“BOO!” Hina shouted, suddenly jumping out from around the corner.

Sakura looked at her with a blank expression, not even the slightest bit fazed by her antics. “Hello Hina.”

Aoi grumbled and trudged off, dejected.

Later she made her next attempt while Sakura was meditating. She found a halloween mask In the crate of decorations Monokuma had provided, and she quietly crept up on the white haired girl whilst wearing It.

She sat down directly In front of her and waited for her to open her eyes, but Hina ended up waiting a good ten minutes before that happened.

Sakura opened her eyes and was staring directly Into Hina’s.

She didn’t even flinch. She just casually reached forward and lifted the mask off of her and tossed It aside. “Much better. If you wanted to try a new look, I wouldn’t go with the Michael Myers look. Maybe something less… disturbing?” She teased.

Hina pouted. “Is there seriously nothing that scares you?”

“Not In the sense you’re referring to.”

The brunette huffed and crossed her arms childishly, racking her brain for her next tactic.

Sakura leaned forward, planting a soft kiss against her cheek. “Face It, Hina… I’m unscareable.”

“If you think I’m gonna give up, you’re wrong!” She smiled with a newfound determination.

The martial artist rolled her eyes, smiling fondly at her girlfriend. “Very well then.”

Hina ran off to the kitchen to get some donuts and think about her next plan, she found she did her best thinking with a donut in her hand… or so she claimed.

She probably just used that as an excuse to get some donuts.

Let’s see… She could wait until night time and make an attempt to spook her, but how would she do that? Nah. What If she pretended to drown? No… One that would be too far, and two, Sakura would never fall for that.

“Not In the sense I’m referring to…” She repeated her words quietly, staring intently at her jelly filled donut.

Hmm…

A few minutes later Sakura walked Into the dining hall. She was going to go make some tea but she paused when she saw Hina lying on the floor. “Oh no, whatever could have happened to my Hina now?” she asked, feigning surprise as she approached her. She could tell she was breathing so she wasn’t worried.

And Hina wasn’t trying to appear as though she wasn’t.

Sakura got down on the floor next to her and turned her over onto her back so she could inevitably jump up and yell ‘boo’ at her again, but… that’s not exactly what happened.

“W-What the…”

She noticed a red substance on Hina’s head, as If she fell or something. Immediately she was thrown into concerned girlfriend mode. “H-Hina?”

She leaned closer to get a better look at what she presumed was her head wound, when Hina opened her eyes and shot up. “BOO!”

Sakura took a sharp intake of breath, jerking backwards to avoid knocking heads with her. She closed her eyes and tried to shake off the fact that Hina had, in fact, scared her.

Hina giggled deviously, pointing her finger at Sakura. “I got you! I finally got you!”

Sakura opened her eyes again, now able to tell that the red substance was jelly. “No, I got you. Come here.” She scooped up the swimmer with a surprised squeak, setting her in her lap. “Hina, I thought you fell and hurt yourself.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” She asked, blinking in surprise.

Sakura gently wiped the jelly off of her forehead and showed It to her. “This, Is what I’m talking about.”

Hina giggled sheepishly. “Oohh… Sorry Sakura, I didn’t know It was there. You know how intense I get when I eat jelly donuts.”

She sighed softly. Whatever was she going to do with this devious swimmer of hers?

She was silent as an idea came to mind.

“Sakura? Why are you looking at me like that?” Aoi asked after a minute of silence.

“Since you thought It was so funny to scare me, perhaps I should give you something to laugh about.”

Hina smiled nervously, trying to squirm her way out of her girlfriend’s hold. “W-Wait a minute, Sakura come on… I’ve been trying to spook you all day, I earned it!”

“Oh, You certainly earned something alright.” She murmured, scribbling her fingers into the brunette’s side.

Hina squealed and wriggled around under her gentle touch. “Sahahahahkura!”

“Yes, Hina? What Is it?”

“Ihihihit tickles!”

“I would be more concerned If it didn’t.” She hummed in response, tickling lightly along her belly and sides.

Hina fell back against Sakura as more bubbly laughter slipped past her lips.

“Are you ready to apologize?”

“Fohohohohor whahahahat??”

“For scaring me, you mean mean girlfriend.”

“Nohohohoho wahahahay!” She stuck her tongue out at Sakura In an act of defiance. “I don’t hahahahahahave anything to apologize for!”

