For the next motive, we were all told to wait outside the lodge. From the way it looked, Monokuma was calling us in by groups. First, he called in Keiko and Saikoro. The two of them walked through the main doors side by side, and I hadn't seen them since. We could only wonder what was going on inside there. Maybe we were being transported into some kind of death maze, and we each were being given a partner. I didn't see how that could work, though, because we had an odd number of people.

Ruji was sitting on my left, trembling in fear. It had been a good few days since the last class trial. We were starting to hope that a motive would never come. I was really starting to get used to the peace. We hadn't seen much of Ahmya during those days, but everyone else seemed to have gotten much closer. I couldn't even imagine what it would feel like to lose any one of the people left. Yuuki was the glue holding everyone together with his positive energy. Saikoro was somehow always able to change the mood with his gameshow-like attitude and fairly bright personality. Keiko's bright smile always helped to make me feel better. 

Then, of course, there was Daiku, Kichiro, Ruji, and Rantaro. Strange as it may seem, it almost felt like we were a squad now. A group of people who could at least somewhat trust each other. (How I feel about Kichiro varies from moment to moment.) 

"Alrighty!" Monokuma beamed, appearing at the door before us. Keiko and Saikoro were nowhere to be seen. "May I have Daiki, Kichiro, and Ruji?"

Ruji made a quiet squeaking sound as Daiki grasped Kichiro's arm and practically dragged the unlucky student forward. After a moment of hesitation, the ghostbuster followed, and the three of them disappeared behind the large doors, leaving only myself, Ahmya, Yuuki, and Rantaro. 

"Where are Saikoro and Keiko?" I muttered. "I thought they'd be right out after Monokuma brought them in to tell them the motive."

"Don't you see? He's not telling them the motive," Rantaro breathed. "This IS the motive. Something's going on. Something that involves groups. Perhaps it's a system. First a group of two, then a group of three, then a group of four."

"If so, then I'm glad to be in the large group," Yuuki smiled. "Bigger groups are stronger when we all work together!"

"Right..." Ahmya muttered, keeping her gaze low. 

Something about the way she held herself made her look like a distinguished flame. I guess she was still really missing Bashira. Not that I blamed her. It was like she was a shell of who she used to be. I didn't know her all that well, but she had clearly changed. 

"Ahmya, Yuuki," Monokuma giggled. "You're next!"

Huh. I suppose we weren't going to be a group of four...

The ultimate hero quickly stood up and rushed over to Monokuma's side, only turning back to check on his partner after spending a good thirty seconds brushing himself off. Once he finally noticed her look of complete and total fear, he carefully approached her and grasped her hand. He gave her a warm smile, then whispered something I couldn't quite hear to her. She slowly nodded in response, then walked by his side, and the two disappeared behind the great, big doors. 

"Well, it's just us, I guess," I breathed, turning my attention to Rantaro. He nodded, though I wasn't quite sure if he actually heard me. He looked focused, but not on what I was saying. Not even on the lodge doors. His gaze was off toward the forest. The air was still quite damp and heavy, but it was no longer pouring. A gentle breeze sent chills throughout my slightly soaked skin as shimmering leaves rustled. 

I wanted to ask him if he learned anything about the tape in the past few days, but this was not the place. Monokuma would hear me for sure, and he was definitely the last person we needed to catch on to what we were doing.

Although a small part of me almost felt like he already knew...

"So... any hobbies?" I asked, hoping to make small talk in order to fill the awkward silence growing between us. I never really had much alone time with him, so I felt a little tense. I missed Ruji. Conversations felt much easier with him. Although, they didn't at first. Isn't it weird how friendship works like that? Back when I first met him, I thought he was awkward and weird, and now he was my best friend. 

"Adventuring," Rantaro muttered.

"I mean besides that," I giggled. "Like... do you do arts and crafts? I'm not very good, but I like to paint sometimes! And I play the piano! When I was little, I actually aspired to be the ultimate pianist! Silly, right?"

