DANGANRONPA V2: ECLIPSE

Chapter 6: The Fires

Rantaro and Ahmya both wore worried expressions as Ruji and I rushed to the lodge. Rantaro had been pacing back and forth, still clearly distraught over losing the tape, while Ahmya was watching the windows. The look of relief in the ultimate arsonist's eyes once she saw us felt was like seeing a mask come down.

"You're okay," she said, throwing the doors open and waving us in. "Did you hear the body discovery announcement?! What happened?! The monopads won't tell us anything!"

I had never seen Ahmya so relieved. Rantaro on the other hand was silent. He stopped his pacing and looked at us. 

His eyes softened slightly as soon as he looked at me. 

"It's Daiki, isn't it?" he asked. 

"Daiki?" Ahmya asked. "What's going on?! Suki, you're crying!"

Was I?

I brought a hand to my face. Surely enough, there was a single tear, stuck to my cheek. Just like the one that was stuck to Daiki's. 

Just like the single tear that killed him. 

"Daiki's dead," I breathed, the words coming out of my mouth before I could stop and think of a gentler way to phrase it. "Daiki's dead, and Kichiro's lost it. We couldn't even find Yuuki."

There was a heavy silence in the air. Rantaro remained still as Ahmya placed her hand over her mouth. There was a heartbroken expression in her eyes that I wasn't used to. 

"So Yuuki did it, then?" Rantaro asked after a long pause, furrowing his brows. His voice shook slightly, but he hid his grief well. Aside from Kichiro, Daiki's death must have hit Rantaro harder than anyone else. Rantaro was the one working with him from the start. Or, at least that's what I assumed. Before me, Daiki said there was one person working with him to help figure out the secrets of the killing game. That one person was either Kichiro or Rantaro, and as close as Daiki and Kichiro were, I had a feeling the ultimate spy or detective or whatever he was turned to none other than the ultimate adventurer for help in the beginning. Rantaro was just better suited for these secretive kinds of missions. 

"Yuuki?" Ahmya asked. 

"Yeah," Rantaro said. "Ruji, Suki, and Kichiro must have discovered the body, right? So that only leaves Yuuki-"

"He set the band off himself," Ruji said, tapping his bracelet shakily. "His forbidden action was crying."

Ruji's hands shook slightly. He stifled a sob and tucked his now-dead flashlight back onto his belt. I made a mental note to get him new batteries once this was over. If the end was even near. Could we even win without Daiki around?

"Jesus," Ahmya muttered, shaking her head. "So what now, then?! What do we do?!"

I shook my head, unable to come up with any place to start. I had to explain everything we saw. I had to tell them about Daiki, but where would I even begin? Would they believe me if I told them what we saw from the tape?! If Rantaro found a way to watch the tape beforehand and told me all this, I certainly would have had trouble trusting his word. Everything we saw messed up what we thought we knew about Project Reset, the world, the killing game, and ourselves! Were we even real ultimates?

Suddenly the bracelets all powered down and fell off our wrists. I gasped and grasped at my now bare wrist, confused.

"W-what's happening?!" Ruji stuttered, grasping his own wrist as well.

"Well, we don't have a need for a trial now, do we?" Monokuma chimed, appearing with a giggle as he always did. 

I turned to face him and clenched my fists slightly.