As with the original visual novels, all spoilers are unmarked, doubly so as this is offered as a reward for completing Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. You Have Been Warned.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF: The Button of Hope and the Tragic Warriors of Despair, also known as Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF, is a light novel spun off from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and written by Ryōgo Narita. It is unlocked after beating the sequel, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
The story presents a What If? scenario of the visual novel. It begins the same way: sixteen elite high school students are locked in Hope's Peak Academy and forced to compete in a killing game in order to escape. However, protagonist Makoto Naegi wins an item called the Escape Switch. This causes him to pass out prior to what would have been the first murder, greatly changing the events of the game.
Tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: Junko insults Mukuro's chest size (and general skinniness) a few times. Not that she seems to care.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original game, Genocide Jack/Genocider Sho appeared in the second class trial, after her Calling Card was used in the second murder. In this novel, she appears before the first class trial starts, as Toko Fukawa passes out from the shock of seeing Makoto Taking the Bullet for Mukuro.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Junko invokes this to give Mukuro despair, suggesting Naegi and Kyoko make a cute couple who would probably survive the entire game together (not that that stops her from wanting to save him).
- Amnesiac Dissonance: The Mastermind plans to invoke this with Mukuro as part of her punishment, wiping all of her memories for a time. So when Mukuro gets her memories back and reveals them to everyone else, they'll hate her guts.
- Apologizes a Lot: The story quite disturbingly reveals this to be the case from Mukuro, regarding her sister.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When everyone affirms that they wouldn't ever be tempted to kill each other:Monokuma: What do you think, Sayaka? Do you really think none of you will become a killer?
- Ascended Extra:
- In the original game, Mukuro was killed before the first Class Trial even began, and everyone thought she was Junko at the time, so she got barely any characterization outside of what she showed when imitating her sister. Here, Mukuro ascends to protagonist status after Makoto gets severely wounded by one of the Gungnir spears in her place.
- In the original game, there was a hidden "Escape Button" item that unlocks a video of everybody leaving the school; it was originally planned as part of an alternate ending in which everyone gave up their talents to leave, but was cut early on. The same switch is the instigator of the events that led to IF, likely showing how the secret video or a similar event could come to pass.
- The Atoner:
- Lending credence to her final actions in the main story being done in atonement, Sayaka decides to tell Leon and Makoto and everyone else that she had planned to kill the former and frame the latter for his death once she had her My God, What Have I Done? moment.
- Mukuro having her life saved by Makoto Taking the Bullet for her prompted Mukuro to realize just how far she had fallen and just how much she idolized Junko, to the point that she pulls a Heel–Face Turn. However, this isn't done without difficulty, as she still gets into a fight with Sakura over what she'd done in the past.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: For the two Ultimate Despair sisters, bringing each other despair is a really twisted form of affection. As such, the most heartbreaking thing Junko can say to Mukuro is "I know you'll make all your dreams come true someday."
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Junko accuses this of being the reason why Mukuro is so intent on saving Makoto's life and brutally mocks her for it, with plenty of disturbing innuendo to boot. During the two years spent at Hope's Peak, Makoto was the first person to smile at her, despite her title of Ultimate Soldier. In fact, Mukuro is always looking straight at Makoto in class photos—and according to
Word of God, if she's looking into the camera, that means he's the photographer. - Becoming the Mask: After talking to Makoto in the infirmary, Mukuro jokes about how Makoto would be the only person she wouldn't be willing to kill, just as she did as "Junko" in the game's Free Time Events. However, afterwards, she's left confused as she's not sure whether she was actually being serious or not, and whether that was part of her act as Junko or her own sentiments. The narration notes that she had considered asking Junko to spare Makoto from the killing game, though she never had the chance to do so once Junko tried to kill her.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Just when Mukuro is about to be overwhelmed by hordes of Monokumas, Mondo rescues her atop a motorcycle to get her to safety. Ironically, this is the same motorcycle that was prepared for his possible execution, and actually utilized in the game proper to do so.
- Later, Sakura holds off the countless Monokuma units so that Mondo and Mukuro can escape to safety.
- Big "NO!": Mukuro ends up screaming this after the realization that Makoto, the boy she has a crush on, is currently dying because he got impaled by a spear that was originally meant for her. Her narration states this to be the only time in her life in which she screams out in despair.
- Bilingual Bonus: The narration (describing Mukuro's feelings) at one point compares Makoto to a sapling of pure honesty, taken root in her heart. Now read his entry under Meaningful Name...
