Second Floor Investigation

  The 7am Monokuma alert went off, and I slowly got out of bed. I got dressed, and headed towards Soda's room. I was still worried about him, after watching him break down after Gonta's execution yesterday. I knocked on his door, and after a few moments, Soda slowly opened his door. He looked like he had barely slept all night, and the deaths of Taka and Gonta still clearly affected him.

"Y-Yo, Shuri," Soda stammered. "Hey, I'm not going to the Dining Hall this morning, alright? I just...I need-"

I waved him off. "I get it."

Soda nodded, then looked down. "Hey, tell the others that I'm ok though, will ya?"

"Sure, no problem. Considering everything that happened yesterday, I don't want anyone noticing you're missing, and then thinking that maybe someone killed you."

After determining that Soda would, indeed, be ok, I headed to the Dining Room to meet with the others and eat. Kirumi made me some biscuits and gravy, with scrambled eggs mixed it. As usual, it was incredible, better than even I could make myself. I informed Kirumi and the others that Soda would not be joining them this morning, but that he was fine. Kirumi curtsied, assuming that Soda's request to be left alone this morning was a request, and resumed her maidly duties.

I left the Dining Room and headed straight to Byakuya's room. I needed to speak with him about yesterday, but was not looking forward to the conversation. I eventually reached his room, and rang his doorbell. After about 20 seconds of silence, I rang his doorbell again.

Feeling a presence behind me, I turned around, finding Monokuma standing there. Before I could speak, Monokuma spoke first.

"Looking for someone, are ya? Well, Byakuya's not home right now. He's on the second floor, somewhere."

I cocked my head. "Second floor? You mean-"

Monokuma interrupted me. "Yes, yes, yes, the second floor. Weren't you listening yesterday? When you found the correct Blackened, I rewarded everyone by opening the gate to the second floor at 7am today! Now, quit wasting your time here, and go!" Monokuma then disappeared, seeming into thin air. I shook my head quickly, closing my eyes tightly, then decided that Byakuya was, most likely, on the second floor, as Monokuma said.

After I left Byakuya's door, I overheard Ibuki talking about a "second floor" with Mikan in front of Mikan's room. Mikan, however, seemed scared about the idea. Mikan noticed me coming around the corner, causing her to look my way. Ibuki turned to see what she was looking at, saw me, and promptly ran straight at my direction.

"Good nom-nom-nomming!" Ibuki half-greeted, half-shouted at me. "Do you wanna check out the second floor with Ibuki?"

I nodded, understanding suddenly what Ibuki and Mikan were discussing, and then having a strong feeling as to how the day was gonna end up. "Let me guess, since Mikan won't go up there with you, you're wondering if I'll go with you instead? Am I right?"

Ibuki's eyes grew wide. "Ding ding ding! So, will you-"

I inadvertently cut her off. "I actually have business of my own on the second floor, so I don't mind checking it out with you."

Ibuki jumped up and down several times in excitement. "Really? Yaaa-hoooo!!"

As Mikan turned to leave us, I asked her if I could speak to her later. Mikan said that would be fine, stating she would likely be in her room, or in the laundry room, and then apologized for not joining us in checking out the second floor. After convincing Mikan that it was no big deal, I headed up to the second floor stairs with Ibuki.

The gate that was once blocking the stairs was now lifted, giving access to the second floor stairwell. We both headed up, with Ibuki staying a few steps behind me, peppering me with questions about what might be up here. I chalked it up to her excitability.

When we arrived at the top of the stairs, there was a long hallway in front of us, with nothing but a few large windows on our left. Ibuki ran ahead and looked out of one of the windows, then her eyes seemed to go wide and she quickly waved me over, excitedly. I came over and looked out the window next to her, and immediately confirmed one thing about this place.

These were one-way windows, for sure. Kokichi and Nagito were in the courtyard, talking at the round table directly below us. When I was in the courtyard a few days ago, you couldn't see into the windows, but you could definitely see out of them. Ibuki hollered and pounded the window, but neither one of them even flinched, let alone looked up. These windows must be soundproof, and likely shatterproof as well.

