Chapter 20: investigating the second floor

Author's note:

I didn't think I would get this chapter out today but here it is, a long chapter just for you guys. I haven't had as much time to write as I have so I might not be able to stick with my one chapter a week schedule. I might, but I have to see.

~line~

Once the group of thirteen made it up to the second floor, Taka cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. He looked as serious as always, his arms folded in front of him as eyes blazing with an intensity he always seemed to have. All eyes turned to the hall monitor, each one waiting to see what he had to say. Taka had taken charge of the group there the first day trapped in hopes peak. A few, like Byakuya and Mondo, had questioned his self-imposed leadership. But most of them didn't care as long as someone was taking charge. Makoto was one of them. She believed in Taka, and would support him in trying to keep their remaining classmates together and alive. Mondo still seemed aggravated by Taka; the man just doesn't like being told what to do. Considering he's a motorcycle gang leader, that wasn't very surprising. But he at least kept his dislike to his self.

Once Taka was sure he had everyone's undivided attention, he practically yelled out, "Ok everyone, we will split up into groups like we did when exploring the first floor! Since there are thirteen of us gathered, we will break up into three groups of three and one group of four. Does anyone disagree with this plan?" Taka said the last part as he looked Mondo's way. Makoto couldn't blame him. The last him Taka suggested they split up and explore, it had let to Mondo and Byakuya at each other's throats, and ending with Taka himself getting punched in the face by Mondo when trying to stop them.

A few of the students that caught on, turned their gaze to Mondo, waiting to see what the biker had to say. The look on Mondo's face became hesitant, as he realized that people were now looking his way. Sighing, Mondo shook his head, which made his comically large orange pompadour shake as well. "You know what; I don't feel like arguing today. So let's just split up and search this stupid floor already." It wouldn't be an understatement to say that surprised everyone. Taka blinked a few times, and then couched into a clenched fist. "Thank you Mondo, you're cooperation is appreciated." The biker simply grunted. "Whatever."

"So who's everyone going to group up with," Sakura asked. Those words had just left the muscular girl's mouth when Hina started bouncing up and down. "Sakura, Toko, and I will make up group 1!" Hina was just so bubbly as she said that, her bright smile a sharp contrast to Toko's freak-out face. The writer looked like she was about to rip off her braided pigtails as with the way she was pulling on her own hair. "Who said I wanted to group up with you two muscle heads anyway." The swimmer's cheerful domineer didn't drop an inch. Hina walked up to Toko and grabbed hold of one of her hands with both of her tanned ones. "Don't be like that Toko, let's go!" Hina then dragged a protesting Toko behind her towards a pair of double doors, Sakura following just behind. But before they got too far, Taka stopped them. "Wait a minute, there's one more thing I need to say." Hina stopped in her track and looked back at Taka. "When everyone is finished looking around, head back to the cafeteria so we can discuss what we have found out." Hina and Sakura nodded their heads and the three girls continued on to the double doors that lead to who knows what.

Yasuhiro was the next one to speak up, "Leon, Hifumi, do you guys want to team up again. I think we did a good job last time." Makoto could tell by the look on his face that he was going to refuse, but Hifumi beat him to the punch. "Of course we will, with me on your team we will not fail!" The baseball star groaned loudly, but fallowed the other two anyway. As the redhead walked away, he looked back at Sayaka who was looking quite disappointed. The two most have wanted to team up this time. There was always next time. "I can see a pattern already," the gambler said, a sparkle of amusement shining in her red eyes. "Kiyo," Celeste said as she faced the violet-haired boy, "would you like to search the new floor with me?" There was a pause then Celeste continued, a thoughtful look on her face. "Though…we would need a new third member to join our group since our former group member is no longer with us."

That would be Mukuro. "I'll join you," Sayaka said walking over to Celeste. The gambler smiled at the idol. "Why thank you Sayaka. What do you say Kiyo?" The ultimate ? turned his head to the side, his face unreadable. "That's fine with me, let's just go." Makoto watched his best friend walk away with the two other girls. That left Makoto, Taka, Chihiro, and Mondo left at the top of the stairs. Well, that's settled, we are the last group!" Taka declared in the way he always does. Chihiro smiled hopefully, "I hope we can find a way out this time." Mondo shook his head as he looked down at the small girl. "I count on it." His words made Chihiro's smile fall a bit, "Oh." Realizing he had upset Chihiro, Mondo seemed to panic a bit. "I didn't mean it like that, just that we won't know until we look around." The programmer perked up. "That's right, we won't know until we look." All Makoto could think was 'nice save.'

