New day, new story. Second in my Dangan Ronpa trilogy. This one immediately follows the events of the previous story. Disclaimer: I don't own Dangan Ronpa or Ace Attorney.

Prologue: Welcome to Despair Academy

Naegi was a little confused. One second he was standing outside the gates to Hope's Peak Academy, then as soon as he set foot inside the world suddenly swirled around like cotton candy. As he began to black out, he could swear he heard some sort of rumbling. When Naegi came too, he found himself inside a darkened room. All he could really remember was walking in the main gate. 'I must have blacked out and been brought here,' he thought to himself. When he looked around the room, he saw a number of oddities. There were iron plates covering the windows, visible security cameras, and TV monitors on the walls. Naegi soon found a pamphlet telling him to head for the entrance hall at 8:00 am. Realizing it was that time already, Naegi hurried out.

Inside the entrance hall, Tora Wright looked over the students that were with him; Sayaka Maizono, Kyouko Kirigiri, Byakuya Togami, Chihiro Fujisaki, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Celestia Ludenberg, Touko Fukawa, Aoi Asahina, Sakura Oogami, Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure, Mondo Oowada, Leon Kuwata, and Junko Enoshima. From what he could remember, there were supposed to be sixteen people. When he spotted Naegi run into the hall, he knew that everyone was here. "Hey there," Naegi said, "You must be the other 'Super High School Level Students'. My name is Makoto Naegi, I'm the 'Super High School Level Luckster'." As soon as Naegi said the word "luckster" Tora saw a black psyche-lock form around Naegi. 'He's telling a lie that he thinks is the truth. It was the same with all the others.'

After Ishimaru reprimanded Naegi for being late, the group introduced themselves to each other. They learned they all experienced the same problem. They had entered the school only to black out and find themselves sleeping in random classrooms. "This is most shameful," Ishimaru said, "What a horrible way to start our new school year." "Not to mention we can't seem to get past this giant door," Celes said. Tora walked over to Naegi. "Are you certain of your title, Naegi?" Naegi nodded. "I was selected to be here because of a random lottery. Why, is there something wrong with that?"

"There is," Tora said, "This school never does things by lottery. If someone came here bearing the title 'Super High School Level Luckster' it is because they really are blessed with extraordinary luck. Second, you may not be able to see it, but there is a spiritual psyche-lock guarding the truth. A black one no less." Naegi was confused. "You're Tora Wright, yes? The exchange student given the title 'Super High School Level Attorney'? What does an attorney need with spiritual power?"

Tora smiled. "More than you might think. My mother was born into a branch family of the Fey clan of spirit mediums, giving me a blood connection. Normally men born into this family do not possess spiritual power, but because my father used a spiritual artifact so many times, that energy seeped into his physical form, which was transferred to me upon my birth. It is quite useful in getting information from people. But only if the lock is red. Red psyche-locks represent secrets people try to hide from others. All it takes is a little push and the right evidence, and they shatter like glass."

Naegi remembered Tora's earlier words. "And the black ones?" Tora closed his eyes. "Those represent secrets even the person with the lock does not know. Of course, I can never see any locks on myself, but everyone here has both types of locks on them, so I can only assume we are all in the same boat. Especially Kirigiri. For some reason she won't mention her special talent. I was finally able to get her to confess that she cannot remember it for whatever reason. Amnesia most likely." "We have more important issues," Ishimaru said, "When we each came here for the first time, none of this stuff was here. So where it did it come from so suddenly?"

"Relax guys," Hagakure said, "It's probably just some stunt for orientation. I bet the higher-ups are having a harmless laugh at our situation." That seemed to release some of the tension in the room... Until a school bell was heard going off. At that moment, one of the TV monitors turned on, revealing a staticky image that vaguely resembled a bear's head. "Mic check! Mic check! Can everyone here me? Attention new students, please assemble in the gymnasium for your entrance ceremony. That is all." The voice sounded cheery, in an eerie sort of way. Suddenly all the tension from before came rushing right back.

"Well," Togami said, "No sense in sticking around here. We may as well go." And with that, he walked off, followed by several other students. "Should we really go?," Maizono asked nervously. "We have nothing to gain staying here," Oogami said. Kirigiri nodded in agreement. "It's no safer here than anywhere else, so we may as well move forwards for now." "Indeed," Tora said, "And personally, I'm a little curious as to what they have in store for us in regards to this 'entrance ceremony'." Soon they were all heading for the gym.

Inside the gym's anti-chamber, the tension showed no signs of dropping. "This is even worse than my time in juvie," Oowada mentioned. "And did you notice?," Enoshima said, "There were no other students in the halls as we walked here." Ishimaru tried to play it off. "Relax everyone. I'm sure once this ceremony is finished those iron plates will come down." Tora looked him. "I wish I could share your enthusiasm. But something tells me those plates aren't coming down anytime soon. I think we should consider the possibility that we have all been kidnapped." Maizono shivered. "Stop it Tora, you're scaring me."

Kirigiri was busy looking at the trophies in the nearby display. "Strange. There appear to be several trophies missing." Tora took a look himself. Sure enough, there were a couple gaps between the trophies. "It does look like this display case could hold another thirty trophies at least. But with no additional evidence, it's hard to say whether any trophies were removed, or they simply weren't added to begin with."

