I woke up in the manhole, laying in Rantaro's lap, while Kaede and Shuichi were sitting next to me. I was all bandaged up. "W-Where'd you get this?" I said, looking at the bandages. Kaede pointed over to Monokuma, who was putting a bear bandage on the scrape on Himiko's knee. "Oh my gosh, did I-" "Nothing was your fault, Y/N." I looked at Rantaro. "Monokuma had brought us back here with his exisals. Even if you didn't pass out, we would've come back here anyway."

He hugged me close, and for some reason, it was a familiar feeling. "You worried us there, you know? Your head hitting the stone floor as your arm bled out and your head had a newly opened wound." I smiled and sat up. "Don't worry Rantaro. I'm fine, really."

I got up and looked at Monokuma. "So... I'm guessing you want us to go back, huh?" He nodded. "I've got some duties to deal with, so it's your choice on whether to go back or go through the tunnel again." He then disappeared.

We tried the tunnel a few more times, but got nowhere. A few of us fell in the water, Miu's hair caught on fire, and Gonta almost got sliced by these small Monokuma heads. In the end, despite me being the first one injured, I was supporting Rantaro with one shoulder, and Kaito with the other. Himiko was on my back, and I kept having to use my foot to keep Tenko from falling. "Is Y/N okay?" Gonta asked. I looked up at him. He had Kokichi, Kiibo, and Tsumugi on his back, carrying Kirumi and Shuichi in his arms. I looked to my right and saw Kiyo carrying Kaede on his back. Everyone else was standing and holding up.

"W-wait, we can't give up, right?" Kaede got off Kiyo's back, but I shook my head. "Going back isn't giving up, Kaede. Besides, I doubt they brought us in here that way. It's far too hard to bring 17 high school students in through there." She nodded as we climbed up the ladder.

I was running dorm to dorm, each time carrying something different. I ran to Rantaro's room carrying bandages, then to Tenko's room with medicine since according to her she swallowed something weird, then to Kiibo's room with a screwdriver since his hand fell off, then to Kokichi's room with more bandages.

"Y/N, I can help." Kirumi offered. I shook my head. "One of those helicopter things sliced your leg. You shouldn't go walking on it!" I threw some bandages at her as I quickly ran to Shuichi's room. "Hey Shuichi, has your knee popped back in place?" I asked. He nodded. "Would you like some help?" I was silent for a moment, then I collapsed onto Shuichi's bed. "I'm sorry! You guys wouldn't be hurt if it weren't for me dragging you along!"

Shuichi tilted his head. "What do you mean?" I looked up at him, tears in my eyes. "My stupid go-lucky attitude got you all hurt!" Shuichi put his hand on my shoulder. "No... it didn't... it kept us going." I wiped my tears and hugged Shuichi. "Y-yeah... I could use some help."

Me and Shuichi ran around, helping everyone we could. Eventually, Kirumi, Gonta, Maki, and Kiyo were on the move. "Here, you tuck it underneath like this." I told Gonta. We were bandaging up Kokichi's arm, when Kokichi said, "Gonta, I think I hear someone calling you." I stared at Kokichi. His famous side glance. I think he just wants to talk to me alone. Gonta left and I turned to face Kokichi.

"Alright, what'd you wanna talk about, Supreme Leader?" He looked me right in the eye. "You were crying, weren't you?" I rubbed my eye and a tear immediately fell. "O-oh, I didn't notice." I looked at the ground. "Just so you know, this isn't your fault." I looked up and met the short male's purple eyes. They were unusually comforting.

"You were just trying to help us escape. You don't need to be so hard on yourself. Besides, half of them were just being plain reckless." I squinted my eyes. You're one of the people that fell- no cannonballed- into the water!

~Time Skip~

It was night and we were all sleeping. Well, I wasn't, and I'm pretty sure the screwdriver sound was Miu. I was staring at my ceiling, imagining what could've happened if we continued through that tunnel. Would we have made it out? Was it a dead end? Would... we die? I had so many questions flying around in my head as I heard a knock at my door.

I got up and opened it. It was Kaito. "H-hello..." He had a panicked look on his face. "Nightmare?" He looked shocked when I said that. "How did you- oh yeah." I motioned for him to come. "So... why did you decide to come to me? Or go outside your room at all?" He looked away. "I heard about what you said to Shuichi. None of us think it's your fault."

I eyed him, slightly suspicious. "How would you know that?"

