"Are you alright? How are you feeling?" Kirumi asked you.

"I...still feel a bit sick.." you answered honestly. It was the day after Kaede's gruesome execution. You figured that the image was scarred into your brain and you'd never get it out.

"I see... So will you be skipping breakfast today?"

"...Nah, I still have to eat something, don't I?"

"That is very true... What about the other thing?"

You rested your head on the table. After the trial, Kirumi had confronted you in private. She was concerned about your odd behavior that had started up. Only to be expected from the Ultimate Maid, you thought. You didn't tell her all of the details, but you had decided to open up a little. "I still feel like I'm suspicious to everyone. We're all suspicious, I mean, but they still may think in the back of their minds that I did something...bad."

"Well, please let me know if you need any help with this, or if you need someone to talk to about it. I will gladly be at your service." You nodded and thanked her, and she walked away.

"You finally got rid of that emo hat!" you overheard someone say. "Is this 'cause Kaede died or whatever?"

"Quiet, you male!" Tenko told the other person. "Learn some manners, why don't you!?"

"Oh, huh, you're not wearing your hat. I didn't even notice," Kaito said plainly. Shuichi...doesn't have his hat? You looked up, and sure enough, he didn't. You just blinked at the male.

"And you could stand to learn some manners too, you insensitive jerk!" Tenko called out again.

"N-No, I just...felt like it was getting in the way is all," Shuichi responded. "...You don't have to stare... I just took off my hat, it's not a big deal..." He blushed as he said that. As the others started talking, you couldn't help but to just stare at Shuichi. He looked more confident, even if just a little.

Apparently you tuned out for a fair amount of time. Everyone sat down at the table while Kirumi was already bringing out the breakfast. "Hey," someone said at your side, "will you stop staring at Shuichi like that? You're gonna form a hole in his head." You looked over, only to find an annoyed Kokichi who had sat down next to you.

"Sorry," you replied simply. "Hey, why do you sound...annoyed...?? It's not doing anything to you."

The boy pouted. "No, it's not. Just...ehhhh!" He groaned before fixing himself a plate to eat.

"Hmph. Is someone grouchy this morning?" you questioned sarcastically while rolling your eyes. You picked up a few things and dropped them onto your plate.

"I dunno...! Why don't you tell me?" He began eating, and you did the same. You stayed silent while the other teenagers casually chatted. This conversation...definitely feels forced, you thought in your head. You remembered the image of Kaede's dead hanging body and immediately choked on a bit of food.

"Woah! (Y/N) are you okay!?" Kokichi questioned with a worried look in his face. He turned to the rest of the table. "Guuuuyyyssss!! (Y/N) over here is dyin—" You quickly clasped your hand over his mouth to keep him from saying anything else to embarrass you.

"S-Shut it..." You were blushing a bit out of embarrassment.

The boy next to you just took your wrist to pull your hand away from his mouth. "Nishishi! You know, (Y/N), you're really fun to play with!"

"..." You looked into his eyes. The scariest thing about this...is that I can't detect any lie here. "Kokichi, what is that supposed to mean...!?"

"I don't knoooow! Why don't you find that out yourself?" He winked at you playfully.

"...I've finished eating, so I'm done here. I'll be going, now." You stood up and out of your chair. "Thank you for the lovely food, Kirumi," you thanked her as you passed by. You were briskly walking towards the dining hall doors to leave when a high-pitched voice called out.

"Wait! Wait wait wait wait WAIT!" Monokuma busted in out of nowhere, crashing into your leg. The other students in their seats turned around to see what was happening.

"Gh...!"

"Hey, at least let me give these out before you leave."

"Give what out?" you asked coldly.

"Prizes. I figured I'd give you guys a prize for surviving the class trial."

"A prize...?" Shuichi spoke up.

The Monokubs showed up just as suddenly as their father. Each one of them had something in their paws. "Listen up!" Monosuke told your group. "'Cause we've got these fabulous, nonsensical prizes for youse!" They held up some sort of red-colored gem, an ocarina, a piece of paper that looked like a passport, and then some weird crank.

