Ryoma Hoshi

"I'll do what I can to help you guys escape, but... I myself don't have a reason to leave with the rest of you."

--Ryoma Hoshi, Prologue Ryoma Hoshi is a participant, as well as the sole representative of Danganronpa, in N.O.T. II: A Death Game. He was the first death among the main cast, and was executed after convincing enough people to vote for him in the first trial. As such, he was the first person to wake up outside the simulation, and dedicated his time to helping the others who were still inside.

History
In the beginning, Ryoma Hoshi was a tennis prodigy who had a bright future ahead of him. He was part of a highly skilled tennis team, and was relatively friendly with nearly everyone he met. However, upon receiving an invitation to take part in an underground tennis tournament, Ryoma’s enjoyable life with his parents and lover was cut short. He declined several times, but they continued to keep asking him until he relented. Upon arriving on the luxury liner where the tournament was taking place, he quickly found out that it was nothing more than a series of fixed matches, and he was told to throw the match against his opponent. Seeing this as a slap in the face to the sport’s integrity, Ryoma refused, and effortlessly defeated his opponent. Unbeknownst to him, however, this tournament was run by the mafia, and they were furious with him for ruining their plans. In response, they massacred Ryoma’s family, and eventually got to his lover as well despite his efforts to send her someplace safe.

No longer having anything to lose, and wanting nothing more than the murderers of his loved ones to be brought to justice, Ryoma took it upon himself to do so. Before that, he started cutting off contacts with everyone he knew, and gave his cat away to an acquaintance of his, since he knew that no matter what, he wouldn’t be coming back. Using his superior speed and skills acquired from tennis, he proceeded to strike down each mafia member with nothing more than a steel tennis ball. However, in order to take down this group of murderers, he had to become a murderer himself. Because of that, on top of his own principles, Ryoma turned himself in to the police.

Initially, he was sent to prison until the date of his trial arrived. Day after day, Ryoma was forced to perform hard labor along with the other inmates. They saw him as an easy target due to his size, resulting in numerous instances of abuse, threats, as well as sexual assault that left him traumatized. When the date of the trial came, he knew. He didn’t want to get sent back to prison to deal with that even more, he didn’t want to continue living knowing he had nothing left, and he wanted to pay for his crimes. During the trial, he refused to elaborate on his motives behind the crime, or cooperate with his lawyer to fight for a lesser sentence. Ryoma pled guilty, hoping for the death penalty, which is what he received. He was then sent to a solitary cell in the Tokyo Detention Center, with little to no human interaction, and no way of knowing when the date of his execution would be. The years of isolation and uncertainty only worsened his already fragile mental state, and he became more and more suicidal as the days went by.

Prologue - Purgatory
Despite going to sleep in his cell like normal, Ryoma woke up to find himself--with no prior warning--being led to his execution. Rather than the typical long drop hanging that death row inmates in Japan are killed by, he was subjected to a far more inhumane method. Trial By Firing Squad - which among other things, involved steel tennis balls being fired at him at a high enough speed to reduce his body to a battered and broken mess.

Ryoma regains awareness not long after, waking up alongside 16 other people in a place they'd later refer to as "Purgatory." Like Ryoma, they had also been put through their own respective executions, and were seemingly sent to the afterlife. He accepts the situation they're all in relatively easily, believing that he was fully deserving of a death that brutal and agonizing due to his past crimes. Under the impression that there was only a matter of time before he'd be cast into Hell, Ryoma reveals his status as a murderer to the other participants in an attempt to keep them from getting close to him.

Naturally, this approach wasn't 100% effective. Despite his efforts, Ryoma still found that people were still willing to interact with him, some of whom even showing the first compassion he'd received in years. However, as he and the others began investigating Purgatory, including finding some evidence with Shalnark and Sophia that there were people working behind the scenes, Ryoma couldn't help but wonder whether or not they were truly dead, despite what they had all been made to experience. With that possibility in mind, the majority of the others became all the more fixated on escaping from their new location. Though Ryoma openly expressed his desire to not escape with them, since his time in Purgatory had been far more pleasant than being confined to a solitary cell. With that said, he promised the others that despite choosing to stay behind, he would do whatever he could in order to help the others escape.

As the days passed by, Ryoma winds up having heart-to-hearts with people such as Mia, Wendy, and Gintoki. His interaction with Gintoki was especially poignant to him, as despite the two being at odds with one another, he offered Ryoma the choice to escape to his world when they get out in order to avoid being sent back to death row. This faint glimmer of hope was enough to get Ryoma thinking about a possible future for himself, and after making sure Gintoki was serious about his offer, he gratefully accepts.

