Danganronpa: Memento Mori

Chapter 5, Part I

Chapter 5: Where Angels Fear to Tread, Part I (Daily Life)

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My immediate memories are a bit of a blur right now.

In fact, I don't even know why I'm still in the infirmary.

After all, Daigo's still bedridden after what happened yesterday. Alive, yes, but bedridden.

From what I heard, Ayane's been keeping vigil over him all night. Thank goodness she managed to retrieve a defibilrator before it was too late. I bet she's tired after everything. Especially when Monokuma was waiting silently in front of the bed he was laid on, in the same room.

...

Ayane: (yawn) Kaori...?

Kaori: Yeah?

Ayane: Why are you still here? Didn't Monokuma say that the fifth floor had opened up?

Kaori: I want to say thanks for preventing yet another death.

Ayane: Looks like he's waking up now. Thankfully.

Kaori: Yeah. Thank goodness.

Daigo's eyes flittered awake. He seemed surprised to see Monokuma standing right in front of his bed, but both of us had accepted his presence by now, like an elephant in the living room.

Daigo: ...What happened?

Monokuma: You had a heart attack caused by stressing yourself out too much.

Daigo: Ah, I see... But then why did you save my life? After all, you want us all dead, and you could have easily refused to allow me any treatment.

Monokuma: No good in seeing someone just keel over and die from a heart attack, am I right?

Daigo: ...Will I have to take medication for the rest of my life?

Monokuma: This is a world where highly-advanced robots and artificial intelligences exist. This is a world where you can catch a disease than can conveniently cause you to act outrageously out of character. This is a world where somebody survived getting decapitated. So, this is also a world where, as long as you keep your vitriol down to a minimum, you'll be probably alright. You don't want to end up like that kendo team captain and snowboarder, don't you?

Daigo: ...You'll pay for what you've done. Mark my words.

Monokuma: I'll leave you to it! Upupupu~

As Monokuma left, all of the others entered. Kaiji, Souta, Umiko, Madoka. No doubt that they were all turning to Ayane in this darkest hour.

Umiko: He-heard from the morning, eh, announcement that the fifth floor is now available.

Madoka: Yeah. Considering that we're running low on people, it's more than likely the last floor that he'll open up to us.

Kaiji: That is, if there is any more floors.

Souta: Do you have any plans, Ayane?

Ayane: I'll be staying behind with Daigo. Kaiji, make sure that Madoka doesn't run off, because as we all know, she cannot be trusted by herself.

Kaiji: Well, this will be more worthwhile than reading mindless schlock from absolute beginners in the library.

Madoka: Geez, it's like you can't find a single good story in there!

Kaiji: I know. They all suck. Last one definitely had its ending rushed out the door. Sturgeon was right: 90% of everything is worthless trash.

Madoka: Including you?