Big Book of Writing

Defection (Yamatsuro & Kurokane, DRA)

Today is the 10 year anniversary of Danganronpa Another ~ Another Despair Academy, and thus the start of the Danganronpa Another series! To celebrate, I made a 'what-if' for the scene where Utsuro and Akane confront Yamato and Mikako in the chapter 6 flashbacks! Let's be honest, the DRA cast deserved better.

Warning: mentioned suicide attempt, comas, medical equipment

***

The slaughter in the lab became quiet as Akane closed the heavy door of the records room behind her, preventing anyone from easily leaving. Utsuro took a quick glance back at the noise, but returned his gaze to the two students before him.

Yamato and Mikako were backed up against a wall, their fear visible despite their anger. "You guys... I had thought so, but...you guys really are...!" Yamato growled as he caught his breath. He had ran from a lower floor and dragged Mikako into the room, hoping that they would be safe, but the External Agents of Despair had found them regardless.

"Please come to your senses! It's not too late yet... I mean, you guys are our friends!" Mikako pleaded with the duo, as hopeful as always. It was only because of her that Yamato hadn't done anything about 'Yuki' and Akane earlier, she thought that there was still good in them. 

"No, it's already too late. We've already crossed a line we shouldn't have crossed," Akane replied, her eyes dark as she gazed upon the exorcist. Still, Mikako looked pleadingly as if she couldn't believe it.

"I knew for a long time that you guys were suspicious...I thought a lot about it..." Yamato admitted, lowering his head. "I was thinking about mobilizing the researchers to neutralizing you earlier. But Mikako asked me to believe in you...to trust you...and I decided to trust you too." He then raised his head to meet the eyes of the traitors. "But...in the end, that didn't reach you?! It was only a few months, but the time we spent together meant nothing to you!"

Utsuro let out a scoff as if he was amused at the predictability of Yamato's thinking. Akane sighed and replied, "No matter what you say, we can't go back. Because all we have left is despair."

The words resonated with Yamato, making him remember a phrase he had heard before. "Ultimate...Despair," he finished, realizing that the group he had been trying to keep his classmates safe from had been a part of his class the whole time.

He was broken out of his thoughts when Utsuro began to speak. "Despair is, in essence, like a plague. When a person begins to despair, the person next to them begins to despair, and then the next one too... It starts to grow exponentially," the lucky student explained to them.

"A plague...?" Yamato questioned.

The man shook his head. "No...rather, it's worse than a plague. There's no way to cure it, no vaccine, no solution, because it's despair itself," he finished.

"That's why everything is too late. It's only your self-pity that things turned out like this," Akane continued for her master. "That's heartbreakingly full of despair."

"I-I..." Yamato didn't know what to say while his world began breaking around him. The researchers of this facility was dead, his father had died suddenly after refusing a shady deal, his classmates were compromised, and two members of the enemy force were people he had trusted. "I...!"

"Don't be ridiculous! We're not in despair... We didn't abandon our hopes!" Mikako suddenly burst out. "If despair is a plague, then you can use hope as a vaccine to cure it. As long as we don't give up hope, we will never despair. Hope will never lose to despair!"

Akane looked shocked at the exorcist's declaration, and the man beside her began to look slightly annoyed. "What? 'Hope'? Are you joking around? Despair cannot be cured with something like that," he told her.