"Wow. Seeing this and what we are eating now... makes me really miss Toujou-san's food," Rantaro said wistfully.

"Yeah, I miss it too," Kaede said, laughing along.

After last night, as they searched through their pockets to find keys that lead to their respective rooms, they rested, freshened up and are now having breakfast, which was whatever they found at the pantry.

Compared to what Kirumi whipped up for the class, it was like comparing hobo food and world class buffet.

As the class were having an inane discussion, Kaede and Rantaro started theirs, but more important.

They exchanged what they both knew. Both of them went through every little thing that they could come up from their gadgets and even searched their rooms throughly to just find it was only stocked with their basic necessities and a phone, which they realised were their's.

At this point, all they could go on was that the world was in an apocalyptic state, the Despair Minion thing didn't work for them and that they were classmates before.

There was also the fact that they already know who the mastermind of the killing game was, but unfortunately they couldn't even tell the others.

They could have done something to Tsumugi's pod, and in truth, Kaede was tempted mostly so that the killing game could end quickly and that everyone will be together here to solve a more troubling crisis than the killing game.

Rantaro immediately vetoed that idea, in the likely case that even with the mastermind out of the picture, it wouldn't mean squat to Monokuma because he seems to have a mind of his own and was not really controlled by the mastermind, and they would have risked a life for nothing.

There was also this feeling that told him that even if Tsumugi was the mastermind, that doesn't mean she is, in the big picture.

That's what Rantaro expressed to Kaede and although the temptation didn't go away, Kaede reluctantly agree to just leave things be and trust their classmates. Kaede didn't have to do anymore reckless things and she completely trusted Shuichi who was determined to uphold his promise.

Who finally removed his hat in order to pursue the truth. Kaede couldn't be more proud for him.

While the class was trying to escape the killing game, Kaede and Rantaro tried to find a way to escape this place.

They searched the place, and found a double door that was out of sight unless you looked thoroughly at the place, and they did try to open it but no luck.

"Guess we just have to wait for... them, huh?" Rantaro asked and Kaede nodded.

But what to do by then? Of course, they couldn't abandon their classmates, so they might be steeling themselves for a long wait.

While there was nothing to fear in the immediate, there was the ever looming danger of them when the rest woke up.

Having that in mind, it was best they ready themselves for an attack, and have information ready at hand so that they could think well of their next moves.

From there, they need all their questions answered such as...

What are they doing here?

Why are they here?

How did this happen?

From their information exchange, Kaede found out Rantaro had the Survivor's Perk. He planned to confront the mastermind that time, wanting to demand answers.

"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Kaede demanded. So many things could have gone differently.

Rantaro shrugged, "I couldn't trust anyone. I didn't even know who was the mastermind at all. How could I trust?"

Kaede wanted to argue but there was no point to it. It was too late and Rantaro got a point.

"If only things were really different," Kaede said, shaking her head.

Rantaro just shrugged, and before their conversation could go longer, they heard a scream.

Rantaro and Kaede saw that Monokuma appeared.

Even though they already 'died', they still paid attention to the killing game, waiting out hints or just seeing how the others were faring.

But it was nothing important... well to Kaede and Rantaro as Monokuma simply gave them rewards to unlock the rest of the school.

Afterwards, there was nothing left important in the screens so Rantaro and Kaede resigned themselves to continue looking for information with the hope of answering questions.

"Amami-kun, how do you think you got the Survivor Perk?" Kaede asked, "Maybe if we found out why, some of your memories will come back and give us better insight of the situation," Kaede said.

"How... did I get..." Rantaro started muttering before...

Flash...

"... never bringing me back there again!"

His voice...

"Like you had a choice..."

"... scared, Taro..."

"Come on, Onii-chan, no need..."

"... to despair..."

Multitude of voices.

And then...

"I don't care... I will..."

His voice again but...

Flash

"Amami-kun?!" Kaede asked, when she saw Rantaro kneeling as he was clutching his head, but he didn't seem to pay her any mind...

"... killing game..." Rantaro muttered.

"What?" Kaede asked before Rantaro muttered something more audible...

"I was in another killing game before so they decided it would be funny to give me an extra perk because I 'survived' mine..." Rantaro muttered.

"What?! There was another-" Kaede said, before...

Flash...

"*****-*** and *********-***, we can't let them..."

Kaede vaguely remembered saying someone's names but they were blurred out from her memory.

"... impossible, there's too much..."

"Nothing's impossible until..."

"... crazy..."

"... risky plan, are you..."

"If it can save..."

Voices and then her own, then...

"Get our together. No matter what..."

"... stick together and save...!"

Her voice and... Kaede remembered!

Flash...

"Amami-kun and Shirogane-san..." Kaede said, completely shocked at what the new memory opened and...

What it meant.

"What? What is it?" Rantaro asked, worried for Kaede.

