#Dangan ronpa Another Episode | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

zenonaa · 3 months ago

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'“You were made an intern because Future Foundation does not believe you can control your alter,” he said, walking over to a desk. He set down his hacking device onto it, then reached into his briefcase. Pulled out a leather sheath, similar to the one on her thigh. “You switch to her when you sneeze or see blood. Realistically, we can't stop you from sneezing, but if we can train you to withstand the sight of blood...”

Byakuya unfastened the sheath and took out a knife.'

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Dangan Ronpa Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Self harm Relationships: Fukawa Toko/Togami Byakuya Characters: Fukawa Toko, Togami Byakuya, Sakakura Juzo, Munakata Kyosuke (Dangan Ronpa) Summary: After Togami accidentally cuts himself in Fukawa's presence, he comes up with an idea on how to get Fukawa not to faint whenever she sees blood.

Comments: Day 3, Red! Kiiinda rushed this one toward the end aha....

💖 Please like, reblog, leave kudos and/or comment on AO3 💖

***

When Touko peeked into Future Foundation’s cafeteria and didn't see Byakuya, she knew where to find him. Rather than sit down to eat lunch with her other former classmates, she spun on her heel and hurried off. As she sprinted, she was vaguely aware of a few Future Foundation workers veering out of her way, or stopping to watch her careen by. She thought she heard the 10th Division Head yelp and slam into a wall in his haste to dodge her, but she didn’t slow to check, her loafers pounding against vinyl flooring until she reached the elevator.

Future Foundation’s headquarters consisted of fifteen levels. Each of the fourteen divisions had its own floor, with the fourth floor up being empty. At least, it was supposedly empty. An intern like her wouldn’t have been able to refute this. Even Kyouko, who had recently been made head of the 14th Division, was barred access to the floor.

Therefore the higher ups of Future Foundation could claim its existence, or non-existence, was a typical case of tetraphobia as opposed to hiding some secret project. At the same time, Yasuhiro could also insist that it was haunted by the ghosts of various serial killers that Future Foundation’s 6th Division had hunted down.

Touko’s finger paused by the elevator button. If Yasuhiro’s ramblings had any truth to them, then Touko’s corpse would have been rotting in there. Unless Future Foundation decided to spare her, in which case she should have been grateful that they made her an intern despite having a serial killer alter. She should have been kissing the footsteps of Kazuo Tengan and Kyosuke Munakata and whoever else was responsible. Never mind that all her former classmates were made official members.

Her finger jutted forward and jammed into the elevator button.

As she suspected, the love of her life, Byakuya Togami, was at his desk in his office. Touko sometimes knocked, but usually she creaked the door open and slipped inside. He didn't say anything, didn't look up from his desk as she approached. Only when she was standing right in front of him did he glance up. First at her face, then at the bento boxes under her arms. Then his gaze returned to the pile of machinery on his desk.

“Dispose of that.”

To the point as ever.

“Y-You need to eat to keep your energy up,” she said. “Future Foundation is depending on your brilliant mind.”

A grimace pursed his lips. “You're not wrong, but Future Foundation doesn't seem to think that way. Making me Kirigiri’s underling... in the Public Relations division when I would be better suited to almost any other...”

Byakuya clicked his tongue. Meanwhile, a smile broke across Touko’s face. He had said she ‘wasn't wrong’. This must have ranked in the top five compliments he had given her thus far. It didn’t quite beat ‘That was a fine report’ or ‘I’m depending on you,’ but her heart still gave a flutter. Her grin still widened.

Just as she was beginning to imagine their wedding - all white, of course - a sharp grunt ripped her out of her daydream. Her eyes flitted to Byakuya, who had raised his index finger.

The red line blooming on his skin made her stomach roll.

Touko reached toward him, dropping the bento boxes under her arms in the process. “Byakuya-sama, your finger!”

“It's fine. I cut it slightly on a sharp edge of metal,” he said, tucking his finger into his fist.

