The morning after Monokuma revealed the motive, they don't find anyone's corpse, sending a wave of relief through them. Naomi still shows the same hostility, so that hasn't changed yet.
After beating Kaida at another game of chess Ren is wandering around the building. He finds Tatsuya in the library sitting at a desk, he seems to be thinking since he isn't looking at the book in front of him.
"Is something on your mind, Suzuki-kun?" Ren asks.
"Huh? Oh hello, Kimura-kun." Tatsuya greets him while Ren sits down on another chair near the same desk "I was just trying to figure out who could be the mastermind. It obviously can't be someone who's already dead, the game would've ended already if that were the case." He turns to Ren again "You changed a lot."
"Really? How?"
"When we first met, you weren't able to tell if I had something on my mind." Tatsuya smiles "I guess spending so much time with Matsui-san made you able to notice someone's feelings, huh?"
"Hm... Now that I think about it, I guess you're right." Ren admits "I suppose Kaida's empathy rubbed off on me a little."
Tatsuya hums in agreement "She seems to be a genuinly good person, those people are very rare."
"Are they? Yamasaki-kun seems like a good person too, but that may be his child-like wonder."
The green head chuckles "Right, I meant more like someone who is emotionally pretty mature, without losing their kindness and faith in others."
"Arita-san was very bossy, but she meant well, didn't she?" Ren points out "You seem to be a good person too, Suzuki-kun."
He shakes his head "I don't consider myself to be a good person. I've done some pretty bad things." Before Ren can ask he continues "I'm surprisingly good at making people do what I want, if I hadn't rejected that 'talent' I think I could be scouted as the Ultimate Manipulator rather than the Ultimate Archaeologist."
"But you rejected it, so that means you must've used it, right?" Ren realizes.
Tatsuya nods "Yes, I used it. I was a bully when I was younger. But not the kind that beats someone up. I'd convince everyone else to dislike the person I disliked, so other usually did the beating up and insulting, but it was actually my fault, yet no one thought so. I didn't realize how messed up it was, until one of my victims pointed it out. And yet, she held no grudge. I didn't even know her, but I urged others to bully her too, because I didn't like her. The kindness she showed me made me realize something, no matter how much you dislike someone at first glance, that doesn't give you any right to mess with their lives, because you don't know why they are a certain way. As I grew older I realized how terrible the things I've done were, and I didn't want anything to do with my natural ability to manipulate others anymore."
"You were able to realize your mistakes and try to correct them. That's pretty impressive."
"I shouldn't have made them to begin with. When I told my parents they decided that it would be better if I went to live with my grandfather for a while, he was an archaeologist."
"So I guess he introduced you to archaeology?"
Tatsuya nods "I think it was good for me. I allowed me to be proud of something I was good at."
"That's pretty important."
Once the silence becomes a little too awkward Ren leaves the library. It's almost nighttime anyways.
~*~
The next morning no one has died. The deadline is getting closer. If no one dies before nighttime all of them will be executed by Monokuma. Ren can only think of one way to ignore his nerves and that's distracting himself by socializing.
As if Maeko can read his mind "Kimura-kun, let's hang out!"
"Sure. Why do you want to hang out all of a sudden?" Ren asks the hyper redhead.
"Because I fucking can." She responds. It's pretty obvious that Maeko is nervous too. She probably wants to distract herself. She drags the chess player to her lab "I'm gonna show you how fire breathing works."
'It seems she's already decided, huh?'
"Okay. You put flammable liquid in your mouth and basically just spit it out into the fire of a torch or something." Maeko beams before doing that "See?" She grins with pride.
"Isn't that liquid poisonous?" Ren questions.
"Unless you're a fucking moron, you don't swallow it." Maeko huffs and rinses her mouth with water. Whoever built this lab was smart enough to put a sink here.
"That's still pretty dangerous though." Ren muses while Maeko just shrugs "I suppose you're someone who takes a lot of risks, huh?"
"I'm a little reckless. You only live once after all." She responds "If I wanna try something I just say fuck it and try it."
"Do you have tattoos because of that mentality?"
"Yes and no." Maeko shows her right arm "Look, the skin is a bit uneven here. When I first tried fire breathing I burned myself. I don't like people staring at shit that's none of their business so I decided to cover it up. Tattoos seemed pretty cool so why the fuck not?"
"You burned yourself and you're still not afraid of fire?" Ren asks with wide eyes.
Maeko shrugs "I was a fucking idiot for using my dad's supplies without his knowledge. It's my own fault for being stupid, not the fire's."
"So your father is a firebreather too, huh?"
"Yup, my parents work in a circus. They met there, fell in love, had me, you know the stories." Maeko brushes it off "The only reason I'm an Ultimate and he's not is because I'm so fucking reckless that I try a lot of new things with fire."
"I see."
"You know, you're one of the few people who isn't terrified the moment I breathe fire. Hell, even Matsui-san kept holding a fire extinguisher."
"It's normal that people are scared of that much fire." Ren points out "The only reason I trust you with this is because you're the Ultimate Firebreather, so you probably know what you're doing."
"Fair enough." Maeko admits "Yamasaki-kun refuses to set foot in my lab. When I asked him why, he told me his house burned down. So I guess it's only fair that he's terrified of fire." She seems to realize something because she facepalms "Fuck, I don't know if I should've said that. Please pretend that you didn't hear that."
Ren raises and eyebrow "Okay, I guess."
"Thanks." Suddenly Maeko stiffens "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I heard something heavy falling downstairs. Come on!" Maeko rushes out of her lab.
Ren quickly shakes the feeling off, but he knows something is wrong. Nothing is just going to fall by itself.
Maeko opens the door to every room on the floor they're previously on. Haru's lab is empty and so are all the other rooms, but Naomi is in her lab.
The cyan-haired female narrows her eyes "What do you want?"
"I don't have fucking time for you, bitch! Something fell and I wanna know what!" Maeko yells before rushing to the next floor.
Naomi adjusts her rifle "I'm coming."
They move to the floor above the one they were previously on. Every room is empty, since the labs used to belong to people who are already dead. When they enter the library the find the source of the sound Maeko heard.
A piece of rope is hanging over one of the wooden beams in the library, but what's worse is what's exactly underneath the beam. Tatsuya is already standing there, eyes wide in horror and clearly paralyzed by the shock.
Ginjiro is lying in a puddle of his own blood, there's a stab wound on his chest and his neck is twisted in an odd angle.
He's obviously dead.
Bing bong, dong ding!
"A body has been discovered. Please assemble in the library."
YOU ARE READING
Living Danger
FanfictionWhat are you going to do when you're locked up with your fifteen classmates in a building and the only way out is by killing one of them? This is the question the students of the 94th class of Hope's Peak Academy have to ask themselves when they're...
