It's another normal day on this island.

Or, at least, it would've been. If it weren't for that stupid bear ruining everything again, like he always does.

"Attention, attention, everyone!"

Monokuma's annoying voice buzzes out from the speakers, startling Chiaki awake into a semi-sitting position.

That stupid bear doesn't even let her recover from that, and he continues on with, "Kindly please come over to the park at the Central Island as soon as possible! Failure to comply will result in immediate consequences, so you better get your butts there as soon as you can, upupupupu!"

And with that announcement over, that stupid bear signs off.

Chiaki huffs at the end of that. 'He's having way too much fun with this, is he? I swear, I'm this close to losing it with him.'

Still, as much as she hates him, she'd rather not find out the consequences of whatever he's planning. So for now, she doesn't have much of a choice, but to go along with whatever he wants.

After a quick bath time and change of her clothes, she heads off to the Central Island's park.

She already has a bad feeling about this.

When Chiaki finally got herself there, she sees that everyone's already waiting in the middle of the park, right in front of the park's statue. Even Alter Ego is present in there, though he's at a good distance away from everyone else. Kuzuryu and Saionji are together with the rest of their classmates, but they're still standing as far from each other as possible.

Chiaki then takes a peek at the timer on the statue, and her heart immediately sinks at the sight. Just as she thought, the countdown has significantly decreased since she last saw it.

But before she can dwell on that anymore, she quickly notices that isn't the only thing in here.

There's a big table right in front of the statue, in front of where everyone present can see it, and Monokuma's standing right next to it too. It reminds her of when Alter Ego did something similar with their e-Handbooks back then. Though, unlike that time, there's only one thing on that table. It's just one rather ordinary-looking box.

"Huh, there's another motive already?" Saionji groans. "But it hasn't even been that long since the last one."

Monokuma shakes his paws at that, with red veins popping up at the side of his head. "Hey, I've already given you all more than enough downtime before I thought of this! You kiddos have no idea how boring it is to watch you all do nothing but frolic around, when all those times could've been used for something more fun!"

"Just what are you planning this time?" Sonia demands, glaring at the table and its contents.

"Oh don't worry, you'll see it very soon! Right now, actually." Monokuma then puts his paw in the box. He hums, rummaging through it and taking his sweet time with it, like the big jerk he is.

After who knows how long, that bear finally pulls a piece of paper out. It's a comically big one, almost as long as his arm is. While still humming, he unfolds it, tilting his head at whatever might've been written in there.

Chiaki can feel everyone tensing up as they all wait. It's hard to say exactly how long everything's been quiet, but it sure feels like that bear took his sweet time reading it.

And then he suddenly hollers, waving that piece of paper up and down. "Woo hoo! We got a lucky one right here! Come up and step forward to this side!" That bear didn't even need to say it out loud, because everyone can see whose name was written on that piece of paper.

As Chiaki is forced to take a look on what was written there, she can feel everything feel so much heavier. 'That…That's my name.'

Still shaken up by it, she finds herself staring back at everyone. Some of them, like Sonia, Ibuki, and Hinata, among many others, are just as horrified. Others, like Hanamura, Komaeda, Mitarai, and Tanaka, seem to look more subdued about it.

Then there's Saionji and Kuzuryu's reactions. Neither of them want to make eye contact with her, or anyone else, for that matter.

"Come on, get over here, you slowpoke! We don't have all day for this!" Monokuma screeches back at her, waving both of his paws around. "Don't make me go up there and drag you here myself!"

'Well, I guess I don't have a choice with that, then.'

With her entire body tensed up, Chiaki forces herself to walk towards him. Even if she'd rather not do as he says, she really doesn't want to test if he could actually do that or not.

He fumbles around at his side. It's hard to see what he's doing from this angle, but from how he's shuffling around in place, he's probably trying to get or tinker something out. Some time after that, he finally takes out a bright red arm band, the same kind that most people in authority wear, especially student council members.

Chiaki tenses up even more as soon as she sees him get that close to her. She wanted to slap him away out of instinct at first. It's only when she remembered the consequences for harming Monokuma in any kind of way at all, she forces herself to stand still and bear it, at least for now.

