Following the first trial and a night of much needed rest, the students explore the second floor of the school. As always, comments and critique are welcome! Enjoy the read!---

A Life of Deadly Despair

Chapter 2- Breathtaking Despair

Part 1

You step into the elevator, feeling numb. You’re aware people are talking around you, but you can only catch bits and pieces of it.

“…really did it…”

“…leaving the rooms…”

“…let this happen…”

“…anyone could be…”

You can’t stop thinking about Chiyuki’s punishment. The way she was dragged off. Her worried expression as she tried to juggle the knives. Her scream as the first knife stabbed into her. Your eyes water slightly, her execution playing over and over in your mind as the elevator begins its ascent.

You jump when you feel a hand on your shoulder.

“You okay,” Akinobu asks, looking concerned. You merely nod and shrug his hand off your shoulder. You just want to be alone right now. He doesn’t say anything else, looking more concerned now.

Jackson covers his mouth as he yawns. He looks at everyone in the group before he opens his mouth to say something. “I know we’re all unnerved by what we just saw,” he begins, choosing his words carefully. “But we simply cannot allow this to happen again. I want everyone to meet at 7:30 in the cafeteria.” He pauses, staring Yoshi down. “And I mean everyone, understand?”

Yoshi merely rolls his eyes. “Tch,” he spits, though he doesn’t say anything else.

As soon as the elevator doors open, you bolt down the hall and into your room. You hear someone call after you, but you don’t care. You want to be alone. You need to be alone.

You lie down on your bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“How could this happen,” you think to yourself. A lump forms in your throat and tears threaten to fall, but you will them away. “Yesterday, we were all getting alone so peacefully. But now…” Your lip quivers as you shake your head. You don’t even want to think about it.

Now two of you are dead.

* * *

You don’t remember falling asleep, but your eyes burst open at Monokuma’s morning announcement. You really don’t want to get out of bed, but you remember Jackson’s meeting. You climb out of bed, still groggy, and take a quick shower. As you get dressed, you notice a small stack of Monocoins on your dresser.

“I guess that’s me reward,” you think sullenly. You curse the bear in your mind.

You head to the cafeteria alone, your stomach growling loudly. As you enter the cafeteria, you see everyone sitting at the large central table. Even Yoshi and Olivier are sitting there, though they aren’t talking to anyone.

“Good morning, Master Fukui,” Hikari says cheerily. “I’ve prepared some breakfast, if you’d like.” She gestures to the kitchen, giving a small bow as always.

You nod and head into the kitchen, putting some scrambled eggs and toast on your plate. You grab some orange juice on your way out, yawning slightly. You take an empty seat next to Yasuo as Jackson speaks up.

“I don’t know if anyone has noticed,” he begins. “But the shutters blocking off the second floor are gone.”

“D-d-do you think there’s an exit up there,” Mayumi asks nervously, staring at her hands in her lap and blushing.

“You fucking idiot,” Yoshi snaps. He seems irritable as usual, but it’s different now. “Why the hell would you th-“

Madoka clears her throat, cutting Yoshi off. “I think there’s a chance, Mayumi,” she says, smiling slightly. “Maybe we should split up into teams and look around?”

“Well I’m not helping,” Yoshi says curtly as he stands up.

Madoka looks around, feigning confusion. “Did… did anyone ask you to help? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention.” She grins brazenly, cocking her head to the right slightly.

You cover your mouth and try not to snicker, causing Yoshi to glare at you. “I like the new Madoka,” you think. “She certainly put him in his place.”

“Tch. Whatever.” Yoshi rolls his eyes and turns to leave the cafeteria, fists balled at his sides. When the door closes behind him, Rokuro bursts into laughter.

“Damn,” he says, wiping tears from his eyes. “You go, Madoka. That was hilarious!”

Madoka shakes her head, trying not to smile. “No, it was nothing. Besides, if he’s going to act like an ass, I’m going to treat him like one.”

Hikari, trying not to smile, attempts a serious face. “Miss Sugawara! That is no way for a lady to behave,” she scolds. She can’t keep a straight face for long, however, and she soon joins Rokuro in his laughter.

“Anyway, about the second floor,” Yuki says, trying to change the subject. “We definitely need to go scope it out. Even if we don’t find an exit, we may still find something useful.”

Akinobu nods, clapping his hands as he stands up. He flashes everyone his charismatic smile. “I agree. We should split into two teams. Team A will check out the second floor, while Team B will see if there’s anything new on the first floor.”

You jump slightly as you feel someone grab your arm. Looking to your right, you see Miho clinging on you, grinning.

