Chapter 2: Part 9

"RIIIIIIIIIIING!" Monokuma screeched into the school's intercom. "It's 7 o'clock am! That means it's now morning time! All water and food are now available for your convenance! So, rise up and greet this beauuuuuutiful day!"

Taka immediately sat up straight in his bed as the morning announcement played out. Like machine, Taka broke out of his sleep fatigue to immediately prepare for the day ahead of him. Brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and getting dressed in his clean white uniform. As he finished lacing up his boots, he turned his attention over to the corner of the room. Just next to his bed was Angie. Taka had been keeping the Ultimate Artist under surveillance in his room for the past few days. She was still handcuffed, but Kiyotaka had done his best to be accommodating to her by giving her his blanket and pillows to sleep on.

"It is time to wake up, Yonaga," Taka said loudly.

Angie opened her eyes and smiled brightly at the boy. "Ah, good morning, dear Taka. Did you get a good night's sleep?"

"Indeed I did, Yonaga," Taka smiled back. "I hope you did as well."

"I slept well enough," Angie said as she slowly stood up. "Although, these handcuffs are still uncomfortable to wear."

"I am sorry to hear that, but for the safety of the rest of our student body, I must keep you under watch."

Angie frowned, but nodded. "I understand you're concerns, Taka. I care about the safety of my friends too, Taka. If there's any way I can help ease their concerns, please let me know."

Taka tapped his chin as he thought. "Perhaps you can tell me more about this student council you thought up. I know we've discussed it before, but it has been some time since then."

Angie grew a massive smile across her face. "Oh, of course I can, Taka. And rest assured, this student council is solely focused on the safety of the student body."

"Well, good. That's exactly what we need to focus on. It has been a few days since Monokuma has revealed himself to us. He is most likely planning something."

Angie clapped her hands together. "Of course, of course. That's why you should consider keeping everyone under surveillance."

Taka raised an eyebrow. "Everyone?"

"I overheard Miu mentioning security cameras?" Angie said with an unsure tone of voice. With a confirming nod from Taka, she continued. "I think it's a great idea for us to have our own security system, but I felt she would be the last person to act responsible with such a thing. Atua tells me that you should have sole access to a such footage."

Taka placed his fist against his chin as he thought it over. "You are right. Chiaki, Kaito, and myself should be the ones to overlook the live security footage."

Angie shook her head. "No, no, no. I said only you should be watching over us."

Taka's eyes widened. "What? Only me?"

Angie gave another wide smile, but this time there a dark aura surrounding the cheery girl. Despite what she was telling Taka, it was clear she had a sinister motive for her words.

Sayaka sat herself down at the main cafeteria table. She set down her tray of food. It was a plate of four strips of crispy bacon, eggs scrambled with cheese, and two toasted waffles. It was certainly a fatty breakfast to have, but Sayaka didn't have any concerts to attend to at the moment. She could afford some cheat days. As she picked up her fork and knife to cut her waffle apart, Tenko, Chihiro, and Chiaki entered the room. Tenko, of course, immediately sat herself next to Sayaka. The two friends traded friendly smiles with one another while Chihiro sat herself a far distance away from Tenko. Chiaki looked around the cafeteria before turning back to Sayaka.

"Where are Taka and Kaito?" Chiaki asked.

Sayaka shrugged. Honestly, the fact Chiaki even thought Sayaka would know where either man was silly to the idol. Still, it was odd. "I wouldn't put it pass Kaito to sleep through the morning meeting, but Taka also not being here is weird."

"Well, it's not like we really need either of them," Tenko said. "Us girls should be enough to get the job done."

Chihiro gulped a bit. "B-but don't Taka and Kaito have both of those history books?"

Tenko nodded. "Yeah, but they've barely even told us anything about them! It's so typical of males to slack off on important stuff like that."

Sayaka sighed. "Tenko…"

Tenko's attitude shifted once Sayaka gave her that dry response. She hunched over and poked her fingers together while giving an apologetic look to the idol. "S-sorry. But come on, even you have to admit they're taking a while to get to the point on those books."

