A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!
I couldn't believe it… right in front of me lay the corpse of the Ultimate Moral Compass. Some part of me was hoping that he wasn't really dead, but the pool of blood he was lying face down in made that really difficult. Staring at his lifeless body was making me break out in a cold sweat. I feel sick looking at him like this… yet I can't bear to take my eyes away. Hifumi started hyperventilating and Chihiro just stood there, muttering 'what the fuck' to himself. I had no clue what to do in this situation, and even if I did, I don't think I would be able to do anything. So I just stood there, paralyzed by this gripping anxiety I felt. In only a few short moments the rest of the student body appeared, filing into the garbage disposal room, some with gasps and others with screams, taking in the gruesome sight before them. The last person to arrive was Hiro. As soon as he walked in, he put on a pair of gloves and began examining Mondo, checking his pulse I assume. I hadn't looked too closely at him, but as Hiro looked over him, I could see that part of his head was practically caved in.
"Yup…" he said rather grimly. "Definitely dead."
"Yeah, I think we can all see that, genius," Chihiro snarked.
"Hey, hey," Taka said. "Calm down, man."
"Don't tell me to calm down!" Chihiro yelled.
"Guys!" I interject. "Save the anger for later! Someone just died!" Even as the words leave my mouth, I can hardly believe it. One of our friends… dead before our eyes.
"Indeed they have," Mukuro stated. "Finally."
"'Finally'?" Toko repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means things are just getting interesting," Byakuya said, not even trying to hide the enjoyment in his tone.
"You can't be serious…" I say.
"Oh, but he is!" Without any fanfare or gimmick, Monokuma simply waltzed through the door to the garbage disposal room. "And I must say, it took you long enough! Here I was, the gracious headmaster, generously providing you youngsters with the means and motive to go through with delicious murder, but you all were just trying to get buddy-buddy with each other! It was making me sick! But, at the last moment, one of you decided that you just couldn't handle not killing one of your annoying, poorly characterized, terribly written classmates! Ahh, it does my heart good to know that you kids can still get down and dirty when you need to. It gets me so excited... thinking that one of you had that burning desire building up inside you… That heat… that passion… the passion that drove you to kill! Upupu!"
"What the fuck are you talking about, bear?" Sakura growled.
"I'm saying that it was one of you that did this!" Monokuma yelled. That… that can't be true… can it? Could one of us really have been the one that… killed… Mondo? I gulped. That thought sent chills down my spine.
"You can't honestly expect us to believe that," Kyoko said. "You have been extremely enthusiastic about a crime such as this being committed. Clearly you are the prime suspect in this situation."
"Hmm?" Monokuma said. If I didn't know any better, I would say that he had a look of genuine confusion.
"Y-yeah! That's right!" Sayaka agreed. "How do we know you didn't do this?"
"Because…" Monokuma started. "..." He just stood there in silence.
"Do you… not have an answer?" Hifumi asked.
"Because that wouldn't be fun!" Monokuma suddenly shouted. "If I put in all the work for you all to go and kill each other, why on earth would I do it? This game is for you guys, not for me! It just wouldn't be fair!"
"I suppose that does make some degree of sense," Celeste added.
"So… you know who did it?" Aoi asked.
"Of course I know! I see everything! Didn't you notice all the cameras everywhere?"
"...A fair point…" Aoi conceded.
"Rule six," Makoto said abruptly, looking directly at Monokuma.
"What now?" Monokuma asked.
"Rule six," he repeated. "'Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes 'blackened' will graduate, unless they are discovered'. We do not know who the killer is. Does he or she get to leave now?"
"I had been wondering that myself," Mukuro said. "Since you said that one of us did kill…whoever that is," she gestured to Mondo's body. "...does that mean the culprit is allowed to leave the building?" Now that they mention it, that was one of the rules in the handbook, wasn't it? I think he called it the Graduation Clause or something.
"What?" Monokuma yelled. "Of course not! That would be too easy!"
"It would be," Byakuya added.
"Sure, it would be no problem for you to just kill someone and be done with it, but that's no fun. The people crave mystery, intrigue, and excitement!" Monokuma excitedly yelled. "That's why you have to use your wits and figure out the culprit!" With a flick of his tiny wrists, he flourished several folders from out of nowhere. "So, in the interest of fairness, I present to you all the Monokuma File!"
"What?" Toko asked as Monokuma distributed the items in question.
"In this file, I've written down the cause and time of death for your fellow student. It wouldn't be nice of me to leave out those juicy details, now would it?" As he handed us the files, we immediately opened them.
They read:
Student: Mondo Oowada: Ultimate Moral Compass
Time of Death: Approximately 8:15 p.m
Victim died of severe trauma to right side of skull. Additionally, bruises were found on victim's right shoulder, left leg, and upper body.
"And that's all the help you're getting from me!" Monokuma said, walking out the door. "Make sure to find out all you can! The next part is going to be very exciting! And remember, you all are on a time limit, but be sure to have fun with it. I know I will! Upupu~"
"What an annoying bear," Mukuro said as soon as Monokuma was out of sight.
"So, we just need to figure out who did it?" Sakura asked.
"I don't think he's just going to leave it at that," Hiro said, removing his gloves. "He has to have something else planned. But as far as I can see, everything he said in that file about the body is true."
