Disclaimer: The Danganronpa franchise does not belong to me. The content affiliated with this fanfiction belong to Spike Chunsoft and Kazutaka Kodaka. The cover art belongs to the artist, Sakuya. This fanfiction is being cross-uploaded on Archive Our Own, and the authors notes are located at the bottom.
Chapter Three: A Heartless Journey Pt 2
"Guten Tag, bastards! I have a very special announcement to make, so please make your way to the meeting room for further instructions!"
Ryota was shocked after hearing that announcement, part of him was aware to some degree that something like this would be happening soon since they never received a Monokuma announcement yet, but that only increased his distress about the circumstance. The minute they walk into that room, the bear is going to announce something terrible, while awful to admit, things almost never played in their favor in this game.
Sakakura sighed. "Great, another one of those announcements. Whatever Monokuma's planning next can't be good, after enabling Munakata to do all the crazy stuff to Gozu and Bandai anything could happen now."
Ryota had already woefully realized this truth before, it scared him to death of not being aware of what could happen next. "I guess we don't really have a choice in the matter, otherwise Monokuma's just gonna punish us and inject us with poison."
He nodded, agreeing with Ryota before letting out another sigh. "Well, it better not be another fucking motive after how well things turned out last time."
As usual, there wasn't a choice in disobeying Monokuma's orders, so the two made their way back to the conference room to find that everyone had already been present, waiting for the last two to arrive. After some initial glances around the room, Ryota could have sworn that some people were absent as the room looked noticeably smaller than before, unfortunately having to remind himself that four participants in the game had died.
A bigger surprise than anything was a particular person who stood quietly. It was Munakata who didn't pay attention to anyone else and seemingly was waiting for Monokuma to finally appear with the announcement. Ryota had started wondering where their unstable Vice Chairman had gone after the second trial ended, his absence was more alarming than it was satisfying.
"What the heck are you doing here!?" Asahina barked. "You've got some nerve showing your face here after everything you did yesterday!"
"These are required meetings for the killing game, are they not?" Munakata calmly asked almost like nothing had even happened during the last trial. "Surely Monokuma would punish me severely for missing something like that, and I'm not about to take that chance."
Ando angrily jumps behind Izayoi for her own protection. "You're lucky we're stuck in this dumb killing game, otherwise I would've had Yoi-chan end your life by now, now just stay the hell away from me!"
Ryota could see that everyone was already mistrusting of Munakata because of his actions, even Naegi and Gekkogahara weren't saying anything to defend his actions, though in all fairness it wasn't like he really deserved it anyway. Something that really came to Ryota's attention was the sincere look of uncertainty on Sakakura's face, almost implying that he was conflicted on his decision.
Normally, this would be the part where Sakakura defends Munakata's actions and perhaps even threaten the person that was trying to oppose his leader, but this time he only hung back with a discordant expression.
"Hello, my beloved employees!" Monokuma emerged from underneath the desk, Ryota assumed that he was probably spying on them from underneath the table the entire time for a dramatic entrance. "How's everyone doing to beeyoutiful morning? None of you guys have suffered a kamikaze, so I'm guessing you're all doing better than Bandai-kun."
"Shut up!" Asahina hissed. "You don't even deserve to say his name!"
"Why are you using Bandai-san's name like that in vain?" Kimura angrily asked the bear.
"Did you only come here to congratulate us for winning another trial? If so then you're wasting my time again." Ando sighed in exasperation.
Gekkogahara shook her head. "No, I think Monokuma has another reason for gathering us all here together. Wouldn't this be the time where he unlocks another floor in the building for us to explore."
Monokuma nodded. "Right! I want you guys to feel as comfortable as possible, so I decided to unlock a new floor for you to explore, don't worry you bastards won't have to worry about being trapped this time."
"Is it really safe to explore another floor?" Kimura hesitantly asked. "Isn't this playing into Monokuma's trap? The minute we explore the next floor he's just gonna unveil another motive?"
"Well, it's not like we have any other options." Kizakura pointed out.
"That's true. Exploring this floor will certainly help us in getting closer to uncovering the truth behind this killing game, regardless of whether or not a murder happens." Munakata replied.
"Um, excuse me! Who died and made you leader again!?" Ando assertively placed her hands to her hips. "Why are you suddenly taking charge after acting batshit insane?"
"Wait, I think Munakata-san might be right about that. If there's a chance to find out more about the game and escape this place then we need to take it." Naegi said.
"Like hell I'm taking orders from him!" the confectioner retorted. "I'm not risking my life so you guys can go around playing detective!"
