#‘Encouraged murder of Sakura’

[completeoveranalysis]

[8]

OOP

Hey remember that one time in Infinity when Kurogane was like, “Don’t pull out the sword?” 

No-one ever listens! They always pull out the sword! 

And more often than not it’s Sakura on the other end of it!

The ratio of being stabbed to not being stabbed is extremely high on Sakura’s end I’m just saying.

>:(

I mean yeah that’s exactly what I thought he was going to say but still. 

This is going on your report card young man. 

[yanderes-galore]

Hi hope it’s not to late to request Yandere Naruto with a female ninja reader concept please :)

Sure! Keep in mind I am not finished Naruto so this is a general concept. His obsession would most likely be a ninja anyways so you can also view this as a regular concept maybe (There's another concept in the drafts I was debating on just... combining with this one but I realized I'd have to change genders. So if the regular concept is very similar to this one, it's because I meant to put them together....)

Yandere! Naruto with Ninja! Darling

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Obsession, Clingy behavior, Delusional behavior, Possessive/Overprotective behavior, Stalking, Blood, Violence, Implied accidental murder, Dubious relationship.

Naruto would normally have a ninja obsession in my opinion.

Due to what goes on in the story, a lot of the people he deals with are ninja.

Plus, a ninja obsession would give him the opportunity to stick around them all the time.

A yandere Naruto is a bit amusing since he's oblivious when it comes to other people loving him or hating him.

As shown when he had a crush on Sakura (Who likes Sasuke), while Hinata had a crush on him.

I imagine it would be a similar situation with you.

Ever since you two became Chunin (or even Genin), I can see Naruto looking up to you or encouraging you.

Naruto has a certain personality that just seems to... bring people in.

Which is ironic as he's usually a social outcast or seen as problematic.

The biggest and most important thing Naruto wants from his obsession is simple...

Attention.

While he's been getting more of it throughout his journey...

He likes it the most from you.

You're a girl he respects for her strength and drive.

You also might've been one of the first to not outright judge him for being a "failure" or a host for a powerful demon.

So naturally he gets a crush on you.

Naruto seems like a clingy yandere, following you around and often wanting to train.

When you two are young ninja he often wants to learn from you.

Although, when you're older he likes the thought of teaching you.

Hopefully you're patient when you teach him anything... He either forgets or purposefully pretends to not understand so you stay around longer.

Naruto inspires loyalty and kindness, he's someone even his obsession can trust.

He's been shown to be determined and observant.

He's actually quite smart, ironically I want to call him cunning at times (like a fox...).

He's confident and wants to impress you because you're his crush!

Naruto's obsession most likely comes from the fact he's desperate for attention... and maybe the nine-tailed fox within him.

Maybe that could explain his intense jealousy when he sees you with your ninja team?

While loud, Naruto is also insecure.

He wants nothing more than your attention and future affection.

You're a cute girl who paid attention to him in his youth.

Since his crush is quick, he no doubt notices you faster than he would Hinata and your attention may even make him realize he and Sakura might not work.

Which means you get Naruto following your every move.

Naruto loves to watch you improve and even uses his own improvements to impress you.

Anything to see you smile... for him.

Naruto would want to be the reason you smile all the time.

He can't help but grimace when he sees you smile at someone else or ignore him.

Oof... Ignoring him makes him desperate to get your attention back.

If you were part of his team, he's overjoyed because now he's always with you.

Although... He may not get that lucky, leaving you to another squad.

Much to his dismay.

Naturally observant, Naruto keeps track of everything you do. Both as a ninja and in general.

He doesn't even mean it most of the time....

He just... finds everything you do fascinating.

He's forgetful but always seems to know certain things about you.

At some point I can see the strength gap between you no longer close.

When Naruto matures he'd take on a more... protective role with you.

The ninja is hopelessly in love.

He's oblivious to if you feel the same or not.

You could simply be treating him with respect and that alone is fantastic for him.

He's been alone most of his life... Now he's gaining so many friends...

Now... He hopes to have you by his side, too.

Naruto tends to be someone who wants to help.

He'd always want to help you get stronger and soon even enjoys looking after you...

Even though it might've been the opposite in the past.

Naruto tends to have some emotional problems, they're strongest in his youth but more controlled when he grows up.

I can see him picking fights with others in a fit of jealousy, especially when he can't control Kurama's chakra.

He seems childish at times with you, not caring how he gets your attention.

He just wants it.

You're the girl of Naruto's dreams.

He can't help but daydream about you.

Would Naruto kidnap? It doesn't seem like his thing/he wouldn't be that good at it....

He's obsessed with you and while he hates when others have your attention...

He doesn't want to isolate you too much... no doubt due to his past.

It's possible, but he'll have to really snap.

Then afterwards he makes sure to take care of you the best he can.

The only reason he'd kidnap is because he wants you safe, right?

... For the most part.

Although, a form of this could happen when he's older, where he plans to keep you through marriage.

But he'd have to charm you into dating him first... or trick you into it... either way....

Now, murder? Again, not really.

Naruto may get violent at times but I doubt he'd kill someone for taking your attention.

Maybe if Kurama got involved? Yet Naruto should be strong enough to fight those thoughts...

Hopefully.

Beating someone up after he loses control? Showing competitive behavior?

I can see that... yet while he is eager, he doesn't want to hurt you unless influenced.

Although... the idea of him losing control of his desires?

Maybe he sees you hurt in a fight?

Maybe someone gets too close and his mind gets the better of him?

What if all of a sudden, he sees red and just... lets instinct take control.

Then when he's back in control, you look so scared.

All while he's covered in blood, chakra all over the place.

He doesn't like scaring you... however...

The blood on him was necessary, right?

In these moments he'd be so scared of your reaction, hoping you believe him when he says he did it to protect you.

If not...

He isn't sure if he could let you go.

Naruto would get along with a fellow ninja the most.

You'd have more opportunities to get to know him as a ninja compared to a normal person in the village.

Although... Now he has to worry even more about you getting hurt.

You being a ninja driving yourself to get stronger while caring for him is no doubt his type.

He'd do anything to help you, protect you, have you...

You... You won't be scared if he gets blood on his tracksuit, right? Regardless...

He promises everything he does is to change your life for the better... nothing will hurt you if he keeps a watchful eye on you at all times... or if he carefully becomes the only person you need.

[thottyimagines]

Still thinking about Naruto in the year of our lord 2024 so I was wondering what your take would be on a Sannin swap, meaning team seven has different mentally unstable mentors from canon so they can be traumatized/educated in new and exciting ways <3

I've written a few about the potential dynamics between Naruto/Orochimaru, Sasuke/Tsunade, and Sakura/Jiraiya, but let me tell you about the different iteration that really and truly is my favorite:

Sakura/Orochimaru

Mad scientist, came-from-nothing ninja with insane chakra control reporting for duty.

Orochimaru takes one look at this pink-haired freak with a puddle of chakra who thinks she can stand side-by-side with the kyuubi and the last of one of the great dojutsu and says, would you like to live deliciously?

And Sakura says, of course I would.

It is not enough for her to succeed, others must fail. And Orochimaru loves and appreciates this about her.

Sakura runs away from Konoha with the promise of having a mentor who will teach her, who will focus on her, who will believe that she's more than her pitiful background and more than her overwhelming teammates.

She is, at first, foisted onto Kabuto. She frightens Kabuto.

When she gets good enough to replace Kabuto, which happens in a very alarming two years (max), Kabuto suddenly gets to live with the ever-present threat of becoming an experiment.

Orochimaru adores her and encourages her to steal any and all clan techniques and kekkei genkai that she can. Why should she be barred from knowledge if she yearns for it?

Sakura is the most learned woman in the elemental nations. She has figured out Orochimaru's Body Problem. She's replicated the Strength of a Hundred seal Tsunade uses. They are a plague unto Konohagakure.

She's gene splicing like nobody's business.

The only people who care that Sakura up and left are Naruto, Kakashi, a bit of Sasuke, and Ino. Except for...well, no one has that manic desire to bring her back, the way Naruto did when Sasuke went missing nin. They kind of view her as a failed experiment, though Ino misses her and thinks of her a lot.

Sasuke/Jiraiya

Such a miserable duo, but they kind of like it.

Jiraiya is strong enough to keep Sasuke safe, and he keeps the kid out of Konoha, which he really needed.

Sasuke takes to everything quickly and antagonistically. Jiraiya hates having such a talented student - he is, perhaps, even more talented than Minato - who is so desperately antisocial.

You know that one post that's like, someone who's objectively attractive but has negative rizz? That's Sasuke, and Jiraiya despairs on the regular, because this student of his should, in theory, take over this position as horny spy master with the way he effortlessly draws in beautiful women who can act as informants. Sadly, due to his personality, no one would ever believe that Sasuke is just charming these (knowledgable) women into bed with him.

Sasuke takes to sealing, and Jiraiya is petrified that he's going to come up with something to, like, replenish his clan at an alarming rate.

Sasuke gets rid of his brother with some sort of homemade seal that traps him in a Matryoshka doll or something. He didn't technically commit fratricide, but Itachi is suffering in that thing.

He comes back to the village looking way better than he did when he left. Jiraiya takes that as his main point of pride.

Naruto/Tsunade

Naruto, should he learn chakra control, is the ideal healer in that he has more chakra than should fit in a human body, even an Uzumaki.

It's the chakra control that is Tsunade's true challenge in teaching. And, good god, is it a challenge. Sasuke is already murdering his brother by the time Naruto can reliably aid in a minor surgery.

But once he finally learns it, Naruto is improving in leaps and bounds, as is his way.

He completes a Strength of a Hundred seal six months after he finally learns chakra control. Sakura has had hers for two years, and he does not know or care.

Naruto is saving people at unprecedented rates. Honestly, Tsunade struggles to justify making him a combat medic, because he's doing so much good in the hospital just staying at the village.

Naruto is Naruto, though, so Tsunade teaches him to brawl using her style.

He winds up on the most dangerous missions, due to the fact that he has a natural healing ability with his Kyuubi, and is now the most talented healer Konoha has (who insists on getting out there).

Honestly, I could see him winding up in ANBU, given those skills and traits.

His true hardship, after mastering chakra control, is realizing that his talk-no-jutsu isn't going to work all the time and that he can't derail missions to attempt it.

Naruto is a better hokage for it, in the end.

[skyahri]

Sakura just found out that Naruto and Sasuke have never watched Disney movies before. She puts on Tarzan, then immediately realizes her mistake when his parents are murdered right off the bat. Naruto is crying because his parents are dead. Sasuke is uncomfortable because his parents are dead. Sakura is freaking out because she can't think of any movies with two alive parents.

Sakura is road rage lol. "Are you fucking kidding me? There were FOUR signs saying that lane was going to end, asshole!" The rest of team seven is hanging on for dear life as she slams the gas and flips off the other driver when she passes.

After being forced into therapy as part of his plea deal, Sasuke was encouraged to keep a feelings journal. Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. Every night, he plops down at his desk, takes out his black notebook, picks up the frilly pink pen Sakura left at his house a few months ago, and scribbles down different aspects of his day. The ink is pink and glittery, a sharp contrast to his dark and brooding personality, but he can't find it in himself to use any other writing utensil.

Kakashi is a simple man. When technology started to boom, he was with it for all of ten seconds before he was overwhelmed. He has a computer in front of him and three nerds around him trying to coax him through email, but all he's thinking about is the good ol' days of paper and ink.

