Chapter 2: Part 2

"Yeah, they became like a duo during the first trial," Mondo explained as he pointed at the picture. "She was like the only one that didn't think the kid killed you. After that, they investigated everything together. Guess the kid actually grew some balls to ask her out, huh?"

Sayaka was silent. She just kept staring down at the photo, at Makoto. He looked so happy, he looked like he was free from all this killing game madness. She wanted to smile, to share his happiness, be proud of him for surviving and living a good life. But she couldn't. She looked over to Kyoko. The emotionless, cold girl who refused to even talk with Sayaka whenever she tried to reach out to her, was happy with Makoto. Sayaka nearly crumbled the photo in her hand.

Tenko rolled her eyes as she looked at the photo. "He doesn't seem that special to me. He's probably the most plain looking degenerate I've ever seen."

"Hey, don't be so hard on the kid," Mondo responded. "Sure, he was kinda a wimp, but he was pretty smart. He figured me out…and I guess he figured out the rest of the murders too."

"Well maybe," Tenko said before pausing for a moment. She turned to Sayaka, "So, he was the guy you've been talking about?"

Sayaka didn't respond. She didn't shift her gaze over to her friend. She just kept staring at the photo.

"Um, Sayaka?" Tenko reached her hand on to tap her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me!" Taka shouted from the front of the group. "There's no time to slack off! Pick up your pace so we can properly investigate!"

Mondo snapped his attention away from Sayaka and Tenko and smiled up to Taka. "You got it, bro!"

Tenko's face scrunched up. "Ugh. No need to shout, you degenerate."

"Come on, you two," Mondo said as he dragged both girls forward.

Sayaka snapped out of her train of thought as she was dragged towards the middle of the group. She slipped her photos back into the envelope and stuck the envelope into her skirt pocket.

'Later, I'll have to deal with that later,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'I can't let that picture get to me. I have to focus.'

The group made their way through the hall with Taka constantly looking over his shoulder to see everyone keep up with his pace. This silenced any other conversation from happening. Taka made sure everyone was solely focused on the task at hand. As such, it didn't take long for them to arrive at the stairway, and low and behold, the gate that have previously blocked the stairs to the next floor was gone.

Leon's eyes widened. "Woah! The gate's gone!"

"Of course, it is," Sakura said. "Just as Monokuma explained, more areas are opened to us the more class trials we pass."

"With that in mind, maybe the occasional class trial wouldn't be so bad," Celestia said with smile.

"Y-you still believe that?" Chihiro asked.

"We've all clearly established that my morals don't line up with the rest of yours," Celestia said. "Should you really be surprised by my views anymore?"

"Kikiki," Korekiyo laughed to himself. "Such honesty from the proclaimed Queen of Liars is truly something to behold."

"Don't encourage her behavior," Byakuya said. "The last thing we need is more chaos."

"Oh, don't be like that," a voice echoed from the top of the stairway. Some footsteps echoed afterwards until a smirking Kokichi emerged from the darkness. "A little chaos helps spice things up, after all."

"Oma!" Kiyotaka shouted. "You did not partake in our morning meeting and even went ahead to investigate this new floor without us! You better explain yourself this instant."

"I wanted a head start," Kokichi said with a shrug.

"Oh," Kiyotaka relaxed. "Well, I suppose that's ok-"

"No it's not!" Miu shouted at Taka. She then aggressively pointed her screwdriver at the tiny, purple-haired boy. "He could've set up death traps that ram up our asses up there!"

"Please, do you really think I'd set up death traps for you guys?" Kokichi asked.

"Yes," everyone said in unison.

Kokichi frowned as tears fell from his eyes. "Whaaaa? B-but, but, I only ever think of you guys as my friends…WAAAAAAAAH! WHY ARE YOU ALL GANGING UP ON ME?!"

"You have always been a jerk!" Tenko shouted.

"And you helped Junko and Tsumugi out yesterday," Kaito said. "Why did you even do that? I thought you wanted to end the killing game."

