Just like the previous days prior, TK woke up to the sound of Monokuma's voice, which was getting more and more irritating each morning. He pulled himself out of bed, got dressed, and thought about his plans for the day. He rubbed his eyes, another night of little to no sleep and he could feel the fatigue piling up.

"I should workout before I go to bed so that I'm too exhausted to think about anything," he said to himself.

Every night whenever he tries to fall asleep he thinks about his friends and what they're doing. They probably noticed that he hasn't come home to pick up Patamon or that he hasn't messaged them about his whereabouts. They must be planning on how to get him and the other students out of this place and any day now they burst down those doors and break them out. Those are the thoughts that he likes the most, the ones that he prefers.

His mind would go into a dark place when he thinks about why his friends haven't come to save them yet. Something had to have happened to them, something horrible that not even their partners could protect them from. He knows that would never happen after what they've been through and who they fought, but he could never shake those thoughts out of his head. He hates to admit it but he's losing hope that his friends will come and save them.

But isn't that what he's supposed to be, hope? His crest says so, someone that people could look to, to know that everything is fine and they'll be ok. Someone that doesn't care about the odds because they know everything will work out in the end. He still believes that his friends will save them one day, but a part of him thinks that if they want to escape from the school then they'll have to do it themselves.

*Ding dong*

The sound of his doorbell rang out through his room. Glad for the distraction from his own mind, TK opened the door to reveal that it was Taka who rang his doorbell.

"A fantastic morning, isn't it!?" Taka greeted cheerfully.

"Taka…?!" TK replied, surprised to see the moral compass at his door.

"Now then, if you'll pardon the interruption…!" Without waiting for a reply, Taka barged into TK's room and stood at the foot of the bed.

"So, uh, what's up, Taka?" TK asked who was at a loss for words after what happened.

"No matter how intensely the stormy seas may batter me, I will not fall as long as my feet are firmly planted! You agree, right?" Taka said passionately. Not knowing how to respond, TK just nodded awkwardly to look like he understood what Taka was saying. "And if you can't do it alone, just find someone to support you, and you can support them back! That's how you can overcome any storm!"

TK stopped nodding because he couldn't pretend that he understood what Taka told him. Taka kinda reminded him of Cody a little, but his metaphors were a little easier to understand. Realizing that he lost his audience, Taka explained what he said in a way that TK could understand.

"I was thinking about it last night, and… I decided we all need to really come together. And that was when I realized. Every morning from now on, after the morning announcement, everyone should have breakfast together!" Taka declared and TK liked that idea. Outside of a few people he never really got to know anyone else, he just kept to himself or talked with the people he knew, and he was sure others did too.

"And now is the beginning of that fateful day! Please head to the dining hall at your earliest convenience!" Taka exclaimed, louder than necessary. "That's all for now! I have to go let everyone else know the good news!"

Taka didn't wait for a reply. He turned and left before TK could say anything. With no other options, TK left for the dining hall.

Since his dorm room was close to the dining hall he was one of the first to arrive. He took one of the seats at the big table that some of the other students were sitting at. Soon everyone started coming in and surprisingly Byakuya, Celeste, and Kyoko showed up. He assumed that they would've ignored Taka's request, but he guessed the moral compass must've persuaded them somehow.

Taka was the last one to arrive, which was to be expected since he told him he was going to get everyone. Taka stood at the head of the table everyone was sitting at, minus Byakuya and Toko. "Okay, looks like everyone's here. So then, let's begin our very first 'breakfast meeting'!"

No one batted an eye at Taka's proclamation, some were tired from being woken up early and others didn't seem to care. Though Taka didn't seem to care he went along and continued his speech. "Everyone, thank you for making time in your busy schedules to come together."

"I didn't make time for shit. You dragged me here…" Leon interrupted the moral compass, but Taka brushed it off.

"I know I already mentioned this earlier, but in order to get out of here, it is essential that we all cooperate with each other," Taka said passionately and he got a few of the others to nod along to what he was saying. "And the first step is this breakfast meeting, to allow us to become friends and build trust! So from now on, let's all meet here in the dining hall every morning after the morning announcement! Now then, let's eat!"

