#oh leon oh sayaka how i miss you both

[constantine-2005]

i'm like 99% sure these two were dating before the killing game and that hurts my feelings

[sonianvmd]

thh characters with a crush on you

warnings: none, maybe some swearing but otherwise nothing major

oH and mentions of murder and death but this is danganronpa so im going to assume u expected as much

a/n: so we kickin this blog off with a bang, writing for LITERALLY THE ENTIRE TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC CAST LMFAOAOAOAO (excluding hifumi, yasuhiro, and the two despairs doe bc i’ve already made that clear)

also some character’s sections are shorter than others im sorry i just couldnt think of as many bullet points for them *tiktok cry emoji*

edit: I FORGOT CELSESTE FU K SORRY

spoilers under the cut!!

★ 彡 ★ ミ ★ 彡 ★ ミ ★

makoto naegi

when he realizes he likes you, he doesn’t necessarily panic or anything, but he does get nervous

nervous around you, that is

y’all saw how he was with sayaka

if he says anything that might sound intimate then he’ll immediately rephrase it or reassure he didn’t mean anything by it

he really only does have good intentions but his wording just kinda flops sometimes

he appreciates how you listen to him and value what he says

you don't make him feel dumb or inferior compared to a bunch of ultimates with actual talents

he’ll muster up the courage to tell you eventually

let’s hope his luck comes through 😁

byakuya togami

now when THIS man realizes he likes you, he a bitch nigga bout it 😐

he can't believe he fell for a common plebeian such as you

but it was hard not to

the way you preferred to get to the point

the way you were aware of your situation and didn't sugarcoat how you felt about it, although you certainly were nicer with it than him

he's ruthless

anyways

you knew your priorities and spent no time trying to use your resources

he noticed how much you had in common; in you, he saw himself

and we all know how this mf feels about himself 😐

he’ll be quick to defend you in class trials

he won’t realize he’s doing it but he just subconsciously protects you

but just because he doesn't notice it, don't mean the rest of the class brushes past it as well

yeah they on his ass LMFAOO

kyoko kirigiri

kyoko is very good at keeping her composure so she won’t be very obvious

she’ll probably just hang around you more

she’ll also defend you in class trials, calmly

“oh, it couldn’t have been [name]. i remember seeing them in their dorm around the time the murder took place.”

hifumi probably finna say some dumb shit like “aye what was you doin in their dorm doe” but anyways

she finds you respectable

if you have anything to contribute, she’ll let you take the floor

when she tells you, she’s very composed, but also very indirect LMFAO

she’s not too sure on how to express her interest in you but maybe she’ll go about it like “well, [name], now we’ve made it here, would you like to step back into the world with me?” or somethin else along those lines idk

take her hand

pls

toko fukawa

y’all know her whole “master togami” shtick

yeah so 😁😁😁😁

no but fr, toko ofc still has her borderline stalkerish 🧍🏾‍♀️ tendencies

she’ll often find herself staring at you, either in the library or in the morning meetings everyday at breakfast

but she isn’t as straight forward as she is with byakuya

i actually think she’d be mad shy and non confrontational

the whole thing she kept up with him ? yeah, never again

if you approach her first then she’ll be able to get a few words out but for most of the conversation, she’ll just nervously play with her braids

you’ll most likely put two and two together

unless ur a makoto kinnie bc then you’ll have to wait till someone else puts it in place for u but anyways

if you decide to approach her about it, you’ll kinda be backing her into a corner bc she’s just bad at deflecting things lmao

she’ll eventually confess (begrudgingly but hey i mean its better than nothing)

expect much stuttering and a gesture like giving you a small gift

and not to be that writer that uses japanese terms in english writing but toko seems like a tsundere but not really if that makes sense?? so she’d probably shove it in your hands and if you try to say something then she’ll just try to play it off as not a big deal lol

calls u a baka 😍😍

aoi asahina

i know y’all all see how she is with sakura

yeah.

aoi is the kind of person who’d like to spend time with their crush rather than shy away from them

she values you and your friendship very much

bring her donuts

just trust me bring her donuts

she doesn’t really realize she’s into you like that for a while but believe me, she is, the whole time

and yeah i think she’d be nervous to tell you bc that’s just natural but ultimately she’d be cool about it

uh oh looks like we goin for a swim

sakura ogami

similar to kyoko, she’s very calm

despite her big and bad appearance, she really is a sweet girl

she cares for you and your well-being very much

will indeed go on x games mode for you

the way she tells you is very sincere and well spoken

kith her

naow

im sorry this is like the shortest one i couldn’t think of much for her 😔😔

leon kuwata

flirtatious ass mf

and he’s lightskin

so this just cannot go well

y’all know that bit where it’s like the guy yawns and stretches his arms up and then wraps one around your shoulder

yeah that’s literally him LMFAOO

he’s very confident

he was fairly well known with the ladies at his old school so you know he’s rhockin wit it ‼️

but

you feel.. different than usual ??

those girls were just lil flings n dates bc he was nice enough to accept their confessions and it boosted his ego anyway so it was a win win

but you

he was genuinely interested in you since he had saw you the first time

he didn’t just acknowledge your appearance

he learnt about your personality and your hobbies and what you liked and such, and he really cared and wanted to hear you talk about it all

he felt the need to really make an effort to show you how much he respected and had affections for you

he doesn't tell you in a grand way

probably just asks you out to a movie or somethin

he's chillin

mondo owada

you know

for being the biggest, baddest, most respected biker gang leader

or just for being in a biker gang period

mondo’s a huge softie lol

yeah he gets violent but he’s a sweet guy who cares about and is loyal to his friends

so mfs need to be nice to you

or they gettin whooped

when he decides it’s time to tell you how he feels, he thinks over his words and he’s all confident there’s no way you’d reject him but then he sees you in the halls and goes 🧍🏾 LMFAOOO

he’ll push through but it’s like he’ll walk up to you and look away from you because he refuses eye contact and just go

“so y/n, would you wanna.. tch.. come to a drive-in movie with me or somethin’?... dumbass.”

real smooth mondo i think you got em good job

please tease him LMFAOO it’d be so funny

he’d probably yell but you can tell he’s not mad so you just keep going with it

but once you’re done tormenting him, you do agree to the movie, don’t worry 🙏🏾

also mondo would call his s/o doll

that is all

chihiro fujisaki

my fav dude in a dress <3

chihiro would be quite shy, but that’s just how he is tbh so no surprise there

he’s very kind so he’d check up on you often just to see how you are

he cares about you v much

the way he confesses is one that consists of a red face as he offers you a box of candy or something similar

and he’d feel honored that you reciprocate his feelings

he’d be very scared to tell you his secret but once he does, he’s delighted to hear it doesn’t make any difference to you

he doesn’t know how he got so lucky with you

not only because woooo they like me back but also because you like him despite,, well everything about him LMFAOO

sweet lil boy

i’d feel like he’d talk about you to alter ego a lot

and when u meet the program for the first time, he’s like “oh! you must be [name]! master’s told me all about you :)”

sobbing i miss him

kiyotaka ishimaru

okay here’s the thing

if taka were to like someone

i can’t tell whether he’d be more strict because he doesn’t want them to get in trouble (and also so it would hopefully divert any suspicion that he DOES like you since he treats you the same as everyone else, only more)

or if he’d hold back more because he favors them LMFAOO

so imma write a lil bit for both

in the case that he was even stricter:

he’d prefer to be around you because he believes the best way he can make sure you stay out of trouble is to make sure you don’t get into any in the first place

of course it’s impossible to monitor you every second of every day but he does his best to make sure you’re doing well

if he sees you do anything out of line, he’s shutting that shit down IMMEDIATELY

but in the case he let up:

he’d still lecture you but noticeably less than the other students

if your feet were resting on top of a desk, he’d ask you to move them and then leave you alone rather than yell at you and forcibly move them himself

if you notice his behavior towards you in comparison to the other students do not tease him about it he will go as red as his eyes /hj

either way he’s confessing to you with a polite but exaggerated bow while holding out a well thought out letter with both hands

sayaka maizono

she will tell you

idk why but i feel like she’d be straight up lol

she’d make sure she’s sincere

she is the ultimate pop idol and all so she wants to make sure you know that she really does like you and isn’t playing a sick joke on you or anything

ok bc

while i do think she’d tell you

i’d feel like she’d be a little indirect just to see how you feel

like she’d give you a free ticket to one of her upcoming concerts with a kind smile

and naturally, you're like :o

and of course you come to support her

and seeing you smile at her from the crowd and cheer her on was the encouragement she needed to push her to ask you out

for real this time

she asks if you wanna come to a concert with her and ur like “oh yeah i love ur shows!!” bc ur dumb and then she’s like “no i mean.. for another artist” and eventually it hits you that she’s asking you out and ur like “oH YEAH YEAH SURE THAT SOUNDS GREAT YEAH OK” LMFAOO

———

i really hope that this is good LMFAOO this is my first time writing for dr so 😃👍🏾

fun fact i finished toko’s section first and taka’s last 😁😁

and i’d like to thank @mius-imagination @bloodygir n the rest of the discord for helping me figure some of these characters out *simultaneously whips and nae naes*

bye ive been working on this for like weeks this took forever

———

edit: here’s a deleted section bc i kept blanking for this character 😍

[yandere-ac]

part 2. for yandere monokuma. maybe we can get the giant Monokuma punishment, and then fluff, just him saying puhuhu in the hall way makes you anxious.

Yandere Monokuma X Reader

Despair for two part 2

“Y/N~ Where aaaaaare youuuu?” Oh god. Oh no. He was here. You were currently on the second floor of the school, cowering in one of the cabinets in classroom 1B. Your breath was out of control, unstable and violent as you tried to make the tears stop. You don’t know what happened. Everything was alright, you and Monokuma were in bed, just relaxing. But then, Monokuma had started to shift rather fiercely, telling you that the position was uncomfortable. When you had tried to help he just got angrier and told you to back off. But when you did, he got even angrier. Why the hell did you let go of him for?! How dare you! He obviously wanted you to change the position, not to let him go! He’d show you how it felt to be held like nothing but a piece of fabric.

And now here you were, hiding away in a cabinet while he roamed the halls, looking for you. You knew he was near and you had to control your breathing. Unless you wanted him to find you, and you sure as hell didn’t want that. You tried doing the breathing exercises that Taka had shared with you once, but that failed as the thought of Taka only made you cry harder. “No. Come on Y/N. God damn it, snap out of it!” You whispered to yourself. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Make sure to form your mouth in the shape of an “O” so that the air leaves slower. That’s what Taka had told you after he found you crying. You had a panic attack after Sayakas body had been discovered and ran away, he had been the one that followed you and comforted you. Oh Taka, how you missed him. You missed talking to him and Mondo, you missed showing your puppets to Makoto, you missed sitting in company with Kyoko, you missed doing your nails with Junko, you missed hanging out with Chihiro, you missed singing with Leon and Sayaka, you missed swimming with Hina and Sakura, you missed getting you palm read by Hiro, you missed playing poker with Celeste, you missed talking to Hifumi about his special interests and watching his eyes light up as he talked, you missed discussing novels and tropes with Toko, you even missed having Byakuya insult you. You missed all of them. You missed having someone that wasn’t Monokuma with you. You would do anything to get them back, to have one last moment, all of you together, as friends. But you couldn’t think about them, lest you want to start crying again. You gave the breathing exercise another shot.

You didn’t even get the chance as you heard his hauntingly gleeful laugh throughout the halls. Soon, you heard the sound of the doorknobs being turned and the double doors to the classroom being opened. Oh no. He was here. You covered your mouth with both of your hands, letting out shaky breaths through your nose. All of the previous calm had completely disappeared as you heard him roam the classroom. “Y/N? I know you’re in here~ I can smell you.” As Monokuma said this, he started sniffing the air to demonstrate. You felt tears start to brew up in your eyes yet again. Any desperate tries to muffle your heavy breathing ultimately failed as you heard Monokuma let out that signature laugh he always lets out. A laugh that usually sounded so cute in any other situation than the one you were in right now. “Aww are you crying? What’s the matter? Do you think a hug from your buddy Monokuma would help? Puhuhuhu!” Everything became quiet for a couple of seconds, the calm before the storm. It didn’t last long however, the rippling sound of wood breaking entered your ears as the door to your cabinet got torn off it’s hinges. As soon as the semi light from the classroom entered your vision, you let out a piercing scream. The thing that towered over your small form was none other than Monokuma, except he was absolutely huge! He was about 13 feet, which made you wonder how he even got through the door. His beady eyes met yours full of fear, and for a moment he waited. He waited and revelled at your small noises, until he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He quickly snatched you up in one of his paws, letting out a loud and taunting laugh as he manhandled you. You let out a whimper as you struggled in his grasp. His sharp claws were out and was the thing that held you in place as you thrashed around. “Do you really think you can escape ME!? At this size?! That’s just adorable!” You quickly froze up once he stopped laughing and pointed one of his claws directly to your throat. He let out a low chuckle, much deeper than his usual high pitched voice. “You’re not getting out of this. Not that easily.” As he said this he swiped his other arm across the room, effectively pushing all of the desks and such away. You let out yet another choked yell as the violent motion caused several chairs to fly across the room, crashing into the wall. It scared you to the point of tears and once Monokuma saw this, he let out another string of giggles. He drew in one of his claws and used that finger to stroke your cheek, wiping away your tears rather violently. Which only made you cry harder. Although it didn’t last for very long as he laid down on the newly cleared surface on the floor, bringing your small body close to him, kind of like how you did when you two slept together. “Look! Now YOU’RE the plush puhuhuhu! And what a cute plush you are! Ahhh~ I could stay like this forever, you’re so small and helpless like this! I could poke your side and you would pretty much be impaled!” Your blood turned cold as he told you this. This was far from the first time Monokuma had mentioned killing you, it seemed to be like a fantasy of his. But he always made sure to tell you-

“But no! Seeing you like this, in this prolonged form of despair is far greater than any despair you would get from dying.” There it was. Just like always, Monokuma made sure to inform you that you weren’t gonna escape this hell by dying. Or at least by his hands, or well, paws. You knew he was enjoying your suffering. He wasn’t going to let you go. He wasn’t going to let you join the rest. You were his little puppeteer. And you were the only company he had, except for the mastermind. But you were different from them, you were full of so much hope and so much potential despair, hope that intrigued him to no end as he toyed around with you. “Wow! I only did this to teach you a lesson but this is actually really nice! I certainly see why you enjoy these kinds of things so much ehehehe.” The bear said as he practically cradled you in his big arms. “I won’t lie Y/N. The thrill of chasing you, and the fear in your eyes once I found you. It was ecstatic! I wouldn’t mind doing this more often puhuhu!”

You were his, his to play with, his to cuddle, his to terrify. His, and no one else’s.

////////////////////

This was a lot shorter than my usual fics but tbh, it wasn’t really a fic that needed to be that long. And it was actually kinda nice writing something that wasn’t so long. Don’t worry Monokuma simps, you will get more food soon I promise, but for now, have this short story

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Info drop.

Hagihara: This is Mitsuba Hagihara reporting to you from [Insert Location Name]. Last night, this area was hit with a terrible tragedy.

Hagihara: Several patrons of the bar were killed last night in very brutal fashion, and burned alive in an afterward fire. Police still have no idea who or what was behind this. The only thing missing from the scene was one of the now deceased patrons laptops.

Jesus...

*Makoto, Leon, Sayaka, Hina and Mukuro all sit around the TV, watching the news story unfold.

What the hell do you think that was about? Who do you think was behind that?

