Chapter 2: Part 18

An airhorn rang out from the school's intercom, echoing out though the building. It, of course, everyone woke up. "Gooooood morning, my lovelies!" Monokuma said cheerfully. "It's 7 am! So, all water is turned on and the kitchen is now open! Rise and shine and have a beautiful day!"

Chihiro rubbed his eyes as he sat himself up in bed. He could feel the bags underneath his eyes. It seemed he'd never quite get used to waking up at seven. Then again, it didn't help he had been working on Keebo at night. Speaking of which, the first thing he did when stood up from his bed was enter his Ultimate Lab and sat down by his computer. A click of his mouse turned on the screen and showed a progress bar for the AI transfer.

"64 percent," Chihiro read aloud. "And it should be done in about…27 hours? Ok, so it will be done tomorrow."

Chihiro glanced over at Keebo's shut down body. "I wish I could get you up today, but at least we're almost done. I promise."

With that, Chihiro rose up from his seat and returned to his room to start the day.

Surprisingly, Leon woke up on time. It went against his usual schedule of sleeping in, but there was something he had to take care of. He went through his routine, gelling his hair, combing his goatee, brushing his teeth, and got dressed before stepping out into the halls. Instead of making his way towards the cafeteria, he remained in the dorm halls, turning a few corners to find Ibuki's dorm. Adjusting his hair a bit and straightening his beard before knocking on the rocker's door.

The very instant Leon's fist touched the door, it swung open and out popped a smiling Ibuki.

"Goooooood morning world and all who inhabit it!" Ibuki cheered. She spun around before stopping to face Leon. "Oh, good nam-nam-namming, Leon! How are you?"

"Yeah, I'm doing good," Leon said. "I just wanted to stop by, you know?"

Ibuki smiled and placed her hands on her hips. "So, you want to flirt with Ibuki again?"

"What?! N-no way, man!" Leon blushed. "I just, you know, you made a big deal about trying to listen the lyrics of those songs from last night, and I really tried to."

"Oh yeah? And? How'd that go for you?"

"I mean, most of them just came across as just some love pop songs."

"Well, mainly Sayaka's song, sure, but she actually had a reason to pick that song," Ibuki said with a sudden serious tone. "She told me that she was using that song to try and call out to someone. Saying that even after everything that has happened, she still loves him."

Leon sighed. "Man, how did that Naegi kid get all the hot chicks after him," he muttered to himself. He then spoke out loud, "OK, but what about Kaede's song? That didn't really seem to fit her story."

"True, but that song does have a story. It is about a small time musician that's stuck playing in a pub, but still seems to get praise for his music."

Leon nodded a bit.

"See? There can be more to music than just being loud. I didn't get to it, but there are also plenty of songs that do have some anger to them. Have you ever listened to the Foo Fighters song Pretender?"

Leon nodded.

"That song actually has some anger against some political parties. It's a bit much to go into right now, but even that song is more than just awesome instruments."

Leon scratched the back of his head. "OK. I think that I'm getting it."

"Great!" Ibuki patted Leon on the arm. "Let's go eat."

Ibuki skipped down the hallway with Leon trailing behind her.

Gonta would go through his daily morning routine. He'd rubbed a stick of deodorant onto his armpits, brush his teeth, and dress up in his usual brown suit. Of course, he didn't put on any socks and shoes and he didn't comb his hair. It was the conflicting nature of the gentle giant. He wished to be fancy and proper, but growing up in the woods led him to not care much about footwear of combing his hair.

Stepping out of his room, Gonta noticed Mukuro just across the hall from him. Unlike every other time he had seen the girl, Mukuro was wearing a black, zip-up hoodie and some black jeans. She locked her door and turned around to see Gonta staring at her.

"Oh…good morning," Mukuro said.

"Good morning, Mukuro," Gonta waved. "You cold?"

"What?"

"You cold? You don't wear jacket and pants before."

"Oh…uh, yeah," Mukuro slipped her hands into her hoodie's pockets. "I think someone turned up the a/c."

"Do you want more coat?"

Mukuro shook her head. "I'm good now. Thank you though."

With that, Mukuro walked off towards the cafeteria. Gonta would follow soon afterward, but on the way there, just outside of the doorway was Rantaro and Mikan. Mikan was continuously sneezing while Rantaro held her up. Gonta approached them cautiously.

"Does Mikan need help?" Gonta asked.

