Danganronpa: Once Upon an Smiling Priest

With my explanation done, the whole group took a moment to contemplate my words. Based on what most of their expression looked like, it appeared to be a general acceptance of my words.

Good now we can start to figure a way out of this most disastrous situation.

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Huh?

Something's... wrong.

…Aren't they being a bit too wrapped up in processing everything?

My suspicions grew stronger when I noticed the way in which some of them were not only looking accepting, but they were relaxing on top of that. With sighs of relief and satisfied smiles, as if everything was alright.

Wait!

No! 

Stop! This wasn't supposed to happen! You idiots, what are you doing?!

Wait, could this be the result of IT? It has to be IT. There's no other way such a ridiculous thing would have happened. Everything's about to collapse.

Argh I was too lax I forgot about my damn curse. If SHE was here then this would have never happened.

It wasn't alright, nothing about this was alright, and a certain lavender-haired girl made sure to remind them.

"It seems everyone finally calmed down." Flinching at Mrs Kirigiri's abrupt address, the whole group turned their attention toward her. "I believe it is time we confront the other announcement Monokuma made."

"The other announcement?" Asked Taka with a question look. "What are you… AH!" He shrieked in realisation and like a domino, said shriek was met with several gasps and similar noises of terrified realization.

It's not like it deterred the aloof girl from continuing though. "Based on what Monokuma said, we have two choices. The first is that we all stay here, living a 'communal life' together until the day we die. While on the other hand, our second choice is…"

"If we want to get out of here alive, we have to kill someone, yes?" Celes finished with a tilt of the head.

"K-Kill… to leave this place, t-that's… that's…" Unable to end that sentence, Mrs Fujisaki entered into a sobbing fit. Poor child.

"We were abducted out of nowhere and stuffed into this place meant to look like a school. And now we're supposed to start killing each other?" Mr Yamada said to no one in particular. His whole body reverberated while his eyes turned frantic. "This is… WHAT IS THIS!?"

"Dammit! I can't believe all of this is real!" Mr Kuwata snarled.

"Wh-Who could... Who would do something like this?"

"Right now, it doesn't matter if we consider this as real or fake." Mr Togami declared with narrowed eyes. "What matters is… Is there anyone here who's seriously considering all this…?"

With the Heir's ominous words hanging in the air, the true deep of the threat held within this place was presented to everyone.

If someone wanted to leave this 'school', they needed to murder another person.

Instinctually, wary eyes traded glances with suspicious orbs, sixteen heads searching for any signal that would confirm if the person in their sight was capable of falling that low. And of course, like clockwork, it brought their attention to me.

One by one their sight was put onto me like a curse, and once they did, they didn't move it anywhere else.

Eventually, all of my classmates had their eyes locked on me, just like at the beginning, they all were standing in place, gauging me, waiting for any reaction on my part.

You little, ungrateful shits.

Kirigiri.

Kirigiri.

O', Kyoko Kirigiri.

You're going to be a pain in my ass, aren't you?

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You little shit look at what you've done!

You've ruined me once more with your little analysis!

And now you're going to stand there as if nothing happened? As if you hadn't just destroyed all the work I've just done? Putting me on the spot like this and expecting me to dig myself either out of or deeper into this hole I've been thrust into?

"Are you guys just going to stand there and watch me all day?" I asked calmly with my usual smile. No, I wasn't mad stop asking.

"W-Well, it's just… just…"

"What the heck do you expect, man!?" Seemingly done with Mrs Asahina's fumbling of words, the Baseball Star snapped at me. "Out of everyone here, you… you…!"

"You are someone who already has killed." The Togami pointedly completed the sentence for the redhead. O' like you haven't?!

"Hey…"

Everyone turned to the Togami once he said what I didn't doubt they all had in mind.

"Th-that's…" Mrs Fujisaki tried to say something to which my expression soured slightly. No not you too. Don't fall into the fold deer child.

