Monaca Towa meets Makoto's friends!

He relaxed on his desk, never again would he wish for the school day to end quicker.

Not that he hated school or anything. It was just a fact that he was never the best at his studies; he always scored the most average marks out of the whole class. Despite that, he had never let his grades affect his mood at school. The time he spent with all of his friends was more important to him than academic achievement.

Especially since his life at home had been hell due to Monaca.

Ever since Monaca had blackmailed him with those photos (which he would not describe), he had been forced to do whatever she commanded without hesitation. She was clearly not content with stealing his room, taking extreme pleasure in his suffering as she forced him to do the vilest acts he could imagine. He could still taste the dried tofu on his tongue…

He looked around his surroundings; his classmates were all talking and getting along with each other, with the obvious exception being Byakuya. His classmates' happiness cheered him up a bit, while he recalled the conversation he had with his parents that day…

"You want to give your entire room to Monaca?" his mum asked. "While that is very kind of you Makoto, I don't think she needs an entire room to herself."

When Monaca said that she'd give him some time to pack up his belongings, he thought that meant he'd at least get ten minutes. It turns out that what she really meant was that he only had around thirty seconds to get out of his room, forcing him to choose only the most essential out of his belongings. He gave a farewell to the belongings he left behind, no doubt in his mind that Monaca would throw them all away.

Speaking of being rushed, he had no time at all to think of what he was going to say to his parents. When he asked her if he could have a bit more time to think she pretty much told him to improvise.

"I'm sure that you'll figure it out," she said, "unless you want your life to end today."

And that was what led to his current predicament; sitting down at the living room table facing his parents with Monaca right next to him. If he couldn't convince his parents to let Monaca get his room, there goes his future. And if he did, well, there goes his room.

"It's okay mum, really!" he insisted. "Monaca said she has trouble sleeping in Komaru's room, so I offered her mine so she can sleep better."

"Awww, how kind of you Big Bro!" Monaca said in that sickeningly cute voice of hers. "Big Sis snores so loud that Monaca can't get any sleep."

"Couldn't you just wear earplugs?" his dad asked.

"Well…" Monaca turned her head to him, the small smile on her face giving him the message "say something quick, or else I'll ruin your life."

He blurted out whatever came to his mind. "I only have a couple of years left before I graduate, while Monaca still has an entire school life ahead of her. I might not need my room if I get a job that requires me to relocate, so shouldn't it be okay to give her my room?"

His reasoning seemed to have worked, as his parents appeared to be in deep thought over his explanation. Monaca gave him a thumbs-up underneath the table, which didn't make him happy at all at being forced to give up his room.

"Fine. If you really want to give Monaca your room I won't object to it," his mum finally said.

"We'll have to set up a second bed in Komaru's room," his dad said. "Not only that, but we'll also have to make room for all of your belongings. Are you sure you want to do this Makoto?"

There was a nudge from Monaca underneath the table.

"Yes…" And with that, he was kicked out of his room.

Unfortunately for him, this brief period of peace would be over by today. After school ends he'd go home, meaning he gets to spend more "quality" time with Monaca.

"It's too late to change things anyway," he said to himself. "Well, at least Monaca isn't around here to boss me arou—"

"Hey bro!"

He jumped from his seat. Oh god, had Monaca managed to get inside the school?! He had to get out or els—

"Makoto, are you okay?"

"H-Huh?" He turned around to see his friends Sayaka and Kyoko looking at him.

"You looked like you were ready to bolt out of the classroom," Kyoko said. "Did something happen to you recently?"

He looked around for the source of that comment before slumping back into his seat. It was just Kiyotaka and Mondo talking to each other; there was no sign of Monaca anywhere.

"N-No, everything is fine! I'm just tired that's all."

"Is that so?" Kyoko did not look convinced. He knew he was a bad liar, but it was for the best that Kyoko didn't know that he was being blackmailed by Monaca. Who knows what she'd do if Kyoko got involved?

Before Kyoko could interrogate him, she was interrupted by Kiyotaka's booming voice from the front of the classroom.

