Danganronpa: Painful Truth

Awakening

I opened my eyes suddenly, my head full of nightmares. Vague yet painful images lingered in my mind, of seeing my friends suffer and die. Being forced to find truth after agonizing truth just to survive and protect what was left of the others. Being told that it was all meaningless fiction for the sake of sick entertainment.

The worst part was, even with so much pain and fear coursing through my mind, I had no way to confirm that the images attached to those feelings had ever really happened.

I could have remained there for hours, in horrified contemplation, allowing myself to think in endless circles, attempting to sift through my tainted memories for some sort of truth. As my head started to ache, however, I realized that there was nothing productive I could do with my current information. Instead, I clung tightly to the only truths I knew: I was alive, awake, and I needed to know more.

Motivated by having something, however insignificant, to believe in, I sat up. I was surrounded by machines and other laboratory equipment. To my surprise, I was laying in some kind of metal pod, similar to the cold sleep pods we had found during the killing game, but laying horizontally. The door to my own pod seemed to have been forcefully torn open.

Glancing around, I noticed that there were sixteen pods in total. Nine of them didn't appear to have been used recently. The rest had been opened with aggressive force, just like mine. Of the latter group, two of them were still occupied.

"Maki!" I shouted, more loudly than I intended. "Himiko!" Clambering out of my own pod, I ran to check on them.

They started to stir from the sound. Himiko opened her eyes blearily, then frantically sat up with a sudden shriek. "Nyeh! Wha-" She glanced around wildly until her gaze landed on me. "Oh, Shuichi! I had the craziest dream. I was in school, and this cute little teddy bear was trying to make me kill everyone, and I didn't want to but he was just so cute..."

I averted my eyes uncomfortably. For the first time in a while, I found myself wishing I was still wearing my hat. "Uhh, Himiko, I don't think all of that was a dream..."

She blinked. "Really? Even the part where my classmates turned into giant rabid bunnies and my master rode in on a cute chubby tiger to save me?"

I exhaled with a slight chuckle. "That part might have been just a dream."

Her face fell. "Aww...I liked that part..."

"Where...are we?" A low, groggy voice spoke up from behind me. I turned to see Maki rubbing her eyes and surveying the room with a scowl. "What happened?"

"Maki," I sighed with relief. Even if they were just as disoriented as I was, having them there made the hopelessly confusing situation easier to face. "I don't know yet, either. What's the last thing you remember?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment, but her eyes narrowed. "Does it even matter? Whatever I remember...is probably just part of some new backstory they gave me, right?" she spat. "I don't feel like playing along this time."

"Nyeh!" Himiko balled up her fists defiantly. "It's too early in the morning for another existential crisis!"

"I know, Maki, but it's all we have right now." I tried to sound reassuring, but all I heard from my own voice was exhaustion. "Even if the information itself is fake, we may be able to learn something from our memories."

"They wouldn't have woken us up unless they were ready to manipulate us again," Maki argued. "Anything we remember is probably just a part of their next sadistic show. Just a way to control us." Her voice trembled slightly, likely from remembering the result of the last time she had trusted her memory.