Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 4 - Aftermath

## Story

Silence hung in the air for the rest of the elevator ride. There was the occasional metallic scrape as we made our ascent, but those quickly died off to give way to a deafening silence as the elevator travelled upwards to our destination. The elevator rides back to the top were always dim and silent. But it had never felt as foreboding as it did at the moment. As I looked around, I could tell that everyone, including myself, weren’t quite able to process everything that had happened to us during the class trial.

Thankfully, the elevator made it to the top regardless as the screech of the elevator mechanism came into play and the elevator itself slowed down to a halt. All breaking the silence once more. And just moments after that, the caged doors opened. We had made it to the lodge were free to explore it once more. But as it did, all I could think of was what to say.

*(I wish there was some way to fix this. But, I don’t know what to do.)*

I shook my head and internally sighed as we all stepped away from the elevator and into the top of the elevator shaft. And in Yakawa’s case, as he wheeled the wheelchair off of the elevator. At the moment, it wasn’t possible for me to do anything. In fact, I couldn’t even try the stunt I did last time because my spare stopwatches were in my room and I highly doubted that the same trick would work again anyways. But, that didn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t work out eventually. Maybe. Hopefully. Regardless, it was then that someone finally spoke up.

“So,” Tanabe said with a hint of irritation in his tone before he drew breath and continued. “Does anyone have anything to say? Maybe some well needed good news perhaps?”

At that, we all looked around at each other. It was true that good news of any kind was overdue, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. And as the silence hung in the air, it was clear that nobody else had anything to share either. I am not sure how long that this went on for. But it lasted long enough for some people to take a step towards the door before Senji finally said something.

“I do not believe that this is good news, but I do have something unrelated to today’s events to say,” Senji said as almost everyone in the group glared at him and he coughed into his hand nervously. “We are approaching dinner time. I will not be participating because, to be frank, I do not think that I can stomach anything, but you all can go ahead.”

“As if we need your permission,” Sama growled as she crossed her arms. “Whatever. I suppose I could use something to take my mind off of what happened.”

“I agree on both accounts,” Wakuni said with a quick nod of his own. “I guess I’ll go with you and see if I can get some stew going for anyone who wants it.”

“Hmm,” Yakawa as he let go of the wheelchair with his right hand and put it to his chin in thought. Frankly, he seemed calmer about the situation than anyone else here but even he had a hint of disappointment in his tone. Regardless, he continued. “I suppose I might as well though I have a few errands to take care of first.”

“You can count me out,” Tanabe said before he took a quick glance at the door and then back at the rest of the group. “If it is all the same to you guys, I would like some time to myself. This whole day has been kind of- awful to put it frankly.”

At that, Sanda gave a loud sigh of his own earning himself an agitated glance from Tanabe before hanging his head in what must have been shame. “I’m going to have to duck out of this one too. I need to reconsider a few things.”

At that, I looked at Machi. As I did, she appeared to have a vacant, empty stare that gave me a flicker of concern for her. She opened her mouth to say something. But in the end, she simply closed it and just shook her head instead.

“I don’t believe that I will be going either.” I acknowledged as calmly as I could. To be honest, I felt a trace of hunger. But at the same time, I felt as if I would throw up if I tried to eat anything anyways. “I’m just going to do a few errands and head back to my room.”

With that, it was decided. Everyone more or less nodded in agreement though Senji got a few glances in his direction, and Tanabe pushed open the right door that led to the rest of the lodge. After that, it didn’t take long at all for us to spill out of the room. After all, in spite of everything, I felt less exhausted the moment I stepped out of the room as if some burden was lifted. Even if that burden was just the chilling reminder of the trial that was the elevator shaft.

Regardless, we all went our separate ways. Sama, Wakuni, Yakawa, and I all went in the direction of the front room and towards the cafeteria while everyone else went towards the lounge and undoubtedly towards the dormitories where they would sleep through the rest of the miserable day. Sama was in front followed by Yakawa and then Wakuni as well as myself.

