Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

P-2: Incentives

Seishiro woke to jumbled voices blending together all around him. He cracked his eyes open, recoiling at the bright light which was quickly blocked by a figure moving over him. A boy with soft navy blue hair and a thick-framed pair of glasses stood with his feet on either side of Seishiro's body. Before he could take in anything else, the boy bent down and gave him a hard, decisive poke in the forehead, earning a surprised grunt.

"He's alive!" The blue-haired boy called at someone that Seishiro couldn't see.

Seishiro groaned, rolling onto his side and into the boy's leg, who lifted it and hopped off balance for a moment. He sat up to see the boy extending a hand towards him with a friendly smile. Uncertainly, he took it and pulled himself up.

"Lemme guess, you got accepted into Hope's Peak too?" The boy had already started talking before Seishiro had registered where he was. "I'm Shima Yuji! I'm the Super High School Level Barista," he added. Yuji wore what looked like a bartender's uniform, contrary to his talent, comprised of a white, long-sleeved button-up, black vest and black dress pants.

The brunette awkwardly ran his fingers through his hair. "Uh, Nishimura Seishiro. SHSL Pyrotechnician. Good to meet you, Shima-san."

Yuji grinned. "Just Yuji is fine. Anyway, from what I got, all of us passed out the second we stepped into the school. You too, right?"

Seishiro nodded absent-mindedly as he looked around the room. It seemed like he was the last to wake up. A decently sized group of about fifteen students took up what appeared to be a school gym, with a raised stage at one side. Some students were socialising, others secluding themselves on the edges of the room. Too many people, Seishiro thought quietly.

A loud commotion broke out somewhere to Seishiro's left, making him jump in surprise. A girl with long pink pigtails, bright purple eyes and a short white and pink dress pushed past a few other students, some giving her indignant looks and others appearing unfazed.

"Do you really expect THE Yamamoto Shigeko to be treated like this?!" The girl's shrill voice cried out. "Where is my welcome party?!"

"The?" echoed Seishiro.

Yuji shrugged. "Beats me," he replied sheepishly. "I think she did some review of the cafe I worked at once.'

"I haven't really heard of her, I guess."

Suddenly, as if given an electric shock, the pink-haired girl stood stock straight and marched towards the pair.

"Uh oh," grinned the barista.

Shigeko jabbed her finger at Seishiro's chest and glared up at him. "You haven't heard of me? Inconceivable! I'm Yamamoto Shigeko, the Super High School Level Food Critic! I've written for magazines and online articles everywhere! I've judged television cooking shows! Where do you live? Under a rock?!"

Seishiro let out a nervous laugh.

"And who do you think you are, anyway?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could a strange laugh resonated around the gym, causing all the other students to look around in surprise.

"Upupupupu..."

It came again, sounding like somebody trying to crudely imitate a cute child. Hushed whispers spread about the gym. Without warning, confetti suddenly sprayed from the podium on the stage, startling Seishiro. A small cartoony stuffed bear leapt up from behind the podium, planting itself next to the microphone. The bear held an unsettling appearance - one half white and normal-looking, the other side black and sporting a jagged red eye and a sharp-toothed grin.

"So, I see our final few sleepyheads are awake! Upupupupu!" The bear struck a cutesy pose on the podium.

"It...talks?" A older-looking girl clad heavily in makeup hissed. "Who are you and what happened to us?" She demanded.

The bear laughed once more. Its voice was grating enough to make someone's ears bleed with enough exposure. "Why, I'm Monokuma! Your new headmaster!" More murmurs spread around the gym. Was this a joke, or was it what Hope's Peak was really like? "First, let me make a few things clear to you all! Rule Number 1: there will be no leaving the school premises, and no contact with the outside world, ever! I've already confiscated all of your laptops and mobile phones!"

"You can't do that!" Shigeko gave an outraged cry. "Do you know who I am?!"

"Quiet, you yapping dog!" Monokuma pointed its paw at the food critic, sharp claws protruding from it. Shigeko took a step back, uncertain. "Now, where was I? Ah, that's right. There will be no leaving and no hope of rescue, for the rest of your lives!"

"That's not right," a girl in a cheerleading uniform replied. "Sixteen ultra talented high school students go missing on the same day? The police are gonna come for us." Mumbled agreements and nods came from the group.

"Nu-uh, that's where you're wrong! I've taken the time out of my busy schedule to build you all a brand new school - in the middle of Antarctica! Just go take a look through those boarded windows," Monokuma called. It was only now that Seishiro realised all the windows had large metal plates bolted on top of them, with only a few leaving gaps to see through. He directed his gaze back towards his "headmaster" as the bear spoke up again.

"However, I'm also very generously giving you all a way to leave! And I'm delighted to tell you that the only way to get out...is through murder!" At that last word, more confetti sprayed from the podium. "All ya gotta do is kill one of your fellow classmates and get away with it! How you do it doesn't matter! Poisoning! Drowning! Bashing in their skull! If you cover up your tracks and the others can't find the murderer, they're the one that gets to walk free!" Seishiro's stomach felt as if a rock had dropped into it. He half expected someone to jump out and tell them all that it was just a joke, but with the way that things were progressing at the moment, it was becoming more and more unlikely.

"Why you-!" An animalistic growl came from a black-haired girl in a midriff-revealing top. She charged at the unfazed Monokuma, who simply stepped on a red button on the podium.  A thick wall of glass shot up, separating the gym from the stage. The angry girl was already in the air, and she kicked into the glass, propelling her backwards as she landed off balance.

Monokuma laughed as the glass wall receded. "I'll let you off with a warning this time, since I haven't finished explaining the rules yet. The one who commits the murder is the blackened! If the other students correctly deduce who the culprit is, then only the blackened is punished with death! If they're wrong, then the blackened gets to leave and everybody else dies in their place!"

"That's sick," muttered Yuji. "Sick and twisted."

"And one final rule: absolutely no violence against your headmaster, Monokuma! Dissenters-" and at this the bear turned to glare at the girl who attacked him, "-will be punished with death!" She folded her arms, staring straight back at him. The bear ignored her and continued. "In each of your pockets, you'll find your ElectroID, with a list of the rules and a map of the school facilities."

Seishiro checked in the pocket of his hoodie, pulling out a touchscreen device displaying the symbol of Hope's Peak. Sure enough, everyone else had one too.

"Assembly dismissed!" Monokuma's voice cut through the sudden silence of everyone checking their devices. "You're all free to explore our wonderful facilities as you wish, but be sure to keep an eye out for your potential killer! Which ones of you could be already planning a murder? The suspense is simply unbearable, upupupu!"

And with that, the stuffed bear simply vanished in a shower of confetti.

Seishiro stood, mind racing amidst the hushed whispers and voices around him. Was this for real? There was no way that he could come to terms with never seeing his family and friends again. And now that he was stuck in a building with strangers, given an incentive to kill? Everybody else here was just like him, right? Afraid, but unwilling to murder. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at the corners of his mind.