The night went as if it was a blink of an eye. The sun shone brightly in the room even with the curtains having covered the window. In fact, it was just enough to wake up the groggy traditional dancer out from her slumber. Hiyoko opened up the curtains only to let the shining sun blind her eyes, immediately closing it off seconds later.

"Ugh..! Am I really gonna have to get used to this for the next eternity..?!" Hiyoko whined to herself as she went over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Her groggy nature practically made her do it as effortless as possible, though she did bother to rinse her teeth and floss, albeit sluggishly.

She wiped her eyes with the sink's water, trying to keep herself awake. It wouldn't be easy to get into full energy if someone like her was enclosed into a murder game, after all.

Turning off the sink faucet, she could hear the sounds of seagulls ringing right through her ears. As she went back to her room, she noticed something on her shelf that she didn't notice the first time, mainly because of her groggy eyes. A gift basket of sorts.

"Is this some sort of trap..?" Hiyoko asked herself. "REALLY fishy for someone to slide this in here while I was asleep..! In fact, didn't I lock the door last night?!"

Suspicious about this event, Hiyoko went to check the basket. Oddly enough, it didn't particularly seemed to be having anything shady. It seemed to have things that Hiyoko did seemed to have liked. This included a few bags of gummies, which on closer inspection, thankfully didn't have any lemon gummies for her, a small cat plushie, a squishy ant toy, some scent candles in the case if the ones already in the room had run out, a box of mochi flavors that she liked, and even a Penelope doll that looked pretty accurate to the real deal. Along with those items, there was a note attached to the basket. Curious and raising her eyebrow about the note, she proceeded to read it.

"A gift for you, Hiyoko Saionji. Containing all your favorite things, that will be restocked everyday. It's a means to keep your hope alive in this harrowing situation. Love, Monodog.

P.S. The doll will only be restocked if you somehow manage to lose it."

"Well... I SUPPOSE that's at least... generous..." Hiyoko muttered to herself. "I'm still worried if there could be anything those nasty mammals are hiding though..."

Unfortunately, her worries became true after she picked up the basket, as she saw something lying right behind it. A small, covered katana blade was on that very shelf. Did that dumb mutt seriously think she'd like a weapon like that as a gift..?! With that confusing thought in her head, Hiyoko could only move it away as she placed the basket back... just as she heard something coming from outside...

"TRIAL OF THE DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!"

... and not to mention the kick of someone else's door. Right after, both the perpetrator and the victim of the door kicking screamed in unison.

'God, the hell was that?! It sounded like a life-sized Mr. Ant was about to be squished..!' Hiyoko thought to herself, looking a bit frazzled from the noise. Hiyoko thought of trying to check out what was going on, but she remembered that she couldn't exactly just waltz around into something like that. She could get herself tenderized on no less than Day 1 like that! The dancer had to keep her guard up... She couldn't trust ANY PIG-BRAINED IDIOT that she could find in here! Well, mostly anyway.

She decided to let that thought pass away from her as she stretched to at least help herself to be more awake. That was until...

Knock! Knock! Knock!

She heard some knocking coming from the door, and Hiyoko's nerves were already going haywire. What if someone was already out and about to catch her where it hurts..?! That person could just be waiting out there with their own weapon of choice, and all she has to defend herself was a pathetically sized katana! Maybe she was just overstressing it a bit, but she couldn't exactly blame herself for thinking such a matter. She's trapped in a killing game, and her inner mind was still jumbled from the events that happened yesterday.

The petite woman eyed towards that very katana, questioning... just questioning if she could just hide it in the case if her rapidly increasing fears might just possibly end up becoming true... Just as she thought to herself with her paranoid mindset, walking over to pick up that katana going with paranoia over her common thinking, more knocks entered in the door, with a voice coming through it... One recognizable voice that at least... oddly seemed to have calmed her a bit.

"Ms. Saionji? Are you awake in there?" The voice had asked calmly.

Hiyoko, at least feeling a tad more reassured even if she didn't particularly get why, answered over to here. "Y-Yeah! I'm coming over now, geez!"

The banana-haired girl hid back the katana she briefly picked up back to where it belonged, walked over to the door and opened it up. The person who knocked on that very door turned out to be the Child Therapist herself, Madison.