Sakura raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I’m sorry you feel that way…”

Aoi foolishly thought she was just going to give up and stop tickling her, Oh you sweet summer child. Imagine her surprise when she felt her neck under attack next.

She squealed girlishly as Sakura began to press gentle but hella ticklish kisses into her neck. “Nahahahahohoho! Thahahat’s nohohot fahahair!”

“I’m sorry, I’m failing to see how It Isn’t fair… Can you educate me?” She asked obliviously into her skin, smirking when Hina squealed even louder.

“Myhyhyhyhy neheheheck Is toohohoho ticklish!” She snorted as Sakura began squeezing her sides whilst attacking her neck.

“Hmm… I still fail to see how It Is unfair. Besides, you haven’t asked me to stop, so I know you’re not In any distress.”

Damn that woman and her observations. Hina’s cheeks turned pink as she whined. “Sahahahakura!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to notice that? I do apologize… truly out of line on my part.” Sakura rolled her eyes playfully.

“Ihihihihit was!” Aoi shot back. Apparently homegirl Is determined to die today.

Sakura wordlessly latched onto Hina’s thighs and began squeezing them, and as she did this she also blew a raspberry against the swimmer's neck.

The result was immediate.

“AAH! NAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SAHAHAHAHAHAHAKURAAHAHA!” She cackled, trying to bring her shoulders up to block her access, but she was unable to do so.

After another minute of excruciating tickles, Hina folded. “IHIHIHIH GIHIHIHIVE UP! YOUUHUHUHUHU WIN!”

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“IHIHIHI’M SORRY! PLEHEHEHEASE!”

Sakura, sensing Hina has had enough, relented. She pulled back and switched from trapping her girlfriend In her arms to carefully holding her while she calmed down.

“Thank you. Now can you stop trying to scare me? I don’t want to have to worry about whether you're hurt or just messing with me.”

Hina nodded, still giggling softly. “Yeah… I really am sorry for making you worry, I would never do something like that intentionally.”

“It’s okay.” Sakura smiled softly at the brunette. “I know you didn’t mean to do it on purpose, but--”

“But It still happened. I know.” Hina hooked her arms around Sakura’s neck and planted a kiss on her lips. “I promise I won’t scare you anymore… I’ll just tickle you Instead.”

“Good I-- Wait… What did you just say?”

“Starting right now! REVENGE!”

“H-Hina wahahahahait!”

Yep. That’s what he was afraid of. “Wh-What??”

“You heard me. Unless you wanna admit I’m right, which… we both know I am.”

“How Is that test gonna help??”

“Because back then(when A first started suffering from lee moods), even with how confident you were, you still couldn’t manage saying that when you were In a lee mood. Despite you having no problems asking me to tickle you when you weren’t hypersensitive from one.”

“Man, more of that time period Is a blur than I thought It was…” A said quietly.

“Oh, I see where this Is going…” D murmured.

“Yeah, It’s a lose-lose situation for him…” B chuckled, quietly agreeing with their partner.

“F-Fine… C…”

“Yes?”

“T-Ti…Tiiiii…”

“Mmmhmmm~?”

“Tic… Fuck, I can’t do it!” A whined, covering his face to hide the bright red tone his skin had taken on.

C was now faced with two options… either he could be a kind and gentle partner and reassure him with some light tickles, Orrrr… and this Is REALLY what he was leaning towards…

He could be downright merciless and tease the ever-loving hell out of his adorable Fiancé...

The former way definitely had Its own perks going for it, but the latter? Not only does he get to make him shriek and laugh hard, he would be able to ease his lee mood.

Plus, C would be completely lying If he said he wasn’t In the worst fucking Ler mood, something he hadn’t realized until now.

“Uh, A buddy? I think you’re In danger.” B informed him.

A moved his hands away from his face to study C's expression, immediately his hands latched onto C's and held them away from him. “Nuh uh! Don’t even!”

C leaned closer with an almost evil smirk. “How cute, you think you can stop me~?” he purred.

A felt butterflies at that, anticipation giggles already building up. But he was determined not to let him win that easily… If for no other reason than to be a brat. “I can.”

C tried to interlace their fingers so that he could overpower A, but he didn’t let that happen. “How about this… I’ll go easy on you If you manage to ask me to tickle you.”

