Beginning of day 1: Erokub missions and a few burning questions

If Shuichi had grown used to Monokuma's tendency to pop up anywhere with zero warning, he'd grown equally, annoyingly aware of the Monokubs' pattern, which usually involved a grandiose entrance. Still, as weary as he'd grown of watching them all appear in puffs of color like something from a super-hero stage show, he had a vaguely nostalgic feeling, seeing the five assembled again. Privately, he wondered if their "father" planned to sacrifice all of them in morbid ways once again. As the smoke faded, the Monokubs stood confused by Shuichi's silence and blank stare. Hearing them introduce themselves as Erokubs just made the whole thing harder to deal with.

"Heeeey! What kinda lame-ass reaction is that to the return of everyone's favorite Erokuma units, huh?!" the former Monokid growled, while pointing his blue paw angrily. "I'm Erokid, first of the Erokubs! My mission's gonna put some hair on your chest! 'Romance' is all one big shit-show designed to get in the way of guys like us! Women just want to be fucked in the ass, right? Gahahaha!" The robot seemed more vulgar than Shuichi remembered. "Let's get on it! You're gonna get tons of Ero Points from me!" The detective wondered to himself if Monokid was trying extra hard to avoid blowing up so early this time around.

"We're really popular characters, you know, Shuichi? The whole story would be nothing without us around!" Monosuke introduced himself, adjusting his glasses with a big grin spread across the yellow half of his body. "I'm the smart one of the group, remember? That means my missions are all must-complete activities! Make sure to tell Erokuma how good my missions are." Now Shuichi was pretty sure he saw the pattern.

"ERO-GAMES-ARE-SUPERIOR-TO-KILLING-GAMES. NOW-BEGINS-THE-MISSION-OF-ERODAM," the half-green, robot-like bear spoke up next, although it otherwise stayed completely still, like a plastic model. It was hard to imagine this thing being involved in any erotic context. "EROTIC-ROBOT-ERODAM."

"I-I'm Erophanie... Are you going to do something perverted to us Erokubs?" the pink one, formerly Monophanie, questioned. When Shuichi reacted with alarm and shook his head, she tilted her head and pressed harder. "Are you sure? We're very popular characters... People might want to see this and that happen with us!" When he continued to refuse, she almost seemed pouty. "Hey, will you go after some of the guys? I really want to see Shuichi x Kaito..."

"No, no! You have to go for the girls!" the newly christened, half-red Erotaro spoke up, flapping his arms back and forth. "This is your chance to have that relationship with Kaede you wanted earlier but never got a chance to have! I was paying attention, cause I'm the leader! You were really sad all throughout your school life because she died, but now is your chance to do this and that with her!" Shuichi thought this one seemed the most genuinely fired up about his new role. "Grrr... Why can't I be the protagonist?! I'd do this and that and then these and those...!"

"Gaaaah! You all are making me want to kill you again and we haven't even made it to the first Trigger yet!" Erokuma shouted, flapping his arms up and down in cartoonish rage. "Just give Shuichi the missions already!" The Erokubs scrambled to obey their father's orders.

Erokub Missions for Day 1!

Erokid's Blue Mission: Bring Erokid a pair of Maki's panties. Reward: Anytime Panty Flash

Erosuke's Yellow Mission: Make Himiko fall in the pool. Reward: Anytime Totally Soaked

Erodam's Green Mission: HEAR-KI-B0-SAY-SOMETHING-EMBARRASSING. Reward: Anytime Dirty Talk

Erophanie's Pink Mission: Show your underwear to somebody while you're still wearing it. Reward: Daily Wardrobe Change

Erotaro's Red Mission: Put both hands on a girl's butt. Reward: Anytime Grope Forgiveness

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Erokuma took a moment to look between his progeny, then raised one clawed hand. "Eeeeh? This is baby stuff! You're going to drive away our viewers on the first day! Didn't you just say you want Shuichi to put his this in a girl's that, Erokid?! What's with this panty fetish?!" It sounded like he wasn't pleased with the efforts shown by his underlings so far. "Give him 'Anytime Ass Fuck!'"

"I-It's to build excitement!" Erokid argued back, suddenly hiding behind the green Erodam for protection. "You have to build up with these kinds of games, right?! We're going to start Shuichi off easy with this kind of thing, to get him acclimated! Once he sees how fun it is, he'll slowly spiral down into the other stuff! That's how these games work!"

"Idiot! You shouldn't tell him that out loud!" Erosuke scolded, while taking a similar stance behind Erophanie. At this rate, the Erokubs were going to become a conga line. "Won't he resist if we let him know that's our plan?!"

"He he he... Think of it as our challenge, Shuichi! If you can get past this first test, Day 2 is going to be way better!" Erotaro chuckled, seeming to be the most confident in their direction of the group. "Today, I'm already giving you something spicy! You can touch any girl's butt that you want!"

