Hello reader! Thank you for taking time to check out this fan fiction, and I hope that it is worth your time to read through it.
This fan fiction is based on the video game, manga, and anime series "Dangan Ronpa", a murder-mystery series about high school students forced into a Killing Game by a psychopathic bear named Monokuma, yadda yadda... probably the premise of a lot of DR fanfics, I understand. Here's to hoping this one breaks the trend somewhat.
Unlike other fanfics, this one tells a story of what happens to the students after they are to reach... untimely demises. The goal for this is to give the characters who received less focus in the games more character development, while giving an interactive experience for the reader to tag along with the series as new chapters are released. Expect to see a lot of emotion in my writing as well, to give a better picture of the reality of the characters' situations, and to really give an understanding to what emotions the characters are going through, hopefully in a believable way.
It doesn't matter if you are a fan of Danganronpa or not, this isn't fully exclusive to its fanbase. The first chapter of this series is a prologue, explaining the backstory of the first DR game, reviewing what happened in the prologue and early Chapter 1 of the game so you don't have to look at gameplay to understand the story. Once you are done the prologue, the true direction of the story will begin.
And with that, I hope you all enjoy!
It should've been the best thing that ever happened to their lives. Fifteen students, all of whom had high hopes and dreams. All of them that could've made a lasting difference of the world as they knew it. They could've had the power to shape the world together, as they saw fit. All because they had been accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, a high school for students with especially high talents. Only a handful of people were chosen each year, and it was every high school student's dream to be accepted into the academy, and yet, here they were. All of them had been accepted into the school.
It should've been a dream come true. Unfortunately, that dream quickly turned into a nightmare even psychopaths would never dream of. And that nightmare was reality.
Taking their first steps into Hope's Peak Academy, they were all stunned with dizziness, and all collapsed. When they awoke, they found themselves in the school, only that something was clearly off about it. Doors had been locked, windows barred by metal sheets. Any connection to the outside world had been removed from their lives in what seemed to be only an hour.
All waking from sleep, they met one another. All of them were the same; they were all supposed 'ultimates', a term used to describe a high school student who is the best at what they do. They were to all be in the same class, and all of them were now in the same situation. discovered the predicament that faced them. Their friends, their families, anyone who cared for them; They had no way to see them, and they had no idea why.
But things were only to get worse. They soon learned from a high-tech animatronic, who claimed his name to be Monokuma, that in order to see the real world ever again, they were to do something they should've never have thoughts of in their entire lives.
They were to kill one another.
In order to escape the confines of the school, they had to commit a murder, and get away with it. If they failed, they would be executed by Monokuma, but if they succeeded, they would escape, at the expense of everyone else's lives. It was at this moment when the students had realized that, while they might never potentially murder someone, who was to say that another student felt the same? Any content word they spoke could be a devious lie, and any friendly action... a call of death. How could they trust anyone? How could they prove to anyone that they themselves could be trusted?
After a few days, nothing had happened. The students spent most of their day forcefully confined to the academy's first floor, looking for a method of escape. Hope continued to disappear that they might never be saved, and not before long… a drastic turn was made.
One day, Monokuma approached the students about the lack of action, and presented an additional motive. Videos of people the students loved dear. It was refreshing to see their faces again, to have some incentive to keep believing. The issue was, however, that this was not an ordinary video.
One by one, each video displayed the shocking image of a destroyed filming location, or loved ones collapsed on the ground, all of which at the hands of Monokuma himself. Were they dead? The students did not know, but the thought that their loved ones might be deceased… it nearly pushed many over the edge. Many contemplated murder, while others tried to provide comfort and reassurance to friends, but with that feeling of distrust in the air, no one felt safe.
And one student ultimately made the decision to get out of the school.
This was the situation of Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation. Before she enrolled at Hope's Peak, she had been the most popular teen idol in all of the country, and was the lead of a famous female pop group. All of the members of the group were incredibly close friends of hers, of whom she cared deeply for. However, the video she witnessed showed her friends supposedly deceased on the floor, the pop group "no more", according to the eerie voice in the video. Monokuma's voice. And this video was the pushing point for Sayaka to commit murder.
She sat curled up on her bed, pillow in her hands. She was in tears, no longer possessing an ability to hold back her emotions. She had to get out. She had to find out what had happened to her friends. And then… she had an idea that drove her to insanity.
