Danganronpa 2: Force Despair

Chapter 5: Sacrifice for the Future- Class Trial (Layne)

We all walked out of the elevator and into a new trial room. To review, there were nine pictures with bloody X's over them. Lucy, Meijikou, Anya, Shingen, Hanae, Memmorriie, Takahiro, Shio and Mien. They're all dead now.

"The class trial will now start!" Monokuma yelled from his chair. "Now then, because this it the final trial, there will be a small change in the trial rules! I want you all to determine the truth surrounding this school and the killing game, revealing all the secrets! Only once that is complete will I allow you to try and find the mastermind behind this murder."

"Let's start the trial then." Roy said.

"What should we discuss?" Chouko asked.

"Well, how about our class? I'm sure some of us know that by now." Jack said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Chouko asked.

"This actually isn't our first time in this school." Jack stated.

"It's not? But didn't the killing game start after we entered the academy for the first time and all passed out?" Chouko asked.

"Objection!" I yelled. "Sorry, Chouko. But we actually did go to this school already. In fact, we found a file that stated we all already graduated from Hope's Peak."

"That's right. I'm pretty sure that the black out we all remember was actually the starting point of the memories we lost." Azura said.

"Memory loss?" Ren asked.

"Yeah. We definitely don't remember our four years at Hope's Peak, so we most likely had our memories erased. A little over four years of memory gone, in fact." Jack said.

"So we're really four years older than we think we are?" Chouko asked.

"Yep. We lost the memories of our birthdays as well, Chouko." Jack said.

"Hold on." Ren said. "How are we so sure that Monokuma didn't just forge that file you found?"

"Well, we found Meijikou's USB stick in Mien's room. It has pictures of us in school and outside the school, though we don't remember seeing each other before this killing game began." I explained, "So we definitely did lose our memories of that."

"Hmm... I see. Fair enough." Ren said.

"Why are we in this killing game, though? Couldn't someone from outside have come and saved us already?" Roy asked.

"Actually, that would be impossible for anyone." Azura said. "You see, we found out about something called The Tragedy, which affected the whole world."

"The Tragedy?" Jack asked. "That sounds fun."

"Well it's not fun!" Atsuki said. "The Tragedy was essentially the end of the world! The whole outside world right now is destroyed."

"What?!" Chouko asked.

"Yeah, it does sound like the outside world is in ruins..." I said. "But Hope's Peak tried to protect it's current students during The Tragedy by putting the school in full lockdown."

"Who could do something so awful?" Roy asked.

"A group called the Ultimate Despair was found to be behind it." Azura said.

"Ultimate Despair, huh?" Jack asked.

"That's right... The Ultimate Despair seems to be behind the destruction of the world... As well as this killing game itself." Azura said.

"Hold on a second..." Chouko said. "Shouldn't the inside of Hope's Peak be safe? I mean, the other classes were locked in here for safety, so why are we now in here in a killing game? Ultimate Despair shouldn't be able to breach these walls."