Dangan Ronpa: Unser Sommerende/Chapter 3 - Motive

Continued from Chapter 3 - Daily Life (1).

[1]

MONOYAKI HOROSCOPE

Taurus!

You left the stove on in your house today. This isn’t a prediction for the future, this is actually happening right now. You might wanna head back home, and pronto... But fire’s pretty cool as well, so it’s up to you I guess.

[2]

I woke up, in the morning, again. I don’t think I need to mention that...

There were more people at the meeting this time. Aside from Mary attending as promised, Rocky had also shown up. Basically, everyone who was alive was there, aside from Jo. I didn’t end up finding out who in particular convinced Rocky to come, since priorities that day would quickly change.

[3]

The school intercom played before the meeting could get properly underway.

“You all listening?”, Monoyaki’s voice echoed, sounding frustrated. “Literally NONE of you have come to the third floor yet! Why?! Did you really forget about that rule that says there’s a new floor that opens up after every case?! Just... Get up here before I get bored!!!” The announcement then concluded.

[4]

“Huh.”, Said Rocky, turning from the speaker to face the rest of the table. “I figured y’all would’ve already been up there.”

“But you haven’t either, have you?”, Molly responded.

“No reason to. Got chow ‘round here on the ground floor, and got entertainment above. There’s nothin’ more a man could need.”

“Aside from being out of captivity?”

“... Yeah, that too. I’m just not expectin’ there to be a way to escape up there.”

“But there could be.”, Archie noted, somewhat abruptly.

“There probably isn’t.” I sighed. “I don’t expect him to have everything on the previous floors secured and covered, and then just have a glaringly obvious method of leaving on the next.”

“Yeah...” Mia yawned. “... It’s probably a waste of time...”

“But, I’m not saying we shouldn’t go. There isn’t really much else to do, and there’s no harm in it, is there?”

“Are you certain of that?”, asked Lucy in a somewhat stretched manner. “The way that the goat demands it of us implies...”

“I don’t think there’s anything in particular that he’s planning at the moment. He hasn’t shown up at all for the past few days.”

“Hey, wait,”, Charlotte said, “doesn’t that imply he HAS been planning something?”

“Both.”, Dan uttered, to the point and yet nonsensically. “Until he does anything, or we find out, then he is in a simultaneous state of planning and not planning.”

Amber twiddled her fingers, concerned. “Um, does that mean we should go and find out? I don’t want him to get confused about whether or not he’s planning.”

Mary shook her head. “You must never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. And no, Monoyaki isn’t in a simultaneous state just because we aren’t observing him, he’s able to observe himself.”

The cloaked boy turned in her direction. “Well, you can’t know that, since you aren’t observing him right now.”

“You aren’t either, though...!”

“Look, uh,” I hastily interrupted, “let’s just go up and see what’s on the new floor, okay? I mean, it might even be something good, right?”

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

The third floor’s halls looked exactly the same as the rest of the floors, for the most part. This hall was shaped sort of like a square donut, with the outside wall having doors to more classrooms. The inner wall was almost entirely lacking of doors, aside from a pair of them just in front of the stairwell. The rest of the inner wall was decorated with windows, which were more like big, square open holes, as they had no glass. Seeing through these windows revealed a courtyard adorned with various plants and such.

[5]

Entering the courtyard gave a better idea of just how it was laid out, with a white, square concrete area in the middle connected to the doorway by a path of the same colour concrete. This section had a number of chairs and tables, each in the same minimalistic style as the rest of the school. Around the perimeter of the square were the various plants, of which there were numerous varieties. A number of interlocking pathways allowed looks at each individual species, as well as giving a way to properly water and tend to them. At the end opposite the doorway was a concrete room jutting out of the back wall, with a single, metal door with a noticeable padlock. Above the door was a label saying ‘WATER STORAGE’, and there were pipes running out of the top of the block and into the wall behind it.

One of the chairs was taken up by Jo, who was slouching in it, eyes closed with his hands behind his back. He probably heard us enter, but he didn’t pay us much attention. If he had spoken, then he would probably have just mocked us for taking so long to get up there.

But for the most part, the area was peaceful. None of us really talked to each other, we just sort of wandered amongst the plants and took in the atmosphere. We had been so cooped up for so long that even one breath of fresh air was enough to dull the senses into contentment. It was such a joy to look up, and see the sky directly above instead of some plain white roof.

