Chapter 1: Early Graduation or Early Grave? Part 2 (Daily Life)

Remaining Students: 18

Yūgo Hachiken (Silver Spoon): Ultimate Tutor

Reyn (Xenoblade Chronicles): Ultimate Tank

Pietro Maximoff "Quicksilver" (Marvel Cinematic Universe): Ultimate Speedster

Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Pilot

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Prince

Satou Kazuma (Konosuba) Ultimate Thief

Bede (Pokémon): Ultimate Gym Leader

Ray (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Strategist

Finn (Star Wars): Ultimate Rebel

Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club): Ultimate Poet

Konata Izumi (Lucky Star): Ultimate Otaku

Saki Nikaido (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Biker Gang Leader

Tsuyu Asui (My Hero Academia) Ultimate Amphibian

Kokomi Teruhashi (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K): Ultimate Beauty

Minori Ichinose(Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure): Ultimate Bookworm

Sora Takenouchi (Digimon Adventure Original): Ultimate Love

Kale (Dragon Ball Super): Ultimate ?

Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh): Ultimate Animal Lover

Hachiken's POV

"Then from my perspective, you'll be the first to go."

Sayori took a few steps backwards after Bede said that. He did NOT need to say something so horrible to her. Just what kind of person straight-up tells someone that they would be the first to die?

"..." Sayori just looked down, her expression was one of complete anguish.

Like the face you would make when told a favorite animal or pet of yours had to be put down. I've had this feeling before actually, a pig I was caring for became large enough to be processed for bacon and pork bowls (Which is what I named him). I know this doesn't sound as terrible, but I was really sad okay?!

Sora then stood up, "Hey, why would you say such a thing? Are you just setting things up so that we could hate you, is that it?"

Bede just scoffed and turned away from us, "Hmph, like I would care about how you all would feel, like I said we're complete strangers. Don't make me repeat myself."

"Bud, you're just begging to have someone walk over and shut that mouth of yours for ya." Reyn grumbled.

"It's Bede, and let them try. Let any of you try to take my life, you will fail. I'll be leaving now, this conversation is getting exhausting for me. Farewell."

Bede walked away, and left most of us reeling from what he said. I looked back at Sayori, still shaken up and I tightened my fists in anger. This Bede, he's a problem. And depending on what he does next… he could be an even bigger one.

"Sayori, are you alright?" Sora asked her, but she just stayed silent.

"Damn, did that kid even learn any politeness where he's from?" Finn shook his head in disbelief.

Pietro just clicked his tongue, "Too arrogant for his age."

"Could say the same for you pal." Saki stated.

Insert Song: Doki Doki Literature Club! OST - Poem Panic!

"Excuse me, do you mind speaking up? I did not catch that." Pietro then started walking closer to her.

"I said that you're pretty arrogant too, old man." Saki repeated, though with an added insult.

Oh no.

Pietro was beginning to get really annoyed, "I'm 26, and shouldn't you respect your elders? Don't act smart, brain-eating brat."

"Oh I'm sorry, I couldn't tell from how grey your hair looks. Though from the way you've been running around this place annoying the hell outta anyone, you might be the real brat around here!" Saki says with a smug smile.

Pietro then dashed behind her and pushed her off the bench, "No no, I'm sorry. You were saying?"

"Okay you speedy bastard, that's it!" Saki slams her fist into her hand as she stands back up.

"P-Please stop." I heard Sakaki say softly.

"No no, I kinda want to see what might happen if these two fought." Konata looked on curiously.

"H-Hey! You know it might not end well!" I tell her, flabbergasted at how calm she's being.

"Ugh, things are already starting to look bad. I better book it before the killing starts." Kazuma sighed before he sat up from the bench.

"No." Dimitri grabbed his arm before he could get far.

"H-Hey! What's with this guy's grip strength?!" Kazuma tried pulling away, but he couldn't escape.

"You are not going anywhere until we figure out our next assignment. Now everyone, listen to me!" Dimitri drags him back into his seat before walking in front of the fountain.

"We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves just because of one small insult." He glared at Pietro and Saki before continuing, "If we're that wound up over the little things, it could prove catastrophic in the near future!"

"Hmph." The speedster and the biker grunted as they looked away from each other.

Sora nodded in agreement, "He's right, you know. If we're this dysfunctional as a group, then it would be difficult to trust each other. And that would eventually lead to…"

"A murder…" Tsuyu uttered softly.

