Chapter 3: The Manipulator's Malice Part 2 (Daily Life)

Remaining Citizens: 13

"W-what is that?! Was it sent by Monokuma to kill me?!" Bernadetta asks fearfully as Maga-Z comes closer to her.

The tan-furred hamster squeaks and causes the poor girl to jump back.

"Eek!"

A single slip of paper is dropped down by the hamster and it awaits Bernie's next move.

"Uh-um…" She utters as she slowly approaches and then quickly picks up the paper and scoots backwards.

The purple-haired recluse opened up the paper and read it aloud.

To the mortals within this impenetrable structure,

I, Gundham Tanaka, Supreme Overlord of Ice, had entrusted Crimson Steel Elephant Maga-Z of the Four Dark Devas of Destruction to deliver this message to you all. Myself, as well as the organization referred to as the Future Foundation are outside its borders. Your assistance is necessary in order to pursue your escape from this "Killing Game", listen well, for this is the only time the instructions shall be spoken through my written words. Inform your comrades of this system and we shall communicate back and forth, relaying information about the internal and external workings of this structure. My power is unfortunately not enough to break through and set you all free, so collaboration is a must. Do not let me down.

Gundham Tanaka

"T-there's people outside?!" Bernie thought as she finished reading. She thought the letter was a bit odd, but that did not detract that she actually felt like running outside today.

Maga-Z bows to her, which causes her to slowly do the same as the hamster looks up at the vent where he dropped down from. She hesitates for a moment until Maga-Z snuggles her hand when she gets close, surprising the recluse and making her smile.

"Stay here uh… Maga-Z, I'll go get the others!" She tells the hamster who gives her a small salute.

She washes her face, puts her boots on, grabs her e-Handbook, and takes a deep breath before moving out of her Hope-tel room. Clutching the note in her hand, she heads to the stairs. As she walks down, she has a nervous, yet hopeful smile on her face after this new discovery it seems as though her confidence has been boosted.

"Ah, Bernie, finally deciding to go out for food I assume?"

"GAH!" Bernadetta looks behind to see Aoba as she was about to leave through the door.

"I didn't expect you to be so chipper after last night… what's the occasion?" He grins.

"O-o-oh! I um…I'm…I…" Bernie studders.

"Hm? My my, what is that you have there?" Aoba notices the message from Gundham in her hand.

"T-this? T-this is just… MY NEW MANUSCRIPT! I lost my old one a while ago to an avid reader, so I just started on my first page! I'm off to get more paper and ink ha ha, bye!" She lies before dashing away like a thief unit with a speed ring equipped.

Aoba is left standing there confused, remaining suspicious of the message.

Back to Ai's POV

"30 percent accuracy…"

I read on the sign when I see the fortune telling outlet. The guy on the poster looks like he should really comb his hair and take a bath. Also having that high of a chance at getting predictions right is… not very impressive from my perspective.

"Who would pay this much to get a lousy reading? I'm also pretty sure that that crystal ball is just made of glass." Ishigami stated, as I remembered he was here with me.

He tapped the ball and I sighed before walking out of there. Searching is getting repetitive, yet we have to keep looking for a way out. It's not like we'll find some help on the outsi—

"AI! ISHIGAMI!"

Bernadetta, didn't think she was feeling any better. She arrives out of breath, and is holding a piece of paper for some reason.

"Bernie, are you feeling alright? I was told you haven't left your room, even for food." I asked, concerned.

"Huff huff.. I was just trying to get over the trial… I still am. BUT THAT'S NOT WHY I'M HERE!" She held out the paper in our faces and I looked over it… despite it being crumpled a little.

My eyes widened as I read each word on it, there's… people outside to help us?!

Ishigami blinked twice, "W-what?!".

"We need to call everyone to talk about this… except for Aoba of course…" Bernadetta gripped her fists.

"Oh yeah, we really need to keep stuff like this away from a guy like that. Who knows what he could do when we're communicating with this Gundham guy." Ishigami said and we nodded.