"Can everyone be seated please?! I have an important announcement to make!"

He watched as his classmates started to sit down in their seats. Kyoko stood for a while longer, but she eventually sat down in her seat as well.

After waiting for everyone to sit back in their seats, Kiyotaka cleared his voice and said, "There will be a special event hosted by the school tomorrow! Students will be able to take one family member or someone close to them to look around the school's facilities."

"Why are we only allowed to bring one person?" Sayaka asked.

"This event was only recently created by the headmaster. The Steering Committee is not fully on board with the idea, so they imposed a restriction. If the event is successful they will lift the restriction and recognise it as an official school event."

Kiyotaka continued to explain the event in more detail. The purpose of this event was to raise more funds for the school, which will be achieved by showcasing the talents of the Main Course students. The school would also provide the students with whatever materials they need for their talent to be shown, provided they are within reason.

He had no idea how he was supposed to show his talent. Thankfully Kiyotaka elaborated that talents such as luck were exempted from participating.

"How disappointing," Celestia said. "I was looking forward to seeing what sort of event Makoto would come up with. I know, since you're free why don't we have a Russian roulette event?"

There was definitely no way he would play Russian roulette, not against someone like Celeste. Besides, it was unlikely to be approved by the school… probably.

"I appreciate the offer Celeste, but I'm good."

"Well looks like tomorrow is your lucky day Makoto!" Yasuhiro commented. "Why don't I read your fortune for tomorrow?"

"Umm, you don't have to do that really…"

Yasuhiro ignored him and looked into his crystal ball. "Tomorrow will be a great day for you Makoto. You'll get to see all sorts of sights that you never would have dreamed of seeing."

Well, that didn't sound too bad. But he knew better than to trust Yasuhiro's psychic readings. He placed the prediction near the back of his mind to focus more on what he'd do tomorrow. He already knew the right person to bring for tomorrow's event.

Since his parents were busy, he'd bring Komaru with him to the event. She'd be so ecstatic once he told her the news.

The rest of the day was a bit more lively than usual, as the news of the event had been told to all of the students in the school. Everyone was talking about who they were going to bring to tomorrow's event. Some were going to bring their siblings or their parents, while others were going to bring their pets.

When the school day finally ended, he said a quick farewell to his friends and rushed home to tell Komaru the news. He, unfortunately, had to avoid Kyoko when he was leaving the school, as she was eyeing him for the entire day waiting for a chance to interrogate him.

This might actually be his lucky day; Monaca told him to pick her up later as she had to work on a school project. With enough time he could tell Komaru the news and hopefully get her to keep quiet about it from Monaca.

After arriving at the door to his house, he opened the door and was greeted with—

"Hello, Big Bro!" Monaca right in front of him.

Oh god no.

"H-Hello Monaca…" he said. He forced himself to smile at her. "I thought you were working on a project at school?"

"I was going to, but then I thought why not let other people do the work for me? Thanks to her classmates, Monaca got to leave school on time and get a free ride to her house! I think today is my lucky day don't you think?"

Once again he wished for his talent to finally work in his favour.

"Yeah, I guess you really are lucky… So how was your day at school?"

"It was boring! That creepy kid with the mask wouldn't shut up for the entire day, while this red-haired kid and pink-haired girl were arguing with each other. At least there was one kid who kept quiet, as I expect of him."

From spending time with Monaca he had learned that she never seemed to refer to her friends by their names, only by their descriptions. Her response to why she never referred to them by name was simply because she "forgot."

"Monaca, you shouldn't talk about your friends like that."

"But it's true though, Monaca finds them really annoying."

Monaca moved to the left to let him in. Once he was inside she closed the door and asked, "So how was your day Makoto?"

He couldn't let her know about the event tomorrow at all costs; who knew what she'd try at the event? "It was okay. School was just the same as always."

"Is that so?"

Monaca was staring at him, the same stare she always used when she knows he was hiding something. There was a shiver up his spine; he should really ask Celeste for help in telling good lies.

"Yep! Nothing exciting happened in class, but if you want I could tell you what I did today?"

