Danganronpa: 141 Style/Issue 03

In the third issue of Danganronpa: 141 Style, Momoka has come up with a plan to bring the sixteen Ultimates together as friends but Mononeko has his own plans that will accomplish the opposite of this.

Issue 03 - "Wet Competitions"
Momoka Watanabe - Morning

I couldn’t help but be nervous, tapping my fingers on my knee in some failed effort to keep myself calm as I stared over to the TV set above the dining car’s door that connected it to the personal rooms, just waiting for the morning announcement.

Everything was ready for today, I had the plans set after Kurou had helped me finish preparing them but now came the big part of trying to convince the other Ultimates to be on board with the idea. I wasn’t even sure if Kaoru was still on board after she finished helping me before Kurou.

“You know, I wonder how Mononeko sets this all up” Kurou suddenly spoke up from the apposite side of the table we sat, bringing our attention to the food laid out in front of us “I mean this dining car has some kitchen uses and there are plenty of supplies but not enough of either to make such amazing meals as this. This is like a meal for a king.”

Now that he mentioned it, it was strange. Looking around the train, there was no kitchen and only enough in this dining car to do basic meals. There had to be somewhere else he was getting this from as well as the question of how he was getting it but before I could answer him...

Ding dong, bing bong

Both of our attentions turned back to the dining car’s TV as it flickered on and Mononeko appeared, sitting on that evil chair of his, that dark but childlike grin on his face as he said “this is the official Mononeko announcement to tell you that it is morning and it’s time to get THE FUCK UP and murder-I mean spend some lovely time with your new friends! That is unless if you were murdered last night, then you’re dead! Woops, sucks to suck! Hehehehehe, good morning!”

I let out a sigh as the TV flickered off again. Why couldn’t we get a mascot who didn’t near constantly remind us about death?

“It’s going to be fine” Kurou offered me with a smile “even if everyone isn’t on board with your idea, at least some people will be, whether they believe it or just because of a lack of nothing else to do, and that’s what counts.”

“I guess...”

He chuckled at that and reached forward to give my hand a gentle squeeze but before either of us could say anything, the first of the other Ultimates stepped into the room in the form of Hideaki who had his eyes glued to his E-Handbook until he finally noticed us and waved “oh, hey guys! Sorry I was just using that pet app game thing, it’s pretty fun actually! What are you two doing here by yourselves?”

I tried not to give him a judging look at the fact he actually played that game and instead smiled at him “we have an announcement to make.”

“You two dating already? Good for you!”

“N-no, we’re not-”

“Who's dating who now?” Aoi asked as he stepped into the room before noticing me and Kurou which caused him to grin “damn, you go my boy!”

The both of us were getting rather flustered now as Kurou shook his head and raised his hands with a nervous laugh “we’re not dating!”

“The Ultimate Narrator thinks you are not fooling anyone” Haru said as he along with the rest of our weird group filed into the dining car and took their assigned seats “the Ultimate Narrator also notes that Mononeko placed the two of them opposite each other so he must ship them too!”

I just let out a groan of annoyance to these statements before pushing my embarrassment away and standing up so all attention across the room was drawn to me “think what you like but please listen, we do have an actual announcement to make!”

A silence fell across the room but before I continued, I noticed Shun letting out a gasp and cupping her hands over her mouth before she asked “oh my god, you’re not pregnant already are you?!”

Muttering passed throughout the room as a heavy blush formed across my cheek and I yelled out “NO! I am NOT pregnant!”

“Then what is the announcement about?” Takehiko asked while Minoru, who sat near him let out a sigh.

“Maybe if you’d all shut up for a few moments, we would find out.”

A few more bits of muttering passed throughout the group as I turned my head to look back at Kurou as if begging him to reverse time but he only chuckled while full silence finally fell throughout the room and I could continue “well, as we can all tell, there is some serious tension between us. We can try and deny it but it is there and that is why I came up with an idea using the help of Kaoru and Kurou.”

“We’re doing that today?” Kaoru asked with a groan as she sprawled out on her seat and closed her eyes “but I’m feeling so lazy today!”

“The sooner, the better” Kurou told her as he too stood up and stood beside me as he addressed the other fourteen Ultimates “the plan is that, since this train comes with a swimming pool, we can spend a day together, all of us, working out in sports and competition. Just to loosen some tension between us.”

“Sounds like the dumbest idea ever” Daisuke muttered as he stirred his tea before taking a sip and adding “you can count me out.”

“No one would want you there anyway, shitface” Chika retorted with a growl, only earning a amused raise of the eyebrow, along with a smirk, from our Ultimate Dictator.

“Ok, enough!” I declared, doing my best to bring the attention back to the current subject and stopping the tension spreading throughout the room “you don’t have to attend if you don’t want to, no one is going to be forced. If you want to attend, it will be starting after breakfast so just take one of these swimsuits, get changed in your room and come to the swimming pool.”

I could see the silent debating passing around the room as Kurou showed off the swim suits we had taken from the swimming pool room and brought here before I let out a sigh and sat down to start eating breakfast. I was going to need it at this rate. --- Daisuke Nishimura - Morning

I was still doing my best to not roll my eyes at what was currently going on with the other fourteen Ultimates, excluding me and my brother. Did they really think that spending some time together would help this situation in anyway? How stupid of them but at the very least it guaranteed that I wasn’t going to be interrupted by anyone I didn’t like as I sat in the recreation room and sipped my tea.

The books were still completely terrible. I had admittedly been hoping that they would’ve been changed throughout the night, keeping the library fresh but apparently that would be too much to ask of from peasants.

Disappointing, that’s all this situation could be summed up to. So much potential and it’s been wasted. This train could’ve been a fantastic thing that even kings were envious of but instead it was some rustbucket of junk.

Although to the peasants, it probably would’ve been heaven on the ground if it wasn’t for our current situation. Heh.

“Ah, there is my brother” Minoru suddenly spoke up, pulling my attention away from the book that I had been partly been reading and towards the doorway where my brother himself stood, a slight smirk on his face as he entered the room and stroked his beard “any good books? I didn’t get a chance to look yesterday, too busy playing a chess match with that journalist.”

“They’re the worst books I’ve ever seen” I told him with a sigh as I closed the current book and threw it down on the table, taking another sip of my tea and wincing “the tea seems to be becoming worse with each taste as well…”

Minoru just chuckled at me for a moment as he pushed his sunglasses up a little and examined the books for himself “I shouldn’t have expected any other response from you, brother, but I’m sure we will find some use for these books.”

I didn’t even question the fact that he said that while grabbing one that was labeled with “how to get away with murder” and instead just watched as he took a seat opposite me before I asked him “so, you mentioned playing a chess match with the journalist?”

“Heh, she’s terrible. Even worse than you.”

“... I figured but why would you spend time with a peasant like her?”

