Chapter 31- Jealousy

I felt my eyelids start to open yet again. The heavy feeling of my eyelids started to open and surrounding the darkness around me in a bright light that engulfed me whole.

I moaned softly at this. My body was stirring as my eyelids felt heavy and fought against my vision as my eyes blinked softly. Was it really already morning...?

What time was it anyway? I felt almost felt like I barely got five minutes of sleep in my room over the course of one night.

My body was curled up in a small ball with my heavy against a pillow. No blanket surrounded my body and I wasn't even undressed.

My hair flopped out of its braid and fell down my shoulder and down my back as well. The small piece of hair brushed against my cheek as always as I tried to ignore it.

More sleep... I just wanted some more sleep...

I just didn't want to get up anymore. I couldn't find any point in doing it. If I got up I would just find myself on the same bed in less than a few hours later.

How long could I even take being in this prison of a school...? I thought this as I gazed at the metal plate blocking the view from my window. So many people died already, who was next on the list of victims?

Maybe someone was planning another's murder right at this very moment. Perhaps I was the victim in their set-up. I had no idea. I didn't care. I didn't care one bit.

My body was heavy and my muscles ached with a small pain. I could feel drool starting to travel down my cheek as I closed my eyes again and was succumb by darkness for the second time...

Just a few more moments of sleep before I wake up—

A banging sound at the door of my room interrupted my drowsy thoughts. I felt myself force my eyelids open yet again to move my gaze over towards the door of my room.

I could hear banging continue as it seemed forced and pretty loud. I moaned softly in complaint at this and took my pillow, covering my ears to block the sound.

"Not now," I moaned softly as I tried to block out the sound.

I was too tired. I didn't feel like getting up just yet... I wanted to at least rest my eyes for a little before starting my day...

"Haiyū, it's me! Hina! Are you in there?!" I could make out the high-pitched sound of Aoi from the other side of the doorway. She seemed energetic as always as the banging continued.

"It's too early! Go back to sleep!" I yelled towards the doorway before closing my eyes yet again.

"It's almost noon! Come on! At least try and not to be a lazy bum!" Aoi's voice said as she knocked on the door yet again. And another moan of complaint escaped my mouth because of this. "A new floor opened up! We have to go explore!"

"I'll check it out later. I just want some sleep is all," I replied as I tried and close my eyes yet again.

I felt myself go back to sleep again. My eyelids closed shut and I didn't want to open them anymore. No more interruptions kept me awake and now I could finally sleep and not be interrupted by anything at all—

"Come on! Get out of bed!"

A sudden force then lunges onto my tired body. I jolted awake immediately by this as someone suddenly lunged on top of my body and laying their chest against my back.

A foot hit against the back of my head. Coincidentally, the same spot where my bruise was starting to form from the events of yesterday. I held back a complaint from this as I had more problems on my hand.

First off, who was suddenly on top of me and putting all their weight down on me?! I felt like I was choking!

"Wh-What the...?!" I started to say, my words were muffled though as my face was stuffed into my pillow by the weight.

"Get up and greet the day with a smile! You shouldn't be in here all day when there's a shining hope right up the stairs!" A high-pitched, energetic voice said on top of me that I only knew from anywhere...

"Hina! Did you ever hear of knocking?!" I said as I tried to fight against the weight of Aoi's body on me. But damn, she was heavy.

"I've been knocking! You just didn't make it out of your bed to answer the fricking door! What kind of friend leaves their other friends hanging like that?!" Aoi said with a tone of being over dramatic in her voice.

"Me," I simply replied as I gripped hold of a pillow next to me and hit any closest part of Aoi's body with it, hoping to pry her off with it, but she didn't budge one bit.

"Stop that!" Aoi moaned. "You're being really cranky right now!"

"I don't care! I just want sleep!" I said again as I gripped hold of the pillow in my hand tightly and knocked Aoi across the face with it.

"Oh, come on! That's not fair! Not fair at all!" Aoi complained.

"Anything is fair when you interrupt me sleeping!" I argued as I finally found a strength that I wished I had earlier.

I twisted my hips out of Aoi's weight and curled my legs in tightly close to my body. I had to tug my legs against Aoi's body to try and get it close to me but it worked eventually.

I found myself in a small ball as I then kicked suddenly at wherever my feet could land, and with Aoi on top of me, it had to be her shoulder instead of stomach as she went flying off me.

I felt myself finally able to breathe as I lifted my head from the pillow and looked towards Aoi. She had a stubborn look on her face as she fell backwards onto my sheets.

