Danganronpa: Infinite Despair

Chapter 5: That day we started to remember, Part 1.

-Unknown Location-

A young woman was watching the monitor in front of her, moving her lilac hair out of her face she greeted the brown haired boy that entered the tent. The sound of helicopters and people talking all around them were muffled by the walls of the building, the boy looked at the screen and saw the students that gathered in the dining hall of the academy.

"So how many of them are left?" He asked the girl, she reached over beside the monitor and grabbed a list of the students. He looked at it too and saw that only 12 of them remained over all, the boy gasped at the sudden drop in numbers but was still impressed that many had survived so far. "Twelve huh… Well at least that's still more than what we had at this point."

The girl sighed and looked back at the monitor; the students began to talk among themselves before another one walked in and also greeted the rest of them. She was more focused on their interactions instead of the boy beside her, "I think that we should go in and save as soon as we can! If we don't then for sure there will only be six of them left!" He shouted but she spun around in her chair and shook her head, but as she was about to open her mouth another boy walked into the tent and spoke in her place.

"You know that's a suicide mission, besides the person who has trapped them in there has rigged the building to self-destruct if we go inside of it." He said while the brown haired boy looked over his shoulder and saw a blond haired boy pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the brown haired one was about to argue back but the lilac haired girl only stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know that you are worried, but Alter Ego already finished the code that will save one of them if it comes to the end of a class trial, please get some rest. If you don't then you'll fall ill." She added with a blunt tone of voice, he sighed and looked back at the monitor but the blond left the tent and soon after the brown haired boy soon followed after someone said he got a call from his sister in another city. The lilac haired girl continued to watch the monitors as she was flipping through the student's files until she stopped at two that were labeled 'Jin Arisato' and 'Mitsuru Shishido', as she was reading them both her eyes widened with shock at the contents of the two folders.

-Meanwhile… Back in Hope's Peak Academy's dining hall-

Kenji entered the dining hall and saw that the rest of his friends were chatting amongst each other, it seems that the events of the last class trial didn't dampen the mood at all. When he asked why everyone was in a good mood, Yukari stood up and put her fist in her palm "We are taking the professor's last words to heart! We need to remain positive in this situation for as long as we can!" and the remaining students all shouted in agreement, Kenji smiled and nodded too. He felt happy that everyone wasn't depressed by what happened last night.

Minato got up and patted Kenji on the back and chuckled, "Well before you came in, Monokuma told us that he opened the fifth floor for us to explore, and I'll see y'all there." He said as he left the dining hall, everyone soon followed after.

-Fifth Floor of Hope's Peak Academy-

When the remaining 12 students arrived to the fifth floor, they all split up into small groups and began to explore. Kenji followed Minato, Matsu, Celeste and Toji into the gardens where they began to look around, Kenji walked over to a small wooden hut and saw four chickens sitting inside of it. He smiled and was relieved that there were other livings things inside the academy with them, turning around he saw that Toji pulled out a pickaxe out of the supply shed and was looking at it. "What the hell is that for?" Matsu asked Toji and she shrugged before tossing it aside, Kenji walked over to where he tossed the pickaxe and saw the words 'Crazy Diamonds' engraved on the side.

Looking at his friends, he noticed that they all were standing around what looked like a burned mark on the ground. Kenji looked at the mark and noticed that the ground that an outline of a person was surrounded by scorched earth. "What do you think happened here?" He asked the four of them and they all shrugged. Minato however got down on one knee and followed the outline of the person with his index finger and sighed.

"It looks like a body or someone was blown up here, meh nothing to worry about for now." He replied and looked up at the giant flower that was labeled as the 'Monokuma Flower', everyone also looked up at it and Matsu groaned. They all turned towards him and asked what was up before Minato smirked and realized what Matsu was getting at.

"W-What if it grows tentacles and stuff…?" He muttered as Minato and Toji busted out laughing while Minato held his stomach while trying to catch his breath, Matsu looked at them rubbed his temples before adding. "I've seen some shit ok! And this shit might happen to you two!" and that made them laugh even harder. Celeste sighed and rolled her eyes before muttering, "You are all a bunch of hopeless dorks…" Kenji on the other hand shook his head and chuckled before leaving the four of them to find another group that was exploring.

Walking across the hallway, he saw that Meiko, Yukari, Shinji and Shoji were inside of the dojo. When he entered the dojo he saw that Yukari and Shinji began training with each other as the other two were looking around, Shoji saw that Kenji entered the room and greeted him before Meiko ran over to him and smiled at the Lucky Student. The two of them walked past the training twins and walked under the cherry blossoms holding each other's hands.