"I think I'll pass." Monaca turned her back to him and started to move toward his former room. It seemed like his lie managed to convince her somehow. He breathed a sigh of relief until—

"What I want to hear about is the event tomorrow."

His body froze up. As the sentence left her mouth she turned to face him again, this time a devilish grin was plastered on her face. "Who were you going to bring tomorrow?"

"Th-There was an event tomorrow? I had no idea about it at all…" He didn't even know why he was still trying to lie to her; it was evident that she already knew about the event.

"You are such a bad liar Makoto. I would have found out anyway even if my teacher didn't make a big fuss about it today. You were going to bring Komaru to the event weren't you, without even asking your poor little sister? You're a horrible big brother."

Monaca moved towards him until they were a few feet apart. "Well, aren't you going to ask me?"

"Do you want to go to the event tomorrow Monaca…" he said, with no attempt to hide his gloom.

"Why thank you Makoto for asking. Yes, Monaca does want to go to the event and have a super great time with all of your friends!"

That was definitely a lie. There was no way she would allow his friends to have any kind of fun tomorrow. In fact, the only person who would enjoy the event would be her.

"Now then, what punishment should Makoto receive?" Monaca said.

"Punishment?! But for what!"

"For what? Why for lying to me of course. Disobedient slaves must be punished by their masters after all."

She placed a finger under her chin and thought for several seconds before exclaiming, "I know! Why don't you tell Komaru about the event?"

"But I thought you were going to it? What's the point of telling Komaru if she isn't going?"

"That's the point! Tomorrow morning, I want you to tell Komaru about the event, and when she's filled with excitement tell her that she can't go. It'll be so funny to see her become so depressed!"

"That's just cruel Monaca! How could you even suggest such an idea!?"

"Because I like seeing her in despair, that's all. It's not like you have a choice anyway. That is unless you want me to send those pictures to everyone you know?"

He could only lower his head. He didn't like to see Komaru in a sad mood, but if Monaca sent out those pictures it'd ruin his life. He was definitely going to make it up to her one day!

"Now then. Since I'm feeling a little kind today, I won't make Big Bro do anything embarrassing for the rest of the day. Buh-byeee!"

Monaca gave a little wave to him before departing to her (his) room.

"I guess I'll watch TV…" he muttered to himself. He prayed in his mind for everything to be all right tomorrow. He could only hope that Monaca didn't do anything too bad at the event…

He looked up at Hope's Peak Academy. Even though he was a student now, he still felt that sense of wonder every time he stared at the school from the gates. If you had told him several years ago that he would enter such a prestigious school by luck alone he would have called you crazy. But here he was, about to step through the gates to start another gre—

"This school looks like crap."

He let out a sigh. The excitement for today was leaving his body after he realised who he was with.

"Whatever, It's no big deal. Today is going to be a very fun day for Monaca, especially after seeing Komaru become so depressed during breakfast."

Regret welled up inside him from remembering what happened this morning. During breakfast he had told Komaru about the event, his sister looking so excited until he told her he was bringing Monaca with him, not her. His heart dropped from the look of disappointment on her face.

"I can still picture the hope in her eyes fading away when you told her that she wasn't going," Monaca said, seemingly brimming with joy at what happened at breakfast. "She'll be so sad for the entire day, thinking about how much fun she's missing out on. I actually feel kinda bad for her… Anyways let's go and meet your friends, meow!"

He looked at the hoard of people beyond the school gate. He knew that there were going to be a lot of people at the event, especially since the Reserve Course students were also participating too, but he didn't expect this many to show up. It reminded him once more of the massive prestige the academy had.

They entered through the gate to Hope's Peak Academy, fighting against the crowd to reach the front door to the school with him apologising all the way. After making one hundred and twenty-five apologies, they managed to enter the school.

"Wow, look at all of these events," he commented as he examined each classroom they passed. There were some very interesting events going on inside each classroom: there was an arcade in one classroom, a garden in another, and he thought he even saw a bear in one of the classrooms. "Want to go and check them ou—"

"No. I want to meet your friends," Monaca responded.

