_-*/O\*-_
Danganronpa: Prisoner Havoc - Prologue
Part 1
A quiet groan echoed from his lips as his consciousness returned to him. The first thing he noticed was how foreboding the room felt. There was no light in the room besides an ominous beam of morning sunlight.
The feeling of metal around his wrists immediately made him sit up in surprise. He felt a head rush course through his brain, his vision briefly blackening because of it.
Ah… Right. That's who he was. He remembered now.
"Rantaro Amami," he couldn't help but say, as if he was trying out the name. Even if it was his own. A small chuckle rose from his lips at the thought. "I can't believe I forgot my own name..."
Glancing down at his clothes confirmed a hypothesis that had been brewing in his mind - a black and white jumpsuit, with a weirdly familiar red horizontal eye blazed on the top half of his chest… A prisoner's outfit in other words.
He got the feeling that this wasn't the first time he'd been in one, which was rather strange since… He didn't remember anything about it.
He didn't even remember how he'd arrived at the prison, or why he'd been thrown in it in the first place… He couldn't remember himself committing any sort of crime at all.
'It's pointless speculating about it in here,' the prisoner thought bluntly, knowing quite well that he couldn't hesitate now. He wasn't exactly calm right now, but he was willing to push past whatever underlying fear and panic he felt. 'I need more information.'
Rantaro stood, ignoring his shaking, aching legs. He needed to look around the room firstly, before he did anything else.
Moving along the wall with the window, he saw that on the opposite end of the room to his concrete cot, was an old wooden desk, with a positively ancient stool that looked like it'd break if he sat on it.
On top of the dusty table was a pair of keys, the smaller key had a ship's steering wheel as the handle, while the larger key had a crown with chains attached to it, both chains connected by a tag emblazoned with 'high school'. Inside of that circle was a familiar design, his own prison jumpsuit emblem above a star.
It was rather suspicious to say the least. Prisons simply didn't hand out keys like this, in any situation. Tentatively, Rantaro grabbed the smaller one and began comparing the keyhole of his handcuffs to the key itself and found that they matched.
'These are definitely going to blow up in my face, aren't they?' Rantaro couldn't help but think, even as he began twisting his hand around to put the key in the lock, the strain beginning to genuinely hurt.
He turned the key and briefly held his breath, waiting for a few brief moments for something to happen, only for the handcuffs to loosely drop to the floor with a metallic clang.
'I'm oddly disappointed by that.' The teenager thought with a small frown, even as he rubbed his wrists. 'But at least I'm out of the cuffs… Now to see if that other key works on something.'
A brief look around the somewhat more illuminated room, thanks to the rising sun, allowed him to spot a small metallic drawer right next to an iron door with a small slide next to it for food. On the other side of the door, was a small shower with a drain with a single small bottle of shampoo on the side of it.
Briefly inspecting the drawer, he found a bunch of sets of some rather stylish clothing that seemed oddly tailor made for him, along with a black and white tablet with an iron bar symbol on the front.
'The clothing I can sort of get, if this is some sort of prison for the rich and privileged or something, but what about this tablet? Why does the snazzy clothing contrast so much with this dour tablet?' Rantaro couldn't help but ponder, as he turned the tablet on. There was a set of icons at the home screen but they were all greyed out, and pressing on them did nothing. 'Needs to be activated by whoever is in charge, I suspect.'
'I've seen everything there is to see in this cell and yet, I have nothing solid on well… Anything. It does seem strangely fit for comfort for a prison, but my idea of comfort is probably a bit wonky… And I haven't heard anyone since I've woken up. I hope that the cells are merely soundproof or they're all sleeping, and that's the sole reason I'm not hearing anyone else.' Rantaro concluded, a sense of foreboding slowly settling into him as that honestly terrifying possibility rested in his brain.
'I'll never know if I don't use that key however… And I need to know.' The green-haired teenager thought with renewed vigor as he began to fiddle with the key and the door, gently slotting it in and then turning.
The door opened with only the smallest of pushes on his part, the sunlight briefly blinding him as he took his first steps outside of his cell.
Upon adjusting to the sunlight, Rantaro came across a vast courtyard with several pillars on either side of it, supporting another darkened level above him. The courtyard itself was made of concrete, with the only defining feature besides the cells on the other side of it, being a metal table in the center with eight wooden chairs on either side.
A relatively tall, yet wide teenager was currently inspecting them, who was wearing a rather expensive white suit of his own, having apparently bothered to change. Rantaro couldn't help but feel somewhat inadequate in comparison, which worsened when the guy finally noticed him and immediately turned up his nose.
