The Lucidity of the Descent
by Devicing is a crossover fanfiction between Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and The World Ends with You.
Taking place in an Alternate Universe without Killing Games, Kaito Momota wakes up to find himself dead with seven days to win his way back to life. Determined to return to the RG, he partners with Maki Harukawa and forms alliances, but winning the Reaper's Game is easier said than done when nothing is as it seems and there's someone named Kokichi Ouma running around…
Due to the author heavily deviating from the plot of The World Ends With You, there are few spoilers for that game, though there are many spoilers for Danganronpa V3.
This fanfiction contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Tenko and Maki as per usual.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Tenko is a lot nicer to the male characters than she is in Danganronpa. While she does chastise Kaito a few times, she doesn't hold nearly as much hatred towards men as she does in the game.
- All for Nothing: Played for laughs. Momota spends a ludicrous amount of time trying to get a specific character out of gacha machines for a mission, only to learn that that character in particular is a limited edition toy that was sold out a while ago.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The story takes place in the The World Ends with You universe but with the characters from Danganronpa V3 and a completely original plot.
- Ambiguously Evil: Amami is pretty chill and affable despite being the Game Master of Week 1, but is also fine with switching up everyone's partners to screw over Ouma.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: Discussed and Averted. While crashing someone's wake, Ouma mentions he never got to go to his wake and Momota states he didn’t see his own, either.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Using his advanced understanding of all things space-related and realizing the apparent answer seems too obvious, Kaito is the only player to successfully decode the mission mail for the fifth Day of Week two. This is quite the feat, as even Kokichi fell for the red herring.
- Book Smart: Momota was able to get into Tokyo University with his smarts, though he struggles with figuring out Angie's riddles.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Inverted. Like in canon, Momota forms this with Harukawa, being upbeat and cavalier in contrast to her cold and aloof personality.
- Brutal Honesty: Yumeno delivers this on occasion.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent since the final Day of Week one, Maki finally returns on the fifth Day of Week two, now a Reaper and absolutely livid with Kokichi.
- Cosmic Plaything: The game is blatantly rigged against Ouma, preventing him from winning or escaping, with whoever controls it not being above changing things at the last second just to screw the boy over. After enduring almost a year of this, Ouma has been rendered rather jaded. Though it is brought up that he may have done this all to himself on purpose.
- Determinator: Despite Ouma clearly spelling it out that there's literally no way to win as long as they're partners, with the game blatantly rigged against them, Momota nonetheless decides he's still going to try and even finds a loophole to allow him to earn points.
- Didn't See That Coming: Ouma spends the entirety of Week 1 hatching some kind of plan with Iruma, only for everyone's partners to get switched on the final day, ruining all his work. Momota later spots Ouma laughing madly at the sky, stating he hadn't expected whoever he's speaking to to pull something like that.
- Failure Is the Only Option: It's learned that the game is rigged against Ouma, as he's unable to use Psychs, synch or even earn points, yet is never Erased. Almost fifty weeks of this have left him quite jaded, and his attempts at scheming are shut down by whoever is controlling the game. Maki calls this into question however, as the other Reapers say Kokichi intentionally put himself in this position.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Angie enjoys giving out missions in the form of zodiac-themed riddles and while Ouma is good at solving them, he typically only throws a few hints out and makes everyone else figure it out themselves.
- First-Name Basis: Chabashira occasionally almost says Himiko instead of her last name, Yumeno. Himiko picks up on it and gets upset, but Tenko refuses to disclose the fact that they were very close to be romantically involved before their deaths.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Momota and Iruma are partnered after all the pairs are swapped, Momota is able to feel he's no longer connected to Harukawa, whereas Iruma doesn't notice any difference. This hints at the fact that Ouma can't synch with anyone.
- Tenko repeatedly nearly calls Himiko by her first name, despite them apparently having never met before. [[spoiled:It's later revealed that they used to know each other and were very close to starting a romantic relationship before they died]].
- Gravity Master: Momota's psych lets him manipulate gravity.
- Hollywood Hacking: Iruma hacks into places for Ouma using a setup of numerous laptops scattered around her, and no evidence of having done anything other than typing.
- Human Shield: Kaito jokingly threatens to use Kokichi as one, who in turn states he will make Kaito a shield first. When Maki attacks, Kokichi somehow paralyzes Kaito to keep the other boy between him and the Reaper, so Maki will have no choice but to cease her assault.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- The price Momota paid to enter the first game was a chunk of his memories, making him unable to recall certain facts about himself, much to his frustration. He's not certain as to what he's missing, though.
- It's implied that Yumeno and Chabashira were almost dating before the game, but Yumeno has lost her memories of it. Unfortunately, Chabashira hasn’t lost hers and is forced to pretend nothing ever happened.