Shikamaru is the hidden leaf village's secret weapon. He's proved time and time again that no one even comes close to his mental prowess... but that doesn't mean he isn't human. On more than a few occasions, he's spent an embarrassing amount of time using the wrong key to unlock doors. He misspells and forgets words often. He generally lacks common sense because he overthinks things so hard. A side effect of your brain always being at 100, is that it struggles with 1-99.

Hashirama dared Madara to eat a weed once and Tobirama took that as a challenge. Mysterious plants, strange animals, random shit he finds in the woods or at the market- you name it and Tobirama is daring Madara to eat it. "Guess you aren't brave enough-" doesn't even finish his sentence before the Uchiha has completely consumed it and licked his fingers clean.

Masterlist Ko-fi

[rainbow-crane]

Anyways I can't stop thinking about how back in the early days of DR creation, it was gonna be a choose-your-own-adventure murder mystery where your interactions affected the outcome. And I can't help but wish we'd gotten Distrust bc I would've loved to see all the potential branching pathways depending on the connections you make

For example, what if doing Sayaka's FTEs in chapter 1 (the government mandated one doesn't count) led Makoto to pick up on the fact she was lying when she tries to get him to trade rooms? Or what if maxing out Chihiro before the end of chapter 2 allowed her to come out to you, and you encourage her to accept help from Hina and Sakura? And what other potential murders could you craft by doing so? If Sayaka doesn't go through with her plan, maybe Monokuma forces Sakura to kill Hina in the first chapter. Maybe there's a world where Hifumi doesn't trust Celeste and kills her instead. So many possibilities

[panharmonium]

the thing about kakashi’s S10 experience is that every five minutes he’s presented with a new crisis to manage and each one somehow manages to top the previous one in urgency and complexity

they’re just coming off the total destruction of the village, where kakashi DIED

three seconds after that, he gets the news that danzo has been appointed (though not yet confirmed) as hokage

AND danzo has put out a kill order for sasuke

which makes naruto and sakura fly off the handle

which means kakashi has to rein them both in immediately because he knows danzo is looking for an excuse to lock naruto up

this whole thing puts kakashi in the position of running the show from an underground/covert position, undermining danzo’s authority in a last-ditch attempt to save sasuke

he’s already juggling a subordinate who’s working as a double agent and operating in a precarious and potentially dangerous situation (”it seems like danzo is starting to not trust sai”)

but he encourages sai to lie to danzo and then smuggles naruto out of the village and initiates a totally unsanctioned negotiation with a foreign head of state

five seconds after this, “madara uchiha” is breaking into the inn where kakashi & co. are staying and telling them that actually itachi uchiha didn’t betray the leaf; the government used him to slaughter his own clan and then covered it up for years

which kakashi can’t just take at face value because there’s literally NO proof of this and madara has every reason to want to destabilize the leaf, so they can’t do anything about it until they get the facts

but before he’s had time to process this development, sakura shows up with sai and kiba and lee and confesses that she’s in love with naruto, which kakashi instantly knows isn’t true, but he doesn’t know exactly what she’s up to

three seconds after she leaves, sai’s clone appears with more info and kakashi realizes that sakura has decided to take down sasuke herself (which is absolutely going to result in her getting killed) and she’s on her way to confront him right now

before they’re even done with this discussion, the kazekage and his attendants show up and drop the enormous bomb that danzo has a stolen, implanted sharingan hidden under his bandages and tried to manipulate the entire kage summit in his favor before fleeing

oh, and the reason he fled was because sasuke crashed the summit and tore the entire building down after killing a contingent of samurai and attacking every kage in attendance

after which madara uchiha appeared and declared the start of the fourth great ninja war

and since danzo ran away and isn’t considered to be trustworthy anymore, the other four nations decided that KAKASHI will act as the hokage instead

and before kakashi can process THAT, naruto keels over and passes out in the snow

and at his point it’s like - what the hell does he do?  where does he start?  the leaf village has been obliterated.  its people are sleeping on the ground.  the fourth great ninja war has just been declared.  an unprecedented alliance is forming between the five great nations and kakashi is suddenly supposed to be in charge of one of them, but one of his kids is unconscious, one of them is currently going on a murder spree, and the other one is at this very moment on her way to kill the murder-spree one, who is most definitely going to end up killing her instead.  oh and also they may have just stumbled upon a massive conspiracy wherein the leaf’s government sanctioned the massacre of its own people and lied about it for years, but kakashi can’t responsibly act on this information until he gets proof, because the person who told him about it is also the person who just declared war on them all and who therefore has every reason to lie, but when and how is kakashi supposed to obtain this proof when seven other immediate crises are blowing up at the same exact time?

he never has a second to breathe before something new and even more out-of-control happens.  and as much as i hate to see him overburdened, there is something so compelling about watching him lead, watching everyone turn to him for direction, watching him deliberately undermine a false hokage who doesn’t deserve to wear the hat, watching danzo’s own current and former subordinates align themselves with kakashi in defiance of the man who kept them both captive, watching kage from other nations choose kakashi unanimously and without hesitation, particularly when their selection of him is simultaneously a rejection of danzo, which is SO symbolically powerful for so many reasons.

it’s also equally compelling to me that kakashi, confronted with all these competing and urgent demands, ultimately chooses to try and save his kids first.  

i expect nothing less from him, but it’s still so gratifying to see.

[madelinesnarutoblog]

NaruHina is actually toxic. (Part 1)

[Chuunin-Exam Arc]

First appearance

Naruto, who completely ignored her in the past, calls her a shy freak who can't even talk to him... There is no initial chemistry or even respect on Naruto's part.

My thought about Hinata

I like Hinata. She is a very caring and very cute girl, who becomes braver over time and her feelings for Naruto are genuine and sincere. It is touching that she likes him because he inspires her. It's not superficial. She sees the good in him, even before others see it.

Hinata vs. Neji

Now... The incompatible and toxic parts beings in her battle vs. Neji.

This was a lost battle from the beginning and Naruto encouraging her to not give up nearly gets her killed because it was pointless for her to try to fight Neji...

I totally understand her desire to grow and become brave and strong. But bringing it to the point of having your inner organs damaged by attacks she couldn't even counter is not healthy at all.

Sure, Neji was an asshole toward her... But she should have forfeited the match.

Naruto's "Never give up"

Naruto's mentality works well for him. But he has endless chakra and f*cking Kurama making sure he doesn't get killed.

And Naruto's mentality also works while he is encouraging Sasuke, who also unlocks unseen potential in every losing battle he is fighting and finds new strategies.

With Hinata... She already has overcome herself by showing up to the Chuunin-Exams. And every time Naruto encourages her to go on in that fight, she gets another potentially deadly blow from Neji.

Getting herself killed for attention...

And then she stands up again, thinking that Naruto is finally watching her, so she "doesn't want to look uncool"... Only to end up in the hospital.

And that's a pattern with them. The next time Naruto notices her she throws her life away for him. And the third time it is because Neji fucking died...

Conclusion

I think getting yourself brainlessly killed just so your crush notices you may be as unhealthy as Sasuke trying to murder Sakura.

Maybe Hinata needed someone to actually protect her and encourage healthy growth, being there for her the whole time and making her feel worthy because of who she is and not because of her accomplishment... And Naruto is not the type for that, because he mainly searches for acknowledgment through his accomplishments...

Who works best with Sakura? Someone who also falls for her looks and cuteness and personality (Lee).

Who works best with Naruto....? Sasuke.

[most-screwed-by-writers-tourney]

Propaganda:

Rika Sasaki and Yoshiyuki Terada: Unfortunately this is a canon ship. Rika's an elementary school girl (so like, 10), while Mr. Terada is her class's teacher, who appears to be in his twenties at least. They apparently got together sometime before the series even started, and have secretly promised to marry each other once Rika is of age. Sakura, who is one of Rika's friends and classmates, knows that Rika has an older boyfriend and speculates that that might be why Rika's so "mature". This relationship is treated as being as sweet and wholesome and pure and loving as any of the other romantic relationships during the series, being basically considered true love.

Charlie and India: First off they’re uncle and niece. Second of all, Charlie is not mentally well and was institutionalized for decades for the murder of his baby brother. And he’s encouraging similar behavior and traits in India herself.

[its-just-hyper]

@nepeta-leijon-official ALRIGHT! SO! DRHF stars fuka toyoda as our ultimate lucky student and main character! (…till he’s… ahaha well-)

We’ve got a full cast (including a monokuma clone named monosune. Her banter with monokuma is that of a ‘wife’… it goes as well as you’d expect)

Rantaro Amami (ignore his hair thing I swear it doesn’t mean anything for Toyoda)

Fuka Toyoda — ultimate lucky student. He’s believed his luck has been nothing but exceptionally awful, always putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe his luck is changing now that he’s been accepted to hopes peak, right?

Kei Keiouma— ultimate forensic scientist. She’s your kyoko, your sidekick ^^

Chinatsu Hara — ultimate pop sensation. She’s supposed to be a subversion of sayaka. She acts as your ‘antagonist��� and attempts murder at least once. (She fails)

Kohaku Bando — Ultimate Rockstar. What Leon should’ve been. Don’t think about the implications of a Makoto, Sayaka, and Leon homage, it doesn’t mean anything I promise (lying)

Toshiba Tone — Ultimate Basketball Player. We tried to fit into danganronpa tropes so here is your Sporty Big Tit Girl Who Miraculously Survived!

Shiori Shishido — Ultimate Veterinarian. Her size is intimidating until you’ve seen her holding a kitten. She’s a sweetheart and would totally wrestle an Aligator for anyone.

Geiichi Takata — Ultimate Playwrite. Short perv except he’s tall. His disrespect and bad behavior definitely won’t bite him in the ass (lying)

Umeko Mita — Ultimate Gardener. Umeko did nothing wrong. I promise. I promise. I promise. A they slash them (literally), umeko hates bullies and loves flowers.

Shinobu Akamine — Ultimate Blacksmith. Tragic lesbian. Strong and quiet and definitely a target of suspicion, with her weaponry and such.

Hikaru Ozawa — Ultimate Dungeon Master. Fast friends with Umeko, Hikaru is convinced that he’s the one controlling the game, getting more and more distressed and needlessly guilty as more people die. Hope no one hears him calling himself the Mastermind, since he quite genuinely isn’t.

Sayuri Kubota — Ultimate Ringleader. The small and cute one ™. Friends with Shiori over their love of animals (although everyone loves Shiori), totally not just himiko wearing blue ⸝⸝==‘⸝⸝

Hanzo Tsutsumi — Ultimate ‘Motorcyclist’ ashamed of his true talent (shsl janitor) he keeps his distance and tries to act cool. Whhhat, the hidden talent character ™ isn’t a protag? Who could’ve guessed. Huh.

Masuyo Hamamoto — Ultimate Chessmaster. Tragic lesbian part 2. She’s literally so cool and smart and selfless. Only good things happen to the smart and selfless ones, remember sakura? :)

Yuto Nakono— Ultimate Stand-up Comedian. His biting jokes usually get a laugh, even if they can be kind of mean. Of course, he doesn’t really know where to stop, even when lines are crossed. He gets along very well with umeko because of this. (Lying). Good thing umeko did nothing wrong (also lying).

Tatsuki Aoyama — Ultimate Lumberjack. Monokuma let him keep his axe to encourage murder, if not by him than of him for being a threat. He’s chill and would probably help you study for midterms, even though he wouldn’t understand any of it.

