While falling asleep had proved remarkably easy for Shuichi Saihara, one moment awake and the next out like a light, waking up proved more nebulous. Surely, he must have came back to consciousness at some point, but all he could remember afterwards was suddenly standing in his hotel room's bathroom, brushing his teeth. Once that was done, Shuichi stifled a yawn.
He felt terrible. Looking at a nearby wall clock, it seemed to be 11:21, but he didn't know if that was in the morning or at night. The room had blackout curtains, so the only way to know for sure would be to check the windows. Even if he did that, Shuichi thought, it wouldn't really tell him anything about how long he'd slept. He'd gone to bed without knowing the time beyond the sun being up. So, he either probably didn't get much sleep at all or he's gotten far too much. With how his body had responded, he couldn't discount either possibility.
Still, he was awake, so he decided to stay that way. Heading into the hotel's main room, he noticed that, at some point while he'd been out, several fresh sets of clothes had been set out for him on a table. Next to them was a note, written in an angular script. 'Meeting in my room at 4. There will be pizza. -MM' For a second, he had no clue who the note was by, until his mind latched onto the initials. MM, Moriko Masa, the prosecutor from before.
At first, Shuichi was just going to get out of his old clothes and into his new ones, before realizing he probably needed a shower. Once properly naked, Shuichi stood under the near-boiling hot water, hoping it would wake him up. Eventually, he let himself start thinking again, going from savoring the almost painful sensation of the water cascading over his head to resolutely using the hotel-provided necessities to make himself clean. 'Can I really trust this is real?' he found himself wondering. 'After all, I've been tricked before.'
But that line of reasoning didn't hold up to strict scrutiny, it was only supported by his anxiety and his fears. The entire time he'd been in the Ultimate Academy, there had always been something off about it: something besides the homicidal bears, the murders, the trials, that he couldn't put a name to. Now that he had escaped, he realized exactly what it was. High-budget set or no, there had always been an artificiality to it all, a sense of unrealness that pervaded every moment of Shuichi's life. As he turned off the water, he looked at the chips in the tiles in the shower, the spots where no amount of cleaning could ever get the tub back to looking new, a small stain on the towel he'd grabbed that looked like it had been used with bleach at some point. This was the real world.
That didn't make it any more inviting.
Even in the solitude of his hotel room, Shuichi chose to make a little towel skirt to cover himself up as he walked out. The question of whether they'd hidden cameras in his room to invade his privacy once more wasn't one he'd discounted, but that wasn't why he was feeling shy. Shuichi Saihara had been written from the beginning to be someone shy with himself, even when there was no one else around.
After taking a minute or so to fold the clothes he'd been wearing before, which he now realized could more properly be referred to as a 'costume', Shuichi surveyed what they'd put out for him. Generic white underwear, blue jeans, and a t-shirt that appeared to be referencing some property Shuichi wasn't familiar with. It would have to do.
That accomplished, Shuichi looked at the clock, and realized he had four hours to use up somehow until the meeting began. He did a quick scan of the room, really looking around for the first time. There was the bed, a minifridge, a kitchenette, and a small desk. Deciding to focus on the last one, Shuichi walked over to it, sad to see there weren't any books or files or anything to read.
What it did have was a laptop, plugged in and fully charged. Curious, Shuichi booted it up, happy to see that, unlike the last laptop he'd tried to use, this one had an operating system. It loaded everything fairly quickly, and his first assessment was that it looked fairly spartan. There wasn't as much software installed as one saw on most computers, including new ones, and the only one that really caught his eye was a web browser.
The laptop was already connected to the motel's wifi, and when faced with a search engine text box, Shuichi's hands moved on the keyboard almost without him having to think. 'what is danganronpa'. Results came in quickly, millions of them. On one side of the screen, images loaded up from the newest season, showing all the living and dead members of his class. Shuichi did his best not to look at them, even as the bile rose in his throat. Looking at his options, he finally decided to click on an encyclopedia website, and try to get a better history of the franchise as a whole.
The wiki dive lasted for hours. Shuichi read voraciously, about the strange history of this fictional series that he was a part of. It seemed that Moriko hadn't been entirely accurate. While there had been quite a few anime-based installments in the franchise, from "Danganronpa 3: End of Hope's Peak" to "Anniversary Danganronpa 10: Birth of Despair" (Which, according to the Critical Response section on its page, was lambasted by nearly everyone for an overabundance of 'fanservice' in all senses of the word.) But in the beginning, the series had started as a relatively unknown visual novel.