When it was announced that there would be a pool party, Ryoma decides to go, even though he didn't plan on swimming. Together, he and Metal Sonic investigate the new area that opened up, resulting in the two of them finding some strange logos, as well as the cast's keycards--which would prove to be essential to their lives going forward. However... the peaceful days with the others in Purgatory couldn't last forever, as they all received a message from their captors on their keycards, instructing them to return to the area in which they woke up--or else they would die. One by one, Ryoma and the other participants are once again ordered to enter the "immersion boxes" that they came to Purgatory in, which take them briefly to a peaceful area known as "Paradise." They don't stay long before all 17 of them are transported to the next world.

Chapter 1 - Inaba
At first, the participants--especially Yosuke--are led to believe that they had escaped to his hometown of Inaba. But it quickly becomes apparent to Ryoma that isn't the case, due to them still receiving messages and instructions from their captors through the keycards. After a brief exploration around the area, they are all called together and introduced to three of their captors: Quercus Albakuma, MonoRedd MonoWhite, and Glitch Monokaima. It's then that the true intentions of their captors are revealed--to place the 17 of them in a death game, forcing them to fight for their very lives. The current method in which they would do so being a series of rock-paper-scissors matches, where each person was allowed to have a maximum of three matches with every other participant there.

As the rules are elaborated on, such as how a portion of them will be selected for death row and voted to be executed, the potential future for Ryoma was one that he knew he could no longer have--not without condemning someone else to die in his place. After the full explanation, and most of the others had left, Ryoma lingers to ask the "mascots" some questions, namely with how many people will be allowed to survive the death game, and whether volunteering for death row is allowed. Quercus responds that he would do everything he could to ensure that Ryoma doesn't get put on death row, in order to have him last as long and suffer as much as possible.

His resolve strengthened, Ryoma made it his mission to save as many people as possible--at the expense of himself. Under the impression that those with the lowest scores would be sent to death row, Ryoma intentionally threw the matches against everyone he played, namely by picking rock three times in a row and letting them know beforehand. While most were willing to accept the free wins, others, namely Mia and Shalnark, intentionally lost their matches against him in an attempt to boost his score. Sayu also attempted to put a stop to his plans by sending private messages to Wendy and Vergo, warning them not to let Ryoma lose against them. He later finds out about this when Vergo caves in and shows him the message. Despite trying to explain to Vergo why saving or getting close to him is pointless, Vergo doesn't listen, insisting that the two would escape and travel the world together.

After participating in a party held before the motive ended, an investigation took place surrounding the sudden death of Redd and near-death of Mia. A prior conversation Ryoma had with Mia led him to conclude that she was attacked recently, judging by the fact that her coffee cup was still warm. He also investigated the room where Redd died, and found that despite being bludgeoned to death, he was not bleeding. Which was in direct contrast to Quercus, who pricked his own hand in order to see whether or not mascots could even bleed in the first place.

Not long after the investigation ended, the people who were sent to death row were announced. To everyone's shock, the factor used to determine who got sent there wasn't whoever got the lowest scores, but whoever got the highest. At least, those were the reasons why Jamie, Metal Sonic, and Yusuke were picked. As for the other three, Nori was selected due to refusing to participate in the motive completely, Mia volunteered to be on death row, and Ryoma was a last minute addition due to having the lowest score. Moreover, Quercus also revealed that in the upcoming trial, two people would have to be voted up and executed. Ryoma was shaken by the news, not because he was put on death row, but because his throwing of the RPS matches inadvertantly caused half of the candidates to be facing possible death in the first place. Even if he manages to convince people to vote for him, it would still leave one other person facing execution alongside him.

Ryoma spends what he's certain would be his last night alive jotting down notes, reasons as to why he should be voted instead of anyone else, in order to use as reference during the trial. Vergo expresses regret that he wasn't able to prevent this outcome, and the two wind up having a heart-to-heart where they told each other about their pasts. Vergo reveals that he was also a criminal on death row, but was given a name change in order to avoid execution. He tells Ryoma his real name, saying that he'll reveal it to the others if Ryoma survives the trial. Ryoma still insists that he'll do everything he can to persuade the others to vote for him, while Vergo resolves to do everything he can to save him. However, he does concede that he'll accept whatever the majority vote determines, and if people vote for him to be kept alive, so be it. Right before he leaves for the trial, he writes a note for Vergo to read afterwards, in the highly likely event of his death.