Author Note: Here's the next part, enjoy.
"Fuck this shit!" Karkat shouted turning his back on all the other students. He was going to find a way out of there, even if it killed him. One of the students shouted after him, but Karkat ignored them. He stormed out of the trophy room and into the hallway, barreling away from the gym. He punched one of the steel paneled windows in a fit of anger, but only managed to bruise his knuckles.
He stopped to nurse the wound, leaning against the wall. After emitting a few swear words, he forced himself to calm down a bit. If the bruise was any indication, raging would only hurt him more. He pulled the electronic ID card out of his pocket, deciding that he should take a moment to check it out.
The interface had his name on it, and when he tapped it a menu popped up. There were three options: maps, school rules, and Monokuma files. Karkat had no idea what a Monokuma file was, so he ignored that choice. The maps were largely unhelpful, since they were only labeled with vague pictures. The rules, on the other hand, were very explicit. They read:
1. Students will live a communal lifestyle with no time limit inside the school walls.
2. The time between 10pm and 7am is called "Night Time". During Night Time there are places that are forbidden to enter, so please take care.
3. Sleeping is only permitted in the personal rooms prepared for you in the dormitory area. Anyone intentionally falling asleep elsewhere will be punished.
4. You may investigate the school as you please. There are no special restrictions on your actions.
5. No violence is permitted against the school's headmaster, Monokuma. Destruction of the surveillance cameras is forbidden.
6. A "culprit" who kills a fellow student will graduate the school. However, they must not let any other student know they are the culprit.
7. Additional rules may be added by the school at any time.
Karkat threw his card on the ground and stomped on it, once again losing the battle with rage. The object remained unharmed just like Monokuma said it would. He regretfully picked it back up with a sigh.
He wandered around aimlessly, pulling on steel panels and searching for any door leading to the outside. In his traveling, he discovered that the stairs were all blocked off with gates. He shook the barriers, but they didn't budge. After poking his nose in a room full of washing machines he found a hallway full of doors. Each door had a pixelated drawing of each student on it, along with their name.
Karkat's was about halfway down the hall, and he hesitated before pushing it open.
On first glance, it appeared to be a perfectly generic room. There was a bed, a desk, a security camera, another door, and a key. When Karkat tried the key in his front door, it turned the lock shut.
The door to the bathroom opened with ease, letting Karkat into the small space. The door didn't have a lock, but since he didn't have to share the bathroom it didn't really matter.
After closing the bathroom door, Karkat rifled through the desk drawers. The only thing in them was a small tool kit, one of rather pathetic proportions. He dropped back in the drawer and slammed it shut before sitting down on the bed.
Why did he decide to come to this school again? Oh yeah, for his future. Ha. Ha ha. What a joke.
Karkat was drawn out of his thoughts by someone knocking on his door insistently. He forced himself to stand up and answer it, but he did so with an air of caution. Karkat only pulled the door open to a crack, but opened it all the way once he saw who it was.
"Are you alright?" Aradia stood with her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly with a concerned expression on her face.
"Yeah." Karkat grumbled, gesturing for her to come inside. "I just can't believe this shit."
"I'm having a hard time with it myself." She took her hat off and spun it in her hands. "But a few of the others came up with a plan."
"Their plan is stupid."
"You haven't even heard it yet."
"I don't need to."
"Just listen for a minute. They're going to do a thorough investigation of the building today, and could really use your help. They've already started searching, and are going to meet up in the cafeteria in a few hours."
"I was right." Karkat collapsed onto his bed. "That's stupid." He waved one hand around. "Besides, I already did that."
"Then you can tell them what you found." Aradia put her hat back on, straightening it to the perfect angle. Figuring the conversation was over; she turned to leave the room.
"Wait." Karkat stood back up, stopping her with one outstretched hand. She turned back to face him, and his cheeks suddenly felt far too warm. "I-It's been a long time, how have you been?"
"Well, up until today I was doing pretty well." Aradia chuckled bitterly. "I found some dinosaur fossils last year, which are actually a pretty big find. What about you Karkat? How have things been going?"
"Well, you know, went to a shitty school, got invited to this murderous fuck house, so same as it's always been." He scoffed, kicking the air once.
Aradia turned away again. "I'm sorry to hear that." She opened the door, stepping halfway through it. "See you around." She pulled the door shut behind her, leaving Karkat alone with his thoughts once again. He only stayed in the room for a couple more minutes before heading out into the hallway. A few students were mingling about, but Aradia was gone.
"Hey there shouty." Somehow, Feferi actually was pleased to see him. Eridan and Kanaya stood near her, examining the walls and doors.
"Hi." Karkat responded slowly, walking over to the trio. "What, um, are you guys doing?"
"Wwe're searching for a wway out, of course." Eridan huffed, pointing one finger in Karkat's direction. "Much more than wwhat you're doing."
"In his defense, we have not been searching for long." Kanaya pointed out, staring straight at one of the security cameras.
"Wwell yeah, but he still shouldn't hawe run off like that"
"It's alright Eridan, as long as he's helping now." Feferi grabbed Karkat by both hands, pulling him in close. "Right?"
