AN: And the next chapter has arrived folks. Thanks for reading this far and here's Monokuma and 'Friends' for your entertainment.
The next two days passed with little event. The students would wake up and convene in the cafeteria for food, for the most part. Alexander had declared that it was useless in trying to work with Ferris and they may as well work in parallel or something to achieve the shared goal, or at least that's what he told John. All it meant was that he avoided Ferris whenever possible, not too unlike how Jane was avoiding everyone.
After that most of the students would meet in the rec room and bond over the activities now available. Those who didn't join in the games included Alexander who spent most of his time searching for more clues to escape, Jane who still suspected everyone was out to kill her, and Barry who said he was still tuning all the instruments in the music room. Ferris joined every so often but he was also researching more ways out as well.
The only thing interesting to happen was the meetings with Shi-cu which John did his best to remember. The first day Ferris and Atsuko went to talk to the penguin's brain, and neither spoke of what they had communicated about with the AI. The day after that John had gone in with Mary, who spent the entire time questioning Shi-cu about things she didn't want John to know about. Alexander, Billy, Chloe, and Jane had all been told that the room underneath the stairs was Shi-ru's and the only one who had cared beyond that had been Alexander who had asked if the room was accessible, which truthfully it wasn't. Barry didn't care to meet Shi-cu even when john offered to take him.
So it was four days after the trial that Monokuma showed his face again.
Day 27, John's Room, 0700 hours
John sat up as the announcement finished, opened his eyes and leapt out of bed onto the floor in a heap. Monokuma giggled from his position on the bed before hopping down and addressing John.
"Report to the cafeteria promptly for the newest motive, and just so you know being overly late is punishable with death bastard."
The bear left after that, and John began rushing through his morning ritual, before deciding to just move into the cafeteria and get prepared after the announcement of the motive. He ran barefoot in his sleepwear, a nondescript white shirt and pants which he had only previously worn to bed and even then he had quite a few times simply collapsed onto the bed fully clothed after a particularly stressful or long day.
John opened the door to find he was not the only one to show in his pajamas. Ferris was fully clothed, probably arriving before the announcement even played, but Paris and Barry were both in their sleepwear. Both were basically the same as John's, a shirt and a pair of pants, except Paris's was decorated with tiny soccer balls and presumably team symbols while Barry's was decorated with various instruments.
The four sat in silence as the other students came in, most in their pajamas as well although Chloe arrived fully clothed like Ferris. Once all ten of them were assembled Monokuma appeared from nowhere as was the norm.
"All right bastards! As an experiment in fusing motive and reward, this next motive is 100% positive," Monokuma said, too dubious looks, before continuing, "so if you off someone within the next five days and manage to get away with it I'll set you up with in the lap of luxury for the rest of your life."
There was a wave of interest at the turn of events, with Monokuma's positive motive actually being positive; minus the killing each other part. As the interest was followed by distrust Monokuma continued with his delivery of the motive.
"Remember: this deal is only good for five, understand bastards? Five days. After that the motive will be replaced with another one, this one not positive! Upupupupu!"
Monokuma broke down laughing at his brilliance, at least that's how John read it, before vanishing once again leaving the students to digest the new information. Or most of the students, anyway, Ferris snorted and moved into the kitchen followed by Chloe who spat at where Monokuma had made his disappearance. Jane moved next, dashing out of the room in her pajamas dotted with explosions and other special effects.
After her rapid exit, the other students began leaving to properly finish their morning rituals. John waited as the bulk of the other seven students moved through before following them. Atsuko ended up walking next to him in pajamas decorated with horseshoes, clovers and other symbols of luck. They talked quietly until they reached John's room, the two bidding each other farewell as Atsuko continued to her room.
John proceeded with his morning routine from where he had left off, grabbing a pair of fresh clothes from the dresser he had left open before he left for the announcement. John considered the motive as he prepared for the day.
The motive was an odd duck compared to the other's which were all aimed to harm the students on some way. The removal of medicine to force the students with medical problems to confront them, the secrets threatening to throw the skeletons from the closet, he never did ask Ferris about what Monokuma had said to Perdita; and the dismemberment threat an attempt to scare the dwindling students into killing. This one was extremely tame compared to the others.
A thought occurred to John. The motives seemed to really hit a nerve with one student in particular, or a few. The medication had been a real bull's eye for Ferris, Adam, and Wilbur; Perdita was the only one who had really taken the secret thing to seriously to John's knowledge; and the dismemberment one would have been a shock to Jane as well as Louise.
So, who would this motive really appeal to?
Safety as well as comfort would appeal to Jane certainly, no more need to fear the others as Monokuma provided a life of luxury far away from the troubles of the school. John couldn't really think of anyone else that would want massive amounts of money besides some of the students who came from poorer backgrounds. That would be Atsuko, Barry, and…Paris.
