Roleplay / Class Trials ET 5

An Experimental Trial Series from the r/Danganroleplay Subreddit which began with a murder trial in which all the characters were transformed into clones of Ibuki. This series features a body-swapping theme as the characters change bodies with every trial. It currently features three sequels, with two more planned to wrap up the storyline. Began in the First Season of Experimental Trials.

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General Tropes for the Series

• Canon Immigrant: Despair Ibuki, previously the blackened of the fourth Class Trial and the victim of the Killer Trial, seemingly acts as the host of the first four trials.
• Continuity Nod: The victims of the Ibuki, Sayaka, and Miu trials are all found in positions that are nearly identical to how Ibuki, Sayaka, and Miu's bodies were discovered in the original games.
• Evil Doppelgänger: An evil version of Ibuki known as Despair Ibuki acts as the host of the first four trials, while the regular Ibuki participates as a regular player.
• Five-Man Band Concert: Wanting to try his hand at rockstardom, Kaito forms a rock band with Ibuki, Shuichi, Keebo, and Sayaka that lasts until Ibuki's death.
• Gender Bender: All of the students find themselves in female bodies for the first three trials.
  • First Law of Gender Bending: Kaito also continues to keep finding himself in female bodies even during later trials where they are all receiving unique bodies
• Hidden Villain: A mysterious traitor writes a threatening letter to Sayaka and pushes Ibuki down a flight of stairs to incite a murder in the second and third trials of the series.
• Humanity Ensues: While searching the island after first arriving, the students discover a cow that has also become an Ibuki copy, with said Cow becoming a reoccurring character throughout the series.
• Master Actor: Kokichi tends to be very good at pretending to be other characters whenever the opportunity arises.
• Me's a Crowd: For the first three trials, every single character was transformed into an identical clone.
• Running Gag: During the first four trials, it's never quite clear as to which Byakuya is the real one.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The Ultimate Imposter becomes one for Byakuya as he takes advantage of the identical bodies to insist upon being the true Byakuya Togami.
• Transformation Ray: Despair Ibuki makes use of one to change the bodies of the students around.
• Villain Decay: Despite the original Despair Ibuki having been a reasonably capable blackened, the Despair Ibuki in this series proves to be significantly less competent at actually running a killing game.

Experimental Trial 5 - The Ibuki Trial

An Ibuki from another World who fell into Despair is brought back to life and proceeds to transform the participants of a Killing Game into clones of herself. It isn't long before one of the new Ibukis is found hanging in the Music Venue. Not only must they find out who the killer is, but the participants now must solve the mystery of who the victim among them even is.

Tropes for The Original Trial

• Absence of Evidence: Angie is eventually identified as Tsumugi in disguise on the basis that she's the only person who made sure to have an alibi for the entire period of time when the Victim could have been hanged in the trap
• Dead All Along: Angie
• Death Trap: Tsumugi kills Angie with one, drugging her and setting her up to be hanged while she secures an alibi.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Tsumugi briefly turns everybody into copies of Hifumi, who'll go on to be a significant character in future trials
• I Can Live With That: After the students are briefly turned into Hifumi clones, the class finds their transformations into Sayaka clones to be a relief.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Tsumugi's motive, having wanted the opportunity to become whoever she wanted.
• Kill and Replace: Tsumugi spends the trial imitating her victim, Angie.
• Master Actor: Tsumugi impersonates Angie's personality quite well.
• Spot the Imposter: What the mystery boils down to, as it becomes clear that Tsumugi is the culprit, but the students must figure out exactly who the victim that Tsumugi is impersonating.
• Time-Delayed Death: Angie was abducted and placed in a hanging trap early in the morning, after which Tsumugi left her to eventually be strangled to death while she secured an alibi.

Experimental Trial 5-2 - The Sayaka Trial

A month has passed since the last trial ended and the inhabitants of Jabberwock Island became copies of Sayaka Maizono. When one of the Sayakas is found stabbed to death in Kokichi's cottage, another murder mystery begins.