“Hmm?” my brother seemed to question as he turned his gaze from the book in his hands and instead up to me, leaving me unable to not notice that amused look in his eyes “come now, dear Daisuke, you shouldn’t be asking that. You should be asking why you aren’t doing the same.”

“Huh?”

He chuckled at me as he reached up to adjust his sunglasses again while also leaning back in his seat “it’s simple. We are in a game of life and death, a game we have yet to learn all the rules of and a game where we’ve been paired with people we have never met in our life. Isn’t it best that we get to know them? Learn about them? There is no better way to judge who is a threat and who is a victim. Who you could kill or who could kill you.”

“No one could kill me and I could kill anyone” was what I immediately responded with but that only led to my brother letting out a rather loud laugh which made me glare a little as I clenched my fists “you doubt me?!”

He took a moment to recover from his laughter, it dying down to a simple smile as his gaze was placed directly with mine “I apologize, I didn’t mean to laugh at you. I’m just happy that my brother is so confident! Still, it’s best to be sure, hmm?”

“I refuse to spend more time than I have to with those peasants.”

“Suit yourself, brother.”

I opened my mouth, about to question my brother further, but before I could say anything, a new voice joined our conversation.

“What is going on in MY swimming pool?!” Mononeko demanded in that annoying voice of his as he waddled into the room and glared at the pair of us “why is everyone but you two all in the same room and, DARE I SAY IT, having fun?!”

“Is it against the rules?” Minoru muttered, an amused smirk on his face, as he didn’t even bother to acknowledge the robot and instead focused on reading the book he had picked out.

“I’ll be asking the questions!” the cat retorted as he stomped his way over and jumped onto the table we sat at, standing between us now as he turned to directly address me “you, the useless asshole one, what are they doing?!”

“Usele-?”

“Answer the question!!!”

I was beginning to think this guy was more of a dictator than even me…

Minoru let out a sigh from the other side of the table as he finally put the book down and glared up at Mononeko “that soccer girl and her “boyfriend” came up with some plan to loosen the tension around here which included the group spending time together at the swimming pool. Are you happy now? You’re in my light so please move.”

Mononeko let out a surprised gasp as he looked between the two of us with shocked expressions “loosening the tension?! On my train?!”

It’s more likely than you think...

“Yes. Now will you get out of th-”

“This will not stand!!” Mononeko yelled out as he suddenly started stomping his feet on the table, making me sigh as I grabbed my tea to stop it from spilling until he was done whining like a baby and jumped off of the table “I will be doing something about this, immediately!”

“I thought the conductor couldn’t interfere with activities of the students?” Minoru asked as the two of us were watching the cat start to make his way out of the room until he came to a stop when that question was asked.

“Oh, I won’t be interfering with the activity” Mononeko told us as he stood in the doorway and turned to give us a rather sinister looking grin and his eye flashed red “I’m just going to be preparing a little... incentive.”

He let the room after that, leaving me and my brother to share a look as we both wondered what he meant by that... --- Kaoru Maeda - Morning

Why had I agreed to help prepare this? Why did we have to do it today when I just wanted to curl up in my warm bed? Why does life hate me?

These were the questions that rolled about my head as me and the others watched as Momoka was showing us, using a clipboard, what the first competition was going to be now that we had all gotten a bit of a warm up.

“So, we’re going to start off simple” Momoka said to us with a way too big of a grin for the morning “we’re going to split into pairs, pairs that I have decided upon, and you take turns to race across the swimming pool and back! First pair to do this six times, combined, wins! Any questions?”

Shun raised her hand rather eagerly before giggling “are you paired with Kurou?”

Momoka took a moment to look down to her clipboard before a sudden flush appeared on her face as she muttered “yes...”

“Hah! Sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!”

Momoka coughed rather awkwardly while I heard some of the others beside me muttering to themselves and Aoi clapping a embarrassed Kurou on the back. I was kinda starting to feel bad for them, they looked like they wanted a hole to just swallow them up but at the same time they did keep walking themselves into these situations…

“That’s enough of that!” Momoka declared, interrupting the muttering as she placed the clipboard on a nearby bench and started dragging Kurou away from the rest of us “look on the clipboard for your partner and then get ready!”

Rolling my eyes at the pair, I shuffled towards the clipboard with the rest of the crowd and waited for my turn to read it until I finally saw that I was partnered up with Aina Hisakawa and we soon caught each other’s gaze as we started splitting off into pairs. This should be interesting…

“So, any good at swimming?” I said with a polite smile as we both made our way to the other side of the pool with the other pairs.

“It’s practically a necessary for me to be good at swimming. I never know where my bounties might take me.”

“Right…” I tried to ease out, being unable to not be intimidated by this woman but then she smirked and gave my shoulder a pat.

“There is no reason to fear me. I’m only Human. Now, should I go first so you can prepare yourself?”

I could only nod and offer a nervous smile before watching as she took her position to be ready to swim along with Momoka, Takehiko, Chika, Yuki, Hideaki and Nanami which would put me against Kurou, Hanako, Aoi, Shun, Haru and Ryouka.

“Now, for clarification, your partner must be out of the pool before it is your turn, everyone understand and ready?” Kurou asked, waiting for the rest of us to nod before he gave us a grin and put his hand into a gun shape, pointing it upwards as he said “then three, two, one. Go!”

Of course the contest went generally rather messy for all of us that were involved. Some of us such as Momoka, Aina and Hanaka proved themselves to be fantastic swimmings whereas others such as me? I ended up panting heavier than I’ve ever panted in my life as I only managed to come in third and ended up having to be pulled out of the pool by my partner.

“You are doing well for someone who wanted to lay in bed all day today” Aina commented as she looked down at me, a smirk playing on her lips as she let out a chuckle and offered me a hand to take “I’m quite content in coming in third.”

“All right, everyone catch your break for a little break, our next competition will be in a few minutes!” Momoka announced to the group once she and Kurou had finished celebrating their win “and don’t be disheartened, we have different types of competitions that give each of us a chance to do good!”

With that announcement over, I could hear all the pairs splitting off together while Aina turned her attention back down to me, her hand still offered as she asked “are you getting up?”

“I’m just going to lie here. Pretending to be back in bed.” --- Hanako Minami - Morning

When I got a chance to sit down, I took it quicker than I’ve ever done anything in my life. My body already feeling worn out from the activity and that was only the first challenge? At this rate I’d rather be back with my clan and be going through their hardest challenges...

“I thought she was the Ultimate Soccer Player” Takehiko stated as he sat beside me on the bench and leaned his head back against the wall, holding his hat in his lap “but the way she is acting she is more like the Ultimate Swimmer.”

I allowed myself a short laugh and shrugged “you have to make do with what you have, I suppose” was my reply to him as I moved a bit of hair away from my eye before noticing he was staring at me and raising an eyebrow “what?”

