Alright, it's time to jump into some nice fun stuff. I mean, I know most people want to see more gritty action, but to be frank with you lot, I just want to write some fluff stuff between Class 77 – B before we jump into the nonsense that is the next arc.
There won't be much levelling up and getting stronger like the last 11 chapters, seeing as this is more or less just time for me to build up on the eventual Normal/Yuri Harem and Inverted Harem that Jolyne will acquire.
After all, there is no Harem without actual build-up. And if you've noticed, you might have already seen Jolyne picking away at someone, unintentionally or otherwise.
Also, It has been brought to my attention that when I described what was going to happen in terms of said Harem, I called it a Reverse Harem when I was describing an Unwanted Harem. Once again, I have been bamboozled by Google.
Now, before we get into the chapter, Imma gonna respond to some reviews/comments!
[Response to reviews/comments!]
(Qoutev) Mal: Junko is, in fact, here now. But, you won't be seeing more of her till much later.
(Qoutev) Unlucky the Unfortunate Magical Girl: Nah, Ora is overrated, Muda rolls off the tongue better and is far superior.
(Qoutev) Taco Sensei: I'm glad I'm not the only one who has similar feelings when it comes to this topic.
(Ao3) MarcusCooper: It's the one thing that stops Danganronpa from being a 10/10 in terms of the plot. I mean, there are other things, but having the Main Antagonist in your story do what they did for "Shits and giggles" is lame. It makes me think that Kodaka couldn't find a good reason for Junko to do what she did, and went for the "Just Cause" route because that was the only way for it to make sense. Cheers mate, happy writing to you too!
(Ao3) Shine375: Well, here it is! I hope I did not disappoint!
Onxio: Damn straight! I mean, exploring new universes to see what other worlds are like? She'd love that! That was kind of my thought on it.
Kolt999: Thank you for your kind words and honest critique. I'll be completely honest, the whole thing with Kuzuryu was done so that I could put some real stakes into this first little bit. As a result, I made Kuzuryu a bit OOC, and that was mainly on purpose. I always saw Kuzuryu as the overreactive type, especially when it came to his family, hell he killed Sato because she killed Natsumi in canon, which was deserved, by the way (Sato being killed, not Natsumi lol).
That being said, the whole thing with Natsumi was forced, and I will admit that I handled it poorly. This is my first time writing a gamer fic AND a Danganronpa fanfic that isn't a crossover killing game, so I'm running off of some stereotypical things that I've seen some Gamer Fanfics and DR fanfics do, and forcing conflict is one that I've noticed happening a lot. But, with this next arc, I plan to go for a normal, natural route when it comes to conflict. I'm still a newbie writer, so if some things come off as forced, it's me still trying to iron some stuff out.
As for the thing with Junko, I think I've put my point across, and I'm glad we can both agree on it. Surprisingly, I haven't faced any backlash when it comes to this choice, which goes to show that perhaps I hit a sweet spot within the fandom! Either that or none of the Junko stans have found this yet.
Also, I did some digging around all the fanfiction sites that I am aware of and that accept's and allow's DR fanfiction, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that what I am doing is the first of its kind. Maybe I might start a trend? Who knows. Thank you for your kind words, and I hope you stick around! Cheers mate!
Alright, now that I have all of my responses out of the way, let's get onto the main show, shall we?
xxXXxxXXxx
[Nekomaru Nidai]
If there was one thing that Nekomaru Nidai had been anticipating throughout his life, meeting, or rather being introduced to someone who could manipulate blood as if it were second nature and create things out of it was most definitely NOT one of those things. In fact, had someone told him that about a few days ago, he would've called that person crazy—and that was saying something, seeing as he was a bit eccentric himself.
Jolyne Brooks, the transfer Student from Canada to the Reserve Course, then to the Main Course, was someone that, upon meeting her he thought her to be The Ultimate Punk or whatever. Her hair screamed "Punk" to him, so that was why he first thought that. Obviously, he knew now that wasn't the case, but that was neither here nor there.
Now, how she was able to get into the main course was what intrigued him. It was a bit outlandish, seeing as it went against Hopes Peaks' rules. 90% of the time, Hopes Peak Academy only accepted Japanese citizens, but as was made apparent, she was a special case. After all, having the ability to use Magic, honest to god Magic, would make you kind of special, even amongst the especially gifted like he and his peers were.
