The Tearful Trust Grind
In the dead of night, with everyone else asleep, Kirigiri and I sat in the hallway beside the dorms on night watch. Standing guard alone with my favorite character after dark — wasn't that supposed to be a heart-pounding situation?
It would have been, anyway, if we weren't stuck in a killing game where people were trying to murder each other, and the whole point of sitting here was to catch anyone sneaking out.
"Yaaawn..."
I'd figured night watch would be nothing. I'd pulled enough all-nighters gaming until dawn that I thought I had the experience for it. I was wrong. After a day packed with one nerve-wracking incident after another, the drowsiness was hitting me hard.
"Hey... I'm bored. Want to talk for a bit?"
I struck up a conversation with Kirigiri to keep myself awake. To stay awake. Not because I had any ulterior motives. Definitely not.
"....."
Kirigiri answered with thorough, absolute indifference, staring down the far end of the hallway. She'd been staring a hole through me earlier, and now this? I couldn't get a read on her at all.
Then again, we'd only just met. Being awkward was only natural. Night watch wasn't a one-time thing, so we could take it slow and get to know each other...
"...Kei, was it?"
"Ah, yeah! That's right! I'm Kei!"
Kirigiri-noona had actually said my name. Well, it wasn't my real-world name, but now that I'd fallen into the world of Danganronpa, Kei was my name, so it was all the same.
I was grinning to myself over that pointless thought when Kirigiri suddenly leaned in close and stared straight into my eyes.
What was this? What did this mean? My brain short-circuited on the spot. And just as the seeds of every possible delusion began sprouting in that frozen brain of mine, she whispered:
"You're hiding something, aren't you?"
I clenched my teeth and forced my stalled brain back into overdrive. Was I hiding something? Of course I was hiding a fucking mountain of things.
But I couldn't exactly say, Actually, I know the future, or Actually, I came from another world where a killing game starring you and the other students was released as a video game. She'd just think I was insane.
"No... not really... nothing...?"
Even I could hear how unnatural that sounded. The look in Kirigiri's eyes went cold, and she snapped her head away.
"I have no intention of cooperating with a suspicious person who's hiding something."
And with that, Kirigiri didn't speak to me again. It felt like my heart was being torn apart, but what could I do? Being treated as suspicious was still better than being treated as a lunatic.
By the way, was Monokuma Theater not going to play? In the game, it always came on when you went to sleep.
In the end, I finished night watch by playing Monokuma Theater inside my own head. But when was I supposed to sleep...? Looks like I'd have to catch catnaps whenever I could for a while.
The next few days kept me pretty busy. First priority was earning the kids' trust, so I made a point of seeking them out regularly and striking up conversations.
After a lifetime of being a socially isolated wreck, every last loner cell in my body was screaming in protest — but this was a matter of survival. What choice did I have? I gritted my teeth and worked at building friendships.
I tried bonding with Leon Kuwata over baseball, but of course Leon Kuwata hated talking about baseball.
When he told me he didn't really like baseball and actually wanted to become a punk rock singer, I honestly wanted to smack him one — but I held back and calmly listened to his troubles. Next thing I knew, he was grabbing my hand and shaking it, thanking me for hearing him out.
He got all emotional, saying I was the only one who'd ever understood him — a guy with the talent of an Ultimate Baseball Star who felt nothing for the sport. I brushed it off as no big deal and moved on.
Hagakure was always wandering around heaving these huge sighs, so I asked if something was bothering him. His eyes lit up, he pulled out a shady-looking contract, and he started clasping his hands and begging me to sign it in his place.
I signed it without thinking, and his face instantly brightened. He thanked me and promised that from now on, all my fortune readings would be free.
Well, if one signature was enough to build a friendship, that was a win. I let it go.
With Celeste, I managed to build a rapport by volunteering as her personal milk tea shuttle. Though... was that actually a friendship...?
I talked with Fujisaki too. Even smaller than me, and just as timid — I felt a kinship that made Fujisaki a little easier to deal with.
