Chapter 2: Part 19

"Ring, riiiiiing!" Monokuma spoke through the school's intercom. "It is now 7 am. As such, all water has been turned on and the kitchen is open once again. So, rise and shine to greet this wonderful day!"

Mukuro had been up all night. Watching over someone like Kokichi required a large amount of vigilance. Plus, she had a lot of work to do. She was afraid to even blink out of suspicion that Kokichi would make a run for it. Luckily, her time as a soldier had helped her skills in staying awake for long periods of time. Still, she had gotten rusty. She wasn't in the field of battle, she was in a nice room, laying across an absolutely comfy bed. If she laid her head back down, she'd sink right in and drift away to sleep. Something she had to fight against. Her eyelids got heavy. She'd force her eyes back open, but they would go heavy again. She'd fight it off as much as she could before they eventually shut.

Mukuro didn't know how long she had passed out for, but her own snoring was enough to wake herself up. As she woke herself back up she saw that Kokichi was opening the door by pushing his head down against the doorknob then propping it open with his foot.

"Oh, hell no you're not!" Mukuro shouted as she chased after him.

Kokichi ran around, a bit aimless with what directions he was going in. He was mainly just circling around the dorm halls. Mukuro was still in hot pursuit. It didn't take long for Mukuro to close the distance and tackle Kokichi to the ground. Kokichi let out a muffled groan as Mukuro pinned him down.

"You thought you could get past me, huh?" Mukuro said with a smirk. "You know, you aren't as much of an evil genius as your class made you out to be."

"MRHR FHR!" Kokichi said.

The sound of a door opening took Mukuro's attention. She looked up to see Rantaro standing right outside his door.

"What's going on?" Rantaro asked.

"Oh, you know," Mukuro said. "Just dealing with Kokichi."

"Oh…oh, yeah. That makes sense."

Mukuro grabbed Kokichi by the back of his hair and stood him back up. "Come with me. We got to go to the cafeteria for the meeting."

"I will, but I have to check on Mikan real quick. She got really sick by the end of last night."

"OK, but I really need you two to be quick."

"Don't worry, I will," Rantaro said with a smile before walking towards Mikan's room.

Mukuro turned her attention back to Kokichi. "Well, let's go ahead and eat," she said before dragging him towards the cafeteria.

Sayaka slushed mouth wash around, pushing it around her flossed teeth with her tongue before spitting all out into her sink. She'd then tied her hair back into a ponytail, officially making herself ready for the day. Sayaka stepped out of her room. The first thing she saw upon stepping out of her room was Leon walking toward her. Leon paused as his eyes locked with Sayaka's. The pop idol couldn't help but let out a sigh of irritation. Leon huffed out some air and turned away from her and kept walking.

Sayaka waited until the baseball player to leave her sight before stepping out into the hall. On her way to the cafeteria, she also saw Ryoma step out of his room. She smiled as she joined along-side him.

"Good morning, Ryoma," the pop idol said with a bright smile. "How are you today?"

"I mean, I just woke up," Ryoma answered. "Can't really say too much one way or the other."

"Oh…I guess that's true," Sayaka frowned a bit. "We can at least hope today is better than yesterday."

"Yeah," Ryoma said before putting his next candy cigar in his mouth. "I'd prefer not having a gun at the back of my head."

"Hey, can I ask you about what Celeste asked you to do yesterday?"

Ryoma smirked slightly. "Don't worry. I'm not planning to do anything."

Sayaka smiled. "That's good."

The two of them entered the cafeteria to see that the trio of group leaders of Taka, Chiaki, and Kaito were sitting at the end of the table. Sayaka caught the tail-end of their discussion.

"Look, I just think after all he did for us when we got here, we should give Shinji another shot," Kaito said.

"I agree," Chiaki said. "Any malicious intent you may sense from him are only from a time when he had no control of his actions, Taka."

Taka crossed his arms and shook his head. "I understand that you still trust Shinji, but I can't. I apologize, but trust is very important to me. If Shinji couldn't be inclined to tell me his true name, that's something I just can't forgive."