A nervous grin broke out on A’s face. “I-I can’t, I already tried.”

“That’s my offer~ And If you don’t release my hands, I’ll really punish you.”

“C scares me.” B whispered to D who nodded In agreement.

“C… This Isn’t fair.”

“You have about ten seconds, better make your decision~” He hummed teasingly, lightly tugging at his hands for good measure. “Remember… We've been together for a long time, that means I have a loooot of knowledge of your ticklish spots and how to exploit them effectively~”

When A froze up in horror at the thought, C decided to tease him even further. “I’ll lean In and plant small ticklish kisses against your horrendously over sensitized neck In between the teases I’m going to whisper to you.”

A felt his face absolutely burning, and his stomach felt like It was doing flips. He tried to protest but the words kept getting caught In his throat.

I'm working on a really big project, I don't wanna say what It Is in case I can't meet my deadline (which Is in a few days... fuck me) but I did want to say I won't be able to have Tropical vacation completed by october... so rip me I guess--

My seasonal depression Is easing up now that summer Is over. (thank the stars.) I seriously felt so much lighter and calm walking my dog last night In the cool air.

Something about heat and sunlight makes me tired and sad. I'm photosensitive, and too much exposure to light gives me really bad migraines so that doesn't help any.

The reason I haven't posted any update or something sooner Is because I am a fucking moron and threw out my back and shoulder two weeks ago.

Apparently I've reached the phase In life where slipping and falling becomes dangerous to my health.

I would say hopefully I'll be more productive now, but my new hyper fixation Is making that rather difficult asdfghjkl

I'm working on about 50 things at the same fucking time, and I'm not even exaggerating

“Come to think of It… We haven’t heard from Monokuma since he announced you all would be coming to the island.” Imposter spoke up.

“That’s really unlike Monokuma… He always comes in and kills the mood for us.” Makoto responded. “I’m kind of shocked he hasn’t shown up yet.”

And of course, He had to jinx it for them.

Monokuma sprung up from seemingly nowhere, a paw on his chin as he tilted his head curiously. “You rang for me?”

“Ya just had to fuckin’ say it didn’t ya?” Mondo muttered under his breath as Makoto smiled apologetically.

“So, How’s the meeting going? Any scandalous affairs I should know about?” The robot bear asked cheekily.

“No.” They all deadpanned.

“But while you’re here, I have a question.” Kyoko stepped forward, looking at the two tone bear with intrigue. “Why have you been absent?”

“And while we are asking questions, Why did you create all of those buildings?” Sonia asked, also stepping forward. Gundham followed, right at her side to protect her in case Monokuma were to try something.

Kazuichi noticed this and mirrored Gundham’s motion…

Only for Sonia to gently nudge him back a bit so that she was taking the protective stance of the Mechanic instead. He dejectedly whined.

“Puhuhuhu… What does It matter? Shouldn’t you just be grateful I’m in a giving mood?” The bear chuckled.

“Fiend, you never give Indulgences without some kind of perilous hazard attached…” Gundham spat back, not trusting him for a second. “What are you playing at?”

“Nothing.” Monokuma said cheerfully. “I honestly don’t have the time to mess with you guys.”

Kyoko blinked, recalling what Monokuma said yesterday. “That’s right, you said something about preparing surprises and making changes to the school…”

“Bingo! Nancy Drew has solved the mystery!” Monokuma exclaimed. “Do you wanna guess what your surprise is??”

Kyoko stared hard at the bear, feeling nervousness creeping up in her stomach… Not that her face showed any of it. She was silent as she mulled over the possibilities.

Monokuma didn’t wait for a response. “If you guess correctly, I’ll keep the doors to the island unlocked during the weekend.”

The students were stunned by this proposal. Why would Monokuma offer a luxury like that?

“Oh, Would you look at the time? I’ve got some time-sensitive work to do. Do think about my offer.” Monokuma said amusedly. “Call me when you’re ready to guess. Enjoy the spa!”

And with that, he disappeared into the nebulous void he arises from each time he appears.

“Things aren’t making any sense…” Makoto mumbled.

Kyoko nodded In agreement. “There must be some kind of clue at the spa…”

She was certain she picked up something strange about his demeanor just now, but decided against saying anything until she was sure.

“Let us go investigate then, shall we?” Celeste smiled lightly.

