Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[Black Screen]
???: (That massive school towers over all the other buildings in the area, as if it stands at the center of the entire world.)
???: (It brings in top students from every field imaginable. Most call it government-funded, but in reality, it feels more… mystical than that.)

[Hope’s Peak CG]
???: (A school built to raise hope in the nation's future. Fittingly named Hope’s Peak Academy.)

[Closer Hope’s Peak CG]
???: (In most people’s eyes, there are two things you need to attend this school.)
???: (One, you have to already be attending high school. Two, you have to be the very best at what you do.)
???: (The people who get into this school are what’s known as “Ultimates”...)
???: (Although recently, that first rule to being one has sort of been thrown out the window.)
???: (Anybody looking to seek higher education with any sort of talent can be scouted out by Hope’s Peak, it seems.)
???: (But enough about that. Let’s focus on the small speck of purple in front of the massive gates. That is to say…)

[pan down to ??? at front gate]
???: (...Let’s talk about me.)

[fade to sprite of ??? on full-black background]
???: My name is Kazuro Futoya. I had been asked to attend this school, as their Ultimate Voice Actor.
KAZURO: (Now, just because I'm an Ultimate doesn't mean I’m some blank slate with no feelings. In fact, I'm actually quite nervous about all this.)

[Kazuro on computer CG]
KAZURO: (I did as much research as I could on everyone else in my class. The problem is, I couldn’t really find much information on… well, any  of my supposed classmates.)

[back to Kazuro at front gate]
KAZURO: Regardless, I was told to be here by around now, so I guess there's no harm in heading in, right?

[Hope’s Peak Main Hall CG]
KAZURO: (And yet, as I took my first steps into the Main Hall of Hope’s Peak Academy...)

[CG begins swirling, melting, swirling, glitching, melting, etc.]
KAZURO: (Literally everything that could’ve gone wrong… did.)
[Fade to black]

PROLOGUE - Welcome to the Real Dangan Ronpa

Chapter Text

PROLOGUE - Welcome to the Real Dangan Ronpa

KAZURO: ...Ngh…
[Kazuro waking up at desk CG]
KAZURO: ...huh?
KAZURO: (When I opened my eyes, I was suddenly… in a classroom.)
KAZURO: (Not one I’ve been in, mind you.)
KAZURO: (But the distinct smell of a chalkboard, and the flickering lights above my head, told me almost everything I needed to know.)

[Classroom gameplay area shows up]

||Inspect door (before desk)כ
KAZURO: (Ah, the good old classroom door.)
KAZURO: (It’s unlocked…!)
KAZURO: (I guess I can leave at any time…)
KAZURO: (But I should probably get a better understanding of my situation first.)

||Inspect windowsכ
KAZURO: (Huh? What the hell?)
KAZURO: (Why are there metal panels bolted to the wall?)
KAZURO: (Think about it, Kazuro. In any normal classroom, this would be…)
KAZURO: (The windows? But in that case, why are the windows blocked by such stiff steel in the first place?)

||Inspect security cameraכ
KAZURO: (A security camera. Kind of old, like the ones you’d see in movies…)
KAZURO: (…Hold on, shouldn’t this be out in the hallways?)
KAZURO: (I don’t exactly know if I’m right, but isn’t it… illegal to have security cameras in classrooms?)

||Inspect monitorכ
KAZURO: (A high-quality high-tech screen, probably for displaying school announcements.)
KAZURO: (…and yet, the current situation makes it more of an eerie sight.)

||Inspect deskכ
KAZURO: (And this… is the desk I was sleeping at. Or, more accurately, the desk I woke up at.)
KAZURO: (Huh? There’s a slip of paper on here…)

PAPER: Good morning, Mr. Futoya!
PAPER: Welcome to the realest experience of your life!
PAPER: Everybody’s waiting for you out there! Go out to the Main Hall!
PAPER: Only there will your Zero-One Life here begin…

KAZURO: …”Zero-One Life”? What’s that supposed to mean?
KAZURO: (But if this thing knows me by name, I probably shouldn’t ignore it…)
KAZURO: (Everyone’s waiting in the Main Hall, huh?)
KAZURO: (In that case, I don’t see any reason to stay here.)

||Inspect door (after desk)כ
KAZURO: (I mean, it’s the Main Hall. It shouldn’t be too hard to find…)

[Hallway gameplay area]

KAZURO: (Man, even these hallways are kind of freaky…)
KAZURO: (But again, this definitely isn’t a hallway I’ve been in before.)
KAZURO: (I don’t have time to think about that. I should head to the Main Hall.)
KAZURO: (I’m not exactly sure what might happen to me if I don’t…)

[Walk to Main Hall.]

[Cut to black]
KAZURO: (And when I got to the Main Hall, I found…)
KAZURO: (Well, exactly what I’d expected to find.)

Chapter Text

[Cut to black]
KAZURO: (And when I got to the Main Hall, I found…)
KAZURO: (Well, exactly what I’d expected to find.)

[CG of everyone in the Main Hall, except for Kazuro]

GIRL WITH HOOD: Ooogh… Just the worst way to wake up…
GAUDY MAN: Well, now! The heavy sleepers are finally showing up!
MAN IN SUIT: I don’t quite blame them for being late. After all, this situation itself is… entirely absurd. Mmhehe. Kehehee…
KAZURO: Then, you’re all…?
WOMAN IN STRIPES: Precisely. We are all victims of kidnapping, much like yourself.
ORANGE-HAIRED GIRL: H- Hey, there’s no reason to talk about it as if it’s that serious… right? 

KAZURO: (Standing right in front of me were… more people.)
KAZURO: (Sixteen of us -- seventeen, counting myself.)

GREEN-HAIRED MAN: Then, is this everyone?
MAN IN PURPLE TIE: Now it is!

[Man in Purple Tie rushing in CG]

MAN IN PURPLE TIE: Pardon my lateness. Y’see, I was just on the complete other side of the building.
GREEN-HAIRED MAN: Okie dokie! Then that makes 18 of us!

[Main Hall gameplay area]

NORMAL-LOOKING BOY: Furthermore, if I were to make a lucky guess, then all of us here are Ultimates.
BLONDE GIRL: Eh? Whatchu mean by that?
NORMAL-LOOKING BOY: I mean that we are all students that have been accepted into Hope’s Peak Academy, as a part of Class 83.
KAZURO: Yeah, wait! The last thing I remember before waking up here was walking into Hope’s Peak!
GIRL WITH HOOD: You too?

BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Heeey, hey. Hey.
KAZURO: (Suddenly, and without warning, one single man gained the attention of the full crowd.)
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: We’re all in kind of a crappy situation, huh?
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: We go into this elite academy, and suddenly… this.
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Locked in with metal plates, spied on by security cameras. 
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Soooooo…
MAN IN SUIT: What are you getting at, I wonder?
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Why not give introductions? Should ease the suspicion, at least a little.
FANCY-LOOKING MAN: Very true. It would, after all, be quite difficult to effectively discuss our predicament without at least knowing each other’s names.
BOY WITH HAT: Okay. Since we all seem to be Ultimates, we can limit our most basic introductions to just our names and Ultimate talents. Sound good?
ORANGE-HAIRED GIRL: Right. Then we can assess the situation afterwards.
KAZURO: U- Um! I’ll go first, if that’s alright!
KAZURO: My name is Kazuro Futoya! I’m the Ultimate Voice Actor. It’s nice to meet you all!
GIRL IN LAB COAT: It’s very nice to meet you, Kazuro.
KAZURO: Likewise, aheheh…
KAZURO: (Thank goodness that guy suggested introductions.)
KAZURO: (This way, I can finally do the thing that hours and hours of research never could: figure out who these people are.)

[Green-Haired Man, Boy With Hat, Gaudy Man, Blue-Haired Boy, and Woozy-Seeming Woman on screen]
KAZURO: (I guess I’ll start with those five over there…)

||Talk to Green-Haired Manכ
GREEN-HAIRED MAN: Hey there, Kazuro! What would you like to know?
KAZURO: Oh, it’s nothing much. Just whatever you want to tell me is alright.
GREEN-HAIRED MAN: Fair enough. Better not to overshare, y’know?
GREEN-HAIRED MAN: Anyways, my name is… well, everybody online calls me Quote. I’d rather you call me that, too. I’m the Ultimate White Hat Hacker.

QUOTE - Ultimate White Hat Hacker

KAZURO: White Hat Hacker? I get the “hacker” part, but could you elaborate on just what “white hat” means?
QUOTE: Absolutely! A White Hat Hacker -- or Ethical Hacker, in some circles -- is a non-malicious hacker who aims to identify vulnerabilities or security issues in various systems.
KAZURO: I see… So basically, a freelance hacker hired to test the hackability of certain systems?
QUOTE: That’s one way to look at it!
KAZURO: Well, uh, thanks for the intro.
QUOTE: No problem!

KAZURO: (Despite his elite-sounding talent, he really doesn’t take himself very seriously…)
KAZURO: (But he doesn’t seem like a bad person. After all, he’s “White Hat” for a reason… right?)

||Talk to Boy With Hatכ
BOY WITH HAT: Nice to meet you. I’m Shuichi Saihara. They call me the Ultimate Detective, but I wouldn’t exactly say I’m professional-quality.

SHUICHI SAIHARA - Ultimate Detective

KAZURO: But regardless, being a detective in general is pretty professional, right?
SHUICHI: I guess so, but I don’t exactly have the credentials to officially call myself a detective.
KAZURO: At the same time, though, you being here means you’re the closest thing in the world to a pro detective!
SHUICHI: N- Now, I wouldn’t say “closest thing in the world”... Maybe closest in the country?
SHUICHI: But still, I’m really not one of those ace detectives you'd find in novels… 
KAZURO: Look on the bright side: you can help us figure this whole situation out!
SHUICHI: And maybe only me…

KAZURO: (This guy has some serious self-esteem issues… I get it, buddy.)
KAZURO: (Even still, his talent alone says he’s level-headed and reliable.)
KAZURO: (So maybe he’s someone I can trust…)

||Talk to Gaudy Manכ
GAUDY MAN: What is it you want? What, little voice actor wants a record deal? Impressions don’t make good songs, kid.
KAZURO: U- Um, no? I just wanted to get to know you a little…
GAUDY MAN: What, you don’t know who I am?
KAZURO: Well, I’m not exactly sure …
GAUDY MAN: Gideon Graves. G-Man? Owner of G-Man Records, GGG Industries, and the Chaos Theater locations in New York and Toronto? Indie producer of the century? None of that rings a bell to you?

GIDEON GRAVES - Ultimate Record Mogul

KAZURO: I’m, uh… I’m Japanese.
GIDEON: So that means you’re exempt from listening to good music?
KAZURO: It, uh, means I’m exempt from listening to music in a language I don’t speak.
GIDEON: Well I don’t speak Japanese. How, pray tell, are we communicating if we don’t speak a common language?
KAZURO: Clearly, we--
KAZURO: …Huh.
KAZURO: I don’t really know.
GIDEON: Well if you find out, then tell me. I’ll judge whether or not it’s a good excuse for your negligence.

KAZURO: (God, is this what happens to people after even a second in New York?)
KAZURO: (Man, this interaction alone is killing all my travel dreams…)

||Talk to Blue-Haired Boyכ
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Kazuro, right? Nice to see ya, man!
KAZURO: Nice to… see me?
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: I’ve heard your work before, dude! Good shit!
BLUE-HAIRED BOY: Oh, right, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Ridge Ivory, Ultimate Webcomic Artist.

RIDGE IVORY - Ultimate Webcomic Artist

RIDGE: You’ve done some fandubs of my work before, right?
KAZURO: I have! Apologies for not recognizing you, uh, I didn’t quite know what you looked like.
RIDGE: It’s all good, man! I don’t really show my face that often, anyways.
KAZURO: Well, it’s nice to know there’s someone familiar here! At least, uh, a little familiar.

KAZURO: (He seems nice. Maybe a little too relaxed…)
KAZURO: (Regardless, though, he’s fun to be around. Should help ease the situation, right?)

||Talk to Woozy-Seeming Womanכ
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: Ahaaaa… Man, I ended up somewhere scary agaiiinnnn…
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: This is Hope’s Peak, right? I better call Shima to pick me up before I do anythin’ too sssstupid… Heh.
KAZURO: (She doesn’t really seem, uh… okay.)
KAZURO: U- Um! Excuse me, ma’am?
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: Eeh?
KAZURO: Are you, um… alright?
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: Mm? Hell yeah, I’m aa’right! Why wouldn’ I be?
KAZURO: (I… don’t believe her. At all.)
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: Anywaaaays, y’seem like ya wanna know me. I’ll indulmgle you, kid.
KAZURO: (Was that her attempt at saying “indulge”?)
WOOZY-SEEMING WOMAN: Th’name’s Kikuri! Kikuri Hiroi, Ultimate Bassist.

KIKURI HIROI - Ultimate Bassist

KIKURI: My band -- SICK HACK’s the name -- my band’s pretty big in the indie sphere, ya knooowww…
KAZURO: Are you, uh… Always like this ? Even when on stage?
KIKURI: Psssh, a’couuuurrse! Fans’d weep if I went on stage sober , ya know? It’s part’f the vibe! The charm! The charmy vibe! The vibe-y charm!
KAZURO: Rrrriiiiiiight…

KAZURO: (Irresponsible. Severely irresponsible.)
KAZURO: (That’s the impression I get, at least…)

[Girl in Trenchcoat, Normal-Looking Boy, Girl With Hood, Blonde Girl, and Orange-Haired Girl on screen]
KAZURO: (Well, that was… interesting. I guess I’ll talk to those five next.)

Chapter Text

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[CG of a monitor. Static at first, but soon replaced by what looks to be a fancy, strangely-written “Z” in bright green.]

MONITOR: Ahem! Ahem-hem! This is a school announcement. Would everyone pleeeeease care to move to the gym for a special surprise?
MONITOR: I’d like to welcome all you new students of Hope’s Peak Academy the right way for once!
MONITOR: Puhuhuuuu~! See you theeere!

[The screen returns to static briefly before shutting off. Back to sprites.]

REI: And, uh… just what in the hell was that?
QUOTE: We probably shouldn’t ignore it.
MAKOTO: Exactly. I’d assume that our kidnappers would likely punish us in some way if we don’t go to the gym.
ANZU: That definitely sounds bad…
ANZU: Alright! Let’s go to the gym, then!
KAZURO: (With anxiety written on her face, Anzu ran out of the Main Hall in search of the gym.)
STEVE: I hate being late, y’know that? I’m heading over, too.
KAZURO: (And then Steve left…)

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (And then Makoto, and Mishima, and Ridge…)
KAZURO: (I watched as, slowly, people decided staying in the Main Hall was a bad idea.)
KAZURO: (Until, eventually, I followed them to the gym.)

[Gym gameplay area, everyone is here now]

SOU: Not sure why, but I was expecting a lot more… dread.
SOU: But this just looks like your typical entrance ceremony, doesn’t it?
NERU: I wouldn’t call it “typical” to have a drunk woman, a butler, and a career counsellor attending an entrance ceremony…
SOU: I- I’m just talking about our surroundings, of course. The people themselves, well…

???: It sounds like everybody’s here!

[Lighting around the podium in the gym would become bright green]

???: Which means it’s time to make my debut!

[Cutscene -- sweeping past the participants’ legs, we eventually stop at the green-lit podium. A small green-and-black teddy bear backflips onto the podium, a sinister grin on his face]

SHUICHI: Huh? That’s… weird.
QUOTE: Yeah, I agree. Why’s a teddy bear doing backflips?
???: I am not a teddy bear!
???: I am Zerokuma!
ZEROKUMA: From here on out, I will be the headmaster of your Zero-One Life here!

KAZURO: (What I saw, I couldn’t believe.)
KAZURO: (Honestly, it’s the type of thing that would happen in a cartoon or movie that I happened to be dubbing over…)
KIKURI: Gguh… Maybe I had too much today…
ANZU: Waaaaugh! What the heck?! I’ve gotta be dreaming, right?! There’s no way this thing is our headmaster, right?!
SOU: No, you definitely aren’t dreaming. That’s real. A teddy bear is really talking to you.
ZEROKUMA: Not a teddy bear. Zerokuma!

[Back to normal sprite-viewing]

ZEROKUMA: Now, I’m a lot more on-the-nose than my typical bear competitors, so does anybody want to try and guess why you’re all stuck in here?
SOU: Based on your tone, I doubt it’s for a typical entrance ceremony…
MISHIMA: Perhaps it’s some variety of large-scale escape room?
MAKOTO: Ooh, here’s an idea! To make us murder each other! That’s my wacky, funny guess.
ZEROKUMA: Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Thaaaat’s right!
ZEROKUMA: Sorry-not-sorry to be so blunt, but today’s the first day in our little game -- The Killing School Reality!
ZEROKUMA: In this Reality, you’re trapped here in Hope’s Peak Academy forever! The only way to escape is by killing one of your peers and getting away with it!

KAZURO: (What?)
KAZURO: (No, no, no… That’s just absurd.)
KAZURO: (A talking teddy bear, telling us we need to kill each other…)
WADSWORTH: A killing game. How quaint.
REI: C- Come on, everyone. Be rational for a second. Why would we even kill each other?
ZEROKUMA: To escape! To see your friends and family again! To see the outside world!
ZEROKUMA: Cuz when you're with me , you sure as hell won’t be with any of them ! Puhuhuhuu, AHAHAHAHHAA!
RIDGE: Where are the cameras? It’s a prank, right? It’s gotta be!
ZEROKUMA: I can assure you, young blue-haired pronoun-haver, this is very real.
ZEROKUMA: In fact, why don’t we enforce this realness with something neat?
ZEROKUMA: Your very own ZeroPad!

[Visual of ZeroPad appears next to Zerokuma’s sprite]

ZEROKUMA: The ZeroPad is a tablet personally designed, engineered, handled, man-handled, woman-handled, nonbinary-handled, and created by yours truly!
ZEROKUMA: These tablets serve as notebooks, ID Cards, rulebooks, maps, and tons more!
ZEROKUMA: I gotta jet real soon, so I’d suggest you all cooperate and read the rules aloud together. Buh-bye now!

[Zerokuma exit]

SATSUKI: Oh… Oh what the hell…
WADSWORTH: I believe it to be rather unwise not to look through these rules.
NERU: Very true. After all, we’re probably fucked if we don’t.
KAZURO: (Right… That makes sense.)
KAZURO: (Assuming all of this is real, we’re definitely screwed if we don’t at least read these rules…)

[ZeroPad cutscene. Starts on the start-up screen, reading “FUTOYA, KAZURO”. Then, to the home menu, with various “apps” floating about. The “Rulebook” app is selected, opening on various rules.]

