Disclaimer: I do not own Dangan Ronpa, it's as simple as that.

Well my dear readers, here's the second to last chapter of this story.

Yeah, I said second to last. . .hehe. . .

First of all, I'm sorry I'm late posting this. I was busy this week and this chapter itself took awhile to finish. Also, I realized that the final chapter was VERY long so I decided to separate them into two parts so that you guys aren't reading so much in one go. Sadly, that also means we're not done with this story yet. . .

Okay then!

I had mentioned that this story is part of a series containing 3 acts. Now, I'll be starting on Act 2 which will be called The Desire of Hope in the Talentless Form of Luck (long title I know) once I finish posting the second half. As I've stated before in the last chapter, the story will be taking place during the events of Super Dangan Ronpa 2 in Komaeda's perspective with other added "stuff"(gonna be vague here). Some of the dialogue for the characters will probably be from the English or fansub translation especially from a *certain* chapter in the game but of course I won't be doing a copy-and-paste sort of thing with it. Then it wouldn't really be a fanfic if I did that.

For now, I'm not sure how many chapters that fic will be but it will be longer than Act 1. I'm thinking about 10 chapters or so, including Bonus chapters. Speaking of some bonus chapters; these can stem from the Free-time Events or some things I decide to add into the story. Also on another note, regarding the characters of Komaeda and Hinata, I want to know how you guy feel about Komahina.

This series will focus on some things between the relationship of the two because I believe Komaeda's feelings for Hinata is a very important aspect for his character. I'm not going to divert from the canon of the game however I would like to know whether you mind Komahina love or friendship more. I don't really mind either way but it will be something I wish to establish in later chapters and I would like your guys' opinions about it.

If you do not like Komahina, that's perfectly fine but from here on out, there will be a few chapters focusing on the two. As I said before in the prologue however, Act 1 can act as a separate story from the series. So you don't have to read Act 2 if you wish to do so.

The second half of this chapter will be posted sometime later this week. Sorry guys, please be patient with me.

Well then, I don't want to keep you guys waiting, so let's get this show on the road. Shall we? I hope you enjoy~

Chapter 5- Part 1: The Letter

I gave up.

It was wearing me out. I had tried many times to kill myself after that day.

But every time, it was failure after failure after failure. It was no use so I just gave up. What was the point? Why waste the energy when I knew I would live in the end?

It never surprised anymore when I got into dangerous accidents. I knew something good would come out of it anyway so I just waited for it. Whenever I dodged a truck or freed myself out of a subway collapse or anything really, the constant thought was always in my mind.

'Alright, what was it going to be this time? More money? More rewards? More sacrifices?'

I soon began to feel numb over any of the deaths I might of caused. The body count just kept rising and feeling constant guilt for the lives of these strangers wasn't going to help anyone. Restless days and nights remembering their painful, agonizing screams became white noise.

There was no point bothering myself about these tragedies anymore. The end result remained the same.

It became boring.

Being alive was what mattered to my good luck. For what reason, I didn't know.

It was a tough battle I fought, but I was defeated.

In the beginning I tried to embrace my good luck. I wanted to see the positive side of it. I wanted to be lucky in the things I wanted. So I decided to experiment on my good luck.

First, I tried it out at school in order to become closer to my classmates. I tried to get into their conversations; talking about things that they liked. I went to students that needed help on their homework and I tried to offer them my notes. During lunch, I would ask multiple groups if I could sit with them. Of course, all of them didn't want anything to do with the "School's Shinigami" and coldly pushed me away.

I took the liberty of telling them I wasn't a "shinigami." I tried to explain to them that the things that happened around me were just out of sheer luck and I didn't mean them any harm; hoping they wouldn't misunderstand anymore. I wanted them to have faith in me; to find hope in me. I thought they'd understand but what I said seemed to alienate me even more.

"Stay away from us Creep!"

"You really are a weirdo."

"We're sick of seeing your face all the time"

"Just go and die you freak!"

So I guess that didn't work out so well but it was expected since no one with the right mind would want to be near worthless trash such as myself. I took the verbal abuse with ease. A lot of the insults they said didn't hurt me as much as they did before because even though I couldn't agree more with them, for some reason I found them. . .inferior.

