Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 11: Continuity Error (Part 9), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Silence.

She couldn't keep denying everything now, could she? Everything involving her had thrown itself into the limelight, and now all her eyes were on her.

Those eyes she had seen before. The eyes of people willing to accuse her of things before. "You can stop staring so intently." Just as she had stared at others.

More silence.

Seems nobody wanted to disturb her at the moment. Sakura had killed Alan, they had all just proven it. And yet, people were afraid to talk to her.

The only one who spoke up was Gigi, who didn't seem to fear anyone. "Why?" A simple word, and yet it was the first word that needed to be spoken. "Why go ahead and kill him?" Sure, the referee had just been told a good summary of the reason. Mercy killed him, and then used the trial to figure out the poisoner. But that could have been handled completely differently.

"Why…?" Sakura mumbled out, gripping onto her own podium. "I had no other choice but to do it…"

The referee found that hard to believe. "I just told you that-"

"Stop talking." The security guard ordered her. "You may think what I did was wrong, but I can assure you I had no other options…"

Benoit mustered up the courage to speak up. "I… I believe you…"

"It wasn't even a mercy kill as you guys had assumed." Sakura moved her hands behind her back. "But it was a benefit of it."

"Still…" Ian leaned forward. "Killing people is wrong."

"I will admit what I did was wrong if you can answer me one thing…"

…

"Who poisoned Alan?"

The room fell to silence again.
"Well…" Edison adjusted his goggles, a frown forming on his face. "I… Hypothetically speaking… if we didn't know the answer to that…"

Sakura crossed her arms. "Then you'd be dead had I not done anything."

"Tsk." Dae-Hyun turned to face away from everyone else. "If we hadn't wasted that much time figuring out the bullshit you caused in my room, we wouldn't be here."

"No…" Hae-Won shook her head. "Even without that bullshit, I don't think we would have been able to conclude who killed Alan." She closed her eyes. "After all, we can't even prove with certainty who took poison out of the room."

"Still…" Gemini couldn't keep a happy expression like before. His face seemed to be a bit pained. "But why go through this entire trial…?"

"I had no choice. If I wanted to figure out who poisoned Alan, we would have to go through the trial." She seemed dead set on that.

However, Atlas had already found a problem with that. "Then why not just confess at the start of the trial, huh? Would have saved us a lot of trouble."

Closing her eyes, the security guard shook her head. "I couldn't do that either…" Opening them, she slowly shifted her gaze over towards someone in particular. "Isn't that right, Monokawa?"

He was still pretending to sleep- "Wow, I'm just being called out left and right today. Yes! I had a talk with Sakura not long after her kill. Back when she made it to the first floor."

"Why the hell would you do that?" Atlas narrowed his eyes.

The otter shrugged. "Because it's easy to tell what people are thinking, you know. I offered her a deal to let this trial go on if she played along and didn't reveal the fact that she was the killer. If she ever admitted to it, the trial would be over." One look at the timer would show that to be true. It had stopped with only four and a half minutes left.

Sakura let out a small sigh. "I really tried… I tried to get us on the track of the poison."

Now Gemini was starting to feel bad, given he had been on the opposite side. "And here we were, getting in the way."

"So…" Ian realised something. "That timer was always going to be used, wasn't it?"

Monokawa shrugged. "Pretty much. But I needed someone to blame."

The gambler let out an amused laugh. "Seems we're always backstabbing each other, huh? What a fun dynamic we have."

"Guys…" Gigi tapped her foot on the ground. "I couldn't care less about what your relationship is." Her focus shifted over towards Sakura. She was right, and she hated to admit it. They had no way to know who had poisoned Alan. There were too many uncertainties surrounding the entire case. "How about instead… You tell us exactly what happened." She could at the very least do that, right?

Chapter 1: Continuity Error (Deadly Life Part 4)

Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. There's going to be a lot of violence, gore, and blood. And maybe a few other things. You've been warned (somewhat)

Sakura had found herself situated back in the security room like she had been going to for the past couple of days. She had nothing better to do with her time, and she felt the most at ease in this room. As if she was doing her job again.

And yet, for some reason, she hadn't really changed any of the monitors since she had gotten here.

The dread of the last day approaching loomed over her, and she felt less likely for her team to make it out alive. Even then, she didn't just want the other team to die as a result of them winning.

The possibility of killing someone did enter her mind, but she quickly brushed it away.

Adjusting herself back in the seat, she went to resume her job. Except… The sound of a door opening caught her off guard. "Hello?" She turned to look at it, only to see a letter in the doorway. She tried to examine the hallway, but saw nobody there. "What the hell…?" She flipped back over to the cameras, but in her immediate area, she didn't find anybody. Did they already run off, or was there a blind spot?

Whatever… She had nabbed the letter, so she might as well take a look at it… Although the handwriting was hard to read…

"There's going to be a confrontation at the showers. If you don't step in to stop it, someone will die as a result."

She blinked a few times, and moved over to check the showers on the monitor, before realising such a task was pointless in general. "There's no cameras in there, aren't there?"

Letting out a small sigh, she stood up, making her way towards the door. Scanning her bracelet, she stepped out. If there was going to be something going on, she'd be sure to stop it.

Moving over towards the showers, she knew that the only option she had was the girls' shower. "What girls would be fighting at this time?" She knew she saw Tatiana around, but she was in the kitchen… Trying to make something. Although she knew she wouldn't have much luck, given the appliances in the kitchen had stopped working. Maybe she was there for another reason.

Once she scanned her bracelet, she entered the showers, looking around. "Hello?" The possibility of this being an ambush also struck her, but she was ready for that too. "Anyone here?" The grip on her baton tightened… Until…

ZTT.

At that exact moment, the room around her began a void of darkness. "W-what the!?" She hadn't expected anything like that, so her attempt to reach for her flashlight was met with it falling to the floor. "Dammit! At a time like this!" What the hell was she even panicking for?

She fell to the floor, feeling around for her flashlight. When she finally found it, she hesitated for a moment. Clearly, someone had lured her here with the express purpose of killing her. Would she find that person waiting for her when the light came on?

