I woke up to Monokuma's morning announcement, so I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, got dressed, and went to the cafeteria as usual. As I passed the spot wheee Aiko's body laid yesterday, I stopped in my tracks and had a moment of silence for her before going to the cafeteria and sitting down at a table with a plate of toast and eggs. The entire room was entirely silent, save for a few coughs and sneezes going around the table. Suddenly, Amaterasu spoke up.
"Uh, I have a suggestion."
"Yes? What is this suggestion?" Daniel crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair and looking at her with one eye.
"Well, I went on a little walk this morning because I couldn't sleep, and I, uh, discovered that the..."
"The what?" Matthew blurted out.
"That the bars blocking the stairs were gone," she said in one breath.
"Oh, I see. I guess we all know what we'll be doing today," Freddy said.
"Exploring the second floor?" Igna crossed her arms, already looking bored but still perfect.
"Yep!" Everyone followed Jasmine and Freddy up the stairs where we were greeted by a grand pool. The water was a clear blue with blue lines at the bottom like every other school pool, but somehow it looked better than any pool I had ever laid my eyes on. We all saw the locker rooms and began to move towards them when Monokuma showed up.
"Hello!" Everyone screamed in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Aida asked while one of her eyebrows raised up.
"I'm just here to give you all a warning before you set foot in the locker rooms." His eyes drifted near the doors of the locker rooms to the cameras set to looking at the doors. Below the cameras were... machine guns? What the heck?! Freddy stepped forward, pulling a pencil from behind his ears and a notebook from his pocket and brandishing them in front of Monokuma.
"May I ask you why those machine guns are pointed at the doors?" Freddy asked eagerly, seemingly brave enough or maybe stupid enough to ask the bear the question that was on everyone's mind.
"It's so that males can't go into the female's locker room, and that females don't go into the males. We wouldn't want any Peeping Tons around here, right? Pupupupu!" The bear disappeared and we looked around at each other.
"So what are we supposed to do with that informazione?"
"Um, what does that mean, Aida?" Amaterasu inquired, barely making eye contact with her and fidgeting with her hands.
"What do you think it means, you idiota?" She stomped off and left the room to the hall beyond the pool. After a few seconds, I spoke up.
"Hey guys, I have a great idea. After we explore the rest of this floor, why don't we hold a bit of a pool party in here? It'll be an awesome way to bond with each other. Besides, we don't have anything else to do here."
"That sounds like an excellent idea!" Freddy exclaimed with a face of excitement while everyone else murmured agreements, some rather reluctantly. I led the others down the hall and we discovered a weight room, a couple of empty classrooms, and some sort of conference room. We then returned to the pool room, and split up into our respective locker rooms. All of the girls entered in a single file line while the boys went in groups, Freddy leading the group and Daniel bringing up the rear.
I followed the girls into the locker room where there were benches and brown wooden lockers with locks and keys already inserted into them. There were more than eight lockers in there. We all began turning the keys and unlocking the lockers, discovering that there were labels inside of eight lockers with our names in there and a pair of swimsuits in each. There was a blank label inside one of them with a swimsuit inside there.
"What the... Did someone forget their swimsuit when this place was cleaned out for this game?" Igna said, picking up the spare swimsuit and looking at it.
"Maybe it's a clue about the mastermind." I reached for the swimsuit.
"Mastermind? What is that?" Coralie cocked her head to the side, her blonde hair spilling down.
"The person behind this whole thing. It would make sense, fraulein." Suzanne began stroking her fingers through her thick, black hair as though she was jealous of Coralie's thin, beautiful blonde hair. To be honest, I'm a bit jealous of Coralie's hair as well.
"Well, there's nothing about the swimsuit that's unusual. It looks like a regular school swimsuit. As for what's in this skab, there's not much except an empty black bag with the Hope's Peak emblem, a pair of underwear, and a skin tone bra. Well, that was ubrugelig."
"What?"
"Figure it out yourself, idiot." Igna threw the school swimsuit back into the spare locker and slammed the door, putting the key into the pocket of her blue green skirt and began stripping herself. The others split up to their respective lockers and began changing as well in complete silence. I looked around, then went to the locker with my name on it and stripped completely naked. After that, I picked up the swimsuit that was provided for me. It was an ordinary blue Japanese swimsuit. Great. Thanks, Monokuma. You know, I'm surprised that Monokuma isn't spying on us, considering how much boob is on display here, you know? Anyways, after I put my swimsuit on, I turned and observed everyone else's swimsuits.
