Makoto walked closer. His breath fogged the glass. The fifteenth photograph was of a girl with long, auburn hair, wearing a black dress and a black ribbon in her hair. Her smile was soft, almost kind. Beneath it, a nameplate: .
Makoto sat up. His room was a sterile cube: bed, desk, private bathroom, a single wall-mounted monitor. On the desk sat his most prized possession—Sayaka’s gift, a small crystal swan. He touched its wing, then stood.
Kyoko’s expression was unreadable. “I don’t know. But his face is in every yearbook, every class photo, every record from the school’s archive. And yet… none of us remember him.” Danganronpa.Trigger.Happy.Havoc-HI2U
Monokuma tilted his head. “Who indeed? Maybe she’s the 16th student. Maybe she’s the first victim. Maybe she’s standing behind you right now!”
“Who is Junko Enoshima?” Makoto demanded. Makoto walked closer
“Big deal,” grunted Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader, slamming his fist on a table. “More rooms, more places to get stabbed. What’s the point?”
Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation. Makoto’s first real friend inside the trap. She had tried to frame him, then been killed by Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star. Leon had been executed in a grotesque parody of his own talent—struck down by a thousand fastballs hurled from a pitching machine the size of a car. Her smile was soft, almost kind
The killing game was a masterpiece of coercion. The rule was simple: murder someone without getting caught during the Class Trial, and you walk free. Get caught, and you die. The rest live on, forever, inside the school.
“Because she was never here,” Kyoko said, her voice low. “Or she was… and we forgot.”