It All Started By One Single Tear (Rantaro x reader x YandereMastermind Kokichi)

Chapter 4 Part 24: Splitting into Groups

Your POV:

One by one, everyone walked into the chapel, everyone soon being inside. Let's just say that Miu wasn't lying when she told us that the chapel was full of junk. It was very cramped, considering eighteen people had to fit inside of the chapel.
This chapel had many pews which were the long seats people would sit in during a mass. The pews of this chapel were covered in boxes that had a variety of things. Christmas decorations, posters, books, and even more. The only area that we were able to walk through was the center of the isle.
One of the things that I realized as I looked around the chapel surroundings was the fact that this place was going to be harder to look through. With all of these boxes of random stuff, it would make moving things and searching quite the chore.
"This is the chapel!" Miu exclaimed, "it's a mess, huh?"
"Nyeeeh..." Himiko muttered, "searching this place is gonna be pretty hard."
"Himiko is right!" Tenko shouted, "this place is too crowded, and there's a bunch of random stuff everywhere!"
"Now that we've checked out all the important places in the Virtual World..." Miu explained, ignoring Tenko, "let's split up and look for this secret of the outside world!"
"Oh, so we're splitting up, huh?" Kokichi asked, "that's probably better."
"I wonder what the secret of the outside world could be..." Himiko muttered.
"Monokuma did not give us much information about it, either," Keebo explained.
"Are we going to be able to find it if we don't know what it is?" Tsumugi asked.
"Hopefully," Kaede replied, "if we work together, I'm sure we'll be able to find the secret of the outside world!"
"I'm just hoping that we will be able to find it," Rantaro spoke.
"There's no point in asking or hoping whether we find it or not!" Kokichi shouted angrily, "we just gotta do it!"
"Yeah, that's right!" Miu exclaimed, "just keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and it's bound to turn up!"
"It sounds like we have a difficult task ahead of us...but I guess we have to see it through," Keebo replied.
I honestly had a feeling we were going to split up. I mean... it made sense considering that there were two different areas, far away from each other. And having a. If group of people searching one place would cause more problems. One of the things that I did wonder... who was going to search where...? I knew that might be answered soon, but I'd have to wait to ask.
"Oh, yeah..." Kokichi piped up, "before we split up, I wanna ask you something, Miu."
After Kokichi said those words, he walked over to Miu. They looked like they were whispering things to each other. I couldn't help it but cock my head in confusion as a question mark appeared over my avatar.
     A few moments went by as Kokichi and Miu were whispering to each other. I couldn't hear anything they were saying, and it was making me wonder what they were talking about. After those few moments went by, Kokichi went back to where he was originally standing. He was right next to Gonta before he went to talk to Miu.
"What do you think they're whispering about?" I heard Rantaro ask, "it seems pretty suspicious..."
    "Yeah..." Himiko replied, "what are you two whispering about?"
    "Mind your own business, titless and playboy!" Miu shouted, "quit sticking your pot bellies where they don't belong!"
    I could feel myself getting slightly angry with Miu now. This was a similar feeling to what happened when Kokichi picked on Miu. Now it was her picking on Himiko and my boyfriend. Maybe the reason I was so angry was because of that. In the past, I would just stay silent. But I felt like I was changing... changing into a person that would help others have more confidence.
    "I stood up for you when Kokichi was rude to you, and now you pick on Himiko and my boyfriend?" I asked, "Himiko and Rantaro don't have pot bellies! Stop trying to make everyone feel bad about themselves!"
    "Heeee!" Miu exclaimed, "f-fine... I won't call Himiko t-titless anymore... and I w-won't call your boy toy a playboy..."
     "T-Thank you, (y/n)... I know I don't have a pot belly... I defiantly don't have a pot belly..." Himiko said with a small smile.
    Rantaro seemed to smile at me after I defended both Himiko and him. He ruffled my head with his avatar arm and chuckled lightly as he did so. I could feel myself growing flustered when he did this.
    "Look at my girlfriend having the confidence to stand up to bullies," Rantaro said with a smile, "I'm so proud of you."
    I could feel a sense of pride swell up in my heart as Rantaro told me that. I decided to keep that feeling of pride on the inside. Now wasn't the time to feel prideful. There was still an objective.
