Disclaimer: The Danganronpa franchise does not belong to me. The content affiliated with this fanfiction belong to Spike Chunsoft and Kazutaka Kodaka. The cover art belongs to the artist, Sakuya. This fanfiction is being cross-uploaded on Archive Our Own, and the authors notes are located at the bottom.
Chapter Four: The New World Order Pt 1
It didn't take very long for Ryota to feel his heart stopping whenever he saw Asahina panically slamming the doors wide opening and shouting the awful words that would change his life forever. "The security guards...I found them inside the bathroom. They're all dead!"
"What…?" the Vice Chairman Munakata gasped.
Similarly Ryota had trouble comprehending the exact same thing, he always felt that the headquarters of the Future Foundation had been one of the safest places imaginable during the Tragedy. Intentionally isolated from any prefectures, countries, or continents, not located on a single modern map of the world, and having the tightest security in the entire world. It was literally impossible for an enemy to attempt to break into this building even if they tried.
He made a quick glance to Chairman Tengan, who was speaking about how things weren't looking so good, all the escape entrances are destroyed and the security guards had been killed, limiting their options on how they were supposed to combat the perpetrator. Ryota huddled closer to the group out of fear and asked, "What should we do?"
The person to step up as leader was Munakata who urged everyone to remain calm in a situation like this and reminded everyone they were prepared for an instance where an invasion would happen. Except for the fact that Ryota had never prepared for something like this, his division didn't even specialize in that field and he lacked the ability to take on enemies that were trying to kill them. He couldn't even defend himself against the likes of Enoshima Junko, so he could only imagine how difficult it was going to be trying to defend himself against any potential Ultimate Despair intruders that may infiltrate the building.
Ryota saw a small cylinder roll right in between himself and Tengan out of nowhere. Where exactly did that come from? The Ultimate Animator didn't notice anyone actually drop the cylinder and he hoped that it wouldn't entail anything terrible—except he held his breath too soon. A barrage of smoke appeared out of the device and many people started falling unconscious by the minute.
"A sleeping gas!?" Kimura gasped.
"Everyone, hold your breat—" were the only words that Ryota managed to hear Munakata yell before he started falling unconscious himself. The exact words that everyone else had been saying were admittedly rather hazy, mostly turning from incoherent talking into strange muffling until he wasn't able to hear anything at all.
He blacked out afterwards. It was hard to decipher exactly how long Ryota and his co-workers had been unconscious. Maybe only a few hours? After waking up, he soon realized that his vision was noticeably blurry compared to before and assumed his eyes just needed some time to readjust.
At long last, the unpleasant beeping sound that came from the security siren had finally died down—except, that answered another glaring question that was still on his mind about this matter. They were still in the building, right? That in itself seemed somewhat shocking since Ryota was almost certain that some kind of enemies were invading this building to kill them all, or worse.
Taking a few looks around showed that none of them seemed to be in any danger, most of them already waking up from the sleeping gas grenade. Arbitrarily, Ryota was welcomed to the unfortunate sound of tinnitus upon waking up and couldn't hear the voices of any of his co-workers.
At least until he was welcomed by the sound of a person's voice.
"Hello...can you hear me?"
That voice was familiar to one he heard once before and he recognized their face as well. How could he not? The two had seen each other several times in the past even if they weren't necessarily the best of friends. "It's nice to meet you, I guess. I'm the Neo Ultimate Despair."
His body was feeling excruciatingly weaker than before, despite this his hearing still was able to make out those words. The New Ultimate Despair? That didn't sound good, it sounded worse than good for that matter. In his mind that couldn't insinuate anything good and could only lead down a path of chaos.
The Neo Ultimate Despair blinked. "You're Mitarai Ryota right, I feel like the two of us haven't really gotten to know each other."
Gotten to know each other? Ryota couldn't remember a single time the two of them ever truly interacted before. Sure, the two had known each other in the past, but their interactions had never truly qualified as friendship. Due to the exhaustion from his body it took a lot out of him to start talking again.
