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supremedanganronpa3 · 7 years

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Supreme Danganronpa 3: Chapter 8

Notes: Long time no see, outstanding readers!

Apologies for the unannounced hiatus. College got very hectic, and I lost the will to write sometime during the summer. But I've never abandoned updating it, so here it is! I've had a lot of help with this chapter: a hearty thank you to my beta, celblau, who stuck around in spite of the slightly underestimated delay.

Regarding scheduling for future chapters: I won't lie to you about my busy life, but the story will be continued. For now, expect a new chapter every month.

But what are we waiting for? It's time for this game to enter its next phase... What a pity for the citizens of Enoshima.

Pitiful Students and Pendulous Despair (Part VII)

"I guess that's all I have to say."

Makoto felt light looking down on the seated people in front of him. The sound of tired breathing approached from behind him, but that wasn't a bother. Right now, nothing could bother him.

The audience cheered.

"T-That wasn't funny, that was h-h-heartwarming!" Lemeza blubbered.

Asami followed suit. "And awesome! You're both totally Vegas-good!"

Somewhere in the back, he could hear the choked sobbing of a certain fortune-teller.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Daisuke said, placing a hand on Makoto's shoulder. "And thank you. You're the real star here."

A smile slipped from the other boy's face. "I just took your advice. Let's share the honors, alright?"

Then, an authoritative cough quieted the audience, and Byakuya stood up. "Honors? Have you already forgotten what we're here for?"

"God, aren't you a stick in the mud!" Monokuma yelled, appearing from one of the venue's dark corners. Just being near the bear gave Makoto goosebumps. "This was the most fun I've had in this dreary town in forever! I'm sure our two celebrities agree, riiiiight?"

"I've got nothing to say to ya, 'buddy'." Daisuke spat.

A snide snicker. "I'm touched you consider this humble mayor a friend."

"Isn't it time you hold up your end of the deal?" Kyoko asked. "There's one room here that we still need to see."

Yuta shot daggers at the detective. "'End of the deal'? I'll keep that in mind."

"Yeah, I guess it's time to show the gifts to their place." Jumping like a child, Monokuma beckoned to something at the entrance. "Get in here, Squiddy!"

"Coming, friend! :O"

The cephalopod entered through the double doors with a bang, slithering down to the base of the stage with the weapon-filled wheelbarrow. Squiddy lifted the wheelbarrow over to the stage's floor and propelled up to stage.

Daisuke barely dodged a pair of shurikens from the cart. "Whoa, watch where you throw that!"

Makoto, heart still-racing from the squid's appearance, looked at venue's yellow door. "W-what kind of clue would Monokuma put in there?"

"Now citizens," the mayor cleared his throat, "it's time to put my presents to good use! Follow your mayor and supervisor to the door at the back of the stage."

As the crowd gathered to the stage, Makoto tried to take a step towards the door, but a deathly cold, slimy appendage slapped itself onto his chest that wouldn't budge for anything. "Upupupu! Line-like Makoto, we have different plans for you and Daisuke. :D"

Daisuke sprinted to his aid. "What the hell?! This wasn't what we signed up for! If you harm Makoto, I swear-"

"Cool it, punk!" Monokuma had suddenly closed the distance. "Or else you'll be showing your pals more than just your undies!"

"W-what is the meaning of this?!" implored Takato.

"Oh, what's the matter? I expected the editorialist of all people to know that not all arrangements are fair! Puhuhuhu!"

Ahodori took clenched fists from her pockets and glared at the bear. "I am more than ready to disrupt this arrangement, then."

"Hmph," Adjusting his glasses, Byakuya stepped forward, "once again, I have to point out the obvious. Makoto and Daisuke are in no harm."

Kyoko's calm stride caught Makoto's attention. "Monokuma wouldn't harm them directly. That's not how he works."

"Ding-ding! Absolutely correct!" Monokuma guffawed. "I just want to take these two guys out to dinner! Have a little after-performance celebration, y'know?"

Daisuke snorted. "Yeah, right."

The rest of the conversation was lost to Makoto.

His perception began to warp. At his peripheries, shadows slithered to obscure what should have been seen, and he felt a lifeless chill creep through his being, while panic settled a frigid stone in his stomach, begging him to let out a scream. He wanted to scream, but then he could hear his own screech echo around him. Darting his eyes in a vain attempt to see if anyone around him heard him, he could see nothing. Something he had no experience with nor wanted to accept the existence of held him at its hands. Something terrifying.

A voice broke through. "Line-like Makoto, you're drooling again! DX"

The next thing he knew, sticky suckers wiped whatever spit was staining his mouth off. He couldn't find the energy to protest this breachment of personal space. This must be what insanity felt like.

The cooked fish on Makoto's plate remained untouched as he picked through an accompanying pile of kelp with a fork. His eyes refused to look at his supervisor hovering at the other side of the table.

"Eat up! This is a bountiful harvest from the sea! You can't find fish this good in another universe, upupupu! :B"

"Where is Daisuke?"

"Line-like Daisuke is being treated by the mayor himself in the town hall! I believe they are eating what you line-like ones call 'ribs'? :$"

He gritted his teeth. Every second he was stuck here was another second that could be used to investigate the new area and make sure Daisuke was alright.

An idea came to him. "You know, I'm really not hungry. I think I'll pass on the meal. I mean, you haven't eaten anything right now either. Don't you want to take a swim?"

