Shuichi picks Tsumugi Shirogane

The Ultimate Detective couldn't help but feel like one of the criminals that had popped up during the killing games, as though he himself was planning a ****. His intentions were not so devious, but like those killers, Shuichi had to pick a target who gave him an opportunity without upsetting his moral compass too badly. The latter criteria made picking a target at least a bit simpler than choosing from those he considered friends.

Tsumugi had been the center of the first killing game; she'd told them two fantastic stories, the contents of which were so bizarre, it was still hard for him to say what was truth and what was fiction. In the end, she'd died after telling them what she held to be reality: that the world on the outside was all watching their participation here, in a sort of game show called "Danganronpa," and that they were all willing participants who'd had the whole of their personalities and memories overridden by a special device called a Flashback Light. At the end, the audience had seemingly abandoned the show, choosing to let them escape. He and the others had been so eager to step outside and learn if she was telling the truth; was the whole world thriving out there as an audience to their misery? Was there still a society to return to? Or would they find nothing at all out there?

Confrontation with the girl was unavoidable and she was far from innocent, regardless of her role in this new game. If anyone deserved to be manipulated by these triggers, it was her. If it turned out he was unable to manipulate her, it might mean she was the mastermind, or it might just mean the Triggers were a bunch of bologna made by Erokuma to toy with him. Either way, he wanted to know. With a sense of urgency, he followed her marker on the map provided by his Eropad.

He found Tsumugi Shirogane alone in her cosplay studio; the tall, blue-haired girl was busily rifling through a collection of costumes, ranging from an old, leather duster clearly designed to fit a man to a green gothic lolita dress that looked like it would be a little small for her. She herself was always dressed plainly in a student's uniform with a mid-length skirt and oval-rimmed glasses, but despite her unremarkable clothing, she actually had a pretty glamorous figure under it all. Yet, even with that sizable bosom and those long, model-like legs, she had a tendency to fade into the background, which had served her well as the devious mastermind hiding amidst their group. Looking at her now, he saw a crazed madwoman, but if he were able to view her without bias, it would be completely understandable how she'd managed to elude detection for so long.

"Ah? Shuichi Saihara, was it? Welcome! I'm sorry we didn't have more of a chance to talk at dinner," she greeted him, hearing the sound of his shoes against the floor as he entered. When she turned, her face held an unassuming, ditzy smile. "Isn't this place nice? To think, there would be a whole cosplay studio and a stage set up back here! This school really has it all, huh?" Her question was so innocent and her enthusiasm seemed so genuine, it rebuked reproach.

Shuichi nodded with her words without committing to anything, stepping up to a safe distance away from her and pretending to observe the costumes. "The Ultimate Cosplayer, right?"

"That's me. I know you wouldn't think it, since I'm so plain... But-"

"No, I get it," Shuichi cut her off; he was in no mood to hear her whole fake personality again. As she tilted her head curiously, he began to feel her out. "Tsumugi, what did you think about what K1-B0 was saying earlier? You were there, right? The robots, the murders, the killing game, the TV show and the 'audience'... What did you think about all of that?" The boy's eyes glared at her from under the rim of his cap.

"It sounds like something out of a video game to me! I think there was that one game series. What was it called...? Hmmm..." The woman pressed one finger to her lip and stared towards the stage lights above. She paused, waiting for him to provide his own guess.

"Danganronpa."

A smile slowly spread across the woman's face as she pushed her glasses up with two fingers. "Yes... Danganronpa. That's a fun game! Do you know a lot about Danganronpa?"

"Enough! You know that everything he said was real, right? That he's lived through all of that?!" Suichi questioned, clenching his teeth and staring her down. "He's not the only one. I did too! I can't forgive everything you did to us back then!"

"Shuichi, you remember those Flashback Lights he mentioned?"

