Chapter 2: Part 5

"Yonaga?" Taka raised an eyebrow. "What do we need to discuss about her?"

Mahiru frowned as she glanced over at Hiyoko. 'I'm sorry,' she thought to herself, 'but I'm not letting her hurt you anymore.'

Mahiru looked back to Taka and the rest of the group. "I believe Angie is trying to start a cult. She's already brainwashed Hiyoko to blindly follow her."

Hiyoko slammed her hands against the table and shouted, "How can you say such things about Angie?! You bitch!"

Mahiru frowned at Hiyoko's words, but even the rest of her class were caught off guard by Hiyoko's cruelty to the photographer. All of them, including Gundham and Peko, were left with their mouths agape as they witnessed this friendship fall apart.

Taka, however, was left completely baffled, giving the photographer a puzzled expression. "Yonaga is starting a cult? That…sounds ridiculous. I hope you have some evidence to support this-"

"Aw, damnit," Kaito said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Everyone from Hope's Peak turned their attention over to him as he dropped his hand to the table and gave Angie a disappointed look. "Seriously, Angie? You're going to try this again?"

"Again?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. "You mean she attempted this before?"

"Now, now, let's not make such rash judgements," Angie said with a calming smile across her face. "I had never once formed a cult, either on my island or in the Ultimate Academy. I only created the student council to help protect my fellow classmates from the temptations of Monokuma."

Taka's eyes lit up at the mention of a student council. "I find the idea of a student council absolutely perfect for our situation. No, for every situation! A class needs peers they can depend on to lead them to success!"

"Um, no offense, Taka," Kaede interrupted, "but even from my limited time with her, Angie can come off as a bit creepy…No offense, Angie."

Angie smiled at Kaede and clapped her hands together. "None taken, my friend."

"Also, aren't you, Chiaki, and Kaito already a student council anyway?" Leon asked.

"Yes, but you see I have actually spoken to Yonaga as we investigated the second floor, and I found some of her ideas interesting," Taka explained.

"Ok, but as someone who has seen Angie in action and as a one of this group's leaders, I say we don't fall for that," Kaito said sternly.

Taka frowned and looked to Kaito's class. "For those that were there, can you confirm this to be true?"

"Indeed we can," Kiyo said with a sly chuckle. "It was in fact the student council's presence that pushed me to enact my plan."

Tenko grimaced as she let Kiyo talk before speaking herself. "Yeah, and she was trying to brainwash Himiko too."

"Angie nice to Gonta, but Gonta know she lie," Gonta said with a frown.

Taka sighed and crossed his arms. "Very well. Then I suggest we keep Angie under watch until further notice."

"But that's not fair!" Hiyoko hissed out. "You guys keep talking about giving people second chances and letting things go, but you won't give Angie a chance?!"

Chiaki lifted her hand up to speak, "Well, we got to-"

"Shut up!" Hiyoko interrupted. "Just shut up! I'm sick of all you liars! You'd rather hangout with Pigbarf, that soldier bitch, and that serial killer, but Angie doesn't get any respect! At least Angie wants to actually do something about all these murderers! I hope you all choke on your food and die!"

Hiyoko launched out of her chair and ran out of the cafeteria as fast as her legs could take her. Mahiru, Chiaki, and most of the other students shot up from their chairs to chase after the small girl, but Taka held his hand up.

"Everyone remain calm," Taka said. "As much as it pains me to say it, she may not be wrong."

Mondo gasped. "B-bro, how can you say that?"

"Yeah!" Nekomaru added on. "You were one of the first to push for us treat this like a second chance."

"But I cannot argue with Saionji's point," Taka explained. "Despite all our proclamations, we still had a murder take place because of Enoshima and Shirogane. Plus, Komaeda and Ikusaba had planned to murder as well along with Oma making things worse, we haven't been as careful as we thought."

"So, you want to keep us under the same intense supervision?" Mukuro asked.

