I didn't know what to think of all this. Killing each other? Who in the right mind would even want to do that.

Monokuma and his kubs left and my monopad started to ring. But not just mine, everyone else's too. I took mine out and there was a message on the screen. I scanned through it and it was basically just going over what Monokuma said already.

Students must live at the Ultimate Academy for the remainder of their foreseeable future. Once a murder takes place, all surviving students must participate in a class trial. If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed. However if the blackened is not exposed, all remaining students will be executed. If the blackened survives the class trial, they will graduate and re-enter the outside world.

The killing game and class trials will continue until only 2 surviving students remain. "Nighttime" is from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The dining hall and gym are off-limits at night.

Violence towards Monokuma is strictly prohibited. Monokuma will never directly commit a murder. Do not damage your Monopads, they are very important. The body discovery announced will play when 3 or more students discover a body.

"You....gotta be kidding me..." kaede let out a frustrated sigh.

"I do not understand why someone...would force us to do this?" Kirumi said

"But the rules are pretty cut and dry. This game doesn't seem like it'll be boring" Kokichi rested his arms behind his head

"That's not the problem!" Tenko shouted

"Please lower your voice. It is ruining the atmosphere." Korekiyo said calmly.

"Q-Quit screwing around...Killing game...School Regulations... To hell with all that crap! Who'd go along with something like that!?" Kaito smashed his fists together then picked up his Monopad as if to smash it on the ground.

"Woah wait, don't do that." I say, catching his attention before he could destroy it. "School rules say you can't break it. And if you violate the rules...the exisals will dispose of you.."

"I don't care about the rules! No way I'm gonna play this messed up game!"

"This isn't about "playing" the game. It's too dangerous to disobey him now." Rantaro added, he had a slight smirk on his face.

"Forget about him! Just means one less dumbass for the world to deal with!" Miu shouted from across the room

"Hey! Who you callin' a dumbass!?" Kaito yelled back

"Oh my god can you guys just stop fighting!!" I screamed, making sure they all heard me. The room fell quite as I could feel everyone's gaze on me now. "We shouldn't be fighting each other right now. Even though we don't know eachother that well, we need to work together to survive..."

"I agree with Y/n! We must remember who the real enemy is! Master told me that strength must always be aimed in the proper direction" Tenko agreed

"Should we all look for another exit? Together..?" Kaede suggested

"But...we looked all over that wall and there wasn't a single hole." Tsumugi seemed disappointed

"Now wait a second. If there's no opening in the wall, then how did we get inside these walls in the first place?" Keebo mentioned

"That's a good point" I say. "So that means there must be an opening somewhere."

"Oh, wait!" Gonta got all our attention as he continued speaking. "Gonta find manhole earlier. In grass, behind school building. Gonta peek in. See big, underground passage. Think maybe it exit...Sorry. Is probably not so simple."

"Y-You gotta mention important stuff like that much faster!" Tenko said

"The boiler is behind the school building. We must corroborate Gonta's claim at once. Gonta, please lead the way." Kirumi was so well spoken and stayed calm.

Soon after, everyone followed Gonta out.

——

"Looks like we're all here. So, where's this manhole?" Rantaro asked

"Ummmm...over there, in grass." Gonta replied. Although, it didn't help that there was grass almost everywhere..but we found it eventually.

"Awww, this manhole cover looks heavy, can we even lift it?" Kokichi asked

"I can try." Keebo offered. He walked over to the manhole and tried to lift it, but failed. "How embarrassing. It won't even budge.." he looked away, clearly embarrassed.

"Huhhhh? A robot's not even strong enough to move it?"Angie said dramatically

"That's fuckin' pathetic!" Miu shouted

"Oh, then allow Gonta. Gonta lift cover before to peek inside. Should be able to pick up cover too." He placed his hands on the cover and lifted it up with ease. It was honestly impressive..

"Woah...so easily!?" I say, speaking my thought

"His strength...must be due to my magic. Yup...there's no mistaking it." Himiko implied. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"Kehehe...what wonderful strength. You could likely crush a child's skull with ease." Korekiyo said.