"I'm sure both of them are working hard on reading them," Chiaki said. "Both of them are very determined with leading us, so they have to be hard at work on them….I think."

Sayaka frowned. "You don't sound too confident."

Chiaki tilted her head. "What do you mean? I'm confident in them…I think."

'Oh, I guess that's just a verbal tick for her,' Sayaka thought.

Chihiro cleared her throat. "So, I didn't get a chance to say this yesterday, but I'm finally making some progress on Keebo."

"What?!" Tenko's eyes lit up and she immediately dashed over and got far too deep into Chihiro's personal space. "Really?! Keebo's working again?!"

Chihiro blushed and scooted her chair backward. "U-um, I wouldn't say he's working, but I did recreate my Alter Ego Ai to continue working on him while I'm busy. I think the AI will allow him to at least respond to us and use all of his limbs. His memory will still be a tricky thing to solve."

"Well, that's awesome!" Tenko said before leaping forward and hugging Chihiro tightly.

A bit too tightly honestly. Chihiro's face had turned red, although that may have also been a mix of embarrassment and fear of Tenko being so close to her. Sayaka rolled her eyes watching Tenko unintentionally terrify the small girl and decided to gently tug Tenko away from Chihiro.

"Oh, s-sorry," Tenko apologized.

Sayaka patted Tenko lightly on the shoulder before looking at Chihiro. "That's really good news, Chihiro. I'm honestly still surprised that you can make an AI like that."

Chihiro adjusted the collar on her shirt and straightened out her jacket. "It's just building upon some of the basics of AI programming. You see, in stuff like video games, a NPC would need to have basic commands and functions in order to interact with the player. For something like an AI assistant, or robot in Keebo's case, you have to make a wider variety of functions, responses, and also calculate how fast it can respond and take action for whatever you ask it to do."

Chihiro paused to take a breath when she noticed that all three girls listening to her babbling had completely blank expressions. Chihiro blushed and held her hands together. "Um…that…didn't make any sense to you, did it?"

"It did," Chiaki said.

"Kind of," Sayaka said, a bit unsure of her own answer.

"Not at all," Tenko shook her head, but had an admiring smile on her face all the same.

Chihiro sighed and frowned. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Chiaki tilted her head. "You did absolutely nothing wrong."

"Yeah," Sayaka added on. "In fact, you've probably just given us our biggest chance of figuring out what's really going on here."

Chihiro looked down before a smile slowly formed across her face. "Thank you."

"No problem, Chihiro!" Tenko said with a smile. "You keep being amazing!"

Chihiro couldn't help but let out a confident giggle as all three girls complimented her. As she giggled, her eyes drifted over to one of the walls in the cafeteria where she spotted the clock. 9:15. Chihiro's eyes widened and she quickly leapt up from her seat.

"Oh no!" Chihiro gasped. "I promised I'd train with Nekomaru early today! I-I got to go, I'm sorry!"

Tenko had to do a double take at the programmer due to what she had said, "Wait, you're training with Nekomaru instead of us?"

"W-well, I have actually been training with him for a while now," Chihiro said, incredibly nervous as to not upset Tenko.

"But…but he's a degenerate!" Tenko shouted. "You should totally be training with the rest of us girls!"

Chiaki looked over at Tenko. "I actually think it's a good idea for Nekomaru to train Chihiro. He's an expert personal trainer and a trustworthy friend."

Tenko opened her mouth, but Sayaka placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. Tenko looked up at her friend.

"Tenko, I think we can trust Nekomaru," Sayaka said.

Tenko sighed and looked back at Chihiro. "Ok….But if he does anything-!"

"Thank you!" Chihiro interrupted before waving goodbye and dashing out of the room.

Tenko shook her head. "I still don't see why she can't just train with us."

Chiaki stood up from her chair as well. "I should leave too. If I really am supposed to be the leader for my class, I should at least get to work with Taka and Kaito."

"Do you really think you're not doing a good job?" Sayaka asked. "I think you're doing a good job so far."

Chiaki frowned as she tugged onto her hoodie. "I know my job has always been to watch out for everyone. I try my best, I really do, but…I also know I'm not the best with social interactions. So, being a leader is still unusual for me…that's why I thought Shinji was a good choice to lead before. He can put up a persona of confidence and intelligence."