Despite being unable to see his injury anymore, her insides still felt like they had twisted up. She bit her lip and wrung her hands. A few times, she had entered his office and found him working on something. As an author, she despised referring to an object as ‘something’ but she couldn't think of another way to describe the bits of metal, wires and circuitry laid out in front of him.

There was no point asking what it was. When she asked before, he had referred to it as a ‘project’ and asked if she was interrogating him. She'd assured him that she wasn't, but he'd demanded that she leave his office anyway.

And she had. Whenever he told her to go away, she did. But he hadn't asked her to leave this time. At least not yet.

A thoughtful hum resounded behind his lips. Touko stirred. Byakuya was staring into space, his unbloody hand drumming his fingers lightly against the desk. Whatever he was thinking about was hidden behind a blank expression.

“... Fukawa,” he said, still not looking at her.

“Y-Yes, Byakuya-sama?”

“Meet me outside the entrance tonight at eight o'clock. Tell no one.”

Touko's head twitched back. Her mouth went slack. This sounded like the stuff of dreams but she had been so sure that this had been real, not just another one of her fantasies. He looked real, sounded real, and when she breathed in, she shuddered as his faint cologne drifted up her nostrils. Woody. Rustic. Citrus. Him. Real.

Byakuya's nose scrunched.

“With a gormless face like that, you’re going to put me off my lunch and dinner,” said Byakuya. “Wipe the drool off your chin and depart from my office immediately. I don’t want to see you until tonight.”

Her heart sank, but she jerked into a bow, said, “R-Right away, Byakuya-sama,” and retreated from his office.

As the door shut behind her, she felt the air grow colder. Colours became more faded without his presence, turning the cream walls into storm clouds. However, within taking a few paces, she soon had a spring in her step. Yes, she had been ejected from his office, but instead of bewailing over the short-term, she had the long-term to look forward to. Byakuya had asked, no, told her to meet him tonight. In secret. Which could only mean one thing. As soon as she got back to her apartment, she needed to change into her red lingerie.

In the elevator, she pressed the button for the second floor, and was halfway down when she realised she had forgotten the bento boxes. For a moment, she was tempted to go back and get them as he had instructed her to dispose of them. But he had also advised that he didn’t want to see her again until their date tonight, which probably superseded his previous command. Or perhaps she needed to go back, ask him to cover his eyes, then hastily gather the boxes up and skedaddle away. Touko bit on her thumb nail. Whined in indecision.

Ultimately, she decided to abandon them.

***

Future Foundation wasn't the most romantic of settings. It was a tall straight-edged building topped with a lightning conductor. Well, it had one in the photos that Touko had seen. From where she stood, the building seemed to stretch endlessly into the dark abyss overhead.

These days, the stars were never visible, and the only lights came from the tower's many windows and her phone. Touko gripped her phone harder. The night air pressed against her, as claustrophobic as a closet. Only when she heard footsteps did the invisible hold on her loosen and she could breathe a bit easier. She knew who it was approaching without seeing them, recognising their footfalls, but relief still washed through her upon sighting Byakuya’s face. His phone lit it up from below, the stark contrasts of light and shadow emphasising his sharp features.

God, was he handsome.

Byakuya's blue eyes glanced over her. “Follow me.”

Her skin tingled as if his gaze had spread a sheet of ice across it. She hugged herself and followed him in through the automatic doors. The work day had ended hours ago for most, but there would still be cleaners, security guards and suckups.

And her and Byakuya. Together. Touko licked her lips.

He led her to the locker room on the ground floor, in which he took out a briefcase from his compartment. Then he brought her to the elevator. Rather than choose a floor, Byakuya opened his briefcase and pulled out what appeared to be a monochrome megaphone. Gripping it one hand, he aimed it at the buttons interface and curled a bandaged finger around the trigger.

