Danganronpa: Despair's Reoccurrence/Chapter Two

### [ Miu Iruma ]

“Iruma-san, please focus on the project--!” K1-B0 managed, edging away from Miu.

*“You’re* my project, Keebo,” she responded, edging closer still.

“I-Iruma-san--!”

*BOOM.*

“Whoopsie~!”

Miu whirled around, entirely distracted. “The f--?!”

There was her *original* science project, a half-built ingenious idea (something to help people learn new languages while sleeping!), smoking and smoldering as it crackled again.

“What did you do?!” she demanded, rounding on her *other* partner. As the class had been separated into three partners for this project, she’d been too excited about K1-B0 to bother acknowledging the… idiot in the group.

“Huh? I didn’t do anything,” Kokichi said innocently, lowering a now-empty bottle.

“What was in there?”

“In what?”

Miu grabbed the bottle from Kokichi, looking it over before smelling it. “IS THIS SODA?”

“You think I’d throw Soda-chan some stupid contraption you made?”

Miu’s eye twitched. “You little--! This is Miu Iruma, the greatest girl genius this world has ever witnessed, you’re talkin’ to! Get some respect, ya jerk!”

“Respect? Whazzat?” asked Kokichi.

“Get outta my way,” snapped Miu, shoving Kokichi aside to inspect her once-grand invention. Now, it was a steaming, broken hunk of metal, rendered useless by Kokichi’s ignorant meddling.

“Ugh-! You’d better have another science project idea, Oma!” Miu shoved the ruined contraption aside, turning to look at her two partners.

Kokichi just stared blankly at her, holding his hands behind his head. “Why me?”

“Because you destroyed mine, you idiot!”

“Huh? I did? I don’t think I did. Why would you say something so mean...?”

“If ya don’t have any ideas, then just keep your mouth shut, ya lyin’ little abortion!”

“Th-That’s--!”

“HEY! Both of you, stop fighting!”

Miu froze, turning to look at K1-B0. Kokichi sniffled loudly, undoubtedly trying to seem pitiful or whatever. It was only a matter of time before he started fake-crying.

“You’re upset over this science project, right?” asked K1-B0. “If so, why don’t we all collectively decide what to make for the project, instead of one of us deciding everything to do?”

Miu frowned. K1-B0 had a point, but Miu wanted to do things *her* way. If *Kokichi* had a say in what to do, then Miu knew they would probably end up arguing much more than if everyone just listened to her.

“That’s a pretty good idea,” said Kokichi, “for someone with artificial intelligence instead of a brain.”

“Th-That’s robophobic!” K1-B0 exclaimed. “Prejudice against robots! I will not tolerate any more of this, Oma-san!”

“You can call me Oma-*sama,* if you want,” Kokichi said casually.

“Didn’t I tell ya to *shut up?”* snapped Miu.

“Did you? I wouldn’t know. I don’t listen to whiny perverts.”

“W-Whiny perverts?” Miu echoed.

Kokichi held his hands behind his head, looking away. “You heard me the first time just fine, didn’t you? So just keep your smelly breath in your dirty mouth.”

“E-Eh?!” cried Miu. “D-Don’t raise your voice like that….”

“What? Does it remind you of--”

“Please, stop this pointless arguing!” interrupted K1-B0. “This science class will end in five minutes, and we won’t be able to keep talking about this. Can we please focus on the project?”

“R-Right... The project…” muttered Miu, twirling a strand of strawberry-blonde hair around her finger. “I still think we should do one of *my* ideas!”

“Why is that, Iruma-san?” K1-B0 asked formally.

Miu scoffed, folding her arms. “Ain’t it obvious?! ’Cause, not only are my ideas *indefinitely better than all of yours,* I also *know* what I’m doin’! I *am* the amazing girl genius, Miu Iruma, ya know!”

“You’re also the most boring person I know,” Kokichi added with a melodramatic yawn. Miu ignored him.

“Now, I have *three* ideas for what to do. The original one, which I- we can still try again, is an invention so people can learn languages while sleeping. Then, somethin’ that lets people draw while sleeping. And last, somethin’ that makes it so ya can *exercise* while sleepin’! So, which one’ll it be, idiots?”

“None of those,” replied Kokichi immediately. “They’re all pathetic, lame, and just as dumb as you are.”

Ignoring Kokichi again, Miu directed her attention to K1-B0. “Which one’ll it be?” she repeated.

“Uh… Y-You’re asking me?” K1-B0 thought for a moment. “Well… we could try the--”

*Ding dong, bing bong~!*

“And there’s the bell,” said Kokichi cheerfully. “See ya later, Iruma-chan, Kee-boy.”

