He attempted not to say anything that nobody wanted to hear.
"I understand that. Then…" Her eyes fell on the philosopher. "Ishida. Would you accompany me in finding Lewis?"
"Um…" Ishida hesitated with his answer but nodded, waddling behind Abigail as they left the room. The remaining student looked amongst each other.
"I think for now, it would be in everybody's best interest if we just split up and had some free time. Agreed?" Hiko proposed the idea receiving a few nods in response. "Then I guess we'll all meet up again whenever…"
Jack sat quietly on his bed thinking to himself. Lewis went missing, Okami was seen going to the main building, Kouya, Kiki, Abigail and Ishida all left to go to the main building as well and Kristopher was having trust issues with everyone. They were hardly a day into their new lives and already it was tense. New lives…it didn't sound good to him, not to anyone presumably.
He couldn't just sit in his room forever though, that was for certain…maybe there was somebody around he could go talk to…? What about Marzia? She seemed nice…or possibly Kirito? He was rather interested in learning about other nationalities. Heaven forbid he run into someone like Whitney or Satoshi though. They just screamed trouble.
He didn't have much time to decide as the sound of a knock came from his door. Hesitating for a moment, Jack opened the door to find Kristopher, unexpectedly. He gave a blank stare as if waiting for Jack to initiate the conversation.
"Umm…" Jack frowned, feeling how awkward he was being around the teen celebrity. "Is there something wrong, Kristopher? Did anybody find Lewis…?"
"Hm? Oh! Yeah, we found Lewis…" There was a silence. Why was he here? Why wasn't he saying anything?
"Is…is there something you needed…?"
"Hey!" Kristopher said suddenly. "Do me a huge favour, kay?" Jack awaited what he was going to say. "Don't…don't tell anyone that I've come here…I don't them to think that I'm suddenly trusting everyone."
"Well…a-alright then? But I still don-"
"Is it alright if I hang out with you for a little bit?" Kristopher cut him off suddenly. "I mean…it was either you or Hiroyuki and that guy is just a mess…"
"Sure but, what about your band members?" Jack asked rather confused.
"Have you met my band? I spend months at a time with them. Even if they're like family to me I'll still need a break from them every once and a while…"
"I suppose that's fair enough." Jack paused. "C'mon in then…" He let the singer into his room. Kristopher sat on his bed gazing around the room.
"It's a little…plain, don't you think?" Kristopher commented. "Like, this was all you got in your room? Monokuma didn't give you anything to accompany your talent?"
"Uh, no…? Why, did he give you something?"
"Yeah. Along with Brittany, Whitney, Lewis and the others…honestly I don't see why you didn't get anything." It was weird to see Kristopher like this, usually he acted so arrogant and big-headed. Maybe he just did that around girls? Jack wouldn't have put it past him.
"So…why exactly did you want to come here?"
"To get away from everyone." He answered without hesitation as if he rehearsed his answers. "Honestly, I needed to talk to someone normal and you're about as ordinary as we're gonna get in this place."
"Um…thanks?" There was no real way to respond to that. "But I thought you were gonna shut yourself away to avoid…you know…"
"Well I realised that staying in my room wouldn't do me any good so I may as well try to at least get to know someone. This is basically my way of telling you not to die or kill someone, got it…Jake?"
"I-it's...Jack…" He corrected. "And besides…maybe you have a little more faith in the group, Kristopher. You don't know how they'll act, we all might be able to get along well-"
"Oh please, don't be ridiculous." He cut Jack off, waving his hand in the air to dismiss Jack's statement. "Whitney can't get along with anyone, Brittany only tolerates people, that girl Jasmine is psycho and I don't even need to mention Okami, do I?" Kristopher stood up and got closer to Jack.
"Let's just be real for a second…you and both know that people will naturally do anything to survive. Including murder…" Kristopher walked over to the door. "There will be a fine death soon, Jack…so you better be prepared for that."
SURVIVORS 16
Jack Kristopher Hiroyuki Ishida Kouya Marzia Brittany Satoshi Hiko Abigail Lewis Whitney Okami Kiki Kirito Jasmine