Hello, viewers. Before you read this chapter, I just want to say thank you for the positive reviews. It really touched my heart, I almost cried. And thank you Fallenstreet01 for suggesting 'Steins;Gate', hopefully this would help me in writing. I really appreciate it.
Warning:
This story is contained with spoilers from Danganronpa V3. If you have not watched it, move away now.
As part of an experiment, this story will decrease the use of 'Swearing'.
Starting THIS CHAPTER up until the end (if ever that happens), there will be some 'Breaking but not completely breaking the Fourth Wall' aspect. Whatever happens in the story will remain in the story.
Just like the theme of 'Hope vs Despair' and 'Truth vs Lies', this story will follow the theme of 'Forgiveness vs Punishment'
Please read the Author's Note for further announcements.
Appearances/Mentions of Team Danganronpa (As of Chapter 5):
Izuru Kamakura - Founder
Makoto Naegi - Director
Hajime Hinata - Second Unit Director
Juzo Sakakura - Head Security
Kyosuke Munakata - Actor
Chisa Yukizome - Actress
Kazuichi Soda - Construction Team Head
Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Security
Mondo Owada - Security
Mahiru Koizumi - Camera
Ryota Mitarai - Editor (Retired)
Ryoko Otonashi / Junko Enoshima - Head Editor
Chihiro Fujisaki - System Administrator
Mikan Tsumiki - Medical Team Head
Yasuhiro Hagakura - Media Agent
Chiaki Nanami - Technical Director
They say that the world was created within seven days by the so-called 'God'.
God had created Light and Darkness, Sea and Sky, then the Land. Followed by Plants, Stars, then the Creatures of the Sea and the Sky, to the Creatures of the Earth.
And then, before the last day, God created the Humans according to his own image. He created the Man and the Woman, Adam and Eve.
On the seventh day, He took a rest after that.
Now, you're going to ask me: 'Why were you talking about the creation of the world? Aren't you supposed to make an episode?'
My answer is: 'I WAS GETTING INTO THAT! CAN'T YOU BE PATIENT JUST FOR ONCE?!'
Moving forward to our time, our world...is a horrid mess. One that you might feel utter disgust with.
Oh wait, am I hearing about 'The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event In Human History' you say? Well, sometimes I wish that Tragedy exist in our world and not this one.
I know I look like an idiot for a director who played as the first Ultimate Hope in Danganronpa history, but I'm just stating some 'facts' around the world we're living in right now.
Ever since I was born, I'm starting to hate this world.
You know why? It's the Humanity's fault!
I know, I know. You already heard me saying about those idiot beings, but you can't deny the truth that you're also disgusted on the actions that the Humans commit. And I mean, THEIR CRIMES AGAINST THE WORLD.
The Humans, born with the combination of both the man's and the woman's DNA, are the only creatures to have the ability to think in order to live. Unlike the animals, who relied on instincts much.
But, alas, the Human Intelligence had been misused by so many. And to think that the animals were ones that are 'inhumane', but there's someone worse from that!
What am I talking about? I'm talking about robbery, physical assault, war, scams, corruption, bullying...even going far to the Murder itself. Humanity had 'devolved' into the most disgusting demons we could ever imagine.
To this day...This is where Team Danganronpa had given birth.
The Media is one of the most powerful tools of communication, using its different kinds of methods in sending a single message to the entire world. The Millennium time had relied on the new media solely for the conveniences of the audience, so we come aboard to the bandwagon.
Danganronpa meant as 'Bullet Refutation' in the Japanese language. The bullet itself is an ammunition of a gun, a weapon that can take down opponents with just a pull of the trigger to the weakest spot that a Human has ever exposed; Their brain. Once you were hit by the bullet, you're gone. The gun has been commonly used in crimes and murders all over the world, Danganronpa dedicated the bullet to the new justice system. In which to the Millennials, our words can also show power and fear like the gun itself.
Danganronpa's true goal is to resonate Humanity's corrupted actions; think, recognize, and possibly resolve the internal crisis within oneself and to the whole world.
In short, its mission was to save Humanity from their stupidity before they could hurt someone.
This is the EXACT SAME method when it comes to Children Shows or those disturbing Public Service Announcements on television. A character did something bad, the plot stops the character in doing that by scaring the HECK out of them to prevent them in proceeding, the character learns their lesson, then comes the happy end. And so, we shall follow it.
Trigger Happy Havoc is the first Danganronpa show that was ever released, showing how the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event In Human History could bring Despair to the viewers. That Despair would immediately give the recognition on the bad thing what they've done to themselves and the others, it (was supposed to be according to this plan). Within the show's climax itself, Hope follows when the character was able to think and resolve the main issue to the plot. The audiences will also learn their lesson, and (hopefully) they would do something for themselves.
But by the time the audiences watched Danganronpa, all they think about was whether or not be a sequel instead of learning something from the show.
And so, Goodbye Despair came. A second attempt for the Humanity to think of what they've done to this world, even going as far as placing the characters that the actors played as if they were the bad guys of the series. The Ultimate Despair, an organization founded by the Despair Sisters, whose role is to spread worldwide Despair to the whole world. The Ultimate Despair had committed horrible crimes in-universe, we technically hoped that the audience could see what they were doing.
And again, it didn't work. The audiences demanded more Danganronpa, so the Team followed what the viewers demanded to.
It goes on and on, they even created Ultra Despair Girls and The End of Hope's Peak Academy. But they just kept on coming, they wanted more and more because they 'love' Danganronpa. In fact, they even wanted to be on the show. They wanted to be heroes or villains as they dreamed to be.
As much as the Team wanted to find a way to use the new justice system, they had no choice but to use Danganronpa being the only way to serve justice for the crimes Humanity had committed.
Danganronpa became the longest-running television show in the media world. Auditions had been proposed, interviews had been discussed, and casts had been gathered. The show went on at the start of Danganronpa 4, Danganronpa 5, Danganronpa 6, then Danganronpa 7, Danganronpa 8, Danganronpa 9, Danganronpa 10...up until to Killing Harmony.
From that point on, the true goal of Danganronpa has ceased to exist and it was replaced by fictional entertainment instead.
But I don't care anyway, this is what the people wanted about Danganronpa. We're just giving what they wanted.
I always heard that the interviews always have the same reason for joining the show over and over. They either wanted to be famous or just wanted to kill people, the same old reason for every season of this media.
Because of this, the government had declared that the Danganronpa show to be the new justice system in the country. And this is where Hell comes loose for those who know Danganronpa, whether they love it or not.
Unlike the past four shows, the killings were real. From the blood they smell, to the excruciating execution they will ever experience.
Our world has been surrounded by corrupted people, the ones who wanted to drag people down to their knees and sent them to the lowest of the low. The Innocents were obviously hurt or worse, get killed. The people were in rage whenever there were those kinds of incidents around them because it gave them fear. And because of that fear, the Corrupted Humans are getting stronger and stronger. They will hurt everyone that gets in their way with no mercy, much like bullying from the Outside World.