"Who are you?" The intense boy asked brusquely.
"I'm Rantaro Amami and you are..?" Rantaro introduced himself calmly, ignoring the innate rudeness of such a demand with ease.
The blue-eyed teenager seemed rather affronted by his question. "Do you not recognize me on sight?"
"I'm afraid not," he replied, raising his hands placatingly. He didn't really have a desire to offend anyone if he could avoid it. "But my memories seem to be messed up, so that probably explains why."
"Only to a degree… But I'll excuse it just this once. My name is Byakuya Togami." Byakuya introduced himself, a note of pride in his voice at his last name. "And if it isn't obvious already, my talent is the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy."
"Makes sense, considering what you're the heir of." Rantaro replied easily, remembering all of a sudden… Which was rather strange. "How long have you been out of your cell for?"
The heir narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Before I answer that… What is your talent, Amami?"
"Oh, me?" The green-haired teenager said, blinking as a brief rush of memories welled within him. 'Why am I on a need to know basis with my own memories?' He couldn't help but think in frustration, even as he answered. "I'm the Ultimate Adventurer."
"Hm…" Byakuya hummed, casting an analytical eye over him. "I guess there could be worse talents to have. You may be helpful after all."
'What is that supposed to mean?'
"As for your question… Only for about five minutes." The fancily-dressed teenager continued somewhat seriously. "We appear to be the only people who've gotten out of our cells so far."
"We do." Rantaro answered, the smile dropping off his face at the reminder. "At least this indicates that we're not the sole people in this prison, if both of us managed to escape."
"What makes you say that? I haven't heard or seen anyone besides you so far." Byakuya replied curiously, casting a firm look on him and finally standing from his chair.
"The table being equipped for sixteen people," the adventurer answered with ease, crossing his arms with a grin. "As well as the fact that this prison is far too grandiose and big for the two of us, even if you are who you are, if you'll excuse my lack of tact for a moment."
"Just this once." Togami stated seriously. "It is nice to know that I won't be the only one around here with a brain."
"No need to say things like that," Rantaro cautioned, his hands raised conciliatorily. "We haven't even met our fellow prisoners just yet."
"Hmph… It does not do to refuse a compliment from a Togami, but I see your point." Byakuya said somewhat irritatedly. "Does it not worry you that we're prisoners?"
"...It does, but there's no use worrying about it now, not when we know so little." The green-haired teen replied, gazing away briefly from Byakuya. "If my talent has taught me anything, is that hesitation is often death."
"..." The fancily-dressed teen said nothing in reply, seemingly deep in thought.
"I'm sorry, that was a bit intense." Rantaro apologized, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Didn't mean to make you feel bad."
"You don't need to worry about it, Amami. Your words just reminded me briefly of my past." Byakuya reassured, albeit with a tone of bluntness to it. "Not that someone skinny like you would know what I'm talking about."
Rantaro chuckled at the rather blatant deflection. "I probably won't if that's your criteria… But whatever that may be, your demons are your own, not mine."
Byakuya only harrumphed in response, looking away from him dismissively.
'I hope I haven't prickled his feathers too much, I can't alienate potential allies at the start of whatever this is.' He thought pensively, briefly observing the arrogant teen in front of him. 'I reckon though that even if I had, he'd push past it if necessary. He seems like the type to do that.'
The brief silence that had ensued was shattered by the quiet yet eerily echoey sound of a metallic door opening. He shot a furtive glance at Byakuya, whose only reaction was to squint into the direction of the cells, making him turn around as well.
A blue-haired girl of average height stepped out of her cell with an anxious step, her somewhat normal high school outfit reminding him of what exactly he was wearing right now. Her eyes caught them immediately, her anxious expression immediately collapsing into a relieved one.
"Come on over here," Byakuya ordered as soon as she stepped into his vision, not even skipping a beat. "I have something to discuss with you."
"Oh… Sure?" The girl said somewhat nervously, her previous semi-confident gait slowing to a hesitant one.
Rantaro shot her a reassuring smile, in an attempt to mitigate the bluntness that was the Togami heir. "Come on Byakuya, try not to scare her too much."
The prodigy's response was to turn his nose up at him in an offended manner. "I am not trying to scare her, merely obtain more information."
"Just use a bit less blunt language, okay?" He responded carefully, raising his hands placatingly. "There's no need to potentially offend people if it's so easy to avoid it."
Byakuya stared at him imperiously for a short second, before letting out a small disgusted sigh.
'Seriously?' The adventurer thought with no small amount of frustration.
"You two really don't need to fight over that," the blue-haired girl said as she approached them, a small frown on her rather beautiful features. "I really didn't mind."
