"There seems to be a hefty amount of food in this refrigerator. It is as if that Monokuma really has prepared for us to be here for awhile..."

Sonia shut the fridge door before turning to her other group mates, Kazuichi Soda and Himiko Yumeno. They were investigating the kitchen in the dining hall quite vigorously.

"Yeah, well, that's gotta be crazy. I mean, the others have a point with it feeling like deja vu, but aside from all of us feeling like that, there's no evidence of that! Besides, that's crazy," Soda shrugged. "I think we woulda remembered being in something crazy like that before."

"He's got a point..." Himiko agreed. "We definitely would have all remembered something as crazy as that."

"True...If we have not been in this predicament  before, then why is Monokuma so insistent and sure that the killing game will begin?" Sonia made her way away from the fridge before pointing at the knives. "Does he really think anyone would kill with just one of these? Besides, it is as Lyra said. If we all know each other, we will be so close, no one will kill! I doubt anyone would kill such a close friend."

"Miss Sonia, I agree, but I still think we should all be cautious around that blonde haired prick," Soda scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, he openly
said he disagrees with all of us."

"Nyeh...He might try to kill us. I'll try to save us with my magic..."

"I believe in your magic, Himiko!" Sonia smiled cheerfully. "Nothing around here seems to offset me too much. Shall we head to the dining hall?"

"Yeah..."

The trio exited the kitchen, but the only thing they found in the dining hall were the reflective windows. They couldn't see anywhere outside, just their own reflection. Soda frowned.

"There has to be a reason for that."

"Perhaps it was to make us more desperate to go outside. After all, now we can't see any glimpse of the outside world..."

"Maybe, but they're going to fail. We'll
never kill."

"Right!"

<><><>

"So we all seem to have our own separate room with our name and nameplate on it," Janelle concluded as the three continued to walk through the halls. "Ah, here is mine. Let me try and see if this key genuinely works."

She placed her key into the lock, and it turned. She pushed the door open, revealing a plain looking
bedroom with lilac walls and sheets. A bow was sitting against the wall next to a quiver of arrows, and books decorated the shelves and walls. Not a single hair was out of place. She closed the door, an indifferent look on her face.

"It works."

"D-D-Does it w-work on o-other people's d-door?" Nico questioned, her red eyes poking out from underneath her hood. "L-Like a k-key for everything?"

"Let's find out," Hajime grabbed his own key and tried to turn it in Janelle's locked door. To no ones surprise, it didn't turn. "Okay, well, at the very least, that's good. No one can sneak into anyone's room."

"We do not need to worry about that. If we are all friends, no one will try and violate anyone's precious privacy."

"Y-Yeah..." Nico mumbled. "...W-Why don't w-we look around the s-school some m-more..?"

"Okay."

The three searched around, eventually finding some of the empty classrooms that people had awoken in.

"This is where I first woke up," Hajime shrugged. "My head still kinda hurts, but it's not too bad..."

"My headache is completely gone, I had forgotten about how we all had one..." Janelle frowned. "Just what could be the cause of that?"

"Who knows..."

<><><>

"I really thought this school would have had a more...you know...elaborate trash disposal."

Hina was a little let down after looking at the room for the garbage disposal. Hina, Akane, and Shuichi all had been assigned together to look at trash, and it was even less exciting than they had expected. The room was painted plain black, and the only thing in the room was the incinerator. The button to turn it on was green, while the other was yellow. There was nothing to separate anyone from entering the room.

"Yes. If it's like this, anyone could dispose of evidence easily," Shuichi turned his cap to the side awkwardly before he eventually just took it off entirely. "...This doesn't feel right. This is all pretty strange..."

"Well, I think Monokuma said that the incinerator can only be used from seven to nine at night, so people wouldn't be able to just dispose of evidence like that," Hina disagreed before she shook her head. "Ah! We can't think like that. Nothing's gonna happen. As long as we're all friends, we'll be fine!" Hina turned to Shuichi before gasping. "Oh, you look so...so cute without your hat!"

"Fruit!? What? Where!?" Akane asked excitedly, mishearing what Hina had said. When they looked at her strangely, she sighed. "In the trash...? Dammit. I guess that's a no-go..."

"...I don't look cute," Shuichi denied, his face tinting pink from the compliment. He was tempted to place his hat back on, but it simply just didn't feel right. He put it down, next to the incinerator. "But this hat...it feels wrong. I feel like...I feel like there was something...someone who encouraged me to take this off...I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"Yeah, I think all of us are pretty confused," Akane nodded, her brown hair sticking up all over the place. "Doesn't it feel like we've been stripped of something? How did we all just forget half of our lives?"

"Forget...? Maybe we didn't forget. Maybe something happened to us," Shuichi frowned. "But what...?"

<><><>

"An armory!? How cool! My grandpapa uses this big sword, and he never let me try! Maybe now I'll get to mess around with one! Woohoo! I'm so excited!"

Tanya dashed around the armory, an excited and childish look in her stormy eyes. Hiro and Maki trailed behind the energetic girl. The armory was painted a dark shade of grey, and tinted boxes with weapons inside of them were all fastened to a wall. As Tanya went to pick a sword out of it's square container, Maki quickly spoke up.

"Don't touch that. It's got a sensor, see?" Maki pointed to a small tag on top of the sword. "Who knows what could happen. For all we know, this could be rigged."

"Monokuma didn't say anything bad would happen," Hiro pointed out. "Not that we should trust that thing, but-"

"HEY! I'm not a thing, I'm a bear!" Monokuma suddenly appeared from nowhere, scaring them with his loud appearance. "And nothing happens to you if you pick it up! But it does track the time picked up! See?"