Monokuma glances up at her, and then back at the red arm band, now suddenly realizing that this is going to be a lot more challenging for him. He rapidly waves his paw up and down. "Hey, get down here, will ya?"

Chiaki stares at him.

"Oh trust me, sister." Monokuma grumbles back at her. "I'm not a fan of this just as much as you are."

'Sure you aren't.'

The sharp, toothy part of Monokuma's mouth widens even more. "We can do this either the easy way or the hard way. And you don't want me to do it the hard way, don't you?"

She quietly exhales. 'Do I really have to do this?' Since there isn't anything else she can do, she crouches down like he asked. Assuming that bear was telling the truth, then he should try and get this over as quickly as possible.

Though right now, even though she's already crouching as low as possible, it looks like that bear is still straining himself ragged in trying to reach her left sleeve. It would be kinda funny if it wasn't Monokuma doing this.

After some more fumbling around, including straining himself some more by grunting and standing on the very tip of his nonexistent toes, he finally pins it on her left sleeve. With a loud exhale, he steps back and then whistles. "There we go!"

And to emphasize that even further, he even slaps his paw right on top of her left shoulder too.

Chiaki swears that bear is really testing her patience right now. As soon as she sees that bear is a good distance away from her, she finally stands up, preparing to get away from there and back to everyone else as soon as she can.

Monokuma cuts her off before she can do that. "Now you wait here. We're not done with this yet."

'Really?' Chiaki stares at him. Other than that, though, there's nothing else she can do, other than being forced to stay in that place. At least, for now.

That dumb bear puts his paw in the box once again. He fumbles around inside while humming to himself, taking his sweet time with it again. Once it's time, he pulls his paw out, now with six pieces of paper on it, and he waves them all around.

There are six names on them.

Souda. Owari. Tsumiki. Nidai. Saionji. Hanamura.

All six of them are called forward. None of them are happy about it, but they didn't have much of a choice, especially when Saionji did literally get dragged there by Monokuma himself when she refused to go.

Now that all six of them are right where Monokuma wanted them to be, he presents six dark gray arm bands in front of them. "Alright, you guys do it yourselves this time. No way I'm going to do that again six more times."

Owari stares at the arm bands, then somewhere at Chiaki's direction. "Huh, did that tire your stubby arms out or somethin'?"

"Heh, the bear's got stubby arms." Saionji repeats with a snicker.

"Yeah, so what?!" Monokuma stomps his paws around. "Enough talk about it, now put those arm bands on or so help me!"

Even with a lot of hesitation (or sassing in Saionji's case), they still moved to do as the bear asked them. It's hard to blame them at all, knowing what this bear is capable of. Just like with Chiaki's, the group of six put the arm bands right on above their left sleeves too.

And just like her, they didn't have any choice but to stay right there too.

Then, after that, Monokuma pulls out a black peaked cap. On the front, it's embroidered with a crown of some sort, and the symbol of Monokuma's red eye is layered on top of it. It's probably just her, but somehow, that cap reminds her of a certain dictator from a fighting game series.

"Of course, you kiddos can't forget about me, everyone's favorite despair bear…" He puts the cap on, and then just like that, he laughs some more as he changes his voice into a slightly gruffer one, with a very heavy accent too. "I shall be your Grand Headmaster from this day on!"

"Grand Headmaster?" Nidai repeats. "What are you talking about?"

Monokuma ignores that question, as well as everyone else's questions, in favor of continuing the rest of his speech. "And now, for everyone else who wasn't rightfully chosen by your Grand Headmaster…" He raises a paw up. "You all must work! Work for the prosperity of Jabberwock!"

Hinata glares at that bear. "The hell do you mean by that?"

Monokuma laughs some more. "Why, you can't have guards and a warden without prisoners!"

'What is he talking about? What does he mean by prisoners?' Chiaki worryingly eyes everyone in front of her, not liking the implications at all. And from what she's seeing, everyone's horrified to hear that too.

"P…Prisoners?" Sonia repeats.

Ibuki nervously looks around after hearing that. "Hey now, you've got to be joking, right?"

"If this is a joke, does it look like your Grand Headmaster is laughing?" He points a paw at the side of his face, with his claws spread out. "Look at your Grand Headmaster's face right now. Do you see a smile on his dashingly handsome face?"

