Chapter 1: Part 1
Sayaka never expected there to be an outside area in this new prison. She had become so used to being locked inside a building that she honestly never thought she'd see the outside world again. Things like grass, flowers, clouds, the sun, they were all foreign concepts to her. Yet, it happened. Nekomaru opened the main door and sunlight hit everyone's eyes. It was blinding for a moment. Everyone recoiled and rubbed their eyes until they all became accustomed to the light. They stepped outside.
It was unbelievable. It was the outside. In contrast to the rundown building they've been residing in, the outside was covered in well-cut grass, healthy looking flowers and well-lit from the sun. Sayaka couldn't help herself. She knelt down and placed her hand in the grass. Such a normal thing filled her with such joy it almost moved her to tears. She wanted to just stop and lay down in the grass.
"Holy shit," Leon said before dropping onto his back and laying down in the grass. "Oh God, I never thought I'd miss grass so much."
That pretty much killed Sayaka's need to lay in the grass.
"Wow, you guys really were trapped in that school, weren't you?" Mahiru asked.
"It was horrible," Chihiro said with a frown. "I felt so claustrophobic in there at times."
"Well, we at least have all this free space now," Ibuki cheered out.
"Hey, wait a second," Kaito stopped in his tracks. "Why are we even still going to this other building? We're outside! All we have to do now is just bust out of this place right now!"
Kaede looked up and around her surroundings. "Um, Kaito? We might not be able to do that."
"Huh? Why's that?" Kaito asked.
Kaede simply pointed up and, to everyone's horror, there was a glass dome large enough to completely enclose the two buildings from the rest of the world. While sunlight could be seen pouring into the dome and the sky was visible, the rest of the surrounding area outside the dome was too blurry to see. Whether the world truly was destroyed or not, there was no way for them to confirm.
"Oh, come on!" Kaito cried out. "Not this crap again!"
"It seems Monokuma is using the dome to imprison us once again," Kirumi noted.
"At least we're not in the middle of the ocean again," Teruteru said.
"That we know of," Kokichi smirked.
"Don't start that shit right now," Miu growled.
"Can we all focus for a moment?" Byakuya asked. "We need to make our way over to the next building."
"Agreed, Togami!" Taka proclaimed. "Follow me, classmates!"
Taka marched ahead of the rest group and onto the next building. The building they were all heading to looked like it had two halves to it. The right side of the building seemed it was only one floor while the left side of the building was at least six stories tall. Outside of that, the outside of the building was designed to resemble Hope's Peak Academy. The mix of traditional brick based structure and modern glass structures along with the old Hope's Peak logo placed in the center of the building. The main standout feature of the building was a makeshift banner written in crayon that read "Monokuma's Despair Academy!"
"Great to see the bear's still obsessed with that stupid word," Mondo said.
"It's disgusting," Nagito said.
"It's stupid," Hiyoko said.
"Yet, we have no choice but to play his game," Rantaro said.
"Agreed," Byakuya said. "Let's not waste any more time."
Byakuya stepped ahead of everyone else and entered the building, followed closely by Taka and Kaito. Once everyone was inside they could see that, just like with the Hope's Peak Killing Game, the lighting was a mix of neon greens and pinks that were aimed randomly across the room. There were also sloppily drawn arrows across the walls and floor with white paint and bits of trash and paper scattered across the area.
"And the bear still can't decorate," Celestia commented.
Taka clenched his fist. "This is no way for a school to look! It's shameful for a so-called headmaster to present their school!"
"Um, there are worse things about Monokuma than his interior decorating," Mahiru stated.
Chiaki pulled out her monopod and scanned through the digital map of the first floor. "We're in the lobby right now, but this building breaks off into two different wings. The right wing seems to be the living area while the left wing is for all the classrooms and offices."
"Thank you for the information, Nanami!" Taka said. "I recommend we split up into groups to explore the two wings!"
"Really?" Leon whined out. "I'm exhausted, man. What time even is it?"