"Well, it's reassuring to see you're awake and well." Madison told her with a small smile before fading back into a neutral expression. "Though... I can't exactly say the same for... some of us..."

The sound of puking could be heard from nearby, with Hiyoko getting a bit grossed out from the noise.

"God, did someone get food poisoning back there..?!" Hiyoko asked. "If so, I'm remotely surprised the robots even managed to have a culinary degree for themselves if they can't cook for shit..!!"

"Not exactly... Safe to say, shortly after you went to bed, we all discussed as a group what we would do regarding this game. As for Ms. Hawley..."

A deep sigh came out from the taller blonde.

"Well she about near drank herself to death. I fear she could give herself alcohol poisoning if this keeps up."

The smaller blonde seemed a bit worried about what the entertainer had done, even if she wasn't there to witness the entirety of it. "God... I knew my idol had a bit of a drinking problem the first I saw her in the bar, but..." She paused with a bit of cringing coming from her face. "I didn't think that her addiction would already be digging herself a grave..!"

"Unfortunately, it just might BE her downfall if nobody can help. That said, I'm going to at least attempt to be that someone who could. Could you head down to the Dining Hall and wait for me down there?" Madison requested. "I shouldnt be all but hopefully at best... maybe 10 minutes? At worst, possibly an hour."

"Alright... Whatever floats your own boat..." Hiyoko shrugged as she walked off to the Dining Hall while Madison went to deal with Evelyn's issues. The dancer couldn't lie to herself, she felt bad for her idol, and to think that she did make an episode involving things like that... She couldn't help but wonder what she was dealing with, but her hunger talked more than her empathy. She needed something to munch on by that point, and hopefully something small that she likes this time. Even cereal would be alright for her! When she got to the hallway, she noticed that she was the only one there.

"Really..?! What's the point of waking me up if nobody's practically waiting here?!" Hiyoko complained. "Now I feel as if I wasted precious minutes on getting more of my beauty sleep..!"

Hiyoko soon heard something coming from the kitchen. It sounded as if someone was screaming... Turns out she wasn't the only one who was around. Wondering what was making the noise, she went over to see what was happening.

Rushing into the Kitchen area itself, she found Ayumu who was covered in pancake batter with a few dishes tossed about across the floor in what seemed like a panic. She was heaving for air, and her eyes visibly filled with fear and worry.

"I-ImsorryimsorryimsorryImsorryimsorry!! I just
wanted t-t-to-"

She was stuttering, barely able to control her breathing, rocking back and forth, and occasionally hitting herself in the process.

"For fuck's..." Hiyoko muttered before asking... "What the hell happened here..?!"

Ayumu was unable to respond. It seemed as if she was in complete meltdown mode. It was as if she's frozen up, ironically. Hiyoko normally hated her from the start, but obviously she couldn't be able to do much of anything with her piggy bum loafing around like that...

"Looks like I'm gonna have to get Mr. Impulsive Hothead, don't I..?" Hiyoko groaned.

As Hiyoko turned around to go look for Nick's room, Neku came over and saw what was happening. "Was that where the screaming came from..?!"

Hiyoko could only merely interrupt by saying... "Yes. Now stay there, keep your mouth zipped up, and don't try getting an aneurism like I just did!"

From there, she marched over back to the hotel room hallway. If Ayumu kept on stuttering on and on again... she probably would've tried to make herself a tombstone in just five minutes, or maybe even less. As she went over to knock on the door, expecting a death glare of sorts from Nick for the previous Ayumu incidents, she heard footsteps going after her. It ended up being Neku, who followed her along.

"H-Hey, Hiyoko..." He said, breathing a bit from running after her.

"Really..?! Didn't I tell you to stay back and keep your mouth shut?!"

"Yeah, but... are you sure Nick's gonna be wanting to see... well, you? Especially since it's kinda obvious you two got issues..." Neku asked a bit worryingly.

"From what I've saw, he always takes his 'adowable wittle sister' as a priority over anything else..." Hiyoko said, mockingly doing a cutesy voice when describing Ayumu. "... which probably includes grudges on everyone. Him believing me could be a synch!"

"I... heavily doubt that." Neku answered. "Considering you're the only one who seems to harass and bully her from the sounds of it."

However, a very aware Nick opened his door wide open, tiredly death staring at the both of them. Both of them noticed and well... seemed a bit nervous about being found out.