Mitarai blankly stares at him. "I mean, you always have a smile on your face, so I don't get your point with that—"

"No, you don't! You don't see anything at all!" Monokuma interrupts him, and while he sounds annoyed, he still has that creepy smile on. "Everything is a lie until your Grand Headmaster confirms it to be the truth, and everything is the truth until your Grand Headmaster denies it as nothing but lies."

"Huh? The fuck are you talking about now?" Kuzuryu blankly asks. Although it looks like she's trying to play it cool for now, it's obvious that her hands are kinda shaking.

Monokuma spreads his arms at both sides. "Whatever your Grand Headmaster demands of you, you are obligated to do anything and everything you can to fulfill it! This is the way your life will be going forward, and there's nothing you can do about it! But, before I get too off-track…"

He turns around, walking towards Chiaki's direction. He didn't let her say a thing before he immediately jumps up and slaps something onto her hands.

As soon as Chiaki sees what it was, she drops it on sight. Out of all things, Monokuma handed a black stun gun to her. With everything he talked about earlier, it's easy to see why did that, and the thought sickens her so much.

Monokuma tuts at her. "Hey, be careful with that now, will you?! It's not easy to replace such a thing, don't you know that?!"

Chiaki quickly glares at the bear, before picking the stun gun up again, and it's probably just her, but it feels a lot heavier than it should be. She'd rather leave it on the floor if she had other options. She then turns it around a few times, and at a closer look, the black stun gun also has the symbol of Monokuma's red eye painted on its sides.

The sight of it makes her even more sick than she already is.

Monokuma clears his throat, forcing her to pay attention to him again. "As the warden, it will be your duty to not only oversee everyone below you, guards and prisoners alike, but to also discipline them whenever you see fit. But of course, you will always have to report back to the Grand Headmaster at the end of that."

'Discipline my classmates? With the stun gun?' Chiaki feels bile rising up her throat. 'No, I don't want to do that! It's too horrible.'

That bear then turns his attention to the next group. He walks towards them, and then hands over six remotes to Souda, Owari, Tsumiki, Nidai, Saionji, and Hanamura; one for each of them. "As guards, it is your job to ensure that all prisoners line up and commit to their duties. You are free to use whatever methods you see fit to make sure they do exactly that."

Souda stares at the remote, his hands shaking. "What's this supposed to be for?"

"You will see when the time comes." Monokuma ignores any more questions about that, even the ones that came from the other 'guards', as he faces everyone else. "And now, for the prisoners' roles." He takes something out from another box, and shows everyone a black and white bangle. "It's very simple. All the prisoners have to do is to gather materials, and then use those materials to craft the finest robots possible for your Grand Headmaster!"

"So you want us to build robots for you?" Komaeda sums that up.

"Upupupu, that's right!" Monokuma laughs even more.

"No, no…" Sonia murmurs to herself.

Kuzuryu steps forward. While she isn't directly in front of Monokuma, she's still dangerously close within his distance. "How are we even going to do that?! We know jack shit about building robots, and there's no Ultimate Robot-maker in our class or anything like that!"

"And is that my problem?" Monokuma waggles his paw at them. "Last time I checked, I'm the Grand Headmaster, while you're all just prisoners. As far as I'm concerned, that's your own issue to figure out and deal with."

"Why, you little bastard—!"

Monokuma claps his paws, interrupting Kuzuryu. "Oh, also, we can't just forget about this." He pulls up another box, and pulls up a black and white bangle from it. "All prisoners have to wear these bangles, starting from this day on!"

That reveal causes an even more intense reaction from their remaining classmates. Nearly everyone is voicing out how much they don't want to wear those things, and Ibuki's even starting to hyperventilate at the thought of it.

"Fuck off!" Kuzuryu growls. "Like hell I'm putting that shit on. You can't make me—!"

The bangle suddenly flies forward, latching itself onto Kuzuryu's left wrist before she can even react. "W…What the fuck is this?!" Kuzuryu grabs onto it and pulls it as hard as she can.

Bright electricity burns through that bangle. Kuzuryu screams. No one knows how long it went on, but eventually, it stops, and she finally collapses onto her knees, twitching and breathing heavily.

