Danganonpa: no death, no life.

By HarpeDiem

Chapter 0. In an elevator

It was 8 a.m in one of the most important business areas in all of Japan. Thousands of stressed salarymen and women in suits rush to their hectic jobs in the crazy tall skyscrapers. And in the heart of this swarm of modern finance stands a remarkable building. It's much smaller than the skyscrapers around it and quite a lot older. It has a stately appeal, sort of like an old library or something. It is something you definitely notice when you visit this place for the first time.

It was my first time seeing this building too.

I'm sorry, I think I should introduce myself first. My name is Kazumi Motonabe, nice to meet you.

I just finished high school and, like many others of my peers, I've been looking for a place to study. Well, honestly, I'm not that big of a school freak, I don't get the best grades and I don't have super high ambitions when it comes to academics. Despite all that, I was standing in front of the building where all of Japan's greatest minds and most talented people where trained: The National Hope Foundation.

So you may ask: how does someone like me, who slacks off and spends most of his time in school thinking about not being in school, end up here right in front of the most prestigious educational Foundation in all of Japan? Did I just get lucky?

Well, not really. You see, there is one thing I'm very passionate about; one thing that I have loved more than anything in my life. And that is skateboarding.

The National Hope Foundation (or NHF) is a high-class prestigious organization that scouts the biggest talents among high school students in Japan. If they see that you're the very best of what you do; if you are the sickest most ultimate guy or girl in your field than they send you an invite.

I received mine a day before I came here, take a look.

Dear Mr Motonabe,

We, The National Hope Foundation and its members invite you to join our training programme at the NHF in Tokyo. We selected you as part of a thorough screening procedure amongst thousands of high school students. As a trainee, you will join a group of eight of Japan's most promising upcoming talents. Your skills and talent make you THE ULTIMATE SKATEBOARDER and as such, we promise you that we will do all that is necessary to make your talent grow even further. We hope that you are as excited as we are about this journey. We ask you to join the introduction ceremony tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Yours sincerely,

The National Hope Foundation.

At first, I thought it was a joke. Why the hell would I go to a lame foundation for snobby students or something? Without putting much thought into it, I had almost thrown the envelope into the trashbin. But, then I noticed they also put a bunch of pictures with the letter. They were photos of the building. They have a gigantic library with the rarest books in Japan, an Olympic swimming pool, an observatory and... a gigantic indoor skate park! This was the biggest most rad skate park I had ever seen: rails, half pipes, boxes, foam pits, all of the best quality you could ever dream off. That's when I told my mom and dad I had to go.

So there I was, with a big smile on my face and my skateboard under my arm, ready to enter the NHF.

I walked towards the building and entered through a heavy wooden door. Inside it was cold. It really felt like an old building, like it wasn't properly isolated. I tucked up my sweater and walked through the hallway. The walls were decorated with pictures of different important men and women. I read some of them:

Jun'ichi Mikage: THE ULTIMATE CYCLIST, has one 10 major cycling tours around the world.

Tetcho Minata: THE ULTIMATE DEBATER, 2 times prime minister of Japan.

Makoto Endo: THE ULTIMATE GO-PLAYER. 5 times national Go champion.

I have to say, it was very humbling to walk past all these incredible people. These were the most talented people in all of Japan, who had climbed the ladder of success to the very top. All of them had become famous and powerful and all were the undisputed best at what they did. And.. all of them started here. Could I become just as good as they were, would I leave this place as the worlds greatest skateboarder? It was a dream that could have become a reality.

I came to the end off the hallway.

At the end, I faced an elevator. In front of it was a sign. I checked it and it read:

Welcome to the National Hope Foundation. Please enter the elevator to get to the lounge, from there you will be escorted to the auditorium where a presentation has been prepared for you.

Underneath the text was a drawing of a crab. It was not a very good drawing, it was like a kid drew it. I was half red half white and had a weird half-smile.

I decided not to pay more attention to it and I entered the elevator.

As I stood there a feeling of dread fell over me. I looked at the buttons and I realised I didn't even know which floor I had to go to. I wanted to turn around to check, but the doors closed automatically. The elevator started moving and I became disoriented. I couldn't think straight anymore and it was as if the elevator was going upside down. I closed my eyes and bumped into the wall, spiralling deeper and deeper...

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

I pulled myself together and grabbed my skateboard under my arm. I felt something in my back pocket. "Damn!", I said to myself. A bag of peanuts that I kept in there as a snack had been crushed. It must have happened when I passed out in the elevator. Whatever, I thought and I put it back into my pocket. I left the elevator and entered a new room.