Looking through the franchise's history, Shuichi was surprised to see how many of them, well, never happened. It wasn't until "Real Danganronpa 22: Despair in High Definition" that they started using the technology that Shuichi had experienced firsthand: the ability to write characters, then override human beings' memories and skills with those of a fictional creation. It had apparently been a very controversial move at the time, and the production company had almost been dragged to court over it.
That talk stopped when it became one of the most popular series on television. It hadn't been the first series to use 'immersive reality television', not by a longshot. Looking through that page made it clear that Shuichi would need to devote a lot more time to that subject to really understand all its ins and outs. But what he could skim through to quickly understand was that the science behind it had first been used on things like reboots of old sitcoms or bringing cartoon series into real life. Danganronpa had been the first franchise to push the limits as far as they could, both in terms of what kind of fictional characters could be brought into reality, and in what they could do to them without consequences.
Shuichi hadn't even gotten close to reaching the pages for his own season when there was an agitated knocking on his door. Something about it sounded familiar, and as he got up to answer it, Shuichi caught a glimpse of the time in the corner of the computer screen. '4:22'. He was late. It was Maki behind the door, giving him a glare that would have made him fear for his life back before he'd really gotten to know her. "Do you want to die?"
Her catchphrase made Shuichi start to laugh, which only made Maki's glare even more serious. Shuichi covered it up as best he could, telling her, "Don't worry, I'm right behind you." Something else was making him laugh though, as he followed her outside his hotel door and onto the second floor walkway, the afternoon sun in his eyes. It seemed that whoever had gotten them all clothes had gotten them all the same clothes. As in, Maki was wearing the exact same outfit as Shuichi, only in sizes that fit her better. Judging by the hints of embarrassment he saw on her face, the Ultimate Detective thought she'd realized the same thing herself.
Together, they entered Moriko's room, where Himiko had been waiting for them. "Shuichi, did my Sleep spell affect you too?" she asked, something about her dreamlike tone letting Shuichi know she didn't really want a response. To his surprise, she was in the same clothes she's been wearing as long as he'd known her. Did she not like the clothes laid out for her? Or had she just not felt like changing?
There were five folding chairs set up in the room for them, and several boxes of pizza on the nearby table. Nearly an entire box had already been finished off, and as it didn't look like Himiko had a plate, Shuichi had a good idea who the culprit was. Looking around the room, and seeing no adults there, he asked, "Where is Ms. Masa?" After all, this was her room, and her meeting.
In the middle of a yawn, Himiko decided to answer his question. "You're not the only one who was late. Someone else is supposed to come, and we heard them talking to her over the phone. She told us to get you ready while she rounded up the fifth person." To which, Shuichi realized, Himiko had probably just continued to sit down while Maki had taken up the task of grabbing him. The silence that was forming felt strangely awkward, but luckily Himiko was ready to break it once again. "What were you doing that kept you so long, Shuichi?"
Putting his hand to the back of his head, Shuichi felt embarrassed about his reason for being late. It wasn't a good excuse, after all. "After I woke up, I saw there was a laptop in my room. I decided to see what else I could learn about 'Danganronpa', and I must have lost time looking at articles." Shuichi tried not to notice that Himiko's face paled a shade at his words. As much as it might be hard for them to talk about any of it, hiding from the truth wasn't going to help them.
Maki nodded her head in Shuichi's direction, and told him, "I did something similar, actually. Though for me, it was less reading and more-"
It would be a while before Shuichi learned what she'd been about to say, because in that moment Himiko interrupted her, shouting, "I don't want to hear about it! We're out of that stupid place with it's stupid show, and I don't wanna know anything about it!" Shuichi was willing to let the subject drop, but he feared Maki wouldn't react to the outburst well. Which was why, when she flinched at Himiko's rebuke and said nothing back, he was surprised.
There wasn't really time to focus on that, though. The door to the room suddenly opened, and Moriko walked in, wearing what looked to be the same business clothes as the day before, with someone else trailing at her heel. This new woman, who looked to be in her late twenties at the absolute latest, had a youthful charm to her that made her almost look more like a teenager than an adult, despite the professional attire she had on. Smiling, she took the seat next to Moriko, looking at the teens while Moriko explained, "This is Zatsu Kokaki, and she is here because she's a youth therapist. My boss's are apparently of the opinion that someone like her should be present when I have these meetings with you."
