Danganronpa V3 As Told By An AI

Spoilers for Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony follow

This time, I decided to retell the first chapter of Danganronpa V3 according to an AI, starting from the first murder. It took several attempts to get a narrative that even vaguely resembled canon, since on some of the other times I tried it, one or more of the following happened.

1. The characters wandered around, talking about the murder, without going to the class trial.
2. Sometimes, the characters completely forget about the murder.
3. Additional characters showed up, some of whom are adults.

Without further ado, here it is. The parts in bold are what I put in manually. In this case, I decided to have Kaede ask the others to sentence Maki to death to get things moving once she confessed to the killing.

You are Kaede Akamatsu, a Japanese high school girl who has found herself trapped inside Hope's Peak Academy. You are inside the school with seven other girls- Tenko Chabashira, Maki Harukawa, Miu Iruma, Tsumugi Shirogane Kirumi Tojo, Angie Yonaga, and Himiko Yumeno- and eight boys- Rantaro Amami, Gonta Gokuhara, Ryoma Hoshi, Keebo, Kaito Momota, Kokichi Oma, Shuichi Saihara and Korekiyo Shinguji.

According to Monokuma, in order to "graduate" and escape from the school, you must murder one of your classmates and get away with it. If a murder is committed, the surviving students will be granted time to investigate the crime, and then a class trial will be held to determine the culprit's identity, based on majority vote. If the culprit is correctly identified, then only that person will be executed and everyone else will be spared, but if the wrong person is chosen, the culprit will go free and everyone else will be executed. The game will also end if the mastermind, who is one of the sixteen students, is killed. You are determined to find a way out of the school that doesn't involve you killing anyone, and so far, you've managed to keep the peace. However, Monokuma declared that if no one kills someone by 10 p.m., he will kill all of you. Less than an hour before the time limit, you go to the library to try to find the mastermind's identity, but instead find Rantaro's body. According to Monokuma, someone killed him with blunt force trauma, and a bloody shot put ball is nearby. Since Rantaro is not the mastermind, you must work together to find the real killer in the investigation so you can prepare for the class trial. You start by questioning your classmates, trying to find out who may know something about Rantaro's murder. Maki(1) tells you that she was the one who brought the bloody shot put ball, and seemed very nervous. She says that before she threw it in the dunce's room, she saw some of the other students, including Gonta(2), looking at it.

You go to the dunce's room, and Maki is already there, looking very nervous.

"Um... can I help you?" she asks nervously.

"I need you to tell me what happened to the shot put ball." you say.

"Well, I brought it in here after seeing Gonta looking at it in the hallway, because I had a class to prepare for... and then, you walked in." she says.

"What did you do with it after that?" you ask.

"Oh, I threw it in the trash."

"Where did you throw it?"

"Um... I think it's in the trash..."

"The trash?" you ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah... I... I think it fell out of my backpack when I was searching for something else and then it just kinda fell out of my backpack." Maki says.

"What were you looking for in your backpack?" you ask.

"I... I don't remember." Maki replies.

"Alright then, what do you remember?"

"I don't remember anything before I woke up here..."

You stop questioning Maki. It would be best if you could find out what really happened using other means.

Time is running out, and you need to find out who killed Rantaro soon.

The class trial will begin soon, so you go back to your room to get ready.(3)

The trial will be a vote, with the class voting as a whole and whoever rounds out the majority being the culprit. You are the head judge, and will also be able to vote if you so wish.

Luckily, Monokuma has provided you with a large stack of slips that each have a name on them. Each name on the slip represents a person who committed one of the murders. You will provide the verdict and each classmate will provide the vote to either acquittal or execution for the respective murderer.

In order to execute someone, you will need to get the majority of the votes to agree on them being guilty. If this happens, the person's name will be crossed off the list of suspects. If you don't execute anyone, then whoever manages to get all of the names on their slip will be able to find out who the killer is. Whoever does this first will win.

Either way, you need to get the names on your list. You might be able to do this quickly, or you might need to abuse some of your powers of persuasion.

In any case, the class trial will begin in a few moments, so you better decide now who you'll be targeting first.

Who do you want to target first?

You decide to target Maki first.

Might as well. At least it's ruled out Gonta without me having to speak with him.

Target: Maki Ishimaru(4)

Votes: 8 for executing Maki, 3 for exonerating Maki, 1 abstention

You approach Maki and address the issue at hand.

"Maki, is there something you want to tell me?" you say.

"... Um... yeah..." Maki replies nervously.

"Well? Get to it!" you say.

"I think I... murdered Rantaro."