Could it be Zetsubou?

Hm...I���m not really sure...

Zetsubou might be a bunch of tryhard losers, but do they really have nothing better to do than shoot up and burn a bar?

Sayaka’s right. They’re a bunch of psychopaths, but most of their actions aren’t done without good reason. They must have been after something.

That place is in a crappy part of town though. Didn’t we only recently start renovating it for the people there?

There were plans in the process. During the Towa City Crisis with Haiji Towa, Kuripa went there to get Black Market information.

That’s how he first met his girlfriend. He hired her through the information he got there, in exchange for the promise of renovating the area.

If you ask me...the obvious conclusion is that Zetsubou, assuming they ARE responsible, was whatever was on the stolen laptop.

But again, like Hina said, anyone in that part of town that owns a laptop is probably a pawnbroker.

Was whatever they had worth killing all those people?

There’s something else that’s bothering me about this...It’s that Zetsubou seemed to do a bit too good a job covering their tracks.

What do you mean?

Well, from the intelligence we know, Zetsubou’s two most lethal team members are Narumi Osone and Akira Tsuchiya.

After all, we know full well what they’re both capable of. Tsuchiya killed a whole load of our soldiers in the span of about a quarter of an hour the last time we encountered him. And Osone, well, we know what she’s done.

Yeah...

But one thing I can say is that neither of them are particularly great at covering their tracks...Or more accurately, it’s like they don’t really want to or care to.

So...Is Zetsubou really not involved?

These kinds of problems occur every day. Sure, this is a little extreme, but not every awful thing that happens is the work of Organization Zetsubou.

Oh, Celeste! Yeah I guess you have a point there...

*sigh* I understand. With everything that’s happened lately, it’s hard not to assume that our enemies are behind every little transaction.

I wouldn’t call this “little” a lot of people died in that bar.

True. But think about the world that we live in Sayaka. It’s better, but it’s hardly a nice one.

Hm...

Hellooo~?

*Out of nowhere, Kuripa suddenly walks into the building, behind him is Kyoko and Byakuya.

Oh, hey. What’s going on?

Nuffin’ much. I just came round to see Boss and Mukuro, but along the way, these guys caught me.

Indeed. It’s quite lucky all of you are here. I wanted to speak to you about some things.

Chairwoman is speaking.

*Everyone listens attentively.

I’ll keep this brief. As you know...Future Foundation have been dealing with some...issues lately, but I have some good news.

We might have found a way to gain the edge over Organization Zetsubou.

Really?

How?

Detective Samidare has come back with some information for us.

Yui?

Yes. She found a list of strange transactions in Future Foundation headquarters. None of which were official.

They had a stamp of approval on them from the Foundation heads, but usually in order to get that, they have to have the go ahead from the majority of Foundation chiefs.

Byakuya and I went over the files she sent us, and we realized between us that none of them were one’s we recognized.

What was on them?

Mainly financial and research papers.

Including the resurrection machines?

Yes, but not too many. I remember that was the first one they sent out, but diminished over time.

It makes sense. When the first papers on the machines was leaked, we were on high alert. We made sure whatever information on them was held tight with an iron fist.

So is this the work of the traitor then?

Possibly...no, in fact it’s quite likely.

How in the world did these go under the radar for so long? Nothing on these papers has to be anything particularly threatening, but in the hands of a group like Zetsubou, we don’t know what they’ll do with them.

Whoever leaked these was very clever about it. They sent them out from almost every branch office in every establishment so we couldn’t trace the leaks to one specific location.

Clever...Like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Think of this opportunity as our magnet.

Yeah, this could be the chance we need to pin them down!

So what’s the plan Ma’am?

Branches 1, 2, 10, 13 and 14 will be going to Yui’s office the day after tomorrow. There will be other members of the Library there to greet us.

Damn, so that’s like...all of us here?

All of us excluding Ryota’s branch, Hiro, Shuichi and Maki Harukawa from Byakuya’s branch. I trust that that’s fine with all of you.

Of course. Any movements we can make against this spy, the better. It’ll give us the edge over Zetsubou that we need.

Question: Why the day AFTER tomorrow? Wouldn’t it be best to do this as soon as possible?

I have some...arrangements tomorrow. And Ryota has a date too, so-

Ryota has a date!?

How!? With who!?

Oh, I forgot about that! I set him up on a date with this cute girl we know. The one who comes round to hang out like, every weekend.

That girl!? She’s adorable!

You are going to give me the details, NOW!

*Sayaka and Hina grab Kuripa by his shoulders and push him out of the room.

Woah! Hey, hey!

Ah, guess I’ll talk to you guys later! Byeee!

*They exaunt.

Every day’s a circus with you people.

Don’t say “you people” as if you’re not involved in the circus.

Fair point I suppose...But what of your arrangements Kyoko?

Oh it’s...it’s not important...

Riiight...

I’ll be on duty if you need me sir.

Yeah, me too I guess. Not much I can do around here. Guess I’ll read that employment magazine I found.

Employment magazine? What about?

A-Ah it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.

I guess I’ll go with Sayaka and Hina. Not an awful lot else to do around here.

So long as everyone is aware, I care not what you spend the next two days doing.

Well, the message has been received, that’s for sure.

[inosukeslefttoe]

girl.... omg.... this game rlly means it when it says itll show me the ultimate despair....

so my first fav character was sayaka right,,, and then it was mondo,,, WHICH ISNT TOO GREAT FOR ME LMAO ALL MY FRIENDS HAVE SUCH TRAGIC FATES THIS GAME IS FULL OF TRAGEDY BUT ITS SO FUCKING WELL DONE AND IM EVEN MORE OBSESSED NOW (was low key scared id actually get depressed bc of this since i tend to get rlly attached to things like this,, and yeah i miss mondo like hell but ITS IN SUCH AN EXHILARATING WAY YKNOW AND I CANT WAIT TO KEEP PLAYING THE GAME)

but lmao i just wanna scream about all the little things that made this part of the game even more tragic,,, so first of all is like,, how similar mondo and chihiro are right ?? like at first you see them and ur like “wow these two are lowkey polar opposites bc mondo big tough violent outspoken scary man while chihiro is tiny passive inferiority complex timid man” but after hearing both of their stories, you can tell that they both suffer from the same things and have the same goal. they both have terrible inferiority complexes, they just deal with them differently: chihiro kinda gave into it and ran away from it by deciding to hide his true self behind something he saw as “weaker” than him and letting that become a part of his identity out of fear that he was too weak to try and change/fight it. Mondo on the other hand overcompensated big time for it and became the ultimate manly man when inside he felt nothing but weak and guilt. also like,, a few times mondo mentioned that hes rlly bad with emotions right and he handles them through anger and violence so,,, this means that whenever he has these negative feelings towards himself he has no healthy way to let them out and just keeps pushing them down and trying to maintin this facade of a strong man and never letting anyone know that hes “weak” but this just ends up as a big ball of negativity and adds to his “weakness”...and like... bro chihiro and mondo couldve grown so much stronger together bc they suffer from the same things but could learn how to deal with it better together and balance each other out.... but mondo acted so quickly and violently and did something he couldnt undo which just added to his self hatred and YKNOW ALSO KILLED THE MOST PURE HEARTED STRONGEST PERSON IN HERE BUT AT THE SAME TIME MAKES IT HARD FOR YOU TO BLAME MONDO AND HATE HIM FOR IT BUT UGH THERES JUST SO MANY LAYERS AND ITS SO EMOTIONAL

next.... as you can tell by the gif.... IS MONDOS RELATIONSHIP WITH TAKA... ill prolly make a post screaming abt how much i love them later lmao but like... god what hurt the most for me personally during this bit wasnt that my favorite boy died/had a whole tragic story.... but that his best friend had to go through such betrayal and such loss. like... not only did taka have to see this side of mondo that mondo was desperately trying to hide and find out that his best friend had broken everything he stood for and yknow,,, feel the ultimate sense of betrayal, but he also had to see his best friend brutally killed in front of him. like,, holy shit man mondo was straight up confessing but taka... TAKA REFUSED TO BELIEVE IT AFTER ALL THIS EVIDENCE AND THAT HIT SO MUCH HARDER THAN LEONS DEATH AND THE LIL RHYTHM MINI GAME THING bc in leons case he was like “it was self defense !! i had to !! its not my fault !!” after murdering someone,, but in this case,,,, mondo admitted to it but it was his Bro who refused to accept it and was fighting tooth and nail to save his best friend. AND LIKE,, TAKA IS THE ULT MORAL COMPASS RIGHT ?? AND HE STRAIGHT UP HAD TO KNOW IT WAS MONDO,, AND THAT BREAKS LITERALLY EVERY RULE ON ANY MORAL COMPASS,,, BUT TAKA STILL FOUGHT FOR HIM WITH EVERYTHING HE HAD..... also i noticed taka cursing and that seemed so ooc but so utterly heartbreaking.... and i love how they added extra drama in the game by having the va violently scream in agony for taka like.... talk about despair lmao. omg and my brother is watching the anime right and he was like lol you should watch the scene from it too if you wanna be more sad.... AND OH GOD HE WAS RIGHT... the fact that taka resorted to some violence by grabbing mondo aggressively and shaking him and yelling ... and the fact that he was like “why did you kill him make me understand” kinda thing and mondo couldnt even look at taka or say anything.... BUT EVEN WITH THAT,,, TAKA STILL COULDNT BEAR HIS FRIEND BEING KILLED AND BEGGED MONOKUMA TO KILL H I M INSTEAD ??? GOD MY HEART CANT FUCKING HANDLE THAT. LIKE THAT BOND THEY HAVE BRO AND HOW MONDO SEVERED IT AND HOW TAKA WAS NOT GONNA LET IT BE BROKEN THAT EASILY AND HHHHHH IM . SO . SAD. but seriously... that was a whole new level of despair imo for this game to add such a beautiful relationship between these two and have it end so tragically by taka, the moral compass, dropping his morals and refusing to see the facts in front of him and still ready to die for his bro.... also the whole “make me understand” line kinda just... he couldnt even condemn mondo for it, he wanted to know his reasonings so he could know that his friend wasnt a bad guy and couldnt die yknow...

HAHA I GOT ALL SAD AGAIN WRITING THIS DUDE BUT ITS JUST SO GOOD HOW COULD I NOT MAKE A POST YOU FEEL ?? im so hyped to start chapter three tomorrow but i swear if it gets any sadder it might actually affect my mood and ill have to take a break... but i think that the death of my fav + the relationship doomed to despair is quite a high level to beat for me personally since i always find things to be more sorrowful when it has anything to do with human connections like that lmao

1/2/21

[duncanxtrent]

For the prompt thingy... Duncan and Trent as camp counselors... maybe ? 👀 Like they both take care of some kiddos and they are on diffrent teams so they have a friendly rivalry but they are crushing on each other. Or something idk jfjfkfk

(OMG SOMEONE ACTUALLY ASKED AND ITS ONE OF MY FAVORITE DUNTRENT ARTISTS YBUGKGUF)

Anyways

Wawanakwa Rivalry

Duncan quietly woke up inside the counselors cabin. He looks over and sees Trent peacefully snoring away. He smiles and gets up to put on some pants. Once hes fully uniformed, he takes a look at the schedule.

Once hes sure of the schedule, he walks up and bangs on the door of the Killer Bass cabin.

“Wake up guys! Its almost breakfast!” Duncan shouts.

Taka instantly opens the door, fully dressed in uniform.

“Ready to start the day, sir!”

(Yes I made the DR kiddos the camp kids leave me alone.)

Duncan laughs and ruffles Takas hair as Taka stands near the door. Groggily, Makoto, Kyoko, Sayaka, Leon, Chihiro, And Aoi make their way out of the cabins. Duncan does a quick headcount, but then makes a strange face.

“Wheres Mondo?” He asks

“Hes still asleep” Leon groans

“Ill go get him!” Taka says stomping inside the cabin. Soon he drags out a very tired and Groggy Mondo from inside.

“Its too early for this. Just let me go the fuck to bed.” Mondo curses.

“Trust me. I also think its too early for this kid.” Duncan smiles. “But if you sleep any longer, you’ll miss todays french toast!”

That instantly seemed to get Mondos attention. Because he instantly ripped his arm from Takas hand, ran inside, stressed himself, and came back out to the other students.

“Right kids! Now whats our motto?”

Mondo gave an audible groan.

“Oh come on its funny.”

Mondo sighed but reluctantly saluted, as tre reat of the kids followed.

🎶One Two Three and Four! Killer Bass Will Get the Score!🎶

🎶Five Six Seven Eight! Gophers are trash, and Fish are Great!🎶

Duncan seemed to stifle a laugh on the last part. “Alright guys! Now stand in a straight line behind me.”

Taka instantly stood in the front with Mondo behind him as the rest of the students stood behind them.

“Alright, and MARCH!” The 9 of them marched off towards the cafeteria.

Once there, the kids returned to normal walking and headed to their cabin table. Once he was sure the kids were sat, he headed up to the cafeteria, only to encounter Trent getting the breakfast for his cabin.

“Trent! Hi…” Duncan says noticiably more nervous.

“Hey there, sup shorty!” Trent says wrapping his arm around Duncan. Duncan meeped.

“So how have the kids been?” He asks

“Well, Mondos been a bit of a hassle, but other than that the kids are great.” Duncan whispers timidly.

“Oho! Youre lucky. Celestia, Byakuya, Junko! Together those three kids are a mess of trouble! Ive mainly been able to get them under control, but What I wouldnt give to be in your cabin.”

“Same here.” Duncan mutters quietly.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing! Anyways I should probably finish up here and get the kids breakfast.” Duncan says quickly picking up the breakfast for the cabin.

“Oh… Ok…” Trent says disappointed.

Duncan immediately stops in his tracks. “But if you want to talk more counselor stuff! We can hang out when I hand off the kiddos to Courtney!” Duncan quickly yells.

“Oh! Ok sure!” Trent quickly responds.

“Its a date!” Duncan says walking off. Trent turns beet red before walking off. Duncan immediately facepalms.

“A date? Really?! Come on you idiot! You should have done better than that!” Duncan mutters pacing back and forth.

“Um… Mr. Tarun.” Sayaka tugs at Duncans pants.

Duncan notices and realizes hes still holding the kids breakfast. “O-oh! Sorry!” Duncan nervously laughs.

He walks around the table and gives each of the kids a plate of breakfast, containing french toast, sausage, and scrambled eggs with lemonade. The kids quickly begin eating their breakfast. Duncan sits down with his plate and begins quietly eating while contemplating his life choices. However, the kids quickly got into some trouble.

“H-hey stop that!” Taka says nervously.

Duncan sat up and noticed that Junko and Byakuya were standing next to Mondo. Mondo seemed visibly upset.

“Whats wrong Diamond, cat got your tongue?” Junko taunts.

“What the hell do you to want?” Mondo asks angrily.

“Oh I just came over cause I thought youre french toast was looking plain.”

“My toast is fine.” Mondo says angrily shoving a bite of eggs into his mouth.

“Really? Cause I think this plate could use a nice slab of BUTTER!” Junko dumps a whole stick of tub of butter on Mondos French Toast. Mondo just stared at the toast, terrified.

(Context to this: I am partially referencing His execution. But in this case the reason for his trauma is that his dad was turned into a butter like substance following an experiment he was working on)

The rest of the kids at the table gasp. Leon begins laughing but Sayaka punches him in the arm.

Junko laughs. “Oh whats wrong? Did I not add enough? Do you want some syrup as well?” She taunts.