"Oh, silly line-like one, I'm feeding as we speak! ;P"

He leaned back in his seat. "What?"

"I'm feeding as we speak! ;P"

For the first time during the meal, he looked at the unshifting surface that could only vaguely be described as Squiddy's face. "Just who is controlling you?"

Squiddy hesitated for a beat. "Who? That's kinda inapplicable! I guess you could say that the 'who' that is controlling me is myself! XD"

A brow raise slowly came from him. "Are you an AI?"

"Upupupu, you sure are an inquisitive one! I knew it was smart to have you be chosen! :D"

"Chosen? What are you talking about? Just what the hell even are you?"

"I'm Squiddy the Squid, your supervisor in this wonderful game! :)"

He groaned and slumped into his seat. After some grumbles, he heard footsteps descending the stairs and let out a relieved sigh as Kyoko came to view.

"What did we fi-"

"Excuse me, supervisor," Kyoko interrupted, "may Makoto come with me?"

Squiddy twirled its tentacles and hummed. "Sure! Looks like our meal is over, friend! Take care now, and remember: I'm always by your side. ;)"

He sprang from his seat following Kyoko's lead. He reached out to her, but his hand met air alone.

"H-hey! Wait up! Is the clue that big?"

"See for yourself."

"This… isn't what I expected."

Sing, solemn tower: Of those who will sail To land dreamed by Seer, Who vowed Sunday's fail. Sing, Seer's vile murder.

Makoto couldn't think of anything better to say.

Jagged letters, resembling the claw-marks of some wild beast, stained the wall. Though dried, the letters' red liquid still appeared to drip down to floor. The poem marked his mind as it marked the wall, unsettling him.

The room itself was small and barren, save for some odds and ends strewn throughout the floor: compasses, layers of white fabric, what looked like a sundial, and, of all things, a boat wheel. How everyone managed to find some place to stand in the mess was a mystery to him.

"Dudes, this place is creepin' me out," Hiro mumbled after a shiver.

"What a wonderful rhyme. Perhaps, if recited during the crimson moon, it might bring about the end of days," Emilia purred.

Tears welled in Lemeza's eyes. "P-please don't say that! It's, it's got to be a clue!" He turned to Kyoko. "Y-you see the connection, r-right?"

The investigator traced the letters in silence.

"Hey, my man," Asami said as she approached Makoto, "Where's Daisuke? Kinda worrying about him now."

Makoto shook his head. "He's at the town hall with Monokuma right now. It's not what I want, but it's better to not get Monokuma angry. He's going to be alright."

"Tch, I'll handle whatever shit comes his way," Murasaki said. She wandered to a pile of metal tools above a folded piece of cloth and gave a disappointed sigh. "This place is a pigsty. Looks like I've got some work to do."

Like phantoms fading in and out of sight, the tools moved from one end of the room to the other, fixed up and arranged in an exact line. What was once a wrinkled cloth transformed into a smoothed blanket lovingly laid out on the ground. Makoto gawked at Murasaki lazily stretching.

"W-wow," he let out, "you're amazing! I couldn't even see you move!"

Aoi went and gave Murasaki a high-five. "You go, girl! I'll need to do some extra work-outs if I wanna keep up!"

"Just do plenty of push-ups and sit-ups––and don't forget the protein shakes."

Masumi kneeled down to the blanket and ran a finger over it. She stood up, a hand over her mouth pensively. "Hm…"

"Something the matter with it?" Takato asked.

"Yes. This fabric is quite odd. It's not woven in a way that would make it comfortable to wear, and it's too big to cover anything in." Masumi turned to Murasaki. "You handled it for a bit longer, what do you think, Suki?"

The fit janitor shrugged. "I dunno. It's no kimono or anything, so yeah, kinda weird. What's got my mind going is why you'd put some tools on top of it. That'd ruin most clothes. Maybe this isn't clothing?"

"It's a sail for a boat," Yuta said.

"H-huh?" Makoto turned to the ultimate architect leaning on the right wall. "A sail?"

"The fabric is similar in texture to that of a kite's. It's large enough to move a small boat." Yuta put his hands in his pockets. "The tools are navigational, which is why there are compasses."

"Wait, hold on," he said. "What does boating have to do with anything?"

Byakuya crossed his arms, his usual frown morphing into a concerned look. "Do you remember what's to the east, Makoto?"

Makoto tapped his chin. "There's the town hall. Then after that, some body of water––Suijin's Sea, right?"

"Correct. Do you notice something particular about that name?"

"No? Suijin's the god of water, so it's not really odd to name a sea after-" His eyebrows rose as he reflected on what he had just said.

"Wait! It's a sea! A sea's surrounded by land at nearly all sides! Somewhere off the coast, there's probably some land other than this insane place. But, does it really matter? I mean, we can't just swim all the way there."

"Think about this room and that poem. Carefully."

It took a second for the conclusion to hit Makoto and most everyone else in the room.

"We need to go to the bell tower as soon as possible," Kyoko said through the worried muttering of the crowd.

Makoto rubbed his hands frantically. "Y-yeah, because if Monokuma's serious about this being a clue, we're-"

"We're building a boat," Yuta said, shooting a grin at everyone.

Makoto strolled through the misty streets of Enoshima, his sights affixed on the dew-stained pavement. He breathed into his hands and rubbed them. The numbness dissipated against the ephemeral embers of warmth spreading in his hands.

