"Is there anyone here who's seriously considering all this?" Byakuya asked grimly once the monstrous bear had finished his little speech.

As the telling silence dragged on, Kyoko's expression remained as stony-faced as ever. But inside, her genius mind was moving a million miles a minute. How to respond to the challenge presented by that demented bear's killing game…

In her mind's eye, Kyoko observed two paths open up before her: she could isolate herself as she usually did, interacting with the others as little as possible for safety's sake until she could figure out what exactly was going on here… or she could step out of her comfort zone and put her keen intellect to work taking charge of these disorganized students, even though that put an enormous target on her back.

She felt a sense of Deja Vu, as though she'd faced this choice before… and in a way she had, though in her scattered memories she could only ever remember choosing isolation. It would be so easy to choose it again now… but some intuition told her that this time isolation would be an even riskier prospect than taking the lead. No one else seemed willing to do what needed to be done to safeguard their lives. So, she mustered her courage, and…

"You should not seriously consider it." Kyoko said, letting a little of her mask slip so the others could feel her passionate determination.

"If you're going to make some speech about friendship in adversity…" Byakuya began, glaring at her while the others stared.

"Of course not," Kyoko interrupted. "It's just that we do not know enough about our situation. I said earlier that there were two options, living together here until we die or killing each other, but I realize now that is not quite right."

"There's a third option?" Hifumi asked.

"Duh! To find a way out!" Leon said condescendingly, a mocking finger pointing towards his temple.

"Actually, I think it unlikely that whoever went to all this trouble to bring us here has left us an open escape route, though of course it is worth checking to be sure," Kyoko replied.

"Then what do you have in mind?" Byakuya demanded impatiently.

"Simply that we make the best of things as we wait for rescue. If you are missing, Byakuya, surely your family will spare no expense in searching for you?" Kyoko answered calmly.

"Of course they will," Byakuya replied. "I am the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy, after all."

"And if Byakuya is discovered by the police or his family's private mercenaries or whoever, then so will the rest of us," Kyoko declared.

"Oh, I get it," said Hina. "Even if we can't escape, we don't need to kill anyone, because we'll be rescued eventually!"

"And if we do get rescued, you won't want to have a murder on your conscience," Kyoko continued. "Or you'll be rescued only to go to a different prison."

"You make a good point," Celeste admitted. "But how long will we have to be trapped here, waiting?"

"That depends on where we are," Kyoko answered. "The real Hope's Peak Academy would be the first place anyone looking for us would check, so if we're there we'll be found within days."

"That's great!" Hiro whooped. "So we just have to stick it out for a couple days!"

"...Which is why I seriously doubt we are in the real Hope's Peak Academy," Kyoko continued, scowling. She made a mental note not to expect much intelligence from Hiro. "Whoever knocked us out and brought us here went to too much trouble to let us escape that easily."

"But then where the hell are we?" Mondo demanded.

"No idea," Kyoko answered matter-of-factly. "For all I know we might be deep underground."

"But if we're underground, who knows how long it'd take for us to be rescued!" Junko cried out.

"Yes, we might be here for some time," Kyoko admitted. "But even years would be better than our whole lives, wouldn't you agree?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Junko began.

"But nothing!" Taka interrupted bombastically. "I would gladly sacrifice a couple years of my life living in this prison in order to ensure that none of us came to any harm!"

"As would I," said Sakura, her brow furrowed in thought. "But unless we all agree, there's still a danger."

"Yes," agreed Byakuya. "We would be foolish to trust one another at this point."

"And that is precisely what whoever brought us here wants and expects from us," Kyoko replied. "Despite what that bear said, it's clear the mastermind behind all of this is hoping we'll turn on each other."

"Well fuck that guy!" Mondo shouted. "We're not gonna give 'em what he wants!" His fierce expression vanished. "Right?" he asked, looking around uncertainly.

"Right!" Taka answered. "We'll work together, we'll fight whoever trapped us in here by doing the right thing!"

"And by beating the hell out of him if we ever get our hands on him!" Junko joined in, stretching out an angry fist.

"It cheers me to hear you say that," Kyoko answered with a cheerless expression. "But in order to be confident in our safety, we should hear it from everyone. So, here is my question to you all. Will you agree to refrain from any and all violence against your fellow students for at least… let's say one month? At the end of the month, we can meet again and discuss renewing this pact, but even if you are too impatient to escape to wait years, surely you can all wait one month? It would be a shame to murder someone to escape only to find you could have waited and been rescued within a month. So, if you swear to refrain from violence for a month, please say "I swear" and put your hand together with mine."

"I swear!" Taka declared immediately, walking over and putting his hand on Kyoko's.

"I swear," said Mondo, placing his hand on Taka's.