"Ohhhh! Heeey, Nicholas!" Neku greeted awkwardly. "How we doinnnnn- Okay seriously, Kitchen?! Now?!"

"Wait, what's... going on?" Nick groggily asked. "Secondly, what the hell is she doing here with you?"

"... She might or might not be responsible for your sister in danger currently?" Neku accused Hiyoko, much to her outrage.

Nick, knowing the previous occurrences, immediately glared right at her soul, with a panicked Hiyoko trying to fend for herself. "W-WHAT?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I'm as clueless as SPRAY CAN is over there is! Have some common sense, people!!"

This... made Nick realize that it was really an emergency.

"SHIT... G-Give me a second!!" He yelled as Nick quickly rushed to get changed into his usual snow outfit, and ran as fast as he could towards the dining hall to deal with Ayumu.

Neku then turned over to Hiyoko after watching the snowboarder make his haste. "Hiyoko, maybe it'd be best if you... continue hanging around here. I wouldn't want risking you making things worse."

"... Fine." Hiyoko groaned. "But this better be solved quickly! I'm already starving!"

Neku nodded as he ran after Nick, while Hiyoko waited it out in the hallway. She quickly got bored, needless to say. There wasn't particularly much she could do while staying stuck in there anyway... All she was able to do was stand, wait, and starve.

As she waited, a few of her fellow peers walked by, looking over at Hiyoko. The group consisted of Dora, Milo, Roger, and Kai. They seemed pretty confused as to why she was waiting outside.

"Ms Saionji! Youre up rather early this morning!" Roger stated. "Why are you standing outside the Dining Hall?"

"Apparently Paintball had to kick me out to deal with a little situation with one of our peers..." Hiyoko pouted, emphasizing the peers comment with her sarcasm. "And now, here I am just trying to survive with my small stomach and wait it out until it's been done with..."

"Paintball?" Roger asked confused.

"I think she's implying that Neku's the one who kicked her out." Kai told him. "He's the Ultimate Graffiti Artist, remember?"

"Oh. Uh... right. That makes more sense now... but what peer exactly is having issues this morning? Apologies for the many questions, but it is my sworn duty to ensure everyone is doing alright, especially right now!"

"Specifically, Tweedle Dee's little sister's having a weird breakdown over... something about messing up over baking something..." Hiyoko explained, referring to Nick and Ayumu respectively. "She was basically as if she was like a frozen block of ice!"

Roger continued to be confused over who Hiyoko was referring to, being a little dense in the brain.

"She means the twins." Milo told him. "That said, if she's feeling any better, I'll see what I can do to help."

"And I guess I might as well continue to starve here. You do what you must, creepy giant..." Hiyoko commented, before quietly telling herself... "At least you won't be able to try to death stare or squish me from that distance..."

The ex-soldier, who overheard that very comment, sternly told Hiyoko... "... I wouldn't have to do either if you learned how to behave yourself."

From there, he went inside the Dining Hall to check out the situation. The others would soon follow after, leaving Hiyoko on her lonesome once more.

"I'm not gonna get any breakfast anytime soon, aren't I..?" Hiyoko pouted harder to herself.

More time had passed, and even still, Hiyoko wasn't given the green-light to come in. By then, she was getting pissed off about it. She can't just be left there without having to eat anything! The dancer eventually made up her mind...

"Oh, fuck this whole waiting game... Maybe the supermarket could have something that I could shoplift..." The banana-haired girl groaned as she got up and left the premises. After a short walk, she went inside the market and started to look for anything that she could at least call breakfast for herself.

Walking over towards the food aisle, Hiyoko checked out what was in stock. It seemed to have contained some Korean convenience store food that was in stock. From those that were available, there were some familiar cookie and chip brands that she noticed, but with Korean language implanted on. Aside from the same-old same-old, a lot of instant noodles, bread, bagged sandwiches and burgers, rice balls, chicken nuggets, bagged drinks, and rice logs (or as the store called it, kinpa) were available to choose from. Hiyoko tried some of them before, but she wasn't too big on them. Aside from the typical ones available, there also seemed to be other foreign convenience foods that were available, even from her home country.