"It feels like a real spring day in here…" Meiko muttered looking up at the blossoms that were falling on them, Kenji nodded and also looked up. He remembered his last day of Junior High and how he had said good-bye to all his friends who were going to other high schools instead of the one he chose before going to Hope's Peak. He was broken out of his revere when Meiko grabbed his other hand; she looked at him and gave him a small smile before adding. "We will get out of here right…?"

Kenji saw the hidden look of worry in her eyes and nodded, "Of course we will, I swear on my life I will get everyone out of here!" He replied and the Fashion Diva hugged him, he patted her head as he heard a collective sounds of "oooooooh~" coming from the doorway. Turning his head he saw that the entire class was watching them and some were chuckling while others were surprised to see the two of them that close while Matsu and Asuka both muttered "Meh I ship it." Kenji on the other hand shouted at his friends before they all started laughing and they all scattered, Meiko chuckled and also followed the students who left. He sighed and shook his head before following them back to the dining hall.

-The next day-

Everyone once again gathered in the dining hall before deciding that they all would go and investigate the fifth floor individually instead of splitting up into groups, when the class reached the fifth floor they all splintered off and began searching around. Kenji looked into one of the classrooms and saw that Asuka, Yukari, Shinji and Akira who were opening desks and flipping them if there was nothing of importance; he decided to stay away from them knowing how violent they can become. Just as he was leaving he heard a desk being thrown out the door and it nearly hit Shoji who ran away from the door after that, he looked in the other classroom and saw Toji, Matsu, Minato and Celeste all looking through the classroom rather calmly unlike the others.

When Minato was looking through a desk, he pulled an envelope out of a desk and Celeste noticed this too. She tilted her head and he began to open it, both Toji and Matsu and even Kenji walked over the two of them as he pulled out a bunch of photos. He set them on the table and started to go through then all, they were all photos of the deceased students who were all together smiling, doing other things such as chilling in a classroom, all five of them were confused about the contents of the photos and why they were there in the first place. However just as they were about to think about it longer, they heard Meiko screaming.

The five of them left the classroom and saw that one of the classrooms that was by the Biology Labs was open, Kenji saw Meiko on her knees gagging and when he entered the doorway he knew why she was gagging since the stench of blood and rotting flesh was coming from the classroom. "Geez… What the fuck is that stench!?" Minato shouted as he walked in the classroom and flipped the light switch, when the lights came on he backed out of the classroom as the others also showed up. All twelve of them were covering their noses as they all filed into the classroom, Kenji looked around and saw that blood was splattered all over the walls along with slash marks all over them, all through out the room there were chalk outlines of bodies in various positions scattered all over the floors.

"Man this room is givin' off bad vibes…" Toji muttered as he moved over an overturned desk and looked down at one of the chalk outlines, everyone else was looking around at the room and checking through the desks and cabinets, but all they found was more blood and someone even found a skull in the cabinets. Kenji on the other hand looked on top of the teacher's podium and saw that there was a bloody handprint over a list of names, picking it up he saw that most of them were scratched out expect for six of them. Shoji saw what Kenji was looking at and asked to read out the contents of the paper which he did.

"About over half a year ago, a tragedy happened in Hope's Peak Academy where sixteen students were forced to participate in a mutual killing game… Out of sixteen only six of them survived… The three main characters were… Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri and Byakuya Togami…' and that's where it ends before the rest of it is covered in blood…" Kenji muttered as he set the paper down, Mitsuru however looked surprised at the mention of the name 'Byakuya Togami'.

"So that heartless bastard made his way to Hope's Peak before huh…" She muttered and Asuka looked over at her and asked if she had met this 'Togami' person before, the heiress nodded and looked away from the group. "Byakuya Togami is the heir of the Togami Family… I met him before coming to Hope's Peak at a party that was celebrating the collaboration between the Togami family and the Shishido Conglomerate, he wasn't the friendliest person I've met so far." She replied while rubbing her chin in thought, but everyone else seemed to be more focused on the thought that there was another mutual killing game before theirs.

Minato broke the silence by saying that they all should return to the dorms for now and take a break for the rest of the day, everyone all agreed with what Minato suggested and everyone began to make their way to the dorms. Toji slammed the door to the classroom shut after everyone left and spray painted 'DO NOT ENTER THIS ROOM, BAD VIBES HERE!" in red spray paint before following the others.

