Fanfic / If Despair Never Ended

If Despair Never Ended is a Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc fanfiction written by Barnsickle. It was first uploaded on December 4th, 2020, and completed on May 11th, 2023.

The story follows that of the first Danganronpa game, but with a twist - Mukuro Ikusaba has her memories erased and participates in the killing game as herself. This ends up changing things dramatically, and the story follows Mukuro as she tries to survive the game and slowly learn about what she was in the past.

Spoilers for the canon Danganronpa series will be unmarked. You have been warned.

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This work provides examples of:

• A-Cup Angst: Mukuro goes through this several times. It starts with a set of too-big bras in her closet along with a box of tissues for padding, and continues from there. Once Sayaka enacts her murder plot and has Mukuro at her mercy, she also attempts to invoke this, cutting open both of their tops and taunting Mukuro about her size.
• Accidental Murder: Makoto dropping the book on the floor that Chihiro slips on and dies by is treated as this by Monokuma, and is enough for Makoto to be executed. Everyone else rightfully thinks it's ridiculous, but Monokuma goes through with it anyway. Subverted when it turns out Monokuma was the one to kill Chihiro in the first place.
• Adaptation Expansion: The 'secrets' motive. Everybody actually goes through with Kiyotaka's plan from the original game to read out their secrets together and dispel the motive, and we get to hear every single one. They range from mild (Aoi has never kissed a boy) to funny (Yasuhiro's lying about his alien hamburger story) to heartbreaking (Sayaka slept with five different producers to get her idol debut).
• Adaptational Heroism: Mukuro. She's the main character of the story, and circumstances cause her to waver several times, but in the end she is firmly against Junko.
• Adaptational Modesty: Mukuro dressed up as Junko during the game's canon, with a fairly short skirt and a shirt that showed some cleavage. Here, mainly due to a lack of a proper uniform, she wears very modest tracksuits for most of the story.
• Adaptational Protagonist: The whole point of the story is that it focuses on an amnesiac Mukuro.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Mukuro, naturally. Her past as Junko's number two is in the background for most of the story, but she regains her memories after Sayaka's class trial. At that point, she has to deal with the Mukuro that was Junko's lapdog as a direct part of her, almost as a second personality.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Sayaka's double-knife. It's two kitchen knives crudely taped together so there's a blade on each side and a handle in the middle. It comes with just as much danger of hurting yourself, and indeed, it is the weapon that ends up killing Sayaka.
• Ax-Crazy: Sayaka during her ultimate murder plot, thanks to Junko breaking her and forcing her back into despair.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • A portion of the final investigation is narrated by Genocide Jack, who's still following Celeste and finds a strange piece of plastic in her room that can fit over a finger. It seems like it'll be important, but Monokuma's announcement plays at that moment and Jack throws it away without a care in the world.
  Truth Bullet not added: SOME BORING THING I DON'T CARE ABOUT
  • During the first few chapters, Chihiro's quirks regarding his greater level of comfort around boys than girls are noted, and it seems to be building up to the reveal of his true gender, the same way the game does it. However, Chihiro soon dies in a way where his gender is irrelevant, and the group goes for the rest of the story without learning this information (Kyoko finds out after regaining her memories, but chooses to keep it a secret herself). Chihiro's gender isn't learned until the group gains access to the student profiles during the final investigation, but by then, they have much bigger things to worry about.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Mukuro does this a couple times, but the most notable by far is a rapid-fire one against her little sister in the final class trial.
• Black Blood: Where the games use pink blood in visuals and the text mentions that it's actually red, the characters do actually bleed pink in this story.
• Bound and Gagged: Everyone except for Junko and Mukuro gets hit with this during the climax of the final class trial, albeit with shackles instead of ropes. Sayaka and Mukuro are also tied up and restrained at different points in the story, although they can still speak.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Kiyotaka's logbooks. He finds one in the third chapter and picks up several more as the story progresses, and uses them to log all kinds of information throughout the story. The information written within is used as evidence a few times in the class trials.
  • The piece of white cloth found in Sakura's hand after she's killed. It turns out to be a part of Hifumi's shirt, revealing that he was the one who attacked her.