Igna had a pink bikini with white polka dots and frills on the bottom piece while Amaterasu had a one-piece red and black bathing suit with Joker from Persona 5 on it, which was awesome. Suzanne also had a one piece, but instead of red and black it was white. Strangely enough, she was covering her right arm with her hand as though she was trying to hide something. The only thing I could think that she would try to hide would be cut marks, but she doesn't seem to be the type to cut herself. I approached her.
"Hey, you look really cute."
"Really? Dankeshon." Her cheeks grew red, but she was still trying to hide her right arm, so I bowed politely and went on my way. Coralie had on a purple bikini that had one of those clear holders for the top piece, so it really showed us the sheer volume of her breasts. I assumed that she was a C or D cup, but now seeing them like this, I definitely knew that she was a D cup. Anyways, Jasmine had on a really cute brown bikini with pink stars. It was plain but had a little flair to it. Meanwhile, Aida had a black one piece with a V neck that went all the way down to the chest, a little above where the breasts end. It was cute, and it definitely complimented her style. Damnit, Monokuma! Why didn't you give me a unique swimsuit?!
"Well, are you ready? 'Cause I am," Jasmine said, bouncing her feet up and down. It was cute.
"Hell yeah!" I pumped my fist into the air, and we all exited the locker rooms and went out to the humid pool, some less enthusiastic than others. The doors next to ours opened, and we saw all of the guys exit. Gabriel, Trevor, and Hideki were all wearing swimming trunks, and Matthew and Daniel were wearing speedos. Gabriel's swimming trunks sported orange flames of flickering fire against a black backdrop. Trevor's had blue and red stripes, and Hideki was sporting a pair of demon shorts. That's not strange at all. Matthew had on a green camouflage Speedo, and Daniel had a simple black speedo. As for Freddy, he had on a pair of girl's bikini bottoms, sporting a cute teal color with a simple polka dot pattern.
As Trevor came out of the locker room, he smiled and made gestures towards all of the girls. I simply rolled my at it but Amaterasu, Suzanne, and Jasmine seemed to be absolutely smitten with him, and I thought I saw a little blush on Igna's face as he greeted her. The only one who didn't seem all too interested was Aida, but that made sense, considering her personality. The one that was really surprising was Coralie, but maybe she has some history with men in her past. Eh, I won't ask. It would be rude, and most people don't want to share the painful memories.
Freddy and Jasmine held hands as they jumped into the water, making a humongous splash and causing everyone to get a little wet. We then all jumped in, one at a time, and began playing games and generally having fun. We held a swimming race to see who was the fastest swimmer, and Matthew won. I was up against Daniel, Coralie, and Trevor. I lost in the third round to Coralie, surprisingly.
After a refreshing day at the pool, we used the provided towels to dry up, changed back into our uniforms in the locker rooms, and all departed for our rooms, energized and happy for a great day of bonding. As soon as I entered my room, I took a shower and then changed into my pajamas and went to bed. I missed the nighttime announcement because I was still in the shower.
I woke up, stretching to the sound of the morning announcement. After the monitor turned off, I changed into my everyday clothes and went to the cafeteria where I ate breakfast. For whatever reason, I wanted to know Gabriel today, so after breakfast, I searched for him until I found him in one of the empty classrooms, looking for something.
"Hey."
"Oh, um, hi."
"By the way, what are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for a clean piece of paper. I have a ton of song ideas swirling in my head, but there's no clean paper here, so I can't write them down on a piece of paper."
"What about the notepads in our room that Monokuma provided for us?"
"They're much too small for my big, messy handwriting."
"Oh, I see. Well, I can help look for a clean piece of paper. Only if you want me to, that is."
"Really? Are you sure? Also, you're not doing this to get on my good side, are you?"
"Of course not. I love your work, sure, but we're classmates. I would never do something like that. I actually want to help you and get to know you."
"Wow, that's the first time anyone's ever said something like that to me. You know, since I am famous, it's hard to know if they're just trying to get on your good side so you'll do something for them. It gets so annoying. And, uh yeah, you can definitely help."
