Day 16, 0730 Hours, Dorm Hall
John exited his dorm. Sleep had been elusive and when he had finally caught it, plagued nightmares. John could only remember fragments that were fading rapidly, Amelia and Adam performing on a stage but disfigured like their corpses, Amelia's head broken apart and Adam appearing as a skeleton. John trudged his way to the cafeteria, and was surprised to see Ferris and Rowland talking as normal, the two early risers seeming to have shrugged off the effects of last night.
Walking past the two John prepared some toast, the bread being the only thing he could think of eating at the time. As he walked back out he caught part of the other two's conversation.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah man, she's gone, completely. Even the book's been cleaned up. Or replaced I guess."
"That fast? They can't be running this all by drone…"
"I don't think they're drones, droids, or robots anymore."
The conversation petered out as John walked up to the table. As he sat down the two looked to him, assessing how he was doing.
"So, how does the average man take this?" Ferris finally asked.
"Poorly," John said after a moment.
"You are probably experiencing post-traumatic stress right now," Rowland said shifting, "If you are wondering why I am not, I am not easily traumatized."
"I've seen worst," Ferris said around a mouthful of food he had swiped from John, "I designed some of the nastiest weapons out there, think about what was happening to me, except a lot faster."
John grimaced at the image, before glancing at Ferris out of the corner of his eyes.
Catching this Ferris said, "I never shared how I made them and destroyed most of the notes, except for the ones Alexander confiscated. Oh, and that's technically classified so don't tell him I told you."
John nodded and Rowland also gave a confirmation when he realized it was also expected of him. The three eventually engaged in trying to teach John about some rudimentary chemistry, since he was supposed to learn it at the school, where they were if Monokuma and Shi-ru were supposed to be believed. The others filtered in slowly, Alexander showing up next, followed by Paris who was sporting bed head and emerged with a cup of coffee after she entered the kitchen.
Atsuko and Louise looked like they hadn't slept, and Wilbur and Mary were both acting nervous, Wilbur fidgeting and Mary scratching her hand. Chloe, Perdita, and Barry showed up like nothing had happened, Barry making conversation with the uptight vocalist. Billy showed up late and didn't get food but seemed fine besides that. Jane was the last to show with red eyes and tear marks.
Once she had sat down and been comforted by Paris and Atsuko, with Louise offering some feeble encouragement, Monokuma suddenly appeared on the table she was at.
"Ah, you look real sad, you and her couldn't have been that close in such a short time."
He stepped forward, standing in her food.
"I have some good news though! A new area has opened up with the trial completed."
"Go away," Chloe said from her seat.
"Ask nicely."
"Go away you fat fuck."
Monokuma scowled but left anyways.
As the others resumed what they were doing, John noticed that Paris had joined him at the table he was sharing with Rowland and Ferris.
Nodding to her, he said, "You want to go check out that new area Monokuma was talking about?"
The soccer player opened her mouth but closed it after a second and opted to nod instead.
"Well, if you two are going to be walking about, I might as well as go explore as well," Ferris said, before moving at high speed towards the door, grabbing Atsuko by the arm and partially dragging her with him as he passed where she was sitting.
"It is good to see him recovering," Rowland said from his seat, "I will see if Mary is prepared to check out the new area."
The brainiac left after that, moving to the table Mary was sitting at with Jane. John also noticed a few others had left, although while Perdita was gone Barry was still slowly eating his breakfast. John stood up and walked towards the central hall with Paris keeping pace. The walk was mostly in silence with Paris visibly trying to say something, but losing courage before she managed to speak her mind.
"Can w-w-w-we t-t-tal-ta-t-," Paris managed to say.
"How about after we get out of here?" John said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye, "Reason to make it out alive right?"
The soccer player let out a nervous laugh, but seemed less tense. When they reached the central hall, the grate to the right had been raised, a winded Shi-ru standing by the arch.
"There, access to, the East Wing, I'm, lying down now," the penguin puffed before falling to his back as they passed, refusing to respond when John tried to talk to him further.
Directly to the left after entering the wing was a room marked 'Computer Lab'. Upon entering the room, John saw Chloe and Alexander, the tactician typing away on a computer while Chloe was taking out her frustrations on a keyboard. Walking up to Alexander, John looked over his shoulder to see the tactician trying to access files on the computer with little success.
"Hello, Citizen John," the tactician grunted after noticing the everyman, "I have to ask you to come back later, I cannot be distracted because this is quite difficult, these files most have something important to justify such safeguards against viewing."