"I don't know, he seemed a little paranoid at times," Tenko said.

"Speaking of Togami- I mean, Shinji," Sayaka spoke up, "where has he been? He kind of went quiet after we found the second floor."

"I guess I should check on him too," Chiaki said. "You two have a good rest of the day."

And with that, Chiaki made her way out of the cafeteria, leaving both Sayaka and Tenko alone. Sayaka quickly returned to eating her breakfast. All that talking cooled it off a bit. While watching her friend chow down on her food, Tenko couldn't help but frown. After chewing on her final piece of bacon, Sayaka caught Tenko's frown in her sight.

"What's wrong?" Sayaka asked.

"Am I too much?" Tenko asked.

Sayaka tilted her head. "What?"

"Am I too much?"

Sayaka took a sip of water to easily get the rest of food down her throat. "What do you mean?"

"You, Chiaki, Kaede, everyone gets upset with me."

"We're not upset with you, Tenko. Why do you think that?"

"You guys keep telling me to calm down and that I'm too hard on guys," Tenko rattled off, "and then I'm told I'm too clingy…I just.."

Sayaka reached over and grabbed Tenko's hand, stopping the Aikido Master's rant. "Tenko, I can't speak for everyone. And, I can't speak for what things were like back in your killing game or even earlier…but I can say that you're my friend. Kaede and Chiaki are your friends. And I'm sure Ibuki, Chihiro, and Sakura are your friends too…but so are people like Taka and Kaito. We don't want you to just stop being who you are…but you shouldn't be upset when we try to help you either. Everyone trusts you, Tenko. You just got to trust everyone back."

Tenko could've easily burst into tears from such a speech, but then maybe that would've undermined Sayaka's point. With her quivering lip, Tenko sniffed up any potential snot and wiped away any potential tears.

"You think…people will actually be willing to help me?" Tenko asked.

"I mean, we all keep saying this is our second chance here. And…you seem to be okay with me despite…you know…"

Tenko smiled. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

"She's not," a voice called out from the entrance.

Even without looking, both girls let out synchronized groaned, knowing full well who it was.

"What do you want, Kokichi?" Tenko asked.

The tiny boy shrugged his shoulders as he stepped into the room and nonchalantly strolled his way over to the main table. "What? Am I not allowed to go anywhere anymore?"

"You shouldn't!" Tenko growled. "Honestly, they should lock you up like they did Angie and Mukuro!"

Kokichi intentionally sat himself down right next to Tenko, who of course, rose from her seat and distanced herself from the boy. Kokichi didn't mind though. It was enough to just get under her skin.

"Girlfriend, I've been in and out of handcuffs so much it doesn't even bother me anymore," Kokichi responded with a flamboyant tone. "Besides, what makes you think you guys could keep me locked up?"

"There's like thirty of us and one of you," Tenko said with gritted teeth.

"Well, thirty people that seem to be having trouble getting along with each other."

"What are you even talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Mukuro, Nagito, Angie, and Kiyo are all under watch, Fake Togami got kicked out of that leader group, Angie caused a little break up to happen between Mahiru and Hiyoko, and then there's you."

Tenko raised an eyebrow as she watched Kokichi jump up to his feet and face off with her. "Tenko, you might actually be one of the biggest threats to this little team."

Tenko farrowed her eyebrows. "What are you even taking about?! I'm trying to protect people! Especially degenerates like you!"

"Are you really protecting people?" Kokichi asked with a shit-eating grin across his face. "Because, from I hear, you're still being as sexist as you've always been. Honestly, you only teaching the girls self-defense creates more fear than safety."

"Wha- that's not true-"

Kokichi held up his finger and spoke over the martial artist. "Yes, yes, yes it is. You're making the girls more terrified of the guys now by telling them they're all just boogeymen out to get them. MEANWHILE, you making sure this whole training a "girls only" thing is going to make the guys suspicious of you."

Tenko's rage-filled demeaner crumbled away. The tears she just tried to get rid of formed once again at the edges of her eyes.