Byakuya simply stifles a laugh. “A mere peasant frozen by a tub of butter. Pathetic.”

“H-hey leave him alone!” Taka says attempting to stand up to them.

“Or what?” Junko laughs

Taka meekly backs off.

Duncan angrily stomps towarfs the two bullies.

“Hey you two! Leave Mondo Alone!” Duncan shouts.

“Oh shut up you faggot! We all know you want inside our camp counselors pants! Why dont you run along like the squealy girl you are?” Junko sneers.

Duncan becomes even more angry. “If the two of you dont leave right now, Im sending the two of you home!” Duncan threatens.

“And then what? Lose the Trust of your little boyfriend.” Byakuya laughs.

Duncan is about to knock the little shits heads off when suddenly Trent comes up behind him.

“Duncan, you may step out of the situation.” Trent says putting a hand on his shoulder.

“But-“

Trent leans into his ear. “Trust me, dude, I got this!” Trent whispers.

Duncan backs off as Trent approaches the two children.

“Junko, Byakuya, my office. NOW!” Trent shouts firmly.

Trent walks the two children to his office and eventually returns back to the cafeteria.

“Im having them clean out the toilets for the next week. Those two went way too far.” Trent explains.

“Thank you…” Duncan mumbles.

“Hey its no problem.” Trent outs a hand on Duncans shoulder. “We gotta look out for each other right bro?”

Trent leans in closer to Duncan, and without thinking about what hr was doing, Duncan leaned in and quickly pecked Trent on the lips.

Trents face went incredibly red while Duncan seemed nervous.

“Oh jeez Im sorry, I didnt mean to, I just thought thats what we were doing and-“ Hes immediately caught off by Trent taking Duncans head in his gands and bringing him in for a second kiss. The kiss becomes a loving kiss and the two of them stand there hugging while kissing eachother.

“Ewwwwwwwwww!!!! Ms Satellaaaaa!!!!! Mr.Tarun and Mr.Cooper are kissiiiiing!!!!!!” Sayaka shouts.

They both let go of the kiss and look at Sayaka as Trent begins laughing. Duncan sees this and begins laughing too.

“So Im guessing you like me too then?” Trent asks sarcastically.

“Yeah. Always kinda have.” Duncan laughs.

“Well then, maybe we could hand the kids off to Courtney and Gwen, and the two of us can spend the rest of the day hanging by the lake.” Trent says twirling Duncans hair.

“That sounds lovely.” Duncan mumbles leaning into Trents chest.

“EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!” The kids stick their tongues out seeing their counselors kissing.

Trent and Duncan just laugh before letting go of each other and going towards their respective tables. Duncan sits and begins happily eating his breakfast.

Meanwhile Kiyotaka notices the whole event unfold, and just as Mondo finishes clearing the butter on his plate, pecks Mondo on the cheek before returning to his food.

Mondo looks at him increduously, blushing red for a second before just shaking his head and returning to his food

(END)

[hibiscuswolverine]

Ha ha oops-

My THH rewrite?? Ghost Au??? Idk everyone the same except Makoto gets tired and is somewhat himself. Ghosts get angry and you might think I took something before writing this all down.

CW: talks of gore, and brief mention of attempted su//c//de

-Sayaka is the first ghost he encounters, both in a dream/nightmare/somewhat memory and then in real life. The Nightmare starts somewhat normal enough it’s a memory of a younger him and Komaru walking along the Santa Cruz boardwalk, they escape their babysitters and run off to the beach. Komaru dares him to play hide and seek with her in the mirror/glass maze that’s on the beach, he declines at first(because it’s dark and she made him lose the candy apple he was eating) but after Komaru calls him a chicken it is on. She goes first and then he goes in *cue cute kid running into every other glass mirror*

-NOw the lights were on (dimmed) but then at some point they go out completely and baby Makoto ain’t really feeling it. So he still looking for Komaru with more urgency and starts to call for her.

-When he does find her it’s like they’re in their own solitary cubes but they can see each other through the glass wall. Komaru tries around all sides to get out and reach her brother but she can’t, so then Makoto tries but to no avail, even the side that he came in is blocked off. And then the light behind Komaru’s cube turns on and nothing is there BUT then the left and right lights begin to flicker. Yeah, so uhm she’s screwed but they’re both 5 and 6 and don’t watch horror movies so they don’t know that yet.

Anyway, Makoto and Komaru are obviously very scared and both are trying anything to break the glass but then they freeze because something does crack neither of them caused it. It’s the glass behind Komaru, then it’s the one on the left then the right.

-Do you remember that one scene in Pennywise 2 where Pennywise smashes his head against the glass and then eats the kid? Yeah so Rip Komaru. (I don’t really have a design(s) for monster Sayaka but the middle would be like one based on her actual death, while the other two would be based on her unused execution.

-After watching his sis get eaten Makoto is in a panic but he’s frozen he doesn’t know what to do because like Komaru he is surrounded on all sides. So he huddles himself into a ball in the middle and tries to ignore the glass breaking, it goes quiet and he uncurls himself only to get jump scared.

- Then he wakes up and he gets jumpscared again!! By Sayaka’s actual ghost who proceeds to choke him (causing him to levitate and eyes roll back) and he passes out.

- He wakes up again its morning now the day after the 1st trial and goes to get ready hesitantly in his own bathroom. And finds marks around his neck, and a big ol’ scabbed stabbed wound in his torso, and a few other ones around it. He is very confused cuz he knows he locked the door so he’s just very confused.

-At some point He gets fed up with Sayaka and her ghost shenanigans(scrapping on his door, screaming at the top of her lungs, banging on the door) and just puts a circle ring of salt around his shower. He also has one on the outside of the bathroom door too just in case!

-Speaking of Makoto’s bathroom it is trashed except for the toilet, sink, and tiles. He shattered the mirror and destroyed the shower in a fit of insanity because Sayaka's hallucination was taunting him. So he uses the bathhouse instead for hygiene needs.

-Oh no I didn’t forget about the others, they’re there. They also help him lose his mind.

-Some don’t do much; ie Chihiro, Hifumi, and Sakura (she mostly hangs around Hina but she did have to knock him out once because he was about to take his own life) and Muruko.

- Taka: gave him a really bad migraine for skateboarding in the halls.

Leon: Idk why but he makes him spit up a baseball? I dunno I might change it but for now, he spits up a baseball.

Mondo: kinda takes a chunk out of his calf (with the pickaxe) but the cherry on top is he gets him in the shoulder and by shoulder I mean like really close to the joint but he missed a few inches. BUT he then tries to rip upward and during this process because mondo got melted guess who’s muscles are getting melted??! Luckily Taka walked by stopping the process before the pickaxe could rip through his shoulder blade.

Celeste: I actually wrote about what she did in my goretober Fic! And I am too lazy to state it so you can read it here- :)). OH! BUT I didn’t mention that she set him on fire, (that’ll be explained later)

Sakaya: Well you know.

-The apparitions do get better over time, but when they first enter the spirit realm they’re kinda pissed at first. Now Makoto and his hallucinations of them are a different story.

-The survivors don’t really know what to do with Makoto tbh, like they know he’s suffering and often find him asleep just anywhere. (Makoto doesn’t fear death at this point so if monokuma were to tell him he’s going to die he would just shrug and go back to sleep and that isn’t despairful at all so he lets him get away with it).

-B//ut I do want the kids to have fun so they do with what they got. Not individually too! Like all 5 of them being homies! They play a game of drunk uno, dance to Queen in the concert hall, watch some movies (i.e mostly horror movies cuz I feel like that’s what junko would leave), a jumping contest in the pool, Act out little plays and scenes from books, they play Mario kart- wii sport - just dance-, s’moRES, ARTS N’ CRAFT-

-The Ghosts are there too but only Makoto can see them, and the more the chapters or time progresses the more ‘back to normal’ they begin to look. How? Through ghost therapy sessions, or FTE events idk.

-At one point in time he’s going to kinda lose his cool at one of them and it’s going to be celeste. She woke him up by setting him on fire because he was so deep in his sleep. She called him because the other four (kyoko not included) were attempting to summon something and celeste claims that she can’t fight the thing they summoned that’s in them (now earlier she told him at some point that she was quite a powerful demon,) and needs him to do it. All he does is beat the thing out of them with a bat (one or two hits).

- Now Makoto is frustrated because she woke him up at the ungodly hour of three something, had to do something she probably could have done herself, and then tell him to take them back to their rooms because she doesn’t want them in hers (it's the rec room but shh). He is not having it, he is tired his wounds hurt like a mother and he just wants to go to bed, so yells at her, dogs on her some, and then leaves saying “THESE AREN’T JUST MY FRIENDS THESE ARE YOUR FRIENDS TOO SO YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GOOD FRIEND AND LET THEM SLEEPOVER OK? OK!” I know I know canon Makoto would be a good dog and carry all these bodies down to there dorm but let Makoto be mean for five seconds ok-

- Something kinda chill, because this is being broadcasted (live I assume) right before and after it cuts to commercials, they show pictures that were taken by the remaining students or various artworks of the students from fans, Like SNL.

I Have other ideas for this AU specifically Makoto’s dreams/nightmare/memories and perhaps a few premonitions? But that’s for another time

[serahne-is-here]

I hate Ronpa with a passion but love Death Note even though I feel that both are trying to be same thing? The difference is: almost every character in Death Note is either bland, either a horrible person - and this is why I was able to enjoy all those awesome mental chess games, not caring about what happens to any of the people involved. Ironically, what completely ruined Ronpa for me is... its characters actually being loveable. Does this make sense to you?

Hi anon !

So, I’m not sure I can relate to you hating Danganronpa for obvious reasons - I do love it with passion, despite the fact that this is a complete mess - however, I think I kind of see where you’re coming from ?

Death Note actually doesn’t tell you how to feel about the characters. It focuses on telling a compelling story, it does it amazingly, and then you can decide for yourself how you feel about this or this character, and whatever your feelings are will not impact how good the story is, and how well the characters are written.

You can enjoy Death Note whether L is your favorite character ever, or if you can’t stand him as a human being. You can enjoy Light’s scheme, whether you see him as a tragic figure who lost his way, or as a complete sociopath. And honestly... that’s so good ? I love being free to feel whatever I want to. Yes, tell me a story, but don’t hold my hand emotionally through it telling me ‘oh, be sad for this character’, or ‘oh, you should hate this character’.

With Danganronpa, subteltly is dead, and the game will always tell you exactly how to feel about a character or a situation. I would still put the first game a bit appart, as it has some interesting moments that worked very well for me - Sayaka, Leon, Celes - but with the last two games... good god.

I think both Trial 4 in DR2 and NDRV3 are the best example of it, as everyone is crying over the poor murderers and I’m just like... you do realize they were trying to kill you all, right ? I don’t think that Gundham is a cinnamon roll or that Gonta is a poor baby who deserved better, but the game clearly wants me to, and that’s a bit annoying.

It’s also true with characters like Nagito or Kokichi, where the game is like ‘aren’t they interesting ? don’t you want to know more about them ? aren’t they cool grey characters ? and aren’t THEY TERRIFYING’ and it’s so unsubtle, that it’s really a hit or miss : for me it worked for Nagito - but god do I pity the people who were tired of him after the first chapter, haha - but not completely with Kokichi.

So maybe I’m wrong, but I think that’s a part of your annoyance with DR. That you can’t just enjoy terrible people being terrible in peace because the game will not let you alone until you cry for them. I might be wrong though, if you have anything to add, don’t hesitate.

[zenonaa]

Lost and Found

The classroom started to fill, first with the most diligent members of the class. Kiyotaka arrived, followed by Chihiro and then Sakura and Aoi together. For a little while, no one else entered, and then the second tier flitted in, that of the regular high school student. Hifumi, Makoto, Mukuro, Junko and Mondo, in that order. Next to walk in were Kyouko, Celes, Leon, Touko and Yasuhiro, pushing close to when homeroom was scheduled to begin.

That left two students yet to make an appearance.

Byakuya strode in, staring ahead and not making eye contact as he crossed the classroom and sat at his desk way at the back, which left one student still to come. Leon frowned at the only vacant desk before turning his gaze to Byakuya.

“Hey, Togami, have you seen Maizono-chan this morning?” asked Leon.

Without so much as glancing up from his book, Byakuya replied, “Yes, I saw her during our daily rendezvous this morning.”

Leon jerked his head back. Touko stiffened. The room held its breath. Byakuya noticed and rolled his eyes.

“... Obviously not. Why would I know where that girl is?” he said, scowling and returning to his book, which did little to appease Touko.

“A hollow doll like that...” Touko said through gritted teeth. She trailed off and clenched her pen so tightly that any harder might have cracked it. “Maizono wishes she could...! Get together!”

“Hey, be nice,” scolded Aoi. The next mutters from Touko were too quiet to be discernible but that satisfied Aoi, who skimmed through the rest of the room twice. Ultimately, she lingered longest on Sayaka’s desk.

She furrowed her brow and scratched at her cheek.

“It’s just Maizono-chan missing now,” she remarked. Most of the class exchanged puzzled looks. Byakuya continued reading. “You know, I didn’t see her at breakfast either, now that I think about it.”

Judging by the silence, no one had.

“That is not I.C. at all,” murmured Hifumi, holding his chin.

Makoto’s chair screeched back as he rose sharply. He pressed his hands against his desk, arms straight like pillars.

“A small sense of uneasiness is sprouting inside my heart,” Makoto said in a low voice, his body trembling as he stared downward. “And... slowly growing larger and larger. I...” Makoto gulped. “I’m going to check on - ”

Sakura stood up. “I’ll go.”

A beat passed. Then Makoto sat down again. After all, it wasn’t like Sayaka had been stabbed to death in her shower or anything. Sakura tucked her chair into her desk and left the classroom.

She didn’t pass many people in the corridors as she headed to Sayaka’s dorm, and those she did see didn’t stop to chat or try to waylay her, giving no more than a nod or a dodge to the side. When Sakura arrived at Sayaka’s door, she rang the bell. No one answered, yet Sakura could hear activity on the other side of the door. Footsteps pounded and furniture seemed to grunt.

Not wanting to intrude, Sakura pressed the button again, and this time, she called out.

“Maizono? Are you alright?” asked Sakura.

The noises stopped. After a few seconds, footsteps resumed, only now the door cracked ajar and a segment of Sayaka’s face showed.

“Oh...!” Sayaka widened her eyes, receded and opened the door fully. She kept her hand on the handle. “Good morning, Oogami-san! I’m sorry, did you need me for something?”

Sakura studied Sayaka. Her hair was brushed and she was wearing her uniform, but her face seemed more like porcelain than ever. Also, and this would have been missed by the less observant, the light usually in Sayaka’s eyes appeared dimmer. This didn’t escape Sakura, who as a martial artist was used to detecting even the slightest of changes in her opponents though she would not classify Sayaka as one of those.

“Not exactly. We were wondering where you were. It’s not like you to miss class,” explained Sakura.

A crease blemished Sayaka’s forehead. She touched her index finger against her lips and averted her gaze.

“I see. I’m sorry if I made you worry,” said Sayaka quietly. Sakura raised a hand.

“Please, that is not something you need to apologise for. Usually, you are one of the first people in the classroom. We were concerned that something was wrong.”

There was a marked pause.

“Kinda.” Sayaka cringed, still not meeting Sakura’s eyes, and she wrapped her arms around herself. “Sorry, but you’ll probably laugh at me. I mislaid an important charm bracelet, and it might not seem like a big deal, but I can’t...”

