Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 5 - Aftermath

## Story

Once more, silence permeated throughout the elevator ride. There was the occasional metallic screech that rang throughout the shaft as sparks lit up the darkness. But for once, they seemed to be relatively rare as time trickled by and we maintained our ascent. Although I knew that the elevator ride would be short, the ascent felt as if it went on forever and I took the opportunity to close my eyes and give a deep sigh.

As much as I wished that I could just forget about what happened, I knew that I couldn’t and shouldn’t do so. Nonetheless, the revelation that Machi almost used the second plan to kill me, Wakuni clearly wanting her dead, everything Shiro did, Nishi being tortured and forced to forget almost everything she had about her own brother, and her being left with Monokuma for an unspecified amount of time was a lot to take in.

With a metallic clang, the elevator lurched, I staggered forward two steps along with Machi as the elevator ascended into the light, I opened my eyes, and I broke free of my stupor. Within seconds, the elevator slowed down to a crawl and finally hissed to a stop. Then finally, the elevator doors clattered open and freed us to explore the lodge once more.

“Let’s get going,” Tanabe uttered to break the silence. His tone sounded somewhat tired, annoyed, and drained though that made sense given everything we’ve been through. “I have no idea what time it is but I have a feeling we should get as much rest as we can.”

Everyone must have agreed to some extent because as Tanabe stepped onto the platform at the top of the elevator shaft, everyone filed out of the elevator behind him. As I did, the notion that Tanabe was right and that it was probably late hit me and I felt a wave of exhaustion rush over me and visibly slumped ever so slightly.

As we concluded our exit from the elevator, I could practically feel the exhaustion, hopelessness, anger, and fear that loomed in the room. In fact, it was practically palpable to me even in my current state. But there wasn’t anything that I could do about it so I just kept quiet, came to a stop, and waited for someone else to do something. Anything really.

When a few seconds passed by and nobody did anything, I looked around at the rest of the group. To be honest, I didn’t know who felt what but the tension was clearly present regardless. The one exception and the one person who I knew fueled the tension was Wakuni who had his arms crossed and clearly glared at Machi. I wasn’t an expert in reading people, but even I knew that there was no way he would just let what happened go. Though to be fair, I understood why. As my own eyes made their way towards Machi the thought of her plan to kill me flashed once again in my mind and made me frown.

*(We definitely need to talk later, Machi.)*

Regardless, nobody had anything to say so Sanda reached out and pushed open the right door to the hallways for everyone. After that, most people began to trickle out of the room. Senji, Wakuni, and Tanabe all made their way out of the door. But as Machi began to make her way out of the room, another thought came to mind.

*(Wait. There is something that I should talk to Machi about right now.)*

So, almost reflexively, I reached out with my right hand to almost grab Machi’s left arm though I stopped just short of doing so and spoke up. “Hey Machi. Can you stay for a second? There is something that I want to talk to you about.”

“Uh,” Machi replied. At first, she hesitated as if she were considering whether or not she wanted to respond, eyed Sanda, and made eye contact with him. But after that, she gave a quick nod. “Okay yeah. Sanda, you can go on ahead.”

That was enough for Sanda because, without so much as another word, he himself left into the hallways and let the door swing closed behind him with a loud thud. Machi, meanwhile, just turned around, put her right hand on her hip, and looked at me. For some reason, she didn’t seem too surprised about it either.

“Let me guess,” Machi began with a sigh as she brought her left hand up to her cheek to rub away the last tear stain from her face and then brought it back down to her side once more. “You want to talk to me about how I almost went through with that murder plan don’t you?”

“Actually, no-” I replied as I winced. “Well- we do need to talk about it but that wasn’t what I specifically stopped you to discuss. In fact, I honestly don’t even know how to respond to that right now. What I wanted to say is, are you concerned about Wakuni’s current attitude towards you?”

*(You know that you're having a bad day when almost being murdered is not the biggest or most urgent problem you have.)*

There was a brief pause and silence filled the air as Machi crossed her arms and looked away towards the empty elevator shaft. Even to me, it was obvious that the thought of the situation only made Machi more miserable and for a moment before she turned back to face me, I felt a hint of pity pulse through me.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been thinking about that as well. I don’t know whether he genuinely thinks I was the blackened or if he would rather have everyone die than let me go, but both possibilities worry me,” Machi admitted miserably. At that, she paused, put her right pointer finger up to her chin in thought, and spoke up. “If I were to be honest here, you’re no expert but you’re better with people than I am. Do you think he would do something drastic? Like- murder level drastic?”

