Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

1-3: Daily Life

Days had passed. The motive videos were no longer a constant reality, but remained a looming threat from Monokuma. Seishiro had pushed his thoughts away, but had begun to wonder how long he could survive in a confined space with the same fifteen people. At least there was some semblance of order, with set routines to follow and many students gravitating into their own friendship groups, not to mention the overarching presence of a murderous teddy bear for a headmaster.

One day after the next, thought Seishiro. A neverending cycle.

It was on one of these repetitive days that Ichisada Hitomi managed to unnerve a good number of the students while eating breakfast.

"Something bad...will happen," the blonde astrologer murmured, just audible enough for the entire table to hear. "I can feel it. It's certain...soon." She closed her eyes, cleaned away her plate and wordlessly left.

Despite her meek looks, Hitomi proved to be stoic and dead serious when it came to many subjects, occasionally spouting a prediction or strange observation.

A few seconds of silence passed over the group before Yoshikazu spoke suddenly from next to Seishiro. "Buddy system," he called plainly.

Komi gave the gardener a pointed look. "The other fifteen of us are here. No one is out there to murder her."

"And after we leave?" Misaki asked. "Best to have people always monitoring each other."

"I think she's safe," replied Yuji mirthfully. "I mean, she was pretty confident about running off alone after saying that. And she predicts things, right? She told me exactly where my glasses were after I lost them yesterday."

Komi pressed her fingers to her temple. "Astrologers don't just predict the future like that-"

"I'm less worried about her dying and more about her preparing to kill someone," Shigeko interjected, giving a nonchalant shake of her pink pigtails. "It could all be a sham, and the 'something bad' bit is probably Ichisada-san planning something. That's gotta be right!"

"I'll go, and we can cut short this pointless discussion," said Takehiko, abruptly standing up and kicking his chair into place.

"And you had better not try anything." Katsuo pointed at the figure of the sniper leaning in the doorway.

He gave an incredulous grunt in reply and followed Hitomi's path.

"What was that?" Seishiro hissed at Yoshikazu.

The bulky gardener gave him a shrug. "I'd say that half of us are crazy."

"Well, I guess it's what you'd expect out of Hope's Peak. We're just going to have to live with this," he replied.

~~~

Seishiro tried the unforgivingly cold door handle of the greenhouse entrance for the third time. "Why is it locked?" he accused, still on edge from Hitomi's warning.

"Oh, uh, I did that." Yoshikazu mentioned from behind him, digging through his pockets for a key.

Seishiro raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"Pesticides, weedkillers. Poisons." He fished out the key and unlocked the door, which creaked loudly in desperate need of oiling.

Seishiro still wasn't used to the bright snowy expanse that greeted him through the glass as he stepped over creeping vines in the greenhouse, now a blooming centre of life. The dirty metal shelves that were once neatly filled with terracotta pots had now been overtaken by plants climbing it as a trellis. It was surprising to see such a change in barely two weeks, but Seishiro supposed it was only natural with a Super High School Level Gardener in their midst.