She choked on a sob despite how she tried not to and angled her body away.

“.... I can’t go out until I’ve found it,” finished Sayaka. Her eyes glistened as she lifted a hand and rubbed at them with her knuckles.

Such a sight pulled on Sakura’s heartstrings, though outwardly, Sakura’s features didn’t budge.

“Clearly, this bracelet is very important,” said Sakura, her voice betraying nothing either. “Do you know where it is?”

Sayaka sniffled and nodded. She swiped the heel of her hand against one of her eyes.

“I remember having it on in my room last night, and I thought I left it on my bedside table before I went to sleep.”

“Then, if you consent, may I come in and help you find it?” asked Sakura. Sayaka hesitated, then wrung her hands.

“I don’t want to trouble you,” Sayaka said, looking down.

“Helping you is not what troubles me. You being distraught is what does,” replied Sakura. “Therefore, I will help you, so long as it would not make you uncomfortable.”

Sayaka contorted her lips momentarily, then said, “Alright. If it won’t inconvenience you...”

She stepped back and let Sakura in.

Sakura had visited Sayaka’s room before on a few occasions, but the two had never been alone together. They were friends, don’t misunderstand, but usually there was at least another person present, like Aoi, Chihiro or Makoto.

Anyway, even though Sakura had been here previously, she was still taken aback by the lack of customisation. Most students decorated their dorm. For example, Sakura’s abode housed stacks of breaking tiles and she had drilled training dummies into her floor. Her Gi and red belt hung on a clothes hook and posters from magazines were pasted onto her walls.

Here, though, Sayaka’s room looked much like Sakura’s had when she first arrived at the school, before she stylised it. Breathing in, Sakura perceived a floral aroma and felt it wash over her. It was a pleasant scent that seemed to follow Sayaka wherever she went, so it didn’t surprise Sakura that the room smelled of it too.

Sayaka walked over to her bed with Sakura close behind and gestured to the bedside unit.

“I thought I left it here,” she explained. “Shall we retrace my steps?”

It definitely wasn’t on there. Sakura picked up the bedside unit with ease. Sayaka gasped, staring at it.

“Oh my goodness,” said Sayaka, her hands on her cheeks. “Sorry, I forget that you’re so strong!”

“I have trained my whole life,” replied Sakura. She set down the wooden unit on a different spot and added, “But you are as well, Maizono.”

“Me?” repeated Sayaka, tilting her head. Sakura bowed hers.

“Indeed. I have watched many of your shows, and you are active on your feet for a prolonged period. Not only that, you must sing too, and later, deal with energetic fans... It takes a lot of perseverance to do that with a smile. I admire your strength greatly. You’re inspirational.”

Sayaka blinked with her hand over her heart, at a loss for words. Sakura’s heart leapt and she shifted her weight as she looked down. Something silver caught her eye and on closer inspection, it was a bracelet laden with metal charms, including a fairy, a mermaid and a key. She picked it up and revealed it to Sayaka, who jolted.

“You found it!” Sayaka gushed, and she grabbed it back. Her eyes scrunched up as she cradled it against her chest, shaking slightly. “T-Thank you, Oogami-san... You’re my hero.”

Sakura grinned.

“I’m glad we found it. It must mean a great deal to you.”

“It does...” Sayaka hesitated, then she knelt down. She pulled out a box from under her bed, fastened with a padlock.

Using the key on her charm bracelet, Sayaka unlocked the box and opened it. The box contained a lot of knick-knacks, such as small pieces of fabric, costume jewelry and bottle caps, and photos were attached to the inside of the lid. Many were of her idol group, but newer, fresher photos depicted her with a few of their classmates.

Sakura sat down beside her and took a closer look.

“I like to keep these as reminders of people,” Sayaka explained, brushing her fingers over some fabric. “People come and go, and I want to hold onto what I can of them.”

A pause. Sayaka’s hand moved to hold onto the edge of the box and she peeked at Sakura.

“Um... if you’re alright with it, I would like to remember this act of kindness from you,” Sayaka said.

She studied the contents some more, biting her lip, before turning her head and shining a smile at Sakura. For a second time that morning, Sakura’s heart skipped.

“I would like to take a photo of us to put in here,” Sayaka said, and her knuckles whitened as she gripped the box harder. “If that’s okay, I mean. You’re such a good friend. Not just because of this, but how you look out for me and ask if I’m doing okay other times...”

Her lashes fluttered and her smile threatened to slip. Sakura boosted it with one of her own.

“Of course, I would love to be in a photograph with you,” Sakura assured her. Sayaka relaxed and whipped out her phone. She positioned her head beside Sakura and with a single tap, she took a selfie of them both.

“I’ll print it later,” said Sayaka as she lowered her phone, and she turned to Sakura. “Again, thank you for coming here... that bracelet belonged to my mother, and if I had lost it...”

The thought of that happening caused her shoulders to hunch. Her face tensed.

“I understand,” said Sakura. She rested a hand on Sayaka’s shoulder. “Like I said, I wanted to help you.”

They stared at each other. Light had returned to Sayaka’s eyes.

“You’re so lovely,” said Sayaka, and she looked away, blushing. She fidgeting with her hair. “Um... I think I’ll clean my face up, then I’ll be right out, okay?”

“I’ll wait for you outside.”

After Sakura left, Sayaka remained seated for a while longer, examining her phone. Then, she marked the latest photograph with a heart symbol, switched off the screen and headed to the bathroom to splash cool water onto her rosy cheeks.

[genocider-syo-is-still-my-queen]

Danganronpa rarepair week day 2: Flowers (kinda)

Aka. How many ships can I throw into a game of hide and seek?

"There are a lot of places to hide in here." Mukuro wondered out loud, to no one in particular. Monokuma had promised that if a month passed without any killing, a new floor would open. And as they entered their fifth month, the fifth floor, including the garden, had been unlocked. Despite the amount of time that had passed, she was still aware that these people could have the intentions to kill, so she would always need to keep an eye on her surroundings.

"Oh, do you wanna play hide and seek?" Makoto asked, completely missing her thought process. "That would be a good way to pass the time."

"That’s not what I-"

"That does sound like fun!" Chihiro butted in. "But we would need to set a few limitations. I’m sure the seeker doesn’t want to be constantly running up and down the entire school."

"Like, I doubt we could all hide in the garden. Maybe we should say anywhere on this floor, or the fourth floor. And no chickens in the bathrooms!" Junko continued. She knew Mukuro didn’t mean it like this, but thought this was the perfect time for her to hang out with her crush.

"There is no way you are going to make me hide." Of course, killjoy himself, Byakuya Togami. "I refuse to be a part of this." He was walking out, when Leon spoke up.

"Alright, Byakuya can be the seeker then!"

"Wait that’s not-"

"What, you don’t think you’re up for the task? I thought you liked games." Celes questioned. "But if you still refuse, I’m sure I can do a much better job of finding everyone."

"Is that so. No, I will do it. Not get going commoners, you’re going to have to find a good location to escape the eyes of the esteemed Byakuya Togami. I’ll count to 20, no more, no less. One..." All the students ran off, as he closed his eyes and began counting. Well, nearly all.

Mukuro decided to stay in the garden, as the heir wouldn’t expect that. She snuck around, as quietly as possible, trying to find a good spot.

"Twenty. Ready or not, here I come."

Togami started by quickly walking around the garden. Despite its size, there would be few locations to actually hide, well, unless you left a trail of stepped-on plants that is. Mukuro watched him, and made sure to keep out of his sight at all times. Technically it wasn’t hiding, but as long as she wasn’t spotted it counted. Ducking down, she made use of her military training. He glanced her way a few times, but never actually saw her.

Eventually he left, and Mukuro let out a sigh of relief. She stood up and turned. And ran straight into someone.

"Ah, Kyoko. Are you hiding here too?"

"I am indeed. But I doubt he’ll be back for a while, maybe we could walk around for a while."

"I would like that." Mukuro smiled, glad to be spending some time with her favourite person.

Meanwhile, Byakuya had found his first victim. It was Leon, who was barely trying to hide in the dojo.

"Wow, you caught me. Great job." The sarcasm was endless. "Here." He put a handmade cherry blossom crown on Byakuya's head. "You know, you look a little less like an asshole like that, I think ya should keep it."

The other boy just stared at him, and tore it off.

"Aw man, I spent so much time on that."

"Give it to one of your so called 'chicks' then." Byakuya didn’t want to acknowledge his feelings for Leon, they were getting in the way of his life. If they hadn’t met, he would have escaped months ago. But noooo, he just had to fall for this guy, and where had that got him? He was playing hide and seek, and was trying not to blush when being given such a nice gift. It didn’t help that Leon had been so condescending about it.

"Huh, but I made it especially for you." Leon had admitted this many times: he found Byakuya very attractive, even if his personality left a lot to be desired. "Well, don’t expect any gifts from me in the future." He huffed and walked towards the exit. "Let’s go find the others." Byakuya followed, cursing himself for being so rude.

"That’s a big flower..." Mukuro commented. There were so many flowers in the garden, but Kyoko  was the prettiest of them all. Wow that was cheesy.

"It sure is." Kyoko smiled back, and glanced at Mukuro's hand, wishing she could hold it. "Do you want to investigate the shed?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course." Before Mukuro could start walking, Kyoko grabbed her hand, and dragged her along. She quickly caught up, but didn’t let go. "This is nice." She thought out loud.

"It sure is. But I wonder how the others are doing, I’m sure some people must have been caught by now." Wonder not Kyoko, for we're about to cut to...

Asahina and Toko, both hiding under the headmaster's desk, because his office is unlocked right now. Deal with it, they’re playing hide and seek, do you think I care about cannon?

"Sooo, should we talk or something?" Asahina was keen to break the silence, as she enjoyed talking to the literary girl.

"Well we could, but then there’d be a bigger chance of someone hearing us." Toko was comfortable talking to the girl, as she’d been one of the first to accept her. She’d also been willing to give Genocider a chance, whether that was a good idea or not.

"Ah well, this place is pretty obvious anyway, no harm done. So, what do you wanna talk about?" However, before Toko could speak, She was interrupted by a certain heir.

"No time for idle chatter girls, we have searching to do." Byakuya had leaned over the desk, and was now staring at them. "Pretty obvious indeed." The girl’s sighed, and joined the ever-growing group of seekers,  which currently consisted of: Byakuya, Leon (who was wearing a flower crown for some reason), Hifumi, Mondo And Sakura.

"Y'know, for someone who was against this game, you sure are into the whole seeker role." Mondo teased. "Guess you’re more childish than I thought."

"Hardly, I just enjoy the thrill of the chase." Leon took this opportunity to return the cherry blossoms to the intended recipient. "Leon, if that thing is not off my head in 5 seconds, I will have to take drastic measures..."

"I’ll live. Doesn’t he look cute guys?" Asahina nodded, as did Toko. The rest didn’t seem to care.

"That’s it." Byakuya grabbed Leon's hand, and pulled him out. "The rest of you, search for the others, I’ll be back soon." Leon was a little scared, but excited to see what he’d do. How bad could it be?

Meanwhile, Kyoko and Mukuro are looking around the shed, still holding hands. "Have you found anything exciting?"

"There are some more weapons here, as expected. I have also deduced that you have very nice hands." Kyoko tried to flirt, it wasn’t one of her strong suits.

"Why thank you." Mukuro blushed a little. "Hey Kyoko." She decided to risk it, and ask the question she’d been meaning to ask for ages.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to go out with me?"

Kyoko let go of her hand and stared at her in shock. "I..."

"Oh, I’m sorry. I thought our feelings were mutual. Just forget I ever-"

"I thought we were already dating."

"Wait, really?"

"Well, you gave me that rose in vitro, I saw that as a symbol of romantic love." Mukuro remembered that, she’d been so nervous about it. Now she thought about it, Kyoko had seemed a lot more affectionate since then.

"Ah. So, if that a yes?"

"Of course it is."

"So can I hold your hand again now?" Kyoko gave her hand, and Mukuro took it, before they went back out into the garden, where they decided to actually find somewhere to hide, it’s in the name of the game after all.

Meanwhile, Byakuya and Leon were now making out. Yeah. Monokuma can you wind back the tapes so we can figure out how that happened?

"What’s wrong, you afraid of flower crowns?"

"I doubt a playboy like you would understand, but in my life, a gift of flowers represents the desire to be in a relationship. And from you..."

"Ah, so you don’t wanna date me then? Shame."

"Of course I- shame?"

"You’re pretty hot and rich, and I just love sarcasm. I’d date you, if that’s what you wanna hear."

Byakuya was shocked, and practically froze, leaving Leon wondering if he’d broken the boy. "So be it, you’ll make a good companion."

"Uh, So is that a yes? Or..."

"Shut up and kiss me punk."

Well, that explains it. Does anyone actually care about this game anymore?

Makoto was hiding in the biology room, and really regretting it, as it was really cold. Luckily he had his hoodie, and a tiny programmer to cuddle.

Ishimaru was in the music room, trying to convince Sayaka it was a bad idea for her to try and hide in the grand piano.

Junko was hiding in Monokuma's room. What a cheater.

Celes had been caught as she was trying to move between rooms, and had immediately exposed Hagakure as well.

Eventually everyone was caught, and they agreed that next time they’d take it all a little more seriously.

[mediocreronpas]

DR1 Boys and a Jealous S/O.

Please excuse my rudeness of not posting for over a freaking week. Just writers block and school work. The asks I have left are long ones as well. So please excuse my future rudeness in probably not posting an ask everyday like usual. A post will probably made when I’m back on track. Thank you.

- Mod Teruteru

Makoto Naegi

- You had always noticed how he hung out with the other girls in his class a lot.

- Of course, you didn’t mind. But Sayaka started to get very close to him.

- Like, very close.

- It almost made you uncomfortable close.

- You didn't mean to, but whenever he would talk to Sayaka more than you, you'd look away from him with an upset expression until he stopped talking to her, or started questioning you.

- Once he had figured out that you were jealous of Sayaka, he asked you about it.

- “W-well, you're always talking and laughing and hanging out with her. If I weren't your girl/boyfriend you'd probably be dating. Which is why I would always seem upset…”

- Makoto started giggling.

- “But I could never do that to an S/O like you. You're the only one I truly have loved.”

- You cracked a smile and started laughing.

- “I should have known you would say that.”

Byakuya Togami

- As the Heir to the Togami family, he was always pretty busy.

- And he did need some sort of secretary.

- And this particular secretary was very pretty.

- So you found yourself being very jealous and fearful of the relationship between that secretary and Togami.

- The only thing you could think of doing was, confiding in him.

- When you were alone, you told him about your fears about that lady.

- He didn't emote, he just put a hand on your shoulder.

- “And what makes you think I would abandon someone as beautiful and perfect for me as you?”

- You thought about for a few seconds before you started smiling.

- “Obviously! There's nothing that can make me think that.”

Mondo Oowada

- Being the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader made him more popular with women who liked 'bad boys’ then you both thought.

- Women wearing all black with a bunch of piercings will walk up to him and ask him if he wants to get a drink sometime.

- That's when you'll walk up to him and grab his arm in a 'he’s mine’ kind of way.

- “Oh how cute, you brought you little sister/brother.”

- Mondo was confused while you were a bit offended.

- Then you pulled the collar of his shirt and started kissing him.

- This did lead the girls away, but when they were gone you were apologizing profusely.

- “Sorry! I'm sorry! I just panicked when they called me your little sister/brother.”

- “It's fine S/O. I probably do the same if some guys called me your older brother.”

- You giggled. “No, you would have tried to punch their lights out.”

