What if it Repeated? (Oumasai/Saiouma)

Chapter 21- A Piece Of Normality

"This tea is amazing! Thank you Saihara." Shuuichi gave a small nod and sipped from his own cup. The sensation of the hot liquid against his throat helped him keep himself grounded and not falling into his own clouding thoughts again. He knew nothing. He couldn't be entirely sure that Tsumugi had been lying earlier, but his gut was telling him she hadn't been. She was innocent this time. He took another gulp of tea and winced as the piping hot tea burned its way through his body.

"I haven't seen you really since the first day we all woke up here... how have you been holding up?" The sweet voice asked. The owner was a blonde haired girl adorned in a lavish pink attire. She wore a number of silver music notes pinned in her hair, parting her fringe neatly to the side. Meeting with her after all this time seemed strange. He felt like he hadn't seen her in years after what he had gone through.
"Not great, how about you?"

Kaede smiled sadly and shook her head,
"Same as you, I just can't seem to shake this horrible feeling that everything is about to get turned on its head." She looked up at him with glassy eyes, her face partially obscured by the mug she was clutching closely to herself, "It's been too quiet, you know?" That was for sure. He would have expected the first motive to be announced the day prior, but there had been no mention of it. It seemed that this game was taking an entirely different route to the other ones.

"Yeah I know what you mean..." he was scared. There was no denying it anymore. He had tried to push down the dread of the motive that was to come, but now that the time it should have been announced come and gone without a mention was worse than he could have imagined. This feeling of not knowing what was to come was far worse. The only plus side he could see was that Kaede wasn't dead and neither was Rantaro. "Hey Akamatsu." Kaede gave a start at his voice. "Have you heard anything about a challenge that Monokuma has presumably started?"

Kaede raised an eyebrow,
"A challenge? I haven't actually, What does it involve exactly?" So Kaede didn't know.
"Supposedly there's a point system that will allow the student with the most points to leave the killing game." Kaede's head was bowed over her cup and she seemed to be thinking over what he had said.
"Wouldn't that negate the killing game then? It would become irrelevant until this so called challenge is over as you wouldn't have to kill to escape. So there must be some reason for it, something more important than the killing game?"

It sounded like more of a question than a statement. Shuuichi nodded, replacing his empty mug on the table and standing up.
"That was my thinking too..." seems he wasn't the only one who found it strange that another escape option was now in play. "Akamatsu I have something important to ask of you," Kaede looked at him quizzically, but didn't say anything, "if Monokuma does approach you with a request, don't do it. Please." There was a short silence where Kaede simply blinked at him, a crease forming in the middle of her brow.
"Oh. Sure..." she gave a small understanding nod and stood up herself, pushing her chair back into the table. "We should catch up again soon, it might help take the stress off a bit." She said sheepishly fixing a clip that looked perfectly in place already.

"I'll look forward to it," he smiled. Kaede seemed to be acting the same as he knew her to. It was nice to have one more thing that he could rely on for normality. But hopefully next time they talked, the topic of conversation wouldn't be primarily about the killing game, or dare he say it, the lack of the killing game. He saw Kaede throw him a smile as she slipped out of the room with a final swish of her hair. He was alone again. He could drop the facade. He didn't have to put on a smile and pretend his problems weren't as bad as they were.

At this moment more than any he wanted an ally. Someone to confide in. To give him the guidance and support he needed, but it all felt too far out of his reach.

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"What do you mean he's not here?" He asked, trying to keep a calm tone, but he could feel something ominous bubbling up in him.
"Exactly what I said. Not. Here. Haven't seen him all morning, and can't say I'm too sad about that fact, he's probably off playing with himself somewhere, just leave him be." How did Miu always come back to something like that. Could she not take anything without adding some kind of crude joke or statement? Regarding Miu as a lost cause he ignored her and took a seat in the spot he usually found Kokichi occupying. He sat rigidly with his hands clenched together in his lap.