Sixteen students wake up on benches, one by one. They soon discover that they've been trapped in an isolated village called Monoville, run by Baron Monokuma. If they want to leave, they're going to have to take their chances with his Deadly Game, killing one of their fellow residents and keeping the truth hidden during a Class Trial.
...It's a mostly familiar story, and all of them have been here before. Or someplace like it. But only one has any kind of insight into that, thanks to his Survivor's Perk.
Things didn't work out too well for Amami Rantaro during his first go-round. Though to be fair, none of them could really claim that, now could they? But this time... will he be able to make any real difference?
Danganronpa 2/3 Redux: Return Unto Death
draws eight classmates from the Gifted Inmates' Academy and eight from Hope's Peak's jaunt to Jabberwock Island. Naturally, this means that there are plenty of Late-Arrival Spoilers to be found regarding both games, along with the series at large.
- From V3: Amami Rantaro, Akamatsu Kaede, Chabashira Tenko, Gokuhara Gonta, Harukawa Maki, Hoshi Ryoma, K1-B0, Tojo Kirumi
- From SDR2: Hanamura Teruteru, Koizumi Mahiru, Mioda Ibuki, Nidai Nekomaru, Pekoyama Peko, Soda Kazuchi, Tanaka Gundam, Tsumiki Mikan
The story was completed on August 14th, 2021.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Lampshaded In-Universe following the third trial by Monokuma, who claims that Kaede was supposed to go through a corruption arc after Ibuki was executed at the end of the trial, only for Monokuma to be forced to use Ibuki to kill Kaede when she caught Ibuki killing Mikan.
- Adaptation Expansion: We learn more about the events of the fifty-second Killing Game Rantaro had previously been involved in with him getting Flashbacks of several of that game's events throughout the story.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Mikan, Kaede, Gonta and Peko, who were the canon Danganronpa culprits, do not murder anyone here.
- While Teruteru still becomes the culprit, not only does he murder Kazuichi in self-defense, but he also commits suicide out of shame before the class trial and leaves a parting note that rouses the remaining students up.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Gundham still commits a murder, albeit to save just his nun and not other participants. He also unknowingly gets Chika killed since she was related to Maki and thus considered Monokuma's hostage.
- Ryoma and Ibuki end up commiting a murder in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively, but it's severely downplayed since Ryoma killing Nekomaru was an accident and done in self-defense, while Ibuki was secretly controlled by Monokuma into killing Mikan and Kaede.
- In Chapter 4, Kazuichi attemps to take out other contestants out of greed, with no killing limit rule added.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- The Interludes follow several different individuals, offering outside perspectives and hints to the larger plotline unfolding outside of Monoville.
- Part 3 of Chapter 4's Daily Life is told from Mahiru's POV due to Rantaro being in a coma after getting shot with a spear gun defending Tenko in the previous segment.
- Chapter 6's investigation period POV-switches between all five remaining students as they look for evidence for the final trial.
- The Epilogue focuses on Keebo's revival six years after the final season, as he travels around getting reacquainted with his fellow survivors.
- And Then What?: In a variation, K1-B0 has absolutely no idea what to do after the effort to revive Danganronpa is thwarted.
- Asshole Victim: In Chapter 4, Kazuichi was planning to murder Tenko and lure others to her body so he could take them all out thanks to Greed getting better of him, so when it's revealed that Teruteru murdered him in self-defense, the entire cast seems to miss him more than Kazuichi.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Rantaro's is instantly triggered the moment he meets Mikan and she stammers her way through introductions.
- Exploited by Monokuma when he reveals just what his hostage for the second motive did to earn Rantaro's ire: kidnapping one of his sisters and selling her on the black market.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the final trial, Shuiichi, Hajime and Miu arrive in time to interfere with the last vote. It's seemingly subverted when Monokuma handles the intrusion better than expected, but ultimately gets played straight when Miu hijacks control just in the nick of time.
- Big "WHAT?!": Tenko and Keebo have this reaction in Chapter 6 once they and Rantaro get their memories of V3 back and Rantaro reveals Tsumugi was the one who killed him, not Kaede.
- Blunt "Yes": When Tenko demands to know if Monokuma gets some kind of sick amusement out of pitting them against each other, he immediately answers "Yes? Thought that was obvious."
