The Hopebringer (Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc Naegami AU)

Chapter 4

Trigger warning for self harm at the end of this chapter. Ily all, stay safe, and I'm always an open ear if you ever need to talk.

Hifumi's face was covered in crimson, and sticking out of his neck was a screwdriver.

Nozomi's laughter seemed to have attracted the attention of Kyoko and Byakuya, because he heard the door open.

The second after, Monokuma's announcement interrupted them. "A body has been discovered!" He cackled. "After a certain amount of time, which you can use however you like, the class trial will begin! Please make your way to the pool room!"

Nozomi fell to his knees, the laughter making him gasp for breath. And then he was sobbing. He couldn't imagine how pitiful he looked like this.

"C'mon, Nozomi," Byakuya said, extending his hand. "The three of us have alibis, at least. You have no blood on you, meaning you can't be the killer if he just died."

"Yep," Kyoko frowned, touching Hifumi's hand. "He is still warm and his blood is still flowing. Meaning he was killed recently, about an hour ago, if my estimate is correct. We were all together at that point."

Nozomi reached a shaking hand towards Byakuya's, pulling himself up. The warmth of Byakuya's hand made Nozomi shiver. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

The smell of blood wafted through Makoto's nose.

He let out a loud scream at the sight of the body on the floor, and soon enough, the rest of the class rushed into the room. "Oh god," Hina cried, covering her mouth with her hand.

Toko passed out at the blood, and when she sprang back up, she giggled, tongue protruding from her mouth. "Gyahahah!" she laughed. "What a sight!"

Makoto was going to ask what was wrong, but before he could, Kyoko whispered into his ear. "She has DID as well. This is Genocide Jack. Or Jill, I suppose."

He shot Kyoko a grateful glance.

"Fat motherfucker's down!" Jill cackled.

"Hey, that's not the most polite thing to-" Hina tried.

"Yeah, but it's true," Jill laughed.

Makoto examined the room. On the floor sat Hifumi's body, in a pool of (presumably) his own blood.

In his neck, a yellow screwdriver. It looked incredibly familiar, and then he realized that it was. That was from one of the boys' toolkits, all but eliminating the girls from the crime.

He walked up to Kyoko. She was crouched by Yamada's head. "The body has two external injuries, and aside from the obvious, there is blunt force trauma at the back of his skull. It appears the death was not instantaneous. I did find this note clutched in his hand."

She uncrumpled the paper, smoothing it with her gloved hands. It only said one word. Yasuhiro. The handwriting was beyond messy, and it looked like it was written in a few seconds, tops.

Hifumi's hands were covered in blood, leading the note to be as well. The stained paper made Makoto sick to his stomach.

His eHandbook beeped, and Makoto read the Monokuma file. Time of death is approximately 7 pm. He was found in the pool room. Cause of death was a sharp object to the neck. Aside from the killing injury, he had a small wound on the back of his head from blunt force trauma.

Well, Makoto knew all of that already, didn't he?

He turned towards the door. With a jolt of discomfort, he noticed a large bloody handprint. He held his hand up, not touching the bloody print, but comparing sizes. It had to have been Hifumi's; the hand had large fingers and a big palm. It was much too big to be anyone else's.