Warning: All spoilers for Danganronpa 2 are unmarked.
"Sometimes, the reality is much worse than the memories, but in order to move forward, they have to face those memories at some point."
Coda is a four-part series of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair fanfiction by Quassia, taking place after the events of the game. The story focuses on the former Remnants of Despair as they wake up from the simulation of 2 and now have to grapple with the reality of living in a post-despair world where they're all wanted fugitives.
The full series can be found here.
Parts:
- Resolve has four of the survivors of the Killing School Trip travel to a ruined Tokyo to see if anything remains of their pre-despair lives.
- Esse centers on Nagito Komaeda as he navigates his place amongst the survivors after his initial hostility in the story of DR2.
- Resuscitate centers on Peko Pekoyama as she tries to find her place in life after having lived as an assassin her whole youth.
- Amacita is a lengthy conversation between Kazuichi Souda and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu who ponder what their lives must have been like before the tragedy.
Tropes:
- After the End: Resolve takes place in Tokyo as its slowly rebuilding after the Tragedy. While some sense of peace is being maintained, much of the city is still in ruins and terrorist groups donning Monokuma masks roam the streets.
- Back from the Dead: Played With. The AI of Chiaki is restored and given access to Jabberwock Island's monitor systems to pop in and out of screens and commune with the Remnants.
- Berserk Button: A group of mask-donning terrorists blowing up Hajime's childhood home sets off his fellow Remnants. Kazuichi responds by throwing a grenade at the terrorists.Kazuichi:"THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!”
They forget to ask him until much later why the hell he brought a grenade with him. - Chekhov's Skill: Kazuichi's engineering feats become crucial at several points.
- He's able to repair the plumbing in Fuyuhiko's family home, which helps the Tokyo group in their stay there.
- It's revealed that as a Remnant of Despair, he created and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. He decides to dismantle them upon seeing them again.
- Continuation: Of the aftermath of DR2.
- Continuity Nod:
- Akane carries of replica of the Mechamaru doll Kazuichi made for her.
- Fuyuhiko finds the room of Natsumi, his younger sister who died before the events of 2. He has a moment of silence in the room to pay his respects.
- Hajime will occasionally have flashbacks to his time as Izuru.
- Nagito's hand has been replaced by a prosthetic, referencing how he severed his own hand as a Remnant of Despair.
- Gundham reminisces on his old hamsters, the ones he had in 2 as simulated copies of the real deals.
- Crazy-Prepared: When exploring a post-Tragedy Tokyo, the gang carries handguns in case of emergencies. Kazuichi somehow snuck a grenade in with him.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Resolve centers on Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Akane. Though most of it is told in third-person from Kazuichi's perspective.
- Esse is all focused on Nagito and Hajime as the former is trying to sort out his place as The Friend Nobody Likes.
- Resuscitate focuses on Peko trying to find a sense of identity and purpose after spending her whole life as a cold assassin.
- Amacita focuses on Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi as they discuss what life was like prior to the Tragedy.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Kazuichi starts having a panic attack upon finding his old workshop full of weapons the Remnants used to cause many deaths. Akane of all people is the first to try and snap him back to reality, reassuring him that they can dismantle it all to atone.
- Hope Spot: Akane takes the Tokyo group to a manmade burrow amidst a large ghetto. She thinks its possible one of her siblings may have survived ever since the Remnants' onslaught, but instead they find someone else's child.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The story takes place after the events of DR2, written under the assumption that readers are already familiar with that story's events.
- Malevolent Masked Man: Tokyo is swarming with people in Monokuma masks who try to kill the four Remnants that are visiting their homes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon seeing his home again, Kazuichi realizes he had converted it into a weapons workshop for the Remnants of Despair and suffers a panic attack.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: All of the Remnants are wracked with guilt and trauma from their actions as part of Ultimate Despair. This manifests in vivid flashbacks and being triggered by reminders of their crimes.
- Wild Child: The Tokyo group finds a teenager like them in Akane's old residence who's regressed to an animalistic state.
- You Can't Go Home Again: The Remnants of Despair are international fugitives, being wanted for carrying out the Tragedy and plummeting the world into a deep despair. They have to cover themselves up when exploring Tokyo, lest they be identified and targeted.