"Well, Ando-chan, I'd hate to break things to you, but we don't exactly have too many options." Kizakura reminded her. "We can either stay here forever, living a communal life and never ending the game, OR , we can head down to this new floor and discover a way out of this place."
"I know already, dammit!" Ando sighed, "Pointing it out the obvious doesn't make it any better to deal with!"
Monokuma smiled and tilted his head. "Hmmm, seems like you bastards are still a little down in the mouth, looks like you'll need a little motivation!"
"What do you mean by motivation?" Kirigiri questioned.
"Upupu...I probably shouldn't say, but there's a lot of interesting stuff located on the next floor that could even help you with your escape!" Monokuma teased. "A little birdie even told me that there could be some information about The New Revolution and the missing memories that were stolen from you."
"Yeah right, you're just bluff!" Sakakura rolled his eyes. "It's probably just a trick so you can get us to start another murder."
"I agree with him for once! Just how stupid do you think we are?" Ando followed.
"It's not a lie, I've crossed your heart and hope you die and stick a needle in your eye!" Monokuma assured them. " Buuut , if you bastards are really that afraid to break the status quo, then you can always stay on this floor for the rest of your lives, I've got a hilarious bad ending prepared in case that ever happens."
"Now I'm sure you all finally see things by way, correct?" Munakata asked the group. "It's imperative to investigate this next floor if you all value escaping this building without any further casualties."
In concern, Asahina turned to her friends hoping they would have the correct answer. "Naegi, Kyoko-chan, what should we do, is it really safe to explore the lower floor if another murder could happen."
Naegi nodded. "Even if Monokuma's just trying to bait us into killing each other once again, we have to have to take that chance, Bandai-san, Gozu-san, and the Chairman wouldn't want us to stay trapped in this building forever."
"I agree with Naegi-kun, progressing to the lower floor is our only chance at ending the game." Kirigiri replied.
Ryota decided to take the influential words of Naegi to heart, more than anything they needed to survive this killing game for sake all the people that had died thus far and avenge them, he believed that none of the participants who died would ever be able to rest in peace until that happened.
As Monokuma retreated, the participants were all left with no other choice but to board the elevator to explore the newest floor left for them. Ryota was a tad disappointment that all the other buttons on the elevator was still out of order, except for the one for the new floor, but knew something like that was going to happen in the first place and decided not to put up any further arguments.
Kizakura volunteered to push the elevator, mostly on the grounds that he was closest to the button, and the shaft descended downwards. While on the elevator ride, Ryota started wondering what could be in store for them below. Monokuma mentioned that new information about their perpetrator and their missing memories, something that he questioned the genuineness of, it felt too good to be true that he would simply reveal the big secrets of the game so easily.
Of course, that also made him wonder exactly what kind of memories were stolen from them in the first place. Ryota still remembers all the Future Foundation members and the memories of before the killing game are still intact, which means Monokuma must have taken memories that specifically related to the killing game.
Before he knew it, the elevator shaft descended to the next floor, they were again greeted by the unhealthy amount of surveillance cameras and monitors placed all across the rooms. The first person to leave the elevator was Sakakura, who began looking around just like everyone else.
"This is the new floor, huh?" the Ultimate Boxer rhetorically asked. "That means whatever secret Monokuma is hiding must be somewhere here."
"Where would we be able to find information about the mastermind or our missing memories in the first place?" Kimura questioned. "I'm honestly not even sure I would know where to start."
"Well, guess we won't really know until we look, right?" Asahina retorted. "We'd better start looking in every inch of this floor if we wanna find what Monokuma was talking about!"
Ryota still was trying to figure out if Monokuma's promise was actually true or just another trap, either way something just didn't feel right about this. The other participants decided to go their separate ways in groups to scout the new rooms themselves and see if they could find anything.
The only person who hadn't left yet was Gekkogahara, who approached him after being in deep thought as well. "Hey Mitarai-kun, do you mind if I investigate with you?"
"No, but what for?" Ryota timidly asked.
"Well, the two of us definitely discovered a lot whenever we investigated Gozu-san's, maybe we'll find out more about the mastermind or our stolen memories if we work together again?" Gekkogahara replied before playfully laughing, "Not to mention, remember what I said before? We're soul mates, so it's probably best that we stay together."
"That again?" the Ultimate Animator snorted in amusement.
Ryota chuckled a little and could visibly hear some giggles coming from underneath Gekkogahara's scarf, it was the first time even heard her without the use of her Monomi avatar. He knew that she was probably making an effort to lighten the mood and keep him optimistic right now, something he needed more than anything.