- Book Ends: The Prologue and Epilogue open with the line "Some people claim that they can remember being born."
- Brainwashed: While fixing Ibuki's short-circuiting implant, Monokuma adds a program that allows him to take control of Ibuki if needed. He ends up using it in Chapter 3 when the students take efforts to thwart his motive, taking control of Ibuki to kill Mikan and then Kaede once she walks in on Ibuki killing the nurse.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- When asked whether the Mastermind is hidden among them, Monokuma casually declares that no, not this time.
- There are two chapters with two victims instead of just the usual one. That said, Chapter 4 plays with this by having the second victim killing himself after being forced to kill in self-defense first.
- Commonality Connection: Kaede and Ibuki end up falling for each other due to their shared love of music.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Ibuki convinces Rantaro to try stepping into the woods surrounding Monoville, giving him a taste of how their implants deliver a severe shock to anyone who attempts to leave that way. She passes this off as schadenfreude, claiming that everyone's tried it, and as one of the first ones to wake up, she'd desensitized enough to find it funny.
- Dead Guy Junior: The Epilogue reveals that Rantaro and Mahiru named their twin daughters after Ibuki and Kirumi. Hajime also named his daughter after Chiaki.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Maki, who was a survivor in the canon V3, ends up becoming the first victim here.
- Gundham is now the culprit of Chapter 1 instead of Chapter 4 like in SDR2.
- Nekomaru gets killed two chapters earlier than he did in canon.
- Mikan is now one of the victims of Chapter 3 rather than the culprit.
- Kazuichi, a survivor in SDR2, gets killed in Chapter 4.
- Ultimately played with in that none of them are the original individuals in question, but clones created by Towa Revitalized. All of their counterparts are still very much alive, while the ones we've followed... are not.
- Does Not Like Men: Tenko, and Mahiru to a lesser extent.
- Driven to Suicide: After killing Kazuichi in self-defense, Teruteru commits suicide by jumping down the well rather than put his friends through another trial and execution.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: For the original Rantaro and Rie Ozawa, his love interest in the Monolook Hotel Killing Game. The last Interlude shows him watching the aftermath of the final trial, then returning to bed with her.
- Empty Shell: Ryoma describes himself as such when first meeting Rantaro, stating that the Ultimate Tennis Pro is long dead and that he's "nothing more than a husk with his face."
- Entertainingly Wrong: Once everyone gets their memories back of their respective Games and Mahiru and Peko mention that Hajime couldn't remember his Talent, the remaining survivors, based on Rantaro's previous Killing Game experience, conclude that Hajime was the Jabberwock Island Killing Game's Ultimate Survivor.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Monokuma is highly fond of his Mamakuma. Her death at Papakuma's paws hits him hard.
- Everybody Lives: As it turns out, all of the counterparts to the characters in the game are alive and well. The ones we've been following...not so much.
- Eye Scream: Kazuichi ends up impaled in the face with a pitchfork, with one of the pointy ends going straight through his right eye.
- Foil:
- Kaede once again steps forward and tries to rally the residents against Monokuma and resist the mutual killing game. While Rantaro fully agrees with the sentiment, he's far more cautious and reserved, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself or court the bear's wrath.
- Mahiru and Tenko's mutual disdain for men provides a lot of contrast. Mahiru dislikes them and tends to presume the worst, but is also more willing to offer them leeway and chances to prove themselves, whereas Tenko's mind is completely made up and she's constantly on the offensive/defensive.
- In the final trial, the traitor serves as one for Tsumugi. Both are avid supporters of the Danganronpa franchise unable to picture a future without the series continuing; however, K1-B0 was literally programmed to think that way, while Tsumugi's sentiments were more a result of societal conditioning.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Interludes offer an outside perspective, dropping a lot of hints as to what precisely is going on long before it all comes out during the final trial.
- Monokuma seems even more fixated on the notion of his cameras capturing the residents in moments of 'teenage hormones' and indecency. This makes sense when it's eventually revealed that Towa Revitalized is behind the efforts to revive the Danganronpa series, meaning the perverted and pedophiliac Towa Haiji is likely involved.
