Sorry about the delay :S

Chapter 3 - Tired of Despair

"It's all your fault."

"You are nothing."

"You killed Yang.

Jaune couldn't even look at them directly, instead staring at the floor on which he was sitting. He couldn't handle the weight of his sins.

"I didn't do it! It wasn't my fault!" He sobbed, although his eyes were dry. He clung to his knees, wishing to disappear from that oppressive darkness.

"You might as well have."

"Ruby?" He glanced up, recognizing the voice of his friend. Her eyes were completely black, soulless but judging.

She raised a hand to smack him across the face. "I hate you!"

He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

The slap never came, and when he opened his eyes he found that he was once again laying in his own bed, drenched in sweat. He looked intently at the ceiling, knowingly fearing what he'd see when he closed his eyes.

It was all his fault.

Yang, Pyrrha, Penny... It was all on him. They were dead because he had failed, because he hadn't been strong enough. Because he was just a worthless, talentless boy. What wad the point in trying if all he could amount was nothing, if it always ended the same way? Wouldn't giving up be, in a way, a way to oppose Monokuma's schemes?

He forced himself to sit up on the bed and lean against the board at its edge, still wrapped in the blanket that had been torn from the rest of the bedding during his tumultuous night. What time was it? He hadn't heard the morning announcement... Ah, right, the monitor was still taped up to prevent sound. He considered getting up and ripping it off, but the mere thought made him feel without strength or energy. Sitting was all he could muster.

It was all his fault.

The festering idea refused to go away, forcing its way into his mind again and again. Jaune tried not to listen to it, but how could he not? There was nothing else for him to listen, no one to drown out the poison spewed by the depths of his mind.

No, that was a lie. He wasn't the only one to blame. Pyrrha was at fault too.

He still couldn't get his head around her betrayal. How could she have done such a thing? How could she have thought she was helping him by murdering someone? It made no sense, not to someone with any sanity left, even though his threatened more and more to crumble away.

But he still had failed to see what was right in front of him. Pyrrha had been kind to him, she had been his friend, but he hadn't really seen her, not for what she truly was. Maybe if he had, he could've prevented the killing. Maybe if he wasn't so worthless, Yang would still be alive.

Jaune closed his eyes, truly feeling just how tired he was. His head felt heavy, his lungs weary of the mere exercise of breathing, his arms too weak to even move. He didn't feel like going on.

And, for the first time since being thrown into that hellish academy, he cried.

DIIIIIIIIIING DOOOOOONG

The boy raised his head from the blanket around his knees, and looked confusedly at the door. He had lost track of time, not that he had it to begin with, and the sound of the ringing doorbell was the first he heard from the outside world. It took him a little to piece together the source of the sound.

DIIIIIIIIIING DOOOOOONG

He tried ignoring it, but the bell kept buzzing insistently. It was impossible to pretend like the sound didn't exist, so coexisting with it was out of questions. All that was left was answer the door or hope the intruder ran out of patience and took off on their own.

Groaning inaudibly, the Ultimate Lucky Student rolled out of his comfort bubble and dragged his feet towards the entrance. He was still wearing a t-shirt and some boxers, and that was as presentable as he was going to get. He unlocked the door, and pulled it open, wondering who could be on the other side.

A pair of silver eyes cautiously peeked in from the opening. When he made no attempt to close on her face, Ruby entered his room.

"Hi, Jaune."

"Hey, Ruby." He hadn't spoken out loud since waking up, so his voice came off rough and perhaps even a little masculine.

"You missed breakfast... And lunch..."

"Oh, I must've lost track of time." Jaune turned his face to the side, to avoid looking directly at her as best he could. "Sorry."

It was true, he had notion of how long it had been, or that he had already skipped most of the day. Having no windows really was taxing on one's sense of time.

"You should eat something."

"Why are you here, Ruby?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I was worried about you!" She did not take kindly to that question, her tone of voice shifting smoothly to indignation. She almost sounded like Weiss for a second.

"No, I mean... Don't you blame me?"

"Blame you? For what?"

"Yang..."

"Why would I blame you for that? It was Pyrrha's fault, not yours."

"But she did it because of me."

"Did you ask her to do it?" She walked past him and sat on the side of his messy bed.

"No."

"Then would it be your fault?"

How did she make it seem so simple? How could she turn everything to black and white?