Ibuki shakily kneels down, checking on Kuzuryu. Thankfully, Kuzuryu is still alive, but that must've been far too painful for anyone to experience.

Everyone else has gone quiet. Even Souda and the rest of his group are horrified by what they saw. Though, Saionji's face is a bit unreadable. It's hard to say exactly what she's feeling at the moment.

Chiaki feels herself growing sicker and sicker as this goes on. No one deserved to go through that.

"And now, as you can all see there, you may either make it easier or harder for yourselves. The choice is yours to make." Monokuma gestures his paw to the box. "You should all be glad that it was these instead of prison uniforms."

"So you can't even commit to your weird ass roleplay that much then, huh?" Saionji finally speaks up.

Several red veins pop on Monokuma's head as he snaps to face her. And he's so ticked, he also kinda dropped the heavy accent and got back to talking in his usual voice. "You have no idea how much hassle it'd be to draw dozens of uniforms for you prisoners, and for what? They'll only be used during this chapter anyway and it'll never pop up ever again, so what's the point?!"

As Monokuma keeps ranting on, Saionji just rolls her eyes at him. She's probably tuning him out right now. But, even with that, everything still feels too tense for everyone.

Komaeda suddenly steps forward.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Hinata calls out to him in a half-whisper, half-shout.

Komaeda continues on, like he didn't hear Hinata at all. As soon as he's close to that box, he takes one of those bangles. He stares down at that bear. "Very well, Monokuma. We'll have to play along with your game for now." He says as calmly puts the bangle on his wrist.

"Komaeda, are you insane?!" Souda yells at him. "You've seen what it did to Kuzuryu, didn't you?! You shouldn't do this!"

Tanaka scoffs. "So you've chosen to lie down and accept your fate, just like that."

Though Komaeda still has his relaxed smile on, the look he directed at Tanaka didn't seem to be friendly. "You think that I'm giving in to despair right now?"

"How else will you call whatever it is you're doing?" Tanaka crosses his arms. "Because as of now, I can't see it as anything else but giving in to what that foul toy wants without a fight."

Komaeda shakes his head. "And that's where you've got me wrong, Tanaka. I'm not giving up or giving Monokuma exactly what he wants. Far from it, actually. All I'm doing is entrusting my hope to the one I believe in the most."

"What nonsense are you talking about this time?"

Komaeda just smiles at that. "Nanami, of course. Because Nanami is the one charge of all of us right now as our warden, then I know that I have nothing to worry about. She's the one who saved us all from a despairing death in the previous class trial. The least you can do is to have some hope in her too."

"…You're making a foolish decision. One of the most foolish ones I've seen thus far in my life."

"Is that all you've got to say? If so, then maybe think carefully of anything else you might say next time. I know exactly what I'm doing here."

Tanaka didn't reply with that, at least, not verbally. All he did is to just scoff and turn away from Komaeda. He must've been done with that topic already.

Chiaki isn't sure how she should feel about that. It does feel a bit reassuring to hear Komaeda vouch for her, but at the same time, she can see where Tanaka's coming from.

"Alright!" Monokuma cuts himself in, even getting right in the middle of everyone just to assert his presence even more. "That's enough fooling around. You've all already wasted too much precious time you could've used in something far more productive."

He then throws some kind of blue paper at their direction. That piece of paper fully spreads out, and then lands right on top of Alter Ego's face, making him yelp in surprise. Hinata then immediately steps in and takes that paper off the other boy's face, before folding it and tucking it in one of his pockets.

Monokuma continues. "Repay your debt by crafting your Grand Headmaster this fine robot, and I will graciously reward you. Perhaps you won't even have any debt at all to worry about after that!" His grin widens. That's not a good sign at all. "But that's not all, of course. There's another, much quicker way to fully resolve your debts. And I will even free the lucky one who manages to do such thing."

"W-What do you mean by that?" Tsumiki asks.

Monokuma laughs. "You know what I'm talking about! Aside from the new order I've bestowed upon you, the original rules still haven't changed. Now, your Grand Headmaster wishes you all well, and may the odds ever be in your favor! And always remember, your hard work will set you free."

