After an hour or so had passed, everyone had began to trickle back into the lounge. Once everyone had gathered and either took a seat or took their place back up against the wall. Nami took a look around at the group. "Everyone's here then? Let's get started-"
"Actually, I was wondering if we could talk about this over dinner." Sanji said. Everyone looked at him in confusion.
Nami raised a brow at him. "What are you talking about? For one, I'm not interested, and two, isn't the door to the restaurant locked?" Sanji grinned.
"Well, while we were all exploring I took another look around my room and found these," he held up a single key on a blue keychain, which had the word "Restaurant" etched into it. "It was just laying on the middle of my bed, and I know they weren't there before." Sanji rubbed his beard. "Whoever must've put them there must've heard us talking about how hungry we were, but-" Before he could finish his sentence, Luffy cheered.
"Awesome!" A bit of drool started at the corner of his mouth "I can't wait to try your cooking, Sanji!" Nami crossed her arms.
"Luffy, I think this is a bit more important than food right now..." Luffy looked at her with a pout on his face.
"But Namiiiii, I'm staaaarviiiing." A few of the others voiced their agreements, causing Nami to sigh in defeat.
"Okay, okay, fine. Sanji," she turned to the blond man." do you mind fixing us all something to eat? Otherwise I don't think we'll ever get anywhere." Sanji grinned widely.
"Of course, my dear Nami-swan~" exclaimed the swirly-browed man, who continued to frolic his way out the door, with Luffy in hot pursuit behind him. By the time everyone had followed them, Sanji had the door unlocked and was already getting busy preparing dinner in the kitchen, and the group was hit with an amazing smell of cooking food. The restaurant itself was very elegant, with two long tables in the center of the room and a few smaller round tables scattered around. In the back was something similar to a bar, with a set of double doors beside it that lead into the kitchen. Beyond the bar they could see Sanji already working on the group's food. He moved almost gracefully as he mixed ingredients and worked with the stove. Luffy had already sat down, his head and arms laying on the table.
"Sanji kicked me out of the kitchen." Luffy grumbled, his voiced slightly muffled by the table. Everyone took seats at the long table, all besides Law and Robin, who instead sat at one of the small rounds tables nearby. Sanji peaked his head out of the bar window and called out to them.
"Everything will be ready in a few minutes everybody!" Usopp scratched his chin in thought.
"I wonder how much food this ship actually has...We might be here a while if we don't find a way out.."
Robin tilted her head. "If we don't, we may just starve here to death, and may have to resort to cannibalism." Usopp panicked and waved his hands.
"W-Why would you say something so scary like that?" he yelled. Robin simply smiled.
"Alright everyone, dinner's served!" Sanji announced, pushing a giant cart through the swinging double doors that was loaded with food. Brook, Luffy and Usopp grinned and clanged their forks and knives together, chanting "Food!" over and over. This earned each one a swift kick in the back of the head, leaving a large bump on their heads. "Geez, you guys have shitty manners." With a flourish, Sanji laid out the food, making sure to serve the women first. "Dig in everyone!" He grinned and crossed his arms. "I hope you all enjoy the cooking of the Ultimate Chef!" The group eagerly dug into the food, with several sounds of content.
"Mmmm, this is amazing, Sanji!" exclaimed Vivi. She turned to him smiling. "The Ultimate Chef is the perfect Talent for you!" Sanji grinned widely and did a weird kind of dance.
"Thank you, Vivi-chan! It means so much coming from a beautiful woman like you~" Zoro looked over and not so subtly rolled his eyes. Fortunately, the cook didn't seem to notice.
"So," Zoro said, breaking the scene with a mouthfull of food. "what did everyone find out? Any way or or how to contact anyone?" There was a sudden silence as everyone looked down at their plants, the only sound being Luffy as he shoveled food into his mouth.
"Well..." Nami sat down her fork and sighed. "Why don't we go around and tell what we all found?"
"This place isn't very big," said Kid. "so there wasn't many places to go, you know?"
"I understand that," Nami replied. "but it'd be easier if we just do it that way." Coby raised his hand, and Nami turned her attention to him.
"I don't mind going first." he said. He looked around at the table as Sanji sat down at the far end with his own plate of food. "Well, Brook, Vivi and I explored the room right across from us. Turns out, it's a storage room, and it has everything we could ever need!"
