Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

1-2: Daily Life

Each day following the first fell into the same monotonous pattern. By now, everyone had just about lost hope that the entire setup was an elaborate prank, and no sign of rescue had surfaced yet.

It was the eighth day that broke the pattern, as Monokuma interrupted their morning with an unprecedented announcement.

"Attention students! Please report for an assembly in the gym, where there'll be a little surprise for you! Attendance is mandatory, unless you're dead or maimed. Which you will be, if you don't show up! Upupupu!"

Yuji and Seishiro had been making small talk, leaning against the walls of the corridor, when the speakers blared.

The barista winced. "That does not sound appealing," he muttered.

"You wanna be dead or maimed?" Seishiro held his arms out, shrugging. "Besides, the 'surprise' could be a good thing, depending on how merciful our host is."

"Doubt it," snorted Yuji in reply. "Come on, let's go!"

When they arrived, Seishiro found that the gym had been set up with sixteen computer monitors at desks separated by vertical partitions. A group of students congregated at the centre in front of the stage, which had its curtains closed. Etsuko waved cheerily.

The rest of the students entered in strangely different ways, Katsumi sprinting and screaming in fear of being executed, and Amaya slamming into the closed door, Naoki tripping over behind her. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the final two, Hitomi and Takehiko, walked in slowly, calmly and almost leisurely.

As if on cue, the curtains opened with a flourish, revealing Monokuma sporting a party hat and buzzer.

"Surprise!" he yelled as confetti rained from the ceiling.

"Confetti again?" Komi asked, running a hand through her blue ponytail. "I see you're a one-trick pony."

"Hey!" Monokuma retorted. "I'm a bear, not a pony! And we're on a tight budget here! Anyways, since I'm feeling super-duper-extra-nice today, you get two surprises! That was the first one," he said, motioning to the fallen confetti. "Now, for your second surprise - find the seat with your name on it, stick the DVD in the player, plug in your headphones and hit the play button! Upupupupu..."

Seishiro squinted at the scrawly handwriting in permanent marker on the back of a chair, before deciding that it passed off well enough as his name. He picked up the disk by the monitor, habitually wiping it with his sleeve before inserting it into the player. The monitor instantaneously flickered to life. That usually doesn't happen, he noted to himself, putting on his allocated headphones.

A wide-eyed schoolgirl with messy, shoulder-length brown hair turned on the camera, grinning ecstatically. She sat in a pastel-coloured bedroom, waving madly at the screen. Hideko, Seishiro realised. His younger sister and the biggest Hope's Peak fangirl he knew.

"Onii-chan! Congratulations! My god, I can't believe I even know someone that's Super High School Level," Hideko squealed. "I mean, you're so lucky - no, you're talented! I wish I was lucky," she added with a giggle.

Seishiro smiled. Was this meant to lift his spirits?

"Anyway, I'm doing fine back here, we all are. I'm sure you're out there doing great things, and- eep!" The sound of somebody banging on a door startled Hideko, and she leapt out of her seat. Seishiro could make out loud angry voices in the background. "Uh, I'll be back," called Hideko at the camera, as she left her bedroom, leaving the video running.

What happened next came all in a blur. Hideko's light footsteps pattered down the stairs.

"No! Stay upstairs!" His father's voice. Glass shattering. A scream. The screen flickered red. Gunshots rang. A wild shout, and one final shot echoed. The screen changed again, flashing an image of the bedroom with blood dripping from the walls. The video faded to static.