“Heh, nothing. It’s just unusual to see you laugh, you seem more of a chuckle type of person.”

“So I can't do both?”

He chuckled at that and put his hat back on his head so he could effectively hide his face under it “of course you can, it’s just nice to hear you laugh, I suppose.”

I gave him a weird look at that before shrugging it off and leaning against the wall myself, letting out a blissful sigh at some rest. I suppose he had some kind of point, I did tend to be rather focused on anything over happiness but it was just the way I was raised. Business over personal pleasures. Clan over yourself. It was the way of my life.

“So, I’ve been thinking” Takehiko suddenly spoke up again, drawing my attention over to him as he offered me a grin “I seriously doubt that you were really worried about the rules when you came to me yesterday to test your skills. What did you really come to me for?”

I pursed my lips at that question, debating it over for a bit before deciding there was no harm in being open about it and shrugging “I needed a distraction from thinking. Something to get my mind off some things. Seems I wasn’t the only woman who wanted your cans.”

With that additional statement, I nodded over to Aina, who was currently teaching a worn out Kaoru some stretches, which caused him to nervously rub the back of his head and chuckle rather suspiciously “Heh. Yeah, she came during the day after you had left. We had a little competition as it turns out she had been given the same surprise as me.”

“Oh? So who won?”

“Huh?”

“Who won?”

“It was a draw” he quickly muttered in response to my question as he reached to fiddle with the tip of his hat but I only smirked knowingly in response. So he lost, huh? How embarrassing, getting shown up by two girls in one day… I wasn’t going to tease him of this though, he probably wouldn’t be able to handle it. Although, I was curious to…

“What did she win?”

“I-I said it was a draw!”

“Uh-huh. So what did she win? Or do I have to go over and ask he-?”

“The prize is private!” Takehiko suddenly blurted out, a bit louder than he must have intended, which caused some attention to be brought over to us and me to even notice Aina was smirking while I simply raised a curious eyebrow but before I could question it further, Momoka spoke up.

“Alright! That’s enough break time. For our second challenge, we’ll be mixing it up a bit” Momoka said as she held up two rubber ducks “these two ducks have enough weight to sink down to the bottom of the pool. Going one pair at a time, each person of the pair must face away from the pool as the ducks are released into the pool before they then take turns to dive in and find them with the quickest pair to find both ducks being the winner! How do you all feel about that?”

Me, along with a few others, were clearly not fazed by this challenge but as I looked around the room, I couldn’t help but note many of the rest looked like they just wanted to run and hide from this over energetic sporty person and this caused me to grin.

Maybe I should allow myself to be having fun after all. --- Chika Kurosawa - Morning

I had so much excitement inside of me that I felt like I was about to burst as I instead came bursting out of the swimming pool, my arm outstretched and the duck held in my hand as I barely heard Momoka announce that me and Aoi had beaten the times of all the other pairs.

“Yeah! I knew you could do it girl!” Aoi cheered for me from the sidelines, literally jumping up and down and rocking out “Ultimate Pirate? More like Ultimate Mermaid cause you rule these waters!”

I let out a giggle at the compliment and playfully flipped upside down in the water so I can wave my legs as if they were the tail of a mermaid, earning some polite clapping from the other, less energetic, Ultimates before I finally decided to stop showing off and get out of the pool. More than happy with the fact that I had made up for the fact that my pair had lost the previous challenge.

As Aoi said, I ruled these waters and I had a reputation to keep.

“See? We’re all starting to have fun, I knew this would be a good idea!” I heard Momoka excitedly say as she clapped a little too energetically “time for another break, catch our breath and maybe try and figure out what the next challenge will be, hehe!”

Even though it made no sense whatsoever why the Ultimate Soccer Player was acting more like an Ultimate Swimmer, I wasn’t going to complain. This indeed was turning out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I didn’t know why Momoka was doing this but I made a mental note to thank her later.

I was even starting to hope this would become a regular thing!

“Phew, I really lucked out getting you as a partner” Aoi said to me with a grin as we both walked over to our chosen bench and took a seat to gather our energy back “I mean, we came in second for the first challenge and first for the second challenge, we’re doing amazing!”

I let out another giggle and nodded “aye we are, now to just keep doing good! I think we can completely dominate everyone else here and still have fun at the same time!”

He let out a rather nervous chuckle at that as he rubbed the back of his neck “heh, I’ll do my best but I definitely ain’t going to be able to keep up with your energy. I’d need to be in some underwater race car to keep up with you.”

“Of course you would! You can’t keep up with the best!” I told him with such a big grin. Wow, did I get cocky when I was excited and winning.

“Rub it in why don’t you” Aoi retorted with a laugh which caused me to give him a gentle punch to the shoulder before we both settled back to make sure we got our energy back rather than uselessly spend it while sitting on a bench.

“I wonder what the next challenge is going to be…”

“Hopefully, it’ll be the surprise that there are actually no more challenges and I can go back to bed.”

I rolled my eyes at his statement before sticking my tongue out at him “oh come on, that was like the first challenge, you can’t be worn out already?”

“I’d like to remind you that it is still the morning!” he protested which caused me to chuckle while noticing Momoka standing up from her bench and starting to speak up and announce the next challenge, causing Aoi to groan next to me while I just started getting even more excited, having to resist jumping straight into the pool and waiting long enough for her to announce the challenge.

“For this next challenge, we are going to be playing dodgeball in the pool! The way this will work is kinda like a tournant. It will be pair versus pair for each of us and the winning pair gets to go to the next round. Due to the lack of one pair, me and Kurou will be sitting the first matches out and then joining in the second matches!”

“Why do YOU get to sit this one out? Also that sounds like cheating, I'm filing a complaint!” Aoi complained from beside me which caused me to lightly smack him on the arm and for him to yelp out in protest. --- Shun Moto - Morning

Even I had to admit to myself that this was rather fun.

I didn’t want to because I was also disappointed. Surely these Ultimates were supposed to have been giving into despair by now? I mean, I thought that had been the main goal of this game that I had helped create but I just had to remind myself that this was only the third day since the kidnapping. There was still plenty of time for despair to happen and in the meantime I should just be enjoying the fun for while it lasted.

“Duck, Shun!” Yuki suddenly yelled from beside me in the water and, knowing what game we were playing, I instantly done as I was told, practically hearing the small squishy ball fly past my head as I barely managed to dodge it in time by putting my head under water.

This also gave me a chance to look underwater to where our two opponents were and it didn’t take long for my eyes to catch sight of Kaoru’s legs which caused me to grin as I made sure to hold my own small squishy ball tightly as I suddenly burst out of the water again and let out a slight war cry as I threw the ball at my target, managing to hit Kaoru dead center.

“Kaoru is down, it is reported that Kaoru has been knocked out of the match!” Haru yelled out to us so we would all hear while I saw Momoka and Kurou help the defeated dancer out of the pool before I had to dodge again as her partner Aina tried to take advantage and knock me out of the match as well.