"...who are you?" Ryota whispered in a raspy and dry voice. The Neo Ultimate Despair shook their head, refusing to give out that information.
"I'm sure Monokuma would be against the idea of me revealing something like that before the game has even started, after all, you'd probably just remember who I am." The Neo Ultimate Despair explained. "Once the killing game starts, I'm gonna erase your memories of me, starting things over with a clean slate. You won't remember this conversation we had and it will almost be like we're strangers again."
Ryota wished he could explain all the events that transpired after hearing them talk, except those memories were completely blurry. He blacked out once again and started falling falling in and out of consciousness, not before hearing the Neo Ultimate Despair say one final thing.
"Don't be disappointed, it won't be long before we meet again. Then, once the killing game starts, the two of us will be able to see each other again."
Those final words didn't escape his head even after waking up. Ryota immediately sprung out of bed in a cold sweat after hearing the last part of his dream. His bed ? That was odd, he specifically remembered drinking the potion that Kimura had made to restore their missing memories and blacked out after that.
But he drank that potion in Kimura's office, when did he ever have the time return back to his dormitory and jump into bed? Maybe sleeping walking—or did someone carry him back? The memories of what happened after digesting that potion were really unclear, though he definitely learned his lesson about using it to uncover their missing memories. The decision was a little rash, but Ryota was feeling pretty depressed about the death of more of his friends.
Still, that dream was rather confusing and was leaving him puzzled on what the true meaning could have been. It felt like a nagging reminder that he was still imprisoned in this building and left in the dark about all the big mysteries. How many weeks has it been now since the game had started? Monokuma never actually provided them with a calendar to see what the date was and in all honestly, Ryota lost count on how long this killing game had been going on for.
On top of that, it was still difficult to get over the murder of Izayoi and the execution of Kimura, both didn't deserve the fate they had received. Ryota believed at times like this it was important to remember that he needs to survive and escape this building to avenge the death of those two, for Ando's sake as well, she was probably taking this much worse than all of them.
After the trial ended, he heard from Asahina that Ando apparently locked herself in her dormitory room and didn't leave after that. Deep down, Ryota couldn't blame her for that in the slightest, she had just lost her two best friends over something that was her own fault and forced to live with that guilt. He was the exact same way after losing Chairman Tengan and Yukizome on the same day.
A small part of him wanted to go and check on Ando to make sure she was okay, but Ryota was honestly never really that good with words and would have no idea how to cheer someone up. Before that, he realized that now would be a better time than ever to get on with the day, especially since a new floor was more than likely to be opened up very soon.
He grabbed a new black suit from the closet and made his way out the door—at least he would have, had Gekkogahara not be waiting for him by the door with eyes of distress. "Hi there, Mitarai-kun. Are you doing alright? I was getting a little concerned when I noticed you didn't attend the therapy session last night."
He had completely forgotten about the therapy session, having been too engrossed in figuring out what their missing memories could have been and subsequently blacking out caused that to happen. "Sorry about that." Ryota apologized and respectfully bowed. "I guess I haven't been in the right state of mind after yesterday and just needed some time to think about things."
"That's understandable, though try and notify me next time, alright? I was starting to get worried that you weren't coming." Gekkogahara replied. "With all that's been happening these past couple of days, it seems like everyone has been pretty torn up about things."
"I'm worried too...about Ando-san I mean," Ryota said before quickly clarifying himself. "I haven't heard from her at all since the last trial ended and I'm concerned that maybe she's cooping herself up in the dorm."
"Perhaps what Kizakura-san said was right. It's best to just give her some space to sort things out herself," Gekkogahara encouragely stated. "As a therapist, I don't really like feeling vulnerable when it comes to helping people, but I think that may be what will help Ando-san out."