"I remembered. We watched the latest killing game... that you and Shirogane-san were in," Kaede said, referring 'we' as her classmates, "I... I wanted to save you, well all of us did, but... it was too dangerous and yet... I insisted until they relented and we..."

"We...?" Rantaro prompted.

"We got captured for the killing game of our own will..." Kaede trailed off.

"What?!" Rantaro asked, the bomb dropped.

"We knew it was dangerous, but no one left behind, and we... no, I couldn't leave you and Shirogane-san be! I persuaded the rest to never leave you in despair, we needed as much as we can, and... we formed this plan..."

"Plan?" Rantaro prompted.

Kaede opened her mouth but closed it as she shook her head, "... I can't remember..."

Rantaro just smiled as he patted Kaede on the head, "It's alright... we did lose our memories, but they are coming back to us... eventually we will know the whole story..."

"Eventually," Kaede muttered.

"But... what about Shirogane-san...?" Rantaro asked, narrowing his eyes at one of the screen showing Tsumugi ideally preparing the next motive in the mastermind room, the screens showing every place... those that are unlocked, that is... because some screens just flitted when Shuichi unlocks one of the others Labs, but those that remained locked... they remain a black screen...

"What do you mean...?" Kaede asked.

"I mean... save Shirogane-san... I know she was a classmate of ours. There's no use doubting all those photos and videos," Rantaro started. The photos and videos meaning those that were taken together within classmates in certain events during their time at a school called Hope's Peak.

"I mean, we know that Shirogane-san is the mastermind of the killing game, so what do you mean by 'save'?" Rantaro asked.

"Mastermind..." the word left a distaste in Kaede's mouth, "But if I wanted to save both of you, what does that mean...?"

Rantaro shrugged, and soon enough the conversation ended as they proceeded to do their own things. More information gathering was needed so that they can find out what plan Kaede and the others concocted, which could probably help them out in this mess, once everyone was awake.

***

"What is that Lab?" Kaede asked, shocked when Maki went into the Lab filled with weapons to the brim and in a place such as a killing game...

Rantaro was looking through his phone, scrolling through social media and messages for any hints, as his computer never offered anything of the sort when he was reading up. His computer seemed to keep a lot of pictures of his time at Hope's Peak Academy with a select set of students, and Maki wasn't one of them although there were a few group photos...

Right now, as he was looking through a group chat, scrolling through years of nonsensical chats, he finally came across something shocking.

"Harukawa-san is the Ultimate Assassin..."

"What again?" Kaede asked, as she was seeing Maki promptly shutting the door down and barring a certain detective from entrance.

"It's in the class' group chat, made about the first year we got into Hope's Peak. Apparently, someone found out, and exposed her," Rantaro said.

"How... who?" Kaede asked.

"We will never know, and we were using nicknames so I don't know whose who," Rantaro shrugged, "But fact stands that Harukawa-san is an assassin... in the killing game, I guess that's dangerous, but now in such a dangerous situation where we need all the help we can get, and a combat and weapon master to boot..."

"Umm..." Kaede tried to process the fact still, "... How did we react then?"

Rantaro was scrolling through the chat, "Hmm... we were pretty chill with it, some people vouching for it. After all, we had Hoshi-kun who killed the entire mafia, Ouma-kun, the supposed evil Ultimate Supreme Leader with an organization of 10000 members and Kiibo-kun who's a robot. What's an assassin after that?"

Kaede was chewing her tongue a bit in thought, as it was still hard to process that your supposed classmate was an assassin.

Rantaro sighed, "Well, I would probably be wary of her, but right now when she wakes up, she will sort of be a valuable ally. I say we reserve judgment until everything is resolved, and after all, in this situation... all we have is ourselves."

"Yeah, you are right..." Kaede said. She wasn't really able to process such information, but in the end, she had to save judgment. After all, Maki might not be that much a dangerous person as her talent made her out to be.

Hopefully...

***

"Hoshi-kun..." Rantaro said sadly.

"And not to mention, I'm kinda getting bad vibes with the fact that Ouma-kun is planning something with Gonta-kun. I really hope they will be alright," Kaede quipped.

It was the next day, after yesterday with admittedly not much to do. Being in some kind of bunker lair having to wait for your sleeping classmates and regaining back the memories doesn't really give much leeway to do anything, huh?

The only thing interesting that goes about is the killing game behind the screens where Monokuma spices things up.

Kaede and Rantaro both hated the killing game, but it was like one of their only sources of entertainment. Not only that, they had to wonder how their classmates are.

It was after Monokuma presented the motive and they had a little argument, their concerns mostly going for Ryoma who seemed to want his motive video for a reason to live and Kokichi who just gives the vibes of someone committing evil.

Although there was the joy of watching Himiko's magic performance to look forward to. Rantaro and Kaede were very interested in that.

But otherwise things were alright. As much as Kaede and Rantaro wanted to get to the bottom of things, there was so much they could do. Their resolve was to wait for their classmates and hope to get more clues along the way.

