Danganronpa: Brightmere Mysteries
is a "Submit Your Own Character" Danganronpa fanfic by WritersMind15. It began on April 2019 and was finished on December 2024 with 66 chapters.
The story follows Masashi Kousaki, a fairly average high school boy who finds himself in Brightmere Mirthyard, a strange amusement park that is actually a ship sailing through the sea. He is not alone, as seventeen other high school students are here as well, and each of them is an Ultimate. Though Masashi's no actual Ultimate, he finds that he's been given the title of Ultimate Lucky Student. Soon, the eighteen students meet Monokuma, the crazy black-and-white bear we all know and love, and they learn from him that if they want to leave this place, they'll have to kill someone and get away with the crime or die trying...
The fic now has a sequel by the title of Danganronpa: Wind's Rising
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Danganronpa: Brightmere Mysteries contains examples of:
- Abandon Ship: At the end of Chapter 5, a group of mercenaries suddenly attacks the main ship, so the remaining survivors and Monokuma escape on a lifeboat.
- Abusive Parents: Sayua's father and stepmother used to beat her, but she managed to get them to stop by threatening to reveal her injuries to the police.
- Accidental Murder: Mari ends up becoming the blackened when she feeds Hikari an "antidote", which ends up being poison instead.
- Affably Evil: Mizugami, who's quite polite and well-mannered during his appearance in Chapter 6.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The culprits get this for the most part since in the end, the characters know that it's Monokuma that compels them to kill in the first place. Even Sorao, easily one of the most detestable characters of the story, gets this treatment in his last moments, as Faye, his killer and someone he's tormented, doesn't feel happy at all about his death, and Masashi later laments that Sorao could've learned to repent and become a good person.
- Anyone Can Die: As expected of a Danganronpa story.
- Asshole Victim:
- A mild case of this for the victim of Chapter 1. Everyone agrees that Atsushi was a pretty unpleasant guy, and his death has few long-term effects on the characters other than establishing that the killing game is no joke, but the characters still acknowledge that he didn't deserve to die.
- Sorao, hands down. Besides all the crap he did long before his death, it's revealed that he even intended to kill Sayua by tricking her into thinking that she had killed him. And he would've succeeded if Faye hadn't unexpectedly interfered with his plan.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The fourth class trial reveals that Sorao intended to manipulate Takumi into killing Tanjiro. In the end, Takumi did, but in extremely different circumstances from what Sorao intended. What's more, neither Sorao nor Takumi is punished since the blackened is someone else completely.
- Beware the Silly Ones: The childish and eccentric storyteller Takumi is not only Tanjiro's killer but also the killing game mastermind.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Monokuma and the killing game mastermind, both of whom work for a group called Brightmere Research.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sorao. Comes off as nice and chill, but once it's revealed that he tried to indirectly kill Tanjiro by exploiting Arashi's murder plan, Sorao drops his facade and openly gloats about being a manipulator.
- Cerebus Syndrome: After Chapter 3, in which Sister Hikari, one of the kindest characters of the cast, dies, the overall tone becomes more dramatic, as there is more overt conflict going on between the characters, and moments of optimism and happiness become less frequent. It gets even worse after Mari's death, as Masashi becomes extremely detached from the cast, eventually tries to kill Sorao, fails, and ends up being locked up in his own room. Things only start to lighten up after Sorao is locked up, and Masashi regains his freedom and some trust from the group.
- Chekhov's Gun: Naturally for a mystery story.
- In Chapter 5, Monokuma gives the participants four syringes that can be used to tranquilize anyone. By the end of the chapter, all of them have been used. Maiha uses hers on Masashi when he tries to kill Sorao. Faye uses hers on Sorao after he attempts to flee. Sayua uses Sorao after he attacks her out of anger from learning about his true kinship with Tanjiro. And Kasumi tries to use hers on Sorao after she spots him in the simulation room, only for him to grab the syringe and use it on her instead.
