Ultimate Imposter


 * This character is separate from the Byakuya from Danganronpa and Ryota from Danganronpa 3. See Byakuya Togami/Ryota Mitarai.

Ultimate Imposter (超高校級の「詐欺師」chō kōkō kyū no “sagishi”)  is a character featured in  Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and a participant in the Killing School Trip.

Their real name, appearance, and gender are unknown, but they are capable of impersonating as others, such as Byakuya Togami. Their heavy build does not affect their ability to fool others.

They acted as Byakuya during the Killing School Trip and were murdered in Chapter 1 by Teruteru Hanamura after they tried to save Nagito Komaeda from being killed.

They also appear in the light novel titled Danganronpa: Togami as the main antagonist, a member of Ultimate Despair, and thief of the identity of the real Byakuya Togami.

Ultimate Imposter returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair with the other Remnants of Despair from the Class 77-B, impersonating as Ryota Mitarai.

Appearance
Ultimate Imposter's real appearance is mostly unknown aside from their very large build, a trait which doesn't affect their talent.

Their gender is unknown, but they are able to give off a largely male impression while disguised as Byakuya and even mimic his voice and poses perfectly. Their real voice, heard in chapter 6, is notably different and androgynous.

The Imposter refuses to go swimming in front of others, which implies that it would reveal their true identity/sex.

"Byakuya Togami"
The Byakuya imposter appears very similar to the real Byakuya, having platinum blond hair and bright blue eyes accompanied by rectangular, white-framed glasses. Their shirt appears to be the same one as the first game, as well. However, in contrast to the real Byakuya, "Byakuya" is very large set and wears a white dinner jacket, white slacks, and white dress shoes.

"Ryota Mitarai"
The Ryota imposter has short, light brown hair, hazel eyes and rosy cheeks. They wear a Hope's Peak Academy uniform with a green tie.

Personality
Ultimate Imposter's true personality is somewhat unclear, because they spend most of their time mimicking someone else's behavior. However, during chapter 6, they speak briefly without disguise and it's implied that their real nature is polite and slightly shy.

Most notably, the imposter appears to have a truly kind and caring personality. They impersonated Ryota Mitarai so that the real Ryota could focus on making anime, as well as get some rest, and kept checking on Ryota's well-being even after a year of impersonating him. The imposter is also shown to be smiling in a friendly manner and being protective and supportive of others even while acting as cold and arrogant Byakuya Togami. As part of their Byakuya impersonation, they act arrogant, rude and somewhat bad-tempered, but they're also reliable and feel responsible of others' safety.

The imposter enjoys their heavy build, which appears to be their aim, as they've stated that they've intentionally sculpted their physique to be that way (while acting as Byakuya, they appear condescending towards "skinny people", though it might just be acting and part of their disguise). They have a strong liking for food, especially fast food; while they normally appear attentive, they are rather easily distracted by food. They are shown to be surprisingly passionate on the topics related to food and eating, such as body fat percentages, the amount of energy coming from specific foods, and fast food restaurants. They also explain that since virtually all fast food restaurants serve the same kind of food, it gives them a sense of security to keep being around something familiar.

Due to their nature as an imposter, they have lower sense of self-esteem. Because of it, they feel lonely and as if they do not truly exist. They simply want to exist and live a normal life, but they believe they cannot exist unless they assume someone else's appearance and they believe they have to "disappear" if they're found out. They describe their life as a living hell, as they're in constant need of affirmation and they have to lie to other people.

At one point, they ask if Hajime Hinata likes being around them, and they seemed very happy when Hajime answers that they are friends. After spending time with Hajime, they are convinced that they really do exist, and they decide that they don't want to lie anymore and wish to live as their true self.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers follow this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
The Ultimate Imposter is a person who was born with nothing - no name, family, birth certificate nor home; or more simply, no identity at all. They were convinced that they were nothing; their existence completely invisible and their life without any meaning. All they wanted was to live a normal life.