The sight of that classroom made everyone feel gross, just the sight of it- no the thought of it- and even the smell of the classroom had sunk into their clothing. The stench of blood and rotting flesh seemed to radiate though out the entire school even the dorms had been attacked by this stench, Shoji described it as even worse than the smell in the music room when they found Takeshi's body. Deciding to call it a day and have a mass washing of their clothes, the entire class spent the rest of the day cleaning off the filth that came from that classroom. Kenji sighed as he walked out of his dorm room while sliding on his shirt, looking around he noticed that most of the others had retired for the evening but looking over by the baths he saw Shoji carrying a case of soda into the baths which suggested that Shoji was getting ready to spend an all-nighter with helping Alter Ego decrypt the rest of the files on the laptop.

Walking over to the dining hall, he saw that Minato and Celeste were talking to each other over a can of soda and a cup of tea. They both seemed to be getting close to each other; he turned around to leave after seeing that no one else was around and he saw that both of them had walked into the academy. Curious, he followed them to the fifth floor where both of them entered the dojo.

From behind the doors, he saw both of them walking under the cherry blossoms holding each other's hands like he and Meiko did. "It's beautiful… I haven't seen anything like this in all my life…" Celeste said looking up at the falling petals, Minato chuckled and also looked up at the petals too while replying 'Yeah it's pretty beautiful…' she placed both hands on the front of her dress and sat down on the fence under the biggest tree in the dojo. Minato walked up to her and sat beside her looking up at the trees.

"Y'know… There's a giant cherry blossom near my house, when we get out of here I'll show you it!" He added while giving her a large smiled, she looked at him and back down to her feet. She wanted to tell him something but couldn't or she didn't want too, the two continued talking while Kenji was watching them. He was happy that they could become close in such a short amount of time. When the two of them decided to head back to Minato's room, the Lucky Student had to get a head start or else they would've caught him watching them.

By the time Minato and Celeste had reached the dorms, Kenji had already bolting for his room. When the two went to their own rooms, they each said good night to each other, when Minato reached his door he saw that the name plate was partially off his door. Deciding to fix it instead fell off and another name plate was under his current one, the name on the door was a name that triggered a vision to play though his mind.

He was sitting at a table with Matsu and Toji as another student who was fairly chubby who walked over to them and sat down beside them, Toji sounded a bit rude until that student gasped loudly and the student looked down at the manga they were reading. "Ah well hello there you three, I saw you reading Heretic Angel Mochi Mochi Princess and I just wanted to see what volume you three were on!" However Toji glared at the student and asked who he was with an annoyed voiced, the boy fixed his orange and blue tie and smiled at the trio.

"Well my name is Hifumi Yamada! And I'm the Super High School Level Doujin Author; it's a real pleasure to meet all of you!" The boy named Hifumi said as he held out his hand towards Minato and the vision ended, Minato looked up at the name plate on his door and muttered the name to himself under his breath.

"Hifumi… Yamada… Why do I have his room…?" He said to himself as he looked down at the tie he was wearing, "So… I'm wearing Hifumi's tie… What is going on in this place…?" He thought before setting his name plate back on his door before entering it, walking over to his cabinet where he was going to throw his hoodie in there. He saw that two of them had been replaced with a grey cardigan that had a strange design on the shoulders, pulling one out he put it on and it almost fit him but he decided to toss it on his chair before eventually falling asleep.

-The next morning-

Everyone gathered in the dining hall before they all set off for the top floor to go some searching again, as they group was eating breakfast. Kenji grabbed his toast and put jam on it while looking at the others; everyone looked visibly disturbed about the bloody classroom that no one had touched their food, after having some breakfast the twelve students made their way to the top floor. However what was waiting for them would forever be planted in their memories, the group decided to gather in the dojo but when they entered it… The thing they saw in there surprised them all.

In the far back of the room just after the cherry blossom trees, there was a body that was nailed to the wall. Several spears were inserted into the corpse's stomach and chest while the face was horribly disfigured beyond recognition, either by fire or by acid. The class all let out a collective gasp as Kenji and Minato ran up to the body to see if they can find anything; however Monokuma's body announcement started playing.

"Attention Students, it seems that a body has been discovered! So now you all will receive a copy of the Monokuma File! You have an hour or two to gather all the evidence you need to help you all in your fifth Class Trial! Happy hunting you guys! Upupupupupu~"

Everyone looked at each other and they all had the same thought running through their minds.

"Who is this mysterious student?"

Chapter 5: That day we started to remember, Part 1… End.