Hope In Humanity (ON PAUSE)

Chapter 9

We all stared at each other after Monokuma's announcement. It was evident enough that none of us trusted each other, but also that we needed the sleep. The fact that we weren't allowed to lock our doors while being completely defenseless was also a huge issue. 

"How about we all just go to sleep? I know we all need it!" I suggested, since clearly no one else was going to step up. 

Himiko scoffed at my suggestion, "Do you really think that everyone will follow that. This is an opportunity to get the jump on someone." 

"I think we should just let everyone do what they want to do." Ryoma said, "There's no point in getting us to all to agree." 

I opened my mouth to disagree, but then I realized that it was pointless. If no one wanted to cooperate then nobody was going to cooperate. With a heavy heart, I just sighed and let the topic go. Everyone else seemed to agree with what Ryoma said anyway, so everyone else dispersed. Only Rantaro and I remained in the gym. 

"So Kaede, any ideas as to what we should do?" Rantaro asked. 

I shook my head, "Not even one, I can see the benefits of getting an hour of sleep, but I worry it might just make me more tired. But I also would die for an hour of sleep. Yet I can't trust everyone else." 

"Well, if trusting everyone else is the problem... then wanna sleep in shifts?" 

I blinked at Rantaro's idea, "Explain." 

"Well, lets say you go to sleep first, I'll stay awake outside the door— keeping watch obviously— and then after 30 minutes I'll just bang on the door to wake you up. Then you wake up, and it'll be my turn to go to sleep and you can keep watch outside my door." Rantaro explained. 

I hesitated, "I can see your point, as long as you don't enter my room you don't have to kill me. I guess it's a good plan. Do... you wanna go to sleep first though?" 

Rantaro shook his head, "No, I think you should go first you look more tired than I am, and I'm willing to be that before this motive I got a better amount of sleep than you." 

A slight wave of suspicion passed through me, but I needed to trust Rantaro... otherwise I wasn't going to survive much longer. So I agreed to his plan. "And so you'll wake me up after 30 minutes?" 

"Yeah." Rantaro said. "Anyway, this would be a good time to get some alibis. So... I'm going to go talk to Kokichi. Think you can talk to Miu?" 

"Kokichi? Come on... I thought we agreed he wasn't a good ally just yet." I responded, "But fine, I'll go talk to Miu." I really didn't want to argue with Rantaro on that subject yet. If it turns out that Kokichi ends up being a good ally in the future, then I'll thank him then. 

Either way, you only had around an hour left before you had to meet up with Rantaro again to enact his plan. Of course, you weren't exactly expecting to completely sway Miu to your side in that time, but you wanted a little more clarification on her motives. Luckily, you ran into her pretty soon, she was in the dining hall. 

"Oh hey Miu!" I said trying to start up a conversation. "How's it going?" 

"K-kaede? Your a-actually speak-king to me-e?" Miu trembled, "I'm f-fine though." 

"Yeah, I'm trying to stay awake until the time Monokuma gave us." I answered. "So I wanted to start up a conversation" 

"You're taking the d-deal? Should y-you be telling m-me that?" Miu asked. 

I nodded my head, clearly Miu needed to learn how to trust me first. I figured the best way to get her to trust me, is to give her information to show that I trusted her. So I decided to tell Miu about Rantaro's plan. "And so... I've realized that even though we're all rivals here, I think we need Allies to survive this game... and I'd really like to be your friend." 

"Allies? In... a killing game?" Miu wasn't stuttering as much as before. "It... makes some sense. Honestly, I don't w-wanna die here..." 

I tilted my head slightly, "Right... you joined the game to change your personality?" 

"Yeah... but now that I didn't get a change in my personality... I-I don't know if I wanna c-continue playing this game. But I don't have a choice now." Miu looked down sadly, "Plus I already have quite a bit of money and fame cause of my talent...." 

I suddenly looked up at the clock, and realized I had to go meet up with Rantaro, "Sorry Miu, Let's continue this conversation after the hour! Be safe!" waving the Inventor good bye, I rushed to meet up with Rantaro. 

"How'd talking with Miu go?" He said upon seeing me. 

I gave him a smile, "Pretty good, she doesn't want to be in the killing game anymore, now we might have to convince her to want to destroy it completely." 

"It'll be a bit easier now I hope." Rantaro said, "Anyway, Monokuma's scheduled time is starting in two minutes." With that note of the time, I didn't even get to ask Rantaro how his conversation with Kokichi went. We both made our ways to my dorm, and I went inside, not before reminding him to wake me up. 

"Alright Kids! You can sleep now! Or kill your unsuspecting victim! Whichever works for you! Upupupu, lets hope you guys are alive when you wake up!" Monokuma's voice echoed throughout dorm, and I finally allowed myself to lie down on the bed. 

I closed my eyes, and I already felt the comfort of my bed causing my exhaustion to overcome me. For a moment, my thoughts whirled to whether or not I can truly trust Rantaro, but I was too tired to contemplate the issue for much longer. And with that I fell asleep. 

"Wake up! Time's up! Wake up or your DEAD! UPUPUP!" The ghastly music from before, when we had a time limit was playing. Only this time it was accompanied by Monokuma's chanting. I slowly opened my eyes, only to then sit up immediately when I realized that I overslept over our deal. 

"Rantaro! Why didn't you wake me up! Are you oka-" I was shouting as I went to go open the door. 

Of course, the sight the I opened my door up to was brutal. In front of my dorm room's door was....

Rantaro Amami. Dead.

And with that, I let out a bloodcurdling scream. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our first death... and it turned out to still be Rantaro...

Whoops? Anyway, I know you guys don't really have any clues yet... but thoughts on who the murderer is gonna be? 

Feels bad for my man though. I'm gonna miss you Rantaro... 

ANYWAY As always though... thank you for reading!