The fact that I'm in this classroom right now is a bigger problem than it looks. I've already spent two years at Hope's Peak Academy, and the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History has already come and gone.
What's truly despair-inducing is that all seventeen students of Class 78—including me—have had our memories wiped by Junko Enoshima and have just been hurled into her paranoid killing game.
So what did the past me even do? I bragged that my real-world knowledge of the games would let me take on Despair and Junko alike—yet here we are.
"Yeah… What could a guy like me even pull off? I never should've strutted around just because I knew the lore. I should've skipped Hope's Peak altogether and holed up in some bunker…"
My head swells with hopeless thoughts, but—like always—I force myself to dredge up something positive.
"At least only our school memories are gone; everything from before enrollment is intact. My meta-knowledge of the games is still in here."
The idiot version of me might have failed to stop the Ultimate Despair, but I still have a fighting chance. That walkthrough knowledge only shines once the killing game actually starts.
"I know every culprit, every motive, every trick in every chapter. If I play my cards right, I can derail the game and bring Junko Enoshima to justice."
Since it's come to this, I steel myself. I swear I'll stop the killing game and make it out alive, then push open the classroom door.
.
.
.
In a surveillance room lined with monitors showing every corner of the school, a girl stares daggers at one particular screen.
On that screen, a scrawny, slightly gloomy-looking boy pushes open a door, his face taut with nerves.
"Pfft… even his nervous face is adorable."
The girl in front of the monitors wears a faint smile, a flush warming her cheeks.
To a stranger she might look lovestruck, but the words slipping from her lips are anything but sweet.
"I can't wait to see how much you'll suffer, how deeply you'll grieve, how utterly you'll drown in despair…"
As soon as the boy leaves the frame, the girl's smile vanishes. She switches feeds; sixteen students now fill the screen.
The girl—Junko Enoshima—stares at them without expression, then whispers, "This time I'll capture every second of your collapse with my own two eyes."
Silence reigns for a long, suffocating moment.
.
.
.
I scratch at a sudden itch in my ear as I step into the foyer, greeted by faces both familiar and oddly foreign.
"Are you a new student here too?"
They're the faces I've seen a thousand times while playing the game—the very classmates I've apparently spent the last two years with.
"Hey, I asked if you're a newbie too!"
And if the script holds, most of them are doomed to die…
"You there! It's only proper manners to respond when spoken to! And turning up late—such slothfulness has no place at our academy—"
"Ah, y-yeah… sorry. I got lost in thought for a second… my bad."
Kiyotaka Ishimaru's scolding snaps me back. No more doom-thinking. I steady myself and speak.
"Hey… I'm K, admitted as the Ultimate Counselor. Nice to meet you all…"
I muster all my courage, yet the introduction sags out of me in a limp voice.
"For an Ultimate Counselor, that voice of yours really grates on the ears, y'know?"
Junko Enoshima—no, Mukuro Ikusaba in disguise—snarks at me. Hilarious, considering this battle-hardened soldier is playing at being a carefree gyaru.
"More importantly, why don't we all introduce ourselves again—for the classmate who showed up late!"
Aoi Asahina's bubbly suggestion gets the chatter rolling. I've watched this scene a dozen times in-game, but seeing the Ultimates banter right in front of me feels downright surreal.
We redo the introductions, and I greet every student. Not gonna lie, my heart skipped when I shook hands with my favorite, Kyoko Kirigiri.
Once the pleasantries finish, a sudden announcement crackles to life.
Attention, freshmen… The entrance ceremony is about to begin… Please hurry to the gymnasium.
"The gym? Oh, right—that's where…"
So, I'll be counting on you!
"W-what the heck was that just now?"
"…Ikusaba dies there, right?"
The Mukuro Ikusaba who's currently pretending to be flustered will become a human pincushion in that very gym a few days from now—a scene that shocked me senseless during the game, so I remember every grisly detail.
"I'm leaving first. The rest of you can follow—or don't."
With Byakuya Togami leading the way, the others mutter amongst themselves and drift toward the gym.
"Damn… the clock's already ticking."
Should I stop Mukuro from becoming a walking bed of spears in a few days? But she's Ultimate Despair too. What should I do…?
Do I save her and try to recruit her? Or let this potential threat die—
Hold on, the first to die in Danganronpa is Maizono, right? Maybe I should worry about her before I worry about Ikusaba…?
I haven't been here long, yet I'm already fretting over who dies first. Reality sinks in: I'm trapped in a killing game, and the dread starts piling up.
Can I really save everyone? Do I even have the talent to—
"K! Are you planning to be late again? Quit loafing around and move it, move it!"
"R-right…!"
Ishimaru's bellow snaps me out of it again; everyone else has already filed out of the foyer. First order of business: get to the gym.