"Aren't we just beyond the wavy line on the map?" Shuichi asked once you had crossed.

"You'll find out if you keep goin' forward," Miu replied. "Why don't you go check it out?"

You walked forward with everyone else. It seemed like everything faded out for a moment until the world reappeared, but you were standing farther along the path. You noticed everyone looking around at each other in confusion.

"Wh-What was that!?" Himiko questioned. "What just happened!?"

"It's as if the world itself switched over..." Kiibo commented.

"Could it be...loading?" Tsumugi wondered.

"Correct!" Miu chirped. "I mean, uh...erect!"

"Umm, you said the right word the first time."

"Anyway, Four-Eyes is right..." the inventor continued. "You all just passed through the map loading point. In some games, if you go in a building, it'll take a moment for the inside to fully load. Well, the outside is like that too, 'cause the Virtual World is divided into two large maps. That wavy line represents where the two maps meet. Think of these two maps as if they're two different rooms. In the same way you have to go through a door to move between two rooms, to move between the two maps, you have to pass through the map loading point."

"Hm... So would that be the reason as to why we can't see past that point in the binoculars on the roof?" you asked.

"Obviously, you can't see what's inside one room when you're standing inside the other."

"Ooohh, a map loading point," Kokichi chimed. He then walked through the loading point and back, repeating this a few times. "Ah-haha, how fun. So not only does your sight get cut off, but sound cuts off, too."

"Yeah, you can't hear anything at all while you're inside the map loading point," Miu told him.

"Got it!" He looked down. "But now I don't feel so well... I need someone to take care of me." You just barely managed to catch him glance at you.

"...It won't be me," Maki spoke in her cold tone.

"I wasn't asking you," Kokichi scoffed. "So, anyway...the chapel is over here, right? Well, I'm gonna go on ahead theeeen." He started to walk away.

"Hey, don't just go on ahead!" Kaito yelled after him. "I don't trust you being off alone by yourself!"

"I've got Gonta," he shouted over his shoulder. Then he turned. "It's not like I'll be alone for that long. You all are coming, right? But if it really bothers you all... Eenie, meanie, miney, moo, I choose you! Let's go." He pointed at you and continued to walk towards the chapel.

"M-Me?" you asked, stuttering a bit. You thought that you could feel everyone's gaze land on you.

"What are you waiting for?" Kaito broke the silence. "Catch up to him before he can do anything bad! Don't worry, we'll be right behind you as backup."

You just looked at him, furrowing your brows in exhaustion. Then you turned away and started to run towards the chapel... Liar, you thought. He's a liar, unless he actually thinks that 'right behind' means waiting a few moments before actually starting to walk. You didn't even have to look back, you could just hear his voice among some of the others'.

You finally made it to the chapel, opening the doors and accidentally slamming them shut.

"Whoa!" Kokichi quickly turned around in surprise. "Geez, you scared me...! It's not like you're escaping the Purge, so why do you need to slam the door like that? There are much better things that you could slam anyway."

You took a few more steps inside. "Sorry. I was running and, um...I guess I wasn't paying attention."

You looked around. Boxes were piled up everywhere with various items inside of them. This place...really sucks, I guess.

A few seconds later, the others entered. All of them took in their surroundings.

"This is the chapel!" Miu exclaimed after a small pause. "It's a mess, huh? Now that we've checked out all the important places in the Virtual World... Let's split up and look for this secret of the outside world!"

"Oh, so we're splitting up, huh?" Kokichi hummed. "That's probably better."

"Monokuma did not give us much information about this..." Kiibo grumbled.

"Are we going to be able to find it if we don't know what it is?" Tsumugi asked.

Kokichi frowned. "There's no point in asking whether we'll find it or not! We just gotta do it!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Miu chirped. "Just keep an eye out for anything suspicious and it's bound to turn up!"

"It sounds like we have a difficult task ahead of us," the robot spoke up, "...but I guess we have to see it through."

"Oh, yeah... Before we split up, I wanna ask you something, Miu." The boy walked up to the inventor and started to whisper something to her. She whispered back, and this repeated for a while until he finally walked back.

"What are you two whispering about?" Himiko asked in suspicion.

"Mind your business, titless! Quit stickin' your pot belly where it doesn't belong!"

"How are we going to split up, then?" you spoke up in question.

