Mikan Tsumiki! It's your turn to go! Here's your backpack, now move those hams!" Monokuma threw the backpack at Mikan's paralysed arms.
She just couldn't believe what had just happened. The Ultimate Nurse was easily frightened. Not only was she put in a game where she has to kill her friends, but the blood that had splattered from professor Kazuo's remains stained her terrified face.
No reaction. She simply stood there sobbing, crying and horrified.
"Yo, I'm about to call that horny Teruteru next. I'd start running to the door if I was you." the robotic bear informed whimsically.
Purely driven by instinct, she picked up the fallen backpack and started sprinting. She had to act by instinct, because her mind was somewhere else. That traumatic sight dug up a memory she almost succeeded in burying. The crimson, lifeless fluid on her face forced her to recall a similar event...
"C-Can you... P-please s-stop that... I-It h-hurts..." she whimpered as blood arose from the burn wound on her forearm.
"I told you to shut the fuck up, bitch! Can't you see I'm stressed out?!" the hairy fat man, who wore nothing but white boxers and socks yelled as he blew out another cloud of smoke against her face, causing her to cough.
"The fuck was your name again?" he barked annoyed by her noisy reaction.
"M-Mikan..." she moaned.
"Well, Mikan. You're pretty fucking hot, you know? I mean you're still a kid, but I bet when you grow up, you'll be a much better whore than your cocksucking mom." he burnt his cigarette on her face. "Such a sexy face you have there..." he grunted as he rubbed the burn wounds he had just caused, attracting the flow of blood to the surface.
No reaction. She simply stood there, sobbing, crying and horrified. Taking in all the pain.
"You have a pretty sexy body for your age too. Once you've matured a little more, I might come and give that nice little face a kiss. If I was your mother, I'd get rid of you fast, 'cause you're gonna be tough competition for her, that's for sure." he laughed, almost swallowing the cigarette he had.
"Wh-What...? M-Mommy..." she burst into tears at the thought of the woman who left her alone with the pervy old man.
"Yeah, mommy might smother you with a pillow any night. I'd sleep with one eye open if I was you. That or I'd burn my face so I'd stay uglier than her. You should totally stab her in her sleep if you wanna live." he mocked again. Having a great time torturing a little girl.
"M-Mommy...!" she cried.
"I said, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he slapped her with all his might for speaking too loud.
She flew across the room, but didn't have the will to get up.
"Anyway, here's the cash I owe your mom." he placed 3000 yen on the counter next to the exit door, before leaving. "Oh, but I'll take 1000, 'cause her breath smelled like shit and her pussy was hairier than my ass."
Still in the exact same position she had after being slapped, Mikan lied on her stomach, as blood and tears mixed together. She wondered what was the biological reason for the liquid that cascaded down her eyes so often. Did it have healing properties? Maybe they were there to heal her face...
But at that moment, an experienced nurse like her wouldn't be swayed by preposterous fantasies. All she could do was run. The only one who wouldn't bully her was herself. All she could trust was herself.
She had a vague memory of Mahiru mentioning something about an hotel in the left side of the forest, but she wasn't really paying attention when the Ultimate Photographer whispered that in her ear. She was still in trance... Because of the blood... The blood...
I have to get out of here! The bullies are gonna go after me!
She ran aimlessly in the dead of the night.
I'm too slow and weak to escape from bullies! I should know that by now... Think, Mikan, think! How do I make bullies stop being mean to me? I know that if I show my panties to the boys, they'll stop hitting me or asking me to strip. Their frowns instantly turn into smiles and then they hug me... And touch me... But will that work here as well? The circumstances are different, there are girls here and the boys are scared...
Growing up, the only attention Mikan received was from bullies. While her absent mom went to her job, she either cried of solitude or cried of suffering. However, the suffering became increasingly more normal to her, while her hatred for solitude grew, because when she was bullied, she received attention. Her concept of abuse was corrupted. For her, abuse was like love.
There was a secret Mikan would never reveal. She was naturally very clumsy, but what no one knew was that most of her falls were intentional. When she feels ignored – When she feels unloved, she resorts to unorthodox methods to be in the spotlight: By putting herself in compromising positions for the pleasure of boys.