And just like that, that bear leaves before anyone can question him even further.

Not only that, the bangles proceed to latch onto their remaining classmates' wrists, just like how it did with Kuzuryu earlier. They're all appalled, but none of them is making a move to remove those bangles. No one's willing to risk it, not after seeing the painful electric shock it gave to Kuzuryu just moments ago.

None of this is looking good at all.

With how sudden…well, literally everything was, it ended up souring the mood for the rest of the day. It might've even killed some of their appetites too, even though none of them has had any breakfast yet.

Speaking of that, Nidai and Owari are the only ones who aren't present. Nidai because he'd be preparing everyone's breakfast, and he feels like he got an even bigger obligation to do it because of the currently heavy mood, and Owari because she'd help him in her own ways.

Alter Ego was present earlier, but he didn't join everyone back in the dining area, so it's just them in here. It's hard to say something. Even without the new motive hanging over them, seeing everyone wear arm bands or bangles is enough to show just how much things have changed, starting today.

'Just what kind of motive is this?' Chiaki internally winces as she lightly touches on her arm band.

"Well, that was a total shitshow." Saionji comments, finally breaking the silence.

Kuzuryu rolls her eyes. She's already recovered from...that, but she's in a much more sour mood, even way more compared to how she usually is.. "Hmph, no shit, Sherlock."

"Bite me, bitch."

"Oh, you asked for it now!"

"Hey now." Hinata puts his arm up in front of Kuzuryu, stepping in before those two can have another fight right then and there.

Saionji sticks her tongue out at Kuzuryu, and also pulled an eyelid down to add some more to that.

Kuzuryu growls. She then turns to glare at him, but Hinata keeps a firm look at her as he slowly shakes his head. Her mouth opens like she's about to say something, but in the end, she grumbles, standing down and getting back on her seat. "Ugh, whatever."

Once those two have settled down and things are getting somewhat calm again, Mitarai speaks up. "You know, now that we're here, I want to address the elephant in the room right now."

"Oh, what is it?" Hinata asks.

"The new motive Monokuma made us all participate in." Mitarai replies. "It kind of reminds me something I've heard before. Something where some people did a similar thing before as an experiment of some sort."

"You mean the Stanford Experiment?" Sonia assumes.

Mitarai thinks about it, and then he nods. "Yeah, it's that one. It seems like he's trying to divide us into groups. Something that's easier to 'other' everyone else who isn't part of your group."

"That experiment wasn't the only inspiration behind this new motive." Tanaka grumbles. "That foul toy clearly took after dictatorial regimes as well."

"He truly did." Sonia agrees with a disgusted look on her face. She then breathes in, calming herself and then adds, "That said, Monokuma may have forcefully assigned these roles on us, but it doesn't mean our relationships as classmates should change. Especially with what Mitarai has mentioned just now."

"Yeah, Miss Sonia's right!" Souda adds in. "It doesn't matter whether you're a 'guard' or a 'prisoner', that bear's still the one behind this! Though," He winces. "What are we going to do about this now? Please don't tell me we'll have to be like this forever."

"Hey, uh, mind if I say something about that?" Hinata asks.

Souda blinks, and then nods. "Oh, sure, go ahead."

"Monokuma told us that if we want to end this motive without a murder, we'd have to build this robot for him first." Hinata pulls out a piece of blue paper, the same one that Monokuma left for them. "And I think this is the blueprint for that. I don't trust nearly anything that comes out of his mouth, but I'd rather do this than…" He winces. "Yeah, I think you all know what I mean by that."

Chiaki immediately gets what he meant with that. 'I'd rather not have the alternative happen either.'

Hinata then unfolds that blueprint, spreading the full thing out on the table for everyone in there to see.

Everyone takes a good look at what was drawn in there. Or, at least, as best as they can while staying within their seats. Chiaki tries to take a look at it, but since she's kinda far from where that blueprint is, the most she can make out is some kind of large fish tail, and some fins too.

"That's the thing he wants us to build?" Mitarai mutters with a frown. "It's…certainly a big kind of robot too. Probably bigger than any of those Monobeasts at the other islands, assuming those measurements are accurate."

