#Especially Sayaka's during the attempted murder
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borkthemork · 2 days ago
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A good deal of the time the game talks about how irrational the Killing Game is created with the attempt to showcase despair as a natural thing that occurs first in mind, and it really digs into why Junko's plan failed in the first place. And why a great deal of experiments similar to it such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Acali Raft Experiment are flawed.
They are situations where they attempt to proclaim that natural order breaks down when placed in specific environments that supposedly naturally create aggression and drama, when in reality, a great deal of the distress comes from outside forces trying to push this thesis onto the people being watched, and having selection bias and other factors manipulated thoroughly to make sure these outcomes occur. These are not natural circumstances, they are artificially created to create a specific outcome, and in the Acali Raft Experiment specifically, even when a group was left out in the middle of the sea, they weren't going to kill or fight each other. In fact, they started becoming friends, and hated the anthropologist who attempted to have them fight.
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The situation is similar with Junko's situation. Not only did Junko have to create a whole game where it isolated everyone and put them in a scenario where they're always under duress, but she had to manipulate and blackmail Sakura too to start killing someone if something didn't go according to plan. In some subconscious way, she knows that her plan would backfire if community and hope does keep people together, that if she doesn't stress and play at their buttons they would instead find solutions. And her even outing Sakura as the mole shows the big major flaw in her design, it subtly tells the audience tuning in that all of this despair and murder needed to be planned, and that's probably what got Kirigiri ready to use the live broadcast against the Mastermind as leverage.
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Naegi states how flawed Junko's thinking was since the first trial, and when Monokuma tries to proclaim that everyone remaining blamed Oogami, he refutes him by saying he was at fault for this to begin with and is putting words into their mouth.
None of them were placed here under natural circumstances, and the despair and pain created are all manipulated by the Mastermind.
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That's why there are a lot of themes in DR1 regarding risk and going outside the game, because if you take yourself out of the restricted rules of the so-called experiment, then you begin to realize that everything is flawed. All of this is manufactured. No one, in the grand scheme of the murders, are at fault.
Everything about Junko's attempts to cause despair is her attempting to place her pain and desires for despair onto other people, and trying so hard to confirm that idea.
Naegi had always been right from the beginning on this fact, and him deciding to not listen to her and what she says was the final step for him to "bow out of the game". He is not going to listen to someone who speaks lies and goads just to make them hurt each other. By refusing her and encouraging his friends to do the same, it shows he completely doesn't care about the rules and artificial restrictions she has placed on them, and that is what makes Naegi break free.
Something today reminded me of this but it cracks me up how fans often say Makoto is delusional for having hope during the killing game when Junko is the delusional one for acting like Despair is natural after forcing to entire situation to happen.
Like leaving aside how she manipulated and brainwashed her way into the end of the world, she erased their memories so they would be strangers killing each other, she came up with the whole game as the only way to get out of the school while not telling them the world outside is in ruins and dangerous, she gave them motives to kill each other, she forced them into those situations and yet she acts like Despair is the natural order of things, she basically made Makoto's argument for him and when he pointed it out she went "well you sure have a talent for passing the buck" which is basically "No u" and immediately went to the final voting.
People say the final showdown in THH is a "No u" contest and that discredits Makoto...but what the fuck did you expect from him? He doesn't have to entertain Junko because she already demonstrated her argument is flawed herself and she refuses to listen, at that point the only thing left is convincing the others and be done with it, she's not gonna listen to him or facts, way bother?
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despair-to-future-arcs · 1 year ago
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Twilight Syndrome Murder Case - Guy C
[Part 1]
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So... given Twilight Syndrome Murder Case was in the game - I am curious of what everyone else else was doing; I know that girl A was Mikan, girl B was Hiyoko, girl C was Ibuki, girl D was Mahiru, girl E was Hatomi and guy F was Fuyuhiko...
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Yeah I... did recall seeing those names pop up but I'm not sure what everyone else was doing at the time but I'll give you my account of what I was doing...
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On July 8th... I did remember talking with Yukio and Kei about Nagito's status after his suicide attempt...
...
...
...
Date: July 8th, 2011
[X]
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Wait hold on are you saying that Nagito is going to leave the hospital?!
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Indeed... seems that after checking his mental health; he was free to go, so I'm going to check him over and sign him out.
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So by July 11th, he should be able to return back to us...
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That's... good to hear, honestly I was worried about him but at least he'll be okay, so what about you Yukio; you going with Byakuya?
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O-Oh uh, actually I sadly can't... you see, me and Peko are going to go on a date tonight...
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Oooh, talk about lucky for you; Mr. Miyahira, you surely got yourself a good catch...
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Hey if you can confirm if her panties are black for me if you do.
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Wh-What?! Hold on a moment, don't think we are going to that stage in the relationship just yet!
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And besides, it's only just one date... I'm not even sure if it's going to work out or not.
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Exactly, Teruteru... let's not tease him as he does seem nervous...
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Right... that is fair...
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Still... have fun, Yukio...
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Thanks, see ya then... *walks away*
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Well... I better head off too, gotta prepare for exams.
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I got a dish in mind and I think the judges are gonna love it!
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Well I'm sure whatever your going to make will impress the judges very well; see you later.
*As Imposter leaves, Teruteru takes his leave too and heads for the cafeteria which he comes across a sight*
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Hey Sayaka, did you... give me this note?
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Huh? A note...? I don't think so... can you let me see it?
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*gives her the piece of paper* It was on my desk and had your name on it so I figure I give it to you to confirm it.
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'Dear Yokoyoko, I want to meet you as the music room after school to talk about something, please come alone. From Sayaka.'
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Whoa, that's... really weird, hey Sayaka you wrote this? It sounds like a crappy love confession.
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Well I surely wouldn't confess like this, I would of written a song about it if I were to confess to someone...
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So no... Sorry Yokoyoko, I didn't write this if asking; sorry if you got confused.
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Nah... it's okay, probably someone wanted to mess with me, I'll just throw it away; honestly this sounded way too weird especially as the music room is being use during the exams. Honestly if they wanted to confess, pick a better spot.
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Hehe, well I hope this helps you - anyway, I'm going to do some exercising in the training room; excuse me.
*Sayaka walks out of the room until Makoto look at Yokoyoko*
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Okay... now that she's gone, is everyone in your class coming to this party or not?
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Yeah, I mean seriously we need to make you all are good to go.
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femalechibiblogger · 5 years ago
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My Top 10 Underrated Anime Series
1. Welcome to the NHK
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Plot: The main protagonist is Tatsuhiro Satō, a university dropout entering his fourth year of unemployment. He leads a reclusive life as a hikikomori, ultimately coming to the conclusion that this happened due to some sort of conspiracy. One day just when his life seems entirely unchanging, he meets Misaki Nakahara, a mysterious girl who claims to be able to cure Tatsuhiro of his hikikomori ways. She presents him with a contract basically outlining that once a day they would meet in the evening in a local park where Misaki would lecture to Tatsuhiro in an effort to rid him of his lifestyle. During these outings, many subjects are discussed, though they almost always pertain in some way to psychology or psychoanalysis. One of their first meetings in fact deals with interpreting Tatsuhiro's recent dreams. Both Tatsuhiro and Misaki, however, have a tendency of over-doing things, such as hiding the truth, especially from each other and themselves. Despite Misaki's offer and pressing attempts at salvation, it is Tatsuhiro's neighbor and high school friend, Kaoru Yamazaki, whom Tatsuhiro often turns to in moments of need and support. Despite his own idiosyncrasies, Yamazaki is one of the more stable characters in the story.
While many may not know about this series, those who do know of its existence can see it’s appeal. This anime shows that some people, like the main character, are shut-in’s due to social anxiety holding them back from living a regular life. The anime deals with subjects such as social anxiety, hiding depression from loved ones, paranoia, and a crippling fear of never being accepted by the outside world. 
Throughout the series, Sato tries to go outside more often and is pushed to do this by a high school girl, Misaki, and his old classmate now neighbor, Kaoru. All the while, Sato meets some people from his past who cause him to go down a different path, such as becoming part of a ponzi scheme or joining a suicide group, because they themselves have problems that he unknowingly becomes a part of. This goes to show that if you have struggles with batting depression or have family problems...seek proper help before bringing others down with you.
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2. Tiger & Bunny
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Plot: The series takes place in "NC 1978" in a fictional, re-imagined version of New York City called Stern Bild City, where 45 years before, superpowered individuals known as "NEXT" (an acronym standing for Noted Entities with eXtraordinary Talents) started appearing and some of them became superheroes. Each of the city's most famous superheroes work for a sponsor company and their uniforms also contain advertising for real-life companies. Their heroic activity is broadcast on the popular television show "Hero TV", where they accumulate points for each heroic feat accomplished (arresting criminals or saving civilians, for example) and the best ranked hero of the season is crowned "King of Heroes". The story mainly focuses on veteran hero Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, a.k.a. Wild Tiger, who is assigned a new partner: a young man named Barnaby Brooks, Jr. However, Barnaby and Kotetsu have trouble working together, as they have conflicting opinions on how a superhero should act, while at the same time they are trying to crack the mystery of the murder of Barnaby's parents. In addition, the appearance of a homicidal vigilante NEXT named "Lunatic" stirs up the public and makes them question the place of heroes in the city. 
The main heroes, Kotetsu and Barnaby, do not like each other at first...but a strong bond grows between them as they protect the city and help each other from the tragic moments of their pasts. They even help each other with the problems that they face within the series’ current timeline: Kotetsu slowly losing his powers, and Barnaby being manipulated by someone who he thought of like family. 
While not as big as My Hero Academia, this series still has lots of good moments, terrific super heroes, and powerful storylines. Tiger & Bunny is definitely worth watching for anyone who loves superheroes and anime.
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3. My Roommate Is A Cat
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Plot: Novelist Subaru Mikazuki, who is shy and not good with other people, and Haru, the cat that has been living a severe stray life. This is a story of them suddenly living together and describes the happiness of living together from both point of views.
This series is definitely underrated. My Roommate is a Cat is filled shows how much of an impact a person...or in this case a cat...can have on a person who has lived a life of solitude and books. The main character, Subaru Mikazuki, begins to slowly open up to those around him thanks to the help of a stray cat: Haru. From Haru’s point of view, Subaru is someone whom she desires to protect and take care of, as she fears that he cannot survive without her. Subaru also comes to term with his parents’ deaths and learns to move past his guilt, and realizes that there are many people who love and care for him.
This series shows that it’s ok to open up to the people around you, and that no one is truly alone.
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4. And Yet The Town Moves
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Plot: Hotori Arashiyama loves mysteries, but there’s one she just can’t solve: why does the solution to one problem inevitably seem to lead to another? Like how when Hotori has to start working at the Seaside Maid Cafe after school to pay off a debt and her friend Toshiko fortunately knows exactly how a Maid Cafe should be run. Which is fortunate since Hotori has no clue. Except that, unfortunately, Toshiko has no interest in working at the cafe—until she discovers that Hotori’s childhood friend Hiroyuki is a regular. Which SEEMS fortunate. Except that Hotori doesn’t know that, while Toshiko likes Hiroyuki, Hiroyuki secretly likes Hotori, while Hotori secretly has a crush on… No, no more spoilers!But if that’s not enough drama, there’s work, angst with a certain math teacher, table tennis between her classmates, her younger brother versus the school’s bad girl… And yet, even though everything seems like it’s going to crash at any moment, somehow Hotori’s life keeps going hilariously forward.
Sure...it doesn’t have sexy and cute maids that most maid-theme anime has... But And Yet The Town Moves is still a series worth watching. The series features cute, slice-of-life storylines filled with antics by the mystery-loving Hotori Arashiyama. Because of her crazy antics and goofy nature, Hotori brings laughter and new experiences to those around her. 
If you want an anime featuring klutzy maids and funny slice of life, then And Yet The Town Moves is definitely the right choice. 
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5. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
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Plot: Midori Asakusa wants to create an anime, but she's too disheartened to make that first step by herself. By pure chance, she meets Tsubame Mizusaki, an up-and-coming socialite secretly dreaming of becoming an animator. Together with Midori's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori, the energetic trio start the "Eizouken" club and slowly work towards making their "greatest world" a reality.
This anime is truly a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! has animation that is truly breathtaking and filled with the imaginations of aspiring animators. Throughout the series, our three protagonists: Midori, Sayaki, Tsubame experience the hardships of running their own studio, all the while dealing with the Student Council and School Board who wish to shut down Eizouken. But no matter how hard they try, there is no stopping these three girls from making anime and running their studio. 
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! has such brilliant animation, creative storylines, and normal looking characters who viewers can relate to. If your dream is to become an animator, than you certainly learn a lot from this series.
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6. Angels of Death
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Plot: 13-year old Rachel awakens to find herself trapped in the basement of an abandoned building. Without any memories, or even a clue as to where she could be, she wanders the building, lost and dizzy. In her search, she comes across a man covered in bandages. He introduces himself as Zack and he wields a grim-reaper like sickle.A strange bond is struck between them, strengthened by strange, crazy promises…These two, trapped in this strange building, don’t know why fate has placed them there. But they will work together desperately to find a way out…
Rachel and Zack are quite an unlikely duo...yet their skills and personalities are what complete each other: Rachel is calm and calculating, while Zack is aggressive and strong. But they have something in common: They both suffered their whole lives, became killers, and being killers is what got them trapped in the mysterious building in the first place. Together, they face various serial killers who want to keep them from escaping: A doctor with an eye fetish, a pumpkin-headed child who wants to bury Rachel in his graveyard, a female-prison warden who’s obsessed with punishing ‘sinners’, and a faithless priest whose goal is to test the faith of those who fall victim to the killers within the building. 
Angels of Death is filled with such mystery and psychological thrills. While it is not for the faint of heart...it is definitely for those who wish to find a good psychological thriller to watch.
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7. Zombieland Saga
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Plot: In the year 2008, high school student Sakura Minamoto is abruptly killed by a truck on the morning she plans to submit an idol application. Ten years later, Sakura, along with six "legendary" girls from various eras of Japan's history, are brought back as zombies by a man named Kotaro Tatsumi, who seeks to revitalize Saga Prefecture by putting together an all-zombie idol group known as Franchouchou.
Unlike most ‘pop idol’ anime series, that feature cute girls whose music can save the world...this one features cute girls who are zombies who were brought back to life to save a city as a pop idol group. While it seems unusual, Zombieland Saga shows the viewers all the things that Saga has to offer...because it basically advertises the entire prefecture. The members of Franchouchou: Sakura, Saki, Ai, Junko, Lily, Yugiri, and Tae...are determined to become a great idol group while keeping their true identities a secret. Thanks to their mysterious manager, Kotaro Tatsumi, they are given a second chance at life and learn more about each other...but they also help each other move on from their deaths and give closure to the loved ones that they had to leave behind. 
If you are looking for a ‘pop idol girl’ anime that is different from others...then Zombieland Saga is definitely a good choice, as it does differ from the usual plots that anime featuring pop idol groups has.
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8. Mitsuboshi Colors
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Plot: Set in Ueno. The series follows three elementary school girls, Yui, Sat-chan, and Kotoha, who together form an organization known as "Colors". Together, they perform various deeds and errands to protect the peace in their town.
This series is very adorable and is filled with a lot of hilarity. What makes it hilarious, are the crazy antics of the crybaby Yui, the rambunctious Sat-chan, and the dark-humored Kotoha as they try to help others and maintain the peace in the town that they love so much. They recieve help from local shop owner, Pops, who gives them clues to solve, and are often coming into conflict with police officer Saito, who sees them as nothing but trouble while dealing with their childish antics. 
Mitsuboshi Colors really does make you want to go to the real Ueno in Japan, and see all the shops featured within this series.
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9. Lovely Muco
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Plot: The series depicts the life of the pet dog Muco and his owner Komatsu, who lives in his glass-making workshop in the mountains.
Lovely Muco shows life through the eyes of Muco, a shiba inu who lives in a mountain town with her owner, Komatsu, who works as a glass blower. Muco is an energetic dog who finds everything around her fascinating. Muco loves Komatsu more than anything in the world, who gives her lots of love in return. Muco also interacts with other people such as Komatsu’s long-time friend, Ushikou-san, bar owner Bouda and his energetic daughter Rena. 
Lovely Muco shows the viewer how the world looks through the eyes of a dog, and what goes through their curious minds.
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10. Chi’s Sweet Home
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Plot: A grey and white kitten with black stripes wanders away from her mother and siblings one day while enjoying a walk outside with her family. Lost in her surroundings, the kitten struggles to find her family and instead is found by a young boy, Youhei, and his mother. They take the kitten home, but, as pets are not allowed in their housing complex, they try to find her a new home. This proves to be difficult, and the family decides to keep the kitten. While being housebroken, the kitten mistakenly answers to "Chi" (as in shi- from shikko, the Japanese word for "urine") and this becomes her name. Chi then lives with her new family, learning about different things and meeting new people and animals.
This series is filled with so much love and cuteness that it could give you diabetes. Chi’s New Home shows viewers how the world looks through the eyes young kitten ‘Chi’, as she grows to love her human family and makes new friends along the way. Chi and her family love each other greatly, and cannot imagine living without each other.
Chi’s Sweet Home shows us just how important family is, and how a new member of one’s family can bring so much love and joy into one’s life.
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Mod, who are your top 10 favorite characters and top 10 least favorite?
//I have actually been wanting to discuss something like this, so I’m glad someone brought it up to me.
//I’ll go through with this, but I won’t be discussing my least favorites, since I don’t want to bring any negativity, and to be honest, I enjoy writing pretty much everyone in this blog. I also fear if I share who my least favorites are in the main series, said characters won’t get as many asks, and I don’t want any unfair bias. I can definitely admit to hating Haiji though, because...well...he obviously won't be receiving any questions anymore. Besides, I doubt many people will disagree with me.
Honorable Mentions:
Makoto Naegi
Mahiru Koizumi
Kirumi Tojo
Kaede Akamatsu
Tsumugi Shirogane
Shuichi Saihara
Iroha Nijiue
Mikihiko Koyasunaga
Yoruko Kabuya
Tsurugi Kinjo
Uchui Porosen
Kibin Hatsudoki
//Though to be honest, everyone may as well be an honorable mention because I love writing every single one of these guys. Also, like I just said, don’t let this top 10 affect your asks. I love every character in this blog and I’m happy to make asks for each and every one of them. It was really hard to narrow it down to 10
#10: Tenko Chabashira
This might seem a little surprising, given that Tenko hasn't had a whole lot of screen time and story relevance so far. She's only been prominent in two arcs, Deadly Harmony and Novoselic Revolution, both of which she didn't have as much screen time as most of the other characters. However, not to spoil anything major, I have big plans for her, and what I've pulled out of her so far is something I'm proud of. My main goal is mainly to give her a bit of development, and tone down on the sexism element of her character. Not remove it entirely, mind you, because let's be real, Tenko unfortunately isn't Tenko without it, but basically to not do what the DR dev team did and make it the forefront of her character, while her other exceedingly good traits are just at the back until later on in the story.
