Disclaimer: I do not own danganronpa

"Nothing will change."

Kyouko's vision sharpened, focusing on Ryouta.

"Finally decided to say what's on your mind?"

"If we police my work to such an extent, nothing will change. It's all absurd!" he cried, "what's the point of making a cure that only works for five hours? How are people going to access it if it's so heavily suppressed? They don't even have internet out there!"

"It's only so they can control it if something goes wrong. Once they approve it then I'm sure they'll make it more accessible."

"Once they approve it!? They've made completely clear they won't approve anything worthwhile!" he exclaimed, burying his head in his hands, "if it's like this I'd rather die-"

"Normal medicines only work for a few hours-"

"They only have to because they take them multiple times a day!" he suddenly broke out into laughter, "I can just imagine it! People lining up at the foundation headquarters at lunch and dinner just so they can stare at a damned screen for five minutes. It'll never work!"

"Well if you truly find it so objectionable then you can take it up with them," she said coldly, "you can't expect trust after what you've done."

His jaw clenched, "so what! All I was trying to do was save people, but even after admitted what I did was wrong I'm still being kept from redeeming myself!"

"If you know what you did was wrong then act like it," she said bluntly, "instead of making complaints and insisting that you be allowed to try again change the way you act and one day they'll give you freedom."

He choked, "one day -One day! So I'm to wait then? Work and wait?" his voice was high, hysterical, "I've been working and waiting for years? Am I supposed to wait forever?"

"No one said that making up for things would be easy, but it's the only way forward... and if it makes it any easier to walk that road, then I'll help you do it."

He stilled, then looked up at her, "you'll help me?"

"Yes."

"You'll really do it, vouch for me?"

"Yes, though I can't promise it will achieve anything."

"Even if it means going against Munakata?"

"Yes."

"Even if it means losing your standing?"

"Yes."

"Even if it means you have to go behind other people's backs?"

"...It won't come to that."

At those words, the hope in his eyes that had been slowly growing died, "so what you mean to say is that you won't help me at all."

She shook her head, "If your work is really so well meaning, then it shouldn't be a problem to get it moved forwards. If you really think that the slightest control is worth dying over, then I suppose there's nothing I can do but leave you here."

"But I don't think it'll come to that, " she added, "because I think you understand that there is nothing your death could accomplish that would outweigh what you can do alive."

I have faith in you, I can only hope you'll find faith in yourself.

It had taken her a moment to catch her breath after leaving. Seven seconds of inhalation and eight of exhalation. Over once until her chest was no longer burning with disappointment.

Then she turned, saw Munakata in the doorway, and promptly lost her breath again.

"You gave better answers than I expected." he said, cutting her off before walking to the hallway and gesturing for her to follow.

It took her a moment to follow and regain her composure, "I simply answered realistically -and honestly" she added, "...I really will vouch for him. Even though what he did was wrong, he still deserves that, I think..."

"Why do you still believe in him after everything?"

"Well he never thought he was hurting people."

"Instead he thought he was helping them by destroying their free will. That is not any better," he sighed, "besides, it's not as if we're illegally detaining him. He tried to globally broadcast an untested treatment."

"There are laws regarding something as obscure as video terrorism?" she asked, cursing on the inside, If there hadn't been, we might have been able to leverage something.

Munakata shook his head, "it might be obscure, but the despair video did unprecedented damage. After it was broadcast, several countries worked in tandem with the foundation to pass legislation against video terrorism. It's practically international law."

"Still, the video never broadcast properly! Do they even know who did-" she came to the realisation before Munakata even corrected her "he used the future foundations technology."

He nodded, "as the central organisation working against Ultimate Despair we have direct lines into several nations. They know it was one of us, and even if we wanted do-" he directed the last part sharply at her, "-we couldn't let them go unpunished."

"If you showed such blatant corruption," she said slowly, "it would be the end of the foundation."

In order to ensure the foundations effectiveness, we have to punish Ryouta.

In that case, they'd have to punish him. It would destroy Ryouta to know that the Future Foundation -the world's hope -had collapsed because of him.

"But what will the punishment be?"

"What do you think it should be? What?-" he said, seeing the look on her face, "I did tell you that I wish to use you as an advisor, didn't I?"

"I didn't expect you to defer after what he's done."

He sighed, hand tightening around where his sword should be, "Sadly, judging the wrongdoings of other people is evidently not my strong suit."

"But I am biased."