- “Ha ha, yeah. You caught me S/O.”

Ishimaru Kiyotaka

- He still wasn't very up to date on social norms.

- So when people flirted with him, he could never pick up on it.

- But you could pick up on it.

- ...Boy could you pick up on it.

- “Hey there, mind telling me your name big boy?”

- “Ah, good evening! My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! It's wonderful to meet you!”

- Whaaat?

- Poor Taka didn't even notice the dark aura coming off of you.

- You were smiling, but the girl that was talking to Taka could recognize what that meant.

- “I'm sorry miss, but I need to talk to my Kiyotaka for a second in private. Do you mind?”

- “Y-yeah, t-that’s cool.”

- When you pulled Taka aside, he was smiling at you like a little kid.

- “What would you like to talk about S/O?”

- Poor boy didn't even know.

- When you explained, he was blushing.

- “W-why would a girl do that?”

- You pouted and buried your face in his chest, earning yourself and even blushier Taka.

- “Because you're great and adorable and a nice person. Who wouldn't do that?”

- Taka reluctantly wrapped his arms around you.

- “Someone who knows that I am taken by a kind and thoughtful and generous S/O. That's who.”

Chihiro Fujisaki

- You still had to keep Chihiro's real gender a secret until he was comfortable enough to say it himself.

- So that meant Chihiro still has his fanbase of Lolita loving guys.

- Which also meant that he will still get recognized in public.

- Chihiro was sitting in at cafe table while he waited for you to get the food you ordered.

- “Hey, your Chihiro Fujisaki right.”

- “Um, y-yes? That's right.”

- The man them proceeded (and quite rudely I might add) to sit down on the obviously taken chair on the other side of the round cafe table.

- Chihiro shifted his line of sight from the man to you.

- “So, do you come to this cafe often?”

- On the outside you were gazing at them innocently, on the inside you were freaking steaming.

- So you put your guys’ food on the table and kissed Chihiro on the cheek.

- “Sorry that took so long sweetie, there was a bit of a line at the register.” Then you looked at the man. “Excuse me sir, that chair is taken.”

- He got up a bit confused, then walked away, still looking at you.

- “Why’d you do that S/O?”

- You sweated a bit. “Sorry, I just get a little over protective when it comes to guys wanting to flirt with you I guess.”

- Chihiro giggled.

- “You're so cute S/O.”

Yasuhiro Hagakure

- You weren't one to get very jealous.

- It was one of the reasons he loved you.

- You were cool about everything.

- But there are times you can get the slightest bit jealous, but you never said anything.

- Some of the more ignorant women who came back for a second reading began to get a bit tough for some reason.

- They were getting a kick out of his readings while he was having fun with someone believing his stories.

- You really didn't like the feeling it was giving you.

- “Hey S/O? Is something wrong?”

- Sh*t

- You didn't realize that while focusing on that weird feeling, you had been staring at Hiro.

- “I… don't know. I've been having these weird feelings whenever you're around those girls that like you...like...a lot.”

- Hiro scratched the back of his neck.

- “Well, I guess that whatever it is, you probably don’t need to feel it. I don’t like them as much as I love you.”

- You smiled and blushed.

- “Thanks Hiro.”

Hifumi Yamada

- No matter what he looked like, he had huge amounts of nerdy fangirls.

- Those of which surrounded him when you two visited any kind of eastern style convention.

- You didn’t want to be a bother so you kind of just scooted off to the corner to see what the other artists were selling.

- Yamada texted you about standing next to a Love Live art booth and asked you to meet him there.

- When you found him, he was talking with two girls cosplaying as the hitachiin twins.

- You couldn’t hear what they were saying but you saw them pulling out their phones and clearly asking or a picture.

- It was cute, it really was, but their arms around him made you sweat a bit.

- …

- You didn’t have the confidence to approach him until the two girls left for a My Hero Academia booth.

- When you walked up to him, you sighed happily at the sight of no one currently surrounding him.

- “Hey Hifumi.”

- “Ah, greetings S/O. I’m glad to have run into you again. Can I ask why you were looming over at the Yuri! On Ice booth over there while I was speaking with the two fans just now?”

- You blushed and started rubbing your cheek on the Ryuji Sakamoto body pillow you bought to try and hide it.

- “B-beats me. You don’t have to worry about it.”

- “Oh! My S/O has gone tsundere! That can only mean one thing.”

- Huuuh?

- “It’s perfectly fine S/O. You don’t have to be jealous of those girls, you are one of the main protagonists in our story.”

- “I-I never said…! *Sigh* Okay fine, but only because my lovable partner said so.”

- (This whole section was just me being a huge anime nerd…)

Leon Kuwata

- Baseball fans were constantly a problem with him.

- Don’t get me wrong, he loved being around all those chicks.

- But he already had an S/O, and they only liked him for the talent he hated having.

- They still attempted at swarming him though.

- Thank god for velvet ropes and bouncers.

- Even when you walked with him out of the games girls reached out to him.

- This made put smile nervously and wave at them.

- When you got home you would groan and collapse on the couch like a ton of bricks.

- “I’m suuuper tired of those fan girls.They made me super nervous.”

- Leon chuckled and patted your head.

- “Yeah. It was pretty crazy how they just wanted to jump on top of me like that. Can’t say I blame them though.”

- You pulled on his sleeve while he leaned on the couch.

- “Don’t say stuff like that. You’re still mine, you wouldn’t leave me for one of them would you?”

- Leon smirked. “Oh? Is my S/O jealous?”

- You lowered your eyelids. “Just answer the question.”

- Leon flipped over the back of couch and landed on top of you.

- With his face close to yours, Leon grinned big.

- “Of course not S/O.You’re my one and only, a future rock star has got to be loyal to everyone. His fans and his S/O.”

[pyropsychiccollector]

Danganronpa - Another IF (Chapter 1, Part 2)

Makoto and Sayaka watched uneasily as Kirigiri pulled Fukawa's body out of the washing machine. They'd cleared away the shards from the broken glasses after discovering that a piece of tape had been attached to the part that went over the bridge of someone's nose. In other words, before Asahina had stepped on them, apparently the glasses had snapped cleanly in half at some point, and someone had haphazardly tried to tape them back together. However, Fukawa's glasses had appeared fine at breakfast, so they had broken between breakfast and the time her body had been discovered. It didn't reveal anything particularly useful yet, but it was a tidbit of information to keep in mind.

Monokuma had dispensed something called a Monokuma File for everybody; in essence, it functioned as an autopsy report, since none of them were associated with the police, who usually investigated these matters. However, as useful as an autopsy report sounded, this file was anything but. They already knew Fukawa had died sometime after the breakfast meeting, and approximating the time did nothing because Fukawa never liked to hang out with them. It was going to be difficult to find out if anyone had seen anyone with her, for any length of time.

At the very least, the file told them her cause of death was suffocation. They hadn't been able to tell that just by finding her body. There were no other signs of injuries, internal or external. Other than that, the file was pretty much useless to them.

"Hmm..." Kirigiri murmured as she shifted Fukawa on her back and held up her right hand, examining it. Kirigiri's gloved hand experimentally rubbed some fluid between her fingertips. "Blood..."

Sakura spoke the thought that flitted through their minds.

"The Monokuma File says there are no other injuries... Which would suggest that she fought back against her attacker."

Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

"Damn... You're sayin' Fukawa's nails are that sharp?" He scowled as Kirigiri shook her head.

"No. If she did that, there would be bits of flesh and specks of blood under her fingernails. However, the blood is only on her fingers. I believe she might've had some form of weapon when she was attacked. A weapon small enough that her hand would easily pass by the killer's wound as she slashed at him..."

The biker punched his open palm in anticipation  He seemed excited about something, though the others could only hazard a guess as to what.

"Well, this'll be easy, then! The bastard who killed her will have some kinda cut or whatever, so let's just check everybody out, fully body search style!"

"I... don't think Monokuma would allow that..." Maizono tapped her chin as she looked up. Naegi weakly chuckled beside her.

"Yeah, he'd say something like that would make the game boring, and then he'd come up with some dumb rule about body searches..."

"Not to mention that would not account for the possibility of two or more people who have some type of cut on their body that they received today." The lavender-haired girl added calmly as she continued to examine the body.  "We would narrow down our suspects, but we would not have any other evidence to prove which one it was. It's best to collect as much information as possible, and go to the trial prepared."

Mondo visibly deflated and looked away with a click of his tongue. Well, it was still a good lead anyway, even if it wasn't case-breaking just yet. While Kirigiri handled the body, he turned his attention to a bedsheet that was lying on the floor in a heap. There were a few flecks of blood on it by the look of it,

"Do you think this is just a red herring?" The Luckster wondered aloud. "Seems too big to suffocate someone quickly...  And I mean, you'd have to do that if you killed Fukawa here, right? 'Cause our rooms are soundproof, but not the laundry room."

Maizono tilted her head in contemplation at his musings.

"Yeah... that's true."

Sakura hummed thoughtfully as she kept her arms crossed.

"This is assuming that the laundry room was the crime scene. We found the body here, but there is no guarantee that she was killed in this room."

Mondo snorted in disbelief.

"You really think the killer walked from their room to here, just carrying the body? Even I know that's a dumbass move with so many people walkin' around and shit."

Kirigiri spoke up again without missing a beat.

"And what if this killer was reasonably sure that no one would inadvertently spot them? What if the killer didn't brazenly carry the body, but wrapped it in something?"

"Like the bedsheet..." Makoto whispered as he looked at the item in a new light.

"You serious?! Even if ya wrap it, someone's still gonna know you're luggin' around a body." Mondo contested.

Kirigiri remained an emotionless mask.

"If you carry it in such a way, the body will pass off as 'laundry' to any casual onlookers. Naturally, this would mean the killer would have to be careful about who saw them, and how they acted, but the possibility still exists that the body was moved. We have no way to know yet."

Makoto rubbed his chin and looked down in contemplation.

"Thing is, though, even if the killer moved the body, it doesn't explain why Touko would willingly enter someone else's room. And I mean, if the killer forced her to go in, someone could've seen it. Or am I off-base about that...?"

For once, Kirigiri smiled pleasantly.

"No, that seems like a reasonable question to consider. Another possibility is that the killer gained passage into Touko's room, and killed her there - so at the very least, you should inspect her room. You should also ask around and see if anyone was present in the dorms or the hall at the time of the murder. If not, we'll know the killer at least had the opportunity to move about undetected. It would be a risky gamble, as someone could come out of their room at any time, but the possibility remains. It is said that killers can be quite illogical at times."

Sayaka briefly exchanged a look with Makoto.

"We should also ask if anyone knows what Touko was going to do... Whether she was going back to her room, the classrooms, wherever."

Naegi nodded in acceptance as he half-turned toward the door.

"Okay... Well, I guess we'll leave the laundry room to you guys. If anything happens or ya find anything, let us know!"

Mondo scowled slightly, but Naegi knew he was just frustrated at the moment.

"Yeah... You guys just do your best out there, I guess. We've got it covered here."

With a wave, the singer and the Luckster exited the room.

~*~

The first people they came across were Leon and Ishimaru, who were in a corner of the massive hall that separated the cafeteria and laundry room. By the look of it, they were arguing, and a vein was popping on Leon's head in righteous anger.

"I'm tellin' ya, it wasn't me! Mondo and I were in the entrance hall the whole damn time! If either of us slipped out, the other would've known!" The All-Star clenched his fists and held them up furiously.

Kiyotaka, for his part, seemed largely unintimidated by the baseball player's display. He was cupping his chin and levelling the redhead with a critical glare.

"Forgive me if I do not just take your word for it! You seemed quite panicked when you saw your video, and you clearly said you had to get out!"

"Everyone friggin' overreacted to their videos, dude! Even Naegi was spooked, and he's all about that 'gotta stick together' crap..." Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he saw Makoto and Sayaka out of the corner of his eye. "Oh, hey, guys!"

Other than Maizono narrowing her eyes in outrage, neither student commented on Leon's attitude.

"What's goin' on, guys?" Makoto felt he had a pretty good idea, but he still asked out of impulse, more than anything else.

"Ah, Mister Makoto Naegi and Miss Sayaka Maizono~" Kiyotaka greeted them both pleasantly, as if he hadn't just been giving Leon the third degree. "Leon and I were just speaking about alibis!"

"'Speak' nothin'... I sure didn't hear you talkin' about your alibi..." Leon groused, running a hand through his hair in irritation.

Naturally, Kiyotaka did not seem to hear him. Sayaka seemed to come to his rescue, though, as she hummed noncommittally.

""Leon and Mondo confirm each other's alibis. If they say they were at the entrance hall the whole time, then they probably were."

Ishimaru stood rigid as the singer came to the baseball star's aid. He humbly nodded his head in acceptance.

"I... see. I suppose the same applies to you and Makoto? That you were together, I mean."

Sayaka nodded with a smile,

"Us and Junko," Makoto confirmed with a meek laugh. Before Ishimaru could gush too much about the camaraderie, Leon butted in again.

"Look, just what were you doing after we left breakfast, huh? Were you with anyone?"

The Ultimate Prefect wilted somewhat as his alibi was put under scrutiny.

"I was... patrolling the halls..." Ishimaru stated with a tightening scowl.

"Alone?" The baseball all-star pressed.

"It is a duty I take most seriously!" Ishimaru defended himself. "... But yes, I was alone in my patrol."

"Did you see anything that might help?" Makoto asked hopefully.

"Like what Fukawa might have been doing," Sayaka helpfully supplied, in case Ishimaru needed to jog his memory.

Ishimaru gripped his chin tightly and frowned, eyes narrowing.

"Well... she and Yamada got into a.... disagreement that I had to break up."

Leon rolled his eyes as the prefect revealed this new information.

"Well, there ya go! Fatty probably had some motive to kill her, and he just went back to meet with Fukawa in private after you broke them up!"

Ishimaru did not seem convinced. And when he explained his reasoning for doubting the theory, Makoto and Maizono had their doubts, too.

"It was a very minor argument, however. Fukawa insulted Yamada's comics, and he naturally defended them. Plus, when I split them up, Yamada went to the school store, and I know he stayed there because of my efficient patrol route."

"Che. If it was really 'efficient', Fukawa wouldn't be dead, would she?" Leon groused.

"I know I failed Fukawa....!" Ishimaru lamented. "But she had said she was heading back to her room, and I had little reason to doubt her. I was quite shocked to find her dead in the laundry room!"

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he summarized the account Ishimaru gave them.

"So, after breaking up the small fight and hearing Fukawa say she'd be in her room, you followed Yamada to the classroom side of the building." Makoto frowned. "Did you see her open the door to her room and actually go in, though? Did you see anyone else around?"

Ishimaru sagged regretfully.

“No. Unfortunately, I was concerned with Yamada, and making sure he did not go right back to picking a fight with Fukawa. I did not even turn to give Fukawa-san a second glance, and there was no one else around, to my memory.”

Leon rolled his eyes in frank disbelief.

“Yeah, sure… real believable.” The ginger’s tone was oozing with sarcasm. He tapped an index finger to his head and stuck out his tongue. “I think you did it, with the way you were giving me the third degree when your own alibi’s got holes like Swiss cheese!”

Ishimaru grunted out in frustration as he raised a fist in outrage.

“I did not kill Fukawa-san! If you cannot believe I followed Yamada, then just ask Yasuhiro! He had been leaving the gymnasium when my patrol route went by there!”

Sayaka smiled nervously and tried to ease the tension.