"You w-want me to eat breakfast with other p-people? I've never done that b-before. I'm not s-sure…" Toko stuttered with a small lustful smirk.

"Yeah, it's been a while for me, too," Leon said bashfully.

"Well anyway… did anyone happen to come up with any clues?" Junko asked, changing the subject. No one said anything, being trapped on the first floor limits them and it only took them a day to look through every room that wasn't locked or taped off. "Seriously? Nothing at all!? Anything, it can be about how to get out, or who's doing this, nobody has anything!?"

"You are going to die," Celeste said bluntly, causing some of them to jump.

"Huh…?" Junko was shocked, and so were the rest of them though some hid their emotions better than others.

"If you can't stop yourself from showing weakness in front of others, you will die," Celeste said coldly.

"Wh-What the hell? Don't even freaking joke about that!" Junko yelled at the gambler.

"I am not joking. Adaptability is survivability. Did I not say so? So you'd better hurry up and adapt to your new life here," Celeste giggled, and they did remember what she said the day they were trapped here, but that doesn't mean they like it.

"Have you gone completely insane? Adapt to my new life here? Do you have any idea what you're saying?" Junko said angrily.

"Yeah, sounds like the girl wants to live here. And hell, more power to her. But shit," Mondo interjected and gripped his fists. "No way in hell am I living here! I'm gettin' outta here, I don't give a shit!"

"Sure, feel free," Celeste chuckled.

"Okay, so… nobody has any clues?" Leon asked to ease the tension in the room and to get the conversation back on topic.

"One thing I can tell you is who's behind all this. Someone who's totally weird and messed up. Why else would we be trapped in here in the first place?" Hina stated and some of them groaned, they had already concluded that whoever trapped them was messed up.

"Well, sure, it could be something like that. But for right now, actual clues are…" Leon trailed off, but everyone knew what he was implying.

"U-Umm…" Chihiro softly spoke up, gaining everyone's attention which caused the programmer to jump.

"Huh? What's up?" Leon asked.

"If you think in terms of people who are really abnormal or bizarre…" Chihiro paused, thinking about whether or not to tell the others what she thought would be good or bad. "Do you think maybe the person responsible for all this could be a certain murderous fiend…?"

"A murderous fiend…" TK repeated what Chihiro said. "Do you have an idea who might be behind all this?"

"Well… maybe. I mean, I can't really be certain, but…" Chihiro paused again. She didn't want to cause any panic or false hope because she wasn't exactly sure she was right.

"Certainty is not a concern right now! I'll allow whatever remarks you may have!" Taka encouraged the small girl.

"O-Okay, well…" Chihiro took a deep breath and gathered all of her courage. "Have you guys heard of Genocide Jack?"

"You mean that serial killer that's been in the news and all over the internet?" TK asked, shocked. It was a scary thought, trapped in a school with a serial killer who wants us to kill each other. He even thought that if they get impatient with the lack of murders then what's stopping them from killing them all?

"The monstrous villain who's murdered scores of victims in brutally bizarre fashion. The word 'bloodlust' was left at each murder scene, written in the victim's own blood. Whoever it is, he's like a ghost. He strikes without warning, and disappears without a trace. And on the internet, they started calling him… Genocide Jack. That about covers it, I think," Byakuya spoke up after being silent for so long. It was a little frightening that he knew so much about the serial killer.

"They said he's claimed over a thousand victims," Hiro said, pale in the face.

"That's just an urban legend though, right? I mean even like, ten people would be totally insane," Junko said. The rumor of Genocide Jack claiming over a thousand victims is greatly exaggerated, it's still a terrifying thought that their murder count is in double digits.

Everyone felt unsettled at the thought that they were trapped with a serial killer. Toko looked worse than all of them, she was pale, biting one of her thumbs, and she was breathing quickly. Maybe she had a run-in with Genocide Jack, and them talking about it is bringing up some bad memories.

"Anyway, whoever Genocide Jack really is, he's obviously some kind of super crazy killer," Chihiro said to break the silence.

"And if he really is this 'ultimate' psycho, I wouldn't be surprised if he put together something like this," Mondo added to what Chihiro said.

