"I almost have you now, fairy!"

Kumi ran around the garden on the woodland kingdom's third deck, his eyes focused on the ever fleeting sight of fairies. Meanwhile, Masashi watched nearby, chuckling at the storyteller's bumbling attempts to catch the fantastic creature. He was also meant to look for fairies, but at some point, he thought to stop and look at the boy playing around instead. Right now, as it had been agreed yesterday, Sister Hikari was relaxing elsewhere, so for the whole day, he was to keep an eye on him. And as he wanted to have enough energy to bear with him, Masashi had decided not to go to the Memory Bank last night. Much as he wanted to see Keiko again, he felt content enough with what he had remembered of her now.

"Whoa, careful there!" Masashi cried out once he saw Kumi frolicking by the stream that ran through the garden. Kumi appeared to take heed, but a few seconds later, as he ran toward Masashi, he tripped, the crown of leaves on his head knocked over and landing a few feet before Masashi.

"Aww, the fairy's gotten away!" Kumi bemoaned as he stood back up and dusted off the translucent wings attached to his green blouse.

"You're not hurt, though, are you?" Masashi said as he picked up the crown and handed him it.

"Oh, no, no, this is nothing!" Kumi answered as he put the crown back on his head. "I've been chasing after fairies for a long time, so I'm used to finding myself like this in this game of hide-and-seek!"

Masashi chuckled. So far, the day was going splendidly. There was a little trouble in the morning, as last night Kumi had had a great amount of trouble in falling asleep, fearing lest he fall victim to another nightmare; thankfully, no such thing had happened, and it did not take long to get Kumi to act like his usual blithesome and carefree disposition. Indeed, Kumi had declared that he could not wait to have lots of fun today.

"Those fairies must be really worthwhile to catch," Masashi remarked.

"Indeed, they are!" Kumi said, eyes beaming. "Men say that fairies can grant one special powers. And as it turns out, what kind of special powers is granted depends on the fairy! One could get a boost in fire magic if the fairy is of the fire affinity, for example!"

"Uh huh…" Masashi nodded along. "So do you know any magic, then?"

"Um… sorry, but I don't," Kumi answered a bit dejectedly. "So far, all the fairies I've caught aren't of any magical affinity. A lot of fairies are normal and have given me lots of fairy dust, but I haven't gotten any magic yet. Fairies of magical affinities are said to be really, really rare. I've seen a few, but they always manage to evade me!"

Masashi feigned a disappointed sigh. "Aww, that's too bad. I really wish I could see a fairy myself."

"Oh, but you will!" Kumi said, hopping about excitedly. "Even if you haven't found a fairy yet, eventually, one will come your way! No man has avoided a fairy's mischief!"

"Well, if that's what you say, who am I to disagree?" Masashi said. "By the way… do you have any ideas for a new story right now?"

Masashi figured that getting him to stay put by having him write a story would be much less tiring. And moreover, he wanted to see how the Ultimate Storyteller worked. He himself was no writer; he did moderately well in essays and compositions, but when it came to writing fiction, he could come up with many ideas, but actually writing them down and making something coherent was challenging.

Kumi grinned. "I have many ideas, Sir Masashi! In fact, I've been meaning to write a story with you in it!"

"With me?" Masashi said.

"Oh, yes, when I say 'you', I mean a character based on you!" Kumi explained. "You saved me from all the nasty accusations during the class trial, so I think you'll make a good hero! In fact, I've thought of a good beginning for your story!

"Once upon a time, there lived an adventurer named Masashi, and he fared throughout the Kingdom of Starkland, ever seeking excitement and treasure. One day, he stopped at the castle of the Duke of Ashwold, and the duke, impressed by his tales of greatness, besought him to help him deal with a bandit gang led by a wicked woman by the name of Sayua. The bandits had been stealing food from the duke's subjects for the last few nights, and much to the duke's frustration, when he had tried to capture the bandit gang, Sayua and Tanjiro, her crafty right-hand man, had managed to escape. Masashi, ever so keen to help others, agreed to help the duke, and so he thought of a trap to capture the two remaining bandits… Ah! I should be writing this all down!"

