Dangan Ronpa: Unser Sommerende/Prologue (3)

Continued from Prologue (2).

[1]

The halls of the school were just as white and featureless as the outside, though I didn’t get much of a chance to look at them as we went into the hall.

The hall itself didn’t completely fit in with the previous white colour scheme. It also had an amount of blue in it, specifically, the rows of chairs at the sides of the room, most likely to host an audience for sports events, considering the rest of the blue made up the stripes and lines along the ground that made out a basketball court. There weren’t any hoops, so I suppose they’d just bring those out of storage. On the side opposite to where we came in, there was a stage, fit for making announcements. Its curtains (the final blue stuff) were open, but aside from a stand in the centre of the stage, it was empty.

Everyone just sort of standing there in this large, empty hall gave me an undoubtedly ominous feeling. Sometimes, nothing happening is somehow far more unnerving than something really really bad happening, because that anticipation of something really really bad happening gets to you, it slowly chokes you and all you can do is stand there and take it.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

“So, that’s everyone, right? O-kay, now we can begin!”

The same voice from earlier, but not from a voice system, rather, directly from a stage. No muffling. Whoever this was, they were here physically, and they just couldn’t wait to greet us, whatever greeting us would entail. We just sort of stood there, nothing to say, perhaps a little terrified, but readying ourselves to face what was most likely our captor.

[2]

And then, finally, he showed himself. Popping up over the little stand was…

[3]

Well, I don’t know if anyone could really describe it. Nobody really believed it at first, anyway. This thing was what looked to be a small child, about a meter tall, wearing a suit and tie, gloves, and some sort of plush goat that was all around their head. Said goat was round, and had stubby legs and horns, and eyes rather low down, giving him a rather big forehead. The most remarkable thing about the plush was that half of it was painted black, the left half, to be precise, and the eye on that side was a shade of blood red.

Then the plush’s mouth started moving along with the words.

“I’m Monoyaki! I’m the Headmaster and Company President of Wish’s Apex Enterprises! And I’m so so happy to welcome you to our brand new year at this super great school of the prestigious!”
This… Thing just stood there, clapping. Even the clapping sounded fake, thanks to the leather gloves. Said clap slowed to a halt as he realised that nobody else was clapping along.

“Hmm? Why isn’t anybody clapping?...”

I hadn’t really been paying attention to anybody since I was so confused, but somebody eventually had the courage to speak up, which helped me get an idea about how everyone else was feeling.

“This is the dumbest hazing thing I’ve ever seen.” Sadie put her hand to her waist, and looked off in some random direction. “Getting some student’s little brother to wear some stupid spooky outfit… Really? And besides, this isn’t a private school, it doesn’t even have a president…”

“Little brother? Hmm... Nope, can’t say I’m one of those. I’m Monoyaki.”

“Look,” Jo started, “I know what makes a joke funny or not. This ain’t funny. Not in, like, the offensive way, just the boring way.”

“Yeah.” Mia spoke, rubbing her eyes a bit. “So, we just go now, right?”

The goat boy on stage frowned. “I guess I have to show you guys something real cool if I want some attention. Ugh…” Promptly, he grabbed the plush over his head, and yanked it off, to reveal what was underneath.

It was nothing. There was nothing underneath the head. This wasn’t some kid in a suit, this was… That talking mask plush thing was its actual head. What even was this thing? All of us were staring in… Well, a lot of things, I imagine. Some horrified, others confused further, some just grossed out, even. I personally was just really tired of this, and was only hoping that this damn thing would finish up soon and let us go. Whatever was going on, I was just waiting for it to end.

“Yeah! I can do party tricks, uwehehe. Do you like it?”

“… Nope. None of us’re impressed.” Rocky started up, looking both pissed and frightened, before immediately drawing both of his revolvers, aiming them squarely at Monoyaki. “Now, I’ll give you five damn seconds to skedaddle or y’all won’t be seein’ the light of day, vermin.” Honestly, it always felt like he was trying too hard to sound like a cowboy or something.

