Danganronpa: Painful Truth

Epi-Prologue

I took a breath to steady myself. Stepping out of that dome felt like being reborn. The silence was heavy as the dust and rubble settled behind us. We still didn't know how much, if any, of Tsumugi's ramblings had been true, but looking at the clouds in the blue sky, feeling a fresh breeze, made it easier to feel real. Seeing the occasional insect flit by also helped, but not without stirring up painful memories. That pain...was undeniably real.

Desperate for information, I examined my surroundings. A glance at the dome behind us showed it printed with several garish Danganronpa Studios logos, confirming at least a portion of what we had been told. The thought of a society gleefully settling down at home with their families, snacks in hand, to watch us suffer, still fills me with rage. 

The next thing I noticed was the helicopter that had landed in the clearing outside the dome. A handful of people in dark suits and sunglasses stood outside of it, as if to welcome us. Standing among them, alive and well as if nothing had happened, was--

"Tsumugi?!" Himiko shrieked, balling up her fists.

Ignoring the people in suits, Maki was face to face with her in an instant. "You'd better start talking or I'll make sure you die this time."

"Maki!" I called after her cautiously. 

Tsumugi laughed. "I guess I do have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"

"You can start by telling us why you let Keebo die when you're still alive!" Himiko demanded. 

"Oh, Keebo isn't dead!" The cosplayer giggled. "No one is dead! Everything is just plain fine!"

I rubbed my face, too tired to even form an opinion about the turn of events. It was just too much. "Tsumugi, please...either tell us the real truth, or just leave us alone."

She nodded. "Sorry I had to tell you guys so many crazy lies back there. I don't expect you to forgive me, of course. But that's okay, because now you guys get to join the Future Foundation!"

Maki blinked, then shook her head slowly. "Future...Foundation? That's..."

"Nyeh, I thought you said that was all fictional!" Himiko grimaced at the memory. "Just like Hope's Peak and Junko and us too!"

"Yeah, for the plot twist this season we wanted to go a bit more 'meta.' The viewers on the forums are accusing me of running out of ideas as we speak..." She giggled awkwardly. "But others just plain loved it! You can never please all your fans at once, I guess!"

"So..." Himiko glared tearfully at Tsumugi. "We're not fictional?"

"Of course not, silly, you're right here!" The cosplayer laughed. "And Hope's Peak and everything else, that's all real too. I just tweaked your memories a bit to make the show run more smoothly."

"But..." I struggled to process yet another slew of world shaking information. "But if Junko Enoshima and the participants of the original killing games were real people, how were you able to cosplay them?" I considered the possibilities for a moment, hoping my guess was wrong. "Did you...tell Kaede to lie to us about the cospox? She was the only one who would have been able to corroborate your story."

"Oh, that? No, that was easy enough for me to lie to her about." She laughed. "I'm actually just allergic to coconuts! I made her look away so I could put a little bit of the coconut oil I stashed in the bathroom onto her clothes. It's a pretty mild reaction, so it went away as soon as I took them off!" 

Tsumugi suddenly frowned at me. "To be honest though, I'm just plain surprised that a detective like you didn't question me because of that, Shuichi." She shook her head disapprovingly. "Getting a rash from something like that was already a bit of a stretch. But even if the cospox were real, if you were all really fictional characters like I said, then why would I have gotten a rash from cosplaying Kaede?"

"H-huh?" I blushed. No matter how hard I thought about it, I had no answer for her.

"I have a better question," Maki spat venomously. "Why are you talking like everything you told us back there was a lie? Calling Shuichi a detective, saying Hope's Peak Academy and Junko Enoshima were real...claiming everyone we lost is still alive?" She glared daggers at Tsumugi. "Why would we believe a single goddamn word you say? After all the lies you've told just to screw with us?"

As Tsumugi started to look nervous at Maki's proximity, one of the older suited men stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I understand this must be very confusing for you kids. Please forget everything you were led to believe during the killing game, and allow me to explain from the beginning."