A she ran, she tripped on a loose rock and fell. But this fall was one of the few accidental ones. The impact with the ground was harsh. It took a while for her to recover from the pain she was so familiar with and think about getting up once more. There were times when she fell, but simply lacked the will to get up, but in that situation, she had to keep moving.
"Mikan! Are you okay?" she heard a familiar male voice call out for her.
Pure panic was all she felt. Whoever that boy was, he was gonna bully her. Instinctively, she opened the zipper on the backpack she had and inspected it with her hand. She felt a few plastic cylinders, probably plastic waters, and something sharp. That was her weapon.
"Hold on, I'll help you get up." a tiny boy with a shield on his hand and a chef's hat approached her preoccupied.
Huh! That's... Teruteru! He's the biggest perv in the class! He never talks to me! He only looks at me when my panties are showing or when he's horny! Why is that... Why is that motherfucker always ignoring me? Is he... Is he a bully too? Is he gonna batter me with that shield?
The Ultimate Cook put his shield on the ground and held her arms to try and help her up. But Mikan didn't think such act was that selfless...
"You make a good pig impression there, kid... And I feel like eating some pork now." another one of her mom's dirty clients grinned mischievously, as he rubbed his hands over her underdeveloped legs.
"Gah...! Get off of me. Get off of me. Get off of me." the young Mikan repeated like mantra in her head, as she allowed the corrupt touch with cascading eyes.
"Hey! Hands off my daughter! She's a virgin. That'll cost you triple and you don't have the cash!" her mother, who was previously counting the money she had just received, intervened with a roar and a baseball bat on her clients head.
"Get off of me!" she roared as she viciously pulled out the unknown sharp weapon from her backpack and swung it at Teruteru, before knowing what it was.
He dodged the assault just in time to only receive a minor cut on his cheek.
A kama sickle. That was her weapon.
She jolted up and started waving her sickle at him.
"Hey, stop! I'm trying to help you! Mikan, we don't have to play the game!" Teruteru pleaded as he blocked her assault with his shield.
She was no longer herself. All the logical reasoning had abandoned her mind and was replaced by sheer instinct and despair. She had to protect herself from bullies.
The feeble cook had no choice but to flee into the forest. Succumbed by adrenaline, she gave chase. However, her slender legs could only do so much. When it got to the point where she lost sight of him in the middle of leaves and vines, she tripped once again on a root.
She knocked her head on a tree trunk as she fell, causing her consciousness to drift away slowly.
"What got into me? I-I wasn't acting like myself... Why did I remember all that all of a sudden? Was it because of professor's blood on my face... I-I acted like a bully... Teruteru will never forgive me..." she pondered confused before passing out on the grass with sickle in hand.
Shuichi Saihara was exhausted. He had far surpassed his personal record of most calories burned in 10 minutes, by running alone. Even when his muscles screamed for him to stop, he continued until it was biologically impossible for him to sprint any farther.
Had his situation be less dire, and had his mind not have been storming with logical explanations like the natural-born detective he was, Shuichi would have thought something in the lines of: "Looks like all the training with Kaito finally paid off."
After Monokuma called him to leave, he sprinted to the right side. He thought he was safe after taking cover behind a huge statue of a strange beast, so he took the chance to check what his weapon was. Apparently, his luck wasn't so bad: He received an easily portable gun, along with an instruction manual titled «How to wield a Colt M1911 .45 Semi-Automatic Pistol» and a box of bullets.
However, his lucky streak didn't prove quite so absurd like Nagito's and Makoto's. The second he laid eyes on his gun, he heard the merciless sound of a gunshot exactly in the moment he felt a bullet graze the skin of his hairless chin, piercing the giant statue instead.
He barely got a good look of his attacker, but he thought he saw... a figure with a glasses? So... Byakyua, Toko, Peko, Tsumugi or Gonta...
Whoever they were, they quit after 3 bullets wasted. And because of that, the Ultimate Detective found himself inside what looked like a deserted airport, completely fatigued.
"Thank God... I almost got killed..." Shuichi spoke to himself as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Did somebody say «killed»? That's like, my second favourite word." Monokuma, who had appeared out of nowhere at the entrance of the airport, scared him.
"Ah! Y-You!" he screamed dangerously loud.