He found that he had no answer, not to those questions or to hers. He sat down next to her, and sighed as if the whole world rested on his shoulders.

"You couldn't have known."

He remained silent. Her words reached his ears, but they didn't process into his head, falling flat like a shell devoid of filling. I should've know. None one else could but me.

For a while, she too quieted down, the aura of tension filling the space between them. Then, with a flash in her silver eyes, the sharpshooter tried something else.

"Yang liked you, you know? Not like in a romantic way or anything, but… you trained with her, and she appreciated that." When he still didn't offer any reaction, she kept going. "'Jaune looks like a whimp, but he's actually got some balls. I just don't think he realizes it yet.'"

"Huh?"

"It's what she told me. She saw something in you, some strength that you don't know you have." Ruby looked at the wall in front of her instead of directly at him, but she had a faint smile on her lips.

"Well, she was wrong."

"Pfffffft, Yang was never wrong. She was smart like that, smarter that she let on." She giggled. "And besides, who was it that caught Pyrrha? You did. Coco too. You're strong, Jaune, we wouldn't have made it this far without you."

Before he could say anything else, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his chest. The unexpected contact made him jump, but he didn't push the girl away. It was comforting to know she still held him in high regard, even if he wasn't sure he could say the same himself. Maybe he wouldn't be healed just like that, but every bit made a difference.

"I miss Yang."

"Me too." He regretted saying that as soon as he did. It sounded stupid, like he was comparing her insurmountable pain to his, but she didn't make any attempt to scold or correct him. "She was so strong."

He felt her nod against his back.

"The strongest of all of us."

"Come on, we should go join the others." She moved away from him, leaving his skin felling lacking of her warmth. He didn't know how long they had been there, but he felt different. Knowing he wasn't hated had a way of doing that to someone.

"The others?"

"Yeah, they're investigating the third floor. We tried to wait for you, but you wouldn't show up so we decided that I would go get you and the rest would go on ahead."

"Thanks. The third floor was unlocked? I didn't know that."

She smiled at him. "Of course not. Now go take a shower, and then we'll meet them."

Ruby walked out the door, and he obeyed.

He felt like a different person when he left the bathroom, a new man. Like a snake that she it's skin, and now was ready to slither away once again. Or maybe a less scaly animal.

After getting dressed he took off from the room, finding the sharpshooter waiting him outside. She stretched her hands out to him, revealing an apple and a single cookie, a delicious brown with small pebbles of dark-chocolate, which he eagerly took.

"Sorry, I… kinda ate the other cookies. You took so long!"

He chuckled softly, slowly regaining his energies, and together they made their way to the second floor, where the new staircase awaited them, free of the restraining metal bars.

The new area waiting atop the stairs felt immediately distinct from the ones they'd been to before. The walls were painted in a soothing green, quite unlike the greys, whites and crimsons of the two lower floors. It appeared more inviting, although not in a way that it would give them too much hope.

The hallway of entrance stretched to both sides of the staircase. He stood at the center, struggling to choose which side he wanted to investigate first. Seeing his indecision, Ruby walked ahead of him, and approached the only door on the corridor wall. It was a simple wooden door with a circular glass window at face-height, well, at least the height of his face; Ruby's was only a tad above the bottom. She pushed inside, and he followed.

The new room wasn't big, but it was well populated. Between a pool table, a couple of sofas arranged around a coffee table, and a dusty arcade machine, there wasn't a lot of empty space. The walls were checkered in black and blue, with two magazine stands leaning on them, and a dart target hanging near the coffee table.

There were two other students already in the room: Sun was standing by the wall, staring curiously at a nearby ventilation opening, whereas Nora was distracted by the newcomers.

"Jaune! Ruby! Come check this out, it's so cool!" She was just a bundle of energy, wasn't she?

"What is this place? It looks like a bar..."

"The map in the Scroll calls it the Recreational Room. Finally, some fun to be had in this place!"

"Well, that's new." The sharpshooter made a distrusting grunt at the idea that Monokuma would just simply let them have fun, to which he had to agree. It was mighty suspicious.

"What do you think, Sun?"

"I wonder if I could fit in there..." The monkey faunus didn't move, still looking at the vent.

"What?"

It was only then that he realized there were other people around. "Oh, sorry, did you say something?"

"Ruby thinks this is too fishy."

