Okay, the second verse is the same as the first...

Hi, I'm Fuzzboy. And since I'm fairly sure a decent chunk of you are returning readers from the previous work, I may as well get you all on the same page. A little while ago, I released a story called "DISTRUST: Totally Dramatic Island"; it was essentially a crossover between Total Drama and Danganronpa, using the cast of the latter and having them compete on a new season of Total Drama after a lengthy hiatus, placing them on Jabberwock Island, a former paradise resort that had fallen into ruin. The story thus far has 3 chapters out spanning across an in-universe episode #1, and so far it's been a lot of fun to write.

But TDI had always been designed as a sister-fic; two stories, both falling under the nickname DISTRUST, that crossed over the two franchises, essentially cast swapping them. And as such, I made "DISTRUST: A Game of Trial & Murder"...Only, I wasn't particularly huge on it, and it's honestly entirely due to how creatively restricting the whole thing felt. The story taking place in Hope's Peak Academy, and being limited to only the first generation of campers, ended up sort of draining to write. Which was a shame, because the story was actually a pretty decent hit; tons of readers, active reviewers, plenty of interest. If nothing else, I probably could have kept that original draft going and a lot of people would be satisfied.

But I wouldn't. And that's why we're here; a reboot to get it right this time. With that said, it'd be ridiculous to not bring up the other story in the community that covers this concept; Total Danganronpa, by Heroi Oscura. It's a fairly popular story, and you should check it out, though to quell any doubts; this story is going in a very different direction than that one. I want to make sure that both products, while sharing a basic premise, end up being different in how we go about it as writers, and with the change in setting, that'll be a lot easier to do now. Though we will be sharing one very big similarity...

With that said, I see no reason to keep you all waiting, so let's get started!

"..."

Silence. Complete, utterly uncomfortable silence; the kind that ran down the length of your spine, crawling within your flesh just searching for new ways to make you tick. The wavering, conflicted glances of those around you tore into your every movement like sharpened glass, just the same as you did to them. The light, however little of it there was, only barely illuminated the faces of the five individuals who had crowded around that table, only barely allowing their humanity to surface on the most basic level. Less than five minutes ago, the thought of such unenviable misery breaking out in this room was laughable.

But that was before they saw their next application. The next student who'd they'd have to judge to even consider for their prestigious academy. On its own, there'd be nothing special about what was on the paper...But that was before they saw it. What their talent was...And ever since they had all seen what it was, none of them knew what to say. And even if it did, what would it matter? They'd simply be hollow words to discuss a matter far beyond anything they could handle.

In spite of this, one of them built up enough courage to say, "I don't understand why we're even contemplating allowing this..."

"H-He's right!" A feminine voice, though one that was coarse and nasally, muttered, as she bit down hard onto the tip of her thumb. "S-She was a monster. I-If we allowed this, w-we'd be stupid!"

"Now, hold on, just because she happened doesn't mean this poor kid deserves to be demonized for actions that aren't even his fault." A third voice said, one that was high-pitched and silky with a warm, comforting feel.

"Even so, allowing such a talent into this school is still a gamble, one with odds stacked against us. And while I'm aware most of you are stupid enough to chance such a risk, I am not." The first voice stated, his hardened glare staring through his glasses.

"Man...I never even thought we'd have to worry about this," a fourth voice, one that sounded comparatively older, and yet somehow more immature, said openly, as a groan came forth from his seat, "I mean...Can we just sorta...Ignore we ever got this in the first place? I mean, mail gets lost all the time, one kid getting skipped isn't a huge deal-"

"And if that information came to light, how would that affect the academy's reputation?" The fourth voice flinched at the fifth's, her cold, stilted manner of speaking terrifying him to his core. "We've spent over a decade getting this school back even an ounce of its former credibility and reputation. If it was discovered, even with context, that we intentionally refused a student a chance for acceptance into the school, we'd have a scandal on our hands. And we all know well we couldn't handle one of those."

Four grumbled for a moment, before lowering his head with a whimper and laying back in his chair. Three's eyes drifted back toward the paper for just a moment. "...So...How will we decide this then?"

"Simple; a vote," Five stated firmly, "we'll vote between ourselves; do we take the risk and allow him into the class of next year, or do we pass on him." She nodded at One. "We'll start with you."

"My vote is obvious," he scoffed, keeping his hand down and harshly snapping, "and if any of you realize for even a second how potentially destructive this is, then you'll join me."

"I-I'll always join you," Two whispered, a luminescent blush spreading across her cheeks as her legs twitched in a sort of euphoria. She also kept her hand down.

"...I have to vote for him," Three muttered, holding her hand up, before replacing her uneasy face, to one of pure, undeterred confidence, "...A friend once showed me the value of not judging one by the actions of another. So...I believe he deserves a chance."

"I agree," Five nodded, holding up her own hand as her eyes drifted to Four, whose eyes bugged out upon realizing the power in his hands.

"W-Wait a minute, why do I have to decide?!" He stuttered out. "I don't even know the guy!"