"Awesome. I'll go investigate the other empty classrooms right now."
"Thanks for the help."
"Anytime." I smiled at him as I opened the door and explored the other classrooms. We did this for a while, but to no avail. "Well, we didn't find any clean paper, but it was still fun to spend time with you, dude."
"It was." He sat down on one of the desks in the empty classroom he started in, and I joined him.
"By the way, what's your favorite Ace Attorney game?"
"You're really interested in that?"
"Hell yeah."
"My favorite game is Ace Attorney Edgeworth Investigations 2. It has a unique system, it has a combination of both old and new characters, and the excellent character development. One of my favorite characters, Sebastian Debeste, is from this game. I do wish it was released in the U.S., but at least we have dedicated fans who translated it."
"That's actually really cool. I don't think I've played Investigations yet. I've only played Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice." I let my hand travel down to my butt to itch, and my eyes caught sight of a piece of clean printer paper. I then picked it up and gave it to Gabriel.
"Thanks. See ya." He left, waving before the door shut behind him. I stood up and paced back and forth, debating whether or not I should pry into his private life and find out more about his backstory. I quickly ran out of the classroom and scurried through the entire school, finally encountering him in the library on the first floor, reading a book about politics. I waved to him, trying to get his attention but he was too absorbed in his book.
"Hey."
"Oh hey. Didn't see you there. Anyways, what do you want?"
"I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"What drove you to rap?"
"Ah, the age-old question for any artists of any kind. Well, I wasn't born to the best of homes, but my father noticed some of my writings as a kid and taught me how to put it to a beat. My family didn't have much money, so I performed on the street in order to make money for my family. According to the scouts at Hope's Peak Academy, I blew up as an Internet sensation, and that's when the money really started pouring in. Now I have way too much money and I'm stuck in a job that I don't even like anymore."
"Well, at least you have money. That's more than most people have."
"Yeah. I send twenty thousand dollars to my mother each month."
"Awww, that's so sweet. What about your father?"
"I don't want to talk about that."
"Okay. And thank you for answering my question." I smiled at him as he picked up his book and resumed reading. I left him alone, walked to my room, stripped, took a shower, and went to bed as the nighttime announcement played.
I rose out of bed as the morning announcement echoed in the background, put on my clothes, walked to the cafeteria, and consumed my morning meal before going around the school, searching for Gabriel again. I found him already in his swimsuit in the pool area.
"Hey."
"Oh, hey there. 'Sup?"
"Nothing much. I was just wondering what your rise to stardom was like. Sorry if I'm prying too much into your personal life."
"No, it's all peachy. Besides, I'm used to this. Remember, I do interviews every so often."
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask, have you ever been interviewed by Freddy or Jasmine before?"
"Jasmine yes, Freddy no. He doesn't seem to like doing interviews for celebrities and would rather do them for the sake of important news stories. Jasmine, I think, had to interview me for her job. Anyways, I had a rough start, but I quickly gained traction. Before I knew it, I was up to my waist in interviews, signings, concerts, paparazzi, the whole shbang. It was exhausting. I sometimes wish that I wasn't inducted into Hope's Peak, and that I had my normal life back. I miss those times..." He sighed and sat down on the bench. His back was hunched, and his head hung.
I sat next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. We hung out there for a while until he padded my hand and told me he had to go. He dived into the pool without another word and I returned to my room. After an hour had passed, I decided to go looking for him again. I found him in the laundry room. His hair was still wet as though he recently took a shower. I wonder how big his member is? Oh, I really shouldn't be thinking about that. Oh well.
"Yo."
"Oh hey. Looks like we're running into each other quite frequently, hmmm?"
"Yep. Anyways, I wanted to ask you what your reasoning was for continuing to work this job that you clearly have a distaste for."
"Well, I've already stated that I'm doing all of this and enduring all of these hardships for my family, correct?"
"Yes, you have. Is that your only reason?"
"Yes." A loud beep was heard, and he pulled open the washer door to reveal a couple of items of clothing, which he then transferred to the dryer.
"By the way, can I hang out with you for a while? It got kind of lonely in my room."
"Sure." We sat down in the couch and waited for an hour while his laundry got dried. I then said goodbye and we parted ways. Instead of going back to my room, I decided to go to the women's locker room because I wanted to go swimming. In the locker rooms was a sight that I would never forget as long as I lived.
