Chapter 3: The Manipulator's Malice Part 4 (Daily Life)

Remaining Citizens: 13

Outside the school building: Ai, Bernadetta, Gold, Miles, Trunks, Espio

Inside the school building: Emma, Killua, Ryuji, Ishigami, Alice, Sucy, Aoba

Ai's POV

"Raise a glass to freeeeedom. Something they can never take away. No matter what they tell youuuuuuuuu."

"BOOO!" Gold threw his popcorn at the American Revolution Era Monokuma, and his three copies on stage.

"Hey! I'm not cleaning that up. And wow, you don't have a clue on how stunning my performance has been so far! I rapped through all of "My Shot" without breaking a sweat you ungrateful bunch! I knew I should have charged as much as it was on Broadway…"

Agh, I'm glad the singing stopped for at least a minute. How can a robotic bear be tone deaf? We have been sitting down in this theater for half an hour. Monokuma suggested that we watch a musical while we wait for the others to escape that school. As a singer and stage performer myself, this was certainly a painful experience.

"Tch, we're all just sitting ducks until they get out of there. Is there really no other way out until a murder happens?" Espio grimaced.

"Well there is one way, but there's no chance they'll ever find it! There's only a success rate of 0.00000001% when it comes to obtaining it as well! Bwahahahaha!" The bear cackled as we shook our heads.

Trunks then stood up from his theater recliner and turned to us, "Well, no matter how low that may be, we just have to believe they will. However, their lack of resources may get to them eventually… they have to hurry."

"Indeed, we can't afford to lose more of our group, just need to believe in that small possibility. There has to be someone among that group that can lead them in the right direction… preferably not Aoba." I responded, and everyone else agreed.

"..."

"... Hey. I'm talking to you, hello?"

"..."

"EMMA!"

"GYAH!" I yelped.

"Jeez, snap out of it, will ya? We've got a big situation." Ryuji informed me.

"Ha ha ha… sorry. I'm… still trying to take it all in."

Emma's POV

"Man, that antenna on your head doesn't give you any reception in your brain, huh?" Aoba jokes.

Man he's such a jerk, I still can't forgive him after that last trial! I stuck my tongue out at him, but he just turns and ignores me. We seriously need to do something about that guy...

"We're really stuck in here until a murder happens, huh? No food or water either…" I heard Ishigami being gloomy.

"Seems like it, and no other visible option is available to us at the moment." Alice frowns.

"Eh... the person controlling that bear is a real sicko." Sucy stated.

"Given how large this school building is, I doubt that there isn't one other way out of it. Something to unlock that large metal vault door? An underground pathway?" Killua thinks.

"I agree with Killua, this place is HUGE. There must be something we can use, instead of just giving in and killing each other!" I said to everyone.

Sucy then piped up, "Searching this place in its entirety could take up the whole day and even nighttime as well. With no food and water, that will tire us out quickly."

"There's also the fact that we can't sleep in here, since this is not the Hope-Tel. Adding lack of sleep on top of that would guarantee a murder in due time. Without all of those factors to keep a person healthy, they may not be themselves after a while..." Aoba builds upon her statement.

"That's very true… but it can't hurt to try at least!" I stuck by the words I said, but a few of them were unmoved.

"You go run around and tire yourself out. If I didn't want to be told what to do by Ai, then I wouldn't want to hear anything from you, kid." Sucy left the main hall.

"C'mon! Let's just take a good look at everything." I told the remaining five.

"What a pain, searching a whole new area of the city, and now this whole building. I'm probably going to die soon." Ishigami says.

"Damn dude, you really need to stop moping." Ryuji grabs him by the collar and starts dragging him along as we begin our search.

I've never seen a school building before, but even so it looked like it wasn't openly accepting of everyone. Like only specific people were allowed to attend, maybe it's similar to the IQ tests we took back at Grace Field, those who score the highest are considered special. A bunch of posters and lists on the wall talked about "Ultimate Students", the same label that our e-Handbooks have to us. Although in this case, we're "Ultimate Citizens".

"Hm?" Killua stops.

"What is it?" Aoba asks as he moves towards the front of us, "A classroom, with two gun turrets above it. Must be important if it has protection like that. Something to remember for later."

I marked down that classroom in my head before pressing on, but then I noticed Killua staring directly at it. I turned to look at the sign near the door and read it aloud.

"77-B?"

"... Let's go." Killua went on ahead and I quickly caught back up to him.

I wonder why he was observing that room for so long. I can't seem to tell what's going on in that mind of his, although in a lot of ways he reminds me of Ray. Ray… thinking about him just reminded me of what's happened to everyone back in my universe. Their eyes all swirly, sick smiles on their faces… it gave me shivers. We definitely need to get back home to save them.

"Emma, you daydreaming again? You have to catch up!" Ryuji snapped me back to reality again.

"Sorry, again!" I jogged back to the group as we continued through the school.

An area to swim (that was on the second floor of the building for some reason), a recreation room, an arts and crafts room, a garden… if we weren't in a situation like this, I would have loved coming to this school with all the other children!

"Ahem, all those stuck inside the oddly familiar school, come to the gym immediately!" I heard Monokuma's voice from somewhere.

"What is it now?" Sucy groaned.