"'Sup!? Enjoying the Killing Game like me? Your use of the word «killed» suggests so." Monokuma asked light-heartedly.
Silence. Shuichi was too scared to speak.
"As a great philosopher once said, I shall assume you silence gives consent. Anyway, why didn't you fight back with your gun? Drank too many martinis? I mean my aim kinda sucks when I'm drunk too, but it takes practice. Come on, man, go outside and make the audience happy!" Monokuma encouraged.
"You... You mentioned an audience before... A-Are we being watched?" he was almost too frightened to ask his most present question.
"Ooh, beats me. But I'm pretty curious about that too. If was in your shoes, I'd kill every motherfucker I saw just so I could escape and find out." the stuffed bear joked darkly.
"B-But what is your audience?... I've been investigating these previous Killing Games and I didn't discover anyone who could have possibly fund you, or support you. So why? What is the purpose of this? And why are the rules from this game different from the previous ones?" the detective inquired desperate.
"Oh, I'm sure you and that purple emo will figure that out, assuming she hasn't kicked the bucket already. You're the Ultimate Detectives, right?" the bear giggled carefree.
"There's another thing that's been bothering me... The rules you set... The second one... If I recall correctly, you said «I may speak with you personally, whenever I wish. However, I can't interfere with anyone's death, unless rule #3 is broken.» Does that mean I'm safe for now? Since you can't interfere with anyone's death, the fact that you're talking to me proves that there aren't any students nearby. But that also proves that you're keeping watch of the entire island, so there has to be an ample team supporting you as well…" he theorized.
"Puhuhu… I suppose that if I distracted you with my chatter, I'd be helping out anyone who would try to cut both of your antennas. So yeah. You might be right about that." he yielded casually.
"I knew it. So every time you talk to one of us, we can know for sure that we are not in danger. If that's the case, then I assume there's no one in this airport... And I also assume that the airplanes are not operational. Otherwise, it would be far too easy to escape, which would be too boring for your supposed audience. I saw the name of this place on the statue where I was attacked... It's Jabberwock Island, right?" he questioned nervously.
"Holy crap! You're figuring stuff out way slower than I expected! Are those all the conclusions you reached?! God, I hope the purple emo is sharper than you loser... Ugh... fine!" he sighed bored. " I suppose if I push myself to the brink of despair, things are gonna get more interesting! Okay, clean the wax out of yer ears, 'cause I'm gonna give you some juicy details. What would you do if you were masterminding delightful Killing Games, and then find out that there were 2 Ultimate Detectives on yer tail?"
"Y-You... Selected us... Because you found out me and Kyoko were investigating you?! Th-Then... Were we close to reach the truth?" he gasped.
"What do I know? I'm just a handsome bear! But since you 2 were so sneaky about it, I suppose only someone pretty close to you would realize what you were investigating, don't ya think? And if that somebody ratted you out, then that must mean they're on my side."
"That person or persons had to be very powerful and influential in order to be on the side of professional, organized criminals..." he hypothesised, holding his grazed chin with his index finger and thumb.
"Ring any bells?"
"Sonia Nevermind... Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu... or Byakya Togami..." he mused, staring vacantly at the black and white bear as he searched for valid motives in his head for each of the people he mentioned, but found none.
"I guess I've planted enough despair for myself. Now it's your turn to feel it! Lates!" Monokuma waved and fell on a newly opened trap door.
Interesting... Now I know that whenever Monokuma is around, I'm safe... That means I have to hide. Now! He also hinted that me and Kyoko were close to reach the truth. We were investigating Rantaro's connections with the previous Killing Game when we went to our school trip... Is Rantaro connected with Monokuma? Is he responsible for this? He did seem pretty calm throughout Monokuma's explanation of the rules... Why are the rules different too? None of this is making any sense! I have to find Kyoko and tell her what I learned. She's a lot better detective than me...
Mikan was starting to wake up. As her vision became progressively less blurry, she started feeling the intense pain on her forehead.
The Ultimate Nurse sat upright and spread her sore legs as she scanned her whereabouts confused. She was certain that she was in a different location from where she passed out. The morning sun revealed that the forest she was in had a more tropical look. It was sandy, had a large abundance of palm trees and she thought she could hear waves.