Rantaro gave a polite smile to Gonta as he took a hold of Mikan's hand. "We're fine, Gonta. Mikan's just feeling a bit under the weather this morning."

Mikan rubbed her bandaged arm against her nose. Pulling it away left a thin string of snot connecting her arm to her nose. "I think I just have a cold."

"Cold not good!" Gonta gasped. "Mikan need rest."

"I-I will later, Gonta," Mikan said.

"Yeah, I doubt Taka would let us skip out on a morning meeting anyway," Rantaro said.

Gonta scratched the back of his head, not quite understanding their reasoning, but nodded all the same and entered the cafeteria.

Like always, the room would slowly fill up with rest of the group, minus Kokichi. Teruteru was actually exhausted from cooking so much the previous day that everyone had to make their own breakfast that morning. He kept his head down, he couldn't bear to see the look of disappointment on Celeste's face. Sakura kept her grip firm on Kiyo's chain while Miu kept yanking on Nagito's. Ibuki didn't end. She was so ready to start the show again that she couldn't contain her excitement. She kept tapping her feet against the floor and her eyes darted around the table to watch everyone eat. Once everyone finished their meal, Ibuki jumped up to her feet.

"Alright!" Ibuki said cheerfully. "Now, follow Ibuki to finish this party! Want to go swimming or continue the rock session?"

"I've been meaning to use the pool for the past few days," Sakura said.

"Yeah, I could go for a dip!" Kaito said.

"You pathetic virgins better get ready, cause my swimsuit and rocking bod will blow your dicks off!" Miu laughed.

Drool drip from Teruteru's mouth. "I hope none of you mind me just laying back and let you all get wet."

"Alrigh-Ty-Roonie!" Ibuki said with an excited smile. "Then follow m-"

"HOOOOOOOLD IT!"

The high pitched voiced halted Ibuki in her tracks while everyone else in the room groaned. A tile in the ceiling opened up and out dropped everyone's least favorite monochrome bear. Monokuma gently plopped onto the center of the table before hopping up onto his feet.

"Good morning, my lovely students," Monokuma said with his ever-present smile. "It's so great to be face to face with you all once again!"

"Can you buzz off, you stupid bear?!" Hiyoko hissed.

"Yeah, why are you even here?" Kaito asked.

"Why?" Monokuma tilted his head. "Why else would I be here? I have another motive for you!"

"Oh, come on," Leon whined.

"We already beat your last motive," Kaede said. "Can't you just leave us alone?"

"What, you really thought I'd just give up on this killing game after you all didn't kill each other one time?" Monokuma asked with a snicker. "You guys are so naïve! I gotta keep the action up! Who would want to waste their time watching teenagers just party every day? Anyone would want you dead."

"I will admit, I've grown bored of this stagnate status quo as well," Celeste said. "So, why don't we ignore your motive and try something else?"

Celestia turned her attention to Ryoma and smiled politely. "Ryoma, would you be a dear and kill yourself for us?"

Sayaka rose from her seat. "What?!"

"How could you even suggest something like that?!" Mahiru asked.

"What? It would easily save us time dealing with a class trial and would allow us to investigate the third floor."

"There is some reason to what Miss Ludenberg says," Kirumi commented.

"But we will not allow anyone kill themselves," Taka proclaimed.

"You know, not one of you heard what I have to say," Ryoma said dryly.

"Ryoma, don't!" Kaede commanded.

"Yeah, we're not letting you die again," Kaito added.

"Well, looks like you guys are going to have to do things my way," Monokuma said before hopping off the table. "Now, all of you come follow me so we can-"

Before Monokuma could finish his sentence, Mukuro jumped up from her seat, unzipped her jacket, and pulled out a micro uzi from the inside. She aimed it at Monokuma and fired it off. Due to it being an automatic weapon, just one pull of the trigger was enough for Mukuro to fire off around 30 rounds in one second. In that singular second, several bullet holes were scattered near Monokuma's feet. For most of the students, the gun fire left a ringing sound in their ear. Hiyoko, Chihiro, and Mikan were left dizzy by the experience.

Seeing the soldier as a threat, Peko unsheathed her sword and dashed towards Mukuro. Before the swordswoman could make her attack though, Mukuro pulled out a Walter-P38 from the waist band of her jeans and aimed it at Peko's head. Peko stopped dead in her tracks and lowered her weapon.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Monokuma growled at Mukuro. "That was a direct attack on the headmaster! Do you want me to kill you again?!"