• Chick Magnet: According to the student profiles, nearly every female student Makoto interacted with was interested in him to some degree.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sayaka is this towards Makoto. She tends to act somewhat cold towards Mukuro whenever Makoto gives her positive attention. After Makoto's death, it turns into full-on hatred.
• Clothing Damage: "Celeste's" clothes get damaged several times during the final class trial to prove Mukuro's point that her figure is wrong, citing this as proof that she's actually Junko in disguise. When Junko ditches the disguise and appears in her normal clothes, they are inexplicably intact. This is lampshaded.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The only reason Mukuro doesn't die during her execution is because she catches a spear out of midair and skewers Monokuma with it, which just so happens to cause him to fall in such a way that his paw hits a button on the controller he's holding. This button happens to release the memory-restoring strawberry for Mukuro, and she eats it to end her execution without her death.
  • During the final investigation, Kiyotaka and Yasuhiro enter the Monokuma control room and speak to Byakuya and Leon through a Monokuma. This Monokuma has a strange bloodstain on its paw. The bloodstain is there because this just so happens to be the exact same Monokuma that killed Chihiro at the start of the killing game, which Mukuro pieces together later.
• Crime of Self-Defense: If Mukuro's the one who killed Sayaka, it would be this, since she still nearly gets executed afterward.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Makoto's execution, which he didn't even have in concept in the original game. It has him encountering a variety of things that superstitiously invoke bad luck, such as a group of thirteen black cats, a few ladders to run under, and a mirror to jump through and break, before he's impaled with a spear and killed instantly.
  • Mukuro is also given a proper one fitting her talent as the Ultimate Soldier. The original Spears of Gungnir trap is triggered, followed by an increasingly large number of spears that are fired at her in a near-unavoidable rhythm (which she still keeps up with, and even uses one to destroy Monokuma). It's finished by so many spears layered together coming from the ceiling that there's no visible space between them. However, that part isn't used - the memory-restoring strawberry reappears and Mukuro eats it, which ends the punishment early.
• Death by Adaptation: Makoto gets hit with this very early on - out of the six survivors from the original game, he's the only one who ends up dead in the story. He's executed for the death of Chihiro, wrongfully.
• Death Trap: The students raise the possibility that one of these killed Chihiro, and it is also Monokuma's justification for executing Makoto for the crime.
• Despair Event Horizon: Sayaka crosses it after Makoto's execution, and remains that way for most of the story.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: All of the victims die under different circumstances than in the original game.
  • Mondo doesn't even get to see the start of the killing game - he's blown up by the Monokuma from the beginning of the game because Kyoko isn't there to warn him that it's a bomb.
  • Chihiro still dies from a head injury, but the group is lead to believe that this was from slipping on a discarded book and hitting his head on the incinerator. It's later revealed that Monokuma killed him and framed Makoto in an attempt to get the killing game underway.
  • Sakura is led into a trap by Hifumi and hit in the head with a dumbbell. However, this doesn't kill her - she retaliates against him before falling unconscious and is later found stabbed with a wooden spear. It's assumed that Hifumi did it in a daze, but Monokuma is revealed to be behind this death as well.
  • Hifumi is killed by Mukuro just before his execution. She tears a sharpened piece of wood off her courtroom podium and throws it into his eye.
  • Sayaka is still stabbed to death, but it's during a struggle in the music room with Mukuro.
  • Celeste is revealed to have swapped places with Junko, who poisoned her and regularly dosed her with the antidote. She eventually stops administering the antidote and allows Celeste to die.
• Dies Wide Open: Chihiro.
  Her eyes were open, but they saw nothing.
• Discard and Draw: Kyoko eventually regains her memories, but loses her eyesight. The students assume this is because Junko's switched with Mukuro and Kyoko would be able to tell the difference between them, but they're only half-right - it's because she'd be able to tell that Junko is actually Celeste.
• Dwindling Party: It's Danganronpa, after all. Half the group ultimately ends up dead.
• Emergency Multifaith Prayer: Yasuhiro is seen praying to Buddha, Vishnu, Zeus, and whoever else is willing to listen to get him out of the school.
