Chapter 2: The Little Three
(AN: Sorry this took so long, but I've been busy and this chapter is long! The original story doesn't belong to me, that would be Kawaiiwolf3 on DeviantArt, master troll.)
Future Foundation Headquarters, Earlier that day…
"Ms. Asahina…. Ms. Asahina…. MS. ASAHINA!"
"Mmgh?" Asahina sputtered through the latest victim of her craving. Then she swallowed, licking the sugar off her hands. "What was that? Sorry…"
The secretary was not amused. "Maybe you would know what was going on if you looked up for just one minute away from your donuts. I said that I have a file for you to read."
"What's it about?" Asahina asked, her hand stretching towards the box of donuts on her desk, but then the secretary placed the file in her hand.
"Do not get any powdered sugar or glaze on this file. But it's… well… it's hard to describe, but it has to do with the Mutual Killing School Life, so the three of you were asked to read it. We know it can't possibly be real… but it's spreading fast across the internet, and there are others like it."
"What do you mean, others? And wait, the three of us?" Asahina was slightly confused, and trying to grab a donut with her other hand, but the secretary took the box from her.
"We've found at least four with a similar vein, and one of those will be sent to your classmates later. But I have called Mr. Hagakure and Ms. Fukawa here, so you three can finish it in one sitting, it's more efficient that way." With that the secretary walked away, holding the box of donuts, her heels clacking against the floor. As she opened the door to leave, two *ahem* unique individuals walked in.
"'Sup 'Hina!" Hagakure cried, his hair taking up more room than should be physically possible.
"S-so, wh-what do you want?" Fukawa stuttered, avoiding eye contact.
"Well, seems we have to read this file. Do you want a donu-oh." Asahina paused as she realized that the donuts were gone.
Fukawa grabbed the file out of Asahina's hands, "Can't have you getting your stubby, sugar covered fingerprints all over it." She explained. Opening it up, she read aloud the first page, which was a little bit of background information. "This was originally in English, but contained Japanese words, indicated by bold parentheses. We have been trying to track down the author, but we are having extreme difficulty. This is only Part 1."
The three of them walked to Asahina's desk, bracing themselves for who knows what.
*'**"***"**'*
(Danganronpa): You Shook Me All Night Long
Fukawa: What k-kind of title is that? I-it sounds dirty…
Asahina: And 'shoot-refute'? Sounds like a made up word.
Chapter One: Crazy Train
(Konichiwa, mina-san. Atashi wa Santo Kanade desu.)
Asahina: Hello, Ms. Santo!
Hagakure: You don't have to reply back…
Okay, I can hear you all already; "YOU MISSPELLED SATO, YOU DUMB BITCH!"
Hagakure: Whoa! This chick needs to calm down! We weren't thinking anything like that, dude!
Fukawa: Maybe you weren't…
Well, actually, I'm half-Japanese, half-Italian, and my mother took on my father's name, so that's why it's Santo.
Asahina: That's actually kind of neat.
Fukawa: But what's the point of explaining that?
Anyways, I'm 16 years old, with dark blue hair I keep in a (hime) cut, brown eyes the color of tasty milk chocolate, and light skin, although it's light in the relative sense. What I mean is, it's lighter than usual, but I'm still not white. I'm obviously either Japanese or Italian. I'm 5 foot 1 and 100 pounds, which is actually pretty healthy for someone my height. I'm have a pretty muscular frame, but not bulging muscles. Think of a WWE Diva, and that's my build.
Fukawa: What a horrible character description.
Asahina: What's so bad about it?
Hagakure: Yeah, and 'character description'? Makes it sound like this story is fake.
Fukawa: F-first of all, the description is way too positive and long. Listing traits like that can bore the reader. And also, there is no way the Future Foundation would bother giving someone like me a real report, so this has to be fake.
Asahina: Oh yeah, I forgot that they don't think you're a real member… but how else are people supposed to know what she looks like?
I was accepted to the prestigious Hope's Peak Academy, which is just a school for talented teens like myself. How did I get in? Well, I started a band with some middle school friends, called "ChiUta."
Asahina: Never heard of it.
Fukawa: S-see? That proves it's fictional! Only a brainless mermaid like you would believe in silly things like fairy tales!