RULEBOOK: 1) All participating students must live here until their own life ends.
RULEBOOK: 2) “Night Time” is from 11 PM to 7 AM. The gymnasium, dining hall, and school store are closed during Night Time.
RULEBOOK: 3) Headmaster Zerokuma can not be the Blackened. If anyone is to die by his hand, there will be no Class Trial.
RULEBOOK: 4) Violence towards Headmaster Zerokuma, the ZeroPads, or the security cameras is considered destruction of property, and will be punished accordingly.
RULEBOOK: 5) To leave, you must kill a fellow student. If you do, you are considered a “Blackened,” and an hour will pass between the discovery of the body and the Class Trial.
RULEBOOK: 6) If the Blackened is exposed in the Class Trial, they alone will face execution. If not, then the Blackened will be able to leave Hope’s Peak while the other students are executed.
RULEBOOK: 7) Even with an accomplice, only one person will count as the Blackened.
RULEBOOK: 8) When three or more non-Blackened discover a body at the same time, the Body Discovery Announcement will play throughout the entire building.
RULEBOOK: 9) The maximum number of people a Blackened can kill is three.
RULEBOOK: 10) The Killing School Reality is intended to continue until two survivors remain.
RULEBOOK: Headmaster Zerokuma may add any additional rules at any time, and they must all be held with the same level of respect.

[Back to normal sprite-viewing]

MISHIMA: I see... So distrusting everyone would be disastrous, as we must work together to find out the killer.
STEVE: Selectively choose who to trust…
SHUICHI: Ghh…
ANZU: Shuichi, right? Are you feeling okay?
SHUICHI: Little bit of a headache, but I’m good. It’s just…
ANZU: Just… what?
SHUICHI: I don’t remember much, but I feel like… I’ve been in this sort of Killing Game before.
SOU: I see… Think you can tell us more?
SHUICHI: N- Not at the moment. It’s still a little foggy.
SHUICHI: But even still, I doubt I’d share what I remember with anybody I don’t trust.
SOU: Ahah… How shockingly suspicious.
SOU: Aren't we all in this together? Shouldn't we all work together, against the people who put us here?
SOU: What kind of cooperation involves keeping secrets like that?
QUOTE: If you can remember, Shuichi… How did you escape your Killing Game?
SOU: Did you, maybe… follow the rules?
SHUICHI: The only thing sticking out in my memory is that I ended the game with my own hands.
SHUICHI: That, word for word, is all I can remember about the game’s end.
SHUICHI: But If you value your lives, and if I end up remembering further,  it’s best to keep me around.
MAKOTO: Khhhehehee…
GONBEE: Alright, asshole. What’s so funny?
MAKOTO: Oh, I was just thinkin’...
MAKOTO: Wouldn't it only take one person to give in, to break our whole resolve?
MAKOTO: Who can trust their peers in a situation like that?

[Wide-shot of the gym -- everyone is looking at the people around them, with dread and suspicion in their eyes]

KAZURO: (Nobody replied after Makoto said that.)
KAZURO: (The air was thick with dread. Everybody’s minds were racing.)
KAZURO: (I think, for all of us, the gravity of Zerokuma’s rules was finally setting in.)

[Cut to black]
KAZURO: (And with it, the tortured feeling of paranoia took over our thoughts…)

PROLOGUE: Welcome to the Real Dangan Ronpa
END

18/18 Living…

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1: The Secret Life of Despair
1 LIFE

[Fade in to wide-shot suspicion CG]

KAZURO: (“The only way to escape is by killing one of your peers and getting away with it.”)
KAZURO: (Those words left an impossible weight on my heart -- everyone’s hearts, no doubt.)
KAZURO: (I wouldn’t call myself the weakest link in the group, but I knew I definitely wasn’t the strongest.)
KAZURO: (It was down to a matter of trust. We needed to figure out who we could trust, and who was at the greatest risk of killing us.)

[Back to normal sprite-viewing]

QUOTE: Alright, then here’s my first course of action.
QUOTE: What can I do with this little tablet here?
MISHIMA: Whatever could you mean?
KAZURO: (Without another word, Quote began fiddling with his ZeroPad.)

BZZZT!

KAZURO: (Quote’s movements came to a startling halt with an eerie buzzing noise.)
QUOTE: No dice, huh?
ANZU: Hey, hey! What’chu, uh, doing there?
QUOTE: Seems like Zerokuma thought of everything.
QUOTE: If even I can’t hack these tablets, then it’s impossible.
MAKOTO: Epic fail, I guess.
WADSWORTH: If I may suggest something, the rule regarding Night Time is particularly worrisome.
WADSWORTH: I believe it would be for the best if we collectively agreed not to leave our rooms during Night Time.
MARISA: Aw man, that sucks! What if I want, like… a midnight snack?
MIHARI: The dining hall is closed during Night Time anyways…
SATSUKI: I think it’s a smart idea. Night Time is prime-time murder time, so it’s for the best that we keep our doors locked, too.
SOU: Then, should we go to our rooms for now?
SHUICHI: Based on the clocks on the ZeroPad, it’s almost Night Time anyways.
SHUICHI: So if we want Wadsworth’s rule to go into effect, it makes sense for us to head to our rooms.
KIKURI: Arriiiight, wooo! Time to explooooore!
REI: Miss Hiroi, uh… that’s the exact opposite of what we’re about to do.
KIKURI: Maaaaannnnnn…
KIKURI: I’ll see you chumps later.
[Kikuri sprite fades out]

GIDEON: Well.
GIDEON: Don’t die, everyone!
[Gideon sprite fades out. Fade to black]

KAZURO: (And so, everybody scattered about towards their rooms. Myself included.)

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (Probably a good time to get acquainted with my new room…)

||Inspect bedכ
KAZURO: (What a comfortable-looking bed…)
KAZURO: (Given Hope’s Peak’s immense budget, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was memory foam.)
KAZURO: (Let’s hope it doesn’t remember my sins…)
KAZURO: (Actually, no. That sounds stupid and isn’t funny.)

||Inspect cameraכ
KAZURO: (In our rooms? That’s definitely illegal…)
KAZURO: (Well, not like legality matters much here anyways.)
KAZURO: (I wish I could just take it off the wall and crush it under my foot…)
KAZURO: (But I’d probably end up a bloody pulp if I did that.)

||Inspect paper noticeכ
KAZURO: (Some sort of notice. Probably from Zerokuma…)

NOTICE: Hello everyone! Zerokuma here!
KAZURO: (Knew it.)
NOTICE: As you can probably already tell, all the personal bathroom doors have locks!
NOTICE: If you’re at all familiar with the quirky layout of Hope’s Peak, you may find that strange.
NOTICE: After all, the real Hope’s Peak only gives door locks to the girls!
NOTICE: But I am a generous soul! I acknowledge that all genders have a need for privacy, and that all identity is inherently fluid!
NOTICE: But, to make sure I still did my legally-required gender stereotyping…
NOTICE: I gave you all a present!
NOTICE: In the drawers by your bed, I’ve left a toolkit for the boys and a sewing kit for the girls!
NOTICE: And, with both, a helpful and simplified map of all the vital spots on the human body!
NOTICE: I know there’s a couple they-themmers around here, and for them …
NOTICE: I just gave both!
NOTICE: Also, the public restrooms are entirely non-gendered!
NOTICE: So be civil, be fun, and let’s all enjoy our new reality!

KAZURO: …
KAZRUO: (Well, he may be evil, but at least he’s not transphobic.)
KAZURO: (Regardless, I crumpled up his notice and threw it into the nearby trash can.)

||Inspect trash canכ
KAZURO: (Doesn’t seem like there’s anything special about this trash can…)
KAZURO: (Not even any money in it or anything…)
KAZURO: (Well, it was worth a shot. Every good detective says you should always check the trash bin, y’know?)

||Inspect nightstand drawerכ
KAZURO: (I opened the drawer to find…)
KAZURO: (A closed toolbox and sewing kit.)
KAZURO: (Blue box and red box… I guess to show which ones are intended for which gender?)
KAZURO: (Oh, there’s a pin in here, too.)

[Visual of a pin that says “he/they” on a cute frog]

KAZURO: (...this would be cute if it were in any other setting.)
KAZURO: (But right now, it just feels… dystopian.)
KAZURO: (Is that the word I should be using? Dystopian? Or is it apocalyptic?)
KAZURO: (Nasty. We’ll just say this place is too nasty for this pin.)

||Inspect bed (after everything)כ
KAZURO: (What a comfortable-looking bed…)
KAZURO: (I guess, if it really is Night Time, there’s not really anything else to do.)
[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (So… goodnight, Hope’s Peak. Hopefully I’ll wake up and life will be back to normal.)
KAZURO: (Hopefully…)

ZEROKUMA THEATER!

ZEROKUMA: Thank you for reading Real Dangan Ronpa 18!
ZEROKUMA: You might be wondering: what makes this Dangan Ronpa so “real” in the first place?
ZEROKUMA: Were all the other ones fake?
ZEROKUMA: Wasn’t Shuichi from a Dangan Ronpa installment that comes after 18?
ZEROKUMA: Well, my answer is…
ZEROKUMA: [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS]
ZEROKUMA: That’s right! It’s all just [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS]
ZEROKUMA: Oh, and the mastermind is…
ZEROKUMA: [REMOVED BY THE (il)LEGAL TEAM SUBDIVISION OF TEAM ZERO]
ZEROKUMA: Mhm! Bet you didn’t expect that , did you?!
ZEROKUMA: Again, thank you for reading Real Dangan Ronpa 18!

Chapter Text

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: (Oh, great. I’m gonna have to hear that every morning. Lovely.)
KAZURO: (So… Now what? I’m awake! Do I just… get food and chill?)
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
KAZURO: (Oh goodie, a visitor. I’m absolutely pleased as punch.)

[Door opening sfx, Mishima is there]
MISHIMA: Good morning, Mister Kazuro!
KAZURO: Oh, Mishima! Morning!
MISHIMA: Would you mind coming to the dining hall with me? Mister Wadsworth has had another idea:
MISHIMA: That at the start of each morning, we should gather in the dining hall to have breakfast, share information, and generally socialize.
KAZURO: (Well damn, that actually sounds pretty smart…)
MISHIMA: Care to join me?
KAZURO: I certainly would!

[Dining Hall gameplay area, pretty much everybody else is here]
MIHARI: Good morning!
MAKOTO: Well, look who finally decided to show up!
RIDGE: C’mon, pal. Have a seat! We were just about to talk some!
MISHIMA: Now that everybody is present, would you say that the morning meeting can begin, Mister Wadsworth?
WADSWORTH: Certainly.

[Morning Meeting CG]

REI: Since this seems to be a useful line of thinking, what’s our “first order of business”?
WADSWORTH: I believe it would be in our collective best interest to explore our surroundings.
MAKOTO: But, like… Do we need to?
MAKOTO: I can already tell you for a fact that this is basically just the layout of Hope’s Peak, save for some rotting walls and extra wires.
MARISA: Yeah, yeah, name one person in this room who’s been to Hope’s Peak.
MAKOTO: Uh… me?
MARISA: Other than yourself, dumbass!
MAKOTO: Hmm…
REI: Just you, then?
WADSWORTH: Precisely why we should explore. We can get ourselves acquainted with Hope’s Peak.
SOU: So we’re going to search around, right? Anything else?
WADSWORTH: That is our sole priority here. Once we’re all done, please do return here to share what you’ve found.
WADSWORTH: Meeting temporarily dismissed. Please, do search diligently.

[CG fade out, Dining Hall gameplay area]
KAZURO: (Alright, seems like standard stuff. We just need to look around, right?)

(Hey! It’s me, Clover, the author! Since I’m assuming we all know the layout of Hope’s Peak, I was thinking we maybe… skip this part? I haven’t really changed anything other than Monokuma’s Red Door being a Zerokuma shade of green now, and I don’t really feel like boring you all with Kazuro’s random narration moments, soo… You all won’t mind, right?)

KAZURO: (Alright, I think that’s everything… Now back to the Dining Hall.)

[Fade out, Dining Hall gameplay area fade in, everyone’s there]

WADSWORTH: It seems we’ve all made it back safely.
SOU: So I’m assuming now we share what we’ve found?
GONBEE: That sounds like a smart idea to me…
RIDGE: Alright, then! Everyone, take turns sharing what you found, alright?

||Talk to Ridge or Neruכ
RIDGE: First of all, Neru and I made the discovery of a lifetime: all of the rooms are completely and totally soundproof.
NERU: Yep! Your next-door neighbor could scream and scream and scream until their throat bleeds, and you’d have no idea!
RIDGE: Well, I guess it makes sense for Zerokuma’s ideas.
KAZURO: How do you mean?
NERU: “The only way to escape is by killing one of your peers and getting away with it.”
NERU: Naturally, hearing someone’s blood-curdling screams in the room over would kill that chance of “getting away with it.” Y’know?
KAZURO: Right, that does make sense…
RIDGE: Aaaanyways, that’s about everything I have to report. Save for, y’know, the obvious.

||Talk to Rei, Kikuri, or Anzuכ
REI: I suggested to Anzu and Miss Hiroi that we try and remove the metal window covers, but…
KIKURI: I’m kinda useless when I’m all, uhhh… not-sober.
ANZU: Seriously, why won’t she just say “drunk”...
REI: And from a brief examination, I concluded that there’s no way to get those things off by hand.
ANZU: So, ReiRei just let us chill!
REI: Ahaha, I’m… still getting used to that new nickname…
ANZU: I- If you don’t like it, I could just call you Rei…
REI: No no no, it’s completely okay! You’re fine!
ANZU: P- Please, Miss Yasaku, forgive me!
REI: Anzu, I’m telling you, you’re fine!
ANZU: Lady Yasakuuuuuuuu!
KIKURI: Ouuh! You got a helluva voice on ya, Anzu!
ANZU: Really?
KAZURO: (Well… Those three are getting along, at the very least…)

||Talk to Wadsworth, Sou, Steve, or Mishimaכ
SOU: I thought about grouping with someone reliable, like Mishima…
MISHIMA: I had a similar thought -- best to work with someone who has a calm head on their shoulders, like Mister Wadsworth.
STEVE: Ran into those three while I was walkin’ around, ended up joining ‘em.
WADSWORTH: Yes, all three of those statements are true. And our conclusion is quite underwhelming.
SOU: You see, while there are stairs leading up to other floors in this place, they’re all still blocked off.
STEVE: Nothing notable about the gates in front of ‘em, just the typical kind you’d see in a mall at closing time.
MISHIMA: However, the stairs in the dormitory area -- or the “Zero Inn,” as it’s called -- are much more intriguing.
KAZURO: Oh? In what way?
WADSWORTH: It’s not the stairs that were intriguing. It’s quite the opposite -- the lack of stairs.
MISHIMA: Yes. It looked to me as if there had been stairs there before, but for one reason or another, somebody removed them.
KAZURO: Really? Huh. Weird.
SOU: What do you suppose the reason could be?
KAZURO: Well, I’d have no way of knowing that… right?
SOU: Exactly. That’s why we need to figure out a way up there.
SOU: Because if we don’t, then this mystery is just gonna keep pulling at us until we break. Right?
KAZURO: Right…

||Talk to Gideon, Quote, or Makotoכ
QUOTE: Personally, I couldn’t help but notice the sheer amount of wires dangling from the ceiling.
MAKOTO: Purely decorative, I’d say. At the very least, they weren’t hanging like that in the original Hope’s Peak…
QUOTE: You think it means anything?
GIDEON: I think what it means is that our current situation is run by someone who values aesthetic over function.
GIDEON: It’s a waste of wires!
QUOTE: Does it really bug you that much?
GIDEON: Bug me?! Hell no, I ████ing love it!
QUOTE: …
MAKOTO: Hey, guy, could you say that again?
GIDEON: Huh? What, that I “████ing love it”?
KAZURO: How are you, uh…
KAZURO: Doing that? With your mouth?
GIDEON: Never-████ing-mind how I’m doing it!

MAKOTO: Getting back on topic, I also happened to notice a few extra screens lying around.
MAKOTO: It was truly an excellent display of scrapyard junk!
MAKOTO: CRTs upon CRTs, vintage monitors upon vintage monitors, it was endless!
QUOTE: It was kinda cool.
MAKOTO: It wuz weally neat!
GIDEON: The essence of nostalgia!
GIDEON: The perfect feeling to harness!
KAZURO: (Well, they’re having… fun. I’ll leave them be.)

||Talk to Shuichi, Mihari, Gonbee, Satsuki, or Marisaכ
SHUICHI: I can’t exactly say we searched together…
SHUICHI: Moreso, we just… didn’t search.
SATSUKI: The pressure was, admittedly, getting to me a little. I felt someone like Mihari could help with that.
MIHARI: Annnnd, womp womp! I couldn’t! Luckily, Shuichi was nearby, so I asked him to help me.
MARISA: And I interrupted!
SATSUKI: Yes you did!
GONBEE: I wasn’t exactly a part of that group. I was instead just doing my own thing, and happened to be around them.
KAZURO: I see, I see…
SHUICHI: Sorry for, uh, not being as helpful as I’d like to have been…

WADSWORTH: It appears that we’ve heard from everyone. I see.
WADSWORTH: Congratulations on your efforts of a diligent search.
WADSWORTH: Meeting dismissed -- please, enjoy your free time to the best of your ability.

[Fade to black]

KAZURO: (“Enjoy your free time,” huh…)

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (Well, I guess I have the time for it. So what should I be doing right about now?)

-=FREE TIME=-

Chapter Text

Two days of Free Time Events pass…

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: (Welp, I guess I still have some time, right?)
[DING DONG!]
KAZURO: (Oh? A visitor? I wonder who…)

[Door opening sfx, Steve is there]
STEVE: Hey, kid.
KAZURO: Oh! Steve, right?
STEVE: The one and only. I got a bit of a question for you.
STEVE: You happen to know where Makoto is?
KAZURO: Unnnfortunately, no. Why?
STEVE: Juuust gotta ask him a few questions.
STEVE: Oh, maybe you can join me in the search!
KAZURO: Hmm… doesn’t sound too bad…
STEVE: Thank you kindly for considering.
STEVE: C’mon! Follow me!
[Walking sfx, Steve leaves doorway]
||Click on doorway and follow Steveכ

[Kazuro and Steve walking through the halls CG]

KAZURO: Sooo… What are you hoping to ask him?
STEVE: Oh, just a friendly few questions. I’m a little curious, is all.
KAZURO: O… kay? Is it alright if I hear the general gist of these questions?
STEVE: Makoto knows a lot, right? More than us, at least.
KAZURO: I mean… not really? He just says weird stuff…
STEVE: So accurately guessing that a random teddybear in a school wants us all to kill each other is “just weird stuff” to you, eh Kaz?
STEVE: Not only that, but he’s also intimately familiar with this place’s layout, right?
KAZURO: So do you think he’s some sort of mastermind?
STEVE: Nah, nothing that serious. Maybe he’s just done one of these before, who knows.
STEVE: That’s what we’re gonna find out, right?

