Court #1 : The Ultimate Yakuza's Little Sister - To Strive, Serve and Be Worthy

Cases

#1: Family Expectations & A Sibling's Bond
> Natsumi was actually better born to be be a yakuza's heir compared to Fuyuhiko, but despite family expectations, she did not take it. Because Fuyuhiko... that as the older brother, he endured and she saw. So she did the only thing she can do as a sister for the brother she had admired...

#2. Too Freaking Gullible
> How could Natsumi call herself a younger sister of the heir of yakuza when she could be tricked so easily?! Maybe it was a good thing that she didn't become yakuza herself otherwise she would cause such a scandal to the rivals but because she was a nobody, it was easier to hush down and less mockery. Still...

#3. Not So Picture Perfect
> Natsumi strove to be perfect when her brother became the heir of the yakuza because the sister has to be equally perfect. If her brother had the talent to lead the yakuza someday, then she had to have the talent for something else, anything else to stand alongside her brother. But at middle school... she strives perfection in everything she does, sports, academics... always at the top. So why? Why as something as simple photography, someone had bested her?! The likes of Mahiru Koizumi, and the fact that she was scouted, and not her...

Truth Bullets

|Clan's Belief>
~After observing Natsumi's ruthless behaviour, they thought her the reincarnation of their uncle, the strongest of the Clan which was supported by others and believed her to be the better leader of the Clan.

|Training>
~To work someone up to become the heir/ heiress of the yakuza was not for the faint of heart. Something her brother already endured and Natsumi never did. She had witnessed such training before deciding to take the spot of heiress and what happened to her brother.

|Scammed>
~Natsumi encountered a strange man who extorted money out of her without knowing his identity. To this day, she still doesn't but has an idea that it was a fortune teller.

|Promise>
~Because her big brother became the Ultimate Yakuza, Natsumi desired to be an Ultimate same as her brother, whatever Ultimate, just to stand by her brother's side. Specifically being the Ultimate Little Sister.

|Jealousy>
~It was wrong that someone normal like Mahiru Koizumi could be an Ultimate Photographer when Natsumi could not, just because her photos are a whole lot better than hers. And even being in Fuyuhiko's class...

|Reserve Project>
~Natsumi was chosen to be a special student who had the potential to be an Ultimate and was requested by the administration to prove herself by a simple 'test', but it was so much more than that... Yet she preserved for her dreams to come true. However...

|Rumored Hits>
~Due to Natsumi being a rumored reincarnation of the infamous uncle of the Kuzuryu gang and made to be heir, other rival gangs had ordered hits for her. But they never happened. Why?

|Fortune Telling>
~ In the event where Natsumi was scammed, it was a place where many fortune tellers attended for a certain event sponsored by rich people. However, among them was a fortune teller who scammed many people out of their money with the highest percentage rate of fortune telling. Yet it is unknown whether that's a rumor or not.

|Student Assault>
~During middle school, a girl by the name of Emiko Sato was attacked by Natsumi Kuzuryu in protecting her friend Mahiru Koizumi from harassment. They were suspended soon getting a black mark against their school records.

|Attempted Murder>
~Sato tried to kill Natsumi because Natsumi was suspected to do something nefarious against Mahiru.

|Ultimate Goal>
~Natsumi was determined to become an Ultimate that nothing will stand in her way especially any friend who would become a rival for that goal, like Akari...

|Betrayal>
~Akari 'aided' Sato in dealing the blows to Natsumi to the point she was hospitalised. Natsumi swore revenge to Akari ever since because a friend turned enemy left Natsumi enraged and bitter.

|Fallout>
~ Natsumi and Fuyuhiko were not close siblings despite Natsumi looking up at Fuyuhiko but Fuyuhiko had been giving his sister a cold shoulder for a long while, especially after Natsumi herself enrolled inside Hope's Peak.

***

"Have you been waiting long, Ouma-kun?" Kokichi spun around at Rantaro's voice as he headed his way towards the smaller boy with phone at ready, "Are we really going to do this?"

Both boys were at the meeting spot Kokichi texted at the brink of evening. Before that, Kokichi had been scrolling through his phone, with the app that received those random updates resulting in a brand new file called 'Courts' combining case files and truth bullets together, a file that he had opened and read through the one Court data he had under a ridiculous header.

Still, it gave him a good recap, something much needed when facing the Twin'verse as they were now. No going back.

"Are you seriously going to back down now?" Kokichi asked, smirking as he started navigating through the app in anticipation, "We need to get two more cases down and finish the first one by today."

"Is that too high a hurdle?" Rantaro asked.