Mukuro pulled out her Monopad and checked the time. "It's 4:43 pm," she said in a monotone voice.
"Hmmm, we should probably eat dinner soon," Chihiro said.
"Indeed," Gundham smirked. "It has been a long time since the Overlord of Ice has dined a great fest!"
"Well if it's dinner you all want, I can certainly cook something up for you all," Teruteru said with a smile.
"And I'll be happy to assist in setting everyone's plates and silverware," Kirumi said with a polite smile.
"Oh, I'd appreciate all the help you can give, darling," Teruteru said with a perverted grin.
Tenko grinded her teeth a bit before turning to Gonta. "Gonta, would you be willing to help out Kirumi? And make sure to keep an eye on Teruteru!"
Gonta's eyes lit up and he smiled brightly. "Gonta love to help!" Gonta said. "Gonta will help!"
"Very well, Gonta," Kirumi said. "And I'm sure you'll also be able to prevent Teruteru from acting out of line."
Teruteru gulped at what could happen if Gonta caught him acting up.
"Aren't we all getting ahead of ourselves?" Tsumugi asked. "I mean, we haven't even taken a look around this place yet?"
"Another fair point," Byakuya said. "We shouldn't relax if we don't know what's in store for us."
"Then how about this?" Kaito spoke up. "We split up, give this place a good once over to get used to it, then we go eat? We can explore more thoroughly tomorrow. It has been a long day and tomorrow will probably be a long day too."
"That sounds like a fair compromise," Byakuya said. "Very well. Everyone group up."
The moment Byakuya said that, Tenko immediately grabbed a hold of Sayaka's hand. Sayaka looked over at the Aikido Master who had a massive smile across her face.
"I'm sticking with you to the end," Tenko said.
Sayaka smiled back at Tenko and gave her a nod.
The rest of the class began to pair off as well. Taka and Mondo, Junko and Mukuro, Leon and Nekomaru, Celestia and Kirumi, Hifumi and Tsumugi, Sakura and Angie, Chihiro and Gonta, Ibuki and Peko, Chiaki and Nagito, Mahiru and Hiyoko, Mikan and Teruteru, Byakuya and Gundham, Kaede and Kaito, Miu and Ryoma, Rantaro and Kiyo. Kokichi was left all by himself. He smirked and put his hands behind his head.
"Well, well, well, looks like I don't need a partner after all," Kokichi said. "Well, I'll just be heading off then."
"Hold it," Byakuya commanded. "I don't trust you to go off on your own. You'll be joining Gundham and myself."
Kokichi groaned a bit. "Fiiiiine. I'll go with you."
"Wait, do we not have another person here?" Leon asked. "I thought we had an even number of people here."
"Actually Kuwata, there are only thirty-three people among us," Kiyo explained.
"Really? I thought there were like thirty-four of us."
"Maybe you need to learn how to count, bitch!" Miu snarked at Leon.
"Hey," Leon whined. "There's no reason to insult me, man."
"Enough bickering!" Taka shouted. "We must focus on our current objective of investigating this floor! I say we investigate the left side for an hour then unite in the cafeteria to discuss our findings!"
"Agreed," Byakuya stated. "Move out."
With that, everyone exited the lobby and made their way to the left side of the building before splitting off into their own groups. While she was more than ready to investigate her surroundings, Sayaka also needed to check on something that had been bothering since she heard about it. The class trial. She was apparently the only one that had not heard about it, and it apparently played a major role in the killing game. 'Just what is up with the class trials?' she thought to herself. She pulled out her Monopad and opened the rules tab.
Despair Academy's List of Rules
1. Students must reside inside the dome at all times. Attempting to escape the dome is an unacceptable use of time.
2. "Nighttime" lasts from 10 pm to 7 am. During this time, certain rooms like the kitchen and laundry room will be off-limits. Please exercise caution.
3. The food in the kitchen is of the highest quality and will be refilled daily.
4. All rooms have their own water sources as to not interfere with other students. However, all water will be cut off during "Nighttime".
5. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitories will be seen as "sleeping in class" and will be punished accordingly.
6. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Despair Academy at your own discretion.
7. Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras and monitors.
8. Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.
9. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will be forgiven for the crimes and return to the world of the living unless they are discovered.
10. Once a murder takes place, three or more must discover the body of the deceased for the Body Discovery Announcement to play.
11. Once a body is discovered, students have a limited amount of time to investigate for clues before the trial.
12. Class trials always follow after an investigation. All surviving students are required to participate.
13. If the guilty part is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
14. If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all the remaining students will be executed.
15. Monokuma will never directly commit a murder.
16. The guilty party may only kill a maximum of 2 people.
17. If two different murders by different murderers occur at the same time only the one whose victim was found first will be the blackened.
18. Monokuma is allowed to add more rules at any point.
It a lot for Sayaka to take in at once. There were so many rules relating to the class trial, yet all of them were kept from her. Monokuma must have done it on purpose. He must've known she would have snapped first. If she did know about them, she might not have gone through with it. One rule especially stood out to her. "If the guilty party isn't exposed, all the remaining students will be executed."
'So, if I did kill Leon, I'd have to kill everyone else?' Sayaka thought to herself. 'All of those people could have died because of me. Even Makoto?'
"Sayaka?" Tenko tugged a bit on the idol's shirt sleeve.
Sayaka nodded back to reality and turned to Tenko. "Huh? What?"
"You were zoning out again," Tenko said with a sympathetic frown. "Are you ok?"
"Oh…yeah," Sayaka said. "I was just going over these rules. I never knew about the class trials, so I should probably learn more about it."
Tenko narrowed her brow and growled. "I can't believe that bear hid those rules from you. It's like he wanted to trick you into killing someone." Tenko then looked over at Sayaka once again. "I guess that's how he tricked that degenerate, Leon. Right?"
Sayaka went pale for a moment. "How about we talk about that later, Tenko? It's still…a sore subject."
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"It's fine."
Meanwhile, Mahiru and Hiyoko had broken away from the rest of the group and entered the left wing of the building. It was a large, rectangular shaped area with fourteen different rooms broken off in the middle with a lobby of its own that had two other rooms on each side. The two girls turned to the first door they saw and entered to find a classroom.
While they weren't in either of the academies, they weren't surprised to see Monokuma's childish artwork drawn across the blackboard and walls. Something about "The Great Monokuma" or whatnot.
Mahiru sighed crossed her arms. "I'm honestly starting to miss Jabberwock Island," she said.
"I just want to be home," Hiyoko said with a pout.
"I know, I know," Mahiru turned to the small girl. "And I promise we will…I don't know how but we will."
"You said that last time," Hiyoko grumbled before sitting herself down in one of the desks.
Mahiru raised an eyebrow for a moment before kneeling down next to the girl and placing her hand on her shoulder. "Hiyoko, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-
Hiyoko slapped Mahiru's hand away. "I know."
"Hiyoko, what's wrong?"
Hiyoko's eye became watery as she sniffed up some snot. "I just…why couldn't I just wake up at home? I hate these games and I hate these people!"
Mahiru placed her hand back on her friend's shoulder. "Hiyoko, they're all in the same situation as us. They are all scared like us."
"They aren't like us! They're a bunch liars and killers! They barely bothered to help me when you died and then pig barf-" Hiyoko stopped when she spotted said nurse through the crack of the door. "That bitch, pig barf!"
Mahiru was about to protest, but she was cut off by Hiyoko suddenly latching herself onto her and crying into her shoulder. Mahiru sighed and wrapped Hiyoko up in her arms.
Several of the other groups entered the other rooms to find six other messy classrooms. However, Hifumi and Tsumugi were able to break that cycle by finding a nurse's office.
"Hmmm, I see," Hifumi adjusted his glasses. "I believe Miss Tsumiki would make use of this room. Wouldn't you agree, Miss Shirogane?"
Hifumi looked back at Tsumugi to see that she was once again staring off into space with a blank expression across her face.
