Danganronpa Ghost Town: RISE OF DESPAIR ACADEMY

Stolen Truth

The Class of 76A:

The sixteen students of 76A were gathered quietly in their classroom. To any passerby this would come as a shock as the 76th class was never quiet, not even during exam days. Every student usually had something to say to someone, and it was often times said loudly. Except today.

Hon'yomi sat tensely atop her desk, squashed between the twins who were perched on it's surface with her. The trio was focused on Kyofu who sat in the front of the room, sitting just beneath the whiteboard and speaking earnestly.

They weren't the only ones like this. The rest of the students were scattered throughout the room, Kaz on his desk too, Saori and Toshiro sitting on the floor with matching frowns. Chikara was leaning back in his chair while Kiyoshi fiddled with some gears behind his own desk and Haruko sullenly, even with some disappointment, leaned against the wall.

The others were too, focused on the Rogue with tension, all of them hoping to finish their discussion before Rika arrived.

"There's no point in wondering whether or not this is true anymore." Chikara called out from the back of the room, interrupting Kyofu. His grim expression matched the fierceness bursting throughout his heart.

"We're not questioning it," Kena grumbled, agitated not with Chikara but with the topic they were discussing. "We're just....shocked."

Hon'yomi shook her head. "I- it's so...I don't want to believe it."

"I do." Ryu countered. The Poet glanced at the Hitman standing by the window. "We've spent nine days trying to get an answer, all of us breaking rules to do it. At least we finally found out what we wanted." He pointed towards the partially blacked out report in Kyofu's hands.

Toshiro collapsed onto his back, laying on the floor. "I wouldn't have expected the Steering Committee to cover something like this up." He was hardly aware of his words for he was so detached. Irritated by the class's continuous attempts to find out where the Student Council had disappeared to, he had spent those nine days covering up and turning them away from anything that would lead something like this.

He only desired that this report would satisfy the weeks of curiosity that had plagued the fifteen other students, and their investigations would stop here. And who knew, maybe he could use this to finally turn them against Rika...but in order for that to happen she'd have to say quiet about what she knew.

"Well don't forget that it mentioned our Headmaster too." Utsumi said accusingly, he had always been suspicious of the administration at Hope's Peak Academy, only trusting Instructor Madoka.

Hon'yomi winced. "Do you really think Headmaster Kirigiri would've let that happen?" She turned to address Utsumi. "I mean, not only is his family an organization of detectives, his daughter is one here right now."

"What I can't believe is that Rika knows about it." Kiyoshi muttered. He had given up fiddling around with his trinkets, and shoved his hands in his large coat pockets. The whole situation was so terrifyingly wrong, he could barely hold his thoughts together.

"Yeah!" Kaz exclaimed with a pout. "She knows we've been wondering about them, why didn't she tell us?"

Kimiko frowned harshly with thought. It bothered her that Rika hadn't spoken to them about it, but she wondered if somehow...their teacher knew they would find out anyway? "She was probably sworn to secrecy about it Kaz."

"Yeah but since when has that ever stopped her from telling us things?" Mae countered with confusion.

Haruko took a breath, eyes on the floor. "Perhaps because knowing the truth becomes dangerous." As she murmured 'dangerous' she glanced at Kyofu with warning, but her glance wouldn't change anything, he had already gone looking after she told him not to.