"Okay, so what do you suggest we do, oh noble leader?" Kazuma asked sarcastically.

"We band together and use our strengths to figure out a way out of this prison. It's as simple as that." Dimitri answered seriously.

Finn then stepped up, "I'm all for that idea, but it doesn't work unless we have all hands on deck. Where's Tails?".

Oh, looks like I better explain.

"He's working on a device that can help contact anyone on the outside… if there is anyone out there." I told them.

Reyn backed me up, "Yeah, some kinda communicator doohickey, he told us it needed some uh… tweaking."

"I see, then be sure to inform him of what happens here when we conclude. Also tell him he could feel free to build his machine alongside us if he can." Dimitri nods before continuing, "What we need now more than anything, is to continue working together to ensure our survival. Now are we all in agreement?".

I saw the majority of us nod along to him, as did I. Dimitri's really managing to be a good leader, and considering he's a prince that's no surprise. Glad to see someone taking charge and being responsible.

Still though, I feel really bad that Sayori was the one that had the idea to bring us all together, yet Bede put her down with his words. I need to see if I can talk to her about this later on. For now I was given a job to do, like everyone else.

"Now then everyone, continue searching the area to find anything that could assist us." Dimitri instructs us.

"We'll meet up again in a couple of hours to discuss what we have and our next plan of action. No slacking off until we're done, you hear that Kazuma?" Sora calls him out as she addresses us.

"Come on…" He sighs.

"May you all find success in your searches, good luck!" Dimitri says to us before we all break off from this meeting.

After making a quick stop at the dorm to tell Tails the news, my roommates and I have decided to go searching in the recreation center. Sayori and Tails were with me searching the gymnasiums, while Reyn, Saki, and Konata were going to check around the climbing wall and arcade.

Insert Song: Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST - Respite and Sunlight

First off, man, someone needed to pick up all these balls scattered on the floor. Why?

"Agh! Ouch…" That's why, I slipped on a nearby soccer ball and landed flat on my butt.

"Are you alright, Hachiken?" Sayori asked as Tails pulled me back up.

"I am, it doesn't hurt too bad. Though you can see why I don't play too many sports." I said to try putting a little humor in this situation.

Sayori giggled a bit, even if I can tell she's 100% okay herself. We should get searching.

Looking through this first gym there's quite a lot of equipment just laying around here. Someone could easily trip over something (like me), and hurt themselves, though that is probably what Monokuma and Sird would have wanted. With these kinds of items, they could easily be set up for some kind of murder chain reaction machine.

There's the basket/soccer balls on the main gym floor, so the three of us put them all away into their basket containers.

"Hey guys, watch this! Ha!" Tails dunked the last basketball through the basket and into the container.

"Nice one!" Sayori clapped as did I.

"Pretty cool, though using your helicopter tails to get some air might be considered cheating." I lightly chuckled.

"Not where I'm from, ha!" Tails says as he descends from the basket.

Next up is the first closet on the right, this one seems pretty small compared to the one in the center which has double doors.

*CLANG! BANG! THUD!*

"Ack!" The three of us jumped when a lot of things just fell out.

Well, despite its size, that didn't stop someone from stuffing all this equipment inside of it. And now it's all on the floor again, so now we have to clean things up AGAIN. What kind of college campus is this sloppy?

We picked up the tennis rackets, shot-put balls, metal/wood baseball bats, wooden training weapons, and javelins that fell out of the closet before placing them back in a more orderly fashion. Man, this closet is making me think about what would happen if someone with murderous intent was around… we should find a lock for the door.

In the larger walk-in closet there's sports uniforms, rope, cleaning supplies… and something big and metal in the corner.

"What… is this?" I dusted off the machine and saw that it had several baseballs loaded in the back and a large tube in the front.

"A pitching machine, makes some sense for it to be in this location…" Tails states as he looks over it.

"I guess so…" I say as I stare at it.

A pitching machine can launch things pretty fast and hard, imagine what someone could do by placing a dangerous and appropriately sized replacement for a baseball. Or even baseballs alone… UGH! WHY CAN'T I STOP THINKING ABOUT MURDER?!

Aside from finding some weird Monokuma branded coins in the bleachers, there was nothing left in this first gym. We should tell Dimitri and the others about the dangerous items we found here, so we can try to find somewhere else to put them.

"Hey Sayori, we're about to move on to the next gym!... Sayori?" Tails called to her, and we spotted her still in the closet staring at something.