Kumi then took out his book, a quill, and a bottle of ink. After dipping the quill in the ink, he turned to a certain page of his book and quickly scribbled thereon, looking at his work with such intensity as if setting aside everything else around him. Such a sight made Masashi speechless, for he could not believe that Kumi had quickly come up with all that with his active imagination. After a few minutes, Kumi let out a sigh of relief as he looked with awe at his work.

"Isn't it awesome, Sir Masashi?!" Kumi said, smiling so innocently that it would be cruel to gainsay him. "You're now in a tale of mine!"

Masashi chuckled heartily. "If you finish it, I'm sure everyone will like it very much."

Well, everyone but Sayua and Tanjiro, Masashi thought, but I don't think they're going to appear on Kumi's list of favorites any time soon…


It was around a quarter to eight, the outside dark and covered with dark clouds above, the winds strong and harsh, the rain having started to fall. As Mari had said yesterday, the storm was indeed to come soon. Masashi had watched over Kumi for the whole afternoon, and by now, Masashi had grown a bit tired, the storyteller ever so keen to run about, read him his tales, and help him in his sundry schemes to lure fairies and other fantastic creatures out. When he had met with Sister Hikari during dinner, she had said that her time with Kumi more or less went like that, though her workload had been made heavier with her attempts to soothe Kumi from his latest nightmare; it must have been a matter of luck that Masashi had not had to tend to that matter.

Now, he and the storyteller were walking to the Egyptian palace, as Masashi had gotten Kumi to agree to trying out the bumper cars in the third deck. Masashi had even gotten a few others to join them for the occasion, so he was sure that the night would end with a lot of fun.

"I can't wait for the ride!" Kumi said, looking at Sir Teddybane, his teddy bear donned in armor, as they walked through the second deck. "Maybe if we're lucky, a rare fairy or even a dragon will appear later!"

A dragon? That's rather wishful thinking there! Masashi thought. And I wonder what Kumi's idea of a dragon is—

"Ooh, a fairy! And of the earth affinity!"

All of a sudden, Kumi started running, apparently having seen a fairy appear yet again. The chase was short, however, as Kumi ran right into the door of the first exhibit room, and since only Faye had the key to the room, he could proceed no further.

"Aah! I can't believe that the fairy shrank itself and moved through the gaps to the other side of the door!" Kumi said as he rubbed his forehead and adjusted the laurel wreath worn on his head. "This is why fairy hunting is best done in open areas!"

Such an incident wherein Kumi had become instantly distracted by a fairy's sight had been all too common these last few hours, and so Masashi was no longer surprised to see Kumi act like this.

After trying to open the door to no avail, Kumi looked at the door frustratingly. "There has to be a way to get inside! There has to!"

"Wait, you're not going to try to go inside, are you?" Masashi asked, eyeing him amusedly.

"But I have to, Sir Masashi! Fairies can pass through doors, but they can't pass through solid walls, so it's trapped in there!" Kumi answered. "And if I get it, I'll be bestowed with some magic at last!"

"But there's no way to get inside other than the door, Kumi," Masashi pointed out.

Just then, however, Kumi let out a small gasp. "Oh, I remember now! When I came here the first time with Sister Hikari, I saw a vent in the first exhibit room! If I find the vent it's connected to, I'll be able to get into the room! Then I can capture the earth fairy!"

Masashi sighed. Kumi's fantasies had been entertaining to watch, but without stewardship, the storyteller would try to do reckless things and perhaps unwittingly cause chaos.

"Two problems with that," Masashi replied. "One, it's against the rules to climb through the vents. Remember what Monokuma said?'

"O-Oh… Oh, yeah, I forgot about that…" Kumi said, his glee quickly fleeting.

"And two, even if you went through the vent and somehow stopped the fairy from fleeing through it, the fairy could just go through the second exhibit room's door, couldn't it?" Masashi continued. "I'm pretty sure there's no vent in that room, so you'd need to ask Abraham to unlock the door. And what do you think are the chances that he'd agree to do that for you?"

Kumi frowned a little, pouting as he realized the impossibility of such an agreement. "Gah… That Abraham sure is mean. Why can't he be as nice as he is when he works as a waiter?"

"Well, people act differently in different situations. Adults don't act at home the way they act at work, for instance."

