I Know Your Heart

First Challenge

After two and a half hours of touring, it was time for lunch. For the first day today, they decided not to follow a particular schedule and just go along with whatever schedule Monokuma would make at the moment since their physical activities would still start later. "Alright kids, now that it's lunch, I'm sure at least some of you will wanna go back to the main campus, so I suppose I'll show you guys the shortcut now." Monokuma said.

They all went to the smallest gymnasium, which was also in the middle of the campus. Inside, there was quite a big storage room which had a large, but well-hidden hatch at the side.

"If y'all go down from here, it's a straight path to the main campus. It's about a two or three minute walk going there, by the way, in case any of you panic or get impatient." Monokuma explained as everyone climbed down into the dim, underground path. Once everyone climbed down though, the hatch suddenly slammed shut above them and the sounds of moving boxes and crates were heard shortly after.

"...Did we just get locked in here...?" Harukawa asked with worry and slight irritation in her voice.

"It appears so." Shinguji replied.

"W-well, there's nothing to worry about. Monokuma said it was a straight path to the main campus anyway, right?" Akamatsu asked.

"Yes. If what he said is true, then there shouldn't be a problem in getting out of here." Tojo assured.

"Wait! We need a light first, you know..?! It's too dark in here!" Chabashira exclaimed.

A short silence fell among them until Kiibo had an idea. "Ouma-kun, do you think you could make a flashlight for us?" he asked. "Took you long enough to come up with that." Ouma teased as a glimmer of yellow light appeared from his palms, which quickly turned into a flashlight.

"Alright. We should start walking now." Saihara said as Ouma flicked the flashlight on and walked ahead of everyone.

After a minute of walking, they suddenly came across a straight path and one going to the right. "Uhh...guys? Where should we go?" Ouma asked, being the first to notice the split in their path.

"Huh?! That damn bear lied to us?!" Yumeno exclaimed furiously.

"Calm down, Yumeno. Atua says we just need to utilize our powers in situations like this." Yonaga assured.

"Hey Iruma, you're the smartest one here. Got any ideas?" Ryoma asked.

"Pssh! Isn't the solution so fucking obvious?! So, Momota could use that earthquake shit power to try and feel the vibrations that connect to the main campus and we'll just follow him from there!" Iruma proudly exclaimed.

Ryoma then mumbled incomprehensible words to himself, though it was obvious enough that he was a little ticked off.

Even Momota seemed annoyed, but he did as she said anyway, and led them all to the main campus. Along the way, it really seemed to frustrate everyone how Monokuma told them it was just a "straight path" to the main campus, when they encountered many turns and new paths. But soon enough, they arrived in front of a red door, which seemed to be their goal.

Inside, there was an elevator which seemed quite old and rusty, but they all figured that this should be where they're supposed to go. The ride going up was quite shaky, as expected, but it still seemed safe somehow.

After a minute, the elevator stopped and opened its doors. Much to everyone's surprise, they had stepped into the Shrine of Judgment, which they were never allowed to enter previously.

"Whoa! This place is really beautiful!" Shirogane exclaimed in awe.

"As much as we might want to admire this place even more, we now know that we can come here whenever we want since this leads to the other campus after all, so we should find Monokuma first right now." Amami said.

"Very sharp of you, Amami-kun!" Monokuma praised as everyone looked at his direction. "Congrats on making it out there. It was easy, right?" he continued.

"Easy...?! You lied to us about the whole "It's a straight path to the main campus" thing! It was basically a huge maze in there!" Momota argued.

"Ohoho! Are you complaining this early into the semester? That was actually quite a small task compared to what you'll be facing later on, you know? And besides, that was also to test your teamwork, and quick wits too. So, if you have the time to be running your mouth like that here, then you're probably better off leaving this school." Monokuma explained ominously.

Everyone was taken aback from those statements, especially because of how serious Monokuma was. Nobody has ever seen him act so...dark. "A-alright, alright, I get it..." Momota stuttered nervously. "Good. So, as your kind teacher, I will still allow you guys to have your full hour and 40 minutes of lunch, and we'll meet by the main door and drive back to the training campus afterwards, ok? Dismissed!" Monokuma said before dashing away.

And they all understood perfectly just from that little sermon that they absolutely cannot take this semester lightly at all.

A/N:
long time no see guys!! I'm not dead, I've just been super lazy, busy and have had no motivation to write until today. I haven't been doing so well with life lately, and my friend suggested that I try writing or drawing again as like a stress reliever kind of thing (I won't give away any details abt myself rn so I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense for y'all:(( ), and I, surprisingly, got back to this and finished most of this in just a few hours!! and because it's been so long since my last real update, I made this chapter a bit longer than usual:))

tbh tho, it's also been hard for me to come up with a development at this point in the story, which is also how I lost motivation ehehe... I hope this chapter wasn't so disappointing, esp since I've been gone for so long, but I'll try to do better in the upcoming chapters!! (if I stay motivated, that is...) see u guys next time!!!!

also, I'll post a sketch of the pe uniforms soon, so u guys know what it actually looks like lol