- Sorao's pink camera. At first, Sorao only brings it up in his confession in Chapter 4 to show that he collaborated with Takumi to murder Tanjiro since the photo shows an incriminating timestamp. But even after Chapter 4 is over, the pink camera is brought up a few times. The photo ends up playing a great role in Chapter 6, as it proves that Takumi went to the music room after midnight and therefore should have had his name appear in the music room's security log. This one clue is what makes Masashi realize that Takumi is actually the mastermind.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: As per Danganronpa story standards, the caught killers are not let off without one of these.
- Chapter 1, The Woodland King Comes, has Haruka Minami, the Ultimate Clown, undergo The Amazing Clown's Last Act, which starts with her riding a mechanical elephant and through multiple obstacles, namely water-filled balloon animals, rings of fire, and a pit that causes the mechanical elephant to launch her onto the shoulders of a unicycle-riding Monokuma, who has to cross a tightrope over a pit of spikes. Monokuma successfully crosses while juggling, but then throws her into a cannon that fires her into the ground before more mechanical elephants trample over her.
- Chapter 2, The Lost Darling Beneath the Sands, has Abraham Zargari, the Ultimate Waiter, undergo One Dead Man, Coming Right Up!, which has him forced to serve several Monokumas on pain of death, leaving him extremely worn out. When he has to serve the last Monokuma (dressed as a businessman), one of them trips him and makes him spill the meal all over said Monokuma customer, enraging him. While he attempts to apologize, the businessman Monokuma slams him with a mounted jackal head, and the chef Monokumas then take him with them. Abraham is decapitated with the jackal head replacing his own head on his body, and the chef Monokuma serves the businessman Monokuma Abraham's decapitated head.
- Chapter 3, Thwarted by the Masked Player, has Arashi Seiya, the Ultimate Pyrotechnician, undergo Three Cheers and a Thousand Flares!. This has him chained to a pole at the top of a skyscraper and forced to dodge multiple fireworks, managing to avoid the first salvo. The Monokumas on the street boo this and send their own fireworks at him. managing to hit him in the chest. The second salvo, however, leaves him badly singed but free of his chains, though the Monokumas then send a much larger one to the roof, setting the whole roof on fire. Ultimately, Arashi dies falling from the roof to the street below.
- Chapter 4, Moonlight's Twofold Revelation, has Mari Anzai, the Ultimate Phenologist, undergo The Four Seasons' Doom, which begins with her in a vast forest, the greenery representing spring. However, Monokuma shows up in a bulldozer and tries to flatten her, but she manages to run away. The sun then begins increasing in intensity as if summer had started, and Monokuma manages to scratch her arm. Winds then blow as the leaves turn orange like they would in autumn, blowing them towards Monokuma and making him crash. However, then comes winter, which brings snow enough to reach Mari's knees alongside more winds, making her legs grow numb, and while she comes to think she'll die slowly in the snow, she meets her end at the hands of a lightning bolt that suddenly strikes her down.
- Chapter 5, Agony of Emptiness, has Faye Nirigiri, the Ultimate Patissier, undergo How to Make a Cake Like a Master Chef, which starts with her strapped to the bottom of a bowl. With that, several Monokumas begin mixing cake ingredients, managing to strike her constantly with whisks, flour, and more. She is then carted down a conveyor belt into an oven as if to be baked alive, but she ultimately turns out fine, baked into the cake and served to a giant Monokuma. Said massive Monokuma then cuts a piece and misses her, but finds the cake devoid of flavor, and repeatedly stomps on it and Faye in fury, reducing the cake and her to a gruesome mush.
- Chapter 6, Death from Relaxation, has Takumi Takamitsu, the Ultimate Storyteller and the Mastermind, undergo Final Chapter: Once Upon a Despair, which starts with him in a lush green field, only to also be confronted with a mob of Monokumas. His only escape being a giant beanstalk ala Jack and the Beanstalk, he quickly begins climbing it to escape the angry mob, who try to catch him but fail, leading to a heavenly cloud-like realm, with an angelic Monokuma offering a way out. Takumi, believing that he was given the chance to escape, takes the Monokuma's hand, only for it to throw him down the beanstalk, and with the other Monokumas hacking away at it, it falls on him and squishes him.
