Checkmate of Death (Danganronpa THH x OC)

Chapter 28: The Fourth Floor

The next morning, we all met up in the dining hall like we usually do.

"So now there's only six of us here..." Hina sulked.

"Only a third of the number of people we started with..." Hiro sighed.

"It feels so empty here..." I muttered.

"Loneliness has become commonplace," Kyoko said.

"That's true..." Sakura nodded her head.

"..." Makoto stared at Sakura.

Sakura noticed Makoto's staring and turned to him. "Makoto, are you okay?"

"Ah--! N-No, I'm fine...!" Makoto stuttered.

"..." Kyoko stared at him.

"Okay! In that case, let's eat till we pass out!" Hina suggested.

"Whaddya mean, "In that case"?" Hiro asked.

"Well, cuz look how scary everyone looks! It's gotta be cuz you're all fighting on empty stomachs, right? If you fill your belly, I'm sure you'll all cheer up! So, let's eat!" Hina explained. "Let's fry up some fish and donuts and eat till we can't stand up!"

"That's like a Deep Impact style, meteor impact, extinction level event combination of foods..." Hiro gasped.

"What!? Those are both breakfast time top sellers!" Hina said.

"Still, the "till we can't stand up" part is a problem. After we're done, we need to go explore," Kyoko said.

"That's right. Since the class trial is over, new areas should have opened up..." Sakura said.

"Plus, we still have Alter Ego. We don't have to give in to despair just yet," Kyoko added.

"She's right... We have to plan ahead and think about the future!" Makoto said to motivate us.

"Yeah, yeah! Think happy thoughts! Not deathy thoughts!" Hina said.

"Like when we're gonna get outta here, right? When this is all over...I think I wanna get reborn for serious. Er--I mean, reborn AS someone serious..." Hiro said.

"Hey, are you okay? That sounds like something someone who's about to die would say..." Hina said.

"I'm totally okay! I'm not gonna die! Why? Cuz there aren't gonna be any more murders!" Hiro announced.

"Huh? What makes you so sure...?" Hina asked.

"I predicted it last night! Since it revealed itself to me from the ether, there's no doubt about it!" Hiro explained.

"...How accurate is your fortune-telling, anyway?" Sakura asked.

"I can usually hit twenty or thirty percent on a good day!"

"That's really low for someone sounding confident just about now," I spoke.

"Well, yeah! It's not like it's ESP or whatever. Of course I'm only gonna get it right sometimes! I told you, my fortune-telling isn't like some occult thing!"

"Fortune-telling...isn't occult?" Hina repeated.

"Of course not! Clairvoyance is clairvoyance! Don't put it in the same category as cattle mutilation!"

"Cattle... What?" Hina asked.

"He's referring to the urban legend where aliens abduct cows and dissect them as part of their research," Kyoko explained.

"No...! You're calling it an urban legend!? As a matter of fact, it's true... As a matter of fact, it's happened to me!" Hiro said and began to tell his tale. "It all happened one day when I went to get a hamburger... It was a place I'd never been before. They claimed their patties were 100% all beef... So I got a burger to go and headed home. And before long...the sky was filled with a mysterious blinding light! Some crazy beam came out of nowhere and locked on to my hamburger! And as soon as the beam touched it, the burger started floating in mid-air...! And then, still floating there, the entire burger started coming apart! One part of it just vanished, while the rest fell back into my hand...! Do you realize what that means? It means, the burger wasn't 100% beef! It must've had some pork or something mixed in... Something like seventy percent pork and thirty percent beef, would be my guess. So I stormed back into the burger place and got up in the manager's grill. And they totally admitted it... It WASN'T 100% beef! They totally mixed in ground pork with it! Now do you see!? THAT is cattle mutilation!"