Chapter Text
Kiyotaka’s finger pointed to a page in the textbook that Mondo honestly couldn’t care less about. “All you have to do is enter these two numbers into the calculator, square them, and then add them, Mondo,” Kiyotaka’s resonant voice echoes in Mondo’s ears and yet he doesn’t hear a word that he’s saying. The rest of the group—save for Byakuya—was currently racing homemade paper airplanes.
Mondo appreciated that Kiyotaka cared enough about him and his grades to tutor him—he really did. But he also really wanted to race a goddamn paper plane. Kiyotaka was still explaining some sort of theorem to Mondo, but Mondo was very busy trying to build a strong airplane under the table without Kiyotaka noticing. If Kiyotaka could just—yes! Turn around! Mondo quickly grabs Chihiro’s attention while Kiyotaka had his back turned.
“I need you to take this and race it for me,” Mondo quickly shoves the plane into Chihiro’s hands, who giggles at Mondo’s predicament. “Please,” Mondo adds, begging Chihiro as if he were begging for his life. Chihiro regained his composure, accepting the paper plane with a sense of nobility. As if on cue, Kiyotaka turned back around, focusing his attention on Mondo once more.
Mondo immediately straightens himself out, focusing his attention onto the textbook in front of him, trying to make it seem like that’s all he had been doing. Kiyotaka beams at Mondo’s sudden interest in his schoolwork, placing down the book he just grabbed and patting Mondo on the shoulder. "Mondo, it's so nice to see you taking initiative and applying yourself to your education!" Kiyotaka exclaims, sitting in front of Mondo, watching him attempt to read the Geometry textbook.
At the sound of bustling from the others, Mondo quickly snuck a peek to watch the airplane race, most of the planes falling flat after a few inches. One of the planes makes it about three feet forward before falling down. Chihiro is the one to go and collect it, sending Mondo a smile as he holds the plane up victoriously.
Mondo jumps out of his seat, fist high in the air as he lets out a booming “Yeah!” across the library. The librarian hushes him, and Kiyotaka apologizes in his place. Chihiro laughs at Mondo, who is definitely busted. "Mondo? I understand that Chihiro is your friend, but why are you so happy about him winning a race?" Kiyotaka asks, his puzzled features in Mondo’s peripheral vision as he sits back down. "Unless... Mondo, did you make that airplane instead of studying?"
Kiyotaka’s voice sounded stern—as if he were scolding Mondo for not finishing his veggies at dinner. Mondo looked away, shrugging as he tried to focus his attention on anything but the disappointed Kiyotaka in front of him.
Byakuya, who had been quietly reading at the table until now, speaks up, his hand on his temple as he spoke. "Would you both kindly shut your mouths for five seconds? Your incessant bickering is giving me a migraine,” He says, his authoritative voice cutting through the previously cheerful chatter from the others.
Mondo wants to speak up and tell Byakuya that he hadn’t actually spoken that much, but Makoto is already talking by the time Mondo looks up. “C’mon Byakuya,” He says. “Go easy on them. They’re the only ones actually studying here anyway.”
Byakuya scoffs, holding up the book he had been reading during most of the group’s activities. Makoto rolls his eyes. “FBI documents don’t count, Byakuya,” He says. “Mondo and Taka were studying math, not murder.” Makoto points out.
“To each their own, Naegi,” Byakuya replies.
Suddenly, a loud bell rang through the library.
Ding Dong, Bing Bong
The group of students looked up at the monitor and were greeted with the all too familiar face of their headmaster. “Good evening! It is now 10 pm, and we would like to kindly ask all students to return to their dorms. Sleep well students, and prepare for another wonderful day tomorrow!”
Byakuya let out a sigh of relief and stood up, snapping his book closed. “Thank God, the thought of spending another second with you all makes me sick.” He snapped loudly and signaled to Mondo before walking out. Mondo looked apologetically at Kiyotaka. “Heh, sorry. He has a long-ass skincare routine and if I’m even a minute late he locks me out. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.” He waved at Kiyotaka before running out after Byakuya, leaving the books discarded on the table.
Kiyotaka sighed before picking up the books and placing them back on their respective shelves. He looked towards Chihiro, who was still basking in his plane race victory. “I’m going to head back to the room and get ready for bed. Feel free to let yourself in when you’re ready.” Chihiro nodded and smiled before turning to the others. “Goodnight, everyone!” On the way out, he suddenly stopped and ran back to Leon. “Oh, thank you for letting me use your notebook paper for the race! It was a joint victory!” He beamed up at Leon before finally making his way out of the room.