She also did not await a response, she grabbed Kyoko’s arm and started heading off In the direction of the spa. The other followed.

The group arrived at the spa, looking at it skeptically. Two tones of tranquility. The building was half black and half white, with Monokuma’s face painted on the big wooden double doors.

Something unusual some of them took note of, this spa didn’t seem to have a lot of windows for natural sunlight. In fact, Kyoko counted a total of two small windows at the very top of the building.

“I’m not getting a good feeling about this building…” Sakura said quietly.

Of course Mondo used this opportunity to harass Sakura, why wouldn’t he? “Hey, that’s a’ight. Ya don’t have to go In with us, I know how you girls can be.”

Not only did that provoke the ire of Sakura, but also Akane, Sonia, Hina, Sayaka and even Kazuichi, fucking simp.

“HEY! What are you tryin’ to fuckin’ say?!” Akane snapped, whipping around to glare at the biker.

Kyoko and Celeste knew what he was trying to do so they brushed off the comment.

“I’m just sayin’, you guys can be scared pretty easily.” He was really only trying to fuck with Sakura so he was going into damage control mode now.

“I’ll have you know, Miss Sonia Is the scariest person I know! Nothing scares her!” Kazuichi retorted, causing Sonia’s anger to slip for a moment to giggle in amusement.

Nekomaru sidled up to Mondo for his protection, knowing that gleam in Akane’s eye. “Behave.” He pointed at the gymnast, whose eyes were glimmering with mischief and anger.

Sakura approached Mondo, narrowing her eyes. “Scared? Scared? Nothing scares me. I think you’re the one who should be scared.”

“Me? What the fuck for?” The Biker scoffed.

“Because you just pissed off more people than you can handle.” Ah. So Sakura did pick up on his trick… shit.

“Picking on girls… Not cool, Mondo.” Nagito said In the background with a disappointed expression.

“Will you fuckin’ stay out of this?!” He snapped before turning his attention back to the white haired girl. “I’m not scared!”

“If you’re not scared, maybe you should be the first person to go in.” Kyoko hummed, opening the door and peaking In.

Ah, He did piss off Kyoko too… shit.

Mondo sighed, resigning himself to his fate instead of arguing. “Fine.”

He walked through the double doors and glanced around curiously. “It just looks like a fuckin’ spa to me.”

Sakura was the next to step inside and look around, albeit pretty dimly lit, it did resemble a normal spa. “He’s right. It doesn’t appear to be dangerous upon first glance.”

The others took that as their cue to go Inside. Akane clung onto Nekomaru’s arm and remained by his side as they went in. She hated the dark, and while It wasn’t totally pitch black, it was dark enough to make her nervous.

The Ultimate team manager smirked lightly at the fiery woman and drew her closer by wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” He whispered to her.

Normally, she would have argued with that statement. Insisting she didn’t need protecting. But this time she was comforted by those words.

Kazuichi was also nervous, but upon seeing Akane get closer to Nekomaru, he tried to use this as a chance to cuddle up to Sonia. “Have I ever mentioned I hate dark new places?” He chuckled nervously.

Sonia looked up at him. “It will be okay, Kazuichi…” She reassured him with a gentle smile.

Before he could say anything else, Gundham was at his side. “It’s alright, Mortal. I shall shield you from the demons, they rather like me.”

“Uh, No man It’s okay I--”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to fear my poison.”

Gundham reached down and grabbed the pinkette’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

Kazuichi’s face turned nearly the same shade as his hair from being flustered.

“You know…” The taller boy leaned in closer to whisper to him. “If you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked… I would have indulged you.”

Kazuichi’s face got even redder (If that was possible) as his low deep voice reached his ear.

Sonia giggled as she watched her boys.

After doing a quick sweep of the place, they decided It was just a normal spa. There weren’t any deadly traps or anything. Now It was time to investigate and search for clues…

“We should split up Into teams to cover more areas thoroughly.” Kyoko decided, twirling around to face the group.

“I agree, It makes more sense to do It that way.” Makoto nodded, stepping towards her.

She held up her hand, smiling coyly at him. “I’m glad you agree, because you’re going with Hiro and Leon.”

“W-What? Really?”

“Is there a problem with that?” She asked, feigning surprise.

Makoto glanced back at the two aforementioned people before resigning himself to his fate. “No… Of course not. I just thought… Y’know… I’d go with you.”

