Chapter Text
“Byakuya was kind of over the top with that body check,” Hajime grumbled as he entered the dining room of the old building.
“Ah, Hajime!” Nagito raised a hand to single himself out in the small crowd. He weaved his way through the other students over to the door where Hajime had entered. “I'm glad you're here. We can finally start the party.”
“You couldn't start without me?”
“Well, we have to wait for all the Ultimates to arrive before anything starts.”
“Teruteru is in the kitchen.” Byakuya's voice floated in from the hallway, quickly followed by the man himself. “Nekomaru has graciously volunteered to guard the duralumin case in the office. Are we missing anyone?” Byakuya straightened his posture and craned his neck to look around the room, mumbling the names of his classmates to himself.
“Good, everyone is here.” He let out a heavy sigh and waved a hand at the two boys standing in front of him. “We can start.” Byakuya stepped away from the crowd to stand by the second duralumin case by the far table, snagging a plate of food as he went.
The party began and numerous conversations filled the room, overlapping in a cacophony of chatter and laughter. The aroma of the various dishes Teruteru had prepared was nothing compared to the taste. It truly was the work of an Ultimate Chef.
Quick, quiet snaps of a camera shutter sounded occasionally as Mahiru made her rounds of the room, collecting pictures of her classmates having fun despite the recent announcement of the killing game.
At one point in the night, Ibuki had presented an electric guitar - previously cleared with Byakuya, of course - and began taking song requests. Eventually, it devolved into karaoke. Nagito had coaxed Hajime into joining him in singing a duet, helping the latter come out of his shell a bit more. Sonia belted out a metal song - much to Ibuki's excitement - and Gundham denied he had been captivated by her, even after Kazuichi had pointed out how red his face was. Mikan somehow managed to tangle herself in the power cord to the speakers, pausing the show and prompting Ibuki to help untangle the poor thing, as well as sparking a long string of insults from Hiyoko for ruining the fun.
Byakuya watched as the festivities carried on, collecting a second helping of food from the nearest table after mowing through the first one. It was delicious, and he loved food, and who was he to let such a grand buffet go to waste?
Of course, the peace couldn't last.
In the lull between songs, as Ibuki was searching for another victim to drag into karaoke, a click echoed through the room, followed by a deep hum that resonated throughout the building. Everyone fell silent at the sudden noise, confused and concerned that Monokuma had crashed the party. They all listened for a moment, for a sign of danger, before–
Click!
The lights had shut off, shrouding the room in darkness. The boarded-up windows gave no chance for moonlight to spill in, so the class was stuck in complete blackness. Shouts of surprise and worry sounded across the room, covering the sound of a case being opened and something being removed.
“Hey, don't step on my feet!”
“Everyone stay calm! We have to stay calm in a situation like this!”
“Who turned out the lights?! I can't eat like this, y’know!”
“Hold on, I'll move along the wall, and- and do something about it!”
“Ow, what the hell?!”
Crash! Shatter!
“Hey, what are you– AH!”
Crash! Smash! Thud!
It felt like an eternity before the lights came back on. Collective groans and shouts of surprise as the students’ eyes adjusted to the lighting filled the room.
“Oh, good,” Mahiru sighed, lowering the hand shielding her eyes. “Kazuichi got the lights. Is everyone okay?” Mahiru stood tall on the tips of her toes, craning her neck to count the number of warm bodies in the room.
“Ten, eleven… We're missing three people.” She ran through the class roster in her head again, saying the names of her classmates as she identified each of them in the room. “Hinata, Komaeda, Hanamura. That's who we're missing. Has anyone seen Hajime, Nagito, or Teruteru?”
“You guys?” As if on cue, Teruteru entered the room, peeking in with a distraught expression. “Did the lights go out in here, too?” He raced over to the rest of the students, but paid more attention to the remaining dishes left intact.
“I'm glad you all enjoyed the food, at least,” he whined. “I was in the middle of making a spectacular dessert when the oven turned off.”
“Alright, we’re missing Hajime and Nagito,” Byakuya chimed in, standing at attention. “Chiaki, check outside. Peko, go find Nekomaru and Kazuichi, tell them to stay in here until we get a headcount on everyone.” Peko gave a firm nod and bolted out of the dining hall.