Because of this, they chose to live on stealing another person's identity, hence their true Ultimate title. They hated this way of living, which made them unhappy and forced them to lie to other people, but they felt it was something they had to do in order to exist. It appears they found comfort in fast food which was always similar regardless of location. They became very enthusiastic about food and decided to gain a heavier build.

When the Ultimate Imposter enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy's 77th Class, they acted as Byakuya Togami because he had the most absolute existence they had ever seen. However, they soon begun to impersonate Ryota Mitarai, so that the other boy could spend all his time on animating. Ryota worked too much and often forgot to eat, and his imposter often checked on him and brought him food, and the two lived together.

During their second year at Hope's Peak Academy, the Imposter met Junko Enoshima and was corrupted into Ultimate Despair by her.

Episode 01 - Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy
The Ultimate Imposter was working on some of his animations as an "animator" in the Former Student Dorm. Their room was very dirty and filled with instant ramen cups, unwashed dishes, manga, books, and files. As their new homeroom teacher, Chisa Yukizome knocked on their door, they began to panick, thinking that the one who knocked on the door was their boss. Due to some unfinished work, the Ultimate Imposter attempted to escape via windows only to be found by Chisa. She greeted them happily and dragged them back to the school, while the Ultimate Imposter tried to use various excuses to stay behind.

The Ultimate Imposter once again tried to escape from Chisa when they encountered Hajime and Chiaki Nanami in the park, but they were immediately tied up by Chisa. After returning to class, Chisa told everyone that even though the school rule said that attending class was not necessary and that they could skip to better hone their talents, interacting with one another would help build their characters and help them to make memories.

Episode 02 - My Impurest Heart for You
The Ultimate Imposter was drawing sketches inside their class while Akane Owari and Nekomaru Nidai wreaked havoc during their training session. They went outside to better focus before they met Chiaki, who was upset that their friends didn't come as group so well. The Ultimate Imposter said that they didn't need to make group, as long as they honed their talents, they already grasped their future.

During the break time after they played games together, the Ultimate Imposter and their classmates happily ate Teruteru and Hiyoko Saionji's nikujaga. They ate a big portion of the food and saw Nagito crying due to the food's deliciousness. Unlike the rest of their classmates, the Ultimate Imposter merely writhed around on the ground after being affected by the food's aphrodisiacs.

After everyone recovered, Chisa gathered the Ultimate Imposter and their classmates inside the classroom, announcing that she elected Chiaki as their class representative. Like the others, the Ultimate Imposter agreed with her decision.

Episode 03 - A Farewell to All Futures
At the beginning of the episode, the Ultimate Imposter was talking to someone on their phone while they and their classmates walked past Hajime heading toward the Main Course building.

The Ultimate Imposter was shown drawing a sketch on the school's park with their classmates during the break time.

Episode 04 - The Melancholy, Suprise, and Disappearance of Nagito Komaeda
Along with their classmates, the Ultimate Imposter showing no spirit when they listened to Chisa's announcement about the annual practical exam due to the deaths of Natsumi Kuzuryu and Sato that affected their morale greatly.

At the end of the episode, the Ultimate Imposter and their classmates bid their farewell to their beloved teacher Chisa as she transferred to the Reserve Course after the bombing incident on the gym that involved one of her students, Nagito.

Episode 05 - The Beginning of the End
The Ultimate Imposter advised Ryota to eat something and take a break, but Ryota doesn't listen and eventually passes out from exhaustion and malnutrition. The imposter finds Mikan and brings her to help care for Ryota, and to avoid confusion, explains their backstory with Ryota.

Mikan assumes that the imposter won't let her leave alive now that she knows their secret, but the imposter gently tells her to not be silly. Mikan assumes they want to have sex with her, which isn't true. Mikan starts crying and thanks them, saying no one has ever been so nice to her. The imposter advices her to toughen up since they will be upperclass men starting tomorrow.

Episode 06 - A Despairfully Fateful Encounter
Ultimate Imposter is seen talking to Ryota, reminding him to go to the hospital.

