Nightmare Fuel / The PreDespair Kids

While mostly a Dramedy series, this is still a work set in the Danganronpa universe. Of course things will be disturbing. All spoilers for the canon series will be unmarked, however major spoilers for the work itself will be marked.

Beware of potential spoilers!

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The Predespair Kids

• Junko's despair sprites are already disturbing enough on their own, but some her answers manage to make them even worse.
  • Monaca's no slouch at making disturbing comments with a Nightmare Face on either.
• Hajime being framed as a Panty Thief by the Ultimate Prankster and then hunted down by the girls is mostly funny. However, Sonia's reaction to the news is...startling
• Hiyoko and Yasuke's murders during the Hope's Peak Arc. We don't actually see them, but they're described in vivid detail.
• Experiment 672-BYR. It's a chemical created by Seiko Kimura with the intent to help people eat foods they didn't particularly like. Unfortunately, it turned into a deadly poison that acts faster or slower depending on how long ago the recipient ate. Once it takes effect, the victim's throat swells shut and they suffocate to death. Unless it comes into contact with chlorine, which causes it to become instantly lethal. And Hope's Peak is fine with just letting this stuff sit in the chem lab unattended.
  • Even worse? The tablets are practically indistinguishable from rice. Celeste uses this to her advantage to kill Hiyoko and Yasuke, and to almost kill Leon.
• The Ultimate Despairs are far more brutal and insidious than their canon counterparts. Rather than go full-force with tragic events, they've been taking their time planning and pushing people in the right direction. And since they're the ones in control of the blog, only the audience knows who any of them are and nothing can be done to warn the students.
  • They also have absolutely no problem with killing their own members if they feel they become liabilities. Case and point, when Celeste attempts to escape the school after being identified as the one who killed Hiyoko and Yasuke, they snipe her on her way out.
  • Not to mentioned, unlike in canon, they are Not Brainwashed. Junko's followers simply fell victim to her charms, or, in Maverick's case, are simply helping her For the Evulz.
  • As a counselor, Maverick makes the disturbingly accurate comparison to a cult.
  Because no matter what we try to do...we’re just slaves to despair in the end, aren’t we?
• Most of the execution concepts for the Original Characters are pretty dark and gruesome.
  • One Final Job: Sly is given a knife and a time limit to navigate a narrow hallway full of traps. When he manages to make it to the end, he finds a room with a large chair. He spins it around and finds a lifelike doll of the man who was the hardest for him to kill: his own father. Overcome with despair, he runs out the timer and is stabbed in the back with a hundred knives.
  • The Chamber: Kyoji is trapped in an empty metal room with large windows. A rubber hose comes down from the ceiling and begins filling the room with a toxic mist- the very bioweapons he'd created. While he's only visible as a silhouette, he begins puking up his own organs and the skin on his right arm falls off. Eventually he disappears into the mist...only for his bloody hand to then smack against one of the windows, writing the word "Hope" before he dies. We never get a clear look at what the toxins do to him.
  • Rina's execution: Two words. Human taxidermy.
  • Maverick's Execution: Trapped in a room where the walls plastered with all the things he's said to manipulate others and pictures he's used to blackmail people. The walls slowly begin to close in, slowly crushing him. However, considering he's with the Remnants purely For the Evulz, it's hard to deny that he deserves it.
  • No Hope: Karma is stuck in a room with voices sounding like her father and friends yelling "You killed her!", "This torture is what you deserve.", "You can't do anything right." while a small TV plays 0, getting no food or water. Then she'd hear voices saying "We're coming to save you!" only to be crushed by a giant hot iron.
  • Suzumu: Forced to fill out paperwork with a monokuma pen that generates electricity that eventually electrocutes her.
  • Destruction Time: Ethos is being chased around the roof of a building by a giant Monokuma wielding a sledgehammer, which eventually crushes him.
