Disclaimer: The Danganronpa franchise does not belong to me. The content affiliated with this fanfiction belongs to Spike Chunsoft and Kazutaka Kodaka. This fanfiction is being cross-uploaded on Archive Our Own, and the authors notes are located at the bottom.
Chapter Two: A Dead End to the Ocean's Aroma Pt. 1
Yukizome Theater
"Awww darn, I died. Well, so much for being the big successor to Enoshima-sama like I was planning. What a shame. I was almost about to taste the sweet feeling of despair, I guess I probably should've done a better job at covering my tracks."
"Oh well! A girl can dream, I suppose!"
"That probably means Monokuma's gonna move The Final Killing Game in a new direction that I would've never guessed."
"I'm excited!"
"And I'm so proud of Mitarai-kun, he's finally become a protagonist!"
"Ahem...ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please! Your adorable Chairman has an announcement to make! Good morning, everyone! You bastards did quite the bang up job surviving your first trial, so head down to the cafeteria for a special surprise!"
A special surprise? That prove enough for Ryota to immediately wake from his groggy slumber, to his own dismay. After the disastrous excursion of which only happened yesterday, he mostly just wanted to stay in bed all day, as it was an easy way to escape everything, and felt surprised than he received any sleep at all last night.
The images of the two deaths that happened were ingrained in his mind; the unsettling and heavily wounded body of Chairman Tengan pressed against the wall, or the brutally mutilated corpse of Yukizome lying lifelessly on the ground. Those two deaths left a clear mental scar on him that he struggled to erase from his mind.
A huge part of him still couldn't help but think all of this was his fault, he was desperately clutching at straws trying to map out how this trial was somehow his fault, though he kept remembering what Gekkogahara told him yesterday; if he hadn't exposed Yukizome as the killer, then everyone would've died, regardless it didn't make him feel any better than his former teacher was sacrificed and everyone else has to move forward with that knowledge.
It wasn't like there was too much he could do right now, any type of rebellion against Monokuma would present him with an automatic injection of poison, or even possibly setting off their forbidden action, something he really didn't want to take any chances with.
Ryota specifically remembered hearing some of the others forbidden action before — he knew Naegi wasn't able to run in the halls, or Munakata couldn't use a murder weapon — those forbidden actions actually felt relevant to the killing game, meanwhile Ryota still struggled to figure out what his forbidden action actually meant.
"Using Your Talent"
He didn't have the foggiest clue on how his talent could even benefit in this killing game. Being the Ultimate Animator, he assumed his talent was the most useless in the Future Foundation, since it couldn't even relate to the specialty of his own division.
There wasn't much to do being cooped up inside a hollow dormitory all day, and there was also that surprise that Monokuma promised everyone in his morning announcement, so Ryota finally trudged himself out of bed. He spent an extra long period of time getting ready in the bathroom, if only because it's the only area without surveillance cameras watching his every movement. He hadn't payed much attention to his dirty blonde hair, though if he looked in the mirror he would've observed a particular feature of his hair that was far different from yesterday.
A single strand of hair remained sticking out the top of his head — it resembled an antenna, or maybe a cowlick?
When Ryota arrived in the cafeteria, part of him all but expected to be welcomed by the radiance of Yukizome and her delicious delicacies tiddly presented across the tables, quickly having to remind himself that she was long dead, it was probably for the best anyway, the fact that his teacher spent days secretly putting lethal drugs in Chairman Tengan's food until he died made him feel too queasy to even think about food.
It seemed that the other participants didn't have the luxury of eating that delicious she cooked for them either, fortunately they mostly sufficed with some other alternatives, which seemed to consist mostly of cup ramen and instant tea.
Asahina was the first to react, even giving herself a sigh of relief. "Mitarai, you're finally awake! We started getting worried about you!"
"Good morning, sunshine!" Kizakura teased, giving the timid animator a two-fingered salute.
"I knew that he'd wake up eventually!" Bandai followed, a big toothy grin developed across his face. "I guess the wind chime eats furthest away from the pine tree!"