Mondo and Leon were also seat off to the sides of the front end of the table. A bit more surprising was that Angie was seated next to Taka. She has certainly weaseled her way into the Moral Compass's favor. After Sayaka and Ryoma sat themselves down, more students came in. Kaede, Mahiru, Shinji, Nekomaru, and Chihiro entered the cafeteria. Mahiru frowned as she saw Angie discussing something with Taka. She wanted to start accusing the artist then and there, however, someone else spoke

"Good morning, everyone," Kaito said with a bright smile. "Did you all sleep were?"

"About as well as we could with Mukuro waving a gun around," Kaede with a nervous tone.

"I can't blame her for taking such a drastic action," Shinji said. "She's making sure we don't fall to the temptations of the motive and she's taken care of Kokichi. Honestly, I'd say she's made more progress in securing our safety than we have."

Just as Shinji finished his diatribe, more students walked in. Ibuki, Gonta, Sakura, and Kiyo stepped in, along with Miu and the still chained up Nagito.

"Security my ass," Miu spat out. "That butch carpet-muncher was looking over my shoulder every time I tried to take a shit!"

"I think calling her that is a bit harsh," Nagito said.

"Shut up, Nagicuck!"

Already put off by the vibe Miu was putting in the room, Chihiro decided to speak up. "H-hey. Um, I didn't really get to say this yesterday, but I've actually made a lot of progress on Keebo."

"What?!" Kaito gasped. "Really?! That's great!"

"Way to go, Chihiro!" Sayaka clapped her hands together.

"Wait," Miu said with a raised eyebrow. "How much progress?"

"Well," Chihiro spoke up again. "The final transfer is still loading, but he should be ready by the end of the day."

"Hmmm," Miu crossed her arms. "Guess you can do something after all."

"Guess that explains why our training sessions have slowed down," Nekomaru said.

"Y-yeah…" Chihiro looked down in shame. "I'm sorry."

"Ah, don't worry about it," Nekomaru said. "We'll get back into our routine soon enough. Besides, I'm more than ready to meet a fellow robot!"

More students came in. Tenko walked in by herself, with Mukuro finally arriving with a gagged and bound Kokichi. Tenko stuck her tongue out at Kokichi before sitting with Sayaka. Then came Angie's group of Hiyoko, Hifumi, and Teruteru. Teruteru couldn't help but lick his lip at the sight of Kokichi bound up. No matter the context, gags and zip-ties will always be seen in a suggestive light for the chef. Rantaro led a sneezing Mikan into the room and pulled a seat out just for her. Following one group of weirdos was the other group of weirdos. Celestia, Kirumi, Gundham, and Peko sat themselves at the other end of the table.

"Did you all have a good night?" Mukuro asked.

Everyone in the cafeteria stared at the soldier girl with varying degrees of irritation, bafflement, and disbelief.

"How the fuck do you think it went?" Mondo asked.

"Don't be so vulgar, bro," Taka placed his hand on the biker's shoulder. "Mukuro was just trying to protect us."

"Yeah, but can't there be a way to do that without terrifying us?" Mahiru asked. "Can you at the very least not point live guns at us?"

Mukuro frowned a bit. "It…It's not like I was actually going to shoot you…"

"You pointed an uzi at us!" Leon shouted.

"But she took care of Kokichi!" Tenko said. "Taking care of a de…jerk like him is a good thing!"

"Honestly, I'm shocked you never tried sooner," Celestia said, leaning towards Kokichi with a smirk across her face. "I guess he wasn't as much of a challenge as he claimed."

Kokichi leered death at Celestia.

Sick of all the arguing, Kaito stood up from his seat and smacked his hands against the table "Ok, everyone calm down. Look, things may have gotten off to a messy start with Mukuro's plan, but we're all still here. Mukuro didn't get any of us killed and no one went outside to see the motive. So, we can take it easy-"

Before Kaito could finish with whatever he was about to say, Monokuma crawled out from underneath Mukuro's seat. After crawling between her legs, the plush bear slowly crawled onto the table, faced the group, and waved his paw with a cheeky grin.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Monokuma said. "Don't be sure about that, space boy. Looks like one of you bozos didn't have self-control."

