This Arc will be based on Mirai Ronpa, an old story by my inspiration and good friend, mtnetsurfer.

It had been five months since the confrontation with Pretorious and things at Hope's Peak Academy had been settling quite well since then. Ben hadn't felt the need to put on the Mask of Loki lately and had simply been enjoying his time with his friends.

Currently, he was visiting Byakuya and Mayuri, who were working together on seeing if they could improve Hope's Peak's finances so that they could give the Reserve Course much more leeway in interacting with the Main Course.

"Why are you guys even doing this?" Ben asked as he checked out a few of the papers. "I mean, Headmaster Kirigiri already lifted the rule that the two courses couldn't interact. That's how me, Komaru, Sato, and Natsumi are able to hang with you guys."

Byakuya chuckled as he picked up his teacup. "It's called long-term planning, Benio. After all, one can never be too prepared."

"Indeed," Mayuri said with a nod. "Also, I'm glad you're here, Benio. I've just finished work on my disguise based on you. That way if you ever need to be in two places at once, I'll provide assistance."

"Thanks, Mayuri. That means a lot to me." Ben said before a silver-haired man in a white suit came in. This was Kyosuke Munakata the Ultimate Student Council President and one of the head prefects of Hope's Peak.

"You boys need to come to the main auditorium with the others. It seems we've picked up a pirate signal that's being broadcast all over Japan."

"Now what could this be about?" Byakuya asked as the three followed Kyosuke to the auditorium.

After arriving to find the rest of the 48 Hopes gathered, everyone checked on the jumbotron as Chihiro, Kazuichi, and Miu had worked together in tracing the signal and found out who was broadcasting this message to all of Japan.

"Juno... Jupiter... Minerva... Apollo... Mars... Ceres... Mercury... Diana... Bacchus... Vulcan... Pluto... Vesta... Venus...I have come to an epiphany. The only ones who can truly kill a God are the gods on high themselves. Behold the Dii Consentes, thirteen terrifying gods in mortal form. These deadly assassins shall deal with the 48 Hopes one by one and then finally...THE MASK HIMSELF!"

"Preotorious!" Kaede gasped in shock as she recognized the voice. "So he's back, huh?"

"That dumbass creep!" Hiyoko scowled. "Didn't he learn his lesson when Ben kicked his butt the last time?!"

"Apparently not enough..." Korekiyo tsked with a shake of his head.

"Does he really expect us to believe he managed to bring Gods to his side?" Gundam asked. "It sounds more like a ludicrous grab at instilling fear in the populace's hearts."

"Indeed. Pretorious is a man of science, after all. I doubt he'd consider recruiting Gods to his side unless he had proof of the matter." Kirumi noted. "Of course, considering the Mask of Loki that Ben wields..."

"The names Pretorious mentioned..." Peko said. "Why do they sound familiar?"

"The Dii Consentes is the name of the Roman Pantheon of gods," Sonia explained. "But this version seems to have left out Neptune, and invited Bacchus and Pluto."

Byakuya adjusted his glasses. "Juno is the goddess of marriage, Jupiter the god of the sky, Minerva the goddess of wisdom, Apollo the god of the sun, Mars the god of war, Ceres the goddess of fertility, Mercury the god of communication, Diana the goddess of the moon, Bacchus the god of wine, Vulcan the god of fire, Pluto the god of death, Vesta the goddess of family, and Venus the goddess of love."

"Atua is the only God for Angie!" Angie said with a pout. "But everyone can believe in their own Gods. Atua is accepting of all beliefs!"

"Wait, those don't scream Gods...those actually scream planets!" Ibuki pointed out as Mahiru rolled her eyes and patted her head.

"We'll get into how planets were named after gods later, Ibuki."

Kaito rubbed his chin. "It's weird, though. Pretorious chose a pretty strange choice of names for his new allies considering they're based on Roman pantheons and not Norse like how Loki is, considering who's Mask Ben is using."

"We need to focus, guys," Makoto said. "Pretorious will no doubt want these guys either attacking the school directly or assaulting us while we're in the city. And despite our talents, only a few of us have the skills to fight back."

"That's why you got me and the Mask," Ben said as he pulled out the Mask of Loki. "Yeah, I carry it around for emergencies, even in the five months things have been peaceful."

"Man, you are so crazy-prepared!" Yasuhiro laughed. "But we can't just rely on Ben and The Mask. We need to find a way for all of us to fight back!"

"I've got my organization, DICE, on standby." Kokichi grinned. "I can just give them a call and they'll come running to help."

"A small group of prankster vigilantes won't be enough, Ouma-Kun," Kirumi said with a shake of her head. "We need to combine our talents and find a way to use them to their full potential..."

Suddenly, a thunderstorm emitted as a familiar green tornado spun into existence before stopping to reveal Ben had already transformed into his Mask Form.

"I'VE GOT JUST THE IDEA, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

Ben-Mask then took out a zipper placed it in mid-air and then unzipped a tear in reality before reaching inside as he began digging around.

"Let's see here...Nope...Oops, that ain't it!" He then grinned as he found what he was looking for. "AH-HA!"

Pulling out a giant script, he then handed it to everyone so they could read it.

"Mirai Ronpa by mtnetsurfer? How's this gonna help?" Rantaro asked as Ben-Mask grinned and clapped his hands before the script turned into light that separated into 48 bubbles that all went into each of the 48 Hopes, causing all of them to feel a powerful force flow through them.

"Whoa! I feel like I just got superpowers!" Ibuki cheered as she struck a pose.