"You might not, but others might." Rantaro responded somewhat bluntly, before shaking his head. "But enough of that. I'm Rantaro Amami, and his lordship over there is Byakuya Togami."
The look that Byakuya shot him would've likely froze him twice over, if it weren't for the pretty smile that bloomed on the girl's face. "And I'm Sayaka Maizono. It's nice to meet you two."
"Likewise," Rantaro briefly responded with a confident smirk, that he'd been told looked quite charming.
"If we've all finished introducing each other," the heir interrupted with an aggravated tilt to his voice. "I need to pose you some questions, Maizono."
Sayaka quickly glanced at him, and he only nodded at her. They did need the information after all. "Alright, but I'm not sure what I do know will be useful."
"That's fine," Byakuya affirmed, even if the comforting words came out somewhat strained. "Did you hear our conversation from earlier in your cell?"
'Huh. He seems to have listened to me, even if just a little.'
"Er… No, I didn't." Sayaka replied, looking somewhat confused. "I actually thought that I was alone when I first woke up, which was… Terrifying, to say the least."
"I guess that confirms my hypothesis," he absent-mindedly muttered aloud, making Sayaka and Byakuya turn to him with inquisitive looks. "I thought that the cells were soundproof, and this just confirms it."
"If it helps, I woke up about ten minutes ago." The blue-eyed girl added, causing him to nod thankfully in her direction.
"Well that answers one of the mysteries of this prison." Byakuya mused, closing his eyes with a smirk. "This merely reinforces my decision to keep you on, Amami."
'Weird way to congratulate someone, but…' He pondered briefly.
"...Doesn't that mean that all of our cell mates…" Sayaka said sadly, like she didn't want to ponder the possibility.
"They're probably awake and pondering if they're alone too." Rantaro affirmed grimly. "If we want to help them out, we'll have to figure out how to get them out soon before they crack."
A heavy silence drifted on them at that realization - even Byakuya seemed disquieted by it. The adventurer began to regret bringing it up if he was being honest with himself, even if the information was important to take note of.
"Then we'll just have to figure that out, don't we?" The blue-haired girl declared firmly, her gaze flickering between him and the heir. "We already managed to find out about the cells being soundproof, so now all we have to do is pinpoint what lets us open the other cell doors."
"If we even can… For all we know, they simply haven't figured out how to open the doors, or aren't awake." The well-dressed teenager pronounced even if he looked rather reluctant to do so.
"Even if they are, we have to try anyway right?" Rantaro retorted without much harshness to his voice towards the prodigy.
"...You're right, Amami." Byakuya responded with an odd tilt to his voice that he couldn't place. "Let me think of a few solutions then for our problem."
The adventurer looked analytically at the heir for a brief moment, before deciding to leave him alone with his thoughts.
Turning away from Byakuya, he shot a small smile at Sayaka. "Thank you for reminding us of what we have to do, by the way."
"Ah," Sayaka flushed in embarrassment at his words. "Don't worry about it. Getting people into a happier state of mind is part of my job after all."
"That reminds me…" The green-eyed boy began to say, only for her to laugh surprisingly melodiously.
"I know what you're going to ask." She interrupted with a carefree smile. "You were going to ask what my talent was, weren't you?"
"...Am I that obvious?" Rantaro replied somewhat sheepishly with a small laugh, rubbing the back of his head.
"Only a little, don't worry about it." Sayaka reassured him with a sly smile. "But it's more that I'm psychic than anything else."
He hummed in quiet amusement, briefly remembering an encounter with a Tibetan 'monk' in a café. "Believe it or not… That isn't the strangest thing I've heard someone say to explain their own intuition."
"Aw… You ruined my joke." The girl complained, looking genuinely sad… Only for a small giggle to escape her at his worried look. "I'm kidding. You really don't like girls being sad, do you, Rantaro?"
"No, not particularly… Don't ask me more about it though, please." Rantaro answered somewhat shortly, looking away from her uncomfortably. She had hit way too close to home on that front. '...My talent truly is inaccurate to what happened to my family, isn't it?'
"Okay. You don't need to talk about it now, or ever if you want." Sayaka said calmly, looking somewhat worriedly at him for a brief second. "Let's change the subject… If you still want to know my talent, I'm the Ultimate Idol."
"The Ultimate Idol…" He muttered to himself briefly, before a figurative lightbulb rang in his head. "I remember now. My sisters adore you - they have posters of you and your group all around their rooms."
"Never been to one of the shows?" The idol asked curiously.
