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

Chapter 2.2: I Was Just Totally Clueless

"Call me crazy, but are we a few people short?" asked Hiro, scratching his chin.

"I swear to god, I'm having fucking deja vu," muttered Junko to herself over her breakfast.

"Pardon?" I pulled up a chair beside her, looking around the dining hall.

"Once again, we're a few kids short of a breakfast, just like Hiro is a few cards short of a deck," said Junko. "Not this again. I thought we'd overcome the whole ditching thing yesterday."

I did the briefest of head-counts, and he was right. Two people missing, and two people... gone.

I didn't know if I would ever get used to the emptiness.

"Hmmm.... Has anyone seen Makoto?" asked Sayaka.

Strange. He was usually a pretty early riser.

Chihiro shook her head. "No," she said, "I haven't seen him all morning. Usually he is here by now. Is he alright?"

"Well, how should we know that?" asked Junko. "Sorry, babe," she added upon realizing who she'd snapped at. "I'm pre-morning coffee and all that. A girl needs her beauty sleep, and I'm exhausted."

Chihiro smiled back, unperturbed.

"Anyway," added Junko, "we should probably go look for him."

"Absolutely!" I said immediately without thinking, rising to my feet.

Junko raised an eyebrow at me.

"Who are we looking for?" A familiar voice came from the entrance of the cafeteria.

"Makoto!"

The others rushed him.

"Thank god, you're here!" said Sayaka. "We were so worried." She was hovering by his side, one hand on his arm.

"Yeah! We were gonna go looking you!" said Hina.

Despite the rocky start, the others had been doing better about re-integrating her into the group. She still came to breakfasts, and there was still some hesitancy around her, but I was glad we were making progress. Hina's overall mood seemed to be improving as well.

Once everyone had calmed down, I spoke. "Glad you're here," I said, nodding slightly.

"Oh, thank you for worrying!" he said, turning a light shade of red. "Thank y-you all, I mean! Of course! But I was actually going to talk to Byakuya. I was hoping to convince him to come join us, but I don't think he's in his room." He frowned, and I felt the strange feeling of disgust for anyone who could ever let this boy down.

We looked around at each other, the question of what to do about Byakuya still in the air.

"Is there any hoping that if we just ignore the problem maybe it'll go away?" asked Junko. When no one answered, she sighed, getting to her feet. "Fine. Let's go find Four-Eyes."

"I suggest some of us check the second floor!" said Taka. "But a few should stay behind."

"If we split up, we can cover more ground," said Makoto.

"Precisely!"

"S-stop trying to one up everyone!" whined Toko, but Taka ignored her.

"I'll go check on his room again," said Makoto. "Just one more time, just to make sure."

"I'll go with you!" said Sayaka.

There was something hasty about the way she'd said it.

Junko grabbed my hand, distracting me from my thoughts. "You and me are gonna stick together."