"You're probably just being paranoid. Come on, we've earned a break, haven't we?" He casually walked in their direction, stopping by one on the magazine stands, where he let his fingers slide across the leaflets available. "A distraction will be nice for a change... Hey, is that a deck of cards?"

"Did you say cards?" Nora perked up, impatiently waiting for him to grab the item from in between the magazines. When the deck came in full-view, she grinned and dashed out the door. "Be right back!"

The three classmates traded confused glances, but ultimately there was nothing to do but wait for her to come back to understand.

"So, you don't think this is a trap." Jaune returned to the prior topic, feeling there hadn't been any satisfyingly closure.

"I mean, the library and the pool weren't traps, were they? I doubt you can kill anyone with the darts in here." Sun shrugged.

He did have a point, so far it had not been the rooms themselves proving to be the danger, but what could be found in them. In this specific case, the pool cues were slightly menacing-looking, and the arcade could easily crush someone if tipped over. The threat was present, but it required a human hand to be real.

With a slam of the door, the blacksmith came back with a bewildered Emerald in tow, pushing the green-haired girl towards the middle of the group.

"Cards. Do your thing."

"Wait, what is..." She took a little to register where she was and what was being requested of her, around the same time Jaune, Ruby, and Sun realized it. "Huh... Which one do you want?"

"I don't know, you're the magic one! What do you got?"

"Guessing cards, make them disappear, you name it. Hell, I can even read your future with these." She reached for the pack, and took the deck out of it, commencing to shuffle it. The cards were flowing from one hand to the other almost like a liquid, the sheer skill of it was mesmerizing to watch, and she had yet to begin a trick.

"But those are only playing cards, don't you need tarot ones for that?" Sun voiced his doubt, but it was clear in his focused eyes he was curious more than skeptical.

"Of course not." She took the first card from the top, and flipped it for the rest of them to see. "A ten of spades. It means you should shut the fuck up."

"The oracle hast spoken!" Nora raised her hands to the heavens in praise, making the sharpshooter and the luckster chuckle. Sun himself made a defeated expression, letting his fluffy tail down in shame, but did not protest.

Ruby was the one who made the decision. "Making a card disappear sounds neat."

"Alright, watch closely."

Em parted the deck in two, them shuffled it back together. Spreading the cards in a wide fan, she gestured it towards the short girl.

"Pick one."

Doing as she was told, she took one card out and looked at it. Jaune couldn't resist a peek. It was a Queen of Diamonds.

"Now put it back in." She shuffled the cards for not more than a couple of seconds, then removed one card from the bottom and flipped so that they could see it but she couldn't. "This is the one, right?"

It was. "Isn't it supposed to disappear?"

She flicked her wrist in a flash, and the card was gone. "Calm down, pretty boy. Trick's not done yet. Here, if you're so impatient, why don't you shuffle them for me?"

He took the deck from her hands, and nervously shuffled it, parting it in small stacks and mixing them back in. With all eyes on him, pressuring him and following his every move, the clumsiness took the best of him, and the cards slipped off his hands, scattering all over the floor.

"Jaune!"

"I'm sorry!" He hurriedly began gathering them back from the ground, still felling their gaze now burning into him with accusation. As soon as he managed, he got back on his feet and presented the mess of a deck back to the illusionist. "Did I ruin it?"

"Nah, I think it can still be salvaged." She didn't grab the pack, but instead laid one hand above it and closed her eyes, humming like she was in deep meditation. "No... It's not... Dammit Jaune, where did you put it?"

"Huh?"

"The card is not here."

He looked at the floor, but saw no stray cards still laying in it. "I don't..."

"You stole it, didn't you? Trying to make me look bad!"

"I swear I didn't!" It was like an episode of a bizarre soap opera, and both Nora and Ruby were solemnly quiet, wide-eyed waiting for the next dramatic reveal.

"Then what's that in your pocket?"

"In my..." He dove on hand into his front jeans' pocket, and to his surprise found a smooth piece of paper. When he took it out, it was the Queen of Diamonds.

Sun and Nora began clapping, while the young sniper gasped in shock and slapped him on the shoulder. "You stole it?"

"No! I didn't..."

"And that's the disappearing card." Emerald took a bow, and then walked towards the door laughing loudly.

"Wait, how did you..."