Just like the others, Naegi appeared to be contented and relieved to see him as well, Ryota never ceased to find it flattering, albeit, surprised that anyone would be concerned about him to begin with. "Mitarai-kun, how're you doing? We didn't hear from you at all last night, and you came in pretty late."
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ryota answered calmly. Truth be told, the Ultimate Animator was practically anything but fine after everything that happened yesterday. He was a little more surprised to see that Naegi could retain even a shed of optimism through it all, then again, he wasn't called the Ultimate Hope for nothing.
"Now that Mitarai-san is finally here, that means just about everyone is present, right?" Kimura asked, taking a moment to glance around the other occupied tables.
"Not everyone is present," Kirigiri responded calmly, putting an index finger to her chin in a pondering fashion. "The only person who still hasn't arrived yet is Vice Chairman Munakata, and we haven't heard from him since the ending of the first trial."
"Well, I'd put my money on, he's probably trying to come to terms with the deaths of Tengan and Yukizome-chan," Kizakura suggested. "We certainly can't doubt that yesterday was one heck of a fiasco for the poor guy, losing his eye doesn't really help either."
"I bet he's back in the dormitory," Bandai guessed. "Maybe we should go and check on him?"
"If Munakata-san's still upset about Yukizome-san's death and betrayal, then shouldn't we be helping him right now?" Kimura asked. "There are some antidepressants in my office that could remedy the situation. If he's depressed then citalopram will help, though for anything drastic I can prescribe him a sertraline—"
"We don't need any more of your souped up medicines!" moaned Ando, "That's what got Tengan killed in the first place."
"Perhaps it's better to give Kyosuke some space, after everything we witnessed yesterday, maybe he just needs some time to be alone," Great Gozu acknowledged, and placed a hand to his heart out of respect for the man. "That said, I believe in our Vice Chairman and I have the utmost hope that everything will turn out okay."
"How the fuck did this happen?" Sakakura cursed, he'd been reasonably quiet for the past few minutes with Ryota almost forgetting he was present in the room altogether. "How could someone like Yukizome of all people have been a traitor, she was the single nicest person I had ever met, and in the end, she even wanted Munakata dead."
"The fact that Yukizome was the least susceptible person for betrayal makes her even more suspicious," Ando commented.
"Does that mean you guys will finally believe us, that Naegi isn't the traitor?" Asahina asked.
Kimura gave the Ultimate Swimmer a look of contemplation, before her eyes eventually loosened up. "I had my suspicions at first, but now I'm not too sure if Naegi-san would actually be the traitor that Monokuma was talking about."
"Naegi may be the Ultimate Hope, but harboring the Remnants of Despair in a computer simulation and still finding the time to establish an elaborate killing game does seem a little far fetched," Kizakura said.
"Well, I'm still not convinced. If Yukizome really wasn't the mastermind, then we're back to Naegi being the most susceptible person?" Sakakura snarled.
Ryota felt grateful, with some of his fellow division heads finally seeing eye-to-eye with Naegi, at least one good thing came out of participating in that awful trial, though he could tell that others like Sakakura, Ando, and Izayoi were seeming to budge and were clearly still distrustful. "Wouldn't that also mean that everyone in this room is equally as guilty as Naegi-san?" the Ultimate Animator asked, "I mean, if Monokuma really is an independent robot, then there must be someone monitoring the game, right?"
"You called?"
As usual, the aforesaid teddy bear popped out of nowhere and presented himself to everyone on the table. "Well, now! Well, now! Well, now! Seems like all of you bastards are gathered—for the most part—I can finally give my precious employees a round of applause for not cracking under the first motive!"
"Why are you here?" Kimura growled, her fingers were ready on her bag, presumably reaching for a drug that could help her, but fidgeted in fear of being injected with poison.
"After what you did yesterday, you've got a lot of nerve showing your face to everyone, jackass!" Great Gozu exclaimed.
"You're lucky we're restricted by these dumb bangles, or else I would've sent Yoi-chan to dismantle by now!" Ando hissed, with the Ultimate Blacksmith already pulling a set of shurikens out of his coat.
