-FREE TIME-
With a tray of breakfast in hand, Toujou made her way to the third floor and knocked at the red door that consistently remained shut.
The door creaked open slightly, and Harukawa made note of her visitor.
"Thank you," she acknowledged before taking the tray off the maid's hands.
"While I have you, I was hoping to ask a favor," Toujou commented.
"Hmm?"
"I don't know whether you've heard, but we've all planned a casino night for tomorrow evening. I don't suppose you'd like to join us..."
"I wouldn't," the caretaker replied, pointedly.
"Regardless, I felt it best to keep you up-to-speed. Furthermore, I don't suppose you're hiding any formal attire in there?"
"What?"
"It wouldn't be proper to have a casino night without formal attire," Toujou explained. "But we seem to be lacking in such things."
Harukawa peered back into her own room, as if she were actually checking for something. "No. Try Shirogane's old stuff."
The door closed shut.
"How would I even go about that?" Toujou asked to no one.
"HELLO-KUMA!"
The exclamation was a bit off, however, as only Monodam appeared. "IF YOU RE-QUIRE SOMETHING FROM A-NOTHER ROOM, I MAY FETCH IT."
"Anything?" Toujou asked.
"NO-THING PERSONAL. ON-LY THINGS THAT WILL HELP YOU GET A-LONG."
"Did Shirogane-san posess enough formal attire for all of us?"
Monodam stood silent for a moment before responding, "NO."
The maid sighed. "That is quite a shame."
"I WILL GA-THER SOME. IT WILL HELP US GET A-LONG."
"Ah," Toujou intoned, "thank you for your assistance."
"YOU ARE BEAR-Y WEL-COME. BYE-KUMA!"
The robotic bear left.
Hoshi traversed his research lab backward and forward, and still he felt his energy was in a downward spiral. He could still remember a time in his life when the very idea of a private court all to himself would have given him more cheer than he would know what to do with. But due to his vigilante crusade, all the court stirred within him were bad memories.
He picked up a ball and pondered it. "Should I even bother?"
"I would like it if you did."
Hoshi raised the ball in defense and shifted his gaze behind him, only to discover that his unexpected guests were Kiibo and Momota.
"Ah! Forgive my rudeness! I simply wished to see your skills!" Kiibo exclaimed.
"What skills?" Hoshi replied.
"I have never seen a tennis match before," the automated adolescent explained, "I wish to see one, and you and Momota-kun are the only ones who know how to play."
"Yeah, so c'mon!" Momota cheered, his jacket cast aside. "Just a quick round, whaddaya say?"
"Hmph," Hoshi scoffed. "My days as the Ultimate Tennis Pro are long over."
"So?" Momota asked. "I never was one. I still wanna play."
"Please, Hoshi-kun?" Kiibo requested. "Or at least, show me how to play."
"You wouldn't be able to keep up," Hoshi replied.
Momota cracked his knuckles. "Them's fighting words! Unless you're scared you've lost your touch."
That could not go unpunished. "Alright then," Hoshi shot back. "One game. For old times' sake."
Kiibo quickly made his way to the sideline, as Hoshi and Momota stood at either side of the net.
"I'll let you serve first," Hoshi offered.
"You'll regret that!" Momota scoffed. The purple-haired boy tossed the ball into the air, struck it with the racquet, and it soared to the other side of the net.
And less than a second later, the ball was soaring in the opposite direction, past Momota's head, and it quickly bounced to the ground beside him.
"15-Love," the shorter boy announced.
Momota gulped. "I'm in trouble..."
Shinguuji was under the assumption that he would be the only soul brave enough to make a sojourn to the library after the events of the past few days.
The image of Saihara and Iruma operating on the card reader behind the hidden door proved this assumption quite wrong.
"Might I ask what you two are up to?" the anthropologist inquired.
Saihara was the one to answer. "With the other passage blocked off, we're left with this card reader as our only way to enter the hidden room. As such, I asked Iruma-san to see what she could do."
"Any luck thus far?"
"I wish!" Iruma scoffed. "The best I can do is disassemble this thing so I can reverse-engineer a new one in my research lab. And even then, it probably won't tell me anything I don't already know."
"More's the pity, I suppose," Shinguuji replied.
"Either way, we have to at least try," Saihara supplied.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it Shyhara. You gotta give a girl time, y'know? Gotta pre-heat the oven before ya stick it in, am I right?"
Saihara tugged at his collar in response. "S-sure."
The two male students found themselves looking over a few books as they left the inventor to her work.
"She's not exactly the type of girl you bring home to mother, is she?" Shinguuji whispered.
The detective shook his head in response. "Not really."
