Summary of the Last Chapter:

Chapter iii: The chapter begins by taking the focus off of Makoto and Mukuro and putting its entire focus on Tsumugi and her class in the Reserve Course. Her class consists of the students found in Danganronpa V3 the game and shows them being happy students as a part of Hopes Peak Academy Reserve Course. Tsumugi finds out from Junko that Makoto changed her from being a despair-filled girl to a girl that wants nothing but hope for herself and others in her life. This causes a catalyst of emotions to come into Tsumugi's mind. So, in turn, she brainwashes Chihiro Fujisaki, and Maya Gekkogahara to allow her to use the Neo World Program. Tsumugi also hypnotizes her entire class and lures them into using the Neo World Program with her and starting the new killing game.

Chapter 1: The Return

Rating: E for Everyone

"So.. does anyone have any ideas of how we get up there?" asked a young boy with blackish blue hair to his peers.

"I could float us up there with maaaaagic!" responded a small girl with red hair, slightly excited at the chance to use her abilities.

"For some reason, I highly doubt that would work Himiko... maybe we can salvage an Exisal or two and use them to get all the way up there." coldly said the other party member of the three, who had long black hair, red eyes, and some very red and white themed clothing.

"That's actually a great idea Maki, I'm sure we can find maybe one that is still operational after Keebo made the hole," the boy commended as the group of three; Maki Harakawa, Ultimate Assassin; Himiko Yumeno, Ultimate Magician; and Shuichi Saihara, Ultimate Detective; began to walk around the destroyed environment they were in.

These three teenagers are very special to the world, more special than they realized. They are Ultimate Students that attended Hope's Peak Academy before The Tragedy occurred, killing a massive amount of the world's population. This included many of the other Ultimates that attended Hope's Peak and the rest of the world's population. These three students, along with the other 13 students that survived the incident with them were put into immediate care and were sent in a pod into outer space to protect the world's last living source of hope. This plan backfired however when one of the students turned out to be a follower of the creator of the Tragedy, Junko Enoshima, they infiltrated into the program and decided to put on a show filled with despair involving the other 15 students killing each other in the name of despair. This is what occurred to get them to where they are now, or at least what they thought happened. According to the mastermind of their "killing game", Tsumugi Shirogane, they had all been inputted into a virtual world and had their ultimate abilities created for the sake of a game show called "Danganronpa". When she was going on her spiel of how the world is fake, however, she suspiciously said that this game was all based on something, causing Shuichi to have ideas that everything they learned about Hope's Peak, including the fact they were ultimates, could've actually been true to some degree.

"Hey, guys! I think I found something!" yelled Himiko across the wasteland that was the 'Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles' school ground.

Once the other two had found Himiko, they found exactly what they were looking for. Before the school turned into a wasteland, a class trial had occurred where an exisal had been a key part of the trial and as such, was kept in the trial room after it was over.

"I guess once Kaito had been found out, he just left it here..." Shuichi said, still thinking back to one of many scarring trials that he was a part of.

"Y-yeah. I guess so..." sighed Maki, looking at the ground with a frustrated expression on her face and a had twirling her hair around.

"Hey! Now is not the time to be sad! We just found our ticket out of here, so let's go!" enthusiastically shouted Himiko.

"Yes, let's go ahead and try to get this thing running. If Kaito can get it going, then I'm sure we can." commented the assassin, hiding a smile behind her façade of coldness.

A few minutes of looking at the exisal turned into hours, ending in a sad group of teenagers sitting down in front of the huge hunk of junk.

"I can't believe that lever wouldn't work... If that didn't turn it on, what did it go to?"

"Well, whatever it goes to, it's not what we need. We're stuck with no options!" yelled Himiko, slightly frustrated at the fact they couldn't get out of the world they were in.

"Hmm..." Maki was still studying the piece of machinery, either trying to remember Kaito as much as possible or trying to actually find a way to work it, "I'm sure the key to the Exisal is in that keypad on the armrest, but whats the code I need to put in for it to turn on..." the assassin thought to herself before hatching an idea.

"Hey, Shuichi, do you still have that book on the Tragedy and Hopes Peak? I want to test a theory," asked Maki

"Y-yeah, what's your plan Maki? is there something in there that can help us?