• Eye Scream: Hifumi's death, with a sharpened piece of wood thrown into his eye by Mukuro.
• Fan Disservice:
  • Mukuro is naked when she finds herself in Hope's Peak. She's also covered in wounds and bandages, and bleeding quite a bit.
  • Sayaka's idol outfit is mentioned as showing a lot of skin, baring her midriff and revealing much of her cleavage. The only time she wears it is when she's carrying out her murder plot, when she's fallen into despair again and completely, utterly lost her mind.
• Forced into Evil: Celeste is revealed to be this - Junko poisoned her and forced her to control Monokuma while Junko herself took her place in the killing game. It's noted that Celeste was the only possible candidate for this - Junko could only conceivably take the place of one of the girls, and all of the others either wouldn't agree to Junko's plan even under threat of death or have too different of a body type for Junko to impersonate them.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The general strangeness in Sayaka's class trial, especially regarding Monokuma's behaviour, is meant to point the reader toward the idea that something isn't quite right.
    • A time limit is imposed late into the trial, which only happens in the games when the mastermind is up to something.
    • Monokuma rarely responds to direct questions, mostly just sitting motionless and staring ahead. The narration often mentions that he's not looking at anything in particular.
    • When the students vote for the killer, Monokuma doesn't say their name, instead just informing the students that they got the right answer.
    • He also doesn't single out the blackened for the punishment, and just tells the students that the ones who don't want to die can leave.
    • When the execution begins, a massive amount of chains and shackles are released to grab at any given area where the students could've been standing, instead of a single one homing in on the blackened student.
    • All of this information eventually culminates in the reveal that no one is controlling Monokuma at this point, and he's been on autopilot for some time.
    • Mukuro also thinks to herself during voting that there's a possibility that Junko will declare them wrong no matter who they vote for, and kill everyone regardless. In reality, it's the exact opposite - they would've been declared correct in any case, since Monokuma's on autopilot. It's implied that even Junko couldn't tell whether Sayaka or Mukuro was responsible for the former's death.
  • During the first breakfast meeting, Yasuhiro claims that he looked into the future and saw that only one person is going to murder anyone. Junko is solely responsible for every murder throughout the story, with the possible exception of Sayaka's.
  • Much later on in the story, Yasuhiro makes another prediction that states that Celeste has no future. Given the context from the rest of the chapter, it's likely that Celeste doesn't actually die until just before Sayaka's class trial, but the prediction is only a few hours before that happens.
  • When Chihiro's body is discovered by Mukuro and Makoto, Makoto screams, which attracts Sayaka. Aoi follows a few seconds later, at which point the body discovery announcement is played. The announcement doesn't play until four people have arrived, meaning one of the first three is the killer. It turns out to be Makoto, albeit not on purpose.
  • After the first class trial, in order to prove to the students that Makoto is responsible for Chihiro's death, Monokuma plays the security camera footage of Makoto dropping the logbook on the floor, which Chihiro later slipped on and died from. He does not show footage of Chihiro's actual death. It's not revealed until much, much later that this is because Monokuma himself killed Chihiro, and showing that footage would immediately reveal the deception.
• Four Is Death: The story opens with a one-chapter prologue, and three chapters of 'daily life' labelled as 'Chapter 1,' which is what it matches up to in the game. The fourth chapter of 'Chapter 1' is when the first murder victim is discovered.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Despite being a written story, it still makes a note of including Truth Bullets during investigations and matching them up to statements in Non-Stop Debates.
• Gamer Chick: Mukuro's love of first-person shooters. When Hifumi finds a portable console with one, he lends it to Mukuro, and it eats up the better part of a full day for her.
• "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: More like 'get out of execution,' but Mukuro has one of these - at any time during the killing game, if she kills someone and is found out at the class trial, she's allowed to refuse her execution and let the killing game resume normally. She uses it to kill Hifumi at the end of the second class trial, sparing the group the despair of watching his execution.
• The Ghost: With the reveal that Junko took Celeste's place at the start of the killing game, the real Celeste becomes this. Her dead body is seen late in the story, but the students don't realize it was hers until much later, since it blows up just like Mukuro's in the main game.