Kokichi immediately switched to a plain expression with no tears at all. "Yeah, but I don't want things to be easy. I need a challenge to overcome, something interesting. And really, who's more interesting than the girl that destroyed the whole world?"

"Well now that both masterminds are dead, can you stop acting like a jerk?" Kaede asked. "We're all on the same side here, Kokichi."

"Can you guys stop saying that?" Kokichi said as he rolled his eyes. "That's clearly a lie. So many of you guys got your own hopes and desires that you want to fulfill."

"But we have a common enemy in the mastermind of this game," Chiaki said. "Are you really so obsessed with a challenge you'd actively make things worse?"

"Of course," Kokichi said with a smile. "I'm the Ultimate Supreme Leader. I don't like to abide by the law or rules. I need a thrill, a challenge, a…muse."

"A muse?" Mahiru asked.

"Yes," Kokichi said. "I need a Sherlock to my Moriarty. A Zenigata to my Lupin. A Shuichi to my…me."

Kokichi moved through the group before stopping in front of Celestia. "I will get the better of you. Just you wait."

Celestia giggled lightly. "I'll gladly accept your challenge."

Kokichi smirked back to the gambler before shifting his gaze over to Sayaka. "And then there's you…"

Sayaka raised an eyebrow as Kokichi approached her, but before she could even respond, Tenko pushed her way in front of Sayaka to face off against Kokichi.

"Don't you dare start going after Sayaka!" Tenko shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kokichi said as he took a step to the side to properly look at Sayaka. "Figuring out they swapped clothes? I got to admit, I didn't of that. And from what I heard about your past, you certainly are more…interesting than I ever would've guess."

Sakura stepped behind the supreme leader and tightly gripped his head with her giant hand. "That's enough," she said with some boom in her voice.

Kokichi gritted his teeth but he kept up his smile. "Ok, ok, I'll behave now. Still, you guys might want to go ahead and check out the next floor. I'm sure you'll guys will enjoy what you find."

"B-b-but what if Kokichi really d-d-did set up traps?" Mikan asked.

Gundham chuckled to himself. "It seems it's finally time for my dark disciples to show you what they are worth."

Gundham knelt down to the floor and used his arm as a ramp for Khan and Mephisto to travel down to the floor while Phoenix and Raijin flew up into the air. "Go my dark disciples!" Gundham commanded. "Search this dark land for any traps and eviscerate them!"

All four of Gundham's "disciples" surprisingly nodded back to their master and traveled up the stairs much faster than animals their size had any right to. Even Mephisto the snake had no difficulty traversing up the stairs. They all quickly vanished from sight all while Gundham crossed his arms and chuckled to himself.

"My dark disciples will make quick work of any trap that impedes our path," Gundham said.

Gonta smiled brightly. "Gundham's pets are very good! Gonta want to train bugs like that!"

Leon scratched the back of his head. "Um, not offense, but what if your pets get caught in the traps?"

"And what if Kokichi didn't set any traps?" Kaede asked.

"First of all, these are not simple pets!" Gundham growled. "They are my dark disciples, and they are far more cunning than most of you humans. They will avoid and disarm any trap. And if there are none, then we shall have no trouble."

"Pfff, whatever," Miu said with a sarcastic tone. "You're crazy if you think some dumb animals are the best way to search."

Miu finally put away her screwdriver…into her cleavage and held out the small device she had been working on. It looked like a smartphone with four propellors at the four corners of the device, similar to a drone, but small enough to fit into the palm of her hand. She tossed the device into the air, but before it could fall to the ground, she pulled out a small remote control and pressed a big, red, button. The propellors spun rapidly enough to stop the device's fall and eventually lift itself up into air.

"You guys better be getting rock hard checking this baby out!" Miu said loud and proud. "This is my newest invention, the Mobile Voyeur: Air!"

"Wait, did you make this?" Leon asked as he circled around the hovering drone.

