(So before I start this chapter off, I would like to apologize with my two week absence. You could say that I was livin' it up in a Cherry specific city for vacation after going through a week of being thrown up, down, and sideways through a lot of stressful stuff. I'm happy that I got Petoskey stones though. I love collecting rocks, so my bounty was crystals. I had fun, and I'm gonna be back for another week or two before classes start, but we are going to do something fun this chapter. I'm gonna change up how I write a bit, and you guys should let me know if you prefer the style down below. Been writing a lot of Drabble stuff, so I want to see if that has caused any improvement. With that out of the way, enjoy!)

Rantaro's body was more relaxed than tense, but the atmosphere of the dining hall showed melancholy of the events. The steaming bowl of ramen Kirumi graced him as well as his classmates with sat in front of him, radiating steam. Soft boiled egg was positioned on the edge of the bowl, the pork belly, enoki mushroom, and the other toppings surrounded the serving of noodles in silky pork broth. Reaching for the chopsticks that laid on the right side of his bowl, he picked them up.
    His eyes gazed at the group that was there with him, Tsumugi and Keebo being the new comers. Silence seemed to be what everyone needed right now, especially with what was going on. Sure Rantaro was acting carefree, trying to do his best to amend the situation the best he could. Everyone else here was attempting to do the same. The conversations everyone had couldn't go back to the way they once were. The feeling of the conversations could not go back to the way they once felt. Not at least until the danger of this situation was taken care of.
    'Sometimes silence while eating is the best option...' Rantaro thought, as the chopsticks in his hand moved to the bowl of ramen. Using his thumb and his index finger, the chopsticks closed around a good amount of noodles. His hand lifted up, the noodles stretching from the bowl as he took his first bite, 'after all, eating silently allows everyone to sort their thoughts. Especially after how the conversation just went minutes ago.'
The flavors exploded in his mouth instantly. Rantaro couldn't help but think about a certain event from the taste of the ramen. It almost lulled him, relaxing him more. A sigh of content left his lips, the savory flavor of the broth coating the noodles. The feelings he was getting at the moment were relaxing, yet bittersweet. Maybe that was why everyone else was silent while they were eating.
Silence could only be bearable for so long though. For Kaito anyway, he could visibly be seen growing a frustrated expression as the silence continued. His movements while eating were also become more intense.
"What the hell is wrong with you guys!?" Kaito shouted, his mouth full of food, "we can still get a good atmosphere goin' again, so stop being so damn quiet, it's making me feel depressed!"
"Not like we can exactly help it, Kaito," Tsumugi replied after swallowing a bite of her own food, "this is just a plainly stressful situation. While I may not know what everyone is planning, you've all been keeping down a lot in order to force yourselves to act. Sometimes we just need some time to think about everything. It's not the end of the world if one meal goes by without discussion."
     "It is the end of the world!" Kaito snapped back at Tsumugi. His that held the chopsticks slammed onto the table as he snapped slightly at Tsumugi, "if we let Kokichi have this sorta impact on us, it's not gonna do us any good."
"Kaito, maybe you should just let discussion happen naturally," Maki decided to add after a a sigh left her lips, "you always have a tendency to try and force conversation even in the worst situations. I think everyone appreciates the testament, but right now is not the time. Are you that stupid not to get that?"
    Rantaro noticed that Kaito decided to smile widely in response to Maki. He thought that Kaito being called an idiot hurt his feelings. He after all did make a big deal out if it during the second trial. Maki however held her usual glare as Kaito smiled at her.
"C'mon, Maki Roll, you know that I'm not an idiot!" Kaito replied with a large grin on his face, "you obviously know I'm looking out for my friends right now, and I can't stand to see anyone mopin' around!"