"But we have time for that later. Why don't we go see the various events? You might enj—"

"No! Monaca! Wants! To! Meet! Your! Friends!" Her shouting was attracting a few stares from the people around them. "So! Let's! Go! Already!"

"Okay! Okay! Calm down Monaca! It was only a suggestion…" Monaca stopped her tantrum and returned to her normal smiling self.

"So quit trying to stall me and get a move on alright? Your classroom is just up ahead riiight?"

"Yeah, it is..." He pointed towards his classroom which was a few metres away. Monaca grabbed his hand and dragged him to the entrance. Once they were at the classroom door, he took a little time to mentally prepare himself for whatever disaster was about to happen and opened the door.

"Ah, you're finally here Makoto!" Immediately, he was greeted by Aoi standing inches away from him. He flinched back.

"H-Hina! Y-You surprised me there."

"Ehehe, sorry," Aoi responded. "I was about to head out to grab a snack, wanna come?"

"What about your event?"

"I'm on break now, so it's fine! It's in another hour, so there's plenty of time to go eat. Are you coming?"

The malevolent stare he was feeling from behind was telling him no. "Not right now Hina. I'm kinda busy at the moment."

Aoi seemed like she was about to say something until she looked behind him. "Oh, who's this Makoto?"

"Hello! Monaca is called Monaca, and I'm Big Bro's little sister! Nice to meet you." Monaca gave a smile and stretched out a hand to Aoi for a handshake.

"Ohhh, she's so cute!" Aoi instead gave her a hug that lifted her up from her wheelchair. Monaca looked surprised by this and was now struggling to break from the hug. "Why didn't you tell me about her?"

"Ummm, but I did?" he answered. Monaca was giving him a look that was begging him to make her stop. "I think you can stop hugging her now…"

"Did you? I don't remember… oh well!"

Monaca landed with a thud on her wheelchair when Aoi let go of her.

"I'm Aoi Asahina, but you can call me Hina. Nice to meet you too Monaca!" Aoi gave Monaca a smile. She didn't return the smile, however, as she was too busy gasping for air.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go get some doughnuts. Have fun you guys!" Aoi waved goodbye to them and jogged out of the room in search of doughnuts.

"I don't like her…" Monaca wheezed out. "She's too energetic… I hope the rest of your classmates aren't the same."

They entered his classroom. He looked at the class roll posted on the whiteboard and noticed two names that weren't signed in—Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Ikusaba. Those two had been disappearing more often lately, and he never had a chance to ask them why.

But for now, it was a good thing they weren't here; Monaca was gazing at his classmates, her eyes focusing on one individual for five seconds before moving on to the next.

Her gaze had finally fixated on of his classmates. That classmate was Byakuya Togami, sitting at his desk with a look of disdain on his face.

This wasn't going to be good.

Before he could do anything Monaca moved towards Byakuya at breakneck speed. She stopped just a few centimetres before she made contact with his desk.

"Hello! Monaca is called Monaca!" Monaca said. "Nice to meet you!"

Byakuya didn't react at all to her greeting, not even turning his head around to acknowledge her presence.

"Hellooo?" Monaca waved a hand in front of his face, triggering a scowl from the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. Byakuya finally turned to face Monaca.

"What do you want?" he asked. "Can't you see I'm clearly occupied at the moment; if you don't have anything important to say then get out my sight."

Monaca seemed unfazed by his words. "You're the famous Byakuya Togami, right? I heard a lot of good things about you."

"That's to be expected. I am a man without flaws after all."

He was still near the doorway watching Monaca trying to converse with Byakuya. The conversation didn't seem too bad… Aside from intruding on Byakuya's personal space, she was acting well-behaved. Maybe everything would be al—

"Is it true that you cross-dressed in order to become the heir of the Togami Group?" Monaca asked.

The whole room became silent. Everyone in the classroom had heard her question and had stopped whatever they were doing to focus on the two. He immediately rushed towards her location.