"But like I said, I can't be certain. I don't have any evidence or anything. It's just a thought…" Chihiro said, which made a few of them nervous.

"But if they're the killer, isn't that like a killer of a problem for us!?" Leon stated and TK had to agree with him. The slim chance that they're trapped in here with a killer is terrifying.

"It's okay! Everything's absolutely, positively, one hundred percent without a doubt gonna be okay!" Hina exclaimed, trying to cheer everyone up and get their minds off the chance of being trapped with a killer. "Cuz help's gonna be here soon, I'm sure of it!"

"Huh…? H-Help?" Toko broke her silence.

"We've been stuck in here a few days already, right?" Hina asked and some of them nodded. "Nobody's been able to contact us, so I'm sure they're getting worried. I bet they called the police already!"

That made TK think, why hasn't there been any signs of anyone trying to save them? He's been too busy thinking about his friends that he never thought about the others and their friends and families. They definitely would have noticed their friend or child going missing and would've called the police right away. They also would have noticed the metal plates covering the windows and the giant door locking them in.

A burst of joyous laughter rang throughout the dining hall. Appearing in the middle of the table was the thing that trapped them in the school, the animatronic that wakes them in the morning and puts them to sleep, Monokuma.

"The police? You're putting your faith in the police!?" Monokuma said shockingly as if he was mocking them.

"What are you doing here!?" Sakura demanded, but Monokuma ignored her.

"You guys, seriously…" Monokuma snickered like he heard a funny joke. "Do you understand what role the police exist to fill? All they're good for is being a foil, playing against a villain or anti-hero or evil organization. The bad guys come along and destroy them, and that shows just how badass they really are. Are you sure you wanna rely on such an unreliable group of losers?"

"I mean come on! If you really, REALLY wanna get out of here, all you gotta do is kill!" Monokuma egged them on, tempting them to play his sick game. Hiro laughed, not really caring what the bear animatronic was telling them.

"Why the hell are you laughing?" Leon asked, baffled by the big-haired student's carefree attitude.

"I'm just impressed at the total commitment to this whole act," Hiro said, making half of them groan.

"You're still going on about that?" An irritated Junko asked.

"So, mister serial killer psycho freak bastard… what the hell do you want!?" Mondo growled, making everyone turn their attention back to the bear, who looked stumped by what the biker gang leader said.

"Mr. Serialkillerpsychofreakbastard, huh? That's a pretty long name! German, maybe?" Monokuma mocked him.

"We know who you really are!" Mondo stated, a little irritated from the bear.

"Maybe if I ignore him, he'll just go away…" Monokuma said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear him as he turned his back to the gang leader.

"Hey! Don't ignore me, asshole!" Mondo screamed, cracking his knuckles as if he was preparing for a fight.

"Okay, okay, let's get back to business. Your life here has already begun and a couple days have gone by, and nobody's killing anybody! I thought all you kids were lazy and selfish, and here you are working together. But I'm totally bored!" Monokuma said disappointedly.

"There's nothing you could say that will make us kill each other!" TK said to the bear, but he wasn't listening.

"Wait, I think—yes! Ding ding ding! I figured it out!" Monokuma started to laugh with glee as his red eye started to glow. "All the mystery ingredients are here—right people, right place. So why hasn't anyone killed anyone yet? That's what I couldn't understand. But I just realized there was one very important piece missing!"

"What are you…?"

"If you wanna know, I'll tell ya! It's motive!" Monokuma interrupted TK. "Puhuhu! It's so simple! I just have to give everyone a motive!"

"Motive? What the fuck are you talking about!?" Mondo seethed.

"Oh, by the way! There's something I wanna show you guys!" Monokuma said with such glee.

"Stop changing the goddamn subject!" Mondo shouted, but Monokuma ignored him for the second time that day.

"I have a little video I'd like you all to see," Monokuma said before getting sweaty while the top of his head turned a shade of red. "Oh, but don't worry. It's not some pervy 'adult' video or anything. Seriously, it's nothing like that! It's a special video for each of you showing what's going on outside the school."

"What do you mean?" TK asked and he got a chuckle as a response.

"Ooh, Master's so impatient today! Why don't you just watch it and find out? We have the A/V room for a reason, so why don't you use it," Monokuma told them.