"And he won't lift the motive unless we've built this thing, huh?" Souda grimaces, slumping back in his seat. "Damn it. So we've got no choice but to build that robot for him, if we want to end this nightmare without anyone dying again. Can we even do that?"

Komaeda thoughtfully hums. "Compared to the previous motive Monokuma gave us, that's actually very doable, especially for Ultimates like you guys."

"Huh?" Kuzuryu makes a face. "What in the actual fuck are you talking about this time?"

"All I'm trying to say is, there's still hope. No one else has to die to end this motive, so long as everyone cooperates and follows the order we've been set up with." Komaeda replies.

"So you're expecting everything to just turn all fine and dandy as long as we fall in line and act like good boys and girls, huh?" Kuzuryu huffs. "Too fucking easy for you to say. Also, don't tell me you forgot that none of us know the first thing about building robots and shit."

Komaeda shakes his head. "Of course it won't be easy, nothing ever is. But, even if we don't have the, say, the Ultimate Mechanic in our class, Nanami's been assigned as our warden, and I know she'll help keeping everything in line. If there's anyone who'd perform well at that role, it'd be her. I've already said this, but remember, it's because of her, we all avoided a despairing death from the previous class trial."

"…And how do we know what happened back there wasn't just a fluke right there? Yeah sure, she solved one murder case, so what? It's just dumb luck for all I fucking care."

"It's very simple logic, really. If she can do it once, then she can do it again. And again. I know she will do it as many times as needed for our sake." Komaeda turns to face Chiaki with a smile. "That's what it means to believe in hope, and I'll gladly do it as many times as needed as well."

Chiaki feels herself freeze up for a moment there. 'But…I haven't even done that much. Even now, all I'm doing is just sitting here and keeping quiet, while everyone else does what they can to contribute.'

"So you're still doubling down on the foolish decision you've made back there?" Tanaka suddenly jumps in that conversation too, narrowing his eyes at Komaeda. "She may have done everyone a huge favor back then, and it would be imprudent for someone like me to not recognize that, but that doesn't mean she has power or control over these mere mortals."

"See that?" Kuzuryu jabs at thumb at Tanaka's direction. "I'm not the only one who thinks you're being stupid as fuck with this whole thing."

Komaeda just smiles at that. "That's true. The two of you do outnumber me." His face then shifts to a more neutral but serious expression. "But just because there's more people who agree in one thing over the other, it doesn't always mean they're right."

Tanaka goes quiet at that for a second or so, like he's processing what he's heard. "You're not even bothering to argue your case anymore, are you not—"

"What's done is done." Hinata speaks up, probably to defuse that conversation before it gets any further. "No matter how you feel about how Monokuma arranged these roles or what we have to do for him, we can't do anything about it right now. And putting anyone else in our class down because of that isn't going to help any of us." He taps on his bangle. "Especially not while we still have this on."

Mitarai nods. "I'm not sure how Nanami would do in that leadership role, but I know that even if it was me who got that, I wouldn't be able to do it perfectly either. We don't have much of a choice but to cooperate with each other for now, no matter who got assigned to what."

Before anyone else can say something else to that, the door opens, and several footsteps come in. It sounds like Nidai and Owari are done preparing everyone's breakfast.

"Uh, we didn't interrupt anythin' important, did we?" Owari asks, breaking the awkward silence that was starting to form.

Komaeda shakes his head with a laugh, waving her off. "Oh don't worry, you didn't interrupt us at all."

"You sure about that?" Owari asks again. "Prolly just me, but some of you guys kinda looked a bit antsy just now." She must've noticed how tense some of them were.

Komaeda shakes his head again, still smiling at her. "I guess you could say it did happen, but you can't really blame us, can you? We did wait for you and Nidai for some time, after all. Oh, but whatever it is you two have cooked up, I'm sure it's something amazing."

"Heh yeah, that's right!" Owari agrees with a feral grin. "You guys are gonna love this good stuff here!"

As the food gets passed on to everyone, both Tanaka and Kuzuryu didn't say anything to oppose that. It looks like they all quietly agreed to drop that topic for now. Not to mention, Owari and Nidai aren't aware of what just happened.

It wouldn't do good to spoil everyone's breakfast with that.