And while her demonstration of how she can use and apply that magic was… grotesque, it was proof, and that alone was enough for the class to murmur and converse about just what her intentions for joining their class were. Nekomaru believed it to be happenstance. After all, no one just CHOSE where they'd go in terms of classes.
And yet, while that was the case, Nekomaru had noticed how bad and sometimes outlandish things have been happening to him and his peers over the course of their first semester in their second year at Hopes Peak Academy. Accidents that have caused bodily harm to those in his class, accidents revolving around Teruteru and his little aphrodisiac "prank." There was also the time when Kazuichi got run over by a truck and survived… somehow, and that barely scratched the surface.
All-in-all, a lot of negative things have been happening to him and his peers, and it was starting to get out of hand. Although, for a while, things had actually been getting better. Then Jolyne showed up and not even 8 hours after her joining up with the class did shit go south. While he hadn't been there to see it, according to Mahiru and Hiyoko, their classroom was shot at several times. Jolyne used some sort of fire ability to swart them off, to which Jolyne told them Fuyuhiko had hired them to kill her.
While a majority of it he believed, that last part he refused to. He knew Fuyuhiko to be smarter than that, and to be far more understanding than that, at least when he wanted to be. Sure, Fuyuhiko had his moments of aggression, but he would never, EVER call some sort of hit squad on anyone, not unless he felt like he couldn't deal with it himself, but even then, he saw no reason for him to do this to anyone in the first place. To him, Fuyuhiko seemed like the type of guy who fronted himself as being super tough, but on the inside was sweet and caring.
So for him to do something like that seemed outlandish. And call it cruel, but he'd soon rather believe the person he knew for a year and a half rather than someone he JUST got introduced to.
Later in the day, they were all called to the courtyard by Yukizome-sensei. While on his way to the courtyard with a few others, he and his little group came across several corpses, either charred or impaled. All of them had weaponry, and all of them had cards belonging to the Kuzuryu Clan. Those cards had been warrants to kill someone. And on those cards was a name. Jolyne Brooks.
If that wasn't enough proof for Nekomaru to understand that what Mahiru and Hiyoko said Jolyne had told him was true, then he didn't know what was. And when they got to the courtyard, they were right in time to see Jolyne utterly pulverize Fuyuhiko in the span of two seconds.
After that, everything went further downhill, if that was even possible. It got to the point where Nekomaru had to involve himself and knock down Jolyne before she could impale Pekoyama… for the second time. Luckily, she was alive, but only barely.
According to Mikan and a few of the in-school doctors, Peko's large and small intestines had been reduced by 40%, and she no longer had a uterus. Jolyne completely impaled all three of those organs. They were unsalvageable. The best the surgeons and Mikan could do was shorten the remaining intestinal tract, and remove the heavily damaged, borderline useless uterus.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Another thing that happened was that Pekoyama had the lower portion of her spine damaged, meaning, at least for the time being, she was a paraplegic. Thankfully, the lower spinal cord wasn't unfixable, though it would take several surgeries to get it done, and years of therapy.
Then, there was what happened to Fuyuhiko.
He wasn't waking up. Period.
He wasn't dead, miraculously, but he was in a coma, and not the medically induced kind. He had to be transferred to an actual hospital, and not be left in the care of Hopes Peak. But, according to Yukizome, the chances of him waking up were as low as 10%. The sheer damage done to him was unreal. The only bones in his body that weren't broken had been his skull, neck, and collarbone. The rest? Reduced to a fine powder, and it wasn't metaphorical. His bones were in pieces, and the fact that he was still living was nothing short of a miracle.
Right now, he was on life support, and in the same hospital as his sister, who was on the verge of recovering. And because of his current status as M.I.A. within the Yakuza, according to Mahiru, who knew Natsumi Kuzuyru due to being a former victim of her bullying, that meant SHE became the Heir to the Kuzuryu Clan. And with the chances of him not waking up being far higher than his chances of waking up, if he didn't within a month, Natsumi would receive the title of Ultimate Yakuza Heir over Fuyuhiko.