"Geez, this place REALLY has it all, doesn't it..?" Hiyoko told herself sarcastically. She took some time to think of what would be the best thing to nab at the moment. 'Well... hmm... I suppose I could give the instant noodles and rice balls a try... It's not like it'd taste any different anyway...'

Grabbing some chicken instant ramen noodles and a pack of rice balls alongside a small juice patch, Hiyoko made it over to the exit... That was, until...

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, SHORTSTACK!!" A voice yelled out. Looking around for who said that, the dancer found out that it was none other than that very headmaster who started this mess in the first place.

"Oh, great... Apparently you finally learned how to grow a brain now..?!" Hiyoko told her upon being caught trying to shoplift.

"Grow a brain? Maybe grow some common sense once in awhile! Ever hear of shoplifting?!" The robotic kitty asked her. "Because it's what you're damn doing right now! I need your precious credits to take care of my sister's kittens, you know! Inflation's no damn joke."

Hiyoko just stared at her blankly, raising an eyebrow on the credits portion.

"... I didn't introduce you to Monodog's stupid currency system to you yet, did I?" The kitten then asked with a derpy stare.

"Take one wild guess..." Hiyoko rolled her eyes.

"...Hmm. Okay, this time's a pass, but I wanna hear a damn apology come from that horse stall of a mouth of yours!" The cat demanded.

"Why should I give you an apology when YOU were the one who got me and everyone else into this mess?!" Hiyoko asked her.

"You know why you should? BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!"

"Wowee... You're practically sounding as if you're one of those kitties who thinks that being love by their owner means that they get to do whatever they please, like that one equally-as-fat orange cat!" The dancer struck back.

"Wow. You go to 1st Grade Insult Class with that one kid?" The cat asked with a clear disappointed face.

"Puh-lease..." Hiyoko scoffed back. "At least I actually HAVE an education! Robots like you only depend on stupid ones and zeroes!"

"And what education does a Kindergartner like you have again? Lemme guess... invited here purely by pity! Womp womp!"

"Y'know what..?! Why don't you just drown your metallic pathetic skull into some catnip?! That way, you can hyperactively go bother someone else and leave me alone!"

Hiyoko then tried to walk past Monokitty, however... what happened afterward would truly cement her stay as a nightmare...

"Oh, you're wanting me to be HYPERACTIVE, don't you..?" Monokitty asked, her red eye glowing brightly. "So be it, kid..!"

The robot's claws retracted out of her paws, and they looked as sharp as Hiyoko's own weapon did... In fact, she was admittedly frightened about what was about to happen.

"W-What are you planning to do with that..?! And what's with your f-freakass eye of yours..?!"

"I rather don't like the sounds of brats disobeying my every word and command. I've taken enough shit from ungrateful little monsters like you, but if you think I won't make your life a living hell here while I can..?"

"W-What... What are you gonna do about it..?!" Hiyoko tried to talk back in her usual manner, albeit her tone coming out as more frightened.

"Oh, it's real quite SIMPLE..." The cat answered, sharpening her claws. "SO simple that I think you'll get the message REAL well..!"

The backing away Hiyoko gulped in fear, but Monokitty wasn't gonna let her take the easy way out. She grabbed Hiyoko's lower kimono and pulled her down. From there, she used her already-sharpened claw to slowly and severely slice her across the chest, leaving some rip marks into her kimono and causing said chest to start bleeding down... and it was bloody.

Now starting to let out tears after shrieking in pain, Hiyoko looked down and saw the blood. Real blood. One of the few things that scares Hiyoko to figurative death... That... damn cat... and all because of some stupid shoplifting rule... Hiyoko clenched her chest in pain with an extremely frightened face, each tear dropping satisfying the cat further.

"Well now, that'll do it for you, won't it..? Of course, I can't kill you, per the rules. However, none of 'em say I can't harm you to make you listen... This is only a SMALL warning to you, and any further? The pain'll be EVEN HARSHER. Are... we... clear?" The cat demanded. Hiyoko, almost unable to speak through the pain and fear, nodded as fast as she could...

"J-Just... let me... go... p-please..!!" She begged. "I w-won't shoplift again!!"

"Okay!" She initially agreed. "But on one condition... You gotta do one more favor before you gooo~!

... Scratch my damn head. IT'S ITCHY AND THESE CLAWS OF MINE WILL JUST HURT LIKE HELL! Do that, and mayyyyybe I'll let you go!"