Aida's body was against the lockers nearest to hers. Her head was resting on the locker itself as though she was sleeping. However, there was no movement of the chest. She really was... dead. I moved closer to the body, my movements slow and steady. I reached my two fingers towards her neck and pressed them to see if I could locate any signs of a pulse, but there was nothing.
I quickly turned and ran all the way to the dining hall where several of my classmates were having dinner and discussing our plans for getting out of here.
"Guys, Aida's dead!" I shouted. All of their heads turned towards me, and several were of either clear confusion or utter shock.
"And why should we care? Aida was a jerk anyways," Jasmine said through her usual way of communicating with the paper and typewriter. Many people nodded in agreement, but Matthew had something else to say.
Matthew pointed and said, "Objection! We should care because it means another class trial will be underway soon, and we need to win it in order to proceed!" He looked smug as the other students muttered under their breath that he had a good point. Matthew and Amaterasu joined me as I returned to the scene of the crime.
"Why? Why did this have to happen again?" Amaterasu fell to her knees and began sobbing loudly as Matthew and I stood around awkwardly until I decided to pat her back. The monitor switched on, and the bear appeared.
"A body has been discovered! A certain amount of time will pass until we hold the class trial. Happy investigating!" The monitor switched off, and Amaterasu finally wiped the last of her tears off of her face and stood up.
"Let's do this, for our classmate." We gave a nod to her and began investigating as the other students entered the room and gasped in horror before investigating as well.
"What happened here?" I asked myself as I found several bits of fluff on the floor near the corners of the room.
"Hmmm." Matthew picked up a bit of pink fluff and looked at it closely. I looked at him for a little bit before focusing my attention to the body. Her body was limp against the lockers. I didn't notice when I first saw the body, but foam was dribbling out of her mouth and her eyes were dilated. Perhaps she was poisoned? But who would do this? And before Monokuma even gave us a motive. What is going on here?! I gathered my thoughts and continued to investigate. Coralie suddenly came into the locker room with a rather blank stare and a glass bottle in her hands.
"This is poison. I found it in my piece just now. It was on my dresser. However, I do not recall getting this bottle from anywhere in the school, so perhaps someone is trying to frame me for murder." Her head cocked to the side as though she was asking a question that we had answered in our minds, then she walked to the side, fading into the background as silent as a mouse.
Suddenly, a noise brought our attention to the monitors as it turned on. The bear said, "It's finally time for the class trial! You know where to go, so see you all there!" The monitor turned off, and we stood there in shock.
"Oh god, why is he calling us now? We barely have any clues, and we didn't even get to investigate any of the rooms!" Matthew was crouching down, his head in his hands while he was speaking. I patted his back.
"It'll be fine. Monokuma would only call us if we had a fair chance to win. He's not an unfair judge. At least, I don't think so." Matthew sighed and smiled at me before getting up and heading to the elevator to the trial room with the rest of the class. Everyone stepped onto the elevator, and we all fell silent, awaiting the trial of life and death.
The doors opened, and we took our places before Monokuma gave a short explanation of the class trial again.
"All right. Let's begin." Matthew grasped the podium so tightly that his knuckles were white.
"What should we talk about first?" Daniel said with an air of arrogance.
"We should figure out how she died and where she died," I exclaimed, crossing my arms and straightening my back.
"Well, that is obvious. She was killed with the poison that I found in my room."
"But how do we know that for sure?" Matthew asked.
"Her eyes were dilated, and foam was coming out of her mouth, which, according to the label here, is the symptoms of poison intake for this specific poison." Coralie passed the glass bottle around for all of us to see the evidence. The whole room was quiet for a few minutes as we passed the bottle around and ended after it came back to Coralie. She put it away.
Matthew then pulled out a few tufts of the pink fluff that was around Aida's body. "This may be important to finding out who the killer is."
"I think we've seen that before, Matthew."
"When, though?"
"Remember when we were in Igna's room for the last investigation, and she was making toys? This exact fluff was around her, and I'm pretty sure that at least one of the toys was covered in this stuff."
"You would think that this stuff would stick to the toy better if she really was the Ultimate Toymaker," Daniel said in his typical sarcastic tone.
"Screw you, Daniel! The adhesives here are lort, so that's the reason the fluff didn't stick as well as they should."
