Chapter 2 Part 7

Sayaka dragged her feet across the floor as she exited her lab and entered the hallway. She clearly wore her sadness across her face as she frowned and stared down at the floor as she shambled like a zombie to the cafeteria. Yet again, she had a breakdown. She wanted to slap herself for letting this environment continue to get to her. It was clearly what Monokuma wanted from her. She shook her head. She had to clean her mind of any negative thoughts and ideas. If she ate something, maybe she'd feel better.

'And I haven't seen Tenko since this morning,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'Maybe some girltalk with her or Kaede will cheer me up. Oh, I should try to see Ryoma today too. Wonder if he's gotten into anything new.'

Sayaka stepped into the cafeteria. While she wasn't the only person in the cafeteria, the only other person in the room was the absolute last person she wanted to see. The redheaded punk was sat at the main table that they had been using for the morning meetings. He was about to take a bite out of a slightly overcooked hotdog when he locked eyes with the blue-haired idol. A groan emitted from Leon's mouth as he rolled his eyes while whatever positivity Sayaka tried to maintain dissolved. The two averted their gaze from each other. Leon focused on eating his hotdog while Sayaka immediately made her way into the kitchen.

'God damn it,' Leon thought to himself. 'Just when I thought I'd get some privacy, SHE had to show up.' Leon grumbled a bit as he thought back through the previous group discussions. 'Got to forgive and forget, huh? Don't know if I can really do that…I mean, has anyone else hear actually forgiven each other? I guess Chiaki forgave Nagito. And I think I heard that photographer forgave Peko. And I wouldn't put it past Nekomaru to forgive that goth guy, and I don't think that Ryoma guy even cares about his killer…I guess should at least try. She did help with the trial.'

Leon snapped back to attention when he heard Sayaka's shoe clack against the marble floor. He saw she was carrying a plate with a salad of sorts on it. He could never really make out what people put in salads; it was all just a mashup of vegetables to him. Sayaka sat herself down at a table at a far corner of cafeteria and slowly began to eat her salad. Leon tapped the end of his fork against the table as he waited for a good chance to talk to the idol. After a few moments, Leon cleared his throat loudly to catch Sayaka's attention.

"So, uh, you like salads?" Leon asked.

Sayaka raised her eyebrow and tilted her head to the side. "What?"

"Salads. You know, do you like them?"

Sayaka couldn't help but maintain her puzzled expression. 'Is this prick seriously talking to me right now?' She thought to herself. 'Is he an idiot?'

Still, Sayaka maintained calm and answered Leon's question. "Uh, yeah," she said. "I had to switch over to an all-salad diet during my idol training."

"Huh." Leon used his fork to push his food around. "I never liked salads. I mean, every time I've seen like packaging, it always looks good, like 'hell yeah, I'm ready to eat healthy,' but whenever I make a salad it just looks like shit."

Sayaka listened to Leon's rant on salads with confusion and slight irritation. "I see…"

"So, like, you got any tips on salads?"

"What?"

Leon took another bite of his hotdog before repeating himself. "You know, tips. You made a pretty good-looking salad. So, you got any, like, secret recipes for your salads?"

Sayaka just stared blankly at the baseball player as she answered. "I…followed the instructions on the bag."

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Leon's face. He forced out a cough and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, you got be pretty good at following directions then."

Sayaka groaned and dropped both her knife and fork onto the table. "What are you doing?"

"What?"

"What are you doing?" Sayaka couldn't hide the irritation in her voice. "I'm just trying to eat lunch and you keep interrupting me. Why are you bothering me?"

Leon stood up from his seat. "Hey, I was just trying to talk! Sorry for trying to forgive and forget."

"Forgive and forg-" Sayaka rose from her own seat to shout. "You do not want to go there, Leon!"

"Why not? You were the one that started this."

"Shut up!"

"You tried to kill me, and you would've gotten everyone else killed too!"

"I said shut up! You were the one that killed me!"

"And I wouldn't have if you just calmed-"

Before Leon could even finish his sentence, Tenko appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him by the waist and wrist, and flipped him onto the hard marble floor. Leon groaned as he held the back of his head, hoping that it wasn't bleeding.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Leon shouted.

Tenko kicked Leon's arm before releasing her grip on him. "That's for antagonizing Sayaka!"

Sayaka raised an eyebrow. "You were listening to us?"

Tenko looked over to her friend. "No. I was actually talking to Chiaki about this idea I had, but I just felt something wrong. So, I rushed over to help as soon as I could."

Leon groaned as he grabbed his aching arm and got onto his knees. "I didn't do anything wrong. She started it."

Tenko reverted her attention back to Leon with a furiously scowl across her face. "I won't listen to any of your lies, degenerate!" Tenko looked back to Sayaka. "How do you want me to punish this creep?"

"P-punish?" Leon's eyes went wide. "But I didn't do anything!"