And while Nekomaru felt bad for what happened, and while he and the Yakuza heir had talked in the past, they weren't friends. They were classmates, and it sucked to know that he would more likely die rather than come back, he didn't take it NEARLY as bad as everyone else.
Although, he wouldn't lie and not say he didn't shed a few… hundred tears… at the thought of him dying. Despite not knowing the guy, Nekomaru was a rather emotional person, and even if he barely knew Fuyuhiko, he felt as if him meeting a fate like that was not right.
But it wasn't as if he didn't bring it upon himself. That was something that he understood immediately upon hearing the news. He had brought it upon himself when he had those five assassins hired to kill Jolyne. His reasoning for doing that was because Jolyne nearly killed his sister. Why? Because Natsumi had attacked Jolyne, Jolyne fought back while using a little too much force while doing so, which resulted in her ending up in the hospital with a broken appendix, a damaged liver, and about 5% of her intestine cut out.
He could understand maybe slapping or beating up Jolyne for doing that—hell, if that had been someone in his family, he would've done that—but attempting to kill her? And using a third party and getting 5 more people killed in the process? That was not at all called for. At least Jolyne could say that what she did was out of self-defence. Fuyuhiko? He did it out of wanting to get revenge. That was it. He had no other motives, just revenge.
Now, as for his classmates, they were split on what happened. On one hand, what Fuyuhiko did was awful, and it nearly got Chiaki killed, along with triggering Hiyoko's previously unknown PTSD about guns and loud sounds. But, there were a group of people within the class, namely Nagito, Mahiru, and Pekoyama, who believed that what Jolyne did to Fuyuhiko was inherently wrong, no matter what the reason.
Nekomaru asked Mahiru why she believed that Jolyne was also in the wrong. Her answer was that "Killing, regardless of who did what is wrong. But, Brooks shouldn't have taken it that far by putting him into a coma."
Nagito's was inherently bigoted. He had said that "Fuyuhiko's status as an Ultimate should've meant that he was allowed to do whatever he liked, especially to "Reserve Course Trash" like Jolyne was. Her status as The Ultimate Mage changes nothing because she is not a true Ultimate."
He didn't know what Nagito continued to rant about, because he tuned the guy out, and Akane had karate chopped him on the back of the neck to get him to shut up. Honestly, there were times when his views on Reserve Course Students were a little too much for his liking. Actually, scratch that, it was always annoying.
Peko's reasoning was obvious. She was one of her victims, and only wanted to protect Fuyuhiko. She was an innocent bystander, up until she tried to cut her head off.
Nekomaru was a peaceful and respectful person. He wasn't going to try and argue with any of them, but their responses, sans Peko's, rubbed him the wrong way. Fuyuhiko had tried to kill Jolyne using hired guns, and while the other 12 people in Class 77 – B understood her reasonings, and why she did what she did, that small divide in the group was enough to cause some tension.
And something told him it was only going to get worse. It had been two days since what happened, well, happened, and while tensions had died down a little, they weren't gone.
As Nekomaru approached the door to his classroom, ready to face another day with a smile, he couldn't help but pick up the sound of someone walking in his direction and fast. When he turned to see who it was, flanking his right and approaching the door was Jolyne.
That was a bit surprising, considering the last time he saw her was when she was filled with holes, cuts, drenched in blood and littered with bruises. Yet, right now, she looked as if none of that ever happened. There were some scars by the base of her neck, and some residual bruising, but there was nothing to indicate that she had gotten into a brutal life or death fight. It was almost as if it never happened in the first place.
The dual-haired teen seemed to be annoyed about something, but finding out what exactly had been troubling her wouldn't take him that long. After all, he knew people inside out and backwards. If he could train an entire team worth of prisoners and know what each of their own issues and struggles was within a single day of knowing them, then he could pretty easily figure out what was wrong with Brooks.
"Good morning, Brooks-san. How're you?" Nekomaru asked, the Ultimate Mage turning to face him with a neutral expression.
"Could be better," Jolyne replied, reaching for the sliding door handle of the entrance to their classroom. "Quick question, what should I expect from this? I'm used to doing normal desk work and completing handouts, so forgive me for being a bit… what's the word, blunt? But how is this different from normal schooling?"