Hagakure: Dudettes, you're already fighting and we barely started.
It wasn't your usual ('kawaii) pop' band, though; it was a rock band. I mean, if the name "Blood Song" didn't tip you off, then I don't know what to say to you. I am the oldest member.
Asahina: But if you're 16, then everyone else is younger than you?
Fukawa: Like we need more children with inflated egos.
One of our songs, "Silent Cicadas," went platinum, and since I was the only one in the band old enough to go to high school, I was accepted under the title of "Super High School Level Rock Band Lead Singer."
Asahina: We kind of already had a signer in the school, and I think there was an upperclassman who was a musician too.
And since Kanade means "performance" in Japanese and Santo can mean "Blessed" or "Holy" in Italian, it was almost like I was born to be on the stage.
Fukawa: A-a name doesn't m-mean anything. Not everything has to be symbolic. The likelihood of that happening by chance i-is very, very low.
Of course, I changed my name and persona on stage. Off stage, I can't lie worth my skin, and I'm considered very nice, if not blunt. On stage, I have a spoiled princess complex, and everyone must cater to me.
Fukawa: How is that attractive?! Nobody likes a sp-spoiled pampered brat like y-you!
Hagakure: I dunno, Togami's pretty full of himself and-
Fukawa: That's because my White Knight is perfect in every way and that doesn't change the f-fact that this 'Kanade' is a stupid little girl!
Asahina: You seem really determined to hate her…
That's why on stage, my name is (Hime-Kami), while my friends are (Tsun-Kami), (Loli-Kami), (Ane-Kami), and (Yan-Kami), after the stereotypical anime archetypes.
Fukawa: S-see, she likes that '2-D' garbage! I bet she doesn't even use the terms correctly.
Hagakure: Kind of reminds me of Yamada…
I stood in front of the school, with my hair down. I was wearing the outfit I wore in Silent Cicadas, a blue shirt cut so it showed off my stomach with a red tie and blood-colored pocket (read: pink)
Fukawa: What does that mean? B-blood has always been that color… the way she phrases it makes it sound unusual.
Hagakure: I'm getting a vision… a yellow eyed girl turning into a domamatrix banana-head, getting attacked by a disco ninja frog! Wait…
with my band's name spelled out in (Hiragana), a red pleated skirt, and black boots with grey laces. I had more outfits with me, but I made sure to bring quite a few copies of this particular outfit with me, because I felt that it represented why I got in.
Asahina: That was a little long.
I looked up at the school, and took a deep breath. This would be no harder than going on tour, right?
Turns out, I was dead wrong.
I had blacked out almost immediately after stepping onto the school grounds. I woke up in a classroom that had steel plates bolted to the windows. I felt heavy, like I had just stayed up all night writing a new song, but nothing was going right. I saw a pamphlet, that declared the 'opening ceremony' would take place at 8 AM.
Asahina: I thought it said just to meet at the entrance hall.
Fukawa: I'm surprised you can remember something that long ago.
Asahina: Hey! My memory's fine-
Fukawa: Like a goldfish?
And it was about 7:55.
"Oh crap!" I whispered. I didn't care that I couldn't find my suitcase, I just needed to be on time!
I started high-tailing it to where I had come in. No one had passed me while I was running my little legs off, but that was because I seemed to be the last to arrive.
Hagakure: I'm thinking…
Fukawa: This can't be good…
Asahina: Is it even possible?
Hagakure: Hey! But wasn't Naegi the last one there?
Asahina: I think he's right… um, Hagakure was right about something. Fukawa, are pigs flying right now?
Hagakure: Huh? Wait, you're insulting me! I-
Fukawa: Forget the pigs, let's go see if Naegi can fly.
Asahina: What about Togami?
Fukawa: He doesn't need the universe to turn on its head to be able to defy physics…
Hagakure: Um, I'm still here…
"Fellow classmate!" one of them yelled, a real stiff looking one. "You are late!"
Asahina: Ishimaru.
Fukawa: What was your first clue?
"Sorry, sorry!" I said, not feeling like putting on my (Hime-Kami) front right now. "I had passed out when I got here, and the time just-"
"Oh, so it seems we are all in the same predicament," another student said. She was a girl, with a Gothic Lolita dress on.