"How ungentlemanly! Gonta NEVER do that!" He yelled

"Gentleman or not, no one would do that!" I say

"But Gonta is sooo much more reliable than some bean-counting robot." Kokichi said

"Are you....talking about me? Because I can count many things, not just beans" Keebo argued.

Trying not to draw too much attention to myself, I peeked at the manhole. It was too dark for me to see anything, but cold air was drifting up from it, hitting my warm face.

"Ah, are you...sure it's safe down there?" I ask anyone in general

"If anything happens, I'll protect most of you! But the degenerate males are on their own!" Tenko got in a fighting stance

"Then...Gonta protect menfolk."

"It's awfully quiet, I wonder what Monokuma and the Monokubs are doing." I say quietly so only the people near me could hear.

"I was certain they would show up at some point and crush us like rotten gnats..." Korekiyo answered

"Nishishi! They probably haven't noticed yet. Let's hurry before they show up and mess with us." Said Kokichi

Slowly, each one of us descended down into the manhole. And once we were all down, we looked around to see an open area..?

"It's more spacious than I thought it'd be.." I say

"Yoo-hoo!" Kokichi yelled just to hear the echo of his voice.

"What is this place..?" Maki asked

"An old industrial passageway, I suspect....Perhaps factories once existed here?" Kirumi answered

"Hey, take a look at this." Rantaro pointed to a sign that seemed to be stuck onto one of the pipes. "What a considerate sign....Apparently, the end of the tunnel is the exit."

"Wouldn't that be....too easy?" I say, something didn't feel right. I mean, if they went through all that trouble just to gather us here to play a killing game...why would they make an exit so easily obvious.

"Maybe, but we'll never know unless we see for ourselves, right? No point in standing around here, let's go." Said Rantaro.

As we all walked through the tunnel there were small obstacles in the way, and we worked together to get passed them, but after that...I couldn't remember what happened next..

——

I slowly open my eyes, wondering what happened and trying to remember desperately.

"You're awake...Are you alright?" Kirumi asked with a worried expression on her face, she seemed to be alright. I look around to see the others also sitting on the ground.

"I'm...okay. What happened?" I asked, watching everyone else slowly get up.

"It seems we all lost consciousness." Kirumi answered. I realized that right before we were doing the obstacles, soo....if we're back here again...then we must've failed. But then Monokuma appeared in the room.

"Geez, this is quite the pity party you sadsacks are throwing for yourselves!" The bear said. Then the Monokubs appeared as well.

"Wow, you all look exhausted. Poor things. I feel sorry for you." Said the pink Monokub.

"Tch...so you guys crawled outta your holes. I guess you finally noticed what we were up to." Kaito seemed pissed.

"...Noticed? I've known for a while that you guys would botch whatever escape plan you had." Monokuma said

"What!?" I say, surprised. "So there was no exit ! I knew I was right." After the Monokubs talked for a bit, they decided to leave along with Monokuma.

"Nyeeeh, so we can escape if we work hard enough..?" Himiko asked unsure.

"No way, you little moron! They'd be freakin' out if we could actually reach it!" Miu responded

"That's...probably why they let us try." I say

"They wanted us to try the underground passage so we'd learn that escape is impossible." Shuichi finished my sentence for me.

"Instead of blocking off every exit completely closes they leave that little bit of hope. They want us to be desperate to go home. Corner us mentally." Rantaro had his hands on his hips as he spoke.

"Even so, we can't just give up... Right, you guys? I mean, we've only failed once, y'know." Kaede cheered, trying to lighten up the mood.

"But isn't getting out impossible?" Himiko asked

"No, it's not. It may take one more try or a lot more tries, but it's not impossible. Forget about Monokuma. It doesn't matter what he says to us. I don't wanna lose to him either! And I don't want any of you to lose, either! I refuse to lose to someone who would do terrible things to us!" Kaede encouraged. Speaking with enthusiasm

We all agreed that once we all escape, we'd all be friends. Which started to cause Kokichi and Keebo fighting over nonsense. Everyone started to have a positive mindset once again. Encouraging and convincing themselves to enter the tunnel again.

——