"C-Come on, guys!" Kaede ushered the group. She had been the last to wake up out of everyone. "I..I'm sure if we try just one more time w-we'll have better luck! After all, now we have (Y/N) and Shuichi." She motioned over to you two. "We'll be stronger..! And our chances of making it will probably increase!" Shuichi covered his eyes by sliding his hat farther down his head.

"But... Kaede... I'm so... tired," Tsumugi sighed.

"Besides," Rantaro spoke up, face growing dark and a bit unnerving. "If we went through again with them having joined, we'd only be dragging them into our pain and despair." You watched as Kaede's expression grew desperate.

"Guys..." she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

"I am sorry, but going through the tunnel again is a request that I cannot fulfill at this time," Kirumi interjected with a tired look on her face. Her expression showed disappointment, but it was towards herself that she couldn't do anything to help.

"Guys," Kaede repeated, louder this time. "Let's try to make it through again, I have a feeling. This time, we'll—"

"...Knock it off already." You turned your head a bit, just to see a certain purple-haired male speaking up with his eyes covered in shadow.

"Huh?" the Ultimate Pianist mumbled softly.

"You're free to keep trying on your own, but forcing us to join you is basically torture." Kokichi had an eye closed, giving Kaede a look that gave the impression he was weak and tired. Though you knew he was probably over exaggerating, you couldn't help but to feel sympathy for the short teen give a sharp pang in your heart. "You know what really hurts?" he went on. "Being denied the rights to give up an impossible situation..." Resent spread across his face. "You won't let us give up and no matter what we say, you have the moral high ground..."

You looked up at Kaede, noticing nervousness manifesting in beads of sweat that formed on her forehead. She intently listened to the next thing the boy had to say.

"That... doesn't sound like torture to you?" Tears had formed in the Ultimate Supreme Leader's eyes, clouding up the mysterious purple orbs. "When you say we can't give up, you're not inspiring us—you're strong-arming us!" The droplets of water slowly leaked out and started making their trail down his face.

"I-I'm sorry Kokichi, I didn't mean it like that," Kaede said.

"Hey, you degenerate," Tenko started, speaking towards Kokichi, "quit being so selfish!"

"I-I'm not being selfish," Kokichi was quick to defend himself. "The others feel the same way, too..." You looked towards Maki, Kiibo, Himiko, Korekiyo, Miu, Tsumugi, and Angie; almost all had either a tired or disgruntled look on their face.

"P-Please, wait! We...no can give up!" Gonta said.

"We shouldn't have to push ourselves." Kokichi went back to his old mischievous demeanor just like that. Putting a finger up to his mouth he added, "Let's just find another way out, okay?"

"You're talking about the killing game, aren't you?" Rantaro asked cooly.

"Oh, so you're gonna interpret it like that, huh?"

"Wh-What are you saying!? There's no way we can do the killing game!" Tenko shouted.

"Nishishi~! ...Calm down. Want some bubble gum?! You can blow some pretty big bubbles with it."

"Oh-hoho. Looks like this little degenerate wants his head smashed into the ground," Tenko muttered bitterly to herself, even though everyone could hear.

"S-Stop, guys," Shuichi said, "we shouldn't be fighting..."

"Geez. We fell apart pretty quickly for a group who decided to be friends and work together," Ryoma deadpanned with his back facing most of the other students. Kaede opened her mouth like she was about to say something until...

Ding dong! Bing bong!

Eyes turned towards the monitor set that was placed down in the room. "This is an official announcement from the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles," Monosuke started. Monotaro helped to continue by saying, "It is now 10 p.m.. nighttime officially starts now."

"The dining hall and gym are locked during nighttime, so please be careful," the pink bear added on. Monodam stayed silent. All together, then, "bed time ursine! Sweet dreams!" The screen flickered off.

"..Well, I guess the day's over then. No sense in trying to push our luck for now," Rantaro declared.

"We've each been assigned a dorm room. Perhaps we should sleep there," Kirumi considered thoughtfully.

"Heee, we're gonna sleep here overnight??" Miu questioned with the most frightened look on her face.

"It makes me nervous that we'll be staying the night at this creepy school..." Tsumugi said aloud.

"Well, nothing we can do but suck it up! So what's our plan for tomorrow? Since the dining hall opens up at 8 a.m., how about we meet up there at that time?" Kokichi offered. Looking around, everyone seemed to agree and gave a slight nod of the head. Dining hall, 8 a.m., got it.

"Can we be leaving now? I'm just going to go now," you said flatly, and started to make your ascent up the ladder leading back to the boiler room. You were utterly tired after the entire day, which really seemed like a week already. With one final wave towards the other teens you left the area downstairs, eventually making it back to your starting point. Upon making it you let a small yawn escape from your lips.

