Dangan Ronpa: Metal and Flesh
"The Third Enoshima Unit – Yuta Asahina"
I swam through the water as fast as I could. I mean, I had some people counting on me. It seemed like no problem at first; the water was pretty cold and grimy, but it could've been worse.
I kept swimming further with everything I had, until I heard a loud beeping and saw a red glow. The bracelet on my arm…it had to have been a bomb. I felt a strange surge of heat and pressure but no noise before I blacked out.
When I next awoke, the world…the world had changed. I could barely move, but I turned my head as much as I could. The pain was beyond excruciating, but it was what I saw that made me scream. I saw a bunch of machines. They were doing something to my arm, and causing me all the pain. But, when I turned slightly more, I realized they couldn't be doing something to my arm because…it was no longer attached to my body. I saw what was left of it lying on a table behind them.
I screamed for what was probably only a couple of minutes but what felt like hours before I passed out. The nightmares started then. Horrid visions. Me in a fireball. Komaru Naegi-chan and that other girl getting killed by Monokumas. My sister, all alone. But mostly, the nightmares were of me getting drills stuck in every part of my body. I woke up screaming and fell back asleep many, many times. Each time I awoke, I only saw the same thing; me on the surgery table, robots picking at my body.
I didn't bother to try to count the days, but eventually one came where I was moved. I wasn't awake when they moved me, but when I awoke, I was somewhere new. It seemed like a weird pod you'd see on a sci-fi show. There was also a bunch of red lights in the pod. I saw a label on the top.
Ultra-Red Light Healing Pod
Property of Kaito Hasashi: The Super High School Level Physicist
It made me feel more comfortable, if only superficially, to see the words "healing" and "Super High School Level". I quickly went back to sleep. When I woke up next, I felt much less pain, but I was moved again; this time, I was strapped to a wooden chair. I looked around, and noticed my body was cloaked. Not entirely certain I wanted to see what was underneath, I continued looking to see a young man, maybe a teenager, with long, black hair and red eyes. He was at a computer, typing something. For the first time since what felt like an eternity of pain, I spoke.
"W-who are you? Where…where am I?!" I sputtered.
He paused. "I am…Kamakura Izuru. You're in a secret location set up by Junko Enoshima. I cannot disclose it to you." The man said robotically.
"U-um…what happened…to me?" I managed, both more and less nervous.
"You were caught in an explosion, and the damage done to your body was near fatal. The Despairs suggested I attempt our Cybernetic Enhancement procedure on you, and it succeeded."
"A *what* procedure?"
"Cybernetic Enhancement, or the process of adding robotic parts to the human body." He stared at me blankly.
I shook with fear as I gazed at my body. I was unable to see it due to the cloak, but I could now feel it; my left lower leg, my entire left arm, a lot of my chest, my right shoulder, and the right side of my head (though none of the face) did not feel anything close to normal. I still had feeling in them, but it was extremely dulled. I knocked my legs together to test this and, sure enough, the left leg felt metallic.
"Oh…my god…!" I squeaked. I didn't even have words for this.
"I have one thing left for you." Izuru stated. He got up from his desk and plugged a flash drive into the metal side of my head.
"W-what are you doing?!" I screamed.
"I'm uploading a set of programs to help me, and another set to help you. Just carry out whatever protocol you're compelled to. When you finish, you're relatively free. I will not come after you, but other despairs might, so be careful. Although, I doubt you'll need to be." Izuru replied. He took out the flashdrive, untied me, and walked away.
I thought of going after him, but as I stood up, the cloak fell off. The robotics were smooth, if a tad bulky, but it was jarring to see it for the first time. I walked around on my new leg very slowly to test it, but honestly, it was working better than my real leg. I felt a little bit awkward at first, but adjusted in a matter of minutes. For a brief moment, I thought that everything would be alright.
Wishful thinking.
I suddenly heard someone's voice in my head. It was a woman. She was saying something about coming online. Finally, she stopped talking nonsense.
"Hi hiiiiii! My name is Enoshima Junko-chan! Or, in your case, Junko-sama! Pleased to meet you, Mr. Asahina!" she said in a peppy fashion.
"Why…are you in my head? I asked, a bit stronger than I felt in the past.
Her personality suddenly shifted to scholarly. "Well, I am not truly a human being. I am, in fact, an artificial intelligence with the memories and personality of Junko Enoshima. You have been outfitted with cybernetics, so my program is in your brain." Junko explained.
"You can't…control me, can you?" I asked.
"In terms of motor function, no. In terms of your thoughts and emotions…well…," she said before switching again, to a cute persona, "maybe just a little!"
"And you are the…the leader and architect of the Despairs!" I shouted.
"AYE! Don't act like that's a bad thing! That's a good fucking thing, bro!" she said in an angry personality.
I paused. "What do you want me to do?" I asked angrily.
"It's pretty simple, actually. Just go to the Future Foundation headquarters, connect to their mainframe, upload me on it, and leave!" She said in her original, peppy self.
"I have no choice…." I trailed off.
"Correct! C-O-R-R-E-C-T! But, if you do it, I can make it worth your while. Trust me! Oh, and if you don't, I'll slowly destroy your mind until you die from insanity." She explained.
It didn't take me very long to say yes. If I said yes, I had a very low chance of getting out without scars, if at all. If I said no, I had zero chance. She smiled, and activated a tutorial program that showed me I wasn't just a cyborg, but a living weapon. My arm could rend steel, my shoulder was a gun, my leg had a rocket, and my chest had all sorts of tech in it, from a hacking shield to a focused EMP. Honestly, my first instinct was to shout "cool!", but that didn't really fit. As I began to leave, a thought came into my head.
"I'm useful to them."
It probably wasn't enough to get anything significant, but it was something. It was a tiny scrap of leverage. I sighed, though, as I wasn't exactly someone who knew how to use that. I found my way out of the "secure location"; It looked like the only reason nobody found it was because when they saw it, they were like, "Naw man, no way it could be in there". I walked for a bit before the really weird thoughts began to hit me.
"Just how long was I in there?"
"Have I eaten anything or been given an IV, and if not, why don't I feel hungry?"
"Do I even need to eat anymore?"
"Where is Aoi? Is she alive?"
"What about Naegi-chan and her friend?"
"Am I really just going to ignore the fact that I survived the explosion and became a cyborg?!"
That last one made me pause. I looked at myself. I was half metal! It didn't even seem all that weird when I first heard it! Only then did the feelings start to hit me. There was this amazing joy and excitement that I survived at all mixed with a crippling fear and confusion as to what kind of person thought making cyborgs was a good idea. My heart was pounding. I pondered everything for a few seconds more, but then it hit me.
"My heart is pounding!"
Maybe it's because all those literature people associated the heart with emotion, but the feeling of a heartbeat made me feel so very human! I knew I still had to do whatever Junko said, and I knew the emotion was fleeting, but for the first time since I maybe even entered Towa City, I felt something great, something that would keep me going.
Hope.
I knew, though, that Junko hated hope, so I prayed that I might survive whatever awaited me. I had to hold out. Even if I was barely who I used to be by the end of whatever awaited me, so long as I held on to a single spark of myself, I knew I could make it.
The question was if I could even try to achieve that goal.
To be continued….
