The diner was where they all met; it was quiet, and a tad isolated from the others, as Usami didn't give them any objectives for the morning. Hajime powered his system up, yawning as he watched Souda and Fuyuhiko file in, both already working on things with their 3DS. Nagito entered as well and grabbed a drink, stifling a yawn as well.
And then Mikan pushed the door open; Fuyuhiko didn't even look to see she was there.
"Any particular reason why she's here? I don't mind it…just want an answer."
"Eeep! I-I'm sorry; I can l-leave if you w-want-"
"I invited her," Hajime spoke up, glancing up from the loading screen of his game. "She wanted to play so I invited her to come play with us. That okay?"
"Huh? Yeah sure, just…heads up next time. Which of us sits out while she plays?"
"I'll do it; I actually need to go on an expedition to get a few bugs for a new torso armor piece," Nagito said, sitting at one of the bar stools. "Go ahead and play without me; I'll only slow you down."
"Augh…well there's that." Fuyuhiko walked off to go get some coffee, giving Hajime the chance to let Mikan sit down; Souda already joining the room.
"Mikan do you major with another weapon type? Two Gunners might make things differcult for us."
"I-I don't…f-forgive me-"
"Hey, it's no big deal. We're not fighting the Congalala yet; since you're new to our little group we'll start with a Harvest Tour in the Primal Forest. It's a good chance for us to gather together some new materials and things for the boss fight. It'll give us some time to see how we all work together so I can come up with a proper strategy to fight the boss."
"Strategy? It's a fuckin' game; why do we need that?" Fuyuhiko sat down at the table next to Souda, leaving Hajime seated next to Mikan…to the former's slight concern.
But, he was well prepared to handle today…somewhat.
"Souda one thing," Fuyuhiko asked, while everyone took their supplies from the Blue Chest. "What the FUCK are you using? You look like a fruit cake." The mechanic wore the entire set of Conga Gunner armor; covering his face and much of his form in brown and pink armor and cloth, as his new Royal Launcher rested on his back.
"I had some time to kill so I grinded the Conga slaying quest; got enough to make this sweet ass armor and even this new bowgun."
"…you still look like a fruitcake; you sure Sonia's gonna wanna see that?"
"Hey! You're one to talk! You look like a baby faced knight-" Hajime did his best to tune out their bickering, silently hoping it didn't escalate into a fist fight that Souda would no doubt lose considering Fuyuhiko's natural urge to fist fight. None the less, Hajime moved to Area 5 rather quickly, working to gather some herbs and blue mushrooms so he could make some Mega Potions later on; he already had a major surplus of Honey thanks to that one NPC outside the Gathering Hall, so when it came to survival he was covered immensely.
But then he heard the sharp alert noise, and looked to see a giant snake lizard creature was in the Area with him…the Najarala.
"Shit." Was all he muttered, already running to clear the area but the thing fired several spikes at him; a few impacting and knocking him over.
"Guys! Boss here! Did anyone bring traps?"
"A boss?! Since when did bosses show up on Harvest Tours?!" The Ultimate Yakuza blared as he entered Area 5, along with Souda and Mikan.
"U-Um, they say it in the quest logs…actually."
"Mikan, not now." The gangster had already unsheathed his Gunlance and rushed at the Najarala, and in seconds the creature had coiled around them entirely; sliding around in circles around them and rendering many of them unable to move away from the creature.
"The fuck is it doing?!" He growled, Hajime being the first to vault off his Insect Glaive and land a good strike to its head; knocking it over and giving him the chance to mount it. "And good job, Hajime! Now let me just hit-"
"Don't, if you hit a mounted monster it instantly knocks the player off! Just sharpen your stuff or get into position for when it gets knocked over!" Hajime finished and was thrown off the reptile when he finished the mount quick time; giving Fuyuhiko the chance to wail on its head with his lance and shatter some of those spikes on its head. Whenever the gangster took sufficient damage Mikan shot him with her Recovery Shots to regenerate his health, reducing the need for him to pull back and heal from the fight."
"Holy shit, thanks Mikan." His praise seemed to do its intended effect, the nurse beaming in minor silence. "I didn't even know Bowguns could heal us if you misfire!"
"They don't; she just has hers loaded with Recovery Shots, and I have some Para Shots." Souda fired again and the Najarala was stunned the moment it was up, giving them more time to damage it before the creature moved to the exit and tunneled underground; no doubt moving to Area 3.
"Alright, great work everyone." The unknown Ultimate sharpened his Insect Glaive, while Fuyuhiko tuned up his Gunlance. "We can either take it out or we can trap it. Does anyone have anything?"
"I-I have a trap tool…but I don't know what to combine it with."
"Do you have any Genprey Fangs?" She nodded…and when Hajime rolled his hand a bit she was able to get the idea those could be combined together; soon with a Shock Trap. "Set that down the moment we get to the room; if the Najarala is asleep Souda will shoot it and draw it over."