"Just get the hell out of here already," Sakakura scoffed. "Haven't we gotten enough of you already?"
Monokuma sadly dropped his head to the ground, "Aww, it looks like I'm being hated again. I guess now you guys don't wanna hear my super special announcement?"
"Announcement? What're you talking about?" Asahina asked.
"Upupupu...well since you asked, then I'll have no choice but to show you!" Monokuma giggled, immediately bringing forth a disembodied monochromatic stuffed paw that looked exactly like his own. "I present you bastards with...the Kuma's Paw!"
"The Kuma's Paw?" Great Gozu questioned.
"'What's that supposed to mean?" Kimura followed in the same thought process.
"Anyone that equips themselves with the legendary Kuma's Paw is granted the power of making three wishes!" Monokuma explained. "But, these wishes get despairingly worse each time!"
That final part effectively made the other participants feel angry, especially Ryota, they knew that Monokuma was only trying to provoke them, and they found completely powerless in regard to that situation.
"Enough with the bullshit!" Sakakura argued, "Why did you really come down here?"
"Alright! Alright! Sheesh!" Monokuma moaned, carelessly tossing the Kuma's Paw to the ground before carrying on. "Anywho, since you all did a great job uncovering the truth of who killed Tengan, I took the liberty of allowing you bastards to explore the new world!"
'"The new world?" Naegi repeated.
"What are you talking about?" Kimura followed.
"You're referring to unlocking the lower floors for us to explore, right?" Kirigiri asked, though it seemed as if she already knew the answer and simply wanted to hear it from the bear himself.
"Yep, that's absolutely correct, Kirigiri-san!" Monokuma vigorously nodded. "You bastards didn't honestly think I was gonna restrict you to a single floor for the entirety of the game? Just imagine how boring it would be if you guys were doing the same thing for the whole game?"
"If you unlocked another floor, then does that mean there are other secrets that await us down there?" Great Gozu asked.
"Upupupu...a magician never a magician never reveals his secrets, if you bastards wanna find out what's awaiting you on the next floor, then you'll just have to see for yourself!" the teddy bear laughed. "Please, make your way to the elevators in the halls to depart to the second floor."
Before anyone had the chance to say anything, Monokuma made his exit, keeping up with his trend of giving away vital information only to subsequently leave before giving away any concrete answers. At that moment, breakfast wasn't completely forgotten about, and the twelve participants cast their sights on the elevator in the halls, which would presumably lead them to a new area in their communal life.
Ryota was about to step out of the cafeteria to join the others, before he was stopped by Gekkogahara who passed by him with her bulky wheelchair and computer. If her over eccentric Monomi avatar weren't enough to display her cheerfulness, then her icy blue eyes that raised slightly was a prime indication , quite ironic for someone often described as being too shy to even speak.
"Good morning, Mitarai-kun. I didn't have a chance to speak with you this morning, how're you doing?" she asked.
As a result of all the commotion caused with the debate over who the mastermind could be and Monokuma revealing a new floor being available, Ryota had almost forgot that he established a friendship with Gekkogahara yesterday, and would be having a therapy session later tonight.
The previous night proved itself very hectic for Ryota who straightaway tossed the blankets over his head to come to terms with the death of Chairman Tengan and Yukizome right after Gekkogahara left the room. Trying to move on with those two deaths and somehow managing to carry them with him were both equally difficult for Ryota, who found himself envying Naegi for somehow staying optimistic through everything.
Although that may have been true, Ryota knew one thing for sure, even if he was afraid of what's to come, he just could let the two deaths that happened be in vain.
The Ultimate Animator realized that he'd been keeping Gekkogahara waiting and gave her a nod of confirmation. "Yeah, I'm doing okay. I never had the chance to thank you about yesterday, I'm not really sure what I would've done if you didn't come talk to me."
Her expression was hard to read with the big red scarf covering a large quantity of her face, though she looked very flattered by Ryota's appreciation and exhibited that through a smiling Monomi who spread her arms out, "Sure thing! I'm a therapist, so it's kinda my job to help people."