"If you wanna play it that way, okay fine... we will play it that way..." Maki spoke. It was obvious by the way that she was speaking that Maki was obviously irritated. For some reason though, it was almost as if she was more irritated for some reason to Rantaro and the other everyone else. It could be seen by the harshness of her glare, and if looks could kill, this one would surely kill, "If anyone at this table should be taking any sort of time to think, it should be you. And what should you be asking yourself, Kaito? Let me think for a moment."
Maki's hand went to her chin as she stared up, thinking for a moment. The glare in her eyes was still pronounced as everyone in the dining hall stared at Maki. Rantaro didn't know what she was about to bring up, but it was obvious that she just wanted some peace and quiet, and Kaito telling everyone not to mope around was a lot.
"You should be asking yourself how you should apologize to (y/n)," Maki stated, placing her chopsticks down on the table, "after all, it was your anger that caused you to lash out and run at an Exisal. The reason she was even taken hostage in the first place was because you couldn't do something as simple as keeping your temper in check."
    Kaito's large tooth bearing smile disappeared as soon as those words left Maki's mouth. A puzzled look unintentionally formed on Rantaro's face as he watched the scene play out, taking notice of the similar expressions of the everyone else who weren't involved with the conversation. The most shocked expression had to have been Angie, who was always smiling. Even she was confused and shocked.
Kaito's dropped to gaze at his bowl of ramen. Maki's words did something to actually get him to think. Rantaro saw the depressed look on Kaito's face. Maki closed her eyes and let out a small huff that wouldn't have been noticeable for many.
"That's what I thought," Maki stated, her voice more petty at the moment. In all fairness she did like Kaito's company. It was moments like this however that assured her that the astronaut was a grade A idiot. He was so dense that she didn't even understand why she enjoyed hanging out with him. She cared sure, but in a case where they had no way to fight back. It was stupid for this him to let his anger get the best of him, and the fact that no one got upset at him for that was part of what set her off.
"Hate to say this, but Maki's right," Ryoma's deep voice stated. His eyes closed as he let out a sigh, taking a bite of his ramen before continuing to speak, "a lot of that could've been avoided if Kaito had tried to run at an Exisal, sure. It was quite stupid of him. Even I would've had a better shot with a metal ball and a tennis racket though."
    It felt uncomfortable slightly now, because at the moment Maki even snapped at Kaito. Even at the moment Ryoma decided to add his words of advice.
Everyone who was eating, including Rantaro were all staring at Kaito. It was an awkward silence when everyone paused only to stare at the one who was the topic of discussion.
    Kaito was visibly sweating as this happened. The combination of his classmates staring at him silently, some sporting glares and his mind going over Maki's words. The fact he was silent told spoke volumes to everyone else. It almost looked like the poor astronaut was shrinking under that pressure when all eyes were on him.
    "To be frank, that isn't even the only thing that Kaito should be thinking about either," Kirumi's calm voice stated. It would seem that the maid had something else for Kaito to consider, "he should be thinking about taking care of himself."
    Kirumi's words hung in the air for moments. To be frank, it was the harsh truth at the moment. Images of the bubblegum pink blood spewing from Kaito's mouth after the whole scene in the computer room. Kaito somehow acted like everything was fine even now.
    In Rantaro's eyes, this conversation wasn't exactly meant to take place during the entirety of the meal. Some words were meant to be said to get the person thinking. While there was some room to feel bad with the actions of the past, it served as a guise for learning. A way to learn from the mistakes they made. It was certainly a way he learned from his mistakes.
     Not only that, but Kaito needed to think about taking care of himself. Kirumi was right about that much. Everyone in the room seemingly nodded their heads in agreement with Kirumi. It was something that bothered everyone, and not just because that he charged at Kokichi despite that. Everyone may have known that things would be different if he prospered himself differently. Most of it however was concern. When Rantaro spoke to him, part of their agreement was that Kaito wouldn't explain anything until (y/n) was rescued.
    "I agree with Kirumi," Kaede's voice chimed. She was carrying her chopsticks in her hands as she looked over to Kaito. Her pink eyes were glinting in pure concern, "you were spitting up a lot of blood. I still wonder what on Earth that's being caused by."
