For a long moment, everyone in the diner was frozen in fear. The Snake Mecha was observing them all with glowing red eyes, and they all stared back like they expected it to attack them indiscriminately at any time. And in a place like this, there was nowhere to hide.

"What do we do? Do we fight it?" asked Akane.

"Not in these close quarters. We'll have to get around it somehow." That was easier said than done, however. The Snake Mecha was so huge, and so long, it was completely cutting off their escape. They couldn't run out through the hole it had just burst through the wall. Hajime quickly analyzed the situation and tried to develop an escape plan that would minimize the danger to the others –

But the Monobeast didn't attack. Instead it just stood there, and a speech bubble containing a cheeseburger popped up over its head.

Hiyoko looked up at it in disbelief. "Whaaaaaat? We're gonna feed it?"

Teruteru let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness… this is much more my forte."

"Okay then. We can handle this," Hajime said decisively. "Let's just do what we've been doing all day, and maybe it'll leave us alone."

And so, with the extremely large elephant (or rather snake) in the room, everyone rushed off to do their jobs. Well, almost everyone. The Monobeast was far too large to sit at a table, so Hiyoko and Fuyuhiko ran back to the kitchen with the others. Nekomaru too, since they weren't exactly in need of a greeter anymore.

Hajime and Teruteru, meanwhile, went back to their stations and got to work.

This was good, Hajime thought. The last time they tried to fight one of these things, they'd lost someone. And that was with their fantasy powers.

In just a few minutes, he and Teruteru had whipped up a large cheeseburger, along with the fries that came with it. With Hiyoko and Fuyuhiko back in the kitchen, Hajime resorted to running the meal out to the Snake Mecha himself.

The Monobeast took one look at the food and gulped the whole thing down, leaving a disarmed Hajime standing with an empty plate in his hands.

But it wasn't satisfied, and it didn't leave the diner. Instead, another speech bubble appeared over its head, showing a large stack of French toast.

"It wants something else?" Hajime exchanged a look with Teruteru, who was looking equally surprised. "Okay then…"

He dropped off the dirty dishes and went back behind the counter, and the two of them whipping up a batch of French toast. Momentarily Hajime looked over his shoulder to see Peko collecting the dirty dishes, only to look at him in surprise as she saw he was still working.

"We're not finished here yet," he said grimly.

Once he and Teruteru and completed the French toast, Hajime ran it over to the Snake Mecha again, and just like before, it ate the whole thing in one bite. And that still wasn't enough for it. A third speech bubble appeared, showing a pile of hash browns. Furthermore, its happiness meter seemed to be going down. It was getting impatient.

Hajime could already see where this was going.

He and Teruteru went back to slaving away, and then the other students began appearing from out of the kitchen as they gradually realized something was wrong.

"What's going on out here? You're sending us more dirty dishes than we can clean!" said Nekomaru.

"It still wants more food. We need to work faster," said Hajime.

"True genius takes time! I can't be expected to be at peak performance when I'm being rushed like this!" Teruteru complained.

"We'll help you out here. Perhaps we can be more useful this way," said Peko.

So they kept going. The Snake Mecha kept ordering meal after meal, and it was going faster and faster, often demanding something else before Hajime and Teruteru had completed its last order. Everyone was scrambling to satiate it in time. It got so bad that nobody had time to clean the dishes anymore. They had to serve up the food on dirty plates, which just got the Monobeast even angrier at them.

"We can't keep this up…" Teruteru whimpered. "Hajime! Cooking is one of only two things I'm good at, and it's not working! And I don't think getting naked in front of that thing will help either."

"And we're running out of food back there," said Hajime, glancing over to the kitchen. "Monokuma never meant for us to beat it this way. We have to come up with something else." A grim feeling settled into his stomach. He didn't want to fight this thing one on one, but if that was what it came down to, then he would do it.

"Hey, Hajime. I might have an idea," said Fuyuhiko. "If we have to keep feeding this thing, then we should poison it. Give it something that'll kill it."

Hajime gave a nod. They had limited options in here, and this was as good an idea as any. "Is there anything in the supply closet that will work? Or the bathroom?"

"Yeah. Drain cleaner. If we give it enough, it'll eat right through that thing."

"Okay. We'll need somebody to grab it while the rest of us keep the Monobeast distracted." His eyes fell on a certain someone. "Nagito. You should be able to get there and back safely."

Nagito looked thrilled, which honestly didn't encourage Hajime any. "Oh? Is my Ultimate Luck about to become useful after all? Wonderful! I won't let my classmates down!"