"Magician's never reveal their tricks." She chuckled once more and left through the door, taking the deck with her, in an obvious attempt to enhance the spectacle with a dramatic exit.

"Did she…use you for her trick?" The monkey faunus looked like he was trying to contain laughter, which was evidently due to Jaune's completely desolate face.

"How could she have known I would drop the cards?"

"Oh dude, she read you like an open book. Sucks to be you."

He didn't have a retort for that. He felt stupid, transparent, like nothing but a cog in someone else's game. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, considering their circumstances, but it was even more unsettling coming from another one of the students. Sure did a good job reminding him of his place.

"C'mon, I think we've seen everything there was here." The sniper took pity on him, offering him a way out, and he gladly took it, still hearing the sound of their loud chuckling as he closed the door.

They continued through the hall, twisting and turning with its corners, until reaching the next room. It was a normal entrance, without hardly anything of note to it. The inside, however, was not as conventional.

It looked oddly like someone had blended the gymnasium and a classroom together, in a creation that was similar to both but not quite either. It wasn't as wide and empty as the gym, but enjoyed from too much free space to be a classroom. The floor was made of wood, small rectangles that fit alongside each other in a diagonal pattern, and the walls a faint pink, just like the six square pillars scattered across the area. There was a stage on the farthest side, wooden as well, but on top of it, instead of a podium, there was a white marble statue of a woman with no arms. A handful of tall stools were standing before the stage, hiding behind an easel for each. The back wall was covered in an ensemble of stickers, drawings, and magazine clippings, creating a cloud of nonsense bright colors, and above all that was the ever-present monitor and camera.

"Looks like some sort of art class."

"That's because it is." Weiss Schnee shot back at him from across the room. He hadn't even noticed her, or Neo right next to her, but she clearly had a much shaper radar for spotting talent, or the lack of it.

"Do you think Monokuma is going to teach us how to draw?" Ruby was as always oblivious to the quarrelling, or perhaps she preferred to ignore it.

"Somehow I doubt it."

"Then what's the point in giving us an Art Room? None of us are artists."

"Excuse you, music is a form of art!" Weiss stomped her foot down indignant.

The pink-haired girl beside her burst out laughing, although no sound came from her, which was, in all honesty, a little uncanny. After settling down, she began quickly scribbling on her notepad, so everyone else waited for her to finish. "The art room was probably here before Monokuma came, from when this was a school."

"So, you believe the bear's story."

Neo shrugged. She had no reason not to believe it, and that didn't seem to bother her. Was it possible that she truly didn't have anyone waiting for her outside?

"I mean, it's pretty wild, but..."

"What difference does it make? We're trying to get out of here either way."

"But should we?" All eyes fell on Ruby, failing to believe she had actually said those words. "If Monokuma's right, and everything's destroyed outside, should we even try to escape? There might be radiation and stuff..."

Jaune had no answer for that, for he had thought about giving up many times by then, but luckily Weiss had a few disagreements with it, as she always did.

"So what? We're just supposed to roll over and die here? You got a letter too, so someone outside is waiting for you. Apocalypse or not, every one of us has something to come back to outside, and I will not give up until I get out of this Oum-forsaken school. I'd advise you do the same." With that said, she left the rest of the group.

Nobody said a thing, still mulching over the heiress' monologue. She had a will of iron, he'd give her that, or at least was very good at pretending. And she also had a point, whatever was on the outside, there was a chance, however small, that it was better than a murder school. It was something to fight for, for those who still had some fight left in them.

Ruby was the first to move away, walking up to the stage where the statue watched over them. Despite seemingly deep in contemplation, she still acknowledged him approaching from behind.

"Almost looks alive, doesn't she?"

"Not really... She doesn't have any arms."

"People without arms exist too!" She made a little pout at his dissonance, without ever taking her eyes off the sculpture. "Can't you just imagine her starting to move? Like a real girl, talking and breathing?"

"A girl made of marble sounds pretty silly..." He didn't really get her point, what she meant with those words, but the statue really was beautiful. It had probably been made by an Ultimate Sculptor or something like that, someone with a talent that he did not possess and could never dream to achieve. And that was sublime in its own unachievable way. "But yeah, I guess you're right."

The silver-eyed girl finally turned to him. "So, I guess this room doesn't have any clues either. Or a way out."

"What about that door?" He pointed at the one on the right side of the room, near the corner with the back wall.

