Dangan Heights - A Danganronpa Slice of Life Story

16 - Chiaki the Human

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chiaki Nanami

"There! All done!"

I slammed a stack of random books onto the library's return desk. Komaru, the librarian waiting for me there, stared back at me with a baffled gaze.

"Already!? Didn't I just give you these a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm a fast reader!" I smiled. "Got any more books you think I should read?"

"Geez, at this rate, you'll have read through the whole library by next month!" Komaru chuckled.

She was right, I had been reading a lot lately. Since I didn't really grow up like everyone else, there was still so much about being human that I didn't know. I was programmed to be a helper AI disguised as the Ultimate Gamer, so the only topic I'm really fluent in is video games. Still, I always wanted to be human, so I had been frequenting the library to study up on human culture.

"Oh, hey!" Toko, who was previously busy stacking books, shot up. "Has she read through Harry Potter yet?"

"Yep!" I replied. "I think Chamber of Secrets was my favorite, but I also liked Prisoner of Azkaban a lot."

"I'm partial to Order of the Phoenix, but what do I know." Komaru mumbled.

Suddenly, Hajime burst into the door and slapped a DVD box down onto Komaru's desk.

"Hello, I'd like to return my copy of Pygmalion." Hajime cocked his head. "There weren't any pigs in it."

"Not if you count Dr. Henry Higgins!" Komaru looked back at Toko, and the two of them shared a laugh before realizing that no one else in the library heard nor understood their joke. 

"Wait, you guys have DVDs here!?" I gasped in awe.

"Second floor." Toko stated. "We don't have every movie in the world, but we've got the important ones."

"Oh my god, there's so many movies you've gotta see. Have you seen Casablanca yet?" Komaru asked.

"No, what's it about?" Hajime responded.

"I was asking Chiaki." Komaru shot him an odd look.

"Oh. What were you asking her?" Hajime said, not completely understanding what was going on.

"I haven't seen Casablanca." I said, answering Komaru's original question.

"Oh, cool, that makes two of us!" Hajime smiled at me.

"Here, Chiaki," Komaru said, handing me a DVD copy of Casablanca, "I'm sure they'd let you have a private screening of this at the movie theater if you ask them."

I thanked Komaru and went to make my leave, but as I turned to go, I found Hajime following closely behind me. When I turned around to look at him, Hajime had a look on his face like a confused yet excited puppy. 

"So, are we going to watch the movie or what?" Hajime had a huge smile on his face.

"Yeah. Let's go!" I found myself smiling at just the thought of hanging out with him.