TheSeriousJoke

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

And thus, the day wraps up with the students eventually taking care of their wounded—well, mostly. Their collective experience failed to make a whole doctor, so after a while they were mercifully relieved of their medical duties by Monokuma. Other students left to explore the camp, turning up a great many deal of things, but no sign of escape.

---

Monokuma Theatre

I was talking with this girl I had known since elementary school.
We hadn’t gotten along particularly well, but we sat next to each other, so we did everything together!
I went to her house practically every week,
And I cried when we went to different high schools!
But you wanna know the weird thing?
I didn’t remember her name at all!
How is it that someone who was so important to me for so long
Suddenly wasn’t even worth remember the most basic thing about?
Welp! I guess that’s life for ya!

---

The sun rises, and the students are awoken with the loud blaring of the bear’s voice over the intercom. Looks like it wasn’t some sort of weird dream...

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Mizuno Momoe, Usui Ayu, and Hisakawa Hiroki

“Oi. The hell are you gawking at?”

Hisakawa jumped a little, quickly turning to see the girl from before (Usui Ayu, he was pretty sure) and another girl he only vaguely recognized, who seemed to have addressed him. He muttered a bit, as if his tongue was tripping over itself. He really wasn’t expecting to see anyone besides Yukimori, and it took him awhile to speak clearly and recover from the surprise, “Um, well, I’m gathering supplies to help the injured. Some of the things we need should be in here. Of course, this is Yukimori’s property, so I’m waiting here so she can let me in, as she said I should. After all, it’s rude to enter somebody’s property without their permission, especially a lady’s.”

He kept his attention locked on the door and shifted his weight a little bit. He tightened his arms closer to his chest, consequentially bringing the first aid kit closer to him, as if making himself smaller will somehow bring the attention off of him, “I guess I got a little lost in thought though. I apolo— uh,” Hisakawa didn’t even finish his sentence, as the new girl simply bypassed him entirely. He wasn’t totally sure how to respond to that, until he realized she was intent on entering the lab.

“Um, I don’t mean to— that’s not—uh, shouldn’t you wait for Yukimori?”

“Give it a rest. Nothing here’s ‘our property,’ much less hers. I don’t intend to wait on anyone,” The girl bit back. She glanced over her shoulder at Hisakawa, her one eye narrowed.

“Don’t just take everything here for granted.”

Those were the girl’s final words of warning to Hisakawa before strolling back over the door, opening it and entering the building without any regard to his words.

“Mmm… I think you should follow,” Usui chimed in from next to Hisakawa. He turned his head to look at her, seeing her stare back with her head tilted. Just about everything was telling him this was an awful idea—everything except the two girls there telling him to go in and invade Yukimori’s own property. Or, not property. Whatever they wanted to call it, he walked into the building with his head down, faintly able to hear Usui’s soft steps behind him.

Inside, Hisakawa could tell the taller girl was already rummaging through all kinds of junk, shamelessly tossing it onto the floor. She looked to have taken notice of him, because she’d turned her head back again.

“What? Not waiting for your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” He said, suppressing a sigh. He had a feeling he was going to be the one cleaning everything up, but he just couldn’t bring himself to tell her to stop messing with it, “I just don’t want to do anything to upset anyone.”

As he said that, he began to pick up abandoned containers and refill them with their contents the best he could, trying not to get in the girl’s way while doing so.

“So, the hell you come here for, anyway? Said you were lookin’ for something?”

The girl paused her rummaging and turned fully to face Hisakawa, both hands stuck into her coat’s side pockets.

“Yes. I came to find some materials that will work as a needle and thread,” Hisakawa responded, keeping his focus on the task in front of him.

“I see,” came the response out of her. A moment later, Hisakawa flinched from something being tossed in front of his face. The object made a ‘Clack!’ sound when it hit the floor, and when he turned to look, it turned out to be a half-used roll of pink sewing thread.

“Found it earlier. Can’t say I’ve come across a needle yet, though.”

Hisakawa picked up the spool, examining it before putting it in his pocket, “Thank you very much. I appreciate your help,” He said, refocusing on the clean up efforts, “Although, you don’t need to worry about what I’m doing, it’s my job, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Have fun with that,” the girl answered dismissively. Hisakawa could hear her footsteps echo through the cabin and the door shut soon after, leaving only him and Usui in the room. She crouched down next to him and started to help him pick up some of the objects on the floor.

“You’re bad with girls… right?”

“Uh… y-yeah,” Hisakawa said, pausing in order to find the best way to word what he was about to say, “Girls just, uh, I don’t know, I get all tense. I don’t really like upsetting people, girls especially, but I seem to be really good at doing exactly that. At least I’m better with that now… I think,” He shoved a restocked container back into its proper place, moving on to the next collection of items. Usui walked past him and started to ruffle through a different one.