Inside the gym proper, the main stage seemed set up for an entrance ceremony, but Tora had a strange feeling in his gut, and it wasn't his stomach pains acting up again. He had actually found time to take care of those before he met the others in the entrance hall. "See guys," Hagakure said, "Just like I thought, a perfectly normal entrance ceremony." However, at that moment, the same voice that had come over the monitor earlier called out, "Good. Everyone is here. Let us begin shall we?" From the behind the podium popped out what looked like a teddie bear that was colored white on its right side and black on its left side. The right looked normal but the left was decidedly sinister.

"Greetings," the bear said, "I am Monokuma. I am the headmaster here at this academy." Naegi looked to Tora to see if Monokuma was telling the truth, but Tora whispered, "My powers can't work on a non-living object." Yamada seemed a little nervous at the walking, talking teddie bear. "Relax," Kirigiri said, "It's likely an animatronic puppet of some kind. Probably with the real headmaster speaking through it." Monokuma cleared his throat. "To start with, let me explain your new lives here at this academy. As the bright new hope for the world, you will all be staying at this prestigious academy... For the rest of your lives."

Most of the students looked aghast. "You mean... We have to stay here forever?," Fukawa uttered in disbelief. "Isn't that what I just said?," Monokuma said, "Fortunately, we have a big budget, so your lives here will be quite comfortable." 'Now I know we've been kidnapped,' Tora thought to himself. "As you may have already figured out," Monokuma said, "This entire school is cut-off from the outside world. So you can forget about ever returning there!" Naegi gasped. "That explains the iron plates in the rooms and halls. And that giant lock on the front door."

Monokuma chuckled. "Bingo. And this entire school was designed to be soundproof, so I'm afraid calling out for help is impossible. That said, I hope you all enjoy your new lives here!" Oowada turned livid. "You know what... I've heard enough! Cut the crap now, and I'll let you get away with saying this is all a big joke!" "I'm afraid this is no joke," Monokuma said, "But feel free to verify it for yourselves after orientation." "But we can't spend our whole lives here," Celes said, "We each have plans for the outside world."

Monokuma seemed confused. "You came to this academy of your own free will, yes? Why do you suddenly want to leave? Then again... It's not like you can't leave. You see, I have a special system in place for those of you who do wish to leave this school. I call it 'graduation'! Let me explain how it works. It's really quite simple. As students at this academy, you will be in charge of maintaining order. To graduate, you must simply break the order... It's really that simple. Should one of you do this, they alone will be allowed to leave."

"And just what do you mean by 'breaking the order'?," Togami asked. "A very good question," Monokuma said, "That too, is quite simple. To break the order... One of you must kill one of your fellow students." Naegi became flabbergasted. "What?!" Monokuma chuckled. "You heard me. Stabbing, strangling, drowning, crushing... The method doesn't matter to me. None of you will be able to leave unless you kill someone. Do whatever it takes to obtain the best results from the worst method."

"And you expect us to kill each other?," Tora said, "There's got to be more to it than that." Monokuma chuckled. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not expecting you to go at each other's throats from the first day. After all, that would be too easy. But the important thing is that from now on, this school is your new home. If you don't like it... Well I've already told you your options." "Screw that!," Oowada said, and he marched right up to Monokuma. Grabbing the animatronic teddie by it's next, he yelled, "I gave you a chance to just call this a joke, but now you've missed it! Now let us all out of here right now!"

With a terrified cry, Monokuma called out, "Oh dear! It's against the rules to attack the headmaster!" "You really feel like keeping this up, don't you douchebag!," Oowada said, and he made to punch Monokuma. However, before he could move the bear started beeping. Sensing something bad, Kirigiri called out, "Oowada, get rid of it right now!" Oowada, sensing the urgency in Kirigiri's voice, quickly threw Monokuma away from him and the other students. No sooner had he done so then the animatronic bear exploded.

As the smell of gunpowder hit everyone's nostrils, another Monokuma popped up from behind the podium. "Well, I hope you understand now. There shall be no rule-breaking in this school. As none of you were aware of this rule to begin with I shall let you off with a warning." "Wait," Enoshima said, "Are there, like, more than one of you?" Monokuma nodded. "Dozens of units such as myself are stationed throughout the school, and all of them are equipped with the same explosives as the one you saw blow up earlier. And by now you have certainly noticed the security cameras set up everywhere. Any further rule-breaking will be severely punished."

Asahina looked to be on the verge of tears. "This... This is insane." "Oh," Monokuma said, "I almost forget. There is one more thing you all should have. Your personal student handbooks, or ElectroiDs. These specially designed electronic student IDs will be essential to your life here in this school, so try not to lose them. I can certainly replace them if it come to that, but it can be a pain to do so. It will display your real name when you turn it on, so make sure you have the right one. Not only are these ElectroiDs virtually indestructible, they are indispensable. They also contain the official school rules, so be sure to read them over in order to avoid unnecessary punishment."

And with that, Monokuma disappeared. "Damn," Kuwata said, "This is messed up. Spend our lives here, or kill each other?" "This has to be a joke," Ishimaru said, "It's too ridiculous not to be!" Togami adjusted his glasses. "Whether it's a joke or not is not the issue. The problem is... Whether or not someone took that seriously." The implications of Togami's words hit home to everyone. Right then, in that very room, were sixteen potential murderers. The only question was... Would a murder actually happen?

To be continued...

Not while I'm writing this story. But you'll see how in the upcoming chapters.