Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF, full title Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF: The Button of Hope and the Tragic Warriors of Despair (ダンガンロンパIF 希望の脱出装置と絶望の残念無双) is a light novel written by Ryōgo Narita.

It explores a "What If" storyline with Makoto Naegi having received the Escape Button from the MonoMono Machine in the beginning of the Killing School Life, which helps him slowly regain his memories.

It is unlocked after completing Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

Chapter 1
Makoto receives a strange button from the MonoMono Machine, presses it, and receives a strange electric shock that causes him to have a terrible headache. As he's lying in bed thinking about how to escape, Sayaka Maizono knocks on his door, planning to start her plot for murdering Leon Kuwata. Unfortunately for Sayaka, Makoto collapses and loses consciousness during their conversation.

Makoto wakes up in the nurse's office with Mukuro Ikusaba (disguised as Junko Enoshima). The two converse, and Makoto has a feeling, at the time inexplicable to him, that he's talking to someone other than Junko, but dismisses the feeling as just a symptom of his mysterious illness.

The students are all called to the gym and Mukuro (as Junko) challenges Monokuma.

Just as the Spears of Gungnir are being released, Makoto yells for Mukuro to get out of the way while running towards her. She is so surprised at being called by her real name that she steps back, and Makoto is stabbed by the spears instead.

Chapter 2
The point-of-view switches to Mukuro as she reels from the shock of Junko's attempt on her life. Makoto weakly asks her why she's dressed up as Junko, but quickly passes out due to blood loss. The other students begin to question whether Mukuro really had committed an act of violence against the headmaster.

Junko switches gears and has Monokuma say that he has been hacked by someone from the outside world. She (speaking through Monokuma as a supposed hacker named Besshiki Madarai) claims that Mukuro is a terrorist, and the cause of the sadistic killing game. The students are confused at first, but quickly fall for Junko's lies, and turn on Mukuro.

Because she's not very good at manipulating people and Makoto is near death, Mukuro grabs Makoto and attempts to fight her way out of the gym. She takes on Sakura Ogami, but Sakura turns out to be the better warrior. Realizing that she can't beat Sakura, Mukuro intentionally triggers Toko Fukawa's personality change into Genocide Jack. Jack distracts the students, allowing Mukuro to leave the gym, carrying Makoto, so she can treat his wounds, as Kyoko Kirigiri silently observes.

Chapter 3
Mukuro carries Makoto on her back as she runs to the nurse's office to treat his wounds and save his life. She also ponders the fact that Junko just betrayed and nearly killed her.

The other students in the gymnasium face off against the serial killer Genocide Jack, and she starts a fight with Sakura.

Back in the nurse's office, Mukuro uses the first aid equipment to stop Makoto's bleeding. She's in the process of performing a blood transfusion when Monokuma appears behind her.

As always, Junko uses her skills in manipulation to confuse and distract Mukuro from the correct course of actions, in an attempt to prevent Mukuro from saving Makoto's life. Junko says "I love you" to Mukuro, and in that moment Mukuro realizes that Junko is breaking all connections between them.

Chapter 4
More than ten minutes pass, and Jack is tied and locked up in her room. Half of the students stay behind to keep watch over her, while the other half search through the school building for Mukuro and Makoto. When they arrived at the nurse's office, Kyoko finds a nonfunctioning Monokuma with a hole through his chest and the remains of a security camera.

Kyoko tells Chihiro Fujisaki to stay with her in the nurse's office to search for clues, because he's the only one who can investigate Monokuma's body, and the others leave the nurse's office. She tells Chihiro to use his laptop microphone and voice recording function, because she wants to record everything that they will hear from this point. Then she says that she has found Makoto, and he was in a bed that was in a blind spot from the doors, with a blood pack that was hidden beside the bed providing him a transfusion.

Kyoko also finds Mukuro's hiding place, so she asks Mukuro to explain her side of the story. Mukuro tells her that Kyoko is the Ultimate Detective and the rest of the story, and leaves the room. Finally, Chihiro finds in Monokuma's control system that he is the creator of the program.

After entering the main hallway, making sure to keep away from Sakura and Mondo in particular, Mukuro encounters a group of Monokuma units in the hall that Junko uses to taunt her, calling her a "disappointment". They all proceed to attack her, but she is able to fend them off with the use of a metal pipe and her military training. Junko continues to taunt her, saying that she has no intention of letting the students die as she can just erase their memories as many times as long as she wants to keep the killing game going. Despite Mukuro's efforts, the number of Monokuma units keeps increasing endlessly, to the point where she begins to tire. She refuses to stop fighting, determined to ensure that Makoto and the others escape to the outside world.

