Not as short as the last one, but still fairly shorter than most.

Man, I should be working on my other fanfics, but I don't know if I'll ever brainstorm on them again...

Well, here's the next chapter.

(Warning: This may seem pretty rushed, so I apologize for that...)

Luciano heavily sighed as he glanced around.

After the explosion, he woke up to find himself surrounded by a pile of rubble. Luckily, nothing seemed to be broken, but they were all separated from the destruction. That other despair member, Miko, she must have been the one who caused the building to collapse like that.

After dusting himself off and giving one more pat-down on himself to make sure nothing was wrong, he did a quick search for his bag before leaving the immediate area. Separated or not, he couldn't just wait around for something to happen. He needed to take the initiative.

"Remember Luciano. If you want to accomplish many things in life, you can't just wait around for something to happen. You must grasp the future with your own hands."

That's right. His grandfather was the one who taught him to grasp whatever he wanted with his own hands. No matter the pain, no matter how sad, if you want something, you needed to put in your own effort for it.

He tried to look around for something familiar, but all the buildings and the landscape looked too similar to tell apart. Sighing, he decided to just keep walking to see if he could find either any other members of the group, or if he could find some kind of shelter. He still had doubts about the others, but it didn't seem like they were likely to be aligned with Monokuma, and cooperation is currently the best choice to take at the moment. He can always leave if things lead to a standstill.

"Hey! Luci!"

Hearing that childish nickname, Luciano groaned before slowly turning his head towards the source of the voice. It was Ami Hitomi and Alyson Mann, both running towards him.

"Luci! There you are! Man, what luck to find someone else here!"

Ami gave a small sigh as she caught her breath. The Archer gave a quick look over her body, as well as Alyson's. Neither of them looked like they were badly hurt either, but then again, he didn't expect them to die so easily, even if he wanted them dead.

"You see any of the others?" he decided to ask.

"Eheh, sorry." The Linguist made an apologetic face as Alyson moved closer. "I only ended up stuck with Allie here. Doesn't seem like the others were nearby, so we decided to look around together."

"I see...I trust you found something useful?"

"Nope! Not a single thing!" She gave a small salute. "Everything looked the same no matter where we went!"

He flicked her forehead.

"OW!"

Crouching down with her hands on her forehead, she shed a couple tears in pain. Allie worriedly checked on her before yelling at him.

"Hey Jerk! What's the big idea picking on Ami here?!"

"She told me something that was completely pointless. I simply dealt a fair punishment…"

"Wha- That's so stupid!"

Luciano silenced himself. There was no point in arguing with a spoiled child. They needed to start moving soon.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! You eye patch wearing freak!"

Luciano heard her, but he still didn't answer. Something just caught his eye which gave him an uncomfortable feeling. He took both his objects, and clenched them tightly like that battle earlier against the gunslinger. The box with the grip transformed to form a black long bow with a good grip handle. The other one extended itself and opened up to reveal several arrows made with the same material inside it. He swiftly took an arrow and fired it at the spot that bothered him. There was a small *thunk* at the arrow pierced its mark and left it on the ground. Ignoring the shocked faces of the musician, he went over to find a person wearing a Monokuma mask and his arrow stuck through his head. Looking at the man's hands, he saw a rifle, loaded and ready to kill. He must have been planning on killing the three of them.

"Luci! What is i….oh my…"

Ami covered her mouth with her hands in surprise while Alyson was heading over.

"Hey what's going on he…Ami? What's going on?"

"You shouldn't look…"

Ami wrapped herself around Alyson to cover her sight. She wasn't happy, but she nodded at him as she gave a second look at the man, knowing that there probably wasn't any choice.

Luciano frowned. He didn't know the man. He knew that he needed to make the first strike to survive. He knew that shooting him in the head was the best way for the three of them to get out of it. It was one less soldier for Monokuma to use.

But it still didn't make him feel much better.

He was used to taking down practice targets and had occasionally shot people in the limbs to immobilize them. But to take a life was another feeling altogether. It wasn't a good or a bad feeling, just…uncomfortable.

He sighed. Taking the arrow out, he wiped it using the dead man's shirt and placed it along with the others. The strange quiver and bow transformed back into their original forms, and he put them away before turning around.

"Let's go. There might be more nearby."

The three of them silently left together.

At the evening, Luciano was sitting with his arms crossed.

What happened earlier was still bothering him a bit, but that wasn't why he was thinking. It was about those strange objects they all received at the beginning.

He first saw them at work when Fiorella was planning on hitting him with hers. That transformation opened his eyes as he realized that they were all tools that were meant to be used by each of them.

However it seemed too perfect. He was the SHSL Archer, so a bow and arrow would have been easy to guess. But Fiorella's tool was also perfect for her, almost as if whoever gave it to her knew about her talent. But as far as he knew, she didn't share this info with anyone aside from them, so how could they know?

Another thing was what that Miko girl said. A "special stage"? Is there a reason for Monokuma to make that into a rule? It would've been a lot more efficient to simply kill them all outright at that very moment, so why would they need the "stage" at all? Then again, this entire quest made no sense. Why wouldn't this bear want to simply remove its enemies at the first chance?

"Hey Luci! Are you alright?"

He coughed.

Ami and Alyson were a bit further out washing themselves off in a small spring hole that they happened to find. It was clean enough to drink out of, so they gathered some to heat for their dinner, and agreed to use the rest to clean themselves off. The girls would go in first while Luciano ate, then they would switch off.

The archer wasn't interested in seeing the girl's naked bodies, but it might damage his reputation if he was accused as a peeping tom, so he kept himself facing the opposite direction until they were finished. Once in a while though, he would cough to remind the absent-minded linguist to mind her manners.

