Ugh, I know I should have been studying and working, but I just didn't want to, and decided to work on this chapter instead. And I want Thanksgiving break to come already, I just wanna sleep...

Ah well, here's the next chapter guys...

Miko watched as the building slowly collapsed into a pile of rubble as a result of her actions.

She always carried around a few packs of C4 explosives she made herself. Each of them set to go off at a certain time as soon as she set it up. You never know when a bomb would be handy in a world as crazy as it is right now.

"Well, as expected of the SHSL demolitionist…"

She turned her head to see Oscar standing nearby with a grin. One of his arms rested on his hip while the other still held that book that he was reading. It would be a lie to say that she wasn't just a smidge curious about what the book was about, but she didn't think reading was really appropriate in this world, and the contents would've probably been crap to her anyways.

"What do you want Oscar?"

"I'm just here to make sure that you didn't lose our comrade like last time."

"I lose? You already admitted to leaving her be just about a damn hour ago."

"Uh, I'm right here guys…" Pikachi was waving her hand as she just stood with a bored look on her face.

"Ah yes. Well no matter. The point is that we have managed to get our friend back, and now we can start getting to work." His glasses seemed to have glinted from the reflecting light, partially hiding his eyes. However Miko could still see the coldness that seeped out from his face.

"Yes, when ze time comes, we shall all be ready for the coming of ze great despair. Cies Magnific…"

"Oscar, your accent is showing again…"

"Whoops, pardon me…" Oscar adjusted his glasses as he reverted back to his "regular" form.

"Anyways. You think that they will all make it to each 'stage'?"

"Perhaps. Do you think that they didn't make it from that 'accident' that occurred earlier?"

"I personally hope that they make it," the gunslinger answered with a smile as she began twirling one of her pistols with her finger. "I really wanted to savor the look of despair on their faces, and it wouldn't be fun if they all died from something as boring as this…"

"Whether they survived or not doesn't matter to me," Miko coldly said as she pocketed her hands. "The world is a cruel piece of crap to live on, and life can be a real bi**h…"

"Perhaps, but did you think Monokuma chose these people in particular because they wouldn't die so easily?"

"Well even if they survived, they'll quickly wish for death soon enough." The three of them turned to leave the area. "They wouldn't last more than three days in this hellhole…"

He was only six years old. He didn't really have many friends, but that was expected since many of the other kids would tease him about his tattered clothing and worn-out shoes.

He couldn't help it that his family was poor.

But that didn't matter to him. He knew his parents were trying to do their best, and he still loved them for it. He especially loved the way his father would create a copy of the image that he saw through that amazing pair of binoculars. The way that he gave them perfect form, the details of everything from the beak all the way to the down feathers and small feet, it was almost as if they were about to come alive.

That's exactly what started it all…

"Uh…"

Rigby slowly opened his eyes to see the stars in the night sky. It looked like kind of like a simple painting, yet they were done so masterfully, like it was a hidden wonder.

Wait…night?

He quickly sat up to look around. However a sharp jolt occurred on his arm which made him subconsciously cover it with his other hand. Everything started coming back to him.

He saw that gunslinger called Pikachi hold a pistol right in front of Ami's face. After he saw the terrified look she gave, his body suddenly started moving on his own. He tried to pin her down, but he ended up getting shot in the arm and lost strength. He was about to die, but then Kujou did something that ended up in a fight between him and her with support from Agustin and Luciano.

Then there was the other girl that appeared. He felt something disturbing like with Pikachi, but it was more hidden, like something was covering the full "feel". There was an explosion, the room started collapsing, and then…everything went blank. He passed out from the pain and excessive blood loss, and suddenly found himself lying on the ground, staring up at the sky.

He checked his wound to see a piece of light fabric with blood partially soaked into it. Also, there was a lit fire made from a small pile of sticks, so someone must have been tending to his wound, but who was it?

"So you're finally awake…"

He turned to see Fiorella sitting on a piece of rubble with one leg hanging on the side while the other was on top, almost parallel to the surface that it was lying on.

"Fiorella?"

"I said you can call me 'Fiore' if you wanted." She sighed.

"Sorry. Fiore…you're the one who was helping me?"

"Don't get the wrong idea," the Informationalist was scratching the back of her head embarrassingly. "I-I just saw you and nobody else was around, so I did the best that I could…"

Taking a closer look, he noticed that she was definitely dustier than when he last saw her. Actually, they were both dusty, so they did fall somewhere, but apparently they managed to get out of it without too much damage. He also noticed that her skirt was slightly torn, showing only a bit more skin than before.

"Um Fiore, why is your dress…" it suddenly dawned on him what was being used as his makeshift bandage. His face went a bit red. "Er…never mind. Thanks…"

"It's alright. I don't think appearances is really important right now…" she got off the piece of rubble and sat down at his left, sitting with her legs brought to her chest, but out of sight from what was underneath her skirt. He gave a small smile before the pain started to hurt a bit again.

"How's the wound?"

"It doesn't feel like anything's broken, but I wouldn't expect anything for a while. More importantly," he spoke in a more serious tone. "What was that earlier?"

