As a fanwork exploring a What If? scenario, familiarity with the events of the original game is naturally presumed. Thus, this page is filled with Late-Arrival Spoilers for Goodbye Despair.
Hanamura Teruteru insisted that he didn't believe any of Monokuma's claims... but truthfully, his denial was paper-thin. Merely surface level; hollow words hiding the horror swelling within, until desperation overtook reason and he became the first to blacken his hands in an ill-fated attempt to stop Komaeda from going through with his own murder plans.
But what if he was telling the truth? What if, instead of falling to despair, Teruteru descended further into denial instead, and reacted very differently to discovering Komaeda's plan?
Bucket_head's Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Denial
explores such a reality. Teruteru's reluctance to accept their situation helps delay Monokuma's plans, but they continue regardless... and things spiral out in ways nobody could have predicted.
What could a lying, perverted coward like Hanamura possibly do to help anyone in the face of such despair...? Like it or not, he's going to have to find out.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Sonia and Hiyoko end up becoming the first and second culprits respectively.
- Ambiguous Situation: With the second murder, it's unclear whether or not the culprit realized that her trap had gone off early. Did they sincerely believe that everything had gone according to plan, or were they simply in denial?
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: The Imposter is unfortunate enough to be close enough during Akane's death to end up this way, going into a daze afterwards.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Hajime takes the news that Nagito intended to kickstart the killing game poorly.
- Byakuya's reputation takes a beating after the first murder, as others repeatedly blame him for failing to keep his promise and prevent any deaths. As his assistant, Hajime suffers from the same effect.
- Cassandra Truth: Teruteru runs into this when he can't convince Hajime that Nagito is plotting something.
- The Chains of Commanding: Byakuya is hit hard when the murders begin. Not only does he blame himself for failing to prevent their deaths, but most of his peers are also quick to accuse him and Hajime as well.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Teruteru is a cowardly, perverted teenager with a tendency to double down on his raunchy remarks even in the face of clear disapproval. He struggles to face the reality of the mutual killing game, has trouble trusting others (or earning their trust himself), lies a lot, and makes some very self-serving decisions.
- Commonality Connection:
- Even after Nagito casually threatened to slit his neck, Teruteru still winds up feeling sympathy for him based off the notion that both of them are Dirty Cowards and liars.
- He feels similarly towards the Imposter following their exposure.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Rather than dying as the Blackened in Chapter 3, Mikan ends up as the victim in Chapter 1.
- Sonia, a survivor in the canon game, ends up executed in Chapter 1.
- Nekomaru is killed two chapters earlier than in canon.
- Hiyoko is the culprit of Chapter 2 instead of becoming the victim of Chapter 3.
- Akane, who survived the canon game, ends up executed by Monokuma for a rule violation.
- Fuyuhiko, also a survivor in canon Danganronpa 2, ends up becoming the second victim of Chapter 3.
- Gundham gets executed one chapter earlier than in the canon game.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Played With; Nagito is deeply disgusted when he figures out that one of the murderers was driven by Despair, rather than a way he can twist into supporting his Hope-centric self-justifications. When the full truth comes out, it is also implied that he took it personally since their plan relied upon Luck as well. Or possibly because Hajime wound up as the one she was trying to frame. Nagito later extends this to scorn ALL of the blackened Ultimates for giving in to Despair.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Played for Drama when this becomes a critical factor in the second murder trial. Namely the fact that only the culprit was aware that their victim got drunk.
- Dumb Struck: Kazuichi Souda is so heavily traumatized by the events of the first trial that they descend into mutism. While able to mumble a few things when pressed, their primary means of communication becomes a robotic doll of Sonia.
- Entitled Bastard: Mahiru outright demands to be protected even while constantly criticizing Byakua and Hajime's efforts, showing absolutely No Sympathy and being one of the fastest to throw them under the bus when the worst happens.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Tragically, this is the fate of Fuyuhiko; his Heel Realization and resolve to unite the survivors means nothing when he meets his end shortly thereafter.
- Heroic Safe Mode: Teruteru tends to respond to trauma by focusing upon cooking instead, using that as a way to occupy his mind and distract from other thoughts.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- While no murder occurs at the party, an investigation still occurs, with Nagito's schemes and true nature exposed to everyone as a result.
- Monokuma uses the same basic motives as Canon; however, how he executes those plans changes.
- Pekoyama still reveals herself to be a tool of Kuzuryuu, and helped her young master play the game and discover evidence that something happened to his sister.
