Daisuke heard all the stories.

"The only reason we have world peace is because all the bad kids are taken away before they become bad adults."

"If they can't find enough people, they just start raiding orphanages and taking kids away. Overpopulation and all, yeah?"

Daisuke gulped.

"You know, just for being entered you get a ton of cash though- what, they give it to your families if you don't make it?"

"I've kind of always imagined I'd be an Ultimate Skydiver!"

Daisuke pulled at his hair, trying to concentrate on his comic book.

"Dude what kind of Ultimate skill is that? That's totally useless in the game, like even if you had to jump off a high building-

"CLASS!" The teacher at the front was stern. Daisuke shut his textbook loudly, hoping he didn't ruin his comic too. Getting American monthlies- the thin little individual books, was hard enough in downtown Kobe, he didn't want it damaged, too. At least he could hide it, unlike the people trying to read Jump in class- you could kill someone with one of those things.

And most of the teachers didn't care since the book was in English. Most.

Tanaka-sensei cared.

"Saito-kun!" she snapped. Daisuke's head shot straight up.

"If there's another X-Men comic in there I will be sending you /straight/ to the guidance office."

'It's Squirrel Girl,' Daisuke thought to himself.

He got sent anyway.

Daisuke took the bus down to the waterfront after class. It wasn't like he had any obligations or clubs. He'd just go back to the dorms that night, alone. He did need to press that crease out of the cover, but he could just shove the flimsy book between some kanji books.

He passed the Indian restaurant with the giant NAAN WA NAAAAAAAANI?! sign, the Bikkuri Donkey, before settling himself outside a Starbucks. A gaggle of what he assumed were college girls were talking about the Danganronpa 52: Rantaro's Revenge premiere over the sweetest Frappuchinos they had.

Daisuke hated coffee, the smell alone made his stomach churn. But they made really good green tea drinks- who was he kidding, they were basically milkshakes- and he could sit outside, away from the stink. So what if it was girly. Nobody there knew him, and if they did he didn't really have many friends at school, anyway. He went inside, attempting to hold his breath, pulling up the payment app on his phone. His weekly allowance had been added already, thankfully.

"Double espresso," the slender girl with a bob in front of him requested, a bit meekly. As anti-masculine his drink was, hers was just as unusual for what appeared to be a high school freshman.

"Welcome to Starbucks, may I help you?" the cashier asked, snapping Daisuke back to reality.

"TallFrapp,greenteacreampleaseforDaisuke," he breathed out, trying to minimize the stench of coffee in his nose.

"Oh, hello, 'suke-kun," the barista said, friendly. "Go sit outside, I'll bring it out."

"Thanksamillion," Daisuke muttered, running back outside to the pavilion.

There weren't any free tables. The other high schooler, in her uniform- was she wearing pants under her skirt...? was the only spot with a free seat.

"Sorry..." Daisuke started. "I can't stand coffee, can I sit with you? I just want to read my book."

"Think you came to the wrong place," she replied, flashing a grin. "Sure, but won't mine bother you?"

"Fresh air," Daisuke muttered. "Won't be so bad as inside. What are you doing with a double espresso anyway?"

"... job interview," she replied after a few moments, probably to organize her thoughts.

"That's just going to make you more jittery, won't it?"

"I'll... I'll deal. And it's okay if I don't get it..."

"Where's the interview?" One thing Daisuke knew he was amazing at was, somehow, some way, calming people down.

"The TV station," she replied, pointing a slender finger down the promenade to a squat white building with a dish on top.

Daisuke took another look at her. She was pretty, in a kind of androgynous sort of way. With her short hair, she probably wore wigs. Had he seen her on TV before?

"Come on, now I know you're faking. And I need your autograph before you get really famous," Daisuke replied with one of his trademark ear-to-ear grins.

"Hehe," she laughed quietly, but genuinely.

"Want me to come with you?" Daisuke finally asked, as one of the baristas came out with his plastic cup of green tea slush.