And that's where people had enough, they demanded justice. A justice that gives them satisfaction from seeing their enemy fall and vengeance will now prevail. There is no such thing as a 'Second Chance' in the Millennial society, they wanted their oppressors to suffer as what the Innocents have been through because of them.
It's either a 'Kill or Be Killed' world or an 'Eye for an Eye' world out there.
Take your pick, I dare you.
"Fujisaki, status report!"
Chihiro jumped from my outburst, but he's quick when he typed the keyboard (heh, keyboard and Ki-Bo sounded like rhymes) just to check the programming we 'installed' (more like shoved up) to the robot. "Director Naegi, Ki-Bo showed no signs of malfunction inside his data." He reported to me aloud, I then nodded in confirmation before I turn to Hajime.
"Hajime, what's the current voltage?"
"Thirty-five thousand, and maybe it's best to stop it there!"
"Fine, then! Let's keep it that way!"
Hajime was looking to a voltmeter, which is connected to a wire that is connected to another wire to another and another. Most likely that it reached the door until to who knows where the measuring device is attached to (and I'm not telling where it is).
"Ryoko?" I called her out by her name only, she knows what she's doing when she pushed a lever in the live switch.
"I'm going to re-send Ki-Bo's memories now!" She said as she pressed a button, which leads to the robot getting a bad electric shock inside his body.
The room was dark, and it was only illuminated by the bright spark of electricity from Ki-Bo himself. It's almost as if we're making Frankenstein in real life, a robotic Frankenstein to be specific.
My lips twitched as I witness the stupid robot getting grounded by the high voltage of electricity, his own body was flung around the floor! I had to cover my mouth just to stop myself from bursting into laughter, it's THAT funny to see the Ultimate Hope getting tortured like that. FOR THIRTY-ONE TIMES!
I was holding my microphone, which is currently turned off. The microphone has a different design than the others, it was black with bright blue linings around it. It's wireless, with an antenna that looked like...Ki-Bo's antenna-ahoge thingy. This device was specifically used to communicate the robot as the Inner Voice, and he's so gullible to think that I'm helping him survive! Provide with the audience survey, we use statistics to choose which is the best decision for Ki-Bo to do inside V3. So far, they've done successfully as the player character since Ki-Bo survived until 'Episode 13' so we could restart the clock for him.
Now I get what you're thinking: 'KI-BO IS A TIME TRAVELER?! YOU'RE SUCH A TROLL! HOW COME YOU DIDN'T TOLD US THIS?!'
Oh wow, I'm the troll in this story?! Well, it's your fault why you picked Despair in Chapter 3, dimwits! To be honest, you'll never get a happy ending when you picked Hope either. Because, you know, the rules of the game said so. I don't need to tackle on the rules again, search it on the Danganronpa Wiki yourselves.
Now let's get on with a simple explanation with Ki-Bo's time-traveling technology.
Project A.N.G.E.L and Project R.N.S.E
You heard that right, Team Danganronpa had performed two projects. One for the robot itself, and one for the time-traveling. So we're gonna discuss both of them.
1. Project A.N.G.E.L (Amnesty for Negligence of the Glorious Eternal Life)
- In short, it's just saying 'I am sorry for rejecting my existence', per se. This project is involved with the robot and his memories. Now, just because Ki-Bo is a time traveler, doesn't mean that he wouldn't be affected by the reset. Because every single timeline, the students' memories went back from the way before the Killing Game starts at every timeline, which includes the robot himself. So, we come up with a way for Ki-Bo not to get his memories erased by getting those copies before they get erased for the next loop. And to think that the robot pressed the 'Self-Destruct Button', but it wasn't. That's actually an alarm for us to get ready to copy his memories so we could shove it back to him again when he went to another loop afterward.
2. Project R.N.S.E (Renaissance)
- This one is self-explanatory, really. It's about the time-traveling thing. The word 'Renaissance' means 'Rebirth' in French, much like resurrection. This involved with advanced technology to, I guess you could say, 'Resurrect' Ki-Bo's classmates at every time loop. And every successful loop, we recorded them as 'RNSE TLP'. If you're going to question how EXACTLY we used the advanced technology to make Ki-Bo time travel like that, then you reached the limit. That is highly classified information, so we're just going to stop there. The only thing you'll get from this information is that the time traveling takes effect within a specified radius, we don't want to get caught by the reset after all.
"Well, Team Danganronpa, Renaissance Time Loop Thirty One has been a success! WOOO!" I felt like I'm some insane man when I was the only one cheering in the room, while the others gave themselves a sigh of relief, almost to the point of slamming their heads down on the table and collapse from exhaustion.
The two projects were indeed hard to perform when we were doing it at the same time, only four people (which is me, Hajime, Ryoko, and Chihiro) who are capable of maintaining it since they have connections to the other branches. We're talking about the technological, neurological, psychological, and holistic aspects here.
"I can't believe we have to do the 'Time Traveling' thing at nighttime..." (the complaining) Hajime leaned on his chair, panting heavily and sweating excessively. Most probably because he was the one who had to run back and forth just to keep us in touch while having to hold the voltmeter that was connected to the main electric line at the basement (also known as the physics lab), he can't talk to us through cellphone or he'll be the one who'll get the thirty-five thousand volts instead.
"Makoto, if there's such thing as D-Mails, please text yourself not to make an episode in the evening!" I had to laugh at his remarks, it's been a while that I ever have a chuckle or two. I've been cranky, which is not a good thing for me.
Chihiro shook his hands by the time he removed his fingers to his keyboards, fast typing can give a sore to our System Administrator. Meanwhile, Ryoko looked at her wristwatch that reads 9:09 in the morning. To her surprise (or not), setting the Time Traveling to Ki-Bo sure took a long time to even commencing it.
Ryoko picked her cup that has decaffeinated coffee contained in it, she took a sip while walking to the light switch to at least brighten up the sad ambiance in the room. She then walked to the window that was covered by a curtain, Ryoko slightly open a flap of it to see outside of the building.
"Hmm...Looks like the Humans went back to their everyday lives." She murmured, I have to agree with her. It's as if the Riot didn't happen at all, I could even see it in the news. While the topic about the incident was there, traces of them were spotless. The compactor that was used in the execution was gone, and so do the...'corpses' of the four people who got shot to death.
This is also the work of the Team also. In theater or drama class or whatever, you have two jargon; Ingress and Egress. The word 'Ingress' points out when the production team placed their set pieces to their specific spot that was marked by the stage manager; while 'Egress' is where they take the set pieces out of the stage. In this case, Kazuichi (or the whole Team Danganronpa) did the latter.
"In the end...What they saw wasn't real, they'll think of it as fiction instead. As always, that is." Chihiro sighed, and he was right. For a teenager, he does feel bad from the reality that the Humans perceived Danganronpa from. Whatever happens on television, will remain there.
I placed the microphone on the desktop clip and reached for the script, that's until Hajime grabbed my hand before I get the chance to get it.
My eyes rolled for this cliche, first Ryoko and now Hajime?
"Oh no you don't, young man." Hajime picked up the script and threw it to Chihiro, which surprises the boy when he got involved from our shenanigans.
