Fanfic / or did it eat the little girl?

or did it eat the little girl?, by weewooweewoo (WaitWhatDoIPutHere), is an alternative take on Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. This fanfic assumes that the reader has completed V3 and the other games in the Danganronpa series. Thus, all spoilers for them will be unmarked.

There are two stories in the series:

• or did it eat the little girl? opens with Tenko's instincts screaming at her to LOOK UP during the ritual, causing her to discover the scythe and move, foiling the trap meant to kill her. Naturally, this has an increasingly dramatic effect on how the game unfolds from there.
• let's go out with a bang!, while not officially a sequel, follows after the killing game depicted in the first story, in a What If?-like scenario inspired by The Belko Experiment. All of the participants are forced to attend a convention held by Team Danganronpa, only for the festivities to promptly get derailed. But is the threat coming from outside or within?

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or did it eat the little girl? contains examples of:

• all lowercase letters: The title of the fic, as well as all the chapter names (except for 41, "AT LONG LAST".) This applies to let's go out with a bang!, too.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ultimately, Everybody Lives, as V3 took place in a simulation. But the participants have all been heavily traumatized, and the seven who survived the whole game were forced to seek asylum in Canada in order to escape those upset that the season ended so anticlimactically.
• Didn't See That Coming: Korekiyo's plan didn't account for Tenko defying his instructions and looking up. When she survives, he's at a complete loss.
• Disappointed in You: After she attacks Korekiyo before his execution, Tenko fears that the other students feel let down by her losing control. Kokichi using this to paint her as unhinged and untrustworthy certainly doesn't help.
• Dwindling Party: As usual, the class is whittled down one by one by the murders. In addition, the Grand Finale involves the survivors fleeing from the all-consuming light of the impending reset.
• Eyes Never Lie: Tenko's initially frustrated by Kaito's behavior after the failed ritual, but softens a little upon noticing that his smile doesn't reach his eyes.
• Hearing Voices:
  • Angie's voice haunts Tenko, starting with the initial warning to 'LOOK UP' followed by mocking Korekiyo's Villainous Breakdown.
  • Eventually, towards the final stretch of the story, this is combined with Leaning on the Fourth Wall as the Readers gain their own 'voices' and get to influence the outcome.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Tenko goes into one after nearly getting killed in the cage, struggling to process her brush with death.
  • Shuichi enters one during the final trial after Tsumugi reveals that she killed Rantaro. Kokichi has a more subdued one upon seeing that his scheme with Kaito to 'derail the game' was all part of the plan as well. Followed shortly by everyone BSODing upon learning that they're fictional characters.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The bulk of the chapter titles are made up of various quotes from Tenko herself. This also includes the Title Drop of the rhyme, whose lines are spread out across several chapters.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Kokichi still berates Himiko for her supposed hypocrisy in changing her stance towards Tenko after the murder attempt. He then folds this into trying to browbeat her into confessing why she's acted in such a contrasting, contrary way.
  • Everything that happened prior to Tenko's time in the cage played out exactly the same way. This becomes extremely relevant during the final trial, as Tsumugi reveals the truth about Rantaro's death in order to spite the Director.
  • Miu still planned to kill Kokichi, only to die at Gonta's hands instead.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Faced with a shaking, sobbing Tenko inside the iron cage, Kokichi cheerfully asks her "What's shaking?"
  • In the finale, a chilling amount of this is displayed by both Team Danganronpa and the Media Scrum waiting outside, as Tenko is yanked around and brutalized by the guards and the reporters are far more concerned with peppering her with questions about her experiences in the game than addressing her bloodied and battered state.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While Kokichi's claims that spirits might have killed Angie are clearly part of his usual trolling, Tenko privately considers the notion that Angie's spirit might have been the one who warned her about the scythe.
• Medium Awareness: Comes into play during the final trial: The Director reveals that all of the classmates have fictional personalities, and that there are two audiences for V3: the Watchers (the canon audience from the original game and the Readers (those reading and commenting on the fic). The latter group provided their own influence upon the story's path via participating in polls.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • Right after she survives the murder attempt, Kokichi playfully suggests that Tenko is exaggerating the threat posed by the sickle. He also repeatedly attempts to blame Angie's death on spirits.
  • Korekiyo also double-checks the rules before admitting that he tried killing Tenko, pointing out that there's no rule against attempting murder. And obviously his attempt isn't relevant to the matter of figuring out who killed Angie, right?