Eventually, everyone made their way back to their respective dorm rooms, where they prepared for the next day. Leon laid back in his bed while Makoto brushed his teeth. Sadly, their bathroom door was broken, which led to some very uncomfortable situations. Leon looked up after he heard voices coming from the bathroom. “Hey, Makoto? You talking to someone?” Makoto turned around and shook his head. “Oh, no. It’s a podcast! I like listening to them before bed.”
Leon walked into the bathroom, stretching his arms while peering at Makoto’s phone. “Huh? You’re into that nerdy shit?” Makoto splashed Leon with sink water before responding. “Hey! You’d probably like it if you tried it!” Leon chuckled and shook his head. “Nah, I like listening to music. Don’t see the appeal of listening to a bunch of dudes talk about their lives.”
Makoto took out one of his earbuds and offered it to Leon. “Just try it! Five minutes, that’s it. If you don’t like it you never have to listen to it again.” Leon sighed, knowing there was no getting out of this situation, and put in the earbud. Makoto smiled brightly at him and started explaining the podcast. “This podcast is a bunch of friends playing Dungeons and Dragons together! I’ve always wanted to play, but I’ve never had enough friends to get a full campaign.”
Time seemed to fly as they sat on Makoto’s bed, listening to epic stories about undead and dragons terrorizing villages, and the unlikely heroes who were destined to save the world. Leon asked Makoto endless questions about the different races, and how the game worked, which made Makoto extremely happy. “Hey, Leon? It’s been more than five minutes. I’m gonna assume you like it?” Leon looked away quickly, pulling out his earbud. “Hey, I told you I’m not into that nerdy stuff…”
Makoto sighed, taking his earbud back. “Aw, that’s a shame. If you liked it, I’ve actually been looking into hosting a campaign of my own.” Leon looked back at him quickly, unable to contain the excitement in his eyes. “Wait, really? Can I join?” He quickly realized that he’d given himself away—dammit! Makoto laughed as he pulled a small folder out from under his bed. “Honestly, I’d been wanting to do this for a while so I got character sheets already.” He handed one to Leon, who looked at it confusedly. “This doesn’t seem as exciting as those guys made it seem… Are you sure about this?”
Makoto fished out a pencil and tapped Leon on the forehead. “Definitely! This isn’t the actual game, this is just making your character!” Leon looked down at the paper, then back at Makoto. “Can you help me? I’ve never done a form like this before.” Makoto smiled and nodded, handing him the pencil. First, let’s pick which race you want to be! There are so many cool options, like Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, the Genasi…” Leon looked up at him quickly. “What are Genasi?”
Makoto showed him a page in the DnD Player’s Guide he borrowed from the library about Genasi. “They’re like elemental spirits! There’s Fire, Air, Water, and Earth Genasi!” Leon smirked and pointed at the bright red Genasi on the page. “That’s fire, right? It looks badass! I wanna be that one!” Makoto marked down on Leon’s character sheet that he wanted to be a Fire Genasi and added his race modifiers. “Now for the name! Most Genasi are named after objects that are related to their element or their surroundings.” Leon thought long and hard before smiling at Makoto. “So… I can name him anything that has to do with fire, right?” Makoto nodded, without thinking. Leon jumped up and shouted, “Nether!” much to Makoto’s dismay. “You only picked that name because of Minecraft…” Leon smirked proudly and nodded. “You’re just upset that you didn’t think of it first!”
After a while of back and forth over stats and inventory, Leon finished his character with a lot of Makoto’s help. “Well, I think we’re done here!” Makoto said happily before stretching out on his bed. Leon looked over at him questioningly. “Huh? We’re done already? But we don’t know anything about him!” Makoto shut his eyes and pulled up the blanket. “Well, yeah. You get to make his backstory however you want. Just, try to have it make sense.”
Leon grumbled slightly before turning off the lights and getting into bed himself. “Alright… Can’t believe I’m actually doing this nerdy roleplay…”
-
The next morning, everyone was back to their usual banter in the dining hall as Aoi munched away happily on donuts. Well, almost everyone.
“C’mon Makoto! I need help!” Leon begged as Makoto tried to eat. Makoto looked at him with tired eyes. “No, you can’t have a shapeshifting bear.” The others all looked at them confusedly.
Kyoko was the one to finally break the sudden silence. “Makoto? What are you discussing? And why do you look as though you haven’t slept?” Makoto yawned as he gently pushed Leon away from him. “Leon kept me up all night talking about Dungeons and Dragons. I didn’t get very much sleep.”