Tropes for The Second Trial

• Couldn't Find a Pen: Hagakure manages to write Toko's name in blood, although Genocide Jack modifies it into Ibuki's name.
• Death Trap: Sayaka sets one up in the Music Venue.
• It Was There the Whole Time: Kokichi hid in a costume trunk throughout Ibuki and Kaito's band practice and stayed hidden while Sayaka built the Death Trap intended from him.
• Faking the Dead: The presumed victim Kokichi turns out to have swapped identities with Hagakure.
• Failed a Spot Check: Genocide Jack never notices that she was in Sayaka's body until after having already murdered somebody.
• The Killer in Me: Toko only learns at the end that Genocide Jack was the murderer, although she admits to having had a Gut Feeling
• Mistaken for Murderer: Genocide Jack, having not known about the body swapping, begins to believe that Sayaka is stalking her and plotting against her when she runs throughout the island and keeps finding Sayakas wherever she goes.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sayaka turns out to have backed out of her murder.
• The Stinger: A mystery Hope's Peak Academy student smuggles themselves onto Hope's Peak Academy in time to find themselves transformed into Miu as well.
• Swapped Roles: Kokichi and Hagakure swapped rooms and identities when Kokichi received a threatening letter and Hagakure had a vision of his own death.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: One of the Byakuya's purposely turned Toko into Jack in order to trick her into running off to look for her Master Byakuya.
  • Kokichi and Sayaka's attempts to protect themselves also lead to Hagakure being in the wrong cottage and mistakenly killed by a killer hunting down Sayaka.

Experimental Trial 5-3 - The Miu Trial

After a month of relative peace, the assembled Mius are shocked when one of their own is suddenly attacked. Another murder soon occurs in the Abandoned Lodge, but when they show up for the trial, an extra Miu joins them as well to solve their newest mystery.

Tropes for The Third Trial

• Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Ibuki presents the rope that she killed Kyoko with as evidence, with it ultimately backfiring when it's realized that it would've been impossible for the killer to dispose of it.
• Curiosity Killed the Cast: After the three of them found the body of an unknown victim, Kyoko stayed behind to investigate the scene while the other two discoverers went off to find more people, leaving her vulnerable enough for a hidden Ibuki to kill her and
• Eviler than Thou: The culprit turns out to be Ibuki, who begins to bully Despair Ibuki as the two bicker over which one is the eviller Ibuki.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: The trial ends with Despair Ibuki deciding to give everybody their bodies back, only to put them in the wrong bodies.
  • Specifically, Shuichi swaps with Rantaro, Keebo with Kokichi, Kaito with Tenko, and Sayaka with Sonia.
  • In less clear-cut examples, Celeste is unfortunate enough to end up as the absent Hifumi, Miu ends up as Celeste. Despair Ibuki claims to have swapped bodies with Ibuki, and Byakuya continues to argue with the Imposter over which one is the real Byakuya when they seemingly end up as each other.
• How Do I Shot Web?: After ending up in Keebo's body, Kokichi finds himself having trouble with his newfound robotic functions.
• Impersonating an Officer: The culprit quickly turns out to have imitated Kyoko during the investigation to keep anybody else from performing an autopsy or investigating the secret room underneath the crime scene
• Kick the Morality Pet: Ibuki kills the Cow that she'd become so attached to as a method of throwing off the Body Discovery Announcement with a fake body.
• Kill and Replace: Ibuki briefly does this to Kyoko, but goes back to her true identity as soon as the investigation is over.
• Mysterious Stranger: An extra Participant shows up at the trial and refuses to reveal their identity, only being exposed as Rantaro in the conclusion
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Upon returning to the Abandoned Lodge to investigate the underground passage, the students discover a second Miu corpse hidden below the victim.
• Sixth Ranger: A mystery player eventually revealed to be Rantaro joins the Killing Game
• Unknown Character: Hifumi is revealed to have also disappeared along with the participants of the Killing Game, with his whereabouts and role in the plot being left unclear.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Ibuki adopts Kyoko's identity during the investigation as one, having had no way to determine who would end up alone with the body

Experimental Trial 5-4 - The Swapping Trial

Now swapped into each other's bodies, the Killing Game participants learn that Despair Ibuki has hidden devices known as Mind Swappers throughout the islands capable of swapping their minds back to their rightful bodies. However, the body-swapping situation only gets more tangled as more and more devices are misused, until whoever was in Shuichi's body is found speared to death in the newly opened Ancient Ruins.

