Danganronpa: Once Upon an Smiling Priest

Once I entered the hall I was met with.... teenagers? Mhm, students like myself I'm guessing. So either this truly Hope's Peak or could it be that―

! ! !

My body tensed, readying for a fast escape as I noticed the mounted turrets or rather Gatling guns attached to the ceiling in the corners of the main hall.

Those definitely were real actual state-of-the-art, electronic, and military-grade machine guns. By the looks of it, I assume their model was maybe... a relative of the GAU-8 Avenger. Though I'm not too familiar with that family line. Not that that specific detail made any difference with the fact a school had weaponry installed at its entrance.

Of course, I also noticed how each had surveillance cameras attached to them. Something I also noticed was the lax nature of my fellow students. Well, that, and the giant vault door.

That vault... Something that big and advanced was not something your average captor could have acquired wherever they pleased. Looks like we've got an extremely wealthy individual on our hands. It may not be in my expertise, but I know enough on the subject to confirm it was high-end technology.

I mean, one look at it should be enough for anyone to see that. Especially given that-

"Oh hey there! Is that a new kid?" I heard someone say, but couldn't immediately identify from whom or where it came, my attention was preoccupied with the imminent danger that was the mounted weapons. My eyes opened slightly to be as alert as possible in case they became active.

They have bloody mounted machines that would send someone straight to Christ himself and yet no one seems to give them a hint of concern. A tinge of anger began to build in me though my face would never show such a thing.

As if they didn't exist! Are these people.... fucking retarded! Are none of their senses or self-preservation instincts warning them about the fact that at any given moment we could be made into the perfect Swiss cheese?! Did they think those were fake?! Were they dropped as babies?! My anger was building by the second though just as quickly as it began to build it was gone.

Sigh, to be so mentally challenged to not even realise the situation you're in... God has given them quite the unfortunate hand indeed.

I shook my head slightly as I gave a small prayer for their endangered instincts and reevaluated the situation. Although... I suppose given how many there are here and no indication of any incident taking place... perhaps, maybe, those weapons aren't that dangerous. Well, so long as we abide by the whims of our captor and play nice of course. Less we all get booted off stage unceremoniously.

"Hey, are ya okay?" A brown-skinned girl with a ponytail and basic athlete attire snapped me out of my thoughts. "Does your tummy hurt?"

...What? Where did this... anyways.

Butting her and her antics aside for now I noticed out of the corner of my eye that two people also began to pay attention to the turrets that may or may not end our lives when they noticed that I was paying attention to them.

Mmm... oh well! Now let's circle back to the query.

"Yes, I'm doing quite well Mrs." I said having to look down a bit to meet her eye level, my smile not once had left my face since I entered the room. I had kept my eyes open though ever slight, it would be bad if I were to be caught off guard here. "And all of you are...?" I asked as I scoured the room.

A small girl wearing a green jacket and brown skirt had answered my trailed-off question. "We're all new students here. Today's supposed to be our first day of class."

"Apparently." A rather nicely dressed boy snorted in response - Togami Byakuya If my memory serves correctly. And given his posture and the way he's acting I believe it is.

"Hmmm, so counting him, that makes us fifteen. Seems like a good cut-off point, but I wonder if this is everyone?" A rather plump guy mused aloud.

Well isn't this an interesting collection of characters? Well, better confirm something, just to make sure I'm freaking myself out for nothing.

Clapping my hands loud enough for the rest to hear I spoke up. "Greetings all. I would like to confirm something. Shortly after arriving at Hope's Peak, I lost consciousness and the next thing I knew was that I woke up in a classroom. Shall I assume that you all are none the wiser as to this strange occurrence…?"

"You shall assume that Oberon-san." Mrs Celes said rather helpfully with her signature smile.

"You know him?" Mr Togami shot an accusing glare towards Celes. Well, not like I expected any less from him. Trust no one and all that.

"We met outside of the school." I explained to the heir. "Right before... all this." Celes finished for me. Confirming that our interaction, did in fact, happen.

"So strange…" The plump guy from before muttered to himself, then he pointed one arm high at the ceiling. "I declare beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a strange situation indeed!"

...

...

...

"Ha!" I loudly said. "Very strange indeed my observant friend. We find ourselves in a very strange scenario indeed. One straight out of a book or game." People were starting to look at the poor boy funny. While I didn't know who he was, given how he acted I got the gist of his personality. "Anyways-" I was cut off.

"Hold on a moment!" A guy with red eyes and big brows suddenly chimed in while pointing an accusatory finger at me. "There is something of immediate concern we must address!"

Such a bold declaration made everyone in the room turn in my direction, and for me to slightly narrow my eyes.

