Chapter 1
Tsumugi was watching as the 52nd season of Danganronpa underwent its final class trial. There, Rantaro Amami led his fellow survivors fiercely in a debate about what to do with their current mastermind. It was a girl Tsumugi knew back from HQ. Kanami, she believed it was. The girl was rather unassuming in persona and relentless in her ambition to emulate the likeness of Junko Enoshima, the original mastermind. She admired that feature in her. Perhaps she would utilize those qualities in her succession as mastermind of Danganronpa season 53.
Unassuming? Check. Ability to emulate the likeness of Junko Enoshima? Well, they were assigning her the role of the Ultimate Cosplayer… that shouldn’t be an issue. The participants were in place. The protagonist, the partner, and the rival were all selected and ready to undergo reconstruction. As the key players of the next season, they were the most taxing to perform on. They were infused with certain qualities and attributes that would serve them well for their roles. All of the future killing game participants were already under a medically-induced coma as the surgeons worked on them and played with their mind’s already existent persona.
At Danganronpa, they preferred not to change the participants too much from who they came in as. That would require a lot of extensive labor and would be much too unpredictable once the actual killing game commenced. Rather, they simply implanted some false memories and the certain… “role” factor, if you will. Although it wasn’t predetermined to the point of knowing exactly who would kill and who would die in what class trial, they could make assumptions. They had ideas of who would live, who would die, and who would kill. They formed their games around those assumptions, but of course sometimes things happened that were out of their control.
For example, the rival of season 52 was supposed to kill the partner in the fifth chapter just as many had done before. The motive had been perfect, the chess pieces had been set, and everything was going as it was supposed to. However, in an unexpected twist, the protagonist of the season ended up killing the partner! It had been a despairful trial, yes, but totally unexpected. In fact, the rival had to step up to the role of protagonist! Rantaro Amami, the rival of season 52, was now the protagonist! Who could have predicted that other than Junko Enoshima herself?
The three pinnacle roles, that of the protagonist, partner, and rival, were by far the most complicated and taxing to carry out. They required patience, understanding, and so much character and development that it was phenomenal. The protagonist had to undergo a tragedy to motivate their quest for truth and justice. The partner had to be pushed towards the protagonist almost as if through some otherworldly force. The rival had to do something absolutely cruel to make the other characters despise them and the audience root for them. The rivals were always the fan favorite, after all!
For this season, Tsumugi was rather proud of her picks.
Kaede Akamatsu: the protagonist. The girl was callous and uncaring towards humanity as a whole. Her entire demeanor was fit for that of an eventual Danganronpa killer, but Tsumugi saw a certain twinkle and mirth in her eyes befitting that of a truth-seeker. With just enough reconstruction and memory alterations, she’d make a fine protagonist. Tsumugi doubted she’d be one of the favorites, but she’d be good enough for some to care about.
Shuichi Saihara: the partner. Shuichi was odd and enthusiastic when he came into his interview. Without prompting, he had listed the various ways in which he, the hopeful Ultimate Detective, could create an amazing murder mystery and a gory execution for himself. He was full of life and enthusiasm for Danganronpa that was not unwelcome in Tsumugi’s season. Compared to his previous persona, they were definitely undergoing the most major brain reconstruction for him, second only to perhaps Kaito Momota. What could she say, she had absolutely loved Kirigiri as the partner in the game that started it all. There hadn’t been a good Ultimate Detective in so long! He would be a bit plain at first, yes, but he would blossom into so much more! It would be absolutely thrilling!
Now, finally her last, and perhaps her favorite, creation. Kokichi Ouma: the rival.
When she had met Kokichi, she immediately knew how she would place him in her lineup of the Danganronpa characters. When he came to the interview, he was direct and confrontational in his approach. He accused Team Danganronpa of murder and claimed he’d put a stop to the killing games as a whole, whether they put him in one or not. Honestly, he had all the makings for a protagonist! That’s why, perhaps to spite his original self, she was making him the rival. In his interview, he claimed to hate those types of characters. He didn’t like seeing someone so enthused about the killing game. That’s why he had to be that character! He had to be the very thing he claimed to hate! That was so despairful, wasn’t it?
In their reconstruction, they weren’t changing too much about his original self. He still hated murder and he still would certainly try to end the killing game one way or another, but they had added just a couple factors that were sure to make him nothing but a nuisance! Pathological lying and a huge abundance of trust issues! That sounded fun, didn’t it? The theme of this season was truth and lies! She imagined his original self, wherever he may be, was thriving in agony and disgust!