It was a spacy lounge area, with some armchairs, small tables and fake plants. Some other people, about my age, were waiting there. Some of them were talking, others were looking around like they lost something.

I took a deep breath and said: "Hey all!"

The reactions were mixed. A few greeted me with a mundane "hi" or "heyo". One of them only turned their head and then went back to whatever they were doing. However, one girl immediately jumped up and ran towards me.

"Haiiiiiiiiiiii! Soooo nice to meet you! My name is Mimiko Shinpa, but just call me Mimi!"

"Uh hey Mimi nice to meet you, I'm Kazumi Motonabe."

I took a second look at her and she was one of the weirdest people I had ever seen. Her hair was dyed in three different colours, she was wearing a white t-shirt with holes and paint splatters and for some reason, she had managed to put her pants on inside out. Her nails were painted in all colours of the rainbow. She was definitely an eccentric persona.

"Oh my god, soooo nice to meet you! Ooooh is that a skateboard! I love graffiti art!"

"Grafitti uh. Hey, now I know you're Mimi right? The Mimi? The most successful pop-artist in all of Japan?"

"Helllllll ya that's meeee! Mimiiiiiiii Shinpaaaaa THE ULTIMATE ARTIST!", she yelled as she pulled out a paintbrush that she aggressively waved around.

"I went to a gallery with your paintings once. There was that really big one with the elephant?"

"Yeeeeeaaaaah MOTHERFUCKING ELEPHANT"

"Uh haha, what?"

" MOTHERFUCKING ELEPHANT, silly that's the name of the painting!", She looked at me like a two-year-old who just found a gross snail in the backyard and just has to tell its mom what a cool thing they found.

"It was really impressive. You definitely have great talent"

"Aaaaah yessss complimentsssssssssss", she said as she rubbed her hands over her cheeks.

I decided to take a step back. Man, she was way too intense. Most girls I hung out with were skaters and those are already a bit extreme. They seemed like priestesses compared to Mimiko. I decided to lool around to see if there was someone else to talk to.

I noticed a short guy with a raincoat and a fedora trying to look under a table. I tapped on his shoulder. Immediately he turned around and put his hand in his coat as if he was trying to grab a gun.

"Be careful. I almost grabbed my gun."

"What? Your gun? Please don't shoot, man. I just wanted to introduce myself."

"Hmm of course, of course. So you must be Kazumi Motonabe."

"Huh, you know me?"

"Not really, but I have done some research, you are a pretty big skateboarder", he said as he went back looking under the tables.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense, so who are you?"

"You can call me X"

"X? Is that your real name?"

He looked at me with suspicion.

"No of course not. It's a code name. If I told you my real name I would have to kill you"

He reached inside his coat and pulled out a tiny name card. I read it:

X

Ultimate Spy.

"THE ULTIMATE SPY? So that's how you knew who I was. Have you been spying on me?"

"That is classified"

"A-relaxed man"

He said nothing and continued looking under one of the couches.

"What are you doing, looking for booby traps?"

"I'm checking if there are hidden microphones somewhere. It seems someone is videotaping us", he looked into the direction of a camera on the wall. It felt a bit uncomfortable that we were being watched.

"They probably have those just for security"

"Perhaps, but you can never be too sure about that." He moved closer to me and tried to lift up my shirt.

"Hey dude, what the hell are you doing?"

"I have to make sure you're not carrying a microphone. Standard procedure!"

"Keep your hands off me!"

"Get off of him will you?!"

I turned around. A blond-haired, western looking girl, who was wearing a typical Japanese schoolgirl outfit sophisticatedly pushed X away.

"Don't pay attention to him. He tried to 'body check' us too. Creep."

X pulled down his fedora, mumbling "Some of you strike me as potentially dangerous."

"Will you stop?" the girl said adamantly.

X gave up and sneaked to the other side of the room to inspect a trashcan.

"Hey, thanks for helping me there. That got a little bit weird."

"Heyo, no worries. We're all new here." She reached out her arm and we shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Lissy Demara."

"Hi Lissy, I'm Kazumi Motonabe"

"So you're the skateboarder, right?" she said as she looked down at my skateboard. "I am THE ULTIMATE LUCKY STUDENT."

"Ultimate Lucky Student? Does that means that you got selected through a lottery or something?"

She looked at me like she was very offended.