Oh yeah here’s some sprites in varying levels of completion, mostly done by @th3ratk1ng . We have all the chapters mostly planned out, also

(Pictured: Kohaku, Shinobu, Chinatsu (her hair is an edgeworth reference, yes) and Umeko)

Oh yeah and this lol

[mixelation]

i think it's semi-common to have girl characters in naruto be disproportionately upset about things like killing animals for food, but what if INSTEAD young kunoichi in training have weird vaguely occult girl culture things like in irl. sakura and ino have 100% caught and killed a squirrel together and then performed some sort of Ritual with it that they heard from the cousin of a friend, and that's just normal for academy aged girls. sakura still has a necklace of rabbit ears somewhere.

note that IRL kids capturing and killing animals for fun and games is worrying behavior, but i think WITHIN THE CONTEXT of training a small child to murder in a fictional universe, this would be considered normal and encouraged play

[bi4pan-polls]

Bracket

The polls will start on Monday, 3pm EST!

Propaganda is allowed and encouraged

Media and character will be under the cut :D

Left side of the bracket:

Huntlow from the Owl house vs Jesse Swanson/Beca Mitchell from Pitch Perfect

Dimond Heart/Amethyst Heart from Magic Warrior Dimond Heart vs Sayaka Miki/Kyoko Sakura from Madoka Magica

Jesse/Ally from Amphibia vs SatoSugu from Jujutsu Kaisen 

Jay/Kai from Ninjago vs Stephanie Lauter/Peter Spankoffski from Hatchetfield

Nao/Reko from Your turn to die vs Max Bennett/Sandra Wilkinson from The everything goes wrong show

C.A Cuipid/ Venetia SoulSong, Venetia belongs to @rai-knightshade and C.A cupid is from Ever after high vs Alexia/Bernard from Craig in the Creek

Jack Kennedy/ Dave Miller from DSAF vs Rashmeile from Entropic Float

Mel/Cree ocs by @melodemonica vs Webber/Wendy from Don't starve

Right side of the bracket:

Luz/Willow from The owl house vs ItaFushi from Jujutsu Kaisen

Hannigram from Hanniball/Kataang from Avatar the last Airbender

Han/Lando from Star wars vsSakuSyao from Cardcaptor Sakura

Nagisa Misumi/ Honoka Yuskishiro from Precure vs Cassandra/ Alonzo from CATS

Professor Kukui/Professor Burnet from Pokemon vs Spideypool from Marvel

H.G wells / Lenore from Edgar Allen's Poe's murder mystery dinner party vs Sora/Riku from Kingdom hearts

Professor Plum./ Miss Scarlett from Clue vs Draculora/Lagoona from Monster high G3

Travlyn from Aphmau's mystreet/Bumbleby from RWBY

[chairteeth]

I have realized that I should probably make some kind of pinned post, since my neurodivergent ass has decided to take all of my coding skills for custom themes and not use them.

Well, I'm Nishi (she/her). Better known on Discord and Ao3 as Nahikoate (just Nahi is good!). I've been on tumblr before, I'm just very bad at not losing accounts. This blog is probably gonna be a bunch of reblogs, some fandom content, and some original stuff here and there. My main fandom is Puella Magi Madoka Magica or more specifically Magia Record, I suppose? That's the most persistent brainrot at least. This blog is honestly mostly reblogs and a hub for my TouNemu proselytization. Minimal tagging because I have the memory of a goldfish, occasional nsfw text reblogs (I guess?).

I write a lot. Asks are welcome! So long as you're respectful, I'm friendly, if you're rude, you'll get blocked. And here's what a majority of people are probably here for:

Magia Record Analyses! (Ao3 version recommended)

"The Many Masks of Touka Satomi"

"Nemu Hiiragi: The Shadow"

"Touka, Nemu, and the White Walls"

"Touka, Nemu, and Self-Perception"

"Nemu and her disability"

"TouNemu and astronomy"

"Memoriae Analysis: Touka and Nemu's personal and flower field memoriae"

"The Greek love styles applied to Touka and Nemu"

"Nemu's Buddhist Self-Flagellation"

Some smaller ones and guest essays will be put here:

"Touka shows affection like cats do"

"Nemu is a sadist" (the Ao3 version is much better put together)

"Touka has boy autism and Nemu has girl autism"

Content made by me or my project partner for the Magia Record Minibang (2024) is tagged on this blog as #minibang24 and content made for the subsequent one is #minibangEoS

My username on discord is also "nahikoate" and my DMs are open, but I will require that you state your purpose in your first DM if I don't personally know you. I'm always delighted to talk about these two more and hear people's thoughts about all of this or about my fics, so no need to be shy.

As for fic plans for the relatively near future, since some people are interested. "Wildly AU" means I got carried away with made up lore for a new setting of some sort, like the fairies in ACOSAM or the masks in Roadkill:

ACOSAM - current project, in progress, wildly AU

(Untitled) TouNemu Relationship Study - likely to be the next project, a longfic taking place throughout the entirety of the canon timeline

(Untitled) Golf - oneshot, in progress, canon timeline

(Untitled) Mother/Father's Day - twoshot, hoping to get it done by next year, canon timeline

(Untitled) Questions To Fall In Love - oneshot, in progress, canon timeline

(Untitled) Roadkill - longfic, folklore inspired, might be a series with some oneshots and one big fic, less wildly AU but still

(Untitled) Tempest - longfic, high trauma content, mythology inspired, wildly AU

(Untitled) ATLA AU - longfic, exactly what it says on the tin, Avatar Ui if you're wondering

(Untitled) Theater - longfic, somewhat of a murder mystery thing, AU

(Untitled? Idk this one's codename is nice) Sakura Ties - longfic, single parent/teacher AU where Sakurako is Nemu's 11 year old adopted daughter and tries to get her mom and favorite teacher together

No promises for anything else. You're encouraged to send asks about these projects if you're curious.

[kcuf-ad]

How DARE You?!

Sasuke Uchiha stood there after his defeat of Rock Lee and after meeting his sensei that claimed to be stronger than Kakashi, known as Might Guy. He just couldn’t believe it…he can’t believe it. 

After all of the training he went through after his fight against Haku, and after nearly dying to save Naruto Uzumaki’s life, he still lost against a guy that used only Taijutsu, no Ninjutsu while having his Sharingan activated the entire time. He gripped his hand into a ball, frustrated that he couldn’t even defeat someone like him. 

Sakura Haruno was quiet as she was looking at her crush and how devastated he looked after his defeat against someone that asked her to be his girlfriend and wouldn’t stop hitting on her, the day they met. She wanted to help Sasuke and tried to encourage him in some way, but she didn’t know how to. 

Naruto, on the other hand, didn’t think too much of it as he placed his arms around his head and closed his eyes. 

“Eh, looks like the Uchiha, aren’t as good as everyone thinks they are.” said Naruto as Sakura looked at him, shocked that he would say that as Sasuke looked at him, with no emotion. 

“What?” that’s all that he said. 

“What? I just said what I think everyone should admit to. The Uchiha aren’t as good as everyone thinks they are.” said Naruto as he looked at Sasuke. 

“NARUTO! Why would you say something like that?!” asked Sakura in disbelief. 

“Oh come on, Sakura, its the truth. The Uchiha aren’t that special. All they have are cool eyes, and that’s about it. Aren’t I right, Sasuke?” Naruto looked at Sasuke as he was quiet as he looked at the floor when he said that. 

“Sasuke? Did you hear me?” 

“Sasuke?”

“Come on, I know  you can hear me.”

“Hello, Earth to Sasu-” Naruto couldn’t even finish that sentence as Sasuke punched him so hard that even a person with a 3 Tomoe Sharingan couldn’t even see coming. He landed on the floor with a bruise on his cheek. 

He looked back at Sasuke whose eyes were staring at him with his Sharingan activated looking at him like he was the one who killed his clan. Sakura stayed quiet as she couldn’t do anything, but watch the entire thing unfold. 

Naruto rubbed his cheek as he looked at Sasuke. “Sasuke what the hell?! What was that for?!” 

“How dare you.” said Sasuke as Naruto raised an eyebrow. 

“Uh, say what now?” he said. 

“HOW DARE YOU!” yelled Sasuke as his voice roared around the arena as people outside of the room could hear it. He walked towards Naruto, “After all of the missions we have been together, having to learn about each other, improving our team work and me nearly dying to save YOU, this is how you talk to someone!? By insulting my clan that my brother killed?!” 

“Well, I- I was just trying to encourage you to get stronger.” said Naruto as Sasuke gritted his teeth.

“You call that encouraging me?! By insulting my clan, telling that for what I am trying to avenge, who are now DEAD thanks to my brother!? Are you insane?!” yelled Sasuke as Naruto gritted his teeth. 

“I am sorry okay?! I didn’t know it would make you so butthurt about it.” said Naruto as Sasuke nearly punched him again. 

“Butthurt?! You think telling someone who had to see his entire clan being murdered for 72 hours not to get angered by what you just said?!” yelled Sasuke as Naruto looked at him. 

“I said I was sorry man! Isn’t that enough?!” Naruto glared at Sasuke who looked at him as he was Itachi. 

“A sorry isn’t enough! A sorry doesn’t make up the fact that you made fun of my dead family!” 

“You know what?! GOOD!” roared Naruto, “I am GLAD that your brother massacred your clan! I am GLAD that there are no more people like YOU running around, being jerks to everyone they meet, and act like they are king of the world all because they have some special eyes!”

Everything stayed quiet as Sasuke gripped his fist. Sakura placed her hand on her mouth. 

“Naruto, you… you didn’t just say what I thought you just said…didn’t you?” she asked as Naruto looked at her. 

“Why yes I did, Sakura. I am glad that there aren’t more Sasukes running around, I can barely manage against one Sasuke, let alone more.” said Naruto as he crossed his arms. 

Sasuke stayed quiet as they heard a tiny sob from the Uchiha, as they looked over at Sasuke who looked that he was barely holding it together. Naruto realized his mistake, but before he could say anything, Sasuke began walking out of the room. 

“Wait, Sasuke! I didn’t mean it!” said Naruto as he tried to talk to Sasuke who continued to walk, this time faster than before. 

“Look, I am sorry what I said! It was a spur of the momen-”

“Just stop it.” Naruto stopped as Sakura looked Sasuke who was at the front door, as he opened the door.  Sasuke looked at him, who had a single tear in his eye, “Naruto, you are dead to me.” he said as he walked out of the door.

[danganronpa-21]

Can you please do a HoshiMatsu (Ryoma x Kaede) hurt comfort scenario where they go through survivor’s guilt from the killing game? Gonta’s the third survivor being the the greatest comfort too. Also Shuichi’s the traitor like Sakura.

Rating: Teen & Up Audiences

General Warnings: Mentions of Canon Typical Violence

Fandoms: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Relationships: Ryoma Hoshi/Kaede Akamatsu, Ryoma Hoshi & Gonta Gokuhara, Kaede Akamatsu & Gonta Gokuhara

Additional Tags: Survivor’s Guilt, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship

Chapter Word Count: 6,014 words

Chapter Summary: Kaede is the most cheerful, optimistic person that Ryoma has ever known... and that only makes it worse when he can see that she's hurting, but she won't tell him why.

[Read it on AO3.]