After thinking about her words for a small few seconds, a smile developed on Ryota, feeling that she was indeed true. Hearing those encouraging words actually made him feel much better than before, it was something that she never had never failed to accomplish ever since the killing game had first began.
Without any doubts in his mind, he could say that Gekkogahara really had started to become one of his closest friends. He thought about that as the two walked to the dining room to meet up with the other fellow participants where they both found themselves surprised at a sight they never believed they would witness.
The person standing in front of them was Ando, who was in an immensely more positive mood compared to the broken girl from yesterday, she had removed her pink fur coat and was wearing a magenta apron with matching oven mitts, she was carrying a piping hot strawberry shortcake in her hands which she placed on the table.
And now that he noticed, the tables were filled with a nice spread of different assorted sweets, from cakes, fruit tarts, macaroons, and dangos. Even the mere sight of the delicacies proved enough to cause Ryota's mouth to water a little, it made him wonder how she could have baked all of this in one sitting. It just went to show that this was indeed the talent of someone worthy being the Ultimate Confectioner.
He could only assum that Ando must have been up all night cooking something like this. The confectioner kept treading from the kitchen and back, each time placing a new kind of piping hot desert onto the table until they were filled in the dining room like a buffet. What was going on with Ando? Was this some kind of coping mechanism or something?
Ryota couldn't even figure out what was happening. "What's happening?"
"Is everything alright?" Gekkogahara seconded.
"You got me, I can't figure out what's going on either. I just woke up and this was happening," Sakakura explained in exasperation. "She's been baking her sweets all morning and won't stop no matter what you say."
"Well, at least she's not depressed after what happened yesterday." Naegi mentioned optimistically, obviously attempting to make light of the situation.
"Yeah, but Ando-chan's been acting weird like this all morning and still won't even give an explanation on why." Asahina retorted.
Kizakura gave a rather amusing grin. "Well, if she wants to do this to keep her spirits up, then I say more power to her. I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the show."
Upon seeing the the Ultimate Animator and therapist, a bright smile appeared on Ando's face. "Great, you two finally arrived! Now that you guys are here, there's an important announcement that I want to make." she said before doing something that none of them had expected.
After placing the short cake on the nearest table, she knelt down and bowed her forehead to the ground in a dogeza position. Wait, what? Ryota knew this was a traditional form of Japanese apology that was performed if someone was genuinely sorry for their actions, could this mean what he think it could mean? "I wanted to say...I'm very sorry for all the trouble that I cause throughout this killing game. It's my own fault for suspecting everyone, I promise that I'm never going to accuse anyone else ever again."
She actually did it, she actually apologized. Not only that, her sincerity actually felt very honest and not just half-baked. That was something that Ryota had genuinely never expected in a million years. Ando Ruruka, the woman who spent the entire killing game harshly suspecting others and making rude comments actually giving them an apology. Judging by the fact that she actually performed a dogeza, it was clear this wasn't just some thrown together apology and that she had meant every word of that.
He wasn't sure if everything that happened was truly her fault, but he kenw that Ando was genuinely trying to make an effort to better herself for her deceased loved ones. Maybe if there was an afterlife, Kimura and Izayoi were looking down on Ando right now feeling proud of her decision?
Sakakura raised an eyebrow. "Is that it?"
Ando quickly stood up from the ground and shot a look of anger at the Ultimate Boxer for his blunt comments. "What do you mean, you jerk!? Don't just nonchalantly handwave my apology like it's nothing! I'm trying to tell you guys that I'm sorry!"
Ryota jumped a little, feeling slightly startled by her attitude. He guessed that some things couldn't necessarily be changed and that Ando was still herself after all. What was most important was that she was making an effort to change herself for the better and that she no longer was blaming herself for everything that happened. After all the events that occured in that last trial, Ryota felt there was no point in blaming anyone since everyone felt like a victim. Above all, their real enemies were Monokuma and the traitor that started this killing game.
