Chapter Text
“Puhuhu!” Teruteru should have known, should have expected it. Jabberwock was an island of despair, where despairful things happened. Or maybe that’s just what Monokuma had drilled into his head for days since his first appearance.
His first appearance. His first lines. His first confirmation that if they wanted to get off this island, they had to kill.
But nobody did, either they didn’t believe it or they had nothing to live for, but nobody of the group was murdered yet, and nobody looked troubled either.
Except… the damn announcement that night…
“All food supply on Jabberwock Island has been restricted and removed.” and it was said like it was protocol. In a way, it was. It would be. Then Monokuma added, more darkly, more playfully in an uglier way; “Let’s see how the ache of your starvation messes with your psyche. Until you finally decide your hunger is more important than a peer”.
Then? The monitor in his own- and every, he presumed- cottage shut down. And he immediately got dressed and stepped out once he heard the others exiting too.
They thought it was bullshit. Until it wasn’t. All fruits and coconuts stripped fully off the trees, no berries present either- not even the poisonous ones. Rocketpunch Market might as well be a warehouse because all resources and snacks were stripped off too. Teruteru even checked his own kitchen- with Akane bursting through the door with him- and… it was true. There was… nothing. Nothing to eat. Not even the crabs at the beach or the fish. Everything was just… gone.
“A-Alright! D-Don’t panic!” is what he wanted to say if it wasn’t for his own gut-wretching worry. The worry, dread, that only a chef had. Soon, they would all lose their energies, as would he, and eventually? Their sanities. Hunger changes a person, it turns them meaner, hastier, uglier. All due to a shattered psyche, from an empty stomach. Everything was linked to the stomach.
But for now? He watched among the group as they faced their realities. How long until Monokuma returned the food supply? However he did it- it didn’t matter. For now, they had nothing to eat, and probably not unless someone snapped and turned barbaric… Teruteru gulped to himself, his hands fiddling with the ends of his crimson scarf.
He sat uselessly at the table. He never sat on any of the chairs behind the table before, that was never his job. His job was to be the reason people sat and expected- only now, the atmosphere was unrealistically more gloomy, solemn. Akane was hunched over the table, miserable, as her stomach rumbled audibly. Someone else’s did too in the room. And Teruteru noticed and some eyes- were on him. Expecting him to- somehow- magically whip out a dish out of an empty fridge with nothing but the grease, fog, and stains on the glass.
He looked down with a tight smirk and crossed arms, a smirk because he couldn’t afford not to.
…
“Teruteru!” Frantic knocking came from the other end of the door when Teruteru himself was already going to go out to the Hotel Restaurant and- what, make breakfast?
Teruteru didn’t open the door, he only pressed his ear to it from the inside. “What’ye want, Souda?”
“Come with me, we’re searching for food. On the Island.”
Teruteru made a face behind the door- astonishment and confusion at once. “Food?-”
“Akane’s coming with. And Nekomaru.”
If there was a hope, however, Teruteru should take it. He heard Akane’s impatient muttering behind the door. And Teruteru stepped out to see the little group. “Eh?” He grinned. “Why do you need me with you?”
“Because once we find food, you’ll be the one to immediately get to work cooking it!” Akane exclaimed, with a wide grin, and Teruteru knew it was all seriousness.
He had nothing better to do, did he not? Not like he could fill out his role as his ultimate. He rolled his eyes with a smirk as he stepped out, as if they serviced themselves by including him.
They’ve spent the whole day searching the island (well, most of the island) for any ounce of food Monokuma might have accidentally forgotten to snag. But it was wishful, Monokuma stripped Jabberwock Island of everything they thought of as a constant. And they returned miserable.
“Hoooh!” Akane sighed, exaggerated, and absolutely miserable. Her stomach growled, empty, energyless.
“Now I’ll have no fuel to brawl with Nekomaru, he’ll get the advantage.”
Nekomaru, next to her, crossed arms and furrowed, bushy brows. “I’m not finding any food for myself either. I have no advantage.”
“So we just dug through the whole island for nothing?” Kazuichi exclaimed in frustration, gripping at the hem of his cap, more exhausted than it being heated frustration.
And they went back to their own cottages unsuccessful, sulking, hungry.
Teruteru flopped back on his bed with a sigh, tired, but also frustrated, with eyes closed. Then opened them to stare at the ceiling. His mind swarmed in his own despair, one Monokuma couldn’t reach. He was a chef and he was worthless, making his own customers beg to even eat out the palm of chance’s hand, the chance of there being at least a small sample of food left and it not even being enough to pass around. No, a customer shouldn’t beg for food, shouldn’t look for it, shouldn’t wonder if it would even be there. His job was to prevent that, his job was to provide it, make it with them in mind- because that was what it was about, wasn’t it?