Masashi recalled from one memory that Keiko had gotten confused when trying to speak in honorific and humble speech, which she was expected to know as a maid. Of course, in her everyday life, she spoke like a normal human being, so these new forms of speech was not so easy to master. Still, even in her everyday life, Keiko was kind, even if a bit snide at times; Abraham, on the other hand, was standoffish and unfriendly for no apparent reason, so he agreed that the waiter could lighten up a bit.

"Anyway," Masashi said, "let's not keep the others waiting any longer. I'm afraid you'll have to let the earth fairy go this time."

Staring at the door for a few more seconds, Kumi then sighed as he hung his head. "A-All right, then… I guess my time to become a mage will have to come later…"

He then waved toward the door. "Farewell, earth fairy! May we see each other soon!"

Afterwards, the two headed downstairs and entered the room wherein they were to have fun with the bumper cars. There, five others had already arrived and were now standing around: Haruyuki, Arashi, Tanjiro, Sayua, and Mari.

Wait, where are Faye and Sorao? Masashi thought, puzzled.

"Ah, you've come at last," Haruyuki said. "We've been waiting for you for a long while."

"Yeah, I was beginning to think you wouldn't come," Mari said, gazing at him a bit distantly.

"Oh, well, sorry about that," Masashi said. "We had to take care of a little business."

"Who wants to take a fucking guess what this 'little business' was?" Sayua scoffed, eyeing condescendingly at Kumi. It was a wonder that she had even agreed to Masashi's invitation, as she would have rather picked someone else.

"There's no reason to delve into the reasons for the delay, I say. What matters is that we are all here now," Haruyuki said. Masashi had asked him to be the one to press the button to start up the bumper cars; the art critic had no plans to actually join them, insisting that he was keener to watch the game from the sidelines.

The nine cars were all designed like chariots, the back wheels only for show, as the cars ran on electricity drawn from the floor.

"Hey, do you know where Faye and Sorao are?" Masashi asked. Sorao had been there when he had asked Futaba to join. Though she had declined, Sorao had agreed to join, so he had assumed that he would come. And Faye had gladly accepted his invitation, so without them both, there were fewer players than Masashi had desired.

"Oh, after dinner, I heard that Sorao felt a bit under the weather, so he's now recovering in his room," Tanjiro answered.

"And Miss Nirigiri said that she felt tired as well, so she's gone to bed early!" Arashi said. "She said she's sorry for her absence!"

Huh, really... Masashi, for a moment, wondered whether it was simply a coincidence that they both had apparently felt the need to go rest in their rooms, but he figured that things like that naturally happened every now and then, and so there was no need to put off this event for their sake.

"Uh, so could we get started already?" Kumi said, still holding his teddy bear. "Sir Teddybane and I want to see what it's like to ride a bumper car!"

"Oh, yeah, we'll have lots of fun!" Arashi said excitedly, fists pumped.

"You betcha! In fact, let me help!"

All the students lessened in their mirth upon hearing their captain's voice. Monokuma popped up, showing a very delighted expression.

"What do you want?" Masashi asked, eyeing him with unkind eyes.

"Hey, didn't you hear? I want to help you guys out with your night!" Monokuma answered. "I have an idea to make this whole game a bit more… competitive."

Haruyuki raised his eyes slightly. "'Competitive'? What do you mean?"

"I mean, people usually ride bumper cars because it's fun to bump into one another," Monokuma replied. "But you know what would make things more fun? Keeping track of how many times each person slams into one another with lots of force and purpose! Don't you want to be known as that guy that goes out of his way to hit as many people as he can without having to care about traffic laws?!"

"Hmm… Now that I think about it, it may be a lot of fun to turn it into a friendly fight," Mari said.

"An interesting proposal," Haruyuki remarked.

The others soon grew to like the idea, since the only other ride available for them, the merry-go-round and its Haunted Woods version, was not competitive at all, and so it was good to have a means of having a friendly competition.

"But who'll be keeping track of the points?" Tanjiro asked.

Monokuma giggled as he swayed his body. "Why else do you think your kind captain has decided to come see you guys? I'll gladly keep track of all the times you bump into one another, and I'll tell you your score!"

"Really?" Masashi said. "Are you sure you're the best judge for it?"

The captain then hung his head. "When you say it like that, it means you really, really doubt my abilities. And here I thought, all you guys knew about how advanced my A.I. is…"

Masashi sighed. "All right, all right, you can act as the scorekeeper. All I ask is that you not interfere, though."

