Mondo

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Sleeping is, not for the first time, difficult. It's to be expected in a killing game but honestly, it's not actually the motive keeping Mondo awake this time. Instead, it's the claustrophobia of the whole thing.

Hope's peak is by no means a small school - he's seen the maps of the place, it's massive - but being confined to the small section they are, it seems small. In a way, it seeming small is almost worst than if it had actually felt small. The idea that they could be somewhere else in the building right now, if only if it weren't for Monokuma.

That's probably a manipulation tactic, Mondo thinks. Get the students worked up and irritated to goad them all into doing something stupid.

Something that warrants punishment.

Or maybe it's just a symptom of Monokuma's near omnipresent watch not actually being very omnipresent. The sauna for one, has no cameras with which to observe.

He has wondered whether that's purposeful. Some sort of attempt to lull them into a false sense of security, only to pull it back and reveal that someone has slipped up, said something under the bear's watch.

Maybe someone has already done that, maybe Monokuma is just waiting for everyone to slip up so that he can slaughter them all at once.

Deciding he needs some air, Mondo gets up and dressed in nothing but his tiger striped boxes, he heads out of the room. He makes sure to slam the door behind him.

He heads straight for the sauna - despite its secrecy being questionable, it's one of the few places he knows Monokuma won't pop up - and his footsteps thunder across the ground as he does.

Usually, he'd make an effort to be quieter but nobody is awake at this accursed hour so he sees no need. At least, he had thought there would be nobody awake at this hour.

A thought that soon proves to be false as sat by the door to the actual sauna and not just the locker room, is Sakura with a...

Is that a blanket in her lap?

Suddenly abashed by his state of undress, Mondo almost leaves. He's not sure what he would have done if he had left, whether he'd head straight back to his room or hide in the supply closet, but he assumes it wouldn't be a great plan.

Probably not one that would lead to him sleeping at least.

Instead, he stands there like a deer in headlights as Sakura calls out, "hello? Are you trying to get in to the sauna?"

Mondo quickly realises that Sakura's eyes haven't left the blanket in her lap and that her hands are moving across it. Up and down, then some fidgety motion and it repeats.

"Are you sewing?" Is what he asks instead of doing the reasonable thing of leaving and not talking to his classmate only clad in his underwear.

"Mondo?" She asks and then she's lifting her head and her white hair falls to either side of her face and for a moment they both just stare.

It takes longer than it really should but finally eye contact breaks and for a second, Mondo just takes in the fact he's won an impromptu staring contest with Sakura.

Then she clears her throat and very pointedly keeps her gaze downwards at what she's doing, leaving him to realise she's probably as embassies by his near-nudity as he is.

"Yes, I am sewing," she goes back to the almost hypnotic motion of piercing the fabric and pulling the string through and smoothing out the creases.

"At this time of night?" Mondo asks but doesn't judge. She's probably the safest being out at night with her talent and her general demeanour. She's calm, somewhat stoic and most of all, she can think on her feet.

You've reached the end of published parts.

⏰ Last updated: Dec 11 ⏰

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