They can't access the other's computers or rooms. Apparently the computers have some kind of Face ID. Who knew that was a thing for computers, but they did have an Ultimate Inventor by their side...

So, guess for now... for more information through the computers and such, they have to wait for their waking classmates.

But if they all woke up, that means that they will come, and who knows how much time they have to prepare for that?

A double edge sword but that's what it is.

As they were scouting through, they kept an eye on the killing game and saw its peaceful days, including a casino event with Shuichi, Miu, Kaito, Kokichi, Korekiyo and Ryoma.

It was funny that Kokichi managed to swindle Kaito into gambling and even funnier that he lost big time. Kaede actually laughed along with Miu.

And it was amazing that Ryoma won so well in the slot machines. It's like he had Lady Luck on his side.

After his depressed state and urge to see the motive videos, Ryoma right now looked so happy and having fun.

"See, Hoshi-kun, you do have reasons to live..." Kaede said softly, as she spent some time with the tennis player and his depressed attitude to be a little worried about him, but if he went in like that, Kaede thought he would be fine.

However, it was simply a calm before the storm.

***

"Wow, I am SO glad that I'm not there," Kaede said.

"Gonta-kun can really be scary when provoked..." Rantaro shuddered, looking at Gonta's towering figure roaming around for students.

"Except when it comes to Iruma-san..." Kaede said, when the inventor stripped down at the approaching Gonta. The end result was that his face turned red and he just ran away. Miu cackled at her genius and Rantaro was trying to look anywhere except for Miu.

"What do you think Ouma-kun is planning?" Rantaro asked, mostly to distract himself from the sudden fan service. It was not his thing...

"Who knows, but he is gathering everyone to Gonta-kun's Lab..." Kaede said.

Soon enough the reason was found out...

"He thinks this is a game...? How can killing be a game?" Kaede asked disgusted.

"You do know he's a liar, maybe he's lying," Rantaro suggested.

"But why would he want to gather the motive videos and let everyone watch them? For what?" Kaede asked.

Rantaro thought a bit, before saying, "I'm not sure."

As they were having this conversation, Gonta suddenly unleashed his insects which started the Insect Meet and Greet. Both Rantaro and Kaede shuddered.

"Now I'm REALLY glad that I'm not there," Kaede said.

"Same," Rantaro agreed.

It was a little too painful to watch. It was chaos and it was terrifying. And it went on for two whole hours as the bringer of chaos was lock picking the dorm rooms although he was stopped shortly by Kirumi and actually being chased around. Which was why he was held up.

However before Kokichi could do anything, Kiibo was actually ready to pull out his secret weapon to stop Kokichi.

"What secret weapon?" Kaede asked.

"Hmm... something to stop Ouma-kun from showing them the motive videos? Maybe he's going to destroy them with some kind of weapon?" Rantaro guessed.

Kaede smiled, "Kiibo-kun would have called you robophobic to assume such a thing."

Rantaro laughed.

Afterwards, the secret weapon is revealed to be...

"A voice recorder?!" Kaede asked.

"You know, if this weren't a killing game, this would a great comedy TV show," Rantaro said.

Thanks to that, Gonta accused Kokichi, and showed his bugs to him while the rest got outta here.

Since it was Kokichi himself who initiated it, Kaede and Rantaro weren't all too sorry that he was being attacked by a swarm of bugs, but they were completely surprised that Kokichi actually fainted and bubbles were coming out of his mouth.

Gonta took notice of that, stopped the bugs and proceeded to carry Kokichi to the dorms.

"That was an exciting day," Kaede said.

"That's more than one way to say it. Makes me glad I'm not there though," Rantaro said.

But he will have no idea how exactly glad he will be when it happens...

***

"Time to hit the hay, huh, Amami-kun?" Kaede asked as she let out a yawn after looking through her computer once again, less information gathering and looking at the good memories to get her memory jogging.

She certainly had a great time at Hope's Peak, getting along with most everyone as the class rep before the Tragedy struck. Unfortunately, what happened after the Tragedy was something not disclosed within the computer or phone data... who knows why?

Flash...

"... them to find out..."

"In paper..."

"... like spies!"

"This isn't fun and games..."

Flash...

Kaede winced, having a slight memory of being in another underground place... the whole class, in some kind of discussion... with other people...

But...

"Nothing makes sense," Kaede said out loud.

She heard a slight chuckle, and saw Rantaro was still out, just looking at her.

Oh yeah, she was not alone.

But before she could say anything else, one of the screens caught her attention.

"... So you see Hoshi-kun...? I need to escape. Japan needs me," Kirumi said.

Right now, in the Tennis Pro's Lab, Kirumi and Ryoma were having a conversation, and Ryoma seemed to steel himself.

Rantaro and Kaede exchanged glances before they gulped. Both didn't really want their classmates to kill each other but at the same time...

As Ryoma and Kirumi continued their exchange and sensing the bloodlust of the maid, they made the collective decision of going to Ryoma's pod, ready to welcome another classmate to the fold.