They had been playing poker, but at some point, the game had degenerated into something random that involved cards. Even so , they were playing it.

"Wait , what are we even playing now?" Makoto asked as he put down his next card.

Akihito grinned. "I don't know, but I've just won!" he proclaimed , sweeping the cards off the table. "Anyone want another round?"

"I'm not sure about that. I should probably get back-" Kosuke said hesitantly.

"Ach , don't worry!" Janus said light heartedly "Suzu and Sayuri-san should be fine for another hour or so , especially since Kiyomizu-san is over the worst."

"…I suppose so." The atmosphere amongst the students had been a lot more cheerful since Akaya had woken up the evening before. She was still weak , and her mood seemed a fair bit darker , but she was , as Janus said , over the worst , and that is what mattered.

"He's right." Makoto said cheerfully. "We're more likely to survive if we trust each other!"

Kosuke smiled at that.

"Well , your optimism certainly is catching…I certainly don't mind suffering from a little hope."

Akihito cackled at this as he shuffled the cards with an unnatural speed.

"You're such a doctor! Do you not have any other interest?"

"Sure I do! I cook, I know karate , I watch football!"

"Karate , huh? Well , next time you aren't being doctor-y , then I challenge you TO A DUEL!" Akihito said over-dramatically.

"Hmm. That could be interesting."

After that , there was a silence. Akihito put on a deep-thinking face for a few seconds , and then spoke again.

"Something tells me you secretly meant that Isaki-san alone is capable , right?" he said to Janus with a cheeky grin.

"Eh?"

"I'm talking about your comment earlier." He teased "I mean , c'mon! You two are practically married!" the comment made Janus go red for a moment , but he quickly managed to compose himself.

"That's not-are you not exaggerating a little?"

"Nope!" Akihito said over-cheerfully. "You share the same room at night and all-yes , we all know!"

"Pch. It's not even like that!" Janus said.

"I think he does have a point , Jay-kun . But you know , it isn't a bad thing at all. It's actually rather sweet ." Makoto said

"You mean like you and Kirigiri-san?" Janus smirked. Makoto blinked , then flailed.

"Eh? Wha…no , no! We're just friends! Just friends!"

"Sure you are." Akihito drawled.

"But it's true! Anyway , what about you and Kiyomizu-san?" Makoto retorted eventually.

Akihito made a dismissive gesture , but now Janus jumped on the bandwagon.

"He has a point. You've both gotten unexpectedly tight."

Akihito grinned , but was starting to go a bit red.

"What can I say? She's kinda cool. "

"That response seems to be an understatement in comparison to your attitude towards her." Kosuke pointed out.

"Whatever. What about you , Kobayashi-kun , anyone catch your eye yet?"

"I haven't got time for things like that. Maybe after I've properly qualified as a doctor."

For some reason , this struck the boys as particularly funny , and they laughed for a while before continuing their mid-morning card game.

…

At some point after lunch, Monobear summoned all of them to the gymnasium. Akaya was the only one who didn't come, as she was sleeping. When they got there, Monobear was sitting on a pile of some sort of sheet they couldn't identify.

"Upupu! Kiyomizu-san asleep?" the bear said cheerfully.

"Gee, d'ya think?" Emi responded cuttingly.

"Uuu, I was kinda hoping that she'd be dead by now. I mean, she's in the perfect state for any of you to take advantage of the situation!" the bear jumped off the pile of sheets he was sitting on, causing some of them to fall. "Oh well, I have the perfect motive to get the killing started again!"

Some of the sheets fell to the floor, and at that point everyone could tell what they were.

"Money?" Arisa asked.

"Yes , it is! Well done!It is 1 Billion Yen, to be exact!" Monobear said happily. "Whoever manages to kill someone else successfully and graduate will be given all this money when they get out-no strings attached!"

Eirik simply stared at the piles of money in contempt, and then walked out of the room.

"Onii-Chan!" Chihiro, clearly worried, dithered a moment before following him.

"Why would we kill our friends for money?" Makoto asked.

"To think that we'd even think of doing such a thing is deplorable. Simply despicable. " Janus declared.