"How dare you doubt a supreme leader, but I admit that I don't expect that we finish the first case the first time around but I am just itching to try it out more than anything else," Kokichi said, like a boy starting off a video game, "So without any time to waste~"

And without any time for rebuttal, he had booted up the navigation app towards Natsumi's Court, with Monokuma's voice announcing once again, 'Teleport commencing...'

When Kokichi, Rantaro and Sophie arrived, all in their costumes, Kokichi casually said, "Oh, before we go, what kinda codename should you have? Since I'm King, she's Sophie..."

"Hmm... then call me Traveller. Very simple, right?" Rantaro decided.

"Huh, you seriously want your codename to be the name characters generally call their protagonists in a popular mobile game. Seriously?" Kokichi asked.

"It's simple," Rantaro defended.

"Then, get ready to be addressed with a protagonist's name from a mobile game, Traveller but that doesn't make you a protagonist, got it? You are the subordinate of the last boss, so don't get any funny ideas!"

"Last boss? You?" Rantaro asked.

"Well, duh," Kokichi puffed up, "I'm not the Ultimate Supreme Leader for nothing."

Before Rantaro could get back with a quip, Sophia piped up, "As much as I hate to interrupt good natured banter, it won't do us any good to stick around here."

"Got it, Sophie," Kokichi said, as he immediately went into the Court by teleporting to the safe point that they last left so they could continue finding the remaining two cases.

It was as grand as ever when they were sneaking around but with one problem. It was unsurprising that the security level increased to 70% with more guards wandering around the Court, more alert for intruders. Frankly, Kokichi wondered why the security level was not at 100% after the stunt they pulled.

"The security level is not ideal," Sophia murmured, keeping a wary eye on guards that could potentially sneak up and ambush them instead of the other way round.

"Is there anyway to reduce the security level?" Rantaro asked.

"There's just continuing infiltration, beating up enemies without getting spotted. That's the only way I know that would help reduce the security level," Sophia offered.

"But how does something like that reduce the security level?" Kokichi asked, confused, "Wouldn't the Court notice the sudden lack of security guards and not increase the security level?"

"Better than attacking enemies while spotted, which makes them alert others and increase the security level. Ambushing them in secret is the opposite so it reduces the security level?" Sophia said, but there was an obvious question mark on top of her head.

"Why does that sound like a question?" Rantaro asked, but Sophia no longer paid attention as she pointed out at a batch of enemies right in front of them.

"There are enemies ahead of us blocking the path. Quick, ambush them and then you will see what I mean by the security level being reduced. But remember to do that without getting spotted," Sophia said, intent on changing the topic but it was true that the enemies were blocking the path. Kokichi looked at Rantaro, who wasted no time taking out the grappling hook on one of his hand and aiming at the enemy.

Luckily, he was a good shot, as the grappling hook hit the enemy squarely behind the head and ripped off the mask with an upper flick to turn into those Shadows while Kokichi and Sophia got out of their hiding place to finally engage in battle.

This was also the first time that they would see Rantaro in battle but after Sophia drilled in the basics, Rantaro was an amazingly natural fighter, something that Sophia had questioned after a surprisingly easy round against enemies. Like the extension of his body, he controlled the grappling hooks with finesse, able to attack multiple enemies at once by slapping all of them with a grappling hook or having it act as a pretty painful whip. Even trying them up together so Sophia could blast them altogether and finishing it up with an All-Out Attack.

"I am the Ultimate Adventurer," Rantaro answered Sophia's question about his fighting prowess with a small smile on his face, "I have faced many perilous situations where I have no choice for self-defense and I have picked a move or two in my journeys."

"That is so amazing," Sophia said, with sparkle in her eyes.

"Let's keep going," Kokichi said, as he connected to his minion in Court for directions to the next door. Beats having a map.

Unfortunately it was far from infallible because they could not always communicate with Cait Sith who was still a bodyguard of the Court and cannot help them openly or else gain the suspicions of the other guards. Especially after it was Cait Sith who was the one to have Rantaro last and which had caused the previous debacle of a Persona awakening and escaped intruders. There was more pressure on Cait Sith's side and Kokichi wanted to hold on to his minion longer so it was more likely they were on their own more often than he would prefer.

At the very least, Kokichi had understood the layout of the Court, about the multiple traps around the Court that it is unavoidable to at least encounter one when finding the Trials. With Cait Sith's help, Kokichi had managed to map out a route where they will only encounter one trap for each Trial they need to unlock later. Whether said traps would be easy, Kokichi never got an answer when Cait Sith was called out for guard duty.

Right now, his minion was unresponsive which meant that he was in a situation where he cannot use telepathy liberally. Although no one would be aware about such telepathy, any acting out will call for suspicion and the less of that, the better.