    "So how are we going to decide how we will be split up?" I heard Kirumi ask, "as you can see, there are a lot of people."
    "Just leave it all to me!" Kaito exclaimed, "I'll figure out how everyone should split up in a flash!"
    "No, no!" Miu exclaimed in response, "hold up! I'll decide that! I know this world better than any of you, so I'll decide!"
    "O-Oh..." Kaito muttered, "you sure?"
    I knew now that Miu was going to decide. Kaito wanted to try to get everyone split up, but Miu wanted to. I wondered how she was going to split up sixteen people. Maybe she would have more people search the chapel because of all of f the stuff in there. I honestly didn't know.
    "Kaito, I want you to search the rooftop of the mansion!"
    "Huh!?" Kaito exclaimed in response, "why do I gotta go up to the rooftop!? It's freakin' cold out there!"
"Yeah!" Kokichi exclaimed angrily in response, "there's no way the faint-hearted Kaito can search in the cold!"
"Alright!" Kaito shouted, "bring it on! All I gotta do is search the rooftop, right?"
'So all it took to convince Kaito was for Kokichi to mock him...' I thought nervously, 'those two really don't get along... it's almost like how Kokichi acts around Rantaro...' I thought.
Kaito and Kokichi really didn't get along, and that much was obvious. Kaito seemed to hate Kokichi, while Kokichi always picked on Kaito. It was like a more mild version of what happened between Kokichi and Miu.
"Kokichi...you're in charge of the salon," Miu explained.
"O-kay! Got it!" Kokichi exclaimed in response.
"We need more people to search the mansion," Miu explained, "doesn't matter who."
"This plan became pretty sloppy all of a sudden," Himiko muttered.
"Yeah..." Tenko replied, "we also need to assign a group for the chapel too!"
"If the plan is so sloppy, then Gonta should come with me," Kokichi said happily, "we can search the mansion's surroundings, since no one wants to deal with the cold."
"Okay..." Gonta muttered in response, "Gonta come with you."
"Mm-hm, a true gentleman must always volunteer to do the dirty work," Kokichi replied.
"That's just your logic..." Kaede muttered.
"So...Kokichi's just going to use Gonta again," Tsumugi muttered angrily, "I've decided! I'm going that way too! I have to make sure you're not abusing poor Gonta!"
"I think we should have Shuichi, Rantaro, Kaede, and myself search the mansion..." I muttered, "that way, the rest of the group can search the chapel. I think it's probably a good idea so we can pair up."
"Hey, I think that's a great idea!" Kaito exclaimed, "it looked like my two sidekicks are coming with!"
Maki seemed to be upset when I gave the an idea. It was most likely because she was being left alone. Ryoma didn't seem to care much, but I still felt bad. I didn't want to leave them to the chapel, but what else could I do...? If I asked Maki if there was any way I could make it up to her, she'd probably just ask me if I wanted to die again...
"Alright!" Miu exclaimed, "like the Otaku said, everyone else is going to stick with me here at the chapel and look for the secret!"
"So Himiko, Maki, Angie, Tenko, Kirumi, Miu, Ryoma, and myself," Keebo muttered, "understood."
After Keebo said that, we all got into the groups we were going to. Kaede, Kaito, Shuichi, Gonta, Kokichi, Tsumugi, Rantaro, and I were going the mansion while everyone else was going to stay at the chapel. Everyone was split up fifty-fifty, so each side had the same amount of people. It was decided, and if we teamed up for each room aside from Gonta, Kokichi, and Kaito, who's places were already decided... we could search everything faster.
"Let's go back to the mansion," Kokichi stated, "we gotta find the secret of the outside world."
    After Kokichi said those words, he ran out of the chapel. After that point, Kaito told Maki to do a good job, using the nickname he graced her with. Maki didn't reply, and she still looked pretty angry. I let out a small sigh.
    "I'm sorry Maki..." I muttered, "I feel bad for making you upset..."
    Maki still had an angry expression on her face. I didn't mean to make her upset. I knew that I wouldn't be able to do much about it now. Hopefully Maki would forgive me eventually. Rantaro seemed to notice I was upset. He grabbed my hand with reassurance.