"Hurry along now, we shouldn't keep the mayor waiting for too long." Alice went down the stairs.

"Hah, he definitely hasn't earned my vote for re-election." Aoba followed her, along with the rest of us.

Ten minutes later we were all gathered in the gym, balls were all scattered around, like no one cared to pick them up. Monokuma then popped out from the stage just like he does at the statue in the park.

"Hello there! Thank you all for waiting!" He bellowed out as we sighed.

"Tell us why we're here already." Sucy demanded bluntly.

"Man, you guys get cranky without any food or water, ya bunch of babies! Anyways, I just wanted to tell you about the other escape route!"

"F-F-For real?!" Ryuji was just as shocked as I was.

"Really? Wait… it's probably impossible to go through." I was suspicious of why he would tell us if he wanted the motive to work.

"Right you are! I'll just leave it to you all, you haven't explored this school as thoroughly as others have. Tear the place apart if you feel like it, just don't destroy the cameras! Although I would prefer for blood to be spilled instead, it could be fun to watch you all run around until you die of starvation! Not as fun as it could be, but it's different!

"Tch, you're lucky you have so many copies, or I'd rip those metal parts out of your chest." Killua threatened.

"Ah-hahahahaha! Careful what you say out loud Mr. Zoldyck, the walls have spears, er, I mean ears! It would be weird for the walls to have spears, huh? Although ears are just as weird too! Puhuhuhu~" The bear said before disappearing.

"Is that all he had to say? Such a disappointment. I might as well go searching for the escape route, even though it's a pointless option." Aoba began to leave but was interrupted immediately.

"Ohhh no you don't! The longer you're on your own, the more likely you'll be planning something big!" Ryuji grabbed him by his shirt.

"I'd say we should just lock him in a room until we find the other escape route ourselves." Ishigami suggested nonchalantly.

I thought that was a bit extreme, "Can't we just have someone around him to keep an eye out, in case he does something? There's a chance that you could forget you tied him up in here and he'll be dead!" I told them.

"Well, he wouldn't be causing us any more problems if that's the case." Ryuji tells me.

"Then you'd have to be put on trial for being the one who caused my death. You all would know who did it, heh." Aoba smirked before he broke away from Ryuji.

"Ugh… I guess, sorry." I patted him on the back to comfort him.

"Hm…" I heard from Alice after it's been a surprisingly long time since she's spoken.

We decided to rest for a bit after that quick announcement. We found some dorm rooms earlier, so might as well use them for a bit. I am really itching to find what Monokuma was talking about though, so I leapt out of the bed and ran out the door.

Right into Aoba.

"Ow!"

"Ack, watch where you're going!" He got back up and dusted himself off.

I noticed him picking up a book as well, "Whatcha reading there?"

"So Lingers the Ocean, it's apparently a best seller in this universe. Farewell now." He says as he walks away, I am not fooled though so I sneak behind him for a bit.

I try to take light steps, not make too much noise, it's like being chased by a demon. Or a game of tag, just have to avoid being caught. Aoba just kept walking, not sure if he saw me or not, or he would have said something by now. He did stop to glance at something, so I just hid and went inside… a school store?

I never thought you would need to buy anything at a school, but with how big this one is, I guess that makes sense. I looked to my left and right before bumping into someone else, what is up with me today?

"Hey, what are you— Oh, Emma. What are you doing here?" Killua asked me.

"I was just following Aoba in case he did something, but why are you here… and why do you have all that stuff?" I pointed over to a pile behind him.

"I was just using this MonoMono Machine in here, see if anything useful popped out. Though as you can see, it's just junk."

"Really? How about I try?" I inserted a Monocoin into the slot as Killua crossed his arms, anticipating another dud.

Out popped the capsule and I turned it open, it was… a remote control with a large button?

"What is this?" I handed it to Killua so he could observe it.

"Well, if it explodes then I'll take the blunt of it instead of you." Killua said as he pressed it.

Then an electric shock went through him suddenly! He dropped to his knees as I went over to him.

"Gah… I'm not hurt, I can take these kinds of shocks, but…" He slowly let out.

"It seems like you are though! Hold on, I'll go get some help!" I then heard some machinery.

I run quickly to see what it was, and the vault door was opening! I immediately ran back to tell Killua.

"That must have been an escape button! What Monokuma was telling us about!" I was in shock, though I should use a better word for that right now, sorry Killua ha…

"Then go gather the others, I'll catch up…" Killua slowly started getting up.

I nodded at him before I went to get everyone, but then I heard a scream coming from the gym, Alice. I ran as fast as I could to see what happened, and as I entered… I saw everyone else already there from the small window on the door.

*Ding dong dong ding*

"A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the city trial will begin!"

Excuse me? I saw the body discovery announcement on my e-Handbook… but I couldn't believe it. I can't believe it. I shouldn't…

When I entered the gym though… I was forced to.

I saw an unconscious Ishigami starting to wake up, rubbing the back of his head, before turning to look at what he was right next to. And his expression matched mine.

A bloody corpse.

The bloody corpse of Sucy.

Happy New Year, to my dear readers. Express your feelings on this chapter and who you think did it if you feel like it. Thanks for waiting each month for these.