Their first destination was a room that Ryota had never imagined he would ever visit ever again, in fact simply stepping foot into this room felt extremely anomalous after the many months of absence. The room itself was the Ultimate Animator's office — Ryota's own office to be more specific.
While he hated them wholeheartedly for putting them inside a mutual killing game and erasing his memories, Ryota had to give some credit to their enemies for meticulous replicating his office down to every single detail, he wondered why or why they would go the extra mile for something as ludicrous as a killing game.
Some of the details in this place where so on point that Ryota wondered how they could have recreated the place. He instantly recognized his DALL brand computer with a graphic drawing tablet in the center of the room, it must have been a while since he even touched a single piece of animation, being a division leader in the Future Foundation meant to free time was scarce, especially for an innate workaholic like him.
His shelves were still filled to the brim with many movies and manga, only feeding into his concerns about exactly how much their enemies knew about them. It was actually rather creepy to think that someone could flawlessly replicate their surroundings.
They still couldn't get a view of the outside world since Ryota's windows were blocked off with iron plates like the rest, regardless of that he usually kept the curtains closed anyway.
On the table he kept an electric kettle and a pantry full of cup gokubuto, which already gave a pretty good idea of what his diet was composed of. In all honesty, Ryota never really like cup ramen to begin with, but he isn't exactly the best cook and finds it easier to eat and continue diligently working on animations.
"Hey, this is your room, right Mitarai-kun?" Gekkogahara asked.
Ryota nodded and joined her in investigating the room. "Yeah, but it's a little strange that our captivator somehow recreated every detail in these rooms."
"I agree. If we're really in a replica building then they would have needed to monitor every single detail in this building, they must have been planning this killing game for months," Gekkogahara followed. "That makes me a little curious, where we under surveillance even before the killing game began?"
She did bring up a pretty valid question, the only possible person that could have flawlessly replicated the building would have been a member of the Future Foundation, meaning that their enemy must be someone that kept close tabs on them all, or a traitor.
While Ryota was contemplation over what piece of speculation could potentially be true, he barely noticed that Gekkogahara went over to his desk and saw a framed photograph at the desk. Her face seemed to imply that she was smiling underneath her scarf. "Hey Mitarai-kun, I found something that you might like."
It was a photograph that dated back to his teenage years; a younger version of Ryota alongside a colorful bunch of teenagers that would later go on to be the Remnants of Despair, they were the 77th before they were converted into despair. Being able to see his old classmates after such a long time caused Ryota's eyes to get a little moist, something that he quickly recovered from.
In addition to seeing his old classmates again, Ryota found it rather awkward seeing the younger version of himself, a boy much more carefree and innocent, lacking the bags under his eyes that he grew used to, and ignorant to the literal tragedy that would inflict the world in under a year.
Gekkogahara took that to heart and began typing on her keyboard. "Hey, Mitarai-kun. There's something that I've been wondering for a long time now. You knew the Remnants of Despair before they were manipulated by Enoshima, what were they like before that happened?"
Ryota chuckled a little and smiled sadly. "Honestly, they were all pretty strange and unique people, a pretty colorful bunch, and at the same time they were all really close. When I was around them...it almost felt like they were a second family to me."
"I remember that Sonia-san was always interested in my animations and she especially loved lots of Japanese dramas that I've never even heard of. Koizumi-san would often scold me for paying more attention to animating than eating or sleeping, sometimes she'd bring me food."
"Komaeda-san was a little weird, but he seemed well intentioned. Nidai-san and Owari-san constantly took notice of how much food I would eat and irk me to eat and exercise more. Togami-san outright refused to let me go even a single day without eating."
"And by Togami-san, you mean the Ultimate Imposter, right?" Gekkogahara asked, with Monomi's ears springing upwards after that reveal.
Ryota smiled warmly and nodded. "Imposter-san was one of my closest friends and the first classmate I ever befriended and the only one I met without Enoshima's help . I'd love to meet him and the others again."
"Maybe you can," Gekkogahara pointed out. "Don't you remember what I said before? Naegi-kun and Kirigiri-san put your friends in the Neo World Program to undo their influence on Enoshima. If it's successful then they'll be back to their old selves, and you can even see them again."
He was a little caught off guard by her kind words, mainly because there weren't too many people in the Future Foundation that were willing to forgive the actions of the Remnants of Despair. Ryota smiled nonetheless, "I guess you're right. Maybe once everything's over you can meet my classmates as well."
The Ultimate Therapist smiled. "Yeah...I'd like that."
