Danganronpa: A Night at the Mall
Life is full of many choices; will you meet new people or stay inside and relax? Go out to eat or make food at home? Kill or be killed? You always have the freedom to decide, but what if you couldn't make those decisions for yourself?
Pale green eyes opened to face a large gray wall. The body was slumped onto the floor, but it straightened itself when it gained suddenly realized where he was. The rumbling, the absence of light, the gray wall- it was a bus. The figure looked over the gray seat and saw that there was no one else on the dim bus. He tried to stand up when a small squeak stole his attention.
"Hey, don't you know you can't stand up on a moving vehicle?" The figure snapped back onto the seat and turned to face the creature that spoke the line. He was met with a bear about a foot tall and covered in brown fur.
"W-what are you?" The figure stammered, putting his hands out to protect himself.
The bear chuckled. "I'm your guide for this trip: Little Kuma!" The bear looked at the boy, who was still shocked. "I guess you don't see talking bears every day…Whatever! I'm just here to remind you to stay seated. Okay, Haruki?"
"H-how do you know who I am?" The brunette boy spat, disgusted by the way his name sounded from that creature.
Another chuckle. "Silly, I know all of the students at my school. You remember registering, don't you?" The bear gasped. "Oh that's right! I'm not supposed to spoil anything else until everyone wakes up! I'll give you a formal explanation later." Little Kuma winked and hopped away to the front of the bus, leaving the boy confused and worried.
Haruki regained his wits and tried to check his surroundings again, this time avoiding standing up and alerting the weird bear again. Adjacent to his seat was another seat, which had a small sleeping girl laying in it. Haruki wondered if he should wake her, but the bus hit a bump before he could decide. She bolted up after the bump and looked around herself before landing her gaze on Haruki.
"Where am I?" She asked sleepily, yawning at the end of her sentence.
"I don't have a clue. All I know is that there's a talking bear and that this is a trip somewhere. What's your name?" He inched to the edge of his seat.
"Chouko!" She said, a bit more energetic. "What's your name?" She tucked her short chocolate hair behind her ears.
"Haruki Hashimoto. I hope we can be friends once this bus stops."
The girl smiled. "Me too."
A sudden thud erupted in the bus, causing Haruki and Chouko to look behind their seats. A groan followed the sound, and it sounded human enough to ease the twos' worries. They briefly shared a glance before Chouko called out, "are you okay?"
A pause and then, "yeah, I'm good. Aagh, I really can't sleep on a bus like that. My goddamn back'll take forever to unstiffen."
The body that belonged to the carefree voice stood up, giving a silhouette with what appeared to be a ponytail sticking up off his head. The brown bear was on the case, even jumping over Haruki's legs to reach the voice. Apparently that creature was a surprise to everyone, Haruki judged by the scream that followed it's introduction.
"Look what you've done now, you've woken everyone else up too! Geez, I thought I'd have a quiet peaceful drive, but now I'll have to watch over you kids." Even though this wasn't the first time he heard the bear's voice, Haruki still couldn't grasp it. He looked over to Chouko, who was very confused by the bear that passed by them again in a flash.
"What is that thing? Is it evil?" She asked, her hand clutching the collar of her button-up shirt.
Haruki didn't hesitate to answer. "I don't know. He hasn't tried to kill any of us yet though, so I think we're safe." He smiled, trying to ease the fear that was on Chouko's face. His statement only made her more worried. "I meant that as a joke! There's no way a toy could kill us."
"I hope not…" She trailed off, relaxing her face.