Danganronpa Zero - Volume 01 [Translation 2].pdf - Danganronpa Zero - QQSed

CHAPTER 1

Junko Enoshima despaired.

Everything turned out just the way she expected...

Everything turned out just the way she hoped... and so she despaired.

...Huh? Is it really that easy?

Magma-like heat boiled up deep inside her stomach, gradually swelled inside her body, and exploded when it

reached her chest. The explosion escaped her heart and reached every muscle in her body, bringing her to a

complete standstill. The sound of splashing water came from the muddy pool she stood in as droplets of water

danced through the air.

On closer examination, one could notice the water was red.

As soon as her body stopped moving, the red droplets of water came raining down, making grotesque patterns

on her clothes and skin.

Her clothes, painted deep red with blood.

Her skin, painted deep red with blood.

Her face, painted deep red with blood.

Nevertheless, none of this caught her attention. Instead, she started tapping her foot impatiently. It was a

magnificent tap. She put every bit of strength, body, and soul she had into it. Her entire existence. And then,

after tapping for a while, Junko Enoshima let out an annoyed yell, as fierce as the roar of a feverish rampaging

beast.

"BUT THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!"

Her scream echoed through her surroundings, the noise pouring down as if it was a rock shattering into pieces.

But she wasn’t done. She continued to scream. "MORE! MORE! I NEED EVEN BETTER DESPAIR-INDUCING

DESPAIR!". She continued tapping her foot intently.

Despair-inducing despair. That was what she was after. She wanted not only for the world to despair, but also for

despair worthy of her own self.

"MORE MORE MORE! DESPAIR-INDUCING DESPA--"

She stopped mid-thought. Something clicked inside her head, and she stopped moving. Her face froze in a

surprised expression, and she stood petrified as if every muscle in her crimson-painted body stopped working.

Then, she let out a weak whisper.

"...Oh, I see."

A series of gears and switches began moving deep inside her skull, sparking pitch black thoughts. A certain

object floated up inside her mind. A face. It was a face she knew, of course. The face of a fellow student at

Hope's Peak Academy.

"...Upupu."

Her body shivered as she started laughing. The shiver gradually spread to her entire body, and then, she started

tapping her foot again.

"Upu... Upupupupupupupupupupupu."

This time her tapping resembled a dance. She tapped her foot like a girl who couldn't help feeling joyous. A girl

who couldn’t help having fun.

"Oh, it’s so wonderful! So wonderful!"

And, as the face of the person destined to bring her so much wonderful despair kept floating inside her mind --

Her heart overflowing with a strange feeling that almost felt like love --

Junko Enoshima danced to the rhythm of despair.

"Oh, it’s going to be so magnificent, this despair!"

Laughing ecstatically, Super High-school Level Despair Junko Enoshima continued dancing. She danced as if she

was losing her mind.

That was the beginning. The beginning of a story that ends in despair.

CHAPTER 2

Hope's Peak Private Academy. An exclusive, government-sanctioned school accepting only students with

exceptional abilities. Its stated goal is to raise the future "hope" of the nation, and for that reason, it became

known as "The Academy of Hope". It’s a source of envy, as it’s common knowledge that one can gain great

success in life just by being a Hope’s Peak graduate. Certainly, many Hope’s Peak graduates are now employed in

high positions in every field of the professional world, so that statement is not an exaggeration.

There are two requirements to becoming a Hope’s Peak student:

One must be currently enrolled in a high school. One must super-excel at their field of expertise.

Hope’s Peak doesn’t hold any standard entrance exams, as the academy insists that the things tested by these

kind of exams are meaningless for its purposes. Instead, students are scouted for by the academy's staff, who

serve as both educators and researchers of extraordinary human ability. Some say Hope's Peak Academy's

faculty members are much like parents, who made it their life’s mission to find talent and nurture it in their

children.

Right now, every member of that extraordinary faculty, as well as the academy itself, is facing an unprecedented,

unparalleled crisis.