"Ha. Say what you will. Let's just see what happens!" the bear disappeared promptly , leaving a group of disoriented students.

"Well , if you ask me , that motive's even worse than the last one. And by worse , I mean STUPID!" Arisa said.

"It is , it really is , isn't it?" Shika bounced up and down on her heels. "You know what , I'm going to visit Akaya-Chan!" she sprinted out of the room , and everyone else left soon after her.

…

Nothing much of any interest occurred over the rest of the day , apart from Kosuke declaring that Akaya was well enough to not have to stay in the infirmary , as long as he got to check in on her every so often until he could be sure that she was perfectly fine.

…

The next day , after breakfast , Kyouko decided to go investigate the recording studio , and took Makoto with her.

"You seem to have some connection with the place, so it is only logical that you come with me." She explained to him as they made their way up there.

"Uh…right, okay." Makoto still felt a little odd about the incident surrounding the song. At least Kyouko had taken him with her. He worried about her , whenever she disappeared to investigate. Anything could happen.

Both of them were slightly overwhelmed by all the technology in the studio. It looked really state of the art , even if they didn't have that much musical knowledge.

"Perhaps we should have got Fujisaki-san to come with us…" Makoto wondered.

"No. She is doing enough for us already." Kyouko didn't need to say anymore. She was clearly talking about Alter Ego.

They opted to head for the desk instead. There were various folders and papers on the desk , and possibly some in the drawers underneath.

"It's locked." Makoto announced. "It looks as if we're stuck with the papers on the desk. Half it?"

"I'll take the ones on the left. You do those ones."

"Okay."

They spent a while reading through various documents-invoices , sheet music , lyrics . At one point , Kyouko started humming quietly , although she didn't seem to realise it. Makoto paused for a few seconds , and then identified that it was Maiko Fujita's 'Kakehiki'.

Then he found something.

"I think I've found a sign-in book thingy? As in , it's got details of who used the room and when , and for how long , that kind of thing?"

Kyouko put down another page of sheet music and pulled her chair over to where he was sitting.

"Let's have a look then. "

"It seems to date back to did the school open anyway?"

"2005.I'm not sure why I know that though."

"Ah…maybe this is a newer book then. "

"I think it is more likely that this studio wasn't initially part of the school, and was added on later."

"Well, there's that , too."

They flicked through the book together, names blurring as they did so: Ibuki Mioda, Callum Jackson , Ryou Inoue , Tatsuko Fujimiya , Kouichi Ichinose , Hanabi Otonashi , Amelie Deveraux, Sayaka Maizono.

"Maizono-senpai?" the name didn't even register with Makoto until he had turned the page full of dates between May and June flipped the page back and stared.

"Senpai?" Kyouko raised an eyebrow.

"Mm. We were in the same middle school, and then she came here when she started high school. I wonder what happened to the older years. Why are we the only ones here?"

"I wonder that too. But, I think the most likely conclusion is that they are dead."

Makoto blinked, and stared at her.

"I…"

"Of course, that is only an assumption. If we-they're lucky, they won't be."

"We just have to hope, I guess. "They continued flicking through the pages, nothing of real importance jumping out at them.

And then they got to the February 2014 page.

"February 3rd, Sayaka Maizono, Makoto Naegi- 4:00-5:00 PM. Karaoke Room, N/A. Recording Equipment, yes . February 5th, 6th, 8th, 11th are all the same. And then February 21st, you two, along with Akihito Watari and a…Chiara Lee, came at 5:00PM , left at 7:00 PM and used the Karaoke room while there, but you didn't use the recording equipment." Kyouko part read out, part described the entry , despite Makoto looking right at it.

"I…Watari-kun too? And who is Chiara Lee-san? I don't remember any of this, any of it! How come?"

"I think…I think…remember when I told you about my memories?"

"They were taken. You only remember your earlier childhood."

"Yes. And now , I am starting to think that the same thing has happened to everyone else here. However , only to a lesser extent."

This made sense to Makoto. "How much lesser?"

"See how far these entries date." She said.

