Danganronpa: Holy Bloody Salvation

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/37680907.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: F/M
Fandom: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy
Havoc, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of
Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, New Dangan
Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Dangan Ronpa Zero
Relationship: Ikusaba Mukuro / Original Male Character(s), Ikusaba Mukuro &
Original Male Character(s), Naegi Makoto & Original Male Character(s),
Fujisaki Chihiro & Ishimaru Kiyotaka & Owada Mondo, Fujisaki Chihiro
& Owada Mondo, Asahina Aoi & Ogami Sakura, Ishimaru Kiyotaka &
Oowada Mondo
Character: Original Male Character(s), Ikusaba Mukuro, Naegi Makoto, Kirigiri
Kyouko, Maizono Sayaka, Enoshima Junko, Kuwata Leon, Oowada
Mondo, Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Fukawa Touko, Togami Byakuya, Ogami
Sakura, Asahina Aoi, Fujisaki Chihiro, Yamada Hifumi, Celestia
Ludenberg, Hagakure Yasuhiro
Additional Tags: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Humor, Attempt at Humor (Let's go
with this one), Fluff, OC and Kyoko are Good Friends, Not Really...But
they Will!, ...Eventually...Maybe..., Alternate Universe - Canon
Divergence, Romance
Stats: Published: 2022-03-12 Updated: 2022-06-12 Chapters: 13/? Words:
127885

Danganronpa: Holy Bloody Salvation

by TheHeroCure

Summary

"A school full of cover-ups, shady deals, secret projects and potentially dangerous
classmates...This place it's a freaking time bomb and I just hope it doesn't blow up in my
face" That's the last thing Shizuka Shigaraki said before everything blew up in his face.
 Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong, huh – PART 1

Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong, huh – PART 1

In the middle of the bustling urban area of Bunkyo, Tokyo. There´s a massive high school that
towers over all the other surrounding buildings, it is not that much an exaggeration to believe that
this school stands at the center of the entire world.

Hope's Peak Academy

This school focus in bringing the elite among the elite of students from every field imaginable. It
works as a government-funded school, full of privileges for those who attend such a place. The
prestige of this institution is of this much high of a level, that it is said that if you are a student and
manage to graduate, only fame and success awaits you.

With more than a hundred years of existence, it sends the best of the best into the work force year
after year. Such place was built with the purpose of raising the Hope into Japan's future. Wich a lot
of people would say this makes Hope's Peak a pretty fitting name.

Not me though.

There are two things you need to attend this school 'Well technically, it is three requirements, but
the third it's not on you and neither that or the first one applied to me, so whatever I guess…'. One,
you have to already be attending high school. Two, you have to be the very best at what you do.

No ordinary student could enroll here. The only way in is if you're recruited by a talent scout of
school itself, 'not completely true'.

And standing there at the gate of the Ultimate School filled with the ultimate students, was a
teenage boy with messy black hair, fair skin and slightly above average height. The most notable
trait you would see on him were his golden eyes, no different from finest of gold and you would be
forgiven for believing that they were capable of glowing when in the middle of the night.

His clothing consisted of earrings in the lobe of each ear, a casual collar open jacket with a chest
pocket on the right side, on said jacket, on its left side, there were three inner pockets, two small
ones and the third one big enough to carry a big phone comfortably, underneath such jacket, he
wears a black shirt with a stylized white gothic cross in the middle of it. He also wears grey jeans,
black shoes with white soles and black leather gloves.

That person was me, I guess should do some kind of introduction of myself. My name is Shizuka
Shigaraki, seventeen years old. I would like to say that I am a completely average high schooler
student.

That would not be the case, first of all, from as far as I remember up to seven years old, I was
raised in an orphanage.

I didn't really interact much with most of the kids there, making friends was not and probably will
never be a strong suit of mine.

But there was one exception and for that single exception, I consider such person my family, the
most happy memories of my life came from the time spent with Her, even if we are not related by
blood, she is for me the most important thing in the world, to the point that she's the only person I
truly care about, even if her personality would make most people cower in fear and try to get away
as fast as possible from her 'And they would be right doing that, she is actually dangerous if you
end on her bad side', the exception to this are kids, they adore her, which is a bit weird. In a way,
that kind of makes me love her even more 'The personality part, the thing with the kids is just kind
of confusing to me'.

The point is, the first seven years of my life I lived with my non-biological sister in an orphanage,
and even if our living conditions weren't the best, it was a happy life.

Then our world turned upside down when the two of us got rec―adopted for Them, 'Well it turned
out they ran the orphanage from behind the scenes so it would be more accurate to say that we
were relocated'. It would be the understatement of the century to say that our years spend with
Them changed us, if that was for better or worse, I don't really know…

It was a living hell, and it was only our mutual company that keep us…I don't think sane would be
the most appropriate word, so I will go with what is a fact, alive and with all of our limbs on proper
condition…

Anyway, sometime after, while we still maintained contact 'Although it's very rare these days', we
both went different paths, she was allowed to return to our orphanage and used what we learned
with Them to keep the orphanage running doing jobs, she was always fond of that place, and with
the extra income she made, things were on better conditions than when we lived there, to the point
that it looked like a completely different place 'At least that's what she told me, I haven't set a foot
there since the day we left'.

Me on the other hand, they saw so much more talent and couldn't allow to 'let me go' and have
the same level of freedom she had and waste such potential, 'Not that I put much resistance for
that, if anything, I sort welcomed it in a weird way'.

They made me travel all over the world and apply what they taught me, whether it was in the most
unhabitable parts of the Middle East or the biggest urban areas of Europe, I would always complete
the jobs assigned to me, no matter how dangerous and with low chances of survival they were.

All of that brings me to this moment, here I am, in front of the anything but ordinary Hope's Peak
Academy, and all I could think with such a sigh that would make most marvel is…

'What a load of crap…' I gave a sigh of resignation while rubbing the back of my neck and looking
at what would be my future for the next years.

Now you would be wondering 'What the hell? You got the opportunity that most teenagers would
not even dream to have, what is your problem?!', and I would have no difficult to point that there
actually are a lot of problems with this for my liking.

First of all, remember condition number one to attend Hope's Peak? you have to already be
attending high school, well… surprise, surprise not only I don't go to a high school, I don't even
have ANY kind of formal education, everything I have learned was self-taught or learned with
Them, then there is the fact of the technical point number three, which is getting recruited by a
talent scout of the academy itself…...I did not get accepted into Hope's Peak by one either.

Now the question would arise 'Huh? Then how did you got accepted into the school?', well the
answer is quite simple though not less problematic, the people who invited me were…... The
Steering Committee of Hope's Peak itself.
Again, you would say something like 'Hey! They really wanted your talent so much, that used
unorthodox ways to get you, you really should feel honored!', but THAT is exactly the problem, I
know what my talent is, I am aware of the potential danger that I could represent to my classmates
and that should have discouraged their desires to seek me, not went out of their way to get me at
any cost, all of that rang a lot of warning bells for me and made me ask a single but important
question…why?.

With that on mind, I decided to do some search of my own, the first thing I stumbled upon was the
Reserve Course Department, this section of the academy is an institution that while it was
founded by Hope's Peak Academy and it could give you some recognition for being part of the
school, it worked as a separate and normal high school.

When I found that the 'purpose' of the Reserve Course was to find 'exceptional' students among
their ranks to recruit them into the main course, the exorbitantly high fees you have to pay for both
entering and staying at the school and the fact that there have been no results, even when the
Reserve Course already has a few years running, I only had to put two and two together to
understand.

'They are using them as cash cows, huh' I grimaced at that, not because I felt bad for the students,
no, not really, I don't know them at all so why should I care? but it brings some questions.

Hope's Peak already makes tons of money from what is publicly known 'There is also the shady
deals, those always are there' and it is in plain sight for everyone except for the students
themselves apparently, that they don't really care about the Reserve Couse, because of that, they
don't invest any crap on them, so…...to where does all that money go? Further research of the
school didn't really bring me concrete answers, but at least solidified that it was nothing good.

The next aspect I investigated was, of who would become my classmates, at first, there was
nothing out of the ordinary 'By ultimate student's standards, of course', for example, there were
some like the Ultimate Pop Sensation, Ultimate Baseball Star or even someone with the title of
Ultimate Moral Compass, some even caught my attention like the Ultimate Programmer and
the Ultimate Martial Artist 'If what I found about her is actually true, then I would actually like to
meet her, a small blessing, I guess…'.

Then things get suspicious when I noticed that I couldn't find any info on some of my classmates 'I
know there are more than what the ones I found, the information in the 'invitation' pointed to 17
students if I include myself, and I don't think they would do a miscount in a document as important
as this one', no matter how much I searched, not their name and not even what talents they have,
that made me wonder…... are they like me? If so, then this academy is REALLY playing with fire
and it is adding another pile of problems to a bigger pile of problems.

'Alright, alright, you made your point clear, not interested in going to Hope's Peak, so why don't
you just, don't know, reject their invitation, flip them off, and go do whatever it is you want to do?'
Well, that is another easy question to respond…...I can't.

When I said I was invited, it was more among the lines of forcefully recruited. The thing is, the big
guys at Hope's Peak didn't approach me, they went with Them instead, 'Shady deals, called it', and
it seems they REALLY wanted me in their school, because whatever deal was made, They were
totally on board with the idea of me going to the academy even with the exposure that idea could
bring, as the first thing they did after I came back from one of my 'tours', was to made clear that I
should accept the 'invitation' or there could be consequences to a certain orphanage 'I know they
were talking implicitly about Her, at the end of the day, that is the only thing I care about in that
place', it was one of the few instances in my life where I actually got angry, but for all their
bullshit, I know they wouldn't do anything as long as I complied with this, so I didn't let it show it.

So yeah, I was going to attend a school full of cover-ups, shady deals, secret projects, and
potentially dangerous classmates 'That last one I wouldn't really mind if it was a cute girl, still…'.

'This school it's a freaking time bomb.' I deadpanned, as I sighed, again 'And considering that I will
spend the next three years here…I just hope it doesn't blow up in my face, but still…' I thought as I
finally I began to walk towards the entrance of Hope's Peak 'I can't just keep standing at the open
gates, staring at nothing like an idiot.'

Oh right, all that rambling of myself and about Hope's Peak and there wasn't a mention of the
possibly most important piece of information about me: what is my talent?

Another easy question, huh, I'm on a streak, well my talent is the Ultimate―

"What is―!?" The moment I took my first step into the academy, my entire world twisted, spinning
and spinning in a total swirl of confusion "H...ow…...co…. uld…. l…et…guard…do―"

Before I could finish that thought, everything was consumed by darkness.

"…Nghh" At first, Shigaraki couldn't feel anything but total numbness, but, slowly and surely, he
began to regain consciousness, and, as soon as he returned to his senses and woke up…

"..!" He quickly stood up, his brain automatically put the fact that he was sitting and resting in a
desk as a low priority information at the moment, and prepared in anticipation for an upcoming
attack, focusing with narrowed eyes in scanning his surroundings for any kind of traps or foes,
meanwhile, he was already opening the inner pockets of his jacket, searching for his―

"They are not with me, dammit, does that mean…" As he trailed off, he continued his search for a
few more seconds. While the lack of his tools did worry him and he had his body ready for
anything they might want to throw at him, the fact that there was no one else in the room and there
was no sight of any kind of device designed to hurt or kill him, allowed him to do a calmer
observation of his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that he was in a classroom, with enough space to occupy up to
twenty students with no problem, there were multiple chalkboards, one in front of him with a clock
above it and two others at the back of the room. On the upper right corner, he could see a TV, then
turning his sight to the left he saw the most suspicious thing inside this room.

Instead of where the windows of a classroom should go, there were metal plates with clear signs of
being bolted and sealed, making an escape from there impossible, if anything in this room was not
a good sign it definitely was that, it didn't help at all the existence of a surveillance camara that
was being focused on him.

If it weren't for all of that, it would look like a normal classroom, not that he really had much
experience knowing what a normal one should look like, having zero formal education and all that,
'The only kind of actual experience with classrooms comes from THAT incident wh―' He shook
his head, now's not the time to get side-tracked.

Shigaraki couldn't help but sigh 'I am aware of Hope's Peak massive funds, so a television
shouldn't be nothing out of the ordinary, heck even the surveillance camara isn't out of question
and I would say that all of this is normal by this academy standards…but considering the
circumstances in which I found myself in, which I refuse to believe it was the result of a black out
on my part, and those plates in the windows, it makes me suspect…am I even on Hope's Peak in the
first place? I kind of hope not, because otherwise, it would point to a whole lot of grim
possibilities…', he was about move to do a more thoroughly check on the plates when he noticed
something in the desk he was sitting up, it was some kind of note.

It was a cheap-looking parody of a pamphlet, with some poor handwriting that reads as:

Hey there new kid! The next semester is about to start.

Starting today, this school will be your entire world.

Please be ready at eight o'clock sharp in the main hall!

'That's a threat if I ever heard one…and sure as heck I've had a lot of those' He thought with
narrowed eyes, then he looked up at the clock and saw that it was 07:40 already, then put his sight
at the plates and finally, at the doors that would lead him out of the classroom…with another sigh
'I've been doing that a lot recently, huh', He decided to comply with the orientation guide/threat,
not without giving one last look at the camera that keep following all his movements before
leaving 'I really wanted to check those plates carefully, but seeing as they are giving me a lot of
freedom for a regular kidnapping, it is gotta be a kidnapping, there are too much coincidences to
not be one, I will do as told, there are a lot more concerning things that I need to check after all,
like finding the main hall, so I should play along…for now'.

As soon as Shigaraki left the classroom, he was meet with a weird sight, the most notable of things,
was the illumination, the lights in this hall gave a purple glowing which was being very quickly
becoming obnoxious, a few meters in front on him was a signboard with the label 'Despair Hotel'
and it seemed that on its left it led to another hallway, probably to this 'Hotel', 'Still…a place called
Despair Hotel in Hope's Peak? ominous.'

He did against his better judgement 'Because I am on a schedule to find this main hall' and turned
to his right and began walking towards his destination. Shigaraki decided that while he didn't have
time to do a deep search of the place, he had enough time to quickly check if every classroom was
locked, sure enough, they wouldn't budge, in a way, it was kind of a relief, it meant that he wasn't
missing much when he was focusing in meeting his destination.

At the end of the hallway there was a big red door, which like the rest of the classrooms, it
wouldn't open, so he let it be, turned again to his right and move on.

In this new hallway the lights changed, instead of purple, they were green, that didn't mean that
they were any less unpleasant, though 'They also are kinda depressing in a way, must be on
purpose, ominous…again'. While moving around this hall he noticed an A/V room which was…
locked, and further on, there was another door, this one even had yellow tape all around it with the
message 'KEEP OUT ', 'Is this a way to tell me to stop fooling around and hurry up to the main
hall?' Shigaraki thought with a bit of amusement, though he still kept a blank face while doing so.

With no more distractions, he finally found some double doors with an exit label a few meters to
his left, 'That must be it' and walked into the exit doors that would lead him into the main hall, but,
before going through, he took a quick glance to his right and managed to see a set of stairs that
were being blocked by a metal gate some meters away from him. With narrowed eyes he gave his
thoughts on the matter 'More problems, probably'.

Once I finally entered into the main hall, I was meet with…teenagers, students most probably…so
he really was in Hope's Peak or―

I immediately tensed up and readied my body when the next thing I instantly noticed were the
multiple gatling guns mounted on the corners at the end of the main hall 'Those are definitely
real…real state of the art, electronic and military grade machine guns…probably M132 UAG-14 if
I'm not mistaken, with some surveillance cameras too…what the…and that's not all, that vault,
something that big and advanced should not be here…it may not be in my expertise but it definitely
is high-end-technology, one look at it is enough to notice that'.

"Whoa, hey! Is that another new kid?" I heard someone say, but couldn't immediately identify from
who it came, my attention was mainly on the mounted weapons 'They have freaking mounted
machine guns behind their backs and they are acting as if it was nothing, are they dumb? Maybe
they think those are fake? But seeing the amount of people already reunited and with no signals of
any incident happening, those weapons are probably not dangerous…for now'.

A brown skinned girl with a ponytail noticed my silence "Hey, are you okay? Does your stomach
hurts?" What?

However, I managed to notice out of the corner of my eye, there were two people that, although
they weren't focusing on them, they were actually paying attention to those weapons when they
noticed where my sight was, curious.

Even so, I had a few things that needed some clarification first.

"Yes, I'm fine…all of you are…?" I asked with my default blank face.

"That's right…we're all new students here. Today is supposed to be our first day of class" A tiny
girl with a green jacket said.

"Mmm, so counting him, that makes fifteen. Seems like a good cut-off point, but I wonder if this is
everyone?" A plump guy commented.

Alright, it seems everyone here are students too, if that's the case I wonder…I already stablished as
a fact that this is some kind of kidnapping, but it doesn't hurt to get some kind of information from
people who already got here before me.

"Greetings. First of all, I would like to confirm something, shortly after arriving at Hope's Peak, I
lost consciousness and the next thing I knew was that I woke up in a classroom…by any
chance…?" I trailed off.

"Whoa! You too?" a guy with a large amount of hair in loc style said.
"Interesting…things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser" commented a girl in gothic lolita
clothes.

"So strange…I declare beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a strange situation indeed!" replied
the plump guy from before 'Really, what gave it? Multiple people losing consciousness when
setting foot on the school, the gatling weapons or the military-level vault? Those are too many
coincidences to keep acting like―'

"Hold on a moment! There is something of immediate concern we must address!" A guy with red
eyes and big brows exclaimed while pointing a finger at me.

"What is it?" I said flatly and narrowed eyes 'Does he know something about my…'

"You! while I commend that you attended to this meeting on time! I must condemn the fact that
you are breaking school regulations by wearing those earrings! To broke the rules on your first day
is unacceptable! I must report you, and you must accept your due punishment while removing such
accessories at earliest as possible!" Shouted 'because he doesn't have an inner voice apparently' the
red eyed student.

"…Does anywhere in the Hope's Peak regulations mentions that I can't wear them?" I asked with a
completely neutral tone.

"H-Huh? well... now that you mention it, it really doesn't…" He seemed to lose his momentum in
this charade, good, I will end this before we get more distracted.

"Then I am not breaking any rules, correct?" I supplied.

It was like the secrets of life itself revealed before him, if the widening of eyes in realization was
any indication "!...You are right! To commit an omission in such an important detail! Please
forgive my rudeness!" He shouted again, while bowing.

I just simply nodded, not wanting to deal with more of this.

"Geez, man, finally someone points that to him! He was being such a pain some moments ago with
some of the stuff I wear…" some red-haired guy with a goatee tied into a ponytail commented.

It seemed like a strawberry blonde girl with pigtails was going to add something more, when…

I quickly jumped to the side and tensed up when the doors from which I came from, had burst
open, which allowed me to avoid getting hit by them, revealing a notably short teenager, wearing a
dull green hoodie and an open black jacket, with spiky brown hair and his most noticeable trait, a
relatively big ahoge, once I was sure there was no more surprises, I allowed myself to relax again.

He seemed to have noticed my reaction, because he gave me an apologetic smile and a quiet
"sorry", before addressing everyone else "Um…how's it going? My name's Makoto Naegi. Sorry
I'm late, a bunch…" I tuned him out while I focused on giving a more thoroughly observation to
my classmates.

Standing before were the Ultimate Students, humans that have been carefully chosen by this
school because they are the absolute best at what they do in the entire world.
Looking at them, I have no doubt that they are different from the average person. Save for a few
exceptions, though, the aura they give is one of complete uniqueness, not a threatening one,
still…'Putting my guard completely down with any of them would be imprudent'.

I came to my senses when I heard the brown skinned girl from earlier rise her voice "Hey!
Everyone, just calm down! Listen, why don't we all go around and introduce ourselves?"

A guy with a pompadour snarled "The hell!? There are more important things than fucking
introductions right now!" Technically true, but…

"That may be true, but I think it would be good to at least find out who we all are before digging
into the bigger problems here" Said the gothic lolita girl from a few moments ago with a smile "I
mean, how are we even supposed to talk to each other if we do not know each other's names" True.

"That's a good point…" The girl with green jacket said shyly.

"Alright, so let's get introductions out of the way, then we can move on to whatever else. Sound
good?" A dark-blue haired girl with a seifuku-like uniform replied. 'They are really taking this too
lightly'.

With that everyone began to pair up and introduce properly. I guess that's as good a signal as
anything to move too and talk with someone.

…Right, socialize, interact with people in a 'non-professional' manner, teenagers around my age,
him, whose closest experience to that is―

Shigaraki, would you like to hear what kind of torture methods I learned today?

Dammit, he will only focus on not scaring them, 'I will keep my voice as neutral as possible, avoid
leaking any edge to it and I will speak only the necessary, not interested in accidentally bringing
inconvenient topics, especially when there are more important matters on hand'.

Let's do this.

Turns out I got lucky and the first person that I would need to introduce myself came to me instead
of the other way around, such person, was the last guy who came into the main hall and almost hit
me with the door 'That sounds kinda petty…meh'.

"Hi, my name is Makoto Naegi, I am the Ultimate Lucky Student, nice to meet you" The ahoge
boy said with a gentle smile

Mmm, he is one of few people I couldn't find any info, and Ultimate Lucky Student…...I know I
shouldn't talk more than necessary but, I wonder…" Lucky Student, huh…Naegi, does that mean
you have some kind of control over your own luck?" I asked with a serious tone 'It that is the case,
he definitely could be either a dangerous person or a useful one in our current situation depending
on how things play out'.

"H-Huh!? no, no, nothing like that! In fact, I tend to have very back luck most of the time haha, you
see, Hope's Peak holds every year a lottery in which a random and normal person gets an
opportunity to attend this school, it just so happened that I am the winner of this year lottery…I am
just a complete average teenager in every sense of the word, really" he said while rubbing the back
of his neck sheepishly.

He could be lying and end up being more than what he says, but that applies to every human, so
being overly paranoid would as fatal as being completely trusting of everything he says, I will just
let his actions speak more than his words and avoid any kind of hostility. I merely gave a nod and
proceeded to introduce myself.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

He seemed to take a pensive look while scratching his chin before talking again "…Shizuka
Shigaraki…so you are one of the students I couldn't find even their names in any of the threads I
checked…" 'Good, it would actually be worrying if you did' "Um…could you tell me what is your
talent?"

I've been actually checking the pros and cons of revealing my talent and I decided to…...not reveal
it, at least not for now 'I know I can't keep it as a secret forever', I have no doubt that if people
heard my talent in our current situation, probably not everyone, but most of these people will panic
and with the mounted weapons around…..there's no guarantee that our captors will not get trigger-
happy at noisy kids 'Even if I am confident in surviving the onslaught of those mounted weapons, I
have no way of knowing if there are hidden traps inside this hall or around the school in general, I
can't afford the risk if they have already proven capable of catching me off guard once'.

"No, not really…at least not right now. I will talk about it later" Naegi didn't seem satisfied with
my answer, but he didn't push the subject, Good.

Seeing that as my cue to leave, I gave a simple wave and moved from my spot to find another
person to introduce myself.

I decided that the next person I should introduce myself should be the red eyed guy with military-
style uniform, if doing so also got me as far as possible from his shouting, then that was just a
bonus, really.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

"I'm Kiyotaka Ishimaru! I believe in bold simplicity! Let's work together on a crusade for a proper
educational environment!" The red eyed teenager said with his voice as high as usual.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Ultimate Moral Compass, he was a student in Kaiseidan High School, and
all three years, he won top honors every year and keep a close working relationship with his
community's Public Morals Committee. He is basically the perfect image of what a role student
should aim for.

This absolute respect for the rules earned him this title, but…Ishimaru…same as Toranosuke
Ishimaru, a former Prime Minister of Japan a few decades ago, I am aware of his corruption
scandals 'Which are relatively darker than what the public knows, I would know, considering they
were involved, and although this incident occurred way before I was born, in their facilities there
are very detailed records of the most notable 'jobs' from our members so we could 'educate'
ourselves. It was just fortunate that one of my favorite subjects to read are about heads of the state
around the world, that allowed me to make the connection' but apart from being his grandson,
Kiyotaka has nothing to do with him, that much I could verify, that made him clean of any
involvement with that incident, and considering that was the deepest I could dig about him, that
meant he is without a doubt the role student he claims to be 'Which is good for me too, that meant
less problems for me to deal with'.

"Anyway, you can call me Taka. You said your name was Shizuka Shigaraki, correct?" 'Taka' said
'Sure, why not, it's easy to say'.

I nodded "Yes".

"That's a good name, a strong name! You should thank your parents for giving such an excellent
name! And to keep that name from losing its value, you must devote yourself every single day!"
Taka commented.

'I suppose this goes in the 'inconvenient topics' part' "Sure" I said with a neutral tone. 'I mean, I
don't have any information to base an opinion about my parents, maybe they didn't want me or
maybe they thought the orphanage was a better option than what they could offer, I don't know, but
eh…I find amusing the name they gave me and the irony of it, so plus points I guess…about the
devotion part, if we go with Their 'standards', then I guess I do that in a way'

"Life is worth putting every ounce of effort into! Right!? Right!" I really don't have anything
against his desire to follow the rules and being a role student…but he really needs to find an inner
voice, geez.

I just moved away from him and went to the next person.

Next on the line was a girl with dark purple hair keeped into two braids and her clothing consisted
of a school uniform with a long skirt. When I got closer to her, I was able to notice her body
language…it seemed off 'She seems both nervous and anxious, she keeps her head down most of
the time except from some quick side-glances…...inferiority complex, probably'.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

"I-It's not that you'll rem-remember my n-name anyway, b-but I'm Tok-ko…Toko Fukawa"

Yep, inferiority complex.

Toko Fukawa, there was nothing out of the ordinary by ultimate standards about her that I could
find. Since she was young, every work she releases is a guaranteed best seller and two years ago
she released her masterpiece, a romance story with the title of 'So Lingers the Ocean', this work
was so popular on women that she literally influenced in what was their perception of an attractive
male, such a feat could only belong to the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

But…

…I don't see anything wrong with her 'Apart from the complex, of course…...and she smells kind of
weird', but for some reason my instincts were telling to be cautious around her 'I mean, I don't even
feel in any kind of danger or murderous intent coming from her, even when Naegi opened the door
with zero ill intent I kind of felt something, not from him but just the general sense of danger. With
her, it's just the back of my mind telling me that something was wrong, but didn't know what…it's
hard to explain, but just in case I will be extra cautious with her'

"W-What is it? I-I-It's not polite to stare, you know" Fukawa said in a flustered tone…and was she
blushing?

What?

"Stop staring at me like I'm some filthy creature!" Now she was angry.

What?

"What? I was just―" I tried to do some explanation, but…

"I-I k-know what you 'just' thought!" Now she was on a spiral of depression "You just thought that
you have never s-seen such an ugly woman. You just th-thought it was sooo funny….!".

"Don't bother trying to l-lie to me! I know it's true…I know you can't stand looking at―" I don't
have time for this crap.

"I will go introduce to the rest of my classmates, see you later" or not, I hope not.

Sigh, I don't really have anything against people with this kind of complex, but when it's THAT
aggressive, I know we will only go in circles with me trying to clear the misunderstanding and her
going in a deeper and deeper spiral of self-depreciation and anger, it was the best for the both of us
to cut it right there.

For the next person, I introduced myself in an absolutely unique and― "Shizuka Shigaraki,
greetings"

Kidding.

"I…am Hifumi Yamada. But if you want to call me by my nickname, 'The Alpha and the Omega!' I
don't mind." 'The Alpha and the Omega!' said.

'The Alpha an―Hifumi Yamada the Ultimate Fanfic Creator, Mmmm…I don't really have much
to say about him, I know he is very well known on the internet and that he sold a lot of copies from
a product of his in a school event…...I guess it would be interesting to acquire some info from the
source itself.

"By the way, how much do you know about the world of 2D art?" I guess I should have expected
that question from him.

"I know what you are referring to, but I don't have any kind of experience with it" Am I really
following along just for some info? 'Well, it's not like this is close to the hardest 'tasks' I've had in
my life'

"Fufufu…I see you are not as ignorant as the rest of our peers Master Shigaraki" 'Master?'" But in
our community, you would be labeled as a 'greenie'" 'I guess that's true' "Me on the other hand…I
am well know and supremely well regarded as a living legend. I once sold 10,000 copies of one of
my fan comics at a school festival! Some of them didn't get it, of course, saying I'd 'tainted' the
event. How stupid can you be!?" I don't know what to think about that 'I don't even know where
this 'conversation'/rambling is going'.

"The words of such idiots mean nothing to me. I am like Van Gogh-utterly unappreciated in my
time" 'That's…...kinda true I guess, he IS an Ultimate, that has to count for something...' "I am a
soldier! Serving night and day to destroy all mindless preconceptions about fanfiction!"

*Twitch*

'H-huh? why did my right eye did that when he said that? And it did also kind of irked me a bit,
which is strange, because nothing in particular about that comment feels like something that would
offend me, if anything, I find amusing that he believes to be a soldier of any kind…weird '

"I'm sure if you were to observe my work, Master Shigaraki, you would comprehend its greatness
immediately. For my work is filled with the deepest of meanings…" Yamada finished with an
absolutely serious expression.

I will bite the bait, why not "What kind of meaning?"

"About embracing our basest urges!"

It was kind of my fault for enabling him

"I'm Yasuhiro Hagakure, you can call me Hiro for short! Take it easy, yeah? I know I will! hahaha"
A tanned guy with a loc hairstyle said.

I looked up at the mounted weapons, then at the vault door behind him, then back at him with a
deadpan expression.

Are they getting dumber?

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings."

Yasuhiro Hagakure, also known by his alias "Supernova" in the psychic community. The trend-
setting Ultimate Clairvoyant.

If I am honest, I'm kind of skeptical to such 'supernatural talent', but I have to put into consideration
that he was accepted by Hope's Peak itself, for all their shady stuff, they wouldn't be dumb enough
to recruit a pretender.

Right?

"Ahh…Okay, give up." Huh?

I'm biting the bait, again… "What's wrong?"

"I saw it. I looked right at it…Seriously, I totally saw it!" Hiro said in a concerned tone.

…Aw man, I really didn't want to label him like that kind of person just because of his clothes and
hairstyle, but he really is, isn't?
I really shouldn't… "Saw what?" …but I already came this far so…

"A Onikuma demon with pigtails and a silver spear in his mouth chasing a commando werewolf
with a guardian angel on its side. And that guardian angel… is YOU!"

…I really should stop that

"Nah, I'm just kiddin'. But hey, we should grab some brewskis sometime and get really deep into
Lemuria and its civilization." Hiro said with a casual tone.

"I'm seventeen years old." I deadpanned.

"Oh, I'm actually 21. I've been held back a few times, see, and…well, it's a long story."

I have spent less than ten minutes with the guy a I feel like I could make a good guess.

It's kind of funny, really, talking with these people almost makes me forget that we are kidnapped
at gun point.

Almost.

After finishing introductions with Hiro, I walked up to talk to the dark-blue haired girl I saw earlier
and prepared to greet her.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" I said as I've been doing the last five times.

"Hi! I'm Sayaka Maizono. I look forward to getting to know you!" She seems like someone of
normal personality by ultimate standards for a change, huh.

Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, she is the lead singer of the most popular idol pop
group all across the country, not only that but she also works on TV shows and magazines
everywhere…but I wonder…it's not exactly a secret the hellish pressure and high expectations that
you could suffer if choosing this career, it's a pretty dark industry if you put some time think about
it, it is the same for her? 'Anyways, with her angelical voice, amazing dancing skills and the fact
that she has over 100 million of followers or 'Sayakers' as they call themselves, she really does live
up to the title she has been given…'

"I'm flattered you think so high of me!"

"What?" I asked with narrowed eyes and more edge than what would have liked to show, she
seemed to notice that if the worried look on her face was anything to go by, dammit. "Sorry…...I
just really didn't expect that, what was that?" I managed to say in a much more calmed tone.

That seemed to do the trick apparently, because she quickly brightened up "Oh! I guess it's normal
that not everyone takes it the same way, you see…" she said between giggles, then she turned
completely serious "I'm a psychic."

"Really?"
"Hahaha, I'm just kidding, I just have really good intuition!"

I REALLY need to be careful of what I am thinking when around her, in her own way she's kind of
dangerous, that's a bit thrilling―'Not the moment, dammit'.

"Is that so…see you later, Maizono" I gave a slight nod before turning in search of another student.

"See ya!"

After getting away from Maizono, I walked over to a guy with spiky red hair, pale blue eyes, and
his whole clothing screamed punk.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

"Hey man! What's up, the name's Leon Kuwata, nice to meet ya!" The guy with red hair and a
goatee said with a wave

The Ultimate Baseball Star, Leon Kuwata, another good example of someone who lives up for
his title, since a young age he has played in national level championships as a cleanup hitter and in
every single one of them, he has crushed the competition…that's all about it with him, but
compared to the pictures I saw…

"He looks different…" I said mostly to myself but it seemed he heard it too.

"What, were you expecting some kid with a shaved head?" Leon questioned.

I suppose there's no harm to be frank about it, that info is online for everyone to see "Not really, it's
just that you look different from the pictures" That got a reaction from him.

"What!? Aw man, you found that picture of me with that appearance? Seriously!? I hate that
picture! I really, really though it didn't exist anymore!" If only you knew…

"This is not cool. This is So, so not cool…...Seriously, I'm like, mega embarrassed right now." Huh
"I didn't have a choice, okay? Shaving your head like that is part of national championship
regulations! They really force that stuff on you! But I ain't gonna cut my hair and neither getting
my dye back to normal!"

I guess he is in his rebellious phase, not like I have experience with that.

"Hey, can I be totally honest with you?" I just shrugged, 'He hasn't given me any signals to believe
he is worse than Yamada and Hiro' "I don't like baseball. Like, at all. I've never gone to a single
practice"

I believe the part where he said he has never gone to a single practice, he is an Ultimate, but that he
doesn't like baseball…...seems like something he wants everyone to believe, for what reason, I
don't know and doesn't seem important enough for me to care, but I will keep it in my mind,
somewhere, just in case.

"But as soon as I got accepted here, I quit baseball for good! I have my own dream for the future"

"Dream?" Wonder how it feels to have one.

"My only path in life is getting into music! You can feel that rock star-quality aura I have! I feel
you have some of it too, y'know?" I have? "I'm gonna be a singer, so all I need is a songwriter and
someone on guitar, and we're set! This new version of me that's chasing after my dreams is,
like…...super cool to the max!"

While the subject of whether it's possible or not to just reject your talent and focus on something
else in Hope's Peak is interesting, it is completely irrelevant at the moment, I also felt that we were
done with this conversation so I gave a slight nod and went to find another person.

The next person I meet with was the girl from earlier who tough that I was hurt on the stomach
'How she came to that conclusion, I don't know and I don't want to find out' She had brown skin
and hair, with the latter tied into a gravity-defying ponytail 'And how does she do that?'. Her
clothing consists of a white tank top, a red tracksuit and some hotpants.

"Hey, hey! I'm Aoi Asahina! But my friends just call me Hina.'Sup?" 'Hina' said 'Another simple
name, good'.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" I said.

The Ultimate Swimming Pro, if what I found about her is true…...then she is without a doubt a
stamina monster, especially in aquatic environments. Since the age of 5, she's been breaking
records in any kind of physical competition you could think of, more so in the ones where
swimming is involved, such is her talent that since a young age, she's even been chosen as an
upcoming candidate for the Olympics, and it's probably only 'upcoming' because of the laws
against minors participating in such events.

"Aha! I knew it was something like that!" I have a feeling she remembered something completely
different "Don't worry! I will make sure to keep it in my head! Shizuka…Shigaraki…Shizuka…"
While she was muttering to herself, she was also doing some writing gestures with her hands 'Must
be a way to make sure she remembers it' "Alrighty!...hey, how do you spell your last name?"

"The same way it sounds" I said plainly

"…"

"…"

"…Well, I have no idea how that is. Hahahaha! I will write it down later to make use I get it right,
anyway, glad to meet ya!" Hina said while rubbing the back of her head 'Seems like she only put a
focus on her physical training, huh'.

With nothing else to say, I took that as a signal to leave.

I really haven't been that talkative, only extending my responses a bit more than usual when I am
interested or curious about some extra information that I could get that will help me build a profile
on each of them, and even so…I feel drained.

Don't get me wrong, I could still go on for a lot more, my training and experience would allow me
to adapt and persevere, it's just…I am not used to deal with so much colorful but still different
personalities, so I just want to get this over with so we can get on track with the important matters.
With that mini rant over, I approached to the next student. She was a teenager with ghostly pale
skin, red eyes and black hair made in two twin-drill pigtails. Her clothing, which was a gothic
lolita-style outfit, consisted of a white blouse with a collar, a white ribbon around her neck, a black
jacket with a ribbon lacing down the sleeves, fastened by a simple white ribbon across her chest
which revealed a red tie and the waist of her skirt, another notable trait, was the silver-plated ring
that layered around her index finger in an overlapping way.

It also didn't go unnoticed by me the appraising way she was looking at me.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

"Greetings, I believe we have not been introduced yet. My name is Celestia Ludenberg" said the
red eyed girl with a smile and her hands under her chin.

"Celestia Ludenberg…" I said mostly to myself, sort of to give the name a 'taste' and identify it,
'Mmm, it definitely is of European origin, most probably German, but…' Anyways, about her…

Celestia Ludenberg, the Ultimate Gambler, she is very well known in the underground for
participating in the most dangerous tournaments where large sums of money are involved, from
what I could find, the games where the yakuza are involved are her most frequented ones.

Her most notable feat was in one game sponsored by the Kuzuryu clan where it is rumored that she
defeated all of her opponents and left while laughing 'Doing so in a place full of yakuza presence,
truly an Ultimate Gambler', this is where she also gained the title Queen of Liars, alluding about
her being completely wrapped in a veil of lies.

'Some details of her already give that fact, first of all, her 'name', it is obviously fake if the poor
accent is anything to go by, then there's her garments, when this close to her I can easily recognize
that those pigtails are fake and if combined with everything she wears, it is notable how much she
wants to sell her actual image'

"My, my to say my name with no problem and with the right accent. If you don't mind, I would
prefer for you to call me Celeste." 'Celeste' said with a smile

"Sure"

"Ehehehehehe you are not a very talkative person, I see…...and Shigaraki if I'm not mistaken it
means 'Mourning of death' correct? Very interesting name…" 'The way she said interesting name…
interesting…Celestia Ludenberg…is there a connection?' "…As interesting as the fact that you
haven't revealed your talent to anyone, am I wrong?" She noticed that, huh, she's a sharp one.

"You are correct, I don't plan to keep it a secret but I will talk about it until later"

"Interesting, very, very Interesting, then I will not take more of your time, I really look forward to
getting to know you better, later~" With that said we both parted ways.

'Apart from them finding out about my talent right now, I don't think there's anything I'm worried
for them to find out, still, similar to Sayaka I will have to be prepared around 'Celeste' to avoid any
leaking of information from my part' Is it coincidence most of who I've been having those kinds of
thoughts are girls? A quick glance around the remaining students left for me to introduce and
remembering those who I already talked to, told me that no, it's probably not.
The next person I approached was a tall and bulky man with a pompadour, his outfit consisted of a
typical biker gang member clothes along with a black overcoat, said overcoat had the symbol of
the of the gang he belongs to in the back, with different kanji writing on the sides…...I think I have
a pretty good guess at who he is.

"Mondo Owada, nice to fuckin' meet ya" said the biker in an almost growl.

'The way he said that, the tone of his voice, the scowl on his face, his posture in general…he seems
like someone who gets angry easily, requiring little provocation or pushing the wrong buttons to
make him explode, he could become a problem in our current situation…still, not like he could
defeat me…but I'm grateful I can keep a straight face looking at his hair.' Anyway, amusement
aside, about him…

The Ultimate Biker Gang Leader, Mondo Owada, he is the absolute leader of the biggest biker in
Japan known as The Diamond Dogs, not only that, but all of the other gangs pay him enough
respect that you could basically think of him as the leader of ALL the gangs around Japan, that's a
lot of manpower, I wonder if he is aware of that.

The only other thing I could find is that before him, his brother Daiya Owada was the previous
leader and that Mondo became the successor after Daiya died, but the details about how that came
to be are surprisingly well buried, so I could only theorize.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings"

"Hell yeah" he said with a slight tone of finality to it. That was probably the quickest introduction I
had so far, which was completely fine for me.

Only 5 more to go.

 Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong, huh – PART 2

Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong, huh – PART 2

The person in front of me is probably the complete opposite of Owada.

"H-Hello, nice to meet you, I-I'm Chihiro Fujisaki" the tiny girl with green jacket said.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" should I really keep saying the same introduction?...sure why not,
I'm almost done anyway.

"S-Sorry, I get kind embarrassed whenever I introduce myself like this…anyway, I hope we can
get along!" Fujisaki replied.

I gave a simple a nod "Sure"

"U-Um…this may sound weird and it may be just my imagination, but…have we met before?"
Fujisaki said shyly.

I was about to have a reaction similar to the one I had with Sayaka but I corrected myself without
showing any changes on the outside 'If she really recognized me for what I do, she would have
done that question with at least a moderate amount of fear judging from what I have seen so far of
her, but there was just shyness, she surely saw someone of similar appearance…...of course, this
definitely is a piece of information I have to remember, just in case.'

"I don't think so" I simply said

"O-Oh okay…...sorry" Fujisaki said on the verge of tears.

"You don't anything to apologize for, it was just a simple question"

"Oh, right…" geez, what a shy girl…

Wait a moment…

Something's off.

Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer, honestly, she is one of the most interesting ultimates,
and how could she not, her presence in the software world is so big that basically every area related
to programming, Fujisaki is the responsible for the most cutting-edge advances, it's gotten to the
point where there are rumors about some progress in the development of A.I technology thanks to
her, truly, it is not exaggeration to say that she alone has made revolutionary achievements that
would change the world.

But going back a bit.

About what felt off…...could it be? 'Her voice, it sounds kind of feminine, true, but at the core…
then the shoulders, though hard to see, they are off, apart from that there is one thing I have to
confirm'

Focusing discretely my sight on her neck…'I knew it! There is one! Even though it is actually hard
to notice, I can see it' I had to fight the urge to widen my eyes, if I hadn't practice noticing these
kinds of things I would never have guessed, crap, this is really something, but I wonder why 'she'
do―

"I-I'm really sorry" dammit, I was that obvious? I definitely though I did it without moving my eyes
too much…...before jumping to conclusions, though, I have to see where this leads.

"What are you apologizing for?"

"W-Well, because…you seem upset for something. You are mad at me, right?" said Fujisaki on
the verge of tears, again.

Ah, 'she's' just being shy and got intimidated when I just keep staring her, but 'she' doesn't seem to
suspect I noticed 'that', good "…I am not upset, I was just deep in thought about something"

"H-Huh? deep in thought?" Fujisaki said shyly

"Yeah, don't worry, I don't have any negative opinion about you" If anything, I'm just kind of
surprised, but that's about it.

"Oh, that's good. I was afraid maybe you didn't like me…Hehe I'm glad!" Fujisaki said in a
cheerful smile.

'Her' disguise if pretty good, even I have to admit that.

Once I departed to meet the remaining students, I momentarily stopped myself as I began to look at
the electronic mounted weapons 'It's probably they took measures taking 'her' talent into
consideration…but if there's exists a breach in the security of this place, Fujisaki will become vital
in having any kind of opportunity…maybe I should think of 'her' as a V.I.P'

With those last thoughts put in consideration, I moved on.

Only being in her line of sight was enough for me to notice her overwhelming presence, and I
didn't mean on a physical sense 'though she doesn't lack a fitting body neither, those scars and
muscles are something else', her aura, if I had to call it in some way, promised me that I would be
ultimately defeated if I were to have a direct fight against her.

"I am Sakura Ogami" the white-haired girl said.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" I will admit that there was a bit more enthusiasm than the previous
times I said this.

Sakura Ogami, the Ultimate Martial Artist, she is known for competing in martial arts
tournaments all around the world, but America is where had most of her matches, it has gotten
where her current record is that of 400 matches undefeated, making her also being unofficially
called the Strongest Woman Alive 'Though I would personally consider her the Strongest
HUMAN Alive, seriously, I have yet to see a guy that could claim to surpass her in pure raw
power', another thing I noticed was the fact she also famously known as Ogre or some shit about
close relative to primates 'Tch, bastards don't know how to appreciate a woman who wields such
power and could beat their asses'

Standing in front of her, I couldn't help but think how―

"Hey, you" Ogami said with an inquiring tone.

"Hm?" I said with a slight tilt to my head, what could she wan―

!?

I couldn't help but wide my eyes as she started touching me all around my body.

'E-Eh? W-Why is she doing this? She's not some kind of pervert, right? At least I don't think she's
that kind of―'

My thoughts where once again interrupted as I felt an enormous amount of killing intent, on
instinct I abandoned the flustered state of the moment and my body tensed and my eyes scanned
the area, but…

As quickly as it appeared, it was gone, I frowned at that 'That killing intent…it was directed in my
general direction, but it wasn't directed at me, could it be at Sakura? It's on plain sight how
powerful she is, maybe they see her as some kind of threat?...but to have suppressed such kind of
murderous intent that fast, it seems that whoever that person is, it could become another problem,
as if there weren't enough of them…great'

It seems Ogami was distracted enough checking out my body to notice that…that sounded really
bad, doesn't it?

Finally, she stopped the groping "!...I must say Shigaraki, your muscular quality and quantity
surpasses by much that of even well-trained high school students" Ah, she was doing that "That is
fortunate, you are more than fit enough to act as my training partner"

Well, I could give it a chance someday, maybe…but our current situation will keep that on hold for
the unforeseeable future.

"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind"

She simply nodded and I did the same in response, thus, ending this introduction. With that on
mind, I moved to find another introduction partner.

Pale skin, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes covered in white glasses that seems to look at everyone
around him with disdain, his posture also signals an absolute belief of superiority and his black suit
screams expensive.

Yep, I have a pretty solid idea of who this is.

Sigh

"Name's Byakuya Togami" the tall blonde said.

A Togami…I really should have expected the current heir to attend Hope's Peak, anyway…

Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, and as stated earlier, the current heir to the
Togami Corporation, such conglomerate owns several businesses around the world and with their
resources, it's not exaggeration to say that they own the world with their influence. Not only he is
the heir, but outside of the official business of his family, he owns and manages multiple
operations making his personal assets, generously vast.

While to the average person or on a quick glance, he could only look like a spoiled brat 'You would
be forgiven for thinking that, almost every Togami has the personality of one', It is true that he
lived through his own hardships to get to the position he is today 'If anything, the Championship
his family holds every few years is testament of that, I would know, the Togami family are regular
clients of Them, and they become even more active clients during such event'

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" the moment I completed that sentence, he began to ignore me, I
have dealt with enough members of his family and other rich people 'Not that either group would
know that, I always carry out my 'work' through anonymity or it is Them that get contacted and
relay the information to me' to know that we are done here, so with that done, I simply left.

Two people left and I am done, finally.

The penultimate student I needed to introduce myself to was a strawberry blonde-haired girl with
pale-purple eyes and pale skin, whose outfit consisted of a black cardigan over a white dress shirt
and a white tie with dot points around said cardigan, a red miniskirt, mid-size black boots and she
also had 2 hair ties, a rabbit face on the right pigtail and a large red and white bow on her left one.

As I approached her, I really didn't think much of her…that changed completely when I got to see
her closer and then saw her face, then I locked eyes with her, and then….

It was only for a second, but that second was enough for me to notice it, the aura I felt on her, it
was similar to Sakura, in the sense that it belonged to someone really powerful, but that's where the
similarities ended, while Sakura gave a brutal and overwhelming feeling with her raw force, the
atmosphere of the person in front of me was a refined one, a lethal one, where Sakura promised a
honorable defeat, the person in front of me promised a swift execution should you make an enemy
of her.

In that single second, I got to feel a presence that I have only meet on―

Do you want to die?

I couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through my spine and the slight acceleration of my heart rate,
even after the second where I felt all of that has already passed, along with his hurricane of feelings
and I just stood there, staring, I really hope I didn't have a stupid look on my face.

Thankfully she took my silence as a cue to present herself "Hiiiii! I'm Junko Enoshima, Charmed,
I'm sure!" …

At least, that brought out of my stupor "…Hi, my name is Shizuka Shigaraki, it is nice to meet
you" I said with a slight wave.

Wait, what?

Get yourself together, dammit! 'I would have been dead long ago if I let something like that distract
me, focus…Now, on what I know about her' Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista, she's as
well know, if not more than Sayaka Maizono, every magazine she is involved becomes a trend
around the world, and everything she wears and promotes in those, becomes an even bigger
tendency. I took the liberty to look at a few of them in case there was something of interest…...and
for that same reason, when I remember the pictures of her and compare them to the Enoshima in
front of me…something felt off about her, 'My instincts were right about Fujisaki, so a detailed
observation would be necessary' I remembered the aura from earlier 'Unlike with Fujisaki, I should
do it with absolute care, thinking of it as if my life depended on it, don't want her to suspect about
me checking her out…shit, not like that!'

"You look different" I don't know why but it felt like what I just said had more meaning than what
I originally intended…weird.

There was a slight moment of panic, almost less than a second, before she recomposed "H-
Huh?...Oh! are you talking about my covers and junk? Hahaha those are, like, totally
photoshopped!" Enoshima said with a grin and a peace sign.

"Photoshopped?" I echoed, stalling for time.

"Yeah, you know…edited to hell and back. Using like, computers and other related junk?"

"I see…" I almost snapped my fingers 'It definitely is well put together, to the point it almost
looked natural, but for some reason, it felt out of place and that is when I noticed…she is wearing
one of those…a wig'

"Oh, don't be like that! You're gonna make me all sad and depressed. I mean, like, it's totally
normal these days to photoshop the crap out of cover photos" Enoshima commented while twirling
a strand of her 'hair' "If you get surprised by that, you'd be totally blow out of your mind by a
certain dangerous little diva of ours…they make the eyes and junk super big, and tweak the skin so
it looks all ceramic porcelain!"

'What she said made sense, really. I am aware of how extreme and demanding the industry Sayaka
works can be, so it's really not a surprise the standards of beauty are even more taxing in a place
like a Fashion agency, where Enoshima works, and they made those changes she talked about on
her image, they probably didn't like her natural hair and decided that a strawberry-blonde wig was
necessary…still, if we are talking about aspects of her that give her a charming image, there's one
detail that confuses me'

"What about your freckles" I suddenly said, surprising myself for doing that.

"What about them?" she said with a dangerous edge and narrowed eyes, there was also something
else, another slight emotion in the tone of her voice, but I couldn't decipher what it was.

"…Well, you said that they made changes on your appearance to give you a better image, so, why
would they remove the freckles? they give you a cute charm, right?" What the heck I am doing.

Then her face shifted from one of suspicious to a surprised one, and…she blushed "E-Eh!? S-so…
you think, like, my freckles…they look cute?" She asked with a nervousness that you couldn't
expect on an experienced fashionista and also with some…expectancy?

I was not really paying attention to those details, If I was being honest with myself, the only thing I
did was give a stiff nod

"I-I see, truth is…people usually don't like them, they prefer the other me…the one they see on
those edited photos, but if you think otherwise…then thank you, I really appreciate it" she said
with smile, but not like the cheshire fake one from earlier, but a small and sincere one.

And I couldn't help but…for the first time since this fiasco, and who knows how long ago…smile
back at her.

"You're welcome...goodbye, Enoshima" that's all I could say before leaving, I…I don't trust myself
not saying 'or doing' another…weird thing, really, what the heck was all that?

It wasn't until I got away enough from her that remembered a really important detail that made me
slightly widen my eyes.

Enoshima was one of the only two people that paid attention to the weapons when my eyes were
on them…'Of everyone that I have met so far, she really is the most…interesting one, yeah let's go
with that' I will have to keep an eye on her.

To stablish if she's really more than what it looks on plain sight, of course, nothing else, no sir.

…Let's get this done with.

The last person that I needed to introduce myself to, was a pale girl with long lavender hair with a
single braid on her left side, tied with a black ribbon and purple eyes.

Her clothing consisted of a dark-purple blazer jacket over a zipped up white blouse and a brown
tie. She also wears a dark-purple short skirt and heeled knee-high dark-purple boots.

Mmmm…maybe it's my imagination, but I think dark-purple is her favorite color.

Anyway, I approached her.

"Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings" by this point I managed to recover my blank face from before the
previous…incident.

"…"

"…"

"…" …I guess I am the social one in this conversation…that's really, really weird.

"…"

"…Can you tell me your name?"

"…My name is Kyoko Kirigiri" She's not gonna tell me her talent, it's not a question, that's a
statement.

…Kyoko Kirigiri, Ultimate ?...that's about all I have on her, and seeing that's the case, it's
probable that she's a similar case to mine, the mysterious and discrete way she acts, and refusing
giving more information than necessary greatly increases those chances…well, in a way. there are
two things, Kirigiri…I feel like I have heard of that surname somewhere, but I can't place it were.

The other was the she is the second person who followed my gaze on the weapons at the
beginning, the reason I put this much importance on that, is because when I did that not only, I was
on a relatively large distance away from everyone at that moment, but because apart from tensing
up I really didn't make much movement, so to notice where my sight was…they would have to
been paying very close attention to me…that's really something to take into consideration for the
future.

I understood that I would not get anything from her, so it was futile to ask, unless I used more
'serious' and 'professional' methods of information gathering, of course, but I didn't have neither the
desire or the urgency to do any of that and that's not even taking into account that we are
surrounded by another 14 people, it would be madness to try something like that in these
circumstances.

Seeing that we are done here, I prepared to leave when…

"You haven't told anyone your talent" Kirigiri said.

"…I haven't, and neither have you" I really didn't know that, but I was confident in being right.

"That's true…one more thing"

"Hm?"

"The weapons mounted in the entrance…you think they are real, am I right?"

"They are" it's not a guess, I am 100% sure they are real.

"I see…then what do you think of our current situation?" I have a feeling she's not usually this
talkative.

When she finished that question, I started looking around to see my 'classmates'…some were
having enthusiastic talks, some were laughing, apart from Byakuya and to some degree, Celeste
too, everyone else is fooling around…in some way, it almost irked me.

"…No one is taking this seriously enough, that could become a fatal mistake" I don't expect them
to panic and start yelping at their own shadow, but it's pretty obvious they haven't become aware of
how dangerous our current situation is.

I am also aware that this sounds somewhat hypocritical of me, considering the…circumstances
with Enoshima, and my own somewhat joking thoughts thus far, but all of that I keep it in my head,
where I am capable of multitasking and react properly in case an incident happens, but with them…
it is an essential part of my talent to observe people and known when they let their guard down or
are relaxed…and that's the case with most of them.

"So that's your view on this matter…I will take all of what you said into consideration" Kirigiri
said while slightly lowering her head and putting a hand on her chin, making a thinking pose.

I simply nodded, neither of us had more to say and we both knew that.

With the introductions on all of my 'classmates' done, I move to the center of the room, that would
allow me to have more freedom of movement, and be prepared for anything that could come next.

"Okay, time to get down to business" the moment everyone concluded their respective
introductions, Togami didn't waste any time to take the lead of the next topic at hand "This is no
time to stand around making friends like a bunch of dull-eyed baboons"

Weird comparison aside, he's right. As for me, I will only dedicate myself to observe, I see no
reason to be part of the next conversation...for now

"Oh, right…I believe someone said something about a bigger problem or something like that, what
was that about?" Naegi asked.

"Well, you see…Naegi, you said a bunch of stuff happened and then just you were 'just asleep',
right?" Maizono began to explain the situation "Well…the same happened to all of us"

"What!? Seriously!?" Naegi asked shocked.

"Yeah, just after each of us got inside the school, we lost consciousness. And when we came to, we
were somewhere here in the school! That's what happened to you, right?" Leon said while rubbing
the back of his neck.

"B-But that's just weird! That every one of us would get knocked out like that…" Well, at least
they recognize that.

"Damn right! That's why we're freakin' out!" Owada shouted.

"That's not the only thing you saw where all the windows in the classes and hallways were, right?
But instead of that, it was a bunch of big metal plates! What's that about!?" Taka replied.

"Plus, all my stuff's missing! Even my cellphone…" Enoshima commented.

"Y-Yeah, I haven't seen my PDA either" Fujisaki added 'It makes sense, out of everyone here,
'she's' the last person you want to have with any kind of device at her hands in a kidnapping'

"And then there's the main hall here" Taka commented while pointing at the highly advanced vault
door "The front exit is completely blocked by some giant metal hatch…but I didn't saw anything
like that when I got here! What the heck!? What it's doing here!?"

Everyone began to have contemplative looks on their faces when he said that.

They have completely disregarded the machine guns, haven't hey?

"Hey…what if we are part of, like, you know…a crime, or something?" Enoshima said, a bit blue
on the face, from nervousness, I suppose.

"Wait, like…a kidnapping?" Leon commented 'They are making some progress, huh' "You think
maybe someone grabbed us and hauled us off and we're not actually at school" 'That's actually a
very important point, are we or not in Hope's Peak right now…'

In any case, in a way, it's kind of good that these people are actually beginning to take this
seriously, maybe that―

"Come, don't think like that. Cheer up!" Hiro commented.

Huh?

"I bet this is all just part of the school's orientation procedure. Yeah! I'm sure that's it! So, I'm just
gonna take it easy for a little bit!" He continued

I…I'm honestly not that surprised that he's in denial, but at least not everyone is that stupid to―

"Oh…So you think they wanted to do something to surprise us?" Fujisaki replied while sighing in
relief.

"Huh, really? Well, if that's all it is, it's nap time for me. I was up way too late last night, so I could
use a bit of a little shuteyes" Leon commented while grinning and rubbing the back of his head.

I looked around and saw…how everyone began to relax, their tension evaporating…

Sigh

Of course, they take comment of the biggest fool of the room at face value, sure, why not. I wasn't
interested in taking part of this talk, but they REALLY need a reality check or things could get
chaotic when faced directly with whoever is in charge of all of this and reveals their intentions 'Not
that I know them, really, but everything points to nothing good, that's for sure'

With that in mind, I prepared to speak "…Are you guys really going―"

*Ding dong, bing bong*

The sound of a bell jingle interrupted what I was going to say, then the monitor in the room turned
on. There was only the sound of static for a few seconds, and then…

"Ahem! Ahem! Testing! Testing! Mike check, Mike check, one, two! This is a test of the
school broadcast system!"

I narrowed my eyes, that voice…it was way too…chirpy, considering our current situation and
everything I've seen so far, it's obvious whoever this person is, it finds absolute amusement in the
threatening situation we find ourselves…alarm bells were already ringing in my head.

"Ahh, to all incoming students! I would like to begin the entrance ceremony at…right now!
Please make your way to the gymnasium at your earliest convenience…That's all. I'll be
waiting!"

Entrance ceremony…plus that tone in this voice, he seems intended on keeping the farse that all of
this is part of the school, whoever our captor is, there's no doubt about it…he's extremely eccentric,
I should be prepared for anything.

"…What. The. Hell was that just now?" Enoshima said nervously, 'Yeah, that's a way to put it'

"Well then, if you'll excuse me…" As soon as the broadcast ended, Togami left the hall.

"H-Hey! What, you're gonna take off just like that!?" Enoshima exclaimed.

"Ohh yeah, now I get it!" Ugh "This whole thing was just to get us all pumped for the entrance
ceremony! Man, thank God it was all a joke. I'd be totally freaked if this was real! Alright, guess
I'll head out, too. Mmm, I wonder what they got planned for us next" Hiro commented as he left the
room.
…I'm just gonna tune out whenever this guy talks, the chances of him saying something useful are
as low as what everything he has said so far being the case.

"Damn, I was totally looking forward to that nap, too. Geez, why'd they have to go and kill the
mood?" Leon said while he left too.

"W-Wait for me! I wanna go with you!" Fujisaki said in a panicked tone

"That is that, then. I will see you all there" Celeste commented with a smile.

Followed that Fujisaki, Celeste and Fukawa and almost everyone left the room. Except for Kirigiri,
the remaining students stood there in some kind of state of shock.

I guess they need some kind of push up.

"…We should get moving, we don't know what our captors are capable of" I commented.

"C-Captors!? What are you talking about, Shigaraki!?" Maizono asked in a worried tone.

"I don't think we should jump to conclusions! I'm sure this is just the wacky way Hope's Peak does
these things, like Hiro said" Naegi added

"…" I didn't make a reply to that.

"Regardless of what is true, just staying here isn't going to help in any way. Besides, aren't you
guys a little bit curious to find out what's going on around here?" Kirigiri inquired.

"If we do not move forward, we learn nothing. The only choice is to push ahead "Ogami
commented with one eye closed.

"It's settled then" I said while I turned to left the main hall and shortly after, the remaining students
moved to left this room, heading to the gym.

It's time to finally see what are the intentions of our kidnappers.

Once we left the main hall, our little group of Ogami, Kirigiri, Enoshima, Maizono. Naegi and Me
'Not so little if it's a third of the student body, I guess', turned to the left, in the same direction
where that gate was and headed in search of the gym.

Of course, just because surrounded by people, didn't mean that I stopped doing the same thing I
was did after waking up…and that is checking the doors while we moved. Some of these doors
included a Nurse office and some restrooms, one for each gender, same as before, they were all
locked.

It also seemed my antics didn't go unnoticed or uncommented, not that I really minded, if I am
honest.

"Eh? What are you doing? Is that like, some kind of weird hobby of yours?" Enoshima commented
with a confused look on her face.

"…I was just curious, and seeing as we are going in this direction, I decided to check if any door
was open on the way to the gym" I said plainly.
"That's reasonable" Kirigiri commented.

"I don't really think that's the case…" Naegi sweatdropped.

"You shouldn't really say that, Naegi! Everyone has their own hobbies!" Maizono said. 'It's not a
hobby, really'

Weird moment aside, we finally found the double doors that would lead us to the gym.

Without wasting time, I went inside.

Once inside, what greeted me was…not the gym but some kind of trophy room. On my left there
were multiple display cases, showing all kind of trophies and medals, the same was the case on the
right side of the room but in addition, there was a surveillance camara. Finally in front of me was a
TV 'Definitely for those broadcasts we just saw on the main hall' and a double door, similar from
the one I just came from 'This will lead to the actual gym, I guess'

"God, I had no idea this Hope's Peak Academy was going to be such a pain in my balls. It really
ain't that different from the time I spent in juvie. Hell, this place is even worse!" Owada grumbled.

"And why isn't there anyone here? Walking through the halls, I didn't see a single person…"
Maizono commented.

"Isn't that like, seriously not good?" Enoshima added in a worried tone.

"Th-They're just trying to spook us! They'll take those metal plates down later, I'm sure of it…"
Taka said nervously.

"What about the mounted weapons on the entrance of the school?" I don't know why, but it feels
kind of liberating finally pointing that out…weird.

"Shigaraki! You shouldn't joke about that! It is obvious they are fake! There's no way Hope's Peak
would put such a dangerous thing for real, right!?" Taka commented…to convince himself as much
as the others, I guess.

"…Just be ready for anything, for your own good" It's the only thing I can comment if they are
going to be in such denial.

"He is right, all we can do now is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Nothing venture,
nothing gained" Ogami added.

"Well hell, it ain't like I'm scared or nothin'. Let's just get this over with! Hey! Where's the bastard
who called us here!" Owada screamed while storming off the room.

"Owada, stop! No running in the halls!" Taka followed after him.

"I too shall go" Ogami added before departing.

"H-Hey, wait! Don't leave me here all alone!" Yamada screamed in a very masculine way.

That left me with the group from earlier, save for Ogami. They all had faces that showed their
uneasiness with this whole ordeal…well expect for Kirigiri, she remained as stoic as usual 'But
that's the norm with her, I guess…that's good, she will need it for what is to come'.
…

Sigh "…Let's get this over with" With that I finally left the trophy room, with my body prepared
both physically and psychologically, for what the mastermind behind all of this has prepared for us.

Inside the gym what greeted me was…what it looked like a normal entrance ceremony, the entire
room had flags on its left and right sides and in front of me there was a stage with a podium that
had an emblem of Hope's Peak Academy, another detail was that before the stage, there were
sixteen chairs, most probably to add effect to all this mockery of a ceremony.

"Oh. It really does look like an entrance ceremony" I heard Naegi comment.

"See? Told ya! It's totally normal entrance ceremony stuff" Hiro added.

The fact that all of this looks 'normal' when everything before this was a bad sign after bad sign,
just shows this is where the real danger begins, 'I have to keep my eyes open, and ears alert for
anything, will they begin to shoot us? Or maybe close the doors and fill the room of poison…no, if
they wanted to kill everyone right now, they had their chance when everyone was fooling around
during the introductions, so…what does tha―'

"Hey there, howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let's get things rolling!"

My attention and that of all of my classmates, went to the stage, and that's when it happened.

From behind the podium, a figure jumped out of it to reveal itself, it was…A bear?

Huh?

The right side of the…bear, was completely black, except for his nose and the center of his belly,
with grinning teeth and a strange jagged red eye 'Looking carefully…it seems like the logo from
Hope's Peak Academy', the left side, on the other hand, was completely different, instead of black,
it was white, it had no teeth and a simple black dot eye, this side was no different from a normal
teddy bear.

Still…what is this? A toy? A robot? How is it controlled? By an A.I? 'Does the technology to
achieved that exists?', it was a really…unusual sight, but it doesn't matter, I have to keep focus,
that's the only way possible to gather as much information as possible for now.

"Huh? A…teddy bear?" Fujisaki asked with reasonable confusion on 'her' face.

"I'm not a teddy bear!" the teddy bear exclaimed "I…am…Monokuma! And I am this school's
headmaster!"

…huh, so does it talk, that's something, it's not a teddy bear then.

"Wh-!? Waaaaah! The teddy bear can talk!" Yamada screamed.

"Calm down! I'm sure there's just a speaker inside it" Taka nervously stated 'That's a possibility,
but…'

Then 'Monokuma' stood up with its paws up in a 'menacing' manner "I told you already, I'm not a
teddy bear…I'm Monokuma! And I'm your headmaster!"
Well, that throws the teddy bear theory out of the window, now the thing is, how is it controlled?

"Eeeeek, it moved!" Yamada screamed, again.

"Seriously man, calm down! It's prolly just a remote-control toy or somethin'" Mondo commented,
though he seemed a bit nervous too.

"How dare you compare me to a child's plaything! You cut me deep. Deeper than the Mariana
Trench…" Monokuma commented in a most probably fake depressing tone "My remote-control
system is so complex, even the people at NASA can't recreate or even comprehend it!"

That's actually a very important piece of info, 'If this 'Monokuma' is controlled by remote-control,
then the chances are that whoever is in control of it, it's inside this place…maybe that's why the
stairs I saw on the way here were blocked by a gate'

"Ah, but don't make me say stuff that might destroy NASA's dreams, I just couldn't BEAR that!"

Sigh

" 'Bear' that? Really? You are…unfortunate" Celeste said 'Yep'

"Now then, moving on! We really must hurry and get started" Ah, he already moved from that.

"Giving up already? No other stupid bear puns?" Enoshima commented.

"Quiet down now, quiet down. Ah, okay, so!"

"He has abandoned the gag…" Ogami stated.

"Everyone, stand at attention bow! And…good morning" Monokuma replied.

I can only think of one person who would follow along something that ridiculous.

"Good morning!" Taka shouted, more so than usual.

Yep, of course it was him who did that…but putting that aside, what's our Captor's plan? What
does he gain with whole gag? The only thing it comes to mind is…does he want us to drop our
guards? Everyone, including me I must admit, has being following along in some way or another
on this ridiculousness, does he want us to create some false sense of security and then drop a
metaphorical bomb on us? If that's the case I must steel my nerves more than ever.

"Y-You don't have to s-say it back!" snapped Fukawa.

"Now then, let us commence with a most noteworthy and memorable entrance ceremony"
Monokuma calmy stated.

I narrowed my eyes at that 'So, he's going to finally begin…'

"First, let's talk a bit about what your school life here will be like. Now, ah, make no mistake-you
few students, so full of potential, represent the hope of the world" The monochrome bear
continued
"And to protect such splendid hope…you will all live a communal life together solely within the
confines of this school" he said in a chirpy tone.

The way he said that, what does he mean by…

…He can't be serious right?

I couldn't help but widen my eyes completely, I suppressed myself to show any other reaction, if
he's implying what I think he's implying, then…shit. My widened eyes should have been noticeable
enough, because the bastard moved his head slightly to look at me with some gleam in his red eye,
how does he do that, I don't know.

"Everyone will live in harmony together, and adhere to the rules and regulations of the school…
Ah, now then…regarding the end date for this communal life…" Of course, the bastard is building
up suspense for that.

"THERE ISN'T ONE! In other words, you'll all be here until the day you die! Such is the school
life you've been assigned" …

Discretely looking around I could notice the panicked faces of realization of all the students around
me, they finally understood what he meant by all that.

"Wh-What did he just say? Until the day we d-die…?" Fukawa said, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, but don't worry! We have quite an abundant budget, so you won't lack for all the common
conveniences" Monokuma said casually while rubbing the back of his head.

"T-That's the least of our worries right now!" Maizono exclaimed.

"Yeah, what the hell? You're saying I have to live here forever? You're screwing with us, right?"
Enoshima added.

"I am not screwing with you! I am no liar; of that you can be 100% sure!" Monokuma growled
"Ah, and just for your information…you're completely cut off from the outside world. So, you
don't have to worry about that dirty dirty land beyond these walls ever again!"

"Cut off…? So, all those metal plates all over the school…" Naegi trailed off.

Of course, why not, until now they realize the threat all of that represented. Just to be sure, I guess
I should make it as clear as possible.

"Not only the metal plates. The security camaras, the mounted military-grade machine guns and
the vault door with high-end technology also work to keep us trapped inside this place, all of that
should have been clues enough to give you all, an idea of how dire the situation we were in was
since long ago" I was not someone who liked to rant, at least not verbally, but it was time for
everyone to finally get out of their ideal world, and see the reality of our situation, I couldn't care
less about the shocked faces some of them were sending me.

"Upupupupu as expected of you Shigaraki! Yep! Everything he just said is true! No matter how
much you may yell and scream for help…help will not come!" So, the school has covered with
soundproof material too, huh? well, with the walls reinforced with the right material it would do
that and kill two birds with one stone. "So, with all of that in mind, feel free to live out your life
here with reckless abandon!"

"Come on, what the hell is this? I don't care if the school or whoever else is behind it all, this is
just a really bad joke" Leon commented

"Yeah! Cut this shit out! It isn't funny anymore!" Mondo added

Sigh

…There are still some people in denial.

"You keep saying this is a lie, or a joke. A bunch of skeptics, all of you!...well maybe Shigaraki not
so much Upupupu"

I narrowed my eyes at that last part 'One I could take it as coincidence, but two, not anymore, what
is he planning?'

"But I guess you can't help it, huh? You all grew up in an age where you're taught to doubt your
neighbor…Well, you'll have plenty of time to find out whether or not what I say is true. And when
that time comes, you'll see with your own eyeballs that I speak the undeniable truth" Monokuma
replied.

"Having to live here forever would be…quite the problem" Celeste said.

"Come, now. What's the matter with all of you?" Monokuma inquired

"You decided of your own free will to attend Hope's Peak Academy, didn't you?" Weeell…no, not
really. It would be hilarious if mentioning that would be enough to let me go, though "And now,
before the entrance ceremony is even finished, you've already decided you want to leave?"
Monokuma asked with a tilted head.

"Oh, but you know…" I narrowed my eyes, again, at that tone of voice "I guess I did forget to
mention one thing. There *is* one way for you to leave the school"

"R-Really…?" Fukawa asked with a hopeful tone.

"As headmaster, I've crafted a special clause for those of you who would like to leave. I call it…
the Graduation Clause!" Monokuma commented.

"Now, let me tell you about this fun little rule. As I mentioned, in order to maintain an environment
of harmony here, we rely on a communal lifestyle. And if someone were to disrupt that harmony,
they and they alone would be allowed to leave the school"

"That, my students, is the Graduation Clause!" He finished spreading his arms.

…So that's what he really wants, huh.

"What do you mean by 'disrupt the harmony'?" Demanded Togami.

…That's why he's singling me out.

"Upupupu…Well, you know…if one person were to murder another"

…He's waiting for someone to bite the bait, and ask THAT question.

"M-Murder!?" Naegi half asked half screamed.

"Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting, poisoning, how you do
it doesn't matter. You must kill someone if you want to leave. It's as simple as that."

"The rest is up to you. Give it your all to achieve the best result in the worst possible way...
especially you... you already know who I'm talking about Upupupu" The bastard is not even being
subtle about it 'Though the shocking news were probably impactful enough to distract them of
that…probably'.