At least compared to the tutorial session and even with a new member with them, Court was smooth sailing with the extra items that Kokichi had brought. Save for some of the enemies they had ambushed to reduce the security level, they had avoided most of them accounting for the fact that Rantaro didn't have much experience compared to the rest of them despite his natural fighting prowess.

Of course that would mean it might be better to grind for those levels but first, they need to persevere their stamina and secondly, there was no guarantee that they can win every battle so they had to pick their battles very carefully.

Eventually, they made their way to the first anticipated trap, right after relaxing in one of the safe points that they managed to unlock, in a frankly surprising fashion. One would ask whether the trap would be something found with the yakuza but considering the Court and it's game elements, it should be unsurprising how exaggerated it had been when the bottom fell out off the trio's feet. While Kokichi had immediately took out his sword to find a wall to stick into and stop his fall and Rantaro had immediately fired his grappling hook upward for something to hook and reel them in, neither of them found their mark with the pitfall having no walls near Kokichi or with anything that Rantaro could use to hook with the unbreakable and hookless ceiling.

To make matters worse, the trio separated to different slides that awaited them from the same pitfall, landing them in different locations.

Since this was a trap, Kokichi had looked around to find the Monoku-man arcade machine but only found a console stuck on the wall. Even when he wondered whether there were traps, he had taken the console out of the wall, the only thing in what looked to him a dark maze where he at least had a flashlight to illuminate his way.

He turned on the console, it's own light illuminating the dark place he was in which replaced the flashlight. When it was booted on, a Lock Screen greeted him. With the little light, the controls were similar to any game console he ever knew, like a PS5 for example.

He later fished out his phone, cursing at his lack of oversight for not providing any communication tools for Sophia because it never crossed his mind that they would be separated like this. It was a surprise then to find that his phone had absolutely no signal in the Court, which made no sense to him when the app was working fine. The Court was also telling him there was no Internet or data in this Atua forsaken place so that means his phone was basically useless except for the app that only works here. Checking whether the app has a communication function was fruitless even when he had the slightest bit of hope in those friendship reports which Kokichi found a damning oversight. Like he was one to talk.

He wanted to forward the complaint of no communication function in this app to the Velvet Room, since they helped upgrade the app that Monokuma had created because they were the only available people he could reach at the moment but at a later date, when he got out of this situation.

Going for the last resort option of contacting Cait Sith through telepathy in the hopes he respond this time, he stopped short when the console brightened up and showed Sophia staring back at him. Like a video call, Rantaro was staring back at him, equally startled.

"Good, I managed to reach you both," Sophia said in relief, "That means you two are holding onto the consoles."

"So that means you found the arcade machine, or..." Kokichi said, getting straight to the point even when thrown into the most unexpected situations.

"Arcade machine," Sophia answered, "Although I have not cracked the password, there was an emergency phone call button to contact all of you. I'm thankful that you have found the consoles for this particular communication."

"Then, how are you aware that there are these... consoles, when you tried to call us? You could have accidentally called the enemy. Have you done this before?" Rantaro asked.

"Yes," Sophia answered, "This isn't my first rodeo in Court, so I know that there are traps that separate people  with one stationed Monoku-man arcade machine while there are consoles for the others. There is no way to call the enemy with this Monoku-man arcade machine because the phone call is exclusively for the consoles."

"Then, how are we going to get out of this?" Kokichi asked.

"Call Cait Sith for any hint of the password to the machine. Once you unlock the machine, the consoles automatically unlock and we know what game we are supposed to be playing to unlock this trap," Sophia instructed, which Kokichi complied despite the obvious hierarchy where he was supposed to be leader. There were just some unfortunate times where one has to defer to the most experienced.

"Hmm, I know that it's because King has a minion that this has been going smoothly," Rantaro said, not surprised by his current situation when it had already been explained to him about the nature of traps and everything else at Court from Sophia just before they entered the Court itself, "But what would have happened if King never used his Ultimate and we got trapped here without a minion? Wouldn't that mean we would have never found a password?"

"King having a minion is convenient," Sophia conceded, "But this a Court that Monokuma had created even if this was born by the despair of other people. He would never truly make it impossible for infiltrators like me or anyone else, just to keep his 'game' going. If not the bodyguards, there would have been monsters that could be listened to throughout this trap location for a hint of the password. That is what I did with my friends before I met either of you. Thanks to King, we just skip that whole process."

"That makes sense," Rantaro nodded, although frowning slightly at the mention of Monokuma. When he had first heard it during the debacle at Court as Kokichi had gained his Persona, they met Sophia and escaped... the name virtually meant nothing to him. But once he gained his Persona, the name felt... familiar to him somehow, almost as if it was responsible for the pain he once felt at his head when he awakened his Persona...

