A/N: Spoilers galore for Dangan Ronpa 2. Don't read if you haven't finished the game!
"So, who do you think is gonna drop next?" Saionji cast the question to the group; not one of them so much as looked up. After a moment without responses, she huffed and answered herself. "My money's on Souda. Murdered by Komaeda. Who'll get caught by Hinata."
"Saionji." Peko cut in after another long silent moment, "Have faith in our classmates. None of us want to see more of them here."
"I suppose it hasn't been that long since the last one. I'll give them time. Where did Tanaka go, anyways?" Saionji continued as if nothing else had been said, glancing around them. Peko took the opportunity to change the subject.
"I saw him wandering into the distance some time ago muttering about how he couldn't be trapped in the same world as us 'mundanes.' I suspect he'll come back when he gets bored. Two pairs." With that, the swordswoman laid down her cards.
"T-t-t-th-three-" Mikan began, slowly setting her hand down next to the other girl's. Saionji leaned over.
"Three of a bloody kind. Learn to talk." She interrupted, before tossing her cards down as well. "I only have two worthless sevens."
"Straight." Nidai offered, adding his to the array on the table.
"Ibuki has a full house!" With a dramatic wave of her arms, Mioda threw her cards across the table.
"You idiot, pick those up!" Sighing as Saionji's screech drilled into her ear, Peko gathered up Ibuki's scattered cards as the singer struggled to respond.
"I've got two pairs too. Ibuki wins." The bickering faded out as they turned to Koizumi, who had put down the last of the cards. Ibuki threw her hands up again.
"Ibuki won!" She announced. "Give Ibuki all your chips!"
"Mioda, we still don't have any." Peko pointed out for the third time since they started playing. Mioda's lower lip stuck out in a pout.
"I'm surprised heaven has a card table and three decks, but no chips." Nidai was looking thoughtfully at the table, elbows leaned against it. Like the other players, he sat in white space, feet hanging down at the nothing below them. The table and cards stayed suspended in the air with them, but aside from that there was only a blank void stretching out as far as he could see in every direction. Nidai had to wonder where the other dead students were hiding out there.
"I'm surprised there's anything here at all." Koizumi gathered up the cards into a stack. Cutting the deck down the middle, she began to shuffle them together. "Should we let Hanamura play this time?"
"Ew, no. That pig'll just oggle our chests again." Saionji pounded her hands against the table once for emphasis. "He can stay out there with Tanaka and Togami."
"Huh."
"Don't tell me you're actually considering it, Peko!" When Pekoyama didn't respond, Saionji turned to follow her line of vision over Mikan's shoulder. Far off in the white there was a dark spot, which seemed to twitch slightly. As she stared, it seemed to grow.
"Hey, someone's coming!" That got the others to turn. "Think that's Hanamura trying to slink back here?"
"Too tall. Togami, perhaps?" Koizumi squinted. "Nevermind, not nearly wide enough."
Mikan swivelled in the air to look. "T-tanaka?"
"No way." Saionji countered. "Are you blind and dumb? Do you see dark hair? I think that's Komaeda."
"Komaeda was killed, then. If someone had to go, at least it was the greatest threat to the young master."
"We shouldn't be happy about anyone dying!" Koizumi was still staring at the slowly approaching figure. "...That's definitely Komaeda though."
"I wonder what happened." No one could answer Nidai's statement. A few glances were exchanged before all eyes locked back onto the white-haired boy, who seemed to be taking his time in arriving. As he drew closer, Peko noticed that his head kept turning back and forth, as if trying to take the place in. When Komaeda's gaze settled on them, she couldn't see even the slightest flicker in his expression. Was he expecting them, and was merely more interested in their surroundings? Rather than feel unnerved, Peko found herself curious more than anything else.
Before she had more time to think about it, the teen was before them, tipping his head to the side to see around them. "A card table? Here?"
"Welcome to the afterlife." Peko greeted, not at all surprised when her words came out devoid of feeling. "Who killed you, then?"
"Good question. We'll find out soon enough." Komaeda's answer came without a second's hesitation as he ran a hand over table. Without even looking up, he began to flip through one of the card decks. "I wonder why this is here."
"It's the afterlife, idiot. It doesn't have to make sense." Saionji spoke up. Komaeda nodded to himself.
"Uh-huh. Is time moving faster here?" He lifted his head expectantly for an answer, only to see six pairs of eyes wordlessly staring back at him. "Was I being confusing again? Ahah. I'm sorry. How long has it felt since Tanaka appeared, then?"
The rephrasing didn't blunt the suddenness of the question and Peko found herself struggling to answer.
"Yes. Days down in the living world seem like an hour or two here." After she had appeared herself, it only felt like a few minutes before Saionji had arrived, tugging Mioda along by the arm. Yet, according to them, some time had passed between their respective deaths. Then Mikan and Nidai and Tanaka couldn't have been more than an hour apart when they showed up–
"D-d-d-don't you c-c-care who k-killed you?" Komaeda turned to Mikan, who was wringing her hands together anxiously. Curiosity flickered across his expression as his mouth turned up into a half-smile.
