Danganronpa: ReProgrammed

Ultimate Despair: Part 14 [Deadly Life]

"Ah, Master, you're here," Alter Ego greeted Chihiro as he left the Bio Lab, immediately noticing Chihiro's read face and pointing it out "are you ok? Your face is quite red? A fever?"

"N-No...No fever..." Chihiro felt his forehead "I'm just...a little hot..."

"But...you've just left a cold room..." Alter Ego stated.

"Whatever!" Chihiro brushed it off "in any case, we need to find a place to watch these DVD's. We need to figure out what's going on with them."

"May I suggest the AV room on the first floor?" Alter Ego asked.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Chihiro said "but before that...What about this hint that Monokuma gave you?"

Alter Ego actually hesitated for a moment, before he showed Chihiro what it was.

"Are you sure Master?" Alter Ego asked "remember, this hint is making Mondo and Taka look shifty..."

"Yes, but that's why I need to see it..." Chihiro said "I need to know what it is that's got them-"

"You don't understand what I mean," Alter Ego said "I didn't mean from how they were acting...Looking at this...I know you don't want to doubt your friends...but this paints them in a completely different light than what you thought..."

"Huh?" Chihiro asked "what do you mean...?"

Alter Ego refused to reply, but the Monokuma he was inside had an expression that simply said "it's your choice..." and they outstretched a paw. In the paw was what appeared to be a photograph. It was overturned, so Chihiro picked it up...and flipped it over...

And he let out a small gasp.

In it were faces that he recognized all too well. The faces of the people that he had come to school with...

Mondo...

Taka...

Mukuro...

Kyoko...

Leon...

Sayaka...

Toko...

Hina...

Hifumi...

Sakura...

Hiro...

Taeko...

...Makoto...

And Byakuya...

Not only that, there was an additional 15th student in the picture, however, due to the positioning of Taka's arm, it was hard to make out her face. All Chihiro could see was that she had blonde hair.

That must be the 16th student... Chihiro thought but...why!? This doesn't make sense, why is the 16th student there...no...in fact, why is EVERYBODY here...!?

The very fact that all of these classmates, dead or alive, were in the very same picture, made no sense. Not only that, but all of them were wearing some kind of uniform, one that Chihiro had never seen before. 

Upon a closer look however, Chihiro suddenly noticed...he was wrong...not everyone was in the picture...There was one person missing...

Himself...

Everyone in the 78th class, excluding Chihiro, were in the picture. It shouldn't have been that big a surprise that Chihiro wasn't in the picture, after all, he had no memory of taking it. On top of that, the photo couldn't have been taken prior to the killing game starting up. The first time that he'd ever met any of his classmates was in the entrance hall on the day the killing game started, in fact, with the exception of Sayaka and Makoto who knew each other from middle school, it was the same case as everybody else.