- Genre Savvy: The Amami who wrote the first Survivor Perk presents himself this way, commenting on things like how "There's always a liar. It makes it more interesting."
- Greed: What caused Kazuichi to try and kill everyone in Chapter 4.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After Rantaro is taken in her place to be executed in Chapter 5, Kirumi breaks into the execution grounds and saves him at the cost of her own life.
- I Have Your Wife:
- Monokuma's first motive entails revealing that he's taken hostages related to the residents, assigning each one to a different resident. If that resident survives, the hostage connected to them will be killed. If nobody commits murder within three days, all of the hostages will be executed.
- The second motive offers a Revenge-themed variant: Monokuma's hostages are all people the residents have deep grudges against, and he offers them the chance to see them killed... provided they take somebody else's life.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Gundham, Teruteru and Kirumi still end up executed as the Blackened.
- Ryoma and Ibuki are still killed in the same chapters as canon, except as killers rather than victims.
- Innocent Innuendo: Rantaro overhears Kirumi and Teruteru discussing how to squeeze juice in a way that makes it sound as though they're discussing... something else.
- Jerkass Realization: During the climax of Chapter 4's trial, Tenko gets blindsided by this upon reading Teruteru's suicide note, causing her to reevaluate her treatment of all the guys.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: None of the participants have any memories of their original mutual killing games, much less how they ended up in Monoville in the first place.
- The Man Behind the Man: Towa Revitalized is responsible for everyone ending up in Monoville, as they obtained the rights to the Danganronpa franchise and are trying to revive it.
- Obvious Rule Patch:
- Monokuma updates the game's rules several times, often in response to how events have unfolded.
- Played for Drama during the final trial when the vote ends in a tie. Monokuma reveals that they actually anticipated such a move after how Season 53 ended, and included an emergency procedure where he gets to cast the deciding vote.
- Oh, Crap!: During the execution in Chapter 4, Rantaro audibly swears when he realizes that his section of the Hangman's Gambit ("What is Rantaro's Ultimate title?") has too few letters to spell "Adventurer," but just enough to spell "Survivor."
- Recurring Element: Several events in each of the game's chapters echo those of their counterpart chapters in the original visual novels.
- Chapter 1's motive involves threatening people important to the participants. Much like V3's first motive, Monokuma sets a time limit, telling them they have three days to kill somebody before all the hostages' lives are forfeit. The victim is set up to appear like they're going to have a large role before their demise.
- Chapter 2 once again involves somebody with connections to the mafia, as well as delving further into one participant's murderous history.
- Chapter 3 has two victims, though it also breaks from tradition by having an incredibly tragic and sympathetic murderer, rather than having them be the least sympathetic.
- Chapter 4 features the tension ratcheting higher with strained relationships, and the culprit took their own life, once again getting their suicide note stolen by a meddling bear. This also means that none of the survivors are executed, with Monokuma taking his frustration out on another AI.
- Chapter 5's case is complicated by a wide variety of elements, and ends with a tense and tragic execution where they try — and fail — to save the culprit from their demise.
- Chapter 6 sees the survivors being blindsided by several Awful Truths, particularly that their suffering was broadcast for the entertainment of others, with the masterminds attempting to revive the Danganronpa series several years after Season 53 ended anticlimactically.
- Secret-Keeper: Following the first trial, Rantaro reveals his Ultimate Survivor status to Mahiru along with the fact that this isn't his first Killing Game. She then chooses to help Rantaro investigate the Killing Game based on the information revealed on his Survivor Perk while also respecting his reluctance to reveal it to the others up until Monokuma reveals it to the remaining survivors at the end of the fourth trial.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Before her execution, Ibuki reveals to Rantaro that she had overheard him and Mahiru discussing his previous Killing Game experience but stayed quiet out of respect for him.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Used during Rantaro and Mahiru's Relationship Upgrade, with the narration effectively turning the audience away and stating that what followed was noteworthy, but not important to the main plot.
- Shock Collar: In order to make the residents easier to track and prevent them from straying into the surrounding woods, they've all been given implants on the back of their necks that can administer electric shocks.
