danganronpa - deluded | fanganronpa

[ chapter 4 - a practice round ]

Question of The Day:

Which scene in general was your favorite and why?

welcome to ' charlie is desperate for an ego boost because he's an insecure hormonal teenager ' part 10,000

the next part is gonna pain me to write ;)

-

"Attention, everyone!"

Mutsumi hopped onto the table, clapping her hands together in an almost obnoxious way. The rest of the table turned to look at her, curious glances on their faces. "About the plan we're doing tomorrow... I think we need to practice setting it in motion, just so we know how it'll go. Someone can pretend to be Hoggokuma and Chiemi and Shinako will try to distract them!"

"And... what do we do?" Obokata gestured to him and Akira. "We need something to substitute the control panel with."

"One of the dead students wouldn't mind us taking their HejjiGuide. We're not allowed to break them, but they never said we can't short-circut them," Rei suggested, shrugging when a few of the students gasped at her with shocked expressions, "like I said, they wouldn't care if it's for the sake of ' hope ' or whatever."

"That's so disrespectful, though. The stuff of our classmates turning just- public domain? Can't we find something else to destroy?" Shinako asked. "I don't want to see Ikue's name booted up on the HejjiGuide when Akira goes to destroy it."

"I might have an idea..." Raizo said, so quietly Akira could barely hear it. "My arcade is still closed, but there are... um- wires- that I think make the lights go on. I won't use the lights."

"Or you'll die before you can," Naoki scoffed, "I'm surprised so many of the dumb ones have lasted this long."

"Shut it, sourpuss. You ruin everything," Shinako hissed. "We're trying to think here."

"Are you sure that's alright? Wouldn't it be super dark in there when it opens up? The dark is when your inner demons come out to snatch your weave," Chiemi said matter-of-factly. "I don't want that to happen to you."

"Thanks for being worried but... um... I-I don't have a... ' weave '? O-Or do I? What is a weave?" Raizo asked, looking around the dining hall nervously.

"She was being sarcastic, you knob," Naoki shot back.

"I'm not a doorknob-"

"I give up."

"Alright, so if he's okay with it, we'll use the wires hooked up to the lights in Raizo's arcade as a fake control panel," Mutsumi announced with a grin. "See? We totally got this."

"Huzzah," Naoki snorted sarcastically. "Time to try it and immediately get executed for trying to escape."

"He wouldn't do that, though. If this is really a reality show like all the evidence suggests, it'd make for drama. He wouldn't want the show to end, and killing all of us would do that," Rei replied, crossing her arms, "we'll be fine. Probably."

"That ' probably ' at the end is making me feel uncertain," Chiemi sighed, "how come you're all so negative?"

"How come you're all so positive?" Rei asked back.

"...Fair point."

-

Since nobody else wanted to do it, Mutsumi decided to fill in Hoggokuma's role. Akira, Obokata, Chiemi, and Shinako were all going to walk as far as they could together before Mutsumi caught up to them, where they'd split up into two smaller groups. Akira, a bucket of water in her good arm, would run in and destroy the control panel while Obokata stayed close behind for protection, and to warn her to run in case Hoggokuma was approaching.

"We're not even doing the real plan yet, and I'm still nervous..." Shinako sighed. "Maybe this is a bad idea."

"We're too late in to quit now," Akira responded, grim determination on her face, "we're getting out of here. I don't care if I die doing it, I don't care if anyone else does, but we're getting out."

"Wow, that's something I'd never hear the old Akira say," Chiemi said with a small laugh, "you're a lot tougher than you were then."

"I just don't want anyone else to get murdered. We're playing right into Hoggokuma's paws," she said.

Shinako looked down, a strange guilt in her eyes. "Yeah... right into his paws."

"Um... are you alright?" Obokata asked, raising his eyebrow. "You look sad all of a sudden. This is just a practice round, you know-"

"Halt, right there!"

Mutsumi was running up to the group, stopping to catch her breath in front of them. "Hey, you're getting awfully close to the control room. Just what do you think you're doing?"

Chiemi sneakily walked behind Mutsumi's shoulder and poked her right side. She looked away for a few seconds, staring at the air before turning back to the other three. "Alright, enough of this-"

"...Where are Akira and Obokata?"

-

Akira ran up to the front of the arcade, looking behind her to make sure Obokata was still behind her. He gave her a thumbs-up to signal Mutsumi was still talking to Shinako and Chiemi, so Akira started to walk around to the back.

She could see the part of the arcade the wires were hooked up to - a small electrical control panel for the light system, it seemed. However, to get to the part she could destroy, she needed to open the box (which was screwed shut). With a frustrated groan, she pulled an arrow out of her pouch and, holding the box steady with her bad arm, started to basically force it into the screw with as much force as she had.

The pointed edges managed to somehow fill in the slots in the screw, which allowed her to unscrew it, though it broke the tip off of her lucky arrow. She opened up the top of the box and dumped all of the water into it, watching with mild interest as it sparked and popped.

"Sumi is coming. Did you do it yet?" Obokata peeked his head around. "...I'll take the giant wet spot under the box as a yes. Man, Sumi is gonna be so proud of m- us."

"Aww, you did this just 'cause you wanted to impress her," Akira gushed, slipping the arrow back in her pouch. She picked up the broken tip and frowned. "Damn, that was my lucky arrow."

"Maybe I did. So what?!" Obokata hissed with a flush. "I don't want anyone else to die either, you know!"

"Besides you," a voice snorted from behind them. "Ew, you're going with her to impress me?"

"Kill me now," Obokata sighed.

"Don't be embarrassed about it." Mutsumi, who just showed up, patted his shoulder wholeheartedly. "It was nice of you to think of me like that."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Chiemi and Shinako followed close behind Mutsumi, running over together.

Shinako walked past the other three and over to Akira. "You did it?"

"Yeah. Had to break my lucky arrow to do it, though," Akira frowned, "but hey, anything to get outta here."

"My brother does repairs. Once we get outta here, I'll have him fix it for you!" Shinako insisted with a smile. "That's what friends do."

Akira blinked at the foley artist, and slowly, slowly, slowly, she allowed herself to smile.

That's what friends do.