- Darkest Hour: In Chapter 5, Masashi hits rock bottom after he unsuccessfully tries to kill Sorao, and the others agree to lock him up in his own room. As a result, he is completely isolated from the others, and the only character that he interacts with for the most part is Monokuma, who uses this chance to reveal some unpleasant truths about him and a few other characters.
- Deuteragonist: Mari plays this role to Masashi since she works with him more and more as the killing game goes on, and eventually, Mari becomes the one person that Masashi clearly cares about most in the cast. This makes her death all the more devastating to him.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Of all the remaining survivors in Chapter 6, the mastermind turns out to be Takumi, the seemingly silly and kind-hearted storyteller.
- Dramatic Irony: Much of the fourth case has Masashi and Mari wonder who took the clinical dictionary from the library. The audience already knows that it was Sorao, but until this is revealed at the end of the fourth trial, the two suspect Faye, who acts pretty suspiciously in this case.
- Driven to Suicide: Two cases.
- Monokuma reveals to Masashi that Izumi, Mari's younger sister, tried to commit suicide after being bullied relentlessly at school. Fortunately, Mari arrived at home just in time to stop her.
- Sorao ends up deciding to kill himself after losing all sense of himself from learning that he had tried to kill Tanjiro, who turned out to be his half-brother, and thereby violated the one moral he held. Of course, that didn't stop him from trying to take everyone else down with him.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Hirohito, Kasumi's younger adoptive brother, hacks into Monokuma and joins the remaining survivors for the final investigation.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Repulsive as he is once he gives up his facade, Sorao appears to have genuine love for his mother and hopes that she won't learn the truth about him.
- The Everyman: Masashi. The fact that he's ordinary is the reason why he had to be given the title of Ultimate Lucky Student anyway. When he watches the security footage in which he madly laughs at his motive video all the way back in the second case, Monokuma forces him to accept the fact that he's not actually as normal as he thinks he is.
- Face Death with Dignity: Haruka, Abraham, Mari, and Faye accept their executions with no resistance, with Abraham showing the least emotion since he accepts that he's lost the killing game, so he concludes that there's no need to make a big fuss over it. Only Arashi and Takumi are distraught upon being executed, as Monokuma deliberately crushes Arashi's spirit before sentencing him, and Takumi unsuccessfully begs for mercy as Mizugami is ordered by his superior to execute him.
- The Ghost: Kurosaki, the man who attacked Keiko and disguised her attack as part of a failed burglary attempt. Despite playing a great role in Masashi's emotional breakdown, he's only mentioned in Chapter 6. The most you know about him is that he's open to using violence to get rid of potential obstacles.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The elites in charge of Mizugami's organization. They are never seen, but play a small role in the story, as they provide the money used for the third motive. One of the elites also watches the last class trial and orders Mizugami to kill Takumi as punishment.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: The night before his death, Sorao experiences a nightmare in which his inner self makes him see that not only did he violate one of his few moral principles by attempting to kill Tanjiro (who turned out to be his half-brother), but all the plotting to eliminate Tanjiro was utterly pointless since he had no plans to expose Sorao's secrets. As soon as Sorao realizes his guilt, he reaches his breaking point.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In Chapter 4, during the class trial, Mari realizes that she's the blackened and has the perfect opportunity to get away with the crime after Sorao mistakenly confesses to be the culprit. But out of love for Masashi, she instead points out a contradiction in the evidence that exposes her as the blackened.
- In Chapter 6, Hirohito, Kasumi's younger adoptive brother, reveals that during a prison camp breakout, his dad sacrificed himself to let Hirohito and the other prisoners escape.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Haruka would've gotten away with Atsushi's murder if she hadn't tried to frame Takumi. As part of the frame job, she put glitter on her hands, and she had gotten him to put glitter on his hands as part of the hunt for an imaginary "woodland king". But part of her scheme also involved climbing a rope (as part of her creating a fake alibi), and the glitter ended up getting on the rope. Now she had to hide the rope since if the others found it later, it would make it easy to deduce what she had done. So she had the idea of throwing the rope down to the deck where all the students' rooms are and then hiding the rope in her room... only for someone else to find the rope. And she didn't have enough time to retrieve the rope, anyway, since Masashi and the others find Atsushi's body not long after. Sorao remarks that all this could've been avoided if she had simply worn gloves.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Arashi never meant to kill Murphy when he attacked him with a bat. He simply wanted to knock him out. Too bad the blow was lethal enough to kill him some time later.