"I didn't shoot you though," Mukuro said. "I shot around your feet. We're not going with you."

"You really want to mess with him, chick?" Mondo asked.

"It is unwise to defy one with so much power," Gundham commented.

Mukuro kept her eyes locked onto Monokuma as she spoke to the group. "If this mastermind is anything like Junko, then the only way they keep you in line is with intimidation. They hope their threats keep you doing exactly what they want you to do. And then they wear you down with deeply personal motives and violent imagery in the hopes you'll give them the bloodshed they want."

"That maybe truuuuue, but you are forgetting that I got this place rigged with tons of traps," Monokuma responded. "What makes you think I won't just, I don't know, impale you with spikes?"

Mukuro aimed her uzi at the group. "If you stab me, I'll still have enough strength to shoot half of them."

"Wh-what?!" Mikan gasped.

"Dude, what the hell?!" Leon yelled.

"Ok, so?" Monokuma asked. "You just made it clear I like it when you guys kill each other."

"But you also want a show, don't you?" Mukuro said. "Losing half the cast in just five seconds? That's not what you want. If it was, you would've gotten rid of the class trials. You want the drama…the despair."

Monokuma went silent. He crossed his arms and rubbed his paw against his cheek.

"How about this then?" Monokuma said. "I won't force anyone to go anywhere or do anything. I'll just tell you where the next motive is, and it will be up to you on whether or not you all want to go see it."

"Wait, it's a location?" Tenko asked.

"Yep. In fact, it's just outside. And by outside, I mean actually outside, I mean actually outside. And, if I do say so myself, it's quite the thrilling surprise!" Monokuma cackled to himself before dashing out of the cafeteria and disappeared around the corner.

The students were left in silence following the bear's departure. The students were still staring at Mukuro with fear, unsure what the soldier would do next. Perhaps she was even as unstable as her sister. Mukuro took a deep breath before seating herself, still keeping her guns aimed at her classmates.

Taka gulped down some saliva and adjusted the collar of his jacket. "So, Ikusaba, what shall we do now?"

"Well, first, I'm going to find Kokichi," Mukuro said. "He's been running around unchecked for too long. Kaito, Gonta, you can come with me. Taka, Sakura, you watch over the group while we're gone."

"You're forcing us to stay here?" Sayaka asked.

"If all of you want to live, you'll do what I say."

"That sounds like you're just bossing us around," Mondo growled.

Mukuro rolled her eyes. "After we drag him back here, we're locking up the front entrance. Then, we're all sitting her for the rest of the day. If anyone needs to use the bathroom or go to the nurse's office needs to have a partner go with them. Only after the nighttime announcement will I let you guys leave to go to your rooms."

"What, you think can act like a big hero now or something?" Hiyoko hissed. "You helped your sister kidnap and brainwash us before ruining everything! Don't act like you can just make all of that go away by waving a gun at the stupid bear!"

Mukuro frowned. Her aim actually lowered. "I know…but I want to at least try to fix that."

Kaito scanned the rest of the group before looking back at Mukuro. He rose up to his feet. "Come on, Gonta. We got to help Mukuro catch Kokichi."

"OK!" Gonta stood up from his seat.

Mukuro smiled slightly and stood up. "Alright. Follow me."

"Very well!" Taka said loudly. "Best of luck to you all! Oogami and myself will keep watch over the rest of the group."

'Well, it's better to be under Taka and Sakura's watch than having a gun to my head,' Sayaka thought to herself.

Kaito gave a thumbs up before following Mukuro and Gonta out of the cafeteria. This left the group with another awkward moment of silence of just fidgeting in their seats and occasionally cough. After looking back and forth, Nekomaru turned to Ibuki to speak.

"I never got to say, but your show was absolutely marvelous," Nekomaru said.

"Yeah," Tenko chimed in. "I mean, the whole days was great, but you, Sayaka, Kaede, all of you were just amazing!"

"Aww, thanks, Tenko!" Kaede smiled.

"Aww, you're making Ibuki blush," Ibuki said. "Keep going."

"I will admit rock and pop are genres I have little love for," Celestia spoke up. "But I will say Kaede's piano skills were impressive. As was your drum playing, Peko."

Peko blushed slightly. "That's only thanks to Ibuki's teachings."

"Yeah, Peko and Ryoma were naturals!" Ibuki cheered.