Looking up at the street ahead of him, he sighed. This wasn't the road to his home, and the fogged windows perched above the decrepit steps to dull buildings spoke nothing to him.

"Maybe a boat would be better than this," he thought before turning around and walking back.

A click from behind him gave him pause.

"Puhuhu, glad we understand each other!"

He turned and saw Monokuma exit one of the indistinct homes, followed by Daisuke.

Acting on instinct, he darted to the home and tried to lock eyes with Daisuke, but met only a downcast face.

"Daisuke!" The chirp in his voice quieted to a whisper. "Daisuke?"

"What?" Daisuke shook his head vigorously and looked at Makoto with a relaxed smile. "Maky! Wasn't expecting to see ya here!"

"Oh, my heart's swooning! The lovers have been reunited!" Monokuma cheered.

He ignored the jab. "You alright? We discovered a huge clue back in the tavern!"

A laugh escaped through Daisuke's grin. "Nice! I'm fine. The bear and I just had a little talk. I'm just glad we're getting somewhere!" He shook his head a bit.

"Hey, uh, was Saki with you? Need to talk to her."

"Oh, yeah, she should still be near the tavern. Wait, that's odd-"

"Near the tavern? Sweet! I'll see you later, Maky!"

Before He could respond, Daisuke vanished into the fog with velocious feet. Unease welled in the pit of his stomach as he was left alone with Monokuma.

"What a hyperactive kid. Really takes after his parents," Monokuma said idly. "I wonder if that's how he ran when his father called for him. 'Come're, little dude! Let's go to the park!' Or could it be something like, 'Welcome back from school, son! Was it fun? Dinner will be ready soon'? You know, a mother's call turns even the most macho of men into little pudding. Makes me wonder: would he still be able to run like that if they were out of the picture? Only one way to find out, I guess."

The lump of unease turned into that of burning coal. "You're scum, threatening his family like that!"

Monokuma put a paw up over his unmoving smile. "Wow, a bear thinking out loud is now a threat? Don't I deserve the right to think? I'm just like you on the inside."

Refusing to be baited, he stomped away without another word. The only thing distracting him from the bear's infuriating words was the relief for Daisuke's safety.

"Leaving so soon? Well, great chatting with you, too! Oh, and remember that clue. The bell tower will help you out a lot."

Those last words stopped him in his tracks. He contemplated the misty town's ever present tower.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Makoto still had a bad feeling about this.

The red door hinted little of what awaited within Enoshima's clock tower. A faint fragrance from rose bushes lightened the dense air, though insufficiently. Makoto placed his hands on the cold handle of the door, took in a deep breath, and pushed the door. For a sliver of an inch, the door flew easily, but then a firm clank rang out and something solid stopped his push. Another attempt resulted in the same resistance.

From behind, Byakuya scoffed. "Is a door too difficult for you?"

"There's something blocking it." He turned to face the 79th class looking at him expectantly. "You guys found this door blocked, right? And you haven't been able to open it this entire time?"

"Correct," Takato replied. "We eventually tried forcing our way in-"

"That failed," finished Ahodori, followed soon after by a collective grumble from Daisuke, Lemeza, and Murasaki.

"I doubt we'd be lead to false lead so soon," Kyoko said.

Aoi shrugged. "Maybe the door'll just open on its own? It's a possibility."

As if answering the swimmer's hunch, the bell tower sounded two long and gloomy rings. When the tolls faded away, a soft click could be heard coming from the inner workings of the bell tower. Makoto recovered from the sudden ringing and tried the door again. This time, the handle relented under his force, and the door slid open.

Aoi cocked her chin up and grinned. "Looks like my six sense ain't half bad!" She strolled into the bell tower, the group close behind her. Makoto waited behind, preparing himself for whatever hid within the looming tower.

As Ahodori was about to pass him, a steel slab dropped from the top of the passageway. He jumped back, hearing only a gasp before the loud slam (and his own yelp) of the steel blockage blocked the group ahead.

He placed a hand over his chest, settling his heart. "Are we stuck outside?" She merely grunted. Placing a hand on the steel barrier, she rubbed it, perhaps looking for any structural weaknesses. With another grunt, she turned her back to it and took a few steps away from it. And just like that, the barricade lifted itself off of the passageway, revealing the rest of the group waiting behind it.

"T-thank god…" Lemeza stuttered, "I-w-we were w-worried there… for a s-second."

Kyoko waved Makoto forward. "Try going through––on your own this time." He entered without incident.

The detective looked at Ahodori. "Would you mind testing something? Come close to the entrance and wait for about a minute. After that, go back to where you're standing now."

Ahodori moved to the door, but at the point where she was before the barrier fell, the steel fell once more. Makoto felt something like the entire tower shaking from its slam, and noting that the barrier was around two feet thick, figured this was why the door wouldn't budge earlier. The barrier rose a minute after as she exited its radius, clicking to confirm that it was safely locked in the ceiling of the passageway. Ahodori stood a fair distance from him.

"Is this what that vile bear wishes?" Ahodori huffed with crossed arms. "It appears I must wait here."

"I dunno about this, guys," Daisuke said. "What if Monokuma's sending us to one of his death traps and doesn't want 'Dori to mess it up? Maybe we should go back and-"

"No," was all Yuta had to say to end that train of thought, for Makoto at any rate.

The deliberation roused Hidetaka from his nap, though he barely acknowledged it with a lazily raised eyelid. "Hm, yes, I would like to see what lovely surprises Monokuma left for us here. And does fortune not favor the bold?"