"Only from hearing about how awesome they were after they've gone to one, I'm afraid." Rantaro admitted, hoping that his honesty wouldn't offend her too much. "It's not really my thing…"
"Don't worry, I'm not offended at all," she responded with a knowing smile, as if she had known what he'd been thinking.
'Maybe she actually is a psychic… Not that it matters really.'
"Are you two finished with your conversation?" Byakuya interrupted seriously, with a somewhat tense expression. "Because I think I have an idea on what we can do to help out our cellmates… If they need helping at all."
'Could've done without that last comment…'
"Even if we weren't, our… cellmates are more important." Sayaka responded somewhat encouragingly, even as she seemed to grow downcast at the word 'cellmates'.
The heir seemed to relax somewhat at her words. "What sort of keys did we use to exit our cells?"
Rantaro immediately grabbed his strange key from his pocket, showing it to them. "I used this one to exit my cell. I'm guessing that both of yours are completely different?"
Byakuya snatched it from his hand almost immediately, and held it up to the light analytically. "If yours too is different, Sayaka… I believe that we have answered the riddle."
Rantaro slowly began retracting his outstretched arm, feeling simultaneously offended, amused and exasperated. He really should've expected that to happen… "Why don't you show yours too, Byakuya? For mine and Sayaka's benefit."
"If you believe it necessary… After all, it is a leader's duty to indulge their underlings occasionally." Their suddenly self-imposed leader acknowledged with no small amount of self-valorisation as he rifled through his suit's pockets.
The adventurer and the idol glanced ever so briefly at each other, trying to gage if either of them was going to say anything on it, before deciding to save themselves the trouble.
"Well here is mine," Byakuya announced, brandishing his key almost like it was a special item in a video game.
Rantaro grabbed it off him immediately, gleaning no small amount of satisfaction from the surprised look on the leader's face, and began looking it over with an analytical eye.
The key had a somewhat more jagged shape then his own, looking more akin to a knife of some sort and the keychain on it was just… Oddly cutesy. It was a white and pink rabbit with two heterochromatic black and red eyes.
"Definitely different to say the least… Even putting aside the keychain, the key itself is different from mine." Rantaro affirmed as he offhandedly passed the key to Sayaka, who looked somewhat off-put by it. "If the cells all have different locks… That means it'll be trial and error to see what works or not."
"Maybe… Did any of you see some sort of symbol above the key holes?" The idol asked hopefully, only for her face to fall at their respective shakes of the head. "I hoped that was a thing…"
"I doubt that whoever planned this would let it be that easy." Rantaro asserted calmly, watching with a careful eye as Byakuya and Sayaka turned towards him.
"Huh…? What do you mean?" The blue-haired girl asked worriedly.
"If you believe that you know something, Amami…" The large prodigy warned, the intended imperious effect lessened by the subtly concerned look on his face.
'I shouldn't reveal my hand too early… Even if I do trust these two, it's simply unwise.' The adventurer thought analytically, realizing that if there was a mastermind like he thought… 'Who's to say that they're not watching right now?'
"I'm just thinking out loud, don't worry about it." He quickly reassured, raising his hands placatingly. "We should probably start opening the cells now, shouldn't we?"
At his reminder, Sayaka seemed to perk up almost immediately. "Yeah, of course… Especially since we have a plan now."
"Hmm." Byakuya hummed pensively, looking at him imperiously for a moment before nodding to himself. "Yes, let's. We'll start from the side that all three of us exited from."
"...Wait, we all exited from that side?" Sayaka wondered aloud, flushing red as she realized something. "So we aren't divided by gender?"
Rantaro chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck as they began to walk towards the east side of the courtyard. "I guess not… But our cells are rather secure and private, so I think we'll all be fine."
"I hope so…" The idol whispered, rubbing her arms uncomfortably.
He could only offer a somewhat strained smile in response, mostly because he could see exactly where she was coming from.
"Ahem," the heir interrupted with a fake cough, much to their respective reliefs. "We'll start with the one next to your cell, Amami."
Glancing at the cell that Byakuya had decided, he noted that the open cells were right next to each other. 'That isn't particularly strange… But why does it feel like it should be?'
"Hmm… Were those billboards there before?" Sayaka asked with a brief hum of thought, pointing her finger above the cell doors.
"...I didn't notice them before," Rantaro admitted as he glanced upon the billboards with their names and a strange pixel-art demonstration of themselves – even his prisoner clothes. "Wait, do they update periodically? Because I don't usually wear this."
"Wait, you don't?" She blurted out, blushing fiercely as she realized what she'd said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so blunt..."