Monoyaki placed his head back on his body, a fire of stern rage flaring up in his eye. “Hey! That kind
of attitude isn’t going to cut it here! You can’t-“

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

A gunshot filled the room. Five seconds had passed. With a hole in his chest, the goat thing collapsed, motionless.

(SOUNDTRACK RESUMES)

“That was very very… Uncalled for!” Monoyaki- wait, he got shot, right? Monoyaki was now standing on top of Monoyaki’s lifeless body.

“…” Dan was particularly pale looking. “You’re telling me… There’s t-two of them?...”

“Actually, there’s 50.” Lucy said, pointing at the two goats on stage.

“Well,” the less dead goat spoke, “Koo-koo girl is probably closer there. I’ve got spare bodies! And I really got as many as I need. As for you…” He glared at Rocky, the fire in his eye burning even brighter, his head turning a reddish shade. “Try that again and you’ll be forcibly expelled.”

Rocky looked like he honestly wanted to just fire again, but, probably figuring it was no longer worth it, he reluctantly put both firearms in their respective holsters, still having them at the ready in case Monoyaki tried anything. “Just tell all of us what yer plannin’…”

“Okay, okay. If you wanna know, I’ll tell you.” He cleared his goat throat before continuing. “Now, I formally welcome each and every one of you to our new school life! I hope that all of you can find a wonderful and enriching experience here at our lovely academ-“

“Get on with it.” Molly said, tapping her foot.

“Will you shut it?!... Anyway, point is, the plan is that all of you, the most talented of your nation’s youth, have earned yourselves a… Communal life in this prestigious school! Isn’t that great?”

“But… What does that mean, though?” Terry asked, slowly looking more concerned as the speech went on.

“Simple… All of you will live on campus in your dorms… And will be supplied with food and drink and whatever you need to function. And hence, you’ll simply live a peaceful communal life here! By the way, there isn’t an expiration date.”

“Oh…” Amber scratched her chin, and looked at her plush for a bit, and then back at Monoyaki. “So, we just opt out when we want to leave, then? That doesn’t sound so bad.” She smiled.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

“… No. There isn’t an “opt out”. You just stay here. Forever.”

[4]

Well, Amber was probably shocked, but I can’t say the rest of us were too surprised by that. As if this yelling goat child thing would just let us go off by ourselves.

“… Like there’s a chance of that.” James started, crossing his arms. “Don’t you know who I am? Or anyone of us? Once people notice we’re gone, they’re gonna get a bit suspicious, y’know?” He chuckled to himself, before finishing. “You can figure out the rest of it.”

“Uwehe… You’re so clever… Don’t you know how easy it is to just send out E-mails pretending to be you guys? I’ve already gotten all your contacts, and as I speak, mail’s being auto-generated and sent out to all your friends and family. Look, once you all accept there’s no easy way out of here, you’ll get a lot comfier, alright?”

We certainly weren’t comfy. We had been kidnapped, god damnit. The mail claim sounded fishy, but, if he was bluffing, then James’s claim would be correct, and people would come to save us, making Monoyaki’s weird gambit pointless from the beginning. No, he’s telling the truth.

Which means we’re trapped.

“So, I hope you all enjoy your new life as you spend eight days a week here in-”

“Don’t finish up just yet.” That was… Archie. And sounding different from before. More forceful. “You said that there isn’t an easy way out. This implies that there is a way out. Are you keen on sharing this information, Monoyaki?”

“… Uwehehehe. It would be so humiliating if I forgot. That’s the best part, really.”

Robin started speaking, probably just because of him going a while without saying what’s on his mind. “And what is that, exactly? You better get on with it so we can leave, you… Suit wearing… Rich… Idiot.”

“Yeah! Idiot.” Charlotte joined in, not exactly contributing much.

“… I’ll say it if you let me…” Monoyaki acted sad for a bit, before resuming. “Anyway! Seeing as all of you shall be living a COMMUNAL life, that is, in a COMMUNE, everyone should be equals, right? So, say if one person decided they wanted to leave, they’d have to find a way to put themselves above the rest of the group by doing something absolutely selfish… And oh-so fun! The only thing this aspiring entrepreneur would have to do to profit off the rest of the pack is…” His red eye gleamed for a second.