[Shuichi and Marisa appearing in the CG]

STEVE: Oh! On the topic of “done one of these before,” here he is!
SHUICHI: I assume you’re talking about me, Steve?
STEVE: I am now! Howdy there, ‘tective! What sort of antics are you up to now?
[CG fade out, hallway gameplay area]
MARISA: We’re detectiving!
SHUICHI: More accurately, I was hoping to find some sort of clues to an exit, or maybe even to the mastermind.
SHUICHI: Marisa just so happened to be in the area. An extra pair of eyes is always nice, so I asked her to come with.
STEVE: Mastermind, eh?
KAZURO: Anybody catch your eye, Shuichi?
SHUICHI: Well…
SHUICHI: Makoto’s undoubtedly suspicious. Definitely knows more than he’s letting on.
SHUICHI: Admittedly, though, he might be too obvious of a candidate.
STEVE: Well now that you mention it, Shutective…
STEVE: You sure know a lot, too.
STEVE: You said you ended a Killing Game before, right? “With your own hands” and all that?
STEVE: Think you could shed a little more light on that?
SHUICHI: Sure enough, you’re on a mastermind hunt too…
SHUICHI: Can I trust you all to leave this conversation between us?
MARISA: Lips’re sealed, sir!
KAZURO: I won’t say a thing. Promise.
STEVE: If I think it makes you more suspicious, I’m gonna tell. But otherwise, you’re good.
SHUICHI: Alright. Then listen well…

[Shuichi face CG, with little cut-ins of blurry and unclear NDRV3 CGs behind him]

SHUICHI: It was known as the 53rd Killing Game -- The New Killing Semester.
SHUICHI: Despite that, I don’t even know if it was officially the fifty third at all.
SHUICHI: I still can’t remember the finer details, but I know that I lost someone very, very important to me.
SHUICHI: It was a cruel battle of hope and despair, of truth and lie… of reality and delusion.
SHUICHI: But regarding solid info on the game itself, well, it had a very set-in-stone structure.
SHUICHI: There was always a motive, and at least one person would always crumble beneath it.
SHUICHI: They would always be found out in the Class Trial, but that isn’t necessarily guaranteed.
SHUICHI: If Zerokuma is going with the same structure Monokuma used, then in a few days, he’s going to give us a motive.
SHUICHI: A reason to kill, a purpose behind our malice.
SHUICHI: Someone will die, and if we’re lucky, someone will pay the price for it.

[CG fade out, hallway gameplay area]

STEVE: Very interesting.
STEVE: And you swear not to kill one of your allies?
SHUICHI: Why would I kill you? Save for Makoto, I'm the only one who knows what the hell’s going on right now.
SHUICHI: Besides… I can't afford to die.
SHUICHI: I don't know why, but I know for a fact that I need to make it out alive.
[Marisa’s sprite has changed, now displaying extreme mouth-agape fear]
MARISA: …
MARISA: I DON’T WANNA DIIIIEEEE…!
KAZURO: (Without another word, Marisa ran away.)
STEVE: Well. That isn’t very good.
KAZURO: W- Wait! Hold on a sec!
KAZURO: (My feet moved before I could even think.)
KAZURO: (In an instant, I found myself running after her.)
KAZURO: (Or, at least, in her general direction.)

[Fade out, different hallway gameplay area]
KAZURO: (Now, all I need to do is find her…!)

Chapter Text

[Walk to Classroom 1-B, Marisa is sitting at a random desk on her own]

||Talk to Marisaכ
MARISA: I don’t wanna die… I- I don’t…
KAZURO: Marisa?
MARISA: AH! P- Please spare me, I- I don’t--
KAZURO: I’m just here to check on you, Marisa. You don’t seem to be doing too good. What’s the matter?
MARISA: I- I mean, just-
MARISA: He said that someone was going to die and someone was going to be sacrificed,  right?
MARISA: So of course I started panicking! I- I’d just figured “someone’s gonna betray us,” y’know?
MARISA: I can’t do anything anymore! My- my Mini-Hakkero went kaput and stopped workin’, so I’m completely vulnerable and mortal!
MARISA: I- I’ve never been this easy to kill before!

KAZURO: (Her breathing is uneasy, her face is pale, her eyes are red from crying…)
KAZURO: (Is this… the face of true fear?)
KAZURO: (It’s a vile contortion of the human face… A horribly exhausting reflection of emotion…)
KAZURO: (Something that I just can’t allow…)

KAZURO: Marisa. I promise, there’s nothing to fear.
KAZURO: Shuichi said it himself, right? Every time a killer was on the loose, they would always be found out in the Class Trial.
KAZURO: But that’s if anybody kills at all, right?
KAZURO: All we need to do is convince people not to kill us.
KAZURO: Whether it be through relentless friendship or horrible fear, convincing somebody that your life isn't worth taking is the best course of action.
KAZURO: And from what I’ve seen of you, Marisa, you’re quite the friendly face!
KAZURO: So don’t worry. I can assure you, nobody will kill you. And if they do, we’ll bring them to justice.
MARISA: Kazu… ro…?
MARISA: Hah… God, you’re such a cheesy bastard, y’know that?
KAZURO: Sorry, didn’t know you were lactose-intolerant.
MARISA: You’re a funny cheesy bastard… Hhehehe. What a dork…
KAZURO: You feeling better?
MARISA: Absolutely. You’re chill, guy.

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: I’ve come to make an announcement!
ZEROKUMA: Could everyone please come to the gym? I have a surprise for youuuu!
ZEROKUMA: Okay, then. See you there! Bye-byeeee!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

MARISA: You think that’s…
KAZURO: The motive ?
KAZURO: Yeah… Probably is…
KAZURO: But if you listen to my mediocre advice, then…
MARISA: Relax, guy. I’m not gonna let this killing stuff get the best of me anymore.
MARISA: I’ve got an ally, y’know?
MARISA: So… I’ll see ya at the gym!
KAZURO: (And with that, Marisa left.)
KAZURO: (Left for the gym, and left me alone with a promise.)
KAZURO: (A promise that I fully intend to keep.)

[Fade to black. Gym gameplay area, and now everybody’s here]

Chapter Text

[Gym gameplay area, and now everybody’s here]

GIDEON: Asking us all to gather here again… What could he possibly want this time?
MAKOTO: Well, last time was when he told us to kill each other, so… maybe he’s gonna tell us to get better at killing each other?
RIDGE: If we’re lucky, he might’ve just gotten bored waiting for us to act…
ZEROKUMA: Sorry, pal! No luck here, do not sow your seed!

[Cutscene -- sweeping past the participants’ legs, we eventually stop at the podium. Zerokuma backflips onto the podium, a sinister grin on his face. Back to normal sprite-viewing]

ZEROKUMA: It’s time, baby!
SATSUKI: It’s time? What do you mean by that?
ZEROKUMA: Time for me to start!
NERU: Start what?
ZEROKUMA: The killing!
ZEROKUMA: I mean, come on! It’s already been a good hefty couple of days, and nobody’s gone ahead and killed anybody!
ZEROKUMA: You’re wasting my time here!
ZEROKUMA: But then, I had the genius thought that would sweep the nation!
ZEROKUMA: I have all the right people in the right place with the right tools. I just need to motivate them with a reason to kill!
ZEROKUMA: And when you take “at” out of “motivate,” you arrive at… motive !
ZEROKUMA: I just need to give you all a motive to kill each other!
QUOTE: Okay, then. Let’s hear it -- what could you possibly tell us to make us kill each other?
ZEROKUMA: Well, there’s this classic one I’ve always liked: “give them their one deepest darkest secret and a time limit before you reveal it all, and someone’s bound to die!”
ZEROKUMA: But that just seemed a little too… traditional, ya know?
ZEROKUMA: SO! If you could all open the “Motivation” app on your ZeroPads…

[ZeroPad cutscene. Starts on the start-up screen, reading “FUTOYA, KAZURO”. Then, to the home menu, with various “apps” floating about. The “Motivation” app is selected, opening on a lengthy, lengthy list.]

ZEROKUMA: I’ve added all of your deep, dark secrets!
MOTIVATION: Kazuro Futoya ate sand at the beach until they were eight years old.
MOTIVATION: Kazuro Futoya has a distinct gap in between their front teeth.
MOTIVATION: Kazuro Futoya has a crush on one of his fellow voice actors.
KAZURO: (On and on and on like that… I scrolled through secret after secret…)
KAZURO: (But at the very bottom…)
MOTIVATION: Kazumi Mishima, despite what he may say, is a very frequent smoker.
KAZURO: (A secret that isn’t mine…)

[Back to normal sprite-viewing]
GONBEE: H- How do you know about…
SOU: Ahah… This guy really isn’t joking around…
MISHIMA: And why, perchance, do I have…
ZEROKUMA: As it appears you’ve all already noticed, there’s one extra secret in there that isn’t yours.
ZEROKUMA: To spice things up, I’ve given one of your secrets to someone else !
ZEROKUMA: The secret they have is still one that you have, and you have the secret of whoever has yours!
ZEROKUMA: In 72 hours , I will reveal all of your secrets en masse to the entire school -- no, the entire WORLD!
ZEROKUMA: So let’s hope these secrets of yours are incriminating enough to get some bloodshed going!
REI: I- I mean, mine aren’t too bad, but…
WADSWORTH: An undying suspicion… I see…
ZEROKUMA: Weeelp! I don’t really have much else to say, and I hate beating around the bush, soooo… Buh-bye!

[Zerokuma exit]

WADSWORTH: Right, then. I fear our daily breakfast meetings may have to end.
MIHARI: Why so? I think getting everyone together to make sure we’re all alive is a good idea!
WADSWORTH: I realize now that, if we all suspect each other as heavily as we do now, there is no point.
WADSWORTH: If any of you are to be killed. I only pray that we find your body with haste.
RIDGE: Welp. Nothing we can do about it, really.
RIDGE: Not like it was an official rule in the first place, y’know?
RIDGE: I’ll personally be making breakfast for some folks tomorrow morning, but for now…
RIDGE: Guess I’m outta here.
[Ridge sprite fades out]

KIKURI: Man. This is, like… supremely fucked.
KIKURI: Well, I’m off to take a nap. I suggest the same to all of you, it’s good for the soul!
[Kikuri sprite fades out]

KAZURO: That… uh, doesn’t sound too bad.
KAZURO: (With little hesitation, I return to my room.)

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (I am absolutely, 100%, completely… tired.)
KAZURO: (With the motive revealed, it’s… a matter of time.)
KAZURO: (A waiting game… An endlessly long moment of anxiety.)
KAZURO: (Without a second thought, I collapsed onto my bed.)
KAZURO: (And, for just a brief moment, I slept the morning away.)

ZEROKUMA THEATER!

ZEROKUMA: Man, I tell ya what! Running an ethereal dubiously-canon dream theater sure is hard!
ZEROKUMA: I have to ask myself questions like, “does this make sense with its place in the story?” “Does it have to make sense at all?”
ZEROKUMA: “Will I accidentally say too much?” “What if I don’t say enough?” And so on, and so forth…
ZEROKUMA: But I’m confident in our viewer base. You all have good taste, so you’ll all love my ramblings regardless!
ZEROKUMA: And at the end of the day, what’s the Zerokuma Theater if not just a place for me to ramble on?
ZEROKUMA: Oh, yeah. I forgot. It’s a theater.
ZEROKUMA: Maybe I should put on a show in here…

Chapter Text

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (Sleeping the whole day away won’t get anything to happen.)
KAZURO: (I should probably use this free time while I have it…)

-=FREE TIME=-

One day of Free Time Events passes…

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: (Welp, I guess it’s just another day…)
KAZURO: (Right, Ridge said that he’d make breakfast for some people this morning!)
KAZURO: (Seems like a kind gesture… Might as well take him up on it, right?)
||Click on doorwayכ

[Hallway gameplay area, walk to Dining Hall. Dining Hall gameplay area]

MARISA: Yo, Kazuro! Ya showed up! Neat-o!
ANZU: Things’re starting to look nice and lively now!
GONBEE: Oh, thank god you’re here. These two have so much energy it’s honestly exhausting.
RIDGE: Kaz! Thank god you’re here, man.
KAZURO: Well, who am I to skip out on the promise of food, right?
RIDGE: Y’see, I was thinking I’d need some help in the kitchen, but…
MARISA: I only know how to make various soups and stews! My girlfriend does most of the cooking.
ANZU: And I’m clumsy and don’t trust myself around heat or sharp objects!
GONBEE: Long hair. It’ll get in the food. To an uncomfortable degree.
RIDGE: So, uh… do you happen to know how to cook, Kazuro? Like, anything at all?
KAZURO: I mean, I can scramble some eggs pretty good?
RIDGE: Perfect! You already have more qualifications than most of the people in this room!
RIDGE: C’mon, into the kitchen! Follow me!
[Ridge sprite fades out]

||Talk to Marisaכ
MARISA: Don’t worry, guy! You got this, 100%!
KAZURO: I wasn’t exactly doubting myself, but I appreciate the reassurance!
MARISA: Hope those eggs can be scrambled into a masterpiece or whatever!
KAZURO: I’ll do what I can!

||Talk to Anzuכ
ANZU: Man… Kinda feels like a shitty hotel.
ANZU: Promise me the food won’t be of that same quality, okay?
KAZURO: (I’m, uh, not sure I agree on the “shitty hotel” part. More of a prison than anything. But regardless…)
KAZURO: I, Kazuro Futoya, swear on my heart that this will be at least an average breakfast experience.
ANZU: Woo! Average! You love to see it.
KAZURO: (I… guess?)

||Talk to Gonbeeכ
KAZURO: (Admittedly, it still isn’t easy to bring myself to talk to a known killer…)
KAZURO: (But distrust is only going to ruin my life, y’know?)
GONBEE: You look tense, kid.
KAZURO: Huh?
GONBEE: Don’t worry, I get it. Ultimate Killer in a Killing Game isn’t exactly… comforting .
GONBEE: But I can assure you this: killing does not leave a good taste in my mouth.
GONBEE: Even if there was some grand prize in it for me, like escape or money or whatever, I would never end another person’s life.
GONBEE: It really does stuff to your brain, y’know? Unfun stuff.
KAZURO: I, uh… I guess that’s… Reassuring, in a way?
GONBEE: Just don’t worry about it. And don’t kill anybody, alright?
KAZURO: Wasn’t planning on it. Hahah…

||Enter kitchenכ

[Kitchen gameplay area, Ridge and Satsuki are here]
RIDGE: Oh! Uh… Hey!
SATSUKI: GWAH!
SATSUKI: I mean, uh… Hey guys!
RIDGE: Didn’t realize there was already someone in here. My bad.
SATSUKI: Nah, it’s alright.
KAZURO: What are you doing in here, Satsuki?
SATSUKI: It’s a kitchen. I’m looking at all the food.
KAZURO: Just, uh… Just looking?
SATSUKI: Yeah. I had this genius idea to get us all to know each other better, but I kinda need to know what sorta food’s in here first.
RIDGE: Planning some sort of banquet?
SATSUKI: You could call it that, I guess.
SATSUKI: I just figured we may as well try and break the tension a little, and what better way to do that than with a friendly feast?
KAZURO: Are we sure it’d be safe?
SATSUKI: Everybody in the same room, in clear view of one another? Yeah, that’s safe.
SATSUKI: Of course, I can’t exactly force people to come, but whether or not you attended could serve as a good alibi, too.
RIDGE: Are we sure that we, uh, really want to encourage an alibi?
SATSUKI: We can’t stop people from killing other people. Might as well make it easy on ourselves, right?
KAZURO: I… guess I get where you’re coming from.
SATSUKI: Oh, I just realized.
SATSUKI: Ridge, you’re cooking for everyone right now, right?
RIDGE: Yeah! Hopefully with assistance from Kazuro, but it was my idea.
SATSUKI: Do you think you could help me prepare some dishes? I’m hoping to have this dinner party later today, at around 7PM.
RIDGE: Sounds fine by me!
SATSUKI: Neat. I’ll come find you when I’m ready. For now, though, I suppose I’m off to my room.
KAZURO: (With a smile on her face, Satsuki left the kitchen.)
RIDGE: Now that there’s one less cook in the kitchen, Kaz…
KAZURO: Right! Let’s get to work!

[Fade to black]

[Fade in on CG of Kazuro and Ridge bringing breakfast out for Marisa, Anzu, and Gonbee]

RIDGE: Bon appétit! Or as they say in Italy, “itadakimasu!”
GONBEE: Ridge, that’s Japanese. Not Italian.
RIDGE: Saying a country’s name and then speaking in a completely unrelated language is peak humor, Gonbee.
KAZURO: Or, as they say in Iceland, “it’s-a funny!”
ANZU: Admittedly, it is a good bit.
GONBEE: Well, whatever you say, funny clown.
ANZU: I’m funny?
MARISA: I think so! Almost as funny as this pancake shape!
KAZURO: Marisa, that’s a waffle.
MARISA: What’s a waffle?
ANZU: It’s that , you silly goose!
MARISA: Hey, I’m not a goose! I’m a girl! A very pretty and attractive girl with hundreds of female admirers!
ANZU: God, I wish I was that cool.
GONBEE: I’m eating breakfast with a bunch of idiots…
RIDGE: You complainin’ there, Gons?
GONBEE: Not at all. Idiots are fun to watch.
KAZURO: Idiots are fun to voice!
GONBEE: So you’re a method actor, Kazuro?
KAZURO: I’m not that much of an idiot!

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (And the conversation would continue on like this…)
KAZURO: (For a brief moment, it felt like everything was right.)
KAZURO: (Like I could let my guard down around these people…)

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (Man, that was… fun, weirdly enough.)
KAZURO: (There’s still a good bit of time before that dinner Satsuki was planning, so what should I do in the meantime?)

-=FREE TIME=-

Chapter Text

One day of Free Time Events passes…

KAZURO: (Almost seven…)
KAZURO: (About time for that feast Satsuki mentioned, I guess.)
KAZURO: (I should head over.)
||Click on doorwayכ

[Hallway gameplay area, walk to Dining Hall. Dining Hall gameplay area, almost everyone is there]

RIDGE: Kaz! Glad you could make it, man!
KAZURO: I think we’ve already well established that I won’t miss an opportunity to eat.
NERU: Is this everyone?
REI: Not quite. Where’s Sou and Makoto? They were invited, right?
SATSUKI: I invited everyone. If they didn’t come, that was their own decision.
SATSUKI: But enough talk. I think it’s proper feasting time, don’t you?

[Extravagant feast CG. Everybody is sitting at the table -- except for Sou and Makoto, who aren’t present, and Wadsworth, who is standing beside the table as butler-y as possible]

GONBEE: Just wondering, but…Is there any specific reason to gather us all up like this?
MARISA: It's an excuse to all get together and stuff our faces. What's not to like?
GONBEE: I suppose that’s a valid point…

NERU: I’m gonna go get some drinks from the kitchen. You guys want anything?
KAZURO: Just some water will do.
KIKURI: Try ‘n find some sorta alcohol in there, alright?
MIHARI: Um, Miss Kikuri… This is a school. Why would there be alcohol?
KIKURI: Hey, ya never know!
REI: Just some apple juice for me.
NERU: Alright! I’ll go get all that!
[Neru leaves from the CG]

STEVE: This food is actually pretty good! Compliments to the chef!
RIDGE: Thank you very much, Steve.
QUOTE: Man, this is giving me hope. I’m glad our generation actually knows how to feed ourselves.
RIDGE: It’s a valuable skill to have!

