(AN: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I wanted to note that the Endcard I made was only a test, and I'll only be posting them from now on at the end of the daily life segments and the trials. Also, please vote for your Free-Times if you can, since they officially start next chapter. Sorry I didn't post on actual Thanksgiving though. We had company at our house and I didn't have the time to publish. But here it is, a day late! And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, good fortune to you anyways! :3
Reven228: Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Ode30: Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the endcard, and sorry about flooding your inbox :P
AnimesWorld: I don't think I'll do Monobeasts this time, but I have something else. A little less threatening but still a good incentive either way IMO. Thanks for the review!
AssAssinAtEd: Yes, murders are always fun. Thanks for the review!
MizunashiFuyuko: I guess the robot idea is pretty popular, lol. Thanks for the review!
Cartoonfanatic1: Thanks for voting and thanks for the review! Yes, whatever happened to that 16th student..?
King okami: Thanks for the review! I do wonder what Noah was doing…
FateOblivion: Will the murder be in this chapter? Who knows?! Ah!
Celes Ludenberg: I'm sorry about that! But I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for the review! I'm glad that the man and Nanako are stumping you (no offense), since that means I achieved my goal in creating a strange strange mystery.
Paku159: Nice ships brah, :p Thanks for the review!
Wmsm5ever: Thanks for the review! Generic reviews are still good reviews in my book, and I appreciate every one of them!)
Soundtrack: Monokuma Sensei's Lesson
"Woop!" Monokuma exclaimed as he danced around on the table. "Monokuma is in the house!"
"Well, you weren't so late this time," Hideki said. "What's your announcement about? Are we getting gaming systems?"
"Nope!" Monokuma said, still dancing. "I just decided to continue our little assembly from last time – when I scared your pants off after telling you that we had to kill each other."
"S-so we really have to kill each other?!" Kirei asked with extreme fear.
"I bet you're all thinking about killing me first, huh?" Yayoi asked. "Well, don't bother..! Why are all of you thinking of killing me off first?!"
I laid my hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but it only seemed to add an even more stressed reaction. "No one is planning to kill you," I comforted. "No one is planning to kill anyone right now. We're just going to hang out, we'll be okay. Help will come."
"She is correct," Hikaru said. "We will be freed. The police will come."
I could hear Monokuma laugh at Hikaru's statement. "Upupupu! Do you really think that the police will come after a criminal like you?"
"If not me, the others," Hikaru said, maintaining a calm composure. "We will be fine… I was sent to Hope's Peak for a clear reason, to think that the police wouldn't come for us is unthinkable."
"Fine, whatever," Monokuma sighed. "Think what you must. Leaving this poor lonely bear behind…"
"Honey, you are a stuffed toy!" Micky said, waving his hands. "You don't need any relationships of any sort!"
Monokuma growled, and shook his head. "I won't hurt you," Monokuma said at last. "It's against the rules for me to anyways…"
"The rules," I started. "You called us here to explain to us the rules, right?"
Monokuma nodded. "Indeed, monsieur! That's French!"
"You mean there's rules in an environment for killing?" Rhyssa growled. "Just how insane are you?"
"I'm not insane!" Monokuma snapped. "I'm a bear!"
Meowykins began to wave its hand to create a sign for us to stop talking. It made a zipping motion over its mouth, and pointed at Monokuma. Monokuma bowed down to Meowykins, thanking it, and hopped off of the table, handing each of us some sort of electronic device.
"What's this?" Hideki asked. "Is it a game?!"
"No, it's not a game," Monokuma said. "You can turn it on by pressing the power button on the right hand corner."
The fifteen of us simultaneously powered on the devices, and as it booted up, a logo showed. It read, "ElectroID," and after a few moments, it changed to a different screen, and a picture of me was pictured on the top left corner. Right next to it was my name: Keiko Umino, and all of my personal data like height and weight. Finally, at the bottom right of the screen, it listed my talent for getting into Hope's Peak. Super Highschool Level Equestrian.
"Cool," Mirai gawked.