"What is it now, Hajime?" I asked, even though I know what he's going to say.
Ryoko walked towards me and Hajime, while Chihiro was shrinking to his seat. When he became a part of this quartet, Chihiro is just a tag-along kid, he was only there when we need him the most. And by most, I mean every single time and episodes. It's because, aside from Miaya Gekkogahara (part of the construction team specified for technology) and Yasuke Matsuda (part of the medical team specified for neurology), he was given a job to keep an eye on Ki-Bo...ordered by yours truly. So, he has some ideas on how the three of us were dealing with some silly problems at hand. And yet, he's still jumpy about it.
"It's nap time, Makoto Naeggy. You've been cranky for two days now!" Ryoko nagged, and she even called me by the 'Egg' nickname!
My eyes twitched when I heard that nickname, "I'm not an Egg! Also, I have you know that I have caffeine in me. So I don't need any sleep at all!" I pouted like a kid to both Hajime and Ryoko. Whatever I said, it made Chihiro raised his hand a little bit.
"Well, Director. Coffee may have helped you in staying up, but it's bad if you drink too much."
"See? Even Chihiro knows sleep is the best medicine...aside from apples and laughter of course." Hajime placed his arms around my shoulders, it's to prevent me from looking at the screen. Much to my dismay, they want me to sleep and procrastinate my job as a director (which it's not since they have concerns about me). He even started to drag me out of the room!
"Oh come on! I have to continue my work - " Ryoko suddenly yanked my arm hard, it's like a mother dragging a child out of the playground! She just completely dragged me out of the room, leaving Chihiro and Hajime behind to do whatever they're doing without me!
"Hajime will take care of it now, he's your Second Unit Director. And besides, look at your face!" She picked up her phone and activated her camera on selfie mode, she then faced her phone at my...ugly face.
Just so you know, I'm older than what Makoto Naegi looked like in Trigger Happy Havoc. I could only summarize that my face got heavy eye bags under them, my forehead is sweaty, my skin looked pale, and my lips were dried.
"You look nasty and cranky at the same time!"
"I'm not cranky!" I'm such a hypocrite in this.
"Well then, why you're raising your voice at me?" She just threw her Truth Bullet at me, blast!
It made me a little bit speechless at first since I was thinking of a reason why I yelled at her like that. "It's because...It's because I was stressed out from the episode! It's normal for a director to blow a fuse up once in a while." I answered with a bit of a boast in it, but Ryoko doesn't seem to like that answer.
"Oh geez, you always get stressed every episode we made. Seriously, you have to tone down with the coffee once in a while and get some sleep!"
I tried to rebut, except that the effects of caffeine started to happen. I'm starting to breathe shortly, my legs feel numb, and I just did the loudest yawn I've ever had! Ryoko just shook her head at what she's seeing right now, she's not really happy when she saw how irresponsible I am when it comes to health. Before I know it, I had my knees falling on the floor and almost collapsed if she hadn't helped me balanced.
"Believe me now, Makoto Naeggy?" Ryoko still teased me with that nickname!
"I'm not an Egg! I'm an Omelet!" What did I say just now? I must have been losing my senses a bit, even Ryoko found it hilarious. From what I remembered, that 'Egg' nickname came from the Danganronpa viewers...who thought that my surname was a pun of the egg. While I find it stupid, Hajime and Ryoko preferred it because they also got nicknames from the viewers also; like Orange Juice (Hajime somehow preferred that nickname instead of Pokezuru Facakura) and the Despair Lord.
Oh how I missed those times before V3 even existed, I even wished that I got the stupid robot's time traveling so I can turn back time...
"Look, Makoto. You have two choices; the Easy Way or the Hard Way." She asked me while pulling an object in her hand that I have to groan from, a tranquilizer. You see, when Ryoko cares too much, she'll do what it takes just for us to relax even if it means using the tranquilizer to knock us out. Either me or Hajime to be exact, mostly me, unfortunately.
"Every time you asked me that same old question, it's always the Hard Way." I rolled my eyes despite it stings to even blink.
"That's because you forced me to do it anyway."
"Oh come on, sleep is just for the lazy ones! And besides, I take naps when I have free time."
"One minute nap."
"It still counts."
"It's not enough to have a minute nap, Egg. You were supposed to have a fifteen-minute nap, or even longer."
"Are we gonna talk longer than this?"
"Yes."
Ryoko facepalmed, she obviously knew that I'm just stalling her so I wouldn't get knocked out by her tranquilizer. You see, that thing is a very strong compound made by Mikan and Seiko Kimura (a part of the medical team who stepped down as the Head before), it'll knock anyone out for hours or even days or weeks (and would also kill a person if the user gave them a wrong dose, sheesh).
"But seriously, I don't need naps! It'll be like procrastinating!" I crossed my arms and leaned myself on the wall (only because my legs started to grow even weaker and I don't want to show Ryoko that I'm losing my balance).
But she noticed that I'm going to pass out, she yanked my arm because of it. "You're not procrastinating. You're just taking a break," she said to me while dragging me in the hallway, I'm still using my strength to win this tug of war though.
"It's the same thing as slacking off!"
"You're not slacking off!"
"But that's what Mr. Kamukura sees anyway!"
"Mr. Kamukura?" Ryoko blinked as she let go of my arm, surprised by the name I mentioned. Despite the three of us continuing our daily work, she has some concerns about what happened in the meeting. This includes when Hajime and I almost started a fight, and Mr. Kamukura was ticked on our actions. To be honest, I do feel bad on what I did. Bad enough to...punish myself for it.
And because Ryoko got the role of being the Ex-Ultimate Analyst in Zero, she just figured out the reason for my abnormal sleeping patterns.
That reason caused her to have a slight outburst, "You didn't sleep because of that old man?!"
I took a step back, "W-w-well...It's not exactly like that - "
"Then why would you treat yourself like the bad guy that deserved to be punished?! You didn't do anything wrong."
"Of course, I did! I almost beat Hajime up, he's still mad about it!"
"He's not mad, Makoto. You're just being paranoid."
"It's the truth" My voice begins to crack, "I can't believe I humiliated Team Danganronpa from what I did! I almost killed a ton of people outside! And I lost my temper to even punch my friend!"
"Look, we all have our own faults last time. I'm sure they'll forgive you, even Hajime. He's more concerned about you than himself." Even though what she said was (somehow true), I believe that my friend was lying just to make me feel better. It's always like that, but I know she was lying.
"Come on, Ryoko! Stop with the lies already!"
"Wha- lying?! I'm not ly -"
"nnnnnNNNNNNNNOooOooooo!" I yelled at her, but it...doesn't sound like a shout when it sounded so weird. Believe me, I tried to. The caffeine was getting stronger that I couldn't even breathe right. It made even worse when my voice was cracking, Ryoko even noticed the dissonance of my speech.
I took so many deep breaths, but it wasn't enough to get so much oxygen. My nose was even clogged, and I don't know why I couldn't breathe through it at this moment. And then comes to my eyes stinging even more painful, especially when my vision started to blur. It's like there's hot water on them or something.
"You're crying."
