AN: Holy smokes, two chapters in one day?! Yeah, feeling a bit bad because I've been letting this fall to the way side but now it's time to get back into gear for all those people who are reading this.
Day 31, 1429 Hours, the Library
John walked towards the library to check out the room Ferris had mentioned. He considered trying to find Paris but didn't know where so might have gone and figured it wouldn't be too dangerous being off on his own for a while. Anyways if the room was locked as Ferris said then it would be simple enough to do a quick run by and then worry about tracking down the other students.
As John made his way towards the stairs, John paused before moving deeper into the shelves of books. He moved towards a section that everyone had avoided since the early days of their entrapment. John stopped and stared at the shelf full of black books on murder. John looked over the shelves until he found a book written by the other person featured in the section, Enoshima.
Flipping open the book to the about the author section, which had been left blank besides the name Junko Enoshima. Groaning at the lack of new knowledge John began flipping through the book at random hoping to find something useful. He began walking through the shelves, eventually wandering up to find the room that Ferris had told him about.
He tried the door to find it locked, taking a moment to read the words Archive room written over the door. Perhaps this room would be able to show some of the answers they needed. They could break down the door but that would hardly be feasible, perhaps they could find a key. Not that Monokuma would leave a key that opened everything lying around.
John turned back to his book as he walked away. It was certainly informative about killing people, giving detailed descriptions and pictures. John continued flipping as he reached the book shelf, replacing the book and grabbing another one authored by Enoshima. This book contained more of the fun things like the other had contained, prompting John to switch it for another book by Enoshima.
There had to be a reason that she was placed with Monokuma right? This couldn't all just be a random event that just happened to occur with them being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
John growled as he put the book back before he heard a voice.
"Aren't you sweet taking an interest in my literature? This is my personal collection, and I'm so glad one of you can appreciate it, unlike that complete bastard that used one as a murder weapon," Monokuma said, walking along the top of a shelf.
John said nothing simply observing what the bear was doing, holding the book between him and Monokuma in a semi defensive matter. Monokuma noticed, and his eyed flashed menacingly, but otherwise he did nothing but continue walking and talking.
"I feel as if I should reward your interest in the murder of your classmates by studying the proper methods of execution so I'll offer you this deal," Monokuma said before turning to face John, "You can have free access around the school, even restricted areas and information, as long as someone dies by this time tomorrow."
John stared at the bear grimacing. It was obvious that if he failed to kill anyone Monokuma would execute him promptly, perhaps beheading him in front of his fellow classmates' midsentence during a conversation as a way to scare them, which would be Monokuma's way certainly. He couldn't really trust them enough unfortunately to flat out tell them that he had made a deal with the devil, especially with the death clause. He was fairly certain that all of them would probably pick up on the things he left unsaid about his interaction with Monokuma.
But there was too much to lose by not agreeing to this deal. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if Monokuma ran off and made up some pretext to give it to someone else. In fact, this could be the new motive for all he knew. John slowly put the book back as he considered what the bear said.
"Any room," John said, "Any at all?"
"Yes," Monokuma said grinning at John from the top of the book shelf, "Just so long as someone dies, oh, and it's just you, no one else."
John winced a bit t this but slowly raised his hand towards the bear.
"John!" Paris said.
John looked over at the soccer player in surprise as Monokuma suddenly said, "Oh well, times up."
John looked back and the bear was gone, while Paris was advancing on him.
"What did he say to you?" she demanded.
"He offered me a deal," John said, deciding to simply tell the truth for now.
"You weren't going to take it right?" Paris said, looking him dead in the eyes.
"No," John said, lifting his hand to push the books back to replace the book authored by Enoshima.
"Alright," Paris said, before looking the bookshelf up and down, "what were you doing looking at these books?"
"I thought that there might be something useful about this Enoshima person since Monokuma seems to respect them, sure we haven't seen them mentioned anywhere else but they might be important right?"
Paris looked at him suspiciously but backed down seeming to prefer to hope that he was telling the truth. She took a breath before looking at him worriedly.
"You aren't going to try anything dangerous, there's enough uncertainty that we shouldn't be taking unnecessary risks and anything to do with Monokuma is unnecessary and risky," Paris said.
"Yes, we can probably trust Ferris and Alexander to do that themselves," John said turning away before Paris stopped him.
"John, no one else should die and that means we should just try and wait Monokuma out," Paris said.
"Look, you have nothing to worry about where I'm concerned," John said smiling, "I promise, cross my heart hope to die."
"Let's not go that far," Paris said, chuckling slightly.
"Alright, but let's get moving," John said, "We can probably get something more done today."