She didn't fall very far and I was grateful for that. I didn't think Aoi would take an apology from me if she were to fall off the bed from that.

"Heeeeeey! That kind of hurt!" She complained as she looked over at me.

"You're an athlete! Walk it off!" I said with a small smile forming on my face. "You should know not to interrupt your friends when their sleeping! Do you do this to Ogami?"

"Well... I don't know if it would end well if I ever tried something like that!" Aoi explained and I could only imagine what Sakura's reaction would be like to that kind of thing. "But it's funny when it's you!"

"Oh yeah..." I said softly with a smirk forming on my face.

I then took my pillow gripped tightly in my hand and lunged my body onto Aoi's, bringing my pillow down onto her side as my body clashed with hers. I dragged my full weight onto Aoi's body and I couldn't help but smile softly at this.

"Is it funny now?"

"H-Hey! I can barely breathe!" I could make out Aoi's muffled voice from beneath the pillow.

"Now you know how it feels."

"You're a big meanie when it comes to this stuff!" Aoi complained as she then brought an unexpected move upon me.

I didn't expect it as she suddenly hit a pillow against my face and I was dazed by the sudden attack. The soft pillow making contact with the side of my face as she brought another hand and shoved my body off of her.

"Do you really wanna play that way?" I asked as I gripped hold of the pillow tightly at my side.

"Maybe I do!" Aoi said with a playful smirk as she clutched hold of her own pillow.

"It's on!"

"PILLOW FIGHT!"

And so... the war of two pillows fighting against each other commenced. Me and Aoi brought attacks onto one another. The bed was a mess as we fought against each other and laughter and smiles escaped our mouths as we kept fighting against each other.

I couldn't help but laugh once I stood up and landed on top of Aoi's fallen body. My pillow was on my chest and shielding my body from collapsing down on Aoi's own chest. She was smiling cheekily as well.

"I won," I said with a small sigh.

"Fine... you did," Aoi said with a small mumble.

I laughed softly again as I moved out of the way for Aoi to get up.

Her hair was a complete mess now. The dark brown hair that I loved so much was tracing down her shoulders in an elegant form as it fallen out of its ponytail and so I got to see her hair trailing down her shoulders for the first time.

She looked absolutely adorable like this.

Her bright blue eyes shone in the light hanging overhead. Her beaming smile was all I could see and I knew that she had tones of fun from that small fight as much as I did.

"Ha! I always win at these," I said childishly.

"You only won since you cheated," Aoi said as she crossed her arms like a five year-old as well.

"Okay, pulling the blanket off of the bed is not cheating!" I said as I looked down the naked mattress and at the blanket laying on the floor, crumpled up in a heap.

"Yes it is!" Aoi argued. "Someday, I fall for a rematch!"

"And let me bear your butt again? Okay then!" I said playfully with a smirk.

"Shut up!" Aoi said as she pushed me playfully and we both ended up laughing softly from this.

I looked around me for a moment. I completely forgot that I was seventeen years old. I completely forgot that I was a high school student at an elite school for only the best students. But I felt like a five year old again with a close friend.

Having a pillow fight and laughing and playing around with each other is something I haven't done in a long time. I missed moments like these with my friends.

Imagine if Byakuya saw this, he would probably make sure I never heard the end of it. He would probably scold me about doing something so childish and fun.

But I shouldn't worry about him right now! At this moment, me and my closest friend here, Aoi, just finished a pillow fight and now we both looked like a mess.

There was no way I'm going out in the school area like this now. My hair was more than a mess than before and my clothes were now also wrinkled and messed up from traveling all over the bed in search of victory of this pillow fight.

"Do you think we can really go out like this?" I asked Aoi as I got up and off my bed.

"No way! I gotta get back to my dorm before anyone sees and fix my hair!" Aoi said as she ran a hand through her hair. "I should probably go do that now if I'm going to eat some donuts with Ogami later."

"Save one for me then. I think I'm going to go find Togami after getting dressed into a better uniform than this," I said as I threw my fallen blanket back into my bed lazily.

"Someone wants to go see their little crush~" Aoi said with a smirk plastered on her face.

"Sh-Shut up!" I said to her as I felt my face get redder because of this.

"Fine. I'm going to go now. See ya!" Aoi said with a small wave before leaving the room quickly.

I sighed quietly at this and went to work putting my bed back together as it looked like a complete mess now. I just needed to get the covers look neat enough and put the pillows back in the place they belong and I did it quickly.