During the Tragedy
The members of Ultimate Despair did all kinds of horrible things during the Tragedy, causing despair all over the world.

After the death of Junko, the remnants of the Ultimate Despair attached some of her body parts into their own bodies in order to make her survive within them and feel closer to her. They then agreed to an insane plan to have AI Junko take over their bodies, so they could resurrect their leader.

Danganronpa: Togami
The Ultimate Imposter is the primary antagonist in Danganronpa: Togami. They impersonate Byakuya's voice to wide-spread the World Domination Proclamation.

Episode 01 - Third Time's the Charm
Impersonating Byakuya Togami, the Ultimate Imposter is seen in the flash back as a member of Ultimate Despair nimbly dodging Future Foundation's attack with their night vision googles.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
The remnants of Despair are later found by Future Foundation. Makoto Naegi plans to undo Junko's influence by putting them into the Neo World Program, but the program is taken over by AI Junko, right according to the Ultimate Despair's plan.

Prologue - Welcome to Dangan Island! Panic at the Heart-Throbbing School Trip!?
While in the Neo World Program, the Ultimate Imposter acts as Byakuya Togami, as they have lost their school memories.

In the very beginning, Byakuya was not very sociable with the others, making their introduction short and simple. They also refused to join in on the short-lived beach party.

After Monokuma took over the island and ordered the Island Life of Mutual Killing, Byakuya immediately began to take action, making themself the leader of the group and promising the safety of all the students.

Chapter 1 - Destination Despair
The next day, after Monokuma revealed the truth about everybody's memories having been erased as well as the presence of a traitor in their group, Byakuya proposes the idea to hold a party that very night without explaining their reason.

At a suggestion, they gain a permission from Monomi to use the Old Lodge next to the Lobby as the location for the party, as the area has no monitors for Monokuma to spy on them from. As the Old Lodge was old, when it came to choosing who should clean the place, Nagito offered to draw straws that he had prepared beforehand. Nagito won the lottery, thanks to his luck, and accepted the duty to clean the lodge while Teruteru offered to cook for the party. Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu refused to attend the party, and though the other students questioned it, Byakuya allowed him to go.

Throughout the party, Byakuya showed strange levels of precaution that many of the students questioned. They went as far as to hold a body check at the entrance of the party, patting down every student whether female or male and confiscating any materials that they considered dangerous in a duralumin case (such as taking a wrench away from Kazuichi Soda).

When they saw the food set out in the main room of the Old Lodge, they seemed to be alarmed before suddenly digging in to the churrasco Teruteru prepared for the party, much to the surprise of the other members and the dismay of Akane.

Their reason was revealed to be that the churrasco was pierced by large skewers which they deemed extremely dangerous. They subsequently went to the kitchen to confiscate any sharp objects from knives to skewers based on the list hung up in there, though they noted that one of the items on the list seemed to be missing.

When the party was about to start, they decided to keep the duralumin case full of confiscated potential weapons in the Surveillance Room/Office. Peko Pekoyama volunteered to guard the duralumin case and keep watch over the party there, as the place had several security monitors.

Chiaki Nanami and Monomi offered to keep watch outside as to keep Monokuma from finding them and crashing the party. Other than the duralumin case kept in the Office, Byakuya kept a second one beside them at the party, the contents of which were unknown at the time.

Midway through the party around 11:30 pm, a sudden blackout, combined with the blocked windows of the lodge, caused the interior of the building to go completely dark. It was revealed that Byakuya had kept several self-defense and precautionary items in the second duralumin case, using night vision goggles to see what was going on.

In the darkness, they saw Nagito acting suspiciously, trying to retrieve something from under a table, and reacted immediately by diving under the table and pushing him out of the way. They found that a knife was stationed under the table, held in place by glow-in-the-dark tape and its handle covered in the same material.

Teruteru, who knew of Nagito's suspicious activity as well, waited in preparation under the floorboards for the knife to move. He blindly stabbed at whoever was under the table with the missing skewer from earlier and ended up killing Byakuya.

