Despite how dense and somewhat moronic Hiro had presented himself as so far, his instincts seemed on-point this morning. Just as he had assumed, now that the second class trial was over, the staircase on the second floor had been unblocked, and now, there was yet another floor above that for the students to explore. Everyone decided to go in pairs, but that meant one person was left out, as Sakura was still nowhere to be found, and at that, neither was Byakuya. Taka, as the unanimously appointed leader, prepared to assign everyone to groups, just like he did during the investigation the previous day. Chihiro was teamed up with Makoto. Junko and Kyoko were another pair, both of whom seemed weirdly awkward around each other (well, Junko was. Kyoko didn't seem to pay much mind) Hifumi and Hiro were Team 3, which honestly seemed like a match made in heaven, but that was only because Mondo seemed rather adamant about teaming up with Taka, something the Moral Compass had no objections to. That meant Celeste was going solo, however, neither she, nor anyone else, seemed to mind.
However, the Ultimate Gambler soon found that she did indeed have a partner for her investigation. Her place of choice to investigate was a room relatively near the stairs, but upon entering, she was surprised to see the tall figure of the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, Byakuya Togami.
"Ah...so you're here..." he at least acknowledged her presence, unlike how he had done while he was in the library.
"That's my line..." Celeste snarked "what are you doing here? I figured you'd be in the library..."
"I plan to go right back there once I'm done," he said "but I'd rather investigate this place myself than have one of those incompetents come and explain it to me later...I must admit, my time here is a lot more peaceful now that that walking milk cloth is dead..."
"You're lucky it's me and not anybody else," Celeste looked at him sternly "if not, I'd imagine someone else would have something to say to that..."
"As if I care..." Byakuya sighed "regardless, this place in particular seems like..."
"It's a recreation room, clearly," Celeste pointed out "a place for students to come and relax."
"I'm surprised that there's a room like this in this school...It's not uncommon for regular high schools to have rec rooms I suppose, but not of this quality..." Byakuya said this like a monologue, as if he was speaking but not directly to Celeste. She replied regardless.
"Well, yes, with regular high schools, maybe, but there is not much regular about this place...It seems this place contains Othello, shogi, darts and even billiards...and take a look at this..."
Curious, the blond boy with glasses turned his head to gaze in the gambling girls direction, as she reached out for a magazine rack and picked up one of the papers.
"My my...Now that we have this place, it seems there's no dearth of cures for boredom..." she grinned.
"And I have some additional intelligence!" Celeste jumped slightly, as she thought Byakuya had began talking in a high pitched voice, but she opened her eyes and held back a grimace as she realized Monokuma had appeared from seemingly nowhere once again "in regards to those magazines, you'll be glad to know that our variety of genres is very wide! There's fashion magazines, motorcycle magazines, martial arts magazines, baseball magazines, football magazines, PC magazines and many more. Oh, but there's nothing dirty or anything, aside from a few risque pinup shoots. This is a school environment after all!"
"Yes, I'd imagine if you did, Taka would have something to say about it..." Byakuya commented.
"Tell me something," Celeste asked "when new issues of these magazines are made, will they be available to us?"
"No can do!" Monokuma replied rather bluntly "even if I wanted to, the magazine companies themselves, they-"
However, before he could finish what he was saying, Monokuma suddenly cut himself off. Celeste and Byakuya both stared at him curiously.
"whoops! Almost gave some secrets away there! But nope! Caught myself! That's all the info you're getting right now!"
And with that, he vanished.
"Hm...That is indeed rather perplexing..." Celeste pondered.
"Agreed..." Byakuya said "there's something not quite right about these magazines...Why wouldn't he update them...?"
"Regardless of his reasons, it truly is a shame..." Celeste pouted "it truly would enrich our lives if we were to receive new material from time to time..."
Team 2 and Team 4 had headed off in generally the same direction, towards the furthest room on the third floor. Eventually, both groups arrived at a science lab area, that seemed to be a physics lab. However, it seemed more like research lab for a military base than a school.
"There are open wires over on that wall over there..." Taka pointed out "that could be dangerous...Though I suppose that's the point..."
"Yeah..." Mondo replied apathetically.
"And this...monstrous machine right here in the center...What on earth is this?"
"Dunno..." Mondo replied, even more apathetically. This time, it was apathetic enough to notice.
"Is something wrong bro?" he asked "if you have any problems, you can tell me. I'd gladly lend you an ear..."
Mondo was quiet for a moment, before he finally asked the question he wanted to...
"How can you be ok with this?"
"I'm not ok with this," Taka grumbled "I'm as upset to be in this situation where the threat of death is here every day as much as anyone..."
"That ain't what I mean!" Mondo growled "I mean, how can you be ok with me?"