"That's right," added Brook. He turned to Usopp. "You mentioned about the food situation in case we'd be here for a while, but that room is filled to the brim with not only items for everyday life, but food as well." Ace chuckled from down the table. "What's so funny, if I may ask?"
"You might want to keep that room under lock and key, or at least keep a very good eye on it. Luffy here is a garbage gut. He'll eat almost everything." he laughed, nudging Luffy who was on his 4th helping of food.
Brook chuckled. "I'm sure if we look there's bound to be a lock and key in there somewhere."
"What's weird though," Vivi added, "is I found track suits and swimming gear, but I don't think there's a pool here. Isn't that a little strange?" Kid shook his head.
"Not really, because there might be on another floor."
"Another floor?" Tashigi leaned to looked at him.
"Of course," Kid said. "Nobody noticed the other set of stairs next to the ones leading down to the lower one? Luffy, Zoro, Nami and me tried to get it open, but that thing is sealed tight. So if anything, there's another floor above us that might have a way out."
"But it's just getting there that's the problem" Nami whispered as she leaned back in her chair. Chopper waved his hand in the air. "Oh, uh, yeah Chopper."
"Me, Ace and Law found an infimary! It has all kinds of medicine, so if anyone's hurt you can just come to me!" he grinned, happy with himself. Nami smiled back sweetly.
"Of course!"
Sanji placed his elbows on the table. "Well, like I said, I went back to my room, which is where I found the key to the restaurant. But other than that I didn't noticed anything different. How about the rest of you guys?"
Usopp shook his head. "No. Franky, Tashigi and I checked our rooms too, but noticed like that showed up."
"But", said Franky. "we looked at the room at the farthest end of the hall downstairs." He grinned. "It's the engine and boiler room."
Tashigi giggled. "He seemed really happy about finding it."
"Of course he is!" Usopp said, giving Franky, who was sitting next to him, a playful slap on the back. "He's in his element in that room. But anyways," he continued. "You kinda need to be careful in that room. It's really loud so it's hard to hear anybody unless you're right next to them, and some of the equipment's pretty h-"
"Wait," Nami said, stopping Usopp in mid-sentence. "You said it was an engine room? That's sort of strange..."
"Why's that?" Ace asked.
"Because that means this isn't a building, but-"
"A ship." Franky finished. "I was surprised too." Luffy stopped eating at this.
"A ship?" he asked, then swallowed the last bit of the food in his mouth. "That's awesome!" Nami glared at him.
"No, that's NOT awesome!" she huffed. "If we're on a ship, that means we're in the middle of the ocean, with no way to control it or get in contact with anybody! We're prety much stranded here until someone comes and finds us!"
"Well, there may be some way to contact the outside." said a soft voice. Everyone turned to see that it was Robin. "There's another door downstairs on the complete opposite end of the hall on the lower level." She looked at Perona. "The two of us went downstairs and tried to open it, but we had no such luck..
"So there's still hope?" Usopp asked.
"Of course there is!" Luffy exclaimed, grinning. "It's not the end of the world!
Ding, dong, bing bong.
As if on cue, a loud chime rang out. Several of the teens jumped in surprise as they looked around for the source of the noise.
"What's...what's that?" whimpered Chopper, pointing to a space at the far end of the restaurant. Everyone turned and found where the noise had come from. A large monitor, which was now showing a bunch of static, was screwed into the far wall. The screen became more focused, the snow slowly disappearing until a dark silhouette could be seen. And then, a voice spoke out from it.
"Testing testing, one two! Is this thing on? Can you all hear me? Okay then!" the voice said in an odd, cheerful voice. "If you're all done with your meal, would you all please come back to the lounge for a quick meet and greet? Oh, well, I guess you guys already did that, but it wouldn't hurt to have another! Upupupupu~" The figure on the screen laughed, sending a chill up everyone's spine. "See you soon~" With that, the monitor's screen turned black.
"W-What do we do?" Tashigi said in a hushed voice. Luffy stood up.
"We go see what he wants, what else?" The rest looked at each other, unsure what else there was there to do. "If this is th eguy that's keeping us here, he has control, doesn't he?"