“I think… you should be careful. People might… take advantage of that. Someone like me, or... her.” Hisakawa looked over to her, his mouth having difficulty forming words.

“I… What do you mean by that?”

Usui didn’t answer. She looked to have found what she was looking for, though, and stared at it for a few seconds. Usui turned and walked over to Hisakawa.

“Here.”

She put a small metal object in his hands, before walking past him and towards the exit.

Hisakawa watched her leave for a moment, before looking down to see the needle she had put in his hand. He stared at it, as if taking a moment to process it, “... Thank you for your help.” Usui paused.

“Yeah.”

After saying that, the girl opened the cabin’s door and walked through, leaving Hisakawa alone in Yukimori’s lab.

That was… kind of weird, and Hisakawa wasn’t sure what to think of it. He took the spool from his pocket, examining the two objects he had been given. If he brought them back to the group, they would know he had gone into Yukimori’s space when she said to wait. He didn’t want to see unappreciative of the help or anything, but… Well, they wouldn’t know, right?

As he finished packing up the materials that got knocked to the floor, he stuck the thread and needle into one of the boxes. It was maybe a bit of a waste of time, but the idea of how mad Yukimori might get if she knew he had come in just wasn’t worth risking. He opened the door, checking that no one was out there, and once more waited in front of the building.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Hisakawa Hiroki

Hisakawa listened as Yukimori spoke, nodding along with what she said, “Okay, I’m going to go ahead. I don’t think I’ll be much help with the relocation process. I wanted to go look for supplies in other places too, anyway.”

With that, Hisakawa made his way out of the amphitheater and on the path to the sports supply cabin—and honestly, thank God. The stress of the day was starting to get to him, and the sooner he could have some time alone, the better. People were overwhelming.

He wasn’t going slow or anything, because he was actually doing something important, but he would exhaust himself by running, so he walked at a pretty rigorous pace. Perhaps it was kind of a dick move to leave everybody else to handle the actual injured people, but he was actually helping, yeah? And he wasn’t going to be much help when they no doubt could have carried everyone themselves, and it would make sense to get supplies as soon as possible. Of course, just cause that’s what he thinks doesn’t mean that’s right…

But that’s not something he’s got to be so worried about right now. It’s something he could answer to later. Right now, he could take a moment look at trees and feel the air, and whatever other things people do when walking outside—without dally, of course. He opened the door to the sports cabin with little affair, searching for a light switch even in the relative brightness of the sunlight beaming in through the windows.

He didn’t stick around long—he let his eyes wander over the various pieces of sports equipment, smiling at the memory of a few different sports he tried as a kid. He was almost tempted to pick up a basketball from a collection kept in the corner, but ultimately decided against it, knowing it wasn’t his stuff and that now wasn’t the time. Soon enough he found the first aid kit. It was smaller than he expected, but as he opened it up, checking for bandages and disinfectants, he found that it would do.

He exited the cabin, turning the light off as he left, and pulled out the monopad to double-check the location of Yukimori’s lab. He doesn’t know what to expect to find in there, but, he figured, chances are he’d find something to work as a needle and something to work as a thread. Maybe something to work as better bandages—the ones in the first aid kit were probably not meant for bullet wounds.

He stood outside of Yukimori’s lab, holding the first aid kit in his arms. He stood upright and tried to pay attention around him, not wanting to seem inattentive. Not being home was weird, and being around all these new people was scary, and he was by no means super comfortable or relaxed, but… right now, he had a few merciful moments to not think about it so hard, having no choice but to sit and wait anyways.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Hisakawa Hiroki

…Smart? He thinks I’m smart? What gives him that idea?

Hisakawa was temporarily lost in the turmoil of wondering how, exactly, someone thought he was smart, but if stopped freaking out for two seconds, it’d make sense. After all, his talent was related to being a good student, which is definitely misleading. He’s not smart, he just knows how to pay attention, and how to reproduce the information—though even then, that’s begun to fail him.

Well, in any case, the internal logic of his world was set back in order. Just in time for him to notice the entire conversation had gone on without him. He should probably point out that he had totally tuned out of that last part there—though, actually, it might be better if he worried about the pressing medical concerns that he was now partially responsible for. Was it really a good idea for him to have volunteered for this? Sure, he knew something about biology, but he was no professional. He really should have just left it to better suited people, but no, he had to get all prissy because he didn’t want to talk to Aurel, which didn’t make much of a difference since Aurel was part of it now, anyway.