"Upupupu. I bet *that* got your brain juices flowing! Beats the heck out of a human catching a
salmon, huh?" Ah, he's back at the bear jokes. "Like I said before, you guys are the hope of the
world. But you know…Taking that hope and seeing it get murdered creates a darkened shadow of
despair…And I just find that so…darn…exciting!" Monokuma said while…Is he panting? And I
thought he couldn't get weirder.

"What the hell are you talking about!? T-To kill each other is…it's…!" Leon replied in a
completely shocked state.

"To kill each other is to kill each other. I'm sure there's a dictionary here somewhere if you need it"
Monokuma inquired with a tilted head.

"We know what it means, that's not the problem! Why do we have to kill each other!?" Hina
exclaimed.

"Yeah! Stop blabbering on with all this nonsense! Let us go home already!" Yamada…roared?

"…Blabbering?" Monokuma said…in a deadly silent tone.

Ah, they a pushed a button, didn't they?

Monokuma pushed his head forward with his red eye glowing intensely "Blabbering, blabbering,
what do you mean blabbering!? Stop blabbering on about blabbering on!" Some of the students
yelped at that "You guys just don't get do you? 'Let us go, let us go!' You keep saying the same
thing over and over and over and over!"

"Listen. From this moment on, this school is your home, your life, your world. Got it? And you can
kill as much as you wanna kill! So go ahead, go on a kill-kill-killing spree…it's not like that's
different from your usual killing lifestyle, right?" Monokuma exclaimed…and the last part he said
it while winking at me.

Sigh

…If he's gonna tease it that much, might as well said it himself instead of waiting for someone to
ask.

"Alright, come on…How long you gonna keep this up" Oh? Is Hiro's stupidity gonna come to my
rescue, moving the subject completely, I don't think so, but it's good wishful thinking.
"Eh?" Monokuma seemed genuinely confused 'Yeah, that's what this guy does to you'

"You got us, okay? You scared the hell out of us. So, you can go ahead and reveal the trick now"
Hiro said casually…this guy is something else, isn't he?

"Reveal the trick…?" Monokuma said tilting his head.

"Yeah, cuz I mean…Y'know, this is all some kinda trick and all, right? So uh, like…" And he
keeps going…

"Dude, shut the hell up and get outta my way!" Owada growled.

The next thing he did was pushing Hiro aside, and placed himself in front of Monokuma, his voice
rumbling like thunder.

"Listen up, asshole! This shit's gone way too far! What the hell kind joke IS this!?"

"Joke? What, you mean like your hair?" Monokuma asked 'innocently'

Ah.

"FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Owada roared.

The floor where he was standing made a thundering sound as he kicked off and launched himself
towards the Monochrome bear.

Huh, not bad.

With his target locked on his sight, he grabbed Monokuma by the collar while the bear began to
flap with his arms.

"Gotcha, you little piece of shit! I dunno if you're a toy or a stuffed animal or whatever the fuck
you are! Either way, I'm gonna rip you to fuckin' shreds"

"Waaaaah! Violence against the headmaster is in violation of school regulations!" Monokuma said
in a panicked voice.

"Shut the fuck up! Let me outta here, or I swear to Christ…" Owada shouted.

In that moment Monokuma went silent.

I furrowed my brows a that 'Why would he suddenly―'

Beep beep beep

"What, no smartass comeback this time!?" The fool hasn't become aware of the danger he's in.

Beep beep beep

With Owada so relatively close to me and without knowing the range of that, I acted on instinct
and dashed towards him.

"Stop that goddamn―" I didn't let him finish that sentence as I tackled him with my shoulder, with
him falling on his ass while I picked Monokuma from his grasp at the same time.
Then, I threw the bomb as high and as far as possible.

"HEY fucker!? What is your―"

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

I grimaced, while the rest of my classmates screamed in panic 'If I hadn't took the bomb from him,
the radius would have been enough to get me…'

So much for not wanting to kill us right now, huh?

"The hell!? Th-That sure as shit wasn't a joke. It blew the hell up…" Owada said, a bit pale from
the near-death experience.

"But you know…This means that the teddy bear's been destroyed, right" Fujisaki commented with
a hope in 'her' voice.

Hope that I was about to broke.

"I wouldn't count on that…" When I said that, everyone turned to look at me 'Ugh, I'm not used to
being stared by so much people' "If he was willing to blow up this unit, then that means he has
enough of them to spare"

As if on cue, another Monokuma appeared out of nowhere.

"I told you, I'm not a teddy bear! I'm Monokuma! And he's right y'know?" Monokuma exclaimed.

"Uwaah! There's another one!?" Leon said in a masculine scream.

"You son of a bitch! You seriously tried to kill just now!" Owada snarled.

"Well, yes. I was serious about trying to kill you. You did violate one of the school regulations,
after all. I'll let you off with a warning this time, but you'd better be careful from now on, I don't
think you would be lucky enough to have Shigaraki save you sorry ass again!" He's singling me out
again, though I think he's forcing it a bit at this point.

"Any naughty boy or girl who violates my rules wouldn't get off with just a little swat on the butt"
the Monochrome bear continued.

"H-Hey…when you said that he's right, you meant, like, the part Shigaraki said about existing a
bunch more of you around somewhere?" Ah, now Enoshima is the one singling me out

"Monokumas have been placed all throughout the school, yes. Plus, don't forget the surveillance
cameras installed around everywhere. And if you're caught breaking any rules, well…You all just
saw what happened, right?" Yeah, and feel it a bit too, but the point stands, I suppose "Upupu…
And I won't be so forgiving with my punishment next time. So don't let it happen again."

"Th-That's not even punishment. That's just…wrong…" Hina said, with the color completely
drained from her face.

"Now then, lastly…To commemorate your joyous entry into our school, I have a little something
for you…" Monokuma said while he put a bag out of…somewhere, said bag full of some kind of
devices.

"This is our official student handbook! Pretty cool, huh" Monokuma continued while he handed us
a handbook for each of us "As you can see, it's fully digital. So naturally we call it…" The bear
paused for a suspense effect.

"The e-Handbook!" Monokuma said proudly.

"…" Well, that's its name, I guess.

"…Ahem. Yes, well, moving on…This handbook is absolutely vital to a healthy school life, so
don't lose it! When you start it up, it will display your name. Always make sure you have the right
one with you! Now, this is not your everyday notebook. It has so many more uses than that!" Yep,
the guy is really proud of this thing.

"Also, it's completely waterproof. Splash it, wash it, drown it, it'll keep on ticking! And thanks to
its space-age design, it can withstand an impact force up to ten tons. Very resistant!" I will admit…
that's impressive "This device contains all of our school regulations, so make sure you review
them thoroughly!"

Monokuma then took a more threatening look "You'll hear me say this a lot, but any violation of
school regulations will not be tolerated! Rules restrict, yes, but they also protect. Society for
example, would be utter chaos without laws."

Such a good speech…now if only it didn't come from him.

"The same thing applies here! Wich is why it's crucial we have strict punishments in place for
violators! Okey, well…that brings our entrance ceremony to a close!"

Huh, so that's all, I guess I got kind of lucky that nobody began to ask anything even with all the
hints the bear throwed.

…I just jinxed it, didn't I?

"Please enjoy your abundantly dreary school life! And…see―"

"Wait just a moment!" Said…Kirigiri.

Sigh

…Of course, it was her who noticed it, she seems like she has a knack for these things.

Everyone felt silent at that, looking between the mysterious girl and the bear, curious about what's
going to happen next, and even tough Monokuma looked like he was already ready to leave, I
could see him smirking.

Did he also know that she was going to be the one to bite the bait?

"Hm? What is it Kirigiri, I'm a BEARY busy bear y'know?"

"I just need you to answer me for something I've have noticed" If she got irked at the joked, she
didn't show it…unlike the rest of the class.

"Oh? I guess I could indulge you on that…shoot!" Monokuma said while doing a gun signal with
his paws.
"…It is regarding Shigaraki"

This is it, huh?

"...Shigaraki, why ask me about him? If you need something from him he is right there, y'know?"

"Not like that...since the beginning of this whole event, you have singled him up multiple times, to
the point of even regarding him by name, something you haven't done to nobody else but him in
our whole group. It also didn't go unnoticed by me how some comments, while you didn't say his
name, you did them while looking directly at him to the point it was obvious you weren't even
trying to hide it. So my question is why…why your focus on him above the rest of us? What is so
important about him for you to do all that?"

"H-Huh? now that she brings it up…it's kinda weird, right?" Leon said.

"Yeah, why would he do that?" Hina said while touching her chin with a finger.

Slowly but surely, everyone began to look at me, some with curiosity, some with interest and
others with caution.

There's no way the bear isn't gonna reveal it, its too good for him to let this one go.

There was complete silence for what felt like hours, but it was less for a minute, and then…

He laughed.

Monokuma laughed.

"Upupu...pupu...pu…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh you bastards! I almost

thought for a second that nobody was going to bring this up! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

In the short amount of time they have met the bear, nobody has seen him in this much ecstasy,
there was no one on this room who didn't watch in dread anticipation, waiting to what Monokuma
would say next.

Even if I know what he's gonna reveal and though I didn't felt dread 'I knew this was going to come
up whether it was from my mouth or his, I never planned to keep it as a secret, it was just a matter
of convenience at the beginning', I was curious about how he was going to go about it.

Finally, it was Owada who couldn't keep hearing more the laughter "Oi, you fucker! stop laughing
and tell us what's with you!"

And finally, the laughter ended "Hahaha…ha…Sorry, sorry, it's just that I couldn't contain my
excitement!" Then he made a sound as if clearing his throat "Ahem! You see, my dear students! As
your Headmaster, it is my duty to be completely impartial in this environment of killing and be
killed this school encourages! But the thing is…" He paused a bit to make suspense 'He really love
doing that' "How do I say this...Ah! I got it! If all of you guys were horses, I would put all my
savings on Shigaraki with no doubt at all!"

"...Huh?"

"I don't understand, is he saying we are horses?"

"I see…would you kindly explain why that would be the case?" Celeste asked and while her face
was stoic, I could see the absolute gleam in her eyes.
"Such an irrational bet, what does this commoner have, that I, the successor of the Togami family
couldn't have" Togami sneered with a smirk.

"Oh, that's simple! The answer is…Talent" Monokuma said simply.

With such a cryptic answer, everyone gained a confused look. But I know that eventually someone
will put the pieces together.

"Talent?" Maizono echoed.

"Huh, I'm confused, didn't everyone here have a Talent? That's how we got in this school, right?"
Hiro said confused.

"Talent…wait, Shigaraki has never told his talent to anyone right? could it be that…" Naegi trailed
off, putting together the pieces.

It was Kirigiri who completed the puzzle, if her widened eyes in alarm was anything to go by
"!...Talent! If you are saying that he has a talent that nobody else here has, you are talking about a
talent that's effective in this killing environment of yours, correct? That means…!"

"Someone should give the girl a cookie! HAHAHAHA yes! You are completely right! A talent
perfect for this Killing School Life, the talent of Shizuka Shigaraki is…. The Ultimate Assassin!"
It was obvious the bear was enjoying every moment of their growing panicked faces of realization
"Every single killing method I mentioned earlier…He has done it Dozens! Hundreds of times!
Every single killing method you ask him about…The same! Dozens! Hundreds of times! I'm
really honored as member of this institution, to have in my halls, the most TALENTED
Assassin in the ENTIRE WORLD! Upupupupupu"

With the faces of every single one of my classmates turning my way, none of them had a positive
expression, I couldn't but think a single thing…

'The cat's outta the bag, huh'

 A class trial in the first day!...or something like that.

A class trial in the first day!...or something like that.

I could almost feel the tension in the air as everyone processed all the information they have just
been given; the absolute silence almost made it feel like the temperature in the gym dropped.

There were a few seconds of silence until everyone began to regain their voices.

"Ultimate…" Maizono trailed off with wide eyes.

"…Assassin?" And Naegi finished, with an expression no different from her.

"The Ultimate Assassin? I see, that's good" Yamada said calmy with a smile on his face 'Oh? Out
of everyone here, I really didn't expect him to keep such level of composure at a reveal
like―"Assassin!? Eeeeeeeeeeek!" 'Ah'

"Y-You can't be serious…"

"N-No way…"

"Th-This…this can't be!"

"Is he fucking serious!?"

"Ara…so that was the mysterious talent he was keeping in secret…" Celeste said keeping a stoic
face, and though she definitely was tense, just much more controlled than everyone else, I could
also see that the calculating look on her eyes hasn't faded.

Putting that last part aside…

I really can't blame them, one moment they thought everything was a normal procedure of the
school 'I'm still a kind of bothered that they didn't notice the red flags, but whatever…' and the
next, our captor reveals that we are to live rest of our lives inside this school and the only way out
is to kill someone.

And if things weren't already bad enough with such reveal, then they got worse when the bear
revealed that one of us has killing people as a talent…me, more specifically. 'What a plot twist,
huh'

"Upupupu I really hope that this big reveal has raised the competitive spirit this school needs! With
nothing else to say, I will not take more of your time guys, do what you think should do, see ya!"

That sudden comment of Monokuma brought a momentary stop at the rising panic of the moment
'More like shifting it to him, I guess', but a few moments after he was gone, one person regained his
voice at full power.

"W-Wait a moment, guys! Everything he said must be lie! Yes! Everything he said is ridiculous" It
was Taka who began this exclamation, then, he turned to me "Even that last part must be fake! A
prestigious institution such as Hope's Peak would never bring into his halls someone with a talent
related to killing people! It would be outrageous, right, Shigaraki!?"

…
"…Y-Yeah! it would be absolutely crazy! right?" Hina added.

That moment of uncertainty between believing if what the bear said was true or not, made
everyone in the room turn to the only source that could confirm or deny his declaration.

Me.

"…"

"What are you waiting for, peasant. What Monokuma said was true? I demand you to spill it."
Togami 'requested'.

I could lie, maybe say something like 'Everything that thing said is crap! The reason I didn't tell
you guys is because I have amnesia and I don't remember what my talent is, he must know that and
is using it against me!' or something among the lines, but there is one problem…Celeste.

Not only is she known for being a good liar, but also for being even better at detecting when
someone does lie, it's part of her skill set after all, and I have no doubt that she will use all of her
abilities to detect if what I said is real or not. I can't risk it in a bet of whether I can trick or not
someone known as the Ultimate Gambler and the Queen of liars.

I looked at all of my…Classmates? 'I've been referring to them like that for a while, so, sure why
not' to get a detailed sight of their faces.

Ogami didn't looked scared on the exterior, and probably she isn't, but I could see the tension on
her body language that said that a sudden move of my part is everything she needs to rush at me
and subdue me. 'So cool…'

Owada looked like only opening my mouth was reason enough to beat the heck out of me.

Celeste, as expected, I had her full attention.

Hiro…he was being Hiro.

Enoshima looked…conflicted about something?...weird.

Togami looked ready to snap at me if I didn't' gave a response soon.

The only neutral person in all of this was Kirigiri, the slight moment of surprise from before
already vanished from her features and right now it looked like she was thinking deeply about
something.

As for the rest…They still looked scared, not as much as the moment when Monokuma did the
'Big reveal', but they had faces of anxious curiosity for my answer. That's probably what is keeping
them from having a stronger reaction.

Curiosity.

…A physical confrontation wouldn't help, actually, it would be even more stupid of an idea than
trying to lie at Celeste. Almost all of my classmates don't look like fighting material, and the ones
who do, I feel confident I could defeat them 'That weird incident with Enoshima is still nagging me
at my mind, though', the bomb fiasco helped in that…there is one exception though, and that single
exception makes up for everyone in this place.
Ogami.

I don't have any weapons with me, we are in an open area, I don't have any idea about the structure
of the place, it's an unfamiliar territory, and it would be pretty obvious if I tried something. All the
odds are against me except for maybe the territory part 'I could adapt faster than her in making use
of the environment', and most conditions favor Ogami, who already is superior than me, both in
stamina and strength. It would become a drawn-out battle of me evading her and her tiring and
overpowering me, the result of that it's obvious. 'At least, that's what I believe from what I found
about her and, like Celeste, that's not something I wanna make a bet to find out'.

Sigh

There's only one option then.

"Your silence is only going to incriminate―"

"It is True." I said plainly.

For a few moments, it was as if I had spoken in a foreign language, and it was again Taka who
searched for a clarification, for him and almost everyone else, though with much less enthusiasm
than his first declaration.

I almost consider the idea of maybe feeling bad for the guy.

"W-What do you mean 'It is True'?" Taka said, without shouting, for the first time since I have
heard him said a word.

"…What Monokuma said is true…my talent, it is the Ultimate Assassin."

I heard someone "Eeek!" at that, though I'm not sure whether it was Fukawa or Yamada, maybe
both, Fujisaki seemed on the verge of tears, Hiro…he was playing with something in his hands but
I couldn't see and neither did care what it was. If that wasn't enough, Celeste brought a question in
a way that made things worse.

"So, it is true…If I may know, why did you keep it a secret?...Could it be that you were planning to
do something?"

The implications of what she was saying, were clear for everyone, as it seemed that was the last
straw needed for people to truly panic.

"AH! Could it be!? Master Shigaraki was planning a murder, using his talent since the
beginning!?" Yamada's commentary didn't help at all.

"Shit!"

"Really!?"

"Wh-What are we going to do!?"

"No way!"

"Hahaha, hey, hey everyone, you shouldn't group up on poor Shigara-chi!" This comment went
completely ignored by everyone else 'And Shigara-chi?'.

"I-It can't be…!"

"Hey bastard! You have some fucking explaining to do! Otherwise―" I interrupted Mondo and
everyone else, before all of this turned into a witch hunt.

I just hope this doesn't immediately come to bite me back.

"Otherwise, what?" For the first time in this whole day, I let out my voice in a completely serious
tone instead of the apathetic or neutral one people got used to hear from me and as high as it is
possible without shouting, with a death glare that almost looked like a shadow grew over my eyes,
all the while releasing a killing intent befitting of someone with the title I hold.

Befitting of what Those bastards made of me since the age of 7.

I know I was risking it with this move, seeing as now moving any part of my body that it wasn't my
mouth is all Ogami needs right now to crush me. But I had to do it, I needed their full attention to
me, but without all the screaming and pointing fingers, and shouting in an attempt to do any kind of
explanation would have complicated things, the same goes for a calm voice as it would gotten
overridden with those same yelling and screaming of just a moment ago. So, I used the only other
method I knew that didn't involve hurting someone, intimidation.

Everyone was silent, I had their full attention and Ogami hasn't crushed my skull. It worked, I
guess.

Making use of this opportunity, I relaxed my face, and stopped releasing my killing intent "…
Celeste, you want an explanation of why I did keep my talent a secret, correct?"

"That is indeed the case" She said with complete composure, if she felt intimidated in any way, she
didn't show it 'She already recovered completely, compared to just a moments ago, she's pretty
good in doing that, it seems, along with Kirigiri'.

"And I suppose that everyone is willing to hear it, right?" I asked.

Not everyone responded immediately, some taking more time to nod than others, but eventually, I
got their permission.

"Alright…first of all, as I said when the bear announced that we were trapped inside the school. In
my case, I suspected that we were kidnapped WAY before he announced it, not much after I woke
up if I am honest." I began.

"H-How…?" Maizono tentatively.

"The first sign was that I fell unconscious, it just doesn't make sense. I was well rested; I ate fine
and I had absolutely no signs of a heatstroke or any sickness. How they did it, I don't know, but it
became clear that someone knocked me out."

I gave a quick glance around, once I confirmed that I still had their attention, I continued "Then,
everything became even more suspicious in the classroom where I woke up: The TV, the
surveillance camera, and the metal plates. The TV and the camera I would put it as an extravagance
of Hope's Peak if there was only that, but combined with the metal plates, it was clear that they
wanted to track my movements and keep me trapped, and finally, it was the pamphlet that
confirmed to me that it was indeed a kidnapping"

"H-Huh? What does that paper have to do with anything?" Asked Leon while rubbing the back of
his head.

"Yeah, it was just an entrance ceremony announcement, right?" added Hina

"It was a threat." I stated.

"A-A threat!?" Fukawa exclaimed as others widened their eyes at that declaration.

"Yes, at first glance it would seem like just simple message badly written meant as a joke, but if
you read between lines and take the context into account, you would understand not only that it
was way too bizarre of a message, but that if you disobeyed what the message 'requested' of you,
there would be consequences."

By the look of their faces, I could see that some people began to put the pieces together and
understand that, indeed, everything at the beginning was way to shady to be part of the school.
'Except Hiro, the guy is looking at me like I'm telling a very interesting story'

Before I could explain more Togami interrupted "That's an interesting explanation of something we
all have ALREADY experienced, but you haven't responded to the question made to you, don't try
to avoid it!" He pointed at me accusingly.

And before he could begin another chain reaction of paranoia I continued "The POINT I was trying
to make previously, is that before meeting with everyone in the main hall, I already expected to be
in a dangerous situation, and that brings the next point. Do you guys remember what was in the
main hall?"

At my question, everyone began to think about the possible answer, though the face Kirigiri is
making while looking at me made it obvious that she already knew what I was a talking about. I
don't know why she hasn't said anything, maybe she has her own reasons. Well, if most of them
come to the correct answer by themselves, it would actually make things easier for me.

As if on cue, everyone began to give their own conclusions.

"Well…if I remember correctly, there is the giant metal hatch!" Taka answered as if it was a
teacher who asked that question.

"It was also were we all introduced ourselves…" Hina added.

"There were also the multiple cameras…with…with…!" Naegi seemed to get my main point 'He
seems to be smarter than what one could guess at first look'

"The mounted guns!" Finalized Maizono.

"AH!" Some of my classmates yelped at the implications of what Naegi and Maizono are referring
to.

"That is correct, when I stepped inside the main hall, the first thing I saw was a bunch of people
right in the middle of a firing zone. By that point I already knew I was kidnapped and the moment I
stepped inside the main hall, I was held at gun point along with everyone else."

"And what does that have anything to do with you not revealing your talent?" Asked Togami
skeptically

"You and everyone else saw their own reactions at the revelation of my talent, so do the math:
Everyone in the shooting range of military weapons starts panicking at the mention of my talent,
panicking in the middle of a kidnapping, with captors we don't know anything about. What if they
didn't have the patience to deal with scandalous people and they also were trigger happy?"

It seems realization finally hit them, if their blanching faces and widened eyes are anything to go
by.

"No…Fucking…Way…" Mondo replied.

"It…would be a massacre…" Ogami commented solemnly.

"Holy crap…" Leon added with complete nervousness.

I nodded in affirmation. While it is true that I didn't do it out of altruism, but because I wanted to
avoid risking my own life at the possibility of hidden traps, it is a fact that I didn't talk about my
talent to avoid a situation, so everything I said is true at the end of the day.

Once my explanation was done, everyone became contemplative, with general acceptance of my
explanation about why I didn't reveal my talent during the introductions, 'Actually…I may be
wrong, but I think they became too contemplative with the long explanation, that they kind of
forgot WHAT my talent is about'

I think I was right, because I could actually see some people relax…Until Kirigiri brought the
other elephant in the room.

"It seems everyone finally calmed down. I believe it is time we summarize the other announcement
Monokuma made" Kirigiri stated.

"The other announcement?...AH!" Taka screamed.

Realization finally hit everyone as they remembered the first bombshell Monokuma threw at us.

Ah, they actually forgot about that too. 'That talent reveal, really shocked them, huh?'.

"Based on what Monokuma said we have two choices: The number one is that we each stay here,
living a 'communal life' together until the day we die. And the other choice is…" Kirigiri trailed
off.

"If we want to get out of here alive, we have to kill someone. Right?" Celeste finished with a casual
tone.

"K-K-Kill…to leave this place, t-that's…that's…" Fujisaki said in the verge of tears.

"We were abducted out of nowhere and stuffed into this place meant to look like a school. And
now we're supposed to start killing each other? This is…WHAT IS THIS!?" Yamada cried out.

"Dammit! I can't believe all of this is real!" Leon added.

"Right now, it doesn't really matter if it's real or fake. What matters is…Is there anyone here who's
seriously considering all this…?"

Once Togami ended that sentence, everyone froze in place, as once again, the real of threat of this
place presented for everyone: If someone wants to leave this 'school', you need to kill another
person.

Everyone looked at each other, searching for any signal that would confirm if the person in their
sight would commit such an act…Unfortunately for me, once anyone put a sight on me, they didn't
move it from there.
Eventually all of my classmates had their eyes on me, just like at the beginning, they all were
standing in place, gauging me, waiting for any reaction from my part…

'It's for things like these that I don't interact with people my age unless it's Her, that and I usually
don't have time for it.'

"Are you guys just going to stand there watching me?" I finally asked, though some did flinch the
moment my mouth moved.

"W-Well, it's just…just…" Hina tried to say.

"What the heck do you expect man!? Out of everyone here, you…you…!" Leon was unable to
complete what he was going to say.

"You are someone who already has killed" Togami pointedly completed the sentence for him.

"hey…"

Everyone turned to Togami once he said what everyone had on mind.

"Th-that's…" Fujisaki tried to said something but was interrupted by Togami.

"Completely true, he himself admitted it, not only he has done it before, but if it's literally part of
his talent, that means he has no inconvenience doing it" Togami declared…And he was not wrong
'Losing the capacity to feel anything about the people you kill is one of the first things They teach
you'

"Kyaaaaah! I was trying really hard in not thinking about it!" Yamada screamed.

"Hey…"

"H-He's r-right! you are a danger to a-all of us!" Fukawa exclaimed while pointing a finger at me.

"M-Maybe we should r-restrain him? T-Tie him up?" Leon suggested.

"D-Do that to a classmate!? B-But if this a matter of life and death…but…" Taka seemed to
struggle in his own thoughts.

"Hey"

"I-It's a possibility…" Maizono mumbled

"Do we really have to do that, Sakura?" Hina questioned nervously.

"If there's no other choice…" Ogami added.

"H-Hurry u-up! B-Before he tries a-anything!" Fukawa yelped.

"Alright! We will keep the bastard from trying anything!" Owada began to approach me while
cracking his knuckles.

I narrowed my eyes and tensed up. 'So, in the end, it all comes to―'

"HEY! LISTEN TO ME, DAMMIT!" A voice shouted so high, everyone stopped dead on its
tracks to look at the origin of the voice.

It was a voice that hasn't spoken practically since Monokuma left.

It was…Enoshima.

"What's wrong Enoshima?" Hina was the one to ask.

Now all eyes were on the fashionista.

She seemed to be thinking about something, maybe how to best voice whatever she was thinking
on saying.

What she said next caught everyone off guard, including me.

"Hrmmm…how do I put this…maybe we are like, overreacting? Blowing it out of proportion or

somethin'?" Enoshima tentatively stated.

A few seconds passed until someone found their voice.

"…Huh? Chick, are you out of your mind!? The guy is a fucking killer!" Owada half shouted half
exclaimed.

And he wasn't the only one, everyone was looking at her like she had growth a second head.

Honestly…Owada had a point, what is she doing?

"I know! I know…but hasn't he been like, super cooperative and totally helped us multiple times
already?" Enoshima said while playing with a strand of her 'hair'

Huh?

"Huh? Miss Enoshima what are you talking about? That kind of sounds hard to believe…" Yamada
asked.

"Y-Yeah, are you crazy!?" Fukawa added.

And before any more people could interrupt her, Enoshima continued.

"Wh-What I mean is…when he told us about why he keeped his talent a secret and stuff, didn't he,
like, did it to keep everyone safe? Something like that, right? He wouldn' do that all that
complicated junk, if he wanted to do any bad stuff to us, no?" Enoshima commented.

Eh? 'I guess…some people can interpret it like that…'

And 'some people' appeared, in the form of Makoto Naegi "!...That's right! He was the only one of
us who took the threat of the weapons in the main hall as real, and did it in a way he believed
everyone would be safer!"

…No, not really.

"Could it be!?" Taka exclaimed.

"Eh? Is that really true?" Hina questioned.

"Mmm…If I am honest, the way I interpreted it, was that he didn't do it out of his good will, but
just seeking his own survival" Celeste commented…and like Togami, she was right.

"I-I don't know what to believe, he became a bit scary during his introduction, but…" Maizono
commented.

Girl, you freaking read my mind during that brief talk, I would actually find it weird if someone
found that stuff normal and didn't freak out.

"Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good and all that it helped us in a way, but it doesn't really
convince me" Leon stated.

"Hmph, what a delusional fool, that proves nothing about his intentions, that's just a convenient
excuse he made in the moment, nothing else" Togami declared.

It seems that almost everyone was in a similar position as Leon, the extreme but kind of justified
hostility against me wasn't has high as before, but it was nowhere low enough to abandon the idea
of me becoming their prisoner.

That is, until Fujisaki brought another point.

"W-What about the b-bomb?"

"Eh!? What bomb?" Owada exclaimed 'Ah, he forgot.'

"What!? A bomb!? Where!?" Hina yelped.

Before more people could panic about a non-existent bomb, Fujisaki elaborated "I-I mean about
what happened with Monokuma when Owada grabbed him"

Owada flinched at the mention of that.

For some reason, Enoshima was really intended on using that to keep defending me "Yeah! That
too! Shigaraki could have, I don't know, totally get out of the way or only shout at Owada to throw
it, but he pushed himself at the danger to save the guy, right?"

"…Holy shit! I forgot about that stuff!" Owada exclaimed 'I don't blame him for that…I also kind
of forgot that my act out of instinct saved the guy ass'

…But that's what it was, an act out of instinct, I didn't get away because I didn't know how long it
would take the bomb to finally detonate and neither I knew it's range and I didn't shout at him to
get rid of the bomb for similar reasons, I didn't know how fast it was from detonating and I didn't
trust at Owada with something like following a warning for me, so I forced myself to get the job
done…for me and only me.

But eventually more and more of my classmates joined on the 'Save Shigaraki Campaign'.

"I believe Enoshima has a point! Maybe it's true that we don't know him that well" More like
nothing at all "But everything he has done until now has been with the intention of helping us! It
would be wrong of us to not take that into consideration!" Naegi replied.

"…That is Indeed true, it was honorable of him to risk his life in an attempt to save a complete
stranger" Ogami commented.

"Indeed! Putting his life for the sake of others, truly an admirable trait!" Taka shouted with
recovered vigor.
I mean, 'I'm more of a 'putting others out of their lives'' than whatever Taka announced about me,
but I hadn't any reason to ruin his vigor.

"Ah! Now I understand! Master Shigaraki must be some kind of vigilante! Working in the shadows
to stop the evil of this world! Doing the dirty work others aren't willing to do!" Yamada added his
own fantasy.

"I-I see, so that's the case!" And Fujisaki seemed intended on believing it.

And in some kind of miracle, almost everyone moved from absolutely fearing me to get on board
with that distorted image of me. There were still people like Celeste and Togami, who didn't buy it,
but as long as I didn't act against that perception my classmates had of me, they wouldn't push the
matter further…maybe.

Eventually it seemed that everyone put down the idea of restraining me, or at least, put it on hold
until they had a reason put it into consideration again.

And with this whole ordeal done, I don't know why, but I felt like someone, somewhere else was
saying something among the lines of…

Sasuga Shigaraki-Sama!

Weird.

…And even weirder was what Enoshima did, don't get me wrong, I'm actually grateful. If she
hadn't interfered, things would have become a disaster.

But why? Taking a discrete look at the fashionista, she seemed…satisfied with the outcome of her
actions, and when she saw how everyone stopped the hostilities at me, she even sighed in relief.

Maybe that was her plan, maybe she anticipated the possible consequences of the confrontation
that was about to happen…I honestly didn't expect anyone to come in my defense after Monokuma
presented me in such a way.

But once again, like during the introductions, the fashionista surprised me…she really is something
else, isn't she?

As things finally calmed down, hopefully not temporally this time, the serene but firm voice of our
resident mysterious girl was heard.

"So, what are you going to do now? Keep wasting time in pointless discussion? I believe we have
already wasted a lot of time as things stand" Kirigiri asked at every single one of us.

It snaped everyone out of their world and helped bring everyone back at reality.

"Right…She's right! Sometimes even if you're nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward! To
forget such a simple fact and get consumed by my fears!...I can't forgive myself. I'm so ashamed!"
Taka exclaimed on the verge of tears "Please, someone hit me! I can't forgive myself! Somebody
hit me! Punish me!"

…So that's a thing, alright.

"Jesus. If you have time to yell about it, you have time to DO something about it!" Owada stated.
"Perhaps, but…what is our main quest, exactly?" Yamada asked.

"Idiot! To look for a way out, duh!" Leon replied.

"And we totally need to find whoever was controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of 'em"
Enoshima pointed angrily 'Not that I can really blame her for it…I don't know if it's because I am
used to highly stressing situations or because things are clearer than when I just woke up and the
fake illusion of security finally disappeared…but I'm not that emotionally engaged at the moment,
oh I wouldn't have any problem with killing whoever trapped us here, just like any other obstacle
that I have faced in any other mission of mine, but I'm not feeling any extreme emotions, who
knows, maybe I will have a mental breakdown at any moment for all I know…one thing's for sure:
I have a lot to think about.'

The shy voice of Fujisaki interrupted any other thought that I could have "…B-But before we do
all that, maybe it would be best if we take a look at the handbook…"

Right, I actually forgot about that thing after I put it on the pocket of my jacket.

"It's probably best to check out the school regulations Monokuma mentioned before doing anything
else" Fujisaki continued.

"True. If we stumble around with no clue about what the rules are, something like that might
happen again…" Celeste added.

And she made a good point, maybe there was a rule as ridiculous as 'don't look at the lens of the
cameras around the school', and the incident that she referred to, made it clear of what would be
the consequences of disobeying these rules.

"Shit…" Owada got the hint of what Celeste was talking about.

"Fine. Then let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already" Enoshima commented.

When I took out my handbook from my pocked and turned it on, the first thing that greeted me was
my name with the emblem of Hope's Peak as background.

There was also a Main Menu icon in a corner, once I opened it, multiple other icons became
available, one of them being for the school regulations, which I selected and after that, a list of the
regulations of this place became visible, which were as followed:

1. Students may reside only within the school. Leaving the campus is an unacceptable use
of time.
2. 'Nighttime' is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please
exercise caution.
3. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and
punished accordingly.
4. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your
discretion.
5. Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of
surveillance cameras.
6. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes 'BLACKENED' will graduate, unless
they are discovered.
7. Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.
This is…interesting and it actually tell us a lot, for example putting into consideration both rule 2
and 3, it means that a place for us to sleep actually exist somewhere, and about the off-limit
areas…it looks like something that I will have to discover until later.

Rule 4 is really weird, and if am honest, it actually rings a few warning bells for me, one thing is
being confident in keeping us trapped, the little I have seen so far tells me that such confidence is
valid. But to actually encourage us to investigate? There must be something more to it.

Rule 5 is just as expected, attacking the bear will be received with an execution, the only point of
interest for me, is the fact that the only other thing that is forbidden from inflicting any damage are
the cameras, that opens a few possibilities.

…And the most important of all rules, Rule 6, in retrospective, it just looks like what Monokuma
told us, kill to gain your freedom…but the extra part, unless they are discovered, it sounds simple,
but it's nagging me for some reason, like there's something between lines in that little phrase.

Rule 7 is a safeguard for our captor, in case someone finds a loophole that would actually cause
trouble for the Mastermind, simple as that.

…Overall, it's not really that bad, yeah, there are some fishy parts but they aren't oppressive 'By our
current standards, of course', and neither an immediate threat, basically something nobody should
really have that much of a problem with following 'By the standards of our current situation, of
course'

And as if on cue, someone proved me wrong.

"This is bullshit! What the hell kinda rules are these!? I'm not gonna let them control ME!" Owada
roared.

It's not like he does have an option on that, though. And the reason why, came from the mouth of
Celeste.

"Well then, why don't you wander around the school without a care in the world and see the
consequences of it?" Celeste said with a smile while hiding her mouth with a hand "Personally, I
would love to see what happens when someone breaks one of the rules"

"But if he gets punished like what we saw before, I don't think there'd be a respawn waiting for
him…" Yamada pointed out nervously.

That seemed to do the trick for the biker as his expression changed from enraged to a reflective
one.

"…I…Ever since I was a kid, I grew up with my older brother pounding this into my head…When
a man makes a promise, he has to keep it, even if it kills him."

…That's unexpectedly philosophical from him.

"…So what?" Enoshima said nonchalantly.

Ah.

"I've made a ton of promises that I still have to keep, that's 'so what'! I can't afford to die here!"
Owada said almost growling.
"None of that made much sense to me, but you are saying you will follow the regulations, is that
correct?" Celeste commented.

"Huh? Yeah, I guess you could say that…" Owada replied.

There was silence for a few seconds before Maizono brought up another important point.

"Hey, um…I have a question…For regulation number six…what do you guys think it means
exactly?" Maizono asked.

"Ah! You're talking about the second half, right? When it says 'unless they are discovered'? I was
wondering about that myself…" Naegi supplied.

"It's saying that if you want to graduate, you have to kill someone without anyone finding out it
was you" Togami replied as if the answer was obvious.

And it kind of sounded obvious…but that's the thing, while it sounds like that, it also seems way
too ambiguous, is it really just that? 'It sounds… too simple and that's very contradictory to
someone as eccentric as Monokuma, there's no way that's the case. You would expect from him to
make things more 'interesting', with some kind of challenge, there's also the fact that as pointed out
before, it's way too ambiguous, there are multiple way to interpret 'Unless you are discovered' and
the rules don't specify how that will be judged, what if the person who becomes 'blackened' acts in
the way he understands that, only for Monokuma―'

THAT'S IT!

That…that clever piece of shit!

If it really is what I think, then…

As of right now, I have to think of the rule 6 as a trap that will kill you no matter what you do.

"B-But why…? Why do we h-have to do that?" Fukawa asked.

"I don't see any reason to worry about it" Oh, there's definitely reason to worry about it "Just worry
about following the rules as they've been explained to us. Frankly, I don't want to hear anything
from someone who waits for others to decide what to do for them" Togami stated condescendingly.

"D-Don't j-jab at me…" Fukawa said…blushing? 'Seriously, what's up with her?'

"More like a full-on stab…" Leon added.

"Well for now, let's forget all that silly junk about, murderers, assassins or whatever" Hina
exclaimed. 'Hey, you made it sound like I'm not here, you know?' "Now that we know the rules, we
can begin to explore the school!"

"True! We need to find out where exactly we are, is there any way out? What about food and
supplies? There are tons of questions we need to answer!" Taka added.

Inner voice problems aside, he is right, I have a lot things that I need to see for myself.

It seems Leon got pumped up about this "Damn straight! Okay, then let's all start looking around!"

Along with Leon, almost everyone began to act with renewed energy and they seemed ready to
form groups to explore different areas. I was ready to let them do their thing and get on my way.
But before I could do that, someone else beat me to the punch.

"…I'll be going alone" Togami stated.

"What!? Why? That's a pretty stupid idea, don't you think?" Enoshima exclaimed…and she was
kind of right, now, before I get claimed as a hypocrite, there's a difference between my case and the
progeny. The only person here who I see as a threat to my life is Ogami, and from what I have seen
so far, there's no way she's going alone without Hina 'Most of the enthusiastic chatter at the
introductions came from those two, and she was sticked to the martial artist like glue since
Monokuma's appearance up until now', they bonded incredibly fast to the point that even if I'm not
the best person at understanding these kind of things, I can see they act as if they had been the best
of friends for years, and I just can't see Ogami trying to pull a move on me with the risk of
compromising the swimmer or at the very least, not THIS soon.

Byakuya on the other hand, would be completely vulnerable to most of the people here by going
alone, his skill set comes in the intellectual side not the physical one 'Maybe he could take Fukawa
with him, she seems harmless and even with his attitude and her low esteem, she seems to be on
good terms with him, that would also get the group off him'.

"Someone here might already have started thinking murdering one of us, are you saying we should
stand around with them in our midst and make it that much easier for them?" Togami said.

Honestly…that's another point of why I don't feel that worried about going alone, if anyone here
were to try to kill someone this early, it would definitely would be an act of BLOODLUST rather
than desperation to get out.

If there's one thing, I can assure of myself of, is my ability to detect murder intent, it's an extremely
important and necessary skill to have, especially when my jobs involve urban areas with dense
population. If I were incapable of detecting it, it would have left me exposed…and dead long ago.

And as far as I remember there hasn't been anyone showing any kind of―

…Actually, during my introduction with Ogami…I actually felt somebody show something like
that, I didn't saw who it was and I am almost sure it wasn't directed at me, but it's not something I
can ignore…I will have to keep my eyes open; I can't afford to miss who was that person again.

"W-Wait, hold on a second. That would never―!" Maizono began to argue but was interrupted.

"Don't bother saying it couldn't happen. You can't deny the possibility. That's why almost all of
you seized up with fear when that graduation rule was made clear to you…The only exception
being the assassin over there, and that's even more reason for me to get away from him. You may
believe that excuse of a story about him not having any ill intention, but I'm not a fool like the rest
of you to stick around and have any faith in that" Togami said in a condescending tone.

Nobody could protest that, while it's true that they don't see me like they did at the beginning, it's
another whole ordeal to have an absolute trust in me, after all, if they can't trust normal teenagers
'By Ultimate Standards' right now, then there's no way someone with the title of Ultimate Assassin
could be in a better position than the rest of them.

"I'm only simply acting in accordance to what I believe is best for me" Togami added.

But it seemed that even with that, Owada couldn't leave it like that.
"Hold on! Like hell I'm gonna let you run off and do whatever you want!" Owada shouted while
cracking his knuckles.

"Out of my way, plankton" Togami demanded.

"Wh-!? The fuck's that supposed to mean!?"

"One tiny bit of plankton, drifting across the sea. So miniscule, so insignificant, they couldn't
possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean"

…As expected of a Togami, they may be geniuses in a lot of areas like businesses and
administrative tasks, but they have the self-awareness of a sponge.

"I'm gonna kick your ass!" Owada said as he prepared to beat the heck out of Togami.

Though it seems the heir got lucky, as another person prepared to intervene.

"S-Stop it! We shouldn't fight!" Naegi cried out.

In exchange it seems Naegi was the one who turned out unlucky.

"The fuck you just say? You some kind goody-goody little bitch!?" Owada was completely enraged
at this point "Who do you think you are!? Talkin' to me like that, you think you're my fuckin' dad
or something!?"

"N-No, I wasn't―!" Naegi tried to placate him.

But that was a mistake.

"Fuck you!"

*WHAM*

That was the last thing Naegi heard before he was thrown in the air, I'm not exaggerating, the guy
literally flew a few meters before crashing in the ground.

*THUD*

"Naegi!?" Maizono cried out.

She wasn't the only one, almost everyone made their own screams in surprise and horror…but that
was it.

Nobody moved a single muscle to approach the still form of Makoto Naegi. Everyone had different
dumbfounded faces, even Togami seemed surprised with this turn of events…and Owada…

I almost consider the idea of possibly laughing, really. In the entire interaction between the two,
Owada not even once showed the intent to kill the ahoge boy, what happened was simply…rage,
gigantic and unfiltered rage that he channeled on the first thing he could release it…in this case it
was the person who tried to stop him from committing a mistake, another point in favor of that
theory is that once he woke up from his fury, his face right now showed nothing more but absolute
regret at what he just did.

I knew Owada had anger issues, the signs were there, but on this scale…he really could become a
problem.

Or not, nobody has put the effort to check if Naegi was alive or not, even I from this distance,
couldn't determine which was the case 'He's either incredibly light or Owada is stronger than I
suspected to throw him this far, maybe a bit of both thanks to his anger', and if he was indeed
dead…. Well, I might have an idea of what comes next for our biker, and while I take no joy out of
this, it could work as a sacrifice to see what is the truth with the rule 6.

Seeing that nobody was going to do anything but stare I 'took one for the team' and approached the
bod-I mean, boy.

The moment I did that, some people flinched and yelped, I had the fight the urge to roll my eyes,
what do they think I was gonna do to a possibly already dead person?

The next thing I did was to crouch next to Naegi and I simply put my index and middle finger of
my right hand on his neck, and I put my other hand close to his nose.

A few seconds was all I needed to know the results.

"…He's alive, just unconscious, will probably wake up in a few hours" Either that or he fell into a
coma, I don't have a way to check his pupil reaction, but there isn't either injuries or any sign of
blood around his head, so the chances are abysmally low, I guess he got Lucky.

…He really wasn't lying about having bad luck most of the time, it seems.

My words seemed to have broken some kind of spell, as everyone in that moment recovered the
capacity to move and speak.

"Naegi!" Maizono immediately rushed to the 'Lucky' student. 'Do they know each other from
before all of this?'

…I guess it doesn't hurt to share that piece of info.

"Based on what the rules 2 and 3 say, I believe there must be some kind of resting place for all of
us, I also think it's in this 'Despair Hotel' that was located around the classrooms. Someone should
go and put him to rest there…" I commented.

"M-Master Sh-Shigaraki, the way you worded it sounds as if you think he's dead…" Yamada
sweatdropped.

I just shrugged at that.

"I will do it!" Maizono exclaimed.

"Sure, but can you carry him?" I asked.

"Ah, I will help, wanna make sure the dude doesn't get worse on the way there" Leon volunteered.

And with that Leon carried Naegi on his back while Maizono led the way.

It seems Togami also saw this as an opportunity make more enemies, because the more, the better,
am I right?

"Hmph, so he lived, what a waste of time. Seeing as there's no more drama left to distract me, I
shall take my leave" with those 'encouraging' words Togami left.

It looked like Owada wanted to replay the previous incident, but at the end, he managed to reign
his fury, probably because the fiasco with Naegi is still fresh on his mind.

"Geez, what a jerk…" Hina said while pouting.

"I will leave too, just not for the same reasons as him" Kirigiri commented before getting out of the
gym.

I, too, prepared to leave when…

"Shigaraki, WAIT!" Taka shouted.

Sigh

"What is it?" I asked in the most neutral tone I could must muster…but it didn't seem to work, if
the flinching and tensed faces of almost everyone in the room was anything to go by. 'I'm really
not used to deal with this crap…'

"W-W-Well, while I and surely, the rest of our classmates, are grateful of your actions so far…I-I
believe that you o-out of everyone here, you…s-shouldn't be allowed to travel a-alone…" Taka
stated in a shaking tone.

"Y-yeah, just…in case, y'know?" Hina commented.

"I would definitely feel much safer, knowing that someone talented in the act of killing isn't
walking alone around the halls" Celeste added with a smile.

Owada didn't say anything, but he was glaring at me.

"…" Fujisaki just looked away.

I should have guessed it was going to come to this, that vigilante fantasy Yamada made out didn't
stick around that much, it seems.

Before this would get worse, I gave my response "…Fine, who's going to come with me then?" I
questioned.

It seems that was an actually harder task than requesting something from me. Everyone was
looking at each other, asking that question, asking 'Who's going to take the risk?'. More time
passed, and nobody had a response, until…

Ogami took a step forward "…I suppose it falls on―"

"Eh, I really don't have a problem doing it" Only to be interrupted by someone's else cheery voice.

All of us turned to the source of the voice.

And it was…Enoshima, again.

Eh?
"Enoshima!? W-Wha…" Taka trailed off, unable to understand why someone will volunteer with
that enthusiasm. 'Not that I blame him, really'

"Miss Enoshima! Are you sure? Selecting such party member could be…" Yamada added.

"It's okay! It's okay! There's, like, nothin' to worry about!" The fashionista said with a grin and a
peace sign.

"But…but…It could be dangerous Junko! Right? Being alone with…" She briefly glanced at me
"Who knows what he could try to do at you!" Hina added. 'Oi, that makes it sound like I'm some
kind of pervert…'

"What do you mean exactly by 'trying to do something at her'? Could it be that Master Shigaraki is
that kind of―Eeeeek! Forget I said anything!" A glare from me was enough to shup Yamada
before he completed that sentence.

While personality wise, Enoshima and I are different from what I have seen so far 'Not clashing,
just different…', it really looks like it wouldn't be a problem or a reason for conflict in the future. It
actually helps a lot that every single time, she has vouched for me and I don't think I have seen her
scared of me, not even once…which is weird, suspicious and weird, actually, a lot of things are like
that with her if I stop and think about it. I wouldn't describe it as a threat per say, at least I don't feel
any of that with her, but there's just something...strange with her. 'Like that moment when I just
meet her, what did that mean?'.

…But it was either her or the rest of my classmates, who would probably become an inconvenience
along the way and having her closer would also help me in getting to know her better.

"…I don't have a problem with her being to one to accompany me and it should be fine, so you
guys don't have to worry about me 'trying something on her'" I commented, but everyone sans
Enoshima, were skeptical about it.

"A-As if! It's o-obvious the moment she lets her guard down, you…you will kill her!" Fukawa
aggressively pointed at me.

"I concur, you would have to forgive me for not believing that last part, Shigaraki" Celeste added
with a deceptive smile.

Before a more intense discussion could begin, I cut everyone off to add my own argument.

"I completely understand that using my good will as an argument, will not convince any of you" I
mean, does someone like me still has any good will left? 'Maybe when it comes to Her, and even in
that, there's room for debate, but...not the moment...' "Instead, I will explain why attacking her,
would actually be illogical and something stupid from my part"

"Oh? Is that really the case? then please do tell" Celeste commented.

"First of all, it would actually cause me trouble that whoever accompanies me dies, if anything,
making sure she stays alive would be a priority of mine, considering that if something were to
happen to her, I would be immediately 'discovered', that means, I would be breaking rule number 6,
the part about without being discovered more specifically, and I think everyone here understands
what happens to 'Rule-Breakers', right?"

The winces they made told me that everyone seemed to understand my point.
"Yep! Like he said!" Enoshima added.

…Seriously, What's with her?

"And if I'm allowed to give my own opinion on the matter, it's too early for anyone to even
consider the idea of killing someone to escape this place, we haven't been here for more than two
hours at most and considering that we have an entire school to explore, there's the possibility of an
escape route somewhere" I explained 'Not that I believe that, the part about the escape route,
everything seems way to well prepared to even conceive the idea of finding a security breach this
early, but that's something I can't mention. There's also the thing about the trap in the rule 6, until
that gets clarified, anyone who tries something will meet its end, that includes me…'

"I suppose if you put it like that…Then I can't argue against it!" Taka exclaimed.

"Maybe, but still…if there's as much as a fucking scratch on the girl, you will pay! Understand!?"
Owada announced with renewed vigor.

I simply nodded, I don't have the need or the desire to start something.

It seemed that was enough to satisfy Taka "Alright! Shigaraki! You have my blessing to venture in
this school, good luck!"

So dramatic…

"Alrighty! See ya guys, will catch with ya later!" Enoshima said with a wave.

And with that the two of us finally left the gym to begin our search in the nothing but ordinary
Hope's Peak. 'I'm still not sure if this really is the school or not…'

Maybe we will find out during our investigation.

 A Holy Investigation: Exploring with Her.

A Holy Investigation: Exploring with Her.

As soon as we left the trophy room and began to walk through the halls, Enoshima made a question
that made me pause.

"Sooo…where do begin?"

…There's actually a lot of ground to cover, right? Like those metal plates that have been bothering
me for some time, but…as I pointed out, a lot of territory to explore, so the best option would be…

"…I think we should head to this 'Despair Hotel' I mentioned earlier, it would be best if we do a
general scouting to known how much we can actually explore, and then we can focus on a more
thorough investigation on the most notorious places we see during our exploration" I commented.

"Mmm, yeah, I think I get what you tryin' to say, I guess that way we won't miss anythin'
important, right? And! And! We are like, a lot of people, so it's totally possible that the rest will
take care of those not so important places or find details we missed on the locations we checked
and with that, we will have all the ground covered! I totally figure out your master plan, didn't I?"
Enoshima replied with a cheeky smile.

"…I guess so" I mean, it wasn't some kind of secret or elaborate plan and it isn't perfect either, but
it's better for the both of us if she understood what I was trying to explain.

"Hehe, you don't have to sound so petty about it! Alright, let's go check this 'Despair Hotel'…Wah,
it sounds so lame…" The fashionista said.

I gave a nod, and with that, the two of us moved again in search of this new area.

…Did I really had sounded petty during that comment?

Once we traveled through the hall that led us to the 'Despair Hotel', we found ourselves in what we
could definitely call a whole new area. Looking around we saw on our right an open double door
and next to it, there was a sign that had the drawing of a fork and a knife. From our current
position, I could see a few tables and chairs inside.

"…That must be the dining hall…" I mused aloud.

"Yeah, at least that freaking bear won't starve us to death, maybe, we don't know if it's actually
stocked. Wanna check it out?" Enoshima asked me.

Before answering her, I turned my sight on the opposite side of the dining hall and ended up
noticing something that caught my attention.

"Maybe later, I'm actually curious to investigate that place" I said while pointing at what caught my
attention.

"Hm? What are you-Eh!? What's up with that place? it looks, like, totally weird" The fashionista
exclaimed as she saw what was I referring to.

As Enoshima and I approached what was labeled as 'BATH', I noticed three points of interest. The
first, was that it was some kind of entrance, though it had no doors. It was completely exposed. The
second thing was that even without doors, I couldn't take a guess at what was inside because it was
completely obscured 'The lights must've been turned off, though even with that, it's a bit strange',
the third and final point was that I couldn't go and check further than that because it was blocked
by some yellow tape with the words KEEP OUT all over it.

Seeing that there were no rules that forbid it, I approached the tapes to remove them when―

My instincts kicked in and I immediately turned to my left to see…!

"Hey! Hey! What do you think you are doing, young man!" …Monokuma appearing out of
nowhere.

"Gaah! What the hell!? From where the heck did you come from!?" Enoshima snapped.

I narrowed my eyes at the bear "That, and what are you doing here?"

Monokuma raised his paws with so much rage he was completely red on the face "What I am
doing!? You are asking me that!? I got one better for you, bastard, what are YOU doing!?"

"What does it look like? I am removing the tape so I can go and try to see what's inside" I stated the
obvious.

"Are you dumb!? Those tapes are obviously there to block you from getting further!"

"Hey! And what if we wanna go in there!?" Enoshima exclaimed.

"What is this, an idiot combo? What, all you have is hair instead of brains? I'm saying you can't
explore that place!"

Putting aside the fact that it actually irked me that Monokuma insulted her, I asked something
important "Didn't your rules say that we are free to explore the school?"

"Keeping playing dumb, I see, in case you forgot, the rule exact wording is: 'With minimal
restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.' This is simply one
of the few places in which those restrictions apply" Monokuma stated.

"…I see" It was worth a try.

"Such a stupid rule…" Enoshima protested, but with some finality too.

The monochrome bear began to shake his head in exasperation "Geez, kids these days. I don't even
know why are you guys so interested in checking that place…unless…Upupupupu, oh my, I didn't
know you had that kind of side Shigaraki!"

I already felt a few warning bells with that tone of voice he was having "What are you talking
about?"

"Hey, what's up with you now?" Enoshima asked with narrowed eyes.

"Upupupupu…It's just, as an assassin I know you have some experience killing ladies, I know, I
know, part of the job and all that jazz. But now I find that not only you do that, but that you also
are a lady-killer! That's such a discovery!" Monokuma stated with barely contained laughter.

"Huh?" Enoshima and I said at the same time.

…What is he talking about? What does he mean by lady-killer? I have heard of the term before, If
I remember, it means―

Shit

I-I may not be an expert in the area 'More like I have zero experience in it', but terms like that are
used in some jobs for profiles of some clients and 'targets', and he implied that term on me because
we wanted to explore some public baths 'Or at least that's what that label suggests', t-that means―

Shit!

"What are you talking about? Speak clear you freak!"

Aaaand she asked Monokuma about it…

"Enoshima, I don't―"

"Upupupu, you see, as a bear, I'm not an expert in the birds and the bee's thing, but even I can see
that if a young man and a woman want so desperately as you guys do to get some privacy in a dark
place, then only indecent things are bound to happen!" The bear announced in giggles.

At first Enoshima just made a confused face, but after a few moments, her eyes went wide and she
blushed so much that her entire face became red.

Not that I can fault her, seeing as my cheeks were heated up too.

"W-W-WHAT the hell!? W-We just wanted to do some exploration to find a way out of this place!
What the heck are you thinking!? Believing that we…that Shigaraki would…that…Arghhh!"

"As if you were going to find a way to escape inside a public bathhouse of all places! Upupupu,
anyone with sight would think the same thing as me if they saw the same scene that was unfolding
before my BEARY innocent eyes: A young man in the company of a young maiden, leading her at
the privacy the darkness offers! Both eager to have a taste of each other's―"

"PISS OFF/GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

I am not someone who tends to raise his voice, but when it comes to subjects like THAT…well…

…It's a weak point of mine, alright?

With that, the bear seemed to get into some kind of dejected state 'Good' as he slumped down "He
even used a mean word, awww…You don't have to be so rude, y'know? I'm just your Headmaster
worried about the integrity of my students, but fine! If you wanna get hanky panky, just make sure
to don't try it in places with clear signs of not being allowed into! You bunch of walking hormones,
see ya!"
And with that, the bear was gone to…who knows where 'I still don't understand how he does
that…'

"Dammit! That bastard! If I see him again, I swear I'm going the beat the crap out of him!"
Enoshima said while fuming.

As much as I would want to do similar or worse things to him…" …You shouldn't do that
Enoshima, don't let what he said get to you" I simply said.

"Huh? Why are you saying that? I'm definitely going―…*gasp* W-Wait, d-don't tell that you
were actually―!"

"No" I said in a more hurried tone than what I'm used to "I'm talking about the rule 5, remember?
Doing as much as a scratch on him is a death penalty"

"…Right, for a moment I forgot about that, kind of happens when I get angry, y'know?" Enoshima
commented.

She gets impulsive to the point of ignoring something so important? That's…worrying.

"…I see, just be careful" I said.

"Yep, that weird bear isn't gonna catch me off-guard again!" She said with her usual grin and peace
sign.

"Alright, let's keep exploring then"

She simply nodded, and with that, the two of us moved, leaving that…weird experience with
Monokuma behind.

After walking around and looking for anything that could be of interest, we finally found ourselves
in a new hall, or at least the change of normal illumination to a dark-red one seemed to indicate
that, from a glance I could see that this place is…

"So, these are going to be our dorms, huh?" Enoshima finalized my thoughts.

"It seems so, and each one has…pixel figures on a plate? It looks like a person, so it must be how
we identify which room belongs to us. They also seem to have a name under the picture too." I
commented.

"Yeah, they look kinda weird, but it gets the job done I suppose, though I don't like that he's
implying that we are going to stay here for a long while, that arrogant creep…Hey, wanna check
out where―" Whatever Enoshima was going to say, got interrupted by the door, which had the
figure of a person with an ahoge and, indeed, in the nameplates there was also the name of Makoto
Naegi, opening.

From there, the figures of Maizono and Leon emerged from the room.

"I'm glad that at least he's-Oh, Enoshima and―Shigaraki!?" Maizono exclaimed, the last part with
rising panic 'The bravery that she got when checking on Naegi in the Gym must have gone off, I
guess…'
Before she and Leon began to escalate the situation, Enoshima interfered "Hiii Sayaka! and you too
Kuwata! What's up?"

"Ah, we're cool…I guess? We just gave Naegi one last check-up, y'know? To see he's fine and all
that…um…erm, so what are you up to?" The baseball star asked while giving me a nervous quick
glance.

"Oh! Shigaraki and I are looking around, getting a general vibe of the place or something like that.
We were about to get a look around the dorms right now" Enoshima replied.

"You…and Shigaraki? I see…Um, are you okay Junko?" Maizono questioned, while she too, gave
me a nervous glance.

"Me? Yep! Hmmm, well…I'm still a bit irked from our recent encounter with Monokuma, but
that's stuff of the past, so yeah, not an issue with this girl right here!" The fashionista commented
with a grin.

Though the same couldn't be said for the people in front of her.

"Monokuma!? Shit!" Leon yelped.

"Junko! Are you sure you're Okay!?" Maizono exclaimed in a worried tone.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! Really! The bastard just messed with us verbally, but apart from being a…weird
thing, he didn't do anything to us." Enoshima said while scratching one check "And in case he tried
to do anything, I'm pretty sure Shigaraki here will take care of me, right?" She added with another
grin and a peace sign gesture. 'She does that a lot, huh'

But back at what the fashionista just said.

"…Right" I said simply.

I know I didn't show much certainty in that response, and they probably would notice that…But it's
because I truly don't have any certainty to answer that. I've been known her for less than a day and
while it's true that out of everyone here, she's the one in which I am by far on best terms with and it
is also a fact that I've had some…strange moments and thoughts when it comes to her…but that's
it.

I didn't save Owada out of my goodwill, I did it because it was a secondary result of what I needed
to do so I could preserve my own life, that's also why I didn't interfere when Owada punched Naegi
even if he also seems to have a better image of me than the rest of my classmates and is willing to
vouch for me, I have no doubt in my mind that I was more than capable of stopping that
confrontation, but it didn't have anything to do with me.

If something were to happen to any of them, or worse, they died…I wouldn't shed a single tear for
them, I don't know them at all so why should I care?

So, if it comes a time in which I have to put myself between Monokuma and Enoshima, will I do
something to prevent a tragedy from occurring? Putting my own life at risk for the sake of a
complete stranger like her?

…
…

...I don't know.

Thankfully, Maizono stopped my train of thought that had the slim but actual chance of giving me
some kind of mental crisis while preventing this from beginning to become awkward at the same
time "Anyway, I'm glad he didn't do anything to you and if you are sure that you are fine…then I
guess we can truly count on Shigaraki to check on you while Kuwata and I begin our own search,
so, good luck both of you!" The Idol said with a wave.

Huh, I didn't expect her to give that kind encouragement to BOTH of us.

"Same to you guys! Oh, that's right, avoid the places that have yellow tapes! it's kind of satisfying
to piss Monokuma off, but I wouldn't temp it, y'know?" The fashionista commented.

Both Maizono and Leon nodded awkwardly but didn't make a comment on that, and so, they left to
do their own search.

"So that happened…Oh right, before those two came from Naegi's room, you wanted to say
something, correct?" I asked Enoshima.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I know you said to just have a look around before checking the important places,
but I wanted to check our rooms right now, y'know, to avoid surprises and stuff at the end of the
day, it's not a problem, right?" The fashionista asked.

Now that she mentions it…

"…You're right, I'm kind of curious too, you think that about 30 minutes are enough to inspect
them?" I'm honest about the curiosity thing, there is stuff I want to confirm myself.

"Yeah, it's perfect! Ah, but let's count until we reach our rooms, no cheating allowed! Sounds
good?" Enoshima said with a cheeky smile.

"Sounds good" I said with the corners of my mouth slightly upwards.

…What?

…It…it happened again…

…Why I did do that?

We didn't have to leave the hall from which we came from to find out where our respective rooms
were…and it was less of a hassle by the fact that our rooms were in front of each other, with
Enoshima's room on the left and my own was on the right side of the hall, I also noticed that the
keys to our rooms were attached to the door. 'That's risky…'

"It looks like we are neighbors, huh?"

"It seems like it, that's…convenient…Anyway, I will see you in half an hour, Enoshima" I said with
a nod.

"Sure! catch ya later!" The fashionista replied with a wave before getting inside her own room.
And I simply did the same while taking my keys, curious to see what my resting place for the
unforeseeable future would look like.

As soon as I got inside the room, I locked the door. Once I did that, I allowed myself to give a
slight sigh of relief.

The reason I did that is simple: My thought process was almost the same as what Enoshima had
said, I didn't want to search my room and find a sudden visitor while being in the middle of finding
a 'surprise', that, and seeing that indeed each room has his own lock and personalized keys 'If my
name in the keychain is anything to go by', I wouldn't want to let the risk of someone 'accidentally'
getting my own keys to happen. It is true that I don't believe in the possibility of someone
committing murder on the first day, but I'm also not stupid to allow a security breach of that kind in
my own 'safe haven'. I'm also pretty sure Monokuma could trespass the room at his will, but
unfortunately, that's a different matter that I can't prevent.

As for the surprises part…looking around, it seems I was right in taking them into consideration.

At first glance, it looks like a normal bedroom with the default furniture: A trash can, one single
table in the middle of the room, close to it a bed with a lint roller not so far from it, behind said bed
there was a desk which had a notepad and some pencils atop of it and a chair. On the completely
opposite side of the room, there was a clock and an open wardrobe from where I could see there
were 3 sets of clothes that are no different from the one I am currently wearing 'That's…weird'. In
the corner next to the desk, there was a door different from the entry door, with a note on it.

Aside from the same clothes part, that was where the normal aspect of the room ended, the next
was what I would like to call the 'disappointing but not surprised' part.

That included a broadcast TV next to the second door, not different from the ones I have seen all
around the 'school', there was also a surveillance camera, and of course, last but not least, more
metal plates.

The next and last part is the reason why I believe taking the surprises into consideration was a
correct choice.

The reason why? It seems the rooms are personalized to fit the talent of the person assigned to the
room.

The small blessing, if I could call it that, is that everything in this category while worrying and
somewhat suspicious, it isn't incriminating overall. They just consist of 'furniture', like a throwing
knife target with a human shape in the wall between the wardrobe one and the desk one, but with
no blades around to make use of the said target, next to it there were three maps, about what?
Lethality wounds, for gunshot, stab, and bludgeoning wounds respectively. Finally, between the
desk and that other door with the note, my 'favorite' item: A flag, it was of a quite simple design
'Which was intentional'. It was black, with an unfilled bloody red circle in the middle of it, and
inside of said circle, there was a white cross no different than the one in my shirt. And the cherry
on top of the cake, an acronym under the symbol, of which letters consisted said acronym?

It's quite simple actually.

An H
An S

And another S

HSS

…Of course, Monokuma put an official flag of Them for anyone to notice at a quick glance, sure,
why not.

Out of all my classmates, only Togami would recognize this flag…and maybe Celeste 'Which
makes it weird that Togami didn't make the connection with the cross I wear in my shirt, maybe he
has seen me as too much of an inferior being to actually pay attention to these types of details or he
does still don't know about Them? Lucky me either way, I suppose. As for Celeste, she has a lot of
experience dealing with the deepest places of the underground world, it wouldn't be out of the
possibility that she had heard enough things to know about Them, I mean, even since we meet, she
always has this gleam in her eyes, both before and after knowing about my talent, maybe unlike
Togami, she did recognize the symbol in some way. That she hasn't said anything about it means
nothing, she isn't the Queen of Liars for show', but smart people like Kirigiri, actually, forget only
her, anyone with a sense of curiosity would ask questions about what's up with that flag and what
does it represent if I allowed them the chance to see it, which I am not.

…If I am honest, while it would be troublesome if everyone found my connection with Them, it's
not some kind of secret in which I have to kill to keep it that way 'At least not my classmates, after
all, they finding out about its existence is bound to happen if I attended Hope's Peak. They may be
a lot of things, but ignorant to the point of ignoring that fact, is not one of them'

But that doesn't apply to our captor, how much does he know? The more time I spend in this place,
the more of a threat said person is becoming…

Putting that aside, all this entire extra stuff it's as I pointed out before: worrying and suspicious, but
not incriminating. From what I've seen so far from Monokuma, I didn't put it past him to fill my
entire room with all kinds of weapons and poisons, and that had a big chance of becoming a can of
worms that I definitely don't need.

Finding my hands kind of itchy to FINALLY check the metal plates I went to one of them.

For all my own hype at this, there wasn't much for me to try with them. For the sake of trying, I
tried to remove the plate, it didn't work, then I moved to the bolts that keep it sealed, I tried until
my hands hurt to unscrew them, with no results at all, I repeated the process with the other plates
and the results were the same.

Disappointing but not unexpected.

Once I made sure that there wasn't anything else to see that was on plain sight, I approached the
door with the note stuck to it. Then I took out the note from the door to see it, which said the
following:

Announcement from Headmaster Monokuma:

Each room's lock has been designed to completely protect against tampering or lock picking.
Remaking an individual key is quite troublesome so please make sure not to lose yours. Your room
comes furnished with a shower, but please note that the water is turned off at nighttime.

Also, the bathrooms in the girl's rooms include a lock of their own.

Finally, we've prepared a small gift for each of you.

For the girls, a sewing kit.

And for the boys, a toolkit.

The sewing kit includes a map of the body's vital organs. One stab will do the job, girls!

For the boys, we believe a strong blow to the head with any of the tools should be ample.

Don't think! Just feel! And let's all enjoy ourselves!

Oh, and one more thing…

As you may have noticed, this room has a throwing knife target, befitting of the student who owns
this room.

Never be said that a bear can't be a responsible Headmaster! I took the liberty to leave an extra
gift so that the owner of this room doesn't get left behind in the development of his talent!

And if this note is being read by someone else…

Well, sorry not sorry! Seriously, what kind of Ultimate Assassin is so careless to allow that,
consider this a lesson, young man!

I was half tempted to just crump the paper and throw it in the trash can, but no, THIS would cause
trouble, so I will keep it with myself until I can find a place to destroy the evidence permanently.
Looking from the paper to the door in front of me, it made me wonder 'Don't tell me the bastard
put a whole extra room full of weapons? I know it says it's only a shower, but…'. Deciding to
confirm it now better than later, I opened the door to see…

A bathroom.

It consisted of a sink with a mirror on the left side and next to it there was a cabinet, under said
cabinet there was a hand towel. On the left front side of the room there was a glass wall along with
a glass door, inside of it there was a shower with the basic products, such as shampoo and soap.
Finally, the right front consisted of a toilet with toilet paper next to it, hanging in a holder.

Another important thing that I have noticed is…There are no surveillance cameras. The first blind
spot I notice and it's inside a shower room. I don't have evidence to make a pattern, but the
possibility of similar places exist, at least.

So, not a weapon room, alright.

I moved to inspect the cabinet, and inside of it was…

Basic hygiene items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, and more soap.

…

So not a cabinet full of all kinds of poisons, okay.

After deciding that I was more grateful than disappointed with these developments, I decided to
leave the bathroom to look into the last place that needed an inspection: The desk.

…But before doing that.

I took the note that I had in one of the pockets of my jeans, I ripped it to pieces and threw said
pieces inside the toilet, and finally, I just let it flush its contents.

Well…I got rid of it pretty fast, huh.

After leaving the bathroom and putting my sight on the desk, I noticed that it had four drawers. I
decided to check them in descending order.

The first two had absolutely nothing, but the other two…

The third drawer had the toolkit Monokuma mentioned in the note, its contents, from what I could
see, consisted of a hammer, screwdriver, wrench, and a side cutter.

…The bear wasn't lying with the blow to the head thing, all of this definitely can be lethal when
you hit in the right place, but still…maybe I can find an actual use to these tools 'That don't involve
what I usually do, of course'

As for the last drawer…

…I'm never going to admit it to his face, but the bear DID left a gift.

Actually, more than a gift, he just returned it back, so yeah, nothing to admit here.

As for what I am talking about? Well, what the last drawer contained was…A pair of combat
daggers.

At first glance for the untrained eye, people might think that besides being a weapon, there's
nothing else to them. They would be wrong, after all, there are a lot of factors to take into
consideration.

First of all, there's the color of them, again, some will think that's not important, but the truth is, it
is actually a matter of life or death, why? The metallic color these types of weapons usually have
makes them reflective, and that factor could either show your position in a stealth-necessary
environment or reveal that you have a weapon with you which could blow up a cover. Reasons for
that make it important to make sure they are made with a dark and unreflective surface.

Another fact is whether they are fixed or folding types, while each has its pros and cons, the
advantages of the folding type work better for my Career Field, mainly because they are handy
and compact.

Last but not least important: The Material. Usually, the material varies when considering factors
such as edge, toughness, and corrosion resistance, keyword Usually. One perk that comes from
Them, is that they forge the weapons I and other members use for our assignments, I don't know
the details, as it's not really my area, but I'm aware that they have a 'Secret Family Recipe' if I were
to call it in some way, in which while the material used mainly consists of carbon steel, they add
other components and used their own forging process where the final result is a blade that it's
completely high end in all of its aspects with no downsides.

So yeah, while most people would see a simple pair of daggers, that couldn't be further from the
truth. These combat daggers are perfectly designed for the task they have been created.

Now you might be asking…an Assassin using daggers, really? Isn't that too cliche? The answer
would be yeah, kind of, but I have a better one, do they do their job? Absolutely.

I was about to conceal the weapons in my inner pockets when another fact about them caught my
sight. Besides all the previous things told about them, they had another extra detail: Inscriptions in
their respective blades.

One of them said IN NOMINE SANCTI DOMINI which means In The Name Of the Holy Lord.

While the other said UNGUIBUS CORVI TIMEANT which translates as Fear the Claws of the
Raven.

"…*sigh* That Name…They really like their roleplaying act, don't they?" I let the matter rest as I
put my sight on the clock while actually concealing the weapons this time. 'Almost 30 minutes, it
seems…'

Before leaving the room and reconvening with Enoshima, I took one thing from the toolkit that I
believe would come in handy soon…I think.

As soon as I left my own room, I was met with the figure of Enoshima playing with her 'hair', not
like before where she was just twirling one strand of it, but actually playing while making some
weird faces…huh. 'Cute'

Anyway.

