Hello readers and welcome to my new chapter. Now, several of you suggested several things for the free time. From doing free time for those who're about to die to just do the more interesting. And one review told me that doing all of them would take up a lot of time. So, after thinking about the reviews I've seen, I decided to either do the more interesting and plot oriented ones, or combine the conversations. I hope you guys are okay with that.
As for Junko, many of you wants her to have feelings for Makoto, with some suggesting Junko having a obsession with the Ultimate Luckster/Hope, while a few of you argued against it. After weighing the arguments and number of reviews about it, I decided that Junko will have some sort of infatuation with Makoto later in the fic. When the time comes that Makoto tries to get Junko into the side of hope, I might need some help with that.
Like one of the reviews said, Junko is a complicated character. I doubt she would easily get on the side of hope.
So, with those thing out of the way, enjoy the chapter.
P.S. I now got a beta reader for this fic. "A Lucky Soldier" will be checking my chapters now, so the chapters will have little to no grammar mistakes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danganronpa.
Chapter 08: Watching Ch 1: To Survive Part 1
When the screen turned on, it was still black. "You must kill someone if you want to leave." The narrator Makoto repeated. "Those words kept being repeated in my head. I could feel that paralyzing fear slowly making its way through my body, dominating every last nerve. The air hung heavy on me, pressing down like a weight. It took everything I had to endure that weight."
(Chapter 1 - To Survive - Daily Life)
"Something tells me that this'll get intense." Hifumi declared as they looked at the title and picture. "Yes, very intense indeed."
"The picture looks like a battle could happen between that fucking bear and Makoto." Mondo commented. Makoto began sweating at the sound of that.
"I don't think that would happen." Makoto stated. While Monokuma doesn't look tough, he probably got several weapons in the school and probably in himself.
"But for as heavy as the air felt," The narrator Makoto continued. "All it took to pierce it was her sharp words."
"So? What are you going to do now?" That broke everyone's suspicious glance and they all turned to the one who spoke. Kyoko Kirigiri.
She stared at them right back, no amount of fear or suspicion in her eyes. "Just stand around glaring at each other?" Her question was directed at everyone in the room.
Makoto sighed in relief at that. "I'm glad your future self is there with us Kyoko." Makoto told the detective. "Otherwise, the tension would've still been there."
Kyoko smiled. "It's fine." Kyoko waved off. "There needed to be someone who had to break off the suspicions and fearful thoughts."
That broke all of the tension. "R-Right….she's right!" Taka stated. "Sometimes, even if you're nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward! To forget such a simple fact….I can't forgive me myself. I so ashamed! Please, someone hit me! I can't forgive myself! Somebody hit me! Punish me!"
"I can't believe I forgot something either!" Taka exclaimed, holding his head. "Mondo, please hit me for this! I need to be punished!"
"Jesus bro," Mondo sighed, shaking his head. "You don't have to overreact like that. You weren't the only one who was afraid."
"Jesus." Mondo groaned. "If you have time to yell about it, you have time to DO something about it."
"Perhaps," Hifumi spoke in. "But….what is the mission, exactly?"
Leon slapped his forehead. "Idiot!" The baseball player exclaimed. "To look for a way out, duh!"
"And we totally need to find whoever was controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of 'em." Junko said in anger.
"Look like our future selves' objective is similar to ours." Taka stated. "Only that we're not trapped in the school."
"So it seems." Sakura agreed.
"B-But before we do all that, maybe we should take a look at the handbook." Chihiro suggested shyly. "It's probably best to check out the school regulations Monokuma mentioned before doing anything else."
"True." Celestia agreed. "If we stumble around with no clue to what the rules are, something like before might happen again."
"And if that happens, I doubt anyone else would be able to escape Monokuma's punishment." Celeste added in. More than a few gulped at that.
Mondo look away at that. "Shit."
"Fine." Junko sighed. "Then let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already."
Everyone started turning on their e-Handbooks, Makoto included. When he turned it on, the first thing that appeared is his name. He then selected the school regulation icon, which caused the first rule to appear.
'Rule number 1: Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.' Makoto read to himself. 'Rule 2: Nighttime is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution. Rule 3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.'
'Rule 4: With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.' Makoto kept reading. 'Rule 5: Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras. Rule 6: Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered. Rule 7: Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.'
As soon as Makoto finished reading the rules, several of the students gained angry looks. "What the hell? These rules are meant to control us!" Leon raged.
"Like hell I'll let them do that!" Mondo roared. "No stupid rules are going to stop me from escaping!"
"So, you would rather get yourself killed trying to find a way out?" Celeste calmly asked the biker. That stopped Mondo raging. "While I don't agree with these rules, if you break them, Monokuma will kill you."
