Summary: As far as anyone else in the killing game was concerned, Makoto Naegi was just your ordinary luckster with a penchant for hope. Kirigiri always knew that Monokuma's laugh sounded familiar, but never in her wildest dreams did she expect this. Mastermind!Naegi

A/N: I got into Danganronpa late last year and now I'm utterly obsessed. This is a one-shot, but I may dedicate a series to having different masterminds in some of the other games. I.e. Nagito or Hajime in SDR2 and Kokichi or Shuichi in DRV3.

Warnings: Violence, Language, Character Instability, Gore

"The mastermind has to be Junko Enoshima!" Naegi declared confidently. With that final announcement, everyone around him appeared to replicate an aura of absolute certainty—their wills unable to be swayed by the amount of hope festering in their chests.

"Upupupupu! Is that your final answer?" Monokuma tutted, knowing full well that the votes were already cast for the ultimate fashionista. Should anyone begin to have second thoughts about their choice in character, it was far too late to change the fate that now awaited them. It was life or death and the tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

The voting machine began to spin painfully slow. The nerves of the remaining occupants in the room were steadily increasing, their breaths baited until the moment the dials stopped at Enoshima's icon. It seemed like a flawless victory, one won out by their collective deductions until the machine started to flash a blinding red. A siren began to blare from all corners of the room and everyone covered their ears at the piercing noise it gave off.

Despite not hearing the noise before they knew it to be the mark of an incorrect answer.

"You've got that WRONG!" Monokuma mocked all too gleefully, a knowing gleam reflecting in his animatronic eyes.

The ensuing silence was so deafening that you could hear a pin drop in its wake. In that moment, all hell broke loose amidst the trial room. Although the reactions among the remaining survivors were varied, each conveyed a similar sense of dread, horror, and plausible deniability.

"W-What? That's impossible!" Togami yelled out, hands tightly gripping the pedestal as though his very life depended on it.

Fukawa was pulling her braids and pathetically mumbling the words, "it can't be" over and over again.

Asahina was on the verge of breaking out into tears, her fists clenched at her inability to gain justice on behalf of Ogami's enigmatic suicide.

Hagakure appeared to be dazed and confused. No prediction could've prepared him this outcome.

Kirigiri remained silent and did her best not to reflect an outward reaction towards the announcement, but the way her shoulders tensed gave away her feelings on the matter all too well.

"Wow, and I thought you guys were supposed to be smart!" Monokuma sighed, although Naegi could detect the underlying disappointment laced in his words.

"If we're wrong, then why don't you just come out and say who it is already!?" Asahina yelled in frustration. "I can't take any more of this!"

"Tch. It's obviously Kirigiri! Her disappearances have hardly painted her in a favorable light," Togami tutted, eyeing the amnesiac in a distasteful fashion.

"I assure you that I'm not the mastermind. Although all of the evidence pointed to Enoshima being the culprit, that still doesn't dismiss the possibility of her sister pulling the strings," Kirigiri noted, glaring at the ultimate progeny.

"I think it's Naegi!" Fukawa yelled out of the blue. Said boy looked up at his name, but did not speak up against the accusation.

"You're one to talk with a serial killer for a personality!" Asahina refuted. "You've given us no reason to trust you."

"Throwing around blame isn't going to get us anywhere, guys," Hagakure admonished, trying to calm the tense atmosphere to no avail.

"You've been awfully quiet there, Naegi! Is there anything you'd like to share with the class?" Monokuma asked, causing everyone to pause their arguments and turn towards the luckster in question. He appeared to be lost in thought for a moment before opening his mouth to speak.

"I know for a fact that Ikusaba can't be the culprit," Naegi deduced. "In fact, it's an impossibility."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Asahina interjected.

"Whether or not she was posing as Enoshima was ultimately irrelevant. There's no doubt that the body we saw was actually hers," Naegi stated.

"What makes you so certain of that?" Togami scoffed.

"How am I certain? How am I certain?"

As if indulging himself in some private joke, Naegi began to giggle. Anyone might've missed it had it not morphed into a hysterical laughter that reverberated against the walls of their collective prison.

"N-Naegi?" Hagakure stuttered in concern.

The class stood transfixed as Naegi stopped laughing to remove something from his eye. What was it? A contact lens?

He turned to them with a dark smile on his face, a red pupil now watching their every move. Kirigiri noticed that there was a small smear of foundation just above and below his eye in the shape of a peculiar scar—the very same one that was currently adorning Monokuma.

"Because I was the one who killed her in the first place, you idiot!," Naegi revealed in sadistic glee.