After everyone's done with their quick breakfast, it's now time to gather materials for the robot.

…Which was easier said than done, really.

It turns out that since they're all stuck on a tropical island, it's really hard looking for specific materials that should build up the robot. Even when they all split up into groups to widen their scope, it's still not that much. It also doesn't help that they're all going in this blind, and not a single one of them has any expertise with this kind of thing either. Not even basic mechanic stuff.

Which of course, made things a lot tougher for them than it already is.

It took them until at least late afternoon, but they at least managed to make some kind of framework for their giant robot for now. Somehow. Obviously it's not perfect, it's probably not gonna be the final product either, and it actually might've collapsed a couple of times or so a while ago, which forced them to try and build it up all over again.

There's a lot of yelling and other stuff during that.

So far, the thing they've got looks like some kind of giant skeletal fish. Or, at least, the lower half of one. A quarter of it, more specifically. It also doesn't have a specific face yet, but they'll figure it out somehow when they get there. Hopefully very soon. The sooner they get this new motive done with, the better.

As for exactly where they're building this robot, they're doing it somewhere on the Central Island. Mostly because that's the only place they've got that might have enough space for their work, compared to the other island they got so far. Not including the others that are still being guarded by those Monobeasts.

'No need to think about those for now. It's time to get back to work. I need to do something right and help everyone, at least.'

Chiaki tries to carry a piece of the robot with her, and she does try. She grunts, and then tries to push and pull it as much as she can. But no matter what she does, it just wouldn't get off the ground at all. It's starting to get really frustrating.

"Nanami," Komaeda calls out to her, shaking his head at her with a smile. "No, it's okay. You don't have to go out of your way to do something like this. You should let someone like me do it for you."

"Komaeda, wait—"

It's already too late. Komaeda has already grabbed hold of it. He tries to pull it off the ground, but he also struggles with it. Actually, it looks like he's having a much harder time with it than she ever did.

Chiaki can't leave him just like that, so she goes ahead and tries to help him grab it too. But, even with their combined forces, that stupid robot piece still won't budge.

In the end, both of them collapse from the sheer weight of that stupid robot piece. Komaeda's the first one to stumble forward and he falls flat on his face, and Chiaki follows shortly afterwards, landing on top of him.

"Ah, I really messed things up for you there." Komaeda awkwardly laughs. "I'm really sorry for not being much use here. Someone like me can never do things right at all, can I?"

Chiaki shakes her head. "Komaeda, no. Please don't say that." She insists as she gets up, and then helps Komaeda back up on his feet.

Now that they're both back up, she huffs and puffs her cheeks, glaring at that stupid robot piece. 'What are we going to do with that now?'

And like the funniest coincidence ever, Hinata just happens to walk in right in front of them. He must've noticed what's going on with them. "Hey, uh, would you two mind if I help?" He points at that stupid robot piece.

"Hmm." Komaeda raises a brow. It's not a hostile look, and he probably looks a bit concerned, actually. "Are you sure about that?"

'I'd rather not trouble him, but it's not like we have much of a choice.' Chiaki thinks, glancing at that stupid robot piece, and then facing back to Hinata. "It wouldn't hurt to try, I think."

"Ah," Komaeda looks at her for a bit, and then faces Hinata with a much brighter smile. "If Nanami's fine with it, then that sounds fine by me too."

Hinata rubs the back of his neck. "That was fast, but okay."

The three of them then get into it, with Hinata and Komaeda taking the ends of that stupid robot piece, while Chiaki handles the middle to balance it out.

Hinata checks over them both. Once things are clear, he then tells them, "Okay, on the count of three." He breathes in. "One, two—"

"Three." Komaeda starts, moving his arms to lift that stupid robot piece up.

"Komaeda, wait!" Hinata quickly moves his arms too, to give Komaeda some support before that stupid robot piece can collapse again.

Chiaki is a bit startled by how early it was, but she quickly and tries to move herself as much as she can too. And thankfully, she's just in time to help both of them haul it over.

The three of them still struggled with it, but compared to before, now that stupid robot piece is getting off the ground. Even if they have to drag it on the ground and it's kinda slow, but yeah, better than nothing at all.

