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DRT1.5.14-15: Me and the School and I (The Second Half), sections 14-15
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Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
14
"Is that all you have to say?"
15
Byakuya-sama stood.
Even though it was the middle of the night, his hair shone with the light of the moon, and his blue eyes were practically luminescent with the overwhelming force of his confidence, so that Byakuya-sama himself appeared to be sparkling.
Byakuya-sama pushed up his glasses, quickly surveying the surrounding hellish landscape. Then, he sighed, as if bored, and shrugged, which only cemented that interpretation. Apparently, witnessing the entropic decay of a story missing its lead character left him severely irate.
No, wait. That means—
"B-B-B-Bya-Bya-Bya-Bya-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Byakuya-sama?!"
"Don't be disgusting. Are you trying to be Fukawa?"
"B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Byakuya-sama. But, but you're supposed to be dead..."
"You didn't notice? Why do you think I gave you Borges? A Togami does not die. That's all there is to it." Byakuya-sama turned his nails against his own neck, peeling off his skin. As he did, he revealed another layer of skin underneath, as well as the small pouch attached to the discarded fake skin. "The construction is similar to the Gola del Prete.[1] Do you really think I would drink anything even remotely like a truth serum?"
"So then—"
"I haven't told those Hasegawa Research Institute buffoons anything. There's no need for us to let the world know about the Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity or the Worst Incident in Togami Family History."
"Byakuya-sama!" I rushed over towards Byakuya-sama like a young maiden going in for an embrace.
"Were you crying?"
"...Ah." But my pace slowed down when I was struck by guilt.
"If you came here to rescue me, you were too late."
"I-I apologize."
"Hmph. These are bent." Byakuya-sama tossed his glasses off to the side. "Hand me a new pair."
"Right away, sir..." I took out a new pair of glasses immediately.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Pardon?"
"Didn't you come here to rescue me? I'm asking you what your plan is going forward."
"That's, uh, um."
"Do not hesitate without my permission."
"I apologize. My escape plan is completely blank."
"Hmph. A blank page? You're slacking in your duties as a secretary."
Shink. Shink. Shink, came the sound of metal against metal.
At some point, Ootsuki had gotten his hands on two kukri knives. "Yoohoo, Byakuya-kun! You just wouldn't wake up through all that, so I was assuming you were trying to wait it out by pretending to be asleep. DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" First he had to get a laugh out of the way. "Whoa now. Come on, don't go making that face, just 'cuz my specialty is knives, and not a more distinctive signature weapon. Sure, there may be people in this world who fight with scissors or staplers or whatever other miscellaneous office products the kids are using these days, but what, do you think I'm in grade school or something?! I can legally vote!" he said, licking one of his knives in a move that was incredibly trite (and he probably knew it, and was doing it ironically). "The former Super High School Level Rock Climber was in the same business as me, and what do you think his weapon was? His fingers! He used his fingers! That's a whole 'nother level of cliché. What if the Super High School Level Masseuse wanted to be a hitman? Someone will have already taken their character niche, right? Knives are really the best option, right? I mean, we're gonna find out all about that soon enough, right?"
"Without me around... it seems the world has reached new heights of chaos." Byakuya-sama adjusted his glasses. "The Council of Global Controllers has been obliterated, my imposter remains unvanquished, students of my school have been operating in the shadows, the Hasegawa Research Institute has paid me a visit, and who isn't after the Kudan? And now you're here."
"Dahahaha. Whatever, it's fine. It'd be more of a problem if everything was already resolved in Volume 1."
"Is this the Despair Novel?" Byakuya-sama picked up a stray scrap of paper at his feet. "What is it doing here?"
"Oh, that? Buncha brats I killed had it. Pretty sure it had something to do with Hope's Peak... Aaahhhh, nnnaaahhh, it's totally slipped my mind by now~"
"The Despair Novel is thick on the ground, and with it spreads the Despair Disease. It all turns to despair." Byakuya-sama ripped up the scrap of paper further, throwing it away. "It's up to me to govern, now that the world is showing its terminal symptoms. It's up to me to take on the responsibility of management.
