#( *danganronpa trial music begins* )

[lumitris]

┊ ┊⋆ ┊ . 𝒥𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈 ◞ 𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖊 .   ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ @constellaris​ ⤸    There's an almost cheeky smile upon the petite dancer's face as she easily twirled her way over to the oh so mysterious man,  the silken shawl once resting around small shoulders being easily thrown around his neck to pull Al-Haitham close,  encouraging him to bend forward and assist in closing distance between them.

" Come ,  won't you share a dance with me ? "  The redhead questioned,  lifting up on her toes to let lips brush against his cheek.  " If you're shy about being watched ,  we could always go somewhere more private ~ "          ᴏᴋᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇʙʟᴏɢ / ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇ .

        Thud Thud. Lips brush against his cheek before he has time to retort, && he’d already initiating a riveting response too ━━━━ one that almost completely died at his lips. To say he hadn’t TENSED at her contact would be a lie; he simply just refused to acknowledge how his body initially responded to her actions.  ❝  No, thanks. I don’t take issue with the art, I merely see no reason to take up the act myself.  ❞  Looks like he was able to respond after all. Even if his speech hadn’t been broken, complete with his usual aloof && pompous demeanour, Alhaitham admitted that ... perhaps, it had taken a moment to process what he was saying. 

                She was INCAPTIVATING with her dance, && she’d certainly caught his interest. But, that could also be because she currently had her shawl around his neck, and was offering a more private location to continue this ... well, whatever this was. 

                               Flirting. Yes, that seemed about right.                                               Was he uninterested? No, definitely not. 

Arms fold despite how at ease he currently felt. Now that he’d gathered his BEARINGS that is. Eyes flicker open, staring down at his curiously ... well, he shouldn’t refuse an offer like that. Besides, he wasn’t doing anything of substance at current. 

            ❝  If we go somewhere more private, maybe you can convince me otherwise. But, it will take a considerable amount of persuading.  ❞  

[angelictearsshapedbytealeaves]

I’ve decided to review the first TGAA case. Because why not. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played as well^^ as a newcomer to the series.

The first case in my opinion is a great tutorial for the game. Albeit with issues. A lot of good but the flaws it has prevent it from being truly great. Let’s begin with positives:

This game looks beautiful, is it a remastered 3DS game? Yes, but that doesn’t take away how stunning it all looks. The character models are well designed and brimming with personality, not only just that but the animations are spectacular. I have played games with a presumably higher budget and none come to how satisfying and smooth the animation is. I love how when Naruhodo slams his hands onto his desk and he for a second glances at them, it gives off a feeling of anxiety and fear so well. Alongside his eyes darting around the courtroom.

The gameplay is actually quite addictive, it’s a more subdued version of Danganronpa’s trials (have not played those but this is from speculation) yet it also feels very intense and gives me a dopamine rush the moment I point out a contradiction correctly. I even adore the fact you can investigate evidence further and it adds to the experience significantly.

The dialogue in this game is shockingly well translated and is full of charm and wit, Naruhodo, Kazuma, Jezaille and even the witnesses are plenty likable. I especially adore them all as characters and seeing Naruhodo grow more and more confident throughout the trial was so satisfying to see. Even if a dumb moment or two was here, overall it’s still very good quality. I also adore the little callback to Sherlock Holmes lore with Jezaille Brett’s name being a callback to the weapon that injured Dr. Watson in the Anglo-Afghan War (The Jezail) seeing as she killed him in this case. It’s a lovely reference honestly.

The music to this game is second to none, asides the Pursuit theme, my favorite track in this game is “Trial In Disorder”. The string section swelling up and it makes the atmosphere so much more oppressive in the courtroom. Especially as events transpires. This games music should not be at the high level of quality it actually is because the music in this game beats out a lot of soundtracks in games and its for a lawyer visual novel. (Track mentioned appears at end of post.)

Here are my negatives however:

The pacing in this case was so unbelievably slow, I don’t even think it was this long of a case but it felt like I was stuck playing it for two whole days, the amount of blatant in-court BS that happened to make this case go on longer (I get why it happened though, to show off how untouchable she seemingly was.) made it feel so much worse to go through.

Alongside the slow pacing I feel like a lot of the animations made it feel so slow, they’re all very well done and smooth but they also feel too drawn out at times and like the game was spending more time showing off the animations rather than allowing the case to flow by at a marginally better pace.

The entire steak segment and some of the testimonies should have been cut. A bunch of it really was pointless meandering.

Honestly not a bad tutorial. A 7.5/10. The very slow pacing and how stupid certain things were drag it down.

[another-danganronpa-fan]

What if the Ride the Cyclone choir was in a Danganronpa killing game?

This is my guess on what they'd be like, their talent, their deaths or if they survive, etc. Name: Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg

Ultimate: Senator

What they would do: Ocean would definitely be the one to take charge, like the Ishimaru of the game, but her speeches would be similar to the ones she had in the play.

If she were to be a victim, she'd probably be a victim to someone who's tired of her self-centred views. Or Noel.

If she were to kill someone, the motive would have to be really tempting. Or she might crack under the pressure of the killing game.

If she were to be a traitor or a MM, it would probably be because she wanted to use a twisted way to prove that what the world needs is people like her, and only people who work hard and are ambitious should be able to live.

If she were to be a survivor, she'd definitely see how her worldview was wrong in the end, and get the development she got in the play.

Misc. Things:

I see her participating a lot in the trials.

I can't really imagine her dying early...

Name: Constance Blackwood

Ultimate: Baker

What they would do: Constance would cheer everyone up with treats while Ocean does her speeches. She'd try and get along with everyone. She definitely wouldn't want any deaths.

If she were to be killed, I think someone would've taken advantage of her kindness...

If she were to be a killer, she'd be fed up with everyone acting as if being nice was all that there was to her. She'd snap just like she did in the musical. Or it might've been a motive that put her loved ones in danger.

If she were to be a traitor or a MM, it'd kinda be like Sakura, where she was practically manipulated into working for the MM or running the killing game. That, or she wants to prove through the killing game that she's more than just the "Nicest girl in town".

If she were to live, I think she'd have gotten through with her positivity and acceptance of being a nice girl, while proving to her peers that she's more than her title.

Misc. Things:

She gives me survivor vibes, but no one can say for sure.

She'll probably let her hair down in the end just like in the musical.

Name: Noel Gruber

Ultimate: Poet

What they would do: Definitely faints dramatically whenever someone dies. He might try and sacrifice himself for his friends. Passes out at the first execution.

If he were to be a victim, he'd probably have set up a death for himself. Either like a Nagito-style case or he worked with his killer so he could die in a tragic way instead of just getting a knife to the gut.

If he were to kill, I think he'd probably have tried to set up a heartbreaking murder. He would want his case to be like one of those tragedies he loves so much.

Or, the motive could've been tempting. I'm not sure what motive would tempt Noel, though. Maybe one that puts his loved ones in danger? He might also be channeling his inner Monique, and stab someone 10 times in the back.

If he were to be a traitor or a MM, he'd want this to be like a story. Like a French New Wave cinema-style story. People sobbing as their loved ones bleed out. Noel himself getting killed or being driven to kill, or seeing his loved ones die, it would be exhilarating for traitor/MM Noel. Or his loved ones are in danger, so he gets roped into the killing game. I don't think Noel would actually have the heart to do this for his own twisted enjoyment, but he might...

If he were to survive the killing game, he might write poems to honour the dead students. He might also realize maybe a tragedy wasn't what he wanted, after all.

Misc. Things:

Either he or Constance would slap Ocean over one of her rants.

Name: Mischa Bachinski

Ultimate: Rapper

What they would do: He'd also cry at the dead bodies, especially if his friends were to die. He'd try and kill the host of the killing game at the beginning. He'd be trying to text Talia through his MonoPad.

If he were to be a victim, he'd get killed from being reckless. Either provoking someone to the point of them snapping, or getting killed in self defence. Another possibility is him choosing to sacrifice himself. If he were to kill, the motive would have to endanger his loved ones, or have something to do with Talia. Maybe the motive shows that Talia was hurt, or in danger. Maybe his friends in the killing game would get hurt. Or his mom back in Ukraine would only be saved if he chose to kill, the list goes on...

If he were to be a traitor/MM, he'd more likely to be have been coerced into it. He might be trying to save his mom, who he can't physically be with. He might be trying to protect his friends from worse things. Talia might be in danger. Or he might want to get revenge on the world. He's tired of constantly getting isolated. He's tired of his adoptive parents keeping him in the basement and showing him no love.

If he were to be a survivor, he'd dedicate his raps to his dead classmates. He'd mourn every single one of them, and at the end, he's especially respectful to them.

Misc. Things:

He might try and stop an execution like Fuyuhiko.

Definitely breaks down at least once.

Name: Richard "Ricky" Potts

Ultimate: Writer

What they would do: He'd be using an AAC device to talk, or using sign for the people that know it. He's good at comforting people. He tries to participate as much as he can in the trials. Since he can't walk, people tend to think of him as an easy target. But he might have people with him at all times, and Ricky is canonly wise. Since he can't talk without his device or signing, he would pay more attention to things like if there's something off about a body, or a case, or something.

If he were to be killed, it'd be someone taking advantage of him, and outsmarting him. It's also possible that he would sacrifice himself for the group. He concedes in the musical and he says he knew he didn't belong in this world. He probably wouldn't try and defend himself if someone were to attempt to take his life unless there was something important he needed to do.

If he were to kill someone, he'd need an accomplice if the death is gonna be from external injuries. Or he would poison someone, or set up a trap. His motive would be protecting loved ones.

If he were to be the traitor/MM, he'd be tired of people constantly speaking over him and him getting ignored all the time. He'd want people to see him as more than just the "disabled kid". More than just the kid who can't talk nor walk. He'd see them all as the "Count Dogulus" in the story. It would probably be because he wants to finally be treated normally, and in a killing game where everyone is helpless from the outside world at first, he'd be taken seriously.

If he were to live, he'd add his friends to his Zolar universe. He'd be surprised he made it out in the first place, and decide to live the rest of his life to the fullest.

Misc. Things:

Good at calming others down after a death.

Might not even bother locking his door, but who knows...

Name: Jane Doe (Penny Lamb at the end)

Ultimate: ??? (Penny Lamb as the Ultimate Drug Trafficker)

What they would do: As like in the musical, Jane would start out as a complete mystery, having no idea who she is and not being able to remember her talent. This time, the students all just assume it's because she got knocked out a little too hard at the entrance, and names her Jane Doe for the time being. She won't have a doll for a head, but she'll still have the appearance of when she did in the musical. Probably at the end, either the host, the mastermind, or the traitor would reveal that she is Penny Lamb. They'd show some pictures of her, but everyone would be confused on why they look so different. Maybe some Hajime-type stuff happened where they got brain surgery to fuse their personalities together, or maybe they'll get the surgery after either surviving the game or dying in the game. Whether Jane was Penny to begin with, or if she became her after, is up for debate, just like the musical. If she were to be a victim, she might have her head cut off...but in all seriousness, someone might find her suspicious and assume she's the one behind the game. They might trick her, as they believe she's gullible due to the memory loss.

If she were to be a blackened, it might be out of desperation for an identity, or out of despair over her amnesia. She's unlikely to kill, but if she does, she goes all out.

If she were to be a traitor or MM, it would probably be that for some reason, her identity got fused with Penny's, or she became Penny. Maybe she lost her memories long before the killing game, maybe she got into a roller coaster accident, like in the musical, survived, but got amnesia. She only survived because she was fused with Penny, and in order to regain the memories of her, and not just Penny, she maybe...puts herself and some classmates in a life-or-death situation to see if she can trigger the memories?

If she were to survive, she'd accept her identity she had all along or her new identity as Penny Lamb. Or she might finally get some answers.

Misc. Things:

She doesn't show a lot of emotion, even through deaths. She's a lot like her canon self here.

[orecana]

Danganronpa fruitless survival

Chapter 1: No friendship last forever

Trigger warnings

Character death

implied oral

Blood

Park sunghoon x male reader

Hello everyone! this is Orecana with chapter 1 for you guys. The trial itself is inspired by a lot of danganronpa fanfics that i read so i really hope you enjoy it. (don't ask why there is no fte. i feel like making someone die early to emphasize the fact that someone really wanted to get out of there). Thank you to everyone who like and read my fic.

Orecana: attention! it is now 7a.m it's time to wake up and enjoy your life while you can.

Sunghoon groans and opens his eyes. Sunghoon is not really a morning person but because of the rules, he will have to obey the inhuman person called orecana.

He gets up from his bed to go take a shower. after he was done, he opens his wardrobe to several copies of his outfit that he will wear from today onwards minus his pajamas.

he looks at it in slight confusion at how do these end up in his room but Orecana probably snuck them in while he was asleep.

He takes the outfit and puts it on. he was very surprised it fit him perfectly but then Orecana probably know everything about everyone.

He Takes his monopad before going out of his room. he goes to the cafeteria to get something to eat but he bumps into Scott on the way. He wanted to say hello but the look on scott's face was filled with terror.

Sunghoon: scott are you okay?

scott looks at sunghoon still having that face of terror, without replying he runs off into the dorms. Sunghoon felt concerned for him considering he was one of the lively ones.

He opens the door to the cafeteria to find y/n sitting there with a glum look on his face. sunghoon orders his food and sit down near y/n who woke up from whatever he was thinking about.

Sunghoon's POV

Sunghoon: do you know what happened to scott?

Y/n: ..... He....

Sunghoon: he what?

Y/n: he told me that someone is planning a murder....

My blood runs cold as a chill went down my spine. someone is planning to commit murder?

Y/n: scott told me he heard someone talking about their plans for a murder but then he look at his phone. he looked so scared that he told me to forget everything he said and ran off.

I felt like i couldn't breathe anymore after what i heard. the food i got in front of me doesn't even look appetizing anymore.

*crash*

me and y/n stood up from our seats when we heard the crash.

Y/n: what was that?

Sunghoon: i think It came from upstairs. let's go!

We both ran up the stairs and look around. We see yukari on our left face frozen with fear as she look at the music room. We rush towards her.

Y/n: Yukari-san what's..... (look in front of him) wrong? (low/scared)

i follow their gaze into the music room and what i saw will probably scar me for life.

There was a mess in the music room. everything was thrashed but that didn't stop us from witnessing the gruesome sight of the body of scott, the ultimate painter crushed beneath the piano. then a piece of debris falls off cutting scott head which then rolls towards us showing his look of pure horror with wide eyes and an opened mouth.

*announcement*

Orecana: a body has been discovered. please make your way into the music room and collect evidence for the class trial that's about to begin.

no matter how many times i blink, praying that this is all just a bad dream. but reality starts to settle in, scott was really dead seconds from after me and y/n had just met him.

we hear footsteps rushing towards the room, it's probably the others. i can feel their presence behind me. most of them look in disbelief that someone here actually killed.

y/n takes a very deep breath and looks at everyone.

Y/n: i know that everyone here probably thinks of this as a big joke that scott can't be dead..., but this is reality he really is dead and we must work together to bring his culprit to justice. you all heard the robot we need to collect evidence for the class trial.

Jackson: and how do i know that one of you is not planning to get us all killed? i read the rules last night, if we fail to pinpoint the culprit, we die.

Reina: that just make the fact that we have to investigate much more important. through the evidences we collected we will know who among us planned to kill scott.

Jackson was still looking at us with an angry look but he reluctantly stops and goes outside, probably to cool his head.

y/n: i know scott was close to you guys especially to jackson but we need to investigate now or else we might not have anymore evidence.

everyone seems unwilling for a bit but eventually we all get together and step into the crime scene in order to find out who is responsible for one of our friend's death.

*investigation start!*

Orecana pops up out of nowhere from the hallway just to tell us about the monofiles that he had installed into the monopads.

Mono files

Victim: Scott

Time of death: 7:20 A.M

Cause of death: crushed by the piano

The victim has no other bruises or injuries on his body except the the back which is from the impact of the fall and a missing head which is caused from the debris.

'it seems that scott doesn't really have any other wounds. his death is caused by the piano.'

Mono files added to truth bullets

'Let's look around the room'

Amiya goes up to scott's headless corpse and inspects it a little.

Sunghoon: what's wrong amiya?

Amiya: it's the position of his body. it looks like he tripped on something.

I looked at his body again. his hands were wide open in front of him and his head was face down before it was cut.

Sunghoon: you do have a point amiya, it could be useful later.

Body position added to truth bullets

'wait.... under the body'

Sunghoon: amiya, do you see something under the body?

amiya takes a closer look at the body and widens her eyes at something.

Amiya: there's a piece of torn rope under the body! It must have something to do with the murder.

Sunghoon: let's document this for the trial.

Torn rope under the body added to truth bullets

I continue looking around when he felt a tap on his shoulder. I look behind me to see y/n frowning.

Sunghoon: y/n what's wrong?

Y/n only points up at the ceiling and I follow. there was an array of mechanical equipment. I was confused at first but eventually understands. there was also scratches above the piano what's up with that.

scratches above piano added to truth bullets

'this is probably what the culprit used to lift the piano up, now if i can follow it to the end.'

I try to follow the mechanical equipment and found where it ended near the door of the music room but it was hidden behind a bunch of old drums.

'found it! looks like a part of the torn rope is here as well'

Torn rope on mechanism added to truth bullets

But this enough won't pinpoint the culprit though, i think we found just about everything in this room.

'this is seriously stressing me out, and it's only been the first day!'

"Sunghoon!"

i look behind me to see y/n holding my arm, he looks quite desperate.

y/n: the class trial is about to start but we don't have any evidence to know who the culprit was!

Sunghoon: we'll have to rely on the others to help us with their own individual investigations. i just hope yukari-san and the others found anything in scott's room.

we began walking to the elevator as we discuss our investigation.

Y/n: oh! by the way hyung, we should keep our discussion with scott a secret until necessary in the trial.

y/n does make sense. if we tell the others that we were the ones that saw scott last, they would be very suspicious of us. But-

Sunghoon: if it is relevant to any evidence that the others presented, we will reveal our chat with him and his.... outburst.

Last moments with scott added to secret truth bullets

Y/n keeps quiet but he had a gloomy look on his face.

Sunghoon: y/n, if anything is bothering you. please tell me.

Y/n: i know who murdered scott because he told me before he got crushed.

I stop in place as y/n looks directly at me from my right. did i heard that right? scott knows who murdered him!

Y/n: that's what he told me in the cafeteria today. but i won't tell you who did it. i want you to come to the conclusion yourself, that way you will be convinced on who the murderer is.

Scott's confession added to secret truth bullets

I only look back at y/n before smiling and ruffling his hair which earns a growl and a glare from the shorter male.

we were finally in front of the elevator with the others, waiting for it to arrive.

Reina: did everyone finish their investigation?

everyone nodded their heads as the sound of the elevator opens. they all step inside as it closes and goes further down to the trial room.

i look to my left to see yukari-san in a very gloomy mood. she was such a bright girl yesterday. scott's death must be very painful to the group.

i pull out my monopad and sneak a text to yukari.

sunghoon: 'don't worry, we'll find out who killed him together.'

yukari pulls out hers to read my message. it's hard to see it but she had a slight smile on her face.

yukari: 'i want to tell you something.'

I wonder 'what does she want to tell'

yukari: 'i thought it was imagination last night but i heard a very loud *thud* when i went to the cafeteria for water. maybe it had something to do with the crime?'

'It would definitely be useful for later, thanks for sharing it with me.'

Yukari's account added to truth bullets

i heard a ping from my monopad so i decided to check it and i saw a message from reina.

Reina: there was a paper on the ground that says the following

"scott, can we meet at the cafeteria at 12 p.m.

<jackson>"

Invitation letter added to truth bullets

Reina: there was also a broken voice recorder on the table. unless someone can fix it i doubt it'll be useful.

Broken voice recorder added to truth bullets

Reina: i also found something disturbing on scott's head. there was some kind of liquid that was in his mouth and it was not saliva.