Ryoma would never love again after losing Mio.

This is what he told himself before shit somehow hit the fan even harder than it had before. Assuming it had, anyway. He still had no way of knowing if what Tsumugi said was actually the truth. Perhaps his entry into her killing school life truly was the beginning of shit hitting the fan, and he’d actually lived a fairly normal existence before that… well, as normal as you could get, being obsessed with a reality TV show where contestants lose all sense of self and get murdered for the amusement of their peers. He still shivers when he thinks about the kind of person he might have been. There is still no way of knowing, but he can’t seem to stop his mind from drifting there from time to time. Kaede is constantly reminding him that he shouldn’t. 

Kaede… He would never love after Mio, but then, out of nowhere in the darkest times of an especially dark life, there was Kaede. 

From the moment they met, she flooded his being with pep and optimism. Confident, plucky, and incredibly friendly, she never struck him as the kind of girl that he would go after. A man who had nothing to live for had little to say to a girl who seemed to believe in the beauty of the world around her. He couldn’t relate to her insistence that they should try to be friends, that everything was not as bad as it seemed, and that they should try one last time to escape. His first impression of her was that she was simply exhausting. He had no idea how anyone could afford to have that much energy, especially in a place that was determined to crush them. Even when they lost their first classmate, a cool and stoic girl named Maki, Kaede kept her head up. She encouraged everyone to keep working together to solve the mystery of their killing school life and get home safe. No matter how many times they stumbled, she was always there, begging her classmates to just try things one more time. 

Perhaps that was what he came to like about her, in the end. She was always a glass half-full kind of person. It applied to every part of her life. He imagines that’s why, in the end, she could come to love someone like him, too. He could think himself a beast, yet she would look at him as if he painted puffy white clouds in the sky just to fascinate her. A killing game was the last place he anticipated surviving, let alone finding love, so the experience was more than a little odd to him… but in the end, they were two of three who survived it all, who came out the other end when Tsumugi made every possible attempt to crush them. And, in the end, it was the two of them against the world – well, the two of them and Gonta, anyway. 

It had been three months since their release from the Killing School Life, and the three of them had holed themselves up in a dingy two-bedroom apartment, trying to figure out where to go next. It was cramped and smelled a bit like feet, but it still felt like freedom in comparison to the enclosed dome of the Gifted Inmates Academy. It was warm, dry, and they could come and go as they pleased, so Ryoma saw no reason for complaining. He did his best to keep things clean where he could, and Kaede and Gonta had taken to decorating it where they could. After all, Gonta’s gentlemanly sensibilities connected well with Kaede’s thoughtful tastes, so they found that the two of them worked well together as a home furnishing team. If they needed someone to fix a leak in the piping of the sink, though, that was all Ryoma. It wasn’t much, but it was home, and they would happily work together to make it more of something. 

Some days, it was harder to do that than others.

The sorrows of their unknown pasts and unforeseeable futures had a habit of grating on them, making it damn near impossible to accomplish anything. If one of them was overtaken by a dark cloud, a faint reminder of what they lost or a flickering memory of one of their dead classmates; it was over. They could be out of commission for days or even weeks. The other two, whoever they were, would take care of them – they were all they had, of course they would – but it would be hard to keep up morale. It is crushing enough for one of them to be experiencing that pain, but when the others can see and understand it so blatantly, it only gets worse. Ryoma is ashamed to admit that it is him most times it happens. He hates being a burden on Kaede and Gonta, but he knows he cannot control the weight of his emotions, no matter how desperately he wants to. It is hard, knowing how much of a burden he is placing on his friends, and even more so on Kaede, who more often than not is the person who keeps up a smile. She never seems to falter quite like he does, and he wishes he could be more like her. Hell, he wishes he could care for her like she cares for him. 

Would she let him if the situation arose, he wonders? She’s never cried or refused food or lost sleep the same way he and Gonta have. Or, if she has, she’s never said a word about it. He hopes that that’s not the case. She deserves to be comforted just as much as anyone, if not more. But does he have an inflated perception of how much she needs him? It is difficult to say, but on their next day alone, he finds himself learning the truth of what she hides behind that glass half-full. 

It is just the two of them. Gonta has gone out on some expedition in search of bugs, so the newly dating couple decides that they will have a nice night in, just the two of them. Neither of them is prepared to go running out into the world for a fancy meal or some lavish date. It seems like a no-brainer that they decide to spend their time together making a meal instead. After all, it adds another layer to their bonding… as does the thirty minutes it takes them to pick out what they are going to eat. Ryoma and Kaede are more similar than anticipated in many ways, but when it comes to food, the differences definitely start to show. The two of them go back and forth on ideas – Ryoma suggests Western and Kaede wants Japanese. Ryoma thinks the meal should feature more carbs like rice and pasta, but Kaede wants it to have more meat and veggies. Ryoma wants something with a bit of spice, but Kaede doesn’t want any at all. Finally they are able to settle on a classic: curry rice with a side of eggplant dengaku. Kaede initially suggests that they try to make the curry rice with the eggplant, but Ryoma has never tried the flavour before, so they decide to stick with the regular meat to keep things comfortable. All things considered, it’s quite fun to get to work on a meal together as a couple. Most of the time, everyone in the apartment takes turns cooking for each other. Kaede and Ryoma have scarcely had the opportunity to interact in the kitchen. 

“How’s that rice comin’, Ryoma?” Kaede asks, lifting her tasting spoon out of the pot of curry sauce. She slips it into her mouth so delicately that Ryoma can’t help but watch. How is everything she does so perfect? Her eyelashes flutter a little as she savours the taste, and when she pulls it out, she grins. 

“It’s rice,” he replies, “Hard to mess up.” 

She giggles – a cute, short little thing, yet one he loves nonetheless. Kaede has a great laugh. It’s musical, ironically enough. Still, he can’t help but notice that it doesn’t seem completely there today. It’s not necessarily gone, but it almost sounds a little more forced. Normally, it comes as easy to her as blinking or breathing. “I guess you’re right about that. The curry’s coming along as well.”

Is she hiding something? It seems like the wrong time to ask. Even if he does, she might just brush him off, not wanting to ruin their evening together. Everyone in the group has had their dark hours, but Kaede has always seemed content to push hers away. Maybe this is another one of those times. He’ll just take things slow for now, see what else he can get out of her. For all he knows, the laugh could have been a fluke. She’s been a mellow cheerful all day otherwise. 

“Do you think it will be ready soon?” 

She shrugs, not stopping to meet his eyes. “Maybe… I think I’d give it a few more minutes, just to be safe. Make sure we really lock in that flavour.”

He doesn’t say anything back, just nods. He shifts attention instead to the eggplant dengaku. While the dish is traditionally grilled, their access to something like that is lacking, so they’ve used a combination of a skillet and broiler to get the effect. It should be just as smoky as one cooked the traditional way, anyway. He slips on some oven mitts and pulls it out with relative ease, inhaling the earthy scent. “Eggplants are looking good, too. Can you pass the miso sauce?” 

Ryoma reaches over to grab a pair of tongs, too engrossed in his soon-to-be examination at first that he doesn’t notice when he can’t hear the clink of the miso bowl beside him. When he first starts looking, he just assumes that Kaede will be ready in a minute. Then, a few more seconds pass, and it becomes increasingly clear that she won’t be passing it. In fact, he’s not hearing anything from her section of the kitchen. When he flicks his head up to look at her, she is staring down at the pot of curry, the smile that was once on her face having disappeared. Her eyes look almost blank as she stares down, watching it bubble. 

“Kaede?” He calls out again. 

Instantly, she snaps to attention. The smile reappears, but her eyes don’t seem to agree with it. 

“Sorry, did you say something?” 

He quirks a brow at her, not sure whether he should press or just asking for the miso. The former makes the most sense, he thinks. If he wants Kaede to open up to him more, then he needs to prove to her that he is open and ready to listen. “Are you okay?” 

The smile doesn’t crack, and her expression does not falter. It seems almost painted on. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” 

“You… seem a bit distracted.”

“Oh, well,” Kaede shrugs and tucks her hair behind her ear, “It’s nothing you need to worry about. I’m just lost in my thoughts.” 

Ryoma purses his lips. “It’s best not to be lost in thoughts all alone.”

She simply shakes her head and turns back to the curry pot. “Never you mind, Ryoma. I don’t want to ruin our night with my silly worries. They’ll come and go just like always.”

“You might feel better if you talked about them.” 

“And you might feel better if you let this go,” she chuckles, surprisingly without even a hint of bitterness, “Seriously, Ryoma, I’m fine. Let’s just focus on making a nice dinner, okay?” 

Ryoma sighs. “Whatever you say, Kaede. I just want you to know that if you need me, I’m here.” 

“I know. I’ve always been able to depend on you, Ryoma. Ever since the moment we met.” 

His brows furrow at those words. Nice of her to say, but not so easy for him to feel… If she’s that worried and there’s nothing he can do, is she actually being honest? Or is she just trying to placate him? He bites his lip absent-mindedly.

“... Right.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Kaede frown, but she seems to decide that it is better to not try to convince him. Her attention sneaks back to their meal, and he decides that it would be better if he were just to grab the miso himself. Once in his hands, he coats the eggplants carefully, watching out of the corner of his eye as Kaede begins to scoop the rice from the pot into a duo of bowls. Nothing more is said between them as they prepare everything. It is best if things remain wordless for now. As soon as they have their food served, they make their way to the couch to sit and eat. 

Even that ends up being quiet. It would be excessive to say that there is necessarily tension between the couple, yet there is a sort of pressure between them. After all, Kaede doesn’t want Ryoma to know, but all Ryoma wants to do is ask, so how are they supposed to overcome their competing desires? Is there any way to get through this situation that will leave them both satisfied? In the end, they just resort to not talking about it. Kaede steers conversation in other places instead. Should we make a bowl for Gonta, she asks. Yes, I’ll do that after I finish up here, Ryoma responds. Then there is some silence again, broken only by the sound of chewing. This eggplant is really tasty, Kaede tells him. It was Mio’s recipe, Ryoma admits. That draws the conversation on longer, but only by a few minutes. There is still nothing of true substance, just a lot of beating around the bush. This was not at all the date night that they had planned. Knowing that she was hiding from something from him, Ryoma couldn’t entirely blame her for not wanting to talk, but the constant beating around the bush served to make the conversation all too stale. Listening to tangents about the weather and the sound of chopsticks scraping against your bowl could get old fast. 

In a time like this, you would think that the minutes would pass by like hours, yet it seemed that the meal went by in a flash. Before he knows it, Ryoma is done, and he is watching Kaede shovel in the last of her curry. The air between them is still relatively still and quiet, but he can see that by now, Kaede’s pleasant demeanour is beginning to falter. As she looks down at the last of her food, her mouth curves into more of a frown than it does a smile.

“All done?”

It’s a stupid question to ask, Ryoma knows, but it’s the only thing he can think of other than “are you sure you’re okay”. That, he knows, is not something he will get a proper answer to. It’s more than likely that he’ll get the same answer as before – yes, I’m fine. Or, if Kaede is getting particularly sick of the prying, he might be told to stop asking. He’s never seen her get angry about that, but he hasn’t ruled out the possibility. There are plenty of people who just hate to be asked, over and over again, if they’re fine. He would know. When it came to Mio, he used to be one of them.