Now I actually felt awake and in need to do something. I could see Byakuya or talk to Kyoko about the secret room and what happened there. Maybe my first priority is to find Kyoko. She deserved to know what happened last night.

As soon as I finished making my bed. I went to work with changing my clothes quickly into a fresh uniform that looked exactly the same as my old clothes. And then I braided my hair again in a rush and I didn't take the time to put my ribbon tightly along the braid and I lazily did one knot before rushing out of the room with my bag hung over my shoulder.

I walked up the stairs and passed some students along the way... But none of them were going to be Celeste, Taka, or Hifumi anymore...

I walked up the stairs until I came across the entrance to the new fourth floor. I looked around at the school hallway standing before me. Since someone else died, a new floor has been opened up...

A whole new floor waiting to be explored. I could see some doorways standing all along the walls as I walked along the place.

I passed a lot of rooms and gazed inside some of them.

The music room was big and spacious and almost looked like a full auditorium there.

The staff room looked deserted yet still pretty neat inside... but no clues were kept in the drawers or desks of any escape or what was happening to us.

I then came across an interesting door in the middle of the vast hallway. I looked at it and wondered what could possibly be in there as I reached for the door handle and pulled on it. But it didn't open.

I tried to open it multiple times thinking it was just stuck but it never opened as I tried to force it open. If it didn't open then it must have been locked... But why would this room be locked...? It didn't seem to make much sense to me as I gazed up at it.

Perhaps Monokuma kept it locked for a reason... I shouldn't worry about it for now. Maybe later on it'll open itself to us.

I then walked into the nearest room I could find from that mysterious door and entered. I then found myself in what looked like a small drug store you would find at the streets of Japan.

Minus the snacks and packed goods they would have there. Just a shelf of drugs sitting on the far end of the room for everyone to look over. And as I entered, I saw someone very familiar standing at the foot of the shelf.

"Oh, hey Byakuya!"

I looked over at him with a small smile as I saw the familiar tall and skinny guy turn towards me with his usual icy expression plastered on his face. It always seemed a little intimidating but I've grown used to it fast.

"Hello, Haiyū," Byakuya said with a sigh as he turned back to the shelf.

I bit my lip softly and walked over to him, "Is something wrong?"

"No. Everything is fine. I'd be more worried about you, if anything," Byakuya said as he looked down at me. "How is your head. Did you rest it at all last night?"

"Oh yeah, I did, don't worry. It was hurting a lot so I just went to sleep. I still can't believe I was almost killed yesterday though..." I explained to Byakuya... Not to mention I also got hit by something else in the secret room, and that hurt like crazy as well.

"Yes... you were... As smart as you are, I thought you would be more careful when it comes to other people here. Anyone could turn their back on you at any moment," Byakuya explained.

"Yeah... I didn't realize I— Wait... did you just call me smart?!"

"Hm? I just said it because it is true. You are a high school student, yet yesterday made you look like a five year-old and—"

"Ha! So you actually are admitting that I'm not an idiot some of the time?!" I said with a small smirk.

"Some of the time you act like a complete idiot. And you are," Byakuya said as he pushed his glasses up.

"But you love this idiot," I said with a small smile.

Byakuya then sighed and looked away from me, "Yes... sadly, I do..."

I moaned softly at this but didn't say anything as I rolled my eyes softly. I turned towards the stack of drugs on the shelf and looked through them.

They were split into three different sections. Health, for medicine. Standard drugs, for protein or sleeping drugs. And then, there was a whole section dedicated towards—

"Poison," Byakuya said as he picked up a small bottle sitting on the counter there. "All of this is deadly poison."

"Of course Monokuma would put something deadly like that in here. It only makes sense, doesn't it?" I said as I looked at all the different poisons. "Something deadly like that could be a pretty good killing weapon."

"Yes... yes it could," Byakuya said as he sat the bottle back down on the counter. "So when another murder happens, this is the first place we should check."

"You seem positive another one will happen," I said to Byakuya with a worried expression.

"Why wouldn't one happen?" Byakuya asked. "We have already seen four murders get done by three different people. There are still plenty of people here as victims and one as the killer. You may think we won't stoop to homicide anymore but I think differently. I think it's definitely possible for another killing to happen. Then another until there's one left standing... You should realize that yourself."

I looked down at my feet at what Byakuya said. He sounded a bit like Monokuma talking that way about killing each other like that. He said it so calmly that it scared me a little. But I couldn't face the fact that he was right.

What was stopping another person from killing...?