After a few more seconds, she flicked the flashlight on, and was relieved to find nobody in the area around her. "Hello?" She flashed every area around her. Still, she wasn't ready to leave quite yet. She wanted to check out each shower individually, because maybe she'd find something.

When her search yielded nothing, she let out a small sigh. "Dammit…" Why did the note have to be so vague? Or was it simply a trick?

She was almost tempted to head back, but the nagging feeling in the back of her head told her to check the other shower as well. She had noticed the door to the showers opened up after the lights went out, so it was possible it was like that for the other side as well.

Checking out the other side proved her theory wrong. However, even searching this room, she didn't find anyone. "Dammit…"

With the way things were, it was obvious the power had gone out around the station, which meant she probably wouldn't have been able to check out the cameras anymore. "Manual search it is."

Stepping out of the showers, she made her way down Tau Sector, being sure to examine the rooms one by one with her flashlights. She skipped her own room, given she had just been there, instead, focusing on rooms further away.

She didn't see anything totally unusual about the Ultimate Talent Manager Station, but she just had the nagging suspicion that something was off.

Still, nobody was around the area, so she moved on.

On her way towards the cross at Tau Sector, however, is when she ran into something. She got a brief flash of a person, and her light trailed behind them to see who it was. "H-huh?" She had expected to see anyone else… But to see Alan, knelt down on the floor, hand covering his mouth. "Alan?" She called out, running towards him.

He turned to look at her, fear in his eyes. But when he opened his mouth to say anything, a stream of red splattered itself on the ground.

For a moment, Sakura stood there, frozen. Alan had made no indication he was sick to this point, which meant the only other solution was that he had been poisoned.

Unfortunately, she wasn't any sort of doctor, so she was unable to cure him. She couldn't even tell what poisoned him. "Who did this?! Tell me!?"

And yet, the gurgling sound made it very apparent that he wouldn't be able to prove it verbally. "Just… Write it down!" He had blood right there. It'd be morbid, but he could at least write it down before he died.

But from the looks of it… It seemed like even that would be too hard. He didn't even have enough strength to write anything else down.

Which meant he'd die without leaving behind the name of his killer.

Someone was going to kill Alan. They would go to trial, and they'd need to figure out who did it.

But if they used such a method, it was clear they weren't intending on confessing…

Looking at him again… Alan…

It was Alan… It was Alan.

She needed to kill him herself. Make sure the killer would be someone who wouldn't let everyone die.

But she didn't have time to go out and get a weapon. She had to do it now. Glancing around at her tools, it became apparent she didn't have anything for the job. The baton would take too long, and there was no way to make sure bludgeoning was the cause of the death in that instant.

Looking around some more, her eyes eventually landed on her own hands… "My…" Closing her eyes, she winced, preparing herself for the pain she was about to inflict. It had been a while since she had done something even remotely similar.

"I'm…" Her hands inched closer to his neck.
"I'm…" As they squeezed down around his neck, the conspiracy theorist didn't even attempt to fight back. They had no strength left in them.

"Sorry…" As she finally squeezed the life out of him, she felt him fall limb in her own hands. She felt no breathing. No gurgling… Nothing. The hallway was quiet again, except for Sakura's only heavy breathing after realisation struck about what just happened. Slowly… She stood up, looking around. Nobody in the area… Nothing…

Trial Ground Zero

Sakura stood there, silently, hands crossed, head tilted downward, eyes closed. "..." After a few seconds, she lifted her head slightly and opened her eyes. "And that's pretty much what happened there. I didn't enjoy a single moment of it. But there was nothing else I could use to kill him…"

"I can't imagine you would have… no…" Gemini shook his head. For the most part, everything was laid out in front of them.

"There's still a few things… "Dae-Hyun mumbled out. "That wasn't everything, wasn't it?" He had a few questions in mind, after all. "Your plan hinged on there being a rope, right? How did you know to check my Ultimate Talent Manager Station?"

The security guard kept her arms crossed. Slowly, she shook her head. "That wasn't part of the plan until after I saw the rope. Before then, I didn't really have any plan in mind."

Still… "But you found the rope anyways? Why is that?"

"This may seem strange to you, but when I entered your lab, the room was already set to the last room. The only reason I even went to your lab was because it was the closest room to where I killed Alan."

Dae-Hyun mumbled something under his breath before speaking up. "Why would it be set to that? I had left in on the default setting, so it should have been like that when you found it. The power outage shouldn't have fucked with it, so…"

"Actually…" Ian hummed out, tilting his head to the side. "Someone might have already switched it when you went to check it out."

"Tsk…" The talent manager didn't like the sound of that. "Then who was messing around in my station."

"The only person who would have had the time to, given the circumstances." The gambler crossed his arms. "Namely…"

…

"Alan."

That made sense, given he was one of only four people who had to be down there that night. Sakura crossed her arms. "But what makes you so sure it was him?"

It was a small piece of evidence he had found that didn't have much significance at the time, but now that he thought about it some more. "When I was exploring the room, I found some paper missing. And while Dae-Hyun was ready to write it off, I think that's what Alan used to write the note."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "But he carried paper around on his own, why waste time with that?"

A bright idea popped into Edison's head. "Oh! But we've seen what the paper he uses looks like. It might be that he switched it up so you wouldn't know it was him."

"And if that's the case. That puts him right in Dae-Hyun's Ultimate Station." Ian continued. "If the mouse was there, there's no way he wouldn't check out the last room, right."

Dae-Hyun wanted to call him a bastard, but no use disrespecting the dead. "I see…" He turned his body away from the podium.

Sensing a bit of hostility, the security guard shook her head. "I have no intention of saying anything about what I found there."

"Maybe not there, but…" Hae-Won trailed off. "Did you look around the station a bit after you killed him? Or did you leave right away?"

"I…" She hated to admit it, but she was too worried about herself to make a full look around. "The use of poison is a scary thought. And I wasn't sure if the perpetrator was still around the area. With limited vision, I was likely putting myself at risk staying down here longer."

