Danganronpa: Painful Truth

Reunion

He followed the aesthetic stone path toward the front doors, then turned right and headed to the side of the building. Once he reached the spot he was looking for, he grabbed the wing of a nearby statue and pulled it down. With a rumbling sound, a hidden hatch opened in the grass, revealing a set of stairs. With a final frown of anticipation, he descended.

The war room erupted into a cacophony of cheers and applause as he entered. He blinked numbly at the nearly-full table, feeling warm relief seeping into his mind. There were still a couple of faces missing, but it was clear, at least, that the video he'd been shown during the killing game had been nothing more than a cruel lie.

He grinned. As if he'd been worried. As if he could be so easily manipulated by the lie of an amateur like Monokuma.

He barely acknowledged the welcoming shouts and unsolicited hugs as he made his way to the front of the room. With only nine people to account for, it was easy to tell who wasn't there. In addition to Ryu, Yoshi, and Yuri, he noticed Kiki, Ayu, and Tetsuo. He knew Natsumi would be busy with the hot air balloon for at least a few more minutes. That left only Shinji and Shigeri.

The twinge of concern that lingered in his chest brought a scowl to his face. He took his place at the head of the table, in his elaborate supervillain-style chair. After clearing his throat, he glared expectantly around the table as his henchmen gradually settled down.

"Boss! Oh Boooooossssss~!" Kiki, a girl with lilac hair in a short bob, spoke up excitedly. Her face wore her usual flirtatious grin. "BossBossBoss! You were soooooo coooool on TV! You've gotta tell us all about it!"

"I wanna hear it too!" Ayu nodded in agreement, her pigtails bouncing. "I hate the killing game but it's still so exciting whenever hope wins!"

Kokichi shook his head and relaxed in his chair with his hands behind his head. "Don't be stupid, I'm not gonna start until everyone gets here." He still refused to acknowledge the possibility that they wouldn't show up.

Natsumi stomped down the stairs angrily. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here, thanks to fuckin' nobody."

Kokichi suddenly noticed the sensation of a die-shaped plastic goblet being pressed into his hand. It was full of a fizzy, dark purple liquid. He glanced up in time to see Shinji bow to him, then turn to face the others. He struck a pose straight from a super sentai anime. "At last, our supreme leader has returned! And now, with our arrival, this meeting can begin...and with it, the dawn of our new era!"

Yuri rolled her eyes as Ryu and Yoshi applauded the dramatic display. "We could have...finished already...in the time...it took you...to make...that speech..."

"As if you're one to talk, you imbecile," Tetsuo snapped, looking up from his book. "Entire civilizations have risen and fallen in the time it takes you to utter one sentence."

"Jeez, can everyone shut up already?" Kokichi whined impatiently. "I'm getting bored. I wanna tell you guys all about my plan!"

"Permission to speak freely, Boss?" a lazy, sarcastic voice spoke up from behind Shinji. "You're a stupid little shit and your plans are stupid shit."

A chorus of "oooooooOOOOOO" arose from the group as they looked eagerly between their leader and the newest arrival.

Kokichi smirked slyly, ignoring the fresh wave of relief. He didn't even need to turn and look; he could clearly picture Shigeri's cold glare. "Aww, someone sounds maaaad~! Nee-hee-hee! Didja really miss me that much?"

Shigeri snorted, but the one eye that was visible beneath their hair remained cold. "Hell no. But that press sure did." They shook their head. "Shame. Thought you got your ass crushed into little bitch paste."

Kokichi laughed cheerfully, and the group snickered along. After years of the ten of them working together, no one was fooled by Shigeri's hostility. When he had first presented his plan to enter the killing game and destroy it from the inside, he'd managed to convince nearly all of his henchmen of the brilliance of the idea. Only Shigeri had remained opposed until the end.

Everyone could tell that their anger was simply how their relief and concern manifested. Out of his nine subordinates, Shigeri was easily one of his oldest and closest friends.

"SHIGERI!" Shinji bellowed, pointing aggressively at them. "Apologize for your insolence or suffer!"

"Nah."

Kiki giggled. "Ooooh Shiggy you're so cool! Stepping out of the shadows all tsundere like that!"

"Call it what ya want." Shigeri shrugged and picked their nose. "Just sayin' it like it is. Dumbass kid with a dumbass plan. Tell us all about it, dumbass."

"You dare defile your countenance in such a perverse manner in the presence of our Supreme Leader?" Shinji assumed a battle stance as he glared at Shigeri.

"Yep." With a yawn, they wiped their finger on the back of Kokichi's chair. "How long ya gonna keep interrupting, Shin? You're bein' rude."

Shinji bellowed in frustration, but Kokichi only laughed. He wouldn't have minded letting them all bicker amongst themselves forever. Basking in the lively company of his friends once again almost made the pointless killing game feel like a bad dream, a memory too distant to matter.

Unfortunately, it did matter. Now that he knew the truth behind the existence of the game, it mattered even more. They couldn't afford to relax. He cleared his throat again. "Now that everyone is finally here, we can get started! You all watched the game like I told you, right?"

"'Course we did!" Ryu cheered, pumping his fist. "Kiki set it up to record every new episode!"

Yoshi's eyes filled with tears. "W-we were s-s-so s-sad when you d-died, Boss!"

Kiki put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "I kinda thought that the hot astronaut guy would die much earlier, with how stubborn he was! I guess they had to keep him around so he could get with the sexy assassin." She pouted. "Putting a cute romance plot in a murder show is too cruel! You can't even hope for a happy ending!"

"That's the whole point, right?" Ayu muttered, looking miserable. "My dad said, if you ever feel hope from a killing game, don't trust it. It's just Monokuma trying to trap you into feeling more despair."

The entire table fell into silence for a moment. As always, Ryu was the first to break it. "So what was it like Boss, gettin' smashed like that?"

"R-Ryu! That's s-such a s-scary question!" Yoshi covered his ears frantically. "I d-don't even w-wanna hear the answer to th-that!"

"Yeah, jeez!" Kiki smacked the side of his head. "Too soon!"

"I won't lie and say I'm not curious about that," Tetsuo admitted. "But I'm inclined to believe that a tactful approach would be a more productive option here."

"Shit, even Tets thinks you're fucked up," Natsumi snorted.

Kokichi suppressed a small shudder as his mind processed the question. Ever since the Future Foundation had tampered with his mind, his memories from before the killing game were slowly returning as a vague, disjointed mess. Even his memories of the events during the game felt distant and blurry...except one. There was one memory that loomed over his mind, crystal clear, waiting for a chance like this to replay itself in vivid detail.

The hydraulic press screeched mechanically above him as it lowered slowly, too slowly. Even with the press already over halfway down, it felt as though an hour had already passed by the time Kaito was no longer visible. He was alone, with only the steady and unforgiving wall of metal for company. He closed his eyes and forced his imagination to ignore what was about to happen.
It didn't help at all.
The agonizing pace of the press ensured that he had almost a full second to feel the cold surface brush his cheek, his chest...ignoring primal feelings of panic, denying his natural instinct to escape as the walls closed in...before falling unconscious.

"Sounds like a boring question. Boring questions make boring stories." Shigeri yawned and rested their feet on the table. "Next!"