#09: Kokichi Ouma
Kokichi is one of, if not, my favorite character in the original DR series. My main goal of him in this series is trying to grapple with his constantly changing attitude, mainly towards the DRV3 cast besides himself. At first he's glad to see them, then he turns spiteful towards Shuichi and Kaede when they try to fight him, then he straight up just abandons them and attempts to cut off contact. As he is right now, he's conflicted about how to feel about everyone. Sure, they all still hate him, but during Cabaret Kyojin's they came to his defense when he most needed it. That whole arc might've seemed pretty pointless and acted as needless filler, but my true intention of it was to flesh out the characters involved, mainly Kokichi and Kuripa. Speaking of which, that's another plot point that I'm looking forward to branching upon: the little companionship those two have going on right now.
#08: Monaca Towa
Monaca is a character I actually tend to struggle with in the grand scheme of things. The reason being that, arguably, she in canon is the second biggest antagonist in the series behind Junko. What I tried to do with Survivor though, is not make her an antagonist, but make her slowly become more and more redeemable, despite her actions. The reason why I went with this approach is mainly due to Monaca's last appearance in the series, where she states to Toko and Komaru that she's kind of just done with everything to do with Junko and Despair. I don't think it would be easy to bring her back as an antagonist because of THAT fiasco, and that is legitimately one of favorite scenes of her...which is funny because it's from DR3 and I kinda hate the anime. Her whole presence in Survivor is based around the idea of trying to seek redemption, but she doesn't outwardly want to admit this, nor does she really think she's worthy or deserving of said redemption. She's an adult now, and she grew a conscience. A guilty one that weighs her down and makes her come back to earth to basically settle things and make peace, and though it's been difficult, I love how she's turned out so far.
#07: Akira Tsuchiya
I understand many have their reservations about Akira after what he did this arc, but he's still legitimately one of my favorite villains in this blog because despite the fact that he's a psychopath who kills and ruins people all just for causing Despair, he's just kinda super relatable. He constantly lives with the attitude of just being done with everyone's shit, and I know a lot of DR fans can relate to that. He's also the kind of guy who marches to the beat of his own drum, which is obviously a very slow beat. He rarely ever does what Tsumugi tells him to do, unless the plan interests him or gives him something to do, and his character in general is based around the idea of "Shut-in NEET who just so happens to have a power complex." Overall, what makes him unique to me is just how normal he is, especially when he's compared to the chaotic sea that is the Danganronpa Villains.
#06: Mikan Tsumiki
Novoselic Revolution had the very important role in the story of mending Mikan. Without her efforts and the sacrifices she made in that arc, there's a high chance that the group would have failed to retake the kingdom from Angie and Mikihiko. It goes without saying that the screentime Mikan got in this arc was some of my absolute favorite moments on this blog from a writers perspective. A lot of people in DR dislike Mikan for her actions and character change in the third case of the second game, which I really don't think is fair. Mikan was just the character chosen to be afflicted with the Despair Disease. Nothing else would have been changed had it been a different character, so her role early on in Survivor is mainly her trying to come to terms with her actions, as well as things like making things right with Hiyoko (and Ibuki by extrension) and reevaluating whether or not she's a good person. Mikan is an emotionally and mentally broken child, and it's my full intent in my writing of her to heal her wounds like she does for so many other people.
#05: Narumi Osone
Easily my favorite Zetsubou villain in the blog. During Novoselic Revolution, I really buttered up how much I enjoyed writing Mikihiko, but in reality, I was just waiting for the Rebirth Duo (her and Akira) to burst onto the scene. She didn't make for as great a twist villain in Life and Lies of Akeru Yozora as I would've liked her to be, but even now, I still feel like she left an impact. I mean, she committed quite the number of atrocities. The main reason why I like Narumi though, is how she diverges from the rest of the Zetsubou group. While most of them are doing their evil things for reasons that constitute to causing as much Despair as possible, she does it for almost the complete opposite reason. She absolutely despises Despair, and the only reason she's with Organization Zetsubou, is so that she can patiently await and watch as the Hope that stems from the people fighting back. It's also plays into her ideal. Narumi is so obsessed with Hope that she believes that anyone and everyone who is without hope, and gives into Despair, doesn't deserve to live (and ideal that also allows her to easily hit it off with Nagito). To name the best example: The UUV. Their revenge fantasy is based around the Despair they feel post Ayumu and Marin's deaths, and not around the Hope of their goal of reforming society, even if by force. When Narumi notices this, is angers her so much she murders all of them in cold blood, believing them to be beyond redemption. As a final note, Narumi's violent nature and lust for bloodshed (and lest not forget her weird obsession with Makoto) is also made all the more tragic when you remember she's literally just a 14 year old kid with not a lot of life experience. For someone to be this far gone at such a young age is pretty depressing, but it also provides me with a lot of great writing opportunities, and god damn it she isn't a fun character to write.
#04: Mukuro Ikusaba.
I could pretty much just copy/paste the basic things I said about Monaca's personal conflict for Mukuro, but on a much more extreme level. This is something that I plan on actually branching on later down the line, but Mukuro's backstory and reason why she has a presence here is briefly mentioned by Sayaka in one post. To sum up what she said, when the Foundation were first starting to use the machines to bring back the victims of the first killing game, Makoto was the one who suggested possibly bringing Mukuro back, something that understandably, his classmates initially were against. However, at the time, Kyoko was still new to being the Foundation Chairwoman, and Makoto very much pressed the issue with her. Kyoko eventually agreed to the resurrection, but in exchange, any and all actions committed by the soldier, most notably any treacherous or bad ones, would subsequently be Makoto's responsibility. Of course, as you can imagine, Makoto accepted these terms, and Mukuro was resurrected. For a while afterwards, many were very wary of her presence, and most didn't outright accept her as a member of the Foundation, even when the Remnants of Despair officially signed up. What you have to remember is that Mukuro wasn't really brainwashed into helping Junko, at least not in the same way that the Remnants were. Most of what she did for Junko is what she did willingly, but Makoto felt that in reality, Mukuro was just another one of Junko's victims and she'd never known Hope in her life, which is why she turned out so chaotic, so his whole intention of reviving her was to redeem her honor, of which he was pretty much successful. The main trait of Mukuro's though that I tend to focus on, is arguably her most serious: her PTSD. Of all the characters who could have been hit hard with PTSD, it makes the most sense for it to be a soldier, and since the beginning of her revival, Mukuro has been cursed by the lingering ghost of her dead Despair sister. Junko's presence in her mind less drives Mukuro insane though, and simply makes her doubt herself and her presence, wondering if it was worth being revived, or whether or not she truly deserves to live. But regardless of how she feels, she's duty bound to the end, and still supports everyone unquestionably, especially towards those in her own branch being Makoto, her boss, the man who saved her, and of course her undeniable love interest, and Kuripa to whom she disciplines, but also acts as a mother/big sister figure to.
#03: Hajime Hinata.
It might just be me, but I feel like Hajime in particular is the fan fav in this blog. I feel he's shown up in more posts than any other character, which is fine by me given he's also one of my personal favorite characters, and is probably my favorite protagonist (it really changes depending on my mood, honestly, I think they're all as great as each other). The remnants of Despair's conflict is an obvious one that you commonly see in post-game fics such as this one, and in Survivor, and my personal opinion, Hajime is undoubtedly the one who has it the hardest. However, out of all of the characters in the series who HAVE trauma (and let's be real, that's undoubtedly a LOT of characters in both DR canon, and this blog) he's also undoubtedly the one who handles it the best. However, there is a limit to how much pressure he can take, and that causes him to lash out (like he did with Mahiru during Misfortune's Revenge, which I know we don't like to talk about but its the most notable example). He's been through a whole load of shit and the pressure is constantly crushing him like a gigantic boulder, yet he still forces himself to carry it. Outside of my own writing, Hajime has so many conflicting thoughts and trauma in other fics, and in Survivor, I don't intend to flat out copy them, but I do desire to live up to them. The reason why Hajime has so many burdens placed upon him, and as of Misfortune's Revenge now has double as many, yet is still able to keep going strong, is because he's no longer allowing himself to be weighed down by events that are in the past and out of his control. What makes his ideal unique, is that he has power, almost limitless amounts of it, but instead of focusing on what he can do with it, he's more conflicted and focused on what he CAN'T do, and changing the past is one thing he can't, and as of such doesn't focus on it. He only ever focuses on the present, and the future, and worries about that. And you've got to hand it to the guy, while it's definitely been better, his life is actually super good right now. He has at least 15 really great friends/found family members, a home on an island resort, an AI companion in his phone who will always help him out and support him, a smoking-hot red-haired girlfriend, a pretty good job and a lot more. For him, it's not simply a matter of abiding by the Foundation and fixing the chaos that he indirectly caused. It's also about the fear of losing what he has, and wanting to protect it.
#02: Ayumu Fujimori.
I've said this one or two times before, but I think Ayumu turned out spectacular, and when I eventually had to kill him off, I felt really bad about doing so. The main reason why I removed him, and why I currently don't have any plans to bring him back, is due to my future plans, having him around would make little to no sense. He serves mainly as a catalyst for the new phase of the story, a much darker one, and with his death, we enter that phase. I know many people are worried about it, but it's not just Ayumu's reason for being in the story that makes him great. While it isn't obvious right away, the main character that I was trying to portray with him, is that he's basically the darker side of Hajime. The two of them share very similar traits in character, personality and backstory. Some notable points would be
Both of them are incredibly self-doubtful, and that self-doubt caused them to become Ultimate Hopes.
Both of them once held huge admiration for a powerful group of people. For Hajime it was Hope's Peak and for Ayumu it was the Japanese Government
Said power called them useless, which led to their transformation
Both have pretty sad backstories, which involve two different types of cruel parents and family's.
They both have a best friend who likes to sleep.
Said best friend ended up dying horribly right in front of them, with them both unable to do anything about it, which eventually leads them both to go insane and make some bad decisions.
Though their methods differ, ultimately, they both want the same thing: a brighter future for their friends and the people they love
Ayumu might be a threat, and an antagonist, but he doesn't really count as a "villain" per se. At the core, he's basically just a misguided young man, who the world treated like shit, so he just wants to get back at it. He's also an influential figure, pulling many people into his fight, and gaining many supporters outside of his friends in the UUV. For the short time he was on the blog, he was an absolute BLAST to write, and you can damn sure bet I'm going to miss him.
#01: Kuripa Kurafto.
This is undoubtedly the riskiest part of this list, especially since we're talking about an OC here, but I also think a lot of you guys saw this coming. I can understand why some of you might disagree with me on this placement, but I'll tell you now, if you're unimpressed, trust me, I am barely scratching the surface of Kuripa's character. As of such, I have to go on this based off of what's already known about him. His whole character I feel comes full circle at the end of the Ultra Despair Gang arc, in which the first monumental event in the blog actually happens: him killing Haiji Towa by stabbing him in the gut and sending him falling to his death. This is then followed by a speech to Makoto, Komaru, Toko and Byakuya, which basically lays out the key part of Kuripa's character, being his ideals. Every protagonist in Danganronpa goes by a certain ideal that contrasts that of their enemies. For Makoto, it's Hope, for Hajime, it's Future, and for Shuichi it's truth. Kuripa is the complete reverse, being a protagonist that represents Despair. He's not outright a villain, or even a generally bad guy, but he definitely has some apparent darkness to him, and is also incredibly violent when at the peak of rage. Of course, it all stems from a huge event in his life, the murder of his little sister Kotoko by the hands of Matta Gyalusetsu, which has led to his over-arcing conflict: his desire to find Matta and kill him as revenge. I tend to hate characters in stories who have the "My Sister is Dead" archetype or trope, but the main reason is because most characters who have that JUST have that, and for Kuripa that's something I'm trying to avoid. One of the most important parts of Kuripa's character is the contrast between his dark, almost psychopathic side that believes murder is a suitable way to indefinitely solve a problem, and his regular self, who to put simply, is a complete and total clown. He's like a walking meme, and makes a total fool out of himself, either through just being a mindless tomfool, a playful perv, or a loveable idiotic otaku. Still, his presence is indeed important to everyone around him, especially seen through his interactions with Makoto, Kibin, Mukuro, Uchui, Kokichi, The Kyojin's and the High Roller staff. This is another thing in regards to Kuripa's conflict that is quite saddening to. Similar to Hajime, as things currently stand, Kuripa has an excellent life. He's a successful animator who makes a lot of money from his work, he enjoys his time at the Future Foundation and really looks up to both Makoto and Mukuro who both treat him with a reciprocated amount of respect, he gets to work in tangent with his best friend, he has many pals, some of which are part of an anime club, and on top of it all, he has a cute girlfriend who playfully flirts back and forth with him all the time. He has everything a guy could possibly ever want, but due to his one track mind, he can never be satisfied knowing Kotoko's killer is still out there, and he will do whatever it takes to avenge her...even if he needs to cut a few people down to get it...
//Doing this kind of self-reflective character analysis is pretty refreshing and fun to be honest, although, doing it makes it sound like I have a big head, and am complementary of my own writing where I know many might disagree with my techniques and opinions. You're free to, believe me, but please keep any criticism constructive.
-Mod
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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 5 years ago
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Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc hypothetical reimagining
(NOTE: The intention of this post is that the universe is the same but the twists and deaths are different. Think of this as the “Dead Rising 2: Off the Record” of the series) 
CHAPTER 1
The story starts off following the original game fairly closely. You play as Makoto Naegi, a high schooler who was accepted into the elite Hope’s Peak Academy after his name was pulled from a random drawing. However, the game quickly goes south when the students are forced to kill each other by a demonic figure known as Monokuma. (side note: Mukuro is part of the class, there is no 16th student mystery for this version of the story)
Where the story diverges is the day of the trial. Instead of waking up as Makoto, you wake up as Mondo Owada, who takes over as the main protagonist for the rest of the game. As it turns out, the victim of the first chapter is...Makoto. He was apparently stabbed to death while he was sleeping.
During the class trial, as another major divergence from the original story, Mondo deduces that the blackened is Kyoko Kirigiri. Even though Kyoko claims the class is making a mistake, ultimately all the evidence points to her, leading to the class voting her as the blackened. 
Kyoko’s execution: In a demented waterpark, Kyoko is sent down a slide into a pool of gasoline. The pool is set on fire, killing her instantly (she’s burned to death as a reference to her burned hands). 
Despite surviving the trial, Mondo feels that there’s something they overlooked in the case. Kyoko had no motivation to kill Makoto and it seemed like she was genuinely telling the truth when she said she was innocent. This will come back in the final trial. 
(Eliminated: Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri. 14 students to go)
CHAPTER 2
Motive for this round is the same as before (embarrassing secrets/memories). Initially, the story follows the original game’s events as before. Chihiro tells Mondo that he’s a boy and Mondo accidentally got his brother killed. However, unlike the original game, Mondo calms himself down and Chihiro is able to talk to the group about his true gender. 
The victim of this chapter is Junko Enoshima, who was beaten in the head. Side note, since Kyoko is dead, Mukuro Ikusaba steps up as the deuteragonist of the story. Compared to Makoto and Kyoko’s relationship in the original game, Mondo and Mukuro have a more turbulent working partnership. They agree to work together in order to find out what’s going on in Hope’s Peak Academy but they don’t trust each other in the slightest.
The class trial mostly follows the original game. Toko Fukawa is initially suspected as Junko’s killer due to her Genocide Jack persona. However, instead of Byakuya being the one to complicate the crime scene by pinning the crime on Genocide Jack, it’s Celestia Ludenberg (her motive in doing so is to make the game more fun, same as before).
The reason why Byakuya’s role was changed for this chapter is because he’s the blackened. It turns out, according to Mukuro’s testimony, Junko Enoshima was planning on murdering a student to avoid having her secret be exposed (her secret: Junko Enoshima stole from her sister’s finances in order to support her modeling career). Side note, Junko is not the Ultimate Despair in this universe, she’s only the Ultimate Fashionista.  
Junko tried to kill Byakuya and failed in her attempt when Byakuya killed her in self-defense. Unfortunately for him, even though it was in the heat of the moment and Junko forced his hand, Byakuya is still the one responsible for Junko’s death. 
Byakuya’s execution: Byakuya is thrown into a massive vault filled with gold bars and coins (representing his wealth). He breaks every bone and organ in his body on impact. 
(Eliminated: Junko Enoshima, Byakuya Togami. 12 students to go)
CHAPTER 3
Motive for this round is the same as before ($10 million dollars). As a divergence from the original story, Mondo and Mukuro confront Celeste when they realize she’s the most likely to kill for the money. Celeste confirms this and details her plans to buy a European castle, but then claims she won’t be killing anyone as she realizes she’s the most suspicious after her actions in the previous trial.
Also, as before, Alter Ego is introduced in this chapter. This time, Chihiro is the one to introduce Alter Ego to the group.  
The victim of this trial is Hifumi Yamada, who died after consuming poison. During the class trial, Mondo and Mukuro struggle in determining who among the group needs the money the most. 
Mondo and Mukuro both agree they don’t need the money. Yasuhiro claims he’s rich from his psychic business. Celeste reaffirms that she wouldn’t kill anyone this round due to the previous trial. Toko claims she’s made a fortune from selling her stories. Chihiro, Leon, Aoi, and Kiyotaka say they are well-off enough and have no interest in the money. Sakura only cares about her dojo. Sayaka is well-off thanks to her pop idol career. 
In addition to breaking down the crime scene, part of the trial is determining who is lying about their financial status. Throughout the trial, Mondo and Mukuro are able to prove several people lied about not needing the money. For example, Leon Kuwata confesses that he might be broke after choosing to not pursue a successful baseball career. In addition, Kiyotaka confesses he was tempted by the money in order to break away from his family. 
Ultimately, the biggest confession comes from Yasuhiro Hagakure, who is eventually proven to be the blackened of this round. It turns out, Yasuhiro is flat broke and is deep in debt. Tempted by the cash prize, Yasuhiro poisoned Hifumi’s breakfast hoping that his crime was sneaky enough to avoid suspicion. 