- Bittersweet Ending: The students manage to get hold of the real escape switch, and everyone manages to escape. But Junko is still alive at the end to plot her next killing game, the world is still a hostile place due to her and Ultimate Despair's machinations, and Mukuro Ikusaba is now both a traitor to Ultimate Despair and a world-class criminal to many of the people opposing them. However, the world now knows that Junko is responsible for The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, Mukuro now has a reason to live other than pleasing her sister, and the rest of her classmates are ready to face any future despair head-on.
- Book Ends: The story begins and ends with Makoto holding an Escape Switch.
- Canon Discontinuity: In his narration, Monokuma frequently points out that IF is only a possibility, and not the true canon ending. This holds true since the sequel has cameos of the six survivors.
- Car Fu: Mondo performs a reverse wheelie that smashes against a wave of Monokumas with the back end of the motorcycle he was on. All without hitting Mukuro, who those Monokuma were pinning down (before grabbing her and driving off).
- Clue from Ed.: The title screen notes that the text refers to characters from Danganronpa Zero. The "IF Monokuma Theater" prologue serves as an additional one by suggesting that the reader should beat the first game and see Mukuro's free-time events.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Monokuma suggests the students are going to do this to Makoto once the two "terrorists" are caught (such as pouring soy sauce in his wounds). Mukuro has little difficulty believing Byakuya might actually do it (though in the main story we hear him dismissing torture as a barbaric method of extracting information).
- Combat Pragmatism: Soon after being outed as an accomplice to Junko, Mukuro is forced into a head-to-head fist fight with Sakura. The two clash for several rounds, all the while Mukuro states that in terms of combating "The Ultimate Martial Artist", she would ordinarily choose sniping or poison. In the end, Mukuro makes tactical use of Genocide Jack to cause a distraction that allows her to recover Makoto and make an exit from the battle.
- Combat Stilettos: Mukuro wears her high-heeled boots throughout as she does all her ass-kicking.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Leon attacks Monokuma for her sake, a clearly guilt-ridden Sayaka tells him there's something she needs to confess to him later. Leon assumes it's going to be a Love Confession and is practically bouncing off the walls, not hearing the part where she's also going to confess to Makoto and everyone else.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: In-game, the Monokuma units prove to be practically indestructible, so much that even Sakura can't destroy one whilst needing a day's worth resting from the mere encounter. Here, the little monsters go down in droves, with one falling to Leon of all people (to say nothing of the headcount earned by the fighters). Though a 105mph 1lb crystal ball fastball does have more kinetic energy than a .45cal bullet. If the "crystal ball" is solid simple glass the size of a baseball, it would be significantly heavier, making it up to almost 9lbs. That would make the kinetic energy to be much higher, more akin to Monokuma being hit by a .50cal round. This may have been given an in-story justification with Mukuro's narration claiming that controlling more than one Monokuma at a time (let alone 30) is a task of such Herculean difficulty that only the sheer willpower granted by Junko's need to bring despair allows her to pull it off.
- Decoy Protagonist: Makoto Naegi. The story starts from his perspective, but after he takes the spear that was meant to kill Mukuro, he's out of commission for most of the story.
- Defector from Decadence: What triggers Mukuro's Heel–Face Turn. Specifically, Makoto saving her from the Spears of Gungnir while getting severely wounded by one himself.
- Demoted to Extra: Despite being officially a main character behind Makoto and Kyoko, Byakuya is hardly featured. This is justified to an extent, as many of the things that defined his character in the game (such as his interactions with Toko and his decision to ally himself with the remaining students in Chapter 4) happen later in the story and thus don't happen here, but it's still notable when the death of his family —something which he has a significant breakdown over in the game — is brought up rather off-handedly in the epilogue and though he's still stated to be shocked by the revelation, the story doesn't dwell much on it.
- Distressed Dude: After Makoto takes the blow for Mukuro that was meant to kill her, she has to carry him to the infirmary to save him from dying.
- Domestic Abuse: Well, "Sororal Abuse" if you want to get fussy, but Mukuro is heavily implied to be on the receiving end of this from Junko.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Junko certainly doesn't make it easy for the students to escape the academy.
- Everybody Lives: Aside from expanding on Mukuro's characterization, this seems to be the point of the story. Every character who was supposed to die ends up Spared by the Adaptation. But that also includes Junko, which means her plans to spread despair even further can still come to fruition.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Junko dismisses the concept of everyone working together as "boring" and "cheating".