"What are you talking about?" Mukuro asked. "I ate the only key. No one can unlock the door."

"Are you sure about that?" Monokuma asked. "The only way to be sure is go out and see for yourself."

Monokuma hopped off the table and slid between Mukuro's feet before disappearing underneath her seat. Mukuro's eye twitched. 'N-no,' Mukuro thought to herself. 'That's a lie. It's bullshit. I locked the door. There's no way.'

Despite her attempts to calm herself down, Mukuro's anger was boiling up. She gripped the edge of the table so tightly that it began to crack. Noticing that shit was about to go down, Kaito once again leapt into action.

"L-look, who's to say that he's even telling the truth," Kaito said hesitantly. "N-none of us would actually go out there when we know that's what Monokuma wants."

"I wouldn't be so confident in that logic," Peko spoke up. "The second motive in our game was quite similar to this, with it being set in one specific spot."

"Yeah…" Mahiru frowned. "And both of us fell of it."

"Gonta!" Mukuro shouted. "You're with me."

Gonta was startled for a moment. He pointed to himself, nonverbally asking if the soldier was sure. Mukuro didn't answer. She just passed by the group and stormed out of the cafeteria. With no other options, Gonta ran after Mukuro. The group was left bewildered by what was happening. Did someone actually get past the door? What even was outside? And could that something really make someone want to commit murder? Before anyone could say anything, Mukuro's voice echoed all the way from the hall to the cafeteria.

"GODDAMNIT!" Mukuro shouted.

The group was startled by just how loud the soldier was able to yell, but they knew that they couldn't just sit around. They got up from their seats and rushed out of the cafeteria to headed to the main lobby of the school. Sure enough, something was wrong. Both Mukuro and Gonta stood in from of the metal door, the chains that were once blocking it off were unlocked and left in a pile at their feet. Mukuro's face was red with a fiery rage, her forehead vein nearly bursting out of her own head.

"Which. One. Of you. Did this?" Mukuro asked through gritted teeth.

The entire group was silent. That was not what Mukuro wanted. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her pistol. She cocked it and aimed it up at the ceiling

"WHO BROKE THE LOCK?!" Mukuro shouted.

"Mukuro, calm down," Chiaki said, taking a step forward. Honestly, a foolish idea.

Mukuro pointed her gun at the gamer, forcing her to stop. "Stay out of this, Nanami. I know you wouldn't do this, but someone else did."

Chiaki held her hands up. "Mukuro, you know that the culprit won't reveal themselves. And if you fire off that gun, you're putting yourself at risk of execution."

Mukuro paused for a moment. Chiaki was right. Mukuro may be a soldier, and laying down her life has always been a possibility she had to consider, but she wasn't one to throw her life away in a meaningless manner. She wasn't her sister. She lowered her gun.

"Fair point," Mukuro said to keep a brave face. "But what do we do now?"

"Has Kokichi told you what he saw?" Kaito asked. "He was outside before you tied him up."

Mukuro shook her head. "Every time I give him a chance to talk, he'd go silent."

Kaito turned his attention to Kokichi. Despite having his mouth covered up, Kaito could still make it out a smirk from Kokichi's face.

Kaito sighed. "I guess we have to go out there."

"Are you serious?" Leon asked.

"What if it's a trap?" Sakura asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Kaito said. He stepped ahead of the rest group and pushed open the steel door. The natural light of the outside briefly blinded the student body, but they adjusted to the sunlight not long after. Stepping outside and seeing the fresh green grass and flower garden, the group wished they could just relax for the rest of the day. Yet, they knew they'd never get that chance. Just as they all stepped off the marble floors of the building and onto the grass outside, Monokuma made his dramatic entrance.