I closed the door behind me and aside from the momentary fierce sharpening of her eyes that made
my heart rate accelerate for a moment and the slight squeal when she saw it was me, there was no
other incident as she greeted me.

"A-Ah, Shigaraki, it's you, geez, you won't become popular with girls if you pull sneaky crap like
that, y'know? In any case, how did it go for ya? Did you find anything weird in your room?" She
asked with a tilted head.

Ignoring the first part of what she said and omitting the fact that now I have two weapons with me
'Maybe three if I count 'that' thing with me', I told her the 'Truth' "…Weird is definitely a way to
put it, there wasn't anything that dangerous but I have no doubt my room would actually make
some of our classmates uncomfortable" I commented.

"I see, my room had some stuff related to being the Ultimate Fashionista, so I guess with you that's
the bare minimum when our rooms are personalized and you're the Ultimate Assassin,
right?...wait, wait, you said 'that dangerous', so does that mean there are ACTUALLY dangerous
things in your room?" She asked with a shocked…but not fearful tone.
"Yeah, but it's not exclusive of my room, I'm talking about a toolkit, apparently each men have one
and girls have sewing kids instead, you had one of those, correct?"

"Ah, that's right! I found a note saying that same crap, not only it was a sewing kit but it also had
some kind of map for the most vital areas in the body…geez, that bastard isn't taking any breaks
with us, huh?" Enoshima commented with a sigh.

"…No, he isn't, in any case, just to confirm, your room had a bathroom room too, right?"

"Yeah, it had the basic hygiene stuff included and the room had a lock, which it actually sucks! I
mean, that junk won't be enough to keep up with what I usually need to take care of my hair! But I
will have to make it work, I guess…"

Right, 'Hair'…and a lock? I didn't see one in my case, that probably means…

"…The lock must be exclusive for girls; my bathroom doesn't have one, so the note was
completely accurate, it seems. If that's all…I think we are done here, correct?" I asked her.

"I believe so, yeah, let's keep…wait, actually, I want to test something, just wait a moment here,
yeah?"

I quirked an eyebrow at that, but I didn't have a reason not to do it so "…Sure" I said with a shrug.

"Neat! I won' take more than a minute, okay?" I just nodded at that while she re-entered her room.

What's she's up to?

And just like she said, one minute later she came back while rubbing her throat.

"Dammit, maybe I should've stopped sooner…So, did ya hear anything?"

"Heard something―No, I did not…The rooms are soundproof? Mind if I try it out myself?" I
asked.

"Sure, just watch out for your throat, all that shouting made mine kind of sore"

And so I did…

A minute of screaming later 'Haven't done that in years, it actually made my throat irk…'

"Did you hear anything?" I asked.

"Nope, nothing at all" Enoshima replied.

"So every room is soundproof then…" I mused.

"Seems like it…" Enoshima said while having a thoughtful look.

And I had one too. So anything that happens inside our rooms is completely silenced? That actually
reminds me of the 'Information Gathering' rooms I had back 'Home' when we needed to 'ask' our
'sources' for important pieces of intel, no matter how much they screamed―

"Someone could be having their last cries of agony, begging for their life, and all of us would've
been sleeping like babies, huh…" It was not me who said that.

I looked up at the fashionista with a blanker than usual look on my face while I just blinked.

Eventually, Enoshima saw the look on my face "E-Eh? What's wrong?" She asked me in a worried
and…' innocent?' way.

"…Nothing, I guess, let's just go"

She had a confused look on her face for a few moments before she recovered and nodded.

…She really reminds me sometimes of…

Do you want to die?

She does say that a lot, doesn't she?

…This is worrying.

After exploring our rooms, we focused on checking the rest of the area, we found that besides the
rooms, the 'dorm area' had a rectangle shape, with one hallway for each side, the first one was the
one with mine and Enoshima's rooms with some others for our classmates, the second hallway
contained the rest of the rooms.

The third one had restrooms, one for each gender, and a trash room. For obvious reason I only
checked the boy's restroom, said room was relatedly normal save for one thing, and that was that it
confirmed one theory I had 'It seems that 'Intimate places' around the school don't have any
cameras, it may be useful to know for the future…'

As for the trash room, the incinerator was blocked by a gate, and although there was a switch to lift
it, it seemed that it required some kind of key to turn it on, the last point of interest was a hatch on
the floor with a lock that blocked us from trying to open it, there was also the usual stuff like the
camera and the TV, but it wasn't of importance, all of the important stuff was blocked with no way
around it, so we just left it at that.

The fourth hall allowed us to return to the entrance of the dorm area, and close to the end of said
hall, there was another entrance full of yellow tape with no signs that could tell us a clue about
what could be inside, which besides making us cringe a little, the both of us decided to leave it
alone.

Further from said entrance, there was a set of stairs no different from the ones close to the trophy
room, and yes, that included a gate blocking us from using them.

And that covered the entire area of the 'Despair Hotel', which means…

"So apart from the school and the 'hotel' area, there are no more areas on the first floor it seems" I
commented.

"I guess, we could return to confirm it, y'know, in case we missed somethin'…but seriously! The
stupid rules and the freak of a bear said that 'we are free to explore the school'! But surprise,
surprise, there are a bunch of stupid gates that block us from doing that! What the heck's his
deal!?"

I'm with her on that one, minimal restrictions, my ass.

"*sigh*…I guess there's nothing we can do about this, so, about returning…I think it would be best
to investigate the school area, we came here directly without paying much attention to it" I
suggested.

"I don't mind doing that…after all, as long as we follow your grand plan, we got everything
covered, don't we?" The fashionista said with a cheeky smile.

She's "…not letting go of that one, huh?"

"Nope! So, let's get going, alrigh'?" Enoshima said with her trademark peace sign and grin.

…Wait, did I say that out loud?

…I let my guard down, again.

Dammit.

"…Yeah, let's go" I need to steel myself, I can't allow what I'm experiencing right now to interfere
with what's really important.

With nothing else to do here, we left the current hall and we went to find our way to the school
area.

Before actually leaving the area, we found the standing figure of Taka next to the dining hall
entrance, and if I had to put it in a way, looking the perimeter with hawk eyes. When his eyes
locked on us, he greeted us in his usual way.

"Ah, Miss Enoshima! Shigaraki! I'm glad to have a chance to meet you before the meeting!" Taka
exclaimed.

I quirked an eyebrow and it was Enoshima who made the question.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Are we having a reunion or somethin'?" The fashionista said in
a confused tone.

"Right, of course! I talked about it not much after the two of you left us on the endeavor of
investigating the school! It makes sense you don't know. It was decided with the remaining people
inside the gym that at Seven O'clock we are to group up at the dining hall. Right now, I'm on the
task of finding any of the stragglers to inform them of such decision, so please make sure to be on
time, tardiness will not be tolerated in this educational environment! As in case of an infraction, I
will report you to a respective member inside the institution!"
"…"

"…"

"…Seven O'clock, sure, we will be there" I said

"Excellent! Then I will not take more of your time, you can continue with your assignment!"

We just nodded at that and left.

Not much after Enoshima whispered to me.

"Does he, like, gets that 'respective member inside the institution' as of right now, is the bear?"

Does he get it?

"…No, he doesn't" And it's not like understanding that, will stop him from trying to treat this as a
'educational environment'.

Still, it's kind of impressive that it seems he lost any fear he had of me…or at least he does it when
he's in his 'rule's zealot' mode.

As expected of the Ultimate Moral Compass.

In the school area, we did the same as the previous one, we looked around intending to scout the
place and try to find a spot that we could have missed.

After searching for quite some time, the results were as expected, and that meant no results. The
only possible lead right now was the door in front of us. The big red double door from the
beginning to be more accurate.

As before and seeing that it had no yellow tape to block it, I tried to open it again, but…

"It's still locked, it seems" I stated.

"Dammit! And it looks important, y'know, being this red and big and all, right?"

"Yeah, it's pretty ominous"

"This is looking bad, huh? It sucks!...*sigh* Do you have any place you wanna check? It's getting
closer to that reunion Mr. Educator told us" 'Mr. Educator?'

"Yeah, it's almost time, and about where else to go…I think I just want to take a quick lock at the
main hall and the same for at least one classroom, I want to test something"

That last part seemed to pick the interest of Enoshima "Test something? What do you...*gasp* D-
Don't tell you, like, actually have something that could get us out of here, really!?" She asked wide-
eyed.

I fought the urge to narrow my eyes at that. It's not like what she said is weird, I'm sure anyone
would have that kind of incredulous expression if they came to the same conclusion as her…But, I
don't know, I almost feel as if there was something more to the way she said that. 'Being with her
always has this…odd feeling, maybe it's something among those lines what I felt just now? It
wouldn't be the first time I act out of the ordinary when it's just the two of us…And it's been less
than a day, what the heck is wrong with me?'

I mentally sighed, not for the first time, I felt like I have a lot to think about.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you, what I want to test is more to confirm something rather
than discover something that would help us" I explained.

"I see…Well, if it's you it will probably be something useful in some way" Enoshima said with a
smile.

That's another thing nagging me in my head.

Why does she trust me that much?

 A Holy Gathering: The Results of Our Search.

A Holy Gathering: The Results of Our Search.

The first thing that greeted us in the main hall was a sound.

*Crash*

Before I could make any response to that, my sight caught on what happened. The source of that
noise was Owada attacking the vault door with a chair.

…Owada attacking the vault door with a chair.

…Attacking the vault door

…The vault door that has mounted weapons along with cameras watching it.

…He's still breathing…maybe he has already tested it at a distance to make sure it's safe?

Looking around I could see that apart from him, Ogami and Hina were with him. At least those two
are less impulsive than Owada, Ogami much less than Hina and the gang leader combined, so it is
possible they did test it like that.

Still…that guy is living it to the limit, isn't it? As expected of the Ultimate Gang Leader, I suppose.

"Haah…this…fucking…haah…piece of shit…doesn't budge, fuck!" Owada roared while kicking

the vault.

Enoshima took that as an opportunity to make ourselves known.

"Geez, if a freaking chair didn't do crap to it, I don't believe screaming and kicking will do any
better, you know that, right?" Enoshima commented.

"What-Oh, it's you guys…The chick seems fine, so you kept your word, good, it seems I won' need
to have a chat with you…" Owada said while cracking his knuckles.

That seemed to be enough to bring the attention of Hina and Ogami to us.

"Ah! It's you, Junko! And…Shigaraki…" Hina exclaimed with some caution at the end.

It doesn't really affect me, but it's getting kind of repetitive.

Ogami instead, just checked the both of us, at Enoshima more intently, probably to make sure she
was fine. Once she was satisfied, she nodded and spoke up "…Greetings, you two"

"Hey, guys! How's it's it goin'? Did ya make any progress with that thing over there?" Enoshima
asked while pointing at the vault-door.

"Unfortunately, that is not the case. We have been trying to damage it for hours, but we have
nothing to present for it" Ogami stated.

"Yeah, this metal door is fuckin' tough, we have tried with all kind of shit this place has, and it has
not even a fuckin' scratch on it…fuckin' great" Owada spat.

"…It couldn't be that easy, huh?" Enoshima said solemnly.

While they got busy in their own conversation, I approached the vault door.

Though it seemed Hina noticed where I was going "H-Huh? Um…Shigaraki, what are you doing?"

With that, Owada noticed me too "Hm? You wanna give it a try too? You don't look like you pack
a punch like me or Ogami, but hey, maybe you have something like an assassin trick or some shit
like that…"

"…I am aware that I don't have that much raw power, but I'm not going to try an attack on it, I just
want to take a closer look at it" I just indirectly added him in that comment so I don't hurt his ego in
a way that would begin an incident. It seemed that Ogami noticed it though, if the look she was
giving the gang leader was any indication.

But leaving that aside, once I was at a close distance of the vault door, I inspected it carefully,
taking sight of it and touching it. I also began to put my mind to work, trying to remember
something that could I relate to this vault door.

There had to be something, They didn't make me travel all around the world for the sights, it was
always with a 'grand purpose' as they called it. Each country meant also a new type of mission.
Sometimes it was capturing someone, either for the tactical or political value it had, sometimes it
wasn't killing per se, but extracting information of someone and deliver it to a client. In some tasks,
the objective was to make sure some organization got disbanded, either by taking care of their
leaders, or even in some cases, straight-up neutralizing all of its members, though one of the most
common types of missions I had were to ones where I was to kill someone who knew too much…

Political value…

Information…

Knew too much…

Ah.

That's it…

There is this European country which government system is a monarchy up to his day, it even had a
royal family and nobles, the point is, some noble of an opposite faction of the royal family had
enough influence and resources to rival said family. Apparently, that made him get cocky and too
ambitious, and used said influence and resources to get information on some incriminating files
that he was planning on using as blackmail material against the royals.

It wasn't that the current rulers were bad, they did a decent job with their nation from what I could
see in my stay 'That place had a LOT of strange customs, though', the value of such files was
because it pointed to the royal family not being so 'royal', and, well, we humans are emotional
before being rational most of the time. Even if the royal family did a spectacular job for
generations, if the public became aware of such detail…most probably, they would've felt betrayed
and angry at being tricked in such a way, that would lead to chaos 'And blood spilling, that always
comes included on such situations'

And of course, the royal family was aware of this, and seeing that a direct and public confrontation
with this person would only make things worse, they acted as if they slowly and surely conceded to
the demands of the noble, while in the shadows…

The royals recurred to Them…to me.

Long story short, while my 'objective' never knew it was the royal family who put a bounty on
him, he had some self-awareness and decided to bunker himself, in some way, it worked for some
time, as the only access to the place where my 'objective' hid was a vault door.

Similar to the one in front of me…

"So, you've been looking and touching that thing for a while, did you find anything doin' all that?"
Owada asked.

Is there a risk in sharing this…?

Well in some way, there is, but it's not a big one if I am cautious with my words 'Even with taking
Celeste into consideration', while at the same time, sharing this will create a more positive image
of myself and that could be useful.

"I have…" I replied.

"Well, at least you―Wait! Really!?" Hina exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Ogami, however, had her feet on the ground "Is it good news or bad news?"

"…"

"Shit, dude, don't make it dramatic, just spill it!"

"*Sigh*…Terrible news"

"H-Huh?"

"W-What? Is it, like, really that bad? Wait, actually, what did you discover that makes it so bad?"

"Indeed, an explanation would be appreciated"

"…The reason why I said that, was because I have seen a vault door similar to this one here…that
vault door could resist anything that was thrown against it. I'm not exaggerating when I say that an
entire army could bomb it, and it would only leave a dent if they were lucky…" I commented.

"…And you said that it was similar to this piece of garbage over here, right?... Fuck! Even I can
see that it actually looks like it could resist any shit done at it, dammit…"
I just nodded at that…I don't feel like it's necessary to add that the vault door in front of us looks
MUCH more modern than the one I have seen. For all I know, you could throw a nuclear bomb at
this thing and it would be fine, but that doesn't make a difference for any of us.

…And neither the fact that if I am right in being similar, only one being more modern than the
other, then I might know of to open this thing…but that is useless information too, there's just no
way our captor didn't got that covered.

"Don't be so sad, guys! I'm sure that if we can't get out through here, there must be another place
we can use as a way to escape!" Hina commented with renewed energy.

"Damn right! I'm not gonna let that piece of shit of a bear beat me!" Owada exclaimed.

Ogami nodded with a smile "You are correct, Hina. We can't allow to give up this early"

"Heck yeah, girl! There's no way that Monokuma would block everything, we just have to keep
looking!" The fashionista commented with a grin.

While they were patting themselves in the back, I just stood there, thinking of one thing. With
everything I have seen so far, and finally stopping to putting it together, I came to one conclusion.

This is not Hope's Peak.

I know I should've been aware of that since some hours ago, but I have been busy with no time to
ponder about it. But now I can see that it's impossible for this place to be that school 'Not only
because before getting knocked out, I hadn't seen the vault door, but there's also the metal plates
and mounted guns to take into consideration. All of that can't be installed in a single day, heck, the
gate alone would need weeks to put as properly as it is now, to that, we can add that they couldn't
have kept us unconscious that long, maybe one day, but weeks? Impossible, this is definitely
somewhere else…'

I stopped my train of thought when I heard the voice of Hina.

"Maybe we should stop here, it's almost time for that meeting Taka talked about…" Hina
commented.

"I guess, not in the mood to hear the barking of that guy for being late…So, you guys comin' or
what?" Owada added as he turned to me and Enoshima.

"Actually…Shigaraki and I wanted to see one last place before going back, I don't think we will be
late for the dining hall thing, but, yeah…" Enoshima trailed off.

"…I see, then I will wish for your good luck" Ogami said.

"Yep! See you guys! C'mon Sakura! Let's go!" Hina said while sprinting out of the hall.

"Aye"

"Geez, that girl has a lot of energy, Oi! Wait for us!" Owada exclaimed while sprinting too.

Ogami nodded at us before following the swimmer.

Once they were gone, Enoshima turned to me.

"…Y'know, I'm kind of glad that group has Sakura with them, they seem too…passionate?"
That's a way to put it.

"I see what you mean, having someone as level-headed as her probably prevented them from going
around doing more reckless things" I commented.

"I know! I was like, totally shocked when I saw the biker attack the metal hatch with those
freaking things mounted up! What the heck was he thinking, doing that?" The fashionista
exclaimed while pointing at the Gatling guns.

"Mhm, while it's not written in the rules, if those weapons reacted to anything important being
attacked…well, nothing good would've come of that. Anyway, we should go see one of the
classrooms and then go to the dining hall"

"Yep, and finally! Don't get me wrong, it really, really, really sucks that there isn't more to explore,
but all this walking around and doing some kind of detective stuff, is giving me a headache…So
yeah, let's get this over with" Enoshima commented with a sigh.

I simply nodded while going on my way to left the hall.

When we got into the area where the classrooms could be found, we decided to try a random one,
as we didn't have much time before the 'meeting'. On a personal level, I didn't care that much for
going, I don't have much hope on one of them finding something important. 'Well…maybe Kirigiri
will, she seems like someone who's good at picking up details…'

…But I had to go, not only because the chances still existed, but because I'm not in the position to
go around the school doing my own thing, they would notice my absence immediately and that
would create chaos and paranoia, and as things stand, one wrong move from me and I will get a
figurative 'And maybe a bit literal' bounty in my head, more so because Enoshima was with me and
I can imagine the grim possibilities that would run in their heads at that.

That's why I need to get this done quickly.

Once inside the room, I looked around while I approached one of the metal plates to try the same
thing I did in my room and a few others around the halls when I began to explore the school area
with Enoshima.

A quick glance told me that this classroom was not different from the one I woke up in, and
chances are that it's the same case for the rest of them.

Once I was satisfied with looking, I tried removing the metal plates with all the methods that I
could think of.

No results, as expected.

With that done, I moved to test something that I haven't checked before.

Moving from the metal plate I was close to, I approached a random side of the wall and I stuck to
it, with my arms slightly spread, making me look like I'm trying to hug it.

Then I began to knock the wall with one hand.

I also ignored the weirded look Enoshima was giving me.

After repeating the process for a few seconds, I sighed while moving from the spot.

"…You have some really weird hobbies; you are aware of that, right?" The fashionista stated.

"…That was not for fun, I tried to knock in the wall to see what kind of sound it could make"

"…Right…and you wanted to know that…Why?" Enoshima asked skeptically.

"It's not something I have much experience with, but depending on the sound it makes, I could
have determined if the wall was hollow or if it was reinforced. If it's hollow, maybe a good punch
from Ogami could've worked to make our own escape…" I explained.

"T-That's…huh, I'm not sure anyone tried that, most people probably would try to remove the
windows and call it a day…so why the classrooms of all places? You could've tried that thing
before don't you think?"

"…Again, something I'm not experienced with, but I believe that the walls in a classroom where
the windows are is probably the most vulnerable spot we could find inside the school, if we don't
have positive results here, it's almost guaranteed that we won't have results anywhere else"

"Mmm, you gave it a lot of thought, still…It doesn't change the fact that it looked as if you were
trying to become friends with the wall, hehe…" Enoshima commented with a grin.

I don't know why…

…But I followed along.

"…Hey, who knows? Maybe if I do that and gain their respect, they will open up for me as a signal
of their trust, right?" I commented with amusement in my voice.

"…"

"…"

"…Pfft! Hahahaha! it wasn't, like, funny at all, really…But, oh? So you actually have a sense of
humor, don't you?" The Enoshima commented with a cheeky smile.

Any amusement I had in my face, I wiped it off.

…I…I told a joke?

…What am I doing?

"…"
"…Hey, are you okay?"

"…"

"…Shigaraki?"

"…"

"Shigaraki?" Enoshima asked again, with growing concern.

"…Yes…yes, I'm fine, I just kind of became distracted" That's not exactly true.

"…Okay…Um, about the sound thing, did you find anything, then?" Enoshima said with a far
more subdued tone than what I have heard of her so far.

"Hm? Oh, that…no, though I brought with me an item from the toolkit Monokuma gave us" I told
her while I took out the item picked up from the toolkit.

A hammer.

"You opened up the toolkit? Well, if we can make use of it to help us escape, I guess there's
nothing wrong with that…"

I simply nodded and went to repeat the previous process, doing it in all kind of random spots
around the classroom, but instead of knocking with my hands, I used the hammer.

And indeed, there was a change, as this time I obtained results. Not good results, but results
nonetheless.

"…I could notice something this time…It seems the walls really are reinforced too…"

"So it's another dead end, that's a shame…but, it's as you said before, it was more to confirm
something rather than actually finding a way out, right?" That subdue tone hasn't left her yet.

"Right…we should probably go; I don't have anything else in mind right now" About this. When it
comes to other matters…

"Mhm, let's go…um, Shigaraki?"

"Yes?"

Before she said anything, the expression on her face changed, if I were to describe how it looked…
it was like that of a kicked puppy.

I didn't like it.

"…I'm…I'm sorry, for what happened a few moments ago, about that comment I made, I-I
should've known that this isn't the time to be joking around and I probably made you mad because
I―"

"No" I said simply.

"…No?"

"…I'm not angry, or mad at you either…I was just caught off guard, that's all, I am fine" Only the
not angry or mad part is completely true.
"…Really? Are you sure you're not angry at me?" Enoshima asked…but the way she said it, the
tone of her voice, it was as if I was talking to another person.

"Really, we should go. As Owada said: 'We don't wanna get barked at us for being late', right?" I
said with the corner of my lips slightly stretched upwards.

It feels…wrong…unnatural…

…To keep doing that…the lips thing…

But it feels even worse to see her upset.

…And the implications of that are worrying in so many levels.

It seemed that comment worked, though, as she seemed to once again, regain her posture.

"…Heh, right, we don't want to risk it with Mr. Rules actually reporting us to Monokuma, do we?"

I nodded at that, and with nothing else to do, we left the classroom to meet up with everyone else.

I also steeled my nerves, any emotional mess I might be right now, can wait when I hit the bed.

It wasn't that hard to do, suppressing my emotions and putting my priorities straight is something I
have experience doing.

We didn't find anyone on our way to the dining hall so that probably meant that we were going to
be the last ones. It shouldn't be a problem, though.

Last I checked we had a few minutes to spare. Even if he's as rule obsessive as I believe he is, he
wouldn't chew at us for being the last ones as long as we make it on time.

As Enoshima and I got closer to the dining hall, I could hear some muffled voices 'Did they had
already begun?', I didn't stop to question it much as the both of us got inside the cafeteria.

"―F-Fine?" I heard someone say.

"S-She's p-probably dead! S-Serves her r-right for volunteering for something th-that stupid"
Fukawa stated, close to Togami.

"T-Toko! Don't say things like that!" Maizono exclaimed.

"We shouldn't make those kinds of claims! They are still on time for the meeting!" Taka replied.

"Yeah! I mean, she was with him just a few minutes ago, there's no way something happened to
her!" Hina exclaimed.

"Perhaps you already forgot about his talent? As if someone like him needs more than some
minutes to commit the deed…" Togami stated.

"Togami is right! Wh-What if―"

"' What if' what?" I commented.

Everyone flinched and some gasped at my voice, after that, they turned to me in complete silence.
"…Did you guys took me for dead already?" Enoshima deadpanned.

"Junko! /Enoshima!" Several voices exclaimed.

Said fashionista winced "Geez, you don't have to be so loud. Yes, yes, I'm alive, I told ya guys that
I would be fine"

"So, she is still breathing, what a surprise…" Togami commented with some amusement from his
table.

"Dude, don't be so pessimistic…" Leon replied.

"Wh-What a relief, nothing bad happened!" Fujisaki said.

"Enoshima! Shigaraki! I'm glad you reported on time! Please take a seat!" Taka said with open
arms and a smile.

And so, we did. Enoshima took her seat…

While I did the same, sitting between her and Owada.

Some people gave me weird looks, maybe expecting that I would pull a Togami and sit at a
different table.

Wait.

…Where's Kirigiri? It doesn't seem she's on another table.

Well…she seems like someone who is very curious and unlike me, she didn't have any restrictions,
she must've made use of that to spend more time investigating, it seems.

And about the other reactions…

Owada gave me a look, but that was about it with him.

Enoshima seemed…relieved that I did so? 'Maybe she thought that with the incident from earlier I
would try to avoid her? Well, I am not a petty person to react that way…At least I think I'm not,
and even if I were, right now there are more important matters than spending time acting like a
brat'

Thankfully, before it could get awkward, Taka exclaimed/shouted to gain our attention.

"Okay! I can see that everyone's here! I believe it's time we begin the meeting! Let's all go around
and share what we found out during our respective investigations! The sooner we find out what's
going on, the sooner we get out of here!" Taka exclaimed.

Before anyone could give their findings, Enoshima interrupted.

"Wait, hold on a sec!"

"What's wrong!?" replied Taka.

"What about, uh…What's her name? Y'know, the silver-haired girl" So she noticed it too.

"Kirigiri?" I supplied.
"Yeah! Her!"

"What's wrong with her?" Taka questioned.

Ah, they forgot about her.

"She's not here…" The fashionista commented.

"What!?" Yep, they did.

"I wonder where she went. Has anyone seen her?" Hina asked.

I looked around as everyone gave a negative response.

"W-Wait, so NOBODY'S seen her…?" Fujisaki questioned nervously.

…I doubt she's dead. I'm not saying nobody here is capable of killing, I have enough experience to
know that it's just a matter of motivation, but that's it, not even the weakest minded in our group
would follow along on something like that this early, and I am willing to bet that the smarter ones
already have an idea that taking their time knowing their environment would be wiser than rushing
it in the first day if they were to commit such an act.

"Darn it, Kirigiri! You're going to be late like this on the first of school!? Not only is she late, but
she also didn't tell anyone she would be late! A most unbecoming personality trait…" Taka
exclaimed.

…Is he serious?

"You're being a real jackass right now, you know that?" Enoshima asked incredulously 'No, he
doesn't…'

"Well, what do you want me to do!? Punctuality is everything!"

"Putting that aside, I wonder where she is…?" Maizono asked.

"…W-What about the-the assassin…?" Fukawa asked.

The room went silent at that.

Sigh, here we go.

Everyone is completely justified in having those kinds of thoughts, they aren't unfolded after all…
but it's getting tiring…

…Or maybe it's just that today has been emotionally draining? Which is novel to me.

Anyway.

"What about me?"

"D-D-Don't play d-dumb! Y-You probably saw her as easy prey, c-considering that she was al-
alone!" The writer exclaimed.
"Mmm, it is a possibility…" Togami mused.

"N-No…" Fujisaki trembled.

And before they fell into a spiral of paranoia, again, someone interrupted them.

"Aww come on, guys! Freaking seriously? I was with him the entire time! I'm pretty sure that girl
got lost or something" Enoshima exclaimed.

"It is true that you were with him…" Ogami commented.

"Yeah, he's been all day with the fashionista, lucky bastard…" Leon said, muttering the last part.

"B-But―" Fukawa tried to argue more but was interrupted by one of Yamada's fantasies.

"I have the answer to this mystery!" That probably means he doesn't "Could it be that Master
Shigaraki used his assassin powers to create a shadow copy of himself, then used it to attack Miss
Kirigiri, while his original-self stayed with Miss Enoshima the entire time as an alibi!?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

…I was worried for a second that someone would believe that. Even Fukawa seems like she's
doesn't want to keep pushing it if those are the kinds of answers people are going to come up with.
Like seriously, from where did the idea of me having some kind powers came from? '…Well, I
have that stealth thing, but it's not a power, it's just a skill that everyone can develop with enough
training. Oh, it's not because it's easy, hell no, it took me years to being capable of using it even as
an Ultimate with great affinity for those kinds of things. But everyone can follow the steps required
for it…'

"…Anyway, it is true, not the assassin powers," Yamada slumped down at that for some reason
"but that I was with Enoshima all day, I never had a chance to try something even if I wanted to,
which I didn't" Well, there were those 30 minutes, but they don't need to know that.

"…Maybe she's an accomplice―" I'm not gonna let that thought get any further.

"That's impossible, the rules say that the person who kills is the one that will become blackened
and the only one allowed to leave, there's not a single word that indicates that an accomplice could
benefit from helping the killer in some way"

There was a silence as they contemplated that, which I used in my favor to end this.

"There is a high possibility that Kirigiri found something that the rest of us couldn't, so I suggest
that we continue with this meeting, instead of wasting time pointing fingers. If the worst-case
scenario occurs, in which she doesn't come here at all, we can form groups of 3 people to act as
search parties, alright?"

That seemed to finally make them avoid getting any more distracting ideas.

Once again Taka took the lead of the conversation "R-Right…Yes, you are correct! No more side-
tracking! I declare that the first session of the Hope's Peak Academy briefing meeting has begun!"

"Um…I believe we should do an introductory briefing for Naegi, is that okay?" Maizono asked.
"Yeah…I'm kind of lost, you know, because of what happened at the gym…" Naegi trailed off.

"…Right, sorry about that, dude" The biker replied.

"N-No it's okay! Everyone was on edge during that moment, haha…Anyway, about what
happened…?"

"Right, Maizono! You have permission to proceed!" Taka declared.

Maizono nodded at that "Okay, so since you're in the dark about all this, let me lay out what's been
going on. Everyone split up to investigate different parts of the building, but…Togami and Taka
each went off on their own, and so did Kirigiri, while Enoshima and Shigaraki formed their team"

"Shigaraki and Enoshima? That's a weird combination…" Naegi mused.

"Tell me about it man, but we needed someone to keep an eye on him, nobody but the chick
volunteered, and well…it happened" Owada replied.

"And you people allowed that…it seems I was right in thinking you were a bunch of ignorant
people if you left someone like the fashionista with the assassin instead of using the martial artist
to keep him from trying anything" Togami stated.

Not even ten minutes and Togami was alienating himself, the rabid look Owada was giving him
told me that much, even if what he said has some truth to it…It seems I will have to do him a favor
for the both of us.

"I already gave most of the people here an explanation of why attacking the person who was with
me during the entire exploration would be a terrible idea, an seeing that Enoshima is here, I believe
it's pointless to push this discussion further instead of focusing in what this reunion was originally
about, right?" I explained.

The heir gave me a glare that said 'Don't you dare to ever try to made a reply against me ever
again, commoner' but beyond that, he didn't say anything else.

"Soo…can we get back on track or…?" Enoshima asked.

"Of course, I will begin then! I spent some time looking around the dormitory, and there I made the
discovery of the century!" Taka exclaimed.

That caught my attention, did I miss something that important in there?

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes! I found that there was exactly one room for each person!"

"…"

"…I mean, I'm pretty sure Maizono and Leon discovered that first…Anyway, Shigaraki and I took
a look around that area too. Each door already has a nameplate on it, and it seemed that all the
rooms have been assigned already" Enoshima explained.

"I also noticed that each room key was attached to a keychain with the owner's name added to it" I
added.

"We also found out that all the rooms are totally soundproof" The fashionista commented.
"Yeah, no matter what kind of sound you make in your room, none of us will even hear a whisper
of it" I stated.

"Before coming here, I also went to take a look at my own room, it seems each of them also has a
private bathroom, which could also lock" Celeste commented.

"But it looked like there were only locks on the bathrooms in the girl's dorms" Enoshima added.

"…Okay, so they got a bunch of rooms ready for us. They're assuming we're gonna be here a
while…" Owada commented.

"Well, better to have than have not! At least we don't have to worry about surviving like wild
animals" Taka exclaimed.

"Th-That can't be all you have to r-report, can it Mr. Honor S-Student?" Fukawa asked.

"…" The moral compass was silent for a few moments before…" That's all for my report! Let's
move on to whoever's next!"

Togami took it as his opportunity to speak "I wanted to try and find some clue as to who's
responsible for imprisoning us here…But unfortunately, I made no such discoveries. That's all
from me…"

…Disappointing, but not unexpected.

"That's it?" Taka asked.

"If I'd discovered anything else, naturally I would have more to say. But I didn't. So, I don't" Was
all the heir said.

"R-Right, understood…"

"In any case, it looks like Leon, Hiro and Chihiro all grouped up together" Maizono continued.

"Ah yeah, we did that! Leon-chi, Fujisaki-Chi and I looked around in the gym and the classrooms"
Hiro commented.

"Right, we checked all classes around the school area to see if there was something out of place
while checking those weird windows, to try to take them out y'know?...But nothing. Not a damn
thing. We couldn't get a single one to budge even a little bit" Leon commented.

"Adding to what Leon said, I also tried to see if some walls of the classrooms were hollow or
reinforced. Unfortunately, they were the latter…" I added.

"Huh? What's the point of that?" Owada asked.

"In the case that they were hollow, I thought that Ogami could've helped us 'create' our own exit,
but chances are that the entire school is reinforced like that…" I explained.

"I see what you mean. Indeed, it is something that had some merit to work…" Ogami replied.

"It seems there isn't any hope of escape anywhere…The school has been totally cut off" Fujisaki
said with wet eyes.

"…This sucks…It REALLY sucks! It sucks sucks sucks sucks SUCKS! What the hell are we
gonna do!?" Enoshima shouted blue on the face.
I slightly widened my eyes at that 'She seemed to get frustrated when we found dead ends on our
search, but to this level? She never reacted this strongly…Did she bottled it up? It is possible…'

…It actually kind of bothers me that I didn't notice that.

"Goddamn, calm down! You're starting to make me feel nervous! How come you were so calm and
okay with spending all day with a guy that is literally the Ultimate Assassin!?" Leon asked.

And at that everyone turned to the Fashionista, because it was a good point. So good in fact, that it
is something I am curious about it too.

It seems she noticed the stares as she snapped "Oh, come on people! Are we, like, going waste time
to talk about this junk for a hundred time!? He has done nothing wrong so far and it has literally
helped in saving the life of one of us! It just happened that I noticed that and I thought he wasn't a
danger to us because of it, and seeing that I'm here with not a single scratch, I believe that proves
my point, doesn't it?" She finished with narrowed eyes.

While people like Togami and Celeste didn't look completely satisfied with that answer, the rest of
my classmates seemed subdued and some even looked ashamed of bringing back the topic about
me, I almost felt some kind of pity for those last ones. But at least it let the matter to rest before it
could escalate.

As for me…I believe that those doubting me are more correct than those who believe the image of
me she has made…It feels weird to have someone stand with you in these kinds of moments…It's a
very foreign feeling for me, but not a bad one.

"Um…Moving on, Hina, Sakura, and Mondo formed their own group. The same goes for Celeste,
Toko and Hifumi, though with them it was more like they were left over, so they joined up"
Maizono stated.

"We thought maybe we could find some way to communicate with the outside, so we went looking
all over! But…we didn't find a thing. Sorry…" Hina said.

"After that, we went back to the main hall, thinking maybe we could do something about that giant
hunk of metal. But even with Sakura and me both, it wouldn't budge. We hit it with desks and
chairs, and nothin'…It was hard as, like…metal" Owada said, though it seemed he noticed until last
second how…weird that last part sounded.

"Well, yes, it IS metal…" Celeste commented.

"Anyway, this guy next to me also told me that he has seen one those things before, at least a
similar one, and apparently, he can confirm that no matter what kind of shit we throw at it, it ain't
gonna do crap. If we're gonna get outta here, it's not gonna be through there…"

It seemed that Hina was going to say something when…

"I am actually interested in what you just mentioned" Togami interrupted and then he turned to
look at me "Is it true, plebeian? Do you have experience with a vault-door similar to the one in this
place? It would do well for you to talk about it, for your own good…" The heir stated.

"Togami is right! Erm, except for the threat part, of course. If you have something you could tell
us about that door, maybe it might help us to find a way to escape!" Naegi added.

"Th-That's true!" Fujisaki said in a hopeful tone.

"Any insight you could give us would be invaluable! Shigaraki, please proceed, you have our
entire attention!" Taka exclaimed.

Once again, for who knows how many times in this day, everyone turned to me, only this time,
almost all of them did it with bright expectancy and hope in their faces, believing that I could have
an answer to our despairful situation.

…Sigh, Maybe should've kept my mouth shut back at the main hall…

"…I will tell you what I know, but only the facts that matters, it's of no use to get too detailed about
this…"

"H-Huh? Why? Getting all the details you could tell us will help a lot more, right?" Naegi asked.

"A-Are you trying to h-hide something or why so s-secretive!?" Fukawa accused.

At that, the excited mood of the group soured and some of them began to give me suspicious
stares.

…It seems I will have to be more specific.

"…The information I have comes from a job I did a few years ago…I don't believe you guys are
eager to hear a detailed description about how I took care of the 'targets' or the 'obstacles' of said
job, am I right?"

"E-Erm, by targets and obstacles…of what kind are we talking about?" Yamada asked.

"…The kind that someone with the title of Ultimate Assassin would encounter, I don't think I have
to be more specific than that…"

The blanching faces and widened eyes of my classmates gave me the answer of that.

"N-No, you don't have to be! Please be as discrete as possible!" Yamada exclaimed.

"R-Right, no details…" Leon added with some nervousness.

"…Sure. Basically, this job involved a very rich and influential person which was becoming a
threat to some even more important people because of…a disagreement they had. Said person was
aware that someone was coming for him, so he bunkered himself underground" Before continuing
explaining, Fujisaki of all people interrupted me.

"Um…I-If he was being a problem, why they didn't talk about it first to resolve the problem
peacefully? I-Instead of…doing that? It sounds as if he felt hunted…and that's pretty cruel…"
Fujisaki said on the verge of crying.

At that statement, the atmosphere of the room began to grown depressing, as most of them agreed
with the sentiment of the programmer.

"…There were attempts of peaceful negotiations, but…the 'target' wasn't willing to accept the
terms, he wanted more than what was offered…I probably should clarify that he wasn't a good
person…so you shouldn't feel bad about him" It's not like that would've made a difference for me,
though.

And I can see that neither for Fujisaki's or the rest of the group mood, but for completely opposite
reasons.

…Can't say didn't try.

"As I was saying…The only way to get to him was through a vault-door. From what I remember, it
was not the same as the one we have in this place, but it was similar enough and got the same job
done: No matter what I tried, nothing could make that door budge…In any case, at some point, the
'target' himself made the mistake of opening the door and I used that as my chance to get myself
past the door―" And once again I was interrupted.

"You are saying that he knew he was being targeted…and he opened said vault-door just because?
I believe this piece of information is the most important you have to offer, but you seem intended in
hiding it, hiding it from me. Know that there are consequences to such disrespect against a Togami.
I order you to correct that mistake immediately, you insolent fool" Togami snarled.

Everyone was looking at him as if he was either crazy or suicidal for talking that way to me 'Well,
everyone sans Enoshima. She looked more like she was more than happy to help him on the
suicidal part, if that glare was anything to go by…'

Fortunately for him, I have more than enough reasons to avoid committing acts of violence
anytime soon…That and it's been LONG since I developed the mental fortitude to ignore the
arrogance of the likes of him.

…The problem is that if I don't word this carefully…I don't know how they will react, and with
Celeste here, I can´t lie either.

"…When I say a mistake…I didn't mean the way you are imagining Togami…it was more like a
miscalculation in his planification, most probably because of how hurried up the 'target' was to
hide himself, said error forced him to eventually come out of his hiding"

"Erm…you mean, like, he didn't bring enough food with him and he was forced to come out to get
more…something like that?" Naegi guessed.

"…Something like that. In any case, it would help to get to the point of this if I don't get
interrupted anymore" I stated.

It really helped the way Naegi said that sentence…something like that could be interpreted as
many things, so it wasn't a lie.

That seemed to be enough to satisfy everyone's curiosity at the question of the heir '…Except
Celeste's, that smile of hers tells me she knows what I did there, but she also seems to understand
that it wouldn't benefit her in any way to push the matter'

"After I…took care of him" Even with that wording, they still understood enough to wince at what
I implied "I inspected the inside of the vault…and that's where I found out a diverse amount of
intel, including some in regards to the vault-door…among said information, it explained how that
person was capable of opening it…I have reason to believe that the method is similar here" I
explained.

I also grimaced when everyone's faces began to brighten, all full of hope, believing that a way to
escape it's at their hands.
How wrong they are…

"Really!? Then it is possible for―!" Hina seemed to get pumped up, but I interrupted her.

"Before anyone gets carried away, I will clarify: The method used to open the vault-door…was by
activating their own personalized switch that comes included with said vault-door. It is safe to
believe that such switch it's secured by our captor, IF it does exist…" I stated.

All of my classmates seemed to finally get an idea what I was getting at. While it is true that a way
to open the door now has the chance to exist, the circumstances make it so it's basically impossible
to even try such method.

I was aware that everything I said just now it's basically useless information, that's why I wasn't
interested in sharing it, but I also know that if I stayed silent, and avoided sharing this type of
information when someone asked for it, I would be seen as suspicious and things had a big chance
to go south.

Enoshima's actions allowed me the possibility to be seen as someone that even with my talent, I'm
not a threat that needs to be taken down or restrained in the eyes of the group, and that's an
invaluable resource that will be of use no matter which course of actions I take in the future. If all I
have to do from the time being is to act in a cooperative manner to keep up that cover, then I can
adapt to that.

Thankfully, though…I managed to alter, well, more like omitting some details of the mission, said
details aren't useful to our circumstances neither, but revealing them could be…inconvenient.

"So, we are back to square one, huh? Crap…" Leon commented.

"It was a waste of my precious time to ask, it seems…" Togami said with disdain.

"I feel like I could just cry…But no, I have to hold it in! I have to manage my hydration…!" Hina
exclaimed.

"Getting the discussion on track…I shall tell you another detail of our investigation…It has nothing
to do with communicating with the outside world, but it's still worth worrying about. In both the
school and dorm areas, there was a set of stairs leading up to another floor" Sakura stated.

"But there were gates there, and we couldn't find a way to open them, so it wasn't possible to check
it out" The swimmer added in a worried tone.

"…In other words, at this point we are only able to search the 1st floor. We can further assume that
there is potentially something beyond the 2nd floor too. If that's the case, it could lead to a way
out" Finished the martial artist.

"…It seems it is my turn to talk of what my group did. If I am honest, I can't quite say we acted as
one, rather, we did NOTHING as one. We spent the entire time in the gym. Honestly, we are not
exactly the types to go running around a school like a gaggle of novice detectives" Celeste stated.

"What the hell were you thinking, just sitting around the gym the whole time and doing nothing?"
Enoshima exclaimed.

And she was right, just walking around the school would've enough to contribute in some way.

"W-Well it's not like any of you i-invited me along! Nobody said: Hey, c-come with us! I blame y-
you for leaving me out! I-It's your fault!" Fukawa snapped.
"If you wanted to go with someone, you should've said something!" Enoshima said with furrowed
brows.

"Hmph, F-Forget it, Like I'd w-want to go anywhere with a dirty s-slut like you…"

*Twitch*

"Slut…?" The fashionista echoed.

"Your brain is as th-thin as your body. You m-make me sick to my s-stomach…"

What, all you have is hair instead of brains?

…Again with the brain thing…

"I-I bet someone like you might e-even―"

"You are being quite rude, don't you think?" I said in the most neutral tone of voice I could
manage. As much as I didn't like what Fukawa said, I am aware that snapping at someone wouldn't
do me any favors.

Though I couldn't avoid narrowing my eyes.

Of course, in moments like these, even that was too much. The writer yelped while losing the
bravado to keep saying anything else, but it seems my words also affected the rest of my
classmates, if the total silence from their part is anything to go by.

Besides Enoshima who was sending me a grateful smile, the rest were looking at me with some
level of trepidation, probably fearing that my next move will be to attack Fukawa, though there
were some special cases, like Celeste, who instead was looking at me with calculating eyes and one
of those deceptive smiles.

But once again, Hiro seemed to be in his own world, and in some kind of weird way, it actually
helped this time.

"Alright guys, everybody just calm down, okay? All this stress is bad for your skin, y'know?"

"Yeah! It sounds like you two are so close now you are fighting like sisters!" Maizono added.

…I'm just gonna take that as her just trying to defuse the situation.

"In any case, it looks like I'm the only one left. I went and had a look around the dining hall, I
found a pair of fridges in the back of the kitchen, and it was overflowing with all kinds of stuff. I
guess we don't have to worry about food, at least!" The idol exclaimed.

"Sure, for now. But even with all that, there are sixteen of us. How long can the food last…?"
Yamada commented.

He had a good point; it would be a matter of time before the food ends. Could it be that's going to
be one way to motivate us to kill each other? By starvation?

"Y-You can just eat sesame s-seeds of something…" Fukawa replied.

"Huh? What am I, a parakeet?" Yamada sweatdropped.

"I don't think we have to worry about it. All the food gets restocked automatically each day. At
least, that's what Monokuma said…" Maizono commented.

"You saw him too!?" Enoshima exclaimed.

"Yeah, he came out of nowhere while I was checking the fridge, told me that, then disappeared
again. He was so fast; I can't believe someone could have been moving him around with a remote
control…"

"Geez, with Shigaraki and I it was something like that too, one moment we were investigating
somethin' and then he appeared out of nowhere to mess with us and was gone just as fast, that
bastard…" The fashionista grumbled.

"A weaponized toy that can just appear from nowhere. I can't tell if we're supposed to be afraid or
not" Fujisaki said nervously.

…You just have to repeat that in your mind to know the answer to that.

"But was everything okay? He didn't try to like, eat you guys of anything" 'Eat?'

"E-Eat them…?" Ugh, I can already see where he's going by the face he's making… "Um, what do
you mean by that? I mean, when you say 'eat', what kind of eating are we talking about?" Yamada
said salivating.

Everyone reacted to that.

"C-Come on, man!" Hina exclaimed wide-eyed.

"What the hell, fatty!? You're acting like some kind of sleazy drunk dude" Leon added.

"Not like there's a good kind of drunk dude…" Hiro trailed off '…He's not wrong, but…'

"Hey! Stop screwing around, all of you! Are you still asleep or something? We're prisoners here!
We could all just die any second!" Enoshima snapped.

"She's right. We can't be makin' stupid jokes right now. We gotta do something, or―!" Before
Owada could finish that, someone else interrupted him.

"You're all spending an awful lot of time yelling and carrying on" A voice that hasn't been heard
during this discussion said.

It was Kirigiri

"Do you really think you can afford to do so? Have none of you accepted the reality of the
situation?" The mysterious girl chided.

"Kirigiri! Where the heck have you been!? We already started the meeting without you!" Taka
exclaimed.

But Kirigiri just ignored him and went to the table to drop a piece of paper on it.

I and everyone else looked at the paper.

"This is…?" Naegi asked.

"It appears to be a map of Hope's Peak Academy" Kirigiri answered.

I gave the map a more detailed look. 'So, I was right…she actually found something. I knew she
had a knack for these things. Her mysterious talent must be related to that'

"A map…?" Naegi echoed.

"Wh-What the…? Where did you find this?" Taka questioned.

"It doesn't matter where I found it" Was all Kirigiri intended going to say.

"It DOES matter! You're really freaking us out right now!" The moral compass exclaimed.

And he was right 'Not the freaking us part, though', but it is obvious she won't tell anything more.
Out of everyone here, she's the wariest of us '…Even more than me, considering how weird I've
been acting recently…'

Enoshima seemed to understand that in some way, as she didn't push the matter further "Never
mind that. What does it mean?"

"The building we're in right now is laid out in precisely the same way as Hope's Peak Academy"
Kirigiri stated.

"So what you're saying is…this really is Hope's Peak Academy?" Naegi asked.

"Well, in terms of its construction, yes…" While Kirigiri's expression was unreadable, the tone of
her voice told me the skepticism at Naegi's implication "But it looks like it's had a number of
strange…renovations were done to it"

"Renovations…?" Naegi echoed.

"But then…this really is Hope's Peak. We didn't get kidnapped and taken to some other place…"
Fujisaki said nervously.

"I don't think that's the case Fujisaki…" I commented.

"Eh? Why do you think that?" Hina asked.

"H-Huh? D-Did you found find something else?" The programmer added.

At the mention of that, everyone, including Kirigiri, turned to me…again.

What is this, my popular phase?

"It's less that I found something else and more that everything points to be just impossible for this
to be Hope's Peak" I replied.

"Do you have any evidence on that?" Kirigiri asked, it didn't have any confrontational emotion to
her tone and it wasn't an accusation either, she was just looking for the facts on what I am claiming.

"…In a way. You talked about the renovations done to it, I'm assuming this includes the steel
plates, the vault door and the mounted weapons at the main hall, correct?"

She simply gave me a nod.

"There's also a chance that the surveillance cameras and those TV's all around the building are part
of it, but I don't have a clue on that. In any case, even with the first three things I listed, the
installation of all that would take weeks, and that's being generous, I don't need to be the Ultimate
Architect or Engineer to know that. It's also a fact that not a single one of us saw any of those
things before getting knocked out. Finally, we couldn't have been unconscious for that long, we
would've starved or developed a terrible physical condition if they did feed us like some kind of
comatose patient, so they didn't have the chance to install all of that within the time frame of our
slumber. It is reasonable to believe that instead, they used that time to move all of us to a different
location which had all the preparations needed for the situation we find ourselves right now" I
finished.

…I think today I have talked more than in entire weeks, maybe months combined…

Once I was done with my explanation, I noticed that all of them were looking at me like I've grown
a second head, even Kirigiri was glaring at me with some kind of intensity that I don't think was
normal on her.

"What?"

"Dude…you're some kind of detective now or what?" Leon questioned.

"My, my it seems that way, doesn't it? To put together all of that with the little information we
have…" Celeste added.

Some gave their own nod of affirmation at that, but I just gave a quick explanation. I'm not
interested in getting side-tracked for some kind of boost to my ego.

"It is an important part of my talent to be observant of those kinds of details. Sometimes it's a
matter of living or dying to see if there's anything out of place in your surroundings. I'm sure
someone with the actual talent of Ultimate Detective or similar, would do a much better job at
noticing what I told you and some more" I commented.

It seemed to work as intended, as they stopped pushing the matter 'Well, Kirigiri still glared at me
for a few seconds before returning to her default thinking pose'

"…But if this isn't really Hope's Peak, then, where are we…?" Hina asked.

"Hey, come on, guys. Let's just stop talking about this…you know, negative stuff…" Hiro
commented nonchalantly 'Of course he did…'

"But aren't you worried? Things aren't looking good…" Naegi replied.

"Worried? What's there to be worried about? I mean, this was all planned out, right? The people in
charge of Hope's Peak put this all together, right?" Hiro said.

"…Is he serious right now?" Enoshima deadpanned.

"Man! If I got stressed every time something like this happened, I'd have ectoplasm shooting out of
my mouth" More like out of your brain… "Good things come to those who wait, right? So, we
gotta chill and everything'll work itself out!"

"Hahahaha!" Celeste laughed. 'Did his stupidity broke her…?'

"Wh-Why are you laughing? What's so funny!?" Fukawa snarled.

"I am just happy, that is all, it seems splitting up to investigate was a good idea, after all" The
gambler said with a smile.
"Haven't you b-been listening!? Looking around was a t-total waste of t-time! We d-didn't find a
way out, didn't f-find who's behind all of this. We still have no idea what's g-going on!" Fukawa
said with rising panic.

At that, Celeste made a face of faked shock "Huh? Is it not crystal clear to you what is going on? It
is perfectly obvious that we have been imprisoned in some secret location, with no way out"

"You didn't h-have to go and s-say that! I w-was trying not to th-think about it…" Fukawa
exclaimed.

…Denying the reality of the situation won't help anyone inside this place.

"N-No way out…We're t-trapped here. What are we supposed to d-do…?" The writer continued in
a shaky tone.

Togami made a mocking face at that "It's very simple. If you want to leave, you just have to kill―"

"Don't even think of joking about that!" Hina exclaimed.

"Everyone just calm down, please! We need to stop and think about what to do from now here"
Maizono exclaimed.

"There's gotta be SOMETHING we can do…" Leon said.

"All we can do is adapt. Adapt to living our lives here from now on" Celeste stated.

"Live here…? Are you saying we should just accept it?" Fujisaki asked in a distraught tone.

"A lack of adaptability…is a lack of survivability. Survival is not based on who is the strongest or
the smartest. It comes down to who can adapt" The gambler replied.

While it is true that the two of us probably have different ways of seeing the word, she is right, if I
used the same method for each job I had, I would've become predictable, and being predictable in
the environment I have spent more than half of my life, would've have costed me with a quick
death. Adaptation has been key for my survival so far, even now, me being here in the same table
as these people is proof of that.

"As someone who has come out on top more than once, I have a suggestion" Celeste said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Owada growled.

"We all understand that we are trapped here. Which means we will be spending the night.
However, you all remember the rules regarding nighttime, right?" The gambler commented in a
completely serious tone.

Nighttime is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished
accordingly.

I remember…Those are the rules I used to suspect that there was an 'sleeping' area of sorts.

"So regarding this 'Nighttime', I think we need to add a rule of our own" Celeste said.

"What do you mean?" Naegi asked.

"Going out at nighttime should be prohibited altogether. The school regulations do not actually tell
us not to go out at night. I would like to make it official" The gambler declared.

"B-But why…?" Fukawa questioned.

"The way things are now, every time night comes, we will all start to get worried and anxious. We
will be afraid someone might try and come to kill us"

"What!?" Maizono exclaimed.

"If we have to worry about that, night after night for who knows how long, it will wear us down in
no time" Celeste explained.

"So you're suggesting we limit our activity at night as a kind of preventative measure" Ogami
replied.

"However, unlike other rules, nobody can be forced to comply. We all have to agree to follow it"
Celeste declared.

"I see what you mean. But…I think I can agree to follow that. It's like the little goth lolita said.
Without something like that, we're just gonna self-destruct" Enoshima commented.

In a way, she is right. What Celeste suggests could work as an extra layer of security for all of us…
It is a fake one, but I'm sure most of our classmates won't think too hard about it.

"On behalf of all the men here, I agree to comply!" Taka exclaimed.

…Well, I wasn't going to protest about it…I will just break the curfew when I see the need to do it.

"Hey, you can't just decide to speak for us!" Leon exclaimed.

"So everyone is in agreement? Good. Then if you will excuse me…" Ah, she ignored him.

"Huh? Wait, where are you going?" Fujisaki asked.

"It is almost nighttime. I want to take a shower before it arrives. So…goodbye" And that was all
the gambler said before leaving the dining hall.

"S-So I guess it's pretty obvious where we go from here. We'll be spending the night in this place,
it looks like" Yamada sweatdropped.

"Adaptability…" It seems like Ogami is musing deeply about it.

"So, Mr. Chairman…" Is she going to keep changing his name…? "What next? One person already
left" Enoshima asked.

"U-Um…Well then, what do you guys say we call an end to today's meeting!? Like she said, it's
almost nighttime anyway. We can reconvene first thing in the morning!" Taka exclaimed. 'I just
hope he doesn't take the role of a clock alarm…'

"Do we really have to stay the night here…?" Fujisaki asked.

"We don't have a choice. We can't go for long without getting some sleep" Enoshima replied.

"So we have to just give up…" Owada muttered.

"That's all f-fine and good for t-today, but what do we do tomorrow?" Fukawa asked.

"Our only option is to split up and look around again, and let everyone know if we find anything"
Ogami stated.

"Yeah, okay. Let's do that…!" Hina exclaimed.

"Then we're done for today? Good, I'm exhausted…" The fashionista commented before she left.

One by one everyone else left the dining hall too, myself included.

And with nothing else to do for today, I headed to my own room.

 A Holy Epilogue: At Her and Only Her.

A Holy Epilogue: At Her and Only Her.

As soon as I got inside my room, I locked the door, then I took off my gauntlets and jacket, putting
both items on the table, I also removed my shoes and finally…

I laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

I just keep doing that for who knows how long, at first thinking of nothing, then I began to try and
gather my thoughts.

I must’ve been busy doing that a lot because one last thing happened that interrupted the lack of
sound inside the room.

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Ahem, Ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially

nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, entry at that point is strictly
prohibited. Okay then…sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed
bugs bite…”

And with that, the silence returned.

“…So, the dining hall is the forbidden area, huh? Good to know…” I mused to myself.

…Kill someone to leave this place…

…Kill someone…

…Kill…

…Kill.

…I have so much experience with that word, that it has lost its impact on me. It is not that hard to
notice. When everyone started panicking and almost crying when that part was announced, I was
just exasperated at Monokuma teasing what my talent was about. The part about being trapped
here forever was the only aspect that actually caught me off guard.

So, the question is…I am capable of killing one of my classmates to leave this place?

Absolutely.
I don’t hate any of them ‘I don’t think I have ever killed someone out of hate…’, some even are
amusing to watch in some way.

But that’s it.

I have only spent a day here, I don’t know them at all, so I don’t have any kind of connection with
them, and as I have pointed it out before, if they were to die, by their or my own hands…I will not
lose any sleep over it.

The only thing truly stopping me from preparing to commit an assassination is the rule 6.

I don’t know how is he going to do it, but I’m sure that whoever breaks first and becomes the
blackened, will be set as an example by Monokuma. Because all this whole situation is just a form
of entertainment for whoever controls the bear, and he will not allow for someone to beat his game
this fast…He is that eccentric and arrogant.

It’s that lack of information that prevents me from even considering making a move, that, and the
fact that for the next days, everyone will keep an eye on me. I’m aware that when the first murder
occurs, all fingers ‘Maybe not hers…’ will be pointed at me.

So, the question is…do I wait until after the first murder occurs? That’s set in stone, and I’m sure
Monokuma will actually make that sixth rule clearer until that moment to mess with the blackened,
maybe I should wait more than that? The more I wait, the more the distrust will get on even
grounds to the point that me being the Ultimate Assassin will stop being a real concern in the
grand scheme of things, it will also help that I’ve been highly cooperative so far…

Or should I just wait for someone to rescue us? I don’t believe this out of optimism, but because of
logical thinking. At the end of the day, Hope’s Peak is worldwide famous, kidnapping an entire
class of Ultimates with people as influential as Togami included in said class, should make the
entire world make an effort to find us and get us out of this place, it could be a matter of days or
weeks…maybe months, but the possibility is definitely there.

If I am honest…I’m not in an actual hurry to get out, so I can afford the time…that and killing
someone outside of a mission is…foreign. Every single one of my ‘targets’ has been part of an
objective, they were done with purpose ‘Even if I don’t care at all about it…’, killing someone out
of selfishness…will be weird, but when/if the time comes, I am sure I will not hesitate. It may
sound arrogant, but it is just a fact of being the Ultimate Assassin in the same way that it is being
good with computers as the Ultimate Programmer.

Still…

So many choices…

…Of course, all that planning and scheming from before gets thrown out of the window thanks to
what truly has been in my head almost the whole day.

Junko Enoshima.

Even if I’ve been repeating to myself that I will take the ‘bedtime’ to reflect upon it, I am still way
too much conflicted when it comes to her.

All that talk about me not even beginning to start getting along with anyone here is absolute crap, I
am not blind, putting aside how this development with her is unnerving me, I was actually
comfortable in her company and I got bothered every time someone badmouthed her, for crying out
loud, I SMILED like three times in one single day and actually made an attempt of a funny
comment instead of just keeping it in my mind like I usually do, on the freaking FIRST day of
meeting her.

I don’t do that; it’s just doesn’t happen.

The only other person with which I’ve done that…is Her.

And then, there’s the fashionista herself, she’s…I will admit, attractive, that wig she has kind of
looks weird on her if I am honest, but everything else…the few times she didn’t do that grin and
peace sign gesture, but an actual smile…it felt nice, I could even dare to say warm. The freckles
give her that cute charm thing I talked about during our introductions which reinforces how
beautiful she is. She is well built and I could notice the muscles of someone who works out a lot
‘Specially on the legs’, and most important of all…

Her eyes.

Yes, those light violet orbs were also a trait that complimented her, but more than that…those rare
moments where they sharpened, I could see something more, it was something that would make
most people cry in fear and desire get to away as far as possible, but in my case…it was like seeing
someone similar to me, some type of kindred spirit, but above all of that…they showed something
wonderful that made my heart rate accelerate…

…Sigh.

I am well aware that I have some kind of…peculiar interest in members of the opposite gender
when they have traits like those: strong, dangerous, intimidating, lethal, unafraid of anything,
whose close company would put my life at risk…it is kind of counterproductive to my lifestyle
‘Even She pointed it out a few times…well, more like a LOT of times…’

You’re being a real creep with that weird kink of yours, drop it… or I will make you…

She really worries a lot about me, doesn’t she?

Some could argue that Enoshima was none of those, her talent and most of her personality points to
that.

Keyword: most.

While most of the time, she has this stereotypical ‘valley girl’ way of talking that could be…weird
and confusing in some moments, that wasn’t all that there was to her. In addition to her eyes, there
were some ‘slip-ups’ in which she revealed that there’s more about her than what she lets on, the
fact that not even once she was frightened in my company supports this. I am also aware that
judging a book by its cover could be wrong most of the time, Ogami is an example of that. Some
people would believe by her appearance that she’s an Owada 2.0, but that couldn’t be further from
the truth, on the contrary, she is one of the most level-headed members of our class.

The chances of the fashionista being a similar case, and the Enoshima with those sharp eyes being
nothing but the tip of the iceberg of her true self, is a real…and fascinating possibility in my own
confusing and paradoxical way.

…Look at me, trapped inside a fake school with another 15 people and a weaponized, robotic, and
murderous bear that has ordered us to kill each other if we wanted to have a chance to escape…and
my more pressing matters are related to puberty, being torn between dreading and desiring the
chance that one of my classmates actually results being more problems than what they seem at first
glance because I would find that alluring.

Those guys made a piece of work on me, didn’t they?

…Am I really compromised to that level?

I would like to think that finding a girl attractive wouldn’t be enough for me to make all this
drama…Ogami qualifies in some of the aspects I said about my taste’s thing, but beyond ‘liking
the sight’, that’s all there’s about it with the martial artist…but with Enoshima…there is more, I
don’t know what is it, just that it’s something different to physical attraction…

Sigh

…At least I managed to lay out all of that, if I am lucky, sleeping will be enough to compose
myself and sort my thoughts on the matter, and to think about it in a more rational way.

…If not…

…Well, I don’t think I will have a tight agenda for the foreseeable future, right?

As soon as Junko Enoshima got inside her room, she immediately locked the door, then…

She took off the strawberry blonde wig she has been wearing all day, revealing her short raven hair
in a bob haircut, and placed it on the wig stand that was on her desk, she got rid of her boots and
settled down to bed, sighing in relief before focusing her gaze on the ceiling.

…She kept her gaze there, with a completely blank expression for what felt like an eternity. Even
the nighttime announcement didn’t disturb her from what she was…or wasn’t doing.

Then she smiled.

She smiled until she couldn’t contain the giddy feeling on her stomach and began giggling.

To the few people who really knew her, they would be dumbfounded and even perturbed at the
state of the woman in front of them, not used to see her smiling, and even less laughing in any kind
of way.

But she didn’t care, she couldn’t care less about that right now.

After all, she was happy.

How could she not? She spent the whole day with Him.

At first, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t worried about how things could turn out, there were
hundreds of theories about how things could’ve proceeded in her head, and almost all of them
ended with him giving nothing more than a glance at her, doing the basic introduction thing, and
then only focusing on more urgent matters. ‘Maybe with some kind of sarcastic mental comment,
he tends to do that…one of the few liberties his lifestyle allowed him…’

Those fears intensified when he got inside the main hall and saw the mounted machine guns and
the introductions began, she could see that while he followed along with some of the…eccentric
behavior of her classmates, he only did it with the intent of having an understanding of who he is
surrounded with, cataloging each of them as different levels of threat or how they could be useful
in the dire situation they were in ‘Because HE knew it was dire, not 10 seconds passed where he
didn’t give a cautious glance at the weapons or the vault-door’

She also could admit that maybe…doing what she did when Sakura touched him was a mistake, the
logical side of her told her it was just the martial artist gauging him, but the side that won for just a
moment…well, let’s just say that she didn’t herself any favors ‘It is true that being caught doing
something like that would’ve gathered his interest, but taking the context into consideration…She
doubted it would be the kind of interest she wanted’

And then, the moment of truth…at first it seemed that it was going to be as she feared and He
would see her as just another classmate, but then, as if in some kind of miracle, something changed
just as fast, the usually neutral expression he carries changed to a conflicted one for a second, from
that, in the middle of their introduction, he did something she really, really didn’t expect…

What about your freckles?

When that question arose, she recurred to her common way of dealing with things out of her
comfort zone…snapping in the usual way that isolated her from her classmates and other people
throughout her life.

But not him, she could actually see the gleam in his eyes when she had that reaction, and once
again, he did something she had an even lower expectation of actually happening.

He complimented them, calling her freckles cute…

She knew he was being sincere, while in most people she could believe that it was a form of
deception, she knows that he wouldn’t waste time making a compliment like that one on a person
that he barely knew, not in normal circumstances, and even less when in a risky one, like the
middle of a kidnapping with mounted weapons pointed at him.

Unless it was her.

Plus, those conflicted faces and stiffness that showed his actual nervousness on the matter, told her
all she needed to know he was being honest.

…That, and the fact that it wasn’t the first time he complimented the dots on her face…

And the cherry on top of the cake was that he did something she believed would be impossible to
ever happen again.

He smiled at her.

At her and only her.

It was good he left as soon as he did, that way he didn’t noticed the absolutely shocked look on her
face.
He’s just not the kind of person that goes around doing that.

Even when he got used to her classmates ‘And they to him’, and actually joked around, he did it in
his usual stoic expression, betraying any form of amusement the tone of his voice could show.

But it happened, even when his memories of those times no longer exist, even when he was in the
middle of this killing game…and even when he doesn’t remember her anymore, he still did it…not
once, not twice, but three times in a single day…a smile.

At her and only her.

Just like before all of this…

It is true that he’s not the only one who has done that…Makoto Naegi is another person capable of
smiling at her, a smile full of happiness and hope, and it actually caused her no small amount of
happiness that someone like him could do that in her presence…but that smile wasn’t exclusive to
her. He smiles that way at every single person that he meets.

Of course, she doesn’t blame Naegi or holds any kind of grudge at that, she knows that’s just the
way Naegi is, a happy and hopeful person that always believes the best of everybody around him
and tries his best to use his optimism to improve everyone’s life day by day.

But that’s even more reason as to why it is a whole different feeling when Shigaraki smiles at her.
It is something he only does when in the company of her and at nobody else ‘…Well, there is Her,
but that’s a completely acceptable and valid exception, after all, That Person is his only family,
she of all people, can understand how important that is…’

A smile that didn’t faltered when they just began to meet and she…gave him a challenge in his
effort to befriend her. It couldn’t be helped at the time, even if she appreciated the smile, his talent
and her…cautious nature was bound to collide with each other, but even that didn’t stop him. In the
end, it would be the understatement of the century to say that he managed to connect with her on a
level she couldn’t believe was possible for her to achieve with someone.

It is also true that it helped, that, since the beginning, unlike the rest of her classmates, he never
tried to separate what she really was, with a more optimistic…but false version of her. He
understood her, the kind of things she did and didn’t paint them in a warped brighter version of
what they were that only worked as some kind of pity, but at the same time, he wasn’t repulsed by
her existence or actions.

Because he too had experience doing similar things, he could sympathize with her and vice versa
without feeling forced or fake. Not encourage each other actions…just sympathize.

When she was with him, she didn’t experience the dread of feeling guilty at unintentionally
tricking him into seeing her as something she wasn’t.

Even if now, not a moment passes where she doesn't feels terrible at what she helped happen to
him…

Overall, that’s what she adores the most of his smiles, she could always be her true self, no matter
how ‘disturbing’ her topics for conversation can get or how ‘scary’ she acts, she didn’t have to
worry about any of that making him uncomfortable, because he always listened intently at her
while the corners of his lips stretched upwards until they formed a smile.

At her and only her.

How could she not love that smile, when it’s the very first thing that is exclusive to her? The first
thing that allowed her to know that she could actually be selfish about something?

She lost the sense of desire long before she knew she had one. Her dream becoming duller day by
day, only focusing on following orders of her superiors…and then following orders of that person
to make them happy…but then that smile came, and even to this moment, not a day passes where
she would do almost anything just to keep him from doing that smile at somebody else. So he
would keep smiling only at her.

At her and only her.

And how could she not be happy and giggling right now? If even after all that had happened, he’s
still capable of smiling in her company.

At her and only her.

So yes, today has been a day that surpassed her wildest expectations. There were some worrying
moments, that’s true, like when she told him about how he apparently had a sense of humor and
the atmosphere had a complete shift in the mood between the two. She wanted to slam her face
against a wall at that moment, she should’ve known he was already way too much out of his
comfort zone, but she became greedy and pushed for more…she truly feared that his cautious side
would catalog her as something to avoid at all costs from that moment on.

But imagine her surprise when even after that tense moment happened, he still made one amusing
comment in an effort to lift her spirits, smiled at her, took a seat next to her during the reunion at
the dining hall, and even stood up for her when Fukawa began to have…one of her moments.

She kind of began to worry for a moment that maybe the memory erasure procedure didn’t work on
him, but she dismissed the thought just as fast. If he had his memories, he wouldn’t have acted the
way he did most of the time and would’ve called her out in those moments where they were alone
about her disguise.

Instead…she wants to believe that their bond is that strong, capable of going beyond memories…
yes, that is a good way of thinking about it…

“…I wonder if tomorrow will be just as good…” She said in a dreamy tone.

“Just as good as what?” Another voice in the room said.

She got on her own feet and readied for combat with a speed that nobody would believe belonged
to a fashionista, with a combat knife already in her right hand, she was about to attack the intruder,
she locked her sight on it and―

“Ju―!?” Stopped herself immediately.

“No! Nay! I’m Monokuma and I am your headmaster!” Monokuma declared.

She was grateful that she is trained to react just as fast to stop an attack as soon as she launches it…
of course, that didn’t stop her from staring at the bear with trepidation and dread growing in her
stomach.

“Of course…Monokuma…um, what are you doing here…?” She warily asked.
“Mmm, what I am doing here? Isn’t that what we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives? What
are we doing here? Such a philosophical question, but I have a better one…what do you think
you’re doing!?” The monochrome bear exclaimed.

Though she could easily defeat the machine in front of her and the person who controls it, she still
flinched “Eh? Ah…um, I don’t know what―”

“Oh, don’t play dumb, miss! You may be the physical incarnation of stupidity, but even you know
what I am talking about…You truly couldn’t stop yourself going after what’s between his legs,
didn’t you?”

She flinched again, while…that wasn’t what she was truly doing, she understood what that person
truly meant “I-I-I’m sorry…I just thought―”

“You thought NOTHING, do you have any idea of how many times you almost blew your cover in
just the first flipping day!? Like seriously, what’s was that bullcrap you pulled on the gym? I
mean, even that dumb failure of a musician could tell something was fishy with your whole act of a
fashionista being all defensive and friendly on a guy who is labeled as the Ultimate Freaking
Assassin!”

She lowered her head in shame, Monokuma was right, what she did was not supposed to happen.
The reveal of Shigaraki’s talent was meant to reinforce the chances of her classmates giving up at
the temptation of killing someone to escape, all thanks to the fear of being trapped with someone
known as the most talented assassin in the world.

And while it is true that they still are far from not fearing him ‘She could notice that almost
everyone flinched and tensed up every time he did as much as looking in their direction’, it was
greatly subsided thanks to her actions…thanks to her opening her mouth before she even knew
what she was doing, and all because…because the way everyone reacted at such reveal…it was not
that different to when his talent became known on their true first day…

Hope’s Peak Academy, Class 1-A, unknown time ago…

“Alright then, it’s good to have enthusiasm Yamada, but save it for later…much later…seriously…
now where was I? You…the one with the jacket and the gloves…ah, not you Kirigiri, the other
person with a jacket and gloves…the one seated in desk by the bottom corner…come here and
present yourself or whatever…geez, last night didn’t do me any favors…*gulp*” A man with
ragged blond hair and a fedora weakly stated as he drank from a whisky bottle.