“I'll go with Chiaki!” Mahiru volunteered and dashed after the shorter girl. Chiaki gave a surprised squeak as the girl caught her arm, but quickly leaned into the touch and gave Mahiru a subtle smile.
The two girls threw the main doors to the old building open and began searching for any sign of their missing classmate.
“They couldn’t have gone far,” Chiaki asserted. “They have to still be around the hotel, I think.”
“Right.” Mahiru nodded firmly, already surveying the open area around the pool. “I’ll check the cottages and you check the restaurant.” Chiaki returned her determined look and shot up the outer staircase to the restaurant. Mahiru took a trembling breath and headed toward the cottages.
Keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of their missing classmates, Mahiru couldn’t help but worry. This party was supposed to get everyone to come together and forget about the terrifying announcement of a killing game being thrust upon them. Monokuma’s irritating stage show the previous night was some kind of motive, surely, insisting that they had lost their memories. That couldn’t be true. Sure, the circumstances were strange before Monokuma had even arrived–not remembering how they got to the island, the sudden collapse of the classroom, and even the fact that their teacher was a stuffed animal–but Mahiru couldn’t imagine that the memories they supposedly lost between arriving at Hope’s Peak and arriving on the island were anything substantial. She’s seen crazier, right?
Mahiru searched the girls’ side of cottages, even peeking through some of the windows to see if they had somehow gotten into one, but saw no sign of her missing classmates. As she did the same for the boys’ side, something caught her eye. A small piece of paper was floating along the surface of the water, growing darker as it began to sink into the depths. Mahiru dropped to her knees at the edge of the docks and shot her hand into the water to grab it, ignoring the sting of splinters on her knees.
Cradling it with both hands, she laid it out on the dock, careful to keep it from tearing. The ink was runny and hard to read, but there was a message written on the fragile paper:
‘The killing game will begin tonight.’
Mahiru’s blood ran cold, and the sudden gust of wind didn’t help the way her body shook at reading the message. She tried to shove down the panic building in her chest. This had to be some trick from Monokuma. He planted this to scare someone into making the first move. She wasn’t going to believe this.
Suddenly a cry rang out from the old building, pulling Mahiru from her thoughts. She gathered the tattered paper and shoved it in her pocket before dashing back to the source of the scream.
“What is it?” Mahiru caught Chiaki’s arm as she ran over to meet her, breathless. “Did you find them?”
Chiaki wasn’t one to show emotion too strongly, but even the subtle tension in her brow was enough to terrify Mahiru. She was standing frozen at the backside of the old building, cradling her hands to her chest.
“Chiaki, what happened?” She asked again. She finally followed where Chiaki’s eyes were stuck on the building’s foundation: there, oozing from the darkness under the building, was blood dripping through the weaved pattern of wood, soaking into the concrete.
Mahiru couldn’t suppress the startled cry that escaped her. She clung to Chiaki’s arm and stared in horror as the blood continued to drip, drip, drip into the grass. It seemed like there was no end to it.
“That’s too much blood,” Chiaki finally choked out. “That’s way too much blood.” Mahiru swallowed hard around the lump building in her throat. She gave Chiaki’s arm a tight squeeze as she tried to compose herself.
“Okay.” Mahiru’s voice shook, but she tried to steady it for Chiaki’s sake. “Okay, you go inside and get, um– get Mikan and Byakuya. I will– I’ll stay here and try to find a way in to help whoever is in there.” Chiaki gave a faint nod and rushed back to the main entrance of the building.
Almost immediately, her eyes caught a hole in the lattice just barely big enough for her to squeeze through. Mumbling a prayer to whatever god was watching over them, Mahiru ducked through the opening into the darkness.
During the night and with the cover of the old building, it was impossible to see if there even was anyone laying trapped on the concrete foundation.
“Hey,” Mahiru called out, balling up her fists to try to keep them from shaking. “Nagito, Hajime, are you guys under here?” She didn’t expect an answer. She prayed there wouldn’t be one, because that would mean no one was under here. No one was bleeding out right underneath the party, alone in the dark. Or it could mean whoever was here was already dead.
“Ngh…” A quiet groan came from somewhere in the room. Mahiru’s stomach churned at hearing it and tears started to fill her eyes.