"Now, all they're probably thinking is Tenko is leading a group of crazy girls that want to kill all the guys." Kokichi began to laugh. "Nihihi! Jeez, Tenko. You might actually be making worse decision than you did in the last-"

"Kokichi," Sayaka interrupted, "that's enough."

"Awww," Kokichi turned to Sayaka with an exaggerated frown across his face. "But I'm only teasing her…" Kokichi's face suddenly shifted to an eerie, stone cold stare. "Or, do you want me to focus on you instead?"

Sayaka didn't break eye contact, despite how unnerving Kokichi's sudden shift in attitude. "Is that what this is really about?" she asked.

Kokichi didn't respond. He just kept leering at her.

Sayaka blew a long puff of air out through her nose. "Tenko, let me deal with him."

"But Sayaka," Tenko grabbed a hold of Sayaka's arm, "I can't just leave you alone with Kokichi! He might have a knife or something!"

"Tenko, I'll be fine," Sayaka looked back at her friend and smiled. "I got your self-defense moves to use. If you think Kokichi's bad, wait until you see the paparazzi. Trust me. He's hardly a problem."

The smile was enough for Tenko ease up. She released her grip on Sayaka's arm and slowly backed away from the two until she eventually exited the cafeteria. Sayaka took another deep breath before locking her sights back onto Kokichi.

"What is your problem?" Sayaka asked sternly.

Kokichi smirked. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"You're constantly antagonizing everyone, you tried to cover up Tsumugi and Junko's plan, do you even care about getting out of here?"

Kokichi snickered a bit. "Getting out, staying in, that's not what actually matters here." Kokichi stepped from around the table and approached the pop idol. "What matters is me winning."

Sayaka raised a brow. "What are you talking about? How is staying in here anyway a victory?"

Kokichi rolled his eyes. "You don't get it. Even if I leave, how does that stop Monokuma from making a mess of things. No, no, no, I have to stay and stop him."

"Then why are you fighting against us?"

"Come on," Kokichi said with another smile, "I still need to have a little bit of challenge from you guys. What kind of Supreme Leader would I be if I played along with a bunch of goody-two-shoes? No, I need a challenge. At least one person that really tests my mettle."

"And that's supposed to be me?"

Kokichi shrugged. "You really impressed me during the class trial. Honestly, I had been keeping an eye on you since you gave us your little sob story. Hearing the cute little idol was willing to backstab someone was very unexpected. The trial only confirmed that there's more going on in your brain than I first thought."

"Well, I'm not in the mood to play this game with you."

"That doesn't matter to me. As long as all of us are still alive, I'll be against you. I'll be against Celestia too. And once I beat you two, maybe even Chiaki too, I can finally take down Monokuma."

'I can't even begin to understand that logic,' Sayaka thought. 'Is this really what talking to a psychopath is like?'

"And you won't do it with us?" Sayaka asked.

Kokichi shook his head. "Not unless you get on your knees and beg to join my gang."

Sayaka rolled her eyes. "You really expect me to do that?"

"No, but I'm perfectly willing to leave that offer open for the future."

"Look, if you just want to bother me, then just stick to me. Leave Tenko out of this."

Kokichi made an exaggerated frown. "Aww, you're really going to make me stop spending time with my best friend?"

"Just leave her alone."

Kokichi rolled his eyes and held his hand up, as if he was swearing in at a court.

"And don't cross your fingers behind your back," Sayaka said.

Kokichi pouted and moved his other hand from behind his back. "Party pooper. I swear I'll leave her alone."

"Good," Sayaka crossed her arms. "Then we're done here.

Sayaka brushed past Kokichi and made her way over to exit.

"Who knew you could be so stern and intimidating," Kokichi said loudly. "Did you learn that from your idol days?"

Sayaka halted her steps for just a moment. She wanted to slap herself, knowing that one slight pause would be enough to let Kokichi know there were…dark parts to Sayaka's idol career. Sayaka couldn't even stomach to look back at him. She knew have his same shit-eating grin he always had.

'He's still probably lying about leaving Tenko alone,' Sayaka thought. 'But at least I got to figure out what's deal is…I hope.'