"Did I scare you?" Byakuya asked as I stayed silent. "Was the cold hard truth that scary...?"

"Maybe you shouldn't talk that way, Togami," I heard a third voice enter the conversation as I looked towards the doorway with a furrowed brow and saw Kyoko standing there. "Sometimes you don't seem to see the truth yourself, even if you think you know everything."

"Eavesdropping now, are you?" Byakuya asked as he crossed his arms.

"Only to hear what you said to Henka about this killing game," Kyoko answered. "Anyways, I can't change the way you think about this. Think it that way all you want. I can't stop you. But, maybe someday you'll regret saying something like that."

"Alright... But what do you want? Surely you must need something for showing up here mysteriously," Byakuya said as he looked towards Kyoko.

I looked towards Kyoko as well. I had a feeling I knew what she wanted. I probably shouldn't have lost focus on finding her because now she was here and probably wondering what happened last night. And I would have to explain it to her without the security cameras picking up every word.

"My business isn't with you Togami. I needed to speak with Henka," Kyoko explained as she turned her gaze towards me. Yeah, I knew it. "We should go find Naegi as well to talk about that... thing."

"Y-Yeah. Okay. Let's go then," I said to Kyoko before turning back to Byakuya, who looking down at me with a stern expression on his face. "I'll talk to you later..."

"Alright then..." Byakuya said, a little bit harsh as he turned away from me and back to what he was doing before, examining the drugs.

"Let's get going then," Kyoko said as me and her walked out of the room and into the hallway. "Before we find Naegi, I wanted to ask you myself. Did you find that thing I told you about last night?"

"Yeah. Me and Naegi found it... But something happened. I don't know if I can explain it easily," I said as I gazed at the security camera hanging on the wall. "Maybe I can later if I have the time."

"Yes, alright... I want to speak with Naegi about it as well. I want to see if he found anything interesting while there," Kyoko said as we continued walking.

Me and Kyoko kept walking until we came across Makoto at the end of a hall on the new floor. He stood at the foot of two large doors taking up almost the entire wall and he didn't notice me and Kyoko approach him.

"Naegi," Kyoko said to get Makoto's attention.

Makoto turned towards me and Kyoko with a nervous smile on his face. "Oh, hey Kiri! And Henka."

"We just need to talk for a moment if that's okay," I said politely with a small smile.

"Yeah, sure. What is it?" Makoto asked.

"I trust you found... what I told you about? According to Henka, she said you two did," Kyoko said to Makoto.

"Uh... yeah, we did... Thing is, soon as we started looking around, something happened," Makoto started to explain.

"Someone all of a sudden knocked us out. And I have no idea who it was either," I explained to Kyoko.

"Me neither," Makoto explained. "By the time we woke up, they have taken everything."

"So, either me and Naegi were asleep for quite a bit or the person moved really fast with taking everything out," I said.

"Damn..." Kyoko said softly.

"Oh, right... I almost forgot... I found this really weird note," Makoto started to explain yet again.

"We can talk about this later... I just don't feel like now is the right time to talk about it," I said to Makoto quickly and looked up at the security camera looking directly down at us.

"Well, Naegi... tell me the truth, are you keeping secrets from me?" Kyoko asked Makoto suddenly.

"Uh, why do you ask?" Makoto asked with a nervous look across his face.

"Wait, what...?! Naegi, did something happen?" I asked suddenly when seeing that worried expression across Makoto's face.

I looked towards Makoto in confusion. What did he know that I didn't?! Did something else happen that I didn't know about?! That nervous look on his face and the fact that he just bit his lip tells me that he was keeping something from us that we didn't know about. That scared me quite a bit...

"I'm sorry, I am," Makoto confessed and I looked at him with a furrowed brow.

"Eh?! What happened then?!" I asked with urgency shown in my voice. Makoto stayed silent though... He didn't trust us clearly...

"You're the one who said we should pool our knowledge! What happened to doing this as friends, Naegi?" Kyoko asked a little dramatically.

"Kiri, calm down—" I started to say.

"Forget it," Kyoko said harshly before walking off.

I stood where I was and watched as Kyoko walked away from the two of us. I stood completely still as I looked towards Makoto this time.

He seemed a little worried as he bit his lip softly again. He looked directly at me with a pleading look on his eyes. It's as if he wanted to tell us what it was but couldn't actually do it just yet...

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked Makoto as I walked closer to him. "Can you tell me what happened after me and you split apart for the night last night?"

"No, I can't," Makoto said as he gazed down at the ground. "I can't really tell you just yet. But, I promise that I will as soon as I'm sure."

