Chapter 4: An Azure Uproar Part 5 (Daily Life)
Remaining Students: 11
Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club): Ultimate Poet
Bede (Pokémon): Ultimate Gym Leader
Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Prince
Saki Nikaido (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Biker Gang Leader
Reyn (Xenoblade Chronicles): Ultimate Tank
Minori Ichinose (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure): Ultimate Bookworm
Konata Izumi (Lucky Star): Ultimate Otaku
Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Pilot
Kale (Dragon Ball Super): Ultimate Berserker
Satou Kazuma (Konosuba) Ultimate Thief
Ray (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Strategist
Sayori's POV
"And that's the schedule once more. If you need any more reminders, just look at the picture we took of it in the group chat." Ray concludes.
We all met up in the student center lobby after what we just witnessed, with Ray and Minori reading off the schedules once again in case we forgot. And once again I see that some of the others were still shifty-eyed, this motive really got them on edge, as well as what Tails said too. That was a question I had thought of myself, but not something I would be brave enough to ask…
"Agh… even without all this traitor stuff, staying in that room for three hours sounds boring as hell…" Saki leaned back in her seat, annoyed.
Bede sighed, "As monotonous as it sounds there's nothing we can do about it. Such an irritating motive will likely test all of our patience, especially mine…"
"Hm… how many cameras are even on campus anyways?", I asked as I spotted one in the corner by the fireplace.
Minori adjusts her glasses before answering, "There appears to be eight in total with each monitor: the camera you see here, one in the diner, two on opposite sides of the square, one by the stadium, another by the theater, one in the forest by the security station itself… and a camera that's been turned off that we can't find a way to reactivate."
I tilted my head at that, "Huh? But couldn't Tails find some way? I saw him checking out that monitor earlier…"
The fox shook his head in response.
"I tried, but it just wouldn't turn on for some reason. I tried to see if I could switch the camera feeds around and have it be viewed on another monitor, though I keep hitting the same roadblock."
"That being?" Kazuma raised an eyebrow.
"That it only allows me to activate the camera if I could enter in the location of said camera. Every time I think I'm getting close to getting through, that popup keeps on appearing and I'm unable to continue! I've never had this much trouble hacking before…" Tails sighed and slumped into his chair.
I really wish that one camera could be turned on so the toilet camera can be turned off. I'm pretty sure I've used that stall maybe once or twice without realizing! Ugh… that gives me the willies just thinking about it…
Ray then stood up to speak once more, "On that note, it's best that we rest up early. Especially you two, Saki, Tails. You've got the first shift, so be sure to be on time for that."
"Yeah, yeah…", Saki groaned.
Tails nodded his head, "I'll try to see if I can turn on that last camera, plus three hours is more than enough time for anything else I can work on!"
He gave me a wink and that made me smile, he's likely gonna try to reach out to Yuri and Natsuki again through his electric-thingy. He'll surely pull that off at least! As for me, I've got the second-to-last shift of the day, alongside Kazuma… and Dimitri.
"..."
He's been quiet for a while now, and I'm just now realizing that he hasn't been dismissing us or being the one to call for meetings lately. Those three hours could be pretty awkward, I mean it already was since I'm in the same room as Kazuma (still haven't forgiven him fyi), but this is an even worse kind of awkward.
Eventually we soon all got up to return to our dorms for the night, yet I couldn't help but look at Dimitri. It's impolite to stare, I know, but I was worried about him! Then my eyes widened as I saw Kale walk up to him… and he walked away. Hm… I mean they are living in the same dorm, but there has to be something they're not telling us…
Wait, oh no… I'm starting to be suspicious. I didn't want to ever accuse anybody of anything, I still feel guilty when we had to accuse people of killing! I want to put my trust into everyone here, but with what's going on it's getting harder and harder.
Maybe I should sleep on it… yeah, a good night's rest might do me some good…
I close my eyes and lie on my bed in silence, hoping that no intrusive thoughts enter my mind, or any of those voices reappear from earlier. I try to think about the good times we've spent here, despite being trapped. Enjoying breakfast with everyone in the dorm, hanging out with Hachiken and singing karaoke, training to get stronger with Dimitri's help with the maze… so much has happened since I got here.
I just hope we can find a way to keep smiling together, even now…
…
…
…
"Dimitri, wait… from what you've told me, as well as your current condition… you might end up…", Kale timidly uttered out.
Dimitri turned back to her and sighed.
"Kale, I'll be fine. Tomorrow we have an important task to do, once it's concluded we won't have to worry about this nonsense about a traitor any longer."
The young saiyan fidgeted worriedly
"But Dimitri… you look so tired and stressed out. I think maybe you should sit out on your shift tomorrow and—"
"And what? Participation is mandatory, and I can't let myself be killed now… not until…", Dimitri stops himself before he could say more, Kale taking another step closer to him.