Ryoma put his hands into his pockets. "It wasn't that special."

"Don't be like that, Ryoma," Sayaka said. "You were great."

"Yeah, you have a real talent for music," Nagito said.

Ryoma leaned back in his seat. Despite the cold and disinterested front he put up, Sayaka noticed a small smile crack across his face. She couldn't help but giggle to herself. 'Finally, that icy exterior is melting.'

Mukuro, Kaito, and Gonta had begun their search for Kokichi in a rather obvious spot, his room. If he was in there, it would've been a poor example of reverse psychology. Picking a spot so obvious that everyone would just assume that he wouldn't be there. Yet, there were very little options on where else he could go. The sleep rule made sure he wouldn't be able to sleep outside of the dorm rooms. So, the hiding plain sight trick didn't work.

Gonta, the polite giant that he was, gently knocked on Kokichi's door.

"Kokichi," Gonta said with a soft tone of voice. "Are you here?"

"There is absolutely no reason for us to be polite," Mukuro said. She knelt down next to the doorknob, pulled a knife out from her pocket, and jammed it into the slit between the door and the wall. She wiggled it up against the lock until and a loud click echoed out.

Mukuro slowly but surely cracked opened the door. After a quick peak inside to examine the surrounding the entrance, she slowly stepped into the room with Kaito and Gonta tailing her. There was no sign of Kokichi in his room. Instead, they found several notepads filled messy writing. While Gonta checking spots like under the bed or in the closet, Mukuro took a look around in his Ultimate Lab. Mukuro was offput by how many dangerous items were his lab. Boxes for different kinds of smoke grenades, crossbows, an entire car?! It was clear that he could easily kill someone with these if he so desired.

Meanwhile, Kaito stayed in the main room. Despite how often he had been putting off investigating, he was actually drawn into the various notebooks Kokichi had wrote in. He even picked up one of them, only for a small envelope to fall out from one of the pages. Kaito picked it up and immediately recognized it.

"This is Kokichi's secret," Kaito said to himself. Curious as to what a master of lies could be hiding, Kaito opened the envelope and peaked inside.

"There is no D.I.C.E."

With no luck in finding the Ultimate Supreme Leader in his own room, the trio set off towards the main hall. However, just as they passed by the main entrance, the giant steel door opened up. All three of the students stopped and turned to see the boy they had been searching for. Kokichi stepped inside, stretching his arms as the giant door shut behind him.

"Boy, that certainly was something," Kokichi said to himself before turning his attention towards the trio. "Oh, there you guys are. You finally going to check-"

Mukuro lunged toward Kokichi. Kokichi let out a girlish shriek, attempting to run away, but Mukuro tackled him to the ground before he could get away. Mukuro pinned him down, shoving his face against the cold tile floor.

"OW! What are you doing?!" Kokichi shouted.

Mukuro reached into her jacket pocket, grabbing a zip-tie to bind Kokichi's hands together. "Gonta, do you have a handkerchief?"

"You sick?" Gonta asked as he pulled said handkerchief from his jacket pocket.

"No," Mukuro said as she snatched the square cloth away from the green haired giant. She placed it around Kokichi's mouth before tying it at the back of his head.

Kokichi's complaints and pleas where muffled. Mukuro rose up to her feet, her grip still on Kokichi's hair.

"Man, why have I never thought about doing that?" Kaito asked.

"Now," Mukuro turned to the giant door. "We have to deal with this."

"What you mean?" Gonta asked.

"If what Monokuma said is true, then the next motive is outside," Mukuro said. "Kaito, you go get me some chains and a lock. Gonta, gather everyone and bring them back here."

"Uh, ok?" Kaito said hesitantly. He scratched the back of his head before backing off and heading down to the storage room.

"Gonta get everyone," Gonta saluted to Mukuro before heading back of the cafeteria.

"Seriously?" Leon asked. "You guys even got a theme park?"

"Indeed," Gundham said with his arms crossed. "It had just about any colorful distraction you could think of."

"He means that it had all the rides and games any other park would have," Chiaki commented. "The rollercoaster was easily the highlight of that island."

"Between all those islands and the Ultimate Labs, we definitely got jipped," Leon said.

"You guys had a pool," Rantaro said. "That's pretty fun."

"Yeah, and I was dead for that," Leon responded.

"Well, at least you have the chance to enjoy it now," Sakura commented.