I ran up to her and snapped her back to reality, "Sayori, we're leaving now."

"Ah! Sorry, Hachiken, Tails, let's get a move on!" She says with a smile, but I grab her sleeve.

Insert Song: Fire Emblem: Three Houses OST - Recollection and Regret

"Hey, are you still thinking about what Bede said to you?" I asked her.

"..." She looked down at her feet when that question came out of my mouth.

Tails walked up from behind her and put his hand on her shoulder, "I can't believe he would say something that heartless to you. But he's probably just saying that because he's scared like the rest of us."

I nodded my head in agreement, "Yeah, he might be right. A situation like this could really make someone act out, regardless though, you should just ignore it and move on. Whether he meant what he said or not, it's not true. We will get out of here together, without any of us dying!"

The two of us gave her reassuring smiles as she looked up with tears in both of her eyes.

"You really think so?" Sayori asked us.

"Yup!" Tails held out his fist in front of us.

"Yeah." I said as I bumped his fist.

The two of us waited for Sayori to put her first in the middle of ours, which she did after wiping away the tears in her eyes.

"Thank you two, so much…"

"No problem, now let's continue searching the rec center until our next meeting." I told her.

"Alright, I'll go on ahead then!" Sayori ran out the door.

Tails laughed in response, "Man, once she gets going, it looks like there's no stopping her!"

"Ha, looks like it." I chuckled a bit as Tails exited as well.

Before I left though, I turned around to see what Sayori was looking at in this closet.

It was… rope?

Hm…

"Ah… all that time lookin' and nothing big to show for it!" Saki yawned while stretching.

"Like you're one to talk, you two were busy playing those weird games for half an hour instead of searching like me in there!" Reyn complained.

"Whaddya talkin' about, big guy? I climbed the top of that climbing wall to get a good view and saw jack shit. Also you're one to talk, I saw you trying that punch machine to get a high score earlier!" Saki replied.

"Ugh, ya got me there…" Reyn sulks.

"You two really need to get better at fighting games by the way, neither of you managed to get out of even my simpler combos." Konata shrugged.

"Are you all basically just saying you wasted your time playing games instead of searching?" I asked them, exasperated.

The three of them just all pretended that they didn't hear me, sweat rolling down the side of their faces as I sighed. Jeez, what a group I have with me, huh? They did tell us about the layout of the exercise rooms though, so that could be useful.

Half a dozen treadmills, two lat pulldown machines, about FIFTY dumbbells with varying sizes, five bench press sets, a pull up bar, four speed and punching bags each, concrete and wood blocks for shattering, and even a boxing/wrestling ring!

It's definitely a playground for musclebrains, like Saki and Reyn. No offense to them though, I prefer my bones NOT to be broken.

The two hours went by quicker than I thought it would be, since the other gym we searched really only had gymnastics mats, vaulting poles, hula hoops, uneven bars, and trampolines. So appearance wise they were the same, but this gym contained stuff for olympic-level sports. Interesting, but nothing really eye-catchingly dangerous like the last one.

We met up with the other groups who just got back from their searches before reaching the fountain, where we all took our seats at the various benches surrounding it. Everyone else grouped up just as we did, with our dorm mates. Dimitri had Minori, Ray, Pietro, Kale, & Sakaki, while Sora had Sora, Tsuyu, Kazuma, Teruhashi, & Finn (Bede lives with them but… he's off doing his own thing).

Dimitri once again took charge and addressed us all, "Welcome back, now let us discuss what each of our groups have managed to find. Ray, Minori, would you two mind explaining what our group has found?"

"Yes sir. Ahem, so we explored the student center which also had the cafeteria on the side. The student store had nothing truly significant, aside from the maps that Bede found. Quick fact, if you scan them with your e-Handbook, you can access it anytime without having to carry the paper version. Aside from that, it was just filled with school supplies, snacks you wouldn't find in the cafeteria, various gift giving machines, and… Monokuma merchandise. " Ray explained.

Hm… this student store does sound like a place for me to use the coins I found earlier. For what exactly? I have no clue, but I might as well not waste them. Definitely won't be using them on the Monokuma stuff though.

"Speaking of our e-Handbooks, we better look over the rules Monokuma set for us real quickly." Sora brought up.

"Ah, that is quite the smart decision to make. My apologies for not thinking of this earlier." Dimitri put his hand on his chest and bowed.