SATSUKI: This garlic bread is euphoric , man…
SATSUKI: Wait! I just had an incredible idea!
SATSUKI: I’ll be right back -- I’m gonna go try to find something in the warehouse!
[Satsuki leaves from the CG]
MIHARI: Ooh! I’ll come with! I know the warehouse like the back of my hand!
[Mihari leaves from the CG]

[Neru comes back to the CG]
NERU: Alright, I got you all drinks!
NERU: Water, apple juice, and I couldn’t find any alcohol. You don’t mind Sprite, do you?
KIKURI: Sprite is a cruel and spiky mistress. Give ‘er here!
[Kazuro, Kikuri, and Rei all have their drinks in the CG]

GONBEE: Weirdly enough, I’m kinda… Kinda getting a weird craving.
RIDGE: What for?
GONBEE: Pancakes. Do you have any made?
RIDGE: Unfortunately, all the pancakes from this morning were eaten, and I didn’t have the foresight to make more…
GONBEE: Think you could make me some?
RIDGE: For sure!
[Ridge leaves the CG]

[Cut to black, brief electrical SFX]
KAZURO: Wh--
QUOTE: A blackout?
ANZU: THIS ISN’T FUNNY AT ALL! TURN THE LIGHTS BACK ON, TURN THEM BACK ONNNNN!
GIDEON: If you’re going to panic, DON’T panic right in my ear!
GONBEE: Everybody, just calm down!

THUD!

KIKURI: GWAH! Whhuhwas that?! You all ‘eard that, right?!
RIDGE: GUYS?! What’s going on out there?!

[Lights flickering sound, then brief hum of lights SFX. screen stays black]

KAZURO: (And when the lights came back on…)
KAZURO: (Everybody was silent. For just a moment.)
KAZURO: (It was as if…)
KAZURO: (The whole world came to a stop.)

[CG of Wadsworth leaned against the wall, a hammer lodged into his right eye socket, blood everywhere. Undoubtedly, he’s dead.]

CHAPTER 1: The Secret Life of Despair
1 LIFE → 0 LIFE

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1: The Secret Life of Despair
0 LIFE

[While the 1 Life’s “Chapter 1” screen had Zerokuma and Kazuro present, the transition from 1 Life to 0 Life is accompanied by Shuichi taking Kazuro’s place on-screen. Fade to black, gameplay begin.]

[Fade in to Wadsworth’s body CG]
SHUICHI: (It was like the whole world stopped moving.)
SHUICHI: (The familiar sense of everybody stopping, taking a moment to process what they see…)
SHUICHI: (It felt like hours, but it probably only lasted a few seconds, maybe a minute at most.)
SHUICHI: (The small sounds of fear rising from everyone, frozen in place… Like they couldn’t even muster a scream…)
SHUICHI: (And then… we heard it.)

DING DONG DONG DING!

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: A body has been discovered!
ZEROKUMA: Since this is the first instance of such a thrilling scenario, I’m gonna drop in.
ZEROKUMA: There are still some basic rules you need to understand before I throw you into the deep end, after all!
ZEROKUMA: Okay! Then I’ll see you all there!
[Monitor to static, turns off. Dining Hall gameplay area]

RIDGE: …
KAZURO: Wh…
STEVE: This is unbelievable…
MARISA: …
SOU: I came as fast as I could! The monitor said something about a body, so --
SOU: Ah… hHHAAAAAAAAGGHH!!!
SOU: I- Is that… Did he really--
SHUICHI: Everyone, please -- stay calm .

[Zerokuma enter]
ZEROKUMA: Wow, insensitive much? “Stay calm,” and there’s a bloody body right there next to them!
SHUICHI: …you.
ZEROKUMA: Me!
KIKURI: AH! IT’S THAT BEAR FROM HELL!
ZEROKUMA: Okay, the “bear” part I can understand. But I am not from Hell!
ZEROKUMA: Do I look like some sorta has-been? Do I look like a hotel?!
MIHARI: …
ZEROKUMA: Seems there’s a lotta people here in shock at their first dead body!
ZEROKUMA: Welp! No better time than the present to explain things!
ZEROKUMA: Ahem-hem…

ZEROKUMA: As Rule 5 in your Rulebooks states, “and an hour will pass between the discovery of the body and the Class Trial.”
ZEROKUMA: “But Mister Zerokuma, you hot piece of work!” I hear you ask, “What’s the Class Trial?”
ZEROKUMA: Well, I’ll tell you! Just, uh, don’t call me a hot piece of work in front of everyone. Capisce? 

[Class Trial Explanation CG]
ZEROKUMA: Everybody -- whether they be the “Blackened” killer or a simple “Spotless” innocent , will gather together for the trial.
ZEROKUMA: There, we will have a not-so-civil debate with our words and our evidence to figure out who the Blackened is!
ZEROKUMA: When I think the discussion’s pretty much over, well, it’s time for the majority vote !
ZEROKUMA: If you all correctly vote for the Blackened , then they will receive a delicious punishment !
ZEROKUMA: If the majority is wrong , however, I get to punish all the Spotless ! The Blackened, in that case, is allowed to leave this place as the sole survivor.

[Back to regular sprite-viewing]
ZEROKUMA: Any guesses to what that punishment may be?
QUOTE: Well, based on your wording just now and the fact that it was explicitly stated in the Rulebook, I’d assume “punishment” and “execution” are the same word to you.
ZEROKUMA: Bingo! What a good sport you are, Quotesy!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right -- if you don’t discover the Blackened , then you all die!
ZEROKUMA: You all have an hour, starting from when I leave this room.
ZEROKUMA: I’ll send everybody the Zerokuma FIle with all the body’s stats shortly.
ZEROKUMA: But from now until the trial, I have only one thing to say:
ZEROKUMA: Investigate! INVESTIGATE! IN-VES-TI-GATE!
ZEROKUMA: But that’s all from me! Ta-ta~!
[Zerokuma exit]

-=INVESTIGATION START=-

SHUICHI: (Before I get too carried away, I should probably look at the Zerokuma File…)
SHUICHI: (Still, it’s cruel that they’re putting me through this again…)
[Visual of Zerokuma File appears in top-right corner]
FILE: Zerokuma File - Relevant Information for Class Trial 1
FILE: Victim: Wadsworth, the Ultimate Butler
FILE: Found in the dining-hall with a hammer lodged into the right eye socket, slumped against the wall. No other major visible injuries.
SHUICHI: (I guess they wouldn’t give us much, other than the obvious…)

⊂ Zerokuma File 1 has been added to your Truth Bullets||

SHUICHI: (Looks like some people left while I was reading the file.)
SHUICHI: (I guess that makes sense. We all need to investigate properly, after all.)

Chapter Text

||Investigate the Bodyכ
SHUICHI: (Looks like he suffered from some pretty bad head trauma…)
SHUICHI: (And, of course, the murder weapon is still in his body.)
SHUICHI: (Lodged right into his eye… Brutal stuff.)
SHUICHI: (I can only imagine how it might’ve found its way there…)

⊂ Hammer in Eye Socket has been added to your Truth Bullets||

||Investigate discarded knife on the groundכ
SHUICHI: (Huh? That’s strange.)
SHUICHI: (There’s a steak knife laying here on the ground.)
SHUICHI: (And given its distance from the table, I can’t say for sure that anybody dropped it…)
SHUICHI: (But it absolutely seems significant.)

⊂ Discarded Knife has been added to your Truth Bullets||

SHUICHI: (Actually, come to think of it…)
SHUICHI: (I feel like there was someone standing here…)
[Extravagant feast CG fade in]
SHUICHI: (That’s right!)
SHUICHI: (While everybody else was sitting at the table, Wadsworth stood next to it!)
SHUICHI: (I don’t remember him having a knife , but it has to be important that a potential weapon ended up where the victim was standing.)

⊂ Where Wadsworth Was Standing has been added to your Truth Bullets||

||Enter the kitchenכ

[Kitchen gameplay area, Anzu is there]

||Talk to Anzuכ
ANZU: Oh! Uh, hi! Hi there.
SHUICHI: Is everything alright in here, Anzu?
ANZU: No no no, yeah, I’m just… cautious.
SHUICHI: How do you mean?
ANZU: What if the killer comes back in here to kill again? They’d go for a knife, right?
ANZU: So. I’m guarding all these big knives. And if they try to hurt me, I’ll fight back!
ANZU: Admittedly, I might lose. But better die trying than die not trying, right?
SHUICHI: Right. If you don’t mind, could I ask you if you have any sort of useful leads?
ANZU: Well, I did hear something during the blackout…
SHUICHI: Really? What did you hear?
ANZU: There were whispers, and then I heard something flat and metal hit the ground.
ANZU: After that, there were a few groans, and then that big loud THUD!
SHUICHI: (So there was a struggle…)

⊂ Anzu’s Account has been added to your Truth Bullets||

SHUICHI: Do you think you remember anybody that was near that struggle?
ANZU: Well, not really. But Wadsworth was definitely involved!
ANZU: My theory? He had to be the guy who was groaning!
SHUICHI: That definitely makes sense… Thank you for your time, Anzu.
ANZU: No problem at all, chief!
SHUICHI: Don’t call me chief…

||Inspect the stoveכ
SHUICHI: (Looks like these stovetops don’t use gas…)
SHUICHI: (Induction, then?)
SHUICHI: (No, that doesn’t seem quite right either…)
SHUICHI: (Then, is this an electric stovetop?)
SHUICHI: (Come to think of it, that means it’d turn off during the blackout…)
SHUICHI: Anzu! Do you remember if anybody walked into the kitchen just before the blackout?
ANZU: Well Ridge went in here, but just to make something for Gonbee…
SHUICHI: Could you remind me what he was making?
ANZU: I think it was… pancakes? Gonbee said she had a craving for some sorta breakfast thing, and it might’ve been pancakes…
SHUICHI: (And you’d use this stove here to make those, right?)

⊂ Electric Stove has been added to your Truth Bullets||

||Enter the warehouseכ

[Warehouse gameplay area, Satsuki and Mihari there]

||Talk to Satsukiכ
SATSUKI: So it’s really true? There was a body?
SHUICHI: What do you mean? Weren’t you at the dinner?
SATSUKI: I was, but I left a fair bit before the blackout.
SATSUKI: Was that… when it happened?
SHUICHI: Yeah…
SHUICHI: Actually, I’m kind of interested now. What were you doing after you left?
SATSUKI: Well, I had a fun idea -- recording an audio diary of all the fun moments here.
SATSUKI: So, I went into the warehouse, looking for an audio recorder.
SATSUKI: Mihari came with, so she and I can vouch for eachother.
SATSUKI: Eventually, we found the recorder, but then… the blackout.
SATSUKI: And so, seeing it as the safest option, Mihari and I stayed put in here the whole time.

⊂ Satsuki’s Account has been added to your Truth Bullets||

SHUICHI: Right. Thanks for your help, Satsuki.
SATSUKI: An alibi’s an alibi, y’know?

||Talk to Mihariכ
MIHARI: How very interesting…
SHUICHI: What’s up, Mihari?
MIHARI: When we were searching this floor, I always spent all my time in the warehouse.
MIHARI: It fascinated me, seeing just how much of everything there was.
MIHARI: Which is how and why I can say, with 100% certainty, something ’s missing.
SHUICHI: Really? What?
MIHARI: See this box of extension sockets?
[Box of sockets CG]
SHUICHI: Yeah… Filled up pretty reasonably with four-outlet power strips.
MIHARI: Exactly. This was filled closer to the top the last time I came in here.
[Back to normal sprite-viewing]
SHUICHI: When would that have been?
MIHARI: Just this afternoon, actually.

⊂ Missing Extension Sockets has been added to your Truth Bullets||

MIHARI: But, as to why they’re missing, I have no clue…
MIHARI: Think it’s important?
SHUICHI: Absolutely. I’ll keep note of that…

[Walk to dorm hallway, Ridge standing outside of his own door.]

||Talk to Ridgeכ
RIDGE: Ghh…! I’ve been had!
SHUICHI: Something the matter, Ridge?
RIDGE: My door! My room! My precious private space!
RIDGE: I’d left it unlocked for the entire dinner!
SHUICHI: Unlocked?!
RIDGE: UNLOCKED!
RIDGE: Ohh… My dignity! My privacy! It’s all over for meeeee…
SHUICHI: (Wait. This could actually be surprisingly relevant…)
SHUICHI: Is it alright if I go into your room, Ridge? I just want to be sure that nobody else got in there during the dinner.
RIDGE: Go ahead… All my secrets, for the world to see…

⊂ Ridge’s Room has been added to your Truth Bullets||

||Enter Ridge’s roomכ

[Ridge dorm gameplay area]

||Inspect nightstand drawerכ
SHUICHI: (All the guys have toolboxes, and toolboxes have hammers, so…)
[Visual of Ridge’s toolbox appears in top-right corner. It’s somewhat ajar.]
SHUICHI: (Well that’s not exactly good…)
SHUICHI: (Though it’s still in his room, his toolbox is open somewhat.)
SHUICHI: (I don’t want to suspect someone like Ridge, but if it leads to the truth…)
[Toolbox visual opens -- all tools are still present.]
SHUICHI: …Huh.
SHUICHI: (Despite my concerns, Ridge still has all his tools.)
SHUICHI: (Does that exactly rule him out?)
SHUICHI: (I guess we’ll find out…)

⊂ Ridge’s Tools has been added to your Truth Bullets||

DING DONG, BING BONG!

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Oh goodie! Has it been an hour already?!
ZEROKUMA: Well, time sure does fly when you’re having fun!
ZEROKUMA: If everybody could please make their way towards the big green double doors on the first floor, that would be phenomenal!
ZEROKUMA: If they’re already open, then please, do feel free to just step inside.
ZEROKUMA: See you there~!
[Monitor to static, turns off. Fade to black, Big Green Door gameplay area]

SHUICHI: (Then I guess… we just find out what’s on the other side, right?)

Chapter Text

||Enter big green doorsכ

[Elevator room gameplay area, everyone is here]
SATSUKI: Well, guys. Before we get into this, I just wanna say…
SATSUKI: Sorry. The whole dinner was my idea, and someone got killed at it.
SATSUKI: So if anyone out there blames me for Wadsworth’s death, then… I’m sorry.
SHUICHI: Don’t be sorry, Satsuki. You may have set up the dinner, but you aren’t the one who killed him.
MARISA: Yeah! We’re gonna bring that no-life low-life go-life to justice, right?
SATSUKI: Exactly.
SATSUKI: And I’m going to help everyone reach the truth.
SATSUKI: That is how I can make up for my sin.
GONBEE: Seriously, galaxy head. It wasn’t a sin to wanna see people be friends.
GONBEE: But, if that’s your resolve, I guess I can’t stop ya.

SOU: I just think I should let everybody know this while there’s still time.
SOU: Distrust in the trial is not distrust out of the trial.
SOU: We need to suspect our allies, so we can trust them.
SOU: If you forget that, then you neglect the truth.
SHUICHI: What a wise thing to say, Sou.
SOU: I figured it might be helpful to remind everyone.
SHUICHI: Alright, then I might as well give my two cents, too.

[Zerokuma enter]
ZEROKUMA: Only two cents? You can’t even get a gumball with that, ya know!
MAKOTO: And the beeaaaawww desceeeends!
ZEROKUMA: STOP talking like that, dammit!
MAKOTO: You’re no fun… No fun at aww…
ZEROKUMA: ANYWAYS! I’m just here to make sure everybody gets on the elevator. So hurry up! Get on!

||Click on elevatorכ
SHUICHI: I guess… We’re just heading down.
MAKOTO: You scared?
SHUICHI: Not in the least.
SHUICHI: (After all, if anybody can see this truth through to the end, it’s me.)

[Fade to black]
SHUICHI: (Courage.)
SHUICHI: (Having nothing but my courage, I boarded the elevator.)
SHUICHI: (And, whether joining my courage or shaking with fear, everybody else joined me.)

[Elevator CG, with everybody present]
SHUICHI: …Before this elevator stops, I want to say what I was trying to say earlier.
SHUICHI: Seeing as I’m the only one with previous experience, I urge you to listen to me.
SHUICHI: Whatever you do, don't begin aimlessly shouting at each other.
SHUICHI: Keep your head clear and focused on the topic at hand, no matter what. And don't be too quick to vote.
SHUICHI: If the majority vote is wrong, we all die. So make sure your logical thinking and emotional feelings are aligned when you vote.
SATSUKI: Right…
GIDEON: How inspiring! What if you did it?
SHUICHI: I can tell you for a fact, I didn’t.
GONBEE: Well, we can reason that out soon enough, right?
SOU: Exactly. Our lives are on the line, after all.
SHUICHI: (Unknowing of the dominating tension in the air, the elevator stopped, its metal doors swinging open.)

[Trial Room gameplay area. Everybody is scattered about.]
MARISA: Jeez, so many podiums. Who’s putting all this effort into this thing?
ZEROKUMA: Me, dummy!
ZEROKUMA: All your podiums are designated explicitly to yourself -- go find yours!

SHUICHI: (And so, the curtains opened on another Class Trial.)
[Wadsworth’s body CG]
SHUICHI: (Wadsworth, the Ultimate Butler …)
SHUICHI: (We barely knew anything about him, and yet he was gone in an instant…)
SHUICHI: (He wasn’t exactly someone who spoke up or stood out all that much, and yet…)
[CG of Sou, Quote, Makoto, Marisa, and Steve’s faces]
SHUICHI: (His killer is in the room with us.)
SHUICHI: (It’s not a comforting thought to have…)
[CG of Mishima, Kazuro, Gideon, Anzu, and Rei’s faces]
SHUICHI: (But it’s an unavoidable truth.)
SHUICHI: (An unavoidable judgement… a deadly betrayal…)
[CG of Satsuki, Ridge, Kikuri, and Wadsworth’s faces. In contrast to everybody else, Wadsworth is colored in red]
SHUICHI: (I can’t let anybody here be overcome by despair.)
SHUICHI: (Not now, not ever…)
[CG of Gonbee, Neru, Mihari, and Shuichi’s faces]
SHUICHI: (So I plan to fight. Until I can’t take any more…)
SHUICHI: (I will fight for my life in this trial of truth and lies!)

CHAPTER 1: PRE-TRIAL PREP

||View all Truth Bulletsכ

• Zerokuma File 1
• Wadsworth, the Ultimate Butler, was found in the dining-hall with a hammer lodged into the right eye socket, slumped against the wall. No other major visible injuries.
• Hammer in Eye Socket
• The murder weapon. I wonder, how exactly did it get there?
• Discarded Knife
• The kind of knife you’d use to cut your own steak. This appears to have been dropped by someone during the blackout. Notably, not too close to the table.
• Where Wadsworth Was Standing
• Seems like he was standing somewhat away from the table.
• Anzu’s Account
• During the blackout, Anzu heard a struggle -- namely, a flat metal something falling before some grunts (presumably from Wadsworth). It ended with the major “THUD” we all heard.
• Electric Stove
• The stove in the kitchen is electric. It probably would’ve powered off during the blackout…
• Satsuki’s Account
• Satsuki was in the warehouse during the blackout, looking for an audio recorder with the intent of recording an audio diary.
• Missing Extension Sockets
• The box of extension sockets in the Warehouse is, according to Mihari, emptier than before
• Ridge’s Room
• The door to Ridge’s room was unlocked. Did someone get in?
• Ridge’s Tools
• Ridge’s toolbox still has the hammer inside, but it’s slightly opened. Did someone do something with it?