Chapter 5 - Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair
In Chapter 5, much later in the game, Hajime went into Nagito's room for investigation purposes for the upcoming Fifth Trial. In there, he found the files that Nagito had received from Monokuma as a prize for clearing the Final Dead Room in Chapter 4, and discovered that the Byakuya he thought they had all known was actually an imposter. 'Byakuya's profile listed '???' for their name, age, birthdate, and even gender, and their Ultimate talent as the 'Ultimate Imposter'.

Chapter 6 - This is the End Goodbye Academy of Despair
In the 'Game Reset' scene of Chapter 6, "Byakuya" makes a re-appearance, but their way of talking and their voice is no longer Byakuya Togami; instead, their voice has changed into a gender-neutral one, and they wonder if they should re-introduce themselves. Whether this is the Ultimate Imposter's true face or simply an illusion created by Hajime is unknown.

Epilogue - The Day Before the Future
Currently, Ultimate Imposter is most likely comatose, just like most of their classmates. The survivors of the Killing Game are waiting for them and the rest of their classmates to wake up.

Ryota Mitarai
Fellow member of the 77th class of Hope's Peak Academy. At some point after the 78th class entered Hope's Peak, the imposter helped out Ryota and got his permission to impersonate him. While the imposter attended class, Ryota stayed at the apartment to make animes. Ultimate Imposter became good friends with Ryota, but often worried about him because Ryota was starting to abandon his own health to focus on making animes. One day, when Ryota becomes ill due to starvation, the imposter shares his secret with Mikan Tsumiki just to get her to help him.

However, when Ultimate Imposter joins Ultimate Despair, their friendship with Ryota comes to an end because the latter decides to join the Future Foundation.

Hajime Hinata
Ultimate Imposter never held any close relationships with anyone on the Island in their short time there. However, upon getting their Free-Time Events, they become rather close to Hajime. They engage in various discussions, one being about fast food, with him, and later tells him a strange story about a person who was absolutely nothing and so, lived on as another person to be something which later turned out to be about themselves.

When Hajime tells them that he considers them a friend, they soften greatly, even changing the way they address Hajime (normally, Byakuya addresses everyone as omae which is a rude and somewhat egotistical method of saying 'you'; however, after this event, they briefly call Hajime kimi, which is a friendlier, same-level method of saying 'you' before going back to omae at Hajime's request). Ultimate Imposter also says that one day, they will reveal their true story to Hajime, though they were murdered before they could.

During Island Mode, Ultimate Imposter explains their true identity to Hajime. After becoming friends with Hajime, they are convinced that they really do exist, and they decide that they don't want to lie anymore and wish to live as their true self. In Hajime's official relationship chart, the Ultimate Imposter considers Hajime a worthy partner.

Ibuki Mioda
Ibuki admires Ultimate Imposter while they are impersonating as Byakuya Togami, thinking that they're very cool and reliable and she admires their leadership skills. They are sometimes a bit annoyed with her.

During chapter 2, after their death, she states that she misses "Byakuya" a lot. In addition, during chapter 5 when she and the other deceased characters show up, she greets them by oinking and explaining that she said “You're so cool” in pig talk.

While not apparent in the game, many manga adaptations portray Ibuki with some sort of crush on the imposter and she's often shown to be attracted to their heavy build. Though, it should be noted that the manga are non-canon.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * Chocolate Chip Jerky
 * Sweet Bun Bag
 * Cocoshimi
 * Black Rabbit Picture Book

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occasionally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Pork
 * Fast food
 * I like you

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Sting – When you find Monocoins, you’ll earn more than usual.

