Symphony

Chapter 3: I'm Not the Only One

Shuichi Saihara's P.O.V

Who would need to talk to me at this hour? I headed to the door and opened it. In front of me was Maki, with Himiko was behind her.

"Saihara, we need to speak with you."

Maki never approached me the first time. Neither did Himiko. Something isn't right. I followed Maki and Himiko to the courtyard in front of our dorms.

We all sat down in a semi-circle, and Maki began. "Do you remember being a survivor of this killing game..? Only you, Yumeno, and I were the only students to survive?"

I slowly nodded. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that remembers, but I wonder If they know that I was the one who restarted everything.

"Saihara, were you the one that reset time?"

I nodded once again to Maki's question. "Why are you asking me these questions, Harukawa?"

"Because Yumeno and I didn't somehow manage to take us back in time."

I decided to tell Himiko and Maki the plan I had for trying to save everyone. I also told them about the mysterious figure and what they did.

"Okay, so you want to prevent the killing, and you also want to expose Tsumugi as the mastermind?" Himiko questioned, basically summarizing what I wanted to do.

"Y-Yes, but, I don't know where to start, especially Akamatsu. I want to help her, but I need to know when she starts having these bad thoughts so that I can stop them from continuing."

Maki looked lost in thought for a few seconds, then answered. "What were you doing at this point in time?"

"Well, I was just talking and hanging out with people, but mostly Akamatsu. Now that I think about it, I think where her fate turned into her getting executed was when I showed her the secret door in the library."

Maki stared at me for a while, progressively getting more and more annoyed as time went by.

"OH." I lightly smacked my head. I should have thought of that a lot sooner.

"I can see why you consider yourself more of an apprentice, you're very slow at picking up on things." Her tone sounded harsh, but her small smirk showed that she was just teasing me.

"But, I don't think ignoring the door would be the best idea. If we're trying to expose Tsumugi, that door will help us." Himiko was surprisingly the one who added that comment.

"You're right. Well, the next best thing I can do is keep a close eye on both Akamatsu and Amami for these next few days." I needed to keep an eye on Rantaro because there's still a potential chance of Tsumugi still murdering him and trying to pin the blame on Kaede.

We also talked about some other plans relating to the other murders and potential murders/ victims. I headed back to my dorm, confident in our plan. I plopped down onto my bed and fell asleep.

I woke up earlier than the morning announcement, so I just decided to get ready early. Even though my room wasn't that messy, I cleaned it up to try and pass some time.

The morning announcement played, and I went to Kaede's dorm. I agreed to keep a close eye on her, so being around her often gives her fewer opportunities to plan out a murder. Plus, I want to spend more time with her. I knocked on her door, and she answered.

"Good morning, Saihara!"

"Good morning, Akamatsu."

After greeting one another, we went to the dining hall for breakfast. As we made our way there, I then remembered to mention it to her. "There's something I'd like to show you, so whenever you have the chance, could you come with me to the library?"

"Of course! We could head there after breakfast."

I was just hoping that I wouldn't regret showing her the hidden door later.

Once we arrived, Monokuma was there, surrounded by our classmates.

"Wonderful! Everyone's here! As most of you know, I have an announcement to make! Now, I know very well that just because someone gets thrown into a killing game doesn't mean that they'll immediately start to kill one another. So, I thought, why not give everyone a reason to kill? A motive!"

"Your logic is hard to follow," K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot, was the one who said that.

"Now then, the special motive I've prepared is called the First Blood Perk! For the first murder that occurs, no trial will be held! The first person to kill someone will get to graduate and leave. Just go ahead and kill! The first one's free after all."

This wasn't the motive that started it, but the motive that did is starting to get closer. Everyone was making comments here and there, like "This is so messed up!" and "I'd never do such a thing!" but deep down everyone was doubting one another, worried about someone killing them.

"Do you really think we're going to kill someone just to get out? In your dreams! We're going to escape this place together, I promise that!" Kaede declared that with confidence.

"Kaede, do you honestly think we all feel the same way? Some of us might be scheming on how to murder one of us behind our backs. With all of that in mind, I'd be careful if I were you Kaede," a short boy wearing a checkered patterned scarf with messy purple hair added.

His name was Kokichi Oma, and he was the Ultimate Supreme Leader. He was known for his lies, like lying about him being the Mastermind. He supposedly sacrificed himself to end the killing game, but I still struggle to believe it completely since he lied very often.

After that remark, Monokuma left. Everyone else remained silent as they ate breakfast.

Soon, Kaede and I finished our breakfast.

Author's Note: If you say someone's first name when you aren't that close to a person, it is considered rude and disrespectful. So when Maki, Himiko, and Shuichi use Tsumugi's first name when mentioning her out loud, it's because they have little to no respect towards her after finding out she's the mastermind. The same also went for when Kokichi called Kaede by her first name. So it's intentional, not a writing mistake!