• Maverick Storm. What was title when he was a student of Hope's Peak Academy? Ultimate Manipulator. Yes, this guy was so good at breaking people and getting them to do what he wanted that the so-called "school of hope" invited him to attend. Now he's back, and he's decided to help the Ultimate Despair movement because he finds it amusing. Worst of all, he's now working as the school's guidance counselor under the alias "Alexander Miles." Considering all the psychological turmoil the students are undergoing... He's also good at photo manipulation, photoshopping Kyoji and Mikan doing "less than decent things" together, and one has to wonder how often he's done this before.
  • He's also responsible for an incident that hospitalized half the 75th class and left Miaya wheelchair bound. He thought it was pretty hilarious.
  • He had a lovely little conversation with Karma, in which he mentions a school shooting where his girlfriend's brother brought an assault rifle to school, crippled his sister, and killed a lot of other students. At the end of the conversation, it's heavily implied that Maverick manipulated him into doing what he did.
    • He later tries to kill this man, wanting to use him as a test subject for Kyoji's bioweapon.
  • The worst part? He knows he's a bastard and fully embraces it without a hint of remorse.
  "Trust me when I say that I am probably one of the worst men on the face of the earth, and I embrace that. I enjoy watching people suffer, I enjoy leaking secrets to the public (...) In short, there are countless ways I can completely ruin your life and the lives of those you love without even touching anyone."
  • He finally made due on his threat to ruin the school's reputation by ordering Junpei to upload all the images and files he's obtained to the internet. And this is just before the practical exams too.
  • Exiting Stage Left... for now. is a scene focusing on him, and full of Paranoia Fuel. After losing his leg, he's made his way to a former classmate, forced him to make a prosthetic leg, and then killed him. He then realizes he's been thinking too small, and, leaving evidence to frame the murder on Kyoji, leaves, promising to return more dangerous than before.
  • Word of God states that he talked his foster father into committing suicide. When he was 6 years old.
• Kyoji Nakamura, the Ultimate Geneticist, also deserves a mention. While he's been a pretty Nice Guy so far, it's also been established that he's created deadly bioweapons in the past. Bioweapons that can be tailored to only affect specific people or groups of people who share a similar trait...like being above a certain age. During Hiyoko and Yasuke's murder investigations, he admits to Kyoko that, if he wanted to kill someone, he would put a synthetic skin coating over his arm and then smear the hand with a deadly toxin. All it would take is one touch. There are also references to "the things he's done" which have yet to be elaborated on, but are apparently enough to make Junpei momentarily rethink becoming a Remnant of Despair. And we still have absolutely no idea which side he really supports or what his true end goals are. At the very least, he seems to be opposed to the despairs.
  • After Maverick threatens him with the fake photos of him and Mikan, he issues a threat of his own. And it's safe to assume he's not kidding.
  "If I find out you despairs did something to Mikan, the next cookie you eat will be your last. But who knows, maybe you’ll come to enjoy the taste of anthrax spores. Of course, I promised to stay out of your way. Just make sure you stay out of mine."
  • As an added bonus, look up the symptoms of ingested anthrax. They are not pleasant.
  • He also has some pretty...extreme methods of motivating himself. Namely by carving the names of all the dead students into his forearm so he can never passively accept their deaths.
  • And then there's his BT-22 bioweapon. It makes adult cardiac muscle wither away to dust. He demonstrates this using a cloned version of Jin Kirigiri's heart, which turns grey and shrivels up in seconds. Maverick also wanted to use it on a person, though Kyoji convinces him to let the guy go. Kyoji also points out how, with his tight deadline, this is the final product after he had to cut a lot of corners. Imagine what kind of weapons he could create if devoted his full attention to them.
    • As it turns out, the gas he gives to Maverick is fake. However, he clearly made a small sample of the weapon to use to make the video... what's to say that he won't be forced into making it again?
  • There are also implications in story and from his creator that Mikan is his Morality Chain. If something were to happen to her, he might abandon all morality and restraint if it means eliminating the despairs. Just think about that for a second.
  • For his practical exam, he engineered a swarm of fire ants. As in literal fire-breathing ants. Feel free to let your imagination run wild with even more horrifying possibilities now.
• The above two entries also lend themselves to some Fridge Horror: what if Hope's Peak had poured both their talents into Izuru Kamukura?
