Checkmate of Death (Danganronpa THH x OC)

Chapter 40: Free Time Event #8

=Free Time=

Byakuya Togami:

I went to the garden to admire the plants more. When I entered, there stood Byakuya.

"What? Do you need something?" Byakuya asked once he saw me.

"No. Actually... I want to talk to you," I requested.

Byakuya smirked slightly. "It pains me to watch you. Do you really desire my affection so much? Hmph. You're free to do what you will."

I ignored the insults and spent some time with Byakuya.

"... How do you still not understand?" Byakuya questioned.

I raised an eyebrow. "Understand...what?"

"I've been sacrificing all this valuable time of mine for 'your' sake. But it's all amounted to nothing. We simply have nothing to talk about. We could talk forever and a day, and I would gain nothing from it," Byakuya said.

"Yes you can! We gain some understanding from each other-"

Byakuya interrupted me. "You and I will 'never' understand each other. Even though we are from the same status, we live in different worlds. Our ways of life, our ways of thinking are totally incompatible. You're a loser. So go ahead and live your loser life, make a bunch of loser friends. Then together, you can lick each other's loser wounds."

"You don't have to repeat the word loser you know..."

"Whether your self-indulgence is a lie or not, it doesn't matter. Whatever happens, I'm going to keep on fighting, and I'm going to keep on winning. That's one thing that will never change."

"But doesn't that make your life kind of hard to have to win all the time?"

"Such is the fate of the chosen."

That word again... "The last time we talked, you kept talking about "the chosen". What does that mean exactly in your context?" I asked. "It seems to have a lot heavier meaning to you than how I'd normally think of it."

"..." Byakuya went silent. He was in deep thinking before he spoke again. "Fine. If I'm going to waste my time with you anyway, I may as well explain this one last thing. I'll tell you how I became known as the Ultimate Affluent Progeny..."

"Very well then. You have my attention."

"It has to do with the secret to the Togami family's prosperity. Our success comes from our family's rather...peculiar inheritance system."

"Peculiar inheritance system? What do you mean?"

"You see, our family head never takes a wife. Rather, he couples with exceptional women the world over, in order to bear as many children as possible."

What!? All over the world!?

"They then make the children compete, and only one can come out on top," Byakuya continued. "And whoever it is...earns the right to become the next head of the family."

"You... You have to fight your own brothers and sisters!?" I gasped.

"For my battle, there were fifteen of us in total. When all was said and done, only one was still standing—the youngest brother. Me. In the entire history of the Togami family, the youngest male had never won."

Wow, that sounds brutal. I can't even imagine something like that... Actually, this scenario we're in sounds similar, so I guess I can.

"So, now do you understand? I won my title in open combat. 'That' is how l became the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. I was not born into greatness. I had to earn it. I put my life on the line, and I 'earned' the right to be called the chosen."