Substance in scott's mouth added to truth bullets

Reina: that's all i could find with the others.

Sunghoon: thanks for sharing this with me reina.

the elevator comes to a halt as the door opens, revealing a grand room and several podiums in the middle surrounding each other.

There in all of its glory was orecana. they were wearing a blue sweater with gray shorts. they were sitting on a throne with its sickening smile while looking at us.

Orecana: come stand at your respective podiums everyone.

Everyone reluctantly go on to their podium and stands there. the mood is very gloomy as everyone look at each other, some with hatred, some with fear.

Orecana: i'll go over the rules once again just so everyone is clear. Everyone here must work together to uncover the culprit behind the case. if you find the culprit, they will be punished. however, if you don't. then everyone but the culprit will be punished and they'll be able to leave this academy "scott-free"! get it? (i feel so ashamed)

Nobody laughed yet nobody dared to utter a word. A cough echoed through out the room.

Reina: staying quiet won't do us any good. we need to solve who killed scott.

Yukari: you're right. even if you all don't care for scott, i assume you would at least do it for your life.

Keitaro: what should we start with though?

that's a good question, where do we start?

Dahyun: how about where everyone was?

Jackson: i doubt it will be any use to the murder, he was killed in the early morning which it's a time when everyone is just waking up.

Hiro: Some people could wake up early to prepare the murder though right? i mean i always go to the gym at 6.

Sayuri: i also wake up early to prepare food for everyone today. i know it sounds weird but the food in the cafeteria has no staff to handle them now.

Y/n: since there are actually people who wake up early, can anyone here who woke up before 7 raise their hands?

Alice, keita, yukari, Hiro, sayuri raise their hands.

Yuria: i understand keita and yukari because they're early birds but what about you alice?

Alice: a girl have to be pretty at all times you know~. i have to wake up early to get ready.

Rose: ok so it is possible that someone can wake up early to prepare for the murder.

Amiya: no... let's not make assumption, let's discuss the crime itself, trying to pin the culprit right now will only make us run in circles.

We're finally working with each other. let's listen to everyone share their views.

NONSTOP DEBATE

(italic words are consent words while Bold words are weak points)

Truth bullets : Monofiles, Body position

Takashi: i believe mostly everyone in this room was still asleep until we hear the loud Crash this morning.

Y/n: i was running up the stairs with sunghoon to follow the sound to find yukari stunned in front of the music room.

Yukari: I was in the archery room near it, practicing when i heard it. It still sends a chill down my spine.

Yuria: then everyone rush along when we heard the body announcement.

Alice: we saw scott's body under the piano then the debris fell on his head, finishing him off.

Monofile>Finishing him off

"No that's wrong!"

*break*

Sunghoon: that's wrong alice. the monofiles says that scott dies from the impact from the piano.

Alice: oh! i hadn't realized. well not that it mattered. scott died anyways.

Most of scott's friends side eyed alice because of that comment, especially jackson.

Jackson: something had to be used to lift that piano up right? i mean i'm probably the strongest person here but even i don't think i could lift that thing.

'He's right, there was something that was used to lift it.'

Select evidence

Torn rope under the body

"That's it!"

Sunghoon: there's torn rope under the body and there was also some kind of mechanism above us as well.

Dahyun: oh yeah!, you could use that to move things around in there. i guess it was used for murder instead tho.

Keita: but how would you operate it though? i don't remember finding a remote or some kind anywhere.

Yuria: wait you said that there's no remote? that's strange i swear there was a remote last night.

Hiro: so that means the killer must have took it with them.

Reina: it must still be on them, i have already searched everyone's room.

Takashi: how are you able to search everyone's room exactly?

Reina: Orecana unlocks everyone's room after a body is discovered, pretty useful if you ask me.

Sayuri: wait yukari said that she was near the room right? then that means she did it!

Yukari: wha-? what did i do?

Sayuri: you were the only one near the scene of the crime, you could have used the remote to lift the piano up and kill him right there.

Body position >and kill him right there

Sunghoon: sorry sayuri but yukari couldn't have done that.

Sayuri: and why is that?

Amiya: you're talking about the body position aren't you?

Rose: what position?

Amiya: His body was position in a way that look like he tripped on something.

Sayuri: so you guys think he tripped on the rope?

Sunghoon: yeah it looks like that's what happened-.

*i will not accept that!"

Sayuri: I'm sorry but there's no way yukari did not do it. she's the only one who could have and i'm gonna prove it!

Rebuttal showdown (slice your opponent's word and convince them!)

Basically scott was killed in the second floor right?

and yukari was the only one there!

Only yukari can kill him!

she could just set up everything that morning and kill him.

Yukari's account and scratches above piano>That morning and kill him.

"I'll cut through your words!"

Sunghoon: it cannot be yukari because the it was set up around nighttime. yukari told me she heard a loud thud when she went to the cafeteria. this is confirmed because there were scratch marks above the piano.

Sayuri: i suppose i cannot counter that.

Keitaro: But you said that it was set up during nighttime right? then wouldn't that mean nobody here is safe?

'yes and there's one person i want to question'

Sunghoon: Jackson, what did you and scott do last night?

Jackson:....

Jackson remains silent, not uttering a word. however it seems that y/n caught up to something.

Y/n: hmmm, a bit of embarrassment alongside a hint of lust. let me guess did you two got freaky last night?

everyone look shocked at jackson as the boy in question blushed so much.

Me and reina look at each other. though we didn't say anything we knew what the other thought.

"so that substance is....."

'wait!'

Sunghoon: did scott spend the night with you?

Jackson: yeah he did and he said something to me that i don't understand though.

'what did he say?'

Jackson: scott has some kind of future telling feeling. that's why he's the ultimate painter to begin with, but he told me that 'the person who i meet last will know my killer.'

i look at y/n who had a shocked face. i gently pat his head since he was near me and i can feel him relaxing a bit.

Yuria: is this really all the evidence we have?

Sunghoon: no there's still one more but it's useless unless Orecana fixes it.

Orecana: you want me to fix something? well just hand it over.

I hand over the voice recorder to Orecana who immediately brought tools to fix it.

Orecana: here! all done.

I bowed in respect out of habit and pressed play on the recorder.

"hey, it's scott. i'll keep it short since time is running out for me. i'm gonna die tomorrow. i really hope you guys don't get sad because of my decision because even if i don't die tomorrow. i will die later anyways. I'm really glad to have all those memories from yesterday. I love you guys and you too Jackson. thanks for being the best bf."

Everyone stand stills in the room, most of them let out quiet sobs while reina and jackson tries to look tough but y/n and i see through them. their pain is evident in their eyes.

Y/n: that isn't the only evidence we have left. i don't want to hide it anymore.

Secret truth bullets selected

Y/n: Me and sunghoon both met with scott last before his impending doom. sunghoon was probably not the person he thought he would meet last but he shared all info with me. This trap was set up by him. Why? so no one else would die except him. it was a sacrifice.

No one in the room objects to what y/n says because deep down they knew it was true.

Amiya: but why was the body like that?

'i think i know why....'

Sunghoon: Yukari, you know something don't you?

Yukari: hmph. i thought i wouldn't get caught but nothing escapes you huh?

Yukari keeps fiddling with her fingers as she take deep breaths.

Yukari: after i heard scott and jackson go into jackson's room, i went to the music room to check what's going on. to my horror i found out that one of my friends was trying to kill himself. i tried to find a way to stop it from happening but nothing works. so i decided to tie a rope under the piano so that i will alerted of his attempted suicide. but it seems he still died anyway.

Everyone was frozen at yukari's confession.

so scott really did killed himself.

Orecana: it seems everyone has come to an agreement! please vote for the culprit right now through a screen i will summon now on your podiums.

Suddenly a screen pops up on my podium and it shows all of us in it. it was sickening. still my finger pressed on scott's icon and press vote.

Orecana: Now! let's see if you're all correct!

A wheel appeared behind Orecana as it twirls back and forth between all our avatars. It stops on Scott's before a shining Correct appears on it.

Orecana: you all guess it correctly! Scott has commited suicide!

None of us says a word. the feel of dread was too much.

Orecana: i already call the elevator back down, you can all rest in your rooms now!

We slowly walk into the elevator and go into it. it starts moving as all of us just stand still. One of our friends just commited suicide to save us all. this feeling of survivor's guilt is looming over everyone right now.

The elevator door opens as we all head into our rooms, appetite lost.

i sink into my bed thinking about today's events.

'one of us is already dead and it's only the first day.'

Not wanting to think about it, i just grab my towel and take a shower. Once i was done, i change into my pajamas before sinking into my bed once more.

'i wish none of us will kill again'

those were my last thoughts before i drifted to sleep.

[dangan-kagura]

Why I Don't Like Ibuki Mioda

Let me just point out that this isn’t a rant, this is just my opinion, so you can read it if you’re up for it. I know I’ve probably shared stuff like this in the past, but now I’m trying to share every bit of detail I can think of so that it could make things clearer, and I took the liberty of including images and links as sources (it was hard to find good quality images, so some of these are video links, not to mention I could only use 30 images, and I do hope that certain images came out okay, if not, please say so). But if you like Ibuki, go right ahead, you don’t have to agree with me. Also, I should point out that there might be spoilers.

To Begin With

When I first met Ibuki, my first thoughts were, “She looks like a scene girl.” I didn’t seem that interested in her because, even though she's called the Ultimate Musician/Ultimate Light Music Club Member, somehow I had a different idea as to what kind of music Ibuki was into and the purpose behind her character just from looking at her fashion sense. When I found out that Ibuki wants to be a death metal musician, not only did I try to deny it, but I knew immediately that I wouldn’t like this character. But it wasn’t her concert that led me to realize this, I was suspicious about her taste in music ever since I met her.

In the first class trial, Ibuki said “*Splat shank stab*” and I knew from her tone of voice that it sounded like a screaming vocal. That led me to think that Ibuki also probably plays metalcore/screamo, and boy was I disgusted with that thought, the title for Ultimate Musician going to someone who plays extremely aggressive metal subgenres was not cool and not funny. I knew then that Ibuki would automatically be my least favorite character in the series if she’s into that kind of music. When I tried to listen to what her music sounds like, not only was I feeling anxious and uncomfortable, but my blood was boiling. During my first playthrough of SDR2, when I got to the part where she performs her concert, I skipped it obviously because I knew I wouldn't like it and just had to put the game down for a few days until I got over it. At the time, I wanted to believe that Ibuki Mioda sucks and is the worst Danganronpa character.

Why Does This Bother Me?

For over a decade, I’ve been disgusted from having to see how popular metalcore/screamo (call it whatever you want) have become, to the point where not only are mainstream rock stations now playing this kind of music, but popular culture is making references to their subculture. An example is the fictional "Horns on a Rabbit" band from the Nickelodeon series, The Loud House, which is a kids cartoon by the way. Let me just say that I enjoy listening to rock, punk, metal, and alternative, but I have my limits and particular tastes. I don’t listen to metal songs involving death growls and screaming vocals because I believe that music like that is mediocre and talentless. But what really upsets me is seeing how popular this kind of music became during the 2010s, and for every modern rock music playlist I’ve seen, literally the top songs are metalcore/screamo songs. It was so ridiculous, it was enough to make me argue, “Why would you put that band as track #1!?”

Here’s an example of a playlist. In 2015, there was a special rock music edition to the NOW That’s What I Call Music series. It consisted of some of the top rock songs of the mid 2010s, and would you know it, track #1 on the album was “Throne” by Bring Me the Horizon. Why on Earth would a band like that be number 1 on the album!? In fact, in comparison, this album also included “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon, but that song was listed in the last quarter of the album. You’d think that a song like that would be a better choice for track #1 due to how popular it was back in 2015, so there is no way in Hell you can convince me that a band like Bring Me the Horizon would outsell Walk the Moon. But Walk the Moon is just one example of a band that could’ve been track #1. The album also included “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons, and again, you’d think that a song like that would’ve been a good choice for track #1, but apparently not.

Feeling provoked about this, I wanted to see if any metalcore/screamo songs were included as being labeled as the worst kind of music. But unfortunately, for every “worst songs ever” lists I’ve read online, none of the songs included are songs of those genres, instead they consisted of top-charting pop and other rock songs. These articles are just some examples.

Wikipedia article for list of music considered the worst

Rolling Stone’s 10 Worst Songs of the 1980s

Rolling Stone’s Worst Songs of the Nineties

NME’s 32 of the Very Worst UK Number One Songs of All Time

Metacritic's Top 50 Worst Reviewed Artists

Buzzfeed’s These Are 30 of the Worst Songs Ever Written

Out of the songs from the last article, I found it upsetting that The Offspring and Fun were among the list all because this critic hated their genres and trends without giving it much detail. In case you didn't clink on the link, these images were taken from the article (they aren't links to Youtube).

What gives this person the right to say that hipster indie bands like Fun and 90s punk bands like The Offspring sound like crap but screamo bands like Bring Me the Horizon don’t!? That makes no fucking sense at all!

Not only that, but I found it hard to believe that there was nothing highly controversial surrouding the genre's popularity. I think at one point, I tried to compare screamo's popularity to the controversy about Marilyn Manson's music inspiring the Columbine massacre. Let me just say that those were false accusations and I'm on the side saying that Manson had nothing to do with Columbine, but I'll get to the point. When I thought about it, for all the mass shootings and school shootings that happened in the 2010s, not once did anyone point fingers at any screamo band for inspiring them. Of course, such a controversy would only be my excuse to flame these bands, because like I mentioned, they would just be false accusations to criticize the genre. And just to be clear, I would actually prefer Mairlyn Manson's music over screamo any day.

Getting Back to Ibuki

The fact that I hate metal songs involving death growls and screaming vocals is preventing me from liking Ibuki and that’s unfortunate, because not only is she a fan favorite, the fandom calls her a cinnamon roll, but I think otherwise. You know how Miu and Teruteru make sexiest remarks? I assumed Ibuki was doing something similar, in which every sentence she says has some sort of death metal reference. An example are times where she would bite Hajime and say something like, "I'mma take a bite outta you!"

Artwork found on Danbooru, artist is renshu usadayo.

I assumed Ibuki was referencing human cannibalism which is a topic used in death metal lyrics. That gave me the impression that Ibuki’s comic relief was more like dark humor and the purpose behind her character was to make the player uncomfortable. Another example: “I’ve thought up a new song! The title is “I’m Gonna Dismember You for Doubting Me!”

Dismemberment is another topic in death metal lyrics. Another example: "We could totally dress this place up with some splattered organs."

Doesn't that sound bloody or gory to anyone? Can you still call Ibuki a cinnamon roll? Did what Ibuki just say make anyone uncomfortable? Don't you think it's similar to the gory stuff Genocide Jack said?

Dissection is another topic in death metal lyrics. Last example (V3 spoilers): "Do you got the guts to make such a heartless choice?" When Ibuki used the word "guts" don't you think it sounded like a reference to something gory? And yes, I know that it was just Tsumugi cosplaying as her, but it still bothers me. How would Ibuki's quotes be any different from Miu’s aggressive fanservice quotes like, “If you’re gonna fuck me in front of everyone, at least buy me dinner first!”

I’m aware that Ibuki didn’t like Miu in UTDP or even Teruteru, but this is what I thought at the time, and I’m aware that Kodaka wrote Miu to be hated even though the fandom loves her.

I Wanted Her to Die Before Chapter 3

Even though Hajime said all his pain melted away when he was with Ibuki (see here) I never felt that way about her and I felt nothing but relief for her death. Ibuki’s behavior was just really annoying, like how she invaded Hajime’s cottage to wake him up, and certain sprites made me feel uncomfortable, namely the one where her nose extends like Pinocchio.

I'm willing to tolerate this sprite if she had an event scene with Kokichi or Celestia. It would work like this, Ibuki would say something idiotic using that sprite, but Kokichi and Celestia act unimpressed and see right through her. Would that imply that Ibuki is lying when she makes that pose?

Aside from that sprite, there's also that one where she’s waving and her tongue is sticking out.

I get that other characters like Kazuichi have similar sprites, but this one with Ibuki bothers me because she's bound to say something that'll upset me.

And then there's that one where it looks like she’s screaming.

Because I was suspicious about what kind of music she plays, I wanted nothing to do with her. When I tried to get her free time events, I was feeling anxious because I was scared to wonder if her next move would be to make some reference to her taste in music, and I didn’t want to have any triggers because I hate that kind of music. I even thought that Ibuki's cottage had posters of all these unfamiliar death metal bands with that font style of theirs, but I'm glad that there weren't.

I’ve never met anyone in the fandom who’s admitted that they don’t like Ibuki because of her music, instead they say they love her for her positivity, humor, fashion, sexuality, her acceptance to who she is, and help during the class trials. For someone who acts so positive, it doesn’t feel right for her to sing songs about extremely dark, negative topics. I’ve been told that that was the whole point, the game starts off thinking that Ibuki is always sweet and nice, until you find out that she enjoys listening to extremely aggressive metal subgenres, but that just wasn’t funny to me. How would that be any different from Kirumi starting off as a hard-working maid until you find out that she's the prime minister? Even though that was upsetting for me, I still love Kirumi and think she deserves better, but in Ibuki's case, learning about her taste in music only makes me want to not like her. It would’ve been funnier if Ibuki played gangsta rap, but she’s never made any hip-hop references. But I guess her taste in music would explain her loud personality, and her hyper energy is probably due to all that coffee she drinks.

Free Time Events

Her free time events weren’t even inspiring, it was more like she was forcing Hajime to start a death metal band and Hajime couldn’t do anything about it. In some of her free time events, like when she was showing Hajime how to play drums, it felt like Ibuki was saying stupid things that would make Gonta and Yasuhiro look like geniuses (Gonta's case) and I’m a fan of both of those characters and even thought Hiro’s free time events were funnier.

Ibuki once said she was trying to find an eight-leafed clover, don’t you think that would’ve been either funnier or ridiculous if Hiro said that? Would it be any different from Hiro's interest in things like OOPArts, aliens and conspiracy theories?

In fact, some of Ibuki’s weird antics felt on par with Angie’s weird antics (see here) whether it's her obsession with Atua or blood sacrifices, and I’m not an Angie fan. But that’s the thing about Danganronpa characters, they’re supposed to do weird things.

Regretfully knowing what kind of music Ibuki is into, even her normal conversations felt dark to me. Her last free time event where she says that her dream is to play music with people who trust her felt dark because, to me, it was more like she said she wants to play death metal with her friends even though they all feel uncomfortable around her when she plays that kind of music. Even Ibuki’s advice about finding who you are was no help to me, because I thought back to her music and thought that she was telling Hajime that joining her metal band was what she wanted him to do. In other words, I assumed Ibuki was using Hajime and that she didn’t actually care about him. I’m aware that the purpose behind her free time events was for her to try and cheer Hajime up and help him find his talent, but it just wasn’t serious enough for me.

Her Relationship With Hiyoko

Out of everyone in the series, Hiyoko is the only one who actually likes Ibuki’s music and I’ve got a good idea as to why. Call it a headcanon or theory, but I think the reason Hiyoko likes Ibuki’s music is because she wants to imagine her bullies killed in whatever kind of dark situations are used in Ibuki’s music. It’s hinted that Hiyoko was also a victim of bullying just like Mikan (see here) and thanks to Ibuki’s music, Hiyoko probably wants to imagine her bullies getting killed in the most fucked up ways like the following: Rape, torture, dismemberment, decapitation, dissection, cannibalism, all of which are topics used in death metal lyrics.

Hiyoko is basically one of those kids who wants to kill her bullies to get revenge for bullying her, and in Mikan’s case, Hiyoko was someone who was bullied and ended up turning into the bully. Why else would Hiyoko like squishing ants? Because she wants to imagine them as her bullies. Why else would Mikan murder Hiyoko? Becasue Hiyoko always bullied her and Ultimate Despair Mikan wanted revenge (that, and Hiyoko was a witness to Mikan killing Ibuki). And it's not just her bullies, Hiyoko probably also imagines Mikan getting fucked up in whatever kind of dark songs Ibuki sings.