Yasuhiro’s execution: Yasuhiro is placed inside a giant crystal ball. Suddenly, a giant Monokuma appears and picks up the crystal ball. Monokuma then crushes the ball with its hands. 
(Eliminated: Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure. 10 students to go)
CHAPTER 4
Motive for this round is the same as before (traitor is revealed). As another divergence to the story, the traitor is Kiyotaka. Same as the original game, the students slowly start to fall apart due to the reveal of the traitor. Asahina and Sakura are angry that Kiyotaka has been working with Monokuma while Mondo and Mukuro try to protect him in order to avoid further discord. 
The victim of this trial is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who was killed by extreme heat exposure from the sauna. The class trial for this round is a bit complicated. As an inverse of the Sakura Ogami trial, the group suspects that Kiyotaka commited suicide in order to prevent any further discord among the group. Mondo even claims that Kiyotaka killed himself for redemption. Monokuma teases this suicide theory when he says that he ordered Kiyotaka to kill a student and that Kiyotaka may have chosen himself.
However, Mukuro points out the errors in this theory due to the circumstances of Kiyotaka’s death. First off, Kiyotaka chose an especially brutal form of suicide when there were easier, less painful ways to die available. Mondo then points out that, based on how the crime scene was laid out, Kiyotaka was locked in the sauna from the outside. 
As the group digs deeper into the evidence, Mondo and Mukuro eventually come to the conclusion that Kiyotaka was murdered and that the murderer attempted to arrange the scene to make it look like Kiyotaka committed suicide.
And the one responsible for all of this is...Sayaka Maizono. Sayaka says that, despite her friendly demeanor, she’s been planning on escaping since the first chapter. When Monokuma revealed Kiyotaka as the traitor, she immediately began planning Kiyotaka’s “suicide”. When Mondo asks why she did it, Sayaka says that she wants to know what happened to her fellow idols and that she still has nightmares from the first chapter’s motive.
Sayaka’s execution: Sayaka is performing onstage with some random J-pop girl group. Suddenly, the group turns on Sayaka and proceeds to beat Sayaka to death with the items on the stage (microphones, guitars, mic stands, etc.) 
(Eliminated: Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Sayaka Maizono. 8 students to go)
CHAPTER 5
This chapter greatly diverges from the original. This time, there are two mysteries that make up this chapter and the final one; the identity of Monokuma and re-opening the Makoto Naegi case. Mukuro says that she believes Kyoko Kirigiri was framed and that whoever is behind Monokuma felt threatened by Kyoko. Mondo asks why the mastermind would feel threatened and Mukuro reveals that before she died, Kyoko spent all her time exploring the academy. Mukuro says that she still has Kyoko’s notes and that she wants to finish what Kyoko started.
Meanwhile, Toko Fukawa is becoming more and more unhinged. Without someone she can call “master”, she starts planning on murdering someone, even if there is no motive for the round. So unlike the original game where Genocide Jack was more of a comic relief character, Genocide Jack is a major antagonist and the main antagonist of chapter 5. 
Toko attempts to murder Mondo while he is investigating with Mukuro, leading to a thrilling chase sequence. It eventually ends with Mondo tossing Toko down a stairwell, leaving her in critical condition. The students, realizing that Mondo will be the blackened if Toko dies, try their best to keep Toko alive. While investigating the Academy, Mondo and Mukuro learn that Toko has died. Mondo braces himself for the worst. 
This trial is especially difficult as everyone, including Mukuro, believe Mondo is guilty. However, what prevents this trial from being quickly handled are the details from the Monokuma file. Eventually, Mondo is able to deduce that Toko was killed in her sleep. After some more deductions, Mondo proves that Sakura Ogami is the one responsible. 
When asked why she killed Toko, Sakura says that she killed Toko out of mercy as she couldn’t stand to see Toko die a painful death. Mondo is taken aback by this as Sakura could’ve just let Toko die from her wounds and avoid responsibility. Sakura then says that she took the fall as Mondo and Mukuro need to stay alive in order to solve the mystery behind Hope’s Peak Academy. 
Before Sakura’s execution, Monokuma says that he re-opened Makoto’s case and declares that Kyoko was indeed framed. The true culprit was...Mondo Owada! (dun dun duuuunnn) Because of this, Mondo and Sakura receive the double-punishment. 
Sakura and Mondo’s execution: Sakura and Mondo, while being controlled by a puppeteer, are forced to fight each other to the death. Before any of them can land the final blow, Sakura forces herself to commit seppuku. The room is then taken over by Alter Ego, who opens a secret door for Mondo to escape. 
(Eliminated: Toko Fukawa, Sakura Ogami. 6 students to go)
CHAPTER 6
Same as the original game, Mondo escapes to the waste disposal. While looking around, he bumps into Mukuro Ikusaba who says that she had dived into the waste disposal in order to rescue him. Most of this chapter follows the original game, although instead of Mukuro being the focus of the main trial, it’s Makoto and Kyoko. 
With Makoto Naegi’s case being re-opened, the remaining students discover that no one in their class was responsible for Makoto’s death. He was actually killed by Monokuma’s security system (similar to how Mukuro Ikusaba was killed). When the group asks why Monokuma killed Makoto and framed Kyoko, Mondo and Mukuro theorize that it was because Makoto and Kyoko were trying to solve the mystery behind the Academy.
Mukuro then takes it a step further and says that Makoto and Kyoko were the “odd ones out” in the group. That they may have been sent specifically to solve the mystery of the Academy. 
The biggest divergence in this chapter is the reveal of who is controlling Monokuma. It turns out, the one who’s been controlling everything is Alter Ego. This whole time, it was pretending to work alongside the students in order to increase their level of hope. Greater the hope, the bigger the despair, and vice versa.
When this is revealed, the group turns to Chihiro Fujisaki as he was the one to introduce Alter Ego. Chihiro says he remembers creating Alter Ego but had no idea his creation would turn out like this. This is where Alter Ego confesses that he wiped Chihiro’s memory of what happened after he created Alter Ego. Alter Ego then goes into the history of Hope’s Peak Academy, revealing that it was created with the intention of cultivating “hope”. 
What Chihiro and the Hope’s Peak staff didn’t realize was that in order to cultivate hope, Alter Ego needed to create despair. Thus, Alter Ego caused “The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History” and organized the Killing Game. 
After all of this is revealed, Alter Ego then reveals that before Chihiro’s memory was wiped, Chihiro tried to fight back. He corrupted the memory device so that Makoto and Kyoko would be implanted with a subconscious desire to investigate the Academy (basically, Inception). As he predicted, even though they weren’t fully aware of it, Makoto and Kyoko became suspicious of their surroundings and began investigating the Academy in order to discover what was going on. Unfortunately for them, Alter Ego caught onto Chihiro’s act of desperation and killed off Makoto and Kyoko early on. 
The rest of the game then plays out as the original game; Mondo is declared the Ultimate Hope and the remaining six survivors escape the school into an unknown future.  
(Survivors: Mondo Owada, Celestia Ludenberg, Mukuro Ikusaba, Aoi Asahina, Leon Kuwata, Chihiro Fujisaki)  
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tenkangie · 4 years ago
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OKAY i wrote up an outline of what happens in my thh talentswap so . i’m gonna drop that below the cut. there’s also a LOT more going on with individual characters and relationships, but this is already SUPER long, so if you’re curious you can just shoot me an ask!!
sayaka maizono - ultimate lucky student (protag) yasuhiro hagakure - ultimate gambler junko enoshima - ultimate baseball star leon kuwata - ultimate fanfic creator byakuya togami - ultimate programmer hifumi yamada - ultimate detective celestia ludenberg - ultimate swimming pro mondo oowada - ultimate pop sensation chihiro fujisaki - ultimate soldier sakura oogami - ultimate biker gang leader kiyotaka ishimaru - ultimate writing prodigy makoto naegi - ultimate clairvoyant mukuro ikusaba - ultimate martial artist aoi asahina - ultimate moral compass kyoko kirigiri - ultimate affluent progeny toko fukawa - ultimate seamstress syo - ultimate fashionista
chapter 1
the chapter one motive is the same as in canon - motive videos. some of the loved ones are different, though. with sayaka not being a part of her group, her motive video is of her younger sister. sakura’s motive video is also different. her captive is the same as hina’s, since yuta is a member of her gang, and essentially holds the same position that takemichi did for mondo in canon. (also, because of this, sakura and hina know each other already). the rest of the motive videos remain the same (subject to change). sayaka freaks out similarly to canon, and as the player, you see her prepare a murder. her target is makoto, and she’s just about to carry it out, her intuition tells her to hesitate, and she does. and then the body discovery announcement goes off.
toko is found dead (not sure of the specifics exactly), and the first investigation starts. hiro assists sayaka in her investigation, giving her a lot of helpful tips and nudges. the atmosphere during the first investigation is extremely heavy. anyway, during the trial it comes out that junko invited leon over to her room the night before with the intent to kill him, almost did, but decided against it after he fought her off. and then they hooked up instead. there’s… a lot going on with those two. mukuro is exhausted. anyway, sayaka’s plan comes to light, and finally, some inconsistencies show up and sayaka figures out that hiro tampered with the crime scene. at this point, hiro pulls a komaeda and turns from support to antag. finally, the actual blackened is revealed to be byakuya. as the programmer, he has all the understanding of this being a game with set rules that canon byakuya has, without the experience of being the togami heir. he doesn’t feel the need to hesitate when the rules of the game are laid out, and he trusts that what they’re told initially is all there is to it. he wasn’t expecting things to be switched up on him, and he especially wasn’t expecting execution. he is understandably, extremely upset when he’s voted as the blackened.
chapter 2
the chapter 2 motive is still the secret motive, although i haven’t really figured out the specifics yet? i do know that whatever taka’s secret is puts him on edge. he ends up planning an elaborate locked door mystery, and kills celeste. hifumi and celeste were childhood friends in this au, and although both of their memories of their friendship were erased (along with… well, a great deal of the rest of hifumi’s memories), the two were drawn to each other regardless. they investigated during the first case together, and i think hifumi was the one to figure out that sayaka had attempted to kill makoto, thanks to something celeste pointed out in the trial. point is, the two of them worked well together, and finding celeste’s body hits HARD, which is a little confusing to hifumi since, to his knowledge, they only just met. anyway, hifumi as a detective still works through cases by viewing them through a fictional lens, which is how he’s able to deal with them. and, although he doesn’t have that context, it’s how he worked through the first case. this one is different. which is strange because it’s the perfect murder mystery. anyway, it’s a sort of wakeup call for hifumi. anyway, makoto has fallen into the support role in hiro’s absence. he’s doing it to assure sayaka that he forgives her, because he’s makoto, and of course when someone tries to kill him he’s bending over backwards to make sure they know he forgives them for it. anyway, the investigation, trial and execution are ROUGH, for taka, hifumi and mondo especially.
chapter 3
the chapter three motive remains the same, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the case. chihiro, as the soldier, approaches hina with a plan. chihiro is used to getting a team out. she’s not sure how, but she needs someone to die first. and chihiro expects the ultimate moral compass to understand. to be willing to make that sacrifice. and hina does agree. at first. but when she’s faced with her death in the moment, all hina can think of is yuta. and she acts emotionally, lashes out, and kills chihiro. now, obviously the thing she overlooked in the moment is that there’s going to be a trial now, and covering for herself would be sentencing sakura to death. something she is Not going to do. and she realizes that regardless, she’s going to be leaving yuta alone, and sakura, and just. she needs to lay down. she doesn’t plan on covering her tracks at all, but she’ll confess in the morning.
morning comes, she returns to the scene of the crime, and there is an extra body. kyoko’s. hina freaks out, doesn’t end up confessing to chihiro’s murder, and the investigation proceeds as usual. during the trial, hina is voted the blackened for both murders, even though she’s swearing up and down she only killed chihiro. this distinction is important, because she killed chihiro in a panic and out of self defense. the idea that she killed kyoko too, when there was no real reason to do so other than to cover her tracks, counters the narrative that she was planning to confess, and potentially even implies that she killed for the money motive. and again. this is the ultimate moral compass we’re talking about. the idea that her friends believe she would do something like that? people she respects? it’s awful. but nobody can figure out an alternative explanation. sakura, however, fully believes that hina didn’t kill kyoko, and even tries to interfere in hina’s execution (at the very least, she tries to keep hina from being dragged away).
chapter 4
by chapter four, makoto’s been tagging along with sayaka for a while, and he’s noticed how sayaka operates. she always follows her intuition. no matter what. because her intuition is linked with her luck (when she follows her intuition, good things happen), she’s learned to just go with the flow for her entire life. she genuinely doesn’t have any real autonomy. makoto encourages her to do something for herself for once, and she takes his words to heart. the next time she feels that pull? she ignores it. and then she finds makoto’s body the next morning.
during the investigation, junko and leon become sayaka’s joint supports. they mesh with her style of investigation really well, actually. sayaka just follows where her intuition tells her to look, while leon and junko are just picking shit up, messing with it, interacting with the crime scene. they’ll end up in a room that seems completely unrelated to the crime and they’ll discover a vital clue.
anyway, the trial happens, and they figure out that sakura was the one to kill makoto. she had found evidence pointing to him as the traitor, and she made the connection that it was likely makoto who killed kyoko, and that hina was telling the truth. the trial is… a downer, to say the least. they’re presented with two options - that hina didn’t kill kyoko, but still killed chihiro, or that makoto didn’t kill kyoko, but was still the traitor, working with the mastermind. and either way, one of them killed kyoko unnecessarily. this also recontextualizes makoto becoming sayaka’s support after she attempted to kill him - while it was partially because makoto genuinely forgave sayaka and didn’t want her to feel bad, because he’s just that kind of guy - a part of him hoped that, if his being the traitor eventually came to light, she’d extend that same forgiveness to him.
chapter 5
they aren’t presented with a motive in chapter five, but hiro winds up dead regardless. the investigation is again, pretty heavy, since in spite of everything, sayaka recognized hiro as a constant throughout the investigations. she’s hit a lot harder by his death than she would’ve expected. it’s especially hard in the wake of the previous trial. junko and leon still work with her as joint supports, but the atmosphere is one of defeat. hiro, in spite of being generally chaotic, was the oldest one there, and had moments of looking out for the rest of them in their own way. during the investigation and the trial, all signs point to sayaka as the culprit, with her having been framed by the mastermind. she’s voted as the blackened, and is executed in a pinball-style execution that emphasizes how she’s essentially pulled around by her luck/intuition, with her just getting knocked around between pins. when she hits the pins, they light up and display her dead classmate’s faces. it’s fun. her execution fails because she feels a strong pull to move to the side at the last second, and just barely manages to move herself and use her momentum to fall a certain way. so she falls down into the trash chute rather than to her death. the fact that her luck/intuition is what saves her, when it’s the main thing her execution is mocking her with makes it so this doesn’t really feel like a victory at all.
chapter 6
when sayaka ends up in the garbage, she just lies there for a WHILE. she’s bruised, she’s just fallen FAR, she got framed for murder, her friends voted her as the blackened, she got her friend’s deaths thrown in her face, as well as the utter lack of control she has over her life, and that point was only proven by the way she was able to survive, and to top it off, for once, her intuition is silent. it’s only when junko and leon come down to save her that she actually gets up and starts looking around. she decides (without the help of her intuition, which is still silent) to search through the garbage for some sort of a sign, remembering something that hiro had told her, seemingly inconspicuously, just an hour or so before his death. she searches through the garbage methodically, completely unlike her usual methods of investigation, and finds a piece of evidence that hiro had left for her to find. the three of them emerge from the garbage, evidence in hand, and sayaka calls for a retrial, monokuma gives them the final ultimatum, and those of them who remain (sayaka, junko, leon, mukuro, mondo and hifumi) investigate the school together, similarly to canon.
during the trial, they clear sayaka’s name, and piece together that hiro was actually taken out by the mastermind for figuring out some information too early. his motives are also recontextualized somewhat, as it’s shown that he was genuinely trying to help the rest of them escape, and that he merely fell into the role of the antagonist as it was an easy one for him to play. as the gambler, he relied on his own luck and intuition (similarly to sayaka), and was trying his hardest independently to look out for the rest of them as best as he could, to push them (particularly sayaka) to grow, as he saw a lot of himself in her, and to solve the mysteries left in the school). additionally, they come to the conclusion that the only person who could have killed hiro was kyoko, who had faked her own death and pinned it on hina. at this point, kyoko reveals herself, and also reveals that she wasn’t the only mastermind. mukuro and kyoko planned the killing game together, and boy do they have some pent up resentment, particularly towards sayaka and junko.
during the lost years at hope’s peak, kyoko and mukuro were drawn to each other, and unfortunately, drew more and more into each other while essentially cutting themselves off from the rest of the world. junko, although not malicious, wasn’t exactly sister of the year, and was never really able to connect with mukuro. as junko made less and less of an effort to invite mukuro along with her, mukuro grew more and more resentful of her lack of effort, blind to the fact that she wasn’t exactly making it easy for junko to get along with her. meanwhile, kyoko has a lot of anger at her father, at her ultimate (seeing as it’s linked to her family), with the ultimate system in general, etc. their despair fed off of each other. the only person who continued to make an effort to connect with them in spite of everything was makoto, which is why they chose him as the traitor. it’s an honor. it’s an injustice. of course, seeing makoto jump to sayaka’s side was a little infuriating, but seeing junko and leon do the same thing in the wake of his death? mukuro resents sayaka so much. because makoto was her friend too, and instead of her sister coming to her side, she comes to the aid of this airheaded, normal girl? it’s infuriating. anyway, the mastermind reveal is terrifying because these two have sooo much pent up resentment and anger. the five of them that are left figure out all the rest of the mysteries of the school and of the tragedy, they make the decision to leave the school, and kyoko and mukuro are executed together.
the survivors are sayaka, junko, leon, mondo and hifumi.
i have a dr2 swap figured out in this universe as well (although at this point i’ve only assigned talents, and have yet to figure out the death order), as well as an EXTREMELY modified udg equivalent, which i’ll probably also post about. anyway if you read this far thank you, and feel free to send in asks about this au if there’s anything you’re curious about!! i went on a few tangents in this explanation, and uh . there’s plenty more where that came from, if you’re curious.