She fought the urge of rolling her eyes at the current state of the man. Any respect she could
imagine having for him has been thrown out of the window in less than 10 minutes of meeting
him. Of course, she was talking about the 10 minutes of actually meeting him, because he had the
gall to come on the first day of class 3 hours later.

Anyone who dared do something like that back ‘Home’, would’ve faced a punishment with a real
risk of death…or an actual death on a bad day, for such indiscipline.

But well…she was far from there. All the friendly talking, laughing, joking, and enthusiastic
shouting her classmates are part of, was a testament to that.

If she was honest with herself…she felt uncomfortable being here. She doesn’t feel like she
belongs with all these teenagers that surround her…and she knows the feeling will be mutual, as
they will make that clear when she presents herself with her talent and they get to know her, it’s
always like that. It was only her desire to stay close and protect that person, that was keeping her
from dropping from this school.

Although…

She said that all of them make her feel out of place, but…there was some kind of exception.

The person on her right, a boy, slightly taller than her, pale skin, messy black hair, well-built if the
muscles were any indication. It wasn’t that he was a mass of muscles like that martial artist girl,
but it was more like a body built for speed and dexterity. Besides all of that, his most defining
physical trait that she could notice… was his eyes, they were golden and they didn’t look like they
were pupils, so they were natural most probably, which was an unusual sight…Overall, he was
pleasant to look at.

But she wasn’t interested in that, a pretty face wasn’t what caught her attention, it was two aspects
of him that were of interest: First, it was his expression, or more specifically, his lack of one. There
wasn’t joy, disdain, dread, sadness, nervousness, nothing…it kind of reminded of her. The only
change you could notice where when his dull eyes moved every few moments. He wasn’t the only
one with a neutral expression, true, that silver-haired girl from just a few moments ago was not that
different in that regard, but it only took her a few moments to understand that it wasn’t the same
and she also became aware of what he was truly doing with his eyes…

…He was analyzing all of their classmates.

It was less how that person does it and more…like she does, cataloging people as threats, how
much danger they represent, searching for ways she could neutralize them, how fast, which was
the most effective method…it was kind of bizarre. It was like looking at the mirror and seeing a
reflection that you recognize as yourself but with a different face, it didn’t help that when his eyes
landed on her and she instinctively sharpened her eyes with ferocity in face of the unknown,
instead of the usual frightened face or slight yelp she was used to, she could see how his eyes
slightly widened and his dull eyes became renewed with some kind of gleam on them…that ringed
a few warning bells on her head.

The second point was that while his face didn’t show anything, his body language kind of did,
again, she recognized it. For the average eye, it could look as if he was just bored out of his mind,
and that he was completely relaxed.

That was not the case.

She could see it, it wasn’t close to reaching paranoid levels where someone would jump at their
own shadow, but he was absolutely ready to react to any kind of attack that comes his way, his legs
were in a position in which they wouldn’t be a problem if he were to jump out of the chair, his
hands were ready to use the desk as a shield or a projectile, depending on the scenario, and all his
posture, in general, told her that he had his guard up…. more warning bells.

This person was also the one who was called by their Homeroom Teacher.

As soon as he moved out of his seat, any more glares she could give him was interrupted by that
person.

“Holy shit, not even one day here and you already are eating someone with your eyes, seriously,
what kind of horny slut are you?”
“E-Eh? N-No, it’s not that, it’s just―!” She tried to explain but was interrupted.

“I don’t care, now shut up and let me listen, I am kind of curious…”

That made her shut up. That person, interested in something? it definitely has happened before,
even if they get bored of it almost as fast as everything else, but it’s still extremely rare, in that
case…she should also pay attention if he’s that intriguing of a person.

When he got called out, it also attracted the attention of all her classmates, which didn’t waste any
time doing their own speculation.

“Oh man, that dude has the vibe I’ve looking for! I wonder if his talent is related to music? I could
use some bandmates, and the sooner I do, the faster I can begin my musical career!” Some red-
haired guy commented.

“Oi, are you dumb!? Look at those gauntlets, that high-quality shit is not different from what I and
the best of my guys use when on the road, it’s gotta be something to do with motorcycles! I bet this
bastard knows his stuff!” Someone with a pompadour haircut exclaimed.

“Hmm…I think I have seen that cross in his shirt from somewhere before, some kind of religion
perhaps? Could it be related to his talent?” A gothic lolita girl mused.

It seemed that the girl hit bullseye somewhere, as she could notice that he gave a quick glance at
said girl, unlike the previous guesses that he simply ignored. So, he’s part of some religion? His
talent is related to something like praying? He didn’t give her that feeling.

“I don’t have any idea. I investigated who was going to attend Hope’s Peak, to know who were
going to be my classmates, and I couldn’t find anything about him…” A boy with an ahoge said.

While that also caught her interest, any more guessing was stopped as the mysterious boy finally
was in front of the entire class.

At first, he didn’t say anything, he just stood there, looking at each one of the people inside the
room, it was no longer a calculating look, like the one he was having when he was in his seat, there
was something else instead, nervousness? Panic? Dread? Trepidation? Shyness?

No.

She knew what it was…it was the same feeling she was going to have when she presented
herself…

Resignation.

It wasn’t the kind that had some kind of depression or any other negative emotion to it, it was
simple resignation, he already accepted that whatever he was going to say next would cause a
negative reaction and there wasn’t anything he could do nor he was going to make a true effort to
change that.

Just like her.

After ending his stare contest with the entire class, he finally spoke.

“Shizuka Shigaraki, greetings…I am the Ultimate Assassin” he said simply, but there was some
firmness in this tone, in the same way any other serious but normal student would present
themselves, an absolutely normal introduction.
Of course, what was inside said greeting was anything but normal.

Even if her body acted on instinct and she had already her favorite weapon ready but hidden from
everyone’s sight, her mind was still trying to process that single sentence.

She wasn’t the only one, everyone except that person saw him as if he spoke an entirely different
language, even their drunk of a teacher looked completely sobered now, looking intensely at the
teenager in front of him.

Eventually, someone found their voice once again.

“…Um, Excuse for my rudeness at such action, but I think I might have misheard you…What is
your talent again?” Someone with big brows and red eyes asked.

“Ultimate Assassin” He repeated, as if he was getting asked what was his favorite color.

“…You are joking…right?” The red-haired boy asked.

“No”

There was an awkward silence, where not even she knew how to react, until…

“Hahahaha oh man! You wanted to look cool for all of us on the first day, am I right? but seriously
what is―” Some hobo-looking man said, but was interrupted by him.

“That is my talent”

“…Eh?”

“…Professor Kizakura, correct me if I am wrong, but you and the headmaster were informed of
this, did you not?”

For the first time since she has seen him, her teacher took a completely serious stance and spoke
clearly, finally looking like a proper educator.

“…Are you a member of the H&%Y S#%#$#$#N S$#%#&Y?” It sounded like asking for
confirmation, but she could understand that it was meant as a statement.

“Yes, I am” The tone of his voice was as neutral as ever and he didn’t even had a moment of
hesitation to answer that ‘question’, he clearly expected it and had confidence in answering it.

“…”

“…”

“…*sigh* What were those guys thinking, pulling a move like this, this must be some kind of a
bad joke…”

Huh? What was he talking about? Why does it sound as if this wasn’t a choice of the
HEADMASTER of Hope’s Peak itself or a scout, like it normally happens when getting recruited
into this school? As if the decision of bringing him into this place was made by someone else?
Like…

Like…

Just…like…her…
The warning bells inside her head hadn’t ringed this much in years, scratch that, she doesn’t know
if they ever did it this high.

“Um…P-Professor…d-does that mean th-that he truly is…?” The red-eyed boy from before trailed
off as if for the first time in his life, he didn’t want the answer to the question he made.

It looked as if the teacher was weighing his options between telling them or not. After a few
moments, finally, he made a decision “…Yes, he is not lying…he truly is the Ultimate Assassin…”

Not even the sound of breathing could ever be heard now with how silent the classroom was, it
was like that for only a few seconds, though, and then the sound returned in a truly weird way.

“Ah, the Ultimate Assassin, I see, nice to meet you…” Some obese boy with glasses said casually
‘Huh? Is that really the reaction such an announcement is going to―’ “Ultimate Assassin!?
EEEEEEEEK” ’Ah’

And from there, chaos erupted.

“W-WAIT, IS IT REAL!? AAAAAAAAH! Batman, Jesus, Buda, Odin, save me!!!!”

“U-U-Ultimate A-Assassin!? What is this…!?”

“What the fuck!?”

“I-Is he going to k-kill us!?”

“Are we going to die!?”

“Aaah…this is bad…we are going to die…so sad…”

“N-No way…!”

The panic continued for a few more minutes, and amidst all that, she dared to look at the one who
caused it all.

He remained the same…no, there was a change.

She may not be the best people person, she is at least aware of that, but she could recognize the
face he was making, even if he still looked as blank as ever, she could see the slight change in his
expression…she has done that face too before, after all. It says…

Geez, I knew something like that would happen, sigh…

But that was it, beyond that, he didn’t seem to hold any other opinion about this situation.

And before the screams and panic disappeared someone nudged her on her left, it was that person.
Although it had a panicked and scared expression, she knew it was only faking it, probably to not
make itself suspicious, the tone of its whisper betrayed said expression.

“Neeee~, aren’t you happy? Your crush is the same kind of pathetic weirdo as you! A loser who
doesn’t know what to do with his life other than taking others’ lives! Upupupupu, what were the
chances of that? Someone out there truly threw you a bone, huh?”

She couldn’t avoid the heating up of her cheeks at the implications, even if they were completely
false. No, there wasn’t anything romantic in what she felt about the person on the other end of the
room, if anything, she felt wariness. How could she not? Someone labeled as the Ultimate Assassin
is bound to be an actual problem to even someone with her talent.

He was not someone to have a crush on.

He wasn’t even someone to make friends with.

He was a threat.

It took some time, but eventually, with the help of their teacher and some of the most strong-
minded individuals like the Togami heir calling everyone a ‘pathetic excuse of an Ultimate for
allowing such announcement to scare them’, things calmed as much as they could with someone
like him inside the room.

“…Shigaraki…you can return to your seat” Her teacher said in an exhausted tone.

She could see how some of her classmates flinched at the mention of the name and some even
yelped when they saw him getting closer to them as he moved to his desk.

When he took his seat, she didn’t flinch, but she almost lashed her weapon at him out of instinct…
and worst of all, she could see that he did took notice of that, after all, to do what she almost did,
she had to move the blade out of its hidden spot, even if it was for just moment, and it seems that
was all he needed.

She retrieved it just as fast as when she pulled it out in her attempt of an attack, the combat knife
was out of its hidden spot for less than a second, to the point she was confident nobody else noticed
the weapon.

Nobody but him. The way his face immediately turned to her just a moment before she pulled that
move was evidence that he was capable of feeling her killing intent.

She could notice in his body language that he was as ready to counter that attack as she was ready
to launch it, and even now some parts of his body twitched in anticipation of her next move,
especially that one hand he had close to the insides of his jacket.

And upon their faces there was a staring contest, while her eyes were sharp and menacing, with a
scowl on her face, his expression was still the same stoic one he had since the beginning, but it
didn’t contain any mocking, arrogance, or similar senses of superiority, he was taking her with the
most seriousness he could muster. Even when he understood the caliber of the opponent in front of
him and the possible deathly consequences of a defeat, because she knew that he knew, he didn’t
back down from her gaze. In her own way, she was glad that she was being respected in such a
way, but…there was something else, something…strange…that gleam of his eyes returned once
again, and though it was hard to see, it almost looked as if the corners of his lips were about to
twitch, as if they wanted to move in a certain way but at the same time restrained themselves…it
was weird, if she was honest.

But leaving that aside, she had to wonder: who would make the first move, it would be her? Him?
There is also the fact to take into consideration of how―

“If you are going to kiss him, I will throw up”

“Eh? / Eek!”
“And finally, you, the girl next to…Shigaraki, please come make your introduction” Her teacher
announced.

Kind of relieved to leave that…incident behind, she left with a bit more hurry than what she
intended, fortunately, nobody paid any mind to that.

Once she was in front of everyone, she had already fully recovered her composure and her serious
face, and not wanting to waste any time she proceeded as instructed.

“Greetings, my name is $&#=#O $#=#$#A and my talent is the Ultimate S#%#$#R” She stated
with tone of professionalism and a salute befitting of her talent.

At the beginning, she could see that her classmate’s reactions were going to be similar to what they
were during his introduction.

“Ultimate S#%#$#R, I see…Ultimate S#%#$#R!? Eeeeeek”

“Is she serious!?”

“N-No way…!”

“Awwww man! What the hell is wrong with this school, bringing these kinds of people!?”

“Aaah…we are truly going to die…this time for real…so sad…”

To her surprise though, there was a divergence from what she expected.

“…B-But h-hey at least it’s not like…y’know…is not the same right?”

“Y-Yeah, I think I get it, a S#%#$#R…it doesn’t truly sound…um, evil?”

“I mean, when you think about it, doesn’t Ultimate S#%#$#R sound like some kind of protector of
the people, that’s their job, right?”

“Oh! I see! Two similar powers, but of completely different affiliations! One a force of darkness
ready to strike from the shadows at those who least expect it! While the other is a blinding light of
justice, bringing just punishment to such evil! Aaah! My ideas are flowing, I definitely must use
this!”

“I-Is th-that so…?”

“If you put it that way…”

“Then she must truly…”

…Huh?

It’s not like her objective was to be intimidating on purpose, but that was just how she was and she
had long since accepted it. All the things she has done thorough her life were a testament to that,
being intimidated of her was completely reasonable and in most cases, should be encouraged. All
the blood in her hands, good and bad, points to that conclusion.
But the things they were saying… kind of bothered her.

They didn’t know anything about the two of them, not that she knew him either, but…that image
they were making of the two of them, they were filling their own story of who they are, without
actually knowing anything in the first place or even having any kind of clue on the matter.

She knows it’s a temporary thing of the heat of the moment, and they will be back to fearing her in
the next days, she could see how nervous they still were and the cautious glances every single one
of them was giving her, still…the fact that they were idolizing an image of her that they created
themselves for their self-satisfaction…it felt wrong.

Then she dared to look at the other side of the coin, at him, and she saw…

Wh-What!?

It can’t be real…

She was curious at what his reaction would be to all of this, granted, she doubted that with his
blank expression she could see anything, but even so…she expected a lot of things, all of them
negative. She expected some irritation or annoyance on his face or even something like envy, envy
that even with a talent so similar, she got some kind of acceptance, acceptance at the cost of even
more isolation for him without truly making an effort. She expected for him to buy that distorted
image the rest of her class was giving her, not even bothering to truly acknowledge her. She
definitely expected that now that he knew her talent, he would flow with hostility against her.

But not even in her wildest moments of imagination she could have foreseen what he did instead.

It truly turned her entire world upside down.

Because what he did…was that he…

…He smiled at her.

It was not some kind of super friendly or big smile, on the contrary, it was so small that if she
hasn’t seen how stoic he was the entire day, she probably couldn’t have noticed the difference in
his features.

It didn’t have any ill intentions and neither was full of deception like that smile the gambler seems
to do all the time, the only thing she could notice about it, is that it had some kind of expectancy
with the gleam of his eyes returning at full force, as if he was glad of being in the presence of
someone like her.

Such smile…directed at her…

As much as she tried to believe that it was an illusion, no matter how much she blinked, or tried to
feel the presence of someone behind her, believing that he was directing it at someone else, his
eyes were absolutely locked on her.

It was there for her…a small but completely sincere smile.

At her and only her.

Someone smiled at her…at her…

Someone only and exclusively gave a smile at her.

The first smile directed at her in her entire life.

Even after that brief exchange, where he saw a part of the kind of person she truly is and the danger
she represents.

Someone did something like that even with that factor into consideration.

She didn’t know why he did it.

What possible reason he could have inside his head to commit such action.

She was aware having these thoughts of someone with the talent of Ultimate Assassin wouldn’t be
the wisest of ideas.

But.

But.

But…

…Maybe…

…Just Maybe…

…She wouldn’t mind if he did it again.

Remembering that day, kind of made her feel bad for having that negative reaction on him at the
beginning…but at the same time, maybe that was the kind of first step both needed to truly begin
their path to understand each other, in their special way.

That was also why she did what she did in the gym, it just felt like she needed to pay him back for
that day, she just couldn’t allow for it to repeat itself, even less during that moment, she felt that
she owed him that.

“…”

“…”

“…You were having some kind of flashback, didn’t you?” Monokuma deadpanned.

“Ah! Monokuma…erm, um, y-you see―” She stammered at being caught so easily.

“But nothing! Geez…you are lucky most of them are a bunch of idiots who will think of it as some
weird quirk of yours, and those who don’t and are less gullible, they are so stuck up on their asses
to do anything about that stunt of yours”

“I-I see…”

“I don’t think you do…but where was I? Ah yes…how much you failed me and almost ruined it
multiple times in your pursuit of his sausage…but I guess it can’t be helped, after all, you’re an
ugly, fat, bitch whose only quality is to kill people, and he is a leashed loser, a creep and a cult
freak whose only quality is to kill people. For real! It’s on plain sight for anyone with eyes how the
two of you are pathetically made for each other!”

W-What?

“…You…”

“Hm?”

Did Monokuma really mean all of that…?

“You…”

“Oh? Did I break you? Finally noticing the consequences of your actions? How disappointing you
are?”

She had to know…

“You…you really think so?” She asked with a smile and wide eyes.

“…Eh?”

Putting aside the annoyance she felt at that person when Monokuma insulted him, she focused on
what mattered to her about what the monochrome bear said.

“You…you seriously think that we…that we would look good together?” She asked now with her
cheeks heated up and fidgeting with her fingers.

Could they be together…like that? Shigaraki and her formed a truly special relationship in the time
they spent together. They were the best of friends, and even if the two of them weren’t the most
social of people, that didn’t stop them from always finding something to have a good time with. If
they didn’t have a topic to talk about, they enjoyed high-intensity sparring sessions of all kinds
where they didn’t have to hold anything back and could last until they couldn’t move any muscle,
and if they didn’t feel like it either, they just simply relaxed in each other silent but comfortable
company.

But even with all of the previously listed activities they did together and even other special
moments they had throughout the time they have known each other; they never took a step further
than that. For all she claims about understanding him and vice versa, she never knew if he felt that
way about her, and she feared taking the initiative and ruining what they had created between
them. But if the possibility is there and…and if he were to ask that question, she…she wouldn’t
mind.

“…”

“…”

“…Of course your dumb ears take it that way, but I’m kind of impressed you actually ignored the
‘failure you are’ part, in the past, that made you act even more disappointing than what you usually
are, though I should’ve known that would happen if I involved him in the conversation…”

“Eh?......Ah! N-No! I-It’s not like that! I-It’s just th-that when you said―!”

“Don’t caaaare, it doesn’t matter right now, what I want at this moment is to get into the heart of
the matter!”
She corrected herself and stopped from both fantasizing about him and dreading from her recent
failure, to listen to what Monokuma had to say “…Hearth of the matter?”

“Yep! The next course of action, if you will! You see, at first, I thought of ordering you to get
away from him and to never interact with each other ever again…like I may should’ve done since
the beginning, so you couldn’t compromise things even more…”

Her blood ran cold at that.

G-Get away from him and…n-never interact with him again? If she does that…

What if that makes him lose the last bits of interest he still has on her? What if their bond breaks
forever because of that? What if he finds someone else to rebuild one?

She can’t allow that.

“W-Wait! N-No! You don’t need to do that! I promise you I can―!”

“Are you deaf? I said AT FIRST…geez, I almost pity that guy. Now, as I was saying, I had a
change of mind. You could say…that when I saw you two…how the barrier of his lost memories
didn’t seem to stop your bond from beginning to form again…I had an epiphany! As if the juices of
the universe bathed my body! Something in me clicked that made me think: Sure, go for it, girl!”

“…Huh?” That person couldn’t actually mean…

“…Right, stupidity incarnated…what I mean is…I will not put any restrictions on your pursuit of
love!”

She couldn’t believe it, the more this conversation went the more the dread in her stomach ‘and
heart’ grew exponentially, until this declaration.

Before she could allow herself to get rid of said dread, she had to confirm it “Really? Can I spend
time with him and you would allow it?”

“As you heard it! Let never be said that this bear isn’t a fan of romantic couples, even the terrible
ones! And it would also help me, y’know? With you around, I can have an extra pair of eyes close
to him to keep tabs on his movements…you can do that, right?”

She nodded furiously “Yes! I can do it!” A way to please that person and spend time with him? It
was a dream come true!

“Upupupu make sure of that, and also to expand your bond with him all you can, don’t forget to do
that! And…well…one more thing…”

“Of course! What is it?”

“You remember the other plan we have, right?”

Her excitement from before subsided at that. That plan…yes, she remembers. It was one of the
things that person has grinded into her head, as it will be a key factor that she will have to play.

“Ah…yes, about that thing I will have to do in a few days, correct?”

“At least your head hasn’t lost all of its brain cells…yes, that, you will do it, right?”
…If she goes with it…It hurts her to be separated from him…but she couldn’t allow herself to fail
that person again, a part of her already feels terrible for how much she ruined it today.

The other is still in absolute joy with how this day turned out.

She knows she has to do this.

Even if it feels wrong in more ways than one.

But…

At least it wouldn’t be forever like Monokuma suggested previously.

So, without further hesitation…

“Absolutely…you allowed me to still talk to him, even with the risks that represent…following
that with no protest is the least I can do for you!” She exclaimed with vigor.

It is a shame that she won’t be able to see him after that for quite some time…But! Out of all her
classmates, she has absolute faith that he will be okay! He’s in his natural environment after all!
And when he proves how worthy he is, she is sure that she can convince that person to allow him
to join them, and she is even more sure she can convince him to accept such an invitation.

Even if it sounds cruel, she is aware that he has no attachment to any of their classmates anymore,
so their deaths wouldn’t affect him in any way.

She wished she could say the same about her…

But with her…all the signs are there! He still has her subconsciously in his mind. Even if it’s
weakened, their bond hasn’t broken! And she has a chance to strengthen it enough so that when the
time comes…she will be together with him again while making that person happy at the same
time, it is perfect!

The side of her that doesn’t believe that such an outcome is perfect is completely dismissed.

“Fantastic! That’s what I wanted to hear! And just so you know, this will be the most important
task I will have you do, so make sure you don’t ruin it!”

“Understood! I will not fail you again!”

“We will see about that…You must know that the success of this plan is one of the most important
objectives I have. After all, ‘The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall’…and if it goes as
expected, well, out of all of them…I can’t wait to see his fall, Upupupupu…”

“Eh? What are you talking about?” She asked genuinely confused, what does all that mean?

“Oh, don’t worry your stupid head about it, I am the brains and you are the muscles, remember?
Just make sure you follow the plan to the letter and EVERYTHING will be fine. Anyways, that is
all I had to say, see ya!”

Once that sentence ended the monochrome bear disappeared from her room. With nothing else that
needed her attention, she returned to her bed and prepared to get to sleep.

Sleep…and dream. Dream of the future that awaited her…with him at her side…

…
…She also ignored that weird sense of dread inside her, said dread that told her that something
about what Monokuma said is just wrong, but she dismissed the feeling.

That person didn’t say anything wrong, she only said that she was allowed to talk to him and to
follow that plan, and that is exactly what she is going to do.

After all, she absolutely trusts in that person and doesn’t have anything wrong to think about the
person controlling Monokuma.

That’s not true…

That bothering feeling in her stomach must be just the fact that she didn’t have any meal today.

…Right?
 A Bunch of Happy (And Not So Happy…) Coincidences.

A Bunch of Happy (And Not So Happy…) Coincidences.

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and
shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

“…I’ve changed my mind, I prefer Taka as an alarm clock, at least he’s not THAT obnoxious…” I
said while rising from my bed.

Once I got out of the bed, I began to do some light stretches to get the blood flowing. While I was
doing that, I allowed myself to do some light pondering.

The truth is, I woke up since an hour ago. Not because I couldn’t get any sleep, oh, quite the
opposite, in fact, it’s been so long since I’ve slept so well and that much. But because of that same
thing, I couldn’t get any more sleep.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

In any case, the extra time allowed me to reflect on yesterday’s events.

…Well, there wasn’t that much to reflect on, if I am honest. Someone has made me and another 15
teenagers his prisoners inside a false school with no way out and wants us to kill each other with
the objective of getting some twisted form of entertainment and for us to get the big price: our
freedom.

Just like the ancient arenas of the past. ‘Huh, I wonder if that’s intentional…’

And it has to be for entertainment. Our captor seems to have quite the eccentric and sadistic
personality ‘Which I have no doubt we haven’t seen the worst of it…’ while at the same time, he
seems willing to put Byakuya Togami, heir of the Togami Corporation, into such a dangerous
environment, and that is something you want to avoid if you are interested in getting any ransom
out of him. So, money doesn’t seem to be on the list of things our captor cares about.

…That’s about it with the ‘Killing Game’ issue.

…About the other one…

Good news, I don’t feel like I could have a mental crisis by just thinking about it anymore.

Bad news, I haven’t resolved any of it.

Of course, I am talking about Enoshima.

So, basically, all that stress from yesterday is gone, which allowed me to have a clearer mind about
it…but even with that, I don’t know what to do.
I thought of taking the most direct route of just cutting off any future interactions with her. If I cut
off the root of the issue, then there’s no problem, right?

Right.

…But…

…Well…

…We only have the first floor available, correct? It would be inevitable to bump into her at some
point.

…And interacting with someone will get the rest of the group off my back, isn’t that true? It’s just
a bonus if the company is of someone I can tolerate and vice versa.

…Add the fact about that possible ‘other side’ of hers, leaving that unchecked would be
problematic, right?

Right.

Even if… I am comfortable with her company, I just have to make sure that I don’t become truly
attached to her, so I don’t get compromised, easy to do.

…Ugh.

Moving on…

With all of those points resolved ‘Yeah, right…’ and feeling like I’m done with the light exercises,
I decided on focusing on my next move.

Maybe I should give the place another look around? It is true that I didn’t investigated every corner
available, with even a few places that I haven’t set foot at all. It is also possible that the other
groups from yesterday could’ve missed something, and meanwhile, I could also go check those
places with the yellow tapes too on the way.

A shiver raw through my spine when I remembered my first experience with those things.

Either way.

It is possible that some of them may be gone now, it’s not something out of the realm of
possibility. I remember that yesterday, before meeting Monokuma, almost every door was locked,
and after our ‘Entrance Ceremony’ ended, they got unlocked, it doesn’t hurt to give it a try and see
if something similar happened.

I made the necessary preparations before leaving my room with that plan in mind.
After taking a shower, using one of the changes of clothes available in the wardrobe ‘It is actually
worrying that they are the correct size…’, taking my weapons, e-handbook and room key with me
and seeing that I won’t need the hammer anymore, storing it in the toolkit, I left the room.

With all that done, I began to move in search of those rooms with the yellow tape.

The first one I checked was the one close to the gate that would lead to the second floor in the
dorm area. Same as yesterday, it was completely blocked. Then I moved to the one close to the
dining hall, the one labeled as ‘BATH’ and…no changes.

Disappointing, but I hadn’t big hopes on this so…meh.

If I remember correctly there are two more places like these in the school area, one was a nurse’s
office ‘Maybe? It has a label which says that…in any case, a place like that could be useful…
which means that most probably is still blocked’

And the other one was an orange door with a sign above it which said ‘STORE’, said door is also
the closest one of the two. The choice is obvious, it seems.

I should go there, and after being done, head to the dining hall. Even if I am capable of keep going
for prolonged periods of time without sustain, it is not something I should abuse of.

The walk around the school area was as uninteresting as the living area save for one thing.

While walking in search of this ‘Store’, I found the unusual combination of Ogami, Hina, and
Fukawa walking and talking together around the halls, well, it was more like Ogami and Hina were
doing the talking and walking together while the writer was trailing behind them mumbling
something.

Or at least she was doing that until she caught sight of me, yelped, and hid behind Ogami, which
made the two athletes turn their attention out of their talk to turn at the person who made Fukawa
react that way.

Me.

I suppose they have gotten kind of used to my sight, seeing that instead of the flinching or the
readiness to retaliate against anything I might try against someone ‘In no small amount thanks to
Enoshima’s actions yesterday…’, they just opted to look at me warily.

The staring continued for a few seconds until I decided that I didn’t have the time to deal with this
‘Well, I probably had, but definitely didn’t want to spend it like this…’ and began to move again.

Until Hina called me out.

“Um, Shigaraki, wait!”

And so I did. I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face her. Then I waited for her to
continue whatever it is she wants.

“…Erm, where are you going?” The swimmer asked warily.

I just shrugged while I gave my answer “…Just investigating the places that I hadn’t the chance to
see yesterday”
“…I see…um, you’re not trying anything bad, right?”

…Does she really expect me to answer that?

“A-Are you dumb!? Do you really th-think that he’s going to tell you if he’s up to anything!?
Ugh…why I am with these pair of muscle heads…” Fukawa exclaimed in exasperation.

“Hey! That was super mean! Yesterday you were complaining about how nobody invited you!
That’s the only reason I asked you to come with us!” The swimmer commented while pouting.

“I never a-asked you to invite me in the first place! I-I would protest a-against you dragging me
into your meat dimension…but it is either you o-or getting myself exposed to him!” The writer
replied while pointing a finger at me.

…I really don’t want to keep being part of this.

“In any case, I am just trying to explore that which I didn’t had the chance to, and as I said before,
it’s still too early to submit to the desperation of trying something like becoming the blackened.
We can’t discard the chances of a rescue effort coming anytime soon” or later…or not happening.

Either way, that last part seemed to work to get them off my back.

“Ah, that’s right! We can’t forget about that! Okay, that got me pumped up! Fukawa, Sakura, let’s
go get some donuts to renew our energy!” Hina stated.

“…Indeed, that and a healthy meal would do us well to redouble our efforts in finding an escape”
Ogami added with a smile.

“…Ugh, if that gets m-me further away from h-him, then let’s go already…” Fukawa added with
resignation.

And with that, the three of them left…to the dining hall if their little conversation was any
indication.

I didn’t want to put my chances of finding someone else to interrupt my search to luck, so I decided
to get going too, just in the opposite direction of the trio.

After walking for a few minutes, I found myself standing in front of the orange door with the
‘Store’ sign…and to my surprise, it actually was completely free of any tape.

Huh, lucky me.

Not wanting to waste any time, I got inside the room.

The insides of the ‘school store’ were…interesting to say the least. As I’ve pointed out before, I
don’t have much experience with schools, but I am sure that a school store doesn’t look like an
antique shop.

Because that’s how this place looked. Everything around seemed to be some kind of relic or had
either a historical or artistic value, all of it as scampered as you would expect in a place like that.
There were paints, ancient ornaments and toys, ceramic products like pots, cups, and plates, and all
other kinds of items that wouldn’t be strange to find in a museum.

But what caught my attention the most, is the other person that was already here before me.

“Hm? Oh, Heey Shigaraki~! How’s it goin’?” Enoshima said with a grin and a peace sign.

…Of course, why not, my second interaction in the day it’s her…

“…Good morning, Enoshima…about your question, I was just looking around the ‘school’,
searching for any changes, and seeing that the both of us are here, it seems there were some…”

“Yep, I was too, like, super bored, so I decided to have a tour around to kill time, not like there’s
that much to see…but then I found this place! There’s lots of stuff here, though most of it seems to
be some historical stuff and kind of pretty useless to help us escape…well there’s that armor over
there, maybe it could be of some use, but…” Enoshima commented while developing a thoughtful
look at the end.

…I mean, it is true that an armor might look like something really useful in a situation like the one
we the one we find ourselves, but…

“I don’t really think that’s the case, looking at it, I feel like it would be more problematic than
useful to whoever wears it” And I was being honest. Covering your entire body that much with an
armor like that, in an ironic sort of way, it will endanger you more than actually protecting you
because―

“I get what you mean, anyone who wears this junk would be better off without using it in the first
place. Like, sure, that much defense would look convenient and all that, but it would end up killin’
your maneuverability, which in turn, would end up making yourself vulnerable of blind spots
others can exploit. If you stop yourself to look at it carefully, I don’t think this thing is designed to
be worn” Enoshima commented casually.

“…”

“…”

“…Yes, I was thinking something like that…”

…If it were anyone else, the alarm bells in my head would’ve been ringing at full volume, but…for
some reason I feel like it’s just a common thing with her and that it’s fine.

I mean, this is not the first time she had a slip up like that one ‘…I am being too lax about this?’

Anyway.

Another thing I have managed to notice is the fact that while the catalog of items is quite
extensive…nothing here seems particularly dangerous. It is true that in the right hands, even
something like a spoon can be lethal, but discarding those ‘right hands’, nothing here is truly
murdering material…curious.

Even more curious is one last item I took notice of; it was quite eye-catching considering that it’s
probably the only thing that looks ‘modern’ in comparison to the rest of the things here.

“…Is that a vending machine?”

“Ah…that, yeah, if I remember, Monokuma called it the ‘MonoMono Machine’, ugh, that thing
really sucks with names…” Enoshima commented.

That caught my attention “…Monokuma? You talked with him?”

“Well, it was more like the bear talked with Naegi when he came here a few moments ago with
Maizono. That boy may look like an herbivore, but just one day here, and he was on a date with the
Pop Idol herself! Such a player~!”

“…”

“…Either way, he too got curious about that junk over there and that’s when Monokuma appeared
and told him that he could use it to get all kinds of stuff with some stuff called ‘Monocoins’”

“Monocoins?”

“I know, as if the ego of that piece of scrap wasn’t big enough…in any case, he told Naegi that he
could get those things by searching for them all around the school. If you ask me, I believe he was
just messing with him to watch him run around the school searching for them while lookin’ like a
weirdo”

…Huh, wouldn’t that be a sight?

“…Yes, that seems like something Monokuma would do…though just in case, I will keep an eye to
see if I find one of those ‘Monocoins’…it will probably be a waste of time, but it doesn’t hurt to
know what can be found inside…that thing”

It seemed that Enoshima wanted to say something else, though before doing that, her expression
changed to a very serious one.

“Yeah…Hey, listen, I just wanna make this clear right up front”

It must be important if she’s putting aside the playful tone she usually uses…

“What is it?”

“It’s about yesterday…don’t get the wrong idea about any of that, okay?”

…Huh?

“…What are you talking about?”

“I mean, I hope you’re not expecting anything from me. Gotta keep my virtue safe, ya know?”

…Virtue…?

…Ah, shit…

She is talking about that incident with the public bathhouse, isn’t she?

“…Listen, whatever it is that you are imagining, it’s not like that, I would never try anything of
that kind”
Even with all the things I’ve done…I would never reduce myself to committing something like
THAT…

For some reason, that answer made Enoshima smile at me, not the grinning exaggerated one, but a
small and sincere smile.

“I figured. You’re not that kinda guy, right? Looking at you, even with that talent of yours, I get a
total ‘Omega Male’ vibe. But still, they say even the tamest guy can turn into a wild animal. So I
figured I’d say it anyway”

…Okay, I guess.

I didn’t understood half of what she said if I am honest. But I think she got that I hadn’t perverse
intentions with her, so that’s good.

“Don’t ask me why, but I seem to attract guys like that. They call me up super late at night all like,
‘Hey, let’s hang!’ Like I don’t know what that means!” The fashionista exclaimed with a frown on
her face.

I…suppose that makes sense, she is a very attractive and famous person, and scum like the one she
is describing wouldn’t waste an opportunity to try something on someone of that status.

“Anyway, so we all get together, but the whole group’s full of dumbasses! Keeping creepos like
that away is like a full-time job, ya know?”

Actually…

“…I see what you mean, as the Ultimate Fashionista, you must have a bigger set of skills than one
might see at first glance, being more than just a model who takes photos for magazines…I guess,
in that sense, as the Ultimate Assassin I can understand that, there are so much more things to take
into consideration in an Ultimate than what the name of its talent could lead most people to
believe” I commented.

And that was a fact, when people think of an assassin, most of the time, they just think of someone
who’s just good at being sneaky and stabbing people, and that would’ve been the case…like two
thousand years ago.

I have no doubt that there are other exceptions among the Ultimates…like Enoshima in this case.

“You…you actually get it, don’t you, Shigaraki?” She said that with a smile no different from the
one just a few moments ago, but just as fast, it changed to her grin with a peace sign one “You DO
get it, right? You totally get me!”

“Maybe…Maybe not” I’ve only known her for little more than a day, it would be pretentious of me
to claim that I have an understanding of her or her life just because I’ve talked to her a few times,
it’s not that simple.

That would also imply that I am connecting with her and getting truly attached, which I am not, I
am simply―
“Listen, maybe I can introduce you to some of my friends sometime!”

…Introduce me to what?

“…Eh? Enoshima, I…I don’t think―”

“I don’t want to hear excuses~! I can see what you’re thinking, ya know? But you are
underestimating the people I know as the most popular fashionista in the world! I bet I can find
you the right person. You clearly need an aggressive girl, who doesn’t fear anything and can be just
as dangerous if you don’t tread carefully to keep up with you! Yeah, I think that’d be good for you!
Someone who’ll go after you and not give up!” Enoshima exclaimed with a grin.

…I underestimated her…

…How…

…How does she know!?

Am…am I that obvious about it?

Or It’s…It’s part of her talent as the Ultimate Fashionista?

If my face showed any of the shock I was having internally, Enoshima didn’t comment on it, as she
continued.

“I’ll find the perfect girl for you as soon as we get outta here! Hehehe! I hope you’re as excited as I
am! I can already see how―”

*Grrrrrrrrrr*

…Huh, for a moment I thought that was me. It seems I am not the only one who hasn’t eaten
anything this morning if the red face of embarrassment from Enoshima is any indication.

“E-Eh? Erm, um, y-you see, th-the thing is…” She trailed off.

“…*sigh* Don’t worry, I believe none of us has have consumed anything in more than 24 hours, it
is a normal reaction, which is why that was actually my next destination, I suppose you should
come too”

That seemed to make her forget about that incident immediately.

“O-Oh?......Alright, yeah, that sounds awesome! I’m totally looking forward to a homemade lunch!
You are gonna make it for me, right?” The fashionista commented with a cheeky smile.

“…Excuse me?”
“What? You already inviting me to the dining hall, that’s what you intended, no? Or…you were
just saying I should come only to cook something for ya?” She asked with narrowed eyes.

I didn’t mean neither of those, though…

“…If you are okay with eating what someone who only knows how to make pretty basic stuff can
do, then I guess it is fine”

Although I don’t know what does it says about her the fact that she is fine with an assassin making
food for her…

“Oh, that’s not a problem, I don’t really have any preferences or dislikes for anything, so you just
pack whatever you feel like! But…I guess I can help a little bit if you promise to eat what I
make…” Enoshima commented while playing with a strand of her ‘hair’.

Huh, so now she does wants to make something…she’s so confusing at times.

But…

“…Sure, I can do that” I said with the corner of my lips stretched upwards.

…Sigh, I did that again.

Maybe I should think of it as some kind of tic.

…That only happens when I’m with her.

Whatever, I am not going to ruin my own mood before eating, that will have to be something else
to download when I hit the bed, again.

It turned out that the first murder attempt in this school happened on just the second day of living in
this place.

Such an attempt was made by no other than Enoshima and me.

And worst of all…

…It was against ourselves in an effort to make something beyond the ‘basic stuff’.

At first, we were intended to make something simple as we agreed in the school store. At least that
was the plan until we caught sight of the kitchen itself.

Just like Maizono pointed out yesterday, the place was overflowing with food. On the right corner,
there was a huge pile of stacked vegetables of all kinds like cabbages, carrots, eggplants, lettuces,
and bell peppers, among others. On the opposite corner, we could see a few fridges and a display
counter. The display counter was full of all types of steak, chicken, and fish, while the fridges
contained drinks and other mixed products like eggs, butter, cheese, sausages, etc. In the middle of
the room was the main part of the kitchen.

Said part included a microwave, a pair of ovens, a sink, cabinets, and drawers, some of which were
full of condiments and spices while others contained cookware like pans, bowls, spoons, and the
like. But most notorious of all…

Knives.

Six of them. Hanging on the wall, each of them different in size.

Enoshima couldn’t hide the wince when she saw them.

“I mean…this is a freakin’ kitchen, of course there would be all kinds of cooking-related stuff, and
that includes the knives, but still…”

“Yes, those are probably the first real weapons” ‘With the exception of my daggers…’ “found
inside this place…and there are six of them, it will be important for people to keep an eye on them,
so they don’t get ‘lost’…”

“It’s not something I wanna think about, but I guess you’re right, we can’t be too careful in here…”

Leaving aside that grim moment.

All in all, if we had an Ultimate Cook with us, he would probably feel in paradise with this place.
‘Save for the killing game part, of course…’

At least I believe that would be the case, I’ve never seen so much food together in my life.

It wasn’t like I suffered from a lack of food during my years in the orphanage, but it was just
enough to go through by day by day. Though it’s not like I’m complaining, on the contrary, I am
quite grateful that at least I had something to eat back then, because when They came, well…

While it is true that some missions I’ve had involved infiltration, where some of them I attended
parties of rich people, with all kinds of plates full of food at my disposal, I could count with my
fingers the times in which I actually had any chances to try any of it, and in all of them, it was only
just enough to keep the facade.

So yeah, this is kind of a foreign experience to me, having all this food and actually getting a
chance to try it.

I looked to Enoshima and she…seemed deep in thought about something while looking around the
kitchen, she then put her sight on me, nodded at herself, and gained a look of absolute
determination.

…Huh.

“Hey, Shigaraki…what if we forget about making some simple junk, and we try somethin’ else?”

“Something else?” I said with a quirked eyebrow.

“Yeah! Like, we have all this stuff, it would be, like, a total waste if don’t make use of it, right?”

“…Enoshima, I already told you, cooking is not something I have practice with”

And it’s true, for all the different types of skill-sets I’ve developed over the years, cooking was just
simply not one of them, there was always more important things I needed to spend my time with.

“C’mon, don’t be like that! It could work for gaining experience or somethin’ like that, and it
would be fun! Didn’ ya said back at the school store that we can do more than what our talents
imply by just the name? Are ya really chickenin’ out of doin’ some cooking, Shigaraki?” Enoshima
commented with a cheeky grin.

…I guess she has a point, not because of the fun part, but…I’m not going to be using most of the
skills I have anytime soon, or at the very least, not at their full potential. Using this free time I have
to get experience in something new, like cooking, could probably be of use for something else in
the future.

That, and seeing that our captor is offering an ‘everything you can eat’ that replenishes every day,
then might as well take on his offer, making use of the most expensive things he has. ‘That
actually sounds kind of petty…meh’

“…I suppose you have a point” I conceded.

“’Course I do! Let’s get down to business! And don’t worry! It’s just some cooking, it can’t be that
hard, right?” The fashionista commented with her usual grin and peace sign gesture.

“…Right…”

And that’s when things began to go south…

After getting what we thought would work as good ingredients to make a decent meal, we opted
for making one dish each, as a competition of sorts. I thought that Enoshima must have some kind
of experience in the area to make that declaration with the confidence she did, but I didn’t really
had a problem with that, I am aware that working things at a disadvantage and learning from it, can
be the best kind of learning experience ‘The fact that this doesn’t have a risk of death is just a
bonus…’

In any case, with everything ready, we got into it.

The results?

A complete disaster.

“…”

“…”

“…C’mon it doesn’ look that bad…”

“Is it supposed to be of that color…?”

“What? Now you’re some kind of Ultimate Chef to point things like that? How it looks changes
from each person, y’know?......I’m sure that’s all what there’s to it with what I did!...... I think…”
She muttered that last part, but I heard it “And! And! You have no right to say anything! Just look
at…whatever it is that you did!”

That’s exactly why I’m pointing it out…

Because, sure, looking at what I TRIED to do…well, it seems I can’t be good at everything I try.

“…We should throw this and try something simpler…” Like a sandwich, that’s something I can
do…

“…”

“…”

“…”

Why she hasn’t said anything…?

“…What is it?”

“…Aren’t you going to even try what I did?” Enoshima said…with a tone of voice no different
than the one from yesterday back in the classroom.

…Dammit.

…Maybe…

…Maybe she has a point and that is just a visual change that varies from person to person, right?

…I will probably regret this.

“Alright, I will give it a try…”

That seemed to give her a 180° change in her mood “Here! Once you’re done with it, get ready to
apologize!”

I took the plate she offered me and used a spoon to get a taste of…this.

I took a bite and…

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Aha! You aren’t making any grossed-out faces! I knew it wasn’t that bad! You must be in
stunned silence because of how good it is!” Enoshima commented with a smirk.

“…Enoshima”

“Yes? Just so you know, I won’t give you seconds!”

“…I have experience practicing Mithridatism…”

“…Mithri-What? What are you talking about?”

“…It’s an exercise…used to develop poison immunity…”

“Eh? Poison immuni-Hey, you’re being a real jerk joking about that stuff! You better apologize,
like, right now!” She exclaimed while pouting.

It wasn’t a joke, though…

“Taste it”

“…Excuse me?”

“Try it yourself and tell me I am wrong”

“…”

“…”

“…Don’t wanna”

“…*sigh* Let’s just make some sandwiches and get this over with it…”

“W-Wait! What if…I got it! What if we make something together? Y’know, like a combined effort
or something like that?”

Oh no.

“Enoshima―”

“If we do it that way, we will compensate for our…not so good cooking skills, right?”

‘Not so good…I guess that’s a way to put it…’ And the part of compensating for each other
mistakes…maybe things turned out this bad because each of us made mistakes without noticing
them. We are complete novices at this, both of us, so it makes sense. If we keep an eye on what
each one does and we communicate about it, correcting said errors is a possibility…it has some
merit.

Though that didn’t stop my alarm bells from ringing.

“…If it doesn’t work, we will have those sandwiches, alright?”

“Hey, don’t be so pessimistic, we are helping each other to prevent making errors this time,
y’know? There’s no way it can turn out to be worse!”

…I’m definitely being too lax when it comes to her…

And so, we got to work in our combined effort to make a decent meal.

The result of that?

A biological hazard.

“…”

“…”

“…Enoshima, we REALLY need to get rid of this”

“H-Hey…it’s not that horrible, like, yeah, it may not be 5-star cuisine…or 3…or any star, and the
smell may be kind of dangerous if breathing in prolonged periods of time…but at least-W-Wait!
Did it just move!?”

…It did.

…Well…

…It may not be in the way I thought of at first, but I can see some uses I can give to cooking in the
future.

Lethal ones, sure, but they will be uses nonetheless.

In the end, we didn’t had any sandwiches either. While cleaning up…whatever that was, Naegi and
Maizono entered the kitchen while we were in the middle of getting rid of our ‘creation’, that, plus
the smell, was all the two of them needed to understand what happened.

Maizono took pity of it and offered to make something for us. Both Enoshima and I tried to refuse,
explaining we were going to have something basic we could make by ourselves. But the idol took
none of it, arguing that she was already making something extra for the lucky student and that
cooking is something of a hobby for her, so it was far from a problem.

Seeing no point in pushing it, we accepted her offer and the four of us sat together to eat.

“So…erm, what were you guys trying to make back in the kitchen?” Naegi asked.

“Yeah, I am curious too…it seemed kind of…exotic?” Maizono added with a tilted head and her
index finger on her chin.

Exotic…that’s a way to put it, I guess…

“A-Ah, that?...... Well, it was…wait, what we were trying to make back there?” Enoshima asked
while turning to me.

“…Well, we just picked the things that looked more expensive, and in my case, I tried to put them
together” I explained.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Wait, that’s it!?” Naegi asked wide-eyed.

“That’s it” I said with a straight face.

“…I-I see, um, and what about you Enoshima? It looked like the two of you were working together
on it”

“Now that I think about it, yeah…the two of you together since this early…Mmm, that’s curious~”
Maizono said while looking at me with a knowing smile.

I’m not liking that smile.

Thankfully, Naegi didn’t seem like he noticed it and Enoshima was distracted by that fiasco from
earlier.

“Erm, well, I kind of suck at that stuff too, so yeah, I was, like, on board with that idea of using the
things that looked the best, thinking we could make something out of it…but it just resulted in
junk, huh?”

For some reason, the eyes of Maizono began sparkling while getting excited at that declaration.

“Oh! Maybe I can teach some things I know about cooking in the future!” She exclaimed.

“E-Eh? N-No I don’t think that’s―” The fashionista tried to protest, but it was in vain as Maizono
continued.

“Nonsense! I bet you can learn lots of things with me, and it would be fun! We could become
cooking sisters…or something like that! Plus, it might be of use for you in the future, don’t you
think?”

At that, Enoshima gained a thoughtful look.

…Wait, didn’t Enoshima told me something similar to what Maizono just said? ‘Except for the
cooking sisters thing’

Weird.

“…I…I will think about it…”

“You will not regret this, Junko! But, for now, we don’t want our food to get cold, so let’s eat!”
The idol said.

And that was as good a signal as anything to begin the consumption of our food.

…Eating with other people with such colorful personalities…this is another novel experience for
me…

…Not a bad one, though.

Although, when I began to eat, for some reason Enoshima began to pout, and then, she looked at
her plate and nodded at herself while once again a look of determination no different from the one
back at the beginning of all of this formed in her face.

She really wanted to make something by herself, huh?

In any case, once we finished eating, each one of us parted different ways. In my case, I explored
the ‘school’ for a bit more, especially the classrooms that I hadn’t the time to see yesterday.

And as expected, there were no results.

Once I was done with today’s search, I spent the rest of the day in my room, and as much as I
wanted to actually use the target for some training with my daggers, I am aware that in the worst-
case scenario in which someone actually gets inside my room, one of the first questions would be
why there are blade marks in the target, and that would only lead to more problems.

So, instead, I just opted for some muscle training.

I keep at it for a few hours, until…

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Ahem, Ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially

nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, entry at that point is strictly
prohibited. Okay then…sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed
bugs bite…”

Taking that as a signal to stop, I repeated the last night’s ritual and got in the bed. With nothing else
to do, I got ready to sleep until the next announcement from Monokuma, tomorrow morning.

…Or not.

I feigned to be sleeping for about five hours ‘It is a VERY boring thing to do, but doing that and
keeping an internal check on the time is not something I have a problem doing if I put the focus
into it’, when that amount of time passed, I ‘woke up’ and once I confirmed on the clock that
indeed it was 03:04 A.M, I got up, put on my jacket and shoes and left my room.

Why I did do that? You could say that I got some epiphany of sorts, now, it wasn’t anything
supernatural or something of that nature, it was more…both yesterday and today, I had a few
moments in which I had thoughts about ‘Home’, well, I call it that, but I just spent my time there
for just the necessary and nothing more.

The point is, that place had multiple installations a ‘member’ of its organization could make use of:
Records of previous missions, both my own and that of other members, each one with high
political, historical, and even sometimes, military value, forges that produce state of the art
equipment and rooms specialized for ‘Information Gathering’, among others.

But above all of that, there was an even more important place: The communion rooms. Though
they are called that, their real function is to work as gathering points where the inner circle ‘and the
most ‘valuable’ members…’ of the organization discusses matters like negotiations with the most
important clients, arrangement of high-priority missions, management of ‘assets’…and establishing
dates for the ‘recruitment’ of new ‘members’.

In any case, the important thing is, those rooms aren’t in plain sight. Considering the most
important intel is talked inside those walls, They don’t take any risks with them, as they are placed
in hidden passageways that only those who need to know about them, are aware of them.

Basically, they are Secret Rooms. And that was the epiphany I had.

I may be overthinking this, but I lose absolutely nothing by giving it a try. Of course, just as a
precaution, I don’t want to do this ‘in the middle of the day’, and neither I’m planning to
overextend myself, as tonight I will only see two places, said two places that even with all the
exploring I’ve done, I haven’t set a single foot in them.

Am if I am lucky, tonight will be the only time I will have to visit them.

Moving through the halls during ‘nighttime’ is not that different than the rest of the day, visually
speaking…but for some reason, it actually feels much more silent.

Though that must be because at this hour there aren’t another fifteen teenagers walking around and
making noises, yeah, that must be it.

Anyway, I didn’t had to walk too much to find my destination, as in front of me is the first place I
wanted to investigate.

…I said that I do this during nighttime to avoid prying eyes, and that is the case…but more than
that, the main reason is that the door in front of me leads to…

The girl’s restroom.

….

…Even if it’s the middle of the night, I need to do this quickly, in more ways than one, it would be
a disaster if someone finds me doing this.

Deciding to avoid wasting any time, I got inside.

Inspecting the room, I could see that it’s not that different from the boy’s restroom, the only
difference is basically that the walls are of a lighter grey and that it lacked urinals, for obvious
reasons.

Once I was done with the general area of the room, I put my focus on each cubicle, looking for any
irregularity that I could find. Whether it was something out of place, of a different color, or a break
in the pattern of the tiles. Basically, anything that is different when in comparison to the other
cubicles.

For the first two ones, there wasn’t anything I could find that classified as an irregularity. On the
third one, though…

I actually found one thing.

I was a small circular and metallic object, a coin. Said coin had the figure of a teddy bear that
looked like each half of his face was different from the other.

“…Is this the ‘Monocoin’ Enoshima talked about…?” I mused aloud while looking at it.

…And she had a point, just how much ego does that thing needs?

Deciding that I don’t care enough to ponder more about it, I put the coin in the pocket of my pants.
‘Might as well give it a try at that vending machine in the school store tomorrow…or more like
later, I suppose’

And finally, I checked the fourth and last cubicle.

While it is true that it was different from the previous three, it was exactly the same as the other
fourth cubicle in the boy’s restroom. A storage closet.

It had some basic cleaning supplies, like mobs, toilet cleaners, mold removers, a drain plunger, and
some cleaning cloths.

But beyond that, I couldn’t find anything that stood out.

No luck, it seems.

I had nothing else to check on this place, so I decided not to spend more time than necessary and
leave immediately.

...I already feel uncomfortable enough, and considering what is the next place I need to investigate,
well…

I really need to hurry up out of here.

Walking through the school area in absolute silence, gave me enough time and peace of mind to
ponder about random things.

Like the dining hall restriction.

I have zero solid evidence to confirm or deny anything, but thinking about that restriction made me
curious, said curiosity put my mind to work on different questions about the topic.

Like, why restrict the dining hall of all places?

What benefits does our captor gain from blocking us from that place at nighttime?

From what I’ve seen so far, the kitchen is the most dangerous place on the first floor, with knives
and other tools that can be just as deadly if used correctly. It seems counterproductive for our
captor’s desires to negate entrance during the night, which is where anyone who dares to break the
curfew ‘Like I did…’ and wander around is the most vulnerable, at the place which has the highest
chances of producing a murder.

It doesn’t make sense to me, and neither I buy that this is just a random choice made in the spur of
the moment.

The only theory that I could think of and made sense, is that the dining hall is the only place inside
this school with any food source, and restricting us from that place when we are supposed to be
sleeping, or at the very least, don’t have any need to be there, is when our captor makes use of it to
eat or at the very least, resupply to whatever it is that he’s using as a base of operations to monitor
us and control Monokuma.

If this were to be true, it just solidifies, that indeed, the mastermind of all this, is living with us
somewhere in this ‘school’.
And what can I do with such information?

Nothing. At least for now, it’s just some useless trivia that I have no use for.

As I said, it’s just me having random thoughts.

At the very least, that distracted me enough to get at the second and last place I will check tonight.

The girl’s restroom in the school area.

…Ugh.

Again, let’s get this over with, and fast.

I opened the door and once I got inside, I saw―

A figure about to open the first cubicle inside the restroom.

Shit.

“Who’s ther―Shigaraki!?” A feminine voice exclaimed.

…A voice.

…A feminine voice.

…A girl found me coming into the girl’s restroom in the middle of the night.

Shit!

Because of freaking course I encountered someone else, a girl no less, at the same place I intended
to go at 3 A.M, just my luck.

And that someone was…

“…Kirigiri”

…I guess the small blessing is that out of everyone in this place, she’s the most level-headed
member of our group, I hope she can understand what I am doing from a logical point of view.

“…”

“…”

“…What…What are you doing here?” The mysterious girl said with absolute wariness…and the
slightest tiny bit of fear in her voice.

…I guess that can’t be helped. She must know that nighttime is the most dangerous period of time
inside this ‘school’, it’s basically a death wish to walk through the halls at this hour, everyone else
is in their soundproof rooms, calling for help is useless, and she is face to face with someone, a
male, who has professional experience killing people, inside the girl’s restroom where he has no
business, and she is completely aware of all of that.

It is a miracle if I am honest, any other person would’ve begun screaming or crying.

Deciding that not wasting any time in answering her, and without any kind of exaltation, to be the
best course of action, I spoke.

“…Considering that this is a restroom, and it is nighttime, which makes said restroom useless
because of the water getting cut off…I believe it is for the same reasons as you”

…Okay, that wording will probably not give me any favors.

“…And that reason would be?”

She seems willing to listen. Good.

“I am investigating”

“…Investigating? The girl’s restroom? In the middle of the night?” She asked with narrowed eyes.

She also seems willing to interrogate me. Not so good.

“Yes”

“…Why?”

“…Well, this place is the only one I haven’t explored yet, I just simply thought that the possible
information on this place from any source other than me wouldn’t be the most trustworthy, so I
wanted to verify it myself”

“And why doing it during nighttime, why not before, you had the time, did you not?”

…Is she serious?

“…Visiting the girl’s restroom in any other moment that it wasn’t nighttime…would be
problematic for me”

“Problematic? Why?”

“…I think the answer to that it’s pretty obvious”

“No, it’s not, I will ask again, why?” She asked with a glare that it was not that different from the
one back at the dining hall meeting.

But putting that aside…

…Just my luck that I’m the one with more common knowledge of the social norms of the two…or
is she doing it on purpose to get something out of me?

“…I have reason to believe that nighttime, this advanced without being close to the morning
announcement, has the fewer chances of anyone else pestering me, so if I found something, I
would have more liberty to do a more throughout inspection of it”

And that was absolutely true, it just so happened I keep to myself another part of the truth. Because
like hell I’m going to talk about those other reasons with her, not when I’m suspicious she’s doing
all of this to mess with me.

“…I see” The glare dissipated and was replaced with a pensive look ‘Is she always going to that
when it’s me?’

Either way, it seems that was a good answer. If I had to take a guess, because she has similar
reasons to be here this late.

“So…can I continue what I was planning to do?” If she refuses, I will have to respect that…at least
until the next nighttime, at a different hour, most probably. I don’t trust that my classmates have
searched EVERYWHERE or that they would share something important in the case they find
anything that would benefit them more individually than if they shared it with the rest of the group.

Because neither would I.

“…”

“…”

“…You don’t need my permission to do that” Kirigiri replied.

Right, as if I didn’t notice that she was debating whether to give me permission or not, but
whatever, I will not look a gift horse in the mouth.

I just nodded at her and seeing that she intended to check the first cubicle, I went past her and
began on the fourth one.

The search in the restroom of the school area produced even fewer results than the one in the living
area. ‘Not that a coin with the face of Monokuma is anything worth mentioning, though’

Once I left the last cubicle I needed to check, I saw that Kirigiri was already outside with her
trademark pensive look.

“Did you find anything?” I asked the mysterious girl.

“…”

“…”

“…Why should I tell you?”

“You don’t have to” I don’t think she’s going to give me any answers.

“No, I don’t have to tell you. So I won’t”

Eh, it was worth giving it a try. I wasn’t really expecting to get anything from her.

“…Okay, in any case, this was all I was planning to do tonight, so―”
“Why?” Kirigiri called me out.

“…Why…What?”

“…”

“…”

“…Why did you share that much information back at the dining hall?”

…I guess it is to be expected from someone as cautious as her to become skeptical of my ‘good

will’.

“…During the meeting, we were supposed to bring every bit of information we found, and that was
what I did”

“Do you really have that much trust in everyone in the group to share it just like that? Or is there
something more? Perhaps by doing that there was something to gain from your part?” The
skepticism in her voice couldn’t be more obvious.

…She really does pay attention to details, doesn’t she?

“You are overthinking things, what I did had nothing to do with trust but neither with ulterior
motives. It was just that I didn’t saw any risk for me with sharing the information and neither I
gained anything by withholding it, simply as that…isn’t that the same thing you did?”

It is true that I shared it with the intentions of actually gaining something out of that… but she
doesn’t need to know that…that and I really don’t feel like the information I gave the group was
that important if you ignore how extensive it was.

It basically just reduces to confirm that yes, we have been kidnapped and that, yes, we are indeed
incapable of getting out of here through the vault-door. It is true that it adds the fact that now we
know how does it open ‘Probably…’, but it changes nothing, because the chances of getting the
escape button for the vault-door, is the same as getting to the mastermind behind all of this as of
now.

None.

“…”

“…”

“What about Enoshima?” Avoiding my question, huh?

But…as for her own question…

“…What about her?” I fought the urge to narrow my eyes and leak any edge in the tone of my
voice, someone like her will get suspicious if I gave that strong of a negative reaction to that
question, especially coming from me.

“She was your investigation partner, am I wrong?”

…Kirigiri wasn’t there when Enoshima volunteered and neither when the two of us walked
together inside the dining hall…that and I never saw her during our search…so how?
No, I shouldn’t overthink it, people like Naegi or Taka wouldn’t see any problem with responding
to anything she asked them in relation to me and with who I was with…and they would be right,
there isn’t any problem, anything they know and could share is already public information…even
so…

“…Yes, she was” I simply said.

“Why?”

She really asks a lot of questions…

“…Because unlike you, traveling alone was not up to negotiation for me, so it was necessary for
me to travel with someone, and that someone ended up being the fashionista”

“But why? Among all other options? Why―”

“What is your talent?” I suddenly asked.

That made her stop dead in her tracks.

“…Excuse me?”

“As you heard me…what is your talent, Kirigiri?”

In a way, it was an honest question, her talent is a factor that I have zero information of ‘Oh, I have
some theories, sure, but I also have a complete lack of solid evidence, so they are just that,
theories…’, she has been careful to not reveal anything about it…and it is kind of interesting that,
unlike me, Monokuma seems willing to let this piece of intel to remain unknown for the entire
group, that is something to keep in mind.

Of course, I know that she won’t give me an answer, but that is completely fine, after all, that
wasn’t my objective with such question…

“…”

“…”

“…I don’t have to tell you” She stated with narrowed eyes and some edge in her voice.

“You’re right, you don’t have to tell me…the same way I don’t have to tell you everything I do and
even less why I do what I do, am I wrong?”

She narrowed her eyes even more at that, but at least that was enough for her to drop the questions.

I will probably won’t gain any favors with her today, scratch that, she will become more rabid in
getting tracks of everything I do, but I had to put a stop at her interrogation against me.

“If that is all, then…” I trailed off as I prepared to be on my way.

I was already heading to the door the leave this place ‘…And hopefully never come back’ , when I
got called out by Kirigiri, again.

“Wait”

I stopped dead in my tracks and fought the urge to sigh “What is it?” Really, what could she want
now?
“You said this was the last place you needed to visit, does that mean you have already checked the
other restroom that is by the dorms?”

“…Yes, I have” I said while turning to face her.

“…”

“…”

“…Did you find anything in there?”

Straight to the point, huh?

“Why should I tell you?”

“…”

“…”

“…I can tell everyone that I saw you wandering around inside the girl’s restrooms” I swear I could
almost hear some amusement in her voice in that sentence.

…Tch, I knew she was messing with me, acting as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.

For someone who was trembling with fear just a few moments ago, she sure as heck recovered fast
enough to pull some crap like that.

Well, it’s not like it really matters, considering what were my findings.

“…Fine” I pulled that thing out of my pocket ‘It didn’t go unnoticed by me how she tensed up at
that action, though’ and showed it to her “This is all I found”

“…A coin?”

“A Monocoin, apparently that’s how is it called”

“I see…does it have any use?”

I shrugged at that “It seems it can be used as some kind of currency for a vending machine in the
school store, said vending machine seems to work as a gift shop of sorts. I have no idea if it will
have anything useful, but I highly doubt that is the case…that’s all I have”

“…How can I know that you aren’t hiding anything else?”

“You can’t, in the same way I can’t know if you are hiding something. Either way, I will take my
leave now” That’s all I said before leaving the room, this time for real, not waiting to hear any
protest at that.

While it is true that I have plenty of reasons to don’t even begin to think about making a move
anytime soon, she doesn’t know that. If she’s as smart as I believe she is, then she won’t push the
matter more and see herself as lucky that I was cooperative enough with her and avoided a grimmer
fate this night.

On my walk back to my room I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed with today’s results. While
it is true that starting to look through this ‘school’ with a new perspective will figurately open new
horizons, I don’t have much hope of actually finding something.
But hey, who knows? I won’t have the answer to that until giving it a try.

For now, I will just get some sleep.

Because what else can I do?

 Paths, Dreams and Possibilities.

Paths, Dreams and Possibilities.

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and
shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

“…So high-pitched…”

Thanks to the incident from last night, I slept less than yesterday, but even taking that into
consideration, I am used to pulling all-nighters from time to time, so it was no problem.

Same as yesterday, I repeated the previous morning routine of getting out of bed, doing some
stretching, taking a shower, and using a new change of clothes, only today I took one step further.

That deviation came from the fact that I only had one change of clothes left. While it is true that I
still have clothes for one more day, waiting until tomorrow would be careless of me, plus, I am not
planning to do much today, so taking my time to do laundry wouldn’t be a problem.

Taking all of the dirty laundry, I prepared to leave my room.

Save for a loud “Good Morning!” from Taka just outside the dorm area, my travel to the laundry
room was quick and completely uneventful, something for which I was thankful for.

Once I was in front of the doors, I didn’t waste any time getting inside.

The laundry room was…well not really any different from what you could expect in any laundry…
save for the surveillance cameras and a TV that works as the broadcasting system of a robotic
monochrome bear who has a thing for roleplaying as the headmaster of this place and watching
teenagers suffer.

Pretty normal stuff.

There were around 7 washing machines, a pair of laundry baskets, a…vending machine? ‘It looked
like it was…for drinks, it seems, that’s convenient’, there were a pair of chairs and a table with
some magazines, basic laundry products, and a box full of clothespins that could be used on the
multiple clotheslines around the room.

I could see that there were already some clothes, some of them looked dry, so they must’ve been
here since yesterday, there was also a…swimsuit?

Huh?

As far as I know, our wardrobes only contain the standard set of clothes and nothing else…Hmm
maybe it is an extra ‘gift’ like the daggers I have with me? Or is it part of a personalized room?
Either of those would make sense, so…if it’s a swimsuit, it belongs to Hina, maybe?......wait, why
I’m wasting time pondering about this? I should focus on washing my clothes.
And so I did, choosing the first washing machine from my left, I added some detergent and some
fabric softener ‘Gotta make use of the luxuries this place offers…’ and turned it on.

With that done I choose to sit and wait.

…I didn’t had any thoughts to distract myself with, so I picked the first magazine I could reach.

The one I ended up picking was called one ‘RedRibon’ and on its cover was…

…Enoshima.

It just doesn’t stop, huh?

I mean, what else should’ve expected? It is common knowledge that in one way or another, as the
Ultimate Fashionista, she has at the bare minimum, a mention of her in every magazine with any
self-respect around the world, and yes, that includes even magazines whose themes aren’t related to
fashion.

…Whatever, it’s just to kill some time.

Flipping through the pages I could notice that this magazine is basically a recompilation of the
most trending works she has done, things like a census of which places the dresses she models
became the most popular or which one’s tendency in general even with the passage of time, things
like that.

There were other things, sure, like gossips. Rumors about what she likes, her hobbies, or about the
next big thing she will do next, like jumping from fashionista to singer, to an actor, among others.

But the most important to me was…

How different she looked in comparison to the real deal.

It’s not some kind of grand discovery, honestly. It was one of the first things I noticed when I met
her in person, still…when I say that the Enoshima on the cover and the one I have met here are
different, I don’t mean it as if there wasn’t a point of comparison, because there was. Yes, they are
similar, there’s no doubt about it…but things like the shape of her face, the size, and the color of
her eyes, among other physical divergences. The differences are enough that if you stopped to
appreciate them, then it’s as if you were looking at two different people. ‘I feel like there’s more,
but I just can’t point what is it…’

But I guess that at the end of the day, it is to be expected. The ‘standards of beauty’ for someone at
the top of the fashion world like Enoshima must be hellishly high. The people in charge of her
image must make every single change they see fit until they are satisfied with the standards set or
end up getting swapped away by the competition.

…Reshaping someone until said someone meets the standards expected of them and even more…

…I guess that at least she got lucky that in her case, they recurred to using ‘photoshopping and
junk’ instead of other…more extreme measures.

In any case…it still kind of bothers me that removing her freckles is one of those changes made to
her, like…they made her look better, right? Or…

…Or is it just me that I have a thing about them? Is…is that really the case?

If…If that were indeed the case…well…I don’t know…

Any more mental debate I could have about that new discovery about me got interrupted by the
door opening, and the person who appeared from it was…

You gotta be kidding me…

“Ah, Morning Shigaraki! Whatcha do―…Ehhh~? Is that what I think it is?” The fashionista
commented with a cheeky smile.

…Sigh, the guy with the bad luck is supposed to be Naegi, not me…

“…Good morning, Enoshima…what are you doing here?” Asking someone what is it doing in a
laundry room…I see that some Hiro is sticking to me too…

“…Oh? Are you getting that shy to the point of wanting to avoid talkin’ about that magazine of me
you’re holdin’, is that it?”

…Ugh, since when does she feel comfortable enough to talk to me that way?

…Since the beginning…

…Seriously, what’s up with her?

“…I was just trying to read something to spend the time until my clothes were ready to begin to
dry, that is all” I explained.

“Aaaand the best thing you could find was something related to me? Or is it that I am really that
charming to you~? Do you really―”

“Can we talk about something else…like what are you doing here?” I interrupted before things
became…too much.

“…”

“…”

“…Fiiine, truth is I’m here to do the same thing as you, see?” She said while revealing a pile of
clothes she had behind her back just moments ago.

“…Alright” Was all I said.

It seems she took the following silence as a signal to repeat the same process I did for her own
clothes. Then she took a chair and sat beside me.

And that was it.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Sooo…who’s better?” Enoshima randomly asked.

…Huh?

“What are you talking about?” I asked, not for the first time in her presence, genuinely confused.

“Oh c’mon, you know what I’m talkin’ about!”

“No, I honestly don’t understand your question…”

“…”

“…”

“…Between me and the person on those magazines…who do you think is better?” She asked…
while hiding her face, turning it opposite of me.

…Is she seriously asking me this?

“…I don’t think it matters what I―” I tried to argue, but the fashionista seemed to have none of it.

“Oh, don’t give me that! It’s not like I’m asking you to…to confess to me or some junk like that!
Even with all that ‘Cold and Mysterious’ vibe you’re trying to sell, you still have some kind of
preference, right!? So…who do you think is better?”

…Vibe I’m trying to sell…? But putting that aside…

…Why do things have to be so complicated when it’s her?

Dammit.

“…The you here is real” I replied.

“…Huh?”

“What I’m saying is…you said it yourself, right? The Enoshima on those pictures is a false version
of you, with all that edition on your image…it’s just an illusion…”

“…”

“…I…that Enoshima…is someone I don’t know. There are the things said in the magazines, sure,
but that’s about it, there’s nothing that I could truly use to make a profile of and it’s not a guarantee
that what is told in them are real. It’s not really a secret that unknown factors are something
someone like me wouldn’t feel the most comfortable with, and you…well, you’re here…that…
that, at the very least, makes you better than someone I don’t know at all” I finished.

…Those were just facts…right? Nothing less, nothing more…

Right?

“…I see…um, thank you for…for putting up with me when I asked that, it probably is among the
kind of things you’re not used…or even like talking about, so thank you…really” she said while
turning to me with one of those small and sincere smiles I’ve seen her done before.

“…Mhm” Is all I could say…because once again, I don’t trust myself to not say another…weird
thing…even if they were just facts.

Nothing less…and definitely nothing more.

With that, we waited in silence…or as much silence there could be with washing machines working
around you.

Or well, that was the plan during the first 25 minutes of waiting but…

“God, I am so seriously freaking boreeed…!”

That happened.

“I’m gonna die...I’m gonna die from being so bored!”

I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at her antics right now. What else does she expect? Being
here, in a laundry room waiting for our clothes to be ready…it doesn’t help that I am not the best
conversational partner, true, but being bored it’s her problem, not mine.

“I’m infected! I’ve got terminal boredom disease!” Enoshima exclaimed.

Scratch that, I’m gonna roll my eyes.

“You don’t have to be so dramatic, being bored is a normal thing when doing the laundry…” I
commented.

“It’s just that I hate being bored! Hate it I say! I never noticed how much I hate it…but once we
got trapped in here, it finally hit me”

While it is true that I believe she’s blowing it out of proportion…I can sort of get where she is
coming from.

