Edit: I don’t know why you guys hate this so much. I’m not referring to any real world events here, it’s part of my danganronpa fanfiction for fucks sake! If I’m gonna get downvoted, at least tell me why!

Duncan tossed Sayori a sword, its blade harmless rubber, while holding one of his own.

“Come on, Sayori. Time for afternoon practice.”

“More swordsmanship? I’m not really in the mood for it.”

“Not in the mood? If Pavel were here, I’m sure he’d want you to exercise, train, and push yourself to your limits. Isn’t that right, Sayori?”

She sighed. “Alright, Duncan. I’ll train with you.” With some reluctance, she took the sword in her hand and stepped into the training circle they had cleared out. “Nothing too intense, Duncan.”

“Since today was so tiring—sure. What say we carry a little conversation, just to make things a bit more interesting?”

She nodded. “Sounds good, Duncan.”

They stood in the center of the room for a few moments before Duncan suddenly lunged. Sayori was barely able to deflect his three blows. And he was surely going easy on her.

“Now, what should we talk about?” he asked, as if they were sitting across from each other at a coffee shop instead of being locked in intense combat. “Current events, perhaps?”

Another slash, this time from the left. She could see that he was trying to back her into a corner. She suddenly ducked, knocking his blade preemptively aside, rolling past him quickly. She spun around as fast as she could, just in time to avoid another one of Duncan’s carefully placed blows.

“You’ll have to be more careful than that, Sayori. If I was trying to kill you, I could easily have!”

She slashed, hoping that he would be distracted. No luck; he deftly sidestepped her attack. She ducked as his sword brushed her hair.

“If it’s current events you want, it’s current events you’ll get. What do you think of the defeatist protests?”

Sayori almost hit the wall to dodge a quick stab to her stomach, her sword nearly jolted out of her hand by the force behind Duncan’s attack. Although her arms already felt like lead, Duncan seemed to not even breaking a sweat.

“Defeatism is an idiotic ideology, at least in my opinion. They see the contradictions within capitalism and offer no solutions other than to twiddle their thumbs and wait for their own demise.”

After a few more failed attacks from Duncan, she felt confident enough to try her own attack. Mustering her strength, she struck at Duncan several times in different places, hoping to daze him and land a single hit somewhere, although she was aware it was unlikely. Just as she’d expected, Duncan easily moved out of her range, then nearly knocked her over by striking while she was off balance.

“Good. But you’ll have to do better than that.”

“The defeatists are gaining traction, though. It seems that they’ve finally seen through the lies, but think that there isn’t a world outside of them. You know, they think that all humans are to blame for climate change! That any old factory worker is as much to blame as an oil company executive!”

Duncan was behind her suddenly, in a lightning burst of speed. The blade flickered once, twice, three times. Sayori felt the soft impacts one after the other.

Duncan threw the sword down. “You’re getting better. Pavel will be pleased when he finally leaves Hope’s Peak.”

She sighed and wiped some sweat from her brow. They’d continue this ritual tomorrow.