You listened to the sounds of your own footsteps as you walked toward the dormitory. The night sky and moonlight shown brightly overhead through the openings up at the very top part of the wall that held you captive. A few thoughts drifted into your mind, the biggest one being your talk with Shuichi. He found out your secret almost instantly... Who could expect less, though, from the Ultimate Detective? You sighed slightly. How am I going to fix this..? That's what you needed to know.

Finally you made it to the dormitory. It seemed like you were the first one to make it there, of course. Upon walking inside, you started looking around for your room. Eventually you found it, knowing it was yours by the small 8-bit icon thing above the door. You opened the door, closed it once again after going inside and immediately looked around your room.

Instantly, you noticed that your room was decorated in the color scheme of a bright, almost electro blue as well as a dark purple. Another monitor was set up in the corner of a ceiling, right above a closet. Inspecting closer, you found that it contained more outfits just like the one that you were already wearing. A bed was pushed against one wall with a desk and chair right next to it. In front of the bed was a couch, positioned to where it was facing a TV; a short coffee table stood in between them. Your heart started to twist and leap, and you couldn't figure out if it was from the eeriness of a new setting or if it was from excitement about a very new and interesting place—a place that would be all to yourself.

"Oh man..." you sighed out loud, flopping face down onto your bed. "Kill me nowww..!" you added slightly jokingly. You pulled back the covers of your blue and purple bed, got under them, and positioned yourself in a comfortable spot. "Goodnight..." Without having anyone to say this to, you thought for a moment. "...world. Goodnight, world." You fell asleep after a while, pondering about humanity and the outside world.
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Hey, you! Yeah! Come on, follow me! I can show you somewhere great! ...Hee hee~! Yeah, that's great. You know, I find you quite—...
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I didn't kill them, I... I swear! No... why..? "Liar! Liar!" No... is anyone there? Hello..?
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***
You slowly raised out of bed, rubbing your tired eyes and putting a hand to your head. You weren't quite sure what your mind or body had did during the night, but it surely did cause you to feel a lot of pain everywhere. "Where am I, again..?" All lights were off. You felt around you, trying to sense if what you touched felt the same as it did back at home. Not quite as similar..? Suddenly everything flew back to you. "Oh, right, I'm still here; so that was real. . ."

"Ugh, what time is it?" you grumbled lowly and softly to yourself after a few moments. It was way to dark to see anything, but looking around you just so happened to notice an electronic clock whose numbers were illuminated in blue. 6:37.

"Ah, I see," you said, "nothing about my sleep schedule has changed." You had always woken up early and almost never slept in. Nevertheless, though, you would always feel like sleep hadn't ever blessed you not even for a second. "Should I change? ...Nah." Talking to yourself when you were alone was quite a bad habit of yours as well; maybe it wasn't so "bad" but it was weird. I've got about another hour and thirty minutes before the dining hall will open and I can go... so what to do... you thought with a sigh.

For another few minutes you laid in bed with your eyes closed, even though you had no intent on falling back to sleep again. After that you reluctantly rose out of bed, immediately feeling uncomfortable without the blankets' warmth. You changed into a new but identical outfit, grabbed what you assumed to be your dorm room key, and walked out. You were careful as to not disturb anyone else around you, especially since you were on the second layer of dorms. Once you made it to the bottom you swiftly headed outside.

It was slightly cold but it was overall relatively nice. You sat down on a bench. As the time passed by you watched as the cool colored sky started to be blotted with warm colors consisting of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks. The temperature got nicer and warmer along with it. You gave a small smile and just leaned your head back, allowing yourself to slouch down on the bench. You couldn't tell for quite how long you sat there, but...

Ding dong! Bing bong!

You heard the noise and shot right up, rushing towards the nearest monitor. The screen turned on to show the five Monokubs sitting on their signature couch. "Rise and shine, ursine!" they all said in unison.

"This is an official announcement for the Ultimate Academy," Monotaro declared.

"It's 8 a.m., b*tches! Time to wake up and face the blood-drenched day!" Monokid yelled.

"Enjoy your killing semester!" the red bear spoke again. After that the screen went dark.

You stood up and stretched for just a second before hastily walking towards the school building. You made sure to be fast so no one could see you. Without wasting any time you soon found yourself at the dining hall, and no one else was there. You hummed as you walked over to the kitchen to try to find yourself something to eat... Bread. All you came out with was bread. You definitely hadn't searched around for long enough, but still you sighed and accepted your findings.

Sitting down at the table and miserably eating your one slice of bread, you noticed the door opening for someone to enter. You kept a watchful eye and found that the person who soon walked in was... Korekiyo, you thought with slight grimace.

"Ah, good morning (Y/N)," he said while walking up to you.

"Uh... good morning," you repeated awkwardly and uncomfortably.

"Hmm? What's that you got there?"

"...breakfast?"