I have never killed someone out of personal feelings, and that includes both positive and negative
ones, and neither for entertainment or satisfaction…but…how do I put this? I feel kind of restless
with the lack of usual action my life usually has. Save for the bomb incident with Owada at the
beginning of the first day, my lifestyle here has been…too peaceful, it’s not that its bad…but I’m
just not used to it, so yeah…being out of your ‘comfort zone’ for this long…well, it’s a strange
feeling, I suppose.
“I’d rather be living homeless on the street than stuck in here!”

That comment REALLY caught my attention…

“Homeless…?”

“Yeah, you know! Like the hobo life! I’ve done it before, ya know?”

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah…the…the first years of my life…well…they weren’t the easiest…but that’s a long story”
Enoshima commented in a way that it was obvious she was not going to tell me more about it.

It makes sense that she won’t tell me more, it would be weird if she confided what is probably one
of the most important aspects of her life with some stranger ‘Because that’s what we are, no matter
what has happened so far, it’s been only three days…’

But focusing on what she actually told me…

That.

…That…

…That actually explains a LOT of things about her.

So that’s where that side of her comes from?......It’s not guaranteed, but it is definitely a
possibility. it’s true that the first part of my life I lived in an orphanage, so I can’t compare myself
from that point in my life…but, well, when They ‘recruited’ both me and Her, and began our
training regimen, for the very first part of our ‘training’, what they did was to throw us in the
streets, under the premise that our stay in the orphanage was too comfortable and that would just
not do, so They forced us to live in…more precarious living conditions. which also worked as an
initiation of sorts.

And, well, it definitely roughed us up. So, if Enoshima went through that since an even a younger
age than me, then…

“And you went from that…to now being a model?”

“…Well…something like that…but that’s a long story, too”

…It is a shame that she won’t tell me more about it, but honestly, it is understandable.

“…I see”

“Seriously, if I had to choose between staying here and being homeless again, gimme the street!”

“…Do you really see the homeless life as safer than this place?”

I was not judging her, at least not negatively. It is true that the environment Monokuma set for this
‘school’ is a very risky one, where letting your guard down will only lead you to a safe death…but
the same can be said about the lifestyle as a homeless person, so I was kind of interested in learning
what was her perspective on that.
It seems things weren’t as simple as she made it sound previously.

“Oh, hell no! That lifestyle is full of all kinds of dangers! You never know when a pack of wild
animals might show up!”

“…Wild animals, huh? Yeah, that’s a way to call them…”

“Mhm…. Those bastards would attack anyone and some of them for nothing else other than
wanting to hurt you. The world’s full of animals like that, ya know?”

“…That’s putting lightly…”

…Yes, I am very aware of that. I have seen first-hand the scum of the world at their lowest, the
things people are willing to commit with the ‘right’ motivation…it makes killing people seem like
child’s play in comparison.

God really doesn’t exist in this world…

…That’s another thing She tends to say from time to time …can't say I have reasons to think
otherwise...

“Yeah…but I think having to live like that made me way stronger…Sorry, that kinda got weird,
huh? All I was trying to say is―”

“No, not really” I replied.

“…Eh? What do you mean?”

“What you just said…about those kinds of experiences making you a stronger person, that is
definitely something I can understand…I too, at some point, was forced to live first-hand…well…
not the best of living conditions”

That caught her attention.

“…Yes, that’s something you-Ah! I-I mean, really? It’s just…erm…when you think of ‘assassins’,
usually, movies and other junk show them as these super-rich people, yeah? With all kinds of
expensive stuff in their houses while they travel around the world with all kinds of luxuries…Ah!
W-Wait! It’s not like I’m tryin’ to assume things about your life either! I-it’s just―” I interrupted
her before she panicked even more.

“Don’t worry. It was just something you weren’t aware of; you can’t be faulted for that. In any
case, I will not say that our experiences were the same, nor that one of us had it better or worse, that
would be presumptuous of me…but embracing what you went through because that allowed you to
survive the cruel side of this world and become more powerful because of it…I get the thinking
process behind that…”

“…”

“…”

“…I suppose that makes us have something in common, huh?” Enoshima commented.

I didn’t say anything to that statement. At least, when it comes to what she just told me…well, I’ve
just admitted just now that we indeed have…it would be illogical to deny it.
There was just silence after that…but unlike the previous one, this one was more…comfortable.

Yeah, something like that.

Though this silence lasted even less than the previous one, as it looked like she wanted to add
something more while her brows began to furrow.

“Anyway, the point of everything I said back there is…when the hell are we gonna get out of
here!?”

Ah, she returned to her usual self…

“Hey! Whatever dumb bastard trapped us in here, are you listening!? When are you gonna let us
OUT!? Just tell us what we gotta do to get out of here! Hell, you can even just tell me! I know how
to keep a secret!”

…Is this another of her impulsive moments?

“Nothin’, huh? Pisses me off…”

…Well, at least Monokuma seemed to have ignored that rambling of hers. That’s…that’s good,
yeah…

But…

Just tell us what we gotta do to get out of here!

…This is ridiculous…and asking about that is irrational and stupid, I of all people know that better
than anyone trapped here.

…But I don’t lose anything with just doing it, might as well go with it…

“…Enoshima…are you planning to go along with Monokuma’s intentions…?”

I’ve been saying multiple times that it’s too early to be desperate enough to commit murder in an
attempt to escape this place…but at the end of the day, I am saying that from my perspective. I
have the mental fortitude and the awareness to know and accept that I’m not escaping this place
anytime soon ‘At the very least, I’m waiting until the rule 6 gets explained properly’… but the
same can’t be said about the rest of the people here…and that includes her.

“Monokuma’s intentions…? Oh, you mean the whole ‘kill someone’ thing?”

I nodded.

“Haha! Don’t worry, I could never kill someone!” She said with her trademark grin and peace sign
gesture.

“…”

“What, do I look like I would? Do I seriously look like a killer!?”

“…It’s not whether you look like one or not, anyone, and I am being completely serious, anyone is
capable of falling into temptation with the ‘right’ motivation or circumstances…For your own
good, you should not underestimate that, Enoshima, it could cost you dearly…” I said with
absolute firmness.
I should know. If there is one thing They make clear with its existence and how they operate, is
the fact that anyone can be turned into a monster...

“…I guess that someone with your experience should’ve seen enough things to know about that,
huh? But anyway…is that your way of saying you are worried about me~?” Enoshima commented
with a cheeky smile.

“…Eh?”

“Gotta say, Shigaraki…that’s kinda cute, didn’t know you had that side. You almost killed me
with cuteness there! Ah! Is that part of the stuff you learn as the Ultimate Assassin~?”

“…Eh? What…What are you talking about?”

“…Pfft hehe! C’mon, I’m just screwing with ya! You didn’t believe I was serious, did you!?”

“…”

“…”

“…You’re so confusing sometimes, that it’s hard to know with you” I don’t care if it was out of
character for me to make a comment like that out loud, I had to point it out to her.

If my voice contained some amusement and my cheeks were slightly heated up…well…that’s just
another weird thing with no importance.

It seems she didn’t took my comment in a negative manner, if that amused look on her face is any
indication.

“Hehehe…Ya know…there’s something about you. I don’t get sick of talking to you, like I do
most people”

“…What an honor, huh…” Even when someone with her personality is probably one of the last
types of people I would’ve seen myself getting along with, when it’s her, there’s just something…
different? Strange? I don’t know, but…

…. I can’t say that the feeling isn’t mutual.

Not much after that moment, the washing machine I was using stopped making any sound,
signaling that my clothes were ready to dry, so I took them out to hang them. They didn’t had
anything important in them so it was safe for me to leave them alone until they were done drying
‘Though, I should definitely check on them periodically, just in case someone is fool enough to try
to steal from me…’ In the case of Enoshima, hers were going to take quite a while more so she had
to stay in the laundry for a while, I thought that it would be…impolite, yeah, impolite to leave her
just like that and, well, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave soon, so I offered to stay a bit longer.
But she actually refused, saying something about ‘Being rude of me to watch and that I would be a
pervert if I insisted’. Not wanting to deal with…whatever that was, I left the laundry room to get
something to eat.

The dining hall was quite empty, with only two people besides me. One was Togami, who gave me
a glance and narrowed his eyes before returning to his meal and the other person was…

Kirigiri, eating what looked like some noodles and coffee ‘Weird combination, but hey, who am I
to judge her tastes?’, though it didn’t go unnoticed by me the fact that she, too, narrowed her eyes
when she caught sight of me.

…Geez, we just need Fukawa here to make things better, huh?

Whatever, I’m just coming here to eat, not making conversation partners.

I learned from yesterday’s events that cooking is out of question for me, so I went with what I
knew…

Sandwiches.

After I was done preparing them and grabbed some orange juice, I decided to take a seat on a
different table, located on the opposite corner of the room from where my other two ‘meal
companions’ were sitting.

I was about to begin, when…

Someone else entered the dining hall, it was…Naegi.

I just shrugged at that and began to consume my food while keeping an inconspicuous glance on
the ahoge boy.

While looking at him I could notice that it didn’t seem like he was here to eat. At first, he
approached Togami, but the heir didn’t even acknowledge him with a glance, seeing that he was
fighting a lost battle, he slumped down…but just as fast he gained a determined look and
approached the closest person he could find.

Kirigiri.

…He must be really desperate to talk with someone if his choices are the people inside this room.

Unlike Togami, though, Kirigiri actually acknowledged him, but it seems that it was just to dismiss
his attempts at socializing, if the face of a rejected puppy he was making was anything to go by.
Then, he turned to his third and last option inside the dining hall.

Me.

I don’t know what does it says about him the fact that his brightened face tells he likes his chances
more with me than with the previous two…or that he sees me as an actual option for conversation
at all.

“Shigaraki! Good morning!”

“…”

“…”

“…Greetings, Naegi”

And neither the fact me actually responding back to him seems like it made his day.

Weird.

But I decided to don’t give more thoughts about it while I continued with my food…at least that
was the plan until the ‘lucky’ student decided to take a seat in front of me.

He sat there…and just stared.

…And I stared back.

“…”

“…”

“…Do you need something?” I asked.

“E-Eh? Ah, um, n-no, not really…”

“…Alright”

I was about to resume with my food, but the ahoge boy spoke again.

“…Actually…um, I wanted to thank you” Naegi commented.

Huh?

…Thank…me…?

“…Why?”

“Erm, because of what you did back on the first day”

What I did on the first day? What happened that was related to him that he would feel the need to
thank me? The only thing that comes to mind is…

“…Are you talking about when I checked you when Owada knocked you out?”

The ahoge boy winced at the mention of that “Y-Yes, that, haha…Maizono told me that when
Owada…um, did that, everyone stood still in shock at what happened and it was you who took the
initiative to make sure I was fine…so, yeah, thanks for that” he finished with a smile.

…Well, it was more to see if he was dead or not, rather than ‘making sure he was fine’ what I did
in that moment, but…

“You’re welcome” I gain absolutely nothing by making this more complicated than what it should
be.

I had nothing else to say, so I continued with my meal…though it looked like that wasn’t the case
for Naegi, if that fidgeting of his was any indication.

“Um…besides thanking you, there is also the fact that I would like to talk with you…to know you
better, y’know?” Naegi said while scratching the back of his head.

Know me better…?

“…Why?” I said while putting my food back on the plate.

“Ah, well, you see…in the time we are trapped here, I think it would be great for us to cooperate
with each other, and the best way to do that would be if we all stopped being strangers with each
other! That’s why I’m trying to get to know everyone better…It makes sense, right?”

“…I suppose it does…” What else could I say? It looks like this idea of his comes from an
optimistic perspective that being friends with each other would allow us to work together against
Monokuma, and it might have some merit…in the short run.

For all the drama of the first day, things have been peaceful between all of us, to the point that
some people already found someone else to get along with.

Like Enoshima and me.

But I am not naïve to believe that the monochrome bear will leave such harmony to prosper, it’s
just a matter of time until he pulls his next move…

“So…does that mean you don’t mind if we talk?” Naegi asked in a hopeful tone.

…Do I mind? Well, indulging him would give me some points on making a better image of
myself, that’s true…but, even so…

“…Even if I accepted to do it, I don’t think there is anything we can talk about…”

“Huh? I’m sure there’s gotta be something! What about…Oh, I know! What’s your favorite TV
show?”

“I don’t have one” The few times I do watch the TV, is to check on the status of a target on the
news or to make sure there isn’t any leads or suspicion of me or Them being involved after I took
care of said target.

“Um, what about your favorite music genre?”

“I don’t have one either” I don’t listen to music, period. Having any sound stuck to my ears would
distract me and block me of hearing the environment around me, it would be like putting a sign on
my back saying ‘Kill me please’, and things like concerts…well, I already have enough taste of
crowds in my average urban mission to take an unnecessary risk like that one.

“…What do you say of videogames?”

“No”

“…Anime?”

“Like I told Yamada back at the introductions: I know what you are talking about but I have no
experience with it”

At that last denial, Naegi gained a slightly resigned look while he sighed and scratched the back of
his head.

“…Geez, your parents are really strict, huh?”

“I don’t have those either”

“…”

“…”

“…Eh?”

“Parents, I don’t have them, I was raised in an orphanage…”

“…”

“…”

“…A-Ah! I-I’m sorry! I had n-no idea! I thought that the lack of hobbies was because of strict
parents that would believe that such things would distract from your education or something among
the lines” Huh, if only he knew about that too “b-but…Shigaraki, I’m really, really sorry! I promise
you I―”

…Sigh, maybe I shouldn’t have revealed that.

“It’s fine”

“…H-Huh?”

“I am talking about your comment, it’s fine, I didn’t took offense to it in any kind of form”

“B-But, it’s not right! Even if I didn’t know, it was insensitive of my part to make a comment like
that! That’s why I’m sorry! Reminding you of something like that must be―!”

“As I repeated, Naegi, it doesn’t bother me…I’ve been orphan since I have memory, and most
probably, even a bit earlier than that. The point is, it’s been something normal for me since the
beginning, so I’ve had enough time to accept such fact and move on from it”

If I am honest, I didn’t really needed that much time…After all, I had Her…

“…I-I see…if you are sure, then I won’t push it anymore, alright?”

"Mhm" That would be for the best…it was actually beginning to irk me how much he apologized
for that…how much he was pitying me.

“Um…back at the hobbies part…is there anything you like to do in your free time?”

Free time? I don’t have ’Free time’ per say, but if we are talking about activities…

“…There is actually something that would probably classify as an activity that I like to do when
I’m available to…”

“Wait, really!? I-I mean, that’s great! What is it?” Naegi asked with renewed hope.
“Reading”

“Oh, I see…I guess in my case I only tend to do it for studying…but everyone has different
interests! That’s why it’s completely fine to like reading! So, uh, what do you like to read about?”

“…You could say that history is what I prefer to read about the most”

“History? Is there any specific reason why?”

“Yes, actually there is, you see…history has multiple examples of assassination attempts of all
kinds, whether they ended in success or in failure, it is still valuable information”

It looks like Naegi’s enthusiasm faltered at that.

“You…you like history, because you can read about assassinations in there?” Naegi asked in a
worried tone and expression.

“…Well, not because of the assassinations per say, at least not directly…it’s more because of the
educational aspect of it”

That seemed to change is face from a worried one to a confused one.

“Educational aspect? Is there really something like that?”

“Mhm, learning about how the assassins of the past did their work, how did they succeed or what
factors were responsible for their attempts to end in failure…such a thing allows me to make sure
to not repeat their own mistakes or learning from their success and analyze what of it can I make
use for my own improvement. The kind of information I can acquire from that has helped me in the
development of my talent” I explained.

“Development of your talent? What do you-oh…you are talking about your talent…as an assassin,
right?”

“That’s right”

…Did he really forgot that was my talent?

“…”

“…”

“…Can I ask why?”

“Hm?”

“What I’m trying to ask is…why become an assassin? Even if you only go after bad people…
killing is…” The lucky student trailed off.

…Putting aside the ‘only bad people’ part…that question, I suppose someone was going to ask it
sooner or later.

…It also didn’t went unnoticed by me how both Togami and Kirigiri have been paying attention to
this conversation for quite a while, but it doesn’t matter, everybody knows what I do, Monokuma
made sure of that.

Anyway.
“Why?......You could say that it was something out of my control, the circumstances made it so
that becoming an assassin was the only possibility in my life”

“Are you saying…that becoming an assassin is the only option you had? But…but…That can’t be,
Shigaraki! I’m sure there must’ve had other possibilities besides that! M-Maybe you could’ve
become an―”

“There were none, Naegi” I told him in a firm tone of voice before sighing and returning to my
default neutral one “…Not everyone is born with multiple opportunities in their lives or at the very
least, one different from what I ended up with…as I just said, the circumstances of my life only led
to that single path…”

Naegi gained a saddened look at that, but I didn’t bat an eye at that…I’ve long since accepted what
I am and what I do…a talk with a guy that I haven’t know for more than a few days has absolute
zero chances in changing my perspective on that.

“…I would be best if we change topics, right?” Naegi asked.

“…I guess so” It doesn’t really matter to me.

“…”

“…”

After my response, silence was the only thing that followed, which both the heir and the
mysterious girl took as a signal to stop paying attention to us. It seemed this was going to be the
end of our ‘talk’…when suddenly Naegi threw me a curveball.

“…So…erm…um, you and Enoshima, huh?” Naegi commented nervously.

What?

“What about Enoshima and me?” I asked with narrowed eyes and some edge in my voice.

“E-Eh!? Ah w-what I mean is…you and her have become good friends very fast, right?”

…Ugh…well, it’s not like I’ve been discrete about me spending time with her, still…

“…I wouldn’t call us ‘good friends’…she is simply the one I’m in best terms with among everyone
in the group” I tried to dismiss…whatever he was implying.

Though the look the ahoge boy was giving me told me he didn’t believed any of it.

…Sigh.

“Even so…what I was trying to say is, that it was…um, unexpected from someone like the
Ultimate Fashionista to get along with you, she doesn’t seem like she would be interested in
someone like the Ultimate Assassin and vice versa, well I think most people wouldn’t…Ah! I’m
not saying that it’s bothersome to spend time with you! Not at all! It’s just that your talents are so
different that it’s hard to see a common ground for you guys to find something to talk about,
haha…” The lucky student said while waving his hands defensively and laughing nervously.
But putting aside that…

…Lack of common ground, huh? If only he knew how full of surprises Enoshima is…

“…I suppose it is a valid concern, but in any case, about us talking…it is less us each talking
different topics in our conversations, and more…she does the talking and I give my input on it,
nothing more, but it works for me, and Enoshima seems to have no problem with it…so I guess it’s
fine”

At that, Naegi gained a pensive look.

“Hmm…I see, I suppose that everyone gets along in different ways, right? But at the end of the
day, I believe that having someone you get along well with is important, much more in a situation
like this one…that’s why I’m grateful I have someone like that here” The lucky student finished
with a smile.

“Someone…you are talking about Maizono, correct?”

“I guess it’s not a secret, haha…but yeah, I still can’t believe that someone like her would take her
time to spend it with someone like me, I mean, she is THE Sayaka Maizono, famous all around the
world with a talent as great as the Ultimate Pop Sensation…and I’m just an average and normal
person that just got ‘Lucky’ to get here…and well, seeing our current circumstances, even that was
not truly Luck, huh?”

Hmmm, I didn’t noticed it before, but it seems he has some self-esteem issues…it kind of makes
sense, at least when he’s surrounded with Ultimates. For all their…quirkiness, it is a fact that most
of them have achieved great things in their respective areas, and those who haven’t yet, have the
potential to do so in the future… and him, well, luck is supposed to be the thing he stands up more
than anyone else in this place, but as he has shown so far, it is more bad luck than good.

Still…I will admit it is strange that someone like Maizono would be so close to him, not because
some kind of arrogance from her part, no, far from it, she seems like the type to get along with all
kind of people and at the very least, that side of her doesn’t appear to be fake…so far.

But it’s just weird that, from what I’ve seen so far, she treats him as if they have been long friends,
always talking with enthusiasm when she is with him, and even when it is obvious they have
completely different lifestyles, and at first glance it would look like they couldn’t have anything in
common, that doesn’t stop them from spending time together at every chance they get…

…I guess it could be useful to dig a bit more.

“…Naegi, did Maizono and you knew each other from before all of this?”

That question seemed to caught him off-guard for a moment, though not that much, as he
recomposed himself relatedly fast.

“…H-huh? Me and Maizono…? Actually…both of us attended the same middle school”

…I see, that kind of explains why they have acted that way with each other so far, they must’ve
been long friends and―

“But we never interacted during that time, if I am honest, this place…this is where I’ve talked with
her for the first time. I suppose it is something I am grateful for, though I really wish it were under
better circumstances…”
…Never talked before this? That’s…curious.

“…I see, well…I am not expert in it, but maybe the fact that you are a familiar face is much more
valuable for her than when in comparison to complete strangers, after all, unknown factors are
something to be wary off” I commented.

“…I guess that makes sense, I don’t believe that anyone here is a bad person…but it definitely
makes sense for us to have a bias towards someone we know in comparison to people we don’t
know at all, still…I have faith that none of us will go along with what Monokuma wants!” Naegi
exclaimed.

I just nodded at that.

The part about having a bias towards someone you know is the only part of his statement that I
believe, though.

“Anyway, thanks for humoring me, Shigaraki…it’s not like I’m judging you or anything like that,
really! But you seem to be more like…Togami and Kirigiri, in which you aren’t a social type of
person, haha…ah, but I guess we still talked quite a lot, huh? W-Well, the point is that I won’t
interrupt more of your meal…” The ahoge boy said nervously.

“Mhm”

With that, Naegi got up from his chair and prepared to leave, though for some reason, he stopped
dead in his tracks and his eyes widened slightly, as if he just remembered something.

“Ah, I almost forgot!......um, I gained this at a vending machine that is in the school store, it’s
nothing impressive, really, but you can have it…here” Naegi commented while pulling something
out of a pocket and presenting it to me.

…A gift? That’s…huh.

I took it to give it at look, it was…

…It was a keychain, nothing special as he said, but the figure attached to it…

…it was the figure of a dish…

…A Japanese dish…

…A maki roll.

A maki roll keychain.

“…”

“…”

“…I guess you didn’t like it, huh? You probably are interested in less simple things, um, maybe I
can―”

“No, it’s fine…I actually like it”

“Huh? Really!? You don’t have to force yourself to―!”

“I’m not, I am being quite honest about liking this, Naegi. But the chances of…Hmm I suppose
your talent is a factor to take into consideration for this…”

“I don’t know how to feel about my luck only working for gifts…” Naegi sweatdropped.

I shrugged at that “Well, in any case…Thank you, Naegi”

In response the lucky student gave a smile and a nod. After that, Naegi, not wanting to stall my
meal anymore, left to…do things. Leaving me with nothing else but my food, my thoughts…and
that keychain.

…Maki roll…

…How long as it been since…

Since…I’ve called Her like that.

The last time was before They ‘recruited’ us, that’s for granted. So…a decade at the very least,
huh?

…Sigh.

…It…it doesn’t matter, I can count with the fingers of my limbs how many times we have talked
since That incident.

She is fine-no…

…She’s better without me around.

…A gift.

Right, I still have that thing with me and was planning to test it at some point to see what kind of
things can be obtained.

It seems I know what my next move is going to be.

After finishing eating and doing the dishes, I left the dining hall with the intention of heading to the
school store.

The walk there was quite uneventful, if I had to take a guess, it’s because that on both the first and
second day of being trapped here, people already looked all the areas and rooms of the first floor.
There’s a limit about how much, people with no proficiency for investigation, can search for. I
wouldn’t be surprised if most of them kind of gave up in looking for anything new and now they
are just fooling around, waiting for an external factor to come at their aid. ‘The fact that there is an
assassin wandering around also seems like a good motivator to spend more time inside their rooms
than walking through the halls too…’
In any case.

Once again, I stood in front of the doors that would lead me to the store and once inside, I found
myself with…no one.

I just came here to use that thing and see what I would get out of it, so I avoided any distractions
and went directly to the vending machine.

I inserted the ‘Monocoin’, twisted the handle in the form of Monokuma ‘…Geez’ and saw how the
capsules inside the machine began twirl around until I heard the sound of one of them being
dispensed.

There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary on the exterior of said capsule, though I couldn’t see
what was inside of it. Deciding to not waste any time, I opened it and saw…

A hairclip.

A red hairclip with the figure of a white kitten with a black spot on its right eye, said kitten also
wearing a blue ribbon in its neck.

…Well, I really didn’t had big expectations to get something of value out of this. This is a vending
machine Monokuma put here, it would be ridiculous if he were to put something that would help us
escape, like, I don’t know…the switch to open the vault-door or something like that.

In any case, I had nothing else to do here, so I will just leave to do something else.

As for that ‘something else’ to do…I really don’t have anything else. I’ve checked every single
place I can check multiple times ‘Save for the girls restrooms, but that’s’ why I did a meticulous
inspection last night, I’m not setting a foot there again…’ and the search for secret rooms won’t
happen until nighttime…but not this one, the nocturnal explorations are something I don’t plan to
do every single day ‘…Or night, we still don’t know which is truly the case’ , the last thing I want is
to make a pattern which Monokuma could use to get tabs on me and my movements.

…I suppose I will just walk randomly through the halls, for the sake of not slacking off, I guess.

Before leaving, though, I gave a look at the hairclip I got from the MonoMono Machine.

“Now, what to do with this…?”

…Well, I will keep it with myself and get rid of it when I get the chance.

Zero.

That’s the number of new discoveries I’ve made in the following hours that I have been
investigating.

But if I am honest with myself, it didn’t truly bothered me, after all, I was doing this more to kill
time than anything else. In any case, last time I checked, there wasn’t much time left before
nighttime comes, so I went to the last place left to inspect today.

The AV room.

Fortunately for me, I was already in front of its door.

The AV was…well, it was full of audio-visual equipment as you would expect of it. The first thing
you would probably take notice of, is the big projector screen found at the very front of the room.
At the sides of it, there were some considerably big stereos with all kinds of buttons that I could
only guess their functions, of course, there was also the standard TV screen and the surveillance
cameras you can find everywhere in this ‘school’.

And lastly, the ‘main content’ of this room: multiple rows of desks mounted up with the same
equipment and each one also with a chair included. Said equipment consisted of a screen and a
DVD player, there were also a set of headphones for each desk that you could plug or unplug at
convenience.

…Well, I said that the desks were the last part, but…

There were two extra things that caught my attention.

The first one was…

…Honestly, I’m not surprised at this point.

It was Enoshima.

Though it didn’t seem she has noticed me yet. The fashionista looked as if she was…distracted,
thinking deeply about something if that pensive look full of concentration was anything to go by.

…As much as I didn’t want to interrupt whatever she was doing, she would probably take it worse
if she suddenly takes notice of me rather than me announcing myself…so that’s what I did.

“Enoshima, greetings”

Well…it didn’t seem like it worked, as she faced me with those fierce eyes that always end up
accelerating my heart rate before taking notice it was me and gave a slight yelp.

Huh, déjà vu.

She moved from a surprised face to a slightly irked one.

“Again with the sneaky crap, Shigaraki? I already told you, like, seriously, you totally won’t―”

“Yes, yes, I won’t be popular with girls, you told me that already…but it’s really not my fault, you
know? Both times you just were way too distracted” I commented.

“…”

“…”
“…Oh? Moving from jokin’ to now makin’ snarky comments, huh? Moving fast, are we?”
Enoshima replied with a cheeky smile.

…It…it’s fine…

…If its only her…and it’s not like being a bit more open would make that much of a difference,
right?

…Right.

I could notice Enoshima was beginning to make a worried face like the past incident, so I spoke
before it got worse.

“…*sigh* Whatever, I already talk with you, don’t I? At the end of the day, they are just words, I
suppose…and as long it’s just us two…” I waved off her concerns.

For some reason, what I just said seemed to make her regain her previous enthusiasm and some
more while she began to do her trademark grin and peace sign gesture.

“Man, I’m glad you’re getting rid of that brooding attitude of yours with me around! Ah! Could it
be that you are really falling for me, is that it~? Is that the reason you’re here? You couldn’t wait
to see me and began stalking―!”

“Don’t push it Enoshima…” There wasn’t any negative emotion in my voice but I made sure to
sound in a way that meant what I said.

She just laughed awkwardly at that.

“Hehe…right, right…um, anyway, whatcha doin’ here?”

“Basically, what I’ve doing since the first day: investigating and looking for…anything if I am
honest, what about you?”

“Ah, well…kinda the same thing, y’know? Doin’ detective junk it’s not my thing, but I don’t
wanna feel like dead weight like some of the guys I’ve seen around lately” She commented that
last part with a frown.

Yeah…as I pointed out before, some people gave up, oh they haven’t lost hope of escaping this
place…but they just don’t see a reason to keep investigating anymore.

“…I see” Was all I said.

But the reason for that is mainly because of the second thing that caught my attention in this room.

It was a box.

A cardboard box.

There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary with it, it was just the kind of box you could see
anywhere, completely normal save for just one little peculiarity about it…

This was not here on the first day or yesterday.

I approached it with narrowed eyes.

Once close enough of it, I opened it, and inside of it was…

Nothing.

“Hm? What are ya doing?” Enoshima asked.

“…”

“…Shigaraki?”

“…Enoshima, have you seen this box before?”

At the mention of that, the fashionista approached me the give it a look.

“Erm, no, not really…but it doesn’t seem to have anythin’, and it looks, like, totally normal, no?”

“Yes, it is completely normal…but it wasn’t here before” I stated.

“…Eh?”

“Every day I have taken a look at this place at least once and this is the first time I have seen it
here”

“T-That’s…huh, strange, yeah…but it doesn’t look like somethin’ important, right? I mean, it’s just
a box and its totally empty”

“Hmm…I suppose that’s the case” Not that I was convinced of that.

It is true that I saw a few boxes not so different back in the kitchen, but then the next questions
would arise…who put this here? And why?

If we are talking of a classmate…why put it here? What does he/she could gain by doing this?

…If it was Monokuma…does that mean this is a signal he is already planning to make his move
soon? Did he put something in here and someone else already took it? I am jumping the gun to
quickly for thinking that? No, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

I couldn’t help but sigh. Even if this is part of Monokuma’s scheme, there is absolutely nothing for
me to do, as the true and important part of whatever he is planning will not be revealed and put into
action until at least tomorrow considering nighttime is approaching. ‘Of course, just in case, it
seems that tonight I will have to be an extra light sleeper…’

There was nothing else for me to do here, so I prepared to leave while I turned to face Enoshima to
ask her if she was coming too.

Or at least that was my intention until I saw Enoshima’s face was morphed into a conflicted
expression while biting the bottom of her lip, as if she wanted to talk about something but she was
worried about it at the same time.

I couldn’t help but furrow my brows at that, though I didn’t say anything, to let her have a word
first without pressure.

Eventually, she found her voice to express what she wanted to say.

“…Hey, Shigaraki? Can I tell you something?” She said in the most serious tone of voice I’ve ever
heard from her.
“…You can…what is it?” I too took an absolute serious stance for this conversation.

“…My true intentions”

…True intentions? What is she talking about?

It was just too vague for me for understand, as it could mean a lot of things, so I keep myself silent
as to let her know she could continue.

Fortunately, she understood the non-spoken message.

“Too be honest…I’m kinda fed up with all this. We’re all Ultimates, right? So we get carried away
and rush face-first into stuff…even I have to wonder if it’s okay to live that way…”

…Rush face-first into stuff, huh? Not something I can truly related to 'More like forced in my
case...'

But about what she said…

“…Is this related to your career as a fashionista?”

Instead of confirming or denying what I said, she hesitated with another conflicted expression. It
wasn’t as intense as the previous one and neither lasted as long, but this was enough for me to
understand something.

There’s more to it of what she is telling me, isn’t it?

“…Dreams are meant to change as you grow up, right?”

…Dreams…

…If this came from any other person, I would probably wouldn’t have batted an eye about this
topic.

But in this case…

…When we are talking of the person in front of me…

“…” I didn’t say anything to that, but I paid attention at how her face changed from a conflicted to
a sad one.

“Depending on where you’re at, be it kindergarten, elementary school, junior high, high school…
and even throwing that out of the window…just growing up in general…our dreams…they are
supposed to change over time, right? But I’ve had the same dream since I was a little kid and I’ve
been rushing toward it ever since. So I’ve never really had to think all that hard about my
dream…”

“…”
“…”

“…And do you still feel the same way about it? About that dream of yours?”

“That’s what I used to think…but if it doesn’t change, your opportunities can’t grow right? That’s
how new possibilities are born…right?”

…Possibilities, huh? That word again…

“And up until now, I never did that. I never let my dreams grow…All I saw was that one dream. I
put everything I had into that one narrow little world…”

…Why…

…Why is she confiding this…

…Something so important…to me of all people.

“I…I feel like there’s so much more I could be doing that I’m not, and I don’t like that feeling…I
think it would be for the best to start looking for it” After saying that, she turned to face me
directly “…Is it childish of me to think…to think like that? Am I just being a baby, Shigaraki?”
She asked me.

…But the way she did it…it was like she was begging me to give her the right answer, as if my
response, my opinion would be more important that what anyone else in the entire world could
give her, me, some random guy she has met for a few days and just so happens she gets along well
with him because of…some weird quirk of hers.

Me, who has committed atrocities that I have no doubt some of my classmates would throw up if
hearing about them.

Me, a monster…no, that would be giving me too much credit…a tool who knows nothing but
causing suffering and death to those that have the misfortune of meeting me. ‘…I mean, that’s the
exact reason They gave me that code name…’

All of that without feeling any kind of remorse.

And she…wants me to tell her if pursuing a new dream is the right choice?

This moment.

If there is a moment to end this farse of me being ‘besties’ with an eccentric model.

This farse that is doing nothing but clouding my judgement more and more with every single day
that passes.

To make sure for her to never talk to me again.

Is this moment.

“…Enoshima”
“Yes?”

“…Out of everyone inside this place…you…you choose the worst person talk about this”

“H-Huh…?” For the very first time since we have meet each other…she looked wary of me.

“You are asking me about your dreams and your doubts related to them…so I will tell you first
what is a fact”

“A…fact?”

“Yes, a fact…I don’t know what did you saw in me that made you believe that telling me what you
told me was a good idea, so I will be as direct as I can: Ever since I have memories up to this
day…I’ve never ever had a dream”

“…”

“The first years of my life I just existed, I would not say that it was an empty life, because it
wasn’t, I personally believe I had a pretty decent early childhood…and certain factors that makes
me remember those times up to this day as…happy memories” I had a small smile on my face
when I said that, remembering those good old days with Her…

…Days that would never come back.

And just as fast the smile faded.

“But at the end of the day, no matter how happy I was at the time, that was not dreaming and the
closest thing I had to an aspiration was to survive…then when those happy times came to an end…
I received a path” I said while looking at my hands, as if something…something of great value
was in them.

“…You are talking about becoming an assassin, right?”

…I suppose I wasn’t being subtle about it…

“Yes, although…even when I said that I ‘received’ a path, it was more among the lines of forced
upon me…but I didn’t mind that…hell, if I am completely honest with myself, I would even dare
to say that it made me happy at first, I was just a kid and They never stopped talking about some
grand purpose I would be part of, how could I reject that? I would finally have something to aspire
to…a dream to follow, but…”

“…There wasn’t any dream for you in there, was it?”

“…No, there wasn’t…but I suppose I couldn’t say that I got empty handed either, I already told
you that I sympathize with embracing the power you receive trough terrible life experiences, right?
So…yeah, not empty handed…anyway, I am getting side-tracked with what I am truly trying to tell
you…”

After saying that, I gave a long sigh before I turned to face the fashionista with the most serious
face I have shown her so far in the time we have known each other.

“If I were talking with facts alone, Enoshima…I would say that I couldn’t care less anymore about
them…about dreams, and even less about the dreams and doubts of someone else, and of
course…that includes yours…”
…I didn’t even had to end that sentence to see…

…to see…

…to see how hurt she was at those words.

She expressed something incredibly important to her and all I did with that comment of mine was
to dismiss it…no…it was worse, I basically stomped the feelings inside what she shared with me.

As if the short but impactful time we have spend together meant nothing to me…

…And if I stopped here, there’s no doubt that she wouldn’t want to have anything else to do with
me again.

That would be the most intelligent and rational decision for me to take, to stop saying anything
else, cut off our…our friendship and that way I could guarantee not getting compromised nor
attached anymore.

…Unfortunately for me…

…In more ways than one…

…I am a fucking idiot…

“…That was what I would say if I were only talking with facts…but what I truly want to tell you,
Enoshima, doesn’t come from facts…comes from what I feel”

At that, the growing hurt expression of Enoshima changed to a confused one.

“…What…What you feel? A-Are you talking about…about your f-feelings?”

I winced at that, I wanted to think of it as instincts rather than that, but I already implied something
horrible ‘Even if I didn’t mean it…at least not to her’, any attempt to correct what she said could
only make things worse.

…I…I can’t do that to her.

I can’t back down with this.

“…Yes, my feelings about…about what you told me, you asked me if it was immature or wrong to
feel the desire of chasing a new dream and the truth is…I don’t have any idea. As I pointed out
before, I have no experience with them, so I am a complete ignorant when it comes to dreams…
but for that very reason…I feel like they are something special”

“…Special?”
“Mhm…people capable of dreaming…they have something that I don’t, so I consider that a special
trait to have…you Enoshima, in my eyes, are someone who is even more special for being capable
of dreaming for as long as you have been doing”

“You…You see me as someone special…in your heart?”

W-What? Why does she keeps changing what I am saying? And what she said…that sounds as if…
as if…

Ugh…not backing down…

“…Mhm…I don’t know if it’s the right answer or not, but in my opinion…as long as you are
capable of dreaming, as long as you are capable of feeling any aspirations and as long as you are
capable of as much as breathing…”

I took a breath before facing her directly with the what I hope is at least a bit bigger, friendlier and
reassuring smile than what I’ve done so far in her company, while finally answering the question
she made me.

“I feel like it is completely fine for you to change your dreams and search for new ones as many
times as you want…because you are that special and for that very reason, it is your right and yours
alone to being capable of doing so” I finished.

What I just did…what I just said…I really meant it…

This…

This was my chance to put an end to all this…

This…This is probably the last nail in the coffin, and if it’s not, then at the very least…getting
compromised it’s just a matter of when rather than if…

But once again…I…I feel like that’s a better alternative rather than seeing her sad like she was just
a moment ago.

…Being trapped in this place really ended up being more problematic than what I thought at the
beginning, huh?

After I said that, there was an awkward silence ‘At least to me it feels awkward’ where neither of us
said anything.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Shigaraki” Enoshima was the one who broke the silence.

If I hadn’t the self-control I have, I would’ve probably flinched.

“Yes?”

“…You…You really suck at motivational speeches” Enoshima deadpanned.

“…I do, don’t I? Huh, I guess that and cooking are out of the list…” I commented.
“Oh? Another setback, huh? Keep goin’ like this and that ‘Mr. can do it all’ image of yours will
lose its shine”

“…Mr. can do it all?” I asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Don’t think too hard about it…” The fashionista waved off “…More importantly, about what you
said…I think you are right, trying and trying while getting lost can be a good thing! As long as I
keep looking for a dream…as long as I am capable of even that, maybe that’s enough to be
happy…Yeah. I’m definitely gonna remember what you said, thanks, Shigaraki” She finished with
a small smile.

...That much trust on me, huh?

…I don’t feel like I deserve it.

“…You’re welcome” …But it is her right, not mine, to decide that.

“And! And! As a token of appreciation, I promise that if I do decide to kill someone, it won’t be
you!”

“…”

“…”

“…Hmph, as if I would give you the chance in the first place” I replied with amusement in my
voice.

“Ehehe, Now that sounds like a challenge!” Enoshima just gave me a grin.

I was glad she understood I didn’t take her comment in a serious manner, still…

The amusement of my face got wiped off for a serious expression as I addressed the fashionista
once again.

“Enoshima”

“Hm?”

“I want to apologize”

“Huh? Apologize…? What for?”

“…When you asked me about your dreams…at first, I made it sound as if I was disinterested in
what you said, to the point of looking as if I was implying that I didn’t care at all…it was not my
intention, it’s just…just…expressing something like I did today, I’m not the best when it comes to
that, but still…at the end of the day it still hurt you, so I feel like a apology for that is the least I
can do”

At my declaration, Enoshima gave me a sympathizing look, before she sighed and addressed me
with a stern expression.

“Yeah, I will admit that it caught me off guard, and if it were any other girl, that would’ve made
her cry, y’know? So…I don’t care if you are the Ultimate Assassin or whatever, I’m gonna kick
your ass if you pull another stunt like that, got it?”
“…Yes, I suppose it is reasonable”

“Alright, with that said…” Her stern expression changed to a cheeky grin “I will accept your
apology if you make it up to me!”

“Make it up to you?”

“Yep! You didn’t think you could get scot-free of that, did you?”

“…No, I guess that wouldn’t be fair…” I gained a pensive look at that while I put my hands in the
pockets of my pants.

Hmm, a compensation? I have no idea how to do that if I am honest ‘Something else to add to the
list of things I lack experience of, huh?’

I mean, there isn’t much to do in this place with the rest of the floors blocked off, so it will be hard
to think about something…

What to do…what to do…

While I was distracted with my thoughts, I felt something in one of my pockets, I decided to pull it
out and saw…

It was hairclip with the kitten figure.

…Right, I had that thing, I usually don’t forget about what I have with me, but, well, as a hairclip,
it was low on my priority list of things to remember.

Although it seems Enoshima noticed that I had something in my hand.

“Eh? What is that?” The fashionista asked with a tilted head.

“This? It’s some kind of hairclip. Remember what you told me about the Monocoins and the
MonoMono Machine?”

“Ah, that…did you really gave it a try at that junk?”

I shrugged “Mhm…when I was exploring the ‘school’ I found one of those coins, so I just thought
‘Sure, why not?’ and gave it a try at the vending machine…and that’s where I got this” I finished
while showing her the hairclip.

“Mmm…I see” Enoshima commented…thought it was in a distracted manner as she was…looking

quite intently at the item.

…Does she want it?

…I mean…sure…I don’t have any use for it, so…if she likes it…

“You can have it” I stated.

“…Huh?”

“The hairclip, you can have it” I commented while offering it to her.
“…H-Huh!? B-But it is yours a-and―! “

“And I need to make it up for you, remember? And you seem interested on it…it is a win-win, I
guess…”

“…Are you giving me this…a-as a gift?” Enoshima said while hiding her face facing in the
opposite direction while she was fidgeting with her fingers.

…Eh?

“…Yes, I…I suppose this can count as a…gift, huh?”

At those words, she accepted the…gift. Once it was on her hands, she stared at it with some intense
but pensive look, as if she was debating something. After what felt like an eternity, she…presented
it back to me.

What?

“What is it? As I said, I really―”

“Put it on me” she said with a completely serious tone of voice.

“…”

“…”

“…What?”

At my question, that seriousness was replaced with absolute nervousness while her cheeks were
tinted red.

…Eh?

“T-The h-hairclip…p-put it on me”

“Why do you want me to―?”

“Oh, c’mon! You already gave it to me, no!? Don’t be more of a jerk today and do it!” Enoshima
snapped while making a ‘Cute, I will admit…’ pout.

“…Fine, I will do it, just calm down, alright?” I said while taking the hairclip from her hand and
decided to get on with it ‘Geez, those aggressive moments of hers are so random…’

First of all, I needed to get closer to her.

Closer to her.

To her.

…A mission.

Just think of this as a mission, and things should be fine, right?

Right.
Once I mentally prepared myself, I approached her.

The moment I did that, the slight height difference between us became more noticeable, with me
being taller than her to the point where my eyes were around the level of her forehead.

So, yeah, there was a difference in height…just not enough for me to not notice how her light-
violet eyes were boring into me with so much intensity that was making me feel like putting just a
simple hairclip as one of the hardest missions I’ve had in my life.

…Not only that, but…

At the end of the day, I am a teenager boy…and while They were capable of, well…change my
perspective of life in some aspects ‘Yeah, that’s a way to put it, I suppose’…there were some things
that stayed.

One of them is…as not so subtly pointed out multiple times…my capacity to feel physically
attracted towards someone.

And if Celeste had Sayaka’s psychic powers to read minds and were in this room, well…she would
probably laugh at how bad of a liar I would be if I told myself that I don’t find Enoshima…
physically attractive.

But only that. As worrisome as it is…these past few days ‘I can’t believe it’s only been 3 days…’
have showed me an undeniable truth.

I consider Enoshima a friend…basically, my best ‘…well, she’s the only one, so, yeah…’ friend.

But it is a whole different ordeal to have…to have…ro…ro…that kind of feelings towards her, it’s
just impossible, there’s no way that would happen in less than a week of knowing her, I’m not even
talking about the repercussions of that, it’s just simple logic that I couldn’t have developed
something like that towards someone in this short amount of time, it’s, well, not possible…right?

…Right?

…I’m…I’m getting side-tracked, the point I was trying to make is that…it is an undeniable fact
that She’s attractive, and now that I’m so close to her…that only worked to reinforce such fact.

Her small nose, the freckles around the bridge of said nose, her narrow eyes…her…her lips, even
something like the oval shape of her face, seeing all of that from this distance, when you put it
together…it really is a pleasant sight…and It didn’t help at all that I could feel her breathing
around my neck and that was sending shivers down my spine.

I REALLY need hurry up with this.

Fortunately for me, I have experience with these kind of things ‘Well, it is true I haven’t done this
since I was a kid, when playing with Her…but if I was capable back then, then there’s no question
of my competency for it now’

And as tempting as it was, I made sure to do it in a way that didn’t disturb her wig ‘If…by any
chance…I managed to see a tiny little bit of black, well…that was just part of the process’
I didn’t took me more than a few seconds before I managed to clip the accessory in her ‘hair’.

The moment I was done with it, I immediately distanced myself.

“There” I said.

The fashionista put one hand on her head, around the hairclip more precisely. If I had to take a
guess, to make sure I didn’t mess it up. Once she looked satisfied with the results, she turned to
look at me, with the nervousness from a few moments ago coming back.

“…Um…how…how does it look?” Enoshima asked.

I was about to protest about the need of me making a comment about this, but I could notice the
signals of another snapping coming back if I didn’t say something soon.

…This REALLY isn’t in my expertise area.

“…You…you look…good” And it was true, that accessory did complement her. Must be a trait of
her being the Ultimate Fashionista that everything she tries seems to work with her.

However, I bet it would look better in her real hair rather than on the wig.

I don’t believe that what I said was that big of a compliment…but it seems Enoshima didn’t though
the same if that warm smile and the gleam of her eyes were any indications.

“I-I see…um, thank you…a-and I guess that if it’s that good of an accessory…I wouldn’t mind
accepting it as your apology and keeping it” The fashionista commented while a blush formed once
again on her face.

I just gave her a stiff nod…while a small smile of my own formed itself.

We just stood there for who knows how long, staring at each other with matching smiles on our
faces.

Of course, such a moment couldn’t last much in a place like this.

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Ahem, Ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially

nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, entry at that point is strictly
prohibited. Okay then…sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed
bugs bite…”

“…”

“…”

“…Urgh, I really hate that piece of scrap”

“Even without his direct presence, he is capable of being more dislikeable day by day, isn’t he?”

“Honestly, that’s puttin’ it lightly, but anyways…we…we really should get going, right?”

“…Yes, as he said in his announcement, it is already nighttime…” And it’s no longer safe to walk
through these halls.
With that, the two of us prepared to leave the room and head to the dorms.

But Enoshima called me out once again.

“Shigaraki”

“Yes?”

“About what you said…about not having a dream…”

…Right, I revealed that to her, didn’t I?

“…Enoshima, you don’t have to worry about that, I―”

“Maybe we can look for one together!” Enoshima exclaimed.

…Look for one…a dream…

…Together…

…Huh?

“…Enoshima, what…what are you talking about?”

"What I mean, duh! Once we get outta here I'm gonna need to look for this new dream of mine and
you said that you lack one in the first place, right? Looking for a dream together…that would be,
like, two confirmed kills with one bullet! Isn't it perfect!?"

“…”

“…”

“…Didn’t you mean ‘Killing two birds with one stone’?” I questioned.

“E-Eh? That’s…um…Oi, Shigaraki, stop looking at the tiny details! That’s not important and you
know it!” Enoshima exclaimed with a pout

…I mean, she’s right…

…Even so…

“…Enoshima, I…I don’t think that―”

“Oh? Are ya planning to pull another jackass move, is that it?” Enoshima asked with narrowed
eyes.
…She’s still hasn’t forgiven me completely, has she?

…Not for the first time, I feel like things are so complicated when it comes to her.

“…I will consider it…truly, I will do it” I replied.

I will truly take it into consideration…not that I really have hopes of such possibility becoming a
reality.

It's less because I lack the desire to do so, and more because…There’s no way They would allow
something like that for its most valuable asset…

…But…in the time I am trapped here…

…It doesn’t hurt to drea-lie to myself a little…right?

…Just a little.

“…”

“…I suppose that’s the best I will get with you, even so…geez, you truly hit the jackpot with me!
First, I will find ya a girlfriend, and now, I’m helping you in this search for a dream. Hehehe,
seriously Shigaraki, you truly are lucky for knowing me, aren’t you?” Enoshima exclaimed with
her trademark grin and peace sign gesture.

…Wait, is she still going with that girlfriend thing!?

But putting that…that aside…

“…I guess I truly am, don’t I?” I commented with a small smile.

There was nothing else the two of us needed to say, and it has already passed some time since
nighttime was announced, so, this time for real, we left together for our rooms.

Though, even when it was getting further from us, I couldn’t help but look back at the A/V room
with narrowed eyes.

Several days have passed without Monokuma showing even his shadow and even with my
presence, the lack of movements on my part has made everyone to relatedly drop their guards and
relax.

Just like he wants.

Oh, I have experience with this. When extracting infor-when torturing someone, one of the oldest
tricks in the book is to give them a false sense of security, make them believe that there is still any
hope for them, a light at the end of the tunnel, and when they least expect it, well…the bear has
already made clear what does he wants from us.

Everything so far has been nothing but the building-up of a false sense of security before it all
comes crashing down. The calm before the storm.
And I highly doubt there’s much…if any calm left.
 H S S: Unmasking His Impure Origins Before Them.

H S S: Unmasking His Impure Origins Before Them.

*Ding doing bing bong*

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and
shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

“…I suppose this is the price to pay for a good sleep…”

Well, I said that, but the truth is that I didn’t sleep at all. Thanks to the box I found yesterday in the
A/V room, I began to suspect that Monokuma would make a move soon, and well, seeing that we
are talking of him, I didn’t put out of the realm of possibility for him to do something in the middle
of our sleep.

It might sound paranoid considering that all of this came from just a simple cardboard box, but I
just simply couldn’t afford the risk. Even so, it’s not like I am capable of doing this forever, so, as
much as I didn’t like it, I will have to be content with doing this only when I see a signal of him
attempting anything.

Either way, I was about to begin the day the usual way when…

*Ding dong*

I heard the sound of someone ringing the doorbell of my room, and I couldn’t help but narrow my
eyes at that.

Who would like to meet me first hour in the morning? Enoshima? I mean, it is true that I’ve meet
her early these past few days…but this early?

Hmmm…There’s actually someone else who comes to mind, still…

I cautiously approached the door, readying my body 'and a dagger...' in case it's neither of the
previous two options, and this is someone else with…less friendly intentions.

Once I had my hand on the handle, I only opened the door enough to only reveal less than half of
my face, I wasn’t going to allow anyone to see the insides of my room and much less to get inside.

When I did that, I caught sight who it was…

“A most splendid morning, isn’t it!?” Taka exclaimed/shouted.

…Ah, the worst-case scenario has become true…Monokuma and Taka have teamed up to work as
alarm clocks at the same time.

“…I suppose…”

“Now then, if you’ll pardon the interruption―!” Without waiting for a response from my part,
Taka tried to barge into my room.

Of course, that was something I didn’t allow, as without effort I keeped the door in place, much to
the confusion of the Ultimate Moral Compass.

“H-Huh? Uh, Shigaraki, it seems your door is stuck…”

“That’s not the case, I just simply that I didn’t gave you permission to get in”

Apparently, that caught him off guard. If I had to guess, everyone so far has been more permissive
with him getting into their rooms.

“I-I see, then…Shigaraki! I request your permission to come in!”

“No”

“N-No!?”

“Even if I wanted to let you in” Which I don’t “It’s just not possible…”

“Not possible…? May I know why?”

…Geez, I really haven’t put any time to think of an excuse, the chances of someone actually
wanting to visit my room were close to zero. If I am honest, this really is an unexpected turn of
events.

But even that isn’t enough to faze me, I can improvise.

“Yes, the reason for that is…because I sleep naked” I stated with a straight face.

...

...

...

...Yeah…not the best of excuses, but not the worst either.

“…”

“…”

“N-Naked!? Shigaraki, what is the meaning behind this indecent behavior!?”

“It’s because of the benefits that provides” I say without hesitating.

That seemed to caught his attention.

“Benefits…?” Taka asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Yes, one of them is that it helps with the blood regulation, which in turn keeps our brain healthy,
that helps a lot to in keeping the mind sharp…something truly beneficial when it comes to
studying”

Studying, that seems like a magic word when it comes to him.

“Is…Is that really the case!? I can’t believe I had no idea! Dammit! All those years of dedication
and failed to take sleep into consideration in such a way! How much of a fool I could be!?
Shigaraki! I must truly thank you for your insight on this!” Taka exclaimed passionately.
…Well, it works for me if he’s that gullible, in any case…

“You’re welcome…So, what do you need?”

“Oh, right! You see, I was thinking about this last night, and…I have come to the conclusion that
we all need to really come together!”

“Is that so…?” I might an idea of what he’s implying…

“Yes, and that was when I came to the next conclusion…Every morning from this day on, after the
morning announcement, all of us should have breakfast together! And it just happens that today is
the beginning of such fateful day! Please head to the dining hall at your earliest convenience!”
Taka exclaimed.

So he truly was talking about making obligatory daily meetings, huh? That’s…useful I will admit,
not much because of the bonding together nonsense, but more because of the intel it will provide
every single day.

If all us meet together in a single place every day, it will help to do a head-check, that way if one of
us goes missing, we will become aware of that with ease. ‘Though…I will admit that it would
eventually become a hindrance for me in the case I decided to actually make a move and include
the time it takes to find the body into consideration…’

There’s that…and that I will have to be faster when taking showers, as I refuse to abandon morning
showers while I have the capacity of them.

…Am I getting spoiled in that area? Huh, that’s kind of fast ‘and worrying…’ considering it’s been
just about four days.

Anyway, before I could accept or reject Taka’s proposal, he beat me to the punch.

“That’s all for now! I have to go and let the rest of our group know the good news!” Not waiting
for my response. He turned and left to bother the occupant of the room in front of mine.

Ah, she’s not gonna like that.

Honestly, even if I didn’t gave him an answer, I already accepted that there are more benefits with
going rather than rejecting the offer ‘…At least for now’.

With that in consideration, I used the few minutes I bought with that excuse I made to Taka to
prepare myself for the day.

Once I left the room, I was meet with quite a peculiar sight.

“Yes, yes I’m coming to that stupid meetin’ of yours! You don’t have to literally be knocking for
10 minutes at the door just to try to barge into my room as if it was yours to tell me about it, you
pervert!” Exclaimed an angry Enoshima.

“P-P-Pervert!?” Replied a shocked Taka.

“Well, duh! How else do you call what you were trying to do? If I catch you trying to put a stunt
like that again, there will be consequences, got it!?”

“E-Eh…u…u…Understood!!” Shouted a scared Taka as he left to find someone else to do…

whatever he was doing.

Once I made sure he was out of sight and that nobody else was around, I turned to Enoshima.

“…Making friends, huh?”

“…*sigh* Seriously what’s his deal? As soon as I opened the door, the guy tried to get inside as if
it was his place, that’s just so freakin’ weird, right?”

“It is, though at least I managed to get him off my back before it came to that point…”

“Oh? Care to share the secret?” Enoshima asked with a tilted head.

The secret? That would be…

“…You don’t want to know, really…in any case, you are coming too?”

She quirked an eyebrow at my comment, but besides that, she let the subject to rest “Ah, yeah, I
will go to that thing he said…but you should probably go without me, I’m still not done with some
of the stuff I need and other things I need to reapply thanks to that jerk”

Is she talking about make-up? Hmm…

Maybe I shouldn't point out she looks the same to me. 'Not in a bad way...quite the opposite in
fact...'

“…Right, you do that…”

“Hey, what’s up with that look you are making?” Enoshima asked with quirked eyebrow.

"Nothing, I will see you later" I said more quickly than what I would've liked to.

“…Alright, catch ya later” The fashionista said before returning to her room, though she still gave
me a suspicious look just before getting inside…

…I suppose she’s still pissed about what Taka did.

Once inside the dining hall I could see that most of the class were already there, so I just took my
seat in the same spot I did in the first day. It seems I wasn’t the only one, everyone else was using
the same spot as the last time, with people like Togami and Fukawa using a completely different
table.

Among them, besides Naegi, Maizono, Taka and surprisingly Fujisaki who did greet me, everyone
else just opted with looking at me warily, but they didn’t do anything beyond that, so it was fine
for me.

Eventually, the remaining students assembled in the dining hall, which worked as a signal for Taka
to begin the meeting.

“Alright, looks like everyone’s here! So then, let’s begin our very first ‘breakfast meeting’!” The
moral compass exclaimed before proceeding to clear his throat “First of all, I would like to thank
everyone for making time in your busy schedules to come together!”

…’Busy schedule’? As if, I don’t remember the last time I had this much free time ‘or any free
time…’ in my life.

Leon neither agreed with that comment, though for different reasons…

“I didn’t make time for any shit. You dragged me here…*sigh* my nap…”

Taka ignored that comment completely, though “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”

He then proceeded to slam his hands on the table, making Fujisaki flinch ‘So intense…’

“And the first step is this breakfast meeting! To allow us to become friends with each other and
build our mutual trust! So from now on, let’s all meet here in the dining hall every day after the
morning announcement! Now then…let’s eat!” Taka exclaimed.

At that, I was about the get out of the chair and go to the kitchen to grab something…when I
noticed how most of the class were looking at each other uncomfortably.

…Huh.

“You w-want me to eat breakfast w-with other p-people? I’ve never done that in my life. I’m not s-
sure…” Fukawa said nervously.

“Y-Yeah…it’s been a while for me too” Leon added.

…I mean, I would be lying if I say that I’m not a similar case, but I don’t really care if I am honest,
as long as the company doesn’t show any signal of being suspicious or potentially dangerous, it
should be fine.

Though it seems that even with such factor into consideration, I will have to wait a bit longer as
Enoshima brought another point into the discussion.

“Putting that aside…has anyone happen to come up with any clues?”

At her question, silence was all that followed.

That included me, several days have passed by and I haven’t made any new discoveries…the only
exception to this is the box I found yesterday in the A/V room, but that is something the fashionista
already saw.

I had some theories of my own about certain things, sure, but there wasn’t any solid evidence, so
they were just that, theories…

So yeah, if we are talking about any new clues…I had nothing.

Enoshima didn’t seem to take this silence in any positive way…and I could see she was beginning
to have one of her ‘impulsive moments’…

“Seriously? Nothing at all!? It can be anything! About how to get out, or who is doing this, nobody
has anything!?” Enoshima exclaimed.

“…You are going to die” Commented Celeste.

*Twitch*

At the gambler words…there was this…strange reaction I have sometimes, but there was also
something else…

Something I haven’t feel in who knows how long…

It was…a lump of genuine worry in my throat.

…And all because the gambler told Enoshima that she was going to die with a foreboding
expression, as if she was sure of that destiny.

…That’s…

…That’s so…

‘…So stupid…get together, Shizuka, now’s not the time for this kind of crap…’

…If I didn’t take those words well, it was much less in the case of the fashionista herself.

“Huh…?” Was all Enoshima said, completely shocked at what Celeste just said.

“If you can’t control yourself from revealing any sign of weakness in front of others…you will die”

“Wh-What the hell!?, don’t even freakin’ joke about that!”

“What I said was not a joke. Adaptability is survivability. Did I not say so? It is essential for you to
hurry up and find a way to adapt in this place…although…” She turned slightly to look at me “…It
seems you have found your own way to do it, didn’t you?”

I fought the urge to narrow my eyes, I refuse to give her anything to exploit.

Though in Enoshima’s case, she couldn’t avoid a reaction while looking at the gambler
suspiciously.

“That I have already adapted…? What the heck are you talking about?”

“Hehe, nothing of importance, dear…oh, by the way, that is a most peculiar accessory you have
there, I can’t remember seeing you wearing it before…”

At that, some of the girls gave a more careful look at the fashionista.

“Now that you mention it…Ah, it’s true! That kitten hairclip is so cute, Junko!” Hina commented.

“Yeah, it really goes really well with your style! Although it is true that I haven’t seen you wearing
it before…” Maizono added with a tilted head and a finger in her chin.

Almost everyone turned to Enoshima to give her a curious look. Which in turn made her snap
while she stammered with clear signs of embarrassment.

“H-Huh? Y-You…You guys don’t have to make a big deal out of this! My room just so happens to
be full of stuff of this kind…t-that’s all there’s to it. I just decided that today wanted to change my
style a little bit, that’s the kind of stuff I do as a fashionista, alright!?”

While everyone became confused at her reaction, her response seemed to be enough to satisfy their
curiosity…with the exception of Celeste…and Kirigiri.
Celeste didn’t seem believe a word of what Enoshima said and was looking at me as if she knew
there’s more about this. ‘Which unfortunately, there is…’

Kirigiri…well, she was looking at me suspiciously, but that’s just seems to be the default look she
is going to give me all the time.

“Is that so…? Well, in any case, I am quite interested in this gamble of yours, I will have to keep an
eye to see the results of it, it will definitely will make things much more entertaining for my life
here” Celeste said.

“Your life here…? Have you gone insane? Do you have any idea of the junk you’re saying right
now?” Enoshima replied.

“Yeah, sound to me like the girl wants to live here. And hell, more power to her…but shit…no way
in hell I am living here! I’m gettin’ outta here, I don’t give a shit!” Owada exclaimed.

“Hmhm. Sure, feel free” Celeste commented with an unimpressed fake smile.

“Okay, so… nobody has any clues?” Leon asked.

“One thing I can tell you is who’s behind this. Someone who’s totally weird and messed up!” Hina
exclaimed.

…Huh.

“I mean, sure, it is someone like that. But for now, talking about real clues…”

Once again, there was nothing but silence, as everyone tried to remember any information they
could’ve missed.

It seemed as if we reached a dead end…when Fujisaki of all people spoke up.

“U-Ummm…” The programmer nervously tried to gather everyone’s attention.

“Huh? What’s up?” Leon replied.

“If you think in terms of people who are really abnormal or bizarre…do you think maybe the
person responsible for all this could be a certain murderous fiend…?”

“…Murderous fiend…Ah! F-Fujisaki…by any chance, you couldn’t be talking about Shigaraki,
right?” Naegi said in a worried tone of voice.

At the mention of me, all the class turned to me while looking at me with either with wariness or
suspiciousness ‘Well everyone sans Enoshima and Naegi, they actually seemed kinda worried…’

But before this staring contest with me turned into a witch hunt…again, Fujisaki spoke in alarm.

"N-No! I was not talking of him! B-But…well, I-I can't really be certain of what I'm thinking,
but…"

“This is not a moment for hesitation! Even if it’s not a certainty, I’ll allow whatever remarks you
may have!” Taka exclaimed.

“O-Okay, well…Have you guys heard of Genocider Syo?”

Ah, so ‘she’s’ talking about that…

“You mean the serial killer that’s been all over the news and it’s always a trend in the internet?”
Naegi asked.

For some reason, Togami seemed quite invested in taking part for this specific topic.

“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…On the internet he is
known as…Genocide Syo. That about covers it, I think” Togami finished.

“They say he’s claimed over a thousand victims…” Hiro added solemnly.

“But that’s just an urban legend, right? I mean, a thousand lives…that’s an insane amount! There’s
no way a single person could be capable of that, right?” Hina commented.

“Is it that hard to believe? After all…if what Monokuma said is true, we are in presence of
someone who possess a similar if not higher numbers at his hands, remember?” Togami replied.

Everyone’s faces drained of color at the mention of that.

Because, yes, it has been clear for everyone that I am the Ultimate Assassin ‘Not that being aware
of it has gave them any peace of mind, though’…but it seems that other extra bit he added during
my…presentation, has been partially ignored.

Every single killing method I mentioned earlier…He has done it Dozens! Hundreds of times! Every
single killing method you ask him about…The same! Dozens! Hundreds of times!

But the heir has just reminded them of that, and well…when you add what Togami and Hiro said…

They didn’t take long to made their own connection.

“I-It’s true, Monokuma said something among those lines, didn’t he…?” Yamada said.

“W-Wait! If that’s a similar number of deaths and he’s some kind of killer…doesn’t that means he
could truly be…!?” Leon added his own conclusion.

Which of course, they couldn’t help but take at face value, because why not?

“Oh? Could it be that we are in presence of the infamous serial killer…?” Celeste added.

“Hmm…I will admit that the assassin fills the description in some way, it certainly is a
possibility…” Togami commented.

“W-Wait! I am not certain of what I said! I lack evidence or anything, all of this it’s just―!”
Fujisaki tried to correct ‘herself’, but Owada beat her to the punch.

And my ears are going to regret my decision of me sitting next to the biker.

“Oi! Is that true, bastard!? You’re that Genocider Syo creep!? You better have some fuckin’ good
evidence against that or I will give a world of pain, you piece of shit!” Owada shouted.

Once the biker rambling finished, almost everyone was looking at me with the biggest glares of
suspicion I’ve ever seen from them, waiting in complete silence for my answer.
…

…I am really not used to this.

Usually, I took care of people before they get the chance to try anything against me or even be
suspicious of my involvement in their demise, but once again…it seems like I will have to use the
dialogue and logical arguments, instead of the…usual methods.

“…*sigh* First of all, I would like to clarify that you are making an important mistake”

“A mistake…?” Kirigiri asked.

“Hmph, I hope you not starting to beg for mercy this early, know that you will not receive any from
me” Togami said with a condescending tone of voice.

…A Togami through and through.

“I am not talking about that kind of mistake…its more…you are making a mistake in believing that
a serial killer and an assassin are the same thing” I said.

Everyone gained a confused look at that.

“Differences between a serial killer and an assassin…?” Naegi echoed.

“Is there really somethin’ like that?” Leon added.

“Does it fuckin’ matter!? Both are pieces of shit who kill people just because!”

“…It is true that an assassin and a serial killer, both are known for taking the lives of people and I
also know some if not all of you won’t really care about it…but the reasons for killing are
completely different between a serial killer and an assassin”

“Such as…?” Celeste said.

“Basically, the reason a serial killer takes the lives of their victims is because…of passion. Most of
the time they do it to fulfil their desires, they see what they do as a form of art in where they make
their darkest fantasies run free” I explained.

“K-Killing p-people for a reason…like that?” Fujisaki said on the verge of tears.

“…For fucking art, are ya freaking serious?” Owada growled.

“I am, you can see it in Genocider Jack’s work, the effort he or she makes to follow a pattern in all
their victims, with the signature ‘Bloodlust’ included, as if what he does is a painting or a sculpture
of some sorts”

It is obvious they aren’t used at all to this kind of talk…but I couldn’t care less, if I have to touch
such crude themes to get rid of suspicion, then so be it.

“…I think I am in need of a healing potion” Yamada said blue on the face.

“Yeah, this is so sick…”

“Um, Shigaraki…and a-about the differences with an assassin…?” Naegi said, most probably to
get to the point faster and move from this conversation.

Something the group seemed grateful for.

“First of all, the most important divergence is that I’ve never killed anyone out of something like
entertainment or satisfaction, and the ideal assassin shouldn’t either, what it truly matters to us is
get the job done according to what it is tasked, anything else is just counterproductive and would
only work as an obstacle” ‘Though I would be lying if I said that every single assassom is that
professional, but that is something they don’t need to know…’

“Guh! When you put it that way, it almost sounds as some kind of profession…” Taka commented
nervously.

“That’s because it is, as I just said, what I do isn’t for fun or recognition…which brings the next
difference: being publicly know is something an assassin should avoid the most, which is a
contradiction with Genocider Syo, who goes around leaving clues, patterns and signatures so
people could recognize it was him or her and end up talking about it all over the media, that’s
exactly the kind of things an assassin should not do”

Everyone gained a pensive look at that, though it didn’t lasted for long.

“You said all of that, but what the hell does it matter!? Maybe you become this Genocider asshole
in your free time or some sick shit like that!” Owada exclaimed.

“Ah! A secret identity behind another secret identity! You really thought of everything, didn’t you,
Master Shigaraki? Or…is Shigaraki even your true name!?” Yamada accused.

…Sigh, it’s like we are just going in circles with this…

…Genocider Syo, he or she is quite a peculiar case. Even if the records back ‘Home’ focus solely
on the works of other members, this person is infamous enough that some of them have pieces of
information about this person, most of them because of ‘stolen kills’ they report on said records,
it’s not as descriptive to mention things like the identity of this serial killer, but…

…Yeah, it would actually come handy, there is something else that I could talk about thanks to
said records…

“…Besides what Togami told you about Genocider Syo, there is something about this serial killer
that you guys must know” I commented.

That seemed to caught everyone’s attention, most of all, Togami’s.

“And what could it be?” Unexpectedly, it didn’t seem like my comment offend him.

“Just a moment ago, we talked of the pattern that Genocider Syo follows, remember?” I asked in
general.
“Yeah, some stuff about this guy leaving behind something, like…a message in their victim’s
blood, right?” Enoshima replied.

I nodded at the fashionista “Mhm, besides that, there’s also the fact that Genocider Syo targets a
specific demographic, which not even once he or she has ever broken”

“A specific demographic…are you saying that Genocider Syo kills people that meet certain
requirements, is that what you are suggesting?” Celeste asked.

“Yes, you see, the people Genocider Syo targets…are specifically men and only those who are
considered ‘Handsome’. Not even once, this serial killer has gone after anyone who doesn’t meet
those standards”

Togami laughed a little while smirking at me after my declaration.

I know I’m probably the last person with any right to say this, but…it’s so weird to see him laugh.

“…Mhmhm, it seems you’ve done your homework, huh? I was under the impression of being the
only one aware of that extra information” The heir commented with amusement.

“H-Huh? Togami, d-does that mean you knew about that too…?” Fujisaki asked in a surprised
tone.

“…*sigh* Man, saying that since the beginning would’ve helped, y’know?” Leon added.

The heir completely ignored that last comment “Hmph, of course I knew, who do you think you
are talking about? As a Togami I am well informed in…quite a lot of interesting things” He
commented.

Almost everyone rolled their eyes at the heir antics, but in my case, I focused in that last part he
said.

…By any chance, does he actually…?

“So, now we know this Genocider Syo targets specific people…but what does that tell us?” Hina
asked.

I took that as an opportunity to finally get to the point of all this.

“It actually tells us two things. Most important of all, now that we know that Genocider Syo only
goes after ‘Handsome Men’, we can discard this person being the mastermind behind all of this,
because as you can see, there are both guys and girls trapped here” I explained.

“That, and there’s no way this Genocider Syo or whatever, thinks at least half of the guys here are
‘handsome’” Enoshima added.

I made no comment to that and neither the rest of the guys, though I believe it was for different
reasons, if the insulted looks some of them gave the fashionista are any indication.

Kirigiri made her own question before things turned in the wrong direction, though “You said two
things, the other is?”

“The second one is…that this also discards me of being Genocider Syo, the fact that the only
victims are men and that he or she does this out of passion and desire, points that whoever this
person is, we are talking of either a female or a homosexual male, which I am neither of those”
When I said that statement, I could see that Enoshima sighed in relief for some reason ‘…Was she
really worried that I was Genocider Syo? I guess it makes sense, whoever this person is, he or she
is truly an…eccentric personality’

“Yeah, he definitely isn’t the last one, considering that…” Naegi muttered.

But it wasn’t low enough for me to not hear it.

“Excuse me?” I asked to the ahoge boy.

“E-Eh!? N-Nothing! Nothing! Haha, I was just thinking that now that we know this, you no longer
are a suspect of being behind this, right guys?” Naegi commented nervously.

“Indeed, you have proven your innocence! It seems we owe you an apology!” Taka exclaimed.

“I mean, the guy is still a killer, so I ain’t feel like apologizin’ is somethin’ we should do…”
Owada replied.

“P-Putting t-that aside…this means we no longer have a clue of who could be behind this, right?”
Fujisaki nervously commented.

“…*sigh* Seems like it, huh? I mean, we don’t have any other suspects…” Leon added.

“Back to square one, eh? What a load of crap…” Owada mumbled.

While it is true that it would be good to know the identity of the mastermind, the fact that the
pointing fingers at me finally stopped, kind of made it worth it that we managed to discard our only
lead.