"Uh, Miss Shirogane?" Hifumi spoke a bit louder.
"H-huh?" Tsumugi snapped to reality and for the first time in a while, actually seemed to take note of her surroundings. "Wh-where are we? The…a nurse's office?"
"Um, yeah we are," Hifumi said as he scratched the side of his head. "Uh, are you feeling ok?"
Tsumugi hung her head down and shook it. "No," she said in a dower tone. "This all just feels like a bad nightmare. I-I mean, none of this can be real, right?"
Hifumi frowned a bit. "N-no. This is unfortunately real."
"But how?" Tsumugi whimpered. "None of this is possible! None of you can be real!"
"M-miss Shirogane," Hifumi held his hand out, but soon pulled back. He was never really capable of comforting people, let alone those of the opposite sex. Yet, that was what the universe was asking him to do. He didn't understand real girls. How was he supposed to talk to her? 'The only things I understand are manga and video games,' Hifumi thought to himself. Yet, that's when he got an idea.
"Miss Shirogane?" Hifumi spoke up. "Wh-when I get upset, I start to talk about what manga I've been reading at the moment. Would you like to do that? T-talk about manga, I mean?"
Tsumugi lifted her head up to face the round boy. "What…manga I've been reading?" She went silent for a moment. Then she suddenly shot up with a newfound light in her eyes. "Have you read The Bomb in the Heart?! What about The Tale of Pirates and Ninjas?! Oh, oh, oh! Please tell me you've read Magical Girl Rehab!"
Hifumi was almost taken aback by the girl's sudden change in mood, but that was a good thing. 'It is a good thing, right?' Hifumi thought to himself.
"Um, I've actually been meaning to read The Bomb in the Heart for quite some time, but I was actually in the middle of binge reading Magical Girl Rehab back at Hope's Peak…To be honest…My favorite of genre of manga is magical girl, so I'm a biased."
"Ah, I see," Tsumugi said. "What magical girl series do you like best? I do like Magical Girl Rehab for being a clever deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but I do love classics like Sailor Scouts."
"I personally feel that a lot of the magical girl deconstructions are a bit too repetitive for my taste," Hifumi said as he adjusted his glasses. "Especially when most regular magical girl shows are already dark and depressing. I prefer more lighthearted manga like Demon Angel Pretty Pudgy Princess and Robo Justice."
Tsumugi tapped the side of her head with her finger. "Those are rather niche throwback manga, aren't they?"
"Yes, but they mean a lot to me," Hifumi said before frowning a bit. He couldn't believe he was opening up so much to a real girl. Normally they'd just try to exit the conversation, but Tsumugi was engaged with him. He felt like he could pour his heart out to her. "It was just nice to see a story that showed someone like me…It helped me escape the harshness of reality."
"I see," Tsumugi said. She gave him a slight frown before turning it upside down and patting him on the back. "I can actually relate to that. Wanting to escape reality, I mean."
Hifumi looked over to Tsumugi. He couldn't believe it. He actually cheered a girl up. He made a girl happy. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah! Those manga taught me more than any school ever could! That no matter how dire a situation may be, we must never give up! So, let's not let this get to us. We need to investigate."
"Right, right!" Tsumugi smiled brighter before looking around the room. "Well, it seems like a normal nurse's office to me. Few desks, chairs, plenty of cabinets full of medicine."
"And three bed," Hifumi added on. "Wait a moment, I thought we were only allowed to sleep in our dorm rooms."
Suddenly, out from under one of the beds came Monokuma. "Allow me to explain that little snaffu!"
"GYAH!" Hifumi shrieked. "Where did you come from?"
"Geez, you'd think after all these killing games people would just expect me to appear anywhere," Monokuma said. "Now, about the nursing beds. Only those actually recovering from medical emergencies are allowed to sleep in the nurse's office. All other students are forbidden from sleeping here."
"Hmmm, that's good to know," Tsumugi said. "Are you going to add that to the rules?"