He was still unsure whether that was all in his head but nevertheless, he had every reason to frown at the true unknown enemy who was the cause for this kind of disturbance...

"Got it," Kokichi said, only half-listening to the interesting conversation Rantaro and Sophia had without him, "Sophie, the arcade machine is somehow more straight forward than the other one we tried. On the right side of the machine, there's supposed to a screen with a number pad. You have to feel your way through that one, which is half the challenge of unlocking the arcade machine."

Sophia went to the right side of the machine, getting out of the call for a while before they heard her voice saying, "I found it. What do I do now?"

"With this trap, there will always be multiple people who fall and retrieve consoles. At the back of said consoles will be a four digit number which is part of the password in this case. Sophie, you see that other than the usual numbers of the number pad, there would be a console symbol and lock symbol, right?"

"Yep, got it," Sophia noted and Kokichi continued his explanation.

"If we were just the bodyguards, we could easily bypassed the machine by using a special key that they carry at all times for this troublesome trap but for people who have lost or forgotten the key, they are subjected to a despairful and nearly impossible quick math challenge. Under 5 seconds, you are supposed to type in the numbers of the consoles and pressed the console button. Under 1 minute, they would give you a long set of instructions to remember and trip you up, with the final answer being the actual password for the arcade machine."

"That's... that's insane," Rantaro commented, to which Kokichi was inclined to agree.

"Luckily, my capability as an AI makes it possible for me to calculate and input the final answer," Sophia reassured them, which Kokichi would have doubted if it were another AI beecause of how some AIs have failed to solve simple math problems that humans could, "Now, both of you give me the numbers at the same time."

Sophia had walked her talk when their consoles unlocked themselves under a minute with the screen said, 'Unlocked - Through Arcade Machine'. Pressing the button, the console no longer has a locked screen and showed a map with red spots, a camera icon and a light from the console that had given a wider berth than his own phone flashlight.

"The instructions... this is a maze and we are separated in different places. For all of us to get out, King and Traveller have to make their way through numerous traps through the maze while taking pictures of numbers along the way, which are what the red spots for. You will both reach the arcade machine where I am and then install the consoles into the arcade machine and will give me a series of numbers which will lead to the passcode that will finally get us out of here."

Kokichi frowned, as he said, "That's all well and dandy but we will still be running in the dark. They show the red spots, but this is a maze and no matter where I am, the console doesn't show us the structure of the maze. We are more likely to run into walls and in circles by the looks of it."

There are ways to get around this, but this is going to be a pain and completely time consuming. If this were a game, he would give a negative out of a 100. But maybe that's because reality can be a negative with the BS that it loves to hand out. Even so, Kokichi wasn't seeing any viable solution except for running in circles and marking the walls to keep track and get a good feel of the maze. Since Rantaro was the Ultimate Adventurer, he should understand the same thing but sometimes Kokichi was possessed with leader like behaviour and at least addressed this.

"Actually," Rantaro spoke up, "I think there's a way to make the whole thing easier. My Ultimate Skill, Journey The Way might actually be useful for this situation."

"Ah, you are the Ultimate Adventurer and in this unknown... your Ultimate Skill might be able to reach our destination faster, huh?" Kokichi asked, and Rantaro smiled.

"Hmm, Ultimate Skills. First, King and now Traveller. I thought it was only exclusive to the Rebel but I thought wrong. Honestly, it's the one thing I do not know about in this Twin'verse," Sophia suddenly admitted, "How does it work? Why do you both possess it? And how are you sure that your skills work in certain situations like this?"

Was it concerning that even the resident AI who had more experience than them in this Twin'verse does not know about one game mech? Or was this Monokuma's doing? Sophia had been confused about Deceitful Tears and now, suddenly, another Persona user had an Ultimate Skill.

Rantaro shrugged, as she tapped his compass, "I can't really say how it works but it feels like an instinct... from Columbus. It is called an Ultimate Skill because it comes from being an Ultimate... and the skill relates to our title, and also our mask. Journey The Way would plot out a route for me and for anyone else who needs it until the final destination. It's a good thing for the lost, and to jump headfirst into challenges instead of wasting time."

"And that relates to being an Ultimate Adventurer. So, Deceitful Tears for King where he's able to control subordinates is because he's the Ultimate Supreme Leader and tears comes from the mask. I think I finally understand. It must be some new game mechanic from the bear."