• The Scapegoat: The Director really doesn't like Tenko, blaming her for the game going Off the Rails. They similarly shift blame onto Tsumugi during the final trial.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Tenko, Kaito and Kokichi all make it out of the mutual killing game alive. Technically applies to everybody due to the VR setting, though those who died didn't make it out unscathed.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Exploited by Himiko's original self; she invented the notion of her and 'Tenko's' characters having a preexisting relationship in order to make their auditions more appealing.
• Together in Death: During the final trial, Himiko considers this to be a viable solution to The Director's bloodlust. Tenko does not.
• Unwitting Pawn: During the final trial, Kokichi realizes this about himself — rather than painting his actions as the only deviance from the script, he actually played his role as The Rival perfectly according to The Director's vision.
• You Bastard!: Downplayed; a distinction is drawn between The Watchers and The Readers, but it is made clear that everyone in the audience is deriving some form of entertainment from the story.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Director makes this quite clear during the final trial when it comes to Tsumugi.

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let's go out with a bang! contains examples of:

• Agony of the Feet: In The Third Option of the final chapter has Himiko shooting herself in the foot.
• A House Divided: The tensions already existing amid the members of the 53rd Session flare up, aggravated by the situation, and it doesn't take long for other rifts to emerge.
• Age Lift: The casts of the first two games are now young adults.
• Anyone Can Die: As is par for the course with Danganronpa.
• The Atoner:
  • Played very darkly in "roll the dice (let's see which head will roll)", as the one attempting to atone is trying to compensate for an act they haven't completed yet — namely, murdering Himiko, Korekiyo and Junko in order to secure his alibi and scapegoat.
  • In the very next chapter, Miu chooses to stay inside the convention center so that Kaede and the rest of her classmates can leave. Played with further in that Kokichi argues with her about whether or not he should stay behind instead, as he's responsible for what happened to their missing two members.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Eventually revealed to be the case with Naegi Makoto. Outside the fictional world of Danganronpa, the Hope Bringer is a pathetic Dirty Coward willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives, terrified of facing the consequences of his actions and willing to do whatever it takes to save his own ass.
• Beyond Redemption: Kokichi fully believes that Miu is, refusing to let her move past the mistakes she made during the mutual killing game. He eventually realizes that Miu regretted her actions far more than he recognized, and that his spiteful behavior was only serving to convince her that she had no recourse than to become a full-fledged 'bad guy', despite her own hesitance.
• Bittersweet Ending: Even the best outcome has a strong tinge of bittersweetness; Danganronpa may finally be coming to an end, but the scars inflicted upon those who participated in the various killing games remain.
• Broken Ace:
  • Kaede is still highly regarded among her classmates as The Heart of their session, and she's the only one amongst their number that Miu sees as a real friend. This doesn't mean that she's any less traumatized by everything she endured during V3, and the others' regard for her is a double-edged sword.
  • Makoto remains one of the best known 'faces' of Danganronpa and a symbol of Hope... who is forced to work for Team Danganronpa, and finds himself saddled with The Chains of Commanding during yet another horrible crisis.
• Broken Tears: Kokichi shedding these marks a critical shift during their confrontation with the armed Miu.
• Bullying a Dragon: No matter how dangerous the situation is, Kokichi faces it with pitch-black humor and his signature shit-eating grin, actively goading others. Even facing an armed Miu isn't enough to deter him.
• Butt-Monkey: Team DR forced several survivors to participate in multiple mutual killing games after their initial season. Souda Kazuichi was one of those unfortunate to be sent in again and again, building up a reputation for surviving despite the odds. Owari Akane is another.
• Call-Back: Lampshaded and Discussed when several classmates note that Korekiyo's notebook gives him a natural advantage when it comes to making these.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Enoshima Junko naturally believes that this applies to both themselves and Naegi Makoto, by virtue of being the 'faces' of Danganronpa.
• Cassandra Truth: After Crying Wolf and Playing the Victim Card so much, Kokichi finds that nobody believes him when he insists that Miu nearly shot him in the kitchen.
• Commonality Connection: To Miu's surprise, she learns that she and Sayaka have several things in common: both of them tried killing somebody, only to wind up murdered themselves, and were left with a fear of bathrooms as a result.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Downplayed; when violence first breaks out, Himiko naturally freaks out... but reflects that this horror is all too familiar.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Played With. While Tenko was the protagonist of or did it eat the little girl?, Himiko and Miu serve as dual protagonists for let's go out with a bang!, and Foils to V3's original protagonists:
  • Like Shuuichi before her, Himiko struggles with the concept of taking action — to the point of wishing she could withdraw entirely from the painful reality.
