Chapter Text
“Is he going to sacrifice himself? Oh my god oh my god oh my god! He is!!” Shuichi flapped his arms and bounced up and down the finale played on screen, “He’s totally doing it to save Ume. They’ve been so close all season and he absolutely sees her as a surrogate little sister, especially because she’s one of the youngest in the season. Ooooh! It’s like saving the sisters he wasn’t able to in the past!”
Shuichi and Angie sat in the living room of his home. It was nice, if a bit cold. While Shuichi’s room was decorated with memorabilia and merchandise, the rest of the house was wholly lacking in personality. ‘Generic rich person style,’ Angie had called it once, and Shuichi couldn’t agree more. Presentable but not livable. The end table was for tasteful centerpieces and not cups or snacks, and the couch was made to be observed, not sat on.
The two made do.
“Wait so, what does that mean again?” Angie asked.
“Oh! So, if Rantaro sacrifices himself then Ume will get to leave! She’ll be the winner of the season!”
“And she’ll get the cash prize and the fame?”
“Mhm! Although, while the players might care about that before they enter the game, most don’t care too much after. Some do though! Toshiko from season thirty-nine was able to figure out what was going on pretty quick and was totally in it for the cash.”
“So what do they care about?”
“Leaving the game! Being free from the bloodshed and suspicion.”
“Ok. Makes sense. But, Rantaro’s giving up his chance to escape for her?”
“Yep! Oh, and now she’s trying to argue with him!” Shuichi rocked back and forth, “She just can’t bear to watch him throw his life away!”
“What happens when he sacrifices himself again?”
“He enters the next season!”
“So he’ll be in season fifty-three?”
“Yep! A whole new game of murder!”
“One he might not survive.”
“Right!”
Angie had come over a couple of times to watch Danganronpa with Shuchi, and she’d let him ramble to her about it more times than he could count, but she still hadn’t gotten a good grasp on the concept. That was to be expected though, there was so much content! And Danganronpa wasn’t really a thing on the island where she used to live, so she didn’t even have a cursory knowledge of it. Still, she tried her best to understand, just like Shuichi tried to understand her art.
“Will him sacrificing himself make the audience like him?” she asked, leaning closer to the t.v.
“I mean, that depends on what the individual audience member likes, but most likely!” Shuichi answered, “Some love Danganronpa because of the depravity of it all-”
“Uh?”
“How terrible it all is.”
“Got it.”
“Yeah! But most like it because of the hope it brings! Sure, there’s backstabbing and pain. There’s the worst part of humanity put on display. But! Also the best!”
“Like Rantaro sacrificing himself?”
“Exactly! Putting the one he cares for before himself. A sibling bond forged not by blood, but by care! Hope! Always! Wins!”
Shuichi turned back to the screen, staring entranced by the fight on screen. The tears and the pain as the two debated on who would be put through another round of horror. Or, who would be ‘punished.’ Neither of them knew what the real punishment was, which made it all the more painful. They thought the other would die. The relief mixed with horror once the truth was revealed was always a sight to behold.
But hope always won, and the ending was always happy. Not like the real world. Not like real life. Ume would live a life safe and sound in the real world, never having to worry about money or anything for the rest of her life. A sacrifice in the name of hope. Happiness pushing through the pain.
“This is pretty popular,” Angie stated, and Shuichi couldn’t tell if it was a question or an observation.
“I’d say so!” he answered anyway, “I mean, it gets very good ratings.”
“It’s a form of art,” Angie said, and this time he could tell it was an observation, “Like my own, but different. A way of expressing ideas and beliefs. A way of affecting others.”
“Mhm!” Shuichi kept his eyes on the screen.
Tsumugi was doing such a good job as the Mastermind. Everyone always worried whenever the role of Mastermind changed hands. The show had gone on for such a long time, and after a while whoever was playing the role just couldn’t pass off as a High Schooler anymore. So every few years they switched them out. They all took on the mantle, took up the role of Junko Enoshima herself, and strived to fill her shoes.
And what big shoes they were. Eight-inch high-heeled boots in fact. Some did better than others but god did Tsumugi Shirogane know how to sell it. Her performances were amazing, as close to the original as you could get. It made Shuichi smile with glee as he watched the Ultimates fight against her.
Angie was quiet for the rest of the finale. That wasn’t surprising though, she often didn’t have much to say when they watched Danganronpa. More often she would simply let Shuichi ramble away and provide running commentary, flailing his arms as he did.
She said he talked with his body when he was excited. His parents and teachers disliked it. She thought it was nice. She talked with her body when she was excited too.
By the time the episode was over and the credits were rolling Shuichi was off the couch, spinning around the living room and rambling incoherently with joy. Incredibly glad that his parents were off at some celebrity party, he pinwheeled over to Angie and smiled.