And he ran across the remains of the diner over toward the bathroom, leaving the rest of the students to contend with the Snake Mecha, which was getting angrier and angrier. Hajime and Teruteru kept churning out plates full of food, and the other students ran it over to the Monobeast as quickly as they could, but it was clear they couldn't go fast enough.

"Where is that guy?" Kazuichi shouted after another minute had gone by. "I should have gone back there instead. I know where the drain cleaner is."

"Kazuichi, just stay behind the counter. It's not safe out there," said Hajime.

But Kazuichi just shook his head and stood up. "Sorry, Hajime, but we don't have time for that."

"Kazuichi – " Hajime reflexively reached out, but the mechanic had already started running straight across the Snake Mecha's field of vision, determined to reach the bathroom himself.

Then several things happened at once.

Nagito came out of the bathroom. He was holding a plastic bottle full of drain cleaner in his hands, and as soon as he saw Hajime and the others crowded around the counter, he ran over to them.

But Kazuichi was already running in the opposite direction, and the two of them couldn't stop or even slow down in time before they crashed into each other. Kazuichi fell to the floor, and the drain cleaner flew out of Nagito's hands and landed on top of him.

The Snake Mecha saw it all happen. It saw the bottle of drain cleaner, and its compuer brain deduced what the students were going to use it for. They were trying to kill it. They had to be punished.

The boy wearing the beanie. He was holding the bottle. This was all his idea.

The Monobeast opened its mouth and let out a concentrated spray of acid.

Kazuichi screamed as the acid hit him directly in the eyes. He dropped the bottle and his hands flew over his face.

"Oh God! Oh God!" He was curled up on the floor. Blood was seeping out between his fingers. "I can't see! My eyes… I can't see!"

"Kazuichi!" Hajime ignored Teruteru's loud protests and vaulted over the countertop. "Nagito, get that bottle over to Teruteru! Now!"

He could only hope Nagito would listen to him. He didn't have time to focus on anyone but Kazuichi. Effortlessly leaping over and around the debris that covered the floor, Hajime ran over to him and tried to lift him up to his feet.

"Kazuichi! Listen to me!" The mechanic was still wailing in pain, and he wouldn't pull his hands away from his face. "Just follow my voice, okay? We have to get you out of here – "

But the Monobeast had already chosen its prey, and not even Hajime could change that.

It opened its jaws again, and too quickly to dodge, it struck.

Hajime was left sitting on the ground, frozen and shell shocked, as Kazuichi's headless body dropped to the floor.

Hiyoko, along with several other people, started screaming.

"Oh my God… oh my God…" Ryota slumped to the floor, looking ready to faint.

"Hajime! Get over here! We have the drain cleaner!" The Imposter's voice cut through the chaos. Hajime tried to focus on that and block out what he had just seen. Squeezing his eyes shut, he got to his feet and scrambled back behind the counter, though he nearly slipped and fell on the pool of blood that was now spreading across the floor.

The Monobeast clearly wasn't done with them yet. It was still hungry, and the look in its eyes told the students that if they didn't satisfy it, one of them would be next.

Teruteru had stopped cooking and was just staring up at the Monobeast, practically convulsing in fear. "What do we do? What do we do?"

"We give it what it wants. The last thing it ordered was a chili dog and a milkshake," Hajime said grimly. "But we can't let it see us add the drain cleaner… Ibuki, I'm sorry, but you need to distract it."

For once, the smile was completely gone from Ibuki's face. "O-okay… if Hajime really thinks it's a good idea…"

Though it was clearly the last thing she wanted to do, Ibuki staggered across the wreckage while clutching the coffee pot in her hands. She watched in fear as the Monobeast downed cup after cup, faster than she could pour them. She kept stealing glances back over at the counter, clearly telling them with her eyes that she couldn't keep it distracted forever.

Hajime and Teruteru worked in harmony, faster than they had all day, too grim to say a word to each other. Once they had prepared the meal, Hajime completely slathered the chili dog in drain cleaner, and then he emptied the rest of the bottle into the glass of milkshake.

They didn't have time for Hiyoko or Fuyuhiko to grab the plate. He turned around and held it out to the Monobeast himself, staring it down, unflinching.

"Here. Take it."

Forgetting about Ibuki entirely, the Snake Mecha pushed its way past her and slithered across the floor. If it had any suspicions about the meal, it didn't show them. It snatched the plate from Hajime's hand and downed it in one bite.

And it still wasn't satisfied. Another speech bubble appeared over its head… but it was glitching out too much to read it.

