Dangan Ronpa: Another IF
is a Danganronpa fanfic written by MHJoker4Ever, the beginning of an AU series called Another IF. The series follows on from the author's earlier story A Soft Heart to Protect, diverging from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc when Sayaka is talked out of her plan to kill Leon by an unwitting Makoto. And this event completely changes the Killing School Life.
The sequel, set during the events of named Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, can be found here.
This fic includes examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Sayaka doesn't go through her plan and decides to continue assisting Makoto.
- Zigzagged with Mukuro. It takes a bit for her to let go of her loyalty to Junko, even after her betrayal.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Byakuya is even more of a jerk than in canon, though, like in canon, he does get better later on.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Yasuhiro and Kiyotaka are both killers in this fic.
- While Leon is implied to have killed Sayaka by accident in canon, if the manga is any indication, in this he willingly killed Hifumi so that he could escape with Sayaka due to the 'plus-one' motive.
- All for Nothing: In Chapter 2, Taka kills Aoi to keep Monokuma from outing Mondo's secret, and turns himself in at the Class Trial to stop the others from interrogating Mondo about it. Monokuma promptly reveals the secret anyway, telling Taka that he just made the Trial boring.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first Monokuma seems to want to execute Celeste, despite Leon being the killer, because she had a hand into killing Hifumi. At first the execution goes like normal only for Leon to be thrown just as the firetruck is about to hit Celeste, getting killed in her place.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of Chapter 5, Mukuro arrives just in time to save Makoto from Monokuma.
- Bittersweet Ending: Those who survive manage to escape Hope's Peak but Mukuro is now in a despair-like state wishing to completely erase Junko's legacy.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Sayaka and Celeste to Makoto. They have a rivalry with each other because of that.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Makoto, in spades. By the end of the story, he has Sayaka, Celestia, and Mukuro all attracted towards him, and he's only aware of the first two when they spell it out for him in the epilogue.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Chapter 1 subverts this similarly to canon: Yasuhiro claims to have been defending himself against Toko (or quite possibly Genocide Jill, since she had pulled her scissors out), but Celes points out that once she had passed out from suffocation he chose to go all the way rather than retreat to safety.
- Dark Secret: In addition to the secrets involved in Chapter 2, Sayaka's abandoned plan to kill Leon and frame Makoto is eventually outed to the remaining students by Monokuma in the Chapter 5 trial.
- Death by Adaptation: Of the six survivors in the original game, Toko is killed by Hiro in Chapter 1, who is subsequently executed for it, Aoi is murdered in Chapter 2 and Kyoko is murdered in Chapter 5.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Kiyotaka is executed in Chapter 2 rather than murdered in Chapter 3. Leon is executed in Chapter 3 rather than Chapter 1, and with a firetruck rather than baseballs.
- Dramatic Irony: The possibility that Genocide Jack is among them is first brought up by Byakuya early in Chapter 3, after Toko has been killed.
- Foreshadowing: A particularly attentive reader will realize that in the Monokuma File #5, Makoto's measurements are not right. For those who didn't realize, then Mukuro will note that his measurements are odd.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The entire premise of the fic is that Sayaka can't go through her plan of killing Leon and framing Makoto. As such she's not killed in Chapter 1.
- For the second motive, rather than giving the remaining students their own Dark Secrets, Monokuma gives them to one of the other students instead. This ends up saving Chihiro's life, as Mondo exploding at Taka when he questions Mondo about being responsible for his brother's death causes him to remember this when he lashes out at Chihiro pressing his Berserk Button and he stops himself from bashing Chihiro's head in this time around. Meanwhile, since Taka knows how close Mondo is to cracking, he chooses to kill someone before the time limit runs out, ulimately turning himself in at the class trial.
- Since Leon is still alive at the start of Chapter 3, he ends up thwarting Celes's plan by finishing off Hifumi.
- Because Sakura willingly reveals herself as the traitor, Monokuma's fourth motive is to reveal his other mole. That being Mukuro.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Hifumi is still hit on the head by Celeste in Chapter 3, except Leon finishes him off before he can bleed to death.
- Sakura still commits suicide in Chapter 4, except here, her goal in doing so is less "to unite the remaining survivors against the Mastermind" and more "to protect Mukuro from the Mastermind's wrath."
- Makoto and Byakuya still end up surviving the Killing Game here.
- Kill Steal: In Chapter 3, Leon finds Hifumi Not Quite Dead after Celes's attempt to kill him and finishes him off. When this turn of events is revealed in the class trial, Monokuma sentences both Celes and Leon to death - but after setting up Celes's canon execution, he has Leon swing in to knock her to safety and lets him get hit by the firetruck instead.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Makoto gradually becomes one to Mukuro after she's betrayed by Junko.
- Loose Canon: A Soft Heart to Protect is mentioned in the introductory summary, but it isn't included on the series page, nor is it ever referenced directly in the story beyond the obvious detail that Sayaka didn't go through with her plan.
- Only Sane Man: Following her Heel–Face Turn in Chapter 4, Celestia shows signs of being this, immediately shooting down Byakuya's attempt in the fourth trial to frame Sakura's death on Genocide Jack by revealing that "Jack's" been dead this entire time, as well as exposing Monokuma's attempt to turn the remaining survivors against each other with their school life photos in the final trial, having figured out the truth behind them beforehand.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sayaka gives one to Kyoko, calling out her hypocrisy for telling Sakura that they can no longer trust her after Sakura willingly reveals herself as Monokuma's unwilling mole and then putting Makoto's life at risk by having him investigate the hidden archive room in the third-floor bathroom by himself, resulting in Makoto being attacked by the Mastermind:Sayaka: Makoto, I swear you are the kindest, sweetest guy I've met... But I can't just let this slide. Kirigiri toyed with your life... That's not something I can just brush off. Kirigiri gets pissed at Oogami for being the Mastermind's mole, even though she's trying to make amends by telling us now... and then Kirigiri turns around and uses you just because she's curious?! [Sayaka shakes her head, then glares at Kyoko] And don't give me any bullshit about being naive or too trusting! Besides her confession to being the mole, has Oogami done anything to make us doubt her? Oogami's guarded all the crime scenes up until now, and she's helped us out in every trial! She could have killed any one of us for losing her friend Asahina, but she hasn't! She didn't even get mad at you for resenting her! Where's your priorities, Kirigiri?!
- Slain in Their Sleep: In Chapter 2, Kiyotaka drugs Aoi with sleeping pills right before she goes swimming, causing her to drown. He tries to present her dying in her sleep as a consolation (while also framing it as a Mercy Kill) but no one sees it that way.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Sayaka, Mukuro, Chihiro, Mondo and Celeste all end up surviving the Killing Game this time around. In canon, Sayaka was the victim of Chapter 1, Mukuro (as Junko) was betrayed and killed for rule violation, Chihiro and Mondo were victim and killer respectively of Chapter 2, and Celeste was the killer of Chapter 3.
- Wham Episode:
- During Chapter 5, precisely in chapter 24, Makoto and Kyoko's bodies are found.
- Two chapters later, however, it's revealed that Makoto is actually alive and the body found was Toko's.
