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Hello there! It's nice to meet you!" I smiled warmly, greeting the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

Toko stared at me, not saying a word as I patiently stood in front of her, waiting for a response. She raised her hands to her chest and timidly replied, "I-I'm T-Toko Fukawa. N-not that it matters, a-anyway..."

I tilted my head, a confused expression on my face. Although I acted according to the impressions I wanted to give, I was still completely genuine with everything that I did and said. "Huh? Well, I was still gonna ask for your name even if you didn't introduce yourself first, since I think it matters! I mean, you're really pretty and stuff, so I wanted to be your friend...If that's okay?" I trailed off at the end, giving her a hopeful smile. Hearing this, Toko's brows furrowed.

"P-pretty...? Friend?" She muttered in confusion before her eyes widened and she flinched.

"B-bright...T-too bright!" She muttered under her breath. "Huh...?" I questioned, growing confused by her responses.

Toko grit her teeth and held up her arms in defense, seeming as if she was trying to shield herself from me. Her timid demeanor suddenly shifted as she gave me a hard glare, taking me aback. "G-get away from me! I-I bet you're o-one of th-those people who acts a-all nice, but then when you e-earn their trust, y-you bully a-and harass them!"

My jaw dropped at her sudden accusation, in disbelief that she came to that conclusion just after meeting me. Not that I could blame her, given that she's probably been really hurt in the past to be so guarded like this...

I clasped my hands together nervously, a look of shock on my face as I attempted to defuse the hostility from Toko. "W-wait! No, that's not my intention! But...I guess if you want me to go, I can." With that, I gave her an awkward wave and walked away, a mental note to talk to her later.

"Whew, man, is my anxiety going through da ringer..." I muttered to myself in exhaustion as I fluffed up my hair. I scanned the rest of the main hall, wondering who I should introduce myself to next.

'Alright, uhhhh...OH, TAKA! TAKATAKATAKATAKA!!'

My eyes latched on to the Ultimate Moral Compass and immediately, I felt my heart began to pound in excitement. I forced down a giant grin and instead opted for a more tame, polite smile.

Practically skipping up to him, I gave him a wave as I introduced myself.

"Hello! I'm Noyona, it's nice to meet you!"

Taka returned my greeting with an aggressively polite bow, his brows furrowing deeply on his forehead as he responded.

"I'm Kiyotaka Ishimaru! However, you may call me Taka! It is my pleasure to meet your acquaintance as well!" He held his arms to his sides and kept a straight posture, which would've intimidated me, had I not already expected this of him.

I gave him a bright smile and chuckled, "Yup! How're you doing? I mean, despite the fact that we're all really confused right now?"

"While I would answer you, this is not the time for small talk! This time is strictly for introductions!" Taka replied sternly, crossing his arms. I felt a little disheartened by his blunt response, but nodded in understanding and bid him farewell with wave before moving on to the next person.

The blue-haired pop idol gave me a sweet smile as she rested her arms in front of her body. "Hi! I'm Sayaka Maizono, I look forward to getting to know you!"

'Oh, man,' I thought in, well, slight apprehension. LISTENNNNN, I DON'T HATE SAYAKA OR ANYTHING, and I know she was pretty much in extreme desperation, but still...It would never ever sit right with me how she planned to do my boy Makoto dirty like that. Something about her always did seem fake to me during my first gameplay, and I felt that she was someone I didn't wanna be too close with.

Despite my hostile thoughts, I gave her a small smile and nodded politely. "It's, um, nice to meet you as well, Sayaka."

Just after saying this, Sayaka paused and gave me a blank stare, making me feel intimidated, given that she has extremely good intuition. But before I could really think about her sudden shift in expressions, her friendly smile returned to her face as she spoke, "I'll do my best to earn your trust! I'd really like to be friends with you!"

'As expected, she saw right through me. Oh well, I don't really think I'll get the chance to, anyways.' "Oh, er, yeah! That sounds nice! Well, I better go talk to everyone else," I said with an unsure smile, opting to give her a small nod as she replied with understanding before I walked away.

'So then...' I looked over at the others and went with Leon, approaching him as he stood near Hifumi.

"Yo! The name's Leon Kuwata!" "Hey! I'm Noyona Ningyo, nice to meet you!"