"I'm the Ultimate Adventurer, not the Ultimate Prisoner." He joked lightly, her blush somehow managing to darken at the teasing. A part of him wanted to tease her some more, but… That was just his nostalgia talking. And they were wasting enough time as it was. "By the way… Don't worry about being honest. Especially when we're doing something important."
"I agree." Byakuya stated firmly. "Even if it was about something inane, honesty is needed in unknown situations where we need the truth quickly. Just make it about relevant discussions next time."
'...Even when he's advising people, he's managing to sound dismissive… To be fair, considering his talent, that isn't all that surprising.'
"Uh… Thank you?" The idol responded, sounding unsure if she should be offended or not. "I'll try to keep in mind what you said."
"As you should." The heir harrumphed, pointing his nose up ever so briefly in the air. "Advice from the Togami heir is not something to be ignored."
Sayaka let out a small giggle at that even as Byakuya shot her a dirty look from behind his glasses.
Rantaro pulled his attention away from their conversation however, as he began to observe the cell door in front of him. It was a dark steel door, with a strange engraving in the center. It was an oddly familiar symbol of a crown on top of a shield, with inside of the shield being a pen and the same marking as the one on his prisoner outfit, with wings on the left and right ends. Beneath it, was simply a tag with the 'high school' linking both wings.
'Another high school symbol… Different from my own. Did our high schools decide to throw us in here and remove all of our memories of it? Byakuya's weird, probably not high-school related keychain makes that unlikely however, and it's a rather strange conclusion to reach… Considering the situation we're in though, can I really ignore the weirder ones?' He pondered, finding that despite his best attempts to deduce what was going on, he was ending up nowhere… 'I guess that I need more info... Again.'
Some of his irritation must have shown on his face as Sayaka sidled up to him with a concerned look on her face. "Are you alright, Rantaro?"
"Just finding the lack of answers I can think of for this place rather annoying." The adventurer replied with a strained smile.
"There's no true point to figuring out why we're here for now. There's simply too little information for us to use." Byakuya asserted, albeit without the condescension that he'd expected. "It is frustrating however, I'll admit."
"Don't worry, that's the conclusion that I reached anyway." Rantaro acknowledged as he began to regain his usual calm, somewhat comforted by their unofficial leader's words. "Anyway… Do you have a key with the same symbol as the one on the door, Sayaka?"
"I… Yes, I do!" The idol exclaimed, as she rifled through her pockets and brought out her key, with had the exact same symbol as the keychain. "Does this mean that we have a way of knowing which keys to use on what doors?"
"We do," Byakuya confirmed as he took an analytical look at the door next to the one that he'd looked at. "The next door bears the same symbol as my key…"
"Well in that case, Sayaka… You're up." Rantaro said encouragingly, noticing the hesitation on her face.
"Let's do this then…" Sayaka muttered nervously, readying herself as she slowly put the key in the lock and turned it, the door simply clicking slightly ajar as she did so. "If you can hear us, we're here to help you! We've unlocked the door, so feel free to push it open."
Byakuya nodded at her approvingly, seemingly content with the comforting words that the idol had said.
Despite the idol's words of encouragement however, no response came from inside the cell, an eerie silence drifting from the cell. Sayaka looked somewhat torn, absentmindedly clutching her hands together. "Do we just let them be or…?"
"I'll check inside the room, just for a second." Rantaro decided firmly, almost automatically moving towards the door. Ignoring whatever words came out of Byakuya's mouth, hopefully ones of encouragement (funny), the adventurer pulled on the ajar door's handle, the shriek of metal scrapping on the concrete floor echoing in his ears.
The cell was exactly like his own, which made sense to a certain degree, and yet… Something felt off. He stepped cautiously into the room, and immediately noticed two things that felt distinctly out of place - the lack of keys on the table and the distinctly unmade bed.
'Whoever is in this cell… Is still here.' He immediately concluded, as he began to glance around the cell for any signs, feeling a nervous tension rise up in him at the thought.
A blur of movement shot forward from the corner of his eye and Rantaro instinctively threw up his arms to block the strike. He felt a sharp sense of pain from the kick's impact but ignored it in favor of observing his assailant.
A black-haired girl with faint freckles around her nose, dressed in the same outfit as him, seemed to be responsible. She had an expressionless look on her face as she stood in the center of the room. "You blocked my attack."
"...Barely. I got lucky." Rantaro responded warily, readying himself for a fight, albeit one that he knew that he had no chance of winning. "Why did you attack me?"
"I thought you were one of the jailers of this place," she stated neutrally after a brief pause. "I was too hasty in my judgement - your clothing proves that."
'I guess that's how she apologizes…' He thought. 'At least she recognizes that she was wrong, that's something.'
