AN: Sorry that this chapter took so long to produce, life and all that. In good news I am approaching the end of this story at least in writing it which will increase the frequency of updates, yay! Please review, I want feedback!
Day 20, 1513 Hours, West Wing Hall
John couldn't help but let out a breath of relief as the group exited the storage room. As they had found the exit after following Paris's cord out they had paused to let Shi-ru unhook Paris from the rig, John noting that a pair of cords extended into the labyrinth of shelving, John trying to guess who was on the other end of them.
The entire walk had been spent in silence and continued in silence as they finally exited the room. Well almost silent, as Ferris's breathing had taken on a raspy quality as he had dragged the group along at a fast clip, moving constantly even when Paris was being freed from Shi-ru's rig. It occurred to John after a minute or two of moving through the halls that it Ferris may still be recovering from the damage done during the time he was without his medicine.
John stopped and grabbed the wheezing chemist forcing the smaller student to stop, the other two stopping the minute they saw John halt Ferris. Releasing his grip after he was sure Ferris wouldn't just start speed walking again; John inspected him, noticing that Atsuko was doing the same thing while Paris quietly took the radio from Ferris's hands, the chemist resisting slightly but giving up after a second.
Ferris was his usually pale skin had a grey sheen and was beaded with sweat. Ferris made a horrible gargling sound as he straightened out and said, "I'm fine, just a bit winded."
"Have you recovered at all?" Atsuko asked, scrutinizing the chemist.
"Yes, I have, just not completely," Ferris said straightening up and cleared his throat, making another horrible sound.
As the chemist moved forward again, Atsuko sat down in the middle of the hall, John opting to lean against the wall while Paris fumbled with the radio. Sensing that no one would follow him and trying to retrieve the radio was pointless, Ferris sighed and fell down into a sprawl. They all waited as Ferris's breathing evened out, Atsuko breaking the silence by addressing John.
"You think the radio will pan out?"
Looking at the lucky student, John shrugged and said, "We won't know without trying?"
Atsuko nodded and said, "But do you think we'll actually reach anyone?"
John fell silent as he pondered the question. If what they believed was correct then it was unlikely that there would be anyone to reach, which was the logically conclusion. But such a conclusion would hurt the chances of those present resisting the future motives of Monokuma. John was about to give his response when Paris spoke up.
"I believe we will reach someone, people will be put there and someone will help," the soccer player said, managing to speak fluidly, although she refused to look Atsuko in the eye.
Atsuko pondered the answer she had been given before nodding and turning to ask John the question again but Ferris sat up interrupting her.
"Alright, breathings back to normal so let's go already!"
The chemist stood up and began moving at a fast clip but slowed to an actual walk, allowing the others to catch up with him fairly quickly. They began talking quietly, not wanting to disturb the silence that was following them. It was a good tactic on Monokuma's part, expanding the arena of the game while the number of students dropped, not only offering more chances for the students to end up alone together so a murder could occur and also reminding them that there was too few people here for the size of the building, giving a hollow sense of despair.
Reaching the Central Hall, John was kind of surprised to find the Shi-ru drone still present, lazing around on the ground. Pointing this out to the others, Ferris stopped and moved to speak to the drone.
"Hey oh Shi-roh!" Ferris greeted cheerily.
"Yeah?" the penguin said, sitting up slightly.
"Anything useful you wish to tell us? A hint of some kind or other?" Ferris pressed.
"Nope," Shi-ru said.
"Damn," Ferris said, before shrugging and moving off towards the store Paris following him, still carrying the radio.
Atsuko followed them as well John moving after them but a tug on his pants stopped him. Looking down, he saw that Shi-ru had gotten up and was what had stopped him. Opening his mouth to ask the penguin what was up; Shi-ru cut him off before he could form any of the words.
"You all may not like what that has to say," Shi-ru said, nodding towards the radio and Paris, "things, have gone bad, I guess you could say."
After that Shi-ru left, leaving John without answering any questions the everyman had.
John gritted his teeth before turning and following the other three, noticing that Atsuko had paused to wait for him.
"What did he say?" she asked, before cutting him off, "I can actually probably guess so never mind, but anyways ever have a girlfriend?"
John looked at the lucky student in slight surprise as they walked towards the store.
"Why do you want to know that?" he asked slightly incredulously.
"Because I'm a gossip," the girl said with a smirk.
"No, I haven't," John said, in slight exasperation, stopping in his tracks, "Have you?"
"Yeah, well boyfriend, not girlfriend," Atsuko said, pausing with the everyman, but undeterred she quickly switched back to asking about him, "Really, the average guy hasn't had a single girlfriend?"
