Dangan Ronpa Minecraft

Chapter 8: Motivation

Tyler woke up feeling as if he had gotten no sleep at all.
He felt achey and tired, the image of Ant disappearing under the mob of zombies flashing through his mind, along with the images of Ian surrounded by TNT, and Jordan and Bodil lying dead on the ground.
Why were they here? What was Herobrine's purpose for doing this? Was this real?
Before Tyler knew it he could feel his eyes tearing up. He sat up in bed and blinked back his tears. With a deep sigh, he grabbed his glasses off his nightstand and put them on. He got up and headed out the door and down the hall towards the kitchen, vowing to himself to always watch where he was going from now on.
The worst feeling of fear, shock, and-well, despair, that Tyler had ever experienced so far was definitely tripping over something with your eyes squeezed shut from stretching while you walked, then getting up to realize you had tripped over your friend's bloody, punctured corpse.
In the Dining Hall, Tyler was surprised yet not surprised at all to find it dead silent, although most of the houseguests were here already. The last couple days it had been bustling with energy, of course, before...
Tyler silently took his seat at one of the tables, once again losing his appetite. Most of the others didn't seem to be eating, either. Even Jerome only ate one raw fish that morning (the bacca's large appetite usually consisted of 4-6 per meal).
It was a couple of minutes after Tyler arrived that everyone seemed to have gathered for 'breakfast' (breakfast basically meaning sulking and staring at empty plates).
"Hel-looo?!" A familiar, irritating voice called from the stage, and Herobrine suddenly appeared, crossing his arms and looking annoyed. "Are you all just gonna sit there and look sad all day? I don't pity anybody, you know!"
"Go away, Herobrine," Mitch muttered. Tyler looked over and saw that Mitch's fists were clenched.
"Now, now, that's not a very good way to treat your host, isn't it, Mitch?" Herobrine scolded mockingly. "Seriously, though, you guys look so dull! I can't believe that you're all...nevermind. Buuut, anyways, I just dropped by to give you all something to lift your spirits...or give you a motivation!"
"What...what is it?" Seto asked suspiciously. Herobrine chuckled. "Can't tell! It's a surprise. It's on the third floor, which, by the way, you can access now!"
Everyone was silent.
Herobrine sighed exasperatedly.
"Wow, seriously, what's wrong with you guys? This is exactly why we need a motive. Now, go explore the third floor, and whoever doesn't I'm going to smash to a pulp!"
Everyone exchanged pained, weary glances, and left the Dining Hall, heading up the stairs to the second floor.
Right next to the stairs on the second floor that went right back down to the first floor was another staircase leading to the third floor. The staircase had originally been barred off, but now the bars had disappeared, with nothing stopping the houseguests from proceeding.
"B-Before we go up," Tyler called as everyone began to proceed. They all halted and glanced back at him.
"I just...I just wanted to say that...if Bodil were here...do you guys think he'd want us to sulk like this after every murder?" Tyler asked the group.
Everyone blinked and exchanged glances.
"Tyler's right," Brice agreed.
"Bodil wanted to help us to the end...he wouldn't be the person to want others to suffer because of him," Ryan added.
"And Ant too!" Ty exclaimed. "It's not Ant's fault that Bodil is dead. Ant may have stabbed Bodil, but who made him stab Bodil? Herobrine."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Whatever happens...we should remember, but not grieve for too long," Jerome said. Everyone nodded, and headed up the stairs to the third floor with newfound strength.
When they reached the third floor, there was only a hallway with a couple doors awaiting everyone, and the barred staircase to the fourth floor besides them on the opposite wall, of course.
"Hey, these doors are labeled," Bash noticed, walking up to the nearest door. "This one reads...lounge," he said, and pushed open the door. A big, childish grin appeared on his face. "Oooh, there's a hot tub!"
"Is it big?" Quentin asked excitedly, peeking into the room too. "Ooh, it is pretty fancy in here," the mudkip remarked.
"Come on, there's no time to swim right now," Ty pointed out.
"Hot tubs aren't for swimming. Pools are for swimming..." Quentin pointed out, but followed everyone with Bashur obediently.
"The room next door says 'closet'," Matt reported, pushing open the door. He immediately took a step back and coughed. "Ugh! It's dusty!"
Tyler peeked inside and saw a dark, crowded and dusty room, which although it was filled with old chests it seemed relatively large in size.
"What's in these chests?" Jason asked, stepping inside and opening the nearest chest eagerly. "Ugh, it's all useless stuff, like dyes and seeds," he said disappointingly, holding up some of the contents for everyone to see.