As we reached the front room and rounded the left corner, Yakawa opened the door to the first aid station, pushed the wheelchair inside, and entered behind it without even waiting for the door to close behind him. If I had to guess, that was one of his errands. Sama meanwhile, trudged ahead towards the kitchen. But as for me, an opportunity came to mind and I took it.

I reach out with my right hand and grabbed his left arm. Sure enough, that stopped him and made him turn towards me. And it was then that I spoke up. “Hey Wakuni, can I ask for a small favor of you?”

“Yeah,” Wakuni said as his stern expression softened somewhat and he lowered his hands to his sides. “Anything for you Nishi. I haven’t forgotten that you acquitted my brother for what I think is the second time now so I’m not exaggerating either. As long as it's not, you know, something dangerous.”

“I think you’ll be fine. It's just Sama,” I replied before taking a quick glance in her direction. Luckily enough, she was too busy heading into the cafeteria to notice us. “I know she has accused you and your brother in the past, but she doesn’t mean anything by it. So, if you’re not angry with her, could you let her know by treating her well? She probably feels bad about the whole ordeal like we all do and this would help her more than you realize.”

“I’m not upset with her. Those were both honest mistakes,” Wakuni said with some degree of surprise in his tone. It almost made him smile for a moment before he frowned again. “The only people that I am angry with are Senji and Monokuma. I even feel bad for Machi right now.” He shook his head in what looked like pity. “I’ll do it Nishi. I was going to do it anyways, to be honest.”

“Thanks,” I said as I felt an almost warm feeling in the void of melancholy that I felt at the moment. Even now, I did me well to know that at least someone could be helped to some degree. “I suppose I’d better let you get to it. See you around Wakuni.”

“See you around Nishi,” Wakuni said before he turned around and headed towards the cafeteria himself. However, he did raise his right hand and wave goodbye to me. “And good night. You deserve a good night’s rest after all.”

As Wakuni headed off, I gave a nod of agreement even though nobody was around to see me do it. He was right and tomorrow was certainly going to have its share of problems. But I’ve gone without nightmares before so I allowed myself to hope that I would get some reprieve in my sleep. After all, I needed it.

*(Yeah, reprieve does sound nice right now.)*

I shook my head of the thought and proceeded to my own destination. Namely, my new chore, making sure that the incinerator was functioning properly. So, I headed down the hallway towards the cafeteria, turned left instead of heading through the doors, and made my way through the hall that arced around the cafeteria. All the while, the thought of the incinerator panel being broken came to mind.

*(I hope it's working properly because I honestly don’t think I can fix it if it isn’t.)*

Regardless, I proceeded towards the incinerator by turning left when I approached the greenhouse, passing the janitor’s closet as well as the main greenhouse entrance, passing the cross-section in the hallway, turning right, and heading down the staircase to where the panel was. Luckily enough however, in spite of the drag of exhaustion that I felt, the trip was uneventful and I made it to the bottom of the stairs without incident.

The incinerator panel was the same tangled mess of wire and controls that it had been since Senji messed with it. In fact, it was arguably worse thanks to Machi’s intervention though it was necessary on her part. And it was then, as a looked upon the shattered light on the top right of the control panel, that I realized that I was probably going to have to check through the window on the incinerator door.

I put my right foot forward to do so. However, before I could go any further, an all too familiar plushie dropped down from the roof, did a front flip, landed on his feet, and raised his arms as if he were doing some sort of olympic touchdown. But I didn’t so much as blink in response. After all, it was his usual routine.

“Let me guess,” I asked as I crossed my arms. “You are here to tell me that you’re going to fix the incinerator tomorrow.”

“Nope! The incinerator is working perfectly! I do intend to fix the panel sometime before tomorrow though,” Monokuma admitted as he scratched the back of his head with his right hand. “I just wanted to say that I have something very special planned for tomorrow so I am going to take over incinerator duty until the next murder happens! If you’re still alive and it's still your turn after that, I’ll let you know!”

I visibly winced when he said something very special was going to happen. Because, as bad as things were, I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that Monokuma had to have some way of making things even worse than they were.