"I swear," said Sakura, placing her enormous hand on top of the rest.

Then Hina, Makoto, Leon, Celeste, Chihiro, Hifumi, Junko, Hiro, and Sayaka all swore and put in their hands. Only two were left standing away from the crowd.

"This is a useless exercise," Byakuya sneered. "If one of you did have murderous intentions, you would simply lie about it."

"Y-yeah!" said Toko timidly. "It's not like we're f-f-friends or anything!"

"We could become friends!" Hina said adamantly.

"And we're not lying!" Taka said, equally adamantly.

"More importantly," Kyoko said, staring at Byakuya, "If you refuse to participate, you place much suspicion on yourself."

"Suspect me all you like," Byakuya scoffed. "It won't change the facts."

Toko muttered something no one could hear.

"Very well," Kyoko said, turning her attention back to the pile of hands in front of her, and the faces to which those hands belonged. "Then for the rest of us, let this be our pact with each other. For at least a month we shall work together until we either find a way to escape or are rescued. Ready? Let's do this!"

Kyoko put some emotion into her last statement as she pulled her hand away, and was rewarded with a chorus of "Yeah!"s and "Let's do this!"s as everyone else pulled their hands away too.

"Now if you're quite done," Byakuya sneered. "How about we walk around and figure out what exactly we are working with here?"

"Right!" said Taka. "We need to know whether there's food, supplies, maybe a way out!"

"B-But before we do that," Chihiro chimed in timidly. "Maybe we should take a look at the handbook? It's probably best to check out the school regulations Monokuma mentioned before doing anything else."

"True. We don't want to stumble around with no clue what the rules are," Celeste agreed.

"Fine, then let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already," said an annoyed Junko.

With that, everyone pulled out the e-handbooks Monokuma had given them and read the rules in silence.

Like everyone else, Kyoko saw her name on the main screen of her handbook and moved to tap the school regulations icon. The rules were about as she expected. No leaving the school, no harming the bear, sleep in the dormitory… the only really new bit of information was...

"This is bullshit!" Mondo exploded, interrupting Kyoko's train of thought. "What the hell kinda rules are these!? I'm not gonna let them control ME!"

"Well then, why don't you wander around the school without a care in the world and see what happens?" Celeste asked, smirking. "Personally, I would love to find out what happens when someone breaks one of the rules."

"But if he got punished like what we saw before, I don't think there'd be a respawn waiting for him…" said Hifumi nervously.

Mondo replied with something and the conversation continued, but Kyoko had heard enough to know the conversation was not worth her attention. If rule six in the handbook was accurate, then perhaps there was an easy way to ensure no murders took place. Especially since rule three did not say anything about sleeping in your own dorm room…

"Regulation number six," Sayaka was asking, breaking Kyoko out of her thoughts. "What do you think it means exactly?"

"You're talking about the second half, right?" said Makoto. "Where it says 'unless they are discovered'? I was wondering about that myself."

"It's saying that if you want to graduate, you have to kill someone without anyone finding out it was you," Byakuya answered condescendingly.

"B-But why...? Why do we h-have to do that?" asked Toko.

"I don't see any reason to worry about it. Just worry about following the rules as they've been explained to us," Byakuya sneered.

"I agree," Kyoko jumped into the conversation. "More importantly, this rule presents us with a fantastic opportunity."

"An… opportunity?" Hina asked, while most everyone else, including Byakuya, stared quizzically at her.

"Yes," Kyoko confirmed. "This rule means there's no point in killing someone if you're certain to be discovered. So, all we have to do is create circumstances such that it's impossible to kill someone without others knowing about it."

"But… how could we do that?" asked Hiro.

"If you're suggesting what I think you are…" Byakuya glared at Kyoko.

"Simply put," Kyoko interrupted, "We pair off."

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked.

"We each pick a partner and we never leave their side. Ever." Kyoko answered matter-of-factly.

"What?" cried Junko. "What purpose would that serve?!"

"Yeah," Hifumi interjected. "What if your partner decided to kill you? You'd be right there, easy prey! Wouldn't even be a boss battle."

"If you wind up dead," Kyoko explained patiently, "Then your partner will be the only suspect. Everyone else will have an alibi, because their own partners will be able to vouch for their whereabouts."

"So we would all quickly realize that the "blackened" was the victim's partner, and the "blackened" will not be able to graduate," Makoto declared as understanding came to him.

"Precisely," said Kyoko. "And now that we all know that, of course no one will kill their partners."

"Oh, I get it!" said Hina. "Since they wouldn't be able to get away with it, there'd be no point in someone murdering their partner."

"Right," said Kyoko, hiding her disappointment in the slowness with which Hina and others came to understand.