Chapter Text

CLASS TRIAL
IN SESSION

[Class Trial gameplay fade in]
ZEROKUMA: Let's begin with a basic explanation of the Class Trial!
ZEROKUMA: In the trial, you will present your evidence and arguments to vote for the guilty party in our horrible murder!
ZEROKUMA: There'll be heated debate, spicy arguments, and a whole lot of dumb people trying their hardest to figure out what’s going on!
ZEROKUMA: Once you've reached a conclusion, you'll use your ZeroPads to pick the person who you think is the Blackened , or the murderer. If the majority is correct…
ZEROKUMA: Then the Blackened alone will be brutally executed!
ZEROKUMA: But if you're wrong…
ZEROKUMA: Teehee, everyone except for the killer is punished instead, and they get to leave this place!

RIDGE: Before we go any further, I just wanna clear this one thing up.
RIDGE: The killer… is really one of us, right?
ZEROKUMA: Of course! Now hurry up and get arguin’!
SHUICHI: Let’s start with some of the easier information.
SHUICHI: For one, the Zerokuma File appears to be sufficient as both a summary and an autopsy.

[Zerokuma FIle visual appears in top-right corner]
SHUICHI: The victim was Wadsworth, the Ultimate Butler.
SHUICHI: He was murdered in the Dining Hall, during an unexpected blackout.
SHUICHI: He suffered major trauma to the head, as shown by the hammer in his right eye socket.
GIDEON: Well, we already have one obvious answer -- the murder weapon is clearly the hammer in his eye.
SOU: How can you so confidently tell yourself that? Just one look and one description, and suddenly you declare “this is it!” like you’re writing this murder plan yourself?
REI: Huh? What do you mean?
SOU: I mean, it’s entirely possible he was killed before he got that hammer to his head, right?
SOU: Maybe he was stabbed in the back or whacked over the head, and the hammer was lodged there as a red herring!
SHUICHI: There’s no chance it could be that. I checked the body thoroughly to verify what the File said.
SHUICHI: Outside of the hammer, there didn’t appear to be any other notable wounds.
SOU: Well, it was worth a shot. I didn’t really get a good look at the body, y’see…
SHUICHI: (The conversation may just be starting, but I already feel it…)
SHUICHI: (Distrust is beginning to brew…!)

-=NON-STOP DEBATE=-

SOU: The murder weapon is a hammer, right?
SOU: Does that mean it came from a toolbox ?
MISHIMA: Forgive me if I am mistaken, but…
MISHIMA: Were there not hammers in the warehouse as well?
MIHARI: I know the warehouse like the back of my hand…
MIHARI: Those weren’t the same kind of hammer.
ANZU: Then we’ve narrowed it down -- all the guys have toolboxes, so one of the guys must’ve done it!
SATSUKI: Hold on a second…
SATSUKI: If someone left their door unlocked, couldn’t anyone get one of those hammers?

||Shoot left their door unlocked כ ⊂with Ridge’s Room bullet||
I agree!
SHUICHI: That’s exactly the case, actually!
SHUICHI: Ridge’s room was unlocked for the entirety of the dinner.
SHUICHI: Somebody could’ve easily snuck in and taken his hammer.
ANZU: Wait a sec! Ridge’s toolbox was still in his room, right?
SHUICHI: Yes, it was. Why?
ANZU: Was the hammer still in there!
SHUICHI: Come to think of it… it was!
KAZURO: Maybe the killer just… put the hammer back when they were done?
SHUICHI: (No, that can’t be the case. And the thing that proves it, sure enough…)

⊂Present Hammer in Eye Socket bullet||
This is it!
SHUICHI: Remember how the body was when we found it? The hammer was lodged into Wadsworth’s skull.
SHUICHI: I don’t think it could’ve been taken out without us noticing.
KAZURO: Ah, right…
KAZURO: Then, what actually happened with the hammer?
SATSUKI: Simple -- it has to have been replaced .
SOU: And what makes you so sure of that?
SATSUKI: The toolbox.
SATSUKI: What I’m cooking here makes sense, right Shuichi?
SHUICHI: Yeah, I’m following.
SHUICHI: (The toolbox… No doubt about it, Satsuki’s talking about…)

⊂Present Ridge’s Tools bullet||
That’s it!
SHUICHI: When I looked at the toolbox, the hammer was in there.
SHUICHI: But, the toolbox itself was slightly ajar .
SHUICHI: Ridge, have you ever opened your toolbox?
RIDGE: Had no reason to, so… no?
SHUICHI: Then that settles it. Someone else opened Ridge’s toolbox!
KIKURI: Eheh, ah… Um…
KIKURI: All this hammer and toolbox talk is kinda… losin’ me.
KIKURI: Can we talk ‘bout something, I’unno… easier?
SOU: I agree, this is completely stupid.
STEVE: Alright, then it’s decided! Why don’t we talk abouuuut… the blackout?
STEVE: Namely… how? How the hell’d the blackout happen?
SHUICHI: (What caused the blackout? Do we know?)

The power was overloaded / Zerokuma cut it himself / Someone turned the lights off
||Choose The power was overloaded כ
There!
SHUICHI: Looking over all the evidence, there must’ve been some sort of overload.
SHUICHI: (And I can already tell what caused it…)

⊂Present Missing Extension Sockets bullet||
This is it!
SHUICHI: There was a box full of four-plug extension sockets in the warehouse. Right, Mihari?
MIHARI: Right! When I checked it before the dinner, it was completely full!
MIHARI: But afterwards, it looked as if some of the sockets were missing!
SHUICHI: I’m thinking that the killer took those and somehow used them to cause the blackout!
SOU: So you’re thinking whoever plugged those sockets in is the same person who killed Wadsworth, then?
MARISA: Neat! So… who did it?
NERU: Somebody who went into the kitchen, right?

-=NON-STOP DEBATE=-

NERU: Let’s think about everybody who went into the kitchen.
NERU: I went in there once, but only to get some drinks .
NERU: But Ridge was tasked with prepping the food, right?
NERU: Maybe it was just… that Ridge did it !
RIDGE: I haven’t gone into the warehouse a single time!
RIDGE: Plus, after the dinner started, I only went into the kitchen one time!
RIDGE: Gonbee asked me for pancakes, so… I went to make pancakes!
RIDGE: Then, out of nowhere , the power just cuts!
RIDGE: And I didn’t see a single socket the whole time!

||Shoot out of nowhere כ ⊂with Electric Stove bullet||
That’s wrong!
SHUICHI: I don’t think the power cut “out of nowhere,” Ridge.
SHUICHI: Take a moment to think about the stove. It’s electric, right?
SHUICHI: If the sockets were all plugged into the kitchen before then…
SHUICHI: Then you turning on the stove must’ve cut the power!
SOU: Seeing a way through now! I’m liking where this is going, Shuichi!
SOU: Let’s think about it like this: the culprit is Gonbee -- the Ultimate Killer .
SOU: Before even the cooking prep for the dinner, she set up the extension sockets to almost overload the power.
SOU: Then, during the dinner, she asked Ridge for some pancakes -- knowing he’d use the electric stove to cut the power.
SOU: And then, BAM! The hammer to the head! Sound about right?
MARISA: No, wait, hold on.
MARISA: How could Gonbee have carried the hammer to the dinner without being extremely obvious about it?
MARISA: I mean, I don’t think she has any pockets.
REI: Then who else does that leave?
MAKOTO: The other fuckin’ people that were there, dumbass!
REI: Right, sorry. That probably wasn’t the smartest thing to ask…
QUOTE: Our potential culprits are everybody at the dinner, then…
QUOTE: Do any of us have solid alibis for the blackout?
KAZURO: It was a blackout, so…
KAZURO: Unless we weren’t in the room, none of us really have an alibi, right?
MIHARI: I can vouch for myself and Satsuki!
MIHARI: We were both in the warehouse at the time of the blackout!
MIHARI: You can confirm that, right Shuichi?
SHUICHI: (Not necessarily confirm, but I can say it’s consistent with this…)

⊂Present Satsuki’s Account bullet||
This is it!
SHUICHI: It isn’t quite confirmation, but it’s consistent with what Satsuki told me.
SHUICHI: You two were trying to find an audio recorder, right?
MIHARI: Precisely! Quite the sharp memory there!
MISHIMA: While we are on the topic of alibi, I can confirm the innocence of both myself and miss Gonbee.
MISHIMA: I was standing next to her the entire time, close enough for me to notice any sudden movements.
SOU: That’s pretty loose reasoning there, Mishima.
MISHIMA: It is a reason, at the very least…
SOU: But is it good enough?
GONBEE: If not, I can continue to vouch Mishima’s innocence.
SOU: Please, do! I’m not sure if I quite trust him yet.
GONBEE: We're all in agreement that the hammer came from a toolbox, right? Any hammers in the warehouse are a different kind.
GONBEE: It also probably came from the killer's toolbox, because that's easily hidden -- we can't check everybody's toolboxes without wasting time.
GONBEE: I was having my suspicions of Mishima earlier, so just before the feast, I snagged his ZeroPad off of him.
GONBEE: Since the Pads are basically ID cards, I used it to get into his room and scope things out.
GONBEE: I searched in there until juuuust after the feast started. His toolbox was completely untouched, and since he was at the feast, he couldn’t have gone back to get the hammer.
MISHIMA: It appears your kleptomaniacal habits have proven useful… But please, do not steal anybody’s ZeroPads again, miss Gonbee.
GONBEE: At least I gave it back to you, right?

GIDEON: Similarly, I was standing next to Quote for the whole blackout. There’s no way he threw that hammer.
ANZU: WAIT A SECOND!
GIDEON: What do you want now?!
ANZU: Did you say “threw” the hammer?
GIDEON: I did! Because how else would such a loud noise be made by such a wimpy hammer?!
ANZU: Then you’re WRONG!
ANZU: I heard a struggle during the blackout!
ANZU: Meaning the culprit tussled with Wadsworth, meaning the culprit had to have hit him with the hammer!
ANZU: Plus, who could throw a hammer like that in complete darkness?!
SHUICHI: Right, you brought that struggle up to me earlier.
SHUICHI: Do you think you could elaborate on what you heard!
ANZU: Abso-tutely! I heard some feet shuffling, little whispers of conversation, a flat metal “clanganganganganggg,” some grunts and groans, and then that big THUD!

Your fear will consume you!
STEVE: I want us to think about this in a little more detail.
SHUICHI: What do you mean?
STEVE: Why are you assuming that Wadsworth died instantly? What if you’re wrong?

-=REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN=-

STEVE: Let’s operate under the assumption…
STEVE: That Wadsworth didn’t die instantly.
STEVE: In that case, miss Anzu, that “struggle”?
STEVE: That could’ve just been Wadsworth trying to get back up!
ADVANCE!
SHUICHI: But all of that struggle came before that loud thud.
SHUICHI: Wasn’t that thud the initial impact of the hammer?
STEVE: Think about it. Everybody was panicking.
STEVE: Maybe we didn’t hear the initial impact at all!
STEVE: That big thud? That was just the killer plunging the hammer in deeper!
STEVE: Thus pushing him against the wall, finally killing him!

||Slice pushing him against the wall כ ⊂with Zerokuma File 1 bullet||
I’ll cut through your words!
SHUICHI: If Wadsworth lived after the initial hit of the hammer, he would’ve at least been able to writhe on the floor.
SHUICHI: If not that, he could’ve easily screamed out in pain, or made more than a few whispery noises.
SHUICHI: But, given he was slumped over against the wall, I can only think of his death as instant!
ANZU: Phew! Now that we got that cleared up, uh…
ANZU: I think we're ignoring one of the things that I heard!
SHUICHI: (Right! How could I forget…)

⊂Present Anzu’s Account bullet||
That’s it!
SHUICHI: You’re talking about the metal clanging noise just before the struggle, right?
GONBEE: A metal clanging?
ANZU: Yeah! I heard this flat metal “clanganganganganggg” just before the struggle!
GONBEE: That had to be something falling to the floor… Do you have any ideas?
SHUICHI: (I’m quite confident on what it might be…)

⊂Present Discarded Knife bullet||
This is it!
SHUICHI: There was a knife on the floor, a ways away from the table everybody was eating at.
GIDEON: Incredible! But what does that tell us, detective!
SHUICHI: (That’s right, I don’t think it’s enough…)
SHUICHI: (Not on its own, at least…)

Hey! Finally here for a break in the fic to introduce my concept for a new mechanic: Correlation !
When a Truth Bullet doesn’t make sense on its own, you may need to find a second Truth Bullet to help it make sense! Once you select this second bullet, the two fuse into one Correlation Bullet holding your full idea!
Unfortunately, since this isn’t actually a game I’m making, I can’t quite “show off” that mechanic. But please do enjoy its use!

-=CORRELATION=-

||Correlate Discarded Knife bulletכ ⊂with Where Wadsworth Was Standing bullet||
They’re connected!
SHUICHI: The knife landed pretty close to where Wadsworth was standing.
REI: That’s right, Wadsworth wasn’t sitting at the table!
REI: He was standing next to it, right?
SHUICHI: My theory? Wadsworth was carrying the knife, and tried using it to kill someone during the blackout!
GONBEE: Then in his own efforts to murder, he ended up murdered?
KAZURO: That seems to be the conclusion…
SATSUKI: Sorry if I’m treading old ground, but it’s kinda stuck in my head.
SATSUKI: Why did any of us ever think the hammer was thrown?
SATSUKI: It was pitch-black, and hammers are typically too heavy to comfortably throw, so… why?
MAKOTO: Maybe some sort of Ultimate Baseball Star is hiding among us, with pinpoint accuracy!
MAKOTO: He’d be the one! One zero, three sevens!
QUOTE: …What are you even saying at this point?
SOU: Maybe they were close enough to Wadsworth to know the exact path the hammer would take.
SOU: How experienced with a hammer would you need to be to throw it like that, though? I wonder… Rei.
REI: And what makes you think that I’m throwing hammers frequently enough to know that?
SHUICHI: (Honestly… I’m starting to doubt that the hammer was used in the way we think.)
SHUICHI: (My doubts… mostly stem from the knife. I’m just not sure how to put them into words…)

-=CORRELATION=-

||Correlate Discarded Knife bulletכ ⊂with Anzu’s Account bullet||
They must be linked!
SHUICHI: If we assume that the knife was used by Wadsworth to try to kill someone, then the killer probably didn’t use the hammer out of malice.
SHUICHI: Rather, they hid it on them, and used it in self-defense against Wadsworth.
ANZU: And that sure doesn’t sound like throwing to me!
GIDEON: I ████ING GET IT ALREADY! THE HAMMER WASN’T ████ING THROWN AT HIM, I ████ING KNOW!
SATSUKI: Now, here’s some other things about the hammer that have me curious…
SATSUKI: Why bring it in the first place, and how?
SOU: If they had the hammer on them, it was either out of paranoia that someone might attack…
SOU: Or they were already planning their own murder, and Wadsworth’s attempt on their life just got in the way!
SATSUKI: Then that only leaves one question: how did the culprit hide the hammer from all of us?
KAZURO: Nobody has that sort of pocket space… right?
SHUICHI: (No, there is someone…)

-=SELECT SOMEBODY=-

||Choose Neruכ
It has to be you!
SHUICHI: Neru Imaizumi, wearing a trenchcoat, probably has large pockets -- likely large enough to hide a hammer in.
SHUICHI: And the coat is thick -- thick enough to conceal the potential shape and weight of the hammer!
NERU: Ghh…
NERU: Fine, then. Suspect me.
NERU: If I did it, where’d I get the hammer from?
KIKURI: …eh?
NERU: We already know that it isn’t the type you’d find in the warehouse, so how could I possibly get my hands on it?
SHUICHI: (The explanation for that is, truthfully, quite simple.)
SHUICHI: (I just need to deliver it in one blow…!)

-=CORRELATION=-

||Correlate Ridge’s Tools bulletכ ⊂with Ridge’s Room bullet||
I see the thread!
SHUICHI: You snuck into Ridge’s unlocked room and took the hammer from their toolbox.
SHUICHI: Then, there was a swap between the hammer you took -- the one that would end up in Wadsworth’s eye -- and another toolbox hammer.
NERU: Another toolbox hammer? But I thought only Ridge’s door was unlocked!
SOU: Exactly, Shuichi. And since she didn’t have her own toolbox, how could she swap it with a toolbox hammer?
SHUICHI: (The explanation is in sight! How could she swap the hammer?)

She stole from someone else / Someone else swapped the hammers / I’m completely wrong
||Choose Someone else swapped the hammersכ
This is it!
SHUICHI: I don’t think that Neru herself swapped the hammers. I think someone else did.
SHUICHI: And with how insistent you’re being about it all, Sou… I think you swapped the hammers.
SOU: Really, now? And why would I go and do a thing like that?
ANZU: He’s our enemy! He must’ve been trying to mess up the trial with a false conclusion!
KAZURO: Or maybe it’s… um… jeez, I actually don’t know!
SOU: Come on, Shuichi! If I wanted to mess the trial up, I’d die too! Why would I swap the toolbox?!
SHUICHI: (There’s only one reason that makes sense…)

Kazuro swapped the hammers / You had Neru’s same plan / To help us
||Choose To help us כ
There!
SHUICHI: ...you wanted to help us.
SHUICHI: We didn’t suspect Ridge for a second, all because you put a hammer back in their toolbox.
SOU: Bull’s-eye.
ANZU: Wait! Wasn’t Neru getting on Ridge’s case about the sockets and stuff?
QUOTE: Under this theory, Neru’s the killer. Shifting the blame makes sense.
ANZU: Oh, right! Sorry, I… kinda forgot what was going on.
SOU: To be more specific, if none of you guys ever brought up the idea of the hammer being Ridge’s… I was hoping the real culprit might've messed up and mentioned that it was.
SOU: But then you all brought up the idea of someone swapping it... Which doesn't make any sense with the information you have, y'know.
SOU: Just because it happened to be right this time doesn't mean it's sound logic.
KAZURO: Then… Neru, you…?
NERU: Yeah. Pointless trying to hide it anymore, y’know?
NERU: I killed Wadsworth. Used Ridge’s hammer, set up the blackout, slammed him.
KAZURO: Why?! Why would you do something like that?!
NERU: What, use a hammer?
NERU: ‘Cause it’s huge and clunky and inconvenient! Nobody would expect the frame-by-frame picture-perfect detail-oriented Ultimate Filmmaker to use that, right?
KAZURO: Don’t play dumb, dammit…! Why did you kill Wadsworth?!
MAKOTO: Because of the reason Zerokuma gave us, dumbass!
KAZURO: …huh?
MAKOTO: Waaaait…
KAZURO: …?
MAKOTO: Don’t tell me…
KAZURO: …
MAKOTO: No fucking way! HHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!
MAKOTO: There’s nooooo fucking way! You forgot about it?!
SHUICHI: (Forgot about… the reason Zerokuma gave us. In other words…)

To ruin the dinner / The motive / To escape
||Choose The motive כ
This is it!
SHUICHI: (The motive… Where we all got our deepest secrets, and one secret of somebody else’s…)
SHUICHI: Neru… You had Wadsworth’s secret , didn’t you?
NERU: Spot-on, detective. You’re good, y’know that?
NERU: And since I’m probably gonna die, well, I might as well share. Right?

