Matsuyama stared at the sixteen students expecting a round of applause but instead he got gasps and looks of irritation and disappointment. He turned back to Masaru who was still inside the elevator.

"I imagined this entire scene going differently."

Masaru finally stepped out and the fountain lowered itself back to the ground. "I don't see how."

Katsurou pointed at Matsuyama. "So you're our captor!"

"And the son of the Michio family," Ryohei said then continued once he saw Umeko's confused face, "the guy from the news who was behind that killing game a few months ago."

Umeko lit up. "Right!"

"Why are you revealing yourself to us?" Hayato asked, "doesn't that seem a bit unnecessary?"

"On the contrary," Matsuyama answered, "one thing to know about me is that participating in my own games is the best part about this!" He cleared his throat. "To get started, I am an only child, I prefer salty foods, and of course my favorite colors consist of browns and beiges."

"Is he seriously pulling the 'get to me know me' facts on us right now?" Isana spoke.

Emi smiled and waved at the columnist. "Nice to meet you!"

"Emi no!" Akiko whispered to the girl, "he's the bad man."

Masaru's eyes fell on the rabbit fancier. "Is that a child?" He narrowed his eyes at Matsuyama accusingly.

Matsuyama held up his hands. "Don't look at me, I don't control these things."

"Uh you literally do," Satoko said, "you just admitted to it."

Yoshito shook his head with mock disappointment. "How cruel. Bringing a child into a killing game?"

"Not a child." Emi pouted.

Nemuri yawned, already wanting to go back to sleep. "I don't think I'm following..."

"I have a question!" Hikari announced, raising his hand.

"Don't give that guy respect," Taishin said, "He's the mastermind, you know."

"I know." Hikari stared Matsuyama down. "And my question is specifically for him."

Matsuyama pointed to himself. "Me?"

"Where is my friend and why do you keep sparing him?"

Matsuyama blinked a couple of times then looked back at Masaru. "Does he think I'm just going to know who he's talking about?"

"His name is Ichiro Kobayashi," Hikari continued, "the Ultimate Linguist!" He saw how Matsuyama and Masaru's faces both changed.

"I see," Matsuyama said, thinking to himself, "so your friend was my former classmate."
He sighed dramatically. "What a small world but I guess it makes sense. A linguist and a tourist."

"Answer my question."

"Fine. Your friend isn't special." Matsuyama gestured back to Masaru. "I just needed to make room for my friend to participate and Ichiro was just the lucky person I chose to sit out that one time."

"But what about this time?" Hikari pressed. "He's part of my class but I don't see him anywhere!"

"If I may interrupt."

Hikari turned around to see Yoshito once again flipping a playing card in his hand.

"If we're a class and there's sixteen of us already here then how can your little friend also be apart of our class?"

"He's right," Ryohei added, "that would make seventeen students."

Umeko pointed to Matsuyama. "Explain!"

"I will not!" Matsuyama clapped. "Any more questions before I go over the rules of this thrilling killing game?"

Nemuri yawned again and raised her hand like Hikari did before, making Taishin sigh. "Um I do." She then gestured to Masaru. "Who's that guy?"

The rest of the students wondered the same thing.

"I don't think I've seen him on the news," Satoko said.

Murasaki tapped her chin. "And I don't remember the survivors naming any accomplices."

"Who he is does not concern any of you," Matsuyama said, "think of him as my sidekick."

"No," Masaru stated.

"My minion."

"Absolutely not."

Matsuyama bit his lip. "My companion?"

When Masaru gave no objection Matsuyama nodded confidently.

"Right, my companion. He works for me and I would like to add that both of us do not count as active participants in this killing game. You cannot kill us and we cannot become blackened."

"First off, you two are weird," Hayato said, "second, that doesn't seem fair."

"It's perfectly fair." Matsuyama laughed like that was a dumb comment. He then pointed to a tall fancy building in the distance that seemed to appear out of thin air. "Our rooms will be located elsewhere and don't even try to break in because it is heavily secured."

Katsurou was the next to laugh but it was more of a taunt. "You do realize that there are sixteen of us and two of you guys, right?"

Matsuyama nodded as if that weren't a problem. "Yes. I do."

"So you also realize that we can take you on right here and now? Your arms look like twigs from where I'm standing." Katsurou rolled his shoulder as if he was preparing for a fight.

"Katsurou's right," Satoko said with a smug smile, "if we work together we can for sure get out of here."

Hikari heard soft chuckles coming from nearby and looked over at the silent masked guy who was laughing at their attitudes.