All Nekomaru could do was laugh, giving a hard pat to Jolyne's back, making her stumble slightly. "Oh, trust me, Brooks-san. You'll notice the difference right away," Nekomaru replied as Jolyne shook her head, a look of… panic on her face, though it disappeared as soon as it appeared. "You good?" The Team Manager questioned, raising an eyebrow as Jolyne blinked a few times.
"How about you just… enter before me. I need to… check something," Jolyne said, staggering back from the door as Nekomaru shrugged. He didn't know what girls needed to check, or why, but with that look on her face, it might've been something important. Quite frankly, as long as it wasn't something related to her being hurt, he didn't quite care. Personal hygiene was just that, personal.
"Alright, you do that, I'll just tell Yukizome-sensei you're running late due to personal matters," Nekomaru said as Jolyne nodded, running in the direction of the bathrooms. Only one thought came to his mind, a small smirk on his face. "She probably needs to take a shit. I know that look better than anyone. There's no doubt about it. It's shit."
He let a little chuckle leave his lips before opening the door and heading into the classroom….
[Jolyne Brooks]
The moment the dual-haired teen entered the bathroom, she ran into one of the stalls and locked the door and sat on the toilet, she curled her legs up onto the seat and hyperventilated for a few seconds. Now, just what could've caused her to do that? It wasn't as if she was in any mortal danger, right? And even if she was, well, she was strong enough to practically kill anyone. Right?
Well, as it was apparent to her now, she wasn't exactly invincible as she wanted to believe herself to be. Why? Well, because Nekomaru Nidai, in a friendly gesture of being a dude, hit her on the back, lightly.
Keyword there being: Hit.
Being hit means taking damage.
And for Jolyne, that meant when Nekomaru hit her, even if it was a joking gesture, The System still registered it as being an attack. And that attack did 320 damage.
She was left with 5 HP.
If someone so much as threw an eraser at her with a little bit of force, she would've hit zero, and died. Now, granted, she didn't know the chances of that happening, but it was equally as likely to trip and fall flat on her face, still dealing damage to her. Still killing her.
And it was all accidental. Nekomaru didn't even mean to hurt her. When he tackled her, he did 100 damage to her. So when he arched his arm back for a slap, she thought it would deal less. Turns out, the only reason why he didn't kill her with the tackle was apparently he had been holding back more than he was with the slap. Meaning that if he actually wanted to square up and fight, then she would get turned into a pretzel faster than she could breathe.
She almost died. To a friendly slap to the back.
Not to five assassins.
Not by getting her head chopped off by an angry swordswoman.
But by a friendly slap to the back. And it only left her with 5 HP.
Not only would that have been the world's most pathetic death in terms of having supernatural gamer abilities, but it would've ended her second run at life. That was something she didn't want to have to happen. She hadn't even hit anything on her imaginary bucket list! And if Nekomaru accidentally killed her right then and there, then what happened with Fuyuhiko and his assassins would've meant nothing!
And so, before heading to class, she decided to let herself regenerate some of her HP. And it was sitting there, hand limply dangling near her skirt, that she remembered something.
She wasn't wearing a bra or panties. She was in a school, and only wearing the uniform. If a pervert thought it'd be fun to get a peak up her skirt, a skirt that she hated, by the way, then they'd get a face full of uncensored teenage girl genitalia. Then again, it would've been the same thing had she worn her "panties," just with two strings on either end of the assortment of meat if she bothered to put on the only pair of undergarments she owned, but that was beside the point.
She didn't have anything to put on underneath the skirt, and since the Japanese school dress code was super strict, it wasn't as if she could slap on a pair of pants underneath her skirt without getting in trouble.
The bra, on the other hand, she could live without. But the lack of school-appropriate panties—the fact that was a sentence was something baffling, even to her—was a bit embarrassing.
In hindsight, she probably should've run to the store and bought the clothing quickly, then come back. It wasn't as if she could do that now, seeing as class was about to start, and if she didn't enter that classroom before the bell rang, it would mean that she would forfeit the quest she wanted to get done.
"Welp, perhaps I'll get to kick Teruteru in the face today. Now, time to—"
Quest Failed…
[Read a Book]
You failed to finish reading 1,136 pages of any given amount of books. Consequences have been distributed as they are to be applied.