A game mechanic, and because they were Ultimates. Only Napoleon met Monokuma face to face so Kokichi himself couldn't get a good read on the bear himself but he was feeling the red flags. His sudden spike of paranoia also had an uneasy feeling about Journey The Way because while it was nice to get a route for the lost, Ultimate Skills have always related to Ultimates and if Rantaro was an Ultimate Traveller who simply travels to a destination easily, there would have been nothing suspicious about the skill. But as an Ultimate Adventurer, who never really had any destination in mind and just jumps into the unknown with adventurous spirit among other things...

Kokichi dismissed the bad feeling, because nothing ventured, nothing gained and wasn't that adventurous for Kokichi? Life would be so boring without any risks and he liked to stick to his principles.

"So what are you waiting for?" Kokichi asked, "We don't have all day~"

Rantaro tapped the compass once more, as Colombus sayed behind him with his hand also shining through the compass that was spinning like crazy before suddenly stopping. And just as suddenly, it glowed gold which was the exact color of the trail that was suddenly beneath Kokichi's feet, leading him to his next destination.

"Is there anything else that we should be aware of about your skill?" Kokichi asked Rantaro.

"There's no limit, until you reach the destination. You cannot go anywhere except for the golden trail, as you will refuse to deviate, like you left it up to fate. I'm not sure how this skill particularly works but it would always lead to the best outcome. Even in a maze like this, no matter what, you will always accomplish your objective. I wonder if I can actually use this skill back in the real world..."

Colombus must have said something to Rantaro, because he visibly deflated but gotten over it quickly.

"So just follow the trail and see you when we finally found Sophie's," Rantaro finally ended, before he headed off and ended the call. Kokichi did the same, when there was nothing left to say as he followed the golden trail but left marks just in case when he can't be entirely sure how Rantaro's Ultimate Skill operates.

But so far, he had not run into walls and even when he seeemingly did, they opened like a gateway that almost made it seemed smooth sailing.

Almost.

He was not bamboozled when he made it near to the first red spot and almost got decapitated by a swinging axe. Taking step backwards, he clutched his neck and flashed to the ever fleeting mortality. He would have died if it were not for Napoleon who suddenly appeared before him and jump scared him backward, enough to avoid the first ever trap he had ever encountered.

There were swinging axes before it leads to the next door and in the middle of it, according to the console, there was numbers in the middle of the room but with the swinging axes that chipped the walls in full arcs, the numbers are most likely either on the ceiling or the floor. What really got to Kokichi was that the golden trail decided not to go to a straight line to the end.

"Why is that trail expecting you to run over the wall and the ceiling like we can defy the laws of physic. We can, but still..." Napoleon wondered, and it was a good thing that Kokichi's Persona skill set deals with tricky powers like that for it is realistically impossible to wall run and ceiling walk before coming back to the floor.

But why waste such energy, when observing the swinging axes to time the run straight to the middle for the numbers and then getting out but when he tried to do that after being fairly confident with his timing, Kokichi... couldn't move.

"It deviates from the golden trail, so that's why you couldn't move. Traveller really meant it when you literally cannot go anywhere except for the trail," Napoleon said, as Kokichi frowned at the newfound pros and cons of Journey The Way. Was the cons, of choosing a more daring path, to reflect on an adventurous spirit or was there something deeper than that?

In any case, Kokichi could not complain as he took one of the rare snacks that boost the SP and speed so he could cast this particular spell and not fall to his doom when he embarks this impossible route, check the timing for axe swings and knew he had to look out for the numbers...

"Don't worry," Napoleon reassured, "Like I will ever let you die from this overkill yakuza trap."

"Yeah, thanks a lot. Gives me a ton of reassurance," Kokichi rolled his eyes and finally started running through the walls, as he barely missed the axes with Napoleon at his side who acted independently and pushed back any axes when they were too close to comfort. When he was nearer to the red dot, the golden trail led him straight to the ceiling which he jumped upward and was surprised to see holes, some with spikes that were sticking out.

"Any bets that there are traps on the floor that will skewer you if you ran through the floor?" Napoleon chuckled but Kokichi remained silent, more focused on the surroundings and particularly looking all four areas as he held up the console to prepare taking a picture of the numbers.

He finally found them on the floor through the lenses of the console and snapped them quickly, as the red dot disappeared. When he saw for himself without the lenses, the numbers disappeared. So to make it more difficult, he could only find the numbers through the lenses.

When he finally made it to the other side, Kokichi took a breath and replenished his SP with one of Teruteru's snacks as he noted from the console that there were two other red dots as the benign golden trail begged him to follow once more.

"This game is in despair mode at this point," Kokichi huffed in an exaggerated tone, "And it's just the first Court."

"Maybe it's because we pissed off the yakuza," Napoleon quipped. Kokichi scowled.

