Danganronpa: Despair Camp

Chapter 2- Investigation

The rest of the day, we spent exploring, and trying not to think about what the bear said. We didn't find much. Apart from our cabins, there was a Main Lodge, where all the food was. There was a gate, but it was locked. No one had tried to climb it yet. There were other areas, but they were blocked off. I sighed as I got into bed. There really didn't seem to be any escape. I was going to close my eyes, when I heard a knock on the door. Getting up, I went over and opened the door a crack.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Me" the person responded.

"Oh, just you" I said, opening the door wider.

"Yeah... I just really need to talk to someone right now..." they said.

I let them in, and sat on my bed.

"Alright, what's the-" I started, then hands closed around my neck, and started squeezing the life out of me.

"What.. are you...doing?!" I choked out.

"Sorry man, I really hate to do this." They responded.

I reached up, grabbing their hair, yanking some of it out. They winced, and I tried to get them off me. I scratched my claws across their cheek, but they continued to strangle me. Everything was... fading. I closed my eyes, and started drifting away. The world went black, and I felt... cold.
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I woke up feeling something was wrong. I didn't worry about it too much, I mean, Everything was wrong with this place. I was glad my cabin had a brush, because my hair would be a nightmare if not. I finished brushing my hair, grabbed my glasses, and made my way to the Lodge for breakfast. When I went in, I grabbed some food, then looked for a place to sit. I noticed Liz sitting by herself at a table, so I went and sat next to her.

"Hey Liz!" I said.

"You are way to cheery for this time of morning..." she said, But hi Autumn."

"What's wrong?" I asked, "you seem, really P. O.'d at something."

"I've been in a place like this before." She replied, "only six out of sixteen survived. And two of those ten were spreading Despair. They knew who they were. They let us kill each other..."

"I'm sorry..." I said.

"Nah, don't be. It's not your fault." She replied.

She was eating cinnamon sugar with a little bit of toast, meaning that the toast was buried under a mountain of cinnamon and sugar. Maybe this was her way of keeping Despair away.

"That looks...healthy." I said, sarcastically.

"Thanks" Liz replied, and I couldn't tell if she was joking or not. It was another thirty minutes or so, before Dan asked,

"Hey, where's Stampy?"

"That was the guy with ears and tail...." Emerald said.

"Yeah, Stampy doesn't seem like the kind of guys who's late..." Phil spoke up.

"I'll go check his cabin, maybe he just slept in." Felix asked, "Anyone want to come with me?"

"I will." Liz called. She stood up, having finished her mountain of sugar.

"So will I" Ash said.

"Me too." Squid said.

"Me three" Yammy said.

"And I'll go!" I said.

"Alright. We'll see you all in a little." Felix said.

The six of us went over to Stampy's cabin. Felix knocked on their door.

"Stampy?" He called, "you awake buddy?"

There was no reply.

"Stampy?" Ash called. Squid put an ear against the door, and listened.

"It's totally quiet," he said, "I can't even hear breathing..."

Yammy pushed opened the door, looked in, then screamed. The rest of us rushed in, only to be met with a gruesome sight. Stampy was laying in his bed, but his shafts had been knocked off the bed. His neck was purple, like the rest of his face, and it had finger marks. Stampy was dead.

"All campers, please report to the amphitheater!" Monokuma called.

I couldn't believe it.

"Stampy's dead..." I said, thinking that saying it out loud would somehow make it reverse.

"And worst of all, someone in the camp did it..." Liz muttered.

"Alright Campers," Monokuma cried in the amphitheater, "I have News for you! One of you is a murderer!"

The ones who hadn't gone to Stampy's cabin were shocked.

"What?!" Gasped Mousie.

Alesa pulled Mason, who was sitting next to her on the bench, close to her side protectively. Several people gasped.

"Now, the rest of ya can investigate the body! Gather clues, then we'll meet back here in the amphitheater for a Camp Discussion!" Monokuma cried, "basically, you guys discuss the clues, and yet to discern who the killer is. If you vote correctly, I'll execute the guilty lowlife! If you guess wrong, however, the killer goes free, and I get to kill the rest of you!"

"That's jacked up on so many levels!!" Jordan cried.

"Oh jeez..." Mousie muttered.

"No way..." Jason murmured.

"Well, you all have an hour! I'd get cracking if I were you!" Monokuma said, kind of sing songing the the last part.

So, we began. I went over to Jordan and Emerald, thinking we could team up to investigate.

"Maybe Liz could help us?" Jordan suggested, "she seemed to know the bear... Maybe she's been in some situation like this before?"

"Darn right I have." Liz said, scaring me half to death.

"Jeez Liz! Wear a bell or something!" I yelped.

"Sorry." She said, "and yeah, I can help. C'mon."

We followed her to Stampy's cabin where the body still was.

"First step of investigating a murder," Liz started, leaning on a wall across from the body, "you got to notice the small details."

"I thought you said you were going to help us." Jordan said.

"I am," Liz said, "in helping you guys learn how to do this so you can do it by yourselves if something happens to me. So tell me, what is something that stands out to you?"

"One of his fists, it's clutched." Emerald said, "like it's holding something."

"Yeah... you're right!" I cried.

The four of us went in closer.

"It looks like... hair?" Jordan said.

"Black hair." Liz agreed, "that kind of narrows it down."

"Hey, look at his fingernails..." I said, "is that skin?"

"Wow, I didn't even notice that!" Liz cried, "yeah..."

"He must have scratched his attacker..." Emerald said.

"So we look for someone who has a scratch on their face." Jordan said, "Shouldn't be too hard."

"You'd be surprised." Liz said.

She walked back the door, examining it.

"The knob isn't broken, no signs of forced entry." She stated, "Stampy had to have let his killer in. It was someone he trusted."

That was about all we had learned, before the bear called us to the amphitheater. It was time for a Camp Discussion.