“Oh, god,” she whimpered, looking around desperately for a silhouette or reflection of light. Something to show her who it was and where they were in the dark. Even the faint light spilling out from between the floorboards above them did nothing to light the area.
“Stay– Stay awake,” Mahiru cried. “Please, keep your eyes open, and– and say something so I can find you!”
“M… Mahiru…?” came a tired response. Something suddenly clicked for her, and she scrambled for her camera sitting around her neck. She wielded that camera enough to be able to feel the power button, even in this darkness. As the tiny screen turned on, she held it to her face and switched the flash on.
Click!
The flash lit up the room, and for a moment, she saw a silhouette, curled up in a pool of blood and shielding their eyes from the harsh light. Despite the sting in her eyes, Mahiru locked her eyes on the silhouette and rushed to their side as the light faded. She collapsed to her knees beside them, ignoring the second instance of harsh scratches to her knees, and felt for them in the dark. She flinched away from the touch of warm blood on freezing concrete, and her hands quickly landed on the person’s face. One of their own hands raised to rest over Mahiru’s where she was cradling their cheek. She gripped it tight, and the panic in her chest was only rising at feeling how cold their hands were. Her free hand felt along their chest to find their neck, trying to feel for a pulse.
“Just hold on,” she reassured them. Their pulse was slow, and Mahiru could barely feel it with the way her hands shook. “Keep your eyes open, okay?”
“What…” They attempted a reply, clearly in a daze, “What happened?”
“I don’t–” A hiccup cut her off. “I don’t know, but you’re going to be okay.”
“Mahiru!” Her grip tightened at hearing Byakuya’s voice.
“Under the building,” she called back. “I can’t– I’m not strong enough to carry them out!” She could barely make out the image of Byakuya, Mikan, and Chiaki standing just outside it with a few others behind them. Her eyes stung from the strain and the tears.
“I can’t fit through the hole,” Byakuya responded. It was muffled, like he was speaking to someone outside. There was a pause before a short argument of him electing someone and shoving them through the hole. Soon, hurried footsteps beelined for Mahiru and the injured student.
“Oh, what the fuck?”
Mahiru’s heart skipped a beat, and her head snapped back to the lattice.
“You sent Fuyuhiko?!”
“He’s the only one small enough to fit,” Byakuya snapped back, “and he can carry him out of there! Trust me!”
While they bickered, Fuyuhiko had dropped to his knees and ripped off his suit jacket.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, okay.” Mahiru heard fabric tear, and a pained cry from the injured person in her arms. “Fucking hope that slows the bleeding. C’mon.” He tugged at Mahiru’s sleeve before picking them up and heading for the exit. Mahiru latched onto his overall strap and trailed after him.
As they stumbled back out of the hole, Mahiru’s eyes adjusted to the harsh light of the flashlight Chiaki was holding, and she saw the group that had followed them outside: Byakuya, Mikan, Chiaki, and Fuyuhiko were crowded around the injured individual while Akane and Gundham lingered nearby, clutching a duralumin case and first aid kit respectively.
“I-I can’t see his wounds,” Mikan whimpered. “We need to get him inside! Quickly!” Before Mahiru could even see who they were tending to, Fuyuhiko bolted back to the entrance with Mikan hanging onto his arm and begging him to slow down for her sake.
“What the hell even happened to him?” Akane yelled after Mikan and Byakuya, right on their heels.
“Mayhaps the forces of hell have arrived to torment us on this island for eternity,” Gundham muttered to himself, tailing Akane. “Unfortunate that their vendetta against the great Gundham Tanaka should bleed their rage unto you all.”
Mahiru was last to catch up with the group, habitually thanking Chiaki for holding the door open as she passed into the building. The thundering of footsteps from the dining hall drowned out the panicked shouts from Mikan and Byakuya, and the entrance hall was soon filled with the entire class.
The old speakers in the building crackled to life the moment Mahiru locked eyes with Nagito, lingering near the back of the crowd and cradling his hand wrapped in bloody gauze.
Ding dong, dong ding!
“A body has been discovered,” Monokuma cheerfully announced over the island’s speaker systems. “Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the class trial will begin!” It was garbled and cut out at certain points from the outdated speakers, but everyone in that old building knew what was happening.
One of their fellow students, Hajime Hinata, had been murdered, and the culprit was standing in this room.