"That's.. really not..."

"I literally have nothing better to do today other than read comic books and slack off on doing my homework," he supplied. "And it's a story for class tomorrow at least. I mean, who gets to see a TV station from the inside? What's the job for, anyway?"

The girl downed her own drink in one deep swill and handed Daisuke a paper.

DANGANRONPA SEASON V3: OPEN CAST CALL.

"Okay what the hell- uh-"

"Ai. Ai Sato," she supplied almost mechanically.

"What the hell, Sato-san, do you actually want to die?"

"No! And I'm not even auditioning for me-" she started.

"What do you mean?" Daisuke questioned quietly.

"My older brother." It came out, almost as a whisper. "He's a massive Danganronpa fan. He... applied. I found out. I monitored the mail and took the envelope before he got home. But there's 10,000 yen just for going to the interview, so I'll just take his place. And sabotage it."

"You don't like Danganronpa either?"

"Fuck no," she replied with a small grin.

"Everyone in this world is crazy but us, huh?"

"Yknow what? I could use 10k. I'm coming with you. I could be your brother, right?"
She laughed harder. A genuine, loud laugh.

"I... I was planning to do that," she said, pointing at her pants. "I stole one of his uniforms. We're basically the same size, if...l" she started, afraid to disclose something then realizing it was okay," if I wear my volleyball bra."

Daisuke turned five shades of red.

"Could you, um, I'm going to go back in the bathroom to change, could you tell me if I look close enough?"

"Look, nothing, you need to fix your speech patterns."

She laughed again, almost snorting. "Uh-uh. My brother was raised by my mom and me, and he's always been real sick. I saw his interview tape, I'm already as close as I can get.

I get why he wants to be on Danganronpa. He's got lukemia. He doesn't even know if he's going to make it to graduation, so he might as well earn us some prize money being a psychopath, he said. And he'd get to have some kind of amazing skill. At least for a while. I mean, I get it. I do. But that's not how I want to remember him, on some shitty faux reality TV show with some giant televised death. It wouldn't be him anymore. It's just..."

"Hollow. Mindless," Daisuke replied.

"If I somehow manage to pass this, I'll take it as a sign from somewhere that that's how my brothers going to go- I've already made peace with his death, and I think he has, too. If I fail, he'll never know he got picked for a studio interview and I can get us all some sushi or something. Win win. I guess."

"Yeah," Daisuke replied, mouth a bit dry.

"I'm going to change, can you watch my stuff?"

"Sure, Sa-"

"Ai-chan."

"Ai-chan," Daisuke repeated. The sound felt strange, somehow.

Ai emerged from the Starbucks about fifteen minutes later. Daisuke almost did a double take. She was in a boy's uniform, black suit jacket and tie, with a beat-up cap on her head, three lines on the side. If her brother was older, it probably signified he was a third-year student.

"He's not going to see graduation" rang in Daisuke's head. Ai's brother must be pretty close to dy-

Don't think about that, he reminded himself, gulping hard, looking at Ai again. She did, in fact, make a decently convincing teenage guy. Or at least androgynous.

"It's.. okay?" she asked Daisuke, snapping him out of his daydream. "I did a bit of makeup too but I just wanted to even out my skin tone..."

She'd pitched her voice a hair down. Just enough to shock Daisuke.

"Don't scare me like that," he yelped. "That's... a lot better than I expected, I wouldn't think twice passing you on the street. You... don't have a picture of him, do you?"

Ai flipped open her wallet- no, she must have nicked it off her brother too.
Daisuke's jaw dropped.

"Okay. Yeah. You can pull that off."

Ai smirked a little. "I left my uniform with my friend, she'll drop it at my house after her shift," she said, pointing a finger back at Starbucks. "Since the security will probably check our bags. I don't want a skirt and," she paused for emphasis, " a BRA in there."

Daisuke turned five shades of red as he tried to keep stride with the slightly taller 'boy' towards the station.