Afterwards, I tried out other experiments where I wanted to see if I could use my luck at will but nothing. In the end, I concluded that I couldn't control my good luck. It controlled me. This had triggered the string of multiple suicide attempts I did, which obviously didn't work.

By the time I finished junior high, I was completely worn out because of my good and bad luck. But I didn't care anymore. For a long period of time, I didn't care about anything really. I had stopped getting angry, sad, happy. . .I was just so tired, both mentally and physically. There was nothing I wanted to do with my life; nothing I wanted that this world could have offered me that wasn't already taken from me. My family, the possibility of having friends, my chances of dying by my own accord, my purpose in life. . .all of them taken away.

So I would just live day by day without any purpose or motivation. In general, I was waiting to die. It had to happen someday so I just waited until that time would come. In the meantime, I continued life as an empty shell; sort of a mindless puppet being held up by strings.

But recently, a lot of strange things were happening to me. And that's saying something!

The first thing was that I had shortness of breath; as if I had finished running a marathon. That was kind of worrying. My appetite started to decrease. Then I suddenly got these rashes that I couldn't stop scratching. At night, I would sweat a lot which got really disgusting and a lot of times, I would get these terrible fevers. I thought maybe because my home was so big with very little maintenance, that I was getting sick because of my unclean environment. I started a heavy routine of keeping a good personal hygiene which somehow escalated to the point of scrubbing my bathroom from top to bottom everyday.

My memory was becoming unreliable as well but I had only assumed it was because my lack of sleep that, I too, was also having. There were times where I would say something when I meant something else.

Oh, and that's another thing I need to mention!

Whenever I got involved in conversations with people, they would start giving me these angered or confused looks. Sometimes they would get offended, telling me I was being rude or hurtful or something. I didn't get what they meant. I had difficulty trying to understand what I said that made them so mad. Although, most of the time I shrugged it off. I already didn't bother with what people thought of me by this point. I had already agreed with them that I was lowly scum so I lost care with wanting to make them change their opinions of me.

Lastly, there was this constant urge I was craving.

The problem was that I couldn't figure out what this urge even was. I was obsessed with it and the thought of it refused to go away. It kept nagging me, eating at me day and night that I was so irritated at how I couldn't put a name to whatever it was. I thought my luck cycle was always on my mind. This obsession was on a whole other level!

So, what did I do about these weird conditions I was having? Nothing.

Oh no, not because of the fact that I didn't care about my life anymore; that might have been part of the reason, but because I myself didn't realize or even know that those things were actually happening to me. I was so oblivious it wasn't even funny.

On the contrary, even if I did know, I was certain that something good was bound to happen to me after all this. The endless nights of me coughing my guts out and the painful fevers were all part of something fortunate waiting to occur. It had to be something big because I was having these conditions for weeks now. So if it just ended up with me getting another 300 million yen, I was going to be REALLY disappointed.

For the following weeks, I didn't go see a doctor. However, you can only be unaware of it for so long that sooner or later you were bound to finally notice. On the other hand, I think I would have been either too tired or too lazy to go. I would just deal with it.

It was not until my teacher and the school doctor finally forced me to get checked up at the hospital because of my constant coughing and itching disrupting class-time. So there I was, sitting alone in the checkup room. I was forced to answer their questions that I really couldn't answer. I had been put under multiple tests, x-rays, and brain scans and now I was waiting for the doctor to come back with the results.

I already figured it out long before all the tests that it had to be something bad. My conclusion was confirmed when the doctor had finally came in and tried to talk to me in a gentle and comforting tone.

'This doctor must have perfected the art of bad news giver,' I thought to myself.

"Mister Komaeda," the doctor said in a soft voice. "I have the results of your diagnosis and. . .I'm terribly sorry to inform you but it doesn't look good. The results of your CT, MRI, and PET scans show. . ."

Malignant Lymphoma in its third stage and concurrent Frontotemporal Dementia. . . That's what he said. Ah, this really is probably one of the worst of the bad lucks. Not only do I have cancer, but it seems that my brain is slowly rotting away into nothingness. . .killing me?

"What's the life expectancy?" I asked in the middle of his explanations. I noticed my voice sounded very dull; bored. Very void of any feeling even after hearing such news.