"That's an ElectroID!" Monokuma exclaimed proudly. "It's your one-stop need at the underwater academy of killings! You see, it's touch screen! You can download different programs on it, like a forensic scanner perhaps, and there's a very special preinstalled app!"
I tapped on the home screen button located on the top right, and a page of apps were listed, like a normal smartphone. The apps had icons that were sorted out in four columns, and I only had four apps installed. There was my Student Profile, the Monokuma File, the School Rules, and a Calendar.
"What's a Monokuma File?" Mirai asked curiously.
"You don't need to know what it is until later," Monokuma said.
I tapped it and opened it up, but what came on was only a blank screen. Confused, I pressed the home button again and opened up the School Rules.
"Oh, Keiko!" Monokuma swooned right beside me. "Right on the money today, aren't you?"
I yelped and moved to the site, startled at Monokuma's sudden appearance next to me. I scrolled down the page of rules, and Monokuma got back up on the table.
"Okay!" Monokuma yelled. "Please open up the app that says School Rules on your ElectroIDs!" Numerous beeps filled the room as the app opened up on all of our devices.
Monokuma took a personal ElectroID out, and he opened up a school app and proceeded to explain the school rules.
#1: The participants of the Underwater Killings of Despair will live out their school life for as long as they wish.
"For as long as we wish?" I asked out loud.
"Meaning if you don't kill anyone, we won't interrupt you," Monokuma sighed. "It's a boring rule, but it makes things fair." Monokuma continued reading out the school rules.
#2: 10 PM to 7 AM is considered Night-Time. During Night-Time, various areas within the school are off-limits, and water is shut off.
"…Oh, we have water?" Mirai asked. "That's generous."
"Yup!" Monokuma exclaimed proudly. "We came up with a revolutionary device that turns salt water into regular fresh water, so we have an unlimited amount of resources at our hands."
#3: You may only sleep in the dormitories. Sleeping elsewhere will be considered as a breach to the school rules.
"Why can we only sleep in the dorms?" Rhyssa asked.
"Why would you need to sleep anywhere else than your comfy, warm, fuzzy beds?" Monokuma asked. "You know, each mattress was created with 100% pure Monokuma stuffing."
All of a sudden, the urge to sleep in my bed disappeared, and I found the floor a better fit to help me rest.
#4: You can investigate the school as you wish. There will be no consequences for anything involving exploring the school.
This rule jumped out at me, as it basically meant we could go anywhere around the school without getting in trouble.
"That's nice," Ryoko sighed. "So we can fight it out with Monokuma if we have to."
Monokuma shook his head and wagged his fingers, and continued to read out the school rules.
#5: Any violence against any of the school staff, or destruction of school property, i.e. the cameras, will be considered a breach of the school rules.
"You can't touch me," Monokuma laughed. "I'm invincible, baby!"
I could hear Ryoko grinding her teeth as Monokuma continued.
#6: The "culprit" who kills a fellow student may graduate the school. However, the culprit must not have their crime betrayed to them.
"What does that mean?" Takayashi asked. "Graduate..? Crime betrayal..?"
"It means that you'll be able to leave the school, hence graduate," Monokuma said. "I can explain the next part in my handsome voice if you'd like."
"Your regular voice should suffice," Kaito sighed. "Let's just keep going, there's one more rule, right?"
Monokuma nodded, and explained the final, and simple rule.
#7: More rules may be added to the list as needed.
"I'm just a poor bear," Monokuma said. "I don't know the extreme degrees of your prepubescent hormones, so I can't make all the rules on the spot, you know?"
"I-I guess," I stammered. "But seriously, we have to kill to get out?"
Soundtrack: Re Despair – Syndrome (include the dash when searching on Youtube)
"Of course!" Monokuma said. "A bear never tells a lie, and I meant it when I said that you'd have to kill one another to get out."
"B-but that's crazy!" Kirei cried. "No one would think to kill one another..!"
"Hmm, I guess," Monokuma sighed. "But I'll have to do something about that soon, right..?"
"What are you going to do?!" Furo yelped.