• During her conversation with Kyoji/Mr. Otashi, Mikan tells a story of how a girl once stole a knife from her school's kitchen and stabbed her arm with it. While it wasn't deep, she still needed a lot of bandages to stop the bleeding. And this happened back when Mikan was in preschool.
  Mr. Otashi: (Damn. So it really goes back that far?) That's....w-why the hell did she do that?!
  Mikan: D-did there have t-to be a r-reason…?
• The "Your Despair" update. Junko makes a brief reappearance and gives Junpei a mission: build her an army using the blog. This. Will not. End well.
• Karma Graves, the Ultimate Secret Agent. While she might act like a goofy 90's kid, she has knowledge and access to lord knows how many government secrets. Give her enough time and she could probably start a war. And she may or may not have sided with the Remnants of Despair.
• "The Beginning of The End." Junko reappears on the blog from an unknown location, speaking directly to the audience about how the final showdown is coming soon and that everything will end in despair.
• Mod J's response to Naomi asking what the 79th class will do for their practical exams is Paranoia Fuel
  Mod J: Well, you’ll see Junpei’s soon enough
  • It doesn't help that when talking to Karma about the exams, he said he'll just show some stuff from his blog. Given Junko's latest order to him... This will not end well
  • Believe it or not, this gets worse. Maverick ordered Junpei to upload all the photoshopped images and files to the internet. This Is Gonna Suck doesn't even begin to describe the situation.
• "Confidential Information" provides some insight into the Izuru Kamukura Project. Namely that the Steering Committee went through seven subjects before getting to Hajime. The first one fell into a coma during the procedure and was euthanized after four days, with their death covered up as an allergic reaction. The second was a partial success, but was terminated on sight after attempting to escape before a follow-up procedure. The fourth was granted superhuman powers, but deemed too unpredictable to be of use to them. They were lucky enough not to be terminated, since they were actually a main course student. They instead had their memories altered before they were placed back as if nothing happened...without removing their abilities or correcting their instability. The seventh was apparently a success, but they hanged themselves after eight days of dealing with insomnia, intense headaches, paranoia, anger, and auditory hallucinations. The Committee decided to address this in their newest iteration of the procedure...by purging all information not related to acquiring and holding talent from their next subject's mind. It really shows just how little the Steering Committee regards the lives of the Reserve Course students.
• At one point, Kyoji asks Monaca what she stands to gain from helping Junko. Her response?
  "Some people just want to watch the world burn. Of course, I also want to see things the way Big Sis Junko sees them. I bet it’s a wonderful world of despair..."
  • And she says this with a giant smile plastered across her face.
• Word of God states that Karma lost her virginity in the basement of their house. May I remind you she was 13 at most then? And that there were very few people with access to her, her father being one?
• In "A Final Attempt", Kyoji attempts to dissuade Junpei from doing ...whatever he's going to do during the practical exam. He tells the younger boy about the worst thing he's ever done. In very, very graphic detail.
  Kyoji: Do you want to know what I consider the worst thing I’ve ever done?
  Junpei: ...what is it?
  Kyoji: One of the people I experimented on…the whole time, all he did was cry. He didn’t scream or beg or anything else. He just cried his eyes out as I ripped out pieces of his organs. I thought it was distracting…so I lobotomized him. I shoved a spike through his eye socket and shredded his frontal lobe. He stopped crying after that. Out of everything I’ve done, that’s always stuck with me. The fact that I regressed to the most inhumane procedure ever devised just to get some peace of mind.
  Junpei: Wh…..what……? Th-that’s a lie, right…? Th-there’s no way that’s the truth….
  Kyoji: Why would I lie about something like that? And he was just one of hundreds of others.
• A week after the practical exams, things aren't looking good. There's a sudden spike in riots and crime not only in town, but around the world. The students are confined to the school as things begin falling apart. And just to make matters worse, Monaca shows up at the school gate with an army of Monokumas, who begin acting as suicide bombers throughout the school. This really is the beginning of the despair.
  Monaca: Ah...the sounds of coming despair...how it makes me feel right at home...This is... the real beginning of the end...