"There is no such thing as not being biased." he said firmly, "even these beliefs of mine are fuelled by fear and hatred. That is why...I would welcome your criticisms -even if others would decry them as 'soft'."

Kyouko stared at him for a while then, not quite sure whether she could believe him. Then she realised that the sword he was holding was a new one -and a poor blade at that, and her decisions clicked into place.

"What Ryouta fears most is being useless in future. His desire to atone is genuine, so if you wanted to be cruel then you could simply prevent him from trying to help people. If you wanted to be practical, you would use him to deflect criticism-" after all, even she couldn't pretend that he wasn't responsible for that terror attempt, "-but if you wanted to be kind, then you'd try to let him complete a better video, without red tape."

She received only silence in return, though.

In the end, she couldn't tell whether her words had had any impact. Ryouta had been used as a scapegoat, and put under arrest. Munakata had been practical.

But on the other hand, he hadn't been killed -though maybe that had been practicality as well.

"He's too useful to waste, Sir Munakata."

"Hmmm, do you have an idea on how to use him, then?"

"My country is in...turmoil. To have the ultimate propagandist on our side would be a fine help."

Kyouko had been… happy, somewhat. It would be easier for Munakata to keep Ryouta around if he was being handed excuses to do so, but Ryouta had been set against it.

"I don't want to be making useless propaganda to prop up some foreigner!" he'd cried, throwing the laptop aside -though still with great delicacy, "I have to work on the hope video!"

"But you'd be helping."

"He'd watch me." he growled, shaking his head, "they're always watching. I won't be able to do a thing."

"Well at least by doing good work here you might be able to build trust. It may put you one step closer to being able to work on the video again."

But Ryouta had only given a choked laugh, "I wonder about that, Kirigiri...what was it that he called it? -turmoil? Maybe I'll be doing something even worse than the despair video this time around."

"There's no way that will happen. The Future Foundation is very particular about the nations it serves."

"So you trust Munakata more than me now, then?" he asked, "now I just feel I've been fooled."

And yet he was still helpless in the end. They watched him carefully for suicidal urges or tools, and so he had no choice but to capitulate to the demands Munakata had made. So it was that his new life began, endless work, with barely any leisure, producing videos for king after president after king after emperor after president again.

And she'd worried every time, investigating each country to the best of her abilities to make sure her friend was only working for the most well meaning of goals. Hammering away at barrier after barrier, and using her connections to tape and picture every last scene... she put her detective skills to work on the wider scale than ever before, with higher stakes than anything. Somehow or other from that, she'd become the leader of a human rights investigative team in the Future Foundation.

"It would give you unlimited rights to investigate the Foundation itself," Munakata said carefully, "but we'd also be able to negotiate your investigative powers on a national scale. Perhaps not unlimited, but enough so that you would be able to easily find agents of despair on any level."

Even so, she had had her doubts. She lacked manpower, and her skills were only useful for small scale crimes. Without the ultimate authority of the law, there were limits to the things she could do, to the contacts when could receive. To believe that her skills as a criminal justice detective would serve her in such circumstances seemed impossible.

At such moments, she would think of Naegi. Despite being the ultimate lucky student, he'd been a perfectly fine investigator, and had even grown to becoming the ultimate hope. Even Asahina had gone from being the ultimate swimmer to being capable of getting hundreds of supplies to where they needed to go. If they could do it, then perhaps she, too, could learn to do what was necessary in the name of hope.

(She was glad that even now he was still teaching her things.)

In time, she learned to kill those doubts. The work grew easier, and the recruits she had come upon were always promising. Even though the foreign agents had been suspicious and withdrawn at first, soon the pressure of appearing as though they had nothing to hide turned them over to her one by one.

With each, the transparency of the national stage grew in clarity, and as they built their communicative powers soon they had an exhaustive and ever changing view of the world, and using the transmission device of that headquarters for it's proper purposes they shared that view with the entire world. Soon their entire community was watching itself and working together towards restoration, and no matter how many steps they were forced back she had hope in the future.

'There would be no need for a hope video' that truth became ever more clear no matter how hard Ryouta ignored it and tried to create it anyway.

Time and time again, he'd been caught or suspected of working on it, and she and her friends had had to bail him out each time. At this point, it was becoming arduous.

"Just how good does the world have to become for you to give up on this?"

"Better than this!" he snapped.

"It's already better than it was yesterday!" she fired back, "And better than the year before! You already know this, because we send you the data every time it improves!"

All in some vain hope, no, I won't allow it to be vain.