"H-How dare y-you say that to master!" Toko screeched. "A-As if he would ever lower himself to such a degrading act! Although if he did…"

Toko entered into another one of her delusions, which only caused further irritation for the Ultimate Affluent Progeny.

"What kind of nonsense are you blabbering about?!" Byakuya asked. His expression was a mix of surprise and anger. "If you're trying to be humorous then I'm afraid you've failed in that regard."

"But Monaca read it on the internet," Monaca responded in a cheery manner. "So is it true that you cross-dressed or not?"

"Monaca, you shouldn't say stuff like that!" he said. "You'll make him upset!"

She ignored him. "Another question. Is it true that you have one hundred and eight siblings, and that all of them were chosen for the selection process except you? That's quite sad y'know?"

"Once again you are completely wrong with your facts." Byakuya directed his attention to him, the glare on his face making him gulp. "I take it that this brat belongs to you? Get her out of my sight; I'm done talking to her."

"S-Sorry Byakuya, Monaca was just curious about you that's all." He moved Monaca's wheelchair as far away as possible from a scowling Byakuya.

"Jeez, it was only a few questions…" Monaca said. "He doesn't have to act like such a child. Why don't you tell him that Naegi?"

"Only I'm allowed to say that!" Byakuya called out.

"Woah, I've never seen Byakuya get that mad before!" someone commented in the classroom. "Good job kid!"

They looked in the direction the voice came from. Mondo was sitting in the corner with a grin on his face.

Monaca stared at Mondo for a while, and with a smile, she uttered, "Your hair looks like shit."

"What the fuck did you say about my hair?! I'll kill you!" Mondo tried to rush toward her, but he was restrained by Kiyotaka and Sakura. He wheeled Monaca out of the classroom before she could say anything else. Once they were outside he shut the classroom door and gave her a displeased stare.

"What?" She shrugged her shoulders. "His hairstyle really was bad."

"What are you doing Monaca?!" he said in a hushed voice, not wanting to attract any attention from the people passing by. "Why are you deliberately trying to get them angry?!"

"Huh? I'm not trying to anger your friends. I'm trying to get along with them that's all."

He sighed for the second time this day. Monaca was obviously trying to rile up his friends for her own amusement. The only thing he could do now was contain the damage and make sure they didn't do anything they'd regret.

"You look like you're in trouble Makoto," a voice spoke near his ear.

He jumped and turned around to face the person. "K-Kyoko!? How long were you standing there?"

"For a few minutes." Kyoko moved her attention away from him to Monaca.

"Hello! Monaca is called Monaca!" She held out a hand. "What's your name?"

Kyoko didn't shake Monaca's hand; she only kept looking at her. Monaca lowered her hand as Kyoko focused her attention on him. "So this is your adopted sister…"

"Oh my, has my big brother been gossiping about his little sister?" Monaca gave him a look. "I do hope they were all good things about her."

This was bad. He'd been hoping to avoid meeting Kyoko while with Monaca. Now she was definitely going to try and interrogate him about yesterday.

"Why don't we have a chat right now?"

"Uhhh, while I really like to talk to you right now, I… was just about to take Monaca to see the other events! How about we talk at another time?"

"Oh you don't have to worry about me Big Bro," Monaca piped in. "We have plenty of time, so go ahead and talk alllll you want. I'll just stay right here with my mouth zipped shut."

Damn it, there goes that excuse. Kyoko wasn't the Ultimate Detective for nothing; she'd find out what was going on between him and Monaca if they talked. He prayed in his mind for his luck to find a way out of this.

"Umm excuse me…" said a quiet voice behind him. He turned around and recognised the person speaking as one of his senior classmates, Chiaki Nanami.

"Oh, hello Chiaki," he replied. "Um, is there something you need?"

"I was wondering if you could help me carry some supplies outside of the school." She looked at each of them. "It will only take a few minutes. But if you're busy I can look for someone else."

"Nope, I'm definitely free at the moment!"

"Really? You don't have to force yours—"

"It's fine!"

