Chapter 8

As soon as we arrived in the backyard, we found that everyone had been waiting for us.

"Ah, looks like we're all here. So, where is this manhole?" said Rantaro while smiling amiably, with no trace of his previous mysteriousness.

"Over there, in the grass," said Gonta while pointing his finger to a spot on the grass.

I followed the line of his finger and found that there is indeed a manhole there, hiding in the middle of bushes.

"An important hole near a bush? Sounds familiar, aren't I right, ladies?" As usual, Miu was chattering about vulgar things. I will just pretend I didn't hear that.

"This manhole looks pretty heavy. How do we lift it?" asked Angie.

"Let me try," said Keebo. He put his hands on the manhole cover, and tried to lift it, but… "Hrgghh! Grrrhhhhhh! How embarrassing, it won't even budge."

"Huh? Even a robot is not strong enough to lift it?" exclaimed Angie in surprise.

"Don't worry. My strength is approximately the same as a strong senior citizen," said Keebo in a reassuring manner, which doesn't sound reassuring at all. I don't think it's a good thing to be proud of, Keebo...

"What the hell? It's pathetic!" said Miu mercilessly.

"Th-the Professor didn't want to repeat the tragedy that occurred during the trial production," said Keebo weakly, trying to defend himself.

"It's okay. Leave it to Gonta," said Gonta. He put his hand on the lid and.. he lifted it! With one hand!

"So easily?!" exclaimed Tsumugi.

"His strength must be because of my magic," said Himiko.

"Oooh you're amazing, Himiko!" said Tenko.

"What should Gonta do with the cover?" asked Gonta.

"Please put it somewhere else, Gonta. Be careful not to hit anyone with it," said Kirumi gently.

Gonta seemed reluctant to put the cover down because he thought it was ungentlemanly to litter, but he begrudgingly threw it as there is nothing that can be done. The cover easily traveled 5 yards before it hit the ground.

"You are amazing Gonta. It's all thanks to you!" I looked at him and praised him sincerely.

Gonta flushed in embarrassment, "R-really? Thank you, Mirai. Gonta wants to be helpful to everyone."

"Gonta is muuuch more helpful than some bean-counting robot," said Kokichi with an innocent smile.

"Are you talking about me? Because I can count many things, not just beans," said Keebo.

While everyone was speaking, I peeked into the manhole. The inside is too dark to be seen clearly, but I can feel the cold, damp breeze drifting out from it.

"I-it's a little creepy. Are we really going down there?" asked Tsumugi worriedly.

"Don't worry! If anything happens, I will protect you! But the degenerate males are on their own," said Tenko.

"Then, Gonta will protect the men!" Gonta looked like he was going to burst with energy with how determined he is.

"It's awfully quiet. Where is Monokuma and the Monokubs?" asked Rantaro.

"Yes. I am pretty convinced they will show up at some point to stop us by crushing us like rotten gnats," said Kiyo.

"Nyahaha! They probably didn't notice yet!" said Angie.

I doubt that's really the case. If they are determined to observe a killing game, they must have a mechanism in which they can freely watch all participants' movements. If not, there's no way they can know how the killer works.

That means, the reason why they are not showing up here, is likely because they don't care about what we will find inside. I was starting to feel discouraged, but hey, I need to stay positive!

"Then let's hurry before they find out and mess up our plan," said Kokichi with an excited look on his face.

After that, we started to enter the manhole, one by one. The hole was pretty deep and dark. I held the metal stairs tightly so as not to accidentally fell.

When my feet step on the ground, I looked around at the open space in the underground. It's quite spacious, but it's pretty dark and so humid down here.

"Yodelay heeee hooo!" At least Kokichi looked like he was having fun playing around down here.

"What is this place?" asked Maki curiously.

"I suspect it's an old industrial passageway. Perhaps a factory once built here?" said Kirumi.

My sight fell on a signboard on one side of the wall. There is an 'Exit' word written on it, and the sign points in a direction ahead of us.

Well, this… smells like a trap all over.

"What a considerate sign, don't you think?" said Rantaro while chuckling ironically beside me. I don't know how to answer that.

"Guys, take a look at this!" said Rantaro loudly, garnering attention from everybody, "Apparently we can find the exit on the end of this tunnel."

"Don't you think it's weird to put an 'exit' signboard here?" asked Tenko suspiciously.

"Yeah. But it's not like there is any other way to go here," I said that while looking around.

"Y-yeah you're right," said Shuichi.

"Don't worry! It'll be okay! It looks dangerous, but we got all Ultimates here. If we work together, there is nothing to fear!" said Kaede encouragingly.

"That was exactly what I was gonna say! We really do have the same wavelength, Kaede. Gimme a hug!" said Kaito while spreading his arms.