While the Ultimate Animator still felt astonished that Gekkogahara was taking a chance on someone like him, he obliged and followed her and the rest of his fellow division leaders into the elevator just as Monokuma instructed. Like yesterday, the remaining buttons were still out of order and only one new button was now available, taking them to whichever subsequent floor was below them.
As the elevator shaft descended onto the lower floor, Ryota found himself thinking about what would be awaiting them this time. Perhaps an escape route, or maybe an internet connection from the outside world, or better yet the elite task force coming to their rescue. No, who was he kidding? There's no way a stroke of luck like that would ever hit them.
After the doors opened up, the twelve participants were greeted by the always unwelcoming sight of at least a dozen surveillance cameras and monitors, and windows that were already blocked off with iron plates, which instantly killed the idea of anyone coming to rescue them on this floor.
"It seems like it's been a while since we've been on a lower floor, since Makoto's trial started if I remember correctly," Great Gozu recalled.
"What difference does it make?" Sakakura replied coarsely. "Monokuma can open up every floor on this building, but it's not going to change the fact that we're trapped here like rats. He said it himself."
"We can't change what's already happened," Kirigiri reminded the two. "For now, it's best to focus on uncovering what's been made available for us."
"A groundhog doesn't just walk ravine," Bandai remarked. "Maybe there's something that will help us find a way to escape the building."
"Not to sound like a downer or anything, but somehow I doubt that Monokuma would make this any easy for us," Kizakura admitted, his finger pointed to the abundant cameras that confined them on every part of the room. "There's cameras everywhere, Monokuma's watching us like a hawk."
"The fact that Yukizome was exposed so early in the game means Monokuma might keep a tighter leash under us all," Ando said.
"Either way, anything we discover should help us get closer to uncovering the truth," Naegi determinately stated.
With much ground to cover on this new floor, Ryota found it increasingly difficult navigate in an area that he didn't have any prior knowledge of beforehand, and with the other participants going their separate ways for investigating he was completely lost on where he should be going next.
At least until he was approached by Gekkogahara, who took observation on how the Ultimate Animator had been spacing out for a long period of time. "Mitarai-kun, are you coming? I thought we were going to investigation." she asked, her curiosity was expressed by Monomi tilting her head.
"Hey Gekkogahara-san, do you mind if I ask you something?" the Ultimate Animator questioned, "There's something I've been thinking about all day."
"Yeah, what's on your mind?" the blue haired therapist asked.
"How come you've been so interested in me? No one's ever really taken an interest in someone like me before," the blonde haired animator replied.
"Hmm. That's a good question, I never really gave it much thought," Gekkogahara answered dumbfound, making Ryota feel a little disappointed due to his anticipation. "I guess, it's because you remind me of how I used to be before I became a therapist, and when the two of us talked last night, I had this strange intuition, almost like us becoming friends was fateful encounter."
A fateful encounter? Ryota had his suspicions on whether or not that could actually be true, he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of fateful encounters, especially if they resulted in causing despair. Regardless of what he'd been thinking, Ryota decided to stop being so pessimistic and decided to follow the Ultimate Therapist throughout the halls, mostly due to his lack of knowledge of anything on this floor.
Their first destination was perceptibly one that Gekkogahara was the most anxious about since she didn't waste a single moment rushing to the room located at the far end of the hall, even further than elevator itself. While passing by, Ryota shot a quick glance over to what seemed to be Sakakura's office, wondering if this is was Gekkogahara was referring to, however, the Ultimate Boxer angrily blocking the entrance to his office made things clear this wasn't where they were headed.
Upon stepping into the new room, Ryota was instantaneously greeted by alluring scent of lavender candles and an incredibly soft carpet, a room of which the likes he'd never been in up until now. Only a few seconds into being in this and he already felt more composed than ever before, almost as if the Tragedy never happened.
He looked over to Gekkogahara's computer, seeing Monomi clasp her paws together and relinquished a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, I was hoping that Monokuma wouldn't have vandalized this place when he took over."
"Is this your office?" Ryota guessed.