With that, Sayaka stepped out of the room, hoping to spend time with people that don't drive her crazy.

Rantaro was once again, held up in his lab working on reading through Tsumugi's journal. Although this time, he wasn't alone. He had Mikan with him. In fact, she was actually assisting him with his research. Not by much. Whenever Rantaro would right something down his own notebook, he would tear out a page and hand it over to Mikan. Mikan would attempt to ease her anxiety by being as careful as possible when piercing a thumbtack through the paper. She was pause for minutes at a time to wait for her shaking hands to ease up before following through. Rantaro would occasionally observe Mikan, smiling at how she well she faired at sticking notes onto the note board. This would go on for around two hours until Mikan finally took a step back to see just what Rantaro was writing down.

Blackout Light? Flashback Light? Gofer Project caused by Junko? Gofer Project faked? Team Danganronpa? Each page was headlined by these odd phrases Mikan didn't understand, and each were followed up with paragraphs of information. Mikan opened her mouth, but she couldn't quite piece together what her exact words would. After a moments of fidgeting with her fingers before finally got the courage to ask.

"Wh-what is all of this?" Mikan asked.

Rantaro rose up from his bench and walked over to Mikan's side. "These are the notes I've been taking from Tsumugi's notes. I'm kind of being cross referencing things she said during the class trial as well as details of how Junko described the disaster she forced onto the world. And from what I'm guessing-"

Rantaro stepped over to the note board and pointed to the "Gofer Project" page. "-that when Junko caused the end of the world, governments put Ultimates like us into safety domes to ensure the future of the human race."

"A-and that's what we were all in?"

Rantaro shook his head. "I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they did to Hope's Peak, and it involved my class too, but I'm going to take Chiaki's word that your class was under rehabilitation. And the Blackout and Flashback lights were most likely the devices to erase and return our memories."

"Wh-which was used f-for all of us," Mikan stated before looking at the last two pages. "B-b-but you think it could be f-fake like she said?"

Rantaro scratched the back of his head before gently placing his hand on her shoulder. "That's just what Tsumugi thought. So far, I haven't found anything that outright confirms it. I did find a name of the people who may be involved with her."

"I-is it this one?" Mikan pointed to the page titled 'Team Danganronpa."

"I think so, yes," Rantaro said before turning back to his bench. "Still, I got a lot more stuff to read. I'm honestly shocked with how much Tsumugi actually wrote during all of this."

Mikan frowned as she watched Rantaro sit back down. She still couldn't truly relieve herself of her doubts. She did want to write off the idea that her memories were faked just like the rest of her classmates had, but Mikan couldn't. The moment that idea entered her mind, it just kept her cycling through all the possibilities. If her memories were fake, that means everything she ever knew was fake. Was her time as a nurse fake? Is her family fake? Was Chiaki lying about the Future Foundation or was she just wrong too?

Before Mikan's mind to spiral any further, Rantaro called out to her.

"Mikan, I wouldn't worry about it," Rantaro said.

Mikan turned back to him, still frowning and on the verge of tears. "B-b-but I can't! Every time I t-time I try to s-stop thinking about it, I-I just can't! I don't want it all to just be a lie."

"I promise you, it isn't," Rantaro stood back up and pulled Mikan into a hug. "It's not like we could really trust Tsumugi, right?"

Mikan immediately hugged Rantaro back, desperate to hold onto her emotional support partner for as long as she possibly could. She nodded.

"And you trust me, right?" Rantaro asked.

Mikan nodded again.

"Great," Rantaro smiled and let Mikan go. "Now that we got that out of the way-"

The sound of the dorm's doorbell rang from the main room and into the Ultimate Lab. Rantaro stepped away from Mikan, out of his lab, and over to his door. Upon opening his door, Rantaro was face to face with Kaito. Now, Kaito was hardly the most well-keept person, but Rantaro stunned to see Kaito's already spikey hair in a mess, his goatee was jutting out in several directions, and bags of skin hung just below his eyes.

Rantaro gave of a puzzled expression mixed with a tiny bit of concern. "Hey, Kaito," he said. "You look worse for wear."