"Uh..no," Kaede rejected it immediately while smiling.

"Ugh! Typical degenerate males! You are trying to trick her to press her boobs against you!" said Tenko with a disgusted look on her face.

"Well, shall we go then?" said Rantaro.

Making up our minds, we slowly entered the tunnel together.

****

I don't really remember what just happened. I remembered I was walking into the tunnel but suddenly lost my consciousness before I realized it. "Ugh.."

I cracked my groggy eyes open and immediately saw Kirumi looked at me with a concerned expression, "Are you okay?"

"I am fine, thank you. How about you, Kirumi?" I said as I tried to sit up.

"As you can see, I am fortunately fine. So are everyone."

I looked around and saw everyone sitting on the ground dejectedly. The air was heavy with a lingering sense of disappointment. It seems we had failed in our attempt. As expected, this won't be easy.

Suddenly, Monokuma appeared in front of us. He looked amused by our gloomy faces, "Geez, this is quite a pity party you have down here."

"M-Monokuma?"

As if on cue, soon other voices can be heard, and there the Monokubs appeared. "Rise and shine, ursine!!"

"You guys look exhausted! Poor things," said Monophanie.

"This place is filthy! It's a disaster to my cashmere skin!" said Monotaro.

"I bet you happy Monodam! Being a cheap piece of junk you are, you must be glad to be home again!" said Monokid.

Monodam : "...."

"Why don't you say something back, Monodam? It'll liven things up a bit," said Monosuke.

"Tch. You guys are finally here. It seems you finally noticed what we are up to..." said Kaito.

"Notices?" Monokuma tilts his head in confusion, "I already know that you guys will make every plan you can to try to escape from here."

"Wh-what?" said Kaede in shock.

"If you already know since the beginning, that means this is just a trap," said Maki coldly.

"I know there is something fishy about that signboard! There is no exit! You tricked us!" said Tenko while making her stance, looking ready to attack.

"No, there is an exit," said Monophanie.

"Yeah, you might just make it if you work together!" said Monotaro.

"After all with 17 Ultimates here, there's nothing you can't do. Riiighhht?" said Monophanie.

"Puhuhuhu, and if the first attempt didn't work out, then try, try, try, and try again, until you finally accept the reality. Ahahahahaha!" Monokuma laughed maliciously in a ridiculing manner, followed by the Monokubs. I clenched my hands tightly.

After that, they left just like that. As if they come here for the sole purpose of mocking our effort. No, they deliberately did this on purpose to wear out our spirits.

"So they let us go to the underground passage on purpose. To make it clear to us, that escape is impossible," said Ryoma.

"Instead of blocking the exit completely, they deliberately left us some hope, so we can fall deeper into despair once we fail. They want to corner us mentally like this," said Rantaro with an exasperated look.

"That's just rotten," said Tsumugi.

"Yeah. But we can't just give up," said Kaede. "I mean, we only failed once. We can't give up that easily, right?"

"Nyeeeh. But isn't it impossible to escape?" asked Himiko.

"No, it's not. It may take a lot more tries, but it's not impossible! Forget about Monokuma, we don't need to care about what he said. No matter what, I won't lose to him. And I don't want you guys to lose either! So let's work hard to escape together from here."

I feel touched by her spirit. No matter what, she always looked forward and encouraged us. She is like a ball of sunlight and positivity. "Kaede…"

Kaede smiled at us as she said, "If we make it to the outside world… Why don't we all stay friends? I mean, it's not every day we can meet many Ultimates gathered together like this. What do you say?"

"Oh, I would love to become friends with all of you!" I said excitedly.

"Hmph... That might be not bad," said Ryoma.

"Yeah. That's a great idea!" said Tsumugi.

"Then we have all more reason to get out of here, no matter what," said Kirumi.

"My body is ready anytime! Count me in!" said Tenko as she stretched out her limbs.

"Isn't it too early to plan what we'll do after we escape? That assumption is useless right now," said Keebo.

"Geez.. why am I not surprised that robots can't read the air?" said Kokichi.

"Robots can read the air! Thanks to the innovation of pollutant defecting technology, I--"

"Anyway, it doesn't matter what Monokuma said! We'll show him what we can do!" Kaito looked so pumped up he was basically fuming with steam.

"It seems like a pain, but I guess I'll try," said Himiko.

"Yeah, let's work hard together. We failed the first time, but I'm sure it'll go well the next time!" said Kokichi.

"I am sure we will be fine. Because Atua will give us his direction using his divine wind," said Angie.

"Aah humanity is truly wonderful. The way you try to confront the adversity is simply too beautiful" said Kiyo while hugging himself in a trance.

After that, we challenged the tunnel once again.