- In-Series Nickname: Everyone calls Takumi "Kumi". After the fourth class trial, all the remaining characters except Kasumi drop this. But even she drops this after Masashi proves that he's the mastermind.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Maiha remarks that Sorao ended up being right about Takumi only seeing Hikari as a tool instead of caring about her as a person.
- Karma Houdini: Even after the mastermind's death, Mizugami and his organization continue the killing games, though Masashi and his fellow survivors swear that someday, Mizugami will atone for what he's done. On a smaller scale, Kurosaki, one of Brightmere Research's members, also gets away with attacking Keiko in Mizugami's mansion.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Sorao believes in this wholeheartedly, and when he learns that Tanjiro, someone he tormented and then schemed to murder, was his half-brother, he breaks down as he realizes that he violated his one moral.
- Last Episode, New Character: Hirohito is mentioned in one of Kasumi's Free Time Events, but only appears in Chapter 6 when he hacks into Monokuma. Likewise, Mitsuji Mizugami is first mentioned in Chapter 5, but only becomes directly involved with the story at the end of the investigation in Chapter 6. Both characters don't appear in the flesh in Chapter 6, as they speak through Monokuma instead, but Hirohito appears in person in the epilogue.
- The Leader: Early on, the characters choose Futaba to be this since she's already started to tell people what to do in their situation, and she's far more likeable than Maiha, who suggested the idea of having a leader in the first place and isn't happy about being rejected. After Futaba dies, Sorao (who became her deputy after Atsushi's death) chooses Masashi to be their new leader, only to backstab him later. And way later, after Masashi loses everyone's trust from trying to kill Sorao, Maiha ends up becoming the leader (though ironically, at this point, she doesn't find much joy in it).
- Leave No Witnesses: Tanjiro tries to kill Takumi after the latter spots him crawling out of a vent. It doesn't end well for Tanjiro.
- Love Hurts: Quite a few characters fall in love throughout the story. Suffice it to say, it doesn't end well.
- Futaba confesses her love to Sorao after she loses her memories of her girlfriend. She already harbored feelings for Sorao, but held herself back since she was already in love, so the memory loss removed that self-imposed limitation. Then Futaba ends up being killed by Abraham, and Sorao is sad about it for a short while later.
- Masashi gradually becomes closer and closer to Mari. It's only after Mari's death that Sorao gets Masashi to admit that he outright loved her... and it ends almost in catastrophe when Masashi tries to kill Sorao because of it.
- Sayua ends up falling for Tanjiro, although it's more one-sided this time, and Sayua doesn't outright admit it. She becomes distraught after seeing Tanjiro's corpse in Chapter 4, and it's only in Chapter 6 that she admits to Masashi that she loved Tanjiro.
- Meaningful Name:
- "Brightmere" sounds like a random English name. Chapter 5 reveals that Mizugami named it after the shining lake by his English mentor's village back in Britain. The name literally means "shining lake".
- "Mizugami" sounds identical to how one can read the Japanese word for "water god".
- Not Afraid to Die: Mari. She was struck by lightning when she was a baby, and though she survived, she always thought that she had cheated death, so she began to believe in destiny and live life without worrying about her possible demise.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Despite coming off as dumb and silly, Takumi ends up being surprisingly intelligent since he quickly comes up with a scheme to cover up Tanjiro's "death" (although it turns out that Tanjiro was still alive after Takumi hit him, but Takumi's plan ended up killing him anyway). And it's also revealed that Takumi came up with a plan to poison a treat without being noticed and feed the treat to Sorao, which only failed because of an unforeseen event. Then Chapter 6 reveals the full truth behind Takumi's scheme of killing Sorao and the fact that he's the mastermind.
