Morning briefing. This was it, the time had come to start these talks and these long winded speeches, it was time to... No, not save the world. Better it. Somehow his thoughts always zeroed in on the idea that he would 'save' the world. Why why why, was he getting too selfish from his previous 'adventures' and such? He had to be. He should drop out on being the main king and character in the future. He would be the last high king of their little game, and he'd let the stalwarts unite under his banner to decide on a new leader. He'd leave it all behind leading wise, except for the management side of things.

His ears perked as Ai spoke. Some had not been getting along? His eyes turned to where the A.I's gaze had been, landing over to Daniel and Haruka. Had those two not started off well? Considering one was a procrastinator and the other a student council president (or so he remembered), he could understand any potential animosities between the two parties. Oh well, they could bicker on if they wished, as long as they could reasonably work together without causing too much of a mess.

And a mess was forming without their help already. He visibly flinched and even silently yelped as Ai and the lights disappeared, a darker shade taking over the whole hall. His eyes quickly darted around, hearing noises of complaining from the other students and from the arrangers of this event. A little mess up, nothing more, nothing less. People were being called, and he was sure that things would be fine soon. They would be, right? They surely will.

It was then that Ishin fell on his knee, muttering a word and then fell down with a thunk, as did everyone else. Darkness fell.

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His eyes practically ripped open as he begun to search for air in his lungs. He had none, but air quickly rushed inside. It was as if he had been dead for a few seconds. Had he panicked so much that he had collapsed? The thought embarrassed him enough to cause him to quickly jolt upwards, dusting himself up and avoiding looking at the others. He knew they too had fallen, yet he wanted to try and act like he had not. He had too much pride, he felt. He should avoid that.

His ears still rung a bit for some reason as the cartoonish, even annoying voice ran down his ears and spine, causing a fearful shiver that almost made him want to puke. "Sleeping? Verily, show yourself! Put the light's back on! Is this some sort of prank by Ai and the other arrangers? If so, I present you my most sarcastic laugh as to show my appreciation! HA. HA. HAA. Now, end this charade!"

A meeting about...the teenage psyche? Paris smiled as she thought of Hitoshi. This would be right up his alley, wouldn't it? In his element. She still held her books tightly as she made her way to the ballroom, hoping it wouldn't get her into trouble. No use upsetting any of the officials during the first meeting...She slipped in behind Ishin as he entered, offering him a grateful smile as she readjusted her three prizes. To her relief, the room was nearly empty, save for the LARPer and the dreadful Ai.



Soon enough, the room filled up with a clamor of students, all having made friends by now. Ai went on and on, speaking about watching us make friends and about others not getting along. Of course the Procrastinator and the Student Council President didn't get along, they were foils to one another. Typical.






Paris' eyes widened as the lights went out, and Ai with them. While she didn't care for the AI, she felt an odd twinge of worry for its well-being. That was quickly replaced by blind panic as the voices began, each calling for different measures to be taken. What kind of retreat was this? The mansion seemed dusty, but did they really just begin using it today? Was this a death trap waiting to happen?! Paris sank to her knees, but not out of fear. She watched in horror as her books clattered to the ground, her arms now limp at her sides. Before she could call out, all she felt was a slight breeze before everything went dark.

---

As she awoke, the voice made her regret it. Cold, metallic, but...familiar. Like that of an old person. Sitting up shakily, she looked around and saw not all the students had gotten up yet. Her head was throbbing, and upon touching it found it was sore. When did she...? She looked instinctively to the people she knew. Ishin. Rin. Mai, Angie, David, Hitoshi, Leo, Lucca...her mind swam and she realized she was tilting sideways. Shaking her head, the librarian shifted, sitting on her legs.

“Who is this?! Ohh, it's never just darkness, never just words, never, never...” she muttered, gripping her hair as her headache intensified. A moment of sudden clarity. “This...this isn't right at all. Where...a-are we?”

Unlike those before him, Junichi didn’t experience a wave of anything before he fainted: he was just upright, and then he was not.

'...'



'Hm?'

He experienced dizzy spells very rarely and had passed out once before when he got sunstroke on vacation, but this felt... different somehow. Lying with his cheek pressed onto the monochrome tiles, he remained sideways as he stirred, trying to recall what had happened. Dad. Sakura and Minako. Daniel. Victor and Amelia. Ai. A power cut?

Jun didn't like the how wide and empty the ballroom was, but he liked the darkness -- he was soothed by how it filled the space, and with someone’s something resting on his ankle, he knew he wasn't alone. The floor was surprisingly warm under his face, like he’d been there long enough to transfer his body heat, but the utaite jolted up when he shifted and felt the cold shock of a different plate. Blood rushing, the boy groaned and grabbed his skull, barely able to understand that the contrast was because the second area hadn't been in contact with anything capable of emitting positive temperatures. Since he was now sat up he could finally feel a dull ache around where his elbow had been pinned down, and when his body settled its life liquid, he didn't understand why his class was so panicked.

“Hey now, everyone calm down!”

His disorientated awakening had clearly made him miss the "lazy bastards" comment, but he caught the tail end of something about a briefing. The voice was not Ai's, but it still sounded artificial so it was likely another hologram running on in the blackout. This idea was shortly disproved by the appearance of a two-tone mascot.


Junichi noticed Minako crawling towards him and Sakura, but he'd never seen the Painter this hysterical before -- it was like all of her level-headed attitude had been forced upside down to make room for an anxious mess.

"Micchan, we're in a castle; that type of signal is probably normal," he assured her "This is just some prank, right Sakura-senpai? The Ultimate Robotics Engineer is just trying their hand at beating Zulfikar at being the SHSL Comedian or something to that affect." He didn't understand why everyone was so out of it. 