"I've gone on dates before, just haven't had a steady relation-why the hell am I telling you this?"
"You're having a judgment lapse?" Atsuko asked innocently.
"That's not going to get me to talk more," John said as he started walking again.
"You'd be surprised," Atsuko countered following John.
"Ugh," John groaned, "look we're here, don't tell anyone about this."
"What part of gossip did you not understand?"
"UGH!"
"What's up buttercup? Atsuko pumping you for information?" Ferris asked, leaning out of the door to the shop.
"Buzz off."
"Ah, don't be like that we got batteries and we are a go for operation HAM Radio."
John rolled his eyes as Ferris and Paris moved out of the shop and joined them in the hall. John waited for Ferris or Paris to produce the radio and turn it on, but instead Ferris began moving down the hall, Paris following automatically, and the other two joining after a second.
"We're going to turn it on in the cafeteria, so more people can hear it," Paris told John as they walked.
"I suppose there is a good chance someone's at the cafeteria," John said, but when they arrived the room was empty.
Shrugging Ferris finally produced the radio from under his sweatshirt and set it on a table before he began fiddling with it, muttering under his breath. A closer look revealed that almost all the buttons had been worn beyond recognition and any identifying symbols were gone from the main part of the radio as well. After a few minutes of this he said, "Hey, Paris, see if you can't find Rowland, he probably knows how to work this thing."
Paris nodded and began to leave when Atsuko moved forward clicked a few buttons and the radio crackled to life. When the others glanced at her Atsuko shrugged and said, "I pressed random buttons and hoped for the best, tried my luck."
"There you go using your talent!" Ferris said, giving her a friendly punch on the arm before he began trying to tune the radio, avoiding the buttons Atsuko had pushed.
The radio continued to crackle, indecipherable voices and sounds melding into the static. A few minutes of Ferris messing with knobs and buttons before anything began to change for the better. When Ferris found a knob that made the sound come into focus he turned it slowly to bring the words and sound into focus.
The sound turned out to be music, and not any music that those present wanted to hear.
C'mon what's wrong? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon what's wrong? C'mon
Monokuma's voice sang out before another voice joined him.
This is a pure, just, and beautiful world where everyone strives to be right.
C'mon, C'mon, C'mon
But we play hide-and-seek with our feelings though it's only too easy to see through it all.
What's wrong?
Our hearts are racing in excitement can we just do whatever we want? Oblivious we take the bait.
There we go and mess everything up, upupu what's wrong? We calmly devour each other.
C'mon, extreme is the Monokuma song, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon we snap at anyone and everyone.
There we go and roar all over the place, ahaha what's wrong? We devour each other with a small on our face.
C'mon hateful yet adorable is the Monokuma song.
What's wrong? C'mon.
After that the song cycled. John understood now what Shi-ru meant when he said that they weren't going to like what they heard. Looking around, John saw Ferris with a neutral expression that still included a smile somehow, while Paris looked horrified. Atsuko was grimacing and looked as if she was debating trying her luck again.
"Isn't that the best song you've ever heard?" Monokuma said.
Paris jumped back from the table, barely saving herself from sprawling on the floor. Atsuko cursed and moved away from the bear. Ferris gave the bear a bored smile before returning his attention to the radio that was continually looping the Monokuma Song or whatever bullshit Monokuma called it. The bear looked between them all before getting frustrated.
"If you didn't want me to show up why did you play my song?"
"We didn't mean too," Ferris said continuing to not look at Monokuma.
"Well, I would've of shown up anyway because I have an announcement to make!" The bear said perking up, before falling silent as the intercom system crackled to life, summoning all students to the cafeteria.
Knowing Monokuma would refuse to talk because he would rather not repeat himself, John left the bear alone and deciding that he had masked his own surprise quite well that it was alright to move away from the bear.
It took a while for the other students to show up, scattered as they were. Billy walked in followed by Barry sporting a guitar on his back now. Jane stole in in what may have been an attempt to be stealthy, followed shortly by Louise. Chloe walked in, pausing to flip off Monokuma before taking a seat. Alexander came in after her, muttering about codes and passwords. Finally after a long enough time for Monokuma to become impatient, Rowland and Mary arrived.
"Apologies, we were exploring the storage room," Rowland said to the group in general and not to Monokuma in particular.
"Avoid cold storage," Ferris stated.
"You're dead friends are there," Monokuma added helpfully.
Rowland gave the bear a disdainful glance while Mary cussed at him until he cut her off with a dismissive gesture.
"Now that you are all present, it is time for the announcement!"
"A new motive?" Rowland said with a sigh.