In that moment Kirigiri felt the world around her crumble. Her pedestal of security was nothing more than a heap on the ground from the luckster's admission of guilt. The boy who had supported his classmates and saved them all from certain death had been the mastermind behind their entrapment.

"It can't be..." Asahina stuttered, the realization finally setting in. "N-Naegi would never do anything to hurt us!"

No one knew what to say when the evidence was right in front of them. No words could describe the feeling of shock and absolute betrayal that befell every student who so much glanced in his direction. All they could do was watch helplessly as Makoto made his way up to the throne, his body exuberating an exaggerated grace so unlike the clumsy persona that they had come to know. Staring at his classmates mockingly, Naegi procured a crown from Monokuma and mindlessly placed it atop head. He gave a dramatic bow, much like an actor in the closing scene of a play, and sat down to take in the horrified looks he garnered.

"In a twist of fate, our innocent protagonist was revealed to have been the antagonist all along! That's right — Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Despair, is reason all your friends are dead. Upupupupu! Isn't that a bummer!?" Naegi mocked, putting his thumb down for emphasis.

"You...you monster. You've been playing us all along!" Togami growled, clenching his fists in frustration. His face was flushed trying to process the truth that was right in front of him, pride slowly unraveling in light of Makoto's untimely blindside.

Naegi's impossible smile only seemed to grow wider at words. He gave out a fake sigh and further reclined into his throne.

"I know. You all must've thought I was in the clear when Alter Ego saved me from my wrongful punishment, but that was planned from the very beginning. You simply thought that Chihiro was behind the program since his avatar was there in place of my own. It's not like anyone could really confront him about it after Mondo did him in."

They watched his head loll to the side, heterochromic eyes now swirling in madness.

"What do you have to gain from all of this?" Kirigiri asked, trying her best not to appear shaken. Makoto found it amusing that the mastermind had been the only person she had chosen to confide in. A 1/15 chance as a detective and she still failed! How unlucky...

Naegi turned unnaturally serious as he delved into his past memories at Hope's Peak.

"A reason beyond spreading despair, you mean? I suppose I'll enlighten you for the sake of our lovely audience. I just wanted you all to suffer on behalf of my charge. Nothing more. Nothing less," Makoto shrugged nonchalantly, enjoying his classmates' visible outrage.

"What are you talking about?" Togami hissed, causing the luckster to turn towards him sharply.

"Your arrogance turned Hope's Peak into a cesspool of wasted talent—talent used to relentlessly bully others into submission. It was nothing short of ironic that you used me as both a verbal punching bag and a therapist for all your trivial pursuits, but who was I to turn away your biggest secrets? I hadn't forgotten how poorly you treated my darling sister, Komaru. She was all I had before your senseless actions drove her to do the unthinkable. Oh, what I wouldn't give to feel that despair again," Naegi sighed in longing.

"Knowing your biggest weaknesses, it wasn't hard to get the Reserve Course students to rebel against Hope's Peak. Seeing the talentless so easily demolish the system, workers started to rebel against their bosses in an effort to achieve the same result. It sparked a complete chain reaction and in the blink of an eye, entire countries were on the brink of war. With a little bit of gentle persuasion, any semblance of government that remained became completely eradicated by those who fell into despair."

Here, Naegi dramatically paused, his eyes glazed over in fond remembrance for the actions caused by his brainwashed followers. Slipping a remote out of his pocket, Naegi turned on the television and watched his classmates with poorly concealed anticipation.

The screen flickered for a moment before a giant Monokuma could be seen decimating skyscrapers. Gasps began to emanate from the trial room and Naegi felt his heart swell with pride at the sight of a rioter's flames consuming everything in its path.

"But for me, that just wasn't enough. I created this ingenious plot to victimize the ones indirectly responsible for the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history. My time at Hope's Peak showed me the joys of despair and I simply went on to share it with the rest of the world. Killing the headmaster and having someone remove two years worth of your memories was certainly a pain, but I couldn't let their presence interfere with our little game."

Silence ensued and Makoto could only imagine the internal misery that was threatening to tear everyone apart.

"Two years worth of memories?" Hagakure repeated in disbelief.

"I don't believe it! There's no way that could be true," Asahina said aloud.

"H-He's just trying to trick us," Fukawa accused.

"Obviously. The world being destroyed would also imply the downfall of the Togami corporation which is nothing short of an impossibly," Byakuya argued.

"Money hardly matters when the power's in the hands of the people. Face it, you're nothing more than a one man conglomerate!" Makoto laughed.

"I...there is no proof that any of this has occurred!" Togami replied defensively, but everyone could see how badly Makoto's words had affected him.