“Wh-Why am I ‘Kee-boy’?!”

“‘Cause you aren’t a human. I can’t call you ‘-chan’ if you’re an electronically-powered machine.”

“This discrimination--! I’ll be sure to tell the headmaster about this!”

“Go ahead, see if he’ll care ’bout some hunk of metal.”

“S-Stop being so robophobic!”

“No.”

This conversation soon faded away as K1-B0 and Kokichi left the classroom, bickering.

Miu glanced around. Had they… *forgotten* about her? She scowled, narrowing her gaze at her ruined invention.

“Hmmph!” she huffed. “If *he* doesn’t appreciate my ingenuity, that’s fine. I wouldn’t expect anything more from a leader of a gang of prankster kids.”

She was talking to herself, of course. She didn’t need an audience to make her opinion clear.

“I don’t care whatever he does, as long as he doesn’t…” Miu didn’t finish that sentence, simply trailing off, but before she could continue--

“What are you talking about?”

Miu jumped, whirling around. A girl, whose dark brown hair was tied into dark brown twintails, sat on the ground beside a window, watching Miu.

“Who are you?” demanded Miu.

“...Maki Harukawa. You shouldn’t have heard of me.”

“Well, *you* shoulda heard of *me!”* exclaimed Miu.

“Too bad then. I haven’t.”

Miu blinked. “Y-You don’t even recognize me?”

“Of course not. I’ve never had the time or patience to study trivial people, nor have I cared to.” Maki stood, walking past Miu. She didn’t even cast a glance behind her shoulder. She just… walked away.

Scowling again, Miu fluffed up her hair. *How ungrateful!*

Really, though. Was there any point in going to the next class, or lunchtime, whichever it was? Miu had lost track, as she was forced to deal with *Kokichi* for the past hour. Besides, it wasn’t *required* to attend classes at Hope’s Peak Academy, unlike students in the Reserve Course. Some students didn’t even care enough to go to class, nor even interact with other students.

And if she went to the next class, who was to say that she wouldn’t be paired with yet another perpetual idiot? She didn’t trust her luck enough to assume she’d have any sensible partners again.

Then again… she *did* want to talk to K1-B0. Maybe “upgrade” him a little. She had to admit, she certainly was curious, considering she was the Ultimate Inventor and he was, well, a robot.

And so she followed Maki out the door.

### [ Maki Harukawa ]

“Are you an idiot?” snapped Maki.

*I cannot believe this man.*

“That’s a very offensive thing to say, Harukawa-san!” he said.

*Ugh…*

“You’re desperate enough for attention that you actually waited outside a science classroom for an hour. Go find somebody else to pester, and leave me alone.”

“Don’t be like that!” said the idiot. “I’m gonna help you, you know.”

Maki stopped, her eye twitching. “What? What false observation gave you the idea that I *‘needed help’?”*

“You’re constantly alone and you never talk to anyone,” the idiot responded immediately, as though this were obvious information that everyone knew.

Maki stared at him. *“So?”*

“You obviously need a friend!”

“Go away,” she snapped.

The idiot smiled at her, as though he took none of her words seriously. “That’s okay; you can be my sidekick! Every hero has to have a sidekick, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t want to be your sidekick,” Maki said coldly, turning and walking into a random empty classroom.

“Then I can be *your* sidekick!” the idiot decided, sounding satisfied with himself as he followed her.

That was it.

Maki reached into her pocket, gripping the familiar handle of her knife, and said in a low voice, as to not attract attention, *“Do you want to die?”*

The idiot blinked. “Huh?”

“I said, *DO YOU WANT TO DIE?* Because that is certainly what’s going to happen if you keep this up.”

“It’s okay, you can be a little shy!” said the idiot happily, before his smile dimmed slightly. “Wait, that’s unadulterated intent to murder.”

Maki finally turned to look at the idiot, gripping her knife tightly as she did so. “If you’re so keen on bothering someone, find someone who would bother *you* rather than someone who would gladly kill you right now.”

The idiot paused, thinking. “Well… It’s illegal to kill someone if it’s not self-defense, so I’m fine!”

*Oh my god. This guy is such an IDIOT. Does he really not recognize me, or is he just pretending not to?*

Glancing around the empty classroom, Maki noticed a small closet. It was tucked in the far corner of the room, but it would do well to hide a body.

Meanwhile, the idiot leaned on the wall, oblivious to Maki’s dark thoughts. “So, what’s your name?”

“None of your business,” Maki snapped.

“Huh. Fair enough.” As the idiot looked around, Maki thought of the ramen that was probably being served for lunch. Even though the cafeteria food was mildly disgusting, it was nothing close to what she was forced to eat during her assassin training.