Was what Hiyoko just said about watching a gory horror movie similar to what Ibuki said about using splattered organs for her concerts? Compared to how the fandom loves Ibuki, the fandom hates Hiyoko, obviously because she acts like a spoiled brat and is always bullying Mikan. But no one says anything about not liking Hiyoko because of the fact that she’s a fan of Ibuki’s music. If you're someone who loves Ibuki's music, you're no different from Hiyoko even if you hate her.

She Acts Like an Oni

The only thing about Ibuki that I admit I thought was a little interesting was the idea that Ibuki acts and looks like an oni. I realized this when I was comparing her to the oni characters in Touhou, namely Suika Ibuki. In a way, Mioda does kinda behave similar to Suika (see here) Suika’s childish behavior could be similar to how playful Mioda can be, and the horns Mioda has in her hairstyle are supposed to be oni horns (I’m saying her last name to avoid confusion).

Artwork of Suika is from the Touhou Wiki.

And since it’s confirmed that Suika is based on the oni king, Shuten-douji, that led me to believe that Mioda is also trying to be like Shuten-douji. “Ibuki” would refer to Mount Ibuki where Shuten-douji was born, and out of the gifts you can give to her, Mioda loves Lust Setsugekka which is sake, and Shuten-douji was an alcoholic (even though the game says it’s alcohol free but it still gets you drunk).

Even the outfit Ultimate Despair Ibuki wore reminds me of something Shuten-douji would wear (or at least like how Shuten-douji is portrayed in the Fate series) making me think that Ultimate Despair Ibuki acted like a real oni.

Sprite edit found on Reddit.

Artwork of Fate's Shuten-douji is from the Type-Moon Wiki. It's not really identical, but the outfit Ultimate Despair Ibuki wore just looks like something from Japanese culture.

But the fact that Ibuki acts like an oni can still relate to her interest in heavy metal music and here’s what I mean. Remember the times Ibuki tried to bite Hajime? In Japanese mythology and folklore, oni are monstrous youkai that have devil horns and eat people (see here). The occult is the most common theme for heavy metal music, and as I mentioned before, cannibalism is a topic used in death metal lyrics (see here). And remember that I pointed out that Shuten-douji was an alcoholic and there are rock and metal bands that have songs about alcoholism (although I've read that extreme metal subgenres don't use this topic). So Shuten-douji would be like Ibuki's version of Satan, like Shuten-douji and other oni, Satan is often portrayed as a monstrous being with devil horns (see here). The reason Ibuki is dressed like an oni could be because she’s into metal bands that like to dress up as monsters, but I’m not talking about bands like Slipknot, Hollywood Undead, or that guy from Limp Bizkit, I’m talking about all of the unfamiliar and underground death metal bands no one has ever heard of. And as a Remnant of Despair, Ibuki probably used death metal lyrics to hypnotize people into committing violent acts, not just terrorism, but especially cannibalism.

Moreover, there are other oni characters from Touhou such as Yuugi Hoshiguma who is described as being an underground youkai and resides in the Old Hell. Don't you think that's similar to how Satan resides in Hell? And in the Touhou manga, Wild and Horned Hermit (spoilers if you haven't read that manga) Ibaraki-douji's Arm threatened to eat Reimu Hakurei (see here). Don't you think that's similar to how Ibuki wanted to bite Hajime? Think about it, what would chapter 4 of SDR2 be like if Ibuki was trapped in the funhouse starving to death? She would obviously resort to eating everyone.

Aside from the oni characters, there’s also Hecatia Lapislazuli. Even though she’s not an oni, she is described as a Goddess of Hell, and Touhou series creator ZUN confirmed that her design is based on the death metal subculture (see here) and the Touhou fandom even calls her “Hot-Topic-chan” because her Welcome ❤ Hell shirt looks like something from Hot Topic.

Doesn’t that feel similar to Mioda’s fashion sense? And Hot Topic sells plenty of metalcore/screamo shit, so Mioda is like a fusion of Suika and Hecatia. I know that the Danganronpa fandom says Ibuki’s outfit is punk, but compared to Leon, I’ve never seen Ibuki make any reference to punk rock music, it all just feels like metal to me. I’m aware that metalcore/screamo are both inspired after hardcore punk, but that’s not enough to convince me that Ibuki is into the same kind of bands Leon is into.

According to this character analysis video by Weeby Newz, the reason Ibuki left her band is because she refused to play traditional pop music and was instead interested in playing metal, the aggressive kind at that. Let me compare that to something about Yuugi Hoshiguma (see here). It's stated that she and other kinds of oni and youkai refused to follow the rules of Gensokyo and decided to move to the Old Hell in the Underworld and became underground youkai. Don’t you think that’s similar to Ibuki’s rebellious behavior when she left her band to play underground death metal instead of mainstream pop? Would Ibuki's case be similar to how, in religions like Christianity, Satan was a fallen angel who fell from Heaven and now resides in Hell because he wanted to be independent from God? (see here) I know that Ibuki's case might be more similar to the rebellious punk behavior Leon and Kazuichi had in their free time events (Kazuichi's case) but like I said, I’ve never seen Ibuki play punk.

Her Connection With K-ON

I’m aware that K-ON had some inspiration for Ibuki’s character, it turns out that the kanji in Ibuki’s name contains different kanji from the four main characters of K-ON (see here) and her cottage even has the same guitar Yui Hirasawa has.

This led me to think that another purpose behind Ibuki’s character was that she’s supposed to be a K-ON parody that makes references to the death metal subculture. Danganronpa literally took the character names from K-ON and transformed them into a Shuten-douji reference. Cool, but still a little dark.

On a personal note, my birthday is November 30th which is only a few days apart from Ibuki's birthday which is November 27th, and I'm aware that she has the same birthday as Yui Hirasawa who was my favorite character from K-ON. Compared to how cute Yui is, I just can't picture Ibuki as a cinnamon roll or even as a best waifu because of her music.

Theory About Her Music

Here's a theory, her metal sounds bad because that kind of music is not part of her talent. Ibuki wants to be a rock/metal musician, but because her talent name is Ultimate Light Music Club Member, it implies that pop music is the only kind of music Ibuki is good at and if she tried other genres such as rock or metal, her music is gonna sound bad. Think about it, can you imagine Sayaka playing metal even though she's called the Ultimate Pop Sensation? Her music would sound really bad if that ever happened. Ibuki is secretly in denial of her talent name and wants to be a different kind of musician instead of being the person she was back in middle school believing that that's not who she is. She even wrote a song for her old band and it was a best seller, if that song was really that popular, Ibuki is most likely better at playing pop music but refuses to admit it.

Strangely enough, Ibuki doesn’t even care if her rock music is bad, because she somehow believes that that’s who she is. She wants to believe that she’s a rockstar or a metalhead, not a popstar. But her rock music is so bad, she tried all kinds of subgenres but took it too far and went for extreme metal subgenres, and that still didn’t make a difference for her. So what does Ibuki do about it? Lie to herself and everyone else saying her rock music is great, but it actually stinks. Why else would her nose extend like Pinocchio? Because she's lying.

But unfortunately, if her rock or metal is really that good, this theory would just be my excuse for not liking her music. Also, her character development ended with Mikan killing her, so now I’m stuck with the thought that the whole purpose of Ibuki’s character was for her to be a K-ON parody involving death metal, and to me, everything she says feels like dark humor. She's a joke, and that's all she'll ever be.

What Could've Been Done to Make Her Better?

It would’ve been great if the game focused more on her backstory and came with a reason why Ibuki took interest in that kind of music instead of saying she left her old band due to creative differences, and apart from my theory, I do have to agree with that theory Weeby Newz had in her character analysis video. But from what I’ve read (see here) when Ibuki was a kid, she got hit in the head by three coconuts and almost died, and that led me to come up with a joke that that was the origin of Ibuki’s stupidity, Ibuki gets hit in the head with three coconuts and suddenly she believes that the Ultimate Light Music Club Member should instead play death metal.

That analysis video by Weeby Newz said that Ibuki was a positive influence to both the other characters and the player, but I disagree, Ibuki has not once made me laugh or made me feel happy, everything she said and done made me feel uncomfortable. Even if I try to compare her to other kinds of anime or cartoon characters who act funny or stupid just to make people laugh, it won't make any difference because of her music. If it were up to me, I could headcanon Ibuki as a fan of my favorite hard rock bands, or headcanon her as a fan of hard rock and metal bands with female lead singers, such as Halestorm, Otep, and Kittie. But because she’s only made like one reference to a band that doesn’t play death metal (her fourth free time event referencess the bridge to “Freak on a Leash” by the nu metal band Korn which I admit I thought was interesting) this can never become canon.

In fact, I find it unfortunate that fans don't seem to headcanon Ibuki as a fan of kawaii metal, which yes, is a fusion of metal and j-pop idol music. Ibuki used to be in a light music club, so if she wanted to change genres from pop to metal, then kawaii metal would be a better choice for her.

In Conclusion

Overall, my opinion about Ibuki isn’t negative, it’s mixed. I like her for her punk fashion which does make her slightly attractive, whether it's her normal outfit, her despair arc outfit, her 10th anniversary dress, or her swimsuit in USC, all of which I thought were a little cool. I also slightly like the idea of her oni appearance being similar to that of Shuten-douji, so long as I think of the oni characters from Touhou (i.e. Suika, Yuugi, Kasen) or even how Shuten-douji is portrayed in the Fate series or any other series that involves Japanese mythology.

The downside is that I hate her taste in music all because I don’t want to acknowledge how popular it became during the 2010s. Every time I try to play Danganronpa involving Ibuki or read someone's opinion about how much they love her, I’m always feeling anxious because I know that whatever comes out of Ibuki’s mouth is something related to death metal or any similar subgenre, and that just feels like a red flag for me and it makes me want to not like her. But I’m also upset because Ibuki is apparently one of the most overrated fan favorite characters in the series, which puts me in the minority for not liking her, and I'm also upset because some of my favorite characters like Kirumi and Mahiru are treated as underrated. I cried when Mahiru died and thought that it was unfair that Ibuki got to live longer than her.

I do apologize for how long this is and also for using so many images. I hope that I included everything that I wanted to include, otherwise I would have to update this with new info or edit something. Feel free to like or reblog this and share your opinions, I’d appreciate it.

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Yay!! An ask game! 20, 30, 33 and 35??

20. What is your favorite aspect of Danganronpa?

Ahhh Its hard to pick one thing!! Let me say honourable mentions to the music (objectively the best thing about these games) and the high stakes and drama. My favourite thing might be the format? The cycle of meeting the characters, game begins, motive, body discovery, investigation, and trial is VERY fun to play around with. I really like stories with a worldbuilding skeleton, if that makes sense? Predictable in that I know the general arc but not predictable in how it actually happens. Something about it is just really satistfying to me.

30. Whose design do you enjoy the most? 

This is really hard!! It might genuinely be Kokichi's? Though I also adore Kaito, Gonta, Ibuki, and Chihiro

33. What is your favorite interaction from the Talent Development Program?

I never reached the UTDP LMAO but from DR S, I'm constantly thinking about the times Gonta and Gundham interacted (like in that one cg!!) and also really liked Tsumugi and Korekiyo's interactions.

35. What is your honest opinion on the end of V3?

I ADORED IT!! I am the ultimate v3 ending defender. There's definitely ways I would still improve it (namely more foreshadowing for the Tsumugi/real fiction reveal) but I adore meta in fiction and I think the ending was so fun. It took me a while to figure out what to do about the implications the ending had on the v3 characters, but now I kinda just do what I want with it!

[arlequinelunaire]

Danganronpa Showa: Prologue Part 8

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"This is wrong!" I then burst out crying, "All wrong! The war was supposed to be over; we shouldn't have to go through this!" "Weren't you in the air force, sonny boy, what sort of soldier descends into a blubberin' mess like this? Hmph, if an American soldier had acted like you just did, not that they ever would, we'd have used their sorry ass for target practice!" Columbird once more snapped. "The fighting and violence will end when America says so! However," he then stated, his voice growing relatively softer, "We are the shining city on the hill, the new leader of the Western world, not some savages in squalor! Therefore, in honor of our great nation's legal and judicial foundations, anyone killing another shall promptly begin a trial to determine the godforsaken murderer". "A trial?" Genpachi chuckled as he remarked, "Awful ironic with you tellin' us to start murdering each other. Suppose you have to cling on to some semblance of civility, don't ya?" "Bah, I won't be taking any backtalk from some limp-wristed, hemp-smoking, lover of speakeasy devil music! All you here will kill, you will go to court, the killer will be found and executed or you will die trying, and you will like it, son!" Columbird went off again. "What do you mean, 'you will die trying'?" Manami asked. Before Columbird could actually answer, he went off on a tangent to me, "Ya see here, Wings Bay-island? This is the professional manner in which a real shoulder conducts himself! Or herself, figures you <Japanese's> cleaning ladies would make better soldiers than your men. Anyway, yes. Should you fail to identify the actual killer in court, they will leave with their FREEDOM, whilst all you who failed to catch him will be executed for your incompetence. Is that clear?!" he got around to his answer. With that, the United States of America declares the Killing Military School Life officially begun! Godspeed, and God bless our glorious nation!" Columbird saluted, before he finally left the Gym. This was... this was really happening. Right now, any of my classmates could turn around and stab me- No, they wouldn't. Firstly, because we were all gathered in the Gym, so anyone who tried would be immediately found out, and secondly- Because I'd been drafted into the air force. I knew what killers were like, and for little I'd known everyone here, I could tell they weren't that sort of people.

"Alright, everyone calm down!" Toranosuke was quick to assume authority. "As if any reasonable citizens of Japan would start killing each other on such flimsy pretense". "Hold on, 'Citizens of Japan'?" Jeanne and Dejan simultaneously pointed out, while Hildegard just flinched. Aoko sighed before she said, "Toranosuke dear, much as I wouldn't want to be a downer... you're being too generous, I'm afraid. I know death, runs in the family after all, so I know seemingly fine people have killed over less than this". As an ex-soldier, I didn't need reminding of that. Deflecting Aoko's words, just like a real politician I guess, Toranosuke resumed, "All of us came to Hope's Peak Academy promised an education that would best hone our Talents. Even- even despite this disruption, as our nation's future Prime Minister and most senior student here, I shall endeavour to deliver on such an education. I swear it". Kagura had to give him a side-eye. "'Senior'? Aren't you the same age as the rest of us?" she stated. Meanwhile, Genpachi burst out laughing. "Yeah, real cute kid, a complete fuddy-duddy like you's gonna teach us all about performing miracles, funeral practice, and being some half-beast freak? Don't make me laugh. 'Sides, fact that yer the 'Ultimate Manager' alone proves you got no right to take charge," he then said, for some reason. Glaring at him, Toranosuke just hissed, "Explain". "Y'ever heard of a little somethin' called mauvaise foi?" Genpachi said. "That's 'bad faith'," Jeanne had to translate. "'Mala fides', if you will," Kanji Iwai felt the need to add. "Right, means 'cause you've spent all this time becoming what society deems the 'Ultimate Manager' that when the chips are down, ya can't think for yourself, see? Already it's clear the normal rules just don't apply anymore, yet you're still clingin' to the old ways like some geezer. Yer head's hopelessly inside the box, or in short, ya can't improvise, kid," Genpachi explained, pointing a finger at his temples. "As little regard as I have for this man's rambling, he does have a point," Fuhito suddenly said, "I fear Toranosuke's meddling in others' affairs may only obstruct an investigation". He sounded like he took it as a given that we'd start killing. Toranosuke was at the point of seething now, "Who are either of you to judge my leadership, given you too only just got here? And isn't stability exactly what we need in a crisis situation? Your philosophy, Sakamoto, seems like it would only accelerate this madness." "Also Sakamoto, aren't you being hypocritical? You're an Ultimate too, remember?" Manami gave a cold glare at Genpachi. Again, Genpachi gave his steely, screechy laugh and said, "Ultimate Jazzman, dollface, world of difference there. Jazz doesn't cling to fogey old tradition, it improvises, it thinks, and it don't care for rules or polite society. I ain't some military brat, with a buncha orders beaten into me till I can't think otherwise".

Next>

[curewhimsy]

Margot x Edgeworth fic plans

TW: Murder by poison, Suicidal ideation

Tragedy fic

Takes place in Ace Attorney universe but crosses over OCs and some other fandoms

———

Fandoms-

OCs

Vocaloid

UTAU

Idolmaster

Ace Attorney

Dangan Ronpa

Margot Nocturne (OC) is a quiet, unsuspecting librarian who has always been jealous of local broadway performer Taya Soune (UTAU) for his charisma, success, and musical talent, to the point of spite and resentment. Margot kills Taya with poison in his drink. She pins this crime on Ritsu Namine (UTAU) by making sure Ritsu gave this poisoned beverage to Taya.

Margot feels a lot of sadness and regret after this murder, enough for her tears and shock to look convincing, as if she didn’t do the murder.

Ritsu’s attorney in this case is Teru Tendo. (Idolmaster SideM)

Miles Edgeworth is the prosecutor and is going to try to find Ritsu guilty.

During the window of time where Edgeworth is convinced Margot is innocent, a romance blossoms… a true romance too. Margot is a broken woman who has never had a companion, and the kindness Edgeworth gives her changes her world. But the truth still lurks behind both of them, and it’s ugly and tragic. Margot is a killer. If she were to be brought to justice, she would get the death penalty.

Who is testifying-

Ritsu Namine (UTAU)

Rui Maita (Idolmaster SideM)

Touko and Syo Fukawa (Danganronpa)

Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)

Aoi Asahina (Danganronpa)

Larry Butz (Ace Attorney)

Margot Nocturne (OC) (as an “innocent witness”)

Kaoru Sakuraba (Idolmaster SideM) does the autopsy on Taya’s body. He and Tsubasa Kashiwagi (Idolmaster SideM) are helping Teru with the case. Teru even gets an updated autopsy report that Edgeworth doesn’t have at one point! 

It just seems like Edgeworth isn’t doing so well in the trial this time.

The setting is a library that also has karaoke. The concept of the place is “a library where you don’t have to be quiet.” Taya Soune is feeling gloomy that day and decides he wants to sing alone in his own concealed cozy booth. He takes his first sip of a drink that his friend Ritsu Namine served to him moments before, not realizing it will lead to his death.

Ritsu recently got a part time job serving drinks at the karaoke club. Margot works at this place too, as a librarian who organizes and helps people check out books. Margot is good at concealing her sour and vengeful attitude. She has been known to cry and be shy, but nobody suspected she had been wanting to lash out.

It is a relatively quiet day at the karaoke library.

Margot bought a small bottle of poison with her that day. The poison was purchased from the black market, and all evidence of the purchase had been destroyed. Margot was contemplating locking herself in a karaoke booth and ending her life.

Margot then sees Taya Soune come into the building. Margot holds a grudge against Taya because he has a positive attitude, has tons of friends, and is accomplished, everything Margot isn’t.

Ritsu is called up to sing a song, and leaves Taya’s drink on a table unattended. Margot is overtaken by the urge to slip the poison in Taya’s drink and murder him instead.

Nobody is even there to witness Margot slip the poison in the drink.

Ritsu comes back from the karaoke room and serves this drink to Taya.

Minutes after sipping the drink, Taya begins coughing blood, and is too weak to move or call for help. He is bleeding from the inside and dies within a couple of minutes.

Since Margot works at the library, she has controls of the temperature in all the karaoke rooms. She hastily attempts to create an alibi by making Taya’s room cold for three hours, allowing rigor mortis to set in at a later time, making it so the time of his death will be estimated at a later time. She has the room go back to the normal temperature after three hours so nobody suspects the change. She also wore gloves when changing the temperature.