“We’ll check out the new floor,” Miho says happily. “Anyone else wanna come?”

Jackson, Huan, Rokuro, and Mayumi all nod, standing up and walking over to you and Miho. You stand up as well, joining your little search party.

“I wonder if there’ll be a music room,” Rokuro wonders, staring off into space. “It’s been so long since I’ve played an instrument.”

Huan looks at Rokuro out of the side of her eye, grinning under her mouthpiece. “Rokuro, we’ve only been here for like four days,” she teases. “Can you really not go that long?”

“You don’t understand,” Rokuro whines, flexing his fingers. “Music fills people with so much joy. Not being able to create it saddens me deeply.”

Akinobu rubs his hands together, looking at everyone else. “Alright,” he says, nodding. “I suppose that leaves us to explore down here. Shall we meet back here in an hour?”

Jackson nods as he turns to leave. “Sounds like a plan,” he says as he covers his mouth to yawn.

You follow behind him, Yasuo and Miho on either side of you. Huan stretches her arms a bit as she follows you, and Mayumi is bringing up the rear. Your group heads to the staircase leading to the second floor.

“What do you think we will find,” you ask, sounding somewhat excited.

“H-h-hopefully an e-exit,” Mayumi stammers, twisting her lavender braid nervously. “I r-really want to g-go home.”

Behind you, you hear a heavy sigh. You stop and look to see where it came from, when you see Huan. Her eyes look somewhat sad, but she continues past you, not saying anything.

“Is everything okay,” Jackson asks, looking to Huan as she starts up the staircase.

“Yes, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” she says, not looking at anyone as she climbs the stairs. You open your mouth to say something, but think better of it.

“If she wanted to talk about it, she would,” you tell yourself.

As you reach the top of the stairs, you see a fork in the hallway. One path leads straight, while the other leads to the left. You look to Jackson, wondering which way to go first.

“I suppose we’ll start with the left,” he says as he turns down the hall. The group follows behind him, murmuring about what they hope to find.

At the end of the hall, you see a door with a sign reading “POOL.” Rokuro grins as he bursts through the door, seeming quite excited.

“HOLY SHIT,” you hear him scream from the other side.

You rush into the room, looking around frantically as the group comes in behind you.

“What? What happened,” you shout, hoping he’s okay.

Rokuro is standing before a giant gatling gun mounted on the wall. You yell and move to push him out of the way, but Monokuma appears and stops you.

“No need to worry, students,” Monokuma says cheerily. As always, hearing his voice makes you shiver. “This gun won’t fire unless a student breaks the rules!”

“Wh-wh-what rules,” Mayumi stammers, fidgeting nervously.

“Well you see, we have a locker room for the boys and one for the girls,” Monokuma replies, gesturing to two doors on either side of the gun. “And to enter, you need to swipe your eHandbook on the scanner by the door.”

“Oh, cool,” Miho says as she swipes her eHandbook on the scanner by the girls’ locker room. “Huan, come check it out with me!”

Huan shrugs and scans her eHandbook as well. She enters the locker room with Miho without saying anything.

Rokuro looks to Mayumi, eyes shifting around. “Hey… Mayumi, can I borrow your eHandbook for a second?”

“N-n-no! I’m not l-loaning out mine s-so you can be a p-pervert,” she protests, twisting her braid.

“It wouldn’t matter anyway,” Monokuma chimes in. “I just added a new rule! Now get busy killing each other!” Monokuma disappears before you have a chance to react.

You open your eHandbook, reading the new rule.

Rule 9: Students may not loan out their eHandbooks to other students.

You shrug and swipe your eHandbook by the boys’ locker room, entering it with Jackson. The locker room doesn’t seem too noteworthy. On one wall there is a poster of a super model, and along another wall lockers are lined up. There are two benches in the center of the locker room. What catches your eye, however, is another door on the other end of the locker room.

You step through the other door with Jackson. In the next room is an olympic sized swimming pool. You see Miho staring at the huge pool, a huge grin on her face.

“Hachiro! We have to swim sometime,” she says gleefully.

Jackson clears his throat as he looks at you and Miho. “That will have to wait until after we search the floor,” he says flatly. He turns around and heads back into the locker room.

“He’s a bit of a killjoy,” Huan muses, squinting at him slightly as he leaves.

“Yeah,” you say, sighing. “But he did save us during the last trial.”

Miho nods as she turns to head to the girls’ locker room. “Yeah, without him we’d be screwed during the class trial.”

You and Huan nod in agreement as you head to your respective locker rooms. You don’t see Jackson in the locker room, and assume he’s already headed back into the hall. When you reach the room connecting the two locker rooms, you only see Mayumi and Rokuro.

