Danganronpa: Return of Despair

Chapter 2, Part 3

I woke up in the middle of the night to a gunshot, the sound of glass breaking, and a scream. More than one scream. I quickly got up and went to look outside my door. Zenshiro was pounding on Kaz's door in a panic. He noticed me and ran over.

"LET ME IN- LET ME IN-" He said in a rush.
"What happened?!" I asked.
"I- I DUNNO- I WAS OUT IN THE KITCHEN GETTING A DRINK BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE THEN- THEN THERE WAS THE-" He was panicking.
"Woah, slow down, where's your Mono-Pad?" I asked.
"I DROPPED IT WHEN I WAS RUNNING, AND MY GLASS, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO-" He kept trying to get in, "JUST PLEASE LET ME IN-"
"Okay, okay-!" I let him in and closed my door behind me.

He ran over and hid in a corner. I walked over to him, making sure my door was locked. Zenshiro was hyperventilating. I ran over to him.

"Are you alright? No, that's a dumb question, you're panicking," I didn't know what to do.
Zenshiro shook his head, "NO- NO NO-"
"Hey, hey, you're okay now, you're safe in here," I patted his shoulder, "Here, c'mere,"

I pulled him into a hug, he started sobbing. I patted his back.

"You're gonna be okay, you're not dead so that's a good sign," I reassured him.
"O-Okay," He nodded, "I need to find my Mono-Pad,"
I sighed, "Right. We should try to wake up Kaz,"
"That- That's a good idea," Zenshiro nodded.

We walked out of my room, Zenshiro stayed very close to me, he was gripping onto my shirt. We got to Kaz's door and I knocked.

"Kaz, are you awake?" I asked through the door.

I heard the door unlock, Kaz peaked out, she also seemed terrified.

"What do you want?" She asked.
"We need to find Zenshiro's Mono-Pad, he dropped it somewhere when he was running away from the gunshot," I explained.
Kaz almost shrunk behind her door, "I..are you asking me to come with you?"
"Yeah, we need you, you're the toughest one out of all of us," Zenshiro nodded.
"I think whoever it was is gone by now," I added.
"Okay, I'll come with you," She sighed.

Almost everyone was out of their rooms, we were all confused. We walked around looking for Zenshiro's Mono-Pad. We found in front of the staircase to go to the second floor.

"How did it get over here?" I asked.
"I'm not sure-" Zenshiro backed up a little, "I don't like this,"
"It's okay," I picked up his Mono-Pad and handed it to him.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Positive," I nodded.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT-?!" Kaz pointed at the staircase. It looked like there was something hanging off of the rail above.

A few others heard her and flocked over, then our eyes focused to the slightly dimmer lighting and we could see, it was a body. There were a few screams and some people ran away.

"WH-WHO IS IT-?" Zenshiro backed away.
"I really don't wanna know-" I started backing away as well.

Kaz walked up the stairs to get a closer look. She came back down quickly, she fell on her back against the wall.

"IT- ITS SEIKO," She shook her head, "ITS FUCKING SEIKO,"
"WHAT?!" Zenshiro and I were both shocked.

An announcement went off on the speakers again.

"Ahem, a body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time, which you can use however you would like, the class trial will begin!" Monokuma's voice announced over the speakers, before cutting out once again.

"Why...didn't you say it was gonna be okay..?" Zenshiro asked.
"It- It will be okay-" I shook my head, "We just have to...find out who killed her,"
"This is hopeless," Shichiro sighed.
"It's not hopeless! We can still get out of here," I didn't know if I believed myself anymore.
Koki placed a hand on my shoulder, "Hey, Mamoru, it's okay, we can get through this, we won't lose anyone else after this trial,"
"Yeah..." I nodded.

A few people walked away, feeling hopeless. I sighed. I had to investigate the scene still. I had Koki to help me still. Takahiro walked over, she quickly wrote something in her notebook.