From the roof of the building, Monokuma leapt down in front of the group. Instead of smashing into the group, he pulled a whip out, tossed the line out, and when the whip wrapped around a ledge, Monokuma swung across the courtyard and let go. Monokuma would perform a triple flip and land successfully, holding his arms out and doing a showman's bow. The students could finally see that Monokuma had dressed himself up with a brown fedora and a brown leather jacket.

"Are you ready for an adventure, kids?" Monokuma asked.

"What the hell is this?" Mondo asked.

"You said there was a motive out here," Celestia said. "Where is it?"

"Ah, straight to the point. I like it!" Monokuma said with a smile. "Come with me, children. Doctor Monokuma will lead the way."

"That's a doctor's outfit?" Leon asked, although everyone just ignored his comment and followed the bear away from the school.

It didn't take too long for Monokuma to reach his destination. He stopped right in front of the entrance of a hedge maze. The walls of the maze were at least twelve feet tall, easily towering over the tallest students in the group. As for how long and wide the maze was, the students weren't quite sure. When Sakura, Peko, and Kiyo attempted to look around the corner, Monokuma snapped his fingers to keep their attention.

"Behold!" Monokuma shouted. "Monokuma's Hedge Maze of Despair! Yeah, I had to cut this little side project off from rest of you. I just hate when people catch me in the middle of my work."

"This is it?" Mukuro asked, almost disappointed by a simple hedge maze. "This is the motive?"

"Whaaaat?" Monokuma gasped. "No! This is just a maze. The motive is at the end of it."

Peko looked at Kokichi. "Do you know it is?"

Kokichi smirked again and offered a sarcastic shrug as an answer. Peko reached for her katana, but Celestia placed her hand on her shoulder. Peko lowered her hand, letting Kokichi off easy.

"The only answers we'll get are in there," Celestia said. "And before you announce any concerns, sticking to small groups should disperse any attempts of assault. Wouldn't all agree?"

Kirumi, Peko, and Gundham were quick to join Celestia's side, taking advice to heart rather quickly. The rest of the group needed a moment to think it over. Celestia did spring it on them without much discussion, but it was a fairly basic yet solid idea.

"Fine, we'll split up into groups," Mukuro said. "We also should make sure to mark our trails so we don't get lost."

"I-I have a pack of b-band-aids," Mikan said with a raised hand. "I-I could leave some on the path i-if you want."

"Good idea, Tsumiki!" Taka cheered. "I said that we are all ready to explore this maze."

The group once again split up. Celestia obviously had her followers with her, and Angie took Hifumi, Hiyoko, and Teruteru with her. Taka grouped up with Mondo, Chihiro, and Mahiru. Chiaki led Rantaro, Mikan, and Shinji. Kaito led Nekomaru, Leon, and Gonta. Mukuro and Miu dragged off Kokichi and Nagito. Ibuki dragged Kaede and Sayaka with glee while Tenko chased after them. Sakura watched over Kiyo while Ryoma followed them. Monokuma waved his "students" goodbye before swinging away with his whip.

It didn't take long for each of the groups lose sight of each other. The various turns and pathways to nowhere were bond to get some of them lost. Mondo was particularly frustrated with the layout maze. He even tried to punch his way through the walls of the maze, but the prickling thorns made any attempts to cheat through the maze impossible. Mahiru and Taka had to pull him out of his mess.

"Are you ok?" Chihiro asked.

"Jeez, can you not go full meathead alpha mode for five minutes?" Mahiru asked with a sarcastic eyeroll.

Mondo brushed off some stray leaves from his jacket and checked his hand for any cuts. "Can't blame a guy for trying something instead of wandering around like a dumbass."

"You still need to control your anger, bro," Taka said. "You never know what Monokuma has in store for us."

"Yeah…" Mondo said. Flashbacks of him nearly getting killed by an exploding Monokuma and him killing Chihiro played through his head. Having the small boy right next to him didn't help much either. He needed to focus on something else. A glance over at Mahiru gave him an idea.