Mondo was silent for a moment before sighed and reluctantly settled down.
Makoto looked up from his reading, feeling a little dizzy. As he looked down, he saw the others having stormy faces. "This is bullshit!" Mondo raged. "What the hell kinda rules are these?! I'm not gonna let them control me!"
Before he could do anything, Celeste spoke. "Well then, why don't you wander around the school without a care in the world and see what happens? Personally, I would love to see what happens when someone breaks one of the rules."
Hina blinked. "Wow, that's pretty similar to the conversation here." Hina mentioned.
"Only the future Celeste had a more apathetic wording to her warning." Taka added in. He laughed. "This goes to show how well we are getting along with each other!"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Celeste stated. "Several of you are still D rank, just only higher than regular D ranks. Very few of you here are C, one of them being Makoto."
"But if he got punished like what we saw before, I don't think there'd be a respawn point waiting for him." Hifumi said nervously. Mondo went silent at that, losing his rage.
He stayed silent for a moment before speaking up. "I….ever since I was a kid, I grew up with my older brother pounding this into my head. When a man makes a promise, he has to keep it, even if it kills him."
"...So what?" Was the response from Junko.
"I've made a ton of promises that I still have to keep, that's 'so what'!" Mondo exclaimed. "So I can't afford to die in here!"
"So in other words, future you are gonna follow the rules?" Celeste asked. Mondo reluctantly nodded.
Celeste sighed. "None of that made much sense to me, but you're saying you will follow the regulations, is that it?"
"Huh?" Was Mondo's response. "Oh well….yeah, I guess you're right." With that, all the steam was taken away from Mondo.
Sayaka then spoke. "Hey, um….I have a question. For regulation number six….what do you think it means, exactly?"
Makoto knew what she was talking about. The rule about the 'blackened'. "You're talking about the second half, right? Where it says 'unless they are discovered'? I was wondering about that myself."
"Now that they mentioned it, I'm wondering about that too." Makoto said.
Byakuya then spoke up. "It means that no one can find out that they're the killer, obviously."
"But how would that work?" Chihiro asked. "Does Monokuma have some kind of set up for that?"
"Hopefully, we don't find out the hard way." Sayaka says.
"It's saying that if you want to graduate, you have to kill someone without anyone finding out it was you." Byakuya stated.
"B-But why?" Toko asked. "Why do we h-have to do that?"
"I don't see any reason to worry about it." Byakuya said. "Just worry about following the rules as they've been explained to us. Frankly, I don't want to hear anything from someone who waits for others to decide what to do for them."
Toko giggled perversely. "E-Even at a t-time like this, m-master is such a flirt with me."
Hiro sighed. "I will never understand her masochistic side."
"None of us will man." Leon sighed with Hiro.
Toko blushed a little. "D-Don't jab at me."
"More like a full on stab." Leon countered.
"S-Shut it. Y-You know nothing about l-love." Toko hissed.
Leon rolled his eyes. "I know enough where I can tell what love isn't like." Leon retorted.
"Well for now, let's forget all this silly junk about murderers or whatever." Hina spoke up. "Now that we know the rules, let's go exploring the school!"
"True." Taka agreed. "We need to find out where exactly we are. Is there any way out? What about food and supplies? There are tons of questions we need to answer!"
"Agreed future me!" Taka shouted in agreement. "There are questions we need to answer as well!"
"Some the same, some different." Celeste stated. "Hopefully, this series will answer all of them."
"Damn straight!" Leon stated, feeling pumped up. "Okay, then let's all start looking around!"
"...I'll be going alone." Byakuya stated.
"What? Why?" Junko questioned. "That's a pretty stupid idea, don't you think?"
Byakuya didn't hesitate to answer. "Someone here might already have started thinking about murdering one of us. Are you saying we should stand around with them in our midst and make it that much easier for them?"
A few eyes widen. "You really think that would happen?" Makoto questioned in shock.
"Like it or not Makoto, the possibility is there." Byakuya sighed. "Our future selves were suspicious of one another. My other is just making sure he doesn't get killed."
"Yeah, like going off by yourself is soooo much better." Junko stated with an eye roll.
"H-Hey, hold on a second." Sayaka spoke in. "That would never-!"
"Don't bother saying it couldn't happen. You can't deny the possibility." Byakuya interrupted harshly. "That's why you all seized up in fear when that graduation rule was made clear to you. Am I wrong?"
"B-But…." Sayaka then stayed silent, looking very guilty. Several of the other Ultimates look guilty as well.
Kyoko sighed. "While the possibility is there, you could learn to trust people more Byakuya."
Byakuya made a 'hmph' sound, but didn't disagree.