Hearing that explanation, Shuichi wondered if Moriko had built up some kind of reputation at her office that led them to requiring something like that, or if it was just a normal precaution in cases with teenage victims. Ms. Kokaki, still smiling at them, waved a hand and said, "Hello, it's a pleasure to meet all of you. In addition to coming to meetings like this one, I wanted you all to know that I'm available to talk whenever you need it. Just let MoriMori know, and I'll be here in a jiffy!" The second the therapist used the nickname 'MoriMori', the prosecutor jabbed an elbow into her colleague's side, though from the complete lack of reaction from her as she continued speaking, Shuichi wasn't sure if she hadn't felt the pain or if she was used to things like that from the prosecutor.
"Considering that you were half an hour late and I had to guide you here over the phone, I don't know if 'jiffy' is the best word to promise these kids," Moriko said, scowling, before focusing on the people this meeting was about once more. "Well, we're all here now, so let's get started. First things first, internet. If you didn't notice, we've provided you each with a laptop that has a secure connection to a wifi we control. Do what you want with them, but we have some restrictions. No social media, and no making personal accounts on any websites. We're tracking your online travels, and we can take away the gift if you don't listen to us." From the tone in Moriko's voice, Shuichi thought she didn't want it to come to that, but was absolutely willing to enforce that rule if they made her.
Still, he wasn't quite sure what those restrictions were for, at least until Ms. Kokaki spoke up. "Please don't worry, this isn't an issue of trust. Due to your experiences, there are many people who would like to find you, and we're trying to make sure that doesn't happen. In addition, I'm not entirely sure if looking at social media, and seeing the opinions of you some fans have developed after how you ended the show, would be beneficial to your mental health." Wincing, Shuichi realized she had a point with that. He was a morbidly curious person, despite how badly his anxiety could exacerbate mental stresses, so if given the chance he very well might have wanted to look into message boards about the show. Looking at his friends, Shuichi thought that Maki looked indignant about the restriction, while Himiko didn't seem to understand exactly what these restrictions were.
"Second thing, what happens next. Team Danganronpa and their owners are digging in their heels, so it's pretty clear this is going to be a fight. That said, the courts have granted us at least temporary custody of you kids, to do with as we see fit." That sounded like a relief to Shuichi. He didn't want to think about what the people behind the show might do to them if given the chance. "We're still working on options for what's best for you, but we should have news on that front soon. In the meantime, we did want to offer you kids a choice."
A strange tension immediately filled the bodies of the only survivors of the Ultimate Academy killing game. In their experience, being offered choices hadn't really worked out great for them thus far. Clearly seeing that rigidity in their body languages, Ms. Kokaki spoke up, her manner somehow becoming even more considerate than it was previously. "Before we tell you what it is, I want to let you know this isn't something you have to decide right now. You can think it over as long as you want, there's no rush on our end." That helped a little, but now Shuichi was definitely curious to know what this was about. He wouldn't have to wait long. "As you were made aware, all your memories and personality traits were overwritten onto real people who had volunteered. Let's call them your 'body donors'. I'm not sure if you know this, but the names you go by were created by the writers of the show. Your body donors went by completely different names than you do. If you want to, we can tell their names, and even a little bit about who they were. But once again, it's okay if you'd prefer to hear as little about them as possible."
'The name? The name of the person whose body I'm in?' Shuichi thought. Then he remembered. The person in the audition tapes he'd been shown. The young man, who despite having Shuichi's face was otherwise a complete stranger, happily talked about how excited he was to be in a season of Danganronpa, and how he not only wanted to be the Ultimate Detective, he wanted to be the first one ever to be the Blackened. That stranger who'd given Shuichi his body had a name, an entire life, that Shuichi knew nothing about.
Did he want to know more about him? Or was it better for him to remain a mystery? Lost in thoughts about someone Shuichi had only ever seen a recording of, the meeting ended soon after that. Unable to go near the laptop again once he was back in his motel room, Shuichi ended up going to bed early, tossing and turning as he did everything he could not to picture the face of the person who had put him through all of this, all by volunteering for a deadly show. That boy had effectively died easily, in a painless second, and left Shuichi Saihara to face terrors he'd never recover from. Hatred for that nameless teenage boy began to foster itself in Shuichi's heart.