    "I know she's upset, but I'm sure she'll forgive you," Rantaro told me.
    "I hope you're right..." I muttered.
    Before anyone else could leave, Miu seemed to ask us if this world was great. After that, she wanted to know if expanding this "new reality" would sound good to us. In Miu's opinion our bodies may have been confined, but our minds were free here. Many of the others voiced that it was escaping reality, and honestly I agreed. I was the queen of escaping reality considering that I was a huge nerd.
    Being completely honest, it wasn't the time to try to live in a virtual world. Keebo said as much, and that was agreeable. Tsumugi even said that it would be interesting to live in a virtual world, but she wouldn't want to live here forever. Himiko mentioned that it would be better to be on a tropical island other than the cold, and Tenko liked that idea. She explained that it was a dream of hers to be pampered like a celebrity.
    Miu seemed to be upset about those opinions saying that we would regret it. A few minutes later, Tsumugi recommended that we get to searching. I nodded in response to that. With that, our group headed out of the chapel. Kaede, Shuichi, Kaito, Gonta, Tsumugi, Rantaro, and myself were in the group that was going to investigate the mansion.
    We walked up the trail we used to get to the chapel, going back through the map loading point. I would never get over how weird it was to black out for a slight moment before appearing past that point.  Soon enough, we made it to the river with the makeshift bridge. I saw that Kokichi was already positioned across the signboard bridge. It was obvious that was the case, considering Kokichi ran off minutes before we went after.
    One by one, we all crossed the signboard bridge, that being a requirement to get to the mansion. It took a shorter amount of time for everyone to cross because there were only seven people this time. As soon as everyone crossed the bridge, Kokichi had a happy expression on his avatar.
    "Did everyone cross the bridge?" Kokichi asked as the last person crossed, "okay then, let's head to the mansion together."
After those words left Kokichi's mouth, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind. Everyone one in our group crossed the bridge, so I wondered what it could be. It seemed that I wasn't the only one who noticed the sound of footsteps coming from behind us.
Kokichi was still faced towards the bridge as we all turned around at the same time. Imagine the shock I felt when I saw Miu was there. Everyone else had a similar reaction. As soon as Miu appeared in our line of vision, exclamation marks appeared over our avatar heads when we saw her. What was she doing here?
'What is Miu doing here!?' I thought, 'isn't she supposed to be searching the chapel!?'
"Whoops, my hand slipped," Miu said from across the bridge.
As soon as the inventor was done speaking, she bent over, and her hand threw itself on signboard, knocking it into the river. All of us had shocked looks on our avatars as we saw the signboard wash away. Soon enough, the signboard we used as a bridge was out of sight. That meant that we were stranded on this side of the river, while the others were stuck at the chapel. Why did she do that!? Why did it look like she did it on purpose!?
"Ah! What are you doing!?" Tsumugi exclaimed.
"I just came to see you guys off...and my hand accidentally slipped!" Miu exclaimed in response.
"That was obviously on purpose!" Kaito exclaimed angrily.
"I-It wasn't on purpose at all!" Miu exclaimed nervously in response, "i-i-it was an accident! You keep talkin' shit like that, you'll only ever attract ugly bitches! Do you wanna spend the rest of your life surrounded by ugly bitches, dumbass!?"
Miu angrily stormed off after that point. She obviously was heading back to the chapel. I couldn't help that she was getting very defensive over being accused for knocking off the signboard on purpose. Kaito faced the brunt of Miu's rage though.
"Tch...that's not even an insult," Kaito replied with a salty tone, "I'm famous for attracting ugly people!"
"What's that supposed to mean...?" I asked in response with a deadpanned look on my avatar.
"What were they fighting about?" Shuichi asked.
"Even I don't know..." Kaede replied.
"I've...met a lot of people up till now, but I've never met someone so messed up..." Tsumugi muttered.
"Seriously, that girl is so much trouble!" Kokichi shouted angrily.
"Oh, sorry..." Tsumugi replied nervously, "there was one more person here."
One of the things I was curious about was what we would do since we couldn't get across. The same could be said for the people in the chapel. They couldn't get across, and the salon in the mansion was the only way to log out of the Virtual World.