  • Miu, meanwhile, forges forward decisively much like Kaede... but without the support of their classmates.
• Darkness Equals Death: In Chapter 40, an already tense situation catapults From Bad to Worse when the lights slam off, plunging everything into darkness and inciting widespread panic.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Far as Team Danganronpa is concerned, signing any contracts with them effectively means that they OWN you.
  • The mastermind also made one, agreeing to help Team DR 'purge' any suspected members of the THL in order to protect himself and his loved ones.
• Demoted to Extra: While Tenko was the protagonist of the first fic, she plays a relatively minor role in this one.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Some of what participants experience in the VR killing games translates over to the real world, such as Kaede having difficulty speaking or Kirumi being confined to a wheelchair.
• Double Standard: Miu finds herself up against this while dealing with Kokichi. Both retain their nasty, unpleasant attitudes and behavior from the game; however, their classmates seem to be willing to grant Kokichi far more leeway while scolding her for rising to his baiting. This feeds into Miu's sense of persecution and tendency to blame her problems on everybody else.
• Dramatic Irony: (i've never been so scared) reveals that Makoto agreed to serve as Team DR's mastermind for the convention in hopes of protecting Kyouko from them and the AHL. The reader already knows that Kyouko is part of the AHL, and thus one of the dissents Team DR is trying to eliminate.
• Evil Is Petty: Team DR loves pulling petty shit to remind everyone who's participated in their games that they OWN them. The story begins with everyone being forced to attend a mandatory promotional event, and it's revealed that they used Loophole Abuse to deny Tenko access to the Survivor's Fund. To say nothing of how they went out of their way to schedule an event on the day Makoto and Kyouko were going to secretly get married, then blamed the victims for not telling them, knowing full well that the two didn't want their marriage to be turned into another damned promotional event.
• Exact Words: Depending upon the ending, Miu has a chance of realizing that there's nothing barring Himiko from choosing another target... or, more critically, that the shot doesn't have to be fatal.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Despite all their stress-induced squabbling, most of the Session 53 kids rally around Kaede once she's marked for death.
• First-Name Basis: Cruelly referenced by The Director, who cheerfully tells Makoto that they should be on a first name basis by now, if not using nicknames.
• Four Is Death: While things are already obviously bad, the situation steadily deteriorates ever further over the course of the fourth day, as Makoto and the enforcement team decide to meet the second deadline by executing the necessary amount of people to reach the forty-death requirement.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Deconstructed with Miu; she's very aware that she holds this status among the V3 alumni. This does nothing to help with her growing sense of paranoia and isolation.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The various mutual killing games effectively demonstrated that practically anyone could be pushed to kill, given the right impetus. Naturally, this feeds into the fears of those trapped inside the convention center.
• Happy Ending Override: After everything they went through during V3, the 53rd Class is forced to attend one of Team Danganronpa's promotional events, plunging them right back into danger when the convention gets derailed.
• Heel Realization: In (with no consequence, I will do it again), it's heavily implied that Kokichi is forced to recognize how he pushed Miu to the breaking point.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: The AHL hopes to arrange this by hacking into Team Danganronpa's list of targets and adding the names of the DR Officials present, so that they will be gunned down by their own murder machines.
• Hourglass Plot: The events at the convention reveal that Junko and Makoto have effectively switched places. Junko has become a Spanner in the Works against the mastermind, complicating his plans to help Team DR eliminate all suspected members of the AHL.
• I Am Spartacus:
  • Played With: After Kaede's name is called, Maki stands up and claims to be the person they're looking for. Nobody is fooled, especially because Kaede already stood up; the gesture seems largely symbolic... until Maki fights back against the enforcement team.
  • Notably, an Inversion occurs in the same chapter as the above when Junko reveals herself in order to Draw Aggro away from the Session 53 kids.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter quotes song lyrics, such as i hope you die. (i hope we both die)
• Important Haircut: Played With. Junko discusses having gotten one in the past while convincing Korekiyo to get their own hair cut off. It was one of the few things she was allowed to do with Team Danganronpa fiercely dictating her image.