"Good, then we can go watch the video right now," Kyoko finally spoke up after being quiet for so long. "But before we do that, I'd like to know. What are you? Why would you do something like this? What do you want from us?"

"What do I want from you…?" Monokuma repeated the question before gaining a sinister look on his face, his red eye slowly blinking. "Well if you must know… Despair. That's all."

"If you want to know more than that, you'll have to figure it out for yourselves. Do whatever you need to do to uncover the mystery hidden within this school. I won't try to stop you," Monokuma said before snickering to himself. "Cuz, to be honest, it's entertaining as heck watching you guys search so desperately for answers! So I guess I want amusement from you, too."

Monokuma then vanished, laughing to himself along the way.

"He's gone. And once again, he left before we could find out anything useful," Sayaka said sadly.

"Really? I think we learned something very useful," Kyoko stated, getting everyone's hopes up a little. "He has no intention of standing in the way of our pursuit of the truth. Interesting…"

"Perhaps, but what about the video he mentioned? I'm very curious to see what's on it," Sakura said with intrigue. TK would be lying if he wasn't a little curious about the video. Maybe it could give him answers as to where his friends are or if anyone is trying to break them out.

"Same here! Okay, so…!" Mondo started to scan around the table like he was looking for something, something specific. His gaze soon landed on TK and he smiled at the blond boy. "Hey, Takeru! Check this out for us, would ya?"

"Why me!?" TK asked and Mondo scoffed.

"Cuz you're closest to the door! That's the rule, right?"

"Rule?" He's never heard of this rule, though it does seem effective, that doesn't mean he wants to go check. What if it's a trap?

"Hey, hey…" Mondo muttered softly before getting louder and a little angry. "Hey hey hey hey hey! HEEEEEY! You see how passionately I'm begging you!? What's the big deal? Just check it out real quick!"

"Alright, I'll go," TK said to appease the biker. After being on the end of one of his punches, TK doesn't want to do anything to make Mondo punch him again.

"Awesome, thanks! I owe ya one!" Mondo said cheerfully. TK silently sighed and discretely rolled his eyes.

"...If TK's going, I'm going with him. It's not safe to walk around this place alone," Sayaka volunteered and no one argued, in fact no one attempted to stop her.

"Yeah, sure thing. Then we're countin' on the both of ya! If anything happens, just yell and I'll come runnin'!" Mondo told the two and they uncomfortably nodded their heads.

The two walked out of the dining hall and towards the A/V room. When they made it far away from the dining hall Sayaka started to talk.

"I can't decide if Mondo is totally dependable or completely terrible…"

"He's kinda both if you ask me," TK said. He couldn't say that he and Mondo have the best relationship with Mondo knocking him out the day they met, but from what he heard from others Mondo has been really helpful. It's one of those don't judge a book by its cover situations.

The two soon made it to the A/V room and it looked exactly the same from when he and Leon investigated it. The only difference was a cardboard box on one of the tables. They got a closer look and saw that the cardboard box was filled with…

"...A bunch of DVDs," Sayaka said and she started digging through the box. "And each one has a label on it with someone's name."

"This is probably what Monokuma was talking about when he said something about a 'video for each of us'," TK said.

"I'd better go tell everyone!" Sayaka said as she left the room.

TK didn't chase after her, he stayed in the room digging through the box for the DVD with his name. He knew that this was most likely a trick set up by Monokuma, but if this was a video of the outside then it might give him some answers about where his friends are. He had to take the chance, even if it was nothing, he needed to know that his friends were ok.

He found his DVD and walked over to one of the monitors. After investigating the room with Leon, he knew that each monitor had a DVD player. TK inserted the disc into the machine and watched the screen.

Static covered the screen, he had to laugh. Of course something like this would happen after he got his hopes up. Monokuma knew the right strings to pull to mess with them. He was about to eject the disc when the video changed from static to a group of people in a living room.

It was his friends.

"Hey, TK!" They all greeted. TK couldn't stop smiling when he saw his friends. They were in his living room which meant that either his mother or Matt set this up. He even saw all the Digimon pretending to be stuffed animals.