Unfortunately, while I managed to dodge the ball, it ended up taking Yuki by surprise and caught her in the back as she was trying to grab another ball for herself which caused Haru to yell “Yuki has been hit, resulting in her being taken out of the competition as well!”

I heard Yuki let out a defeated sigh but I couldn’t focus on her right now as it was down to me to win this for us which left me to dive under the water again, using this to my advantage in order to both find a new ball and keep my eyes on the target. It felt like time itself was going so fast as my hands finally clasped around a ball and I made sure to know where my target was before I burst out of the pool again and threw the ball.

It didn’t go at all like intended though as I felt a ball hitting me directly in the chest just as I threw it, causing me to wince as well as throwing my aim way off and nearly hitting Haru who had to be pulled out of the way by Momoka.

“That concludes this match with Aina and Kaoru being the winners!” Kurou announced in place for the surprised Haru and claps passed around the room and I let out a groan before noticing that Aina was swimming my way.

“Nice tactic, shark” she told me with a teasing grin before winking at me “although I could see your air bubbles which was what made me win.”

Ugh. I hadn’t thought of that...

I was going to give her a reply but then I noticed Yuki standing at the pool, looking rather upset, a thing that Aina seemed to notice as well so we silently parted so I could swim across the pool and smile up at Yuki to get her attention “what’s the matter?”

I watched as Yuki shuffled on her feet a bit, unable to look me in the eyes before she sighed and muttered “I’m letting you down in these competitions.”

Aww, the poor thing, I thought to myself before offering her a warm smile and climbing out of the pool in order to wrap my arms around her and pull her into a hug that seemed to surprise her before she settled down as I whispered “don’t worry about it beautiful, I’m still having fun and I want my partner to be having fun too! We don’t need to win to do that, okay?”

She nodded at me and put on a smile as we parted from the hug, thankfully. I was hoping that would work, I was just so terrible at comforting people. --- Haru Satou - Morning

Haru wasn’t exactly sure why he had decided to come along to this event but he was very glad that he had. The smile was never fading from his face as he had stood by and watched each of the last match and even though the prospect of his own match coming up soon would’ve usually made him nervous, he was just getting even more excited.

“Now that’s a sight that I wanted to see” Haru suddenly heard from Hideaki which caused the Ultimate Narrator to turn and see that Hideaki had come to stand beside him while he heard Momoka announce the next match, between Aoi and Chika versus Ryouka and Nanami, to begin and immediately the splashes could be heard.

“Haru wonders what sight that would be?”

Hideaki chuckled in response to that as he laid his arm over Haru’s shoulders, in a friendly manner, and said “you smiling. You were being way too serious yesterday, so it’s good to see you become more chill and enjoy yourself.”

Haru offered a nod in response to that, being unsure how else to respond before he turned his attention back to the match going on and noticed Aoi getting hit in the shoulder while Ryouka and Nanami cheered “Aoi has been hit. Repeat, Aoi has been hit!”

Haru was starting to feel more like an announcer than a narrator at this point but he didn’t mind as everyone seemed to be having fun. However, before he could continue to watch the match more closely, he found himself being gently moved away from the pool which caused Haru to look at Hideaki rather confused while Hideaki himself chuckled “uh, if you don’t mind, I got a question for you.”

“Haru is more than happy to answer any of Hideaki’s questions.”

“Well, you remember that I got that gigantic teddy out of the Monomachine yesterday, yeah?”

Haru nodded, curiously wondering where this was going.

“Well, I was thinking, didn’t that Shun girl get so overjoyed when she got that much smaller teddy the first day we were here? I was wondering if I should give it to her, you know, as a gift.”

Haru offered a shrug, making sure to keep an eye on the match going on “Haru doesn’t see the harm in giving it to her if Hideaki doesn’t want it.”

Hideaki gave a nod but it was clear to Haru he was in much deeper thought as he watched his friend play with his hair “sure but like… look at her man. She’s got some great goods all over her and this could be a good chance to get in with that, right? I can’t fuck it up…”

Ah... Haru understood where this was going now. Although, the Ultimate Narrator could still only offer a shrug “Haru says go for it but Haru also isn’t good with girls…”

“Heh, we’re in the same waters there bud...”

“If you two are done discussing girls, it’s time for our match” Takehiko suddenly said to the both of them, a grin on his face while Hanako stood beside him, an equally big grin on her face as the two watched as Haru and Hideaki came to the realization the previous match was over.

“If you’re ready” Hanako added, giving them both a rather challenging look while Haru nervously shared a look with his partner.

Nope, they weren’t ready at all... --- Nanami Suzuki - Morning

While it was a bit disappointing to lose, especially with how quickly we took Aoi out of the match, I was actually quite grateful that we had. I was already completely worn out from the entire event so much, I couldn’t even be sure I’d make it back to my room once this was over.

If it was ever going to be over…

Letting out a breath, I turned my head away from what was the final match of this little competition, between Aoi and Chika versus Kaoru and Aina, and to my pre-decided partner, Ryouka, and ended up catching him as he stared at Kaoru specifically.

“So that’s why your silent, jeez, what is it with all the shipping all of a sudden?” I stated and then questioned out loud to myself which seemed to bring him out of a trance as he quickly got flustered.

“I-It’s not like that, I swear!”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s not, promise!” Ryouka protested, letting out a sigh as he ran his hand through his hair “it’s complicated. I kinda pissed her off on our first day here and I think I made amends but I can’t be sure…”

That spiked my interest as I raised a curious eyebrow “what did you do to piss her off?”

“I was just meant to prank her by scaring her but she thought that I was... you know...”

“Smooth” I muttered as I turned my attention back to the match, noticing that both Kaoru and Aoi were out of it now, while deciding not to give this prankster idiot much more thought and instead just saying “good luck with that.”

“Yeah...” he said with a rather defeated voice but I offered no comfort as he had dug his own hole. Although, that was also when I suddenly came to notice something odd and turned my attention back to him.

“Where’s your mask? I haven’t seen you parted from it until now.”

“Oh... ah... I’ve lost it.”

I raised another eyebrow at that and looked at him with what was probably a judging look “how did you lose it?”

“I don’t know... I thought I had left it in my room but it wasn’t there since last night...”

I opened my mouth to question it further but before I could say anything, Haru yelled out from the side of the pool “Aina has been hit, Chika has officially won the competition for her pair!” but he could be barely heard over the happy squeals of Chika as she celebrated in the pool at her victory.

“That marks the end of that competition!” Momoka announced from another end of the pool’s edge, a smile across her face as she directed her gaze at all of us “everyone should get your energy back as we only have many more competit-”

“I think that is enough for one day, Momo” Kurou said softly as he placed a hand on her shoulder and murmurs of agreement passed between all of us which caused Momoka to let out a little sigh.