"Right, wouldn't Rowland be better suited to this though? I mean, he isn't a computer programmer or a hacker but his talent is closer to it than yours," John asked.
"How do you think I got this far? Mary asked if they could go look over the rest of the floor because she was getting frustrated and they left."
Nodding, John left the uniformed student to his task, and after a moment of thought, approached Chloe, who was talking to Paris.
John didn't catch what they were talking about, and wasn't able to because as soon as he was close enough to hear Chloe snapped at him that it was girl stuff that he shouldn't hear about. Not wanting to aggravate the larger student, John turned around and decided to try one of the computers instead.
Turning one on, he found it opened to a generic background with a few icons on the desktop. Unfortunately, internet was not one of them, only leaving only a few programs like solitaire and minesweeper. There were a few files on the computer, but they were mostly encrypted, or whatever the computer lingo was.
There was one that was viewable however. It led to a strange article, detailing a disaster that had caused the entire Japanese government to collapse into chaos that was quickly spreading. There was mentions of a school being at the center of it, but a lot of the specific information had been censored.
Trying a different route through the file, John found an article detailing information about him and the other students. It listed that students of exceptional talent had been scouted for a newly founded school based off of…again, John was stopped by censored information. But he lost interest in the censored sections quickly when he saw a photo, featuring everyone, taken in front of a building.
"Hey, look at this," John called out, grabbing everyone's attention.
John shifted back forward as the other three gathered around his computer screen.
"H-how is t-that possible?" Paris asked after a second.
"It, could be a fake…,"Chloe said uncertainly.
"Then again it could be real, none of us remember the exact events that led us here, perhaps this is the first step in revealing that past," Alexander said, tapping John's shoulder as he moved to take control of the computer.
"Paris, do you want to explore the rest of the floor?" John asked as he stood up.
"Y-yeah, sure," the soccer player responded.
John nodded as they took their leave, the other two offering vague waves as they left.
Continuing down the hall past some classrooms, they passed another hall leading off to the left to meet Ferris and Atsuko scanning their IDs against to doors adjacent to each other.
"W-, what are you guys doing?" Paris asked.
Turning as she opened the door, Atsuko said, "Oh, Monokuma says these are changing rooms and that there's a pool through here. Oh, and that gun is rigged to fire if you try to get into the opposite gender's changing room."
John and Paris, looked at the Gatling gun hanging from the ceiling, before deciding to check out the rooms to their left and right then go to the pool. The room the left opened up to another pair of changing rooms, them to a room where Wilbur and Louise, both wearing athletic garb, were working out. Wilbur was bench pressing while Louise seemed to be spotting.
"Hi Louise, Wilbur," John greeted as they approached the two.
"Oh, hello John, Paris," Louise said, still doing her best to give an air of professionalism in athletic shorts.
Wilbur gave a nod of acknowledgment but beyond that continued what he had been doing.
"Uh, L-Louise," Paris said after she had taken a breath, "h-how ex-exactly w-would a book r-rip off a finger-nail?"
"Oh, it is likely that when the book was being, swung, that the way he was holding it caused a nail to dig into the cover, the, impact, caused his finger to slip, but the nail stuck and ripped off, it probably got caught between the books when it was hidden, it had to have dug pretty deep for it to rip off in the first place, and fell out when John removed the books."
Paris made a small sound, but didn't say anything else.
"We got lucky," Wilbur said, continuing his work out.
"Heh, yeah," John said, "We should thank Atsuko, without her luck that probably wouldn't have happened."
John, Paris, and Louise shared a light, hollow laugh while Wilbur simply grunted. After a minute of silence John asked, "Why don't you talk more, Wilbur?"
"Vocal cord damage, it hurts," the pilot responded.
John raised his eyebrows in surprise, but quickly let it go as Wilbur racked the weights he was using and moved on to a different set.
"I would much rather swim, but he asked if we could stop so he could work out, and he would have needed a spotter anyway," Louise said as Wilbur left the conversation in favor of the equipment.
After a moment of silence John hazarded, "How are you doing?"
"With what, my depression or the trial?" Louise said, giving a humorless laugh, "I can tell you, the trial did not do anything for me, but hey, it's not like I haven't seen corpses before."
"I-is that w-why-," Paris began.
"I am depressed, yes," Louise cut off, "I am not as suited for my talent as I could be, but I am managing. It could be worst."
"Then why continue doing it?" John asked.
