AN: Time for a new chapter, hope you all like it!
The next day passed by uneventfully, beyond the increasing temperature and tempers, although the anger at the expanded motive wasn't directed at Mary, Paris, and himself like John expected but at Monokuma, although Alexander and Billy both berated them for it, and Monokuma warning them that attempts to use the freezer to cool off would be a punishable offense.
Then, things became so much more... as Monokuma would put it, entertaining.
Day 30, 0934 Hours, the Cafeteria
Someone was talking. John attempted to hear the words the voice was saying but the heat made it waver, much like his vision. This was his third attempt at figuring out what the voice was saying, as he lacked the willpower to lift his head from the table, a layer of sweat sticking his face to the surface, seemingly a thousand times stronger combined with the heat. He had for gone his shirt in favor of not cooking his internal organs any more than he had to.
John felt a pair of hands grab his head and lift it roughly from the table forcing him to support it using his own strength. Now freed from his welcome entrapment and forced into a very unwelcome social interaction with…Chloe, his heat addled brain deciphered after a second.
"Why are all of you such pansies?" she asked as John made an undecipherable sound to signal he was paying attention.
"Because we're not the Ultimate fucking Survivalist," John said deciding that that useless point of information had been all the girl wanted and was laying his head back down to surrender to insensibleness of the heat, when she forced him back into a sitting position.
"Come on, stay with me man, I still have questions for you," she said, trying a different tact with the irritable John.
"Alright, what?" he said, trying to reel in his temper.
"Who have you seen today?" she asked.
"Ugh, I think, I don't know, I've lost too much time today simply not giving a fuck, anything else?" John said, wiping a layer of sweat off his brow.
"Stay put," the survivalist said after scowling at John's sullen response.
John kept his head up until she had entered the kitchen at which point he let his head slam down onto the table, a fresh layer of sweat reattaching it to the surface. He thought he heard a door open and someone come in. They tried speaking to him but stopped when the kitchen door opened. They spoke to Chloe for a second before leaving quickly. John might've cared more to know who that was but he felt Chloe's hand enclose his arm and yank him roughly up, peeling a layer of skin from his face.
"Drink," Chloe said, forcing a semi-cool glass into his hand.
"Didn't run into Monokuma?" John asked, slightly surprised.
"I got Shi-ru to run inside quickly," she said.
John snorted, but gratefully drank the rapidly warming liquid; glad for the small amount it lowered his body temperature. He still felt irritable, just less so now. He supposed he owed it to Chloe to listen to her now.
"Alright, what else did you want?" John asked in a more reasonable tone.
"For you to help me find people to make sure they aren't strangling each other over the thermostat, or a fuck ton of money, since that's still in effect," she told him.
John thought of asking her why she didn't just do that on her own when she yanked him out of the room. He felt frustrated slightly. Why was it his responsibility to make sure that everyone was alright and sane? Because he really wanted everyone to survive, he responded. Well, why? He queried back. Because it's the right thing to do, he answered. People have already died! He countered. All the more reason to try, he stated.
The internal monologue ended after that, prompting him to finally care about the person from earlier who had tried to talk to him.
"Who was that earlier?" he asked.
"Oh, you were conscious? Ferris, that weirdo is moving around in that damn sweatshirt like its average room temperature somehow," Chloe said, "Even I would find it mildly uncomfortable at this temperature."
"Is he really that weird here?" John questioned.
"Yes," Chloe stated, "He is a weirdo's, weirdo's weirdo."
"Seriously?"
"Dude, if he does half the shit I've seen him do around the rest of you then I don't think he's normal even by the most optimistic standards."
"Like what?" John asked.
"I found him standing on his head with Atsuko balancing stuff on his feet, for science is the bullshit they told me they were doing it for, he glued his shoes to the ceiling, while wearing them, and…uh," Chloe slowed to a stop staring off into space, "my brain just crashed."
John laughed, before saying, "I don't think he's done anything like that while I've been around."
"That's because you're one of the people who are useful," she stated.
"What?"
"You, Alexander, and Rowland when he was alive were the ones who were actually getting shit done," Chloe said, "No one else really does jack shit outside of the trials, well, Paris and Atsuko do follow you guys around but they don't really do much to help."
"Hey, you guys do stuff too," John said.
"Pff, AH HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!" Chloe laughed.
John opened his mouth to say something to prove they did things, but Chloe laughed over him. She did it the second time he tried to speak as well. He opened his mouth and the sarcastic laughter cut him off again.
"That was the most real laugh I've had while I've been stuck in here," Chloe finally said.
"Really," John said, looking at her flatly.
"Yes," Chloe said, "You can ask my girlfriend once we get of here, she knows my laughter well."
"Why, do you guys torment other people together?" John said.
"Hey, I don't tor-HAHAHA," Chloe cut herself off with her own laughter, making John face palm.