"Either way, I think I've explained the school rules well enough. Does anyone have any meaningful questions? Questions that are clawing out of your chest, like how a bear would maul a human's chest out?"
Mirai raised his hand politely, and Monokuma pointed at him with his paw.
"I just had a question about the end of the sixth rule," Mirai said, maintaining his polite tone. "What do you mean by, having a crime betrayed to them?"
"…Upupupu," Monokuma said. "Well, you see, that's the cherry on top to this exciting underwater life of school murders…"
"W-well, what is it?" Unmei asked nervously.
"Nyahahahaha… you want to know, don'tcha?" Monokuma taunted.
As we anxiously awaited Monokuma's reply, he laughed harder and harder, and began to clap his hands like a sadistic child on his birthday. Monokuma finally stopped laughing, and breathed in and out heavily, as we all stared hypnotized at the strangeness of the situation.
"You know what this means?" Monokuma asked suddenly. "It means you can't let anyone find out that you're the murderer!"
We all looked at each other with startled, yet confused eyes.
"U-Um, no offense, Mr. Bear," Kirei stammered, "but how is that going to even work?"
"It won't work," Kaito said. "That bear… he's clearly lying through his fake teeth. We don't even really have to kill each other – do we?"
"How about it, Monokuma?" Unmei asked as a follow up. "What do you mean?"
Monokuma sighed. "Let me explain, since you meatbags seem to be clearly confused."
Monokuma all of a sudden pulled down the screen of a projector, and Meowykins left and came back as quick as he did with a movie reel, and a projector itself. The projector powered on, and on the screen came a cartoon explaining a real terrible horror.
Soundtrack: Re DISTRUST
"You see," Monokuma narrated as the muted cartoon continued, "we're going to be holding class trials every time a murder is committed. During these class trials, it is going to be a head-to-head match against the villain – or the culprit, and the heroes – the people who didn't commit the crime. The heroes are going to try and find out who the villain is in a quasi-style courtroom, while the culprit has to play along with the others and attempt to discredit other evidence that points the crime to themselves. Through heartbreaking and dramatic debate, you're going to experience this first-hand! And of course when this all is done… the culprit, as compensation for breaking the rules…"
"He will be punished..!"
The cartoon stopped, and Monokuma commanded Meowykins to take the projector away. We all stared at each other, more confused than frightened, as we didn't know exactly what Monokuma was even talking about. Monokuma took out an ice cream bar as he enjoyed our confused expressions, and the silence was lingering on and on until Hikaru finally spoke up to confirm our confusions.
"So… we're just going to hold a trial to see who committed the murder each time?" Hikaru asked. "What if we, as the heroes, aren't able to figure out who committed the crime?"
"Then they in turn will be punished!" Monokuma exclaimed excitedly. "You keep saying things about punishment," Yoshinori said. "But what do you mean by punishment? Chains and whips?"
"No, no, no," Monokuma said. "Nothing southern like that. By punishment, for breaking the rules, I mean something much better…"
"Better?" Mirai asked. "A birthday cake?"
"Nope," Monokuma replied, ignoring the randomness of that situation.
"By punishment… I mean execution..!"
We all stared at that bear with blank expressions. We were entering a stage of denial, unsure how to process the given information. Execution..? As in, death?
"Of course, you'll experience that when a murder actually happens," Monokuma said. "If you guys don't break any of the rules, and live out your peaceful lives underwater, you won't have to die by execution."
"…We won't have to die by execution," Kaito said. "Meaning we'll die some other way."
"Usually I wait to provide an incentive for murder," Monokuma said. "I want to see you gather up bonds and decide to love each other, or some dirty gunk. But you know, that machine converting salt water to fresh water runs on electricity, and we can't really connect to the power plant."
"Then how is it working?" I asked.
"We have a generator, silly!" Monokuma said. "But our generator isn't so special like the other ones out there. Once it runs to long, it will power down, and after that, no more water. You guys will die out of things like thirst. Drinking each other's blood, and hell I'd like to see that."
"…Are you kidding?" Yayoi asked nervously.