Currently, the plan seemed rather nebulous and people seemed to be talking it out, but more than anything, Hisakawa was anxious to tend to the wounded as soon as possible and then go have a breakdown somewhere. Though, what he should be more worried about is the wounded themselves, and how they really needed to get tended to now. He doesn’t want to interrupt discussion going on, but he needed to get something done, at least. He gave it a moment of thought, trying to think of what he could do, before settling on a plan.

“I'll grab supplies. I'm not super fast or anything, but I, uh…” It was a bit of a risk, potentially overselling himself, but he felt he could probably do this right, “I can get what we need. Stuff to suture and clean the wounds, and get the bullet out.” He pulled his monopad out, using his map to find where he would go for the supplies, planning out a route in his head. There’s was probably a first aid kit somewhere, but that wouldn’t have stuff to suture. Where would... hmm...

A frown came to his face, “Um…” He looked up, looking up to find the face he was looking for. His gaze soon settled on her, before quickly darting to pretty much anywhere except directly at her, “Uh, Yukimori, right? Um, I was thinking I’d go to your lab for some stuff, but I don't want to go into your space without your permission. So, if it's alright with you, may I go through your lab to get the supplies? Uh, I understand if you don't trust me to. You can come with me to make sure I don't mess anything up, if you want. Or, you know, you can handle it yourself, also.”

However she responded, he soon after made his way to grab whatever he could.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Hey check it out it's my opinions. I can't make predictions on how long they will live, so instead I included ominous allusions to the fact that they might die at some point. Unfortunately, there's also a lot that I can't say due to spoilers, so if these opinions seemed half-baked, that's why.

Hisakawa Hiroki

In the original run he was more or less blatant anxiety all over the place, and after a certain point it didn’t really feel good to write that anymore, and I was fairly certain it was boring to read. For the second run, I wanted to retool him ever so slightly to make him more fun all around, and luckily I think I succeeded, at least for the most part. Being able to throw in that “Ew!” was everything to me. I feel like he’s a bit unnecessarily edgy, but uuuuuuuuuh IDK, I may make some very minor edits to make his backstory feel a little better. It’d be nice to play him once everything’s calmed down a little bit—he’s still wound up all the time but it’s less intense, which I think is more fun.

Hours of research and emotional investment/10. Though that alone won’t save him from death.

Tsuin Taka/Taya

I have very vivid memories of first reading their character sheet, mostly because it was an interesting concept and because I would never in a million years think to write something like that, though maybe I’m just unimaginative. Personality wise I haven’t seen a whole lot from poor Taya yet (RIP), though I kind of love how Taka is more or less incapable of getting along with anybody and can piss people off pretty much at first contact. I’m interested in seeing where this goes.

Less Taka more Taya/10. Though more Taya will not necessarily correlate with a higher chance of survival.

Usui Ayu

I enjoy a character whose mentality doesn’t necessarily meet the baseline of what’s considered “normal”, and I think Ayu’s one of the best demonstrations of that, though Snow might fit that pretty well too. But anyway, I find her enjoyably quirky, even if she’s pretty cold. Or maybe because of it. Other than that I don’t know if I have all that much to say about her? In any case, I enjoy her presence. Plus, I’m interested to see some sweet sweet character development.

I wanna see her break down, babes/10. Y’know, before she possibly dies.

Lilly Hart

She’s kind of a gremlin, but I can appreciate that in a character. I can tell Vocab has put a hell of a lot of thought and effort into her, which is something I really respect. I enjoy her childish energy and overall “deal”, so I’m interested to see how she interacts with others if and when she calms down from the rabbit thing.

Funky little gremlin/10. Vocab will tell you Lilly can never die but she just might.

Aurel Fuchs

Aurel is somehow one of the most normal and protagonist-y characters despite the fact that I think Savo was trying to do anything but. However, I don’t think that’s a bad thing! It’s helps occupy a certain type of energy within the cast that no one else really has, which I think is good. I mean, Shirou tries to be that, but I’ll get to him. Aurel is non-confrontational but active enough to get along with most people alright, even with his eccentricities.

Embrace your inner protagonist/10. If you live long enough to be able to do so.

Snow Iclyn

Snow is an absolute unrelenting bitch and it just tickles me. She makes no sense but in the best way possible. Plus she’s just dumb in a “lacking common sense” way, which I genuinely love. I always look forward to a Snow post, even if it makes me burn with a mild anger due to her pretentious attitude. It’s a good anger though! Some of the characters I love most in DR I was first majorly pissed with, but by the end I would find myself sincerely hoping they didn’t die.

