Danganronpa: ReProgrammed

A Next Generation Legend: Part 5

"I'm honestly quite impressed," Taka smiled "when I first met you, I never could imagine you doing a workout regimen such as this one Chihiro..."

"Me either," Chihiro replied honestly "I didn't ever see myself doing this...But I guess I can thank Mondo for my progress..."

Chihiro looked over and smiled in the Biker Gang Leader's  direction. All Mondo did was grunt quietly and roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed "anyways, I think now's a good time for a break, you think?"

Neither Chihiro, nor Taka had any opposition to this idea. To be honest, they both felt a little burned out, and Chihiro was still sore from the previous morning. He had only endured the physical pain as the trial was his main priority, but he'd worked it off since then. Also, he wasn't sure whether he should be surprised or not that Taka didn't seem to have any problems working out. Then again, he did seem to have a pretty strong physique. The three of them sat down on the floor of the Boy's changing rooms, as Mondo handed both his friends energy drinks.

"Thank you!" Taka smiled "energy drinks aren't the most healthy things, but they certainly do their job. Did you know that you can make a decent energy drink with water, table salt and squeezed lemon juice?"

"I didn't know that," Chihiro's eyes widened at the fact "I might have to give that a try."

"Do you need to?" Mondo asked "it's not like we're gonna run outta things while we're here...In fact, we've got everything we want here now...Why would we need to kill when we can just survive in here?"

Taka and Chihiro glanced worriedly in his direction, which Mondo immediately noticed.

"What?" he asked.

"O-Oh...nothing..." Chihiro said "it's just..."

"You sort of sounded like Celeste there..." Taka finished.

"Oh, really?" Mondo looked embarrassed "my bad...it's just that...I've lost a lot of motivation to actually escape this place...I've been thinking that maybe I'm better off just staying here forever...'Course, I wanna get out for everyone else's sake but..."

"Bro? Are you ok?" Taka asked "all day you've seemed rather out of it...Are you still upset over...that?"

Taka didn't even need to ask this question. It was clear that Mondo still wasn't recovering from the event in which he almost killed Chihiro.

"How am I gonna cover up the fact that I killed my brother? Oh, I got it! Kill someone else! Man, what a fucking genius I am! Seriously though you guys...I don't get it..."

"Don't get what?" Chihiro asked.

"How can the two of you even stand bein' around me right now?" he asked, rather solemnly "you should all hate me...be afraid of me...but you're still comin' to me, saying you wanna hang out and exercise...I just...I don't get it...I ain't even a people person to begin with...so why?"

"The answer's pretty simple," Chihiro explained "because you've lain your weaknesses, the things that you don't want anyone else to see, bare for the sake of everyone else's lives. To get over it, you need a friend now more than ever..."

"I agree with that..." Taka explained "and may I make an observation...In my personal opinion, I don't see being a genius as a very good thing."

"You don't?" Mondo asked "but...ain't you a genius yourself?"

"Please, I'm just a normal high school boy with good grades and a strong opinion," he said "at least, that's what I think..."

"What do you mean "it's what you think?"" Chihiro asked.