Phantom Thieves of Hope - A Danganronpa X Persona 5 Story.

Chapter 54: Super School's Stupendous Summer Sports Day.

Love is Surviving - Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Juzo Sakakura was gonna be working overtime today.

The day had finally arrived for the annual Hope's Peak Academy Sports Festival, one of the few days in the year where the prestigious school was almost completely open to the public. The students were all on the grounds getting ready, and the former Ultimate Boxer himself waited by the gates with the men of his department, letting the guests in with the utmost caution.

Though he didn't like to stand out, Juzo was doing everything he could to make certain that the people who entered through these gates were fully aware of his presence. A lot of them, recognizing him as the one who had punched Mr. Daimon's lights out at Haiji Towa's on-site conference, got his message very clear.

Ever since that event, several strange happenings had taken place that could somehow be traced back to the prestigious school. Towa was the biggest example, but following him, an influential private investigator and father of the current academy headmaster confessed in a manner similar to that of what Towa had done. Then, not too long after that, the mother of one of the new first-year students did the very same at a live event at the Tokyo Dome in front of several hundred people.

And it could all be traced back to that damn rumor of the "Hope's Peak Phantom Thieves."

So naturally, knowing that there would be several dozen people AT LEAST who would be using this day as an opportunity to snoop around and get information for which paper wherever, some precautions had to be taken in comparison to the last few years. Mainly, the number of places that the guests were allowed to go to was limited far more than they ever had been before.

On top of that, the Steering Committee and Munakata had gone out of their way to make sure all the stops were pulled out so that these restrictions WOULDN'T be broken. They had taken a risk, and it had paid back when the government became aware of the situation and was willing to send a small squadron of armed police as backup just in case. Hope's Peak Academy was influential and important enough to the Japanese economy that it would make sense to send them. But still, Juzo was infuriated that something he still considered a prank would have invited this much trouble.

The guests also weren't allowed to bring any device that had a camera on them into the school premises, including mobile phones, which were confiscated at all entrances to the school. This was to the chagrin of a lot of ordinary non-reporters, or paparazzi, but Juzo didn't care.

So while he was preoccupied making sure that no one did anything shady, the students of all the classes in Hope's Peak Academy were gathered on the absurdly large grounds, each class of each year each in a different tent.

Despite the apprehension, most of Class 78-A had turned up in their gym clothes, even Leon, Celeste, Kyoko, and Byakuya. Even they didn't plan on letting their home team down this year, and since there were so many people on the campus in light of the incidents who were here for a show, it was only right to give them one.

Makoto and Toko were the only two who had not shown up yet.

"Hm...Seems we still have a few people missing..." Taka looked down at his register in dismay.

"Yes," Sakura affirmed, "Naegi and Fukawa are present, though. They just called to let us know they were almost here."

"I wonder what's keeping 'em?" Mondo asked.

"Say, have any of you guys noticed?" Leon chimed in suddenly, "Like, no weird jokes or suggestions here, but those two've been actin' a lot closer since the start of this term, haven't they? They keep going off and chatting on their lonesome."