"Uh, no duh, dumbass!" Miu said. "I just finished right in front of your eyes, so are you blind or retarded?!"

"Jesus," Leon said with a frown. "No need to go that low."

Choosing to ignore the comments Miu made and hoping to prevent another argument, Kaede interrupted the both of them by walking over to Miu's side and looking down at the controller in her hands. "So, what exactly is this? A drone?"

"Bitch, please," Miu responded. "This better than any dipshit drone you can find in a store. This Mobile Voyeur: Air is the perfect counter to whatever trick the monochrome has in store for us. With it, I can get a good look at anything without being in trouble. If he gets to have cameras everyone, then we should too."

"Wow, such a genius device," Nagito praised. "You really do deserve your title of Ultimate Inventor."

"Yeah, I know," Miu chuckled confidently. "I'm a genius."

"Hmph," Gundham crossed his arms and growled. "You limit yourself relying on technology rather than exploring the dark arts."

"Playing with animal dick counts as magic?" Miu asked.

Gundham's pale white face turned a hellish shade of red as he gripped his bandaged arm. "HOW DARE YOU! I will not forgive your transgression, blacksmith!"

Gundham was about to lash out at Miu, but he was stopped when Chiaki placed her hand on his shoulder. Gundham looked to the gamer and opened his mouth to protest, but Chiaki narrowed her eyes at him. That was enough to cool Gundham's temper. He let out a small huff from his nose and crossed his arms like an angry teen. Chiaki would pat him on the shoulder lightly before stepping towards the drone.

"This does seem like it will help us, but I'm confused by something," Chiaki said. "You called it the Mobile Voyeur: Air. Does that mean you've made others?"

"Yeah, you guys really think this is the only thing I've worked on here this whole time?" Miu asked. "I've made several remote-control Mobile Voyeurs. This is just the first one that can fly."

"Why haven't you told us about them before?" Chiaki asked.

"Yeah, that could've helped with the class trial," Kaito added on. "Where are they anyway?"

Miu's face turned a light shade of pink. "Uh…w-well…"

Shinji crossed his arms. "Well, what?"

Miu immediately turned on the screen on her controller and shouted, "Oh hey look! The coast is clear!"

Everyone surrounded Miu and looked towards the screen. The live footage was in black and white, so it was difficult for some of the students to see anything as the dark shadows were accentuated. Miu moved her thumbs across the control sticks to pan around the area. Nothing seemed too out of place with new floor. It was just the same flat, tilled floors the first floor had. In fact, it seemed less interesting as there didn't seem to be a divide in the hall like the first floor. It was just one, complete, area. Miu sent the drone forward and, as it scanned the area, caught sight of all of Gundham's pets. They seemed to have been wandering aimlessly, but they eventually noticed the drone and stared right into the camera as if they knew their master was on the other side.

"MWUHAHAHAHA!" Gundham laughed out loud. "It seems my dark disciples had disposed of all obstacles in our path!"

"Or…you know…there weren't any," Leon said.

Mahiru leaned over to Leon and whispered. "Just let him have his fun. It goes by faster."

"Well, I believe we've spent enough time just standing around here on these steps," Kiyotaka announced. "Let us make haste and investigate this new floor."

With that, Taka began to march up the stairs followed by Mondo, Kaito, Chiaki, and then eventually the rest of group. Nothing about the stairway was particularly interesting. It was just two flights of stairs with a middle area to break them up. Something you'd see in any school, hell, any building with multiple floors.

When they all reached the top of the stairs, they saw both Gundham's pets and Miu's Mobile Voyeur were waiting for them. Gundham knelt down next to his pets and allowed them to crawl, fly, and slither up his arms and rest on his shoulders. He stroked each of their heads, a reward for a job well down. Miu snatched her drone out of the air and pressed the red button to turn of the device's propellers, shutting it off. With that out of the way, group stepped through the doorway to the second floor.