It did take some time, but eventually, they were able to pass that robot piece off to Nidai.

"Thanks a bunch!" He says with a big grin, and then just like that, he effortlessly carries it over his shoulder.

Chiaki watches him run off with it, and he still didn't struggle with that at all, even if that stupid robot piece is nearly half his size. It's pretty impressive.

Komaeda happily sighs, having seen that too. "Nidai's truly talented, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Hinata agrees with a slight shake of his head. "Those muscles aren't just for show."

Chiaki isn't sure how she can join in that conversation. So, instead of jumping in there, she decides to take a look at the framework they've all got so far.

There isn't much yet. And honestly, it hasn't changed all that much from when they started it out, but oh well, tiny progress is still progress.

Hopefully as each day goes by, they'll get the hang of it soon.

The end of the day came by faster than expected. But Chiaki thinks that it felt so much longer than that.

Everyone's been so exhausted by the latest motive that Monokuma forced onto them. So much so, most of them opted to get back inside their cottages and retreat for the night, even if it's still too early and the curfew hasn't come up yet.

Chiaki happens to be one of those people who did do exactly that.

After everything that happened today, she just wants nothing more than to drop down on her bed and fall asleep right then and there.

Or, at least, that would've been the plan, if a certain bear hadn't come inside her cottage before she even came in. She steps back, narrowing her eyes at that bear. "What are you doing in here now?"

"Aww, do you really despise me that much, sister?"

She growls. "Don't call me that."

"Why not?" Monokuma tilts his head. "Aren't we kind of similar now, when you think about it? Even right now, we kind of have a more equal relationship compared to everyone else—"

"I'm nothing like you."

Monokuma stares at her, probably bothered that she interrupted him. But then he waves her off. "Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that. Anyways," He clears his throat, even if he probably doesn't have one in the first place. "Let's get back to business right here. You do remember why I'm here for tonight, don't you?"

It feels so tempting to sass him in some way right now. But now, she'd rather get this over with as much as possible. "You want me to report stuff that happened today back to you, right?"

"Bingo!" Monokuma claps his paws together. "Go on now. Spill everything you've learned about today."

"Do you even need me to do that for you? I thought you have your cameras everywhere for that."

Monokuma rubs a paw over his chin. "Hmm, that is true. But I just want to make sure. Just in case and all that, you know?"

'There's no way I'm getting out of this one, am I?' With a soft groan, she bluntly tells him, "Well, not a lot happened since you...you know…"

"Ah, yes. That's true. And what about the blueprint I've left to you?"

'Wow, he's awfully straight to the point with that.'

"I guess we did make some good progress on that robot you wanted us to build." She then internally adds, 'I think.'

"Hmm, I see. That's awfully slower than I expected." He shakes his head at the end of that.

'Excuse me, what did you expect?'

Monokuma shrugs. "Oh well, it's only the first day. But in any case," His tone shifts into a heavier one, similar to the heavy accent he used while talking to everyone back then. "I expect greater progress starting tomorrow. Do I need to make myself clear, sister?"

Chiaki huffs. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Good. Well then, I guess I should be off now. I'll be seeing you then!" Monokuma mockingly waves a paw, and just like that, he disappears off into...somewhere.

Chiaki stares at the space where that stupid bear used to be. She'll never understand how and why he keeps doing that. Though, she wouldn't be surprised if he does it just to mess with everyone even more. Way more than he already did, at least.

With a sigh, she slumps down on her bed. Too much happened in one day, and she's sure she's at her limit right now. And not only that…

She takes a closer look at the stun gun Monokuma handed to her. Even now, she still can't believe that something like this would be involved too. She wonders if she should just leave it in her cottage tomorrow. Oh well, that's something she'll think about when she gets there.

As she stares off into the ceiling, she then thinks back on what Komaeda told everyone back then.

'I don't know what will come for us tomorrow, but no matter what, I can't let another murder happen again.'

Her grip on the stun gun tightens.

'I can't let myself be useless again.'

A/N: It's finally here, and it sure took quite a while haha.

That said, here's another big shout-out to LooseGazpacho right here! This was an idea we've discussed a lot together, and I've incorporated some of his ideas in here (like Monokuma going full comrade mode).