"Kehehe," Korekiyo laughed. "Is that all you could find? My, my. It seems like some humans haven't changed from their origins of scavenging for food." You flinched, taken aback slightly by the backhanded insult.

"Uhh, yeah, I guess so..." you let your voice trail off.

"Hey, what's going on in here?" a really deep voice sounded. Small footsteps approached as the Ultimate Tennis Pro walked towards the two of you and leaped onto the table, so he could be at a reasonable height while talking. "Geez, what's happening to you?" Ryoma said looking at you, obviously picking up on the change from your normal attitude in the presence of the Ultimate Anthropologist. You shot him a look for help and he nodded.

"So, what are your all's thoughts about this killing game we're stuck in?" Ryoma spoke, changing the topic. For the next few minutes you waited for the others to roll in. Again, Kaede was the last one to arrive to the group.

"Oh, everyone's here already," she said. After that, things went temporarily silent. The heavy weight of soundless air put pressure onto all of the teens, including you. Taking a breath, Kaede said, "Let's all think of ways to get out of here." Everyone nodded, fully compromising with her.

"Hold it! Hold up, hold up!" a high pitched voice sounded. Out of nowhere, Monokuma bounced around in the air before finally landing. "Before you do that, I haven an announcement!"

"Aaaaahhhhhhh!" the Ultimate Pianist screamed.

"Stop it! Don't just suddenly show up like that! It's too much stress for my heart!" Tsumugi complained.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to not surprise you," the teddy bear said in return.

"So you did mean to surprise us," Himiko said in a flat yet annoyed tone.

"Well? Your announcement?" Rantaro urged.

"It's not terribly important, but..." Monokuma started. "It's easier to stay alive by being an obvious goody two-shoes, right? Being thrust into a killing game doesn't mean you'll be able to kill somebody easily—so I figured I'd ease you guys into the killing game by giving you motivation to kill."

"...Motivation to kill?" Maki repeated.

"In short, a motive. That oughta add some mystery to the proceedings." Everyone just looked at the robotic bear. "Even if a killer is exposed, they could whip up a sob story to deceive everyone!"

"Wh-What are you saying? This is incomprehensible... Your logic is impossible to understand..!" Kiibo spoke out.

"I will now announce the first motive! Make sure you record this moment for posterity!" Monokuma spread out his arms dramatically, seemingly having grown bigger somehow, while his red eye glowed fiercely. "Now then, the special motive I've prepared is called the First Blood Perk! Woooow!! For the first murder that occurs, no class trial will be held! Can you believe it? That means the first one to kill someone will get to graduate, no strings attached!" You quietly hummed with interest.

"What are you talking about?" Maki asked. "No class trial..?"

"I'm sorry that I made the class trial seem more important than it really is. So for the first murder, I've decided not to hold a class trial at all. Please just relax, calm down, and kill! After all, the first one's free!"

"Huh? Really?? That's all!? We just gotta kill someone to get outta here!?" Miu shouted.

"Please calm down!" the Ultimate Robot tried to demand.

"First Blood Perk!? Don't make it sound like some sort of gameshow bonus!" Tenko yelled in fury.

"Puhuhuhuhu..." Monokuma giggled. "You say that, but I bet you're really happy, huh?"

"There is no way I'm happy about this!!"

"S-Stop messing around... Do you think this is fun for us?" Kaede said with a frown.

"Huuuuuuh~?" Monokuma sounded.

"This is wrong; do you really think I'd kill someone just to get out?" She suddenly pointed at the bear. "In your dreams! We're not gonna lose to you! We promised each other we'd escape from this place!"

"Puhuhu. Spare me your false bravado. You should be focusing on how you plan to survive. You just gotta kill someone, right?"

"Why you... b*stard..." Kaito mumbled, gritting his teeth.

"I see... The prisoner's dilemma. How very clever of you, Monokuma," Rantaro said, gaze wandering to the floor in thought.

"Huh, what's that?" the Ultimate Astronaut questioned the male.

"We all know it's better to cooperate than betray each other, right? But if you don't cooperate, you get some benefit that none of the others get. It's an incentive to betray the group to give yourself an advantage," the green-haired teen ended up saying, raising his hands halfway up into the air. "With that in the back of all our minds, we're less likely to cooperate. I'm sure... that that's Monokuma's plan: to make a non-cooperative game that tanks Kaede's plan to get us to cooperate."

Rantaro... you thought in your head. You narrowed your eyes to get a better look at him. You hummed quietly with an almost curious amusement laced with deep suspicion. This will probably have to be something I'll get back to later.

"And if a murder were to occur," Shuichi said quietly, "...it'd be even more unlikely that we'd cooperate."

"It is likely that he created this perk for that sole purpose," Korekiyo said with his ever so smooth voice.

"Right? I bet you all can't stand all this tension in the air, right? So it's better to just kill!" Monokuma announced.