- Tenko wonders if Kaito has given up other memories as his second price, suggesting it's possible he knew Kokichi at some point. Despite his denial, it becomes increasingly apparent that something is still missing, as he repeatedly reacts to the date June twenty-seventh yet cannot recall its significance.
- Discussed. Kokichi mentions that the price taken from players can vary, but memories are common as they are typically the most painful thing to lose.
- The Load: Ouma makes himself one by not extending any effort at all to winning the game and spending his time messing around or working on schemes, with any help he does offer coming in the form of cryptic hints. It annoys Momota to no end, but it's soon revealed Ouma doesn’t participate because he physically can't, and has lost interest in trying after being trapped in the game for weeks.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Momota is able to visit Saihara and Akamatsu at their store, since they can see and interact with him there. However, neither are aware of the Reaper's Game, making some of Momota's antics extremely confusing.
- Himiko's price were her memories of Tenko, with whom she was almost romantically involved with in life. Tenko refuses to reveal anything but is extremely bad at hiding it, resulting in her upsetting Himiko, who can’t understand why an apparent stranger keeps almost using her first name and acting oddly.
- Loophole Abuse: Momota figures out how to earn points as Ouma's partner by fighting alongside Chabashira and Yumeno so their points will be split three ways.
- My Greatest Failure: Harukawa deeply regrets not signing the contract to takeover the orphanage after the kindly owner left it to her, having been scared and indecisive due only being twenty at the time.
- Mysterious Past:
- Harukawa refuses to divulge her past with anyone, for a while, that is.
- Very little is known about Ouma, and his comments make it clear he intends to keep it that way. When Tenko point-blank asks him what was taken from him to enter the game, he refuses to tell her.
- The Nicknamer: Ouma takes to calling Harukawa 'Origami-chan' due to the papers she uses to fight with and Momota 'Space Case'.
- Non-Action Guy: Ouma. He never participates in fights and more or less helps out only by solving the riddles handed out by Angie, annoying Momota. It turns out he can’t synch or use psychs. Of course, since he can't be Erased at all, there's little point in him participating.
- Noodle Incident: The details aren’t clear, but Iruma isn’t interested in returning to life due there being several lawsuits and a busted lab waiting for her if she comes back.
- Obvious Rule Patch: In the final day of Week 1, everyone's partners are switched up, with the obvious intent to prevent Ouma from completing whatever plan he had with Iruma.
- Oh, Crap!: Iruma has this when the partners are switched up and she realizes she'll be Erased as she has no points and can’t become a reaper if she's not Ouma's partner. She's right.
- Orphanage of Fear: The orphanage Maki grew up in was horrible and got wrapped up in a massive scandal because of it. However, it was bought by a woman who managed to make it better, subverting the trope.
- Put on a Bus: Maki disappears from the story after being made a reaper.
- Sadistic Choice: Ouma is unable to win the game and his partners are given the unique choice of either being Erased or becoming reapers. Harukawa is forced to become a reaper at the end of Week 1.
- Sailor Earth: The Reaper's Game took place in Shibuya in TWEWY, but other games were stated to happen in other districts of Tokyo as well. The one in this story is set in Ikebukuro.
- Skyward Scream: After a last-second Obvious Rule Patch ruins his plans, Momota catches Ouma shrieking and laughing manically at the sky.
- Take the Third Option:
- What Iruma hopes to accomplish working with Ouma. She doesn't want to be Erased, but the situation she's in in the RG is pretty bad, so she wants to become a reaper and avoid it without dying. Unforutnately, thanks to the partner switch, she gets Erased anyhow.
- Ouma lays it out for Momota that by being his partner, Momota's options are to become a reaper or be Erased. Momota vows to win the game instead and return to life.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Due to Ouma's generally unpleasant demeanor and tendency to be cryptic even while actually helping, every partnership he forms quickly turns into this.
- Tragic Keepsake: The papers Harukawa uses to fight with are the paperwork for taking ownership of the orphanage, after the previous owner, who had been kind to her, passed away. Harukawa regrets not signing them when she had the chance.
- Wham Episode:
- The first day of Week 2 reveals that Ouma is being mysteriously prevented from winning the game, being unable to obtain any points, synch with his partners or be Erased when the week ends. He's been trapped for weeks and most of his former partners have been forced to become reapers as a result.
- The fifth Day of Week 2 also proves to be a massive shock. Kaito is finally able to use Psychs again and discovers the Noise are outfitted with cameras. Maki returns as a Reaper and explains that the other Reapers say Kokichi is in cahoots with the Conductor. Kokichi himself reveals he can use Psychs and cannot be Erased.