We mostly talked about computers, and honestly, as a humanities guy, I couldn't understand a word of it no matter how hard I tried. But Fujisaki looked happy talking about computers, so I just let it happen.
I was wondering how to get close to Asahina when I showed her a ring donut I'd pulled with a Monokuma Medal I'd found rolling around on the floor. She started drooling, staring at that donut with a faraway look in her eyes.
I handed it over like I was doing her a favor, and she inhaled it so fast it vanished. Then she looked up at me, all hopeful, asking if I had any more. It was pretty funny. Looks like the friendship fee for Asahina would have to be paid in donuts.
I figured Yamada and I would be on the same wavelength, but I hit an unexpected snag — none of the anime from my real world existed in the Danganronpa universe.
Then it occurred to me: what if I just told Yamada about those works as if I'd come up with them myself? He'd probably love that.
So I adapted the settings and plots of famous anime from my world and told them to Yamada. He was so deeply moved he started freaking out about wanting to take me as his master, and I broke out in a cold sweat.
Well... we got closer, so whatever.
Ishimaru kept striking up conversations with me even though I hadn't particularly tried to get close to him. One day he spotted me dozing in the dining hall and charged in, offering to put me through training to drive out my laziness.
I told him I wasn't dozing because I was lazy — I was standing night watch. He started muttering to himself, then suddenly ramped up and demanded I punch him for ignoring a classmate's suffering. I nearly jumped out of my skin and told him to stop overreacting.
Still, I was a little grateful that he offered to stand night watch with me. Of course I turned him down, because I wanted to be alone with Kirigiri-noona — and then Ishimaru looked at me with these deeply moved eyes.
It was a little much, but at least we'd built some rapport. That was a relief.
Naegi actually came to me first, bringing a handheld game console as a gift! Leave it to the original protagonist to be that generous.
While we were talking, I casually asked what he'd do if someone requested he switch rooms for a bit. He thought about it, then said it would depend on the reason. I laid down the law and told him to just shut up and never, ever switch rooms with anyone.
Naegi looked confused, but after I passionately lectured him on the dangers of room-swapping, he seemed to get it. I just hoped he'd take my words to heart. Heed good advice, and fortune finds you even in your sleep.
I still hadn't built any rapport with Maizono, Togami, Owada, Fukawa, Ogami, or Ikusaba. Part of that was because I was wary of them, but the bigger reason was that I was just physically exhausted.
I'd recover from the fatigue of night watch with scattered catnaps, then stand watch again when night fell. Repeating that cycle day after day, I felt like I was shaving years off my life. And yet Kirigiri, who was clearly staying up all night right alongside me, looked perfectly fine. That's Kirigiri-noona for you.
And ever since that night, Kirigiri hadn't even tried to speak to me. When it was time for night watch, she'd quietly show up, glance at me, then sit far away by the hallway entrance and pass the time in silence.
It felt like my insides were crumbling, but someday we'd get closer. Probably?
I was listening to the seven o'clock Monokuma broadcast, wondering who I should try to befriend today, when Ishimaru came looking for me.
"Good morning, Kei!"
"Ishimaru? What's up?"
Ishimaru launched into an explanation, spouting grandiose maxims the way he always did.
The short version: starting today, everyone had agreed to eat breakfast together after morning wake-up, so I needed to come to the dining hall right now.
He strode off energetically, saying he was going to inform the rest of the kids.
Hmm... so the time has finally come.
Today was the day everyone would gather in the dining hall — the day Monokuma would distribute the motive videos. The ones designed to push people toward murder.
The surest way to stop the motive videos from playing would be to smash the DVDs or the playback equipment.
But unless Junko Enoshima was an idiot, she'd have spares. And if I smashed every playback device in the A/V room, I'd only put Enoshima on alert.
Which meant I had to persuade the kids not to watch the DVDs of their own free will.
Whether I could actually convince all sixteen of them was another question — but hadn't I been grinding trust like my life depended on it for this exact day? Surely the heavens would recognize my efforts.
I took one deep breath, set my face in a look of resolve, and headed for the dining hall.