• Go Through Me: Sakura steps in to defend the first blackened before the first execution, but stands down when Makoto says he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt for him.
• Got Me Doing It: After Makoto gets the kitten hairclip from the MonoMono Machine, Mukuro fantasizes for a moment about him giving it to her and realizes she's biting her thumb the same way Toko does.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Mukuro is very much this in the early parts of the story. Her crush on Makoto is in full swing, but he only has eyes for Sayaka.
• Handicapped Badass: Mukuro toward the end of the story. Sayaka forces her to stab one of her arms several times during her murder plot, which results in that arm being near-unusable for the rest of the story.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: Sayaka performs one of these to Mukuro and Aoi. It's a cruel, mocking tune that calls out Mukuro for trying to atone for her past.
  For trapping us in hell, she feels slightly ashamed
  So hey, it's all cool! We should forgive and just hold hands
  She feels bad about it, so your pity, it demands!
  ...
  And why'd they do this all? Why'd they kill our friends?
  Well, who really cares? Corpse Warblade wants to make amends!
  • When Sayaka enacts her murder plot, she performs another one that specifically refers to Mukuro's role as an Ultimate Despair.
• Heroic BSoD: After her failed murder attempt against Leon, Sayaka is nearly catatonic and stays that way for a while. She gets worse after Makoto's execution, and it eventually becomes a Villainous BSoD as her despair starts to eat away at her mental state.
• Hidden Buxom: Celeste, apparently, as Mukuro finds out when watching her change. She notes that Celeste's chest is bigger than one would expect by her clothes, which serves as an early hint that it's not really her.
• Hidden Depths: Mukuro is repeatedly shown to be very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all kinds of weaponry. She gets very excited about the gatling guns near the locker rooms, even more so when she gets to use one, and muses to herself about how cool swords are when she witnesses Makoto and Sayaka discuss the one in the trophy room.
• Hope Spot: And how! These get dished out very often throughout the story. Some notable examples:
  • Sayaka finally recovers from her Despair Event Horizon cross when her memories are altered. Junko takes this opportunity to manipulate her and force her back into despair a second time, which results in her death.
  • During Sayaka's class trial, no one is able to tell who the killer is. There's a faint hope throughout that they can vote for Sayaka and no one will have to be executed before they use Yasuhiro's prediction as a guide. He reveals that he predicted that Sayaka was the killer, meaning the class votes for Mukuro and the execution takes place.
  • Mukuro and Makoto give one out unknowingly at one point - when Chihiro is feeling down about his perceived lack of use in their situation, the two of them tell him that with his skills as the Ultimate Programmer, he's the one most likely to deal with the high-tech stuff around the school and help them escape. Chihiro immediately brightens up and leaves in much higher spirits. His body is found later that same chapter.
  • The same chapter also has one for the story as a whole. Mukuro is probably at her happiest in this chapter, with Makoto spending time with her and not Sayaka due to the latter's murder attempt. They lift Chihiro's spirits with their talk detailed above, and Mukuro herself even gives Makoto a more minor pep talk regarding his talent and potential skills. Monokuma hasn't appeared for a while, and Mukuro's injuries seem to be healing nicely. Everything is going well, especially with Makoto and Mukuro getting closer... and then Chihiro's body is found, and the killing game truly begins.
• Hyper-Awareness: When Monokuma enters Kyoko's bedroom in the middle of the night after she's been blinded, Kyoko can tell that he (or something else about his size) is in the room because she detects the change in the air flow.
• I Call It "Vera": Mukuro uses one of the gatling guns near the locker rooms to break into the computer processing room, and she starts calling the gun "Makoto" in her head.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sakura, who was stabbed with a spear after getting hit on the head with a dumbbell.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The real Celeste is only ever seen as a dead body. Junko impersonates her for the entirety of the killing game.
• Irony: Just like in the main game, the students use the bathhouse locker room as a sort of home base, since there are no cameras there and the mastermind can't listen in on them. However, what they don't know is that the mastermind has been a part of the group from the start - Junko forced Celeste to switch places with her, meaning that they were only keeping information away from someone who actually could've used it.
