#i can't believe i'm saying this but.. maybe i am a monarchist

[arlequinelunaire]

Danganronpa Showa: Prologue Part 4

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As Jeanne gestured with her hand, a young boy then popped out of the top of the tank that'd so suddenly broken through. "Bok tamo! Er, that means 'Hi there'!" he said out loud. He was a third European, a short boy with spiky brown hair, his face and overalls covered in soot and grime, a screwdriver tucked behind an ear like a pencil. Hopping down off the tank and right beside Chevalier, he grinned and said to her, "Righty then! Um, repairs are progressing as you can see, Miss Chevalier, maybe not as smoothly as I'd like right now, b-but still". He then groaned, "Still just our luck ta be stuck underground with a bunch of fascists and monarchists! Yeah yeah okay, I know, we're all just kids, we don't get to choose our government..." he kept mumbling. Hearing the boy's accusation, Hildegard suddenly shot forward and glared down at him. "How dare you call me a fascist?! After everything I had to go through to escape Germany!" she spat out. I had to quell any tensions fast, so I tried asking this boy, "Er, hey? Maybe you could tell us your name and talent? I mean, we've mostly told all of ours to each other". "Mostly?" the boy only picked up on. "Zat German girl's the one hiding her Talent, no?" Chevalier somehow picked up on without being told. "Grr, I have my reasons!" Hildegard was now fuming out. The boy sighed, before he finally introduced himself proper. "Dejan Albini, the Ultimate Tank Commander! In case ya can't tell, I'm from Novoselic, regrettably still a Kingdom," he said, starting positive but ending on our sour note. "My country's alliances we're all over the place during the war, like we were Allies then Axis then neutral, ugh, it was a lot to take in. The people though, we were always for freedom!" "Hmhm, and all alike in death," came a chuckling voice, belonging to an albino woman, wearing a veil and a black dress with a skeleton pattern all along it, standing shrouded in a corner of the cave. "Le what? Is zat a threat?!" Chevalier then spoke up and tried to glare at her, though said glaring may've been necessary what with the darkness. "Just a fact of life, dearie, as hard as it may be to swallow," this strange woman said, then smiled at Chevalier with her cocked to one side. "I know that better than anyone, for you see, I spent most of the war burying bodies at a rapid rate, possibly more than any other mortician in Japan, if I may say so. I am the Ultimate Undertaker, Mori Aoko."

I thought a tank suddenly barging out of a school, despite me not being a stranger to military vehicles, would be the most improbable thing I'd see that day. That may've been so, but that we were suddenly interrupted by a thunderous drumming sound, heavy chanting, and the thick smell of incense, didn't help in making me feel any less settled. "You would say they're loud enough to wake the dead, but believe me, I've tried," Aoko said as she merely chuckled at this out-of-nowhere burst of noise. I, um, wasn't about to ask for an elaboration.

Just inside the main hall of Hope's Peak's North building, the building where classes were usually held whereas the South Building was more recreational, the whole floor was doused in circles of some sort of water that fizzled to the touch. Ofuda tags were plastered all over, as if this building was haunted or something, and even a crucifix had been hung up.

I soon saw the two people responsible; one was a shrine maiden who was still furiously beating her taiko drum. Her long hair, which I noted since most girls wore theirs shoulder-length, was black with a purple tinge and sported a crimson bow, and she wore a white school jacket above a red skirt and pantyhose, the same colour scheme as the traditional kosode and hakama. Most alarming was the giant nodachi sword sheathed on her back, which true I did sometimes see offered at shrines. No worse than the tank I figured.

The other was a man with flowing blond hair tinged black and a serious expression. His black robes were shrouded by a blue overcoat with gold trim, there was a mark in the shape of a cross over his eye, scars on his palms, and woven multicolor diamond-shape hanging around his neck. Hold on, was this that Ultimate Miracle-Worker Momoka had talked about on the radio?

"Hiyah, begone evil spirits!" the miko immediately said when she saw us, doing a flip jump over her drums and slowly unsheathing her sword, eyes glaring.

"Spirits? Wait no, we're just like you, w-we're the other students here!" I tried to say as quickly as I could, only for Aoko to slide in just to mess with things.

"Yes, we are but spirits from beyond the grave," she smirked, but then she asked the Miko, "However, why do you automatically assume we're evil spirits? One can't exactly help dying, and really what's the difference between ghost and human but tangibility?"

At this remark though, the miko scowled, folded her arms, and went, "Grr, don't think I can't tell when you're makin' fun of me!". But a second, the miko's anger faded and was replaced by a beaming grin, "Anyways, I'm Amano Kagura, Head Maiden all the way over at the Izumo Grand Shrine, which of course makes me Ultimate Miko!" she so smugly beamed. Huh, it turned out Aoko's approach was more successful than mine, though I'm no Ultimate Reverse Psychologist.

"Even if we were a buncha spooks though, I doubt we'd be scared off by some crazy dame's artless drumming," I heard Genpachi mutter, "Seriously, no syncopation? this is the exact sorta crap music's been movin' away from".

"Hey, I heard that!" Amano then shot out again. Great, I didn't need Genpachi sabotaging this situation again.

The more reasonable, and with actual interviewing experience, Momoka then stepped in to address the holy man. "Why hello, you would be Omura Simeon, the Ultimate Miracle-worker am I correct? I was handed a picture of you on my NHK radio program and knew you'd be at Hope's Peak, and the resemblance is uncanny," she said.

"Radio?!" Omura stared coldly at her. "Feh, do not tempt me, serpent, I know exactly what kinds of lurid programs and accursed anthems you place 'on the air'. Be off with you, soundwave Jezebel, may His divine light shield me from the music of Naamah!"

"Heh, I wish," Genpachi just smirked at Omura, "NHK only plays the lamest, tamest crap there is. Now jazz and blues, that's some proper Devil's music right there, actually worth selling your soul by the crossroads for". Omura just ignored him, in fact I wasn't even sure Omura understood him.

"P-Please, I meant no offence!" Momoka pleaded with the miracle-worker, "I-I said only positive things about you on our show, like how it's said your prayers saved your hometown from destruction, or that the Vatican's considering you as a future Pope or even Saint!"

"T-there's someone that Christian here?" Hildegard muttered for some reason.

"It's okay, just leave this ticnafa be," Jeanne then said, and er, I took it reversing word syllables was apparently a thing in French? "Le Catholic Church has its slithering tendrils in more zan enough places".

"Yeah, don't think I didn't notice the Vatican cozying up ta Mussolini, ya hear me?" Dejan exclaimed.

"Ah, but I had to notice that already you're getting along rather well with our Miko here?" Toranosuke swiftly stepped in to lighten Omura's mood, before Jeanne and Dejan's words could set him off again.

"Why yes, one of faith naturally recognises another, ahem, regardless of which faith," Omura smiled, his expression finally lightening, "And, well, I am not so removed from the material world to not recognise which faith has the most influence in our land".

"Yep, and don't you forget it!" Amano smirked, holding herself up.

"A pox on both your houses I'd say," Fuhito then had to butt in, "After all, what place does have in a rigorous investigation? A killer's motive maybe, but that is all. Reason has made a joke of your gods".

Th-these are your classmates, Kirigiri! Can't you get along? was what I wanted to say, but... the thought of anyone snapping back at me made me tremble, as if I was hearing my superiors barking down at me again.

"Yeah, but it makes for good drumming!" Amano then said out of nowhere, before she whipped her sticks back out and then started pounding on top of Fuhito's head. Toranosuke had to promptly step in to resolve things.

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