“Umm… Leon, why don’t you look for Yasuhiro and confirm that? Naegi-kun and I have a number of things to look into ourselves, and we can’t do everything before the trial starts…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head and grinned roguishly.

“Leave it to me, Maizono-chan!”

Makoto turned to Ishimaru and smiled.

“And Ishimaru, if you see Togami, Celes, or Fujisaki, try to ask what they were doing. Sakura and Asahina were the first ones to find the body, and they were able to find me, Maizono, Junko, Mondo, and Leon, but the rest of you guys took a little time getting to the crime scene. I mean, I’m assuming you, Yamada, and Yasuhiro are telling the truth about seeing each other and all, but…” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

Ishimaru chuckled and spread out his arms good-naturedly.

“Of course, Naegi-kun! Consider it done!”

Leon crossed his arms and looked at Naegi skeptically.

“Hey… what about Kirigiri? Anyone looking into her?”

“She, Sakura, and Mondo are searching the crime scene.” Maizono helpfully supplied. If any of the boys noticed she was a bit quick to defend Naegi, none of them commented on it. Though Leon was shooting Naegi an envious glance for half a second before he and Ishimaru departed. The idol turned back to Naegi, smiling pleasantly. “So, where do you want to go now?”

~*~

Naegi and Maizono's investigation proceeded rather... quickly, after they inspected Fukawa's room. Junko and Chihiro had already started examining it, so all they really needed was an update from them. As expected, nothing was amiss in Fukawa's room. There wasn't some mysterious note, or signs of a physical struggle. The room had been remarkably tidy, and gave no indication that Fukawa had returned there after her scuffle with Yamada.

Moreover, Fujisaki had confirmed she was in her room after breakfast, and that Sakura could confirm her alibi, having waved at her in the hall. When asked about Asahina, Fujisaki timidly answered she had been bouncing with energy and running laps in the halls... much to Ishimaru's ire.  

Leaving Junko and Chihiro to the more detailed search of Fukawa's room, Sayaka mused about the culprit possibly destroying evidence, and so the two moved on to check out the incinerator and trash room, where Celes had been ruminating outside. Apparently, she had been thinking of going in to inspect the room herself, but as usual, her refined tastes made her reluctant to enter such a room. So, she left that investigation to the idol and Luckster, giving her account of where she was and what she had been doing after breakfast as compensation. Similar to Fujisaki, she'd gone off to her room, though she'd been among the first to leave breakfast, so her testimony wasn't... completely reliable or believable. If she'd decided to discreetly keep an eye on the halls, she could have killed Fukawa...

They did discover that to get to the incinerator, a key was needed, and there was always going to be one person who was in possession of that key on a weekly basis. The person with the key was supposed to gather all of the trash and dispose of it, and Yamada had been the first volunteer for that duty. Nothing seemed amiss around the incinerator, though, and Yamada opening up that area to inspect it himself bore no fruit either, as the machine was still cold.

So it was unlikely that the perp somehow disposed of evidence through there. Either they stored any leftover evidence in their room (and the crime scene), or there really wasn't any to be "found". Makoto was adamant they'd find something to go on, but Sayaka was beginning to wonder. From what they were hearing, there had been a number of people loitering in the halls, even if it wasn't for "long" periods of time. How did the killer maneuver around all that, kill Fukawa, and get her body to the laundry room? And why shove it in the washing machine of all things?

There were too many questions, and the trial was only getting closer.

"Honestly? Today seemed like a laundry day for a lot of people." Aoi muttered as she crossed her arms and tilted her head thoughtfully. Out of new leads to follow, Naegi and Sayaka had gone to the cafeteria to see if anyone was there. That's where they found the swimmer, looking all confused about everything. "Togami, Yamada, Mondo... me and Sakura... Yasuhiro... I even saw Fukawa with a load of laundry at some point!"

Naegi and Maizono both immediately latched onto this new information.

"Really? So she didn't stay in her room?" The Luckster queried. "Or was this before breakfast or something?"

Aoi shook her head.

"No, no. It was after. After me and Sakura were through with our laps and taking a break, I saw her coming out of her room carrying some of her dresses. She was still moody, and stayed as far from us as she could, but she went toward the laundry room, I'm sure of it."

The singer and Luckster shared a look.

"Then..." The dark-haired beauty said slowly. "Maybe she was killed in the laundry room?"

"She was carrying some of her dresses, though..." Naegi mused. "Then whose bedsheets got blood on them? The culprit's?"

"Togami and Mondo were doing their bedsheets." Asahina supplied helpfully. "I mean - Sakura was, too, but I was with her the whole time!"

"And Mondo was with Leon..." Naegi muttered. "That leaves Togami..."

"But Togami doesn't seem the type to leave evidence lying around haphazardly like that." Sayaka reasoned. "Even if it got blood on it, he would have folded it up and carried it like he hadn't done anything. We wouldn't have had reason to search his room."

"He did treat Fukawa like dirt, though..." Aoi looked sour. "I mean, he isn't friendly with anyone, but he was especially nasty to her!"

Makoto shook his head, frowning.

"It just doesn't add up. Even if he wanted out, he wouldn't aim for the person he 'obviously' despised. Not to mention how sloppy he would've been with the crime scene, if those were his bedsheets. It just seems like..."

Before Naegi could finish his train of thought, the school bell system rang out as Monokuma appeared on the monitor nearby.

"Ahem! I'm getting tired of waiting here... Let's get things started, shall we? It's the event you've all been waiting for... The Class Trial!! Without further ado, I'll now announce the rendezvous point! Please enter the red doors on the first floor of the school zone. Upupu, see you soooon!" With that farewell, the screen with Monokuma flickered off, and the three teens shared glances with one another.

"W-Well... I guess our time's up..." The idol smiled nervously.

Naegi rubbed his chin before turning to Aoi seriously.

"Hold on. I know you might not have seen everybody enter the laundry room itself, but can you give the list of people who you 'know' had laundry, one more time?"

The swimmer nodded shakily. 

"Y-Yeah... Togami, Mondo, Yamada, me, Sakura, Yasuhiro, and Fukawa. Those are the ones I know, anyway..." Aoi's arms were crossed again, and she looked frustrated. "Do you think Celes could've had stuff, too?"

Naegi shook his head.

"There's no point speculating. We should... just get going, I guess." As he decided this, Aoi shrugged and left ahead of them, but Sayaka paused to look at Naegi's troubled expression.

"Is something wrong?"

Seeing the idol's concern, the Luckster rubbed the back of his head and chuckled weakly.

"No... Well... I hope not. Just a bad feeling, I guess. I don't wanna doubt anyone, but our lives are on the line here..." The brunet's mouth was set in a grim line, and his hands were clenched at his sides.

Without hesitation, Sayaka took his hands in her own.

"Neither of us, nor Junko, did it, Naegi-kun. And I'm sure we can put our faith in the others. If you have doubts, we'll clear them up in the trial, for sure!" The singer's smile was enough to snap Naegi out of his stupor. He gratefully returned her smile with a grin of his own.

"Y-Yeah... You're right. Let's solve this case, and get everyone out of this place alive!"

They had to. For Fukawa's sake as much as their own.

[ask-dangan-if]

Green Color Ask Edition- Celadon for Hifumi, Mondo, and Naegi. Olive for Chihiro, Sakura, and Hiro. Harlequin for Hina, Sayaka, and Mukuro. Mantis for Leon, Toko, and Byakuya. Pear for Taka, Kyoko, and Celeste.

Celadon - Dream job?

Some day, I hope to officially become a world renowned mangaka! Not only to help make my works more well-known, but to inspire future doujin authors who wish to follow in my footsteps!

I’ve actually had my eye on becomin’ a carpenter since it’s the only realistic option fer me. I wanna start fixin’ shit instead ‘a just breakin’ it all the time like I did the coffee machine a few weeks back.

Dream job? I never really thought too much on it. But I remember being asked for a possible “partnership” with someone in a business once the Tragedy’s finally over.

Olive - What is your favorite food?

I’m really okay with anything that tastes good, but tea sandwiches and onigiri are pretty yummy to have for lunch, if I had to choose something!

I prefer to enjoy a nice bowl of fish and miso soup. Oh, and of course rice. It’d be unforgivable of me to pass up such a rich source of protein.

I wouldn’t really say I have a favorite food considerin’ I’ve had limited choices in the past while on the ru-- I mean, in certain times. But if I had ta pick, I’ll go with curry. Not as much as Naegi-chi likes it, but I’m used ta makin’ freeze-dried a lot anyways.

Harlequin - Can you act?

Uhhh, no. I tried taking acting once when I was younger and did really bad in the role because I kept getting the giggles when it wasn’t in my character to do that.

Well, acting both is and sort of isn’t a part of the idol business, but to a degree, I can play a part really well.

No. And I’d rather not play “dress up” any time soon again either.

Mantis - Favorite animal?

I guess I like lions? I dunno, they seem pretty cool ta me.

(Receiving transmission...)

I’m p-pretty fond of rabbits, but this question j-just reminded me of how much I miss Kameko-chan. I h-hope she’s doing okay out there... I miss my little b-bug friend.

(End transmission...)

I’m not really an animal person, exactly. Especially considering I’m allergic to cats and would rather be as far away from them as possible.

Pear - Where do you feel rested?

My bedroom when it’s time for bed. I wouldn’t sleep at any time else, now would I?

A nice bath seems the most content to me. It has been a while since I’ve taken a bath for relaxation instead of just to get clean, but anyone could use a nice relaxing one every now and again.

Wherever I can enjoy a nice cup of milk tea with my little baby Grand Bois Chéri. So long as the area isn’t filthy or anything below my tastes.

[pyropsychiccollector]

Danganronpa: Another IF (Chapter 2, Part 4 - Conclusion)

            The twelve of them took their places at the stands. The two spaces directly to the sides of Monokuma, where Hagakure and Asahina were standing, were now vacant. Like Fukawa, they were now “represented” by crossed-out head portraits.

            “You all know remember how the Class Trial works~.” Monokuma’s voice was light and carefree. “Your votes will determine the outcome! If the majority votes for the blackened, then only they will be punished~. But if the majority votes for anyone besides the culprit, then everyone else will be punished, and the blackened will go free! So, let’s get the ball rolling with… how Aoi Asahina died!”

            Ignoring the monochrome bear’s enthusiasm, Naegi rubbed his chin.

            ‘The cause of death… It probably is the best to start there, since we can reason it out. We can just go on from there…’

            “Asahina… had been impaled by three spears…” Sakura kicked off the debate. “Was she simply stabbed to death?”

            Junko crossed her arms and looked down.

            “I dunno… Stabbing someone with a spear would make too much noise, wouldn’t it? I mean, Asahina would be screaming like hell!”

            “I doubt the spears had to do with the murder itself,” Kirigiri declared. “Death was not instantaneous, and it would have been senseless and too risky to let her bleed out.”

            “The Monokuma File said she ingested some kind of drug!” Ishimaru declared. “Perhaps it was a slow-acting, lethal poison?!”

            Mondo shook his head.

            “Except there wasn’t any poison lyin’ around!”

            “You should know that, since we took inventory of the storeroom.” Togami scoffed.

            “If she was not killed by spears or by poison, perhaps she drowned…?” Celes proposed.

            “Ah, but Miss Asahina was the Ultimate Swimmer! For her to drown would be unthinkable!” Yamada contradicted the gambler.

            It was at that point Naegi made his rebuttal.

            “You’ve got that wrong!” The Luckster declared calmly. “I agree, it’s kind of crazy when you consider her talent. But we found a thin trail of water leading to the locker on the far end of the pool. That means the killer probably stored the body in there, ‘cause the inside was too damp for, like, a shirt or something to be in there instead.”

            “Why would the killer hide Asahina after drowning her?” Junko wondered.

            “Most likely to confuse us.” Togami mused, tapping his temple with his index finger. “If the spears had nothing to do with the act of murder itself, that opens up more possible suspects. Because you would think that the killer was a male, based on how we found her body. Yet if we consider the circumstances behind how she drowned, literally anyone could have killed her. Even Fujisaki.”

            “Hey! Don’t go accusin’ Fujisaki, you bastard!” Mondo roared as the programmer cried.

            Sayaka bit her lower lip.

            “Can you explain… what you mean by ‘circumstances’? It would take special circumstances to drown the Ultimate Swimmer…”

            “Togami means that Asahina, in all likelihood, ingested a drug that took at least ten minutes to take effect.” Kirigiri explained. She observed the heir shrewdly. “You found containers of that knockout drug in the storeroom, correct?”

            “Correct.” Togami affirmed. “There were five small bottles, and one was completely empty. The instructions clearly stated that it was to be ingested through the mouth, and that it would take ten minutes to take effect. It’s potent enough that the user would have no inkling they ingested it before it was too late.”

            Fujisaki looked up tearfully toward the monochrome bear.

            “Wh-Why would you give us something like that?!”

            Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

            “Would you believe I knew some of you would have trouble sleeping~…? No?” The bear breathed out a sigh of relief. “Well, it wasn’t for something innocent like that. This is an academic coliseum, y’know~. You wouldn’t be able to level the playing field with people like Sakura Oogami and Kyoko Kirigiri unless you had something available to you. You gotta kill to get a head!”

            Everyone ignored his very bad pun, making the bear mope.

            “So what you’re saying is…” Mondo trailed off uncertainly. “After makin’ Asahina drink that knockout drug, the killer went with her up to the pool, and shoved her in?”

            Celes giggled.

            “I do not think the killer directly made her drink it. They most likely mixed it in with her choice of snack. To break curfew and go for a late-night swim… she most certainly would have had to have been very stressed.”

            “The ‘curfew’ is optional anyway,” The heir scoffed. “It’s not in the rules.”

            “But we did agree to it, Mister Pampered Prince.” Junko rolled her eyes. Before Togami could shoot anything back, Naegi mused aloud.

            “We were all stressed out about our secrets. I don’t find it surprising she went for a swim.” He rubbed his chin. “Um… Celes, didn’t you and Fujisaki investigate the cafeteria?”

            “That we did, and it was foolish on our part, considering that area is closed off at night.” The gambler giggled sickeningly sweetly. Naegi sweatdropped at her obvious ire. “And yet, we did find a disposed package of doughnuts in the school store’s trashcan. Did we not, Fujisaki?”

            The programmer nodded eagerly.

            “Oh, yes! It was just the package, though. She must’ve eaten the doughnuts.”

            Mondo cocked his head.

            “Okay… sure, that makes sense. But what I don’t get is, if the killer drugged her, why’d it take her ten friggin’ minutes to get up to the pool, if that was where she was goin’?”

            Leon crossed his arms.

            “Maybe the killer stopped to talk to her? Stall for time?”

            “Or perhaps she did some other exercises before the temptation of swimming became too great…” Togami shrugged uncaringly. “Whatever the case. once time was up, all the killer had to do was push her into the pool. The water would take care of the rest.”

            “Those are the likely circumstances, at least…” Kirigiri agreed with a troubled expression.

            “But where does this leave us?” Ishimaru asked with frustration. “Both locker rooms lead to the pool! Moreover, nighttime was in effect, so there would be few to no witnesses!”

            “I agree there’d be ‘few witnesses,’” Naegi replied. “But Mondo and Fujisaki were up there!”

            “Yeah…” Mondo conceded. “I was workin’ out, and I talked with Fujisaki for like an hour.”

            “We didn’t hear anything, though!” Fujisaki quickly supplied as suspicious glances were directed at the biker. “We were together the whole time, and we were back in our rooms at 3… so…”

             “So there is little chance you two did it…” Kirigiri reasoned. Her brow furrowed. “I would just like to confirm something, though… You were in that front room the whole time, correct?”