"So, are we going to discuss the matter on the others in the chapel?" Rantaro asked, "since Miu accidentally knocked the signboard into the river, they cannot cross."
    "Oh, you're right, Rantaro!" Tsumugi exclaimed in response, "you can only log out from the salon in the mansion."
    "Well, maybe Miu can fix it later," Kokichi replied, "let's just get to the mansion already."
    After Kokichi told us time and time to head to the mansion even though we knew we should, he sprinted off. He went on ahead before any of us could say anything about it.
    "We'll deal with them later," Kaito told us, "first we gotta find the secret of the outside world."
   The rest of us decided to head down to the mansion, walking down the trail that led to the entrance of the mansion. Rantaro was holding my hand as our group minus Kokichi headed to the mansion. Soon, we got the the steps that led to the entrance of the mansion, going up those to go inside.
    We soon opened the door, our group walking inside of the mansion. Kokichi was already inside, waiting for us patiently in the entrance hall. Once we all made it inside because only one of us could walk into the door at a time, we all gathered around in a circle.
    Aside from Kaito, Kokichi, and Gonta, everyone else needed a place to investigate. Kaito was supposed to search the roof, and Kokichi was supposed to search the salon. It was agreed that Gonta would search outside the mansion. Everyone else needed a place to search, and chances were we were going to have to go in groups.
    "Gonta and Kaito are going to check the mansion's surroundings and rooftop. I'll go to the salon," Kokichi explained, "so can the plain part of the group, Tsumugi, Kaede, playboy, and (y/n) go plainly search dining hall and kitchen? Why don't Shuichi and Kaede go into a group and search the kitchen while Tsumugi, playboy, and (y/n) search the dining room. Imagine how much faster you'll search in pairs. Maybe one of you can even cover the entrance hall if you have time!"
     "Can you please stop calling me a playboy...?" Rantaro asked, "I may look like one, but I'm not."
    "Nee-hee-hee~ nope!" Kokichi exclaimed in response.
    "Jokes on you Kokichi!" Tsumugi exclaimed, "we may be a plain group, but everybody knows that the plain group is just plain dangerous!"
    "I'm not sure if I would call myself plain..." Kaede muttered.
    "Yeah..." Shuichi muttered.
    "...Gonta go now," Gonta told us.
    "It's surprisingly cold out there, so be careful," Tsumugi explained, "you should come back here to warm up."
    "Thank you...but Gonta okay," Gonta replied with a happy look on his avatar, "Gonta not smart enough to get sick."
    "Someone who isn't smart wouldn't want to save everyone..." Kaito replied angrily, "they'd only think of themselves."
    "Oh...thank you," Gonta replied with a shocked expression.
    "Okaaay, let's stop the fun chit-chat and go back to looking for the secret of the outside world," Kokichi said, "but we don't know what's waiting for us, so we gotta be veeeery careful, okay? Especially you my beloved (y/n)!"
    Before I could say anything in response to the last thing Kokichi said, he went into the direction of the salon. Shuichi told us that we should start searching too, and Tsumugi made it very clear that she wanted to find it so we could head back.
    Kaito didn't seem to think that the avatars were that bad, and I did agree. Even though the graphics weren't that good, everyone looked like a 3D chibi. It was cute in its own way. I could feel myself grow slightly upset that Kaito was just kidding. He then explained that he was going to search the rooftop, and he told us not to slack off.
    Kaito too headed off to his designated spot, and Gonta told us that he was going to go now. Gonta headed outside to check the mansion surroundings leaving the five of us that were left. Rantaro, Tsumugi and I were supposed to search the dining hall while Shuichi and Kaede searched the kitchen.
    "Hey guys, we should probably go too," Kaede said.
    "Yeah, I agree," Tsumugi replied, "we should go..."
    "Let's just hope that we can find the secret," I replied, "I want to be an anime geek, and I'm pretty sure this world doesn't have any anime..."
    "(y/n), you are such a goofy girl," Rantaro chuckled as he ruffled my hair, "with that aside, we should go... right, Shuichi?"
    "Y-Yeah... we should go," Shuichi replied.