• Improbable Weapon User: During a desperate struggle, Angie wraps their necklace around their hand as a sort of makeshift brass knuckles, while Himiko uses a pack of playing cards as slashing weapons.
• Just a Kid: The participants of Session 53 find themselves repeatedly dismissed as this, partly due to their ages and partly due to their inexperience with dealing with Team Danganronpa.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Kokichi casually tells Miu to throw herself off the roof, then dismisses the others' protests before claiming he was just joking... though he's quick to clarify that he really does consider her to be a horrible person.
• Loophole Abuse: Since Tenko wasn't meant to survive her season, Team Danganronpa denied her any access to the Survivor's Fund.
• Ma'am Shock: Junko protests being called 'Ma'am', insisting that she's "nineteen, maybe".
• Mirror Character: Miu and Kokichi. Both cling to their awful personas from the game as defense mechanisms, cruelly lashing out at their classmates and each other. Once shit hits the fan, both investigate independently, and their distrust of their peers feeds into yet more problems that they blame on others (and each other) rather than acknowledging their own screw-ups.
• Moral Myopia: Kokichi's grudge towards Miu is entirely personal, given that she planned to kill him inside the sim. What he completely ignores is that he succeeded in killing HER — when she confronts him about this and spells out how she's haunted by the memory of him watching her strangle to death, he's completely taken aback.
• Morality Chain: Kaede is the only other member of the V3 alumni that Miu considers to be anything close to a real friend. Sadly Deconstructed in how this frustrates the crap out of her, as she feels bound by her desire to avoid disappointing Kaede while Kokichi could care less about such things.
• Multiple Endings: Hinging upon how Himiko/the reader resolves the final Sadistic Choice set before her. These range from bittersweet to incredibly depressing; even the best option has its own bittersweet tinge.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Deconstructed. On top of SDR2, Akane was forced to participate in several other seasons of Danganronpa. Each successive season left her with further regrets about all the things she didn't do in them, and her determination to avoid that feeling this time around drives her actions.
• Never My Fault:
  • While Miu's status as The Friend Nobody Likes is largely due to her own actions, she prefers blaming everybody else. Especially Kokichi.
  • Kokichi also refuses to acknowledge how antagonistic and unhelpful his behavior is, especially when it comes to Miu.
  • Once revealed, the mastermind pulls this card, blaming Junko for getting Himiko and Korekiyo involved and letting them hear his confession.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Himiko fears that she's got a chronic case of this, which doesn't help with her indecisiveness and tendency towards freezing up.
  • Kirumi warns Kaede that she should be more careful around Miu, as the rest of the class is getting worried about her involvement with the enforcement team. Unfortunately, Miu overhears part of this warning, and it factors into their relationship going south.
  • Following their fight, Miu vents to Mondo about what happened. Mondo responds by putting Kaede's name on his list of suspects/candidates to be eliminated.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Downplayed; one side-effect of being in a simulation is that your body's physical growth is completely arrested for as long as you're inside. Due to the popularity of their seasons, the casts of the first two games have been forced to participate in many, many simulations; as a result, none of them are as old as they should be. Makoto gives his age as 'around twenty-four', Junko thinks that she's 'nineteen, maybe', and none of them are considered to be older than twenty-six.
• Odd Friendship: Himiko befriends and works with Korekiyo, someone who had (or at least a past version of him had) killed her friend, almost killed her girlfriend and tried to pin the murder on her. She and Korekiyo also end up becoming friends with Junko who... is Junko.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • The Selective Enforcement Miu sees with Kokichi is more along the lines of Kokichi not caring or cooperating with the others' efforts to rein in his trolly tendencies.
  • Kaede's reluctance to share information with Miu that she worries might incriminate some of their friends leads Miu to assume the worst. The communication breakdown is underscored by Miu grabbing Kaede's wrists so that she can't sign.
  • This is how Kaede's name ends up on Mondo's deadly list in how much can you fit under your skin? Mondo isn't aware that Kaede is one of Miu's classmates, only that she dodged around her questions regarding the AHL, making them sound incredibly suspicious.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Kokichi twists an exercise in 'speaking his truth' into one of these for Miu, even cheerfully telling her that she should kill herself. Miu naturally fires back, much to Kaede's disappointment.
  • Several chapters later, they do this again under even worse circumstances, when Miu hunts him down with intent to kill and he mocks her by claiming she was always going to do this. They even use the conceit of 'speaking their truths' again.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Spending time in the VR simulators stunts the participants' physical growth. This reflects how their emotional and psychological growth has been dramatically impacted as well, as they struggle to deal with the horrors Danganronpa put them through.
