Chapter 4: Clash, J-Stars! Part 4 (Daily Life)
Remaining Citizens: 11
Ai Mizuno (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Idol
Emma (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Moral Compass
Killua Zoldyck (Hunter X Hunter): Ultimate Assassin
Gold (Pokémon Adventures/Pokémon Special): Ultimate Hatcher
Miles Morales (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse): Ultimate Successor
Yu Ishigami (Kaguya-sama: Love Is War): Ultimate Pessimist
Espio The Chameleon (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Ninja
Aoba Kuronuma (Durarara!): Ultimate Manipulator
Trunks Brief (Dragon Ball): Ultimate Swordsman
Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5): Ultimate Track Star
Bernadetta von Varley (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Recluse
Ai's POV
I took a walk downtown and I saw someone emerging from an alleyway, how very strange. Hiding behind a lamppost I see Espio nodding his head, almost like he was listening to someone there.
"... Understood. I shall fulfill that task if it does benefit us all." I can barely hear him say as he walks away.
I then moved quickly towards the alley, yet when I looked there was no sign of anyone being there. I better confront the chameleon about this. It took a bit of time, but I found him meditating on a bench next to two cups of tea.
"Espio, what were you up to over by that alleyway, earlier?" I asked him.
"..."
"I know you can hear me. You were talking to someone there, who was it? And what was it about?"
"... Am I not allowed privacy? With how often you speak with Bernadetta you should know that some individuals would rather be by themselves for a while." He let out.
Is everyone seriously being secretive right now? I know I'm one to talk about hiding my zombie identity, but still...
"I most definitely know, yet I can't ignore it when people are off on their own acting suspicious as well. You need to be cooperative with us or else you'll…"
"End up dead, correct?... My apologies for my rude demeanor. I…. am unfortunately unable to answer those questions you've presented to me." Espio opened his eyes and bowed towards me.
"It's alright, but can you at least tell me why you can't tell me? Is it because you don't trust me?"
"It is difficult to trust everyone at the moment, yes, but the task I have been assigned is important. Do not misunderstand, my intentions are genuine, I just wish to be of use to you all. I am a member of a detective agency, yet I have not been able to assist with investigating the murders and have only been making small comments in trials. Please let me do this one single thing, take care Ai…" Espio drank his tea and left me standing there.
He was being stubborn there, but I understand that he feels somewhat useless when it comes to the investigations and trials. His voice seemed unsure of himself there, compared to his normally calm tone, I feel sorry for him. Whatever he was assigned to do, I pray that it will help him get through this. I felt great empathy with Espio right then.
After deciding to drink the other cup of tea there, (it was almost like he expected me to talk to him), I moved on to another part of the city.
The Times Square-like area was almost too quiet until I heard a soft squeaking sound break it.
"Pichu! Pichu!"
I felt a cute little yellow guy atop my right shoulder, "Oh hello, Pibu! How are you today?"
I pet his spiky hair that made him look like his owner before said owner arrived in a huff.
"Oh man, I knew I shouldn't have left my board back in my room. Don't just run away like that Pibu, oh hi Ai." Gold raised a hand to greet me.
"Hello, you've been quite busy as of late. Ryuji mentioned a 'workout routine' when I visited him, mind explaining what that is, or were you two lying?"
He struggled to come up with an answer, "Well I uh… here I'll show you!".
I then spent the next twenty minutes watching Gold running back and forth on the street with Pibu by his side. That was not very convincing, but I did come up with something to ask him at that time.
Gold stopped to catch his breath, "H-How's that?! I'll, huff, be super quick, huff by doing that every day, hoooo…"
"Liar." I thought before handing him a bottle of water.
He gulped it down in seconds before I spoke up, "So these Pokémon creatures, you hatch from eggs, you mentioned battling them. What kind of abilities do they possess that can allow them to do that?"
"Huh? Oh right, show her Pibu! Super Rising Thunder!" Gold commanded as he threw the water bottle in the air.
"Wait wha—"
A large bolt of lightning is fired out of Pibu's tiny paw as it hits the bottle, blackening it, but not destroying it. That… gave me some flashbacks that I did not need.
"Ha ha! Great job buddy. Oh hey, Ai, you alright? Why are you shaking?" Gold asked me.
"Ah, um… it's nothing to be concerned about." I picked myself off the ground and dusted myself off, "That's really powerful though, and they just give these to young ten year-olds?"
"Well yeah, but it takes a lot of skill to be a great trainer! Like my hero and other Dex Holders like myself." He rubs his finger under his nose confidently.
"I can imagine so… one more question, what are Dex Holders?"
"Folks who carry these around!" Gold pulled out a red device and started pressing buttons on it.
When he showed me, it had a profile for a Pichu on it, an encyclopedia for these Pokémon, huh? That's quite impressive. Gold may be reckless and not very honest, but with all he's told me, he could be reliable…
"Anyways, I'm starving after that workout. So…. you wanna join me for dinner? I could tell you alllll about my adventures if you have any more questions." He just put his hand on my shoulder, which annoyed me quite a bit.
