Camp Murder | Fuyupeko

Search Party // 6

Everyone looked around the room. Miss Usami was nowhere.

"Wh- what is going on?" Sonia's eyes darted around the room.

"Yeah, what is this? Didn't Miss Usami say she'd be here every morning?" Akane spoke through a mouthful of food, not missing the opportunity to get her breakfast.

Ibuki shook her head. "Maybe she's just late. Ibuki oversleeps all the time!"

Kazuichi nodded. "Maybe. Fuyuhiko slept through the Monokuma announcement this morning. That's why we were late."

I elbowed him. What was the point of telling them that? He whimpered and rubbed the spot where I'd hit him.

"I mean, I wish I could believe that, but don't you feel like somethings wrong?" Hajime furrowed his eyebrows.

Gundham nodded wisely. "I sense that a dark cloud has enfolded the bright spirits of shining joy that we harboured upon our fateful arrival."

"Shut up, you're giving me a headache!" Hiyoko crossed her arms.

"M-maybe we should just eat first, th-then we can look for Miss Usami." Everyone seemed to agree with Mikan's words.

"That seems like the best idea, yeah. Everyone eat quickly, and then we'll leave." Chiaki spoke, and then walked over to grab some food.

All of us did the same and ate. There was almost no conversation. Everyone was feeling uneasy. Upon finishing, Byakuya stood up.

"I propose we split up into groups and search different areas of the camp ground. We might need to search the forest too." He stated.

"Hold on a second, we don't even know if this is that big of a deal. Seriously. She probably just overslept! There's no need to host a search party." Mahiru objected. I saw her point, but I did want to look for her anyways.

"Okay. How about this. Mahiru, you take Hiyoko and Ibuki to one of the unlabelled cabins to check if Miss Usami sleeps there. Byakuya can take Teruteru and Nagito to the other one. The rest of us should split ourselves up and search the grounds." I suggested. Byakuya nodded at me, respect in his eyes. I grinned smugly. He isn't so tough, I'm a yakuza. Giving orders and taking charge is in my blood.

Peko came straight over to me once I'd finished talking. "I must come with you to protect you."

There was no way I was gonna pass up a chance like that. "Of course." I looked around at everyone forming their groups. No one else came up to us to join. Not even Kazuichi. He managed to muscle his way into looking for Miss Usami with Sonia and Gundham. My heart sped up. I was gonna be alone with Peko.

I shook my head to clear it. This was no time for thinking so stupidly! This is a search party. I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention, and then spoke.

"Okay. We don't have any way to communicate while we're split up, but this forest isn't very big. If we don't find Miss Usami within half an hour, we meet back here. If someone finds her, and she's okay, just relax and head back here. When the half hour is up we'll rejoin with you."

"Ooh! Ibuki has a question!" Ibuki jumped up and down and raised her hand. I sighed and nodded at her. "What if we find her and she's hurt?"

"Yeah, what if something's wrong with her?" Akane seconded.

"Yell." Byakuya said matter of factly. "Someone is bound to hear you." I nodded in agreement. Kazuichi shuddered.

Everyone split off, and Peko and I headed to the lake. We reasoned that Miss Usami might have gone to relax or something stupid like that. As we walked, tension spiked in my stomach.

Peko, of course, was oblivious to any sort of odd emotions I might be feeling.

I was thinking. Should I say something? What if she starts talking? I thought and I thought and I thought until I clued into the fact that I was staring right at her while walking. No sooner than I realized, I tripped.

"Ah!" I cried as I went down. My hands hit the ground and I scraped my palms.

"Young master!" Peko quickly stopped to help me up. Trying my hardest to ignore my quickly beating heart, I grabbed her hand and hoisted myself to me feet.

"Are you okay?" She fretted, brushing off my clothes and picking leaves out of my hair.

I blushed. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. And remember, it's Fuyuhiko." I smiled at her.

She nodded. I knew she wouldn't remember.

We kept walking, and that's when I realized, she never let go of my hand.

-

"We should head back to the lodge now," I suggested, "it's getting close to the half hour mark." I looked in the direction we came in. Peko nodded.

We hadn't found Miss Usami, but I wasn't worried. Someone else was bound to have found her. At least, that's what I told myself. I still felt slightly uneasy, and my instincts could tell something bad was gonna happen. That, or it had already happened. Everyone was feeling like that, I think that's why we all agreed to put out search parties so fast.

We weren't the first ones back at the lodge. We weren't the last group either, the group with Sonia, Gundham and Kazuichi wasn't back yet.

I gulped when I saw everyone's dejected faces. No one needed to say their search was fruitless, you could tell just by looking at them.

"Wait for me!" I heard a familiar whine from outside the lodge. Gundham and Sonia walked leisurely in, Sonia clinging onto Gundham's arms and grinning widely. It was peaceful.

Just wait.

I told myself. Not ten seconds later, there he was. Kazuichi ran into the lodge, sweaty and out of breath. He made a beeline straight to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

"Get off me-" I shrugged him off. He grabbed my wrist with both hands.

"Remind me to never third wheel with them again." He whined. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

Byakuya spoke up, interrupting us.

"So, no one found Miss Usami?" He looked around. still, no one spoke, everyone just shook their heads. Even Mahiru, who was so nonchalant earlier, was beginning to look worried.

We all whipped our heads towards the door when a familiar, giddy, cold voice spoke.

"Oh, I know where Miss Usami is!"