"Just leave it all up to me!" Kaito exclaimed. "I'll figure out how everyone should split up in a flash!"

"No, no!" Miu interjected. "I'll decide that! I know this world better than any of you, so I'll decide! Kaito, I want you to search the rooftop of the mansion!"

"Huh!? Why do I gotta go up to the rooftop!? It's freakin' cold out there!"

"Yeah! There's no way the faint-hearted Kaito can search in the cold!" Kokichi grumbled.

"Alright! Bring it on!" His eyes gleamed with determination. "All I gotta do is search the rooftop, right?"

Leave it up to Kokichi to trick you with something like that, you thought.

"Kokichi... You're in charge of the salon," Miu continued.

"O-kay! Got it."

"And we need a few people to search the mansion. It doesn't matter who."

Kokichi turned to look at his side. "Then Gonta should come with me. We can search the mansion's surroundings, since no one else wants to deal with the cold."

"Okay... Gonta come with you."

"Mm-hm, a true gentleman must always volunteer to do the dirty work."

"So...you're just going to use Gonta again," Tsumugi sighed. "I've decided! I'm going that way too! I have to make sure you're not abusing poor Gonta!"

"That's a rather harsh way to put it..." you muttered under your breath.

"We should get at least another person on mansion duty. Shuichi, come with us," Kaito ordered.

"Ah, okay..."

"Alright! Everyone else, stick with me here in the chapel and look for the secret!" Miu chirped.

"So Himiko, Maki, Miu, (Y/N), and myself," Kiibo listed. "Understood."

"Let's go back to the mansion," Kokichi said to his group. "We gotta find the secret of the outside world." He turned to you, waved, and left the chapel.

Great. Now I'm...kind of lost. You mentally sighed at yourself and watched some of the others leave to follow the boy. Then you turned to the rest of the people left in the chapel. "So, how are we going to do this? And for how long?"

"Oh, give me one second. I'll be right back." And with that, Miu left the building.

"Huh? I wonder what she could be doing..." Kiibo murmured.

"...I'll go follow her to make sure that she stays safe," you announced. After saying your piece, you followed Miu outside at a distance. You noticed that she stopped and...pushed away the signboard? When she turned around, you did the same and ran back.

"Back!" she announced.

"Nyeh... What were you even doing out there, Miu?" Himiko asked.

"Mind your business!" the inventor snapped.

"...Anyway, back to my questions that I had asked," you spoke up. "Who's going to check inside and who's going to check outside?"

"For now, I think that we should all look around inside."

"But why?" Kiibo wondered. "If it takes all five of us to look around the inside of this chapel then how long do you think that it would take the others to search the mansion?"

"Tch, that mansion has basically been stripped bare naked. This chapel is dirty and has a lot of stuff to go through." Miu motioned towards the piles of boxes everywhere.

"...Well? What are we waiting for?" Maki walked over to a box. "Get to it... It's best if we can get this done and over with sooner."

"We're doing that," you grumbled. You walked over to another box and looked at it. Your brain felt like it turned into mush. You looked around at the other boxes... This is going to be a long day.

It seemed like hours passed.

"Did anyone find anything yet?" Kiibo asked, sounding tired.

"Nothing," Maki responded.

"How long have we even been searching for??"

"Nyeh! Don't give up!" Himiko told everyone. "Don't lose hope, guys! Put in all of your effort and energy into this!"

"As if you're one to talk," you grumbled, rolling your eyes. "You haven't even looked at one box."

"N-Nyeh...? Well, I've been busy cheering you all on, so I don't have any energy left to work..."

"Well it's obvious that we aren't getting anywhere with this," Miu sighed. "You all should stay in here! I have a feeling that we're getting close to something. I just think that I should start looking around outside."

"If that's what you feel is best then please, go ahead," Kiibo told her.

"I won't be gone for long!" Miu claimed. Then she left the chapel, leaving the rest of you there.

More time passed. You just wished that you could go back to your dorm and forget the Virtual World. You couldn't help but to focus on the feeling of dread that was steadily building up in your gut. When a loud thump was heard and the entire chapel shuddered slightly, the feeling only got ten times worse.

"N-Nyeh? Wh-What was that...?" Himiko stuttered.

"It might not be anything important. We should just get back to work," Maki said.