But there's no way Paris would ever kill. And Atsuko was also on board with the no killing. Barry was too easy going to actually kill anyone so the real danger was once again Jane. The poor girl was so traumatized by this whole experience she would probably need a therapist if they ever got out of here. When they got out of there.
Now finished with his morning process about an hour later than usual, John exited his room and headed towards the cafeteria for breakfast. When he arrived Ferris was gone as well as Chloe, both probably already deeper into the school complex.
Present were Alexander and Barry, the latter eating his breakfast slowly while the former was almost finished, and was still shoveling food into his mouth at a rapid rate. John entered the kitchen and found Paris there, who greeted him with a smile. She gestured to the food she had out, a silent question of if he wanted some being asked. John signaled he would get something else to eat before offering to put the stuff she was done with back.
She was finished by the time John had gathered all the ingredients to prepare his breakfast, and she passed him as she went to put the rest of the stuff she had grabbed away. She waved as she exited the kitchen while john made his breakfast. When he was done and everything had been out away, Alexander had left the cafeteria, his dishes sitting out where he left them.
John joined Paris where she had sat down and began talking to her as they ate, Atsuko and Mary joining them later. Barry eventually walked over to them, and Billy sat with them when he arrived, only getting a cup of coffee from the kitchen instead of breakfast.
They eventually split apart a few going to the rec room and a few dispersing across the school. John decided to be one of the latter of the groups today while Paris joined the former. The two groups split at the door then the group that John was in fell apart even farther. John took a moment to breathe as everyone else wandered away before he began exploring the school on his own in the hopes of encountering someone one on one.
John walked into the East Wing, deciding to actually look at the inside of the bath house as he had never been in since it had been opened, what with all the chaos that had ensued with the motives and murders. He encountered no one and entered the room with no problem, and began to survey it. It was what he expected, a few large pools for baths and what looked like a row of sinks that John had no idea what the use would be, probably something for girls.
Exiting, John was surprised to find Jane when he exited into the hallway attempting to open the female entrance. Both withdrew slightly from each other, distrustful of what the other's actions might be. They both relaxed after a second when both realized that they would be standing there forever if they didn't do something.
Jane stared at John warily for a second before saying, "Hello."
John nodded in response.
Jane narrowed her eyes at John before saying, "If you're afraid of provoking me then quietly nodding in an attempt to not provoke me with sound way more anger-provoking than you just speaking."
John let out a small snort, before saying, "Fair enough then, how have you been?"
"Again, what do you think," Jane said "the answer is the exact same as the last time you asked that question."
John nodded and added a vocalized, "right," when Jane eyed him dangerously.
"Why are you talking to me?" he asked her when he couldn't think of anything else, "You're avoiding us all like the plague so why talk to me now?"
Jane stared at him hard for a minute before saying, "I, I think that you're a good person, and Amelia agreed with that so I guess I find you more trustworthy than the others, you're not going to kill me at least."
"Then, why avoid Paris?" John tried, "She wouldn't hurt you."
"She hurt you and she likes you better than me," Jane stated, referencing the soccer game from the early days before the killing began.
"That was an accident and she apologized for that right after," John countered.
"Alright I'll consider it," Jane said, getting frustrated with this line of talk.
"Good, it's good to interact with other people," said John.
Jane snorted and began to turn away from John but instead backed out of arms reach before leaving him alone, muttering a good bye as she left. John watched as she left but turned and walked away before she was completely out of sight, deciding that if she saw him watching her she would react poorly.
John decided to try and figure out if there were some other rooms that he had yet to properly inspect yet, but was pulling up a blank. He might as well go and join the others but he could go check what progress Alexander and Ferris had made in finding a way out. It was fairly unfair of the rest of them to be putting the escape plan solely on those two but they had assumed the leadership positions and if they wanted help they would have to ask, or command it.
John decided to check out the lab first, seeing as the computer's had the largest wealth of data easily available, or at least the easiest information to access as it required less searching than the library. John walked to the nearby room and entered, surprised to find Ferris and Billy present. John decided to see what the behavioral analyst was doing first.
"Hey Billy, what are you doing?" John called, letting the others know he was present.
"Installing a game Barry found in the rec room," Billy said, "It says its multiplayer so we could get a group thing going."
"Monokuma's allowing it so it's probably hacked in some way so we can't use it to contact the outside," Ferris said, not looking up from the computer he was rapidly typing at.
"It'll still be a good way to build up bond's and kill time," Billy responded.
"Oh, yeah of course it is, I'm just answering the unasked question," Ferris said, turning his ever present smile to the other two students, before resuming his task.
"Wait, did Barry go with you guys? I thought he split for the music room to continue tuning the instruments?" John asked.