- Failure Is the Only Option: As she's cradling the broken Monokuma with her sister's voice still feeding through its speakers, Mukuro tells Junko that their plan was inherently flawed because it required the students' school memories to be erased. Knowing they would never kill each other otherwise, by this act she's admitting that their hope was too strong for her to beat, thereby undoing the entire point she so badly wanted to prove to the world. Junko simply responds by once again calling her a disappointment.
- Fastball Special: Mukuro and Sakura improvise one to get through the exploding Monokuma corridor during Junko's "final exam".
- Fix Fic: One of the rare bits of officially-licensed material to do this. The story examines the entire idea behind lost memories and ways to regain them early, turning it into a What If? story. And while the drama that unfolds is pretty rough — a Killing Game was never going to go smoothly, even with the idea that some of them Must Make Amends — it ultimately changes the Danganronpa universe for the better.
- For Want Of A Nail: The shape of the story changes drastically all because of Makoto winning a fake escape switch and getting sick with a severe fever caused by electrocution when he presses it, leading him to regain his lost memories.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Mukuro lets explosions burn all of her clothes off when charging for the switch of the main gate. However, since it also ends up badly searing her skin, it's in no way titillating.
- The Heart: Despite having been impaled and in considerable pain, Makoto calmly talks the paranoid and confused group into uniting and giving Mukuro, the self-admitted terrorist, a chance to speak. He does this by talking though the bonds and secrets he shared with the others, including Sakura's hidden rivalry and Hifumi's published original manga, proving the trust each of them shared before having their memories erased.
- Heel–Face Turn: Done by Mukuro after Makoto saved her from getting impaled by the Gungnir spears, getting severely wounded himself in the process. Because he ended up Taking the Bullet for her, Mukuro being shown genuine affection ends up prompting her Heel–Face Turn.
- Hero of Another Story: Making up for how little screen-time she got originally, Mukuro's the protagonist (and the first one to lack any kind of ahoge). This is because of her sister's plan to kill her, which was successful in the original game, fails here because of Makoto Taking the Bullet.
- Hope Spot: Junko's love for yanking chains is how Mukuro knows the Escape Switch she dangles before them is real. She's deliberately creating a hope spot so she can drink in their despair when they fail. Also, on the off chance they do succeed, she can experience the despair of watching her plan fail.
- Hyper-Awareness: Kyoko notices a specific bed sticking out more than the others in the infirmary, because of Mukuro clinging to the bed's underside by its frame. Chihiro is also in the room, and can't tell any difference at all.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Genocide Jill reacts badly to Makoto's spear-related injury... mainly because she thinks he deserves better than such a sloppy kill.
- I Know You Know I Know: Mukuro throws her sharpened IV stand at the Monokuma holding the escape button at his weak spot, but Junko knew she'd do that and has Monokuma catch it and looks towards the monitor with Mukuro in it. However, Mukuro knew Junko would do that and had Sakura do a Fastball Special with her, launching her through the exploding Monokumas and she kicks the IV stand through Monokuma, disabling it and getting the Escape Switch.
- Improvised Weapon: Mukuro spends the second half of the story fighting with an IV stand she used to block Monokuma's claw in the infirmary, which both sliced one end off and sharpened it to a pointed tip. Her final gambit involves using it as a javelin on the Monokuma holding the real escape switch.
- Indy Ploy: Mukuro manages to escape the other students by wrenching Toko's sights towards the bloodied arm wound she got from Sakura, unleashing Genocide Jack as a distraction.
- Ironic Echo: Several Call Backs to the original game are used in diametrically different fashion, particularly Leon using Yasuhiro's "crystal" ball to save Sayaka, the bike made for Mondo's execution being used of his own accord, and Sakura refusing to let someone make a Heroic Sacrifice out of atonement.
- Kung-Fu Clairvoyance: Ikusaba manages to dodge roughly 3 Monokumas attacking her per second (at one point during a mid-air battle). The narration notes that her skill at this point has gone beyond even the Ultimate level and reached the truly superhuman.
- Love Martyr: Ikusaba has several traits of this towards her sister.
- Love Redeems: One of the biggest reasons why Mukuro performed a Heel–Face Turn was due to her feelings for Makoto and her desire to protect him.
