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

CHAPTER 2-2: The Memory

3RD PERSON POV:

Ranmaru's shoes clicked against the academy floors as he finished up his late exploration. After a few hours, Monokuma finally let him leave the infirmiry, and he took the time to walk around alone, searching all the new facilities. The main areas open were what Shuichi had already told him about when he visited: more ultimate labs, a casino, and the one Ranmaru liked the most, the pool.

He looked around curiously, exploring every nook and cranny in that building. Once he finished, he let out a long sigh when he came up empty-handed. He would sighed and left to go sleep, but he felt a hand pull him up and spin him around before he could even stand back up. When he steadied himself, he saw a happy looking angie staring at him.

"Nyaha! Hello Cotton Tail!! Youre just who I wished to find!" She cheered as she looked to him face to face.

"Angiee.... wh- why were y- you looking for me?" Ranmaru worriedly replied.

"Oh! Well, Atua has asked for us all to gather in the gym, and I am doing his work for him!!" She briefly explained. Ranmaru nodded slightly and briskly left to enter the gym. He wasn't the first in, nor was he the last one. Only Shuichi seemed to be missing, so he simply stood in silence until the mentioned student entered the room slowly, followed by a bubbly Angie.

"And so, Atua has brought us all together!! Let us bow our heads and pray to Atua!" Angie cheered as she stood in the centre of the room. Ranmaru let out a tired sigh, expecting this sort of reason in the back of her mind.

"You're a real pain in the ass, ya know that!? Just tell us what you fuckin' want!!" Miu snapped, walked up to Angie who stopped praying.

"Alrighty then, check this out!" She replied.

Angie then whipped out a large flashlight in front of the group, slowly spinning it and showing it off. Everyone else in the room stayed silent, except for a few ooh's that escaped. Ranmaru had never seen anything of the sorts, but it intrigued him greatly.

That is a peculiar looking flashlight... so, what of it?" Keebo asked once he finished analysing the flashlight.

"Ummm.... I don't know what it is either. I inspected it pretty well..." Angie admitted. "Nyahaha!! But in the end, I couldn't figure it out!" She continued. A few people let out some confused or tired responses before angie caught their attention.

"And so... I asked someone for help!"

Ranmaru looked at her worriedly, as those words caught his attention. He kept thinking over and over. Who did she ask? While hoping it wasn't who he thought it was.. until Monokuma appeared on command, confirming his doubts.

"If something has you worried, just let Monokuma take care of it! If you dont like something, I'll fix it. So dont get rid of it... please dont get rid of... me.." his tone was filled with a comedic worry, and Ranmaru only sighed internally listening to him.

"Tell us, Monokuma, what kind of flashlight is this?" Angie asked curiously.

"Why, that's a flashback light!" Was his answer.

As everyone questioned his answer, Ranmaru also had some questions but kept them to himself. Why would a flashlight like that be somewhere here? And seeing how well kept it was, it was clearly Monokuma's. Was it a trap? What could it do? All his questions repeatedly spoke in his mind, getting louder and louder the longer he stayed silent.

"What... does it do?" Ranmaru quickly said, the question slipping from his mind and out his lips. Monokuma looked over and waddled to him while showing off the flashlight in front of him confidently.