Sakakura still scoffed and crossed his arms. "I'm still kinda skeptical about this whole mess. How do we know that Ando is even being sincere? What if this is just one big ploy to let our guard down so she can strike while the iron is hot?"
"I don't think Ando-san's lying, it's not like she really has much of a reason to lie anymore." Gekkogahara said. "I think she wants to try and atone for her actions in the last trial. I think it's just like Kimura-san had said...deep down she was always a good person. For that reason, we should believe in her."
It seemed like the Ultimate Confectioner wanted to argue, but realized that he made a valid point. She sighed before sadly lowering her arms.,"No, he's right. I can't blame you guys for suspecting me of being a traitor, it's not like I don't deserve it."
Kizakura smirked before eyeing the angry Sakakura. "Isn't the pot calling the kettle black in this situation? If I remember correctly, there was once a time where Sakakura was being suspected of being in league with Munakata before that turned out to be untrue. Nobody likes a hypocrite."
"Guess you called my bluff!." Sakakura scoffed.
Ryota laughed a little at this, it felt like the first time since the murder that he was able to behave more leisurely and relaxed, even if deep down the deaths of his two friends were still in his mind. Not to mention, there was still that strange dream he had in the morning about his lost memories of before the killing game.
What could those have meant?
It appeared that Ryota hadn't really doing the best job of concealing his curiosity about his dream since Naegi had taken notice of his expression immediately. "Hey Mitarai-kun, are you alright?"
The animator was interrupted from his inner thoughts and realized that he was being watched by the others, who Naegi seemed to get the attention of with his own concern. Ryota didn't know if it was a good thing to answer, though he realized that he was being put on the spot. "Well...last night, I...drank some of the drug that Kimura-san made that could potentially bring back some of our missing memories."
"You what!?" Sakakura gasped.
Ryota dropped his head. "I'm sorry for drinking it without notifying you guys first. I should have told you first, but I guess I got a little carried away and wanted to learn more about the mysteries as soon as possible."
Kizakura gaiety drank from his flask. "Oh, how about cutting the kid some slack? I probably would've done the same thing if I were him...then again, I'm the type of guy who will drink anything."
"Regardless of that, what's done is done and nothing can be changed about that." Kirigiri added. "For now, let's focus on the drug that Kimura-san had created. Mitarai-kun, did you learn anything from that dream you had?"
He placed a finger to his chin in thought, attempting to remember the specifics of the dream from this morning. "Well, my dream was a memory from after Yukizome-sensei dropped the grenade. There was a brief moment where I woke up and saw a person who called themselves the Neo Ultimate Despair."
"The Neo Ultimate Despair?" Naegi gasped. "That was the name of the person who wrote that journal we once read through."
"Did they say anything?" Gekkogahara questioned.
"Were you able to get a good look at this person?" Sakakura interrogated. "Was it perhaps someone that we already know? Maybe even someone from the Future Foundation?"
Ryota disappointedly was forced to merely shake his head for the lack of answers. "No, the dream was really hazzy for some reason and I can't remember what this person looked like, or what they even sounded like for that matter. The weird thing about that was...they already knew my name, which means I must have met them before."
"That figures." Kizakura sighed. "And it'll be hard to determine this head honcho since they could be someone who's already died in the game, or someone standing in this room right now."
Asahina put on her brave face and got uncomfortably close to Ryota. "Mitarai, do you have any ideas on who this person could be? Did you know any shady people in the past that could have been the person you met in your dream?"
The animator was taken back by her rambunctious statement. "It would be difficult to determine something like that since it could be anyone, and it's not like I want to go around suspecting other people either."
"Based on what Monokuma had said a while back, the traitor is somebody in the Future Foundation that's been playing double agent right under everyone's noses, right?" Kizakura recalled. "That means whoever Mitarai saw in his dream must be our big bad."
"How do we even know there is a traitor?" Ando questioned after remaining silent for quite a while. "This is Monokuma we're talking about, for all we know, he's just lying in order to stir up conflict so we can try to kill each other."
