Dangan Ronpa: Unser Sommerende/Chapter 1 - Daily Life (1)

Continued from Prologue (3).

[1]

[2]

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Hi! It’s me, Monoyaki! I felt that since everyone’s feeling kinda low, I might read out some astral fortunes for them!... But, we’re on a low budget, so I can only do one star sign per day. But anyway...

Aquarius!

There’s difficulty in your future with your personal friendships or relationships. Plan ahead, however, and you’ll be able to pull through. Don’t forget to kick a puppy for good luck!

[3]

A knock to the door. I opened my eyes to see that I was in the same room as I was earlier, in the school. I was semi-thankful not to be dead, but also distressed that I hadn’t been dreaming. Now that I was a bit more calm, I took a quick glance around my room. It had a sort of hotel feel to it, probably because of the room being hotel-sized with a toilet and shower room to the side opposite the entrance. It also had a little desk and a closet, which I suppose was nice. What was a bit unnerving, on the other hand, was that it followed the same eerie white colour scheme as the rest of the school.

The knocking continued, now louder. “C-coming...” I got out of bed, and got… Well, I was wearing the same clothes as before, actually, so there was no need to get dressed. Out of curiosity, I looked over in the closet, and saw that there were a couple pairs of pyjamas hanging there, as well as exact replicas of my current outfit, which was... Really weird. They all fit me, as well. The knocking kept going again, louder than ever, and, figuring that I best not waste their time any longer, I answered.

“Hmph. About time.” It was Molly, looking as grumpy as a bullfrog.

“S-sorry... It’s just... I slept in a bit...” I rubbed my eyes a bit to get a clearer look at the tall maid. Despite everything, she was as neat and tidy-looking as ever.

“Well, I suppose everyone needs their beauty sleep.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’ve been tasked today with waking everybody up, since there’s some news. We’re holding a meeting in the cafeteria at 10 O’clock every morning now.”

“Th-there’s a cafeteria?...”

“Ah, didn’t you get a look around? Mm, you should have a quick chance now. It’s 9:40, sharp, so you should have some time to take quick look around. I’ve already scanned the entire premises, in case I have to… Clean it, I suppose.”

“… Is that really what we need to be worried about?”

“Well, I’m able to confirm that there’s no way out that I’ve found.”

Well, that’s not good news. No way out. Well, unless we... No, nobody was going to do such a thing.

“… O-okay, thanks for the information, Molly.” I yawned, still a bit groggy.

“Hmph, yawning at a guest… Alright, I’m off now.” And she closed the door, with a bit of force. Sheesh, and she acts like I don’t have manners... Not very ladylike, heheh.

[4]

After brushing my teeth and combing my hair a little, I exited out into the hall, and, as Molly advised, began to look around. This first floor, the dorms, also held a cafeteria, as I had just been told, and it didn’t take me long to find it’s entrance. Along the way, I also passed by a laundry room, a garbage dumping room, and a nurse’s hospital. It was relieving to see a first aid room, considering the situation, but I also hoped that we wouldn’t get to the point where we have to use it. And I don’t think anyone here is an ultimate nurse or doctor...

Ascending to the first floor, I began to explore!... But all I found was the gym from earlier and various generic classrooms. Each of the classrooms had a window to the outside, which was nice, but I figured if we tried to signal for help somehow, the cameras would pick it up...

Wait, cameras?

I had only just realised, but every single room I had been in so far had at least one camera in it. Even my bedroom. Needless to say, not comfortable to think about. I just hoped the bathrooms didn’t have any...

[5]

With nothing left to do, I made my way down to the cafeteria, though I arrived a few minutes early for the meeting. The cafeteria continued the white colour scheme of the school, though the tables and chairs were blue like the gym’s curtains. There was an entrance to a kitchen area within the room, as well.

There were already a few people there before me: James, Amber, Molly, Sadie, and Archie. They weren’t exchanging many words, presumably waiting for the meeting to begin in proper. Eventually, more people arrived, everybody.