- Million to One Chance: The chances of anyone winning the fake Escape Switch from the MonoMono Machine are 0.00000001%, or one in a billion. Makoto manages to win it in one try.
- Morality Pet: Makoto is this to Mukuro to the point where, even before she drops the facade of posing as Junko, she admits that Makoto is the one person she refuses to kill.
- Multi-Mook Melee: Junko sends multiple Monokumas after Mukuro, eventually cranking it up to a full-on War Sequence through sheer numbers.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Monokuma (not-so-jokingly) suggests that Mukuro take out Kyoko for this reason, as the main romantic rival in her way for Makoto's affections. In reality, the two girls help each other out in defeating her sister.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sayaka almost breaks down when Monokuma intends to reveal her plan to kill Leon and frame Makoto for it. It didn't help that he also emphasized how the students had been her friends for two years.
- Nerves of Steel: Without missing a beat, Kyoko walks into the infirmary and quickly finds Mukuro's hiding spot. After Sakura and Mondo leave, she addresses her with the offer to hear her out before making a judgement call. Keep in mind that the information given so far insisted that this person was a dangerous criminal that everyone just saw fist-fighting near-equally against Sakura.
- New Game Plus: Junko gloats about planning to invert this by erasing everyone's memories and re-entering Mukuro into the game... as herself, but with a wiped memory so that she doesn't recall who she was or her role in everything. Naturally, this is all for the despair that'll follow when everyone eventually discovers the Awful Truth of her identity.
- Not Helping Your Case: Some of the first words out of Mukuro's mouth in response to Monokuma (under the guise of being hacked by someone trying to rescue the students) claiming that her and Makoto are Fenrir terrorists is to yell out that he's not a terrorist. Kiyotaka points out to her the claim doesn't deny the accusation against her being a terrorist, and politely asks her to correct her statement to include herself. Worse yet, Celeste zeros in on the fact that she's clearly trying to help someone she's supposed to have met only a few days ago (hinting at some other connection), and Byakuya further points out that Makoto couldn't have known her true identity if they weren't cooperating (and despite that not being true, Mukuro realizes that nobody would believe her if she told them about their memories being erased).
- Not So Stoic: Mukuro is rather impassive until she's standing up for Makoto.
- One-Man Army: Living up to her title, Mukuro personally destroys countless Monokumas and manages to outsmart most of the students when they initially turn on her. During said Monokuma fight, the narration explicitly states that as Mukuro was at that moment, she would have been an even match in a pure fist-fight with Sakura; and that is to say nothing of all of her other forms of combat proficiency.Describing her as "Ultimate" no longer did her justice. Mukuro had trancended the boundaries of humanity and becoming a pure killing machine.
- Organ Theft: Makoto mentions, as he's describing his restored memories, that he nearly had his organs stolen by yakuza pursuing Yasuhiro (following up on a free time event where he asked Makoto to donate some). In the localization, Yasuhiro handed him over to the yakuza.
- Redemption Earns Life:
- Mukuro, one of the original game's earliest kills.
- Sayaka as well; she begins the ill-fated attempt on Leon's life that would have gotten her killed in the canon story, but loses her nerve when she finds Makoto suffering from headaches and a fever before passing out. After Monokuma tries a Break Them by Talking by showing that he knew of her plan to kill Leon and frame Makoto, she resolves to tell Leon, Makoto and everyone to atone for it.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: It's revealed here that Mukuro's title refers exclusively to combat and that she's actually terrible at negotiations or diplomacy (shown when she tries to convince the other students she's not their enemy). But when it comes to pure combat, she's effectively unstoppable — Mukuro was mentioned as fighting in multiple wars without taking a scratch, and she battles against Sakura, who is much bigger than Mukuro is, and fought a hundred Monokumas at once.
- Sequel Hook: As they're escaping, Junko states that they'll have to return if they want the key to restoring their memories. She also references an "interesting island". note (Caution: Contains SDR 2 spoilers)
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Several, but particularly ironic is when Leon interrupts Monokuma's attempt to break Sayaka. By throwing Yasuhiro's crystal ball. Some things never change, it seems.
- Skewed Priorities: When Mukuro Ikusaba admits her identity to the class by taking off her blonde wig, Kiyotaka's first reaction is to chide her for wearing a wig against school regulations. This is also used earlier to establish that Makoto's memories were starting to return — Taka scolds him for being late to the assembly, despite knowing that he was in the hospital. Makoto tells him to put it on the daily log, which pacifies Taka. Celeste notes that Makoto knew how to best deal with Taka despite the fact that he was being unreasonable, and Makoto starts to wonder how he knew to do that.