"We hope you're having a good time and staying healthy," Joe said and TK chuckled. Typical Joe to be worried about someone's health.

"And make sure you study hard so that you can graduate," Izzy added.

"But don't forget to relax once and a while. Also, Izzy's totally jealous of you," Tai snickered and TK heard Izzy yell at him. TK recalled back to when he was accepted into Hope's Peak and how jealous Izzy was. Izzy actually wanted to fight him when he heard he was considering turning down their offer.

"Just ignore those two. We just wanted to let you know how happy we are for you!" Sora said and TK smiled, happy to know that his friends supported him.

"Don't forget to introduce me to Junko Enoshima!" Mimi spoke up.

"And you also promised to introduce me, Ken, and Izzy to Chihiro Fujisaki!" Yolie added. TK remembered that he promised them that he'll introduce them to each other, which gave him more motivation to get out of here to uphold his promise.

"Make sure to get me that Aoi Asahina girl's number as well!" Davis said with a sly grin which resulted in him getting smacked in the head by both Mimi and Yolie.

"It's great to know that one of my close friends got accepted into Hope's Peak, maybe one day I'll be accepted into Hope's Peak as well," Cody said, which was a great dream to have, but after what he's gone through TK doesn't think he'll have that dream anymore.

"Good luck, TK, and make sure you go easy on whoever you play basketball with," Ken told him. TK knew what he was talking about, whenever he plays he gets too caught up in the game that he forgets who he's playing against, whether it be an opposing team, teammates, or his own friends and family.

"Hey, Teeks, even though mom and dad couldn't make it they wanted you to know that they're proud of you, we all are," Matt said and TK felt a little sad. His parents rarely make it to any of his basketball games, so he shouldn't be surprise they couldn't make it to the recording of the video. He should be used to his parents not being around, but he wasn't.

"It's gonna be weird not seeing you and Patamon every day at school, but we'll still have Summer break and the holidays to catch up," Kari said, confusing TK. What did she mean when she said they wouldn't be seeing Patamon at school, he never came back to pick him up. Now that he thinks about it, where is Patamon? He checked where the Digimon were grouped together and he couldn't find Patamon.

This raised some questions like, when was this video shot? Was it shot before he came to Hope's Peak or after? Did Patamon sneak in without him knowing and he's with him now? He didn't know, but maybe one of his friends would tell him.

"Good luck, TK!" They cheered and the screen went black.

"Wait, that can't be it! I still have questions!" TK cried out. Even though he was glad that he knew that his friends were ok, now he had questions about Patamon. He needed more, he needed to know what happened to his partner. Lucky for him the video wasn't over, but what he saw he wished the video ended.

Everyone was missing, all that was left was a destroyed living room. The couch was torn up, broken picture frames were on the floor, scratch marks decorated the wall, and off to the right of the screen, TK could only see smoke outside of the shattered balcony door. TK thought it couldn't get worse until he heard Monokuma's voice coming from the speaker.

"Takeru Takaishi, accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. And his friends, who supported such a lucky boy. But it seems like… something's happened to this friend group's well-being! Oh boy, this is bad! What could have possibly happened to this friend group's well-being!?"

The video went black again before the sentence, "Look for the answer after graduation!" popped up on the screen before the video finally ended.

TK could feel his blood boil hearing Monokuma mock him. He wanted to find that bear and tear its animatronic limbs off. But he knew couldn't do that, not after seeing what almost happened to Mondo. He didn't want something like that to happen to him.

He was also extremely worried about his friends. After seeing what happened to his living room he could only imagine what happened to his friends.

"What the hell? What happened to them?" TK could barely breathe, and sweat started to roll down his face as he started to lose control of his emotions. He slammed his fists down onto the desk, almost breaking it. "DAMMIT!"

TK started to tremble as he ran a shaking hand through his hair. It was getting harder and harder to breathe like he was being suffocated by the walls around him. "I-I need to get out of here! I need to make sure they're ok!"

"TK…?" He turned to see a worried Sayaka with the others all with a mixture of worried and confused looks on their faces. "What happened? Make sure who's ok?"