(SOUNDTRACK PAUSES)

“Kill one of the other students.”

[5]

Silence again. The most blood-curdling silence I had ever heard.

“Doesn’t matter how you do it. Just stop their heart from beating, and don’t let anyone figure out it was you. That’s the big rule of the Mutual Killing Venture. Sounds fun, right guys?”

That thing smiled. It wasn’t even a smug or cocky smile, he was genuinely excited, as if there wasn’t anything wrong at all with what he just said. He wanted us to murder each other. Take each other’s god damn lives. People started muttering softly. Soft, but panicked. My breathing sped up, and my hands shook.

“No.” I took a step forward, and pointed directly at the horrid creature. Looking back, it was a bit dramatic. “I have no clue what you’re trying to start by doing this. But, it’s not going to work. It’s insane. To think that we’d actually kill each other... It’s an abhorrent insult to basic human nature!”

Some more silence follows. “Uwehehe. So we’ve got a party pooper? Course there’d be someone who doesn’t like it...”

“None of us like this!...”

“Hmm. Do all of you really feel like this?”

As he posed the question to the crowd, I turned my head back to them. The looks on their faces were... Difficult to describe. Some were engulfed in horror. Others were looking somewhat in thought, as if trying to even grasp what was happening. Some were completely blank.

“Weird. Really weird. So none of you wanna kill each other?...”

“We don’t.”, Sadie said, though I think everyone said that, in a way. “You’re wasting your time, trust me.” She was looking somewhat confident, for some reason.

“Weeeeeeell! I should end this ceremony off soon if everybody’s going to be a Debbie downer... So! The last thing you all need are your Monopads!” He suddenly started tossing out small devices at each of us, treating them like they wouldn’t break if they hit the ground. Most of us were able to catch them, though others missed. Lucy didn’t even seem to register what was happening, and might not have even noticed her device if it didn’t hit her in the head. But I’m getting off track…

All of us picked up our corresponding devices, though none of us just booted it up immediately. Knowing what this thing had in mind for us, it would probably kill us or something.

“What are you all looking at? It’s not gonna kill you or something! It just says the rules of the Killing Venture and some info on your fellow classmates. I guess you can just check it out later or something… Just remember that the punishments for breaking any of the rules are severe!”

... I heard a beep, followed by a few more beeps sounding out around me. The only thing any of us could really do was check it out. I entered the rules section of the device first, figuring that Monoyaki wouldn’t accept ignorance as an excuse for breaking any of them.

Rule #1: Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.

Rule #2: "Nighttime" is from 10 pm to 7 am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

Rule #4: With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Wish’s Apex Academy at your discretion.

Rule #5: Violence against CEO Monoyaki is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.

Rule #6: Anyone who kills a fellow student is marked the "entrepreneur" and will graduate, unless they are discovered.

Rule #7: Additional school regulations may be added if necessary.

“… So, that’s all, then?” Terry said. “All we have to do is not kill each other and we’ll be fine. That’s easy, right?”

“Yeah.”, Dan responded, “Easy. We’ll all be fine. We’ll all be fine. We’ll all… We’re NOT going to be fine! Am I the only one here who realises what this means?! We’re all going to be mercilessly slaughtered, we’re doomed, we’re…” He trailed off into unintelligible noise, and collapsed to the ground. Terry rushed over to him, and started holding him back up again, though he was pretty much unconscious. Everyone else sort of just stared.

“… Well, that’s it for the entrance ceremony! Thank you all for coming! I’m leaving before anyone interrupts me again!” And so, ‘CEO Monoyaki’ disappeared just as quickly as he had shown up.

[6]

That was it for the introduction, then. Would it be cliched to say that ‘time almost seemed to freeze’? Because that’s exactly what happened. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Well, of course, someone spoke eventually, but it took a while. The room felt colder, both literally and metaphorically. Hearing footsteps towards the door, I looked over to see Mary. Mary, who hadn’t said a single word, approaching the exit. Just as she reached it, she turned back to us.

