Chapter 7: Free day

"Ayiiiiii!"

"Y-you! Give that here!"

I rubbed my eyes as I tiredly stepped into the cafeteria. Things were already going against me. I had woken up at 5 am and not been able to fall asleep until 6:30 before being woken up 30 minutes later. Not to mention that I had fallen asleep at midnight... Plus, I hadn't hung my school uniform, opting instead to leave them in messy piles on the floor. I attempted to smooth out my skirt for the tenth time. It was useless.

The cafeteria was strangely empty. The other classes had all gone on something like a school trip.

That's when I saw the strangest sight. Sayaka was sitting on a table, laughing, as Celes lunged after Yamada. The latter was holding a bright pink camera.

Like a reflex, I picked up my own camera which I always wore around my neck, and snapped a shot. It was kind of cute, really. Then I walked over, by which time Celes had grabbed the camera out of Yamada's hands. She was pressing some buttons as he groaned in protest.

"What happened?"

"That pig boy," Celes said sternly, but I could tell that she meant it jokingly, "used his beloved camera," she said the word 'beloved' like an accusation, "and took a picture of me without my consent."

"But it was such a beautiful shot!" Yamada whined.

"Here!" she shoved the camera back into his hands. "Don't take anymore pictures of me or I'll break that camera of yours!"

"Nooooo! You can't! It's-!"

"Speaking of which, what is that camera exactly?"

"It's a camera," Yamada replied with a humph.

"Then why is it so special?" I inquired.

"Because!" He showed me the front. It had an anime girl on it.

"Cool, Yamada, it's an anime character…" I rolled my eyes.

"It's not just any anime character," he exclaimed in disgust, "its Boo-ko from Heretic Angels[insert star]Mochi Mochi Princess!"

"Uh-huh…"

"There is no way you could understand her pure beauty just by seeing her on a camera!" he practically screamed, head tilted up, beady eyes scrunched closed, hands curled into fists. You must watch the anime! Come, let me expose you to it's power upon this moment, James Emelyn-dono…" His pudgy hand grabbed mine and he led me to towards the cafeteria doors.

"E-eh!"

"Hey, Yama-kun, we need to go now!" Sayaka giggled.

"Indeed we do…" he said sadly and turned back to me after a moment's thought. "Never mind! You shall watch it afterwards! Its epicness can be put on hold for a little while yet!"

"Yeah…"

As we walked towards the entrance, I asked what had been on my mind since I had entered the cafeteria. "So, where are the others? I mean, I know the other grades have gone on an excursion or something, but what about those in our class?"

Sayaka turned to me. "What? No they haven't… Wait, don't tell me you forgot, Rin-chan!" My nickname had spread fairly quickly, but only some opted to call me that.

"Um…"

She sighed, but not in an exasperated way. "Today's Free day."

"Come again?"

"It's the one school day when we're allowed to leave the academy. The teachers have given school wide permission. We were the late risers, so we took upon us the task of waiting for you. Now come on, let's go, or we'll be even later! We must take advantage of this beautiful day!" She punctuated her words as we stepped outside by throwing her arms up a little, as if trying to embrace the scenery. She was smiling broadly, and that smile infected me with its joyfulness. She sure was really pretty, especially when she smiled.

It was a short walk into the town. Hope's Peak was relatively isolated from all the big cities, strangely enough. Once we made it to the main street, Sayaka gave me her phone number and a map, before telling me to go to a café on the street corner at noon, and be back at school by 5:30. Then we parted.

I wandered the streets a little aimlessly, occasionally spotting the telltale brown uniform of Hope's Peak. Everyone seemed really excited. It was then, in accordance to my usual carelessness, that I bumped into someone. I almost fell, waving my arms comically to keep my balance as I stumbled backwards a little.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!"

The person stood up and smiled. "Oh, no need. It's perfectly fine. It's my fault, being the lowly human I am..."

Woah. Had I heard that last bit correctly? I decided to ignore it.

He was normal height, with strange, wavy white/pink hair that was sticking up at odd angles and light grey eyes. I noticed he had a paper note in his hand.
"Nah, the fault is mine. I should have looked where I was going. I don't have a very good record of doing so," I chuckled, apologetically. Like how people laugh when they know they've been idiots. "And, um, sorry to ask, but what's that?"

"This?" he held it up, and my eyes widened in shock. For it was a 10 000 yen note.

"Wow! Is that yours?" It was a stupid question, but I couldn't help but ask.

"Eh… no," he replied, a little uncomfortably. "I…" he looked down, a little guiltily, "I found it."

"Holy. You are one lucky guy."

"No, not really," he said, a little dejectedly.

I cocked my head. "What do you mean? That's super lucky!"

"Well, it all has a price. My parents died in a crash. I got all their fortune, but I don't have anyone to live with since I don't have any living relatives. Once, I got kidnapped, but as a result, I found a winning lottery ticket. This pattern is starting to drive me crazy. But anyways, I'm Nagito Komaeda, pleased to meet you!"

"Yeah… I'm Emelyn James." I was still reeling a little at his story. "Nice to meet you too."

After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "So, you go to Hope's Peak?"

"Mm," I acknowledged, tugging down my skirt a little, suddenly self-conscious. What about you?"

"Well, I just go to a normal school, really, but next year I'll be eligible to get into Hope's Peak! I'm sure I'll make it as the lucky student!"

"I sure hope you do," I said honestly. He seemed like a pleasant guy, and he deserved something good considering all his past tragedies. Another silence settled between us, but this one was more pleasant. Eventually:

"Hey, I know this area well. Wanna check out some of the stores?"

"Sure," I smiled.