This might be petty but he honesetly hope that Rantaro had as bad a time as him.

The other two traps were less crazy than the law defying physics that he had to go through on the first trap. The next one was classic arrows shooting to the other side of the wall and the trail decided to just zig zag to the floor. The timing was more erratic than the axe trap and he took out his sword in thought.

"Since you are me Napoleon, was there any other me that can... skillfully master a sword and get us through this?" Kokichi asked, because he did remember that Napoleon did say he traversed through multiverses as the Rebel and may pick up a thing or two.

"What do you think I am?" Napoleon asked snarkily, "Forget it though. No other multiverse me can masterfully cut down arrows while running zig zag and find the number while you are at it."

"What?" Kokichi grumbled, as he tried swinging his sword and once more looking at the erratic arrows, "There was no samurai edo universe where I had to learn the way of the sword? That's bullshit."

"I haven't gone through as many universes as you think, and frankly they are all modern. So you are grasping at straws here," Napoleon shrugged. Kokichi wondered whether he could contact Cait Sith to shut down all the traps but that was hella suspicious and he wanted to keep his trump card longer. He tried thinking other ways to get through the arrow trap, such as a way to disarm them but even when he wanted to look around, the golden trail would not allow him.

At this point, Kokichi was going for the fastest and most dangerous route but he swallowed that bitter pill and grumbled, "Where is a defense forcefield when you need it?"

"Sorry that I don't have that skill with you and even then, you have ran out of MP anyway," Napoleon answered that rhethoretical question. Kokichi rolled his eyes.

With Napoleon's help, he managed to find the number on the wall and made it out with an arrow sticking out on his left arm and back. Luckily, that was not enough to kill him, even with poisoned coated arrows when the Twin'verse was really a game world where he could still die but where he can keep himself alive in ways reality won't allow.

Because this would kill him, but it just leads to some HP reduced with the poison stat and Kokichi, being prepared enough for this, swallowed down <Dis-Poison> he managed to get from Sophie who stocked up on them and they have found in chests from this Court, that normally would be used during or / and after Persona battles with unfortunate status ailments. Knowing he had a long road ahead of him, he also replenished his HP with some <boba tea>, like a treat for this gruelling trap and to help ease an antidote's bitterness

"Huh, it's ironic that we could have matched but you have it way easier than me," Napoleon observed as Kokichi remembered meeting another self with Kaito's jacket, and then flashing to arrows being stuck at the exact same places that were pulled out to later...

"All hail game mechanics," Kokichi smiled, ignoring the bitterness that Napoleon had displayed. What could he have said then that would have made that bitterness easier to swallow anyway? Napoleon knew this too and didn't pursue it.

The final trap had to be straightforward, and with the golden trail finally throwing him a bone when he had triggered a rolling boulder after walking through yet another wall and had to run for his life before he got crushed. When he neared the red dot, the golden trail went straight to the wall that opened up when he threw himself towards it and let the boulder roll away before he finally managed to find the last string of numbers.

He reached his destination at the same time as Rantaro, who looked as good as him while he still rubbed his foot in a wincing way and when they meet each other to access the damage, Kokichi raised an eyebrow toward Rantaro first.

"Metal balls falling from the ceiling and one of them hit me on the foot," Rantaro winced, "You?"

"Got shot by arrows, but cleaned up fine," Kokichi shrugged.

"Do you need any healing? I can summon Pandora and heal you to better health. I also keep bandages and know basic first aid to help with your injuries," Sophia said.

"Keep your SP for now, Sophia and the sooner we get out of here, the better. It's not as bad as you think," Kokichi dismissed, already fed up with this trap and although Sophia looked like she wanted to argue, she just received the consoles from both Rantaro and Kokichi who busied themselves cleaning up their wounds. Rantaro finally bandaged his foot and used <Relax Gel> that also healed Rantaro over any Rage or Despair anyone would feel over such an unfair injury. The gel threw a bone for Rantaro, at least giving peace and easing the pain. Just made moving and wiggling toes more painful than it should be. Kokichi did the same to his bloody wounds.

"How are we going to explain this to the others?" Rantaro asked.

"Do we get a deus ex machina that our injuries immediately disappear when we get back to our reality?" Kokichi asked sweetly to Sophia and ignored Rantaro, when he felt bitter that it was his Skill, while useful, that made him risk his neck more than he liked. There were safer ways to deal with those traps, damn it.

"Mmm, I think so," Sophia said as she was concentrating on the math and thus did not elaborate but he was grateful for such an answer. Deus ex machina wins. People can suck it if they think this is way too OP and that things were going his way too much with such laxness. He was already in a riduculous situation to begin with so why can't the world give him the occassional boon?