"Hey, bro," Mondo spoke up, "how are things going with you and Angie? You two were talking this morning."

Mahiru's ear perked up when Mondo spoke. Mondo even winked at Mahiru before looking at his bro. Taka's face actual turned red.

"I keep telling you, you're misinterpreting our interactions," Taka said. "The two of us were just discussing who'd be good choices for a student council."

Mahiru raised an eyebrow. "A student council? Really? I thought you, Chiaki, and Kaito were doing fine."

"Yes, the three of us do make for decent leaders, but our group is still large. And after Mukuro's outburst from yesterday, we need better contingencies for such situations."

Mahiru and Mondo looked at each other before facing Taka.

"Well, safety is important," Mahiru said.

"Indeed it is!" Taka said before turning back to the path. "Now, let's get back to our investigation."

Taka began to walk off. Mondo and Mahiru followed after him.

"Student council, huh?" Mondo whispered. "Maybe getting on that could help you."

"I doubt it will be that easy," Mahiru whispered back. "Angie seems to be in his ear."

"No way. Bro's too smart for that."

Mahiru sighed. "I hope so."

Mondo then turned his attention over to Chihiro. "So, how's training been going."

"I-it's been going ok," Chihiro said. "Things have slowed down a bit since the party though."

"Yeah, that Mukuro chick really went off the rails."

Chihiro nodded slightly. "H-hey, Mondo? Have you ever had to deal with guys with guns? I know that guns are illegal here in Japan, but…I…kind of feel like criminals wouldn't care about that."

"And you're asking since I'm a criminal?"

Chihiro's eyes went wide and he wave his hands ."I-I wasn't trying to -"

Mondo smirked. "I'm just messing with you. It ain't that weird of a question anyway. But, no. I've mainly just dealt with other street punks. Worst they got weird knives and pipes. So, I ain't got a clue on how to handle Mukuro if she goes bonkers… If that's what you were wondering."

Chihiro frowned a bit. "I-I see…"

"It seems we got trouble from everywhere," Mahiru commented.

Sakura and Ryoma were hardly the talkative types. Stoicism is kind of their thing. However, Korekiyo was talkative enough to fill the empty space.

"It's hard to say where the true origins of the maze concept are, but it's clearly was intended to be a puzzle," Kiyo rattled off. "In fact, life-sized one such as this have been referred to as tour puzzles, most likely to them being allocated to tourist locations. However, some mazes have more sinister motives. The famed Winchester mansion-"

Sakura had tuned out Kiyo's rambling. She was sure it would be interesting to someone, but she was not that person. She turned her attention to Ryoma. She opened her mouth, but Ryoma interrupted her.

"I don't need everyone telling me how sorry they feel for me," Ryoma said. "I'll let Kaede and Sayaka do it, but I don't need anymore. It's irritating."

Sakura frowned. "Don't you think my words would mean a bit more? I've been in your position."

"No," Ryoma took his candy cigar out of his mouth and flicked it away. "You died to unite your friends. I died because…I didn't have that."

"I'd still argue my action was rash. If there was a way to have help them without taking my life, I would've. There's a principle my parents taught me when I trained in self-defense. That all life is precious and none can be replaced."

Ryoma raised an eyebrow. "They teach that for fighting?"

"Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious and none can be replaced," Sakura recited.

"Hmmm. Doubt that applies to my life."

"I recommend you still consider it."

"Hmmm."

The two of them returned to silence. Well, minus Kiyo's ramblings. Still, Sakura hoped even their tiny conversation mattered in some way to Ryoma.

"Come on, man!" Leon groaned. "We've passed that corner like three times now."

"What?" Kaito said. "No way. It doesn't have a band-aid on it."

"Uh, I think it does, Kaito," Nekomaru said.

"No way!" Kaito said as he walked towards the corner. "And I'll show you by-"

Before Kaito could finish his sentence, a cardboard cutout of a ghost popped out from the bushes. Kaito shrieked in pure terror, his eyes nearly popping out of his own skull. The scream was so loud that it even made Nekomaru take a step back.