The Togami heir continue. "So, I'm simply acting in accordance with what I think is best for me." With that, he went out of his way to the exit of the gym. But his path got blocked by Mondo.
"Hold on! Like hell I'm gonna let you run off and do whatever you want!" Mondo stated, looking pretty threatening.
But Byakuya was not deterred. "Out of my way, Plankton."
"Wh-?! The fuck's that supposed to mean?!" Mondo demanded.
"One tiny bit of plankton, drifting across the sea." Byakuya explained, mocking Mondo. "So miniscule, so insignificant, they couldn't possibly have any kind of influence on the boundless ocean."
Mondo growled. "I forgot how much I wanted to kick you ass!"
Byakuya chuckled. "Doesn't mean my future self's words are any less true."
Mondo paused at this. "Wait. You know what? I still want to kick your ass!" He jumped up and was ready to pound Byakuya's skull in, but he was held back Taka and Chihiro.
"Bro, calm down!"
"You know that Byakuya is like that!"
Mondo growled, but sat down. If he wanted, he could've broke out of their grip. But he didn't want to disappointment his bro nor hurt Chihiro in any way. He's way too fragile to hurt.
That angered Mondo immensely. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Before Mondo could fulfill that threat, Makoto ran up and stood between the two. "S-Stop it! We shouldn't fight!"
Mondo winced. "Oh, you shouldn't have tried to stop me at my state Makoto."
Unfortunately, Mondo take too kindly to that. "The fuck you just say? You some kinda goody-goody little bitch? Who do you think you are, talkin' to me like that? You think you're my fuckin' dad or something?!"
Hina scowled. "He's just trying to stop you from fighting! That doesn't mean you should insult him!"
Mondo rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I was angry, okay? I couldn't help it." He defended himself.
Makoto stepped back, slowly realizing what he put himself in. "N-No, I wasn't-!"
"Fuck you!" A second later, Mondo punched Makoto and sent him flying through the gym. Soon, the boy landed on the other side of the gym.
Sayaka and Hina gasped, covering their mouths in shock, while Fukuwa covered her eyes. Hifumi and Hiro winced, feeling bad for Makoto. "That critical attack must have hurt." Hifumi stated.
"Well, what did you expect?" Leon retorted. "Mondo is like a freaking monster when angry. I would be surprised if Makoto survived that."
Makoto glared at the Ultimate Baseball play for that assumption, but stayed quiet. He wasn't THAT weak!
Meanwhile, Mondo spoke up in anger. "Who the hell are you calling a monster, jackass?" The biker got up with his fist raise at Leon, but Taka and Chihiro quickly got him back on the couch again.
Sakura closed her eyes. "You should really learn to control your anger, Mondo." Sakura stated. "You can use this as a means to control it, when the time comes for you to avoid hurting somebody."
Meanwhile, Kyoko, Celeste, and Junko did their best to keep their emotions in check. The first two were angry, the last was amused.
Junko easily managed to stop an amused grin from coming up. Celeste had a bit more trouble concealing her anger, but manage to do so. Kyoko, however, while isn't showing any obvious signs of anger, had a very slight scowl on her face and her purple eyes darkening a bit.
Mukuro didn't bother hiding her expression. She looks ready to kill Mondo for what he did.
'Oh, that's right.' Makoto thought wearily, on the verge of unconsciousness. 'I'm trapped in here with a bunch of 'ultimates'. My common sense must've….stopped functioning after all this. I guess I shouldn't be surprised something like this would happen. But I'd just….lost track of my sense of reality.' That was his last thought before going unconscious.
"Are we really that scary to you?" Sayaka asked him, after getting out of her shock.
Makoto smiled sheepishly. "I wouldn't say scary for all of you, but a normal kid with a bunch of talented people could be a bit overwhelming." Makoto explained himself. "And some my fears were justified, considering my future self was just launched across gym."
"Oh. Speaking of which," Sayaka slowly turned to Mondo, a smile on her face. And in the background, a dark aura surrounded her. "Mondo. We'll need to talk about controlling your temper."
"Do you mind if I join you?" Mukuro asked, her killer glare directed at Mondo.
"Sure. I don't mind if some of you girls join me in educating him." Sayaka said sweetly. Mondo felt himself a bit pale at this.
Celeste giggled. "Your future self just dug you an early grave."
Many of the guys felt sympathetic for Mondo. Especially when they saw Hina glaring at him, along with Kyoko giving him a cold, emotionless stare.
And that's the end. Sorry for the small chapter, but I felt this would be a good stopping point. Looks like with the first few parts of each chapter, they're gonna be short. So, expect that in the future. If you guys have any ideas for chapter 1 or how to start off certain free time events, let me know. Review, favorite, and follow and I will see you later.