Ahodori lowered her head and remained still for some time. "I will not leave you for long. Be cautious. I will find another way inside." She met Murasaki's gaze. Her sole eye held her student's unwaveringly. "Murasaki."

"Sensei?"

"You have my knowledge and, most importantly, your own determination. You are worthy of your heritage. Take care of your classmates and elders until I return. I believe in you."

The student seemed at a lost for words. Her knees shaked only a little before she performed a careful and deliberately paced bow. Makoto couldn't see her face from where he stood, but he imagined she was smiling.

With glossy eyes, Daisuke looked on the two. "Huh, pretty stupid of me, Doubting Saki and Dori. Alright then, let's find us some clues!"

Daisuke lead the group forward on, and it was only a few feet before the dark hallway opened up to a long room with green panelled walls and a vague lemony scent. The room was unsettlingly unassuming. At the end of the room was an unassuming spiral staircase. Outside of the faint churning of hidden cogs and gears, only modest lamps adorned an otherwise unremarkable room.

"Another ugly room," Toko mumbled. "It's so… kitsch."

Takato gave Toko a quizzical look. "The entire town of Enoshima could be called that."

"T-this room in particular, I mean. Tacky green color, a-and some spiral staircase like a lighthouse's?"

"Quiet. We have more important business here than aesthetic tastes," Byakuya snapped. Toko and Takato complied almost immediately.

The group split up to explore the room, and Makoto decided to hug the right wall. The room opened up a small rectangular area with the staircase at the center. He stood at the right end for a while and thought to himself. Something struck him about the condition of bell tower's interior.

Asami appeared over Makoto's shoulder, breaking his concentration. "Penny for your thoughts, bro?"

"Hey. I guess something about this place weirds me out. Doesn't this place seem a bit sparse?"

"Totally. Not a single chair here!"

"Right, so it makes me think we're the first people here. I mean, I guess that's obvious. But doesn't it still feel a bit lived in?"

"Nah, not getting that impression." Asumi grinned. "But hey, you seem like a smart guy who can prove me wrong~"

Before Makoto could blabber some embarrassing response, Daisuke inadvertently came to the rescue. "Hey guys, I'm gonna check what's upstairs! Follow me."

"Wait!" Murasaki ran up to Daisuke. "I'll stay here and guard this floor. Sensei would do the same for us."

"Good thinking. That'll cover all our bases while we all go up-"

"No," Yuta interrupted. "I'm staying here."

Daisuke stiffened. "Wait, why?"

Yuta simply glared as an answer.

Daisuke frowned and approached the architect. "Really? Is this really the time to pull this enigmatic crap?!"

"Get over it. It's none of your business."

"It is my business! It's everyone's business!"

"Only if it needs to be."

"You don't get it, do you? You're putting us all in danger by abandoning us for no reason!"

"Bother someone else with guilt-trips."

The veins on Daisuke's fists grew more pronounced. "Just what the hell happened to you, Yuta?! Don't you care about any of us—about me?"

"I do. I will always be grateful to you."

The daredevil's jaw momentarily dropped. "Wait, are… are you serious?"

"Yes. You've done so much for me."

"Yuta… I don't know what to say-"

A toothy smirk crept from the other boy. "You were the best sentimental dumbass to toy with."

"-You selfish bastard! I'll-"

"Enough!" Murasaki went between the two. "Look, Yuta, I get you're pragmatic. Isn't it pragmatic to keep with the group? This floor won't disappear the second you leave it, right? But the rest of us might need your talents for whatever is upstairs." She turned to Kyoko, who stood aloofly by the staircase. "Um, what do you think? You know this game more than us. We should follow your lead."

Kyoko crossed her arms and looked at each of the three. "I'm going upstairs. Everyone is free to do otherwise."

Daisuke stepped forward, his palms facing away from him. "B-but-"

"I've changed my mind. Lead the way, old friend," Yuta said, making his way to the stairs.

"Y-yeah, sure––sure." Daisuke moved back to the stairs, an ambivalent expression on his face throughout.

Though everyone else followed, Makoto stroke his cheek pensively: what was Yuta's deal? Why did Daisuke snap the way he did? Had Monokuma said something to put him on the edge? Beneath these questions lay a tinge of disappointment. He should have intervened, helped dissolve the division between friends––or whatever Yuta considered everyone else. As things stood, the boiling tension now just simmered.

When Kyoko moved to Byakuya and whispered something to him, leading the blond to nod and go upstairs, Makoto calmed down. He didn't want to pry––if it was something he needed to know, either of them would inform him––so he silently joined the party's ascent to the next floor.

As Makoto reached the end of the staircase, he saw a room with a grand window at the opposite end of the stairs and walls entirely covered over by masks. There were too many to count: many wooden ones smiled mockingly at him, and equally as many vinyl masks wept while others of metal stared blankly. He cringed just looking at the uncomfortably small room.

Others responded more positively to the discovery. Emilia in particular slid past the others and twirled around the room. "Oh, my spirit blooms!" She reached for an iron mask near the window and began to caress it. "This one, my darlings, speaks to me. What stories do you have to tell, my iron mask––hm?"

Emilia tilted her head towards the grand window, dropping the iron mask. She walked to the window and looked through it. "My darlings, this is a strange sight to behold," she said, eyes still surveying the strange view.