"G-ghost!" Kaito shouted.

Leon groaned. "No, man." He walked past Kaito and pointed to the center of the cardboard ghost. "We placed that band-aid right there. This is the fourth time you screamed about it."

Kaito let out a nervous laugh and readjusted his posture to put up a tough front. "Well, that minor incident is over."

"You're going to call screaming like a little girl a minor incident?" Nekomaru asked with a chuckled.

"Dude, you jumped too," Leon pointed out.

Kaito chose to ignore the fact everyone pointed out his girly scream. "Good thinking putting that band-aid there, Gonta."

"Gonta didn't put there," Gonta said.

"Let's keep going, guys," Kaito said, walking past the fake ghost.

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's the kind of meathead crap that made me hate baseball," he said to Nekomaru.

"Come on, you can't stay mad at him," Nekomaru said. "His got the spirit to keep pushing ahead."

"Call it whatever, he's still not getting us anywhere."

"It's going to take time," Nekomaru placed his hands into his pockets. "That's one thing I've always tried to tell you. You can't expect things to just happen immediately."

"…maybe you're right."

Nekomaru looked back at Leon while the baseball player scratched the back of his head.

"Look, man," Leon spoke, "I don't want to get back into baseball, I just don't. But, maybe I could get back to just working out. Just keep in shape."

Nekomaru's eyes lit up. "I'd be ecstatic to help you get back into shape."

"I mean, I'm not out of shape! Just…look, maybe some jogging will help me out."

Nekomaru let out a hearty laugh. "Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Kuwata."

Nekomaru followed Kaito as the rest of the group made their way deeper into the maze. Kaito made it a specific point to not take the same path he took previously. While Gonta was perfectly content with following Kaito to the ends of the Earth, Leon still had his reservations.

Angie's way of navigating the maze was interesting to say the least. Every time she'd arrive to an intersection, she'd hold her index finger up, wait a moment, then choose the direction to keep walking in. Her group, especially Teruteru, was puzzled by her methods. It did seem to be working for them as they had not run into a dead end. Still, they were curious and desired answers.

"My lovely Angie, I have a question?" Teruteru asked. "What are you doing? You keep holding up your finger. Not that I mind a little fingering-"

"I'm simply follow the wind," Angie said.

"M-Miss Yonaga, are you sure that just following the wind is a smart way to travel through this maze?" Hifumi asked.

Angie smiled brightly at the two boys. "You are misunderstanding. The wind is not simply moving on its own. It's Atua pushing us along the correct path."

Hifumi gulped a bit. "I-I'm sorry, Miss Yonaga, but I'm not sure if I believe that…"

Hiyoko growled and elbowed Hifumi's arm. "You can't just say that, fatty! There's no way Angie would lie about that!"

"F-fatty?!" Hifumi gasped.

"Hiyoko, please," Angie stepped between the two of them. "It's only natural for him to ask questions. It's the first step for enlightenment."

Angie turned towards Hifumi. "Hifumi, have we walked into a dead end since began?"

"W-well, no."

"And would you say we have walked in circles?"

Hifumi adjusted his glasses as he scanned the area around them. "N-no."

Angie smiled. "Can you think of another explanation for this?"

Hifumi nervously shook his head. Angie's smile grew as she approached the nerdy boy, wrapping her arms around him, embracing him in a warm hug.

"See? There's no reason to have doubt. Atua is using nature and the wind itself to lead us to the truth." Angie released her hold on Hifumi. "Do you trust me?"

Hifumi nodded. "I do."

Angie looked at Teruteru. "And do you believe me?"

Teruteru was a bit more hesitant, but he eventually nodded as well."

"Nyahaha, great, great!" Angie clapped her hands together. "Now, let us keep moving. I wish for us to go to the art room after this."

Hifumi's eyes lit up. "Y-yes! I'd love to show you my process for drawing doujins."

"Oh~ I'd love to see that," Teruteru said as he licked his lips.