“I hope not, and I don’t necessarily think he would go as far as to murder you, but that is what I wanted to talk to you about. Especially since he pretty much tried to have you killed by Monokuma in the class trial,” I began with a sigh. Machi grumbled ever so slightly as I did. But regardless, I continued. “Again, I don’t necessarily know if you are in any danger at all but there is a lot at stake if you are. First off, Wakuni is one of the few close friends left here. If I’m put in a situation where I either have to watch him die horrifically or die horrifically myself to one of Monokuma’s executions, I don’t know what is going to happen. And Machi, I may not like you, no offense-”

“None taken,” Machi dismissed with the wave of her right hand. “I’m painfully aware that I’m not a likable person.”

“Anyways,” I continued. “Despite that. I don’t believe that you deserve to die. Besides, you’re probably one of the best people here when it comes to finding clues about what is happening to us. So that’s another reason why I don’t want you to be murdered. Now, again, it's not fair to Wakuni to just assume that he’ll resort to murder. Even if he did act out during the class trial. But we do need to have some plan in place to keep you safe in case Monokuma decides to push him over the edge.”

“Or if I already pushed him to murder- yeah- I see what you mean. I know if I lost someone in my family, it definitely wouldn’t be pretty,” Machi replied with a nod of her own before she bit her lip. “What I’m trying to say is, I agree that we need to have some plan in place. I’ll try to give him some space for the near future but other than that, what do you have in mind?”

*(Wait. What do I have in mind?)*

It was then, in the silence, that it hit me that I basically didn’t have a plan. It seemed probable to me that Wakuni might try to take revenge against Machi based on how he acted during the class trial and his past relationship with Machi, but there was no way of knowing so confronting him could only make things worse. Otherwise, we had no means of stopping Monokuma from presenting a motive, and Machi’s suggestion of staying away from him, presumably with some means of defending herself, seemed to be the best we could do on her end of the problem. The end result was that I was stuck waiting like an idiot when my mind came up blank until Machi interrupted the silence that filled the air from my hesitation.

“You don’t actually have any ideas, do you?” Machi hypothesized as she raised her right eyebrow.

“Tsk, as if you could do better,” I snapped back. Admittedly though, without the usual edge in my tone. “The truth is, I need time to think of something. In the meantime, you should stay away from him, save your apology for when he has calmed down a bit, and when you’re in a large group, and make sure you have some way of defending yourself.”

“No worries there. I built myself a stun gun much like the ones I have attached to my drones. On top of that, I’ll probably have one of my quieter drones guard me just in case. I’ll have to come up with some other excuse for having it to avoid aggravating Wakuni further but I think I can manage,” Machi freely admitted as she dismissed the idea with a wave of her right hand before she finally brought both back down to her sides. “So, is there anything else that you want to talk about? Aside from us talking about the murder plan once you have it sorted out, of course.”

I paused for a moment and put my right pointer finger to my chin in thought. However, nothing else came to me so I just shook my head and responded accordingly. “No. I think that just about covers it for tonight unless you have any other secrets that we need to know about.”

“Not anymore. Everyone pretty much discovered all of them and I’m not in the mood to hide anything else. Not after what happened,” Machi relented freely but with a visible frown and a slight tone of irritation as she did. “Anyways, if we don’t have anything else to discuss, I’ll lead the way back to our rooms. Sound good?”

I nodded. With that, Machi headed to the double doors, pulled the right door open, and allowed me to step into the hall. I obliged of course and stepped out into the hallway without so much as another word. It may have been the fact that I felt another wave of exhaustion rush over me but as far as I knew, there wasn’t anything else to say. Regardless, Machi followed me out and she took the lead once more as the door behind us closed and audibly locked with a heavy metallic click.

From there, we began to make our way down the hallway to the front of the AV room. But after just a few paces down the hallway, both of us saw a figure walk around the corner towards us and stopped in our tracks. And one second later, the person before us, Tanabe, turned to face us and gave a small wave with his right hand.

“Hey Tanabe,” I replied flatly. “What are you doing here? I thought you said you were tired. And quite frankly, it's been a long day.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I know that” Tanabe said in a fairly hushed tone with a quick frown and a single nod of agreement. “Well, given how volatile the class trial was, I thought it was worth checking up on you two when you and Machi didn’t follow us. Senji actually said that he thinks the same thing so feel free to ask him if he’s still awake at this point.”

“That won’t be necessary. I believe you,” Machi dismissed with the wave of her right hand. After that, her tone dropped to a more solemn one and she continued. “That class trial went- well things were pretty bad but- you already know that of course.”

*(Of course, it went bad. Half of it was your fault.)*

I didn’t say anything regarding my thoughts, however. Partly because it would only cause unnecessary drama and partly because one quick glance at Machi’s face told me that she felt the exact same way. So, I just took a deep breath and turned back to Tanabe just as the man started to speak to us once more.

“I am well aware of that. The only thing worse that could have happened is if we were wrong,” Tanabe began to trail off. With that, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened them once more, and continued. “Anyways, if it is alright with you two, I would like to stay with you until the two of you get to your rooms. I don’t believe anyone is in any danger but I think you ought to know why I don’t feel like taking any unnecessary risks right now.”