I looked at Ryoko for a second. Soon, I feel something warm crawling down to my face. It took me a while to realize that they're tears flowing on my eyes, I even had to catch a teardrop to see it if it's true.
Oh darn it, I really am crying.
This is getting out of hand, and I don't want to waste time on either sleeping or crying. None of those exists in the workplace. I rubbed my face with my sleeve, just to remove the water on my face. I looked like a dumb kid crying because his ice cream fell on the ground, this is so immature...
From my surprise, Ryoko placed her hand on my shoulder. Her eyes bore 'pity' to me, and I don't like that.
"Come on, Makoto. You need to rest."
But I brushed off her shoulders, "No. I'm going back to work. Don't worry about me...I'll be fine!"
I took a few steps away from Ryoko, except if ever that's her in my eyes. It's getting darker any minute now, I'm at my limit.
Ryoko reached out her hand as she tried to get closer, "But - "
"It's okay..."
Must...resist! I can't pass out!
"It's gonna be...okay..."
And that's when I can't see completely, all I could see is pitch black darkness. After that, I just felt something hard on my back and...I just stopped moving.
The sound of the thud made both Hajime and Chihiro ran out of the room to see whatever was going on. By the time they reached our location, the two only see my unconscious body while was Ryoko pinching her nose in dismay. Chihiro had to hold his screams, and Hajime had to hold his laughter at the result.
"How many dosages you gave Makoto this time?" Hajime asked as a snarky joke (and was glad that it wasn't him this time around), but Ryoko didn't take it well.
"Very funny, Orange Juice." She said sarcastically while reaching both of my legs, "Now help me bringing this Egg downstairs."
Chihiro raised his hand, "Um...do you need my help, Ryoko?"
"You'll be our navigator, I can't look what's behind me when I'm carrying Makoto, after all."
Hajime mustered his strength to lift my arms, Ryoko started to walk backwards while carrying my legs. Chihiro was in the most front to navigate my friends in leading me...somewhere away from the main room.
By the time they reached the elevator (which is ironic, they said downstairs after all), they put me down on the floor as they take a break. I never knew that I was somehow heavy to be lifted, I guess I forgot that I was lighter in Trigger Happy Havoc.
Meanwhile, Chihiro had been fidgeting with the show's script. It's either he's getting involved in a very awkward situation or he has something in mind.
Hajime noticed the boy's actions, "Chihiro?"
"Hm?" He looked at Hajime blankly.
"Are you alright? You've been spacing out."
Chihiro blinked in surprise, his emotions rushed into him. He was being asked by a higher-up, and he's still jumpy about it.
"Well...Is Makoto alright?" Chihiro asked without stuttering.
"He's fine." Ryoko answered, "Makoto just went a little too much on the coffee."
"He drank four liters of them, he never even shared." Hajime leaned on the wall while poking my (wrinkling) cheeks.
Chihiro read some of the texts written in the show's script, "I was wondering...about him..."
"Why's that?" Ryoko asked.
"After the meeting about the Riot, Makoto looks...upset."
"All of us were upset about what happened, Chihiro." Hajime reminded the boy about the incident that caused me to become like this.
"I know that, it's just...well..."
"Come on, Chihiro. You can say anything to the two - "
"Three."
Hajime rolled his eyes of getting reminded by Ryoko, "Three of us. You don't have to worry of what you're going to say, we'll understand."
Chihiro looked at Ryoko, Hajime, and me (even though I passed out).
According to the character that he portrayed when he was in acting, the Ex-Ultimate Programmer was a shy young boy who dressed up as a girl in disguise. His 'death' was the cause of having his...'Hope' sparked up when Chihiro's secret was used as a murder motive, which is sad really. Right after his acting, the show must have inspired him to be 'stronger' and more helpful in real life. He looked up to his role models, even going as far as to become a higher-up as a System Administrator in the first place. And here he is now, standing beside an elevator with two people stuck in a silly situation along with a knocked out director.
Surely, it would seem a big humiliation that the three of us were somehow his 'role models' and acted like this. But...I don't think he was concerned about that.
"Don't you think Makoto took things too hard that he...punishes himself for it?"
Hajime blinked when he heard that question about me, even his snarky posture diminished at the word 'Punish'.
There are two different meanings of the word 'Punishment', but it's still a bad word and they can do bad things.
'Punishment' as a meaning of Danganronpa series itself, one that is defined as a 'Payment of the penalty in breaking the rules as Society demands it'. This counted as an Execution in our show, wherein the character that each actor or participant played will be eliminated from the Killing Game. It's more of an 'Extravagant Exit', to be exact.
On the other hand, the word 'Punishment' in the real world society is...something beyond that. For most people, it basically meant 'An act of Reckless Redemption to receive Forgiveness to the Society'. Meaning, when you did something wrong and you think everything was all your fault, you did what you have to do to gain Forgiveness. And it's not just the 'I'm Sorry' line, no. It's more of the 'I'm sorry and I will prove it' thing, you have to give proof that you mean to say that 'Sorry' word. You will do whatever it takes to get that Forgiveness, and I mean you have to do it to the EXTREME.
Even if it means humiliating yourself in front of the public, even if it means losing someone you're close to, or even if it means beating yourself up, you HAVE TO gain Forgiveness. Because Forgiveness is like a glass, a lonely and fragile glass. Once you break the glass into pieces, you will have to pick up every single one of them to put the glass back together. No matter how much cuts you gained from the shards or how alone you were, you will sacrifice everything for it.
If you don't, you might never know what will happen if other people stepped on them.
"What a...huge word you said there, Chihiro..." Hajime responded when he suddenly spaced out from the word. It's indeed a huge word for someone from Team Danganronpa to even say it, I guess you could say it's similar when you said a bad word in front of your parents. Sure, they would be shocked if you said the F-Word while you're still 12 years old!
Having a bad aura around him, Chihiro hung his head in shame. "I...I'm sorry...I was worried about Makoto and - "
"Hey." He felt Ryoko's warm hand placed on his shoulders. "It's alright for you to get worried about your friends, even Makoto. While I'm not aware of that Egg punishing himself about the Riot, he must have done it with a reason. Remember, he's the director of Team Danganronpa now. Having that job is a big responsibility, right?"
Chihiro nodded while looking to Ryoko's eyes.
Hajime walked closer to the boy (while ignoring the fact that I was still KNOCKED OUT!), "We all have jobs too, you know? I'm the Second Unit Director, Ryoko's the Head Editor, and you're the System Administrator of the Team. We all have achievements...and disappointments also."
"Sure...we all have our own faults before the Riot, and it seems that Makoto must have taken all our wrongdoings from that."
The feeling of being in my shoes must have given a pang to Chihiro, but I'm not sure that it was out of pity or he really does care about me.
"Look, Chihiro. I know you're worried about him. We're all worried about him." She looked at Hajime and me with a solemn look on her face. "And we wanted to make sure that Makoto's alright in whatever he's doing, but perhaps he noticed that and he wanted us not to feel any pity."
This is true, I don't want anyone to pity me. I have my reasons why, but I'm not telling.