“… You heard him. You know what this means.”

“… Mary?...” Amber walked a few steps towards the girl in red. “… Are you okay?”

“Are you? Because if any one of you think that you’re too good hearted to kill to preserve yourself, then you’re deceiving yourself. Since the dawn of time, humans have killed each other even just to have a slight advantage over the competition. What’s going to happen should be obvious.”

Amber sort of just stepped backwards, whimpering. “M-Mary…”

“… You’re wrong.” James began to speak. “If you really think that’s human nature, then I really do feel sorry for you, y’know. We’re humans. We’re… We’re civilised. I…” He faltered for a second, before continuing. “… I… Pledge that, so long as this… Thing is happening… That… I’ll do everything I can to protect everyone here from harm. I mean it.”

“… As do I.”, Robin said. “It should go without saying, honestly.”

The whole group (who wasn’t unconscious) looked around at each other, and nodded. Of course. There was absolutely no way that this… Monoyaki was going to get his way.

“…” The door creaked open. “If you want to believe this, then be my guest. You’re only leaving yourselves vulnerable.” And the door was shut again.

Despite the sudden inspiring speeches, that girl still wasn’t convinced of any of this. But, looking back around, that uneasiness should have disappeared. It didn’t. These awkward nods were replaced with these looks of anxiety. If this one person had proven that they were fully willing to harm one of us if she needed to… Then, how could I be sure that she’s the only one? I could tell that these were the thoughts occupying our heads, and this, perhaps, was when the game really began.

“…” As this happened, Charlotte soon left the group, as the doors creaked and shut once more. Archie soon followed. One by one, the group dwindled, until eventually, I followed, and out the doors I went.

[7]

I was in the halls again. These halls... These halls were so white and pure looking. To think that something so sinister would be going on inside them... I ended up wandering around for a bit until I found a stairwell. The stairs leading up to the next floor were barred off with similar stuff to the windows. The downward stairs were free and open, however. This section was marked with a sign saying “1F”, so I gathered this was the second story, that is to say, one level above the ground floor.

My footsteps echoed as I descended the stairs, and eventually arrived on the ground floor. I could see a sign on a nearby wall noting that I was now in the school dorms. My brain didn’t really process it much. I was too dizzy from all of this. I sort of wandered about, not paying attention to my (still white as snow) surroundings, eventually into a hallway with various doors. Each had the name and a pixelated portrait of one of the students in my class. God, they really had prepared for everything, hadn't they? I eventually found mine, and, desperate to rest my troubled head, tried to open it. The handle didn’t budge. I just wanted to rest so bad.

That’s when I heard a beep from the next door over. I looked to see Terry, still holding Dan in his arms. Noticing me staring, he waved, holding two of those Monopad things in his free hand.

“Hey. Turns out, these machine things function as key cards. I was just finding out right then, since I was bringing this fella to somewhere for him to rest from his... Stress, and I found what looks like his room.”

“Ah... Thank you.” I smiled.

“It’s nothing. Just doing what’s best for everyone, with what’s... Happening.” He headed into the room, Dan still in tow. Looking back over to my door, I brushed my device over the sensor under the handle, and presto, a beep. The door was now openable, hooray.

So, yeah, I basically went in and slammed down onto the bed and was immediately asleep. Or at least, I wish I was. I mean, how could I? How could anyone just go to sleep after this? Knowing that at any time, somebody could… But they couldn’t. I don’t care about what Mary said. I don’t believe her. We’re better than this. Besides, there’s probably some way to escape that the goat hadn’t mentioned... Why... Was he doing this, anyway? What did he have to gain from it? And was there someone controlling him? I mean, what was he? Some sort of remote controlled machine? That seemed like the most likely explanation, but there was no way to know exactly what this thing was.

... Whatever the case, I eventually managed to drift into sleep anyway. Hence, we began our descent into our communal life, without a clue as to what would occur in the coming days.

Continued in Chapter 1 - Daily Life (1).