"I'm afraid so, Ikusaba," Taka said.

Mukuro sighed and nodded slightly. "I understand. I won't put up a fight."

"I won't mind being under supervision either," Nagito said. "Without Junko around, I promise I won't make such rash decisions anymore." Nagito turned his attention to Chiaki and smiled at her.

Chiaki gave Nagito a look of concern. 'I hope you keep that promise, Nagito.'

Suddenly, Miu raised her hand high up into the air. "I call keeping an eye on trash boy over here."

Everyone shifted to Miu with puzzled expressions.

"Um, really?" Kaede asked.

"Why do you want to guard him?" Leon asked. "Is this like a…y-you know."

Miu blushed heavily and waved her hands in a dismissive manner. "N-no way! Like I'd even humor sleeping with this shrimp dick over there! However, I will jump at the chance to use him as a guineapig to test out my new inventions."

"Seriously, Miu?" Kaito asked. "Can't you take this seriously? We're trying to make things better for the group. I mean, your inventions aren't always the safest."

"Don't worry about me, Kaito," Nagito said with a smile. "I'm honored to even be considered worthy of being a guineapig for Miu's inventions."

"See? He's okay with it," Miu said.

Chiaki sighed. "Okay then. Miu can look after Nagito."

"If we're volunteering on guard duty, I can look after Mukuro," Tenko raised her hand. "My neo aikido will protect me from any tricks she might pull."

"Very well, Chabashira!" Taka said with a bright smile. "As for Shinguji, I believe it will be best if we have Nidai look after him."

"Very well," Kiyo said as he bowed his head. "I will go quietly, if that is what the group desires."

"That would be for the best," Nekomaru said before smiling. "Besides, I think I could show you a few workout routines to help you build some muscles! You're far too skinny for your own good!"

Kaito nodded. "And that just leaves Ang-"

Kaito stopped as he scanned the room. After few seconds of looking around, his eyes widened and jumped out of his seat. "Where's Angie?!"

Everyone looked around the room, and sure enough, the Ultimate Artist was nowhere to be seen. Knowing what the artist was capable of, all of the students got to their feet and rushed out of the cafeteria to find her.

Hiyoko had ran as far away from the cafeteria as she possibly could. Through all her anger, sadness, pain, and tears, she honestly wasn't thinking about where she was going, making random turns and blindly running ahead until she would collapse to her knees. She would gasp for air as running excessively while crying would take a lot out of someone. She was alternate from sobbing to gasping before she heard footsteps approach from behind her.

Hiyoko growled and wiped away some tears. "G-g-go away!"

"Now, now, there's no need to be angry," Angie said with calming whisper.

Hiyoko stopped growling and turned to see her friend smiling at her. Tears poured out from her eyes and dashed into Angie's arms. "Angie!" she cried out.

Angie smiled as she held Hiyoko in her arms and stroked her hair. "There, there, Hiyoko. There's no need to cry."

"H-how can you say that?" Hiyoko asked. "They're turning on you for no reason! They're going to lock you up or something, and now all of those murderers will keep walking free!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

Hiyoko's tears and anger came to a stop before she looked up at her friend. "What do you mean?"

"I had quite the interesting conversation with Taka earlier where I expressed my concerns of our less pleasant classmates, and even presented some of my ideas to him. Honestly, I believe it was Auta's will to have Mahiru speak out against me. I believe that all this has done is reveal the seriousness of this dark force to all of our friends."

Hiyoko wiped away the rest of her tears. "So, what else can we do?"

"For now, I must wait until, but you," Angie knelt down and placed her hands upon her friend's shoulders, "it is now your turn."

"My turn?" Hiyoko repeated. "My turn to do what?"

"Find those of us that desire justice like us," Angie whispered.

Just a second after Angie whispered to Hiyoko, Mahiru and the rest of the students entered the classroom.

"Get away from her!" Mahiru shouted as she pulled Angie away from Hiyoko.