The rings around the buttons began flashing rapidly, not all in sync so it looked like waves of light were sweeping across the interface. Touko's eyes widened. After all they went through, they couldn't perish to a malfunctioning elevator. Certainly not Byakuya. She wouldn't allow it. She would protect him, whether she let him use her as a parachute or as a cushion if they plummeted. Or maybe they would just be trapped here... together... forever... with nothing to do but procreate and build a society of eighteen Byakuya Juniors...

Her daydream popped as the elevator started to move. But it didn't go down. It went up. A grin pulled on Byakuya's lips. The digital screen by the door usually displayed the exact floor they were on, but presently its pixels were scattered around, glitching. After a couple of seconds, they calmed and stopped twitching about, showing not the shapes of numbers but two letters.

They changed again:

Touko's stomach lurched as the elevator door slid open. Though Yasuhiro was an idiot, she still anticipated being greeted by the sight of a dungeon filled with shackled corpses. Instead, an unremarkable corridor veered ahead. Byakuya led her to an open-plan office not dissimilar to those on the other floors. In a way, its normalcy made it more terrifying, like a calm body of water with a shark hiding in wait. She looked around, hugging herself, but no man in a suit jumped out with a bloody knife. Not yet, anyway.

“How did you get us in here?” Touko asked. Strangely, despite the floor supposedly not being in use, the lights were on and she could see the furniture wasn't dusty.

Byakuya flourished his megaphone. “This is able to transmit codes that can rewrite the programming on other devices. I used it to allow us to access this floor.”

“Is that what you've been working on in your office?” she asked, staring at it.

“That's correct.”

Touko blinked some more, then smiled slightly.

“You really are incredible,” she said. She squeezed her hands together. “It's an honour to be witness to Byakuya-sama's brilliance...”

While Byakuya hadn't chosen the most conventional place for their date, any time spent with him was fine by her. It didn’t matter if they were on a forbidden floor at work in the middle of night, or walking to an incinerator to destroy her birthday present for him. So long as she was with him, she was happy. She felt safe.

“That's not why we're here,” said Byakuya. “I actually wanted to experiment with you.”

“E-Experiment?” Touko's eyes bulged. “I-In the workplace? Am I dreaming?”

“Whatever perverted thought you have rattling in your head, get rid of it,” he replied, scowling, just as she had begun to imagine herself bent over his desk. “Think back to lunchtime today, when I cut my finger.”

Touko grimaced. “Y-Yes, your finger was bleeding...”

“But you didn't faint.”

He stared calmly at her. She fidgeted her hands

“Even so, I still felt light-headed and nauseous,” she mumbled.

“But you didn't faint,” he stated again.

Touko chewed her lip as she tried to figure out where he intended to lead this conversation. Normally, she would gladly open herself up to him, spill her innards at his feet until she was an empty husk, but there was a glint in his eyes like wet blood on a scissor blade. It made her throat tighten, her mouth quiver.

“You were made an intern because Future Foundation does not believe you can control your alter,” he said, walking over to a desk. He set down his hacking device onto it, then reached into his briefcase. Pulled out a leather sheath, similar to the one on her thigh. “You switch to her when you sneeze or see blood. Realistically, we can't stop you from sneezing, but if we can train you to withstand the sight of blood...”

Byakuya unfastened the sheath and took out a knife. Touko’s gaze flickered between it and his face. A sheen of light glossed his lenses, obscuring his eyes. He flexed his fingers around the handle. His features didn't tremble, hard as marble, as he rolled up one sleeve. Then he swapped the knife over to the other hand and drew a line of blood across his arm.

She spasmed as if the knife had slashed across her face. Body shaking, she gagged, burying her head under her arm. But though her eyes scrunched shut, she swore she could still see bright red behind her eyelids.

“W-What...?” she stuttered out, struggling to stay standing. Her legs felt like they were melting.

“Look at me, Touko Fukawa.”

He spoke calmly even though he should have been hissing in pain. Normally, she could spend hours ogling him, tracing over his every detail even though she was able to visualise him perfectly with her eyes shut. But the Byakuya of her imagination didn't wield a knife, nor did he have a self-inflicted slit of blood up his arm.