…Although, Genocider Syo being the responsible of this was a far-fetched possibility since the
beginning even when you ignore everything that has been said today. The vault-door, the weapons,
the metal plates, Monokuma. All of that can’t be done by just one single person, and the chances of
the serial killer having the contacts or back-up to pull this off is abysmally low. Serial killers aren’t
known for being team players.

No, this must be the work of something bigger, an organization of sorts, only that way, everything
so far would have a grain of sense…and if this were indeed the case, that this is the work of a
group, conformed of more than one single person, it brings another grim possibility, and that is that
there are chances of a―

“Actually…there is another possible suspect” The heir stated.

With such declaration, everyone turned to him, including me.

“Huh? Really?” Maizono asked.

“Yes, it is something that has been on my mind for the past few days, and thinking deeply about it,
it does actually have bigger chances of being indeed the case in comparison to the serial killer”

“U-Um, and who could that person be…?” Fujisaki shyly asked.

“Well…rather than a person, I am talking of a secret organization”

…So he really does know.

“…A secret organization?” Questioned Kirigiri.

“Eeeeeek! Are you saying this is the work of an evil organization!? Like the Abatsubi!? Or The
Hachas!?”

…Who?

“Huh? Who the fuck are those?” Owada asked.

“Ah, I’m glad you’re interested Master Owada! You see, those are evil organizations well known
in the anime―” ‘He can’t be real…’

“Are you freaking serious!? This isn’t the time for that crap!” Enoshima snapped.

“Uwaaah! I’m sorry!”

…Half of this group is really…something.

“Tch, don’t go around comparing your absurd fantasies with the information of great importance
that I possess...but whether they could be considered evil or not, with Them, it is more complicated
than that, although…it is also true that they have quite the interesting history”

“…Interesting?” Asked Naegi.

“Yes, interesting…I suppose that although they are considered a secret organization, I should ask
for the sake of it: Have any of you heard of…The Holy Salvation Society?”

“The Holy Salvation…?” Hiro trailed off.

“Society? That’s…kinda weird for a name” Hina added.

“Sounds like a house for a bunch of cult freaks” Owada commented nonchalantly.

“Hehehe, you wouldn’t be too off the mark. It just so happens that I’ve heard of them too” Celeste
commented.

…So I was right about her knowing too.

“You know what Togami is talking about, Celeste?” Maizono asked.

“Certainly, as someone with experience in the world of underground gambling, you wouldn’t
believe the things one gets to learn in such places…and for that same reason I must ask…are you
sure it is fine for you to talk about Them, Togami? I couldn’t see that ending well…for you that
is” The gambler commented with a smile.

“Something happening to me…Hmph, that’s a complete impossibility, although it is a surprise to

see someone else knowing of Them…besides the assassin that is” Togami stated.

Everyone’s attention turned to me once the heir said that.

“…Shigaraki? Do you think he knows of this…Holy Salvation Society too?” Ogami asked.

“Oh, I would say he is quite familiar with them…” The heir turned to face me “…Am I wrong?”

“…”

“…Shigaraki?” Naegi asked in a worried tone.

“…*sigh* Whatever it is you want to reveal, do it already…” I said simply.

Here we go again…

“Hmph, as if I needed your permission to talk about this, you would do well watch that tongue of
yours, peasant” Togami snarled.

“Ara, to give up so quickly, I will admit that I expected him to make an effort to try to silence this
leak of information…” Celeste added.

And make the rope around my neck tighter for acting too defensive? Yeah…how about no.

“Wait, wait, wait I’m, like, so confused right now! What’s happening? What are you guys talking
about?” Leon exclaimed.

“More importantly…what exactly is this Holy Salvation Society you are talking about? And what
kind of relation you think Shigaraki has with them?” Taka questioned.

At that, the heir adjusted his glasses while taking a more pensive look “The Holy Salvation
Society is…a cult whose religion consists in training assassins professionally in the name of
their god”

…He really went and said it, huh? Well, I suppose that the chances of the Heir of the Togami
Corporation not knowing about Them…about the Holy Salvation Society or not running his
mouth free about it was wishful thinking…now it’s a matter of how much does he actually knows.

And of course, the reactions of my classmates to that reveal were quick to follow.

“A cult who trains assassins, that’s…” Ogami trailed off.

“That’s so fucked up…” Owada said.

“W-What…?” Fukawa mumbled.

“B-But if that is the purpose of that cult, then that means…!” Fujisaki exclaimed.

At that, the serious expression of the heir changed to an amused one.

“It seems you get it, don’t you? When I said that he was familiar with this cult, I didn’t mean it
only because he knew of them…but because our resident assassin is a cult member of the Holy
Salvation Society” Togami stated.

There were some gasps at such declaration, but among them, Kirigiri didn’t wasted any time to turn
to face me, ready to ask that question.

“What Togami said about you is true? That you are a member of this cult?”

…Sigh.

“W-What kind of question is that!? It is o-obvious that he w-will deny―!”

“It is true” I replied.

Everyone had different reactions at this declaration, well, it was more like they didn’t know how to
react when looking at me, as some of their expressions switched between fear, surprise and disgust.

There were also some interesting ones, though.

Naegi seemed…worried, I may not be an expert in the area, but it looked like he was worried for
me rather than for himself. ‘He really is weird sometimes…’

Maizono, well, in a way, I will admit that I didn’t expect her to look conflicted. Oh, there was some
fear and wariness in her expression, sure, but there was more than that, that much I could tell…
curious.

As for Enoshima she looked…solemn, not like disappointed or sad, and neither was pity, it was
more…like she sympathized with me.

…I…I don’t know how to feel about her reaction, if I am honest.

And lastly, the one single reaction I really had zero chances of expecting was…

“Hahahaha! Oh man this is getting really interesting!” Hiro exclaimed excitedly.

…What the hell?

“I-Interesting!? W-What the h-heck are you saying!?” Fukawa exclaimed.

“I know you are, like, totally weird, but what’s with you now?” Enoshima asked with her brows
furrowed.

“I mean, it isn’t obvious? The plot is getting more diverse!”

…What the hell?

“…Plot?” Asked a confused Maizono.

“Dude, didn’t you hear the part about the guy being an assassin now turning into he also being part
of a secret organization that is also a freaking cult!?” Leon exclaimed.

“Yeah! But that’s, like, totally fake, no? I will admit that I didn’t expect Togami-chi and Shigaraki-
chi to work together on this new plot twist for Shigaraki’s-chi story, but I can’t say it’s a bad one!
Good work guys!” Hiro said with a thumbs up.

…What the hell?

I fought the urge to show a dumbfounded look on my face…like the rest of the class was having
right now.

And yes, I mean the entire rest of the class, even Kirigiri, Togami and Celeste couldn’t hide her
confusion at the ‘Clairvoyant’ declaration.

“…”

“…”

“…”

"Shigaraki's story…You think all of this, including Shigaraki's talent…it's made up?" Naegi asked.

“What da ya mean? Of course it is! I mean, it’s obvious Shigaraki-chi is kinda shy with his real
talent, so he has been creating these different stories to look cool for all of us, right? And they
definitely are great to hear! You must be the Ultimate Storyteller or something among the lines,
huh? Ah! But if that is the case, I won’t judge you man, you have my word, and neither the rest of
us, right guys?”

All this time…

…He never was scared me, because…

…He thought I was some kind of storyteller? That everything told so far about me was false?

I knew he wasn’t the representation of brilliance, but this is…honestly, I don’t even know what to
think and trying to understand him will probably bring more problems than what is worth it.

“…This guy can’t be real…” Owada commented.

“I really hope that whatever he is infected with, it’s not contagious…” Celeste added.

But before more people got distracted, Kirigiri put things back of track.

“Putting…that aside, I believe it is important to ask, why didn’t you mention this?” Kirigiri
asked…to me.

And that brought everyone out of their stupor, which in turn, made them panic at the possible
implications that could come up from that question.

“Ah! Maybe he was―” As if I am going to let that fiasco happen again.

“Before you guys begin to scream and point fingers at me, like you have become used to, maybe
the best thing to do would be to allow me answer Kirigiri’s question, don’t you think?” I asked.

Fortunately for me, that gave me a window of opportunity, if their silence is any indication.
Though the suspicious looks some of them were sending me told me it wasn’t that big of a
window.

Better make use of it.

“Now, the reason why I didn’t said anything about the Holy Salvation Society is…nobody asked
me about it” I stated with a straight face.

…I mean, it is partially true, and I wasn't lying when I say that nobody made the question before.

“…”

“…”

“…You son of a bitch! Are you making fun of us!?” Owada shouted.

Kind of, yeah “No, not really. Asking me why I didn’t tell you guys about it, it’s the same as
asking why someone doesn’t tells you where do they work if you don’t ask them about it, it is not
something you go around talking about”

“T-That’s j-just a convenient e-excuse for you to not admit that you hid being a c-cult fanatic!”

Putting aside the irk feeling I felt at being called that, I replied to the writer “I was never hiding
that I was a member of the cult”

Not exactly the truth, but it’s not a lie either.

“What do you mean by that?” Kirigiri asked with narrowed eyes.

“What I said, I am not hiding my affiliation with the cult and never did…you just have to look at
my shirt to know I’m telling you the truth” I commented.

At that, everyone focused their gazes on said shirt.

“The shirt…? Um, a-are you talking about that cross you have on it?” Fujisaki timidly asked.

“Huh? I thought that thing was a symbol of some band and the guy was into Christian Metal or
some shit like that” Leon commented while scratching the back of this head.

“I don’t really think that was the case…” Naegi sweatdropped.

…Not only its not the case, that genre would probably be among the last ones in my list of things I
would listen to.

“Either way, that symbol, you’re telling us is related to the cult, I am getting this right?” Taka
asked.

“Mhm, this cross is the same one that the Holy Salvation Society has on its official flag, and
taking into account that Togami and Celeste are the ones who knew of the cult, I believe they can
validate this” I stated.

“Is that really the case?” The martial artist asked while focusing her gaze between the heir and the
gambler.

Celeste was the first one to reply “It is, back during the introductions, his shirt and the cross on it
caught my attention, as it resulted me familiar, but now that all the pieces are together, I have no
doubt that the connection is there” The gambler commented while playing with a strand of her hair.
“…It is true that the official flag its cult uses has such a symbol” The heir said bitterly, probably
because he had to agree with me on something, against his ‘better judgement’.

But that’s irrelevant, what matters is…

“…As you can see, my affiliation with the cult has always been in plain sight”

“B-B-But that just i-incriminates you further!” Fukawa exclaimed.

“Incriminate him…? What are ya talking about?” Enoshima asked.

“D-Do you even have the gall to ask you dumb-bimbo!? T-Togami has told us at the beginning t-
that this cult i-is responsible for all of this!”

*Twitch*

“Fukawa”

“Eeeeek! W-W-What d-do you want!?” The writer said in a completely scared tone of voice at me
singling her out ‘Huh, what do you know? That actually was satisfying…’

“…What Togami said is not a fact. There is absolutely nothing pointing to the cult being
responsible for this” It does leave a bitter taste in my mouth having to vouch for Those guys.

Unsurprisingly, for Kirigiri, that wasn’t enough.

“That may be true…but they are our only suspects, we don’t lose anything by getting any
information we can get about them” Kirigiri stated.

“How can they be suspects with no evidence pointing them as responsible for this? If we go by that
logic, anyone is a suspect, don’t you think?” I replied.

“Even so, this is too big of an unknown to leave it like that”

“Is that so? Because if we are talking about unknowns―”

“That is irrelevant” Kirigiri replied…more quickly than what she would’ve liked, that’s for sure.

“Um, guys, we shouldn’t be fighting against each other, that’s what―”

“This is not a fight, Naegi, we are just seeking the truth, making use of the only lead we have…you
have been cooperative with us so far, Shigaraki, if you are sure that you or the cult you belong to,
are not behind this, you wouldn’t have a problem with us knowing more about it, isn’t that right?”
Kirigiri asked.

If I were anyone else, I would probably laugh at the declaration she made. Sure, at first glance it
might look like in some sort of way she’s vouching for me, allowing to receive a chance at prove
myself innocent.

But this was just her way of cornering me. If I argued more, these people wouldn’t take it well and
refusing to this is not an option, while at the same she will get a chance to obtain information about
me.

I knew she wasn’t going to waste an opportunity like this one.

Just as expected, I could feel everyone’s gazes boring into me, some of them relatedly tense,
mentally making the same question: Will I cooperate?

…Sigh, even if these aren’t the best of circumstances…I can work with this, it is definitely way
better than the frenetic and heated discussion this would’ve led in other circumstances, that’s for
sure.

And it’s not like anything I will say has any chances of actually incriminating me, but, well…if
these were any other circumstances, I would’ve to either kill all of the people here or kill myself
before allowing this scenario to happen.

Something to reflect about, huh?

“…Alright, if this will finally get the accusations off my back, then so be it. Make your questions,
Kirigiri”

It seemed Kirigiri was about to begin the interrogation, but she got interrupted.

“Actually, I believe it falls upon me to educate the masses” The Heir commented.

…Huh.

“Erm, not like I’m a fan of getting into the tiny details, but isn’t Shigaraki the one supposed to be
interrogated? I mean…he is the guy who is part of cult made of assassins, no?” Leon asked.

“Hmph, do you really are so stupidly naive trust that he will tell the absolute truth?”

“H-He’s right! T-The assassin will t-try to deceive us at any chance he gets!”

I would feel offended at that comment…if it didn’t have some truth.

“Togami seems to be well informed of this, so either way is fine, in case we have some doubts we
can ask Shigaraki” Kirigiri stated.

There didn’t seem to be any objection at that, and the Heir took the silence as a permission to speak
while he adjusted his glasses.

“Very well, as I said at the beginning, the Holy Salvation Society is a cult who focuses on training
assassins. They do that with the belief that it is the will of their god, and that following such a will,
as the name of the cult implies, it’s fundamental to the salvation of the world, and by consequence,
it’s society. The few people who know of their existence, they can ascertain that their reputation
precedes them, all thanks to the extremely effective methods they use to recruit and train their
members” The heir commented.

Immediately Kirigiri didn’t wasted any time to make her own questions.

“What does that exactly entail? How they are members recruited? From where?”

“Whoa! That’s lots of questions, Kyoko” Hina commented.

…Indeed, too many questions…

Instead of answering, Togami turned…to me, with a smirk.

I’m his favorite person around here, it seems…

“…Actually, I’ve changed my mind, I believe this would be more interesting if the assassin itself
answers it”

“W-What? but Master Togami, didn’t you just said just a moment ago the he would try to deceive
us?” Yamada questioned.

“Yeah, what are ya playin’ at!?” Owada growled

“Wait I said still stands, but all I have to do for that is to expose him when tries to hide anything.
He isn’t capable of deceiving me, it’s just impossible” Togami assured with a smug smile.

I know I said I am used dealing with rich people’s crap, but he’s really something else, isn’t he?

Kirigiri seems to be thinking similarly, she still has the same stoic face as ever, but I could see the
slight signs of exasperation at the heir.

In the end she decided that it wasn’t worth to push it, so instead she turned to me, asking me the
silent question.

“…Fine, first I will answer the ‘From where’ question, is that alright?” I asked.

Kirigiri nodded at that.

“Okay…well, from where do they get their members? Basically, the cult owns recruitment centers
all around the country from which they pick up new members every few years”

“Recruitment centers…? So, you just went to one of these places, signed up, and bam, you began
your life as a killer, is that it, ya bastard?” Owada growled.

“No, that’s not how they work”

“…Those recruitment centers, what are they exactly?” Kirigiri asked.

“Orphanages” I replied.

It seems nobody ‘save for Togami…’ expected that reply, if their faces were any indication.

“O-Orphanages!?” Maizono exclaimed.

“…Are ya messin’ with us?” Owada said…but there wasn’t any fire like in his previous comment.

“No”

“…U-Um, when you said ‘Orphanages’ is that a secret word with a different meaning in your
secret organization?” Yamada asked.

“No”

“…Ah! I get it! You must be saying that they are just disguised as―”

“No, I am talking of authentic orphanages, with kids and all other things you could expect in them”

“…”

“…”
“…T-Then…T-The basements! They use the basements of those orphanages to secretly recruit any
person who wants to―!”

“No” I interrupted the swimming pro with another negation.

“…Shigaraki, you couldn’t possibly mean that this cult recruits actual…?” Ogami warily asked.

Unfortunately for her, that is the grim reality.

“…I am”

Even if the cult is not responsible for this, I highly doubt they will become a favorite of these
people.

“U-Using actual…actual orphanages…” Hina mumbled with her hands in her mouth.

“With kids…” Maizono added with a grim expression.

“…Such despicable people…!” Ogami growled.

“…Ah! W-Wait a moment! Shigaraki, then what you told me yesterday…!” Naegi exclaimed.

…True, in a way, I talked about that with him…

“I told you, didn’t I? There were no other possibilities for me”

“Huh? What…what are ya talking about?” Leon asked.

…It’s not like the topics getting talked about affect me emotionally, but having to reveal this much
information, exposing my existence like this…as an assassin, it really is something that is nagging
me.

“I already told Naegi yesterday, and seeing that it is obvious you guys would not let go of this, I
will say it again: Since I have memory, I was raised in an orphanage…the same kind the Holy
Salvation Society owns and uses as recruitment centers”

From that reveal, the faces of almost everyone changed to ones full of sadness…of pity.

I fought the urge to burrow my frows.

“Huh? Then, about your parents…?” Hina questioned.

“Never knew of them”

“Um, any…any blood relatives?” Fujisaki timidly asked.

“No”

At that, the sadness and pity from their part grew…

“To never knew what it is to have a family and in such despicable place…Ghh! I don’t know how
would I face such circumstances if I were in your shoes!” Taka exclaimed.

…I never said that.

“Having to live like that, that would be...way too sad, Shigaraki, I’m sorry―”

“Stop”

“H-Huh?” Hina stuttered.

“This is just an interrogation to prove that the cult, and by consequence, me, aren’t suspicious of
being responsible for this” I said while gesturing at the surrounding area “It is no necessary to feel
bad about me and neither I asked you to, so stop doing it”

It seemed those guys were having none of it, as I could see that some of them were going to keep
insisting, until…

“You guys are being real jackasses by doing this, y’know?” Someone said.

…Honestly…I am not really surprised ‘…in a good way’ that such person was Enoshima of all
people.

“Junko? What are you talking about?” Maizono asked.

“What I said, what you guys are doing is pitying him, talking as if he saw his early life or the fact
that he never met his parents as a tragedy of sorts”

“But IT is a tragedy! To not have anyone like that in your life…It would be a terrible destiny to live
with such circumstances as the one he’s implying!” Taka declared.

But the fashionista wasn’t buying it.

“Everyone has a different perception of what is considered a good life or a bad one, ya know?”
Enoshima interrupted him with narrowed eyes

“B-But―”

“Don’t ya guys think it’s his decision and only his to be the judge of that? Of judging by himself if
his life in that place is something to remember positively or negatively, he deserves at least that.
None of us were there with him to have to right to say otherwise......*sigh* this speech junk is not
my thing, so let’s just keep going, we’ve been draggin’ this crap for way too long if ya ask me…”

I will admit it is kind of surprising how she managed to make most of them looking ashamed of
judging the life of an assassin of all people, if their faces were anything to go by, but as for me…
everything she said…

…I fought the urge my lips had of stretching upwards.

And in a sort of twisted way, I am glad Kirigiri brought up to conversation back on track. ‘She does
that a lot, huh?’

“…Now that we know from where they get members, the next question would be, how are they
recruited?” Kirigiri asked.

“It isn’t kinda obvious? They pick the all those kids out of the orphanages, to force them become
part of their cult. Those fuckers…” Owada growled.

“…Actually, it’s not as bad as you think Owada”

“Huh? What are ya sayin’? Are ya truly defending those bastards? Is that it!?” The biker
questioned with narrowed eyes.

“No, I’m not, I am just saying that at least in that regard, it’s not that extreme…if I am honest, most
of the kids in the orphanages never get to know of the cult or what they do”

That seemed to caught the attention.

“Wait, really?” Naegi asked in a hopeful tone.

“How’s that so? Didn’t ya just said a moment ago that those guys use the freaking orphanages for
their bullshit?” Owada asked.

“And they do…but as Togami already pointed out, the cult focuses on training assassins of elite,
they have no interest in mass numbers. For that reason, they only focus in choosing a select few
and then leaving alone the rest”

“By ‘select few’…of how much are we talking about?” Taka warily asked.

"…Well, recruitment is not something I do, but…counting all the 'recruitment centers' they have in
total, I would say that about for 2 o 3 kids for every 10000 is a safe number, and that is something
they do only every few years…"

Those 2 or 3 get to experience a living hell, true, but saying that wouldn’t give me any favors.

“While I still find nefarious that they would still choose a few unfortunate children, I must know…
are you absolutely sure that they truly don’t do anything to the rest of them?” Ogami asked with
absolutely seriousness.

“I am, they just live there until they are old enough…and leave, living ordinary lives. For the most
part, the orphanages of the Holy Salvation Society work as regular ones, that is a fact I can
confirm” I explained just as serious.

And that was the truth, most of the kids there never get to know to grim true purpose of the place
they call home…and that is up to this day, the main goal…the dream of that person, Her dream.

That’s what she works so hard for, so the kids of our orphanage never get the chance to know grim
truth, so they live and grow as just that.

As regular kids, experiencing a normal life.

It seemed with the reveal of that detail, most of the group gained a relieved look.

Keyword: most.

“You said ‘for the most part’, that implies that there is an aspect in them that still differences from
the regular orphanages, what do you mean by that?” Kirigiri asked.

She really doesn’t miss any detail, does she?

“Well, you asked how do they recruit new members into the cult, right? The answer is in that extra
detail. It is true that the regular kid never meets the cult…but that doesn’t mean they aren’t trained
since the moment they live in one of their orphanages”

“H-Huh? But how!? You said that they have those orphanages all around the country, if they were
really training assassins at such scale inside of them, surely people would notice, right?” Naegi
exclaimed.

“Yeah! Someone would have seen something weird with that!” Hina added.

…Well, if that were the case, all the cult would have to do is to ‘silence’ said ‘someone’, but no,
the real reason as for why nobody finds something fishy is…

“That’s because they have their own subtle ways of doing it, with things like games, tests and all
other kind of activities that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for any other kid to be part of, all the
while you would never think that such a thing has an actual purpose”

“…A purpose? What…what kind of purpose?” Taka nervously asked.

“To see who has the most talent among them, that way when the time comes, they scout and pick
up those who are considered with the biggest amount talent to recruit them as members of the
cult…”

“…”

“…”

“…Then, if I’m getting this right, what you are saying is…that since being a kid…you have been
trained to be an assassin?” The ahoge boy asked with a sad tone of voice.

“No, if what he told us about being in one of those orphanages since having memory is true…then
he is implying that all his life he has been raised to be one” Kirigiri corrected.

“…That’s…that’s…I just don’t know what that is” Taka said.

“A-All your life…you are joking right?” The baseball star asked nervously.

“…Do I look like someone who goes around making jokes?” I questioned.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes when Enoshima gave me an unimpressed look that said ‘Really?’

…I still can’t believe that all these reveals haven’t unfazed her, being capable of still looking at me
like she has been doing since the beginning.

No matter how disturbing my existence is resulting to be, her perception of me hasn’t changed one
bit…she still sees me as a friend.

…It really is becoming really hard not to smile…

Togami took the lack of any more comments from my part as an opportunity to give his own piece.

“I told you guys since the beginning, didn’t I? That cult has quite the precedent of making
assassins: They have their own recruitment centers in which since such a young age they observe
them and train them, and then they scout those who show the most potential and recruit them into
their files. And since they use kids of all people, who are young and moldable, they have the time
and opportunity to shape them into the most ruthless and cold-blooded killers there could exist,
fascinating isn’t it?” The heir commented with amusement.

He really sees making as much enemies as possible as a personal goal of his, doesn’t he?

“How can you say something like that!?” Hina exclaimed.

“Yeah! What the fuck is wrong you, you piece of shit!?” Owada exclaimed.

“Togami! Saying that making something so innocent as kids into candidates to become murderers
is fascinating…that is something of really bad taste, even for you!” Ogami added with narrowed
eyes and almost growling.

Most people gave the heir disapproving looks at this declaration.

Not that he cared, though.

“Hmph, the opinion you all have of me couldn’t be of a lesser value, none of you are worth my
time”

But putting that aside, Kirigiri looked ready ask another round of questions.

Something I was not going to allow.

“…Listen, everything you have asked me so far has been useless to discover if the cult and me are
the culprits or not behind all of this, so how about I tell you guys something that would actually
lead this interrogation somewhere?” I suggested.

That actually caught their attention.

“Is there really something like that?” Taka asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“H-He’s j-just lying! It’s j-just him trying to trick us!” Fukawa accused.

“Oh? Using his assassin’s skills of deception to lead us in the wrong direction, you truly are
terrifying Master Shigaraki!” Yamada exclaimed.

…I mean, I AM deceiving them in more ways than one, that is true, but I don’t think it is about the
same thing he is implying.

“Um, guys, I believe we should give Shigaraki a chance to talk, every time someone asks him a
question, he has answered without putting resistance, it would be fair to give him the benefit of the
doubt, right?” Naegi suggested.

“He’s right, y’know? Even when those questions are, like, totally stupid or insensitive, he’s been
totally cool with all of us” Enoshima added.

It was probably because of the previous speech Enoshima gave when the orphanage was brought
up at the beginning, but in the end, most of the class seemed to agree with her and the lucky
student.

“It certainly would be fair to give him the opportunity of bringing his own argument...Alright!
Shigaraki! You have permission to proceed!” Taka exclaimed.

He certainly has embraced the role of our self-proclaimed leader, hasn’t he? Not like it matters, if I
am honest.

After all, there are more important things to focus on, and while it is a shame that I will have to
reveal this much, it is something I am willing to trade, more so because…since the start, most of
this information had the chance of being leaked among the class with someone like Togami as a
classmate…which speaking of him…

“Mhm, first of all…Togami, you said before that you are informed of quite a lot of things, right?”

The heir responded to me in his usual way.

“Are you that big of a forgetful fool that you need me to repeat myself? Yes, as the successor to the
Togami corporation and future leader of world, it is my right to be well informed of all kinds of
top-secret information that would be of interest for my dynasty…and that includes that cult of
yours” He finished with a smirk.

…So he says, it seems I will have to put it to test.

“Then you must know about the true intentions of the Holy Salvation Society, correct?”

“…” The heir didn’t said anything at that, he just gave me a calculating look.

“Huh? T-True intentions?” Fujisaki questioned.

“Now that he mentions it, didn’t Togami said that the Holy Salvation Society had as an objective
to save the world or something like that?” Naegi asked.

The heir expression changed to one full of amusement at that declaration.

“…Oh? Did I say that? Mhmhm, well, it is true that’s the official story they go by…”

…Sigh…this guy…

“Official? But the way you said that…it sounds as if there was more to it” Naegi commented.

“Maybe…maybe not” The amusement hasn’t dropped off one bit from his face.

“Oi, fucker! You think this is funny!?” Owada growled.

The smug smile of the heir told me that an incident similar to the one on the first day was bound to
happen if he opened his mouth again.

Fortunately for Togami…or Naegi, depending on how things went, Taka intervened.

“This is no moment for internal arguments among us! Now…Shigaraki, there must be more to
what you just said, correct? By all means, continue!” The moral compass exclaimed.

“…Alright, as Togami said, the official story of the cult is that they train assassins in the name of
god, and make use of said assassins to work following the will of such deity, as said will, will save
the world and it’s society…”

“Whoa, man, that sounds deep!” Hiro exclaimed.

“Hmmm indeed, and based on this, we can assume that Master Shigaraki’ class is a holy assassin
type instead of a regular one, I admit that the benefits of such specialization elude me…” Yamada
added his own ‘conclusion’.

…I didn’t understood any of that.

“…Either way…the truth is that this ‘official story’ is just a farse” I commented.

“…”

“…”

“Say whaaaaaaa!?” The fanfic creator exclaimed.

“...A farse!? T-Then everything you said, a-about the cult and his god…?” The programmer asked.

“A coverup. They made that up so their true objective doesn’t get disturbed” I explained.

“…And said ‘true objective’ of the cult is…?” Kirigiri asked.

The true objective of a cult who trains the best assassins in the world, the true goal of the Holy
Salvation Society is…

“…Profit”

“…”

“…”

“…Eh?” Naegi intelligently questioned.

“Um, could you please elaborate more on that?” Taka asked.

“Mhm, the true objective of the Holy Salvation Society is…money, basically, the cult works
around clients who ask for ‘consultations’ at the exchange of ‘donations’, of course, that is just
their disguised way for people to request an assassination and for the cult to charge their fees for it”

“Then all the religious aspects of this cult you belong to are…?” The mysterious girl trailed off.

“As I said, a coverup…well, that, and it also works to gather some believers who are ignorant of
the truth and are willing to make donations without the need of an ‘consultation’ which works both
as extra profit and reinforcing said coverup…but regardless of all of that, the point I’m trying to
make is, if Togami is aware of the true facet of the cult, then he of all people must know that if
he’s trapped here, the cult would be among the last suspects of being responsible for this”

When I finished that declaration, everyone turned to the heir in search of a response to that.

And Togami, for his part, well…

“…Heh, I will admit that this was entertaining while it lasted” The heir commented with a smirk.

I really couldn’t blame the dumbfounded faces most of the group were making. This guy,
Togami…I repeat, I am used to dealing with rich people crap, but this guy is taking it to the limit.

I also admit that I had my doubts about him really knowing everything of this ‘dark side’ of his
company. Even when you take That into consideration, it is not out of the question for companies
to have someone dealing with one side, the corporative, legal and professional side of the business
while in the shadows having someone else deal with the other, the illegal and shady one.

“…I am being dumb for not understanding what the hell going on?” Leon asked.

“Don’t know, I got the part about the cult instead of bein’ full of fanatics who do fucked up shit
because they believe their god is telling them to, turnin’ out to be just a bunch of greedy bastards
who do said fucked up shit for money, which I don’t know which is freakin’ worse, but how the
heck does that help us know if those guys are behind this or not!?”

I better get to the point before this becomes more convoluted.

“What I’m trying to say is that the cult only cares about two things: Money and avoiding exposure.
The business of the Holy Salvation Society, because it is a business, comes from training
assassins and using them as assets”

“…A-Assets!? T-That sounds as if they see them as ob―!” Taka exclaimed, but I interrupted him.

“That’s irrelevant to what I’m trying to say” I stated before they began again with the pity “…
Either way, becoming publicly know is among the last things they want, while the situation they
want to avoid the most is the loss of its biggest clients”

“Huh? The way you say that makes it sounds as if that guy over there is one of those ‘biggest
clients’” The biker said while pointing at Togami.

“That’s because he is, or at least, his company is and they definitely are the ones who pay the
most, that much I know, which is what the cult truly cares about”

“…”

“…”

“…Say whaaaaaaa!?” Yamada exclaimed.

“Are ya serious!?” Leon added.

“More importantly, is it true, Togami!? You’re involved in such a nefarious activity!?” Taka
exclaimed.

The heir became silent for a few seconds before he turned to face me, with an unusually serious
expression.

“Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, that it is true”

“B-But then, why!?” Taka added.

At that, Kirigiri interfered.

“It doesn’t matter why”

“I-I really think it does…” Yamada muttered.

“In our current situation, no, it doesn’t, what matters is…if all of what Shigaraki has said so far is
indeed true, then how does that relate to his cult not possibly being culprits behind this?”

…Finally getting somewhere.

“…If the Holy Salvation Society were to make such a bold move like kidnapping the heir of the
Togami Corporation, the biggest and most influential company in the world and one of the if not
their most important client, and put said heir in a situation as dangerous as the one we find
ourselves in…”

“Then they would get both exposure and it would also ruin their relationship with its most…
important client, and that would not be good for their…business, is that what you are trying to say,
Shigaraki?” Naegi asked.

I nodded at that.

“Can you confirm any that, Togami?” Kirigiri questioned.

“…Hmph, I already said it was entertaining while it lasted, didn’t I? Don’t make me repeat myself”

“…T-Then what Shigaraki said about the cult not being responsible for this…?” Fujisaki trailed
off.

“It is true that if you ignore their eccentricities, his cult is no different than a private company of
mercenaries who do things for a monetary cause and nothing else, and so far, money doesn’t seem
like an interest of our captor” Togami mused.

“Um, Master Togami, you are beginning to sound as if you don’t truly believe they could be
responsible for this…”

“That’s because I don’t, obviously”

“Eh!? B-But you said at the beginning that they could be―!” Hina exclaimed.

“Suspicious? Yes, but I never believed that, at least not completely, I would be naïve if I ignored
the possibility, after all, there’s always the chance that they are that pathetically stupid to have a
change of mind in their modus operandi that has worked so well for them for so long, abysmally
low as that is” The heir explained.

“…”

“…”

“…Oi, oi, asshole! I’ve been putting with your bullshit for quite a while, but that is soon to not be
the case…You better spit what your fuckin’ game is by pulling this stunt of yours before I freaking
make you!” The biker exclaimed, almost ready to get out of his chair.

“While condemn the foul language of Owada, I believe I speak for the entire group, when I say…
why made such declaration then, Togami!?” Taka questioned.

Instead of making a comment that would’ve guaranteed a beat up from Owada, lucky student or
not, the heir decided to actually answer the question.

“It is true that a part of it was because I thought it would be interesting…” At that, the heir
received some glares, not that he paid attention to them, though, as he continued “…But the main
reason is because it was a test” He finished with absolute seriousness.

Such shift from his part caught everyone off-guard.

“…A test? What for?” Maizono asked.

“Quite simple, it was a test to gauge the assassin” Togami declared with a smirk.

I couldn’t avoid slightly narrowing my eyes at that “…Gauge me?”

At my question, the heir looked at me with a smug expression ‘Not like he has any other one, if
what he has shown so far is any indication…’

“I wanted to verify two things through this experiment of mine. The first one was to see how you
would react under the stress of being singled out constantly and on multiple occasions in a row.
First at being accused of being the serial killer Genocider Syo and next by putting your cult into
the spotlight, making you a possible responsible of all of this in the eyes of everyone here. I wanted
to see if you would break under the pressure and begin to panic or show any sign of weakness
under their pointing fingers…considering that none of that happened, I suppose I can give you a
passing F”

Such privilege…

“…F?” Naegi asked.

“I know, I’m being generous giving him such a grade, but it is what it is…as for the rest of you, I
can’t help but feel disappointed, the fact you couldn’t play your part on this accordingly, only
works to solidify the low expectations I had on you lot”

It seems that the prospect of being used and insulted like that wasn’t something the class were fans
of, that much I could tell with the annoyed faces some people were making, but Kirigiri, always a
fan of making questions, interfered in her own way.

“You talked of two objectives with this ‘test’ of yours, what other thing you could gain out of
this?”

With that question, the heir gained a more thoughtful expression.

“The second reason it's more obvious, I wanted verify if he truly was a legitimate member of the
Holy Salvation Society…which indeed, the answers he gave ended up being enough to label him
as a member of the cult instead of some pretender”

The lucky student ‘And most of the class, honestly’ gained a confused expression at that
declaration “…Huh? But you said it yourself that you don’t truly suspect them of being the
responsible for our situation, why would that matter?”

The heir adjusted his glasses while keeping that thoughtful expression of his “When Monokuma
announced him as the Ultimate Assassin, I didn’t think much of it. I thought that he was just an
above average killer that got lucky to be recruited by Hope’s Peak as a classmate of ours”

“…Ah! That’s true! Shigaraki also got scouted into Hope’s Peak, just like us, right?” Hina
exclaimed.

…Not exactly the same, but the point stands.

“Man, I actually forgot that you are supposed to attend school with us…whops” Leon said
awkwardly.

“Are you guys freaking serious about forgetting that he’s our classmate!? What the heck did you
guys saw him as then?” Enoshima snapped.
At her questioning, more awkward expressions appeared.

…Huh, I don’t really know how to feel about most of them don’t truly seeing me as part of the
group…

Kidding, I don’t really care.

And neither Kirigiri, it seems.

“We are getting distracted; can you continue, Togami?”

“Hmph, I don’t need you to ask me, I was planning to” The heir said in a condescending tone
“Now, where was I? Ah yes, I saw the assassin as nothing but an insignificant attempt of an
Ultimate, someone who got lucky in getting a chance of true success in his deplorable life,
minuscule as it was, such a miserable―”

“Are you getting somewhere with this?” I asked.

Usually, I wouldn’t even think of interrupting the monologues of rich guys, because of ‘The client
is always right’ or some crap like that.

But he wasn’t a client right now, was he?

Besides sending me a glare, the heir just continued “As I was saying, before you interrupted me,
you imbecile. At first, I thought of you as nothing…but I will admit that the fact that you are a
member of the Holy Salvation Society while also being the Ultimate Assassin at the same time,
validates you as the best asset of the cult, such a fact brings another interesting piece of
information about you…”

“…”

The heir seemed to took my silence as an opportunity to say more…but Naegi of all people
interrupted him.

“Togami, I…I don’t know where are you going with this, but Shigaraki has been honest and helpful
with us even with all those accusations we made against him! It is true that being an assassin
means he has done…some bad things, we can’t deny that…but he’s not a bad person! Everything
we know of him so far points to that!”

…You’re right Naegi, I’m not a bad person…I’m worse than that.

Instead of looking offended, the heir took the statement with amusement “Mhmhm, honest? Not a
bad person? Are you so sure of knowing him that well? Even when there’s one extra detail he
hasn’t told anyone here?”

“Something he hasn’t told us…?” Maizono asked.

“What…what are you talking about?” Naegi warily asked.

“Hah? Does it even matter what he says? The guy has been talking too much crap, who’s to say
this is not another stunt of his?” Enoshima added.
It seemed that the group agreed with her statement, less to defend me and more because the guy
has been a jerk with everyone here, if I had to take a guess.

But the heir, besides looking slightly irked, ignored all of that to continue “That cult of his, even if
they do it only for money instead of some ridiculous grand purpose, their reputation as producers
of the best assassins in the world is legitimate: each one of it’s members is a monster of its own
league…but even among them, there is someone who couldn’t avoid gaining his own reputation as
a true monster among monsters. The only know thing about him was that he works under the
code name of…The Raven”

“…The Raven?” Ogami asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“A Raven? Like the bird? I mean, that doesn’t sound intimidatin’ at all if I ya ask me” Owada
added.

“Ah, you shouldn’t say that, Owada! Those guys are known to be really smart when it comes to
stealing food! I remember that when I was a kid, one moment I was just enjoying a chocolate
donut, and by just looking away for a second, one of them already was flying away with it! So
rude…” Hina exclaimed with a pout.

The heir couldn’t avoid rolling his eyes at her antics “The bird itself doesn’t matter, but what does
is what such animal represents”

“What it represents? Are we playing trivia now?” Hiro asked.

Celeste ignored his comment as she spoke “Oh, I believe I know what you are talking about.
Ravens tend to symbolize different things depending on which culture are you talking about, but
even so, the most common denominator…is that they are the announcers of inevitable death and
incoming doom, am I getting this right?”

“…Death?” Ogami asked.

“Eeek! Incoming doom!?” Yamada yelped.

“Indeed, the person I’m talking about gained his moniker because once you become a target of his,
it doesn’t matter what kind of person you were in your life, if it’s during the night or the middle of
the day, neither where do you hide or how many people or layers of security you put between
yourself and him…your death is nothing but guaranteed”

…I mean, that’s not the exact reason, but all of that definitely reinforced it…

“And…what you are implying is that Shigaraki is…?” Kirigiri trailed off.

“Yes, the most merciless, deadly, and effective member of the Holy Salvation Society, whose
infamous reputation and alias was the only know thing about him for years…it’s among us…I
admit that the results of this experiment of mine have made me re-evaluate this game as much
more interesting than what it seemed at first glance, I am almost tempted to consider the idea of
being grateful at the responsible of this for an opportunity such as this one” Togami commented
with complete amusement in his voice.

I have no doubt that there where people ready to make another scene, no different from last two we
had so far, both because of that last comment the heir made and the reveal of…That name.

But fortunately…
…Or unfortunately, we got saved by the bell.

“Upupupupu…I am glad that someone here appreciates the little details this humble host
provides!” Monokuma exclaimed.

…More precisely, by The Bear.

Among the gasps and yelps of surprise, I couldn’t help but look at the monochrome bear with
narrowed eyes.

It seems I was right…

He really was planning to make his move soon.

 The Murderous Shadow Who Lurks Over Their Despair.

The Murderous Shadow Who Lurks Over Their Despair.

“Kyaaaaaah! Monokuma!?” Yamada manly screamed.

“What are you doing here!?” Ogami growled.

“Moi? Well, I admit I was planning in coming to crash down on your party a bit early, but then
things got really spicy between you guys and Mr. Cult Freak over there and I couldn’t help but wait
and see how did that ended!” Monokuma stated.

…That cult naming is going to be a common thing, isn’t it?

“…Mr. Cult Freak? Are you talking about Shigaraki?” Hina asked.

“Helloooo, Is there an echo here? Of course I’m talking about him! Do you see another weirdo
who kills people because he believes some guy in the sky tells him to?”

Yep, it’s gonna be a common thing.

“Hey! You sick bastard, that doesn’t answer our question! What the hell are you doin’ here!?”

“Huh? Joseph Mostert? Can’t say I know him” Monokuma commented with a tilted head.

“That’s not what I said!” Owada growled.

“Maybe if I ignore him, he’ll just go away...” Monokuma said while turning his back on him.

…Well, I would admit that my ears would be grateful if things were that simple.

“Oi, oi, Don’t ignore me! Asshole!” Unfortunately, they weren’t.

“Okay, okay, let’s get back to business. Your life here has already begun and a few days have gone
by, and there have been no deaths, zero, nada! Now, under normal circumstances that would be
boooring, and it is boring! But in this case, it’s also disappointing! I know ya teenagers are known
for being lazy…but this guy in particular is taking it to the limit!!” Monokuma exclaimed while
pointing a paw…at me.

“…”

“…”

“…”

"…Is that so?"

"Don't you just 'Is that so?' me, you bastard! Did you already forgot all the hype I gave you on the
first day? Do you think I go around doing that for every guy I meet on the street!?"

I don’t know, maybe he does? He seems that eccentric.

“Well, you know what!? I don’t! That is a privilege people would kill to get! But you… nooo, I
give it to you, and what do you decide to do with it? Throw it out of the window to spend all day
flirting with miss hair for brains over there!”

Again with that crap, but…is he serious? Of course I’m not going to even begin to think about
making a move until―Wait, what did he say I was doing?

“Hey! I will have you know that―F-Flirting!?” Enoshima exclaimed.

“F-Flirting? Hey…now that I think about it…those two are always together! Ah! C-Could it be th-
that they truly…!” Hina exclaimed.

What?

“Wait, really!? He didn’t seem like the type…but damn, he doesn’t waste his time, huh?” Leon
commented with a whistle.

“So you guys really were like that!” Maizono exclaimed.

Like that? What…What is she talking about?

“Oh, could it be!? A forbidden romance between a famous model blinded by the light of her
popularity and an assassin willing to abandon the shadows of solitude his profession requires!? A
most unexpected combo I would admit!” Yamada added.

Wait, what!? A Ro…ro…ro―what!?

“Tch…T-This so cliché, an assassin and a model are s-such a common trope…” Fukawa mumbled.

“A relationship!? Is it true!? Shigaraki! Enoshima! You should know that committing to something
like that in this educational environment is an afront to the public morals!”

At the moral compass questioning the entire group turned to Enoshima.

And as for fashionista herself…

“…Romance…Shigaraki…relationship…me…romance…rela―” She keeped mumbling things

like that for quite a while with her eyes wide and lost and I could swear there was smoke coming
from her head.

Seeing that the fashionista was unable to give them a response, they turned to me to get more
details of…of whatever it is they were thinking.

In my case…I refused to give them anything.

Why? It doesn’t matter.

It’s for moments like these that I am glad I can keep a straight face no matter what.

…Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same about my heated-up cheeks and my eyes that refused to
meet their stares.

“Upupupupu, do my eyes deceive me or are you embarrassed? Such a rare sight! Someone quickly
look for a star make a wish!”

“…”

“…”
“…Erm, I believe that isn’t possible at the moment…” Yamada commented.

“Oh right, well, what can you do? Either way, we are getting off-topic, the important thing right
now is…I want a murder to happen and I want it now!”

That brought everyone out of their stupor and back to the grim reality of the situation while at the
same time, making them remember what kind of person our captor truly is.

…And I would’ve been grateful to him for putting an end to the previous fiasco…If it wasn’t his
fault in the first place that it happened.

“Even if you say that…there’s nothing you can say that’ll make us start killing each other!” Naegi
exclaimed.

Ah, that’s a jinx if I heard of one.

“Wait, could it be―that’s it! Ding ding ding! I got it! All the secret ingredients are here―right
people, right place. So why hasn’t anyone killed anyone yet?” Monokuma asked…rhetorically, of
course.

Even so…why? Well, he’s going to be disappointed if he truly thinks I’m going to attempt
anything with that rule 6 as ambiguous as it is.

“That’s what I couldn’t understand. But just now I realized that there is one very important piece of
the puzzle missing!”

“Wh-What are you talking―!” Before Naegi could finish that sentence, Monokuma interrupted
him.

“If you wanna know, I’ll tell ya! It’s a motive! Upupupu! It’s so simple! I just have to give
everyone a motive!”

…A motive?

“Motive? What the hell are ya talkin’ about!?” Owada exclaimed.

The bear ignored Owada flawlessly “By the way! There’s something I wanna show you guys!”

“Stop changing the goddamn subject!” Owada barked.

Geez, this guy and Taka would get along as partners in shouting, wouldn’t they?

“I have a little video I’d like you all to see…oh, but don’t worry. It’s not some pervy ‘adult’ video
or anything. Seriously, it’s nothing like that!”

…Putting aside…his antics…

A video?

“It’s a special video for each of you showing what’s going on outside the school!”

…What's going on? That's a weird way of wording it…

“Outside the school…? What are you talking about?” Asked Naegi.

“Ohoho, Oh? Master’s so impatient today, isn’t he? Why don’t you just watch it and find out? In
this school, there’s a specific place you can go that has everything you need to watch the video”
Monokuma said while rubbing the back of his head.

Specific place? Hmm…that could only be the A/V room, it’s the only room on this floor with the
necessary equipment to see those videos.

And Kirigiri, in her own way, seemed eager for that.

“Good, then we can go watch the video right now…but before we do that, I’d like to know…Who
are you? Why would you do something like this? What do you really want from us?”

The monochrome bear ignored the first two questions Kirigiri made and went directly to the last
one “What do I want from you guys…? Well, if you really want to know…”

The grin on his left side stretched a little while his red eye began to glow with an unusual intensity.

But in contrast to that…

“…Despair. That’s all”

The way he said that…it was so unexpectedly monotone when in comparison to all the eccentricity
he has shown so far, it was so…lifeless, so…

Empty.

But just as fast, he abandoned that facet.

“If you want to know more than that, you’ll have to figure it out for yourselves. Do whatever you
need to uncover the mysteries this school hides. I won’t try and stop you”

I slightly narrowed my eyes at that ‘Again with the encouragement to actually find something…is
he doing it as a taunt of sorts?’

“If I am honest, it’s funny as heck watching you guys search so desperately for answers…ah, I
guess that I want some form of entertainment from you, too” The bear said in barely holding
giggles.

Yeah, it’s a taunt…though I can’t discard the possibility of there being more than what he lets on.

Either way…

In a sort of way, he actually answered one of the questions Kirigiri asked. Maybe…the chances are
low, but I don’t lose anything by asking him about the rule 6.

“…Monokuma, I would also like to ask something, it’s about―”

“No”

“…”

“…No?”

“No”
“…You don’t even know―”

“I don’t care, I’m not in the mood to talk with you…humph!” Monokuma said while he crossed his
arms and looked to the side.

Huh?

“…”

“…Why?”

“Ah! And you have the gall to ask! Just how much of a jerk can you be!?”

“…You haven’t told me―”

“And I will not tell you anything! I had big expectations of you, but you have been a
disappointment so far, so until you make it up for me, I’m not talking with you…humph!” That’s
the last thing he said before disappearing.

…What the hell?

“…Um, does anyone know what just happened?” Maizono asked.

“Well, this guy right here obviously did something to make the bear mad, that’s never gonna be a
bad thing” The biker commented.

“Yeah, I may be imagining things, but that creep acted no different to an upset girlfriend…” Leon
added.

Again, what the hell?

“G-Girlfriend!?” Enoshima exclaimed nervously.

“Eh? I didn’t know that Shigaraki―Eeeeeeek! I didn’t said anything!” The fanfic creator yelped
when he saw I was looking at him with narrowed eyes.

And before the group got more distracted…again, Kirigiri spoke.

“That is irrelevant, what is important right now is that we learned something very useful”

“Oh! That if we want to make Monokuma upset, we just have to make Shigaraki to ask him
questions, is that it?” Hina asked.

…I don’t know how feel about that, so I will just go with that being inconvenient in the chance that
I attempt to question him to obtain important information…like I just tried to a moment ago.

“…No. I’m talking about him having zero intentions of standing in the way of our pursuit of the
truth, that’s…interesting”

Interesting, sure, but that’s the thing…why? I know he is confident in us not escaping this place,
but that much confidence? Or…is there something inside this place he actually wants us to find?

“Perhaps, but what about the video he mentioned? I admit to be very curious to see what’s on it”
Ogami commented.

“Same here! Okay, so…!” Owada exclaimed.

Then, he proceeded to look around the room until he stopped on…

“Hey Naegi! Check this out for us, would ya?” The biker asked with a grin.

That caught the lucky student off-guard “Huh!? Why me!?”

“Cuz you’re closest to the door! That’s the rule, right?”

“…R-Rule?” Naegi nervously questioned.

“…Hey, hey…” The biker began, at first calmly, but then… “Hey hey hey hey hey hey!
HEEEEEEEY!!! You see how passionately I’m begging you!? What’s the big deal? Just check it
out real quick!” Owada begged/threatened while crackling his knuckles.

“E-Eh? O-Okay…um, I guess I’ll get going, then” Naegi said while getting out of his seat.

Once the ahoge boy said that, Owada calmed down immediately and began to grin from ear to ear
“Awesome, thanks! I owe ya one!”

…This guy…

“…If Makoto’s going, I’m going with him! It is not safe to walk alone with Monokuma around”
Maizono declared.

“Yeah, sure thing. Then we’re countin’ on the both of ya! If anything happens, just yell and I’ll
come runnin’!” Owada said.

Now acting as the reliable guy, huh?

Not much after, both Naegi and Maizono left the cafeteria, and once they did…

“Geez, Owada, you didn’t had to be so rude with Naegi” Hina commented with a pout.

“H-Huh? But I just asked the guy, there was nothing wrong with that, right?”

…I don’t doubt he truly believes that.

“Dude, if that’s you asking, I don’t wanna know how ya do a threat…” Leon replied.

“Um, in any case, do you guys know where we will see the video he mentioned?” Fujisaki asked.

“…That would be the A/V room” I commented.

“E-Eh? The A/V room?” Fujisaki shyly asked.

“Mhm, that’s the only place available with the equipment for it” I replied.

"That is true…Still, I wonder what kind of content will it include..." Ogami mused.

That’s the question, isn’t it? What could it be…?

…

…Video…

…Of the outside world…

…A motive…

…A motive to kill…

…Video…

…Outside world…

…Video of the outside world as a motive to kill…

…How?

…How do you motivate a bunch of trapped people to kill in an attempt to escape when you involve
videos of the outside world? The answer to that is―

!!!!!!
…No.

No no.

No no no no no―

“Hmmm…that is truly a mystery as of now”

―It can’t…

…It can’t be…

…It can’t be that…

“…Ah! Do you think they truly are dirty videos and he’s just tricking us saying that they aren’t?”

…There’s…

…There’s no way…

…There’s no way he could do it…

“Dirty videos!? Could he really be talking about that? Ah, but I’m loyal to 2D so I have a 100%
resistance buff to them!”

…But he already managed to catch me―No! This and that are completely different things…

There’s just no way he could have managed to―

!!!

Someone is looking intently at me; I could feel the stare.

More specifically, two stares...two people were looking intently at me.

It was…Enoshima and Kirigiri.

Kirigiri was…studying me, not in the suspicious way she’s been usually doing, or at the very least,
that wasn’t the main way she was doing it.

As for Enoshima, she was giving me a worried look.

…My eyes…

…I freaking widened my eyes and they noticed it.

Dammit.

…
…

…Sigh.

‘…Get a hold of yourself Shizuka…’

I knew he was going to eventually make a move to force our hand and make someone fall to the
temptation of attempting to become the blackened, I’ve known that for days…it just so happens the
day has finally come.

…It just so happens that the day to put my skills to use has finally come.

Enoshima looked like she wanted to say something, but…

Someone entered the cafeteria.

It was Maizono.

“Guys! Naegi and I found a bunch of DVDs inside a box in the A/V room, and each one, well…has
a label with the name of one of us”

…DVDs inside a box…

…A box…

… I knew that thing was a prelude to that bastard’s move…

“DVDs…with our names?” Ogami mused aloud.

“That’s…weird, it is, right?” Leon asked.

“H-Hey…maybe we should go already and check those videos then” Hina commented.

“…Right, I admit that the curiosity is killing me too…what do you guys say we depart to this A/V
room?” Taka asked.

There were some nods of agreement and zero protests at this.

And with that, the decision was made.

Like pigs to the slaughter, we traveled to the A/V room.

The walk to the A/V room was deathly quiet.

Not even the most extrovert and loud members of the group made a sound. That serious was the
matter for all of us.

And unfortunately, that left me alone with my thoughts.

…With the information I have so far, I can make a solid theory of what this is about…I can’t think
of any other way this could work as a motive strong enough to convince anyone to kill involving
the elements Monokuma talked about.

From that, an incredibly important personal question arose.

Did. He. Really. Did. It?

Was he really capable of doing something to Ma―

“Shigaraki” Enoshima called me, bringing me out of my own thoughts

“…Yes?”

“Erm…um, are you okay?”

Am I okay?

…No, not really “Mhm”

“Oh…I…I see…”

“…”

“…”

“…Enoshima”

“Yeah?”

“…”

“…”

“…Are you okay?”

“Eh? Ah, um, yeah, yeah, I’m fine! Though I admit this video junk is getting me nervous, hehe”
The fashionista commented while scratching a cheek.

“…I see”

I suppose tha is a normal reaction to have right now, or at the very least, that’s the case if you are
aren’t aware of the implications Monokuma is suggesting.

It is true that I have no evidence to confirm or deny that this video is truly what I think it is…but…
unfortunately, I just can’t think of being anything else…

I turned to the fashionista to give her an analyzing look.

She’s…strong, at the very least, she has a strong mental fortitude, the fact that I am the person she
gets along with the most, ever since the beginning of all this, does nothing but prove such a thing.

…But I am also aware that sometimes, she gets caught off-guard and has those moments where she
snaps.
…Would it be the same case when…when she sees whatever it is inside them?

“…Enoshima, whatever is inside those vide―”

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

A scream was heard, it was not among the group, but it definitely was close. It was one full of so
many emotions, but the strongest one among all of them, was…

Despair

“Naegi!” Maizono cried out before rushing towards the A/V room.

“Maizono! Running in the―!”

“Now’s not the time for that bullshit!” Owada exclaimed before he too rushed towards the audio-
visual room.

And immediately everyone followed him, running towards the origin of that scream.

Everyone so nervous and panicked to notice that I wasn’t going at their pace anymore.

Instead, I waited until I was at a moderate distance behind all of them, and only then I proceeded to
trail them at a steady pace.

I keep at it for a few moments, until I saw the group stop in front of the A/V room, with me still
behind them.

And then I heard it.

“I-I have to get out! *Thud* I have to get out, right now! *Thud* I-I need to make sure everyone’s
safe! *Thud*” The panicked voice cried out.

Maizono didn’t wasted any time to get inside, soon everyone followed.

Not me, though, instead, I waited close to the entrance.

Just outside of the room and using my sight instead of getting inside, I searched for the source of
that rambling, it didn’t took me too long, and neither to the rest of the group to find it.

In one of middle rows with the audio-visual equipment, was Naegi seated in one of the desks,
mumbling the same words over and over while he slammed his fist on said desk repeatedly.

“Naegi…?” Maizono warily asked.

The lucky student flinched at her voice, but that also brough him, partially, out of his stupor.
Slowly and nervously, he looked at every single classmate he could notice.

Of course, I made sure I was not among those.

Once the staring ended, he didn’t said anything, but I could see that he was still trembling.
“N-Naegi? What’s…What’s going on?” Hina nervously asked.

He didn’t replied to that question either, he just pointed with a shaky finger at the cardboard box
that was on the left corner of the room.

“Is…Is that what Monokuma was talking about?” Leon asked in general, in a no less nervous way
than the swimming pro.

“What could be on them…?” Taka added.

Everyone took that as a signal to approach the cardboard box and pick up their respective DVDs.

…I waited until all of them took their own disks and a seat.

Once I saw that everyone had their backs pointed at me, I finally entered the room with muffled
steps and approached the box with narrowed eyes.

Inside of said box was…

An object.

A single object.

It was a DVD…and it had my name.

I picked it up and looked around the room.

Unlike yesterday, the A/V room had its lights turned off, most probably so everyone could see
their videos without a problem and at full clarity ‘…How considerate…’

I could also notice that everyone else had already put their headphones on and were preparing to
insert the DVDs.

…The lights were off, they were distracted by their own videos, and with the headphones in their
heads, they weren’t paying attention to any outside source of noise and save for Ogami, none them
were a real threat to what I’m planning to do…

In a sort of twisted and joyless way, this was the equivalent of a kid in a candy store for someone
like me…the perfect scenario to commit an assassination.

…Getting cocky is one of the worst mistakes an assassin could make, after all, people who
becomes too confident of themselves get caught off-guard when something unexpected or out of
their control happens…and that could only lead to one path when this is your career.

Death.

So when this scenario presented itself and my mind began to have thoughts of how easy they are
making this to myself, I discarded them immediately. Not only because of the previously
mentioned reason, but also because…

No, an assassination is not what I’m after, that is not why all these convenient circumstances are
important for me right now.

What I need right now the most is…information, I need to see first what is Monokuma going to
show them, after all, confronting something while being ignorant of it even when you have the
chance to correct said problem, that is also the kind of thing you cannot afford yourself to allow, so
this is an opportunity I cannot waste.

And while it is true that none of them are close to being aware of me thanks to the list of points
previously mentioned, I was not going to leave this to chance.

No.

I took one step further than that.

I also erased my presence.

…Any fighter, no matter of which branch you are talking, has the obligation to develop the
capacity to feel threats outside their sight, or even those they can’t even hear.

Boxers, Spies, Thieves, Bodyguards, Martial Artists, Cops, Soldiers, other Assassins, among
others. I’ve meet all of them, and those who had some self-respect and put the effort and dedication
for it, develop countermeasures for the previously mentioned threats.

Of course…

…That didn’t help them at all when I disposed of them.

As an assassin, the common ‘obstacle’ I face comes from all those people who are capable using
this ‘sixth sense’ to feel the presence of their opponents.

And that’s precisely why I trained to develop the antithesis of it, after all, how do you feel
someone’s presence when there isn’t any presence to feel in the first place?

Of course, this doesn’t mean I can turn invisible or some non-sense like that. With enough
concentration and if they are looking specifically for me, then I will be found out, and the same
would happen if I engage in physical contact or make too much noise.

Even so, being capable of doing this…it truly is one of the few, if not the only, thing that makes
me feel something resembling proud for being capable of mastering.

How could it not? It took me 2 and a half years of constant practice, not even once losing focus of
each step that worked as requirement, all the while putting all of my senses to test to the last limit.

Not only that, but an obligatory requirement to have a chance in mastering this skill is to have
someone else as your ‘sparring partner’ of sorts during the entire process. That someone has to be
highly skilled both in combat and in their capability to feel threats and presences, and well…there
was only one person who meet those requirements that I knew of and that was also willing to help
me..

…I only had Her.

But that is not important right now ‘…At…At least not in this context…’, what matters now is to get
to work and do what an assassin does best besides stealth and killing.

Intel Gathering.

…A mission.

…This is not different from any other mission.

This is my current mission.

The objective? Gather intelligence from the subjects around the room.

Conditions of success? Gather samples of at the very least, half of the group and avoid detection at
all costs.

Time limit? Unknown, but a pair of minutes is a safe bet…which is why I must act as if I have
even less than that.

Difficulty of this mission? I must think of it as the highest possible…as always.

Consequences of failure? As always, I must think of it as the highest penalty possible…Death.

With that ‘self-motivation’ done, I went into it.

0 seconds.

The first row consisted of Hina, Fujisaki, Celeste, Fukawa and Togami.

I’m aware of the time limit I self-imposed, so I approached their desks in such order at a quick
pace, making sure to stay behind them and avoid contact as I looked at each of their monitors. ‘A
few seconds for each of them should be enough…’

I got closer and…

…Just looking at the first one was enough to make me grimace.

On said screen was a tan-skinned boy with brow short hair, with quite simple clothing, as it only
consisted of a tank top, beige shorts and red sneakers.

Thanks to the plugged headphones I couldn’t hear anything, but I could see that he seemed to be
enthusiastically cheering, if all the jumping and exaggerated movement of his arms with the
excited look on his face was anything to go by, towards whoever this video belongs to, which in
this case it would be Hina.

So, yeah, I grimaced when watching this…but not because I suddenly developed a sense of
empathy towards the swimmer, not at all, but because what I’m seeing right now only works as
more evidence to confirm what I’ve been thinking this is all about.
…Deciding to not waste any more time, I moved onto the next person.

6.27 seconds.

The next video consisted of a couple. A fair-skinned man with brown-blonde hair, he seems to be
wearing light-gray glasses, a long-sleeved, white striped button shirt, long dark-green pants and a
pair of brown slip-ons.

Next to the man was a pale-skinned woman, with long brown-blonde hair too, but in a lighter tone.
Her attire consisted of a white jacket with a tank top underneath of it, dark-grey pants and a pair of
black mary janes.

All in all, they really resembled the programmer.

Same as the previous case, they seemed to be either cheering or congratulating the owner of this
video, if the excited gestures of the woman and the more reserved ones of the man were anything
to go by.

…Taking that as enough I information, I left onto the next target.

11.13 seconds

This one…it kind of had a divergence, from what I could see, there were some people in the
recording but they didn’t look to be the focus in this case.

No, the camera seemed to be completely focused on…a cat. A dark-grey, large and fat cat with a
frilled collar around his neck.

…As for the people that could be barely noticeable, it seemed that they were only there to attend to
the needs of said cat, it didn’t go unnoticed by me how self-aware of his commodities he seemed to
be, if that arrogant look on his face was anything to go by.

…Next.

16.48 seconds

The next video consisted of…a bug on a cage.

That was it.

…I’m not going to waste time on this, next.

20.18 seconds

This next one showed an office with a panoramic view over a city, with a desk in the middle of said
room, and a person using it.

This person was a pale-skinned man in his mid-60s, both his hair and beard were completely white,
with the hair combed backwards while his beard ran down from his temples all the way across his
chin with an almost unnoticeable grey mustache.
You would be forgiven for believing he was addressing the owner of this video with nothing but
contempt…but no, his butler attire and taking into consideration who is watching this ‘Besides
me…’ tells me that is just his default expression.

His body language doesn’t tell me much, but it is likely that he’s a similar case to the first and
second videos.

…I will admit that knowing that this guy out of everyone here, actually has someone he cares about
is some interesting info…but it’s irrelevant for now.

Right now, I have more important matters to take care of.

30.75 seconds

Maizono, Naegi, Owada, Taka and Leon were the people seated in the next row, but considering
that I had to descend to see the previous five, this time I will have to travel back.

As I approached the baseball star desk, I could see that the video showed two people. A man on his
early 40s, whose ginger hair was short and with his front pushed up and to the side, his attire
consisted of a blue dress shirt, brown pants and black shoes. The only other trait worth mentioning
is his serious, though not stern, expression.

Next to him was a teenager girl with shoulder length blonde hair held up by a black ribbon on the
top right side of her head. Her clothing consisted of a brown-colored sailor jacket, a white long-
sleeved shirt underneath said jacket, and a dark yellow skirt. Same as the adult, she looked like a
serious person, though there was a smile on her face while she talked.

All in all, it seemed no different than the previous videos, with the teenager girl doing most of the
talk while the adult gave some nods.

…Onto the next one…

37.98 seconds

The moral compass screen showed a man on his late 40s in what it looked like a police station. He
had thick eyebrows, graying hair and red eyes. He seemed to be wearing a black trench coat and a
white buttoned shirt with a tie underneath said coat. He also seems to wear black pants and brown
shoes.

Same as the previous cases, more congratulations/cheering, though the rigid and serious manners
the man showed, really seemed to resemble the owner of this recording.

Next.

44.79 seconds

Moving on to the gang leader screen, I saw what is by far the most different video I’ve seen so far.
First and foremost, it was being recorded on the exterior and in movement, instead of the camera
being set in one place, in this case it was obvious someone was recording with the device held in
hand.

The video showed a group of bikers, all of them with the same logo on the back of their jackets,
traveling on a highway. Beyond that, it only showed them riding on the road, there was no
conversation, or at least there wasn’t anything to prove otherwise.
The only other thing I could notice was that at the front was a short boy with spiky hair that
contrasted quite significantly with the taller and bulkier teenagers that were riding around him.

Even so, as curious as this divergence is, I can’t allow myself to keep watching when there are still
some people left.

With that thought in mind, I approached the next classmate: Naegi.

51.36 seconds

The lucky student was still sitting in his chair, and though he still looked considerably perturbed, if
that lost look he was giving the screen was any indication, it wasn’t at the same erratic level he
was just a few moments ago.

But that was irrelevant for now, what matters to me right now is the contents of his screen.
Speaking of which, on said screen…there was only a message in bold orange letters, said message
was: ‘Look for the answer after graduation!’

Besides narrowing my eyes at that, I didn’t waste any time to approach the last person in this row.

Maizono.

55.33 seconds

Similar to Owada, her video went out of the norm, as for her case, the recording consisted of her
and her idol group, if all of them using the same dress but with slight modifications each was
anything to by. Said group consisted on four other girls, performing on a stage with a large led
screen behind them.

And that was it with this row…as for the next and last one…

It consisted of Enoshima, Yamada, Ogami, Hiro and Kirigiri.

…As tempting as it is to get some info on the mysterious girl, there was a problem and it was…
Ogami.

As previously stated, I’m not leaving this to chance, even if I am confident in my presence being
supresed, she is the Ultimate Martial Artist, I can’t afford the risk that the fact that I will have to
stay for a few seconds in her range of vision could lead to the possibility of her detecting me. Hiro
was a similar case, being just as close of her as Kirigiri is.

As for Ogami herself, it’s not possible either, not only because of the chance of detecting me but
also because her frame blocks the entire screen, so it is futile to try anything.

In Yamada’s case, it was the same problem, his frame obstructs any view I could have of his
monitor.

And lastly…Enoshima.

…Ten.
…Ten out of fifteen is good enough…

60.63 seconds

And it seems that the world itself agreed with me if what happened next was indication.

“Kyaaaaah!”

“WHAT!?”

“N-No!”

“W-W-What is this!?”

“It can’t be!”

“Nonononono―!”

“This isn’t real!”

All around the room I could hear all kinds of cries and screams, no doubt thanks to a transition in
their videos that ended up showing them something impactful enough to react this way.

As for me…

I need to hurry up and do a fast-check on them again to see what changed.

Their growing panic will make them even more distracted but it’s just matter of time before they
abandon their seats.

Not wanting to lose any time, I rushed onto it.

64.02 seconds

I put my sight on overdrive so I don’t miss anything as I looked at their screens while moving as
fast as it was possible without being noticed in a space as enclosed as this one.

And thanks to that, I couldn’t avoid grimacing again.

The recording of Maizono and her group changed to only her group…either unconscious or dead
with the figure of Monokuma on the led screen, with the rest of the place completely destroyed.

64.91 seconds

Naegi’s screen didn’t changed at all.

65.57 seconds

The group of bikers riding on the road changed to all of them either unconscious or dead in the
middle of a street with a bunch people wearing Monokuma’s masks behind them.

66.15 seconds.

The man in the police station disappeared and, on its place, there was only the ruins of what it
looked to be the once before police station.

66.59 seconds.
The adult and the teenager girl disappeared while their house looked as if it was the location for a
battlefield.

67.23 seconds.

The butler, he was either dead or unconscious with more people wearing Monokuma’s masks
around him, with the place thorn to shreds.

67.77 seconds.

As for the bug, he was in a different location with a single Monokuma mask-wearing person
holding its cage.

68.22 seconds

Same with the fat cat, he was on a different location, chained up to a wall.

68.94 seconds

The couple disappeared, with their house completely wrecked.

69.47 seconds

The tanned kid was no longer there, same case as before, the house he was in was now completely
devastated.

70.12 seconds

Once I was done with checking their videos, I quickly but carefully took a seat on the desk behind
the swimmer.

74.29 seconds

Just in case, I looked around to verify that no one noticed what I did, once I was satisfied, I didn’t
had to wait long for all of their videos to finish and for them to react to it on their own way.

“…What…the fuck?” Owada commented in a distraught tone of voice.

“A-A-A fabrication! This…This is nothing but a fabrication! I refuse to believe it’s real!” Taka
exclaimed.

“Mrrgh…Y-You must be right! This is the work of dark-illusion type magic! I-It…It can’t be
nothing else!” Yamada added.

“I c-can’t! I can’t take this anymore! Let me out of t-this place!” Fukawa cried out.

…The grimace hasn’t left my face…

…It wasn’t because I felt bad for any of them.

No.

The reason why, is that I saw enough of their videos to know that if I also have a DVD…that could
only mean one thing…but…but even so, even at this moment, I couldn’t help but ask…

Did. He. Really. Did. It?

“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” Kirigiri mused aloud.

“It is a classic case of ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, it seems” Celeste commented.

“…Huh?” Yamada intelligently asked.

Even so, the gambler was willing to provide an answer “It seems an explanation is in order…Image
two nations that are on the brink of a war. But even under such circumstances, the both of them
want peace, and seem willing to commit to each scale back their forces as a sign of their good faith,
unfortunately, the chance’s that one country may betray the other makes them fear lowering their
guard. The result? Neither scales back their forces, and they both end up betraying each other. In
more simple words, the fear of a possible treachery from each other becomes the biggest obstacle
of stability”

Indeed, and their reactions just a moment ago showed how effective this motive was.

“T-That kinda sounds like us right now…” Fukawa warily mumbled “Everyone says they’ll work
together, but in our minds, we are afraid of someone betraying us…”

“Stop! Those awful thoughts in your head should be absolutely rejected! That would only work in
the favor of our captor!” Taka exclaimed.

The baseball star seemed to have none of it “You can say that, but maybe you’re thinking that once
everyone drops their guard, you can just―!”

“W-What!?” The moral compass cried out.

“Don’t you see!? This is what Monokuma, or whoever’s behind this, wants. They want us to fight
among each other!” Ogami exclaimed.

“…”

“…”

“…B-But the assass―!” Goddammit.

“Before you begin to accuse me of something for the hundred time in the day, ask yourself this: If I
hadn’t tried anything in the past few days, why would I try something now all of sudden?”

“A-Are you seriously asking!? The videos―!”

I’m not a fan of resorting to this, but I need to put this down before it begins in the first place,
nobody is in their most rational state of mind for a prolonged discussion right now, and that could
only lead to more problems for me…

“I am aware of the videos, and I think that all of us have some idea of what they are all about, but
as pointed out in one of the previous accusations made at me…I am an orphan who has spent all
his life training as an assassin under the strict eye of the equivalent of an eccentric private company
of mercenaries disguised as a cult, do you really think that’s an environment for me to develop any
connection with someone?” I asked in general.

That made them gain looks both of realization and sadness…

As bothersome as it was to receive pity from them, it was something I was willing trade in
exchange for them to both drop the suspicion on me making a move and to don’t allow their minds
to run wild with theories about me or my motive.

In his own way, the heir helped “…Mhmhm, I suppose I can concede that. I highly doubt there’s
someone out there waiting for you, even more than that, would I be wrong to guess that your video
only consisted on the bear mocking your lonely existence?” The heir finished with a smug smile.

“…” I didn’t say anything to that while I looked to the side with narrowed eyes as my lips thinned.

“Mhmhm your silence and expression aren’t doing any favors in defending you” Togami
commented with amusement.

…What a moron, but whatever, I will not look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Indeed, such a pathetic―”

“Ugh, can you drop it!? Not the moment for your useless rants, alright?......*sigh* Either way…
maybe we should all just…talk about it? Maybe if we do that, it could help get everything out of
our system?” Enoshima suggested.