Sayaka looked down at the aching Leon. She could feel her legs wanting to leap across the room, her hands wanting to ball up into fists and batter the baseball player, her heart wanting to…Sayaka stopped that train of thought. She inhaled through her nose and pushed the air back out through her mouth.

"Let's just go, Tenko," Sayaka said with a frown.

"Are you sure?" Tenko asked.

Sayaka wrapped herself in a hug as she kept frowning. "I just…I don't want to be here right now."

"Ok," Tenko smiled and placed a comforting arm around the idol. "Besides, I got this great idea I think will help you out."

Leon got back up to his feet as he watched Tenko lead Sayaka out of the cafeteria. He rolled his eyes and sat himself back down at his seat. He picked up his hotdog and uttered one final word.

"Bitch," Leon said before taking another bite of his hotdog.

Flames and sparks illuminated the dark room as a blow torch welded two small, metal pipes onto a square, barred, car seat. With the pipes still glowing orange, the Ultimate Inventor, Miu Iruma, immediately began to screw on two handlebars onto the pipes. Due to wearing thick gloves, welding mask, and possibly some insanity, Miu showed no sign fear or pain when operating. She wasn't working alone though. For the first time since duping Shuichi to put up with her, she had an assistant. And a self-loathing and completely subservient assistant at that. Nagito was so willing to help her with anything, she even got him to hold hot pieces of metal and let her screw nails through metal way too close to his face. He was an absolutely pathetic doormat. Perfect for Miu.

Miu would turn off her blow torch and lift up her welder's mask. "That should be it," Miu said as she wiped sweat from her forehead. "Hey, Nagicuck, get me my water."

"Of course," Nagito said with a bright smile as he retrieved a pink, plastic water bottle over to Miu.

Of course, Miu snatched it out of Nagito's hands without thanking him and took a massive swig of water. After the swig, Miu removed and tossed away the welding masks before yanking off her gloves and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, now we can finally put up the rest of those Mobile Voyeurs," Miu said with a massive smile across her face as she admired her work.

Nagito approached Miu's workbench and examined the strange device in front of them. It was a car seat, at least one you'd sit your child in where they're young, with two handlebars attached to the sides, and two exhaust tanks strapped to the back of the seat with tape.

"Not to say this isn't impressive, but this doesn't look like the rest of your mobile cameras," Nagito commented as he tapped his chin.

"That's because it isn't a camera, dumbass," Miu hissed. She picked up the device and presented it to Nagito. "This…is a fully-functioning jet back. The two canisters on the back are for propulsion, and its direction, speed, and propulsion intensity are controlled by the two sticks on the handle bars for the jet back to take off. I call it…The Jack Off!"

Nagito's eyes lit up as he examined the jet back closer. He had completely ignored the off-color name Miu had given it and instead marveled at the fact a real jet back was right in front of him.

"Wow," Nagito gasped. "To think you could make something like a jet back with such limited materials."

"Uh, duh!" Miu rolled her eyes. "Of course I can, Nagicuck! I've got a golden brain after all. I could make a taser with a battery and some toothpicks!"

"Still, what does this have to do with the mobile voyeurs? Don't they already work as drones?"

"Some of them do, but the ones that I want to use are the spider ones with the legs that stick to walls," Miu said as she pulls a massive touch tablet out from her work bench. "I already have them connected to this tablet, creating of live security footage network we can always keep track of. That way, we can keep track of everyone."

"That is a good idea," Nagito said as he turned to examine the tablet. "I'm sure Taka and the others would find that useful. But what about the jet back?"

Miu turned back to Nagito. "First, a jet back saves time on having to use one controller to individually put them all up. Second, it gives me a chance to test out the jet back. And by me, I mean you."

Miu chucked the jet back into Nagito's arms. Nagito nearly fell over when he caught it, but he put his left foot back to keep his balance. Nagito looked down at the invention in his hands before facing Miu again.

"You really trust me to test it?" Nagito asked.

"Well, considering your luck is bullshit," Miu said, "you'll either get it right or, fuck, you probably explode. Who fucking knows with someone who goes blind trying to kill someone?"

Nagito had a carefree smile across his face. "I'd happily die if it's to help you perfect your invention, Miu."

Miu bit her lip as she approached Nagito. "I just love pathetic men like you," she said before fiddling with the dial on the right jetpack handle, turning the propulsion all the way up to its highest setting. "We might as well have you go all the way with this bad point to start."

Nagito wrapped his fingers around the handles and looked down at the bright, red button on the left handle. "And this turns it on, right?"

"Oh, it turns it on, alright," Miu snickered to herself before she retreated back to the safety of her workbench. She lowered her goggles over her eyes and threw up a thumbs up to Nagito.