"Oh? What is it?" I simply question the rather enthusiastic boy with my usual upbeat tone. My slightly closed eyes changed to ones fully open filled with surprise and shock. Allowing my dark crimson eyes to meet his red ones.

"You!"

Who me?

"While I commend that you attended this meeting on time. I must condemn the fact that you are breaking school regulations by wearing those earrings! To break the rules on your first day is unacceptable!" He said shaking his head. Was that... disappointment I see and hear? "I must report you, and you must accept your due punishment while removing such accessories as earliest as possible!"

…

…

This was about my earrings and piercings? I understand that it's not something commonly seen on a priest, but they are only on my ears and quite basic. And well my long hair usually covers it.

"Fascinating..." A smile grew on my face as I closed my eyes. "Is there anywhere in Hope's Peak's rules that state or mention that such items are prohibited? Because if so then I simply didn't see them. Which is strange as I'm sure I would have noticed such a ruling."

"H-Huh? well... now that you mention it, it doesn't…" He seemed to lose his momentum in this pitiful attempt at drama, good. The stage was never set for such an unnecessary tangent. I will end this before we get more distracted. Before it spirals off of our great hero's predestined journey.

"Then I am not breaking any rules, correct?" I questioned. This side story shall end just as quickly as it began; a simple one-shot if you will.

If the widening of eyes in realization was any indication, it was like the secrets of life itself revealed to him. Well at least, I was able to help someone.... still not as good as her though. "Ah! You… You are right! To commit an omission in such an important detail! Please forgive my rudeness!" He shouted... again, before giving me a deep bow.

I just simply nodded. Satisfied with my ability to help him grow, even if it was a little.

"Geez, man, finally someone points that to him!" A red-haired fellow with a goatee tied into a ponytail commented. Leon Kuwaga - the SHSL Baseball Player if I remember correctly. "He was being such a pain some moments ago with some of the stuff I wear…"

It seemed like a strawberry blonde girl with pigtails was going to add something more given how she opened her mouth, when-

I quickly jumped to the side and steeled myself when the doors from which I came burst open, allowing me to avoid getting hit by them. Soon afterwards, a notably short teenager came out of them; wearing a dull green hoodie and an open black jacket, with spiky brown hair that, curiously enough, held a relatively big ahoge at the very top of his head. How very "main character" of you sir. 

Upon making sure that there was nothing more that might happen I allowed myself to relax a little. That isn't to say that I let down my guard, far from it in fact.

He seemed to have noticed my reaction because he gave me an apologetic smile and a sheepish "Sorry…", before addressing everyone else. "Um… how's it going? My name's Makoto Naegi. I'm sorry I got so late, a…" I tuned him out while I focused on giving a more thorough observation to my classmates.

Standing before me were the Super High School Level or Ultimate Students, humans that had been (supposedly) carefully chosen by this school because they were the absolute best at what they did in their respective fields. Even if those areas were... questionable at best.

As I gazed among my fellow students I could not doubt the fact that they were different from average humans, for better or for worse. There was a kind of... uniqueness about them, each to varying degrees.

That being said…

Putting my guard down with any of them would be imprudent. Given that I had no idea about a good chunk of their talents.

"Hey! Everyone, just calm down!" I left my little world of stories and back to reality when I heard the brown-skinned girl from earlier raise her voice. "Listen, why don't we all go around and introduce ourselves?"

Oh? An interesting proposal. I suppose this would be the introduction for the characters chapter. Or perhaps the Tavern scene from a session 0 or 1 from a D&D campaign. Whichever fits better I suppose.

"The hell!?" A guy with a pompadour snarled at that, "There are more important things than fucking introductions right now!"

Well, that is technically true, but…

"That may be the case, but I think it would be good to at least find out who we all are before digging into the most pressing issues." Said Celes, her ever-present smile adorning her face. "I mean, how are we even supposed to talk to each other if we do not know each other's names."

"Um, that's a good point…" The girl with the green jacket and brown skirt shyly said.

"Alright, so let's get introductions out of the way, then we can move on to whatever else. Sounds good?" A dark-blue-haired girl with a seifuku-like uniform replied… though I was tempted to frown with how nonchalantly she sounded.

They are taking this too lightly… perhaps this was for the better... Oh well! Time will tell. Whether my story ends now or later doesn't really matter.

Personal opinion aside, everyone began to pair up and began the introductions. I guess that's as good a signal as anything to move and talk with someone. Though, luckily for me the first person that I was required to introduce myself to made his way towards me, instead of the other way around. Such a person was the last guy who came into the main hall and almost hit me with the door. And now that I'm getting a good look at him he's quite the short one huh? And while sure, I'm tied with being the second tallest with Mr pompadour over yonder, compared to me he and Mrs green shirt look like ants.

That sounds kinda petty, doesn't it… eh, even I can be like that from time to time. I'm only human after all.