"Yeah," Kaito rubbed his eye. "I know. Can I come in?"

"Sure," Rantaro said before stepping to the side.

Kaito stepped into the room and eventually made his way to Rantaro's lab. Rantaro followed his class leader closely and saw Kaito look at his note board.

"So, you have been looking through that notebook Tsumugi gave you," Kaito commented.

"Yeah," Rantaro said. "Mikan has been helping me with taking notes."

Kaito nodded. "Good. Good to hear. I actually have something related to that to ask."

"What is it?"

Kaito reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the "History of Danganronpa: The Ultimate Academy" book. "I've been reading through this, but I gotta tell ya, it's going right over my head. Just a lot of terminology that never gets explained."

"Hmmm," Rantaro hummed as he thought. "Do you want me to take a look at it?"

Kaito looked back at Rantaro and smiled. "That's actually a great idea! You could compare Tsumugi's notebook to what's in the Ultimate Academy book to see what lines up and what doesn't!"

"A-and that could p-prove that Tsumugi was lying?" Mikan asked.

"Yeah!" Kaito gave the nurse a bright smile. "Then we can all sleep a bit easier at night."

"I agree," Rantaro said as he took the book from Kaito. "I'll prove that all of our memories are real."

"Awesome!" Kaito patted Rantaro on the back. "I'll leave it to you then, man!"

Rantaro nodded and placed the book down next to Tsumugi's notebook. Kaito waved his goodbyes to both Rantaro and Mikan before departing from the room. The moment Kaito closed door however, Rantaro had an odd feeling creeping up his neck. He looked back at the book Kaito had just placed upon his desk. It was massive. Easily passing 500 pages just by looking at it. Rantaro frowned as the realization hit him.

"He just pawned his work off onto me," Rantaro said.

Nekomaru held Chihiro's feet down to keep her in place as she finished her sit-ups. It was painful for the programmer. It felt like someone had been punching her stomach every time she sat up. By the time she reached her final rep, she could barely lift herself up. She wanted to just collapse back onto the floor, but Nekomaru kept encouraging her.

"Come on, this is your last one," Nekomaru said. "You got this, Chihiro."

Chihiro groaned out in pain as lifted herself up one final time. She could only bend upward about halfway before the pain became too much to continue. She dropped back onto the floor while holding her stomach. Nekomaru sighed and let go the programmer's feet.

"You only made it to twenty-five that time," Nekomaru said as he looked down at the panting Chihiro. "Still, you managed to get to thirty sit-ups in for your first two reps. Honestly, that's great progress for such a short amount of time."

While Chihiro was still wincing in pain, she did hear Nekomaru's words. She lifted her head up slightly. "R-really?" she asked.

"Of course," Nekomaru shouted with a smile. "You've honestly been pushing yourself hard these past few days!"

"Th-that's good," Chihiro said. "Um…that is good, right?"

Nekomaru took a hold of Chihiro's hand and helped her back to her feet. Chihiro had to lean against Nekomaru for a moment to stay up and not succumb to the pain.

"It means you're definitely capable of growing stronger, but you have to pace yourself," Nekomaru explained. "While it is important to push yourself, you need to understand your limits. You can't just start out benching a 100 pounds on your first try. You need to properly build up your strength."

Chihiro eventually took a step back to stand on her own, but she still held her stomach. "Don't rush things," Chihiro repeated. "Right."

Nekomaru nodded. "Now, you said you wanted me to teach you some self-defense?"

Chihiro straightened her posture. "O-oh. Um, yes. I did."

"Well, I'm not the biggest expert on most forms of self-defense, but I can teach you what I know."

Chihiro nodded and followed Nekomaru to the center of the mat in Nekomaru's lab.

"Why don't we start with some kicks?" Nekomaru said. "The first thing you want to do is to get your feet at equal distance apart, with your dominant foot towards the back. Like this."

Nekomaru then got into the standard fighting stance with his left foot forward and his right leg back.

"Then, you kick with your back leg," Nekomaru continued. "You want to stretch your leg as far you can so you can use the heel of your foot to kick. If you kick with your toes, you risk breaking them."

