danganronpa - deluded | fanganronpa

[ chapter 1 - open the curtain~! ]

sorry it's so short. next chapter will be longer ;;

-

Game night went on as usual. Despite not being very skilled at art and having no idea how any of the games worked, Akira found herself having a lot of fun. Everyone joined in at some point, including Rei, Naoki, and even Jutaro. Kouta had come to check on everyone for a few minutes, playing the more simple games that required one hand (since his other was really gross and burned) with Banri's help.

The only person not playing was... Chiemi?

Shinako seemed to notice, because she asked the others to pause their game so she could turn to her friend and ask, "Chiemi, are you not going to play with us?"

"Games aren't really my thing," Chiemi said with a small smile. "I'm okay with just watching you guys have fun."

Raizo looked down at his controller and held it out to her. "Do you want... to use my controller? I'm no good at games anyway... You should have fun too."

"That's a really nice offering, Raizo," Chiemi said softly. "but I'm good. You enjoy yourselves."

Raizo looked conflicted, but nodded, telling the screenwriter to let him know if she wanted to switch.

-

As the hours passed by, Akira started to grow worried.

Ikue still wasn't back. They would be meeting at the stage soon. Of course, she could be with the others at the stage, but if she wasn't... maybe she...

No! Don't think like that. Everyone here is so nice and it's impossible. Everyone would have an alibi, right?

...Tokihiko wouldn't have an alibi. What if he...?

"You okay, Akira?"

She must've been spacing out, because when she realized what was happening, Banri was waving his hand in front of her face with a few concerned faces peeking down at her.

"Y-You spaced out," Jutaro explained, though he didn't look too concerned. "M-Maybe you were thinking a-about the meat rain mystery...?"

"No... " Akira murmured. "What's going on?"

"Banri said he wanted to open the big curtain at the back of the arcade," Chiemi pointed behind her where the graffiti artist was. He was standing in front of a large curtain and seemingly waiting for the two to walk over. "He said that he saw a really big game behind it - we could all play it together."

"Oh. Got it. Sorry for spacing out, Chiemi," Akira chuckled nervously. The other girl insisted it was fine and the two walked over to meet with the rest of the group.

"It's about time," Rei scoffed, "thought you'd die from starvation with how long you were sitting there."

"Yeah... sorry..." Akira apologized through gritted teeth.

Banri grinned ear-to-ear. "Tubular! Everyone's here, right? Okay, okay. I welcome to you to the super rad-tastical, amazing, wonderful-"

"Get on with it!" Naoki shouted.

Banri chuckled and grabbed the rope that held the curtain closed. "Okay, I'm opening it now-!"

Banri started to tug on the rope as much as he could. The curtain slowly opened, though the man looked like he was really struggling to open it. "Why is this so heavy..?"

Akira, being a decently strong person, walked over to help him. Truth be told, it was a pretty heavy rope. Why it was so heavy, she had no idea - curtains were made out of light material, right?

And then, with one final particularly hard tug from the two of them-

CRASH!

A loud bang and the sound of glass shattering filled the room. The curtain was a lot lighter after the sound happened. Maybe something fell?

With the weight gone, the two of them opened it fully and stepped inside.

With an excited smile, Banri wiped his hands off. "Alright, everyone, let's go out!"

He ran inside the curtain without a second thought.

Akira sighed and ran in after him.

...Still feeling worried.