    One at a time, we all walked up to the door that led to the dining hall. Tsumugi went in first, Kaede went in second, Shuichi went in third, Rantaro went in fourth, and lastly, I went in. We all knew what we needed to do, and if that wasn't the case, a little confirmation would help.
"So (y/n), Rantaro, and I will check the dining room," Tsumugi explained, "Shuichi, Kaede, can you guys check the kitchen? If we run out of things to find here, I'll have Rantaro or (y/n) check the entrance hall."
"If the kitchen is over there, we can go check it out!" Kaede exclaimed.
Shuichi and Kaede both walked over to the kitchen door, walking inside one at a time. I knew they'd be searching in their designated spot, so Tsumugi, Rantaro, and I should do the same.
The dining room had a table with three fancy looking chairs on each side. There was also a china cabinet and a hutch. A hutch and a china cabinet were meant to store fragile items. In the center, there was a dresser or chest. Those would be good places to look for the secret.
"We should start looking around..." I muttered.
"If you're concerned about those shelves, remember objects are unbreakable," Rantaro replied with a smile.
With that, I decided to start my search in the dresser that was in the back of the dining hall. Rantaro started with searching the hutch, and Tsumugi searched the china cabinet. We all were working together to search the dining room area.
After searching what I thought was a dresser, I went to looking around the dining hall area, trying to look underneath the rug, and underneath the table. There seemed to be nothing suspicious in here as the three of us decided to hold a small meeting to see what we found. Once that happened, I let out a small sigh.
"Maybe I should check the entrance hall..." I muttered, "there seems to be nothing suspicious in here..."
"Why don't we check everything in here again first to see if there's anything we missed," Tsumugi recommended, "if we didn't miss anything then you can check the entrance hall, (y/n)."
"I agree," Rantaro replied, "we should probably check this room one more time...."
"Alright, I guess we can look in here one more time..." I muttered.
And that was what we did. The same exact thing. Rantaro looked through the hutch, and Tsumugi looked through the china cabinet while I looked through the drawers of the dresser that was in the dining room. It was the same exact thing, the same exact pattern in doing things. I looked underneath the table as well as pulling up the rug.
I was positioned next to the window as Tsumugi decided to help me with the rug. My gaze was towards the window for a second, and I saw something weird. It was something that I couldn't register, and Tsumugi seemed to be looking out the window as well. Was I crazy or was Tsumugi seeing this to...?
What I saw outside of the window... it was Miu... there shouldn't have been a way for Miu to be here. The signboard bridge was out of commission. I found myself very shocked. Miu seemed to be in a hurry, running past the window and out of sight. I—I needed to get to the entrance hall.
"Why is Miu outside!?" I exclaimed, "am I going crazy or something!?"
Rantaro turned his head in my direction in response to my question. He seemed to have a confused look on his face as he walked over to us. Tsumugi had a nervous look on her face as well from my outburst.
"I-I thought I was going insane..." Tsumugi muttered, "but Miu ran past the window here..."
"I need to go to the entrance hall! I need to see what's going on!" I exclaimed.
"No, no, no, that is not happening..." I heard Rantaro reply.
After I heard those words, I felt arms wrap around the waist of my avatar, and I could feel the warmth of Rantaro's body behind me. I knew it had to be Rantaro. It could be no one else.
"I'm sorry, but you need to stay here," Rantaro told me, "if you saw Miu, then chances are something is happening that could be dangerous. I'm not letting you throw yourself in the middle of it again..."
I knew what I saw, and I understood what Rantaro was telling me. Maybe... it was best for me to stay where I was... I didn't know what Miu was doing near the mansion or how she got there. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination... maybe it was just a hallucination... I didn't understand what was going on... but it felt like soon... I would. Chances were... it was going to be something that made us realize that we shouldn't have gone into this world...

Hello all! The update for this week is done, and we're finally getting into the chaos for chapter four! I had a lot of things to think about in events of this chapter, but in any case this chapter is what I decided. I hope you all are happy with how this chapter turned out.

In any case, I'm gonna extend the chapter five predictions for a couple more weeks. I've been working more, so I've been doing my best to get this updated this week. Thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope you all are having a good summer. It's summer for me, so... ah-haha.... anyway I hope you guys like this chapter! Ciao— yuki_no_fuyu