Everyone looked at the Snake Mecha. It was twitching, its jaw flexing uselessly, as a viscous liquid began to pour from its mouth and out of its joints. There was a hissing noise from inside it, and smoke started pouring out from it in numerous places as the drain cleaner started eating holes through its body.

Finally, it was damaged enough that its life gave out entirely. Its glowing red eyes went dark, and it collapsed to the floor with a big enough crash that several people nearly fell over. It twitched a few more times, then went completely still.

And just as defeated video game enemies so often left items behind, there came a bright sparkle from within the Monobeast, and the second Monocrystal rose up and hovered over its head.

"That was… some heavy duty drain cleaner," Fuyuhiko said breathlessly.

Just as it had happened yesterday, as a sign that they had completed the Adventure Phase, the students' diner uniforms all suddenly vanished, leaving them standing around in their normal clothes. But nobody cared about that. They didn't care about the Monocrystal. They didn't care about any of it.

"Kazuichi…" Mahiru whimpered. As stillness fell over the diner, she cautiously stepped out from behind the counter and walked over to Kazuichi… or what was left of him. The other students reluctantly followed after her, all of them staring at the body, eyes wide in horror. The floor was completely covered in his blood.

Hajime tried to blink away his tears.

"God dammit…" Akane muttered, clenching her fists. "If only I could fight, I would've… I would've…"

"W-why… why did the Monobeast go after him?" asked Mikan, almost too softly to be heard. "He d-didn't do anything wrong…"

"Because of the drain cleaner," said the Imposter, their voice steady and emotionless. "It saw the bottle land on top of him, and it assumed he was the one who grabbed it."

There was a small, tittering laugh, and everyone in the room turned to look at the same person.

"Well, well… how interesting," said Nagito. "After all, I was the one who grabbed the bottle. Looks like my luck came through for me again."

"You…" Hiyoko looked ready to tear his head off. "How can you make a joke about this, you big dumb cretin?! What good is that luck of yours if it just puts the rest of us in danger?" She stormed across the room, heading for the front door. "Just stay away from me! Hanging out with you guys is just gonna get me killed faster!"

*ding-dong, bing-bong*

But she hadn't gotten to the door before the TV on the wall flickered to life. She froze, one foot in the air, as Monokuma appeared on the screen.

"Oh, man! So old Mr. Mechanic finally bit the dust?" he said, looking all too pleased about it. "Thank God we finally got that love triangle out of the picture! If I wanted to watch a soap opera, I'd pirate one!"

Peko unsheathed her sword. "If you are going to insult our classmate, then at least come down here and do it in person. Or are you nothing but a coward?"

"Heyyyy, now. You kids know better by now than attacking your headmaster, don't you?" said Monokuma, a clear warning tone in his voice. "Anyway, we're getting off topic. Ahem! Congratulations! You've beaten the Adventure Phase and obtained the Monocrystal! In exactly one hour, the Class Election will begin!"

And just like that, the TV switched itself back off, leading the students alone again… until the front door swung open, knocking Hiyoko to the floor in the process.

"No! Is it true! Is it really true?" It was Monomi, and she was looking positively distraught. "Did Kazuichi… is he really…"

It was clear from everyone's looks that nobody had the patience for her right now. "Yes, it's true. Kazuichi's dead," Mahiru said. "No thanks to you."

Hiyoko had gotten back to her feet. "Seriously! Where the heck were you, you dumb useless rabbit?" she shouted in Monomi's face. "You keep talking about how you fought these things before! Why don't you just go jump off a cliff and into the ocean?!"

"Hiyoko… those are lemmings," said Mahiru, but nobody paid her any mind. (Had Gundham still been alive, he would have gone into a rant about how lemmings didn't actually do that either.) Monomi, on the other hand, just let her ears droop and covered her face.

"Ohhhh… it's true… I'm so useless," she wept. "I can't even protect my students… I'm not good for anything…"

The students were all ignoring her, but they were upset for other reasons. "The Class Election," said Ryota. "It's happening again… we really have to…" His eyes filled with tears. "This is never going to end, is it? Not until all of us are dead."

"Hey, now. Don't talk like that," said Nekomaru, putting a large hand on his shoulder. "We can't give in to despair. That's exactly what Monokuma wants."

Hajime was already tuning out everyone's voices. The Class Election… he shut his eyes and covered his face in his hand. He couldn't look at Kazuichi anymore. And most of all, he couldn't look that person in the eye. Because then they would know.

He already knew who was about to die.