Nekomaru then demonstrated the proper kicking technique. He quickly swung his right leg forward, stretching his leg all the way out, pushing the heel of his foot to the front, before final moving his leg back to the starting position. It took around two seconds for Nekomaru to start and complete the action.

Chihiro stared in awe at how effortlessly Nekomaru made the action. Eager to get to work, Chihiro got into position, putting her left leg in front of the right. She took a few deep breaths before attempting her own kick. Unlike Nekomaru, Chihiro couldn't properly stretch her leg out. She couldn't help but keep bending it as soon as she lifted her leg upward, and as a result, she couldn't push her heel out.

Chihiro sighed as she put her foot back down. "I can't stretch my leg out like that."

"Hold on," Nekomaru said as he walked over to Chihiro. "Let me help you with that."

Nekomaru helped Chihiro lift her leg back up. Nekomaru then placed both of his hands on the underside of Chihiro's leg.

Chihiro blushed a bright shade of red. "W-wait! Hold on!"

"Don't worry, I got you," Nekomaru said as he held both Chihiro's calf and thigh and began to stretch her leg out.

"H-hold on!" Chihiro cried out again.

"Chihiro," Nekomaru said, "don't worry. I'll be careful."

"J-just be careful where your hand-"

…

The hand that Nekomaru used to hold onto Chihiro's thigh moved a bit too far back and accidently brushed up against Chihiro's crouch. There was a long period of silence between the two. Chihiro looked utterly horrified. Her face was stuck in an expression similar to that of the famous "Scream" painting, but no sound escaped from her vocal cords. Nekomaru was as still as a statue, just stuck looking at where his hand had brushed up against. The two of them were stuck like this until Nekomaru released his grip on Chihiro, who ended up falling back onto the mat.

Chihiro crossed her legs and looked down at the mat in shame. She shook in place, filled with embarrassment, shame, guilt, and fear. Nekomaru would be the second person she had revealed her secret to and, considering how poorly it went for her last time, she wasn't sure how it would go. She wanted to be stronger first. She wanted to be ready.

"Ch-chihiro," Nekomaru spoke up. "You're…a boy?"

Hiyoko had been in a predictably miserable mood the entire day. She had been bunkered up in her room for hours, not willing to interact with anyone. She had heard the doorbell ring numerous times every few hours. While she never checked, she was certain that it was Mahiru attempting to reconcile with her. Hiyoko wouldn't humor her. She just sat still. She even missed lunch just to spite her old friend. Still, her stomach rumbled with each passing moment. So, when Hiyoko felt she had waited in silence long enough, she slowly peaked her head out of her room. Looking both ways, she saw that the coast was clear for her to head out.

Hiyoko entered to cafeteria to see she wasn't alone. Granted, it was only one other person and it was just Hifumi sitting alone in a corner, but it was hardly ideal for Hiyoko. Hifumi briefly looked up from his bag of chips to see Hiyoko, but Hiyoko let out a loud groan.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, fatty," Hiyoko spat out before heading to the kitchen.

Hiyoko stared at all the kitchen utensils for a moment before realizing something.

'I don't know how to cook anything!' Hiyoko thought to herself. 'Crap! This is stupid! And I can't go asking that pervy chef to help. He'll probably try to pull some stupid trick on me. There has to be something I can-"

Hiyoko's eyes locked onto a small shelf full of snacks. She prayed that it would have what she loved. Dashing over, she took a peek into the shelf and, yes, it did. With a smile across her face, Hiyoko snagged a bag of gummy bears. Who needs stuff like "protein" and "a healthy balance of fruits and vegatables" when you can get sweet, sugary goodness?

Hiyoko immediately tore the bag open and grabbed a handful of rainbow gummies to shove into her mouth. She munched on them and sucked on their juices as she returned to the main cafeteria and seated herself down. She was almost completely absorbed in the moment of enjoying her sweets, but she couldn't help but shake away the feeling of Hifumi's presence in the room. She glanced over at Hifumi and noticed that the heavy nerd was doodling in his notebook.

"Hmmm," Hiyoko hummed to herself. 'Oh, that's right, he draws too…He may be a tweeb, but maybe he can teach me how to draw something.'