"I don't really want to believe there could be a traitor either and I'd hate to go suspecting more people." Naegi stated.
"I agree with that, how could the traitor even be at this point in the killing game?" Ryota wondered. "At first I would have said Munakata-san, but it seems like he doesn't really know a whole lot about the game, and it doesn't seem like any of us would be capable of starting a killing game."
"It's not impossible to think the killer is just keeping a low profile and lying about their innocence," Kizakura solidly pointed out. "And hey, maybe their forbidden action prevents them from revealing any information about them being the traitor for all we know?"
Gekkogahara nodded. "It's quite possible the traitor may have even gotten their memories erased just like the rest of us and Monokuma is using them against them."
"And the traitor could even be someone who has already died up to this point?" Sakakura gasped upon realizing this truth. "As far as we're concerned, the traitor could even be Tengan, Gozu, or somebody else that's already died."
"I guess we can safely say that Yukizome-sensei isn't the traitor since Monokuma had already confirmed that himself." Ryota stated. "But, that's our only real lead on who the Neo Ultimate Despair could be."
For the remainder of that morning, pretty much everyone else went their separate ways to try and kill time before the next announcement and inevitable motive for the killing game that soon followed. Ryota wasn't really in the mood to do anything right now and plopped back into bed for the next several hours, twiddling his thumbs, waiting for something to happen, mostly just trying to make sense of his dream from earlier.
Overtime, as the day eventually shifted to the late afternoon, there still wasn't a motive announced for the killing game or even a single announcement by Monokuma that matter. That only made things more frightening since it mostly insinuated that the teddy bear had something huge planned that he was withholding information from.
After hours of nothing but lying in bed, Ryota felt the all too familiar hunger pangs that brought him back to the days where he was obsessively attempt to create an animation video without regarding his own health.
Of course things were different know, Gekkogahara would never allow him to go without eating, otherwise he would receive a scolding from her. Looking at the clock showed that time had flown, ironically not while having fun, and it was already half past nine at night.
It felt safe to say that Monokuma wasn't planning anything today and he was getting pretty hungry, deciding to finally head down to the dining room and find himself something to eat. Upon entering he discovered that Ando had never actually left the kitchen after her apology from this morning. He assumed those deserts were baked for the sole purpose of making up for the way she treated everyone earlier in the game, yet they still occupied the tables for much of the day, some of them not even eaten since she baked too many for such a small group of people.
The confectioner still had the apron around her waist and was already in the process of cracking some eggs in a bowl for her next dessert. Like always, it smelled delicious, except this time Ryota couldn't shake off the feeling that something just wasn't right about all of this. A person could only compulsively perform an action a number of times before it starts to become concerning, Ryota could relate due to some personal experience with his own talent.
The confectioner seemed so engrossed in humming a tune that she didn't really notice Ryota had been standing right behind him. "Hey Ando-san, are you doing alright?"
"Well yeah, of course I am. Why would you ask something like that?" Ando retorted.
"You sure?" Ryota nervously felt the need to ask again. "If you don't mind my asking, it kinda seems like you're blocking."
She provided him a painfully obvious superficial smile to obviously indicated there was something wrong with her. "There's nothing wrong, alright. It's just like I told you guys before, I just wanna make up for everything that I did before."
Ryota looked to her sympathetically, feeling that he's experienced something like this before and even recalled how Sakakura and Kizakura tried to deny their own feelings as well. "Hey Ando-san, I think it's okay if you're still sad about losing Kimura-san and Izayoi-san, none of us would blame you for being sad about that. Gekkogahara-san always tells me that it's important to move forward and—"
"Will you shut up already!? I already know that I messed up bad and I don't need you constantly reminding me that!" Ando distraughtly lashed out, after pausing she soon realized that Ryota was startled and taken back by her outburst. She sadly sighed, "Sorry...I don't really know where that came from. I guess maybe I had been bottling that up."