- Shout-Out: At the beginning of Chapter 6, Monokuma has this to say when Rantaro accuses him of breaking his own rules by executing Kirumi for Gonta's death when in actuality Gonta had his mind uploaded to his implant:Monokuma: Ugh, I swear, if you spin some crap about 'friendship' and 'living on in your hearts' Imma lose it! I get enough of that crap from those annoying colorful ponies I have to share TV channels with! Especially the pink one, she has no respect for franchise boundaries!
- Spanner in the Works: During Kaede's Rejected Apology to Kazuichi for the False Rape Accusation against his father that Monokuma uses as one of the motives in Chapter 3, Kazuichi ends up accidentally injuring her. This causes her to go and see Mikan for treatment, resulting in her walking in on the brainwashed Ibuki killing Mikan, forcing Monokuma to have Ibuki kill Kaede as well, thwarting his plans to try and make Mikan's death look like a suicide and simultaneously ruining the corruption arc he had planned for Kaede later in the game.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Downplayed with Ryoma and Ibuki, who still die in Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, but as the culprits instead of the victims.
- Kaede is now one of the victims of Chapter 3 rather than the falsely convicted culprit of Chapter 1.
- Teruteru dies three chapters later than in canon.
- Gonta is now the victim of Chapter 5 rather than the culprit of Chapter 4.
- While Kirumi still ends up getting executed, it's now as the culprit of Chapter 5 instead of Chapter 2.
- Rantaro, Mahiru, K1-B0, Tenko and Peko all survive here.
- It is later revealed that the whole cast consists of clones of canon characters, who are still alive and well in the real world.
- Swapped Roles: While Mikan and Ibuki are still among the victims of Chapter 3 like in SDR2, their murderer-victim dynamic has been reversed.
- Taking the Bullet:
- When Monokuma demonstrates how he can activate the implants for Electric Torture, Ibuki shoves Kaede out of the way and ends up in the remote's crosshairs instead.
- Rantaro ends up getting shot with a spear gun protecting Tenko when she enters a wrong password on the computer in the Mastermind's lair.
- At the last moment, Kirumi jumps in the way of the fatal blow meant for Rantaro during Chapter 5's execution.
- This Is Going to Suck:
- Played for Laughs when Rantaro meets Mahiru and she makes a backhanded comment about how 'even for a boy', it's strange that he's forgotten his talent. This immediately reminds him of Tenko, realizing that 'Oh god, there's two of them.'
- Naturally played much straighter when Monokuma announces the killing game, as Rantaro realizes precisely what his Survivor Perk was warning him about.
- Too Kinky to Torture:
- Teruteru tends to respond to any physical punishments for his perversions with comments suggesting that he doesn't mind the rough treatment.
- Also applies to Miu, who mocks the slipshod effort of the Monokuma who tied her up.
- Tragic Keepsake: Following Gundham's execution at the end of Chapter 1, Peko ends up in possession of both his scarf and of the Four Dark Devas.
- Verbal Backspace: When ordering Gonta to deal with the massive insect swarm he'd brought to the meal hall, Kirumi nearly calls them 'vermin' before catching herself.Kirumi: ENOUGH! GONTA, REMOVE THIS VER——Rather, REMOVE YOUR 'FRIENDS' IMMEDIATELY!
- Wham Shot:
- In-Universe, Chapter 4's execution ends with the reveal that Rantaro is the Ultimate Survivor and subsequent playback of his first Killing Game at the Grand Monolook Hotel.
- At the end of Chapter 5, Kirumi's plan is revealed when the device she gave to Rantaro is plugged into the Mastermind's computer...and reveals an Alter Ego of Gonta.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Those attempting to revive the Danganronpa franchise decided to clone sixteen former participants, trumpeting this as a more 'humane' way of continuing the killing games. The survivors are understandably horrified to learn their lives are considered so disposable, even if none of the former participants feel the same way.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Mahiru's disgusted upon hearing that all twelve of Rantaro's sisters got lost while trying to follow him on his various expeditions. Her anger cools, however, when he agrees with her, sullenly commenting that he might well be the 'Ultimate Useless Big Brother'.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The Epilogue catches up with each of the survivors after six years have passed, giving some idea of what they've done with themselves following the downfall of the would-be revival.
- Would Hurt a Child: As if this wasn't obvious enough, Monokuma proves this when he casually declares that he killed Chika after Maki's death, since he had no further use for her.
