Her and Rantaro finally catch up with the others at the manhole a couple minutes later.

The manhole's already been lifted once they arrive, and most people have already gone down.

"Ladies first." Rantaro steps aside and lets Y/n climb down the ladder

Inside is a huge room with some sort of.. pipe? A sewer?

"Tch! Finally! What took you two so long!? Don't tell me you were doing what I think you were!" Miu says. "Oh come on.. you chose him over me!? Y/n, why!?"

"Nothing like that. I just dropped one of my rings and Y/n stayed behind to help me find it." Rantaro lies

"Yeah.. so what are we doing down here? I assume we're gonna go through that pipe thing there." Y/n points to the sign with 'Exit' written on it.

"Doesn't it.. seem too obvious to be the exit?" Shuichi says

"There's no harm in trying though, right?" Kaede says

"It's probably a trap. They wouldn't let us go that easy." Ryoma says

"We have to at least see what's inside, they could be trying to double bluff us." Tsumugi suggests

"Exactly! Don't be so negative, I'm sure we can do it." Kaede says

"Nyeh.. seems like a lot of effort.." Himiko says

"Don't worry Himiko! I'll protect you and the rest of the girls, the men are on their own though." Tenko says

And with that, everyone enters. It seems like some sort of weird obstacle course, with different platforms, bombs etc. It looks very dangerous to say the least.

Y/n jumps on each platform slowly, cautious of all the fire and explosions going on.

She manages to stay with the group mostly, but gets a little left behind when she stops to catch her breath.

"Are you tired already?" Maki stares at her disapprovingly

"I'm just.. a little.. out of breath.." Y/n pants between her words

"..You should go back. You probably won't be able to last much longer at this rate."

"No..! I'm.. fine.."

"Just go back. You'll probably end up falling and dying, then you're no use to anyone."

Y/n pauses. "You're probably right.. but I'll be fine.!"

Maki just glares at her.

Y/n sighs and goes to turn back, but she notices something flashing above Maki's head.. a bomb.

"Maki! Move!" Y/n quickly shoves Maki backwards as soon as the bomb drops, but it doesn't leave enough time for Y/n to get out of the way.

The bomb knocks her over and she hits the back of her head on the wall, before falling over onto the floor.

"Hey! What happened over there!?" Kaito yells from ahead

"I don't know.. I can't see anything. Y/n?" Maki waves the smoke out of her face.

"I'm over here.. ow.." Y/n groans and lifts her head off the floor

The smoke clears up, and Maki goes over to her.

"Are.. you injured?" Maki asks

"No.. I'm fine.. just hit my head a little. Jeez.. that was a close one." She chuckles and sits up

"That was stupid. You could've gotten seriously hurt."

"I saved you and I don't even get a thanks?"

"..."

"I'm kidding.. can you help me up.?"

Maki holds out a hand and Y/n takes it. She stands up and touches the back of her head, almost her whole finger is covered in blood

"I'm gonna.. go back. Tell the others where I went." Y/n says

"No, I'll come with you. It'd be useless if you ended up passing out from blood loss."

"I could pass out from blood loss?" Y/n asks nervously.

"The others will probably be back soon anyway, come on."

Y/n follows Maki back to the main underground area. Just as she said, the others come back pretty quickly after.

"Oh, you two are already here?" Kaede asks

"She hit her head on the wall.. so we decided to come back." Maki explains

Y/n takes her hand away from the wound, which is now completely covered in blood.

"Ah.. Uhm.. wow.. it's starting to bleed pretty badly.." Y/n quickly puts her hand back to try stop the bleeding.

"T-They must be targeting the hot people! That means I'm next.!" Miu says

"It was just an accident.. but.. thank you for the compliment.. I think.?"

"You should do something about the bleeding.. at this rate you'll be dead by morning." Ryoma says quite out of the blue

"..." Y/n stares at him

"Nyahaha! Maybe Atua is punishing you for rejecting him!" Angie says

Y/n looks over to Rantaro and he just gives her a look to say 'You know what I'm thinking'

The mastermind.?

Y/n nervously looks around.

"Stop frightening her. There are bandages in the warehouse, I can rush and retrieve some, if you like?" Kirumi says

"That's okay.. I'll be back in a second." She makes her way to the ladder and climbs up it. She leaves the boiler room and walks through the courtyard alone, still holding her head.

She walks past the dorms, and the temptation takes over. She goes into them, straight to Rantaro's dorm, it's unlocked. There's definitely something suspicious about him. Why does he claim to know about the mastermind being one of them? Why is it only him that doesn't remember his talent?

She looks around the dorm, blood still dripping down her neck.

There's nothing particularly weird in there, it seems normal, spare clothes, a bathroom, but she finds something else odd, a Monopad. She picks it up and turns it on.

'Survivor Perk' Is written on the screen. It then shows an entire map of the school. There's more floors? And something attached to the library? There's no door there?

There's a picture of a speech bubble, so she presses it.

'Clue to end the killing game'

That's probably a good thing.

