Danganronpa: Poisoned Hope (Fanganronpa)

Chapter 6 - Class Trial 4

The whole trial room was silent as we all slowly processed the massive piles of information that had just dropped.

"The second part of the trial is only halfway through and you guys are already all sad and mopey? Jeez, I thought you all would be tougher than that." Ryuto rolled his eyes at us. "Come on, liven up a bit. It's not the end of the world!"

"Of course you would say that!" Reina called him out. "You're not the one who just found out most of what they know is just lies!"

"It's not that big of a deal!" He argued. "Those lies were for the benefit of this whole game! Calling them lies makes them sound evil or something...so let's just call them little changes I made!"

"Those are still lies!"

"But for this trial to continue..." He began. "I've got to get you all talking. So I'll change the topic of discussion! How about that?"

Again, the only reply he got was silence.

"Alright!" He took our silence as a yes. "How about you, Kei? I'm sure you're dying to know why I wanted to get rid of that pesky eye. It's more than just authenticity, you know?"

"I..." Kei took too long to respond, so Ryuto continued anyway.

"In the real world, you were the only one that really tried to stop me. And that was annoying...You were the only one who actually knew about the killing game in disguise from watching and controlling the beta test! That's why you were so against it!"

"Beta...test?"

"So there were other killing games?!?" Mizuki said.

"Yes, a beta test! Every game has one. There was no way I was gonna start a game without checking to see if there were bugs or massive game-breaking glitches." He explained. "But I didn't use actual beta testers. I used students from Hopes Peak Academy."

"That doesn't make things better!" Reina pointed out. "Didn't people still die?"

"It's a killing game. Obviously, people died! These Hopes Peak students didn't see it coming though. And my lovely helper Kuro even helped capture participants for it, still thinking that this was for some greater good."

So now not only did I injure Kei...but I captured innocent students from Hopes Peak?

This is insane...How terrible am I?

Why would I do such things...

"And by capture you mean...?" Reina tilted her head.

"We simply knocked them out in a similar way to how Arashi knocked out the Mei A.I.! Then we transported them to one of the free facilities in some random Shizuka skyscraper or building away from anyone else." He replied.

"So you kidnapped them!" Toshiro corrected him.

"Eh, same thing."

"Why...did it have to happen in one of the Shizuka buildings...?" Kei brought up.

"Hm? Because you were the one who offered the location, silly!"

When Kei heard that, he lifted his head, his responses becoming clearer and less dazed. "I did what?"

"You offered the location because you were the mastermind of our best test!" Ryuto said, causing Kei to stand there in shock.

"That's...That's impossible! I'd never be the mastermind to something as sick as-"

"As this? As a killing game?" Ryuto assumed. "That's the thing! Before you were against the whole game, you were one of the people who helped me the most...almost as much as Kuro! And since you were the son of the guy who funded the whole thing, I trusted you with the responsibility of monitoring and making sure our beta test ran smoothly! I offered you the job and you accepted it, thinking the game was an innocent way to develop the student's talents. But as soon as you found out it was a killing game, you wanted to stop it."