She could probably be even more of an asshole and I would still like her/10. Please note that those asshole characters who I hoped wouldn’t die have a one in three survival rate, so don’t think that’ll save you. (That one was convoluted)

Matsuo Hibiki

Chill dude, nice dude. I can tell Aime has a lot of emotional investment in Hibiki and has put a lot of time into him, and it’s nice to see somebody who actually has some damned people skills in this cast, even if his more quiet nature doesn’t seem to reflect that. Unfortunately, I don’t know what else I have to say. But I really look forward to seeing more of him, especially once he starts interacting with people regularly.

Throw him into an awkward 8th grade social/10. Course, he might die, so we might not get to see that. I mean, not that we would anyway. Ruined my own metaphor, y’all get it.

Hitsugami Ryuma

Ryuma’s hardcore without being impossible to understand, which isn’t always easy to do. He’s got a lot of elements that could make me dislike him on a personal level when used poorly, but I find myself enjoying him as a character. I think he has the makings of being a really good character. He’s fun to read, probably fun to write, and I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes next.

Enjoyably well balanced/10. Though like everyone else, he also balances on the line of life and death.

Yukimori Maiya

It’s no secret that Maiya is very endearing, whether that was intentional on Lana’s part or not. I know Lana questions if her posts really match up to the standard everyone else sets, but I think they do. They may not be as long, but in a lot of ways that’s a good thing. Lana’s posts have very little bullshit, and that takes skill. Not that she’s the only one, it’s just, you know, it’s relevant now so I’m talking about it now. Though Maiya’s personality is understated, she’s also probably one of the better established characters of the cast in so far. It helps that she’s very likeable. Also, I love characters with unusual talents a lot, so that’s a plus.

Sweetheart/10. Of course, that sweet heart could eventually stop beating.

Saitou Izo

Pyro doesn’t write super long posts or anything, but I’m looking forward to Izo a lot in the future. I think he’s got a lot of potential, but maybe I just really like stubborn characters. It might just be that I like stubborn characters. I hope he gets into some fun conflicts down the road.

The future looks bright/10. Almost as bright as the light that Izo might be walking towards.

Emiya Shirou

I know the copy-pasting a character thing is controversial, but I don’t really mind it that much. My D&D character is basically just Kamukura with a new coat of paint, after all (though, I suppose at a certain point he ended up diverging in certain ways as I worked more on him). I think not even changing his name is kind of poor form, but like… whatever, you know? That said, a lot of what I think of him is based on what Vocab’s done, since I'm unfamiliar with the character. The way I see Shirou, he's far more concerned with being a hero than being a man among his people, which I think is what ultimately makes him less of a protagonist-y character. But I think that's actually pretty interesting, so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing if that goes anywhere.

Got interesting places to go maybe/10. Possibly the afterlife.

Flare Dawnray

She hasn’t really had a whole lot of time to develop, so I’m not sure on how I feel about her, exactly. I find certain elements of her backstory interesting, which is always a plus, and she's got me in the unusual talent field. She seems nice, involved, and will probably be one of the more lighthearted members of the group. Hard to say much else though, really, though considering how awesome Snow is I have a good amount of faith.

Gimme gimme more/10. Though she might die before I get all that I want.

Hamazura Ginshi

I didn’t think all that much of Ginshi when he was first submitted to this rp. Which is a shame, considering how much I like him in practice. He’s fun and Kenju writes him great. I think Ginshi’s the one that actually feels the most like a DR character, but he also doesn’t retread any old ground, which is great. I feel like a broken record, but I still gotta see more out of him before I form any more solid opinions. Gotta say, though, I’m genuinely loving him.

Love this guy/10. Of course, I’ve said that about a lot of DR characters who are dead now, so that says nothing for his survivability.

Himura Chikako

Best girl! Best girl! In all seriousness, I only really wrote Chikako because we needed more characters, but I’m glad I did, if for no other reason than she’s a real change of pace from Hiroki. I feel she’s also a lot more undefined, but then again, I’ve had a lot less time with her. I definitely like having the chance to play someone a lot more energetic and social, and I actually laughed at certain points while writing her backstory. I think I’ll like her even more once I’ve shaped her into a stronger character, which I've got some good ideas for.

Gotta step up my game if I wanna make it in the big leagues/10. Is death possible for her? Well, yeah.

Fukuda Naomi

I honestly have no idea what to make of Naomi. There’s a lot about her that I like in theory, but I just haven’t seen a whole lot of her in practice yet. I guess I just need to see her with people more often, y’know, after she’s done distrusting people off the bat, though who knows how long that’ll take? Or maybe it’s not what she’s doing, just more of a time factor? Either way, Aime can pull this character off, I just don’t think we’ve had enough time with Naomi yet.

I couldn’t think of a clever way to summarize my thoughts/10. Hey did you know? 100% of people die at some point, and Naomi might die during the game! Wow!