“I wonder what neato stuff I’ll find. Maybe Machi will send more plans down the pipe. Like the one she made to hang you! You remember that one right?!” Monokuma said as he cheerfully raised his arms. I growled and clenched my fists as the memory of the plan coming up on the monitor in the first class trial flooded back to the front of my mind. Monokuma must have picked up on this because he continued. “You know, if you hate her so much, why don’t you just murder her? There! Problem solved!”

“We are not having this conversation,” I replied to cut him off in a succinct and deadpan manner. Machi and I may not have been on the best of terms, but that didn’t mean that she or anyone here deserved to die.

“That’s funny. It sounds like that is exactly what we’re doing,” Monokuma said with a shrug and his usual jovial tone before he let his arms rest by his side. “After all, you're standing here talking about it even though you already have what you want.”

At that, I raised my eyebrows and hesitated for a moment. The fact that his argument had a point only made my blood metaphorically boil. So, I narrowed my eyes at the bare and stared at him with blank unamusement.

“Bye Monokuma,” I said as I uncrossed my arms and turned around to once more proceed up the stairs.

“Goodnight!,” Monokuma said behind me. He probably waved as well. However, I didn’t so much as glance over my shoulder to give the bear recognition in response.

Instead, I sighed as I walked up the stairs and turned the corner to the crossroads. Once I made it there however, I hear footsteps and turned my head right to see the source of the noise. Surely enough, it was Yakawa who gave a weary smile as he approached.

“Hey Nishi, just the person I wanted to talk to,” He explained with a hint of sadness in his tone. “I’m here to see how much pain medicine you’ve taken and if it is alright with you, I would like to check those bandages of yours as well. How about we head to the first aid station?”

I put my right hand to my chin and considered for a moment. I had initially planned on heading straight to my room after checking out the incinerator. But, Yakawa did have good reasons for checking up on me. So, I lowered my hand and nodded.

And so, the two of us headed down the hallway past the generator room, the mirror, and the portrait in no particular order. That without incident, but Yakawa and I both eyed the picture for longer than we should have as we passed by it. From there, we rounded the corner and proceeded to enter the hallway where the elevator shaft entrance was. It was then that Yakawa first spoke up.

“So, Nishi?” Yakawa said with a tone that was ever so slightly more neutral than it was before. “Thank you for believing me again. I don’t know if my brother said it or not but we’d both be dead if it weren’t for you.”

“He did,” I replied with a quick nod. “I just hope we don’t have to go through round five. I know it's a definite possibility and we have a few pariahs now but it would be really nice if we didn’t have another murder.”

“Yeah, I know. I couldn't agree more Nishi,” Yakawa said with exasperation evident in his voice as he put his hands on his hips and sighed. “If it happens, then it happens. But as long as my brother and I are here, we’ll do our best to prevent that.”

I simply nodded as Yakawa relaxed his arms, we marched past the door to the elevator shaft, we rounded the corner, and we approached the first aid station. Unsurprisingly, the trip went uneventfully. And by the end of it, Yakawa reached out with his right arm grabbed the door handle, and pulled the door to the first aid station open. Once more, I was met with a neat sterile room and as I looked around, I couldn’t even find a trace of evidence that Senji had been treated in here earlier today.

“Head on in and make yourself comfortable,” Yakawa offered politely as he pulled the door further open for me. “I know you want to get to bed and I don’t blame you after a day like today so I promise this won’t take long.”

That’s exactly what I did. I headed inside, turned around, propped myself up, and sat up on the edge of one of the gurneys. As I did, I reached into my pocket to pull out the pain medicine bottle and silently hoped to myself that this wasn’t the gurney that Yakawa used to treat Senji. Granted, someone, probably Yakawa, evidently cleaned the place. But it still wasn’t fun to think about the fact that Senji had been laying in this room thanks to a life threatening injury that he inflicted.

*(He nearly killed himself just to draw suspicion away from him and Koike. He was desperate for us to die instead of Koike…)*

I bit my lip at the thought and pulled out the bottle of medicine as Yakawa stepped inside. As soon as I did, Yakawa stepped inside, took notice, marched over to where I was, and swiftly took the pill bottle that I had held out for him to grab. Surprisingly enough, he even wore his usual gloves in spite of the fact that I didn’t see him put them on. If I had to guess, he did so while I was busy with the pill bottle.