(Margot has read her fair share of mystery novels. But she overlooked that she was still present when Ritsu was pouring the drink, making all her work useless.)

Margot flees the library.

Three people discover Taya’s body five hours later, noticing they can’t find him.

The three who discovered the body were Taya’s best friend Ritsu Namine, Taya’s English and drama teacher Rui Maita, and Maya Fey, who just happened to be there.

Ritsu’s fingerprints are found on the cup with the poison, and evidence points to him being the one giving it to Taya.

Checks on Ritsu’s background are done. They find that he in fact has distant ties to the yakuza.

The autopsy report says Taya died at 3:00 PM, which is after Margot was gone from the library.

Taya actually died at 1:30 PM.

After Margot is gone from the library, she goes to the park and disposes of the poison bottle (crucial evidence) by disguising it as a necklace charm and giving it to a “handsome guy” as a love present. And the handsome guy… just happens to be Miles Edgeworth. Margot doesn’t know that Edgeworth is going to be the prosecutor in the case she caused. Also Edgeworth rejects her advances. But… he accepts the gift! This marks the start of a very complicated relationship.

Edgeworth eventually sees that Margot is broken and one day invites her to his house for tea. He is the type who cannot ignore something abandoned or hopeless.

Phoenix Wright isn’t the attorney here, because he’s in the hospital... (Also the world doesn’t revolve around him!)

Touko Fukawa is a shy romance author and cannot stand subjects about blood and murder. Her headspace alter, Syo, writes murder mystery novels. In fact, she wrote the very novel that inspired Margot to lower the temperature in Taya’s karaoke booth! She knows those tricks. Syo is there for most of the trial as Touko cannot handle it, and gives good leads on who the murderer could be… She absolutely thinks it’s Maya Fey, who was at the karaoke library at the time! And she gives a convincing testimony.

Now everyone is convinced Maya Fey could have done it, so Ritsu is set free and Maya goes to the detention center. Again. But there’s stilll evidence missing…

Despite it being humorous as ever, the testimony that exposes the most truth ends up being… Larry Butz’s?

Eventually when the truth is close to coming out, since Margot didn’t seem to have much of a motive, there is trouble establishing one.

But then Margot cannot stand the pressure and accidentally slips.

She ends up saying, “I understand that the justice system cannot always expose the real truth. But I wanted to die anyway… it’s why I had the poison in the first place.”

Margot’s clumsy statement exposed her as the one who possessed the poison and put it in Taya’s drink.

She breaks down and confesses everything, her motive, and her actions.

Margot is brought to justice in the end, and will get the death penalty. At this point, Edgeworth had grown to trust and love Margot… She changed his life as well. Edgeworth is shocked and saddened so much that he becomes a crying wreck in the courtroom…

Margot is last seen smiling with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Goodbye, Mr. Edgeworth… Thank you for making my final days worth remembering.”

[west-tokyo-incidents]

"Puhuhuhuhuu!!"

A laughter rung out that that shot ice into my gut. It sounded familiar, and not in a good way.

All eyes turned to the altar. Now, suddenly decorated with a full podium and a little plush bear perched atop it. And that sight just made me feel worse. One half white and innocent. The other half black and sinister. Little plush hands covered its mouth and its hips wiggled comically.

This is...

Mizho tensed up beside me. We're right up front, Rage and Fusataro across the aisle from us.

"Welcome, one and all! The Ultimate Sins, gathered all in one place... how amaaaaazing!!" The little plush hands shot up in the air, "Wheeeeee!! I'm so excited!!"

"What the FUCK is going on???"

Vice's voice lashed out, echoing in the room. I winced out of habit. How tiring.

"Oh, donchya know! Here I thought Danganronpa was popular in this world!"

"Shut the fuck up...!" Mizho's voice wavered, "You're not..."

"But I am! The one!!"

It struck a pose.

"The only!!"

Another pose.

"Monoooookuma!!"

It's cackling laughter bounced around the room, "And you all are part of the greatest Killing Game yet! The battle of demons, pit against one another in the greatest game of gore and deceit the world has ever seen! Uuupuhuhuhuuu!!"

"Killing game??"

A commotion started up. Most of the douji were in stunned silence. Same reason as me, probably... human, in a game of killing? We're just as vulnerable as our masters.

Monokuma waited patiently, wiggling in a little dance until the large room started to quiet. Huge monitors lowered from the high ceiling, great wires and cords dangling down.

"Now! Let me lay down the rules!" The screens flickered to life and started displaying little comical infographics.

Suddenly, my eyes snapped over to Michel. He didn't speak Japanese-- his hand was on something on his ear. A translator...?

"The objective is to kill another member of the game without getting caught or found out!" Laughter again. My heart sank deeper as I look back to the front.

"...what the fuck..." I hear Fusataro to my left mutter.

"When a body is seen by three or more people, I will make an announcement! You will have a certain amount of time to investigate, and then you will be gathered for a trial! And then a great battle between the Blackened and the Spotless begins!"

I grabbed for Rage's arm. I could see Mizho turn to look at me, and then him. His face was twisted into fury.

The playful and horrible music from the monitors, displaying cartoonish stick figures killing each other and dying in turn, it drowned out anything I tried to say to him.

"If the majority vote correctly, the Blackened killer will be punished! Buuuuut, if you all choose wrong, then everyone BUT the killer dies!"

Mizho suddenly burst out, "You're lying! What the fuck is this?? Some fucking video game come to life? Bullshit!"

"Oooh? You don't believe me? But that means you know the rules already! Ahem!

"Rule #1. Players may not leave the premises! Leaving the cathedral grounds will result in punishment!"

"No fucking way! You're lying! What kind of sick fucking joke is this??"

My hand held tighter onto him. I desperately looked to Mizho for help. If he attacked Monokuma...

"Rule #2. 'Nighttime' is defined as 10pm to 7am! Some areas are closed at this time so please pay attention!"

Mizho hesitated. Why did she hesitate??

"Rule #3. You are allowed to explore the grounds freely! So long as you stay within the bounds of the cathedral, there are no restrictions!"

He slipped out of my grip. I was still way too weak to hold onto her, after everything. Mizho seemed to snap into it, but she wasn't fast enough to grab him.

"Rule #4. ..." The plush bear's grin seemed to widen in that moment, just before Rage grabbed him, "Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited."

"What kind of sick fucking joke is this??" He had his hands around his throat. Mizho caught up and grabbed his arm.

"Rage, don't..." His voice was low, warning...

But it was too late. The horribly familiar sound of a body impaled rang out. He made a sound... but blood gurgled out of his mouth instead. A great, long spear had emerged from the podium... and out through his torso. It rapidly vanished back into the podium and he collapsed.

As if Mizho wasn't screaming, Monokuma continued,

"Rule #5..."

I forced myself to my feet. I grabbed onto Mizho, seeing the anger in her eyes. Someone swore behind us as I kept my master from attacking him, too. I couldn't really listen to anything else Monokuma said. I didn't have time to process what had just happened.

I couldn't lose her, too. I had to shut my eyes to focus on holding her in place. To block out the sight of blood pooling.

By the time she finally stopped struggling against me, he's stopped reciting the rules. Rules of a game the three of us had played together once upon a time.

Well... if there was anything to drive it in that the douji were just as weak as the humans, now... it was the sudden death of one of the most powerful among them.

... why couldn't it have been Vice? Or Jealousy?? Or Desir???

I couldn't open my eyes. I couldn't make myself see his body.

Why couldn't it have been literally anyone else??

The brunt of it finally hit me. Rage was... gone.

Why did crying have to hurt, too?

Rage was gone.

Mizho and I were only close because of him. It's hard to find comfort in her without him, and I'm sure she felt the same way. In the midst of all of it, my previous master was here, too. He'd long since locked himself up. I wanted to say something to him.

Just like that.

Monokuma left. Took his body and said he was going to bury it. Something about a graveyard in some courtyard. Some stood around and talked, discussed what was happening. Others left, to explore or to go find their rooms and stay there.

I let go of Mizho. She sat on the stairs to the altar. Neither of us said a word, just sat there. With his blood seeping into our clothes.

Actually, I really should, I decided. He didn't know anyone here. He didn't know the lay of the land, he'd just been thrown among strangers and told that to escape he had to kill someone and get away with it.

The 'killing someone' part wouldn't be the issue, it was the 'getting away with it' part.

"I'm going to go find Michel..." I told Mizho.

"Of course you are." Was her response.

The rooms were on the second floor, lined up in a semicircle framing the main hall from above. Everything was littered with debris and overgrowth. It looked like the place hadn't been touched in a hundred years.

The rooms had our names on them, both in kanji and romaji. Probably so Michel could read it. I paused in front of his room. Before I could let myself think, I knocked.

...

No response.

"Michel, it's me." I called out to him, in French.

...

For a moment, I was sure he wasn't going to reply. Then,

"The doors don't lock."

I sighed. That's as much of an invitation in as I was going to get. Carefully, I opened the door and let myself in. It's just... a standard bedroom. And Michel looked so horribly out of place in it. It's too modern. Too clean.

Quietly, I shut the door behind me. I pulled off my hat and the bandages on my face. He relaxed some, but still looked cautious. Disbelieving.

"What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know. I mean, obviously someone wants us to kill each other. Someone with the power to make douji human and bring the dead back to life."

"Dead?"

"..." It took me a moment before I realized. Michel had no idea he was supposed to be dead. Oh. Oh. I let out a slow breath... and sat down.

"What's the last thing you remember, Michel?"

[saimotass]

little things in v3 that make me appreciate the game slightly more (spoilers)

the fact that the two incest plotlines can directly be traced back to tsumugi, whose fantasy in her love hotel event deals with her and shuuichi being stepsiblings. the fact that brother-sister incest happens twice within this killing game (with korekiyo & miyadera, and monotaro & monophanie) could be just tsumugi trying to extend her incest fetish to the public.

tsumugi probably named monophanie that way because she knew that she wanted to make kaede the protagonist (at least for the first trial). monophanie sounds like monophony, a term in music that refers to a unified, completely homogenous sound, such as a single instrument in a piece, or every instrument playing the same exact melody.

tsumugi's place in the trial room is exactly where junko's was, right in front of monokuma. she wanted to copy junko's killing game so much that she wanted to take the role of being in her position.

because it's so ambiguous whether tsumugi ever says the truth at all during her entire confrontation, it's almost to the point where she doesn't even have her own identity, and tsumugi shirogane could just be another fictional character she made up for herself. she could have deliberately chosen to raise her voice and have blue hair to pay homage to sayaka, who technically started the killing game in the first place.

the monokubs all have different homages to various former contestants in the killing games. monokid is a guitar player like ibuki and has syo & junko's long tongue. monodam is a robot much like mechamaru, and his name could be a reference to gundam, while his attitude seems pretty similar to twogami's (wanting everyone to get along regardless of whether it's possible or not). monosuke has a gruff attitude similar to mondo, enjoys baseball like leon, and is associated with money like celes and togami. monophanie is sweet and shy but still obedient and cruel, like mikan and touko, and her color scheme brings monomi and chiaki to mind. monotaro has a scarf like gundam, uses throwing stars that bring to mind izayoi from dr3, and has a leadership quality to him like kiyotaka and twogami.

the monokubs have similar color schemes to the warriors of hope, with a few of them having similar traits to them. monotaro and masaru are both the "leaders" and hotheaded, and are orange-red. monophanie and kotoko are both submissive yet still scary, and are pink. monodam and monaca both control their friends and associates and become power hungry because of it, and are both green. monokid and nagisa don't have much at all in common, but are both blue. monosuke and jataro also don't have much in common, but are both associated with neutral tan colors.

tsumugi and the ultimate impostor both show up in this game, but tsumugi is impersonating them, which would probably be her dream -- she's essentially cosplaying a cosplayer who's cosplaying as someone with no identity.

tsumugi doesn't end up contributing a lot because she's an intern for team danganronpa -- she's not used to having a say in major decisions and big meetings, since she's low on the chain of employees.

you never actually see tsumugi's face in the shot of everyone after kaede's execution, probably because she was either smiling or just completely expressionless. she got away with murder by killing another person, and as such would probably be incredulous or ecstatic about the result of the first trial.

when kaede asks tsumugi about her favorite anime, she mentions hers, and her favorite episode of said anime is episode 53. she probably was lying here, and just said that number in a panic. she hadn't probably thought that far into her backstory as tsumugi.

tsumugi probably planned for shuuichi, maki, and himiko to still survive the school being destroyed, since she gave them some of the most emotional moments in the game, killing the people closest to them. shuuichi had the deaths of both kaede and kaito, maki had her breakdown after kaito's death, and himiko lost both angie and tenko within the same trial. it would make sense that she had planned for them to survive through the whole thing, even if kiibo kind of sidestepped her plan a bit.

at the end, before her execution, tsumugi seems actually pretty neutral about her plan failing, even saying that she's proud to have made a perfect copy of the original killing game's plan. this could mean that she intended for the entire thing to fall apart, bringing an audience surrogate, a masterful liar and criminal, and a gifted detective into the same season all together.

kaito's illness was either planned from the beginning, or implemented after tsumugi realized how close he and shuuichi had gotten, and how helpful kaito's been to him. kaede was an easier target because there was a believable reason to execute her in everyone else's eyes. kaito probably would have never killed if he hadn't been battling his illness, since he agrees to help ouma in chapter 5's plan knowing that his time is limited. tsumugi probably instilled a handicap on him, knowing that he was the most hopeful and optimistic of the characters besides kiibo, who she could easily manipulate since he was essentially just a standin for the audience itself.

the inclusion of the remnants of despair as a plot point for part of the game makes sense when tsumugi is revealed to have created the entire season. she's a huge fangirl and wanted to have a nod to the second game. it also would make sense as something that she would just randomly throw in as a means of fanservice to the audience.

the demo's whole gimmick of makoto, hajime, and hagakure being part of the game alongside the new characters is put in a new light after the reveal that the original games were just works of fiction in v3's universe. plus, it's implied that makoto and hajime are actors, which would make sense. technically speaking, everyone in v3 is an actor as well, and with tsumugi cosplaying as a bunch of previous characters in the final trial, chances are that the makoto and hajime actors aren't the original characters, merely portraying them.

tsumugi being the mastermind makes so much sense, and the theme of truth vs. lies makes sense in terms of her constant denial that fiction can't influence reality. as a big fan of danganronpa before becoming part of the games themselves, she's more than likely well aware of the effects that fiction can have on real life, and probably agrees with shuuichi deep down.

the parallels between tsumugi and junko are interesting, but the ways in which they die are the most. they're both crushed to death, and while junko's smiling the entire time (save for the very end, when the crusher stops momentarily, allowing her a bit of confusion as to why it isn't working before she dies), tsumugi is just blank the entire time. it goes to show how even though she got to live her dream and become her idol, she just didn't have the same dedication and devotion to the cause that junko did.

also, kokichi and tsumugi are both crushed, and both were suspected of being the masterminds, also being the representatives of two criminal groups. they're very good antitheses to one another when you start to compare and contrast the two.

i could keep going but honestly we'd be here for a while

[vampthropologist]

They are a sucker for the danganronpa motif in music

the Rain Code trailer started to sound like the beginning trial soundtrack in danganronpa for a bit

[sou-ver-2-0]

Writing Master List

I love writing analysis and fanfiction for Your Turn to Die. Here, you can find links to all my writing. Spoilers abound!

Meta I’m Proudest Of

Why Calling It “Logic Versus Emotion” Makes Sense

Sou Hiyori and Kanna’s Sister Parallels

I was wondering why Sou had a zero percent survival rate…

What is Sou proudest of?

What is Kanna proudest of?

What is Keiji proudest of?

Unpopular opinion about Keiji

What are your thoughts on Nao as a character?

Why pushing Fake Reko is logical and sparing her is emotional

Shin vs. Kanna choice: each “valid in its own way”

That was a real comedy of errors on your part, Shin

What “Things” did Shin learn at Sou’s House?

If I could kill Keiji to save both Kanna and Shin...

Thoughts on queer-coded villains and Shin

I make Shin say five nice things about Keiji (not meta, but important)

Some jumbled thoughts about Redemption, and Part 2

How different do you think the story would be if Shin were a girl?

Theories

“Midori is Meister’s son,” and other Sou theories <- my favorite theory!

The Hades Incident, the Present Death Game, and the Role of the Man from the Memorandum

Rambling about Meister Family Theory

A Quick Keiji Theory

I’m staking my pride on this one: Keiji won’t die in the coffin. Part 1 and Part 2

Implications of Kanna being Original Sou’s blood relative

The Mystery of Anzu’s High Survival Rate

Fanfiction

My username is Florencetheflowerfairy on Ao3! Any fanfiction I write will be tagged “my fanfiction” on here.

I haven’t yet posted this to Ao3.

My fanart

Soup Hiyori

Happy birthday Kanna!

All of my meta

How does Sou deal with pain?

When does Sou feel safest? What would others change about him?

What would the others change about Sara?

What do I wish to see happen with Sou?

Chapter 3 Prediction: Sara will lose Keiji

Sou & Keiji’s relationship thoughts; and Personal Headcanons

Opinion on Midori / Original Sou; and Opinion on YTTS

Thoughts on Kurumada’s Partnership with Sou and Kanna

What calms Sou when he’s upset?

What does Sou wish he could change about himself?

Who would be Sou’s favorite fictional character?

What would EVERYONE change about Sou?

How did both Sous do in school?

Who does Sou want to please the most?

How would Kanna spend her money?

What calms Kai when he’s upset? How does Kai deal with pain?

How does Kanna do in school? What’s something Original Sou lost that he would love to have back?

What’s something I wish had happened with Joe?

Unpopular opinion about Q-Taro

What’s something I wish had happened with the Yabusame siblings?

Unpopular opinion about Kai

Unpopular opinion about Original Sou

Who would I vote for in the Second Main Game?

Laughing at Q-Taro in Russian Roulette

Speaking of “I laugh at inappropriate moments in YTTD”

Math Saga (Collection of Theorizing Posts about the Percentage Papers)

Why Kanna can’t take the scarf

More Scarf Meta

I think Shin should fake amnesia in the zaniest way possible, please

Thoughts on Mr. Policeman is Joe’s Dad Theory, Parts 1 and 2 (Some of these thoughts are outdated because I don’t think Keiji knew Joe’s last name in the beginning.)

If I ever seem too harsh on Keiji, please keep in mind

We can hear Joe’s music theme in Midori’s music theme

Thoughts on the Floor Masters

Did Shin send the Sacrifice Card to Joe?

What if Joe had one month to live?

What is Original Sou proud of?

Reading Shin as Queer

Alice and Pain

What would other people change about Kai?

Could Shin and Keiji’s roles switch?

What was Keiji like before the shooting?

I encouraged Sister to vote for Kai in Practice Round

How does Original Sou/Midori sleep?

Who do you think Keiji would bond with the most?

Analysis of Sara’s vote in the Practice Vote

Massacre Ending Thoughts

Thoughts on Naosara?

Dummy Bullet Saga (How did Shin know about dummy bullets??)

Keiji is my Confront Character

What will the fallout with the dummies look like?

Keiji seeing the percentage papers is the simplest answer IMO

Thoughts on Keialice

Thoughts on Joesara

Shin Tsukimi could have DIED ON HIS BIRTHDAY?!

Shin is Poor! Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3

One more funny story, on a walk with Sister...

How would Shin have fared in the Death Game without the Sou persona?

Is Shin too good for this world? (Reaction to above meta)

How would Joe, Kai, and Mishima approach the Second Main Game vote?

What do you think would be Shin’s partnership ability?

Thoughts on AI personalities

Reaction to ‘Sara gets the Sage Card’ Theory

Have you considered the implications of 0.0% vs. 0%?

Foolish Sara AU

When does the Death Game take place, and how long are they there?

