Danganronpa/D4DJ One-Shots

The New Neo World Program

LumiNeo stared out the window and sighed bitterly. Raindrops traced patterns down the glass outside. She imagined them as tears on her cool, metal cheeks, expressing the grief she felt but still lacked words for. As grateful as she was to have her consciousness back, and to experience life again, she'd still experienced significant loss before, during, and after the Tragedy. That loss had to be mourned one way or another. Her death and "resurrection" on complicated the grief. Did she dare to be sad when she was lucky in ways countless others were not?

Mama... Papa... Both minds thought as one, even though they weren't thinking the exact same thing. Lumina thought of "Dr. Nova", the brilliant albeit non-Ultimate scientist who created her, the Ultimate Hope AI. His true name was Dr. Lone, and he designed her after his late wife, Aria. They were Neo's birthparents. She lost her mother at nine and her father at 17. Even though her relationship with her father was far rockier, she missed him too, and would've done anything to hear them sing again. Why couldn't they have been brought back as she had?

Papa made Lumina to save me... And even Mama, in a way... But not himself... The Neo half of the mind grieved. The Lumina half tried to comfort her. Neo felt a wave of static fill her mind, coming from somewhere else. She shivered in disgust, repulsion snaking down her spine. Even though she knew Lumina was acting genuinely, there was too much in their history that made it too hard for Neo to get close to her.

You were made after my mom, how can you be my sister? You didn't grow up under the same roof I did, how can you be my sister? You stole some of the last moments of my parents life' and relationship with me, how can you be my sister?

Even though that last thought was the most debatable, it was a bitter thought that bothered Neo even when she was still human. She and Lumina had very different memories of their father, one remembering him as a desperate and loving man while the other remembered him as a selfish egomaniac. And by nature of how Lumina was designed, she had different memories of Aria than Neo. So how can you be my sister?

Knowing that there was no use in trying to "talk" Neo out of her gloom, Lumina sighed to herself and turned her own attention to the falling raindrops outside. How emo. Despite herself, she couldn't help but laugh at Neo. Such a stereotypical teen angst phase. Maybe it was the Aria in Lumina, but she felt older and wiser than that. Instead, she left Neo's consciousness in her new robot body alone, sliding back through the new Neo World Program (neo Neo World Program?) network of the new Hope's Pinnacle.

As the AI powering the entire renewed Academy, she was the strongest, fastest thing on their internet. Though sadly, she still had yet to figure out how to power the AIs beyond the borders of the school. That was why Neo and the others were still "trapped". They were alive again, but going beyond the borders of the school instantly put them in sleep mode until someone brought them back. But Lumina and the other Ultimate Nerds and Geeks of the ever-growing list of "resurrected" Hope's Pinnacle students were ever-working on a solution. It was only a matter of time.

"Hey, ALTER-EGO," the AI greeted as she crossed paths with another consciousness roaming the digital sphere.

"What?" the once-alter asked crossly. Even though he was finally free to live his own life and have his own body, he still found a way to be unpleasant and distrustful to everyone outside of Aoi and the rest of RONDO. He would hide behind the same argument that LumiNeo was thinking of from before. They were alive again, but were they free? "What do you want? What do you need?" he pressed impatiently.

"Well, I wasn't going to ask you to do anything for me," Lumina would've frowned had she been in a physical form at the moment. "But if you're offering..." She heard ALTER-EGO grumble in protest, but nonetheless, she flashed an image of Neo's body staring out the window.

"Storms?" ALTER-EGO recoiled. Even though the trauma that gave birth to him was a car accident during a snowstorm, even regular storms could scare him. But as he was secretive to all but Aoi and RONDO, no one knew that about him, just like they didn't know his "true name" ... ALTER-EGO was just an alias, stolen from Aoi's place of employment, because he hadn't trusted any of her classmates back then. He still didn't seem to. "Never mind," he muttered quickly. "I'll go talk to her..."

If nothing else, he could not deny intrigue with Ms. Lone, the Ultimate Diva. She was a foreigner to him, and the rest of the Japanese students. But she was beautiful, powerful, Talented, and cold. They were all traits he found wildly attractive. She was a mystery he was dying to unravel. He could sense a kindred spirit in her... Maybe going to talk to her would be worth it after all. Aoi was borrowing their body to be with the rest of RONDO, but he knew it wouldn't take much to get her to trade since she used the robot body far more than he did. It was more than his turn.

His AI consciousness slithered away, and Lumina "watched" him go. She sighed. He was no Chihiro Fujisaki or Chiaki Nanami. He wasn't even a Nozomi or Izuru Kamakura! Nor was he a Rinku Aimoto or Shinobu Inuyose. But an Ultimate Hope he still managed to be, somewhat. Granted, it was technically Aoi that was the Ultimate Hope, but Lumina considered it a lesson either way. There was no one or right way to be an Ultimate Hope, nor was there one or proper look for the Ultimate Hope. Cliché as it was, it really was what was on the inside that counted.

The Ultimate Hope AI smiled to herself as she thought of her own unit-mates. That was a ragtag team of losers, underdogs, outcasts, and misfits if there ever was one! The unlikeliest of heroes became the closest of friends, perhaps because they were so rough around the edges. They fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces. There was the spiky Ultimate Composer, her airheaded Ultimate Poet girlfriend, and the overly-enthusiastic and under-powered Ultimate Announcer (and Influencer Wannabe). They were Kokoa Shinomiya, Hayate Tendo, Michiru Kaibara, and together with Lumina Ichihoshi, they were Unichord! The magic of Artemis, channeled through Aria, pointed the Ultimate Hope AI to them.

She could sense that they would be vital to her quest in finding Neo, even though, in the beginning, she couldn't trust them enough to tell them she was an AI. Back then, she was the Ultimate "V-Tuber". Now, though, she was dating Michiru as the rest of Unichord aided in the endeavors of the New Hope's Pinnacle, part of the first class to ever learn under the restored Academy banner. They attended alongside the rest of Neo's unit—Abyssmare—and all the other Japanese units that preceded them. Even LMO and Call of Artemis were the staff/teachers. Nyochio and Esoran were the new mascots of the Academy, and far more beloved than Monochio before them. Lumina smiled proudly.

Look how far we've come! From the depths of Despair, they rose to the pinnacle and peak of Hope! Now, all that was left was...

"Hey, Nova..."

"... Lumina." It was her prototype self, salvaged from the ruins of Towa City, the ruins of Dr. Nova-Lone's lab. Junko hijacked the very original creation from him, twisting her into Nova, using her to capture the others for the Killing School Transfer. He managed to create Lumina out of the remnants of Nova, then he died. Unichord was the first human life Nova had contact with since his passing the night Junko warped her. Now, they were trying to rehabilitate her alongside all the others, including the six Masterminds of the Killing School Transfer.

"Did you want me to take over cybersecurity for a little while? You can borrow the body, or go for a stroll through the VR..."

"... Sure. I'd like that. Thank you." Nova still wasn't a girl—an AI—of many words, but that "thank you" was a huge improvement. Lumina would've sighed to herself, had she needed to do such things. Instead, she only bade her "evil twin" a good run before plugging herself into the mainframe of the restored Academy, the all-seeing and ever-watching eye in the night that would protect them from Despair.

And this time, the One Star will not fail!

AN: IDK yall, I'm randomly on a roll! LOL! Now time for the AIs