“So Nishi,” Yakawa began as he opened the pill bottle and began counting them. “I know this is intrusive, but this is also important for you sake. How many pills have you taken?”

“I don’t- remember taking anything since the night you gave those to me,” I said as I wracked my brain to try and recall just how many pills I had taken. For a second, Yakawa stopped and I questioned whether that was correct or not, a lot has happened in the past few days so it was easy to forget after all. However, he nodded, put the lid back on the bottle, and placed it down by the gurney. At that, I continued. “I’m beginning to feel better actually. Thanks for fixing my nose by the way.”

“No problem at all Nishi,” Yakawa calmly replied as he reached into his coat with his right hand and pulled out a small miniature-flashlight. “Now, lets see what we can do about those bandages of yours.”

I nodded. And so, he began the process of removing the bandages around my nose and my head. Overall, it was a fairly prolonged process in spite of Yakawa’s efforts to make things go smoothly. However, I appreciated the fact that he took the time to get everything correct and I complied with everything he asked me to do as he carefully lifted the dressing away from my injuries. Luckily enough, my skin didn’t stick to it so there weren’t too many other steps that he had to follow before he stopped, discarded the old dressing along with his gloves, walked to the sink, and washed his hands.

After that, Yakawa turned around to face me once more, headed over to me, put on another pair of gloves, turned on the flashlight of his, and examined my head for a few moments before giving a single sigh and nodding.

“You’re still bleeding on your forehead but I think the time you tripped on the ice might have aggravated your injury,” Yakawa surmised with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone. “At least, you claimed that you tripped and my brother seems to agree that you did. It doesn’t look serious and I know it isn’t your fault, but try to be more careful next time and let me know if you have a headache that doesn’t go away or gets worse.”

“Yeesh, I have one. I think it's getting better and I sure hope it doesn’t get worse,” I remarked. Yakawa must have immediately picked up on that because he gave me the best reassuring face he could.

“It probably won’t. You’re healing quite nicely. But if it does happen, I promise that my brother and I can take care of you. Even without Senji’s help,” Yakawa trailed off as he looked away and muttered the last part under his breath. After that, he reverted back to his more sympathetic tone, looked back at me, and continued. “Regardless, I think it's about time that we put those bandages on. Don’t worry. You’re healing quickly so you’ll be back to normal again soon enough Nishi.”

At that, he began the process of treating my wounds once more. He placed a towel under my injuries and told me to hold them there. I complied. After that, he carefully dabbed my head wounds with a wet cloth, rinsed them a second time, discarded the materials, dried them with another towel, and once again, wrapped new bandages over my injuries. Once more, it was a long protracted issue. And at the end of it, Yakawa once again rid himself of his gloves and washed his hands.

As he did so, I spoke up to ask him a question. “Did you do all of this stuff back when we were investigating everything at the summit?”

“This is nothing compared to what I had to do at the summit Nishi. You were never in any danger once you reached me though. I promise it wasn’t anything near as difficult as the medical treatment that I am used to giving people on a daily basis,” Yakawa surmised without so much as turning around. “You’re free to go by the way.”

I nodded, and at that, I got up, grabbed my medicine, pocketed it, and began to head out the door. However, before I headed out, I turned around to thank Yakawa for his help. After all, he deserved it after saving me from disfigurement and helping me out afterwards.

“Goodnight and thank you Yakawa.” I said with a wave of my right hand. “Really. Thank you for trying to keep the group together, for treating everyone respectfully, for everything you do in the class trial, for helping me, for everything really. Thanks.”

“Well, you did save everyone four times so don’t feel like you owe us anything Nishi,” Yakawa mused as he turned around and smiled despite everything that had happened. “If you need me Nishi, I will be in the cafeteria with Sama my brother. But otherwise, goodnight Nishi and sleep well.”