"What? B-Because you're my friend! My bro in fact!" Taka declared.
"How can you call me that...?" Mondo asked "you know the truth now...I killed my Big Bro...and I tried to kill Chihiro too...How can you still call me your bro?"
"Well, I..." Taka said "Mondo...Right now isn't exactly a good time...But know that nobody else is angry at you, and we have no reason to be..."
"I'm a murderer!" Mondo boomed!
"No you're not!" Taka boomed back "just-...can we talk about this later?"
Mondo sighed and gave in.
"Fine, fine, later then," he grumbled "anyway, back to this machine...I got no clue what it does..."
Upon instinct, he approached it, reaching out his hand, but before he could touch it, Monokuma got in his way.
"WATCH OOOUT!" he shrieked.
"WOAH!? WHAT THE FUCK!?" Mondo yelped, a couple years taken off his life at the scare.
"Easy there mister! You wanna leap back in time!?" Monokuma snapped.
"What?" Taka's expression was one of confusion more than shock.
"That's a time machine," Monokuma indicated to the large device behind him "pretty cool, right? A graduated Ultimate built it. Of course, she's dead now. Died in the dregs of despair...tragic right?"
"Wait...a time machine...?" Taka asked "th-THAT'S IT!"
"What's it?" Mondo asked.
"IT's it!" Taka boomed, which frankly didn't answer the question "if we can use the machine to travel to the past, we can go back and save Leon and stop Sayaka! Then we'll be able to convince Toko and Hina not to attack each other! They'll live!"
"Not gonna happen buster," Monokuma sighed "this thing only takes you back one minute, not 1440+. It's perfect for those times where you leave your instant-ramen in the microwave for a minute too long but...that's about it."
"One minute!?" Taka exclaimed.
"What kinda backwards ass invention is that?" Mondo leered.
"Oh, don't sweat it, I was lying anyway. Time travel ain't possible right now. If it were, I would've used it already!" Monokuma teased "this baby is actually an Air Purifier."
"Air Purifier?" Taka repeated. Monokuma nodded.
"Yessirree! She's a fine piece of tech that can produce oxygen in any number of conditions! It's the kind you see on space shuttles, except way better! In fact, if it weren't for the temperature and level of gravity, this thing could make it possible to live on Mars! Anyway, the point it, don't go prodding it. If this thing breaks, you guys won't have any air to breath..."
With that cryptic message, he vanished away again.
"Tch..." Taka grit his teeth "he just went out of his way to throw salt in our wounds...Curse him..."
"Whatever...Time Travel is bullshit anyway..." Mondo grumbled, a little disappointed himself "wait...what the hell?"
"What? What is it?" Taka asked.
In place of an answer, Mondo held up a small item he found on a table in the same room. It was a small, digital camera, with a bizarre anime character on it.
"What in the heck?" was all Taka could say. Mondo instinctively began to poke around with it.
"It's a little dusty but...it seems like it's working fine...Guess we should show everyone else this later..."
The physics lab also had a preparation and storage room that branched off of it. It was a jumbled mess of an area and smelled of chemicals. Team 2, being Kyoko and Junko, decided to investigate this area.
"Shit..." Junko held her nose "it smells like methane in here...Not cool. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime..."
"What kind of fashionista work would involve methane?" Kyoko asked.
"It's got nothing to do with work...kinda..." Junko told her "my old manager's office room smelled just like this...He was a nice man, but he had no sense of decency when it came to his living space..."
"I can imagine..." Kyoko began poking around the room, which Junko took interest in.
"I gotta say, it's amazing..." she said "it's almost like you know exactly where to look..."
At this remark, Kyoko stopped what she was doing and turned towards Junko, an eyebrow raised.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying anything," Junko assured her "it's just..."
"You're suspicious of me?" she asked "I cannot fathom why you seem to distrust me so..."
"I don't distrust you," Junko told her "I just find it a little unsettling when you look at me like you know all my secrets or something..."
Kyoko chuckled slightly at this.
"Did..." Junko's eyes widened "did I just make you laugh?"
"Unlike what you may believe, I do have a sense of humor," Kyoko smiled "but I understand your concerns. I can't tell you anything major yet, but I assure you, I would not kill anybody. Not in the least you..."
"Well, I'm not really worried about that..." Junko pondered "but I'll at least appreciate that...By the way, are we going to go check the other classrooms around here?"
"Yes, but I suspect it will be the same story as it was for the previous classrooms on the previous floors," Kyoko told her "the windows are likely sealed with iron plates."
"So what you're saying is we're probably not gonna find a way out and I shouldn't get my hopes up?" Junko asked "thanks for being blunt man..."
