Asuka Ishikawa

Art of Asuka Ishikawa by crowkerus

**Asuka Ishikawa** is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 105, and a participant of the killing game featured in Dangan Ronpa: Things That Never Happened. Her title is the Super High School Level Tattoo Artist.

## History

### Fates

During the final trial, it was revealed that the killing game- intended to be the fifty-fourth season of the show Dangan Ronpa- was being run in a virtual reality simulator, and had been reset 33,259 times. Because of this, it can reasonably assumed that most students were, at various points, a victim, a culprit, and a survivor until the next reset. However, Asuka is the only student who has been shown not only in each of these roles, but also as a successful blackened, being the sole survivor of a mistrial.

Within the story itself, Asuka has been shown meeting the following ends:

* The **Red route** branches off into the **Orange** and **Brown routes**.
	+ In the **Brown route**, Asuka goes for a walk to clear her head after the third trial. In the art room, Asuka comes across the body of Kazue Kanagaki in the art room, shortly followed by Kenta Hasekura, who mutters to himself that "this wasn't supposed to happen". Intending to get help, Asuka leaves out the back entrance, and is killed by a bucket of nails falling onto her head.
	+ The **Orange route** spits further into the **Silver** and **Grey routes**.
		- In the **Grey route**, there are no further deaths for a few months after the fifth trial. Asuka lives in the hotel grounds peacefully alongside Shun Asari, Natsumi Uchiyama, Minoru Fujita, and Kazue Kanagaki. Sadly, in late November, Kazue became suicidal, and shot herself in a shower stall. The simulation would have been reset within a few minutes of her friends processing the tragedy.
		- In the **Silver route**, the surviving students investigate the basement below the trial grounds, and come across a room of controls for the simulation. Asuka is one of the "survivors" present when Kazue hits a button in the room, resetting the simulation.
* The **Blue route** branches off into the **Cyan** and **Magenta routes** in Chapter 28.
	+ In the **Cyan route**, Asuka chooses to reject the salad offered by Ayano Chiba, for fear of the walnuts sending her into anaphylactic shock. Asuka quickly fled without explaining herself, and Ayano felt she had been pushed away. These feelings worsened Ayano's Stockholm Syndrome, causing her to believe that the mastermind of the killing game would feel more sympathetic towards her, and so Ayano decided to give into their demands for murder. As Asuka and Itsuki Yamasaki met up in the art room to talk, Ayano followed them out, stabbing them both with spears and killing them.
	+ The **Magenta route** continues on for much longer, and eventually branches off into the **Yellow** and **Green routes**.
		- In the **Yellow route** Asuka decides to hold off on confronting Natsumi for her role as the traitor. Sadly, this decision only made things worse for Natsumi, who intended to kill herself to give Monokuma the trial he demanded without hurting any of her friends. Asuka came upon Natsumi just as she was about hang herself and tried to stop her, but her attempts to free Natsumi from the noose resulted in her death, with Asuka marked as the blackened for the case. Though she insisted to her friends that Natsumi's death was her fault, her friends dismissed her claims as survivor's guilt, and ruled the case a suicide, resulting in a mistrial. As the graduating student, Asuka was forced to watch her friends undergo her execution, and was allowed a short conversation with Monokuma before the simulation reset again.
		- In the **Green route**, Asuka confronts Natsumi immediately, and able to give her the emotional support she needs. Though Natsumi still attempts to kill herself, Asuka arrives in time to rescue her, and the students stand together against Monokuma. With few options left, the mastermind created a fake case to continue the game, framing Asuka as the blackened and successfully tricking her peers into convicting her. However, since the entire trial was a sham, Asuka's execution was not fatal, and only served to torture her before dropping her into the basement. Asuka was soon found by the surviving students, and took on the mastermind in a final trial.
			* In the **Splatter route**, Asuka incorrectly accuses Minoru Fujita of being the mastermind. The trial continues for a bit longer, but abruptly stops as the participants begin to bleed profusely, their punishment for guessing wrong.

As the protagonist, each one of these fates results in a Bad Ending for the reader, although it can be assumed the killing game itself would continue after Asuka's death until the next reset.

Additionally, during the trial in Chapter 6, Asuka looks through photos of herself and finds "one of her with a slit throat, and another with her skull beaten in", two murders that are absent from the story otherwise. As memories come flooding back, Asuka thinks to herself that "Everyone in this room has killed me. Or been killed *by* me. Maybe even both."

When the killing game was finally ended, Asuka was able to wake up along with her fellow participants.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 39 of Dangan Ronpa: Things That Never Happened
2. ↑ Description on Chapter 29 of Dangan Ronpa: Things That Never Happened
3. ↑ Chapter 99 of Dangan Ronpa: Things That Never Happened