"Rrgh," Toko grumbled. "What is his game!?"
"Whatever it is," Celeste started. "I believe it is in our best interest to play along, lest we ourselves end up deceased as well."
"So what's the plan, then?" Leon asked.
"Split up and look for clues?" Taka suggested.
"How cliché," Sayaka muttered.
"Well we can't just leave Mondo here if we all split up," Aoi said. "That would be extremely disrespectful to his spirit."
"And don't killers, like, come back to tamper with crime scenes?" I say.
"I don't think that's the case," Hiro said, looking around the room. "There's hardly any blood or anything around here. I don't think there's anything to tamper. Nonetheless, someone might as well watch over him."
"I'll do it," Makoto volunteered.
"Me too," Taka said. "We'll make sure he is untouched."
"If that is decided, then I will take my leave," Kyoko said. "I can't stand the sight of blood, so good luck to you all." She left in a hurry, followed quickly by Mukuro, who didn't say anything.
"What a fun little game this is turning out to be," Byakuya chuckled as he left too. Personally, I really didn't want to be anywhere near a dead body, so I left as well.
"Junko," Hiro called to me right as I went into the hall.
"Yes? What is it?" I ask.
"Would you mind helping me out with the investigation? I always work better when I have someone to bounce my thoughts off of."
"Um… Okay? But why not ask Makoto? You don't think he did it, do you?"
"No, I doubt that. But he's looking after Mondo and I wouldn't want him to leave and then have something bad happen… well, something bad already happened but I think you catch my drift. Plus, like I said before, you're really easy to talk to."
"If you say so..."
"Great. Come with me, then. We don't have a moment to waste." I ended up following Hiro around. We checked the classrooms, the dining hall, and the gymnasium. We ran into a couple of the others, but in that short time, they hadn't found anything either.
"Are you sure we even need to look around?" I ask as we continued to walk through the area. "Mondo's body was in the garbage room. Why would there be anything we need to look for outside of it?"
"I still don't think the murder happened in the garbage room. I think his body was placed there. Think about it: he was badly bruised yet there was no sign of a struggle anywhere. I can't think of anyone who would just let someone just attack them and do nothing about it…"
"I guess that makes sense," I reply. Looking at him, Hiro seemed to be really deep in thought.
"...Regardless, I won't be satisfied until we check everywhere. I have a few ideas on how this might have happened, but if we can't find any signs of a fight or something, I'm gonna have to scrap most of them." He sighed. "Where else haven't we looked yet?"
"Um… the bathrooms?"
"...What bathrooms?"
"The ones right by the garbage room."
" There are bathrooms next to the garbage room?" I give him a nod. "...Huh. I actually didn't know that." Sure enough, right next the the garbage room were two separate restrooms for men and women. "I can't believe I never noticed this." Without further ado, he opened the door to the men's restroom.
"Well?" I ask. I couldn't see inside from behind him. I guess I never noticed, but Hiro is really tall. Either that, or I'm really short.
"...And this is what I was looking for," he said, walking into the restroom.
"What do you mean?" Is what I wanted to say, but as soon as I could see the scene of the restroom, I just couldn't get any words out. The scene was extremely gory: blood was splashed all over the floor and the stall doors. The sink was almost entirely torn off the walls, and parts of the floor were damaged. I could scarcely believe it… right next to us was this bloody scene, and we weren't even aware of it. I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate again… Hiro on the other hand, just waltzed in without skipping a beat, taking in every aspect from the room. Donning a pair of gloves, he inspected every nook and cranny of the scene. My blood was running cold; how can he just look at something like this and be so nonchalant about it!? I was literally quivering where I stood, just trying to process the fact that someone was murdered here. After what felt like an eternity, Hiro took off his gloves, looking extremely satisfied.
"...So basically, that's my reasoning for why I think they did it, but we'll have to… Hello? Junko?"
"W-what?" I ask?
"Are you alright? You look really pale." Of course I'm not alright!
"Yeah… I'm f-fine…" Hiro just looked at me with what I think was concern.
"Alright… if you say so. So now I just need to confirm if my suspicions are correct. Let's go." However, as Hiro was about to leave, the familiar squeak of a voice we've come to loathe permeated the area as the bear it belonged to appeared on the multiple screens placed throughout the building.
"Yeah, I'm getting real tired of waiting for you guys, so we're gonna move on to the class trial now. If you all would be so kind as to head inside those big, velvet, totally not a waste of money doors in the school, that'd be just peachy. And if you don't, who knows what tragedy could befall you?"
"Hmm…" Hiro said after Monokuma's little spiel. "Well, better see what scheme he's hatched now."
"You seem to be taking this whole thing really well," I say.
"It's a skill I've acquired. Regardless, not much we can do if we don't know his whole plan." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "We'll get through this." I sighed.
"Well at least you have a good attitude about it," I reply. He gave a small chuckle. But even so, I still can't help but worry about this overwhelming feeling of dread that has come over me.
Out of the 120 or so pairings in Danganronpa, I only like about 6 of them. One of those is Chihiro x Sakura.
Also, it took 693 tries to get that shiny vulpix, and it wasn't even hidden ability. At least it wasn't ~2000 like it was when i tried to get a shiny eevee.