Hope’s Peak Academy’s faculty building is located in the academy’s eastern quarter, and is the only building on

campus students are forbidden to enter. The corridors of that building, usually busy with staff members going

back and forth, were now empty and engulfed in an unnatural silence. The laboratories, the private rooms, and

the luxurious personal offices had all been abandoned. Every man and woman who usually occupies these

locations were currently gathered in a single place.

Meeting room 13.

Hope’s Peak Academy’s largest meeting room is located on the top floor of the faculty building, and has a

maximum capacity of over 300. Nevertheless, with every single faculty member attending, it was fully packed.

Not a single empty seat remained next to the long tables lined across the room.

But, for such a huge crowd, the room was relatively quiet. Only a single person's voice could be heard. The voice

of Hope's Peak Academy's headmaster, Jin Kirigiri.

He faced the assembled faculty members from his position at the foremost table, and read from a printout he

held in his hand. He spoke in an unaffected tone of voice, a blank expression on his face. The words printed on

the paper came out of his mouth as if he was nothing more than an automaton reading them out. As far as

Kirigiri was concerned, that was his most important duty. It didn't matter how out of the ordinary the subject on

hand was. No, he didn’t have any time to waste faced with the current state of confusion and unanswered

questions. If they had time, there are much more important things they should have been doing --

A voice suddenly rose from the crowd. "Are you saying we're going to cover it up?"

Kirigiri raised his head, and saw three hundred people staring at him intently, waiting for a response.

It wasn’t a piercing stare. It was much more uncomfortable than that. Three hundred people stared at him as if

they were one entity, and Kirigiri felt every hair on his body tingling. He turned his head toward the four people

sitting to his right, trying to escape the stare. They were stationed at the same frontmost table he was, their

faces unusually wrinkled. Their eyes were closed, making those wrinkly faces even wrinklier. From Kirigiri's

position, it almost looked like the four faces in front of him was one huge, giant wrinkle.

The four members of Hope's Peak Academy's Steering Committee looked as if they were about to give up.

An unintentional bitter smile appeared on Kirigiri’s face. So that's how it’s going to be. Oh, well. It's not as if I

expected anything else. With those feelings festering inside his heart, Kirigiri turned back towards the crowd’s

stare. He put the paper aside. He was going to use his own words from now on.

"Let me make it perfectly clear", he emphasized. "We reached this decision after putting a lot of thought into the

matter at the Hope's Peak Academy steering meeting that took place earlier today."

He felt the temperature in the room turning tepid. It was probably because every faculty member's body have

grown stiff in attention. Kirigiri sipped from the cup in his hand, and continued.

"We understand, of course, how extremely irregular this decision is."

The wrinkly faces that were as much a part of the "we" he talked about as he was did not move an inch. It was

as if they knew from the very beginning he was going to take the situation into his own hands.

"Make no mistake. We are not covering this incident up to escape responsibility. If I could end it all here and now

by simply taking responsibility, I would do so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, this particular incident cannot be

dealt with that easily. It doesn’t even matter if each and every one of us ‘takes responsibility’. We’re dealing with

a problem that exists in an entirely different dimension."

Kirigiri stopped for a moment, and finished his glass of water in a single gulp, trying to remain calm.

"...Don't get me wrong. I don’t think we are completely blameless here. If we were, that 'Parade' out there

would not be taking place right now."

Kirigiri pointed a finger at the curtained window. Several people turned to look at it, a severe expression on their

faces.

"That 'Parade' has been growing larger and larger lately. The people in it think we’re all despicable. Their opinion

is not completely unfounded."

Kirigiri paused and moved his gaze across the room, looking at each of the faculty member’s faces as if what he

was about to say was personally directed at them, individually.

“Nevertheless, I refuse to believe Hope’s Peak Academy’s thesis, that talent itself is humanity’s first and foremost

hope, is wrong. You must realize that if information about this incident leaves the walls of this school, we are

likely to lose it all. As far as I’m concerned, that would be a gigantic loss for the human race. Every one of our

successful graduates I’ve spoken to feels the same way.”