    "I'm sure everyone would know by now if Kaito would just tell us," Maki's voice decided to add. Her voice tone showed annoyance and frustration. However, there was also concern more apparent on her face now, "but that idiot thinks that if he just acts like there isn't a problem, then it will just solve itself. We worry about him, and he acts like everything is fine, when it's not. It's infuriating."
Rantaro thought for a moment, the events of his recent encounters with Kaito on his mind. He figured that he would come to Kaito's defense at least an little bit, even if Maki was right about Kaito's temper being his downfall. To Rantaro as well, he was the target of everyone's anger, and for good reason. While it felt slightly nice not to be on the receiving end, there was still some empathy that was shown.
"I would say that Kaito has probably thought more about this than you think, Maki," Rantaro spoke. His eyes glanced over to the red-eyed assassin, her eyes focusing on him because he was the one who was speaking at the moment, "I spoke with him a bit ago about joining. Kinda similar to how I approached Himiko, Tsumugi, and Keebo earlier today, if that makes sense. Anyway, Kaito told me he didn't want to tell anyone about what was happening until (y/n) was rescued. While I agree that he shouldn't keep quiet about what's going on, I think he did think of it."
    "Still doesn't want excuse the fact that Kaito is being stupid," Maki replied with a sigh. Her face contorted into one of a pout. She had yet to pick back up her chopsticks, so she was clutching one of her pigtails, "if anything, him waiting until (y/n) is rescued is an even stupider idea. While I know I can't get Kaito to admit everything, it's still worrying."
    "Hey, I think Kaito gets it," Tsumugi said nervously. Her ramen bowl was around half way empty as she stared at Maki, who now looked to be concerned. "he's not exactly replying, so I think it's plain obvious he's thinking about what was just said, Maki."
    "If that's the case, then I think I made my point," Maki replied, her eyes closing as her hands removed themselves from grasping one of her pigtails. Her right hand went back to the chopsticks, picking them up, "you all can go back to eating. We will discuss more on this after."
    Hearing Maki's words, every one went back to eating. Kaito was still silent because Maki and Kirumi both gave him things to think about. Everyone had something to think about, which was even why Maki was making that point. Even Rantaro knew that.
    Time went by as everyone ate. Kaito seemed to start to get over the scolding Maki dealt him, starting to get back to eating. However, before he did so, he let out an audible sigh. Rantaro as well as everyone else knew that Kaito had no response, because what was said was accurate. Hopefully Kaito would learn his lesson like Rantaro did when his mistake was made.

    Empty, ceramic ramen bowls were cleared out of the ramen that was once inside of them. Everyone had a look of slight content from being able to have a very good and relaxing meal, not mentioning that Kaito had to be taken down a peg. Kirumi got up from the dining hall table with her usual courteous smile. As soon as she stood up, she bowed slightly, dipping her head as her arms stayed by her sides.
    "I hope that everyone enjoyed the meal," Kirumi explained, as her head went back up.
    "It was very tasty, Kirumi," Tsumugi spoke up. Tsumugi had a calmer look on her face. She said as even smiling a little bit, some red dusting her cheeks from the hotness of the ramen that was eaten. Everyone else had similar expressions, "to be completely honest, I missed your cooking when I was in my room."
     "Kirumi always takes care of us!" Angie exclaimed, her aura exhibiting a bubbly feeling. The bright smile on her face was plastered.  "I feel a lot more relaxed with that meal! Right now I feel like I can talk about anything and not be as stressed!"
    "I do as well," Kaede explained, but her expression was different. Kaede was smiling sure, but she was nervously sweating a bit at the thought of the conversation before, "thank you so much for making us this meal Kirumi. Even though the start of the meal was a bit shaky, I think it was lovely!"
     Similar things were said by everyone else. The food Kirumi made was able to help soothe their minds and nerves for at least a little while.