"D-Do you promise?" I asked.

"Yeah. I promise," Makoto said with a small smile on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, Byakuya! Can I sit here?" I asked with a small smile as I walked into the cafeteria.

It has been about two hours after we finished looking around the entire floor. I couldn't find Byakuya anywhere as I was looking for him after parting ways with Makoto. And after my searching, I finally found Byakuya sitting alone in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee in front of him.

I should have expected him to be away from everyone else.

"Go ahead," Byakuya said.

"Cool," I said as I sat down from across Byakuya. "I couldn't really find anything earlier. Did you find something?"

"No, I did not. You?"

"Ummmmm... I didn't find anything either. Just some new rooms on the fourth floor that opened up. Maybe we'll find something soon though," I explained to him with a small smile. Hopefully one of those things could be a possible way out...

"I was wondering about something," Byakuya said as he pushed his glasses up his nose and I looked over at him with a furrowed brow. "Why did Kirigiri drag you off earlier?"

I thought about this for a second. I didn't know if I could trust Byakuya with the secret of the room. I didn't know who I could trust with it. Especially since I had no idea who knocked me and Makoto out inside there.

But it's not like I don't trust Byakuya. I trust him completely, but I didn't know if it was right to tell him about it.

"She wanted my help to find Naegi since we needed to talk about something... privately," I explained to him.

Byakuya then looked at the security camera hung on the wall before sighing, "I see. Maybe we could talk about it at a better time then?"

"I don't think it's something I really want to talk about. Not until I know for sure it's the right time," I explained to Byakuya.

"Fine then. Anything else?"

"Nothing else actually. But I did find... it, so that's a good thing. I don't know if Kiri told you that yet," I explained to Byakuya, hoping he would understand that I meant Alter Ego. "Now we can get out of here for sure."

"Also, about that... thing Kirigiri took you away for. Did she show you?" Byakuya asked me.

"Show me what?"

"I'm guessing since it's her, she found something and showed you and Naegi," Byakuya explained with a stern expression on his face.

"W-Well... I guess she did but I can't really talk about it," I said nervously again.

I didn't want Monokuma start getting suspicious of my behavior. I had to change the subject and fast—

"Does it gave to do with you kissing Naegi?" Byakuya asked calmly.

"W-Wait... what?!"

He saw that?! Byakuya actually saw that?! I thought I was being sneaky with it and that no one would see what was happening but Byakuya actually saw that?! That was bad. That was actually very bad... I didn't want Byakuya to know about something like that. What if he got the wrong idea?!

Byakuya sipped his coffee calmly before speaking again, "I was walking down the hallway when you two were having your fun. Does that have to do with it?"

"Y-You... It's not what it looks like! You have the wrong idea!" I said quickly and nervously.

I couldn't keep my composure anymore. I completely lost it. The memory of pinning Makoto to the doorway and kissing him passionately clouded my mind and I could just imagine Byakuya seeing that... What went through his head at the time... I felt so embarrassed now than I did before about doing something like that to Makoto.

"I am merely asking a yes or no question. Did it have to do with that or not?" Byakuya asked with a serious expression in his eyes.

"Partially..." I said softly. "But how did you see that?!"

"As I said, I was walking down the hallway, looking for any clues on how to leave this place," Byakuya explained calmly.

"Please don't be mad. I-I can explain it. I swear—"

"Shut up. I'm not mad. Seeing as it had to with that thing, then it's fine," Byakuya explained.

I couldn't hold in a sigh of relief as it escaped my mouth. I was so relieved that Byakuya didn't take it personally and actually knew how to use his brain unlike me sometimes. I was grateful about that and the fact that I didn't have to go crazy over the fact that he caught me and Makoto doing something like that.

"I-I can't really explain why I did it either," I said in a sigh as I could predict Byakuya's next question.

"Instincts?"

"Yeah. And I just want you to know that I really do love you," I said with a small smile towards Byakuya.

Byakuya then rolled his eyes softly. "As if I don't know that. I was just curious."

"Geez, okay. Don't get sassy with me," I said with a small frown on my face.

"Anyways, it's getting late. You should head to bed," Byakuya said to me as he gazed over at the clock on the wall.

I looked over at the clock as well and read the time. Oh yeah... It was around nine o'clock in the afternoon already... I couldn't really keep track of time when stuck in this place but I guess I spent a lot of time upstairs and looking around then.

"Okay then. I didn't realize what the time was. Let's get going then."