"Of course I won't do that!" Monokuma said, back to his blithe disposition. "I'll have you know, I went to the Official Academy of Scorekeeping and worked my ass off to get my license!" Monokuma then clapped his paws together. "Now let's do this thing! The game lasts three minutes! If two cars collide with each other headlong, the one with the stronger impact gets the point!"

The players then headed into their bumper cars, most of the players looking at one another with such intensity as if there were truly something at stake here. As soon as Haruyuki pressed a certain button of the nearby machine panel, the bumper cars started to move, and for the first few seconds, all steered around, testing out the controls. Not long after, however, there began to be screams and hollers.

"I'm gonna get you!"

Arashi ran his car right into Tanjiro's car, which made the writer recoil a bit before spinning around and trying to escape his foe. Meanwhile, Kumi, riding around with apparently no direction in mind, was then bumped on the front by Sayua, who looked rather keen to become the winner. The impact quickly made the blissful excitement on his face disappear, replacing it with shock and confusion. He must have expected things to go more smoothly than whatever fantastic image he had in mind for bumper cars.

"Get him, get him! He'll give you free points!" Sayua yelled.

Many of the others then tried to run into Kumi, only to bump into each other, which was expected when more than five cars were going toward the same place. Exploiting the chaos of the situation, Sayua rushed not at Kumi but at the others, sneering as she rammed into Masashi, who could not believe how hectic the game had already become. Meanwhile, Kumi, looking confused as well, managed to get out of the pile of cars, only to be bumped by Tanjiro.

"Aah! Someone save me!" Kumi cried out, but to no avail as Tanjiro quickly rushed out of the scene.

Sayua laughed as she crashed into Masashi, who was moving about a bit haphazardly after being hit by Mari. Just as he tried to bump her in return, however, Tanjiro, wittingly or unwittingly, moved right between them, as if acting as her shield, and thus let her slip away. In no time, the cheerleader hit Arashi and Masashi again, who had hit only Tanjiro and Mari so far.

Sorry, Kumi, but I'd like to become the winner as well! Masashi thought as he crashed into him from behind. He then narrowly avoided an attack from Sayua and managed to hit Arashi and Tanjiro on the side without being attacked by them in return.

"Mmm… What an experience," Mari said plainly as she hit Kumi from behind. Then, by a stroke of dumb luck, Mari turned just as Sayua was about to run into her, and the cheerleader instead hit Tanjiro, which caused her not to hit Masashi in return, and he could then hit Arashi. It was amazing how things could add up like that.

Eventually, three minutes had passed, and Haruyuki pressed the button to make all the cars stop. Sayua groaned since she was about to get another point from ramming into Kumi.

"All right, all right, gather around, everyone!" Monokuma said, jumping up and down. "After watching you closely and impartially… I've managed to calculate your rankings! Here they are!"

Monokuma then opened up his mouth, and a piece of paper came out of it, which startled a few of the others:

SAYUA TOMI - 25 pts

MASASHI KOUSAKI - 17 pts

TANJIRO URATA - 14 pts

ARASHI SEIYA - 11 pts

MARI ANZAI - 10 pts

TAKUMI TAKAMITSU - 5 pts

Sayua sneered. "Told you guys I was gonna be number one! It was pretty clear from the start, really."

"I can't say you didn't try your best…" Tanjiro said, eyeing her uneasily.

Arashi groaned, his head hung down. "Oh… I was hoping I'd get into the top three at least! I can't believe I got into the bottom three instead!"

"Hmm… Well, I got what I got," Mari said, looking neither happy nor sad at this outcome.

Meanwhile, Kumi looked at the results with a confused expression. "Um… is it really true that I got last place?"

"Yes, and as far as I could tell, everyone was keen to hit you to score some easy points," Haruyuki answered, who had looked at the scene with a mix of mirth and cold observation. "For the times when you scored a point, it was due to your confusion as you unwittingly ran into the others while trying to flee. But most of the time, you ended up moving erratically, but not so erratically that it was hard to get out of your way. Thus, you often hit the edges of the arena instead. Tell me, how do you feel about that?"