The blue-haired therapist nodded. "Yeah, this place is usually where I'm overseeing production in the Future Foundation's cyber security, though it also alternates as a therapist's office where I meet with clients that are in need."
After giving the room another inspection, Ryota realized that it did bear a striking resemblance to an actual therapist's office, from the visually soft-looking couch, to the coffee table with many children's books and dvd's, and the window which he assumed would've displayed a beautiful view, had it not been sealed off with iron plates.
The two decided to put off the investigation of Gekkogahara's office, nevertheless the Ultimate Therapist was still concerned about her office and that Monokuma was somehow find a way to access her computers or potentially find a way to put any of their efforts to escaping at stake.
Compared to the previous room, the next room visited was far more lively with Bandai and Kizakura already present, and the atmosphere was visually more bright and dynamic.
Among many things, what really attracted the attention of Ryota was vintage pool table that appeared in the middle of the room, the dart board that didn't look like it'd been touched in a long time, and the shelves cluttered with an abundance of board games and cards that weren't very recognizable.
Admittedly, the Ultimate Animator double-checked his inspector on the room purely out of his own contained excitement and clear understanding of what this room was. "This is a game room isn't? I never thought that something like this would be in the Future Foundation Headquarters."
"Yes, sir. This is the official game room added in at the request of yours truly," Kizakura explained in his usual laid-back manner. "It's usually the place where Future Foundation members unwind and take the time to recharge their batteries."
Gekkogahara frown upon looking at the surveillance cameras that watched over them to the point of suffocation. "It's a shame, this place wouldn't make a very good break room anymore because of the killing game, there's so many cameras that I'd be hard to unwind down."
"I agree with that," Ryota followed. "It seems like it's been a while since we've been trapped inside of this building, it feels like we haven't seen the seen the outside world in so long. I wonder why none has come to our rescue yet."
"I have an idea!" Bandai exclaimed, directing the others to a small game center in the corner of the room that had an old television that was hooked up to a Nantendo Famicom video game console, Ryota wasn't really sure were the Ultimate Farmer was going with that at first. "We can use the TV to figure out what's happening outside. It's a rainbow away from the mountains, so maybe we'll have a good chance of finding out what happened."
"Would that work?" Ryota asked, he specifically turned to Gekkogahara for the answer because of her knowledge with technology.
It barely took a second for Gekkogahara to solemnly break the news to them. "Sorry guys, but I don't think that'll be possible. This TV is rather old and doesn't seem to have any functioning cable either, Monokuma must have removed it before unlocking this floor."
"I thought so," Ryota sighed aloud. Of course, just when he believed a ray of hope was coming and they could potentially be getting closer to leaving this place, Monokuma had to come and make things even more difficult for them.
That fact that Monokuma had been really going out of his way to make sure they were kept imprisoned in their own headquarters was very bewildering to Ryota. All thirteen participants already knew about the Tragedy and had a vast knowledge of it, so there was nothing hide by keeping their outside surroundings a mystery. What was Monokuma's gain in all this?
Despite the game room looking like a great place to relax and kill time, Ryota didn't necessarily feel that now would be a good time to be playing any kind of games while they're all in the midst of a mutual killing game and decided to part ways with Kizakura and Bandai.
Ryota and Gekkogahara's next destination was a basketball court, a room that he never truly imagined would exist in a place like Future Foundation Headquarters, then again, he remembered this used to be an overseas branch for Hope's Peak a little before the Tragedy started, and guessed this was possibly a remnant of that former school.
Upon opening the doors, Ryota was already hit with a wave of bad memories that plagued his childhood after being bullied multiple times by his own classmates, with the basketball hoop and empty bleachers doing nothing to make things better.
The two were welcomed by the company of both Asahina and Great Gozu, who were already busy doing an investigation of their own. "Hey Mitarai, Gekkogahara-chan. What do you guys think of this place, pretty cool, right?" the Ultimate Swimmer rushed over to the two and gave them a grin, in a much cheerful mood than usual.
"It's amazing, I can't believe a basketball court is in our headquarters," Ryota replied in surprise.