"So you admit to making toys that were present at the scene of the crime." Matthew had a smug look on his face.
"Yeah, but that doesn't prove anything. Anyone could've stolen the toys I made and used them to kill her."
"That is true, Igna. Wait, I have an idea. How about if we try to piece together where Igna and Aida were throughout the day yesterday, and also go through everyone's alibis and whether or not they say them?" Matthew suggested.
"That sounds great. Anyways, I guess I should start. I saw Igna walking through the halls yesterday, and it seemed like Igna and Aida were walking side by side and talking about a monthly workout that Aida does. It sounds tough," Trevor said, all while spraying himself with cologne and running his hands through his perfect hair. Ugh, he's the worst.
"Wow, you're so perceptive, Trevor!" Amaterasu squealed out.
"Yes, I am." He winked at her, looking straight into her eyes as her cheeks turned pink.
"Oh please. If you were that perceptive, you would've heard your girlfriend coming and would've stopped before you were caught," I said, scoffing at him. He gave me a look of annoyance, and then I remembered my promise to him. I then put a strand of my hair behind my ear as the conversation continued.
"Now that we have that out of the way, did anyone see them last night?" Matthew placed his hands on his hips.
"I did." Suzanne raised her hand with a blank look on her face. "I saw Aida at about eleven o'clock in workout clothes heading towards the pool."
"I see. Did anyone see Igna out during that time?"
"No. But I did find a pink hair on the dresser where the bottle of poison was." Coralie pulled it out of her breast pocket and observed it thoroughly. "I didn't think much of it when I saw it, but I suppose it does match Igna's hair color."
"May I see that, Coralie?" Matthew asked.
"Oui, monsieur." She walked behind the podiums and gave it to him.
"Aha! This is the damning evidence we needed! This strand of hair proves that Igna handled the poison and put the poison on Coralie's dresser in order to frame her for your crime of killing Aida. Also, we saw that the fluff came from the toys you were making, so obviously you had a hand in this murder, even if you had an accomplice. What do you say to that, Igna?"
"I do see what you're getting at, but you have no real evidence that I killed her."
"True, but I'm sure if we took a look in the locker room, we would find several hiding places and at least one toy in those hiding places, waiting for someone to come and intimidate so then you could poison them. Monokuma, may we go to the locker room?"
"Sure, I don't mind. Let's go!" He headed to the locker room with the rest of us for whatever reason, and we looked around for a little bit until Hideki yelled out.
"Ow! It hit me!" The toy in question was creepy, with big eyes, a pink fluffy body, and a fake hammer in hand, smashing it down repeatedly. Matthew picked it up, his eyes gleaming.
"Yes! This is the final evidence I needed to condemn you to death, Igna!" His face was horrifying, and even scared me a little. I hope he's okay mentally. I did hear some rumors that he tortured a fellow archer a while back, but that can't be true, right? I continued to think as we headed back to the trial room.
"Why did you do it, Igna?" Jasmine asked through the typewriter.
"I... I did it because I was terrified of this game. I wanted to make sure my family was okay, and I... I just couldn't take it anymore!" Tears streamed down her face as Monokuma took his place at the big seat.
"It's Voting Time! Please use the levers on your podiums to cast your vote! Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?" We all voted for her as Igna continued to cry a river of tears. "Now let's give it everything we've got! It's Punishment Time!" Monokuma pressed the big red button with his gavel, and the execution began.
Igna was alone in a dark room when suddenly dolls popped up and started singing songs such as "Kagome, Kagome", Ring Around the Rosie", "Mester Jakob", "Une Souris Verte", and other songs like it. After a few minutes of this ominous singing, a cymbal was heard and a huge cymbal-banging monkey came up behind her. She looked around for an exit, but there were no exits. Igna turned around and saw the cymbal-banging monkey. Her eyes grew wide with fear as the monkey brought his cymbals together. When they came apart, her body was limp, and blood was running out of her head.
After a few seconds, people started leaving the trial room quietly, and I joined them as well. I went to my room, stripped my clothes off of my body, took a shower, and went to bed.
YOU ARE READING
Danganronpa 46: A Special World Tour
Mystery / ThrillerThis is my fanganronpa that I first started in high school and finished last year. It's a bit rough, but hey. It was my first big project. I'm really proud of it.