“Well, Saihara-kun and I are looking for someone else to train with,” the idiot went on. “Don’t worry, we’d go easy on you.”

*Go easy on me?* Maki didn’t exactly remember agreeing to the idiot’s terms.

“How many times must I tell you? *I’m. Not. Interested.”*

The idiot thought for a moment before sighing. “Well… I told Saihara-kun that I’d meet up with him. So I’d better go now. Ladies first.”

As the idiot backed away from the classroom doorway, Maki shot him a glare before stalking past. However, she stopped in the doorway. Words were forming in her mouth, words she didn’t want to say yet said anyway.

“...What’s your name, anyway?”

“Kaito Momota, the Luminary of the Stars!”

...Well, that settled that. Maki narrowed her eyes at the wall ahead of her, and walked away without another word.

### [ Kaede Akamatsu ]

This was almost sad. The lunch room was full of students, but barely any of them were actually eating anything because they were so busy chatting with their friends.

Was that the sad part? No.

The sad part was Shuichi Saihara, who could eat as much as he wanted, because nobody wanted to talk to him. Of course, Kaede certainly *would* have approached him at this point, but Tenko and Tsumugi kept her from doing so.

“Why do you keep looking at that degenerate male?” Tenko asked now, following Kaede’s gaze. “Did he… *do something* to you?! Don’t tell me he--!”

“Ah! It’s only been a day, and you’re already--!” Tsumugi contributed.

“Guys, please… That’s insane,” said Kaede. “I’m just worried about him, that’s all.”

There was a short moment of silence, before Tenko’s gaze hardened again. “Worried about a degenerate male?! Don’t worry, Akamatsu-san! Tenko will protect you from the degenerate males in this school!”

“Aww, do I count as a degenerate male?” asked an all-too-familiar voice behind Kaede. She didn’t even have to turn around to know it was Mr. Late Guy… or Kokichi Oma.

“AKAMATSU-SAN, BEHIND YOU!” roared Tenko, jumping to her feet and launching herself across the table. Before Kaede could react, Tenko had grabbed Kokichi by his scarf and thrust him across the room.

“Ch-Chabashira-san!” squeaked Tsumugi, the eyes behind her glasses wide.

“Problem solved!” Tenko concluded, returning to her seat at the lunch table. “Now, what were we talking about?”

“Chabashira-san, you just threw someone across a room,” Kaede managed.

“Wrong! I threw a *degenerate male* across the room!”

“That doesn’t change anything!”

“Yes, it does!” Tenko shouted. “That degenerate male was obviously about to do dirty things to you!”

“No, I think he was just trying to be annoying,” Tsumugi said.

“Wh-Why the heck are we even talking about this?!” exclaimed Kaede. “Oma-san, are you okay?!”

There was a short pause before Kokichi stood, looking absolutely fine. “Half of my bones are broken and I’ve been impaled,” he replied cheerfully. “Thanks, Chabashira-chan!”

Unfortunately, Kokichi was across the massive dining hall when he said this, which meant literally every student present heard him. Kaede saw Mikan Tsumiki jump up from her table. “Oh m-my g-goodness! I’ll bring you to the n-nurse’s office i-immediately!”

And Mikan hurried Kokichi away, whimpering things as she continued to poke him.

“She… didn’t actually think he was serious, right?” Kaede muttered.

“I think so,” said Tsumugi.

Kaede sighed. She had a lot to do, anyway -- and judging by Kokichi’s response, he was completely fine, so she didn’t need to worry about him.

“I’ll be right back, you two,” she said quickly, standing.

“Oh-Kay!” replied Tenko enthusiastically. “Tenko will be waiting for you!”

“So will I,” Tsumugi added.

“No, no, it’s fine,” said Kaede. “If the bell rings, you two feel free to go to your next classes. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Without waiting to hear their responses, Kaede stood and rushed across the room, only finally stopping at a specific table.

“Hey, Saihara-kun,” she said. “Are you okay? I didn’t see you in class.”

Shuichi just muttered incoherent nonsense and pulled his hat further over his face.

“Saihara-kun? Oma-san didn’t bully you, did he?”

“Ah- what?” mumbled Shuichi, looking up. Kaede noticed the dark circles underneath his eyes. “N-No, I’m fine….”

“You don’t *look* fine,” Kaede observed, sitting down beside him. “How much sleep did you get?”

Shuichi was silent for a long moment. Kaede assumed he hadn’t heard her, and was about to repeat herself when he responded.

“Seven or eight hours….”

