Danganronpa: ReProgrammed

To Survive: Part 4

"You know, the longer we spend trying AND failing to bust down this big ass door, the more pissed off I get here!" Leon yelled, punching the large iron door. As of the morning, Leon and Mondo had gone down to the entrance hall to attempt another jab...or several jabs...at the large iron door encasing them within the school. 

"Gah! I know that! I'm the fucking same!" Mondo kicked the door in anger "but I ain't smart enough to think with my head! I just use my fists all the time!"

"At least you're honest...but if we keep punching the door, our fists will bleed!" Leon snapped "and throwing shit at it isn't working either..."

"So what, you're giving up?!" Mondo snapped

"Fuck no!" Leon snapped back "no fucking way I'm gonna stay here for the rest of my life!" As he had this outburst, Leon sighed and sat down, his back leaning up against the large iron door that he and Mondo had failed to put a dent in. "Hey..." he said "you know what you said yesterday...about how you can't die here? 'Cause you got a lot of promises that you gotta keep?"

"Yeah, I said that..." Mondo was confused at his sudden curiosity "why?"

"Well, I got something similar, which means I can't just accept what Celeste said...I can't just live here..." he explained "the difference is it's not my promises that are making me wanna escape. There's jack shit to do here, and if I'm trapped in here, I can never fulfill my dreams..."

"Your dreams?" Mondo asked, casually sitting down next to him. Leon nodded.

"I said this when we first met, but while I'm good at baseball, I don't wanna do that as a career. To be honest, I wanna be a musician and vocalist, and have my own band!" he declared.

"Oh yeah?" Mondo asked "you any good at music?" When he asked this, Leon paused for a moment and then sighed, an awkward smile on his face.

"If I'm being honest...If I played for you, you'd probably hate it..." he said "I'm pretty trash right now...but that's why I gotta escape! So I can learn and get better! I'm dead serious about this!"

"Dreams, huh?" Mondo considered "then...for the sake you your dreams and my promises, we're gonna get outta here. Together. And alive. Got it?"

Leon nodded, and the two of them bumped fists, ready to take another shot at the iron door.

"Well, this is an interesting group..." Junko pointed out after investigating the school shop area, coming out into the hallway to see Aoi, Sakura and Toko together investigating "didn't take you guys to be investigating buddies..."

"D-Don't get the wrong idea...!" Toko stammered "these musclebrains are dragging me around against my will...!"

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Hina snapped "yesterday, you were being so gloomy about no one inviting you to come investigate, so I did you a favor!"

"I-I never said I WANTED to go investigate!" Toko growled "i-i-it's the thought th-that counts...! If I h-hang around you musclebrains, I-I'll become one m-myself! Just leave me alone!"

With that, she stormed off. Junko just looked after her, frowning and shaking her head.

"Well, at least you tried..." she tried to comfort Hina. Hina didn't seem to need the comfort though. She looked less upset as she did simply confused.

"Should I...go after her?" she asked. Sakura placed her hand on Hina's shoulder and shook her head.

"Leave her be Hina," she said "I doubt whatever you say will convince her to return. Being any more forceful would be fruitless, especially since it's Toko..."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right..." Hina shrugged and sighed.

"You guys are like oil and water..." Junko smiled in exhaustion "guess I can replace her in the meantime..."

"Hm? What's this?" Makoto asked himself, picking up something from the gym entrance trophy cabinet "a sword?"

"It looks like a practice sword..." Sayaka, who was with him, answered "be be careful with it..."

"Well, whoever made this has unique taste..." he said, running his hand up and down the hilt "this thing's been guilded top to bottom...tip to hilt...Yikes!"

"What's wrong!?" Sayaka staggered back, worried that he'd hurt himself, but Makoto showed her his hand. A bunch of gold leaf was stuck to it.

"I hardly even touched it and my hand's covered in the gold leaf it's painted with," Makoto affirmed "looks like it comes off really easily..."

"It's not stained your hand or anything, has it?" Sayaka asked. Makoto shook his head.

"Nah, it's easy..." he said, brushing it off his hand with his other hand "still though, aside from that, you think this is good?"

"Well, I don't really want to get my hands messy, but...I suppose it's good enough..." Sayaka replied. Truth be told, the Ultimate Pop Sensation and the Ultimate Lucky Student had gone to this location in hopes of finding some sort of item to use to defend themselves. Sayaka had convinced Makoto to come with her after telling him she was nervous about the people behind the kidnapping coming after them in the night, and wanted something to fight them off with.

"You know what? You can keep it..." Sayaka smiled at him "your rooms pretty empty so far, right? Maybe it could make for some quirky interior design? Just wrap it in newspaper of something when you take it back..."

"Hey, don't just decide for me whether or not I'm taking this thing back to my room..." Makoto sighed "but alright, I guess this thing's mine now...What about you? What have you got?"

"Well...not much..." she said "to be honest, that sword's about all there is around here..."

"Well, don't worry about that..." Makoto awkwardly scratched the back of his head "if push comes to shove...I...I can protect you myself..." Sayaka was rather taken aback by this claim, but played with her hair and blushed.

"Th-Thank you Makoto...I'll hold you to that...If I've got you on my side, then I don't need a weapon..."

After her coffee that Taka had so kindly given to her, Chihiro returned to her room and simply sat up in her bed, staring at the walls. With the energy burning up in her, she came to a realisation. She couldn't just sit in here and mope all day. To escape required cooperation. And to cooperate, she would have to get to know her new friends a little better...

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