That was disappointing for her to hear. "So you didn't get to check out the locked room?"

Letting out a small sigh, Sakura shook her head. "Had I known it was open at the time, I would have checked it out myself. But my mind didn't go to that at all. I was too preoccupied with setting up the scene."

Then… There was only one thing that needed to be asked. "Tell me…" Hae-Won had been bothered by this fact for a while. "We failed to find one thing anywhere in the station, and I was hoping you'd shed some light on it."

"I'd be happy to oblige."

Slowly nodding her head, she continued. "There was a piece of evidence missing."

"Missing…?" She hadn't remembered any of that. "What do you mean?"

"Namely…"

…

"His watch."

"His… watch?" That only confused Sakura. "How would that be missing? I left it with his body to make it seem like the Ultimate Talent Manager Station was the scene of the crime. Are you telling me it wasn't there?"

Benoit slowly shook his head. "No… It wasn't. But when Monokawa talked about it… Not even he knew where it was."

The otter shrugged. "Unfortunately we don't keep trackers on them. Probably an oversight, if I had to guess."

"Hmm…" Nova didn't like the idea of a watch going missing. "Then it's your duty to find it, then."

"Huh?" Monokawa turned to look at her. "Why do I have to do it?"

Nova's expression turned to a joyful one. "I'm far too busy keeping this killing game running to go and do that myself. It makes sense once you think about it." She let out a small laugh. "Besides, you never mentioned it to me. Had you mentioned it sooner, I might have been able to conduct a search much sooner."

"I don't think you have to look too far…" Atlas shook his head. "Because it's pretty fucking obvious who has Alan's watch right now…"

"Oh?" Monokawa was interested to hear that. "And who would that be?"

"Tsk. Obviously it's…"

…

"The poisoner."

Ian blinked a few times. "Who we don't know. Nice going soccer boy."

Is this what the others felt when someone was being stupid. "Yes. WE don't know who the poisoner is, but they sure as hell do!" He turned his gaze over towards Nova.

She remained silent for a bit before her expression saddened. "Actually… Not even I know who the poisoner is."

"You… What?" Sakura narrowed her eyes. "How can you not know who the poisoner is? You run this entire place."

"Yes, but the blackout was able to do more damage than intended. That Alan sure knew how to make a number on this station." Nova shook her head. "But besides that, I'm not always checking the footage."

"Then how did you know I did the kill?" Sakura crossed her arms.

"Please don't insult my intelligence." Nova stood up from her chair. "Anyone with a brain could have figured out you were the one who did it, through a simple process of elimination."

But that raised a few questions. Seira asked one of them. "Why would the poisoner even take the watch?" There'd be no reason to.

"It's not like he had some kind of job…" Michael mumbled out. "There was no benefit to it."

"Actually…" Tatiana had a slight idea, but it wasn't a very good one. "I've been to Alan's room before."

"Woah!" Lorelei called out. "You and him, huh? That's surprising. Always thought you'd go for someone like At-"

"We aren't doing this again." Seira quickly shook her head. "What about his room?"

Now that she was left with the freedom to reveal her answer, Tatiana posed again. "Because inside his room was…"

…

"All of his notes."

Silence.

"OK and why the fuck would the poisoner want any of that?" Atlas felt the need to point out the obvious question.

OK! She hadn't thought that far ahead. "I haven't come up with a reason yet! But fear now, for one will surely pop up in the next few seconds!" She smiled confidently.

What followed suit was a long period of silence before she spoke up, a smile still on her face. "I have nothing, actually."

"Is it possible that we are just overthinking it?" May mumbled out. "I don't think talking about this will get us anywhere…"

"I'm inclined to agree…" Sakura crossed her arms. "As of now, I don't think there's enough proof for… Well… Anything, really. All we know is that someone wanted to poison Alan, and then took his watch."

"But we still don't have a motive for the poisoning." Gigi pointed out. "We should at least try and figure out why he was poisoned. Was it because he opened the door, or because the poisoner wanted his watch?"

"Wow!" Monokawa called out. "You guys sure know how to waste time!" He floated over towards the center of the trial grounds. "I was generous enough to let you all talk about it a bit, but the trial is over. Anymore, and the timer would have been pointless."

Slowly Nova stood up. She had been curious about this discussion as well, but if she didn't know the answer, she didn't expect any of them to know it. "I agree. The trial has concluded. If you wish to discuss this further, it should be on your own time. I'm a busy woman after all."

"So!" Dolly called out. "We all just get to leave, right?"

"Um… No." Nova frowned slightly. "You forgot how these trials end, didn't you?"

"Well in my defense!" The doll raised her arms. "We never did a trial before!"

Letting out a sigh, she shook her head. "At the end of the trial, you must vote on who you believe the blackened to be."

"Easy." Atlas was ready to vote. "How do we vote?"

After a few seconds, a holographic appeared on every single podium.

"Oh!" Tatiana looked at it for a bit. "Do we just tap the hologram?"

"That should be enough, yes."

Given the answer was right in front of them, everyone input their vote. Even Sakura.

Monokawa floated over towards everyone. "Oh goodie! Everyone has voted! Why don't we check out the results really quick?" He moved over to the area behind Nova, where a large blank screen was.

Once he finally got closer, it lit up, showing off a digital icon for each of the twenty participants. "Let's see those votes!" He called out.

One by one, lines were added to the participants, revealing just who had gotten the most votes.

Sakura: 18

Ian: 1

"Nice." Ian didn't seem to mind. Leaning forward on his podium, he smiled over at Sakura. "This must be from the timer, right?"

She placed a hand on her hip. "Amongst other reasons." She narrowed her eyes. "It's also about the stunt you pulled off this morning."

People were still talking about that? It happened in part five. This is part nine, get over it. "It was only a bad idea because Alan was already dead. You wouldn't say it was a bad idea if everyone was still alive."

She crossed her arms. He was right. For all intents and purposes, it wasn't a bad idea at all. "You didn't know all the cards in play, so you made a wrong move."

