[semi-open] third truth bullet: talent

[futurebullets]

Who: Hajime Hinata and YOU
What: A catch-all log for Hinata throughout the month! Closed things will added by request, open things for stuff outside of event top-levels
Where: Various
When: Mostly July, may also include some backdated threads
Warnings: potential spoilers for chapter 4 of Super Dangan Ronpa 2, after the Final Dead Room Discussion



Notes: I've detailed it more on plurk and on Hinata's plotting post comment, but essentially there's something of a "game" that I have going. Hinata has a "trust" level that's been reset to 0 - if his points are positive enough, he will be updated to either chapter 5 or the end of the game, and if his points fall too far, he will be "reverted" to one of two earlier canon points (chapter 1 or pre-game) and lose all of his Yogen memories. Close CR has more weight at first, but anyone has the power to affect him, so feel free to take a shot at raising or lowering those points!

If you have any questions or would like to plot things, feel free to reach me at Yamadori! (You're also welcome to write starters for me as well, just give me a heads up first!)

Comments

[futurebullets]

What... [Voice unsteady, Hinata doesn't even realize he's doing it but his other arm reflexively moves in front of Ouma - not a huge, overt motion, but one that's undeniably defensive if somebody else were to happen upon them.] What the hell?

[His tone is disbelief, uncertainty- apprehension. This doesn't make any logical sense.]

Even if this were part of the school... we shouldn't be able to see the sky after how far we went down.

[Anxiety twists through him like a river. It looks like something awful tore through here, so much wreckage left in its wake, and the sky... It didn't look like that when they came down here, and even if it did, something about the shade of red seems almost... unnatural.

He has no way to know the things that don't make sense are the least of their problems.

Part of him wants to look, because maybe... There's something very wrong here, but maybe Hinata can find some of the answers they've all been seeking. Maybe from this inexplicably wrong floor, they can find out why they can't leave.

But.

He needs to check on Ouma. That's more important right now.]

Hey- [Hinata says it softly, reaches for his arm and holds on. Gently, carefully.] Are you okay?

[trialbyliar]

[Whatever kind of daze Kokichi was in, staring out the open doors, he's snapped out of it by Hinata moving defensively in front of him and commenting on the impossibility of it all. It at least means he's not just seeing things. Whether or not that's a good thing, though...

And then Hinata's turning away from the giant glaring mystery before them to give him that horribly soft expression and gingerly holding his arm, and Kokichi has to tear his eyes away from the scene as well. Y'know, just to give Hinata an incredulous look, like he can't believe Hinata's still worrying about him right now. Bizarrely, it's not a completely unfamiliar feeling, though thinking as much is a needle jab in the chest. That same old grief and frustration and aching, foolish fondness he remembers from how things ended with Gonta.

Too good for him, so much so it was stupid. The unfairness of it all pissed him off.

That that's what he's reminded of right now seems almost ridiculous. Is anyone really as unfailingly, idiotically kind as Gonta, though? It doesn't even seem possible, yet here's Hinata, still fussing over him despite Kokichi being himself.

He belatedly gets his shit together after a moment, schooling the shocked, confused expression back into calm. Not the blank mask, just ease. His tone is conversational – not syrupy sweet or cheery, but there's a dry bit of humor in it as he glances past Hinata back at the red-tinged landscape outside.]

Nope. Pretty sure I'm dead.

[ that's a lie etc etc

Then again, it really isn't.]

You don't even recognize it, do you? Since your school was different.

[futurebullets]

[Something eases in his chest. Ouma looks and sounds a little better... even if the words he's saying are concerning.]

Hey, don't mess around like that.

[Hinata nudges him, lightly, but his voice is only lightly scolding. It comes out more worried than anything. He looks him over, but... There's no visible harm that Hinata can note.

But then he's concerned for another reason altogether.]

What do you mean by my school? Are you saying you... recognize this place?

[How has Ouma been down here already if the elevator was just recently installed?

Unless...]

[trialbyliar]

[It's weird. This is still godawful – part of him is terrified of what he might find out there – but he's somehow calmer regardless. He's still a bit subdued without his normal energy and dramatics, but he's at least got his shit together enough to manage his expressions. Maybe it just doesn't hit quite so close to home as the video did in comparison, or it just doesn't feel real. It can't be real, certainly.

It's amazing what kind of possibilities open up once magic bullshit is on the table, though.

Humming noncommittally, Kokichi just steps past Hinata, catching the older boy's arm to drag him out of the elevator. He glances back just to see the situation with the elevator shaft and isn't surprised to find the doors are set into the stone wall dividing the upper and lower levels of the school grounds. No where for the elevator to even have come from, and yet here they are. He gives no reaction to that and instead just pulls Hinata in front of the stairs, pointing up at what hadn't been visible from inside the elevator.

It's in ruins – holes blown in the walls, roof collapsed in places, windows shattered – but shape of the Ultima Academy for Gifted Juveniles remains looming over the grounds.]

Ta-da! Murderschool 1.0.