Except for Mary. We waited a few minutes extra, but it seemed like she wasn’t coming.

“... Well,” James spoke up, “We’ll just have to hold the meeting without her.” Though all of us weren’t as firm as him, he made his way to the head of one of the longer tables in the room, and motioned for all of us to sit at it. One by one, all of us sat… Except for Robin.

“Why do we have to move to the table, though?”

“Well, that’s... How they always do it in the movies, I guess.” James scratched his head. “It makes things easier.”

“How come...” His stance changed, leaning to the side a little. “You’re standing up and everyone else is sitting down? I find that to be quite unnecessary.”

“Look, that’s besides the point, y’know? Just sit down, or... Do this. Be an outsider. I’m sure that’ll make everyone feel safe around you.” James looked at Robin, squarely, who just sort of began to lean back against the closest wall.

Honestly, this was kind of childish, it made me chuckle a bit. “Looks like someone’s a rebel without a cause, ehe.” ... Not one of my proudest quips, but I was willing to do anything to achieve a sense of catharsis. Most of the people near me thought it was somewhat funny, at least. Robin pretended to ignore it.

There began a discussion. It took a while, and not too much was achieved, so I’ll try and sum it up; basically, we all talked about how to get out, and the fact became prominent that we didn’t have a way out. That would seem like an important thing to talk about in detail here, but we just sort of moved on from it. Maybe we just weren’t surprised. Maybe after what we’d already been through, we were just able to accept things like this as par for the course.

“... If we can’t get out...” James began again, who had assumed some sort of role of leadership during this meeting, without anyone really mentioning it. “Then the only thing we can do is wait.”

“What do you mean, just wait?” Dan began, in that panicked tone from before. “Are we really not going to do anything about this psycho goat thing having us locked up here? He’s going to kill us any moment now!”

Lucy sighed. “If he wanted to do that, he would have already done it. I can just sort of feel it.”

“Feel it?..”

“Feel it.”

“Well,” James resumed, “That, and him asking us to kill each other shows that he either can’t or doesn’t want to kill us. Judging from the things he said about “punishments” for breaking the rules and all that… It’d be the latter, probably.”

“So you’re just gonna trust him?” Charlotte started, looking cross. “As if we’re sure that thing just tells the truth consistently?”

“It’s all the info we’ve got, y’know...”

“Hmph. I dunno if we can trust you anyway, because...” She stood, and pointed at him dramatically. “You’re not the real James McKenzie!”

[6]

Silence.

“… What?”

“Everyone knows that the real James McKenzie died in a motorcycle crash a year ago, and was replaced with a look-a-like in order to keep the band running!” She adjusted her point slightly, towards James’s ear. “See? His earlobe’s different than it was a year ago.”

“It isn’t.”, said Sadie, who could confirm this due to being in one of the seats closest to James. “I should know, I’m always staying on top of the latest celebrity news... By the way, it’s AMAZING to meet you, James!” Wouldn’t she have said that when she first met him earlier?

“You said that when you met me earlier.”

“I just wanna let everybody know how grateful I am...”

“… Anyways, since I think we’ve proven that I’m the real Ja-“

“No you haven’t!... Y-you...” Still looking really grumpy, Charlotte sat down, crossed her arms, and looked off to the side, pouting.

[7]

“... Anyway, the plan is just to not kill anyone. That shouldn’t be too hard, but just in case, I’d advise that you all try and... Develop bonds with each other, y’know. Meeting dismissed.” He immediately went out of the room, while… Holding Sadie’s hand. They both left together. That’s... Haven’t they only known each other for a day?

“Ooooh, it’s a hook-up!” Jo shouted out, and I wasn’t really surprised that it’d be him to speak first. “I bet they make the purrfect couple!” ... A cat pun? There aren’t any cats here…

“Maybe...” Amber started, “They’re trying to send a message of friendship to us? I mean, since that was the instruction of the meeting, they could be just trying to illustrate that...” No, they were clearly dating or something. Amber was just a little naïve, it seemed.