"You don't have a key then?" The adventurer then asked, receiving a brief shake of her head as a response. 'So… Me, Byakuya and Sayaka are the only ones with a key? Dammit.'
"Rantaro!" Sayaka exclaimed worriedly from behind him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine - she just… believed that I was someone else." He replied, glancing over his shoulder at the idol for a brief second, who looked genuinely concerned. Byakuya himself was somewhat further back, but looked like he'd been inches away from running in there himself, even as he tried to hide it. 'Very convincing.' "She hasn't hurt me in the slightest."
The girl's face didn't budge in the slightest at his slight defense of her, but he did note how her posture relaxed somewhat, her arms dropping to her side. 'I guess she now recognizes that we're all in the same boat… Or at least I hope so.'
"If you think it's okay..." The blue-haired girl said reluctantly, before turning her attention to the other girl in the room. "Let's get out of this cell and introduce ourselves, okay?"
The lithe girl merely nodded disinterestedly as she walked out of the cell, sparing them nary a glance. He wasn't too surprised by that - she didn't seem like the type to talk unless it was necessary.
Byakuya seemed to be in a bad mood however, and his jacket seemed to be partially open which was rather unusual. "Can we hurry this up?"
"I wasn't intending on wasting time, Byakuya Togami. My name is Mukuro Ikusaba, and I am the Ultimate Soldier." Mukuro introduced herself without a single inflection in her voice, her face remaining exactly the same. '...Something is up with her, and I'm not sure it's entirely personality related.'
Sayaka seemed surprised at that revelation, but he'd already guessed that it was something like that… After all, not anyone could just prepare an ambush like that.
"Finally, someone recognizes me…" The heir muttered almost inaudibly, before clearing his throat. "Well, these two are-"
"Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Idol." She interrupted boredly, before her gaze turned somewhat warily at him, which he was oddly thankful for. "I don't recognize you however."
'I'm not some sort of celebrity, to be fair… But is that all there is to her remark?' He pondered briefly before answering her, crossing his arms. "I'm Rantaro Amami, Ultimate Adventurer."
"...Okay." Mukuro said more calmly, despite her gaze remaining just as wary as it was before.
"Byakuya… Why are you hurrying us?" Sayaka asked honestly, pulling his attention away from one mystery to another.
The heir looked away from her and towards a nearby wall, remaining steadfastly silent for a brief moment. "...Look at your tablets that you got from your cells, and you'll see what I mean."
Rantaro couldn't help but raise an inquisitive eyebrow, before grabbing his tablet from his back pocket. The sleek object turned on with the press of a button, and he was greeted with a black and white screen, with the same red symbol as on his jumpsuit at the center.
'That eye thing is seemingly everywhere in this place. That has to be a clue of some sort… But I'm getting distracted again.'
When it finally finished loading, he was greeted with a distinct timer in flashing red letters on a background of black. "An hour… An hour before what?"
"I don't know," Byakuya answered him, without the usual arrogance to his tone. "But I have my doubts on whether it's anything good."
"It won't be." Ikusaba stated with ironclad certainty, but refused to elaborate further despite their questioning looks.
"If we have an hour… We should probably split up." Rantaro pointed out, deciding to ignore the soldier for now. "I'll handle the doors with my key's symbol on them, and you and Sayaka do the others."
"You have your leader's approval," the heir intoned, before pointing straight at Mukuro. "You! If you feel like helping, assist Maizono. Her lack of combat experience may put her in danger."
"I don't care about that." She retorted bluntly, her callous refusal seeming to catch Byakuya off guard, his usual grandiose posture faltering. 'That's… Wow. I can't even think of anything to say about that…'
"Well… If that's the case-" He began to say, only for a light cough to halt him in his track.
"It doesn't really matter, Byakuya… If she doesn't want to help us out, that's fine, I can understand why." Sayaka interrupted, with an oddly cheerful if sad look to her. "I can always accompany you, if that's okay?"
"Of course," the prodigy accepted surprisingly graciously, before turning to him. "You will be fine on your own, Amami? Also if you can, try to gather everyone you let out in the courtyard as soon as possible. "
"Sure, I can do that. Also, by the way, we're the only ones with keys, so be careful." Rantaro absentmindedly waved away his concerns, as he gauged the reaction of the black-haired girl who'd sidelined herself, only to find himself oddly disappointed by the lack of it.
Byakuya nodded cautiously in reply, before he began to walk towards the cells, Sayaka waving at him before turning around to follow the large teenager.
He began moving towards the other cells himself, his tablet absentmindedly shoved back into his back pocket.