- Once per Episode: After Chapter 1, every chapter introduces a new ship, the characters explore it and slowly get used to life there, and then a new killing happens on the ship. Chapter 6 stops this, since the killing game ends up being postponed after mercenaries sink one of the ships and force the characters to evacuate.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Hikari Fey and Hikari Shinto both have the same first name, but the characters always refer to the latter as "Sister Hikari" (since she's a nun).
- Phantom Thief: Red Mask, aka Kasumi Ayukawa, is the Ultimate Phantom Thief, a talent that puts her at odds with Maiha due to the Ultimate Ballroom Dancer's distaste for thieves.
- Red Herring: All the cases end up having false leads.
- Case 1 - Takumi, since the glitter on the knife points to him, and he had glitter on his hands at the time, though he's so obvious a suspect that most people would probably suspect Sorao, who's revealed to have hidden a key piece of evidence before the investigation.
- Case 2 - Kasumi, Maiha, and Haruyuki, all of whom had lockpicks at the time and could've accessed the second exhibit room to retrieve the bat to kill Futaba with. Not only are none of them the killer, but the bat itself turns out to be a red herring, as the real murder weapon was one of the exhibit room's light orbs.
- Case 3 - Hikari becomes the main suspect since she could've climbed down to the crime scene to activate the cannon to kill Sister Hikari. Of course, if not her, then the other obvious suspects are Sayua (who could've activated the cannon from below) and Haruyuki (who has no alibi at all). The big red herring of the case ends up being how the cannon was activated; it wasn't activated by the button in the crime scene but instead by the button in the power room.
- Case 4 - Sorao ends up being the living embodiment of this, since he acts very suspiciously during the investigation and accuses other people of Hikari's murder such as Faye and Tanjiro. Of course, the reason is that he thinks that he is the culprit, so he acts to cover up his tracks. He even gets his own Argument Armament segment, to boot, so readers can easily be misled into thinking that he's the final opponent in the case. But as it turns out, Sorao didn't know a certain crucial piece of information that reveals that the blackened is someone else.
- Case 5 - Sayua ends up being this, since by the time she's suspected, there appear to be no other suspects, and she has no alibi for the time when Sorao is killed. It turns out that Sayua acted as Sorao's accomplice, and Sorao wanted to have her kill him. But as it turns out, Sorao was plotting to kill himself behind her back, so it's only natural to think that Sorao's the true culprit. Nope, the real blackened is someone whose "alibi" actually isn't an alibi at all.
- Case 6 - Haruyuki's entire character. Given his distant personality and his weird fascination with the killing game as an "observer", he is probably the one character that readers would suspect to be the mastermind. The author acknowledges that keeping him as a red herring for the mastermind is one reason why Haruyuki ends up being a survivor in the end.
- Rich Bitch: Maiha, who's pretty open about her elitism and her disdain for commoners. Masashi gets her to drop this later on as part of his deal with her not to agree to Sorao's proposal to lock her up.
- Sequel Hook: The epilogue mentions a bunch of mysteries that have not been resolved such as the identity of Mizugami's superiors and the question of who ordered the mercenaries to attack the ship.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Monokuma, normally a comical but menacing character, disappears from the story after Hirohito hacks into him in Chapter 6. Even after Hirohito is captured, and control of Monokuma is returned to Brightmere Research, Monokuma's AI doesn't return, as Mizugami controls Monokuma instead.
- Shout-Out: Hikari Fey's last name, as confirmed by the user who submitted her, is a reference to Ace Attorney since Maya Fey, a main character in the series, is a spirit medium.
- Smug Snake: After revealing his hidden self, Sorao acts like an arrogant asshole, thinking that he can get away with being the blackened because he's destroyed all evidence of being Tanjiro's accomplice. Unfortunately for him, he overlooked one of the rules regarding the contracts that make it possible to prove that he was Tanjiro's accomplice. And what's more, he's not even the blackened. He mistakenly thought himself to be the blackened because he didn't know a very important clue that shows who the blackened actually was.
- Spanner in the Works:
- In Chapter 2, Sayua taking Takumi's teddy bear ends up being this for Abraham's plan, as she and Tanjiro went to the Egyptian palace at night to hide the bear. But in the process of doing so, they also witnessed Kasumi fleeing from the crime scene at a certain time that would later prove that she couldn't have killed Futaba.