Said suggestion gave most of the group a moment to gain pensive looks in silence, weighting
whether or not should they go with Enoshima’s idea.

Considering what I just did a few minutes ago, that was no longer my business, instead, I decided
give a scrutinous look at each of them, gauging how these motives affected them while asking to
myself…did someone here fell for it?

Looking around, I could see how everyone, no matter how much they tried hide it, got affected by
their respective motives.

Taking Togami as an example, even if he acted as his usual self with his self-assured sense of
superiority, such expression didn’t reached his eyes or his body language in general, as much as he
tried, he couldn’t hide how tense he was.

Kirigiri, Celeste, Ogami…and Enoshima were similar cases. At a glance, you could think as if
nothing was out of the ordinary with them, but in no different way to the heir, there was some
tension in their expressions.

The rest of the class was a worse version of this, apart from being tense, they also looked on edge
and unlike these past few days…they no longer had wariness of only me.

Everyone looked wary of everyone, throwing suspicious glances at each other ‘It seems that I’m no
longer their single beacon of fear…this happened sooner than what I anticipated…’

…In any case, I decided to look at my left and saw…

Ah.

“Hey, Maizono, what did…huh?” The lucky student trailed off as he saw the Idol, more
specifically…

Her face.
“…” Maizono didn’t said anything.

…There’s no doubt about it…

“What was in your video, Maizono?” Naegi insisted.

…Out of all of them…

“What’s y-your problem? Just hurry up and t-tell us!” The writer snapped.

Once Fukawa finished her statement, it brought the Idol out of her stupor, only for her dreading
and perturbed expression to multiply exponentially, confirming one thing…

Sayaka Maizono, out of everyone here…she was the one affected the most by this motive.

“Maizono?” Naegi asked with concern while in a well-intended…but ignorant attempt to comfort
her, put a hand on her shoulder…

And that was her last straw.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!! DON’T TOUCH ME!!” The idol cried out angrily while slapping
Naegi’s hand.

Then, she looked at everyone in the room with the perturbed expression on her face still there
while heavily breathing, she did that for only a few seconds before she decided to run away from
the room.

“S-Sayaka!?” Hina exclaimed.

“Let her go” Togami said simply.

“I-I can’t do that! I have to make sure she’s okay! It’s dangerous out there!” Was everything Naegi
said before he too, ran off in search of the idol.

“A-Again with the romantic clichés, I hate those the m-most. I don’t care what h-happens to her,
personally…” The writer mumbled.

“Are you for real? Just how insensitive can you be?” Enoshima said with her brows furrowed.

“S-Shut up! Y-You are even a worse case! W-With the assassin orbiting around you l-like some
loyal dog…heh, I-I bet a whore like you allowed him to sleep―”

“Haven’t you accused enough people of things for today?” I asked with narrowed eyes and the
slightest edge on the tone of my voice…fighting the urge to scowl.

I have experience suppressing emotions, true…but right now, I’m suppressing so many of them to
allow myself the patience to deal with one of the writer’s moments.

Instead of saying anything, the writer took that as a signal to yelp and leave the room too.

“Nobody got left unscratched by this motive, it seems. In any case, it is not necessary for us to stick
together and I have my own things that requires my attention. Goodbye” Celeste said with a smile
before leaving the room.

Eventually everyone took the gambler’s example and one by one, the room emptied until only
leaving me…and two other people.
For what it felt like an eternity, silence reigned the room, with none of us saying absolutely
nothing.

Things stayed the same for a few more moments until someone broke the silence.

“Hey” Said…Enoshima.

“…Hey” I replied.

“…”

“…”

“…Are you okay?” The fashionista asked in a concerned tone of voice.

Am I?

No, not at all “Mhm”

“…I see” It’s obvious she didn’t believe it.

“…”

“…”

“…Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Huh? Me? I…I suppose so, at the very least, this video stuff will not convince me to commit
murder, if that’s what you are worried about” Enoshima commented.

“…I see, that’s good to know” …That’s actually good to hear, if I am honest with myself…

“Yeah…”

“…”

“…I…I suppose you need some space too, huh? Well…um, I will see you later, maybe, alright?”
She said in a subdue tone of voice.

“Alright” Was all I said.

And with that, Enoshima prepared to leave.

But just as she reached the entrance…

…As I saw her form ready to leave this room…

…I couldn’t help it…

“Enoshima” I called her out.

“Yes?” She replied as she turned to face me.

“…During this nighttime, no matter what, no matter what reason you could believe to have, under
no circumstances…do not leave your room, alright?” I said with the most serious tone of voice and
expression I could muster.

“O-Oh, um…yes, you have my word I will not” Enoshima with nod and a small smile.

I nodded too…and forced myself to give her a smile of my own.

With that, the fashionista left the A/V room in a more energized way than the one she was about to
leave with previously…leaving me alone with the DVD and…that other person.

The silence that filled the room once more, allowed me to do some light reflection on what has
transpired here.

And the first thing I couldn’t help reflect about is…the influence of our captor.

Not only he was capable of capturing an entire class of Ultimates, people who are considered
celebrities around the globe, he also managed to compromise their families and friends out of their
homes and workplaces, and as an extra touch, he also left said places in complete ruins.

Most notorious of all, it was Togami’s video. As arrogant as he is, he isn’t exaggerating when he
claims that his company basically controls the world…but it seems that even that wasn’t enough to
stop our captor from going after said company if what I saw was any indication.

Not even the Salvation Society, using all of its influence, could be capable of doing something like
this and even less this fast, considering that all of what I saw has happened in the spawn of four
days, most probably, even less…

I just can’t think of someone that powerful, and much less, capable of going under the radar with
said level of influence while committing such actions.

D.I.C.E? No, not only because they are a relatedly small organization, but also because they limit
themselves to non-violent crimes and their focus is to work as information brokers.

The Victims Catharsis Committee? Neither, while it is true that they don’t truly work with money
as a prospective and they actually have experience with those ‘Duel Noirs’, which have some
slight resemblance to this Killing Game, it is not same by a long shot, that, plus those people have
been following a strict modus operandi for decades with so much strict vigor that it gets to the
point of reaching true fanatism.

…That group? I don’t think so, they are similar to the Holy Salvation Society ‘only much more
honest about what they do…’, with their members trained to be the elite among the elite, but they
also see money as their only reason to do things, which again, doesn’t seem to be in our captor’s
interest.

In the end, no matter of who I thought of, nobody truly filled the gaps to coincide with everything
I’ve seen so far from the one behind all of this.

…Then, there’s the results of this motive.

When I warned Enoshima about not leaving the room tonight, I meant it.

It seems nobody here, not even Ogami, truly noticed the real meaning behind that few seconds
where Maizono stared at everyone around the room.

All they saw was a scared girl which motive perturbed her more than the rest of the class, but that
was about it…and they wouldn’t be wrong, those were the kinds of emotions that Maizono
showed: fear, misery, sorrow…despair, all of that was there.

But there was one more thing, said thing was…

Killing Intent.

I have no doubt in my mind that blood is going to be spilled tonight…and that would mean that the
rule 6 is finally soon to be properly explained which will catch the blackened off-guard.

And when that happens…

When that happens…

…Enoshima…

…Maybe…

…Maybe I can help her first…

In the first day, I commented that an accomplice couldn’t benefit from collaborating with the
blackened and I am confident that most of them saw the logic behind it. If I help Enoshima commit
her own murder…no…maybe Monokuma will count it as me finding out it was her? ‘Unless they
are discovered’ is too ambiguous to know and It’s still too early to think of anything when that
thing and the rule six in general is still too unclear…

…Sigh, what the hell am I thinking now? It’s true that she’s my friend, but I am really thinking to
such extremes? I am really thinking of prioritizing her escape over mine? That’s…dammit, how
can I think that when there’s a chance that…that…She…

…Ugh, my head is such a mess right now and I haven’t even watched the video.

…Right now, I’m just procrastinating, I really need to get this over with.

One last time, I put the DVD in front of me to stare at it, asking me again…Did. He. Really. Did.
It?

…Although, before finally inserting the disk in the DVD player, I addressed one last issue…

“What do you want?” I asked to the other person in the room.

“…”

“…”
“…You think someone is going to try something tonight” stated…Kirigiri.

“Maybe, we can’t know for sure, but the possibility is there, don’t you think so?” As if, I know for
sure it’s gonna happen and I have a pretty solid idea of who could that person be.

“…I see” Was all the mysterious girl said before going silent again…while staring at me.

And only that.

She keeped at it for who knows how long, still as a statue, with the only change you could tell
about her to known she wasn’t in some kind of standing coma, was her blinking.

Same as with Fukawa, I was not in the mood to deal with her antics.

“…You obviously want something from me, so I will ask you again…what do you want?”

This time she actually answered me “I am curious about your motive video”

“…You don’t say?” Straight to the point huh? Well, I was me who asked in the first place.

“…”

“Why?”

“I don’t have to tell you” Kirigiri said while looking to the side.

Does she really think that’s going to work here?

“You don’t really believe that I will even consider it with an answer like that, do you?”

No, she really didn’t, I suppose she thought it was worth giving it a shot “…I am interested in
knowing what could use Monokuma on someone like you, not only because of your talent but also
because of your origins”

I couldn’t help narrowing my eyes.

“…I think Togami already made clear what was on it”

“That was just a guessing, a solid one, true, but a guess nonetheless and one that you neither denied
or affirmed”

…Sharp as always, huh?

…Hmm…maybe I can use this.

“…Under normal circumstances, I would’ve flat out denied you, but…If you wait outside the A/V
room and make sure no one gets inside…then maybe I would allow you to see it”

This time, Kirigiri was the one who couldn’t avoid narrowing her eyes.

“Why would you want me to―You…you still haven’t watched your video, have you?”

“…No, I haven’t”
“If that’s the case…how could you guess that the videos where related to people close to us in the
first place? How―The dining hall” Kirigiri said with slightly widened eyes “…When people began
to discuss about the videos, something somewhere in-between surprised you, I was wondering
what could make you react that way, but…you knew since that moment what this was going to be
about, didn’t you?” Kirigiri asked with suspicion.

…Questions everything, pays an exceptional attention to details, and can make pretty accurate
deductions out of them…

I still don’t know what her talents is…but by now, I can count the possible options with one single
hand.

“…Saying that I knew what this was all about it’s an exaggeration, it just so happened that when
Naegi talked about not being anything Monokuma could use to make us kill each other, he
immediately began to talk about a motive which he followed up with these videos related to the
outside world, with all of that together, I began to form a solid idea of what he was truly talking
about” I explained.

“If you had that big of a suspicion, why didn’t you said anything?”

If I reveal info, she suspects me, and if I don’t, the same.

I just can’t win when it comes to her, can I?

"…Because the group is still wary of me, if I said anything, they would've seen it as me trying to
scare them or planning something, that, plus their curiosity for these videos would have made it
impossible for them to not go see them, in other words, whether I said anything or not, it would
have not made a difference"

The narrowing of her eyes didn’t dissipated, but she put her gaze away from me to take a more
pensive look.

Unfortunately for her, I don’t have the time for it.

“In any case, I need you to answer me…will you do it or no?”

“…”

“…”

“…Maybe is not a guarantee that you will actually show me your video”

“No, it’s not, but both you and me know that this is more than what you could get right now out of
everyone in this place”

Her lips formed into a thin line at that statement. She knew I was telling the truth about that;
everyone is so on edge right now to even consider making a deal like this one. Now it is a matter of
whether or not she will accept it.

After a pair of minutes of not saying anything, she made her decision.

“Fine” Was all she said before leaving the A/V room and closing the door.

For my part, I took that as a signal to begin preparations.

While unfortunately I couldn’t lock the door, I made sure that she didn’t left it slightly open to get
a spot to see behind doors.

Once I confirmed that it was closed, I moved to the desk said mysterious girl used so I could be as
far as possible from said door, just in case.

And finally…

…I took a seat…

…Put the headphones on my head…

…Took the disk out of its container…

…And put said disk on the DVD player, all the while, asking to myself one last time.

Did.

He.

Really.

Did.

It?
 Despair: A Fake Hero’s Motivation.

Despair: A Fake Hero’s Motivation.

“Hey! Give it me back!”

“If you want it, you will have to catch me!”

“No fair!”

All around him, he could observe similar scenarios happening.

“…8…9…10! Ready or not, I will find you guys!”

“What are you doing, idiots! The tower is gonna fall if you pull out that piece!”

“Eh? Don’t be a coward, I bet it’s gonna be fine!”

Some kids were playing with all kinds of toys, like dolls, action figures, a fumbling tower, among
others. Others playing hide and seek or attempting to build houses with cards.

That was not all, he couldn’t avoid hearing the exciting yells going outside the orphanage, more
precisely, in the backyard.

Curiosity won over him to move out of the corner he was leaning, and went to one of the windows
to take a look.

And as expected, outdoors was no different than inside, the only change was the kind of games the
children were playing. While it is true that the majority were doing sports like basketball or soccer,
that didn’t mean there wasn’t variety. He could see some playing sidewalk chalk, others were
using ropes, either to play pull the rope or the do some simple rope jumping.

Same as inside, he could see the joyous faces they were making as they enjoyed themselves as they
played with their…friends.

Friends…

…He dared to look from the window to back with the rest of the children playing inside.

Then, he directed his gaze from its current position, to the corner where he was a few moments
ago.

He has moved from the spot he regularly uses and nobody has made a fuss over it so far, so, does
that mean they don’t mind him anymore? Hrmm…it was hard to say, it is true that they usually
take their time before noticing that he’s no longer there and react to it, but each time they take more
and more to do that, is that a signal that they are beginning to accept him?

“Whoa! It almost fell! Hahaha”

“Are you dumb!? I told ya it was going to fall if you touched that piece!”

“Relax, relax, it’s fine, is it not? I’m an expert in this kind of stuff”

“Geez, you truly take things to the limit…”

His internal musing were interrupted by the chorus that came from the biggest group in the
recreation room.

The noises of excited shouts and laughs could be periodically heard in the circle they formed. If he
remembers well, that was the group which were playing with the tumbling tower, and if what he
has heard so far is any indication, then it was a really fun game.

…Was he really going to try it?

“Oh man, we are getting to the good part!”

“Yeah, any piece now can mean game over”

“Of course you say that, when it comes to you, every piece means that since the beginning”

And that followed some more laughs and giggles, providing further proof just how much of a great
time each one of them is having.

He can’t deny that he feels…curious. Curious about what it would be like to part of it, particularly,
having someone to play with, all the while talking about different things, like…for example…
hmm, well, he can’t think of anything right now…But! He is sure that comes after finding that
someone in the first place, that makes sense, right?

Right.

Regardless, some time has already passed since he left from his original spot and no one has said
anything, maybe it was worth giving it a try?

In the end, he decided to approach the circle of kids, making sure of doing it in a way that didn’t
interfere with what others were doing, watching his steps, avoiding both children and toys scattered
around the room, and―

―He crouched down just in time to avoid a ball that was about to hit him from behind. ‘That was
a close one…’

He looked to the sides and once he made sure the coast was clear, he got up on his feet and
resumed his pace.

Finally, when he got to his destination, he walked around the circle behind their backs and once he
found a spot to accommodate himself, he made use of it. With that done, he focused his gaze on
what was happening.

Inside the circle, everyone’s tensed and expectant gazes were focused on a massive tumbling tower
reaching up to a meter high, and around said tower, there were three kids ‘If he remembers
correctly, they were Asahi Sakai, Isamu Aikawa and Kenji Hamasaki…’, though instead removing
any pieces, they either looked at it with some apprehension or when they were about to try and
remove one piece, backed down at the last moment.

He supposes it’s a normal reaction, as it’s obvious this game has been going on for quite a while
and it’s normal for the tower to be on its last legs at this point. Speaking of which…

His eyes moved from the players to the tower itself, while doing so, he looked up and down at it to
get a detailed sight of it, and that’s when he noticed it.

…Moving his gaze back to the kids, he saw that they were on a standstill about what move to
make next.

…Well, this would also count as being part of it, right?

“…On the 10 th layer, you should take the middle piece” He addressed one of the kids, Hamasaki.

Neither the people in the group nor the three kids around the tower turned to address him, though
they didn’t ignored his commentary either.

“Eh? You really think so?” Hamasaki asked.

“Mhm, that’s the only place with all three pieces, even if you remove the middle one, the left and
right one should keep things fine” He commented.

“Hmm…I think your right, it doesn’t seem to be a safer option” Aikawa commented.

“Huh? Are ya sure? If we remove the wrong piece…” Hamasaki questioned.

“Well, unless you can see a better piece to move, we have no other choice, do we?” Sakai replied.

“…*sigh* Yeah, yeah, let’s get this over with…” Hamasaki said.

And so, Hamasaki used a finger to slowly but surely get the piece out of its original place. Once he
managed to remove the piece, everyone waited with holding breath for a few seconds, not daring to
disturb even a little the structure. When those seconds passes and the tower looked just as fine, the
group gave a collective sigh of relief, and not wanting to waste any time, the kid with the piece put
it atop the tower. Same as before, they waited a pair of seconds to react in any way.

When everything looked just as fine, they allowed themselves to relax.

“Hehehe…whew, I was kinda worried for a second that would be it…” Hamasaki said.

“Yeah, no kidding. I swear that I saw it move a little!” Aikawa added.

There some giggles and nods in agreement, but once they calmed down, Sakai turned to address
him.

“Hey pal, thanks for that assist, we really―Eeeep! W-What the hell!?” The kid exclaimed as he
reeled back in shock.

Ah, he shouldn’t have done that.

When the Sakai did that, he stumbled with the tower…which in turn made it crumble. Such
scenario made everyone in the room turn to the commotion and those who already were witness of
what happened turned to the source that made the kid act that way.

Him.

There were some gasp and yelps when everyone finally caught sight of him, and the murmurs
didn’t took much to make an act of presence.

“It’s him…”

“What’s this guy doin’ there…?”

“W-Wait, wasn’t he in the corner just a few moments ago?”

“He was…”

“Ugh, not again…”

…He was getting really uncomfortable with so many people staring him.

It seemed that the ongoing gossip was enough to bring the group out of their stupor if the change
from shock to angry in Sakai’s face as he looked between him and the crumbled tower was any
indication.

“What the heck’s your deal!?”

He just shrugged at that question.

“Don’t play dumb, you know what I’m talking about!”

“…Are you talking about that advice I gave you?” He commented, because truly, that’s the only
thing that come to his mind.

Apparently, that was the wrong answer.

“No, you moron! I mean appearing out of nowhere with that weird face of yours!” Sakai growled.

“That’s right, one moment you are on a corner and the other you are popping out here! What are
you, some cheap horror movie character?” Aikawa commented.

Huh? Horror movie character? Hmm, he hasn’t seen a horror movie ‘More like any movie, period’
before, so he couldn’t tell, but about the other part.

“Weird face?” He questioned.

“Uh-huh you always have that grumpy expression that looks like you want to poop all the time!”
Hamasaki replied.

…Ew, that sounds gross.

“Yeah, something like that, and also, I’ve never seen you smile or laugh, like, ever, I don’t think
anyone has ever seen you doing it, that’s super weird!” Aikawa added.

Sakai nodded at that while pointing an accusatory finger at him “That too! You have that bitter
look on your face all the time! What’s up with that!?”
There were some humming’s and nods of agreement with Sakai’s questioning, apparently
wondering the same thing as him.

…Bitter all the time?

…But he isn’t.

At least he doesn’t thinks so, because besides not liking being the center of attention, he isn’t
feeling much else right at this moment, and just a few moments ago there was only curiosity about
what would be like playing with someone.

And…as for why he hasn’t smiled or laughed so far, well, that was because he hasn’t felt like
wanting to either. He can’t say there has been any reason to, simply as that.

…But it seems that in itself has become a problem, huh? Maybe…maybe should he give it a try? It
wouldn’t be a genuine smile, but maybe eventually it will be? It’s not like it would kill him to
make the effort…

With those thoughts in his head, he put himself to work on that smile.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Eh? What’s with that face your making now? Are you actually wanting to go to the bathroom?”
Hamasaki asked.

What?

“Yeah, it looks like he―Wait a moment…” A look of realization appeared on Sakai’s face which
then turned to one of hilarity “…You…don’t tell you are actually trying and failing to smile?”

“…”

From that, the wariness of the group turned into a mix of curiosity and amusement.

Aikawa not being an exception “Trying? Hehe, I knew he was weird, but are ya for real about him
not being capable of doing even that?”

“…”

That encouraged everyone else to make their own comments.

“Is he serious?”

“He really is a freak…”

“Such a weirdo”

“What kind of person can’t do that?”

“Hehe, what a creep”

“…”

The surrounding comments and giggles made Sakai gain some boldness.

“Haha, see? Your such a loser that doesn’t have any friends, I mean, who could even want
to―Eeeep!” Not that it lasted him, though.

At such reaction everyone turned to what Sakai was seeing, and just like him, the bravado they had
been building up was crushed in an instant, the returning gasps and yelps following a deathly quiet
silence were proof of that.

Apparently, all it took was to show them how his annoyed face actually looked like, which made
everyone to tense up and have looks of absolute wariness on their faces everywhere he looked…

…Tch, he doesn’t have to deal with this.

“…Whatever, I’ll just go” Was all he said before beginning to leave the recreation room, though
not without noticing how they flinched when he passed by.

“…*Sigh* Such a waste of time” He muttered under his breath as he walked through the halls of
the orphanage he called his place of residence with a frown on his face.

Trying again and again was becoming a chore and it seems that whether they are getting used to
him or not is irrelevant to the fact that they don’t like him ‘A lack in social skills doesn’t mean he’s
dumb, they have made pretty clear their dislike towards him…’, so why bother? What was the
point of it? It’s not like he feels desperate for their approval either.

All he wanted to do was to satisfy his curiosity, but it appears even that is asking for too much, as it
looks like that once again, he did something the ruin such opportunity.

…Was he really such a lost cause?

He slightly shook his head to avoid going into those kinds of thoughts, and instead, he focused on
looking around to distract himself. Thankfully, the halls were empty, as the other orphans were
either in the recreation room or playing outside, with maybe a few more in the dining hall.

He momentarily thought of going there, but he discarded such idea just as fast, today they were
supposed to have two meals and it’s way too early to go for the first one, it’s in moments like these
where he has to time it right. He didn’t even consider the idea of cheating, the people in charge of
the food have a strict control on it and those who thought themselves too smart and tried to fool
said control suffered the consequences of it.

Not that he has experienced such consequences though, but he has heard from time to time about
other kids complaining about being denied their daily meals.

With the dining hall discarded, he tried to remember if he had any pending task to do, but as much
as he tried, he couldn’t think of one, just yesterday he was done with all of them, so that was out of
the list too.

In any case, any more internal debate about what else he could do to kill some time was interrupted
by something he just noticed.

He got lost.

Well, lost would be an exaggeration, he knows where he is, it just so happens that he has never set
foot here as far as he remembers, he had never had the need to.

Waking up, getting ready for the day…stay in a corner of the recreation room until getting bored of
it, doing his tasks, eating, playing darts in his room in the boy’s dorm area, sleep. That was his
routine most of the time ‘The only exceptions are when those adults from outside of the orphanage
came to test him and the other kids every end of the week, but…’

Besides that, he has never broken his routine…until now. As for where he was now?

The girl’s dorms area.

…He doesn’t know if it’s forbidden for a boy to be here, and while he is curious about exploring a
new place, he thought better of it and prepared to leave…or at least that was the plan until…

He heard a sound.

If he were to describe it, it would be like some kind of light tapping, almost like…like…oh, right.
He does recognize it, it’s the sound some plastic toys made when playing with them.

…Wait, playing with them? Does that mean someone’s around here playing? That’s…unusual, or
is it a common thing for girls? He hasn’t seen any other girl around here so far. Same as the rest of
orphanage’s insides besides the recreation room and the dining hall, this area seems empty, so the
chances are low…

…Maybe…

In the end, he couldn’t fight the temptation of looking for the source of the sound, so he went in
search of it.

It didn’t took him too much to find its origins ‘It would weird if it did, considering that he could
hear it nearby…’. Just one room after beginning his exploration, he found the answers he was
looking for.

Inside one of the bedrooms, there was a girl.

The first thing he noticed about the girl were the two abnormally long twintails of her dark brown
hair, from there, he could see that her clothes consisted of a red shirt, dark-grey shorts, white socks
and brown shoes, as for her face…He couldn’t describe it because she had her back turned on him.

Around her there was a dollhouse, toy cars and other miniature furniture’s. In her hands, he could
barely see she had two doll figures, one female and the other male, but besides that, he couldn’t
figure much more.

Regardless, although he didn’t knew the girl’s name, he recognize her…well, sort of.
About a month after he began participating in those tests he takes part of every week, she also
began be part of them, at least he thinks so. Every time they happen, they gather every single kid
that is going to attend to them, and once they are done with that, they separate boys and girls,
maybe because the test are different depending on which one you are? He doesn’t know, but the
point is that in the initial gathering, he remembers seeing her there.

But that’s about it, he can’t remember seeing her before, not in the recreation room, not in the
dining hall and not even when walking through the halls. That’s…strange, hmmm…Ah! could it
be that she’s some kind of ghost that―

“What are you doing?” A pitch feminine voice asked.

Huh?

He looked at the girl and…she was still with her back turned on him, not only that, but he hasn’t
set a foot inside the room yet. If that’s the case, then there’s no way she’s talking to him, people
always notice him until he’s close to them and even in some cases, like today, not until he speaks.

He moved his gaze around the room, looking for that other person she could be―

“I’m talking to you, what are you doing?” The girl repeated with a firmer tone of voice.

“…Eh? Um, are you talking to me?” He questioned.

He still hasn’t seen her face, but he could’ve sworn she rolled her eyes at that question “Do you see
anyone else around here?”

…Oh, so she was really talking to him, huh.

…Wait, is she serious!? Did she really noticed him since this far!? He can’t really remember the
last time someone has done that! Does she have―Wait, she made him a question, and twice thanks
to his lack of an answer. It would be rude to not answer.

…Uh, so, what he was doing? He supposes that being sincere is the only option, he can’t really
think of any other good answer.

“…Um, well, I was walking around until I heard a sound, I got curious about from where it came,
so I followed it’s origins…until I found myself here, erm, and that’s it”

“…”

“…”

“…Hmm, I see…” Was all the girl with long twintails said before she continued…whatever it is
that she was doing.

Following that, there was only silence, with neither he or she saying a single word. It lasted for
what it felt like an eternity. After a few minutes, he took the fact that she hasn’t told him to go
away as an opportunity to get closer.
Once he did that, he finally got to see her face.

Her eyes were crimson red, and on the corner of his left one there was a beauty mark. As for her
face in general, she looked serious and completely focused on what she was doing right now, and if
he was honest with himself, it almost felt as if she was radiating an aura of confidence.

Just looking at her was…huh, he doesn’t know how to really describe it, only that it was a positive
emotion.

Regardless, he decided to question her back.

“…What are you doing?”

Ah, she actually rolled her eyes “Don’t you see? I’m playing”

“Well, yeah, that’s kind of obvious, but―”

The crimson eyed girl interrupted him, though she still didn’t turned to face him “If you knew that,
then why ask in the first place? That’s stupid”

Hey!

He couldn’t avoid pouting at that “…It’s not like that, I was talking about what are you playing
at?”

Instead of answering him immediately, she took her time without saying a word. It got to the point
he expected she wouldn’t answer him, but in the end…

“…I’m playing house” She answered in a quiet tone of voice.

House…? Does she mean like playing mom and dad? But if she’s playing, why would she sound
so―Oh…

“…I see” Was all he said while looking away at the single, slightly broken window in the room.

…Should he say something else? He doesn’t really know, maybe he’s overthinking it? It’s hard to
say. It’s only been about two months ago that he became aware of what being an orphan means and
he hasn’t idea if it’s the same for her, maybe it’s been more time, maybe less. It could also be that
she simply doesn’t care about it ‘…but the way she said it…’. Heck, he himself doesn’t know how
to feel about it.

He didn’t had the answers to any of that, and the crimson eyed girl didn’t seemed interested in
pushing the matter further. Although…

…Is it really okay?

She still hasn’t told him to go away, maybe…

“…Erm, isn’t playing house supposed to be done with more than one person?” He asked while
moving his gaze back to her.

“Maybe” And she actually replied.

“So…why aren’t you playing with the other kids?”

She didn’t gave him an answer, instead…she pouted while grabbing one of her twintails.

E-Eh? Did he said something wrong? Maybe he insulted her in some way? Is she angry at him? Or
could it be that―

“Don’t wanna…they are too noisy” She finally replied…and she was still pouting.

“Noisy?” Hmm…yeah, they kind of are, don’t they? But that’s the normal thing, or at least it looks
that way. Besides this girl in front of him, he always sees everyone doing things like laughing out
loud, crying, screaming, either out of rage, sometimes because they are excited about something.

She nodded in affirmation “Mhm, it’s not like I believe it’s a bad thing for those guys to be like
that, but I suppose that is just not for me…big groups of people in general, I mean”

He didn’t say anything to that, but instead, he noticed that her mouth formed into a thin line. He’s
by no way the best person at understanding people, ‘that has been made clear on a daily basis…’
but it looked to him as if there was something more to what this girl he has meet for only a few
minutes just said…her expression in general, he felt something…something, um, familiar? As if
there was something in her he could relate to? That sounds like the best way to describe it.

From there, he decided to look from the girl to the dollhouse…

…Playing house, huh?

“…Hey” He called the girl out.

“Hm?” And she replied back again. ‘Whoa, He’s on a streak!’

Now it was the moment of truth, he has never taken this kind of initiative before in his ‘short’
life…but this is probably the longest he has spoken with someone as far as he remembers, so…
maybe…just maybe, this time…

“…Uh, um…so, erm, hmm―”

“What?” Her firm tone of voice came back.

“Do you mind if I play with you?” He finally asked, more quickly than what he would’ve wanted,
though.

At that question, for the first time, she turned to face him, although she had a blank look on her
face when she did that “What did you say?”

“I was asking if I could play with you” He replied.

“…”

“…”

“…Do...do you want to play house with me?” She asked in a low and confused tone of voice while
playing with one of her twintails.
“Mhm”

“…Don’t boys find this boring? I’ve heard them complain about how bad of a game this is all the
time” The crimson eyed girl stated with her brows furrowed.

He just shrugged at that “I don’t know, I…um, I don’t have much experience playing games in
general” he admitted while rubbing the back of his head.

“…Hmm, you really are a strange one, aren’t you?”

“E-Eh? Is…is that a no?” He asked. If that were the case, well…it…it would be a shame. It’s true
that he hasn’t know her for more than 15 minutes, but as he pointed out before, she is the only
person he has talked this long and before that comment, unlike the rest of the kids, she seemed to
be fine with him around, even if she was a bit sharp…

…So imagine his surprise when she shook her head at his declaration “Do not assume things, I
never said that you couldn’t”

That made him to slightly widen his eyes. Could it be…?

“So, I can?” He tentatively asked.

The girl with long twintails apparently found the other side of the room very interesting as she
addressed him “…Well…you don’t seem like the loud type, and you are right about this playing
better with more than one person, so…um, do whatever you want, I guess…”

That…that was the first time someone has told that it was okay to stay, not even that, but also not
having a problem with him as a company. For some reason, such things were also making feel
filled with an emotion that it was…strange, strange in the sense that he doesn’t remember having
experience with it before, though he couldn’t say it was a bad feeling either, far from it, it was
pleasant, incredibly so.

Even so, just to be sure, he asked for confirmation again “…Really?” He said while the corners of
his mouth stretched in a way that, just as this new feeling in his body, was a completely new
experience.

The crimson eyed girl pouted again as she replied, though there wasn’t annoyance, if anything, she
sounded slightly amused “Geez, I already told you it is fine…and wipe that smile off your face, it’s
not that big of a deal”

Huh?

What did she said?

That…that he was…?

“…Was I smiling…?” He asked aloud, confusion leaking on his voice.

The girl furrowed her brows when he asked that “Yes, you were…you make it sound as if it was
your first time doing it”

“It was” He unconsciously replied, not truly catching up with that fact.

At that response, she put a finger in her chin while taking a pensive look “…I see…well, I can’t say
it’s something I do often myself, so it’s okay, I suppose. Anyway, are you going to play or not?”
He perked up at that while giving her a nod of affirmation, then, he proceeded to sit next to her.

Once he did that, she gave him…the girl doll.

…Eh?

“…Um, why are you giving me the this one?”

Once again, the girl gave him a look as if he was asking a dumb question “Isn’t it obvious? I’m
going to play as the dad and you are going to be the mom”

Eh!?

“What? But I’m a boy and you are―”

“I said I’m going to be the dad and you the mom, isn’t that clear enough?” She asked ‘More like
she ordered…’ with narrowed eyes…and he could’ve sworn they began to glow threateningly.

“O-Okay” …Would she become mad at him if he told her how cool she looked doing that?

In the end, he decided against it. He really should consider himself lucky right now, after all, he
expected for this day to turn into just the same as the others, and while it began that way, it ended
being what is without a doubt the best day ever.

He ended up meeting someone that talks with him, isn’t disgusted or annoyed with his presence
‘He still has his doubts about the annoyed part…’, and she even agrees to play with him! Truly, he
couldn’t ask for anyone better even if he thought of it.

Those thoughts made him impossible to avoid smiling once more…Ah, if he’s smiling while at the
same time he has this positive feeling in his body, does…does that mean he’s happy? Yeah, this
must be what’s being happy feels like.

This really is the best day ever! And he couldn’t help but hope he remembers it forever…as a
happy memory for the future.

“Hey” The girl suddenly called him out, bringing an end to any more internal musing he could
have.

He turned to face her with a quirked eyebrow, curious about what she’s going to say “What is it?”

She looked to her left side while scratching her right cheek as she talked “Well, it would be weird
to be calling by ‘hey’ or ‘you’, so I was wondering…what’s your name?”

Oh, right.

“Yeah, that would be strange, huh? My name is Shizuka…Shizuka Shigaraki. Uh, and yours?”

“…Right, I should tell you mine too” She turned to face him once again…only this time she had a
small smile of her own, the first smile someone has directed at him, as she addressed him “I am―”

*Ding*

Hearing the sound of the screen turning on brought me out of my slight daydreaming…
daydreaming about that day.

…To remember it now of all times…just when I am about to become witness of the worst possible
scenario I could think of.

“…*sigh* Karma’s a bitch, huh?” I swore out loud, and cringed just as fast.

It’s a weird trait of mine, for some reason swearing verbally, doesn’t matter if it’s alone or with
someone else around, makes me uncomfortable, as if sand came out of my mouth every time I did
that. Though I couldn’t help it this time, it just felt…adequate to give myself the ‘luxury’ of saying
that.

In any case, I couldn’t avoid tensing up when the screen changed from being just turned on into
something else.

The first thing that greeted me was the spinning head of Monokuma in the middle of it with the
words ‘Now Loading’ underneath said figure. This stayed that way for a few seconds and then…

Darkness.

Absolute darkness.

And before I could mentally ask myself anything…a voice was heard.

…Shizuka Shigaraki, possessor of the terrifying talent of Ultimate Assassin, a boy raised in an
orphanage before he even had the chance to know the faces of his progenitors or at very least,
someone he was bonded by blood. With such a sad start in his life, you would think that mother
destiny would stop here, but no…God had other plans for him.

Years later, he was forced to learn that the place he recognized as home was nothing but a goose
coop…and that once he was recognized as the goose with the golden eggs in the eyes of the people
who ran that place, a new life full of pain and misery was all that awaited him…for you see, that
was not ordinary orphanage, no it wasn’t… mother destiny decided to put this poor child on a
place that raised potential candidates to become assassins.

God works in mysterious ways…

Day after day, night after night, pain, tears and blood, day after day, night after night, more pain,
tears and blood. That was what it became of the daily life of this innocent soul, all the while his
tormentors called such a hell ‘training’! They told him he was becoming an instrument of God that
would act on his name through the most impure of sins…killing.

In the end, they managed to mold him into the instrument of death who followed every order
dictated on him they oh so much desired, all at the economic price of destroying his innocence,
twisting his sense of morals and erasing the capacity to believe in the existence of a God.

Truly, the lord does things in such strange ways…

With all of this said, it is expected that such a social reject wouldn’t have anyone in his life waiting
outside these halls, that all those days of constant suffering in a place where you couldn’t trust in
anyone, and that even a smile was a show of weakness that would put you a foot closer to the grave
made him a complete outcast…

…But…

…You would be wrong in believing that…

And with that, the darkness of the screen changed to something else, something that, for the first
time in years, made my blood run cold.

A picture.

It was slightly blurred, and taken from a distance, but neither of that was an impediment for me to
not notice all of its details.

This picture was taken in the middle of the night, that much is obvious, and the reason why such
factor wasn’t an impediment to take sight of the other details, like the location being in a rooftop,
was because the lights of all the surrounding buildings gave enough illumination for it.

But I couldn’t care less about the location of the picture. What mattered right now was a
completely different aspect of it.

More specifically…the person in said picture.

It was a girl…a teenage girl.

Said girl had an abnormally large dark-brown hair that reached her ankles which was tied into two
twintails with two red scrunchies, on the right side of her head she had a silver hairpin shaped into
an infinity symbol. Her eyes were dark-crimson with a beauty mark under the corner of her left
eye, and…you would be forgiven for thinking that such eyes were capable of glowing in the night,
like it appears to be the case in this image, or when she was annoyed at something.

Her attire consisted of a red seifuku uniform with an off-white scarf tied in a bow shape around her
collar, a black skirt, red socks that reached up to her thighs and dark brown heeled boots.

Another detail was that she was carrying a violin case on her back, but I would have to be naïve to
believe for a moment that the insides of it contained an actual musical instrument.

And even if it’s just a picture, you could see without a problem the aura of confidence this girl
carries herself with ‘…Though it didn’t went unnoticed by me the scowl she had on her face while
looking to the side with narrowed eyes, as if wary of something…’

But regardless of all of that, there’s no doubt about who this person is…

“…”

Even in adversity, the lord can be a merciful one, as Shigaraki did not travel such a harsh path
alone.
Not much after being left at his luck as an orphan, another person entered his life, a fellow orphan
girl, whose ability to make friends were as terrible as the boy, it was like destiny itself wanted these
two poor souls to find support on each other!

An opportunity to build a house of happy memories.

In the innocent bright days before the terrible truth revealed itself, these two formed an
unbreakable bond, a bond that transcended friendship, a bond that transcended blood itself.

…During the dark days, the screams of pain, the tears of grief, the spilled blood in anguish, all of
that, you would always find it in pairs when it came to those two, for it was their mutual support
that allowed them to persevere the entire process into ascension as tools of him who reigns in the
sky.

It’s far from an exaggeration to say that if there’s a single spec of humanity left inside the soul of
Shizuka Shigaraki, it’s all thanks to this girl.

This girl who accepted his impure existence.

This girl who was with him in the best days.

This girl who was with him in the worst days.

This girl whose name is…Maki Harukawa.

“…”

Maki Harukawa , fellow orphan and fellow member of the Holy Salvation Society, but…even with
everything previously mentioned, these two kindred spirits were forced to travel different paths.
The boy, he sank further and further in the same bloody path forged for him since the day it was
assigned to him, no matter how darker and crueler it became, as for the girl…

The picture transitioned into a video, on said video was…an orphanage, the same type that the cult
uses as recruitment centers, and…and it looked just as I remembered from the last time I set foot
there.

The video showed different areas of the orphanage. The dorms, the dining hall, the laundry, the
recreation room and even some halls of the building. All of it showing the same scenario: I could
see both boys and girls of all ages, some playing with figures, others playing board games, while
some were chasing each other. They were doing all of that while laughing, joking, and screaming
in joy…like normal and ordinary kids should do.

Like Maki wanted them to.

The memories both of them made during their days in the orphanage were without a doubt their
happiest, and that worked as an inspiration for her.

As someone who grew fond of the place both of them called home, she decided as her personal
mission to return to that place and take care of the kids in there to make sure those children
created as much good times as she herself did.

That was the dream of Maki Harukawa.

…But…
…Unfortunately…

…Sometimes…

…Dreams aren’t made to be fulfilled.

There was another transition…and I couldn’t avoid the slight widening of my eyes.

Same as the other motive videos of my classmates, the orphanage turned into nothing but ruins, not
a single space left unscathed, windows, furniture, all of it, even the toys the children were playing
with completely destroyed…

…But worse of all…

…In the ground…

…No matter which area of the orphanage it showed…

…The kids…

…Laying in the ground…

…Laying in the ground were the kids from just a few moments ago….

What is this!? What happened to their orphanage!? What happened to their house of happy
memories!? And what could’ve happened to Her!? This is terrible, very, very terrible! Just what in
the world could’ve happened?

Then, with one last transition, the video changed to a black screen with bold orange letters which
said:

Look for the answer after graduation!

…And that was it…

That’s where the video ended…

…
…

…Two…

…Two things…

There are so many things I wanted to think and do right now, but above all of them…there were
two that I needed to take as priority…for my own good.

The first one was to put my mind into overdrive to suppress the swirl of murderous intentions
that were threatening to leak and that I have no doubt that if I were to allow them reign at this
moment, I would end up doing something stupid and irrational, and I just can’t allow that. Right
now, I need my capacity for logical and rational thought process working for a little bit longer,
more so because of the second thing that I needed to do.
And that was to put an absolute focus on what I feel is the most important fact about the video I
just saw.

Such fact was…that it was different.

This motive video of mine is…way too different in comparison to the ten samples I managed to
collect when everyone watched their own videos. All of them had variations, some bigger than
others, true, but even taking that into consideration I remember clearly that every single one,
without exception, followed the same pattern.

From there, a question arose: What made this change in pattern to occur? The only immediate
answer I could find was that my talent played a part on this, it would make sense…but even so, in a
sort of twisted way, something was still wrong with this video…

…Both fortunately and unfortunately, if we are talking about changes in the patterns of the motive
videos because of an out of the ordinary talent, there’s only one person who falls into this category
that could give me some answers and confirm whether or not is really because of that…

…As much as I don’t like to do this ‘That’s putting it lightly…’, it seems I will to make a deal with
that person…

As soon as I opened the door, I caught the sight of Kirigiri with her arms crossed, tapping her
fingers on her left arm while leaning against the wall in front of me, and, of course, same as
always, she didn’t wasted her time once she caught sight of me.

“So, are you going to show me your video?” She asked.

“…”

“…”

“…I will…under one condition”

Apparently, she didn’t liked that.

“…That’s not what you previously said”

“What I previously said was that maybe I would allow you to see it, now I’m offering you that I
will let you see the video, but under one condition”

The mysterious girl narrowed her eyes, directing her gaze on my own eyes while her lips thinned,
but beyond that, she didn’t said anything and neither did I.

Our stare contest lasted for almost a minute, until finally, she spoke.

“What is your condition?”

“In exchange for allowing you to see my motive video, you will allow me to see yours”

She didn’t liked that even more.

“No, you can’t ask me to―”

I was having none of it right now.

“I can and I will” I stated with the slightest of signs of some edge in the tone of my voice.

Unfortunately, that was enough for her to notice something was up, as she addressed me with
narrowed eyes.

“…Why the interest in my video? What you could get out of it?” She asked with a no small amount
of suspicion.

Fortunately, ‘If it could even be called that…' I knew how to play dumb, and diverge the
conversation from my true intentions "My reasons are similar to yours. You are way too much of
an unknown, and thought of this as a possible opportunity to learn anything useful about you"

“If that’s the case, then you should know that you won’t find any of that inside my motive” The
mysterious girl immediately commented.

That statement made me quirk an eyebrow, but I didn’t let that unfazed me “I can’t know that
without proof of it, so I will just have to take the risk of me getting the lower hand out of this
exchange”

The suspicion changed to skepticism “Even if you say that…you will have to be more honest than
that if you really want me to even consider it”

“I am being honest about this”

“I don’t doubt that…but you are still hiding more”

“…”

“…”

“…*sigh* I also need a leverage that you will not share what you will see in my video” I replied.

Nothing of what I said is a lie, I actually need a way to make sure she doesn’t runs her mouth free
about this, but…it just so happens those are the kind of things that are at the absolute bottom of my
priorities right now.

Kirigiri’s expression turned into a frown while she clenched her fists when she heard that answer
“…Then, are you really suggesting for me to accept being blackmailed by you?”

I narrowed my eyes at that “Considering that you were the one asking for my video in the first
place, I think both of us are asking to blackmail each other, don’t you think?”

“…”

“You want answers? Well, sometimes those answers have a price, Kirigiri, now it just happens that
this is one of those times, so…what will you do?”

During the following silence I could see how the signs of hesitation were beginning to appear in
her features, obviously feeling conflicted about this. Not that I could blame her, out of everyone in
this place, she, along with Togami, are the last people I want to show my motive, and I have no
doubt the feeling is mutual.

…These videos are just too valuable for all of us in more ways than one.

Whoever is in control of that piece of trash, he or she knows me well, way too well…so much in
fact that I am tempted to give up on this and accept that this person was actually capable of…

But no, something just doesn’t fits here, there are just so many irregularities, and until that bridge
isn’t completely burned, I will keep going, even if it means trading something like this.

“Who is it?” Kirigiri suddenly asked.

“…What?”

“In your motive…who is it that Monokuma used for it?”

She can’t be real “…If you think for a moment that I will―”

Turns out she was “You said it yourself didn’t you? Sometimes we have to pay a price for answers.
The price for my motive is that you will tell at least that much, and in exchange for that, I also
won’t pry into whatever other reasons I know you are hiding from me”

…This girl…

…She has no idea how close she is to stepping into an early grave, doesn’t she?

Just a little more…keep it suppressed for a little more…

…In the end, my desire of seeking the truth won over whatever doubts resided in my mind as I
addressed the silver-haired girl with narrowed eyes “…My family”

It seems she didn’t saw that answer coming, the slightly widened eyes being proof of that.

“What? Didn’t you said that you were―”

“You can forget about getting anything else out of my mouth, Kirigiri. You have your answer, so I
hope you keep your part of this deal” If not…

…Well, consequences be damned.

Fortunately for both of us, it seems she will keep her word “…I will, now the question is…how are
we going to do this? Just so you know, you can forget of even implying to show you mine first”

I shook my head “Don’t worry about that, I wasn’t planning to”

Kirigiri quirked an eyebrow at that, looking at me with a mix of skepticism and suspicion “So we
will see yours first?”

“Neither” And before she began to think I was messing with her, I elaborated “I will present you
the disk containing my video while you take hold of it at the same time…and we will do the same
with your video, you will present it to me while I take hold of it. On the count of three, I will take
your disk, and you will take mine. The one who will do the count will be you, does that sounds fair
enough?”

Of course I would prefer to be the one doing it, but that is a term I can trade if it will convince her
further of going with this…I have already traded much more anyways…

The mysterious girl took her trademark pensive look at my proposal “…I see, using that method we
make sure that both of us keep it’s end of the bargain…or at the very least, it’s the less risky way to
do this”

I nodded at her “Mhm, so, are you ready?” I asked while getting the disk out of my jacket and
presenting it to her with my right hand.

She stared at the hand for a few seconds, but with one last hesitant nod, the mysterious girl took
hold of it with her left hand, then, with the right one, she brought her disk out of her own jacket…
and begrudgingly presented it to me.

Once she did that, I didn’t wasted any time to hold onto it. When the two of us made sure
everything was in order, I turned to face her “On your count”

Giving a more confident nod in comparison to the last one, Kirigiri began “…1…2…3”

With that as a signal, I snatched her disk…with enough force to notice she didn’t let go of it out of
her own will. I would’ve narrowed my eyes at that…if I hadn’t keeped enough grip on my own
disk that it wasn’t until she began to show the early signs of a scowl that I released it.

“…”

“…”

“…Let’s get this over with”

“Agreed” The mysterious girl said in her default stoic tone of voice…though the same couldn’t be
said about her expression.

And so, the two of us re-entered the AV room.

Inside the audio-visual room, Kirigiri took a seat in the same spot she did on the first time, while
on my case, I sat on the opposite corner, choosing the same desk Togami made use of.

After giving one last look at the mysterious girl as she prepared to watch my motive video, I
hurried to do the same with hers.

With the headphones on my head, and the disk already on the DVD player, I waited for a few
seconds in which the screen turned on, and a few extra more with the loading screen.

And as soon as the loading screen disappeared, I already was in presence of a divergence.
The first thing I noticed, was that this video took place in what appeared to be a mix between an
office and a library. With multiple rows of bookshelves to the sides, all of them filled with books of
all shapes and size. On the front of the room there were two windows which showed to tip of a few
rooftops and towers, and between said windows there was a dark oak desk.

Atop of it, there was a banker’s lamp and a writing machine, along with some notebooks and books
scattered around said desk.

As for the subject of this video.

It was man in his late 70’s and if I were to describe him in one word, it would be pale. He had a
pale tone of skin, his hair was white, and the same was the case to both his beard and his bushy
mustache. He seems to be wearing frameless lenses, a white dress shirt and a large black tie. As for
the lower part of his attire, it was not possible for me to discern, all thanks to his current position.

He was making use of the desk while he was reading a book and making notes out of it with a
notebook he had on the opposite side.

…And beyond that, nothing much.

It took me thirty seconds to take for granted that the person in this video wasn’t going to say
anything, not even a greeting to the one this recording is for. And it took me the next thirty seconds
to notice something that made my brows to furrow.

He isn’t aware of it.

The man in the video doesn’t know that he is being recorded. This is also reinforced by the fact
that he isn’t showing even the slightest signs of self-consciousness at being the center of attention
of a camera, not even sparing a glance in the direction of it.

It doesn’t matter to me how he was capable of pulling this one, just the fact alone that Monokuma
is willing to make a footage of someone who isn’t aware of it on the ‘first part’ for the sake of it’s
motive videos, tells me how serious he is about following a pattern for them.

And for me, that is an invaluable piece of intel.

After the minute of footage passed, the image on the screen distorted until it changed into the
disastrous scene not a single motive video saved itself from.

Broken windows, bookshelves and it’s books torn to shreds, the desk and it’s contents not being an
exception. Nothing I haven’t already seen before.

As for the man…

He was laying in the ground, either dead or unconscious with a pair of people wearing
Monokuma’s masks around him while another pair was still taking part in the destruction of the
office/library. Some moments after this transition, an audio was heard.

…Kyoko Kirigiri, Ultimate…well, she already knows the answer of that, and the same could be
said about the reputation that precedes with said talent.

A girl that accepted getting into Hope’s Peak because…you know what? That doesn’t even matter
right now! There much more important things to focus on.

Like this poor old man for example! Why is he laying in the ground!? What happened to him!? Is
he even breathing!? What led to these circumstances to occur!?

The screen changed to a black background with bold orange letters in the middle of it, showing the
same message as my and Naegi’s video.

Look for the answer after graduation!

A few seconds of that and the screen turned off, signaling the end of the video.

…So this was her video…

It definitely has it’s fair number of points to take note of.

The first one, unlike the other videos I managed to see, is that the victim of Kirigiri’s motive was
recorded without it’s consent ’But recorded nonetheless…’. You could even say that Celeste’s cat
and Fukawa’s bug granted more permission than what the man in her video showed.

Then, there’s what was said during the transition with the aftermath of…whatever happened.

She really wasn’t lying when she implied that I wouldn’t get anything about her with this motive.
The audio from Monokuma’s part in her case was a completely opposite of mine, as in hers was
short and revealed almost nothing.

The only thing I could get out of this is that Monokuma isn’t only fine with Kirigiri keeping her
talent a secret, he WANTS it to stay a secret, for what reason? I don’t know…and if I am
absolutely honest with myself, I couldn’t care less about anything that doesn’t involve what my
current objective is. I will keep it in my mind for when it comes handy, that’s for granted, but until
then…

With all of that exposed, I was able to come to a single but important conclusion.

Even with those divergences…Kirigiri’s video follows the exact same pattern as the rest of the
class. Not even her, surrounded of mystery as she is, with a talent just as enigmatic, truly derailed
from it.

Just like my other classmates, Kirigiri’s video began with a footage of an important person of hers,
showing him in a relatedly safe and sound environment. Then, after a certain period of time ’60
seconds, give or take…’, it changed to this same environment turned to ruins ‘About 30 seconds,
give or take too…’

The animals diverged from that, I could notice that in their cases instead of staying in the same
place, they were moved to a different location. As for Owada, I couldn’t tell whether or not is the
exact same place per say, all thanks to his motive involving bikers traveling at high speeds, but the
video began on a highway and it ended on a highway, so there’s that.

And there were examples of other types of divergences too. Like the people wearing Monokuma’s
masks, those guys didn’t showed up in every footage and as far as I could see, they didn’t followed
any kind pattern in their appearances.

But even with that, my point stands. Every single one of the eleven videos I managed to get my
figurative hands on, followed the next pattern: around one minute of video displaying their beloved
ones completely fine, and next, about thirty seconds of a despairing aftermath, showing the place
their important family members, friends or just someone they truly care about was just a moment
ago, completely devastated. The animals being the slight exception when it comes to the location
part, but even so…

…A video…

…That’s when things get fishy.

Maki and me…not even once in our lives have made use of a method that recorded us to contact
each other, no matter the situation. As kids, we never had the need to because we were together all
the time. When we became members of the Holy Salvation Society and up to this day, the only
way we make use of long-range communication is through burner phones, as saying that the
profession both of us are part of is a risky one is the most ridiculous understatement one could
make.

Friends, lovers, co-workers, family members, the list goes on. Those are the kind of individuals
who put bounties in our heads after we complete a mission and seek revenge for the people they
lost. Either that or the target itself hires people to hunt us down.

Because of that, allowing ourselves the chance of using any other method that wasn’t the
previously mentioned was a big no, as we risked ourselves to the chance of getting tracked…or
worse, we allowed them to know we have someone we care about. ‘Like it happened with
Monokuma…or what I allowed to happen with Kirigiri’

…I’m…I’m getting side-tracked.

The point of all of that is…Maki would never record herself in a video, and even less to
congratulate or encourage me about anything ‘She knows the risks of that and in the microscopic
chance that she were to actually send me a video, she wouldn’t do it for anything less than the end
of the world itself’

And true to that, instead of any footage of her, in it’s place…there was a picture, and nothing more
than that.

From there, an important piece of information that I acquired from Kirigiri’s video comes into
play: The part about getting recorded without it’s consent.

Yes, at the end of each footage, the last thing you could that say was that Monokuma received
permission to do what was showed in them…but that’s on the last thirty seconds, when we talk
about the first minute, not even once it seemed like the people were doing it against their will or
hidden from them.

…Before Kirigiri’s motive that is.

The mysterious girl is the only exception as far as I know, true, but that’s irrelevant, what matters
is that the first part is not necessary to be recorded by the victim itself, using an agent to secretly
spy on them was fair game for our captor as long as he gets a video of our beloved ones.
Something he didn’t do for Maki…

…But then, there’s the orphanage.

The goddamn orphanage.

Even if it’s strange that he ‘transitioned’ from a rooftop to that place, which again diverged from
the pattern, I can’t deny that he actually delivered on that part. He truly showed me a footage of the
orphanage, I may not recognize any of the kids, but that doesn’t matter.

As much as I desire for Maki to make her dream to become a reality…it’s a fact that, beyond
sending some extra money, I never put more effort than that, not even bothering to know the faces
of the kids.

I really don’t deserve her…

As for the orphanage itself…what can I say? Every single orphanage of the Salvation Society is
built the same and my motive video showed me just that.

The orphanage in the video was exactly the same as any other one owned by the cult, just as I
remember before leaving, with no changes whatsoever…

…Exactly the same…

…Exactly the same…

…Exactly the same…

…Exactly…!

…Wait…what?

…The orphanage…exactly the same?

That…that…that doesn’t make any sense.

It has been years since I left that place, but the same can’t be said about Maki.

After we finished our training, she was allowed to give it occasional visits, something she did with
gusto at every chance she got, and one of the things Maki never failed to tell me when she
contacted me, was about the status of the orphanage, and after…after that incident, that place
became her new home. Working in there as a caregiver when she wasn’t busy doing missions to
make income for the improvement of it.
That plus with the money I sent, Maki told me that it ended up being plenty enough to make
renovations that made the building look like a completely different thing both outside and inside.
Heck, I remember that one time she began to show off about being able to afford the luxury of
acquiring videogames for the kids.

She couldn’t hide the happiness in the tone of her voice when she was telling me that.

And she would never lie to me about that. If there’s one thing I’m absolutely confident in knowing
about her, is that she’s frank to a fault. Maki never sugarcoats things. If the situation is bad, she
makes that clear, if she doesn’t like something or someone, she makes it know.

If she says that with our combined income she managed to rebuild the orphanage to the point of
being unrecognizable from how it previously looked, then she means it.

Then…is this a footage from before that? No, if it were from that long ago, then in that case I
would’ve recognized at least one face.

The only other option would be―

!!!!

…The excessive rambling about my personal life in his monologue…

…The blurry picture…

…The ‘transition’ from a rooftop to that orphanage…

…The orphanage itself…

…The kids…

…The break from the pattern in general…

…A red herring.

Every single one of them…

Not one.

Not two.

Not even three.

No, he went out of his way to throw one after another.

…
…So that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?

After retiring Kirigiri’s disk out of the player, I went to said mysterious girl to retrieve my…
motive.

As I got closer, I could notice the slight grimacing on her features, working both as proof that she
has witnessed that last scene…with the kids, and that she was done seeing my…motive.

Once in front of her, I didn’t say anything, and neither did she.

The gloom silence lasted for a few moments, until one of us decided being done with it.

“…That girl―”

“The deal consisted in exchanging each other motives to see the contents of it, nothing more” I
interrupted her.

“…”

“…”

“…Then, I take it that neither you and me will have to bring this up again, is that it?”

“Mhm, I won’t make questions of your motive and neither you of mine, that…that would be for the
best” I stated…in a tired tone of voiced.

“…It would” For once, it seems both of us agreed on something. I have no doubt that what she saw
on my video is a gold mine to make questions about me…but the same can be said for hers. So
instead, she will most probably take a different path to find the answers to those questions…and so
will I…

…Maybe…I don’t know…

Right now, there’s something else I want to do more than anything else.

Without saying another word, I presented the disk back to her while she did the same for my…
motive.

And without saying another word, we left the AV room.

The moment I got inside my room, I immediately locked the door, threw my jacket on the bed, and
rushed to the bathroom, not without closing it’s door once I entered.

Once I made sure one last time that there weren’t any cameras around, looking right and left, up
and down, I allowed myself to do the thing I’ve been dying to do since this fiasco began.

I stopped suppressing my emotions.

The first sentiment that washed over my body was…cautious relief.

I couldn’t help it, I compared eleven out of fifteen samples of the motive videos, which included
the walking interrogation that is Kirigiri and the likes of Celeste and Togami, with my own, and
the results of it led to a conclusion that was making me feel…cautiously relieved.

And that was it.

Once I allowed myself to feel…the only positive emotion I was containing…

…I made way to let flow the rest of them in spades.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
For the first time in my entire life…I screamed in fury. It was a shout full of venom and killing
intent.

The reason why?

Well, it is quite simple, that’s because…

…OF THAT FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!

HOW!? HOW DARES IT TO ATTEMPT AN STUNT LIKE THAT!?

HOW DARES THAT PIECE OF SHIT TO EVEN DOING AS MUCH AS SPELLING HER
NAME!?

DOES THIS PERSON THINKS I WILL FIND FUNNY THAT IT MADE ME BELIEVE FOR A
MOMENT THAT MY SISTER WAS DEAD!? IS THAT FUCKING IT!?

BUT NO…THE FUCKER THOUGHT THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, HE OR SHE, I DON’T

FUCKING CARE WHICH IS IT, ALSO THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD BE OH SO AMUSING
TO COMPROMISE HER DREAM!

THE ONE THING SHE SACRIFICED SWEAT, TEARS AND BLOOD TO MAKE A
REALITY!

TO USE THE THING SHE CHEERISES THE MOST FOR A GODDAMN BAIT IN A
PATHETIC TRY FOR ME TO FALL INTO DESPAIR!

THAT.

FUCKING.

PIECE.

OF.

GARBAGE…!

“…Ah…hah…hah…ah…” After yelling for what felt like an hour ‘It was one minute and 46
seconds, I actually counted it…’ and the need for breath won over the desire to scream, I managed
to…to…well, saying that I calmed down would be a fucking lie right at this moment.

It was enough for me to begin to think in a clearer way, that’s for sure.

And with that clarity, a few words resonated in my head.

I know ya teenagers are known for being lazy…but this guy in particular is taking it to the limit…!

Make it up for me…

Despair. That’s all…

Despair...

Despair…

Despair…

Despair…

Despair―

―Right, that’s what Monokuma said is his desire, didn’t he? The thing he longs for…

… I was planning to stay passive for quite a while longer…

…But fine, if Despair is what it wants, then so be it.

I will give this person enough Despair to choke on it.

 Merciless Salvation.

Merciless Salvation.

*Ding doing bing bong*

“Good morning, everyone! It is now 7 a.m. and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and
shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!”

“Mnghh…” Makoto mumbled as he begrudgingly opened his eyes, partially waking up to the so
irritable morning broadcast their ‘headmaster’ did on a daily basis.

He will never get used to it.

After finally feeling the will to abandon the comfort of the bed, he sat up and half awake, looked
around the room. When his eyes landed on the bin, he wondered for a second if it has always been
pink, and it was at that moment when yesterday’s events finally registered him.

Monokuma’s motive.

His promise with Maizono.

…And the switching of rooms with said Idol.

He became self-conscious and his cheeks heated up at the fact that he slept in a girl’s room for a
moment, but just as fast he chided himself. He didn’t agreed to this out of some malicious motive,
it was to reassure Maizono and to give her any form of comfort he could offer, something she
really needed thanks to those terrible videos.

Just thinking about it was sending him shivers.

Besides those two, everyone showed how affected they were, some worse than others, by those
despairful images their despicable ‘headmaster’ presented to them yesterday. His home turned to
ruins, and…and his father, her mother and even his sister. While the video wasn’t graphic about it,
there was a chance that his family was possibly―

No!

Those videos were fake! They had to be! There’s no way they could truly be real. It was just a
cruel attempt of his captor to make him and his classmates suffer and fall into despair. That was
just his demented way of doing things, he had to remind himself of that.

...Speaking of remembering things.

“We promised to eat breakfast together after each morning announcement, right? I should hurry up
then…” The lucky student muttered to himself.

Not wanting to hear an earful out of the moral compass, Makoto got out of the bed and prepared to
leave the Idol’s room and head to the dining hall.

As soon as he put a foot inside the dining hall, he caught sight of a few people already gathered
inside.

“Greetings, Naegi! It seems I was the first one to arrive this morning, what a peculiar turn of
events! Hahaha!” Taka exclaimed with his usual vigor.

“Ehehe…good morning” The programmer commented with a smile that made Makoto feel like his
existence was being purified by just looking at it.

Fujisaki really is a force to reckon with in her own way…

“Morning’, Naegi!” Hina greeted.

“Is good to see you early too…” Ogami added.

Looking around, he could say without a shadow of doubt that everyone here were the model high
schoolers kind, arriving just in time or even earlier than that in some cases.

Although he couldn’t help feeling the slightest pang of worry travel his body when he noticed she
wasn’t here…Maizono. She seemed to fit into the model student category, so it was strange to not
seeing her here too.

He mentally shook his head at those thoughts, what happened yesterday was a horrible experience
and he saw first-hand how disturbed Maizono became at those footages, it is reasonable to believe
she will arrive a bit later thanks to that.

The lucky student opted for taking a seat with the rest of his classmates and wait as his next course
of action. After waiting for a few minutes, the next batch of students, the kind he would consider of
the tardier sort and fell into the more relaxed type of people, as most high schoolers are, showed
up.

Said people included:

Yamada.

“Apologies, ladies and gentlemen. I had a, uh, morning duty that took more time than what
intended to” …The lucky student doesn’t need more details about that.

Owada.

“Yo” The biker said with a wave.

Enoshima.

“Sorry! Sorry! I had to battle for my life against my make-up this morning!” The fashionista
cheerfully exclaimed.

And Shigaraki.

…W-Well, Makoto wouldn’t really consider him to fall into either the ‘relaxed’ or ‘most high
schoolers’ type, but for some reason, punctuality doesn’t seem to be a concern for the golden-eyed
boy…more so because he was still yet to show up…which is a bit strange, he would’ve guessed
that Assassins where to take bigger importance into that area.

And as soon as he thought of that word, his eyes widened slightly.

Assassin…

…It’s not like he forgot that was his talent ‘…Like he did a few days ago’, but for some reason, the
implications of that always seem to elude him unless he put his focus into them. It’s just so surreal
to look at Shigaraki and believe he is someone who has experience k-…kill…killing people and
doing it as a profession no less…

Makoto remembers during the first day, before Monokuma made that announcement, his opinion
of Shigaraki was that he was just a serious and reserved person, a complete opposite of most of his
classmates, true, but nothing out of the ordinary.

And up to this day, considering what he has seen so far, that side of him holds true, seeing he’s still
as serious as ever and most of the time it seems that he only opens his mouth to spell facts ‘…Not
that Shigaraki could be blamed for that, he is sure that 80% of the time Makoto has seen him talk
is to defend himself of a new accusation someone makes against him…’

Then, those other truths about their resident Assassin began to appear, like him being part of a cult
who isn’t actually a cult that recruits kids of all people! Training them until they turned into
professional killers, that’s just…just…ugh, horrible doesn’t even begins to describe how he feels
about that.

And if that wasn’t enough, what Togami said…about this ‘The Raven’ identity and the
implications in relation to Shigaraki, it momentarily planted seeds of doubt, because it is true that it
has been his and the rest of the class self-made conclusion that Shigaraki only targets wrong-doers,
not that it made the act of killing any better, but it painted the golden-eyed boy in a better light than
the other alternative, which was something Makoto doesn’t think would like to hear the answer of
if someone were to ask him about it.

Because what if Shigaraki is actually―

Makoto mentally shook his head once again, those suspicions against his classmates were just what
their captor wants. The lucky student had to remind himself that since the first day, Shigaraki has
been looking out for the group. He hid his talent during the introductions to don’t cause panic that
would’ve possibly made them targets of the guns at the entrance hall, he saved Owada’s life by
shoving him aside and throwing the Monokuma that was about to explode out of danger, and no
matter how much people doubt him, Shigaraki has always been cooperative without holding it
against anyone…if anything, the only times he seems to have a negative reaction is when people
insult someone else…well, that only applies when it comes to Enoshima, but! That just proves he
cares about others, right?

…Enoshima…

In its own way, it amazes him…at first glance, out of everyone here, Enoshima and Shigaraki
becoming friends was something he never saw coming, it’s something just as if not much crazier
than Taka and Owada suddenly becoming best friends ‘He just can’t picture something like that
being close to happening anytime soon…’

But it happened, as not so different to Ogami and Hina, the time they spend in company of
someone its only between themselves most of the time as far as he knows.

…Even if he doesn’t like to agree with Monokuma, the bear truly was onto something about them
yesterday. Makoto doesn’t considers himself someone who is into gossip, but he couldn’t help but
wonder if there was something more between those two, mainly because of how they reacted when
questioned about it.

Speaking of which.

“Enoshima” Ogami suddenly called the fashionista.

Which in turn made the pigtailed blonde to address the martial artist with a tilted head “Hm? What
is it?”

The martial artist took her time to reply, as if thinking how to best express what she wanted to say.
A few moments later, she finally spoke “…Forgive if I am prying too much into this, but it is
something that has been in my mind for some time, what I want to ask is…what is your relationship
with Shigaraki?”

…Wow, Ogami really doesn’t holds her punches in any sense of the word, does she?

Makoto saw how the people present turned to the fashionista with some curious glances, as
yesterday’s lack of a proper response left them wanting for an answer. And as for the fashionista
herself, she didn’t reacted as strongly as yesterday.

“R-Relationship!? What…What are ya talkin’ about, girl? Me and Shigaraki…we are nothing like
that!” …At least this time she managed to give a coherent response.

“Apologies, it was not my intention to making such bold assumptions, my question was more in
regards to…” Once again, the martial artist paused for a bit, before finding her words once again
“…While his conduct in presence of all us has been far more exceptional than what I expected of
him, when it’s just you two…I can’t help the shadow of doubt that gnaws at my mind, Enoshima…
he hasn’t threatened or hurt you in any kind or form, has he?”

…Oh, so that was what she meant? It…It can’t be helped he supposes…at least partially. It’s not
like he believes Shigaraki has done any of that, of course not, Enoshima is probably the last person
the golden-eyed boy would even think of hurting, but some people are still wary of him, so it’s a
normal reaction when that someone holds the title of the Ultimate Assassin.

Enoshima for her part, relaxed considerably at that question “O-Oh, you mean that…*sigh* Geez
girl, you shoulda begin from there instead teasing me like that hehe, anyways…honestly, ya have
nothin’ to worry about, he hasn’t done any of that stuff, and if he were that kinda guy I wouldn’t be
hanging with him even if he insisted, I have my ways of dealing with most guys who don’t take no
for an answer, ya know?” The fashionista finished with a grin and a peace sign gesture.

The lucky student wondered for a moment if Shigaraki entered in the ‘most guys’ category, but he
decided to not think too hard about it, the important thing is that Enoshima herself can vouch for
him.

“Are ya sure, Junko? He hasn’t tried any creepy stuff, like…ah! Trying to recruit you into his
cult!?” Hina worriedly asked.

Makoto could’ve sworn he saw Enoshima’s left eye twitch for a moment, but it could’ve been his
imagination…

“…No, he hasn’t tried anything ‘creepy’, much less getting me into a cult… did ya guys forgot that
part was a hoax and he doesn’t believe in any of that junk?” …Or it wasn’t, if her lack of her usual
upbeat tone was anything to go by as she replied to Hina.
A look of realization appeared on said swimmer “Ah, that’s true, we talked about that yesterday,
didn’t we? Hehe, I actually didn’t remembered that” Hina said as she awkwardly scratched the
back of her head.

The fashionista just deadpanned at that “Regardless, as I said, there’s nothing weird goin’ on
between Shigaraki and me, we just do normal things, like talking and stuff…”

Actually…

“…That’s right, I remember Shigaraki telling me something similar” Makoto commented.

That seemed to caught Enoshima’s attention.

“Eh? He did? Really?” If she wanted to hide the expectation in her voice, she terribly failed at it.

“Y-Yeah, something about him giving his opinions about different topics you brought up”

Owada gained a confused look at that statement “Whut? But if the chick is a fashionista…does that
mean you guys talk about make-up and dresses, and he actually has opinions about that shit? What
the hell…”

Eh? Now that he mentions it…if Shigaraki focuses on following along with what Enoshima talks,
could it really be that he’s into―?

Before his train of thought went completely that way, Enoshima interfered “What? ‘Course we
don’t talk of those things, it would be weird if I talked with him about any of that”

“Uh, then what do you guys talk about?” Hina asked.

“H-Huh? Ah, well, you know, stuff…about this…and that, whatever we like bringing up at the
moment, ya know?” Enoshima replied with a smile as she brought a hand to one of her hairclips.

Nobody in the room seemed to understand any of that…

…Save for Ogami, it seems “I see, in any case, it seems you have a better understanding of
Shigaraki than any of us, so if you say that his company has not represented any danger to you,
then I can lift a weight off my shoulders knowing that he reciprocates the friendship you have
offered him” The martial artist finished with a smile.

“Yep, he’s a total chill guy to hang out! Although…hmm, it’s weird…” Enoshima muttered mostly
to herself while looking around the room.

“Hm? Is something the matter miss Enoshima?” Yamada asked.

That seemed to brought her out of her stupor “Eh? A-Ah, it’s nothing! I was just thinking out loud,
haha…”

Besides looking at her weirdly, the rest of the group didn’t pushed the matter.

…But…as for Makoto himself…

Maybe he’s reading too much into it, but the way she looked around the room, he might have an
idea of what was that about…because he’s thinking of something similar.

Both Shigaraki…and Maizono, they still haven’t come up.

Some minutes later, the last type of students appeared, the kind that keeps everyone waiting
forever.

Kirigiri.

“…It seems I’m late”

Celeste.

“Good morning, everyone” The gambler said with a smile.

Fukawa.

“Wh-What are you all looking at!? Is it a s-sin to be l-late?”

Hiro.

“I didn’t oversleep, just so you guys know. Nope, I got lost! It must be the Illuminati’s fault, I’m
sure of it”

Leon.

“Mornin’ guys, sorry got so late, kinda overslept…*sigh* goddammit…” The baseball star
muttered as he took a seat.

Fujisaki looked at Leon with a worried look “…Um, are you okay?”

“Hm? Well, more or less, it’s just that my neck is killing me, as if a cannonball hit it. Though I
guess it was my fault, yesterday I hit the bed like a brick, it got to the point that I…you know
what? It doesn’t matter, just hope this shit doesn’t last all day” Leon commented with a frown as he
rubbed the back of his neck.