"I don't know what you're looking for, Amami, but I doubt you're going to find whatever it is." Mukuro stated behind his back, an odd tone to her voice that he couldn't place.
"I wasn't trying to." Rantaro replied simply. "I was just hoping that we'd all be able to work together, but I was wrong it seems."
"You are." She returned, a more neutral tone back in place. She didn't seem pacified by his answer, though he wasn't sure how he knew that. "And it won't just be me, either."
"If you can realize that… Can't you also realize that working together is also just as viable?" Rantaro stated honestly, despite knowing instinctively that his words would have little effect.
Mukuro only stared at him for a brief moment, before shaking her head and walking off. "Isolation has worked so far."
'...I knew she was going to say that.' He pondered pensively. 'Her way of doing things has worked for her so far. Only something major would force her to even budge an inch on that.'
Letting a sigh escape him, he ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to settle it... Only to let out a small self-deprecating chuckle at the rather vain action.
'I need to relax just a tiny bit… Remain cautious, considering how little I know about anything right now, but I can't remain this high strung.'
With that thought in mind, the adventurer marched with somewhat renewed vigor towards the cell doors, scanning them for the symbol that he was looking for. He still found it a bit suspicious that they were all organized like this, but… Until he found out more, he'd just have to dismiss it as his own paranoia.
Eventually, about a cell door down from where they'd released Mukuro, Rantaro found what he was looking for, and after a brief look over, he found that it was eerily identical to Ikusaba's cell door.
A quick glance at the cell next to him, with Byakuya's odd keychain on it, he found that it was an iron door as well, for obvious reasons, just not with the same level of craftsmanship. Were the cells also divided up between 'dangerous prisoners' and 'less dangerous prisoners'?
It was an odd conclusion to reach, even if he knew that was also how it happened in prisons occasionally… But their implementation of it was far more concrete with different cell blocks and actual guards, besides just somewhat better made doors, which was what marked it out as odd to him.
'Why go through the effort of making different doors just to mark out certain people? To purposefully divide us in some weird way or what?' Rantaro couldn't help but conclude, the thought genuinely sending chills up his spine. 'If that's the case… I desperately hope it doesn't succeed. We're already in a dicey enough situation as it is.'
Grabbing the key from his pocket in an attempt to shake the thought off his mind, he gingerly slid it into the keyhole and turned it clockwise. The door clicked open somewhat, leaving a gap for him to briefly peek through into the darkened room.
Hoping that he had better luck then the last time, Rantaro cleared his throat. "I've unlocked the door for you. I'm a prisoner like you, not a jailer, but feel free to open the door."
There was a brief silence before he heard the shuffle of feet, and the door slowly pushing open.
A chubby and remarkably short man was standing in the entrance with an empty look that contrasted with his physical features. He was also wearing a prisoner's outfit, but also a black hat that hid most of his hair. It was a weird contrast if he was being honest.
"What do you need from me?" The man asked with a surprisingly deep voice.
"Nothing really," Rantaro answered calmly, deciding to ignore his various biases. "Just decided to let you out - no one should be stuck in their cell like that."
"You should've let me rot in here," he replied bluntly like it was just a fact. "I'm a danger to you and whatever allies you have."
'...What does he even mean by that?' He thought curiously, before motioning to his fellow prisoner. "I think I'll decide that for myself…"
The short man sighed, tugging his hat downwards somewhat. "I'm Ryoma Hoshi. Don't even bother asking about my talent... Whoever had that talent is long gone..."
'Ryoma Hoshi… Isn't he the former tennis champion that went off and killed an entire mafia, and got sent to jail for it?'
"I see that you recognize me." Ryoma said unhappily, leaning casually against the doorway as if almost expecting to be shoved in. "You should know now that it was a bad idea to let me out."
"Are you going to kill us?" Rantaro asked bluntly, already seeing a flaw in his logic.
"...If you don't give me a reason to, no." The former tennis champion replied neutrally. "That still doesn't make me trustworthy. A killer is still a killer even if he isn't targeting you."
"You're right." He acknowledged, taking note of the surprised look on Ryoma's face. "I'm not about to make excuses for you or declare you trustworthy… But I far prefer to have someone like you by my side, then have you being on your own."
"So you can keep an eye on me?" The mafia killer inquired curiously, before letting out a huff of amusement at his firm nod. "And here I thought you were a naïve fool… A poor assumption it seems."
"Well that's a relief to hear," Rantaro replied humorously, before regaining his serious look. "So… You're ready to work with us?"
"...I am, I suppose." Ryoma calmly stated, looking at him with an oddly impressed look.
