Underhanded Graduate

II

I woke up to the sound of Monokuma’s loud, annoying voice filling my room. I noticed the monitor up on the wall for the first time.

Monokuma held a martini, waving it around as he spoke. “Good morning, students! Since no one has died yet… it looks like I’m going to have to motivate you guys! That being said…” He grinned wide.

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“Why don’t you arrogant little swines go about your daily ‘business’ so I can figure out what I should do to motivate you!”

With that, I realize I’d slept through the night and I wanted some breakfast. I opened my door, locked it behind me, and left to the restaurant.

I find it full of people – but not everyone. Inside, I find Aino and a bunch of people I have yet to know. I walk over to Aino and smile at him, he gives me a small smile and an even smaller wave. I look around at the people.

I see the two from the gym yesterday that Monokuma pointed out as Tadashi and Higu. I spot a guy staring at me and make a face. He has uncombed black hair, quite fat, a faceful of acne, and he looks like you’re everyday weeb.

He walked over to me, grinning madly. “Hey! I’m Camu! What’s your name?!”

I blinked, comprehending what he said. “Oh, uh, I’m Eliza.”

Camu looked at Aino expectantly. Aino began fidgeting with his pins. “A-Aino…”

“Well, I’m the Ultimate Geek!” He puts a hand on his chest in a proud gesture. I snort, then cough it off. Called it. Camu shrugged his shoulders, giving a mock-humble look. “Yeah, it seems of all the geeks out there, I’m kind of their king.”

Oh dear lord, he’s annoying and full of himself.

Camu continued to ramble on about something stupid. I looked at Aino, who was again fidgeting with a button on his sweatshirt. I grinned.

“Hey Aino,” I whispered to him. “I happen to notice those buttons of your’s are rainbow… are you gay?”

His face flushed and he jumped, “Wh-what?!”

“You heard me,” I smirked.

He coughed, releasing the pin from his grasp. “I… I am.”

I smiled brightly, “Oh, I knew it! So is there anyone here you like? Maybe…” I glanced around the room. Camu was still talking on and on, which Aino wasn’t paying any attention to, so I figured it didn’t mean anything. I pointed to Tadashi. “How about him?”

Aino’s gaze followed my finger. “Uh, no. I don’t think so. He’s too… I don’t know.”

“What? Not manly enough?”

“That’s a mean thing to say about him.”

“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “So is there anyone you have your eye on?”

“Well–”

Aino was cut off by the doors flying open. The room hushed, even Camu shut his trap, to look. Kuriama stood there with his arms out, having just thrown open the doors. He strode in, looked at everyone. Finally, his gaze went to me and he winked.

“What? Cat got your tongue?”

A couple people scoffed, others groaned, and went back to their conversations. Aino, next to me, sighed dreamily. I looked at him, the corner of my lips raising.

“Ah, I see.”

He snapped out of it, “W-what?”

“You like Kuriama,” I concluded.

Before Aino had the chance to argue, Kuri joined us. I smiled at him and he gave me a smirk.

“Hey Eliza. Mind if I ask ‘ya something?” He asked deeply.

“Oh, alright.” Aino gave me a curious, almost warning look, but I shrugged it off. I followed Kuri to the kitchen.

He shut the door behind him, “I’d like to ask you something.”

I glance at the closed door, separating them from everyone else. “Ask me anything.”

“What would you do if I were the mastermind?” He got up close to me, looking me in the eye. His expression was completely series. I frowned.

“I don’t think you are,” I said.

“And why is that?” he asks.

“Well,” I place a gentle finger on the fridge handle. “For one, if you were the mastermind, you wouldn’t be telling me this.”

“Or what if I was the mastermind, and I’m telling you this because I love you?”

That line hit me so hard I almost fell over. I took a moment to let it sink it. “Kuriama, we just met. I find it rather unlikely that you love me. And again – it still seems to be a terrible idea to just up and tell me that you’re the mastermind.”

He stared at me seriously for a long time, before leaning back. “You’re very smart. You passed.”

I narrowed my eyes, “Passed what?”

“My test,” he says. “I wanted to know how trusting you are.”

“And my results…?”

“You passed,” he said simply, shrugging. “You seem to have the right smarts. Your only problem is you trust me so much that you’re willing to believe I’m not the mastermind. If I were, that’d be bad. If I’m not, that’d still be bad, because it means you’ll be trusting enough to understand that no one is the mastermind.”

I blinked, “Well, so far I know for a fact that neither you nor Aino are not the mastermind.”

“Oh, Aino. All cute and innocent… but then bam!” He lurched forward, arms in the air, fingers curled like claws. “He kills you in your sleep.”

I chuckled, “That just doesn’t seem his style. He’s more of the Death By Stalker type.”

“What does ‘death by stalker’ even mean?” He raised an eyebrow.

I grinned, watching as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. None of his demeanor told me he was on guard. If anything, he seemed like a normal teenager hanging out with his friends at the mall – maybe admiring some girls.

“I don’t know,” I say simply. “Stalk someone to the point where he finds them cornered, then kill them. He just seems like the type to obsess over someone rather than blindly murder.”

Kuri got a thoughtful look, “That… makes sense. You’re pretty tactful.” He looked out into the restaurant. “Okay, what about him?” he pointed to Camu, who was still talking to poor Aino.

“Well,” I start, inspecting the guy. “He just seems too stupid to do anything. I mean, I’m sure he could try to kill someone, but they’d probably very easily get away.”