[futurebullets]

[Hinata makes a soft noise at being pulled along - he'd expected Ouma to have let go by now. But he goes along easily, can't help but smile a little at it, the one bright spot among the last several things that have gone wrong.

But it quickly drops, face going pale at the sight of the school - this school that cannot be Yogen, the lack of clock tower strikingly clear in its shape - and Ouma's words.]

This is...

[There's a sinking, nauseous feeling in his stomach as he takes it all in and what it has to mean.]

Are you saying this is- [Pieces in his head, clicking together- "You don't even recognize it, do you?"] ...It's your school, isn't it? The Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles?

[It has to be. That's why he recognizes it, isn't it?]

...How the hell did the elevator take us here?

[trialbyliar]

Yup, that's it. Though it looks a lil worse for wear.

[Just a teensy bit.]

Buuut hell if I know what's going on. Magic, I guess? Some people have been pretty insistent that that's the explanation for everything weird here.

[And even his conspiracy theorist brain has a hard time coming up with an alternate explanation for Nene turning into a fish right in front of him.

Frowning thoughtfully, he moves to head up the stairs, and then abruptly stumbles back like he just ran into a wall. There's nothing there, not that he can see, anyway. But when he reaches out, it feels like a hard surface under his hand. An invisible wall.

He scoffs, rubbing his sore nose – he did kinda walk face-first into it.]

Guess they don't want me to give you a tour, though. Too bad.

[Whoever or whatever "they" are.

But with that route blocked off, he turns back around to see the other options – most notably, the ruined entrance to the Shrine of Judgement, and the path leading towards the hangar. Neither is pleasant to think about.]

[futurebullets]

[Hinata makes a dismayed noise as Ouma runs into... nothing? But he seems mostly unharmed, at least, nothing worse than if he had bumped into a wall, so he tries not to hover overly much.]

...I remember Moriarty talked about it in a really convincing way, but even so it seems crazy... to think that magic might actually be real. [And yet, Hinata glances into the spot that Ouma just crashed into.] But... what else could explain things like this?

[Pushed back an invisible force with no explanation?

Ending up in a place that should be impossible to get to from an elevator plummeting to its lowest floor?

As much as Hinata would love to find an answer based in logic and reason, he isn't sure that there is one.]

I don't know if I like this, though... [He can't really explain it, but there's a chill of unease that clings to his spine.] If they're blocking us off from certain areas, that almost feels like we're being herded.

[Or trapped. Confined, for some reason that he doesn't have information to pin down. The fact that so much of this place seems wrecked doesn't really lend any good feelings to all of this.]

[trialbyliar]

[ glad at least hinata's tried to cling to logic with him while the rest of the school is just shrugging and blindly accepting magic bullshit ]

Right?? It kinda pisses me off, honestly!

[There's a brightness to that statement and a bit of a smile, but there's an almost hysteric edge to it. A very narrow edge, but it's still there. Maybe he doesn't have his shit together quite as much as he'd like to think.

All things considered, he thinks he should be forgiven for that much at least. He'd said the Ultimate Academy was hell, but he was wrong. It's this school that's hell. The Ultimate Academy was just the appetizer.

Glancing between their two main options here – the hangar and the Shrine – that smiles hangs around like it doesn't quite know where else to go.]

But that means there's gotta be something to see, huh?

[Part of him wants yo reject it all out of spite. Refuse to play along with whatever the plan is here and just go back into the elevator. He hates feeling like just a pawn in someone else's game, like everything he does is because someone arranged it that way. A chess board where some invisible figure is holding his hand and forcing him to play his pieces where they want. More than anything, he wants to just flip the board and scatter all the pieces.

But he's not pure chaos. There's a method to his madness even if no one else ever sees it. He can't do anything without more information, and leaving now is turning his back on potentially a great deal of it. He huffs an annoyed breath and drags Hinata towards the shattered Shrine.]

Did you have one of these, too? Y'know, since you guys had a killing game too and all that. The trial grounds were down there.

[futurebullets]

[Hinata shoots him a worried glance at the tone, eyes sharp with observation. It was hasty of him, probably, to think Ouma was okay. Better, perhaps, but who could ever be okay after everything that's taken place since Hinata pulled him aside after club?

But he doesn't bring attention to it for now, making a soft noise of affirmation in response to Ouma's words.]

...We should be careful, then, if we're going to look. Given the state of everything we've seen so far...

[He trails off. It goes without saying, probably, that nothing good is waiting for them.

Nothing good is ever waiting for them, when there's a Killing Game involved.

But Hinata lets himself be pulled along, completely unresistant as Ouma drags him. He can't blame him. If they'd ended up on Jabberwock and it looked anything like this, Hinata wouldn't be able to leave it alone either.

At the sight of the Shrine, however, Hinata makes a face.]

...This is what brought you to your trial grounds? [A pauses, just for a beat, then-] ...Well. It's not like ours was any better. Monokuma brings us to this mountain with four of his heads carved into the peaks... and an escalator comes out from one of them, with the elevator inside of the mouth.

[He doesn't know why he feels second-hand embarrassment recounting this and kicks himself for it, because it's not like it's his fault Monokuma is weird.]