Mizuno Momoe

Much like Naomi, there’s a lot I like about her in theory that I just haven’t seen in practice yet. I have every faith that Ammo can write a good character from her, but I just haven’t had the time to really see what she’s like just yet. I think she has a lot of potential for some interesting clashes with the rest of the gang though, which is good, especially since I’m pretty sure that was more or less the point. Now that I’m thinking back on it, there’s a lot about Momoe that I like. I just want to see her in action.

Time to start a fight/10. Unless she dies in that fight, of course.

Let's Gush!

@Ammokkx Awwwwww thanks! I'm glad you think so- a lot of my GM knowledge is theoretical, so I'm happy to see it's paying off. But, y'know, I noticed you missed somebody in all your gushing: yourself! (I know you wouldn't really do that on this kind of thing but my transition doesn't work otherwise soooooooo)

You've been an absolute pleasure to work with in the RP- and hell, without you, it wouldn't even exist anymore. And I know everyone likes to joke about how you're this real negative asshole (especially yourself), but I actually think your an incredible source of positivity on the Discord, even if you sometimes get into arguements about this thing or that. Plus, I have a lot of respect for you as a writer- I think you say a lot of smart things about people's writing, and whenever you've thrown criticism my way I've always thought "yeah, that's fair and it makes sense why you'd say that."

So, you know, thanks for joining my RP and saying nice things about me on the internet, and uuuuuuuuuuh I hope this wasn't too cheesy for ya, I like to think I showed some constraint.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Hisakawa Hiroki

Hisakawa had dealt with death before. He wasn't at the hospital when his father died—his mother didn't bother to tell him and his brother about it until after he had passed. Hisakawa used to be mad about it, but he had let go of that a long time ago. He had mourned at the funeral, but he was never particularly close with his father, and… he missed him more than he expected, but he eventually got over it.

He himself had been hospitalized before. He was unconscious for most of the affair, but he had vague memories of his last conscious moments before going to the hospital. Passing out in the bathroom, being faintly aware of the life leaving his body. He had woken up mostly recovered, but he remembered, at the time, being unsure if he was really okay with dying. But he also remembered what he was told when he voiced these thoughts, “Dozens, maybe hundreds of people die here every week, you know. We’ve worked hard to give you life, so don't be so damn ungrateful.”

At the end of the day, he wasn’t totally okay with dying. There were things in life he still cared about, and he wasn’t ready to let go just yet.

But, well, death was a pretty good way to not have to deal with the problems of life anymore. It was, perhaps, a bit of a morbid thought, but the reality of death suddenly seemed a lot closer to Hisakawa than he was really ready for. Even in the best case scenario… this Monokuma guy was definitely serious about keeping them here. Worst case, someone might actually die.

The commotion was a lot to take in. Hisakawa often struggled to respond to one person, so he didn’t even know where to start with this mess. Two people were shot, two were helping respond to it, one was trying to lay out a plan, the other was giving reason to not follow it. It was… really confusing. So… what the hell does he do?

He didn’t want to be a burden on anybody, but he almost feels as if that’s kind of inevitable. No matter what he does he’s probably going to be some sort of annoyance, but choosing not to act is always worse, so he had to choose what he was going to do carefully. He was conflicted about whether he should—oh fuck, that’s the guy from before! Yeah, no, he was definitely doing whatever he can to avoid talking to that guy.

Thinking on his feet, he pulled out the tablet and began sifting through the students once more, figuring out a plan in his head. No, no, no, no, no—Wow, there really was nobody with any sort of real medical training, huh? Then again, they were just a bunch of high schoolers…

Hisakawa breathed in and out. He had pretty decent medical knowledge, from combined independent study, some baseline anatomy lessons he had gotten in middle school, and the medical horror stories he keeps saying he doesn’t want to hear but always gets told about anyway. Their injuries could be pretty serious—the two helping the injured pair might need another set of hands, or at least somebody to get supplies while they focused on treating them. He was… squeamish, but he felt he had to do his best to help.

He got up onto the stage, approaching the woman who seemed to be at the forefront of treating them. He kept his head low as he spoke, saying, “Um, excuse me, but, if you think it would be helpful, I could provide some assistance. Oh course, I don’t want to clutter anything up, or mess anything up, it was just a suggestion…” He glanced over to the injured duo, observing their current state, “Uh… It might be best to—” He promptly cut himself short, “Never mind, I’m sure you got it. I’m just here to help, if you want it.” He took a small step back, wringing his hands as his stomach turned, fully prepared to turn tail at any second.

---
Himura Chikako

Himura was having a hard time understanding what was going on. From the adrenaline to the loud blast to just the general confusion, she wasn’t really able to get a grip.