"S-Serious... ly..?!" She exclaimed.

"You want another HARD scratch or what..?"

Hiyoko quickly obliged once Monokitty threatened her and started to scratch her with the remaining strength she had, making the cat purr happily.

"Ahh... That's the spot!"

After a bit of a while of scratching...

"Okay, I think the itch's gone! You can stop."

Hiyoko placed down her hands, panting in pain and exhaustion...

"You've redeemed yourself Ms. Saionji... only slightly. Now, I'm takin' you to the damn dining hall!"

The cat once again clenched onto Hiyoko's kimono and dragged her over back towards the hotel and into the dining hall... after the dancer picked back up all of the shoplifted items anyway.

Meanwhile back in the Dining Hall, everyone else who wasn't inside there prior had arrived by this point, and it seemed as if the issue with Ayumu had already been resolved while Hiyoko was away. The skiier seemed to be back to her usual mood, and wasn't covered with as much pancake batter as before. The door soon opened, with Hiyoko slowly and painfully making her way over and Monokitty keeping a close red eye on her. Madison was the first of them to notice the dancer.

"Ah, there you are... Where did you go exactly? I was hoping you'd wait for me, but as long as you're sa..." She then paused and noticed something on her chest... blood and part of her own kimono being torn off. "Hiyoko, why are you bleeding?"

"Take a wild guess!" Monokitty giggled with glee. "Your little brat is misbehaving and shoplifting! I think Daddy didn't hit her enough, but... oh yeah, then I remember! He went out for milk and never came home! Womp womp. Next time, you should hit her so hard she develops common sense. Then I wouldnt have to step in like this!"

Hiyoko could only glare with her tears at the sadistic kitty as she laughed to herself. Monodog trailed from behind slowly.

"Y-Y'know, you could learn to... s-shut your mouth every now and again. You're not funny, t-to be honest." The pup told her, albeit cowardly.

"And you should probably keep YOURS glued to a stick, mutt!!" Monokitty retaliated. This made the dog back down a bit, but he then turned over to Hiyoko, feeling pitiful for how she got attacked harshly.

"H-Hey... U-Um, Hiyoko..? You can... come with me to help p-patch your wounds up..." Monodog offered. "I promise, I w-won't bite."

Hiyoko nodded weakly. She NEEDED treatment for her wounds... ANY treatment. Otherwise, she'd practically be a goner because of the blood loss....

"I-If anyone else w-would like to come w-with us to h-help... F-Feel free t-to do so. I would appreciate it, a-and... Hiyoko would probably f-feel the same, too." The puppy added in the offer.

"Tch, I highly doubt it..." Toshiro rolled his eyes, barely giving any crap for what happened to Hiyoko.

"Toshiro, no matter how you feel about her..." Haru called out to him. "She's hurt! In fact, she's bleeding! Have some human decency!"

"And you expect me to act so cuddly wuddly to her when all she does is act like a spoiled brat who's always begging for attention..?" He snidely asked. "No way in hell would I feel anything for HER."

Haru facepalmed to herself over his own behavior as she quickly stood up. "All of THAT aside... I'm coming with her!"

Madison was also quick to raise her hand to volunteer. "I'll also be coming with. She and I have been with each other since the first day, and I wouldn't leave her behind like this now."

Someone else stood up to come help as well, though it wasn't as expected as the other two.

"I'm an expert with wounds like this. I know I'm not particularly as social, but... I can at least try to lend a hand to help." Dora offered.

"T-That's great that... some of y-you are willing to help..!" The puppy said with gratitude. "C'mon, Hiyoko. We'll take you to an, um... more quieter spot..!"

Before Monodog, Hiyoko, Haru, Madison, and Dora could even leave... Monokitty stretched out her sharp claws again, and...

SWIPE!

Monokitty quickly ran over and cut off the tie of Hiyoko's kimono sash, leaving her kimono to get all messed up. The majority of the people were shocked to see what she did.

"Whoopsies~!" Monokitty said with a smug face. "That was an HONEST mistake of mine!"

The traditional dancer could only give the mechanical bastard a bloodshot glare before she once again started to cry out and leave the room in tears, carrying along her already collapsing kimono.

"M-M-MISS HIYOKO!!" Monodog cried out for her, but by then, it was too late...

