1 Month Later

Mizuno stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her dark hair was shorter now and she made sure to get brand new green glasses once she got out of that hellhole. Although some time has passed, she still woke up each day thinking she'd still be trapped in that school. Everything that happened seemed surreal: all of their friends, the mastermind, Masaru...

Mizuno shook her head at the thought. She wouldn't let herself get all depressed over his choice but couldn't help feel betrayed. In a way, she did understand why he did it. There was a past between those two that Mizuno knew her and the others couldn't compare to.

"Are you dead in there or what?"

Mizuno turned back to the bathroom door and opened it to reveal Seto who wore a sapphire blue suit with his usual golden eye shadow. He also had on a black fedora hat and black slacks.

"We're waiting for you and you're in here daydreaming," Seto said and Mizuno rolled her eyes.

The two made their way to an elevator that would lead them to the top of the tall building they were in. Once they reached their destination they walked out into a hallway then into a room that looked like it was used for business meetings.

There were large glass windows that showed the whole city below them and a tv on the left wall. In the center there was a long table that had a pepperoni pizza displayed with black swivel chairs around it where two other people sat.

Toma wore a black duffel coat and his dark hair was still shoulder length. There was black mascara under his eyes along with a silver cross earring that hung from his ear.

Winona was wearing a sky blue off the shoulder dress with a white bow in her blonde hair. She had on white sandals and Pinku was wrapped around her neck with her own little pink bow.

"Thanks for letting us use one of your father's meeting rooms," Mizuno said to Winona.

Winona smiled brightly. "Of course!"

"In other news, the rise of 4WD.CO still has the whole city shook from the recent events..."

Mizuno turned her attention to the tv along with the others and Seto turned up the volume.

"4WD.CO is a corporation made up of the four wealthiest families who have been secretly doing business together. The corporation had created a sinister killing game involving sixteen students who were supposed to be starting their first year of college."

Mizuno gulped as the feed showed multiple grieving families. She could tell whose parents were whose as a list of names ran at the bottom of the screen: Nakayama, Neyzi, Gibbs, Isao, Hisao, Yanagi, Bhatt, Sowle, Azumi, Susumu.

The feed then switched to a man and woman dressed in matching white clothing. At the bottom the title read: The Bushida Family.

"We absolutely had no idea what the Michio family was up to," the man stated angrily, "yes we have been involved in some... things, but this... this is psychotic!"

The woman sniffled. "We would have never partaken in such a thing. Our daughter is an ultimate for Heaven's sake!"

The four survivors then watched the screen change to another couple with the name the  Nakayama family at the bottom. The man wore a police sergeant uniform and the woman wore a red pan suit.

"This is outrageous!" The man was furious. "Our daughter was murdered in that disgusting experiment and you're asking us if we had any part in it?!"

The woman only wept as the screen changed once again to the Watanabe family who claimed the same thing then lastly to the Michio family.

Mizuno bawled her fists at the similarities between them and their son. Unlike the other families, this couple seemed unfazed.

"How were we supposed to know what that boy was doing?" The man said as if the person they spoke about was not their son.

"He's already disgraced us once and now he's just doing it again," the woman said, exasperatedly.

Seto blinked at their unserious behavior. "Wow, now I kind of see why Matsuyama grew up to be a psycho."

The tv changed back to the news anchor.

"Although this disaster has been a tragedy there are four survivors: Mizuno Okimoto, Toma Nikolaev, Seto Hamasaki, and Winona Masuya who have identified the perpetrator behind this to be Matsuyama Michio. Son of the Michio family. They have yet to inform us of any other accomplices but the police are still looking for any signs of where the perpetrator could've escaped to. All that was left behind was what looked to be a demolished building of a school. If you want to find out more on this story then you can uncover several articles by using the term Danganronpa which shows similarities to the recent incident."

Seto lowered the volume again then took a seat and grabbed a slice of pizza. "I guess Matsuyama got what he wanted. All of the world will now know and be obsessed with the killing game legends." He then looked to Mizuno. "Why didn't we tell them about Umeda, Masaru or at least that Mr. Botan guy about being accomplices?"

"That's... that's not important," Mizuno said, sitting down as well.

"Uh, it's majorly important," Seto argued then leaned back, "but I get it. You just don't want Masaru to get into any trouble."

