What would it be like in a world where the killing game went differently?
What would it be like if different people lived and different people died?
What would it be like...if this story...had an entirely different hero.
A rewrite of the original Da...
"Not everywhere..." Kyoko suddenly said. Chihiro stopped still in her tracks.
"Then...there's a place that he can't see?" she asked. Kyoko nodded.
"Do you remember what Taka said yesterday? What he uncovered when he searched the first floor?" Kyoko asked. Chihiro thought back to the previous day when everyone grouped back together to uncover the results of their investigation. Taka had quite loudly boasted "in the dormitory area, we now have access to a storage room, and a bathhouse..."
"He said he found a storage room and a bathhouse..." Chihiro reminded herself "what are you saying?"
"The bathhouse doesn't have any cameras. I did a thorough search for one and ended up with very little," Kyoko told her "if you're going to attempt to get the computer working and search for info, I suggest you do it there..."
"Thank you so much Kyoko!" Chihiro smiled, the hope returning to her ever so slightly "but...I would advise y-you don't expect too much of me..."
"Why not?" Kyoko asked "if anyone here can be trusted with computers, then you certainly can, right?"
"Well, it's like Byakuya said..." Chihiro sobbed "I'm weak...I can't-"
"Why would you have to be physically strong to use computers?" Kyoko asked.
"That's not what I mean!" Chihiro whined "I'm not strong, physically or emotionally! It's just the truth...and there's nothing I can do about it..."
"That's not true, is it?" Kyoko asked "after all, it takes an awful lot of strength to stand up to Byakuya..."
With these words, Kyoko turned and left the library, handing Chihiro the laptop and it's charger before she did. Chihiro didn't exactly know what to think of the conversations she'd just had...It was rare of Kyoko to show encouragement and affection...Although, thinking about it, maybe she has been encouraging this whole time...it might have just been hard to recognize.
That evening, Mondo Owada went to the cafeteria feeling slightly hungry after punching the wall several times in frustration, unable to put a dent in any of it...When he arrived, the only person there was Junko, sitting with her head in her hands, not even touching her dinner.
"Hey..." Mondo instinctively waved to her "you alright?"
"Are you?" Junko asked "no offence, but you kinda had a hissy fit earlier..."
"Yeah...that ain't anything new...I'm working on it..." he said, slumping down next to her. He stole a bit of her meal, but she clearly didn't mind. "I just get angered real easy...that ain't a good thing for morale..."
"I didn't think you were the type of person to care about morale..." Junko admitted "sorry for that..."
"Nah, I get it...but I'm just worried is all..." Mondo admitted back "I think I scared Chihiro...I ain't seen her all day since then..."
"I don't think it's your fault. If anything, it's Byakuya's for saying all that shit-talk to her when she didn't deserve it...He's an asshole...And Toko's a bit of a bitch too..." Junko scowled.
"You really don't like that chick, do you?" Mondo asked "not that it don't make sense...she's got a super ugly personality..."
"I know right...?" Junko asked "but it's like I said...I don't want her dead or anything...wishing for someone to die just isn't right..."
"Yeah, but sometimes you just can't help it..." Mondo told her "if it weren't for the laws of this killing game or society in general, Id've beaten the shit out of Byakuyass a long time ago..."
"*Srnk...* Byakuyass...good one..." she smirked "but I'm also worried about Chihiro...I hope she's ok..."
As this conversation was going on, Chihiro herself was privately hiding out in the bathhouse changing rooms. She'd asked Kyoko to guard the entrance in case anyone or Monokuma came in. If Monokuma caught her in the act, it would all be over, and Chihiro didn't know who out of the "student body" she could trust to keep the info a secret. Kyoko had obliged, clearly having a similar opinion.
With her expertise as a programmer, Chihiro began to examine the laptop. Her line of study more so catered towards computing than computers, meaning that she was more knowledgeable when it came to using computers than building or fixing them. However, she'd been a programmer since she was a child, and she knew computer components very well after so many years of study. She could at least give it a shot.
After fiddling around with the components of the laptop, she was successfully able to turn it back on. However, the screen was locked by an error message, that was preventing access.
"Hmph...who do you take me for...?" Chihiro jokingly boasted as she began to type a very complicated series of text into the computer. Within no time flat, she'd broken past the error message. After a few seconds, the home screen with all of the computers tabs loaded up, a bluish-white light invading Chihiro's retinas.
It's just as I thought... Chihiro thought to herself quietly this computer...it's my computer...the one that I packed with me when I first came to Hope's Peak...the one that I do most of my programming on...
Then again, the model of the computer should have given it away immediately. Chihiro may have been a digital expert, but she'd had the computer since she was a child, and it still worked wonders over any new models. While new models did have more options, old models like this one were much easier and much more fun to write code on, at least in Chihiro's opinion. Besides, with her knowledge, she could probably boost it's data storage, performance and other functions with relative ease.
Anyway, back to the laptop itself, the desktop had several icons lined neatly on it...
If that's not enough of a dead giveaway this is my laptop, I don't know what is... Chihiro thought to herself, recalling that she always liked to keep her tabs tidy. Not only that, but she also noticed that someone had changed the computers background. It was a blue, pixelated screen with a pixelated version of her face in the middle, like the icon that was on her rooms nameplate. However, as Chihiro scanned the screen, she suddenly spotted something on the side of the screen...
An icon that said... "Alter Ego..."
"Could...could it be...?" she said quietly to herself out loud.
The term Alter Ego would typically mean a secondary or an alternate personality, usually one that was created for personal reasons, like a pen name, or a stage name. An example could be David Bowie's androgynous Alter Ego, being Ziggy Stardust. A strange example, but an example nonetheless. However, to the Ultimate Programmer, the term had a very specific and very different meaning. She moved her cursor over the icon that said "Alter Ego" and with quiet excitement, clicked it...
The screen went dark for a brief moment, and then a few moments later, something popped up on it, and a voice came through the laptops speakers.
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