Hopeful Blacksmith (Danganronpa 1 x OC)

Chapter 21: Disappearance of an AI friend

I woke up during my nap when I heard footsteps outside my door. I sat up in bed silently as someone stopped outside my door and slipped a paper through the crack under the door. Once I heard them walk away, I got up and check the piece of paper. Scrawled in neat yet bold letters, the sentence "Meet in the Dining Hall!" I felt a little scared, so I grabbed a metal rod I had lying around in my tool pile. I didn't plan on going out there empty handed, who knows what the other person wanted to talk about. Sure, I trust the others, but what if the actual person behind this wanted to hurt me? I opened the door slowly and made my way to the dining hall and peeked to see both Makoto and Hiro chatting. I put the rod away in my bag, walking up to them.

"Did one of you send me the letter I found in my room?", I asked.

"Yup, I wrote it.", Hiro pointed to himself.

"Your handwriting is... really nice.", Makoto chuckled.

"Well, I was always taught that if you had bad penmanship, a ghost would come and haunt you.", Hiro explained with confidence.

"And why did you want to meet with us?", Makoto asked.

"Oh, I just did what Kyoko asked me.", Hiro pointed out.

"Kyoko? Why?", I mumbled.

"I'm just an errand boy on this. Anyway, whaddya say to a late-night bath session?", Hiro suggested. I raised a brow at that, looking at Makoto to see he had a similar reaction.

"Huh...?"

"Okay, let's do it!", Hiro our shoulders and got a bit close, whispering in our ears. "It's all an act, so the mastermind won't notice. Everyone's waiting in the bathhouse." I blinked and realized that this must have been for Alter Ego, so I quickly nodded and went along, as well as Makoto.

---

We got to the bathhouse to see everyone waiting for us. A pretty agitated voice was the first thing that greeted us.

"Hey! You! How long were you gonna keep us waiting!?", It was Taka, his still glowing eyes staring at his watch with absolutely no patience. It was worth noting that he was still in his "Transformed Taka" phase. Who knew how long he was going to be like that, but I couldn't do anything about it now. "It's almost 10 o'clock, you know that!? Bedtime for all the good little boys and girls!"

"But you're awake right now...", I mumbled, not really liking the loud noises in my ear this late in the night.

"Tch... Shut up...", Hifumi growled at Taka, looking uncharacteristically pissed.

"What'd you say!? You want me to make you cry, little girl!?", Taka taunted Hifumi, something I never thought I'd see.

"Taka... He seems to be even worse off than I'd heard. Well, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe he's finally starting to grow a personality.", Togami chuckled.

"At least his personality is tolerable.", I sneered, making Togami glare at me and scoff.

"What--!? You got a lotta poop fallin' outta that mouth of yours, you know that!?", Taka confronted Togami with rage behind his eyes, while Togami was just watching everything unfold like always.

"How rude... A maggot like you has no right to speak that way to our heaven-sent Master...!", Toko bellowed at Taka, protecting her precious "Master".

"Hm? Are you back to your normal gloomy self? I can hardly keep track at this point.", Celeste pointed out.

"Sh-Shut up...!", Toko grumbled.

"Well anyway, everyone's here, right!? Then my messenger duty is complete!", Hiro nodded, looking very proud of himself.