"I'll go round everyone up…" I began and I heard a stomach rumble, Bernie turned away in embarrassment, "... And we'll get some food as well."

"Is this for real?!" Ryuji responded in the way I expected.

Bernadetta was chewing her pasta salad quickly, she was that hungry in there. We were at the diner again.

"I don't know, we don't even know this person, in addition we have no idea what he looks like. And his writing is just odd. How do we know we can even trust him?" Espio asked.

"Well we don't know for sure until we ask him!" Emma said.

"That seems risky, do we even know if this 'Gundham' won't betray us or if he is even capable of helping?" Trunks crossed his arms.

"I'm not sensing any danger right now, so if I get a bad feeling about the guy, I'll tell you guys what's up." Miles must have some sixth sense that alerts him to danger, I believe I saw it before. I'll be sure to ask him about it later.

"Thanks, I believe the best course of action right now is to respond to his letter. That is the best way we can determine if he will be able to assist in our escape." I told everyone.

"..."

"Hey Creepy Witch Gal, you haven't been saying a thing to us the whole day? Somethin' up?" Gold asked Sucy who just looked away.

"She probably thinks that this won't work! Maybe she's planning on poisoning us all with witch magic ooooo~." Alice teased her while waving her arms around.

"That's enough. We have to find a way to stay united and escape together, we can't make fun of people in childish mannerisms." I scolded her.

"Oh really? Trying to take on Shantae's dying wish I assume? You already tried to bring us together with that party, and it ended up getting her and Marty killed. Just stop." Sucy then finally said something.

"What?" Is how I responded.

"Stop trying to lead a incompetent group like this, especially since you and Bernadetta took the longest to leave the Hope-tel. You also have not accounted for the person who caused the two deaths last night, Aoba. He has been off on his own for hours, he could be planning the next murder." She continued and I was taken aback by this.

Her words were true and they stung. After the trial, I was trying to sleep away the pain of seeing our comrades die. I should have tried to be a more sensible and stronger leader to everyone, yet...

"That is true, she always tries to lead us, but maybe we're going down the wrong direction." Alice agrees.

"..." Ishigami is silent now, looking like he is conflicted on if he wants to answer or not.

"Look Ai is trying her hardest, you can't imagine how she's feeling right now." Bless you, Emma.

Killua then sat up from his booth, "Getting on her case won't help at all, making it worse from how you're trying to put her down."

"Y-yeah, she's actually trying to make an effort to help us escape! And now we could have a chance with this!" Bernadetta told them while holding out Gundham's letter.

"Super Serious Flower Gal's got us covered, I have faith in her, especially since she's helped us through the trials so far." Gold rubbed his finger under his nose.

"You go follow her to your death, I'm not going to be a part of this." Sucy left.

"That is something to think about, maybe I should be leading you all, hee hee." Alice giggled before moving on herself.

I then saw Ishigami get up from his chair slowly, but Emma stopped him.

"Hey, it feels like you need company. Please stay, for a bit at least."

He did not speak back to her and just promptly sat back down.

"Okay, so we need to handwrite a good response back to this Gundham Tanaka guy. Huh, weird name." Killua stated.

"Right? So uh… who's writing it and what do we say?" Ryuji asked us.

"W-well, I already know how to get the message to Gundham, and I do need practice to write my stories… (takes a deep breath in) I'll do it." Bernadetta surprisingly volunteers.

"Wait, I know you got this letter from him, but how are we sending our letter?" Miles asked.

"It's um… kinda strange." Bernadetta answered.

"I bet twenty Monocoins that it's not as strange as the stuff we've seen collectively." Killua snarks.

Killua just hands Bernie the coins which she places on her counter before picking up… a messenger hamster.

"Everyone, this is Maga-Z. One of Gundham's… Four Dark Devas of Destruction."

Um… excuse me?

Anyone miss me? No? Okay. Glad I managed to get one of these out. Manipulator's Malice is gonna be a long one folks, so I hope you all do not mind how long it will take to get them out. Thanks for your patience anyone who still reads these, hope to see your comments/reviews if you leave any!