Matsuyama sighed. "I expected there to be some sort of retaliation. So tedious."

Katsurou's eyes flared at the guy's nonchalant demeanor. "You must think you're all that, huh?"

"Let's calm down guys," Daihachi said but Katsurou was already charging towards the columnist and Hikari watched everything happen in a flash.

Katsurou threw a punch but Matsuyama dodged it effortlessly and grabbed hold of the lifeguard. In a matter of seconds, Katsurou was flipped into the air and right into the fountain with a splash.

Laughter immediately followed after and Hikari was not surprised to see it coming from Yoshito.

"What did he expect?" Taishin said, "I don't think a mastermind would freely walk around and share the same space as us if they were worried about getting hurt."

"Yeah," Satoko agreed and looked to the side as if she weren't on Katsurou's side two seconds ago, "how stupid."

Katsurou flailed in the water fountain and finally pulled himself up to his knees and blew the water out of his nose. He was livid now and gnashed his teeth.

"So that's how you want to play?! I—"

Katsurou's skin ran cold at the feeling of something cool against his forehead and Hikari held his breath upon witnessing the scene.

Matsuyama held a silver pistol to the lifeguard's head that he retrieved from the inside of his coat with ease. Hikari glanced to Masaru to see if they would intervene but they didn't even bat an eye.

"I would hate to waste a potential victim or blackened due to narcissistic behavior," Matsuyama spoke calmly. His finger hovered over the trigger and Hikari thought he would pull it at any moment.

"Enough."

Hikari then looked back to Masaru who had finally intervened.

"I think you're scaring them," Masaru said, looking at the other fifteen students.

Matsuyama glanced to his friend then to the others. "They're fine!" He swiftly put his gun away like he never had one in the first place.

"That was somewhat entertaining."

Hikari was shocked again from hearing the masked guy's voice and just realized they still didn't know the guy's name or talent.

A dramatic sigh brought Hikari out of his thoughts and he saw Matsuyama tapping his foot.

"That was a huge waste of time," the columnist complained as Daihachi helped Katsurou out of the fountain. "I'm tired. I'll have Monokuma explain the rest to you now."

"We're tired too!" Akiko said, "can't we do this tomorrow?"

"No, we need to stay on schedule. And don't plan on expecting breakfast tomorrow either. You should be lucky I provided some today."

Akiko suddenly became extremely sick. "Wait, you were the one who fixed those plates?"

"And that's why you don't eat food made by strangers," Isana told her.

Emi gave Matsuyama a thumbs up. "It was delicious!"

Matsuyama turned on his heel. "Anyways, like I said, Monokuma will take over from here." He began to walk in the direction of the fancy building with Masaru by his side right as the robotic bear popped back up.

"All you kiddos need to open your ears cuz I'll only explain this once!" Monokuma chirped.

"This is ridiculous," Jomei said, folding her arms, "we don't have to stay here and listen to this thing. Let's look for a way out."

Jomei started to depart from the group as everyone wondered if they should do the same but a whirring noise caught Hikari's attention.

"Jomei, stop!" Hikari called out.

"Huh?" Jomei turned around saw that two Gatling guns had lowered from the roof of the nearby dining hall, all pointing at her.

"I suggest you cooperate unless you want to end up stuffed with bullets," Yoshito told her with a smile.

Jomei gulped at the sight of the guns then made her way back over to the group.

"This is seriously messed up," Daihachi whispered.

Katsurou addressed Monokuma, still drenched. "Can I at least change first?"

"Nope! Now let's get started!" Monokuma retrieved sixteen tablets out of thin air and began to pass them out to each student.

"What is this?" Hayato asked, inspecting his own.

"Your monopads!" Monokuma answered, "aka your E- handbooks. Through these handy dandy tablets you'll be able to access the town map, special features, and most importantly the mono rules!"

"Mono rules?" Hikari questioned, and found a button labeled just that.

~ Mono- Rules! ~

Rule #1 Students may reside only within town limits. Attempting to leave town is forbidden and you will be punished accordingly if you choose to do so.

Rule #2 Nighttime is from 10pm to 7am. You can move around freely during that time instead of sleeping if you'd like.

Rule #3 Sleeping anywhere other than a cabin room will be seen as sleeping in class and you will be punished accordingly.

Rule #4 You are free to explore the town to your discretion with minimal restrictions.

Rule #5 Violence against headmaster Monokuma, Matsuyama, and his companion is strictly prohibited. Same goes for the destruction of any cameras or monitors.