"When I was overseeing the production on this building a few years ago, I personally asked Kyosuke if I could add this into the overseas branch for Hope's Peak Academy," Great Gozu explained, as he stepped forward as well.
"Perhaps it's best that we had never gotten rid of this place once it was reestablished as the headquarters for Future Foundation," Gekkogahara added. "In these types of situations, exercise does wonders on the body and can help reduce stress."
Even though Ryota knew exercise did help manage stress, that was something he never gave much thought during his long days and nights endlessly working on his animation. He's never been the most physically fit and was never very good at sports, a far cry from the Ultimate Gymnast or Ultimate Team Manager, so he never really bothered giving it that much thought.
In spite of that, Ryota couldn't help but feel happy and envious for Great Gozu and Asahina, even after the two casualties they faced they were still able to move forward and even continue contentedly going on with their passions.
The following room they explored was the Ultimate Housekeeper's office, a place that made Ryota feel so unbelievably nervous that he practically struggled to even turn the knob of the door in fear of what could be on the other side. Being the double agent of the Future Foundation, he could only imagine what terror could await them on the other side, or what she may have been hiding in this room.
Of course, for all they knew this entire room could've been booby trapped, or maybe there was a secret entrance they didn't know about inside this room.
To his surprise, it looked just like a regular office room, nothing out of the ordinary, except maybe the small kitchen, the abundance of cleaning supplies stacked in the open closet, and the photographs of Yukizome during her time at Hope's Peak Academy spread across the walls. Maybe there was a gas leak in the oven? Or perhaps the cleaning supplies were riddled with toxic chemicals? Then again, Ryota felt he was probably being a little too cautious.
"Hm. This is Yukizome-sensei's office?" Ryota blinked.
Gekkogahara followed suit with a subtle nod, and started to type on her keyboard. "Yeah, I was kinda thinking the same thing. I would've thought that Yukizome-san would make some alterations to her office, but it looks more average than I was expecting."
Out of nothing but sheer curiosity, the Ultimate Animator inspected the desk of his deceased teacher, a small part of him had been hoping to find some kind of clue that would help them uncover a big secret to the killing game, inevitably setting himself up for disappointment when he saw that nothing explicitly out of the ordinary was on the table, as that probably would've made things far too easy.
Above all else, the only aspect that really stood out about her desk were the many books spread across, "Playing Guitar for Beginners" — "Knots and How to Tie Them" — "The Art of Stealth", a whole plethora of random how to guides.
Those books left Ryota with more questions than answers. Why would Yukizome have so many books like these? Was she really content on being prepared for every possible outcome?
Before given the chance of making comments about the office, Ryota was stopping in his tracks upon hearing a much familiar voice, "It seems that one of you have finally arrived here."
It was Munakata. In hindsight, it made a lot of sense that he would be the first one to visit this place. Ryota cringed a little at his less than presentable appearance, having been so focused on the two deaths that transpired that he nearly forgot about what happened to him. The man's once neat and refined white hair was visibly messy and unkempt, bags under his eyes that indicated he likely didn't get much sleep last night, if any, and worst of all, the bandages that covered his right-eye.
He stared blankly, "You two weren't the visitors I'd been expecting."
Expecting? The could only mean one thing.
"Are you talking about Naegi-san and the others?" Ryota guessed.
"Yes."
The coldness of his response only made Gekkogahara even more concerned about him than before. "Munakata-san, we never had a chance to talk about yesterday. How are you feeling? I know what happened is a lot to take in, especially after a short period of time, are you still okay after what happened or do you—"
"Not another word," the Ultimate Student Council President menacingly interrupted. "What happened yesterday cannot be changed, and I have no intention of doing so, there's nothing to gain by dwelling on the past. That's not a problem, I suppose, mistakes can be learned from and help find a resolve of things. I'm going to work even harder to spread hope and destroy all traces of despair, no matter what."
Ryota felt pretty nervous, he remembered clearly what Munakata last said yesterday. "That means, what you said was true? You're really considering yourself a player to Monokuma's game and will abide to his rules?"