Angie stumbled a bit before regaining her balance. She turned to face the group with a smile across her face. Taka, with a frown across his own face, approached Angie.

"I am sorry, Yonaga," Taka said solemnly. "But we will need to keep you under heavy supervision from now."

"Very well," Angie nodded her head.

"And I shall take the responsibility to look after you," Taka explained. "Do you understand?"

Angie nodded one more time, and with that, Taka took a hold of Angie's wrist and dragged her out of the room. Before the two of them left, Angie looked back to Hiyoko one last time to give her a light smile. Angie then turned back to Taka and left the room.

A few hours had passed since the morning meeting and everyone had split off into their own rooms to either find peace from the madness or to look through the photos Monokuma have gifted them. Rantaro in particular had been busy doing a bit of both in his Ultimate Lab. Upon opening up his envelope, he was greeted with three pictures. The first showed two people, a middle-aged couple with the same lime colored hair as himself. It was Rantaro's parents. Despite having been missing for months by that point, they had large smiles across their faces as they lounged in their fancy chairs, drinking wine and smoking cigars. The second photo was of twelves girls of varying ages, but all sharing the same lime green hair. All of them had their arms wrapped around each other and smiles across their faces as they stood in front of some sort of mansion. Rantaro smiled down at the photo.

'So, they did manage to get back home,' Rantaro thought to himself. 'I wonder how they found their way back?'

As Rantaro saved that thought, he placed the photo down to examine the final photo. It was a girl around his age. She had long black hair, green eyes, and wore an outfit that would fittingly be called "goth." A black tank top, fishnet arm warmers, a studded collar, and heavy eye liner. She was sitting alone at a nice park, tossing seeds to birds, but she had a scowl across her face.

Rantaro raised an eyebrow. 'Who is this supposed to be?' he thought to himself.

Yet another question with no answer. At least to at that moment. Rantaro carefully picked up three tacks and gently pierced them through the top of the photos before sticking them onto his bulletin board. Afterwards, he grabbed a marker, a stack of sticky notes, and began to write notes and attach them to the photos. For the photo of his parents, he marked as "Safe and Happy?" For his sisters, he marked them as "Reunited and Safe." Then for the unknown girl, he marked as "Unknown relation?" Once Rantaro was finished with that, he took a step back and stroked his chin as he examined his bulletin board.

The bulletin board was covered with pieces of paper, sticky notes, and photos with long pieces of string connecting all the tacks and pins together. And all of them connected back to two photos with sticky notes attached to them; a photo of Junko Enoshima and a photo of Tsumugi Shirogane, one labeled "Was the world truly destroyed?" and the other labeled "Is this all just a show?"

Rantaro sighed to himself. He sat back down at his desk and opened up the notebook Tsumugi had given him. He skimmed through some of the earlier pages he had made notes in before tossing the book back onto the desk. He rubbed circles on his temples.

"Just dead end after dead end," Rantaro muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a loud knock came from the main door of Rantaro's room. Thankful for some kind of break from his rabbit hole of an investigation and exited his lab before arriving at his door and opening it. Standing right outside his room was Mikan, looking as timid as ever.

Rantaro smiled. "Oh, hello Mikan. Are you feeling ok?"

"U-um," Mikan fidgeted with her hands, "N-not really. T-today's been very stressful."

"Yeah, I get that," Rantaro said. "I will admit, I didn't know that Angie did something like that in the last killing game."

"Y-you mean form a c-c-cult?"

Rantaro nodded and stepped aside for Mikan to enter the room. "We got to be careful from now on."

Mikan nodded before sitting down on Rantaro's bed. "H-h-have you checked your photos yet?"

Rantaro nodded. "Yeah. They're all in my lab…I take it your photos are a bit…emotional?"

Mikan nodded again as tears formed in her eyes. Rantaro knelt down next to the nurse and gently held her hand.