Kuri laughed, causing me to smile. He turns to the door, making my smile turn to a disappointed frown. I really wanted to spend more time with him in here to talk. I sighed as he opened the door and held it open for me.

I gave him my best actor’s smile, heading back out to join up with Aino.

When he saw us, his expression washed with relief. “Hey guys,” he said quickly, causing Camu to finally shut up. Camu looked at Kuri and me.

“Oh! I was just telling Aino about the time I totally dominated at a mall tournament. Would you like me to start over?”

“No!” I said quickly, startling him. “I mean, no thanks. I’m sure I’ve heard enough. How about you go tell him?” I pointed toward a random guy standing with someone in a corner. He noticed me pointing at him and comes over, looking confused.

“Um, are you talking about me?” He asked. He flicked his short, auburn hair out of his eyes.

I nodded, “Yup, what’s your name?”

“Angenoid, but you can call me Angen–”

“Great!” I interrupted. “Camu, talk to Angen!”

Camu grinned and turned to Angen, who looked even more confused. Camu looped his arm around Angen’s and lead him off to a table to sit and talk. Not three sentences in, Angenoid gave us a pleading look, most likely to have been asking us to get him out of the situation.

Kuriama snorted, “Wow. Well, that’s one way to get rid of ‘em.”

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” I asked, then turned to Aino, who was staring at Kuri. The corner of my lips raised into a crooked smile and I raised an eyebrow. “Aino.”

Aino seemed to snap out of a trance, “Huh?”

“You’re drooling.”

“What?!” he frantically lifts his sleeves to wipe at his mouth, embarrassed.

I rolled my eyes, turning to the other people in the room. Standing in the corner was a shorter male, about the same height as Aino, with dirty blonde hair and a blue sweatshirt like Aino’s. No buttons, though.

He was standing all alone, watching everyone through slitted eyes. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go talk to him or not, he looked kind of threatening for a cute little guy. Aino’s eyes followed my gaze and he smiled.

“We should go make friends.”

“Um… Sure. Why not?” I turned to Kuri, “You coming?”

He shrugged, “Nah, I’ll stay over here. I’m kind of expecting someone.”

“Oh, okay. Have fun.”

Aino grabs my wrist and pulls me over to the loner. He raised an eyebrow at us as though we were interrupting him in the middle of a conversation. No one was around.

I smiled kindly at him, “Hi! What are you doing over here all alone?”

He shrugged, “Well, I was talking to him,” he gestured over to Angen. “But someone decided to give him off to the annoying nerd.”

Aino muttered, “Oops.”

“Ah, sorry about that. But we’ll talk! Hey, I’m Eliza Heart. Ah, Ultimate Actress.” I held a hand out to him.

He didn’t take it, “London Lockwood.” After a quiet moment, he pursed his lips as if deep in thought. “Ultimate Hypnotist.”

Aino stepped in, “I’m Aino Roa! Ultimate Artist!” He sounded decently confident. A lot better than he had been before.

Both Aino and London were a head shorter than the average guy at this age. Or maybe they were just younger than us?

“Hey, how old are you two?”

“Eighteen,” Aino was quick to reply while London didn’t look very impressed.

“I’m eighteen, too,” London said slowly.

Okay, so the two were only a year younger than I was. Still, they were very short. Midgets? No. Maybe it just ran in their genetics.

I straightened my spine, standing up straight. “Well then, it’s nice to meet you, London. So I guess it’s pretty obvious you met Angen.” I glance at said person, who looked ready to kill himself while Camu rambled. I chuckled, feeling only a slight bit guilty for putting him in that situation.

My gaze swiped the room. I found Kuriama talking happily to a very tall girl with long blonde hair. I got a look at her face, realizing how beautiful she was. I squinted, also realizing that she looked… maybe familiar? I shook my head.

She locked eyes with me, and before I could awkwardly look away, she smiled cheerfully and waved. I waved back before turning to Aino and London again.

“Hey, do you know that girl who’s talking to Kuri?” I pointed with my thumb. London’s eyes follow my point.

“Oh, that’s Maya Dokunto,” London answered. “Ultimate Survivalist or something like that,” he shrugged. Then, he smirked. “Why? You jealous?”

“What? Of course not!” Aino and I answered in union. London and I looked at Aino in confusion, his cheeks flushed and looked between us quickly.

“Wh-what?” he asked.

London’s smirk remained, “Are you jealous?”

His cheeks flushed some more, “N-no… of course not!”

“You like Kuriama~!” I sang. He shook his head quickly, waving his hands and his face got redder.

“N-no I don’t! Stop!”

“Aino likes Kuri~!” I sang louder.

“Shhhh!”

“So you admit it?” I asked, batting my eyes in innocence.

“Fine, whatever! Just don’t tell anyone!” He pleaded.

London shrugged, “Whatever.” He then turned and walked off, going over to a taller man with dark brown hair that I think I’ve seen on the Internet. What was his name? Andrew? Alex? No, it was Adam. Adam Greycastle or something like that.

I side-glanced Aino, who was blushing profusely. Finally, I push past some people to go to the kitchen. I grab an apple and leave the crowded room into the hallway. I pass Maya and Kuri, who are laughing at something that was probably hilarious.

I huff as I leave the room. I’d only known Kuri for not even a day. I can’t get feelings for him, then allow myself to get crushed like this. The thing is, I can’t allow myself to have feelings for anyone I meet here. For all I knew, everyone was the mastermind.

And then a whiteboard came hurtling at my face.