“Aww, okay... Hope you all had fun, dismissed!”

With those words, everyone started parting in order to retreat back to their rooms but I still wanted to question Ryouka more so I turned back to look at him, only to find that he had already ran off...

Huh... --- Kurou Abe - Daytime

“Wasn’t that so fun?!” Momoka asked me so excitedly for like the fifth time in five minutes but I didn’t mind. She was happy that it had gone so well and I was glad. Honestly, a part of me had been doubting that even so many of the others would turn up, never mind have fun, but despite how worn out I could tell that everyone was, I was confident that it would do better for our overall mood as a group.

“Yeah, it went excellent” I replied to her, sending her a grin in return to her own “and it was all thanks to you.”

She laughed at that, a sight flush appearing on her cheeks, as she put the last of the balls away in the box of toys and closed it, perching herself on top of it as she turned to look at me “it wasn't all down to me. You and Kaoru helped me out a lot.”

“Sure. However, if you hadn’t come to us with the idea, we wouldn’t have thought of doing it on our own, probably, whereas you did so the credit for this success goes to you.”

Her flush grew a bit brighter as she shifted her eyes away and brushed a bit of her hair out of her face, a moment of silence passing between us before she laughed again “sorry, I’m probably really annoying right now, huh? I just get… so energetic when I’m happy.”

I chuckled and shook my head as I moved to sit down on a nearby bench, leaning back on it and closing my eyes with a smile “it’s not annoying at all. It makes a nice change of pace from all the depression we’ve had lately.”

She didn’t give me an answer to that and, as silence fell across the room, I wondered if I should’ve said something else but just as I was opening my eyes to check on her, I felt a sudden weight pressing down on my lap and I couldn’t help but blush heavily once my eyes opened “ah… what are you doing?”

She let out a small giggle as she slightly adjusted herself to become comfortable before wrapping her arms around my neck and grinning “I said I get really energetic when I’m happy!”

Please help me, this is an awkward position for me right now... help.

“What does that have to do with being on my lap?” I asked out loud but before she even leaned her head down to press her lips on mine, I knew the answer to that question and I couldn’t believe it.

I felt my head spinning as our lips touched and stayed locked together. So many questions rolling about in my mind but becoming too distracted to form any answers.

What should I do? I wasn’t ready for this? Is this really happening? Is she going to hate me if I begin to have a problem down below?

This was so bad for me, I was completely lost and confused but at the same time… it felt so good. It felt REALLY good.

I finally gained some of my senses back when she pulled away, although my first thought process went bad. Was I not a good kisser? Did I even kiss at all? Did she feel the problem below?

Abort, abort, abort!

I couldn’t move though, I found myself glued to the spot and watching as she sent me a sweet smile before moving her hands to… oh god. Was she removing her swimsu-?

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!!!!” suddenly yelled a rather squeaky voice, bringing both me and Momoka crashing down to the present as we turned our heads to see Mononeko himself stomping into the room and making his way over to us “what do you think your doing?!!!!”

I could feel my cheeks burning hotter than they ever had and I was sure Momoka was feeling the same as I while I softly muttered “we-we we-re...”

“Fucking!” Mononeko finished for me, rather bluntly too, as his voice didn’t lower for even a second as he started stomping, like a toddler, on the spot “I will not allow this! This is a clean swimming pool and it will not be tainted in your sins! Go to one of your personal rooms and for all our sake use a damn condom! None of us want pregnancy mixed up in this!”

With those orders, he turned away from us and left the room rather angrily, leaving the two of us in silence as we were once again left alone. I didn’t know what to say or do. Could I even do anything considering that she was still occupying my lap?

Just as I started to question what to do now the magic had gone, I felt her hand resting on my cheek which brought my eyes back to looking at her as she smiled and said “so, your room or mine?”

...

I didn’t care. I just wanted her. --- Hideaki Oshiro - Daytime

I couldn’t believe that I was really doing this. What was this some kind of romantic comedy?

Here I was, standing in the hallway, a massive mononeko teddy in my arms and about to ring Shun’s doorbell to surprise her with it. I didn’t even know how to feel about this at all...

Rolling my eyes, I forced myself to pull myself together before I then awkwardly adjusted myself to press the bell, ending up putting the teddy fully in front of me so I probably couldn’t even be seen from the angle of Shun’s room.

Then I just stood there, even more awkwardly and hoping no one would pass me in the corridor as I waited for some form of answer but as time went by, I couldn’t help but start to wonder whether she was actually in there or not.

Of course, just as I asked that question, I soon received my answer in the form of a sudden squeal of excitement that caused my ears to ring as I heard Shun shout “oh my god! Where is this from?! This is the most adorable thing ever!!!!”

Shaking my head in some pitiful attempt to get rid of my new ringtone in my ears, I put on the best smile I could muster and moved the teddy so she could see my head as I said “I got it from that Monomachine, I thought you’d like it as a gift!”

“I love it!!” was her scream of a reply as I suddenly felt the weight in my arms lifted away as she took the teddy and started spinning around and giggling like such a mad woman “thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

I couldn’t help but feel a flow of joy running through me as I watched her so instantly fall in love with the teddy before she ended up collapsing on to the bed and covering herself with it as well as her smaller one “I’m like the luckiest girl ever!”

I chuckled at that and offered her a nod “you just might be. Although, if you want my recommendation, I wouldn’t try taking that big teddy around everywhere with you like you had been with the… other one.”

I don’t think she was listening.

She just seemed so entranced with the teddies as she rolled around on her bed with them, not even caring as I still stood there, not sure what I should really do and, due to that, I started looking around the room until my eyes caught something underneath the bed... was that a knife?

“I suppose I should give the prince his reward!” Shun declared suddenly, nearly making me jump through the roof as I turned my, now even more nervous, attention back to her as she got off the bed and walked over to me with a smile “afterall, it is such an amazing gift.”

I couldn’t help myself as I started backing up out of the doorway and into the hallway instead where I soon found a wall behind me, watching as she just casually followed me along but before either of us could say anything the activity of a laughing Momoka and Kurou drew both of our attentions to watch as they headed into Kurou’s room, soon both disappearing through the door.

“Oooh!” Shun let out with a giggle, the activity fortunately making it look like she had changed her mind as she just grinned “I wonder what he is up to?”

Ugh. He's getting lucky... --- Daisuke Nishimura - Daytime

The conversation that I had with my brother earlier just kept coming back into my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about the advice he had given me about getting to know these peasants.

Did my brother really think that it was a good idea? It sounded like the biggest waste of time that I could imagine as well as hell to even consider spending time in their company.

However, my brother was always the smarter one… maybe he was right. As much as I hated the idea of it, perhaps I really should be trying to get to know these peasants so I could work it all out like my brother does...