"Not bad..." Mukuro said as she looked at her hands. "I feel like my skills have been charged to the absolute peak."

"And now you guys have the powers from that story!" Ben-Mask said as he turned to the audience. "Hey, mtnetsurfer, hope you don't mind what I'm doing."

"I can feel a new hope swelling inside me!" Nagito said as he hugged himself. "This is fantastic!"

"Alright, I guess we're on the same level as Ben now," Hajime noted. "But still, we need to be on guard. If you see anyone new in the city, take the time to find out more about them before approaching them. Remember that essentially Pretorious is a terrorist, which means his new cohorts could be almost everyone."

Junko had decided to go get Lunch out of the city. She seemed happy as she waved to a few of the people who passed her, even stopping for the odd autograph. But a careful observer would notice her eyes darting back and forth all over the place. Her eyes soon shifted to a suspicious individual in a heavy coat lurking in an alley she passed by. When she looked behind her a few steps later, it was clear he was following her. She pulled out her phone and dialed a certain number.

"I think one of them is tailing me," She whispered into it. "Track him just in case."

As she walked into another alley she placed the phone in her bag and pulled out a pair of brass knuckles. She then raced ahead and quickly hid behind a bend in the alley. The man in the coat started following her, but become confused when she wasn't around the bend in the alley. He went a little further in and looked at his phone.

When he was distracted, he felt a heavy thud on the back of his neck. Junko, who had noticed how heavily armored her stalker seemed to be, quickly found a chink in the armor and aimed for it. Before the man could turn around to counterattack, Junko was already spider-walking up the narrow alley to the rooftops.

"You're much stronger than I give you credit for..." The man said. "I'm not exactly used to my targets fighting back."

The man quickly checked his phone before nodding as he ran up the nearby fire escape. When he got to the rooftop, he looked around but there was no sign of Junko. Suddenly there came the sound of a helicopter from behind him. Riding in it was Mukuro.

"Ben, he's all yours!"

A group of Ben-Masks dressed in army fatigues all jumped out of the helicopter.

"Geronimo!"

"Arapaho!"

"Navajo!"

The last Ben-Mask clone was dressed as Pocahontas and grinned as he elegantly dove out.

"Pocahontas!"

All the Ben-Masks landed on top of each other before fusing back into one Ben-Mask, who was now dressed in his signature zoot suit and wide-brimmed fedora.

"Well, you're a tall drink of water...and unoriginal, the Slasher Convention isn't until September!"

"I am Vulcan." The man introduced. "And I am here to carry out my duty from Pretorious."

Ben-Mask then zipped up beside Vulcan. "Hey, carrying out a duty. I can respect that. But what I also respect is making sure everyone has a good time and things aren't too dark. Needless to say, you're way too dark, pal!"

With that, Ben-Mask swapped Vulcan's hat for a clown wig, his mask for a smiley face paper plate, and even placed a 'Kick Me' sign on his back before stepping out of the way as he turned to Junko, who ran in and delivered a dive kick to Vulcan's exposed back.

Vulcan grunted as he found his original hat and mask back on and quickly pulled out his machete before turning to swing at Junko, who blocked with a combat knife that Mukuro tossed her from the chopper.

"What? Just because I'm the Ultimate Fashionista doesn't mean I can't kick a creep's ass!"

"And hey, I got his phone!" Ben-Mask called out as Vulcan's eyes widened when he saw that the green-faced madman indeed had his phone in hand. "Hey, what a rip-off! It only has one app! Let's delete that!"

With that, Ben-Mask deleted the app before Vulcan could stop him. The man groaned as some strange energy emitted from him before he collapsed to the ground in a heap, unmoving. Mukuro jumped down from the chopper and checked his pulse, nodding when she found a faint one.

"He's alive, but whatever Ben did with his phone took a lot out of him."

"Hello! What have we here?" Ben-Mask said, dressed as Sherlock Holmes as he took a magnifying glass and looked at the phone with it as Junko and Mukuro leaned in, seeing "DEAD END" plastered on it in blood-red text.

"Something tells me the phone is a lot more important than we're letting on," Mukuro noted.

Suddenly, Ben-Mask noticed something and quickly got in front of Junko and Mukuro while dressed as a knight, pulling up a shield as it blocked a dart, which bounced off it harmlessly. However, the dart served its true purpose in getting the trio's attention toward two figures currently cast in shadows and watching from a nearby rooftop.

"Well done," the first shadow said, revealing to be a boy. "But beating Vulcan, or should I say Takao Hiyama, is easier than it sounds."

"Then you two are with Dii Consentes too, huh?" Junko asked with a hand on her hip.

The boy smiled. "That's right. My name is Yukiteru Amano, but you can call me Jupiter."

"And my name is Yuno Gasai," the other shadow, a girl, said, "I am also known as Juno."

The two of them quickly disappeared off the rooftops, leaving the Despair Sisters and Ben-Mask alone.

"That was bold of them..." Mukuro noted.

"Hmmm, the plot thickens..." Ben-Mask said while dressed as a noir detective before turning into a German Skater. "And so does my accent! Come on, my lovely Liebhaberinnens, let's see where this trail leaves, Ja?"

With that, Ben-Mask picked up Junko and Mukuro on his shoulders and skated off. They would need to tell the rest of their friends about this new discovery. As for Vulcan/Takao Hiyama, he was left stirring on the rooftop before speaking up.

"Guess I'm out of the game...but the 48 Hopes are helping us exactly as we hoped..."

Next Time: The Dii Consentes!