"Not until… what?"
The prince of Faerghus goes silent before speaking softly, Kale managing to pick up what he said and gasping in response.
"… Not until I get my revenge on that woman… for everyone who had lost their lives to this despicable game… I swear it, she will pay…"
That last statement silenced the girl, making the walk back to their dorm a much more uncomfortable one compared to how it's usually been…
MONOKUMA THEATER
"Since it's Halloween, one of the best pastimes is watching some good 'ol horror movies!"
"Unfortunately, there's a big problem with a handful of them that I must bring up: why are most of the characters either dumb or complete jackasses?!"
"They either run headfirst into a slasher villain without thinking, or make you want to root for said slasher villain to murder them!"
"So we at Team Danganronpa would once again recommend checking out our series, from 1-V3 so you may find characters that you may end up liking!
"Or of course the Fictional Quadrilogy where favorites from different franchises join in on the killing game fun!"
"There will be idiots and mean douchebags, of course, but even they end up being lovable in their own ways!"
"So when you see your favorites getting shanked or emotionally scarred, you'll actually cry for them instead of celebrating that they're gone… or groaning at how they won't just FREAKING RUN AWAY FROM THE MURDER HOBO!"
"Ahem, now I hope you all enjoy your Hallow's Eve, especially if you're playing, watching, or reading Danganronpa content!"
"And don't worry about the blood and gore, it's all pink! So you can even let the kiddies in on it."
"You'll have a blast and that's a Monokuma guarantee… Well that, and also NO REFUNDS!"
The day went by pretty quickly while waiting for our shift. We were lucky to get the second to last one, but having to wait for three hours until we can eat dinner is painful. I'm definitely gonna bring a snack or two, or three, when my tummy rumbles. We ultimately decided to meet up around the student center around the times we're supposed to be switching Just so we can do headcount and make sure nobody is skipping their shift.
"How much longer until it's our turn, eh?", Reyn asked aloud as we waited for Tails and Saki to be done.
Ray checked the time in his handbook, "T-minus three more minutes…"
Soon enough, Saki burst through the door with an annoyed look on her face and Tails landing right behind her.
"Gah! That was stupid, glad to be outta there!", Saki flopped onto a couch cushion.
Tails shook his head, "She just couldn't sit still… ow…"
I saw his arm cramping a bit and I looked it over, "Are you okay? What even happened in there?"
He chuckled through the pain as he clenched his Miles Electric, "Ahaha… She wanted to have an arm wrestling contest, and she won…"
"21 TIMES, BAY BAY! WOO!"
Saki raised her fists to the air in celebration as the rest of us looked astonished. It also looks like Tails wasn't able to work that much on the communication feature, it looks like we'll have to wait to see Yuri and Natsuki again. Hope they're alright, but Tails deserves a break.
"Hey, I wanna have a go next! So I can avenge poor Tails here, come on Saki!" Reyn clenched his fist and grinned before Minori took him by the ear.
"That's enough, we can't be late for our turn."
"Aw… but I wanted to see the results of the training I've been doing lately! Cut me some slack, huh?", Reyn tells her as he gets dragged away.
Saki crossed her arms in disappointment, "Man… I would have loved to humble the big guy a few times, keep the streak alive!"
"Pfff, that's cool and all… but you guys should try me in rock-paper-scissors, nobody has ever beaten me in that." Kazuma bragged.
"Ooo, that sounds fun! I'll play!" I jumped in for the chance to ease any boredom.
Konata stepped in too, "Oh RNG-sus, please bless me today…"
Kazuma then glanced over at Bede who was… aww! He's writing using the pen and journal I gave him! Anyways, Kazuma smugly turned to him.
"Hey Bede, want to get in on this?"
Bede did not even make eye contact with him, "And why would I want to do that?"
"True, you have no reason to… but what if you're scared of losing to me?" Kazuma suggests.
Bede clicked his tongue and continued writing, "Defeating someone like you in a game as simple as rock-paper-scissors wouldn't take much effort at all."
"Then why not prove that, hm…?", Konata then joined in on egging him on.
This sounded like a lot of fun, so I decided to chime in myself.
"Come on, Bede! You have a few hours until your shift comes up, can't you just try it at least for a couple of rounds?"
"..."
"Bok, bok, bok!", Konata mimicked a chicken to taunt him.
"Agh… whatever! You'll keep bugging me until I do it anyway, might as well kill a bit of time."
Bede grumbled as he sat down next to us three, with Kazuma and Konata trading thumbs up before we all faced each other. This is probably gonna be pretty quick, but I think it'll still be fun! Okay, we're all ready now…
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Uh… huh?