Hagakure: Gotta be Celes.
She had a mysterious air about her, like she could snap your neck and you'd still like her.
Asahina: What? That doesn't make any sense, if she snapped your neck you'd be dead!
Fukawa: I-it's a typical romantic description, the 'despite everything, love prevails' sort of ideal… but it's really delicate and easy to misuse.
Hagakure: I don't get it, and it doesn't sound like Celes.
It reminded me a bit of (Yan-Kami), my closest friend and ex-girlfriend.
Fukawa: I knew it, I knew something was wrong with you! Now it all makes sense, you're deprived, aren't you? And you decided to unleash your sick fantasies on the rest of us...
Asahina: Aren't you jumping to conclusions a bit too much?
Oh yeah, before I go any further into my story, I want to make one thing crystal clear: I am bisexual. What does that mean? It just means I find both males and females attractive. Usually, someone has a slight or strong leaning towards one gender or another, but I find both genders to be equally attractive.
Hagakure: That exists?
Asahina: Where have you been?
Fukawa: Ha! T-that's rich. Like a person of either gender would want to be with you.
I'll give you a quick run down on the people I didn't have a lot to say to. That's not to say that they aren't important; it just means that I didn't have much to say at the time.
The Gothic girl decided that it would be a good time to introduce ourselves. So, I went to her first. Turns out, her name is Celestia Ludenberg, Super High School Level Gambler. She reminded me almost too much of (Yan-Kami), which made me a bit uncomfortable, but I kenw we were gonna get along well.
Asahina: I thought she was a little creepy… and scary.
Hagakure: True as truth, man.
Next, I went to a girl who had blonde pigtails. She was Junko Emoshima,
Fukawa: She can't even spell her name right, l-looks like she really is an idiot.
Hagakure: But you got to admit, Emo-shima is kind of funny, especially that one personality.
no questions asked. She didn't look exactly the same, but she was still knockout hot, because she was a model.
Asahina: *ahem*
Sadly, she had the mental absorbency of one-ply toilet paper.
Fukawa: T-there's some other people who would fit that description better…
Hagakure: Why do you have to insult us every, um, five, two, carry the seventy, all the time?
Then, I went to the stiff white one, Kiyotaka Ishimaru. He seemed nice enough, if not a bit socially awkward. He truly believed he was doing right. It was kind of cute, in a pathetic way.
Asahina: That's pretty accurate, except for the whole 'pathetic' bit.
He was, as I suspected, a hall monitor.
Then, a cute girl who reminded me of (Loli-Kami) introduced herself as Chihiro Fujisaki, but said I could use 'she ' and 'they' pronouns for her. I nodded and smiled. Fujisaki was just so damn cute! She was quite shy, but I didn't mind. Besides, she was super smart, being a hacker.
*Not at all suspicious coughing*
Next, Mondo Owada, the gang leader. I didn't really talk to him, because we didn't have much to say. He did say he liked Silent Cicadas, though, so he wasn't all scary.
Fukawa: I-I don't see him being that open about his taste in music…
Asahina: Then what stuff do you listen to, Fukawa?
Fukawa: N-none of your business!
I tried my best to avoid him, but someone named Hifumi Yamada introduced himself to me as the (Ultimate)* Doujin Author, working with 2-D porn. Well, he didn't say that last bit, but that's basically what doujin is. The good news was, I wasn't 2-D, so I at least wouldn't be in his next tentacle fetish doujin. But, hey, I'm being a bit too harsh. He's allowed to express himself as he pleases. But… he could stand to lose a few pounds.
*Uses different word for student titles, but means same thing. Sort of.
Fukawa: H-how accurate. Maybe… she isn't that bad after all.
Asahina: Are you saying something positive?
Hagakure: That's the attitude! No need to be so gloomy.
Next, a romance writer, Toko Fukawa. I loved her books. One of my favorites is "Before Cicadas Fall Out," which is what inspired me to write Silent Cicadas.
Fukawa: Well, at least the whelp knows quality writing when she sees it.
Asahina: You are really falling for flattery?