His formalities are just what I expect from a prince. Though he should learn to tone it down a bit.

Rule #1: Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.

Rule #2: If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

Rule #3: If the blackened is not exposed, the remaining students will be executed.

Rule #4: As a reward, the surviving blackened will be forgiven of their crime and allowed to leave the campus.

Rule #5: The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three or more people discover a body for the first time.

Rule #6: Destroying any property of this campus without permission is expressly prohibited. This includes the surveillance cameras and monitors.

Rule #7: You are free to investigate this campus at your own discretion. Your actions in this regard are not limited.

Rule #8: The blackened may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "killing game".

Rule#9: Additional rules may be added at the dean's discretion.

"Ech…" I felt shivers reading these rules in my head.

This killing game thing is like something I would have seen as fictional, aside from twisted real life stories with insane serial killers. Well, from what I could tell our captors weren't any different. How can our lives be played with like this?

"Damn it, I can't get through a single one of these without feelin' ticked off!" Reyn gritted his teeth.

"It's almost like we're on some twisted reality show, ribbit." Tsuyu croaked.

As a few others chatted while reading the rules, I spotted Dimitri shaking a little bit before recomposing himself.

"What's up with him?" I thought to myself as he clears his throat.

"Let us continue, Minori, you may finish our segment."

She adjusts her glasses before standing up, "There's multiple halls on the top floor where one could give announcements indoors, so we could use those instead if we please. One large open area on the main floor to sit around a fireplace, with a large television screen in the center. Lastly for our dining experiences, we had Pietro try something using his speed."

The speedster then stepped up, "They had me take several items from the food areas, and when one meal was completely out, they replaced it immediately."

Sakaki slowly raised her hand for a question, "Isn't that, um, normal for buffet-like food places to do that?"

Pietro shrugged, "Well, yeah. But it's like, what is that American word? Instantaneous? Taking anything from the stand will always result in it being replaced as soon as it is taken."

"So it's easy to believe that the amount of food we have here is enough for each of us, but we have no idea how dense our supplies are. We better not be too careless with our meals." Dimitri instructed us, "Now then, moving on with our second group."

Oh, that's us. Well, we better explain what we found, despite there being very little. We talked about the gyms with the dangerous sports stuff in them, as well as the exercise equipment area. All of us just sat there, nervously sweating since we didn't have a lot to talk about. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they moved on to the final group.

"To sum it all up, the labs in that facility were all tailored towards our "Ultimate Talents" and the only way into them is through a specific person's e-Handbook. The other location we searched, the library, contained multiple murder mystery novels and files on murder cases." Finn told the rest of us on his group's behalf.

We all turned back to Dimitri once he finished, "Okay, well done everyone on your group searching for today. I assume this area still hides many more secrets to uncover, so we will have to conduct the same procedure at least a few more times until we discover them. For new areas when they open up as well, until we find the truth behind our captivity and our way of escape."

"That sounds pretty exhausting…" Reyn put his arms behind his head and groaned.

"It does, Reyn, but we have to endure it in order to find another way of escape. It's not like our captors are going to open up a way for—"

*Ding dong bing bong*

Huh? I felt a vibration coming from my e-Handbook. I turned it on and Monokuma appeared on my screen. I wonder where Sird was, if she's like our prison warden, why is she relying on this bear to keep an eye on us?

"Puhuhuhu, it's been a while since we've last talked! We should catch up in a few hours, just so we can discuss… more of your college killing life. Meet me in Hall M in the student center at 5:30, just before dinner! Y'know, so you won't get queasy listening to any unnerving details. See you soon!"

The bear laughed maniacally as he ended the transmission. Ugh, I was so hoping I wouldn't see him again so soon. I guess we can't ignore him though…

"It… looks like we have one more meeting for today. You're all dismissed for now, let us have time to ourselves until later. Thank you, once again everyone." Dimitri left in the direction of the dorms.

The rest of us followed, unsure of what that twisted bear's plan was for us tonight. All we knew was that it will have a sick sense of humor on his part.

Happy new year, peeps! If there's anyone still out there reading this anyways… Some interesting developments with this chapter and free time events are coming up! I'm curious on who you all could pick, so I have created a poll that will end a week before Valentine's Day! Vote on whichever characters you want, and the top two will be chosen for the next chapter. The runner-ups will get their chance next, before we will make a new poll! Vote now right here, and hope you enjoy the next chapter: /7uw7cf91q (note: you can vote for multiple characters if you please)