Kaito sighed. "We all met in Shuichi's room. Well, most of us did, at least. He just wanted to ask us if any of us think it's your fault. None of us said yes." I sighed. "You're just trying to be nice. A lot of them couldn't even walk for a few hours. Tenko might've caught some weird disease, too."

"Y/N," He made me turn to him. "Why would we try to be nice to someone who wasn't there?" I smiled and Kaito left. I went to sleep calmly after that.

The next morning, you didn't arrive at the dining hall at 8:00am like everyone else. "I bet they're moping in their self-guilt." Miu sneered coldly.

"Miu, you can't just talk about people like that! Besides, they shouldn't feel guilty for something that isn't their fault." Kaede scolded in response. "Wait..." Rantaro looked around, a suspicious but worried look in his eye. Kokichi seemed to get the hint and ran to your room.

"He's quite concerned for a degenerate." Tenko stated. Shuichi, Rantaro, and Kaede ran after Kokichi, hoping that you were alright.

I was woken up by the sound of my door being knocked at. Repeatedly. I looked at the time. 8:26am. Wait, shoot! I got up and opened the door. "Sorry, I over-" I was tackled into a hug by Kaede. "Don't scare me like that again!" I chuckled. "Sorry, I'm a really deep sleeper." I looked at Rantaro. "What are you doing... up?" I looked at his leg, which may as well have been mangled yesterday. But it looked good as new. "Yeah... not sure how it happened, but at least we're all not hurt anymore!"

This place is insane.

We went downstairs and I was greeted with cheerful waves by almost everyone. "We were worried there for a second!" Tenko said. "Don't worry. I knew Atua would protect you throughout the night!" Angie exclaimed as she put her hands together.

Monokuma appeared before us. "I have an announcement!"

"And what would that announcement be, exactly?"

"It's this perk called First Blood Perk! Basically, the first murder that takes place will not have a Class Trial! The blackened will immediately graduate!"

"Enough!" Kaito growled. "I'm through letting you have your way!" Kaito lunged at Monokuma, but I grabbed him and pulled him back. Just as I did so, the Monokubs arrived. "Looks like we've got a volunteer!" The blue one said. "Let me show you what happens when you break one of the rules." One of the Monokubs hopped into an exisal.

I stood in front of Kaito as the exisal came closer, but... "AGGHH!" I opened my eyes to see the exisal stepping on Monokuma, and a few seconds later... BOOM! Monokuma explodes.

"Oh no!" They start yelling at each other and... mourning? Over the loss of Monokuma. "Oh well, I guess we're the new headmasters now." Monosuke finally concluded. Wait, what?

They left as we stared at the spot where the Monokubs had been. "Is... the killing game over now? Y'know, since the final boss is dead?" Kokichi asked. I shook my head. "I don't think so. Since there was an explosion, Monokuma was a robot, or AI. He's being controlled by someone, and that someone most likely will make more Monokumas."

~Time Skip~

I decided to go down to the library. Something about the clutter of books seemed... off. As I was walking down the stairs, I thought of the books in the library. "From what I remember, the books weren't organized in a specific way." I muttered to myself. "But there's no way someone read all those books without having to put them away. The human mind makes us want everything to at least match an aesthetic. So they had to be placed around for something."

I opened the doors and saw Shuichi and Kaede talking in front of a bookshelf. And that bookshelf... didn't have any books on top! But why? Shuichi pointed to the ground. Maybe... so the bookshelf didn't have any extra weight?

"Shuichi, Kaede." They both turned to me in surprise. "O-oh, hey Y/N!" Kaede stuttered. I walked up to where they were standing and looked down. Scratch marks... just as I thought.

"A-ah, you already knew about this?" Shuichi asked. I shook my head. "I mean, I knew something was off about how the books were all over the place, but you were the first to find this!" He smiled awkwardly. "Anyways, I found out something about this bookcase." He placed his hands between the gap and the bookcase moved.

"A black and white door." I observed. "It must be related to Monokuma!"

Kaede nodded. "Is this how he gets around?" I looked at the card reader. "I don't think so. This is a little higher than what's considered 'bear-friendly'." I looked at Shuichi, who had his thinking face on.

"I have a theory..." He began. "Someone here might be working with Monokuma." Kaede gasped. "N-no way!" Shuichi looked down. "I-it's just a hypothesis, but it shouldn't be ruled out." I looked into the card insert. "Shuichi, did you put dust in this so we would know if someone used it or not?" Shuichi looked startled. "Y-You're very observant..."

