Danganronpa: School Time!

Halloween Spirits

Hope's Peak Academy had some of the best festivals on the planet, filled with thousands of students having fun and celebrating. Halloween in particular was one of the most popular festivals of them all, since the school hounded out millions of yen worth of free candy every year to its students.

Sonia Nevermind looked around, awestruck by the culture of Halloween, her eyes sparkling with excitement at the thought of spending a celebrating evil spirits and serial killers.

As she strolled through the festival, taking in each decorated stand and each student with a sheet over their head pretending to be a ghost, a peculiar decoration caught her eye.

Gasping, Sonia ran over to it.

It was a large pumpkin, but an adorable face had been carved into it, and a candle placed in the middle.

"That's a jack-o-lantern," a voice from behind her said in a sweet voice.

"Oh, Miss Yukizome!" Sonia noticed, turning around, "I was just looking at this.. jack-o-lantern, you called it?"

Chisa Yukizome nodded, smiling widely and encouraging Sonia's curiosity.
"It comes from an old Irish legend of a man named Stringy Jack," Miss Yukizome explained, "the legend says that a man named Jack tricked the devil into turning into a coin to buy him a drink, but he wouldn't let the devil change back, by putting him near a cross in his pocket. Jack only let the devil go under the condition that the devil wouldn't take his soul once he died.

"The devil agreed, and when the day came that Jack died, God wouldn't let such a deceptive and sinful man like Jack into heaven. However, the devil wouldn't let Jack into Hell, either, because of their deal. Instead, the devil sent Jack off to wonder the earth in death, with only a candle to light his way. Jack put the candle in a carved out turnip, and ever since people have been carving potatoes, turnips, and pumpkins to scare Jack away."

Sonia's eyes lit up, and she put her hands together, exclaiming, "that's so wonderful! How is a deceptive spirit like Jack scared by something like a pumpkin? And why are people scared of Jack? And why pumpkins? I don't see any potatoes or turnips around here, what happened to those?"

Miss Yukizome smiled shamefully, "I'm afraid I don't actually know most of that, but I'm sure we can do some research and figure it out together some time soon."

"That would be wonderful," Sonia agreed happily, "I look forward to it greatly!"

"Have you tried any of the haunted houses?" Miss Yukizome asked, trying to find other things Sonia would be interested in.

"Haunted house?" Sonia asked, her eyes lighting up again. Chisa had never seen her so interested before, but she had always been fascinated with the occult, so it wasn't really too surprising.

"It's not a real haunted house," Miss Yukizome told her, "it's usually a small building or area set up by some of the other students. It's decorated to seem scary, and the students dress up to try to see if they can scare the other students."

"No, I haven't gone in one of those," Sonia answered, "but I would like to. Would you like to take me into a haunted house, Miss Yukizome?"

Miss Yukizome let out a small laugh, "as much as I would like to," she apologized, "I'm actually on my way to work in a stand, I just wanted to stop and talk to you."

"Oh, I see," Sonia said, sounding kind of sad, but she picked herself up quickly.

"I suppose I'll go in alone, it will probably be much scarier that way, won't it?"

No sooner had Sonia let the words escape her mouth, she felt a disturbance from behind her- knowing something unfortunate was going to happen.

"I'll be happy to take you, Miss Sonia!" an unmistakable voice from behind her spoke, "that way, if you get scared, I can protect you!"