Louise let out a short chuckle, before saying darkly, "Because I am very good at my job, and I help protect lives even if I would rather be doing something else, I should make sure Wilbur does not hurt himself so if you two will excuse me."
The forensic expert left after that, leaving John and Paris to go explore the other room. Crossing the hall and opening the door led to another pair of changing rooms, but like the pool these ones prevented access without passing through them first. John moved to the boys' while Paris entered the girls'.
John swiped his ID and was promptly denied access. Confused, John continued to try and gain entrance when Paris suddenly came back through the girls' changing room looking frazzled.
Before John could ask what was wrong Paris said, "S-she threw h-her t-towel a-at me!"
"Who?" John asked.
"Perdita, t-this i-is a-," she began.
"Public Bath, yes! In an attempt to be culturally sensitive we installed this room because of the students who might come from a culture accustomed to the traditions of a communal bath house!" Monokuma said as he appeared between the two, "Of course, to ensure that nothing unwholesome happens, safeguards had to be taken to ensure that only one of the genders may access the bath at a time!"
"So because Perdita was in there I can't be," John stated, "That's useful to know."
Monokuma nodded before vanishing again, having explained what he wanted to.
"W-what culture uses communal b-baths?" Paris asked after a second.
"I think it's a thing in Japan," John said after a moment of thought, "it would make sense since Atsuko is Japanese, and Jane might be too now that I think about it."
"T-they added a w-whole room for two s-students?"
"It may have just been a sauna beforehand, they could have upgraded it."
"S-still, it probably w-was built to e-entertain that s-stupid bear somehow."
"He can't have put cameras in there, the steam would fog the lenses."
"S-still…"
They lapsed into silence as they made their way down the hall they had passed earlier, eventually coming to two rooms that caught their attention, one at the end of the hall and one to the left of the other. Going through the door on the left, the two found a massive room full of instruments, and Barry who was quietly tuning them.
"Hey," he said lazily after he saw them looking at him, not pausing in his task of tuning a guitar he was holding.
"Hey, do you know where Perdita is?" John said, testing the other boy.
"She was in that bath house place right? She not there anymore?" the other boy replied with his usual lazy tone.
"No, she's still there and she chucked stuff at Paris when she walked in on her," John said, Paris twitching at the memory.
"Yeah, sounds like her, she's just a stuck up bitch. S'why I ditch her so often."
"Really?" John asked, "She didn't warm up to you at all?"
"I don't think she views me as garbage anymore, and frankly she's probably as cold as that one place, Pluto. Always liked Pluto, what's your favorite?" Barry said, drifting from the topic.
"I'm partial to the one I'm on," John said, Paris muttering she liked Mercury.
"Generic response, good staying in talent bro," Barry replied.
Rolling his eyes at Barry's comment, John said, "What about you? How's your talent working for you?"
"Not as well as I would like," Barry said, setting the guitar down and moving to a viola, "Not much use in a situation like this, of course, we can't all be the forensic expert or the other crime guy or the be on the genius squad but hey, doesn't mean we can't help right?"
John nodded a moment after Barry finished speaking, waiting to see if the other two talked at all. Neither did, Paris inspecting a harp while Barry continued to tune the viola, staring in John's general direction. After a few minutes of this John decided to take his leave, telling Paris he was going to the other room.
Leaving the two, John entered the room at the end of the hall, coming into a mess. It was an art room, and John was sure what was going on in there was art on some level. It seemed to consist of Mary throwing paint at a figure that had to be Rowland or Chloe in heels; he wasn't sure because they were standing in front of a white canvas, calmly allowing the paint to splatter across them, leaving a silhouette in the colors behind them.
After standing and watching the spectacle for a few minutes, John made his presence known by coughing. Mary whirled around and splattered John with paint, the paint covered figure remaining still for a minute, waiting for more paint to hit them, before calmly reaching up and wiping paint off the front of a pair of safety googles.
As Mary grumbled an apology about the paint across the front of his shirt, Paris quietly slipped into the room, stopping to take in the strange scene before her.
"W-what are you g-guys doing?" she asked after a second, "h-having a p-paint war?"
"No, I'm making art," Mary said, before going into a long blown spiel on why what she was doing was art and how it should speak to them.
After a few minutes Mary slowed down before saying, "At least, that's what the critics say."
"What do you say?" John asked after a second, as Rowland quietly discarded the paint covered clothes he had been wearing.