Ryota awkwardly nodded. "It's okay. Do you wanna talk about it? Gekkogahara-san always has therapy sessions with me whenever I'm feeling down, maybe that will help you feel the same?"
The confectioner removed her oven mitts and started contemplatively looking at Ryota and the oven before finally settling on a decision. "Okay, if it's alright with you, I'll go make some tea, it usually calms me down in these kinds of situations."
Fortunately for them both, she had finally turned off the oven and stopped baking desserts after the reassurance Ryota and the two went over to the nearest table to begin conversing. After the tea finished brewing in the kettle, Ando set two cups on the table for them, alongside some blueberry scones, which looked quite delicious, especially after Ryota remembered that he once promised to eat some of her cooking.
A silence broke out in between their last conversation. Ryota quietly sipped some of his tea before finally asking her the one thing that had been on his mind this whole time. "Ando-san, can I ask why you were baking so many sweets?"
In contrast, the confectioner had hardly even touched her tea despite her insistence in making it, pitifully resting her hands on her face in shame. "Because everything is all my fault. I was so afraid of getting betrayed that I cost the life of my two loved ones...they were the only people in this world who ever gave a damn about someone like me."
While it may sound strange, Ryota felt he could relate to her on that in some ways. "I feel the same was as well, that's how I felt when Yukizome-sensei and the Chairman died. I felt like it was all my fault and that I probably could have just prevented things if I just wasn't so afraid of being in the conflict."
His olive eyes opened wider before looking to Ando. "And another thing...even though you can be a little difficult sometimes, I never actually hated you."
Ando sarcastically rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right."
"No, it's true." Ryota assured her, thinking about all the people he actually designated as enemies in his head. "If I'm being completely honest, Monokuma and Munakata-san are the ones that I'm way more afraid of. You never really seemed like the enemy to be, just a little difficult sometimes."
"The two of us used to be inseparable, you know. Me and Seiko-chan." Ando commented. "There was a point in time where it seemed like Seiko-chan and me were real best friends, we did everything together until our falling out during one of the Hope's Peak exams caused both of us to get expelled."
The confectioner had pondered for a small second and gave a head shake. "No, that's not entirely true. Our friendship had already started taking a turn for the worse even earlier once I started mooching off Seiko-chan and ruined our friendship together even more."
"What kind of things did you guys do as friends?" Ryota asked.
"The two of us used to do just about everything together like having slumber parties and going to amusement parks, though Seiko-chan could never eat any of the sweets I made because of her diabetes." Ando grievously explained. "I didn't really mind when we were kids, but I guess I got a little carried away overtime."
"It seems like you guys were pretty close, I'm a little jealous." Ryota pointed out before reminiscing. Those words carried a harsher meaning because he remembered how he lacked any real friends during childhood and wondered if that would've prevented him from being bullied. "I didn't have any friends when I was younger."
Ando sighed in dread. "I didn't have a whole lot of friends throughout childhood either, Seiko-chan was one of the first. My parents had gotten a divroce when I was only six years old, but I wasin the custody of my bitchy mom. She started receiving alimony checks every month that she used to invest in stocks until she managed to become the CEO of her own successful company."
Ryota was shocked that her mother was able to create such a successful company with alimony money, especially since after his parents divorced, his mom only used her alimony money for food and other utility costs and certainly never had that much money. It seemed more like her family had been doing a lot better than his.
"...I already know what you're thinking. You think that since my mother was rich then that means that we were living in the promised land, right?" Ando asked. "Well it's not true. In reality, my mom was the worst person in the world. She was an emotionally abusive asshole that was always pressuring me into having a talent."
Her eyes averted away from Ryota and looked sadly to the table. "She used to lecture me about how I would have to amount to something in a quote unquote, male-dominated world, and all the other people at the company expected me to do great things even though I didn't even have a talent."
"Is that what persuaded you to become the Ultimate Confectioner?" Ryota asked.