"It's ok," Rantaro said softly as he stroked his thumb across her hand. "It's o-"

Mikan burst into tears, sobbing heavily as she threw her arms around Rantaro to hug him tightly. She cried into his shoulder, refusing to loosen her grip on the green haired boy. That didn't stop Rantaro from doing his best to comfort the girl, hugging her back and lightly petting her hair.

"M-m-my mom and d-d-dad," Mikan sobbed. "Th-th-they're both…both…"

"Shhhh," Rantaro said softly. "Just breathe, Mikan. Breathe."

Chihiro had been locked up in her room since the morning meeting had ended. All of the shouting and people turning against each other, she really just wanted some space to calm down. She originally went over to her laptop to work on Keebo's, but one thing was aching at her. In between pauses in programming, Chihiro would glace over at the envelope containing the photos of her loved ones. She had not gotten the chance to look at them throughout the course of the day and curiosity had been building up in her. She moved away from her laptop and opened up the envelope.

The first photo was enough to completely crush her spirits. She left her lab behind and crawled into a ball on her bed. There, she laid still for hours, occasionally sobbing as the photo laid beside her. It was a gravestone engraved with the words "Taichi Fujisaki, Beloved Father, Husband, and Friend."

Chihiro didn't bother to look at the remaining photos. Whatever they were, she knew they would only hurt as well. And there she laid. She didn't check the time that had passed. Perhaps it was a blur or she actually fell asleep. She couldn't remember. All she could think about was her father. The only one whoever truly supported her through her difficult tween years. Gone. Chihiro wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face in her knees as she wept. A knock at the door broke her away from her sobbing. She wiped away her tears and slowly got out of bed.

Chihiro opened the door to see the giant Nekomaru, barely fitting through her doorway.

"O-oh, Nekomaru," Chihiro spoke up. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Of course, but I should be asking you that," Nekomaru responded. "I mean, your eyes are red. Are you feeling ok?"

Chihiro blushed a bit as she rubbed her eyes. "Well…no. I took a look at one of my photos and…" Chihiro trailed off as she wiped away more tears.

Nekomaru frowned down at the programmer. "Look, why don't we go train? It's about that time anyway."

Chihiro wiped away a few more tears. "W-would that really help?"

"Of course," Nekomaru said. "Exercise is a great way to reveal stress. If that's ok with you, of course."

Chihiro nodded sheepishly. "Sure…Just let me change real quick."

"Of course!" Nekomaru smiled at Chihiro before heading back to his room.

Chihiro shut the door behind him and glanced back at the photo of her father's grave. Her solemn expression turned to one of determination.

"I promise, I will become strong, dad," she said to herself in a whisper. "I promise."

With that, Chihiro walked over to her dresser, pulled out her workout clothes, and got changed.

Chihiro, Mikan, and Rantaro hadn't been the only ones to examine their photos. As soon as everyone had settled down from the morning meeting, they all opened up their envelopes and took a peek at the photos inside.

Mondo: As if just to spite Mondo, the very first picture was of his brother, Daiya's, gravestone. It looked as if it hadn't been taken care of for quite some time. There were cracks across the stone with moss growing through it. Well, the world did go through a disaster, so Mondo couldn't be too surprised by the lack of care. What did surprise Mondo were the next two photos. From behind a tree, a photo captured an old member of Mondo's gang, Takemichi Yukimaru. He always used to be the runt of the litter in the gang, the little kid always trying to prove himself. But in the photo, he wasn't in his biker gear. Hell, his hair wasn't even dyed anymore. He was clean cut, well dressed, carrying a briefcase. The kid became a responsible member of society. Mondo groaned at the photo before looking towards the final, but most confusing was a photo…of himself with Leon and Chihiro, all laughing together.

