AN: This story is still going. At a snail's pace sure but it's still going
Day 32, 1120 Hours, Cafeteria
John was aware of the crushing silence as he sat and ate quietly in the cafeteria. No one was looking directly at him and everyone had all avoided sitting with him. The trial had taken place at such a time that no one had been able to go to sleep which was the usual escape for such an experience leaving everyone to wonder the school, hunger eventually driving them to congregate in the cafeteria.
John ate slowly under the feel of everyone judging him, still finding guilt in his actions and possibly afraid that the others would lash out at him because of some lingering fear of the motive he had fallen too. Although, their depression could stem from the fact that they had lost another of the three who were actively trying to find escape, cutting the group down to Alexander, who was eating mechanically, obviously lost in thought.
In other words, things looked grim, and they were no closer into forcing the bear into putting all his cards on the table. Although, maybe Shi-ru's interference would help, Ferris was still alive at least, probably. Ferris had lucked out that that vent had been there, possibly to help vent fumes from the vat so he didn't die prematurely. Monokuma was really trying to force that whole despair thing onto the chemist in his last moments.
That still did not change the fact that they had made zero progress on truly escaping in the end, John and the others were stuck. Ferris might make it out but that was one out of sixteen, hardly a number worth celebration. Then again, they were down to less than half of their initial number.
Himself, Paris, Jane, Mary, Alexander, and Atsuko. Six plus Ferris meant that at most they would only escape with seven surviving students, a dismal success rate. John paused in his slow moving lunch to think back to when they had started. Most of them had taken such an optimistic view that they would escape before anything actually escalated. Now, there were nine corpses, six captives, and one fugitive. Heck even Shi-ru was dead, or as close to dead as an animatronic could get.
John had also butchered the trust the others had in him so it was unlikely that they would be comfortable around him for a long while. Monokuma had forced him into a very interesting corner, and he was not going to leave it for the fore seeable future. Which turned out to be stunningly short as someone sat down at the table within the second of that thought.
John looked up to see Paris eating quietly directly across from him. He looked at her for a second before quietly resuming eating. They both continued eating until Paris finally broke the silence.
"In case you can't tell, I'm still mad at you," the soccer player said, not looking at him.
"Don't worry," John said, after a moment of silence, "I can tell."
The soccer player looked up at him and said, "Good."
They both went back to eating, but John felt better. Sure, the others wouldn't be so forgiving but at least one person was still willing to give him a chance. That gave him quite a bit of hope that they might be able to keep things from escalating beyond what they had already reached, which was way too much but at least they probably wouldn't go any further.
After they had both finished eating John and Paris sat quietly, still not speaking as the others ate. Jane had left but all the others were still present, meaning that in all likeliness John would face some sort of retribution for his actions. Attempts to leave would probably make things worse.
John continued his silent wait for punishment as the others finished, and then some as none of them spoke even after they finished their food. John felt some of his hopeful thoughts ebb away as the others all sat with defeated looks on their faces, none of them having the energy to even try and instate a sense of what should happen next.
John stood up.
Everyone looked at him. No one moved to stop him as he walked to the center of the room.
"So, what now?" he said.
Everyone looked at him, then turned to Alexander who continued looking at him.
Slowly Alexander stood up and said, "I'm tired."
The tactician left after that, leaving everyone to look back at John, all of them feeling lost as far as John could tell. None of them wanted to take on the responsibility of keeping the group moving forward, and John couldn't blame them. So many had died and Alexander was starting to fall apart before their eyes, leaving an obvious downside to organizing anything.
That left John.
"I need to be limited somehow," he prompted, hoping that someone else would take over but was disappointed as they all kept staring at him.
Finally, Atsuko spoke up as he was about to continue speaking.
"We don't care," she said.
John stood in silence as the lucky student stood up and walked away, following the path Alexander had taken, leaving just two others in the room with him, funny how quickly the numbers had dwindled.
Mary stood up a second later, leaving her ID on the table to walk away, taking the other direction then the others heading towards the art room to enact her ritual to destress. That left Paris. John turned towards the soccer player to face her directly. He stood staring at her, trying to think of something to say, but coming up blank.
"I'll talk to them," the soccer player said eventually, "I can make them come around. But you are right, so set your ID on the table before you leave."
John smiled at her, before he set his ID on the table in front of her guessing that since he wasn't giving it to her directly it wasn't lending so it wasn't in violation of the rule about IDs. He walked away, leaving her to sit and mull over her thoughts before she tried approaching the other students.
Before he left though he turned to her and called out, "You can do it, I believe in you."
As he turned back around he heard her say, "That was so cliché."
He laughed as he exited into the hall, turning towards the library. He need to see something.
He entered the large room, which felt as empty as normal as he walked through the shelves walking slowly as he moved amongst the quiet room. He felt a need to let the room remain silent, as he felt that the room might be equated to a crypt what with multiple murders taking place within it, leaving John with the impression that the spirits of his friends might still be lingering in the room amongst the shelves, even if only two of them had actually died here the others might have been able to find their way to this room.
He could imagine Louise sitting quietly while reading as Billy and Adam argued over a trivial point. Rowland would walk the shelves, taking a random book to read as he walked, probably taking note of its contents as he moved. Chloe would be watching him in amusement trying to get him to trip by placing things underfoot in front of him. Barry would be looking for music while Wilbur lingered awkwardly doing his best not to disturb anyone. Amelia would be checking up with everyone as she wandered the shelves. Perdita would be avoiding everyone, and as such she would probably be lingering around her actual place of death.
It was probably untrue but that didn't mean the image wasn't able to give him small comfort as he walked through the deathly halls of the school. He felt the need strength that came from these thoughts as he walked towards the place were Chloe's body was discovered.
Which was not yet completely cleaned up.
The body was gone but the damage to the ground from the acid was still present as well as some blood stains. A broken Shi-ru drone was lying on the ground nearby, leaving John to guess that they were finishing the cleanup process when Shi-ru had stopped Ferris's execution. John stared quietly at the mess as he walked past the spot, moving up to the door of the archives.
It opened as he pushed the door in wards letting himself in as e braced himself for Monokuma to appear.
The bear didn't.
That left John alone in the largely empty room as he sat down at the computer, to look at the screen which lit up when he jiggled the mouse. He sat there as he thought of something to look for to make his time productive as everyone else had decided to finally sub come to the pressure the bear had placed on them, not that John could blame them. They were definitively under half their numbers as he had thought of earlier.
Finally, he knew what he was going to search, and typed in.
Amelia Ivanov.
He read through the history he knew after he found the document, and was surprised when it went on past her arrival at the school. He did this with the others and when he had finished he got his own. As he sat there after reading all this information, he stood up. Determined to tell the others what he had read.
He exited the archive room, turning off the lights, passing the ruined section of floor, descending the ladder into the shelves and exiting the library.