Approaching, he froze at the sight that greeted him. The window showed a vast misty sea.

"Guys, did we go up some fifty stories I just forgot about?" Hiro asked. Makoto felt sick to his stomach, and his feet wobbled where they rested.

"We-we were only on those stairs a minute."

"I don't remember the tower having any windows, either," Masumi said, tugging her shirt sleeves.

"I believe," Kyoko, stoic to the end, pointed at something beyond the window, "that might be of importance."

Makoto, perforce, squinted through to see whatever Kyoko saw in the foggy sea. Resting in the center of the sea was a sliver of earth distinct from the otherwise uniform waters. Atop that island was a white something too regular in shape to be naturally made––a building, and a large one, considering that it took up most of the island's area.

Beside him, Byakuya smirked. "Ah, how the pieces come together. Of course we'd need a boat to get to an island."

Meanwhile, Takato adjusted his glasses with trembling hands. "Yes, but this shouldn't be possible."

Daisuke placed a comforting hand on Takato's shoulder. "We'll have to pick our fights. What's important is that I think we've got our clue. We should head back down. Don't want to keep Saki waiting on this!"

"Do we really have to go now?" Emilia pouted childishly, an apple-colored blush flushing her cheeks. "This is the most legitimately disturbing part of this god-forsaken town. I want to stay!"

Lemeza hid his head behind his hat. "B-but Emily, there's p-plenty of other c-creepy places h-here."

"Yes, creepy."

"R-right."

"I'm bored of creepy. I want disturbing."

Daisuke sighed and rubbed his temples. "You're being childish, Emily. We're going now; this place's too disturbing for its own good."

"Prudent is the better word," Emilia said indignantly. "I need to be somewhere disturbing, and the bell tower needs to be fully explored. Is it not better for me to stay here and satisfy both desires?"

"Oh for the love of christ-"

"If I may," Hide interjected, "Emilia has a point. We may not have another chance to enter this place. We mustn't let fear, however well-meant and justified, impede our progress."

The other boy hesitated. "Good point."

"How about this? Emilia and I will stay on this floor. If we discover anything while you reunite with Murasaki, I will come inform you." Hidetaka faced Emilia. "You are fine with this, I hope?" After she nodded, he turned. "Are you?"

Another pause. "Yes."

"Then it is settled!" Hidetaka put his hands behind his head and smiled as he began to follow an already giggling Emilia. "Shall we, oh child of chills?"

"Indeed, curious crypt-dweller!"

Daisuke once again lead everyone else to ground level. As Makoto got close to Daisuke, he tried to whisper to him. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"Why're you asking?"

"You just seem a little on edge, is all."

Daisuke chuckled. "Man, I'm easy to read, huh? Yeah, some things came up."

"What things?"

"I'll tell ya in a bit." Daisuke had reached the final few steps. When his foot hit the floor, his focus went entirely to avoiding Murasaki running up to him and almost body-slamming him. "Whoa, nice to see ya too, Saki!"

"Guys," Murasaki exclaimed with eyes bright, "I found something big!"

"Really? What'd you find? Gave some wannabe assassin a one-two punch?!"

"Just follow me and find out!"

The group followed Murasaki to the left of the floor. There, they saw a cut along the green panels in the shape of a door.

"Is that what I think it is?" Aoi asked.

"If you're thinking it's a secret door, then bingo!" Murasaki replied.

"Nice!"

Daisuke patted Murasaki on the shoulder. "Good work! Find anything else?"

"Nope, and I don't think there's much else. Just a hunch, though."

"You're the expert here!" He laughed. "Oh, we found a creepy room full of masks and our destination, I think."

"Weird." She scanned the group. "Wait, where's Emilia?"

"She wanted to stay upstairs and, uh, look around."

Her eyes widened for a moment before he continued. "Hide's with her, so don't worry about it."

She breathed a relieved sigh. "Ah, that's good."

"Returning to the door," Byakuya said sharply, "it would be wise if we continued our investigation."

Daisuke nodded eagerly. "Always keeping focus––I like that, Byagami!"

The scion pointed a finger at Murasaki. "Escort us ahead. It would be unwise to explore a secret area without a guard, after all."

"That's a ninja for you," the janitor replied with a grin.

Murasaki slowly slid the door open. As she did this, the muted sounds of the hidden clockwork increased She had unearthed the metal innards probably responsible for keeping the tower's time accurate. The revealed passage hinted at the vast scope of this mechanistic marvel of Enoshima: a long stairway descended past the point of visibility, and above that stairway were an array of moving machinery compact enough to allow movement down the stairs with minor difficulty.

The group descended down the stairway, Murasaki leading them. Unlike the stairs leading to the tower's heights, the descent to its depths seemed to stretch time itself. Some unknown thing lit the stairway poorly, forcing Makoto to contend with the persistent sight of numerous dust particles. That, the endless descent, the weak lighting, and the volume of dust all made him feel woozy.

Thankfully, Daisuke was nearby, and Makoto wanted to continue where he left off. "So is now a good time for what you mentioned earlier?"

Daisuke gave him a confused look. "Well, uh, not really. I don't like talking while walking on stairs. It's a pain, y'know?"

Now that Daisuke mentioned it, Makoto's lungs were tiring out from the multi-tasking. Still, this seemed important. "I get that, but there is something that's worrying you."

"And right now, my worries aren't what's important."

Before Makoto could respond, a deafening crash boomed through the stairway. Hiro immediately jolted and almost pushed Asami off-balance. "The hell was that?!"