Munakata nodded. "Yes, my plan can't be achieved with some collateral damage, that much is obvious. I didn't get any sleep last night, but that gave me plenty of time to reflect on things, and all remaining participants of this game, including you Mitarai. You were formerly classmates with the Remnants of Despair. By that logic, how do we know you're not just a double agent? If we can rule out Naegi had anything to do with this game, wouldn't you be the next contender?"
"That can't be right," chimed in Gekkogahara, with Monomi raising her hands out of defense. "We already ruled out the Remnants of Despair having anything to do with this killing game, and yesterday there's something else I learned. The ones who trapped us inside this building are apparently a group called The New Revolution."
"WOAH! WOAH! WOAH! WOAH!"
And once again, like always, Monokuma appeared right out of nowhere, something that Ryota still struggled to get used to, with the bear already frustrated by the turn of events. "No! The New Revolution is classified information that you bastards aren't supposed to know about yet, it's top secret!"
Though that anger was fairly short lived, the bear eased up and simply shrugged his shoulders after that. "Oh well! Guess that lightens my load for a while! But, I wasn't expecting you guys to learn about that until Chapter 6."
"A group known as The New Revolution?" Munakata repeated in confusion. "I don't believe I've ever heard a name like that before, and you're saying they're the ones behind this killing game, and not the Remnants of Despair?"
"Well...now that you mention it, I've never heard that name before either," Ryota followed, he continued to mentally reassure himself that his old classmates indeed had nothing to do with this killing game, although part of him still felt nervous about it.
"I guess since the cat's finally out of the bag, then I'll have no choice but to spill that information," Monokuma sighed. "Yep, you're right on the money. The New Revolution is an organization made up of Future Foundation traitors behind this whole killing game."
That small hint immediately sparked Ryota's interest, he figured that Monokuma would probably never actually drop such a bombshell without some kind of ulterior motive behind it, and if it were anything like his motive, then it wouldn't entail anything good.
"You mean, there's another person among us that's a traitor?" the Ultimate Animator asked, personally hoping with every part of him it wasn't true.
"Right-A-Rooney! Somebody else in your group's still helping me out with the killing game!" Monokuma giggled, "But unlike Yukizome-san, this person wasn't dumb enough to blow their cover early in the game."
"Don't you ever say that name again!" Munakata furiously hissed, his hands were hovering over an invisible scabbard, having already forgotten that he disposed of his katana, he compensated by giving the two-toned bear a death stare.
"Aww, I'm sorry. Did I strike a nerve? In that case…" Monokuma giggled sarcastically, he proceeded to take a deep breathe and said, "YUKIZOMEYUKIZOMEYUKIZOMEYUKIZOMEYUKIZOMEYUKIZOME!"
"Shut up!" the Ultimate Student Council President barked, that was the first time Ryota had ever heard the usually composed man break away from his aloofness. "Is there any reason you're here, or did you just come to tell us about The New Revolution?"
"Upupupu...as a matter of fact, there is!" Monokuma giggled. "If you guys think you're gonna find any big secrets that'll jeopardize the fate of this killing game, then you've sadly mistaken!"
Monomi's ears twitched, clearly anticipating some very bad news. "What secrets? What're you talking about?" Gekkogahara dared herself to ask.
"This floor is completely plot-twist free! No secret entrances, no hidden rooms, and no breaking the status quo!" the bear cheerfully announced. "If you bastards wanna learn the truth behind this game, then you're just gonna have to commit ten murders and walk out when only three of you are still alive! Otherwise, no dise."
"You mean, there won't be any clues on how we can escape this place?" Ryota asked.
"Yep! I couldn't make things too easy for you bastards, now could I?" Monokuma taunted. "Besides, I don't wanna repeat another R06LLS-fiasco where one of you bastards write that graffiti on my precious door!"
"Graffiti?" Gekkogahara's eyes widened a little. "What're you talking about, you didn't write R06LLS on that door?"
"Duh, I'm a bear, silly! I don't even have opposable thumbs!" Monokuma giggled.
