Work Text:
When Rantaro opened his eyes, he could see nothing but darkness. The back of his head throbbed with unbearable pain, but his strong desire to piece together his current situation helped him cling onto consciousness. Mere moments ago he had still been in the library, investigating a strange camera taped to a bookshelf. He remembered hearing something heavy crash onto the floor right next to him, though he never got the chance to have a closer look at what it was. The next moment, everything went black. Now he found himself here, wherever “here” may be, with a splitting headache.
Rantaro sat up straight from the lying position he was in, taking care to do it slowly so as to not strain his aching head more. Instinctively, he put his hand on his scalp, closest to the source of the pain. The deep dent he felt definitely wasn’t there before. A shiver ran through him when he realized he felt some kind of fluid against his fingertips as soon as he placed them on the supposed injury. Rantaro could only hope that he was just sweaty from the tension, but he couldn’t help but feel like something had gone very, very wrong. If only he could see anything…
As if that thought triggered it, a screen flashed in front of Rantaro’s face right at that moment. It seemed to float in the air like some sort of hologram. The blue light emitting from it was fairly dim, but it still made Rantaro squint in discomfort after his eyes had adjusted to the pitch black space that had been surrounding him for who knows how long. Despite this, he was quickly able to distinguish the figure that was displayed on the screen. Monokuma’s creepy grin was, unfortunately, all too familiar.
“Puhuhu, looks like it’s game over for you, kid! What a shame!”
“Game…over?” Rantaro mumbled, his thoughts and vision still hazy.
“But look on the bright side”— Monokuma ignored him—“you got murdered right before the deadline! Everyone would have died if it weren’t for you! You should be proud!”
“Right…the deadline…my one opening to catch the mastermind…” Rantaro slowly pieced his memory back together. “The entire reason why I went to the library…but that camera…”
Suddenly, it struck him what Monokuma had just said.
“Hey, hold on!” Rantaro uttered. “What do you mean I got murdered?”
The light from the screen didn’t allow Rantaro to see very far around him, but it was enough for him to confirm what he had feared: his hand was covered in blood, undoubtedly his own.
“Hmm? What are you so surprised about?” Monokuma questioningly tilted his head sideways. “It’s simple. You joined a killing game, and you died thanks to one of your backstabbing buddies. It’s part of the show, that’s all there is to it!”
“Show? What are you on abou—”
Monokuma interrupted before Rantaro could finish his question.
“Don’t worry though! You’re getting a front row seat with plenty of snacks and drinks to enjoy the rest of the game in real time, entirely free of charge! Whether you want to or not! So kick back, relax, and watch the heart throbbing drama unfold! Puhuhu!”
“I’m not following any of this…but I just gotta stay calm,” Rantaro reassured himself quietly, unaware that his expression was anything but calm. “I’ve been through worse. This is nothing a little bandaging can’t fix. I can’t be dead if I’m here, can I? If I got into this room, there’s gotta be an exit.”
Rantaro was just about to attempt to stand up when his attention got drawn to a second screen. It popped up next to the first one as soon as Monokuma’s final burst of laughter died down. He recognized the place it was showing. It was the library.
A crowd consisting of his classmates stood cramped into a corner. They seemed to be surrounding something, but Rantaro could not distinguish what it was. He decided to shift his focus to the chattering voices. The first one he heard was Tsumugi’s.
“We need to do this. So poor Rantaro won’t have any regrets…and so we can survive.”
Shuichi quickly followed up.
“Yes…let’s find the culprit who killed Rantaro.”
“The culprit who killed Rantaro…” Rantaro repeated to himself. Hearing one of his classmates say that, hit him quite differently than before with Monokuma. It all started feeling much more real. And when his classmates started going off on their own to investigate, he finally got a clear view of what had been hidden from his sight until now.
It was, seemingly, his own body, lying motionless on the floor.