[Dramatic CG of Wadsworth’s past, likely taken from the events of Clue]
NERU: His secret was in his identity.
NERU: There is no such person as Ultimate Butler Wadsworth. At least, not that I’m aware of.
NERU: All I know is our guy’s name and talent -- his real name and talent.
NERU: Bobby Boddy, the Ultimate Blackmailer .
NERU: Knowing that the Ultimate Blackmailer had one of my closest secrets, well…
NERU: What kind of idiot would I be to let him keep it?

[Class Trial gameplay fade in]
GIDEON: Someone like that, living among us…
QUOTE: I think we should review the case one last time. Y’know, just to make sure there’s no confusion as to what happened.
QUOTE: What do you say, Shuichi?
SHUICHI: I agree. This has to be it.
SHUICHI: The sole moment to clear doubt and reveal the truth!

-=CLOSING ARGUMENT=-

This is the truth of the case!

[Normally, this whole segment would be accompanied by the comic book visuals of what Shuichi’s describing. But since I don’t really have the time to draw any of these visuals, just the descriptions will have to do]

ACT I
SHUICHI: Satsuki organized a dinner party for later today. There was food, drinks, and plenty of attendees.
SHUICHI: Not everyone came, but two notable people were planning on attending: Wadsworth, and the killer.

ACT II
SHUICHI: The killer took their weapon -- a toolbox hammer -- from Ridge’s unlocked room, trying to frame them for the murder.
SHUICHI: At some point, Sou noticed this. Since he wasn’t going to the feast, he snuck his own hammer back into Ridge’s toolbox.

ACT III
SHUICHI: Then just before the feast, the killer took some extension sockets from the warehouse. 
SHUICHI: The feast began, and people started gathering all around the dining hall.
SHUICHI: Satsuki and Mihari eventually left for the Warehouse, and Makoto and Sou were in their own individual dorms the entire time. 

ACT IV
SHUICHI: During the feast, the killer went to the kitchen, plugged one of the sockets into the wall, and plugged four more into that first one.
SHUICHI: Once Ridge turned on the electric stove to make some pancakes, the power overloaded, causing a blackout.

ACT V
SHUICHI: In the unexpected darkness, Wadsworth saw his time to strike. Using a nearby knife, he attempted to attack the killer.
SHUICHI: Unfortunately for him, though, the killer’s plan was too far into motion to stop.
SHUICHI: After a brief struggle in the darkness, the killer managed to lodge their hammer into Wadsworth’s eye, killing him in one fell swoop.

ACT VI
SHUICHI: Feeling satisfied, the killer simply left us to investigate, confident that nobody would suspect them due to the dissonance between their own talent and the murder weapon.

[Confrontation with Killer CG]
SHUICHI: Because why would the Ultimate Filmmaker, so hung up on details all the time, use such a basic and straightforward weapon?
SHUICHI: The killer is YOU, Neru Imaizumi!

NERU: Hahahah… you got it.
NERU: An almost perfect 99%-correct reasoning.
SHUICHI: 99%?
NERU: You only got one little detail wrong, Shuichi. Boddy didn’t attack me with the knife.
NERU: He handed it to me.
KAZURO: Handed it to you?
ANZU: What do you mean?
NERU: Remember those whispers you heard before the struggle?
NERU: Yeah. It went a little somethin’ like this…

[CG of Wadsworth talking to Neru in the blackout]
WADSWORTH: Neru Imaizumi. I know exactly what it is you’ve done.
WADSWORTH: There are two options before you -- take this knife and kill somebody, or I expose your secret the moment these lights turn back on.
NERU: He told me to kill someone. So, I did -- I killed him.
[Class Trial gameplay hard cut]

NERU: Now, can we just hurry up with the voting?
KAZURO: What the hell…?
KAZURO: What the hell kind of secret is worth killing somebody over?
NERU: Wow, you are real clueless, huh?
NERU: Eh. I’ve got no reason not to say. I’m guaranteed dead, anyhow.
NERU: The only reason Boddy’s dead now is because I was a fucking stupid teen who abused a few too many substances.
NERU: I mean, I’ve been getting better as of late, but it’s not like it really matters anymore.

ZEROKUMA: Welp! You all seem pretty set on your decision!
ZEROKUMA: Which means it’s voting tiiiime!
ZEROKUMA: Please, everyone -- use your ZeroPads to vote for who you think is the Blackened!
ZEROKUMA: Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?
ZEROKUMA: What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna beeeee?!

[Cutscene of the barrel of a gun spinning. It stops. The gun then fires into the darkness, shattering it and revealing Neru Imaizumi under the words “MAJORITY VOTE”. A bunch of Zerokuma hand puppets come up from the ground and applaud, as confetti falls down -- this was the correct answer!]

CLASS TRIAL
ALL RISE!

[Fade to black. Back to regular sprite-viewing, trial room gameplay area]

ZEROKUMA: Well, everyone -- you did it!
ZEROKUMA: The killer was -- who woulda thunk it! Neru Imaizumi!
NERU: Hahah…
SOU: It’s amazing how you can stay calm, even in a situation like this…
NERU: Well, even a director should have some general acting experience, y’know?
NERU: Because let me tell you, I do not feel calm in the least.
RIDGE: You…
NERU: My time here was… nice.
NERU: I’m sorry for having to lie to all of you, but that’s the game.
NERU: I hope we all meet again, in another life…
MARISA: Hell nah, man… This just isn’t right…
MARISA: You didn’t have to do him like that , man…
NERU: Maybe… a part of me was hoping to be found out.
ZEROKUMA: Any last words before the premier of the latest and greatest in execution technology?
NERU: Well, I guess there’s something…
NERU: Don’t make my mistakes. Live on, guys.
SATSUKI: Neru…
NERU: …that’s all.
SOU: See ya, Neru.
ZEROKUMA: Alright, sappy time's over!
ZEROKUMA: I've got a very special punishment prepared for Neru Imaizumi, the Ultimate Filmmaker!
NERU: It’s over…
ZEROKUMA: Let's give it everything we've got! It's...PUNISHMENT TIIIME!
NERU: Buh-bye!

[The following sequence is an entire cutscene.]

Zerokuma slams his fist down on a big red button.

GAME OVER!
NERU IMAIZUMI HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY
TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!

Neru stands solemnly in the trial room, as a chain violently swings out from the ceiling and claps around her neck. Her eyes widen at the cool touch of metal, before letting out a violent scream as the chain pulls her up through the ceiling. Her peers can only watch as she’s brought to her inevitable doom.

REEL IT IN!

Eventually, the chain snaps -- but Neru is in a location far too unfamiliar to navigate. Before she has any time to think, she’s begun falling into a massive inkwell -- about the size of a house. She tries desperately to swim through the ink, to somehow escape, but an equally-massive fountain pen’s tip comes down to meet her. From it, a mechanical arm reaches to grab her, lifting her from the inkwell and violently throwing her onto a sticky black sheet.

The sheet, apparently on a track of some kind, begins to move. With desperate, hopeless fear in her eyes, Neru looks at her surroundings -- the sheet, and the entire track it rests on, is being fed into a giant machine. One filled with saws and mallets and flamethrowers and all sorts of brutal devices. 

We see a broader perspective. This track is not a track at all -- it’s a reel of film, being fed into a projector. A crowd of Zerokumas sits by the projection and watches, popcorn buckets in hand. With an ear-splitting crunch of flesh and bone, the film begins. A cartoon depiction of Neru, made of ink and blood, begins dancing and whistling while steering a steamboat. The crowd begins booing, throwing their popcorn at the screen and furiously leaving.

We see an even broader perspective -- this entire execution had been broadcast to everybody in the trial room. They all watch, a sense of unbelievably malicious dread overcoming the room.

[Trial room gameplay area]

SOU: Wh… What the hell?
GONBEE: So needlessly cruel…
STEVE: What a twisted sense of humor you have…
MAKOTO: Damn…
SHUICHI: (Even after staring death in the face time and time again… it’s not easy)
SHUICHI: (No matter how many executions you watch, you never get used to it…)
ZEROKUMA: Good show, everybody! Unbelievably splendid!
SATSUKI: I- I don’t care who it is, just… Can someone take me to my dorm?
KAZURO: …
ANZU: Ooogh… I feel sick…
ZEROKUMA: This is what happens! This is the story, the tropes, the formula!
ZEROKUMA: Everybody wants it, everybody’s waiting for it! This is the truth!
SHUICHI: …What are you?
ZEROKUMA: Hm?
SHUICHI: Admittedly, my memory is still foggy, but…
SHUICHI: If you aren’t Monokuma, then that makes me think you aren’t affiliated with Team Dangan Ronpa.
ZEROKUMA: Oh?
SHUICHI: So tell me… What the hell are you?!
ZEROKUMA: You think I’ll just give that away willy-nilly?
ZEROKUMA: Nope! BZZZT! Wrong answer, kid!
ZEROKUMA: Just go back to your dorm, and let’s leave it at this:

[Zerokuma face zoom-in CG]
ZEROKUMA: I am the God of this world.
ZEROKUMA: I control all. I know all.
ZEROKUMA: You have no hope of escape.
ZEROKUMA: Or maybe, that’s just what I’m trying to make you think.
ZEROKUMA: Trust me, you don’t want to find out the truth.
ZEROKUMA: Now leave my chambers, lest you face execution!
[Fade to black]
SHUICHI: (And with that… we left.)
SHUICHI: (With almost no hesitation, all of us boarded the elevator.)
SHUICHI: (Some on their own, others in small groups.)
SHUICHI: (But, unbeknownst to us… one person stayed behind.)
SHUICHI: (It wasn’t for very long, and it wasn’t like they stayed there.)
SHUICHI: (But, for just a moment… they got to speak with Zerokuma.)

[CG of ??? and Zerokuma having a little chat]
???: You have a very… unique set-up there, Zerokuma.
???: Admittedly, there are certain design choices that I don’t fully understand, but it’s all very clearly state-of-the-art.
ZEROKUMA: Yes, yes, I know. What, are you just here to praise me?
???: With all due respect, there’s no doubting what your creations can achieve on a technical level.
???: I’m simply curious. Just who did you commission to create all of… this?
ZEROKUMA: Commission?! Jeez, do I look like a loaf of Wonder Bread?!
ZEROKUMA: This stuff’s all homemade, my friend! Well, assuming you can call this place my home…
???: I see… Then, could you indulge in a simple request of mine?
ZEROKUMA: That depends. What’s the request?
???: If there are any special tutorials, any sort of how-to step-by-step instructions to create something even remotely as impressive as what you’ve made…
???: Could you please send them to my ZeroPad?
ZEROKUMA: Hmmm… What do I get out of it?
???: The knowledge and the satisfaction that somebody out there is using your work to spread impossible despair and helpless fear.
???: Does that convince you?
ZEROKUMA: I must say, it’s beary intriguing…
ZEROKUMA: Hmm… Alright! I’ll record some instructional whatsits tonight, so expect them on your Pad tomorrow morning!
???: Thank you kindly, sir.
???: I’ll be seeing you on the flipside.
[??? leaves, then fade to black.]

CHAPTER ONE: The Secret Life of Despair
END

16/18 Living…

Chapter Text

[Dorm room gameplay area]
KAZURO: …
KAZURO: (What a dreary atmosphere…)
KAZURO: (So confusing, utterly mind-breaking, and yet…)
KAZURO: (A cold, sharp sense of dread digs into my heart.)
KAZURO: (That’s it, then? Everyone has to go through a hellish sight like that if we want to leave?)
KAZURO: (That’s…)
KAZURO: Sickening.
KAZURO: (The word left my head and made itself welcome in the air around me.)
KAZURO: (I didn’t mean to speak it aloud, but I suppose it’s not wrong.)
KAZURO: (This twisted “game,” every single little detail about it…)
KAZURO: (It was sickening.)
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
KAZURO: Huh?
KAZURO: (There’s somebody at the door…)

[Door opening sfx, Marisa is there]
MARISA: Hey, Kazuro! What’s, uh… What’s up?
KAZURO: What isn’t up, honestly?
MARISA: Yeah, I… I get that.
MARISA: …
KAZURO: …afraid of anything?
MARISA: If I’m being honest? Kinda.
MARISA: I mean, trying to say that nobody’s gonna want to kill me is… kind of just a lie. I don’t like lying. Not to myself, at least.
KAZURO: That’ll do it. Always someone out to hunt someone else, huh…
MARISA: But it’s like you said! Or, uh, like you tried saying. Or more like what I think you were thinking?
MARISA: Just thinking about being killed and not being killed is gonna make us, y’know… Sad! Scared! Worse!
MARISA: If we’re afraid of everybody around us, we’re just gonna end up how Zerokuma wants us to end up!
MARISA: So… Chin up, outside boy!
KAZURO: Outside boy?
MARISA: I wanna thank you for giving me those words that one time. So here -- some words of my own.
MARISA: Trust me. Trust everyone . Prove to them -- and to yourself -- that there’s nothin’ to be afraid of!
KAZURO: But--
MARISA: Nuh uh! No buts! You promised me there was nothing to fear, so I’m promising you that very same thing.
MARISA: If you can truly convince yourself to not be afraid, then…
MARISA: Uh… Aha…
MARISA: Wow we’re both pretty bad at this huh.
KAZURO: Yeah we’re not the best.
MARISA: But hey! I started pretty strong, right?
KAZURO: (Admittedly, her words are… kinda working on me.)
MARISA: Ordinary people would go insane in this place in less than five seconds.
MARISA: And the fact is, you’re still standin’ on two legs!
MARISA: So stand tall, alright?

[Marisa sprite fade out, door closing sfx. Fade to black.]
KAZURO: (Stand tall, huh?)
KAZURO: (Prove there’s nothing to be afraid of…)
KAZURO: (Can I… really do that?)

CHAPTER 2: We’re Doing a Sequel!
1 LIFE

Chapter Text

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: Huh?
KAZURO: (Unlike every other morning, there’s a piece of paper next to my door.)
KAZURO: (Did someone… slip this under the door while I was asleep?) 

||Inspect noteכ
NOTE: As soon as you wake up, come to the dining hall. It’s important.
NOTE: Don’t worry, this isn’t a murder plot. I’ve already invited everybody else, so it should be safe.
NOTE: -Ridge
KAZURO: (Meet in the dining hall? What for?)
KAZURO: (I mean, the note says it’s important, but why so soon?)
KAZURO: (Oh well. No point in dwelling on it, I suppose. Right?)

[Dining Hall gameplay area, pretty much everybody else is here]
RIDGE: Mornin’!
KAZURO: Indeed, it… certainly is morning. What’s up?
GIDEON: More bluntly, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!
RIDGE: Who, little ol’ me?
GIDEON: Yes, little old you! Who else would I be yelling at?!
RIDGE: Fair reaction. But can I ask you to quiet down? I need to say my piece, and some people are trying to enjoy their breakfast.
GIDEON: …
RIDGE: Alright. I’ll just get started.
RIDGE: Since we’ve dropped morning meetings and there’s no butler-not-butler to tell us all the important stuff anymore, I took it upon myself to do so.
SATSUKI: Okay, then… Why not tell us this in the morning?
RIDGE: A written note felt less intrusive than waking everybody up at the crack of dawn to tell them to have breakfast with me, y’know?
RIDGE: Now, to the important thing: expanding our horizons!
REI: Expanding…? What do you mean by that?
RIDGE: Y’see, the stairs leading to the second floor have all opened up.
ANZU: They have?!
QUOTE: Well, that tells us most of what we need to know, right?
RIDGE: Precisely -- New floor, new explore!
GONBEE: Understood. And we come back down here to share what we found?
RIDGE: Nah, I’m not that strict. I’m sure we’ll have enough time to find everything ourselves.
RIDGE: Unless, y’know, there’s some specific one-person-only secret thing we find on the floor.
RIDGE: But what are the chances of that, right?
STEVE: Slim to none.
RIDGE: Bingo.
MAKOTO: Alright, you guys go off and have fun. There’s a pool on the second floor of Hope’s Peak -- if it’s still in this place, then I’m gonna loiter by it.
[Makoto leaves]
RIDGE: I guess that marks it, then! Let’s all have a safe time explorin’, guys!

It’s me again! Clover! I know I skipped investigation last time, but that was mainly because Floor 1 remained 99% unchanged. I’ve made changes (if minimal) to Floor 2, though! So, like… 80% unchanged this time. I’ll only write investigation dialogue for the new stuff, though, soooo… yeah. Lol.

[Pool lobby gameplay area. Kikuri and Makoto are here]
MAKOTO: Oh! Well, that’s… new.
KAZURO: What do you mean?
MAKOTO: The doors -- see how they’re all… grey?
KAZURO: …yeah? What about it?
MAKOTO: Those are the locker rooms . But that’s weird, right?!
KAZURO: I… don’t see it.
MAKOTO: The Hope’s Peak locker rooms were fuckin’ gendered!
MAKOTO: Look at this unisex shit! This is…
MAKOTO: …chill as hell, truthfully.
MAKOTO: BUT WHY?! WHY IS ZEROKUMA BEING CHILL AS HELL?!
KAZURO: (Quite the, uh… Colorful character you are there, Makoto…)

[Walk to glass door]

||Inspect doorכ
KAZURO: (A glass door, with nothing clearly labeling it.)
KAZURO: (This feels… weird. Riskier than all the other rooms, at least…)
KAZURO: (No point in not going in, though…)

[Monitor Room gameplay area. Quote and Mihari are here]
KAZURO: (What the hell?)
KAZURO: Hey, uh… What is this place?
MIHARI: Not entirely sure. At first, I figured it was some sorta security system, but there’s not nearly enough equipment in here to watch even just the first floor.
QUOTE: If I could give my theory…
QUOTE: These monitors most likely have information.
QUOTE: There’s no power buttons on any of them, so it’s likely that Zerokuma turns them on.
KAZURO: But, why?
QUOTE: Who knows! Maybe we have to do certain tasks before we can view these?
MIHARI: Probably part of the motive, in my opinion.
MIHARI: “Read what’s on these monitors! Incriminating one of your peers! Kill them!” Or something like that.
KAZURO: With no way to turn these on, there’s no way to know what’s on them…
QUOTE: Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s just… Pictures of cats?
KAZURO: That’d be nice…
KAZURO: (But it’s completely unlikely…)

[Library gameplay area. Steve and Ridge are here, Ridge being hunched over a laptop]

||Talk to Steveכ
[In all of Steve’s sprites here, he appears to be carrying a manila file folder under one of his arms]
STEVE: Hmmm… I see…
KAZURO: What’cha got there?
STEVE: A file from the Archive. Looked like an interesting read.
KAZURO: Huh? What do you mean, “archive”?
STEVE: See that door over there?
STEVE: Leads to an Archive. It’s got files on all sorts of things.
STEVE: Random personal info, history of Hope’s Peak, a couple cold murder cases here and there, interesting stuff like that.
KAZURO: (Interesting is… a word for it.)
KAZURO: (I’d say the fact that it’s here in the first place is much more interesting than what’s inside…)
STEVE: But, it’s a library, so I’d feel bad checking out without a real book.
STEVE: Let’s see…
STEVE: Autobiography of a Yogi… The Illusion of Living… Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde…
STEVE: No Strings Attached: Inside Story of Jim Henson's Creature Shop… Sounds like a fun read, actually.

||Talk to Ridgeכ
RIDGE: C’mon… Turn on, dammit…
KAZURO: Everything good over here?
RIDGE: Nope.
RIDGE: Found this laptop just… sitting here. Been pressing the power button for, what, three minutes?
RIDGE: Tried all sorts of things -- holding it down, double-clicking, letting it rest for a while, everything.
KAZURO: And it won’t turn on?
RIDGE: Not a peep.
KAZURO: Man, that sucks…
RIDGE: Eh. It makes sense. A fully-charged fully-functional laptop could contact people to help us escape.
RIDGE: Not only that, but this thing looks… new. Like a really modern design. So it’s probably got all sorts of things that could help us out on it…
KAZURO: It’s definitely a clue.