Even so, I couldn’t entirely shake off the feeling that it was artificial. An artificial freedom, fresh air, blue skies, lush plant life, but nowhere to actually go. The walls of the courtyard towered above, confining us in to the courtyard. I could make out that there were two more floors above where we were until the roof, so it was like standing in front of a three story building, which albeit, wasn’t that tall, but it was enough to make me feel insignificant. I couldn’t make much out trying to look through the windows that dotted the two floors above us, as the glass was a certain texture or colour that didn’t seem to let much light out.

“This is boring.” Monoyaki was sitting on the edge of the concrete water storage room, legs dangling and kicking. We all looked over to him for a second, and then just went back to looking at the plants. It just seemed like he was yapping over nothing. “... Are you guys listening to me?”

Nobody responded, as if to confirm that nobody was listening. People just kept going around, taking in the scenery... In fact, Mia was literally sleeping on the ground for some reason. I mean, I didn’t think the air was THAT relaxing, but...

[6]

“... Well, I guess nobody’s going to hear about the new motive, then.” Everyone was suddenly attentive after he mentioned that. Everyone except Mia, at least. “Yeah, I bet you guys care about that, huh?~”

“Whatever it is...” Archie said, turning back to a nearby rose bush. “Make it quick.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is, huh? So rude...”

“Sorry, I guess...” Lucy said. “... But if nobody really cares right now, is there even a point in announcing it?”

“Of course there is, it has a big impact on the killing game!”

“But... If nobody knows what it is, then it won’t encourage anybody to kill.”

“If you’re gonna be like that, then!... I’ll, uh, just say it right away!”

He grabbed something, which was tied by rope to one of the pipes. Tossing it over the edge, it hung off the rope, and was pretty high up, about seven feet off the ground. Really, it was just off the edge by a little. As for what it actually was... A bag of potato crisps with two googly eyes glued on to it.

Mary snickered a tiny bit, for once in her life. “This is why none of us take you seriously anymore, Monoyaki. I mean... Really?”

The only person who seemed threatened by whatever this thing is was probably Charlotte, who pointed and said “Is THAT meant to lure us into a false sense of security?! Whatever THAT is?!”

“Let me get to the point already...” The goat leaned off the edge of the block and pointed at the crisp bag. “This here is your new fellow student, Crispy Crisperson! The Ultimate Bag of Crisps! I hope you’ll be enjoying his company!”

Everyone just stared for a good while longer without saying anything.

“Uh...” I said, completely vexed. “Okay?...”

“But that isn’t even a person,” Dan said, “it’s an object. It doesn’t have a soul.”

“No, no, that’s precisely the point!” Monoyaki swiped at the bag as he spoke. “Since we’re counting this new student as an equal among his peers, anyone who were to kill him by, say, ripping open his body to reveal the tasty contents inside... They’d obviously be marked the entrepreneur!” He cackled as he swung back up, sitting upright at the edge. “Anyone who’s too much of a fraidy-cat to kill another human can just have a go at him, and bingo! As long as the class doesn’t figure out it was them, they win the game!”

“That...” Jo turned around in his seat. “Doesn’t make sense.” His smug, cool demeanour dropped. “I was completely sure that the mastermind’s goal was to make us kill each other. This is counter-intuitive, right? It’s not even murder.”

“It’s not murder, but it’s certainly something. It’s not about the lengths one of you would go to take another life... It’s about the lengths you’d go to in order to betray the rest of your group, and profit off of it. That’s why it’s being an entrepreneur, after all!”

“Err...” Molly said, almost sounding like she had second hand embarrassment from the proposition’s odd nature. “I still don’t think this motive is going to be effective. It just isn’t... Enough to make any of us try anything, is it?”

“Look, that’s for me to know, and you guys to find out!... Well, actually, I don’t know it yet. But it’s for me to find out, and you guys to find out! Anyways, I guess I’ll just leave all of you to it. Have fun with your new classmate!” Laughing to himself, he vanished quickly as he always did.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

The entire affair was just a little bit awkward. Everyone just sort of agreed to go about the rest of the day as if nothing unusual had occurred. I decided that I’d just stay in the courtyard a while, since it was quite peaceful.

Continued in Chapter 3 - Daily Life (2)