Kaede nods softly, holding her hand out in expectation. He places his bowl in it carefully, muttering his thanks as she stacks it on her own and rises from her seat. His eyes flicker away as she begins to walk to the kitchen. It would be unnecessary to watch her every move, and if they’re not locked in conversation, he has no need to stare at her. Looking at her would only remind him that she’s in pain, and that he doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about it. He’s half-way through lamenting to himself about what a terrible boyfriend he is when suddenly, a quick gasp snaps him out of his thoughts. His head whips over to Kaede, and he is able to catch the exact moment that the bowls fully slip out of her grasp, falling hard and fast to the floor. Within seconds, the bowls crash against the ground, smashing into pieces of black bone china. Kaede yelps as they make contact, trying to shuffle her bare feet away from the site of the accident. 

“Kaede!” Ryoma exclaims, rushing to her side to assess the damage. “Are you okay? You didn’t get cut, did you?” 

Kaede doesn’t answer. She just stares down at the chunks of shattered bowls, eyes chasing each piece and splatter of leftover curry or miso. Ryoma places a hand on her lower back and peers up at her face, hoping it is just shock that has struck her silent. As soon as he sees her eyes, however, his heart sinks. In that place he has so often associated with joy, he finds only tears. They are just on the edge of her lashes, and are met with a quivering lip further below, but it will still be a few more seconds before they fall. 

He darts down to look at the floor, taking care to examine the space around his girlfriend’s feet. None of the broken china seems to have scraped or cut her, with most of the pieces falling in front of her rather than around or behind her. Definitely not hurt. He is about to ask her again if she’s alright, when suddenly he hears her start to sob. 

God, it’s only the first time he’s seen Kaede cry and he already hates it. Someone so kind and warm should never have to experience any pain, even over a broken plate. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He asks in the softest voice he can muster, brows furrowing as he rubs the part of her back he can reach. “It’s okay, it’s just a couple of bowls.” 

Once again, Kaede does not answer. She just keeps crying, fat tears slipping down her cheeks one after the other. It’s like she doesn’t even know Ryoma is there. That makes her crying sting worse. So much for her knowing she could always count on him. He’s practically useless to her right now. He heaves a heavy sigh, shaking his head. 

It won’t do him any good to be self-deprecating. He may not be the boyfriend she deserves, but he needs to try to be. He owes her that much.

“It’s not about the bowls, is it?” 

Kaede shakes her own head frantically, still whimpering like a little girl. Her hands reach up to swipe at her eyes, creating black streaks with her mascara. He makes a mental note to grab her some make-up wipes in a minute. For now, he just needs to get her comfortable, away from the scene of the crime, so the two of them can have a real talk about what’s happening here.

“Why don’t you go sit down, Kaede? I’ll clean this up, and then we can talk about what’s going on. That sound good?” 

For a sliver of a moment, she hesitates, like she’s frozen in place by her tears. It is not until he repeats her name, softer and gentler, that she finds it within herself to nod and sniffle, stepping back from the bowls to let him get a better look at the ground. He wastes no time rushing to the kitchen to grab a garbage bag to put them in, only watching out of the corner of his eye for Kaede’s safe arrival to the couch. Judging by the lack of yelps of pain, he can only assume he made it unharmed.

Just like their meal, the moment between the two of them is most silent, except now what was once conversation has now become the sound of Kaede’s soft crying. Part of Ryoma almost feels guilty for wanting to ignore it, but he already feels as if he is doing that very thing – he just wishes the tears would stop. He’s not so selfish as to wish that Kaede be his happy girlfriend who always supports him and Gonta, but more that she should not have to feel that sort of pain. In the back of his mind he has always known that she is as tortured as they are by what happened. It’s just that he didn’t want her to be. He wishes it didn’t have to be so. And that’s just the problem – if she is as tortured as they are, then this is perhaps the first time she has had the courage to show it. 

How close does she need to be to her breaking point for this to be the case?

Ryoma cleans up the remainders of the bowl as best he can, resolving to vacuum up any of the more minute pieces he would have missed. His focus right now, his greatest focus, is joining Kaede on the couch so they can talk about what’s happened. As he went through the process of cleaning, her sobs tempered themselves slightly, but it would be an exaggeration to say that they had been crushed entirely. Her eyes were definitely still wet and her heart still pained. When he is reunited with her, the weight of her emotions has not left her. It is still laying there inside of her, festering, but trying desperately to grasp at the solace that Ryoma is offering. Perhaps part of the pain comes from being unused to comfort when these sensations arise. 

It hurts that once he finally rejoins Kaede, the first thing she tries to do is flash him a smile. It is by far the weakest from her that he has ever seen, and the fact that she even feels she needs to do this breaks his heart. What has the world done to this poor, kind woman? They have already won their battle against Tsumugi and Team Danganronpa, but a bitter part of him longs to fight them again, if only to take revenge for her. Alas, he cannot. All he can do is take her hand in his own and stroke her thumb with his, prepared to listen.

“I’m sorry for getting upset,” she whimpers, reaching up to swipe at her eyes, “I know it’s not like me to be so…” 

“Don’t apologize.” He cuts in far before he can actually think to do so. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

Kaede says nothing in response, only stares gratefully at him. Why does he get the sense that it was not uncommon, in her other life, to say sorry when she was hurt? Did nobody comfort her? No, no. He shakes the thought from his mind. They must have. Kaede spoke so fondly of her family, in particular her twin sister… This must have come from somewhere else. All he can do is pray that it is not his own failure to support her that has made her feel such things. 

Ryoma draws in a deep breath, trying to refocus. Don’t get away from yourself, this is about her. You say you want to take care of this woman, so put your money where your mouth is.

“I want to know what’s wrong, Kaede. You haven’t been yourself today, and I know you didn’t like those bowls enough to be upset that they’re broken.” 

Kaede chuckles softly. “They were pretty ugly.”

“Like something your grandmother would own.” 

She laughs again, and it’s like music to Ryoma’s ears. Nothing in this moment is perfect, but that little giggle is as close as it’s going to get. He hates that he’ll have to direct her away from this small joy to get back to the source of their problem. It might be that realization that makes him squeeze her hand.

“Now, please tell me what’s going on with you.”

That small smile, the one that felt like such a prize, quickly melts. Her expression is almost pinched, but he can tell it’s not from discontent with him. If she has such little experience expressing her emotions, then this won’t come easy. Learning to be the one person who keeps up a happy face surely took a toll on her, even if she won’t admit it. The heavy sigh expelled from her lungs only serves to confirm his theory. 

“Can I… can I start by asking you something?” 

Ryoma shrugs. “If it’ll help you.”

“Do you ever… do you ever feel like, I don’t know… responsible for some of the stuff that happened? Like when we were in the Killing Game?” Kaede’s eyes dart down to her lap. “I know we’ve always said that it was Tsumugi who did those things, and Team Danganronpa, but… if what they said is true, then we agreed to it, y’know? We agreed to our friends getting hurt.” 

“We didn’t agree to anything,” Ryoma corrects, much more sharply than he intends to, “We didn’t have any control over the agency of the others. We chose for ourselves. We were blinded by that choice, by our passion for something like that. It didn’t seem so wrong then.”

Kaede swallows so thickly in the moment, he almost has to wonder if he’s said exactly the wrong thing. The way her brow quirks doesn’t exactly do his confidence any favours either. Nonetheless, he stills himself. He remembers what this is all for, who this is all for. “You think we didn’t think it was wrong?” 

“If something like that was on television, then it would be pretty normalized. Hell, Tsumugi suggested that the whole damn thing was popular. People might not bat an eye, because the participants consented and knew what they were getting into. Nobody would ever really consider what was going on on the other side. I mean, it’s just like when you used to see the Olympics on TV. Everyone thinks they could do it, but nobody considers what you put yourself through.”

“I… guess…” 

“I know that probably doesn’t settle your worries. And, honestly… I get it. I can say everything I just said, but I get it. Sometimes you just feel so guilty for surviving, and for doing what you did to survive. You wonder why you deserve it over everyone else.”

Kaede nods, teary-eyed. He tries not to pay too much attention to the quivering of her lip and the crinkling of her chin, lest his fussing upset her more. Right now, it seems best to just let her feel as she needs to. Perhaps the best thing he can do for her right now is let her know that her feelings are understood and heard. “Everyone wasn’t perfect, but they were… they were kind at heart, I think. And at the beginning there, I could feel how badly everyone wanted to survive. I could feel…” She sighs, her voice breaking the longer she goes on. “I could feel them. Even when we started losing people, I could still feel them with us. Their spirits never left me. I couldn’t stop thinking about their loved ones… Their families… It didn’t matter if maybe Rantaro didn’t have all those sisters, or if Angie’s island wasn’t really real… There must be people out there who loved them. There always are.”

Ryoma doesn’t answer, just keeps stroking her thumb, knowing that he has her on the right track. He needs to let her speak, to let her share this fear with the world. 

“And sometimes, I just wonder… what did I do to deserve to be here? Do they… do they hate that it was them who died instead of me?”

Her voice lowers to a whisper. 

“Sometimes I do. I don’t feel like I have a right to be here. Not when I could have gotten everyone killed.” 

Ryoma squeezes her hand tightly. “Nobody’s life is more valuable than yours, Kaede. Nobody’s life is more valuable than anybody else’s, you know that. I wasn’t exactly friends with a lot of ‘em, but I know that if they were here, that’s what they would tell you. They know you did the best you could. You never wanted anyone to die.” 

Kaede sniffles. “I just… I wish nobody had to get hurt. I wish they didn’t have to go through it. I wish we’d all been smarter.” 

“We were kids, Kaede. Kids are stupid. Teenagers think they’re invincible until suddenly something happens, and they realize that they’re not. I understand how you feel, I really do, but if there’s one thing you taught me, it’s that we can’t let ourselves be bound to our mistakes forever. If we do something bad, and we lose someone, then we owe it to that person to try and be better in the future. And all I’ve seen you do is try and be better for the people you left behind.”

“I wish I could have saved them,” she sobs, “I wish I could have done things differently.” 

“But you couldn’t.” 

She stares at him wide-eyed, blinking at him in disbelief. 

“I couldn’t either. Neither could Gonta. Even Shuichi, in his last moments when he tried to save us from his… his own mistakes, couldn’t save us completely. He could only save the ones who were left. And I know he would regret that it could only be the three of us, but the fact of the matter is, that was the best he could do. He trusted us to keep doing better on behalf of everyone. If he didn’t, he’d have left us to die.”

There is a pregnant pause that stands between them, but for the first time in this whole conversation, Ryoma doesn’t doubt what he’s saying. All of the heart skips of panic and twistings of his belly have melted away now. All he cares about is making sure she knows. She needs to know that she did all that she could, that she did more than enough. 

“All of their hopes are pinned on us, Kaede. That’s why we survived.”

Kaede doesn’t answer, just turns her head down. For a moment, he thinks he’s got her figured out and maybe she’s soothed, but another hiccup reminds him that it isn’t so. At any moment she could burst from his grasp and run off to her room, determined to never speak to him again. He won’t let that happen. There is still more to say, more to do to soothe her. He has to soothe her.

“How can you… say all this, but say you understand…?” 

“Because I learned from someone that sometimes, even if everything is dark, you need to look for the light. I’ve heard a lot of lies in my life, mostly coming from myself, so I learned to find the truths, even if they’re hard. I can’t let the lies rule over me, and I can’t let those demons win.” 