Trying to speak his language, was she. "With the cards I knew, I made the best possible move I could have made. You wouldn't understand it."

He didn't want to interrupt this conversation, but they had a trial to finish. "Let's see if you've picked the right blackened!" Monokawa floated over towards an empty corner of the trial grounds. Out of the floor slowly raised up a slot machine.

"Oh?" That interested Ian a bit, but he was getting too much screen time so moving on.

Monokawa moved over to the lever. "Why don't we take this for a spin?" He pulled it down, allowing for the three segments to begin spinning.

The first image landed on Sakura, as did the second one.

The last one took a bit longer, but after ten seconds, it too, finally landed on Sakura.

"Sakura is the blackened." Monokawa declared. "What a shame! You voted right." He waved his hand, and the slot machine slowly lowered itself back into the ground. "I was hoping to see everyone die, but alas. We don't always get what we want."

Sakura crossed her arms, letting out a sigh. "Alright, the trial is over. You can move on with the ending."

"Now wait just a second…" Floating around Sakura, Monokawa snickered a bit. "Earlier you said it didn't feel good to strangle Alan, but this isn't the first time you've done something like this, isn't it?"

Narrowing her eyes, she clenched her fist. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Floating onto his back, the otter shrugged. "All I'm saying is that I looked into your past a bit, and boy is it a bit dark, you know?"

For once, the security guard seemed caught off guard. "You… looked into my past?"

"Hey there…" Gemini didn't like the sound of that. "If you looked into her past…"

"That's right!" Monokawa floated up above the circle of podiums. "I've actually looked into all of your pasts! So I know a whole lot more than you'd be willing to tell me."

"Of course they know…" Dae-Hyun mumbled out. "My ultimate station is a testament to that."

Tatiana let out a nervous laughter. "Part of me was wishing it was some elaborate bluff."

Some people didn't seem too bugged by it, like Hae-Won. "So what if you know my past?" She placed her hands in her pocket. "Doesn't really mean anything to me."

True, he couldn't dig up dirt on everyone, but at the moment, none of that mattered. "This is Sakura's trial, so shouldn't we be focusing on her?"

"This wasn't part…" The security guard began to say, but cut herself off. Instead, she was going to call the bluff. "Keep saying what you want. None of it is true."

"Really?" Monokawa floated onto his back. "Your sister would beg to differ."

The security guard stood there frozen. After a few seconds, she slowly reached for her baton. With one quick swoop, she almost managed to hit Monokawa.

He let out a small laugh. "Woah there! You almost hit me! Didn't you forget the rules? Hate to kill you now of all times."

Gennosuke tilted his head to the side. "Does it really matter? You're going to kill her anyway. Seems like she'd rather go out on her own terms."

Slowly, Sakura placed her baton back. "Shut your mouth now, or I'll shut it for you."

"Oh no! I'm so scared!" He slowly floated up so he was out of reach. "ANYWAYS!" He wanted to finish what he was saying. "You said you didn't like squeezing the life out of him, but isn't that no different than what you've done in the past."

"What… Did you do in the past…?" Seira looked over at her.

The security guard remained silent.

Monokawa let out a small sigh, allowing his body to fall down with the weight he now felt. "It's no fun if they don't play along. You won't have the time to explain yourself if you let me do all the talking."

"They deserved it." She finally said, looking up at him. "Plain and simple. They deserved much worse, in fact. But there's only so much I can do while keeping them alive."

"What did you do…" Hae-Won narrowed her eyes.

"I…" She closed her eyes. She felt like she didn't need to admit to what she did, but at the same time, having all those eyes look at her. Maybe it would lessen the blow. "They got what was coming for them…" But those words wouldn't be enough, so maybe she should just explain herself…

She had lost track of time.

With each passing second, the rage she felt at the very moment only increased tenfold as her foot came down, splattering blood again. "Scum of the Earth!" She yelled out with wrath she didn't even believe she had in herself.

On the floor, lay one of the people she was aiming her rage at. At this point, they were probably unconscious.

She didn't bother to check.

She didn't care.

Off to the side, was a boy trembling in the corner. "S-stop." He had a few bruises and blood on his face as well. "I…" He found the words hard to find.

Stopping the beating she was giving to the unconscious boy, she slowly shifted her focus to the boy who had spoken. "Did you stop when she asked you to?"

Realising that saying anything was a mistake, he tried to make a run for it. However, with the amount of pain his body was in, it made any sort of movement difficult. He found himself falling only a few steps away from where he was.

The perfect place for Sakura. With one swift kick, it connected directly with his stomach, causing him to cough out a bit of blood.

"I'm-" He clutched onto his stomach. "I'm sorry…" Tears were running down his face, mixing in with the blood from his other injuries.

She grabbed onto his hair, pulling his head up. Slowly, she approached her face, a demonic look in her eyes. "No. You're not sorry for what you did. You're only sorry because I'm here right now dealing with the problem." Without any other warning, she slammed his head onto the cold floor, which had already been plastered with some of his previous blood. "If I wasn't here, you wouldn't have gotten what you deserved." She lifted his head again, only to have it come slamming back down into the ground.
At any point she could have stopped, but with each passing second, more blood collected itself on the floor.

Once again, she had lost track of time.

But she was careful. She made sure she hurt them enough without going overboard and killing them.

"Bastards…" Once she had done enough damage, she let go of his hair, and let herself lean against the wall to catch her breath. She wanted to do more, but even she knew doing anything more would be taking it too far. "All of you… Pieces of shit…"

…

She knew she would end up here, given that she made it very clear it was her doing. So she wasn't surprised in the slightest in the punishment she had received. The system always seemed to aid those who didn't deserve it.

"You know why you're here, right." In front of her was her principal.

"Yes." A short, cold answer. She didn't care enough.

The principal slowly shook his head. Someone had seen her walking away from the scene of the crime, bloodied. After taking a look, they found two boys unconscious after taking repeated beating. "I don't care what you think is just or not, you can't bring justice into your own hands." As much as he could understand the pain.

