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

CHAPTER 2-3: The Motive Video

3RD PERSON POV:

Ranmaru felt a nerve soar down his back, and he quickly ran out of his room, throwing the monopad aside as he ran out and into the dining hall, looking for a certain someone, that being Shuichi. He didn't know why, but he felt the need to check up on him and make sure he was ok.

He quickly made it to the dining room and saw Shuichi along with a couple of others. They all seemed mid conversation, so he waited until Shuichi finished talking to Korekiyo before pulling him aside.

"Shuichi! Hey, did you get a motive video, too?" He asked Shuichi quietly. Shuichi nodded and looked back to him.

"I did, but it wasn't mine. Is that the same with you, too?" Shuichi asked, to which Ranmaru nodded. "Alright, well, I think we're gonna start discussing our next move once the others arrive."

As if on cue, everyone else slowly filled the dining room, led by Keebo and Kaito. Once everyone had calmed down and the room was quiet, Kaito began to speak.

"You don't have to speak up, but this is important, so you should at least listen." Kaito yelled out.

"So, what are these videos???" Kokichi asked curiously.

"No doubt their more motives from Monokuma, but why were they all mixed up???" Keebo asked, which brought Ranmaru back to the video in his dorm. Shuichi's video was quite disturbing in his mind. After all, a criminal had threatened him his life, and it was implied he's already harmed someone.

"Who gives a shit? I mean, we're all gonna share them anyway, right?" Miu said, annoyed.

"No. We can not exchange them."

Everyone looked to him in surprise, but it was clearly the smartest move. The videos were personalised, so as long as they didn't see their own, they didn't have a motive to kill. Realising his job now, Ranmaru realised it'd be best not to bring up the videos near Shuichi, in case he tries to ask for it.

Suddenly, someone broke him out of his thoughts. He assumed it was Kokichi, but it wasn't. It was Ryoma who was against avoiding his motive. Even when the fact of his loved ones being used against him was brought up, it only seemed to strengthen his desire to see it.

"You have been saying stuff like that for a while now that you don't plan on surviving?" Kaito interrupted Ryoma. "I don't care about your stance on this, but we're different! We wanna live!! Wake up already! You're wandering around like some zombie with no will to live!!"

"No will to live, you say? Hmph, if that's how you see me, then so be it." Ryoma uttered in reply, pulling his beanie down further. "But I've got no plans to change my opinion. That's just not cool."

"Wh- what did you say!?" Kaito said. He tried to persuade Ryoma once again, but Kokichi intervened before he could speak.

"Who cares? Ryoma just stated his opinion. Actually... I feel the same way as him." Kokichi replied as he brought the attention to him. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not saying we shouldn't care about killing or dying... but I think it'd be better if we didn't cooperate with each other. Actually, we DEFINITELY shouldn't cooperate with each other."

"We shouldn't cooperate?? Why not!?" Tenko yelled out, pointing an accusatory finger at him. Kokichi smiled and looked over to her with a relaxed smile.

"Think back to all Monokuma's actions so far. Whenever we tried to work together, Monokuma would retaliate with a plan to make us suffer! It happened when Kaede wanted us to cooperate, and again with these motive videos, right??" Kokichi said. Ranmaru looked over and saw Shuichi wince slightly at the mention of Kaede before turning back to the small purple haired boy. "Which means, the more we try to cooperate, the more he'll try to make us suffer."