Some might find it odd to set a lunch date for 1:30 PM, but there are certain situations where it makes perfect sense. For example, when one of the two parties involved has a somewhat hectic schedule, which was certainly true for the two women meeting this day. Another, equally valid reason, would be the desire to avoid notice. It was such a time that the lunch crowd would have left, but the dinner crowd would not have arrived. Nor could one find those who had just gotten off of work.

Yes, the two women had thought this to be the perfect time to meet without notice, as it had become increasingly difficult to do so as time had worn on.

Meeting in drab, colorless clothes and wearing sunglasses also helped. As did the drastic changes to their signature hair styles.

On one end of the table sat a blonde woman with her hair in a bun. The other, a black-haired woman with her hair cut short. Each had a cup of coffee before them, and were speaking in fairly hushed tones to avoid any unwanted eavesdroppers. Though the café was short on other customers.

"I'm glad you could make it," the blonde said with a faint smile.

"Well, I finally found a decent daycare, so, hopefully we can do this more often," the other revealed.

"How has Anzu been?"

The black-haired woman smiled, somewhat wistfully, as she answered, "She has so much of her father in her. Mommy's Little Martian..."

"Have you told her about... you know...?"

The mother's voice went cold. "When that show's dead and gone for good, and I know there's no chance they'll ever touch her, then I'll explain what happened to Daddy."

"Is it weird that I'm upset it's dying? I mean, it was my favorite show."

"Makes me just as weird, I guess."

"Glad you finally admit it, Maki."

"Shh! Not so loud!"

It had been quite some time since Danganronpa 53 had come to an end. The survivors, after a brief period of adjustment and media silence, had maintained enough of their in-game personalities to be absolutely furious with the production's actions against them, and happily lent their voices to the pre-existing movements against the program's cruelty. Kaede once again took up a role as leader, being the loudest voice speaking out on the subject of what the group had gone through. It came to a point where those who had always agreed the games were wrong began jokingly calling her 'The Ultimate Truth', in reference to her finally voicing what everyone already knew. A name she never agreed to, but still never publicly disavowed either.

As time wore on, however, the spotlight had grown to be too much for the teens, Harukawa especially, given her condition, and they had to retreat and function as more silent supporters of the protests. Otherwise, their escape would have been for naught, as the Killing Game would still occupy every waking moment of their days.

Online protests, on the other hand, were receiving a tremendous boost in support. Site administrators weren't exactly certain what had contributed to to the universal increases in traffic, but they certainly weren't complaining.

It should be noted that these individuals did not traditionally watch Danganronpa. If they had been, they may have been able to take a much better guess.

"Enough about me," Harukawa said, shutting down this line of inquiry, "How have you been? Any luck on the teaching front?"

"I've been working under pseudonyms, but I do have a few students here or there," Kaede explained. "I don't want people coming to me for the novelty of the Ultimate Pianist, but they put all that music in my brain, so I should use it for something, right?"

"Sadly, I can't relate..." the former assassin joked.

"Probably for the best that way," Kaede noted.

"How's your sister?"

The mood grew a bit more somber with that, as Kaede's eyes turned down toward the table. "It hasn't been easy. She's keeping up her sessions, but her mind's still a disaster area. No matter what they do, the Enoshima stuff won't go away completely."

"You need a better shrink," the red-eyed girl commented.

"Can you get me in touch with yours?"

"I'd rather not scare him away."

Kaede sighed. "I guess it's fine. Mine does great work with me, at least. And Shuuichi's been on an upswing of late."

"Good meds?"

"Yeah..." the former pianist said with a nod. "It's still hard. Depression never goes away, but, he's fighting. And I'm helping him every step of the way."

"So who'll be standing beside you?" Harukawa wondered.

"Hmm?"

"Me or Kaori? Which of us do you want over your shoulder at the ceremony?" she elaborated.

The blonde quickly grew flush. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! He hasn't even... I... we... it's way too early to talk about that!"

"After four years?"

A brief pause overtook the aspiring teacher. "It... God... has it really been that long?"

"I don't mean to pressure either of you..."

"No, I get it," Kaede reassured. "Besides if we ever were going to... I'd want something small. Probably just a courthouse thing, you know?"

"We've each had enough fanfare in our lives," Harukawa acknowledged. "Well, except Yumeno."

"She still doing those tours?"

"Thankfully, yes," the red-eyed woman said with a great, heaving sigh of relief, "Letting her scout out daycares during those kids' shows made everything go by twice as fast."

Much as she had predicted, Yumeno was still greatly in love with magic. While in public, she maintained the character given to her by the Killing Game, mostly to draw in crowds, in private she was very different. Hell, she wouldn't even admonish people for calling her work 'tricks'. All the same, the desire to make others smile never disappeared. And as such, she made use of her fame and abilities to do just that.

And remind everyone just how horrible her experience on Danganronpa was at every possible opportunity.

Kaede chuckled. "Guess some people are destined for the spotlight no matter what."

"It's weird to see her backstage, though," Harukawa recalled. "She has so much energy and then drops it to 'get into character'."

"I'm almost jealous," the blonde revealed. "I've done everything to stay out of the public view after everything. She lept right back in. Braver than I ever was."

"Says the girl who stared down the viewing public."

"Says the girl who stared down a guy with a detonator in his hands."

Harukawa smiled. "So, when'd you last get a postcard?"

"I got one from the Galapagos the other week. You?"

"Singapore. Just yesterday."

"Hoshi-kun's jumping all over the damn place, huh?" the blonde cracked.

The former tennis pro had chosen to give up on his prior choice of becoming a coach. But a man freed from iron bars is quick to find a beauty in freedom. And at some point, it became clear to him the small sliver of freedom he had been given was nowhere near enough. And so came a great deal of wanderlust.

