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DRT1.5.4: Me and the School and I (The Second Half), section 4
Content Warning: This section contains a discussion of suicide and suicidal thoughts.
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
4
"Hope's Peak was full of worrywarts. They loved hope so much, a hopeless world became their despair," the President continued. "Even if an epidemic spread or nuclear war broke out, that wouldn't mean the 'end of the world' to the Academy. As long as there was at least one hope, no matter what happened to the world, it wouldn't be despair."
"What freaks those guys out the most isn't the state of world politics or natural disasters. It's more like, the instant despair takes hold of people," picked up the Vice President. "That moment where all of humanity shouts, 'I'm in despair!'"
"Woo-hoo-hoooo! Hope's Peak's got no faith in the average person," said the Treasurer. "Before long they were just obsessed with their fantasy of 'a talent so extraordinary it could be called humanity's hope' ruling the world for them. It's the perfection of a new monotheistic religioooon!"
"Of course, 'monotheism' without a God would be nothing more than nonsense. They artificially created the God they were looking for: Super High School Level Hope. They used the funds they'd siphoned out of their sponsors and the Reserve Course as freely as water. I do not know whether or not their project has reached completion. The world remains in chaos, so I suppose they must have failed. That's not the plan that attracts our interest, anyway."
The President lifted the Despair Novel once again. He was treating this bunch of print-outs on coarse paper as if it were some kind of sacred tome or something.
"There was a book known as The Complete Manual of Suicide that was popular a while back."
I knew that book. I was reading that book. Drowning, immolation, hanging, poisoning, electrocution, jumping to your death. It was an instruction manual filled with ways to commit suicide.
"I can tell by your face that you've already read it. That should speed up the conversation. When that book was published with each and every way to commit suicide written in it, those who were suicidal flocked to it. Not because they wanted to die. It was because they didn't want to die."
Right. People who wanted to die, die, die but in equal measure wanted to live, live, live sought the healing power of The Complete Manual of Suicide. It was a top-rate catalog of suicides, but it was also a top-rate suicide prevention book. It seems like a cheap paradox, but The Complete Manual of Suicide stripped away the power from the act of suicide itself.
"While on one hand, Hope's Peak Academy was creating the Super High School Level Hope, on the other, they were thinking of what they could do themselves," said the President, still lifting the Despair Novel in the air. "When despair took hold of humanity, could they not bring about hope? Could they not create a manual, a supplement, a gospel to serve that purpose...? They used the same method as The Complete Manual of Suicide. They planned to create a system in which reading a book with each and every type of despair would make them all the more hopeful. So, we stole that system, and abused it.
That is the true nature of the Despair Novel.
We scattered it. Just like a myst'ry. Just like sowing seeds. Then, we just needed to wait for those seeds to spread throughout the world, to burgeon, and to bloom. Even if myst'ry dies, its framework remains. Its curse remains." The President took a breath, and then looked at me again, as if evaluating the influential effectiveness of his words. "I may have rushed through this revelation of the solution, but that's about the size of it. Do you understand now?"
"How could I ever..." I opened my mouth for the first time in a long time. "Why do people from one of the affiliated schools know highly classified information like Hope's Peak's true motives or the Super High School Level Hope?"
"We toooold you not to underestimate the affiliate schools," said the Vice President. "Hope's Peak is already done for. They tried to build a skyscraper on a sand dune, and it's already falling apart. They're on the last legs of their last legs. They'll probably collapse within the next few years."
Collapse. Hope's Peak. My beloved, detested Hope's Peak Academy was going to collapse?
"The school's hit its limit. What I'm getting at is that their politics, finances, activities, and secrets have all ended up totally bloated with chicanery, and it's on the verge of blowing up in their faces. Even without us sticking a pin in, that balloon's gonna pop."
The end of Hope's Peak Academy. Those words triggered something deep inside of me. Or, more bluntly: they shocked me. To me—someone who took for granted the fact that Hope's Peak would exist forever—this was dire news. I was hurt like a child whose favorite soccer player was going into politics instead. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was about to cry. I had to sniffle. I was completely defenseless against the pain in my heart.
Watching me crumble, the Hope's Peak Academy Affiliated Junior High School Mystery Research Society seemed deeply, deeply amused. Now I understood why these people abandoned Hope's Peak Academy, despite being so desperate to enroll there that they were grasping at the straws of the affiliated school name. They chose to fill the world with locked rooms instead of enroll in the Main Course because they were losing Hope's Peak, the foundation of their identities.
Hey, better than coming up with excuses when they weren't let into the Main Course, right?
That first thought was sarcastic, but at the same time, I sympathized with them. Synchronized with them. We all loved Hope's Peak, and were sad to lose Hope's Peak, but had never really had Hope's Peak in the first place, and in that sense, we were all in this together.
"Hope's Peak Academy is ending. But we are not. There's no greater despair than this." With an expression on his face that was almost a bitter smile, but not quite, the President handed me the Despair Novel.
"Why?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you trying to get me to read that?"
"I want to see your despair."
"My, despair..."
"You made it to adulthood without any particular talent, black and blue from the world's abuse, not acknowledged by anyone, and yet you resisted, becoming a mole."
"..."
"You didn't read the Despair Novel like all the rest. You didn't join them in their song and dance of complacency, going around in circles. Isn't that enough of that? Everything you could do alone is over now." He looked to me like a kindred spirit.
I watched my hand move on its own to take the Despair Novel.
"You're permitted to read the Despair Novel. You're permitted to let yourself be possessed by despair, and get back some self-respect."
That being the case, then this would be where the game began. A game with a choice: to despair, or not to despair?
Two options appeared.