Hiyoko rolled her eyes. The two boys just didn't get it, did they? To her, following Angie wasn't just to be a part of some club. They were supposed to be fixing everything, not being pervs. Hiyoko looked up at Angie, who somehow sensed this and looked back down at Hiyoko. The artist gave a reassuring smile to the small girl before grabbing a hold of her hand. Hiyoko wasn't sure how Angie did it, but every time Angie did anything, she seemed to calm her down. Everything just felt right. Angie faced forward and led her group deeper into the maze.

Mukuro was probably the only person in the group that was attempting the standard maze strategy of sticking to the right wall. Even with that strategy, Mukuro kept running into dead ends. With each dead end being accompanied by a sarcastic wisecrack from Miu and muffled snickering from Kokichi, Mukuro was about to snap. One more turn and…another dead end.

"Aren't you soldiers supposed to be good at directions?" Miu said.

Mukuro let out a growl and took a hold of Kokichi's collar before pinning him against the hedge wall. "OK. You were here yesterday. How did you get through it?"

Kokichi smirked and shrugged. Mukuro tore the handkerchief out from his mouth.

"That's not a good answer," Mukuro said.

"Look," Kokichi finally spoke, "I honestly don't know you think I'd tell you anything after roughhoused. It really hurt my feelings."

"He would be more cooperative if you let him go," Nagito said.

Kokichi smiled and nodded at the lucky student.

"Shut up, Nagito!" Mukuro snapped. "That's the worst thing we could do right now."

"Then I'm not going to help you," Kokichi said with mischievous grin.

Mukuro furrowed her brows. "Fine," she said. She then shoved the handkerchief back into his mouth and dragged him down the path. This left Miu and Nagito behind for a brief moment. Miu snickered to herself.

"Broads, am I right?" Miu said as she held up her hand for a high-five.

Nagito just looked at Miu with a puzzled expression. "Miu, you're a woman too."

Both Miu's smile and hand dropped. "Shut up, Nagicuck." She yanked on Nagito's chain and followed after Mukuro.

"I think 'The Best of You' would be another good song to play if we got to time," Ibuki rattled off. In all honesty, Ibuki was probably the worst group leader at that particular time. While everyone was trying their best to navigate Monokuma's maddening maze, Ibuki was disinterested in that. She had a party she never got to finish. So, teaming up with Kaede and Sayaka again would be the perfect time to plan.

However, Ibuki's infinite energy had finally become too much for the two other musicians. Both Kaede and Sayaka were dragging their feet along the ground while they listened to Ibuki continue to list of song ideas. Even Tenko was taken aback by how unfocused Ibuki seemed.

"But we have to figure out what the final song could be," Ibuki said. "What do you guys think?"

"Uh, no offense, Ibuki, but I don't think now is the time to talking about concerts," Kaede said.

"Yeah, besides I think we're a bit too worn out after the past few days," Sayaka said.

"Ibuki's not tired," Ibuki said.

"Well, we don't have your energy, Ibuki," Sayaka said. "Besides, we are in the middle of investigating this maze. Don't you think you should focus on that?"

Ibuki sighed. "But Ibuki doesn't want to focus on the motive. Ibuki wants to have complete faith in her friends. Besides, we never got to have that pool party! Ibuki wanted to go swimming!"

Sayaka wiped some sweat off her forehead. "Now that you say it, I could go for a dip to cool off."

Kaede waved her hand against her face. "Yeah. When did it get so hot all of a sudden?"

"OK, Ibuki," Sayaka spoke up. "How about we go swimming after this? More of a lowkey get together, though. Is that ok?"

Ibuki's eyes lit up and smiled with her mouth open. "Yeah! We having a pool party!"

Sayaka looked back at Tenko. "What about you, Tenko? Would you want to join us?"

"G-go swimming with you?" Tenko asked. Images of Sayaka, Ibuki, and Kaede, three beautiful, kind-hearted, and talented ladies, all smiling in bikinis flashed through her mind, causing her to blush. "Y-yeah. I'd love to go swimming with you."