    "If you all don't mind, I will take care of those bowls now," Kirumi explained, "and once I get done with that, we can discuss what we are planning, so please don't go anywhere."
    Everyone was in agreement to Kirumi's words. Everyone who was gathered at the time waited for Kirumi to gather the bowls. She did this by stacking them up on the silver cart she used to serve the meal originally. She cleared the table, and once she did so, she gave a quick and polite "excuse me" before rolling the cart with the dishes into the kitchen.
    Kirumi, sporting her Ultimate Maid talent was able to clean the bowls with ease, being able to fully clean the dishes up in around five minutes. She was more of a clean as she went sort of person, so before she even served everyone, most of the cleaning was already done. It helped that she didn't want to keep everyone waiting for too long because the only way they could bait Kokichi was by discussing the false plan out in the open.
    Kirumi put the dishes away before walking back out to join her classmates. As soon as she exited the kitchen area, she smiled at everyone. Her head went down once more as she showed her gratitude for the patience everyone showed.
    "I apologize if I kept you waiting for too long," Kirumi said as she bowed her head. Even if five minutes wasn't too long, she didn't want to have to make anyone wait for too long.
    "What on earth are you talking about?" Kaede asked in response. Kaede was always shocked at Kirumi's ability to do all sorts of tasks, but she still knew that she was relied on a little too much. Yes, she was quick, but overworking the body can cause serious mental strain. "That took you like five minutes. There is no way we all were waiting too long, and you know that. You need to not overwork yourself. You may seem fine now, but burn out is real..."
    "I can't be bothered with relaxing much, especially with all that is at stake," Kirumi replied as her head rose back up. She walked over to her own seat, carefully sitting down. "I'm sure we all know how this conversation is going to go now, correct?"
    "I don't think a couple of us know what's going on still..." Tsumugi muttered. She had a nervous look in her eyes as she said that. She wasn't exactly told by Rantaro what exactly the plan was, and she wanted to know so she could help out. "I know for plain certain that Keebo and myself don't know what the plan is, so would you mind filling us in?"
    "I'm assuming Rantaro didn't tell you, did he?" Maki asked in response. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were closed as she spoke, her tone being more flat yet confident at the same time. "If he wasn't smart enough to give you the rundown, then I guess I will have to explain it. Why does it feel like I'm the only one who's truly thinking among everything?"
Rantaro couldn't help but chuckle nervously while feeling slightly offended. He didn't explain the plan to them because he thought it would be better to explain around everyone else. He couldn't help but feel that he somehow annoyed her while he was taking the utmost caution.
'Maki seems like she's pretty ticked off about something," he though. Rantaro couldn't help but think that there was something that was irritating Maki. While he was usually good with his observations, it was usually pretty hard to tell with her. 'I wonder what exactly that is...'
"Rantaro didn't explain anything because he felt like it would be easier to discuss whatever is going on with everyone who is involved," Keebo explained, "but he did promise an explanation for why everything turned out the way it did with (y/n). That doesn't have to be right now though."
"I think that the best way to start this out is to summarize what has happened over the past few days," Kirumi spoke, her voice calm and collected. In order to make things easier on her classmates, she thought that summarizing the information would at least suffice for now, "Tsumugi and Keebo have both been locked in their rooms over the time, and we are still missing some people. I hate to be the one to recommend this, but I think explaining what happened with Rantaro should wait until we manage to gather everyone else."
"Wait a minute..." Tsumugi muttered, shock was written on her face. She wasn't exactly expecting Rantaro's words to be fully true back then, "you mean that you guys actually do have a plan to rescue (y/n)!?"
"Y-Yeah, we do," Kaede spoke, a small nervous smile forming on her face, "we think it might work."
"It definitely will work once we gather everyone!" Angie exclaimed. Her hands clapped together as her eyes closed, her aura emitting happiness and joy. It was how Angie normally was, "Nyahahaha~! You shouldn't be so much of a downer, Kaede! Atua doesn't like any sort of doubt!"
