Chapter 1: Early Graduation or Early Grave? Part 5 (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

I'm getting worried, but also thirsty.

It's been about twenty minutes since Sora left to get us those water bottles from the student store. What's taking her so long? I'm fiddling around a lighter I was given in case the blackout happens. Each group was given one, other than Kazuma's group since he has fire magic of course.

"Hey, Hachiken. Did you try messaging her on your Handbook?" Finn asked me.

"Just did, how about you?" I relayed the question back to him.

He sighed, "I had a minute ago. Where is she?"

"Where is who?"

We turn around to see Dimitri carrying an armful of steel pipes with no problem at all.

"Sora, she went to grab some water for us from the student store. Haven't seen her for a while."

"What?! And you two let her go by herself?" Dimitri immediately cross-examines us.

Oh shoot.

"We, um…" I suddenly am at a loss for words.

Dimitri shakes his head, "Don't you know that we need to keep an eye on each other, especially when we'll all be in the dark sooner or later?"

He's right to be acting like this, leaving someone alone like this makes them an easy target.

"S-Sorry…" I apologized to His Highness, bowing my head in response and Finn did the same.

"One sorry isn't enough, if she hasn't returned then let us go search for her. You said the student store, correct?"

Dimitri ushered us to follow him as he placed down the pipes he was carrying.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Finn sighed.

Honestly feeling the same, just a lot of unease circulating right now.

When we arrived at the student store, Tsuyu was near the front of the entrance.

"Is there something wrong?" She speaks up as we approach her.

Finn answers for us, "Yeah, was Sora here earlier? She wanted to drop by and get some water."

She puts her finger to her chin and thinks, "Hm… I haven't seen her. And the others are deeper into the store, so they couldn't have seen her even if I had. How long has she been gone?"

"As of right now, half an hour. She hasn't even answered any of our messages either." I say as I checked my Handbook.

"Oh no… if that's the case, then something may have happened. I'll go with you to find her, if that's okay." Tsuyu offers.

"Are you sure? I'm sure you have some more supplies to move, and your group might need your frog… quirk?" Dimitri replied.

"Good point, and with how Kazuma and Saki could end up bickering if left alone, someone needs to keep an eye on them. Konata wouldn't be responsible enough for that, so it looks like I can't help you unfortunately, sorry ribbit." Tsuyu states.

"It's okay. We'll find her, hopefully before the power goes out." Finn reassures her.

"Good luck." Tsu turns to me and nods before reentering the student store.

"Okay, you two. May the search continue." Dimitri began to lead us away.

"Oh! One more thing, here." Tsuyu then tossed three water bottles our way.

Finn and Dimitri catch theirs easily, while mine meets the side of my cheek and gives it a peck with its cap. Can you tell I'm not much of a jock?

"Thanks…" I tell her as I rub my cheek and pick up my bottle.

The three of us quickly gulped down our water, as if we had just been in a bone dry desert. We needed that after the work we've done carrying those spare parts to Tails. Really hope that by the end of this, that generator will be fully functional.

The closest area we could head to was the recreation center, and right when we got there we saw Pietro standing around eating some hard candy in the corner.

"Pietro, what are you doing here? Weren't you and Reyn gathering parts like we were?" Dimitri confronts the speedster.

"Your Highness, we are just on break. Reyn needed to take care of 'business', so I am just waiting around until he is done. Besides, we brought plenty of scrap for the little fox boy to use." Pietro tells us as he eats another candy.

"Business?" I tilted my head at that.

Pietro shrugged, "Big man didn't tell me what it was. He had a weird look on his face though."

Finn decided to change the subject, "Have you seen Sora around here? She's been missing and we're wondering if she's been here."

"Hm… which one was she again?" Pietro asked.

"Orange haired girl." I answered.

I mean I could imagine it is hard to memorize faces when there's eighteen of us, but come on…

"Oh right. I saw her walking in and heading to the storage room along with three high school girls. Including that girl with the bow."

Ah, she's with Sayori's group? They must have found something big if they needed another set of hands like hers. Wish she'd have let us know beforehand though and saved us all the worrying.

"At least we know she's doing well. If they're working hard, we better not stand idle for any longer! Finn, Hachiken, let's finish gathering more supplies!"