Despite his direct order, Touko kept her eyes shut. She shook her head. “I don't understand...”

“Isn’t it obvious? I want you to come over here and stop me.”

His phrasing made it sound like he intended to continue, but that would be madness. All of this was incomprehensible. They were supposed to be on a date. She prised her eyes open just as she saw him carve into his arm again, and she looked away, shaking. Acidic nausea crawled up her throat, like Genocider Syo was trying to climb up into her brain and take over.

Maybe Touko should let Syo do that. Maybe Syo would stop him. Maybe Syo wouldn’t kill him, even if everyone else that Touko ever had a crush on ended up slain by Syo’s scissors. The holster holding the scissors seemed to grip Touko’s leg tighter, like a crocodile was fixing its jaw around her limb.

She thought she'd rather the crocodile than this.

“You want to be a full-time member like the rest of us, don’t you?” asked Byakuya.

“B-Byakuya-sama, you’re scaring me!”

“So are you just going to stand there, cowering? Is that how you plan to live your life? What a pathetic existence that would be. You gain meaning in life through personal growth, so if you don’t want to be left behind, you’ll have to grow up!”

Touko forced herself to look at him. The two wounds on his arm stared at her with cat-like eyes. Whatever expression he had on his face, she couldn’t see, with it hidden behind a haze along with the rest of the room. Only his arm remained defined in her vision. Usually at this point, Syo would have taken over fronting their body, but though Touko’s legs shook, though bile burned in her throat and her mouth and behind her eyes, she stayed standing, stayed aware.

And the more she burned, the hotter the fire in her grew. As Byakuya touched the point of the knife to his arm again, she sparked to life. She flew across the room with a cry and threw herself at him. Both tumbled to the ground, her body on top, pressed against his. Even with one of her hands wrapped around the bloody mess on his arm, she still didn’t faint.

Breathing loudly, she looked down at him.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” she said, tears pricking her eyes. “N-Never hurt yourself like that, Byakuya-sama!”

He blinked, as if surprised. But before he could speak, a different voice rang out.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Touko recognised the voice as belonging to Juzo Sakakura, head of the 6th Division. Staying on top of Byakuya, she turned her head. Not only was it indeed Juzo who had found them, his fur-trimmed jacket somehow swamping his already large stature, but he was accompanied by the vice-chairman, Kyosuke Munakata.

“While I am impressed that you managed to access this floor, you better have a good reason why you’re in an out-of-bounds area,” said Kyosuke with a hand on his hip, his narrowed eyes too cold for his cool composure. Like twin ice cubes bobbing in a glass of water.

Mouth dry, Touko looked at Byakuya, whose eyes flickered.

“I...” Byakuya trailed off almost immediately. She turned back to the other two men and glared.

“Can’t you see what you’re interrupting?” she asked. “M-Me and Byakuya-sama are having... a p-private moment! And j-just as we were getting to the b-best part, you two butted in!”

Juzo jerked back with a yelp, flailing his arms. In any other situation, such a reaction from the former Super High School Level Boxer would have amused Touko. However, she had to focus on the current situation. As shitty as her position at Future Foundation was, if she lost it, she wouldn’t be able to work with Byakuya anymore. Or worse... Byakuya might get fired, and he would be so mortified he would never show his face to anyone again.

Her idea was risky, but she couldn’t think of a better one off the cuff.

“Why is your arm bleeding?” Kyosuke asked Byakuya. His gaze shifted to his hand. “And why do you have a knife?”

This time, Touko’s response was immediate. “Are you kinkshaming us? Anyways, w-why are you here? For the same reason?”

“That’s... That’s ridiculous!” said Juzo, twitching. “No way would I want to do that with him. Not because Kyosuke’s ugly or anything, because he’s not, but I uh... hey, don’t change the subject!”

Kyosuke looked at him, confused.

“If I recall, this place is off-limits to you as well.” Byakuya seemed to have remembered how to speak, even if his voice lacked its usual sharpness. “Only Tengan and a handful of chosen employees are allowed here. And by the way, when I went to disable the alarm system for this floor, I noticed it was already off. Care to explain?”