"That" was referring to Kujou's weapon. It looked like a katana, but it was black and had no tsuba attached to it. Also, it looked like it was made with the same material as those strange objects they found earlier.

Fiorella didn't say anything for a while, but she eventually gave in.

"The truth is…I'm not really sure…"

"Huh?"

Rigby wasn't satisfied with this answer. Everything was just too confusing for him to take in, and he was starting to get tired of all the unanswered questions being saddled with even more questions. Exactly what were they supposed to do? What did those people from before want? How did they get into those rooms, and why did that weird safe hold all that stuff?

"What I meant was that I didn't know exactly what this stuff is." She held one of her knives, which had a handle made of the same material. "I just noticed the transformative part a bit before we were suddenly attacked by those freaks in masks. I was arguing with Luciano about which way to go, and I took that cube I got with the intention of hitting him, when we both saw it suddenly transform into…well…just watch…"

Fiorella showed him the cube she held, and gripped it tightly. It suddenly had bright lines passing through it, then it started rearranging itself like a Rubik cube. But instead of keeping its cubic shape, some of the cubes suddenly started to move themselves to different places. More than half of them were even starting to smooth themselves out, like they were molding themselves into a smooth, curved surface.

When it all stopped, it looked like one of those portable screens that people could carry around with them, or those PSP handheld systems, but wider and bigger.

"That's not all…" She pressed one of the buttons that seemed to have appeared, then the screen lit up. Rigby was surprised at this unexpected turn out, but with everything that happened, he was starting to get used to it.

The screen suddenly changed from white to a bright black with the words "Heroism of Operating Powerful Equipment" in green. The words suddenly disappeared, except for the first letters in each word (save for "of").

"H…O…P…E… Hope?"

"Yeah, it looks like Monokuma really wasn't lying about that part…"

"Listen up kiddies! Outside, we've got a world that's in-between a state of falling in wonderful despair, and a boring old normal world with *blech* 'hope'. At the moment, each side has somewhat something of an army that is fighting each other. My 'Army of Despair' against that annoying Future Foundation and its 'Soldiers of Hope'."

"So then I guess we're supposed to be part of the side with hope?"

"That seems to be the case. Anyways, look again…"

Turning back to the screen, the artist saw that the screen suddenly changed, and filled itself with more of those blue lines that formed a wide arrangement of words and pictures of objects and faces. His own face was among those, as well as everyone else from their group, and it looked like the words were all information about himself.

"So…this is a data-based item?"

"Yeah. It looks like it was specifically made for me, though I have no idea who did this."

"But even so. Does that mean that…"

"You can do the same? Yeah. Seems like it. That's what Luciano and I thought when we saw this happen, but we weren't sure whether it was safe or not, so we decided to stay quiet for a bit. Course that angry mob that attacked us didn't really help either."

Rigby could more or less get the picture. Earlier, while Pikachi was focused on the two of them. She or Luciano must have told Kujou and Agustin about this, and had them ready themselves in case they needed it. That must have been how Kujou was able to use it so quickly, because he expected something like that blade to form itself.

He took out his own objects, and gripped them tightly. The triangle transformed first. It extended itself into a larger, thinner version of itself, and spikes protruded themselves from the corners. At first he was disappointed, but they suddenly began to emit electricity from the space between the tips of the spikes.

The other one only brought out something that looked like a dulled spike at one end. He realized that it was a pen.

"A pen? That's the only other thing you get?"

Normally, he would've agreed. But something about this pen made him want to make something. He took out a notepad he brought with him, and started drawing out a picture of a bird from his memories. As he drew, the "ink" that came out seemed to reflect the light from the fire. When he finished, the ink suddenly began to glow, then the shape began to distort. Like a cartoon, the picture seemed to have lifted itself from the paper, then suddenly, an actual bird appeared in its place.

It wasn't a cartoon either. It was a real flesh and blood bird that was chirping and moving by itself. Rigby smiled as he stuck a finger out, allowing the bird to prop itself onto it and sit there while looking at him.

"Hmph, it's not all that great…" Fiorella turned her head while frowning, but the artist could tell that she seemed pretty jealous of his new stuff.

"Well, I guess that means that we found our stuff to fight back with…"

"Yeah," the Informationalist turned back with a normal face. "But we'd better regroup with the rest of the guys first. I don't think Ami and Alyson know about this, and if they're by themselves, it'll be pretty dangerous."

"We'd better get some rest first." Rigby was reluctant to just leave anyone alone, but he couldn't do anything right now wounded. He could only hope that they all found some way to get through the night without any excessive trouble, and that they'd all regroup in the morning.

"We can take turns watching out through the night," Fiorella proposed. "We can't be too careful, and now that you know, I feel a bit more relieved knowing that we can defend ourselves." She stuck her index finger out towards Rigby while smiling. "So, can you make any good food with that stuff?"

"Well, I guess I could give it a shot…"

So yeah, there's the end. It's short because I couldn't think of anything else. I have no plans for pairings, so if you wanna talk about it or something, you'd better let me know first.

I wanna get the new Tales game for the Vita, but it doesn't come out until next week, so I have to wait.

Alright, enough complaining. As always, reviews are welcome and I'll try to get the next chapter in within a week or so, if I can keep the motivation going...