"O-oh no," Lemeza said, "w-we're doomed. T-that's, that's d-definitely either a t-trap door o-or a g-giant boulder f-f-falling from the c-ceiling, ready, ready to c-crush us."

"Wouldn't we hear the boulder rolling down, though?" Asked Aoi, her tone the calm opposite of Lemeza's.

"It… i-it might be a c-cursed boulder…"

"The sound came from upstairs," Kyoko observed.

"Shit," Murasaki muttered. "OK, I'll go check it out. I'll try and get back as soon as possible. Go on ahead, but don't do anything stupid while I'm gone!" She then ran up past everyone and disappeared in the horizon.

The group continued their descent, though at a slower pace. After some time, they reached a sharp turn of the steps. By then only a few steps remained to the basement of the tower.

He made each of his steps count. He inched into the room, careful to make sure his eyes adjusted to the darkness and tried to connect with any other person willing to risk floundering about in blindness.

"H-hi, M-Makoto." It was meek Lemeza's voice beside him.

"Is that you? Sorry, I still can't see anything."

"T-that's, that's understandable." Lemeza's footsteps stopped, so Makoto also stopped. "Oh, y-you don't h-have to wait for m-me. I'm just w-watching out for that p-pit."

"Pit?!"

"Y-you don't k-know?" The explorer's voice sped up. "Oh! I'm sorry! I was arrogant again! I didn't mean to demean you Makoto! It was-"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down there Lemmy," Another voice spoke from behind the two. It was Daisuke, having apparently followed them. "My bad if I startled you. Best to keep close to the explorer, yeah?"

"I'm sorry I didn't warn you either!" Lemeza remained silent for a moment. "Any, anyhow, there's a p-pit a few feet away from where we are. Y-you can t-tell through––through the room's sound."

Curious by what Lemeza meant, Makoto tuned out the numerous footsteps and unclear voices and tried to listen to the room itself.

Drip. Drip.

So there was water nearby. Not much, but enough for droplets to fall close to him.

Soon, he heard a trickling gush underneath him. A tiny thing. Easy to ignore, but there. Something like… a stream of water, almost.

Beyond this, whatever other ambiance that could be heard merged with the sounds of human activity, and he was at his limit.

"I… I only hear water," he said.

"R-right, that's o-one thing," Lemeza replied. "The, the w-water flows down to t-the center of this r-room, and I, I o-only hear it f-f-flow down-it n-never hits ground, it n-never hits another body of w-w-water. So it probably flows i-into a deep, d-d-deep pit."

This information left Makoto flabbergasted; he couldn't register it at all. Were Lemeza's senses that good?

"Ha! A little pit doesn't scare me!" Daisuke yelled. "I'll circle around this place––get a good feel of the shape and size of this pit."

"Wait." Makoto's hand reached out to Daisuke. "I'll come with you."

"What? There's no need for that-"

"It's important."

His eyes had adjusted to the dark enough for him to make out Daisuke's frown. Without another word Daisuke went forward on, and he worried he might trip into this pit when he went after him. Daisuke made a hard stop, kneeled, and let his hand scrape an impenetrable abyss.

"So this is where the pit is," Makoto let out.

"Get back," Daisuke said gruffly. "It's not safe here."

Makoto stood his ground. "Daisuke, what did Monokuma say to you two days ago? This isn't like you!"

"Excuse me? Look, we just talked. Nothing happened!"

"And talking is all Monokuma needs to screw with your mind. I've been there, trust me. Weren't you saying to Yuta that it's bad to not be open with others? That's true, so I want you to be open with me."

For a moment, neither Makoto nor Daisuke spoke. The latter's face shifted from harsh features to a depressed frown and droopy eyes.

"M-maybe you're right." After a few second, Daisuke finally whispered.

"OK––OK. It's a long story, and I'm gonna have to… say it to myself first. I might just start rambling after a while, but, I dunno." He started making his way around the perimeter of the pit. "A walk'll help me concentrate."

He silently followed the green-haired teen around the pit. It became clear to him that this was a circular pit and a large one, at that. From where he was, he could only see a foot or two at the pit and was unable to find its center. This basement had to be at least larger than the bell tower to house this pit and enough ground to not immediately fall into it.

Daisuke broke the silence first. "This class is my family."

Makoto waited for him to continue speaking. When he received nothing further, he prompted. "Has it always been that way?"

"Since I was old enough to walk." Daisuke looked up. "I'm sorry you had to see me and Yuta. He wasn't always that way. We were in the same kid's soccer team; we were best bros and best players!"

"Really? Yuta and Daisuke used to be best friends?"

"Man, I remember when Yuta and me raked in prizes: Most goals, best defenses, best passes, and even cleanest lockers! That last part wasn't us, though. We bullied Saki to get her to clean our stuff. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why she's hot-tempered."

"I never pegged you as the bullying type."

"Eh, boys will be boys. I only regret not watching Yuta closely enough. Something changed in him when we got older. He turned into this living furnace. I dunno, but I should have been there to help him. Now… well, you saw how we get along."

Regret. That was something Makoto knew much about. "You shouldn't blame yourself for whatever changed Yuta."

"I try not to. In the end of the day, Yuta's one person in this entire group of people I care about." Daisuke stopped and sighed. "I want everyone to be alright. I have to do whatever it takes. I need to."

