Dangan Heights - A Danganronpa Slice of Life Story

6 - Apology Chess

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kaede Akamatsu

"And it was pretty much the same situation with you!"

Makoto had just finished giving his... lengthy explanation of what happened. 

"So... Rantaro is still alive too?" I awkwardly tugged at my neck brace.

"Yep! And he didn't have to go through a punishment so he wasn't..." Makoto eyed my neck. "Well, he wasn't out for as long as you were."

"Out? How long was I unconscious?"

"Oh, not long, I'd say... a few days or so?" 

Suddenly, a terrible thought crossed through my mind. I turned to Makoto with a more serious look on my face.

"You said the killing game was all for a TV show, right?"

"That's right." Makoto nodded to me.

"Is there any way I could watch and see what's going on in there right now?"

"Yes, actually! Usually we have a few people monitoring the killing game with the TVs in the cafeteria-"

"Great, can you take me there?" I interrupted Makoto.

"Of course!"

I pushed against the bed, struggling to stand up. The second I rose up, my legs began to quiver, buckling under my weight. I stumbled back onto the bed. Makoto gave a gentle chuckle, then pulled a wheelchair out of the room's closet.

"You'll probably need this until you get all healed up."

Makoto helped roll me along to the cafeteria, where a few other people were gathered. There was a swirly haired girl in a red jacket, a lanky guy in a yellow jumpsuit, and a tie-wearing guy struggling to squeeze the last bit of yogurt out of a tube and sitting next to a laptop with a picture of a girl on it. The swirly haired girl locked eyes with me, flashed a huge smile, then ran up to hug me.

"Piano girl! You're doing okay!"

"Oh, thank you!" I couldn't help but smile at her concern. "It's Kaede Akamatsu, by the way."

"Good to know!" The girl stuck her hand out to me. "I'm Aoi Asahina, but you can call me Hina!"

I went to shake her hand. She had a much stronger grip than I anticipated, causing me to flinch a little. Makoto patted my shoulder and gestured towards Hina.

"She's the one who pulled you out of the killing game, you know."

"Hey!" Hina looked down, embarrassed. "No need to oversell it, I mean, it wasn't that hard."

"So this is the other survivor, eh?" Jumpsuit guy squinted at me. "I'm Kazuichi Soda. I'm sorta the tech guy around here."

The laptop screen lit up and the girl on it began speaking. "Oh, we're doing introductions? I'm Chiaki Nanami, and Kazuichi promised he'd build me a robot body one day."