"Storage mostly, and a few workshop utilities."

"Come on, let's go check it out." Ruby pushed him toward it, and he reluctantly agreed.

The workshop was significantly more compact than the room it was annexed to. The walls were mostly covered by three long waist-high tables, and there was a tool-board mounted above one of them, proudly display an assortment of tools from which a set of large wooden hammers stood out the most. On top of the right table was a large metallic cube somewhat akin to an oven.

"Is that another incinerator?"

"Looks like it."

"Great another way to dispose of evidence. That's just great." He glared at the accursed thing, not even bothering to hide the bitterness in his words. Everything looked like a potential weapon or clue, and that was really spoiling his mood. He really didn't want to go through another trial.

The sniper, on the other hand, was looking at the hammers. She stretched her hand to one, the smallest of the set, and grabbed it.

"Oh, it's way lighter than it looks." Even if it was the most diminutive, the head of the hammer was almost half the size of her head. She bopped him on the head with it.

"I don't like this place."

"Alright, let's go then. We still haven't found Blake or Velvet." She placed the hammer down on the table, and led the way back to the outside.

Right after the door to the Art Room, there was a small alley in the corridor, and that was where the pair headed next. There were no other entrances to be found there, but a flight of ascending stairs blocked by metallic bars.

"Guess there's still a fourth floor, huh?"

"Yep. How big do you think this school is?"

"Not much bigger, I hope." He didn't need to elaborate, she understood the reason. Besides, he still felt tired, and there was a limit to how much climbing one could do. Monokuma could've at least built them a damned elevator.

They returned to the main hallway, and followed it to its conclusion, upon where waited a white set of doors. Without a moment to waste, Jaune pushed them open, and stepped within the new room.

There were machines everywhere, monitors and buttons covering every metallic surface of the extremely grey-hued room. Apart from a couple of green stained-glass cabinets and a similarly colored door, everything else seemed to be engines and machinery, in a decor straight out of a futuristic comic book. At the center of that robotic hellhole was yet the most jarring piece, a large glass sphere connected to a dozen of translucid tubes that in turn led to other pieces of gadgetry, like a brain held up in the air. Blake Belladonna was standing next to it, staring at it intently, and Velvet moving around, taking pictures as she always did.

The pair of newcomers approached them. "What is that thing?"

"No idea." The cat faunus grimaced. She had no more answer than they did, and that fact clearly didn't agree with her.

"It looks important. Maybe it's an energy generator?" The photographer stooped to face them, lowering her camera.

"Huh, that sounds about right. Something needs to be powering up this whole— MONOKUMA?"

The four students turned, and found the bear frozen just before them, like a deer in the headlights. Without so much as a word, the mascot dropped the sheet of paper he was holding in his hands, and slowly backed away as if that would make him harder to notice.

"What the hell?" Jaune bent over to pick up the paper. "These are schematics for something called an… Industrial Air Purifier?"

"Wait, did you say purifier?"

"So, is this thing, like making the air in here breathable?"

"That's what it says on the paper." He shrugged, feeling too much pressure from the questioning. He didn't have all the answers, he just happened to be the one catching the clue because he was closest to it.

"There's also a chance he's playing us…"

"I think we should probably consult with the other before making any decisions." The terrorist's voice was trying to seem uninterested, but she was clearly still upset about not knowing more.

"Okay, so what about that door?" He pointed to the small inconspicuous frame at the back of the lab.

She only shrugged, which would seem to imply there was nothing important beyond it, but the Ultimate Lucky Student wanted to see for himself. Twisting the doorknob, he walked in with Ruby in tow.

The annex seemed to be another storage unit, and a mostly empty one at that. There were two carts for moving large objects around, little more than a platform on wheels and a handle, a bunch of cardboard boxes piled up in one corner, and two large bookshelves. Notepads, more boxes, and some folded up vinyl sheets, but nothing that seemed to be of any use to them, or, luckily, of any use to a murderer either.

It wasn't the most exciting room, but for once it didn't leave Jaune feeling discouraged when he left it. They took another look at the large machine at the center of the laboratory, but ultimately gave up on finding any more clues about how it functioned.

Already having investigated the whole third floor, he and Ruby decided to head back down, bringing the two faunus along with them. Maybe someone else had been luckier than them.

"Anyone find anything interesting?" Nora broke the silence at the dinner table, speaking through her food-filled mouth.