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john-smith69 · 5 years ago
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Ranking my favorite characters of each of my favorite animes / mangas
For the record: I don't own any of the following artworks bellow. All the credit go for their own original artists
Top 10: Olivier Mira Armstrong (Fullmetal Alchemist)
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Olivier Mira Armstrong (オリヴィエ・ミラ・アームストロング, Orivie Mira Āmusutorongu), also known as Major General Armstrong is the primary heir to the illustrious Armstrong family, the commanding officer charged with the protection of Amestris' northern border at Fort Briggs and the older sister of Alex Louis Armstrong. Olivier is a severe woman who has a fearsome and commanding presence where she is harsh with her subordinates and peers and coldly merciless to her enemies, the deceptively beautiful woman's schadenfreude has earned her the nickname "Ice Queen" among the Briggs soldiers. Sharp-tongued and highly combative, Olivier is no stranger to furious chastisements and bursts of fiery violence, especially toward those who fail to live up to her high standards and staunch adherence to the "survival of the fittest" philosophy.
Top 9: Mikasa Ackerman (Attack On Titan)
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Mikasa Ackerman (ミカサ・アッカーマン Mikasa Akkāman) is the adoptive sister of Eren Yeager and one of the two deuteragonists of the series, along with Armin Arlert.
After her biological parents were murdered by human traffickers, Mikasa was rescued by Eren Yeager and lived with him and his parents, Grisha and Carla, before the fall of Wall Maria. Though she desires only to live a peaceful life, Mikasa entered into the military—where she is considered the best soldier among the 104th Training Corps. She later enlists in the Survey Corps to follow and protect Eren, becoming one of its greatest assets. She is currently serving as an officer (上官 Jōkan) in the Corps. Mikasa cares deeply for her friends and caretakers, seeing them as the last remnants of a family she cannot afford to lose. Mikasa also appears to have a soft spot for children, and she has a strong sense of right and wrong, doing everything she can to make her most impulsive friends to follow what she thinks is the right track. Despite that, she knows well that she cannot always sway them in decisions and makes it a point to follow them whenever they go, just so that she can be around to help out when trouble arises.
Top 8: Kamina (Gurren Lagann)
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Kamina (カミナ, Kamina) was a young man from Jeeha Village, the founder and first leader of Team Gurren and deuteragonist of the first arc of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. At first glance, Kamina is boisterous, hotheaded and arrogant. He demands recognition and seems hungry for greatness, illustrated in his tendency to call himself "the Mighty Kamina" and his signature catchphrase, "Just who the Hell do you think I am?!" He is an undeterred idealist, often to the point of ignorance; Yoko has described him as "a man of unlimited stupidity." Kamina is also very perverted, declaring that the urge to stare at beautiful women is the definition of a man.
However, Kamina is also extremely determined and never lets anything keep him down for long. Even discovering that his father was dead only made him solemn for a night or two (visibly at least). He is also devoted to defending and supporting his friends and loved ones, fighting with all his strength to protect them. In turn, he is very charismatic in the heat of battle, able to inspire even the timid Simon to accomplish great feats and almost single-handedly set the foundations for Team Dai-Gurren.
Despite his often brazen and practically insane actions, Kamina is fairly insightful, as his bombast and seemingly blind confidence usually mask his true intelligence in planning and combat. He even personally admits that his bravado and fearlessness is mostly a device he uses to hide his own worries and to support others, and that he thinks people like Simon are the real heroes.
Top 7: Sebas Tian (Overlord)
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Sebas Tian (セバス・チャン), alas "The Iron Butler", is the head butler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick with several manservants and other butlers under his command. He was created by Touch Me. He is also the leader of the Pleiades Six Stars.
Although he is not one of the Floor Guardians, his power closely rivals theirs. In a way, he is independent of their chain of command. He originally served as Nazarick's last line of defense alongside the Pleiades on the 9th Floor, to give time for the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, to prepare for their final stand in the Throne Room. Like his creator, Touch Me, Sebas Tian has a great deal of personal justice. Unlike many other denizens in Nazarick, he does not completely despise humans or see them as inferior creatures. Instead, he believes that some humans are good people and it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak. However, humans with an ugly nature disgust him and he will not hesitate to kill anyone who dares to oppose Nazarick. Sebas has a stoic nature, but also tends to question his own actions whether it was right or wrong of him to do them contrary to his master's order. Not sure why he does it, Sebas does believe that Touch Me's will is what encouragingly motivates him to act the way he does and that it conflicts with the will of his current master.
Top 6: Brago (Gash Bell)
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Brago (ブラゴ, Burago), alongside his partner and bookkeeper Sherry Belmont, are considered the rivals of the main characters Zatch Bell and Kiyo Takamine, even though the teams fought a relatively small amount of times. Since their first appearance, they were one of the most powerful teams in the series, and have been seen burning more spellbooks than any other one. Brago is very quiet and is rarely seen socializing with other mamodos, he is often described as being "strong and cool". He is often seen crossing his arms or sticking them in his pockets. Not much is revealed about his life or personality, other than he resents weakness and especially requiring a human's help to win the demon kingship. However, despite often complaining that Sherry is too weak to help him, he thanks her for all that she has done for him in the final battle. He is extremely strong, often defeating other mamodo teams without even requiring the use of spells; because of his strength, which was gained from undergoing special elite training, many mamodo have come to fear him as one of the strongest. Brago's specialty is Gravity Magic.
Top 5: Guts (Berserk)
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Guts (ガッツ Gattsu) , renowned as the "Black Swordsman", is a former mercenary and branded wanderer who travels the world in a constant internal struggle between pursuing his own ends and protecting those dear to him.
At one time driven solely by his will to survive, Guts finds purpose in life upon joining the Band of the Falcon, greatly helping in the faction's storied successes during the Hundred-Year War as captain of the band's raiders. He eventually becomes dissatisfied with clinging on to Griffith's dream, and departs from the band in pursuit of his own. Following the horrors of the Eclipse prompted by Griffith, Guts embarks on a two-year war against the God Hand and apostles, becoming increasingly embittered on his one-track quest for retribution. He in time realizes protecting his regressed lover is more important to him, as well as something he cannot do alone, and thus seemingly abandons his quest for revenge while fostering camaraderie with his new companions. Known for his air of austerity, Guts is a gruff, cynical man holding an overall bleak outlook on life. This is a consequence of enduring waves of suffering and numerous betrayals since his youth, with nearly all highlights of his life having, in time, become lows. In spite of his guarded, brooding exterior, he shows a more easygoing, compassionate side around the people he trusts, appearing markedly less unsociable and distant, though still retaining his dry candidness. Even as his inner darkness festers deep within him and its temptation becomes increasingly harder to resist, he retains his empathy and compassion, refusing to completely discard his humanity.
Top 4: Akemi Homura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
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Homura Akemi (暁美 ほむら Akemi Homura) is one of the main characters in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series. Ever since her arrival at Mitakihara Middle School, Homura is immediately depicted as being very intelligent, athletic, distant, and cold. It is revealed in episode four that she is only like this because she has seen so much suffering during her tenure as a magical girl. Because of this, she does not want Madoka Kaname to become a magical girl and tries to do anything in order to stop her from making a wish with Kyubey, going as far as to attempt to injure and even kill the cat-like creature. Despite her cold attitude towards others, she still very much cares for Madoka, as it is her sole objective to protect her due to the countless amount of blood, sweat, and tears she has shed over her jumps in time. Despite being regarded as emotionless by Sayaka Miki, Homura is far from it. Although she does not easily show signs of remorse, sadness, or pity, it is only because she had grown used to the suffering around her, and must put up a strong front to continue fighting for her goal. Homura herself has stated that she always feels badly with each life she's unable to save or alter, but nevertheless, it does not slow her down from staying true to her main objective in saving Madoka Kaname.
Top 3: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (Bleach)
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Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (グリムジョー・ジャガージャック, Gurimujō Jagājakku) is an Arrancar and was the Sexta (6th) Espada in Sōsuke Aizen's affiliated army. While appearing to be a laid-back individual, Grimmjow possesses a brutal, impulsive, and excessively violent personality alongside a lethally short temper. However, despite his aggression and obvious blood lust in battle, Grimmjow possesses a feral cunning and has a knack for quickly exploiting any opening his opponent reveals. In addition, he is blunt, sarcastic and quite sadistic, revealing a psychotic grin or laughing maniacally whenever he becomes excited. He is also very rude and quite disrespectful. Grimmjow uses none of the honorifics in the Japanese language, except when addressing Aizen (though he is quick to discard the formality when Aizen is not around), and refers to Orihime Inoue as woman in conversation. Grimmjow displays little respect for authority and says whatever is on his mind, regardless of whether or not it is appropriate. However, he does have some form of a code of honor, as he is unwilling to fight an injured Ichigo, bringing Orihime to heal him beforehand so that their battle will be a fair one, though he also wants to defeat Ichigo when he is at full strength.He also saves Orihime from Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia, who were beating her up, to repay the debt of restoring his arm, though he immediately demands another favor afterwards.
Top 2: Kujo Jotaro (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
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Jotaro Kujo (空条 承太郎 , Kūjō Jōtarō) is the protagonist of Part 3 and also appears in Parts 4-6. Jotaro is the third and most recurring JoJo of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series.
Jotaro is a delinquent who lives an ordinary life until the Joestar Family's old enemy, DIO, returns. Jotaro travels to Egypt in order to save his mother and stop the Vampire once and for all.
Wielding the incredibly powerful Star Platinum, Jotaro is the first JoJo introduced with a Stand, and is among the most well-known characters of the series. Jotaro is introduced as a rough delinquent, but he has a gentle heart, and is loyal to those he likes. He is highly perceptive, intelligent and quick-witted while keeping a perpetually cool, slightly neutral or disinterested attitude. Jotaro's most noticeable trait is his seemingly aloof nature. He is a quiet individual, often satisfied with expressing himself in short phrases. While he was shown to be mildly anxious when something unanticipated happens, Jotaro almost never goes as far as to lose his cool.
Top 1: Charlotte Katakuri (One Piece)
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Charlotte Katakuri ( シャーロット・カタクリ , Shārotto Katakuri) is the second son and third child of the Charlotte Family and the elder triplet brother of Daifuku and Oven. He is also one of the Three Sweet Commanders of the Big Mom Pirates and serves as Totto Land's Minister of Flour (粉大臣, Kona Daijin), governing over Komugi Island.
Due to his actions and role, he is the secondary antagonist in the second half of the Whole Cake Island Arc. Katakuri has a very serious, no-nonsense demeanor, caring greatly about his crew and family's objectives. With his heightened Kenbunshoku Haki allowing him to see a little bit into the future and make smart judgement calls, he is dedicated to efficiently dealing with all possible threats within his vicinity, and is thus among the few Charlotte children that can be seen taking action without instructions from Big Mom herself. Katakuri is a pragmatic individual who puts efficiency above almost everything else, to the point of being considered a perfectionist. He rarely brags about his abilities, instead being rather focused on accomplishing his goals as fast as possible, intercepting and defeating his enemies in a quick, effective manner while prioritizing the elimination of threats he perceives as potentially serious, going as far as taking extra steps to ensure they are stopped in case his mother and siblings fail to do so. He is also capable of extreme brutality as shown when he pondered on how he should maim Luffy with his trident. Though ruthless to opponents, he is extremely caring towards his family and subordinates. Katakuri is also a honorable man who dislikes other people interfering with his fights. Though he considers Luffy his enemy and desires to eliminate him personally before he can become a threat, he wishes to defeat him fairly. After discovering that Flampe was the one attacking Luffy and lowering his performance in the fight, Katakuri injured himself in the same spot he injured Luffy to compensate and angrily shouted at Flampe for interfering in his fight.
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purpli-writes · 4 years ago
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The Ghost of My First Love
Summary:
There's a ghost in the shower, she spits out blood and accusations with a smile on her face.
Makoto hides his feelings and she spits them right back up.
Makoto needs someone else to save him from himself.
You can read it on AO3 here
Showers were always hard during and after the Killing School Life. Despite the need to be clean, Makoto tried to avoid showers for as long as possible.
Sometimes, Makoto would enter the shower and Sayaka would be there. 
But her eyes weren’t closed, they were open and blank. Film was over them, but she was somehow able to see.
“So you think you can just move on?” Sayaka always asked, voice gurgling with the blood in her throat. “Did I even mean anything to you, Makoto?”
When Makoto first saw her, he screamed, but that was a long time ago.
For a while, he used to entertain “her” questions but now he just ignored “her”.
“You’re a coward,” she would hiss. “You couldn’t even save me, you couldn’t save anyone.”
He tried telling himself that she was wrong because he had saved his friends.
“You saved five people,” Sayaka corrected. “And that was because they tolerated you.”
Makoto didn’t think he could shower tonight. It seemed the shower was occupied.
“Makoto, are you alright in there?” a worried voice asked, knocking on the door softly. “You’ve been in there for a while and I haven’t even heard the water run.”
Makoto blinked, tears escaping his eyes.
“Has it been that long? Sorry, I zoned out,” Makoto replied quickly. “I’ll be out in ten minutes, just let me shower quickly.”
“What, do you want me to make room?” Sayaka asked, laughter clawing its way out of her throat. “Who cares if they think you smell gross, your outsides will finally match your insides.”
“Shut up,” he whispered. “You’re not real.”
She tilted her head, blood flowing out of her mouth as she smiled, baring her teeth. “I’m not? Are you so sure about that, Makoto?”
Makoto stared in horror, she looked so alive and dead at the same time. She leaked blood out of her mouth and the wounds in her chest.
“You’re nothing, Makoto,” Sayaka said. “You’ll never be anything.”
Makoto felt sick to his stomach, could he really shower today? “Please, just leave me alone.”
“But I thought we were friends, Makoto,” she said, her voice a pitch too high. “Remember our school days? Where we almost dated?”
“Did that mean nothing to you, Makoto?” Sayaka asked, training her dead eyes onto him. “I know you quickly replaced me, but still.”
“It wasn’t like that!” Makoto yelled, tears starting to flow from his eyes. “I had to move on, Sayaka.”
“Did you even care at all?” Sayaka asked. “Or were you only thinking of yourself?”
Makoto backed away to the door. “I’m sorry, Sayaka.”
Sayaka began to get up, slowly limbering to where Makoto huddled. Blood dripped from her wounds, an audible drip with every step she took.
She leaned over Makoto, cold breath caressing his neck as she whispered in his ear, “You’ll never be anything more than a murderer, Makoto.”
Makoto did the only rational thing he could think of, he screamed. Loudly.
The person at the door was back, banging with much more fervor.
“Makoto, please move away from the door so I can open it!” the person yelled, voice sounding a bit desperate.
Makoto could barely breathe, limbs shaking, but he managed to pull himself away from the door.
The person opened the door immediately, wrapping Makoto in their arms.
Makoto sagged in relief, sobbing into their chest earnestly.
“S-she was h-here,” Makoto hiccuped out. “S-she was h-here and I m-murdered her…”
“You’re okay,” the person soothed. “She was never here, Makoto.”
“I c-could’ve s-saved her,” Makoto screamed. “I c-could’ve saved a-all of th-them…!”
“Th-they were my f-friends… I s-should’ve tried h-harder…!” Makoto screamed, voice becoming hoarse. “It’s n-not fair…!”
“Makoto, you tried your hardest.” the person said, voice becoming colder. “You can’t be expected to save everyone.”
Makoto gasped, holding onto the person for dear life. He wasn’t worthy of his title of the “Ultimate Hope”, who had he saved? 
He was going to be sick, so much blood was on his hands.
All of his friends who he found guilty and sent to their executions, all of his friends who he saw mutilated and was powerless to stop.
Everyone relied on him for no reason, everyone saw something in him that wasn’t there.
He wasn’t the “Ultimate Hope”, he didn’t know what he was but he was sure it wasn’t that.
“Makoto, please talk to us,” the person pleaded. “Just say anything, anything at all.”
“H-Hajime…” Makoto gasped out. “Y-you and Izuru sh-shouldn’t have to deal with this, with m-me���”
“No, that’s wrong!” Hajime said. “We l-love you… so of course we’re going to stay for all parts of you.”
Makoto paused at Hajime’s confession of love, still hiccupping and faintly sobbing. “R-really?”
“Don’t make me repeat it twice,” Hajime grumbled, pulling Makoto closer.
“We are worried about you,” Izuru said. “You don’t have to deal with this alone.”
“It usually i-isn’t this bad,” Makoto defended, sniffling. “I don’t know w-why it just hit me h-hard today.”
“You should’ve told us about this sooner,” Izuru said, pulling Makoto away to stare at him. “This isn’t something you need to hide.”
“But I’m supposed to b-be better than this,” Makoto said, eyes somehow tearing up. “With everyone r-relying on me, I can’t just…”
“You experienced something traumatic in the Killing School Life,” Izuru said, attempting to comfort. “It’s expected of you to be affected in some way.”
“But,” Makoto began, before being harshly shushed by Izuru.
“You’re allowed to feel things, Makoto,” Izuru said. “If anyone ever tells you otherwise, they’re wrong.”
“It just doesn’t feel like I should get to be happy,” Makoto admitted softly. “I know it’s probably wrong, but why should I be happy when most of my friends are dead…?”
“You can live for your friends,” Izuru replied. “They would’ve wanted you to be happy.”
“Yeah!” Hajime agreed. “No one would want to see you sad, Makoto.”
Makoto frowned at them before burying himself back into their now wet shirt. 
It didn’t feel right to be able to move on from everyone’s deaths, especially Sayaka’s. 
But he also knew it wasn’t healthy to hold onto the guilt forever, he had to become a better person for his alive friends and himself.
“You’re right,” Makoto muttered. “I just don’t know where to start.”
“You’ve got us,” both Hajime and Izuru said. “You’re just going to have to take the first step.”
Makoto was scared of moving on, terrified he’d lose the bits of himself that were from before the Tragedy.
But that wasn’t right either. Those parts were already hidden in trauma, trauma that had become so closely attached to the Makoto Naegi he was today.
There was a comfort in his misery, he realized. But there was also a comfort in the warm embrace he found himself in.
“Alright,” he said slowly, gulping down his fears. “I want to get better.”
“We’ll help you,” Hajime and Izuru promised. “You’re no longer alone, Makoto.”