"I think it's best for us to do our best in our job...and probably ho-, I mean pray for his well being. We probably even have to give him some space right after this." Hajime murmured the last line while looking at my unconscious self.
"He's not gonna take this well."
And that's where the doors of the elevator opened.
THE ULTIMATE CLASS RESURRECTION
Spank!
"Ow!"
Spank!
"Yeowch! Son of a - "
Another spank!
"Gah! This is humiliating..."
Another spank!
"Kyah!"
And another spank!
"OUCH! Why in the world did I ever spank you?! Oh wait, you're made up of metal! Puhuhuhuhu! How silly of me forgetting my cub that way?" Said the one the person -, er, thing...Technically, the 'thing' wasn't made of flesh and blood at all, but rather, metal and faux fur fabric over it.
This may have sounded like the speaker was inanimate, which is one hundred percent true.
To be specific, those objects were teddy bears.
Yes, teddy bears. Ordinary, inanimate, yet moving teddy bears.
Which is crazy considering if you're one of the audiences who had no idea whatever the heck was going on!
It goes like this.
You, an Ultimate student, woke up in a locker on a 'school' with no ideas of how you got inside in the first place. Then some small multicolored bear cubs appeared, which you were told to proceed to the gymnasium. But then you realized that there are other fourteen students with the same situation, they don't know how they got here. They just...did.
By the time you came to the gymnasium, some 'High-Performance Action Humanoid Murder Weapon' called the 'Exisals' that were controlled by those cubs, literally scared everyone, or some of them, to bits considering the word 'Murder' was in the name.
If you questioned one of the riders, who were keeping the suspense waiting until one of them just answered straightforwardly, it's this word that made the fifteen jump.
"The Killing Game Semester"
Yes, that's right. They heard it loud and clear, 'The Killing Game Semester'. The word 'Kill' meant to say as 'taking someone's life' or 'to slaughter'.
With the word like that, it's hard to believe when those Exisal riding cubs weren't taking that 'Kill' word seriously when two rivaling cubs almost engaged a fight with the students will get caught within the crossfire if they weren't called off by a mysterious voice telling them to stop.
On the stage, emerges another bear, one bigger than the other five in which they called them as their 'Father'. Colored with nothing but white and black on both sides, the young man dressed in a military attire commented the bear was coded with the sinister of madness and Despair. The blue-haired bespectacled girl was getting a harder time having some insights on 'the stuffed animal', until the 'Papa Bear' introduced himself as 'Monokuma'.
Everything seemed to be on script when Monokuma was expecting the students to be gathered in the gym, so he can announce 'The Killing Game Semester' to spread fear, intimidation, and Despair to the fifteen students of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles...
That's until he counted them. Nevertheless, he was expecting to be in the right number.
Sixteen.
Fast forward to where the Fifteen students with fifteen different facial expressions. Watching something...'compromising' in front of the gymnasium stage.
They could either have the expression of fear and confusion like the barefooted man who never cut his hair.
Having the emotion of utter disappointment similar to the young girl with a backpack having her arms crossed, though the one beside her was drooling when she couldn't take her eyes of the small bear cubs getting their butt slapped by the big bear as if witnessing this...'show' is her aphrodisiac that the disappointed girl had to close the other's mouth before she ended up dirtying the floor with her saliva.
Some would remain calm, like the young man with messy green hair looked...calm. A little too calm when the others were panicking on whatever was going on right now, one would even wonder of his thoughts. Kind of...mysterious for him to act like that...
Others...Well, they seem not to care about what they're watching right now and are more focused on 'The Killing Game Semester'.
The backpacked girl got enough stress to place a hand to her head just to ease the pain. "Just...what the heck is going on right now..." She asked herself before looking down and seeing drools on the floor, she took a step back from the one who caused the saliva to flow from her mouth.
It took minutes for this...'awkward' segment to finally subside as the multi-colored cubs were gently rubbing their bottoms from all the spanking, despite they're just inanimate objects though.
"Awww! My dear children got hurt because of me? You're so cute that I couldn't help it!" The monochrome bear said while wiping his 'sweat', seems like he has more work when it comes to showing 'discipline' to his children. "But I know what you've done, so I have to do what a good father does best! Puhuhuhuhu! I know it's a little bit boring since this is a very cliche type of 'old aged' discipline like 'hitting your child's rump with a whip' technique, be glad that I was gentle with you Kubs! We're in the Millennial age, such barbaric discipline is against the law now!"
"Ahem."
The sound made Monokuma turned to the source of the sound, the mysterious green-haired teen stepped forward.
"Sorry to interrupt your, well, 'Family Business', but I have something to clarify from you. Since you ARE the Headmaster after all, maybe you have the answer I needed." He asked the bear.
Monokuma doesn't seem to mind being asked by the student...especially the teen has the guts to take a step forward just to get closer contact with the Headmaster of the Ultimate Academy. "Sure, sure! Come on and ask! It's not like we have all day, and I meant to say that literally." The bear muttered the last line, he did say 'literally'.
"Aside from this 'Killing Game Semester', you mentioned the number sixteen. What was that all about? Why do you go off-topic all of a sudden?"
As much the bear doesn't show facial expressions much like the Humans do, he does seem to get ticked by the number sixteen. "Well, if you hadn't noticed why I was 'disciplining' my beloved children...it's because ONE STUDENT isn't here yet!" Monokuma exclaimed from the whole class, in which the cubs get shaken by the raising of their father's voice.
"Oh no! Father is angry at us!" Cried the bear cub in red and white.
"P-please don't get mad Papa!" The cub in pink begged her father to calm down, "Perhaps there is a reason why the sixteenth student is so late - "
But it was cut off by the one wearing glasses and is covered with the color yellow with stripes painted on one side, "Or stupid enough to kill themselves before 'The Killing Game Semester' even started!"
The blue cub with an electric guitar seemed to be in a temper when he raised the instrument towards the robot-like cub in green and metal, "It's that ding-dang-son-of-a-gun Monodam! He didn't check all of the lockers in the first place!"
Even the students were intrigued about that kind of news, which is also worrisome since they already got one trouble they have to deal with.
"A 'sixteenth student'?" Asked by a young woman who is wearing in a maid uniform asked in concern.
With the word is called out, the girl who has a green pinwheel bow on her head prepared herself in a fighting stance. "I will teach a lesson if the 'sixteenth student' was being a degenerate all along!" she cried aloud which startled a young girl who is dressed in red with a witch's hat.
"Haahhh...This is really getting out of hand..." The small girl muttered in a monotone voice.
"So you're telling me that someone's not here yet, and you knew it just now before you're going to say something about this stupid prank?!" The man dressed in purple with a goatee raised his voice, truly vexed when he believed that everything that happened around here was just a joke.
"Geez, are you even SURE there's such thing as the sixteenth student or you're just continuing to mess with us?" The...man who is a lot of inches short, bit his black candy stick when he has his doubts about the 'sixteenth student'.
"Of course, there is such thing as a 'sixteenth student'!" Monokuma yelled at the students who thought that he was lying, much like the whole 'Killing Game Semester' prank does. But he's a bear of words, he would never lie about that!