"None of us do, you imbecile," One groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"W-Well...Uh...I-I think...W-We..." Four found himself in a stuttering, messy state of mind, his hand wrapped around the side of his head as his voice quivered, "M-Maybe-" As he started to say this though, the door to the room swung open, allowing Four a moment to catch his breath, "Oh thank Gaea!"

"Sorry I'm late everyone," the sixth and final member of the committee said, his voice young then matured, "one of the students tried to- actually I'm not exactly sure what they tried to do, but it was very, very loud."

As he took his seat at the front of the table, Five turned toward him. "It's fine, but we have an issue to deal with." A bewildered look formed as she pushed the paper toward him. "An applicant with a very...Specific talent."

His eyes scanned the paper for a moment, and just as quickly his face paled and a little bit of sweat ran down his face. "O-Oh...Oh...That's-"

"A problem," One interrupted. "We need to decide now; should we allow them even the chance of joining our prestigious school. It's two-two..." His eyes drifted back to Six, asking simply, "Naegi, you're the tiebreaker since the idiot doesn't know how to take initiative," Four was about to speak up, only to sit back down in silence, "so...What's your vote?"

Naegi stared down at the paper in thought, his eyes narrowing, as his hand began to shake in place.

DANGANRONPA: THE DUALITY OF REALITY

"Fifteen-years...Fifteen long, agonizing years...God, it's hard to think it's been that long. Fifteen-years since the end of the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history..."

"Best known...As the Tragedy."

"I don't remember as much about it as some people I know; I was only three by the time it came to an end. But I've heard the stories...So much pointless death, all spurred on because of the actions of one person."

"Junko Enoshima. A single teenager was able to encite bloodshed on levels never seen in any war. It was crazy to think about; it sounds unbelievable. And yet I had never questioned a single word of it. Nobody did. In fact, if one can help it, nobody even brings up the Tragedy these days."

"We mourn those we lost, of course. We never forgot them. But...We try not to think about it more than we have to. Unless they ask their parents or look it up online, most kids these days will only hear about it in a single paragraph of their history textbook. The only reason I'm even thinking about it, is because I'm standing in front of the very thing that helped the world learn the name of Enoshima..."

"Hope's Peak Academy..."

Standing in the center of a vast, shining city, a high school towered above all other buildings in sight, its undefinable aura resonating in the most unavoidable of ways. Its walls, nearly a century old, still shined as if the building was still in its youth, the white metal walls giving way to both angelic beauty, and to an unbreakable prison, for once inside, most could not leave without giving up everything they had worked toward. Beaming down onto the streets below, passing denizens couldn't help but look up with a mixture of awe, jealousy, and to some...Resentment, before going about their days as normal.

With the exception of one boy, who stared up at the school anxiously, his breathing growing raspy and shaky. He wasn't much to look at; average height though often hunched over just enough to appear tiny, brown skin that almost looked caucasian from how pale it is, and brown eyes that seemed faded over. His clothes were shiny and clean, and yet appeared rather old and worn-out from age, as if he'd been wearing the same thing for years; the same could be said for his hair, being well-combed, and yet stringy to a degree. In many ways, everything held this distinct middle ground between spotless perfection and lackluster laziness. Perhaps his biggest feature, both metaphorically and literally, though, was his massive head. The thing was so huge it almost felt uncanny, more at home in an exaggerated art piece than reality. The fact he was even able to support that thing on that scrawny body was certainly saying something.

He reached up to adjust his pair of reading glasses, before turning down to look at the envelope wrapped between his fingers.

"To one Noah Sidis, we are pleased to inform you that you'll be attending the tenth Canadian roster of Hope's Peak Academy in Class 1-A, as the Ultimate-" For some reason, the ink was smudged over his talent. "The new semester shall begin within the coming month, so we hope to hear back from you soon. Sincerely, your new headmaster, Makoto Naegi."

When he had first gotten the letter, he hadn't paid it much mind; people try to send messages like this all the time out to teenagers, and more often than not it's just a scam to try and trick some poor kid into giving up some cash, before waking up the next day in a ditch somewhere. But, apparently, this was legit somehow. He never really expected to have a talent good enough to get into this school, but hey, he wasn't gonna look a gift-horse in the mouth; he got it, that's all that matters. Still though...Hope's Peak Academy...Never once did he ever think he'd wind up here.

Hope's Peak in its heyday was a Japanese, government-funded school, designed around spreading hope for the future, by bringing in some of the most talented students across all sorts of different fields of study, from detectives to baseball players to fanfic writers, and everything in between. All that was required was that you had to be in high school, and that you had to be the very best at what you did...Well, in your age group that is. Anyone who graduated would be guaranteed untold success, and for years, it was an exclusive club, limited to Japan and this one European country she had forgotten. A few years prior to the Tragedy, they had done a test course using Chinese students. It was a massive success. It then began to expand, bringing in classes from America, Germany, Italy, Russia, and of course, Canada.