“Well… that’s a sorta healthy amount of sleep, but you should’ve slept longer,” said Kaede. “Why weren’t you in class, then?”

With a sigh, Shuichi reached across the table, grabbing his empty mug. “I fell asleep at three A.M., Akamatsu-san.”

“...Huh?”

Shuichi just sighed again, standing and walking across the cafeteria (probably to refill his mug). Kaede tapped her fingers on the table, waiting for him as she processed this information, as she heard a voice.

“You two are hitting it off, eh?”

Kaede glanced behind her. “Oma-san? You’re back already? What about Tsumiki-san?”

“Whaaaat? You didn’t miss me?” asked Kokichi.

“You’re everywhere,” Kaede responded tiredly. “Anyway, what do you mean, ‘hitting it off’? Saihara-kun and I already knew each other.”

Shrugging, Kokichi impolitely leaned on the table. “You know, I can’t control how you feel. But I *can* control who goes in and out of my room.”

“I’m hoping that first part was actually the truth,” replied Kaede. “And what do you mean, *your* room? You share it with Shuichi.”

“Whatever, it’s the same thing! Aaaanyway.” Even though Kokichi’s tone was light and carefree, his eyes uncharacteristically narrowed as he spoke. “So, what d’you think you’re doing with Saihara-chan?”

“She’s talking to me, is something wrong with that?”

Before Kokichi could respond, Shuichi had returned. He wore a strangely serious expression as he sat down, placing his mug of coffee beside him.

Kaede paused, thinking. “Oma-san, you aren’t… *jealous,* are you?”

Kokichi blinked, seemingly caught off guard, and stared at her for a few moments before giggling. “What? Of course not! Why would you say that?”

“...Just wondering.”

A long silence set in. Shuichi had pulled a book out of his pocket -- he’d likely gotten it from the library -- while Kokichi nonchalantly watched him. Kaede hummed the beginning of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Für Elise” before standing.

“We’re gonna be late for class,” she decided.

“Oh- um, right.” Shuichi jumped up, nearly dropping his mug in the process. “Y-Yeah… if I’m late again, I’d probably get in trouble.”

“Why are you so worried *now?”* asked Kokichi. “You were sleeping like a baby this morning!”

“Kh--!” Shuichi looked away, seeming embarrassed.

“Hey, back off,” snapped Kaede. *“You’re* the one who purposely ruined your science project. You have no right to bully Saihara-kun.”

“Aww, you’re boring.”

“...Come on, Saihara-kun, let’s go.” Ignoring Kokichi, Kaede gripped Shuichi’s wrist tightly and dragged him down the halls.

Only a couple moments passed before they were intercepted yet again.

“Yo! Saihara-kun, over here!”

Shuichi stopped walking abruptly, and his wrist slipped out of Kaede’s grasp. Turning around, she saw a student who she recognized as Kaito Momota.

“You two know each other?” she asked.

Kaito gave her a cheesy thumbs-up. “Yep! We met last night. Anyway, Saihara-kun, you wanna do some training before lunch break ends?”

“U-Um… sorry, Momota-kun, but--”

“I knew I could count on you!” interrupted Kaito jauntily. “C’mon, Saihara-kun, let’s go!”

Before Kaede could do or say anything, Kaito dragged Shuichi down the halls, oblivious to Shuichi’s stammered protests. Kaede sighed with a frown -- she, of all people, understood that it was quite difficult to convince Kaito to *not* be so reckless. Of course, she wasn’t “giving up” -- she just knew that there wasn’t much of a point to chase after the Ultimate Astronaut, while there were only about fifteen minutes until the lunch break ended, and there wasn’t much of a penalty for skipping class, anyway.

With a shrug, Kaede turned and walked away.

She had more important things to attend to, after all.

### [ Makoto Naegi ]

Toko was, to say the least, having a melodramatic meltdown.

Of course, Makoto was used to these kinds of fits by now. As it was his third year attending Hope’s Peak Academy with Toko, he wasn’t too surprised by now. However, that didn’t mean that he could deal with her fits.

Makoto wasn’t sure whether it was safer to bring Toko to class when she was like this, or let her skip *again.* Standing beside him were Celestia Ludenberg and Chihiro Fuijsaki, and neither of them looked ready to deal with Toko, either.

“I b-bet you all h-h-hate m-my guts!” Toko was shouting, pointing an accusing finger at the three of them. “I bet y-you’re all w-wishing I’d j-just go away so you didn’t have to look at my u-ugly, d-d-disgusting face!”

“Toko, n-no one hates you,” Chihiro said. He sounded on the verge of tears, and personally, Makoto didn’t blame him.