'The mastermind who is behind the killing game is hiding somewhere within the academy. Your best chance of exposing them is when Monokuma needs a spare. At that time, the mastermind will go to the library's hidden room. To prove this hint is accurate, I will predict something. The first thing you will remember is the Ultimate Hunt. Only share this information with people you know you can trust. How you determine that will mean your life or your death. -Rantaro Amami'

She stares at it in confusion. What is this? Why does he have it? What's different about Rantaro? Did he.. win something.?

"I'm sorry Rantaro." She whispers under her breath, and puts the Monopad in her pocket. She leaves the room and goes to leave the dorms. When she pokes her head out the door to the courtyard, she sees Maki looking around. When Maki isn't facing the dorms, Y/n quickly goes out.

"Maki? What are you doing?" Y/n says

"The others decided to try the tunnel again. I think it's useless. What are you doing? You're definitely not getting bandages."

"I.. had no idea where the warehouse was. So I thought maybe my dorm would have something." She lies

Maki makes it clear that she doesn't believe her. "Well whatever you were doing.. you're still bleeding. The warehouse is this way." She gestures to the school, and starts walking over there. Y/n follows.

They silently walk to the warehouse. Maki folds her arms and stands at the door while Y/n looks around for bandages.

"Found them.." Y/n holds up a roll of bandages. "Ah.. the blood loss.. is kicking in.."

"I'm surprised you haven't fainted yet. You'd better hurry and put the bandages on. You're covered in blood."

Y/n just starts to breathe heavier. Maki rolls her eyes and goes over to her. She holds out her hand and Y/n gives her the bandages and Maki starts unrolling it, she rips a part off and starts to wrap it around Y/n's head

"Huh.?"

"I don't know how weak you are. You could've died soon, and that would just be a nuisance."

Y/n starts feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. She looks down as Maki starts moving her hair out of the way, praying that Maki doesn't notice she's blushing.

Y/n winces a little as Maki ties the knot.

"There. We should go back to the others. Maybe they found the exit by now."

"Yeah.. alright.." Y/n wobbles a little as she stands up. She slowly follows Maki back down to where everyone is, they all seem.. sad

"What happened to you guys.?" Y/n asks

"There's no exit.. it's useless." Tsumugi says

"Come on you guys.. we can't give up.. we have to keep trying!" Kaede says

"Shut up. Look what happened to Y/n! She could have died!" Kokichi points go Y/n. "Poor Y/n.. Kaede you're torturing us!"

"S-Stop fighting.." Shuichi says

"Yeah! Don't speak to Kaede like that!" Kaito shouts

"Jeez.. we fell apart quickly for a group that said we would work together." Ryoma comments

"..I'm sorry.. this is my fault.. I'm so sorry.." Kaede says sadly

"I-Idiot! What are you apologising for!? It's not your fault at all!" Kaito says

"I think it's Kaede's fault." Maki says

"Huh!? Why!?"

The monitors turn on to show the Monokubs, telling the class it's nighttime.

"We have each been assigned a room in the dormitory. Perhaps we should rest there?" Kirumi suggests

"Heeeee! We're gonna rest there!? Maybe Y/n can sleep in my room!?" Miu squeals

"I checked the dorms just now.. I have my own room.. but.. uhm.. thanks for the offer." Y/n chuckles

"Can we just go to our rooms already?" Maki asks

"Yes. We should get as much rest as possible." Kirumi says

"Just a warning though.. we shouldn't let our guards down at night. We'll be easy targets then." Rantaro says

"C-Cuz of killing game!?" Gonta exclaims

"Yeah.. I doubt it will happen.. but just a warning."

Everybody seems to leave after that. They all go to the dorms and go into their assigned rooms.

Rantaro goes over to his, but notices something on the door handle. Blood. He stares at it for a moment.. why would there be blood on his door.?

He opens the door cautiously, nothing seems to be too out of the ordinary.. there's a few drops of blood on the floor.

He looks around more thoroughly, and he finally realises. The survivor perk is missing.

He sighs. It's obvious who took it. Who are the people who could be near the dorms alone? Maki and Y/n. Who was bleeding like hell and leaving blood everywhere ? Y/n. She even admitted she went to the dorms.

"Of course.. I should've known." He says to himself. He thinks about what to do. Is there anything to do? He can't erase her memory or anything. What's done is done. She knows.

—

Y/n sits on her bed inspecting the survivor perk. There seems to be quite a lot to the school, all the Ultimate research labs and all the different floors.. but the thing that concerns her most is the secret room behind the library. It has no label to show what it is.

Well.. there's not much else to look at now. The only option is to sleep.

She changes out of her clothes until she's just in a vest and skirt, she finally sees how much blood was covering them. They're probably a lost cause, so she just throws them on the floor.

She gets in bed and under the covers, it's surprisingly comfy. She keeps the survivor perk under her pillow so that nobody can sneak in and take it.. even though she did steal it herself.

There's loads of mysteries to unravel. Where should she even start?