Shin’s relationships with Reko and Gin

“When you drink, you gotta be careful not to get swallowed up yourself.”

Judge Keiji by the fact that he’s acting like a cop

I’ve switched to calling him Shin! 

What was Shin like in the years after Original Sou died, but before the Death Game?

Headcanons and Shin, Kanna, and trading tokens

Analyzing Shin and Sara’s doll placements in Safalin’s lab

Shin’s reaction to Sara’s “Haven’t we always been the bestest of friends?”

Scenario: Keymaster Kanna takes Shin’s key necklace instead of his scarf

Artists should draw Kanna grieving Shin however they like

Nao and Shin’s friendship

“I happen to like people with nice personalities”

I’m just putting these here so I can find them if necessary: 1, 2, 3

What if Shin thinks Sara is an adult?

Shrodinger’s Lock Saga (Many theories came from speculating about Asu-Naro’s weird locks in Sara’s first trial!)

Shin emulating Sou, oh no

Some thoughts on Shin and Alice, and the darker side to their relationship

A Serious Analysis of the Collarbone Sprites (& other Shin sprites)

Midori and Joe Sprite Parallels

Do you think Ranmaru is more or less reliable than Keiji?

Ranmaru and Keiji Parallels and Thoughts on Keiji flirting

Ranmaru and Keiji reacting to Joe

Out of the cast, who do you think is most likely to be the mastermind?

Miley vs. Gashu thoughts

Megumi Sasahara theories and headcanons

I love that this game’s heart is so earnest

AU where Shin has the Sacrifice, and he can’t pick Kanna

Theory/Headcanon: Sou-Shin-Sara-Kanna three year age gaps

Scenery Paintings in the Gallery

Kanna and Original Sou Parallel - “creepy smiles”

Undertale Parallels, and making Original Sou sympathetic

Kai and Original Sou Parallels

Fic ideas: Green-haired characters, and Shin + Sara Friendship

I love Fake Reko so much!

What if the decision to push Fake Reko affects what happens with the dummies?

Follow-up to above meta about Fake Reko

What if Joe died in his First Trial?

Reaction to Keiji Discourse about flirting, Part 2

Reactions to Fem!Shin:

Kanna’s perspective, Bath Scene Shin, More Bath Scene, Keiji flirting with Shin, I DON’T CARE HOW SEXY HE IS, Am I a lesbian

Will the dummies want to fill in for their counterparts’ lives?

Q-Taro Pacman Sister Theory

Poison Stinger analysis and Rio Ranger’s characterization

Megumi returns as a doll theory

More thoughts on “Back Up Candidates” Theory

Thoughts on AIs representing younger personalities

What if the current Death Game is another simulation?

Shin and Q-Taro ages musings

Shin and Sara ages musings

Honorifics Analysis: Part 1 and Part 2

Everyone’s music preferences headcanons

Shin’s thoughts on Gin in Logic Route

What if Shin died and Kai survived in the Second Main Game?

Imagine Trans Kanna

Thoughts on the names Sara “suspects” when learning that there is a human from Asu-Naro among us

Why doesn’t Shin challenge Keiji for lying that he’s a detective at the start?

Shipping

Which death hurt you the most?

Who do you think is overrated? Who do you think is suspicious?

Shin-Sou roleswap AU

Did you ever notice how Shin is crying during the First Main Game?

How do you think the characters sleep?

What if Shin became Sara’s ally instead of Keiji?

Seven Deadly Sins in YTTD

Song Analyses

“Rat” by Penelope Scott

“Villainous Thing” by Shayfer James

“Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met)” by Panic! at the Disco

“Butterflies and Hurricanes” by Muse

"House of memories" by Panic! at the Disco

More fun posts

Sister tag (All submissions by my sister)

Sometimes I get self-conscious for loving Sou Hiyori so much

Thinking about how our Sou Hiyori is a queer-coded villainous type

Picrew of the Greenblings

Fannish ramblings and Speculation about Voting for Keiji in 2nd Main Game

Sou has a halo in the manga

Sprite Parallels between Kanna, Sara, and Sou

Confession: Character development is more important than plot twists

Star Wars KOTOR musings

My Favorite Thing about Sou and Sara meeting

Another Greenblings Picrew

How to roast my fave

Are the greenblings next to each other??

Me feeling soft about Sou x Alice and Sou x Kai in spite of myself

I’m too much of a nerd for tumblr

Picrew of Green-haired characters and Sara

Cute Kurumada and Kanna headcanons

Do it for Nao

Happy birthday Keiji, from Sou

Danganronpa Thoughts as of 10/22/20

Top 3 emotional moments

Comparing Eye Sizes

I’m all caught up with 3-1A as of 10/24/20

Link to my “Shin attacking Inbox” edit

I am my PFP

“Disclosure” apparently means “Coming Out”

What did you name your Midori?

Do you think Shin was a gamer?

PMMM Thoughts: Logic vs Emotion

Why would you make Shin a tank?!

Dracula is Sou and Shin is Renfield

Among Us Headcanon

I just think Kanna having the Keymaster first is good drama

So long you fucking fascist (posted on 11/7/20)

Please don’t send me leaks!

Also how are we going to tag spoilers...? (11/12/20)

oh no I’m getting sentimental

Shin and Sara’s confrontation over the smartphone remains my favorite thing ever

Reactions to “I make Shin say five nice things about Keiji”: 1, 2, 3

A Rewarding part of my blog

My undying love for Britney Spears

“Ahaha, I’m glad you remembered my name.”

I love this picrew for the Greenblings

“Saw” and “Cage” on Google Translate

What if there were two Gonbee Yamadas?

Put them in meme boxes

Keiji’s emo eyeliner

Shin can smash something! and part 2

Acrostic Poem for Sou Hiyori

Midori’s canon voice

“Sou” puns

Time sensitive questions!! 1 and 2

All the characters’ ages

Do you think Shin swears?

Let’s not pit bears and twinks against each other!

Here’s how Shindemption can still win

tfw you draw fanart in time for Kanna’s birthday

Keiji accuses Shin of breaking Mishima’s monitor even though he KNOWS Shin is innocent

Q-Taro and Shin college AU

Kugie’s ghost haunting Keiji

Christmas 2020: Part 1 and Part 2

Picrew of Shin and Sou, High School Days~

I struggle to write villains

I play Villains Bingo with Shin

…

This list will be updated sporadically as I write more! You can always use the “mine” tag to find any worthwhile original post I make.

Please feel free to talk to me about YTTD anytime! I love hearing from you all! It keeps me motivated and makes me happy to meet people!

[notsosensational]

This is my classpect master post for Danganronpa 1! I just replayed the game so it’s fresh in my mind, and I tried to keep these fairly short so I cut out some of the smaller details. Feel free to tell me what you like or what you don’t. I will be reblogging with thoughts about Touko and Genocider Sho. Also check out @jinjojess post about the DR1 classpects! I compared a lot of my thoughts with theirs!

Naegi Makoto - Witch of Heart

-actively manipulates feelings and sense of self. He is not very confident in himself, we know this from the beginning, and I think that manifests as acting as a Seer of Mind pretty often. It gets him pretty far in the trials, but his true talent lies in getting people on his side. Sayaka was into him before she even talked to him, and throughout the game people come to him for help concerning things to do with emotions and sense of self (Touko & Byakuya, Kiyotaka & Mondo twice). Not to mention, he’s labelled “ultimate hope”, which is due to him being able to boost everyone’s spirits (change their mood).

Asahina Aoi - Sylph of Hope

-passively heals positivity, possibilities, and beliefs. I really wanted to go with life for her, but while she’s full of energy, she’s not all that concerned about growth or overcoming obstacles, she just wants things to turn out well and that’s more in the realm of positivity and possibility. When Sakura’s secret was out, Aoi was most concerned with how to get the rest of them to believe her and to believe in Sakura; she needed to heal the group’s faith. She consistently believes in everyone, even though she is frequently disappointed, and the only exception to this is Byakuya and Touko after they insult Sakura. 

Togami Byakuya - Prince of Life

-actively destroys growth and energy. His manner is very, very prince-like, “I’m the best and I can’t understand why no one else sees that”, not to mention he’s basically a literal prince of his family. He’s very quick to shoot people down and destroy their spirit, their energy, and during investigations he’s either no help at all, or antagonistic. All of the life players we’ve seen in HS have been on top of the food chain, the Peixes blood color and Jane’s Crocker corporation, which are both comparable to the Togami family. Before the killing game, he was most concerned with growing stocks, owning businesses, and obtaining knowledge he will use when he is the monarch of his family, which all seem life-like.

Celestia Ludenburg - Heir of Void

-passively changes misfortune and secrets. Originally I had her as light, but she doesn’t really care about information, only keeping secrets. She doesn’t use fortune to her favor, instead she just *is* luckier than the others, i.e. changing everyone else’s misfortune. She’s not actually that active though- she doesn’t do it on purpose and she doesn’t do a lot in general as she prefers to get others to do stuff for her. But she does play into the heiress persona, changing her name to seem like nobility and wanting dozens of servants.

Fujisaki Chihiro - Page of Doom

-actively exploits and is served restrictions and suffering. She is very clearly doom, as she is very empathetic due to her suffering in life, in addition to being a programmer when doom is linked to coding. I really can’t see anything else. Her being a page is also pretty clear- a slow growing class that tends to put up a facade, and is linked to a servant archetype when Alter Ego was basically the team’s servant. Her main desire is to help the rest of them even after her death through the restrictions that Alter Ego has.

Yamada Hifumi - Rogue of Light

-passively steals information and substance. I considered a number of possibilities for him, settling on light first. He has the rambley, self-important dialogue of a light player, he collects information about his interests in anime and fanfiction, and he creates fanfic. While creation isn’t light specific, taking the info and substance from an anime and rehashing it into his own stories sounds like a rogue of light. He is later a servant to Celeste, who feeds him lies and misfortune; he could be called a Page of Void at that point, which is fitting with Celestia’s void aspect.

Ishimaru Kiyotaka - Knight of Time

-passively exploits and serves through time. He’s very strict about time, being on time and using time wisely. Not just for himself though, he wants everyone to hold the same policies he has. He wants to have an environment where everyone is able to give it their all- he wants to exploit the time he has in order to serve everyone. His inversion is Thief of Space, and I think we see this in “Kiyondo Ishida”, as he seems to steal Alter Ego’s creation to add another dimension to himself. And- this is just my opinion- I also think he ghosts his inversion pretty often even before that, due to the impact of the disreputation of his grandfather and his vehement dislike of “geniuses”.

Kirigiri Kyouko - Maid of Mind

-actively creates and heals logic and decisions. She eluded me for a while tbh. I thought light first, but while she focuses on finding the truth, other information isn’t as important, and she doesn’t seem to match any other markers of light. Instead she seems more like Terezi, a mind player who likes law and detective work. Kyouko creates a path of decisions that surround a crime, and she uses logic to help Makoto make the right choices. She is outwardly cold and focuses on controlling her emotions, which makes me suspect she ghosts her inversion as a Bard of Heart due to her lost sense of self.

Kuwata Leon - Rogue of Breath

-passively steals and relocates freedom and direction. I understand him to have only come into himself recently. I think for most of his life he was ghosting as a Page of Blood, getting served bonds and obligations that he didn’t really want but exploiting them so he was free to do things other than study. When he was accepted at Hope’s Peak, he finally took his freedom and decided that he was going to do what he was driven to do, which is pursuing music. Rogue also fits into the outcast archetype of his alternative/punk style of clothes and personality.

Oowada Mondo - Bard of Blood

-passively destroys bonds and obligations. Blood is everything to him, his brother and his gang are most important, and his word and his promises are solid. But his brother died for his recklessness, he lied about it, he killed Chihiro which exposed her secret even though he tried to cover it up, and he broke Taka’s spirit when he died. He destroys the bonds around him passively, without meaning to, and his secret and his act of killing were both fairly out of the blue. No one really expected that of him- certainly not Kiyotaka, and that fits a bard’s MO.

Oogami Sakura - Maid of Blood

-actively creates relationships and bonds. She is defined by her bond to her family and her bond to her destiny. She is devoted to growing stronger, which made me think life, but she’s growing stronger to fulfill her duty and keep the respect of her family, not to overcome obstacles. That aspect though, the desire to help everyone else become stronger too, that’s very maid/sylph. She’s fairly passive, but definitely not passive enough for sylph, and she tends to focus more on creating new bonds especially regarding ones with herself, rather than healing preexisting ones.

Maizono Sayaka - Mage of Void

-actively knows misfortune and secrets. She tells Makoto that she’s known from a young age that she will have to do anything to reach her dreams, and she acts on her understanding of that misfortune which leads to her death. She focuses more on the misfortune and nothingness part of void, acutely understanding that if she falls out of relevancy, she’s done for. She also jokes with Makoto about being a psychic, knowing his unheard thoughts, which plays into the prophet archetype of a Mage, and knowing the unknown.

**Fukawa Touko & Genocider Sho - Page of Heart & Bard of Heart

-actively exploits and is served emotions and self-identity. Touko… has some issues. She is very concerned about herself, who she is, and how she’s perceived, which is the trademark of a heart player. She is actually good at using emotions to get what she wants. She gets people to stay away from her but also be concerned about her at the same time, not to mention she managed to get Byakuya to let her tail him around which I still don’t understand how. She keeps a strong facade up due to her insecurities and necessary caution due to Genocider Sho.

-passively destroys sense of self and emotions. Sho destroys emotions in a literal sense, by killing anyone she “crushes” on, and she destroys Toko’s sense of self through emotions by leaving her to come to at murder scenes, therefore forcing her to stay paranoid and keep a huge secret. Doesn’t really do it intentionally, as Sho tells Makoto that it’s the same thing as a soccer player kicking a ball, it’s just nature.

Hagakure Yasuhiro - Seer of Hope

-passively understands possibilities and beliefs. Even when he’s pessimistic, he’s optimistic by everyone else’s standards. He is always able to see some better possibility… whether it’s true or whether others believe him remains to be seen. He definitely fits the somewhat far-fetched but unshakable beliefs profile that Hope players have. And he’s definitely knowledgeable about his, uh, profession in a way that seers usually are.

Ikusaba Mukuro - Knight of Space

-passively exploits and serves through space. This was a hard one, partly because we don’t see a lot of her, so it’s long; I used a lot of process of elimination and, well, vibes. Space is about physical matter, size and location, creation, and beginnings. At an early age, she ditched her family in Europe in order to join an elite mercenary group in the Middle East. She is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand, melee, and ranged combat, though she admits that she was never good at planning ahead and strategizing. She was also able to accurately portray Junko, the Ultimate Fashionista. Those three things point me towards space, as her past is about location and beginnings, ranged weapons are about distance, planning ahead is about time which is her opposite, and acting as her sister is an act of creation and physicality, not to mention that clothes have a link to the space aspect as well. Most of the classes don’t really fit her, but the little personality she has is devoted to serving her sister, serving her organization before that, and in DR IF, serving Makoto. Knights are also fighters, obviously.

Enoshima Junko - Thief (Lord?) of Rage

-actively steals rage and limitations. Junko is a lot. Just, a lot. I’m actually leaning towards giving her the “Lord” title because honestly, the level of embodiment that she has over the rage aspect is unparalleled. But I just don’t know enough about the master classes for me to feel comfortable enough with that. So I’m going with thief instead. She definitely gets off on everyone else’s despair and sets them up so they have limited possibilities in the killing game. She takes from them and takes from them and leaves them with some hope just to finally steal that too.

[theultimatefanficwriter]

Ahhh, can I request a scenario for Gundham trying to comfort his girlfriend after a particularly draining trial when she’s out of it?? I only recently got into Danganronpa and found this blog and I’m in love 🥰

Heck yeah I love Gundham! I’m glad you like my blog! Thank you for the request! 

Even a Queen Must Rest-Gundham Tanaka x Reader

You were not ok.

Your best friend on this island, Ibuki Mioda, was just found dead. And to make matters worse, your boyfriend, Gundham Tanaka, was the prime suspect.

"I am telling you fiends, it is not me!" Gundham snapped, glaring at the others who were giving him suspicious looks.

"It's not Gundham!" You agreed. "He would never kill Ibuki!"

"I concur! Gundham cannot be the culprit!" Your other best friend, Sonia Nevermind, spoke up. Gundham gave the both of you grateful looks.

"But the evidence lines up for it to be him!" Kazuichi rebutted. "Ibuki was strangled, and Gundham's scarf was found at the crime scene!"

"I have already informed you that my protective neck wear had gone missing from my quarters at the start of the day." The breeder snapped at the mechanic, crossing his arms. "It is quite possible that a mortal familiar with picking or breaking locks could have snuck into my residence and stolen my beloved scarf."

"But we have no way of confirming that the scarf was really missing, do we?" Kaz pressed.

You rolled your eyes. "He was seen without it the entire day, you idiot!" You spat. "And would he really be so stupid as to leave his scarf there in plain sight if he really was the killer?"

"I mean, yes? Probably." Kazuichi shrugged. "I dunno, he never struck me as that smart."

"But Mr. Hamster Man doesn't have an alibi either!" Hiyoko changed the subject in order to keep the trial going. "He wasn't with anyone at that loud mouth's time of death, not even his slut!"

"Refrain from calling my queen such names if you wish to keep your tongue." Your boyfriend threatened. "And although it is true I do not have an alibi, it is because I was busy searching for San-D, as she had vanished."

"My, you seem to be losing quite a few things today." Nagito mused, leaning forward on his podium. "Hopefully you won't be causing us to lose this trial because of it."

"If Gundham was searching for his hamster around all the islands, surely someone had to have seen him at some point, right?" Hajime questioned, ignoring Nagito. He glanced around the trial room looking for any type of response.

Gundham copied him, and was beginning to get worried until Mikan spoke up. "Oh! W-wait, I think I r-remember something!"

His gaze shot over to her. "Yes? What is it, spit it out!"

The nurse squeaked and hid behind her hair. "Eek! I-I'm sorry! I'll speak f-faster!" She looked between everyone as she continued. "I-I was walking around the beach when I thought I saw Gundham's h-hairstyle in the distance. As I kept walking, I was sure it was him from his clothes, th-though I didn't see his scarf, which I thought was odd. B-before I could say anything he ran away, and I k-kinda forgot about it."

"Around what time was this, Mikan?" Hajime asked her.

The shy girl put a finger to her chin as she thought. "U-um. Around 10:35, I think?"

Gundham, Sonia, and yourself let out a loud sigh of relief. "That's five minutes after the time of death." You pointed out. "And unless Gundham has some sort of super speed, there's no way he could get from the music venue to the beach in five minutes."

Kazuichi's eyes widened, and you noticed he began to sweat. "I-it's still possible!" He insisted.

"Why are you so insistent on pinning me as the killer, Kazuichi?" Gundham demanded, glaring at the mechanic.

"You're the only lead we have!" Souda exclaimed. "If it's not you, then who is it?!"

"Hey, does anybody else think it's weird that the speakers in the music venue were fixed?" Chiaki said suddenly. "When Ibuki had her concert the day before, didn't one of them break?"

"Yeah, I fixed it. So?" Kazuichi shrugged.

Your eyes narrowed. "When did you have the time?" You asked him.

Kaz stiffened and turned to look at you. "Wh-what?"

"When did you have the time to fix the speaker?" You repeated. "It couldn't have been the night of Ibuki's concert. You left as soon as it was over. And you were seen with Sonia until 10:00 today, when you said you had to go do something."

The whole room went quiet.

"I-it's not what you think!" Kazuichi shook his head and waved his hands wildly, sweat pouring down his face. "I-I just fixed it sometime today!"

"Why would you fix the speaker during a murder investigation?" Hajime questioned, narrowing his eyes at the freaked out mechanic.

"T-tinkering with stuff helps me calm down!" Kaz claimed. "S-seriously, if you guys are trying to say it's me, it's not!"