What proceeded from there was just a repeat of his introduction to Makoto, nothing different to note. Same situation as I met Hifumi, Kyoko, Chihiro, and Junko, we merely exchanged greetings. It's not that I didn't want to have more of an interaction with them, I truly was excited to see them all! But, I guess there's not exactly much to say when we're going off of a small self-introduction, plus I didn't want to keep everyone waiting since they were all waiting on me to finish up talking.

'Okay, last person is Hina!' I mentally cheered, relieved that right after this last introduction would be the start of the storyline. Even if I knew that once it started, it'd go downhill from the moment we meet Monokuma.

Going up to the Ultimate Swimming Pro, I gave her a wave and a bright smile, already feeling a sense of energy from the girl. "Hello! It's nice to meet you!" I greeted happily.

Aoi's eyes widened in realization. "Oh! You're the girl from earlier! Glad to see you've cheered up!" she beamed in relief, making my heart grow warmer at her worry. "Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better now, lol." Aoi looked confused for a moment before she shook it off, and I froze for a moment as I realized why. 'I SHOULD PROBABLY STOP SAYING 2020 SLANGS LMAO,' I mentally snorted, trying to keep myself in check.

"Anyways, as I said, it's nice to meet youuu...?" "Oh, I'm Aoi Asahina! But you can call me Hina!" She said carefreely, resting her hands on her hips.

'...Women, am I right, ya'll?' I mentally sighed in Sapphics. "Bluh! You're so pretty!" I blurted. Hina flushed, but before she could say anything-

"Okay, time to get down to business," Byakuya spoke up just after I finished speaking, making us turn to him. He crossed his arms, "This is no time to stand around making friends like a bunch of dull-eyed baboons."

"Oh, that's true," Makoto said, a few ways away from me as he stood near Byakuya. Although I was about to walk over to his side, I hesitated after seeing Byakuya and instead stood in place, nervous to make a move despite Makoto being my friend. 'Bro, I am NAWT about to go over there and then get mf stares. Hell naw...'

Thankfully, Makoto spotted me from the sidelines and waved me over, sparing me the embarrassment from going over by myself. Right after I reached his side, Makoto proceeded to say, "I think I heard someone said something about a bigger problem or something? What was that about?"

"Well, you see..." Sayaka said, walking up to us. "Noyona, you said a bunch of stuff happened and then you were 'just asleep,' right? Well, the same is true for all of us."

Makoto jumped in surprise, his eyes widening in shock. "What? Seriously?!" He exclaimed as I hummed, "Damn, wild."

Leon sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Just after each of us got to the main hall, we lost consciousness. And when we came to, we were somewhere here in the school! That's what happened to you guys, right?" "Yeah, pretty much. Crazy how that happened to everyone here..." I replied, crossing my arms and rubbing the thin sleeves on my arms.

"B-but that's just...weird! That every one of us would get knocked out like that..." Makoto trailed off, wondering how I could be so calm despite hearing all of this bewildering news.

"Exactly! That's why we're all freakin' out!" Mondo yelled, a frustrated look on his face. His sudden interruption caused Makoto to jump in surprise again, not expecting Mondo's loud interjection. "And that's not the only thing, you saw where all the windows in the classes and hallways were, right?" Taka joined in, holding a hand to his chin in thought. "But instead of normal glass windows, it was a bunch of big metal plates! What's that about!?"

"Plus, all my stuff's gone missing! Even my cellphone..." "Junko" sighed in irritation. "Yeah, you're right. I haven't seen my PDA anywhere, either..." Chihiro added nervously. "And then there's the main hall here. The front exit is completely blocked by some giant metal hatch...But there wasn't anything like that when I first got here!" Taka exclaimed before throwing up a fist. "What the heck!? What's it doing there!?"

"Maybe we got caught up in some kinda, like, you know...crime or something?" "Junko" muttered, a look of disbelief on her face. "What, like...a kidnapping? You think maybe someone grabbed us and hauled us off and we're not actually at school?" Leon questioned, a similar look on his face.

"Come on, don't think like that. Cheer up!" Hiro said dismissively. "I bet this is all just part of the school's orientation procedure." He grinned and nodded to himself, "Yeah, I'm sure that's it! So I'm just gonna take it easy for a bit."

"Oh, so you think they wanted to do something to surprise us?" Chihiro smiled in relief.

