Living Danger

Chapter 2 - Daily Life 4/4

After spending some time staring at the ceiling, Ren decides he should look for someone to talk to. His first choice would be Kaida, but he doesn't want to disturb her while she's taking care of Kagami.

It had been two days since Monokuma announced the motive, and Ren had used the days to get some alone time to recharge, but now he felt like socializing again. Tatsuya and Yukiji had fallen ill too and Yuna was helping Kaida to take care of them along with Ichiro.

While walking aimlessy through the hallways, Ren encounters Reiji. He looks a bit anxious.

Ever since they went exploring on the first day and investigated the first... death, Ren got along surprisingly well with Reiji, despite the latter's hyper attitude.

"Hello, Watanabe-kun." Ren greets the pink head. Then he frowns "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Reiji sighs "This disease just terrifies me."

'That's understandable.' The ravennette thinks to himself.

"Anyway, Kimura-kun, do ya want somethin'?"

Ren shrugs "I just wanted to talk."

Reiji grins and lazily folds his arms behind his head "Okay then, what do you wanna know?"

After a moment of thinking Ren asks "Hey, I've been wondering, how did you get into rapping?"

The pink head's grin falters a bit and he drops his arms "Actually, my ex-girlfriend taught me."

"Oh, I'm sorry to bring it up."

"It's okay, you didn't know." Reiji smiles and brushes it off.

'This is the first time I've seen Watanabe-kun so... sincere.' Hestitating at first, Ren decides to ask the next question anyways "Would you mind telling me why you broke up?"

"I don't mind, but it's a bit of a long story. To keep it short, she cheated."

"That's horrible!"

Reiji shrugs "No regrets, if she didn't cheat I would've probably stayed with her 'til now, and let me tell ya, she wasn't the kindest person to be 'round."

"I'm very sorry, Watanabe-kun."

"It's fine. It's all in the past." Reiji grins again "It was nice talkin' to you. We should chat again sometime."

After agreeing, Ren walks off again and decides he should see how Seiichi is doing.

The chess player knocks on the black door that leads to Seiichi's lab. Said boy lands in front of him on the ground.

"Hello, Kimura-kun, how can I help you?" The purple head asks.

"I was wondering how you're doing after... you know..." Ren admits.

Seiichi nods, indicating that he understands. A faint smile reaches his eyes "I appreciate the concern, but I'm okay. Matsui-san has been helping me a lot. She's really kind."

For some reason, a part of Ren doesn't like that Kaida has been spending so much time with Seiichi, but he quickly pushes it away. She has a reason to do so and she's probably the best for the job, since she got along rather well with Chuya and is an understanding person.

"How about we just talk." Seiichi suggest after a beat of silence "Go ahead and ask something."

"Well, there's one thing I'd like to know. Why are you so afraid of physical contact with girls?"

"Oh, that's because my mother and a close friend died protecting me, I can't touch any girl without seeing those images again." The purple head admits.

"I'm sorry, that must be terrible."

"It is, but I can handle it." Seiichi sighs "But there are times when I still wish I would've taken Seto-san's hand when she was dragged away, but I was too scared. I'd like to have said goodbye to her."

'Man, I wish Matsui-san were here, she would've known what to say.'

The two of them just awkwardly stand there until they go seperate ways again. While walking past a classroom Ren glances at the clock, he still has quite some time left so he'd better find some other people to 'socialize' with.

The next person he encounters is Naomi.

'Not the most social person I know, but hey, why not?' Ren walks towards her "Good afternoon, Endo-san."

She 'greets' him with a glare, which is kinda scary considering she's rather tall "What do you want?"

Ren shrugs "I just wanted to talk to you."

Naomi scoffs "What a waste of time." She sighs "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Who taught you how to hunt?"

"My uncle."

"When did he start teaching you?"

"I was nine."

Ren is taken a back for a moment "That's young, were you parents okay with you carrying a rifle at that age?"

The hunter shrugs "Who knows. They're dead."

"I'm sorry, Endo-san."

"It doesn't matter."

"Well, at least you still have your uncle, right?"

"He's dead too."

'Awkward.' Ren sweatdrops 'Someone, please save me from my life of social awkwardness...' He takes a breath "Do you have any living relatives?"

"I have a sister."

"Is she older or younger than you?"

"Six years younger."

Since he has ran out of questions that couldn't potentially get him killed, Ren says goodbye to Naomi, who seems rather happy to finally see him leave, and decides to read a bit in the library.

The library is completely empty. Ren grabs a random book from the shelf and opens it. He notices that it's the same book that Kagami showed him and Kaida when they first explored this floor. Without thinking he goes back to the page with information about the 78th class and starts memorizing it.

~*~

The morning announcement wakes Ren up in the morning. At breakfast they notice that it seems like no one has fallen ill today, much to their relief. However, the condition of the others is getting worse. Kagami now barely wakes up to eat or drink before she falls back into her endless slumber again.

He doesn't get to relax in his room for long. Someone frantically knocks on his door.

"Who thinks it's a good idea to disturb my alone time?" Ren mutters to himself before opening the door "Hey, this thing has a doorbell, you-"

He stops in the middle of his sentence when he notices Kaida's red eyes. She's still wiping away her tear stains and her breathing seems irregular.

"Ueda-kun... He's..." She doesn't even need to finish her sentence.

Bing bong, dong ding!

"A body has been discovered. Please assemble in the Ultimate Ninja Lab."

Without thinking Ren grabs Kaida's hand and drags her along to the lab. Despite the fact that the calligrapher is clearly upset, she does her best to keep up.

Even though he knew it beforehand, that doesn't make the scene worse.

Seiichiis lying flat on his back with his limbs stretched out. His eyes are wide open and,most important, dead.