Ryoma slides his hand along the underside of Kaede’s jaw, turning her face towards him gently. It still breaks his heart to see her beautiful eyes gleaming with such sadness. Any tear that falls now will be wiped away by his thumb on her cheek. 

“You taught me that, Kaede.”

She presses her face further into his hand, holding onto his wrist. It doesn’t seem like she has much more to say, so he just lets her rest her cheek against him, stroking it comfortingly. Before long her eyes flutter closed, and he finds himself sitting in wait, listening to the sound of her shaky breaths. What a perfect creature. In spite of all their circumstances, he is glad that he and Kaede were brought together. He just hopes that with moments like these, he can ensure that it is worth her while as well. 

He's not sure how long they sit there, drinking in the comfort of each other’s presence and the ideologies they share, but the quietude is peaceful. Over time, Kaede’s tears begin to dry and her breaths stabilize. Everything most definitely is not okay now, but it’s better, and Ryoma thinks that it is a victory in and of itself. He knows he could never heal her guilt entirely. The best thing he can do is support her as she fights through it, just as she has done for him. He thought he would never love again after losing Mio, but today has more than proven to him that he would do anything for Kaede. So he’ll embrace this quiet, and let her tell him what she needs. 

In the end, the answer ends up being that she needs a surprise appearance from Gonta. 

The apartment had been so quiet that the moment he swings the door open, the two of them jump a little – which, hilariously, also makes Gonta jump. For a moment a flicker of alarm catches in Gonta’s expression, wondering if he caught them in the midst of an intimate moment he wasn’t supposed to see, but it fades when he realizes that the two are just sitting on the couch.

“Gonta!” Kaede exclaims, pushing a smile. It is not symmetrical or perfect, but it’s stronger than any of the other ones that she’s given Ryoma today. That’s another victory, he thinks to himself. “You’re back early.” 

The bug enthusiast nods carefully, placing his bug catching box down on the counter. Ryoma tries not to cringe – he respects Gonta’s affection, but he really doesn’t want bugs where the food goes. “Gonta is sorry to interrupt; Gonta had good luck today, found dung beetle friend much faster than expected.” 

Ugh. Ryoma tries even harder not to cringe. Not just a bug where the food goes, but a bug fascinated by fecal matter. Blegh. “It’s okay,” Ryoma says, trying not to sound strained so Gonta won’t be hurt by his disgust, “We were just…”

He glances to Kaede. It would be easiest to be honest with Gonta about how she’s feeling, but they are her feelings. It is ultimately her call to make. She can say whatever she wants to say, and he’ll support her. 

“Ryoma was comforting me.” She places a hand on Ryoma’s thigh. “I’ve been having… a hard time.” 

“Something is hurting Kaede?” Gonta asks thoughtfully, his brows furrowing.

She nods gently. “Yes. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my memories. I feel guilty over things that happened, when we were in the Killing School Life… I didn’t know how to talk about it. You and Ryoma have both been so open and honest with me about the way it makes you feel, and I… hadn’t been doing it back, and we realized that that was hurting me.”

“Yes, bottling up hurts Kaede. It hurts Gonta, too. Good that Ryoma and Kaede talked.” He pushes a smile. “Can Gonta help?”

He gestures at his bug cage on the counter. 

“Maybe Kaede like to meet dung beetle, learn few fun facts?” 

With one last exchange of gestures, a smile crosses Kaede’s face as well. Then, they both turn back to Kaede. 

“Sure, bring ‘em on over,” Ryoma sighs, finding it within even himself to put on a grin, “And tell us everything you know about him.”

Leave it to Gonta to make sure things stayed perfectly imperfect. A failed date, a poop-loving bug in their home, and a lot of tears… but progress is progress, and Ryoma cannot be prouder that they were able to make it. As Gonta opens up the cage and starts talking about his dung beetle, gently guiding him around the cage with his finger, Ryoma feels Kaede’s head lean on his own. At any other time, it might not mean much of anything other than a sign of affection, but today… Today he thinks it means that he did good.

[thenewfuture]

Ranking the Mainline DanganRonpa Entries

Hey guys. The mastermind ranking list brought a lot of discussion and attention here, and I had a lot of fun making it. Now it's time to start list that won the second place on the poll; ranking all of the main series entries.

Oh, beloved DanganRonpa. How you started out as a niche spiritual successor to Ace Attorney, to now becoming your own big entity that can rival the best of them. Where have the years gone?

Quick rules to explain the process here:

-Like I said this is only the mainline entries. Fanganronpas like the Another series, Rebirth, Blowback, etc. will not be counted.

-That being said, I will also not be including any side content like Summer Camp S, The Kirigiri, Togami and Ultra Despair Hagakure novels, Killer Killer, IF, and Zero. For one, because a lot of them don't do much to add to DanganRonpa's overarching story. And two, a good half of them I have not seen nor am I interested in doing so because they don't much for the main series anyway. Apologies...

-This list is going to be INCREDIBLY SUBJECTIVE AND OPINIONATED, if you disagree with any of the spots I've put them in; that is completely fine, just don't be a jerk about it.

-And finally, the following will contain massive spoilers for the DanganRonpa series and their respective games and entries. View at your own risk. But considering this is on a story blog that takes place after three of the entries here, maybe you shouldn't be here anyway, but I'm still warning others just to be safe.

#5 DanganRonpa 1: Trigger Happy Havoc

Why is the subtitle for the game way bigger and upfront on the cover while the actual series name is way smaller? I don't get it...

To kick off our ranking list, it's the game that started it all. The very first DanganRonpa game, Trigger Happy Havoc! Now don't get wrong, even though it's this low doesn't make it the "worst", just my personal least favorite out of all of them. I mean I would have had to like the first game to some degree if I stuck with the series this long, right? I think this game has just aged......poorly...

The premise of the game starts out very well, each student is trapped in an enclosed environment and the only form of escape is to kill another classmate. This sort of environment encourages distrust of others so that when it's inevitably time for a murder, not only are you devastated that the character you were growing attached died but also saddened at how another character you liked could do something like that. That's all fine and dandy......here's the problem...

You can't convince me these guys were EVER friends! Not only is the player supposed to get attached to the other characters, the characters themselves have to from lasting trust and bonding experiences so that they too can feel despair. But barring a few good exceptions, it's not really done with anyone else. Let give a few examples:

Could imagine Sakura getting well with Kiyotaka? ......Hard, right?

Could imagine Leon getting along with Touko? ......No, right?

Could imagine Celeste getting along with Aoi? HA! Right?!

And that's not taking into account despair loving diva Junko and her sister Mukuro who would barely have any identity of her own.

Like I said; there are some great relationships here, I am not ignoring that. I was saddened with Kiyotaka having to get separated from Mondo too, and even more saddened when Aoi tried to get everyone killed because she believed the reason for her best friend's suicide was everyone else. But the comradery of the group doesn't work as well as it should or could have been we focus on these smaller groups and leaving behind the characters that exactly fit into a group of there own. Many of the other games fix this by having much more morale boosting events and activities for the rest of the remaining cast, meanwhile I can't exactly say the same here. As an unfortunate downside of this, it makes some of the characters bland and forgettable at best. Cast makes or breaks your visual novel game people, and the cast of THH leaves a lot to be desired.

The pacing's also very slow here. Because Monokuma doesn't outright say that a blackened has to survive and outwit the others in a class trial, the first chapter feels much more sluggish as a result. Future entries would go on to fix that issue by telling them right out the gate. And like I said, because there are hardly any events or anything of note going with the cast at times, most chapters play like: "waking up, meet up with everyone else, talking about what happened, explore new area, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, motive, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, Free Time, Free Time, oh hey someone kicked the bucket"

The slowness also translates to the gameplay as well. Having no breaks means going through 1 to 2 hour trials in one big burst. The joke of "Naegi, telling them" is very much true here and it's normally him, Kyoko and whenever he's not being a dick, Byakuya carrying the trials with everyone else offering their input every once in a while. "Gee, I wonder if we could spice this up by having other characters object to your line of thinking?.......NAH!" The minigames are serviceable as well, I mean Hangman's Gambit was never bit it's fine here, Climatic Return is always awesome, and while MTB is fine I just want to talk to the person that suggessted having this sort of action take place NUMEROUS TIMES in some of the later trials! And I have an unexplained, visceral, HATRED for the RE:Action prompt. Imagine having to watch and read some text explaing important information to just suddenly STOP TO A HAULT and press another button to get more info because your character to ask, "what do you mean?" by himself.

All in all, while Trigger Happy Havoc may not hold up as well as most of its predecessors, and maybe some of my reasons boil down to me spoiling myself on this game but watching a let's play of it and skipping down to see who survived, that doesn't mean there isn't a whole lot good to this game. The characters I do care about are written pretty well, Makoto is a good protagonist for this game and works in a number of ways, the trials are fairly simple to what we get later down the line, and the atmosphere works well for a killing game environment. I just have a few issues with it personally that question if I want to go back to it on numerous occasions. But as I said, if I didn't like the first game somewhat I wouldn't really be here, would I?

Just remember your first shot isn't always going to be your best, and that's okay.

#4 DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony

I consider V3 to be the Fire Emblem Fates of the franchise..............now I know that made sense to a whopping two of you, so let me explain.

Fire Emblem Fates comes off the massive success of its predecessor, Awakening, and fixes a lot of its issues. The gameplay is much more advanced and easy to understand, the music is really good, the environments look amazing, and there is a ton of content for many to enjoy. .......Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!!!!

A great number of characters are incredibly one note, has an insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing and messy, surrounding itself in a mountain of incest!

.........So onto V3...

DanganRonpa V3 comes off the massive success of its predecessors, and fixes a lot of issues. The gameplay and mingames are much more easier to understand and scrum debating is awesome, the music is fantastic, the graphics and environments take use of its new console software, and there is a lot of content to enjoy. .....Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the characters are incredibly one note, has insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing, twisted and messy, surrounding itself in a MOUNTAIN of incest!

..........Ya get it now?

I don't want it to seem like I'm ragging a whole lot on V3, but there are a lot of things that this game does that is straight up bad.

I will be nice and start with the good first however. I really like the cast and their designs, very unique and hard to forget even if I tried. The Ultimate Academy is a pretty cool set-piece for the killing game to take place in; having it be closed off to the world like Hope's Peak Academy but open to see the sky and other areas like Jabberwock Island, a pretty decent blend of the two. The music is a phenomenal treat for the ears, and for the eyes comes amazing sprite work for the new characters as well as Monokuma and great use of angles not before seen in the class trials. The new minigames for this game, Scrum Debate and Mass Panic Debates are also hella fun. And the bonus content is spectacular with Salmon Mode and Ultimate Talent Development Plan treating the fans to some actually GOOD fanservice.

That's about where the compliments end unfortunately. The other minigames aren't that fun to play through, Mind Mine is pointless and I don't enjoy it. V3 is notorious for having the ridiculous and mind stretching logic of all the class trials and that is a fact, Seesaw murders anyone? The back route mechanic sounds good on paper, and I'm not going to pretend that actually having multiple routes in a trial isn't a tremendous amount of work to pull off, but most of the optional ones are just time wasters as we don't learn much and just end up back on the correct path after a few minutes, so one has to wonder the point of all that. While I do like this cast, there are some stinkers that bring it down for me and can't compete with other ones. What the fuck is with all the incest in this writing?! And of course...the big two...