And what, let justice happen by other means? "As if. They got exactly what they deserved." The amount of pain she inflicted today was nothing compared to the pain she felt. "They messed with my sister… and…" Even just talking about it filled her with more rage. "Where's her justice? Who was there to save her?" She sure as hell hadn't been there. She tried in the past, but she never wanted to take it too far.

And because of that… because of that… Thoughts filled up her head.

"They got off easy." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "There's no way they can even pay for the life they helped to take."

It had only been a few days since Sakura's sister had taken her own life due to events happening at school. Excessive bullying that never stopped.

"She…" She found her voice caught up in her throat. "She didn't deserve any of that…" She had been the sweetest person she ever knew. A beacon light if an otherwise mundane life. And they felt the need to push her that far… "You might as well expel me at this rate, because I won't stop."

The principal let out a small sigh, shaking his head. "I'm not expelling you. Although, a suspension is in order." She did coat parts of the bathroom with blood, and she had to be held responsible for at least that much.

That was their mistake. "Whatever…" She glanced away. That would both be a blessing and a curse. For one, she would have to see those two day after day.

On the bright side, the two would be living in fear until graduation. So that did put a small smile on her face.

If they ever thought of stepping out of line, she'd be right there to put them back in their place. "I accept that."

He figured she would. "Alright…" Still, part of him felt like he was making some sort of mistake. But the anger Sakura felt was understandable. It's just that he couldn't do anything about it because there lacked any concrete proof, as opposed to the eyewitness that saw Sakura. "If you want to settle anything like this, please do it outside of school grounds." He knew that was horrible advice, given that she had a chance of being arrested from it. But if she did it here, he'd be forced to do something about it. "Be smarter about things."

Looking away, she stood up. "If that's all you had to give me, then I'll be leaving now." All things considered, a suspension wasn't the worst thing. It just meant that when she came back, she'd have to unleash hell on those who step out of line…

Trial Ground Zero

The room had fallen into silence again.

"Yeah, they deserved it." Hae-Won saw no problem with her actions. "If anyone did that to my brother, I'd probably do the same." Maybe not that violently, but she would at least teach them a lesson.

"Um…" Benoit had other ideas on his mind. "Maybe you took it… too far…"

"The ones who took it too far were them." Sakura saw no issues in her own actions. She crossed her arms, looking off to the side. "There. Are you happy Monokawa?"

"Absolutely!" He floated over towards her. "You just know how to take an interesting story and make it boring. Oh well, you got to say some things before you have to go!"

Knowing where this was going, May let out a small yawn. "I think I'm going to take a nap…"

"Huh? Now?" Edison mumbled out.

"If I had to guess, she doesn't want to see what happens next…" Gigi crossed her arms. Neither did she.

An execution.

"Before that…" Sakura narrowed her eyes. "There's one more thing I want to bring attention to." She tilted her head down. "I'm not sure if it's important, but I just remembered something about my time before waking up here…"

"And that is…?" Seira barely remembered anything before coming here.

After deliberating for a bit, she took a deep breath. "It's about Hope's Peak specifically…" She looked over towards Nova. "What do you have to do with them?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Nova played ignorant.

"My last solid memory is from an interview…" She crossed her arms… "And more specifically, the last question…"

"Would you be willing to help out with any projects that Hope's Peak might be conducting?" The woman sitting across from her at this moment was Caroline, given she conducted all the interviews.

Sakura remained silent for a bit, pondering her next answer carefully. After a few more seconds, she spoke up. "That depends. If it's to better society and have less criminals in the end, then sure. I may believe there'll never be an end to criminals, but I can certainly hope for less trouble."

A small smile formed on her face. "See, that's the kind of attitude I like from people." She stood up from her chair. "That was the last question for the interview. It was a pleasure talking to you." She extended her arm out. "It was nice talking to you."

For once, Sakura extended her own arm out to shake her hand. "Same."

"Your acceptance letter should be sent out in a few days. Please look forward to it." She looked down at her paper. "Unfortunately, I still have one last interview to conduct today. I will be making my leave." She nodded her head as she left the room.

Nova tilted her head to the side. "I still don't know what you mean."

Monokawa shrugged. "Maybe she's slowly losing her mind or something. We should put her down now."

Nova shook her head. "You know we can't."

Sakura gripped onto the podium. "Don't lie to me. I still remember what you said when we first got here."

A bright smile appeared on Nova's visor as she landed on the table. "I thank you all for joining me today!"

The room was filled with unease, but someone spoke up. "You say that like we wanted to." Alan pointed out. "We didn't."

"Keep telling yourself that." The other shrugged.

"Huh?" Sakura narrowed her eyes. "What the hell do you mean?"

Moving on! Monokawa continued. "Now, let's tell them all what they're here for!"

"So what, you think this was what was talked about in the interview?" Gigi raised an eyebrow. She had faint memories of an interview, but she couldn't remember it in full detail.

"I don't know…" At this moment, it was only speculation. But it had to mean something.

Nova slowly stood up from her chair. "Honestly, I think that's enough talking." She motioned over towards Monokawa. "Monokawa, if you will."

Oh boy! Was it finally time for an execution! He was looking forward to this since the start. "Let me get my mallet."

"We never bought one."

"W-" OK, new plan. Paw time.

Seeing how things were playing out, it was becoming quite clear that they were intending on taking her down now of all times. "You see what I mean…" Them and their dirty games.

"I've prepared a very special punishment for Sakura Gambino, the Ultimate Security Guard."

Death was only moments away, and all she had been left with was a failed mission. Even after all this. Even after going as far as to kill Alan, she couldn't figure out the identity of the killer.
And they wouldn't even let her speak out the information she wanted to. "You have to be wary of those around you." If they hadn't admitted to the poison, it was likely that they might try and kill again.

Gemini glanced away. "We'll do our best. You carved us a path to begin looking. And you've allowed us a chance to live." He could never waste something like that. Although, he couldn't bring himself to look at what was going to happen next.