"S-Sorry," Kaede stuttered in response, "it's hard to not doubt anything after I almost killed Rantaro. Especially when the plan I originally came up with failed in the beginning."
    Doubt was an emotion at play here, that much was obvious. The atmosphere of everyone in the dining hall always held some sort of doubt of what was being planned. Even though to most of the people in the room, they knew that the plan they had was a lot more in depth. There was still doubt, but the lot had to push that doubt to the back of their heads, and continue to focus. In the end, all that could be done was trying. The end result would hope to bear the fruits of everyone's labor.
    "So, what exactly is the plan?" Tsumugi asked, "I was told that whatever it was, it would work a lot better in numbers."
     "Well," Rantaro spoke. He glanced towards Tsumugi after she asked her question. He crossed his arms as his gaze looked down to fully think about how to explain before he did, "the plan is to do a frontal strike on the Exisal Hanger."
    Rantaro was straight to the point when he said those words. His tone was calm and serious as he spoke. Tsumugi was right when she mentioned his words before about how he mentioned that it would work better in numbers.
    "In order for this to work, we do need as many people as possible, you are right about that," Rantaro told Tsumugi, "the reason for that is because we plan on using the Electrohammers Miu made in order to bypass the barrier. That's however only a simple summation. There are factors to consider such as the Exisals, Monokuma, and we have to stay on our toes if another motive is introduced. And it's the motive I'm personally worried about."
"That is understandable," Keebo decided to chime in. His gaze was looking down as his metal hand was on his chin, thinking about the information he was just given, "it makes sense to need as much help as you guys need. I'm concerned with the simplicity of this this though. Are you *sure* this is going to work?"
"I hate to say it, but I agree with Keebo on this one," Tsumugi's nervous tone of voice replied, "this seems like something I could even think of? Is there any other information such as *who would group up together*, because I highly doubt that it would be beneficial to charge straight in!"
"You both raise valid concerns," Rantaro replied, "but I promise you, we've thought about how simple this may sound. Right now however, we cannot change that. I am confident that we will get this to work. But the fact is, we don't have much time when a motive is going to be introduced soon."
    "And just to be clear," Maki interjected. Her eyes gazed over, giving everyone a quick glance. The glare in her eyes was meant to show her being serious. "And this doesn't just mean Tsumugi or Keebo. Everyone should be taking this seriously. Kokichi for sure isn't going to hold anything back, and it's going to result in (y/n) being the motive in some way."
    Silence befell the dining hall after those words left Maki's mouth. Her tone was sharp, clear, full of anger and frustration. Rantaro already found out that (y/n) was going to be used in a motive by her accord, even despite the risks. Everyone else however probably had some sort of sneaking suspicion. Now however, Maki's words were meant to tell everyone that there was no time to hesitate.

I know this chapter was two days late, I'm sorry! There was a bit going on, one of those things involving me trying to catch a stray kitten that made its way into my apartment complex. I wanted to catch it so I could save it's life. I didn't want it to get hit by a car. But it did, and I faced sadness for the past couple of days. Yay... it was either speaking the truth, or doing the AO3 writer method and saying I got hit by a bus. I spoke the truth .

I tried a new writing style, and I don't know how this will go. It might be surprising because I usually write first person. I wanted to try something different. I feel like I can do better without describing every little phrase. It's kinda a change, but I hope it's a good one. Maki got annnnnngry with Kaito. And the image shows his state of mind. Peeps gave him a lot to think about. 😬

In any case though, this is probably the last update I'm gonna do for a minute because school starts. I'm taking four classes this time, (ugh...) I'm probably gonna be overworked, and that's okay ig. Used to it at this point. I'm sorry for the delay once again. I hope you all have an amazing week! Ciao for idk... when I get a break from assignments 😅- yuki_no_fuyu