Kaede: Kaede was thrilled to see her photos showed all of her loved ones were safe. The first was of her parents sitting in their living room, watching TV. Her mother looked as joyful as ever, but her father had an unusual scowl across his face. Kaede found it odd since she remembered him being just as joyful as her mom. Well, the photo was taken without their knowledge. Perhaps it was just a bad day. After that was a photo of Shuichi. She couldn't help but giggle at his ahoge. Apparently, that's what his hat was hiding. He was sitting up against a wood panel wall with a slight frown across his face. She didn't know why, but she was at least glad he was safe. The last photo was of her piano teacher, an old guy with thinning white hair and a full beard. He seemed to be performing at a show as a part of a full orchestra.

Ryoma: Ryoma honestly wasn't expecting to get anything out of the photos Monokuma had presented him, but surprisingly there was something to be seen. The first photo was of his parents. They were just as short as he was and, from the voyeuristic photo at least, they looked just as miserable as he did as they sat down in their living room. The next photo was a bit of a shock to him. It was a photo of his girlfriend walking in the park. Unlike him or his family, she was a tall woman, nearly 6 feet tall and really muscular. He thought that perhaps it was an old photo of her, after all, she was dead. But Ryoma couldn't help but feel confused. Why would Monokuma give him photos of loved ones if in the last game he was told he had no loved ones.

Leon: Leon couldn't really care about his photos. He hardly had the best relationship with his father and his mom always did take his father's side, so finding out they had both died only left him empty. He didn't exactly feel sad about it, but he wasn't too thrilled either. To him, no one really deserves to die…except Junko and maybe Tsumugi. Still, he moved on to the next photo, which was of his cousin, Kanon Nakajima. Kanon seemed much more reserved than she used to be. Although, that may just be the picture only showing her eating at a restaurant by herself. But he could care less. At least she was safe. But the last photo really puzzled Leon. It was of him, Chihiro, and Mondo, all laughing.

Mukuro: While drowning out Tenko's ramblings, Mukuro opened up her envelope and the first thing she immediately saw was a photo of her sister's corpse. Mukuro stared down at the photo for an uncomfortable amount of time, even for her. She couldn't help it, even after all Junko had done to the world and to her, tears fell from her eyes and onto the photo. She gritted her teeth, crumpled up the photo, and tossed it into the trash. She hoped the second photo would at least make her stop crying, but it only made things worse. Just like with Sayaka, Mukuro received a photo of Makoto and Kyoko, holding hands, having a dinner date. Mukuro did stop crying. In fact, she stopped everything. She didn't breathe, she didn't blink. All she could do was stare down at the photo. She stared for another stretch of time before tearing the photo in half.

Kiyotaka: Taka was bit hesitant to open his envelope. Junko had taunted him only just a few days ago about the ambiguity of his father's condition, so while he wanted to know the truth, he dreaded what it could be. The first photo didn't fill him with much confidence. It was a gravestone which had the name of his mother on it. He nearly broke down into tears, right there and then, but he had to stay strong. He needed to be a leader. The next photo was of his father, Takaaki Ishimaru. The former police officer…WAS ALIVE! Although, he wasn't in the greatest of shape. All of his hair was nearly gone, he had more bags of skin under his already tired eyes, and he was wheelchair bound being pushed by a nurse. Taka fought off his quivering lip to smile at his father.

Mahiru: Upon first look at the photos, Mahiru couldn't even pay attention to the people in the photos. She felt the photographer snob come out as she stared at the amateurish shots with constant trees and wooden beams in the way along with the awkward angles. Once Mahiru finally took the situation seriously, she noticed that her photos were…odd. The very first picture was of Hajime, sitting on the beach of Jabberwock Island, a smile across his face, and one of his eyes was red. Mahiru was confused? Hajime is a loved one? That's a bit ridiculous. Sure, he happened to be one of the few sane people on the island, he was always acting responsibly, and sure he may have been a little cute- Mahiru slapped herself. No way she actually believed that, right? The second photo was, even stranger, Hiyoko. Sure, she absolutely cared for her, but she knew Hiyoko was safe. Even stranger, the photo showed Hiyoko as a fully grown adult, several feet taller and with less childish features. Was that a part of Junko screwing with their memories? The final photo was of her parents' gravestones.

