Danganronpa Midnight: Lantern Lament (Fanganronpa)

Chapter 4 - A State of Uneasy Equilibrium

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Chapter 4 - A State of Uneasy Equilibrium
Daily Life
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My blank expression did not falter as I gripped the blade in both hands. The hold was so intense, my knuckles were a pale white yet trembled.

But it wasn't like I could go back now.

I knelt over her in the trial room, each of my legs on either side of her as she was flat on the floor. Around us were our friends- no...My friends. I knew that. All she ever saw them as were vermin, pests...

Pawns.

Amidst the crowd, I saw Satoshi, Kenjiro, Kokoro...all of my classmates who were still alive. All five of them excluding myself and her.

Although...it felt like someone was missing.

Each of them had the same twisted smile that felt out of place. As if they were anticipating what was to come.

Looking beneath me, I saw her face.

Ryoko.

Unlike the others, her expression remained blank, just like my own. It was...uncanny for her. Such an empty and hollow manner didn't suit her persona at all.

But...she was better this way. Silent. Harmless...Completely different.

Taking notice of the knife in my hands one more, I froze.

"W-What...am I doing?"

My question had a flurry of answers, all too blurred and distanced to me to make out what they were saying. Each overwhelming voice shook my senses as I grew less in touch with my body by the second until...

I finally did it.

Under me, I saw that I had ultimately plunged the knife deep into Ryoko's skull between her eyes. Blood began to seep out of her wound, surrounding us and staining her already devious face.

But I didn't stop.

My hands extracted the blade and with it, struck her skull yet again. Her eyes dilated, becoming glassy nearly instantaneously.

I still didn't stop.

Stab after stab after stab. My clothes had become unrecognisable, tainted by the colour of Ryoko's crimson blood that began to flood the room. The voices from earlier came to a dead stop as the small group of our classmates around us vanished, leaving the two of us alone with our fatal thoughts.

I wanted to...Yet I couldn't stop.

A piercing cry of unhinged laughter echoed through the room and rang in my ears, growing louder with every killer move I took. Looking at the victim under me, I saw that the laughter was coming from Ryoko, who seemed to be completely unfazed by her extremely bloody and supposedly lethal injury.

"Shut up...Just shut up! Shut up already god damn it!" I cried, flashes of every single person close to me drowned my vision with horrific images of the deceased as I continued.

My family, like my mother...

My close friends, like Tatsuo, Finn and Akihiro...

My loved ones, like Hidemi...

And even unordinary allies, like Akemi, who was yet to apologise to everyone...

My focus reverted back to Ryoko, who had yet to stop her cackling.

All my anger from all of those dead people I was close to...All that anger was now directed at her.

Ryoko's blood soon nearly submerged her whole body, yet she never ceased to chuckle, seemingly not having enough of what I was doing and teasing or mocking me.