Fanganronpa: Destination Despair

Part 1/Chapter 7

About five hours had passed since the announcement Izumi had made. I was currently on my way to find out if Mirai and Tomoka were ready to start baking, as well as Haru.

I started by going to the Hotel Lobby to see if anyone was down there. It surprised me to see Mirai, Tomoka, Haru, and Aiko all gathered down there already.

"Sachi! Good! I was just about to get you!" Mirai exclaimed.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked.

"We were just finguring out what we wanted to bake! Do you have any ideas?" Tomoka answered.

"I still think we should do cake!" Haru shouted.

"I don't mind either way." Aiko said. "I was just asked to join, so you guys should get to pick."

"Technically, all of us were asked to join, or at least something along those lines. So you should still get a right to pick." I told her.

"I honestly don't mind what you guys pick. I'll go with whatever." Aiko said still.

"Well... I think we should do something easy to start." Tomoka said. "Like cookies, or cake, like Haru said."

"Yeah! Cake!" Haru exclaimed.

"I'm fine with that!" Mirai agreed.

"Same here," I said.

"Okay! What kind?" Tomoka asked.

"Strawberry!" Tomoka shouted in reply. Nobody had anything against it.

"Alrighty then! Let's get going to the kitchen, then!" Tomoka said, starting toward the said place. The rest of us followed.

"So what all do we need?" I asked.

Tomoka replied with, "A lot. Why don't we start with the equipment?"

"You gotcha! What will we need?" asked Mirai.

"We'll need... A stand mixer with a whisk and paddle attachments... A food scale... three 8"x2" round cake pans... and a wire rack. Most of it is over in there in that corner cabinet." she pointed to the corner of the room. "The mixer is just below it."

We all grabbed something and set it on the island in the room. "Now what do you need?" Haru asked excitedly.

"I think you mean 'we'! We're doing this together!" she exclaimed, and Haru nodded. "And now, we need ingredients. There's a lot, so I'll separate them into groups. From the fridge," she pointed to the rather large fridge in the room, "Eggs, milk, frozen strawberries, lemon juice, a lemon, and butter." The four of us quickly but carefully grabbed the ingredients and also set the on the island.

"Then, we need all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and lemon extract, strawberry emulsion, and strawberry reduction." Tomoka instructed. Once again, we grabbed the ingridiants and put them on the island.

"The last of it would be... salt, granulated sugar, plain sugar, powdered sugar, and pink food dye. If I remember correctly, at least..." Tomoka laughed, and the rest of us did, too. We then set out to find the rest of the ingrediants, which took a little longer this time, since we couldn't find the food dye for a bit. But in the matter of no time, we had all the ingridients ready.

"So, now what-" Aiko started, but she was interrupted from someone opening the door to the kitchen. Behind it was Shikumo.

"Oh... Hey guys. What are you doing?" he asked, a little quieter than usual.

"We're baking!" Haru shouted with great joy.

"Oh, I see." he said. Strange... he's usually pretty talkative... Maybe he's not feeling well.

"Wanna join, Shikumo? We'd be happy to let you!" Tomoka offered.

"Oh... No, not this time. I'm... not feeling too well..." he suddenly clutched his stomach.

"Oh no! I hope it wasn't from those cookies yesterday!" Tomoka gasped.

"No, no, I doubt that... They were amazing. My stomach's just a little upset, that's all. It's not like you poisoned me or anything... Ahahaha..." his eyes suddenly widened and he clenched his teeth. "...Ow..!"

The five of us gave each other worried glances and then looked back to Shikumo. "Look... maybe you should go lay down..." I suggested.

"...That's just what I was about to do... But I heard you guys in the kitchen, so I thought I'd check it out." he explained.

"Oh, I see... Well, if you want, I can go with you! We wouldn't want you to collapse or anything..!" Mirai offered.

"No, I couldn't ask you to do that!" he smiled and waved his hand in front of him. "I'll be- Ow!" he suddenly dropped to his knees. We all gasped. "Shikumo!" I shouted.

"No, you definitely need help!" Mirai rushed towards him. "Come on, up you go..." she lifted him up and wrapped his arm around er shoulder. "I'll be back in a bit. You guys can continue on without me." And with that, the two of them left.

"I hope Shikumo's gonna be okay..." Aiko said worriedly. The rest of us shared a nod of agreement.

"He really did look terrible, didn't he?" I sighed. "Hopefully he gets better soon..."

"Yeah... But, we should continue, right? Move on from the heavy topic?" Haru said.

"...Yeah, good idea. You can't bake with a bad attitude!" Tomoka said.

And with that, the rest of us began to start making the cake. Within a few minutes, we already had half the ingredients mixed together, and it looked very pink. I really enjoyed myself, baking with them, but... I couldn't help but wonder what happened to Shikumo.