We closed the bookcase and headed back to our rooms. I thought about what Shuichi said. "Someone here might be working with Monokuma..." I whispered.

The next morning, I went to Gonta's room and we talked about butterflies. "So they have to be called chrysalis?"

I was teaching him how to fold paper butterflies when I heard the morning alarm. "Oh! Time to go to the dining hall!" We walked down and when we arrived, everyone was there, alive and well. And... rather cheerful.

However, that cheerful atmosphere was soon broken... by Monokuma showing up in a Yokai cosplay. "It's so bad, I can't bear to look." Tsumigi whimpered. I don't want to take that as a bear joke, but I honestly can't help it.

"Fine! You guys are no fun!" Monokuma got out of his costume and the Monokubs appeared.

All of a sudden, Monokuma starts licking each Monokub. "... What is happening?" I ask aloud. "Oh! And I have another motive!" Monokuma cleared his artificial throat. "If no murders happen by nighttime, two days from now, you all will die."

"W-what? We have a time limit now?"

"That's right! So if you don't want to turn into pink smudges by next week, I suggest you start killing!" Ugh, he's doing this now? "You can either die working together or live on your own. It's your call!" Monokuma and the Monokubs left, along with the cheerful atmosphere that we had earlier.

"No... I can't die yet! The world needs me!" Miu yelled. "I- I don't... wanna die yet." I pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the tears forming in the corner of Kokichi's eyes, despite me knowing they're probably fake. "Now wait a minute, we're not going to die! We're not going to let that happen!" Kaede claimed.

"Come on, Gonta use body to keep everyone safe." I put my hand on Gonta's arm. "You don't need to do that, Gonta." His tense body seemed to relax. "You're planning on going against those machines empty handed?" Ryoma asked. Everyone began bickering and disagreeing amongst themselves.

"No way... are we really gonna die?" Kokichi stuttered. "Now, Kokichi we-" "No! I'll survive! No matter what!" I looked down at him. Kaede seemed startled by his statement. "W-wait, you can't-"

Kokichi giggled. "Will you accept the blame if I die?" Kaede looked confused. "I have people who will miss me, you know." Kokichi giggled once more. "I'm kidding. No one will be sad if I die. Don't know if I can say the same for the rest of you though." I sighed and put my hand on Kokichi's shoulder. "Don't think like that. Someone will be sad if you die."

I didn't know this, but these words touched Kokichi's heart. "A-anyways, I'm off. To my room. Alone." He walked away. "What? Are you inviting me to come kill you?" Miu yelled. She walked away, and I assume she went to her room. I hope she did. I decided to do the same, but before I did so, I stopped by Kokichi's room.

"O-oh, Y/N. Are you here to kill me?" He asked when he opened the door. I held up some sheets of paper. "I want to show you how to do something."

I cut some strips of paper and laid them out in front of us. I picked up one and gave it to Kokichi, and then I picked one up for myself.

"What do I need this for?" He asked. "Alright, can you tie a knot of sorts at the end of the paper?" He did so. "Now I want you to flatten it so it's like a pentagon." I did the same with mine. "Now, I want you to wrap the excess paper around the pentagon." We both did. "Now, pinch the corners and the paper will plump up." Kokichi looked slightly amazed.

"Where'd you learn this?" He asked while he examined the little paper star in his hands. "It helps one of my patients calm down during sessions." I answered as I started on another one. We did a few more when I remembered something. "Oh, Kokichi, I'm going to go see how the others are doing."

I left and went to the library, where I saw Shuichi and Kaede. "There you are! Where were you? We checked your room, but you weren't there!" Kaede exclaimed. "Sorry, I was with Kokichi." She tilted her head. "Doing what?" "Well we were- the dust is gone!" Shuichi looked back at the card insert. "Oh, yeah. That's why we came down here. So, Monokuma... he said anyone who was forced to participate in the killing game will die in two days. He could've said 'everyone' but he didn't."

My eyes lit up. "So... he's trying to protect someone in our group!" I concluded. Shuichi nodded. "That's what I think. Someone in our group actually wants the killing game to happen." I shivered at the thought. What kind of twisted person would want that?

"So this mastermind would be the person behind the wheel of all... this."

"But... we only have two days to do this." Kaede remarked.

"That's right, so we'll have to find out who the mastermind is. They will most likely come here in the three days allotted for us. They would need to develop the Monokumas for this event that may happen in two days." I nodded. "We'll need to find out who the mastermind is, and fast."