Regardless of that comment, everyone finally arrived…

…Or that’s what Makoto would’ve liked to say.

It seems Taka noticed it too, as after doing a head check he got out of the chair with a worried look
on his face “Wait a moment, we are still missing some people, aren’t we?”

“Hmm, that seems to be the case, Maizono, Togami…and Shigaraki are not present yet” Celeste
commented.

The emphasis on that last name didn’t go unnoticed by nobody, the dead silence and growing dread
that followed the Gambler’s statement being proof of that.

“…S-Shigaraki is missing?” Enoshima nervously commented.

“Not only him…but Togami and Maizono too” Ogami added with a frown.

“I don’t know about Togami, but Maizono seemed like the punctual type…as for Shigaraki, this
is…” Kirigiri didn’t finished that sentence, but the lucky student could see how a frown began to
form on her face.

As Makoto himself…
…Maizono…she’s fine, right? She’s…She’s gotta be! There’s no way something happened to her,
as long as she stayed inside his room, nothing should’ve happened to her, and even less because
they promised each to not allow anyone in last night.

The lucky student keeped repeating and repeating the same thing in his head as the dread in his
stomach grew even bigger as each second passed. Finally, it got to the point that he was about to
get out of his chair to search for the Idol personally, when…

…Suddenly, the doors of the dining hall swung open, revealing…

“…What’s going on? Did something happen?” Togami asked in an inquiring tone.

“Hey man! Have you seen Maizono?” Owada asked.

“A-And Shigaraki? D-Did…Did you saw him on your way here?” Enoshima questioned in a shaky
tone.

At those questions the heir looked to the side “…Actually―”

“Sorry I’m late guys!” A new voice exclaimed as it entered the cafeteria.

And when Makoto heard that voice…

…It was like music to his ears.

He couldn’t help but feel as if his soul came back from whatever horrible place it went, and the
dread in his stomach dissipated while a grin formed in his face as he greeted the owner of said
voice.

“Maizono!”

Said Idol turned to face him and when he saw her face, a slight frown appeared on his own face.
Her eyes, the area under them, they were slightly pink and it was for just a moment, but he saw
how her face turned into something resembling…guilt? Though just as fast, it turned into that
mysterious smile he couldn’t help but admire every time she does it.

“Naegi! Good morning!” The Idol greeted back.

Before he could say anything, Taka interfered “Maizono! What is the meaning behind this
tardiness!? While it is true that there is not an exactly appointed hour for these meetings besides
doing them after the morning announcement, you should know that this is post-breakfast time
already, it could ruin our eating habits! I demand an explanation!”

“You can’t be fuckin’ serious…the girl shows up fine and this is the shit your worried about!?”
Owada growled.

The idol interrupted any possible discussion that could’ve led to “No, no, you don’t have to get
angry Owada, Ishimaru is right…I have to explain myself”

“Correct, I am all ears!” Taka stated with a nod.

“Yes…uh, well, you see, thanks to what happened yesterday, I…I couldn’t really gain any sleep
most of the night, and when I finally did, it was late enough that I ended up missing the morning
announcement…that’s…that’s what happened” The idol said, though something about that last
part, it sounded strange to the lucky student…
…But he dismissed it, He understands how much yesterday’s events affected her, it couldn’t be
faulted if some of it still resided in her, that’s just not something that disappears in a single day.
Just like yesterday, he has to be there for her.

“Hmm, I see, while it is not my style, I believe that when taken what happened yesterday as a
factor, you can go free with just a warning…but just this time! Understood!?” Taka exclaimed.

“Yes, understood!” Maizono replied with a salute, following along with the moral compass antics.

Such an act, made any remaining tension of the group to disappear.

“It seems nothing bad happened, I’m glad! Hehehe” Fujisaki commented with a smile.

“No kidding girl, for a moment I thought, that…y’know?” Leon added.

Taka looked at the baseball star with a stern expression “Perish the thought! With everyone already
here, we can conclude that―”

“What the hell!? Are ya guys stupid or what!?” A voice angrily exclaimed.

Such a sudden outburst made everyone turn to its origin.

“…Huh? Junko, what’s wrong?” Hina asked.

It seemed that was the wrong thing to ask as Makoto saw the fashionista send a glare at the
swimmer when she said that “What’s wrong!? Do you even have to ask that!? I know ya guys
probably don’t give a crap about him…but did everyone really forgot about Shigaraki!?”

Maizono immediately turned to Enoshima when she heard that “Wait, he’s not here!?” she
exclaimed wide-eyed and with a shocked tone of voice, while nervously looking around the room.

Any relaxed atmosphere that existed a few moments ago died immediately as Maizono made that
question.

With growing dread ‘…And guilt at actually forgetting about him for a moment’, Makoto followed
Maizono’s example, trying to find the golden-eyed boy among their classmates. He wasn’t the only
one, everyone else looked around their seats in search of him.

At the lack of results the mood in the room changed…and if the more and more nervous and
panicked expression of Enoshima as she looked in all directions was any indication, it was not in a
good way.

“H-He really isn’t here yet…” Fujisaki said in a worried tone.

“What the fuck? Then where’s that bastard?” Owada growled.

“It really is a peculiar case, everyone with the exception of him is here, so we can discard the
possibility of him hiding from us, this is indeed strange…” Celeste commented.

Before anyone could react to that statement, Togami added his own piece.

“…If he isn’t here after this much time has passed, and the rest of us are here, the only other
possibility I could think of is that he’s already d―”

*THUD*
Enoshima’s chair was thrown away, as with a booming speed that nobody would’ve expected to
belong to her, she fled out of the room.

“Such speed!” Ogami exclaimed with a surprised tone of voice.

“Holy crap! Are all fashionistas that athletic?” Leon asked.

“…Well, she works as a model, right? That means she has to keep a figure…maybe as the Ultimate
Fashionista her standards are more rigorous, although…” Maizono shook her head “…Never mind,
more importantly, about Shigaraki…Where could he be? It’s not normal for him to be this late,
right?”

Togami took that as an opportunity to speak again “Before the model interrupted me, what I was
saying is that the only possibility is that…the Assassin is dead, or more specifically, someone
murdered him. I wouldn’t be surprised if she went to find him…or what was him”

…W-What…What did he say?

That…that S-Shigaraki…is dead? Not only that, but…but…

…But that it also was a…a…a m-murder, someone murdered one of their classmates…is that
really what he was suggesting?

Makoto repeated all of that in his mind…but the concept of it just couldn’t reach him.

He…he just couldn’t understand what Togami was saying…

And it seems he wasn’t the only one.

“M-M-Murdered…?” Fujisaki mumbled on the verge of tears.

“…What…What…What the heck are you saying!?” Taka exclaimed.

The heir seemed unfazed at the moral compass questioning “I’m only stating the obvious.
Discarding all other options, his demise is the only logical conclusion”

“Now, now, let’s not jump the gun guys, maybe the dude is just a similar case to Maizono-chi over
here and just overslept” Hiro commented.

“That’s…” It seemed that Maizono was going to say something else, but decided against it at the
last second.

Makoto quirked an eyebrow at that, but decided to not bring it. Maybe it wasn’t important, at least
not when one of his classmates is missing…

“Y-Yeah that is not impossible…right?” Hina asked in general.

Unfortunately for her, Togami didn’t buy it “Hmph, the chances of that are close to zero. In case
you people forgot, he isn’t your run for the mill Assassin, he is a professional killer trained under
the most proficient experts that someone of his kind could find. I don’t doubt that he could live all
his life with just three or four hours a day of sleep and last days with none. As I said, him
oversleeping as a possibility should be considered an impossibility”
“…But even if we discard that, you said it yourself, didn’t ya? That guy was-erm, is the freaking
Ultimate Assassin, who the heck would want to mess with someone like that, or more precisely,
who could?” Leon asked.

At that, the heir took a more thoughtful look “…Hmm, I admit that it is an intriguing piece of the
puzzle to solve. It could’ve been simple overconfidence from his part which made him drop his
guard, or maybe it was―”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”

A cry was suddenly was heard, and it came from…outside the room.

“What was that!?” Ogami asked.

“Hmm, it sounded feminine…by order of elimination that could only be Enoshima, and it seemed
to come from the dorms area” Celeste supplied.

As soon as the gambler finished that conclusion, a voice that hasn’t been heard in quite a while
suddenly spoke.

“Let’s go” Kirigiri said, and without waiting for anyone, she got out of her chair and moved
towards the exit of the dining hall.

“B-But―” Yamada tried to protest but the silver haired girl interrupted him.

“We don’t know why Enoshima would give such a scream…but the chances of her being in danger
is there, don’t you think?”

Ah!

“T-That’s right guys, we have to hurry up! Maybe she got attacked by Monokuma!” Makoto
exclaimed.

That seemed to brought everyone out of their stupor.

“Shit! That’s true, we don’t know what that fucker is capable of!” The biker declared with wide
eyes.

“Putting aside the inappropriate language…Owada is correct! I declare this meeting suspended
until we finish our new assignment, which is to find Enoshima! Everyone, let’s depart at once!”
Taka declared.

As soon as those words left the moral compass mouth, Makoto and his classmates left the dining
hall in search of the fashionista.

Fortunately, it seemed that Celeste’s assertion was correct and as soon as they entered the dorm
area, the entire class caught sight of Enoshima, more importantly…She was alive!

…Although Makoto’s relief was short lived as she saw the state of the fashionista.

She was standing…next to Shigaraki’s door, her face covered with her two hands and she was
trembling…
…That…that wasn’t a good sign.

It seemed that Taka didn’t caught the memo though “Enoshima! I’m glad you’re fine!”

“…” Enoshima didn’t replied to that.

“…Enoshima?” Taka tried again.

“…” And it was the same result.

Makoto saw that he was going to try again, but this time someone else beat him to the punch.

“Enoshima, have you found Shigaraki?” Kirigiri asked.

“Eep!” At that, Enoshima squeaked.

…That…what does that mean?

“Is that a yes? Did you find him?” Kirigiri pressed.

After a few moments, the fashionista finally responded, still with her hands on her face “…F-Find
him…? Y-Yeah…I-I found him…him…and…and also that…that…Eep!” And she squeaked
again.

Huh? That? What does she mean?

More importantly…considering that Enoshima is just besides Shigaraki’s room…

“…Um, Enoshima, by any chance, did you find him in his room?” Makoto carefully asked.

The fashionista weakly nodded.

And that made his stomach grow with dread. Not only him but he could see how everyone’s eyes
widened while some of their faces blanched at that revelation. The lucky student just couldn’t
believe...that…that Shigaraki, who was perfectly fine just yesterday, turned out to be…be…he just
can’t be…

It seemed that Kirigiri was a similar case, or it looked that way to him, as she prepared to get in the
room to see the truth for herself.

Or at least that was the plan…until Enoshima blocked the entrance to Shigaraki’s room.

Kirigiri turned to the fashionista with a quirked eyebrow “…What?”

“…Y-You can’t!” Enoshima cried out.

“Why not?” The silver haired girl argued back.

“T-That’s…T-That’s…b-because…h-he…he…he…S-Shigaraki…he―”

“We don’t have all day! Just spill it out!” Togami demanded.

And at that snap, Enoshima moved her hands out of her face, revealing the blush on her cheeks as
she replied back “You can’t get inside! Because, S-Shigaraki…he…he…he’s naked! Eeep!” And
just as fast she covered her face once again.

What…?
…

…Shigaraki, he…did he really ended up that way…naked? That’s…That’s an even worse case
than he imagined…

And his classmates seemed to be in a similar train of thought.

“D-Did he really…in…in such a way…?” Hina mumbled with a hand on her mouth.

“…Committing a crime of that kind while stripping him of his clothes…how barbaric!” Ogami
growled.

“…*sob*N-No…i-it…*sob*…can’t be! It can’t be real…” Fujisaki said with a few tears already
on her cheeks.

“Hmph, it seems I overestimated him if he really ended in such pathetic way” Togami added with
disdain.

Owada angrily turned to the Heir “Hey son of a bitch! Shut yer mouth unless you want me to make
ya! I…I never liked the guy, but…but for some bastard to kill him and leaving him like that, that’s
just low, way too low, whoever fucker did this, I will―!”

“Wait, what did you say?” Enoshima removed her hands from her face as she turned to the biker in
a calmer tone and with a quirked eyebrow.

That sudden change in behavior caught the biker off-guard “H-Huh? I…I said that whoever fucker
did this―”

“No, not that! You…you said that someone killed him, didn’t you? Why did you said that?”
Enoshima asked with her brows furrowed.

Now that comment caught everyone off-guard “…Eh? Yeah, I did…but why does that matter?”

Enoshima then looked at Owada as if he was saying something stupid “Why else? Because that’s
wrong”

…Eh?

“Um, miss Enoshima…I think I speak for the whole group for what I’m going to ask next…Didn’t
you just said a moment ago that you found his body?”

Enoshima glared at the fanfic creator while she snapped “What!? What the hell are you talking
about!? I never said that! Don’t put words in my mouth!”

Kirigiri ignored the “Uwaaah, don’t kill me please!” from Yamada as she addressed Enoshima “…
Then what do you mean when you said that Shigaraki is…when you said that you found him
having no clothes?”

“Eeep!” At that, Enoshima returned to the state everyone found her at the beginning. Although
Makoto managed to notice how her face heated up at full force before she covered her face once
again.

…More importantly, does…does that mean that he’s alive!? That’s what Enoshima seemed to
suggest right?

Makoto was about to sigh of relief…when another fact about this became present in his mind.

That she found Shigaraki alive…but naked.

…Wait, what!?

“…Somebody kill me…” For the first time in my entire life, I wanted to die…of embarrassment.

The reason why?

She saw me.

Out of everyone in this place…Enoshima of all people…

…She…She…She…She saw me―

Ugh, goddammit!

And to make things worse, it was actually my fault.

A few minutes ago…

The sound of water hitting the ground could be heard around the room as I took care of every part
of my body at full speed to the point that if it weren’t for the water, I don’t doubt that smoke
would’ve come out of it.

Why I am acting in such a hurry? Well, the answer is…because I AM in a hurry. How could I not
be? I am late…late to that breakfast meeting we were supposed to attend on a daily basis.

Of course, I could’ve attended a few minutes earlier to that thing if it weren’t for an important fact,
and is that I still refuse to abandon the luxury of morning showers. I know I am being irrational
about this…but I just couldn’t help it, at least not this time, not only because it is something I
desire to do, but because it is something I actually need for today…I really needed something to
fresh myself up and a cold bath in the morning is the best solution at hand.

…Sigh.

No matter how I look at this, in more ways than one, I know this stunt of mine is going to bite me
in the back. After all, the reason I need to freshen up in the first place is because―

*SLAM*

!!!

Any other internal musing I could have, was interrupted by that sound, and I couldn’t avoid
narrowing my eyes at it.

That was the sound of a door being abruptly opened, and considering that my door to the bathroom
in front of me is closed…

…An intruder…

…But who? Could it be Monokuma? I would make the most sense, considering That…but if it’s
someone else? No, that should not be possible, the door is lock―

…No…it isn’t…the door it’s not locked.

Shit! I had it that bad that I made such a stupid mistake!? How could I forget about that?
Goddammit, and all because I couldn’t avoid acting like a brat and doing―

Stop.

I…I can reprimand myself later, right now I have to focus on the intruder part. Fortunately, I was
not fool enough to leave my clothes outside the room, they are here in the hanger with the towel.

I don’t know how long before whoever this person is gets inside, so I will prioritize on just picking
up my daggers as I can’t allow myself to get caught in the middle of putting some clothes.

After turning off the shower so I could hear the footsteps, I quickly approached to the hanger, used
the towel to dry up my hands and pulled out my weapons out of the jacket. Then I proceeded to
stick to the wall besides the door…and waited.

*thud* *thud* *thud*

I could hear the muffled sound of footsteps slowly hitting the floor, closer and closer. And as they
did, I readied a dagger. I was not going to kill whoever got inside, as doing so would practically be
committing suicide in my current circumstances, but I know of a few places I can hit someone for
incapacitation purposes.

Regardless, I also prepared myself when I saw the bathroom door slowly opening. And just when I
saw the very first millimeters of a person getting inside, I was about to launch my attack―

“S-Shigaraki…?”

―Only to stop myself in the middle of it when I heard the shacky voice of Enoshima.

…W-What…?

…W-What…What…What is she doing here!?

While my mind was becoming a turmoil of emotions, Enoshima got inside the bathroom and as
soon as she looked to her left and caught sight of me, for some strange reason her worried face
turned to one of joy, as if seeing the greatest thing in the world.

“Shigaraki! Y-You…You’re alive!”

And then proceeded to hug me.

“E-Enoshima!? W-Wha…What are you doing!?”

She seemed to have none of it “Shut up! Do you have any idea of how worried I was when you
didn’t showed up at the meeting!? Then that jerk of Togami had to open his mouth about how
you…you most probably being…” She trailed off, but the implications of it were clear enough.

I pursed my lips at that while my panic waned. I was not that worried about the getting late part
because I thought that they wouldn’t mind my lack of presence that much ‘I’m kind of used to
that…’, if anything, that would’ve probably made them relax more…

…But of course, I had to forget about taking Enoshima as a factor, didn’t I?

With a more controlled voice I addressed Enoshima “…I…I see…um, I’m sorry for worrying
you…it’s just so happened that because of, well, for some reason I woke up later than usual…but
I’m fine, so, erm…you have nothing to worry about”

As I said that, I tried to wriggle out of her hold…

…Key word: Tried.

No matter how much I tried to struggle, I just couldn’t get her off me, and I don’t want to apply
more force than what I’m using right now because I risk to the chance of actually hurting her ‘…I
knew that she was far from an ordinary girl, but…just how much strength does she have!?’

“…*Sigh* Seriously, you can’t just tell me to not worry about it like nothing happened, you know?
I was serious when I said all of that, I truly thought for a moment that you were no longer―Hey!
I’m having a moment here; can you drop it with your wriggling!?” Enoshima growled.

“You don’t understand, Enoshima…I-I really need you to―”

“Need me to what!? I know you’re not the touchy type, but…b-but it’s just a hug! You don’t have
to think too much about it, okay? It’s completely normal thing to do between friends and also―…
Hey, by the way…why are you so wet? Were you doing some exercising?”
…Shit.

“…”

“Not only that, your clothes feel kind of weird…not in a way bad way, but the texture is unusual,
you know?”

I could feel how her hold of me disappeared as she let go of me…t-to…to…to get a…a…proper
look at…me.

“Strange, I didn’t know that you had―…that you had…that…t-that…t…w…wh…wh…w-w-

wh…w-wha…? S-S-S-Shigaraki…y…y-y-you are―!” Enoshima interrupted herself as her words
caught in her throat with a shocked expression on her face…and I could see how her eyes began to
lower and lower until they landed on―

!!!

SHIT!

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH―”

“…*sigh* Somebody kill me, please…” I couldn’t avoid muttering that again.

The day is just beginning at it’s already such a mess, and why? Because I had to forgot to lock the
door.

And what led to making such a mistake? Simple…sleep deprivation.

It is true that I am capable of lasting quite a long time without the need to sleep...but I ended
abusing of it. On the second day, I barely sleep less than two hours thanks to the nocturnal
exploration. On the third day, I had absolute zero hours of sleep because of the wariness I had from
the possibility of Monokuma making a move…and last night…last night…ugh…I just hope it was
worth it.

On normal circumstances, even that shouldn't have been enough to make me into such a mess,
being capable of lasting for a few extra days…but yesterday, thanks to that motive video, it was
anything but normal. The emotional stress it hit me with was not a small one, that plus my lack of
experience on turn of events like that one…where Monokuma made me believe for a moment that
my sister was in danger…or worse, it just hit twice as bad.

So yeah, because of that, when I hit the bed, nothing woke me up, not even the pitch voice of our
'headmaster' as he made his announcement, and it wasn't until I had the bare minimum power nap
of half an hour that I got out of my slumber…and the moments of just a few moments ago
transpired.

...Ugh.

I shouldn’t waste any more time, I am finally properly dressed and every minute of waiting would
cause more problems to the group and most importantly…to myself.

Just hope that they don’t make a fuss of this…oh, who I am trying to fool?
Making a fuss of things it’s their favorite activity.

As soon as I opened the door, I caught sight of the entire class in front of the entrance to my room.

And in turn, everyone turned to me, just as ready to voice their respective reactions to my presence.

“S-Shigaraki! You’re alive!” Naegi exclaimed with a smile on his face.

Yeah, Enoshima already told me that.

“Oh! And he has his clothes too!” Hiro commented.

Gah!

“…Dude, you didn’t had to come and say it…TMI, ya know?” Leon added “…Though I guess he’s
really a lucky guy to have a girl―”

“Do not finish that sentence” I stated with the slightest signs of a growl.

The baseball star flinched at that “H-Hey, hey, my lips are locked, s-see?” he said while nervously
doing a locking gesture in his mouth.

“So, the Assassin lives, huh? That’s an unexpected turn of events…” Togami mused to himself.

Geez, miss you too, Togami.

“Fufufu, it seems that Master Shigaraki carries the ultra-rare ability of possessing extra lives,
indeed, only someone like him could acquire such a cheat power” Yamada declared.

Just as usual, I didn’t understood half of what this guy said.

Before any more reactions could happen, a loud ‘and kinda obnoxious’ voice interrupted them.

“Shigaraki! While I celebrate for your integrity, you must know that your tardiness is unacceptable,
more so because of the no small amount of uneasiness that allowed to plant among ourselves, do
you have anything to say in your defense!?” Taka declared while pointing a finger at me.

…Defense, huh? I suppose that the best course of action is to be ‘honest’ in this case…

“…It’s not a reasonable excuse per say, but I actually overslept, I just woke up recently” I
commented.

“What!?” For some reason Togami looked shocked at that revelation.

“Hehe, see? I told ya guys Shigaraki-chi was just a similar case to Maizono-chi. Even if that crap
from yesterday was fake, it was terrible sleep material!” Hiro declared.

Ah, that must be what surprised the Heir that much. Hiro being right about something is quite the
novel experience.

As for the moral compass…

His face turned into a conflicted one “Mnghh! So you two were similar cases, huh? In the case of
Maizono, I let her go with a warning…but doing the same twice in a row would only cause the
anarchy to reign, and that is something I can’t allow for the sake of our prosperity” Then he
pointed his finger at me again “Shigaraki! I will take note of this and once we get out of this place,
you will be put into detention in a proper educational environment, is that clear!?”

Everyone was looking at the moral compass as if he was crazy ‘Which to be fair, he kind of is…’,
but knowing him…

“…Mhm” It’s better to just go on with it, whether he remembers this or not ‘It’s hard to known
when it comes to that guy…’ is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things…and at least he didn’t
recur to the nonsense of reporting me to Monokuma.

With a stiff nod, Taka spoke again “Alright! Well…with this matter resolved, I believe we are
done here!”

“…Um, last time I rushed into thinking that nothing bad happened…but now we can believe that,
correct? There’s no one else missing, right?” Fujisaki asked with a hopeful voice while looking
around at everyone present.

Soon everyone followed ‘her’ example, including myself, looking for anyone missing among the
group…Although in my case, I focused on three people in particular.

The first one was Leon.

Looking at him, I could see that just like the rest of the group he was moving his gaze left and
right, though there were some moments where he rubbed the back of his neck while wincing every
time he did…but beyond that, he seemed fine, I would even say relaxed if it weren’t for that neck
problem…

…It seems I was right about him not suspecting a thing, good, that’s less problems for me.

Then I proceeded to move my gaze to Maizono.

I could see the slight signs of stress on her expression while she looked nervously at everyone
around her, said stressful face seemed to intensify every time her eyes landed on Naegi…and when
they landed on me, she flinched while returning to look around in a more hurried pace.

…Sigh. If I am honest…I’m not surprised that she sniffs something is up while suspecting of me,
stupid is not a word I would use to describe Maizono ‘Impulsive seems more accurate…’

But seeing that everything points to her not intending to make a scene, then I suppose I can call it a
victory.

…And lastly…Enoshima.

Even if I didn’t showed it on the outside, I couldn’t help but become a bit nervous when looking at
her and noticed the flustered expression on her face while she was rubbing her left arm and moving
her eyes to the sides. Eventually, they ended up landing on me and just as fast she gave yelp while
quickly turning to look on the opposite direction.

…That bad, huh? It’s understandable, really. Saying that I screwed up would be the understatement
of the century. I’m not an expert in the area ‘Whoa, really?’ but I feel like talking to her right now
would just make things worse, so I should just give her space to recover from that experience.
Regardless, after looking at each other for quite a while, it seems that every single one of us came
to the same conclusion.

“I believe you have nothing to worry about Fujisaki, everyone is present” Ogami said with an
understanding smile.

Hina pumped up a fist at that “Yeah! Whatever that creepy bear thought he would get out of this, it
didn’t worked at all!”

Togami for his part, took a more pensive look “Hmm, this is quite an unexpected turn of events, I
thought for sure that someone would’ve fell for the motive…”

…If only you knew…

“Tch, of course you would sound so sullen about it ya bastard” Owada snarled.

“Now, now, this is not a moment for internal conflict among our group, on the contrary! We faced
this trial by fire and we conquered it with perfect marks, those are excellent news my friends!
Hahahaha!” Taka exclaimed with vigor.

On that, the group seemed to agreed unanimously, myself included…but for different reasons.

Looking around, seeing how every single classmate is present and alive, while most of them are
patting themselves in the back at a ‘work well done’ with positivity flowing in the atmosphere…I
couldn’t help but wonder…

…How is He going to react to this?

*Ding dong ding dong*

It seems I thought that just in time, as the ringing sound signaling an incoming announcement from
Monokuma made everyone shut themselves to listen to it…

…Said announcement went just as I expected.

“…You…you bastards, I want every single one of you in the gym at MY earliest
convenience…that means about RIGHT NOW! Know that those who doesn’t bring their
asses here, can expect a proper punishment for it…that is all”

And that was it.

Not like he needed more to destroy the joyous mood of just a few moments ago.

“W-W-What was that…?” Fukawa warily asked.

“Dunno, but the guy sounded pissed” Leon commented.

“’Course he is, I bet he’s shitting himself that nobody went with his bullshit” Owada added.

"...D-Do you guys think he...he want us to see another video...?" Hina warily asked.

Kirigiri put her own piece “Regardless…you heard him; we must attend to the gym immediately. A
confrontation against him is not a good idea, not when we are his prisoners…and even less now if
how he sounded was any indication”

“Y-You’re right, we don’t know what he is capable of if he gets angrier…” Maizono commented
with a worried expression.

Taka took as his opportunity to lead the conversation “Indeed, now more than ever we can’t allow
unnecessary risks! Let us depart to the gym asap!”

And so, everyone began to made way towards the gym, no doubt with growing dread wondering
what could Monokuma would want.

Though it didn’t went unnoticed by me when Enoshima turned for a moment to face me, with an
expression that looked…

…That looked melancholic…

…And I couldn’t avoid furrowing my brows in concern at that.

The moment we got inside the gym, what greeted us was…

“AAAAARGH! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! O―!” Monokuma furiously
attacking a punching bag…

“Erm, I am imagining things…or does that thing has a picture of a person?” Leon asked aloud.

“It looks like it, and looking closely at it…is…is that Shigaraki!?” Naegi exclaimed.

“…That seems to be indeed the case…curious” Celeste commented.

…Yeah, Monokuma was beating the heck out of a punching bag with my face on it. Where did he
get that picture? From the surveillance cameras, if I had to guess…

“Your on his list, huh? What did you do to piss him off that much?” The biker asked me with a
quirked eyebrow.

And everyone else followed his example in turning to me, curious about what I would say.

…I decided to just shrug it off “…I don’t know, he seemed pretty intent on me killing someone,
maybe he’s angry that I haven’t”

That seemed to be enough to satisfy the gang leader and most of the class desire for an
explanation…with the obvious exceptions of Togami, Celeste and Kirigiri.

The heir and the gambler showed obvious skepticism in their own respective ways but decided that
their time was better spent attending to Monokuma’s call.

With Kirigiri, she opted for just staring at me for a few seconds before departing. Surprisingly, her
gaze didn’t contained suspicion…or at least suspicion that I was up to something bad, besides
being quite intense, there was not much I could say about it.

While everyone got closer to the podium where our ‘Headmaster’ was doing…that, I decided to
move in the opposite direction and lean against the wall, close to the bleachers.

Why? Because there’s still some residue from my lack of sleep.

Of course, I am not suicidal to actually sleep at this moment and break rule three, that’s precisely
why I avoided the bleachers themselves as it had the minimal but actual chance of me resting there
being enough to doze off and, well…not in the mood to die from something like that.

For now, resting on the wall should do.

After one minute of the bear’s antics, he seemed deem enough of punching the fake version of
me…

“…Ora!”

…Not before giving it one last punch.

“Geez, someone woke up in a mood, huh?” Owada commented.

“I don’t know how feel about you of all people saying that Master Owada...” Yamada
sweatdropped.

“Hah? What did you say, bitch!?” The biker growled.

“Nothing! That must’ve been a fairy playing tricks on your ears!”

Kirigiri ignored them to address Monokuma “…We are already here, what do you want?”

Monokuma stopped his glaring contest with fake me to address the mysterious girl “Do you even
have to ask!? The reason for that is obvious…none of you losers is dead! I was promised a kill!
Where is it!?”

Naegi of all people decided to confront the bear “Of course none of us is dead! I told you yesterday
didn’t I!? No matter what you say, there’s no way you could convince any of us to kill each other!”

I could hear some voices of agreement at that.

But instead of getting angrier, Monokuma looked as if he regained some of his usual obnoxious
playful mood.

“…Upupupupu, oh this is not what this is all about…if I am honest, you guys didn’t disappointed
in that area”

I could not see it from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some gained shocked looks at that.

“…Didn’t…didn’t disappointed? What do you mean by that?” Taka asked.

And Monokuma seemed glad to answer “Exactly what I said! One of you decided that couldn’t
hold the temptation of graduating from this place, and last night they attempted to become a bona
fide killer! Just as any proper student of this institution should aspire to!”

I could notice how the heads of everyone began to turn left and right in the direction of the people
surrounding them, looking at each other with suspicion in search of whoever the bear is talking
about…and it didn’t escape me how a certain person flinched when Monokuma said all of that.

“…Is it true?” Fujisaki asked.

“So that’s how it is, huh? Mhmhmhm, I knew it was too good to be true that nobody became
affected by those videos” Togami said with some amusement.
“Hey, hold it right there! Don’t just assume he’s telling the truth!” Owada snapped.

“Owada is right! It’s just part of Monokuma’s scheme…and…and even if someone got to the point
of getting ideas about…that, don’t you guys see!? All of us are here! Whoever this person is, it’s
obvious that they regretted it and backed down from committing a mistake!”

That seemed to turn Monokuma into his previous state.

“Bah! What kind of crap are you saying!? Regretted it!? Backed down from going with it!?
Nothing of that power of friendship bull happened! This person planned to go with this start to
finish and I don’t doubt that they could’ve gotten with it…if someone else didn’t interfered!
Aaargh! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora―” …And he went back to the punching.

But no one paid attention to that, no, their focus was on that new piece of info Monokuma
revealed.

“Interfered…? What does he mean by that?” Ogami asked aloud.

“Isn’t it obvious? Someone sabotaged the plans of this mysterious attempted killer, and in turn they
ended up saving the life of whoever this person selected as their target” Celeste commented.

“I just can’t accept that scenario, a counter-sabotage to get their own kill I can understand, but just
sabotaging and not doing anything else…? Who is this fool? And what could he or she gain out of
acting in such a way?” Togami questioned with his brows furrowed.

“Why he did it doesn’t matter, what we must know is…who is it? Whoever this person is, we must
know! A True Hero like that deserves our praise! Please raise your hand to know who you are!”
Taka declared.

“…”

Once again, their faces moved everywhere, looking for…this ‘True Hero’ among themselves.
When their short search produced no results, Kirigiri turned to face Monokuma once again.

“…It seems this person doesn’t want to be known…and I suppose you wouldn’t tell us either, do
you?”

“―Ora! Puff…hah…I admit that was cathartic…ah, you were saying something?” Monokuma
asked with a tilted head.

If Kirigiri feel offended at that, she didn’t show it “I was asking if you are going to reveal whoever
prevented a tragedy from occurring”

“You call it preventing a tragedy, I call it ruining my fun, but potato-potahto, I suppose…so, about
this party-pooper, honestly, I still can’t wrap my head about him of all people acting in such a way.
Like seriously, out of all you, he’s the last person I expected to do something like that! It just goes
against his very own nature!” Monokuma exclaimed.

At that, everyone turned to…Togami.

…Huh.
“What are you peasants looking at?” The Heir said while glaring at everyone around him.

“W-Well, the bear said the least possible person, and…erm, well, you…” Leon trailed off.

“Dude, you ain’t givin’ yourself any favors being such a pain in the ass every fuckin’ day, who
else is going to be?” Owada said.

The heir only got more annoyed when some people nodded at that “Tch, just so you know, I would
never dirt my hands on such menial task. When the bear is saying ‘last person he expected’ he’s
obviously referring to―…to…What…? N-No…but it can’t be anyone else…but…he…he can’t
truly imply that HIM of all people did something like that! It doesn’t make sense! It goes―”

“―Against his very own nature…” Kirigiri completed for Togami “…And that punching bag! Are
you really suggesting that S―!”

“I know, right!? Nobody could see that one coming, but is the truth! Out of all of you, the bastard
who prevented a murder from happening is mister gloomy fanatic in the corner!” Monokuma
exclaimed.

That declaration made everyone slowly but surely turn in the opposite direction of the podium…at
the corner where I’m leaning on more specifically, trying and failing to hide the shocked looks on
their faces, without exception.

As for myself, I couldn’t help but wonder…

…Did these people seriously recognized he was talking about me by THAT name?
 The Crusher of Hopes and Dreams.

The Crusher of Hopes and Dreams.

What happened to them!?

I need to make sure they are okay!

I can’t waste any more time in this place!

I have to get out of here!

I have to get out of here!

I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!

Those were the thoughts that have been plaguing Sayaka’s head after watching that…that video in
the AV room a few hours ago and became witness to the most despairful scenario possible. Her
worst nightmares coming true.

Ayaka…

Satomi…

Yui…

Minato…

…Ever since she has memory, her only biological family has been her father, but…although she
understands the circumstances behind it and for that very reason, she will always be grateful to
him, she has seen him so few times that sometimes it’s hard to remember his face or…to feel the
kind of connection one should have with those you call family.

On the other hand, it’s a whole different ordeal when it comes to her idol group. Since the
beginning of her idol career, those girls have been with her. Every practice, every choreography,
every song written…every sabotage and complot against their competition, they have been by her
side.

It’s true that every single one of them has their own dreams and aspirations, and at the end of the
day, even among themselves exists a rivalry for the goal of reaching the absolute top…but that
hasn’t been an impediment for them to turn into what she believes is a family, a genuine family in
the truest sense of the word.

And that’s precisely why tonight she will take the life of one of her classmates.

It fills her with no small amount of grief to do something so terrible, and it disgusts her in more
ways than one, not only because of the killing itself, but also because the implications of going
with this are.

She will not only murder a person, but she also will betray everyone trapped with her, after all, how
else could it be called? She’s going to escape this hell disguised as a school, abandon everyone and
leaving behind the corpse of one of them.

And to add salt in the wound…she’s going to betray Naegi, and in one of worst possible ways no
less.

The boy who has already saved her multiple times.

The boy who showed her that true kindness exists in this world.

The boy whose company made her stay in this place slightly tolerable.

The boy who gained a special place in her heart.

…But then that cursed video happened and had to remind her of what is most valuable to her, of
her dream. She has already sacrificed too much to get where she is and every day that she spends
here makes such effort mean less and less, and the chances of her dream getting away from her
grow bigger and bigger and she can’t allow that, No. Matter. What.

She has to do it, tonight she will commit an assassi―

!!!

The Idol’s blood ran cold when she thought of that word and couldn’t avoid looking around her in
search of him. Looking back to the dorms area, around the hallways that are by the sides of it and
every corner her eyes could scan. It would be a lie to say that this was her first time going by this
procedure ever since she left her room.

After almost a minute of making sure that person wasn’t around and was satisfied with the fact that
such was indeed the case, she allowed herself to give a sigh of relief.

That person being of course…Shigaraki.

Even at a moment like this, she has conflicted feelings when it comes to the golden-eyed boy. On
one hand, what she has seen so far paints him as being far from the bloodthirsty killer someone
with his talent would suggest, on the other…

After that incident in the introductions when she used her intuition to get a read of him, she has
been having one hell of a time in her attempts of doing the same again, getting to the point that the
only moments she has been capable of getting an understanding of him, have been the obvious
ones…ergo, those when Junko was involved.

While Sayaka would be lying to herself if she says that didn’t believed in some corner of her mind
that it was cute of him to always get emotional ‘In his own reserved way…’ when the fashionista is
the topic of conversation, that was besides the point, it worried her in no small amount the
unknown of not having an idea of how much he was hiding. The idol knows how hypocritical that
sounds considering she herself has sides of her she couldn’t allow herself to show other people,
especially her fans, and that is also the norm when it comes to every person ‘…Naegi being the
exception’

But it couldn’t be helped, everything else that she actually knows about Shigaraki so far doesn’t
pictures well in his favor. His talent, under who he makes use of said talent, and how their current
situation doesn’t seem to affect him at all are nothing but red flags in her head.

She felt a pang of guilt at being so wary of him to the point of almost considering not going with
this out of fear of him stalking the halls…but no, she…she knows she has to do this; she needs to
know what has become of her group with her own eyes.

And…And it’s not like she’s completely abandoning them, once she gets out of here, she will call
for help so they get rescued, t-that…t-that’s the…the correct thing to do, r-right?

…But killing―

The idol furiously shook her head to wave off those inconvenient thoughts of doubt, she has to
keep at the very front of her mind what’s at stake here. She can’t back down with this, not when
she has already planned everything which with the plus of Shigaraki being the first suspect by
default, has an even greater chance of drifting suspicion away from her.

…Yes, she has to do this, for her dream, for her friends…for her family.

With that renewed resolve she went inside the dining hall, past the tables and towards the kitchen
room.

As soon as Sayaka opened the door and set a foot inside while cautiously looking around, she
caught sight of something that made her involuntary flinch.

At the counter located in the center of the room, Hina and Ogami were drinking what it appeared to
be tea accompanied by some donuts, though the moment they heard the sound of the door opening,
they turned towards her. Fortunately, when they addressed her, Sayaka had already controlled
herself while relaxing her features and making her usual cheery expression.

The Swimmer Pro was the first one to greet her “Ah, Maizono! Sup?”

Followed by the Martial Artist “Greetings”

Noticing that neither of them were looking her with any suspicion, the Idol decided to take this as
an opportunity be done with this as quickly as possible “Good evening guys. Please don’t mind me,
I’m just here to pick up a drink”

Hina nodded at that “Okay, though are ya sure? I don’t mind if ya wanna spend some time with us.
I kind of dragged Sakura cuz of that video which made unbearable the feeling of being alone…ah,
you don’t mind either right, Sakura?”

“I do not” Ogami simply said.

Sayaka for her part, fought the urge to give a reaction when Hina mentioned those cursed videos
while dismissing the invitation with a calm smile “No, no, you don’t have to trouble yourselves,
honest. I will just bring a drink with me and go directly to my room; I feel like that’s what I need
right now”

Hina gave her a sympathizing look “Oh, okay. I suppose that you are right, once we are done with
this Sakura and me will leave to my room. It’s a bit embarrassing hehe, but I really need company
tonight…anyways, you do you Sayaka!”

With one last nod towards the athletic duo, the Idol went towards the fridge. Once in there, the Idol
grabbed a random beverage bottle while giving an inconspicuous look towards the other habitants
in the room.

When she confirmed that neither of them was paying attention, Sayaka left the fridge and with
silent steps she approached the set of knives hanging behind them. Making sure one last time that
she wasn’t being watched…the idol picked up the second largest one.

“Good night, girls” Giving a farewell to avoid suspicion, Sayaka hurried out of the kitchen.
Once she was out and made sure that nobody else was in the dining hall, looking left and right, in
front and behind her, she once again allowed herself to give a shaky sigh of relief.

…She…she had done it…

…She truly picked it up…

…The knife that will take―…no…it’s the knife that she will use to take a life…

…T-There’s…There’s no coming back from this…right? She…she will really do it, won’t she?

The Idol furiously shook her head at those poisonous thoughts of doubt that were interfering again
with what she has to do, because indeed…there is no going back from this, for the sake of what she
holds dear the most…

…She will do it.

With that grim determination surrounding her very soul, Sayaka moved forward…towards the
room of the boy she will betray tonight…

…And all the while being completely ignorant of the murderous shadow that has been stalking her
since the beginning.

From besides the kitchen door, I saw Maizono leaving the dining hall while hiding what it
appeared to be a 6-inch knife behind her. ‘That’s the second largest one if I’m not mistaken…’

Personally speaking, I feel like it’s a bit too big of a weapon considering both the size of the person
intended to use it and how said person is intending to use it, though I can’t deny that out of all her
other options, that one is the ‘safest option’ when it comes to someone who has no experience
using knives in such a way and wants to get the job done in a single surprise attack, and if I
remember correctly, girls received a map marking the vital points of the body, which just solidifies
her chances. Overall, either she got lucky or she really gave it a though at the moment of picking up
the weapon, regardless…

…It seems this wasn’t for nothing.

Of course, I’m talking about stalking the pop Idol thorough the day. Well, I say thorough the day,
but the truth is that I’ve been only following her movements since only 13 minutes ago, as the past
12 hours previous to that I have spent them scouting the halls of the first and only available floor
and guarding Maizono’s room door.

The first 6 hours were to keep tabs of everyone’s location, switching between searching certain
areas and returning to inspect the dorms, all of this to make sure no one else was up to anything
and localize the Idol in the first place, as I didn’t knew where did she go after leaving the A/V
room.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that hard of a task. With a combination of my removed presence and the fact
that most people didn’t wanted to deal with anyone else for the rest of the day, I was able to pin-
point every single one of them. The big majority went to their rooms after one or two hours of
grooming in different corners of the school, said majority included Enoshima, who seemed to take
my advice of being cautious for today’s nighttime to heart, something for which I couldn’t avoid
giving a quiet sigh of relief…and feel a certain amount of guilt.
What I’m planning to do tonight is an act of spitefulness against our captor…but after that…my
future plans after being done with this…

…I…I shouldn’t let myself get distracted by that…

…Either way, by the time those 6 hours came to an end, I was able to conclude that Maizono was
in her room, both by process of elimination and because I got confirmation of it when I overheard
Naegi, who was apparently looking for anyone he could find, indicating Taka that he escorted her
to her room, and considering how relieved it sounded when saying it, I doubted it was a deception
from his part.

Those who didn’t left to their dorms by that time where Ogami, Hina and Hiro. In the case of the
Martial Artist and the Swimming Pro, I only managed to see that they went inside the kitchen, and
while I didn’t wanted to risk getting caught because of the door opening and with someone like
Ogami inside to not miss that, I made use of the fact that, unlike our dorms ‘If those giggles coming
from inside were any indication…’, the insides of the kitchen room aren’t soundproof to listen in
for a pair of minutes. When I didn’t hear any sound of struggle or signal that someone was being
attacked after a few minutes, I took that as a green light to leave those two be.

The chances of anything happening between those are low, way too low…but I had to make sure.

Anyway, in the case of the ‘Clairvoyant’, I saw him get inside the laundry room. Again,
considering that the guy is way too ignorant of the situation we were in to the point of believing I
was some kind of storyteller ‘Still can’t wrap my head around that…’, I doubted he represented
any problem…even so, I wasn’t taking any chances. When I took a peek inside, moving the door
only the bare minimum I managed to catch him…meditating? It seemed that way to me.

Either way, after confirming that he was not up to anything suspicious I left him be.

All of that brings me to what I did the next 6 hours: Wait.

I admit that of all possible people, Ogami and Hina being on the kitchen instead of their rooms was
a stroke of luck, because that allowed me to lean against the corner between their rooms while
giving me a window of opportunity to move if I see them approach in the distance.

Although Hina wouldn’t have been much of a problem as long as I keeped my lack of presence,
Ogami…well, the A/V room proved that if I keep my distance and avoid releasing any killing
intent, I’m safe.

‘…Though I admit that the killing intent part was easier said than done…I am still pissed at that
piece of shit of our captor…’

Anyway, the reason why said spot in particular was so important is because it allowed me to keep
an eye on the rooms of every single one of my classmates. On my left I was able to see the rooms
of Hina, Fujisaki, Celeste, Enoshima, Fukawa, Togami, Maizono, Owada, Naegi, Taka and
Kirigiri. All of that plus the central area of the hall leading towards the school area, that means that
if either Hina, Ogami or Hiro had moved from their spots and to another room at that time I
would’ve know. And on my right, I had sight of Ogami’s, Leon’s, Hiro’s and Yamada’s rooms.

Basically, if anyone besides those three already outside left their room, I would’ve known that too.
…Of course, I was aware that it wasn’t the perfect method. It had it’s fair amount of holes, like in
the case of two people leaving their rooms at the same time and going in different directions,
especially if they came from rooms in different halls. I’m confident in my speed when push comes
to shove, but in the end, I can’t be in two different places at the same time and that would’ve
eventually left to time frames for said people to exploit…

…Fortunately, it never came to that. All I did was to stand still for about 6 hours in the corner. It
was boring? Absolutely, was that and obstacle? Of course not. Knowing when to play the long
game is an essential trait to have ingrained in the mindset of an Assassin. Not all missions involve
just going from point A to point B and immediately neutralize the target in said location, actually
scratch that, more often than not, it’s the long game route.

Looking for blind spots on the place where the objective is located, whether we are talking of
security guards, which include their patrol times, how many of them are and where are they
displayed, video monitoring or both. Identifying any extra defense measures they could have at
their disposal. Securing exit routes, among others. Those are the kind of tasks one has to take care
of either with days ahead or on the spot to guarantee a successful mission.

And I could go on and on about other details like the disposal of evidences or plant false leads to
put the attention away from yourself, but that doesn’t matter at the moment. The point is, I waited
for hours and hours without batting an eye at the boredom of it until finally my suspicions about
Maizono intending to make a move because of the killing intent I felt on her seemed to pay off as I
saw her leave her room dangerously close to the nighttime announcement.

Which brings me to this very moment where I’m witnessing the Idol leave the dining hall with a
kitchen knife on her.

It seems this is where the real thing begins…

…Keeping my presence removed, I followed her.

After some minutes of trailing behind her at a moderate distance, the Idol finally stopped at her
desired destination.

Naegi’s room.

Before doing anything else, Maizono nervously looked left and right with a wary expression
plastered on her face.

I admit that the first time she did that, I thought for a moment that she had actually found me out,
maybe all thanks to her highly developed intuition, but considering that she has been doing this on
multiple occasions and even some times sighed in relief after being done with it, the most logical
alternative is that she’s just being cautious ‘…To some degree’

In any case, after ‘making sure’ no one was around, the Idol…proceeded to intensify her wary
expression and then pressed the doorbell button.

My brows slightly raised up at that.

‘Did she really choose him of all people…?’

My surprise doesn't come from the possibility of Maizono being capable of killing him, I'm not
denying her capability for it. What I find…baffling I think is the best word to describe it, is that if
she really is selecting him as her victim, then she’s choosing the worst target possible.

Of all her options…if Maizono were to dispose of the lucky student, it would be like screaming ‘I
am the culprit’ to everyone. True, just like I have pointed out at the beginning, first and foremost, I
will become the first suspect in every scenario save the ones with a witness to prove otherwise…
but if you rely on only that and nothing more, then you are already digging your own grave.

Like sure, the attention will be on me for a moment, but cynical and smart people like Togami,
Celeste and Kirigiri will eventually see the holes of a killing as direct as this one and its lack of
incriminating evidence against me.

Something like getting out of the room, going to the kitchen, grab a knife and going for the kill just
as soon as you got it even when you are aware of some people still out there it’s an impulsive act…
just way too impulsive of an act for even someone like Maizono in her current state of mind.

While it is true that she’s now desperate enough to be willing to kill someone, she’s not so far gone
as to being incapable of keeping some degree of composure. That Ogami didn’t caught her in the
act of picking a knife and that she’s now preparing herself to put an act are proof of that.

Oh, I don’t doubt the feelings she’s showing right now, those videos were completely capable of
that…but that didn’t mean I didn’t notice the mechanical way in which her features transitioned
from one way to another.

With that in mind, when the suspicion moves from me, the immediate next suspect will be the
person Naegi spend the most time with, and that would be Maizono herself…she understands that,
right? I don’t think someone needs the same training and experience as me to come to that same
conclusion.

…It just doesn’t make sense.

Regardless of my opinion on the matter, I saw how Naegi opened the door, and after looking at her
face and some quiet words from the Idol, he let her in on to his own room with no hesitation.

…Sigh, that boy has too much faith in people. ‘That’s a kind way to put it…’

…Do I really have to make my move this soon…? For this to go as I planned to, I really need to
prolong it a bit more, right now is…just too early.

…Tch, goddammit, it can’t be helped…there are 3 minutes left until the nighttime is announced, if
she doesn’t gets out of the room by then, I will ring the doorbell to scare her off. For now, I will
take this window of opportunity to return to the corner between Hina’s and Ogami’s rooms…

…Though in the minuscule chance that Naegi is actually dead by then…

…Well, I will cross that bridge when I get there.

*Ding dong bing bong*

“Ahem, Ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m. As such, it is officially
nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, entry at that point is strictly
prohibited. Okay then…sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed
bugs bite…”

And that’s my cue.

I prepared to move towards Naegi’s room…

…Just to immediately retreat and hid behind the wall in the second set of rooms when I saw his
room beginning to open ‘Prescence removed or not, I doesn’t hurt to take extra care…’. From
there, the person who emerged was…Naegi.

He looked to the sides with a cautious, but neither worried or scared expression before walking
towards Maizono’s room and getting inside…

…Hmmm, I see how it is…

Considering that Naegi seems fine, both in appearance and psychologically speaking…unless he
had fended off Maizono’s attempt against his life and reversed the situation, wiped off the blood
from his body ‘Or being skilled enough to finish her off without getting any blood spilled…’ and
changed into a new set of clothes, all of that in less than 3 minutes. Then the only other option is
that the Idol had convinced Naegi to switch rooms.

Something that wouldn’t break the rule 3, because that rule never specifies in which dormitory you
have to stay. That’s a good use of a loophole right there…

…I can see where she is going with this…and it works just fine for me.

I would have to wonder who she is going to choose as her target, though before doing that…

I moved towards the north hallway in the dorm area, the one with the trash room and the
bathrooms and hid behind its wall. A few moments later, I heard the voices of Hina and Ogami.

“Sakura, thanks a lot, really! I know this is a very strange request from me, but I don’t really think I
will be able to sleep tonight if I’m alone…again, sorry, I promise you I will make it up to you!”
The Swimming Pro exclaimed.

“Do not worry, dear. If this will ease your mind, I’m more than willing in accompanying you
tonight” Ogami replied.

I was unable to hear any more of their conversation as Hina pulled the door…and both her and
Ogami got inside.

…Sigh.
I’m just grateful I never felt killing intent in neither of them at any point…though that doesn’t
mean I don’t feel like most of these people are trusting in each other way too much and too
quickly.

‘As if I’m any different…’

In any case, the only person outside it’s room right now is Hiro, which is perfectly within
acceptable parameters, and seeing that it is now nighttime, any person leaving their room is
suspicious.

While walking towards what is becoming my favorite corner to lean on, I glanced back at the
surveillance camera, whose lens where completely focused on me with grim determination.

‘I hope you are paying attention; you piece of shit…’

The pieces are set, all preparations are done, the performers ready and it has already passed enough
time to sell my act.

It is time to get on with my tantrum.

I admit that while boredom wasn’t a problem, standing still doing absolutely nothing, plus almost
48 hours of not sleeping, that my last sleep was of less than two hours previous to that and the
turmoil of emotions from this day, it is also true that I was not doing myself any favor in the
staying awake department. It’s far from putting me in danger of breaking rule 3 by accident, but it’s
important to be aware of the issue to keep myself in alert of it.

Fortunately, the doing nothing affair is soon to be solved as after three hours and some minutes
past-nighttime announcement, Naegi’s room…the one where Maizono currently is, was beginning
to show signs of opening up.

Taking that as my cue to move behind the wall of the east hallway, I took a peek to observe what
she is going to do.

The first thing Maizono did as soon she left the room was to pick up the nameplate of Naegi’s
room, walk towards her own room, pick up it’s nameplate while replacing it with Naegi’s, then she
went back to the lucky student room and did the same with her nameplate.

“…”

Once she was done with that, she walked in direction of the east hallway, the same one I’m
currently in. Though just to be sure, I waited until she was between Celeste’s and Fujisaki’s rooms
to confirm that she was not going to stop in anyone within the south hallway.

Only until she was about to turn into the next corridor, I dashed towards the north hallway. From
there, I didn’t had to wait long before the Idol stopped dead in her tracks and turned on the
direction of…Leon’s room.

The next thing she did was to take out what it appeared to be a piece of paper, then she crouched
down and slipped said paper under the Baseball Star door. Finally, she rang the doorbell and
hurried out of there, I didn’t had to follow her to know where.

And neither I had to read the note to have an idea of it’s contents. Now it was a matter of…will he
bite the bait?

Four and half minutes later gave me the answer of that.

“…Wrong room, okay? That’s what this note says…dude! I can’t believe she’s really inviting me,
the Sayaka Maizono herself! And in the middle of the night no less! Hehe…maybe she wants
to―No, no, I have to keep it cool, don’t wanna freak the girl” A Leon grinning from ear to ear
exclaimed while looking at a note in his hands.

Alright, I have left this going on long enough. It is time to make my own move.

“Man, I must be dreaming right now, like seriously!” He said while beginning to walk towards the
opposite direction of where I currently am in a giddy pace.

There.

“Someone pinch me―ACK!”

Any other thing the Baseball Star could say was cut off when I leaped towards him and gave a
chop on his neck, making him loss consciousness in a single strike, from there, gravity did its job.

*THUD*

After Leon fell to the ground, I approached him, more specifically to pick up the note he had on his
hand, and began to read it.

There’s something I want to talk to you about, just us two. In five minutes, come see me in my
room.

Check the nameplates to make sure you don’t get the wrong room, okay?

Sayaka.

Hmm, okay, it seems my hunch was right.

From everything I have seen so far, I’m confident in having a solid Idea of her plan.

She plans to kill Leon inside Naegi’s room, probably move the body to the bathroom, get rid of
other evidence, then switch back the nameplates, and walk first hour in the morning as if nothing
has happened to avoid suspicion of the exchange of rooms ever happening and to put the knife back
into place.

As something I’ve been repeating to myself again and again, I don’t know how the ‘unless they
are discovered’ works, maybe that’s enough to classify as it, because technically speaking she
would’ve killed someone without no one being witnessing of it.

But the chances of it are low, it’s way too convenient for the killer instead of Monokuma, in that
case, she got it covered by using me as the front scapegoat, and if that doesn’t stick, Naegi works
as a more solid one, as under normal circumstances, only those two would know of the switch of
rooms.

I can see that Maizono took the Lucky Student personality as a factor for this, she knows that he
will not reveal a thing, at the very least not until the body is found and even so, from what I have
seen so far, it does exist the chance that Naegi would still keep vouching for her, having faith that
probably it’s the work of a third party, Monokuma among the top of his list.
In the chance Naegi eventually reveals what they did tonight, Maizono would be the ‘only’ person
that could confirm or deny it from happening.

…It is pretty obvious which route will she choose, and it won’t help that he will bring it relatedly
late into the game, for some, if not most of the group that will sound more like an excuse than
anything else, plus points for the reputation of Idol when in comparison to Naegi.

As for the victim itself…Leon Kuwata.

From a simplistic point of view, it would seem like it’s a stupid idea from Maizono’s part to choose
him, because of him being a professional athlete while Maizono is an Idol and a girl, but…

…Similar to Naegi, I can see that she did her homework for him too.

First of all, her options to who invite are limited.

Togami? Good luck with that.

Celeste? Similar case.

Fujisaki? ‘She’s’ probably too scared to trust a note in the middle of the night after watching
something too traumatic, Maizono probably knows about this. The programmer is way too
emotional, so it’s not a challenge to understand that.

Owada? He’s way too strong for someone like Maizono and I don’t doubt he will keep his guard up
in the abysmal chance he were to actually follow along with the note, because that in itself is an
obstacle for the Idol.

Me? Right, invite the Ultimate Assassin to your room and attempt to kill him, what could go wrong
with that?

The rest of the class were a similar case, either they were way too stronger than the Idol, or they
would be wary to accept something like that in the middle of nighttime. ‘Though I feel that Taka
would reject such invitation out of his moral code rather than anything else…’

With Leon, while the strength part is up to debate ‘I remember he said something about not liking
going to practice on the first day…’, well, his reaction just before getting knocked out summarized
it enough.

Besides Enoshima, Naegi and Kirigiri ‘…She’s the second person I’ve interacted with the most…
what the hell…?’, I have only talked with the rest of the class when in a meeting and in a
superficial level, but even with that, the only superficial facts about Leon give me an idea of why
he is Maizono’s ideal target.

He seems and acts like a flirty type of person and he has talked about how much he dreams of
becoming a musician. When a girl like Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, invites him to meet
her in private, instead of becoming wary or suspicious of it, he gains high expectations about what
could happen between the two. Either because he thought she would help him with his music
career or…well…other things.

So yeah, he gets inside the room with his guard down, Maizono waits for the right moment…and if
she does not hesitate at the last second, not even for a moment, then she would get away with her
murder without Leon ever seeing it coming. It is risky…but killing people always is.

It has its holes, like allowing Ogami and Hina see her in the kitchen that close into the nighttime
announcement or how she would deal with her clothes spilled with blood ‘Just like Naegi, I doubt
she’s skilled enough to do a clean kill’.

But overall, credit where is due…for someone who has no experience in this area, Maizono
managed to come up with something considerably ruthless and effective, making use of both her
strengths and vulnerabilities while exploiting the weakness of others ‘One would have to wonder
how much of this she had already planned before this morning events…’.

That and it makes me wonder about the self-preservation instincts of some members of the class.

Anyway, regardless of her plans, I’m about to stomp on them, so musing more about it is just
wasting time.

Putting the note in the right pocket of my jacket, I crouched again, only this time to turn around the
Ultimate Baseball Star and begin to poke him, looking for an item in particular. When I felt
something solid in the pocket of his own jacket, I picked it up, revealing what I was looking for.

The key to his dorm.

Maizono will get suspicious if nobody gets to her room anytime soon, so I need to hurry up with
this.

First, I picked up Leon himself and put him on my right shoulder, carrying in a not so different way
than what you would do with a sack of potatoes. Then, I used his room key to get inside his
bedroom. Once there, I moved to his bed…and dropped him there, took off his shoes and removed
his jacket and put it on the table.

With that done, I returned the key in the same spot I found it, left the room and closed it.

…This wouldn’t have been much of a problem if this were a regular mission and I planned to kill
him later, but turns out that is not the case. As much as I don’t like it, I will have to rely that he
doesn’t make a scandal on his door not being unlocked and that he will wake up with some clothes
‘I have no idea how much of his attire he keeps on his sleep, I just went with a safe guess…’ on the
possibility of him believing that he didn’t took proper care of neither of those because he was just
too tired for it.

And considering that he was naïve enough to fall for a trap like the one Maizono laid out for him in
combination with how much the guy talks about taking naps, who knows? Maybe he will think of
these recent events as a dream.

In any case, it seems there’s one last person I need to paid a visit.

Lo and behold, I found myself in front of Naegi’s room.

With and absolute lack of hesitation, nervousness, trepidation or the like, I opened the door. The
moment I got inside; I took a moment to take in on the sight of the room.

The Lucky Student room was…surprisingly spartan. From what I could see in my current position,
it was exactly the same as mine, without the furniture remarking my talent obviously, which means
that his room had nothing related to luck either. But beyond all of that, what had my absolute
attention where two things in particular.

One was a strand of blue hair hanging next to the wall leading to the bathroom door, and the
second is…the tip of a blade.

…I suppose she’s confident the person she expects to see won’t notice them. Although the fact that
said tip of the blade was shaking wasn’t doing any favors to that theory.

Was she nervous? Scared? Will she hesitate at the moment of truth? Panic perhaps? Which one of
them holds true?

We will never know.

Doing it on purpose, I took a loud first step.

…Then a second one…

…A third one…

“F-F-FORGIVE ME!” …And on the fourth one, Maizono jumped out of her ‘hiding spot’ just in
time to shakily thrust her knife into…

…Absolutely nothing.

“W-Wha―GAH!” Maizono cried out as, same as with Leon, I knocked her out with a chop on back
of her neck, and considering she didn’t showed any sign of recognition in the half a second she
faced me, then I’m sure that at most, the only thing she saw was a shadowy blur before I got
behind her.

But unlike the Baseball Star, I grabbed her with one arm before she fell to the ground, otherwise
there was a risk of stabbing herself with the knife on her hand, which I picked up and threw it aside
for the moment to take care of a bigger priority.

This time around, I held her by the armpits until I dropped her on the bed. After that…

…I did nothing else.

Again, unlike the redhead, it’s next to impossible that Maizono will think that any of what
happened was a dream. Accommodating her to sell the illusion that nothing occurred is a useless
endeavor, by the next morning I’m sure she will know that someone interfered with her murder
attempt ‘And who knows how she will react to that, though that’s no longer my problem…maybe…
well, it depends if she figures out it was me who did this…sigh, of all people, it had to be the one
with the abnormally good intuition…’, so I will just leave her like that.

…Because, just like Leon, my objective was never to kill her.

With nothing else to do, I went to pick up the knife and put it on my third and largest inner pocket,
and left the room.

After that I went to my room to call it a―as if.

If I am going to act like a brat, then I’m going to go through it to the end. I went to the corner that
granted me sight of all the dormitories…and stood there, all the while looking up at the camera
from which I could almost feel the hostility against me.

That almost made the corners of my mouth to stretch upwards.

If you want to stay awake with me all night, then so be it. Nobody is going to kill anyone tonight if
I have anything to say about it, you piece of shit.

Indeed, last night I prevented a murder from happening…though I can see that my classmates still
can’t wrap their heads about that, their incredulous faces tell me that much.

“T-T-The Assassin…?” Fukawa whispered in disbelief.

“Shigaraki…he…he stopped a murder from occurring…?” Naegi asked in to no one in general with
confusion in his tone.

I suppose even someone like him never saw it coming ‘Not that I blame him, I could see from the
corner of my eye that Enoshima is just as surprised by this…’.

“…My, this certainly is…a true unexpected turn of events” Celeste commented.

Relatedly composing from the shocking news, Kirigiri spoke up “Is it true then? What Monokuma
is saying about you stopping someone from trying to ‘graduate’ from this place?”

At that question, the silence returned, all the while everyone was looking intently at me, waiting
for the response I would give.

…I don’t know why do they want my confirmation if I am honest, but what can be done about it,
the cat’s outta the bag anyway.

It can’t be helped, I guess “…It is true” was my simple response.

Just as usual of this over-eccentric group, their reactions were soon to follow after my statement.

“Say whaaaaaaa!?” Yamada was the first to react.

“Of all people…are ya really telling me this dude did something like that!? What the hell!?” The
gang leader questioned.

“Did this guy really saved a life!? Holy shit, are ya for real!?” Leon added just as surprised.

Well, considering you are still breathing…

Curiously enough, the person who had the strongest reaction was…

“The Assassin interfering in such a way, that…that…that doesn’t make any sense!” Byakuya
exclaimed, then he turned to me “You! I demand an explanation! Why!? What reason could you
have to take this course of action!? What benefits could you gain out of doing this!?”

…What could I gain out of this? Well, that is certainly something I have clear. The reason why I
prevented Maizono from committing a murder was…

…Despair. That’s all.

Yesterday actions were to reap despair, not to me, neither for Maizono or any other classmate, no,
the despair was for Monokuma…or whoever controls that thing.

That’s also why I wanted to prolong it as long as possible and I didn’t stopped her since the
beginning, something I definitely could’ve done.

I wanted to sell a performance to the mastermind behind this.

For that, I needed to give him hope.

I gave him hope that his motive worked on me.

I gave him hope that he made me fall into despair.

I gave him hope that I was going to make my own move.

I gave him hope that I was going to do it by making use of another person own plan in my favor.

I gave him hope that I was going to murder Maizono, that this motive he bragged so much about
was going to turn as he expected…

…And then I crushed that hope when I did nothing to her and spent all night guarding the rooms,
making sure no one did anything suspicious. ‘And beyond Hiro coming back to his room some
minutes after I began my watch, that ended up being the case…’

Looking at the livid expression of our ‘headmaster’ ‘Or what it counts as such…’ I suppose I can
say that tantrum of mine was worth it to a certain level.

Because that’s what it was, a metaphorical middle finger towards him, but…

…But that’s not my true goal. No, my personal objective is to kill the person who controls
Monokuma. Whether Maki is safe or not, it doesn’t change the fact that this person compromised
her in the first place. If he or she believes for a moment that such an action warrants anything less
than his demise, then he or she is incredibly naïve.

Which is why yesterday actions I call them ‘acting like a brat’ or ‘a tantrum’, as preventing a
murder from happening doesn’t gets me closer to my goal…it delays it. As much as I detest the
idea of going along with Monokuma’s plans, if I want to have any chance of assassinate our
captor…I have to get out of here.

Every single room, every corner, every drawer, every type of container. I have looked everywhere
this first floor allows and I haven’t found anything that helps me get closer to our captor. Staying in
this place will get me nowhere, meanwhile, if I get out…

Brute forcing from the outside will we just as futile, I am aware of that, but it will allow me access
to resources that I don’t have here, and with that fact into consideration…Just like back in that
mission in Europe where I had to deal with a vault door, as long as there are air vents ‘Which there
has to be, otherwise we would be suffocating with the lack of air’…I can make it work.

And that is why, sooner or later, I will have to kill someone…

In any case, that is something to think about later. I can see that once again; the group ‘…and
Monokuma’ is silently waiting for me to respond Togami’s question.

…Huh.

What reason could I give them? Telling them the absolute truth is a big no, while completely
lying…neither is an option, I still don’t trust myself into risking something like that in front of
Celeste.

An ambiguous truth is it then.

“…I had a hunch”

“A…hunch? Um, what do you mean by that?” Fujisaki timidly asked.

And I replied “Exactly that, after we saw those videos, I suspected that for one or two people that
would’ve been enough to convince them that they needed to get out at any cost…eventually I
found evidence that someone was actually going to try something, confronted that person and,
well, you know the rest”

After my response, no one said anything, everyone still staring at me, though when a few seconds
passed and the silence continued…

“…Wait, that’s it!?” Hina exclaimed.

“Mhm” Was my reply.

“Oi, that doesn’t tell us anything! You still haven’t told what reason you could have to do it!”
Owada growled.

“Should there be one in the first place?”

Geez, I really can’t stop myself from saying bullshit at every chance I get, can I?

Regardless, my comment caught some of them off guard.

“What do you mean by that?” Ogami inquired.

“What I’m saying is…why should I need to have a personal goal to do something like what I did?”

Togami, being rightfully cynical, addressed me while sending me a glare “Are you really expecting
me to believe that you…an Assassin of the Salvation Society, did this without expecting to gain
anything?”

I just shrugged nonchalantly at that “You can believe whatever you want Togami, it won’t change
my instance on this or that no one died last night”

The face the Heir was making made it plenty obvious he didn’t liked that answer. ‘Meh’

More importantly, it seems that reminding Monokuma of that last part was pushing a button.
‘Good’
“Bah! You didn’t had to go and say it again, as if it wasn’t enough for you to act like a stalker,
staying all night awake creeping on the poor innocent soul that just wanted to do things properly
and carry out a murder”

I’m actually surprised he didn’t added any direct comment about me being a pervert in that
sentence.

“So it is true then, Shigaraki actually broke the curfew…I can’t hide how disappointed I am that
people are beginning to ignore it this soon” Celeste commented…in a bizarrely genuine tone of
voice.

Curious.

“Girl, your priorities are so messed up” Enoshima commented with a deadpan expression.

“Maybe we can let it slide when it comes to saving lives, right?” Fujisaki added.

“Yeah, sounds like a good reason for a free pass…though I still can’t get into my head that it was
someone with the title of Ultimate Assassin who ended needing it, y’know?” The Baseball Star
said while scratching the back of his head.

“Pfft, Ultimate Assassin? My paws! The only thing anyone expects of that guy is to go around
stabbing people in their backs, but it seems he can’t even do that right. Geez, what kind of third-
rate Assassin are you, Shigaraki? Are you sure that is the right career for you?” Monokuma
commented in a mocking tone.

For my part, I just shrugged again. I’m not going to fall for his provocations.

As for Kirigiri, to no one’s surprise, she wasn’t done with the questions “Either way…there is
another thing we must address”

Taka, and most of the class, gained a confused look at that “...Eh? There is?”

“Oh, that is true. It is good and all that we have found our…unexpected savior, but just as that is
important, I believe it is more to find out…who is this person that is capable of attempting to
commit a nefarious act such as killing a fellow person” Celeste stated.

…Huh, talk about a paradoxical comment.

As the Gambler words sank in, looks of realization made themselves present among the group…
while a certain person flinched and looked more and more nervous.

“Ah, crap, that’s true! We don’t know who that person is!” Hina commented while looking around
with a worried expression.

“Alright! Everyone close your eyes and whoever is responsible of this raise your hand!” Taka
exclaimed.

…Sigh.

“Tch, of course the bastard isn’t going to fall for that. Guess this jackass can stay hidden…for now,
because when I find the piece of shit who tried that stunt, I will give him a world of pain, fuck
him!” Owada snarled.

And now that certain person was blue on the face, probably close to fainting if I had to guess.
While everyone was frantically looking for the suspect, Kirigiri looked as if she wanted to
facepalm while directing her gaze on me “There is no need to look for this attempted murderer…
we already have an easy way to know who this person is”

“Oh? Does such a thing actually exist Miss Kirigiri?” Yamada asked.

Togami actually rolled his eyes at that question “Sometimes I have to wonder how do you people
survive day by day” Ignoring the offended looks, the Heir continued “She is talking about the
Assassin. If he stopped whoever this person is, then there’s no doubt that he knows who are we
looking for”

“Indeed, he is our best chance at knowing the truth about this, that being the case…Shigaraki, are
you going to tell us who did you confronted last night?” The silver-haired girl asked.

…No matter how many times it keeps happening, having all eyes on me is as uncomfortable as
ever, though I suppose that I have to reap what I sow with my actions…and the same goes for her.

Instead of giving an immediate answer, I turned my gaze directly at the person everyone is looking
for, whose face I feel couldn’t become more scared even if she tried to, as if begging for me to not
say anything.

I faced her for enough time that someone as perceptive as Kirigiri understood the silent
implications I was making as she followed my gaze and her eyes slightly widened, it didn’t help
that said person was being terrible at hiding her body language.

In any case, I really wasn’t interested in revealing her identity at the beginning because that in itself
was a can of worms I didn’t wanted to deal with…but exposing her is inevitable. With that mind, I
suppose I could gain some extra points in favor of my image.

“…First of all, I probably should mention that this person didn’t go beyond the planification stage”
I commented.

“Huh? The hell does that matter?” Owada asked with his brows furrowed.

I shrugged at that “I guess that depends from person on person, all I’m trying to say is that she
never got close to actually hurting someone” ‘Physically speaking. I have no idea how he will take
it otherwise…’

Togami for his part, he was getting impatient “So what? Just because whoever this person is such a
pathetic excuse of a failure at carrying out murders, we should sweep it under the rug? Are you
trying to cover for this person crimes?”

I shook my head at that “Not at all. What I’m getting at is…I’m giving her one last chance to
confess for herself”

“…Wait…her? Then are you saying that it’s a―” Any other thing Naegi was going to say was
interrupted…by himself as he looked with growing horror at the shacky hand that was slowly but
surely raising up.

Huh, didn’t really expected her to actually go with it, and so quickly no less.

Those people who weren’t facing in her direction, eventually did, confused as to why Naegi would
suddenly shut himself so suddenly, and just like the Lucky Student, save for Togami and Celeste,
theirs faces couldn’t keep themselves from having a strong reaction.
In the end…she fully raised her hand with tears on her face while her features showed a swirl of
emotions: Resignation, sorrow, guilt and a not small amount of fear and despair.

The rest of the class where a similar case: Confusion, shock, disbelief and despair. Meanwhile the
person who probably is taking it worse of all, not knowing how to properly react at the admission
that is just transpiring before his own eyes, did the only thing he felt capable of.

With a distraught expression, Naegi could only shakily whisper the name of the person he
considered himself with the closest.

“M-M-Maizono…?”

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