"You gotta be kidding me, right?" Jolyne thought, groaning. Had she really been out for 3 days after the assassin bit? Had she REALLY bought that book for nothing? Jolyne put her hands on her face, sliding them down as a frown took over her features.
"Oh well, I still got a good book out of it, I just gotta find the time to read it," the dual-haired teen thought, untucking her legs and standing up from the toilet. She flushed the toilet, just to make sure that anyone who was in the bathroom at the time knew she wasn't just holding up a stall.
The Quest took away 5 of her Mg Atk stat. Had that been before she was level 11, that would be a bit more annoying than what it was now, but right now it was just fine. She still had, what, 70 in that stat? Granted, it would lower the damage she could do by a LOT when it came to the PTD, but that was fine. She wasn't concerned about the PTD at the moment.
As she looked down at herself, a strange and also abrupt thought came to her mind. If there was one thing she did a lot in her past life, it was… exercising her hands. But she had yet to do any of that, and normally by this point in her past life she would've. Back then, going nearly a week without masturbating would've driven her insane.
Yet for some reason, it wasn't doing that to her in this body. That, and she had yet to figure out how that worked for this body anyway. She still wanted to try it out, but not right now. "Later. I have more important things to do…." Jolyne thought, unlocking the stall door and stepping out. She washed her hands, dried them, then walked out of the hall and toward the classroom door.
Upon opening it and stepping inside, a bell went off. The others in her class were chatting and talking to those who they knew, not paying her any attention. That was good, otherwise, she'd feel just a tad bit awkward. There was an empty desk at the back, and in front of it were two more empty desks, but seeing as the one in the back wasn't there before, she assumed it was hers. Walking down to it, she took a seat and looked to her left. Sitting beside her was Nagito Komaeda. He narrowed his eyes at her, then looked away.
"Who pissed in his cornflakes?" Jolyne thought, shrugging. Not her problem. If he had anything to say to her, he would. He seemed to be like that kind of person, anyway.
Not even a moment later, Chisa Yukizome walked into the classroom, a smile on her face, though if the bags under her eyes said anything about her actual mood, she was stressed out and probably hadn't gotten a night of sleep since the whole chebang with Kuzuryu.
"Good morning class!"
"GOOD MORNING, SENSEI!"
Jolyne had to cover her ears at how loud they all were. Then again, what had she expected from them? "Oh, Jolyne! I'm glad you could join us today! How are you feeling?" Yukizome questioned as everyone turned to look at her. "Talk about putting me on the spot, right?" Jolyne thought as several pairs of eyes glanced at her.
"Well… I'm doing better, but… how are Kuzuryu and Pekoyama? I don't see them here today, or at all, actually," Jolyne asked as Nagito scoffed.
"Shouldn't it be obvious? Pekoyama is still in the hospital, and Kuzuryu is practically dead thanks to you. What do you have to say for yourself, trash? For you to harm those who are your superior, you should be ashamed," Nagito spat, his voice sickly sweet yet filled with ire. "Reserve Course you may not be in name, but you still are, never forget that," Nagito continued as his eyes filled with nothing but contempt.
Instead of doing what she assumed Nagito was wanting what he said to do, like demoralizing her and making her feel bad, all Jolyne did was smirk, grabbed him by the scruff of his hair, and forced his face to be inches away from her own. "Say that to me again, except this time, do so while like this, and see how fast I don't slam your head into the table," Jolyne growled earning wide eyes from the boy. After a few moments and deafening silence from the lanky, white-haired teen, she threw him over to the wall, leaving a small indent in it as the boy slumped up against it, coughing as all the air had been forced out of his lungs by the impact. "Idiot," Jolyne spat, turning her attention to the rest of the class, some looking away when she did.
There was a moment of silence in the room, soon followed up by Yukizome clearing her throat. "Well, I apologize for Nagito, he's been a bit… strange for these past few days. I'm sure he doesn't mean what he says, Jolyne. You've been through a lot, and as such, I propose we all do a group activity for the day. Truth be told, we've all been through the wringer lately, and I feel like we should all unwind and get this ugly tension out of our class. So, does anyone have any ideas?" Yukizome said as a few hands shot up. But, seeing as Mahiru was the first to do so, Yukizome picked her. "Mahiru! What's your idea?"