"Completely true." Whatever it was the poor girl was trying to say, the Togami disregarded it with ease. "He himself admitted it. Ultimate Assassin? Does that tell you something? Killing comes so naturally to him, I do not doubt he is completely numb to the act."

Numb?

Killing comes naturally... to me?

Now you're just saying things for the sake of it.

Tarnishing my name like this? My how unfair. You're not even giving me a chance to counterattack.

Though I do suppose that there is a bit of truth to his claims given all the torment and death I've experienced. Let me tell ya having your femur slowly broken isn't a fun time.

"Kyaaaaah!" Mr Yamada screamed. "I was trying hard not to think about it!"

"Hey…"

"H-He's r-right!" Mrs "Failure of a person" Fukawa sneered while pointing a finger at me. "You are a danger to a-all of us!"

"M-Maybe we should r-restrain him?" Mr "Failure of a wannabe Rockstar" Kuwata suggested. "T-Tie him up? Y'know, whatever keeps him from stabbing to death, anyone in for that?"

"D-Do that to a classmate!? That's indecorous!" Taka declared, even if just as fast, his indignation faltered. Classmate? We barely know each other. I wouldn't even call us acquaintances. "B-But... if we see this as a danger to the overall safety of the group then… but then we'd…"

Oh? What will you do Mr Moral Compass? It seems that this conflicts with your morals. How will you deal with this I wonder?

"Hey." Someone tried to speak up. But before I could recognise the voice it was quickly drowned out by the noisy mob. How unfortunate.

"I-It's a possibility…" Mrs Maizono mumbled to no one in particular. Though unfortunately, it was loud enough to be heard by everyone. Next time, sew your mouth.

"Do we really have to do that, Sakura?" Mrs Asahina threw a nervous glance at her new tall friend. Huh? When did this happen? First, you call me a murderer and now you take my friend?

Sakura didn't give a response, only looking down slightly in deep thought. Though not too long later a reply did come as there were quite a few of them looking at her with worried gazes. "If it is necessary... then we may have no choice."

Betraying me to are we know Sakura? I thought you were made of sterner stuff. But I guess you are a human after all. There will always be that weakness for acceptance.

Even when it's not needed.

"H-Hurry u-up then!" The failure of a writer half shrieked half growled. "B-Before he tries a-anything!" 

"Alrighty!" Mr Owada began to approach me while cracking his knuckles. "There ain't no way I'm letting ya get any funny ideas!"

That was my cue to furrow my brows as I steeled myself for a confrontation. I have run till the ends of the earth to escape hell and its ilk. No human has ever caught me since and they won't catch me now.

Sigh, in the end, this is my ending huh? To be tied up and possibly killed while I'm incapacitated. Heh, I never stood a single chance, perhaps it would have been better to reveal my actual talent...

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...

Nah! This is still preferable.

Contracting my muscles I braced myself ready to kick off at any moment.

Guess it all comes down to―

"HEY! LISTEN TO ME, DAMMIT!" A voice shouted so high, that everyone stopped dead in their tracks to look at the origin of it.

Soon enough, I noticed it was the only voice that hadn't spoken since Monokuma left. Or rather the voice that never got the chance to speak.

Mrs Enoshima.

Oh? I raised a brow at her sudden outburst. It seems a new entrance was forcibly opened for our little fashionista. And by her own hands no less... Perhaps I treated you too harshly.

"Huh? What's wrong, Junko?" Mrs "Friend Stealer" Asahina asked. Just as well though as everyone followed suit and put their rapt attention on the Fashionista.

She seemed to be thinking about something, maybe how to best voice whatever she was thinking about saying if I had to take a guess.

It was a natural thing to do, one must always be careful when talking to a mob of ravenous individuals. Lest you be thrown into the fire as well.

As she raised her head to address the group and began to speak her thoughts. It seems she really was thinking about her wording just now. Just like I initially assumed.

Only that what she said next caught everyone off guard. Including me.

"Hrmm… how do I put this… maybe we need to, like, chill a bit?" Mrs Enoshima tentatively asked. "Aren't we, like, overreacting? Blowing it out of proportion or somethin'?"

