Detective Au, Noir Detective Au, whatever you want to called it. I made this in mind with one of my favorite genre's, which is noir detective. Like those black and white detective films? This is set somewhere vaguely between the 1920s-1940s (bending history to my will, lmao). I grew up reading Nancy Drew and playing murder mystery games w my sisters, and I'm also a huge fan of horror, so obviously I was going to enjoy Danganronpa. I just didn't suspect HOW into it I would get, lmao.
Anyways: the games make me sad, and I wanted my kids to have a good ending. This started with me just drawing outfits for characters (as I do) and I put Kiyotaka in a trenchcoat and realized he sort of looked like Columbo, but spiky. It made me laugh. So I gave him a fedora, too, and my little I-love-the-1920s-and-noir brain started spinning out of control, and before I knew it I had come up with a bunch of AU ideas for this fucker. Specifically, an Ishimondo (Mondo x Kiyotaka) one. The cast is alive and well, there's still mysteries, and I get to focus on my favs!! Perfect, right?
The basics of this au is that Taka moves to the city a year after graduating highschool. Side note: I think it's fascinating to delve into how these characters were affected by NOT meeting each other in highschool, which is most apparent with Taka and Mondo, but also many of the others. Anyways-- Taka moves because he has been trying to get a job to support his family for a while, but no one will hire him due to the surname. Lovely. The family couldn't afford college either, unfortunately. Therefore, Taka and Takaaki get the idea that if Taka moved to the city, he would not only have a larger job-field, but also could make connections for the future political career Taka wants. It's a win-win, right? That is, if everything goes well. Takaaki is worried about sending his only son out there (especially after already loosing so much), but he and Taka are taking a leap of faith.
From here, Taka winds up meeting the rest of Class 78! Chihiro, who works for a private tech company (she's building the first computers!), Sayaka and Leon are traveling performers, Hiro does street-readings, and so on! Makoto and Kyoko are a focus, too, mostly because I ADORE these two. The two of them met back in highschool, and Makoto eventually befriended Kyoko. She has a mission: to find her father. It's the exact one she had in game, but this time it's a tad different, for her father hasn't been seen in years. To garner his attention, she creates a detective agency with her name plastered on it, hoping it will draw him out in the open. To achieve this dream, she gets the help of her closest friend: Makoto. Together, they open up Hope's Peak Detective Agency! Makoto during this time is also in night school working to become a lawyer (do you. do you see what I did there. Detective and Lawyer team?)
I *adore* Kyoko and Makoto's friendship in this au. They're friendship is so strong!! They're trying to support the other as much as they can!! This is Naegiri service too bc I'm unwell for them (and Byakuya too eventually)
Anywho-- Kyoko and Makoto have only recently started this business, and their first case actually has to do with Taka: the poor boy winds up framed for murder, along with Mondo bc police bias and also he maybe sorta was at the crime scene. Taka and Mondo get arrested, Taka calls in a favor from his dad (poor guy,, its been only a week and your son is already framed for murder,,,rip), and they get three days to figure out who actually did it. They run to Hope's Peak Detective Agency after getting the reference from Hifumi (runs the news office, and actually kind of liked Taka when he interviewed. They got along really well), where Kyoko and Makoto agree to take the case because wow!! imagine solving an impossible murder for our first case!!! They were right btw, they get HUGE points for solving this.
This is basically a "I hate you but we're forced to work together" situation for Taka and Mondo. Don't worry, though! They bond a lot, and have their own little sauna-like scene where they realize they aren't that different from one another! (idk if it'll actually be at a sauna or not yet tho, we'll see when we get there) Then by the end of the case, they do want to keep seeing each other
At the end of the case (you think I'm gonna talk about the case details??? That's spoilers!!), Kyoko and Makoto actually agree to hire Taka! They all four bonded, and they'll need some help at the agency with all this attention, anyways! They also invite Mondo, but he's got a gang to lead, so it's a no. They say he can stop by whenever he feels like it, though, which he ends up doing (at first it's like. oh what a coincidence i am here near this agency I guess I have to say hello to you all now. then he just starts dropping by without excuses and nobody says anything).
When the family. founds. :]
Unfortunately this isn't the end, because after this case, I couldn't stop thinking about potential other cases, and then I got into the world-building and... exploded, haha. In short, there will several other cases, some of which intertwine with this weird group of people Kyoko begins to investigate called the Ultimate Despair, who seems to be planning something dangerous... and maybe, just along the way, she finds out some things about her own family... Aka: a girlboss and three Guys take on a huge cooperation and maybe succeed, who knows. I want to include Byakuya into the story via the Despair too, for I think he would be interested in finding out more about them, too, since he shows interest for that sort of thing in-game. Also, it lets me shove him, Kyoko, and Makoto into a room together, haha. I definitely want to include the sdr2 class as well!!! I'm still figuring out their roles though and how exactly to intertwine them into the story.
These are... *most* of my thoughts. I'm holding some stuff back for spoiler's sake since I do want to (and am trying to) write a fic for it. It's just such a pain sometimes, you know? I struggle with writing; things don't flow very well for me. On top of that, I've got *a lot* of exposition to fill out before we get to the case, and I'm trying to find a way to write it without it feeling boring to read and write. It's just... a work in progress, haha. I'm trying. I don't want to end this little rant negitively, though, so on a positive note: I have most the case details filled out! and I found a format I might like, too, so next time I get the energy to work on it, I'm going to try it.
Aaacckk, this is so longggg,, I hope it was coherent, lol. Detectives make my head start spinning, haha