She was aware of the fact that she wasn’t dead, but was in a great deal of pain. As she became more and more aware of the pain in her shoulder, she became aware of her own bubbling emotions—anger, fear, confusion. She turned her head to the boy who had collapsed in front of her, a scowl, “You didn’t need to do that, asshole, I’d have been fine,” she said faintly.

She tried to get up, but she was dizzy and weak. She was kind of losing a lot of blood, wasn’t she? No, no, she was fine. She just needed a moment to collect herself. She tensed up, preparing to rise once more.

She let out an exhausted sigh, barely paying mind to the movement that occured from some people trying to help her out, “Ah, fuck off, I got it, I don’t need any help!” Once more she tried to get up, but collapsed back down. Oh, lord, that definitely jostled something.

“Alright, fine, you can help, I guess.” She said, annoyance obvious in her tone. She felt like a child again, having her wounds taken care of by somebody else like this. It sucked, “But don’t think it’s cause I can’t do it, I just don’t wanna!” She said. There, that was better!

She sort of stopped paying attention after that point. She wasn’t really able to focus on anything else. She tried to keep her mind off the pain, thinking back to her party plans—this place wasn’t as nearly cool as she thought it was gonna be, but she could still do something with it. A party’s just a group gathering with some music, yeah? So all she’d really need a group and some tunes…

Her thoughts continued on a similar path, until they faded into what was essentially nothing, only barely conscious of her surroundings.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Quite the feisty group, this one! Quite a big deal of outcry so far, which was great! That was the sound of despair taking beginning to take hold.

“Oh, wow, you all are so outspoken! You really think you all are so above it all, huh? You think you’re better than fear and paranoia? Better than the motivation within yourself to kill? Do you honestly believe you’re all so great that you can get out of this on your own... Hope’s Peak students really must be special, in that case! Maybe you guys really will be able to defeat great evils like me after all!” He laughed, insincerity marking his tone.

Himura Chikako was not having this. She was a musical beast and an athletic queen, and this is how they want to treat her? Like she’s some sort of murder tool!? No, she meant it when she said she wasn’t going to do this, and she was going to make sure this stupid bear knew it.

Ignoring anything in her path, she bolted up to the stage, effortlessly vaulting onto the raised platform, kicking her leg out to kick the son of a bitch into the calm lake water, where it will hopefully short out and die.

She screamed out as she attacked, but it died on her tongue as she felt herself falling forward. She tried to push the bear as she went down, but only just managed a slight shove. She tried to roll herself onto her feet again with whatever time she had left, but somehow couldn’t move her foot, and fell flat on her front, the wind knocked out of her.

“Upupu! I figured one of you might try something funny! Glad I decided to install that!”

Himura looked down, seeing a series of metal bands wrapped around her foot, having appeared out of nowhere. She desperately tried to pull it loose, but there was no use—it was stuck.

“I’m also glad I decided to install this!” Monokuma said, punctuating his sentence with a huge gun popping out of the ground, pointed right toward the helpless girl, “Please note that any and all rule infractions will not be tolerated. And, of course, violence against me is a big no-no—even a pathetic shove like that! To make sure my point is very clear, allow me to demonstrate the consequences of breaking the rules on your classmate!” He said, something sinister entering his eyes as the large gun made a whirring sound, aiming for the girl’s head.

There wasn’t much time—almost none at all. Though the threats of the monochrome bear could easily be empty, nothing more than a toy gun, Shirou still launched himself over to the girl, sliding in front of her and shielding her just before the bullet hit, lodging itself in his upper leg. Any strength he still had in his body left, and he was left on the floor, clutching his leg.

“Oh?” Monokuma muttered, seeing his target had not had her head ceremoniously exploded. In fact, she didn’t even have her head unceremoniously exploded. Monokuma looked at the boy who had blocked her, the so called hero of justice. After a second of thoughtful silence, he brightened up, “You know what—Shirou, was it? You’re right! I’m getting way ahead of myself. I shouldn’t go killing you all right away. After all, that’s totally not the point of all this! It’s no fun if I do all the work for you! I need a little patience.”

“That being said, you all need to understand just how important it is to follow the rules! So, how about I let Chikako off with a warning? After all, you all only just got here, I can’t get so mad at you for not sticking with the system so soon. Much like animals have to be trained, kids need to learn to follow rules!” Another turret popped out from behind the two of them, and before either could move, a bullet shot through Chikako’s shoulder.

Monokuma turned to the crowd, who had bore witness to the whole event, “I hope this proves that I’m not here to waste your time and tell you lies! I’m here to facilitate the killing game experience for you all! Those who don’t comply and break the rules will be punished appropriately, and much more severely than your friends here.”