"Well… it'd have been swell if I'd managed to score a bit higher." Kumi then showed a bright smile. "But in the end, I had a lot of fun with it! It really was fun riding bumper cars!"

Masashi chuckled heartily. "I'm glad to hear that, Kumi. It's a fun way to spend the rest of tonight, isn't it?"


It was about forty-five minutes after nine, and Masashi and Kumi were now back in the woodland kingdom's garden. Masashi had wanted to take Kumi back to his room and tuck him into bed, but Kumi had insisted that he be allowed to spend a few more minutes hunting for fairies. Not wanting to ruin the night for him, Masashi had agreed to letting him go on one last fairy hunt for tonight.

"O fairy, where could you be hiding?" Kumi said playfully as he tiptoed around and looked carefully at the floor.

Masashi looked at the sight, wondering at how much effort he had put in looking after the storyteller. Though it had been incredibly tiring to spend the whole day with him, the innocence and happiness that he showed made it hard to tell him to change his ways. And even though Kumi had stayed in last place for all the games of bumper cars that they had played, he seemed nonetheless content with the experience, finding more joy in partaking in the ride than in the competition.

Once done with Kumi, Masashi planned to go to the dining room and get a quick snack and drink. He needed a break after all this, and he felt all the sorrier that he had to let Sister Hikari go back to this, given that she, in his opinion, needed a few more days to relax. But he knew that telling her to relax that long would have been unacceptable for her, so he could only wish her good health.

It's sweet that things are like this, though… Masashi thought as he glanced elsewhere. It was rather reminiscent of what he could recall of a certain memory of his early childhood years, when he, Keiko, and a few other kids would play around in the neighborhood for hours. Yes, it would be swell if those blissful days had no end, so that they might play forever and ever...

"Oh! I see you now! I see you now! I see… you… now…"

And it was then that Masashi heard a quiet but all too telling thud.

"Wh-What the…?" Masashi widened his eyes upon seeing the storyteller lying flat on the front. "Kumi! Kumi! Kumi!"

He rushed toward him and felt his pulse. Thankfully, he was still alive, but Kumi was not responding to him at all, his eyes shut, as if he were fast asleep. His appearance had a certain serenity, even though the actual situation was far too different from what Masashi would like.

"Hey, what's going on?"

It was Sayua, who had just walked down the stairs from the second deck. She had been relaxing at the dining room, so she must have been on the way back to her room.

"Sayua! Thank God you're here!" Masashi said, looking at her with a fearful expression. "Kumi's collapsed!"

"What? He has?" Sayua scoffed. "Did you knock his lights out with a punch or something? I certainly would've done it if I'd been around him too long."

"Now's not the time for jokes!" Masashi replied. "He must've collapsed from exhaustion! These last few days, he's been having trouble with nightmares and sleeping, so he must've tried to stay awake the whole time today!"

Masashi could not believe that he had neglected the possibility that Kumi too needed rest. Sister Hikari had been truthful enough to admit it, but Kumi must have thought that he was all right, trying to ignore any negative effects of his sleeping problems. And Kumi had said that he wanted to have fun the whole day, and for the lively storyteller, resting in bed seemed like the antithesis of that.

It seemed so cruel that tonight had to end like this. It was as if all the good luck that he had had up until now had been all for naught.

"Well, what are you gonna do about him now?" Sayua asked, looking none too worried.

Masashi sighed. "We should take him to his room and tuck him into bed."

"What, you want me to help? Come on, can't you do it by yourself? The idiot shouldn't be too heavy to lift."

"It's not that hard, but it'll be easier if you help!"

After a few seconds, Sayua gave in and agreed to help. She carried him by the legs, whereas Masashi carried him by the upper body, and then the two quickly walked through the hallway and then down to the fourth deck, encountering no one. They then arrived at Kumi's door.

"Sorry, Kumi, but I can't get your door open if I don't do this."

Masashi opened up the storyteller's satchel and searched through it. There were many such items as his teddy bear, his book of tales, several quills, a few bottles of ink, and some parchment, but beneath them all was his Monopad only.

"Uh, did you think about searching his pockets first?" Sayua said, looking mildly amused.

"Oh!" He slapped his forehead. "I can't believe I didn't do that!"