The new floor was unusual. As they saw earlier, it wasn't divided to separate halls like the first floor was. In fact, it wasn't even a hall at all. The second floor was giant, circular area, and outside of the rooms on the floor, it was completely flat and devoid of any details. No Monokuma styled art, no benches to sit on, nothing. As for the rooms on the floor, they were also organized unusually. Outside of the blocked off door to the third floor, there were five doors. Three on the right side of floor, all space out evenly across the wall to the blocked door. But there were only two doors on the left side of the floor, and while they seemed to mirror the spaces the right side had, there was an empty, flat wall right where the third door would be.

"So, this is the second floor, huh?" Kaede spoke out loud.

"It's…certainly something," Mahiru said.

Chihiro felt something was off. Not dangerous, but just the layout of this floor baffled her. She pulled out her Monopad and opened up the map app. She would flick back and forth from the maps of the first and second floors for a moment, examining them, before looking to the rest of the group.

"Um, c-can I say something?" Chihiro asked as she raised her hand.

Chiaki turned around to face the programmer. "Of course, you can."

Chihiro held up her Monopad. "W-well, I checked out the map on the Monopad and noticed that…this floor is weird."

"Well, yeah," Kaito said as he looked do the empty space on the left side. "It doesn't look like there are even bathrooms here."

"N-not just that, but the layout is…impossible."

"What do you mean impossible?" Nekomaru asked. "We're standing in it right now."

"I know, but the shape of the first floor is more rectangular," Chihiro explained. "But this one is circular. A-and if I remember right, it didn't look like that on the outside."

"No, it didn't," Korekiyo said. "The whole school building appeared to have the same rectangular layout for each floor."

"Hmm, so the bear is employing illusionary magic for this building," Gundham comment.

"Oh please," Hiyoko rolled her eyes. "This is just some dumb trick. Funhouses do it all that time to trick idiots like you guys."

"If it is like a funhouse, Ibuki demands the fun to happen now!" Ibuki shouted.

Just at that moment, the blocked off door to the third floor opened up, and out of the darkness, rolling like a ball, was Monokuma. The black and white bear rolled several feet before stopping right in front of group. Monokuma laid on his side, propping his head on one of his hands.

"If it's fun you're looking for, you gotta explore the floor!" Monokuma said. "This floor has all sorts of surprises. Who knows, you may even find some prizes."

"Oh fuck, he's rhyming," Mondo pinched the bridge of his nose.

Monokuma hopped up to his feet. "Hey, you can't blame a guy for having fun. Just explore the floor and get it done."

"That one barely even worked," Peko said with an annoyed huff.

"Ok, ok, fine, be that way" Monokuma said with a hiss. "Kick a guy because he wanted to play. But seriously, this floor has some little secrets you may find thrilling. So, why don't you go ahead and explore?"

Before anyone else could say anything, Monokuma balled himself back up and rolled backward to the door to the third floor. It opened up only to close once Monokuma entered it. And with that, the group was left alone to explore the floor.

Kiyotaka turned to the students. "Since we have five rooms available for us, I recommend we all split into five groups of six."

"So, let's split up into five groups of six so we can better explore this floor," Kaito said with a confident smile."

Taka frowned at Kaito. "I just said that."

Shinji sighed. "It seems he's never going to change."

"So, are we going to pull names out of a hat again?" Mukuro asked.

"An excellent idea, Ikusaba!" Taka said with a bright smile before turning to Ryoma. "Hoshi, would you be willing to lend us your hat once again?"

Ryoma shrugged and removed his beanie before tossing it to Taka.

"Thank you very much, Hoshi," Taka bowed his head in thanks. He then turned to Hifumi. "Yamada, can you hand me a sheet of-"

Before Taka could finish his request, Hifumi angerly shoved his hand into his backpack, tore a page haphazardly from his notebook and shoved it into Kaito's hands.

"Um," Kaito spoke nervously, "thanks, Hifumi."