“That would hardly be productive.” She replied. “Besides, Hiro and Leon need someone to keep them focused, and I thought you would fit the role.”

That vaguely resembled a compliment, and like all other times, He’ll take It. “Alright.” He conceded, heading over to his two friends to talk.

Kyoko turned to Kazuichi, Sonia and Gundham. “Will you three be okay going together?”

Sonia nodded, her eyes glimmering with happiness. “Yes, I am quite observant!”

“It wasn’t you I was worried about.” Kyoko whispered to her, glancing back at Kazuichi and Gundham. The former trying to explain he wasn’t scared anymore and the latter insisting he didn’t mind staying by his side.

Sonia giggled. “I will keep them on track.” She replied quietly with a smile.

The Detective stepped back, looking around the group of friends. “Okay, Here’s how It will go. Team one Is Makoto, Leon, and Hiro. You will be searching this room, The entry room.”

They nodded.

“Team two Is Sonia, Gundham and Kazuichi. You three should check the nail station.” She said before casting her gaze onto Mondo. “Mondo, Taka, and Chihiro are team three. You have the Hot spring and adjoining Sauna.”

“S-Sauna?” Taka’s face flushed, recalling the last time they were In a sauna.

“Aye aye, captain.” Mondo did a mock salute.

“Chihiro?”

“Yes?”

“I’m leaving you In charge of the team, keep them on track.”

Chihiro’s face lit up for a moment before realizing the enormous task they had been given. Leon chuckled at the look of horror now on their face.

“It’ll be okay, Chi.” Leon reassured, patting their shoulder. “You got this.”

“Team four Is Sakura, Hina and Aka…” Kyoko paused, taking note of how uncomfortable Akane appeared.

Nekomaru followed Kyoko’s gaze to the nervous brunette glued to his side. “It might not be a great idea to separate us.”

“It’s okay!” Hina said, practically bouncing excitedly. “Sakura and I can do It ourselves! Right Sakura?”

“Of course.”

Kyoko nodded. “Alright, Then you two will be investigating the Hair salon also on the first floor.”

“Easy peasy! We got this!” Hina grinned.

“Lemme guess, Hiko, Nagito and I?” Hajime hummed, casually leaning against the wall.

“Yes, you guys plus Nekomaru and Akane.” She nodded. “You have the massage suites on the second floor.”

Hajime gave a curt nod in response.

“That leaves Celeste, Sayaka and myself. We will search the main office and the master suite on the third floor. Questions?”

“Are you sure you don’t want one of us three to go with Sakura and Hina?” Makoto asked.

“I’m sure. I can’t shake the feeling there may be something important hidden in this room, so the more eyes In here the better.” Kyoko responded coolly.

“Besides, The hair salon isn’t that big, we can easily cover it.” Hina added.

“What If there is something dangerous here? Shouldn’t someone strong go with you three too?” Kazuichi asked, regarding Kyoko almost timidly. “Y’know… for protection?”

Kyoko smiled softly, closing her eyes. “We’ll be fine, but thank you for your concern.”

“Trust me, Celeste will destroy anything that even blinks wrong at any of them.” Makoto whispered, smiling sheepishly.

“Any other questions?” Kyoko scanned the room but after no response she gave a nod. “Alright then. Let’s get started.”

The teams each headed off to their designated areas to begin their search. In Leon, Hiro and Makoto’s case they remained in the room, but split up to cover different corners of the room.

“What are we even looking for?” Hiro asked curiously, looking behind a plant.

“Anything that doesn’t belong in a spa.” Leon answered, inspecting every product on the glass shelf next to the desk.

Makoto disappeared behind the front desk, opting to check underneath it first. “Look for anything suspicious. Anything that might have some information on it.”

“If you’re not sure If It might be useful, just put It in this bin.” Leon pushed a woven basket over to the middle of the room. “We’ll all three look over the evidence when we’re done.”

“That goes for any of us.” Makoto reaffirmed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all, at least Leon had the right idea.

His blue eyes narrowed on a bottle of glitter Cherry blossom perfume. “Hey, I found something out of place.”

“Already?? How?” Makoto went to stand up but banged his head on the desk, causing Hiro and Leon to laugh. He hurried over flustered to Leon, rubbing the top of his head and muttering under his breath.

“What’d you find?” He asked quietly, his face still pink.