A few seconds passed until someone found their voice.

"Huh? Chick, are you out of your mind!?" Mr Owada half shouted half exclaimed. It seems that shouting is his only setting. "The guy is a fucking killer!"

And he wasn't the only one, everyone was looking at her like she had grown a second head. And given that I have had my eyes closed this entire time she may well have.

Honestly, as much as I hate to admit it, he was right. Detrimental as to me as it may be. Mr Owada had a point.

What was she doing?

"I know! I know… but..." Mrs Enoshima began to play with a strand of her wig, seemingly to calm her nerves. "Hasn't he been, like, super cooperative and totally helped us lotsa times already?"

...Huh?

"Huh? Miss Enoshima what are you talking about?" Mr Yamada asked, with understandable confusion in his voice. "Forgive me for saying this, but I find that hard to believe…"

"Y-Yeah! Are you crazy!?" Mrs Fukawa snarled with an accusatory finger.

"Wait a moment! Wh-What I mean is…" Is she really keeping at it? Just… why? Let me fall. At least then it will be an interesting scene. "Look, when he told us about why he left his talent a secret and stuff, didn't he, like, did it to keep everyone safe? Something like that, right? He wouldn't do all that complicated junk, if he wanted to do any bad stuff to us, no?"

Eh?

I guess… It can be interpreted like that. And without knowledge of my actual Ultimate Talent that's all someone could really glean from my actions. Though it's not like she's wrong.

"Yeah... Yeah! That's right!" And like clockwork or rather, on cue, someone appeared to come my. And in the form of Makoto Naegi no less. "He was the only one of us who took the threat of the weapons in the main hall seriously and used that knowledge in a way he believed everyone would be safer! He even told us that we've been captured earlier."

…

…I mean, kinda. I just wasn't looking to piss off the conductor of this performance and get all of us shot as a result. Though I won't deny and say I wasn't trying to help you all

"Could it be!?" Although it wasn't like I was planning to refrain people like Taka from reaching such a conclusion. "Have we been blindsided by our own misconceptions this whole time!?"

"Eh? Is that true?" Mrs Asahina wondered aloud.

"Hmph, what a bunch of delusional fools. That proves nothing about his intentions, that's just a convenient excuse he made at the moment, nothing else."

I'm sure you could guess who said that.

"Mmm… If I am honest, the way I interpreted it, was that he didn't do it out of his goodwill, but just seeking his own survival. Those of course that is my own interpretation given how he's been up until now." Celes commented. And like the Heir, she was kind of right. But then again she was one of only two, possibly three, people that knew what my actual talent was. So she could just be going with the flow of this whole ordeal.

"I-I don't know what to believe, he was quite nice and was even helpful during his introduction, but…" Mrs Maizono trailed off to which Mrs Fukawa flinched. No doubt remembering our introduction. And it seemed that she was going to interrupt Mrs Maizono before a blush quickly overcame her face as she looked in my direction causing her to stop in her tracks.

Ever the weird one ay Mrs Fukawa.

"Yeah, I mean… don't get me wrong, it's good and all that it helped us in a way, but it doesn't fully convince me. Sure he was friendly towards us, overly so, but that doesn't mean he won't turn on us later." Mr Kuwata added, his eyes narrowed in confliction.

All in all, it appeared that almost everyone was in a similar position as the Baseball Star. The air was ripe with an extreme but admittedly, justified hostility against me. It wasn't as high as before, nowhere near that clusterfuck but it was nowhere low enough to abandon the idea of me becoming their prisoner.

Hmm, would that make me the captor of our captors, captors?

Anyways getting back on track. That was the status quo for a bit until Mrs Fujisaki brought up another point.

"W-What about the b-bomb?"

"Eh!?" Mr Owada gasped. "What bomb?"

Ah, he forgot… I shouldn't have been surprised.

"What!? A bomb!?" Mrs Asahina yelped. "Where!?"

Guess the meathead wasn't the only one huh? I couldn't help but widen my smile slightly at her sudden surprise.