"Awwww", Ibuki sighed, looking down, her oni horns lightly touching the glass. "I wanted to wave and say hi to them! Kokichi is soooo cool, even though he says he lies a lot."

While she lightly pouted, I glanced down the nearest hallway, seeing a "Classroom 2-A" and "Classroom 2-B". I got Ibuki's attention and headed down that hallway, but the classrooms were much like the ones downstairs, to our disappointment.

At the end of the hallway was a T-intersection, with another blocked-off stairway on our left, a Biology room straight in front of us, and another long hallway to our right. Curious, we checked out the Biology room. It had a life-sized human skeleton, and another life-sized human display, with all the muscles showing. The rest of the room didn't seem particularly interesting to me or Ibuki, so we moved on to the next room, the Music room.

Ibuki took one step inside, and looked like a little kid in a candy store. There was a grand piano inside, and musical instruments lining the walls. Guitars, banjos, flutes, drums, saxophones, trumpets, trombones...you name it, it was up there. Another room inside was marked "Jam Room", and Ibuki headed straight for it.

Inside the "Jam Room" was a mini-stage setup, with a drum set, two mic stands, guitar equipment, and even an electronic keyboard. Ibuki stood there, jaw hanging wide open, and I could only imagine what was going through her head.

The walls appeared to be made of the same soundproof material that my bedroom was made of, which it would make sense for this room to be soundproof. The ceiling had your classic stage lighting setup, with various colors and effects connected to a box with various buttons and dials on it. The stage itself was red, with a black drum set sitting in the back, towards the middle. I half-expected a Monokuma face for the stage, but I guess even Monokuma gets sick of looking at himself sometimes.

I left Ibuki to check out the Jam Room, telling her I was looking for Byakuya. She looked at me funny, wondering why I wanted to talk with HIM, of all people, when he surely didn't seem to want to talk to US. I didn't really answer her (partially because I didn't feel she really cared), and exited the Music room.

There wasn't really much of note along this hallway; just more windows into the Courtyard, where Kokichi and Nagito had left, replaced by Hina, Akane, and Keebo. Akane and Hina were sitting on a bench, side by side, while Keebo stood a respectable distance away from them. They were clearly talking amongst themselves, but I couldn't hear anything due to the soundproofed glass, but it seemed friendly.

After watching them for a few moments, I resumed walking down the hall. The first intersection, off to the right, was completely empty, but as I kept walking straight, I noticed a door marked "Library". Figuring Byakuya had to be here, I let myself in.

Inside the library was wall-to-wall books, with a rectangular table seating 10 in the middle. Byakuya was sitting at the center of this table, facing me, reading a book whose cover I couldn't quite see.

"Byakuya, mind if I talk with you for a bit?" I asked, half-politely, half "this isn't a question". Byakuya either didn't hear me, or more likely, ignored me, as he merely turned a page in response.

Figuring that the aggressive approach would get me nowhere, I decided to just glare at him until he realized that I wasn't going away. After several more moments, Byakuya sighed, placed a bookmark into the book he was reading, and finally acknowledged my presence.

"Must you waste my time, Shuri?"

I sighed. "I just got a few things to ask you, then I'll go away."

Byakuya stood up and crossed his arms. "Since when did I become YOURS to interrogate? I do not require your psychiatric services, nor do I have any interest in answering your questions."

I narrowed my eyes in response. "Yet, you will. First off, why did you disappear so quickly after Gonta's execution, and where did you go?"

Byakuya looked straight up at the ceiling, obviously annoyed. "I went back to my dorm, because staying in that room with the rest of you was a waste of my time. What I did after that, is none of your business."

"Fair enough. Also, why don't you ever join us in the morning? Kirumi makes an amazing breakfast, anything you could ask for, and you could get to know the others better."

Byakuya chuckled at me. "I stay to myself because that is in my best interest. I plan on winning this game, not by killing and not getting caught, but by NOT getting killed, and outlasting the others."