"What's all this crap?" Kaito questioned. "What are we supposed to do with this?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe there's a way to use them without know what they're for?" spoke Monokuma. "Who cares? Just put your best foot forward. It's easier to move forward than backward."

"How nice," Gonta piped up.

"Don't get inspired by him, Gonta," Tsumugi told him.

The black and white bear ignored what had just been said. "Anyway, that's the situation so just do your best however you please!" He and his cubs then left.

"So...what should we do with all this junk?" Maki inquired.

Tsumugi looked off into the distance, trying to focus. "Maybe we need to use these on those mysterious things all over the campus?"

"And what'll happen when we do?"

"Umm... I'm not sure."

"Whatever will happen," you started speaking, "it probably won't be dangerous to us. Monokuma is dragging us through a long haul so that we can suffer in despair, so I doubt that he'd pull some cheap trick to hurt us."

"Well, we'll know once we try," Kokichi said. His hands were clenched into fists with excitement and there were stars in his eyes. "I'll take the junk, then."

"Pfft. How do we know that lose them? Or even break them for that matter?" you challenged him, a bit of playfulness getting caught in your tone.

"Ohhh. So you're challenging an overlord of darkness now, huh?" He smirked.

"I think we should leave this to Shuichi," Kaito piped up.

"What? Me?"

"You're the Ultimate Detective, yeah? You should be good at weirdo puzzles like this." The astronaut winked at the blue-haired male and gave him an encouraging smile. "So I'm gonna leave it to you!"

"Okay...I'll try."

"Maaan... Whatevs, I guess that's fine," Kokichi sighed.
***

"(Y/N)!" someone called out to you. You looked up from the bench you were sitting on.

"What do you wa—" ...I was honestly expecting someone else. Angie was standing right before you, slightly jumping up and down on her toes. "Oh, Angie. What are you doing here?"

"Nyahaha! Shuichi and I have found a flashlight! I want everyone to congregate in the gym to hear Atua's divine explanation about it!" she said while clasping her hands together. We're gonna be talking about...a flashlight?

"It's just...a flashlight? Did I hear that correctly?"

"Mhm mhm! Oh, but don't mistake it for any old ordinary flashlight. It is quite divine! Now, I expect you to be there...or Atua will punish your soul." Her face darkened a bit more but only for a second. "Alright? Alright! See you at the gym!" She merrily skipped away.

You sighed. Guess I'll have to go there. You briskly walked towards the gym, passing some of the others while you were at it. After a short while, you made it to your destination. You were slightly surprised that other people had gone there too. Everyone but Shuichi and Angie. Sighing, you sat down in one of the gym's corners, pulling your legs up to your chest.

"Now doesn't someone look depressed." You looked up to see the person who just spoke.

"Knock it out, Kokichi." The male didn't respond to you right away. Instead he just started to sit down next to you, to which you subconsciously moved to the side in order to give him some more room. He turned to look at you with a slightly shocked expression before slowly turning away and smiling a bit to himself. "...What? Do I look weird or something?"

"Why... Of courseee!" He squinted at you, pretending that he was carefully trying to look for something. "Yeah, yeah that's it... There's something allll over your face."

You figured he was lying, but decided to humor him. "Oh yeah? What is it?" You almost expected him to mock you.

Kokichi winked at you. Oh no this can't be good. "Pretty."

"...Huh?"

He smirked, and it only grew bigger as he continued. "There's 'pretty' all over your face."

"Wh-What the hell?!" You put a hand up to your head, covering the majority of your face from his sight. "Geez... My talent must be dulling. I can barely sense the lies out of you sometimes..."

"Your talent can't be dulling! You're the Ultimate at it, remember!?" He curled himself up into a position like yours. "By the way, once we're all done with this, I'd like for us to meet up. I have something I want us to try."

