Danganronpa Midnight: Lantern Lament (Fanganronpa)

Chapter 4 - A State of Uneasy Equilibrium - Motive, FTE: Kenjiro

Once again I awoke, sitting straight up immediately once I felt an odd tickling sensation on my leg. Looking down at my bed, I realised that it was just Archie who had crawled out of my bag where I was keeping him and was now crawling around the top of my bed.

I felt myself tense up, clenching my teeth.

"Are you kidding me...The last time I woke up in my room to see spiders, three people got killed." I sighed, yet somehow I couldn't bring myself to move.

Archie had nestled himself on my leg, seemingly falling asleep.

"S-Shit...!" I mumbled, cursing at myself.

This is just like when my dog falls asleep on me...It's not like I can get up easily!

I need to get out of bed but...I don't want to wake the guy.

But I don't want to be late either!

I didn't expect to face such a moral dilemma so early in the morning.

Sorry, Archie...But I've got to go.

Carefully, I moved my body inch by inch as carefully as I could in an attempt to not wake the spider up.

I guess I do kind of care about Archie now. Who would have predicted that?

A few moments later, I managed to free my body the best I could while making the minimum amount of physical movement possible from the trap.

I'm glad that managed to work. Now Archie can sleep all day and Satoshi won't worry about why I took so long. And I don't think he'd accept a spider sleeping on me as a reasonable or good excuse.

After getting dressed, I stepped out of my cabin and came face to face with the man himself.

"There you are..." Satoshi sighed, unfolding his arms and approaching me. "I'm surprised you came out on-"

Satoshi paused once he looked at me, stopping right in the middle of his sentence.

After of few seconds of silence, I put my hands on my hips. "Hey! What's the big idea, you staring like that...?"

"I-I'm sorry! It's just..." he hesitated after the apology. "Your hair looks...different."

"Huh?" I tilted my head but then realised what he meant when I saw one of the curls bounce on the side of my head. "Oh, that. Kokoro did it for me. It doesn't suit me at all, I know."

"I never said that!" He exclaimed.

"I know you didn't! I'm the one saying it, idiot." I scoffed. "I should have just stuck to my straight hair. Sure, I was curious but I mostly just went along with Kokoro 'cause I didn't want to reject her. I can't say no to her and her pouting."

"N-No! I mean..." he groaned. "I mean...Hidemi would have liked it."

"H-Huh?!?" I froze.

"I've known Hidemi for years now. And I know that she would've loved it." He explained. "And you're lucky. I've got to straighten my once-a-week just for it to stay how I like it. I always burn my fingers..."

"Well..." I bit my lip, thinking about Hidemi who I had pushed to the back of my mind, yet now she was front and centre yet again. "I guess I can keep my hair like this for a bit."

"But it does look good." Satoshi reaffirmed. "Kokoro knows her stuff."

"You're right there..."

Just as we were about to begin our short walk to the dining hall, we were stopped dead in our tracks by the sound of the familiar chime of the monitor nearby.