I nodded, understanding his logic, though not agreeing with his isolation. However, bringing that up to Byakuya would've gotten me nowhere, quickly.

Deciding to leave on as friendly a note as possible, I asked one final question. "What do you think of Kirumi?"

Byakuya seemed surprised by my question, but quickly caught his composure. An untrained eye may not have even noticed it. "Kirumi is very competent in her tasks, and would be a great asset to the Togami name. I have her bring me breakfast and dinner to my dorm room, and everything I've asked of her, she has done admirably well. Should we both survive, I may see if she wants to work for me."

I nodded. "I fully agree with you there. She does an amazing job, no matter what is asked of her, and she seems to get along with everyone else, too."

Byakuya tapped his closed book a few times. "Now, are you done? And no, I have no interest in discussing what I'm reading with you."

Having no interest in what he was reading anyway, I said I was done with him, and started looking around the library, as he resumed reading at the table. There were books of every topic imaginable, both fiction and non-fiction.

Towards one corner of the room, a black book with gold lettering caught my eye. Moving closer, the title was "Sora no Heya", with Japanese writing underneath it, likely the title again. Wishing my Japanese was better, I tried to pull the book out. After coming about halfway out, however, the book snapped back into place, and the bookshelf slid backwards and to the right, sliding into a crevice with the books facing outwards.

Byakuya shot out of his chair and immediately headed my way. "What did you just do?", he demanded.

"I went to look at this book here," I pointed at the book, "And when I pulled it out, the book pulled itself back into the bookcase and opened this up instead." I pondered for a moment. "By the way, what does 'Sora no Heya' mean in Japanese, anyway?"

Byakuya looked at me funny for a moment, then his eyes softened a bit. "Ah, that's right. Your time in America likely dulled your Japanese. It means 'Empty Room'. Now, let's carefully check this out."

Byakuya carefully placed the book he was reading, which appeared to be a history book of some sort, into the opening, so that if the bookcase tried to close, it would get caught on Byakuya's book. The passageway went straight back roughly 30 steps, then turned right for about 20 steps, then made another right for roughly 5 steps, ending at another bookcase.

Figuring this couldn't be the end, I looked for, and found, another black book with gold writing. This one said "Kagi wa Hondesu".

"The Key is a Book" Byakuya said quietly, presumably translating it for me, before having me pull the book off the case. As with the first book, this book pulled about halfway out, then snapped back into place before swinging to the right, into another recess, with the books facing outward.

Inside was...a completely empty, but long room. The walls, ceiling, and floors were white, and the walls were lightly padded, likely soundproof. There was no furniture, no doors, no windows...nothing. Byakuya and I exchanged confused looks, then silently searched every square inch of this hidden room. However, we found nothing. No secret compartments, nothing under the floor, nothing on the ceiling...nothing. Not even a security camera in sight, which was REALLY odd.

I looked at Byakuya. "Clearly, this room exists for a reason, I'm sure we both know that."

Byakuya smirked. "Yes, your perception is as sharp as ever. How about this; we speak to no one about this room, or even how to get to it. If someone finds out on their own, so be it. Meanwhile, I'll try to keep an eye on this room, and see if anything unusual happens in or around here. If anything does, I'll have Kirumi contact you, requesting you to return to me my spare reading glasses. When that happens, return to the library at once, and we shall meet there. Understood?"

I nodded, but had one question. "We are keeping Kirumi out of the loop, correct?"

Byakuya nodded. "Yes, correct. She would qualify under the 'tell no one about this room'."

I nodded back. "Noted. So the messenger is blind to her own message. Probably safer that way. Alright, I'm gonna finish looking around this floor, so I'll take my leave of you for now."

Byakuya responded, "See that you do."

Ignoring his tone, I checked out the rest of the floor, but saw nothing else of any interest. However, I learned that you can see from the second floor to the courtyard, but couldn't be heard from either side. Also, there was a secret room connecting to the library for...some reason. But what?

If only we had found out sooner...