“In any case, you are free to explore the camp to your heart’s content, within the confines of the rules! Feel free to try and find a way out, if you’re think you can really get past me. Though do be aware of the consequences of failure. On that note, I’ll help out your classmates with their wounds later… You know, if I feel like it. They’re not gonna die or anything, I trust you all can handle it.” The bear took a moment to take in the energy of the crowd, giggling to himself at the general fear that doubtlessly comes from watching two people get shot.

“Hmm. Perhaps you guys aren’t so special after all!” Monokuma exclaimed, as enthused as ever. As suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared, leaving the two students to their injuries.

Prologue
End

Chapter 1: Once Again We Start the Game of Despair
Daily Life

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Hisakawa Hiroki

Hisakawa… really didn’t know what to think of this girl. She seemed, uh, kind of continually confused and bothered by his presence, which… didn’t surprise him. And, well, he couldn’t exactly blame her. She seemed to give no real though to what he was saying, either, which was also not very surprising to him. She didn’t really respond to his decision to leave, so he just… kind of scooted off.

Alright, well, he didn’t end up be a total disappointment of a human being, so, uh, mission successful? Well, that girl was probably never talking to him again, and he felt extending himself to her would only bother her, so… Alright, he’s gotten nowhere. All he’s done so far is make two seperate people think he’s a pervert, which was probably fair, but it didn’t make social interaction any easier.

You know what? Mission totally unsuccessful, he had basically already burned every bridge he had before they were even built. Hell, he had probably burnt some he didn’t even know existed yet. He really doesn’t know why she sent him here, they both knew he wasn’t going to last all that long...

Hisakawa shook his head, clearing his head of those thoughts. No, he couldn’t give up now. It may be pointless, but he can’t give up quite yet. They may both know he wasn’t going to last long, but they were also both willing to let him give it a shot. He can’t just give up when the going gets tough.

So, he entered the amphitheater in relatively high spirits. He took a seat in the front, though as he waited for others to filter in he kind of regretted it. He didn’t really know who he was dealing with besides himself. If he had sat somewhere else he could have gotten a better look at who was coming in, but then again, it was kinda creepy to just stare at people, yeah? So he just told himself to be patient, and just be content with the lake view. It’s not like it was something he got to see every day, after all.

Not long after, some strange… bear creature popped out of the ground and started talking. This was definitely weird, but Hisakawa forced himself to pay attention.

Which, uh, just really wasn’t doing well for his anxiety. The thing was loud and weirdly off-putting, and very casual about a lot things Hisakawa found deeply concerning. Namely, the fact that their memories had been taken away. He really didn’t like that one bit. His memory was shit enough already, and that got him into a lot of trouble, so he didn’t need any forced amnesia to deal with. What if he had forgotten something seriously important!?

But the worry that brought him was nothing compared to what he felt when Monokuma said the only way out was through murder. Hisakawa knew he had to get home at this point, but killing somebody to do so? There has to be a different way. A fault in the fence or something. He still can’t give up quite yet, but murder wasn’t an option. He doesn’t know if he’d be that useful, but he’ll do whatever he can to get everyone out of here.

But despite the self pep talk, he couldn’t help but notice that his hands were shaking as he held onto this device he was given. Breathing was starting to get harder, too... No, no, he can’t start freaking out! Not in front of everybody, not when this was the one thing he had to pay attention to way right in front of him. If he wanted to help, he had to push through and focus. Far from totally relaxed, he turned on the handbook and went to look at the information available.

Map—pretty useful, hard to go wrong with that. Rule—definitely set up for a murder game, cool cool cool. Other students—well, it’d be a good way to figure out who’s who. There was the girl from before, Usui Ayu, whose talent was… unknown. Somehow, that seemed right. He also thinks he recognized the guy that, uh, walked in on them. Aurel Fuchs—some sort of thief, it seems, though Hisakawa was probably never going to talk to him, if he could avoid it, so he supposed it didn’t matter all that much. Maybe that was a dick move, but he just couldn't imagine himself facing that guy again. He didn’t have much of an impression on anybody else, so he supposed he’d be figuring out what they’re like with time.

In any case, he was ready to go to his cabin and have a mild panic attack or something. It was kind of pathetic that he couldn’t keep himself together, but once he could go calm himself down, he could figure out what to do next.

Himura Chikako

“Hell yeah, that's the spirit, uuuuuuuuuuuuuh... Girl!” She shouted as she ran, addressing the nameless girl rocking the side ponytail who, so far, seemed the only one interested in her way of thinking. Everyone else was so much more interested in being worried over nothing, she guessed. Some even had the audacity yell at her about it! The nerve of some people… Well, she was sure the others would come around. Or maybe not, they all seemed pretty concerned with their own worries. Hmmmmmmm, maybe it'll just take time! Either way, Himura wasn’t going to concern herself too much with worry warts.