Chapter 5
Junko continues to watch Mukuro fight the hordes of Monokumas, amused to see her sister trying so hard to cause her despair. Feeling a great sensation of despair from the events unfolding before her, Junko decides to try and personally talk to her sister using the speaker system, in an attempt to bring her back from her "inhuman" state. Her plan ends up working when she plays the clip of Makoto from before he saved Mukuro, causing her to momentarily lose focus just in time for the Monokumas to land a string of hits on her. Unable to react quick enough, the Monokumas are able to hold her down.

Junko decides to continue her taunting, expressing her plans to restart the Killing Game with Mukuro participating as herself, with her memories as the Ultimate Soldier removed. She goes on talking about how when the students find out about Mukuro's status as a member of the Ultimate Despair they'd turn on her in an instant, but Mukuro can only focus on how losing her memories would remove her connection to Junko almost permanently. Junko decides to brutally injure her sister before removing her memories, calling in the motorcycle that had been planned to be used for the executions. Much to her surprise, Mondo is the one riding the motorbike when it shows up, crushing the Monokumas that were keeping Mukuro trapped. Junko speaks as Madarai in an attempt to make Mondo turn on Mukuro again, but he refuses on the notion that he can't stand by and let a girl get hurt. Pulling Mukuro on to the motorcycle, the two flee from the horde of Monokumas chasing after them.

With the Monokumas getting close to the bike, Mondo and Mukuro seem to be done for until Sakura intervenes, holding the horde back. Mukuro sees the other students huddled near the front gate, along with Makoto, having finally regained consciousness. He was able to convince the other students of the outside world's current state by recounting his regained memories of their time at Hope's Peak, causing them to trust him once again. Mukuro is surprised when Makoto expresses his thanks to her and calls her his friend, believing that he could've only seen her as a traitor.

Junko, desperate to regain control of the situation, decides to implement a special "final exam" for the captives, speaking as herself instead of as Madarai. She says that if they fail the test, she will reset all their memories and begin the killing game anew. Kiyotaka Ishimaru confronts her, adamantly arguing that none of them would commit murder against their classmates. In response, Junko tries to goad Sayaka into confessing her plan to kill Leon but it's interrupted by Leon chucking Yasuhiro's crystal ball at the Monokuma unit she's talking through. Leon promises to pay a flustered Yasuhiro back for the shattered ball, while Sayaka decides to confess her scheme to everyone later.

Junko sets up the final exam, promising them all freedom if they can get to a switch at the front gate within fifteen seconds of the start of the test. She also mentioned that she'll be sending them off with "fireworks", which some of the students realize means she plans to self-destruct all the Monokumas in their way, causing the route to escape to be filled with flames. Mukuro decides to try and endure the explosions in order to help her classmates go free, knowing that the escape switch was real (all of Junko's plans had a chance that she'd end up feeling despair herself). Mukuro asks Sakura to propel her forward through the hallway, and that unexpected plan is able to distract Junko for one second, long enough for Mukuro to obtain the switch at the end of the path. While doing so she also uses a metal pipe to destroy the last Monokuma's self-destruct system.

As the Monokuma unit shuts down, Junko laments that Mukuro put her trust in others in order to complete the challenge. In response to her sister, Mukuro promises to stop any chance of the students killing each other by bringing back their memories as classmates and friends, which Junko had to remove in order to ensure the killing game's success. Cradling the destroyed Monokuma in her arms, she decides that she will seal away all her despair until she can unleash it on her sister, a "perfect storm" that will be the end of both of them.

Epilogue
As the students begin to head out into the real world, Mukuro decides to don her Junko disguise once more, prepared to accept prosecution for her role in destroying the world. The other students, despite knowing of Mukuro's actions, decide to forgive her for her actions (with Byakuya suggesting that he may end up pardoning her once civilization is back in order). Hoping to restore the friendships they had lost from their time at Hope's Peak, the fifteen survivors agree to activate the escape switch, opening the door to an uncertain future in a destroyed world.

Trivia

 * At the end of the novel, Junko mentions that she found a "very interesting island" that could factor into her later plans. It's quite likely that she's referring to Jabberwock Island.
 * While Mukuro and Kyoko are discussing the latter's lost memories, Kyoko suggests the possibility that all sixteen of them were possibly talentless teenagers who had false memories of their lives and talents implanted into them. Though this is likely an unintentional connection, it is very reminiscent of the final twist of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

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