It was your turn to squint at him. "Can I trust you?"

"...Nishishi! Why don't you figure that out in your own?" ...Trusting Kokichi... That sure would be an interesting ride. "Considering it, aren'tcha?" You snapped back into reality. You realized that he was looking deep into your eyes, just like you would do when you would be deciphering whether someone was telling the truth or a lie. It made your heart start to goes just the slightest bit faster, which you passed off as mere nervousness.

". . ." The two of you just exchanged glances in silence for a small while.

"...Okay!" Kokichi broke the peace. "So you'll meet up with me soon after this? We'll be at the library."

"Umm..." You sighed. "Sure. Why not...?" The supreme leader's eyes just lit up.

"Hurrayyyy! I'll be looking forward to it!" He quickly bounced up with excitement, the motion causing the curls n his air to bounce a little bit. He walked to the center of the gym, still wearing a smile, as Shuichi and Angie finally entered.

"Everyone! Gather 'round!" Angie called out. "We all here? Good! Then let's bow our heads and pray to Atua." You got up from your small corner to meet everyone in the center of the room.

"You're a real pain in the a**, you know that!?" Miu said angrily. "Just tell what you f*ckin' want!"

"Alrighty then, check this out."

"..This is a peculiar-looking flashlight... So what of it?" Kiibo asked.

"Umm, I dunno what it is either. I inspected it pretty good... Nyahahaha, but in the end I couldn't figure it out."

"You couldn't?" Shuichi asked.

"So I asked someone for help!" It better not be him.

"...You don't mea—"

Monokuma bounced into the gym. Dammit. "If somethin' has you worried, just let Monokuma take care of it!" he said. "If you don't know something, I'll tell you. If you need help, I'll help you. If you don't like something, I'll fix it. So don't get rid of it... Please don't get rid of...me."

"Very bad when lady who acts like that preys on you," Gonta piped up.

"Huh? Do you know that from personal experience?" Tsumugi asked him.

"Tell us, Monokuma," Angie spoke once again. "What is this flashlight?"

"Why, that's a Flashback Light," he responded simply.

"A...Flashback Light?" Korekiyo repeated.

The artist hung her body to one side. "Flashback?" She hung her body in the other direction. "Light?"

"The flashlight doesn't shed light on darkness. It sheds light on your lost memories."

"Lost memories...?" someone else inquired.

"You guys seem concerned that you couldn't remember how you came to this school... But if you use that Flashback Light, you can remember everything!"

"What...? With light?" Shuichi questioned the bear skeptically.

"So it's your fault we don't remember when we were kidnapped, huh?" Kaito said looking p*ssed.

"What did you do to us, and how did you steal our memories away?" Kirumi asked.

"Hmm, maybe if you use that Flashback Light, you'll be able to remember that, too."

"...I don't believe it." Maki sighed. "No way this flashlight will recover our memories."

"I bet there were a lot of naysayers and skeptics when the telephone was invented, too. For your information, the Flashback Light can treat various symptoms of memory loss. The light it emits stimulates the basal ganglia and hippocampus. Not just that, but physical—" Monokuma cut himself off. "Phew, I didn't realize how boring it would be to explain. Basically, it works like that..." He then made haste to leave everyone there.

"Hey!" Kaito shouted after him. "Don't just give up on explaining after a single sentence!"

"So...what should we do?" Kiibo asked cluelessly.

"What should we do...? You mean, should we or should we not use the flashlight?" Tenko questioned the robot. "No way! I refuse! It reeks of fishiness!"

"Yeah. Gonta no can believe flashlight can bring back memory."

"Well," Ryoma started to offer, "why not ask someone who knows machines? We've got the Ultimate Inventor right here."

"You're all a bunch of Ultimate Dumba**es!" Miu retorted. "No f*ckin' way that thing can treat amnesia! Then again...these aren't exactly normal circumstances..."

"So in such an uncanny environment as this, common sense has no place," Korekiyo stated.