Quotes

 * “My name is Byakuya Togami...”
 * “A person like me has a responsibility to watch over you weaklings.”
 * “As long as Byakuya Togami is in charge, you will all know peace.”
 * “You should feel lucky that someone as talented as me is here.”
 * “Just believe in me. If you do, everything will turn out fine.”
 * “Just make sure you don't get in my way. A commoner should know their place and stay put.”
 * “However...if there is anything troubling you, I don't mind if you rely on me.”
 * “Should I do my introduction over from the beginning, do you think?”
 * “All right, then... let's eat!”
 * “All right. First, a question for you all, listen up. We were ordered to go into a life of 'mutual killing' by that Monokuma thing... so what do you think is necessary for us to survive in this extraordinary situation?”
 * “I am the 'Ultimate Affluent Progeny' of the Togami family. I am a person fated to stand far above the rest of people like you, you know?”
 * “The chicken in my hands...is far tastier than the beef inside the freezer...” (saying a German proverb)
 * “Even if it's just a commoner's assistance, it's better than having nobody at all...”
 * “Don't worry about it. As long as I am leader, I won't allow a single victim to come out of this mess.”
 * “H... Hamhands? Ha... to imagine that the day would come when I would be called something like that by another...” (In response to Hiyoko Saionji after she nicknames him Mr. Hamhands)
 * “I’ll tell you an interesting story. The story of a man. He did not have anything. Not a name, nor a family with history, or any family at all… He had absolutely nothing… He was nothing…”
 * “Thank you. I... always wanted someone to say that to me.” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “When… when all of this is over… I want to tell you my story, Hajime. I won't trick anyone anymore… especially not myself. I want to live… as the person I am right now. I never told my story to anyone, but… I want you to hear it one day.”
 * “There were people I couldn't trust... And people who couldn't trust me. My life was like a nightmare... It is only natural to my personality would be affected. Nevertheless, i believe my nature is going to come in handy in our current situation. To survive in a situation like this... one must suspect everyone.” (to Hajime after they finish inspecting the kitchen).
 * “Even if you don't have your memories, you're still you, right? You are able to live your own life. That is already enough. All you have to do is be yourself. As you stand before me, I...will believe in your potential.” (to Hajime)
 * “Throw away your past self... It's meaningless.”
 * “As a member of the Togami family, I'm in a position to guide weaklings.”
 * “Your shallow beliefs are typical of an ignorant commoner.”
 * “You always find the same things waiting for you wherever you go. You'll never know what a relief that truly is...”
 * “For someone like you has lived a fortunate life... You'll never understand.” (to Hajime)
 * “Does the Ultimate Cook's skill surpass that of the Togami Corporation's chef...?” (talking about Teruteru Hanamura)
 * “I want to live as myself, the person standing before you right now.” (to Hajime)
 * “~|~|d&#wGuidewyou-p^l??u?`+`Fate_jofttheTogamiClan2389” (Byakuya's cottage post-fifth trial)
 * “Believe that hope lies beyond this point! That is your leader's order!”

Trivia

 * Their report card states that:
 * They like coffee and dislikes common people,
 * Their blood type is B,
 * Their chest is 50 in. (This point is the only accurate report card's information)
 * In "Byakuya"'s free-time event, the Ultimate Imposter implies that the reason they chose to put on so much weight was in order to ensure survival should they ever have to withstand extreme cold. This implication hints at a draft for the real Byakuya's execution described in the first game's official fanbook, where he froze to death.
 * Despite being an Ultimate Imposter, many claims they have concerning real Byakuya Togami's life are incorrect. For example, he claims to have 108 half-siblings instead of 14.
 * It later revealed in the Danganronpa: Togami that this actually correct information, and that only 15 Togami children participated in the game.
 * In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy, the voice actor portraying both Ryotas, Kanata Hongō, also portrayed Makoto Naegi in Danganronpa The Stage ~Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei.
 * "Byakuya" states he doesn't like the sea because it's too salty, and therefore doesn't join the others in swimming. It's implied that in truth they're afraid to show their body in front of others, because it might reveal their true identity/sex.
 * In Danganronpa: Togami, they are simply called imposter (詐欺師 sagishi), and Sonia Nevermind even calls them "Imposter-san".
 * They are often referred to as “Twogami” or "Fatogami" by some fans to differ them from the true Byakuya.