This is my first Danganronpa fic! Hello new fandom, please be nice to me, and Merry Christmas! (This is not a Christmas-themed fic.)

My first introduction to Danganronpa was playing the officially translated game, and the whole time I thought it was super cute how everyone called each other by their first names or nicknames, like they were really trying to be like a family living together omfg how precious. ...Of course, I soon realized that was just the localization so that overly-optimistic interpretation was automatically null and void, but I still couldn't shake the idea so finally I wrote this.

Also I tried to think of a better, less cliche title for this. I failed.

This takes place before the second case but there are brief hints of spoilers for the whole game.

Many thanks to CSakuraS for betaing for me. uvu

Danganronpa ≠ mine.

By Any Other Name

It was Celes who breached the topic one day at breakfast.

"I have a proposition to make," she declared as she stood at the head of one of the tables. The din of breakfast chatter quickly died down, and Naegi stopped poking at his fried egg to look up at the gambler curiously. "In the interest of fostering the camaraderie necessary to properly adapt to our living situation, I believe we should all begin addressing one another with our given names."

The nine other students present—Togami was probably holed up in the newly-accessible library again, with Fukawa watching from afar—all exchanged glances a bit uneasily.

Owada was the first to speak up, peering at her skeptically while he lounged back on his chair. "The fuck? Why?"

Celes sighed at his all-too-eloquent response. "Honestly. I do not understand why the Japanese are so uncomfortable with using first names to begin with..."

"You are Japanese!"

Pointedly ignoring the gang leader's retorts, Celes continued. "If we want to reduce the possibility of further murders, it is imperative that we all endeavor to become more comfortable with each other as a community. Transitioning to first-name basis is simply one step toward that goal."

"I think Celes-chan has a point!" Asahina chirped. "I mean, I'm already calling Sakura-chan by her first name, and I don't think we'd ever try to hurt each other! Right?" Asahina grinned up at Ogami, who gave a silent nod.

Ishimaru suddenly rose to his feet. "Very well!" he announced in his usual authoritative tone. "It isn't quite proper procedure, but under such extraordinary circumstances I'll make an exception
and allow, nay, encourage everyone to be on first-name basis!

Owada rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Like we need your fuckin' permission..."

Ishimaru rounded on the biker. "Language, Mondo-kun! There are ladies present!"

At the sudden use of his first name, Owada lost his balance and his chair toppled backward onto the linoleum floor. "Shit! Man, you sure took to that quickly..."

"Of course! And you are all welcome to call me Kiyotaka as well!"

"Yeah!" Asahina chimed in. "You can all call me Aoi, too! Okay, Sakura-chan?"

Ogami looked somewhat uncomfortable. "That's... I'm not quite sure that seems right, Asahina..."

The swimmer put her finger to her chin in thought. "Well... How about you call me 'Acchan'? Then no one will know if you're using my first or last name!"

"Asahina, that's not quite..."

"Wait," Hagakure cut in as he stood up. "I mean, I don't really have a problem with this, but..." He pointed at Celes dramatically. "We don't evenknow your real first name! If you're suggesting this, you should tell us!"

Celes simply smiled at the fortune teller, entwining her fingers serenely. "Did I not already tell all of you? My real name is Celestia Ludenberg."

Owada rounded on her as well, having finally straightened himself out after his fall. "Don't try feeding us that shit! Only a moron would actually belie—"

A loud banging sound rang out as Naegi's plate of egg rattled in front of him, and the room was instantly silenced. Everyone turned to stare at Celes, her hand flat against the tabletop and her face downcast, obscured by her bangs. After a tense moment she looked back up, her expression the very picture of contentment, as if she hadn't just slammed a piece of furniture in rage. "As I said," she smiled sweetly, "my name is Celestia Ludenberg. You have all been referring to me by my first time this entire time, so there is no need to discuss this with me further."