"Even if we can't save everyone, we can still try to solve this to save as many of us as we can!" She smiled with her eyes.
"Thanks, Takahiro," I smiled, "Okay, if no one else wants to help us, we can do this ourselves,"
"Right," Koki nodded.

We started investigating. There wasn't much to see on the first floor, but there was a few bullets on the ground. Maybe they came from the killer being sloppy. I took note of that and headed upstairs. The body was only held by one rope, it had a pretty tight knot. I took note of that as well. There wasn't much evidence left behind by the killer. All we had was Zenshiro's Mono-Pad and his alibi, the bullets, and the rope with the knots. Does anyone here even have a gun in their possession? I sighed and went back downstairs.

"We can ask around for alibis," I suggested.
"That seems like a good idea, especially since it was recent," Koki nodded.

Takahiro nodded as well and we were off. We found Isamu first, she was sitting in the middle of the hall.

"Isamu, have you been up this whole time?" I asked.
"Nope, just woke up because of the gunshot," She shrugged, "I don't have anything to say about it,"
I sighed, "Well, do you have any evidence for anything?"
"Nope," She shook her head.
"Ah, I see," I walked away with the others, "Dead end,"
"Yeah, I didn't expect much from her," Koki shrugged.

We continued walking and landed back at the dorm hallway. Kaz's door was still open a little, I figured she would be in there with Zenshiro, he probably knew something. I went to open the door, but I overheard a conversation they were having. It was somewhere in the middle, they definitely didn't just start talking.

"It's most definitely a lost cause," Kaz sighed.
"So should we before it's too late?" Zenshiro asked.
"I mean," Kaz laughed a little, "I would love to, but,"
"No more buts, give me a straight answer," Zenshiro interrupted her.
She sighed again, "Alright then, yes,"
"Really?" His voice sounded like it perked up.
"Yeah, really," Kaz laughed a little again.

I accidentally leaned on the door, causing it to open. I stared at them, they stared at me.

"Um, apologies-" I nervously laughed.
"How much did you hear?" Kaz asked frantically.
"I- Barely any, I just have to ask some questions about what Zenshiro saw-" I felt slightly threatened.
"The case is hopeless," Kaz crossed her arms, "But he's open for questioning,"
"I- I didn't sign up for this-" Zenshiro laughed.
"You need to take this seriously. Please." I sighed.
"Alright fine, ask away," He said.
"So, you got a glass of something from the kitchen when you got a drink?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was water, I was bringing it back to my room," He nodded.
"So it's gotta be near the dining hall exit, then that's probably where your Mono-Pad was and where they picked it up from," I nodded, "Thanks for the answers,"
"Wait, Mamoru," Kaz stood up, "What exactly did you hear?"
"Uh, I don't really remember much, but something about some agreement or something?" I was confused, but that's about all I got.
"Of course," She sighed.
"Wait, what did you agree on? Now I'm curious," I laughed a little.
Kaz sighed, "If we're all gonna die, there's really no point in not telling you,"
"You're jumping to conclusions too fast, but go on," I nodded.
"We decided to be together, like, romantically," Kaz sighed, "It's a win-lose situation, but the lose side is looking more prominent,"
"Y- You guys are DATING now?!" I asked.
Zenshiro nodded, "Yup!"
"Are you going to actually try to help in the trial then?" I asked, hopefully.
"If there's more of a chance for us to survive, then yeah," Kaz nodded.
"Alright, I'm gonna go look at the other evidence," I waved and left.

Koki and Takahiro were outside the door, they heard the whole conversation, but had no comments. We went to go investigate the kitchen. There were more clues there. They weren't probably from the killer and Zenshiro. The broken glass was there, so that's true, but there were some wet footprints leading to the body and down the dorms hallway. That was strange. I took note of that. Monokuma made an announcement again.

"Your time is up! Please meet by the red doors again for the class trial!" He cut the announcement.

I guess it was time to go. I wasn't prepared at all, I didn't even have a good suspect in mind. This killer definitely knew what they were doing. We all met at the red doors and went in once again, standing at our podiums.