- In Chapter 5, Kasumi happening to stumble upon Sorao in the simulation room unravels his murder plan, as she and Sorao got into a struggle, and she ended up knocking him out on the head with a wooden club. Later, Sorao woke up and touched his head wound with his hands, which caused them to be bloody. Not only do his bloody handprints show that he put on the VR helmet himself, but it also proved that he never opened the chest in the Simulation Room after escaping from the virtual world. As a result, Masashi figures out that Sorao tried to commit suicide as an act of deception against Sayua, his accomplice, but the one who opened the chest was not Sorao but the true killer instead.
- From the same chapter, Sorao himself ends up being this for the killing game. Part of his plan involved Sayua launching fireworks to distract Masashi, Haruyuki, and Takumi, so that he could sneak to the Simulation Room without being noticed. This worked, but it also had the unintentional effect of alerting a group of mercenaries of the killing game's location. As a result, after the class trial, the mercenaries sink one of the ships, forcing Monokuma and the remaining survivors to flee and causing the killing game to be paused.
- Start of Darkness: Takumi lost his silly and kind-hearted personality after he learned about his sleep disorder during a health checkup, and he gradually became twisted enough to agree to be part of a killing game.
- Starter Villain: Haruka Minami, the culprit of the first case, whose scheme, compared to the schemes cooked up by later killers, is incredibly simple.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Sister Hikari. She harbors no ill will toward any of the characters and tries to console Takumi from all the horrors he's had to witness. She ends up as one of the victims in Chapter 3, and her death marks a lasting change for the worse in Takumi, who saw her as a mother figure.
- Tsundere: Maiha is usually fairly condescending or dismissive toward the others, which is largely due to her classist attitude toward commoners. But she softens considerably when talking about Mafuyu, her ballroom dance partner, since she loves him.
- The Unfought: Mari, the blackened of the fourth case. Not only does she not get an Argument Armament segment, but one of the last parts of the trial is written in her perspective and is about her getting Masashi to accept that she's the blackened.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Tanjiro bumping into Sorao and causing them to pick up each other's cameras starts a chain of events that ends with Hikari's, Tanjiro's, and Mari's deaths. But then again... Chapter 6 reveals that if that hadn't happened, Takumi would've succeeded in his plan to kill Sorao and frame Faye with the forged security log, which would have caused everyone except Takumi and Hikari to die.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Takumi was a normal boy before he discovered his parents' corpses after they had been brutally killed by thieves. This caused him to be severely traumatized and suffer from a sleep disorder (which causes him to see hallucinatory "fairies"). Though he gradually recovered during his life in his orphanage, he and his orphan friends were later kidnapped by men working for Mizugami's organization, and once Takumi learns the truth about the "fairies" during a health checkup, he falls off the deep end and only finds solace in Mizugami. Gradually, he becomes more and more twisted, to the point that he masterminded a killing game.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Project Shining Morrow's goal is to build a "new world" by using the survivors of killing games, with the killing games meant to help foster a bond between the survivors. It's supposedly a paradise, and the survivors who have chosen to live in it are apparently blissful, but even Takumi admits that he doesn't actually know the details, and the exact nature of the "new world" is left unrevealed.
- Verbal Tic: Takumi likes to place "Sir" or "Lady" before people's names as part of his personality as a fantasy storyteller. He drops this after being exposed as the mastermind.
- Weight Woe: Played for Drama. Abraham suffers from anorexia, and the second motive (which has Monokuma steal each individual student's memories of someone dear to them) causes him to slowly lose control of it, which is why he decides to kill Futaba before he fully succumbs to his disorder.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mizugami wants to create a new world free from the evils of the outside world. The problem, of course, is the means, as he believes that the killing game can be used to foster a bond between the survivors, who will then become settlers of the new world.
- You Have Failed Me: After the survivors vote for Takumi in the last class trial, Mizugami reveals that his superior has been watching them since the beginning of the class trial and has ordered him to execute Takumi for his failure.
- You Wake Up in a Room: How the story begins for Masashi.