The room was silent for a moment longer before everyone seemed to come to an unspoken agreement to leave Celes alone and instead began conversing among themselves. Asahina and Ishimaru quickly busied themselves with bounding from classmate to classmate to encourage the more familiar forms of address. It was an interesting idea, Naegi mused, but it wasn't looking like too many of his friends were open to it. He watched curiously as Asahina spoke animatedly with Fujisaki; the programmer seemed somehow distressed by the idea of being called "Chihiro-chan," but Naegi couldn't quite figure out why. It almost seemed like Fujisaki was bothered by something more than the sudden familiarity.

Putting that issue aside, Naegi turned his gaze to Kirigiri sitting at the other end of the table, looking unsurprisingly disinterested as she nursed a cup of coffee. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about being on first-name basis with all of his classmates yet, but he figured it would be best to start with the one he was closest to so far. With Maizono gone, Kirigiri was probably the best candidate, so he tentatively stood up to approach her. "Hey, Kirigiri-sa—"

"Makoto-kun!"

Naegi jumped, both from the unfamiliar address and from the sudden slap on his back. He looked back to see Ishimaru standing behind him, grinning amicably. "Ah, Ishimaru-kun..."

"Do you mind if I call you Makoto-kun? Of course, you may call me Kiyotaka in return!"

"Uhh..." Naegi shifted uncomfortably. Now that he was hearing it, he couldn't remember the last time someone besides his mother had called him "Makoto-kun." It was a little awkward to hear, but it wasn't too bad, so... "Yeah, I guess that's fine. Um... Kiyotaka-kun." The name felt strange and foreign on his tongue. It would probably take some getting used to.

Ishimaru gave a satisfied grin and turned to address the rest of the students. "Makoto-kun has given permission to use his first name as well!"

"Hold on," Hagakure cut in. "Uh, who's Makoto again? Is that one of the boys or one of the girls?"

"I'm a guy!" Naegi exclaimed, his cheeks burning. "I'm Makoto, Hagakure-kun!"

Hagakure laughed. "Oh, right! Man, gotta make sure I remember the name of my own future brother!"

"Please don't talk about that..."

"Hmm?" Yamada turned his attention to them, adjusting his glasses in pointed interest. "Now this sounds intriguing. Care to divulge the details?"

"No," Naegi said firmly. "Absolutely not."

"Sorry, but I sometimes take client confidentiality very seriously, Yamada-chi!" Hagakure announced, looking all too triumphant for what Naegi couldn't help but note was a rather half-hearted code of ethics. "Or, uh... Yamada-chi, what's your first name again? Hifumiyoi—"

"D-don't just keep adding extra numbers to my name!"

"Hifumiyo!" Asahina laughed as she joined in, ignoring Yamada's protests. "That's so cute! Okay, Yamada, let's call you Hifumiyo from now on!"

"Asahina Aoi-dono, please..."

"Asahina-san, I don't think Yamada-kun likes that," Naegi added. "Maybe—"

"Both of you!" Asahina turned to face Naegi, her hands on her hips. "I said you all can call me Aoi! This is a matter of preventing more murders, you know! And the way Hifumiyo refers to people is such a mouthful, anyway."

Yamada spluttered indignantly. "You just said it again!"

"Okay, okay, I think I got it," Hagakure announced, silencing the argument for the moment. "I got everyone's first names over there, and over here we have Aoi-chi, Makoto-chi, and Hifumiyo-chi..."

"My name is Hifumi..." the doujin artist objected, but he was clearly beginning to resign himself to the new nickname.

"...But," Hagakure continued, "we're still missing Fukawa-chi and Togami-chi, right? Anyone know their first names?"

"Fukawa-san's name is Touko," Naegi answered easily. He'd seen the name plenty of times passing bookstore displays, after all. "And Togami-kun—"

"It's Byakuya, right?" Asahina supplied.

"And who gave any of you permission to use my name?"

The room fell silent as they turned towards the dining hall entrance to see Togami standing there with arms crossed, Fukawa quivering behind him.

"Excellent!" Ishimaru exclaimed. "You two are here just in time! Come and join in the discussion!"

Togami made no move to do so. "And what harebrained idea have you fools gotten all worked up about this time?"