It wasn't common for them to be this quiet, but these were hardly common circumstances. Wounds were too fresh, and the new floor had provided more questions and little comfort. Regardless, they had found something interesting.

"Well..."

"You could say that." Ruby and Velvet responded at the same time, then awkwardly stopping to let the other continue. When neither of them did, Emerald took over for them.

"Two more classrooms, nothing noteworthy about them." Ren nodded by her side. They surely did not need any more of those, especially since they had no actual classes. "But the lounge looks kinda alright, I guess."

"Lounge?"

Sun picked up, since he knew more about the matter. "Yeah, the first door across from the stairs is some kind of recreational room. Has a pool table, darts, lots of neat stuff."

"Strangely nice of Monokuma."

"You said it. What about the rest of you guys? Or girls, I mean."

"Art Room. Nothing interesting."

Weiss agreed. "Some canvas, some painting tools, a furnace, but nothing that looked us-"

"Did you say furnace?" Nora slammed her hands on the table, sending silverware flying through the air. It took the other girl a moment to recover from the sudden scare, before answering.

"Yes,"

"Why am I just hearing about this? I gotta go check it out!" She leapt out of her chair, intent on darting to the door.

"Nora, wait." Blake raised her voice, but remained as class as she usually did. When you had seen the things she did, it took a lot to phase her.

"But I wanna goooo!" The ginger girl whined as a small child would, pouting her lips just slightly. Blake, once again, didn't seem to care.

"You're going to want to hear this."

"Why are you so psyched about a furnace anyway?"

She looked at Jaune with a mix of disbelief and dumbfoundedness. She didn't even seem to be able to find the words, such was the stupidity of his question. "I'm... A blacksmith... I need a furnace to do my thing?"

"Oh, right." He felt appropriately idiotic. How could he had forgotten she was talented and remarkable? They all were, all except him

"So, Blake, what did you want? Make it quick."

"We found a physics lab. There were a lot of machines in there, most of which we're not sure what purpose they serve. But..." The cat faunus raised her hand, knowing she was about to be interrupted. "...we do know the purpose of one of them."

"You mean the air purifier?" Velvet completed the thought as if they had scripted it.

"Air purifier? What's that?"

"From what I can tell, it's an engine that filters out impurities to make sure we don't run out of oxygen here."

"Run out?" The redhead seemed confused, as did most of the others, which was certainly understandable. Breathable air was the thing people most took for granted in their lives, and the thought of it running out was hard to grasp.

"Are you saying if that thing breaks down we all suffocate to death?" Emerald's tone seemed almost scornful, like she didn't actually believe what she was saying.

"I does seem likely, if you think about it." Ren didn't raise his voice, but everyone was silent enough that he could be heard. "The school is locked out from the outside, even the windows are tightly sealed. If there's no way for the air to flow in and out, then it stands to reason that it's a limited resource."

"Exactly. And besides, if Monokuma was saying the truth and the air outside is full of radiation, we really do need the purifier to stay alive."

"You can't really believe that." The green-haired magician scowled at Blake, something that apparently made Weiss glad.

"I'm with Emerald on this one. We should never trust what that idiotic bear says, much less some far-fetched fairytale about the end of the world. Besides, there's no way the Schnee family would fall down just like that."

"But what if it is true? We should consider that possibility."

"We can't know for sure, so what's the point? It'll only get us more depressed " Sun sipped his cup, that he for some reason insisted in grabbing with his tail despite more than one cry from Ren about it being unsanitary.

Nora grinned amusedly. "I'm sensing a divide here."

"Huh?"

"About whether or not the world outside is boned. Blake and Ren clearly believe it, Em, Weiss and Sun don't. What about you, Ruby?"

"Me?" She was caught off-guard, it didn't even look like she had been listening to the conversation happening at the table. "I believe it, I guess..."

"Me too."

"So, Jaune and Ruby are also Team Apocalypse. Who's left, Velvet? Neo?"

"I don't know... Like Sun said, it's impossible to say for sure."

"I don't really care. It makes no difference."

"Oh, c'mon, you can't be neutral! Stop spoiling all the fun!"

"You say that, but you haven't really picked a side either." Emerald sounded annoyed, although if that was from being on the losing side or just a generalized anger, it was hard to tell.