Nagito nodded back to Miu before finally pressing the red button. In a fraction of a second, the exhaust tanks emitted a bright light at the bottom before two massive flames shot out from the ends before…

BUUUUUISSSSSSH!

BONK!

THUNK!

In around 2 seconds, the jetpack launched Nagito into the air at an uncontrollable speed, bashed him against the roof, before shutting off and crashing into the floor. Miu lifted up her goggles and surveyed the area. Luckily, for her, the only damage done to her lab was a small dent in ceiling. She then turned her attention to the actual injured Nagito.

"You aren't dead, right?" Miu asked.

Nagito slowly climbed back up to his feet and chuckled. "I'm completely fine. You should be more concerned about your jetpack."

"I am. I just need to make sure I didn't kill you either," Miu said as she circled around her workbench and approached Nagito. "Well, we at least know it works. We should go to a lower propulsion setting."

Miu turned the dial down on the right handle to its middle setting. "Ready to give it another go?"

"Anything to help you succeed," Nagito said with a smile.

Miu dashed back to the safety of her workbench, placed her goggles back over her eyes, and gave Nagito a thumbs up. With that que, Nagito would test out the jetpack once again.

Celestia sat patiently at the poker table in the game room, shuffling a deck of cards to both kill time as well as prepare for her upcoming game. The sound of the 50 pieces of thin cardboard flicking and running across each other was something the gothic gambler always found pleasure. It was certainly better than conversing with other people. Although, perhaps Celeste's luck would turn around in her new environment. At least some of her fellow prisoners had similar dark aesthetics to her own.

The sound of the door creaking open caught Celestia's attention. She neatly lined up all of the playing cards and set them down in front of herself as she waited for her guests to enter. Kirumi stepped inside and held the door open for both Gundham and Peko to enter.

Celeste threw on her best smile. "Hello, you two. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come visit me."

"It was not my own choice to come here," Gundham growled as he crossed his arms. "I was practicing the dark arts with my Dark Disciples when your messenger arrived to fetch me. If it weren't for the fact the darkness you emanated wasn't fascinating, I wouldn't have come."

Peko crossed her arms as well. "While I don't mind having a break from Ibuki's energy, I was in the middle of discussing something with Oogami and Chabashira. Do you mind explaining why you called us?"

"Of course," Celeste said with a polite tone before raising from her seat. "I only wish to play a game of poker with the both of you."

Both Gundham and Peko exchanged looks with each other. Despite most of, well, any possible memories they had of each other was erased, the two of them shared the same confused reaction to Celestia's request. They both turned back to gambler.

"I have dabbled briefly in game of thieves and liars, but even I must admit I am no expert," Gundham explained with a solemn expression.

"During my time as my master's bodyguard," Peko spoke up, "I seen several games of poker play out, but I have yet to play a game."

Celestia kept up her smile and nodded her head at Kirumi. Somehow understanding what the nod meant, Kirumi moved over to the poker table and pulled out two seats for Gundham and Peko to sit.

"Then I'll make sure the stakes to this game are low," Celestia said. "We won't be playing for money or favors of…questionable nature."

Gundham was the first to sit down. "Then what are we wagering? I don't believe you're one who plays this game for the thrill of it."

"Oh, come now, Tanaka," Celestia giggled. "I thrive off the thrill of the game…but you are correct. I do want to wager something."

Peko sat herself down next. "Then what is it?"

Celeste sat herself back down and neatly folded her hands together. "If I win, I'd like you two to join me. Peko, judging from your history, I believe you'd make an excellent bodyguard for me. As for you, Gundham, I haven't mentioned this yet, but I actually do have a cat. I think you can give me plenty of advice on how to take care of him."

Gundham and Peko exchanged looks once again before looking back at Celestia. "And if either of us win?"

Celestia shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever you two want. I'm willing to risk humiliation for this."

Peko opened her mouth to speak up, but Gundham cut her off.

"My wager is that you shall teach the secrets of your darkness, Witch!" Gundham pointed dramatically as he shouted.

"Is that meant to be code for fashion advice?" Celeste giggled.

Peko turned her attention to Gundham. "Are you really taking this seriously?"

Gundham nodded while keeping his eyes solely lock on the gambler. "I won't pass up a chance to face off against a fellow creature of darkness."

Peko sighed before she turned back to Celeste. "I guess I'll give it a shot. If I win, I would like to pet your cat."

Celeste tilted her head to the side. "Is that it?"

Peko blushed and nodded.

Celeste chuckled a bit. "Very well. I accept your wagers. Kirumi would be a dear and deal our chips and cards?"

Kirumi bowed her head. "Of course, Miss Ludenberg." Kirumi opened up the wooden poker chip boxes and slowly but surely divided up the chips and distributed them equally amongst the three. She then shuffled the deck one final time before passing out five cards to each player.

"Well then," Celeste spoke up, "let's start."