(He didn't take the time to think about their periods of unconsciousness.)



The brunet looked up at Monokuma. "Excuse me, sir or ma'am, but what is this rulebook you speak of?"

"You can't call anyone because I took out the phone signal! There's no internet, no cell phone service, and basically no connection to the outside, just as it was in the days when this mansion was first constructed. It'll be like we're living through history. You don't have to worry, though- nobody's coming for you and it's not as if you're able to leave just by opening a door or a window. Doors leading outside are locked and reinforced, and the windows are reinforced and made of thick polymethyl methacrylate... also known as Plexiglass for those of you not majoring in chemistry." he stated, tacking the last bit on for show.

"You and your whining about living here forever. Don't think I'll be letting you starve or anything- this place's budget? Enormous. More money goes into this place per day than most breadwinners will earn their whole entire lives- kind of a sad sentiment, if we're being honest. So, be free as you can! This place is huge, it's like a miniature city- you'll never be bored again. It'll be all twenty-three of you living in relative harmony, caged within these walls! Things come in here, but they never really go out, you know?"

"Now, then... where was I? Oh, right, the rulebook..."

The bear reached behind the podium, pulling out a heavy tome and turning to the spine.

"Hmm... your lives will consist of an orderly, school-like schedule. "Morning" begins at six AM and "night" at ten PM. You're required to be in your rooms from night until morning- no ifs, ands or buts. Harsh punishment will ensue for anyone who breaks this rule! I have security cameras in each room and hall, so don't think I won't know if you're screwing around outside when you should be asleep." he stated. "That's rule number one. As for rule number two... oh, right, speaking of surveillance cameras, don't you dare go messing with them. If one breaks? Again, punishment. It's a simple rule. Also, you're not allowed to break down doors that aren't locked manually. Other than that, all areas are free for you to use and explore! Nothing's prohibited in that regard, so we skip over that..." he said.

"Oh, and didn't some of you say that you wanted to leave? You can... but, it's a one-way exit and it's not without a couple of... complications. Want to hear my third rule?"

(OOC: I got the permission to post before Mai. I'm sorry, Lexi!)

The announcement to gather at the ballroom came at just the right time - Haruka was looking for someone to carry out the red-headed harlot's punishment, and wherever that fake A.I. was, the headmaster and the junior advisor were sure to be. One of them would listen to this woman's grievous offences and lead her off the premises, like they should. Haruka dragged the unwilling perpetrator by the arm through the hallways of the mansion before arriving at the Ballroom.

When they reached the Ballroom, Haruka instructed the young woman to stay close, but the fake A.I. came on before she could scout out authority. She sighed and listened to the 'hologram' rattle off meaningless words, rolled her eyes when it seemed to call out Haruka specifically, and waited for this damned seminar to be over before the offender went and threw herself on another unsuspecting male.

Then all hell broke loose.

The lights gave out. "They're just getting ready for the presentation, aren't they?" Haruka thought to herself, blissfully unaware of what was going on behind the scenes. Then, she heard the workers yell, trying to fix something, things not going right. "This isn't supposed to happen." Her eyes darted around the room, watching everyone panic, scream, lose control. "This isn't happening. They're going to fix it, this is going to turn out okay. It has to!" Haruka's heart was pounding, her sweat beading, hands figiting - she could feel her normally ordered mind slip and fall into chaos, being replaced with anxiety, fear, worry, horrible thoughts of what was to come.

For the few seconds before she finally passed out, Haruka was completely and utterly afraid.

---

Haruka regained consciousness a little bit after everyone else, her ears being filled with the sound of panicking schoolchildren, her eyes awakening to a darkened Ballroom that just didn't seem right. She unsteadily rose to her feet, still trembling a little bit from her brief moment of panic, and the first thing she saw was...

A stuffed animal. Galavanting around. Like it was alive. It looked like nothing she'd ever seen before, a demented caricature of a child's plaything. She tried to listen closely to whatever it was saying in it's ridiculous voice, her anger slowly and exponentially increasing by the second.

"First strike." Haruka crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in slight annoyance. "You do not speak to me - to any of us - that way." She brooded to herself.

"Was that an attempt at humor? He - it - is joking. This is a prank. A horrible one." She was starting to bare her teeth and she could feel her body growing hot, blood pumping through every vein.

Haruka balled her fists, her right eyelid involuntarily twitching. "This is growing inane - no, impossible. It's lying. Did someone drink to much when thinking of fun activities for us? I swear to God, if this goes on for one second longer..."

When the bear - is that what it was? Whenever the thing pulled out it's "rulebook" and started reading off it's unreasonable set of "rules", Haruka grunted in pure, unfiltered anger. She pounded her way from the middle of the Ballroom up to the podium where the abomination was standing, not caring about whatever this thing had in store, not caring about any sort of "punishment", not caring about any retaliation, and with one swift, smooth motion, she grabbed the thing - about the size of a toddler or a small child - and pulled it by it's ear. The "fur" it was covered with was soft, thin, and she could feel the hard material the monster was really made of. It was a robot. Haruka didn't care about "advancements in A.I. technology" now - she just yanked the thing off the podium, slamming it against the tiled floor, and listened to it as it made a satisfying THUNK against it.

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Haruka picked up her foot, positioned it against the creature's face, and stomped. Hard. And again. And again. And again. She listened to the sound of metal crunching against her leather shoe, electrical circuits getting crushed under her weight, it's red, glass eye getting cracked and splintered - and it just kept smiling, which filled Haruka with even more unbridled rage. "STOP TALKING OR I'LL TEAR OFF YOUR FUCKING ARMS AND LET YOU BLEED TO DEATH!"