Deep down, a good amount of people felt bad for Hiyoko, but... were unsure of what to do. Others like Toshiro though? They didn't give any care for what chain of events she just went through.

"C-C'mon, volunteers..! W-We can't l-lose track of h-her!" Monodog pointed out.

"But question is... how do we know where she went..?" Haru asked, looking pitiful for the dancer. "She ran off as if she was running late for something important!"

As Dora looked around, she noticed something that the other three wouldn't... a trail of small blood droplets leading over to the hallways.

"Haru, I think I have an answer." Dora told her, pointing towards the droplets that were dropped down as Hiyoko was running away. "We can follow that trail and catch up to Hiyoko."

"Good find, Ms. Morales." Madison nodded. "Let's get going."

The three girls and Monodog followed after the blood trail, which quickly took a turn over towards Hiyoko's own hotel room.

"So this is where she went in?" Haru wondered. "Should've figured that'd be where she was hiding..."

"Fair point, but let's go check on Ms. Saionji." Madison stated. "She needs our help, desperately."

The four of them walked inside, with Haru and Dora taking a gander at Hiyoko's hotel room's contents, Haru seemingly more absorbed into it than the latter.

"Woah... So this room seems inspired from those old Japanese homes or something?" Haru asked. "Seems pretty fitting considering her talent..."

"It's best if you take a room tour later." Dora told her, who was more-so focused on examining Hiyoko's location. "Saionji has to be around here somewhere..."

"I think I see her." Madison pointed out, pointing her finger towards Hiyoko, who seemed to be struggling to tie her jumbled up kimono in front of her own mirror.

"C-C-Come... on..!" Hiyoko cried. "G-G-Get on, you... stupid... tie..!!" In the end, she collapsed onto the floor in exhaustion and quickly wailed her frustrations out in tears. The other three couldn't help but feel bad, whether it was visible, or if it was in the inside.

"S-She never figured o-out how to tie her own k-kimono, h-huh..." Monodog wondered out loud, feeling pitiful of her. "I-I'd like to help, b-but umm... I'm... not exactly at the qualified height to do such a thing..."

"I think treating her injuries should be our first priority." Dora told him. "Come on. We don't want her flooding the place with her blood."

The four walked over towards the dancer, who immediately noticed them thanks to the large mirror. Very embarrassed about having to be seenk with her kimono all tattered up like that, she quickly backed up.

"G-GO AWAY!!" Hiyoko told them. "I... I can't be seen... l-like this..!!"

"H-Hey, calm down..!" Haru tried to tell her, but Hiyoko was quick to butt back. "W-WHY SHOULD I?! I-I look like... a p-pure embarrassment now..!"

"Maybe... We can still help with that?" Haru tried to ask. "You know, with the whole kimono situation and that wound of yours..?"

"W-Well, what do you know?!" Hiyoko told her. "Something your lame brother would've taught you..?!"

"Hiyoko... There's no shame in admitting that you could use help sometimes..." Haru told her. "I know how it feels to not be able to do something, and I've always asked him for help when I need it... Besides, it's not like anyone here would actually make fun of you for your whole kimono mess..."

"Aside from the gaming dirtbag..." The injured dancer pouted. "And are you r-really sure that you're gonna fix it, or are you just trying to lie to make me feel better..?!"

"I'm always honest with whatever I say." Haru told her. "I'd never lie for the life of it, even during these grim circumstances... Here, I'll even help you with your Kimono!"

Haru started to help fix up Hiyoko's own kimono, tying it around.

"H-Hey!! What the hell are you—" Hiyoko started to exclaim before looking down after Haru finished tying. "Oh. You... you actually fixed it?" She asked shockingly.

"It's like I said, honesty's the best policy." Haru smiled.

"I... um..." Hiyoko stammered a bit as she sniffled, feeling significantly calmer than before. "... T-Thank you..."

"Hey, it's no problem..!" Haru replied, giving out somewhat of a bigger sister vibe to her. "Now, let's handle that wound of yours. Hey, Monodog? Are there any bandages around here?"

"U-Unfortunately not..." Monodog said disappointedly. "B-Best I can do though is to give you s-some Monodog Coins..! You can redeem yourself some band-aids to help with the w-wound..."

"I still h-have... no clue what you mean by that..." Hiyoko sniffled, seeming a bit confused.