"Right!" He was actually glad to see the girl confident for once, as opposed to her typical meek and slightly depressing view.
She was about as bad as Nagito, just between the two of them he actually tried to improve himself in the name of "hope" or as he kept prattling on about when he got the chance.
On track, they all entered the area and the Najarala was in fact not asleep; really it was just attacking and ripping a few Slagoth up. Mikan set the trap down while Souda loaded in the Tranq Shots; Hajime turning the Insect Glaive around to mark the beast's head and launching the Kinsect. The resulting hit made the Najarala notice him, and when it rushed over it was caught in the trap; Souda frantically firing the two shots into its face.
A thud resulted, and they had managed to put the creature to sleep.
"…isn't the quest supposed to end?" Fuyuhiko asked, working to sharpen his Gunlance again in the corner.
"No, we're on a Harvest Tour-they only end when one of us submits a Pawpass Ticket into the Red Chest. Until then we're only here for fifty minutes."
"Huh, should do more of these considering bosses can spawn randomly."
"Yeah; a Congalala could have spawned had we been unlucky, and without Deodorizers we would have died a lot. Anyhow if you all are ready to go I'll go submit the Pawpass Ticket and we can go on so we can head to the take on the Congalala next."
"Sure; gonna go fishing until then; I talked with Teruteru and he told me how to make Large Barrel Bombs+…should be interesting considering they're much stronger than the original one." Souda walked away and Fuyuhiko went to gather some more Honey from a hive, leaving Hajime to head back to the base camp, noticing Mikan was with him.
"You did pretty good today," He told her, getting the Pawpass Ticket out and submitting it to the chest. "I'm glad we brought you along Mikan." She honestly looked ready to faint from pure joy…concerning but he was glad she had fun.
"Th-Thank you! I'll be sure to keep doing my best!"
"Good; when you get a chance try playing with Nekomaru and Akane when you have some good free time. They could use someone healing them constantly to keep them alive. And try to experiment and use other weapons, so you don't only have to use the Light Bowgun. I think the Insect Glaive would fit you actually for when you need close combat." She nodded eagerly, taking all of this in, before the quest was complete, and they had finished their mission.
The game really was shaping up to be something amazing.
Following the Harvest Tour Hajime said it'd be wise to take a lunch break and let everyone head off to go take care of things. He munched on his sandwich in peace, breathing a sigh of relief when he was alone in the diner for the time. Souda had run off to go find Sonia and show off his new gear, Fuyuhiko was no doubt wanting to go do some Harvest Tours with Peko, and Mikan was thankfully taking his advice and sought out Nekomaru and Akane to play with and help them in the game.
Even Nagito was gone…no idea where he went. A tad worrying but still, not like him to vanish without a trace…
…wait…it was.
The door to the diner opened up, and Hajime paled.
Chiaki was there, holding her 3DS. He didn't have anywhere to run, nor an excuse to elude her. And worst yet, she saw him moments later.
"Hajime?" She even had that innocent tone of hers despite the events that transpired a few days ago. He gulped audiably…and she was soon seated in front of him. He already knew, and he opened up a room to let her in for Monster Hunter. He was expecting some sort of quest to fight something he had literally no idea to take out.
He saw a quest come up…and he was…shocked.
Hunt a Tetsucabra.
"…a One Star Quest?" He asked, glancing up from his game to her, seeing her eyes were lifted as well. "W-We're not doing one of…your things?" Her head shook a moment later.
"No…I just wanna play with you in the game…I put you where I was 'cause I was trying to get you some better equipment and more useful gear…I guess I got carried away with how I did things."
Carried away is an understatement.
His mind thought this, but he could see she was being serious.
"The point of us all getting this game was to play together and have fun while we're here, so c'mon, let's do something simple and easy…something fun. And whenever you're ready we can move on and fight something else. That okay?"
"Yeah…yeah it is." He relaxed, and accepted the quest, starting it and playing the game with her. A warm feeling washed over him as they played, one that made him feel much more comfortable than how he usually felt with her.
This game really did bring them closer…not just him and the other students but him and Chiaki.
…he liked that; maybe picking the game up that day wasn't such a bad thing after all as opposed to the vast others he found there.
(This is not an ending to the story, just clearing up a loose end. There will be a few more chapters and some introductions of other students into this story, as well as interesting combinations of teams for Monster Hunter. I may also work on another light hearted Island-Mode story for this before another gaming story for the Class of 77. I appreciate the reviews on things and I'm doing the best I can to ensure everyone's tools and armor reflect the students properly…soon I'll take a step back and properly describe Sonia's gear as well as those who were missed like Teruteru and Ibuki, as well as Fatkuya or Twogami; really I'll flip a coin tomorrow to decide on which name to keep in. But expect more Danganronpa stories from me in the future, as I'm beginning to get a feel for how to write these characters and properly have them interact with one another to properly detail their responses to things. Thanks for all the support on this story, and I'll do my best to continue it even though the anime has concluded and I'm rather happy with the story's climactic conclusion.)