Terry chuckled a little, more in that sort of friendly way than actually entertained. “Well, whether they’re together or not, we should probably do that anyway.”

“But...” I scratched my chin a little. “We don’t need to, right? It’s just... To make sure...”

“Yes.” One word, coming from Lucy’s direction. I find my eyes keep getting drawn to her whenever she speaks. I mean, of course, that happens with anyone in any conversation, but my gaze seems to linger over her a lot. “Anyway, I suppose we should all go off now.” She stood, and exited. We all sort of did the same thing.

[8]

Well, it looked like that today’s objective was to track down somebody to socialise with. I already knew who I wanted to speak with first. From the moment she exited the room, I had been following Lucy, trying not to lose track of her. I kept following her. And following her. Until eventually, I realised that she didn’t appear to have any destination in mind. We were in one of the halls of the upper floor when eventually I gained the courage to tap her on the shoulder for attention.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

When I did this, however, she immediately let out a high pitch shriek. I quickly backed off, probably just as startled as she was. Now Lucy was crouching on the floor, head in her hands.

“N-no... It’s all coming down… The fabric… Everything…”

(SOUNDTRACK RESUMES)

... She stood again. Wiping her eyes for a bit, she turned to me, cape swishing. She looked as if she was trying to forget... Whatever just happened, and awkwardly acted like nothing was wrong.

“Hello, Jane.”

“...” I tried to speak, but it was like this girl had somehow sewn my lips shut with her presence. It was a bit frightening, honestly, having no real control over my body.

“Are you feeling okay?”

Well, I could have asked her that after what had just happened ten seconds ago, but now I was a little bit panicked.

“Y-yeah. Completely fine.”

“Mm. Would you like to speak with me? Like they said to do?”

“Y-yeah! That, that’d be great.”

[9]

We had gone into a nearby classroom, figuring that nobody would suddenly walk in on our little hang-out. The two of us were sat into a corner of the room.

“So, Jane. What would you like to be speaking about together?”

“... Anything that you’re fine with.”

I remember I used to come across as being pretty strange in conversation. The topics I brought up, the words I used... Since I had suddenly found myself in the school, I wasn’t like that anymore. The only reason I could think of that would explain this phenomenon was Lucy. This girl had... Out-stranged anything I could think of, I suppose. She fascinated me.

“Hmm. I have an idea of something the two of us can do together.” She reached behind her back and procured a sheet of paper, laying it in front of me, and then emptying out a bit of the contents of one of her vials on her belt, a vibrant pink liquid. “Can you paint a picture with this?”

“I... That isn’t paint, it’s a liquid... It’s made the paper soft and weak, anyway...”

“Mm, I don’t think so. Watch this.”

She dragged her gloved finger over the chemical, and... Basically made a trail of liquid that continued to the end of the paper.

“It looks nice, doesn’t it?”

“...” It wasn’t particularly special, but... I could feel that she put something into it. Like whenever I paint something, I put my soul into it, all my thoughts about the world... No matter how simple it may look, it’s a part of me. I felt this same feeling from this. “I... I like it.”

“Ehe. Yay. But, you’re the one with that talent. Can’t you do that as well?”

“W-well, I... I can. Watch.” I dragged my finger over the chemical, and made my own trail, this one bending and crossing over hers.

“Ooh. I like it.”

This probably seems really boring, but again, everything about this encounter was fascinating to me.

“Thank you... Most people don’t seem to really ‘get’ my art, so it’s nice to see you like it...”

The little meetup went on for a bit, always keeping that strange feeling, until eventually, we parted ways for the day. I was feeling a bit worn out, so I went to my room.

[10]

After some time spent alone trying to relax, I heard that harpsichord jingle again, followed by the goat boy speaking.

“Now it’s time to say good night, gooood niiiight, sleeeep tiiiight... Remember, some parts, like the cafeteria, are closed tonight, so watch where you’re going!”

Honestly, I don’t know why there’s a night announcement but no morning announcement... unless I was deep asleep enough not to hear it.