At the mention of Hope’s Peak graduates, the crowd stirred a little.

“That’s the reason I and the members of Hope’s Peak Academy’s Steering Committee reached our decision... We

concluded that this incident shouldn’t be made public after all.”

He took a peek at the old men, but they remained still. Their blank expressions made it look as if what was going

on did not concern them.

“...As I said before, I know more than anyone how irregular this decision is. Nevertheless, we have a duty, both

as educators and as scientists. The duty to protect talent. Should human talent become the target of public

hostility, it would be a great tragedy. Furthermore, there is one more thing I want you all to remember.”

The three hundred faculty members waited in attention for Kirigiri’s next words.

“The crimes committed may be terrible, but it doesn’t change the fact that that student carries a very special

brand of hope we raised all on our own.”

The color of the faculty’s eyes changed in an instant. They did not stir anymore. Everyone sat in complete

silence. No one objected. No one could object. His words were narrow-minded, but they reflected the opinions of

everyone in the room. They were all acting both as educators and as scientists, researching human talent. And,

just like any other scientist becoming obsessed with their area of research, the staff of Hope’s Peak Academy

were obsessed with talent. Anyone who did not share that obsession did not belong in Hope’s Peak.

That’s why they listened to Kirigiri’s words, and made their decision.

They had to protect their thesis. They had to protect the future they believed in. They had to protect the hope

they believed in.

And so, they would do their best to cover up The Worst Incident in Hope’s Peak Academy’s History.

CHAPTER 3

A yellow cat peeked out from the thicket to the side of the pavement.

It slowly stepped out of the swaying grass and into the road, waving its long tail as it turned its eyes in

anticipation towards me. But its expression soon turned to alertness, and then to fear. The cat, having seen me

skipping merrily down the road towards it, must have thought I was about to trample it. It escaped back into the

bushes in panic.

But, I didn’t care at all. I bathed in the light of the hot sun, let the wind flutter my skirt, and continued my

obscene merry skip onward down the road. I was in Hope’s Peak Academy’s eastern quarter, near the courtyard.

Many newly-built facilities were lined up around me, as well as several that were still under construction. As I

skipped down the road that twisted between them, I took no special notice of any dirty cats or of my classmates,

studying and fraternizing all around. Nor did I derive any happiness from the light touch of the sun after a long

stay indoors. No, I skipped down the road with nothing but my destination on my mind.

Not that I’m the kind of girl who’d go skipping around thoughtlessly. I had a reason.

I’m going to meet the boy I like the best in the world!

That said, my reason may have been a good one, but no student in their right mind should go skipping down the

road in a campus of a school of as high a pedigree as Hope’s Peak Academy. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that

other students who happened to walk by looked at me oddly, but... that really has nothing to do with me.

Nothing in the world could stop my skipping. Not a crying girl. Not a couple fighting. Not a student in a

wheelchair that has come to a standstill. Not even an anemic student who has fallen down. One thought alone

moved my body: I want to meet him, I love him so much . I skipped so obscenely that no one would probably

find it surprising if I suddenly sprouted wings and flew up towards the sky.

I continued down the road, but...

“...Huh?”

I suddenly came to a stop.

“Which way should I go?”

I looked around in confusion, and realized I didn’t recognize any of the landmarks around me. My heart started

beating loudly.

No, everything’s fine. I calmed myself down and removed a notebook from the backpack I was wearing. On the

back page of the notebook, the following sentence was written:

“You’re looking for the Neurology lab on the third floor of the Biology building in Hope’s Peak Academy’s eastern

quarter”.

I felt a refreshing wind of relief passing through my body. Yeah, that’s right! The biology building!

...Um, but where is that biology building, anyway?

My heart went noisy once more.

Everything’s fine. No need to worry. I nervously flipped through the notebook as if acting on instinct, and my

eyes stopped on a page with a crude drawing of a map. Above it, the following was written:

“This is a diagram of Hope’s Peak Academy’s eastern quarter”

Danganronpa Zero - Volume 01 [Translation 2].pdf

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