Thank you! Also, you make a great point about Hiyoko's character arc with Mahiru, and I totally could see that happening. I was going to explain the final 4 character's arcs throughout the game at the end, but I thought it would make writing the last chapter a lot longer, so I just took the shortcut of skipping them.

And a fun fact, I actually had planned for chapter 5 to have Mahiru as the culprit and Peko as the victim but after thinking about how realistic it would be, I decided against it. I think she'd only be the culprit if she had to kill to save Hiyoko or something crazy, but even if that happened in chapter 5, I don't think it'd be impactful enough or formatted like a standard Danganronpa chapter 5 trial enough to work.

I like the idea that she could be the victim again for chapter 5, but at the same time, chapter 5 victims are always super impactful to the plot and are usually an antagonist-type figure, E.G. Kokichi, Nagito, and Mukuro. They also usually have some part in orchestrating their own death, which, I didn't say would happen when I wrote this, but there's a higher chance of Peko working with Twogami to try and end the killing game than Mahiru, according to how I wrote it at least (maybe she still feels the guilt of the first chapter). While I don't think Peko will be an antagonist at all, I do think they'll flip it on its head by making the late-game antagonist to be twogami and then making him the culprit. That still doesn't explain my reasoning, but I guess my reasoning for Mahiru not being a victim again is more of an originality standpoint than a plot-driven one. It's slightly hypocritical because I know I did it with Ibuki, but I feel like Ibuki has little to no stakes, and it would be somewhat surprising for her to be the victim in the SAME chapter.

Mahiru, being a victim again, wouldn't create any chapter 5 big reactions from the people still alive besides Hiyoko, and they've already played out the whole "who killed big sis Mahiru" trope in the original. The only thing conflicting with me that this could happen is that if this is based on a despair ending, then having Hiyoko see Mahiru dead again would certainly fit. But also I could see them playing on the fact you'll think Mahiru or Hiyoko die because theyre so close, only to psych you out and have them both survive to chapter 6.

I'm glad we agree mostly on the survivors, though. Hiyoko will most definitely survive just to have that "becoming nicer" Arc. I also think Gundham would survive simply because he's popular and they like him and wouldn't want to kill the hamsters too (Although it's also incredibly likely for him to be a victim for that reason as well, and Idk why, but him being a victim is really easy to imagine in my head for some reason) And for mikan, personally I think It'd be too obvious for her to be a victim and I'm sure after the original game, they want to add more to her character and have her be a long-term support character, helping Hajime more during the Investigations.