danganronpa - deluded | fanganronpa

[ chapter 2 - a motive appears! ]

As she said goodbye to Mutsumi, Akira realized she never got to implement her new vocabulary word (yeet) into the conversation. She shrugged, figuring she'd just say it to someone else - someone good with words - maybe Rei or even Tokihiko, even if he is shady.

And then:

ZZT! ZZT!

"Hey, dumbasses!" Hejjikuma shouted so hard into the announcer that it made the audio choppy. "Get over to the Ferris wheel right now or I'll personally execute all fourteen of ya!"

Hoggokuma huffed into the mic. "Stop being so forceful. They're already going through enough. Students, students, please make your way to the Ferris wheel for an important announcement-"

"Oh, shut up, will ya?!" Hejjikuma presumably slapped Ho- himself? They did have the same body, correct? "You're being too soft. Nobody likes a soft host, you got it?"

...Host?

Akira shook her head. Now wasn't the time to listen to some weird comedy act by two weird hedgehogs. Instead, she focused on what the announcement could be. Maybe they were letting everyone go. Maybe they decided they wanted to kill everyone. Maybe it was something else entirely like the arcade announcements are like. Still, for those, they never called anyone to the Ferris wheel.

Clenching her fist and trying to control her breathing, she started to head over, praying for the best.

-

And so, everyone had arrived. They had to basically drag Naoki and Rei over since those two were too busy reading or breaking tents.

"Okay, every student is here, correct?" Hoggokuma asked to the kids.

"You did attendance about ten times. Yes, we're all here. Get on with it already," Naoki hissed, "I wanna go back to venting out my anger on innocent tents."

"If you're going to kill everyone, you said Jutaro was first, right?" Eiko asked, tilting her head. "So get on with it."

"H-Hey!" Jutaro shouted.

"No, no, we're not going to kill you," Hoggokuma sighed, "we just figured... well, the last trial was hard. It's obvious one is going to happen again soon so why not give you guys a little reward? After all, you're all such good students, so... if the blackened gets away with their crime, they can pick somebody to leave with them."

"I thought you disliked murder, Hoggokuma. Why are you trying to encourage these filthy plebians to do it?" Rei crossed her arms, eyebrow raised. "Sounds like you're as sick and twisted as Hejjikuma."

"Fuck you, that's why!"

"Ah. Lovely."

"Man, what else do you want from us? We've already lost two people. What, are ya' gonna keep going 'till we're all dead? That's mad messed up, dudes. Mad wack," Banri shook his head disapprovingly. "I didn't know hedgehogs liked killin' so much, ya dig?"

Hoggokuma shook his head. "No, not until you're all dead. Just until two or three of you are left! Then, we'll let those two or three go as the winners. A few other times, there's been five, but we felt like it was just too many. Five out of sixteen is a big portion, you know?"

"Wait, so you're saying this isn't the first time that a killing game has happened?" Akira asked as the hedgehog started to announce everyone could go. "There have been more killing games than this? You also mentioned that you two were hosts. Does this mean we're on a reality sh-"

"Bye!" Hoggokuma called to the kids nervously, hopping behind the wheel and vanishing.

Akira sighed. Damn, that hedgehog was good at dodging questions.