"Wh-What's going on?" Hina asked and she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

TK couldn't speak, or he was too scared of what would come out if he opens his mouth. All he did was point to the cardboard box. Leon immediately started to look through the box without a second thought.

"Is that what Monokuma was talking about?" Leon asked as he nervously pulled out his DVD.

"What's on them?" Taka asked and pulled out his DVD. Everyone followed his example and pulled out their respective DVDs. They each went to a monitor and watched their video. It didn't take long for the room to fill up with cries of terror and distress.

"What the fuck…?" Mondo managed to say.

"Th-This can't be real, right? It has to be fake, right!?" Hina said in disbelief.

"Yeah, no way it's real. Haha…no way," Leon said, unsettled by what he saw.

"I can't t-take it anymore," Toko screamed as she grabbed her head. "I c-can't take this anymore! Let me out of h-here!"

After seeing their reactions TK knew they had all seen something similar to what was on his video. It was terrifying to know that what he saw actually happened. Nobody even bothered trying to hide their fear and confusion. Except for Kyoko, who was disturbingly calm throughout this whole ordeal.

"I see… So this is what he meant by motive. He wants to fuel our desire to leave so that we're more likely to start killing each other," she deduced.

"It is the classic 'prisoner's dilemma'," Celeste stated which received a few puzzled looks.

"...Huh?" Hifumi said.

"Let me use an example. Imagine two countries are on the brink of war. But both countries want peace, and each commits to scaling back their forces as a sign of good faith. But there's a chance that one country may betray the other, so each country fears lowering their guard. The result is that neither scales back their forces, and they both end up betraying each other," Celeste explained. "In other words, the fear of invisible treachery becomes the greatest enemy of stability."

"That kinda sounds l-like us right now. Everyone says they'll work together, but in our hearts, we're all afraid someone might betray us," Toko said and TK agreed. After seeing all their reactions to their videos TK knew that some of them had the thought of betraying someone. Hell, there was a part of him that thought of it when he saw his video.

"Don't put those awful thoughts in our head! That's exactly what they want us to do!" Taka nervously exclaimed.

"You can say that, but maybe you're thinking that once everyone drops their guard, you can just…" Leon angrily accused the moral compass.

"What!?" Taka screamed, blue in the face.

"This is exactly what Monokuma, or whoever's behind this, wants. They want us to fight. Don't you see?" Sakura got in between the two boys. They both calmed down after listening to her words.

"Yeah, you're right. We all need to calm down," Chihiro spoke, even though she was still frightened from the video and what transpired between Leon and Taka.

"Okay, then. Maybe we should start by all just… talking. Maybe if we all just talk about what we saw, that'll help get everything out of our system," Junko suggested and some of them liked the idea, if they're upfront about what they saw then they have nothing to worry about. Some were apprehensive, but TK felt that once they hear the others talk then they'll come around to the idea.

"Besides, I think we're all super curious, right?" Junko added.

TK kinda had to agree, he was curious about what was on the other's videos.

"Sayaka, what was in your video?" TK asked the pop star. Sayaka looked horrible. She was trembling as she held herself in her arms and her face was ghostly white. She didn't say anything, it didn't even look like she heard him.

"What's wr-wrong? Just hurry up and t-tell us," Toko rudely demanded, which made things worse because Sayaka started to tremble more as she lost all color in her eyes.

"Sayaka?" TK placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Stop it!" Sayaka screamed as she slapped his hand away and stormed out of the room.

"Sayaka!?" Hina cried out, as she tried to chase after her, but Byakuya stopped her.

"Let her go."

"I can't do that! I need to make sure she's okay!" TK told him, to which the heir just rolled his eyes.

"I h-hate romantic comedies like this. I don't care what h-happens to her, personally," Toko grumbled, getting her a few mean looks.

"That's because you're totally thoughtless!" Junko snapped at the author.

"I'm… really worried," Hina said.

"Then why don't you go do whatever you think you have to? We don't all have to stick around together, right?" Celeste asked, and a few people agreed to her statement. "Speaking of which, I have my own things to take care of. Goodbye."

Celeste left the room and a few people left shortly after. Some stayed behind, trying to calm their emotions, but TK couldn't worry about them, he had to go find Sayaka.