"Let's give it everything we've got!"

"And please do not follow in my footsteps." Sakura said that, but she knew her words would fall on deaf ears. Just as she had learned her entire life, the truth was that people were always going to do bad things. Criminals existed in every corner of the world. And for this moment, space was no different.

"IIIIT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" The glee in Monokawa's voice was apparent as he slammed his little paw down onto a button.

"Fuck…" Was all she could say as reality soon began to creep its way towards her.

Sakura Gambino, the Ultimate Security Guard, has been found Guilty.

Time for punishment!

For a few seconds, she had her eyes closed, unsure if she should even open them, or let the execution take her away.

After a few seconds of nothing, she slowly opened her eyes to check her surroundings.

It all seemed so… static. As if she was looking at an old CRT monitor for security footage. "Huh…"

After looking around, it became very apparent that it was just that.

And the feeling of being watched soon moved itself to the forefront.

It didn't take too long to know exactly what was going to be happening to her.

Ultimate Security Guard Execution: Graveyard Bash

Slowly, Sakura took a step forward. Besides the static noise she felt around her, her footsteps were the only other sound she could hear.

With each step, the sound she made got louder.

Until suddenly, her steps stopped making noises altogether. Instead, a new noise had replaced it. A loud clicking sound. Almost as if a switch had been flipped.

With each clicking sound, the lights around her dimed down until she was left in total darkness.

She wasn't a stranger to this, so she reached over for her flashlight. Shining the area around her, it had changed completely.

While before it was a barren land, now it had turned to one of her old job sights. One of the places she'd always work the graveyard shift.

Those shifts were when most people tried to break in, so she had her work cut out for her then.

But now… there was something different about the atmosphere. As if this time… She was the person who wasn't supposed to be here.

The sound of footsteps started up again, which alarmed her, given that she hadn't been moving for a while. Quickly, she shone her flashlight in the surrounding area. Just as she managed to narrow down the location of the sound, it would shift to another part of the area.

She was being hunted. Just as she had done to those before her. Without thinking, she began to run away.

That was a mistake.

She always liked to chase them down.

The speed of her breathing increased with each step she took. The sound only drowned out by the rapidly approaching footsteps she heard behind her.

Just like many she had encountered before on her job. As soon as the hunt began, their original goal was no longer worth it.

Not worth the beating she was about to get.

As she kept running, she found the fence exactly where she knew it'd be. If she could make it over that, she would be in the clear. She knew herself, she wouldn't hunt them down if it meant abandoning her post.

If whatever was chasing her just like her, it'd know when to stop.

Taking a leap, she grabbed onto the chain link fence, pulling herself up. She had done so before many times, so she wasn't a slouch at it.

Unfortunately, she wasn't a slouch at it, meaning the person chasing her also wouldn't be one. As she tried to climb up higher, she felt a hand latch onto her foot, pulling her down.

She tried her best to keep going, but the force they were exerting on her leg was too much. She felt the pressure applied to her leg slowly beginning to crush her bone. After letting out a pained groan, she felt her hands slip away from the fence. When she landed on the ground, her flashlight clattered only a few feet away from her.

For a moment after falling, there was nothing.

No sounds, and no other pain besides from where she landed, and her leg. It was calm.

That was the scary part.

Any chance she had to run away was now thrown out the window as she couldn't even get up to make an attempt. Even when she tried her best, she felt her leg give way under her.

That's when she knew she couldn't escape.

So instead she tried the next best thing. Fighting back. Reaching out for where she dropped the flashlight, she managed to pick it up, shining a light on where she presumed her attacker was.

Except.

Nothing.

Panic began to settle in again as she realised she didn't have any idea where they were.

One wrong move and she could wind up dead in a moment.

Of course, she wasn't going to get lucky at all. Before she could even react, she felt a kick connect with the top of her back, sending her back on the ground.

She didn't even have time to get up this time, as a person sat themselves directly on top of them. But they didn't fight with their fists.

No, instead, she felt a baton connect with the back of her skull, almost knocking her out there on the spot.

Her head felt heavy. Dizzy, even. Slowly, she tried to lift her body off the ground. Not to actually get up, but for a distraction.

Her real goal was to grab her own baton to strike back. However, it didn't end up working out like she had wanted it to. She felt a baton connect with her wrist, and it went limb. "Ghh-" She wanted to scream out in pain, but she resisted.

Is this what she inflicted to others? To every criminal she had encountered in her line of work?

She felt the baton hit the back of her head again, and this time, evidence of blood let itself be known around her. While she wasn't holding her flashlight, it was still light on the ground, illuminating the area around her.

Quickly, putting all of her strength into it, she managed to get the attacker off her. She was going to fight back, but for a brief moment, she froze, as the face she was looking at wasn't foreign. In fact, it's as if she had been staring directly at a mirror.

The intimidating look…

As the baton connected this time, she felt her teeth shatter on impact, and her mouth filled with blood.

She raised her hand to try and defend herself, but she felt her entire body grow weak as an electrical shock ran through her body. Her eyes quickly focused on the taser that she had seen before.

She really couldn't stop it.

She couldn't defend herself.

This is what she had put so many others through, and now she was going to be on the receiving end.

A hit there, breaking her arm slightly.

A hit over here causing a bruise to form up.

A cut in the stomach, causing her uniform to be stained in her own blood.

No matter how much pain she had already received, each new blow ended up being worse than the last one.

The taste of blood slowly filled her mouth as she began coughing up blood.

Soon, the light of the flashlight faded away, leaving the only light source being the occasional flashes from the taser when it shocked her.

Just when she felt like she couldn't take anymore, she felt the figure grab onto her hair, before slamming it right down into the concrete, as she had done to multiple before her.

SLAM!

Plastering the concrete with her blood, her pained groans soon faded away as she felt life slowly slipping away.

Even as she had been brutal before. At least she knew when to stop to make sure she didn't kill anyone.

Here, she didn't get that luxury.

One flash of light before her connected with the pavement one last time, and then everything faded away.