"But what if it is something important?" Kiibo asked nervously. "Come on. It sounds like something happened outside, so we should check out there."

You could only nod at him and rush outside. You looked around at the side where it seemed like the chapel was hit from. There on the ground was Miu's still avatar, along with a piece of lattice and a small flip phone.

You heard the other's behind you. "O-Oh no!" Kiibo exclaimed.

"Guys... S...Stay calm. We should find the others," you announced. You led them over to the river where you saw no bridge... Oh yeah. I saw Miu push it into the river...

"Now how are we going to get across!?" Himiko cried out.

All of a sudden, Shuichi, Tsumugi, and Gonta came running to the other side. "Shuichi, perfect timing!" Kiibo yelled. "Is there anything over there that can serve as a bridge!?"

"Huh? Kiibo's over there?" Tsumugi questioned. "Then what was that shouting I heard earlier?"

Huh? What shouting...?

"Hey, we should hurry and find something else to replace the bridge with," Maki spoke.

"Y-Yeah! We might be able to make it in time!" Himiko exclaimed.

"Make it in time?" Shuichi repeated. "What do you mean—"

"What happened?" Kokichi ran up to the others on his side of the river. "Why are you guys making such a scene? I didn't see anyone in the dining room, so I went to look for you guys... Ah-haha, looks like everyone's in trouble now that Miu dropped the bridge."

"Th-This is no time for laughter! We need to find a replacement bridge," Kiibo told him.

"Ooh, but the bridge is over here, y'know? C'mon, over here." He led the others down the river.

It only took a few moments before they were back, except now Gonta was carrying the signboard.

"So Gonta just need to put board over river? But board is so thin. Will it be okay? What if board breaks this ti—"

"It may be thin, but it's made of sturdy wood!" Kokichi grumbled at him. "So, can you hurry up and put the bridge down!?"

"O-Okay, got it!" The giant placed down the board, allowing you and the other people on your side to get across.

"What's wrong? What happened over there!?" Shuichi asked.

"I'll explain later," Maki spoke up. "But, we need to log our right now."

"Log out?"

You noticed Kokichi looking around before he asked, "Huh? Where's Miu?"

"Something weird happened to her," you responded.

"What do you mean!?" Shuichi was practically sweating bullets.

"We're not sure, but her avatar isn't moving," Kiibo told him with a grave tone. "Maybe something happened in the real world that's preventing her from moving it."

"Th-This looks real bad, guys..." Kokichi mumbled. "Okay...let's head to the salon and log out, ASAP."

"Right..." You followed behind everyone else as they headed to the mansion. Some of them had already left by the time you entered the salon.

"Um... Gonta Gokuhara..." A circle of light appeared around Gonta before the light engulfed him and logged him out.

"He disappeared... So that's what logging out looks like," Shuichi noted.

"So, the avatars disappear when we log out. But Miu's avatar is still here and unmoving, right?... What does that mean?" Kokichi wondered.

"A-Anyway, let's hurry and go back!" Tsumugi stuttered. She rushed over to the phone, whispering her name into it and disappearing.

Shuichi walked over to the phone as well before Kokichi stopped him. "I just wanted to tell you that you're really useful."

"Huh?"

"So, how about you stop hanging out with dumb ol' Kaito, and be my friend instead?" he chirped. "I think I can be useful to you, too...y'know? I can help you save everyone, and you wanna save everyone...riiiight?"

Shuichi frowned at him and hastily picked up the phone. "...Shuichi Saihara," he growled.

It was just you and Kokichi left. You felt something in your heart, a rather unpleasant feeling made even worse by the dread that was already there. The boy walked over to you a placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Whaaat? Something seems off about you," he teased.

"Nothing... I'm fine." Lying or not, you weren't quite sure yourself, you still didn't feel your eyes change color. Ah... If Miu said that she modified out avatars to look like our real selves then she probably didn't know about my eye thing...

Kokichi sighed. "Look. I'm just going to tell you the truth that you can't be the one to end this killing game. You don't speak much and you haven't really developed many relationships with people as far as I know—well, apart from myself, of course."

You looked down to the ground. "I know..."

"But that doesn't mean that I think you're useless. You can investigate with me and Shuichi! How does that sound?"

"What's up with Shuichi?" The question came out before you could even think about it.

"I don't mean anything personal about it, okay? Please look at me."