Hiyoko crushed a few gummies in her hand. 'Angie's probably all alone and has no way to do her art! Maybe if I make something, it will cheer her up.'

Hiyoko tossed the crushed gummies into her mouth before making her way over to Hifumi's table. As Hiyoko made way over to Hifumi's table, she caught a glimpse of what the nerd had been drawing. It was a heavily detail outline of some anime mech, complete with specs and descriptions for each of the parts on the robot. Hiyoko would've gagged for how lame it was if it was objectively well drawn.

Hifumi looked up from his notebook to see Hiyoko. He glared at her as he asked, "What do you want?"

"So, you draw a lot, right?" Hiyoko asked. It was, of course, a rhetorical question, so she didn't need to hear an answer. "I was wondering if you could help me draw something."

"No," Hifumi said before returning to his drawing."

Hiyoko, for half a second, had a confuse look across her face before turning red with rage. "What the hell do you mean no?!"

Hifumi slammed his pencil against the table before glaring at Hiyoko once again. "You called me fatty less than five minutes ago! I know you don't respect me at all! Just like everyone else!"

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean what am I talking about?! Everyone treats me like a joke! Miss Ludenberg treated me like a slave and killed me, Miss Iruma makes fun of my work, Mister Kuwata thinks I'm a loser, and…Tsumugi…the one girl I thought actually liked me and shared my interests just used me!"

Hifumi smashed his fists against the table with each point he made, his eyes watered and his snorted up some snot. "And the worst part? Everyone just ignored me…No one ever asked me if I was ok after the girl I liked tricked me. But Miss Maizono gets all the sympathy in the world after she killed my friend!"

Hifumi eventually couldn't handle all the emotions flowing through him and he eventually broke down. He sobbed loudly and buried his face in his hands. Hiyoko was just left to stand there awkwardly and watch him cry. If this had happened back on Jabberwock Island, she would've laughed at the boy for crying, but after dying herself and appearing there, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the boy.

'I…I should help him…right?' Hiyoko thought to herself. 'But how? I know I'm not good at being nice. God, why do I have to be the one to help him? What would Angie do?'

The thought of Angie spurred an idea in Hiyoko's brain. She sat herself down in the chair next to the boy, and lightly placed her hand on his back. She really didn't like touching a fat person, but she knew Angie would do it. It took Hifumi around half a minute for him to finally get some breaths in and look back at Hiyoko.

"Have you ever heard of Atua?" Hiyoko asked.

"REEEEEEEEE!" Monokuma shrieked into the school's intercom. "It is now 10 pm! As a result, the kitchen and water shall be closed off until morning. Now, shut up so I can get my beauty sleep!"

I really must apologize for how long this has taken. On top of how much longer this chapter turned out to be compared to previous chapters, work has really drained me of so much of my time and energy that it's not funny. Plus, I've also been trying to get into my own original ideas, making a lot of character outlines and plot outlines as well. I do love this story, and I do want to get it done, but I'm also a bit worried I'm not getting to any of my other projects. I really hate how neither of my MK fanfics took off. The Spider-Man game is coming out, so I should probably update my old game over thing. My ADHD really makes me want to do so much like a RWBY fanfic or a Pokemon fanfic, but again, too little energy and too little time. I've just been struggling guys. I really am not happy with where I am right now. I'm sorry.

But I'm glad I got this chapter done since there's a lot of plot lines finally getting pushed forward. I've been meaning to get back to Hifumi and I found the perfect way to rope him back in. Same with Nekomaru and Chihiro's plot. I have seen people complain about Tenko a lot lately and, I get it. She's probably the most hated character in the franchise. Some may argue about that, but that's just what I have gathered. And I have been trying to get her to lighten up while still feeling natural to who she is. Let's hope this is a good start

Finally having the heroine face off with her rival was fun. Still an odd combo, but this whole story is based off odd combos. I hope you find it fun though. Sayaka's really going to be forced into this role whether she likes it or not. Can't spoil anymore though.

Thank you all for your patience. I promise to get the next done faster. I really don't want this chapter to take a whole year to finish like last time.