"I can't take this..!" Micky said silently to himself. "Someone help me!"
"That's actually a lie," Monokuma laughed. "Well, partly a lie, because you'll die in a much quicker way, being the generous bear that I am."
"What do you mean?" I asked nervously.
"The full moon has just passed us, my dear," Monokuma said. "But that doesn't mean the next one doesn't lie in wake. When the water pressure gets greater and greater due to the state of the moon, and the heat fluctuates causing the glass to expand rapidly, the walls will break."
We were silent, getting Monokuma's intention.
"And… then we're going to be drowned," Hikaru said to himself.
"…How long until the walls break?" Mirai asked.
"I'd say about 45 days," Monokuma said, laughing to himself. "And to add a cherry on the pie, I'm going to give you, yet ANOTHER incentive for murder..! Of course, it's not as powerful, but I want to see your sad reactions when you see what I did..! Upupupu! Just a reminder that the incentive about the water pressure and what not lasts throughout your whole trip, but this incentive is just like a booster drink."
We didn't respond to Monokuma's confusing words, and he shrugged in response. "Anyways, follow me, everyone! It's time to play follow the bear!"
We followed Monokuma across numerous hallways. I looked at the beautiful water swirling outside the transparent glass, horrified to think that eventually, we'd be drowned by it. Everyone was silent too, unable to speak at all. Were they accepting their imminent deaths? Or were they just silently plotting an actual murder? I didn't even want to think about the second option. I'd rather die than have to hold these class trials, or whatever they were called. I didn't want to kill anyone either.
"Are you okay?" Mirai asked, looking at me with a blank expression. I nodded in response, and he nodded back. "This isn't a good situation, is it?"
"No," I responded shaking my head. "No, not really."
"Okay," Mirai said, ending the conversation right there.
For the remainder of the time, we were just walking. We weren't talking or figuring out how to take down that sadistic bear – we were just walking. Walking… walking… endlessly walking. I didn't know how long we were actually walking, until the bear eventually stopped moving, and pointed at a closed door. The door was metal and bolted down with huge nails. It looked like the entryway to a military base, making me even more worried about what lay behind the door.
"Upupupu, are you guys ready?" Monokuma asked laughing.
We looked at each other, obviously not ready, and Monokuma pulled down the latch of the door. The door made a huge clinking noise as it unlocked and pulled outwards. Inside the room was nothing except the darkness that it was enveloped in. Finally, as Monokuma entered inside, the room flooded with a bright, yet threatening light. As we all stepped into the room one by one, we were horrified to see what had happened.
"You see," Monokuma started. "This guy decided he could hit me, and instead of giving him a full-fledged punishment, I decided to take advantage of the situation, being the genius bear that I am."
We all stared at the fish tank in horror, staring at the blood stains that spread across the glass.
"Upupupu," Monokuma laughed. "Everyone, I believe you can guess the role of this certain student!"
The blood stains seemed to grow bigger as I recognized that inside the fish tank, was a body. A human body was lying in the fish tank, and water was slowly filling into the tank. He looked up, and he pressed his hands against the glass as if he had a chance to reach out and grab us.
"Meet your lovely sixteenth student!" Monokuma exclaimed.
He lay his head down and uttered a silent scream, as Monokuma continued laughing, and we continued staring at the fish tank in horror. So this was a punishment? No, Monokuma decided not to give him a full-fledged punishment. Yet the tank was filling with water – would he drown quicker than the rest of us?
"Don't kill anyone? Fine!" Monokuma laughed. "If you decide to keep your hands clean of blood, then our amazing sixteenth student, Shougo Arisu! C'mon Shougo! Lift your head! Grin and bear it all!
Shougo lifted his head, and we stared at the horror.
DAYS LEFT UNTIL DEATH: 45
SURVIVORS: 16
Continued in Chapter 1 Section III
(AN: I like this format of splitting up short chapters. In other stories I made the everyday life bits all in one chapter, but this way I can evenly spread out my ideas, instead of having one jumbled 10,000 word essay. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter!)