It's up to me to take over the world."
>> Take over the world
> Don't take over the world
Byakuya-sama, who had once had no interest in world domination, had changed his answer.
It was an incident. It was a plot twist. It was a revolution. It was bliss.
Bliss? For whom? For me, of course. I had dreamed of a world under Byakuya-sama's control. I had hoped for a world that played by Byakuya-sama's rules—ever since that day.
"Dahahaha. World domination, huh? Well, ain't that nice. It's good for kids to dream big, y'know." Ootsuki drew nearer, with long strides and a rapid pace, knives at the ready. "And it's a grown-up's job to crush a kid's dreams. DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Fall back," said Byakuya-sama, walking towards Ootsuki.
I couldn't find the words to call out after him as he grew further and further away, so all I could do was watch these two men on their collision course.
"Aww, Byakuya-kun, are you just gonna let me close this gap?"
"Hmph. I could ask the same of you."
"You sure you don't wanna run?" Ootsuki raised his knives overhead. "You know how big the difference in our power levels is~ You're gonna get slaughtered by the time we get to the next page~"
"I won't lose. I'll stake the Togami name on that."
That's right. There's no way he would lose. Absolutely not. Fundamentally. Back then, right now, and from now on, he will win. He will win, and win, and keep winning.
Byakuya-sama is a god.
Translator's Notes
[1] Gola del Prete - you're probably here to read an explanation of this, but I have to admit that from all my research, I still have no clue what this is referring to. The kanji is "saint's throat", but the reading given is コーラ・デ・プレーテ (koora de pureete). I honestly couldn't find anything similar to Byakuya's fake throat here, but at least I decided the Italian "gola del prete" (the priest's throat) seemed to be the closest match for the stated translation and transliteration combined. I think it can still be pieced together what Byakuya's strategy was, but the thing it's based off of is lost to me.
Stay tuned for the last update of Volume 1 next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
14
"Is that all you have to say?"
15
Byakuya-sama stood.
Even though it was the middle of the night, his hair shone with the light of the moon, and his blue eyes were practically luminescent with the overwhelming force of his confidence, so that Byakuya-sama himself appeared to be sparkling.
Byakuya-sama pushed up his glasses, quickly surveying the surrounding hellish landscape. Then, he sighed, as if bored, and shrugged, which only cemented that interpretation. Apparently, witnessing the entropic decay of a story missing its lead character left him severely irate.
No, wait. That means—
"B-B-B-Bya-Bya-Bya-Bya-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Byakuya-sama?!"
"Don't be disgusting. Are you trying to be Fukawa?"
"B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Byakuya-sama. But, but you're supposed to be dead..."
"You didn't notice? Why do you think I gave you Borges? A Togami does not die. That's all there is to it." Byakuya-sama turned his nails against his own neck, peeling off his skin. As he did, he revealed another layer of skin underneath, as well as the small pouch attached to the discarded fake skin. "The construction is similar to the Gola del Prete.[1] Do you really think I would drink anything even remotely like a truth serum?"
"So then—"
"I haven't told those Hasegawa Research Institute buffoons anything. There's no need for us to let the world know about the Secret to the Togami Family's Prosperity or the Worst Incident in Togami Family History."
"Byakuya-sama!" I rushed over towards Byakuya-sama like a young maiden going in for an embrace.
"Were you crying?"
"...Ah." But my pace slowed down when I was struck by guilt.
"If you came here to rescue me, you were too late."
"I-I apologize."
"Hmph. These are bent." Byakuya-sama tossed his glasses off to the side. "Hand me a new pair."
"Right away, sir..." I took out a new pair of glasses immediately.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Pardon?"
"Didn't you come here to rescue me? I'm asking you what your plan is going forward."
"That's, uh, um."
"Do not hesitate without my permission."
"I apologize. My escape plan is completely blank."