The gaping head wound and the blood splatters on the bookshelf made it impossible for him to dismiss the seriousness of the situation any longer.
Rantaro felt sick to his stomach, but quickly swallowed to push that feeling away. A little lightheaded, he called out to the people on the screen.
“Kaede! Shuichi! I’m right here! I’m alive!”
He reached out to them, his hand passing right through the hologram.
“Idiot. Of course they can’t hear you,” Rantaro scolded himself. “So what was it Monokuma said? ‘Enjoy the rest of the game?’ Seems like watching the others is what I need to do from here on out. But they seemed to be pretty capable. Well…most of them did. If I’m still located somewhere in the academy, I trust that they’ll find me. It’d be best to save my energy for now.”
As the investigation went on, more and more screens popped up, each one picturing a different room in the academy. It was quite convenient, because it showed what everyone was up to all at once. The only places missing were the bathrooms and everyone’s private bedrooms, but Rantaro figured that that was for the best. Although he could have sworn that there were more classrooms than there were being shown, too. He did find the whole thing strange, as he had no recollection of any security cameras being around. He didn’t want to overthink every little detail though, for the sake of his own sanity.
Eventually, the investigation came to a close. The general consensus seemed to be that the shot put ball that was found at the scene had to be the murder weapon, but Rantaro was skeptical.
“That shot put ball must have been that thing I heard crashing down. But it missed me, I remember that…so what’s up with that bloody one? I don’t remember seeing anyone else in the library, but it’s not impossible that someone snuck up on me while I was distracted by that camera. Hmmm…if I understood this whole thing correctly, it’s time for a trial now, yeah? I’d love to learn more about this friendly neighborhood murderer that’s lurking around campus. Let’s see how this goes.”
Rantaro followed the course of events closely. The trial progressed steadily and evidence started pointing to Shuichi being the culprit. A few arguments were thrown around that suggested the mastermind could have committed the murder from their secret room, but those were quickly refuted by Kaede, with support from Shuichi himself here and there. Rantaro wished she didn’t do so, because he knew that the hidden door was the most likely answer to it all. But especially when Shuichi jumped in and unraveled that Kaede was the one behind this sneaky setup, the story just made too much sense to be doubted by the rest of the class. Up until every last detail, the evidence held up. There was just one very important exception. The fatal ending. Kaede’s shot missed. Rantaro was certain of it.
“There has to be something that everyone overlooked. Kaede isn’t the culprit!”
And yet, the verdict was loud and clear, personally approved by Monokuma.
Guilty.
Rantaro was powerless to do anything but observe as the ultimate pianist was forced to play her final performance before the curtain fell for her one last time. Rantaro had hoped he could’ve seen her in concert once they escaped this place, but this was not what he had in mind. The injustice of this undoubtedly invalid execution weighed heavy on his heart.
“Monokuma, you can hear me, yeah?” Rantaro called out. “You’re a coward. I know whoever is controlling you did this to me. You used Kaede’s plan to help yourself get off the hook, and you think you can get away with it, right? Don’t forget that you’re dealing with a class of ultimates. They’ll find the truth eventually. And even if you somehow set them up to fail again, there’s still me. I still got fight in me. You’re going down. No matter what.”
Those were some big words, which he admittedly wasn’t entirely sure about, given his current condition. There was no reply, either. Not even any mockery. But it didn’t matter to Rantaro. He was just glad to feel a bit of relief after letting his frustration out. But it wasn’t enough to release him from his grief for Kaede’s death. She never realized she was innocent. She died believing that she was a murderer. Her plan was certainly wrong, but ultimately, she had no blood on her hands. He wished more than anything that he could tell her that personally. He could never forget her actions, but he’d definitely be willing to forgive her.
Rantaro’s classmates all scattered from the trial ground, clearly feeling just as down as he did. There’d been a bit of a struggle between Kaito and Shuichi, but Shuichi seemed to have been able to pull himself together. Rantaro followed him through the video footage as he made his way back to the school building. It didn’t take him long to realize where the detective was headed.