• Despair Arrival. The remnants have been given special badges so the Monokumas won't attack them, the Death Flag victims have been selected (but not revealed), and Junko's back.
• After Kyoji runs into Junko again, she reveals that, thanks to the media coverage from the practical exams, the total number of despairs worldwide now exceeds 3 BILLION. This is the point where Kyoji crosses the Godzilla Threshold- he'd hoped to rehabilitate her and the Remnants of Despair, but seeing how dangerous the situation really is, he throws all that out the window. As such, he takes out a scalpel and begins mutilating himself- stabbing himself in the arm, abdomen, and even gouging out his own eye- in order to send a red flag to his allies.
• There are three Remnants of Despair hiding out among the group. And you'd never expect who they are.
  • First one we find out? It's IBUKI. Nagito only finds this out because kept calling the robots attacking everyone Monokumas, which she couldn't possibly know at this point. And she reveals that her goal was to get him alone, since his death flag was raised. Then she stabs him in the heart and tells him that his luck's run out, complete with a Nightmare Face.
  • The second is Kazuichi. It almost looks as if he's going to kill Sonia for the second Death Flag kill... but instead, he cuts open his own stomach, with his last words being
  Kazuichi: S-sorry... Sonia...m-make sure you...and Gundam...s-survive…..*Collapses*
  • The third? CHIHIRO, who blasts Sakura four times with a shotgun, then threatens Hajime that if he even tries to help her, Chihiro will kill him. He leaves with this chilling line:
  Chihiro: Hmm….that wasn’t as despairing as I expected it to be…..guess I’ll just have to go for someone closer to me next time……well, at least my part is done.
  • Just how long were these three despairs anyway? How much of what they've said and done has been an act?
• "Storms." Just when you thought Maverick Storm couldn't be any more of a monster, he brutally murders Ted Chikatilo, his best friend. He convinces Ted to create a bomb for him and then asks him to come to Hope's Peak's Library, where he manipulates Ted's feelings for him, giving Ted a Kiss of Death...where he arms the bomb before shoving Ted onto a metal desk leg and leaving him to die. And as he leaves the ruins of Hope's Peak, he thinks to himself "Two down, twelve to go." He intends on killing all his former classmates.
• As nice as it is that Class 79 is alive and together after the Fall of Hope's Peak, there's also the major underlying detail that Sadao Irunami, one of the despairs, is with them. What's his talent? Ultimate Hypnotist. This can't end well.
• In "The Despairs," the titular group begins discussing the next step of their plan: going after those closest to the survivors and, presumably, taking them to Towa city. When Monaca asks why Chihiro wants to throw his dad into the mess, he gives us this lovely expression◊ and another chilling line.
  "If my dad dies in your plan…imagine the despair that would bring!"
• During their helicopter escape, Kyoji holds out his left arm and mentions that it's his second. Considering Kyoji is Made of Iron, it's questionable as to how it happened, although his past leaves one possibility: he was so guilt-stricken that over all the people he'd hurt and everything he'd done that he self-harmed to the point where he needed an arm transplant.

The Despair Kids

• According to Taka, in the weeks following the Fall of Hope's Peak, the number of despairs worldwide has jumped to anywhere from 4-4.5 billion worldwide. That's more than 60% of the global population.
• After Kyoji dropped out of Hope's Peak Academy, Maverick apparently turned the class into his own mini-empire. Considering the type of person he is... that had to be hell for all of Class 75.
• In his conversation with Miaya, Kyoji mentions that, thanks to all the fires, nukes, and pollutants the despairs are directly adding into the atmosphere, the world is potentially heading into a nuclear winter. For the record, that means the majority of sunlight would be blocked from reaching the surface of the Earth, dropping global temperatures and causing widespread loss of crops and livestock. And if starvation weren't enough of a problem, Kyoji also points out that the ozone layer could be be damaged. This was a real danger confirmed by researchers during the Cold War. In less than 17 months, you'd be horribly sunburned by ultraviolet rays if you were outside for more than six minutes without protection. And you probably thought that red sky was just for aesthetic effect, huh?