"For me, a female companion should be the epitome of class and fine taste," the masked boy explained, "though, I suppose I have high standards."
"I wouldn't have pegged you for a romantic," Saihara commented.
"I am a romantic in the traditional sense of the word. I appreciate shows of refinement and high culture. Not surprising for one who specializes in my field, I suppose. And what of yourself?"
"Hmm?"
"In many of the detective stories I've read, the hero is drawn to a seductive femme fatale." Shinguuji lifted a Phillip Marlowe book in emphasis. "In that case, Iruma-san may be precisely your type."
Saihara chuckled. "I admire the works of Raymond Chandler, sure, but even if I'm an Ultimate Detective, I'd consider myself half-boiled on my best day."
"A half-boiled detective? Kukuku. Who would've ever heard of such a thing?"
"Hey, geniuses, I can still hear you!"
The two turned to the busy, busty blonde. "What? I'm not good enough for either of you?" she whimpered. "Did... did I do something wrong...?"
"There's no good way to answer that question," Shinguuji muttered.
"Oh," Iruma bounced back, "then am I too beautiful to even think about defiling?"
"It's not that," Saihara defended, "You're certainly attractive, you're just... not my type."
"Really?" Iruma challenged. "Cuz I coulda sworn that busty blondes who like to wear pink had you written all over them."
Saihara blushed furiously.
"Ah, yes. His attraction to Akamatsu-san," Shinguuji noted. "I was a fool to forget."
"That's... that's not..."
"Hahahahaha!" Iruma cackled. "Poor Shyhara! Got all tongue-tied, so now he can't run laps down south!"
"Are you done with the reader yet?" Saihara exclaimed, desperate to change the subject.
"As much as I can do here," Iruma answered. "I'm off to the lab, try not to stare as I walk out."
She made her exit, and Shinguuji buried himself in a book.
"Definitely not," he muttered.
"Angie didn't even know that there were that many kinds of bugs!"
Gonta was incredibly grateful that one of his classmates was willing to observe his efforts to care for his new terrarium. His attempts to create an Insect Appreciation Club at the school had proven, shall we say, less than successful. Angie, however, had kept an open mind.
"Insects are the most prolific type of animal on the planet," Gonta explained, "It's so amazing to Gonta that something so tiny can be capable of so much."
"Well, we're all kind of tiny when you think about it," Angie replied.
"Huh?"
"It's like, well, there are 7 billion people on the planet, right? So each of us is super small in the big picture. But we still have something to add to that picture, y'know?"
"Gonta never thought of it that way... Angie-san, you're really smart!"
Angie chuckled. "Not really. God just shares his wisdom with Angie, and Angie passes it on."
"But, Gonta can't hear anybody. So, Angie must be really special."
"Anyone can hear God if they try," Angie countered. "It's kinda like how you can understand animals and we can't. You just need to know what to listen for."
"Really?" Gonta asked. "What would God want to say to Gonta?"
"God would be, like, totes proud of you for taking care of these bugs. You show that you love all of God's creatures, big and small."
"That's the gentlemanly thing to do," Gonta replied with a nod.
"And God is like, the Ultimate Gentleman! He cares for everybody on the planet, and when you care for your bugs, you're doing the kind of good that God does."
Gonta was awestruck. "Gonta never knew he was that amazing. Gonta just thought he was being nice."
"And that's the first step, Gonta," Angie reassured. "The second is to let God into your heart, and He'll let you know where to go from there."
"Okay! Gonta will try that!"
"Cool!" Angie cheered.
Her student council was coming along nicely.
As Akamatsu made her way into Yumeno's lab, she found herself at an impasse. Was she shocked that Chabashira was here watching, or not? Logically she shouldn't, Chabashira was about as subtle about her feelings as a flying pig. However, it did seem odd, since the two previously seemed at odds with one another.
"How are you two doing?" Akamatsu asked.
"Just fine," Chabashira chimed in. "Did you need something?"
"I just wanted to get a better idea of what Yumeno's show was going to be. If there's a theme, I want my piano set to keep the tone of the night."
Yumeno sighed. "I'm not sure what I should do. I'm torn between using water escape magic or separation magic."
"What's separation magic?" the pianist inquired.
"You see that box?" Yumeno pointed toward a human-sized box, segmented in three places, showing a person being split from the head, torso, and legs. "I could do that, but I thought it might... raise bad memories."
The thought of Shirogane's execution flashed through the girls' heads.
"Yeah..." Akamatsu replied, shakily. "Maybe you shouldn't do that."
"But I've never tried water escape magic before," Yumeno explained. "I don't want to screw it up."