• Kill and Replace: Junko does this to Celeste in reverse order - Celeste is not actually killed until several weeks into the killing game. However, she's being impersonated from the very start.
• Killing in Self-Defense: If Mukuro's the one who killed Sayaka, it would absolutely count as this.
• Killing Intent: Mukuro can sense Sayaka's after her conversation with Makoto in the trophy room.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: More than once - Toko has the phrase "JUNKO ERASED OUR MEMORIES X2" carved into her leg to reveal this, meaning that this is the third time the students have woken up in Hope's Peak Academy. The first time is implied to be School Mode before Junko reset everything, while the second time was the events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF. Kyoko later gets her memories back, but it comes at the cost of her eyesight.
• Lemony Narrator: Comes up from time to time. The most notable use is when the narrator lists off some profound or empathetic things that could be going through someone's head when looking at the distraught Mukuro, then caps it off by saying that Leon was thinking absolutely none of these things.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Makoto is this for Sayaka, big time. After her murder attempt proves she can't be trusted, and Makoto's reaction to it, she stops taking care of herself and barely eats. After Makoto is executed, she only gets worse.
• Loophole Abuse: As in the game, the students gain access to another floor of Hope's Peak Academy after each class trial. When Mukuro kills Hifumi at the end of the second one, a very short class trial is held right then where everyone votes for her immediately. This means that, after she uses her "Get Out of Jail Free" Card and everyone returns to the school, there are now two new floors of the school for the group to explore.
• The Lost Lenore: Makoto is this for Sayaka and Mukuro after his execution.
• Love Triangle: The early parts of the story seem to set one up between Mukuro, Makoto, and Sayaka. Sayaka sees Mukuro as a rival for Makoto's affections, but Makoto only has eyes for Sayaka at the start. Her attempted murder of Leon turns him away, at which point Mukuro tries to get closer to him, but Makoto's feelings toward Mukuro seem to be strictly platonic. All of this is rendered meaningless by Makoto's execution, which gets Mukuro to start treating Sayaka more cordially but spurs Sayaka into full-blown hatred towards Mukuro.
• Meaningful Name: Lampshaded by Leon.
  Leon: I'm sorry. Are we just going to ignore that her name is Corpse Warblade?
• Mercy Kill: Mukuro's killing of Hifumi is treated as this, for both him and the survivors.
• Moe Greene Special: Mukuro kills Hifumi by throwing a sharpened piece of wood directly into his eye.
• The Mole: As in the original game, this is a plot point, with the twist being that there's actually two spies hiding among the group this time. The first is still revealed to be Sakura, but the identity of the second is kept a mystery until the final class trial, with several different students being under suspicion throughout. It's actually Celeste, who Junko has switched places with.
• Motor Mouth: Mukuro gets a few lines in the final class trial that are all mashed together with no spaces, representing this.
  Mukuro: Itdoesn'tmatterthatIcan'tproveityouevilwhore! Thepointofthisgamewasjusttomaketheaudiencefeeldespairandnoweveryoneknowsthatyou'reafuckingliar!
• Mythology Gag:
  • The students discuss the existence of an Ultimate Doctor in the last chapter. Mukuro remembers the Ultimate Nurse, but decides to save it for another time.
    That one was a bit wacky even by the standards of the Ultimate Despairs.
  • The first Class Trial ends up being the inverse of the Chapter 5 Class Trial in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. The Ultimate Lucky Student is revealed to have, through no fault of their own, been responsible for the death of the electronic-savvy Ultimate whose name begins with "Chi". Subverted when it turns out Junko was the one who actually killed Chihiro via Monokuma and framed Makoto for it to get the Killing Game underway.
  • Once Junko finally appears, she says she was hoping for a six-trial killing game that ended with five or six survivors, with nine (the number of characters left alive by that point) being far too many. The first Danganronpa game ended with six survivors, the second game ended with five, and all three main series games had exactly six class trials.
  • Two fruits that affect the students memories are offered by Monokuma a couple times - a strawberry to restore them, which Kyoko and Mukuro eat at different points, and a grape to erase them, which Sayaka takes. Strawberries and grapes are the two fruits that the Funhouse is themed after in Danganronpa 2's fourth chapter.