Fukawa: Honestly, that one is one of my old shames…
Hagakure: Come on, what's it about?
Fukawa: L-like you're literate!
Sadly, her talent was more akin to "Victim Complex" than anything else. I understand people get bullied, but god damn, don't let them step on you!
Fukawa: T-that's because people only pretend to be nice to me… much like you.
Hagakure: And Ms. Gloomy is back.
Next was some fortune teller named Yasuhiro Hagakure. He seemed nice enough, if not gullible as all hell. I was hoping that he'd at least feel a bit of concern. But he was just a 'go with the flow' kind of guy. Can't blame him.
Asahina: Again, pretty accurate.
Hagakure: I'm not gullible!
Asahina: What's the most expensive thing you bought?
Hagakure: That crystal ball that wasn't really crystal that the sales dude belonged to Napoleon and George Washington. Um, I don't get- hey!
Next, a loudmouth baseball player, Leon Kuwata. He was the womanizer type, so I was almost tempted to lie and say I was a lesbian. But, I knew that was an alsshole thing to do, so I kept my sexuality to myself.
Fukawa: Nobody asked you to go out with him.
Asahina: She's got a point.
Next, a beefcake name Sakura Ogami. I was just scared. I mean, I'm 5 foot 1 for god's sake! I didn't want to get on her bad side! If I did, I'd probably become a Kanade pancake, no doubt.
Fukawa: I'd like to make you into a pancake, with all the spelling errors floating around.
After her, was her much smaller friend, Aoi Asahina. Asahina had such a bubbly personality, I couldn't help but smile. She was such a cutie! Sadly, she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
Asahina: Well, Sakura and I weren't friends right off the bat… but we warmed up to each other pretty quickly… and did she just call me stupid!?
Fukawa: Why are you so surprised?
So, that just leaves me foru more, and trust me, they do deserve to be talked about.
The first one was tall, blonde, and pricky. He looked like he was rich. Even his glasses looked rich.
Fukawa: My White Knight is not a prick! He's wonderful and perfect and you don't deserve to be in his presence!
Asahina & Hagakure: …
"Name's Byakuya Togami," the boy said. "Super High School Level-"
"Heir, I know," I said coldly. I rolled my eyes. "That one horrible company that is going to take over the world, right? Yeah, keep dreamin', prick," I growled.
Fukawa: You don't speak to my precious-
Asahina: Calm down, Fukawa. You have to admit, he is rude sometimes. Like all the time…
"I'm Kanade Santo, Super High School Level Rock Band Lead Singer. Ain't it fun livin' in the real world?" With that, I turned on my heel, and walked away. I could hear him stuttering, almost like he finally couldn't believe that someone wasn't kissing his ass.
Fukawa: How dare she?! My White Knight's ass is-
Hagakure: Whoa, whoa, I don't think we need to hear about Togami's ass…
Asahina: Agreed.
But the next girl was worse.
"Oh em gee, Santo-san?"
I gasped, looking at the girl. I put on my best fake smile, which looked strained. Fortunately, she was dumb.
"Maizono-san! Long time no see!"
Asahina: Maizono wasn't stupid. And I'm pretty sure she didn't talk like that.
Hagakure: Agreed. She got better grades than I did.
Fukawa: And that's an accomplishment, how?
Yep, Sayaka Maizono.
I can hear you guys again. "What, more girl hate?" Well, it's more complicated than that. First off, her band, the ('kawaii') shit, was rivals to ChiUta, so I had to be in competition with her. If not, she may put ChiUta out of business. But there was another layer to that.
Asahina: How is competition bad? It usually helps me swim faster, trying to beat that one person.
Fukawa: True, whenever I read a good piece of literature, I always wanted to make something just as good, s-sometimes better.
You see, Sayaka was why I broke up with (Yan-Kami) in the first place.
She had acted like a lesbian, and she was so cute, and at the time, (Yan-Kami) and I were already having a fall-out. I broke up with (Yan-Kami), and asked Sayaka out. That's when Sayaka told me that she was just trying to break my band up, so she could have all of the spotlight.
Hagakure: That's pretty brutal. I guess that's showbiz. No wonder Maizono was the first to snap.