"Yup," Mitch confirmed, opening another chest. "It's all just these useless stuff, the kind of stuff you always forget to throw away."
"Oh, well," Ryan sighed. "There's one more room on this hallway, right?"
"Yeah, let's go," Seto said, and everyone headed down the hallway to the last door.
"Ooh! It says Movie Theater!" Bash said excitedly.
"Wow, really? Open it up!" Jerome told him eagerly. Bash did as he said, and the houseguests poured into the theater.
The theater wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. It could easily hold all of them. It was dimly lit, and there was a large screen on the wall they were facing.
"This is kind of cool," Adam remarked. "Think there's any movies around we can watch?"
"Hahaha! This is your lucky day, then!" Herobrine exclaimed, popping up out of nowhere in front of them.
"Gah! What do you want?!" Jerome asked in a hostile tone.
"Well, I'm here to show you your motive!" Herobrine exclaimed. "If you could please quietly seat yourselves? And no talking towards the duration of the screening. Or I might just have to drive a javelin through your skull! Hehe!" And with that, he disappeared.
The houseguests quietly seated themselves, and the screen suddenly came to life.
A bright blue screen appeared, with a faint pattern of an ore in the background. Blasting, dramatic music slowly increased in volume as two golden ingots began swirling the screen, until they collided in a white flash, and a gold sword appeared in between them. The word 'SKYDOESMINECRAFT' flashed in bright, blocky letters. The music ended on one last note, and the scene faded into black, then that to something nobody was expecting to see.
The scene was in a small, fancy stone brick room. Standing in there were some of the houseguests, like Ty, Bash, and Jerome.
"Hey guys, Sky here, and welcome back to another episode of Cops N' Robbers!" Adam's voice announced cheerfully.
"I'm here with Deadlox, Bashurverse, and the Fluffy and today I'll be the warden!"
What the hell...? Was all Tyler could think as he watched them play the game happily, and carefree. Looking over at Adam, Jerome, Ty and Bash, he was able to see that they were just as confused as he was.
The video went on for a good 20 minutes, and was actually pretty entertaining. Tyler would have been laughing if he wasn't so dumbstruck.
As soon as the video ended, another began playing. A cartoon Mitch leapt up onto view in front of a snowy background. "YEAH!" He yelled, pulling weapons out from behind his back.
The image disappeared, and dubstep blasted as the Mitch was replaced with that of a red leaf and crisscrossed swords, the words 'BAJANCANADIAN' over them in big blocky letters. The scene faded an was replaced with one of a bunch of chests in a grassy clearing.
"Hey what's going on dudes, it's Mitch, or BajanCanadian here with Jerome, and Matt, and today we're going to the Hunger Deans!!!" Mitch exclaimed.
"Yeah! Let's bash some skulls!" Jerome added happily.
Tyler had never heard Mitch sound so happy before, but everyone watched in awe again as the video played again.
Again, it was pretty entertaining, more interesting to watch how good they were at the game than it was the commentary, which was still very enjoyable.
Many other videos played, from Adam, Ty and Jason doing parkour maps to Ryan and Jordan playing Hunger Games to Quentin playing 'Pixelmon.' All in all, everyone seemed happy and funny in the videos, and seemed like...good friends.
The videos finally ended, and there was a deafening silence that followed.
"...What? No applause? I thought you guys were funny," Herobrine said expectantly as the lights in the theatre turned back on.
"What...what was that?!" Bash exclaimed.
"When was this made? I don't remember any of this!" Ryan exclaimed.
Herobrine frowned. "Isn't it obvious? You don't remember because you all have amnesia."
"...What?" Adam asked, stunned.
"You heard me. Amnesia. Y'know, memory loss. Your memories were all taken before you entered this mansion! Think about it, can you recall anything before coming here?!" Herobrine asked everyone expectantly.
"Haha...We're not falling for your despair trap," Ty chuckled lightly, though his eyes were stern.
"...I can remember going to the mansion, but I can't remember going inside, or doing anything before," Brice admitted.
"Me too," Tyler added.
"Same," Quentin chimed in.
"Wait...so...these are us in the past?" Matt asked. Herobrine nodded. "Finally, someone who gets it!" He sighed.
"So then...what's the point?" Ty asked.
"...Eh?" Herobrine said confusedly.
"What's the point of showing us these videos? How is this a motive?" Tyler asked suspiciously.