  • Aoi's punishment is seen after the final class trial (without her in it). It's Water Illusion Show, a beta concept for her execution that would've been used if she'd been a killer in the original game.
• Naked First Impression: Mukuro, who is clad in nothing but bandages when she meets the rest of the students for the first time.
• Naked on Arrival: See above. Mukuro is given nothing to wear except Aoi's jacket until the third chapter.
• Neat Freak: Kiyotaka's tendencies for this are actually put to good use by Byakuya. He places a perfectly straight line of orange snack dust near several doors that only the mastermind can open and checks it several times a day. When the dust is disturbed, the students can get an idea of the mastermind's movements.
• Nightmare Fetishist: During the final class trial, the narration repeatedly refers to Junko as being on the verge of an orgasm.
• Non Sequitur: With Monokuma on autopilot during the final class trial and loaded with lines meant to respond to what Junko predicted that the students would've said throughout, he drops a lot of these once the students confirm the ruse and Junko makes her appearance.
• Not So Stoic:
  • When the possibility arises in the first class trial that Chihiro could've been killed by a trap, Kyoko reacts in shock as if she's just figured something out, but refuses to elaborate. It's eventually revealed that it's technically true - Makoto dropped a book on the floor that Chihiro slipped on, which is enough for Makoto to be deemed guilty and executed.
  • Byakuya reacts with open horror when he notices Mukuro's tattoo and deduces her status as a member of Fenrir.
• Out Sick: Hifumi doesn't participate in the second investigation due to a horrible stomachache... or so he claims.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Mukuro gets a good number of Nightmare Sequences throughout the story.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Aoi tells Mukuro during the second chapter that she can't meet the others for breakfast in her state of undress. Unfortunately, there are no clothes in her room.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The story's equivalent of the game's chapter 3 is greatly compressed into a single story chapter. This is justified by the fact that the group just had two class trials back to back, even if the second was very short, and therefore they have two new floors of the school to explore, and helps to keep the story moving at a good pace.
• Precision F-Strike: Kiyotaka of all people gets one in the final class trial. It's muffled because of his gag, however.
  Kiyotaka: Hrly shrt. Yrg're thr rhrst. (Holy shit. You're the worst.)
• Psycho Knife Nut: During her murder plot, Sayaka has absolutely lost it, and repeatedly threatens the remaining students and even herself with a pair of kitchen knives taped together.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The second-last chapter is mostly made up of Mukuro giving one of these to Junko, culminating in a nice big "FUCK YOU!"
  Mukuro: Despair is pathetic! Despair is trash! Despair is just a bad joke, and so are YOU!
• Rewatch Bonus: At the beginning of Sayaka's class trial, Kiyotaka tries to use Exact Words to trap Monokuma in his own rules. Everyone gets quiet at this show of cleverness, with the narration specifically focusing on Celeste's shocked expression. Very minor and inconsequential, but with the reveals that Celeste is actually Junko and Monokuma is on autopilot, it becomes more likely that she's shocked because she didn't predict Kiyotaka's statement, and didn't load Monokuma with any kind of rebuttal to it.
• Riddle for the Ages: Did Mukuro kill Sayaka, or did Sayaka kill herself? Given the situation, it could've been either of them, but it's nearly impossible to say for sure. Junko doesn't even seem to know the answer. Yasuhiro's prediction from the beginning of the story, however, seems to point to the latter scenario.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Mukuro's initial outfit, made up of clothes from Aoi and Kyoko's wardrobes, clashes horribly.
• Scars Are Forever: After Sayaka's botched murder attempt, Leon gets a scar on his face from Mukuro nearly killing him with the sword. It's mentioned that he would have it for the rest of his life. Both Chihiro and Mukuro are rather impressed with it.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Junko's cheating is even more blatant than in the original game, to the point that she is directly responsible for every single murder; she used Monokuma to kill Chihiro, manipulated Hifumi into attacking Sakura and finished her off when he failed to, caused Sayaka to fall into despair a second time while orchestrating the murder-or-suicide she ends up committing, and killed Celeste herself by withholding the antidote to the poison she was afflicted with.