He thanked his luck for this; maybe he wasn't that unlucky after all. He turned to Kyoko. "Sorry about this Kyoko, but I'm going to go help her out for a bit. Is that all right with you?"

She sighed. "Yes, it's fine Makoto. But after this, we're going to talk, and this time you're not getting out of it."

"Yeah, I guess that's fair." While this was only a temporary solution, it should give him some time to think of what to say to her. Now all he had to deal with was the small problem smiling at him.

"Wait right here Monaca," he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes, so don't do anything while I'm gone."

"Okay Big Bro!" Monaca replied. "Monaca will stay right here and not cause any trouble."

He didn't believe that for a second, so he asked Kyoko for a favour. "I'm sorry for asking, but could you look after Monaca while I'm gone?"

Kyoko nodded, and so he departed with Chiaki to help her out with her task. He gave several glances behind him to make sure Monaca was still with Kyoko. Monaca waved at him, not reassuring him in the slightest.

It'll only be a few minutes. How much trouble could she cause in such a short time?

Three minutes.

He was gone for three minutes, but apparently, that was all it took for things to take a turn for the worst.

When he and Chiaki were approaching the school entrance with the supplies in hand they were surprised to see people running outside of the school screaming. Once they were inside they could see why people were exiting the building en masse.

It was as if they were in a zoo. All kinds of animals were roaming around the hallways including (from what he could see); snakes, eagles, and bears. People were scurrying to get away from the animals.

"This is unexpected," Chiaki said. "Why are the animals out? And where is Gundham? Leave the supplies here Makoto; I'm going to check his classroom to see what's going on."

Chiaki left him to go to her class. He stood there watching the mess as he pondered how on Earth this could have happened.

… Actually, he had a good idea of who caused this.

With no time to waste he sprinted to his classroom, while also avoiding all of the animals roaming the hallways. As he was nearing his destination he could see Monaca was still standing in the same spot where he left her, a smile on her face as she watched the mayhem around her.

"There you are Makoto!" Monaca greeted. "I was wondering when you would show up."

"What did you do Monaca?!"

"What did I do? I didn't do anything at all. As you can see I'm right here as you asked."

He just noticed that there was an awful lot of shouting going on in his classroom. He opened the classroom and had to duck down immediately when a chair came at him from out of nowhere.

"What is going on in here?" he uttered to himself when he saw the state of the classroom. Mondo was being contained by Kiyotaka, Sakura, and one other person from Mondo's gang. There were scattered pieces of tables and chairs around Mondo, and near him was a smashed window.

"Settle down boss!" the gang member shouted. "I think your hairstyle looks cool!"

"I'm gonna kill that little shit!" Mondo shouted. "My hair does not look like cow shit stuck on the road!" He made a beeline towards his location but was pushed back by the three people holding onto him.

"O-Okay Kanon, j-just calm down." He turned his head to the next scene. Leon was trying to break up a fight between his cousin and Sayaka, both exchanging swears that would make a sailor blush.

Those weren't the only problems in the classroom. Chihiro was crying at her desk while Aoi, her brother, and Chihiro's dad were trying to calm her down. Toko was lying on the floor unconscious while her stinkbug was moving around her, and Byakuya was sitting in the corner, giving angry glares to everyone else (so being himself).

"You're back Makoto," a voice said next to him. He turned his head to see it was Kyoko, who looked as calm as ever. "You missed quite a lot of events while you were away."

"Wh-What happened while I was gone Kyoko?!" he asked.

"Shortly after you left Hina came back from her break. Your little sister convinced her to let her into the classroom, against my better judgement. She said some… colourful things to everyone."

He could have sworn he saw her twitch a bit. "This has resulted in some of our classmates overreacting."

He noticed that one of his classmates was missing. "Uh, where's Yasuhiro?"

"He jumped out of the window."

"What?! Why?!"

"No idea. But he did mention something about being found by the mafia before he jumped. Don't worry, he's alive."

"That's too bad," Monaca said behind them.

"During the ensuing chaos in the classroom, your little sister slipped out of the room when my attention was diverted. It took me a while to catch her, but as you can see…"

There was a scream somewhere in the school, followed by the roar of a lion.

