Danganronpa 0.5: Exotic Paradise

•The heart of despair•

"Despair swallows up love, hatred, and everything else. Because not knowing where you will end up is despair."
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I had grown up alone.

Whenever I was with others I was alone too.

I would just sit and wallow in my misery.

But then I had an epiphany.

Why should I have to suffer? Why should I have to feel such sadness and pain? The people in my life that had left me and kicked me to the curb should feel this despair instead. In fact, the entire world should feel it. It's not fair if it's just me right?

So I started working as a scammer.

I sold drugs to people who would later die from overdoses.

I played mind games to get people to do what I wanted.

I even was an assassin for hire once.

I was the puppet master and they were all my puppets.

And I wanted to make them feel as bad as I felt.

Total despair!
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The whole room was in shock as Yui cackled, holding her hands out to the world as if to reach for an unimaginable feeling.

"Quick! Let's get Damasu down!" Emika yelled, hopping the fence and rushing to the hanging girl.

The others followed after, releasing the puppeteer from the strings.

I just looked at the girl in front of me, I should've known...

"What's wrong Sei? Feel embarrassed that you had no idea?" Yui smiled menacingly.

"Why the hell would you reveal yourself to us?! Isn't this a game to you? Don't you want to win?" I cried out.

"Oh...isn't it obvious? I accepted my defeat the very moment you stepped in the building." She smiled warmly.

     "Wh-what?"

     "I wanted to originally leave this up to chance, but after you came into this killing game I knew you would best me. All your investigating, and hope filled aura. So I wanted to take all the people you loved away and lose on purpose, that way you could never get the satisfaction of beating me. You may have solved a couple petty murders but you didn't win Sei. I, Yui Sasuke am the true winner. You just happened to come along for the ride."

"I-I can't beat you..?" I trailed off.

"Of course not silly! The only thing you won at is getting me gone, I forfeited this long ago. But even in your little warped version of victory, you still haven't won that either."

"What do you mean?"

"There's still some secrets to uncover, I'm giving you tonight and tomorrow to investigate before we start the final trial. Find out the secrets behind me, and this place and you'll "win", that's all there is to it." Yui grinned.

"I can do that..." I nodded, gritting my teeth in anger.

"Then I best be on my way, ta-ta!!" She bellowed before vanishing into the shadows.

"Emika, is Damasu dead?" I asked immediately.

"She's barely breathing, we've got to get her on oxygen stat." The quilter responded hastily.

"I'll take care of it!" Monokassi suddenly said, running in to grab the puppeteer from Emika.

"Woah you're strong!" Nao laughed.

"Hehe thank you, I'll take care of her I swear. Good luck you guys!" The bear waved as she waddled away.

"So...Yui, is...the mastermind?" Honoka whispered, trembling.

"I suppose so." I sighed.

"My head hurts from all this, I think we should leave the investigation for tomorrow and sleep, I don't think this information is even hitting us yet." Emika suggested.

"I second that, let's go." Nao motioned for us to follow him out of the room.

We made it back to the dorms and all went our separate ways, but I made a pit stop.

Etsuko's Room

The door plaque said it loud and clear.

I traced my hand along the doorknob, I missed her with everything I had...

While running my hand over the handle I must have applied too much force because the door swung open.

I peered inside and dropped to my knees at the site.

"Etsuko...?"
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TO BE CONTINUED...