"Oh! Haha! Great question, my friend. So, you guys all want to know more about these videos and your lives before you came here, right? How you were all friends at some point?" Herobrine asked eagerly.
"Well...yeah," Adam said obviously.
Herobrine grinned. "Then kill each other!"
"Of course!" Jerome exclaimed sourly.
"This again?! Like I said, we're not falling for your despair!" Ty groaned.
Herobrine crossed his arms. "Don't lie to yourselves. You're all curious. You wanna know more about your life? You all know your Super Minecraft Level titles, but do you know the extent of your powers? For example, Brice, our Super Minecraft Level Artist, made most of the introductions you saw there. The Skydoesminecraft one? The Bajancanadian one? All his doing!"
Brice frowned. "I...made those?"
"Wait...what's a Skydoesminecraft? And a BajanCanadian?" Jason questioned.
Herobrine chuckled. "You wanna know so badly, kill your friends!" And with that, he disappeared.
"Ugh! As if things weren't confusing enough!"Matt exclaimed angrily, kicking an empty seat.
"Sure, that made us curious...but, it could always be a hoax, right?" Bash asked nervously.
"I think we all want to believe that...but I think we all know that those videos were legit. I don't know how, but they seemed real to me," Mitch pointed out. Everyone nodded and murmured in agreement.
"But...nobody's that curious, right?" Seto asked, looking around. Everyone else looked around, exchanging glances.
Tyler felt a twinge of uneasiness. Were some people so curious to know of their past that they would willingly kill one of their peers?
≪≫
Lunch later that day had been full of discussions and questions.
Everyone seemed interested in the videos Herobrine had shown to them, yet Tyler was secretly trying to see if anyone looked too eager on the subject in particular-with no luck. Everyone seemed to be just curious in general. Who wouldn't be?
But Tyler, being safe and maybe too cautious, wanted to be sure that nobody seemed ready to kill. Nobody did, really, but you never knew...
"I think I'm going to go to the Enchanting Room and try and see if there's any books that can help us...like history of this mansion, for example," Seto declared. "I will be carrying a small kitchen knife while I'm there, so please don't try to attack me. I will be armed."
"You're going to go off alone with a knife...?" Ryan asked meaningfully.
Seto nodded calmly. "Like I said, for self defense. I don't plan on killing anyone."
"Seto...whenever the next murder happens, you're going to be very suspicious," Ty told him meaningfully with a small smile.
"Who said there's gonna be more murder?" Jerome asked defensively.
"Don't lie to yourself. It's happened twice already," Ty replied with a shrug.
"This sound bad to anyone else?" Jason asked.
"Fine, someone can monitor me if they want, to make sure I don't start stabbing people," Seto sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Someone alone with you holding a knife?!" Bash exclaimed. Seto gave a deep sigh. "Bring the entire house if you want. Watch me read books. But I'm not going by myself into that room where another murder had already happened without some means of defense."
"He does have a point," Adam said. "...I don't know about you guys, but I think I may just stay away from the Enchanting Room all day today," Jerome said. "No offense, Seto."
Seto shook his head. "None taken. It's natural to be suspicious. But I'm simply telling you all that I have a knife. Would a murderer tell you he had a knife? I don't think so. Well, see you at dinner!" He called cheerfully, leaving the hall.
"...Well then," Adam remarked. From there, the rest of the people in the dining hall soon parted. Tyler felt like he should be doing something, too. He didn't know what. But he didn't want to just hide in his room all day.
He found himself heading towards the stairs for the second floor. When he reached the top, he stared blankly at the empty living room.
It honestly was a nice living room. The fireplace gave it a cozy atmosphere.
...but then again, the fireplace was where the stake that had stabbed Bodil had been tossed to burn.
Nothing could stay nice here.
Tyler subconsciously sat down on one of the couches facing the fireplace and stared blankly at the fireplace. He felt like he was losing it...maybe this was all just a nightmare, a nightmare he knew only too well was real. He just wanted out...
Then kill, a voice said in the back of his head.
For a terrifying second, Tyler considered this. Then he panicked, wondering why he would ever think of such a thing.
It's just this place, he told himself. I would never be able to kill...physically and mentally.
He sighed, laying back in the couch and staring at the ceiling, focusing on the soft crackling and faint thumping of the fire.
Wait...thumping?
Tyler tensed, focusing on the soft thumping. Those weren't from the fire...those were...footsteps?
Quivering, he slowly turned around in his seat, but before he could catch a glimpse of anything, he felt a sudden, sharp pain on his head, and that was the last thing he remembered before falling into darkness.