Letting out a sigh, I knew I didn’t even know where to start and so I just tugged with my scarf a little as I looked out the window, watching as the land went by until I heard the door to enter the dining car open and turned to see that scruffy looking dude, Aoi, enter the room.

“Ah, sorry dude, I didn’t realize the car was already occupied. I can go have my nibbles somewhere else.”

Hmm, I guess it was worth a shot, I thought to myself as I let out a breath.

“No, sit” I told him, probably more demanding than I meant to be, as I moved away from the window and gestured to one of the tables “I’m curious about somethings with you.”

He raised a curious eyebrow as he hesitantly sat down with me “sure... what’s on your mind?”

“Well, you’re a street racer, correct? Last I checked, that was illegal. How does an illegal activity get accepted into the academy?”

He sent me a grin and winked “by being the best!”

Ugh, this conversation was going to be a challenge to sit through. I was going to force myself to do it though.

In order to follow my brother’s advice. --- Ryouta Akiyama - Daytime

I couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t understand where my mask had gone. I was so sure I had left it on my bed before I went to see Kaoru yesterday but it has been missing ever since... I just knew I had to find it. I had to. I couldn’t lose it after having it for as long as I could remember...

I just didn’t understand...

“Damnit!” I heard someone, who sounded like Kaoru, curse which broke my thought process as I took a few steps back until I was standing in front of the storage room that had a currently open door.

Curiosity taking me over, I gently and quietly walked into the room in order to investigate, creeping down the aisles of supplies until my eyes caught site of Kaoru bent down and picking up some items that she must’ve dropped which caused her to curse a moment ago.

“Why am I such a mess?” Kaoru complained to herself as she picked up the last items and put them in a box before turning to find me, letting out a gasp as she had to grab onto something to stop herself falling backwards “fuck! What do you like about keep making me jump you asshole?!”

I offered a nervous chuckle as I reached up to rub the back of my neck “heh, sorry, I heard you curse and thought I should investigate.”

“Why couldn’t you just call out like a normal person?!” she retorted as she took a step forward which caused me to notice the ball she was about to step on but being too late to warn her as she stepped on it and shrieked as she ended up falling on her back.

“Oh shit! Are you okay?!” I called out as I instantly ran over to offer help, only to flush and have to avert my eyes, having completely forgotten that she was wearing a dress, as she shrieked again.

“You’re a pervert too! Why the fuck are you so bad?! Ugh!”

I could only offer a regretful smile as I kept my eyes away while she got up and instead reached down to pick up the ball and put it back in the box that she had grabbed earlier, realizing it must have fell out when she grabbed the box and being unable to stop myself from chuckling “you are really unlucky right now, huh?”

“You think that’s funny?” she growled once she had gotten up and started to dust herself down before reaching to touch the back of her head “ow.”

“We should probably get you checked out in the medical room.”

“We?!”

“Well duh. With your current luck you’ll probably end up falling down the stairs! Once I’ve helped you there, you can help me by looking for my mask as payment!”

“P-payment? You made me fall in the first place, you dick!”

“Uhh, no. The ball made you fall” I said with a teasing grin, earning a roll eye from her before she walked forward and grabbed me by my collar, starting to drag me out of the storage room.

“Fine, smartass.” --- Nanami Suzuki - Daytime

Where did that little weirdo Ryouta go? I feel like I have gone around every bit of this train and yet I have still, somehow, not found him. Ugh, why does my investigative curiosity have to get the better of me with things like this?

Rolling my eyes, I came to the conclusion that I should just give up and instead sat myself down on one of the chairs in the recreation area. Deciding to rest my head and close my eyes for a bit, my mind a bit tired now from all the investigations I have been doing. I should probably just retreat to my room to get some extra sleep but at the same time, I knew that would be a waste of my time.

Very precious time, considering the situation.

“Haru notes that Nanami looks rather worn out” a voice said suddenly and, as I thought, when I opened my eyes and saw Haru having come to stand in the room as well, giving me a curious look.

“Yeah, I haven’t really been able to sleep much since we got here and those activities earlier really didn’t help” I muttered in response as I leaned my head back on the chair again just as a thought process came into my brain and I realized I have yet to interview Haru about why he is… how he is.

“Yo, Haru, I have a question for you.”

“Haru is okay to answer this question.”

Letting out a breath, I faced him directly again while offering a sweet smile “excuse my journalist curiosity but, what’s your story?”

“... story?”

“Yeah, like why are you always acting in third person and such?”

He paused, nervously rubbing his hands together before he looked back up to me “Haru doesn’t know. He has always been like this for as long as he could remember...”

Hmm, interesting.

“Do you think of yourself in such as well?”

“Haru does.”

I licked my lips, a habit of mine when I got really drawn to a story, as I leaned forward in my seat and gestured to the chair on the other side of the table “take a seat. I won’t bite.”

My mind couldn’t help but swim with all the possibilities behind what Haru is and I was thinking about them all as I watched him take a seat opposite me and I tried to decide on my next question.

This was going to be rather interesting... --- Takehiko Yamauchi - Daytime

This was such a stupid idea. Nowhere close to the worst idea I’ve ever had but this was still pretty silly.

Here I stood, about to ring Hanako’s doorbell and offer her some company after what she had said to me earlier. It was a nice thought but wow was this probably going to come out wrong, I just hoped she wouldn’t get the wrong idea as I finally forced myself to ring her bell.

Fortunately she didn’t take long to answer at all so I didn’t have to feel like some idiot in the hallway for too long. Instead, I got to feel awkward when she opened the door and gave me a rather curious look while saying “yes?”

I put on the best grin I could muster, which probably only made it even more awkward, as I brought my hand from behind my back and showed off a bottle of beer “you mentioned earlier about how you’re trying your best to keep your mind off things, right? So, I thought I would offer you some company!”

She gave me a rather amused smirk as she reached out and took the beer, giving it a look over before letting out a short laugh “it is against the rules of my clan to drink things such as this.”

Ah, woops.

“However, I will accept the company” she continued before I could offer her an apology, a genuine smile on her face as she stepped aside so I could walk into the room which resulted in me smiling just as much as I accepted her invitation and she closed the door behind me.

“I would say nice room but we all pretty much have the same room, I notice” I jokingly said, chuckling to myself at my own joke while I could practically feel the regret of letting me in her room come from her as she just rolled her eyes, that’s when a certain something on her desk caught my attention though “woah, is that a sword? I don’t have that in my room!”

I noticed that she seemed to get a bit defensive as she moved a bit closer to the object of the matter “ah, yeah. It’s my sword from my clan, I left it behind when I was going to Hope’s Peak Academy but... somehow it ended up here, given to me by that Mononeko thing.”

I gave a nod and, despite my innocent curiosity into the sword, we fell into silence because of it, both of us looking around the room as if wondering what to say before she finally spoke up again with a sigh “you won’t tell anyone, will you? I’m sure it’ll raise a lot of problems if the others were aware of this sword...”