> Read the Despair Novel
> Don't read the Despair Novel
What should I do? Which should I choose? Which option will bring me hope?
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
4
"Hope's Peak was full of worrywarts. They loved hope so much, a hopeless world became their despair," the President continued. "Even if an epidemic spread or nuclear war broke out, that wouldn't mean the 'end of the world' to the Academy. As long as there was at least one hope, no matter what happened to the world, it wouldn't be despair."
"What freaks those guys out the most isn't the state of world politics or natural disasters. It's more like, the instant despair takes hold of people," picked up the Vice President. "That moment where all of humanity shouts, 'I'm in despair!'"
"Woo-hoo-hoooo! Hope's Peak's got no faith in the average person," said the Treasurer. "Before long they were just obsessed with their fantasy of 'a talent so extraordinary it could be called humanity's hope' ruling the world for them. It's the perfection of a new monotheistic religioooon!"
"Of course, 'monotheism' without a God would be nothing more than nonsense. They artificially created the God they were looking for: Super High School Level Hope. They used the funds they'd siphoned out of their sponsors and the Reserve Course as freely as water. I do not know whether or not their project has reached completion. The world remains in chaos, so I suppose they must have failed. That's not the plan that attracts our interest, anyway."
The President lifted the Despair Novel once again. He was treating this bunch of print-outs on coarse paper as if it were some kind of sacred tome or something.
"There was a book known as The Complete Manual of Suicide that was popular a while back."
I knew that book. I was reading that book. Drowning, immolation, hanging, poisoning, electrocution, jumping to your death. It was an instruction manual filled with ways to commit suicide.
"I can tell by your face that you've already read it. That should speed up the conversation. When that book was published with each and every way to commit suicide written in it, those who were suicidal flocked to it. Not because they wanted to die. It was because they didn't want to die."
Right. People who wanted to die, die, die but in equal measure wanted to live, live, live sought the healing power of The Complete Manual of Suicide. It was a top-rate catalog of suicides, but it was also a top-rate suicide prevention book. It seems like a cheap paradox, but The Complete Manual of Suicide stripped away the power from the act of suicide itself.
"While on one hand, Hope's Peak Academy was creating the Super High School Level Hope, on the other, they were thinking of what they could do themselves," said the President, still lifting the Despair Novel in the air. "When despair took hold of humanity, could they not bring about hope? Could they not create a manual, a supplement, a gospel to serve that purpose...? They used the same method as The Complete Manual of Suicide. They planned to create a system in which reading a book with each and every type of despair would make them all the more hopeful. So, we stole that system, and abused it.
That is the true nature of the Despair Novel.
We scattered it. Just like a myst'ry. Just like sowing seeds. Then, we just needed to wait for those seeds to spread throughout the world, to burgeon, and to bloom. Even if myst'ry dies, its framework remains. Its curse remains." The President took a breath, and then looked at me again, as if evaluating the influential effectiveness of his words. "I may have rushed through this revelation of the solution, but that's about the size of it. Do you understand now?"
"How could I ever..." I opened my mouth for the first time in a long time. "Why do people from one of the affiliated schools know highly classified information like Hope's Peak's true motives or the Super High School Level Hope?"
"We toooold you not to underestimate the affiliate schools," said the Vice President. "Hope's Peak is already done for. They tried to build a skyscraper on a sand dune, and it's already falling apart. They're on the last legs of their last legs. They'll probably collapse within the next few years."
Collapse. Hope's Peak. My beloved, detested Hope's Peak Academy was going to collapse?
"The school's hit its limit. What I'm getting at is that their politics, finances, activities, and secrets have all ended up totally bloated with chicanery, and it's on the verge of blowing up in their faces. Even without us sticking a pin in, that balloon's gonna pop."
The end of Hope's Peak Academy. Those words triggered something deep inside of me. Or, more bluntly: they shocked me. To me—someone who took for granted the fact that Hope's Peak would exist forever—this was dire news. I was hurt like a child whose favorite soccer player was going into politics instead. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was about to cry. I had to sniffle. I was completely defenseless against the pain in my heart.
Watching me crumble, the Hope's Peak Academy Affiliated Junior High School Mystery Research Society seemed deeply, deeply amused. Now I understood why these people abandoned Hope's Peak Academy, despite being so desperate to enroll there that they were grasping at the straws of the affiliated school name. They chose to fill the world with locked rooms instead of enroll in the Main Course because they were losing Hope's Peak, the foundation of their identities.
Hey, better than coming up with excuses when they weren't let into the Main Course, right?
That first thought was sarcastic, but at the same time, I sympathized with them. Synchronized with them. We all loved Hope's Peak, and were sad to lose Hope's Peak, but had never really had Hope's Peak in the first place, and in that sense, we were all in this together.
"Hope's Peak Academy is ending. But we are not. There's no greater despair than this." With an expression on his face that was almost a bitter smile, but not quite, the President handed me the Despair Novel.
"Why?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you trying to get me to read that?"
"I want to see your despair."
"My, despair..."
"You made it to adulthood without any particular talent, black and blue from the world's abuse, not acknowledged by anyone, and yet you resisted, becoming a mole."
"..."
"You didn't read the Despair Novel like all the rest. You didn't join them in their song and dance of complacency, going around in circles. Isn't that enough of that? Everything you could do alone is over now." He looked to me like a kindred spirit.
I watched my hand move on its own to take the Despair Novel.
"You're permitted to read the Despair Novel. You're permitted to let yourself be possessed by despair, and get back some self-respect."
That being the case, then this would be where the game began. A game with a choice: to despair, or not to despair?
Two options appeared.
> Read the Despair Novel
> Don't read the Despair Novel
What should I do? Which should I choose? Which option will bring me hope?
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!