"Work with what you feel, I was frustrated with not being able to help the others with the computers, and Shi-ru said the art room was back here somewhere, so I came to paint and Rowland asked what he could do to help, and I told him to set up a canvas and he just spread out that huge thing, it gave me the idea, and things progressed from there," Mary explained as the last of the paint covered gear Rowland had been wearing was deposited on a counter, leaving the brainiac in his usual shirt and pants, quietly slipping on his shoes and skirting the massive paint covered canvas.
"S-so you d-decided t-to throw p-paint at him?" Paris asked.
"Hey, it's basically a life sized painting of him, and frankly the fact I made it during such a traumatic time," John heard venom put into the words, "it'll probably be worth millions on the art market, because people just eat up the mysterious model and tortured artist things."
Paris bit her lip as she considered Mary's words, before saying, "I-I guess that's n-nice, but d-did you have to throw the p-paint at him?"
"I said work with your feels right? I was feeling pissed and throwing stuff at people is always a way to release tension and Rowland had said it was okay, right?"
The brainiac nodded I confirmation, adding, "I really don't mind, it give me time to think."
Paris conceded, falling into silence. John walked over and looked the canvas up and down, before wandering around the studio, Paris also exploring as Mary and Rowland admired the former's handiwork. John looked over various art supplies, quickly noting things that could also be used as weapons, in case it turned out to be important later. Chisels, mallets, craving and whittling tools, paint that was poisonous, the paint cans themselves, another room filled with stuff just waiting to be weaponized. He also noted a closet that contained the gear that Rowland had been wearing along with other gear an artist might wear.
"Have you also noticed the new arsenal the bear has given us?" Rowland asked quietly, having moved behind John and speaking in a low tone so the girls couldn't hear.
"Yeah, have either of them noticed?" he responded.
"Mary sees all these things as tools of creation, and Paris isn't that bright."
John gave the taller boy a flat look. Rowland blinked and shifted uncomfortably after a second.
Finally he said, "Perhaps I could have phrased that better."
"Try definitely," John said walking back over to where Paris and Mary had stopped to talk, Mary telling Paris about different artists, the soccer player nodding along with a slightly glazed look in her eyes.
"Have you guys noticed anything me and Paris should check out?" John asked as they reached the girls.
"Adam's room is unlocked," Mary said after a second, Rowland nodding to confirm her statement.
John exchanged a look with Paris before shrugging and saying, "Want to check it out?"
Paris bit her lip, before saying, "I-I g-guess, b-but w-won't it b-be weird to r-rummage around h-his room?"
"You two looked through Amelia's room during the investigation, didn't you?" Rowland asked.
"T-that was d-different! W-we were l-looking for e-evidence," Paris responded.
"Still, there might be something important," John said, "It can't hurt to look."
Paris sighed and muttered, "A-all right."
They walked back through the halls of the building, greeting the few people they passed. When they finally reached Adam's dorm, the first thing noticeable was that like Amelia's name plate, Adam's had changed. Besides the fact that Adam's corpse was depicted as a skeleton, also on the screen was a sprite of Monokuma that was giggling constantly.
Ignoring the macabre screen for now, John pushed the door open an entered the late thespian's room. Adam had decorated his room with posters of theaters and performances, while most of them featured Adam, some of them did not. There was no picture featuring family like in Amelia's room though, and John never remembered the thespian mentioning them.
Other than that, the only noteworthy thing in the room was a journal inside the desk that had been placed in the room. John paged through it, Paris looking nervously over his shoulder as he perused its contents. It was mostly ideas for plays, but the later entries were different. They were heavily edited, the dates had been redacted and some of the information as well. From what John could read, Adam had spent some time at the school they had been supposed to attend, with people who were either eerily similar or were them. After these entries were a few detailing Adam's experiences from the first day of being in this place. The last entry was a confession, written numbly and a plea for forgiveness for what might happen if he successfully escapes.
"We should show this to Ferris," John said.
"B-but it d-doesn't make sense, i-if it's correct t-then," Paris trailed off with a faraway look as John grimaced and left Adam's room, before shaking herself following him out of the room.
"Look, you have to keep quiet about this, but, Ferris says he should've died before the party happened, that he had crunched the numbers sometime before and that he should have died before then, but he didn't, and the only reason that he would have survived that long was if he had developed something to start restoring his body's chemical balance, but he was years away from that he said," john said.
"S-so he t-thinks we're missing, several years, worth of m-memories?"
"Yes. I don't know how or why this time was removed but it was removed, if we're to believe Ferris, where is he and Atsuko?"
Paris stumbled slightly, but matched John's pace still as he looked around for the chemist and the lucky student.