Danganronpa: GHOST TOWN

Chapter One, Part Two: Welcome to the Homefront

The constant twittering of birds filled my ears like cotton. Since everyone had departed their songs had once again become the most prominent noise in the strange place. It would've felt peaceful and pleasant if I actually saw birds in the trees. It occurred to me that to make such noise there would have to be many spread out among the town but the only living things I had seen was everyone I'd just met. I sighed, it was just another questionable thing that added to my confusion.

"Hey, Hon'yomi?" I had forgotten Toshiro still stood with me.

"Yeah?" Reluctantly I left my thoughts.

"Is something wrong? I mean...is something else wrong?"

"Something else?" My voice was harsh. "Something else? I think there's enough things wrong here to categorize it as one huge problem." I said with a huff and crossed my arms.

Toshiro looked thoughtful, "I guess you're right about that. I could've been more careful to see it that way."

I frowned, "Didn't you want to search this place?"

"Huh?" He looked back at me. "Well, yeah..."

"Okay...?" I said questioningly.

He seemed to finally get it, "Oh. Well I'm going to go look around, it's just, you looked troubled."

I barely stopped my eyes from rolling. "Of course I am."

Toshiro backed away a little. "Alright I get it. I'll leave now." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and began to turn away.

"Wait- I'm sorry about that." I usually wasn't so snippy.

He paused. "It's okay, we all deal with stress in our own ways."

He was right and when I was stressed I always wrote. But here I was without paper or pen and a mind barely focused enough to begin. I wondered how Toshiro dealt with stress. He seemed more than comfortable with intervening in the events from earlier.

"Thank you...for earlier with Ryu. That was a crazy thing you did." I wasn't sure if I could've done something so bold.

He shrugged, "Don't sweat it. It's sort of my thing." He turned away and began walking towards the square.

I shook my head. He was certainly an intriguing character.

I began to move along the bank contemplating more about what I was thinking instead of where I was going. I wondered what his Ultimate was. It was definitely something I should've asked him.

I wandered along the Lake, trying to come up with explanations as to what was going on. Maybe this was a joke? I shook my head, no it was too elaborate. I also thought of kidnapping. My heart lurched at the very idea. It almost made sense except kidnapping wasn't taking sixteen people from the same school and putting them in a nice neighborhood. Or...maybe it was. It wasn't like I could be sure, I wasn't a kidnapper.

I looked around as I approached the great metal wall and stopped. I didn't feel like going up to it just yet, a desperate fear shook me even thinking about it. Instead I turned around, finally taking a moment to look at the area I had ended up in.

With the Lake at my back I viewed an expanse of vibrant green grass marching all the way to a small road. On the other side of the road sat two houses, and possibly more behind that. On my left was a small playground.

Just as Kiyoshi had said there was bark and a cement step that surrounded a plastic and metal structure. The structure rose high, containing a slide and some monkey bars. Beside that was a set of three swings, and next to them were the twins.