"I was thinking about it, but I also thought it would be funny to leave it out," Monokuma giggled. "Despite how naughty all you kids are, you're actually good at following the dorm room rules. I never get to punish anyone for that!"
"What?!" Hifumi gasped. "You're vile!"
"You just figured that out, Hifumi?" Monokuma cocked his head to the side. "I knew you were slow on the track field, but are you just slow in general?"
"Don't make fun of me like that," Hifumi frowned.
"Ok, ok, fine, ok, fine, ok," Monokuma sighed. "I should probably leave anyway. Other students may need their headmaster's assistance anyway."
With that, Monokuma wobbled away to an air vent, opened it, and disappeared inside. With the two of them alone, Hifumi and Tsumugi returned to talking about their favorite manga.
Meanwhile, Nekomaru and Leon made their way towards the middle hallway of the wing and made a right turn into what turned out to be a gymnasium. For the most part, the gym was a giant basketball court stretched out in front of a stage. It was quite similar to the layout of the gymnasium at Hope's Peak. What was different was that there were several crates filled with different sports equipment like soccer goals, hockey sticks, dumbbells, and the like. It seemed like every possible game could be played in there.
Nekomaru became enthusiastic about all the potential activities he could help his classmates. "Isn't this great, Leon?" he asked with a smile. "We can get you caught back up on your baseball skills."
Leon simply groaned and turned back towards the door.
Nekomaru raised an eyebrow. "Leon? Is something wrong?"
"You mean outside of being trapped in this shit again?"
"Um…yes?"
Leon groaned again and turned back to Nekomaru. "Dude, I fucking leapt at the chance to join Hope's Peak to finally get away from baseball. I thought I'd finally get to be a rock star and just live the high life, but instead I get trapped in some shitty killing game, I get tricked into killing someone, got fucking pelted to death by baseballs only wake up in another killing game. And you honestly think I want to play baseball right now?"
Nekomaru frowned a bit at his former pupil. "Leon, you what I always say?"
Leon was puzzled by what Nekomaru was saying, but it soon clicked. He narrowed his brows. "No, don't you say it-"
"When you're feeling down, work out your feelings!" Nekomaru cheered.
"Damn it, you I hate that stupid catchphrase!"
"You just need to let out that anger. Come on! Let's play some baseball!"
"You can't even play baseball in here, jackass!"
Suddenly, one of the wood panels on the floor lifted up for Monokuma to pop out. "Oh boy," he said in his horribly cheery voice. "It seems someone forgot all about elementary school."
Leon was so startled by the bear's sudden appearance that he fell onto his rear end. "Jesus!"
"Nope, far from him I'm afraid," Monokuma stepped out of his hole, letting the panel fall back into place. "Anyways, I'm just here to say that you absolutely play baseball in here."
"Wh-what?" Leon was baffled by that. "Dude, there's no grass or dirt to prevent getting injured and there's glass windows in here!"
"Oh Kuwata, you really don't have faith in me, do you?" Monokuma asked. "Don't answer that. Just know that all the glass or other fragile looking items have been completely reinforced with a special material to prevent breaking. As for the hardwood floor, trust me, you won't get hurt on it."
"How?"
"How about just accept what I tell you, you little bastard?!" Monokuma growled.
Leon couldn't help but gulp at the bear's outburst.
"Now if you two will excuse me, I have to go," Monokuma said as he opened the wooden panel again. "A headmaster's job is never done." He then disappeared under the wooden panel.
Leon groaned a bit and buried his face in his hands. "I never should have gone to Sayaka's room."
Nekomaru raised an eyebrow at that comment. "Wait, what?"
Leon looked back up at Nekomaru and sighed. "It's a long story, man."
Elsewhere, Byakuya, Gundham, and Kokichi had all moved through the middle hallway to make it to the second half of the wing. After passing by a classroom that Chihiro and Gonta were investigating, they entered a room labeled as "Monokuma's Office."