"Fukawa! You and Syo retain the same knowledge but don't share memories, correct?" Kirigiri cut in, causing the girl to jump.

"W-what does she have to do with anything!?"

"If he's telling the truth, then there's a chance that the mindwipe only worked on your dominant personality. In that case, Syo would still be able to remember the tragedy," Kirigiri reasoned.

Makoto would consider himself more impressed had she also managed to uncover his misdeeds, but he supposed the amnesiac detective only had so much information to work with when he covered his tracks so flawlessly.

"I'm not letting her out! No way!" Toko yelled.

"Fukawa!"

After Togami's prompting and a an ill-mannered sneeze, Fukawa's tongue elongated to signify her shift to Syo. A pair of scissors were waved through the air as she gushed over the ultimate heir without a semblance of shame.

"Anything for you, Master Byakuya!"

"What can you tell us about these images? Are they real?" Togami questioned, a crease marring his forehead in poorly concealed worry.

"...you guys seriously don't remember the catastrophe?" Syo asked in disbelief.

"Naegi claims to have taken away our memories of the incident," Kirigiri said sharply, glaring at him as though he was the devil's incarnate. "If you haven't noticed, he's the reason our classmates are dead."

Syo looked up in time to see Makoto blow the detective a mock kiss which caused the girl to promptly look away in disgust.

"Shorty is the one who trapped us here? Talk about a plot twist!" Syo cackled.

"Why didn't you say anything about this before!?" Togami interrupted out of irritation.

"What? I go by a strict don't ask don't tell policy. Keeps me out of trouble," Syo shrugged.

"So...that's it, then. The world is really dead," Asahina muttered.

"Despairing, isn't it? Knowing that everyone you love is probably nothing more than a rotting corpse like my little sister. I should kill all of you for guessing the mastermind incorrectly, but since I'm so generous, I'm going to give you the chance to cast one final ballot."

"H-Huh?" Hagakure blinked.

"It's simple. You have two choices— hope or despair. If you choose hope I get executed and you're free to leave. However, the air purifier keeping this place alive would no longer function and you'd be dead from the outside toxins in no time. If you choose despair you'd be trapped here for the rest of your days, and although murder would no longer be applicable, I'd still be alive to keep this place running from the sidelines," Naegi explained.

"T-those are our options!?" Asahina exclaimed.

"Oh, and if one person chooses hope while the rest of you pick despair, I have the right to execute everyone here. Don't worry though, I won't be voting on this, so it's ultimately up to you to decide how you want to die!"

"As fun as that sounds, what's stopping me from killing you right here, pretty boy?" Syo inquired.

"Nothing. In fact, you're welcome to try it," Makoto challenged.

As expected, Syo threw a pair of scissors at him, but Makoto merely watched as it ricocheted against his throne, narrowly avoiding the astounded serial killer. She had never missed her target before. Makoto simply laughed in mirth.

"Upupupupu! Don't tell me you forget already! I am the Ultimate Lucky Student. Whenever life deals me a shit hand it always turns out better for me in the end. No matter what shit you try and pull, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you hope, I. Always. Win."

Watching the hope drain from their eyes during his little triade made Naegi unnaturally giddy. It was a pity Kirigiri didn't share his ability to sway the masses. Despite her flaws in character, Junko had been the first to acknowledge this talent in Hope's Peak academy by convincing him to use his influence to get whatever he wanted. Naegi presumed that was only because she did the same thing as a super model, but the realization that he could make people think a certain way without the added fame was nothing short of mind boggling.

"Your luck is bound to run out eventually," Kirigiri protested, her words falling on deaf ears.

"Is that so? Well, I don't care about what you think because IT'S VOTING TIME!" Naegi laughed hysterically, reveling in the ensuing panic that followed his proclamation.

"We can't give into despair," Kirigiri said half-heartedly, watching the crumbled faces of her classmates stare back at her in silence. Beyond Syo's normal antics, everyone looked about as dead as they felt.

"I don't care what happens. Wherever my Togami goes, I'll follow like a lost sheep," Syo gushed.

"But by choosing despair, we'd be giving him exactly what he wanted—" she continued, only to get cut off by Togami.

"As opposed to what, death?!"

"There's always a chance that society has been reformed," Kyoko pointed out, but Makoto merely scoffed.

"After all the effort I put into destroying it? Not a chance!"

"I don't think you're gone as you'd like us to believe, Naegi. If that were the case, then there was no reason for you to lie in order to save me from my execution. For someone so intent on causing us despair, you certainly did your best to lift our spirits. You regained your memories down in that garbage shute, didn't you? I don't think you planned for that to happen. In fact, I'm almost positive you wanted to forget about despair entirely," Kirigiri reasoned.