Rantaro looked away. He didn’t want to intrude on Shuichi’s privacy while he was mourning Kaede’s loss. He’d noticed that those two were getting along well; even going as far as to flirt over a murder investigation. He chuckled and shook his head. As grim as this whole situation was, Rantaro decided to keep hoping to find some kind of explanation. The execution might have been staged, just like his murder seemed to have been. Kaede could be in the exact situation that he was currently forced into, stuck in a dark room only to watch the game unfold. That was the thought he wanted to believe in. It wasn’t very pleasant, sure, but it was better than being dead.
The day soon drew to a close. Rantaro decided to lay down and get some rest, taking a much needed break.
When he woke up again, he felt refreshed. Judging from the events happening in the live footage (everyone was eating together in the dining room), he figured it was morning.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise when he noticed that Shuichi wasn’t wearing his trademark hat anymore.
“That look ain’t half bad. I don’t know why exactly, but he seems more confident somehow. Good for you, Shuichi. Hang in there.”
Rantaro decided to make use of his renewed energy to try and find an exit.
“I need to make it out of this place and find the others, to prove that I’m still alive and to expose this game for the sham it is.”
Rantaro attempted to find any sign of an opening, something he could use to get out of his confinement, but there was nothing. Not a single nook or cranny gave way, and there weren’t any objects apart from the food, drinks and restroom that Monokuma had provided him. Nothing he could use to break out. After inspecting the entire room thoroughly a couple of times, he came to the conclusion that he was truly stuck in this place for the time being. But the fact that he searched everything to the best of his abilities did ease his conscience a bit. He figured that his next best bet was to watch the live feed for any kind of clue or progress on the side of his friends, if he could even call them that after spending such a brief period of time with them. He did realize that Monokuma could be manipulating the footage, showing him things that weren’t really happening or hiding incriminating evidence that could compromise the mastermind’s identity. After all, he still had no idea who his actual ‘murderer’ was. But unfortunately it was the only connection to the outside that he currently had, so he had no choice but to rely on it for now.
For a while, things seemed to be going relatively fine. Everyone spent their time as best they could. To Rantaro’s surprise, Shuichi and Kaito had even started working out together, though it was obvious that Shuichi was putting in a lot more effort than Kaito was. But as much as he wanted to call this injustice, deep down he knew that he would have been slacking off too.
Rantaro did wonder when the others would finally get to visit the rest of the school. He knew that the school reached far beyond the two floors that everyone currently had access to. He clearly remembered the map of the school he had on his monopad. It was the same monopad that he’d been carrying with him on that fateful day, which had been nowhere to be found during the investigation. There was no doubt in Rantaro’s mind that the real culprit was behind that disappearance, too. It made sense. That information could have been used against them if anyone else had seen it. The more Rantaro thought about it, the more he realized that the culprit had everything planned to a T.
“Making use of Kaede’s plan that no one else knew about, hiding evidence that no one else should have considered unusual…and getting away with all of it. There’s no way that my attacker wasn’t the one orchestrating this game.”
Rantaro decided to try and pinpoint possible suspects. He didn’t get very far however, as his attention got drawn to the footage in the gym. There was some kind of magic show going on, hosted by Angie and a very nervous Himiko.
“So Himiko is finally gonna show off her skills, huh? Man, that really brings me back, I used to love magic shows when I was little. ‘Course I know that magic isn’t real now, but watching to learn new tricks is still fun. Always gotta stay one step ahead of my sisters to entertain them.” He smiled. “Let’s see what you got then, Himiko.”
The trick that was about to happen however, was something Rantaro wished he’d never witnessed.
Ryoma was gone, devoured by hungry piranhas.