Monokuma picked up a sword, and sure enough, the current time of six forty three appeared on the container where the sword was.

"Tada! I mean, I couldn't just provide an armory where you all can take weapons nilly-willy," Monokuma sneered. "The time will disappear from the armory's slot once the weapon is placed back. See?"

Monokuma placed the sword back down, and the time disappeared from the crate.

"This all make sense?" Monokuma sneered. "Great. Happy killing!"

He disappeared, leaving the three alone.

"Well, what he says doesn't matter since we'll never kill!" Tanya grinned widely. Hiro laughed and nodded, but Maki wasn't quite one to agree so quickly.

"I don't think we should make that assumption," Maki shook her head. "We don't know what everyone else here is thinking. We don't know them."

"But...What Lyra said is true, isn't it?" Hiro shrugged. "If we all get to know each other, we won't kill. People would never kill someone they called a close friend."

"I...wouldn't be so sure of that," Maki hesitated before finally settling on her decision to reveal her in-depth struggle. "As...an assassin, I was forced to murder whoever, and I had to do it. Friend or not, it didn't matter."

"Whoa! You're an assassin!?" Tanya completely
skipped over the main message of what Maki had said. "Oh wait, you did say that...That's so cool! Are you good with every weapon!?"

"...No. I don't use swords. I botched a mission with one once," Maki's red eyes were wide in surprise; she hadn't expected a positive reaction to her career. "I would never take the risk of using a sword after that. Let's just say I don't know how to control one."

"Wow!"

"Wait, you're an assassin!?" Hiro exclaimed, a worried look on his face before he straightened out. "W-Well, Lyra's gotta be right. Even if you're an assassin, you won't kill if we're all friends!"

"...I wouldn't. But I don't know what everyone else is thinking..."

<><><>

"Hm...this gym doesn't have any windows, and the only way out is the main entrance. The only place to hide would be the storage room..."

Kyoko was taking a general look over the gym before she got on her hands and knees to inspect the floor. Her, Makoto, and Lyra had decided to stay in the gym to further inspect the area.

"Redwood floor. There doesn't seem to be any dents or blemishes on the floor," Kyoko's hand glided against the smooth ground. "It's spotless."

"I mean, yeah! This is a school. It better be clean," Lyra just shrugged, her grin as carefree as ever. Her golden eyes shimmered, full of something not quite as innocent as they proclaimed to be. "I mean, I wouldn't want a filthy school! I'm sure the janitors probably come and clean quite a bit. They did a great job, everything's immaculate around here!"

"Oh, right. Or maybe that strange bear does it," Makoto shrugged, his smile mirroring Lyra's. The two were getting along pretty well with their views of belief and friendship overlapping strongly. "Either way, it looks like our stay here won't be so bad if we live somewhere clean with all of our friends. Right, Lyra?"

"But of course! Choosing to believe in our friends is the only thing we can do," Lyra laughed. "Yes, the only thing we can do indeed. Kyoko, you're being awfully quiet. What do you think?"

"...This stage has the platform where Monokuma appeared from," Kyoko pointed toward the stage. "But it doesn't seem to open. Maybe..."

"What?"

"...Never mind," Kyoko suddenly backpedaled, her face completely solemn. Lyra just shrugged.

"Okay, whatever. It doesn't matter, he can just watch us all live our lives to the fullest! We'll never kill."

"That's right!" Makoto flashed a wide smile. "We'll all be fine, I'm sure of it."

<><><>

"W-Why d-do we even n-need stuff f-from a store while we're i-in a killing game...?"

Toko was looking at the school store with distaste, hands touching at their pointer fingers. She couldn't really see the point of a store when Monokuma specifically wanted them all to kill each other, not get to know each other. Fuyuhiko shrugged before touching his eyepatch.

"Cause he's a fuckin' idiot. At least it'll help us when we wanna try to buy things for each other," Fuyuhiko answered before walking out of the school store. "More importantly, let's keep looking around. Maybe we can find something that'll get us outta here."

"O-Out of here? But they o-only said we should s-search around the academy..." Toko hesitated. "B-But you're right, w-we do need to get out of here. I c-can't b-believe I even f-forgot about that...Lyra's rambling m-made me a-actually believe that people wouldn't hurt each other j-just because we're friends..."

"No, that's not what I meant," Fuyuhiko shook his head. "I meant that we need to find something that will get us all out. All of us...as friends. Cause we can do it together. Right?"

"O-Oh, you meant i-it like that.." Toko fiddled with her braids uncomfortably. "W-What the heck!? How can you think that? Just trust other p-people!?"

"Well...Yeah. I've done it before..." He suddenly frowned. "Wait. I have...When...?"

"W-What?"

"I'm not sure...but I know this feeling. Maybe it was because of Peko...where is Peko...?"

"I-I'm not following this c-conversation very w-well..."

"...Me neither. Something is off...But I don't know what."

<><><>

It was all so very obvious to Byakuya that the other students in the school were only going to be hindrances to him.

Planning a murder with two ultimate detectives, an assassin, and the optimistic pair of Makoto and Lyra was certainly going to be difficult...but Byakuya was up for the challenge. He placed a bottle of blood back into the fridge before scanning the nurse's office once more. There wasn't anything particularly interesting, but that wasn't a problem. After all, Byakuya had plenty at his disposal. He smirked.

He couldn't wait for this challenge of a killing game to begin.