Danganronpa: Painful Truth

Trauma

Kokichi blinked, suppressing a rush of gratitude at the abrupt change of topic. "Yeah, that's probably the lamest story I could tell right now." He grinned mischievously as he paused for suspense. "Nope, I'm gonna tell you all about the Future Foundation...and their killing game."

There was an assortment of reactions from around the room. Yoshi and Ryu gasped in unison. Natsumi and Tetsuo scowled. Shigeri raised an eyebrow while Shinji struck a series of poses. Kiki pulled a device with several buttons from her pocket and pressed one. A cartoonishly dramatic dun-dun-DUN sound effect played from the speaker.

"Boss..." Ayu looked as though she were close to crying. "What you just said...does that mean the Future Foundation are the bad guys now?"

"Hmmmmmm? Now?" Kokichi raised an eyebrow. "Are you keeping secrets from us, Ayu?"

"My dad told me a few things..." She sniffled. "But he said the Future Foundation doesn't exist anymore! He says if they were still fighting for hope, the world wouldn't be weird and gross like this!"

"That...may actually shed a bit of light on a recent interaction I had with my own father." Tetsuo narrowed his eyes. "I was browsing the recent additions to our library, and I happened upon a document that mentioned the Future Foundation multiple times, but provided no useful context on the subject. So, I resorted to asking my father." He scowled. "Typically, he enjoys condescendingly carrying on about the subjects of my questions, to the point that I regret asking. But this time, his response was rather cryptic."

He put a hand to his chin as he recalled the exact words. "He said, 'it depends on who you ask, and when.' He simply ignored me after that."

"Well that's useless," Kokichi sighed. "Anyway, I don't care what they were in the past." He clenched his fists determinedly. "Right now, they're the ones abducting teenagers and forcing them to play a fake killing game!"

Kiki pressed another button. A different villainous fanfare filled the room.

"Don't overuse it Kiki, it's gonna get boring," Shigeri commented.

"What?!" Ayu gripped her pigtails miserably. "But why?"

"Could it be...some other group...who stole...their name?" Yuri suggested. "It would be...easy to...lie about that...if the real...Future Foundation...is gone..."

"How dare you doubt me, you slug." Kokichi shook his head with a patient smile. "If they were lying, I would know."

Yuri let out a soft chuckle. "Boss...you're an...idiot..."

"Whatever, I'm still right." Kokichi sipped from his goblet. "Even if it is some fake group that has nothing to do with the original, there's no doubt that they're the masterminds behind the killing game. That's all that matters."

"Th-that's true B-boss!" Yoshi nodded earnestly. "B-but I still w-wanna know what h-happens to the p-people who d-die!"

"They get recruited," he replied nonchalantly. "And based on how they were acting, and the amount of resources they must have...I don't think they're letting the ones who refuse just walk away."

Kiki gasped in delight. "Are we gonna rush in to rescue them and sweep them off their feet?"

"No way!" Kokichi pouted. "It sounds so dumb and boring when you say it like that." A slow, sadistic smile spread across his face. "We're going to abduct them. Then we'll either convince them to join us, or torture them until they have no other choice."

"Oooooohhhh of course!" Kiki nodded excitedly. "I've been working on some new torture methods~!" She hummed as she pulled a small remote control from her other pocket. She pointed at various buttons in turn. "So if I push this button, it sends out a signal to all mobile devices within 50 feet that disables all your alarms and reminders! And this one turns your ringtone volume to full blast and sets all your notification tones to naughty sounds!" She giggled proudly.