"Well, I mean, there are those neuralyzer things," Tsumugi piped up. "The flashy things from Men in Black..."

"Why are you talking about a movie?" Maki asked the cosplayer. "This is real life."

"Y-You're right... Sorry."

"I...don't think we should do it," Kokichi chimed in. "I'm scared it might cause some weird side effects..."

"Nyeeeh, I'm worried it'll effect my magic..."

"...Has everyone spoken? If we're in accord, I will consent as well. What about you, Shuichi? And you, (Y/N)? Neither of you have said anything for this matter yet," Kirumi said professionally.

Shuichi stayed silent, so you decided to speak up. "Well, I mean, when you think about it... Really, we don't have much to lose at this point. But I'm not sure if we want to use...depends on you all."

"Alright! Then it's decided! Let's use it!" Kaito announced.

"Huh? Who decided that? We were all saying how dangerous it sounds..." Tsumugi trailed off.

"Geez, you guys are way to cautious," he responded. "I mean, I understand why. We're in such a weird situation, after all. But...we can't win by just running away all the time! If you want to win, you've gotta be a little reckless sometimes. If we can't face this danger, there's no way we'll be able to defeat Monokuma."

"Kehehe... Well, aren't you confident? But you've no idea how we're supposed to win, do you?"

"Yeah, I've got no clue. But still... If you wanna win, you gotta make a stand somewhere or you'll never move forward. If we run away, our kids will grow up to be the kinda people who run away from things like this!"

"...Huh? What are you talking about?" Maki questioned him.

"If you still run away, then go ahead. I won't stop or blame you."

"Okaaay, fine," Kokichi interjected. He took a small step towards the door, expecting the others to follow him. "Then, let's go—...Huh? What's wrong, everyone? Aren't we going?" He stopped at your side.

"I'm...staying," Tenko said. "After hearing that degenerate male's speech, running away would just frustrate me!"

"Gonta also stay... Is what true gentlemen would prolly do."

"I also agree with Kaito," Kiibo spoke. "Our defeat is one hundred percent assured unless we can stand up to this. That's...how I feel, deep inside. Just a whisper—"

"You hear it in your ghost?" Kokichi asked, resting his hands behind his head. "I'm pretty sure robots don't have ghosts, though."

"...Leave me alone," he responded, clearly offended.

"I shall stay as well," Korekiyo chimed in. "I suspect I will be able to observe something most interesting..."

"If anything happens to me, y'all better beg my fans, the world, and humanity for forgiveness!" Miu shouted.

"So what are you gonna do, Shuichi?" Kaito finally asked the detective.

"I-I... I'll stay behind, too."

"I'll stay, too!" Kokichi piped up excitedly, stars in his eyes. "So what if it might cause some weird side effects? That's no big deal!"

"It seems everyone agrees with Kaito," the Ultimate Maid spoke. "Very well, I shall follow suit."

"Hmph," Ryoma said, "now it's decided. Hurry up and do it."

"Then I'm gonna turn it on!" Angie announced. "Click!" She turned the flashlight on.

.
.
.
.
.

"...Hey, (Y/N)?" a voice called out. The noise seemed to be muffled. "Are...you okay?"

You tried opening your eyes. You could feel them opening, but you couldn't see a thing. You could, however, feel a sharp pain shoot straight through your head. What...happened...? You tried to remember something, but everything was fuzzy. Then...it hit you like a train. Images flashed into your mind.

You saw every one of your classmates in the killing game in normal school attire. Then, people whom you didn't recognize came up to them from behind and seemingly drugged them; their bodies fell limp and they were thrown into a black car.

You opened your eyes.

"H-Huh? Wh-What?"

"(Y/N), you seem quite disturbed. Did you see something during the flashback?" You saw Kokichi in front of you, shaking you slightly by the shoulders. Looking back behind him you could see a concerned Kirumi.

"Y...Yeah... I'm fine. Don't let me worry you," you responded. You pulled a hand up to your head.