"O-Oh... Neither me nor M-Monokitty explained how that all works, didn't i-it..?" The puppy asked.

"Well, she wasn't with us back in the Dining Hall when you two explained it to the rest of us..." Dora commented. "So I'd assume most likely not."

"O-Oh, well allow me to e-explain it for you then..!" Monodog told her. "Some of the uhm... things you do around the island to make, umm... Monodog currency..? You can redeem those bucks for fun presents and... and maybe even food you'd like to use for cooking! Though, I doubt that anyone would probably care to try that, as none of you are Ultimate Chefs... but you can also use them to buy things that you'd likely need right now, like band-aids! In fact, I-I'll give you some right now, s-since you've missed out on that earlier..!"

Hiyoko was given 50 Monodog Coins by the pup himself.

"I-I already gave f-fifty to the rest of the g-group. Make sure y-you, erm... spend it wisely..!"

"If you don't want to spend yours right now, maybe I can try to pitch in to buy some band-aids for you?" Madison offered. "They only cost five coins, so I'd still have a lot more to use."

"T-That'd be fine... I g-guess..." Hiyoko wiped a tear as she placed her currency into one of her shelves.

"Fine by me then." The child therapist nodded, as she gave five of her fifty Monodog Coins to Monodog.

"O-Okay, band-aids, I've, uhm, g-got!" Monodog said, taking out and giving a pack of band-aids in exchange. From there, Hiyoko sat down on her bed to at least make the bandage placing seem easier. Afterwards, all three girls begun to patch up the claw wounds on Hiyoko's chest with the band-aids inside the pack. Eventually, most of the wounds have been replaced with the band-aids.

"I think that should do it." Madison told her, having finished placing the last one.

"Feeling any better, Hiyoko?" Haru asked with concern.

"A... bit, kind of..." Hiyoko said, tapping her own chest and still reacting to the pain. "It... still... hurts..."

"Well, what else are we supposed to do..?" Haru asked, seemingly ran out of ideas.

"Her injury seems to be a slash on the chest, right?" Dora asked, with the others nodding. "Well, I heard aloe vera can help with such wounds like that, and also other skin-related injuries like burn marks. I've actually used it on myself, and the pain felt as if it got soothed a lot sooner than I originally thought it would've."

"If it can help, then we can give it a try." Madison nodded before turning towards Monodog. "Do we have to pay for a cream of that, too?"

"A-Actually, I h-heard there's some aloe vera plants l-located around this island. If y-you find some, you w-won't have to pay for it. I-It's naturally grown here, y-you know." The doggy told her, scratching her own ear. "Besides, I don't have a-any actual ones on me right now, u-unfortunately..."

"Fine by me then." Dora shrugged. "I'm going out to look for any of those plants. I'll let you know if I managed to get enough to treat Hiyoko's wounds." With that, Dora went off to search.

"If you're feeling like it, we should probably head back with the others." The therapist suggested to her. "Some of them still could be feeling a bit worried about you..."

The dancer still didn't particularly like the group of people she had to be stuck with, but... she practically HAD to try to socialize if she wanted to chance to survive the whole mess. "... Alright... f-fine." Hiyoko said, wiping another tear away, with Madison and Dora helping her out of the bed, and the former looking towards Monodog.

"Are you going to come with, or..?" She asked, which Monodog declined by shaking her head.

"U-Unfortunately, Monokitty p-probably wants some business for me to t-take care with by n-now... I do t-thank you for the, erm... offer though..."

"It's no problem. Let's get going, you two." Madison told them, with them heading back over towards the Dining Hall. As they were walking, Haru turned her head over towards Hiyoko, wanting to tell her something.

"Hey, Hiyoko..." Haru whispered. "If you ever need your kimono tied again, you can always come ask me for help. I won't mind..!"

"I..." Hiyoko stammered, surprised by the offer. She really had no one else to turn to, and Haru had been acting... surprisingly kind towards her even after how she's been acting since they first met. How could she refuse something like that? "I... I'd like that... a lot... Thank you, Haru..."

"Hey, it's no biggie!" Haru gave her a warm smile as the three approached the doors of the Dining Hall.

Perhaps... Haru wasn't... particularly that much of an annoyance that she used to see her as. Maybe she was... something more than just someone who she views as normal...