Danganronpa: String Theory (DrV3)

1.4 - Third Time's a Charm

"You'll do what? ...Prairie, you're not seriously considering fighting me, are you?" Rantaro gapes slightly at me in shock, looking just a bit put off at the idea. After eyeing me for a moment though, he frowns a little. "...Something tells me you wouldn't do that."

Egging me on, huh? I think, feeling my cheeks turn red as I narrow my eyes. I think this is when Rantaro realizes how dead serious I am, causing his own eyes to narrow.

"Fine. Go ahead, Prairie. Hit me. It won't change anything I've said, because I know I'm right about everything," Rantaro accepts, much to my discomfort. He's only saying that because he thinks I won't!

Well then...!

I'm sure everyone watching doesn't actually expect me to do it either.

My hand balls up into a fist and with a speed and force even I don't expect from myself, my fist connects with Rantaro's face as hard as I can possibly muster. 

As soon as I've gone with proving him wrong, I step back once his head whips to the side from the force, watching him cautiously. He staggers a little before finding his footing, reaching up and rubbing his jaw in thought as a red mark forms from where I'd hit him.

...

Oh my god, did I really just go and punch Rantaro? I think in mild horror as I absorb what's just happened with guilt growing in my stomach. I seriously just punched Rantaro. Right in the face. Oh my god.

"...That's one hell of a swing you have," he actually surprises me by laughing, dropping his hand and pushing some hair out of his eyes to look at me and...smile. Why is he smiling at me after what I just did? It's...it's annoying... "You feel better?"

...

I grab my hair and cover my face in horror when I feel tears of guilt spring to the corners of my eyes. The one person I've bonded with the most in this terrible place and I went and punched him, even after all the kindness he's shown me since our first meeting- and yet he's worried about how I feel...?

"What is wrong with you...?" I grumble weakly from under all my hair, before he steps forward and pulls me into a warm hug. "I just punched you in the face, you're supposed to be mad and never speak to me again..."

"Mm, sometimes things don't go the way we plan or expect it to, now does it?" Rantaro says, before I finally let out a heavy breath and hug him back.

"...I'm sorry I punched you," I apologize in a whimper against his sweater, feeling my face turn redder as I try to will the tears in my eyes from falling and ruining his clothes. I've already ruined them enough, as far as I'm concerned.

"That's okay. I forgive you," he doesn't hesitate to answer, before I eventually deem myself well enough to lift my head.

"...By the way, you are right. Korekiyo, Gonta, Kiibo, Kokichi, you, and I met two other separate times for the first time already. Being the only one that remembers puts it into perspective... I just wasn't supposed to say because-" I start, looking up at him so our eyes meet.

Rantaro almost looks relieved by my admission, as if he were expecting me to keep denying it. Before he can say anything else however-

"Again?! You must really have a death wish, little missy!" The red bear snaps loudly, seeming to have spontaneously appeared next to Rantaro and I. He's so loud that the other people that hadn't been watching us before now have their eyes directed our way. "You need to mouth shut."

...What?

"Silly Monotaro!" Another bear appears much to my surprise, this one half pink and half white with a little white flower at their left ear and a bra of coconuts with a flower design over each cup. It sounds like the voice of the first pink accented mecha Rantaro and I encountered the first time we'd woken up. "It's 'you need to shut your mouth!' And that you do, you little ugly bastard!"