The Ultimate Assistant is a Danganronpa Alternate Universe fanfiction written by dippytrippy122
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The night Sayaka Maizono would have attempted to murder Leon Kuwata, only to get killed herself and jumpstart the Killing Game, her plans are ruined by Makoto Naegi heading back to his dorm room to check up on Sayaka, resulting in her accidentally stabbing Makoto instead, albeit nonfatally. Overwhelmed with remorse that Makoto ended up getting hurt as a result of her actions, Sayaka decides to make up for it by making good on her earlier promise to be Makoto's assistant in his investigations at Hope's Peak, something that will be absolutely needed as their fellow students begin succumbing to Monokuma's motivations to commit murder...
The story can be found at Archive of Our Own here and at Fanfiction.net here.
Tropes (Spoilers regarding the canon events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc are unmarked):
- Accidental Murder: Sakura called "Junko" to the gym in order to ask about the athleticism she showed earlier upon avoiding Ishimaru's breakfast spilling on her. Mukuro, fearing her cover was blown, attacked Sakura, resulting in a struggle between the two that ended with Sakura being forced to strangle her to death.
- Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed; Sakura may have committed murder in addition to her canon role as The Mole, but as mentioned above, it was Accidental Murder and she was even going to confess to the others if Monokuma hadn't forced her to hide her crime and frame Sayaka for it.
- The Atoner: Sayaka is determined to make things right between her and Makoto again after stabbing him.
- Big "WHAT?!": Asahina, when Makoto names Sakura as the culprit in the first Class Trial.
- Borrowed Catchphrase/Meaningful Echo: After Sayaka finally makes peace with Makoto after the first trial, she begins to say she would never have attempted to graduate if she'd known about the Class Trials, only for Makoto to finish her sentence for her. When she asks how he knew what she was going to say, Makoto replies: "I'm psychic...kidding. I just have pretty good intuition."
- Clear My Name: Sayaka finds herself being accused of being the killer in the first Class Trial. Though she does make a commendable effort at bringing up reasonable doubt, it's ultimately Makoto and Kirigiri who end up exposing the actual culprit.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Sayaka is shown to have this attitude with Kirigiri and "Junko's" flirting with Makoto.
- Death by Adaptation: Type 2 example. In canon, Sakura was the last person to die in the Killing Game barring Junko herself. Here, she's the first blackened to be executed.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted; Makoto doesn't immediately forgive Sayaka for stabbing him, and things remain cool between them until after the first Class Trial.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Togami's not evil, just an asshole, but he's still visibly stunned when Kyoko reveals that Sakura wanted to be discovered as the murderer during the first trial.
- Monokuma can't understand why the students continue to support Sakura despite knowing that she was his mole and was the first to commit murder.
- Foreshadowing: More hints are given as to "Junko's" actual identity as Mukuro here than in canon, such as managing to effortlessly avoid getting hit with Ishimaru's breakfast after he accidentally spills it and putting up a fight against Sakura before getting killed.
- In Spite of a Nail: Mukuro-as-Junko is still killed before the first Class Trial except this time, she's the victim instead of setting up a scene between her and Monokuma and getting double-crossed by her sister.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sayaka is horrified at the fact that she ended up injuring Makoto in her attempt to escape from the school. It only gets worse once she finds out about the Class Trials and realizes what she would have condemned her fellow students to if her murder plan had succeeded.
- Mythology Gag: Sakura's execution is based off of her unused execution from the Danganronpa handbook.
- Once More, with Clarity: Intermission 1 re-shows the previous chapters from Makoto's viewpoint, providing explanation behind his actions taken in them.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Junko ended up getting everything she wanted from the first murder and Class Trial, but it ended up costing her both her sister and her mole in the group. Of course, knowing Junko and her despair fetish, she might actually be pleased by this result.
- Say My Name: Hina screams Sakura's name after the latter's execution.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: It's strongly implied that Kyoko knows about Sayaka's stabbing of Makoto.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Sayaka is not the first victim of the Killing Game and continues to participate in it. Naturally, this extends to Leon as well, who does not become the first blackened and survives past the first trial.
- The Voice: Sayaka is constantly tormented by a voice in her head telling her that she's a horrible person and how she should be pleased by the misfortunes the Hope's Peak students are going through.
- Was It All a Lie?: Makoto asks this of Sayaka after she admits that she was planning to make Makoto the fall guy in her murder scheme. She's quick to reassure him that it wasn't.
- Wham Line: Not really one for the readers, considering everyone whose played through the game already knows about the twist, but Monokuma's comments after the first voting definitely qualifies as one for the characters In-Universe:Monokuma: You got the traitor killed off in the first round. It's almost sad, really.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Discussed, then averted; While Sayaka's attempting to sew up Makoto following the stabbing, the aforementioned voice in her head states that her plan could still be salvaged by switching around her planned victim and scapegoat (re: Let Makoto die, switch the nameplates back, then let Leon take the fall). She's quick to shoot that idea down, feeling that rescuing her band isn't worth the death of someone as pure as Makoto.