"Oh, I don't buy it either. I mean, everything exploded, and I wasn't there to see? Like that would ever happen." She smiled proudly at her logic.

"Really? That's your argument?"

The discussion did not progress further, however, as a familiar yet dreaded sound came from the speaker at that very moment.

DING DONG DING DONG

"All Beacon students are called to Gymnasium immediately. Failure to show up will be met with severe punishment."

The hostage class of Beacon traded unsure glances. They wanted to keep the discussion going, there was still much to be said on either side, but they knew better than disobeying their captor after what had happened to Yatsuhashi. Besides, there was no way the mastermind was dropping another incentive just one day after the previous case had been concluded, right?

They soon found themselves in the empty gymnasium, a room that has brought them nothing but bad memories. Without warning, although it was to be expected by now, a platform began loudly descending from the ceiling, carrying the headmaster atop it. There was, however, something different about it this time.

Money. Copious amounts of it.

Piles upon piles of notes, stacked up higher than the bear's height, taking up most of the platform. It was evident that was the reason Monokuma hadn't shown up by his own two feet, but most of them failed to realize it at the moment. They were too entranced by that extravagant display of wealth.

There was an allure to seeing so much money in one place and so close to reach, more money than any of them had ever seen in person, even Weiss. Maybe it was a natural instinct, maybe it was a product of their environments, of growing in a society that valued riches above nearly all else, but it was absolutely bewitching nonetheless.

"Alright, last trial left me feeling pumped, so I figured maybe we could jump straight into the next one, so it's time for another incentive!"

The class broke out of their daze in perfect synch, but the bear ignored all of their vocal protests. Jaune himself wasn't complaining, he felt to stunned for it. They had just made it out through the last death, without even being given the proper time to process it, and he was already asking for another one?

"This week's incentive is: Cash! Dough! That delicious green stuff! Specifically, ten million... huh... What do you call your currency again? Gald? Credits? Yen?"

Ren was the one who answered. "Lien."

"No, I'm pretty sure that's your name. Are you named after money?"

"No, my name is Lie Ren, not Lien."

"Yeah, that sounds fake. Can anyone confirm?" Monokuma rubbed his furry chin with uncertainty.

The rest of the class answered asynchronously.

"He's right."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Why is it called Lien anyway?"

"Hell if I know."

"TEN MILLION LIEN!" The headmaster interrupted the increasing banter, requiring their attention again. "TO THE ONE WHO COMMITS THE NEXT MURDER! Provided you survive long enough to collect, of course."

"Didn't you say the world outside is destroyed? What would we even do with that money?"

"I don't know, blackjack and hookers? You kids are young and in your prime, come up with plans on your own!"

"He's running out of ideas, isn't he?"

"Hey, screw you kids! I worked hard for all this money! You think it was just stealing from a candy store? These ratings don't make themselves, y'know!" The plushy waved his hand menacingly, but he just ended up sounding like bitter old fisherman yelling at the advancing technology around him.

"Ratings? What's that supposed to mean?" Sun wondered aloud, voicing the question shared by the rest of them.

"Are we... in a TV Show?"

"Upupupupupu, I can't tell you that yet, it'd be spoilers..." The platform upon which the headmaster stood began rising slowly.

"Hey, where are you going!"

"Come back here, we want answers!"

But he did not respond to any of their questions, and soon faded from view up in the ceiling. They stopped calling out for him, knowing they'd get nothing except more silence, but Nora hadn't given up yet.

"WE KNOW YOU'RE STILL UP THERE! COME BACK AND FACE US, YOU COWARD!"

"Wow, wow, Nora, you okay?" Sun grabbed her shoulder, trying to contain the storm she appeared to be brewing.

She looked back at him nonchalantly. "It was worth the shot."

"So… what now?"

There was a tense silence in the gym. The class traded a couple of words, promises that they wouldn't fall prey to the incentive, but it all rang hollow.

Jaune wanted to say it was a stupid motive, that none of them would commit murder for such a flimsy incentive, but after seeing it happen twice already, it was hard to keep up hope. One of them could already be planning something, because when push came to shove, they didn't truly know each other.

The others were probably thinking the same, how could they trust someone whom they had known for so little time? And it was that very same distrust that would be their downfall.

TO BE CONTINUED

Students Alive - 10

POLL IS NOW CLOSED



Thanks for sticking with this mess of a story.