Masashi had been so panicked that he had not done the most common-sense option first. He checked the pockets of Kumi's dark-green trousers, and he found the keycard in his left pocket. Once the door was unlocked, he and Sayua picked up the boy, moved him inside, and set him on his bed.

"U-Ugh… No, no, don't do that…" Kumi mumbled, his eyes still shut. It seemed that he was still asleep, neither he nor Sayua having awakened him during the whole ordeal.

Masashi sighed. Thankfully, it seemed that Kumi had only succumbed to that which he had tried to avoid all this time; no other serious symptoms seemed to have appeared. Hopefully, Kumi would have a good long sleep for the rest of the night, because he needed it greatly.

Afterwards, they removed his satchel, set it on his bedside, and tucked the boy into his bed. There was a nightlight nearby, and Masashi figured that Kumi needed it whenever he slept, so he made sure to turn it on.

"Hey, don't you think that you should tell that Sister Hikari woman about this?" Sayua said, sounding unusually thoughtful about this. Maybe a few seconds of helping him had helped her realize the gravity of the situation.

"Yeah, good point," Masashi said. Kumi might be doing better now, but it would be untruthful of him if he were to keep this hidden from her.

"Then go look for her! She should still be in the dining room," Sayua said. "Don't worry, I'll watch over him. I'll make sure that nothing bad happens to him."

"Oh, thank you! I'll be right back!" Masashi was glad that Sayua for once was not trying to back out of this. Without wasting any more time, Masashi rushed out of the door, leaving her with him in his room.

He ran to the second deck, not stopping for even a second, and luckily, just as he had arrived, Sister Hikari came out of the door to the dining room.

"Oh, Masashi, what's happened?" Sister Hikari asked, looking a bit alarmed. "Your expression doesn't look good at all."

He quickly explained to her what had happened, and by the end of it, Sister Hikari had looked at him with fully worried eyes, all composure gone from her face, and the two began their trip back to his room at once.

"I can't believe I didn't think to ask Kumi to rest!" Sister Hikari said fearfully along the way. "He kept insisting that he was all right, despite the nightmares, but I should've known that he was only trying to pretend the nightmares were no problem!"

Masashi and Sister Hikari arrived at Kumi's room, where Sayua still stood by him. Sister Hikari examined him for a few minutes before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thankfully, he seems to be simply asleep now, and I don't sense anything like a fever from him," Sister Hikari said. "I think that he'll be all right after some rest. Hopefully, there won't be any more nightmares for him."

"Yeah, it really feels as if all the bad things that have happened to him had been leading to this moment," Masashi said. "Hopefully… this is the end of his ordeal."

"So are we done here?" Sayua said. "He's gonna be all right, so it means we've got no more business with him, right?"

"Well… even though this incident frightens me greatly, I don't think there's anything else that we can do for him right now," Sister Hikari said, a pained look on her face. "I think we should just let him have his sleep. I'll check up on him tomorrow morning."

"Make sure to take his keycard," Masashi said. "If he doesn't wake up tomorrow for whatever reason, you need to be able to get into his room."

"Ah, right."

Seeing nothing else to take care of, the three then shut off the main lights to Kumi's room and headed outside, Sister Hikari taking Kumi's keycard. Once the door was shut, Sister Hikari and Sayua went back to their rooms. For some reason, Masashi swore that he had seen a smirk on the cheerleader's face, but he thought nothing of it, feeling all too tired, and so went back to his room and fell asleep.


The storm last night had made it somewhat hard to fall asleep. Even though the room was soundproof, not all sounds could be blocked out, and thunder was one of those that could enter the room. Masashi did not know when he had fallen asleep, but when he woke up and looked out the window, the weather outside had become calm again. There were still many dark clouds outside, however, and the waves still crashed against one another strongly, which meant that the storm had not gone away yet.

Ready as usual, he headed to the dining room, seeing no one, not even Arashi or Sister Hikari, on the way. It was eerie to see these halls quiet and empty, even though he knew that there were fifteen other people aboard.

I wonder whether they all feel under the weather or something… Masashi recalled Kumi's fall, Abraham's accidental breaking of the dishes, and the drop in liveliness among many of the others. The first two appeared to have no connection to the motive, but it was uncanny, nonetheless, that they had happened after the giving of the motive.