She contemplated who would be her target, to whom she decided on Leon Kuwata, the ultimate baseball star. He had grown rather close to her, claiming that he wanted to switch his title to the ultimate musician, and had come to her for advice. She decided to privately invite him via letter to lure him into a trap that would ultimately kill him.
But she also had to get away with the murder, and if she were to act in her room, she would be convicted almost immediately. She would also have to act after nighttime began, in order to avoid the risk of being caught, and the other sections of the school were forbidden at night. Luckily, she had a solution to this; she would use another student's room as the scene of the crime.
Not just any student's room, however. She decided on using Makoto Naegi's room. Makoto and Sayaka apparently went to the same elementary school together, and due to having that past connection, they had grown very close after the game began. He trusted her with his life, and that's what she was counting on.
Before nighttime officially began, she approached Makoto at the door to his room, and requested that they talk. She created a false claim that someone tried to force their way into her room, and came to Makoto for comfort. She was able to influence Makoto to propose a plan for them to swap rooms; if it was the best way to make her feel safe. But Sayaka wasn't scared for her life. Rather, she no longer had a life because of the damned game, and she was going to get her life back, no matter the cost.
Makoto was trusting enough to give insight to his room; where things were, how to find them, and even told her about his busted bathroom door. Apparently, his door didn't fit into the doorframe correctly, and thus, there was a certain way to open it that you had to use every single time you wanted to go in there. The fact that Makoto was supposedly the Ultimate lucky student… it was the only shred of joy Sayaka would experience that night.
Prior to meeting with Makoto, she had snuck a knife from the kitchen, and composed a letter asking her target, Leon, to meet her in what was supposedly her room at 1:15 am. She saw Makoto off when nighttime officially began, at 10:00 pm, so she anxiously waited for her opportunity to arrive.
Tick, tock, tick, tock… that was all she heard aside her thoughts for several hours.
Could she really go through with something like this?
Tick, tock, tick, tock…
She quickly shook her head to shake her genuinity. If she were to hesitate, she would never get this opportunity ever again. If she were to fail, she would be alive among fourteen other students who could never trust her ever again…
Tick, tock, tick, tock…
Not even Makoto…
Sayaka thought of Makoto. What would he think of her if he found out what she tried to do? He could never forgive her, as naïve as he was. He was too kindhearted. Knowing she exploited their trust to kill a friend, it'd be insane to forgive something like that. It was irrational.
But Sayaka had no intention to focus on what was rational and what wasn't. Thoughts like that would get her killed. She had to suppress them to the blackest reaches of her mind, or she'd be dead before she could even realize the mistake she'd make.
Tick, tock, tick, tock...
Sayaka got up from the bed. Time was almost upon her, and she had to make her move when it appeared. It was five minutes until Leon was to appear at the door. She had swapped the nameplates of her's and Makoto's room, so it seemed as if the room she was in was truly hers, and not Makoto's. Instead of going to her actual room, Leon would come to Makoto's room instead. He would find the door unlocked, and would curiously inspect the room that was supposedly hers. That's when she would make her move.
If her plan succeeded, she would switch back the nameplates, and all she would have to do is remove evidence that she had been in Makoto's room. Makoto would be the prime suspect with an incredible amount of evidence against him, and she would simply have to deny the claims that they had swapped rooms as a stressed lie, and she would have her freedom. She hid behind the wall, waiting for the opportunity to arrive.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...
There was, however, a flaw in her plan, that ultimately became reality.
She never considered the situation in which Leon would overpower her.
*Click*
So that was the prologue to the story. Now, to answer some questions you may have.
Yes, Sayaka Maizono will be the main protagonist of this story, but each student will be focused upon throughout. That being said, don't expect to see all of the students here. At the very least, the select few students who made it to the end of the game will only have mentions, and won't appear physically. The possibility isn't ruled out, however.
A main premise of the original series is that, when a murder is committed, the culprit has to get away with it in a Class Trial. In the trial, the students go over evidence they found, and try to reach an agreeable and conclusive ending that points to the true culprit. If the real killer is voted guilty, only they get executed, but if they vote the wrong killer, then... everyone else is punished.
Everything in this prologue appears in the game, albeit some inference was given towards Sayaka's POV.
As for the rest of the series, it will contain many references to the series, but also the manga, and even though the series isn't necessarily a killing game, it is going to get real dark at times, so look out for that.
Finally... do I have a fascination for clocks? Probably.