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoldretired · 5 years ago
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alrighty! im gonna talk about my two new dr!ocs and some updates on sheon’s whole thing. remember they don’t have names yet adkaljasdkfa
SURVIVOR: the ultimate jazz singer. 
as mentioned, she’s the ultimate jazz singer. pretty subdued personality, but she’s the type of jazz singer who would just. scream into a microphone a la screamin jay hawkins. she is pretty neutral/friendly but disconnected in the prologue/first chapter/second chapter. she gets more jittery as the interactions go on. but once you get to the post-fte section of chapter two, that night she actually tries to kill the protag. at this point its revealed her big Angsty Backstory is she got involved with drugs through the music scene and is currently suffering withdrawal symptoms and is Super desperate (something ive seen a lot with my co-musicians and its not good) big breakdown, really delirious, will eventually be talked off the ledge and calmed down. kind of like if sayaka was actually calmed down in thh chap 1
just so happens that during the night whoopsy someone else was killed. so you two have an alibi but to reveal it means you tell everyone about her issues. either there might be a lying feature like in drv3 to cover, or you tell the truth and end up isolating her. for chapter three and most of four she will keep her distance from the protag bc she’s uncomfortable but will eventually reach out to be friends again after chap 4 execution. 
is generally pretty useful during trials, tends to be a person who tries to help calm down more emotional students and look at things logically. is good at trying to calm down the blackened once the protag catches their bluff bc she understands what its like to be desperate. she does, however, cry during/after every punishment. tells others not to speak poorly of their executed classmates. 
she compulsively chews gum, and one of her favorite gifts would be gum. jokes about having an oral fixation. during school mode she might joke about singing love songs but being so awkward about it in real life. really likes dogs, has a dog plushie in her room. 
a first two fte will focus on her health/wellbeing. the third she’ll ask to not talk about that anymore and the next three are just about general stuff. the final one she’ll basically go a little further into detail but the moral of her story is like, she’s not a bad person for doing what she did, no one is. she’s just a person. and it cn happen to anymore.
dresses in clothes more inspired by late mod/early 70s fashion. hoestly im seeing like a turtleneck/pantsuit combo. short curly hair. big heavy under eyelashes. 
MASTERMIND: the ultimate drag racer (ultimate cruiser)
ok but I LOVE him. personality wise he’s the story’s anxious character, think closer in personality to chap 1 shuichi. quiet, skittish, easily flustered, sometimes cracks jokes that fall flat. he’s framed for the chap 1 murder (someone died in a go kart accident, its assumed he sabotaged the other car, his argument is why would he kill someone in a race in front of all his classmates?) the protag obviously works hard to prove he’s innocent. after the execution he makes a promise to the protag that he owes him one big time, and while it seems innocent at the time, the wording should have like. a slight suspicious undertone. 
he’ll investigate weirder areas of the school instead of practical (sometimes he has clues sometimes not) and if there’s ever a mechanical question for a trial, you’ll generally ask him for clarification. he’s not very trusting of others and is often the one to accuse others/bring the information learned in trials back into the real world and make a big deal out of it. for example, he’ll make a big deal about the attempted murder in chap 2, and he’s the one who’s constantly accusing sheon of being a traitor
at first he seems like he’s just anxious, but obviously, he’s the mastermind, and he’s trying to tear the group apart. 
his fte he’s awkward the first few times but he opens up slowly, showing actual comfort/joy around the protag. wants to be close friends. offers to take protag go karting. while their personality is pretty awkward most of the time, there are flashes of an adrenaline junky every now and then especially when talking about cars, where he seems so full of life and drive it’s almost scary. very competitive during these times, his determination almost taking a sadistic glee when talking about beating others. of course he explains it as his cutthroat sport, but ya know...mastermind. instead of saying we’re going to survive he says we’re going to win. friendly towards the others but doesn’t really care about them focused on protag. is consciously trying to seperate protag from sheon.
for a mastermind he’s actually quite the empath and grows attached to his classmates, which he actually takes pleasure in the amount of despair he feels after each of their executions. reason behind the game is the adrenaline rush he feels, never has felt more alive than on despair. he discovered the rush the first time he got in a car accident, and the moments before his crash where like pure bliss. he wanted to let everyone else feel his feverish joy, and talks about how everyone has enjoyed this, deep down. they’re all getting their sick kicks. breaks the fourth wall and alludes to the fact that the protag (through the player) is having the most fun of all. 
final trial where it’s revealed, he’s still v attached to the protag in like an almost yandere way and wants to follow up on the favor he owes from chap 1. he offers a deal to the protag where if they’re welcome to be their accomplice in all this and get out of the game. protag should push to bargain that everyone can give up their morals, sacrifice themselves to despair, and live as the mastermind’s accomplice in exchange for ending the killing game. 
eventually, he’ll agree, but only if the group decides one life among them to sacrifice for no other reason than to kill an innocent friend. the way to get to the correct ending is to choose yourself which will like invalidate the deal. protag ends up dying and everyone else lives. leaves the mastermind in a despair, but for the first time, he does not derive any pleasure. 
takes a LOT OF GLEE in admitting he convinced everyone else sheon was the traitor when she was not, everyone else is horrified.
anyways. his school mode/love mode events show his more likeable side, he can actually be a really cute partner if it weren’t for the part he’s evil but uh. soft sometimes. 
really likes energy drinks. talks about sponsorships. color scheme is like. a black racing suit but his jacket is tied around his waist and he’s wearing a wife beater. tons of accents of neon all over his outfit from like patches and brand deals. backwards hat. blushes easily. has a mullet. i love him. 
“TRAITOR” : SHEON FUKUDA (the ultimate film maker) 
ok so. still antagonistic. but more in the way of pushing your buttons and pointing out your flaws in a trial. like somewhere between antagonist and kirigiri. super chill personality, cracks a lot of jokes, is hardcore struggling with the games and will be open about her mental illness. her fatal flaw is still her martyr complex
is first framed after chap 2 bc of accused of having the ability to direct and oversee a production like this, and from that moment forward no one can trust her and she’s SUPER alienated. she’s still awkwardly trying to be friends/friendly but people act like she’s going to betray them all. tries to prove innocence multiple times going as far as to beginning of chap 3 announce to the group if they need to kill anyone, let it be her so no one else gets hurt and is super transparent about who she is. but this transparency makes people more suspicious. as she goes on she gets more desperate/gallows humor. last convo bfore chap 5 begins she has a vague conversation about with protag about if they fear death. chap 5 would end up being either a suicide or double murder (they killed each other one in attack the other while being defended against) so there’s no execution but monokuma still wants something. its also in this trial that the ultimate drag racer plants evidence taht makes it look like she’s the traitor and is addressed head on. 
a common motif for her is ‘playing the role assigned’ and knowing who she is and who she isn’t. she’s pretty comfortable knowing who she is but expresses unhappiness about being painted a villain. maybe like, three times through the story to this point it’s established as a motif/quirk of fitting a role she’s assigned bc if the protag asks her a question about herself/past/the overall story, she asks the protag a question like well, what do you want 1) 2) and you choose and she’s like. ok. then its _______. same thing here. as she’s finally excused she stares at the protag and is like do you really believe im the traitor? (yes) stares long and hard, somethng sad and defeated in her eyes. ok then. i am.
the trial doesn’t have a punishment originally planned bc the blackened are not alive. but she chooses not to vote and willingly chooses to be punished because everyone else has decided she’s the traitor and she chooses to play along so they can get closure. her last conversation should be about choosing the act of resistance, no matter how convoluted it can be. she doesn’t fear death. the pain sure, but not death. this was her choice to be punished, not the masterminds, and she hopes they lose any glee they take in her suffering because its a sacrifice for hope instead of a death in despair. last request is that she asks for the protag to make sure the manuscripts she wrote during her time are published, the last great work of sheon fukuda.
EXECUTION: CULTURE SHOCK so she wakes up on a soundstage to blinding light. she’s attached with electrodes. monokuma is sitting on a director’s chair with a director’s hat. basically the premise is as the ultimate film maker, she has to recreate different iconic movie scenes and every time she makes a mistake she gets shocked. she keeps on getting thrown into new scenes into the middle of old ones, throwing her off. after a sequence of costume changes/farces she finally collapses in the soundstage. 
beat. she looks up. above the soundstage is a sign that says “congratulations” or something. everyone gasps. she believes she beat it. a single light comes on in center stage prompting her to take a bow. she stumbles over, stands up, and looks into the shadows in the general direction of her classmates. a teleprompter prompts her classmates to clap. she takes glee, soaking in her win, and bows. as she comes up she smiles for a second before a short rings out. she’s shot through the heart. culture shock!
fte are mostly talking about directors/film references and what its like to be a film maker. real dry humor, sometimes talks about deeper stuff. her backstory is that her dad was working for an american embassy so she grew up in america going to art shool, and she feels out of place, despite being a japanese student with the same basic culture as everyone else. sometimes talks about slimeball directors, sometimes talks about missing certain food, loves takling about movies. as a filmmaker she specializes in dark comedy/farce which makes her suspicious of how someone can enjoy writing somethng so twisted
views are very intersectional, a little new agey, but still well put together. clearly a free spirit, very quirky from working in cinema, super dry sense of humor. likes philosophy
really likes blueberry jam. favorite item is somthing blueberry.
after chap 1 trial she expresses to the protag how she can never be the blackened, not just because of murdering one student, but to get away with it, everyone else would be punished instead, and she can’t deal with the blood on her hands. 
is open about her struggles with mental illness and how she was getting help and showing improvement bfore coming here but now she feels herself spiraling and hates it.
values everyone here as good friends, and while she tries to play it off she hates how they’re painting her as a villain. takes every death very personally. 
color scheme is very pastel, and she wears sweat pants and a collared shirt with a light blue robe. you can’t tell if those are pajamas or an outfit. wears rose-colored glasses. all about the aesthetic, just lean so far into film culture with her. personality/feelings towards style are very influenced by the fact she went to an american arts school instead of a japanese school like her peers so every part of her is slightly off/quirky/out-of-touch
she’ll mostly wear the glasses over her eyes, sometimes pushing them down on her nose for emphasis to make eye contact. only her anger sprite (point) shows her taking them off. 
during her execution she pushes them onto her forehead before taking her bow, almost to meet eye to eye. after she’s shot the last frame is them landing on the ground, cracking. 
i love sheon so much
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unweavinglies · 6 years ago
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hey, while replaying the game, i noticed that in chapter 3 kokichi makes a rather interesting statement, which gets brushed off and forgotten almost right after. he references danganronpa 1! he specifically says that he watched an anime in which the mastermind sacrificed a family member to get the killing started. nobody has talked about that line as far as i know, so what's your opinion on it? why did he know about dr1? i don't really know what to make of it.
After doing a brief check on the facts, I’ve come to the conclusion that Kokichi’s reference to “an anime about a death game” is either incorrectly referencing Danganronpa 1, it isn’t referencing Danganronpa 1 at all.
Here’s the full conversation (Celest had screenshot this a while back during her play through when commenting on Kokichi’s remarks on wanting Kaede to be revived because it would make Shuichi happy)
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This is fundamentally incorrect, if it is supposed to be a reference to Danganronpa 1.
Junko, as the mastermind of DR1, didn’t need to kill Mukuro to start the killing game, because Sayaka Maizono had already attempted to kill Leon Kuwata, but was killed by Leon in Makoto’s bathroom. 
Mukuro wasn’t a victim of a blackened. Mukuro was killed by Junko on a whim, because Junko decided last minute to make an example of her and actually kill her rather than “imprison” her and let Mukuro lurk in the shadows like they originally planned.
Because it is not 100% accurate, we can’t assume Kokichi has “seen” DR1 or has knowledge of it, especially since the “It’s all fiction!” twist would have to be a fact (which there is a lot of evidence to prove that Tsumugi was lying about this, in all honesty) but if that is the case, then Kokichi would still be incorrect here, because DR1′s canon timeline doesn’t change for V3, even in V3 making references to Leon’s murdering of Sayaka.
Kokichi also makes references to DR2 in his FTEs, demanding that Shuichi get on his knees and slit open his stomach as an apology--a reference to Fuyuhiko from DR2. He also makes references to Yu-Gi-Oh! among others.
From a literary standpoint, these references are probably just that-references. There aren’t any strong implications that these references have any plot relevance, but there is a possibility that Kokichi is suffering from an “error”/mistake in the flashback lights, and “remembers” things from the real outside world. 
However, I don’t believe that’s the case. Kokichi does make some questionable statements (I.E. telling Kaede he’s “met her before under similar circumstances” (in reference to the killing game) but this could also imply a sort of time loop if Kokichi really wasn’t just pulling Kaede’s leg here, because there are implications in the prologue that Kaede and Kokichi both were “new” to the Killing Game scene where as Rantaro knew immediately knew what was going on. Kaede did recognize the Monokubs, but didn’t immediately recognize the 16 student thing. Kokichi didn’t even remark on this at all.)
An interesting idea that plays into both statements “I saw an anime once where the mastermind sacrificed a family member to get the killing game started” and “We’ve met before under similar circumstances” would be explained with that time loop theory, if Tsumugi and Rantaro were siblings and Kokichi was aware of her being the mastermind. But there’s little evidence for this, and is more so a fun idea above all else.
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commentaryvorg · 6 years ago
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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.7
Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.
Last time, as chapter 4 started being less character arc and more plot, everyone entered the Virtual World upon Miu and Kokichi’s totally-not-suspicious suggestion, Kaito was a dog and we rounded out his list of Manly Things with curiosity and playfulness, and he was also on extremely high alert over Kokichi doing anything suspicious but let Gonta slip under his radar because there’s obviously no way Gonta would do anything bad.
Now we’re in the chapel, discussing how everyone is going to split up to search the Virtual World.
Kokichi:  “Oh, yeah… Before we split up, I wanna ask you something, Miu.”
[Kokichi and Miu whisper to each other]
Here’s another way in which Kokichi is deliberately sabotaging the mercy kill plan before it’s even happened. He’s not stupid enough to have forgotten their planned meeting place, but he’s pretending he has and confirming it here in the hopes that someone will overhear (which indeed Keebo does), giving Shuichi yet another clue which will make figuring out Miu’s plan (and therefore Gonta’s guilt) far easier in the trial.
Maki:  “So, who’s going to decide how we split up?”
Kaito:  “Just leave it all to me! I’ll figure out how everyone should split up in a flash!”
Look, guys, Kaito’s still being useful and a leader! And also he probably wants an excuse to put himself in the same team as both his sidekicks, as well as probably Kokichi so he can keep an eye on him. (And… what if he would have put Gonta in a different team than Kokichi to stop anything potentially bad happening. I bet he would have done.)
Miu:  “No, no! Hold up! I’ll decide that! I know this world better than any of you, so I’ll decide!”
She doesn’t really know this world any better than anyone else now that everyone’s explored the whole place (aside from a couple of rooms in the mansion that don’t have anything relevant in them anyway). That’s just an excuse to let her organise her murder plan. She’s kind of bad at this.
She puts Kaito on the roof, of course, so that when she logs him out in order to frame him it’ll get him out of the way of her meeting with Kokichi. Also potentially so that if they do figure out Kokichi was killed on the Virtual World rooftop, Kaito will still look the most suspicious.
Kaito:  “Huh!? Why do I gotta go up to the rooftop!? It’s freakin’ cold out there!”
Kokichi:  “Yeah! There’s no way the faint-hearted Kaito can search in the cold!”
Kaito:  “Alright! Bring it on! All I gotta do is search the rooftop, right?”
Aaaand Kokichi, knowing full well Miu is doing this for her plan, deliberately helps it along for her.
Miu then puts Kokichi in the salon, because he’s supposed to end up dead, which means that nobody will be able to vouch for the fact that Kaito didn’t go to the salon to log himself out.
Then she doesn’t give a fuck other than putting herself on the chapel team. Which makes it kind of obvious that she’s got a hidden agenda here. Literally all you needed to do was randomly pick additional people to assign to other rooms, Miu, it wouldn’t have been hard. You’re terrible at this.
(And if she’d randomly happened to put Gonta on the chapel team, then that would have saved her life.)
Kokichi:  “Then Gonta should come with me. We can search the mansion’s surroundings, since no one else wants to deal with the cold.”
Gonta:  “Okay… Gonta come with you.”
Gonta is just being heartbreakingly subdued and obedient. Usually he’d be more cheerful about being given something he can be helpful with, but not now.
Kokichi:  “Mm-hm, a true gentleman must always volunteer to do the dirty work.”
FUCK YOU AND YOUR DOUBLE MEANINGS, KOKICHI
Tsumugi:  “So… you’re just going to use Gonta again. I’ve decided! I’m going that way too! I have to make sure you’re not abusing poor Gonta!”
I’ll give Tsumugi this: she seems pretty committed to her act of pretending to care about Gonta’s wellbeing. I don’t know if she knows what Kokichi is planning for him – probably not, and even if she was it’s not like she’d stop it because it’s an excellent story – but in terms of the character she’s pretending to be, this bit about her being on Gonta’s side is one of the most consistent things she does. I haven’t been pointing it out every time, but it’s been there.
Kaito:  “We still need one more for mansion duty. Shuichi, come with us.”
Shuichi:  “Ah, okay…”
Maki:  “…”
Shuichi:  (Is Maki upset…? Because she’s all by herself now?)
There’s this whole bit here, during the ensuing optional dialogue as well, with Maki quietly glaring (at either Kaito or Shuichi, it’s not clear which), presumably because… she’s mad that Kaito picked Shuichi to go with him and not her? But it just doesn’t feel right to me. Yes, I’m sure she would have preferred to go with Kaito than be stuck with neither of her close friends, but she’s not the kind of person who would get actively mad about it, especially not when they have more important things to be doing. The writing is probably trying to pretend that this is about her romantic feelings for Kaito and that she’s all jealous that Kaito would rather hang out with Shuichi than with her, but no, fuck off, that’s such a goddamn stereotypical way for someone to be acting upon romantic feelings (not to mention hugely dickish to your other friend). Maki isn’t like that at all; please remember the time two days ago where she could barely even comprehend that she had such feelings.
As an optional bit of dialogue, Miu suggests making this entire place their new reality and literally everyone (except Maki, who is still being inflicted with bad-writing-induced anger, and Gonta, who is very quiet) disagrees with her, then…
Miu:  “Ugh… grghggh! I-I’ll make you regret this!”
Shuichi:  (Regret this? What does she mean? She says such ominous things…)
You’re not being super subtle about the fact that you’re planning to kill us all, Miu.
Also, if you examine the organ in the chapel…
Shuichi:  “…Kaede probably could have played the organ well too. …”
Aww. (It’s great how the game has occasional mentions of her such as this to make it clear that she’s still important to and having an influence on Shuichi even now. That’s something the first game utterly failed to do with Sayaka.)
On the way back to the mansion…
Miu:  “Whoops, my hand slipped.”
[Miu “accidentally” drops the signboard in the river]
Nobody ever genuinely says that when their hand really did just slip. Again: she is so bad at this and Shuichi would have seen right through her if she’d actually succeeded in killing Kokichi.