When he arrived at the dining room, he saw only Faye standing by a table and staring off into space. The time was about seven-thirty.

"Oh, hey, Masashi…" Faye flashed him a weak smile. "Not very nice weather, is it?"

"No, not at all," Masashi answered. "Where are the others?"

"I think they're still asleep. The storm last night was incredibly rough, so they may have had trouble going to sleep," Faye said with a half-hearted tone. "I couldn't fall asleep that easily as well. I even looked outside my window to pass the time, but all I saw was… wrathful waves. Sorry, I can't think of a good way to say it, but…"

"Oh, no, I understand," Masashi replied as he sat down at a nearby table. He had not seen the weather outside last night, but her simple description was enough to imagine it. "By the way… Faye, are you all right?"

"Wh-What, me? Of course I am…" the patissier said, eyeing him nervously. "Wh-Why do you ask?"

"Well… to be truthful, you've been acting a bit weirdly lately," Masashi said. "First, you went to bed early last night, so I'm a little worried about your health. And secondly, you don't talk so much as you usually do."

Faye let out an unsure chuckle. "Wh-What? Are you sure about that? I simply felt a little tired last night, so I needed the rest! And I'm pretty sure I still talk a lot! Really, it's the truth!"

For a simple airing of his concern, she seemed rather flustered and keen to say otherwise. It was pretty obvious that all was not well with her.

"Well, even so, is there something you'd like to talk about with me?" Masashi figured that a more roundabout approach was needed here, since she would not admit that there was a problem any time soon. "I'm all ears."

Faye scratched her cheek. "Really? Well… there is one thing I guess I can talk about."

"What is it?"

She sighed as she hung her head. "It's Abraham. You have no idea how much he irks me. I mean, yesterday morning, when we were supposed to wake up early to get the emergency supplies and move them to the exhibit room, he chided me for being late."

"You were late?" Masashi said.

"Well, I can't help it! I take a while to get ready in the morning, so by the time I was done, fifteen minutes past the agreed time had passed," Faye said, sounding a bit angry. "Abraham kept complaining about how long I'd kept him waiting! And he said it in his ugly, uncouth speech! I mean, all right, I may have taken too long, but did he really have to put it like that?"

"That must've been really tough," Masashi said, nodding along. He could hardly imagine having to wake up really early and work with the man when he was not even working as a waiter and thus had no reason to speak politely.

"I know! And it was the same this morning," Faye continued. "I was late, and he insulted me. You want to know how? He said something like 'It's a waste of time to point out how much you're a fucking mess'. Can you believe that?!" Faye then slammed her hand against the table, which made Masashi flinch. "It's insulting, unproductive, and needlessly condescending!"

"Y-Yeah… It sure sounds like it," Masashi said, shocked at how fired up she now was.

"I swear, I'd give him a good yelling at so that he might think twice about talking to me like that," Faye said. "But that'd be what an uncouth and brash person would do, and I can't very well stoop down to his level… Yes, I'm better than that… I'm definitely better than that… right?"

"Oh, of course!" Masashi replied. "You two are definitely on different levels."

Faye sighed, cracking a small but somewhat odd smile. "Ah… It feels good to hear that from you. I really appreciate it."

Though her expression appeared hardly any better, on the whole, she seemed to look a bit less skittish and unnerved. Masashi was glad that he could help her, even if only a little.

"By the way, are you going to cook breakfast now?" Masashi asked.

"Oh, no, I think I'll wait for more of the others to wake up first," Faye answered. "I don't want the food to go cold, you see. You should take a walk in the meantime."

"Yeah, I think I will," Masashi said, thinking that the morning would be the only time today to enjoy the sights outside. "Is anyone else awake?"

"Oh, yes, Mari should be outside now. We saw her after we came here the second time for the gallons of water, since we moved the cans of food first," she said. "She's now staring at the sea. Kinda weird, but I guess if she's not doing anything funny, it doesn't matter much."

"From what I can tell, she's an outdoorsy girl, so it's not surprising to hear that," Masashi replied. "Any others?"

"Oh, we saw Murphy going to the arts and crafts room. I'm not sure whether anyone else is up and about, since I was busy sorting things out in the kitchen a while ago, so be aware of that," Faye answered. "And by the way, Abraham's now relaxing in the palace's lounge, so if you're looking for him for any reason, he's there."

