Three huddled figures sat inside a crumbling building, that shook with every explosion.

"Mommy," the little girl said, "what's going to happen to us?"

"Don't worry, the Future Foundation is driving out the last Remnants of Despair," her mother said, trying to convince herself just as much as her daughter.

"C-can they really do it?" the girl asked, "Can they really save us?"

"Of course they can," the mother said with the most comforting tone she could muster, "they have the Ultimate Hope on their side."

"Him?" the other figure, their neighbor asked, "all he did was get lucky enough to survive, Junko took herself out."

"It wasn't just normal luck," the mother said, "it was Ultimate Luck."

"Bah," the neighbor grumbled.

"Can-can you tell me the story, one more time?" the girl asked, with a pleading look in her eyes.

"I wish we still had internet, so I could show you exactly what happened," the mother said, " but it all started when fifteen students woke up with no memory, only told that they had to kill each other to survive."

"They had most of their memories," the neighbor said, "only Kyoko was missing all of it."

"They could only remember their abilities," the girl said, "which isn't much."

The mother continued, "Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student, was in way over his head, but he did the only thing he knew how to do,"

"He made friends," the girl said.

"With a lying snake who wore a pretty face," the neighbor said.

"Not just with her, but with everyone he could," the mother said, "but eventually the evil Monokuma reared it's ugly head, and threatened his sister if he didn't kill someone."

"But he didn't," the girl said with a smile.

"No," the mother said, with a smile that turned into a dour look on her face as she continued, "but his closest friend, Sayaka did. She tried to kill another student, and frame him for the crime."

"But she couldn't go through with it," the girl said, "she changed her mind."

"More like she chose a target who could actually fight back," the neighbor said.

"She chose too late," the mother said, "and was killed by her target."

"And everyone thought Makoto did it," the girl said with a horrified look.

"Yes," the mother said, "he was alone, everyone he thought was his friend turned against him."

"Kyoko knew exactly what happened," the neighbor said, "but she didn't tell anyone until after the trial started."

"She knew no one would believe her," the mother said, "because Sayaka's ghost was the one who told her everything."

"You were the one who realized she was the Ultimate Spirit Medium, didn't you?" the girl asked the neighbor.

"It wasn't my guess," the neighbor said, "but how else could she have known everything that she did? She even knew what Sayaka was thinking when she died."

"With Kyoko's help Makoto was able to find the real culprit, and clear his name," the mother said. "But things were far from over."

"But he still had his other friends," the girl smiled.

"Yeah," the neighbor said, "and he sure knew how to pick em, I mean, his next choice was Mukuro."

"Hush now, we'll get to that," the mother said, "but the fake Junko was the next person he made friends with. Things were getting better, with even Taka and Mondo starting to get along."

"And Chihiro wanted to get stronger!" the girl said.

"Why are you excited about that?" the neighbor asked, "That's what made the next murder happen."

"But they found Jack," the girl said, "who could've killed them."

"Could've," the neighbor agreed, "but didn't. She didn't kill anyone during the game."

"Because Makoto made friends with her," the girl said, "and he also got Byakuya to be friends too."

The building shook again, this time knocking the door-frame into a slanted position.

"We should get moving, I don't know how much longer this place can stand," the neighbor stood up to leave.

"But where can we go?" the girl asked, but stood up anyways.

"The explosions started that way," the mother pointed to the east, "so that's where the Future Foundation should be."

"You want to head towards the explosions?" the neighbor asked in surprise.

"Do you have any better ideas?" she asked.

The neighbor thought for a moment, "Let's take a look outside first," he said, "then decide where we can go." They ducked through the doorway, and took a peak outside.

"That one looks like a shelter," the neighbor pointed to a small door encased in a concrete block, slanted towards the ground. They hurried across the street. An explosion erupted from the building they had just fled.

"AHHH!" the neighbor yelled when a chunk of debris buried itself in his leg.

The little girl ran over to him, and threw the arm of a man almost three times her size over her shoulder, "Come on," she said, trying to carry him, "we can make it."

Supported by the little girl, he managed to make it into the building without anything else going wrong.

"Why would you do that?" the neighbor asked as they were opening the door.

"It's what Makoto would have done," she said with a smile, straining to keep him up.

"Come in, come in," a large man holding a shotgun pointed just above their heads said, "we can't keep the door open." The neighbor and the girl hurried down the stairs.