“Other than Togami-kun,” said Celeste, twirling a strand of hair around her finger absently. “And Kuzuryu-san. And Pekoyama-san. And--”

“Celeste, you aren’t helping,” interrupted Makoto.

Celeste raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like I’m trying to?” She turned back to Toko with an air of annoyance. “If you wish to believe that we hate you, why accuse us of doing it anyway? If you wish to believe that you are ugly and disgusting, why do nothing to change your appearance? If you wish to believe that we want you gone, why not just leave?”

“Okay th-then, I w-w-will!” snapped Toko, turning and running away.

“Toko, wait!” cried Chihiro, running after her.

Makoto’s eyes widened. “You two, don’t--!”

“NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS!” shouted the voice of Kiyotaka Ishimaru. Toko, however, ignored Taka’s command and only ran faster.

“Fukawa-san, if you do not stop what you are doing this instant, I will personally bring you to the principal’s office!”

Toko shot a disgusted glance over her shoulder and vanished around a corner. Taka pursued us, though he was careful to not run in his precious halls. Chihiro, meanwhile, had stopped dead as soon as he heard Taka, and now stood there, seemingly terrified.

“What’s going on?” asked a familiar voice. Turning, Makoto realized Kyoko was walking toward them, her arms folded. “I heard shouting.”

“It was just Fukawa having a hissy-fit,” explained Celeste absently.

“I should have known. Anyway, has anybody seen Hiro? I can’t find him.”

Makoto frowned. “I saw him this morning, but he didn’t come to class with me.”

Kyoko’s gaze turned to Celeste, as she chose not to acknowledge Chihiro’s silence. “Have you seen him?”

“No, I have not seen an idiot with huge brown dreadlocks blundering around the school,” responded Celeste serenely.

“I’m serious, Celeste. He’s been missing all day, that’s an issue.”

“Oh dear,” Celeste remarked, and for a moment, Makoto wondered whether she was actually concerned -- until he saw what she held in her hands. “I believe my purse is damaged.”

*“Celes--* You know what, never mind.” Kyoko sighed. “I’ll ask someone else. You three, hurry up and get to class already.”

“Yeah, Kyoko’s right,” Makoto agreed. “We should hurry.”

Celeste picked at a piece of dirt on her purse. “There is no reason to rush. The other idiots will be late, anyway.”

“No, that’s wrong!” shouted Makoto, pointing a finger at Celeste.

She raised one eyebrow and glanced slightly in Makoto’s general direction. “You disagree?”

“Since last year, the headmaster made it clear that we should attend classes more often,” Makoto reminded her. “Since we’re seniors now, it’s our responsibility to get to class on time.”

Celeste yawned calmly before answering. “Whether we are seniors or freshmen matters not. I happened to overhear you and your little reserve course sister talking just the other day. You are clearly passing your beliefs onto Komaru… What a poor soul she is, indeed.”

“Huh?”

“Within moments, she, too, will impolitely interrupt people with that ‘No, that’s wrong’ of yours. My my, I do wonder how so many students here know about that joke of wordplay if it is an inside joke.”

Having insulted Makoto’s catchphrase, Celeste, seeming quite pleased with herself by now, smiled. “I shall be going now. Farewell.”

Makoto ruffled his hair as Celeste walked away, then turned to Chihiro, who still looked very crushed about being unable to catch Toko.

“Hey, Chihiro… let’s get to class, okay?”

“O-Okay,” said Chihiro, looking up. Thankfully, his eyes weren’t *too* red from crying -- besides, if anyone dared bully him, Mondo and Taka would both make them regret it. (Natsumi Kuzuryu, a reserve course student, learned this the hard way.)

Makoto shot Chihiro an encouraging grin, just for the sake of it, and started down the hallway.

Somehow, he felt deja vu as he did so, as though several people’s perspectives had gone through this very same thing. Oh well, it was probably nothing important.

**- - -**

**"Now, I don't know when the second chapter will be finished." haha i'm gonna have to remove that from the last A/N, aren't i-**

**Well... surprise, I guess! This is really short 'cause I wanted to get used to writing shorter chapters, after the absurdly long chapter one. Chapter three is gonna be short too -- if I actually don't get carried away -- but would you rather me write longer chapters? Let me know in the main page's comment section!**

**Again, I read all comments, and constructive criticism is appreciated! However, please write comments on this fanfiction's main page (which is linked at the top of this page!) because I won't be notified when someone writes a comment, and if all comments are written on one page, it'll be easier for me to see them. Thanks! :)**

(***also, guess what? more hydraulic press comments. ~~feel free to hate me i don't mind-~~)***