The office looked like it was just another classroom in the building. Several desks for students to sit in, still messy from all of Monokuma's graffiti, weird lighting. What was most unusual about this room was Monokuma's own personalized desk. It was massive, at least seven feet tall, easily towering over the ordinary desks around it. Engraved at the front of the giant desk was a logo of Monokuma's face with his eternal smirk. Placed behind the desk was a massive swivel chair for Monokuma sit in, and just to show off his massive ego, it was made in the style of a golden throne with royal red padding.
"How sickening," Gundham commented.
"It's certainly an eyesore," Byakuya agreed.
"I don't know," Kokichi said as he inspected the desk. "I think if I could place my face over Monokuma's it would fit well in my evil lair."
"Hold your tongue, snake," Gundham commanded. "We have no time for your delusions of grandeur."
Kokichi just smirked at Gundham. "Pot calling the kettle black, eh Gundham? You know, at least I have my ten thousand followers to believe me. You have, what, a few rats?"
Gundham growled a bit. "Don't you dare refer to my dark devas as simple rats!"
"Well, I don't see your "dark devas" here to defend themselves," Kokichi snickered a bit. "What? Did they not die with you?"
Gundham grinded his teeth. "Of course not…"
"Both of you stop," Byakuya said sternly. "Gunhdam, don't let him get into your head. We have more important things to attend to."
"Like what?" Gunhdam asked as he crossed his arms.
"Like what the purpose of this room even is. If Monokuma can appear anywhere he wants, why would he even need an office?"
Out from behind the giant desk leapt Monokuma. He fell onto the edge of his desk and took a seat on it, looking down on the three boys. "Would you love for me to explain why?" Monokuma asked.
"If you'd wish to be helpful to us for once, yes," Byakuya said.
"Geez, kids are so ungrateful these days," Monokuma hung his head down as if he was frowning. "You bring them back to life and they immediately start going "oh what have you done for me lately."
"Get on with it," Gundham said.
"Fiiiiiiine!" Monokuma whined out before hoping down to the ground. "Well, sure, I can appear anywhere I want at any time I want, but even your omnipresent headmaster needs some place to setting down and relax at. Also, it's nice to have an official place to have discussions with my beloved students. So, if you ever want to stop by and spend some time with your lovely headmaster, feel free."
"Rest assured, none of us are remotely interested in spending more time with you," Byakuya said.
"I don't know," Kokichi spoke up. "He could always just force us to spend time with him."
"Don't give him ideas," Byakuya snapped at Kokichi.
"There's no need to worry, Byakuya Tubby," Monokuma said. "I respect the privacy and freedom of all my students. Exceptforthecamerasinallyourrooms."
"Wait, what?" Byakuya raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing, chow for now!" Monokuma slid underneath the crack of his giant desk and disappeared.
That left the three boys to go back to their investigation.
Right next door to Monokuma's office, Junko and Mukuro had entered what appeared to a large storage room. It was at least three times the size of the average classroom in the building and it was filled to the brim with rows of metal shelves holding boxes containing several pieces of metal, wire, paper, glass, and so on. It seemed like this room was specifically designed to hold anything in particular. Mainly just scraps. While Mukuro viewed this room as just a waste of space, Junko was thrilled by the environment.
"Wowwie!" Junko cheered. "So much scrap metal, you can make several makeshift shivs to kill someone with! What do you think, Mukuro?"
Junko looked back at her sister, but Mukuro refused to speak to her. She gave her twin a light scowl before heading back to the door. Junko sighed and placed her hands on her hips.
"Ok, what exactly is the problem, sis?"
Mukuro stopped dead in her tracks just as she was about to grab the doorknob. "My problem?" she muttered out softly. She then turned around and shouted, "My problem?! You killed me, Junko!"
Junko groaned, rolled her eyes, and waved her hand. "Please. Are you serious upset about that? You know how I am, Mukuro. You should be flattered I wanted to kill you.
Mukuro stormed over to Junko. "You said that both of us were in charge. That you were only going to kidnap me so I can watch the rest of the killing game with you. You lied to me!"