Hifumi didn't speak up. He slipped to the back of the group and looked away.

Kaito glanced at the nerd for a moment, but then turned his attention to the sheet of paper. He wrote down everyone's names on the paper and tore the page up as neatly as he possible could. He tossed the pieces of paper in Ryoma's beanie and shook them around. Kaito then finally motioned Taka and Chiaki over to him.

"I think we first got to pick who the other two group leaders should be," Kaito said.

"An excellent idea, Momota," Taka commented. "I shall call upon them."

Taka placed his hand into the hat and pulled two sheets of paper out. He opened them up and read the names out loud. "Akamatsu and Koizumi, you shall be the other two group leaders."

Kaede smiled and excitedly dashed over to Kaito and the others. Mahiru meanwhile slowly made her way to the others while glancing at Hiyoko.

'If I get Hiyoko in my group and someone else gets Angie, maybe I can fix this,' Mahiru thought to herself. 'Although, maybe I should talk to Kaito about it as well.'

With the five group leaders ready, then began to take turns pulling names out of the beanie and assembling their groups. Kiyotaka picked Leon, Sakura, Nekomaru, Angie, and Miu. Chiaki picked Chihiro, Celestia, Teruteru, Nagito, and Kirumi. Kaito got Mukuro, Hifumi, Peko, Ryoma, and Gundham. Mahiru picked Mikan, Hiyoko, Gonta, Tenko, and Rantaro. Then Kaede got Sayaka, Mondo, Ibuki, Korekiyo, and Shinji.

With all the groups gathered together, Taka made his final announcement for the moment. "I believe it shall be clear, but as a reminder, I recommend we spend at most two hours exploring this floor before regrouping in the cafeteria to discuss our findings."

"That's fine with me if it's fine with everyone else," Kaede said before looking around to everyone.

After a moment of silence with no one speaking up, each of the group leaders nodded to each other and led their respective groups to the rooms. Chiaki's group entered the first door on the right, Kaede's entered the second, and Kiyotaka's entered the third. Meanwhile, Kaito's group entered the first door on the left, and Mahiru's took the second.

As soon as Chiaki entered the room, her usually tired eyes lit up with excitement. It was a game room styled after the look of a casino. Green carpets, wood paneling across the walls, and a large selection of games. At one of the front corners of the room was a large poker table cut into the shape of a semi-circle, one side for at least seven players to sit, and the other side for the dealer. At the other corner in the front of the room was a large capsule machine, a device to stick coins into in order retrieve one prize. All though, it was much bigger than ones that would carry candy or small marbles. No, the glass dome of this capsule machine looked to be as large as five beach balls. In front of the capsule machine was a pool table with all the balls held in the triangle. On the right side of the room were several slot machines and pachinko machines. On the left side were several arcade cabinets of various kinds of games like fighting games, racing games, light-gun games, and even a whack-a-mole (Or whack-a-Monokuma in this case). At the back wall of the room was a dart board, with a little holder for all the darts and small shelf just below the dart board full of board games.

The usually slow and tired Chiaki dashed deeper into the room and examined each part of the room like a kid in a candy shop.

"Wow," Chiaki cheered as she pumped her fists. "This is amazing! This place has everything. It even has games I never even tried before! Tron, Tekken 6, even a new House of the Dead!"

"I must say it's unusual to see this side of you, Miss Nanami," Kirumi commented.

"Indeed," Celestia added on. "I personally don't see why you're so excited. Wouldn't most of these games be available in your Ultimate Lab?"

Chiaki spun away from the cabinets to face the gambler. "They might be in my lab, but there's just something special about arcade cabinets. It's not just you sitting in your room alone, you can be in a packed area with tons of people with the sounds of old games playing in the backgrounds…It's just different. It's like how playing poker is different in a casino rather than at home…I think."

Celestia chuckled. "Perhaps you have a point." She walked over to the poker table and ran her hand across the wooden edge. "There's certainly more room to play here than in my lab. Perhaps we can all play a game together soon."