"Yes to dinner, no to your story, and you're using your own Monocoins to get me a good meal."
"Huh?! Why can't you get the free food at the restaurant district?! Why should I have to pay?!" Gold shouted at me.
"Because you almost fried me with that bolt of lightning. If you're gonna flirt with girls, you better treat them right." I scolded him.
"Tch, fine! But I'm choosing the place we're going."
We walked to the restaurant district and continued to bicker on the way there. Though me and Gold got a little bit closer right then.
"Hm…. Ai's spooked by lightning, eh? Interesting…"
After all that free time, I decided to take one more stroll because with all that's going on, I can't sit still. I chose to observe the footage with Kaiba in it once more before bringing Ryuji some dinner. And so I departed towards the otaku department store and scoured the shelves once more for what was needed.
"There it is." I found a dvd for the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! towards the end of the alphabetically organized shelf.
As I went to put the disc into the dvd player, I wondered why I had so little merchandise in this store. Aside from a few cardboard cutouts and some plushies of me in my idol clothes, there was nothing like video games or anime with my world. Those same items also lacked a title on them, unlike my companions who had Persona 5, or The Promised Neverland.
It's all so strange…
The footage played on the screen when I selected a random episode from the ones listed. He seemed to be battling some blonde-haired young man with an accent that makes me think he came from New York. Kaiba calls the man Wheeler, which made me feel like he mentioned him once before.
Kaiba summoned that same dragon I saw in his execution, and that's when I realized one more thing that differentiated him from the one that we knew…
"Wait… his eyes, they're bl—"
I then felt a sudden blow to the back of my head.
And then… I blacked out.
MONOKUMA THEATER
"You know how some fan stories become outdated or die out when something happens in the official canon?"
"Like in a fan story a character is supposed to go through a five year time skip, but then the character is revealed to officially have two years to live? "
"That sounds like something that could ruin the story the fan was creating! How sad…"
"All that hard work amounting to nothing, because of one teeny detail causing it to all crumble down…"
"Y'know I don't want this to happen to this story, but at the same time, could you imagine the despair it could cause the author?! Puhuhu~."
"Sheesh, I already finished episode 4 and I'm already bored! Is there anything else on this stupid service I can watch?" Ryuji flips through Despair+, annoyed.
He updates the page and something new pops up for him.
"The Gauntlet… a live show? What could this be…" He clicks on it and it begins to play.
His eyes widen as he starts to realize what he's about to watch, "Oh no… for real?"
"Ugh…"
My head is throbbing hard.
When I come to, I feel numb and uncomfortable, like I took a nap on pavement. Which it looks like I did.
I tried to stand up, but then I felt a tug and chain jingle, looking to my right I saw Aoba attached to my wrist via handcuffs. I then hear more groans as I see the others wake up, realizing they've been chained to each other as well.
"What the hell?! What's going on here?!" Aoba sat up and I was pulled over when he tugged on his side of the chain.
"Hey!" I said in response.
"Ow! Where the heck am I?!" Gold told Espio.
"Oh brother, why him?" Espio sighed.
"I can't break it, what is this thing made of?" Miles repeatedly pulled his chain, to the dismay of Ishigami, "Please stop…".
"Is this… the next area?" Emma asked as Bernadetta struggled to get free of the cuff.
Then I heard our e-Handbooks switch on all at once.
"All right, you know that Salamence we just caught, send it to West City! Wait, we're live? Shoot!" Monokuma in a suit and afro threw his phone and we heard something break in the background.
"Welcome one and all to our main event! The challenge for ten citizens to win the "Get Out of Trial Free" card or survival until next time, this is… THE GAUNTLET! Ten tasks must be completed in order for our participants, and the first PERSON to cross the finish line wins the whole damn thing!" A map then appears behind Monokuma.
"The aforementioned finish line is at Maru Stadium, and trust me, you'll want to get there fast! Each task has a thirty minute time limit, you can still complete the task afterwards, but you'll be at the mercy of these babies until you do!"
Large mech suits then appear on screen, each with a Monokuma inside.
"These are the Exisals! Each armed with a large variety of weapons, and enough strength to knock someone out instantly, they are a deadly force to be reckoned with. You could try to destroy them of course, but that would put both you and your partner in danger. Oops! Forgot one more thing, you have to work with the person chained with you for the entire challenge, you'll probably end up as corpses if collaboration is not used puhuhu~. Teamwork makes the dream work as they say!"
I looked to Aoba and lowered my eyebrows, while he just simply ignored me and looked away. Gold ranted at his handbook as Espio covered his ears, Emma tried to calm down a panicked Bernadetta, Miles and Ishigami just stared at their screens and gulped, and Trunks & Killua looked to their chain with intense stares.
This… is going to be an awful experience.
Are you all at home watching (reading) like Ryuji is? Good, let's get ready for something very different when it comes to Danganronpa, but not too out there. The tasks are set, and the pairs of participants are preparing, it's time to run The Gauntlet. (Note: Neither Ai or Gold said the comment about Ai & lightning earlier. And it's a different voice than the one Espio was talking to. Hm...)