Stepping foot into the chemistry lab made Ryota suddenly notice a major shift in temperature, almost like he just stepped into a freezer, it made him wonder exactly what this room was trying to preserve. Strange or not, it appeared that Kimura had already taken an interest in this place and was doing a little investigation of her own, which was appropriate considering her former title as the Ultimate Pharmacist, something like this was probably right up her alley.
Frankly, it was difficult for Ryota and Gekkogahara to figure out exactly what they should even be investigating in this rooms, there were many metal cabinets with chemicals inside, which Gekkogahara believed they would be better off not touching, and medical books with tons of big words that he could hardly understand.
Gekkogahara approached the pharmacist who was still in the middle of investigating the shelves herself. "Excuse me, Kimura-san. I've never visited any chemical labs in the original building, did you know anything about this room?"
Kimura nodded shyly. "Yeah...since I'm the leader of the 4th Division it's my job to create drugs for the Future Foundation, everything looks about the same, but it's just an accurate replica, right?"
"Right," the blue haired therapist answered. "Now that we know we're in a fake building, it opens our eyes up to all the similarities and inconsistencies between the two buildings, it makes me wonder how our enemies knew every inch of the real building."
If the scrupulous details weren't enough to drive Ryota on edge, then being inside the chemistry lab was more than enough to put him in a state of extreme shock. The room itself reminded him of a hospital, and the vibe it was giving was like being a child that's forced to wait for a vaccination. It begged the question of whether the chemistry lab was this creepy in the original building or was another feature exclusively implemented by Monokuma.
In spite of everything, what really creeped Ryota out the most was a strange "capsule" device all by its lonesome in the farthest corner of the room, it looked painfully out of place even for something inside of a chemistry lab and seemed reminiscent to something that would be found in a science fiction setting.
The sight alone was giving Ryota goosebumps, his legs carried him over to the capsule for a closer look. He couldn't quite explain why, but for some reason it almost felt like it was calling out to him. "Hey Kimura-san, what's this thing?"
Her eyebrows raised at his question and she scurried over for a closer examination. "I don't really know, this is entirely new to me as well, Monokuma must've added it in. From what I can guess, it's probably a shower. Sometimes chemical showers are added in laboratories to wash off any exposure to dangerous chemicals on the skin."
Ryota faintly remembered reading about chemical showers somewhere in a book before, he had never even seen one in person before, in spite of all that he just couldn't shake off the feeling there was a little more to this thing. What was the meaning of that strange intuition that he received?
Popping out of nowhere like usual was Monokuma who beared (no pun intended) an angry expression on his face. "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! You bastards are the wrongest, wrongers, who ever wronged! I can't even tell you how wrong you guys are about this assumption!"
"Monokuma! What're you doing here!?" Ryota gasped.
"And what do you mean we're wrong?" Kimura curiously asked.
"Is this not a shower?" Gekkogahara followed, with Monomi tilting her head in confusion. "If so, then what is this thing supposed to be?"
" Wellll , it's not not a chemical shower if that's what you were wondering," Monokuma cheerfully explained. "It's a patented machine specifically made for making Monokuma robots. It makes Monokuma babies every second, but keep your mind out the gutter, this isn't animal planet!"
Like always, the two-toned bear had been speaking so fast that Ryota could hardly even keep up with him. "Wait a minute, I'm not exactly sure what you're saying."
"What did nobody give you a talk about the bears and the bees when you were a kid?" Monokuma tilted his head. "You see, when a Mommy-Kuma and a Daddy-Kuma love each other very much, they—!"
Ryota's face flushed a bright red color in embarrassment. "No, that's not what I meant! I MEANT, are all the Monokuma robots really made here?"
"What, do you want that in writing?" Monokuma amusingly questioned. "I'd be impossible for me to monitor you all at every moment, so the mastermind decided to create multiple Monokuma robots that watch over you bastards throughout the killing game."
As the two-toned bear once again retreated away to some anonymous location he left them all with that information. Ryota sighed, "Even now I still don't understand Monokuma. What was he talking about? Is this really a machine that makes Monokuma robots?"
"I suppose we don't really have any reason to believe that he was lying, but it makes me curious why Monokuma would have something like this lying out in the open." Gekkogahara replied.
After parting ways with Kimura, who seemed to have wanted to continue examining all the different drugs on the floor, the two proceeded with their own investigating and explored some of the remaining rooms on this floor, in all honesty those rooms were nothing too special, the majority of the areas were cubicle rooms and common area, except they were all rendered totally redundant considering their in the midst of a killing game.