"This must have been what you and Monokuma talked about."

"It was. But he… he didn't threaten us, if that's what you're thinking."

"Wait, what?" He had recoiled from the statement, and in doing so, he felt his foot depress on the stone floor like he had stepped on a button. He looked down to see something carved onto the floor and highlighted with bright yellow paint, which he had somehow not noticed while listening to Daisuke.

Kneeling down, he read the yellow passage:

To meet Tuesday's Despair, take flight with care First go north, til the fog clears Next sail west, til the sea boils Then turn north and never be deterred When the Sun peeks through the bloody sky You will know your journey's end.

"Are these," he thought out loud, "the directions to that island?"

"Hey, Maky, you paying any attention?" Daisuke asked loudly. "You've been quiet for a while-What are you looking at?"

"I think I found the clue we were looking for!"

"Fuck," the green-haired boy blurted out. "You have to get out of here right now."

"What? This clue is big." He stood up and turned around. "Hey everyone! You need to see this!"

"No!" Daisuke ran up to next to him. "Don't bring anyone closer!" He was at a lost for words seeing Daisuke so panicked.

"Listen to me! This is-MAKOTO, WATCH OUT!"

Everything after that warning would forever stain Makoto's memory: Makoto felt Daisuke's strong arms shove him to the ground, where he landed just inches away from the pit; He lay supine, unable to do anything but watch; Daisuke stood where Makoto once was, his panic dissolving away into a wistful smile; A booming whoosh came from the pit; something zoomed into sight; the smile transformed into a horrible look of pure anguish; a scream.

A giant, obsidian axe, attached to a long metal pendulum, had lodged itself into Daisuke's ribs.

Blood seeped violently from the wound. Daisuke spat out bile tainted with crimson. He feebly held his obliques strewn about his stained clothes and the few ribs that weren't fractured protruding from his body.

Just as it struck like a lightning bolt, the pendulum pulled away from Daisuke's ruined body and returned to the darkness. The force, by some miracle or curse, did not take Daisuke off his wobbly feet, and he stood next to the precipice of the pit.

His mind gave out. After a flaring white light, he saw violent reds and inky blacks. There was a boy in front of him. The boy looked fake, flapping his lips like a broken puppet. That's it, a meat puppet. This was a dream of a broken meat puppet. He heard white noise. A loud buzzing. Like choking. The broken meat puppet made that noise. Oh no, it was a boy. The broken boy was choking. Choking and spewing white noise.

The broken boy laboriously turned his gaze from his torn body to directly at him. His yellow eyes fading into the darkness forced its imprint through Makoto's wet eyes.

"Huh," the broken boy uttered through a pained smile, his words muddled by a mouth filled with blood, "would you… look at… that..."

His legs gave out, and he fell into darkness.

Makoto awoke from his stupor and rushed to his feet.

"Daisuke!"

He ran to the edge of the pit, his trembling hands scratching its surface.

Silence.

"Daisuke! Please!"

With tears streaming down his pallid face, he made one last cry for something––anything.

"Daisuke!"

Continued Notes: A good soul, taken too soon by events beyond their control.

Well, readers, I'm eager to hear what you have to say regarding these events. Have preliminary theories? General comments? Please don't hesitate to comment and review! Each one is like a gift to me. Until next time, my pretties!

#danganronpa #fangan ronpa #fanfic #Dangan Ronpa #super dangan ronpa 2 #Super Danganronpa 2 #fan fiction #supreme danganronpa 3

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Ralph Breaks the Internet is a picaresque, a joyous romp through the backwaters of the internet that nevertheless packs a powerful punch. At first blush, I’d say it falls just short of its predecessor, 2012’s wonderful Wreck-It Ralph, but maybe I need to see it five more times before saying anything so bold.

And when I say it’s a “picaresque,” I mean it. Like the novels that bear this genre label, it’s an episodic journey through an unfamiliar place, following a merry band of travelers as they visit various corners of said unfamiliar place.

At first, the adventures of ’80s video game villain Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) and ’00s racer game heroine Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) seem largely disconnected or plot-driven. But little by little, the voyage reveals itself to be plucking at unexamined emotional bonds between the two.

Perhaps the best-known American novel to fall under the definition of “picaresque” is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a veritable buffet of tropes from all sorts of genres in which Huck and his friend, the escaped slave Jim, float down the Mississippi. As they get deeper and deeper into the South, Jim faces more and more danger, and the humor slowly drains from the book. As the threat to Jim’s life increases, the story becomes about Huck having a moral reckoning with the institution of slavery he’s grown up alongside.

That is … not what Ralph Breaks the Internet is about, but it’s rather remarkable how closely it follows the same structure, as Ralph and Vanellope plumb the depths of the internet in search of a way to purchase a piece of hardware they need to fix her game back at the arcade where they both live.

They riff on eBay and social media and the dark web, and though the movie is crawling with brand names — whether the sight of a giant tower marked “Google” will fill you with delight or dread is open for debate — it’s much more interested in the internet as a place that binds us together than as any specific series of corporate entities. But it’s also interested in how the internet might bind us together too tightly.

Here are three things Ralph Breaks the Internet gets really right about the internet you’re reading these words on right now. (Alas, Vox does not make a cameo in the film.)

Ralph and Vanellope look out upon the wonders of the internet. Disney

For all its weird adoration of brand names, the first scene where Ralph and Vanellope find themselves online is a visual marvel that captures a feeling I haven’t experienced in 20-ish years: the way it feels to hop online for the very first time.