"Sure," Chiaki smiled. "And maybe we can play some of these arcade games too!"

Celestia's smile vanished and she began to twirl her hair around her finger. "I hate video games."

Chiaki frowned a bit at Celeste's comment, but Chihiro walked over to the gamer.

"I-I wouldn't mind playing some arcade games with you," Chihiro said. "Even before…a-all of this, it had been a while since I played a game with friends."

Chiaki smiled down at the programmer. Meanwhile, Teruteru slid over to Celeste's side and, as "smoothly" as he could, leaned up against the table.

"I'm all for a game of poker, but I feel like the…stakes of the game should be interesting," the chef explained. "I say I'd love to play a few rounds of strip poker with you, Miss Ludenberg."

Celeste smiled down at Teruteru and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "Not on your life…cook."

Teruteru's playful grin shrank. 'My pride, wounded…but…God, when she does it…' He rubbed away a trail of blood from his nose.

Nagito had split off from the rest of the group. He had been unusually quiet since they had entered the game room. He wondered to the back of the room to the dart board. He pulled out one of the darts and lightly poked the tip of it against his thumb. A small speck of blood leaked from the poke mark which Nagito sucked on to stop.

Kirumi carefully approached Nagito from behind. "Do you like darts, Nagito?"

Nagito glanced over his shoulder to see the maid. He placed the dart back in the holder. "I was checking if it was the safe kind. It's not."

"Well, as long as we're careful, we should have no worries," Kirumi explained.

"With my luck, it wouldn't matter."

Chiaki had moved over to the capsule machine at the corner of the room. It reminded her to the Mono Machine back on Jabberwock Island. As she examined the coin slot, she felt a light tug on her sleeve. She looked over her shoulder to see Chihiro looking more sheepish than usual.

"Is something wrong, Chihiro?" Chiaki asked.

"U-u-um," Chihiro whispered under her breath. "Can I ask you something about you being a part of the Future Foundation?"

Chiaki turned away from the capsule machine to completely face the programmer. "Of course. I'm honestly a little surprised you haven't sooner."

Chihiro nervously held her hands together. "W-well, it's more personal than just…Can I ask you something?"

Chiaki nodded.

"So, does the Future Foundation know everything about the killing games?"

"Yes. It was our job to try and fix the world after everything Junko and the Ultimate Despair had done. That includes investigating the killing games and stopping any more from happening."

"S-so," Chihiro took a large gulp before asking her question. "does that mean you know…about me?"

As soon as she finished her question, Chihiro shut her eyes and held her breath. She shook in place. She readied to hear the worse. But she didn't. Instead, she felt something touch the top of her head. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Chiaki smiling down at her while patting her head.

"Don't worry," Chiaki whispered. "I won't tell anyone."

Chihiro couldn't help but tear up at Chiaki's gentle kindness. She wiped away her tears and smiled up at the gamer. "Thank you. I-I do want to tell everyone, but-"

"Don't worry," Chiaki said again. "You'll be ready at your own time."

"Y-yes," Chihiro said. "I will."

Chiaki patted Chihiro on the head one last time before returning to explore the rest of the room.

Kiyotaka marched and led his group into the third room with full gusto. Upon entering the room, they were hit a sudden burst of bright lights. They squinted their eyes and used their hands to cover the lights as they stepped further into the room. But yet in just a matter of seconds, their eyes adjusted to the light to see what the room truly was. It was a well-lit, mostly white, indoor pool. Just at Hope's Peak, it was massive, easily around half the size of a football field. Along the sides of the pool were pool chairs lined up evenly, at the corner at the back of the room was a large wheel with the pool dividers wrapped around it, and at another corner at the front of the room were several crates full of lifejackets, floaties, paddle boards, and beach balls. At the back of the room was another door marked as "Hot Springs."

"Ah, so there's a swimming pool here!" Nekomaru shouted loudly. "Excellent! Swimming is a great way to build stamina and speed!"

