DanganRonpa: Copycat [DISCONTINUED]

[A/N: Alright! New chapter! Unfortunately, I have bad news. The summer holidays are approaching, which means progress on the next chapter will slow down significantly. I'll try to get the next part done before the holidays, but it's very unlikely I'll finish it in time. I'm sorry.]

Time seemed to come to a halt. Despite all the previous times someone turned up dead, I still couldn't believe what I saw. To see one of our peers hanging from a rope by the neck... It just seemed so unreal. Mae's body was hanging from the suspended garden, the rope appearing to disappear into the hatch I found in the garden floor a few days ago. Her body also appeared to be hanging very low. I'd say it easily reached the halfway point of the distance between the floor and the garden. I heard someone walking up to me from behind but my eyes were glued to the body, so I couldn't identify them.

'Osada! Sakane! Kotake! What happened--'

They didn't finish their sentence, presumably due to the sight of Mae's dead body. Judging by the voice, I guessed that it was Iwao. Soon, other people came up the stairs as well, which made me come to my senses. Asuka was dragging Kane behind her and Ren struggled to keep up with them. Gasps and screams could soon be heard from them.

'Puhuhu! Finally, a murder happened! How angry and happy I am at the same time!'

As if things couldn't get any worse, Monokuma had appeared in our midst once again, looking as happy as a stuffed bear could look. People didn't react right away, seeing as they were still in shock.

'As glad as I am that someone got killed, I'm also seriously mad!' Monokuma complained.

He's... mad...?

'Why exactly are you mad...?' I asked, still sounding a bit shaken.

'I'm all for murder, but look what else they did!' Monokuma said as he pointed at the now broken data terminal. 'As much as I encourage you guys to kill, you don't have to destroy my precious tech in your murder plans! Seriously, those things aren't cheap!'

I looked around at the others, who all appeared to finally be coming to their senses. However, something was wrong... Mae became a victim of murder, so there should have been eight of us left. Asuka, Ninsei, Ren, Iwao, Ryoko, Kane... and me. That made seven of us.

Where is Yume...?

'Murder...? But... this isn't murder...!' Asuka suddenly said. 'Just... Just look at that! That doesn't look like a murder at all...!' She pointed at Mae's body. 'You can't look at that and tell me that looks like murder! She's hanging by the goddamn neck! That's not murder, it's suicide!'

At first glance, it did appear that Mae had hung herself, but after looking at it for a bit longer, several strange details would suggest otherwise.

'Do you guys really think Mae hanged herself...?' Ninsei mumbled.

'N-no...! Mae would never do that...!' Ren cried. 'Mae wasn't like that! S-she was always full of energy and optimism! S-she'd never kill herself...!'

'Monokuma, I have a question...' Ryoko said. 'Since this is only coming up now, does suicide count as murder?'

Monokuma took a step back and looked at Ryoko, appalled.

'Excuse me!? Of course it does! Why wouldn't it!?' He replied. 'If you commit suicide, you still murder someone! A life is a life! If you take it away, it's murder! Even if the life in question happens to belong to you, it doesn't change that fact!'