The two step out of their little wifi portal onto a platform overlooking a vast city, darting with traffic. Little Twitter birds pass along JPGs of Grumpy Cat. Amazon and Google tower over the landscape, but there are plenty of other areas to explore too. It’s at once Times Square reimagined in a digital space and a portal to a wider world. Ralph and Vanellope head down into the throngs to find their way to eBay, and the adventure is afoot.

Later, Vanellope muses that the internet seems disconnected from the day/night cycle of the real world; when you’re online, it feels like the sun is always up. And given that the movie is organized around a pretty strict time limit — after winning her replacement part in an eBay auction, Ralph and Vanellope have 24 hours to cough up the money to pay for it — this “always on” quality makes it a bit difficult to keep track of the story. But Vanellope is right, in the sense that Ralph Breaks the Internet captures that weird, buzzy feeling that comes from being online too long, from feeling like there are a million possibilities ahead and you haven’t even come close to exhausting them.

In some ways, this makes the movie’s inability to imagine the online space in a way that goes beyond a very direct representation of it a little disappointing. Yes, that big, bold city is a lot of fun to look at, but its architecture (which is built atop the very real electronic architecture that houses the internet) never quite conveys the wild, “anything can happen” sense of the internet at its best.

And even if the sequence when Vanellope meets all the Disney princesses (which has been heavily teased for months now) is mostly a lot of fun, the corporate synergy turned my stomach just a bit.

If you place all these gags in the context of Ralph Breaks the Internet co-director Rich Moore’s career, however, they make sense. Moore got his big break taking the piss out of pop culture on The Simpsons and Futurama, and the Wreck-It Ralph movies are among the few big-screen films to manage the same joke-a-minute, satirical snap of those TV shows.

The satire’s a little milder here — Disney’s not going to let him truly mock the princesses — but it’s easier to take the jokes about popular brands when Moore’s the one at the helm. He knows just how to lean into the unhinged nature of the web and speed through them fast enough to keep you from feeling too queasy.

Ralph and Vanellope meet a new friend named Shank. Disney

The script for Ralph Breaks the Internet (by co-director Phil Johnston and Pamela Ribon) was written years ago, which makes it a poor fit for, say, critiquing our current, slightly terrifying online world. But even if it were more up-to-the minute, it’s not as though Ralph and Vanellope would blunder down a dark alley and meet a bunch of 4chan Nazis or anything like that.

And the movie does capture the bleaker side of the web all the same, whether that simply involves Ralph seeing a bunch of comments making fun of him or going to visit the dark web, which promises all manner of salacious items for purchase, right down to a creepy, snake-like virus that looks a little like one of the robot squid critters from The Matrix.

Ralph Breaks the Internet doesn’t want to solely portray the internet as a scary place, but I was a little surprised by how dark the movie was willing to go, especially as it entered a third act that isn’t shy about poking at its heroes’ insecurities.

Ralph and Vanellope meet a lot of fun new characters online — including Gal Gadot as Shank, who occupies an online racing game that catches Vanellope’s eye, and Disney regular Alan Tudyk as an old-fashioned search engine named Knowsmore. But it’s easy to see why Ralph keeps trying to turn back toward the arcade, where life is safe and predictable. To paraphrase Linus from A Charlie Brown Christmas, the internet hasn’t only gotten too commercial; it’s gotten too dangerous.

This marks Ralph Breaks the Internet as belonging to a specific subgenre of the picaresque, one that harks to old Hollywood — the story of two small-town kids who set out for the big city and find their friendship tried by what they encounter there. And it’s in that version of itself that Ralph Breaks the Internet ultimately packs its biggest emotional punch.

How is Vanellope not an official Disney princess? Disney

It’s really hard to talk about what ends up linking Ralph Breaks the Internet’s many loose ends in a third act that feels as bold and smart a story about what it means to live online as any we’ve ever come up with, because to do so is to spoil some of the story’s biggest twists. Suffice to say that if you’re at all familiar with the “two friends go to the big city” format, you’ll know that the big city will seek to divide them. And seeing Ralph and Vanellope realize they’re becoming very different people is legitimately heartbreaking.

But it’s everything that follows from that moment that pushes the movie to another level entirely, one that left me a little gobsmacked. Because ultimately, Ralph Breaks the Internet becomes a story about how entirely well-meaning guys can become toxic to their female friends, as well as a story about how hard it can be to realize that even the best of friends might have to take divergent paths to remain happy.

And the film realizes these themes on just about every level. Its script crackles with references to online toxicity (up to and including a pointed mention of a character who wants to “ride in on a white horse” — a nod to the idea of “white knighting,” when a “nice guy” tries, too aggressively, to come to the aid of a woman online). Its images depict how it feels to have all your vulnerabilities exposed for the world to see. And its themes connect in a way that will make sense to just about any viewer, young or old.

Ralph Breaks the Internet, like all good picaresques, meanders a bit during its journey, stopping to take several little detours that aren’t strictly necessary. Most of these detours are fresh and funny; a few tried my patience. But they’re crucial to what ends up being the film’s ultimate emotional effect. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a movie about how easy it is to forget that the internet is made up of people, sometimes even people you love, because it flatters you and batters you and deflates your ego, until you forget about anybody who’s not yourself.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is playing in theaters everywhere.

Original Source -> Ralph Breaks the Internet is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but for the internet

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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