"You lost your memories again. That's really interesting. I didn't think that would happen." Seeing as six pairs of eyes were again staring blankly at him, Komaeda took the opportunity to revert the subject back. "I'm interested to know, even if I'm out of the game now. That's why I'm asking how long I have to wait."
"What was this about Mikan losing her memories?" Nidai inquired, only for Komaeda to idly wave his hand.
"I take it Tanaka did not tell you all about her trial, then. I see you're not a robot now, Nidai."
"Don't change the subject." Peko felt a sudden urge to give Komaeda a sharp poke with her katana, which sadly had not appeared in the afterlife with her. He didn't even seem to hear her talk.
"Later." Komaeda asserted, tipping the card deck from one hand to another. "Want to play a game? I wonder if my luck still works here."
Seeing as they had an eternity to kill, Peko assumed, she found herself agreeing with the others; she would have plenty of time to harass him about his vague statements later. It was only after Komaeda won three consecutive hands with royal flushes that she began to regret the decision.
"Urgghh, he has to be cheating!" Saionji leaned across the table to grab the front of Komaeda's jacket and give it a vicious shake. "Where are you hiding the other cards!?"
Komaeda lifted his hands above his hands in surrender, an unsure smile tugging at his mouth. "It looks like I'm still lucky here. I'm not really surprised."
With a loud huff, Saionji pulled back and crossed her arms. "Go hang out with Hanamura or something and leave us alone."
"If you really don't want trash like me here, I'll leave right now–"
"Don't start with that again!"
"P-p-p-please don't fight…!"
Saionji and Komaeda bickering by one ear and Mikan trying to calm them near the other, Peko again cast her gaze back out into the white horizon.
It took another three poker hands worth of time, two of which Komaeda was forcefully withheld from by an angry Saionji, for another dot appeared in the distance. Peko called the other's attention to it with a wave of her hand.
If she hadn't been watching him, Peko wouldn't have seen Komaeda's smile drop and his eyes narrow, lower lip curling in. He was upset. Then, in the same instant, the emotion vanished.
"Just one." He noted, expression tellingly neutral. Saionji turned to him, an eyebrow raised.
"You really think there are enough people left for there to be another double kill? You're really stupid. It's just your little murderer."
"Nanami." Peko found herself raising an eyebrow, fixing her attention on Komaeda yet again as he spoke.
"You can tell from this far away?" She inquired. After a second, Komaeda nodded.
Surprisingly, even Saionji was quiet while sure enough, the SHSL Gamer walked near. Komaeda's brief moment of distress seemed to have left him entirely, Peko noted, as he shuffled up the cards on the table.
"Never thought you'd be a murderer Nanami!" The gamer tuned out Saionji's voice as best she could. The blond girl instead watched as Nanami walked up to them and pushed past Nidai with a quiet 'excuse me.' She drew a hand back and, with a loud, echoing smack, slapped Komaeda across the face.
"...Ibuki doesn't understand why Nanami did that! Nanami killed Komaeda, not the other way around!" Hand pressed against his stinging cheek, Komaeda turned to face Mioda with a smile.
"I was trying to save her, actually. It looks like my luck left with me back there."
"...Komaeda orchestrated his own death with me unknowingly poisoning him. He was attempting to kill every person but me, I suspect..." Nanami broke off to yawn, covering her mouth with a hand. "...The others think you were targeting me."
"Ibuki also doesn't understand why Komaeda would do that!" Ibuki declared as Saionji grumbled. "Because he's crazy and stupid, that's why."
"Game of cards?" Komaeda offered, smiling again.
Nidai latched onto the change on subject. "I'm afraid the afterlife doesn't have much else to offer, and we might be spending quite a lot of time here."
Nanami looked dumbstruck. "Afterlife?"
"Where did you think we were? The beach?" Saionji's sneering again went ignored.
"You didn't tell them?" Nanami's head whipped around to face Komaeda, hand raised to strike.
"Oh. Umn. Whoops. About that. This is all a simulation!" He took several rapid steps away from Nanami. "And we're all just in the program's trashbin! At least someone installed the cards here so we have something to do until our physical bodies rot away and we finally get to die for real!"
If Komaeda thought he had seen his classmates stunned speechless before, it was nothing compared to their expressions then. They all visibly recoiled, before gaping for words. The information was, however, nothing new to Nanami.
"...I have hope in the others. They'll graduate and save you all."
"Us? Not you, Nanami?" Nidai was the first to recover and catch onto Nanami's lack of inclusion in her statement.
"I don't." Komaeda said cheerfully in response to Nanami's statement. "We're the despairs that destroyed a world, after all."
More surprised looks from the others; he rolled his eyes, they were so easily shocked.
"I do." Nanami repeated, redirecting her attention back to the people who thought she was their classmate. "...Sit down for a bit. Komaeda and I owe you an explanation."