Danganronpa: Painful Truth

The Easy Part

Tetsuo closed the document he'd been studying with a sigh of annoyance. He'd been instructed to sift through the impressive collection of files to find anything that hinted at a second location. It was, at least, a task that was difficult enough to be worthy of his research skills, but he hadn't been able to find a single lead. There were various mentions of an underground facility of some kind, but there were no addresses, no coordinates, not even a city where it might reside.

He grumbled as he clicked the next potentially relevant file. If there was one thing he hated more than being disrespected, it was failure.

"What's wrong, Tets?" Ayu asked, looking up from the book she'd been reading.

He barely spared her a glance. "The fact that you're still here."

She giggled. "Don't lie to me just to be mean, that's no fun!" She marked her page and skipped over to him. "Come on, what's wrong?"

He sighed again, but relented. "The only reference I've found to the location of this facility is the fact that it's underground. That lowers the possibility of finding a simple address, of course, but one could logically expect to find a recorded latitude and longitude of such an important location. I've found nothing of the sort, and I've skimmed through nearly everything."

"That is frustrating!" Ayu frowned thoughtfully for a few moments. "Hmm...well, what if it's just underneath the TV studio? That would make a lot of things easier for them, I bet!"

Tetsuo blinked, glaring at her. Of course his complex intellect had missed such a simple answer. That had to be it. With a huff, he turned his attention toward his computer once again. "I suppose that's a possibility," he said curtly.

Ayu's eyes lit up proudly. "I got it, didn't I?" She gave him a quick hug around his shoulders. "You're welcome!" With a giggle, she hurried back to her book.

*************

The sound of the helicopter cut through the silent night just like its blades sliced the surrounding air. It wasn't too loud to have a conversation, but the nine stealthily clad teenagers inside had nothing to say. The excruciating detail Kokichi liked to add to his plans left little need for last minute discussion. He even had a contingency plan for every worst-case scenario he could think of.

Ryu chuckled excitedly while Yoshi muttered mantras over his slingshot, but everyone else was too nervous to make a sound.

Ayu's revelation of the most likely location for the facility had been good news, since they had already familiarized themselves with the layout and security of the TV studio. The relaxed security meant that they were heavily relying on the secrecy of the facility to keep it safe. Since the participants of the killing games were presumed dead, and the Future Foundation was disguised as a simple production company, it was likely that no one had ever bothered to look for it until now.

Unfortunately, it also meant a few changes to the plan. They still needed to split up initially, since approaching the studio as a large group was too conspicuous. Once inside, the Discovery Team had the same job; marking any doors that looked important to open and couldn't be accessed by standard lockpicking. One of the suspicious doors was sure to lead to a staircase or elevator. The Sabotage Team would open the doors, and send someone to retrieve Ayu and Yuri. They would then all wait by the stairs or elevator for the Destruction Team while keeping a lookout for anyone who might try to pursue them. Once they were grouped up, they would descend, and split up again.

Finally, the chopper descended. Natsumi shut off the blades, leaving them in silence.

Kokichi was the first one to speak. "It's time," he said quietly, with a mysterious smirk. "Everyone ready?"