Chihiro was at her limit. Despite her timid and nonaggressive nature, even she couldn't help but tug on her own hair and slap herself. Days. It had been multiple days since she had been assigned to fix Keebo's programing and she had made zero progress. Chihirio turned away from her computer and rubbed her eyes. How her sight hadn't devolved from staring at computer screens for years, she didn't know the answer to, but she was thankful. Well, for a moment before yelling out loud and burying her face in her hands.

"Why can't I do this?" Chihiro felt tears drip onto her palms. "I should have gotten this by now. I know I should have. But it's just too…"

Chihiro's hands dropped down to her knees, allowing her tears to hit the floor. "I'm…I'm not good enough. I can't do anything ri-"

Chihiro slapped herself. In fact, she slapped her hard. She wasn't even sure she chose to do that consciously. However, it just happened to be what she needed.

"No," Chihiro spoke to herself. She balled up her fists. "I can't talk like that. Not anymore…Everyone…they're all counting on me. They believe in me. I need to be strong. Strong like Nekomaru."

Chihiro spun her chair back around to face the computer. The incomplete code was still on clear display, as if to mock Chihiro. She frowned and tapped her noggin.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Chihiro asked herself. "I can't even figure out his AI programming. I mean, I've made my own AI before, but this is different. This is so dif-"

Chihiro's eyes lit up. "AI…THAT'S IT!" The programmer leapt out of her chair and immediately began typing up code. "I can make another Alter Ego to fill in Keebo's gaps and reprogram him while I'm not around."

Chihiro dove deep into coding. She didn't take the time to check the clock, go to the bathroom, or even get a snack. She needed to focus on remaking Alter Ego. It was a lot of work to do in such a short amount of time. Recording her own voice to be replicated, setting up commands and responses for the AI to carry out, as well as making icons to represent the AI, Chihiro went deep into specifics. Most would consider programming an advanced AI in one day as an impossible task. But Chihiro had already accomplished this back at Hope's Peak. To do it again, especially with her own personal lab and equipment, it would be a synch.

With a few final lines of code, Chihiro leaned back in her seat and let out a long sigh of relief. She looked at the screen, seeing the "Finalizing AI Program" progress bar fill up. She smiled to herself until she felt a small rumble in her stomach. Chihiro placed her hands over her gut and felt it rumble again.

"I must have skipped lunch," Chihiro spoke to herself. She rose from her chair and exited her lab.

Just before Chihiro could make it to her own door, a knock stopped her in her tracks. Chihiro's confidence disappeared and she reverted back to her timid disposition. She took a few deep breaths before she opened the door, and when did…

"CHIHIRO!" Tenko cheered as she leapt towards the small girl and wrapped her into a bear hug. "I'm so glad I found you!"

In just a matter of seconds, Chihiro's face turned a blueish hue as she failed to catch any air. "T-T-Tenko, p-please…I need to…breathe…"

Tenko blushed, "O-oh. R-right. Sorry." Tenko loosened her grip on Chihiro and gently put her back on the ground. "Listen, I need you to come with me."

"R-right now?" Chihiro asked. "But I was kind of in the middle of-"

"Yes, now!" Tenko interrupted Chihiro, grabbing a tight hold of her hand. "I need all the girls for this! It's for everyone's safety!"

Tenko then dragged Chihiro out of her room and through the hallway back to her room.

Hey, guys. I had been working on this part of the story since the beginning of April. As I said before, I had a lot of things come up along with some bullshit scheduling from work. On top of that, my ADHD of wanting to do other projects that haven't started, thinking about my future and life, and the general fear that AI will steal all future writing opportunities and kill my dreams really got to me. Finding time and passion for this was rough. But it isn't dead. I promise I won't let it die.

I have been meaning to get to three of these scenes; Sayaka and Leon finally confronting each other, Celestia finally setting her game with Peko and Gundham together, and Chihiro finally getting some progress in on Keebo. I feel like Leon from the point on will be very similar to Jessie from Breaking Bad in terms of characterization. And that's a good thing for you Leon fans reading because I fucking love Jessie. I don't know if I'm pushing too fast with Celestia's story though. Maybe she could've interacted with Gundham and Peko beforehand, build as much of a bond as she can considering it's Celeste. I'm also curious if I should show how to poker game goes. Let me know on that one.

Another thing I want to ask is, again, what characters you want to see get some time together. I asked that last time, but I'd like to ask again. I'm also a bit worried about my grammar and vocabulary in my story. I want to have a good variety of language without it coming across as overly flowery or just me looking shit up in a thesaurus. I'm also worried about how I'm pacing this story. I didn't plan out specifically how each chapter would be a single day or whatever. I was kind of hoping all these chapters would be equal in parts, make it all nice and even, but I'm worried that won't happen. But whatever the case, thank you for being patient, thank you for reading and commenting, and thank you for caring about me.

I promise to get the next part done faster.