"Okay, sure, I can be a bitch, but I'm not that terrible a person," Chloe said, "If you're referring to Paris she just rubs me the wrong way."
"Why?" John asked taking a moment to wipe off a fresh layer of sweat.
"Hell if I know, I just find her unlikable, she's too, optimistic," Chloe said.
"Alright," John said before he started walking again.
"Really, that's it? No why do you hate her for that? No oh my god you have a girlfriend? Nothing?" Chloe asked slightly incredulous.
"I'm hot, we already knew you were gay so the fact you have a girlfriend and not a boyfriend isn't that stunning, and what, you think that I thought your horribly abrasive personality would make you so unappealing that you would never be able to have a girlfriend?" John stated as factually as he could.
Chloe broke out in laughter again before motioning John towards the East Wing. He hadn't even realized they had reached the central hall. He went along with her command, or request, he wasn't sure. They searched the wing and found Mary outside the art room leaning back against the door with an agonized look on her face, without her heavy apron.
"Hey Mary," John greeted.
"Where's Paris?" Mary said.
"Really? No hi Chloe, hey Chloe, just straight to where's the other American?" the survivalist said jokingly, probably.
"Ugh, I don't have time for your shit right now," Mary said, "Monokuma locked the art room saying that he had to isolate the precious artwork from the damaging effects of the heat."
"Bitch move on his part," Chloe said in sympathy? John had no clue how to tell of she was being mocking or not, although he was unsure as to why he was trying to decipher Chloe's motives now of all times.
"Right, I'm going to sit here until it opens or maybe die of heatstroke," Mary said before sliding down into a sprawl.
"Seen anyone else come through?" asked John quickly before she could shut down completely.
"No."
"Thanks," John said, pushing Chloe away from the now pissed artist.
"See you later," Chloe said with a slightly cheerful note in her voice.
"I saw Alexander in the lab," Chloe offered as they left the wing, "And Ferris said he would be in the library."
"And you didn't say this earlier…?" John let the question trail.
"We were having a great conversation," Chloe said, "probably the best time talking to someone I've had since I got here."
"Again, seriously?"
"I spent most of my time following that blowhard Alexander around and he's a bore, and the others don't really like me because as you said, abrasive."
John snorted as they passed through the central hall again, walking in silence and suffocating heat.
"Where is Paris?" John asked.
"Ugh, I don't know, I'm new at this being everyone's keeper thing," Chloe said.
John groaned and turned back into the South Wing, heading towards the dorms. Chloe groaned as well before running up behind him and pushing him at an accelerated rate. He snorted in discontent but she simply replied "Tough."
They arrived at Paris's dorm and John knocked on the door. It swung open to show a parched soccer player with her eyes only partially open.
"Hey John, Chloe," she said, leaning to one side, covered in her, whatever the term was for that really light sheet that went under the comforter.
"See? She's in her room, not dead," Chloe said, "let's get going to find the others now, we're wasting time."
"Okay, I seriously doubt someone's going to di-," John said as the heat suddenly dropped.
They stood there for a moment before John said, "What the fuck was that, did someone seriously die right as I said that?"
"John, we need to get moving," Chloe said, Paris nodding in agreement, shedding her blanket thingamajig that John was now to busy trying to determine who was dead to properly name, to show her wearing a sports top, probably proving her smarter than John for searching a store instead of opting to abandon clothing.
They began moving towards the intersection to find whoever had been struck down. They ran into Ferris and Atsuko at the intersection, and began moving into the central hall. That's when the announcement played.
"Bing, Bing, Bing, Bong! A body has been found! The investigation will begin and a trial will start shortly," said Monokuma's voice.
They paused to wait in the central hall, assuming that someone would come to lead them to the body. Barry appeared from the North Wing, motioning them in.
"Is it just me, or is each murder occurring in a different wing, like specifically the wing that has just been opened?" Atsuko asked, but not pushing the issue after no one joined her in questioning it.
Barry led them to the intersection before turning towards the broken area of the wing. John looked behind them and saw Jane lurking in the central hall entrance eyeing them warily, before the wall cut off his line of sight. Turning around he saw Alexander and Mary looking at a section of the broken hall, and John could guess who was past them.
Billy came into view as the two stepped a part. The behavioral analyst was impaled on a section of broken pillar, with rebar protruding from his chest. Blood was spreading from the base of the rebar, darkening the shirt he was wearing with his blood. He wore a look of mild surprise on his face and John couldn't help but wonder who had killed him.
Nine people left, soon to be eight at that. Or even less, perhaps one. No, no use in thinking like that. Might as well stay hopeful right?
But that still meant that there would only be eight students surviving to the next day.
Enough of that though, it was time to catch a killer. God that sounded stupid even in his own head, what is this, a cop show?