Maki ignored Shuichi for the time being and was intently focused on one part of the book. This chapter was based on the killing game that involved Hope's Peak Academy's 78th class. In the beginning, the first death was a girl named Sayaka Maizono known as the Ultimate Pop Idol. She was stabbed to death in her classmate, Makoto Naegi's, bathroom.

In her case, the solution came in the form of a dying message. This dying message came at first in the form of the numbers 11037, but later came to be the name Leon when it was found that you needed to flip the numbers upside down.

Once Maki read these few sentences, her eyes widened as she lept up off of the ground.

"Nyeh? did Makiroll find a clue?" asked Himiko, eyes getting heavy from lack of sleep.

"Possibly... and by the way, thank you for keeping the nickname on me, I like it more than my birth one now that's grown into my persona," responded Maki from inside the Exisal.

"Okay so I have two options since the keypad is alphanumeric," thought Maki.

When she was ready, she typed "Leon" into the keypad, only to receive a big red lock icon in her face, signifying that it was the wrong code.

"That leaves only one option that I can see," said Maki as she looked back at the book for the other code.

"1-1-0-3-7" recited Maki as she typed the numbers into the keypad.

Once she typed this in, instead of a huge red lock icon appearing signifying that the piece of machinery was locked, a green unlocks icon appeared.

"I'm in," Maki said to her two "classmates".

"Nyeh? How did you know what to type in? Seems like you guessed, or maybe it was my magic that helped guide you in the right direction?" asked Himiko.

"Hmm. Perhaps it was in the book about the first two Danganronpa games that held the answer. At first, I didn't think anything could be in there. Thinking back to what Tsumugi said about this whole game thing being based on an actual occurrence, however, I could hypothesize that you either chose a key element from both games and tried each, or there was a password or code in either one or both that you tried." pondered Shuichi, curious of how Maki got the password right, "Either way, I'm glad we got it opened and functioning."

"Yes, I believe we all are, but I think we should probably go to sleep soon, and try to rest up since we don't know how long the journey that lies ahead of us is," Maki said as she yawned, signifying that she was tired from all of the commotion that happened earlier that day.

"Y-yeah... I could go for some tune to refill my MP bar. I'm going to make some MP potions before we leave though, so I won't run out while we're in there." responded Himiko with a yawn of her own.

"Well, I guess we could spend the night in here since our dormitories were destroyed in the battles," offered Shuichi, Hopefully, we can get some good sleep in our certain situation."

"Well, I'm going to go to sleep over here in the Exisal, goodnight and stay safe," Maki said abruptly before slamming the door to the robot shut.

"Hmm. I hope she stays safe, she seemed upset but I won't bother her until she's ready," Shuichi mumbled to himself, "A-ah, Himiko, where would you like to sleep?"

"I'll just stay over here near the bathroom, I tend to go pee a lot at night..." explained Himiko to Shuichi, who understood her plight.

"Okay, well I hope you two stay safe, and sleep well. We have a long day ahead of us," mumbled Shuichi as de drift into the realm of unconsciousness.

About 3 hours into his sleep Shuichi woke up, do to his small bladder being filled to the brim, despite his lack of hydration the past day or two. The detective made his way towards the restroom and was greeted by a groggy Himiko walking out.

"Be careful in there, I spawned a monster in there that will tear your flesh off..." Himiko said nonchalantly.

Shuichi knew all too well what the "monster" that Himiko spawned was.

"On second thought... I can hold it, thanks for the heads up Himiko" Shuichi said with a chuckle as he turned around and headed back to where he was sleeping.

However, on his way back he heard what sounded like stifling cries coming from the direction of the Exisal. He walked over to where he heard to sobs coming from and saw the closed exist, but Shuichi knew something was up with what was going on inside of the robot.

"Maki, is... everything okay in there?"

Only the sound of silence answered Shuichi.

"Himiko's asleep so she can't hear you, but I can and I'm worried about you."

Again, no sounds helped Shuichi in this situation.

"Please respond to me... I c-care about you, and I d-don't like seeing people I care about sad. I.. I only w-want to help..." said Shuichi, nearly breaking down himself after remembering his heart being shattered from when he couldn't help his love from being taken from him and hung from a noose.