"I'm simply saying it how it is," Kyoko told her "but that's why we're checking, just to be sure..."
Team 3, that being Yasuhiro and Hifumi, as this conversation was going on, were instead investigating a different area of the third floor. One thing was for certain, compared to the two floors below, there were more rooms on the third floor. One of the rooms was one that Hifumi seemed visibly excited about. That being an art room, complete with paints, pens, pencils and every other kind of writing or drawing equipment you'd expect to find in a school. There was a suppository room in the back, and Chihiro and Makoto had decided to go back there, while Hiro and Hifumi searched the art room itself.
"Well, well, well, what a fine establishment this is," Hifumi puffed out his chest in amusement "my artsy sense is tingling...! Not only is there a bounty of painting supplies, but there's quite the selection of sculpting tools too!"
"You into sculpting Fumi?" Hiro asked, surprised by this.
"Generally speaking, I partake not of the world of 3 Dimensions," he explained "but in my eyes, figurines and models of my favorite characters are different. In my eyes, they count. I'm particularly fond of of the work of a company called Freeing. They're quite famous for their line of Bunny Girl figures..."
"Bunny girl?" Hiro repeated, confused.
"Girls who dress in these outfits. They traditionally are skintight suits that expose the girls legs and cleavage, and come along with a fluffy tail and a bunny eared headband. I wouldn't personally consider it a fetish or kink of mine, but I admire Freeing's work for the detail they put in their work."
"Riiiight..." Hiro scratched his head, secretly weirded out by the idea, but also imagining one of those figures but of Kyoko for whatever reason "so...would you like to make those figures..."
"It's a subtle dream of mine, I admit..." he said.
The last area of note was a repository or storage room that connected to the art room, containing a wealth of supplies. The final team, Chihiro and Makoto, investigated this area. Upon entering, Makoto was immediately drawn towards the far back wall, and the items that hung from it.
"There are wooden hammers here...They're probably used for sculpting..." he said aloud to his partner "is there anything else in this room that's interesting to you?"
Chihiro did not respond. Curious as to why, Makoto turned around to see the Ultimate Programmer kneeling on the floor, eyes wide.
"Chihiro?" he asked "are you...alright?"
When Chihiro didn't answer, Makoto drew closer, and instinctively, Chihiro himself moved out of the way to show him what he was looking at. On the floor was a photograph, but when Makoto went to pick it up...
he stopped...
The photo was taken in what looked to be a classroom, but the classroom itself was not what was important...What WAS important, was what was actually happening in it...
The image showed two girls and a boy, all sitting around a desk. The first girl was showing the other two something on her phone. The boy was laughing and smiling warmly at whatever was on the phone, while the other one cracked a nervous smile...All three of them looked like they were smiling and enjoying each other's company...But the shocking thing, was that the two girls and boy...
Were Sayaka Maizono, Toko Fukawa and Leon Kuwata...AKA, the now deceased students...
"What the heck...is this?" Makoto forced out of his mouth after a stunned silence.
"I have no idea," Chihiro replied finally "I have so many questions..."
Indeed, this was the truth. Question after question flooded his mind.
Why the three of them?
Why are they together?
Why are they smiling?
When was it taken?
Who took it?
Where's the camera?
Where was it developed?
"Wait a second...!" Makoto gasped "Chihiro! Look! The window!"
At the exclamation, Chihiro looked at the window and felt himself gasp too. The classroom windows were wide open, and the sun shone through with a bright blue sky in the background...That seemed normal, however, it wasn't...after all...
Where are the iron plates!?
"There's no iron plates on the windows..." Chihiro said aloud "but then that means the picture... wasn't taken at Hope's Peak?"
Before he had the chance to ask any more questions, he yelped as a lightning fast object zoomed right past his head and swiped the picture from his hand. That object, as I'm sure you could probably guess, was Monokuma.
"Bad Chihiro! Bad!" Monokuma growled "this is mine!"
"Well, isn't it too late?" Makoto asked "we kinda already saw it..."
"Makoto shush!" Chihiro tugged on his hoodie "he might kill us to keep us quiet!"
"Not a bad idea, but I'll pass...It's not like you can UNsee it though..." the bear chuckled "what do you think? Those're some nice smiles, huh? Enjoying their school life...It's like a page out of the book of life, I tell ya..."
"What do you know about that picture?" Makoto asked.
"As if I'd tell you!" Monokuma smirked "why'd you think I snatched it?"
Before Makoto could speak again, Monokuma quickly vanished with the picture in his hand. Makoto yelled after him, but his cries fell on deaf ears.
"So..." he said after a few minutes of stunned silence "what now?"
"We...head back to the cafeteria I guess?" Chihiro asked "whatever the case, we need to tell the others about this..."