Whether Monokuma actually wrote that or not, there were still far too many questions on Ryota's mind to leave things unsaid. "Then, if you didn't write that message than who did—"
"Woah, look at the time! The time for questions is now over!" the monochromatic bear purposely interrupted. "Anywho, I'm gonna make like a tree and leave. Happy killing!"
The two-toned bear made his escape once more, a sigh of exasperation forcefully escaped from Ryota's mouth. He hadn't known Monokuma for very long, but he already seemed adjusted to his constant retreating back to some unknown place and overall going about as he pleased. There was no point in arguing about something that simply couldn't be helped.
"Monokuma is insane," the Ultimate Animator gulped. "Even after everything that happened yesterday, he's still content on forcing us to kill each other."
Gekkogahara followed up with a nod. "Yeah, I can agree with you on that," she retorted, as sweat dripped from Monomi. "And is it really possible that any of us would commit a murder at this point?"
"I disagree wholeheartedly," Munakata rebuked, his eyes narrowed at the door where the teddy bear left in. Admittedly, both Ryota and Gekkogahara weren't expecting that kind of reaction coming from a person like him, someone who spent the past few days attempting to keep everyone together.
The silver haired man gave a quick glance at the pictures of a teenage Yukizome spread across the walls. "Don't misunderstand me, there's not a single part of Monokuma that I don't loathe, however, there's something that cannot be denied about this mutual killing game."
"What're...you insinuating?" Ryota stepped back a little.
Instead of actually giving an explanation on what he'd been talking about, like the Ultimate Animator was expecting, Munakata retrieved two photographs from his pocket and placed them on Ryota's hands. "I found this on Yukizome's desk when I first came this morning," the Ultimate Student Council President informed.
The first picture appeared fairly normal, depicting a scene with Yukizome playing with a group of five small children in a very carefree manner; the second picture was the exact opposite showing the housekeeper happily on a swing set with the aforementioned children all dead behind her.
If the picture wasn't already crude enough, the message written in pink ink didn't nothing to remedy the situation.
"I did it!"
That second picture proved itself to be extremely jarring for Ryota, a part of him wanted to scream and drop the picture altogether, however, that didn't happen, he could only latch onto the pictures trying to comprehend what he just saw. Everything still seemed bizarre, and the idea of his teacher committing so many heinous crimes was hard to comprehend.
Yes, of course. He completely understood that this was the point that Munakata was trying to make with these photos.
Anyone can be a killer.
A/N: As we now enter the second chapter of this fic, right off the bat, I want to thank everyone who read and supported the first chapter. Specifically in Chapter 13, where it gained the most views of a chapter in one day on
I won't lie, the perspective switch between Makoto to Ryota was the scariest thing I'd done, and it was a huge gamble, but the general reactions honestly went a lot more well than I'd been expecting.
Anyway, onto the chapter. My absolute favorite part was the newly established friendship between Ryota and Miaya. Ironically, these two don't even interact in the canon, but I always love seeing fan art between the two of them. I intended for Miaya to be a sort of "heroine/sidekick" character for Ryota, kinda like Kyoko or Chiaki, and I also wanted someone who could help shoulder some of his struggles.
Giving Ryota a partner was actually a pretty tough choice, at first I decided on Aoi, but I later changed his partner to Miaya because she's such an underrated character in the DR fanbase and I wanted to give her some more time in the spotlight.
Another new aspect added in this were the "Yukizome Theater" (another idea I had since the fic's creation), which were inspired by System Restore by CarthagoDelenda. Since DR3 already had scenes of Chisa being in a movie theater, I wanted to incorporate them in the fic somehow.
TigerWarrior1998: Thanks for the review. Yeah, I thought long and hard about the switch and decided to go through with it. I always felt Ryota had potential to be a good protagonist since his character would've made for a great growth arc. The reason for why the group didn't find out why Chisa became an Ultimate Despair will be explained a little later.
PrinnyMunchIt: Thanks, that's sort of what I was trying to establish since it invokes a feeling that even the DR1 cast aren't completely safe in this story.