"Hmph. A blank page? You're slacking in your duties as a secretary."
Shink. Shink. Shink, came the sound of metal against metal.
At some point, Ootsuki had gotten his hands on two kukri knives. "Yoohoo, Byakuya-kun! You just wouldn't wake up through all that, so I was assuming you were trying to wait it out by pretending to be asleep. DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" First he had to get a laugh out of the way. "Whoa now. Come on, don't go making that face, just 'cuz my specialty is knives, and not a more distinctive signature weapon. Sure, there may be people in this world who fight with scissors or staplers or whatever other miscellaneous office products the kids are using these days, but what, do you think I'm in grade school or something?! I can legally vote!" he said, licking one of his knives in a move that was incredibly trite (and he probably knew it, and was doing it ironically). "The former Super High School Level Rock Climber was in the same business as me, and what do you think his weapon was? His fingers! He used his fingers! That's a whole 'nother level of cliché. What if the Super High School Level Masseuse wanted to be a hitman? Someone will have already taken their character niche, right? Knives are really the best option, right? I mean, we're gonna find out all about that soon enough, right?"
"Without me around... it seems the world has reached new heights of chaos." Byakuya-sama adjusted his glasses. "The Council of Global Controllers has been obliterated, my imposter remains unvanquished, students of my school have been operating in the shadows, the Hasegawa Research Institute has paid me a visit, and who isn't after the Kudan? And now you're here."
"Dahahaha. Whatever, it's fine. It'd be more of a problem if everything was already resolved in Volume 1."
"Is this the Despair Novel?" Byakuya-sama picked up a stray scrap of paper at his feet. "What is it doing here?"
"Oh, that? Buncha brats I killed had it. Pretty sure it had something to do with Hope's Peak... Aaahhhh, nnnaaahhh, it's totally slipped my mind by now~"
"The Despair Novel is thick on the ground, and with it spreads the Despair Disease. It all turns to despair." Byakuya-sama ripped up the scrap of paper further, throwing it away. "It's up to me to govern, now that the world is showing its terminal symptoms. It's up to me to take on the responsibility of management.
It's up to me to take over the world."
>> Take over the world
> Don't take over the world
Byakuya-sama, who had once had no interest in world domination, had changed his answer.
It was an incident. It was a plot twist. It was a revolution. It was bliss.
Bliss? For whom? For me, of course. I had dreamed of a world under Byakuya-sama's control. I had hoped for a world that played by Byakuya-sama's rules—ever since that day.
"Dahahaha. World domination, huh? Well, ain't that nice. It's good for kids to dream big, y'know." Ootsuki drew nearer, with long strides and a rapid pace, knives at the ready. "And it's a grown-up's job to crush a kid's dreams. DAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Fall back," said Byakuya-sama, walking towards Ootsuki.
I couldn't find the words to call out after him as he grew further and further away, so all I could do was watch these two men on their collision course.
"Aww, Byakuya-kun, are you just gonna let me close this gap?"
"Hmph. I could ask the same of you."
"You sure you don't wanna run?" Ootsuki raised his knives overhead. "You know how big the difference in our power levels is~ You're gonna get slaughtered by the time we get to the next page~"
"I won't lose. I'll stake the Togami name on that."
That's right. There's no way he would lose. Absolutely not. Fundamentally. Back then, right now, and from now on, he will win. He will win, and win, and keep winning.
Byakuya-sama is a god.
Translator's Notes
[1] Gola del Prete - you're probably here to read an explanation of this, but I have to admit that from all my research, I still have no clue what this is referring to. The kanji is "saint's throat", but the reading given is コーラ・デ・プレーテ (koora de pureete). I honestly couldn't find anything similar to Byakuya's fake throat here, but at least I decided the Italian "gola del prete" (the priest's throat) seemed to be the closest match for the stated translation and transliteration combined. I think it can still be pieced together what Byakuya's strategy was, but the thing it's based off of is lost to me.
Stay tuned for the last update of Volume 1 next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!