"Nope! It occurred to me that it was unfair of me to have the motives so close together so I decided to give you guys some rewards for still being alive instead!" Monokuma said, chuckling at the ripple of discord that swept through the students, "one thing is I'm going to declassify some of the information for you, so less effort on your part, and I left you all a little something in your rooms."
Monokuma vanished before he could be asked for clarification. The silence he left after his departure was interrupted by Alexander.
"It may be prudent to see what exactly the nature of Monokuma's 'gifts' might be," the tactician said.
There was quiet agreement amongst the others, Mary rose the question of if the gifts might be traps but Rowland disagreed.
"The bear wouldn't directly try to kill us without a break in the rules, and he labeled both motives as such as they were, this is going to be something else," the brainiac said, he paused before saying, "would someone turn that damn noise off?" gesturing to the radio, before getting up and turning off himself, muttering about the worst thing he ever heard.
Jane, Mary, and Paris all held back despite Rowland's attempt at reassurance, but the other minus Barry who was sitting with his eyes closed and may have been asleep, left for the dorms. John watched as others entered their rooms until he reached his door, swiping the ID and triggering the animation. After he entered his room John noticed two things off.
One was Monokuma messing around with the laptop John had been using to record his thoughts but had forgotten to continue typing on. The other was a small DVD player that was on his bed. John debated yelling at the bear to leave but Monokuma stood up and closed the laptop.
Turning to John the bear said, "There! I just decrypted a few of the files on this thing so you better be grateful, understand?"
After saying that Monokuma left, leaving John to decide between checking out the laptop and the player on his bed. Deciding that the player would offer more trouble than the laptop seeing as it was purely produced by Monokuma, John sat on his bed and opened the player, which was already on. Taping the button to play the video, a feed turned on showing his family. John froze.
"Hi bro!" James said, waving to him from behind his parents, leaning on the blue couch in the living room. It had been so long since he thought of his family's home, forgetting details of his home in…in…
Why couldn't he remember?
He lost focus on that memory as his parents began speaking.
"Hi honey," his mother said, "we hope you're doing well at," there was static as the video skipped, and it switched to his dad peaking midsentence.
"-invite her over," his dad finished the rest of the thought lost.
John tried his best to try and guess what they may have been saying, but his brother spoke up then.
"What are you anyway?"
It took John a second to realize that James was talking not to him but the person behind the camera, and he couldn't help but feel his blood run cold.
"I'm Shi-ru; I work at the school your brother's staying at."
"That didn't answer my question."
"I am what I am."
"Which is?"
"Nosey little bugger aren't you?"
The video cut out after that, most of it edited away probably for the sake of the censorship that Monokuma had implemented, leaving John confused. It showed that his family was safe but the fact Shi-ru had been with them offered little comfort even if the penguin was benign. If Shi-ru knew where they were then so did the bear.
John stood up and pondered going to the door to try and find out what the others were shown when his eyes fell on his laptop. Curiosity fought against concern and won, guiding John to the desk. Opening the laptop, it woke from the sleep mode and John clicked through the files, most were still blocked but a few of them had had the barrier removed and were now accessible.
Clicking to one, it was revealed as a homework assignment that John had completed introducing himself, which despite being freed for viewing was still heavily censored causing John to grunt in frustration. Clicking out of the mostly useless document, John noticed that a video file had been opened. Hoping it would be more helpful then the previous document, John opened it.
A large soccer stadium appeared on screen, shaking as the camera moved around trying to focus.
John's voice began narrating the happenings, "Alright, this is Paris's first game, not pro yet but college is still-."
"Still way more interesting then you prattling on, rip them a new one!" Rowland yelled from a seat next to him, John swinging the camera towards the brainiac as he began shouting at Paris, who showed no sign of hearing him as she focused on the game.
"Okay, still waiting for her to break someone's nose."
That was Ferris speaking, and John was fairly sure he could hear Adam speaking in his stage voice in the background with Billy telling him to shut up.
"I'm sure she would love to know that's why you're here, not to support her or anything but to watch her break someone's bones," Atsuko said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"Nose," Ferris corrected, "and I am supporting her, just because I want to see her knock someone on their ass does not lessen any support I actually provide her."
The rest of the conversation was lost in a well as Rowland drew the camera's attention back to Paris and the field as the girl ran the ball down the field, and scored a goal. As the crowd cheered the camera bobbed up and down as John jumped up with the others.
John stopped the video and sat back. There was no question that their memories had been altered and messed with, John just didn't understand how. Wouldn't something like that require extensive brain surgery, or something? Hypnosis, maybe? John grunted as he discounted the method as trivial. What was important was what memories had been taken? Could they be retrieved? If the lack of return of any form of memory from the videos was a sign, then the lost memories were likely gone forever.