"No way. I'm not just some rando who got picked just because she's 'lucky' I am the Ultimate Student and I'm the Ultimate Lucky Person!"

"Wait, so you are a double ultimate?" I said as I rubbed the back of my head

"Yes, I am very gifted. I have the highest final exam scores in all of Japan and I have won a big lottery two times in a row."

"Winning the lottery two times? That's impressive, but I don't really know if that's a talent?"

"Well, yes I thought that was a bit odd when they wrote me the letter, but I guess the title 'Ultimate Student who is also Very Lucky, which isn't a Real Talent' doesn't roll off the tongue very well."

"So Ultimate Lucky Student it is."

"Yes."

"So, you don't look very uh, Japanese, Lissy? Where are you from?"

"Oh my dad is Japanese and my mom is American. They met in America and then they moved here. So I was born in Japan."

"That must be so rad. I just have boring Japanese parents."

"It's what you like."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to offend...I feel a little off since I came here. I think I passed out in the elevator."

"You too?"

"Yeah, it was very weird. Wait, what do you mean you too?"

"Let's talk about that later."

She turned around and walked away.

I saw two guys talking and decided to introduce myself. One of them was a large guy with huge arms, the other a scrawny guy who looked a little bit like a rat. I entered their conversation and said:

"Yo dudes, my name is Kazumi Motonabe nice to mee..."

"And did you see that part yet where Full Fist Mike uses his hyper punch on Necrosomos?"

"Aaah no! I still have to see that thanks for ruining it."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But that episode is so good, I was jumping in my chair when Mike finally gets together with Miss Akira and.."

The muscular guy looked at me with desperation and said: "hey! So you're Kazumi, nice to meet you I'm Tetsuhiro Ooda. THE ULTIMATE BOXER."

"You guys were talking about that anime, right? Full Fist Mike?"

"Yes, it's a new show I've been watching."

"It's an amazing show!", the small guy said. "It's about a guy called Full Fist Mike, who fights crime with his super-powered fists. But he didn't always have those powers. In season 3 episode 2 you learn that he actually..."

"Shut upppp!" Tetsuhiro yelled and he raised his hands above his head.

"Oh I'm very sorry, I just get too excited when I talk about anime and movies, and books and..."

"Whatever, I'm leaving you two. I'm too pissed off", Tetsuhiro said as he walked away.

"So, it's very nice to meet you Kazumi Motonabe.", the small guy said. "My name is Jin Hitohito. I am THE ULTIMATE SPOILER."

"The ultimate.. spoiler?"

"Yes, it's uh. Well, I watch a lot of movies, tv-series, read a lot of books you know. So I know everything about that, but I have a tendency to get overexcited and spoil the story for people"

"That's not really lit dude"

"I know, I'm like Ben Hunter in the detective series Ben Hunter, who keeps walking into his own traps, like that time when he..."

"Hey! I'm reading that book don't ruin it!"

"Oops sorry... Oh, by the way, is that a skateboard?"

"Huh yeah, whattaboutit?"

"I have always wanted to try to skateboard since I watched Miroda skateboard in the series On-line. That part where she finally does the 720 nose flip that's so cool. Can I try it?"

"Yes, whatever stop talking please"

I handed him the board and he stepped on it.

"Oh yes, here I go Miroda!"

He pushed himself forward and immediately fell off. With a loud smack, he hit the floor with his head.

DONK!

"Are you ok?" I said as I rushed to him. Lissy looked around to see what had happened.

"Ouch, that was maybe a bad idea", Jin said as he rubbed a large bump on his head. "I think... I'm going to sit down for a second. "

"That doesn't look very good", Lissy said. "I was here earlier that the rest of you. When I had to go to the bathroom, the sink didn't work so I had to find a place to wash my hands. Then I found a small kitchen. There must be some ice and a towel in there."

She ran off and came back a minute later with some ice and a towel.

"Heya, I'm back. I'm sorry it took a bit but I have something to prevent a swelling"

"Sorry 'bout your head man", I said. "Do you want to eat some? I got peanuts."

I picked up the tiny bag of crushed peanuts from my back pocket.

"Sorry they're a bit crushed"

"No thank you. I.. I can't eat those. I'm good"

"Okay, well... just take it easy, dude."

Jin put his hands around his stomach. "Ouch I hit my head and now I have stomach pain too? I'm really unlucky today."

Lissy grabbed something from her purse. "Here", she said as she handed him a tablet. "This will help. Make sure you go to the bathroom in time when you use it."

