「 」 vs Ultimate Hope
by Lunar Wave

Disclaimer: Danganronpa is a franchise developed by Spike Chunsoft. No Game No Life is a Light Novel Series written by Kamiya Yuu. Lunar Wave has never done anything in the development of either brands and is thus ineligible to be recognized to have any ownership of either. In short: I don't own Danganronpa, nor do I own No Game No Life.

Game Start

"「 」 (Blank) never loses."

It's a mere urban legend perpetuated in gaming circles. One that slightly intrigued him. This 「 」is simply so shrouded in mystery except for this one fact: 「 」 is unbeatable. The best players in the world have tried. They failed. The best cheaters have tried. They failed as well even through several layers of contingencies. Whatever game they happen to be playing, they always won. As long as it's beatable, they will clear it. This was the first thing that caught Kamukura Izuru's eye in his dull, uninteresting world.

Because of this first thread, he started looking into this rumor. Trying to pinpoint whether it had any truth into it. And soon he was sifting through hundreds and thousands of speculation.

Speculation: One or Team?

There was very little doubt on this one, at least as far as the internet is concerned: 「 」is a team of players. Why do they know this? They were seen with at least four player characters zipping in one game. A team that made it a point to be so utterly in sync that they always moved as if only one person was playing.

Speculation: Limitations?

They were not a big group. The group always made a sort of group thing where they are just a group of at least 4 people performing raid bosses. Of course they still manage to win, but this points that they aren't a very big team. Probably no more than four.

Speculation: Cheating?

No question. Every game publisher has checked 「 」's records. No foul play was made. Consistent damage according to rules, exploitation of any glitches that exist, and they even made a point of occasionally submitting reports on cheaters that they encounter in any game, after exploiting the cheat against the offender. Whatever they did, they were a hundred percent legit as online players. Izuru even personally checked all the data himself and concluded that there were no hacks done.

Speculation: Nationality?

Japanese. They always made the same kinds of accounts: the Japanese quotation marks as a callsign or, failing that, the word kuuhaku, or Blank in English. They do show proficiency with many languages so there's a chance that they are actually a multilingual company.

Speculation: Location?

Japan, probably. Specific location not disclosed.

Izuru continued to look through the information. Genders, Age group, there were so many various speculations that are on the internet. But he decided not to peer into it anymore. It was all mere speculation of the masses, no ingenuity.

Looking at all the data he saw… He decided to try and find them.

'If this 「 」 is truly a group is as good as they say they are… Would they be able to beat me, who received the talents of every Super High School Level (Ultimate) that passed through the halls of Hope's Peak?' This was the question that plagued his mind. He then began looking for them, all in pursuit of something that might alleviate the boredom that was perpetuating in his mind.

And with that, he then decided to hack the information servers. Their emails should be registered in one of the many games they were known to play. With his skill, it was easy to find one or all of them. He sent each a message.

They all contained one sentence: "Want to play a game with me?"

He didn't receive a reply. He expected as much. At best, his mail was sent to the spam box of their respective addresses. He should probably do something else.

He decided to send them a simple online chess program. Maybe a proper game would make them accept his challenge.

The response was immediate. No more than a minute later, he was looking at his own program coming up, asking for his move. His opponents elected to play black. That was actually surprising. White had an advantage over black, due to the initiative, the so-called "first-move advantage". Why choose the disadvantageous black? Nonetheless, he decided to accept it, bringing forth the talents of the Super High School Level Chess Player, and the Super High School Level Shogi Player.

He will see if their talent is greater than his own.

Izuru, for the first time in his life, was focused fiercely. He was looking at the chessboard and realized that the match was barely even progressing well. Neither of them have taken advantage. He looked at all his potential moves and chose the most efficient ones. The opponent would counter quickly. Both of them made their moves fiercely until... his opponent's movements suddenly changed. Originally completely efficient, now it's also remarkably confusing. It was as if his opponent had swapped in the middle of the match. It didn't matter. He'll beat them.

He lost. How? As it turns out, one of the moves that he had dismissed as worthless had turned out to be incredibly important in the long run. He lost.

For the first time in his life, he knew what it means to feel agony. But it soon faded as he rationalized it away. There was no reason to be angry. There was no reason to despair. That game was inconsequential. But there was still nagging feeling at the back of his mind. He knew. He lost.

It was only after Enoshima Junko's plan had begun, and the Tragedy struck that he had been free to leave campus. He knew the address of 「 」 now. A single home apartment that housed a pair of NEET siblings, Sora and Shiro. The true identities of 「 」 became known to him. A boy around the same age as himself, and a girl 7 years younger.

He wanted to meet them, someone with a talent greater than his own. He wanted to see them, to see how they thought, to understand what they believed.

But when he arrived, all he saw was an empty home. Various game consoles strewn around.

"… How boring." The Tragedy had taken them as well. How boringly predictable. Their talent with games wouldn't be able to save them in this kind of world anyway. He knew that much. Subconsciously, his hand entered his pocket and squeezed what was held within.

The Ultimate Hope/Despair looked up at the reddened sky with no emotion. Truly, what a boring, predictable world.

"Hey, Tet." Sometime, somewhere, a boy spoke in a tone of boredom, as if just remembering something barely worth remembering.

"Yeah?" A more androgynous voice cheerfully replied.

"About that chess game… Did you challenge us twice?"

"No~pe. Just the once. Why?"

"I just remember that someone once challenged us before… Same deal. A chess game was sent to our computer. We first dismissed it as a robot since, to be honest…"

A girl suddenly chimed in, "His moves were efficient."

"Too efficient, actually. His moves were practically on par with Shiro. Every move led with a minimax approach to it, as if we were playing a computer. If it wasn't for the fact that I noticed that the program was using up bandwidth that I realized it was an online game."

"Robot-like."

"Ahh, I never want to play like that!" The androgynous voice replied quickly. "Playing games as if you're a robot? Sheesh, it's not like we're Ex Machina, you know~?"

"The 10th rule."

"Correct~"

"We beat it by the skin of our teeth, but it only felt as if beating a robot. There was challenge, but no thrill."

"Well, don't expect those kinds of situations in this world~"

"Of course not. This world is definitely the best!"

"Exciting."

The two parts of the whole known as 「 」 look up at the vibrant sky and smiled. No. Smirked. This world is definitely the best, especially for the two of them.

Game Over

Hmm… hmm… to be honest, I have no clue how to write Kamukura Izuru. His deadpan boredom is actually fairly difficult to write for. In fact, this oneshot has been sitting in my files for so long, because I don't know if I did it right. I think it's been long enough, and the fact that I haven't done much tweaking must mean that I can't really do more for this oneshot.

I don't even know if it's accurate to make Izuru lose to Sora and Shiro. But for the sake of this oneshot, that's what happened. Well, ultimately, Izuru lost due to the unforeseen fact that he was playing two people, but ehhhhhh… Izuru beat freaking Komaeda in luck soooo… yeah, even I, the writer, am not a hundred percent sold on the idea that Sora and Shiro would beat him. But for the sake of plot, this is how this oneshot goes.