Seeing that there was nothing else to talk about, Masashi left the kitchen and headed out to the main deck. The weather was even worse than he had thought; a stiff wind blew, showing hardly any signs of stopping, and Masashi was forced to keep his hands in his pockets to keep warm. The whole deck had been covered in water, and so he had to walk around with careful steps. Mari was walking about the deck, but after they bade each other good morning, she had little to say other than how much she wondered at last night's storm.

"It certainly was stronger than I'd expected," Mari said. "I wonder how things are back on the mainland."

Come to think of it, what were things like back in Japan, anyway? Masashi had not thought too much about it, besides thinking about the places with which he was familiar as part of his daily life. In any case, there was nothing that he could do about it, so he could only hope that things were all right back in Japan. Then again, with what he had seen of Keiko in the motive video, he had a feeling that something must have happened to his home and his neighborhood.

"Hey, do you want to walk around the palace with me?" Masashi asked. "Sometimes, a walk's nice if you have others to walk with."

"Sounds to me you need my company more than I need yours," Mari remarked. "But sure, I'll walk with you. It's good to take a break indoors every now and then."

They headed over to the Egyptian palace and walked inside. In the lounge, indeed, as Faye had said, Abraham was sitting on one of the many golden chairs, looking at the fireplace. Not wanting to disturb his peace, they walked down to the third deck.

Ah… It sure was fun last night… Masashi thought as he spotted by the room with the bumper cars inside. It was too bad that the night had been made to end on such a sour note, but that did not change the fact that the bumper car competition had been greatly entertaining. Maybe he could try to do something like that again in the future.

The two headed down to the fourth deck, but it was then that they heard a shrill scream.

"Wh-What the?!" Masashi blurted out before hearing footsteps rushing down the stairs.

"What was that sound?!" It was Murphy, whom they had spotted earlier at the arts and crafts room. "I thought I heard a woman screaming!"

"I think it came from the other side of the river..." Mari responded.

He saw two boats there, which meant that at least two people were now at the Memory Bank, and the woman's scream had come from there. He could also see from here that the door to the Memory Bank was wide open.

"No time to answer!" Murphy said. "We have to go check it out at once!"

Without thinking, the three got on one of the boats, and Murphy pressed the button to get it moving. Then the boat began to sail through the river, albeit ever so slowly, and Masashi could not very well sit down and relax. They must get there as quickly as he could, but there was nothing that they could do about the boat's speed and movement. After the boat turned such that it might park right by the platform, the three got off, and at that moment, someone came out of the Memory Bank.

"Thank goodness you're here, commoners!" It was Maiha, a hint of fear in her voice. "There's something that you must see right now!"

"Wh-What is it?" Masashi said, dread building up within him.

"Don't tell me it's what I think it is..." Murphy said with stern eyes.

Maiha bit her lip. "It's better that you see it with your own eyes. You'll understand why."

Then the four stepped into the Memory Bank, and at once, Masashi froze, his worst fears coming true.

No… no way… Why…?

There, on the floor, a calm, but lifeless expression on the face, lay Futaba, never to rise again.

"Ah… Ah… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Masashi shrieked.

There was blood from a wound on the back of her head, and yet, even if there were no blood, the stillness made it clear that there was no longer any life within her.

Just then, the dreadful chime rang through the room, coming from a speaker in the room.

"A body has been discovered!" Monokuma said. "Everyone, please gather at the Memory Bank!"

Once there was nothing but silence, Masashi stood there frozen, his eyes watering. Seeing this awful sight, he wondered how much his hope mattered if this was what it built up to.


Hello, everyone! Sorry for taking longer than usual, but I've been a bit busy lately, so I hope I've not made you wait too long. Anyway, I've decided to start off the new year by killing off Futaba. It's a great shame, since Futaba's among the more likable characters to me, but for a few reasons, I've decided that she's the one to go. Interestingly, many of you guessed that she would be the victim, but after the last chapter (in which Masashi confronts Sorao about his lie), it appears that she dropped off some people's lists of likely victims, and instead, it was either Sorao, Faye, Sister Hikari, or Abraham that was this chapter's victim.

Anyway, which character do you think is the killer? It's not investigation time yet, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts and guesses.