At his words, I had to hold back a snort. 'Oh yeah, a BIG surprise...Oh man, oh man! IT'S COMING UP YA'LL YYYAAAA!!- I KNOW I SHOULDN'T BE EXCITED BUT-'

"Huh. Well if that's all it is, it's nap time for me," Leon shrugged before a sheepish grin spread on his face. "I was up way too late last night so I could use a little shuteye."

Before anyone could get another word in, a sudden noise caused all of us to remain silent.

Ding dong, bing bong!

I bit my lip as I struggled to smother a smile threatening to appear on my face, my heart racing as excitement flooded my body. 'IT'S TIME!!! AAAAAA MONOKUMA BROOOOOO!!!'

A faint static noise brought our attention over to the monitor hanging on the wall, the screen giving off a faint green glow as static appeared on the monitor. It wasn't long before a black shape was slowly being made out in front of the static before forming into a circle with two smaller circles on top of it. A slightly high-pitched male voice cleared it's throat, the audio being heard from the speakers on the monitor.

"Ahem, ahem! Testing, testing! Mic check one, two! This is a test of the school broadcast system!" 'FOAMING AT THE MOUTH RN, HHHHHH-' "Am I on? Can everyone hear me? Okay, well then! Uhh, to all incoming students! I would like to begin the entrance ceremony at...ah- right now! Please make your way to the gymnasium at your earliest convenience."

My breathing was starting to waver, growing heavy with anticipation as my eyes were glued to the screen, ears honing in on any sound I could receive from the speakers.

"...That's all, I'll be waiting~!"

The voice playfully sing-songed before the screen cut out, leaving most of my peers confused and bewildered at the unexpected announcement.

"What. The. Hell was that just now?" "Junko" said in complete disbelief, sweating nervously.

"Well then, if you'll excuse me," Byakuya said before turning his back on us and leaving the main hall, presumably to go to the gym. As much as I wanted to follow, I still wanted to stay by Makoto's side. One, because I felt safer that way, and two, to protect him.

Protect him? You might ask. Why would you need to protect him if you know he's going to be okay?

Well, duh! I know that! But have you guys not seen how much my poor boy gets picked on because of his timid push-over nature? Hell nah, that is NOT happening on my watch! Bruh, I'm tired of seeing this mufucka get walked all over, I'm gonna be at his side to kick some ass!

Stuck in my thoughts, I didn't hear everyone else's bickering until Makoto and I and a couple of others were the only ones left in the main hall. I finally snapped out when I realized Toko had left the area, and turning to Makoto, I found him stuck in place, unable to fully process what just happened. Reaching out my hand, I gently tugged at his arm, drawing his attention to me. I gave him a small, unsure smile and motioned my head over to the exit. "Makoto, let's go with the others, yeah?"

And just as he was about to turn and follow me- "W-wait, this...this doesn't seem right." Sayaka said, appearing nervous and slightly frightened. 'Bruh, just let us leave shawty,' I internally deadpanned, holding back a sigh as Makoto paused in his tracks after hearing Sayaka's concerns.

"Yeah, that announcement was totally weird," "Junko" agreed.

"Maybe, but just staying put doesn't mean we'll be safe," Kyoko said. 'I AGREE MISS THANG!' "Besides, aren't you guys a little bit curious to find out what's going on around here?" Kyoko crossed her arms as she spoke, not a hint of nervousness or fear in her tone or face.

"If we do not move forward, we learn nothing. The only choice is to push ahead," Sakura said wisely, ending the conversation.

"They said to go to the gym, right?" Makoto asked, turning to me. I nodded before softly grasping his arm in my hand again. "Let's go, then," I said, smiling as he nodded, and we proceeded to exit the main hall and stepped out into the green-lit hallway once again, the others following our lead and flooding out of the room. "Where is...?" Makoto muttered, turning to scan the hallway before I tugged at his arm and pointed down the hallway to our left, where the others were already walking down. "This way," was all I said before leading him down, passing the blocked off nurses office.

"Hey, Noyona?" Makoto said. I hummed in response, curious to know what he would say.

"I'm not...Well, I have a bad feeling about all of this. It's really strange, don't you think?" He questioned me as we turned the corner. I paused but kept walking, nodding in response as we stopped in front of the gym doors.

