『 ♧ Escape Artist ♧ 』『 RANMARU KAGEYAMA × DANGANRONPA V3 』

CHAPTER 1-2: The new day

3RD PERSON POV:

After a long night of sleep, Ranmaru woke up feeling incredibly refreshed. Once he was fully awake, he realised he had an hour until the morning announcement at 8 am.

"Should've expected that since I went to bed pretty early... jeez... what to do for an entire hour..." He said to nobody in particular.

He eventually decided on firstly taking a long hot shower. Once he was done, he took out a spare uniform from the closet and put that on, as well as doing his daily activity of wrapping his entire upper body in bandages. Once that was done, he sat on the desk chair in his room and began brushing his hair and following his normal hair routine.

Coincidentally, all the essential conditioners and creams he used for his hair were all neatly stood on his desk. He ended up spending the rest of the hour tending to and brushing his fluffy white hair. Then, the intercom in his dorm room lit up and showed all 5 monokubs in the same place they were the last time it was used.

Ignoring the morning announcement, he chose to just get up and head to the dining hall. Once he git there, he realised only 4 others were there: Kirumi, Tenko, Gonta and Kaito.

"Uh... morning you guys..!" Ranmaru said awkwardly. Gonta waved at him, and Kaito gave a small smile. Kirumi went back into the kitchen to prepare the meal, while Tenko grumbled at Ranmaru.

"Filthy degenerate... quitting so easily and disrespecting our efforts.... even after all the motivation speeches... hmph.." Ranmaru heard her saying under her breath while staring at him angrily.

He eventually chose to lean against the wall and wait as everyone else filed into the dining hall. Some didn't interact with him, and some gave him a minor glare, which left him even more nervous and sweaty. Eventually, Kaede and Shuichi were the last to enter the dining hall.

"Oh, everyone's here already," Kaede realised. She looked around and saw Ranmaru leaning against the wall but was red in the face and avoiding eye contact with her.

"Now.. all of us have arrived." Korekiyo stated. "Kehehe... I'm glad. It looks as though there were no victims."

"By the way, are you alright, Kaede?" Kokichi asked oddly. Kaede looked at him with confusion at how concerning he was being. "Well... you looked really bummed out after everyone started blaming you yesterday. Especially when Ranmaru completely ditched you and your hard work!"

"H- hey... please, d-don't mention that..." Ranmaru stuttered from the wall.

"Why shouldn't he? He's completely right, you degenerate male!!" Tenko shouted from the other side of the dining hall, which caused Ranmaru to shrink into his outfit and hair.

"What's the point of bringing this all up again??" Keebo asked. "And also, weren't you the one who blamed Kaede first??"

"E- Eh!? Now it's my fault? Why are you all ganging up on me..? E-Especially when Ranmaru told her upfront, her efforts didn't matter.." He said with fake tears, bringing his eyes. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH, you're all terrible!! You're all so horrible, so mean!!!"

"Hmph, you're too noisy. Cut it out." Ryoma stated. Some people nodded on agreement with what he said, and even Kokichi stopped crying.

"No!! It's alright! I don't mind at all!!" Kaede interjected. "It's just... I should've been more considerate of everyone's feelings.. I was too focused on the tunnel, so I'm sorry."

Everyone was quiet until 2 people spoke up. "Alright, well, if you're cool with it, then so am I." Kaito said simply. Then, a cough could be heard through the room, drawing the attention to a flustered Ranmaru.