"I didn't lie to you," Junko gave a genuine smile to her sister. "I was planning on watching it with you. It's just…God, I had the opportunity."
"The opportunity?"
"Yeah, it was the perfect situation," Junko explained as if it was sensible. "Do you have any idea how much despair it filled me with to kill my own sister? It was awful." Junko's face turned red from blushing. "Ooooh, and the look on your face? It was the best."
Mukuro grabbed Junko by the collar of her shirt, ready to just tear into her. "I served you! I destroyed the world for you! I betrayed everyone at Hope's Peak for you!"
Junko sighed and placed and hand on her sister's shoulders. "Mukuro, you were forced to live in back alleys for most of your life. The world wasn't worthy of your mercy. As for your "friends"? Come on. Can you say they actually cared about you? I mean, even you dressed up as someone as beautiful as me, Makoto still ignored you for Sayaka."
Mukuro's grip loosed at the mention of the boy's name. "That's…that's not true."
"Is it?"
Mukuro hung her head down, averting her sister's gaze. "What happened to them?"
Junko leaned her head to the side so her ear was closer to Mukuro. "Excuse me?"
Mukuro lifted her head back up. "What happened to Makoto and the others?"
Junko just burst into laughter. "Oh, come on! You really expect to answer that right now?! Did you forget who I am, Mukuro?!
Just at that moment, the door opened up and in walked Kaito and Kaede.
"Hey, guys!" Kaito said with a bright smile.
"So, did you guys find anything?" Kaede asked before stopping in her tracks. From what she saw, she saw Mukuro pulling Junko towards her with their faces close together. Junko seemed to even have a blushing face that only Miu seemed to match in terms of…arousal. Kaede blushed a bit. "Oh! S-sorry. We didn't you two were going to be…"
"Going to be what?" Kaito asked Kaede, but the piano player just covered Kaito's mouth and pulled on his arm.
"Look, we'll just leave you two alone right now," Kaede said in a hurry as she dragged Kaito out of the room. "We'll come- BE BACK LATER! Be back later. That's what I meant. Sorry again."
Mukuro's face turned completely red at the insinuation. She let go of Junko and chased after the two. "W-wait! Hold on! This isn't what it looks like!"
Junko couldn't help but laugh her ass off at her sister's despair.
Peko had been annoyed since the class had all split up into groups. While she wasn't as anti-social as she would appear at a first glass, she did prefer to work alone in situations like this. And yet, she was paired up with her complete opposite.
"So Pekokoko!" Ibuki cheered from behind the swordswoman. "Which room are you planning to search in?"
Peko sighed a bit. "I don't know," she said. "I don't know anything about this place."
"True, true, true," Ibuki commented. She crossed her arms as she entered deep thought. Unfortunately for Peko, Ibuki in deep thought involved a lot of loud humming. And worst, when Ibuki would arrive to an idea, she would clap even louder. "Ibuki's got an idea! We go to the last room on the floor!"
"What would even constitute being the last room?" Peko asked. "There are doors on both sides of the hall?"
"It will be one of the last two then! Follow me!" Ibuki shouted, although following Ibuki involved the rocker grabbing Peko by the wrist and dragging her down the hallway.
Peko couldn't help but grimace as she was dragged against her will. She was at Ibuki's whim, and that was something she was afraid of. Ibuki on the other hand seemed completely fine with her style of cooperation. She remembered how she would make Hajime take part in her usual exercises and how she even tried to get him to pick a fight with Akane. While in the midst of her reminiscing, she looked to the right and saw Kaito and Kaede exiting a rather big room. So, she naturally decided to take a left and found a room she had not seen yet.
"Hmmm, the trash room," Ibuki stated out loud as she stroked her chin, acting is if she was an old detective stroking their beard. "Come on, Peko! We got to investigate!"
Before Peko could even respond, Ibuki opened the door and dragged her inside. For the most part, it was an empty room with a dark grey floor, ceiling and walls. What was in there was a set of three rolling trash cans lined up against the wall, a trash compactor, and an incinerator.