The first thing Rantaro thought back to was the conversation they had in the dining hall, when Ryoma was insisting on sacrificing himself for the others. Rantaro remembered how relieved he was after he’d finally managed to change Ryoma’s mind. But that’s exactly why his passing at this time hurt so much more. He finally found some sort of motivation to keep going, but his life was ultimately still cut short. Trying to push his frustration about this aside, Rantaro thought back to the footage he’d seen before this, but he didn’t remember seeing anything suspicious. He couldn’t believe Himiko was the culprit though. This was obviously a setup.
As it turned out in the trial, most of the crime was carried out during the night, when Rantaro and most of the others were sleeping. The culprit was Kirumi, which came as a shock to Rantaro. She’d always been so kind and helpful. She reminded him a lot of his own family’s maid from back in the day. Though her crime still wasn’t as big of a shock as the motive she had. It had all been for the greater good of the entire country. Weighing the lives of a handful of classmates against that, it was clear to Rantaro why Kirumi decided to go for the kill. He could never excuse murder, but part of him felt that it might have been better if she got away with it. Even if purposely putting that thought into his head had been a part of her final speech too. And as if all that wasn’t enough for one day, Kokichi also threw it out there that Maki was the ultimate assassin. Of course, Rantaro already knew this. There was a live feed from her lab too, after all. The only obstacle preventing anyone from entering was Maki’s wrath. This, in his opinion, was more frightening than Monokuma himself.
“So…we got an assassin and the prime minister of Japan in our class,” Rantaro contemplated. “That sure is somethin’ else. What other kinds of twists are these people gonna throw at me?”
He would soon regret asking himself that. Several days after the second trial, the murders of Angie and Tenko took place. Korekiyo was revealed to be the culprit and a serial killer on top of that. From the start, Rantaro had found his appearance somewhat menacing, but his interest in anthropology and those eyes that showed genuine passion for his fellow humans, were aspects of him that made Rantaro believe he’d be one of the most interesting classmates to chat with. Thinking back to that now, it made his stomach turn. What if they’d become friends? That wouldn’t have been unlikely if they’d met at the academy under regular circumstances. What if he’d introduced Korekiyo to his sisters one day? It was painful to even consider the consequences, considering the reasoning behind his murders.
Miu’s case happened after that.
It was almost starting to feel like some sort of twisted routine. This was the first murder that Rantaro had witnessed directly, as it happened in broad AI generated daylight. He’d seen the contents of the flashback light that Gonta and Kokichi found, and he sensed a feeling of hopelessness steadily creeping up on him. He had to keep telling himself that all of this was staged, but memories couldn’t be staged, could they? Rantaro realized that Kokichi had taken advantage of Gonta’s selfless nature to carry out a murder plan, even if it was more or less for self-defense. Of course, Gonta also had to bear some part of the blame, he agreed to do it after all. This whole case was just one big, sad mess.
And naturally, the murders didn’t stop there.
When the power outage in the hangar happened and his camera feed got cut off, Rantaro could already tell that not everyone was going to make it through that blackout unharmed.
“Kokichi, you were insane,” Rantaro sighed, hours later, as the fifth trial reached its climax and Kokichi’s suicidal plan was exposed by Shuichi.
“But you were a genius, too. This might work. I’m just not sure if Kaito’s the kind of guy to risk everyone’s lives for this plan…If Kaito really is the one in that exisal. I feel like I can trust Shuichi’s judgment though. That guy really got some skill. I wonder if he’d be willing to help me out if we ever manage to escape…”
Despite Shuichi’s little charade at the end of the trial, the cat soon came out of the bag. Or in this case, the astronaut came out of the exisal. They’d gotten so close, but in the end, Rantaro’s guess was right: Kaito wasn’t about to put everyone’s fate in Monokuma’s unpredictable paws if he could help it. That was the fatal flaw in Kokichi’s plan.