• Secret-Keeper: Kyoko ends up being this for Chihiro, far after the latter's early death. When she regains her memories of their time at school together, she tells the students about a close group of four male friends - Mondo, Leon, Kiyotaka, and one more that she refuses to name.
• Slipping a Mickey: Happens to everyone except for Celeste and Sayaka during the latter's murder plot. They're drugged partway through the chapter so Sayaka can hold them hostage, and Mukuro has to fight through the haze and a few injuries along the way in order to help.
• Slut-Shaming: The first thing Toko says to Mukuro after the events of the first chapter is to call her the Ultimate Slut because she had no clothes in her room.
• Spanner in the Works: Several for Junko's plans. Mukuro's the most notable one, as her memories being wiped cause her to turn against Junko. Genocide Jack also applies, since her carving a message into Toko's leg leads the group to realize that Junko is the mastermind much, much earlier than in the original game.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Mukuro, Leon, and Kiyotaka survive the story, unlike the original game. Junko does as well, although she's left behind in the final trial area and Mukuro doesn't care much about what happens to her.
• Split Personality: Junko, as usual. Since she's spent the entirety of the killing game impersonating Celeste, however, she adds one that mimics her personality and mannerisms to the mix. Genocide Jack is also still present.
• Stalker with a Crush: After regaining her memories, Mukuro recalls being one of these to Makoto. To a lesser extent, she also does this a bit in the early parts of the story before Makoto's execution.
• Stalker without a Crush: Due to the group's suspicions of her, Byakuya orders Genocide Jack to stick to Celeste like glue for a portion of the story.
• Stripperific: Sayaka's idol outfit, although considering the circumstances when it's worn, it's not exactly appealing.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Specifically, Monokuma blowing up at the beginning of the story and taking Mondo with him.
• Switching P.O.V.: Most of the story is told from Mukuro's perspective, but it switches to that of other characters several times, such as Leon, Kiyotaka, or Genocide Jack.
• Tragic Keepsake: Makoto wins a kitten hairclip from the MonoMono Machine and gives it to Sayaka early on. After Makoto's execution, it becomes this. Sayaka wears it throughout the story as a symbol of her despair.
• Twin Switch: This is a concern for some time, since Mukuro meets another one of herself in the middle of the night who tries to convince her that she's actually Junko with her memories erased, but it's ultimately subverted. Mukuro is Mukuro, and Junko is actually impersonating Celeste.
• Use Your Head: Mukuro, tied up in a wheelchair and seemingly unable to move, ends up freeing herself by inching herself toward the trophy room with the small amount of leeway she has with her toes and using her head to smash apart the glass display. The broken glass damages the ropes enough for her to get herself free and cut the rest, but unsurprisingly, it leaves her with a pretty serious injury.
• Villainous Breakdown: Junko seems to go through one when she realizes that Mukuro, and only Mukuro, figured out that Junko was responsible for each murder. However, thanks to her despair fetish, it's soon replaced by ecstasy.
• Wham Episode: The entirety of the final class trial. Specifically, the reveals that Monokuma has been on autopilot since the previous one, the Celeste that everyone had come to know was actually Junko in disguise, and Junko was in some way responsible for every murder committed at Hope's Peak, meaning she'd been ignoring her own rules since the very start.
• What If?: What if Mukuro Ikusaba had her memories erased, even those of being an Ultimate Despair, and participated in the Killing School Life as herself? It starts with her stopping Sayaka's death, and spirals from there.
• What You Are in the Dark: After Mukuro's stopped Leon from murdering Sayaka, she takes a moment to realize that she is in the best situation that anyone could possibly be in to commit a murder, given that there's evidence of a struggle that had nothing to do with her and none of the other students have any idea what's happening. All she has to do is kill Leon and Sayaka - and the scene immediately transitions to her filling in the other students on what happened.
• World's Best Warrior: Mukuro and Sakura both fill this role. It's a source of friendship and respect between them in the early parts of the story until the latter is killed.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Junko eventually allows Celeste to die by poison, despite the latter controlling Monokuma throughout the game like she was supposed to. Her body is used to make the students think Mukuro is dead and their Mukuro is actually Junko.