Rule #6 Anyone who kills a fellow classmate becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

Rule #7 Once a murder takes place a class trial will be held shortly after. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.

Rule #8 If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

Rule #9 If the guilty party is not discovered, they alone will graduate and all remaining students will be executed.

Rule #10 Lending your E- handbook to another student is strictly prohibited.

Rule #11 The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people.

Rule #12 Breaking into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.

"If the rules didn't make it clear enough for you then allow me to reiterate," Monokuma spoke to them, "the only way to escape this killing game is to disrupt the peaceful living of this environment!"

"Disrupt?" Hikari asked.

"I think he means if we want to leave then we need to..." Hayato gulped. "Kill someone."

Silence drifted through the crowd and Hikari wondered if anyone was even going to consider that offer.

"That's it?"

Hikari and everyone else looked over at Yoshito who was not amused by this outcome.

"I thought we would have to do something way worse than murder," he continued.

"What can be worse than that?!" Akiko exclaimed.

Nemuri now seemed fully awake after reading those rules. "A killing game? Sounds like something I would play on my PC..."

Satoko addressed Yoshito about the comment he made. "So you're actually considering killing one of us?"

"I could." Yoshito tapped his chin. "I don't think anyone here would be smart enough to solve a class trial anyways."

"Hey!" Satoko huffed. "I could totally do that."

"But some people may surprise you." Yoshito peered over at Hikari. "So I'll wait for someone else to commit the first murder."

"That won't happen," Daihachi said.

Jomei laughed at that. "Is that what you think? I don't even know you people so I obviously don't trust you all either."

Hayato rolled his eyes at her. "Looks like the feeling is mutual."

"Can I PLEASE change my clothes now?" Katsurou asked, shivering by now.

"Stop your whining!" Monokuma snapped then looked up at the monitor, "but I guess it is about that time."

Hikari looked up to the monitor as well right as Monokuma disappeared from their sights. The screen displayed static for a while until Monokuma came back into view, this time holding a red drink in his hand.

"Ahem, it is now 10pm. Return to your rooms this instant. Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs biitttteeeee."

"Creepy," Isana murmured, "whatever I'm going to bed."

She was the first to depart but the others stood still.

"I can't believe this is what those survivors had to go through." Daihachi shook his head at the thought.

Akiko nervously played with her hair. "Weren't there only four who made it out?"

"Yes but we'll all make it out this time," Hikari spoke positively, "I'm sure my friend is looking for me right this second. Knowing him, he probably has the swat team involved."

"I doubt that." Jomei flipped her ponytail.

"Why are you so negative?" Hayato asked, "better yet, why are you still here?"

Jomei thought to herself. "Hm, you're right. I'm leaving." She walked away next and Hayato only scoffed at her antics.

"I don't think I'll be going to bed just yet," Yoshito announced, "I'm going to look around more."

"But why?" Hikari asked, "it's 10pm."

"So? The rules said we can still move around freely if we want." Yoshito looked over at one person in particular. "Taishin, come with me."

Taishin was surprised by the order. "What? Why me?"

Yoshito frowned. "You don't want to hang out?"

"No, I want to sleep." Taishin left the area and soon everyone else began to follow except for Hikari, Murasaki and the unnamed masked guy.

Yoshito pointed to the masked guy next. "How about you? Do you want to—"

The masked guy left before the card sharp could finish his sentence.

"So impolite," Yoshito said then glanced to the two people left. He then began to walk off in another direction away from their cabins.

Murasaki turned to Hikari. "If it makes you feel any better I'm confident I won't be killing anyone just for my own freedom. Like I said before, I value my life and since now we know there will be class trials, there is a 50/50 chance of winning."

"Right," Hikari said, not sure if that answer made him feel any better, "goodnight, Murasaki."

The fashion icon smiled at him. "Goodnight." She retreated back to her room and Hikari did the same.

The first thing Hikari did was flop back on his bed. It was almost surreal that all of this was happening but he really did hope it was just a dream and he'd wake up in the back of that car. Ichiro would shake him awake to tell them they arrived at school and everything would be fine but even he knew dreams don't last this long.

Hikari hated to imagine what the last class had to endure for there to only be four survivors. He forced himself to stop thinking so much and tried escaping into sleep but knowing the situation he was now in obviously made it hard.

Hikari just hoped that his class will be stronger than the last so they don't fall victim to Monokuma's lies.

****

Thanks for reading the first part of chapter one! 🪷 Who do you want Hikari to have free time events with?