Danganronpa V4 - Beyond Death

New Students

Sayaka turned around to face an all too familiar red-haired baseball player standing beside a shorter, chubbier boy who appeared to be wearing a chef's uniform. "Seriously, when are there going to be some more girls in this room. This is getting ridiculous," Sayaka said, her face flushed. Leon Kuwata, the boy that she tried to kill who then killed her, was standing in front of her. Byakuya also looked stunned, though Sayaka wasn't quite sure why. Leon approached her and touched his hand to her face, as though he wasn't sure she was real.

"Is that really you, Maizono?" Leon asked, almost afraid for the answer.

"It's me, Kuwata," Sayaka said, her eyes beginning to well up. As Leon began to cry too, she pulled him into a tight hug. They both started sobbing and apologizing to each other. While this reunion occurred, Byakuya gave Teruteru, the boy in the chef's uniform, a death glare.

"Togami, before you say anything, I need you to know it was an accident. I would never kill someone so attractive!" Teruteru said in fear, his southern accent mildly showing.

"Of course, I'm sure it was an accident. After all, I've 'accidentally' killed dozens of people before! That's totally reasonable!" Byakuya shouted, the sarcasm oozing from his voice and abruptly interrupting Sayaka and Leon's sobfest.

"No, you don't understand! Komaeda tricked me. He manipulated me into killing him for the sake of hope but you pushed him out of the way. I really didn't mean to kill you, I was trying to kill Komaeda. He's insane, I tell you!" Teruteru begged but Byakuya simply shrugged him off.

"So I assume whoever killed me is going to be showing up sometime soon," Rantaro commented. Everyone had been so caught up in reuniting that they hadn't even noticed Rantaro.

"Wait, you all were killed as well?" Byakuya asked Rantaro and Sayaka, who nodded in response. "And you two, you two were murderers?" Leon and Teruteru both hung their heads slightly in shame but they, too, nodded along. "Were all of you part of some killing game?" Byakuya questioned.

"Holy shit, I didn't even think about that. That sounds about right. What do you guys think the meaning of this is?" Leon's brain appeared to be functioning properly for a moment but promptly shut down when he realized he was dead. "Holy shit. Are you all dead?" As everyone nodded in response, he began to freak out. Running out of the room, he began to shout. "WE'RE ALL ZOMBIES." As he left the room, he ran into a pretty blonde girl with a pink top and black skirt and fell backwards.

"Hello? What's going on? I thought I was just executed," the girl noted as she scanned the room.

"So you were the one that killed me?" Rantaro was shocked as he left his corner of the room. "I have to admit, I didn't see that coming at all. I figured if anyone was gonna kill me, it would be Ouma or Iruma, but you, Akamatsu?"

"Amami, please let me explain. I set up this plan to figure out who the mastermind was, which obviously failed because we wouldn't be here otherwise. You got caught in the crossfire and I totally get it if you can't forgive me but please just know I am so sorry! You had so much more to live for, you were going to find your sisters! You didn't deserve to die and I'm so sorry for taking that away from you." Kaede broke down crying at the thought of her actions. She felt horrible for what she had done to Rantaro; she really thought it would work out in her favor. Rantaro began to laugh and swept away the tears on her face.

"Hey, it's totally fine. You were doing it for the good of the group. I get it. Sure, it sucks that I'm not alive, but here we are. For some reason. Which no one has been able to figure out yet," Rantaro chuckled. Rantaro was oddly nonchalant about the whole thing, which Kaede found suspicious but elected to ignore.

"So based on that comment, I think it's safe to assume that no one knows why we aren't dead and what we're doing here?" Kaede asked, snooping around in the same fashion that Byakuya had. Everyone nodded in agreement, causing Kaede to pick up a piece of chalk on a nearby desk. She began writing on the chalkboard while the other students looked at her in confusion.

"What are you doing?" Sayaka questioned, peeking at Kaede's writings.

"MEET US IN THE GYM. IT'S URGENT. SINCERELY, YOUR DEAD CLASSMATES"

"We're going to need all the help we can get if we wanna figure out what we're doing here. I assume that when other people die, which is definitely going to happen, they'll also be sent to this strange medium place. When that happens, they need to meet up with us and tell us everything they know about their individual killing game at the time. Maybe that can give us a clue about what we're doing here," Kaede responded, exiting the classroom. Byakuya ran out in front of her.

"Shouldn't someone stay here for new students?" He argued, though Kaede continued to keep her pleasant composure.

"You're absolutely right, Togami. In fact, since you were smart enough to think about that in the first place, I can't think of anyone better than you to place on new-student duty!" Kaede said as Byakuya huffed in discontentment. "You stay here and give the students a basic rundown of what's going on, tell them to meet us in the gym, and make sure to find out what killing game they're from."

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

A high-pitched voice came from a nearby classroom. "There's more students! We have to hurry. Hanamura, can I station you in the next room?" Kaede's wheels were turning. She had to find a way to get as many students to the gym as she could.

"Why, of course you can milady. How could I refuse a request from someone with such gorgeous curves!" Teruteru said with a smirk, eyeing Kaede. Kaede rolled her eyes and started giving out room assignments.

"There appear to be six classrooms. Togami's in the first, Hanamura said he'd take the second, Amami, you'll be taking the third, Maizono the fourth, I'll take the fifth, and Kuwata can take the sixth." Kaede gave out her instructions as she marched towards her room, waiting expectantly. "Something tells me we're going to have a very long morning.