A character that had the best intentions but was forced to go about them in the most damaging way… how beautiful! He was going to be one of the best rivals to date, she just knew it!
The class trial wrapped up and Rantaro became the sole survivor of Danganronpa season 52. In a despairful twist, Kanami had somehow pushed all of the participants into such deep despair that they simply voted for themselves to die instead of Kanami, the obvious mastermind! Gah… Tsumugi was shivering in delight! How genius was she?
Only Rantaro had voted for Kanami and by then he was already the season’s fan favorite. As a reward, Kanami allowed Rantaro to watch as all of his friends were executed and hailed him to be the newest Ultimate in the next killing game.
What an amazing finale!
“Yeah, it’s honestly not too big a deal, ya know? Like, I feel like anyone can do it! Even you, Tsumuggs.” Kanami smacked a piece of bubblegum around in her mouth as she leant back in her chair, pink saliva gathering at the corner of her lips and a stench of candy permeating the air. Tsumugi rather hated the smell of bubblegum, so she opted to turn up her nose and stare at the clock on the wall instead of at the girl’s dull and truly plain brown eyes.
The clock struck the twelfth hour. In exactly twenty-four hours, the 53rd season of Danganronpa would begin filming. “I hope so! After all, I’m the mastermind this time!”
“Just don’t screw it up. People are really hyped for Rantaro’s appearance in this season. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“... thank you.”
Ever since her return from Danganronpa, Kanami had a snobby attitude. She constantly chewed gum and reeked of candy and the bottom of her shoes were always atop her desk, porcelain clean as though she never stepped outside or laid her feet upon the ground. Kanami had been awarded the “mastermind pass”, which essentially meant she earned way more money than she used to and she had access to an exclusive mastermind lounge that Tsumugi could hardly wait to peer into. Perhaps after Tsumugi showed her stuff in this run, Kanami would stop giving her such a hard time. She still greatly admired the girl.
Absentmindedly, Tsumugi reached for the folders laid atop her desk for the third time in the past hour. She flipped through the characters she had prepared, their pictures, their backstories, their roles and motivations and intelligence scores… absolutely everything.
“You’re freaking out, girl. It’s literally not hard at all. Besides, you’re such a plain Jane that no one’s gonna suspect you until the last chapter.”
At this, Tsumugi’s heart fluttered and she blushed. Finally, she turned to Kanami. The girl was lazily staring at her, eyes half-lidded and a red bull in her hand. Her under eyes were baggy and dark and a gold chain hung around her neck, concealing a fresh tattoo. Finally, she squeaked “you really think so? Ah, that’s such an honor coming from you, Kanami! I thought you were so plain last season, so I really wanted to emulate that! Gosh, that takes away so much anxiety…”
Kanami stared at her and popped her bubblegum. That sickly sweet candy smell permeated the air once more. She dropped her sneakered feet from the desk and shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. Softly, she grumbled, “shut the fuck up, you fucking cunt.”
Now, Kanami probably thought that Tsumugi couldn’t hear her. She was dead wrong. Just as Tsumugi was about to reply, a blinking icon and a still image of an elderly face appeared across the monitor of her desktop. The lead reconstruction expert in charge of season 53, Hisuki, was calling her! Excellent! It was probably confirmation that all the characters and roles were in place.
A woman’s face spread across the computer screen, whirring machines and frantic whispers echoing around her. Hisuki looked distraught and her eyes were red and tired. Immediately, Tsumugi perked to attention and that pleasant smile that had been plastered permanently on her face fell. “Hisuki? What’s wrong?”
“Tsumugi, I’m going to need you to not panic.”
That line alone made her panic. “Um… not panic? What are you talking about?” Tsumugi couldn’t hide the voice crack that sounded as she spoke the word panic and she couldn’t stop herself from taking off her glasses in preparation for oncoming waterworks. She hadn’t worn makeup today, so at least she wouldn’t look too miserable once an hour or two passed, assuming that Hisuki wasn’t simply about to state a nonconsequential problem and not a season-ruining crisis.
“Someone has sabotaged us… the files for the three pinnacle roles were swapped. Their reconstructed personalities and motivations are still intact, but their roles in the story are completely different. We don’t know how this happened, but we only found out once we double-checked the brain scans.”
That took Tsumugi completely off guard. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Kanami raise an eyebrow and blow a bubble.
“W-What? You’re kidding me, right? Surely you’re joking! How could that even happen?”