Touko hadn’t realised Kyosuke wasn’t meant to be here either. Kyosuke folded his arms over his chest.

“I’d received an anonymous report earlier today about this area concerning some... interesting goings-on, so I thought I’d make a discreet visit rather than bother Tengan about it,” he explained.

“Or is it you didn’t want him to know you were here?” asked Touko, so Byakuya didn't have to. “You’re curious about this place, aren’t you? T-That’s more suspicious than two lovers coming here for some privacy.”

Kyosuke straightened. With his white suit, pale skin and white hair, he almost looked like a ghost.

“You really are the former Super High School Level Literary Girl, aren’t you? This is the stuff of fantasy novels,” said Kyosuke. “You should both be severely disciplined for being here, but let's agree to forget this night ever happened. I want you both out of this building within fifteen minutes, and you’re not to be back until tomorrow nine o’clock sharp. Understand?”

Touko swallowed. Her hands trembled. He hadn't raised his voice, but he didn't need to. The idea of Byakuya punishing her made her heart skip and her body warm, whether she was fantasising about him pouring coffee on her head or spanking her. Didn't matter if he had never done these things, or never would. That was part of the appeal of imagining it. However, the thought of another man's hand near her made her skin crawl. Made her want to tear her skin off.

She breathed in. Focused on how solid Byakuya felt beneath her. Real.

“We understand,” she mumbled, not looking at Kyosuke.

“I will see you tomorrow then. Good night.”

Her gaze remained downward as two sets of footsteps reverberated, one like a soldier's march, the other more like the chug of a steam train. After they were gone, only the buzz of the electric lighting filled Touko’s ears. She shivered, her mind replaying to her what had transpired since they entered the building together. The locker room. The elevator. The knife. Blood. Being on top of Byakuya. Blood.

“Fukawa,” said Byakuya. She blinked.

“Y-Yes, Byakuya-sama?”

“That was some excellent quick thinking you did back there. I’m not certain why they seemed to believe you so easily, but it worked. As brilliant as I am, even I would have been hard pressed to concoct such a lie... though that may be because I hit my head during the fall.”

Touko flinched. “A-Are you all right? I didn’t mean to...”

She reached for his head, but before she could touch him to check for any injuries, he grabbed her wrist.

“My experiment was a success,” he said. “You were able to overcome your fear of blood.”

“I couldn’t let you hurt yourself like that.” Touko looked at his arm. His sleeve had rolled down, but she could see some red that had made its way down to his hand. Blood. Right, he had cut himself. She didn’t know how badly though. The sight of just a few drops was normally enough to knock her out, but right now, while she did feel nauseous looking at his hand, she had no intention of going anywhere. Instead, she grasped his hand in her other and squeezed. “I... I want to protect you, Byakuya-sama. I’ll be strong... to protect you!”

Byakuya’s eyes widened for a moment before relaxing back into his frown.

“You better use that strength responsibly. And so you know, despite the interruption, today’s session isn’t over yet. Though we will need to find a new venue. For now... it will be my apartment. Now, get off me. We’ve wasted enough time. I have a first aid kit in my briefcase, but we’ll have to treat my arm back at my place. Munakata wasn’t particularly generous with our deadline to vacate the building.”

In amongst what he said, he had ordered for her to get off his body, but she found herself unable to move. Byakuya clicked his tongue and eased her off him. Leaving her on the floor, he started to walk away, and Touko forced herself to her feet so she could follow after him.

Her head spun. They were going to his apartment. His apartment. It sounded like she’d get to show off the red lingerie after all.

“Oh, there’s one more thing.” Byakuya didn’t look back, continuing to walk. “Bring me another bento box for lunch tomorrow.”

#togafuka #toko fukawa #touko fukawa #byakuya togami #dr3 #drae #fanfiction #one shot #juzo sakakura #kyosuke munakata

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