The remaining group of survivors had become awfully quiet without Kaito and Kokichi around. Rantaro was running out of theories too. It had been so long since the beginning, and so many tragedies had happened. It was hard to put everything into place. The only thought Rantaro could cling onto was the fact that the mastermind had manipulated the game from the start. The mastermind could just as well have manipulated the flashback lights, the rules, the murders, the executions…That is how he reassured himself there was still a way out of this, for everyone. Even the ones that were allegedly executed or killed. He was still alive and well too, after all. So when the news came that the entire school was finally being opened up for investigation, Rantaro was immediately on edge. He was finally going to see his own lab.
In the end though, that just left him with more questions rather than answers. This room, with its gloomy atmosphere and odd, deadly props lying around, felt like the opposite of the kind of place he’d want to be at. He had no recollection of recording a video for himself either, and the things he said in those recordings were very strange.
“I’m the ultimate survivor? I wanted this killing game?” He frowned. “Somethin’ isn’t right here…I know that this isn’t who I really am. What the hell happened to me before this game started?”
With that question constantly on his mind, the sixth trial started. Rantaro knew that his case was going to be resolved properly this time. It was time to expose the mastermind. Rantaro had a very strong suspicion about their identity at this point. Adding up all the clues he’d seen so far, there really wasn’t any room for debate there. It had to be one of the remaining survivors, no matter how rough it would be to point a finger at someone who was considered a friend through all these hardships. It had to be someone who had access to the girls’ bathroom to sneak into Motherkuma’s room. The way things were looking right now, Rantaro figured that Tsumugi was the most likely candidate, considering she mentioned that she went to the bathroom around the time he was attacked. She never stood out to him much, so he hadn’t been paying too much attention to her actions. If his suspicion turned out to be true though, he had to commend her for that strategy. Laying low and focusing on being as forgettable as possible allowed her to never be an obvious target or suspect for, well, pretty much anything. Rantaro would usually do the same thing in unfamiliar situations, as he had done while he was still in the game with the others. He used this strategy because he was suspicious of others, but for a mastermind, it was used for the opposite reason: to avoid suspicion as much as possible. And clearly, it had been working just fine for her so far.
“I should have opened up more to the others about what I knew from my survivor perk, then we might have been able to stop this game before it even began.” Rantaro sighed with regret. “I wonder how things would have wound up if I didn’t choose to act all alone, for once in my life. If Shuichi and Kaede knew what I was trying to do, the mastermind couldn’t have executed their plan. But now’s not the time to blame myself. In hindsight, stuff like that is always easy to say.”
Shuichi and the others soon managed to confirm what Rantaro had been thinking. Tsumugi, driven into a corner, finally revealed her true nature. But it was only an uphill battle from that point forward. Tsumugi seemed so calm still, even as all of her secrets were coming to light and the killing game was revealed to be tampered with from the start. Rantaro wondered to what extent she had been planning all of this. Seeing her still fully in control like that, struck a nerve with him. As if planning this killing game wasn’t horrifying enough by itself, she even broke her own rule and used his “death” to execute an innocent person. Out of frustration, Rantaro took a swift swing at the screen when Tsumugi popped up again, obviously without any effect.
Then, she dropped a bombshell: this killing game was entirely fictional. Every participant, every talent, every murder, every action, it had all been written beforehand. It had been set in stone from the start. Rantaro felt that this certainly explained a lot, like how he winded up in this room, and how Tsumugi still had the upper hand at her lowest point. But at the same time, it just didn’t make any sense. How could it? Rantaro knew that he was a living, breathing person, with his own thoughts, motivations and memories. But those memories already were proven to be untrustworthy thanks to the fabricated flashback lights, so Tsumugi’s statement was certainly a good setup to spiral into an existential crisis. Rantaro slapped his cheeks a few times in an attempt to keep his focus from falling apart.
Tsumugi then offered an ultimatum, her costumes constantly shifting as she spoke:
“Only two of you can graduate. Can you choose which two will survive? Can you choose which two will be sacrificed?”
