𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞'𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 | Inquisitormaster & Zsquad| Danganronpa

꩜ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟑 ꩜|| 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐞

JUNIOR YEAR - APRIL

✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧

Trigger Warnings for this Chapter: Hypnosis/Brainwashing, Death, violence

✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆🕸️⋆⁺₊✧

~3rd Person POV~

A week of recovery wasn't enough to convince Charli or Luca that he was ready to get back into this search and questioning, especially since he could hardly muster a voice, but Zach insisted that he was fine. They'd left him alone on that, but as they were busy perusing articles and observing the two people of interest, they couldn't help but take note of Zach's fingers grazing the fading bruises on his neck. Alex had left them, and the fear glistening in her eyes as she stared down at him, begging through streams of tears and gritted teeth, the apologies a melancholic symphony in his mind. It'd never left his mind since, even in the darkness when he was unconscious.

"Are you sure you're good right now?" Luca asked in a whisper not to perturb the silence of the library. They added, "We can handle this later."

Zach nodded and pushed through the constrictions in his chest to rasp, "I'm fine, alright? Just can't talk much right now."

"That's the point. It's going to take a lot of talking to get the answers out. A-Aren't you rushing it just a bit?" Charli chimed, closing the files of cases that occurred during this school year and pushing them aside.

"No, I don't think so. It's just a sore throat," Zach tried to defend himself, but the way his voice was, hoarse as if his vocal cords were sandpaper, and there's nothing he could've said—if he could muster—that would make them believe him. He didn't fight it, and neither did they.

The entirety of the afternoon was spent pawing through the evidence and intel they've had, and when Zach turned the page farther into the work, the light inside of him, that reassurance that something was going to change, turned to a flicker, until it was nothing but a dying flame. He pushed the pages away when he was done and let his head fall into his hands. Eyes filled with fury and regret flashed behind his eyelids, and opening only summoned the searing agony up the right side of his face.

Charli nibbled on her lip, fidgeting with her nails: an eye-catching sherbet color making anyone who'd as much as glance at them reminisce of summer. She blew out a breath before saying, "If you're worried about, uh, progress or anything, I think we've zoned in on who that strange guy is. The one you pointed out."

"Really?"

"Stop talking," she commanded, and Zach abided at once. "Anyway, yeah. At the same time, when you told us that you'd found that guy, there was someone from the reserve course who was expelled. Hajime Hinata, I think his name was."

Luca agreed and picked up where she left off, "I'm not too certain about his importance with anything that we've got, but he's interesting, especially with the move of naming him after the founder of the place. Interesting, right?"

"I guess—"

"You've really gotta stop talking," Luca sighed, flashing Zach a pointed look. Zach narrowed his eyes back to the artist, but the gesture was void as Luca had turned their attention back to the files before them.

The table before them was clad in pages upon pages, and there were too many details and timelines blending to make sense of. When they thought they'd piece together one story, another had emerged and hewn it to pieces. Zach would glance up now and then, and not once was he shocked to see Luca and Charli concentrated, reading what they could and keeping the details entombed in their minds.