Danganronpa v1 [Talentswap] [Female reader: You are Mukuro]

Chapter 1.5: Trials and Tribulations

The wait for the elevator doors to open was deathly quiet. "Nerves" was a good word to describe it although "dread" was probably even more accurate. Looking around the dimly lit room, I realized all of my classmates were not yet present.

"Where's Kyoko?" Makoto asked as though voicing my thoughts aloud.

Sayaka answered. "We haven't seen her once since she left the investigation scene."

He looked at me, as if searching for an answer, but I shook my head. I was just as in the dark as everyone else.

The silence continued. I turned over all the clues in my mind, trying my utmost to piece them together—despite how little we had to go on.

"So... What do we do now?" Makoto murmured quietly, and I knew the question was intended for my ears only.

"What do you mean?"

"If all the evidence we've gathered is fake, then what good is it? What are we going to do if it's all been useless?"

"Not useless," I corrected him. "It can still be helpful in some way." Even false trails could be unintentional clues.

"But if it all points to the wrong culprit, then how is it helpful? It was put there intentionally to deceive us."

"I'm... not sure. Not yet, anyways. Things will become clearer during the trial." Even as I said it, I knew it would take more than just words of reassurance to convince him. All the same, there was some truth to my words. It tended to be easier to put the pieces of a puzzle together after observing the suspects for a little while.

"What exactly do you plan on doing once we get in there?" he asked skeptically.

I sighed. "I'm gonna wing it."

"You can't be serious."

I could feel his disbelieving eyes on me, but I ignored him. "You'd be surprised what you can learn when you let everything unfold."

"Something is off. Isn't the case too ambiguous? How can you possibly be so confident?"

"Has anybody ever told you that you ask too many questions?" I said irritably. My mind was still buzzing with too many questions of my own. I wasn't really confident, not in the slightest. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having to bluff my way through something as serious as this when our lives were at stake. It definitely would not have been method I would typically choose, but what other options did I have?

Just then, Kyoko entered the room without so much as a word.

"You're late," said Taka as he addressed Kyoko, his arms crossed.

"I was busy." And that was the only explanation we were to receive because at precisely that moment the doors to the elevator opened.

The elevator ride to the courtroom was just as bad if not worse than the wait for the elevator itself. It was painfully long, as though we would never reach our destination and instead we would simply just keep going and going and going forever.

At last, we arrived at our destination. We stepped out of the lift and into a large, cylindrical room with blue walls, red curtains, and a black and white checkered floor. There were sixteen stations (presumably one for each student), arranged in a circle, along with one large throne at the end of the room that faced opposite the entrance. The seat was taken up by Monokuma, who grinned at us as as he sat leisurely upon his throne.

Each station was labelled with a name, indicating for which student it was intended. We each went to our appropriate station so that they were all taken, save for one. The last one seemed empty until I saw the large picture of Hifumi that was propped up in a frame that occupied the space. The portrait had been crossed out in a dark red X.