"Geez, I'm just trying to tell you that we're almost done…"

"Just finish up then put some clothes on…"

After the bath and the meal, the three of them sat down near the fire to talk. Luciano also explained the discovery about those strange objects to the other two. He was hesitant about doing so, but decided that it was better for them to know about it now, since the group was separated which divided their strengths. Ami was fiddling around with her wristband after hearing what he had to say.

"Cool! So there was an awesome feature installed in these things?"

He was starting to wonder if she was naturally ignorant about important details, or if she just couldn't hear them.

"Don't you think it's suspicious that they seemed to have been customized to fit our particular talents?"

"Well yeah, but if it helps us survive, I don't really see the problem here. We'd probably figure it out some time in the future, but until then, it's nice to have these around!"

He turned to the Musician, who seemed more skeptic about this than her friend. She held the pin in her hand, but she seemed fairly hesitant about activating hers.

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing, nothing at all…" she put the pin back onto her clothes.

Luciano gave a small sigh before tossing another piece of wood into the fire.

"Let's talk about what's our next step. I think we need to keep moving ahead and search for some kind of civilization here."

The Informationalist wanted to try finding something like a computer to learn more about their situation, so there was a good chance that she would start searching for someplace that would have something she could use. And even if they didn't meet up, it would be more helpful to find better shelter that they could use for a couple days or so, in case of emergencies. They'd never know when exactly how long it would take for this whole "game" to end.

"'Kaaaay!"

Ami raised her hand cheerfully in agreement, almost like she was enjoying this whole thing. Allyson just scooted herself closer to her friend silently.

Dealing with two made him feel even more exhausted than he thought.

"Let's just get to sleep. I doubt those fanatics would attack us at night."

They might be crazed desperate fools who would do almost anything to bring about a world of despair, but in the end, they were human too, so they would need to rest like any other person.

Setting the boundary between the girls and himself, they used some of the blankets they took from their bags to keep themselves warm while they rested, but Luciano kept his senses sharp, just in case there was an unexpected attack.

In the morning, the trio gathered their things and quickly washed up before walking further down through the barely visible road. While Luciano kept his eye open for any more fanatics, Ami was walking next to Allyson and talking about something. He didn't bother listening to the whole thing since it didn't really interest him, but he heard a few things like "love" or "interests".

Such things were pointless in his mind. Ever since he was young, he never thought about such things. Part of the reason was because he couldn't, or at least he felt he couldn't, waste any time on useless matters like that. He needed to reach the top with his own power, and so he made use of his grandfather's willingness to give him the education he needed to do so, focusing his mind on improving his talents. He wanted to secure the spot of being the world's best archer no matter what. That way, he would prove to all those who looked down on him that he got what he deserved. He'd prove them all wrong, like that one who took away the vision in his right eye, like the people who were jealous of his talents,

Like his own parent, who disowned him.

Feeling extremely bitter all of a sudden, he clenched his fist so tightly that he could feel his own fingernails dig into his hands. He quickly relaxed himself and lightly brushed through his hair with his fingers.

"Hey Luci…"

"It's Luciano…"

"Luci…isn't that a shelter there?"

Turning to the place that Ami was pointing at, the archer turned to see a small gathering of makeshift shelters and figures sitting near the openings. It was too far to notice, but it looks like the Linguist was right, it was a shelter.

But was it safe?

"We can take a look, but make sure that you keep those objects in your hands, just in case…"

The other two nodded as the three walked over tensely.

After entering, they looked around the area, but there wasn't really any reactions from the figures that they could see. There was food, which was still fairly fresh enough that there weren't any insects or any signs of animals eating them, and fire, which was burning in oilcans using trash and fabric as fuel. Also, there were makeshift shelters made from old fabric and wood, like the kinds that the homeless would use to keep themselves dry, some which were just recently made. Like they were made yesterday.

But the figures they were all just sitting around or lying on the ground, covered in worn-out clothing or sheets, almost like they were…

Luciano froze. He quickly went over to one of the figures and checked their heads, his left eye widening as it began to comprehend what it saw.

The figure was an old man, whose face looked like it needed a shave, and had bits of dirt and grime on it. He wore an old jacket and torn pants with sandals, as well as a worn-out beanie that covered up most of his grey hair. However the thing that stuck out was his eyes, which were rolled backwards towards his brain, and the hold in his forehead, which had some blood trickling out from the opening.

Ignoring Allyson's scream, he checked more of the figures that were around, and sure enough, they were all figures who were dead with the same wound, a hold in the head. Almost like it was made by a bullet.

"Hey hey hey! What do we have here?!"

The three of them turned to the source of the voice, which came from the top of the building a bit further down.

The figure was stepping forward to give a slightly better view of her appearance. With a black, short-sleeved button-up shirt, the red bow tie, the black and red vertically striped pants, and the black slip-ons with red ribbons, they all immediately recognized her.

The gunslinger from yesterday that tried to kill them,

Pikachi Shion. The SHSL Gunslinger.

"YA HA HA HA HA! This is great! I get to toy around with you kids even sooner than I thought!"

She pointed her pistols at the trio with a wide, crazy grin.

"Now then! I suppose this is the part where we get to cry out BOSS FIGHT!"

Alright. So now the trio had met the Gunslinger again. Is this really a fight? Or is this some strong plot branch...a whatever. I'll be honest, it's a fight.

And to be even more honest, I'm not really sure that much about how to do the fight yet, so I'm not sure how long it'll take.

But I'm guessing at least a few days, maybe a week or two, depending on how my brain works and how much schoolwork I get.

So that's that. Please review, again I apologize if this chapter didn't seem as good as the others, and I'll try to post up the next chapter when I can.