With that, the four of them walked down the corridor to another set of double doors. Makoto wandered what they would find in there. She already knew it wasn't another classroom, so the possibilities of what could be behind this door were endless. Mondo grabbed hold of the door's handle, opening up the door. The first thing Makoto noticed were large bookcases everywhere. It would seem that they found the school library. And sitting at one of the tabled reading next to a small table lamp was none other than Byakuya Togami. So this is where you've been," Taka yelled out as he marched over to the affluent prodigy.

Byakuya looked up from the book he was reading and narrowed his blue eyes at them. The irritation was coming off of him in waves. He was not happy seeing them there that was for sure. Makoto was surprised to see him here. She had thought that he was held up in his room, refusing to interact with anyone. But, nope, here he was reading in the library. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your breakfast meeting?" Byakuya demanded of them. He was laying it pretty thick that he didn't want them there. Well, he was going to have to get over it, because this wasn't his personal library and they can investigate this room if they want to. "Don't tell me you were looking for me, because if you were it was a waste of effort." A vain began throbbing on Mondo's forehead. That was never a good sign. "You need to get over yourself you prick." The heir's eyes narrowed further at that. "We're investigating this new floor that's opened up. It's got nothing to do with you. In fact, we thought you were still in your room back in the dorms."

Byakuya gave the biker an unimpressed look then turned his focus back to the book he had been reading before they walked in. "I see...if that's all, you can go do your little investigation somewhere else." Even with a week of being trapped in here with him, Makoto still had a hard time believing what a massive prick this guy is. Here they were trying to find a way out, and all he can seem to do is sit there and belittle them for it. With the way he acted, you'd think this situation wasn't bothering him one bit. It was almost as if he was enjoying himself.

"That is unacceptable! We will search wherever we please!" Taka's sudden outburst made everyone even Byakuya jump. "It's one thing to not want to help, but you will not stop us from searching the library just for your selfish reasons." With that said Taka walked away from the stuck up heir and began looking around the bookshelves. Byakuya tsked, "Do what you want; I'm done talking to you planktons." The throbbing vain on the side of Mondo's head looked like it was going to burst. His face had turned red as he began cracking his knuckles. "You stuck up prick, I'm sick of your BS. Get off your high horse and do something useful." Byakuya's sharp eyes snapped up to glare at Mondo. "Like what? Play teamwork and be buddy, buddy with everyone? I don't think so. It seems I'm the only one who truly understands our situation. This is a game and I intend to win it. You commoners are too far beneath me to even consider working with." There was that word again, 'game'. There was no way Makoto could except this as a game, not one were people were actually dying. The fact that he actually sees this as a game was proof enough of how messed up he must truly be.

The tension between the two men became electric. Cold scrutiny collided with boiling rage. Sensing that a fight might break out between the two, Makoto took a step back. There was no way she was getting in the middle between that. If Byakuya provokes Mondo into punching his face in, then he'll have no one to blame but himself. It was just then that Makoto realized that Chihiro was no longer standing by her. Surprised, the luckster looked around, trying to see where the small programmer could have gone. But Makoto didn't have time to really look around when the sound of chair legs scraping across tiled floor filled the library, soon followed by the sound of said chair smacking hard against the floor.

Mondo looked like he had snapped. He had a fist full of Togami's shirt, the heir being lifted off of the group a few inches. "That's it, I'm done with you!" The cocky amusement that had been surrounding the affluent prodigy vanished, replaced with an uneasy concern. Byakuya must have realized the situation he had put himself into and now couldn't find a way out. Makoto didn't know what to do. There was nothing she could do to stop the train wreck happening in front of her. Trying would only get her hurt, and she wasn't going to risk that. Just then Taka seemed to have materialized right next to her. "Stop this fighting this instant!" The hall monitor yelled out, his anger blazing in his eyes. "Two of our friends died yesterday, this is not the time to be fighting amongst each other." Taka was trying his best to take charge of the situation. Though Makoto noticed that he made no move to get closer to the two who he was speaking to. He mustn't want a repeat of what happened last time he intervened. Mondo's inferno of rage seemed to burn down. He began to lower Byakuya, his resolve to beat the heir in crumbling. At least it was until Byakuya sealed his own fate. "You heard him, put me down you brain dead monkey." Makoto didn't even have a chance to think when Mondo's fist made contact with Byakuya's face. A loud crack filled the air, and the next thing Makoto knew, Byakuya was on the ground.