"AH CHO!" Mikan sneezed out, cutting off the whole conversation. She took out the handkerchief out and wiped the snot off her face.

"Still sick?" Sayaka asked.

"Y-yes," Mikan answered. "I-I might have to head back early."

"That's only if Mukuro would allow it," Celestia said.

"Maybe we could use some fresh air," Kirumi commented. "This building most likely has a lot of dust traveling around in the air ducts."

"If you're asking me to make some air vent roombas, you can forget it," Miu said.

The group's conversation was cut off by Gonta storming into the room. The sudden appearance and the speed at which he ran actually startled everyone at the table. Thankfully, Gonta was able to slow down without crashing into any of the tables.

"Gonta, are you ok?" Kirumi asked. "What's wrong?"

"F-follow Gonta," Gonta said between some heavy breaths. "Mukuro want you all."

Before anyone could ask any follow-up questions, Gonta dashed out of the room. With no other options present, everyone rose from their seats and followed Gonta.

When everyone eventually caught up with Gonta, they all noticed where they were. They were right in front of the metal door that led to the outside. Just to the side of it was Mukuro, still keeping a tight grip on Kokichi. Tenko could help but point and laugh at the purple-haired boy.

"HA!" Tenko said. "About time someone shut you up!"

Kokichi muffed back a response. Too bad for him, Tenko couldn't quite hear what he said. Turning her attention from one purple-haired boy to another, Tenko noticed that Kaito had gathered up some chains and hung them across the giant door. Once the last chain was hung up, Kaito put a lock through the ends of all the chains, locking them together like a web to block the door. He twisted a key into the lock, keeping everything in place. Mukuro held her hand out, which Kaito responded to by handing the key over.

"OK, so here's how we're going to handle this," Mukuro said as she held up the key. "For the entire rest of the day, no, the rest of the week, we're not going outside."

"OK, well, we weren't going to do that anyway," Mahiru said. "We aren't going to fall for anymore motives."

"If that was true, none of you would've ended up here in the first place," Mukuro said. "The only reason you all got past the last motive was that most of your secrets were basic."

Mahiru scowled at Mukuro.

"As for this key." Mukuro looked at the key for a moment, thinking over her next move. With a sigh, she opened her mouth and tossed in the key.

"W-wow!" Kaito gasped.

"D-did she just eat a key?!" Hifumi gasped as well.

"I wish I was that key," Teruteru muttered.

With a few gulps, Mukuro swallowed the key whole. She coughed and even pounded her hand against her chest before facing the rest of the group. "Now, there's no way to see what's out there."

"I guess you do have some of your sister's eccentricities," Sakura commented.

Mukuro shot a glance at Sakura before looking at the rest of the group. "Now, we are all going back to cafeteria. We're going to stay in the cafeteria for the rest of the day. If anyone leaves, you will need to have a partner. And only when the nighttime announcement goes off, will you all be allowed to leave my sight. Got it?"

With no one willing to upset the heavily armed woman, everyone nodded and went along with Mukuro's plan. Of course, it wasn't a great time. Having a gun pointed at your general vicinity would kill any good vibe you had. Even Sakura and Nekomaru were uncomfortable. Doesn't matter how much you train, a gun is a gun. Hours would pass, people would take the occasional bathroom break, but all conversations died down. Only brief comments about the food they were eating would be said. It wasn't until Monokuma's nighttime announcement played that all the tension disappeared. Miu and Nagito were the first to leave, followed by Rantaro and a sniffling Mikan. Mukuro dragged a kicking Kokichi out until everyone broke off and returned to their rooms for the night.

I worry sometimes that I just stop trying with my pros. That I just stop showing and just tell what happens. I want to keep things moving though. I wonder if I've managed to maintain your attention through this chapter. I'd like to thank all of you for telling me to pace myself and not worry so much, but I know I have to get this done before the end of the year. I don't want each chapter to take a whole year to make. This story is meant to prepare me for when I get to write my own stories and I can't waste too much time.

I tried to shine some light on Gonta and Sakura. Didn't quite do as much with Sakura though, unfortunately. Mukuro's had a major step forward for the first time in a while. That was fun to write, plus looking up gun facts was interesting. I guess that also counts as her new look? Black jacket and jeans? Let me know what you think of that. Also, just let me know what you think about how I'm doing with the story. Am I too predictable? Am I taking too long?

I've made a pretty major change with some plots down the road, but the main outcome of the overall story is the same.