"You know him. 'Life's too short not to see it all.'"

"Reminds me of..." Kaede stopped short.

"Of?"

"Amami-kun. Who they made him be in Season 52?"

"Right." Harukawa nodded.

The air grew harsh. Part of the two didn't want to discuss the tragic death of the green-haired boy. Another part wished they could discuss Danganronpa for hours on end. What exactly could they do?

A ringing cell phone suddenly answered that for them.

Harukawa brought the device to her ear. "Hello?"

"Sorry, Miss. Your daughter apparently wanted to say 'hello' to her Aunt. And she's quite insistent."

Harukawa handed the phone over. "It's the daycare, Anzu wants to talk."

Kaede beamed as she took the phone. "World's best aunt speaking."

"Auntie Kaede! I almost forgot you and Mommy were meeting today!"

"That's okay. No one can hear you right now, right?"

"Uh-uh. I know you don't like people knowing about you and Mommy talking. I jus' wanted to say hi."

"Your Mommy says you're getting interested in space, huh?"

"Uh-huh! Space is so cool! There are a whole bunch a planets, an.. an stars. And nobody's ever walked on 'em. I wanna do it first!"

"Well, you gotta do what your Mommy tells you, and I bet you just might do it."

"Is only i'possible 'til someone does it, right?"

Kaede let out a laugh. "Right. Okay, I'm gonna give the phone back your Mommy, okay?"

"Okay! I love you auntie!"

"Love you, too," the blonde finished before returning the phone.

Once the phone was back in the hands of it's rightful owner, Harukawa's face grew soft. "Were you nice to the other kids and the staff?"

"I was! We did drawings. And I drawed a spaceship!"

"I can't wait to see it, sweetie. But you can't just force the grown-ups to let you make a phone call."

"...sorry."

"It's okay. We'll think of a better way for you to talk with your auntie when I get back, sound good?"

"Kay! ...the grown-ups want the phone back now."

"I'll be there soon."

"Love you, Mommy!"

"You too." With a click the conversation ended, and the joy on Harukawa's face was plain as day.

"How do you expect to go whole days without her?" Kaede asked.

"Sometimes I wonder that myself," the other woman admitted. "I think I better take off."

"Will they let you take her out early?"

"That's not what I'm doing," she denied. After leaving some money to cover her coffee, Harukawa left, eager to return to the brightest spot in her life.

All alone, Akamatsu felt it appropriate to send a message to the brightest spot in hers.

The text read:

"You-know-who left. Gonna hang a little, but be home soon."

There would be no names over texts. She and Saihara had agreed to that, knowing that anyone could be watching at any moment.

A few moments passed before a reply came.

"Cool. I had something I wanted to talk to you about tonight."

The blonde quirked an eyebrow.

"Good or bad news?" she sent.

"Good, I hope."

Kaede thought back on her earlier conversation with Harukawa. This couldn't be... No. She was being silly.

"See you soon."

"Love you."

Kaede's heart fluttered as she rather juvenilely fantasized about what this could all mean. Suddenly courthouses seemed very, very small. And why would she want to be anywhere near where trials were happening? It was a dumb idea from the start. And then Harukawa's joking question arrived like a bolt of lightning. God, who would she choose?

But as she walked to the register to pay, she was stopped as she overheard a conversation by a nearby bulletin board.

"Hey, they're holding auditions for Season 58!"

A chill went down the blonde's spine. Even here? Now?

"They only want eight people this time?" one of the readers noted. "Wasn't it like, twelve, last time?"

"I heard they barely got enough people for that."

"Man, the whole thing's down the tubes," a third pointed out. "Last three times I tried to log into their website, my browser crashed."

"Hey, same thing happened to me. Last I heard, something's wrong with their server."

Kaede stifled a laugh. The server wasn't the problem. She knew exactly what, or rather, who, the problem was.

"Lord knows I ain't signing up."

"Me neither."

"Yeah, it ain't as good as it used to be."

As the group of fans, possibly former fans, walked off, Kaede found herself drawn to the poster on the board.

Her eyes darted quickly to the left, and then the right. Upon confirming no one was watching, she quickly snatched up the sheet of paper and crumpled it into a ball. She then scanned the room for a trash can, locating one a good few feet away.

Undeterred, Kaede tossed the wadded up paper ball into the receptacle, noting how easily it soared across to the other side of the room.

"Huh," she remarked to herself. It had been quite an impressive throw, after all.

"Three-point shot."

A/N: Wow. It's... actually done. In just under a year... This is surreal. I really do owe all of this to you. Whether you cheered me on, forced me to re-think my ideas, or just shared a line you thought was funny, my number one reason for writing was always to avoid letting you guys down.

I've never gone this full-on with... basically anything before, and I'm still shocked how big it got. At the time of writing this, Three-Point Shot has the most kudos of any V3 fic on AO3. 5th most for Danganronpa as a whole. And maybe one day that will change, but for now, I've done something far beyond anything I could have imagined when this was still just a shippy little one-shot, and I was a guy with way too big a dream.

What's next for me as a writer? Frankly, a break. 150K words in a year? I think I've earned it. I don't know if I'll ever return to this universe, but I hesitate to rule anything out.

If you're still hungry for my writing in any sort of capacity, I also do a Naruto campaign comic (re-imagining the series as a tabletop rpg) called Jutsu and Jinchuriki. We're still in the Chunin Exams, so it shouldn't be too much of a slog to catch up.

jutsuandjinchuriki dot thecomicseries dot com

In conclusion, thank you all for joining me in this look at what could have been. I hope we meet again someday, but until that day, take care.