The redhead smiled, looking down at a camera that she had wrapped around her neck before speaking. "Well, from personal experience, camping in the wilderness helps me calm my nerves. Maybe it'll be the same for the rest of us? That, and it's been years since I've taken a camping trip, so it's a little bit of a selfish request," Mahiru answered, earning a smile from Yukizome.
"What a lovely idea! Camping is also good for teaching the basics of surviving out in the wild, so I don't see why not! We'll take a week-long camping trip then. Here is all your guys' assignment. All of you go purchase what you'll want to bring, I'll supply the tents, and by 3:30 PM, we'll meet back at campus and board a bus that I'll order and head to Wakasu Park Camping ground! All of you are dismissed. Oh, and Jolyne, I'd like to talk to you in private, please. You're not in trouble, don't worry about it."
Jolyne scratched the back of her neck, still a tad bit nervous even if Yukizome said she wasn't mad. She watched as Chiaki helped a still flabbergasted Nagito up from the floor, taking him out of the classroom. As the mauve-haired teen walked past the mage, Jolyne noticed the concerned look in Chiaki's eyes as she passed her, but even so, she didn't respond to it. She simply let it be.
Once everyone left, Jolyne got up from her desk and walked toward Yukizome, stopping a few feet before her. "You wanted to talk?" The dual-haired teen asked, Yukizome nodding.
"Yes. I wanted to know if you had some sort of healing spell. I can only assume you do, seeing as you look as if what happened three days ago didn't happen. I might be wrong, but it's just a guess. That, and I have a small request. I know what Fuyuhiko did to you was—"
"Absolutely not," Jolyne interrupted, a hard glare stabbing into her teacher which earned a shocked expression from Yukizome. There was a sad look in the orange-haired teacher's eyes as the mage shot her down, Yukizome looking away in the process. Jolyne softened the glare, biting her lip, a wave of regret flowing through the mage as the dual-haired teen bowed her head.
"Firstly, I don't have a healing spell. My body has a healing factor that only works when I'm asleep. And second, even if I did have a healing ability, I'm not about to heal the person who almost killed me. If he dies from what I did to him, good. He deserves it. He almost killed Chiaki, caused severe mental trauma to Hiyoko, and nearly killed me three times, all over a spat I had with his sister. If I can find a way to make a healing spell, I'll heal Pekoyama. She just wanted to protect Fuyuhiko and Natsumi. She's innocent. But in no way will I ever heal Fuyuhiko. He dug his grave, now he gets to lay in it."
Yukizome sucked in a deep breath, an understanding expression on her face as she nodded. "I see… well, I can't push you. But… just know that I'm sure he's probably remorseful for what he did. If he ever wakes up, I'll let you know. I'm sure he has an apology or two to make. For now, you should go get what you'll need for the camping trip," Yukizome said, her voice sounding exhausted as Jolyne left the classroom, the regret piling up in her stomach again, though she tried her best to ignore it and focus on something else.
If she remembered correctly, she had 25,000 yen. That was roughly $250 in the Canadian dollar. The first place she was stopping at was a clothing store to get herself some proper undergarments. Then, she'd probably get a shirt and maybe a different, slightly bigger skirt seeing as she didn't like how short the school's skirt was. After that, she'd probably get a few snacks and whatnot then head back to the school.
At least, that was the plan.
While she left the campus, she thought back to the guy she met back when she bought IT from the bookstore. "I should probably call him, I think Rantaro was his name. He did ask me to do so a week ago. He's probably in school though, so I'll wait till after 3:30. That's when most schools go out for the day anyway," Jolyne thought as she exited the main building.
When she walked outside, she had to shield her eyes from the sudden sunlight beating down on her. Adjusting to the sunlight, she began her little walk. She might not have known the area all too well, but she was pretty sure she could at least spot some clothing stores while she walked. She also made a mental note to buy a sleeping bag in case Yukizome wasn't bringing those, or if she forgot to bring them in general.
Leaving the school's campus, Jolyne did so with a mission in mind, and a list in her head. She had never gone camping before, both in her previous life and in her new one, so she was a bit excited.
Besides, what was the worst that could possibly happen?
-To Be Continued-