Shuichi, when he first came into this world, met a girl named Kaede Akamatsu. She was gorgeous from head to toe. She had blonde hair and purple eyes, not to mention the fact that she was the Ultimate Pianist. Shuichi liked her from the get-go, but due to his shyness, he couldn't tell her about it. As the game ran on, however, Kaede was found to be guilty of a murder that she actually hadn't committed. Once she was found guilty, Shuichi had no other chance to confess to her before she was taken from him and killed.

"I-I'm sorry for b-bothering you Maki-i, I just am always-s paranoid ab-bout losing my friends and l-loved ones like I did with K-Kaede..." Shuichi managed to get out before turning back towards his sleeping location.

As he began to mope and walk back, he heard the door of the Exisal begin to unlatch and hear a crescendo of crying coming from the currently frail assassin.

Maki was in a highly unstable condition due to her emotions and due to this, stumbled out of the high up seat, falling towards the ground. Shuichi saw this and immediately ran as fast as he could to catch Maki.

"MAKI!" shouted Shuichi as he began to position himself under the falling assassin.

Maki neared towards the ground, and before she could hit the concrete, Shuichi caught her with both arms bridal style.

"A-are you ok Maki?!" Shuichi questioned with an emotional level has only experienced once before this moment.

"Y-yeah, I don't know why, but I guess I was too lost in thought to react to the fall. I'm sorry for being a bother to you, you need your sleep." Maki retorted, still having a hint of sadness in her dialogue.

"Listen, I know what you're going through to some extent, so its ok if you want to talk about it to me. He was here for both of us, and I know that you had more of a personal relationship with him, but maybe I can help you turn the situation from something that makes you sad, to something that motivates you. Please, talk to me about it Maki, I can't afford to lose another important person in my life okay?" Shuichi pleaded with the black haired girl as he put her down onto the pavement.

He knew she wouldn't want to bother him with it all, but if it meant staying by her side, then so be it. He had to keep her safe from everything, even if that included herself. That's what he promised Kaito, and he would do anything to keep that promise.

"No, no I don't want to bother you and take up any of your sleeping space Shuichi. That would be rude and insensitive of me to just disregard your necessities for myself."

Before Maki realized it, Shuichi was less than a foot in front of her with arms open, waiting for the girl to fill the void between them.

Teary-eyed, Maki slowly walked into the boy's arms and began sobbing on his shoulder.

"*sniff* Are you sure this is okay with you?" cautiously said Maki, looking up into Shuichi's warm eyes and smile.

"Of course! I want to be as friendly and great as Kaito, and you're the most relevant person that can tell me how I'm doing!"

"Y-you're doing great Shuichi... You're j-just like h-himmm..." mused Maki as she fell asleep in Shuichi's arms.

"And you're just like her Maki..." responded Shuichi as he picked her up bridal style and walked her back to where was sleeping. He set her down against the wall and proceeded to sit down next to her, setting her head on his lap to use as a pillow. Realizing how cold her skin was feeling when he was carrying her, he took off his blazer and covered Maki, hoping it would bring up her temperature. Shortly after making sure that she was ok and comfortable, Shuichi himself fell asleep, back against the wall, left hand in the girl's silky black hair.

"Ugghhh, is it actually time to get up? Or did I get up early again..."

"No Shuichi, it's time to get up! My MP bar is full for the day, and I'm ready to get to the outside!" Himiko said enthusiastically.

"Oh, Himiko, you're pretty energized... I'm still drowsy," Shuichi told Himiko as he began running his fingers through the hair of the still sleeping Maki, still tired from not getting a good night's rest and crying for half of the night.

"Hey, Maki... its time to wake up sleepy head," Shuichi whispered into the girl's ear, causing her to stir and yawn quite loudly.

"Hmm? is it morning already? I was having such a good dream though..." moan Maki as she slowly opened her eyes.

"WHAA!" shouted the assassin when she realized her position and how close she was to Shuichi.

Immediately, she sprung up and started nervously brushing off her legs to rid herself of any dirt that was on the ground.

"Okay, so now that we're all up, are we ready to go?" asked Shuichi.

"I think so, Kokichi left Kaito a manual for these things, so we can just use that to learn how to fly," explained Maki who looked down once she said Kaito's name.

"Well, then let's levitate up there using magic! We're going to leave this place for good!" exclaimed an excited Himiko, very out of the ordinary for her typical self.