• In less than a month, 270 million have died due to the Tragedy, which is almost 5 times as the casualties of World War II. And that's a low estimate.
• Not only have the despairs stolen Kyoji's notes on human cloning, but he's also afraid they may have stolen date on his...other projects. Things like an artificial blight that only kills specific crops, an toxic aerosol that eats away at human skin, a cancer bomb, plans for various organic weapons, and even a goddamn zombie virus Fortunately, he was smart enough to leave them intentionally incomplete and only he has the knowledge to get them to work.
  • Kyoji also proves himself to be more and more of a Horrifying Hero with his upgrades, such as a Blade Below the Shoulder made of bone. Mikan and the audience had similar reactions when he revealed it.
• The look on Sayaka's face as she's about to try and kill Kyoji.
  • There's also the moment when her horrified look turns into a smile while talking about cutting despair out of the world with her machete in hand, or the one where she flip-flops between Sanity Slippage and Tranquil Fury. Poor girl has not had an easy time out there.
• Kin explains how she learned of Maverick's murder plot. She and two other students from Class 75, Mai Asari and Hirotoda Ito, were hiding out on a farm outside of Tokyo. They were okay for about two weeks before Maverick showed up with a group of people and started torturing and killing Mai's horses. Mai grabbed her shotgun, but it didn't work properly, and she was captured. Maverick killed her by Force Feeding her the mutilated pieces of her favorite horse until she choked to death.
  • Only slightly less disturbing is the death of her fiance, who had the entire clip of a gun emptied into his head. Maverick seems to be operating off of No Kill like Overkill
• "The Experiments" has the Warriors of Hope, in all their Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, discussing Monaca's experiments with reanimating cadavers (presumably using Kyoji's zombie virus) and how they actually worked. Four Times.
  • As it turns out, those four are Celeste, Kazuichi, Nagito, and Natsumi.
• After a Lighter and Softer bit, the next arc takes a straight turn into Darker and Edgier: Yuuko kidnaps many of the Future Foundation members and traps them in a maze. They all have to navigate through a series of challenge rooms in pairs, with only one victor getting to move on. Whoever reaches Yuuko at the end wins. And to make matters worse, everyone has an NG Code guaranteeing none of it will be easy.
  • Kyoji and Chisa's challenge is called Rapier Roulette. Basically, they have to stab each other with a collection of swords- only one of which is real. Whoever gets stabbed with the real one loses. Thankfully, it ends before it can really begin.
• During Kyoji's Battle in the Center of the Mind, he's confronted by visions of all the dead and despairified students, many of whom are understandably angry at him. While he does manage to talk many of them down, he's ultimately confronted by a vision of Izuru, who quizzes him with what he calls "Kyoji Nakamura's Ultimate Mistake." How could the despairs create Izuru if cloning doesn't replicate memories and personality? How many Izurus are around right now? Why did Hajime spend so long as the odd one out in the Main Course? Easy answer: Hajime already underwent the Izuru Kamukura Project. He doesn't remember it because the school erased his memories, just like they did to Rogue. And the despairs cloned him.
• It turns out that Nagito, Kazuichi, Celeste, and Natsumi weren't brought back with Kyoji's zombie virus. Rather, they were brought back thanks to Ryokai Araki, the Ultimate Exorcist. And apparently their resurrections required a mix of powerful magic and human sacrifices.
• When Nakashima is outed as the one behind Sadao's murder, he states that he's actually NOT the killer, rather someone else in the Foundation is. The face he makes when he tells them the killer is still among them is a little unsettling, with the wicked smirk and the red glow of his eyes.
• Maverick's nightmare. First, when Junko confronts him, he completely flips his shit and begins attacking her, strangling her. Then, shit gets weird. Maverick shoves his fingers into her eyes, and they come out the other side of her skull. Then her head pops right off in his hands. He lifts it up, only for the head to detach from the hair and drop to the floor, reassembling itself into his daughter's head.
• Natsumi's weapon which appears as a leaf blower, but has the power to completely inhale entire sections of the human body when in range. As shown when she uses it on a prisoner, completely ripping off his torso.