Danganronpa Extra Life

Confused Yet Safe From Despair

The world was timeless, and dark, and warm. It was like a dream, all slow and syrup-y. There was someone else with her, she could tell, but they were just beyond her reach. A few times she thought she heard their voice. She never felt particularly harried to go seek them out; they weren't going anywhere. She could stay cocooned in this forever, and so she drifted.

What could have been seconds or years later, she realized there was something nagging at her head. A persistent little thought that, once she became aware of, she couldn't ignore, no matter how much she tried. She grimaced and tried to turn away from it, but it pursued her.

I need to get up. Class starts soon, Yukizome-sensei won't like it if I'm late...

Once the words rang through her head, they dominated her world, get up echoing around her. She felt herself get snagged by an invisible hand and dragged backwards through the darkness. It seemed to narrow around her, becoming a tunnel, and she was fast approaching a light—

As soon as she passed through it, she snapped to a halt. She was in the darkness again, but it was different from before. Heavier and more tangible.

Awareness came in the form of touch first. Her limbs felt like lead. There was something pricking at her elbows and wrists, like a needle? And her pajamas seemed really thin against her skin. The air was unusually warm; had the academy finally fixed her room's broken heating machine? She would remember someone coming in and doing that, wouldn't she?

The silence struck her next. Their rooms were soundproof, so no outside noise wasn't unusual, but she was sure her good old SNES had come down with a case of coil whine. She'd planned to ask Soda-kun to take a look at it so it would stop humming at night. Or had she done that already, and he'd fixed it?

Class, her sluggish brain reminded her. Reluctantly, Chiaki cracked her eyes open and was almost blinded by the lights overhead. She grimaced and squeezed them shut, seeing spots on the back of her eyelids. After a few tense seconds, she dared to open them again by a narrow slit. Through her eyelashes she couldn't see much, but the ceiling above her was definitely not from her room.

What...?

Opening her eyes a little more proved safe. With her clearer vision, she could tell that the ceiling was tile. White, and utterly uninteresting. She stared at it blearily for a few moments, then turned her head to her right, feeling her neck crick.

Red. Red was the first thing she saw. Red eyes boring into hers, set in a face partially obscured by the thick black hair that cascaded long past his shoulders. But she still recognized that face; it was a face she'd waited months to see again. Her heart jumped.

Hinata-kun—no. She knew he was Hinata-kun, but wasn't at the same time. She knew that somehow, knew him from somewhere. How? She grasped for memory, but it slipped through her fingers like water. All she had was the vague sensation of running.

With that realization, her heart began to pound fists against her ribcage, and the air was suddenly gone from her lungs. Where was she, what was happening, why didn't she remember—

"Be calm." The voice was almost exactly like Hinata-kun's, but a little deeper, a little softer. It compelled her to immediately obey. She'd heard that exact same voice before; it was familiar, and she clung to it. "You are in no danger here. You are likely experiencing disorientation and short-term memory loss. That is normal for someone emerging from a deep period of unconsciousness."

A deep period of what? "Wh..." Her voice sounded thin and reedy to her ears. It faltered, cracked, and emerged as a harsh cough. Chiaki licked her lips, newly aware of how dry her mouth and throat were. The young man set aside the laptop he'd been using and rose from his chair. He left her field of vision, returning moments later with a cup in his hand. His other cradled the back of her head, lifting it up.