She stopped at the amphitheater, not all that tired from the run. She turned to see the other girl not far behind her. She smiled and said, “Not bad, not bad. Not as good as me, but not bad!” She grabbed the girl’s arm and dragged her over to the nearest place to sit, chatting as they waited for whatever lecture they were gonna get, with Himura mostly rambling about party plans.

Eventually, some weird stuffed bear thing popped out of the ground and started talking to them about what exactly was going on. Reluctantly, Himura listened, trying to keep her mind from wandering to other places. She tended to find lectures like these pretty boring.

Though, this seemed to actually be kind of important. Which was… annoying, in a way. She didn’t like that she was brought here against her will, nor that the had memories forced out of her, but, well, she could roll with that much, though it meant that the others were probably gonna spend a lot of time freaking out. And, well, it kind of made them right in a way, which put a sour expression on her face.

Though the announcement that the only way out was to kill somebody was… Himura didn’t even have a word for it. She couldn’t even think. She was pissed! She didn’t sign up for this! She was gonna go to a normal ass school and live a normal ass life, not get stuck in some dumb murder game!

As she was handed the handbook, she squeezed it between her hands. This was stupid. She hated this! She had no desire to waste her time killing people, and she wasn’t going to sit and just let this pass by. So when the bear cheerily asked if there were any questions, Himura found herself taking the invitation.

She stood up, spiked the handbook to the ground, definitely shattering it and possibly breaking it, and pointed at Monokuma, “Yeah, I got a question for ya; Fuck you! I ain’t doing this shit!” She proclaimed, taking a wide stance in defiance.

Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

Slowly, the group of students found their way to the stone structure. Whether it be sitting with crossed arms and a sour face, with a gaze of curiosity, or nervously fidgeting hands, you could see there weren’t really that many people around—or at least, the size of this amphitheater sure made it seem like there weren’t many. An energy was running through the air, as though something bad was about to happen.

Just as you thought that, a small figure seemed to… pop out from the ground? Wait, what?

“Ah, excellent, everyone’s here! You know, I really want to thank you all for being so nice and showing up! It feels good to be respected!”

There was a lot of alarming things about this situation, of course, but some things were more alarming than others. For example, the fact that the speaker appeared to be some sort of… stuffed bear?

“So, first thing’s first, let’s get introductions out of the way! I’m Monokuma, your camp counselor, loved by children and approved by mothers all over the globe!” He said glowingly, before throwing in a very dismissive, “And I already know all of you, so you don’t really need to bother with any of that.”

“Anyways, welcome to Summer Camp! I know it doesn’t precisely feel like Summer, but I promise it is. Maybe. Can I be honest? I have no idea what time it is. Or where we are. I’m just as confused as the rest of you!” The bear said with a laugh, far too mirthful for the circumstances.

“Upupu! I’m just kidding! Maybe. Speaking of, I imagine you guys are very confused right now! After all, I’ve wiped a whooooooole lot of memories. And you know, I’d appreciate some gratitude- I spent a lot of time on that! And some of you didn’t exactly make it easy!” The bear sighs dramatically, “Being a counselor is such a thankless job! In any case, I hope you guys don’t mind! Not that you have much of a choice, anyway. Upupu! Isn’t that so des-despairful? That a word?” The bear paused, then answered his own question with a, “Well what do you know, it is!”

“But I’m sure that’s the least of your concerns!” Monokuma said, interrupting his own tangent, “I’m not gonna waste my time pretending any of you want to be here, and frankly, I’m ready to get this game going, so how about I cut right to the case? How, exactly, do you get out? Well, it doesn’t seem possible, at first. All these electric fences, the only gate being locked, no sign of anyone coming, either. So, how do you get out?”

“Well, campers, that's where I come in! I’ll provide an opportunity to leave, should you choose to seek it out. And you see, it’s really quite simple!” Despite the fact that, logically, it shouldn’t be possible, Monokuma’s mechanical face widened into an excited grin.

“All you have to do is kill somebody!” He paused briefly, waiting for the shock to overtake the crowd, before continuing once more.

“Now, I’m sure you all have a lot of questions, but let me explain real quick before all that!”

“So, let me get into the rules of this! You can’t just go around killing somebody all willy nilly, after all. If you want to leave this camp, you have to murder somebody—it doesn’t matter how, so long as you get the job done! However, you also need to not get caught! In order to determine this, a class trial will be held! I have all the rules laid out right in this handy-dandy student PDA—you each get one, so please take the time to read them!”

“So,” He finished off, just as bright and cheery as he was before, perhaps even more so, “Are there any questions?"