"But if there's such thing as a 'sixteenth student', should we look for them?" The blue-haired girl with glasses asked, "Maybe they got lost in the school or something."
"Or dead!" The young boy in white said in a gleeful voice while smiling, which is not helping in the situation for the girl dressed in black and red.
"Shut up, you're not helping." She said it with a voice that shows irritation.
The monochrome bear pinched the bridge of his snout, already got irritated from all the commotion happening in the gym. He also felt unfair that the student wasn't able to witness his perfect entrance and introduction as the Headmaster, that's not even making him 'Despair-inducing' either, it's just making things more stressful.
"UGH! Alright, alright! We'll look for that troublemaking student." Monokuma took action as he jumped down on the stage and walked towards the door, followed by his cubs behind him who gave their father some distance just in case Monokuma will 'discipline' them again.
The students hesitated whether or not they should believe in what the bear told them to do, he was the one who brought them here in the first place after all. So why bother in listening to a criminal?
While the majority stood in their place, the teen who has a cap covered his eyes started to walk. Much to the surprise of his blond-haired friend, which she also took steps to catch up with him. And that's when he speaks up to the Headmaster to break the silence, "Excuse me?"
"What is it now?" Monokuma turned around while trying to control the volume of his voice.
"Do you have any ideas on what the 'sixteenth student' looks like?" He asked the bear.
Form that question, Monokuma tapped his head in deep thought. He must have tried his best to remember describing the appearance of that particular student, but he does show some difficulty from it.
But by the time the bear opened his mouth, the lights started to fizz. This makes everyone alarmed, even the Monokuma family weren't expecting the lights to fizz like that.
Then, it was followed by a high pitched scream.
"NNNGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
The scream's pitch is high enough for anyone with sensitive hearing to wince in pain that they have to cover their ears. What's even scarier was the light bulbs of the school's gymnasium began to explode one by one, the green-haired man comes to notice them first.
"GET DOWN!" He commanded the students as he ran to the persons near to him, the girl with the green pinwheel ribbon and the witch hat-wearing girl, he uses his arms just to shield them from the sharp fragments that were about to fall on them.
For safety, the others covered their heads with their hands, while some protected their classmates from the shrapnel.
But for Monokuma and the cubs, they...disappeared. The class wasn't able to get a glimpse of where they went when the gymnasium blacked out.
And then comes darkness...and pure silence.
"I-i-is it over?"
"I assume the mayhem has been compromised."
"Atua must have been mad at us, so he gave the class a warning."
"Can you stop with the occult thing!"
"I can't see a thing!"
"Gonta is scared!"
"Ouch! Who got the guts to step on my beloved legs?!"
"Stop hugging me, you idiot!"
"Everyone, calm down!"
Silence comes back once more in the darkness as the one who spoke up took a loud sigh to continue, "Alright then, first of all, is everyone alright?"
"We're good here." The voice that sounded like a girl replied.
"Just got sprayed by glass a little, but I'm fine." Someone with a masculine voice answered.
"S-s-same h-h-here! I'm perfectly a-okay!" Another man answered the question, despite the shaking tone of his voice.
"If only I have enough MP, I can use my light magic to see in the dark..." The girl said as if she woke up early in the morning.
"Wait a minute, something is not right..." A girl with a bold tone of voice muttered, then it was followed by a -
"AM I BEING HUGGED BY A DEGENERATE?!"
"Now now, Tenko." The man with the familiar voice (presumably the one who protected the two girls from the glass shards) reassured the raging 'Tenko', "Think of the 'bright side', at least you didn't have to get - "
Whatever he said next was cut off and it felt like a gust of wind when the rest of the class when Tenko blew a fuse, who knows what would happen next considering her words before all of them went to the gym.
"If it was a Menace, Tenko will use her reflexes to throw them out!"
Then they heard a loud crash, it sounds like dozens of plywood getting smashed by a wrecking ball. But on the bright side, at least they were able to see themselves completely when a stream of light emerged from the remains of the gymnasium door. They could even see the pinwheel ribbon girl had her fighting stance, and the green-haired guy sitting up after getting thrown by Tenko herself.
"Come on, Tenko. Apologize to Rantaro already."
"Tenko will never say sorry to a Degenerate like him! And besides, the Menace was the one who gave me their disgusting physical contact in the first place!"
"Relax, Kaede. I'm fine. Look on the bright side, and I mean that literally, good thing she found a way to find the door without even walking towards it." 'Rantaro' said while being optimistic despite what happened to him, to which 'Kaede' had to sigh. It's still crazy for Tenko throwing Rantaro out, considering her philosophy that she had about men.
After all, they're in a Killing Game.
All of the fifteen students had exited from the gymnasium, Monokuma and his children hadn't returned right after the place dropped into pitch black.
'Kaede', the girl who wore a backpack behind her, was walking in front of the group. Presumably to lead them somewhere, which is what she's thinking right now.
The teen with the black cap strutted until he could reach her, Kaede had her arms folded and she was in deep thought.
"Kaede?" He called her name that snapped her out in trance.
"Oh hey, Shuichi. What's up?" Kaede asked 'Shuichi' as she didn't expect him to call her.
"I noticed you were thinking about something."
"About the 'sixteenth student'? Yeah."
"You believe in what Monokuma said?"
Kaede took a long pause before she speaks once more, "You know, Shuichi? With us being trapped in this school and those bears tried to force us to play this 'Killing Game', maybe I should believe in something that's...less bizarre..."
"'Less bizarre'?" The girl dressed in red questioned Kaede, "You think that what happened in the gym is 'less bizarre' than those stupid bears and their dumb weapons?"
"At least they're realistic." Kaede murmured when a classmate of hers is being rude.
"Hey, hey!" A hand was raised by a young boy wearing a checkered scarf, "You think the 'sixteenth student' already got killed and turned into a ghost?"
In which the man who wore purple attire twitched in fear, "Nggggh! WILL YOU STOP WITH THAT GHOST NONSENSE!"
"Nee-hee-hee! You're so funny with that face of yours!"
"Gonta is also in conflict. He wants to believe that our fellow classmate is lost." 'Gonta', the young man who is somehow large, said in worry.
"B-but Kaede." The girl with blue hair called her from behind, "How can you be so sure that the 'sixteenth student' is real? They didn't show up in the meeting, after all."
She hung her head low in deep thought, her face showed unknown sadness. To her, there's no doubt that the 'sixteenth student' is real and is in the school. Sure, they didn't show up and Monokuma disappeared right before the bear could tell what they looked like. Even her classmates had second thoughts on whether or not the so-called 'Headmaster' was telling the truth, but from the looks of the incident when they got stuck in the dark, she was able to get one evidence of the existence of the 'sixteenth student'.
"Well, Tsumugi." She started answering 'Tsumugi's question, "You do know what my Ultimate Talent is, right?"
"Of course, you're the Ultimate Pianist," Tsumugi recalled from her memory since she met Kaede before the meeting in the gymnasium, and that memory gave her some spark to the girl entitled as the Ultimate Pianist.