But nowadays, much of what Hope's Peak was had been sullied from memory. Much of it remains the same; if you manage to graduate, success is still guaranteed, and it's still government-funded. The main issue is the school's reputation. Ever since the Tragedy, there's always been a fairly large set of people who have been against it; heck, some people get invited and turn it down simply because they don't wanna support anything that had any involvement with someone who ruined the lives of so many innocent people.

He didn't really care all too much about that though. Call him heartless, but he only really cares about the money, and if this school means that for once he'll actually have some to spare, then he was obviously gonna do it. Besides, it'll only be one-year; it'd all be over before he knew what happened.

His eyes scanned the paper one last time...Before letting out a sigh. "Alright...Give me your worst, Hope's Peak..."

With that, he walked up to the gates of the school and took his first step inside...

And in an instant, everything became a daze. His world began to spin and darken, and what was once reality became a cruel, corrupted version of itself. He couldn't scream through the tumultuous snarling all around him, as his knees caved in, his arms falling to his side and going limp. And then, before he could stop himself, he collapsed, smashing into the ground at full force, his body spasming and twitching as a sort of foam began to pour out from his mouth.

With that...Everything went black. The world consumed by darkness, as he fell into a deep sleep.

THE GAME MUST BEGIN.

SAMUEL HATCHET HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.

TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

Spotlights shined down from seemingly nowhere, the darkness surrounding a lone man now being illuminated ever so faintly with a shimmering light. His massive, tensed up muscles tightened ever so slightly, as he attempted to growl and scream through the tape holding his mouth shut, entirely concealed, just like his eyes, a cloth tightened over it like a belt. The tied up man was strapped up to some sort of wooden chair, as he desperately struggled to untangle himself from this nightmarish position.

Merely a few feet in front of him, however, was a strange, stuffed sight. It was a teddy bear, naturally white in color and very furry, with a cute button nose and eye on the right side of its face. Yet, on the left, its fur turned a sickly black color, unwelcoming and burnt with ash. Its eye was replaced by red-tinted glass, and a row of sharp, oddly realistic teeth shined brightly against the fur. It was as if comparing two sides of the same coin; one shiny and spotless, the other dirty and scarred.

The bear stared on for a moment, before revealing something from behind it's back; a match. At its feet was a puddle of oil, surrounding the tied-up man, whose chair conveniently had something strapped to its leg; fireworks. And as the spotlight grew brighter, it revealed the man to be at the very edge of a cliffside, mere inches away from falling off of it, as the bear smiled ever so smugly.

THE 1,000 FOOT DROP

Lighting the match across its fur, it lowered it down to the puddle, causing it to combust into flames. The man screamed out in muffled agony as the fire set his pants ablaze, as he rocked painfully in his seat. In the process, however, each rock got the fireworks closer and closer to the flames, before suddenly, the end of one of the fireworks sparked.

Before the man could stop it, he was launched into the air. He flew hundreds of feet into the sky, the speed only getting faster and faster, before he broke the atmosphere, now among the stars...For a mere few seconds, before he started coming crashing down back to the earth below. As he fell, he flew straight past the cliffside he had started on, as he traveled the length of the cliff all the way down.

At the very bottom of the cliff, however, was a lake of water, with a large red and white ring floating just above it. Just outside the ring, shark fins punctured the watery surface above, circling the ring as if expecting their next meal any moment now. And as the man got closer and closer to the bottom, it turns out they were right.

Smashing into the very center of the ring, the man and the chair he was attached to disappeared underneath the water. The sharks stopped circling, sinking beneath the waves, chasing after the man's rapidly descending body underwater. And then...Silence. No sound...No waves...Nothing. Complete and utter silence...

Until something rose to the surface...A wooden chair, a bite taken out of one of its legs. The man that had once been attached to it, however, was nowhere in sight.

Up above, at the top of the cliff, staring down at its handiwork, was the bear. And soon, it found itself rocking back and forth similar to the man before, its pearly white teeth shimmering as it cackled mockingly at the fate of the poor, unknown man.

He had just become the first victim of the bear's game...And he wouldn't be the last.

AND with that, here we have the reworked first chapter of the story! Gonna be honest, I prefer this way more to the old first chapter, but admittedly my bias as the writer might just be shining through.

With that said, I wanna confirm some things; this story takes place in the same continuity as the "Hope's Peak" saga of the Danganronpa franchise, specifically being 15-years since the "Side:Hope" episode of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy. Naegi is still the headmaster, and has a staff committee dedicated to helping him finalize decisions, who I'm fairly sure a couple of you can already guess the identities of.

Also, that major similarity between mine and Heroi's stories? Noah as the main protagonist! Yeah, unlike last time, I decided I may as well have a final main character here, and honestly, Noah just really fits the mold set by the main games too well. I do promise, I plan to take him, and the rest of the cast in fact, in a wildly different direction, though if you want to see what I mean by that, you'll just have to wait and see.

Next chapter, we'll be meeting Noah's classmates...AND they aren't all first-generation contestants this time, so feel free to guess away to who you think will be joining him for the game. With that said...Fuzzboy, out.