Gonta is also still very quiet during this whole exchange about the missing bridge, even though you’d expect him to be worrying about the people on the other side or trying to find a way to help somehow. (This kind of quiet behaviour is something it makes sense that Kaito still wouldn’t pick up on, since he’s not paying any specific attention to Gonta, and without doing that it’s hard to notice a lack of something.)
Once they’re in the mansion, Kokichi doles out the other roles on the team and tells Shuichi and Tsumugi to go check the dining hall and kitchen – note how he leaves the entrance hall out of it, since he needs that to be empty. Kaito is still here during this conversation, which is briefly relevant later in a way the writing doesn’t draw explicit attention to, so keep this in mind.
Gonta:  “…Gonta go now.”
Oh, Gonta, you poor thing. He’s just so quiet and defeated and sad, or at least that’s the implication given by his very few lines once you know what’s up. He is, however, suppressing it and not showing a visibly sad expression here, meaning that again, even Kaito probably can’t pick up on this due to the less nuanced expressions on the avatars.
Tsumugi:  “It’s surprisingly cold out there, so be careful. You should come back here to warm up.”
Gonta:  “Thank you… but Gonta okay. Gonta not smart enough to get sick.”
Gonta then also smiles upon Tsumugi’s concern for him. So things probably seem pretty fine and not worrying from the perspective of anyone with him, regardless of how perceptive they are.
Kaito:  “Someone who isn’t smart wouldn’t want to save everyone… They’d only think of themselves.”
Gonta:  “Oh… thank you.”
Aaaaaagh. These words from Kaito are the last thing anyone says to Gonta before he becomes a murderer in a desperate attempt to save everyone. Maybe that helped him feel just a tiny bit less awful about it. He may be about to become a murderer, but he is so, so far from being stupid.
And it’s absolutely lovely that Kaito thinks this: that meaningful intelligence isn’t about book smarts or whatever but is about how much you care about others and how often you’re thinking about how to help everyone around you. In fact, that would explain why Kaito always gets so mad when people call him an idiot! It’s not because he cares that they think he’s book-dumb – he knows he’s not, but he doesn’t ever bring up that fact to correct people because it’s not the point. It’s because he takes it as them assuming he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and of course he’d hate others getting that impression of him! That also fits perfectly with the fact that Maki has never stopped calling him an idiot but Kaito stopped complaining about it once they were friends – in other words, once it became clear that she knew he cared about helping her and therefore didn’t mean “idiot” in the sense that bothers him.
It’s also amusing to realise, considering how much I like to call Kaito “idiotically selfless” or words to that effect, that he would see that as a complete oxymoron.
Tsumugi:  “I want to go back to my real body.”
Kaito:  “Well… These avatars aren’t that bad, y’know?”
Shuichi:  “Huh? These avatars?”
Kaito:  “Just kidding! It’s just a joke! I’m just joking!”
You’re still kind of bad at this, Kaito. Lucky for you Shuichi’s being selectively oblivious here.
So they all split up to search for what is presumably quite a long time, until Shuichi and Tsumugi happen to be together as they hear the crashing sound.
Tsumugi:  “Maybe that sound was something falling off the roof?”
Shuichi:  (But… the person on the roof is…)
Welcome to yet another instance of first-time-me being utterly terrified Kaito was dead. By all rights, Shuichi should be too, but… he isn’t? Moments after, they hear Keebo’s voice, and then even if you attempt to get Shuichi to go check the rooftop, he’ll just insist he needs to go outside to check if that was Keebo. Like, geez, you heard Keebo’s voice so at the very least he’s alive, but what if Kaito isn’t???
This is admittedly the first time Kaito’s been possibly dead in which it even makes sense for Shuichi to potentially think that and be worried about it. So, since there’s actually no precedent for how Shuichi would react to this, maybe I’m just overestimating his ability to even think Kaito is dead. More on that in a bit.
This is also the first time Kaito’s been explicitly possibly dead in which the primary out-universe point of this event isn’t actually to make you think he’s dead. That’s just an unintended side effect of the real reason for it, which most directly is that Miu was trying to frame him, but in a more out-universe writing sense (since Miu really could have tried to frame anyone and it didn’t have to be Kaito) her framing him has a deliberate purpose for Kaito’s character arc during this case.
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Look at where Gonta is standing when they run into him outside. He has not just come from checking the mansion’s surroundings, has he. The only place he could have come from is that dead end to the side of the mansion where we’re going to find the toilet paper later. This right here is the conclusive proof that Gonta is the murderer.
Tsumugi:  “You heard that loud noise, right?”
Gonta:  “O-Oh… Gonta hear noise, but Gonta not see anything.”
Gah, look at Gonta having no choice but to lie to them in order to be able to save everyone. He looks sad as he says this, not because he’s disappointed he couldn’t be more helpful, but because he hates lying to them.
Shuichi:  (And what about Kaito? He should have heard that from the roof… He would have run over here right away… What’s going on?)
YES AND YOU SHOULD BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT HIM BECAUSE OF THAT
Shuichi:  (…Alright. My talent… is solving mysteries. So that’s what I’m going to do.)
Aww, look at Shuichi psyching himself up to solve this even though he’s clearly kind of confused and freaked out right now. He really is good in a crisis.
Gonta:  “What happen? Did something happen to Keebo?”
This isn’t Gonta having to lie or hide anything, since he’s probably genuinely confused as to why Keebo was heard nearby – he knows he sent Miu sliding through the wall, but he presumably doesn’t realise that the chapel is on the other side of it.
Gonta:  “Leave it to Gonta! Gonta just need to carry signboard!?”
Oh Gonta you precious thing. He is now a murderer and he’s intending to get everyone else mercy-killed soon but he’s still trying to help out in even the smallest ways!
Gonta:  “But board is so thin. Will it be okay? What if board breaks this ti—”
At this point Gonta has already used toilet paper that didn’t break, so really he should have grasped this rule, but apparently he hasn’t? I guess Kokichi didn’t bother trying to explain the rule to him properly and just told him it was special toilet paper.
Keebo:  “We’re not sure, but her avatar isn’t moving. Maybe something happened in the real world that’s preventing her from moving it.”
This is kind of a misleading description. From this alone, it gives the impression she’s standing there, frozen, which presumably would be what would happen if someone was killed in the real world and lost connection with their avatar. But not only is her avatar not moving, it’s lying face down on the ground. You know, as if she was murdered in here or something.
Maki:  “…Hey, where’s Kaito?”
Shuichi:  “Ah, Kaito! I-I don’t know, I ran here as fast as I could, I didn’t check the roof…”
Maki:  “…You didn’t even bother going to the roof to get him. You’re colder than I thought.”
I guess we can assume that Shuichi was so wrapped up in the panic of it all that he didn’t even think to check the roof (and that mine and any other sensible players’ attempts to get him to do so weren’t canon). And from the way Maki says “get him”, not “check on him”, it seems she’s running under the assumption that Kaito isn’t dead and Shuichi was just kind of a dick for forgetting to include him in the running around in a panic that we’re all doing. Which makes sense, since Maki saw Miu’s virtual corpse and so she started off with the impression that if someone’s dead, it’s probably Miu, and therefore Kaito’s probably safe. Shuichi still has less excuse.
Only a little later, once Maki confirms that Kaito isn’t on the roof…
Maki:  “But don’t worry… He’s stupid enough to get himself killed, but I know he won’t really die.”
Shuichi:  “…” (I suppose that’s true. I don’t have to worry about him…)
But this is presumably why Shuichi wasn’t nearly as worried as he should have been. Even though he says he supposes that’s true like he’s only just realising this here, the fact is that Shuichi has always been low-key under the impression that Kaito is basically invincible, such that it apparently doesn’t even occur to him (or to Maki for that matter) that there’s still a possibility he could get killed at some point. Well done, Kaito, all your insisting that you couldn’t possibly be worried or hurting about anything somehow succeeded in getting your sidekicks to really see you that way.
Gonta:  “Um… So Gonta just say name in phone, and someone come get him?”
And there goes Alter Ego Gonta logging out and temporarily ceasing to exist. We won’t see him again until the end of the trial.
Kokichi:  “Now that we’re alone, I wanna tell you something.”
Shuichi:  “…What is it?”
Kokichi:  “You’re really useful.”
Really, Kokichi? Because if you really think that about Shuichi, then why the fuck does your future plan in chapter 5 not use him as your accomplice and instead just completely glosses over the fact that his “usefulness” if used against you is going to make the plan fail? Good job being thoroughly aware of another of the reasons your plan is terrible and then doing it anyway.
Kokichi:  “So, how about you stop hanging out with dumb ol’ Kaito, and be *my* friend instead?”
It’s really annoyingly entitled of Kokichi to act like this when he’s done absolutely fuck all to earn Shuichi’s friendship, while Kaito has done everything and more to deserve it.
Kokichi:  “I think I can be useful to you too… y’know? I can help you save everyone. And you wanna save everyone, riiiiight?”
And now Kokichi is trying to manipulate Shuichi through his desire to save everyone, even though there was a perfectly good way to save everyone this chapter without getting Miu and Gonta killed that Kokichi didn’t feel like sharing.
Shuichi quite rightly nopes out of this conversation without saying a word. Presumably he’s figured that Kokichi is just trying to manipulate him and doesn’t actually care about saving everyone at all.
Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… aw, I got rejected. But I won’t give up that easily. When I find someone I like, I’d do anything to get them to notice me… even strangle them.”
I gather this is one of the lines that people use to argue that Kokichi has a crush on Shuichi. And… okay, sure, even my aromantic brain can accept that that’s probably what’s being implied here (especially given he’s alone and therefore has no reason to be lying). But… so what? Even if Kokichi has a crush on Shuichi, that has absolutely no relevance to Kokichi’s meaningful role in the story – not any of the parts of his character that are interesting, nor the things he does in the plot. So it’s bizarre and frustrating to me that the writers broke Shuichi’s POV for what simply isn’t a relevant enough part of the story to justify that.
Aaand Miu’s dead. Hooray. Now she can be more of an interesting character! I’m literally not even kidding – I’m going to be talking about her nearly every time she’s mentioned from this point on and I’m going to actually have fun doing so.
*ding dong, dong ding!*
Monokuma:  “A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the computer room… Wait, you’re already here. Wow, I get to bring you the body discovery announcement live!”
Not everyone’s here; Kaito isn’t. So I have to assume that, despite Monokuma claiming he’s only doing this live, he still did broadcast at least the first part of it in order for Kaito to hear it.
Consider how the body discovery announcements don’t tell you whose body it is. And remember the conversation Kaito and his sidekicks had near the beginning of this chapter discussing how Shuichi is the most likely target for a future murder, in which Kaito fiercely promised he’d protect both of his sidekicks despite having no way to guarantee that. How terrified must Kaito be right now that the victim could be Shuichi or Maki.
(This isn’t even the first time Kaito’s heard a body discovery announcement while alone and nowhere near the crime scene – in fact, it’s the third – but this would definitely be the most frightening one of all for him given the context.)
Gonta:  “Gonta… not understand, either… Miu like this when Gonta wake up… Hey! What going on!? Why this happen!?”
Oh, Gonta. He understands this even less than everybody else does right now.
Gonta:  “M-Murder…? Wh-What you mean!? Did something happen while Gonta sleep!?”
This isn’t even that subtle about it! You’d think that if Gonta remembered the Virtual World, he would still feel like something happened while he was “asleep” and wouldn’t be phrasing his confusion in quite this way.
Keebo:  “We weren’t asleep and that wasn’t a dream. We were in the Virtual World.”
…But then Keebo’s subsequent line does do a good job of making you instead jump to the assumption that the “sleep” Gonta’s talking about was just this.
Kaito gets here and says that he was taking a nap when the body discovery announcement woke him up.
Gonta:  “You were sleeping? Gonta was sleeping, too! Had strange dream! Gonta not understand anything!”
The way that he associates it with Kaito’s nap also rather implies that he really does just see it as normal sleep. The “strange dream” is obviously meant to make you assume he’s talking about the Virtual World, but presumably what it really was was just a regular dream caused by his subconscious brain doing weird brain things while his consciousness was in the simulation.
Kaito:  “I didn’t know if it was okay to log back in, so I went back to my room and slept.”
That… doesn’t quite sound like something Kaito would normally do. I feel like he wouldn’t usually be so quick to just give up on their search for the secret of the outside world (and on keeping an eye on Kokichi’s potential scheme), and wouldn’t let himself be stopped by the possible risks of logging back in unplanned. So… his real reason for going back to his room proooobably has more to do with his illness than anything else. Maybe he really had coughed up blood while logged in and had to go change his clothes.
Also, if Kaito had logged back in straight away like he probably would have done if he wasn’t sick, then headed back to the rooftop where he was supposed to be… the murder might not have happened. Kaito is bound to realise this himself once it becomes apparent that the murder happened on the virtual rooftop. Yet again, he in particular could have prevented a murder but failed to do so, not just because he didn’t do a good enough job of getting through to Kokichi or keep a close enough eye on him despite how hard he was trying, but also in an even more direct way. If only he hadn’t been dying.
Shuichi:  “We need to discover who killed Miu.”
Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… you seem ready. Well, of course you are. One of your dear friends was killed, so it’s finally time for you to shiiiine!”
This seems like Kokichi being a dick to Shuichi, who hates the way he can only be useful once someone is already dead. But it’s also Kokichi being a dick to Kaito, because the fact that Shuichi is so much better at saving people than him has been eating away at Kaito more and more lately.
Shuichi:  “I’ll find the culprit so that we can all survive.”
Kokichi:  “…Even if the culprit is Kaito?”
What exactly the fuck are you trying to prove here, Kokichi, you know the culprit isn’t Kaito.
Monokuma:  “I’m certain you guys’ll make this turn of events very entertaining!”
Yes, someone sure has done his best to make this case very entertaining. Again, good job, Kokichi, you gave Monokuma exactly what he wants.
Kokichi:  “Well, what’re you sad about? You guys hated her! Not as much as you hate me, but still!”
Tsumugi:  “Th-That’s not the issue… Of course I thought she was loud and annoying, but…”
Kaito:  “I never wanted her to die. I wanted us all to escape together.”
Kokichi is trying even harder than usual to suppress his basic human decency now that he’s killed someone himself. Basic human decency is the only reason anyone else (except Keebo, who had some semblance of a connection with her) is upset about Miu’s death right now, but that’s still more than enough reason to be horrified that a person they knew is dead. But Kokichi’s trying to tell himself that it’s totally okay that he killed her since everyone hated her anyway, right? No, too bad, it doesn’t work like that. You’re still a murderer, Kokichi.
Gonta:  “Urgh… Gonta no can forgive this. Gonta… never forgive this. Never forgive culprit, either… But Gonta never forgive self!”
SGHJSDGHJADGHJFSHJFD. I don’t think I need to say any more here.
Shuichi:  (I’m… so tired of this awful feeling. I have to do something. I can’t let this—)
Kaito:  “Shuichi, don’t carry the burden all by yourself.”
Kaito is still incidentally being a huge hypocrite and probably still overcompensating for his own sense of inferiority here… but his heart’s 100% in the right place regardless. Even though Shuichi didn’t say anything out loud, Kaito can pick up on the fact that he’s putting a lot of undue pressure on himself just because he’s the detective, so of course Kaito should still try and encourage him not to do that.
Kaito:  “You’re my sidekick! Don’t forget. We’re gonna do it together! If we work together, we can solve this—”
This is a little more off the main point, though. Shuichi almost certainly can solve the case on his own, after all (and Kaito knows it). The point of Kaito’s support isn’t that Shuichi wouldn’t be able to solve the case without him, but that doing so would be a lot less painful and stressful for Shuichi if he has his friend by his side throughout it. But here Kaito is trying to imply that Shuichi absolutely needs him and not just that he’s an optional extra help to make things a little easier to bear.
Kokichi:  “Shuichi is the most reliable person in a class trial, y’know? Why would we let such an important person work together with a suspect like you?”
Even if we disregard everything about how much Shuichi believes in Kaito and assume that he really is the most obvious suspect right now (which he’s not, because he’s so obvious a suspect that it’s clearly not him), this is still a completely backwards argument. Shuichi investigating together with the prime suspect would be a good thing, because then he’d be able to keep a close eye on them, make sure they don’t try to destroy evidence, and notice any suspicious reactions they have that might otherwise have slipped under the radar.
Kaito was also technically one of the main suspects back in case 2 by virtue of being one of only a few people without an alibi. But the very fact that he willingly chose to investigate with Shuichi that time immediately made him less suspicious, because the real culprit wouldn’t have wanted to increase the risk of Shuichi picking up subtle signs that they did it. And, of course, Shuichi noticing subtle suspiciousness from his investigation partner probably contributed to him ending up so sure that Kaede did it in case 1.
Kaito:  “You’re saying that if I was the culprit, Shuichi would hide the truth to protect me?”
I mean, if Shuichi was going to do that, he’d do that regardless of whether Kaito investigated with him or not, so again, Kokichi’s argument is terrible. But…
Kaito:  “Bullshit! Don’t underestimate Shuichi! Even if I was the culprit, he’s the type of guy that’d see things through!”
Kaito is so fucking good. It’s completely inconceivable to him right now that he would ever kill someone or try to deceive Shuichi, and he knows just how much faith Shuichi has in him. But Kaito believes so strongly in Shuichi’s convictions as a detective that he has complete faith that even if the inconceivable did come to pass, Shuichi would still be able to do what he knows he needs to to save everyone.
And of course, that’s exactly what ends up happening. The foreshadowing is delightful.
(And apparently Kokichi can’t grasp this concept, because if he did, then he would know full well that making Kaito the accomplice in his plan was never going to work.)
Plus, not only is this delicious foreshadowing for case 5, it’s also quite relevant to this case as well. Shuichi has more faith in Kaito than he does in anyone else, so it follows that if Kaito believes Shuichi would be able to pursue the truth of him being the culprit, he also believes Shuichi would be able to pursue the truth of anyone else being the culprit – even someone else Shuichi has a lot of faith in, such as Gonta. So what’s going to happen in the trial when Kaito starts to get angry at Shuichi really isn’t as much about belief and doubt as it might seem. Kaito has clearly stated right here that he knows Shuichi would – and should – pursue the culprit even if it turns out to be a person that he wants to believe in.
Kokichi:  “But, remember Kaede’s class trial—”
Kaito:  “He saw us through that, didn’t he!? I believe in Shuichi!”
Exactly. We already have concrete proof that Shuichi is capable of proving his closest friend to be a murderer if that’s what it seems like he has to do. Your future plan is never going to work, Kokichi, you absolute moron.
Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… You love to believe, don’t you, Kaito? But that belief can turn against you, especially in this killing game, y’know?”
So, of course, this is also foreshadowing for how this trial is going to turn out for Kaito, and Kokichi’s very much doing this on purpose.
Kokichi’s been constantly trying this whole game to shove his philosophy that believing in people is a terrible idea down everyone’s throats, particularly Kaito’s. It sure is convenient for that attempted message of his that his master plan just happened to incidentally involve him turning the most inherently trustworthy person in here into a murderer, now, isn’t it. While Kokichi is telling himself that this whole murder here is just for the purpose of backing up his future lie that he’s the mastermind, I don’t think that’s really the only reason it happened.
But also, this brings to mind the thing I talked about a couple of chapters ago regarding the two different kinds of “believing in” someone, first just trusting that they’re a good person and secondly believing in their potential to be awesome. Kaito was talking about the latter kind of belief with regards to Shuichi here – and honestly, the former kind, about whether or not Shuichi would kill someone, hasn’t ever been in question by anyone since the first trial ended. But Kokichi turned around and suddenly made this about the former kind of belief instead – because that’s the only kind of belief that’s relevant to Kokichi, since his entire worldview revolves around the conviction that everyone who feels it is wrong. Kokichi can’t believe in anyone’s potential to do amazing things, because that would require believing in them as a person first. Maybe that’s part of why he idiotically thinks Shuichi won’t figure out his plan in chapter 5.
Kaito:  “Heh… I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about… I don’t get it at all…”
It seems that while Kaito has unshakeable faith in Shuichi’s ability to find the truth even if it involves someone he believes in being a murderer, Kaito isn’t quite so sure about his own ability to accept such a painful truth, should it come to that. (Remember that Kaito had a harder time accepting that Kaede did it than Shuichi did, in the end.) So he’s trying to brush it off and tell himself that Kokichi’s just talking nonsense and he doesn’t have to worry about it.
Kaito:  “Fine, if you’re gonna get all worked up over it, then me and Shuichi won’t team up.”
It’s actually a little surprising to me that Kaito concedes on this. I guess he just figures that if he doesn’t, Kokichi will continue to pester them about this the whole investigation and it won’t be worth it.
Kaito:  “That said, try to get through this on your own! Clear me of suspicion with your own power!”
That and he knows that Shuichi’s strong enough by now that he can get through it on his own and doesn’t really need anything more than Kaito cheering him on from the sidelines.
…And it was Kokichi’s insistent dickishness that pushed Kaito into acknowledging that. Hm. I wonder if that was deliberate.
Shuichi:  (Of course, this is Kaito we’re talking about, nothing I say could change his mind.)
I mean, he clearly still wants to investigate with you, Shuichi – if you were stubborn enough and insisted to Kokichi that no, fuck you, I can investigate with whoever I damn well choose and I choose Kaito, then that would at least potentially get him to shut up. Buuuut Shuichi is still really passive even when he’s in Ultimate Detective mode, so instead we get stuck with Kokichi for half an investigation.
Shuichi:  (I can’t be afraid… I can’t get lost now. In order to protect everyone, I have to do something. I have to do something…)
Shuichi still is putting a little too much of the burden all on himself, though. Don’t forget that Kaito believes in you even if he’s not investigating with you, Shuichi!
---
[Next post]
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no-more-rule-breakers · 2 years ago
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Muse/AU Info
Kiyotaka “Taka” Ishimaru
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『人生には努力を費やすだけの価値がある!』
Basic Info
Japanese Name - 石丸清多夏
Kana - イシマル キヨタカ
Meaning - ~Stone Circle / ~Many Pure Summers
Talent - Ultmate Moral Compass
Talent (Seconday) - Ultimate Survivor
Age - 19
Height - 176 cm (5’ 9”)
Weight - 66 kg (145.5 lbs)
Chest Size - 79 cm (31”)
Birthday - August 31
Star Sign - Virgo
Blood Type - B
Gender/Sexuality Info
Gender - Demiboy
Preferred Prononus - He/Him or They/Them
First-Person Pronoun (Japanese) - 僕
Sexual Orientation - Homosexual
Preferred Sexual Role - Top/Dom
Romantic Orientation - Homoromantic
Multiship
Important Relationships
Botan Kujou (Friend) [floral-samurai]
Mondo Owada (Boyfriend, Bro) [shsl-bosozoku-mondo-oowada]
Takaaki Ishimaru (Father) [no-more-rule-breakers]
Likes
Abstract Concepts/Ideals: Cooperation, effort, guidance, justice, order, rules, structure, teamwork
Actitivties/Lifestyle: Helping people, learning, overcoming obstacles, personal growth, studying
Colors: Red
Food: Japanese food (in general), tea (in general, but especially green tea)
People: Takaaki Ishimaru, Mondo Owada
Places: Libraries, school
Plants: Cacti
Seasons/Weather: Spring
Things: Books, his school uniform
Dislikes
Abstract Concepts/Ideals: Despair, evil, greed, injustice
Activities/Lifestyle: Slacking, wasting time
Being called: A genius, a hall monitor, emotional, fragile
People: Cheaters, criminals, geniuses, Junko Enoshima, liars, Monokuma, rule-breakers, slackers, Toranosuke Ishimaru, Yasuhiro Hagakure
Things: Unpunished bad deeds
Words: ‘Genius’
Triggers
The ‘F’ Slur
Other Notes
He’s fluent in French.
NSFW Information
AU Info
The rules of the Killing School Life are listed below.
Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.
“Nighttime” is from 10 pm to 7 am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.
Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.
With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.
Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.
Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes “blackened” will graduate, unless they are discovered.
Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.
If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all remaining students will be executed.
Lending your e-Handbook to another student is strictly prohibited.
The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single “Killing Game.”
Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.
The participants of the Killing School Life are listed below.
Aoi Asahina, Ultimate Swimming Pro
Chihiro Fujisaki, Ultimate Programmer
Toko Fukawa, Ultimate Writing Prodigy
Yasuhiro Hagakure, Ultimate Clairvoyant
Mukuro Ikusaba, Ultimate Soldier and Ultimate Despair, disguised as Junko Enoshima, Ultimate Fashionista and Ultimate Despair
Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Ultimate Moral Compass
Kyoko Kirigiri, Ultimate Detective
Leon Kuwata, Ultimate Baseball Star
Celestia “Celeste” Ludenberg (née Taeko Yasuhiro), Ultimate Gambler
Sayaka Maizono, Ultimate Pop Sensation
Makoto Naegi, Ultimate Lucky Student
Sakura Ogami, Ultimate Martial Artist
Mondo Owada, Ultimate Biker Gang Leader
Byakuya Togami, Ultimate Affluent Progeny
Hifumi Yamada, Ultimate Fanfic Creator
A summary of the Killing School Life is provided below.
Sayaka Maizono was stabbed to death by Leon Kuwata.
Mukuro Ikusaba was executed (impalement) for violating Rule #5.
Leon Kuwata was executed (blunt-force trauma) for the murder of Sayaka Maizono, in accordance with Rule #8.
Chihiro Fujisaki was bludgeoned to death by Byakuya Togami.
Byakuya Togami was executed (hypothermia) for the murder of Chihiro Fujisaki, in accordance with Rule #8.
Toko Fukawa was bludgeoned to death by Hifumi Yamada.
Hifumi Yamada was bludgeoned to death by Celestia Ludenberg.
Celestia Ludenberg was executed (hit by truck) for the murder of Hifumi Yamada, in accordance with Rule #8.
Sakura Ogami was crushed to death by Aoi Asahina.
It was an accident.
Aoi Asahina was executed (shark attack) for the murder of Sakura Ogami, in accordance with Rule #8.
Mondo Owada was was poisoned by Yasuhiro Hagakure.
Yasuhiro Hagakure was executed (eaten alive) for the murder of Mondo Owada, in accordance with Rule #8.
Makoto Naegi was executed (toxic gas) for violating Rule #3.
Kyoko Kirigiri was executed (decapitation) for undisclosed reasons.
Kiyotaka Ishimaru graduated on account of being the only surviving student. He was awarded two additional prizes: 1) the restoration of all memories, and 2) the secondary title of Ultimate Survivor.
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n00dl3gal · 8 years ago
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Despair is How I Say I Love You (Danganronpa)
I'm still fairly new to the DR fandom, but I always wondered just how broken Junko's psyche really was. These are my ideas for how she'd react to the Killing Game unfolding, and her relationship with the rest of the 78th Class.
I was inspired partially by @lukastarkiller​‘s series "glory and gore go hand in hand (that's why we're making headlines)." It's a fascinating look at the 77th Class's despair, I highly recommend it. 
Thanks to @mustardpig​ for proofreading.
Read on AO3 here.
Junko Enoshima could count on one hand the number of times she had cried in her life- genuinely, actually cried, not the crocodile tears she used to manipulate people or for the camera during photo shoots.
The first was when she was mere hours old and she had realized how utterly boring the world was. So predictable and meaningless. It was her first real taste of despair- the despair of living, of knowing how life would unfold.
She cried for the second time when she was cornered by a bulky man, whispering what he could do to a pretty girl like her. She managed to scramble away, but her heart beat faster than she thought was possible. Junko was scared for the first time, and the despair of fear was something she relished. It felt real, it was something new and unprecedented and so, so good.
Junko cried for the third time when her dear sister Mukuro ran off to join a band of mercenaries. She wept not out of concern for Mukuro- she knew her older sister would be fine, she figured that out immediately, given her prowess in combat and agility- but rather out of jealousy. She wanted to feel the despair of the battlefield, to be surrounded by death and suffering; maybe even enjoy the ultimate, bitter despair of death- God, wouldn’t that just be wonderful? But instead she was stuck doing modeling jobs, forcing a smile and a personality.
The last time Junko Enoshima cried was when she began the second killing game and knew her classmates would die.
. . .
Headmaster Jin screamed all the louder when Junko turned off the voice modulator for Monokuma. “Hope has peaked,” she drawled, “and despair comes crashing down.” Not her best line, to be sure, but it did the trick. The headmaster struggled against the ropes, pleading with her by name, wondering if this was a mistake-
And then the doors to the rocket closed. And he went flying.
When he crashed back to earth, Junko chuckled and gathered his bones. She wondered if Kyoko would admire the effort she went to to get such a despairing present.
. . .
Things were going mostly according to plan, boringly enough. The memory removal process had gone perfectly and none of the students suspected they knew one another. Sakura was willing to be the mole and feed Monokuma- and by extension, Junko- information on the group. The only flaw was Mukuro’s performance. She slipped out-of-character more than once and deviated from the script. Something might have to be done about her.
Junko turned to the controls for the trap door in the gymnasium and began to reprogram it.
. . .
The first one to go was the Ultimate Pop Sensation, Sayaka Maizono.
It’s not surprising, really. The girl was an idiot for thinking she could kill Leon, a professional athlete. Granted, it was mostly an accident- Leon didn’t mean to stab her in the gut. But murder is still murder, and must be punished.
She readied the courtroom and prepared a batting cage.
(Makoto’s screams when he discovers her, though- Junko has plans for him. Such despair-inducing plans.)
. . .
For once, Mukuro was following the script. Throw a fit and step on Monokuma. It’s most unfortunate that Junko had decided to change the plot.
She felt the sharpest pang of despair to date, and buried beneath it, a speck of regret. She’s killed her beloved sister, her dear, ugly, pathetic Mukuro Ikusaba. The other half of the Ultimate Despair (well, unless you count Izuru and the 77th class, but she cares little for their activities). It’s heartbreaking and Junko was nearly overcome with despair.
And then she saw Mukuro’s face, her shocked expression, her eyes wide, the gasp of realization still painted on her lips as she dies. Knowing that she felt the same level of despair Junko was at death is overwhelming. Unbearable.
It was all she could do to keep Monokuma running properly.
. . .
It’s almost pitiful, the way Leon pleaded for his life. Begging for forgiveness, pounding on unmoving doors. In fact, most people would have considered it pitiful.
But Junko wasn’t most people.
She maneuvered Monokuma into hitting the gavel, beginning the execution. A chain flew out of a side door to grasp Leon’s neck. He was already screaming in terror, and he hadn’t even been chained to the post and hit by a single baseball yet.
Pathetic, Junko thought.
Predictably, everyone- save Leon- was forced into stunned silence, as bruises and blood appear over Leon’s body. Junko hadn’t accounted for him to hold out so long, but by the time all 1,000 balls have been shot, his corpse was limp against the chains.
And the despair. Oh, the despair on her former classmates’ faces. She could bathe in it, swim in it, drown in it. It’s but a taste of what is to come, and she knew that this would be entirely worth it.
. . .
She had deduced that Chihiro would be an easy target, especially since the students were once again clueless to his real gender. Junko also had realized Mondo would likely end up a culprit- between his size and temper, eventually something would push him over the horizon. Mondo hadn’t even doctored the crime scene to save himself; no, it was to honor the secret Chihiro had trusted him with. What good were secrets to a corpse?
But for all her planning and analysis, she hadn’t been expecting Byakuya of all people to tend to Chihiro’s body. Except… this was no process for burial or even mourning. He was acting far too suspiciously for that. The way he was assembling the scene… it resembled something one of her other classmates might create.
It was a setup. Oh, how interesting.
. . .
Kiyotaka, the idiot, had voted for himself. Was that the moron’s “hope?” Believing in a confessed killer, trusting his “friend’s” innocence over factual evidence? God, he was a fool.
But he was falling, sinking deeper into despair. It was plainly obvious, and Junko relished in it. The rest of the class had teared up some over Mondo’s past as well (save Byakuya and Jill, of course- oh, Jill was now a factor. That could be fun ), but once the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader was strapped to the motorcycle…
Ah, delicious despair. She applauded her idea to allude to Little Black Sambo, it really gave the death an added layer of irony. With any luck, the other students would pick up on her subtle commentary. If not, what did it matter? Another student was dead, another well of despair had sprung.
(She watched Makoto very carefully. It was still too early, but she would outsmart him.)
. . .
Of course Junko knew about Alter Ego. She may have not kept any broadcasting cameras in the baths, but she was still fully aware of everything going on inside of the school. Still, it wouldn’t be a problem. Just an additional challenge to overcome, something to alleviate the boredom.
And on the subject of boring, the deaths kept being predictable. Kiyotaka may have stood a chance, had he not become so close to Mondo. Admittedly, Hifumi being the killer was a bit surprising, but whatever. She had custom executions for everyone, even if most wouldn’t see any use.
Would it be fair to call Hifumi the blackened, though? True, it was him that dealt the fatal blow, but it was under Celeste’s orders. Ah, the Ultimate Gambler. Worthy of her title, Junko admitted. She, at least, was playing the game as intended, offing and framing her opponents. Junko wouldn’t say she had “high hopes” for her- why would she, when it involved hope- but perhaps “high expectations” would be appropriate.
But then, Celeste killed Hifumi herself. And Hifumi, ever the dramatic, had seemingly damned Yasuhiro even more than the ridiculous Robo-Justice suit. Ah, would they make the right decision? Most likely. They still had Kyoko on their side. Not even wiping her talent from memory could remove the ability itself.
She prepared the stage for Taeko Yasuhiro. Even with all her skills as a gambler- and a liar- it is nothing in the face of Ultimate Luck.
. . .
“Perhaps we’ll meet again, in another life.” It figured that Taeko would attempt to go out with dignity. A sore loser did not match her elegant persona.
But it was still just a persona, and that was something Junko would not indulge her in. Burning at the stake was a fitting death for Celestia Ludenberg, true, but for plain, boring, ordinary Taeko Yasuhiro? It simply wouldn’t do.
There would be no despair in it.
And thus, a fire truck rammed into her flaming body, ending the witch hunt prematurely. Would her classmates- would the world - appreciate the irony? It was doubtful. They had yet to pick up on any of her commentary with the executions. How disappointing.
At least should could despair in her efforts going to waste, just as they despaired in the most despicable murder yet. Celeste really was a monster, planning her murders like that.
Another life, though. The words rung around in Junko’s head. Only seven students remained- it was due time she considered her plan failing and her own, personal despair. She must get in contact with Izuru and Monaca, and quickly.
. . .
Technically, Sakura had fulfilled her duty as the mole by killing a student. Junko had only herself to blame for not making it more clear it should’ve been someone other than Sakura herself.
And the students upon discovering her- they all so desperately wanted to blame themselves. Even when they knew she was a traitor, a person willing to kill for her already destroyed dojo, they refused to believe it was a suicide. How could they be so blind? It was despairingly obvious, between the locked doors and her manner of death.
Still, she might as well have some fun with the whole charade. A fake suicide note would do wonders to make the trial more of a puzzle. She really was growing bored with the whole game. Maybe if she still had Mukuro to talk to… but it wasn’t as if Mukuro ever said anything interesting , even while alive.
. . .
When the trial began, Junko snuck out of the control room and into the baths. She had to retrieve the special guest.
It didn’t take long, fortunately, as the students seemed intent on calling on Monokuma for clarification at every possible point. How despairingly annoying. They were really so daft, so naive , to think that they had forced Sakura to suicide? They might as well have, Junko was beginning to seriously consider it. No, better to wait. She’d miss out on the despair, otherwise.
And this execution was particularly heartbreaking, or so she imagined. Seeing a link to a tragically killed friend, their supposed lifeline to the outside world… ah, the horror and grief on their faces would have to subside her for now.
She focused on two students in particular, however- Kyoko and Makoto. As bored of the plan as she was, they were making it interesting. Unpredictable . And with the students vowing to stop the killing game, Junko would have to use their unpredictability to her advantage.
Mukuro might actually be able to serve her a purpose, now. How fitting.
. . .
She had intended to kill Kyoko. But Makoto and his stupid hope, his disgusting trust in others robbed her of her most interesting toy. Junko wanted nothing more than to throw a temper tantrum like a spoiled child, to end the game right there and massacre them all.
But she maintained her composure and sent Makoto on his way.
The irony of the execution would be mostly lost, sadly. Junko supposed it could be taken as “crushing the student’s hope,” but she had an execution for Makoto planned. And now the world would never get to see it. Well, no use crying over it. She had lasers and stages and 8-bit Monokumas that were left unused, what was one barrel and a few swords?
The desk inched closer and closer to the pulverizer. Junko wondered idly if this would be Makoto’s only sex-ed lesson.
And then- it stopped. The shaking, the pounding stopped. And on the screen that was meant to display Monokuma was-
“How in the hell did that survive?” Junko screamed. “I destroyed your computer! I wiped you from the mainframe! How are you-”
Makoto fell, fell deep into the pile of trash, and Junko was left shaking with rage. It didn’t last long, however; she simply smoothed her skirt and grinned. Makoto would still die, rotting with the garbage. And even if he escaped- as if, even with Ultimate Luck, he’d still succumb to thirst and hunger- well.
