Deleted Chapters

Chapter 10: Word of the Day: Lies!

A scarf clumsily made from two woolly socks sat on the unmade bed of Chihime's room as said occupant prepared for the day. Despite having the choice to wear matching socks since her wardrobe was filled with the same sets of clothing, Chihime found herself compelled to continue mismatching them. Why do so? Well, there's no reason why she shouldn't, isn't it? They were both her favourite pairs of socks to wear anyways, and choosing between them was always difficult. Still have no idea where her shoes went though.

Chihime didn't rest after the incident last night. After guiding Chihiro to his dorm, she hurried to the kitchen, praying that the cream on her cake hadn't melted and made it uneatable. She popped the cake into the fridge and cleaned up the kitchen, picking up fallen strawberries and washing equipment used.

Once all that was done, she returned to her room and grabbed the sewing kit on her desk. Instead of following Monokuma's instructions to stab someone's throat with the needle, Chihime used it for its intended purpose.

You know, actual sewing.

The product of her unskilled hands was slid under Chihiro's door, along with a piece of paper ripped from her notepad. It read: Use this to hide the bruises on your throat. Chihime

With that, Chihime waited for Monokuma's morning announcement to play. As soon as the bear's annoying voice blasted through the speakers, she wheeled herself to Taka's room, having prior information from others that he was the one who woke everyone up every morning and started ringing his doorbell repeatedly.

When there was no response, she started knocking on the door and rattling the doorknob, as if trying to break in. After some short minutes, the door flung open, revealing a panicked Taka.

"What's going on?!! Has there been a murder!? Is someone running in the ha-"

"Ah, l just want to say good morning." Chihime interrupted. She wheeled away leaving a confused Taka, hiding a smirk as she headed to the dining area. It was certainly a childish endeavor, but it was the first thing that popped up in her mind when she passed by the ultimate's door.

Despite the disruption, Taka still followed his faithful duty of waking up everyone to remind them to gather for breakfast meeting. After searching for a while, he found the source of his alarm this morning in the kitchen, munching silently on a slice of cake.

"Chihime! What is the meaning of knocking repeatedly on my door just now?" The girl flinched from his loud tone.

"Sorry, Taka. I happened to be awake before the morning announcement and was worried when you didn't come out after it played. When you did turn up l felt too embarrassed and only managed to say good morning to you." The lie slipped from her tongue easily, to her surprise.

The truth was she hadn't slept a wink last night, so great her struggle to make the scarf to hide whatever trace of the murder last night. She might have circled back to clean up the mess in the locker room but concluded that some of the knocked-over equipment would be too heavy for her to pick up.

"Although it is an admirable quality for one to be able to wake up in the early hours of the morning, a healthy sleep schedule must still be maintained!" Chihime pressed her lips tightly, and Taka made an attempt to lower his voice. Well, she thinks it was an attempt. "I trust you had the necessary hours of sleep to be awake during that time?"

"Yes...yes l did," she said. Since when did you start caring whether l get enough sleep?

"Very well then! To the dining hall, we shall go!" One blink of her eyes and Taka has left with expectations that she might follow him. Chihime considered her next actions. She wanted to bring out the Christmas cake for everyone to share, to gain whatever shred of trust she could earn with that gesture, but she couldn't risk carrying it out without dropping it, since balancing it on her lap while wheeling herself out is a difficult task, as proven from past experiences.