There was another girl who saw the accident who looked worried at what happened. She wore very traditional Japanese clothes and had a fine doll-like face. She looked like one of those traditional Japanese geisha. I wanted to calm her down so I approached her.

"Hey don't worry about it. He's going to be ok"

"I hope he will be. It looked it hurt." Her voice was very soft. Almost like a whisper."

"Accidents happen you know. We all bump our head sometimes."

"Thank you for talking to me. My name is Mikou Shimana."

"Nice to meet you Mikou-chan. I'm Kazumi Motonabe. The Ultimate Skateboarder. And you are... uh Ultimate Geisha?"

"Nice to meet you to Kazumi Motonabe, but I am sorry, I am not the Ultimate Geisha." She looked a bit sad saying that.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What is your ultimate, if I may ask?" I started talking a bit more polite, to not offend her

"Please, you do not have to apologize. I am the one who should be sorry, because I can not tell you my Ultimate."

"Ya can't? I mean, you can't? Well, you don't have to if..."

"I am very sorry, I hope to tell you later, but now I can not."

She turned around and walked away a bit awkwardly in her large kimono.

I suddenly noticed a girl who looked familiar sitting in a chair. I approached her.

"Yo, aren't you Milky-chan?"

The girl sitting into the chair looked up and gave me a patient smile. She had a light face and pink hair. She wore a t-shirt with a glass of milk with an eye patch.

"Hi, yes, that's me. Hello, I'm Miruki Shiage."

I knew Miruki, or Milky-chan as she is known online as the most popular streamer in all of Japan. Thousands of teens watch her gaming streams every single day. You can call her THE ULTIMATE STREAMER.

"Oh I'm sorry, I recognized you from your streams."

"Thank you, so you're a fan?"

"Um, I did donate a few times and I try to keep up".

"Oh well, I don't think you have much to keep up with nowadays", she said in a somber tone

"What do you mean?"

"I think I'm quitting live streaming."

"What noway?! You're hella talented. Nobody is as good as Milky-chan!"

"I.. I'm just not liking it anymore. It's the...the trolls."

"Trolls?"

"Yes, sometimes these trolls chat in my live stream and they just ruin the mood"

I thought about that. Someone as popular as her would get harassed, but isn't she used to it by now?

"I know, normally I don't care, I just ban them. But now there is this one person who just keeps making new accounts. They keep being annoying whenever I play a new game on stream."

"Damn that must really suck, but I hope you keep going."

"I'll try." She looked depressed. I hoped to see her smile again.

*DING DING BONG BING.*

A scrawny high pitched voice came from a speaker on the wall.

"Welcome... Welcome...everyone! Will you please enter the door to the auditorium for the video presentation?"

We all went into the direction of the auditorium. It was a small concert-hall-like room with comfortable red and white chairs. I sat down somewhere in the front, Milky took the seat next to me.

"I'm excited to see what they're going to show us", I said, trying to cheer her up.

"I don't know...but these chairs are comfortable", she said as she tried to relax. At the other side of me, Tetsuhiro took a seat.

"I wish we had some popcorn man."

"Oh wait. I have some peanuts in my back pocket. They're a bit crushed but I think they still taste good"

"I reached into my back pocket, but noticed the bag of peanuts was missing."

"Huh, that's weird. I must have lost them."

"Bummer."

Everyone else took a seat and the lights went dim. The projector started buzzing and a large screen turned into a movie.

THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY AT THE NATIONAL HOPE FOUNDATION.

The movie was long and a bit boring. It was hard to keep my attention to it, especially in these soft chairs. It was a presentation about the Foundation. How it had educated the most talented people of Japan across multiple generations. The professional voice talked about life goals, opportunities and dreams. It was a very clean but safe presentation. Something that would fit with an official foundation like this.

THE HOPE OF TOMORROW LIES IN THE HANDS OF THE YOUTH OF TODAY!

The end tune played and the screen went black.

If the presentation had finished there, this would be just like any other introduction. This would be like a normal group of talented kids, scouted by a talent fund.

But this wasn't a normal introduction.

The screen turned red and white and the same scrawny voice from before rung through the speakers:

BUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THAT HOPE TURNED INTO DESPAIR?

I looked at the screen confused

WHAT IF THOSE BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE FULL OF LIFE. TURNED AGAINST EACH OTHER?

WHAT IF THEY ENDED UP KILLING EACH OTHER?