- Akane, Ibuki, and Nagito all still end up afflicted with the Despair Disease.
- Gundham Tanaka still ends up killing someone within the Funhouse and messing with the elevators in order to separate the groups to obtain an alibi for his murder.
- Kazuichi Souda, Hajime Hinata, Chiaki Nanami, and Nagito Komaeda all still make it to the fifth island, as per canon.
- Irony: Mahiru constantly accuses the guys of being unreliable, demanding that they step up more. But when a man's supposed unreliability becomes justification for killing him, she has the hardest time wrapping her mind around the idea.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Fuyuhiko invokes this after learning The Imposter's identity, cruelly referring to them as 'that thing'.
- Loophole Abuse: Played for Drama during the Funhouse arc. While none of Akane's attacks ever touched Monokuma, he baited her into hitting the statue of Sakura, and thusly kills her for 'destroying Jabberwock Island property'.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: When Teruteru briefly considers killing somebody to escape the island and get back to his family, he's snapped out of it by imagining how horrified she would be if he she learned he'd become a murderer.
- Mythology Gag:
- The first murder has much in common with the Chapter 2 murder in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, with the blackened, who's in charge of a country, receiving evidence that their nation is in danger, driving them to commit murder, the execution also features the blackened being offered the false hope of escape, only to be killed anyway.
- In a rather morbid example, the second murder parallels the Canonical fifth: the instigator's plan hinges on setting up a trap to blacken somebody else's hands. This adds a whole new level of Dramatic Irony to the way Komaeda reacts to it.
- Similarly, the third murder parallels the fourth case from the the original VN: somebody is Driven to Suicide, and someone tampers with their Suicide Note to make their last message more Despair-inducing.
- The Nicknamer: Rather than calling others by their names, Hiyoko prefers various insulting monikers, aiming to hurt them as much as possible with her words. This tendency of hers bites her in the ass when she starts calling Nekomaru 'Shitface' despite being the only one aware that he'd been drunk.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Teruteru is immediately struck by this sense when Nagito refers to one of the murders as 'a horrible, unlucky event'. From anyone else, that would be a severe Understatement, but from Nagito, who constantly prattles about how the killing game can foster Hope, it stands out like a sore thumb.
- Point of Divergence:
- A stray thought about how upset his mama would be if he murdered somebody snaps Teruteru out of contemplating the idea and sends him further into denial instead.
- When he discovers Nagito's plan, Teruteru manages to talk him down thanks in part to his refusal to accept the situation.
- Since it takes longer for the mutual killing game to get started, Monokuma tweaks his methods in response to what works, focusing more and more upon controlling and manipulating information.
- Due to surviving longer, Togami finds himself being blamed for failing to prevent any murders.
- Hinata's reputation suffers for the same reason, causing him to be further estranged from most of the group and more vulnerable to Nagito's manipulations.
- Fuyuhiko doesn't start defrosting after the second (now the first) trial, remaining estranged from the rest of the group and continuing to antagonize the other survivors.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The only thing preventing Fuyuhiko or Peko from murdering Mahiru for the role she played in his sister's possible death is Monokuma's presence, as Fuyuhiko doesn't want to throw away either of their lives in the process of getting revenge.
- Saying Too Much: When Nagito comments in passing that he has trouble eating sometimes, Teruteru starts to suspect he might suffer from some kind of illness, much like his mother.
- Senseless Sacrifice: In a heartbreaking turn of events, The Imposter takes their own life, unaware that their death will trigger another murder to 'avenge' them.
- Ship Tease: There are multiple moments like this between Ibuki and The Imposter.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Teruteru, obviously, since he does not become the culprit of Chapter 1.
- Mahiru, Peko, and Ibuki make it to the fifth island, far later then they survived in the canon game.
- The Imposter dies two chapters later than in the canon game.
- Unreliable Narrator: Teruteru remains the POV character even when he's contracted the 'Careless' Despair Disease.
- Villainous Breakdown: Even as the evidence stacks up against the second culprit, they deny all fault to the point of Implausible Deniability, as their plan hinged upon setting up a trap that somebody else would set off, leaving their own hands clean.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Gundham is clearly disappointed upon realizing that Teruteru had an ulterior motive for asking him to help Kazuichi: he wanted the mechanic to fix something for him.
- After the second trial, Togami calls Teruteru out on encouraging Nagito to drink poison.