Leon looked at Makoto as though he had just kicked a puppy. “How could you? I thought we were friends!” Makoto laid his head down on the table as a slight laugh broke out among the group. Aoi stopped eating to talk to Leon. “Really? Never would’ve thought you were the type to play tabletop games!” She turned to Sakura and let out a soft laugh. “It does sound kinda fun though!”
Sakura nodded. “I suppose so. If Makoto could get Leon to play, it must be entertaining.” Mondo, on the other hand, scoffed at the others. “Heh, as if I’d ever be caught fuckin dead playing that shitty game!” He turned to Kiyotaka, expecting to be backed up, but was instead surprised to see a look of childlike glee. “Maybe this game will help us cooperate as a class! I’ve been trying to look into team bonding exercises, but I never thought to try a game!”
Mondo cleared his throat before looking away. “I guess I’ll play…” Sayaka laughed in his direction. “I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead playing that game?” Mondo glared daggers in her direction. “What the fuck did you say? I never said that shit!” Everyone except for Byakuya laughed at Mondo’s response.
Byakuya was instead glaring at the others, closing his book. “You all can waste your time playing fictional games, but as the heir to the Togami Corporation I can’t afford to spend my time acting like a braindead idiot.” As expected, his remark was ignored by the majority of the table.
Makoto quickly began handing out character sheets to everyone who expressed interest. The only ones left at the table without sheets were Byakuya and Toko. Toko refused because she didn’t want to take any part in an activity without Byakuya.
Makoto turned to the rest of the table, clearly thinking. “Hey, when would we have the time to do the campaign?” Chihiro thought momentarily before piping up. “How about Fridays after school?”
Byakuya seemed shocked at this idea. “Are you braindead? We study together in the library after school on Fridays.” Kyoko looked at him without emotion. “Actually, you and Kiyotaka study on Fridays. You yourself have said that the rest of us get nothing done. I guess you’ll be studying alone, or even better, you’ll get to study with Toko.”
Byakuya froze before glaring at Makoto. “Give me one.” Makoto looked shocked but handed a sheet to Byakuya, who started looking at the race sheet immediately. “I suppose I’ll be a Sun Elf. They’re the only race that shows any sign of class at all.”
Toko scrambled over to Makoto for a sheet of her own. “M-maybe I’ll join M-master Byakuya as a Sun Elf... H-hehe…” To which Byakuya slammed his hand on the table. “If you’re to exist within five feet of me while playing this game, I refuse to have you be the same race as my character. You’re better suited to be an Orc. You already look like one, after all.”
Sakura glared at Byakuya before looking towards Toko, who had fallen silent. “Hey, Toko. You don’t have to listen to him. There are plenty of other races.” Toko, on the other hand, looked towards Byakuya with a smile. “N-no, he’s right! I-i wanna be an Orc!”
Hifumi raised his voice over all the others, “Well, I’ve decided! I’m clearly best suited to be a half-elf!” You could practically see the gears turning in his head as he imagined his ideal half-elf persona. Maybe they shouldn’t have let him join after all...
Mukuro, on the other hand, was carefully filling out her sheet, occasionally looking at the pages Makoto brought as reference.
Yasuhiro was filling out his sheet, too, when he suddenly looked towards Makoto. “Hey, what’s this alignment thing?” Makoto smiled and drew a small chart on the back of a blank character sheet. “It’s basically how your character interacts with the world around them. It’s a three by three grid where the options are Chaotic, Neutral, and Lawful on one side, and the other is Good, Neutral, and Evil.”
Kiyotaka raised his voice so that he’d be heard over the chatter. “So we can make our character any alignment we want?” Makoto nodded, and Kiyotaka checked a small box that said ‘Lawful Neutral’. Junko, looking over Kiyotaka’s shoulder chuckled as she marked ‘Chaotic Evil’
Yasuhiro looked over his paper and groaned. “I dunno! Someone pick for me!” Byakuya, who was tired of hearing Yasuhiro’s voice, spoke up. “How about we add a new alignment, just for Yasuhiro? Chaotic Stupid seems to fit him nicely.” Yasuhiro smiled unknowingly before marking it down on his sheet. “Good idea! ...Wait…”
Celestia laughed jeeringly as she watched Yasuhiro argue with Byakuya. “Maybe this will be amusing after all.”
After a while, everyone slowly filtered out of the dining room, returning to their respective rooms to work on their character sheets. Makoto on the other hand, headed to the library to continue planning his campaign. He’d finally get to have the DnD group he’s wanted for so long! Hopefully, his campaign goes exactly as planned.