Rantaro felt a serious case of déjà vu at that moment. And suddenly, his memories came flooding back.
“I…I remember now! I’m the Ultimate Adventurer! I took the stand in the final trial just like them… but it was a different killing game, just like I said in that video to myself. We were told to make sacrifices till two survivors were left and…and I agreed to it. I asked to be executed so my friends could live…so then why…why is this happening again?
The pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. The sacrifice was never meant to be an execution. The sacrifice meant having to participate in a killing game all over again. His memories wiped, so he could be consumed by despair all over again. Rantaro wondered, was there no possible way out of this cycle? Even if the games were fiction, the players were still suffering. Throughout 53 seasons, no less. Nothing could justify that.
Rantaro’s gaze was practically glued to the screen. His final hopes were on Shuichi, Maki, Himiko and K1b0. He didn’t even care about escaping his imprisonment anymore. More than anything, he wished that no one else would have to suffer because of this so-called Danganronpa. But he had to be honest with himself: things weren’t looking promising. K1b0 was out of control, Shuichi was at the end of his rope, and Maki and Himiko were simply at a loss for words, even after they all rejected the game itself. The crowd that had apparently been watching from the start went wild. They wanted to see more killing games, more hope and despair, more Danganronpa. They were the reason that this nightmare could go on. Was this really the end, then? Would the game start all over again, just like last time?
Above all the turmoil, Shuichi’s voice finally called out.
“Even if this whole story is a lie…I will use that lie to change the world!
Himiko tuned in along with him.
“Th-That’s right! We’re not gonna just be fiction!”
Followed up by Maki.
“Shuichi, you can change this world. Because…you’re Kaito’s sidekick.”
Tsumugi wanted to hear none of that.
“There’s no way…you can persuade them like that. They all love the killing games!”
Shuichi was about to prove that statement wrong. Rantaro watched along as he fought against the audience, countering each of their statements until there was nothing left to fight against. The fans were backing off, and Tsumugi’s confidence dwindled along with them. The screens in Rantaro’s room faded out, one by one.
Beyond Rantaro’s expectations, the killing game was over. K1b0 was about to destroy the academy, along with everyone else.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Rantaro wondered. He didn’t feel scared, or worried. All he felt was relief. Part of him didn’t want to die, though. Who else was supposed to bring his sisters back home?
Right then, Rantaro heard the sound of shooting and explosions outside. The ground started trembling. Instinctively, he covered his head and made himself as small as possible, in case anything collapsed onto him. It was a close call, because soon after, the wall opposite of him cracked before crashing down completely. Rantaro was met with blinding daylight, and the sight of a ruined academy in the far distance. Taking his first breath of fresh air after so long was, without a doubt in his mind, the best feeling he’d ever experienced. After the explosions died down and the dome shattered, Rantaro took a moment to reflect before he decided to explore the site, or what was left of it.
“Is my reality just fictional? Or was this supposed fiction a part of reality? Whatever it is…I know for sure that I want to go out there and continue to be the adventurer I really am. I know that I want to travel around the world again. I can’t tell how much of my ‘backstory’ is fabricated, but…if this is how I feel, I just gotta follow my gut, yeah? My sisters are out there in the real world, too. They have to be. There’s nothing I’ve ever been more sure of. And I won’t stop searching for them until I see them again with my own eyes. That’s the promise I made to myself, and I don’t plan on breakin’ it.”
With that determination driving him forward, Rantaro stepped foot beyond the broken rubble of his former lodging. The glistening light of the world beyond the broken dome was shining from above. Were those TV studio lights perhaps? Nothing would surprise him anymore.
He heard the chattering voices of Shuichi, Maki and Himiko in the distance. And surely, if those three made it out alive after K1b0’s rampage, the voices of the others, previously stowed away in their own little rooms as Rantaro was until now, would soon follow.
Rantaro had no idea what to expect from the outside world, but he was about to find out.
It was time for a brand new adventure.