"Not that silly," he shrugged. "Musicians become ultimates all the time. What songs did you know?"

"Clair De Lune," I answered. "That was my favorite... when I was little, I'd perform little concerts for my family. Sometimes, when I'm missing home most of all, I think of it and feel a little warmer inside."

"That sounds... nice," Rantaro breathed, softly smiling to himself as if his mind had gone to a far-off place. "One of my sisters loved music. She played clarinet..."

Ah, I always did love the clarinet. Not as much as the flute, though. When I was really little I wanted to play the flute, but I was put into piano lessons instead. I didn't want to bore Rantaro with all that information though, so I simply nodded. 

Things were silent once again, but it didn't feel quite so awkward. In fact, it was rather nice. Sometimes I forget that friends don't need to constantly talk. 

"We're friends, right?" he asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"Hmm?"

"You and me. We're friends, right?" 

I smiled and quickly nodded. "Of course," I answered. "Why wouldn't we be?"

He shrugged and quietly laughed to himself, lowering his gaze to the ground in front of himself. 

"I've never been good at having friends," he admitted. "For years, I've been so focused on-"

"RANTARO! SUKI! YOU'RE UP!" Monokuma yelled.

My heart stopped.

Then, it began to race. 

Looked like our time was up...

I nodded, then carefully made my way toward the large doors, uncertain of what awaited me inside. 

"Hey, it won't be so scary," Rantaro told me, stepping next to me. It was like he could sense my fear. I probably wasn't hiding my discomfort very well. I could feel myself shaking. 

"Right," I nodded. "Because I have a friend by my side."

. . .

Handcuffs. 

We were handcuffed together. 

Keiko and Saikoro were a pair; Ahmya and Yuuki were a pair; Rantaro and I were a pair; and Daiki, Kichiro, and Ruji were a group of three, with Ruji stuck in the middle. 

"Um, how will this inspire us to kill?" Saikoro asked with a small laugh. "I mean... if we killed someone, wouldn't our partner see? Unless we killed our own partner, but wouldn't that be too obvious?" 

"Yeah," Keiko nodded. "And how are we supposed to sleep?! I love you Sai, but I don't want to sleep next to you!"

"The feeling is mutual," Saikoro chuckled.

"Relax, relax," Monokuma grinned. "For this motive, and this motive alone, you will be allowed to share rooms! No funny business is allowed, though! I want each of you in your own bed! If your original roommate has perished, then their bed has been replaced, so each room has at least two beds situated right next to each other! Daiki, Kichiro, we have Ruji moving in with you! Don't worry, his bed has already been transferred! It's all taken care of!"

"What?!" Ruji asked. "We literally have to sleep like this?!"

"Oh, this'll be fun," Kichiro grinned, making Ruji nervously swallow.

"Correct!" Monokuma grinned. "Nothing promotes murder like being stuck with someone 24/7! Puhuhuhuhu~! Anyway, see ya later!"

With that, he disappeared, and I felt my face heat up. I was going to have to share a room with Rantaro? Yes, he was my friend, but he was also a guy. This felt too awkward. We weren't THAT close yet.

Welp, it looks like we're going to have to get a lot closer if we're going to make this work...

"Pssh, that bear is crazy if he thinks this means we'll kill each other," Yuuki grinned. "If anything, this brings us closer together!"

"I agree," Saikoro nodded. "There's nothing threatening about this."

"It's a little awkward, though," Ahmya muttered, looking down at her cuffed hand. This definitely made things harder for her, considering the fact that she only had one arm. Her only good arm was cuffed to Yuuki, so everyday activities would surely be harder than normal with her, having her only good hand cuffed to someone else. 

"Maybe we can pick the locks," Ruji suggested. "I don't know how, but-"

"Check the rules," Rantaro muttered. He was already holding his tablet and scrolling through. "Lock picking or tampering with the cuffs could result in punishment."

So we were really stuck like this until the next murder happened. 