"That's great!" Ibuki cheered. "Alright, let's get this show on the rode!"

As Ibuki began to charge ahead, a girly scream echoed out from deeper in the maze followed quickly by a 'Woah.' Kaede and Sayaka couldn't help but giggle at the scream while Tenko rolled her eyes.

"Great," Tenko said with an irritated tone. "There goes Kaito screaming aga-"

BANG!

The four girls stopped dead in their tracts. They looked towards each other. The loud, fiery bang was so loud some of them thought that it came from right next to their ear. None of them were injured though. More scream traveled towards them from the end of the maze. The girls' heart rates rose as the worst possible sound played out over the speakers.

"A body has been discovered!" Monokuma announced. "After a certain amount of time, the class trial will begin! Use your time wisely!"

The four girls were still stuck in place for some time. None of them what to admit that they had heard was real. Yet, as the seconds past, they knew they had to do something. Ibuki took a single step forward.

"I-Ibuki hear that," Ibuki said. "Ibuki knows where it's at."

Ibuki broke out into a sprint, disappearing behind a corner.

"Ibuki, wait!" Sayaka shouted before chasing after the rocker.

Sayaka, Kaede, and Tenko had a hard time keeping up with Ibuki. The rocker was moving so fast that most of the time, they could only catch sight of Ibuki's foot disappear around a corner. Along the way, Sayaka, Kaede, and Tenko crossed paths with Chiaki's group and Sakura's group, who joined along with them in rushing to the scene of the crime. It felt like it took seven minutes for them to traverse through the maze before they found Ibuki made it to the end. As Ibuki's turned the corner to see what happened, she once again stopped in her tracks.

"Oh God, oh shit," Leon's voice came from the corner.

Gonta moved from behind the wall and hunched over against another corner before puking up his breakfast. Sayaka covered her mouth with her shirt sleeve as she moved closer to the scene of the crime. Turning the corner, Sayaka noticed Leon, Nekomaru, Hifumi, and Teruteru all huddled in a circle, too petrified to move. Hiyoko was crying and hugging onto a shaken Angie.

"What happened?" Kaede asked. "Guys, what's going on?"

Sayaka pushed through the huddle to see what happened. It was a small pathway leading to what very well might've been the end to the maze and to the motive itself. However, the pathway was blocked off by a body. Just a body. What remained of the head was just the jaw. The bits of brain matter, teeth, and skull chunks were scattered across the floor, some ever landed on the leaves of the hedge walls. The blood covered most of the body and the puddle slowly grew in size, reaching Sayaka's feet. If it weren't for his purple jacket, no one would've been able to tell who it even was.

Kaito Momota was dead.

There were a few days I felt I may have fucked up the mystery for this chapter, but I managed to adapt well. At least, I hope I did. We aren't through the investigation or trial yet. Maybe things can screw up more. I hope it doesn't.

Outside of, you know, the murder, I also wanted to use this chapter to do some character bits. After people rightfully pointed out how little time Sakura had to shine in the previous chapter when I said she'd get more time, I gave a more (hopefully) meaningful scene with Ryoma. Some asked for that interaction and I feel like it worked. I also wanted a scene that more showed off the dynamic of Angie and her group. Despite how prevalent that plot line has been, I some how haven't done as much with their interactions than I have with Celestia's group. And I'm still not sure if it worked well. It just felt like it ended rather than having a natural conclusion. Still, it was needed. Then just some minor stuff like Leon and Nekomaru and Mondo and Chihiro. They haven't had a lot of interactions since the beginning of Chapter 2.

Also, more gruesome death this time around. I ain't afraid of gore, but some of you are.

Now, the issue at hand. This is the busiest time of the year for me at my job, but I still want to get the class trial done before New Years. I know I should take care of my mental health and also work on my other original projects, but I also know you guys love this story and desire to see more of it like I do. I promise things will be better going forward. Thank you for reading. Share this around. Comment and review. It helps me a lot.