But then he shot up, hands clenched by his side, and Kyouko felt her heart fall into a banal disappointment. Such a typical thing... somehow every conversation had always turned into a row within a few lines.

But for some reason, something also seemed different today. Perhaps it was that he was shaking, or that he was pale, or that his words were more weak than they usually were.

"But it's still not- it would have to-..." he trailed off into a silence that lasted for a minute, then he collapsed into the corner, unresponsive. Another typical response, but at least he got to it quicker this time.

"How many conversations have ended like this over the years, Ryouta?" she said dryly, "I'm growing tired of the recursion, aren't you?"

"...maybe," he sighed, "it's clear you won't change your approach no matter what."

"Well if I'm too stubborn to move this forward, perhaps you should instead. I'll say it again: Just how good does the world have to become for you to give up on this?"

"I-I don't know-" he whined, "I still feel so terrible. I thought that if the world improved itself enough than I would stop feeling this way. I would stop feeling like I had to make that video!... but even after all these years, it still hasn't changed at all. Maybe the problems aren't with the world…-in that case I'd be stuck here forever, huh…"

"That depends on you," Kyouko replied, "you might have studied brainwashing, but surely you studied growth as well."

"Of course. I can't use any useful techniques when I'm working for other people. Weak little slogans and bright colours are all I'm allowed."

"Then you ought to know better than to call them useless."

"Or perhaps I know best of all...it doesn't matter anyway, I don't whatever help you're thinking of."

"Why not?"

"I don't deserve it. There are things I've stolen that can never be returned."

"You mean like your classmates?"

His whole body suddenly shook, eyes lighting up with fresh horror the way they always did. The first time it had happened it shocked her. Since then, she'd never brought it up again.

But today was an unusual day in more ways than two.

"If they really are the core of your regret...what would you say if there was a request to help them?"

"I didn't even know if they were still alive…"

"Munakata publicly punished them, but it was a ruse. In exchange for protecting them and putting resources towards their awakenings, they have offered their considerable talents. It was also my hope that he might learn to forgive them."

"He should. It wasn't their fault."

"I'm sure that's a factor in his decision, too." she nodded, "sadly, though, Hinata's mind is still adjusting after the simulation, and he cannot access many of his skills. One of them was his skills as an animator, so we require yours."

Ryouta shifted in place, but his eyes had lost their anger. Instead there was something she hadn't seen in a long time. Hope -marred by suspicion -but still burning bright.

"What could they possibly need the skills of someone like me for?"

"Recently, members of their group have been waking up, but many are...not dealing with it as well as the initial players. I believe it is because they were not a part of that final trial. They did not achieve the level of mental preparation that Hinata's friends did."

"So what? They're crazy and you want me to fix them? You're okay with brainwashing now?"

"Of course not. But I am far from objecting to your talents being put to use in less extreme ways."

"Then it'll be useless-"

"Many of them have post traumatic stress disorder Ryouta." she said, raising her tone just a little, "they could use your videos for controlled exposure, reassociation treatment or even simply as white noise to help them relax! They are requesting you -specifically you -because they have hope that you will be able to make their life even a little more bearable!"

"I don't understand it," she finished, finally just letting the weariness spill out of her, "you seem so against the mere idea of half steps instead of miracles...why can't you just work slowly."

He sighed, "because everything is my fault."

She felt her entire body droop, such a drow note to end on.

"Even so, I guess I'll have to try." he finished, giving her an unreadable look as she leapt to attention, "This is my one chance, and standing still won't achieve anything either."

His words had stunned her. So much that she couldn't even remember the rest of their conversation when she thought on it later. All she knew was that they'd worked out terms and timing, but every other word had been drowned out by the blood rushing through her ears at the fact that she'd finally succeeded -after all these years she'd finally made the barest start.

It wasn't a complete victory by any stretch of the imagination. This trip could be regrettable for him, and there was much more work to be done on him and others before everything would be perfected.

But in the end, it was the first step, and if you're still learning to walk, then even the first step is a victory.

Well here's the end, I wish that I could've done something better, but in the end this is all I can manage. Even so, I hope that any people who are still reading this enjoyed it, or at least parts of it. I really might not have been able to get through it without the support!

I think I'm gonna continue fanficcing. It's really fun! But it's probably gonna be lots of Fallout sadly. (Unless you play Fallout. Which all of you should if you have the opportunity.)

Either way, it's been a wild ride full of fun and hard lessons about outlining, passion and steam. I'm glad I did it.