“We don’t know! This had to have been done before the participants were put into comas, the labels in the data were swapped and everything. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before! They encrypted everything to look like the original files, but that was only superficial. Once you break it down, it’s completely different coding. Their roles were implanted weeks ago and they’ve been spending the past couple weeks mentally adjusting to their reconstruction.”
“Um… uh…” Tears budded at the corner of Tsumugi’s eyes as she thought over her options. She was in charge of what the reconstructions were going to be, yes, but that was the extent of her responsibilities! She had been told to take it easy at work and simply prepare motives and the like for the past month. Today was supposed to be her cram day as she reviewed her notes again and as she gathered intel from Kanami. That was it! What was she supposed to do now? “You can’t swap them back or anything?”
Hisuki shook her head. The elderly woman’s lips trembled as she looked upon Tsumugi. “No. I’m sorry. It’s too dangerous. Reconstruction is already a delicate process, so deconstruction and reconstruction again would prove to be likely fatal.”
Tsumugi nodded. She thought as much. “... okay” she spoke quietly and unlike herself. Usually she was upbeat and spry and ready for whatever was flung her way. She was a bit of an underdog at HQ, but she was determined to prove herself in this upcoming season. All of the sudden, everything was starting to unravel in front of her. What the hell was she supposed to do now?
“... I’m sorry, Tsumugi. Whenever we catch who did this, there will be hell to pay. No one will blame you.” Doubtful. Masterminds were meant to be nothing if not adaptable. Look at Kanami and the way she adapted to the sudden protagonist death of her season… if she could do it then, well…
With that in mind, she raised her sleeve and dabbed at her eye. She planted that false smile back on her lips. Fitting for a season that centered around truth and lies. This was all a lie! “Well, there’s nothing we can do about that. What am I working with?”
“Right. Let’s see here.” The woman vanished off screen for a moment and Tsumugi heard the sound of talking and the shuffling of paper. The whirring machines and the frantic whispers in the background had ceased. Tsumugi imagined a few of the ordinary workers were shuffled out of the building for the time being, perhaps for both privacy’s sake and investigation’s sake.
Tsumugi leant back in her chair. At that moment, she made eye contact with Kanami once more. For once, she had stopped smacking those lips and chewing that awful bubblegum. Tsumugi simply smiled and Kanami actually smiled back.
At that moment, Hisuki came back and Tsumugi sat at attention. The woman sighed and shuffled through her papers. “Sorry for the delay. There’s a fair amount of panic outside. Everyone’s being forced to undergo some investigations understandably.”
Tsumugi stayed silent as she waited for Hisuki’s response.
The woman coughed. “Right. So… what we have right now reads that Kaede Akamatsu was programmed the role of the partner.” Hm… not too bad. She could work with that. “Shuichi Saihara was given the role of the rival.” Rival? What? That didn’t even work with his character! “And, finally, Kokichi Ouma was given the role of the protagonist.” Kokichi was the protagonist? A pathological liar with trust issues was supposed to be the one to lead the class trials and reveal the truth of the killing game? It was beautifully ironic, but Tsumugi wasn’t any less upset. This completely threw off what she had already written!
“I mean it, I’ll end the killing games once and for all. No matter what role you give me, no matter whether or not you put me in the games in the first place, you will come to know the name Kokichi Ouma and you will be sorry you were ever a part of Danganronpa to begin with.”
His brain scans had projected his intelligence rating to be very high, but… this was just stupid! Tsumugi hated twists like this!
That bastard…
Despite her festering anger, Tsumugi planted that pleasant smile back on her face. “You don’t need to investigate the whole lot of the reconstruction team. I know who's responsible for this.”
“Really? Who?”
“I’ll report it to upper management. Don’t you worry.” In the meantime… she was going to be adaptable, alright. She’d go with his little protagonist plan. She’d let him think he was going to be the one to eradicate the killing games. They had had a few contestants like that in the past. He wasn’t special. He had just been the only one to make it this far. She wasn’t going to worry too much about that, though. Perhaps this would make for an interesting season. Perhaps he’d make a delightful protagonist. Either way, she’d have her revenge. She’d have his despair. Kokichi was going to have hellto pay. “Kokichi doesn’t have an ahoge. Can I request a last minute insertion?”
“Sure! Do we need to flatten Kaede’s?”
“No, no… that’s fine. Leave it.” If things did spiral out of control, well… she’d come in handy.
Twenty-four hours later, Kokichi Ouma awoke inside a locker.