"Nuh uh!" Kokichi snapped. "You don't look 'fine' whatsoever right now! ...Hey, need me to kiss you!? Will that help make you feel better!?"

"Wh-What? N-No way. How absurd..." You pushed him away from you, uncomfortable at the fact at how close he had gotten to you. You started to realize that something felt weird.

"Nishishi~! I can already tell you're lying, just by looking at you!" Huh? What does that mean? you wondered.

"Step aside." Kirumi pushed him to the side.

"Oof...!"

"Now, (Y/N), what has gotten you so shaken up all of the sudden? Was it something you saw in the flashback? If it should be so, please inform us all."

"I saw the Ultimate Hunt!" Kaito interjected.

"S-Same..." Shuichi said timidly.

"You too!?" Miu asked quizzically. "So it wasn't just me getting chased down in this Ultimate Hunt..."

You slowly turned to Kirumi. "I saw the Ultimate Hunt, I think I just experienced a side effect of the Flashback Light." You quickly looked down to the floor, giving your eyes enough time to change back to their original grey color.

"So it appears that we all have experienced the same flashback... That of the Ultimate Hunt," the maid declared to everyone. There was a short pause where your peers exchanged the same shocked expressions with each other.

"All of us here were being chased by the Ultimate Hunt. What on Earth does that mean?" Ryoma questioned.

"Oh, wait..." Tenko began talking. "Can someone tell me what that is? I...can't seem to remember. What is the Ultimate Hunt?"

"Geez, how could you guys forget something so important?" Kaito sighed. "Alright guys, the Ultimate Hunt is. . . . Huh? What was it? Why can't I remember?"

"I can't either..." Shuichi joined him.

"It's no use. I can't remember either." Kiibo looked distressed. "I can only remember being chased... I can't remember anything else at all."

"Umm... It's no use. I can't remember either," Tsumugi said.

"Ugh, this feels gross," Miu spoke. "Like a sh*t that won't fully squeeze out." ...Ew.

"Even if we can't remember, we should still be able to figure something out..." Even Ryoma was sweating a little.

"...Hm? What you mean?"

"If we were all running from the Ultimate Hunt, then why are we imprisoned here? Could the reason be that...we were caught by the Ultimate Hunt?"

Kiibo tried to piece everything together. He was slow at speaking first, but eventually managed to say, "You mean, we tried to escape by erasing our memories, but they found us anyway... And subsequently, we were captured as part of this Ultimate Hunt?"

"Then, this killing game is..." Kaito trailed off.

"Yeah..." Ryoma pulled his hat down, leaving the majority of his face darkened by an ominous shadow. "It might be the work of the Ultimate Hunt."

"If that is so...then I am all the more concerned about this Ultimate Hunt," Korekiyo threw out there.

"But, but how disappointing!" Angie called out. "No one can remember anything! Nyahahahahaha! What a disappointing disappointment!"

"Qui laughin' about this, you little sh*t!" Miu scolded the girl.

"It seems losing him made a far bigger impact than we expected," Kirumi spoke.

"...Him?" Maki repeated.

"Rantaro... He seemed to know more than he let on."

"Ohhh, I do sorta remember him saying something like that," Angie said. Rantaro must have mentioned the Ultimate Hunt, you figured.

"Hmmm... Our mild-mannered mystery man said that, huh...?" Kokichi put a finger up to his lips.

"But then...why did only Rantaro remember the Ultimate Hunt?" Shuichi inquired.

"There is no point discussing that now," the anthropologist spoke up. "After all, he is already dead. But if you truly wish to hear his words, I could perform a seance on you. Hmhm~"

"S-Stop it!" Kaito shouted at him. "Don't bring up weird stuff like that! And why're you acting girly all of a sudden!?"

"Yep, death can be real heartless." Monokuma came bouncing in, cutting off Kaito's speech. "Puhuhu... Looks like you guys safely got your memory back."