Celestia: Celeste couldn't help but smile at the photo of her beloved cat. Despite all of his fur turning grey, Grand Bois Chéri still looked as well fed as always. The only problem she had was that her beloved cat was laying on a new owner's lap rather than her own. She saw that the other two photos were of the graves of her parents, but she simply tossed them to the side to focus more on her beloved cat, planning for the day she will be reunited with him.

Kaito: Kaito was relatively pleased with all the photos he got. Pretty much everyone he was worried about turned out to be safe. His parents were seen waiting in line at some sort of DMV, maybe even a bank? It was hard to tell since the photo was taken right over the shoulder of another person in line. The next photo was of his sidekick, Shuichi. It was exactly the same as the photo Kaede had, but he was unaware of that fact. The final photo was of Maki. While she was alone in the photo, the wood panel background was exactly the same as the photo of Shuichi, so perhaps they were in the same room?

Ibuki: Ibuki's photos weren't anything she was too concerned over. Seeing that the rest of her classmates on Jabberwock Island and her old bandmates were safe was good enough for Ibuki. Although the third picture gave Ibuki some pause. Much like most of the other students, Ibuki was greeted with a photo of her parents' grave. Ibuki stared at the photo for a moment, her ever present smile gone. After a moment of staring, Ibuki dropped the photo to the ground and headed to her Ultimate Lab to play some music.

Sakura: Sakura's photos gave her a bittersweet smile as she looked down at them. The first was of the man she loved, Kenshiro. While she was thankful to see he had not fallen to his disease, she couldn't help but tear up at the sight of him. The once muscular martial artist had become barely more than skin and bones, leaning on a walker just to stand up straight. The second photo was of her beloved friend, Asahina. She looked a bit older than the last time she saw her. The photo showed her wearing a full red track suit while blowing a whistle. Had she become a coach? Sakura felt that would be a very fitting role for Hina. The last photo was of her family dojo. While none of her family appeared in the photo, the dojo itself was in pristine condition. In fact, it had a new sign with bright and bold lettering, "The New Oogami Mixed Martial Arts Dojo." Could Hina and Kenshiro have something to do with that?

Hifumi: Hifumi was hardly in any rush to look at his photos. He had spent most of his day avoiding everyone after the morning meeting. He hid away in the art room, sketching away on one of the sketch pads. It wasn't until the nighttime announcement played that he returned to check out the photos. The first photo was only of slight relief to him. It was famed manga artist Akira Toriyama laying in a hospital bed. Somehow, the elderly artist survived the destruction of the world, perhaps because the world still needed more Dragon Ball to merchandize. While Hifumi was glad one of his favorite manga creators was still alive, he was furious that he couldn't access any new DBZ content. The second photo was not of a person, but of a manga store window with a display showing a brand-new Demon Angel Pretty Pudgy Princess. Once again, he was glad to see his favorite manga continue, but enraged that he had no access to it. The final photo was actually of personal significance to Hifumi. It was his older sister, Fujiko Yamada. The photo showed Fujiko sitting at a desk in a bookstore, apparently doing autograph signings for a manga she herself wrote. Hifumi was actually quite proud of his sister. He remembered that the two of them promised they'd become official manga creators together. He only wished he could be there with her.

I am so sorry that this took so long to update. My life has been hell the past few days. I had too many six day stretches of work in a row and all of my days off have either been taken up by having to deal with family stuff or I got addicted to Yugioh again. I'm really worried that I won't finish this chapter and chapter 3 this year. I'm sorry.

As for the chapter itself, I've very disappointed in it. I couldn't even get all of the photos done and the fact it's just a list rather than well written pros makes me mad. I at least gave some spotlight to more characters like Sakura.

I swear I'll get the next part done faster next time. Hopefully my mood gets better. Until then, take care.