"I'm sorry Mizuno but as long as he is on Matsuyama's side, he is going to have to face consequences for that," Winona said.

Toma looked at the tv. "And even though Umeda was the traitor, I do not believe his parents should be burdened with that fact. They are already grieving."

"I guess so but if I were a parent I'd like to know if my kid was apart of something like this," Seto said, "but then again he had a way out but he didn't take it."

"He felt guilty," Winona stated.

Mizuno put her hands on the table. "I don't think we should just forget about Masaru."

"He made his choice," Seto said.

Toma agreed. "I will miss him too but what else can we do?"

"Matsuyama said he was thinking of forming a team," Mizuno started, "I think we should do the same."

"How would we do that?" Winona questioned, "and if you're planning on looking for Masaru then where would we even start?"

"That can come later. We just need to work on finding people who are willing to help us." Mizuno pulled out her new phone, "I want to forget about what happened in that school as much as the rest of you but I've done some research."

"Oh god," Seto mumbled.

"And I found something that was sort of a light in that dark period of time."

The three waited for an answer.

"The Future Foundation."

"Is it an organization?" Toma asked.

"Sort of. They were a group who vowed to defeat the ultimate despair and undo the damage of their world." Mizuno kept scrolling. "However, there was a traitor in that group called, Makoto Naegi, who was trying to protect the remnants of despair."

"Isn't that what Matsuyama was talking about?" Seto brought up, "he was going to find his own."

"Yeah," Mizuno said, "why would someone even want to protect a remnant of despair anyways? The name just sounds evil."

"The same reason why you want to save Masaru," Seto pointed out.

Mizuno's face turned slightly red. "He's being manipulated!"

"I do not think so," Toma said and the others looked at him, "just like we are all friends, Matsuyama is Masaru's friend. And he has been longer than we all have."

"After seeing how Matsuyama's parents behaved about the situation I don't think he's entirely at fault for how he turned out but he should still be held accountable," Winona admitted, "this Makoto guy may have been onto something."

Mizuno blinked at her. "What?"

"Matsuyama and Masaru have both been abandoned and misguided. If we start a group, like you say, then we can find a way to get them help. Real help."

"Like a therapist?" Seto suggested.

"She is right," Toma said, "we can help both of them and any other person Matsuyama tries to recruit."

Mizuno folded her arms stubbornly.

"We know you don't like Matsuyama because Masaru chose him over you," Seto started.

"Hey—"

Seto interrupted her. "But don't you remember how he was when we were all together in that school? I mean before his "death" or whatever."

"That was an act obviously," Mizuno said, "he probably despised me the whole time."

"Maybe he was not acting," Toma proposed, "maybe that was the kind of person he can truly be if we help him the right way. He did say he really liked us all."

"Pretty sure he was being sarcastic," Seto said.

Winona disagreed. "I don't think he was."

"We can debate on the morality of this guy later," Seto waved his hand, "are we starting this group or what?"

Mizuno smiled proudly. "Sure. We are going to find Masaru and help him... we'll help him and Matsuyama."

Winona and Toma smiled at that.

"But I don't want to use the name Future Foundation," Mizuno said, tapping her chin, "I wanna be original."

"How about the mighty four?" Toma offered.

Seto couldn't help but laugh. "What are we, superheroes? That's too basic."

Mizuno thought about what they were trying to accomplish here. "What about something involving second chances? Does anyone know big words?"

"Redemption?" Toma threw out there.

Winona spoke next. "What about Renewal?"

"Why are we only using words that start with R?" Seto asked but Mizuno was already nodding her approval.

"The Renewal and Redemption Foundation." Mizuno finalized.

Seto looked a bit impressed. "I guess that works."

"Where do we start first?" Toma looked out the window, "they could be anywhere."

Seto picked at his nails. "They could be out of the country by now."

"I don't think that's possible." Winona chuckled.

"Well as head of The Renewal and Redemption Foundation—"

Seto cut Mizuno off. "Wait who made you head?"

Mizuno rolled her eyes. "Fine. I guess this can be a Co- leadership." She stood up and walked over to the large windows viewing the entire city. Seto, Winona, and Toma came to a stand as well and stood at her side.

"I don't know how but we'll find him," Mizuno said gazing at the view, "we'll find both of them."

Mizuno then turned to the other survivors and smiled brightly.

"And we're going to give them a chance at redemption."