"Thank you," the mother said, "I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't let us in."

"It's," the man hesitated, unsure of why he had let them in, "it's what Makoto would have done." As the mother started down the stairs, she noticed he wasn't coming.

"Are you going to stay up here?" she asked.

"There's not a lot of room," he said, "I'll keep watch up here." The mother nodded, and headed down the stairs.

The basement was full of people, packed tightly together. Very few people were sitting down, and most of the ones that were looked like they couldn't stand even if they wanted to. Everyone had a dour look on their face, and no one made eye contact with anyone else.

"Let's just stay here," the neighbor said when they stopped on the last step. He sat down and took a look at his leg. He wasn't bleeding, but he couldn't feel his foot.

"Is it bad?" the girl asked.

"It'll be fine," he said, "let's just keep talking about the Ultimate Hope." Some people in the room turned to look at him.

"After Chihiro and Mondo died, he still kept up hope," the Mother said as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "he kept making friends, and trying to keep everyone together, but Taka couldn't deal with the loss, and he could barely interact with anyone."

"But when they needed someone," a nearby elderly woman spoke up, "Hiro stepped up. He knew he wasn't the leader Taka was, but he still tried."

"Yup," the little girl said, "and Hina found Chihiro's computer."

"She told everyone it was a ghost at first," the neighbor said, "but when we saw the execution, we realized that was what she meant."

"And whatever it did," the mother said, "it finally helped Taka with his grief, helping him keep going after Mondo's execution."

"But didn't it also get him killed?" came a muffled voice from the somewhere.

"No," the neighbor said, now defending the story, "Monokuma finally got to Celeste's fears. She'd been caged her whole life, and wanted to be free. When he gave her the chance, she fell right into his trap."

"And what about Sakura betraying everyone," the asker stepped into view, a woman holding a small baby blanket, with nothing inside.

"She wanted to protect her family," the elderly woman said, "surely you can understand that at least."

"And," the little girl spoke up, "she didn't betray them, she kept her promise while fighting Monokuma."

"Then Hina tried to have them all killed in revenge," the mourning mother said.

"Monokuma lied to her," the elderly woman said, "he told her Sakura killed herself because the others wouldn't forgive her, but it was to distract Monokuma, while Kyoko snuck into the headmasters office to steal the keys."

"And then Junko turned good," the little girl said.

"She was going to tell her friends what was actually going on, but Monokuma killed her before she could," the neighbor said, "and framed Makoto for it."

"Which everyone fell for," the mourning mother said.

"They had no choice but to vote for him," the girl said, "Monokuma would've killed them if they didn't."

"And then his luck kicked in," the girls mother said, "disrupting the execution, and saving his life. Kyoko followed him down the garbage chute to rescue him."

"We didn't see that," the mourning mother said, "all we saw is them come out of the garbage chute."

"Looking like better friends than they were before," the neighbor said, "and with everyone else they were able to uncover the truth about the Tragedy, and reveal the true mastermind, Junko Enoshima."

"And he got everyone to believe in hope," the little girl said with a cheery smile.

"It wasn't hope," the mourning mother said, "it was their desire for revenge, and a chance to be free."

"It wasn't just revenge," the elderly woman said, "my son, who's high ranking in the Future Foundation, told me that when the leaders of the Remnants of Despair were captured, Makoto convinced them to fight for hope, and not let themselves be defined by their past failures."

"They showed up on the TV taking credit for killing most of the leaders of the Future Foundation," the mourner said.

"My Munakata told me that they changed after that," she said, "that they've been helping everyone since then."

"EVERYONE!" the man yelled from the top of the stairs, "HELP IS HERE!"

The girl started helping up her neighbor, "Here," a voice said, "let me help." And they took the neighbors arm and started helping him up. Everywhere in the basement people started forming an orderly line, and carrying those who couldn't stand on their own. They stepped out to see a young man in a black suit, whose brown hair featured a prominent spike, and had hazel eyes, surrounded by armed guards.

"This way everyone," he said, "we have transports this way, we'll get you all somewhere safe." Everyone was loaded into the transports, and safely taken away.

"Aww," the little girl said.

"What's wrong honey?" the mother asked.

"I was hoping to see Makoto," she said.

"I'm sure you'll get the chance one of these days," the neighbor said, "all you have to do is hope."