Danganronpa Extra Life

Dangerous Outside World

The next several weeks trickled by in idleness. Chiaki's condition continued to slowly improve; she left her wheelchair behind permanently, and with her cane her mobility was nearly as good as before. Her fine-motor skills reached the point that she could mostly dress herself, though she still struggled with buttons. Stairs were still her bane, and video games sessions continued even though Kamukura-kun proclaimed none of them to be interesting. All in all, there was a surreal normality about her current life.

Her dreams, however, just became more confusing. A haphazard collection of rain, gray hallways, and familiar faces plagued her sleep. Every time the dreams ended with her running from some kind of danger, and right at the very end it would always catch her. Then she would wake with tears clinging to her lashes, able to recall only a little. She never told Kamukura-kun about them; it just seemed like a trivial thing to bother him with, when he'd already done so much for her.

November was just dawning when things first shifted.

It began with Chiaki helping Kamukura-kun in the kitchen—she wasn't allowed near knives, her hands weren't steady enough for that. But she could try to make rice balls, and though her hands shook throughout and it took her twice as long as usual, she was reasonably pleased with the end result. With her cane's help, she made her way over to the fridge for the filling, and that was when she noticed they were running low on food.

"I will obtain more tomorrow," Kamukura-kun droned when she told him.

Though he must have done it several times already, the mental image of her aloof, above-it-all friend doing something as mundane as grocery shopping was oddly amusing to Chiaki. But the thought of going to town, seeing other people, was at the forefront of her mind—she'd ventured outside a few more times, but hadn't yet left the sanctuary of the retreat. "Can I go with you?"

He was silent for a bit, likely weighing the pros and cons. But finally his head lifted up in a small incline, and she squealed in delight.

The next day they prepared to leave, dressing warmly. The temperature was chill with the first breath of winter, and a light snow had fallen, though it was tinted gray from pollution. They got in an ambulance, which Chiaki privately thought was a rather odd vehicle for Kamukura-kun to have, and drove to the town.

Chiaki pressed her face to the window and peered around with unbridled curiosity. There was a leanness to the citizens that hadn't existed last year, a steely-eyed wariness that had them moving with glances over their shoulders and bodies tensed for a fight. Rather than running about as bundles of energy, the few children visible clung to their mothers' hands, young faces grim and scared. In the shadows of alleys and on the sides of buildings, she could catch glimpses of spray paint and graffiti, some denouncing the Future Foundation, others messages of encouragement. But there was still a sense of normality about things. There were still people entering shops, eating food at outside tables, and chatting with their friends. It could have been as ordinary a day as ever, in a town as ordinary as any other, if she didn't look up at the sky.

They parked, entering a supermarket. The grungy automatic doors slid open; dim lighting flickered overhead, a few missing bulbs hinting at to the effects of the Tragedy. While there were also many people inside doing their shopping, they were subdued; even the bright colors of the interior decorating seemed dimmer. Everyone was giving each other measured glances, even the store personnel, and nobody was offering customer service. As Chiaki followed Kamukura-kun, looking this way and that, her eyes happened to catch one of the banners describing prices. She stopped, staring with her mouth gaping. "Huh?!"

"I informed you inflation had occurred," Kamukura-kun said in his bland voice. He reached past her and selected a loaf of bread, placing it into the basket and moving on with complete indifference to the fact he was paying twice as much as normal.