Suddenly Jum-P popped out of Gundham's scarf and jumped across the podium until he reached Souda's. When he was there he climbed up the mechanic's jumpsuit and picked at it. Kazuichi yelped and brushed at the hamster, but it only made it's way back to Gundham. Safely back in his master's hands, the breeder inspected what his Deva had given him. "It seems Jum-P has given us a new clue." The Overlord of Ice informed the others. He held something up with his fingers, and Kazuichi looked about ready to run away.

It was a piece of purple cloth. The same cloth from Gundham's scarf.

"I-I have no idea how that got on my jumpsuit!" Souda insisted. "It's not me! I didn't kill Ibuki! I'm not a murderer!"

Hajime did his thing, explaining how it went down and why. Apparently Ibuki had asked Kazuichi the night of the concert to ask him to fix the speaker the next day, to which he agreed to. He then got an idea of how to kill someone, and frame his "love rival", Gundham. He used his tools to break Gundham's lock while he was asleep and stole his scarf and San-D as a way to keep Gundham busy, then fixed the lock. He then met with Ibuki and fixed the speaker. Then when her back was turned, he strangled her with the breeder's scarf, leaving it behind as evidence.

Everyone voted for him, and he was executed. You all shambled your way to the elevator and made your way to your homes. Normally you would have said something to Gundham, but you felt dead inside. You had no energy. You walked past everyone, including him, as you entered your home.

You fell asleep immediately.

The next morning you woke up to a loud pounding on your door. You blinked open your eyes groggily as you rubbed them. You slowly threw your legs over the side of your bed and tiredly made your way to the door. When you opened it, you saw a very concerned looking Gundham. When he saw you, relief filled his face. "Oh thank the Gods!" He breathed before pulling you into a tight embrace.

You squeaked in surprise. "G-Gundham!" You exclaimed. "Did something happen?"

He pulled away, holding your hand. "When you did not arrive to our morning meal I became concerned, my love. I was worried something awful had happened to you."

You furrowed your brow. "Morning meal...Gundham, the morning announcement hasn't even happened yet."

Your boyfriend looked at you quizzically. "My Goddess...The cursed bear made his announcement nearly an hour and a half ago."

Your eyes widened. "...What?" When Gundham nodded, you rubbed your eyes and shook your head. "I...I slept through that loud announcement?"

"You must be truly exhausted to have slumbered through such a loud call." Gundham mused, looking at you worriedly. He grabbed your hand and gently led you into your room, closing the door behind him. He walked over to your bed and sat on it, you doing the same. He wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you into his side. "I assume your current state is due to the events of the previous night?" Gundham asked.

You nodded as you laid your head on your boyfriend's shoulder. "I...I lost Ibuki. And Kazuichi tried to frame you!" You wrapped your arms around him tightly. "I fought with all I had to prove you innocent, because I know you would never kill somebody." You let out a long sigh. "I guess it used up all my energy."

The breeder looked down at you sadly and ran his fingers through your hair. "My darling queen." He whispered, pulling you into his chest with his other arm. "You did an excellent job last night. One could never have guessed you used even a fourth of your power, you held yourself as proudly as a queen should!"

You blushed slightly and chuckled softly. "Th-thanks, Gundham." You smiled. "Though it honestly didn't feel that way. It was taking all I had not to faint in the middle of the trial. Just the thought of those idiots voting wrong and causing us all to die was stressing me out so much." You closed your eyes as he nuzzled into your boyfriend's chest. "Even now, I'm so exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for years."

Gundham placed a light kiss on the top of your head. "My beautiful angel of darkness." He murmured softly. "You have no need to fear. None of those pathetic mortals could ever stand a chance against your brilliance." He let out a sigh. "And as much as it annoys me to admit this, the one with an unknown talent, the ever slumbering demoness, and to some degree the lucky one have yet to fail us, and have proven their intelligence at every turn."

You giggled softly at Gundham's speech, though even your laugh was halfhearted due to your lack of energy. "Yeah, without them we probably would have died at that first trial." As you thought about that, your exhaustion suddenly doubled, causing you to go limp in Gundham's arms.

Your boyfriend's eyes widened. "You are in a much worse condition than I originally perceived, my love!" He gently laid you down on the bed. "You must stay here and rest until you are well again." He stood and turned to leave.

You reached out a grabbed his hand, though your arm felt extremely heavy. "Wait...stay with me." You pleaded.

He turned to you and smiled sweetly. He bent down and swept a strand of hair from your face before placing a kiss on your forehead. "Do not fret, my angel. I am simply returning to the banquet hall to retrieve you your morning meal. I will return and stay with you while you recharge."

Your heart fluttered, and you nodded happily, placing your arm back beside you. "...thank you, Gundy." You murmured. You still weren't quite used to how much he cared about you.

Gundham blushed slightly at the name. He nodded and placed one last kiss on your forehead before turning and exiting your cabin.

As the door closed behind him, you smiled to yourself. You felt so lucky to have him. He was so sweet and protective of you. It made you feel so safe. You let out a happy sigh as you shut your eyes.

What felt like just seconds later, your door opened, and you blinked your eyes open to see Gundham carrying a tray of waffles, eggs and bacon over to you. "I am sorry it took so long, my love. I am afraid I got caught in an argument with the lucky one." Gundham apologized as he sat next to you, placing the tray beside you.

"Nagito?" You raised a brow as you pulled yourself to a sitting position. "What did you argue about?"

Gundham sighed and crossed his arms, watching you as you picked up the fork and took a bite of eggs. "I am afraid it was over you, my dark queen."

You looked up at him, surprised. "Me?! What about me?"

"The interaction started innocent enough." Gundham explained. "He asked where you were, and I explained you were feeling ill." The breeder scowled. "That pest then had the gall to assume you were faking your illness! He stated you could be attempting to lull us to a state of security before you strike." He looked into your eyes, and you could see the anger in them. "He even had the nerve to insinuate that I would be your target."

Your eyes widened at that, and you choked on the apple juice you had been drinking. Gundham looked to you concerned, but you waved him off. After coughing for a moment, you spun your head to look at him. "He said what?!" You exclaimed. "G-Gundham, I would never-!"

"Relax, my Queen." Gundham reached forward and caressed your face. "Do not fret. I am aware the deranged one's words are not to be trusted." He smiled lovingly at you. "You would never harm me, I know this." You gave him a relieved smile and relaxed at his touch. The breeder used his other hand to sweep a strand of hair behind your ear. "That is when it became an argument. I defended your honor, yet he simply 'warned' me to be wary of you." Gundham scoffed before pulling you into a gentle kiss.

You melted into the kiss immediately, placing the tray of food to the side in order for you to lean further into your boyfriend's touch. "I would never hurt you, Gundham." You muttered. "I feel important around you. I feel...strong." You smiled up at him, the light in your eyes returning slightly. "Even now, I feel a little bit stronger just by being next to you."

Gundham chuckled and ran his fingers through your hair. "You are important, dearest one. I am simply helping you realize your true worth." He kissed you again, then pulled away, a soft smile on his lips. He looked at you for a while, simply caressing your face, until he finally pulled back and handed you the tray once more. "As much as I would love to gaze at your beauty, you really must eat, my dark queen."

You smiled and nodded, continuing to eat the food before you. With each bite and caring look from Gundham you could feel your strength returning to you. Eventually you had finished eating. As you placed the empty tray to the side, you felt much better. You looked over to Gundham, who was simply watching you with a love struck smile. It made you giggle. You moved closer to him and wrapped your arms arms his neck. "I feel much better, my Dark Lord." You murmured.

He chuckled and rubbed your sides gently. "I am most please to hear that, my Dark Queen." He tilted your head up, and your eyes met. You grinned and leaned up, connecting your lips in a passionate kiss. You felt him smirk as he pulled you close against him. "I shall always be here for you, Y/N, my beloved. Whether it be for protection, or to help you recuperate, I shall never leave your side." He muttered into your lips.

You smiled happily as you deepened the kiss. "Nor I yours, my King of Darkness."

[viscariaa]

Day 3 - Saiouma Week - Postgame - Love Like You

Ship: Oumasai/Saiouma

Words: 1077

Type: Postgame AU/Angst/Fluff

Trigger Warning: Self-degrading comments

Posted: 08.02.20

Song: Love Like You by Rebecca Sugar

Description: Two years after Danganronpa Season 53, Kokichi is still wondering why Shuichi decided to date him. 

Two years since the last season of Danganronpa. Two years since they have all been released from the hospital. Two years since Shuichi confessed his love to the tiny supreme leader. A year since he moved into a house with his Beloved. 

Then, why? 

Why was he feeling so sad? 

Kokichi was snuggled up on the couch, a blanket around him, “I’m Kokichi Oma, the...ultimate...supreme...leader. Supreme leaders don’t cry!” 

Then, the memory came crashing down. “Supreme leader? That’s funny,” Kokichi tries to laugh off the pain, but tears flow down. 

“Ugh, can’t this hurry up!” Kokichi whined at a nurse. 

“I can’t keep my subordinates waiting!” 

“About that…” The nurse avoided his eye contact, “DICE was a made up organization. Tsumugi wanted to make you have a more interesting backstory. I’m sorry.”

“T-that’s...a l-lie right?” 

The nurse didn’t reply, giving all the answers needed to Kokichi to know the nurse was telling the truth. 

CREEK!

He rushed over to the front door, throwing the blanket aside. “It’s 9 PM? Had Shuichi come home early from work! Please...I don’t want to be alone right now…” 

He swings the door opened only to see nothing but bills upon bills. Kokichi snatches them up before going back inside the house, he throws the bills on the ground before stumbling back onto the couch. 

I always thought I might be bad. 

“Why?” Kokichi pulls on his purple hair, “why did he choose me? There are way better people than me? Why did Shuichi date me?” 

Kaede is an obviously amazing choice. She is kind, beautiful, confident, smart, everything Kokichi isn’t. Everything he wishes to be. 

“Even after all I did. After all I said. How I caused three people to die,” Kokichi shudders, “why not Kaede? Why not Rantaro? Hell, even dumbass Kaito has a better chance than me!”

Now I’m sure that it’s true.

“Miu...Gonta...Kaito…” He whispers, thinking about what he did. 

He shouldn’t have manipulated Gonta. He should have just accepted his fate. Why did he want to use Gonta? Gonta may have only wanted to be a “true gentleman” but he was still kind to Kokichi. 

“I’m horrible,” Kokichi bites his nails, “I used Gonta’s kindness for myself. I’m so selfish…” 

Miu. He chuckles, remembering the bickering between the two. The horny comments she made, which made him make fun of her. The names they called each other. Then, he remembers the toilet paper. How he turned the tables on her, how he got Gonta to kill her. 

Kokichi winces, “Miu just wanted to survive like me. So, why didn’t I help everyone like that. Nobody liked me, anyways. What a loss would it have been?”

His thoughts drifted over to Kaito. He remembers the talk between the two of them in the hanger. Kokichi doubts Kaito believed him, but he still made Kokichi’s plan happen.

Even though it failed. 

Even though it cost Kaito, his life. 

“Failed…failure,” Kokichi mutters, guilt appearing on his shoulders. 

He recounts Shuichi telling him what happened. How the trial happened, what everyone said afterwards...Kaito’s execution. Kokichi has wanted to talk to him again, to try and save whatever kind of relationship they had. But his fear stops him. What would Kaito say? What about Maki? 

Kaito was always an idiot. He trusts others way too easily. He was too obvious to miss assassin crush. He had friends. 

‘Cause I think you're so good. And I’m nothing like you. 

Shuichi Saihara…the kind-hearted detective. More braver than Kokichi will ever be. Confronting the truth head on unlike himself who crawls and hides like a maggot under lies. Much smarter for figuring out the class trials. Forgiving everyone despite what they have done in the game with no questions asked.

“Why did he date me?” Kokichi asks again. “I’m nothing but trash…” 

Look at you go. I just adore you. 

Everyone has been moving on. Rantaro is spending time with his sisters, Kirumi is starting a maid company, Kaito and Maki are married, and Kaede is working as a pianist. Shuichi is a detective, barely at home, but as long as he is happy, Kokichi is fine.

But, Kokichi sits at home. He can’t face the world, not the world who watched him get crushed. He just sits at home, basically freeloading off of Shuichi. Sure, he does all of the housework, but it’s not enough.

Despite it all, he wants to have Shuichi. He wants to call Shuichi, his boyfriend. Kokichi sobs into his hands, “why do I keep falling for those lies? How could he ever love me? How could he think I’m good enough to stand with him?” 

“H-he should...be with someone better...s-someone who is good enough. J-j-just leave…leave me.”   

I wish that I knew. What makes you think I’m so special. 

“Awww, what makes you say that…” 

Kokichi hears the familiar soft spoken voice behind him, arms wrapped around his frail body. “I’m trying to be honest…”

“Honestly? That’s new,” Shuichi giggles, “s-sorry! That was rude of me…” 

“...” 

Shuichi lets his hands wander to Kokichi’s waist, pressing his body against Kokichi. But Kokichi refuses to accept the warm feeling coming into his heart. He tries to shove Shuichi off, but due to him crying, it was weak. 

“Shuichi, I’m sorry for-” Shuichi kisses Kokichi’s cheek, “you don’t have to be sorry for anything, my Kichi.” 

He continues to kiss all over Kokichi’s face, “I love you...I love you, Kichi. I love you so much…” 

Shuichi decides to hop onto the couch and begins to cuddle his boyfriend. “Kokichi, I will always adore you, and nothing can change that. It’s the truth.” 

Then, he kisses Kokichi. It was gentle, making Kokichi feel Shuichi’s overwhelming love. “Of course, how could I forget? I love him and he loves me. He would never leave…” 

“Your eyes are really red...sorry for taking so long. I’m lucky Kyoko was there to cover my shift…” He laughed, sounding like music to Kokichi’s ears.

“Let’s watch Kiki’s Delivery Service …” Kokichi suggests, feeling groggy from crying so much. 

“Sounds perfect!” Shuichi gets up, making Kokichi groan from losing his touch, and turns on the TV. They return to their original positions, Shuichi giving Kokichi small kisses and whispering sweet nothings into his ear. 

“I’m really happy we’re together, Shumai...” Kokichi snuggles even closer to Shuichi.

Shuichi kisses the back of Kokichi’s hand, “I love you, Kichi.”

Whoops! This is a day late, but it’s for Prompt #3 - Postgame by @saiouma-events. I had a pregame one-shot planned but I ended up hating it, and wrote a new one. Sending you lovelies good luck! - December          

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Bonus 1 - Back Routes

My usual spoiler warning for the main commentary doesn’t really apply here since the back routes are content that most people would usually only see after finishing the main game. But on the extremely unlikely off-chance that someone was going for all the back routes in their first-time playthrough and for some reason wanted to read commentary on them as they went along, this commentary is still not recommended, as I do sometimes mention things from later on in some of the trials.

So, the back routes. For those who don’t know, because the game is pretty vague about them so I imagine a lot of people might not: these are alternative routes you can take in trials by using specific lies in certain debates where you’re canonically supposed to just use the truth. There’s two in almost every trial, except for only one in trial 1, and none at all in trial 6, making nine in total for me to go over here. The alternative events always re-converge with the canon stream of events pretty quickly, so they don’t affect that much, and most of them are pretty silly and pointless, as we’ll see.

I personally first saw the back routes just by finding a Youtube video with all of them in, so I never had to go through the no-doubt frustrating process of trying to figure out where they are. The one indication there is, which is ridiculously subtle unless someone tells you about it, is that the music for the debates in which you can lie is a different piece called “Discussion – PERJURY”, a title you wouldn’t know about on your own without checking the soundtrack. This piece happens to be exactly the same as the usual “Discussion – BREAK” piece, except it also has the vocal bits that go something like “break down the door o’clock” (that’s always what it sounded like to me, anyway), whereas the regular one doesn’t have that. Since those vocals were always in the debate BGM from the first two DR games, it’s quite easy to not even notice there’s anything significant about them being there in this game. And, of course, even if you are listening out for that and have pinpointed which debates you need to lie in, there’s still no hint as to what the possible lie is. I do not envy anyone who’s attempted to find these back routes entirely on their own.

Trial 1, Back Route 1

This first back route is in the second half of the trial, after Shuichi has become the protagonist, in the debate in which everyone’s trying to figure out how the shot put ball could have got all the way from the opening of the vent onto Rantaro’s head. You’re supposed to point out that it could have rolled along the books that Kaede stacked up, but also…

Kaede:  “Hey, Shuichi… Don’t lose sight of the truth.”

…Kaede says this, right at the end of the debate, and there’s a weak spot on it. If you turn the “Library Vent” bullet into a lie, it becomes “Blocked Vent”, and you can fire it at this.

Shuichi:  (Kaede… I’m sorry. I’m not strong enough for this! I can’t make you the culprit!)

It’s almost strange to see this, having recently been in chapters 5 and 6 with a strong heroic Shuichi who could bravely face any kind of painful truth. But here we are back at the beginning, and it is quite believable that the Shuichi in chapter 1 might just have lost his nerve and not been able to do this.

Shuichi:  “W-Well, actually… Maybe the shot didn’t pass through the vent…”

Kiyo:  “Did you not just tell us that the shot traveled through the vent?”

Shuichi:  “That’s true, but… I just remembered, the library’s vent was closed.”

Ryoma:  “The vent… was closed?”

Shuichi:  “… So I think… my deduction might be wrong.”

Shuichi’s voice sounds awkward and nervous as he tells his lie here, but it’s fairly plausible that that nervousness comes from his realisation that his deduction was wrong (because of his lack of confidence in his abilities), rather than from the knowledge that he’s running away from the truth.

Kaede:  “Shuichi?”

Shuichi:  “…”

Kaede:  “I see…”

Kaede immediately sees through him and realises what he’s doing, of course, and she’s not going to let him do that.

Kaede:  “Shuichi, we both investigated the vent. But you misunderstood something.”

Shuichi:  “…What?”

Kaede:  “I closed the vent grate while we were investigating, but it was open before.”

But, adorably, the way Kaede clears this up is not by informing the whole class that Shuichi just lied to protect her because he can’t face the truth. Instead, she tells her own lie that makes it seem like Shuichi was simply misinformed, so she can get things back on track without discrediting Shuichi or hurting him any more than necessary. 

Shuichi:  “No… That’s a lie!”

Kaede:  “It’s not a lie. But depending on your deduction… it could become a lie.”

Shuichi:  “…Ah!”

What Kaede says is a bit odd, since any statement is either a lie or it isn’t and it’s not going to suddenly change. But I suppose what she’s really saying is that the class’s perception of whether or not she’s lying will change depending on whether Shuichi admits that he just lied. She’s making it clear to Shuichi that she knows he just lied and he knows she just lied, without the rest of the class ever having to be aware that either of them did.

Kaede:  “Shuichi, please, answer the question. How did the shot reach Rantaro? You know the answer. You just heard it during the debate.”

And then, like all back routes do, things start to reconverge with how the trial should have gone. It’s lovely though that in this instance it comes from Kaede’s continued efforts to encourage Shuichi to face the truth and use his detective skills that she believes in.

Shuichi:  (Why am I hesitating…? Am I really going to turn back now? At a time like this? I’m sure Kaede wants to run away… But she’s still here… she trusts me to do this! I need to answer. I need to grant her wish. I need to solve this mystery!)

And Shuichi manages to find his strength again, thanks to Kaede’s encouragement and seeing how brave she’s being. After these lines, he explains exactly what he should have done after the debate and things reconverge completely.

I also enjoy that here’s another little moment of Shuichi being perfectly aware that Kaede’s scared but then using that to inspire him to be strong in the face of his own fear. Heroes that are struggling can be more inspiring than otherwise!

This is my favourite of all of the back routes! It makes a lot of in-character sense at this point that Shuichi might do this, because it’s all about his issues of wanting to run away from the truth causing him to momentarily falter even after having decided to accuse Kaede. This is the one back route that I can actually see potentially having canonically happened.