Mondo was breathing heavily, his rage having reached its peak. His large frame was shaking with seething anger. The sight was quite terrifying. Without thinking, Makoto had taken a step behind Taka. Noticing this, Taka gathered his courage and yelled out, "Calm down Mondo, you're scaring Makoto." Mondo snapped around to yell something at Taka, but stopped when he saw how frightened the luckster actually was. That was enough to damper his boiling rage some. Without another word, Mondo left the library, slamming the door behind him as he left.

Once he was gone, Makoto turned back to Byakuya who had just got back up onto his feet. The first thing she noticed was that Byakuya's glasses were broken. The frame was bent and broken, the left lens cracked to the point that there was no way Byakuya could see out of it. There was also a small cut on the bridge of his nose from where his broken glasses most have cut him when Mondo punched him. Makoto knew she should feel a little bad for him, but she didn't. He was the one who brought this upon himself. No one made him insult the guy with anger issues. That was all Byakuya. Remembering Chihiro's absence, Makoto looked away from the scowling Byakuya and turned to Taka who looked to be debating on how he should handle the mess between Byakuya and Mondo. "Hey Taka, do you know where Chihiro went?" Taka blinked a few times then responded. "I saw her leave a few minutes ago. She looked like she was carrying something." Taka explained, his focus now on Makoto. "I was going to ask her what it was she taking out of the library but before I could I saw Mondo getting ready to slug Byakuya."

As Makoto listened to Taka speak, she watched Byakuya pick up the fallen chair and push it back under the table. "It seems that my peace and quiet has been shattered. I'll be returning to my room now." The heir made his way to the door Mondo had just exited out of, but stopped when Taka called out, "Byakuya wait." Byakuya stopped just at the door and slightly turned his head. "What is it now?" Taka was unaffected by his cold tone, his own voice as loud and confident as ever. "Before you go, I would like to inform you that while looking around I found a letter buried under a layer of dust. Taka held up a large gold-colored envelope. "It has the Hope's Peak seal on the back and even has the words 'Hope's Peak Academy written on it." That seemed to have gotten Byakuya's interest. "I see, are you going to open it up and let me see what's inside?" Taka shook his head at the blonde heir's demand. "I will open it up and show it to everyone after we have finished investigating the second floor. We will be gathering in the cafeteria like before. If you want to see what is inside the letter, you will have to join us and find out with everyone else."

Byakuya made a tsk sound then left the library, leaving Makoto and Taka the last ones left in there. Walking over to a desk not far from where Byakuya had been sitting, the luckster noticed a rectangularly shaped spot in the dust on the desk's surface. It looked as though something had been there recently, could it be what Chihiro had taken. There was nothing else to see there so Makoto started walking around the library, trying to see if she could find anything herself. Taka joined her, his presence welcoming in the large quiet room. At the back of the library, Makoto almost walked past a door that was hidden away next to some bookshelves. If she hadn't been looking closely at everything, she would have walked right past it. Walking over to the door, Makoto opened the door and switched on the light. Beyond the door was a small archive. Every space on the shelves that made up the room's walls was packed to the brim with files and documents. There were even some files on the floor where there was no more room for them on the shelves.

Makoto wanted to pick up one of the files and look through them, but she could do that another time, for now all that mattered was that she knew that the archive was here in the library. "This looks interesting, how about we search through here together later on." It was as if Taka had read Makoto's mind. The lucky student nodded her head, "Let's do that." With nothing else to see, Makoto and Taka left the archive. Back in the library, Makoto made her way towards the doors that led to the hallway. "I'm going to check on Hina, Sakura, and Toko." Taka nodded his head, "that's fine; our group seems to have disbanded anyway. I'm going to check on the others too, and then I will head to the cafeteria to wait on everyone." Makoto nodded her head then walked back into the corridor.