"You should go to the table in the courtyard then… That's where we're all planning to meet up, if everyone is on board with it." The adventurer stated, motioning vaguely behind him where he briefly noticed a red haired girl with a camera trying in vain to make conversation with Mukuro. 'Yeah… Good luck with that.'
Ryoma looked behind him and simply shook his head at the scene, before beginning to walk towards the table.
'Well that's one done… I should probably see if I have any other doors on this side.'
With that thought in mind, Rantaro immediately began to look over the other doors once more. Among the eight doors on this side of the courtyard, there seemed to be no other cells with his symbol on it besides his and Ryoma's.
'The rest of the prisoners I can save are on the other side then.' The green-haired adventurer thought as he walked across the concrete floor, absentmindedly attempting to do a few tricks with his key.
He eventually came to a stop, noting without much surprise that the two opposing sides were almost exactly the same - it was only the doors themselves that changed. His curiosity got the better of him and he briefly turned away from his current task and looked at the distant eastward end of the courtyard.
It was a massive almost thirty foot tall rectangular iron door with rather nasty sharp edges around it, an eerie red and white skull inscribed in the middle and an electronic billboard in the left eye-socket with the number one. Surrounding the door was black-paned glass that stopped them from seeing outside.
'This just… looks so out of place. It's genuinely unsettling.'' Rantaro pondered with a frown of discomfort.
Looking this time eastward, the adventurer found that sizable iron bars had blocked what seemed to be an entrance to what seemed to be a hallway, with three distinctly colored doors on the right side and two stairways leading up and down.
Turning his attention back to the cells in front of him, his curiosity somewhat satisfied - albeit not in the matter he'd wanted, Rantaro took the brief time he had to scan his eye over the doors. 'I have… Half of these cells to unlock… This is going to take a long time, isn't it...'
Approaching the third door since it was the closest to him, he immediately proceeded to unlock it, feeling a brief amount of surprise when the door was yanked open barely a split second after.
A remarkably tanned girl with pale platinum blonde hair stood on the opposite end, wearing a frilly bikini top and skirt and a yellow smock. She bore a surprisingly wide grin on her face, in spite of... Well, everything she must have experienced so far. "Greetings! Atua foresaw that you'd come, and it seems that you have!"
'Atua… That sounds oddly familiar.' He briefly thought before shaking his head. "...Well, I'm Rantaro, what about you?"
"My name is Angie Yonaga! It is nice to finally meet you." She declared exuberantly, with a brief flourish of her arms.
"Likewise…" Rantaro replied with a reluctance that he was somewhat ashamed to have. "We've decided to meet up at that table over there - you want to come join us?"
Angie clapped excitedly at that. "Ah… A joyous union of our combined spirits? Atua approves of such an initiative on your part!"
"Well… I'm thankful that Atua has our backs, if nothing else." He replied diplomatically. "So I suppose that you want to come then?"
"Of course, of course! I wouldn't miss such a reunion for anything in the world." The blue-eyed girl declared, before she leant somewhat to the side with an inquisitive look on her face. "What will you be doing then, Rantaro?"
"Ah - I'm one of the few people with a key, so I'll be letting out the rest of our fellow cellmates." The green-haired boy explained after a brief amount of consideration, not really finding any reason to not tell her. He wasn't that distrustful just yet…
"It's rather fortunate that you of all people got one. Were you the only person to get a key?" Angie asked imperiously, staring at him with bizarrely intense eyes that were at utter odds with the smile that she bore.
"No." He flatly denied, staring back at her with his back ramrod straight. Seems like he might've made a mistake admitting to her what he had... "Me, Byakuya and Sayaka also got one."
"Hm… I don't know who those people are, but Atua tells me to not worry about them… Nor you neither." She stated with a reassuring grin that made him more nervous than anything else. "I'll be going now then! Bye bye, Rantaro!"
Rantaro barely resisted the urge to shiver as he watched her joyously skip along towards the table. 'That can't be good… How many other people are going to start to believe that me, Byakuya and Sayaka had something to do with our predicament? And here I went giving a massive amount of ammunition to that idea…'
The adventurer shook his head in an attempt to reorient himself. 'There's no point in being too contemplative now… As much as it pains me, I'll just have to wait and see how it plays out…'
Author's Note: The second part of the prologue will be coming out in a week.
For information's sake, I'm planning on writing this fic out by the overall arc and then publishing the different parts individually when I'm done. This will massively increase the amount of time it takes for me to release chapters, but it does mean that I can plot things out far more better and be far more consistent because I'll be able to see all of my previous work as... well I work, I guess.
I'm not sure on that idea however, and I welcome other propositions for what I should do.