There were more files but John doubted their value, with both of the files so far having minimal helpfulness, one absolutely useless the other just confirming an already known fact. Deciding that he would see how the others were faring and what Monokuma had in store for the other students. Closing the laptop he stood up and exited his dorm, and after seeing no one else about he decided to go back to the cafeteria.
He didn't encounter anyone as he walked towards the cafeteria, only knowing someone was present at all because he heard the stupid music as he walked into the cafeteria. He was surprised to see that it was Barry who was listening to the song, nodding his head along to it. Deciding to try and make an attempt at conversation, John approached him.
"What are you doing?" John asked.
"Figuring out the music," Barry replied, "Try not to breath so loud would you?"
John stopped his follow up line and instead fell silent.
"Thanks, although the breathing could be quieter, it messes with my ear."
"How?" John asked before he could stop himself.
"The sound doesn't fit the rest of the song, it just doesn't click," Barry said, still nodding along to the beat.
"Doesn't yours also do that?"
"Nah, I've synched my breathing with the singer's," Barry said, "and could you stop talking?"
Giving up John sat in silence with Barry, taking as quiet of breaths as he could. Eventually Barry stood up and began to leave. John debated on whether or not to stop him and try to talk about Monokuma's…'gift' John supposed when he stopped and turned to the Everyman.
"We should hang out more often."
Barry left after that, leaving John alone with the radio, still looping the song. John sat there for a while like that, debating if he could figure out the right switch to turn it off when Jane poked her head into the cafeteria. She hesitated when she saw John, but eventually darted in and dashed into the kitchen area. John waited until she remerged with a plateful of food, before attempting to speak to her.
"How are you?" he asked.
The special effects specialist juddered to a halt, before whirling to face John.
"Why? What's it to you?" she demanded.
"I'm, uh, curious about how you're doing?" John said starting to regret speaking to her.
"I'm doing fine, absolutely fine!" Jane shouted before dashing from the room, leaving John to once again sit by himself and listen to the endless reprise on the radio. Finally tiring of the endless repeating of the song and not wishing to hit buttons randomly John stood up and moved to leave when Mary walked in.
John stopped as the artist walked in, leaving them to stand and stare at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time while the song continued its annoying reprisal.
Finally Mary said, "Why is that music back on?"
"Barry said he was learning it," John said, looking at the radio over his shoulder, "I would turn it off but I don't know the right button."
"Why not just start pressing random ones then? Why is that thing even here?"
"We were trying to get some form of contact with the outside world," John responded, "it didn't go well, and I don't want to break it or mess it up."
Mary snorted before gesturing to the hall, moving out as John followed behind her. Turning to face the everyman, she said, "That's slightly better I guess."
Nodding distractedly John asked, "Do you know how Jane is doing?"
Mary made a disgusted sound before saying, "I thought I was making progress with becoming her friend hen that fiasco of a trial happened," John could hear the bitterness in her voice, "after that she accused me of trying to kill her anytime I get near and runs away, I think she's just paranoid beyond reason now."
John grimaced at the news but couldn't think of any way to reach Jane to calm her down that wouldn't scare her more. He could see why she had become so paranoid. Her closest friend amongst them was murdered and the one making progress on becoming her friend as then accused as a murderer, that would make anyone suspect everyone.
Shaking the other student from his mind John asked, "What was your gift from Monokuma?"
Mary fell silent before saying, "A video showing my family, my father and my uncle, they were alright."
"When the video was taken."
John and Mary turned to see Rowland and Ferris walking down the hall towards them, Alexander running to catch up with them.
"Yeah, I figured as much," John said, slightly despondent.
"What do you mean?" Mary demanded, scratching her hand.
"The camera man for my video was Shi-ru," John said, Rowland and Ferris nodding in agreement with Alexander vocalizing his knowledge of Shi-ru acting as camera man.
"And if Shi-ru knows where our families are it isn't a far leap to guess Monokuma does too," Ferris said, his smile pulled tight with stress.
Mary gaped in surprise before turning on her heel and moving deeper into the school. John wondered if he should follow her but Rowland was already moving, catching up quickly before falling back to a respectful distance to follow her.
"They'll be in the art room," Alexander said with a sigh, "Citizen Rowland would have been useful but Citizen John," he turned to John, "Will you accompany us in investigating the Computer Lab to see if anything useful has been revealed?"
John thought for a moment, before asking for a second. Moving into the cafeteria and then the kitchen John searches for something to leave a note on. Finding a small pad of paper and a pencil, John left a note for Paris in the cafeteria before leaving with Ferris and Alexander to the Computer Lab.