Tsumugi felt excited from her discovery, "You don't mean -"
"Yep. I heard them. I heard their voice loud and clear." Kaede smiled when Tsumugi finally understood her insights about the 'sixteenth student', her ability as the Ultimate Pianist somehow paid off when she was able to get one piece of evidence about them. But from the sound from her heightened hearing also made her smile quickly fade away, whatever she heard when the lights went overload could be something bad or trouble. She kept on reminding herself about the reality that she's stuck with, Kaede and her classmates are in a 'Killing Game'.
The voice she heard was nothing more but an agonized scream, the sound is no laughing matter when you're making fun of someone being inflicted with so much pain in their life. When she looked at her classmates, they all seemed so calm. Like they all went out of the rubble as if nothing bad happened to them, they didn't even bother to even think of the cause of what happened in the gym. It's like everything is a prank to them.
But for Kaede, it's real. The scream was real, and the 'sixteenth student' really exists.
"...remember..."
Whatever she just heard, it made her stop in taking another step. Shuichi noticed her shocked expression.
"Kaede? Are you alright?" He asked her in concern, everyone also stopped walking when they saw her frozen.
"Shhh!" She silenced him as the Ultimate Pianist placed a hand behind her ear to amplify the sound if ever she could hear them once more. Some of her classmates were also following her actions, though the girl with the yellow coat had her hands together like she was praying.
"Atua has been given us a message..." She said, even though Kaede thinks that it's someone else aside from 'Atua'.
"...everything..."
"I hear it!" Kaede cried, her legs were finally able to gain movements and started to run. "Follow me!" She told everyone who followed suit, the Pianist sprinted as fast as she can like she was playing a fast song on the piano nonstop.
"...failed..."
Kaede skidded to a stop when she couldn't hear his voice, she could hear and feel her heart pounding at the same time. The adrenaline just sparked her into focusing on the 'sixteenth student' more as her top priority, the evidence already slapped to her face when she recognized the voice.
From her input, the voice is definitely a male. And he is definitely in trouble, the shakiness and the instability of his tone shows it.
Whatever is happening to him, she has to do something to at least not to get him killed by whatever is harming him.
Doing the same method as before, she placed her hand behind her ear and concentrates on listening to the voice once more.
"Again...and again...and again..."
She's getting close, Kaede decided to walk quietly so she wouldn't cause any noises.
When Kaede took a turn to her left, she was able to see the entrance hall.
And if she's not hallucinating, she could see a small figure far away from her. That figure is beyond recognizable from the classmates that she met, and Kaede is sure enough that she hadn't seen someone looked like that one she's seeing right now.
"Could it be..." Kaede walked faster but quieter as she reached the opening of the hallway.
"I'm a..."
Kaede was able to see the mysterious figure properly if they turned around though. She had her mouth partially open without anything to say out, the pianist was silent as she stared at what she assumed to be the 'sixteenth student'.
From what she observed, the 'sixteenth student' has a spiky white hair with a large lock of it standing frizzled in the air, she could even see it twitching. The body is even more bewildering, everything on him is black and metallic.
There's no doubt about it, that boy is the missing 'sixteenth student'.
But as she opened her mouth just to consult from whatever happened to him, another voice comes out that made her jump.
"SO THERE'S THAT METAL BUTTHEAD!"
"Kyaa!" Kaede released a squeaky scream from her mouth and turned around to see the other blonde girl who is wearing aviation goggles eerily behind her. She appeared to have the expression of irritation from what Kaede saw from the 'sixteenth student'.
"MIU WHAT THE HECK?!" She yelled at 'Miu' for scaring her. What a way to ruin the moment for the pianist by a woman who drooled in the gym, that's for sure.
Miu, who seemed to shrunken from Kaede's raising of her voice, took a few steps back with her hands holding out from her face as a sign for protection. "G-g-geez, Kaeidiot! You don't have to shout at me like that! I was just following you!"
"But that doesn't mean you have to be creepy and scared the heck out of me like that!" Kaede retaliated in frustration. Of all the bizarre things that happened to her, this came next.
From afar, the pianist could see the others catching up with her and Miu.
Miu, on the other hand, was peeping from Kaede's shoulders to look at the 'sixteenth student'. She could see him frozen on spot, it's like he didn't move at all. Not only she jumpscares Kaede, but she must have scared him too. By golly, Miu is slightly ticked that the two people were afraid of her good looks. They should be scared if the people are ugly, and not gorgeous like herself.
"Is that him?" The short man asked when he was the first one to take a peek on the 'sixteenth student' by the time he reached Kaede and Miu.
Soon, the others were commenting on the same thing. No matter what they saw, it's the real thing.
The 'sixteenth student' is there, kneeling behind them with no chances to even see the full face of his.
None of them took a step closer, it was Kaede's request just to lessen the commotion. Who knows what will the 'sixteenth student' do next.
It's like they're in a zoo, staring at an animal who doesn't even dare to look at the Humans who caged him in the first place.
"So...what now?" Miu asked Kaede without using her inside voice, "Is he gonna sit there while showcasing his metal hiney at us?"
"Do you want to?" Kaede asked with sarcasm, in which Miu leaned back from the pianist's rebuttal.
The man who is wearing military attire took a step forward to observe more of the 'sixteenth student's actions, "Kaede?"
She looked at him with a brow raised, "What is it, Kiyo?"
'Kiyo' turned his head to face her, "Have you attempted in speaking to him?"
"I tried to. Until SHE ruined the moment." She answered with dismay on her face, the pianist even heard Miu muttering 'I said I was sorry' to Kaede.
The young woman in maids uniform stepped forward, "Ms. Akamatsu, perhaps it is a good suggestion for you in trying to speak to him personally now."
Kaede gave the maid a nervous look, "I don't know, Kirumi."
"It is a suggestion, you are the first person to see him. I think it is safer for him to have social contact from you first, then we shall see if he can trust you or not." 'Kirumi' suggested formally, though she does have some signs of worry from her.
From that, everyone starred at Kaede. Affirming that she's the only one who can go to the cage and say 'Hi' to the animal.
With a sigh, it looks like it's up to her.
"Okay, FINE. I'll talk to him." She said to her classmates.
Kaede turned around and walked towards the opening of the entrance hall.
For some odd reason, she felt her palms sweating. She thought of herself, 'Come on Kaede, it's just talking to a boy, no biggie'.
The pianist gulped, she took a deep breath as she releases her voice to the 'sixteenth student'.
"Hello there!"
Looks like her voice reached the 'sixteenth student' when his body stiffened. Seeing that it's working, she continued to be open.
"It's okay! I'm just your average human girl, I won't bite!"
She could see his posture relaxed, she has to speak more. She wanted to see who he really is.
"You can turn around now."
With that acting as a gentle command, the 'sixteenth student' placed his hands on the ground as he slowly placed his unsteady feet next. He almost tripped off the ground until he gained the balance as he turned around until Kaede was able to see his face.
Kaede felt like her heart went heavy, but she had no idea where this odd feeling came from.
The 'sixteenth student', based on her opinion and the point of view from the others, he looked...different. A good kind of different.