"Yeah, I can't put my finger on it, but that announcement and the main hall having a scary-looking metal gate in the entrance...That can't be anything good," I said, seeming genuine in my reply.

Makoto thought about this before nodding and proceeding to push open the doors, allowing us in. Mondo, Sakura, Kyoko, Sayaka, and Mukuro were standing in front of the actual entrance to the gym, gathering in front of the trophy display.

"God, I had no idea this Hope's Peak Academy place was gonna be such a pain in my balls," Mondo grumbled. "It really ain't much different from the time I spent in juvie. Hell, this place is even worse!" 'How's juvie like, bro? A homie gotta know,' I thought, but refrained from asking.

"And why isn't there anyone here? Walking through the halls, I didn't see a single person..." Sayaka said worriedly. "Isn't that, like, seriously not good?" "Junko" said, sweating nervously.

"Th-they're just trying to spook us! They'll take those metal plates down later, I'm sure of it..." Taka said, although it sounded more as if he was trying to reassure himself rather than the others.

"All we can do now is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Sakura added sagely. She says some pretty cool things! It kinda helps to calm me, despite knowing that she's, well...you know. It's not like it's her fault though.

"Well hell, it ain't like I'm scared or nothin'. Let's just get this over with!" Mondo exclaimed before he threw a fist up, a furious expression on his face. "HEY! WHERE'S WHOEVER THE HELL CALLED US HERE!?" He then proceeded to sprint into the gym, a frustrated Taka scolding him and going after him for running.

"I, too, shall go." Sakura said before following after them. "W-wait! Don't leave me here all alone!" Hifumi squealed in fright before running after her.

The rest of us watched as they left, however I wanted to hurry and get inside already as well.

"Makoto," I said, bringing his attention to me again. I nodded at him with a calm face and motioned to the door, "Let's go. I really wanna see what's waiting for us in there."

He nodded at me, agreeing with a serious expression. "I am too. Alright, then we should go." And with that, he opened the doors for me and led me inside, where we were greeted by the rest of our classmates standing around, a setup of chairs and a podium on the stage in front of it, a small microphone seated on the stand.

"Oh. It really does look like an entrance ceremony..." Makoto commented, leading us between the students until we were a few feet away from the rows of chairs. Looking around the gymnasium, I stared at red banners with the school's logo hanging from the walls, still in slight awe at how real everything was now.

"Yeah, it does huh?" I breathed out, not sure on what to say, but still wanting to comment regardless. "See? Told ya! It's totally normal entrance ceremony stuff." Hiro said, walking up to us after overhearing Makoto's comment.

And once again, before anyone could comment any further, the same mischievous voice from earlier appeared, although sounding much more clear now that they weren't speaking through a monitor.

"Hey there! Howdy, hello! Is everyone here? Good! Then let's get things rolling!"

'HEREEEE WE FUCKIN' GOOOOOO!!' My eyes widened, fully concentrated on the podium where the voice came from. Along with the other students, everyone turned to see what would happen, to find out who put us in this situation. And from behind that very podium, popped out Monokuma in all his monochrome glory!

He plopped onto the podium, a glass of water and a mic awaiting him. I shivered in either fear or excitement, I wasn't sure, as his beady black eye and his red, sinister-looking eye practically glared at me, the wicked grin on his black side hinted at the despair that would await me. But of course, only Sakura and I knew that, right? Or did Sakura become a traitor later on? Gah, I literally forgot! Hey man, I can't remember each and every detail and even from the game!

From my peripheral view, a few students became wide-eyed and gaped at the unexpected reveal. "Huh? A...teddy bear?" I heard Chihiro mutter in confusion. Monokuma huffed, "I'm not a teddy bear!" If his grin wasn't permanent, I'm sure his face would've morphed from an annoyed from to a smirk. "I...am Monokuma! And I am this school's headmaster!"

The gym went silent, everyone's bewildered eyes solely on Monokuma. Of course, I was more ready to pounce and hug the shit out of that damn murderbear- 'DUDE, HE LOOKS KINDA...SOFT?' -but I refrained. I didn't wanna break a rule or something, after all! But I mean, is showing affection to the headmaster really against the rules though?

"Nice to meet you all!" Our self-appointed headmaster chirped, not an ounce of worry or malevolence in his voice. It really was almost enough to bring my guard down, but he is the mufucka who's gonna ruin our lives. Well, Junko is controlling him, so I guess it's not really his fault?