I say this about this one because, uh, most of the rest of them aren’t going to be nearly this good at all. Oh boy.

Trial 2, Back Route 1

This one’s right at the very beginning, in the first debate. They’re talking about Himiko’s magic trick, but this debate isn’t even supposed to be about figuring out the trick, it’s supposed to be about telling Kokichi he’s wrong when he pretends to believe Ryoma was eaten alive. However…

Himiko:  “The Underwater Escape was no trick! It was magic!”

…there is also an agree spot here, and if you turn “Water Tank Trick” into a lie, it becomes “Magic Water Tank”, and you can agree with Himiko that it totally was magic.

Shuichi:  “Maybe Himiko is right… The Underwater Escape might be real magic. Because from what I’ve seen, there is no trick or gimmick in that tank!”

Why, Shuichi. Why on earth do you think this is a worthwhile thing to lie about. Nothing in this entire back route gives any indication as to why Shuichi would think this is necessary.

Himiko:  “Nyeh!?”

The best part of this one, in a very silly way, has to be how utterly fucking surprised Himiko is to hear him say this. If nothing else does, this proves that she’s not actually deluded and knows full well her magic isn’t really magic.

Himiko:  “Y-Yeah, see? Shuichi agrees… There’s no trick. It’s magic…”

Yes, definitely, if the Ultimate Detective agrees then that’s even more proof that she’s a real mage!!! (she is so confused why is he doing this)

Tenko:  “Wait up, Shuichi! Why are you trying to white-knight your way into Himiko’s heart!?”

Like that’s not what you’re doing all the time, Tenko.

Shuichi:  (That… certainly was not my intention…)

Then what the fuck was, Shuichi!?

A couple of people suggest that if Himiko’s trick really was magic then doesn’t that make it more likely that she did kill Ryoma?

Himiko:  “N-No, wait… Ryoma couldn’t have been killed by the piranhas… Cuz the piranhas I used in my show were special. They only eat dead flesh.”

This reads every bit like a desperate lie she’s trying to tell to get the suspicion off her. Apparently she didn’t even bother reading the Monokuma File to find a much simpler way to prove Ryoma wasn’t killed by the piranhas.

Tenko:  “Are you just pretending to be nice to Himiko so she’ll tell us the truth!?”

Shuichi:  “Ah, no, that’s not it…” (But… Himiko’s information was useful. Ryoma was not killed by the piranhas.)

Something you already knew, Shuichi, because you read the Monokuma File and are not an idiot, so Himiko’s “information”, if it was even true, wasn’t actually useful at all. If Shuichi really did tell this lie in an attempt to get some kind of information out of Himiko, then it was the most ridiculously pointless endeavour ever. Maybe he was actually trying to surprise her into admitting it wasn’t magic and explaining the trick? I don’t know.

Things shortly reconverge back to Shuichi explaining why Ryoma wasn’t eaten alive… and funnily enough, when we get to the next debate in which we actually discuss Himiko’s trick, everybody’s going to have conveniently forgotten the fact that Shuichi previously claimed the tank had no gimmick to it at all.

Trial 2, Back Route 2

This next one’s in the second half of the trial, just after Shuichi has accused Kirumi of being the culprit and needs to explain why. You’re supposed to point out that she had the chance to set things up in the gym in the five minutes she spent in there alone. And you’d think that Shuichi would already be aware of this, since this should be why he chose to accuse her in the first place.

Kirumi:  “An alibi for nighttime? I believe most of us do not have one.”

But if you turn “Alibis for Yesterday” into a lie, it becomes, for some reason, “My Alibi For Nighttime”. Upon firing it at this statement, Shuichi is about to tell a ridiculously elaborate lie. Hold tight.

He claims that after the training he totally did with Kaito that night (remember his other, canonical lie), he went back to his dorm but couldn’t sleep and was awake for the whole night. And during the night, he heard the sound of someone leaving their dorm, and then later returning.

Shuichi:  “But… I didn’t hear the sound of someone going down the stairs. Which must mean that whoever left has a room on the 1st floor.”

…

Shuichi:  “Because preparing the ropeway required time to be spent in the gym… it’s extremely likely that the culprit helped set up the magic show. In short… Himiko, Angie, Kaito, or Kirumi.”

Maki:  “I see… So among those four, the only one with a room on the 1st floor of the dorms is…”

Shuichi:  “Yes. Only Kirumi.”

What the actual fuck. This is admittedly very clever, but it’s a huge stretch to think that Shuichi was able to come up with this on the spot. For one thing, I’m amazed he’s actually managed to memorise everyone’s dorm room placements (and apparently so has Maki) when they’ve only been there a few days. I’d certainly only pay attention to my own room and probably my immediate neighbours. Ultimate Detective super-memory, maybe, I guess. But then there’s the part where, while trying to think of a way to incriminate Kirumi, it somehow comes to Shuichi’s mind that she’s the only one of the possible suspects with a dorm room on the first floor, and therefore that he can use that in a lie? Why on earth would he think of that, of all things?

And if the actual reason to accuse Kirumi isn’t something he’s realised, then Shuichi should not even be sure she did it at this point, in which case telling a huge elaborate lie to incriminate her is incredibly risky, because what if she really didn’t do it?

Shuichi’s also missing a few potential suspects. Keebo also helped set up the magic show; Maki did not but has no alibi between 9 and 10 and could have done it then; and Miu also has a weak enough alibi that she could potentially have snuck into the gym for the five minutes necessary to set it up between 9 and 10. Keebo and Maki are on the second floor of the dorms. Miu is not. It still could technically be Miu, if we’re believing Shuichi’s lie here!

It is quite something to realise that the placement of all the characters’ rooms in the dorms were apparently decided almost entirely for the sake of this one non-canon alternative route. (I should also point out that despite more than a year of obsessing over this game, I still had to check these dorm placements that I just mentioned. It’s ridiculous that Shuichi knew these off the top of his head after only a few days.)

And I’ve no idea how a player is supposed to be able to figure out this back route through anything but wild trial-and-error. You can check what Lie Bullet is made from each Truth Bullet, although to do so you then have to fire it, which you lose health for doing (unless you have Kokichi’s skill equipped). I suppose firing “My Alibi For Nighttime” at the claim that most people don’t have an alibi for nighttime kind of makes sense, but Shuichi supposedly proving his own alibi is not necessary and not even what actually happens here. Players must be very confused when he suddenly goes off on this tangent which is nothing like what they would have been expecting from this.

Kokichi:  “Hmm, you heard a sound, huh? Well, I hear a load of BS.”

Kokichi’s not wrong to call out Shuichi’s bullshit… but honestly, this was quite a plausible lie, simply because it’s so implausible to think that Shuichi could have come up with this as a lie. If he actually heard Kirumi leave and re-enter her room, then it makes sense he’d have then been able to narrow down that it could only be her based on her room being on the first floor. But the idea that he somehow managed to figure this concept out backwards without having actually heard anything is far harder to believe.

Kokichi:  “But unfortunately for you, Kirumi… Your time’s up. We already know you’re the only one capable of setting all this up. Riiiight, Shuichi?”

Shuichi:  (…Well, that was an unexpected assist.)

And this is how we reconverge. So apparently Shuichi did already know to point out that Kirumi is the only one who had the five minutes alone in the gym to make the preparations (so much for his claim that it could have been anyone who was in the gym even though the rest of them were never alone in there). In which case, whyyyyy on earth do this ridiculously elaborate detour instead???

Plus, here’s Kokichi making it clear that he knew that just as well himself, but of course he didn’t point it out any earlier than this because lol what is being helpful, that’s boring.

Trial 3, Back Route 1

This one’s in the first half, in the debate where it’s being argued that Keebo could have snuck in under the seance room’s floor using his flashlight function to see. You’re supposed to refute Kiyo’s claim that the culprit used a light at all because any light would have been seen through the hole in the floor. But doing that is honestly a little bit confusing and unintuitive, because the rest of the debate is more about specifically Keebo's flashlight and it seems more like you should be focusing on that in particular. Because of this, I’ve actually seen one blind LPer trigger this back route by accident because they were so confused about what to do here.

Miu:  “Keebo could’ve used that function to get under the floor…”

Turning the “Keebo’s Flashlight Function” bullet into a lie gets you “Flashlight Drawbacks”. The LPer I mentioned thought this simply meant the fact that it’s really bright and would have been seen through the gaps, so they fired it here and were very confused by the notion that this was even supposed to be a lie in the first place. But oh boy, it is. Here we go.

Shuichi:  (It’s hard to believe that Keebo is the culprit in this case. It’s even harder to believe that this trial isn’t being manipulated by someone… So even if I have to lie… I need to defend Keebo!)

It’s pretty ridiculous that Shuichi hasn’t figured out the obvious way to prove Keebo’s innocence without lying. And then it’s also odd that despite having no proof, he still believes Keebo isn’t the culprit. It comes across like the kind of belief he has in Kaito, but he’s not particularly close friends with Keebo in that same way, so it’s just very out of nowhere. This is the flimsiest justification for this silly detour.

Shuichi:  “It’s so bright, even Keebo can’t see when it’s turned on!”

And so this is his lie, because apparently “it’s so bright that people would have seen it through the goddamn hole in the floor” did not occur to him first.

Miu:  “…Wait, what!? There’s no way a genius like me would make that kinda rookie mistake!”

It’s honestly pretty remarkable that Keebo’s flashlight doesn’t have that drawback, since it’s in his eyes, which are indeed what he sees out of as trial 6 confirms for us. One would expect that to just massively overload the light sensors that they’d be right next to.

Gonta:  “But… you make mistakes a lot… A whole lot…”

Oh, Gonta. You and your straightforward honesty.

(And then Miu is terrible and the less said about that the better.)

Shuichi:  (Come on, Keebo… Please, play along!)

Keebo:  “Um…”

Shuichi:  (Keebo!)

Keebo:  “Uh, um… Well, uh…”

It is pretty cute how Keebo doesn’t want to call out Shuichi’s lie but is also super uncomfortable about going along with it. Keebo is one of very few characters in this game who never lies about anything.

Keebo:  “I’m so sorry! I just don’t remember! Really, I’m sorry!” [he shines his flashlight]

…I say that, but this here has to be a lie, because he was standing with his flashlight on for the whole second half of the investigation and would definitely have remembered not being able to see for all that time. Still, he’d rather tell an inconsequential lie about not remembering than either call out Shuichi for lying to protect him or go along with Shuichi’s much bigger lie that it really does blind him.

Kaito:  “Aagh! We get it already! Just turn it off! We’re gonna go blind!”

Remember me noting during the trial itself that it’s Kaito in particular who complains about Keebo’s flashlight, suggesting he’s extra light-sensitive right now due to his illness? Still a thing here.

And a few lines later…

Keebo:  “Shuichi, I’m so sorry!” [he shines his flashlight again]

Kaito:  “Damn! That is seriously bright!”

It is still Kaito who reacts. He does this all four times Keebo shines his flashlight in this trial, if you count this back route along with the canon parts. Yep, I’m certain that’s a thing.

Maki:  “Wouldn’t the light have shined through the gaps of the floorboard if it had been that bright?”

And then Maki is the one to save us from this dumbness that we’ve ended up on. Thank you, Maki.

Trial 3, Back Route 2

This one’s just after the intermission, when they’ve figured out that the seesaw trick required cutting the crosspiece beforehand, and so Kiyo is arguing that Himiko did it because she’s the one who picked the room. You’re supposed to prove that the other rooms were trapped too, but instead…

Tsumugi:  “What if someone steered her into picking that room?”

…you can turn “The Caged Child” into “Caged Dog Village” and fire it at the agree spot in this statement. This is an odd one; “Caged Dog Village” is simply the name of the book that describes the Caged Child seance and therefore basically refers to the same information. This is not actually a lie.

Shuichi:  (If implicating Himiko was the plan, then disrupting that plan might teach us something. For that reason… I have to lie!)

Do you, Shuichi? The game is trying to insist that this totally counts as a regular back route which arbitrarily must involve lying, but he’s not about to lie here.

Shuichi:  “I believe Himiko was being set up. Himiko only picked that room because Kiyo wanted it as dark as possible.”

This a perfectly valid point which doesn’t get made in the canon trial. Before picking specifically the middle room, Himiko was also the one to suggest using one of the empty rooms in the first place – but she did so after Kiyo said it needed to be dark. Obviously Kiyo knew that those rooms were the only rooms available that fit the criteria for the seance and deliberately let her suggest it instead of himself.

None of this is a lie, and it didn’t even really need the “lie” bullet of “Caged Dog Village” for this, when The Caged Child truth bullet also mentions how it needs to be dark. Alternative routes to debates shouldn’t necessarily need to involve lying! (This is also another one which must have required some frustrating trial-and-error for players to find on their own.)

Keebo:  “The culprit gambled on the middle room being picked through coincidence? That seems highly improbable.”

Shuichi:  (Ah, that is true… The culprit wouldn’t have left that to chance.)

And now we’re back right where we started this debate, because even if it can be explained why Himiko picked one of the three empty rooms, this doesn’t prove that the culprit steered her into picking specifically the middle one (because he didn’t).

Himiko:  “… No more… I told you… it’s too much of a pain. Just do the voting or whatever.”

There’s also a little more of Himiko having given up here, since Shuichi is not doing a good enough job of defending her with this to inspire her out of this mindset.

Kokichi:  “I’m pretty sure it didn’t matter which room Himiko chose…”

Shuichi:  “What do you mean?”

Kokichi:  “It’s getting kinda boring, so I’ll explain. She didn’t choose the middle by coincidence. Each room was the same to begin with.”

It makes sense that Kokichi’s the one to get us back on track, because he’s the one who discovered the other rooms were trapped. Of course, he could have told everyone that in the first place, but nope, he’s only pointing it out here because Shuichi’s being slow on the uptake and it’s looking possible that they might actually vote for Himiko and get everyone killed if he doesn’t step in. It is quite amusing how frustrated he sounds by this. Ugh, what do you mean he’s got no choice but to be helpful for once. The least helpful person even when he is actually being helpful, as always.

Trial 4, Back Route 1

This one’s in the very first debate, in which Kokichi’s arguing that Kaito poisoned Miu.

Kokichi:  “That’s when you poisoned her, right, Kaito?”

You’re supposed to fire the “Small Bottle of Poison” at this statement to prove that Miu couldn’t have been killed with that poison. But you can also lie with that bullet to turn it into “Small Antidote Bottle” and fire it here.

Shuichi:  “And it’s much too early to decide that Kaito is the culprit.”

Kokichi:  “But whyyyyyyy? I think it’s already too late. You guys are taking so long to realise that people can kill others in a snap…”

Oh my god, Kokichi, you are the most broken record ever even in non-canon alternative scenarios.

Shuichi:  (I know Kokichi hasn’t forgotten about that. He’s just pretending. Alright, Kokichi, I’ll play your game. If you’re going to lie, I will too.)

At least for this back route, Shuichi isn’t being inexplicably stupid and failing to realise the correct way forward. He knows it, but he’s just trying to give Kokichi a taste of his own medicine.

Shuichi:  “Have you forgotten? The bottle we found at the scene was an antidote, not a poison. It’s not like Miu could have been killed by an antidote.”

This is a pretty pathetically obvious lie, but the point isn’t to have anyone believe it, it’s to (attempt to) push Kokichi into admitting the truth about the poison and that he already knows the culprit isn’t Kaito. Which can sometimes be the point behind some of Kokichi’s pathetically obvious lies. The ones that aren’t just for the hell of it, at least.

Shuichi:  “…Is this *fun* for you, messing with the trial?”

Kokichi:  “Hm? Well, I mean, this is where it gets fun for both me and the culprit.”

Of course he’s doing it just for fun, Shuichi, you barely need to ask that.

Also, please recall that Kokichi believes right now that Gonta remembers being the culprit, and yet he has the gall to imply in earshot of Gonta that he’d ever be having fun with this. What a dick.

Kokichi:  “…So, what’s this talk about an antidote? We’ll just say you misunderstood the whole thing, Shuichi. We all know you wouldn’t lie.”

Shuichi:  “O-Of course. I’m sorry, I was just misremembering.”

It’s pretty disappointing and anticlimactic that Shuichi just backs down on this. Him telling this lie in the first place was supposed to be to show Kokichi how frustrating his own obvious lies are and try to get him to reveal his hand. Kokichi would never suddenly back down with an “oops sorry I was just mistaken” (Kokichi is never wrong about anything, after all), so if Shuichi really wants to commit to this bit, he shouldn’t either!

I suppose the fact that he does just goes to show that Shuichi doesn’t have it in him to be as much of an asshole liar as Kokichi, funnily enough. Which is why I’m still not super fond of this back route, even though it’s less stupid than the ones in trials 2 and 3 – while it’s neat that Shuichi tries to use Kokichi’s tactics against him, it’s not really in his character to do that when it’s not necessary. That’s too underhanded for Shuichi.

Shuichi:  (I can’t let Kokichi continue this line of questioning. It will implicate Kaito.)

Kokichi already has implicated Kaito. Wasn’t the point of this whole lie supposed to be to get him to reveal the truth of the poison and unimplicate Kaito? But even then, it’s very unclear how Shuichi thought lying that the poison bottle was an antidote bottle would do that – Kokichi’s just going to retort “no, it was poison, duh” and never need to explain the part where it was a type of poison that couldn’t have killed Miu. This whole escapade of Shuichi’s was a pretty silly idea on many levels.

Shuichi:  “But Kokichi, you’re misremembering as well. You were the one who told us about the warnings on the label. If you remember what was on that label, you’ll see that your argument is flawed.”

Kokichi:  “What warnings? Was there something like that on the label?”

Shuichi:  (Is he still pretending not to know…?)

And ultimately, he never gets Kokichi to admit he was lying about it. He even actively claimed that Kokichi just misremembered, despite knowing that’s not the case! If revealing that Kokichi was lying was your goal, Shuichi, why would you not at least try to point that out to everyone, even if he’d inevitably deny it.

Trial 4, Back Route 2

This one’s just after the intermission, in the debate where they’re discussing what was used to slide Miu’s body off the roof, featuring what would normally be Kaito Refutation #3.

Kaito:  “There was nothing like that around, though!���

But instead of refuting Kaito with the actual truth, you can also turn “Signboard Used as a Bridge” into “Signboard Used as a Sign” and fire it here.

Shuichi:  “There was something the culprit could have used to slide the body! The signboard!”

Kaito:  “The signboard!?”

While the purpose of this lie is, again, about Kokichi, it makes me uncomfortable that this one involves Shuichi lying to Kaito. Kaito’s having enough inferiority issues at this point in this trial already without Shuichi just using him as a springboard to play some pointless game of liar chess with Kokichi.

Maki points out that the signboard was already being used as a bridge and therefore couldn’t have been a sled.

Shuichi:  (Maki is right, it couldn’t have been that exact signboard. However… He knows exactly how it was done. That’s why I need to bait him out with this lie!)

Again, Shuichi is attempting to get Kokichi to reveal that he already knows all the answers to this case by pushing him into it with his own lie. So he goes on to claim that there was actually a second signboard lying next to where he found the first one to use as a bridge. (During the Virtual World trip, the game made a point of how Shuichi went alone to fetch that signboard in the first place, which it turns out was entirely for the purpose of this back route, so that nobody else would be able to prove this is a lie.)

Himiko:  “But then why did Miu say there was only one signboard?”

Shuichi: “Uh… To mislead us; she was planning a crime, after all.”

This is rather flimsy and indicative that he’s lying. She would still need a reason related to her planned crime to want to lie about this. In fact, there being a second signboard there would have ruined Miu’s plan of throwing away the bridge, so really she should have deleted any extra potential bridges beforehand and that proves Shuichi’s lying about this.

Kokichi:  “Puhu… Puhuhuhuhu…!”