"Yaha! Yeah! Rock beats, scissors, scissors, and scissors!" Kazuma cheered himself on, while we looked shocked.
Bede's eyebrows lowered as he spoke out against this result.
"Tch, just got unlucky. It won't happen again, best two out of three."
Kazuma stretched his fingers out before readying himself, "Okay then, bring it!"
Four more matches later…
"H-How is he doing this?" I gasped as Kazuma once again won.
"He's gotta be cheating, got some sort of magic skill to see what we're gonna throw out…"
Kazuma shakes his head at Konata's assumption.
"Nah, my luck stat is just that high. Thank god, since it usually gets canceled out by being near a certain someone…"
Whoever that person is, they have to be extremely unlucky if they can get Kazuma's luck to go down. My own luck is already pretty bad, so they probably wouldn't be very nice to hang out with.
"A few more then! Come on, until one of us beats you!" Konata huffs out.
A smirking Kazuma shrugged, "Alright, be careful what you wish for…"
One hour and twenty five matches later…
"O-Ouch! I shouldn't have used my bad arm…" Tails uttered as he clenched his right arm.
"Cheating bastard…"
Saki meanwhile was glaring after she soon joined in, and it was now a six-person game. Despite the amount of other players, Kazuma still won again and again. Even when he had his eyes closed, he still managed to throw out whatever he needed to beat us.
How does anyone win this game this many times?!
"Bede, we're up next. Quit messing around so we can get going." Ray tells him.
Bede was not willing to give up that easily though, "No… just one single win… just one to wipe that stupid smile off his face…"
Kazuma was wiggling his fingers mockingly to make him even more mad.
"Yeah, let him play one more round against me. I'm one more win away from a nice number…"
Thankfully all of us got tired of losing and we all decided it wasn't worth playing against him anymore. Ray and Bede went off to look at the cameras, while the rest of us went our own way. I made sure to grab some sweets from the diner for myself and for Dimitri (Kazuma doesn't get any because he's a cheating perverted meanie), and soon enough… 4pm.
Dimitri, Kazuma, and I stepped into the security room and took our seats.
"Good luck, you three. Be sure to write down whatever you see on the cameras, no matter how significant it may or may not be. It's a good opportunity, so don't waste it." Ray informs us before closing the door.
And so it begins… I take out my notebook, begin looking over the cameras and… and…
"Aaahhhhhhh…."
I yawned within about three minutes, this is so boooooooring! I know we don't have any possessed animatronics outside, but looking over each of these monitors is making me want to take a nap. You can rotate them a little bit to get better angles, but there's barely anything going on. Well, aside from a few highlights:
Saki apologetically rubbing Tails's arm for what she had done to it earlier. She can be so reckless sometimes, but I'm glad she's willing to make up for her mistakes and do the right thing.
Minori and Reyn reading in the library. I guess she managed to convince him to give it a try while they were together. Maybe we can form our own literature club here on campus? I'd love to write poems together!
Konata was laughing at Bede and Ray for some reason. I couldn't catch all of it, but from what I heard from the audio it sounded like she said something about there being some kind of "tension" between them. They haven't gotten along well from the start, so it does make sense. Hope they can be friends too!
Kale was leaving her Ultimate lab, which makes me wonder what's inside hers. We know that she's the Ultimate Berserker now, so what could even be in there?
Other than all of that, nothing… absolutely nothing. I looked over to see Kazuma beginning to drift off, while Dimitri was focused on the task at hand. He looked so diligent, focused… yet I once again noticed the bags under his eyes, I tried to etch closer to get a good look at them and…
"Hm?"
"Wah!"
I almost fell out of my chair when Dimitri turned his head so quickly. While I was taking a few breaths, Dimitri bowed his head apologetically.
"My apologies, Sayori. I didn't expect you to get so close…"
I awkwardly laughed as I finally catched my breath.
"Ehehehe, it's okay Dimitri… I shouldn't have scared you. It's just… seeing you so tired so many times has me thinking that you should try taking a break."
"A break? If we're not staying vigilant, then there's the chance something could happen without our knowledge. It'll be fine, you look debilitated yourself so you should listen to your own advice. I'll keep an eye on everything…"
I gave him a concerned look after he said that, and I wanted to speak up against it… but he was right. I can't keep my eyes open for too long, so it's best that I leave it to him. He's more reliable anyhow, all I could focus on were only a few things on the cameras…
How could I be as useful as him?
…
…
…
*Ding dong bing bong*
"Mm?"
"Hey, guys, up and at 'em! It's time to go already, move it!"
I opened my eyes and saw Kazuma already up and ready to leave. I then look to my left to see Dimitri starting to open his eyes as well. It looks like he ended up falling asleep as well, I knew he needed a lot of rest.
"Hurry up you two, once the last two are done we can all go to sleep in the dorms!"
