Lock and Key | Naegami

Chapter 2 - The first challenge

'Naegi! You made it fall down again!'

'S-Sorry-!' I apologised, 'And I said, call me Makoto.'

'Fine.'

'Oh, also, I forgot to mention,' Monokuma appeared on the screen, 'If you don't finish this within five minutes, you face punishment!'

'P-Punishment?!'

'Not execution sadly.. just little things~! I promise, you'll love them!'

'Judging that it's you that said this, I highly doubt it,' Byakuya said, placing another card on the house.

We'd used up around half of the deck of cards, and had already been doing this for just under ten minutes. If we messed up, or if we didn't do this faster, we'd face Monokuma's punishment.

'Hey, Byakuya, can I try placing the cards down?'

'Fine, but if you mess this up, when we get out of here, I will sue you and your family.'

'Judging by the first motive, I doubt they're even alive..' I laughed sadly, placing down the cards.

When I was younger, I got bored easily, and found myself building a lot of card houses. Meaning, I was quite good at it.

'Thirty seconds- Oh, you're.. surprisingly good at this.. dammit! I wanted to punish you!' Monokuma stormed off camera angrily.

'And.. one more..' I said, 'Done!'

'I have to admit.. I'm impressed,' Byakuya looked away from me, his arms folded.

'Wow, Byakuya Togami, impressed by me?' I joked, 'The impossible has come true!'

'We're not close enough to make jokes.'

'When can I make jokes?' I asked, 'Or make friendship bracelets!'

'Never.'

'Oh.. Well,' I turned to the camera, 'Monokuma, we did your challenge.'

An angry voice came from the black screen. 'Fine. Have your goddamn food. Next time the challenge will be a lot harder.'

The small hatch in the wall opened up again, and I rushed over to it, grabbing a plate of four onigiri.

I set it down on one of the desks, dragging another chair to it. Byakuya sat down, annoyed. 'Commoner food.'

'Aw, come on! My parents always made me these! It's nice to have food that's at least similar to home food!'

'The people that worked for my family made me food. My parents were too busy with work to spend time with me.'

'Huh..? You never spent time with your parents?'

'Yes, that is what I said. Now, refrain from speaking, I'm sick of hearing you talk.'

I continued to eat silently, staring at the table. I could tell that Byakuya didn't mean to say that comment about his parents, so I didn't want to press him about it.

Just as we finished our food, the night time announcement played, but it was slightly different. 'It is 10PM! Goodnight my sweet little captives!'

'Hey.. Monokuma..! Where do we sleep?' I asked the camera.

'Oh, um..' Monokuma froze, 'I.. did not think that through. Eh, I'll get you some blankets and pillows and whatnot, just put some desks together and sleep on them or something-!'

'I am not sleeping on a desk,' Byakuya muttered through gritted teeth.

'Well, it's not like we have any choice..'

After a few minutes of waiting, a pile of blankets and pillows fell out of the hatch. I grabbed them and moved them over to Byakuya. 'Can you move some desks together?'

Byakuya begrudgingly began moving the desks, so there were two bed-sized tables on the side of the room. I looked at them for a second, before trying to push the tables closer together.

'What are you doing?'

'Well, Monokuma didn't give us many blankets, so if we shared them between us, the desk would be hard to sleep on, so.. if we both shared the same blankets and stacked them on top of each other, we could make a makeshift mattress!'

'If you say so, Mr know it all,' Byakuya scoffed, moving the desks together, so that it was all one table.

I began laying the blankets and sheets onto the bed, making use of the thicker ones as a mattress. Once I thought it was good enough, I climbed onto the makeshift bed, lying down. 'Hm, it could be worse.'

Byakuya took off his jacket and tie thing, before getting into the bed as well. 'You sleep with your jacket on? Don't you get too warm?'

'I don't usually sleep with it on.. I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable.'

'Why would I feel uncomfortable with you taking your jacket off?' He asked, 'Did you leave your brain back in the dorm rooms or something? I don't want this at all, you wearing a simple jacket won't make this situation any better.'

'Okay, thanks..?'

I took off my jacket and rolled over, before trying to get to sleep.

What felt like hours passed before I eventually fell asleep.

*****

'Wakey wakey, it's 7PM!'

I groaned, rolling over. Byakuya almost immediately sat up, grabbing his glasses from the floor.

'Gh.. my back hurts,' I said, climbing out of the "bed", 'Monokuma better sort something else out...'

'You wanna sort something else out?' Monokuma appeared on the screen, 'Does this mean a challenge?'

'Oh, God no,' Byakuya said, putting his jacket and tie thingy on, 'Not again..'

'If we do the challenge, what will we get?' I asked.

'Is a bed fine with you?'

'...What's the challenge?' To my surprise, Byakuya spoke up.

'Well..' Monokuma said, 'Wanna play Just Dance?'

'Oo, ye-!' I started to say excitedly.

'No.' Byakuya cut me off.

'Huh?'

'No,' He repeated, 'Byakuya Togami does not play Just Dance.'

Monokuma sighed. 'Fine, I've got a different game to play.'

Then the hatch in the wall opened up again, and two revolver guns fell out.