Or maybe forever...

I know things could be worse, but still, this wasn't exactly convenient. If Rantaro hadn't watched that tape yet, then that meant I was going to have to watch it with him. This new motive meant I was going to have to work with him on all this spy stuff. Not that I didn't want to, but he was so focused, I'd probably do nothing but slow him down. 

I already was starting to feel guilty. 

. . .

After the motive was announced, Rantaro wasted no time and jumped right back into his mission. We scoured the hangar, desperately searching for something to play the tape on, but unfortunately, we came up empty-handed. He had been awfully quiet as well. Not that his being quiet was unusual. 

"Do you think we'll get out of here?" I found myself asking. 

"Yes," he instantly replied with no hesitation. I drew back slightly, shocked by his confidence.

He seemed to still for a moment before looking back at me with a serious expression. 

"We have to," he added. "I have people I need to find."

"Your sisters?" 

He stilled for a moment, his eyebrows lowering slightly. Then, he looked away.

"Yeah," he muttered with a softer tone. "My sisters."

"I'm sorry for overstepping," I quickly explained, noting the way his energy seemed to vanish. "I just... I guess I was curious about you. You're almost as mysterious as Daiki."

"I don't tend to talk much about it. It's hard to think about," he admitted with a small shrug. "Although, at this point, it's all I think about."

"How many of them are missing?" 

"All of them."

"All of them?!"

How could all his sisters have gone missing?! What even happened?! Who's fault was it? Did people target his sisters knowing that he was the ultimate adventurer, or did he become the ultimate adventurer after they were taken from him? Were his sisters the reason he even became an ultimate? Would he even be here if they didn't go missing?

"I came from a rich family," he quietly explained, resuming his search for a video player. Even though he seemed focused on his task, I could tell his mind was on the past. "We were kinda raised like celebrities. Never hungry, super spoiled, and loved. One day, my family went on a boating trip with me and all my stepsisters. It was my first one, so you can only imagine how excited I was to be exploring the world with all my younger siblings. I wanted to experience everything, so when we came to port, I decided to hop off and go on a quick adventure through the small town. I wanted to see and explore the world. However, my youngest sister followed me without my knowledge. I... never saw her again."

As he explained, his demeanor slowly changed. He looked smaller than he ever had before. I couldn't even begin to imagine the guilt he must have felt.

"After I returned to the boat, I couldn't stand the look on my other sisters' faces. So... I went out to look for her. I got a different boat and started traveling the world, hoping to find her. However, when I returned home after being unsuccessful, the rest of my sisters were gone too. So, now I'm searching for them. I was told to just give up, but I can't. They're my family, and I'm the older brother. It's my job to look after them, and I failed. I have to get out of here and make it right."

That was quite the burden to carry. I wanted to tell him not to shoulder so much. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't solely his responsibility to do all this. But, I didn't want to make it seem like I didn't believe he could find them. 

I did. If anyone could, it was him. 

I wished there was something I could say or do to help him, but I couldn't. I wasn't a real ultimate like him. I was just a  daydreamer. 

"Suki, look," he said, pulling out the same file Maikeru and I found earlier. The one labeled Project Reset.

However, it wasn't empty anymore.

Rantaro and I exchanged a brief nod as he placed the file down between us and started taking papers out so we could read through them. 

Project Reset. According to the files, it involved sixteen students. Obviously, that was us. From the way it looked, it was some kind of secret organization's plan to... rebuild? 

The idea I was getting from the papers was that we were being sent away from the rest of humanity to... reset society. Why, though? Had something happened? Why would we need to reset? 

"Sixteen. That's us," Rantaro whispered. "We're the sixteen students."

"Why, though?" I asked. "Why would we need to do this? And why wouldn't they tell us? I don't think I'd volunteer. And another thing, why are we being forced to kill each other?!"

"I don't know yet..." Rantaro trailed off. "But-"

"A BODY HAS BEEN DISCOVERED!"