RIDGE: Definitely. I’ll probably keep it in my room until we find a charger.
RIDGE: Either that, or I’ll find somewhere the cameras won’t see it.

DING DONG DONG DING!

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Sorry to interrupt, everyone, but I have a new gimmick to announce!
ZEROKUMA: If everyone could please come down to the new room up on the first floor, I’d be thrilled!
ZEROKUMA: It’s right across from the Main Hall! C’mon, come see me! You’ll regret it if you don’t!
ZEROKUMA: Kyuhuhu… Zuhuhu… Puhuhu…
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

Chapter Text

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (Since nothing good will come from waiting around, I may as well head there)
KAZURO: (RIght across from the Main Hall… Sure enough, there was a door there now.)
KAZURO: (A bright pink door…)
KAZURO: (Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside to find…)

[ZeroZero Store gameplay area, Steve and Mishima are there]
KAZURO: Uh…
KAZURO: What… the heck is this place?
MISHIMA: It looks to me like a store of some kind.
MISHIMA: Although, I suppose it isn’t quite useful without some sort of currency…
STEVE: Now comes the fun part -- waiting until everyone else has gotten the memo to come down here.

[Marisa, Mihari, and Shuichi arrive]
SHUICHI: Seems we’re right on time.
MIHARI: Why wouldn’t we be? The directions were quite clear…
MARISA: People love getting distracted, I guess…

||Talk to Mishimaכ
KAZURO: So, Professor Mishima, what do you think we were called here for?
MISHIMA: Given this store-like area is now open, I’d assume we’re being informed of its goods?
MISHIMA: However, the potential methods of earning said goods are… concerning.
KAZURO: I doubt he’d put out another motive this soon. Right?
MISHIMA: Only time may tell. However, I hope you are correct in your assumptions…

||Talk to Steveכ
STEVE: Talk about overkill…
STEVE: Eh, maybe that’s just me getting on in age.
KAZURO: What do you mean by that?
STEVE: Look around. Multicolored banners and streamers, no clear place for anything…
STEVE: They overdecorated. Worse -- they just threw random shit at the wall and hoped it’d look good.
STEVE: Someone’s gotta fix this place up…
KAZURO: (Are you, uh… sure that should be your main concern?)

||Talk to Marisaכ
MARISA: Koooouuurin? Koooooooooouuuuuuuuriiiiiinnnnnn?
MARISA: Nah, this ain’t his place… Damn.
KAZURO: Looking for something, Marisa?
MARISA: Nah, it’s just, I know this shopkeep-y guy who runs a place that kinda looks like this…
MARISA: Y’know, everything thrown around, making it unclear what’s goods and what’s decoration?
MARISA: But I can’t seem to get a hold of him, so it probably ain’t his.
KAZURO: I see…
KAZURO: (It’s good to see that she’s still holding out hope for a familiar face… I think.)

||Talk to Mihariכ
KAZURO: Any theories, doctor?
MIHARI: Hmmm…
MIHARI: Nah. Not really.
KAZURO: Damn.
MIHARI: I mean, I make medicines and the like. I don’t just have a great big theory of everything , y’know?
KAZURO: Yeah, that’s… That’s a good point.

||Talk to Shuichiכ
SHUICHI: A store… A store requires something to act as currency…
KAZURO: Thinking it all through, detective?
SHUICHI: Yeah. I was just thinking, “what sort of currency would Zerokuma make us use?”
SHUICHI: And based on what I remember of my game, there was a store. One that used coins to purchase goods.
SHUICHI: Only problem is that those goods were randomized by putting a coin into a machine.
SHUICHI: And as far as I can tell, that machine isn’t here…
KAZURO: (Then… Is it going to be more standard than that?)

[Ridge, Gonbee, Gideon, and Makoto arrive]
MAKOTO: So this is the new Monomono Sto…
MAKOTO: Ooh… ghhh…
MAKOTO: GYAAAAAAAHAHHHHAAAHH…!!
GONBEE: Jesus Fuck, what’s got you cryin’ like a baby all of a sudden?
MAKOTO: THEY REDECORATED! THEY REDECORATED THE MONOMONO STORE!!!
MAKOTO: WHERE… *sniff*... WHERE ARE MY BEAUTIFUL SUITS OF ARMOR???
MAKOTO: AN- AND WHY ARE THE WALLS PINK?!
GIDEON: God, could you be any louder?!
MAKOTO: Oh. My bad.
KAZURO: (Again with those sudden mood shifts of his… Almost on-command…)

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (Little by little, everybody else came in. Quote, Satsuki, Anzu…)
KAZURO: (Hell, even if she was late, Kikuri still managed to show up.)
KAZURO: (And once she walked in, well… he showed up too.)

[Cutscene -- sweeping past the participants’ legs, we eventually stop at the store counter. Zerokuma backflips onto the counter, a sinister grin on his face. Back to normal sprite-viewing]
ZEROKUMA: Goooood Byorning, everybody!
RIDGE: …”Byorning”?
ZEROKUMA: You make webcomics, dammit! I thought you were an expert on “random means funny!”
ANZU: But, uh… Randomness isn’t always funny…
ZEROKUMA: Shhhshshshshhshh. Kid named finger.
SATSUKI: …Huh?
ZEROKUMA: Aaaagh, you kids just don’t get it!
ZEROKUMA: Anyways! Back on topic!
ZEROKUMA: Welcome, one and all, to the ZeroZero Store!
MAKOTO: Wow, what an original name!
ZEROKUMA: Now, while I could explain everything to you myself…
ZEROKUMA: There’s somebody I’d like you all to meet!
REI: Someone to meet?
ZEROKUMA: …
ZEROKUMA: Ahem, ahem! That’s your cue!

[Fog effect, screen fades to white]
KAZURO: Wh…!
KAZURO: (All of a sudden, the room filled with a thick white fog.)
SOU: Gh…! Don’t breathe too much in! It might be poisonous!
KAZURO: (I can barely even see my hands in front of me…!)
???: Mmmrehehehehee… Kyahahahahaa!
KAZURO: (I heard the sinister cackles of somebody I didn’t know.)
???: It’s not poison gas, everybody. Don’t worry, I’m not that cruel… For now.

[Fade back to regular sprite-viewing]
SMILEY LADY: Aheheheheee. Greetings, everybody!
MARISA: BWAH--
KAZURO: H- Huh?
SMILEY LADY: Don’t look so aghast, everybody! Allow me to introduce myself.
SMILEY LADY: My name is Sue Miley -- the Laughing Doll. I have been given the responsibility to run this delightful little storefront.
ZEROKUMA: As for me, I’ve got a bit of a teacher-on-teacher meeting to get to. I’m a busy bear!
ZEROKUMA: So… see ya!
[Zerokuma exit]
MILEY: I see. So it appears I will handle the rest of the explanations here, then… Mmhhehehehahahaa…
MILEY: Though I may be running the store, I am also here to introduce to you all a new addition to your Zero-One Life.

[CG of Miley’s hand, filled with small gold coins with faces on them]
KAZURO: (Are those… coins?)
MILEY: These are Me-Tokens -- the currency that this Zero-One Life will run on!
MILEY: The items in this store are all available for purchase with Me-Tokens!
MILEY: However -- and this is the interesting part, hehehee -- you can not use your own Me-Tokens to purchase these items.

[Back to regular sprite-viewing]
RIDGE: Can’t use our-- whhaaaaat?
RIDGE: Then what the hell’s the point in havin’ em?!
SOU: Very particular wording there, Miley.
MILEY: Seems there are some brighter individuals among you! Come, now, what conclusion have you reached?
SOU: If we can’t use our own tokens, then you intend for us to use the tokens of others?
MILEY: Ding ding ding! You got it right! Hooray, congratulations!
MILEY: Your aim is to trade! Give your tokens to a friend, or make sure nobody touches your own, or however you want!
MILEY: And while certain prizes can be bought with any old token, there are some participant-specific goods, too!
MILEY: For example, five of Mister Kaiketsu’s tokens will get you a dossier of basic information regarding them, but twenty can get you one of Satsuki Kaiketsu’s very own personal items!
SATSUKI: I mean, I appreciate the frequent fluctuation of gendered terms, but can you maybe use someone else in your example?
MILEY: Most certainly, dear! The last thing I want is to make you all uncomfortable!
KAZURO: (As if I’d believe that…)

MILEY: For twenty-five Mishima tokens, you can get a very important picture from Mishima’s past! Forty tokens from Mr. Raglan will grant you one of his deepest, darkest secrets! And, most gloriously…
MILEY: Well, you can ask me about the fifty-token prize some time later, alright? Mhehehee…
KAZURO: (What the hell…?!)
KAZURO: (To have all that, they must’ve…)
KAZURO: (How long? How long have they been watching us?)

MILEY: To summarize -- the more tokens you give somebody, the more you trust them. So in short, you’re buying, selling, and trading trust itself !
MILEY: By now, there should be a wallet of 100 Me-Tokens in your room. The ones in my hands now are simply a dummy set to be used for demonstrative purposes.
MILEY: And with that, the explanation has ended! I’ll be in this room for the time being, keheheee…
MILEY: Farewell, you all! Headmaster Zerokuma sends his regaaaards~!
KAZURO: (With a cackle, Miley left for a room inaccessible to us, connected to the store by the back wall.)
KAZURO: (And speaking of the back wall…)

[CG of store back wall falling apart, revealing price board]
KAZURO: (The moment she left, it collapsed.)
KAZURO: (Behind it, a guide to all the prizes.)
[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (Nobody said anything else.)
KAZURO: (In a tense silence, everybody filed out of the ZeroZero store, and off to their rooms.)

Chapter Text

[Dorm room gameplay area]
||Inspect wallet on bedכ
KAZURO: (Then these must be…)

[Visual of Kazuro’s Me-Tokens appears on the side of the screen]

KAZURO: (Looking into the wallet, I found multiple small, gold coins with my face on them.)
KAZURO: Me-Tokens…
KAZURO: (Buying and selling trust…)
KAZURO: (Such a cruel thing in a place like this…)
KAZURO: (I guess it wouldn’t hurt to keep them with me. Just in case.)

100 ME-TOKENS (Kazuro) OBTAINED

[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
[Door opening sfx, Ridge is there]
RIDGE: Kazuro, I’m doing some mental cooking here.
KAZURO: As in concocting or getting cooked?
RIDGE: Whichever one means “I’m about to blow your mind with my good ideas,” my friend!
RIDGE: I want a token trade -- between you, me, Gonbee, and Marisa.
RIDGE: Would you mind stepping out of your room for this?
||Click on doorway and follow Ridgeכ

[CG of Ridge, Kazuro, Marisa, and Gonbee all talking together]

RIDGE: Aaaaalright -- I want to initiate in my shared trust of all of you.
RIDGE: Let the token-trading begin!
GONBEE: So, hold on, how are we going to do this?
GONBEE: Like, do you have a set amount in mind?
GONBEE: Do we give that amount to the person next to us, or to all of the other people here?
MARISA: I think we trade our whole wallets to each other!
GONBEE: I have never heard a worse idea.
RIDGE: I was thinkin’ the whole “person next to us” deal, but then there’s the matter of order…
GONBEE: Ridge, I can at least say this -- I wouldn’t mind if you had my tokens.
GONBEE: Marisa, on the other hand…
MARISA: …Marisa what on the other hand? Is trustworthy and awesome?
GONBEE: And reckless. Sorry, but I’m not exactly sure if you can keep a secret.
MARISA: Awh, maaaan.
KAZURO: Then that settles the order: a clockwise rotation that allows Gonbee to give her tokens to Ridge.
MARISA: But then, uh… how many?
RIDGE: Twenty seems like a good starting point, right?
GONBEE: Just enough for a personal item…
MARISA: Oh! Then we can meet again and give ‘em all back to each other!
GONBEE: Ahah… sure. Maybe, uh… maybe you all can do that…
KAZURO: What’s the matter, Gonbee? Don’t want your personal item?
GONBEE: I’m a murderer, Kazuro. When we get out of here, it’s straight back to jail for me.
GONBEE: Which probably means they'll label the stuff on me as contraband. No point in getting it back, right?
RIDGE: Well, it’s not like we need to buy items, anyhow…
MARISA: Then let’s get trading!!!

20 ME-TOKENS (Kazuro) GIVEN TO MARISA
20 ME-TOKENS (Ridge) OBTAINED

MARISA: Now look at that! Everything’s gone full-circle!
GONBEE: If you’ll excuse me…

[Gonbee leaves the CG]

RIDGE: Yeah. I think today’s been… a lot so far. We should probably take a little break from all this high-thinking action, y’know?
MARISA: Alright, fellas! See you in, like, an hour probably!

[Fade to black]

[Dorm room gameplay area]
KAZURO: (Well, would you look at that…)
KAZURO: (Twenty symbols of Ridge’s trust in me… I’ll protect them well.)

-=FREE TIME=-

One day of Free Time Events passes…

KAZURO: (I may as well try putting these tokens to good use, right?)
KAZURO: (But who should I trade with…?)

-=NEGOTIATIONS=-

(Author Clover again! So, the vision I have for Me-Token Trading is essentially how it works in YTTD -- find someone, hear a short pitch, have a short scene, get tokens. But, uh… that’s kind of like FTEs that you get money for. And since I’m holding off on writing FTEs, I guess that means I’m holding off on writing token trades too! And also, uh, the thing that follows is kind of a “player-chooses-if-they-want-to” thing that I’ll have to skip. Soooo… yeah. Sorry :P)

KAZURO: (That’s all for negotiations…)
KAZURO: (But while I’m thinking about them, I may as well see what I can get from the ZeroZero store…)

[ZeroZero Store gameplay area, Miley at the counter]
MILEY: Oh, if it isn’t little Kazuro Futoya! Here at last to witness my prices?
KAZURO: (Come to think of it, I never got the best explanation of what these tokens could buy…)
KAZURO: If you don’t mind, Miss Miley--
MILEY: Please, just “Miley” will do, ahahahehee…
KAZURO: Er, uh… Understood, Miley…
KAZURO: If you don’t mind, could you please tell me more concretely about all the prizes?
MILEY: Certainly, dear!

MILEY: Firstly, the Daily Line-up!
MILEY: Every day, the normal prizes you can buy with just any old tokens swap around! They’re simple things with varying price, but I’m sure your peers may appreciate them as gifts.
MILEY: Of course, there is still the option to randomize which one you get with the Zero Luck Machine!
MILEY: However, I can’t guarantee favorable results from there. It is a gacha system, after all.

MILEY: Then, of course, come the Individuals’ Prizes.
MILEY: For five tokens, you can buy a folder of basic information. Height, weight, age, gender identity, how they got their Ultimate, et cetera.
MILEY: Of course, there are some larger secrets being kept here, so I’d suggest these folders if you don’t feel like talking with your peers. Mhehehee…
MILEY: Twenty tokens will get you a personal item of theirs -- one that’s very precious to them.
MILEY: So if you want to gift them a taste of home, or if you just want to know what material goods they obsess over, give their twenty tokens a try!
MILEY: For twenty-five, you’ll receive a picture of them and a brief paragraph of backstory on said picture.
MILEY: You’ll receive a physical copy here in the store, as well as a digital copy on your ZeroPad.
MILEY: Thirty tokens gets you a video interview held with them. Not all of these interviews were conducted by Team Zero, but all of them are 100% authentic!
MILEY: Of course, we make sure to only ask the important questions in our interviews.
MILEY: For forty, a small piece of paper. On it, one of their deepest, darkest secrets!
MILEY: To be more specific, the sole secret that was shown to another person in the previous motive.
MILEY: Meaning, there’d be no point in you purchasing Mishima’s forty-token secret, seeing as it’s already been distributed to you.
MILEY: And finally, the grand fifty-token prize…!
MILEY: For fifty tokens, we will activate their monitor in the Monitor Room upstairs!
KAZURO: (Wh…?)
MILEY: Through that monitor, well… You’ll see its benefits one you purchase it, won’t you?
MILEY: Mmmrehehehee… Kahahahahahaaaa…!
MILEY: But that’s all in terms of prices.

-=TOKEN USAGE=-

MILEY: So! What will you be purchasing today, dear?

||Leave store without purchasing anythingכ
MILEY: Oh, what a shame…
MILEY: Hope to see you again soon! Ehehee…

Chapter Text

[Dorm room gameplay area]

KAZURO: (To say today’s been eventful would be… the understatement of the century.)
KAZURO: (I’m utterly pooped. I don’t care how close Night Time is…)
KAZURO: (Good-fuckin’-night, society. I’ll see you later…)

ZEROKUMA THEATER!