"W-Wait!" Before more people could panic about a non-existent bomb, Mrs Fujisaki elaborated. "I-I mean about what happened with Monokuma when Owada grabbed him!"

Said Gang Leader flinching at the mention of that.

"Yeah! That too!" For some reason, Mrs Enoshima seemed truly enthusiastic about using that to keep defending me. Seriously, what's up with her? This isn't very, "easily killable side character", of you!

"Voyager could have, I dunno, totally gotten outta the way or somethin', and only shout at Owada to throw it, but he pushed himself at the danger to save the guy, right?"

"…Holy shit! I forgot about that stuff!" Not that I blame the gang leader for that. I also kind of forgot about that. I was so used to putting myself in harm's way that I guess I saved his life out of instinct.

Though I suppose it was more of a mix of action and reaction. A desire and roll to save someone and the desire to not die.

Besides, I didn't know how far it was from detonating and I didn't trust Mr Owada and his slow thinking to do something like following a warning from me or reacting fast enough, so I forced myself to get the job done.

For me and only me.

Regardless of my thoughts, it was plainly obvious that those words in my favour were finally having an effect on people.

"I believe Mrs Enoshima has a point! Maybe it's true that we don't know him that well." More like nothing at all. "But everything he has done until now has been with the intention of helping us! It would be wrong of us to not consider that, right?"

"Hmm, that... is Indeed true." Sakura mused aloud trying to sound as impartial as possible. I would expect nothing less from her. "It was honourable of him to risk his life in an attempt to save a complete stranger."

"Indeed!" Looking unaffected from what afflicted him less than a minute ago, Taka wasted no time putting his voice back at his usual decibels. "Putting his life on the line for the sake of others is truly an admirable trait! I should have expected no less from the king of bears!"

King of Bears? My what a throwback. Ya still on the whole, names mean something to a person thing? Well, I guess there's no point in ruining his moment.

"Ah! Now I understand! Master Voyager must be a vigilante of sorts! Working in the shadows to stop the evil of this world! Doing the dirty work others aren't willing to do!" Mr Yamada added with his own fantasy. I must say, quite an interesting theory. It's nowhere near the truth but I won't spoil the reveal for them.

"I-I see, so that's the case!" Apparently, Mrs Fujisaki seemed to believe it causing me to form a soft smile. Ah, my gilded heart always beats for the sweet ones, no matter how foreshadowed the result is.

And in some kind of miracle, a grand majority moved from absolutely fearing me to getting on board with that distorted image of me. There were still people like Kirigiri and the Togami who didn't buy it, but as long as I didn't act against that perception my classmates had of me, they wouldn't push the matter further.

Which is a little unfortunate for me, as if I were to express my true self I would no doubt cause quite a stir and no doubt cause these poor minds to recede back into fear for one reason or another.

Eventually, it seemed that everyone put down the idea of restraining me, or at least, they put it on hold until they had a reason to consider it again. Aw~, such a shame and here I was looking forward to escaping such confines and messing with them. Kidding.

Though I did consider it weird that Mrs Enoshima did what she did. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't complaining. If she hadn't interfered, things would have become a disaster.

But why? Taking a discrete look at the Fashionista with my eyes, she seemed… satisfied, question mark, with the outcome of her actions. She even sighed when she saw how everyone stopped the hostilities at me. Well stopped in the verbal sense, the sparse few still looked at me with worry or suspicion.

Maybe that was her plan, it was possible she anticipated the consequences of the confrontation that was about to happen. That being said, I honestly didn't expect anyone to come to my defence after Monokuma presented me in such a way.

One more time, like during the introductions, the Fashionista surprised me; I suppose my preconceived notions of her were misplaced.

She truly is something else, isn't she?

Heh.

"So, what are you going to do now?" As things finally calmed down, hopefully not temporally this time, the annoyingly still and serene but firm voice of our resident mysterious girl was heard. "Keep wasting time in all this pointless bickering? I believe we have already wasted a lot of time as things stand."

