danganronpa - deluded | fanganronpa

[ chapter 2 - new beginnings ]

Akira couldn't sleep that night.

She twisted and turned around in her surprisingly soft bed, images of yesterday flashing through her head.

Ikue and Isamu are dead. Knowing the bastard we're trapped with... they won't be the last ones.

She had found both of them to be good-hearted, even if Ikue was a bit bad-mouthed or Isamu was a bit careless. Neither of them deserved to die.

Then-

Knock knock.

"Uh... are you in there? Akira?"

Sounds like... Raizo?

"S-Sorry to interrupt... if you were asleep... but we got worried when you didn't come to the dining hall, so..."

She sat up and yawned, bags likely under her eyes from the lack of sleep she had gotten. She opened the door and was upset to find the candlemaker looked no different - hair fizzy and all over the place, face pale, and he kept dropping his head and picking it back up, so he was probably struggling to stay awake just like she was.

"You look tired," she murmured through another yawn, "I'll head to the dining hall and tell them you're asleep if you want to rest."

"Thanks, but... you look tired too. We all are... after... t-that happened," he shivered. "w-we're talking about ways... to stop the killings... so I don't wanna miss it."

"Alright then. If you fall asleep, should I poke you awake?" Akira asked. "Even though I might fall asleep myself!" That addition got them both to giggle despite themselves.

At least we can still laugh in a situation like this.

He started to lead her to the dining hall, but Raizo got extremely tired about halfway through and she ended up having to give him a piggy-back ride so he didn't fall on the floor and break his nose. That wouldn't be good, adding another injury to the list.

[Just 'cause I figured it'd be cute, here's an image:]

As expected, people eyed her curiously when she walked in the dining hall.

"Is he... y'know..." Sumi pretended to cut her throat with her hand, making choked sounds and grabbing her throat.

"No. He just fell asleep. We're all tired, after all," Akira shrugged. "I didn't want him to fall on the way here so I decided it'd be easier to carry him."

"Aww," Chiemi cooed, squishing her cheek. "That's so sweet of you!"

Akira shrugged, nearly dropping the boy in the process. "It's not much, but it's honest work, you know?"

Chiemi slammed her fist on the table. "Oh my God-"

"What?"

"I never knew you liked that meme!"

"...Huh? Aren't ' meeeemeeeesss ' pictures? Why would that be a ' meeeemeeee '?" Okay, now she was confused. Banri pat the chair next to him and told her to drop Raizo off there so she wouldn't wake him up, which she did.

"Oh. Right. Figures it was a coincidence," Chiemi murmured, almost sadly.

"Hey, guys, I hate to bring this topic back up again, but..." Shinako cleared her throat, "...aren't we kind of ignoring what happened yesterday? I know it's good to move on, but I don't think we should just ignore our problems either."

"Don't ruin the moment!" Sumi hissed. "Those two are smiling in the afterlife right now! They're happy that we're able to keep on fighting! They're happy that we're able to smile in a situation like this!" She stood up, knocking her chair over in the process. "And since we can do just that, these killings will obviously end! We're all gonna work together and get out of here! As a team! Then, we'll all be friends after!"

"Even Kouta?" Eiko raised an eyebrow. "He's old. It'll be awkward."

"Hey! I'm not that old!" Kouta shouted. "Right, Rei?"

Rei didn't look up at him.

"Rei! Come on, defend me here!" He sighed dramatically. "You hurt me so."

Obokata smiled softly as the snowboarder picked her chair back up. "You... you really are something else, aren't you? Only a crazy person could be so optimistic in this situation."

"Only a crazy person could be so pessimistic in this situation," she shot back. "I can tell you care. Stop trying to be so serious and focus on just being yourself! You'll make a lot more friends like that."

"Hey! I-I have tons of friends!" He insisted.

She chuckled and sat down. "O-hokay, nerd." She punched his arm playfully, causing them both to burst out in laughter.

They seem to get along. I don't have anyone I can rely on like they can. So many people here have friends. Maybe I should make some.

"Akira, are you okay?" Kouta asked from across the table. "You look like you're thinking."

"Hm? Oh," she giggled and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "No, I was only thinking about how friendly we've all become so quickly."

"Speak for yourself," Naoki hissed, "I don't want to be associated with any of these fuckers. When you make friends, you fucking die."

Chiemi shook her head. "He's hopeless. By the way, Akira, remember what we promised when we first met? How about we do that tonight?"

"Huh? Oh, right, the internet term lessons," she nodded, "yeah, we can do that if you want to."

Everyone returned to eating. Still, Akira couldn't help but notice how little people talked about yesterday. Ikue and Isamu were still dead, like it or not, and yet nobody seemed to notice. 

Almost like robots. (that's robophobic!)

Maybe it's just me. Still, I feel like there's a lot less energy now that they're gone.

Whatever, I guess. It's morning, we're all tired, we're all upset. Maybe I could just talk to someone and forget about this whole thing? It won't work, I know, but at least it'll help us forget for now.

-

AAAAND HERE'S ANOTHER FTE POLL

COMMENT WHO YOU WANT ME TO DO

i realized two thing

1. first chapter. only 2 ftes? oopsy poopsy i was too excited for the trial

2. i skipped someone who wanted me to do mioko? i'll do that this time lmao

so pick 3 more fte people or whatever i guess

most people have 1 fte, but ikue (who is dead lmao) and raizo have 2. mioko's gonna have 2 as well ofc cause i forgot to do hers

(by the way, there are 6 ftes per person, so it takes a chapter and 1 to finish someones if you do it nonstop)

-author