Tropes for The Fourth Trial

• Attending Your Own Funeral: Rantaro ends up as a participant in what is essentially his own murder trial before their minds are restored.
• Big Bad Friend: Miu is revealed to be the Mastermind, operating a Black Market that sells the bodies of Ultimate Students to the rich and powerful.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Miu seems to form one with Kazuo Tengan.
• Brainwash Residue: After months of believing himself to be Despair Ibuki, Hifumi's personality becomes a blend of his and Ibuki's when his real memories are restored.
• Connected All Along: Inverted. Despair Ibuki is revealed to be a brainwashed Hifumi with Fake Memories, meaning that the series is no longer connected to the fourth Class Trial.
• Dead All Along: With the Mind Swappers being revealed as Brainwashing devices, the true victim of the case is revealed to be Rantaro, with the Rantaro who had been participating in the trial doomed to disappear whenever the brainwashing is undone.
• Death Trap: A spear trap is used to fatally wound Rantaro.
• Fake Memories: Despair Ibuki turns out to be Hifumi, brainwashed with a set of these.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: By the time the trial starts, every player except for the Byakuyas, Tenko, and (seemingly) Celeste has ended up in a new body besides the one they received in the previous trial. They get restored to their previous bodies late in the trial though.
  • The trial ends with everybody getting new bodies, this time receiving the bodies of characters from outside of the Trial series.
• Genuine Imposter: The Byakuya in the Imposter's body honestly thought that he was the real Byakuya after some Grand Theft Me, having accidently brainwashed himself with a misused Mind Swapper.
• Grand Theft Me:
  • The Imposter attempted to steal Byakuya's body, but accidently copied Byakuya's mind into himself.
  • After accidently replacing Keebo's mind with his own, one of the Kokichis decides to replicate the process on Celeste to see if he could figure out how the device works.
  • Celeste also made an attempt to steal Sonia's body, only to end up as a victim of it herself when one of the Kokichis overwrote her mind with his own.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sayaka and Shuichi both tried to pull this by swapping bodies with the fatally wounded Rantaro.
• I Gave My Word: Having been stuck in Kaito's body, Tenko agreed to swap bodies with Sonia to have a chance of capturing Despair Ibuki and swears that Sonia won't have to stay as him. When the plan fails, she chooses to return to Kaito's sickly body before the trial begins.
• Ignored Aesop: Twogami warns Byakuya about his temper after having killed somebody while believing himself to be Byakuya. Byakuya brushes him off.
• Me's a Crowd: The Mind Swappers turn out to be capable of copying memories into other bodies essentially creating two individuals with the same memories, with it being used to create two Byakuya Togamis and three Kokichi Omas among the cast.
• Mook–Face Turn: After being freed from the brainwashing that turned him into Depair Ibuki, Hifumi joins the trial's cast.
• Not His Sled: The Ancient Ruins are opened up and turn out to no longer be a replica of Hope's Peak Academy.
• Only in It for the Money: Miu's motive behind the killing game.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Around halfway through the trial, "Keebo" and "Celeste" suddenly become The Gadfly and make ridiculous accusations towards each other and intentionally confuse their classmates with silly lies and elaborate stories. After some confusion, Kokichi deduces that the two of them are actually copies of him.
• Rage Breaking Point: The Byakuya in the Imposter's body reached his when he believed himself to have had his body stolen, attacking the other Byakuya and going on to become the next killer
• Secretly Dying: Rantaro reveals that Kaito had a terminal illness before he was body swapped, which means that Tenko finds herself suffering from that illness instead.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When confronted for betraying her friends by Shuichi, Miu responds by pointing out some of the various insults she received from the other students earlier in the trial
• Sixth Ranger: Hifumi joins the cast partway through the trial.
• The Stinger: An escaped Miu calls up her accomplice, Kazuo Tengan in the body of Byakuya Togami, for aid.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: The code for the door to the Ancient Ruins turns out to be "0000". Somewhat subverted in that all the rooms inside are still locked.
• Tragic Mistake: In a moment of weakness, Twogami decided to take the Real Byakuya's body and ends up brainwashing himself to think that he was Byakuya, who responds to the supposed Body Theft with homicidal rage.
• Tragic Villain: The Ultimate Imposter turns out to be the killer, having accidently brainwashed himself to believe that he was Byakuya and then engineered a murder plot out of anger for having had his body stolen.
• Transferable Memory: The actual function of the Mind Swappers, being able to simulate a body swap by swapping the memories of two users or able to brainwash a user into thinking that they were somebody else.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Tenko leaves the Ancient Ruins unlocked after managing to enter, which allows the killer to set the death trap.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The killer intended to set up their death trap in the Library, only switching locations to the Ancient Ruins when he found it wide open.
• Wham Episode: Miu is revealed to not only be the mystery traitor who incited the previous two murders but also the inventor of the Body Swapping technology and the Mastermind of the Killing Game.