“Did you see that?!” he cried, still standing, hands on the couch and jumping up and down, “That was amazing!!”
Angie smiled back, “It was! Just as I suspected. Nyaha! Perhaps Atua has blessed me with the power of prophecy!”
Shuichi could only respond with a squeal.
“Best! Episode! Ever!”
As Shuchi flitted about the room, Angie stood up and moved towards him.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure!”
“How do they cast Danganronpa?”
Shuichi gasped and turned to face Angie, “Oh it’s great! They hold auditions a month or two after the last season ends and choose fifteen new players from that! Anyone who can make it to the audition and is a High School student can apply!”
“Anyone?”
“Anyone!” he exclaimed and spun in a circle, “Which means I can apply this year!”
Something seemed to spark in Angie’s eyes, “Are you?”
“Yes!”
“Yes?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because then I can be the person who provides hope!” Shuichi explained, “Danganronpa’s gotten me through my darkest nights, my most painful moments. If I become an Ultimate, I can be the one who brings someone else through the dark! I can die remembered. I can die having done something!”
“Die?”
Shuichi opened his mouth to continue rambling before faltering. Right. Die.
“Well, I, uh,” he stumbled, “Yeah. Die.”
“You don’t want to win.”
You don’t want to survive, was the implicit statement.
“…Yeah.”
An awkward tension filled the silence. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t told Angie about his… less than positive thoughts. It’s just that he’d never really gone into too much detail about it. They both knew the other’s life sucked. They both knew they had issues regarding it. But Angie liked focusing on happy things, so it wasn’t really discussed.
And here he was, gleefully talking about his own death. The glee was real but… well it probably wasn’t something to smile about in front of friends.
“I think I want to apply to,” was not what Shuchi expected Angie to say, but she said it anyway.
“Huh?!”
“And I don’t want to win either.”
“What?!”
Angie cringed, and then seemed to backtrack, “Well, it’s not that I don’t want to win. It’s that I don’t care about winning.”
“Wait, wait, wait, since when did you want to be in Danganronpa?”
“Since just now.”
Shuichi was confused. Confused, but also kinda elated. Angie was going to audition with him? Awesome!
“Why?” he asked, and she smiled.
“Danganronpa is a form of art. Just like my own, but different. A way of expressing ideas and beliefs. A way of affecting others.”
“Mhm! You said that earlier.”
“Lots of people watch this. And what they watch affects how they feel. If they see me up there, doing stuff like that Rantaro guy, then what will they think?”
“A lot of people will really like you!”
Angie’s smile widened, “Exactly! And then they’ll realize that just because I’m different, doesn't mean I’m bad!”
A lightbulb went off in Shuichi's head and suddenly he was smiling just as wide as Angie, bouncing up and down.
“You’re right! You’re right! You’d be a hero!
“I’d be a hero!”
“They’d love you!”
“They’d love people like me!” Angie picked her sketchbook off the coffee table and flipped through it, “They’d see the beauty in what I create.”
“You’d be able to help all the people like you in Japan. In all the countries that watched!”
Angie seemed to look at her sketchbook with reverence, before flipping to an empty page and picking up a pencil.
“Shuichi,” she said, “Teach me how to prepare for this audition.”
Shuichi immediately ran over to Angie and pulled her back to the couch, flopping down on the hard surface and beginning to ramble once more.
“Ok! Ok! So the best auditions are the ones where you come in with a goal in mind. They get tons of auditions so you want to stand out. You need passion! Purpose! There’s preliminary auditions and then there’s callbacks. You want to be prepared for callbacks before you even go into preliminary, cause then you can slip in some things you’ve already planned. They really like when you come with a character, especially if it’s an interesting one! That doesn’t mean they’ll go with it, but they might incorporate elements or plot lines! For maximum likeability you’ll probably want to be a victim, most are rather sympathetic and don’t do anything bad and you don’t have to worry about backlash from killing a fan favorite. Survivors are good too, but they might be mad that you lived instead of a different fan favorite. In contrast, if you’re a popular victim, people might wish you had lived instead, which boosts your popularity!”
Shuichi continued to ramble as Angie sketched. He was going to audition for Danganronpa with his friend! How cool was that! It’d be so cool if they both got in, but even if it was just one, the other could cheer them on! Oh! If they both made it, maybe Shuichi should kill her! Sure, he’d feel bad killing his friend, but he’d be helping her accomplish her goal! Then he’d get to be an entertaining blackened and she’d get to be the sympathetic victim. Would that count as assisted suicide? Shuichi wasn’t sure.
All Shuichi was sure about was the joy in his heart. The happiness that came from sharing his interests with his friend and the satisfying finale that led to an even more tantalizing future.