At that, I pushed the door to the hallway open, headed outside, and walked back to my room. Then, I marched past the front room, passed the intersection between all the staircases, and towards the stairs. It wasn’t too eventful and the crime scenes all appeared to have been cleared, but I still slowed down to avoid stepped where I thought I remembered that Senji had bled all over the floor. Regardless, I made my way down the stairs, turned left, and turned right again without incident. But as I approached my room, I noticed Senji strutting towards his own with a scowl etched on his face.

It was then that I stopped in my tracks as a thought came to the front of my mind and my eyes widened with realization. Among all the other things that Senji did to us, he never actually kept the promise he first made to us when we entered the class trial room.

*(He never told us who was implicated by the motive.)*

“Wait a minute!” I shouted with some degree of shock in my tone. In response, Senji snapped back and turned around to hear the rest of what I had to say. “You never told us who your motive implicated Senji!”

At that, Senji crossed his arms and just frowned. “Believe me Nishi, you do not want to know the answer to that question. Can’t- can’t you just leave me alone Nishi? Isn’t saving yourself at the cost the person I loved enough for you?”

“Hmm. Yeah, you’ve made it obvious enough that you don’t care about the rest of us. But so you know, I was the tiebreaker vote that saved you from getting executed with her,” I retorted as I clenched my fists in frustration. “We deserve to know the truth Senji. Especially after you tried to get us all hanged.”

“Hanged?” Senji said as he raised his right eyebrow in what must have been confusion. At the same time, he lowered both of his left arm to his side.

“I- it happened to me in a nightmare I had. I meant to say executed,” I amended before I gave a brief shiver. After that, I raised my right hand and pointed to him with my pointer finger. “Don’t try to change the subject. All I’m asking for is answers and I want them.”

“Very well then. However, I am not lying when I say that you will not like the answer,” Senji warned after a brief dismissive snort as he dismissed my accusation with the wave of his left hand and headed over to me. It took a few seconds for him to reach me, but when he did, he spoke once more. This time, in a low, warning tone. “The motive is a video that Monokuma showed me. It pertained to a class trial that featured a hypnotherapist, a lucky student, a warden, a chocolatier, a principal, and a detective. These are all the Super High School Level Talents by the way in case you failed to deduce it.”

“Right.” I responded as I crossed my arms. Truthfully, I was happy enough to finally get answers from him. But after everything that Senji had done to us, I would be lying if I were to say that his tone didn’t get under my skin. “Go on.”

“At first, the group was going to vote for the hypnotherapist, but she turned the trial around and they all voted for the lucky student. After that, Monokuma declared that they were incorrect and the screen faded. I presume that they were executed following that,” Senji continued without any heed for my response. “Clearly, the class trial was intended to be an allegory. So Nishi, now that Seno is dead, who here has the same talent as someone in the video?”

“Ah,” I responded with a scowl. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t deny that it would be bad if someone suspected me because of it. “So, you were trying to protect me all along? At least, until you went off the deep end and tried to have me-” I paused for a microsecond to make sure I was saying the right word. “Executed with everyone else?”

“I believe that we have a winner. Congratulations Nishi,” Senji remarked with complete sarcasm in his usual calm demeanor. “Yes Nishi. The motive was intended to result in either someone murdering you, or someone murdering me for not divulging the secret. In fact, the hypnotherapist in the video even retains your hair and eye colors.”

*(Yikes. But, I’m not the mastermind.)*

“Does this mean you suspect me?” I questioned earnestly as I lowered my hands. I still glared him. But to be honest, I wasn’t half as angry as I was before I knew that he originally wanted to protect me. “Because Monokuma set that up to trick someone into killing one of us. You don’t trust him over me, do you?”

“Well, I do suspect you Nishi. You were present during every body discovery announcement, to my knowledge you lack an alibi during the times where the mastermind did some of their activities, you always know who the culprit is and how they committed the act down to the most minute detail, and naturally, you are the most well received person in the entire group. Everyone feels indebted to you, everyone trusts you, and I am certain that you could even get on Machi’s nice list if you so desired,” Senji surmised. “But perhaps because she made plans to kill you, you planned for Sasori to kill her after running into her in the lift building only to have the motive backfire? Perhaps you even sent Eto to the summit in the first place so that she would die in your stead? I believe that she wanted to make sure the lightbulbs were all screwed in correctly, but I would not deny the possibility.”