The pyjamas they had in the closet were pretty comfy though.

[11]

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Pisces!

You seem to be feeling really good about yourself recently, so feel free to treat yourself with four cans of sardines a day. Four cans of sardines a day keeps the eldritch abomination away!

[12]

The next day began with that morning announcement that I was somehow not aware of before. I must have slept through it or something...

“Wakey wakey, here comes the sun! Come out to play and greet the brand new day!... So, yeah, night’s over now.”

I sort of just assumed that there’d be another cafeteria meeting, so I got changed and went there.

[13]

Once everybody had gathered, I noticed the number had decreased again. Now Robin was absent, as well as Mary, who, come to think of it, I hadn’t seen at all. I tried not to think about anything having possibly happened to her... Even if I don’t necessarily like her.

I’d describe the meeting, but it was mostly uneventful. It felt like James was just orchestrating this for the sake of having a routine. Whether that would actually help us not kill each other or not was up for interpretation, though there wasn’t any way any of us would kill anyway.

Except for Mary. That was the big topic, really. What can we do about her?

“She’s scary...” Amber whimpered. “I... Dunno if she might...”

“She won’t.” Molly answered, looking down at the small blonde who was seated next to her. “If she tries to hurt anyone here, I’ll... Wait, but then I’d have hurt her... Never mind. She won’t be doing anything.”

“It’s nice to be encouraging, Molly, but...” James was standing at the front of the table again, looking a bit tense. “... We really can’t know what she’s planning. I haven’t even seen her. Has... Has anybody noticed Mary? She has to go out to get food from here to eat, right?”

“It’s only been a day,” Mia answered, “I’ve gone that long without even thinking to eat. When she needs to, she’ll probably stash a bunch of food from here in her room and just lie around. I do that a lot. I think she’s trying to play as defensively as possible for the moment before she tries anything...”

“What d’ymean, ‘play’?”, Rocky said, sounding a little annoyed. “Do y’think this is a game or somethin’?”

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

“Well, yeah!” A new voice, from the other side of the table from James, and a voice that made me feel that same sense of dread from when I first heard it.

[14]

Monoyaki was back, and he was standing on that end of the table, looking kind of proud of himself. Where did he even come from? “Of course it’s a game, it’s a Killing Game. Well, no, it’s a Killing Venture, actually. Serious business!”

“What in tarnation... You again?” The young man who had been interrupted by the goat tensed up, his hand sliding to the handle of his revolver, though shaking a bit, as if trying not to actually pull it out.

“... You big kids are always ganging up on me... I just wanted to play... Waaaaaah... Yeah, shut up! You’re really making me mad with how much you’re... Working together! Why? Why can’t you be like Mary? You’re going on about what’s going on inside her head... How about what’s going on inside yours? Why aren’t you killing?”

He yapped and yapped faster and faster, until we just sort of tried to... Ignore him.

“Hey! Are you ignoring me?”

“... Yes.” I smirked.

“... Y-you... Arghhh!” He started flailing his arms about, red with rage. “Just shut up! Shut up all of you! Argh! Y-you’ll see! I’ll show all of you! You’re just a bunch of idiots!!!” He ran out of the room, continuing to flail about, sobbing a little.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

“...” James looked almost... Insulted. “See, that’s why we’re all going to be okay. What we’re up against is a lot less cunning then he wants us to believe. His plan is just crazy, y’know?”

All of us nodded in agreement. Things weren’t so bad now. I’ve got to admit, it’s getting better.

We ended the meeting with a newfound sense of confidence. Well, I hope we did. I can’t really know what goes on in other people’s heads, but I feel fine, personally.

[15]

Moving on, I didn’t really have much of an idea of the next person I should talk to, so I decided that I’d just talk to the first person I saw. Wandering around aimlessly, I eventually saw... Archie, sitting by a wall with his plant, staring at it, not noticing me at all. Well, a conversation with him wouldn’t exactly be very thrilling, so I just sort of... Kept going, looking for somebody else. I decided that I should probably just head somewhere specific instead of wandering about, so I decided on... The laundry. Really mundane choice, I know, but I figured that I should get the boring places out of the way.