I offered her a smile as I took off my hat and held it to my chest “I give you my word that I will not tell anyone else.” --- Chika Kurosawa - Daytime

Oh my god, this was so fun! Why hadn’t I tried out the swimming pool until those competitions earlier?!

Perhaps it was the slight thought process that I’ve been having in terms of being in the water reminding me of my days at sea and making me depressed and I did in fact slightly feel sad and miss it but the feeling wasn’t as bad as I thought it would.

Yeah, it felt good to be in the water.

After what felt like such a heavenly century, I pushed myself to rise out of the water and get air, probably wearing the goofiest smile on my face until my eyes caught sight of a surprised looking Yuki sitting at the edge of the ball, her feet dipped in the water.

“Oh, ah, I didn’t realize you were in there” Yuki said rather nervously as she rubbed her hands together and shifted around a little, looking back down to the water in between her feet “shall I leave?”

“Of course not” I told her instantly, a bit worried as she looked so sad, before swimming across the pool in order to be be beside her as we shared a look “what’s got you down love?”

She offered me a shrug as she sighed “I-I... I’m just looking for something to get my mind off things, I guess...”

I nodded in understanding at that before putting my smile back on my face “well, since we’re both here, let’s hang out. That’ll keep our minds off things, you in?”

She nodded but didn’t say anything in response as she looked back down to the water which only made me a bit more worried. There seemed to be something else on her mind... --- Aina Hisakawa - Daytime

This had to be one of the most boring moments I’ve ever had in my life. I was literally just sitting on the edge of my given bed and firing towards the cans I had been given for practice.

I didn’t like to be the type who complained like this. I’ve spent days on a single rooftop just waiting for my target to come into my sights but I couldn’t help myself here, I was supposed to be having success in Hope’s Peak Academy… instead I was just shooting cans. The cat could’ve at least given me a actual gun and proper targets to practice on.

Suddenly, the bell to my room rung which brought my attention to the door itself as I curiously looked at it before putting down my toy revolver and walking over to it. Naturally taking on a ready to fight stance as I opened it up, wondering who would want to come to me like this.

I found the answer rather surprising as I opened it and found myself face to face with one of the rich brothers, Minoru, who seemed to look over me for a moment before he pushed his sunglasses up his face a bit and grinned “ah, I was hoping you would be in. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“We have?” I retorted, raising a curious eyebrow as I leaned against the doorway, taking a moment to look him over as well. What would he of all people want to talk about?

“Yes, see me and my brother had a rather interesting encounter with Mononeko earlier while the rest of you were “competing” and it seems like something is about to be going down. Taking your profession into consideration, I want to discuss it with you.”

“Wait, what did Mononeko say?”

He just grinned a little more before stepping aside as if to let me walk out of the room “oh, I know you want to know. I’ll tell you if you join me for a game of chess...”

I was getting a really bad feeling about this... but if he knew something I didn’t. I needed to know. --- Kaoru Maeda - Nighttime

I let out the most blissful sigh in the history of existence as I was finally able to just collapse onto my bed. Phew, today had been the worst day ever. First I had to go through all those swimming challenges and then I ended up being dragged around my Ryouta? I just wanted that stupid nighttime announcement to play so my body knew it was time to sleep.

Ding dong, bing bong

Ah, there it is, I thought to myself as I allowed myself to smile and close my eyes. I barely heard the TV opposite me flicker on but what I heard next brought me wide-awake despite my craving to sleep.

“Knock, knock! IT’S MONONEKO to tell you shits to get out of those beds of yours and come meet me in the dining car as I have a VERY important announcement to make! Hehehehe!” he said so childishly with that stupid grin on his face as he sat on his stupid evil mastermind chair and forced me to watch him until the TV flickered off again.

Why did I find him so stupid all of a sudden?

More importantly, what the fuck did he have to announce? Can’t he even just let us sleep?

I groaned as I just wanted to do nothing but pretend that all of this wasn’t happening and instead get some much needed sleep but I knew I had to get up… that I had to go to the dining car like everyone else…

So I did. I got up and exited from my room and soon found myself nearly bumping into two others as I watched Kurou and Momoka exit from the same room.

... wait, from the same room?

“Oh, hey Kaoru!” Momoka said with some lovestruck giggle as Kurou grinned but hide his face in her Momoka’s neck “what’s up? Did you get the announcement too?”

“Yeah…” I said rather slowly as I stared at the two of them. When did they become a thing? Was they always a thing since the start of today? What?

“Then we better answer the call!” Kurou declared as if he was some knight which caused Momoka to giggle as she grabbed his sleeve and dragged him along to the dining car, leaving me to be completely confused as I watched them leave and the other Ultimates started to exit from their own rooms.

“What’s up, Kaoru?” Aoi asked me as he joined me in the corridor first, offering me a grin as he fiddled with his necklace.

“I...”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. We have a meeting to attend” Daisuke told us, completely interrupting me as he barged his way past the both of us, followed by his brother, while the rest of us shared a few glances before following suit. As rude as he was, he was also right. We did have a meeting to attend and we should get it out of the way as soon as possible.

Most of us were completely silent from that moment onwards as we filed into the dining car, one after the other, with the only sounds coming from our group being the attempted quiet giggles coming from Momoka and Kurou as we stood there waiting for the cat to arrive.

As expected, he didn’t take long.

Soon enough, our near silence was filled by the sounds of some dubstep kind of music and it was soon joined by the sound of Mononeko singing as the cat himself slowly danced into the room “Ooooh, everyone is about to give into despair, the world is horrible, life is dying, sadness is taking over and everyone is about to give into despair!!!!”

He even done a little bow once he had finished his singing, adjusting his bow time as he stood up straight again and looked to each of us but his grin soon faded when he only responded with silence “what the fuck? Not even any clapping? Wow, you are all a bunch of assholes, can’t even appreciate some singing!”

I was honestly surprised that weird girl, Shun, hadn’t clapped but when I turned to look at her, I saw she was too busy being distracted by a massive Mononeko teddy in her arms... wait, where the hell did that come from?

“We really shoul’ve kidnapped more entertaining people” Mononeko muttered to himself but before any of us could question it he continued with “ANYWAY, you have all been gathered today because I have some complaints. Fourteen of you were REALLY having fun in MY swimming pool room? How dare you?”

“Since when was having fun illegal?” Aoi wondered, earning mutters of agreement from the rest of us, save for the dumb and dumber brothers but Mononeko just stomped his feet angrily, causing the bag that I hadn’t noticed until now to shake a bit.

“SINCE YOU GOT ONBOARD DESPAIR PEAK’S OFFICIAL TRAIN OF DESPAIR YOU ASS!”

“Sorry that I asked...”

“Now, because you did this, I am forced to get involved!”