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the swimming pool. "I know Hina would enjoy this."

"Yes, yes, truly this would be a fine place for extracurricular activities, but we must not lose focus!" Taka proclaimed. "We must also search for clues to an exit or to who our captor is!"

"Ok, ok, jeez," Leon said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Can't even let us relax for a sec." Leon turned his attention over to Miu. "I'd rather just take a dip. You feel me?"

Miu scoffed and let out a hearty laugh. "Was that you best try at trying to see me in a bikini? Wow, you really are a lame virgin, aren't ya?"

Leon blushed. "H-hey, come on! You saw me shirtless yesterday! You were totally giving me bedroom eyes."

"So? That doesn't mean I'd do the same for you," Miu said.

"Oh, come on, it would be fun. I'll totally take my shirt off again."

"Leon!" Nekomaru shouted from the other side of the pool. "I came up with a new exercise routine for us! I say we do a hundred laps around the pool! What do you say?"

Leon went pale at Nekomaru's announcement. "Uuuuuh. No. I-I think I'm good. Pools are best for relaxing, anyway."

"Nonsense!" Nekomaru rounded the pool and approached Leon. "Whenever you got the chance to maintain shape, you should take it.

Leon looked back Miu. "Mind helping me out?" he mouthed to her.

Miu laughed and waved her hand as she walked away. "Nah, I think you can handle it, big guy."

Meanwhile, Kiyotaka had entered the room marked as "Hot Springs" to see it was set up similarly to how Hope's Peak's was. The first room he entered was actually the changing room, complete with cubbies for people to put their clothes, a towel rack filled with, obviously, towels, a coat hanger which held bathrobes, and benches to sit down and relax at. Behind all of that was the door to the actual hot springs. Taka poked his head through the door but was hit with a thick fog of steam. He immediately backed out of the room.

"Perhaps I shall investigate this at a different time," Taka said to himself.

Taka shut the door and turned around to see Angie looking through the cubies.

"Ah, Yonaga," Taka approached the artist. "I've actually been meaning to speak to you."

Angie turned around and flashed her bright smile. "Nyahaha. So, you wish to speak with me, yes?"

"Y-yes, that is what I said," Taka responded.

"Very well. I'm curious. What troubles you, friend?"

"Well, it's about the safety of our group. You see, while I've always strived to act as a leader for my fellow classmates, I have found it…difficult as of late. Finding out Togami was not in fact Togami, not figuring out who the masterminds were, not stopping Mukuro, Nagito, or Kokichi from interfering with the murder, I feel like I've lost control of the situation."

"Ah, one must not lose hope in situations like this," Angie placed her hand on Taka's shoulder.

"I know, but knowing I failed once before…I need some advice."

"Ah, so you wish to know about the word of Auta?"

"I know nothing about your Auta, but I have been curious about your student council."

Angie's already bright smile grew even wider.

Damn my schedule. I'm sorry things have been taking so long. You know, at the beginning of the year, I was hoping to get to this point around July, but that's just not how things turn out.

Anyways, one random factoid I forgot to mention last chapter, when it was more important, was about character designs. I already gave Sayaka an ahoge earlier in the story, but last part had Tenko change into more appropriate martial arts attire. This was because I plan on slowly changing up how some of the characters look, just to give my story it's own unique flare. I don't know how well it will go over.

I think sometimes my descriptions and prose have gotten lazy while I just stuck to dialogue. I really tried more with this chapter once we got to the game room, but I feel like it fell apart at the pool. I just wanted to finish this part today.

Still, I gave a lot of spot light to other characters. Miu and Gundham really shined in this first half I feel while I pretty much enjoyed all the bits I did in the game room, especially with Chiaki and Chihiro. Not too thrilled about how rushed I was by the end though, but that's what next chapter can be for. Angie will be a problem.

Anyways, thank you for reading and leaving reviews. It always helps me out.