Makoto flipped through the book with a sense of foreboding , and then reached blank pages.

"March 29th." He said.

Kyouko nodded.

"But who could have done this? And how? I mean , how do you even take away someone's memories selectively?"

"Who knows?" Kyouko said absently.

"It's most likely Monobear , or whoever's behind him. Or the principal. "

"I don't believe it's the principal. I don't think he is capable of removing memories?"

"You think? Wait , how would you know?"

Kyouko gave him a long , long look , and then asked him a question.

"Did you look at my secret?"

"Eh? No , it's still safe with me. " Makoto unzipped his hoodie , and searched the inner pockets until he drew out the envelope.

"Open it now." She told him. He did so , and read it silently. Then , he looked at Kyouko , puzzled.

"Your father? Where?"

Kyouko turned away from him.

"Do you remember what Alter Ego said?"

"Erm…" Makoto ran through the information the AI had given , and then it hit him.

"They're the same person?!"

"That is the conclusion I came to when Alter Ego first said so. And a few memories are returning. So yes , I am certain. "

"And you…"

"He is a flaky father. A terrible one. But he loves -or maybe even loved , depending- this school. I know this much." Kyouko's voice wobbled slightly , but she kept her head turned away.

"But?"

"But what?"

"The way you said that , there's something else you want , or need , to say."

Kyouko looked at him with an expression that was both revealing and unreadable, all at the same time. Eventually, she spoke , each of her words coming out jaggedly , as if she was having trouble releasing them.

"I do not want to discover that he has been enough to cloud my judgement. Or that he wasn't worth the trouble I have been through to find him."

Her statements only made Makoto more confused, and only raised more questions. What else was she keeping from him? From all of them, for that matter? But those questions didn't matter. Because what Kyouko needed now was a friend. That much was clear to him.

He put his arm around her , and didn't say a thing.

Kyouko looked at him in surprise. Then, after processing the situation, she leaned in closer , and they sat like that for a while , not saying anything but thinking about everything.

…

Just before they went to bed, Suzu burst into tears. In keeping with her silent demeanour, this didn't happen in the form of noisy sobs. Rather, the tears were not there one minute, and the next minute her eyes were overflowing.

He tried to console her, and find out what was wrong, but he couldn't get anything out of her. Even if she had been willing to share, it would have been a task to understand, given that she didn't speak and he couldn't read kanji. But anything was a starting point. But she didn't , and so all he could do was hold her and wait.

But he didn't mind. Patience wasn't something he'd had before meeting her , but somehow he had discovered it. So he didn't mind.

He would wait for as long as was needed.

…

She was so, so angry at everything and anything. She had spent most of the day training some of the chickens to do tricks. Chickens weren't especially interesting, but she had practically been dying of boredom from the lack of animals, so this had definitely been an improvement.

But now…how had she not seen that coming? How? They were friends!

I should have been the one to …she shouldn't have forced her to…

Her half formed thoughts died away as she looked at the item on her bed. It is a good thing she had taken that when she'd realised what had happened. Otherwise things would be terrible in the morning. She could at least do this much , keep everything secret and make sure nothing else happened.

The morning. Perhaps this , this particular moment , was merely a dream. She picked up the item and shoved it under her mattress. She would keep it on her person during the day , just in case. But hopefully, when she woke up , none of this would have happened and she could put on a show with her trained chickens to the others.

Of course she would have preferred to not be here at all , what with that damn bear and the mysteries and the moaning from above. And the small issue of being trapped. But to erase the last few hours. That would be enough.

She eventually managed to get to sleep, all the time convincing herself that it had all been nothing more than a twisted, twisted nightmare.

…

The next morning, Kosuke went to check on Akaya and discovered her dead.

And it begins again. This is one of the rare times when I've actually focused (albeit indirectly) on the person about to die. So, what do you think? Please leave feedback!

(((For those who are wondering , in the list of names , Hanabi and Ryou are other OCs of mine , we all know who Ibuki and Sayaka are , and the rest are literally just made-up names. So if they happen to be names others have used for their OCs , it is mere coincidence. I promise. )))