Shuichi didn't know what to say... Monodam's request seemed like the only forgiving one out of all of these. Half of what K1-B0 said was embarrassing to listen to. The others ranged from personally mortifying to seemingly impossible. Was there really a way to get a pair of Maki's panties without dying? "Wait, everyone... I have a few more questions," he spoke up, trying to talk over the din of Erokubs.

"That's like your catchphrase, kid. What is it?" Erosuke questioned, seeming pleased that no one had died yet.

"K1-B0 was in my list of passive Trigger recipients, like Maki and Himeko. Why is that?"

"I don't judge if you want to do it with a boy/robot. I left the door open for that!" the pink bear giggled, sounding hopeful.

"ROBOTS-NEED-LOVE-TOO," Erodam added, shooting steam from his rounded ears as he spoke.

"N-No, I mean, does that mean this is the same K1-B0 we spent time with? With the same memories? I was sure he'd been completely destroyed in the final attack."

"Pu pu pu," Erokuma chuckled, stepping in front of the others as though this was a particularly juicy question he wanted to himself. "The answer to the first question is a little obvious, isn't it? Bears never lie: these are all of your same friends! The answer to your other question: those three have the same memories, though some of them may be fudged a little by that passive Triggers you've already been given. The others will be pretty fresh. Trust me, they're better off not remembering what happened to them! I can always remind them, if you waste all day with stupid questions!" Just then, the bear remembered one more thing he'd wanted to add. "Oh right! Also, you're all 18 years or older now."

What a thing to just throw out casually! Shuichi desperately wanted to know how such a change could be possible, but he knew he was being goaded on; he grit his teeth, but continued with another important question. "Can I still be killed?" It was a valid question, considering he'd been asked to steal a professional assassin's underwear.

"Yes, you can! That'd be pretty funny in its own way. Though, there won't be school trials, so your chance of being killed has gone down a lot. Just don't run by the pool, kay?"

"... If I were to die, what would happen to the game?"

"I'm not going to tell you!"

"What? Why not?" Shuichi asked clutching his cover at his waist cautiously. It disturbed him that the villainous Erokuma had already thought about this.

"Because what does it matter? I'm not turning on some weird cloning machine that brings you back to life if you die! If you die, you'll never learn what happened to the others. Maybe I'll restart a killing game? Or maybe they'll all just live here forever, confused about the whole thing? Upupupu..." The newly named Erokuma's mood always seemed to improve when he talked about the possibility of **** or dismemberment... Shuichi was reminded that this slapstick routine was just a front for whatever mastermind controlled this new bear doll.

The goal of the last game had first seemed to be the wonton **** of gifted young people. Later, it appeared to be to facilitate "despair vs. hope." In the end, it seemed to just be a ploy for ratings, if he believed the former mastermind.

If the goal here was one of those three things, he had to guess the latter. The only despair to be found here would be his own self-loathing and the possible Trigger-associated **** of his friends. When you put that up to **** or the depths of despair they faced last time, it didn't seem so bad... Was that intentional on the part of the ones running this whole thing?

Afterward, the Erokubs had all left the room to spread out among the campus, using their modified "Erokub Cloaking" to avoid detection by others on their way out. Shuichi was left to regret that he hadn't asked Erokid where he was waiting for the panties. Last to leave was Erokuma himself. "I know you're in your boxers right now and want privacy, thinking of all this ero ero stuff, so I'll give you some alone time for now! Change the sheets yourself when you finish, because that's too gross for me to handle. As for when we'll meet again... I'm the one that decides when, not you!" the robotic bear laughed, before vanishing mysteriously.

Shuichi felt strangely calm. The stakes were high, but the mission was not terribly difficult... After all, even if he only accomplished the easiest three of the missions, all he had to do was use his Triggers four more times throughout the day and he'd secure the safety of his whole group. The shower and change into his usual uniform gave him time to think. He replaced his cap upon his head, fixing it just right as he spoke to himself in the mirror; he was already second-guessing his initial sense that this was going to be easy. "... It's actually a good idea for me to collect every Trigger I can. Doing these things myself is pretty harmless, but using the Triggers could be dangerous, since I'm relying on some bizarre technology I don't understand. Plus, having more Triggers gives me more options if Monokuma suddenly decides to start enforcing that no repeat rule. Yeah... I have to complete these missions, especially because they're only going to get harder from here on out," he told himself.

Harder? Or just more degrading? That remained to be seen...

Yet another question still needed answering: why hadn't any of the others come to wake him up? At least Maki, K1-B0, or Himiko should have sought him out, with memories of their past experiences together...

For now, Shuichi ignored the nagging of his brain, as well as the growling of his stomach. He felt like he hadn't eaten in... well, it felt like more than a day's worth of fasting. There was no time for the first meal of the day. He could eat later; these missions were on a timer and he'd already slept in!