"Yumeno-san could never screw up!" Chabashira protested. "You're the Ultimate Mage! Tenko knows whatever magic you try, you'll amaze everybody!"
"She's right, you know," Akamatsu encouraged. "Anything's possible if you just set your mind to it."
Yumeno shrugged. "So do you both swing that way, then?"
Akamatsu raised an eyebrow as Chabashira began to fidget nervously. "Chabashira-san, are you okay?" the blonde asked.
"Tenko... forgot to go on her afternoon run! Tenko needs to stay sharp!" The aikido practitioner bolted from the room at a full sprint.
"What's her problem?" Yumeno wondered.
"Well, that was kind of a personal question," Akamatsu argued. "If she does... you know, she might not be fully comfortable with herself yet."
"Why not?"
"Well... I wouldn't really know," Akamatsu replied. "I like guys. I mean, we're all on a spectrum, but I mostly like guys. And with the way Chabashira-san acts, I wouldn't be surprised if she 'swings that way'. But if she does, and she doesn't quite know how to process that, it might make her feel like you're antagonizing her."
"My birth mom always said to treat others how you want to be treated," Yumeno countered. "If someone asked me that, I wouldn't care."
"So if someone asked you, 'Hey, Yumeno-san are you gay?'..."
"Yes."
A brief pause overtook the both of them.
"Alright," Akamatsu continued. "But if Chabashira-san's gay, and she thinks you're not okay with her being gay, she's just going to feel worse and worse. Especially if she likes you."
"But I don't care if she's gay or not, I just want her to tell me," Yumeno responded.
"Well... you might want to tell her that."
Yumeno nodded. "Maybe. But I want to decide on my act first."
"And I'll help," Akamatsu offered, "but you have to promise you'll have a serious talk with her about all of this."
"Okay."
As they looked over the various magic items in the room, curiosity reared its ugly head.
"If she is gay..." Akamatsu began.
"If she toned herself down a little," Yumeno answered.
Ouma didn't mind that he had been left alone. It was all the better in his mind. The boy had a serious task ahead of him, and the chart he had made didn't help as much as he'd hoped it would.
"Okay, positives for Harukawa-chan as a minion are too high to count," he observed, "But on the negative side, I'm pretty sure she hates my guts. Then again, I think just about everyone does by now, so that's not that surprising."
His eye turned to another chart, this one a spreadsheet. "At least that's on schedule."
Ouma's dorm room was a mess of charts and notes. The Ultimate Supreme Leader was dedicated to making sure everything he had planned would go smoothly, and keeping it all in front of him made it that much easier.
"I need to get her on my side somehow. But how do you get girls to like you?" he scoffed at himself. "That's a question I never thought I'd ask myself."
"Ooh! Looks like I win the pool!"
The self-proclaimed evil genius turned around to see Monokuma had barged in uninvited, as he was wont to do.
"Can I help you?" Ouma asked.
"Well, I couldn't help but notice how much work you've put into all your schemes. You've got an eye for detail, kiddo. I respect that," Monokuma explained.
Ouma chuckled. "Thanks. Evil can't just fly by the seat of its pants, you know."
"Oh, I know, I know! Upupupupu..." Monokuma chuckled in kind. "You remind me of me at your age. Always scheming, always picking fights, and so bored of people."
"Hmm?"
"These other Ultimates," Monokuma explained, "they don't see it like we do. Life is boring when you live in harmony. But you, you get it. You're the type of guy who stirs the pot. I could use a guy like that. Whaddaya say, kiddo?"
Monokuma raised a paw, as if to shake Ouma's hand.
Ouma smirked and raised his hand in kind.
Monokuma reached for the hand.
And was promptly shocked by a joy buzzer.
"YEOWCH! What was that for?!"
"Haha!" Ouma replied. "You think I'd work for you? That didn't work out too great for your last little partner in crime, now did it?
"Well, I suppose history's not on my side," the bear admitted. "But do you really think you can survive this game without my help?"
The dictator shrugged. "Who knows? But now I know something important. You do need someone among us to act as your little gopher."
"I don't need one," Monokuma clarified. "It's just nice to have one."
"And I respect that. A good minion is hard to find. As such, I'd like it if you'd let me get back to work," Ouma requested.
"Kiddo, you just made a big mistake. Chances like this don't come by twice," Monokuma warned.
After the bear left, Ouma breathed a sigh of relief.
"He's panicking. Just remember that he's panicking," the boy reminded himself.
Not that Monokuma was the only one.
A/N: It's not Danganronpa without free time! Took inspiration from Fangan Ronpa: Universal Despair Sale's approach to free time. Check them out if you haven't already.
Next time: Casino Night!