"Oh!" Ibuki spun around as she scanned the room. "This rooms looks like it has sweet acoustics!"
"How could you even tell?" Peko asked.
"It's big and spacious!" Ibuki answered. "Reminds me of my first time rocking out in my garage!"
"Interesting," Peko said half-heartedly.
Ibuki looked back at Peko and smiled. "And you can rock out with Ibuki too!"
"I've never played an instrument."
"Pssssha! That doesn't matter. Ibuki will whip you into shape like she did for Hajime."
Peko raised an eyebrow. "You actually Hajime how to play something?"
Ibuki waved her finger. "Ibuki didn't teach Hajime how to play. She taught him how to rock out!"
"I see…"
Just then, Sakura and Angie entered the room and came face to face with the two. Sakura was in the lead and was the one that most interested in investigating the school. Angie on the other hand seemed disinterested in the investigation and seemed more interested in watching Sakura and sketching in her sketchbook.
"Oh, pardon us," Sakura said. "We were simply investigating each room. Pay us no mind."
Ibuki smiled brightly at Sakura and put her arm around Peko. "Don't worry! Ibuki is always willing to party with more people!"
"Actually, we were just leaving," Peko said.
"Aww, come on, Pekoko!" ibuki frowned a bit. "Can't we stay a bit longer?"
"Ibuki, we agreed to give all the rooms one look over then keep moving," Peko said before moving towards the door. "Come on."
Ibuki sighed. It seemed she wasn't in the lead anymore. "Ok," she said before following Peko out of the room.
Sakura and Angie were left allow in the room. Angie walked over to a corner of the room and sat down to keep drawing. Sakura look a mental note of the room and all the things inside. Once that was done, she turned to over to Angie.
"Pardon me, Angie," Sakura spoke up, "but I couldn't help but notice that you've been looking over at me since we've met. May I ask what for?"
Angie finally put down her pencil and looked at Sakura. "Nyahaha!" she laughed. "So, you've finally asked me, hmm? Very well. I shall reward your curiosity."
Angie picked up her sketchpad and revealed its contents to Sakura. It was a pencil drawing of Sakura. It was impressive actually. Despite all the moving they had been doing since they met, she must have gotten a decent enough look to draw an accurate depiction of Sakura. It was even shaded in properly.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "You've been drawing me? I am impressed, but…why?"
Angie kept up her smile. "Because I've yet to met one such as you! A being of such musculature is a rarity." Angie then spread her arms as if she was being enveloped in the light of God. "It seems that Auta blessed me with your presence as inspiration for my art."
"I see," Sakura said. "I do find it impressive, but perhaps next time you can inform me."
"Of course, of course!" Angie smiled at Sakura. "I will ask you to pose for me next time."
"Thank you," Sakura said. "Are you ready to move on?"
"Yes," Angie leapt up to her feet. "Let Auta shine the way forward."
Sakura nodded and exited the room with Angie.
Welcome back to the madness. I hope you all had a good holiday break and the like. It was not as amazing as I hoped it would be for me, but I'm still alive. And since I'm still alive I have to keep this story going. I'm honestly kind of happy that the first part of our 1st chapter is the longest one I've written yet. Sort of a big "I'm Back and I'm serious" kind of feeling. It also happens to be mostly investigating the new school layout.
I hope I described the setting well enough. I am worried that I may have worded things weird, but you guys would know better than me. Also, splitting people up is always a great way to set up character interactions and set them off for their arcs in this story. I have noticed Sayaka pretty much always stares off into space for a monologue until Tenko snaps her back to reality. Just a pattern I'll have to break soon.
Also, Hiyoko may actually have an arc this time instead of dying out of nowhere for no reason except just to shock us. And Mukuro gets to be a character! I know you fans love Mukuro. I will admit, now that I look back at this part, I am glad I added her. It's good conflict.
As for anything else, uh, I don't have much to say. Just that I once again thank you all for reading and I hope I keep improving as the story grows. It's great to be back and I hope to see reviews from you all.