"W-wha. . .Oh, well," He said clearing his voice. "For Frontotemporal Dementia, the life expectancy could be from between two to ten years. Some individuals with dementia could also live up to more than that."

He then sighed and shook his head.

"Unfortunately," he said in such a grave manner. "Because of also having Lymphoma, this has affected your life expectancy very drastically. I'm not going to lie but this is very severe. From the results, I would give you about six to twelve months. . .I'm very sorry."

So at most, I'll be alive until the following year.

"Mister Komaeda? If it'll help, there are treatments that could prolong the life expectancy. If you would like, I could organize a plan form you. We can also prescribe you when some medication, set you up in a therapy treatment, we could also-"

"No thank you."

I got up from my seat and headed towards the door.

"What?" the doctor said surprised. "W-well let me schedule for you another appointment so we could check on your progress. Please let us help-"

"Don't bother," I said closing the door behind me.

On the walk home, I tried to figure out what kind of emotion I was supposed to feel in this situation. There was no sadness or emotional turmoil. My body was numb, but not in a way that was bad. . .neutral? Maybe. I felt nothing. No, not nothing. . .content? Relief? Probably. It felt satisfying knowing that I wasn't immortal anymore.

As satisfied as I was, at the same time, I really didn't like it.

"I hate this. I hate this. I HATE THIS! For the last few years I have been trying numerous times to kill myself but my luck wouldn't let me. Now I find out I'm going to die in less than a year? To think my luck deemed me immortal when it came to suicide when in the end I was just going to die anyway from something out of my control. A joke. My whole life was a joke! I was constantly kept me alive just to be tormented to finally knowing I was going to die with the addition of two terrible diseases slapped on for last minute kicks. This really bites! Goddammit! Just kill me already!"

"And blah blah blah blah blah~" Ah, that's what I'd probably say if I actually STILL troubled myself about stuff like that. I had already become accustomed to this sort of thing that I really shouldn't complain anymore. If I did, I would be even more pathetic and pitiful than I already was! So really, I was hoping I would survive this.

I'm serious! I had this gut feeling I was going to make it through this. I don't know why but seeing as I expected to survive most things it would be surprising that I would die before the year was up. So to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to believe my life expectancy was going to be that short. Strange isn't it? I've been so devoid of caring about my life; waiting for it to be over, only to not want to die when death is finally at my doorstep. I have to admit that is pretty confusing for me too.

The truth was that yes, part of me didn't like this new misfortune I was having. Who would want to have their brain deteriorating or, in general, want cancer? But my only problem for it was my good luck. I wanted to know if my good luck would still be in play after all this. Was my bad luck finally over?

The thing that I didn't like was that if I was going to die soon, I wanted to know if something amazing was going to happen before that. That's what was getting on my nerves; not knowing if that was the end of my good luck. It's annoying. I really wanted to live long enough to see if or when that good outcome will show.

In all, I was feeling relief and mostly anxious. 'What will it be? It has to be something I have never before experienced; something absolutely beautiful!'

This was the first time in a while that I found something I could look forward to in this life. With misfortune as big as anything I ever had in my life, something out of this world was going to happen! That sudden unnamed urge was coming back.

After a few hours just hanging out around the city, I went home. As I was about to push the keys into the door's lock, I noticed something sticking out of my mail slot.

"Oh, mail," I commented as I reached down to pull it out of the slot. I went inside and closed the door behind me.

'Hmm, I wonder who it's from.' It was a big envelope with a symbol or insignia on it. 'Looks official,' I thought. 'From a company maybe? I think I've seen this emblem somewhere before.'

Carefully, with much anticipation, I opened up the envelope and read it's contents.

It was an acceptance letter.

Mr. Nagito Komaeda,

Congratulations.

We at Hope's Peak Academy have selected by lottery a single candidate from a pool of average students. Your name was chosen, and so we invite you to join us this year as the 77th Class's Super Duper High School Luckster.

You will find an informational packet detailing everything you need to know about the enrollment process included with this notice.

We hope to be able to work with you very soon.

Sincerely ,

Headmaster Jin Kirigiri

"...Hope's Peak...Academy?"

I knew I saw that symbol somewhere before but this was...unexpected. Really unexpected actually. In fact, it was as if my news about my diseases was just a footnote compared to this. I was so confused and shocked at what I was reading.