"Sorta." Ando admitted. "I tried a bunch of different hobbies in an attempt to find a talent for myself, but baking sweets was the only thing that really stuck. I self taught myself how to make sweets and soon my mom was really impressed with my skills."
Ryota definitely didn't expect her to say that, most students of Hope's Peak Academy were enrolled in the school by complete accident and usually didn't have any intention of being in the school in the first place. For most of them, talent was just their passion and they never had any real intention to turn that into something.
For himself, he never wanted to be the Ultimate Animator in the slightest but felt obligated to enter the school after Chairman Tengan scouted him for the school. He realized that maybe he was getting far too caught up in his own life and remembered his conversation was about Ando. "Then what happened?"
"Then after that, my mom finally started to give me love and respect." Ando lamented. "She had finally given me the love that I had wanted all my childhood, but when I finally received it...it hardly even mattered anymore."
Ryota felt like he was probably the exact opposite in that instance, his mother was pretty much the only person in the family whom actually loved him. That wasn't necessarily saying much since he was an only child that didn't get along with his father or extended family very much either.
"It's because of my stupid mom that I ended up this way, her actions pushed everyone away from me or disliked me and—!" Ando vented before stopping to realize exactly what she had been saying. "No, I can't scapegoat someone else for my own shortcomings...It's my fault that I'm like this."
Ryota blinked. "What do you want to do now, Ando-san?"
To his great surprise, the confectioner determinately stood up from her chair and quickly wiped any tears from her face in confidence. "I wanna...make up for everything wrong I've done. I wanna atone for what I did to Yoi-chan and Seiko-chan, I think they would have wanted it this way, right?"
He wasn't really sure since they weren't alive to answer that question, but somehow Ryota just had the feeling they would and he smiled at the thought of it. "Yeah, I think so too. Both Izayoi-san and Kimura-san believed in you and they know that you're going to do great."
Ando began confidently smiling as well. "I'm gonna survive this stupid killing game and I'll get out of this crazy building...for them."
It likely went without saying that there was more to Ando Ruruka than what originally met the eye. While on the surface she was cruel and cold to everyone besides her boyfriend, recently Ryota began to realize that her heart was much bigger than she had initially let on.
After losing her two closest friends because of her own actions, it felt like Ando was guilelessly trying to make up for all of her actions and become a better person for her friends and herself. It said a lot about her character, being determined to make an effort to change her ways and help end this killing game.
While Ryota may have not initially believed so at first, he believes that he can finally call her a friend. Perhaps someday Ando's friends will be able to rest in peace knowing that she was able to atone for all of her actions?
All things considered, Ryota felt he grew a little closer to Ando.
A/N: I've waited 3 years to finally write this chapter. Since I saw DR3, I always wished that Ruruka survived the anime and was given the chance to have a redemption arc like Fuyuhiko did. Her lukewarm suicide and lack of resolution kinda left me with a bad taste in my mouth, especially since character development seemed possible. Since it can't happen in the canon, time to try the next best thing.
Back when I first drafted this fanfiction two years ago, having Ruruka develop from the deaths of Seiko and Sonosuke and become progressively friendlier were some of my earliest ideas and can't believe I had to wait so long for this storyline to finally come into fruition.
I had fun writing the backstory of Ruruka, the idea of her having a controlling mother who pressured her into having a talent to survive in society was pretty interesting since I don't believe we've ever actually seen a DR character that deliberately tried to get accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. The idea of Ruruka having a rich mother is meant to contrast Seiko's lifestyle, as a couple chapters before it was mentioned that she lived in poverty and was homeless.
There's also the dream Ryota had after drinking Seiko's potion earlier in the chapter, where we see that Ryota actually met the Neo Ultimate Despair in between falling unconscious and having his memories erased, and not only that, but they also seem to be a person that Ryota had met before and were the ones who had his memories erased in the first place. We'll be learning more about this in future chapters, but for now I'm glad to have finally revealed this part of the story.