“You can stay with me. With us I mean,” Machi readily agreed without my consent. However, I stopped myself before I said anything with the thought that I was going to agree to let Tanabe join us anyways and let Machi continue. “We were actually both headed to our rooms already. We only stopped to talk about safety precautions. Uh- is Wakuni still awake?”

“Wakuni, Senji, and Sanda are all in their rooms if it's a confrontation you are worried about,” Tanabe nodded. “Anyways, I’ll lead the way then.”

True to his word, he turned around and led the way for us. One foot after another, we followed him out of the hallway and into the front room. From there, we rounded a corner and it was fairly quiet, solemn, and uneventful.

However, as we continued our journey, I took just one quick glance out the front room windows. The sky was dark to the point where I could barely make out the moon. Aside from that, I also failed to notice any stars in the sky or anything aside from the moon that was beyond six feet of the lodge itself. However, from the few snowflakes that dropped in my range of sight, I could tell that it was snowing lightly and that it wasn’t too windy either. Overall, it felt like a perfect reflection of our current situation. It was calm but cold, dark, bleak, and almost lifeless. It wasn’t until a moment later that I realized that I was in a stupor, shook my head, and once again made my way towards our rooms.

Aside from that, nothing noteworthy happened on our way back to the dorm area. We made our way past the central room, marched down the staircases, turned left, and turned right two more times until we managed to arrive at Machi’s room. The trip felt slower than it probably actually was and I noted Machi dragging her feet as she passed by Yakawa’s room. But we made our way to where Machi rested without any trouble.

However, when we got there, Machi did not immediately reach for her ElectroID. Instead, she turned around to face us both, sighed audibly, looked to her right, and began to speak in an understandably solemn tone.

“I-uh,” Machi began as she brought her right hand up to rub the back of her head. “Thank you. Thank you both for looking after my safety. Even if, in Sama’s case, my own well being isn’t the only reason you’re doing it. Thank you both for caring about me even though-” Machi swallowed. “Even though I set the events in place that ultimately led to Yakawa’s death. He didn’t deserve it and- I’m not very good with words but I’m sorry.”

“We know,” Tanabe responded with a tired nod. “And truthfully, I’m not happy about nor am I happy about what you did. Those plans nearly caused the deaths of four classes. But while you did set the motions in place, I hope you remember why you are still alive. Because you didn’t kill anyone. You abandoned your plans and disposed of them. You’re not completely innocent in this. But if it weren’t for Shiro, nobody would have died tonight.”

There was a brief pause. But after that, Machi barely shifted her gaze towards us and agreed with some clear reluctance in her tone. “I know. Thank you for telling me.”

With that, silence filled the area as the three of us looked at each other. I even opened my mouth to say something and Machi even looked at me as I did. But it took a few moments before anything came to me. And it took a few more moments as I wrestled with whether or not I wanted to actually tell her I had to say. But in the end, I spoke up.

“For what it's worth Machi,” I began as pleasantly as I could under the circumstances. Though unsurprisingly, that still wasn’t very pleasant. “I agree with Tanabe. And while I’m not happy to learn that you set up that deathtrap to kill me, I am grateful that it was removed. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of your actions overall, but sparing my life is a definite positive in my book.”

“I appreciate that Sama. Even though we both know that not murdering someone isn’t exactly something that warrants praise,” Machi responded as her frown subsided every so slightly. “Anyways, I think I’ve kept you both long enough and right now, I think I need some time to contemplate a few things. So, I’m headed to my room now. Goodnight, both of you.”

“Goodnight Machi,” Tanabe replied.

“Sleep well,” I concurred. As I did, I waved goodbye.

At that, Machi turned around, swiped her ElectroID through the card reader, reached out with her right hand to open her door, waved goodbye to us in return for what I did, stepped into her room, and closed the door behind herself with an audible thud. And with that, Tanabe and I were left alone in the resulting silence.

Naturally, I looked to Tanabe to say goodbye. “Goodbye Tanabe. Good night and sleep well.”

“Actually, you’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Tanabe explained as he put his hands on his hips and stared me down defiantly in spite of how drained his tone still sounded. “You may not have a target on your back but while I’m up, I intend to make sure that you reach your destination safely as well. No offense but I’m not in the mood to take any chances.”

I just raised an eyebrow at her as he dropped his hands to his sides once more. I knew basically nothing about Tanabe’s resolve, but what I did know was that it was less energy to accept his offer and that, while he wasn’t my favorite person, I had nothing against him and I had no reason to reject his offer either. So, there was only one logical thing to do.

“Right. I assume I’m not going to get you to change your mind about this,” I began as I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at the prospect of needing to be escorted to a place just a few paces away and around a corner. “Besides, it's getting late anyway so I’m just going to agree. Let's get going.”