"Wh-? WAAAAAAAAH!? THAT TEDDY BEAR CAN TALK!" Hifumi screamed in alarm. "You're kinda late on that," I muttered under my breath, shooting him a raised brow.

"Calm down! I'm sure there's just a speaker inside it," Taka said nervously, taken aback as well. "I told you already, I'm not a teddy bear..." Monokuma said ominously, a threat hinted in his tone. He then threw up his arm, an enraged look on his bear face. "I'm Monokuma! And I'm your headmaster!" He growled in anger, further startling Hifumi and causing the poor guy to yelp again. "WAAAAH! IT MOVED!"

"Seriously man, calm down! It's prolly just a remote control toy or somethin'." Mondo scoffed. Hearing this, Monokuma suddenly deflated, looking rather disheartened by his words. "How dare you compare to a child's plaything! You've cut me deep. Deeper than the Mariana Trench..." Monokuma sighed sadly before springing up again as if nothing happened, holding his paws on his round tummy. "My remote control system is so complex, even the folks at NASA can't recreate or even comprehend it!" And then in the next moment, he threw his paws up once more, his angered look returning, giving us all whiplash at how quickly his mood changed. "Ah, but don't make me say stuff that might destroy NASA's dreams. I just couldn't BEAR that!"

""Bear" that? Really? You are...unfortunate," Celeste commented rather distastefully.

"Now then, moving on! We really must hurry and get started..." Monokuma said, ignoring her.

"Giving up already? No other stupid bear puns?" "Junko" squinted.

"Quiet down now, quiet down. Ah, okay, so...!" Monokuma tried. "He has abandoned the gag..." Sakura said.

"Everyone, stand at attention and bow! And...goooood moorning!" Monokuma chirped. "GOOD MORNING!" Taka repeated back, determined to follow authority.

"Y-you don't have to s-say it back," muttered Toko, although no one was really paying attention to her.

"Now then, let us commence with a most noteworthy and memorable entrance ceremony!" Monokuma continued. "First, let's talk a bit about what your school life here will be like. Now, ah, make no mistake- you few students, so full of potential, represent the hope of the world. And to protect such splendid hope..." Monokuma trailed off before raising a proud paw in the air. "...You will all live a communal life together solely within the confines of this school. Everyone will live in harmony together, and adhere to the rules and regulations of the school." Monokuma said cheerfully, as if his next words wouldn't impact us in the slightest.

"Ah, now then...regarding the end date for this communal life..." He giggled, sending a shiver down my spine. "...There isn't one! In other words, you'll all be here until the day you die! Such is the school life you've been assigned."

Silence. No one spoke for a moment, taking in his words. Toko was the first to speak, trembling as her face was shown clear horror.

"Wh-what did he just say? Until the day we d-die...?"

'Whew, boy. I'm in danger,' was all I thought, my head running wild and my chest tightening as I scrambled to find a way to feel about the beginning of what would be the end to most of these students standing with me right now. Should I feel excited that I had the honor of participating and interacting with characters I had always wanted to form friendships with? Or should I feel scared that now my life was in danger and at total mercy to everyone in the room. I ended up staring at my hands blankly, unable to process what was going on.

"Oh, but fear not! We have quite an abundant budget, so you won't lack for all the common conveniences," Monokuma brushed off our shocked faces with a sheepish grin.

"That's the least of our worries right now!" Sayaka said worriedly. "Yeah, what the hell? You're saying I have to live here forever?" "Junko" exclaimed in shock. "You're screwing with us, right?"

Monokuma growled in anger, "I am not screwing with you! I am no liar, of that you can be 100% sure." He suddenly calmed down, reverting back to his neutral stance. "Ah, and just for your information...You're completely cut off from the outside world. So you don't have to worry about that dirty, dirty land beyond these walls ever again!"

"Cut off...?" I hear Makoto mutter beside me. "So all those metal plates all over the school..." I looked over to see his eye widen in realization, his head shooting up in shock. "They're there to keep us trapped in here?"

Monokuma chuckled, "That's exactly what they're there for. No matter how much you may yell and scream for help...help will not come!" His words sent another chill down my spine, and I still just couldn't find the words to say.