And the universe also granted him an award that they were somehow at a walking distance to the newest case that they had been trying so hard to find. He started swiping once more and-

"Please, for the Family, for the..."

A girl in front of her family, with only thought for her brother and what she can do as a sister.

'Have to get into...'

Wanting to be just as good as the brother, wanting to do the family proud.

'Reserve Course, but...'

Downgraded so bad, but it meant nothing because she knew... she had heard... and she...

"You are chosen, and yet you..."

But she still had to go through so much BS. No matter, because...

'I... I have to, and because I am a...'

Cases

One-For-All Opportunities
>There had always been a rumour that the Reserve Course wasn't just for those who couldn't be Ultimates, but for people with the potential to become the Ultimates they truly desire... with a little help. So Natsumi was pleased when she was approached to participate in the project by them, but unfortunately, she was among the many candidates to be selected until they finish an unknown screening process to deem the worthy. That will not do. In order to achieve her dreams, be an Ultimate, no matter what it takes...

"Hmph. So this..." Kokichi muttered to himself.

"What is it King?" Sophia asked but Kokichi just gave a small laughter.

"I just get the feeling things are going to get a little too predictable for my taste," Kokichi said.

Doing anything for power, because that is cliche. But he felt there was a deeper reason than that and yet with how the cases were written and the truth bullets were used, he got the feeling that he understood where this Court's story was going.

Either way, that did not matter when they had to make their way to the fifth and final case before they had to do all five and get the keys to unlock the boss battle. Unfortunately, they had one last trap to go through with before making it to the case and since they were still recovering, they wanted to find an easy way out to overcome the trap and reach their destination.

Journey The Way was strongly rejected by Kokichi when Rantaro suggested it, due to the risky nature that would clash with their objective to safely make it through the Court. In games, Kokichi was an undoubtedly a risk taker but he wouldn't be a good gamer otherwise when he would know what to prioritise and not recklessly charge like a noob berserker. That's how anyone would enjoy games without being totally stupid about it.

It was thanks to Sophie that with this particular Court's nature and with her particular knowledge, that she hatched a plan to best the trap in one go... all starting with finding said trap and enemies.

It was expected that they would land into the worst of traps just to get to the particular case considering how terrible the traps were becoming the more he went through each case, but his expectations were subvered by irony.

They eventually found themselves in an archive for the yakuza, detailing bloody crimes and their histories. Because this was from Natsumi, there were also a list of enemies with Kokichi at about top ten of the list, which he found particularly flattering. There had also been a desk with a fair few buttons and an especially big red button that was obviously a trap so they had stayed far away.

They have also passed through a fair few enemies along this door so this was the perfect way to enact their plan. Taking some books out at random, while being wary of additional traps, they tossed those books out of the room.

Hearing the footsteps that followed, they used Kokichi's signature move to make themselves scarce from the enemy's sight by hightailing to the ceiling. Predictably, the enemy moved in to find a commotion and the tag teaming was perfect.

First, Rantaro used his grappling hooks to push the pair of guards aka the enemy as near to the table as he could before Kokichi tossed a bomb straight to the button and predictably raising a cage over them and paralyzing them since he used the bomb from his white sword that was more likely to give them that physical status ailment. Not soon after, a horde of enemies rushed over in surprise to see their comrades and looked around to be surprised to see no one else around. 

Before the trapped guards could alert their free ones, the trio had slipped into the now open entrance of the bookshelf and ran knowing that it would lead to the final case. Rantaro had raised a worry about Cait Sith possibly leading us to a worst trap but Kokichi deemed it impossible because Deceitful Tears even with its ominous name would let him have an absolutely loyal subordinate who won't betray him and would do everything to betray his former comrades, which is where the deceit comes from.

And as expected, they made it to the door as Kokichi scanned once more, with...

'Things should have gone smoothly. They should...'

But then why was there a girl with a lethal weapon swinging at her?

'People should really know their place.'

Why couldn't it be easy, when she wanted to dispose her enemy for her supposed friend to deny that of her?

'People should really know their place, and stop going against me, because...'

And that supposed friend was an enemy all along no matter what she had said. Had their friendship before been a lie? There was no wrong in being paranoid especially when she had no idea of that organization's motives, not really...

So why does it hurt, and when is all said and done, why was she denied...

Cases

When Opportunities Died
>Natsumi's dreams devolved into nightmares the moment someone attempted to assassinate her. It wasn't actually the first time, but it was the most painful, when this assassination was closely tied to a betrayal from a very close friend she would never suspect. Injured and tired from the aftermath, they decided she was no longer fit for the program, the straw that broke the camel's back. Assassination, betrayal and no longer having the way to get what she desired, Natsumi...

