Return, Retry, Restart...Continue? (Danganronpa V3 X Reader)

Closure + Ending Scenes!!

Your hand hovered over the Return option, shaking the slightest bit. Once you pressed it there was no coming back, the people you met here would go back to being regular game characters to you in your reality.

You hesitated for one more moment, glancing around the dark space, and even though no one would be here to hear your words, you began to speak anyway.

"Thank you... all of you so much. In my reality I never... cherished the peaceful life I had, I didn't live my life to the fullest. You all, with your talents and passions, your obscure attitudes that were still so full of life, you taught me that life is precious, it shouldn't be wasted because it really can be gone in a flash. In my reality... in my life there are no restarts, or retries, I get one chance- much like the rest of you and... I promise, when I get back I won't waste it."

You felt the tears slip down your face, but you pressed on a smile, you had a promise to keep, a life to live. And with that you pressed the button.

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beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Alternate Ending WOAH.

Your hand hesitated over the return button. As much... as you hated to admit it, you didn't want to return. Your life... as peaceful as it was, felt boring, mundane and... in the time you shared with the people here you cared about all of them. And you were worried.

"What if the survivors have an epilogue like in the original game... they'll be distraught if I'm gone right...? Or... I guess my existence would be erased right..."

Something about that didn't sit right with you. All these people would forget you, and you would remember them, you would have to continue living on seeing them through a screen- no... not living, they would just be game characters again, saying the same dialogue over and over again, with the sprites and voice lines that didn't convey their true feelings as well as it should have.

But what else could you do? If you pressed Restart you risked their very existences, and... you couldn't live through another killing game. You didn't want to.

"I don't... want to Restart.... But I don't want to Return either." You muttered out loud. "Why can't I just... continue on? With my life there.... No but all of them are..." Before you could finish your thoughts, the options started glitching out again, much like when you first returned home. You watched in bewilderment as a final option was added.

. . . Continue?

You froze. You hadn't seen this before, it was clearly voice activated- much like the Return option once was, but... it left you with so many questions. How could you continue? The game was over right? Was it just the epilogue or... was there more? If you pressed continue would you *ever* be able to return?

Your hand drifted to the new option. You wanted to try, you *had* to try. You had been taking so many risks up until now... returning to this world was a risk in and of itself- so what was one more?

And with that, you pressed the new option.

The first thing you noticed when you woke up, was the blinding light above you. You squinted in the light, but they weren't natural, you tried to move your head but searing pain was sent through it, instead you moved your eyes around the room, but all you could see were white walls. You could feel yourself lying down on the bed though.

A moment passed, and a man in a white lab coat... someone you didn't recognize, walked by you and glanced over at you- upon seeing that you were away his eyes widened and he rushed out of the room. Finally having some strength returned, you moved to sit up, and successfully did before noticing that one of your arms was handcuffed to the rim of the bed, the chain was long enough for you to lean against the headboard of the bed though.

You glanced around in confusion, white walls surrounded you, but a few machines were here too. The bed you were on appeared to be a hospital bed, and there was a wooden door in the corner of the room. "Where- where am I?"

Well your questions would soon be answered, the door in the corner swung open... although instead of the man you saw earlier... this was someone you recognized. You spent the whole game with him after all. The person you thought was your ally. The old protagonist.

Shuichi.

"What the- what are you doing here?" To be clear, you remembered that you pressed the continue option- but this wasn't what you were expecting, and you weren't expecting the first familiar face to be the mastermind of the game. Although it made sense to an extent, but you wanted to see the other survivors. "Where is everyone else?"

"Calm down. They're all fine. You're the last to wake up... although that isn't surprising considering you're not of this universe."

You froze, your eyes widened. How did he know that? Did everyone know that? What was he doing. You opened your mouth to ask the questions but you found yourself not knowing what to ask first.

Shuichi sighed seeing your obviously dumbfounded expression. "Where do I begin...? Right. Probably with how I know." He nodded a bit to himself, this Shuichi was... far different from the ingame one- although that was to be expected. "It's cause I was like you. I'm from the same universe you were from."

"What?!" You couldn't help but shout, although that sent you into a bit of a coughing fit, your throat was too dry to be shouting. Shuichi quickly passed you a glass of water encouraging you to drink.

"Don't worry, it's not... poisoned or anything you're out of the game now if that wasn't clear." He said as he passed you the glass, you hesitated for a bit, but you ended up drinking it- you were thirsty and you had many many questions.

"What is this place...? And how do you... why were we brought here?"

Shuichi leaned back a bit, "Well, this is an after-game facility. Everything I said as the mastermind was true. We all signed up for a killing game, for various reasons. Although what no one in your previous reality knows is that it was all virtual reality, and... everyone is alive in the end. Because let's face it- killing for a tv show isn't the most legal thing in any universe."

He chuckled a bit, but you were still lost. Although your heart soared at the thought of everyone being alive again.

"As for why we were brought here... I'm not sure. Although you and I are now the only ones to *stay*." He sighed a bit, "The rest of the game character's actual reality is this one, and it will always remain this one. You and I are... intruders from another universe. Although I'm positive we're not the only ones to visit- but we're definitely the only ones to stay." He hesitates for a second, "Can I ask you a quick question? Before you were here... in your home... was I a game character?"

You were so confused by all this information that you simply nodded, "You were... the protagonist of the game."

"Ah... so me staying here *did* alter the game."

You hesitated for a second but you finally began to speak. "So let me... get this straight. Others have been brought here... but you and I are the only ones who stayed? By staying you mean like... hitting the continue option right?" Shuichi nodded, "What happened to those that didn't stay?"

"Well I don't know. If I were to guess, they returned home and their existences were erased from this world, so... I don't remember any others. You stayed, so I remember your existence, and I remember going through the game with you." He hummed for a bit, "However, on top of that I also remember the game that I did without you..."

You groaned a bit in confusion. "Shuichi can you just- explain your side from the beginning."

He chucked a bit again, "Right. Well. I lived in a different reality before this one, one where Danganronpa was just a video game- however one day I found myself inside of the game. I ended up beating it- although in the process it differed vastly from the game that I knew of before." He paused for a second to look at you, and you nodded to show that you were listening.

"At that time I wasn't.... The mastermind or anything, just another character, i finished the game and because I didn't want to return back... I pressed the continue option. I then woke up here and was... just as confused. Although unlike you I didn't have anyone explain it to me... yet." You raised an eyebrow at that last word, but you assumed he would explain in a bit, you nodded once again for him to continue.