I yawned while stretching my arms before slowly walking out the door with the two boys. We soon reunited with the others and bid Kale and Konata good luck.
"Make us proud, ladies! We get through this and the motive is over!" Reyn tells them.
"O-Okay, we'll try…" Kale uttered softly.
Konata gave a thumbs up, "I got through multiple ultimate custom nights in a row on the hardest difficulties, I can handle this! I can't wait to see what sneaky stuff you all will be up to, hehe…"
That last sentence made me quiver a bit, I hope she doesn't find out anything I'm doing in private… agh!
I then see Dimitri approaching Kale, the opposite of what I saw the other night.
"... Uh, take care…"
Kale didn't make eye contact with him and only nodded as she and Konata went over to the security room. I sat next to Dimitri and tapped his shoulder.
"So… it looks like you couldn't help but doze off either, huh?"
He softly grunts, "I was too careless, if only I considered what would happen if I neglected my rest…"
"Well, you got a good amount of it there and I'm glad for it. Everyone needs rest, even someone as strong as you." I give him a reassuring smile, which he returns.
"Too true… perhaps you're a lot wiser than you've led me to believe."
I blinked twice before replying back, "Thanks! Wait… are you calling me dumb?!"
Dimitri's eyes widened as he raised his hands up defensively.
"N-No! I would never say that about—"
"Ehehehe, just messing with you. I am pretty dumb, but it does mean a lot when you say I'm wise."
Dimitri sighed in relief before we both chuckled at our back and forth. It was nice to see him smile more, and his face didn't look as tired anymore to boot! Maybe things will be back to normal for him soon…
The next few hours breezed by as we finally came to the end of the motive, no more security room shifts! We all had our own drinks to celebrate, I had a birthday cake milkshake, so we clinked them together and slurped them together.
"Cheers!", we all shouted with joy.
Reyn downs a bottle of cola before pumping his fist into the air.
"Woohoo! Suck on that, Monokuma!"
Saki bumps her fist against his and shouts as well.
"Hell yes! No more waiting around in that dull-ass shed! Time to party!"
Tails raises his finger up to clarify something, "Uh… we should wait until the other two girls return before we start, wouldn't want them to be left out…"
"Indeed, the festivities will not be fully underway until they're present, so be patient everyone." Dimitri says as we soon start to await their arrival.
…
…
…
"... They should be here by now…" Minori states as she checks the time again, 10:30pm.
"Argh, gotta go take a leak. Lemme know when they get here…" Kazuma says nonchalantly.
Ray crosses his arms as he leans against the wall, "Tch, if they don't show up after five more minutes, we're going over there."
"M-Maybe they're just sleeping? I think I'll go over and wake them up. I'll be right back!" I voluntarily headed out the sliding doors.
Did I say that because that's what I believed had happened? Or is it just me lying to myself, knowing exactly what might have… either way I took the transport tubes back to the forest, my heart beating out of my chest. Why am I so nervous? It's obviously gonna be okay, I'll wake them up and we'll all go party until we're purple!
"They're fine… it's going to be fine… we're all going to be fine…"
I found the security station and I knocked on the door just loud enough for them to hear.
"Kale, Konata! Are you still in there?! We're all waiting for you two…"
"..."
There's no response…
…
They're sleeping, just sleeping, yeah. Maybe they need a bigger wakeup call, Konata does end up sleeping in a lot when she's playing games after all! I'll just go right in and shake them awake.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!"
I gently open the door…
"Are you two alr—"
Insert Song: Hope's Breaking Noise (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair)
I gasped loudly as my nearly empty shake cup dropped to the floor.
"No… please, no…"
My hands covered my mouth at the sight… and as much as I wanted to, I couldn't look away. As much as I lied to myself about them being fine, deep down I knew they weren't. Actually seeing it however, managed to make me berate myself internally for even believing that they were…
Konata, a good friend and roommate since the beginning… and Kale, a timid, yet powerful girl… they both were lying there. Not moving, not breathing… all the color in their faces having completely drained.
My eyes welcomed the familiar tears beginning to flow across my cheeks, since once again… the killing game continues.
*Ding dong dong ding*
"Two bodies have been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the class trial will begin!"
Just barely posted this on Halloween before it ended, hoo boy! I really hope this chapter turned out alright, it may be rushed. I really had a lot of writer's block when it came to this chapter in particular, and it'll likely return next time too. I just hope it won't be disappointing to you all, I really do want to give you guys the best I can do. Anyways, once all the evidence is in play I'm counting on y'all to craft your own theories on how these two bit the dust. Getting rid of these two was tough, but I had to, as is the case with a lot of these deaths. It's never personal… Okay, I'll see you all next time, farewell peeps! - Renegade Braveheart