She then headed down the corridor to where she remembered Hina heading to. The lucky student found herself in front of another large pair of double doors. Turning the handle, Makoto walked into a large room with workout equipment organized onto shelves along the walls. Hina, Toko, and Sakura were standing in the middle of the room, seeming to be in the middle of a conversation. Hina was the first one to notice Makoto. The swimmer smiled in her direction and waved at her. "Hey Makoto, you won't believe it!" Hina's voice was filled with an excitement that had her more bubbly than usual. Toko and Sakura looked at Makoto then. The muscular woman gave the luckster a warm smile, while the nerves pigtailed girl just looked away biting one of her nails. "We have a pool Makoto, can you believe it a pool. I'm so excited; I can't wait to swim in it." Makoto could believe it, she was bouncing with so much excitement that Makoto wouldn't be surprised if she just took off running for the pool that very moment. "The pool entrance is through the changing room over there." Hina pointed to two doors on the other side of the room. One was blue, which Makoto assumed was the boy's changing room, and a pink door, which was most likely the girl's changing room.

Makoto then noticed a large machine gun nailed to ceiling pointing at the doors. The sight of it made Makoto nerves. What purpose could that thing serve? As if noticing Makoto's unease, Sakura spoke up, "It's alright. Monokuma showed up early and explained it. The machine gun is to ensure that one enters the wrong changing room. It would seem that the changing rooms have card readers and the only way in is to swipe our e-handbooks across the card reader. But only a girl's handbook and open the girl's locker room and only a boy's handbook can open the boy's locker room. If anyone tries to enter the wrong changing room, they will be shot down. Monokuma said something about not allowing indecency in the school. Which is something I don't understand when he makes us kill each other."

Makoto nodded along while listening. So she would only be able to enter the girl's locker room and the machine gun was to keep people from spying on each other. It kind of made sense in a twisted sorta way. "We also found a bunch of floats and pool supplies in the pool supply closet. We should have a pool party, it would be fun. What do you think Makoto?" That did sound fun. Makoto told Hina that and the swimmer's smile got even bigger. "Come on Makoto, I'll show you the pool." Hina then swiped her handbook across the card reader then opened the door to the girl's locker room. The inside of the changing room looked more like a gym. Work out equipment everywhere. There was a set of dumbbells and other things that Sakura would enjoy. There was a second door in the changing room; this one must be the one that leads to the actual pool. The luckster fallowed Hina through the door and into the pool room. The pool was huge, the kind of pool one would see professional swimmers use. Considering that this is Hope's peak, a large pool should be expected. There was also a set of bleachers where people could watch other's swim. Most likely for swimming contests. Hina walked over to the supply closet and opened it up. Inside were all kinds of cleaners for the water, nets of all sizes and boxes filled with all sorts of floats that anyone would want to play with while swimming.

"Hey Makoto, do you want to swim with me sometime. Swimming is a great way for people to bond you know?" That was a great offer, one that Makoto wasn't going to pass up. "Sure, I would love to swim with you sometime." That was what Hina wanted to hear. "Thanks, Makoto, we'll have a blast. Well, let's go head to the cafeteria already." The two girls then left the pool, walking back through the changing room and into the pool entrance. Sakura and Toko where still there, Toko having an impatient look on her face. "Can we go now, there's nothing left see here." Just then Makoto felt her stomach growl. That's right, they hadn't eaten breakfast yet. The others must be getting hungry too. "Of course we can, let's head to the cafeteria. I'm ready to eat some breakfast and I'm sure the rest of you are too." Sakura said as she made her way to the room's entrance. Makoto, Hina, and Toko followed her out and the four girls made their way back downstairs.

~line~

Author's note:

I hope you like this chapter. Since Celeste wasn't at the pool entrance to mention how they could trade handbooks to get into the changing rooms, it's not yet a rule that they can't lend out there e-handbooks. plus it seems that Byakuya got punched by Mondo, maybe he'll be more careful when agitating the dude. But knowing Byakuya he might not.

Anyway, thank you for reading and give a kudos and a comment to let me know what you thought.