ZEROKUMA: Super duper sorry for the long wait, everyone!
ZEROKUMA: It’s time to put on my magnum opus: Les Zérokumables !
ZEROKUMA: It’s about this handsome bear outlaw named Zero Valkuma trying to make a better life for himself…
ZEROKUMA: Meanwhile, he’s being chased by the MEAN and IMMORAL and COMPLEX Inspector Makoto!
ZEROKUMA: He has to take in a sickly young girl as his own, withstand one of many revolutions, argue with some ugly innkeepers…
ZEROKUMA: And the best part: basically everybody is poor and dies in the end! Kyuhuhuhu!
ZEROKUMA: Huh? Whaddya mean, “plagiarism”?!
ZEROKUMA: I’ve never plagiarism’d anything in my life!
ZEROKUMA: Jeez, next you’re gonna say I ripped off some other Killing Game Mascot’s design…

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: (Well. Good morning, life…)
KAZURO: (Must’ve slept through the whole rest of the day.)
KAZURO: (Ah, well, no point in staying asleep. Let’s see what’s up today…)

-=FREE TIME=-

Two days of Free Time Events, Negotiations, and Token Usages pass…

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Hello, everybody! Hope we’re all having a good time!
ZEROKUMA: Sorry to drop in with some news so late, buuuuut…
ZEROKUMA: Could you all please gather in the gym?
ZEROKUMA: Thankies a trillion! Kyuhuhuhu! Bwehehehahaa!
[Monitor to static, turns off. Gym gameplay area, and now everybody’s here]

REI: Does something feel, uh… different to you guys?
STEVE: No doubt about it. Two less people in here than there should be, ‘course that’s gonna have a whole different vibe.
REI: That, uh, wasn’t exactly what I was getting at…
MAKOTO: Oh, the curtain.
REI: Oh?
QUOTE: Oh, yeah! The stage’s curtains are closed! That’s kinda new!
MISHIMA: Is he hiding something back there, perhaps?
ZEROKUMA: Indeedly-doodly!
MISHIMA: GYAH! Goodness me!
ZEROKUMA: Hey there, everybody! Sorry about the late announcement, buuuut…
ZEROKUMA: I have a motive for youuu!
GONBEE: That figures. What is it this time, bear?
ZEROKUMA: Jeez! It’s only been one trial, and you’re already this cynical?
SOU: Just get to the point already…
ZEROKUMA: Okay, okay, fine! Va-Va-Valuse!

[Cutscene -- sweeping past the participants’ legs, we eventually stop at the stage. The curtains swing open, revealing a pile of items covered by a tarp. Spotlight on the pile.]

KAZURO: It’s… a lump?
STEVE: It’s the lump!
ZEROKUMA: Oh, shit! I forgot to take the tarp off!
ZEROKUMA: My bad, my bad. Had the whole tarp idea before I remembered we had a curtain.
ZEROKUMA: Va-Va-VaTWOse!

[CG of Zerokuma swiftly removing the tarp -- revealing this pile to be made up of various important items. Notably, golden bunny ears and a red scarf are visible near the top.]
ZEROKUMA: These are all precious item to you -- even moreso than what you’d get from the ZeroZero Store!
SATSUKI: I- Is that--
RIDGE: Oh… Oh that’s extremely personal…
GIDEON: Ghh…
ZEROKUMA: The next person to get away with murder will receive everything in this pile!
ZEROKUMA: If you try to take anything from it before the trial, well… You understand, don’t you?
KIKURI: Eh, not- not really.
ZEROKUMA: Don’t touch the pile or I kill you. Is that simpler for you?
KIKURI: Yyyep!
KIKURI: …
KIKURI: You’ll whuh?!
ZEROKUMA: Additionally! If the blackened is caught a second time, everyone will receive their own items from the pile.
ZEROKUMA: But if nobody kills, then I get to do whatever I want with everything here!
ZEROKUMA: Maybe I’ll burn all this super-sentimental stuff? Maybe pee on it? Maybe pee on it while it’s on fire?

[Back to regular sprite-viewing]
RIDGE: Why don’t you just give it up already, Zerokuma?
RIDGE: I mean, there’s no way any of us would actually kill over this, right?
RIDGE: It’s all just… material possessions!
RIDGE: …Right?
ZEROKUMA: Oops! My floor time is almost done!
ZEROKUMA: Gotta blast!
[Zerokuma exit]
SHUICHI: There’s no doubt somebody will kill over this.
SHUICHI: If I know anything about these motives, it’s that somebody always breaks.
SATSUKI: What do we do now?
SATSUKI: Hell, is there anything we can do?
SOU: Doesn’t seem like it, but I’m sure we can figure something out.
SATSUKI: Huh? What do you…
SOU: I’m feeling a little generous. C’mon, let’s brainstorm about this. Elsewhere .
[Sou and Satsuki leave]
KAZURO: (That’s… his.)
KAZURO: (That was the…)
KIKURI: Ooooiiii, Kaaazuuuurooooo?
[Fade to black]

KAZURO: (I ran. Fast.)
KAZURO: (Ran away, back to my room, locking myself in.)
KAZURO: (I couldn’t bear it. The more time I spent in there, the heavier my lungs felt.)
KAZURO: (How the hell did he get his hands on it?)
KAZURO: (Why…)
KAZURO: (Why did Zerokuma have Rin’s scarf ?)

[Dorm room gameplay area]
KAZURO: (Stuck in here… How can I tell that he’s safe?)
KAZURO: (Rin…)
KAZURO: (I’m so tired, Rin…)
KAZURO: (I just want to see you again…)
KAZURO: (I don’t want anybody else to die, but…)
KAZURO: (God, I hope you’re okay…)
[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (I’m too exhausted to think…)

ZEROKUMA THEATER!

ZEROKUMA: Hmm…
ZEROKUMA: Hmm, hmm, hmmmm…
ZEROKUMA: Here you are in my theater, and yet I have nothing to do…
ZEROKUMA: Maybe I should stop thinking of you as “here” in the first place?
ZEROKUMA: Spend my time here, in isolation, having a little fun…
ZEROKUMA: …
ZEROKUMA: ECHOOO!! Echooo!! Echooo… echooo… echo…
ZEROKUMA: Damn.
ZEROKUMA: RRRAAAGH! I’M BORED!
ZEROKUMA: This SUCKS!

Chapter Text

[Zerokuma on Monitor]
ZEROKUMA: Rise and shine, ursine! Guess what time it iiiis!
ZEROKUMA: That’s right, it’s 7 AM! Which means Night Time is officially over!
ZEROKUMA: Let’s go ahead and greet another beeeee-yutiful day!
[Monitor to static, turns off.]

KAZURO: Ugh…
KAZURO: (Another piece of paper slipped under my door.)
KAZURO: (That’s, what, the second time this week?)
KAZURO: (I sincerely hope this doesn’t end up becoming a trend…) 

||Inspect noteכ
NOTE: I know the motive's gotten everyone all bummed out, so I thought I'd plan something fun for us all.
NOTE: Let's have a talent show in the gym, two days from now .
NOTE: We'll start at 8 pm, but please show up earlier to practice.
NOTE: I'm super excited to see all your performances!

KAZURO: (And that’s it? No signature or anything, just a date and time?
KAZURO: (I mean, a talent show sounds fun , but what if this is just another murder plot?)
KAZURO: (...Who sent this?)
KAZURO: (I need to know who sent this…)

[Walk to Dining Hall, Ridge and Gonbee standing outside of it]

||Talk to Ridge or Gonbeeכ
KAZURO: Hey! Uh, do either of you happen to know who wrote that talent show note?
RIDGE: Sorry, I got nothin’. But I do have an idea.
KAZURO: You do?
GONBEE: Not exactly an idea, but a small sort of clue.
GONBEE: See, Satsuki just left the dining hall and headed back to their room.
GONBEE: And from what I could tell, they still looked pretty shaken up about everything.
RIDGE: So either she wrote it and is absurdly anxious, or she didn’t get the note.
KAZURO: I see…
KAZURO: Then, I assume you two are trying to figure out the sender as well?
RIDGE: Nah, I don’t feel like risking it.
GONBEE: It’s better to just drop it for now, y’know?
KAZURO: I suppose…

[Enter Dining Hall gameplay area -- Steve, Marisa, Anzu, Rei, and Mishima are there. Steve is slightly off to the side, on his own]

||Talk to Steveכ
KAZURO: Hey, did you get that weird note last night?
STEVE: Caught wind of it being discussed, but strangely enough, I don’t have my own.
KAZURO: That's… actually pretty odd.
STEVE: Really weird stuff. Y’know?
KAZURO: Assuming we go through with this whole “talent show” deal, uh, are you still gonna go?
STEVE: Why not? I may just be a career counselor, but I’ve got a mean hand for the guitar!
KAZURO: For real?
STEVE: I had a band in high school!
KAZURO: Hell yes, man! Can’t wait to see what you can do!

||Talk to Marisa, Anzu, Rei, or Mishimaכ
MARISA: It’s just straight-up freaky, though!
MISHIMA: I find the idea quite entertaining. Although there is a part of me that is suspicious of it…
ANZU: But isn’t that, y’know, the rational thing to think? It’s a killing game! Everyone wants to kill everyone!
REI: That trial was… gruesome. I doubt anybody here would want to risk that sort of treatment…
MARISA: But still! Weird letter and it’s scary!
MISHIMA: Please, miss Marisa, do calm down… Mrehehe…
ANZU: The letter is scary!
REI: It’s, uh… It’s paper. With ink on it.
ANZU: And the ink says scary things!!!
KAZURO: (They seem pretty deep into their own conversation…)
KAZURO: (Maybe I should find somebody else to talk to…)

[Walk around hallways, Quote is standing around]

||Talk to Quoteכ
KAZURO: Quote! It’s been a while, man!
QUOTE: Indeed it has. I have a question for you, and I hope it’s not too personal.
KAZURO: How strange, I happen to have a question for you!
QUOTE: Then by all means, you go first!
KAZURO: Did you get that note, too? The one about the talent show in two days?
QUOTE: Yes sir, I did!
QUOTE: Truth be told? Whether or not it’s the intention of the talent show, somebody is definitely gonna get murdered.
QUOTE: That’s what I think, at least.
KAZURO: Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Lots of dread in the air and whatnot…
QUOTE: Anyways, here’s my question for you:
QUOTE: Did you happen to see your item in the motive pile?
KAZURO: (Huh? Why would he ask that?)
KAZURO: Um, yes. I did. Why do you ask?
QUOTE: Oh, y’know. Just wonderin’.
QUOTE: Maybe it’s deeper in the pile, but I couldn’t find a single one of my items in there.
KAZURO: Oh! That’s, uh…
QUOTE: Weird, right?
QUOTE: But don’t worry about it, man. I’ll tell everyone if I find something out about it!
[Quote leaves]

[Fade to black, dorm room gameplay area]
KAZURO: (Alright, so here’s what I know so far:)
KAZURO: (Everyone I talked to, other than Steve, got the same note.)
KAZURO: (Ridge and Gonbee suspect that Satsuki didn’t get the note.)
KAZURO: (And… Hold on, if that’s the case…)
KAZURO: (Aarrrgh! No good! I’m thinking too hard about all of this!)
KAZURO: (I need to give my brain a break for once…)
KAZURO: (Maybe talking to somebody else will help.)

-=FREE TIME=-

Two days of Free Time Events, Negotiations, and Token Usages pass…

Chapter Text

KAZURO: (Alright, it’s 6:30 PM. An hour and a half until the talent show.)
KAZURO: (We were told to come early, so I guess this is a good time to drop by, right?)
KAZURO: (Admittedly, I don’t know if anybody’s actually going , so… may as well scope it out beforehand.)

[Gym gameplay area, almost everybody’s here]
KAZURO: (Huh! Pretty lively in here, actually!)
KIKURI: Yeeeah! Wooooo! Hell yeah, you go guys! Love to see it!
ANZU: Okay, and if I balance on-- no, I don’t know if that’ll go well on a stage , but…
KAZURO: (I guess everybody’s practicing…)
KAZURO: (Well, not everybody -- some people are still not here…)
MAKOTO: Huzzah! At last, the grand Makoto Naegi makes his entrance!
STEVE: Alright, so the chords were… A, A Minor, B… or is it B7?
KAZURO: (I guess some people are showing up later than others. Makes sense…)
KAZURO: (But that’s still three people missing -- Sou, Satsuki, Gideon, and Mishima.)
KAZURO: (I wonder what they’re up to… Maybe just waiting for 8 to roll around before they come on over.)

||Interact with other performersכ
KAZURO: (They look pretty busy… Maybe I shouldn’t bother them.)

||Talk to Makotoכ
KAZURO: Hey, Makoto, have you seen--
MAKOTO: GAH! Don’t look at me! I’m not ready yet!
[Makoto sprite leaves]
KAZURO: (He just ran off backstage…)
KAZURO: (Wonder what his deal was.)

||Talk to Anzuכ
KAZURO: Hey, Anzu!
ANZU: Oh, Kazuro! What’s up?
KAZURO: Oh, y’know. Nothin’ much, uh…
KAZURO: Just wondering, do you know what’s up with some of the people who aren’t, uh… here right now?
ANZU: Not a bit. But , I am a little worried!
KAZURO: Why so?
ANZU: Y’see, I haven’t seen Satsuki in a while. Ever since the talent show note was given out, really.
KAZURO: (Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen them around, either…)
KAZURO: Should we go look for her?
ANZU: 100%! I think that’s a good idea.
KAZURO: Understood -- let’s go!
ANZU: Lead the way!

[Hallway gameplay area, walk to Satsuki’s Dorm.]

||Inspect Doorכ
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
KAZURO: …
KAZURO: …huh.
ANZU: Nothing?
KAZURO: Nothing.
ANZU: Huh.
ANZU: Maybe try turning the knob while you knock?
KAZURO: And what, pray tell, would that achieve?
ANZU: I’unno. But you’ll never know if you don’t try, right?
KAZURO: (With a sigh, I tried again.)
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, then doorknob turning sfx]
KAZURO: Huh?
ANZU: What happened?
KAZURO: Seems like the door’s unlocked.
ANZU: Big! Should we pop in?
KAZURO: (On the one hand, I don’t want to invade his privacy…)
KAZURO: (But on the other hand, this is a matter of their safety…!)
KAZURO: We’re going in.
[Door opening sfx]

[Satsuki dorm gameplay area -- it’s completely empty]

ANZU: Well, uh… this is worrying.
KAZURO: You could say that again.
ANZU: This is worrying!
KAZURO: It sure is!
ANZU: Waaaaiiiiit! Shhshhshshh. Shh.
KAZURO: …
ANZU: …
ANZU: …nothing.
KAZURO: What was that about?
ANZU: I was hoping I could hear her breathing if we were quiet enough, but unfortunately not.
KAZURO: So they’re just… gone?
ANZU: Vanished. Without a trace.
ANZU: I-I'm still worried for Satsuki, but… I think we can assume they haven't, y'know…
KAZURO: Let’s, uh, let’s hope…

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (With an uneasy sigh, Anzu and I returned back to the gym.)

[Gym gameplay area, same roster as before -- but without Quote]
RIDGE: Hey guys! Glad you two could come back in time -- show starts in a few minutes!
KAZURO: Doesn’t seem like anybody else is coming, huh?
ANZU: Hey, uh… where’s Quote?
KAZURO: Hm?
KAZURO: (Taking a brief glance around the room, I noticed that his typical, welcoming green hair was nowhere to be found.)
RIDGE: Oh, about that: he, uh… left.
RIDGE: Said he had something to do, I think. He also said he'd return in a few minutes, so I don't think we have to worry.
KAZURO: But just in case, we should keep note of who isn’t here, right?
RIDGE: Correctamundo, Kazuro.
KAZURO: (Okay, so that’s…)
KAZURO: (Sou, Satsuki, Mishima, and Gideon, with Makoto and Steve showing up just a little later than I did…)
KIKURI: Y’think we’re ready to start yet, lil guys?

[Slow footstep sfx]
GIDEON: I hope I’m not too late.
GIDEON: I ask only one thing -- can you guys just show me real talent?
RIDGE: I guess, uh… I guess that’s everybody.
RIDGE: Okay, Makoto! You’re free to start now!

[Cutscene: Lights out in the auditorium, then spotlight on Makoto -- in a maid dress, striking a pose and holding a microphone. Music begins.]
RIDGE: Well, uh… Not what I was expecting to see…
GONBEE: I’m leaving.
MAKOTO: ♫Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars♪
MAKOTO: ♩Let me see what spring is like, on Jupiter and Mars𝅗𝅥
MAKOTO: ♬In other words, hold my hand𝅝
MAKOTO: ♮In other words, darling, kiss me♯
KAZURO: (Wow. He’s… really good.)
MAKOTO: 𝄆Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forevermore𝅘𝅥𝅮
MAKOTO: 𝆐𝆏You are all I long for, all I worship and adore𝆐𝆑
MAKOTO: ♭In other words, please be true…𝅘𝅥𝅱
MAKOTO: In other words… I love you𝄇
GIDEON: Phenomenal!

[Cutscene: Makoto places the microphone down and begins dancing, elegantly. Eventually, something catches his attention -- Gonbee, rushing through the door.]
GONBEE: GUYS. BIG PROBLEM.
GONBEE: THERE’S A FUCKING BODY.
MAKOTO: OH GOD DAMMIT!

[Back to normal sprite-viewing]
MIHARI: A- Again?!
STEVE: Let’s face it, we all knew this would happen now.
MARISA: Eh?
STEVE: Either we ignored it because we didn’t want to believe it, or …
STEVE: We just waited patiently before everything came tumbling down.
MARISA: Shut the hell up, you fucking cuntbiscuit!
SHUICHI: Gonbee. Where is the body?
RIDGE: Yeah, that’s a very important thing to know!
GONBEE: The hallways of the second floor! Follow me!

[Fade to black]
KAZURO: (Gonbee rushed to the second floor, with Shuichi and Ridge following closely behind.)
KAZURO: (Without a second thought, I joined their ascent, anxiety in my every breath.)
GONBEE: Around… this corner.
SHUICHI: Alright, let’s get a look at what we’re dealing with…
RIDGE: I- Is that…

[CG of Quote, tied-up, bruised and bleeding -- with a large gash on his chest. His eyes are piercing, yet dull. Though nobody could survive with injuries like those, he was still… smiling.]

RIDGE: …Quote?
SHUICHI: No doubt about it…
KAZURO: (The sight of his body left me speechless.)
KAZURO: (I couldn’t even let out a single stammer -- only shallow breaths.)
KAZURO: (Shallow, dreadful breaths…)

DING DONG DONG DING!

[Static, then Zerokuma on monitor]
ZEROKUMA: A body has been discovered!
ZEROKUMA: After an allotted hour of time, which you may use however you like…
ZEROKUMA: The Class Trial will begin! Make sure to find out who killed who!
ZEROKUMA: Ooookay then! See you all theeeere!

CHAPTER 2: We’re Doing a Sequel!
1 LIFE → 0 LIFE

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 2: We’re Doing a Sequel!
0 LIFE

[While the 1 Life’s “Chapter 2” screen had Quote, Satsuki, and Kazuro present, the transition from 1 Life to 0 Life is accompanied by Shuichi taking Kazuro’s place on-screen. Fade to black, gameplay begin.]

[Fade in to Quote’s body CG]
SHUICHI: (Such a gruesome sight…)
SHUICHI: (I’ve seen my fair share of bloodshed over the years, but still…)
SHUICHI: (This… is brutal.)
SHUICHI: (Nothing for it… May as well check the File, right?)

[Back to normal sprite-viewing, visual of Zerokuma File appears in top-right corner]
FILE: Zerokuma File - Relevant Information for Class Trial 2
FILE: Victim: “ (NAME UNKNOWN), the Ultimate White-Hat Hacker
FILE: Found in the second floor hallways covered in bruises and cuts, with his legs tied up and a large hole in his chest..
FILE: Experienced major trauma to the head. Died with a wide grin.