Why did we replace Kaede, a unique talent personality type who had tremendous potential for the first ever girl, main series, DanganRonpa, class trial protagonist.....for Shuichi? A low self-esteem, doesn't feel like he belongs, boy protagonist?

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME WE'VE HAD SOMETHING LIKE THIS!

We were this close to greatness....this close... And I love Shuichi too, but it still hurts everytime I think about it man, come on! Kaede could have done great things for this story or even have the two share the role of dual-swapping protagonists! And oh, that story though...

I get it, the power of fiction is real and it affects reality,and it does work for this game's overall theme of truth and lies, blah blah blah... But with how many times they HAMMER the message of: "Everything's fake! Everything you know and lie isn't real and it didn't happen! Look at you, the fans, you love killing games! You love DanganRonpa! Hahahahaha!" The message work so well it loops back around to feel insulting to not only the "fake" audience of the TV Show series, but also the auidence that's playing the game now. And apparently must have not worked enough because we still have people making videos on what they want in DanganRonpa 4, as well fans like me still being here and creating content discussion for it right now.

And with how ridiculous some of the characters' backstory are, such Gonta living with actual dinosaur people, Kaede preforming for famous kings across the world, Kirumi being the FUCKING PRIME MINISTER, maybe these were the clues all along to help you figure out this place was a fictional world. And I know that this is the series where a high school girl can overthrow the world into chaos, demigods are basically born left and right, and ghosts and aliens directly affect the plot, but I think we should have some sort of groundedness to this world, no?

Bottom line: V3 is a good game but has a mediocre story and because this is the last game in the series(maybe?), it leaves nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. I swear these writers aren't even trying anymore, DanganRonpa 17 was the best.

#3 DanganRonpa 3: The End Of Hope's Peak Academy

*THE BIGGEST AUDIBLE GASP KNOWN TO MANKIND*

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 relegated as one of the worst installments in the franchise by the fans? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't the Final Killing Game a massive jumbled mess of time management, rules, and scope? Yes.

Mod Freeze, didn't DanganRonpa 3 not utilize a whole bunch of its characters as well as the DR2 cast? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 responsible for instilling the idea of the Remnants of Despair simply being brainwashed? Yes.

Mod Freeze, is this straw-man arguments tired out and old? Yes.

Mod Freeze, why is Danganronpa 3 so high? Well my dear reader, that is a long and extravagant answer.....

I like it.

........................

....That's it.

I'm not here to paint you a picture on how DR3 is the greatest piece of media in the history of existence, or even sway your mind from thinking that DR3 is so garbage that it could be mistaken for a Garbodor. I like DanganRonpa 3, for the simple fact that I enjoyed my time with it.

Now I am not blind to the various things DanganRonpa 3 has done wrong. It doesn't utilize most of the branch leaders well or hardly gives you any reason to care about them. A good chunk of the DR2 cast get left behind in the dust, especially those that should garner more attention like those present for the Twilight Syndrome case. And those that took the time to read and explore other lore such as DR0 do not get rewarded. Skips what could be interesting scenarios such as Chisa's time in the reserve course or even a few moments with the THH cast. And that's not even mentioning the Final Killing Game with all its confusing and convoluted bullshit.

But honestly, despite all that, I didn't mind any of that too much. I really liked the idea of a free-for-all killing game that Future Arc tried to implement, and seeing the fun and cute moments of the 77th class was such a delight. Some characters ere unfortunately narratively more built important than others, but some of them stuck out to me for the best of reasons. Chisa's fun mommy-sue nature, Seiko's tragic backstory and relationship with Ruruka, Koichi how he's trying to protect and be there for Kyoko, and a lot of the designs here for these guys kick ass.

Great Gozu is a more well-rounded character than a good chunk of others from THH and V3, and I can and will fight you on that.

Some of the returning cast was done really good here too, a real Chiaki for added wholesomeness, Hajime with his doubts of self-worth due to lack of talent, Imposter shined more than I thought he would, dude would ever imagine Imposter getting some shine in the main series, never me, holy cow. And we explored other characters who we hadn't known more about, like Izuru finally making him his own character, exploring the relationship and natures of Natsumi and Sato, and Mukuro.............y'know let's just not talk about that blunder...

I don't even mind the brainwashing portion either because.......that's what it always was....

And I had a talk with an anon a while back about this topic. I don't mind it too much because, if you're telling me that Junko can just switch your marolaity with a few words from her silver tongue, that makes her look too overpowered and the rest of the DR2 cast indigenous and kind of already shitty people. And I know a few of them can be swayed to despair give the right circumstances(Fuyuhiko, Peko, Mahiru, Mikan, Hiyoko, Akane), but honest to god how can someone like Imposter, Nekomaru, or ray of sunshine fall to despair with her words. I think we're stretching it here...

DanganRonpa 3 may have disappointment me as well as others on a quite few number of fronts, but kept me more invested in its story and mysteries than the past two entries. Again, my personal opinion of course... Without DR3, I wouldn't be making The New Future in the first place so it has to have some merit of enjoyment in here. And I think there could be more stuff to enjoy from this anime as well, squint and tilt it a little bit and you might find a gleam of hope...

But hey, what do I know? I'm the guy that likes DanganRonpa 3 :P

#2 DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Okay how do you say this name?! Ultra Despair Girls: DanganRonpa: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls?! DanganRonpa Ultra Despair Girls: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa 1.5 Final Remix?! THREE FIVE EIGHT OVER TWO DAYS?!-Wait.

These years have shown that not much has changed in the grand scheme of this list, as it's secured second place spot has not been challenged. And that's funny because I'm pretty this game is much more divisive in the fandom as well, and it has the unfortunate perk of being more well known than the anime series. I mean, a game with no class trials, no investigations, no definite mascots, smaller cast than normal, a huge change in gameplay, and Monokuma being demoted to near Goomba status. It may be a spin-off entry, but these are some drastic changes to the formula, almost a whole new game at this point.

However, I think Ultra Despair Girls is a fantastic entry to the series, and you would do yourself a disservice by skipping out on it. Makoto Naegi's little sister, Komaru, fights through the streets of Towa City for survival against the Monokumas and the Warrior of Hope with the help of a returning face, Touko Fukawa.Right off the bat, I have to say this idea for a story is really impressive. Because this takes place after THH but before DR2, we get to see kind of the world is during the Tragedy. Hectic, apocalyptic, barely clinging onto hope.. I may not be a fan of zombie or horrors movies, but the ambience here is top notch and works extremely well.

We have a ton of colorful characters as well, the Warriors of Hope are good antagonists with heartbreaking and understanding backstories, seeing relatives or people close to the first's game cast is an excellent treat as well like Hiroko, Kanon, Yuta and Taichi even if we get a little out of those two...and of course, the main big bad, Monaca. If you read my ranking list of the series' masterminds you know full well why I like her. She is a perfect villain for this sort of story, a twisted and manipulative person with the face of the child but the heart of a demon.

Of course, I can't forget to mention Komaru and Touko. Komaru's development from an average whiny high school girl who can't do anything learns to stand up and fight for herself. And Touko, who has outgrown her shell of being reclusive and venomous to others....while still retaining that somewhat, now has an active roll of helping Komaru get through these tough times. She offers her advice, lessons, support, everything. These two's relationship make this game for me and I'm sure many others would agree with me on that front.

Okay, time to get on to the negatives here, ah......oh boy....

For starters Towa City is huge and many areas here are really cool looking, but the path is quite linear and that can be quite tedious for exploring and hiding collectibles. It's not too hard, but there are a lot of collectibles to nab, and if you miss one you have to start the chapter all over again so be mindful. One of which is the wanted list that the WOH have to hunt down other "demons" aka, THH's families and friends. You give them to Hiroko to hopefully go get them, but do you ever seeeee or meeeeet them in the Resistance base. Nope! That's a missed opportunity if I ever heard of one!

And um.......all the.....uncomfortable....things this game does....hoo boy... From Touko's fantasies, to the scoring screen at the end of chapters, to.....the Motivation machine in Chapter 3, and.....j-just how manipulative and twisted Monaca can be in chapter 4, this game proves it is not for the faint of heart. Probably not even that too, those who aren't faint of heart might reel at some of these questionable decisions here. I'd call it fanservice but because some of these scenes involve, ahem, MINORS; I'd call it fansqueezing with how much it'll squeeze and hurt you with all this psychological trauma. I suppose I've either seen worse over the course of my life to not be affected by this, or I've endured these sorts of things in the game so many times that I have become numb to it. Remember folks, I platinumed this game.

Ultra Despair Girls may make you feel despair at times, but beyond that despair, lies hope. Hope of a game with a great story, great cast of characters, and a great episode for this franchise in general.

Oh, also this...

Another point to V3 being so low. How dare they tease us…

#1....DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair

"Wow, shocking! The guy that's blog is about the DanganRonpa 2 cast ha DanganRonpa 2 as his favorite! I tooootally saw this coming a mile away!" Hey look man, I don't appreciate all that sass. I saw that train coming a mile away too and I didn't say anything. Also on you're right-

*HOOOOOORRRRNNN!* *CRAASSSSH!*

Eugh....oh, oh that looks bad.....A-Anyway....

Yes, if you follow me on my main blog you probably know that I love DanganRonpa 2 a whole effin' lot! I love mah boy Hajime! I love mah girl Chiaki! I love my other boys, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Imposter! I love mah other girls, Sonia, Ibuki and Mikan! I love DanganRonpa 2!

Everything is so right here. The gameplay, the setting, the story, the characters, it's all great!

Mind Dive and Rebuttal Showdown are excellent additions that keep the mystery paces going as well utilizes other characters and their outlooks on certain things. It's almost like it's a real trial here guys. And some would say that an island doesn't really fit for a whole killing game setting, and I agree somewhat, but I love all the places of Jabberwock island and I can argue waking up and finding yourself on a deserted island far, far away from any signs of civilization works just as good too.

And the cast, the cast is perfect! A great combination of personalities coming together to make every moment feel that much more impactful and memorable. And even though I may not like afew of them(Hiyoko, Nagito, Teruteru), they evoke more of a emotional reaction out of me and stick out in my mind far more than other members of the other casts. Not to mention there are plenty of group activities and moments together that serve to boost the character's morale and hope. While again, some of them are locked behind presents, some that aren't work well enough. The party at the old building, a beach party on the second island, Ibuki's concert, there are so many ways for the characters to come together that when some of them do die, it is really sad and heart-wrenching. Like what THH was trying to do, but better!

And the main story is really good as well. Having characters we all know and love turning out to responsible for the Tragedy set up in the first game is a really nice twist, as well as learning that it may be possible to bring them back. Some say it a cheap action that miiiiiight devalue all the tragedy and lose the player and characters have went through, and again, I can see that point being made. I personally believe if you give me the option to have them back I would take it a heartbeat.

If there is one true negative I have for this game, it's that the motives are fundamentally lacking in some regard. The motives for chapters 2 and 3 are very much targeted for specific people, and don't affect the others too much, which made the motives in THH work so well is that anyone could fall into the temptation, everyone was treated equal. And with those two chapters, eehhhhhhh.....not so much....

But even still, I hold DanganRonpa 2 very near and dear to my heart. It was the first game I saw and watched from beginning to end, the first game I played and even why I bought a Vita in the first place. I would come back to this game at a moment's notice, the emotions I felt through every chapter make me want to sit by the beachside and experience it all over again...

DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair is my favorite game in the entire series. I cannot express how much I love it so much...

-Mod

[usagirln12003]

Sasuke Uchiha: Hogwarts AU

Sasuke Uchiha is a Pureblood wizard that was born on the 23rd of July 1979 and started attending Hogwarts on the 1st of September 1990, being sorted into Slytherin house.

He has a Blackthorn wand with a Dragon Heartstring Core.

His Patronus is a Black Mamba.

His favorite subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts and his least favorite is Divination.

Sasuke was a happy child, eager to please and be worthy of his family name. One of Sasuke's most significant bonds is the one he has with his older brother, Itachi, who by merely being mentioned can elicit strong reactions from Sasuke's otherwise calm demeanour. Sasuke adored Itachi when he was a boy, enjoying his company above all others'; as an infant, he would cry whenever he was held by someone besides Itachi and would immediately be happy once held by his big brother again. When Itachi murdered the rest of the Uchiha family, Sasuke was crushed not only by the loss of his family but also by what Itachi told him: that he had never loved Sasuke. Sasuke devotes years of his life to avenging their family by killing Itachi, which Itachi encourages whenever they meet. At the same time however, he became determined to do so through his own means, including rejecting Itachi's instructions of practicing dark magic for power, simply to not give Itachi the satisfaction. With his new outlook, he became cold toward others, unmoved by and uninterested in what they do or think of him, choosing instead to keep to himself. He stopped using honourifics, something considered rude in the Japanese language. His only goal in life became to take revenge for his family's deaths by any means, even if it meant acquiring the Unforgivable Curses.

In his pursuit for the power to take his revenge, whenever he meets new people, he makes an evaluation of their abilities: those he perceives to be weaker than himself he arrogantly disregards, giving them little attention so that they won't hold him back; those he perceives as stronger he fixates over and tries to surpass. During his Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, he is repeatedly exposed to Kakashi Hatake's philosophy that there is strength in teamwork. For a time, Sasuke accepts this, experiencing it first-hand on several of his adventures with his best friends Naruto and Sakura. He even become attached to them and started to forget the vengeance he craved, achieving after so many years a measure of happiness. However, between both the manipulations of Orochimaru and meeting Itachi again in his fourth, where he was and is utterly defeated, Sasuke decides to sever all ties to Hogwarts in a single-minded pursuit of power, leaving the school to focus solely on himself. Kakashi tried to help Sasuke realise the contradiction in his viewpoint: he is driven to gain power because he lost his family, yet sacrifices the family he still has (Naruto and Sakura) in order to gain that power, which did have a profound impact on Sasuke and would have turned him away from the path of darkness had he not been influenced by the Sound Four.

So focused on vengeance, he willingly accepted Orochimaru's offer of power, seeking out the dark wizard to train Sasuke in all he knew, even allowing Orochimaru to experiment on him despite knowing the man was using him for his own gain. Ultimately however, Sasuke decided that letting himself be used by Orochimaru would be a disgrace to his family name, turning on Orochimaru and acquires new team-mates with abilities that could further his goals. Following his training under Orochimaru, Sasuke developed a very composed and detached demeanour, similar to Itachi, never letting himself get worked up during duels. Likewise, Sasuke initially retained his morals by setting a firm no-kill policy for himself and his team against those unrelated to his revenge and openly expressing disgust at Orochimaru for his horrific experiments. In addition, despite becoming cold towards his old team, Sasuke did become attached to his new teammates, still subconsciously holding a notion of teamwork, comparing them to the bond he had with his best friends and pushing himself to extremes to save them.

After Itachi dies in battle with Sasuke and he learned that the hateful older brother that Itachi seemed to be was all an act and that, in truth, Sasuke was the most precious person to Itachi; his murder of the Uchihas was done on the instructions of the Ministry of Magic, in order to protect Sasuke. Sasuke becomes overwhelmed by this discovery and starts conspiring against the Ministry and the wizarding population of Britain for ruining his and Itachi's lives, knowing full well it isn't what Itachi would want him to do. As time passed after this and his hatred increased, Sasuke's fall to darkness steadily eroded much of the goodness he once had: he would without hesitation challenge and even slaughter any and all who stood in his way, left Jūgo and Suigetsu without caring for their fates, essentially sacrificed Karin to strike down Danzō Shimura, and even tried to kill his former best friends when they impede or attempt to dissuade him from his objectives. He also allies with Tobi and Akatsuki when their goals align, but left them without comment when he no longer needs them. His abandonment of all his former loyalties and his criminal acts convince his former classmates that Sasuke is beyond salvation. Tobi determined that Sasuke was carrying the entirety of the Uchiha's hatred on his shoulders, and this caused Sasuke to gain an unwavering and twisted pride of his family, deeming anyone who possessed his family's blood without being one of them or even someone who just isn't an Uchiha as inferior wizard trash and impostors, and became increasingly irate and unstable when witnessing it. Ultimately, Sasuke came to believe that the Ministry's destruction will free the Uchiha from being associated with the rotten wizarding world and the resulting purity will restore the family. He also became very reckless, as he stopped taking care of himself completely, which caused his eyesight to deteriorate drastically within a matter of years.

After his final encounter with Itachi thanks to the Resurrection Stone, between learning of Itachi's struggles in life and knowing that Itachi made the choice willingly to become the villain for the sake of peace, Sasuke is left uncertain about what course to take. From long contemplation, Sasuke came to a warped view of helping the world to ensure no further conflict between them: if a single individual, what Sasuke calls the "True Minister", is solely responsible for making the difficult decisions, killing and the like for the greater good, then everybody will be unified in their hatred of that individual. He volunteers himself for that responsibility and planned to eliminate what few friendships he still has to ensure no turning back. But Naruto, by refusing to give up on saving Sasuke from darkness, demonstrates that their friendship is too fundamental to who Sasuke is and that it cannot nor should not be broken. On coming to terms with this, Sasuke stops fighting the many bonds he's made and chooses to die so the Curse of Hatred would die along with him. However, after further convincing from Naruto, Sasuke chose to live to find redemption instead. Afterwards, Naruto returned Sasuke's first wand, which Sasuke keeps on him during his long travels as a symbol of their friendship. Even though he no longer uses it, he carries it with him regularly, truly valuing it and only letting people he truly trusts hold on to it.

After the Fourth Wizarding War, Sasuke began adopting some of Itachi's views: he decides to fight for Hogwarts' future so that Itachi's actions aren't made meaningless and bases his understanding of the "Minister" around the decisions Itachi made. He also starts poking the foreheads of those dearest to him as a sign of affection, something Itachi used to always do with him. While still not very open with his emotions, Sasuke became more committed to make connections with people. This included his former best friend Sakura Haruno. While originally their relationship was mindless infatuation from Sakura for his good looks and indifference if not blunt irritation from him, over time the two came to better understand one another and true respect was formed between them. Though while he cared for her as a friend, he did not reciprocate her feelings. After he admitted to being defeated by Naruto and let go of his hatred, Sasuke sincerely apologises to Sakura for how much he hurt her - to which, she tearfully forgives him, allowing them to reconcile. They later maintain a long-distance relationship while he pursues a journey of redemption. The two of them later marry and have a daughter, Sarada. While not very affectionate with his family, he is indeed happy about having them and cherishes it, voicing it to others, and feels a strong connection to them when they are apart. Likewise, he enjoys teasing his wife by declining affection, but is strongly against letting other men flirt with her. Sasuke's emotional distance seems to from being so committed to his long-stretching missions. At the same time, he regrets not having been a more attentive man to his family, especially for his daughter, having missed out on much of her childhood and by extension not knowing much about her, showing a noticeably unsure side when trying to be close with Sarada. Still, Sasuke loves his daughter dearly and will go to great lengths to protect Sarada and puts her feelings ahead of his own, as despite having his own memories tampered with without his knowledge, witnessing Sarada summoning her Patronus was enough to make Sasuke change his mind and help Boruto after she pleaded him to despite Boruto being seemingly a dark wizard.

During his time as a wanderer, Sasuke was a recluse, keeping contact with people to an absolute minimum and maintained his strong sense of pride; he is willing to help other witches and wizards if their problems are beyond their expertise but ignores their requests if facing insignificant issues. Stemming from his inspiration of Itachi protecting Hogwarts from the shadows, he also sometimes acts independently on his own and helps the Ministry, but does not even bother to interact with anyone during such instances if not needed. At the same time, he is willing to acknowledging significant events as he sent a note congratulating Naruto for his wedding. Acknowledging his mistakes and once free from hate and vengeance, Sasuke reverts back to the type of person he was prior to the massacre; being kind to others and displaying a sense of humour but maintaining his aloof exterior. Although publicly regarded as a hero for his role in the war, Sasuke feels that his crimes and imperfections outweigh anything heroic he has ever done. Ashamed of his past actions, Sasuke referred to the person he used to be as an entirely different person when he told Boruto about his past actions, albeit without directly telling Boruto he was referring to himself.

As an adult, Sasuke becomes wiser and mature, as well as genuinely warmer and caring, though his tendency to appear deadpan remains. He does retain his habit of insulting others, although it is usually more comical than cold, and mostly aimed towards Naruto. He has also shown a degree of humility, openly admitting to his failings, particularly as a family man. Although he fulfills Itachi's wish for him to protect the wizarding community in Britain, doing this from the shadows and investigating the mysteries of Kaguya leave him unable to spend time with his family, to the point of even failing to recognise his daughter, Sarada. Regardless, he is protective of Sarada and is very supportive of her goal to become Minister one day and not end up like him. Even more, Sasuke loves his family dearly as he tries to spend time with them when he is able to come home, and expresses pride in his daughter's growth and achievements.

As Boruto's godfather, Sasuke is devoted to his godson's well-being and progress. Despite seeing Boruto's usage of a cheating device to pass his finals, Sasuke agreed to take him as a student, as he saw it as similar to his own past of willingness to do anything to attain power. He later reprimanded Boruto for using the device, but still saw his true power and lent him his old wand as a sign of trust and faith. Taking his role as a mentor seriously, Sasuke is willing to let Boruto participate in dangerous duels against the Ōtsutsuki as he saw the boy is living up to his potential that may turn the tide of the fights, even when Naruto decided otherwise. Because of this, Sasuke made it clear he is prepared to kill Boruto should Momoshiki put him under the Imperius Curse, per his duty as Boruto's teacher.

Despite atoning for much of his mistakes, he still feels much guilt for them, openly feeling that for all his fame as a wizard, he is not someone to admire or be emulated. At the same time, Sasuke retains some of the ruthlessness he had during his criminal days; Sasuke was initially hellbent on eliminating the clones of Shin Uchiha despite their visible fear and hesitation towards the end of their duel, and was only convinced of sparing them by Naruto, and when the notorious criminal Shojoji remained arrogant and fearless when interrogated by Sai Yamanaka and Ibiki Morino, Sasuke's sudden arrival and presence were enough to intimidate Shojoji into revealing details about Kara, with Sasuke mentioning that despite changing his ways, he'd still retained his reputation of being unmerciful and brutal towards criminals.

Even so, Sasuke is also very balanced and adaptable. When Sasuke took a mission as a disguised prisoner in order to locate the potion ingredients needed to heal Naruto of his illness that would eventually strip the latter of his ability to use magic, Sasuke kept a low profile by pretending to be weak. He even allowed the abusive prison guards to beat him as his top priority was finding the cure Naruto needed.