The boy gulped, feeling as though he was about to slide down the side of a sheer cliff and into a hole he'd just managed to climb out of. "Don't try to trick me, Tsumugi-"

"No tricks! We both need to understand this together. So, about those lights... It's not actually possible that you've lived through all of that and we've all resurrected like K1-B0 said, is it? Isn't it a lot more likely that, if anything, those lights were used to implant false memories in you and in him? Or do those lights even exist? Do you see where I'm going with this?" With a smug smile, the girl placed her hands on her hips, a pose reminiscent of Junko Enoshima herself. "I'm saying that the reality you're describing is almost impossible; the fact that I'm living after being killed proves it. Let's call it a 1% possibility that you two are remembering the truth. But even if it was possible, inside that very fiction you've described, there were tools capable of planting false memories and modifying people's behaviors! So even if you thought you saw those things... Can you or I really trust any of it?"

Shuichi was beginning to wish he'd stayed away... He wasn't mentally prepared for this kind of brazen argument and without the support of his friends, he felt like a single ant fighting an anteater. "So what? What are you saying?!" he snapped back.

"The events K1-B0 described sounded like a great Danganronpa-- well, up to the part where the world decided they were tired of it and voted me off the island, so to speak. But if it was the last Danganronpa, I guess it was a worthy one. I guess what I'm saying is, to me, none of those events ever happened. They probably won't happen either, since somebody seems to have gutted the facility of every bit of technology I planned to use to generate the next game," Tsumugi shrugged. "I don't even know if it's still broadcasting! There's no cameras. Do you think this version of K1-B0 is still a camera, just being used by someone else? Regardless, with none of my tools and no way to start a killing game, you might as well treat me like one of your friends, right? That's the way you'd like it anyway."

"What gives you the right to say that?! You just admitted you'd do all of that again if I let you!" Shuichi protested, clenching his fists at his sides. "The fact that you were brought back to life can only mean-"

"The Remnants of Despair are behind this? Upupu..." Tsumugi chuckled, suddenly using Monokuma's exact voice while wearing a mask depicting the bear's face. "So you're buying back in to the fantasy world we created for that story, huh? Or are you going to say my production team brought me back to life? Even I wasn't that well-prepared, Shuichi."

"So who's behind this?!"

"Behind this school? For all I know, we're in a stripped down version of the same school I constructed. Maybe this is some kind of new reality show? That'd be fun, wouldn't it? How about a new show where you're the bachelor and we all try to become Mrs. Saihara? That sounds pretty cute. Danganronpa Romance Simulator... Didn't they do a couple of those, kinda?"

Listening to Tsumugi was making Shuichi swirl the drain, growing ever closer to the unenviable state of despair he'd found himself in when the revelation was first made. Her words had made one thing clear: it was unlikely she was behind the current events. Even so, the rage he felt towards her now was spilling over, like blood from a recent wound that's just been torn back open. "Tsumugi... Tell me about that idea you just had." Wearing a serious frown, he cupped one hand to his ear, then leaned his torso forward towards her almost comically, waiting for her answer. Inside his pocket, a faint glow lit up from his Eropad. At the same time, an eerie blue light flashed in the girl's eyes. It didn't seem human, almost like a blip of color going off behind an LED screen.

"Well, for starters, you're the kind of protagonist people like in an erotic story. Instead of romance, let's imagine it as an eroge! You're feminine enough to pair well with any guy, but still masculine enough to be top or bottom with any girl. If it were me, I'd love to try dominating you personally! I'd dress you up in a pretty dress with women's panties and tie you up to something-- or no, something cooler, something thematic like we'd use for an execution. Don't worry, I'll think it up. There's all kinds of things I could do with you! I'm an expert producer, you know? I'd make a show out of it! I'd tease that cute little cock of yours until you cummed your brains out." Talking about this seemed to be working her up; a faint pink glow overtook her face and a thin trail of drool appeared at the corner of her mouth. "I might even slobber your cock myself... Would you like that, Shuichi? There have been a lot of people who've been driven insane in Danganronpa history, but never like that before! Can I turn you into the next Ultimate Despair just by tying you up where nobody can find you and using you as my pet cock?! I'll suck out your cum and spit it on the floor while you watch~"

