Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

4-2: Daily Life

Almost a week later, they had been given time to recover. The mystery trap-setter hadn't struck again - or perhaps they simply lacked opportunity. Of course, this facilitated all sorts of other mischief.

"Seishiro-kun!" Yuji, mid-noon, jogged up to Seishiro in the cafeteria. "Hey, hey, I have the best idea."

"Uh, what?" Seishiro raised an eyebrow, standing up from his search of the kitchen cupboards for something decent.

"Alright, anyone else around?" The barista looked about eagerly, finding the room deserted. "Awesome."

Seishiro shook his head. "This already feels like a terrible idea."

"Is not," he retorted. "Alright, you know our local absolutely terrifying human being Mitsukuri Takehiko?"

"Yes," replied Seishiro uncertainly. Where was he going with this?

Yuji cracked his knuckles with a grin. "His weird mask thing that blocks off half his face. My point is, what the hell does his mouth and stuff look like? He doesn't even show it to us when he eats."

Admittedly, Yuji was right. Seishiro hadn't seen the sniper eat much, and when he did he always took a small portion of whatever, and covered the bottom half of his face with his hand, glaring holes through whoever dared to scrutinise. "Yeah, I never thought about it, but it's honestly a surprise he hasn't starved yet."

"No, I walked in on him once in the corner of the kitchen eating," recounted Yuji.

"What? Then you know what he looks like," muttered Seishiro, wondering why exactly this potentially-dangerous topic was being brought up.

Yuji shook his head frantically. "He put the mask back on before I could see, and he gave me this look- this look of absolute murder, and I...kinda ran for my life."

Seishiro sputtered wordlessly.

"Look, okay, I didn't want to die," defended Yuji. "But that brings me to my main point. We gotta know what he looks like! I mean, there's gotta be a reason why he hides it."

"This feels...oddly personal," rebuffed Seishiro. "I mean, I'm curious too, but seriously? Besides, you said you didn't want to die."

"Which is why you're the one doing it," cheered Yuji.

Seishiro gave a long, drawn-out sigh. "So you want me to die instead. Gee, thanks, you're the best, most supportive friend I've ever had!"

"I know," cackled Yuji. "Anyway, my first idea was to just forcibly rip it off his face, but I figured we'd probably still die. I mean, you know how well that worked out last time somebody got into a fight with him."

"Last...investigation," winced Seishiro. "Besides, most of the class couldn't even touch him."

Yuji nodded. "Yeah, about that. So then, I figured we gotta look at it without him noticing. But there's the problem, I've never seen him need to take off the mask."

"What about the Hot Spring?" Seishiro suggested. "He wouldn't go in there with a mask, it'd get wet."

"Which is why he doesn't go in there," complained Yuji. "But you know what? You're on the right track. You know where he probably takes his mask off? The shower."

Seishiro promptly choked on the glass of water he poured for himself a moment ago. "You- you want me to look at him naked? Thanks for that mental image..."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad," remarked Yuji. "And besides-"

Silently, behind Yuji, the cafeteria doors swung open. And at that exact moment, Seishiro realised their collective death warrant had just been signed.