“So,” I said before I took a short pause and considered what to say next. As Senji went on, anger started to give way to traces of dread. “Do you believe me when I say I’m innocent or not?”

“I can’t tell. What I do know is that if I knew that you were the mastermind, I would have murdered you myself a long time ago. However, as I believe I have said before in some fashion, I will not promote a witch hunt against someone who might be innocent. Of course, if you are the mastermind, then you already know that,” Senji concluded. At that, I felt some relief. However, Senji’s tone seemed to have a condition attached to it. “Now, if I discover definitive proof that you are the mastermind Nishi, I promise that you will suffer for what you did to Koike. If you are the person behind everything, you’re death with be slow and agonizing. You can count on that.”

I visibly winced at that. Furthermore, as he said that, my mind went back to the crime scene where Saeki died. As it turned out, Senji hadn’t actually tortured Saeki and those were just red herrings to point us to the lodge and the various implements that were taken from there. However, if nothing else, it proved that Senji was both capable and willing to go to great extremes. I didn’t even want to think about what he would do to me if he believed wholehearted that I was the mastermind.

I shook my head. As I did, I realized that Senji was walking away from me with his back turned to me. I opened my mouth to say something, but there was honestly nothing left to say. So, all I could do was stare at him in the silence that followed and let him walk away without a word of his own before he turned the corner and disappeared from my sight.

It was then, and only then, that I shook my head and tried to repress the thought of Senji possibly torturing me to death. With a sigh, I turned towards my room, pulled out my ElectroID, swiped it through the card reader, grabbed the door handle with my free hand. Opened the door, slammed it shut behind me, and waited to hear the audible click of the door closing.

After that, I stared vacantly at the room before me. Luckily enough, everything was in place. Furthermore, I was safe here as well and I would continue to be until Monokuma unveiled whatever he had planned for tomorrow. But as I looked around, it struck me once more that Koike as well as Seaki were dead, that everyone had nearly voted in favor of Senji, that Senji suspected me of being the one responsible for her death, and that in spite of wracking my brain for a defense and knowing myself that I was innocent, I couldn’t prove that I wasn’t the mastermind. And so, for a brief moment, I shivered.

But after a short while, it ended. And from there, I proceeded to do everything else that I normally set myself to doing. I put everything I usually did on a nightstand, namely, my knife, ElectroID, and painkillers. I reached to grab my watch as well from reflex, but I grabbed nothing but air and lowered my hand with a sigh as the memory of Saeki’s death flooded back to me. I had more stopwatches in the closet of course, and I knew mentally that Saeki was dead, but she wasn’t replaceable. None of the students were really. Yet, here we were. Half of the class was dead.

Nonetheless, I did everything else that I usually did, I took my clothes off, put them away, put on my night time clothes, got into my bed, turned off the lights, laid down and waited for rest to inevitably come to me. Truthfully, a part of me considered the possibility that it would take longer for me because it was earlier, but I hoped that I could somehow manage nonetheless.

Finally, I sat back, closed my eyes, and slowly ebbed away from consciousness as some final thoughts passed through my mind for the day. Though I wish I could say that they were pleasant ones, it would be a lie to claim that all or even most of them were. Senji had everyone furious with him, Tanabe was angry with Sanda, Sama never seemed to take the class trials well afterwards, and then there was the whole problem with the motive video and Senji’s suspicion of me in general. And to make matters worse, I doubted that he was the only person to be suspicious of me either. The only silver linings were that Yakawa was nice to talk to and that Wakuni and Machi couldn’t have been the mastermind. So, as I drifted off to sleep, my last thought was more desperate than hopeful.

*(I hope. I really hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to work something out.)*

## Trivia

* The creator will confirm that there is a clue in the motive Senji received as to the mastermind’s identity. The creator will not disclose what the clue is however.
* This is probably the first time that Nishi fell asleep before the night time announcement.