"It's not... that bad of an idea, I think," Naegi said. "We're just thinking that we'd become closer friends if we call each other by our first names. And then no one would want to kill anyone else, see?"

"Are you all idiots?"

The group was taken aback by Togami's instantaneous dismissal of the plan, and Asahina was the first to recover. "Why would that make us idiots?! It makes sense!"

"Hardly," Togami spat. "Even if buddying up were a viable way to overcome this game, can you honestly say that your current strategy is working? Are you all completely blind?" The heir paused for a brief moment, his eyes scanning the group of students. "Makoto."

"Huh?!" Naegi nearly jumped out of his skin, completely unexpecting Togami to address him, much less in such a familiar way.

"See that?" Togami smirked at the group smugly. "Do I need to spell it out for you? It's clear as day that you're digging your own graves." He let his gaze wander to Yamada, then to Fujisaki, before focusing on the group as a whole once again. "At this rate, none of you are worthy adversaries in this game."

Hagakure stepped forward, holding his hands up placatingly. "Hey, come on now, Bya—"

Togami's chilly glare silenced the older man in an instant. "If any one of you even dares to let my first name grace your plebeian tongues ever again," he said icily, "I will personally see to it that your family sees utter financial ruin for generations to come."

With that, Togami turned on his heel and swept out of the dining hall once again. Fukawa lingered for a moment longer, and Naegi thought he saw her experimentally mouth the words "Byakuya-sama" before grinning unsettlingly and following after the heir.

"Holy hell," Owada finally said when the silence had become too much to bear. "Forget being Ultimate Affluent Progeny, when he makes threats like that it makes him sound more like the fucking Ultimate Yakuza or somethin'."

Naegi laughed nervously. "Yeah, but I wouldn't say that in front of..." He trailed off as his mind drew a blank, and he furrowed his brows. Huh? In front of whom? What was I even trying to say?

He honestly couldn't remember.

"But, um..." Naegi was pulled from his confusion when Fujisaki spoke up. "I... think he had a point. This isn't working."

"Indeed," Kirigiri agreed, speaking for the first time since the idea was presented. "We're all much more on edge now. As long as anyone isn't completely comfortable being referred to by name, we're only breeding more unease within the group."

Naegi looked around the room, considering this new point of view, and he found that he had to agree with that assessment. Save for a select few of his classmates, most of them seemed to have built up emotional walls in defense against the unwanted familiarity. With the briefest of introspection, he had to admit that he had done the same.

"Yeah," Naegi sighed. "Can you all just... keep calling me Naegi, after all? It just feels more right."

One by one, the other students agreed, requesting to revert back to old forms of address, though Asahina tried to protest weakly.

"Everyone!" Ishimaru commanded. "I take back what I said! From this point forward, do not refer to others on first-name basis!"

"That's too extreme!" Asahina argued. "I was already calling Sakura-chan by her first name before, and I'm not going to stop now!"

"And that's fine," Kirigiri said. "No one is outlawing the use of first names completely, just don't push your limits. Our situation is stressful enough as it is."

Celes sighed as the group started to file out of the dining hall. "I suppose it is for the best. I must admit to being somewhat disappointed, but there is no helping it."

Naegi stayed behind to clear up his abandoned breakfast, and noticed that Kirigiri had lingered as well. Awkwardly, he approached her. "Well... that was interesting."

She didn't turn to face him, simply standing silently for a moment before responding. "I suppose that's one word for it."

They fell into silence again as Naegi gathered his thoughts. Maybe it was a bit bold to ask at this point, but... "Do you think any of us will be close enough friends to be on first-name basis someday?"

Kirigiri spared him a glance this time, tilting her head minutely. "It's a bit soon to tell, but who knows?" She turned away again, but Naegi could see a small smile playing at her lips. "But it's possible."

I think most of the fandom is probably aware but "Hifumi" literally means "1-2-3." Hagakure counted up to five. (Originally the joke continued to include the "10" in "Togami" but I thought it dragged on too long.)