I'm glad that Sora's doing fine, whew. Unfortunately for us, we have to get back to work. My legs have been tired already, and walking around looking for Sora has made me close to cramping. I should have chosen to gather the student store supplies…

"Great job everyone! The generator is so close to completion!" Tails addressed almost all of us.

The only ones not here were Sora with Sayori's trio, Pietro & Reyn (who I am somewhat suspicious of at the moment), and finally Bede and Kale who were already on their own.

The generator itself was certainly big, with its size I can definitely see it powering the whole campus for about a month or so. Tails really managed to pull it off using what were basically heaps of junk in a scrapyard. Which reminds me that I need to wash my hands for the third time after touching all of that stuff.

Saki pumps her fist in the air, "Hell yeah! Nice one, Tails, this hunk of metal's gotta be strong right?"

"Impressive, not only a pilot but a mechanical genius as well." Ray complimented him.

Dimitri pats the machine proudly, "Indeed, an incredible result of all our efforts. Well done to all of you! Especially you Tails, for coming up with the idea in the first place."

"Aw thanks…" Tails grinned from ear to ear.

"Whooooaaaaaa! It's huge!"

I turned to see both Sayori approaching while carrying a large metal container.

"Aha! There's the last piece we need! What kind of fuel did you find?" Tails asked them.

"We found some propane tanks lying around, but we could only carry back one for now. Sorry." Sayori explains.

"Oh! It's okay, we can make do with this amount. Where are the other girls?" Tails asks.

Sayori raised her hand, "I can answer that too! They were trying to find something to help make carrying all those tanks much more simple. Maybe like a cart or something."

Dimitri nods slowly, "I see, we shall await their results soon enough, for now well done on finding a fuel source! Tails, is everything complete?"

"Yup! Just gotta add in the fuel and—"

…

…

Oh no…

This is not good, the power's gone out.

Why now of all times? We were so close but…

FWOOSH!

"You guys need a light?" Kazuma asks as his palm has a flame burning atop it.

A light?... Oh yeah!

I take out my lighter and turn it on, creating a small light that illuminates my surroundings. It doesn't spread that far, plus it pales in comparison to Kazuma's magic, but if it works it works.

"Good thinking, you two! Now I've just gotta… liiiiiffftttt the fuel tank…" Tails struggled as he used his flight to carry the container.

I shined my lighter over where the propane would be inserted into the generator, a pipe with a funnel shaped opening on the top of it.

"You can do it, Tails!" I heard Sayori cheer from wherever she was.

"Don't give up just yet kid!" Finn encouraged him.

I held my arm up to light his way, "It's so close, pour it all in!"

"Hm? That smell…" I think I heard someone say while we were yelling. Was it the smell of the propane?

"AGH!" Tails let out as he held the container over the fuel pipe.

We heard the generator glug down the propane like it was a bottle of sake until it was completely empty. Exhausted, Tails dropped the propane tank, thankfully not close enough to crush anyone's feet.

"Hah… hah… now someone please push the button!"

I held up my lighter to the control panel to see the button he was talking about. Which of course would have been a lot simpler if it weren't PITCH BLACK and the button to push was made a lot more obvious.

"Um, ah…" I just stared at the panel wondering which one to press.

The red button, the blue button, the yellow button, the pink button…

"Come on, Hachiken! Just press one!" Kazuma was annoyed that I was taking a while.

"Don't rush me! It's a very stressful decision right now, so let me just think for a second!" I told him.

"Don't worry your head off Hachiken, it's not like we'll be stuck without electricity if you get it wrong…" Konata teased me.

"NOT HELPING!" I shouted out.

"I-I'll do it then Hachiken!" Sayori volunteers.

Oh no, she'll have even more trouble than I'm having if she's turning it on.

I try to reassure her, "No no, Sayori, I'll just do it, so—"

"EYAH!" Sayori yelled out as she tripped over something.

She landed on me and as I was about to fall to the ground, "ACK!"

*click*

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Agh, my eyes felt like they had been affected by a camera flash, making me take off my glasses and rubbing them. By the time I opened them however…

"I-It worked!" Minori said with shock as she put her own glasses back on.

"Oh thank Eris, we've got power again…" Kazuma collapsed to his knees.

Tsuyu smiled, "Wow Sayori, you really managed to solve Hachiken's dilemma, ribbit."

Yeah, surprisingly her clumsiness managed to help choose for me. And it managed to be the right choice too!