It went without saying that none of these rooms offered them any access to the outside world, fortunately they could communicate with Alter Ego with the assistance from Alter Ego, but that could only so far. According to some of the stories Ryota heard in the past, when Naegi and his friends were in their first killing game their memories of the Tragedy were erased and they had no idea what was going on beyond the school.
That only confused Ryota on why they were retreading this now. All fifteen participants of this killing game were fully aware of the Tragedy, so why would Monokuma refuse to disclose information about the outside world. Exactly what was going on outside of this decoy building?
Some of the other available rooms were nothing too special, a small diner was opened up with a plethora of delicious provisions in the kitchen, and another dormitory for the respective genders.
Their final destination proved to be an area that left Ryota with a bitter taste in his mouth, for the due to the sheer fact that it felt tremendously out of place with every other place they have visited on this new floor thus far, part of Ryota felt this place was likely designed by Monokuma when taking its decore into consideration.
It was a ginormous wooden door centered in the beeline of the hall, strangely enough it was the only place in the entire building that didn't appear remotely pristine or well kept, almost like the renovator didn't even bother trying to keep the place clean, even the ambience appeared very off putting, it felt like there was an increased temperature drop near the doorknob and Ryota could have sworn he spotted a few spots of blood on the door as well.
He wasn't sure if the blood was real or fake, but either way he didn't like it.
The part that really sparked his interest and fear at the same time was the crude red text that was scribbled across the door. Was this written in blood? Either way, he skimmed through the text and was severely caught off guard by the shocking revelation.
"MONOKUMA HUNTER GAME: DEATH CHAMBER"
"Monokuma Hunting Game: Death Chamber?" Gekkogahara repeated. "What's this about?"
"I take it that this room wasn't in the original building, right?" Ryota asked.
Gekkogahara shook her head. "It definitely wasn't, I've never seen this room before. I guess we can't deny this is another room that the New Revolution created for this decoy building."
The Ultimate Animator nervously gazed at the door, he could only imagine what could be waiting for them inside, he wasn't exactly in a rush to find out. "I second that, there's something about the idea of a death chamber that makes me feel uneasy. Not to mention, why would Monokuma make something like this, we're already in a killing game, doesn't the idea of a death chamber seem kinda redundant?"
In the back of Ryota's mind he could shake off the feeling that something important was behind this door, given the name it couldn't entail anything good, but if it was created by their enemies, then wouldn't they be a step closer to solving the mystery of this killing game?
This felt like some kind of bait on Monokuma's part, almost like he was intentionally urging someone to enter the chamber. If so then what could possible be behind it? The two felt is was better to leave this door alone and explain everything to the others, until interrupted by the all too familiar ringing of the announcement bell.
The nearest screen played the regular image of Monokuma setting at his desk with a champagne glass in his paws. "Excuse me, may I have your attention please! How have you bastards enjoyed investigating the new floor, hopefully you've enjoyed it. I have decided to reveal the next motive to the Final Killing Game, so head to the conference room pronto for more announcements."
"The...motive?" Ryota blinked. Those were words that he prayed to never hear ever again, it was because of all these motives that they were put in this killing game to begin with and four of their friends were already lost because of it. For them to be forced to partake in another motive practically meant that two more of their friends would be sentenced to death.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened," Gekkogahara sighed, Monomi followed suit with mushrooms growing out of her head. "Mitarai-kun, we better get going before Monokuma finds us."
"What about the motive?" Ryota shuttered. "The minute we step foot into that room Monokuma's just gonna announce another motive that will lead to us killing each other."
"You're not wrong about that, but there's nothing to worry about," the Ultimate Therapist assured him. "Don't you remember? We only have to hold out until Togami-kun and his forces came come find us."
A/N: Now that the breather was out of the way, it was time to finally progress with the main story once again. Something that I really like about this chapter was the the conflicted feelings that Juzo had with Kyosuke since he doesn't even try to defend him after getting badmouthed by Ruruka.
In this chapter we got to see Ryota and Miaya explore some of the areas on this new floor, namely a chemistry lab and Ryota's office where he finally discussed some of his feelings towards the 77th Class. When I first started writing this series I didn't want to the DR2 cast to have very much attention (they're actually my favorite DR cast) because I was afraid they might overshadow some of the new characters, but I feel a few appearances now and then won't hurt.
A bit of trivia, every office in this fanfic that Makoto/Ryota have visited are in the exact order of the Future Foundation divisions, for example — Tengan, Kyosuke, Koichi, and Seiko were the officers in Chapter 1, and Chisa and Miaya in Chapter 2.