Danganronpa: Darkened Hope - An Original Fanganronpa Story

Chapter Three - Morning Roses, Mourning Roses (Daily Life Part 2)

Now Playing - Despair Syndrome (1)

"Mizuki? Mizuki! Wake up!"

What the.....

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see a girl with curly brown hair and bright yellow eyes leaning over me.

"Thank God.... You okay?" She said. I noticed she spoke with a slight Italian accent.

"...Wh-who are you!? Where am I!?" Panicking, I sat up and scrambled to get away from her.

"Dammit... He really wasn't joking, then?" I turned my head to where the voice came from and saw a short girl with wavy dark green hair fidgeting nervously with the zipper on her hoodie.

"You dumbasses thought he was joking?" A boy with scarlet hair said, exasperated. "This is Monokuma we're taking about! He never jokes around!"

"I-It's not our fault for being optimistic!" A girl with lavender pigtails protested. "I-it would be a mistake to believe everything Monokuma says!"

"And look where that optimism got us! We've got an Ultimate with amnesia!" The scarlet-haired boy said.

"Baiko!" An orange-haired girl snapped at him. "Chill out, man! Let's just try and get everything under control!"

"Oh, come on! A motive like this? A murder will happen even faster than the first one did!" The boy (Baiko?) shouted back.

The orange haired-girl was stunned into silence. "I.... I'm not.... That wasn't...."

"What the heck, Baiko? I thought we all got over that and forgave her!" A dark-skinned girl said.

"Oh, come on! You're all just stupid! Don't you all remember how she was the one to confess to writing the note!?" He huffed.

I looked back at the orange haired girl who was the source of all this controversy, and I saw that tears were streaming down her cheeks. Slowly, I got up and walked up to her, placing one hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at me and rubbed her eyes. "Um... My name's Katsumi Midori." She said. "You can just call me Kat."

"I-is everything alright?" I asked her.

"You... You wouldn't get it." She said. "I don't think you'd understand any of this."

"Try me."

"Well..." She pointed at the front of the room, which was occupied by a... teddy bear? "That's Monokuma. He's... kidnapped all of us. The only way to leave is to... God.... Murder another person."

"What!? Y-you're joking, right!?"

That was when Katsumi looked me dead in the eye. "I wish I didn't have to say this. But.... Four people have already died."

"N-no. No way."

"Hayato Morihei.... Daichi Midori.... Kyoji Moriai.... Haruko Kobayashi." She said. "Those were their names."

"Midori? Were you..."

"He was my brother." Kat said. One hand drifted up to the necklace she was wearing. "This belonged to him. He gave it to me... Before his execution."

"Execution? As in... the death penalty?"

"He committed murder because of me. Baiko's right to hate me, you know. I indirectly killed two people, including my own brother. Honestly.... I can't believe myself. If we actually succeeded, everyone here would be dead."

"What the hell-"

She reached into the pocket of her track jacket and pulled out a small green rectangle, holding it out to me.