Dangan Ronpa Minecraft

Chapter 16: Returned

The next morning, Tyler walked into the dining room, excited for the lounge party today, to find only a couple people there so far, Brice, Bashur, Jerome, and Jason.
"Hey, Tyler..." Jason greeted.
"Hey...what's wrong?" Tyler asked concernedly.
Brice pointed to the stage. Tyler followed Brice's gaze, and it took him a moment to realize what Brice was pointing at.
The paper was back.
"What?!" Tyler exclaimed. "The paper...was returned?!"
Bash nodded fearfully. "S-someone must have taken it!"
"I'm guessing you didn't see who returned it?" Tyler asked. Jerome shook his head helplessly. "It was there when I came in this morning."
"Were you the first to arrive?" Tyler questioned.
"No, I was," Brice said. Bashur threw him a nervous glance. Brice glared at Bash. "Hey, don't think I'm suspicious just because I happened to be there first! It was there when I came in, anyone could've returned it overnight!" Brice said with a hint of annoyance.
"We'll have to all discuss this once everyone gets here," Jason said. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Was it returned overnight, or sometime yesterday?" Tyler wondered.
"Well, we don't know for sure, we stopped taking shifts after the paper disappeared," Jason admitted.
Tyler raised an eyebrow.
"What's the point in guarding something that's not even there?" Bash asked.
Tyler sighed. "Well, we know one thing for certain; someone took the paper, and now two of us know about the fourth floor."
Jerome blinked. "Isn't there three? The two people who knew already; one dead and one alive, and then whoever took the paper?"
Tyler nodded. "I meant, um, people alive in the mansion right now."
"I have an idea," Jason said thoughtfully.
"We politely ask whoever took the paper to raise their hand?" Bash muttered sarcastically.
"Uh, no...why don't we ask AlterSorcerer?" Jason suggested.
Brice brightened at the idea of AlterSorcerer. "Yeah, maybe he knows about the fourth floor, or maybe Seto was the one who knew about it!"
"Let's go, then!" Jerome declared.
The five headed down to the enchanting room, not passing anyone when they walked past the bedrooms. No one else was up yet, obviously.
When they got to the Enchanting Room, it was dark and AlterSorcerer was nowhere to be found. Bash flicked on the lights, and they saw that the enchanting table's book was closed.
As Tyler walked over to it, the book fluttered open and faced Tyler, like Enchantment Tables usually did.
The four diamonds on the corners of the table began to glow light purple. They all shot beams towards the center of the table, and met with a flash of light right above the book. The light soon took form of the small, familiar form of AlterSorcerer.
"Hello there, Master Tyler!" AlterSorcerer greeted cheerfully in his slightly muffled voice.
"Heh, you don't need to call me Master..." Tyler explained to the AI.
AlterSorcerer looked up at Tyler with wide, pale lavender eyes. "Okay, Master Tyler!"
Tyler sighed.
"AlterSorcerer, have you found any information from the books to share with us?" Jason asked.
AlterSorcerer nodded. "Oh, I found something you might consider good information, Master Jason!"
AlterSorcerer stepped to the side, and a lavender square that was part of the hologram appeared. It was filled with Standard Gallactic symbols. The symbols slowly started to disappear and reappear in their english letter, and soon the entire square was readable in English.
"'Despair Taking its Toll; Minecraftia Dying'?" Brice read.
Tyler didn't like the sound of this article.
"'Herobrine has been spreading what seems like a contagious disease all over Minecraftia, something that has been classified as Despair. Despair is gaining followers at an alarming rate, causing the usually flourishing creativity and innovative ideas in Minecraftia to weaken. Servers are being shut down due to Despairing players to abuse games, break rules and spread Despair. Builders cannot make maps because people are either too scared of Despair, or are already in Despair and want to abuse the map. One popular map creator by the name of Hypixel has even announced his discontinuation for his popular series 'Herobrine's Mansion.' People nowadays are unsure of Minecraftia's future, but can only hope for the best.'"
"W-WHAT?!" Bash exclaimed.