Leon grinned before turning back to the shelf and picking the bottle up. “Perfume.” He said as he turned back towards Makoto.

“How Is that out of the ordinary?” Hiro asked, approaching the two.

“There’s nothing on that shelf except lotion and hair products.” Leon explained as Makoto took the bottle.

Huh? That can’t be…

“Something wrong, Makoto?” Leon asked, noting how quickly his face turned white.

“I-It’s weird… My little sister uses the same kind of perfume.” The lucky student frowned. His sister… Right… He almost forgot how much he missed her…

What if…?

“So does almost every other school girl In japan.” It wasn’t a very good attempt, but Leon seemed to see where Makoto’s mind was headed and had attempted to lessen his anxiety.

“Y-Yeah… you’re right…” Makoto tried to feign a smile, but got choked up when he looked back at the bottle.

Leon wasn’t sure what to do to help him, he sure as fuck wasn’t gonna open up and tell Makoto he understands how he feels as he has his own little sister figure he’s worried about too.

He decided on draping his arm across Makoto’s shoulders and pulling him into a half hug. “It’ll be okay man, just relax… You’ll see her again.”

Makoto awkwardly fumbled with the bottle before setting It back down and turning the half hug into a full on hug. “I hope so…” he said quietly. “Th-Thanks.”

There was silence between the two for a bit, but eventually Hiro broke that silence by ringing the bell at the desk, startling the two. “I hate to ruin the moment, but uh… you guys have just been hugging quietly for like two minutes…”

The two immediately pulled away from each other, blushing profusely. “R-Right! Sorry Hiro.” Makoto smiled apologetically.

“Y-Yeah man, my bad…” Leon coughed, quickly turning back around to the glass shelf.

Hiro rolled his eyes and smiled at them. Can they be any more obvious?

Makoto’s gaze honed in on something moving behind the desk, his eyes widened as he felt his blood run cold.

“What? What’s the matter?” Hiro asked.

Leon twirled around to see what was going on just In time to see what Makoto was seeing. “What the fuck…?”

---

Meanwhile In the Nail station area, Gundham, Kazuichi and Sonia weren’t turning up any leads so far.

“I do not understand… I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary here.” Sonia pouted, putting down the stack of magazines dejectedly.

“Hey It’s okay Princess!” Kazuichi paused his search of the cabinet to walk over to Sonia, gently putting his hand on her shoulder. “I know we’ll find something, you just gotta keep your chin up!”

Sonia looked up at the ceiling. “My chin Is up, but there is nothing on the ceiling…”

Oh my god…

Why Is this woman so pure?

Kazuichi grinned and followed her gaze to the ceiling. “I mean… It’s just an expression… But I do see something.”

She narrowed her eyes to scrutinize the details of the ceiling more closely. “Really? What do you see?”

Kazuichi looked back at her, his fingers fluttering against her throat lightly. “An opportunity.” he chuckled.

Sonia squealed and began giggling as she tried to duck away from him. “Kazihihihi!” she tried bringing her shoulders up to protect her neck but he just darted his fingers to her sides instead.

“Yes, Miss Sonia? What’s wrong?” he asked teasingly, lightly skittering his nails along her sides.

She began to laugh and back up, blushing at the teasing. “Ihihihihit tihihihickles!”

“Good! It’s supposed to.” Kazuichi laughed along with her.

“Stahahahohop!” She squealed as he began tickling her belly.

“Hmm… Nah, not until you cheer up!”

Her back hit the wall and she knocked a few magazines off the shelf with her squirming. “Kyahahahaha! Gundham help!” she laughed.

Gundham whipped around in alarm, he had up until this point been tuning out all the noise in the room to concentrate. At first he thought she was in danger, having hadn’t heard her peals of laughter but immediately let out a sigh of relief upon seeing neither of his two partners were in danger.

“Kazuichi… Let her go.” He warned with a low tone, a playful ring to his voice.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Dracula.” He shot back challengingly.

Gundham chuckled darkly, but made no advancements towards the two. “Fine then. Devas of destruction!”

“Waitwaitwait!” Kazuichi backed off instantly. But It was too late.

“Attack the Pink menace!” He ordered the little furballs as they appeared out of his scarf, and they went charging towards Kazuichi.