All while the figure over her kept slamming her now lifeless corpse onto the ground, without a hint of remorse.

While the state they had found Alan in was horrifying… To witness an execution was on a whole other level.

Melody fell to her knees, letting out a scream, with some tears running down her face.

"What the hell!?" Dae-Hyun took a step back. He made sure to stay close to her. "This is what you meant by execution?"

Benoit had completely covered his face. "I… I… I don't want to see… that ever… again…" His crying was pretty loud too, compared to some of the others.

"They're…" Winter mumbled out, looking on in horror. "Personalised…?"

"Hmm?" Nova tilted her head to the side. "I thought you would have expected that. What, did you expect to be hanged or guillotined? Please. We aren't in that era anymore. We haven't been for a long time."

Seira had covered her eyes, a few tears visibly running down her face. "Why… That's…" She couldn't even figure out the words to say.

Most of the others had much similar reactions, save for a few people. "Hmm." Lorelei hummed out, having just witnessed a sight in front of her. "So, do you have something like that prepared for all of us?"

"Of course." Nova smiled. "We can't be too sure who will kill when, so we've prepared special executions for all of you in advance."

"Are they all as horrifying as this?" Gigi's facial expression remained neutral as always, as if she wasn't bothered by this one bit.

"Some, more than others." Monokawa shrugged. "We can't make them all equal. After all, some people deserve a much worse fate."

Even someone like Laki, who had been excited the entire time, watched on with a neutral expression. None of it seemed to make her happy.

"Seems fun." Ian took a step forward. Sure, he didn't want to end up like that, but it only upped the ante in his mind. "That's the fate that awaits us if we lose."

Gennosuke smiled in his direction. "You seem pretty happy about this?" Tilting his head to the side. "Don't tell me seeing a body like that makes you happy."

The gambler shook his head. "No. It doesn't." Why would something like that make him happy? Someone had lost, and that was the fate that they were owned.

"Could have fooled me…" Hae-Won mumbled out, shaking her head.

Looking around the room Gigi took a step towards the center. "Let's just take the elevator out of here." It was obvious that almost nobody wanted to be here.

"Um…" Benoit walked over to May, who had slept through the entire execution. "We should probably carry her, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he picked her up. Easy, given the size difference. "Let's go…"

One by one, they entered the elevator again…

Elevator

Silence followed once again.

"What do you think is going to happen now…" Seira mumbled out. The trial was over, but obviously that wasn't going to be the end of it.

Ian shrugged. "We'll probably be made to do this over and over again. Though, I don't think we'll get lucky like this." After all, the odds of any of that were pretty low.

"Already looking towards how to win again, huh." Hae-Won was leaning against the elevator.

The gambler shook his head. "Shouldn't we all be thinking on how to do that?"

"We should be focusing to make sure nobody kills again." Gemini pointed out. "Not on how to win."

"But…" Laki trailed off. "We were forced to have a kill this time. If we didn't, half the people would have died."

A sad reality. "I don't think the motives will be getting any easier." Gigi pointed out. "But we should still be on high alert." They might not be able to stop a killing from happening, but they might be able to catch a killer, making the trial easier.

"Hmm…?" May had been slowly let down onto her feet, so she was slowly allowed to stir from her sleep. "Did I miss it…?" She had purposely fallen asleep so she didn't have to bear witness to the execution. A fate she presumed the others weren't able to avoid.

"We're on our way back to the main station now…" Benoit informed her. "Do you need help to your room?"

It's not like she couldn't walk. She slowly shook her head. "No. I'm fine."

"Now leaving Trial Ground Zero." That same voice from earlier called out.

At that moment, gravity began to decrease again.

"Weee!" Laki called out again, but this time, Edison was ready to avoid her kick.

"Ah-HA! Not falling for-" And then he got kicked by Lorelei anyways.

After a very brief moment of fun with zero gravity, they were finally let back on the floor again.

Gigi took a look at her watch. They had pretty much spent most of the day doing the investigation and trail. In total they had spent about five hours doing both. "It's about to be nighttime soon." And with their newfound knowledge of the elevator, it was better to play it safe. "We should all just head to bed."

"Agreed…" May mumbled out.

After a few more seconds, the elevator doors opened up, letting everyone out. Except nobody really moved.

"I know today has been rough, but…" Gemini spoke up. "It doesn't mean we should give up on trying to escape. We just have to be careful about how we do it." If Alan was anything to go by. "And also, we can't try and work on our own."

Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Please, as if you trust any of us here. One of us tried to poison Alan."

"Did! Did poison Alan." Edison corrected.

Looking at him with contempt, they shook their head. "Whatever! You get the point. How can you trust anyone with someone like that in our midst? I think I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing these past couple of days."

Gemini looked around, and a few of the others had similar sentiments. "Fine… Just…" Leaving here would be a group effort, and he was wishing that some of the others would see that for what it was. "Then for now, let's just have a good night.

Slowly, the people inside the elevator filtered out, leaving only one person behind.

Once everyone had left to go to their rooms, the person stepped out of the elevator, slowly walking over to their room.

After scanning their bracelet, they would step into their room, moving over towards the bed. Reaching into their pocket, they removed two items. The first one was a watch. The second one was obscured, so it was hard to make it out.

However, they weren't in view long, as the mystery person opened the drawer next to their bed and stuffed it in.

Suddenly, an announcement played out for all to hear. "It is now nighttime. That means that some facilities are now offline. Including the elevator. Going out now would be a reallyfucking stupid idea. You already had a person die today. Wouldn't want to add more bodies just yet.

They spent a bit longer looking at it before closing the drawer, and plopping down on the bed.

Today had been a long day.

Hope's Peak

It had been a long day, but all that was standing in the way was this current last interview. Besides, the interviewer, Caroline, only had one two questions to ask. Reading over the next question over and over again, she slowly looked up at the potential Ultimate.

"Alan…" She trailed off. With the amount of research she's done, she had definitely begun to notice a pattern with him. "Do you believe this way of thinking is unhealthy in any way? You seem to be slowly getting isolated, after all."