“Where are the others,” you ask, puzzled.

“Th-they went to search the r-rest of the floor,” Mayumi says, blushing bright red. “R-Rokuro and I thought w-we should wait on y-you.”

Rokuro nods and claps Mayumi on the back, causing her to gasp and jump. “Let’s go! Don’t want them to find something cool with us, right?”

You nod and head into the hall with the two of them. Down the hall, you see Miho, Huan, and Jackson. You sprint down the hall to catch up to them.

“Oh, this must be the library,” Huan says as she stops by a door. Above the door is a sign with a book on it. “Let’s check it out.”

The group heads through the door, where you see several shelves of books. Mayumi, trying not to attract attention, inches to the right where several romance novels are kept. She practically screams when she picks a book up of the shelf. She raises it high in the air, looking incredibly excited.

“Oh my god,” she shouts, jumping up and down. “They have my favorite romance novel!” You can’t help but notice her lack of stuttering due to her excitement.

Jackson grins as he runs a hand through his hair. “I never pegged you for the romance type, Mayumi.”

Mayumi blushes a bit as she tries to calm down. “Yeah… So Lingers the Ocean,” she says quietly. “I-it’s about f-fishermen. It’s really g-good.” She sets the book back on the shelf and looks around the library for anything else interesting.

“What’s that,” Miho asks, heading to the back of the library. You follow behind her, wondering what she’s found.

At the back of the library is a small door, but there’s no sign telling you what’s in there. Miho opens the door and peeks inside. She heaves a sigh and shuts the door, however.

“What is it,” you ask. “Anything useful?”

“No,” Miho says, shaking her head. “Just a bunch of records or something.” She walks back to the door leading to the hall, seeming disappointed.

Your curiosity gets the better of you, and you decide to step into the room. Upon further inspection, you discover the files are about various serial killers. You pick up a few files, wanting to know who’s covered.

“Genocide Jack… Shining Justice… Jack the Ripper,” you read in your head. “Wow. These are some pretty high profile cases.” You shrug and set the files back on the shelves. It’s probably best if you keep exploring the floor with everyone else.

In the hall, you see the group waiting on you.

“Anything interesting,” Huan asks as she glances at you. You shrug and keep walking down the hall.

“I should probably keep those case files a secret,” you tell yourself. “Someone may try to use them for murder.”

The group passes by two classrooms, but decides not to investigate them. As you make your way to the stairs, you notice the clock on the wall.

9:00 AM.

It’s time to meet the other group in the cafeteria. You and your group walk quickly to the cafeteria so you can discuss your findings. You didn’t find an exit, but at least you found some ways to kill time.

The other group is already there, sitting at the large table and waiting. Judging from their posture, however, it doesn’t look like they’ve been waiting particularly long.

“So what did you guys find,” Jackson asks as he enters the cafeteria. “Any escapes?”

Yuki sighs and shakes his head, seeming disappointed. “No, nothing like that,” he says gloomily. “All we found was some public bath and a storeroom.”

“Just a storeroom,” Yasuo repeats, sounding shocked. “It was packed full of stuff! I even found this!” Yasuo whips out a pair of scissors, a huge grin plastered on his face.

“Master Ochi,” Hikari scolds, looking shocked. “We asked you not to take those out of the storeroom!”

“Yeah, we don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Akiko says. Despite the serious subject matter, she sounds incredibly disinterested.

“I know, I know,” Yasuo says, frowning a bit. “I just thought I could cut someone’s hair with it.” He looks around to see if anyone wants to take him up on his offer.

No one does.

“What about you guys,” Madoka asks, looking to you. “Anything interesting on your end?”

You tell them about the locker rooms, the pool, and the library you found on the second floor. You keep the record room to yourself, however. Akinobu nods as you finish recapping your findings.

“Well, no exits it seems,” he says, shrugging and flashing his trademark smile. “Anyway, I’m off to the library. I’m gonna see if there’s anything about politics in there.

Mayumi nods and follows behind him. You know she’s going to pick up that copy of So Lingers the Ocean.

You look to Yasuo and Olivier. “I think I’ll go swimming,” you say nonchalantly. “Wanna come with me?”

Yasuo nods, looking pleased. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gone swimming!” He looks to Olivier to see if he’ll be joining you.

Olivier raises his male doll, Antoine de la Fontaine, and speaks through it. “Dude, that sounds totally gnarly,” he says in his surfer voice. “Too bad we can’t catch some waves while we’re there, yeah?”

You nod, smiling, as you step into the hall with Yasuo and Olivier.

“Guy time in the pool,” you think to yourself. “This should be great!”