This letter was from the headmaster of the most renowned and prestigious Hope's Peak Academy. A government-funded high school that holds the most elite students in society. The top students from every imaginable field. The most talented. The best of the best. It's those types of student that go there.

Average, everyday people would state that "if you come here and manage to graduate, you'll be set for life." Because of this, students who attend Hope's Peak are worshiped, but also envied for such high praise.

From what I remember, there is no entrance exam required and students are only admitted if they are currently a high school student and that they are the very best at their chosen field. This is because students are scouted by faculty members of the school, whom were all most likely previous Hope's Peak alumni.

The school's main goal is to find and nurture talent in order to inspire hope. To shape the future.

A school that deserved to be called the School of Hope.

Yet. . .why is this letter telling me that such a school would want me to attend as a student?

"This can't be right."

I kept reading the letter over and over again until I was certain that I was reading this correctly. A lottery? I was chosen? Super Duper High School Luckster?

I didn't know how to react to this. I had to admit, the title of being the ultimate luckster sure did fit me(I'm actually rather happy that this school acknowledged the fact that was just lucky), incredibly so, but should my luck really be considered a talent? If so, it's a pretty pathetic talent. Perfect for pathetic little me.

This was certainly a stroke of amazing good luck and a great coincidence that I was chosen as this year's luckster and I should be absolutely thrilled.

But for some reason, it felt off.

To be in a school full of such talented and elite group of students, someone as lowly and worthless as me doesn't deserve to learn among the best of the best; much less be in their mere presence.

Besides, if I were to go, who knows what will happen to that beloved school and their beloved students. It scared me. I couldn't possibly let Hope's Peak make the mistake in accepting someone like me. The outcome would end in disaster for them.

I had to decline their offer. I just had to.

I rushed over to the phone and dialed the school immediately.

. . .Briiing. . .Briiing. . .Brii- "Hello," a woman's voice answered. "Hope's Peak Academy Administration Office. How my I help-"

"Yes!" I said, interrupting her. "This is Hope's Peak Academy right? My name is Komaeda Nagito. I had just gotten this acceptance letter from the school?"

On the other line, I head the sound of typing on a keyboard.

"Ah, Mr. Komaeda!" she said enthusiastically. "I'm glad you received our letter. You will attending as this year's Super Duper High School Luckster right? Let me add your name to the school's student list then."

"No!" I practically shouted into the phone. "No. Thank you for the offer but I actually wish to decline my acceptance please."

"What?" The woman said sounding shock. "Oh no no no. That's not what we want to hear. Mr. Komaeda, is there any reason why you wish to decline?"

There were plenty of reasons why. But mostly because of what they wanted from me. My luck.

I feared for them. I feared for what it will do. It would be my fault.

"I don't have to say anything," I said. "Please, I just don't want to attend this school. That's all."

"Mr. Komaeda," the woman said sternly. "As much as I wish to obliged to your choice, I unfortunately cannot do anything about this."

"And why is that?" I said frustratingly.

"Please listen to me Mr. Komaeda. Each year we must have a class luckster. We need to research luck. We need to research you."

Research? What does she mean?

"I don't understand."

There was a slight pause in her reply. She sighed as if I was bothering her.

"Even if you wish to decline our offer, that is up to the chairman and the professors of the school to decide. In any case Mr. Komaeda, for now, please hold onto your decision and read the informational packet we gave you. We apologize for the inconvenience however expect a reply from us tomorrow. We'll have someone come over to explain the information to you in more detail."

"But I. . .sigh. . .alright," I said, defeated. I really didn't what to have an argument over the phone. Today was stressing enough as it is.

"Thank you Mr. Komaeda. Have a nice day."

With that, she hung up. I was disappointed. Angry and scared at the same time. Was being chosen really that important? Why do I not have the choice in the matter whether I want to go or not? I was getting a migraine. I needed to calm down.

Slowly, I hung up the phone and walked to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

As I sat down, I looked over at the informational packet, picked it up, and began to read it.

For some reason, that unnamed urge grew.

To be continued. . .

Gosh, Part 1 done! Further apologizes for possibly portraying Komaeda's illnesses incorrectly. Anyways. . .

Thank you for reading and please review (especially for your opinions concerning Komahina) ~