Thankfully, (Tsun-Kami) had heard it, and ChiUta was saved thanks to her. (Loli-Kami) shut down any attempts at my secret getting out to the public, and (Ane-Kami) was there for me.
Asahina: What secret?
Hagakure: The break-up? Asking Maizono out? Dunno.
Fukawa: Doesn't sound like much of a secret, after all, the nosy press always find out.
I respect Sayaka as a performer. I do not respect her as a human.
After that horribly embarrassing experience, I found a boy with a tall ahoge, standing in the corner, a bit awkwardly. He was too cute! I went up to him.
Hagakure: I'm getting a bad feeling, and another vision…
Asahina: You've got to be kidding me.
Hagakure: It's a… man without a nose being carried by a rat man… and the rat man used green light on a disco ball…
"Hi, I'm Kanade Santo, Super High School Level Rock Band Lead Singer! Nice to meet you!"
"Hi," he said, seemingly star-struck. "I'm Makoto Naegi, Super High School Level Good Luck. That just means I got in from a raffle. Pretty stupid, right?"
"No, I think that's really cool!" I said. He blushed. It wasn't like he was shy, but I could tell he was definitely intimidated with all of us SHSL around him.
Fukawa: Sounds like Naegi…
Asahina: Not sure he would call his talent stupid.
"Don't worry, I'm nothing like the (himedere) front I put up. I'm actually really nice!" I said. I pointed to Togami. "You see him over there? He's a dick. Just say hi, don't tell him that I told you that he's a fucking douche."
Fukawa: Stop insulting my White Knight you-
Hagakure: Calm down, please don't go Genocider on us… please?
Asahina: Even I admit that's a bit harsh, especially since she just met him.
But I could see the spark in his eyes.
He was already thinking about getting his brains banged out by him.
All three: WHAT?!
Fukawa: She-what-my-him-and-huh?
Asahina: I'm pretty sure Naegi only has eyes for Kirigiri right now…
Hagakure: Even I couldn't have predicted that! Fukawa? Fukawa, you in there?
Fukawa: I don't-
Asahina: I think she's broken.
Before I could say anything, Naegi was introducing himself to Togami. Great.
The last one approached me.
"I suspect that Naegi-kun has a crush."
Asahina: Yeah, on Maizono! Who you hate for no good reason! Your band doesn't even exist.
I tuned around, and I was face to face with lavender eyes.
The girl had a (hime) cut, not unlike my own, and one part of her dusty purple hair was tied in a braid. She was wearing a purple jacket, a cute little tie, a white shirt, gloves, a short skirt, and boots. Her skin was a pale a snow. She looked like she could see through everything.
Asahina: I think the grammar's getting worse.
"Y-Y-Yeah," I said, stuttering. This was so unlike me. "Ah, I'm, um, Kanade Santo, Super High School Level-"
"Lead singer of some form of band. From the way your voice hits the lower notes, and you have hard accents on certain words, I'm going to guess rock band."
Hagakure: I'm kind of impressed.
Asahina: Wonder if Kirigiri can actually pull something like that off.
"Y-Y-Y-You're right.," I was able to stutter out. "Rock band lead singer, nice t-to meet you…"
"Kyoko Kirigiri," she said. "I… don't remember my talent."
Asahina: That's not like Kirigiri at all! She didn't even tell us until after… Sakura's death, after Togami asked her about it.
"I-It's fine," I said, still stunned from how knockout gorgeous she was.
Hagakure: Sounds like someone has a crush.
Just before I could ask her anything else, the speakers went off. A horrible grating voice came onto the speakers.
"Testing, Testing, is this thing on?"
Asahina: Thank goodness it's over.
*'**"***"**'*
The trio couldn't do much except stare in shock. They didn't know what to expect, but this definitely wasn't it. Hagakure was the first to recover.
"Welp, I'm… gonna go. Yeah, see what's up." He left, walking faster than his usual casual stride.
Asahina was the next to leave.
"I… um, I need some doughnuts." She ran off, looking for her pastry of choice.
Fukawa was left alone, unsure of what to do. Simply throwing it away was too good for it. But her White Knight couldn't see it, under any circumstances. Holding the file tightly in her arms, Fukawa started looking for the nearest incinerator.