Might as well learn about my would-have-been assailant.

"Hi, my name is Makoto Naegi, I am the Ultimate Lucky Student, nice to meet you!" The ahoge'd boy said with a gentle smile. Ultimate Lucky Student ay? My, my, how very main character of you. Personally prefer the term Super High School Level but that's just my opinion.

"Oh, Lucky Student you say? If that's the case, does that mean you have some degree of control over your luck?" I asked. A bit of curiosity could be heard in my voice.

"H-Huh!? No, no, nothing like that!" It seems my question caught him off guard. Strange. Did he not think there would be those who would ask such a thing? "In fact, I tend to have terrible luck most of the time, haha…" Seeing that I wasn't giving him a reaction to that, he became a bit nervous.

Such a strange person I've met.

"Erm, you see, Hope's Peak holds every year a lottery in which a random and normal person gets an opportunity to attend this school, it just so happened that I am the winner of this year's lottery… I am just a completely average teenager in every sense of the word, honest!" He finished, meanwhile rubbing sheepishly the back of his neck.

"Mmm." I mused as I began to look him up and down. He did look incredibly basic. As basic as basic could be. Like putting butter on bread basic or chips with salt. Wait, do the Japanese use the word fries like Americans? Mhm, I never thought about that. Though considering this flavourful cast of characters around us, such blandness might be what's needed in this story.

Nodding in understanding of this, I spoke to our fledgling hero. "Oberon V. Voyager. Greetings Mr Naegi."

He seemed to take a pensive look while scratching his chin before talking again "…Voyager V. Oberon… huh, your name sounds familiar..."

My right eye twitched.

"So you are one of the students I couldn't find even their names in any of the threads I checked…" ...Great, I'm not even given any recognition. Though I suppose it's fitting for a supporting character like me. "If you don't mind me asking. What are those around your eyes?"

Heh, guess this was going to come up eventually. "Oh these? They're my eyelashes." I said giving a wide toothy grin. You see I didn't have normal eyelashes like everyone else. Each of my eyes is lined with a slightly thick, jagged, white-coloured structure. It looked as if my eyes were surrounded by leaves or rather, like a blooming flower. Perhaps a mixture? Never really thought about it.

Mr Naegi seemed shocked that my eyelashes looked the way they did. "...Oh, um, what about your gloves? It's not cold inside." He scratched his chin again as he continued. "I'm not being rude I just find it a little strange."

! ! !

"What, these?" I asked, shock evident on my face and in my voice. My eyes are still closed as always. A small chuckle escaped my voice before I responded. Such a strange question to ask."Oh, their religious garments my dear friend."

I thought came to mind as I had the perfect opportunity to help this little lamb. "If you want I can tell you more about them and their meaning." I nodded to myself in satisfaction. "It's always good to get a different point of view of things you know." My face brightened as I spoke. "And besides, it wouldn't hurt to learn something new right?" My expression dropped a little as I finished. "Though it is a little rude to put me on the spot like that."

He began to apologise to me; something which I found quite odd. I mean, it's understandable to ask someone about their clothing, people do it all the time. Geez man grow a spine or something. Though I suppose that's what his character arc will be. Well, that and probably other things too.

"Geez man, what's got you acting like that huh?" This seemed to take him aback a little - confusion evident on his face. "I just said it was a little rude to go question someone's wardrobe that's all." I gave him my signature toothy smile.

"Oh, um, okay..." He began looking down a little confused. Probably thinking about what I just said. Odd, did I say something strange?

After a few seconds, he seemed to return to his usual chipper demeanour, though something was evidently a little off and spoke once again. "Ah, I see. Well… Uh, are you British by any chance? Your accent sounds a little... ethereal? No, maybe a bit... off?" His words were laced with a bit of hesitation as he spoke. Though that quickly ended as he quickly tried to apologise.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to sound rude it's just, um, well... ya know."

A soft chuckle escaped my lips at his antics. "No, no, it's quite alright, I get it all the time. My accent doesn't sound like the stereotypical Great Ise accent. You are forgiven. And just to confirm, yes, I am British. And yes I've had this accent for my entire life. Though I do understand your confusion, there are quite a few stereotypical British accents and mine doesn't quite sound like any of them."

This seemed to relieve the young boy as he breathed out a sigh of relief before asking another question. "Ah, well if you don't mind me asking. Could you tell me what your talent is? You were one of the few people I couldn't find anything on."

A little surprise showed on my face as I sadly smiled and lightly shook my head. "No, not really… at least not right now." I said sadly before returning to my chipper self. "I will talk about it later, I promise." Naegi didn't seem satisfied with my answer, but neither he insisted on the subject. Fair.

Seeing that as my cue to leave, I nodded at him one last time before moving from my spot in search of someone else to introduce myself.