“Uhh, Haru would like to remind Mononeko that his rules state that the conductor can not interfere with any activity of the students...”

“That’s right! Did I interfere with your fun time in the pool?”

“... No?”

“Correcto againo, now shut up!”

Wow, who woke Mononeko on the wrong side of the bed this morning…

“Now, to clarify since some of you are stupid, I’m not interfering with your current activities, nor am I punishing you in any way. You didn’t break the rules so I can let it slide BUT I am going to do a little something since you all want to be all best buddies!”

“What is this something?” Shun asked, her attention now being drawn to the meeting at hand as she showed her head around the side of the teddy in her arms.

“Let’s just say, I’m going to… share you some information.”

“What kind of information?” Minoru asked, genuine curiosity in his voice as he adjusted the glasses on his face. Looking as if he was ready to play some game. Ugh.

“Well, I’m going to give you information on... why you are here.”

Huh?

A few gasps went around the room, mine included, and it felt as if a weight had suddenly been forced onto me, a weight heavier than even Shun’s new teddy and I could feel a chill suddenly run through me.

Why... we are here?

A sinister grin slowly crawled onto his face as he allowed us a moment for what he just said to use to settle in before reaching into the bag he had brought with him and pulling out one letter “in these envelopes, is information regarding why you are here, kind of. It doesn’t say exactly why you are here but it will give you a reminder of the cause of you being here.”

“What the fuck does that mean?!” Yuki suddenly shouted, pretty sure making us all jump from surprise, as I turned to watch while she glared over to Mononeko “we’re here because you kidnapped us!”

Mononeko just giggled and started putting the envelopes down on the tables, showing that each of them had one of our names written on them “that is true in a sense. Now, you don’t have to look at these letters, hell, you can look at them and then share what's in them with everyone else if you like! It is all up to you… but don’t you want to know what is in them?”

I couldn’t deny it. I did really want to know what was in it…

Mononeko didn’t say anything after that. He just silently finished placing down the envelopes somewhere on the tables throughout the room before he stepped back and watched us with a grin, just waiting like the asshole he was.

Most of us shared glances, unsure whether we should really give into the temptation and look inside the envelopes. Would we be disappointing each other if we did? It didn’t take long for Daisuke to let out a groan as he rolled his eyes and said “you are all so weak, I’ll go first.”

With that, Daisuke stepped forward and went towards his assigned envelope, all of us, including his own brother, watching with anticipation as he grabbed it and opened it. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to have any effect at all but oh was I so very wrong.

“W-what? What the fuck is this? Some kind of joke?!” Daisuke yelled at Mononeko who started laughing so madly but I wasn’t paying attention to him, I just focused on Daisuke like the other Ultimates, feeling completely shocked as I watched the dictator keep looking down at the whatever was behind that envelope with surprise and nervousness.

Suddenly, we were left to watch as Minoru too stepped forward in order to grab his own letter, curiosity having clearly taken over him as he opened it and not long after he did, he had a surprised reaction as well, although he seemed to keep his composure as he simply stated “so, it is that kind of game...”

The weight on me seemed to be getting heavier, a sense of dread filling through me as I came to that realization that I was sure everyone else in the room was having. If it could shock those two like that, this game must be bigger than we all thought and slowly but surely I was left to watch as each and every one of the other Ultimates silently retrieved their envelopes and opened them, becoming a mix of emotions.

Shock...

Fear...

Depression...

Letting out a breath I didn’t even know I had been holding, I walked towards the only envelope left and grabbed it with shaky hands, trying to prepare myself as I lifted it up and started to open it, it feeling as if centuries had gone by in that single moment while I could see as the other Ultimates started filing out of the room, no words passed between them and the silence being filled by Mononeko’s constant laughter.

All the fun we had today...

All the friendships we had built...

It was going to be destroyed, wasn’t it?

That is why Mononeko is revealing this to us, isn’t it?

Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself that I had to be calm. I had to remain collected and do my best to move forward without losing my mind. Without giving into despair but I also knew I had to find out what was in this letter.

Finally, I opened it and, like the others, I had been shocked but I doubted that it was the same reason. The letter in my hands read :

“I’m sorry that you’ve become mixed up in this my dear child. You weren’t meant to be one of the sixteen chosen but for some reason you have been taken instead of the one who was meant to be taken. I’m doing everything I can to bend the rules to get you out, just stay alive my sweet daughter. I’ll get you out... love, your father.”

...

Other than shock, I didn’t know what to feel. My dad, he was involved in this? I... I wasn’t supposed to be involved in this? It was... supposed to be someone else? A different student of Hope’s Peak Academy?

“What does this mean?” I asked as I finally looked up from the letter and over to Mononeko who stopped his laughing immediately and instead just out a few quiet giggles as he held my gaze with his own.

“I thought it would be obvious, hehehe!” Mononeko said, unable to help himself from continuing to giggle as he waddled his way over to me so we were standing next to each other as he looked up to me “but to explain, there was a mix up. You aren’t supposed to be here, you are supposed to be back at Hope’s Peak Academy, safe and sound, while another student is supposed to be here.”

“Who is supposed to be here instead of me? How does my father know about this, is he involved?!”

“Hehehe, who knows!”

“You do!!”

Mononeko shook his head, a grin on his face that made me really wish there wasn’t a rule against punching him, before he started walking away “I don’t actually! I’m just the mascot of this lovely game! I’m nearly as much in the dark as all of you are! Isn’t that fun? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make the nighttime announcement!”

I wanted to question him further but I couldn’t form the words in my mouth and instead I just watched as he left the dining car, leaving me completely alone to my thoughts and to look back down at the letter in my hands.

What do I do? Should I tell the others that my father seems to be involved in all of this? Can I even trust the others anymore? What is going to happen now?

I let out a sigh of defeat and shoved the letter back into the envelope before departing from the dining car myself. It was just too late to be wondering about this, I needed sleep and because of that, I headed back to my room.

It felt like the entire world was trying to swallow me up as I walk through the hallway towards my room, just the worst feeling in the world in the pit of my stomach as I tried not to look too much at some of the other Ultimates as they stood at their own room doors, looking down at their own surprise while my mind barely registered the sound of the TV at the end of the hallway flickering on and Mononeko beginning to speak.

“Ding dong, bing bong fuckers! This is the nighttime announcement to let you know that, spoiler alert, it is nighttime! You should probably go to bed and don’t forget to lock your doors, tonight is going to be a very very special night, I can just feel it! Of course, if you’re the person who is going to make tonight a very special night, good luck to you because tomorrow is going to be really really fun!”

He started laughing again, laughing like the maddest thing I’ve ever met… he knew what we were all feeling right now. He knew what he did and what come from it and deep down, as I opened my door and then closed it behind me, I knew to. I think we all did.

Tonight, somehow, someone...

Someone... someone was going to die...