- Sorry I Fell on Your Fist: Internally — and later externally — Mukuro apologizes for surviving the Gungnir spears and thus denying her sister the despair of murdering a loved one.
- Spanner in the Works: Makoto becomes one once he tries the Escape Switch. The chemical reactions caused by him getting electrocuted and stung by a needle makes him so sick that he collapses when Sayaka comes over to suggest the room switch that led to the first murder. When Makoto wakes up, his memories start to return, and he saves Mukuro from being impaled. This causes her Heel–Face Turn and sends the plot wildly off the tracks into What If? territory.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In IF, Everybody Lives, even Junko. It results in a Bittersweet Ending, because while all of the students in the killing game survive, they also know about the Tragedy and that Mukuro had a part in it.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Referenced when the (fake) Ultimate Hacker tries to convince Mondo not to help Mukuro.
- Taking the Bullet: Makoto shouts Mukuro's name, surprising her into jumping out of the way while he runs to where she was and ends up taking a Gungnir spear to the side for her. This ends up prompting her Heel–Face Turn when Mukuro realizes what's happened — the fact that Junko tried to kill Mukuro for basically nothing makes Mukuro realize just what she was doing in her obsession with helping her sister.
- Tap on the Head: Sakura attempts this on Mukuro, aiming a chop to the back of her neck. Mukuro's being able to parry this was something of an Establishing Character Moment for her.
- Title Drop: Danganronpa is worked into the big Multi-Mook Melee fight scene.
- Unbroken Vigil: Sayaka spent the entire night by Makoto's side in the infirmary after he passed out (perhaps in guilt for what she was about to do). She's stopped later by Kiyotaka suggesting a shift system, which leaves him waking up beside Mukuro in disguise (which he might not have if Byakuya hadn't decided to skip out on his turn).
- Unluckily Lucky: Mukuro can't decide if the spears failing to hit Makoto's major arteries is miraculously lucky or horribly unlucky, since he's stuck in a hospital and she only knows basic medical attention and is slowly bleeding out and she doesn't know his blood type.
- Villain Protagonist: Subverted with Mukuro. She undergoes a Heel–Face Turn early on in the story thanks to Junko's attempt to murder her and Makoto saving her life.
- Waif-Fu: 5'7", 97lb. Mukuro is able to fight nearly evenly with the 6'4" 218lb Sakura, though Mukuro thought that Sakura was holding back. When Mukuro got "in the zone", later, she was explicitly stated to be able to fight equally with her and fought over 100 Monokumas at once, while also dodging bullets from the turrets near the school entrance. Mukuro isn't called the Ultimate Soldier for nothing.
- We Need a Distraction: Realizing she is at a disadvantage in her fist-fight with Sakura, Mukuro opts to distract her by forcing Toko to become Genocide Jack. As Jack is very distracting, this allows Mukuro to escape the gym with Makoto.
- Wham Line: For Sakura, Makoto trying to reassure her about Kenichiro.
- What If?: The entire story is a spinoff of the first Danganronpa game. Specifically, it asks "what if the students got the Escape Switch early?" and "what if Mukuro wasn't killed by Junko?" as its main premises. In both cases, the events, characterizations, and landscape of the Danganronpa universe is drastically changed.
- World's Best Warrior: Mukuro earns her title of Ultimate Soldier, here. She first fights Sakura nearly evenly in melee combat for ten minutes despite Sakura having significant advantages in height, weight and reach. She later destroys countless Monokumas, including fighting over a hundred at once.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: After Makoto saves Mukuro, Junko assumes the persona of Besshiki Madarai, Ultimate Hacker, and pretends to have hijacked Monokuma, claiming that Mukuro and Makoto are the ones responsible for trapping them in the school.
- Xanatos Gambit: Implied by the fact that Monokuma knew all along that Makoto had gotten hold of the escape switch, and thus Junko was willing to accept whatever outcome this brought upon her.
- You Have to Believe Me!: This is what Mukuro's whole response to Monokuma's blatant lie amounts to.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The moment Mukuro hears Junko say "I love you", that's when she realizes Junko intended to break every connection they had with each other and that she has no further use for her. Given that Junko had been Mukuro's whole existence up until this point, she is devastated by this.