This, of all things, is Kokichi’s initial reaction. I guess since we’re in the second half of trial 4, it’s approaching the point where he’s going to be pretending he’s super evil for the purpose of convincing them all he’s the mastermind, and that’s why he’s acting like Monokuma here?

Kokichi:  “Ah-hahahaha! Oh my god! That lie was sooo cringy! Stop, my stomach hurts! Wooow! Shuichi is lying on purpose! Are you trying to spice up the class trial, too?”

And this time, Kokichi explicitly calls Shuichi out on the lie. This is the first time he’s done that for any of Shuichi’s lies, back route or canon, since this is just a little before Shuichi’s actual canon lie in this trial which Kokichi will also call him out on.

It’s a little strange that he reacts to this lie of Shuichi’s so differently than how he reacts to the upcoming one, just finding it hilariously pathetic rather than being furious about it. Perhaps that’s just because the upcoming one gets used much more directly against him, to prove that he went to the crime scene, whereas this one doesn’t “ruin his fun” and in fact makes things more entertaining for him.

Shuichi:  “Kokichi… I was the only one who went and got the signboard. Only I saw them. So why do you think I’m lying?”

Kokichi:  “Because I know. I know the culprit… and the whole trick.”

And, I guess props to Shuichi, because this time he actually succeeded in getting Kokichi to admit this. This is possibly because Kokichi is so close to the point where he’s planning to reveal the culprit anyway that he doesn’t see the harm in giving everyone a little teaser of that. (I should also point out that, were Kokichi really going for the mercy kill, it would be better for him to not admit to knowing anything at all here.)

Kaito:  “Wh-What!?”

I like how Kaito is the first one to react to that. At this point in the trial it’s pretty clear that he’s noticed Kokichi already knows a bunch of stuff he’s infuriatingly not telling anyone, so this is probably less him being surprised at that and more just being bewildered that Kokichi is suddenly admitting it.

Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… I couuuld tell you, but I think we should save the best for last.”

He still wants to draw it out, just like he’s been doing this entire trial, to make it as ~fun~ as possible, because he is still twistedly desperately trying to have fun with his murderous assholery. And he’s trying to make it as cruel as possible too, so that they’ll all believe he’s totally evil and therefore totally the mastermind.

Kokichi:  “Even if I told you, would you guys really believe a liar like me?”

Yeah, he knows that people are going to put up resistance to the idea once he does accuse Gonta, just because it’s him saying it. But he also knows that Shuichi will face things objectively and prove it for him anyway once he gets to that point.

Kokichi:  “That doesn’t mean *all* of Shuichi’s deductions are lies, y’know.”

Oh, really, Kokichi? But I thought that if one person lies about one thing then they’re instantly a horrible backstabber and you can’t trust them about anything, and so everything they say might as well be considered a lie? Yeah, too bad for Kokichi that narrative doesn’t work here where he still needs Shuichi to be credible in order for him to prove to everyone that Gonta did it.

So admittedly, these two back routes for trial 4 are much less ridiculous and more pointed than the ones from trials 2 and 3, and while the first one awkwardly doesn’t go anywhere, this one actually does. But I’m still not hugely fond of them and don’t like to think they’d be canon, simply because it’s not like Shuichi to use underhanded tactics like this unless he really feels it’s necessary.

These lies are also more underhanded than the canon lie later in this trial, because that one straightforwardly “proves” that Kokichi went to the roof, whereas these two are all about trying to manipulate Kokichi into admitting something that Shuichi’s lie itself doesn’t actually prove (which might also be why Kokichi is so amused by this lie when that’s not at all how he reacts to the upcoming one). That’s worse than anything Shuichi does canonically. This is Shuichi stooping to Kokichi’s level even more than he does in canon, not because he has to but just because he can. He’s better than that.

Trial 5, Back Route 1

This back route is almost my favourite one. Almost. And then it isn’t.

This is the first debate after Exisal Kokichi appears and shows everyone the video, in which you’re supposed to argue that Kaito’s cause of death couldn’t have been the hydraulic press because of the safety function.

Himiko:  “Kaito got crushed to death.”

But instead of firing the safety function at this, you can turn the “Murder Video” bullet into “Survival Video” and fire it here.

Shuichi:  “I still… don’t believe it. Is that video real?”

Because Shuichi doesn’t want to accept Kaito’s death, even when it’s staring him in the face, of course!

Shuichi:  “It could have been edited to make it *look* like Kaito was killed by the press.”

Exisal Kaito:  “Damn right!”

[the Exisal leaps over into Kaito’s spot]

Exisal Kaito:  “There’s no way this Luminary of the Stars would die that easily!”

I love that this makes Kaito be himself again for a moment. Of course he’s too invincible and too luminary and too Kaito to die that easily! That’s exactly what Shuichi’s believing right now!

(And it’s exactly what Kaito hasn’t truly believed about himself in a while. But since he’s playing an overexaggerated version of himself that Kokichi might act out, and since he’s talking about how he totally wouldn’t ever die, that’s a reason to pretend like he’s the Luminary of the Stars, even though he doesn’t truly feel he deserves that title any more.)

Tsumugi:  “K-Kaito again!?”

[the Exisal leaps back to Kokichi’s spot]

Exisal Kokichi:  “Would you have liked it better if it turned out like that? Ah-haha, you wish!”

But Kaito can’t actually stick with that for more than a brief second, no matter how much he must have liked the excuse to pretend he really is invincible, because he’s here to convince Shuichi that he’s dead. I don’t think this brief switch to his own voice was actually scripted, for the same reasons I argued back in the main commentary that Kaito starting out as himself at first wasn’t scripted. Kokichi would have preferred it if they never heard both voices and therefore never even considered the possibility that the Kokichi voice could be faked.

Nonetheless, Kaito’s doing a good job of ad-libbing Kokichi’s behaviour after he switches back, because of course Kokichi would enjoy rubbing Shuichi’s denial and irrational belief in Kaito’s invincibility in his face. The delivery of the “you wish” is especially dickish, and I am forever impressed at Kaito being able to do this kind of thing.

Shuichi:  (Ah!)

Shuichi is not happy at being toyed with like this.

Exisal Kokichi:  “Like I said, that footage isn’t edited at all. It recorded the event completely as is. Kaito was crushed! His bones went crunch, and his organs went squish!”

Yikes. This part at least is very definitely scripted, and, again, it is incredible that Kaito can act this out and make himself say these words. He manages to sound genuinely gleeful about the gruesome part, even though that is actually what he did to Kokichi while he was still alive. Aaaaaa, Kaito. I bet he was very, very glad in the canon version of events that he never had to recite this bit of the script.

Himiko:  *huuurp*… “I remembered the video… And all my bittersweet memories of him…”

Himiko still seems to be reasonably upset about Kaito’s death!

Tsumugi:  “Hold those memories within you… or they’ll just escape as sour vomit.”

Meanwhile Tsumugi sure seems to give absolutely no fucks that Kaito was horribly killed, does she.

Shuichi:  “But we all know Kokichi loves to lie. And that he’s a Remnant of Despair. That leads me to believe there’s something he’s not telling us about that video. I don’t think that video showed the murder at all! All we saw was a living body!”

Questioning the validity of the video is quite a reasonable thing to do at this point, even despite all of Exisal Kokichi’s insistence that it couldn’t have been edited. But it’s still very unlikely that this’d ever actually cut the trial short, because without knowing why Kokichi would fake the video, which we don’t figure out until we learn that Monokuma doesn’t know what happened, there’s no reason to be certain that it even was faked at all. Trying to figure out how it could have been faked at that point is just trying to solve a puzzle that might not even have a solution.

Exisal Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… I don’t blame you for not believing it. It’s hard to believe a smug idiot like Kaito got squished like a bug, right?”

Says Kaito. Still very scripted, still delightful that Kaito is forcing himself to say all these things designed to taunt and hurt Shuichi and make himself sound pathetic and worthless. He is doing whatever it takes to get Shuichi to drop this.

Exisal Kokichi:  “But your lie won’t work here, Shuichi. No, what you said isn’t even a lie! It’s just wishful thinking!”

And of course Kokichi in the script, having predicted the possibility of Shuichi desperately trying to deny Kaito’s death even after seeing the video, would still want to make it seem all about lies despite knowing full well that Shuichi reacting like this wouldn’t (shouldn’t) have anything to do with lying at all. Kaito can’t enjoy dismissing Shuichi’s wishful thinking like it’s meaningless to hope for something better, especially when he knows that Shuichi’s right to. Wishful thinking is believing that the impossible is possible!

Shuichi:  “…” (You’re wrong, Kokichi. My emotional reaction is the lie. I put on this act to get what I want from you. I know that these class trials demand that someone dies. I’m prepared for that.)

And then, this back route, which was being really delightful, just goes and shoots itself in the foot and completely invalidates itself. What the fuck do you mean Shuichi was only pretending to desperately want Kaito to be alive?

If Shuichi has accepted the fact that someone’s dead, and is also sure that he’s talking to Kokichi, that means he’s already accepted that Kaito is dead. This is straight-up contradicted by canon, in which Shuichi only properly accepts that Kaito is dead just before the Debate Scrum, which is still a while from now. Acting like he’s totally already accepted it here completely compromises Shuichi’s emotional progression for the first part of this trial, which is one of the most fun parts!

(There was even that one bit right here where Shuichi went (Ah!) in his inner monologue, which is an internal reaction that wouldn’t be part of this hypothetical lie and sure implies that his emotional reaction really was genuine, but nah, that was never a thing, right.)

And the only reason they did this, probably? Because back routes must totally always involve lies of some kind. As if you couldn’t possibly have an interesting alternate route in a debate that doesn’t require lying (even though the second back route in trial 3 actually did not contain a lie at all). I bet the writers came up with this fun idea of Shuichi trying to deny the video, and then went “wait, shit, that’s not actually a lie; we need to make it a lie somehow otherwise it can’t be a back route”. No, you don’t!!! This is, again, making Shuichi far too underhanded and manipulative for his character, especially given the desperate state of mind he is canonically supposed to be in at this point in the trial. Gah. This is so disappointing.

Honestly, I’d have been tempted to actually include this back route in my main coverage of trial 5 if it hadn’t been for this. If they’d actually made this about more of Shuichi’s desperate denial like it should have been, with bonus Kaito briefly being his totally-invincible self and then reciting some painfully cruel scripted lines that he must have hated to say, it’d have been a delightful addition and there’d have been very little reason for me not to include it!

Also, if they’d made this back route be actually about Shuichi’s denial, it would also have been amusingly similar to the hypothetical alternate route I proposed in the main commentary, in which Shuichi could have picked up on Exisal Kokichi’s comment about his singular wound to desperately try and tell himself it was Kaito in there after all. That one wouldn’t have involved lying either, and wouldn’t have needed to to still be interesting! (That part came later on, just after the Debate Scrum in which he accepted Kaito’s death, but then it’d have been a brief lapse in Shuichi’s resolve to accept the truth, kind of like trial 1’s back route.)

Shuichi:  (My intuition is telling me there’s something wrong with that video. It was shot for a reason.)

Shuichi should be perfectly allowed to have his detective’s intuition tell him this while also having his Shuichi Saihara side desperately want to deny the video just because he can’t bear the thought of losing Kaito. They shouldn’t have to randomly erase Shuichi’s emotional side here to justify this alternative route.

Shuichi:  (Is there a hint in what Kokichi has said? Some key to the mystery?)

There is not, because nearly everything Exisal Kokichi said in response to this was very clearly scripted, and Kokichi would have carefully made sure that none of it would give any hints as to what’s really going on in the video or why he shot it. All he did was reiterate that the footage wasn’t edited, and then distract from the topic with lots of taunting about Kaito’s death and Shuichi’s denial.

Maki:  “Isn’t this enough? Kokichi is the culprit. He brought the evidence and even confessed to the murder.”

But Shuichi doesn’t get more time to think about this, because Maki is very quick to insist that Kokichi did it, so that she can get him killed.

Shuichi:  “That doesn’t make sense! Not even Kokichi would do something that stupid!”

I am amused by how Shuichi’s wording implies that he thinks Kokichi is usually rather stupid, even if not this much so. That’s not quite what he really means… but Kokichi was rather stupid about this plan in multiple ways.

Tsumugi:  “Is common sense going to work here? On the Remnants of Despair, I mean.”

Tsumugi is still trying to remind everyone that this is definitely all about Remnants of Despair, even though them writing off Kokichi’s strange actions because of that would likely lead to them not finding the real truth and getting her game into trouble. (Kaito must be already getting very confused about what these Remnants of Despair are in this turn of events.)

Then Keebo is the one to get us back on track, because apparently when Shuichi mentioned earlier that the video could have just showed a living body, Keebo ran a mental search on the word “living” and got a “hit” of the press’s safety function. Which is an odd way to recall a relevant fact like that. This is Keebo being less human-seeming than usual, if he had to consciously run a search instead of just remembering it like a regular person would. Especially since he himself had such a personal beef with the safety function earlier.

Trial 5, Back Route 2

This is a little later on but still before the intermission, after Shuichi has figured out that a third party entered the hangar using an Exisal and is trying to prove how that was possible. You’re supposed to point out that someone used an Electrohammer to hijack one, but instead…

Maki:  “…so getting inside one would’ve been impossible.”

…you can turn “Hatch’s Electronic Lock” (which refers to the locks on the Exisals’ cockpits) into “Unlocked Hatch” and fire it here.

Shuichi:  “While investigating the Exisals, I noticed that they have no locks on their cockpit hatches.”

But Shuichi, if you really did notice that while investigating them, then why didn’t you try opening the red one that was there in the hangar? In fact, why doesn’t Maki just leap over there right now to open the cockpit and murder Kokichi to death like she’s been wanting to this whole time?

Shuichi:  “It should have been possible to get into the cockpit, providing they could reach it.”

Maki:  “But that’s reckless, absurd, and useless… Jump inside a moving Exisal? That’s not really possible.”

Shuichi:  “No, I think it is. You would need to be quick, agile, athletic and stealthy… I can think of at least one person who fits that description.”

Shuichi is presumably making a point of how only Maki could be capable of jumping into a moving Exisal to try and make her defend herself by saying they were locked, which would be admitting she knew about the locks and therefore incriminating herself.

Maki:  “…What? Are you implying that it’s m—”

Exisal Kokichi:  “Oooh, I see! And since he’s a robot, he could have some robo-communication function!”

Aaa, Kaito! We’re entirely in ad-lib territory here, so this is him defending Maki by changing the subject to Kokichi’s usual robophobic dickery! The real Kokichi would be much happier using this opportunity to be more of a dick to Maki, not Keebo, and rub in how much of an evil stealthy murderous assassin she is.

…Of course, Kaito knows Maki did this and wants Shuichi to figure it out. So perhaps this is because he’s not particularly thrilled at the underhanded way Shuichi is going about this, because of course he knows Shuichi’s lying about the lock on the Exisal.

Keebo:  “As I’ve said, my speed, agility, and strength are equal to that of a human, if not weaker!” […]

Tsumugi:  “The selling point of being a robot is being good in combat, but… poor Keebo…”

Insert some of my usual grumbling about Keebo never using his goddamn weapons until chapter 6 for no adequately-justified reason here.

Maki:  “Stop this pointless conversation, Shuichi. If you want to say something, say it already.”

Maki can clearly tell Shuichi is up to something and is quite understandably annoyed at him beating around the bush like this.

Shuichi:  “As the Ultimate Assassin, you would be able to jump into that Exisal, correct?”

Maki:  “…Impossible. If I could do that, I would’ve turned the Exisal into scrap on the first day.”

Shuichi:  “Maybe. Unless you were hiding your true potential, in which case…”

Heh, the image of Maki using her badass assassin powers to even assassinate the Exisals and singlehandedly save everyone at once is a fun image. And she may well have been deliberately hiding her true potential to begin with since she didn’t want anyone to know she was an assassin at first – but she’d have had no reason not to come chapter 3.

Maki:  “…Do you really suspect me that much?”

Shuichi:  “No, actually. I’m trying to find a way to prove that you *couldn’t* be the intruder.”

What Shuichi is saying sounds like something that could be true because he doesn’t want to suspect his friend… but he’s lying. He’s saying this to try and make Maki admit that she knew about the lock and prove she’s the intruder, because he does suspect her the most. This is very uncomfortably underhanded and manipulative of him

And this works – Maki goes on to explain that there’s a lock on the cockpits, meaning she couldn’t have got inside.

Shuichi:  (…You just made something very clear to me, Maki. You do know something after all, and you’re hiding it from me!)

And you’re hiding your intentions for this conversation and lying to her, so really right now you’re both being as bad as each other, Shuichi! This back route is in a similar vein to the ones in trial 4, in which Shuichi lies to try and coax information out of someone whom he knows is hiding something from him. It was one thing when that person was Kokichi and Shuichi was essentially just turning his own tactics against him. But this is Shuichi being deceptive and manipulative towards his friend, even if it is a friend who’s hiding something from him, and that makes me even more uncomfortable.

Shuichi:  “How do you know there’s an electronic lock on the Exisal’s hatch?”

Maki:  “… …Because I checked it during the investigation.”

Shuichi:  “That can’t be true. I’m the only person Monokuma told about those locks.”

Maki:  “…Just you? I see. If that’s the case… Then you lied just to confirm if I knew about the electronic lock.”

I’m glad that Maki realises he did that and calls him out on that.

Shuichi:  “…Yes, I did, and I’m sorry.”

If you’re sorry then you should have just not done it in the first place, Shuichi! It’s perfectly possible to force her to admit the truth just by proving she had to have done it by talking about her used Electrohammer – which gets her to pretty quickly concede that she’s the third party – so why would you bother using this underhanded manipulative method on your friend when you don’t have to!?

Maki:  “When Monokuma explained it to you, I just happened to overhear it. That’s all.”

Shuichi:  “You’re lying, Maki. You know about the locks because you’ve been inside one of the cockpits.”

Maki:  “So annoying… Do you want to die? You’re the one who’s lying!”

Both of you have been lying and being dicks to each other right now! But only one of you is doing it because you’re broken and manipulated into feeling like it’s necessary, and that one is not Shuichi!

I’m also quite sad that Kaito does not try and step in at any point to break this up, like he did that one time in canon for a similar argument between Shuichi and Maki. Kaito must hate seeing the two of them lashing out at each other like this, Shuichi using unnecessarily dickish tactics and Maki hiding the fact that she thinks she killed him for reasons he still doesn’t understand. Exisal Kokichi only gets that one earlier line about Keebo in this whole back route, and it’s another thing that’s disappointing to me about this one.

Shuichi:  (It looks like… she’s never going to admit it on her own. There’s something important that she’s protecting by keeping her mouth shut.)

At least Shuichi believes that if Maki is being so stubborn about this, it must be because she’s protecting something. The actual truth is a lot more painful than that.

Shuichi:  (In that case, I have to keep pushing.)

You could try doing that by using the truth and actually proving she did it instead of this manipulative bullshit, Shuichi. If she’s stubborn enough that she’s never going to admit it without proof, then just prove it already.

Himiko is the one to save us and get us back on track this time, with a brief surprising interlude in which she seems like she’s not going to say her magic could have unlocked an Exisal… but then she says her magic would have been an option alongside an Electrohammer after all.

Once it reconverges, Shuichi is suddenly talking again about a mysterious “third party”, like he wasn’t just making a huge point about how Maki in particular knew more about the Exisals than she should and is already very clearly the third party in question. These back routes don’t always reconverge very smoothly.

So, yes. It’s interesting to see some alternative possibilities, but almost all of these back routes do not deserve to be considered canon or even ambiguously canon. Either they involve Shuichi being way dumber than normal and overlooking the correct option for no particular reason, or they involve Shuichi being far more dickishly underhanded and manipulative than he should be. The only potentially worthwhile ones are the ones about Shuichi running away from the truth, which is only one and a half of them. That first one in trial five frustrates me so much – it was this close to being absolutely delightful, and then they ruined it! Aaargh.