Her given backpack was also next to her. Frightened, she inspected its content, fearing theft, and was pleasantly surprised to see that nothing had disappeared, not even her sickle.
S-Someone brought me here...! B-But who...? It couldn't have been a bully...
As Mikan scanned her surroundings, she noticed a massive, ghastly human figure behind her. (Though pretty much everything is ghastly for Mikan).
"Hello." the male in question spoke softly as he covered his eyes and his intense blushing with his hands.
"AAAHHHHH!" she screamed in panic as she gripped her sickle and prepared to attack.
"Wait! Gonta no hurt Mikan! Gonta gentleman!" he assured nervously as he approached her and held her slender shoulders with his giant hands.
But he still avoided eye contact with her. Instead, his blushed face stared into a random spot to his left.
"G-Gonta..." she whimpered. She had thousands of questions to ask, but that was the only word that left her terrified mouth.
Why is he blushing? Why isn't he looking at me? Is he ignoring me on purpose?
"Wh-Why... a-are... y-you covering your eyes?" she wailed on the verge of tears.
"Sorry, Gonta no can look at girl places, because Gonta gentleman." he answered flustered, blocking his vision with his palms.
She was still so dizzy that she hadn't realized that she was in an embarrassing position. Her legs were spread apart, offering a shameful view of her underwear.
"I'm so sorry! Forgive me! Please, forgive me! I'm sorry for tainting your eyes with my disgusting body!" she wept as she closed her legs and bowed for him.
"Is okay! Is Gonta's fault! Mikan do nothing wrong!" he comforted as he stared intently into her eyes.
That's weird... Boys usually get all rowdy and bold when they see my panties. Why is he acting so innocently? Not only that, he helped me. Probably even saved my life... He's not a bully! He's a gentleman!
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Gonta! I didn't deserve what you did for me! I'll do absolutely whatever you want in return!" she sat in seiza and bowed, placing her forehead on the sandy ground.
"No need to thank! Gonta want to bring all friends together and protect them. Gonta no want killing. Gonta do anything to stop Killing Game!" he babbled optimistic and helped the nurse up.
She wanted to give him a hug, but she thought she was too disgusting, so she stopped herself. Still, his unexpected, pure reaction send tears down her cheeks.
That's when she realized the that blood on her face had vanished.
"Did you clean my face?"
"Yes. Gonta clean with palm tree leaf and sea water. Mikan okay? Mikan hurt?" he explained concerned.
"I'm fine. Forgive me for having trouble because of me! Thank you! Thank you so much! But... i-is it okay for you to be around someone like me? U-Um... Other than dying, I can pretty much do anything for you! Please order me around whenever you want!" she pleaded with her watery eyes closed.
"Relax!" Gonta was having a hard time understanding why she was reacting like that. He had never seen anyone acting remotely similarly. He didn't really know what to do. All he knew was that he wanted to make her feel better.
So he simply did something that always puts him at ease: he hugged her gently.
"Mikan no need do anything! Just stay safe while Gonta searches for friends to bring here." he stroked her hair as he prepared to leave, with a stun gun in hand. Apparently, that was his weapon.
She stared in awe at the man who radiated a caring smile like an angel. She wanted to help him. She wanted to protect him. But she was scared of putting herself in vulnerable positions, where she might find bullies...
Author's Notes:
In this chapter, I added a bit of plot in Shuichi's scene, that will be better explored next chapter.
In case you didn't remember, when Kazuo was killed with a mechanical saw in the first chapter, his blood splattered on Mikan's face, which triggered her mental issues, but let's hope our pure Gonta can fix that ^_^
In case you didn't notice, Mikan is based on Mitsuko Souma. HOWEVER, she's not just a carbon copy. Both characters are different, and I will treat them as such. Mikan has different morals than Mitsuko, among other things. I just drew parallels between them because their back stories are similar.
Anyway, so far the only dead student is Hiyoko Saionji (killed by Celestia Ludenberg).
Known weapons so far:
Hiyoko – Sewing scissors (currently held by Celes)
Celes – Pepper spray
Teruteru – Shield
Mikan – Sickle
Gonta – Stun Gun
Shuichi - Colt M1911 .45 Semi-Automatic Pistol
Unknown student with glasses – Unknown gun