This Trigger was pretty dangerous when used with a mind as depraved as Tsumugi's, it turned out. Shuichi was regretting his decision, feeling more terrified than aroused. He backed up slowly and pulled out his Eropad. When he checked it, he saw an encouraging new message:

"Pending Transaction for 10 Ero Points: Level 1 Everyday Dirty Talk against Tsumugi Shirogane"

If Tsumugi had seemed at all likely to be humiliated by her words, Shuichi might have felt some degree of **** had been attained. Instead, it felt like she was just being a lewder version of her sadistic self.

She was still going, now raising one finger with a big grin and approaching him quickly. "Do you think we could work an NTR angle into it? That's hot in the Japanese market right now. What if I hump your cock right in front of Kaede or Maki? Which one did you like in that story K1-B0 was telling, again?" The spotlight from above shined in her crazed eyes as she drew closer and closer; she looked as though she was preparing to act on her words.

With a trembling hand, Shuichi thrust out his arm and squeezed a handful of her massive boobs, digging the fingers in hard to her blazer. His palms and neck were sweating... he realized the action was self-preservation as much as anything. As adrenaline mixed with anger, and those emotions mixed further with desperation, he squeezed and fondled her breast, moving past the blazer to feel at the thin white shirt over her bra. As she half-shut one eye and gasped, he clenched his hand harder, feeling some measure of payback. His fingers dug in beneath the hem of the shirt and caught flesh, while his thumb caressed the central button beneath her blazer at the swell of her breasts, trying to tease it open.

The same light flashed behind Tsumugi's eyes again. "You're kinda dirty too, huh, Shuichi?" she gasped, smiling down at his hand while her eyebrows tilted upward and her heart beat quicker. "I guess I'm not the only one who gets horny when we talk despair and hope stuff!"

With a cry of surprise, Shuichi snapped back into the situation, drawing back his sweating hand and staring at it as though it was something inhuman or unknown, like it had been replaced by a lobster's claw. "I-I'm sorry... I didn't-!"

"Hey, I was the one menacing you! I can hardly be upset if you push back a little," Tsumugi smiled cutely; it was as though that impish, aroused expression of hers had just been a dream.

Shuichi nearly fell backwards onto his butt as he stumbled away. The Triggers had worked, but he was barely thinking about that supernatural element he'd just seen play out before his eyes. As he turned and ran from the room, one leg following the other in a mad dash that threatened to topple him down the staircase of the school building, all he could think about was how much he'd surrendered in that brief moment. He'd lost out to Tsumugi and her crazy, goading behavior. He'd lost out to Erokuma, Monokuma, whoever, and the sick new game they'd trapped him in. But worst of all... he'd lost out to some vengeful part of himself, the part that hadn't learned anything from surviving his past experiences. Even setting aside his perverse action just now, he'd felt other emotions-- anger and fear-- and allowed them to make the choice for him. If this was a killing game, he could have just committed a ****.

"I-I didn't... I didn't ****! I didn't even harm! I barely even used the Triggers! It was just a touch, that's it!"

Trying to convince himself of that-- and to wipe the feeling of that yielding softness, with Tsumugi's heartbeat in his hands and an erotic smile on her face-- he gunned back towards the dormitories as fast as his legs would take him. There was no denying it. By taking the easy target, one who he could manipulate all he wanted with no guilt due to her past sins, he'd just fallen right into the mastermind's trap and taken the first step that would start him rolling downhill towards whatever the mad destination of this game turned out to be.

Shuichi didn't look for Maki, Himiko, K1-B0, or anyone else on the way back. With nearly two hours theoretically still left in the night, he ran straight for his dormitory, then ran inside and slammed the door. He needed a moment's silence to process what had just happened. Unfortunately, none was to be found inside his room; someone was already waiting there for him.