Seems these questions had really turned to be personal. Even if he knew some of the other questions that were going to be asked, this did cause him to think for a moment. "It's a fair point, and I've certainly encountered the potential pitfalls of my way of thinking." He stroked his chin a bit, looking off to the side. "The pursuit of conspiracy theories can be all-consuming, and there's a risk of isolation when your focus is on uncovering hidden truths rather than building connections with others." Something he had fallen victim to many times before. If only the people around him could see what he did, then it would be so much different.

"However, it's my passion and overall life that I'm not willing to sacrifice or give up to seek relationships that may end up breaking along the way. You never know what other people are thinking, so diving into personal relationships can be taxing and difficult, so I prefer not to sweat over such things, if I can." After all, he knew exactly what he was doing, and nothing was going to get in his way of achieving his goal.

"It's a life, I'm living happily and I'm not willing to trade in any shape or form for ideal relationships that aren't real or factual."

That's about what Caroline had expected from him. She offered a sincere smile. "Alright, then, let's move onto the last question…"

Reading over the paper again, she took a deep breath. "Would you be willing to help out with any projects that Hope's Peak might be conducting?"

A project… He knew they had been working on one, but for them to reveal it so blatantly? Then again, that's one of the reasons he even responded to the invitation.

He knew he had to structure his answer carefully… "Depends. If there are projects here at Hope's Peak that align with my skills and the pursuit of uncovering hidden truths, count me in. My analytical mind and ability to connect disparate pieces of information could contribute to a variety of projects, whether they involve deciphering complex puzzles, investigating mysterious phenomena, or exploring the unknown depths of the programme."

He hummed out in thought, thinking of what else to add. If it's not in my interest or nothing to do with my talent then of course I'll have to reject it. If I'm not using my talent and instead doing some pointless project where my skills are hardly even used, then of course I'll reject. These theories won't be solved by themselves, they're solved by me." A bit of conviction behind those last few words.

Reading over her papers again, she had expected an answer like that. Whether his talent would be useful or not would remain to be seen. "Alright, and that's the interview for today." She slowly stood up. "I didn't see anything wrong, so you should receive your full acceptance letter in two days." She extended her arm out to shake it.

He spent a few seconds staring at it before returning the favour. "It was great to meet you."

Now that the interview was over, he was free to leave.

Once in the hallway, he adjusted the hair in front of his ear, revealing an ear piece. "I don't know why you are making me do this." Nor why he even agreed to it in the first place. Though, the prospect of a hidden mystery just below the surface was hard to ignore.

Soon, the person on the ear piece spoke back to him, revealing themselves to be a girl. "If I tried any moves, they'd be on me like a hawk. I haven't exactly made good rapport with them as of late."

It had only been a week since he had received a mysterious letter from the girl on the line, enlisting his aid. At first, he was going to decline, given how busy he found himself with all his other works. And yet… something caught his attention here. He had known about Hope's Peak fall for many years. He had seen it time and time again on some of the sites he frequented.

And although initially it didn't pique his interest, the very thought of being able to investigate something like that got his gears turning. "Why wouldn't they like you?" The interviewer seemed nice enough, but even Alan knew that had to be some kind of ruse. They had pretty much done solid research on him even before sending the invitation.

"Because we have different ideals. They wanted to bring back Hope's Peak in full swing, while I think it was only going to end in disaster with the people who were on board."

Seems there was a lot going in the background of this entire operation. And that was exactly what he was here for. To uncover every last secret about Hope's Peak.

"I'm going to have to go now." The voice told him. "I'm not sure when they'll pick up on what's going on, but it's better to be safe than sorry. For now, just continue on as normal."

He heard the line go dead. As soon as he did, he let out a sigh. "Seems this goes much deeper than I originally thought." Then again, they always did. That was the fun part of doing stuff like this. Just when you thought you reached the bottom, that's when you truly start to dig down to the truth.

Hope's Peak… Just what exactly was going on here?

And that finally concludes Chapter 1 of Algorithmic Alteration! While it's only the first chapter, I'm surprised I even got this far, given it was one hell of a tall order. This one chapter was longer than my first two Danganronpa fics (Oh how I've advanced as a writer). Still hasn't passed my last two in length yet, but it will definitely do so by the halfway point of chapter 2, I feel.
What can I say about this chapter? There isn't too much I can say on the overall chapter itself except some of the events that happened in it. I was a bit disappointed that the motive didn't play too much into the murder, but it still had some uses in the trial. I mostly just wanted a long motive to help out with the daily lives. Let's see how things shake up in later chapters as I get new motives.

And, since she's dead, it's time to give a thank you to PROJECT DRAMA for sending in Sakura Gambino. She was a very fun character to write, and I hope I did her some form of justice. Even so I didn't have much time with her, I still enjoyed my time with her! :D Having a character be so aggressive in what they believed was nice. Atlas is already aggressive, but Sakura was to a different degree, so it was still different. Very fun. Wish I could have written her more. But hey, if I need to there's always backstory stuff (I will never write her again)

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter so far! I especially hope that I've been writing all of your characters right. I know there's probably a few mistakes here and there, but it's been so long since I've had to write other people's characters.

And now you have been left with a few mysteries for the future, and it seems like Alan still has some use for this story so far. Wonder where that could possibly go.

I guess you just have to stay tuned to find out.

Also shoutout to Silvermark16 for starting up chapter 6 of Corrupted Hope! That's the good stuff. Way above that Twisted Tragedy :eyeroll:

Nah! They're both really good and you should give both of them a read!

Going to be taking a break to focus on some applications now, and also my Total Drama story. I've been neglecting it for far too long at this point XE

Participants Remaining: 18

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Benoit Chevalier - The Ultimate Physiotherapist [Epifanio Therion]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael ? - The Ultimate ? [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Kim Dae-Hyun - The Ultimate Talent Manager [oddlyillregular]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Ian Santiago - The Ultimate Gambler [Animeboy15]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]