You're one to talk you little shit! You almost ruined all I had been striving to build up. All that instigating and questioning and prodding and that attitude and―

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Wait...

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That's it, isn't it?

Why the hell would our captor have someone like her in a situation like this?

It defeats the whole purpose of this scenario. Of course, this is saying that my theory is correct but given what I've seen from her so far, the way she acts, the way she talks, I'd say I'm at least on the right track.

"Right… She's right! Sometimes even if you're nervous or afraid, you just have to step forward! To forget such a simple fact and get consumed by my fears! How could I!?" Taka exclaimed on the verge of tears cutting me off from my thoughts. "I'm so ashamed of my conduct! Please, someone hit me! I can't forgive myself! Somebody hit me! Punish me!"

…

Didn't know you were into such a thing young Taka.

"Jesus." Hey! "If you have time to yell about it, you have time to DO something about it!" Mr Owada grumbled.

"Perhaps, but… what is our main quest, exactly?" Mr Yamada inquired.

"Idiot! Ain't it obvious?" Mr Kuwata said, looking at the Fanfic Creator as if he asked whether the sky was blue or red. "To look for a way out, duh!"

"And we totally need to find whoever is controlling that stupid bear and beat the hell out of 'em!" Mrs Enoshima angrily pointed. Something I could quite easily agree with.

I'll give you all a show to enjoy! Flayed, flambéed, flamed, scrabbled, sliced, sawed. The whole kit and kabodle. My smile widened as I thought about the glorious payback I would give to our captor.

...Although. Just as quickly as it appeared my smile dropped and returned to how it once was.

I don't know if it was because I was used to highly stressful and annoying situations like these or because things were clearer than when I just woke up. But with this roller coaster of emotions finally over and wrapped up.

I was getting pretty bored.

Was it mere apathy? Or was it a matter of everything building up before the dam broke, ending up with a mental breakdown for it? Oh, now wouldn't that be an interesting twist?

I had a lot on my plate, and the nighttime couldn't come up any sooner.

"B-But… before we do all that." The shy voice of Mrs Fujisaki prevented me from losing myself too deeply in my thoughts. "Maybe it would be best if we take a look at the handbook…"

Right, I forgot about that thing after I put it in the pocket of my vestments. I didn't have much time to look into it before all the chaos started. And I wonder who started it huh?

"It's probably best to check out the school regulations Monokuma mentioned before doing anything else." Mrs Fujisaki continued, with the lack of a stutter on the programmer's voice a likely result of finally embracing a piece of technology.

"True. If we stumble around with no clue about what the rules are, something like that might happen again…" Celes added with her gaze shifting to the pompadour-wielding biker. Not so subtly warning him.

Ignoring that though Celes did make a good point. Maybe there was a rule as ridiculous as 'Don't look at the lens of the cameras around the school!', and if we take the incident that she was referring to into consideration, the consequences for disobedience were as grave as they were obvious.

"Shit…" Even Mr Owada got the obvious hint of what Celes was talking about. At least he's becoming more self-aware.

"Fine. Then let's hurry up and check out the stupid rules already." Mrs Enoshima relented. "I ain't letting that fugly bear catch me off-guard, anyways."

Fugly? That's a new word.

When I took out my handbook from my pocket and turned it on, the first thing that greeted me was my name with the emblem of Hope's Peak in the background. My how very official. Though I don't remember anything like this being mentioned on the website or in any of the chatter of my followers.

There was also the Main Menu icon in a corner, once I opened it, multiple other icons became available, one of them being for the school regulations, which I selected. No sooner did I did so, than a list of the regulations for this place became visible, which were as follows:

1. Students may reside only within the school. Leaving the campus is an unacceptable use of time.

2. 'Nighttime' is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.

3. Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.

4. With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.

5. Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is the destruction of surveillance cameras.

6. Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes 'BLACKENED' will graduate, unless they are discovered.

7. Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.

...

A small smile crept onto my face as I looked at the rules.

Well, isn't this something?