Danganronpa V3 After/Story: The Final Survivors

Chapter 2: Truth/Reality

The truth is often disappointing. That's the truth right? Not just a lie made up by people so that the truth would look bad and lies would look good right? And reality hurts right? That's definitely the truth. But then, why do people put their expectations up so high, even though they live in reality? And why do people lie to the people by saying empty encouraging words to people with unrealistic expectations? Why not just give them the truth and tell them to grow up? They say, your perception is the reality you live in. If you just told them the truth, their perception on the world world would just shatter into a million pieces. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where everything goes your way? Obviously that's not going to happen. But here's the thing, you know how life works. You know how the world revolves. Even if you have your perception of reality broken time and time again, you at least live in a real reality, not a fictional world. To have a perception, you need to at least have a grasp in reality. But for these three friends, they don't have a reality to hold on to.

_________

Shuichi, Maki and Himiko have began their journey to the outside world by traversing the dark space that they 'found' after blowing up the set of their school. Their flashlights illuminate some areas of the dark space but they still had no clue on where they are.

"Where are we?" Shuichi says as his voice echoes in the distance. He is walking in the back of the group, trying to find hints to pinpoint where they are.

"No idea." Maki answers with the same echo. She is walking in the front, ready to protect her friends from any danger that may come.

"Can we hurry up and get out of here? N-not that I'm scared or anything!" Himiko says as she nervously walks behind Maki. If you couldn't tell, Himiko was in the middle, protected by her two friends in the front and back.

They continue to trudge along the dark road, trying to make sense of where they are.

"At least we know that we're not outside." Shuichi said to them.

"Nyeh? How do you know that?" Himiko asked.

"Because there are echoes. You can't have an echo if there's nothing to bounce off of." Shuichi points out.

"You're right, I should've known sooner." Maki said, realizing Shuichi's deduction.

"I knew that!" Himiko answered in a very dishonest tone.

After what seems to be a few minutes of walking, Maki then notices something as she shines her light towards it.

"Hey Shuichi, I think I found something." Maki called out to him.

Shuichi then walks over to Maki to see what she found out. He examines it for a while and realises what it was.

"This is..." Shuichi says as he feels the surface of the object he's examining. It was coarse and it stretches further than Shuichi's entire body. After realising what it was, he points his flashlight to the upward to confirm what it was.

"It's a building." Shuichi answers.

"I figured." Maki says while biting her thumb.

"A building?! Why would a building be here?! I thought we weren't outside yet!" Himiko shouts out in confusion.

Shuichi then takes a closer look around and finds abandoned and destroyed cars, a fractured road and many collapsed building around him.

"I bet this was supposed to be the outside world." Shuichi said in an unnerving tone.

"W-what do you mean?" Himiko asks them with a fearful tone.