They climbed onto him and began nuzzling his neck, ears, and cheek. He shrieked and stumbled back onto one of the chairs laughing. “Nohohoho! Gundhahahahaham! Call them ohohohoff! I stohohohopped!” He laughed, careful not to hurt the hamsters with his squirming.

“Yes, You did. But far too late. Now you will suffer for your crimes against the dark queen! Fuahahaha!”

Sonia recovered from her laughing fit and brushed herself off, straightening her bow. When she bent down to pick up the stack of magazines she knocked over, she noticed an irregularity amongst the articles.

“Boys?” she called, rising back to her full height.

Gundham approached the blonde, but made no efforts to call his Devas off. “Did you find something?”

“I… I think so.” She furrowed her brow In concentration as she looked between each booklet carefully. “These magazines are all Home or food related… But this one Is a fashion magazine. And It Is the only one.”

The taller student leaned in closer to examine the cover. “Who Is that fiend on the front page?”

“Her name Is Junko Enoshima, she Is a very popular model.”

Suddenly they heard screams come from the entry room, startling them. Without thinking, Sonia went running into the room with Gundham and Kazuichi yelling in protest after her.

Sonia froze up, her eyes widening in horror at the sight in front of her.

“Get down!” Kazuichi yelled.

Gundham gathered her quickly In his arms and threw both of them out of the potential line of fire, Kazuichi following quickly behind.

There was a big gun of some sort on the front desk, It was slowly moving about the room seemingly looking for a target.

“How did a gun get there??” Kazuichi asked once the shock wore off, the three of them were now behind a sofa with Makoto and Leon.

“Makoto?? Is everything okay In there??” Hina called from the Hair salon.

“Y-Yeah! Whatever you do, do NOT come In here!” Makoto quickly replied.

“We don’t know how It got there,” Hiro said from his spot on the floor right up against the desk. “We turned around and there It was!”

Leon scanned around the floor looking for something to throw at the gun to distract It long enough for someone to run over and disable It, but he found something else instead.

“Yo, Gundham! Can you kick that tile on the wall?”

Gundham followed his eyes to a discolored tile near him, he nodded and kicked It with as much strength as he could, shattering the ceramic tile. Behind It was some kind of panic button that read; ‘In case of emergency.’

Sonia reached down and hit the button.

They expected sirens to blare, but instead they got something equally as obnoxious.

“You called?”

Makoto yelped in surprise, whipping his head to look at the formerly empty spot beside him. It was now occupied by Monokuma.

“Y-Yeah! Why the hell Is there a gun In here?!” Kazuichi asked, still shaken up.

“Seriously? That’s what you called me here for? You’re all a bunch of babies.” Monokuma hopped up and walked out from behind the couch, looking up at the gun. “It doesn’t shoot actual bullets.”

They all collectively let out a sigh of relief and stood back up, though some more hesitantly than others. (*cough* Makoto *cough*)

“It’s just part of the security system, one of you geniuses must have rung the bell.”

Makoto and Leon both narrowed their eyes at Hiro, who casually began to whistle and look away.

“If I were you, I’d be careful with what buttons you hit…” Monokuma said ominously. “You might activate something you’ll really regret~”

“W-What do you mean, something we’ll regret?”

“Now now, I can’t give away all my tricks! That wouldn’t be any fun!”

Makoto looked down at the now crumbled magazine In Sonia’s hands, taking note of the picture on the cover. “Is that Junko Enoshima?”

“Oh, Makoto? Do you notice anything… off about that picture?” Monokuma asked with amusement in his voice.

Makoto took the article from Sonia and looked carefully at the cover.

“Hey, I thought you said you weren’t gonna give away all your tricks?” Hiro spoke up.

“Oops! That’s right! How silly of me.” Monokuma responded. “Well, I better be going!”

Once the bear was out of sight, the students went over to Makoto as he analyzed the image.

Shit. Monokuma was right, something Is off about the picture…

“Wait a minute… Guys, look at the background.”

“Is that… The school?” Leon asked, surprised.

Makoto nodded slowly, now hyper analyzing every detail. She Is legitimately In the school, this isn’t just some old picture copied and pasted over a photo of the commons area.

Something else to take note of, she didn’t look very happy. She was smiling, but her eyes weren’t selling it. And… Are those Monokuma hair pins!?

Junko Enoshima… What part does she play In all of this? Could she be the mastermind behind all of this? Why else would she randomly turn up at the school?

Unless…