The laundry itself continued that white theme the rest of the school had, which was starting to hurt my eyes. I mean, I guess it shouldn’t, since that’s how most art galleries look nowadays, but it’s not exactly a nice place to be in 24 hours a day. There was a line of washing machines, about six of them, one of them running, and a rectangular table with a few chairs, plus an empty washing basket near said table. Also at the table was Terry. He appeared to be asleep, but looking closer, he had his eyes open. He was just resting his head on the table. Either that or he was... No, just don’t think about that.

It appeared I’d have to tap him on the shoulder like I had with Lucy, but after how she reacted to it, I was a little hesitant to do so. I approached him, but the moment my footsteps were audible, he jolted up, eyes wide open.

“Hello!... Hello J-Jane!...” He was looking really attentive, and had a huge smile on his face. “I was just washing everyone’s clothes for a bit, yeah, just thought I’d help out with it!” He’s a little bit loud from being jolted up, I guess. Come to think of it, I hadn’t washed any of my new clothes yet...

“Ah. I mean, we could just take care of our own clothes, couldn’t we?”

“No! No, there’s no reason to, since I’m able to instead.”

“Well, I haven’t washed mine yet, so I might just handle-“

“No need! I’ll do them for you, okay?” I figured that I wouldn’t be able to convince him other-wise. I just don’t want to be too reliant on other people... I mean, I became reliant on my mother, and then... Well, you can’t rely on someone forever, can you?..

“Okay... Anyway, you seem busy so-“

“Not at all! You want to chat, right? Of course you can do that! Feel free!”

Well, it looked like I didn’t have a choice.

[16]

We sat and talked. Specifically, we talked about the Killing Venture, and what we were going to do, but once again, we found that was a dead end with no real solution. We sort of just moved on from it, continuing to be in that sense of confidence and sureness that nothing wrong would happen in the end. Small talk began instead, until eventually, there was a high pitched noise. It sounded a couple more times. They were squeaks, coming from the pocket of Terry’s trousers.

“O-oh... It’s Joan.” Reaching into his pocket, he procured a mouse, curled up in his hand. “She’s hungry.”

“Aww!~” Okay, I couldn’t help that. Mice are cute, alright?

Terry placed his little furry friend onto the table, reached into his other pocket, and got out some pet food, sized down for mice to eat. He began to feed his little Joan. So cute!~

“I’m kind of surprised the cafeteria has pet food, but they seem to have everything in there... Say, who’s restocking it, anyway?”

Come to think of it, I haven’t really been paying much attention to the food. I’d had a few meals already, including breakfast which we sometimes had just before or after a meeting, but I didn’t think about where it was coming from. “I... Didn’t know it was being restocked.”

“Yeah. Molly and I have been cooking food for everyone else, and every day, the ingredients are all back to maximum capacity. I guess it’s the goat doing it, but I don’t know where he gets it from...” Kind of surprised that Molly would be doing something selfless, but I guess it’s just her... Maid stuff.

“... Well... I don’t know, either. But, he can’t provide food forever, so if we last long enough without the need to kill anybody, he’ll just have to give up and let us go.”

“Maybe... I sort of feel that he wouldn’t do this if he had a limited supply...” He fed Joan a bit more, and then placed her back into his trouser pocket. “Good night...” Aww, this is just too adorable...

Eventually, the conversation wrapped up, and the day continued to pass, until I found myself going to sleep again, as that same night-time announcement from before sounded, with the same words as last time.

[17]

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Aries!

The past few days have been tough, but don’t fret! It’s only going to get worse from here! I’d recommend you just stay in bed today, and don’t talk to anyone.

[18]

The morning announcement sounded again. It was another day. Somehow, it felt almost normal for a few seconds. Maybe it’s because of all that time without anything really bad happening. Was it a good omen, maybe?