I picked myself off the ground and dusted myself off, "T-Thanks, Sayori."

"No, it's nothing really ehehe~. Sorry about knocking you over, Hachiken." She apologized.

"Well, if you hadn't done that, then I would have been at the controls for a lot longer or made the wrong choice. Seriously, you helped me out… in your own way I guess, ha."

I held my hand out to her and she grabbed it to pull herself off the ground, after that we shook hands as a sign of respect.

Tails clutched his cramping shoulder, "Hoo boy, I really need to talk to Knuckles about arm strength when I get back home… good job everyone. Although, I wish I explained that none of those other buttons worked until you pressed the ON button, so you could have taken your time more Hachiken. Ha ha…"

"EXCUSE ME?!" I blurted out.

I was getting anxiety over pushing one button when I could have just pressed them all and have no problem? I think my face was turning a bit red there with how angry I felt right there. On the bright side though, my outburst made everyone laugh…

Well, almost everyone.

Ray was sniffing the air.

"Is something the matter?" Dimitri walked up to him.

"There's that smell again… (gasps)"

Ray ran off all of a sudden, with wide eyes on his face.

So that was him mentioning a smell earlier, but what is he talking about?

"Dimitri, what do you think— huh?!"

He had an intense expression on his face, filled with dread, and he was trembling. He then broke out into a run, following Ray down the path he took.

"Whoa! What's gotten into them?" Sayori tilts her head with confusion.

"(coughing) What the hell?" Kazuma says after inhaling something.

"Guys…" Tsuyu points over to where Ray and Dimitri went…

…. And a cloud of smoke was over our heads.

"Wha-Wha-Whaaaaaaaaat?!" I thought in my head as I saw the smoke rising.

We have to go, NOW.

We got to the source of the smoke, and the recreation center was engulfed in flames. I saw Teruhashi being carried out of the doors by Reyn as he handed her to Pietro. She's covered in smoke and coughing, but at least she's alive.

"Get her to the infirmary, alright? I gotta see if I can force my way into that gym to get the other girls." Reyn tells the speedster who nods before rushing off with Teruhashi in his arms.

"Allow me to come with you!" Dimitri joins him.

"And me." Finn enters along with them.

"Wait up, I'm coming too!" Tsuyu does the same.

I am in a state of panic, but we can rely on those four to rescue the other girls, can't we? Sora, Sakaki, please just hold on!

"Tch… I could smell the smoke since the blackout occurred, just how could this happen?" Ray shook his head in disbelief.

"M-Maybe it was an accident?" Sayori suggests.

"Or maybe it was intentional."

All of us turn to see Bede walking into the scene, with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"The blackout was a key moment for a murderer to make their move. I wonder why they would go for something like a fire, which would draw plenty of attention…"

"M-M-Murder?" That word fumbled in my mouth because I didn't want to even think about something like that.

I know I wouldn't have the strength, motivation, or dedication to planning in order to make me want to kill someone. Since Tails was building the generator, Monokuma's motive was pretty much moot. There's no way that killing would help someone at this point and time…

But could it?

Eventually I saw through the windows that the fires were being put out by the suppression system in the building. It probably took a while to activate when the generator reached it. It's over, isn't it?

*Ding dong dong ding*

A ringing notification went off on all our e-Handbooks, and I immediately got chills as I turned on the screen and Monokuma was laughing to himself.

"A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the city trial will begin!"

…. Body?

No.

No, I can't accept this.

No, the bear is just messing with us.

Reyn and Finn exit the recreation center with their heads hanging down, clenching their fists with frustration. Dimitri and Tsuyu usher the rest of us to come in, the latter's eyes were welling up with tears and the former had a sullen look on his face.

We entered the gym on the left, the one Sayori, Tails, and I had searched before. The floor was blackened, covered in ash and wet from all the water from the suppression system. At its center however…

Was a dark gray body, burnt beyond recognition.

WHO IS IT?! Is probably what y'all are thinking right about now, huh? Well, it's your time to decide once the Truth Bullets have been locked and loaded. I figured having the first trial be a mystery like this would be perfect, wondering who it was that was killed out of two people. This time either it's the holder of the Crest of Love, Sora Takenouchi from Digimon, or the tall girl who loves cats (but keeps being bitten by them) Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh. Hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'm going to write the investigation and trial when I can. Thanks peeps!