"Okay, but we can't be with someone all the time." said Celeste. "What about when we're sleeping? Or using the bathroom?"

"If girls pair with girls and boys with boys, the bathroom won't be an issue," Sayaka pointed out.

"And there's nothing in the rules that say you have to sleep in your own dorm room," Kyoko replied. "Just that you have to sleep in the dormitory area. So you and your partner can move in together to ensure no one tries to kill you in your sleep."

"B-but I can't sleep with someone else in the room." Chihiro protested. "It's indecent," she added weakly.

"There's nothing indecent about sleeping in the same room as another girl," said Celeste. "Especially if it's to avoid getting killed."

"And if we can move the beds," Leon added, "Then we won't have to share one, or sleep on the floor."

"Is-Isn't there something you're f-f-forgetting?" Toko asked nervously. "There's f-f-fifteen of us."

Kyoko nodded. "We can have one group of three."

"Or one of us can stay on our own, unfettered in their movements by having to drag around someone else," Byakuya commented, glaring at Kyoko.

"I c-could do that," Chihiro volunteered.

"As could I," said Toko, glaring at Chihiro.

"Picking a partner is entirely optional," said Kyoko. "However, it would go a long way towards keeping you safe. If you're alone, and there's a murder, you'll be the only one without an alibi."

"Well, I like the idea of picking a partner," said Hina. She looked up at Sakura, easily the strongest individual present. "Sakura, want to pair up?"

Sakura looked down curiously at the Ultimate Swimmer. "Very well."

"Hmm…" Hifumi mused, then looked around the room. "Celeste, perhaps you would like to be my partner?" he asked, a sly grin on his face.

Celeste stared but maintained her composure. "Pick a boy, Hifumi," she said, then walked over to Junko. "Pair up?" she asked Junko nonchalantly. Junko nodded, staring at her painted nails.

"Oh, the rejection, it hurts!" Hifumi cried, placing his hand over his heart dramatically. But he recovered quickly, saying, "2D is better anyway."

Hiro glanced around the room and walked up to Hifumi. "I'll be your partner, Hifumi."

Others quickly paired up around Kyoko. Leon and Mondo, Taka and Makoto, Sayaka and Chihiro. And that left…

"I refuse to participate," Byakuya said, arms crossed.

"It will give you a disadvantage," Kyoko answered, staring at him.

"If-If you don't like the boys, I-I could pair with you," Toko offered with barely contained lust.

Byakuya scoffed. "No, there's something you've overlooked, Kyoko."

"Oh?" Kyoko prompted.

"A pair of people might work together," said Byakuya, just as Kyoko expected, "To kill another pair. Then they would both become blackened, and could graduate without issue."

Kyoko glanced around to see the others exhibiting various degrees of shock on their faces at the idea. The idea of a double homicide clearly had not occurred to them. "If you had not said anything about it," Kyoko spoke softly. "I do not think the idea would have occurred to most of them, and even if it had," she continued, returning to her normal volume, "Such a thing would be much more difficult to pull off without others noticing than merely one person killing another."

"Even so," Byakuya said dismissively, "I'll take my chances alone." He began to walk away.

Mondo moved to block him. "Hold on! Like hell I'm gonna let you run off and do whatever you want!"

Byakuya glared angrily at the muscle-bound Ultimate Biker. "Out of my way, plankton," he spat.

Mondo reeled. "Wh-!? The fuck's that supposed to mean!?"

"One tiny bit of plankton, drifting across the sea," Byakuya explained. "So minuscule, so insignificant, they couldn't possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean."

Mondo blinked, then recovered. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Such an elegant rebuttal, Kyoko thought to herself. "Let him go," she ordered.

"Huh?" Mondo asked, turning on her. "Who do you think you are, my fuckin' mom?"

"He's all talk. He's not going to hurt anyone," Kyoko said confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" asked Hina.

"He's smart enough to know we'd all be immediately suspicious of him. No, the only person he's hurting is himself, since he's a target if any of us decide to become a murderer. But of course, we won't, since we all swore an oath."

"What about that one," Leon asked, jabbing a finger towards Toko. "She didn't swear."

Toko began to respond indignantly, but Kyoko interrupted. "I'll keep an eye on her," she said simply, moving to position herself next to the last other student without a partner. "Now then, we all have our partner. Remember, never let them leave your sight. It's your only chance to have an alibi, should someone decide to betray us."

"Right!" Taka declared, heartened by Kyoko's words. "Then let's get out there and explore!" He ran off, before stopping and looking back. "Come along, Makoto!" he ordered.

Makoto jogged after the exuberant Ultimate Moral Compass, and the rest of the group filed out after him.

Kyoko sighed. Leading this group of misfits was going to be a challenge.