"Fine." Karkat squirmed to try to regain his personal bubble, managing to remove his hands from her tight grasp. "But I don't think this hallway holds the answers." He tapped one of the walls, noting the hollow sound it made. "So I'm going to search elsewhere."
"Alright, we'll see you later at the cafeteria." Feferi waved as Karkat walked away; ignoring Eridan's protests that leaving wasn't actually contributing.
Just down the hall from the dorms was the trash room. A gate blocked most of the room, leaving only a small space in front of the entrance for anybody without a key. Karkat tried his room key, but it didn't work. Past the gate, he could see an incinerator and a giant trash pit.
One room over was the laundry room he found earlier, though now it was occupied by a few fellow students. Jade and Dave were looking inside all the washing machines, checking each one for something. Karkat didn't know what they expected to find; probably a place to store their desperation.
"Karkat!" It took Jade a couple minutes to notice him, and she sounded surprised when she did. "Are you helping search now?"
"I guess." Karkat shrugged, picking up the lid on one of the washing machines. "Though I haven't had any luck so far."
"So much for super high school level good luck." Dave scoffed, shutting one of the machines with unnecessary vigor.
"Fuck luck."
"Don't be like that." Jade smiled at the pair, undeterred by the despair permeating the room. "Maybe your luck will kick back in; you just have to keep trying." Despite Karkat's adamant hatred of all his new classmates, she didn't seem so bad.
"Thanks, but I doubt it." He took one last look at the washing machines before vacating the room, taking a little bit of Jade's warmth with him. After leaving the laundry room, he passed by a room with caution tape spread over the entrance way. It looked like some kind of strange Japanese bathhouse, but Karkat had never seen one before so he really had no idea. He barely gave it a glance as he walked by. Across the hall was the cafeteria, which Karkat put off going to until later.
After moving through a passage way, Karkat found the classrooms he woke up in earlier. One was empty, but the other was occupied by a few of his new acquaintances. John, Rose, and Vriska all lingered around the room, looking under the desks and checking the windows. Karkat joined them in their search, sitting underneath a desk and looking up at the bottom. It was peppered with chewed gum, and he recoiled away instantly.
John laughed at Karkat's reaction, but stopped when Karkat glared at him. "Sorry man, just having a bit of fun."
"Screw you."
"Feeling a bit tense?" Rose asked, a small smile on her lips.
"Whatever." Karkat scoffed and stood up and away from the offensive desk. "I don't need this crap." He stalked towards the door, not looking back to watch Vriska laugh. Her laugh carried through the walls; he could still hear it as he walked down the hallway and he couldn't get it out of his head.
Near the classrooms was another locked door which Karkat was unable to open.
Around the bend from that locked door stood a room Karkat hadn't been in yet. It turned out to be an AV room, containing rows of screens and other electronic devices. Terezi, Sollux, and Aradia mingled among the monitors.
"Hey Karkat." Terezi smiled at him with a few too many teeth. Any worry she might have felt about their situation hid easily behind that grin.
"Hey." Karkat poked one of the screens. "What are these things even for?"
"They are computer monitors, though they can also be hooked up to other devices as well." Sollux was trying to turn on the monitor, but without a computer hooked up he had no such luck. "I'm still not sure why they're here though."
"Great, another fucking mystery."
"Maybe there used to be computers, but whoever locked us in here took them?" Aradia offered, though it sounded more like a question than an assertion.
"That seems likely." Terezi whacked her cane on top of one monitor. "If we had a computer, then we could connect with the outside world. But there is nothing we can do with just these monitors."
Karkat resisted the urge to knock one of the screens off its stand. "Damn them." He nudged it instead, causing it to wobble back and forth. "I'm gonna keep looking around, see you later."
"Later." Aradia waved as he left. Terezi looked thoughtful, as if she wanted to ask a question. Karkat didn't give her the chance, closing the door behind him with more force than necessary.
The next place Karkat looked into was the school store, but he didn't have any money so he couldn't buy anything. Nobody was there to tease him about it; so at least that was a relief.
Across from the store was the entrance hall. It looked different without any natural light flowing through it, a phenomenon originating from the giant steel barrier blocking the main entrance. Equius and Nepeta stood in front of the door, doing their best to break it down. Equius punched it every few seconds, undeterred by his lack of progress. Each impact echoed around the large space, sounding similar to a bass drum. Nepeta watched on worriedly.
"You should stop." She said after a few more attempts. "You're hurting your hand."
"We must escape." Equius insisted, not hesitating in his strikes. A few drop of blood oozed from his cracked knuckles, and Nepeta laid one hand on his wrist.
"Please."
"She's right you know." Karkat sidled up to the pair, getting a closer look at the offending knuckles. The entire front of the fingers were bruised over, and the skin was starting to crack. "I know there's an infirmary around here somewhere, you should go bandage that."
"Yeah!" Nepeta perked up, looping both of her arms around one of Equius's. "Thanks Karkat!" She dragged the muscular teen away, and though he was strong enough to stop her dead in her tracks, he didn't resist her pull. After they vanished into the infirmary, Karkat decided not to try punching in the door himself.
End Note: Thanks for reading. Guesses as to deaths and murderers are always welcome, but I probably won't tell you if you're right or not.