Naegi's eye twitched in annoyance, his red sclera swirling. Although Monokuma was laughing at her poorly drawn conclusion, the mastermind could feel his blood begin to boil. Did she really believe that he had some redeemable quality in his bones? Did she really believe that he could care for them after everything they did?

"An interesting theory, but not quite accurate, detective. You see, hope and despair are two sides of the same coin. The greater the hope I give you, the greater the despair I cause. My memories were indeed regained in that garbage shute, but that's because I ordered Monokuma to arrange a murder in which I would be pinned as the main suspect before the game even started. Knowing you were just as suspicious as I was, it forced Alter Ego to confront my amnesiac self before the trial began. He told me that by ensuring my guilt, I would be able to survive and avoid your wrongful persecution. I didn't understand it then, but the whole trial was merely a ploy to give me my memories back," Makoto explained.

"If that's true, then why did you bother to erase your memories in the first place?" Kyoko asked.

Naegi simply tutted, staring at his classmate condescendingly.

"What fun would it be to orchestrate a game that I couldn't be a part of? I just wanted to experience the same despair that you guys did. I knew my luck would protect me from getting offed too early and therefore make all other factors resulting in my death irrelevant. Besides, I'm positive a detective of your caliber would've been able to see through my act had it not appeared genuine."

Any refutal Kyoko may have had become destroyed by the visible depths of his insanity. This was no longer the boy she knew—this was the beast that lay rotting underneath. Memories flashed by of her fallen classmates forced into being victims of his twisted vision. She would sooner forgive the murderers made among them than she would Makoto Naegi.

"If that is all, I do believe it's time to tally the votes!" Makoto announced gleefully.

Everyone was nervously glancing at one another in anticipation. They had no way of confirming what the others had chosen, but they had dearly hoped that their lack of discussion on the matter wouldn't have cost them in the long run.

If Makoto's sadistic grin wasn't telling of their fate, then his next words made everyone's hearts drop into their stomachs.

"Upupupu! It appears one person among you has decided to choose hope. Well, get ready to fasten your seatbelts folks, because IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" Makoto exclaimed in delight, slamming down on the red button before him. He could practically taste the fear emanating from the remaining occupants in the room as collars emerged from the sidelines to drag them to their execution chambers.

Hagakure found himself in a game show room with three doors labeled A, B, and C. With a 1/3 probability of facing execution, a terrified Yasuhiro opened the first door. He could do nothing but helplessly watch as the door grew limbs in an effort to escape the confused clairvoyant. He repeated the same thing with door B, only for the results to replicate. Staring down at the final door in hesitation, Hagakure did his best to escape the inevitable, but it was far too late. A mouth appeared on door C and consumed the ultimate in his entirety.

Fukawa, who had already reverted back to her original personality, found herself in a room with a singular blazing light hovering right above Master Byakuya. On instinct, she ran be towards him, but before she could catch up, a huge roller appeared between them. It began to chase her down and Toko was left helpless as the roller finally caught up to her.

Asahina opened her eyes to find herself trapped in a water tank. Monokuma appeared before her dressed as a magician. With the flick of his magic staff a curtain could be seen falling over her enclosure. After a corresponding drum role it rose to reveal a plethora sharks surrounding the terrified swimmer. Aoi could only watch in horror as the curtain fell once more. When it had risen for the last time, Asahina was no longer in the tank.

Byakuya found himself stuck in a garbage unit. Stirring slightly in disgust, he found his surroundings warp and fall beneath him. He opened his eyes to see Monokuma standing before him, dressed as an elementary student. Mocking him for his appearance as a homeless man, Togami began to get struck by a multitude of stones. In an act of desperation, he ran looking for an exit. When he opened the nearest door he instead found himself trapped in a snowy wasteland. It wasn't long before he succumbed to hypothermia.

Kirigiri looked around to find herself in a detention classroom, unable to move her limbs. She felt herself slowly moving backwards before the realization struck that she was on a conveyor belt. A fake Monokuma was pointing to a blackboard of answers in front of her. It was the exact same execution Naegi had faced before being saved by Alter Ego. Her face began to sweat as she grew closer to the crusher behind her. However, unlike Makoto, she was not immune to the sickening splat that followed.

Naegi didn't remember how long he sat there staring at the scattered remnants of his classmates. His vision going blurry, Makoto was surprised to feel the presence of damp tear drops running down his cheeks. He gave a crooked smile, eyes swirling in lunacy.

"Are you proud of me Komaru? Are you proud of your big brother?"