"What? You didn't! When did you kill him?" you ask.

"I dunno... before the first class I think."

"That... doesn't make sense. Why would you kill him?"

"I don't know! I'm sorry!"

"Maki, calm down. Take a breath, and tell me what happened."

Maki does exactly that, taking a deep breath before addressing you.

"Rantaro asked me to help him kill you, because he didn't want to be the one to kill you himself. I said I would do it instead, and then..."

"And then?" you ask.

"And then... I don't know! Something must have happened, because I woke up here and everything was different. It's all a mystery to me."

"Okay, that's good. Makes things simpler."

"So are you... going to kill me?" Maki asks.

"Oh no. Just assign the blame. It's an easy enough process." > You say "You admitted to killing Rantaro, so we'll have to vote for you as the murderer."

"Exactly! So don't worry about it!"

You dismiss Maki and head back over to the sixteen students. You give a small speech, explaining how the trial is going to work. Monokuma then provides a small example of how it works, explaining that for the first vote, everyone has to vote for one person, and whoever gets it gets to call out the next person, and so on.

"So, we have to vote for who committed the first-degree murders right?" you say.

"Yes!" everyone replies. > You say "Maki confessed to killing him, so we should all vote for her. No objections, right?"

"Correct!" the class says.

"Maki, would you please stand?" you say.

Maki stands while the class points their fingers in her direction.

"Guilty!"

"Guilty!"

"Guilty!"

Maki looks around, clearly confused. She asks what's going on. You explain that you and everyone else in the class voted to execute her, so her only option is to beg for her life or try to convince the rest to let her off the hook. She chooses the former.

"Please, please don't kill me! I can give you anything! Just... spare me!" she cries.

"Is that your final answer?" you ask calmly.

"Yes!"

"Sorry, it was too simple. It's your bad luck there's no trial or jury here, Monokuma. You're going to have to draw the death by your own hand."

Maki covers her mouth and turns pale, before bursting into tears.

Monokuma declares that the time has come for Maki's execution and has her taken to the execution chamber. A video screen comes on and you see Maki about to be executed.

"You've been an awful person, Maki. Are you ready?" you ask.

Maki nods silently. "Then let's get this over with." You say.

"Then it's my honor to present to you, class trial style, the murderer of Rantaro Amami."

The three person execution team enter, holding a IV and some medical equipment.

"Hello Maki, it's me, see? The person you know as Taro. Remember back in class when I asked you to help me kill Rantaro? Well, he wouldn't stop whining so I killed him. See you later, Maki. And don't try anything funny."

You see Maki's body convulse as the electric chair runs the current through her body.(5) She dies with a final, desperate look in her eyes.

"Are we finished? Good! Now, let's look at the clock." The video screen cuts to black.

"That was a bit... graphic," you remark.

"The punishment fits the crime. She deserved it. She was a bad person. She could have gotten away with it, but her greed got the better of her, and now she'll pay for it. It's only fitting. We're a just society, after all."

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course I do. Especially after what I've seen today. Any dum-dum(6) that thinks differently can go eat a slice of cake and come back later. Now, let's move on to the next trial. By the way, congratulations on not being dum-dum today! You're officially in the clear. I imagine you're feeling pretty satisfied with yourself right now."

"I am."

"Good, keep it up. You're not in this class to feel good, you're here to survive. The worst is yet to come."

The video screen cuts to black once again.

"Well then, let's look at the time. It's been two hours since class ended and the victim was murdered. 53 minutes left until class starts. Until that moment, you're free to do whatever you want."

A large, metal door opens in the wall and Monokuma steps through.

"Now then, it's time for me to get some sleep. You're all free to do whatever you want, but don't take too long. The clock is ticking."

You hear a metal clang as the door shuts behind him.

Now alone, you start looking around, wondering what you should do.(7)

Footnotes

1. Maki shows up rather frequently when I try doing this chapter in AI Dungeon.
2. Gonta also shows up often, but doesn't really act like his canon self. One time, he said, "I did it. You can suck my d-"; Gonta doesn't use profanity or first-person pronouns.
3. Somewhat surprisingly, the AI transitioned to the class trial without my having to do it manually.
4. Sometimes, the AI changes characters' last names. This time, the name chosen happened to be that of another Danganronpa character- Kiyotaka "Taka" Ishimaru from the first game.
5. When people get sentenced to death in AI Dungeon stories, hanging seems to be the most popular method of execution, followed by lethal injection.
6. Monokuma's insult is relatively common in AI Dungeon.
7. I wasn't sure how to end this, so after a few uses of Retry, I settled on thi.