[19]

Another meeting in the cafeteria, with the same people missing as last time. James was looking more confident than before. Most of us were, really.

“We’ve made it a few days now, and nothing bad’s happened.”, he said. “It just goes to show it isn’t as serious of a situation as it seems, y’know?”

“I-it’s...” Dan stuttered. “It’s only a f-few days... That doesn’t really mean anything...”

“Yeah.” Jo stretched back a bit in his chair. “In fact, you managed to drive away Robin earlier... So if anything, you’re not doing the best job keeping us together.”

“There was nothing I could do, y’know? He left on his own accord. That’s it. If he doesn’t want to be part of the group, then that’s his choice.”

“Can we please just listen to my bo- to James?” Sadie sighed, playing around with her hair a bit. “If you think he’s doing a poor job, then why don’t you have a go at it?” There was a pause. Maybe it was just Sadie’s inexplicable influence. She was indeed quite charismatic, anything she said was deeply considered by everyone, it seemed. “See? Now, leave him alone.”

“Thank you, Sadie. Now, since everything’s going fine, we’ll end this meeting... Right now.” And so the meeting ended, right then. At this point, the meetings weren’t really doing much other than slightly boosting morale. Even that was a bit doubtful, it seemed it was starting to cause a little bit of tension.

But hopefully everything will be fine.

[20]

After breakfast, we dispersed as we usually did, and I decided to use the same social tactic of talking to the first person I saw. That person was... Archie. Again. To be fair, I did feel a little bad about skipping over him last time, and I figured I’d need to talk to him eventually, so it seemed like I’d have to talk this time.

I sat down next to him. We were in the hallway in which the doors to our rooms were, and he was just adjacent to his own door. He stared at his potted fly trap, paying no attention to me. Honestly, it was a bit hard to start speaking, since it made me feel a little alienated, but eventually, I summed up the motivation.

[21]

“Hi.”

Archie slowly turned his head to me.

“Hello.”

He turned back to the plant. Nothing. It seemed like this was going to be a bit of a challenge.

“... How are you today, Archie?”

“... Decent.”

“... Is there anything you’d like to talk about?”

“No...”

Well, that’s honestly a bit rude. It felt like I should have probably left him alone then, but I didn’t really want to give up. Look, if you give someone a challenge, they’ll want to complete it, and now I wanted to know all about this boy.

“I’d like to talk with you.” This time, I made myself sound a bit more stern. In response he... Whimpered.

“O-okay...” ... Now I feel bad...

“Y-you don’t have to if you don’t want to...”

“N-no, I will...” He placed his plant down next to him, and looked at me. “... Uh... How’s the weather?” Well, we didn’t have a way of knowing unless we went to one of the classrooms on the upper floor, where we could look out the windows. The barred windows. I didn’t really want to, since it’s a bit unpleasant to look at.

“The weather is... Great today.”

“Good. The plants can have plenty of sun.” What about the people getting sun?...

... I probably shouldn’t have brought this next thing up, but, I was curious about how he felt about the killing game. He hadn’t said much about it yet... But... That moment during Monoyaki’s first appearance where Archie suddenly spoke up... What was that about?

“Archie, what was up with... When you spoke up during Monoyaki’s original announcement to everyone?”

“That? I just wanted to know a bit of stuff, and I assumed nobody else would ask. It felt important. I just sort of speak when I feel like I have to.” He looked a bit annoyed. “Right now is another time when I feel like I have to speak, but it certainly doesn’t feel important.

“O-oh, s-sorry about that. Would you like to say... Goodbye, then?”

“Mhm. Bye.”

“Bye bye...”

Well, honestly, I got more information out of him than I expected. Good enough for now, I thought.

After some more time passed, I inevitably ended up falling asleep once again. Life was starting to get monotonous, honestly. Part of me hoped that Monoyaki would show up again... I mean, the rest of me didn’t, but part of me did. There wasn’t really anything he could do to us, right?

Continued in Chapter 1 - Motive.