They began walking back towards the entrance, which they utilized as an exit before they walked down the now all too familiar halls of the cavernous school. Silence encompassed them as the heavy topics of conversation beforehand smothered the present chances of making any form of talk.
This allowed John to spend time thinking, allowing him to explore a million hypothetical reasons as to why Monokuma would offer him anything such as that free access deal. His musings were cut off as they passed the cafeteria and Paris tugged him towards the door, expressing a desire for food. John nodded, and was glad when the distrustful chemist was absent from the room. John had no desire to go through Ferris's unsettling gaze and reptilian smile again.
They ate quietly the troubles and hazards of the day forgotten as they made a pleasant conversation over the state of the weather through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse, as well as the fortunate wilting of the Monokuma plant. They heard the door open and turned to see Jane standing at the entrance staring at them.
Silence returned as they began to look each other over, before Jane cautiously moved around them into the kitchen. They heard her quietly move around before she reemerged and sat down at a table, where she quietly began to eat. John and Paris resumed their conversation as Jane ate. They didn't stop when she stood up to return her dishes.
It was when Jane cleared her throat that they ceased talking and gave the special effects specialist their full attention.
"So," Jane began then stopped.
They stared at each other for a second before John set down his silverware.
"I…was wondering if you guys would," Jane said, after she worked up her courage after Paris too had set down her silverware, "want to hang out?"
"Sure," Paris said, "Let us clean up-ah."
She cut off as a mono-ized Shi-ru appeared, grabbing the dishes from her hands. They were silent as it waddled away, no one wanting to comment on its presence.
"Never mind," John said as he stood up, "let's get going."
Jane nodded and began moving from the cafeteria, opening the door slightly and looking around furtively before moving into the hall. John and Paris followed her, exchanging looks as they saw how she advanced nervously down the hall ways, both developing a sense of worry. They eventually stooped worrying when they reached the rec room with no incident or encounter with the other five.
Jane gestured to the room in general, before saying, "You guys…have anything you want to do?"
"No you can pick," Paris said, smiling encouragingly, although John could see the slight spark of unease that still remained.
Jane nodded before selecting a game, which they played quietly for some time. This went on for some time, Jane selecting an activity, and they playing it quietly for until they lost interest and they moved on. Jane eventually left as night time approached, leaving John and Paris to pick her attempt at reintegrating apart.
"Do you think she'll be open to approaching the others?" Paris asked eyeing the door.
"No, she didn't even try to make conversation much less anything that required eye contact," John said, "I think it would be better to let her ease herself back to interacting with s and then try to expand into talking to the others."
"But she at least asked us to join her right? That's good."
"Yes it is, maybe she's finally moving on from that whole fiasco at the start," John said smiling.
They fell silent before Paris suggested that they go back to the dorms for the night, John agreeing, stating that they should clean up before the Shi-ru clones showed up. They walked back from the North Wing to the Central Hall, where they passed Ferris and Atsuko, the former giving them a bright smile and wave like usually while the latter looked at John uncomfortably.
John said nothing and Paris returned Ferris's wave, giving Atsuko a concerned look which the lucky student returned after a moment. The rest of the walk saw no one but Chloe who was in the cafeteria staring at a wall deep in thought. John debated asking her if there was something amiss but decided not to as Paris had walked past and he decided that he was tired anyways.
They parted ways at Paris's dorm, john continuing to his dorm entering the room and closing the door behind him. John began his nightly routine before stooping halfway through to sit on his bed. He closed his eyes and hummed to himself for a second.
"Monokuma."
The name was said and the path was chosen, John knew this as he opened his eyes to face the white half of the bear, the stuffed animal facing away from him.
"Yes?" Monokuma said in his childish voice.
"The deal was," John began before pausing to take a deep breath before continuing, "The deal was that I would get unrestricted access to information without penalty as long as someone died before the end of twenty-four hours from the minute I took the deal, right?"
"Yes," Monokuma said, turning so that the black side and the red eye were facing John, "it was."
"Is, is it still?" John asked.
Monokuma laughed before saying, "Yes! I would never change a deal once it was made!"
John inhaled and exhaled, working himself towards his decision. He had set his path when he had called the bear; so many people had died because of this creature. Adam, Amelia, Perdita, Wilbur, Louise, Rowland, Barry, Billy, and Shi-ru, all gone forever, well maybe not Shi-ru. But it doesn't matter, because if John could do this right then no one else would have to die.
"Do I sign a contract or just shake hands?" John asked to which Monokuma responded gleefully.
"No need for wasting paper, we can just shake hands here and now in which time your time begins ticking away, no need to wait for the hour to strike, although it would be much more dramatic," the sadistic bear said.
John hesitated a second, before grasping Monokuma's outstretched paw.