This was definitely weird. Was this a joke?

The lights turned on. Then, out of nowhere. Something jumped on the stage.

It was a crab.

It was.. weird. It was not a real crab. I was like a toy or a robot. The crab opened his claws and snapped them together. He opened his mouth and the scrawny voice came out:

"Welcome everyone. My name is Monokani!"

I couldn't believe what was happening. Who put a toy crab on the stage? What was that weird stuff about?

I just realised something.

"Hey... uh... Monokani? You're that crab I saw on that drawing next to the elevator?"

"Yes, that's right. Did you like my drawing?"

"Well, no, not really. It wasn't very good."

"No, that's such a shame. It's hard to draw with these claws you know... But, whatever. That's not important. What is important is what I'm about to tell you. So listen up kids. My name is Monokani and I'm going to be the one who will train you!"

"Train us? Tetsuhiro said. "A kids toy?"

"A toy. Oh boy boy boy. I'm not a toy. I am your head trainer. Monokani. Understood?"

Mimiko yelled from the back of the auditorium: "You're sooo weird. How can you even talk? Omg a talking robot crab that's soooooo crayyyy."

"Achem", Monokani coughed while angrily snapping his claws. "I don't wanna hear anything about me being a toy, or a robot or anything. I am a crab, I am Monokani and I am your Head Trainer."

The room stayed silent.

"So anyway, I am here to tell you how long your stay will be in this fine very fine place. It's... until you die."

"What? Until we die?" a female voice said. I turned my head to the person behind me and saw Milky standing in her seat. "What is that all about?"

"You will stay here for the rest of your lives, clear and simple."

"Hell no man!" Tetsuhiro stood up raising his arm threateningly. "No stupid doll is gonna say I have to stay here forever!"

"Calm down please with the tough talk, buddy", Monokani said as he started shadow boxing with his comically large claws. "I am not a soft teddy bear you know."

"And... well... what was that all about in the end. About.. k... killing?" Mikou said trembling from the other side of the room.

"Yes, that is something I have to talk about. You see, I told you you can't leave this place, normally. However, there is an option to escape. You can leave if you KILL another student!"

The room was dead silent again.

Lissy was the first to break the silence.

"Kill... what do you mean kill? You're not implying that..?"

"Yes, I mean killing!" Monokani said in an exciting manner "Killing, murder, assassination, manslaughter, homicide, all that. If you take the life of one of your fellow trainees here, you will win the prize of freedom."

"And what about the rest of us?" X said in an uncommonly calm voice.

"The rest of you get executed."

"WHAAA EXECUTED NO WAYYYYY HEEEEEELPSSSS!" Mimiko cried

"You, you can't be serious." Milky trembled

"I am. Very. Serious. Look at me. I am a crab. Crabs are always very serious. If you kill someone you get to leave and everyone else dies. Those are the rules. Well.. if you don't get caught", Monokani spoke

"You don't get...caught?" I tried to find any form of reason in this mess. This can't be real right. This must be some sick joke.

"Very sharp my boy. Yes, if one of you were to kill another. There will be a trial. All of you get to testify and then choose who you think was the killer. If the majority gets it wrong, the killer runs free and the rest of you gets executed. If the majority get it right. The killer is executed."

"And then we get to leave?" X said in a James Bond-like voice.

"No, you stay here. You can only leave if you kill someone. That's the rule."

"This is so evil I...I can not believe what you are saying." Mikou put her head in her hands and started sobbing.

I didn't know if I should be laughing, crying or screaming. This was the most surreal thing I had ever seen. If someone was trying to prank us, they went way too far.

Suddenly Jin jumped up from his chair. He was way too excited for a moment like this.

"Oh man, this is so exciting. This is like a real-life detective series! And this one is extra cool! I can't wait until you all find out that the Mastermind behind this killing game is..."

Jin stopped talking abruptly. His head became red, then purple. He started reaching for his throat and fell down on the stairs next to his chair. He rolled around making a horrible gurgling sound. In the panic, some people froze, Milky jumped up and tried to approach him. X stood up too and said: "what is going on here? Is this..?"

I tried to get out of my chair to help too, but for some reason, it was as if my legs were stuck to the ground.

Jin desperately put his hand hin his jacket. He was looking for something but couldn't find it. In a high pitched sound, he said: "wha~~ agh~ me~ me~"

Milky and X tried to lift him up to stabilize him. Looking for a way to save him.

Jin kicked his legs a few times.

Then he stopped moving.