"So did we, but he showed up a little later and joined in before pointing out this game and suggesting we install it and try playing it," Billy responded.
"Ah," John said, acknowledging Billy's statement.
"How's about you Ferris? What are you up to?" John asked looking to the chemist as Billy pulled the game disc from the computer before replacing it with another one.
"Trying to finish decrypting these files Rowland was working on," Ferris said, as John walked over and Billy continued his process of installing the game by putting the first disc into an adjacent computer, "but despite being a brainiac Rowland was no expert and he was only able to get so far."
"Too bad we don't have more intelligent students," Billy said, "You, him, Alexander, and sometimes John were our brain trust so the fact that you've kind of collapsed is a bit disheartening."
Ferris sighed, turning towards Billy, pausing to give him a flat look that complemented his current smile well before saying, "Fine, I'll play nice with Alexander so we can get out of here but that guy's not off the hook yet."
Ferris then stood up and exited the room to find Alexander while Billy nodded and looked to John before saying, "Anything else I can do for you?"
"No," John said after a second, "I think I'm going to take another look over the new area before joining the others. I was hoping something new might have come up but I guess we're still stuck."
Billy nodded and said, "What else can we do? It's not like we have the Ultimate Demolitions Expert."
"True, although Jane would probably know how to make an explosion that could blast our way out of here," John mused.
"I'd rather not have the most unstable person making weapons of mass destruction right now," Billy said, turning to check the game's download progress on the computers.
"They wouldn't be that big," John began before Billy interjected.
"Our world is this school and you're proposing a weapon big enough to cause significant damage to said world, sounds like a WMD to me."
"Alright," John said, "I get your point but it is our most feasible escape option."
"Monokuma would come down on that like a sack of bricks," Billy countered, "It's just not realistic to believe he'd let us build a bomb and detonate it without the intent to kill someone with it."
"You're right," John said with a sigh, "but the theoretical escape plan was doing wonders for my morale."
"You're a big boy, you can handle a little disappointment," Billy said, turning back to the computers as John began moving to the exit.
"Well, I'm heading to the North Wing now," John said opening the door to the hall.
"Give Paris my best," Billy called out snickering as John shot him a look.
John closed the door behind him, before turning down towards the central hall. He walked in silence until he reached the T-intersection in the North Wing were he hesitated, drawn between a desire to hang out with friends and the desire to take a look over at the ruined section of the school again, on the off chance he would be able to find something useful.
After a minute John turned towards the ruined section, figuring a quick glance couldn't hurt. He arrived at the rubble strewn hall, and paused to consider a few thoughts. Why was the hall not cleaned up like the rest of the school? There had to be a reason why this hall was left in such a state of disrepair instead of fixing it up properly or even erecting a wall at the mouth to seal it off from the rest of the school?
John began picking his way through the rubble now, watching here he set his feet. One wrong move and he could impale himself onto the rebar. John worked his way towards the remains of the doors that lined the halls, and began trying to open a few. He had no success until one that, when he touched it, fell inward with a small clatter as it bounced off rubble piled behind it.
It was dark inside, and John decided he should get a flashlight before exploring further. As he turned to head to the school store, John saw Monokuma standing on one of the larger chunks of rubble, leaning with his black half supported by a piece of rebar. What really caught John's eye though, was the flashlight the bear was twirling.
It suddenly occurred to John that the radio had vanished after Louise's trial. They never actually got to hear what it was that had drawn Ferris to the scene of the crime and they probably never would. John wondered why he hadn't thought of that before.
"You need a light, right?" Monokuma asked suddenly, throwing John off.
"Yes," John said.
"So you're going to look in there, once you get a light," Monokuma said, tilting its head to one side.
"Yes," John said, being careful not to do anything to provoke Monokuma.
After a second the bear let the flashlight fly towards John without breaking the twirling motion, once again catching John by surprise.
"Take a good look, and remember what you see," Monokuma said before vanishing form sight.
John looked at the light in his hand before looking back at the room, weighing whether or not he should go in there before deciding that he should at least see so he could tell the others. John crawled in to the room, straightening up to look around.
The stench rolled over him, and John had a feeling he knew what it meant.
Turning the light on, John saw a destroyed room, filled with blood smears. The room itself had been severely reduced in size by several sheets of metal cutting through the middle. The metal itself was clean of smears but everywhere else was spattered, and the blood stank.
"They tried to get in," Monokuma said, the voice floating into John's ears as he was unable to look towards the bear, "And this was their fate, they felt despair as their end came, as you will feel despair as yours comes. Tell the others about this, and we'll see how long you're all able to maintain this happy little thing you have going."
John fled the room.
Monokuma didn't laugh.
That made it so much worse.