You did as told.

"You trust me, right?"

Why are you asking this question so much? "...Yes."

"Alright then... We should hurry now. We shouldn't keep the others waiting." Kokichi turned and picked up the phone. "Kokichi Ouma." He logged out.

Once he was gone, you picked up the phone. "(Y/N) (L/N)."

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You panicked a bit at first when all you could see was black, but then you remembered that you still had your visor on. Slowly and carefully, you pulled it off your head and set it down.

That's when you saw it. Across the room in one of the chairs. Miu Iruma's corpse. Small tears rolled down her face from the corners of her eyes. Mouth open, drool apparent. Her hands were up to her neck.

Ding dong, dong ding!

Monokuma bounced into the room. "A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the computer room... Wait, you're already here." The bear looked off into the distance. "Wow, I get to bring you the body discovery announcement live! Whew, doin' it live is great! Better than beer and f*ckin'!"

The two Monokubs waltzed into the room. "Huh? Daddy, have you always had such a potty-mouth?" Monophanie asked upon entering.

"I was holding back 'cause we already had one vulgar cast member, but now it's my time to shine!" the black and white bear explained. "Thankfully, I'm adorable so I can get away with saying all kinds of crude stuff. Yay! I finally get to be a foul-mouthed a**hole!"

"What a vulgar last word!" She looked over at her brother. "What's wrong, Monotaro? You're just staring blankly at the body... St-Staring...at the...body—" She puked...

"..." Monotaro started crying. "...Mommy."

It seemed like everyone was staring at the body, not just Monotaro. Not even caring about what Monokuma or his cubs had to say, you took a shaky step backwards.

I was right... Something terrible did happen...

"I-It's terrible..." Tsumugi whispered. "Why did it end up like this...?"

"Wh-What's going on?" Himiko asked, trembling a bit. "Why was...Miu killed?"

"Gonta...not understand, either... Miu like this when Gonta wake up... Hey! What's going on!? Why this happen!?"

"Well, it's obvious a murder happened," Kokichi told him, gaze slowly starting to drift to the ground. He subtly made his way closer to you until he reached over and grabbed your hand, offering it a comforting squeeze.

"M-Murder!? Wh-What you mean!? Did something happen while Gonta asleep!?"

"We weren't asleep and that wasn't a dream," Kiibo told him. "We were in the Virtual World."

"...Hey, where's Kaito?" Maki asked.

"That's right, Kaito—"

As if on cue, fast sounding footsteps grew louder until the boy himself burst the doors open. "Hey! What's this all about!? What was that body discovery announce—" He looked around. "Wha—! Miu!? Wh-What the hell is going on here!?"

"You're too late, okay?" Kokichi spoke. "All the others finished gasping in terror already. But anyway, where were you this whole time, Kaito? What were you doing?"

"I-I was just taking a nap," he replied, looking down at the floor.

"So, you logged out by yourself and then took a nap? Without our permission?"

"I suddenly got logged out... Before I realized it, I was back here..."

"So you didn't do it on purpose...?" you mumbled.

"Yeah... I didn't know if it was okay to log back in, so I went back to my room and slept."

"Then I wonder if there's some other way to log out..."

Kaito clenched his hand into a fist. "And when that body discovery announcement woke me up, I rushed over here—"

"Hey, Kaito!" Kokichi interjected. "If you're gonna lie, then you might as well do it better! Do you think you can make the killing game more exciting with a crappy lie like that!?"

"I-It's not a lie!" He started to sweat. "I really was sleeping!"

"We can determine if this really is a lie or not later," you spoke up. "We first need to investigate Miu's murder."

"Right... The fact is, if we don't find out who the culprit is, we'll all be executed," Shuichi added. "I won't let that happen. I'll find the culprit so that we can all survive."

Kokichi poked a finger into his cheek. "...Even if the culprit is Kaito?"

"Huh!? What!?" Kaito clenched his teeth.

"Now, now, please save your arguments for the class trial," Monokuma said. "Ta-da! The Monokuma File! With this, you can even investigate up Miu's a**hole!"

"..." Monotaro stayed silent while continuing to cry.

"Well then, do your best! I'm certain you guys'll make this turn of events very entertaining! A**hole!" The bear cackled a bit...before finally making his leave.

Word Count: 3357