"So with all of that in mind, feel free to live out your life here with reckless abandon!" Monokuma finished cheerfully.

Leon scoffed, "Come on, what the hell is this? I don't care if the school or whoever else is behind it all, this is just a really bad joke."

I watched as the others joined in, incredibly skeptical but concerned about what Monokuma told us. It wasn't until Monokuma finally mentioned the special clause he had for students who wanted to leave. Dread pooled in my stomach, but I also shivered from the faint excitement of finally getting into things. I almost felt a little disgusted at this realization, but I just let it settle since I knew that the excitement wouldn't last long, and soon I'd really get an awakening to how real this was.

"I call it...the Graduation Clause!" He said cheerfully, eager to explain the rule. "As I mentioned, in order to maintain an environment of harmony here, we rely on a communal lifestyle. And if someone were to disrupt that harmony, they and they alone would be allowed to leave the school. That, my students, is the Graduation Clause!"

Byakuya stepped up, a stern look on his face that sent heat to my cheeks. I snapped my head away and shook my head, gripping my cheek. 'STOPPP!! STOP STOP STOP BRUH, IT'S NOT THE TIME TO SIMP!' I internally screamed at myself, starting to grow exasperated at my unbridled affections. Despite this, a wobbly smile threatened to appear on my lips.

"What do you mean by "disrupt the harmony"?" Byakuya firmly asked Monokuma, starting to grow tired of his nonstop chattering. Monokuma covered his muzzle with his paws, chuckling excitedly. "Puhuhu...Well, you know..."

If he could grin any wider, I'm sure he would've, as his tone became teasing, as if he was about to tell us one big hilarious joke. But that was not the case with his next words.

"...If one person were to murder another."

Everyone gaped in disbelief, hoping they heard wrong. "M-murder?!" Makoto exclaimed in horror.

I just stood there, eyes wide and trying to pretend I was just as shocked of the situation as everyone else. To be honest, it wasn't that hard since I genuinely was feeling a state of shock, feeling like this was new to me. It's one thing to play this in a video game, but it's a whole 'nother world to literally be IN the game.

"Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting, how you do it doesn't matter," he listed off nonchalantly, as if it was just some basic everyday chores. "You must kill someone if you want to leave. It's as simple as that."

I stayed silent as I watched the others react in an uproar, exclaiming how ridiculous and wrong the rule was. Monokuma snapped, growing angry at their denials and outbursts as he reminded us that no matter how much we begged to leave this school would be our homes, our worlds, our lives, and if we want to leave then there's no choice but to kill.

Hiro brushed his words off, chuckling as he asked when Monokuma would drop the joke. 'Hiro, you're such a sweet himbo who's CRIMINALLY underrated, but homeslice you literally witness a whole EXPLOSION- or, WILL witness one, and you're still gonna deny it? (insert sobbing emoji here, lmao)' I mentally sighed in exasperation.

It wasn't until Mondo stepped in that I began growing a bit anxious and jelly-legged, eyes trained on him to see what he'd do.

"Listen up, asshole! This shit's gone way too far! What the hell kinda joke IS this?!" Mondo growled, his eye twitching in anger. His deep, angered tone sent shivers down my spine in excitement, my limbs feeling light and boneless as his voice rumbled.

Listen bro, I'm a horny teenage girl just like some of you! Let me thirst goddammit!

Monokuma tilted his head, holding a paw to his muzzle. "Joke? What, you mean like your hair?" "DAMN, you're gonna do my boy like that?" I quietly whisper-screamed under my breath before quickly slapping my hand over my mouth, not meaning to let that slip. Thankfully, no one heard me. Or- well, I think Makoto did, that mufucka looked over at me from the corner of my eye so...Um, Let's just pretend that didn't happen!

"FFFFUUUUUUUU-!" Mondo yelled, looking absolutely enraged now.

I let out a gasp as a sudden BOOM! rang throughout the room, and I watched with wide-eyes as Mondo kicked off the floor and charged at Monokuma, grabbing the bear by the throat and lifting him off the podium. Monokuma flailed his stubby arms, squirming in his strong grip.

"Gotcha, you little piece of shit! I dunno if you're a toy or a stuffed animal or whatever the hell!" Mondo yelled. "Either way, I'm gonna rip ya to fuckin' shreads!" 'DAMMMNNNN, WHEWWW-! NO, BAD! NO HORNY!' I mentally scolded myself, imagining a smaller version of myself getting whacked by a broom for my sins.