            Fujisaki worked her jaw to answer, but Mondo beat her to it.

            “Y-Yeah… ‘Course we were! We guys can’t cross over into the girls’ locker room, and girls can’t get into the guys’! That damn Gatling gun prevented that!” The biker hastily pointed out. Kirigiri’s unwavering stare did not let up for a second, and Fujisaki was looking at Mondo with wide, disbelieving eyes.

            “… Then that makes this case very troublesome.” Kirigiri did not mince words. “Because if you were talking in that room for an hour, and no one passed you by in that time, that would mean the killer and Asahina were in the pool area prior to 2am, and that there was a half hour before Asahina was murdered. No matter how you look at that, that is very odd.”

            “No kidding…” Naegi trailed off. “Asahina would’ve been knocked out around 2, probably, and the killer just waited half an hour doing… what? Were they conflicted over it?”

            Celes folded her hands beneath her chin, giving a saccharine smile.

            “Ahh… May I say something? I was not aware that 2am would be relevant in this case… It was close to the time of the murder, yes, but it was still half an hour out.”

            “Did you see something?” Sakura warily asked.

            Celes shook her head, covering her mouth in amusement.

            “It is more like I did not see someone that should have stopped by there. You see, I was in the storeroom between 1:00 and 2:00am. I saw Fujisaki grab a tracksuit, of course, but I did not see Asahina.”

            “Why the hell were you in the storeroom?!” Mondo yelled. “Considering you made that friggin’ ‘curfew’, you’d think you would be the first to follow it and shit!”

            “Perhaps.” Celes replied airily. “I was troubled and could not sleep. So I spent some time in the storeroom before going to bed.”

            “That clearly makes you suspicious…” Togami told her point-blank. “Who’s to say that you weren’t waiting for Asahina there, and just headed up to the pool with her after seeing Fujisaki?”

            “I… I can vouch for her…” Fujisaki feebly replied. “After getting the tracksuit, I went right up to the locker room… Celes was definitely in the storeroom right before 2…”

             “Fujisaki…!” Mondo groaned out, much to everyone’s confusion.

            Kirigiri’s grin turned a smidge triumphant as she looked around at everyone.

            “I assume I do not need to point out that this generates a contradiction…? If we are to believe Celes and Fujisaki’s testimonies about the storeroom… then that leaves no feasible time for Asahina and her killer to have made their way up to the pool. Not without Mondo and Fujisaki seeing them, at any rate. That is, if they were in the front room to the changing areas, as they claimed.”

            Mondo twitched and gritted his teeth.

            “I…! No! Of course we were there! That was the only place we could have met up…! I wasn’t in the damn library or anywhere else!”

            “Mondo, it’s okay.” The programmer’s timid, small voice cut through the biker’s tirade. She looked around at everyone with quivering, ashamed, tear-filled eyes. “I… The truth is, I’m not a girl. I’m… a boy.”

            “Ahh, that makes sense.” Yamada let out on impulse. But then Fujisaki’s confession fully registered in his brain, and the otaku let out a shocked scream. “Say whaaat?!”

            Sakura, too, overreacted to the news. Everyone did, sans Kirigiri and Mondo.

            “You… Fujisaki, is this true?!” The Ultimate Fighter was at a loss for words.

            “Y-Yeah… I’m sorry for lying… I…” Fujisaki couldn’t continue immediately, as his tears were flowing freely, and his voice wavered. “Ever since I was little, I was always picked on for not being… boyish. They always told me I had to ‘man up’… but… I just didn’t want to be a man, if that meant hurting people…! It was easier to become a girl, and… and… I’m so sorry…!”

            As the programmer became overwhelmed by sadness and regret, Monokuma laughed at all of their shocked faces.

            “Yep, yep, yep! Chihiro Fujisaki is a boy! No matter how girly he dresses up, his ID will always register as male! So he could only get into the boys’ locker room~.” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Ain’t that a real kick to the knee?! Worldview shattered~!”

            Mondo growled lowly at the bear’s insensitivity.

            “You bastard…! Show some damn respect!!! It took guts to admit that!”

            “It did, it did~.” Monokuma teased. “But aren’t ya getting a little off-track, throwing a pity party for girl-turned-boy Fujisaki? … Or was it the other way around…? Eh, whatev~.”

            “He… does have a point…” Kirigiri conceded with a sigh. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at the biker and programmer. “So I take it, you two were actually in the boys’ locker room the whole time? Not the front room?”

            Mondo gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.

            “Yeah… Yeah, we were.”

            “I’m so sorry…” Chihiro profusely apologized again. Sayaka shot him a sympathetic look.

            “No need to apologize! Like Mondo said, it took courage to admit that!” She flashed the programmer a reassuring smile. Fujisaki smiled back shyly.

            “Y-Yeah… That’s what we were talking about the whole time… our… secrets.”

            Mondo sighed and rubbed the back of his head in shame.

            “When the kid came out and confessed it to me, I just couldn’t blab about it to everybody. Even if it was a lie, I had to cover for the kid ‘til he was ready to open up to all of you. Hell, I still think he shouldn’t have been forced to do it, even now.” The biker glared moodily at the monochrome bear, who cackled.

            Naegi appeared contemplative.

            “Okay… This definitely changes the circumstances. With Fujisaki and Mondo in the locker room, they wouldn’t have known about anyone going to the pool, as long as they took the girls’ side. Asahina probably ate those doughnuts around 2:15 or 2:20, and then when she made her way up to the pool, she blacked out and the killer pushed her in.”

            Leon nodded in agreement.

            “Plus, with the girls’ side being the only open route to the pool, that means the killer was probably a girl. Otherwise, the killer would’ve got shot by the Gatling gun.”

            Kirigiri, Maizono, Celes, Junko, and Sakura. Could it really be that simple, to narrow down the list of suspects that much? It seemed like they were going to hold another nonstop debate to find out.

            “I would argue Celes is the most suspicious.” Togami spoke up first. “She was in the storeroom for vague, untrustworthy reasons, and for all she knew, Fujisaki was going up to the pool alone. Perfect setup to frame him.”

            Celes put on a faux happy face.

            “Hmhm… You certainly are quick to point the finger. But I had no idea Fujisaki was a boy, and so…why would I kill Asahina if I ‘knew’ Fujisaki would see me with her…?”

            “A fair point.” Sakura agreed. “Even if she could have made us disregard Fujisaki’s testimony, that plan would have been entirely too risky.”

            “Plus, if she wanted to, Celes could have just killed Fujisaki in the storeroom!” Leon grunted in annoyance. “The Dead Body Discovery announcement went off when she was with me and Naegi, anyway… Can killers even be considered ‘discoverers’ of a body?”

            “Hmmm…” Monokuma hummed unconvincingly. Clearly, they did not count. Celes was officially scratched off the suspects list, as were Makoto and Leon.

            “Well, maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way!” Mondo grumbled. “It’d take someone pretty strong to use those spears! Me and Sakura trying lifting those things, and they weren’t exactly light…”

            “S-So… you are saying Sakura could have done it?” Ishimaru asked with a shaky, nervous smile as he eyed the fighter.

            “I did not kill Asahina…” Sakura replied darkly.

            “What about Junko, Kirigiri, and Maizono?” Ishimaru hastily supplied.

            “Don’t look at me.” Junko rolled her eyes. “If I don’t get at least eight hours of beauty sleep, I wouldn’t look nearly as fabulous!”

            “That’s not an alibi!” Mondo yelled.

            “Maizono was pretty unsettled by her incentive…” Togami pointed out, crossing his arms. “She could have been desperate enough…”

            Maizono tearfully denied it, of course, but it looked like only a handful of people were in her corner.

            “Kirigiri’s been awfully quiet…” Leon shook his head, trying to line out all the possibilities.

            “But it is partly thanks to her we know the route the killer used to avoid detection…” Sakura reasoned.

            “For all we know, the killer could have been male.” Celes pointed out. “Mondo would have just had to knock  out Fujisaki, and he could have moved about freely…”

            “M-M-Mondo didn’t hit me…!” Fujisaki refuted her.

            “Yeah! Don’t pick a fight, bitch! I wouldn’t have laid a hand on Asahina ‘cause she was a chick!” Mondo roared.

            As Celes’s angry side reared its ugly head, Kirigiri frowned, raising her index finger to her lips as she muttered.

            “Could the killer have been a male…? Is that absolutely ruled out…?”

            And that was when it hit Naegi. The dead students’ IDs. Specifically…

            “That’s right!” Naegi got everyone’s attention. “Fukawa’s ElectroID! If the killer used that, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were a guy!”

            Monokuma patted his belly as he laughed at everyone’s confused faces.

            “Yes, indeed! The scanners on the door scan the IDs, not you.”

            Yamada’s brow furrowed.

            “But… was Miss Fukawa’s ID available to use…?”

            “Yes.” Togami frowned. “Her and Hagakure’s IDs were in a box out in the entrance hall. Anyone could have taken it.”

            “Not ‘anyone’…” Kirigiri pointed out. “Very few people would have benefited from using it. None of the girls would have stolen it. Mondo and Fujisaki were already in the boys’ locker room. Leon and Naegi discovered the body with Celes… Out of everyone, you, Yamada, and Ishimaru would have ‘had’ to use it to access the pool through the girls’ locker room.”

            “I-I-I didn’t even know about Miss Fukawa’s ID!” Yamada dramatically gasped.

            “I… I admit I knew about the IDs…” Ishimaru trailed off, looking to the floor in anguish.

            Mondo snarled as he glared at Togami.

            “You bastard! If you even insinuate my bro was the murderer, I will end you so fast…!”

            Togami scowled as many were glaring suspiciously at him now.

            “What makes you think those IDs are even related to this case…? All you’ve done is raise our suspect list from four to seven.”

            “No… those IDs are definitely related.” Makoto rubbed his chin, brow furrowing. “Monokuma said so himself. He said the killer took them because they wanted to be found out…”

            “That does not make much sense…” Celes frowned at Makoto. “Up until this point, we were under the belief that the killer was trying to make this murder more complicated… Why would they want to be discovered…?”

            “Don’t go believing the bear’s word as gospel just because Maizono is a suspect.” Togami coldly added. “If you’re wrong, and she is the killer, we will all die.”

            As Maizono clutched her sides and stared at the floor helplessly, Naegi felt himself getting antsier by the second. It was true. To an extent, he was being biased right now. All of that stuff Monokuma fed him could have been lies to lead him off-track. And yet… Naegi would not stop believing in her innocence. Maizono was scared, and she had had the opportunity to kill Asahina, but Naegi did have more than unwavering loyalty for the pop idol going for him.

            “We do need something more concrete than Monokuma’s testimony…” Kirigiri agreed.

            “We do!” Naegi blurted out, surprising all the students. “Maybe I can’t prove that Yamada, Ishimaru, or Togami is the killer, but I can reason out that the killer was one of them.”

            Sayaka stared up at the Luckster in shock.

            “Naegi…”

            Naegi took a deep breath before delving into his reasoning.

            “So, we all figure that the killer mixed the drug in with Asahina’s doughnuts that she ate. The fact she threw out a doughnut package, combined with the Monokuma File stating she ingested a drug, both support this. I mean, Asahina wouldn’t go swimming after taking a sleeping drug. That’s just nonsense.

            “We also know that someone stole Hagakure and Fukawa’s IDs. I checked for myself. Even if you doubt that was the killer’s work just because Monokuma said it was, it’s pretty weird that someone would take them when they offer no benefit except for getting into a room – like the locker rooms – that they normally wouldn’t have been able to.”

            Togami tilted his head as he eyed Naegi shrewdly.

            “I’ll admit, the IDs were still in the box yesterday. It is suspicious they went missing overnight.”

            Naegi nodded.

            “If we assume the killer used both the sleeping drug and Fukawa’s ID, they would’ve had to know about both of them beforehand. And while it’s easy to say someone could be lying about not knowing of either one before this trial, I know for a fact there’s one person here who admitted to knowing about both.”

            “Yamada said he did not know about the IDs…” Celes mused. “That leaves Togami and Ishimaru…”

            “And Togami only knew about the sleeping drugs after investigating the storeroom.” Naegi added. With a heavy heart, he came to the end of the line of his reasoning… the accusation. “That’s why, it can only be… Ishimaru.”

            Naturally, Mondo exploded at this point.

            “What are you saying?! Bro never said anything about drugs!”

            Kirigiri nodded.

            “True. But during the investigation, he volunteered to go with Togami to the storeroom. Do you remember what he said?”

            “That… he took stock of everything in the storeroom when it first opened up…” Fujisaki trailed off in shock.

            “So it would’ve been impossible for him not to know about the drugs… Yeah, I get it.” Leon mused. “Still… Knowing about something and actually using that knowledge are two different things, right?”

            “I… I…” Ishimaru’s hands were twitching, and his face had taken on a blue hue. Mondo, again, spoke up for him.

            “You’re damn right, Leon! Knowing about those things doesn’t make him guilty…!”

            Leon shook his head.

            “Whoooaaa there. It might not make him ‘guilty’, but I’ll agree that it makes him the most suspicious one here.” The baseball star remarked. As Mondo howled at Leon’s ‘betrayal’, Celes looked off to the side.

            “Still, I feel as though we need ‘more’ before we can vote… It does not seem airtight.”

            “Hell no! Ishimaru had no reason to kill Asahina! His incentive wasn’t enough to commit murder, he said so himself!!” Mondo cracked his knuckles angrily.

            “Cease your useless yapping and think.” Togami growled. “The whole point is to lie and cheat your way to win this game! Of course he would give that impression!”

            “Shut your damn mouth, Togami!”

            Naegi frowned as he went over everything they learned. It wasn’t a huge stretch to imagine Ishimaru was capable of all these things – seeing him during his contest with Mondo, the hall monitor was deceivingly well-toned under that uniform of his. But the motive for this murder… It couldn’t have been about himself. If Ishimaru killed to keep his own secret from getting out and to escape from this school, he wouldn’t have tried to point the finger at himself. Monokuma wouldn’t have interfered so much, either.

            … Reflecting on it… Monokuma had been vague about “that.” The thing he would reveal, if the killer didn’t keep the trial interesting. As the Luckster’s gaze panned around the room, his eyes fell on Mondo, who was still swearing up a storm and defending the reticent hall monitor. Could it have been for Mondo? It would make sense if Ishimaru didn’t want Mondo’s secret getting out, and also that he would want Mondo to live.

            If Monokuma held Mondo’s secret over the hall monitor’s head as well, of course Ishimaru was going to cooperate. At least, to the point of ‘making a trial interesting,’ and getting a murder to happen. Still, that was just an ‘if’. For all Naegi knew, he was completely off-base… But… as he looked at Ishimaru, who was frozen in place and looking more scared than Maizono had been… Somewhere deep down, Naegi knew he was close to the mark.

            And Naegi had seen Mondo blow up at Ishimaru, the night they got those incentives.

            “Mondo… I think he did it for you. Not for himself.” Naegi weakly argued.

            The biker snarled at Naegi.

            “Why the hell would he go that far?! He didn’t know my secret at all!”

            “He knew what it meant to you.” Kirigiri suddenly piped up. “When you blew him off, he knew just how scared you were. And if Monokuma agitated him more… used you as leverage… that would’ve been the breaking point.”

            Naegi blinked in surprise at Kirigiri. She’d seen that moment, too? It was hard to miss with Mondo’s volume… but still…

            “I was not… I’m not scared!” Mondo declared fiercely.