You shot the bear a cold glare filled with annoyance, aggravation, confusion, and exhaustion; all of those mixed into one. You stretched out your arms slightly before letting them loose at your sides, completely giving up for the moment.

"Welllll... Okaaayyyy, fiiiine. Something may have happened to you, (Y/N), but I swear. I wasn't involved with it!"

"Hey, you stupid-a** bear!" Miu shouted. "What's this Ultimate Hunt!? It makes no goddamn sense!"

"Looks like your sealed memories are more stubborn than I thought... Just one use of the Flashback Light wasn't enough to restore all of your memories..."

"You're such a terrible liar," Kokichi called out cheerfully. "You totally did that on purpose."

"What connection do you have with the Ultimate Hunt?" Maki asked, ignoring the leader's presence.

"Puhuhu... I can't reveal that. Regardless of my true identity, my goal is crystal clear. And that is, to make you guys participate in the killing game! That is my only desire!" Monokuma gave little more than a wave before bouncing away.

"Wh-What!? Killing game!? I will never do that again!" Tenko said.

Kaito rubbed his hand against his head exhaustedly. "We just gotta work together. If we cooperate, we'll make it out of here alive. Just like a certain someone said."

"But I believe cooperating with each other is the most logical course of action—"

A soft snore interrupted Kiibo. Kokichi was pretending to sleep. "I'm snooooring." He kept 'snoring', acting as if he were really asleep.

"...Why are you sleeping!?"

"Woah!" He jolted up. "Huh, what!?"

"Hey, Kokichi...we're having a serious conversation here," Tsumugi told him.

"And is it written somewhere that I have to take conversations seriously?"

"Tch, quit acting so immature!" Kaito scoffed.

"Hm? I'm a teenager...so duh, I'm acting immature. Aren't you guys forgetting to act your age?"

"But I don't have a biological age..."

"Don't worry about it, Kiibo. I'm just talking to the humans right now! What were we talking about again? Something about working together to escape, right?"

"So you were listening, you horrible degenerate."

"We don't have to work together, though. Let's just ask how we can get out."

"As if Monokuma would give us an answer other than the killing game," you quickly and quietly said.

"Oh, we're not gonna ask Monokuma. We're gonna ask the mastermind among us." He wore a confident smirk. ...Eh?

"A-Are you goin' senile!? I thought we agreed that there is no mastermind?" Miu questioned him.

"Hm, oh yeah. We did, didn't we? If we tried to sniff out a mastermind again, we'd just repeat Kaede's screwup."

"You'd better quit messin' around!" Kaito said, anger rising in his tone.

Kokichi started to sweat nervously. "Eh? You think I'm messing around right now? Aw man, you really don't get it. I'm trying to get this through to everyone... If you keep saying all this uplifting stuff like working together and cooperating...then you can expect to receive some painful retaliation. Got it?"

Kaito pounded his fists together. "Argh, that's enough! I'm gonna slug him!"

"Aaahh! He's gonna punch me! I gotta make a break for it!" Kokichi then ran as fast as he could out of the gym.

"K-Kokichi...!" you shot out quickly. You didn't mean to say anything. It's no use now. Might as well just follow after him. You waved at the others, then dashed as fast as you could out of the gym and after the boy. You were able to run faster than you normally would have, partially because of the adrenaline but mostly because Kokichi had been giving you a workout ever since you met him. Both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

"Hey, umm..." Something...or someone got in your way, causing you to stumble. You saw the straps of the boy's pants fly around the corner.

"Get out of my way! You... Monokuma? What are you doing here?" You tried to run past him, but he grabbed onto your leg causing you to stop moving.

"Just wanted you to know..." He suddenly grew creepy. "Your eyes. They change color, right? Well... I know what happened after your flashback. I suggest you do something quick in order to cover your eyes, if you don't wanna be caught."

He let go of your leg and slowly walked away. You turned away from the bear and continued to run after Kokichi, but he did leave you thinking.

Word Count: 4406