"Waah! Violence against the headmaster is violation of school regulations!" Monokuma squealed as he warned him. "Shut the fuck up! Let me outta here, or I swear to christ!" Mondo demanded. Just after he said that, Monokuma suddenly went limp in his grip, a blank expression on the bears face as a threatening sequence of loud beeps came from his body.

"What, no smartass comeback this time?!" Mondo grinned threateningly, leering down at the bear. Monokuma didn't respond or even move, instead the beeping began to speed up, sending my heart thumping in my chest from anxiety. "Stop that goddamn beeping and SAY SOMETHING!" "MONDO! THROW THE FUCKIN'- THING!" I forced out, yelling in a panic and unknowingly interrupting Kyoko, who was just about to speak up as well.

"Hah!?" Mondo turned his head towards me for a moment before seeing the panic clear as day on my face and immediately complied with my command. He chucked Monokuma up into the air as far as he could, and as soon as Monokuma was a good few feet away he exploded in a flashbang, sending gunpowder to our nostrils and a painful ringing in our ears.

Mondo gaped, "The HELL!? Th-that sure as shit wasn't a joke! It blew the hell up!"

I wrung my hands nervously, mainly relieved that no one was hurt. "Hhhholy shit, maybe, uh, never try that again, Mondo," I said shakily, squeezing my eyes shut as the ringing caused my head to throb.

"Huh? Uh, yeah...S-sorry," Mondo hesitantly apologized, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But you know...this means that the teddy bear's been destroyed, right?" Chihiro meekly pointed out. However, he was quickly proven wrong when a familiar voice came from behind the stage curtain.

"I told you, I'm not a teddy bear! I'm Monokuma!"

The black-and-white robot bear stepped out from behind the curtain, showing himself to us once again.

"Uwah! There's another one...?" Leon gaped in shock. Mondo whipped around at Monokuma's voice and gritted his teeth. "You son of a bitch! You seriously tried to kill me just now!"

"Well, yes. I was serious about trying to kill you," Monokuma told him before his expression turned furious and he rose a paw with his claws out threateningly. "You did violate one of the school regulations, after all. I'll let you off with a warning this time, but you'd better be careful from now on. Any naughty boy or girl who violates my rules won't get off with just a little swat on the butt!"

This made us realize that there were way more Monokumas than we first thought. And something else I realized...'Man, if I didn't have any clue what was going on, I'd personally think, "Someone must've set this up if they've made so many spares. They expected the Monokumas to get destroyed somehow and prepared others." Damn, I don't know if I'm just as bad as Byakuya for thinking this might be kinda fun, but I won't lie, this is a little exciting...' I pursed my lips and looked off to the side in thought whilst Monokuma waved off what just happened, saying that he won't be so forgiving the next time a rule is broken.

"Now then, lastly...To commemorate your joyous entry into our school, I have a little something for you..." Monokuma then whipped out a pile of tablets, which I already knew to be the e-handbooks. "This is our official student handbook! Pretty cool, huh? As you can see, it's fully digital. So naturally, we call it..." The bear paused for dramatic effect as he held up one of the e-handbooks to show us. "The e-Handbook!"

Silence. I felt a slight second-hand embarrassment for Monokuma as no one reacted to his display. 'Yikes...' I cringed, rubbing my arm awkwardly.

"Ahem. Yes, well...moving on. This handbook is absolutely vital to a healthy school life, so don't lose it! When you start it up, it will display your name. Always make sure you have the right one!" He laid the stack of handbooks on the stage for us to grab before vaguely explaining the uses of the e-Handbook as well as it's apparently water-proof and 10-ton resistant features, reminding us one last time with a warning that rule-breaking will not end well for any of us. And with that, he wished us well on our new eternal school life and dipped, ending the ceremony.

There was an unsettling pause after he left, the reality probably settling in with the rest of the students. Besides Hiro, of course.

"So, guys...How would you define what we just experienced?" Taka spoke up, holding a fist to his mouth.

"Absolutely. Bonkers," I said slowly, nodding in-between pauses, feeling...well, I wasn't even sure what to feel at the moment exactly. I just knew that things were about to wild.

...To be continued...