The three students hoped into the Exisal and turned it on, making a huge uproar of engine noise comparable to the sound of an airplane. They drove it up and out of the trial area and into the courtyard filled with debris and rubble from Keebo and his battles with the Exisals. They flew up and into the hole in the sky. Once they got into the hole though, it was just a black abyss absent of any life or color. The crew, however, just kept flying away from where they were held captive. After a few minutes of flying, a message popped in Shuichi's sight, startling the boy.

"Exiting Play Area, Please Return or You Will be Removed From The Game."

"We're close, push it as hard as we can guys," Shuichi said, even though the other two received the message as well.

It only took a few more moments before everything began to dematerialize and for the vision of each student to go to pure white.

psssssss*

The sound of air pressure releasing caused Shuichi to wake up, only to find himself in a pod-like object with green glass showing the outside of it.

"Where am I?" was the question that shot through Shuichi's pain filled head. Immediately after, he had another thought, this one even more dreadful to answer than the last. "Where are Maki and Himiko?"

Shuichi put those thoughts aside for now and began looking for an escape to the pod, eyeing around the cabin of his capsule until he found a release lever that, once pulled, brought back the glass and allowed him to hop out of his container.

The detective found himself in a place where not even his talent would help him deduce his location. it appeared to be some sort of computer-based room, seeing as there were many computers and electronics at work. he turned around to look at where he came from and he saw not just his container, but 15 other ones, all but two open and empty.

He rushed over to the two unopened capsules, and saw both Maki and Himiko in their pods, seemingly sleeping. Shuichi looked on the base of the pod and found an emergency release lever and pulled on Maki's, causing the pod to release the glass surrounding the girl. Shuichi did the same for Himiko and once he released both of them, he turned back around to Maki's container.

"Maki... wake up, we're out. Your plan worked." Shuichi whispered, noticing that Himiko was regaining consciousness from her slumber.

"D-did we make it?" asked the magician, still looking at her surroundings.

"Yeah, we just have to wait for Maki to w-"

"Wait for me to do what?" asked Maki who was currently running g her fingers through her hair, in an effort to get the knots out of it.

"Nevermind haha..." Shuichi nervously said as he began to think of a plan for their situation.

"I think we should exit the room and see if we can pinpoint a location of ours." offered Maki, somewhat intrigued at their current situation.

So the three of them proceeded with Maki's plan and opened the only doorway in the room. It opened up to a somewhat unexpected location.

"A hallway? And its lined with lockers too..." Himiko muttered.

"Hmm, well it seems like we're in a school, but why would we be in a school..." wondered Shuichi and Maki, seemingly operating on the same wavelength.

It was beyond their understanding to be able to deduce where they were at the moment. But in a few seconds, the picture would become crystal clear.

"Maybe we can ask that kid, he probably goes here," said Himiko, pointing to an average sized boy with brown hair and a green jacket on, facing away from the group looking at a bulletin board filled with papers.

"Excuse Me! Hello!?" Shuichi yelled getting the attention of the boy down the hall.

As he turned around, his became more and more familiar to Shuichi, causing an intense pain in the detectives head.

"Oh, hey Shuichi! How was the trip? Where's the rest of your class?" replied the boy, stunning all three students. "What's up? Are you three ok?"

"No, not at all," Himiko said with an ounce of sadness and an ounce of surprise still from the boy knowing them.

The boy invited the three to lunch and they sat down at a table in the cafeteria. Shuichi proceeded to inform the boy that their memories were erased, and of the events that led up to where they are now.

"Well since you don't remember, my name is Makoto Naegi, and I am in Class 78 of Hopes Peak Academy. You three are a part of the famous Class 79 in the Reserve Course," explained Makoto just as the bell signifying lunch is over.

"Well, I have to go back to class, find Headmaster Kirigiri and explain to him what you explained to me. Welcome home guys, you have a lot to catch up on, and apparently so do we..."

A/N: Okay, so here's the plan for these chapters moving forward. Starting this chapter, I am going to be doing bi-weekly updates instead of the regular weekly updates, so that in case something like what happened before happens again I can be prepared and have enough time to update the story on schedule. Plus it will help me to not to get burnt out on writing and give me a chance to generate ideas for future chapters.

Thank you for understanding,

~ K. Kirigiri