With that, I continued past the coat room and the laundry room thereafter, made my way to the far corner, rounded it, and unsurprisingly made it to the front of my room without any major incidents happening. All the while, Tanabe followed me closely even though it seemed to have been for nothing.

Nonetheless, when I reached into my pocket with my right hand, pulled out my ElectroID, and turned to face him one last time, he didn’t seem any more irritated for it. Granted, he was obviously irritated and tired by the way he carried himself. But it didn’t seem any worse than before so I assumed that was because of the situation instead of something I did.

*(At least, I hope that’s the case. I have enough problems already without this giving me a headache.)*

“Well, I made it. Surprisingly enough,” I replied sarcastically. “Still, goodnight Tanabe. You better stay safe as well. Understand?”

“Heh, I’ll do my best,” Tanabe muttered as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. Nonetheless, in spite of everything, he managed to smile ever so faintly. And before I could notice, I responded in kind. Nonetheless, he continued. “Goodnight Sama. For real this time.”

Tanabe simply waved goodnight to me although it was somewhat sluggish and solemn. Still, I did the same and waved back to the man. And surprisingly, as I did. I felt a feeling of respect stir in me for the guy.

*(You know what Tanabe. You may be a complete weirdo, but I guess you’re not such a bad guy.)*

Seconds passed and I almost felt myself lose track of time. But after Tanabe lowered his hand and waited for me, I snapped back to reality, turned around, and swiped my ElectroID through the card reader. Sure enough, the door unlocked with a click like it always did and I was able to push the door open once more to reveal my room behind it.

The room, although somewhat lavish, wasn’t anything new to me. It lacked a window on the far end of it but it has a bed on the far-middle right wall bearing dark green blankets, at least on the top, a dark brown embroidered nightstand to its right that bore a black Edlohman desk lamp, and two white doors on the same side closer to the entrance. The nearest one left to the bathroom and the farther one opened up to a somewhat small closet. Not that it mattered since I only had one choice of clothing in there anyways.

As for everything else, the ceiling was white, the walls were a darker shade of green than the bedsheets, and the floor was a rustic but polished wooden brown aside from a green rug in the center of the room that matched the bedsheets in terms of color. As for furniture, there was a couch on the left side of the room that bore dark green cushions and dark brown wooden legs, an oak wood bookshelf full of murder mystery books between the couch and the far wall, a dark red brick fake fireplace that was blocked by small glass on the far end of the room, and a black three finned ceiling fan in the middle of the ceiling.

However, it was nothing new to me. I stepped inside, closed the door behind myself, and waited for the door to click behind me. Sure enough, the door shut and locked with a metallic click behind me. But all the while, another wave of exhaustion swept over me and the pleasantry of Tanabe’s company gave way to the cold truth of my situation. About everyone’s situation.

*(It's been a long day. Let's get it over with already.)*

That's what I did. Despite thoughts of the murder, class trial, Nishi’s torture, and Wakuni swimming through my mind, I went into my standard routine. I reached into my pockets, removed my ElectroID as well as the two needles that I kept from the sewing kit Monokuma provided, placed them on my nightstand, cleaned up, brushed my teeth, and changed my clothes, and managed to make my way to my bed. The entire ordeal was mindless and autonomous, but it went without any real issues.

As I turned off the lights and closed my eyes, three major concerns continued to linger in my mind. The first was Machi who undoubtedly had a target on her back even without a murder motive to further incentivize Wakuni to kill her. That didn’t necessarily mean that he would murder her, but he tried to have her killed in the trial despite the fact that he would have died as well. Whether or not he knew of Machi’s innocence didn’t help the situation much either but I silently told myself that he didn’t. Regardless, he was my second concern. I knew that I hadn’t been more than an acquaintance with him for very long, but I didn’t want to be put in a situation where either he would be executed or we would.

*(Koike and Saeki died yesterday, Yakawa died today, I don’t know if I can handle losing anyone else so soon.)*

Not that I would need to worry about watching my friends die for long. My third concern was for myself. There were only seven of us left, one of us wanted another one dead, the murders didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, and the mastermind was still at large. If things went as they did, it wouldn’t be long before someone decided that I was the optimal choice for a victim. Or worse, someone might graduate. It didn’t help that Nishi was out of commission either. For a moment, as the thoughts passed through my mind, one betraying thought came to me. One that told me that the best I could hope for now is a quick death.

I shook my head, sighed, and repressed that thought as best as I could. The better part of me knew that there was nothing to be gained from thoughts like that. Regardless, I undertook the task of clearing my mind so that I could properly sleep. The process was slow and felt like forever as seconds gave way to minutes. But slowly and surely, my mind gave way to the darkness that brought forth sleep until finally, I slipped into the world of dreams and imagination.