At noon, I parted with Komaeda, who explained he also had to take his leave, and dutifully made my way to the cafeteria where Maizono-san had said she would meet me. On the way, I once again spotted some Hope's Peak students stepping into various shops.

But it was two people who caught my eye. Standing in a shady little corner was Junko, accompanied by… was that Komaeda again? I looked in shock for a moment before Komaeda retreated into the shadows with a little bow of the head. Junko looked around nervously for a moment to see if anyone had seen her and spotted me looking at her.

"Hey-lo, Rin!"

"Uh… hey." What had just happened back there?

"Heh. Some idiot bashed into me, and my phone flew into this corner over there. It nearly went down the drain… Gosh, people need to be more careful."

Yeah, sure…

"Anyways, she continued, I've gotta dash, I'll catch you around, sweetie!" she said energetically, leaving me still a little dazed in front of the cafeteria. Shaking my head, I wandered in, glancing at the menu out of habit even though I wasn't particularly hungry, and then scanned the room for Maizono. True to her word, she was there. She treated me (upon her insistence) to some of her lunch, before talking a little about the stores that were around the area and heading off. My eyes followed her outside until I couldn't see her anymore.

I devoted the rest of my time to finding good shops, which didn't seem to be in a shortage of any sort, especially in terms of art supplies. I greedily looked around the shop as I laid hands on everything possible. Oh, glorious art! Stores such as these had come to be shrines, but funnily enough, my first time in an art store hadn't been such a great experience.

"Emelyn, stop!" Grandpapa called out.

As always, I ignored him and continued to run around, squealing.

"O-ow!" I stumbled into something and fell, hard. Tears came to my eyes, and I almost started bawling. Something hit me on the head, and the shock, as painful as I found it, actually rendered me unable to cry. Grandpapa approached, laughing quietly.

"See, I told you kitten, you have to listen to your grandpapa."

I chuckled, looking back on it now. However had that experience caused me to become an artist? Counting out my money and vowing not to spend more than 5000 yen, I gathered the beautiful supplies that I had discovered and paid for them at the register. Most of my purchases were paint related, since I planned to decorate my room, and possible some others, as Asahina had suggested upon my very first day. I thanked the storeowner, picked up the large paper bag in which my newly acquired jewels were, and headed outside.

Much like the memory of my first experience inside an art shop, something promptly hit my on the head as I stepped outside into the street.

"Ay!" I exclaimed, dropping my bag in shock.

I glared around, trying to stop the unfortunate origins of the ball.

My gaze came to rest on a certain red-haired baseball star alongside a little kid. He was holding a baseball bat and smiling in a somewhat sheepish and apologetic way. After a moment, he entrusted the bat to the little kid and ran over.

"Hey, Rin-san, I'm sorry. You okay?"

I simply glared daggers at him, and he laughed.

"Okay, I'm sorry."

"I would think that, being the baseball star you are, your aim with a bat would be a little better!" I growled, but his good mood was catching on quick. "Anyways, what are you doing here anyways, holding the dreaded baseball bat?"

He let out a big puff of air. "Kid recognized me. Asked me to hit a ball for him. I couldn't say no."

"Well," I grinned, "look who's got fans!"

"Shut up," he laughed. "Worst part is, he also asked me how I got so good…" Leon cringed, and I burst out laughing.

"Well, what did you tell him? 'Yeah, I don't practice at all; I aspire to be a rock star… Do that and you'll succeed it life'?"

"More like 'practice is the way, kid… You'll get there...'"

"Nah, more like 'just get lucky'... I think God gave your talent to the wrong person."

"Hey!" he exclaimed, and I started giggling again. I couldn't help it. When Leon was around, the sun seemed to shine a little brighter.

We stood in comfortable silence for a moment, and I felt my heart start to beat faster. Was it wrong to feel like... this after knowing him for a little less than a month?

"Uh… I…" I came to talk a step towards him, but my foot caught on a rock and sent me tumbling…

… into him.

"Woah there," he said as I came crashing into his chest. "You okay? Funny you were telling me to be careful but you haven't been following your own advice."

His words were drowned out, as if I was underwater. My heart started to be a million miles a second, my face became hot and my ears burned so much they actually hurt. Oh, god…

"N.. nrgh!" I hastily stood back up, mumbled a "thanks, I'm fine," grabbed my bag and hurried off. I stopped as soon as I rounded the corner, leaning heavily against a brick wall, warmed by the soft sun which heralded mid afternoon - I would have to go back in about two and a half hours.

I grabbed my chest and waited until my heart pace returned to normal. Then I walked off, nervously and repeatedly tucking the same strand of hair behind my ear. I tried to think of things like how I would avoid Yamada when we returned, but my mind was in too much of a jumble.


A/N: Hey! Finally, an update! Sorry I took so long. As I explained in the previous chapter, tests and all that have been getting in my way... But I had some free time today and tada! I hope you liked it and that I'm not letting my dear readers down. Just trying to find ways to get Rin to communicate with the others a little more...

Speaking of which, I need your help, reader-chan. I realise that I haven't been including the other Danganronpa characters enough! *cries* How dare me... And this is where you come in. Now, I know this is a little weird, but just like you would in some of those other Danganronpa stories, I need to you to submit ideas for 'free time events' if you get what I mean. Let's broaden the spectrum! So yeah, just suggest activities and/or characters who you would like to see interact with Rin. I've got a little bit of writer's block, here. And I'm not great at coming up with ideas to write about everyday life, you see...

So, please, read and review (you have no idea how happy I am every time I see 1 more view and how ecstatic I get when I see 1 more review), constructive criticism is always appreciated, and yeah, please submit ideas for 'free time events'!

Thanks!