Danganronpa: Locked Doors of Despair

Epilogue Part 5: Of Fulfilled Wishes

[A/N] Thank you for staying with me this whole time. The part right before this, I covered my plans for after this. Look, guys! I made it before the 2-year anniversary. I can't begin to explain how grateful I am to you all for staying with me all this time. My life is so unbelievably different now when compared to where I was at when I started this. All of the changes were positive. In a way, I owe LDOD. And I'm so proud of myself for finishing what I started.

Kana

It's tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day when we share the tape. It'll only really get released in Japan and America, but hopefully news of it will spread everywhere. Ren and Joanie are probably the ones who have the most fame in general, so their contributions are the most likely to get widespread coverage, but that doesn't mean we don't have a part to play in more niche communities.

We're hosting a giant party. Free admittance, because we want as many people as possible coming. It took us a lot of time to save up funds, earn scholarships, schmooze it up, and just generally get enough money to do this. Fuji is sponsoring us, and so are our parents. They know what happened. Some of us kept it hidden from our families until now. I wanted to, but figured the fallout from tonight would wreck them if I shut my mouth for too long.

It would make more sense for me to try and avoid it, but honestly, I've watched my copy of the tape over and over again. The more I do, the less real it feels. It's like I'm watching a horror movie I acted in where my character died. I have some lines memorized. Part of me wonders whether I'm some sort of masochist, but it kind of helps. The tape doesn't hurt me as much anymore, which will be incredibly helpful tomorrow night. It also reassures me because Gou was careful to hide information about Chimon's illegal work; at this point in his life, it would only cause harm for that to be public knowledge.

My phone starts ringing, and I see that Fujiko has set up a video call with the two of us and Chimon, so I answer eagerly. Monterio is at my side, so he doesn't need to. "Eeee! Hi, cuties! I love seeing your faces!" she greets. She's legit glowing, and she's not even using any sort of filter.

Chimon answers a second later, holding up a peace sign and smiling cheesily. "Heyyyy, cuties! I love seeing your faces!"

"Am I that predictable?" she gasps, covering her mouth with a hand.

"Sort of? Honestly, I just know you all super well by now."

"Yeah, okay, you punk," I retort, but to my surprise, he follows along and says it with me. "Okay, that's actually creepy."

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!"

Monterio hums contentedly, setting his head on my shoulder. I pat him gently. "I legit, like, never ever get over how absolutely adorbs you two are," Fujiko swoons.

"What are you calling for, Fuji? Just to chat?" I ask.

"Kinda. Like, yes and no both. This time tomorrow, it's all gonna be going down, so I want to spend our last normal night with you. But also, I do have news, so like, it's not all just super causal."

"Casual."

"Yeah! I know that one. Slip-up."

"What's your news, Fujiko? Releasing a new palette?"

"Oh! Two pieces of news, then! Yeah, I'm releasing some new blushes. But I wanted to say... Michiko and I went on a date! And it went even better than I could've hoped!" Her blushing face is super endearing, and she sways a little bit.

"OMG, congrats! We could feel the chemistry immediately, so it's not all that surprising. What did you guys do together?"

"We went to a karaoke cafe, watched a cute little romcom, and then went to my house and baked some cupcakes! We were just intending to do karaoke, but we had so much fun that we just kept it going!"