Brice stared at the square, scanning the words again. "Despair...it's not just some silly thing inside this mansion," he said.
"It's...it's taking over the outside world," Jerome muttered fearfully.
"Alter...when was this written?" Tyler asked.
AlterSorcerer tilted his head to the side as if he were thinking. It was hard to believe this was an AI.
"The date this was written...was about a year ago," AlterSorcerer told Tyler.
"A-a year?!" Jason exclaimed.
"This Despair thing...it's not recent?!" Bash exclaimed.
"We...we wouldn't even remember it..." Brice muttered.
"It mentioned Herobrine started this. Do you have any other information on Herobrine?" Tyler asked AlterSorcerer.
"There's a book of Herobrine myths and fables!" AlterSorcerer said.
"Besides those, anything recent?" Jerome asked.
AlterSorcerer nodded. "There's more from the same book that the first excerpt came from!" He stepped to the side again and the square popped up, and the Standard Gallactic slowly turned into English.
"'There are rumors going around amongst the few not yet infected with despair that Herobrine is not behind this alone'," Jason read from the square. "'People say that he helps spread Despair, but never started it in the first place. They say that rather he has an accomplice that spreads the true Despair, and controls the Despair, like a mastermind. The identity of the Mastermind is unkown, and these rumors could just be despair toying with everyone's minds...'"
"Does that mean...Herobrine isn't doing this alone?" Bash asked cautiously.
Jason nodded. "I think so."
"Thank you, AlterSorcerer," Brice nodded to the AI.
"Of course, Master Brice!" AlterSorcerer said happily. "Anything to help my Masters!"
"You can continue to search for information?" Jason asked. AlterSorcerer nodded.
Jason grinned. "Thanks!"
The five left the Enchant room, the book closing and AlterSorcerer fading as they walked away.
"Oh, Seto," Brice muttered. "You have no idea how much you've helped us..."
"Uh, I didn't have breakfast yet, and I'm starving," Jerome informed everyone. Jason laughed. "We'd better hurry to the Dining Hall, then."
≪≫
When they got there, sure enough everyone was there and distraught by the paper.
"Where've you been?" Quentin demanded.
Brice put his hands up. "Geez, we all just went to see if AlterSorcerer had any new information."
"You think all five of us going off at once is suspicious?" Tyler asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry...so, you noticed the paper's back then, huh?" Quentin asked.
Jason nodded. "It was gone when we first got there. It must have been put back overnight, or yesterday after dinner. We would have noticed if it was back at dinner."
"Anyways, what did you learn from AlterSorcerer?" Matt asked.
They all explained the Despair disease from the year-old passage, and about Herobrine.
"You mean...Herobrine might have someone working with him?!" Ryan asked.
Brice nodded grimly. "He's called the Mastermind. If what these rumors say are true, and Herobrine did create this mansion...then wouldn't the Mastermind have basically created this place and send us here, too?"
"Then that would mean the Mastermind's our real enemy here," Quentin said ominously.
"Hey, is someone missing?" Tyler asked, looking around.
"Hm?" Quentin said, glancing around. "Yeah...Adam and Ty. We assumed they either had gone with you, which they hadn't, or went to the Lounge early, or even slept late. We all know Adam's a late sleeper, all right."
Jason nodded. "Oh yeah, the lounge party! We should get going, right?"
"Yeah, let's go now!" Ryan declared.
"Sure!" Quentin agreed.
"But...I didn't get my food..." Jerome trailed, then sighed, following everyone else.
"I bet Ty's already waiting in the lounge, being the creepy little thing he his," Ryan muttered.
"And Adam probably is sleeping, forgot, or both," Brice added.
When they arrived at the lounge, the room was completely dark.
"Ugh, the whole 'no windows' thing in this mansion makes everything so dark," Jerome complained.
"I guess no one's here yet, then," Matt muttered.
"Someone turn on the lights?" Quentin asked.
Someone did as Quentin asked and the lights turned on.
But, something wasn't right here...
No, no...there was something...
...something that did not belong here.
Something that made everyone freeze when they saw it.
Because that something...