"… The damage was already done."

"Hey Big Bro, did you know that Silverback gorillas hate eye contact?" Monaca asked. "It was quite an eye-opener for me!"

"A word of advice Makoto," Kyoko said. "Don't bring her ever again."

The tone of her voice told him that she might not be the biggest fan of Monaca. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He hoped this was the worst it could get.

Soon after, he heard an explosion somewhere in the school.

"Damn it."

The school managed to contain the situation within the next hour, but the amount of damage done meant the event was a failure. The Steering Committee told the headmaster the event was an embarrassment to the school, and had forbidden him from implementing any more events in the future. The cause of such a failure was unknown, but students and families have said that a girl in a wheelchair was responsible.

"Such nonsense. One girl can't cause this much chaos in such a short time." Was the Steering Committee's response.

Students and families left the school in disappointed spirits.

"That was so much better than I had anticipated!" Monaca said, with a smile so bright on her face the sun would look away in shame. "Seeing everything devolving so quickly into chaos because of some choice words; your classmates aren't as boring as I thought."

"I'm glad you liked my classmates…" he said.

After barely surviving Kyoko's interrogation, he and Monaca were finally allowed to return home. All he wanted in life at the moment was to take a nice long nap at home, and that was the only thing keeping him from collapsing out on the street.

Monaca peeked into the bag on her lap, which she claimed to have bought with the money she graciously borrowed from him. She let out a laugh. "There were so many goodies at the event as well! I bet Big Sis would love it if I gave her this since Makoto was a meanie who told her she can't come."

He would have retorted that it was her idea in the first place, but he knew that there was no point in arguing against her.

"And since I had a great time, I'll give you some advice."

Monaca was giving him advice? He guessed it wouldn't hurt to ask. "What's your advice?"

"Use your friends. You're surrounded by people with all kinds of talents and you're not even taking advantage of them! You need to squeeze them like a lemon, and keep on squeezing them until they are all gross and devoid of talent. Then you throw them away!"

Yeah, he didn't know why he expected something good from her mouth. "Monaca, I'm not going to use my friends like that!"

"Oh please. You don't really expect your friendships to last forever Makoto? That's just pure naivety even from you. Friendships are such fragile things after all; one wrong thing from your mouth and poof, your best friend is now your worst enemy. Even if that didn't happen you would all drift away naturally, so there's really no point developing friendships if it won't last forever."

"You're wrong! Maybe one day we might all drift apart as you say, but the memories we created together aren't meaningless."

"Oh, I am? Then why don't I give you a hypothetical situation? Let's say you and everyone in your class were stuck inside the school, and the only way out is to murder each other. Would you do it?"

"Of course not."

Monaca shrugged her shoulders. "You wouldn't, but I bet your friends will. I have a pretty good guess on who'll be survivors, but you won't definitely be one if you keep up with the whole friendship act. Your friends will only need one good motive and they'll turn on you and each other like a pack of wild animals."

"I think my friends have a lot more self-control than you think," he replied. "My friends may have lost their temper today because of you, but in a situation like yours, I doubt we would go that far. The bonds between us aren't so fragile that we would immediately start killing each other. If all of us worked together, we can overcome that impossible situation."

Monaca merely let out a yawn. "I think I forgot to mention that killing is the only way to get out, but whatever. I'm only trying to help you Makoto, but if you want to keep on deluding yourself then I guess you're a lost cause."

He doubted that she really was looking out for his interests. The conversation gave him some more insight into Monaca's character and well…

He could say for sure that her mindset was quite frightening. Were all kids her age like this, or was it just her in particular?

"Oh, I almost forgot. Tomorrow you'll take me to the shops, so rest well," Monaca said.

He let out a groan.

And thus ended the day of the failed Hope Peak's event, an event that was entirely ruined by a little girl in a wheelchair. For the umpteenth time in his life, he wondered what he had done wrong in his life to be saddled with Monaca.

He did not conclude the day with a smile, but with a frown and a headache.