"OK, OK, what a sob story. Boohoo, moving on," Kokichi scowled as he finished reading the case file at hand.

"You don't have to be so cold about it," Rantaro scolded lightly to which Kokichi turned a deaf ear on.

"Are you acting like this, because it has to do with slighting a member of your organization?" Sophia asked, to which Rantaro looked inquiringly but which Kokichi felt too tired to repeat so he immediately teleported them without any warning as an aggressive change of subject.

Rantaro took the hint, but that didn't mean he wasn't curious for answers.

They got to the very first door, the very first case that needed to be solved. Kokichi looked at Sophia, as if waiting for her instructions on how they proceed with this. She did not disappoint.

"A few things you have to know about this trial is that once you start, you have to finish it. There's no save point and no continue. You also cannot restart the trial immediately when you fail because the trial makes sure that you completely forget what happens in the trial and gives you the worst mental migraine that forces you to rest it out until you can try it again as a blank slate."

"Those are... cruel mechanics," Kokichi finally said, as he looked through the case and truth bullets in his app, wondering whether he had it in him to one-shot through this trial.

"More proof that this is reality, and that the bear will never make those Courts easy," Sophia sighed, "In games, there are no consequences to failure and where players can easily restart to their last safe point after the failure in game, learning from the failure and choosing the other options to pass no matter how many times they have failed. Reality wise, that would almost be like a cheat code to win and Monokuma refuses to let us win but would despairingly gives a chance."

"It's why there are such penalties with the amnesia and mental breakdown to ground the trials more to reality," Sophia finished.

"Wait, even with memory loss and that mental breakdown, wouldn't it still lead to an inevitable win? Even if we don't remember why we fail, we would still know that we fail and at least understand that we are lacking somewhere. The mental breakdown giving us time before trying again would give us the time to find out those lacking areas and overcome them. I do not see any fatal downsides with this," Rantaro said.

"You are not wrong but you had not account for our limited time. The first time you fail, you will have a mental breakdown lasting three days and anymore failures after that would give a 3 hour extension of that mental breakdown. You will suddenly find yourself with wasting time and considering the inevitable countdown we are bound to have with the enemies, we cannot afford to lose time before we are led to our own game overs," Sophia answered.

"Inevitable countdown? I do want to rush into this and win over Natsumi-chan as soon as possible but I don't remember us truly having a deadline for finishing this Court," Kokichi spoke up.

"There's always some kind of deadline," Sophia said solemnly, "You might not feel the deadline now, but it will come one day."

Kokichi wanted to call BS but with how serious Sophia looked, he decided it was not worth contesting over and wondered what he could do. He either stopped now, or he would try, success or fail.

"... Let's do it," Kokichi said.

"Wait, what?" Rantaro asked, "Why? We are already tired from the last two traps. Wouldn't it be a good idea to just call it quits now?" 

"You have no sense of adventure, Traveller," Kokichi pouted, finally revealing his hard mode gamer style by pushing through this, "Why don't we end our mini adventure in this Court with a bang? Considering the case details and the truth bullets we have, we could possibly one-shot this and learn how to tackle the others."

The trio stared each other down, before Rantaro finally relented and Sophia reluctantly consented. Kokichi beamed.

He swiped the case scanner that gave a pop up:

Do you want to proceed #1: Family Expectations & A Sibling's Bond?

> Yes > No

Without hesitation, Kokichi tapped 'Yes' with the door leading them into a new unknown for the newly formed trio to tackle. Kokichi was ready to bust the case wide open!

A/N: I knew a long time ago that when I was writing this, I was in for the long haul  which won't be smooth sailing with some tweaking but after writing about 10 or so chapter drafts for upcoming arcs and whatnot out of inspiration, I had fun writing it through without a care and I might make this a comfort fic... for myself. It's been a while now but I am decisively steadfast with this grave that I dug. Something that will be updated sporadically because this crossover is for my pleasure rather than for the readers and I want to have fun with the game mechs of this story. I also know this would take forever so I refuse to promise anything because if this is the first arc, I might have about 10+ arcs if I choose the Danganronpa chapter mechanic and add some in between to flesh out the Persona mechs. I also blatantly refuse to write each day because that would take a ton of chapters so I have to plan time skips and I suck at those. Also, ironically, it's like playing the Persona game although I'm watching walkthroughs. Kokichi will have limited time somehow and can't max everyone's friendship stats so I'm wondering how the completion rate would look like, who he will prioritize more and etc. Well, it's like I'm player one in this story and the readers are the ones watching this walkthrough. Let's see how far I go.