  • Kaede's experiences during V3 damaged her ability to speak. While she still functions as her group's primary peacemaker, her condition underscores how she needs others to willingly participate in the process; they learned sign language in order to communicate, and no amount of signing or speaking makes any difference when nobody's willing to pay attention. During her Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure with Miu, the latter grabs her wrists to keep her from signing, driving home her absolute refusal to listen.
  • In the best of the five endings, Himiko shoots herself in the foot, reflecting how the Director effectively did the same by setting up this whole 'real-life killing game' in the first place.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Whoever is behind the lockdown specializes in this, starting with a declaration that if thirty people haven't been killed before the time limit passes, everyone trapped in the convention center will suffer severe consequences. They fail.
  • The second challenge placed before the victims is similar: eliminate forty people or else eighty will be killed at random.
  • In the penultimate chapter, the Director forces one of these upon Himiko, insisting that her only options are to shoot Makoto and make him a martyr for Danganronpa or shoot Kyouko and 'defeat' the AHL. They warn that trying to Take a Third Option by shooting him instead will not end well. This doubles as one for the reader as well.
• Selective Enforcement: In Miu's eyes, Kokichi gets away with constantly insulting her and everyone else, but heaven FORBID she bite back! Clearly that means she's in the wrong!
• Significant Anagram: Sakine Hujomon is an anagram of her true identity: Junko Enoshima.
• Swapped Roles: Makoto being the mastermind of a killing game-esque scenario, while Junko is just one of the participants.
• Switching P.O.V.: Himiko and Miu serve as dual protagonists, swapping back and forth between the pair.
• Take a Third Option: Played With. During the final Sadistic Choice, Himiko is warned against attempting this by shooting the Director. Should she go that route anyway, it doesn't end well. However, she pulls this off successfully in the 'Shoot Herself' route, thanks to Miu's last-second realization that she isn't forced to shoot someone fatally.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: After learning how wary her classmates are growing of her, Miu hisses to herself "I'll show them fucking bad guy."
• Took a Level in Badass: Himiko is noticably more proactice here than she is in V3 or the first fic.
• Unreliable Narrator: Downplayed with Miu; events seen from her perspective aren't distorted for the audience, allowing them to see things she's missing or overlooking.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • The Anti-Hope League are so determined to put an end to Team Danganronpa's tyranny that they are willing to sacrifice 149 innocent people in order to eliminate the 51 Danganronpa Officials present at the convention.
  • Naegi Makoto wants to believe that they're one, as well, and that their decision to help Team Danganronpa hunt down and eliminate everyone in the Anti-Hope League is completely justified... no matter how many other people have been killed in the process.
• Wham Episode:
  • bang! bang! bang! (here we go) is appropriately named, as the time limit for the first task runs out during Makoto's meeting, and the reception hall is drowned in a sea of bullets.
  • let's save the pitiful children! reveals that Kyouko is head of the AHL, with the majority of her classmates as members... and Kaede and Shuichi are members as well.
• Wham Line:
  • A recurrent one: once the nightmare begins, a counter appears at the end of each chapter, marking how close the participants have gotten to the required death count. This includes fatalities from off-screen events, leading to Gut Punches in the vein of Nothing Is Scarier.
  • what choice but simple duty? ends on Makoto calling Kaede's name as the final sacrifice.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Come how much can you fit under your skin?, Kyouko and Byakuya are absolutely infuriated with Makoto after he decides to go behind their backs and attempt to meet the second deadline.
  • Junko herself calls Makoto out for his willingness to help Team DR slaughter innocents.
  • In a Flashback, Mukuro reads Makoto the riot act after he makes a comment during the post-Season 37 press conference that Team DR twists around and uses to send the whole cast back into the sims for Season 38.
• What You Are in the Dark: During the climax of the fourth day, one such moment occurs when Miu corners Kokichi in the kitchen alone. Her inability to just pull the trigger surprises them both.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: One perk of the Session 53 participants being seen as Just Kids is that there is some effort made to protect and shield them from the horrors unfolding around them. Until Kaede's name is written down as a potential sacrifice, anyway.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Kokichi constantly pulls this with Miu, harassing her and pulling out the Crocodile Tears whenever she fights back, twisting around her anger as 'proof' that she's evil and irredeemable.

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