"...He's right." Zoro stood up as well. "If this guy truly is the one keeping us captive, who's to say he won't do something to us if we don't listen to what he says?"
"L-Like what?" Usopp looked at Zoro with worry. Zoro looked at him with his one good eye.
"Probably kill us."
Usopp gulped. "K-Kill us?" Robin stood up, brushing off her skirt.
"I believe going will be in our best interest. We can ask exactly what's going on here." The others nodded in agreement, if a bit hesitant. They made their way back to the lounge in a silent, almost single file line.
Who was the person on the monitor? Where were they and why were they here? These were the questions running through everyone's minds as they entered the lounge and took their places, everyone sitting almost exactly where they had been during their first introductions.
"So where is this guy?" Coby said in a low voice.
"Upupupupu I'm right here~"
A bear, white on one side and black on the other, with a large smile on the black side of its face, appeared out of nowhere on the table in the center of the room. There were several cries of shock, and a couple thuds as Tashigi, Brook and Usopp fell out of their chairs in surprise.
"Wh-What is that?" Nami cried, pressing her body against a nearby wall.
"A-A teddy bear?" Chopper whimpered. He was trying to once again unsuccessfully hide behind a couch. The bear turned towards the boy, causing him to run behind the couch, leaving only his eyes peeking out from behind. The bear's red eye glared around at them.
"I'm not a teddy bear." the bear growled menacingly. "My name is Monokuma!"
"Mono...kuma?" Ace asked.
Monokuma chuckled. "That's my name, don't wear it out!"
Kid took a step towards Monokuma, his hands clenched into fists. "Are you the one who put us here?" Monokuma nodded, his red eye shining brightly.
"And if I am? What are you going to do about it?" Kid growled, taking another step towards the monochrome bear. He raised his fists, ready to "Ah ah ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Monokuma said, waving a paw back and forth. "Don't you wanna know what's going on here?" The fiery-headed man stopped, lowered his fists and took a step back. "Upupupu! That's what I thought. Now then," Monokuma turned, getting a good look at the teens around him. "Now you're all probably wondering, 'Where am I?' 'Who put us here?' 'How do we get out?' 'What happened to our memories?' Well you see-"
"Wait, what are you talking about by 'What happened to our memories'? What did you do to us?" This time it was Sanji who took a step towards the bear. Monokuma blinked.
"You guys...didn't know abou your memories? All your memories from after you attended Hope's Peak were completely wiped!" he shook his head. "You guys really are dense."
"Th-That's impossible!" Vivi cried. "I-I remember everything! I..." she stopped, a confused look on her face. "I...I remember going through the gates and...and then..." It suddenly dawned on the students that none of them could recollect nothing. A growing sense of panic spread throughout the room, with several voicing their concerns and fears over their missing memories.
"Upupupu, see what I mean?" Monokuma cheered over the growing ruckus. The bear laughed again, and only stopped when everyone had looked at him with fear, hatred, or both. "Now, if I can have you all just quiet down, I'll let you in on a little secret. You wanna know why you're in here, and who put you in here?" The bear crossed his arms. "The world, to be honest, is in a pretty bad place right now. Like, really really bad. War, destruction, pollution, death, you name it, that's what's happening. The reason why you're here is because I don't want any of you kids to be caught up in that nasty world!"
Luffy tilted his head. "So...you're the one who put us here?"
"Oh no no no, not me! But if you wanna know who," the bear's red eye gleamed menacingly. "you'll have to figure that out yourself."
"You piece of shit!" Zoro pushed through the group to reach the bear, bending down until he was nose to nose with him. "Who the hell put us in here? Was it you?"
"Upupupu, I'd take a step back if I were you, Greeny. Unless you wanna get hurt." Zoro hesitated. Something in the bear's voice, as annoying and none-menacing as it was, sent a shiver down his spine. He straightened up and took his place back against the wall. "As for getting out of here, well, I'm sure you all know by now, or will know eventually, there is no immediate way off this ship. Every exit, whether it be a doorway or a window, is sealed tight. And don't even think about forcing any of them open! This ship was specially designed to keep you in, and everything else out."
"So...there's no way out?" whimpered Usopp.
"Oh, there is one way to get off this ship." The grin on Monokuma's face grew wider, as if it would split his face in two. "The only way off this ship..."
"Is if you kill each other."