            “Then tell us what your incentive was.” Celes smiled innocently, hands folded beneath her chin. “Just what was your ‘deepest, darkest secret’?”

            Even as he gritted his teeth and put on a strong front, Mondo visibly faltered. He tried to work his mouth, but his words seemed to get caught in his throat. That was when Ishimaru stood at attention, and the fear dropped from his face.

            “Mondo… That’s enough. I can’t… do this anymore. I won’t run away.” The hall monitor looked at each of them in turn, without blinking. “I did it. I… killed Aoi Asahina…”

            As he held up the ElectroIDs for Hagakure and Fukawa, they all knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was speaking the truth. Monokuma gave a drawn-out, depressed sigh.

            “I guess it’s ballot time… Please vote for who you think the blackened is. Will you be right, or oh so wrong…?” Monokuma was drooping more and more by the second.

            Under a minute later, the slot machine in the room proved they had guessed correctly. Overall, the atmosphere seemed hollow. Monokuma was depressed the trial was over, Naegi and several others were sad they condemned Ishimaru, Mondo was in a state of denial, and Ishimaru himself was overwhelmed with regret.

            “You’re right again, kids…” Monokuma sighed before perking up slightly. “Well… ten of you were. Mondo and Fujisaki over here need to be more careful! Voting for the wrong culprit on purpose is reckless~!”

            Fujisaki bowed his head apologetically.

            “I… I’m sorry…! I just… I didn’t want to condemn him…!” The programmer sobbed. While Togami was obviously irked, Naegi’s heart went out to Fujisaki. This place truly did “break” them…

            A solid reminder that they could not afford to give up hope on escaping from here.

            “Do you even need to ask?!” Mondo roared and crackled his knuckles. “This is bullshit! Ishimaru didn’t kill her…!”

            “I’m afraid he did~…” Monokuma taunted the biker. He dramatically shivered in ‘fright’. “Ahhh! What a scary thing the past can be! It holds painful truths over our heads! … And the heads of our dear friends~. Upupupu~!”

            Out of everyone that could’ve spoke next, it was the ever calm Kirigiri.

            “Ishimaru… can you tell us everything?”

            Ishimaru nodded rigidly.

            “Yes… As you said, my… argument with Mondo in the gym made me painfully aware bro absolutely didn’t want his secret getting out… He was scared… We all were!” The hall monitor sighed morosely. “… But… I got an additional slip of paper in my envelope. It did not tell me bro’s secret, but it did warn me just what it could mean for bro’s gang on the outside, if it got out… I… I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing!”

            As tears rolled down Ishimaru’s pain-stricken face, Mondo calmed down from his angered state.

            “Ishimaru…”

            “And then Monokuma rubbed more salt in the wound!” Ishimaru cried, clutching his chest. “My whole life, I struggled with making friends… But Mondo changed that for me! For the first time, I met someone who rivaled my fiery spirit! Someone who… could put up with me…! Monokuma said if I did nothing, Mondo would break from the pressure! I firmly denied it, of course! I believed in Mondo more than anyone! And I… lashed out when he just wouldn’t shut up… I nearly got killed.”

            “You’re a lot more quick on your feet than Mister Unlucky Student, that’s for sure~.” Monokuma cooed.

            Ishimaru squeezed his eyes shut painfully.

            “After I was nearly skewered by spears… it hit me hard that this was all real. That as much as I believed in Mondo, Monokuma could get to him! And I… just didn’t want Mondo to die…” Ishimaru stared down at his hands in anguish. “I decided… that even if it took giving up my life, I would make sure Mondo’s secret didn’t have to get out! Monokuma said that if I could at least make the trial interesting, he wouldn’t say anything! He would let bro take that secret to the grave!”

            Mondo was clenching a fist and crying now, too.

            “Ishimaru…!”

            “Why target Asahina?” Sakura demanded to know.

            “Because… I knew she was still up…” Ishimaru cringed. “She was running around the halls, venting nervous energy, and that was when it came to me… that I could help bro and stop Asahina from suffering any longer… She… She didn’t deserve to be in here. None of us did, but Asahina shared a spirit of camaraderie that rivaled mine! It was selfish of me, and unfair to her, but I felt it was all I could do… I waited until Celes had left the storeroom, and then I… laid my trap… If it’s any consolation, Asahina died while she was asleep.”

            Sakura, or anyone else for that matter, did not appear comforted by these words. Ishimaru, their self-declared leader, had given into Monokuma’s Despair, and they’d lost Asahina because of it. It was a tough, bitter pill to swallow.

            “Y’know, it’s kind of really friggin’ hilarious! The irony~!” Monokuma broke their somber atmosphere. They all looked at the bear warily.

            “Wh-What’s ironic…?” Junko questioned. Monokuma just laughed.

            “Well, Ishimaru did make this trial snoresville, so I guess I can tell you~. Ya see, Mondo’s deepest, darkest secret is that he killed his older brother!” The bear sighed contentedly as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “And now he’s gone and got another brother killed~. Ahhh, it must be so Despairing~!”

            Ishimaru physically recoiled and pointed furiously at the monochrome bear.

            “You… You said you wouldn’t tell…!”

            “Only if you made the Class Trial interesting! Jeez, at least try to remember the conditions of our agreement!” The bear huffed. His dark, grinning half was facing the students as he held up an arm victoriously. “But all you did was disturb the harmony! And now you’ve gotta pay!”

            “P-P-Pay…!? Already?!” Ishimaru didn’t seem ready. Mondo himself was ashen as he ignored the fact that Monokuma had revealed his secret so casually.

            “No…! I’m not gonna let you get away with this!” The biker snarled.

            Monokuma ignored him.

            “I’ve got a special execution planned for the Ultimate Prefect!”

            “I told you to wait, you sonuvabitch!”

            Ishimaru smiled regretfully at the biker.

            “I’m sorry, bro… I never should’ve doubted you. Keep… Keep everyone banded together! You have to defeat Monokuma! You must!”

            “I’m not letting you die!” Mondo raged, but it was for naught.

            “Let’s give it eeeverything we’ve got! It’s Punishment Time~!”

            “WAIT!!!”Before Mondo could attack the bear, who plopped back down on his throne, Sakura caught him and held him back with little difficulty. He cried out in aguish as the monochrome bear hit the big red button.

            On the 8-bit screen, Ishimaru was dragged off by Monokuma to face his Punishment…

            In the next moment, Ishimaru was standing atop a tank as it rolled through the streets of a city, passing by civilian Monokuma bears, rejoicing his rise to Prime Minister. Despite feeling downtrodden, and confused, Ishimaru waved at the crowds. Moments later, a Monokuma sniper was taking aim directly at his heart. When the bear fired the shot, Monokuma was steeling himself for the bullet to pierce him.

            But it never did.

            Because the tank opened up beneath him, and he fell in. The sound of buzz saws could be heard, as well as the sound of flesh being ripped and torn apart. The massive blood spray that occurred at the same time also confirmed the students’ morbid conclusions…

            Ironically, the sniper’s bullet ricocheted off the tank and went straight back for him, making him explode impressively.

            Yet no one’s attention was on that Monokuma. Their attention was drawn to the remains of Ishimaru, which were regurgitated from the tank in a putrid mess of blood, flesh, and bones.

            That was all that was left of Kiyotaka Ishimaru. An ultimately quick and messy end…

            “Boy, howdy~! I was aiming for extreeeme, and I nailed it!” Monokuma gushed. “That was even better than the last one! A sacrificial lamb for one slaughterhouse~! Bon appetit~! Bwahahaha!”

            Everyone, barring Togami and Kirigiri, seemed appalled by Monokuma’s unquenchable bloodthirst. Sakura had let Mondo go when she felt him drop to his knees, but she was instantly on alert again as the biker let out an unrestrained, agonized howl.

            “Shiiiiiiiit!”

            No one tried to console him just yet. They knew he would need time to grieve, and that no amount of ‘understanding’ would get through to him. And despite having said more than enough, Monokuma twisted the knife in some more.

            “Oh, Oowada~! It’s only natural to feel Despair! ‘Cause it was your fault Ishimaru murdered anyone at all!” The bear rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Human beings are creatures who have no problem killing each other… over something as silly as the past! You won’t break off your lingering attachment to the outside world, nor do you have any idea what ‘strength’ is! ‘Hope’ my fuzzy black-and-white badonkadonk!”

            Surprisingly, it wasn’t Mondo who screamed at the bear. Sakura beat him to it.

            “You fiend… Say that again! You were the one to manipulate Ishimaru’s heart, not Oowada! None of this would be happening without your influence…!” The Ultimate Fighter raged.

            Monokuma sighed tiredly.

            “And here comes that despicable righteous justice rearing its head again… How many times do I gotta say it?” The bear cackled. “Life ain’t fair, toots! Stuff happens outside of our control all the time! Willingly or not, Kiyotaka Ishimaru snapped because he didn’t want Oowada’s dirty little secret getting out! Nor could he tolerate the thought of his friend dying~! A cold-blooded murderer can be selfless~. They can use whatever reasoning they want, but a murder is a murder! Ishimaru destroyed the order he worked so hard to maintain as the Ultimate Prefect, so he needed to be punished~! Don’t try to shift the blame onto me just to make yourselves feel better!”

            “You’re wrong…!” The Luckster glared at the bear.

            Monokuma cocked his head at Naegi.

            “Oh? Oh? Hopelesslyoptimisticboysayswhat?”

            “Even if he was manipulated by you… Ishimaru still defied you! Like you said, he went through the motions, but he purposefully made it so we could all live on! We’re not going to just forget or dishonor his sacrifice like that!”

            Monokuma hung his head miserably.

            “Oh, shut up, Unlucky Lad! No one asked you to bring that up. Hmph!”

            At the end of Naegi’s tirade, Togami just sighed boredly.

            “Oh, please. Ishimaru’s ‘defiance’ just wasted a perfectly good opportunity to make an entertaining murder… So underwhelming. Such a dissatisfying end to this round of the game…”

            Monokuma instantly perked up at the heir’s attitude. Everyone else was furious he was still acting like that.

            “You’re insane!” Junko growled. “Enough with the ‘game’ crap… Two more of our friends are dead…!”

            “Well, naturally!” Togami spoke condescendingly. “This is a game of life and death!”

            “You’re horrible!” Maizono yelled bac. “How can you… not care…!”

            Togami rolled his eyes.

            “As one of the other accused, you would think that you would be glad the real murderer was dealt with!” The heir scoffed. He crossed his arms and glared at the idol disdainfully. “Trust no one in here. This is a coliseum. The only fate for the soft-hearted is die painfully and betrayed…”

            “Badass!” Monokuma gushed. “So, can we expect you to spice the game up again, Mister Affluent Progeny? We’re gonna be moving into Act Three, y’know~. If I hadn’t made the execution so entertaining, we all woulda fallen asleep from boredom!”

            Togami just scoffed in response.

            “Don’t delude yourself… Once I have claimed the title of King, I’ll be coming after you next…”

            “Scaaary~!”

            “I’d like to ask you something, Monokuma…” Kirigiri broke up their banter. As the bear tilted his head at her, she said, “You’ve made both ‘executions’ considerably elaborate ordeals. Why put so much effort into it?”

            “Upupu…” The bear giggled maliciously. “You a fan? ‘Cause these punishments aren’t just for you guys… This Despair is not yours alone… These punishments, this Despair~ It’s for all mankind!”

            “You sure enjoy blowing things out of proportion…” Kirigiri mused.

            “No exaggeration!” Monokuma denied. “These punishments were designed to transform every last drop of hope into despair!”

            “What do you mean by that?” Leon asked warily.

            “Mean?” Monokuma cocked his head again. “Mean… Mean… Meanmeanmeanmeanmean… Oh, gimme a break! Your obsession with finding meaning in things is meaningless!”

            The discussion devolved from there, as Togami continued to assert he would triumph over everything, and Mondo raged at Monokuma and Togami both. Despite this disheartening conclusion, Naegi still felt they could get through this. Everyone but Togami was rallying behind him, so he felt he could keep up that courage. Things would change from this point forward.

            Naegi believed that with all his heart… and he couldn’t be more wrong, as he would discover in the coming days…

            ~*~

            “My, my, I have to say… things are moving at a nice pace! A very nice pace indeed!” Monokuma preened, lounging in a chair in what appeared to be a security office with camera monitors on a back wall. The bear was sitting across from someone. “Sure, there was a hiccup or two… But once things get going, it’s like a rollercoaster: there's no stopping it. It’s moving so fast only their fear and despair can keep up~! The only thing I’m disappointed about… is that you didn’t get your time to shine… Sad, since I’ve already got you down in there with them… You were supposed to have been the one to fire the first shot! Ah, whatever… What can ya do? You just keep on doing what you’ve been doing and make sure things stay exciting. That’s what eeeveryone wants…”

            For a while, the person sitting across from Monokuma did not respond. But then, they spoke with a hate-filled voice, which surprised the bear.

            “No. I will no longer heed to your demands. Perhaps you do not realize it… But the reason I agreed to this meeting was not to listen to you… But to kill you. And I do mean the controller…”

            Monokuma burst out into a sweat.

            “M-My, my… I must have misheard you, but I swear I heard a tone of defiance from you just now…! I don’t believe I have to remind you what’s at stake here, should you rebel…?”

            “That no longer matters. I should have never adhered to you in the first place… I will kill you, and then I will save that which you hold hostage…!”

            “Ohhh… I get it…” Monokuma barked out a laugh. “You’re still riding on that ‘hope’ crap that Naegi was spewing… Well, let me remind ya, hon~. If your new friends are more precious to you now than the hostages, I can easily make a new deal! You make any sort of move against me now, and I won’t hesitate to send Monokuma bears to attack your friends immediately…! It’s literally a push of the button, and you know how fast these little guys can move~.”

            Monokuma’s guest hesitated, and that was all the monochrome bear needed to put them back under his thumb.

            “I’m glad we see eye to eye here~. And seeing as how you’re so eager to kill, might I suggest that you fire the next shot? If you don’t, I will not hesitate to consider that as an act of rebellion! And I don’t need to remind you of what will happen if you do that~.” Monokuma cocked his head ‘cutely’. “Do we understand each other…?”

            There was a long, tense pause before the person eventually consented.

            “… Yes…”

            “Ahh, you’re such a good sport!” Monokuma teased. “And do feel free to make things interesting of your own accord~. If you don’t, I might just kill one or two of your pals anyway. I don’t want a repeat of this last trainwreck.”

            “Just… tell me one thing. Consider a last request.”

            “Mmm… Alright~. Anything but my measurements, and I’ll listen.”

            “Who… is it? Who is the sixteenth student?”

            Monokuma broke out into a sweat again.

            “Bwah! My, my, this is a surprise! I did listen, but… Super denied! Hella denied! I mean, c’mon, that’s my trump card! You might be going big or going home next round, but I’m not stupid enough to just show you my trump card like it’s nothin’… Not even if you signed a waiver! ‘Cause the temptation would be just too great to blab to all your friends~. Ahh, but since I like ya so much, I’ll give you a juicy tidbit anyway. You’re not the only one who’s workin’ hard for me down there… And I betcha you won’t even take ‘em out with you when ya go~. You got a one-in-ten chance of being correct, sure – one in five if ya go for a serial killing – but those are still some mean odds~.”

            Monokuma’s guest didn’t have anything to say to that. Monokuma could tell they were despairing over this news, though, and that was enough to send him into more peals of laughter.

            The game was far from over.

Remaining Students: 11 (12?)