"It seems like you are quite serious about forcing us to participate in this killing game," Kirumi said quite sternly and with an angered expression on her face. "What exactly is your objective?"

"Who cares about his objective!?" Kaito yelled above everyone. "I'm through letting him have his way! I've had enough!!!" He suddenly lunged towards the bear to grab him, until...

"Rise and shine, ursine!"

The Monokubs had finally decided to appear.

"Hell yeah!" Monokid raged at the top of his lungs. "Looks like we've got ourselves a volunteer!"

"My heart is racing~!" Monotaro said gleefully. "It's finally time for the Exisals!"

"We won't let you lay a hand on Daddy! We want Daddy to smile everyday!" Monophanie chimed in.

"Youse b*stards better pay attention! This is what happens when you mess with us!" Monosuke finally added.

"Wh...What? What are you guys planning to do?" Kaito quickly asked, beads of sweat forming and slowly starting to run down his face. The Monokubs gave no answers in words, but instead, menacing mechanical noises started to be heard. Your eyes flickered everywhere around the room. The sound of crushing metal echoed throughout the dining hall, along with it a final gasp.

"GRRRRRRRAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Monokuma screeched. The red Exisal had its foot squashed on top of the robotic teddy bear before fully crashing to the ground. Bits of his former self flew everywhere. You tried your best not to laugh at the scene while others were around, but it couldn't be helped too much so you just chuckled while covering your mouth with your hand. You heard someone else start to giggle too.

"F-Father!?" Monotaro yelped.

"Wahhhh! Daddy got turned into a pile of scrap metal!" the pink bear exclaimed.

"Th-This is Monodam's fault, somehow..!!" Monokid whined.

"..." Monodam in turn just kept silent.

"Wh-What is this..? What's going on..?" Tenko questioned slowly.

"I'm not sure what's going on, but... Monokuma's in pieces," Ryoma decided to answer.

"U-Uh, ok... Serves him right, anyway. He got just what he deserved," the teen with a monomania with space said.

"Do not celebrate just yet," Kirumi countered, turning sideways. "I'm certain he has a spare that will appear momentarily."

"Th-There is no spare!" Monophanie said loudly. "Don't trivialize life like that!"

"Well... if only one existed, then does this mean Monokuma is dead?" Maki asked thoughtfully.

"Poor Daddy! Let's at least bury him in fully honors!" The pink bear didn't listen to what the female had to say. The other cubs started rambling on about how they were going to cook their former parent and how he was going to be served... quite a disturbing image, for you.

"So long, bear-well!" They then left.

"U-Umm... what's going on anymore?" Tsumugi asked, seemingly mentally tired.

"Hmm... Everything's a complete mess now. But if there's no final boss..." you heard Kokichi pipe up. You immediately turned your head to out your full attention to what he was going to say. "...then that means this killing game is cancelled!" If only it could be that easy, you thought with a slightly shaky sigh.

"No, it can't be that easy," you heard someone say. The voice... was your own. "Monokuma can't be taken down just like that...and besides, he's just a robot—there has to be someone controlling him."

"Ah-haha, don't be such a worrywart, sweetheart! Everything's definitely over now!" Kokichi replied. You flinched as a slightly dumbfounded look spread across your face. What the hell does he mean by 'sweetheart'? For one thing, you definitely didn't expect to be called that by anyone ever—much less even by the Ultimate Supreme Leader. "With the mastermind gone, continuing this game is pretty much impossible. Which means...we win!" He spread his arms out with a huge grin on his face.

"Yay! We did it! Nyahahaha!" Angie exclaimed.

"So we're not in danger anymore?" Tenko asked nervously, fidgeting with her hands.

"Oh, so do we just wait for the shuttle bus to pick us up, or...?" Tsumugi trailed off.

"W-Wait a minute!" Kaede interjected. "We don't know that yet—"

"Kaede, quit being a buzzkill!" Kokichi said angrily. He had clenched his hands into fists and put them slightly out in front of him. Not necessarily in an offensive way but more like a defensive stance, almost. "Everyone's still annoyed about what you did yesterday!"

"B-But I didn't mean it like tha—"

"Or... is there still something you would have us do, Kaede?" Korekiyo spoke up, voice muffled by his mask.

"Don't tell me you wanna take on that underground passage again, trashy skank!?" Miu yelled, dramatically raising a hand in the air.

"...Quiet. We know it's impossible," Maki said quietly.

"S-Sorry..." Kaede said in turn to her slight excoriation.

"Whatevs, looks like we're done here." Kokichi put his hands behind his neck and gave a toothy smile. "Phew, what a relief." You shifted in place at the heavy silence that passed through after the male spoke. It seemed like there wasn't really anything else to be discussed.

". . .It seems like we all can go now," you spoke out loud to the rest of the group, the slightest tremble hidden in your voice. Everyone nodded and went their separate ways.

Word Count: 3755