Danganronpa Midnight: Lantern Lament (Fanganronpa)

Chapter 4 - A State of Uneasy Equilibrium - FTE: Yuna, Shouko

"Who...?" Shouko flipped the book over so she could see the front.

I peered over to get a better look at it myself, seeing a guy with bold golden eyes which accompanied his black hair which fell almost perfectly around his face.

Yet something felt off. It wasn't his pose or expression or whatever...just him in general.

How weird...

"Him..." Shouko hummed a reply when she realised who Kokoro was finally referring to. "I...guess that makes sense. He's alright."

"Well, that's better than nothing." Kokoro smiled, assuming Shouko was feeling slightly better after that brief interaction.

Shouko then closed the magazine once their conversation was over, putting the magazine in her pocket all folded up.

I quickly caught a glimpse of the magazine as Shouko recklessly twisted it. A page was covered in annotations, which just confused me further.

I suppose since this belonged to Aki, he must have really liked that guy.

Either that or these are Shouko's notes...but she doesn't really seem like the fashion magazine type.

"So that's interesting..." I mumbled to myself, keeping the image of this somehow random model in my mind.

There's still something about him that I can't quite put a finger on it.

Just before I could think and delve further into the rabbit hole, a certain someone walked in.

Who else could it be other than Ryoko?

She had her typical smile with a devious glint in her eye, yet something about Ryoko's expression was different.

Somehow...she seemed even more twisted.

Yet she hadn't even done anything yet today. So what could she be planning?

"Well, what a good morning to you all!" Ryoko greeted us, plastering a smile on her face in an attempt to act friendly.

"What do you want now...?" I sighed, already not in the mood. She seemed way too happy compared to the rest of us who were still unnerved from the motive yesterday. "How are you this happy so early? Nothing has even happened today..."

"Hm? Why? What's the problem? Am I not allowed to be happy, Chiyo?" Ryoko leaned forward so she was right in front of me with a grin.

"I never said that." I gritted my teeth.

"But since you're so concerned with my mood..." Ryoko ignored my response and addressed us all as she got to the end of the dining hall. "Then I shall tell you why I'm so content. The reason may shock you..."

"Just get on with it already." Satoshi sighed.

"Very well then. Thanks to my many hours of searching and analysing, I found the hidden room Monokuma announced," she admitted.

"H-Huh?!?" Kenjiro exclaimed. "Al...Already?"

"Why of course!" Ryoko chuckled, shaking her head at the psychologist. "Why in the world would I just laze about when there was a whole armoury and office for me to explore? Good thing the hint wasn't too hard to figure out. It only took me a couple of minutes to realise the answer." She smirked.

"No way." I crossed my arms and glared directly at her. "And why should we just believe you? This could just be Ryoko lying again to freak us out. My bet is that she-"

I was interrupted immediately by a horrifying noise. It was a blaring sound that invaded and harassed my eardrums the second it happened. When I slowly lifted my head, I realised exactly what the source of the sound was.