Not only he has some patches of metal behind him, but they're also all over his body like an armor. There were 'buttons' that light up on his arms and the middle of his chest, and he has a belt on his waist. He even has a metal collar around his neck, there were even strange green linings on it too.
Her eyes were stuck when she finally saw what his face looked like. His skin is pale white with black linings running under his eyes, ears that don't look like ears at all, and his blue eyes bore into Kaede's.
The eyes of an Innocent.
She doesn't know why, but for some reason...she wanted to reach out her hand and help him...
Unfortunately for her, the 'sixteenth student' stared at her as if he's seeing a ghost! When she said that she won't bite, he must have thought that she's a man-eating monster or something.
It gets worse when he saw the other students behind Kaede, he was even stepping backwards when he saw the young girl with the witch hat, the girl in pigtails, and Shuichi himself. The others were looking at him with suspicion, even the man with the goatee was close to even punch the 'sixteenth student's lights out of it.
The 'sixteenth student' had his head shaking, his face looked like he was close to crying.
She lifts her hand out to her classmates, ordering them to stay in place. It's just like what Kirumi just said, she's the only one who might get his trust. But before she could even take a step closer to him, the 'sixteenth student' reacted badly.
"...!"
Kaede froze, her eyes blinked with confusion.
The pianist thought that he was gonna attack her, but he ended up having his mouth open to make words when he couldn't even make a sound.
Even the 'sixteenth student' was in shock that he even placed his hand over his lips, which it wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to say something, but no words came out. It's like he was silenced! This added his fear more, his shoulders went up and down as if he was hyperventilating.
In Kaede's mind, she feels like the silent communication between her and the 'sixteenth student' was understandable, which she felt like it came out of nowhere. She may not hear his voice like what happened minutes or hours ago, but she could feel what he was trying to say.
'Stay away from me'
The 'sixteenth student' stayed in his place as she started to walk closer to him. He had his hands embracing to his arms and his eyes were shut tight.
"You're the 'sixteenth student', right? I know I'm not the person who you can trust at first, but...I just want to help you."
That made him open his eyes and meet Kaede close and personal with her hand in front of him.
"We're all trapped in this place just like you did. We don't know when and we don't know how we got here in the first place. But all we know is that...we have to escape this place."
"It's okay," Kaede stretched her hand out more, "I'm not going to hurt you."
It's a saying that the person who is telling the truth will always have their eyes looking straight at you, and that's what the 'sixteenth student' is experiencing right now.
The pianist could finally have some relief to herself once she saw his hand slowly reaching out, this made her anxious.
But by the time his hand touched into her skin, there was a tiny spark that went into Kaede.
Her hand was drawn back from the slight electrical pain she felt, but she could see that the 'sixteenth student' went way worse than what she thought of. She could see him panicking, with his body shaking vigorously and the sound of his voice wheezing in trying to make a sound. He is freaking out!
"That's it! I can't take it anymore!"
"Kaito, wait!"
And that even made the students take action when they entered the hall, ready to take him down.
'Kaito' had his fist punched to his other hand, "Hey you! If you're going to hurt Kaede like that, you have another thing coming!"
"It's ungentlemanly to hurt another person, you can't do that Kaito!" Gonta cried out.
"Guys! I told you he's no harm!" Kaede said in frustration, she did give them the gesture to say put. And yet they didn't listen to her when the pianist got slightly electrocuted by the 'sixteenth student'.
"But -"
"No BUTS!" She said it loud and clear, this is getting out of hand.
Kaede turned around to see the 'sixteenth student' about to lose it, he was backing away from her. She was thinking that he was scared of whatever he did to her, but she didn't care about getting hurt.
"Look, it's okay. I don't care if you hurt me, I know you didn't do it on purpose. Just, please! Calm down and let me help - "
"N-no."
"No?" Kaede repeated whatever blurted from his mouth.
"No...No...No no no no no!" The 'sixteenth student' hung his head down, but his shaking wouldn't stop. He's going to lose it.
Kaede tried to reach her hand once more, "Please..."
But it's too late.
"NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
And that's when he started to run as he opened the door to the outside of the school, leaving the students standing in shock.
"The love of the gods is the only truth. Do we have to impose this in the lives of our children? Oh gods, whose name is ..."
- [Team] O.B.N.N (Blessed Messiah and the Tower of Ai)
Author's Note (Please read):
WHY IS THE WORD COUNT ARE GETTING HIGHER?!
Anyways, I have some announcements here.
I just got my classes this week and the enrollment thing is somehow a pain at first. I'm sorry this is somehow late because stress is getting into my head again and it really slowed down my roll in writing. I have entered a lot of organizations, four to be exact. I even have my own personal goal to be a Dean's Lister someday.
And because of those things in college, I think I might have a slow update. So, I'm sorry if I'm going to be slow here.
So, this is chapter 6. The TRUE PROLOGUE of this story. I was also having a hard time doing the segment of the class because I have to review the Danganronpa V3 prologues in Youtube, same thing as trying to type ALL OF THE V3 CHARACTERS. Like I have second thoughts on whether or not I'm portraying them or not! Hopefully, I get some answers. But take note! This is the start of the butterfly effect taking place so the scenarios would be completely different now. Also, with the soon release of the English version, I'm gonna follow some parts from that localization. Along with the 'Nee-hee-hee' laugh, but that doesn't mean I will push aside the aspects from the Japanese one. I'm still going to put them..if I ever I somehow execute them properly though.
Other than that, I'm telling to all of you that I'm NOT GOING TO PUT SWEAR WORDS in this story. You know, the f-word and others. Though I'm not sure if the word 'Damn' or 'Hell' counted as such, but I'll find that out soon. Now for the reason was that because of my family. THEY'RE READING THIS STORY. And if I slip one bad word on it, I'm dead. My family is super strict on whatever I am doing, so it's one tough life in the real world. Let's just say that there's an incident involving me that caused them to be overprotective, but I appreciate on what they're doing though. Seriously, if you could see the news about the Philippines having these killings and crimes, then you have my point.
Now for the theme about 'Forgiveness versus Punishment', it's based on things that are happening in this world. I guess you could say that the situation that is happening in my country sparked me about this theme also. I hope you heard about Rodrigo Duterte and his 'War against Drugs' along with the 'Extrajudicial Killings'. People are still in rage about the killings, telling to stop those and give the people a chance to change. However, there are some people who wanted to have JUSTICE. And when I say Justice, I mean the 'Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth' kind of Justice. There are families of the victims (A family member of mine from my father's side was also killed years ago) who were killed by robbery or other crimes that didn't involved Drugs are so angry, that they wanted the one who killed their loved ones die in the worst ways possible. To be honest, if you asked me on which side I am. The only answer you'll get is 'Neither', that's it.
So I guess you could say that this fanfiction is also an 'advocacy', if ever I'm using that word right, to show you about the whole Justice System in the whole world (Mostly in the Philippines, but still). While there are some countries who showed a good kind of justice, there are some who weren't that 'merciful'. TAKE NOTE that I'm taking neither sides, and I'm not gonna be biased about it.