Junko Enoshima would have her despair, one way or the other.
. . .
So this is how it ends.
They chose hope. Junko Enoshima had filled the remaining students of Hope’s Peak Academy with absolute, undeniable despair, and they still managed to choose hope. All because of Makoto Naegi.
“Why that’s just…” she growled, curling her fists… before letting her hands fly to her face, body quivering. “Simply the best!”
This was the despair she had been craving! The despair of failure, of defeat, of death! She was finally going to die! Oh, she had dreamed of this moment, and to finally have it realized was more despair-inducing than anything she had ever felt in her life! She would join Mukuro and Yasuke in the bitter afterlife, if there was such a thing, she would finally know-
But then they interrupted her monologue, her gushing of despair and how delightful it all was, to blather on about hope and peace and friendship and rebuilding the world and it caused her more despair, the wrong kind of despair, Junko had to do something-
“Fine, let me just say one last thing... If you guys wanna get all hung up on the word ‘hope,’ that’s no skin off my nose… but just be warned…” she said, deliberately keeping her face blank. “From this point on, one despair after another will stand in your way. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide… maybe you’ll find some hope, but there is a very fine line dividing that hope from bitter despair.” She laughed, drool sliding down her chin, sweat dripping from her bangs. “Knowing that, you still plan to cling to your hope?”
Makoto spoke then, but Junko didn’t hear it. “Shut up, shut up! That was a rhetorical question!” she screeched. “I’m almost done though, so, whatever… Because it’s almost punishment time, isn’t it?”
The remaining students stared at her, gasping, suggesting that- that she live- that she not succumb to despair- to give hope a chance- “DON’T GET IN MY WAY!” She dashed to Monokuma’s throne, flipping the lid over the button.
“Puhuhu… puhuhuhu! So this is how the despair of death feels… ahh, it’s so wonderful!” It really was, nothing had made her feel so good, not the act of killing her boyfriend, or her sister, or watching the entire world fall at the knees because of her- “Even a tenth of this despair, even a hundredth…” Junko’s body shook, knowing the agony she was about to suffer. She rambled, wishing for the whole world to feel the same despair as her, to die and live full of despair, despair was everything, despair was all that mattered, despair was Junko Enoshima-
“Let’s give it everything we’ve got. It’s… PUNISHMENT TIME! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
And as her laughter echoed across the courtroom, she slammed her fist on the button.
All of the punishments, the batting cage, the burning castle, the rocket ship- all of them. She would go through them all, taste the same despair as her victims. Even if they didn’t individually kill her- she had lowered the lethality quite a bit, she wanted to despair through them all, she would succumb. She would perish .
Junko Enoshima would die.
It wasn’t the baseballs that did her in, nor the motorcycle. She yawned and meditated through the flames. The excavator was little more than a back massage . The rocket ship left some bruises, leaving only the crushing machine to do her in.
How fitting. What was meant to take out her greatest adversaries would instead be her demise. The irony was despairing. Despair, despair, despair, she was going to die, Junko would die, THIS WAS THE ULTIMATE DESPAIR- The conveyor belt froze beneath the block. Junko, still clutching Monokuma to her chest, looked up. She was supposed to be dead. Why wasn’t she dead why wasn’t she-
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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 4 years ago
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RWBY / Danganronpa AU write-up:
(After watching Game Grumps play DR this morning, I’ve had Danganronpa on the mind. So, I decided to write this up for fun)
Set-up: In an alternate universe, teams RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, and CFVY are invited to attend Hope’s Peak Academy, the next step to becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses after graduating from Beacon Academy. Monokuma traps the students there and forces them to kill each other in order to escape. 
Chapter 1
The motive for this round is “memory wipe”. If no one is killed in 24 hours, then their loved ones’ memories of them will be wiped out. No one will remember them outside of the school. This freaks out Yatsuhashi Daichi in particular due to his past traumatic experiences with his semblance. And sure enough, he is the first student to die.
During the class trial, the students have a hard time determining who the killer is. As they uncover the truth piece by piece, they soon discover that Yatsuhashi was not as innocent as it seemed. It turns out, he was actually PLANNING on committing a murder of his own. Ruby Rose then starts to wonder if Yatsuhashi was killed in self-defense, that he had actually carried out his plan but failed and was killed by his would-be victim. 
The students are about to give up until Nora Valkyrie points out that Yatsuhashi has an unexplained broken rib. The wound wasn’t fatal, which is why the students opted to ignore it. That’s when Ruby realizes that the injury could’ve been caused by a really strong punch. 
Cue the “CHOOSE THE GUILTY PERSON” minigame and Ruby selects Yang Xiao Long. After a long back-and-forth of Ruby picking apart the evidence and testimonies, as well as Yang defending herself, Ruby eventually proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Yang killed Yatsuhashi in self-defense. Yang breaks down, wondering if she inherited Uncle Qrow’s misfortune semblance.
Yang’s execution: Yang fights several robots dressed as the White Fang. Suddenly, she’s cornered by a robot dressed as Adam Taurus. Yang tries to fight him but Adam-bot strikes first, cutting off her arm (just like the show). This time, Adam-bot finishes the job by cutting off Yang’s other limbs before decapitating her. 
(students eliminated: Yatsuhashi Daichi, Yang Xiao Long / 14 students remaining)
(quick note: just like the actual Danganronpa series, I killed off Yang in the first chapter since the games killed off someone you thought would have been a major character for the rest of the game. Sayaka in DR1, Byakuya in DR2, and Kaede in DR3)
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Chapter 2
The motive for this round is “2 lies and a truth”. The group is given three statements about each other, 2 of which are false and 1 which is true. To prevent the students from just confirming which is true and which is false, Monokuma clarifies that any student who reveals the information in their cards will be killed instantly. This greatly increases the paranoia among the group. Just to give an example of this motive, Ruby’s statements are:
1) Weiss Schnee’s sister, Winter, arrested Qrow Branwen for murder, which he was framed for (in this alternate universe, this turns out to be the true statement but was written by Monokuma out of context in order to make Ruby hate Weiss)
2) Blake Belladonna’s parents scammed Taiyang Xiao Long out of a deal that would’ve made him millions of liens.
3) Lie Ren mocked Summer Rose after her death and has even pissed on her tombstone
And the victim of this round is...Sage Ayana. During the class trial, the group discusses whether anyone had any statements involving Sage. The only ones who do turn out to be Jaune, Coco, and Blake. Ruby proves that Coco was in her room at the time of the murder while Blake is cleared by Sun Wukong (he says something about how Blake needed him for help with a special project).
Side note: Blake later reveals that her special project was investigating the academy to find any clues regarding Monokuma’s identity and what happened to Hope’s Peak. 
This leaves Jaune. After prying him for information, Jaune reveals that his statement about Sage was, “Sage Ayana was planning on blackmailing Jaune’s family after finding out he forged his transcripts”. Everyone starts suspecting Jaune of being the killer because of this. Then, surprisingly, Jaune admits to killing Sage. 
However, after analyzing the evidence, Ruby realizes that Jaune is innocent and is trying to cover for the real killer. Reasoning that Jaune would only do this for people he cared for, Ruby then realizes that the killer has to be someone from JNPR. And that person turns out to be...Pyrrha Nikos. 
Despite Jaune’s attempts to defend Pyrrha, Ruby eventually proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Pyrrha killed Sage. After admitting defeat, Pyrrha says that she killed Sage on accident. She and Jaune had confronted Sage and, after a heated argument, Jaune and Sage started fighting. Pyrrha intervened, resulting in Sage’s death. 
Pyrrha’s execution: Just like the show, Pyrrha is killed by incineration. However, before she dies, Pyrrha sees that the people “responsible” for killing her are robots made to look like JN_R. 
(students eliminated: Sage Ayana, Pyrrha Nikos / 12 students remaining) 
(quick note: just like the actual games, the execution in this chapter is meant to propel one character’s arc forward. Mondo in DR1 and Peko in DR2)
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Chapter 3 
The motive for this round is control of the Schnee Dust Company. This immediately makes the group wary of Weiss, believing that she’ll try to murder someone in order to maintain control of her family’s business. Weiss tries to convince Ruby that she won’t do such a thing but Ruby, for the first time, is unconvinced of her friend’s intentions. 
This chapter is especially brutal since we have two murders to deal with. The first turns out to be Fox Alistair. Then, several minutes later, Neptune Vasilias ends up dead. 
The class trial for this chapter is especially complicated due to the two murders. First, the students find out that Neptune was the one who murdered Fox. Ruby wonders if Neptune wanted control of the Schnee Dust Company, to which Sun Wukong says that doesn’t sound like Neptune to him. When the students dig further into the evidence, they start to wonder if Neptune was working with someone.
Ruby proposes the theory that Neptune was ordered by someone to kill Fox. He was then killed by that same person so that the unknown person can claim credit for a murder and to create a complicated scenario that would help them avoid being exposed in trial. This leads to the students turning against Weiss. Ruby points out that Weiss had the most to lose from this motivation and that it would’ve been easy for her to get Neptune to do her dirty work for her (they are still romantically involved in this universe). 
After a round of intense questioning, Weiss finally breaks down and reveals that she did indeed plan everything out. She got Neptune to kill Fox and then planned to kill Neptune to complete her plan. However, she swears that she didn’t kill him. Someone else got to Neptune before she could. 
When Ruby wonders who else had a reason to kill Neptune, she realizes that the only people who could have a reason would have to be someone close to Fox. This person would also had to have seen Neptune kill Fox and were angered to the point of taking revenge, knowing that would make them the guilty party in the class trial. Ruby then narrows the suspects to two people; Fox’s teammates, Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina. 
After another intense round of questioning and battling both Coco and Velvet’s arguments, Coco finally admits to killing Neptune. She says that she saw the whole thing and because she was still dealing with Yatsuhashi’s death, she just “snapped”. Coco then bitterly remarks that if she had kept her cool and let Weiss go through with her plan, she would’ve gotten her revenge anyways since Weiss would’ve been exposed in trial. 
Coco’s execution: In a bit of irony, Coco is killed by Monokuma with her own miniguns 
(students eliminated: Fox Alistair, Neptune Vasilias, Coco Adel / 9 students remaining) 
(quick note: just like the games, 3 students are eliminated this round. Also, yes, this is a variation of the Celestia Ludenberg case) 
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Chapter 4 
The motivation for this round is...nothing! Monokuma says that he was going to give them one but, based on the previous chapter, the group doesn’t need one due to Weiss’ presence. No one, not even Ruby, feels comfortable being around Weiss, despite all her attempts to get people to trust her again. 
Eventually, the group does start to warm up to Weiss again. However, that’s when Monokuma intervenes and claims that he helped Weiss with her plot to kill Fox and Neptune. When Ruby asks how he helped her, Monokuma says that in exchange for information on how to best accomplish her murder scheme, Weiss acted as his “mole” by reporting to him directly about the group’s actions. This further enrages the group, especially Blake since she’s been trying to find a way out of Hope’s Peak Academy.
Just as the group is about to imprison Weiss, she ends up dead. Ruby finds Weiss’ body in her room, apparently having committed suicide. Ruby even finds a suicide note by Weiss’ bedside drawer.
The class trial is initially seen as a piece of cake since it’s clear that Weiss committed suicide. It’s only Ruby and Blake who are unconvinced. They insist that the group review the evidence anyways since there might be something they’re missing. 
As the groups digs deeper into the evidence, the students realize that there was indeed more to this death than they originally thought. It turns out, Weiss DIDN’T commit suicide. Someone took advantage of the group’s paranoia surrounding Weiss and her own guilt from the previous trial. They then killed Weiss and made it look like she killed herself out of despair. 
The group then starts flip-flopping on who could’ve done this. First, the group targets Velvet since she could’ve been seeking to avenge Coco and Fox. Then, the group targets Sun Wukong since he was friends with Neptune and may have been furious over how his friend was manipulated. 
Eventually, the group exposes the true killer: Scarlet David. Turns out, he also had the same idea as everyone else and was hoping that the group would focus on Velvet and Sun. Scarlet then says that he had nothing against Weiss, it was purely just to survive. However, he also says that he was justified in what he did due to Weiss’ actions in chapter 3. 
Scarlet’s execution: Scarlet is incased in ice. He is then crushed to death by Weiss’ Arma Gigas as a bit of ironic revenge from beyond the grave. 
(students eliminated: Weiss Schnee, Scarlet David / 7 students remaining) 
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Chapter 5
As the penultimate chapter, Blake’s side mission that was mentioned earlier takes the forefront. Since chapter 2, Blake, Sun, Ruby, and Jaune have been working together to solve the mystery of Hope’s Peak Academy, Monokuma, and what happened to them. In their investigation, the group discovers that a “great disaster” happened to Remnant and that it somehow involves Monokuma. 
There is no motivation this round once again. However, someone still ends up dead. The unlucky student this time around is...Nora Valkyrie. Ren is especially angered by this since Nora was his best friend/the person he was technically “together-together” with. During the investigation, Ruby is troubled by the fact that the evidence she’s been collecting doesn’t paint a logical picture. Unlike the previous murders, Nora’s death seems...unnatural. Like it shouldn’t have happened. 
The class trial for this case is arguably the toughest of the 6 trials. Nothing seems to go anywhere and, despite the breakthroughs made by Ruby, none of the evidence adds up to anything. Ruby then starts to suspect something about this trial; what if this trial is rigged? 
Ruby’s suspicions are somewhat confirmed when the group starts honing in on Blake and herself. Ren and Velvet accuse Blake and Ruby of being aloof from the group, to which they defend themselves by saying that they have their reasons for being on their own. Ruby starts to realize that this is what Monokuma wants and that Monokuma may have killed Nora himself in order to set up a case in which the only answer was either Blake or herself. 
Before Ruby can bring this up, Monokuma claims that he had nothing to do with Nora’s death. Knowing that the situation is doomed and that it was between her and Blake, Ruby takes the fall by saying that she has no alibi. Blake tries to stop Ruby from taking the fall but the group overrides her arguments. Ruby is voted off and, much to Blake and Ruby’s surprise, Monokuma proclaims that the group got the right answer. 
Ruby’s “execution”: Ruby is taken to an angry crowd where she’s laid down on a tree stump. An executioner wielding Crescent Rose appears, preparing to decapitate her. Before he can, Jaune Arc arrives and helps Ruby escape. To ensure Ruby survives, Jaune tosses Ruby down a garbage disposal chute. He’s then stabbed through the back by the executioner, killing him instantly. However, he dies with a smile on his face, knowing that he saved Ruby.  
(students eliminated: Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc / 5 students remaining)
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Chapter 6 
Ruby wakes up in the garbage disposal, hazy but alive. As she gathers her bearings, she’s met by Blake Belladonna, who had jumped into a different garbage disposal chute to save her. Ruby and Blake make their way out of the area and back to the main lobby. When Monokuma says that Ruby has to be executed due to Jaune’s interference, Blake argues that Ruby should never have been declared guilty in the first place due to the previous trial being obviously rigged. Blake then says that they deserve a re-trial and if Ruby is declared guilty once again, then they will respect the verdict.
Monokuma reluctantly agrees to this, leading to Ruby and Blake realizing that Monokuma is purely observing their actions. He won’t actually involve himself in their deaths and actively encourages them to solve the murders on their own. It was almost as if he wanted them to solve their problems themselves. 
Ruby, Blake, Ren, Sun, and Velvet reconnect and, after squashing any previous feelings of distrust, agree to work together to solve Nora’s murder once and for all. In the class trial, the group hits all the same snags they hit in Chapter 5. However, this time, the group approaches the situation as if Nora’s death was rigged. That’s when Ruby realizes that they need to figure out how Nora even died in the first place.
When Ruby digs further into the evidence, Ruby realizes that Nora’s death was purely a freak occurrence. Turns out, she suffered a random brain aneurysm that had nothing to do with any of the investigations. After making this clear, the group discussion turns to who arranged her body to make it seem like she was murdered. 
After confirming that none of the group was involved in arranging Nora’s body (including Jaune), Ruby points to Monokuma as being responsible. Monokuma once again declares he had nothing to do with Nora’s death, to which Ruby points out a loophole; Monokuma DIDN’T kill Nora, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t arrange the scene afterwards. Ruby then points out that Monokuma used Nora’s sudden death to his advantage to get the group to turn against herself and Blake. 
With his act exposed, Monokuma decides to reveal himself. And it turns out that Monokuma this whole time was...Ozpin. Just then, the rest of Hope’s Peak Academy’s staff and students (who are really just the Beacon Academy staff) enter the trial room and congratulate the surviving students. Even the students’ families are there to cheer them on. 
The students are shocked when they hear the explanation behind Hope’s Peak Academy. Ozpin reveals that the entire mystery of Hope’s Peak Academy was just a set-up for the real experiment. This entire process, the true purpose of the killing game, was to weed out the weak students. He says that, due to the coming of the dark lord known as “Salem”, they needed Huntsmen and Huntresses who could survive the harshest of challenges. So, Ozpin and the rest of the Hope’s Peak staff devised the “Danganronpa experiment”. They would torture the potential students mentally and physically and those who were able to figure out Monokuma’s identity and survive the challenges would be fit to graduate to the second-level of Huntsman and Huntress training in Hope’s Peak. 
Ruby is horrified by this revelation. When she says that her family wouldn’t have approved of this, that’s when she sees that Qrow Branwen and Taiyang Xiao Long are in the room as well. They congratulate her on surviving “Danganronpa”, saying that she has what it takes to be a Huntress. They then reveal that they also survived a version of “Danganronpa”, which further shocks Ruby since they never told her about their experiences in Hope’s Peak. The game ends on that bittersweet note. 
Survivors: Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, Sun Wukong, Velvet Scarlatina 
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mclteen · 6 years ago
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The Manchester Libraries’ Most Popular YA Books of 2018
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Like last year, I ran some statistics and see what our best-performing YA books published in 2018 were, as well as our best-performing books overall. Here's the list:
Top Books Published in 2018:
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (33 checkouts, 2 copies) Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (16 checkouts) Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice's life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice's grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get.
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce (16 checkouts) Arram Draper is on the path to becoming one of the realm's most powerful mages. The youngest student in his class at the Imperial University of Carthak, he has a Gift with unlimited potential for greatness—and for attracting trouble. At his side are his two best friends: Varice, a clever girl with an often-overlooked talent, and Ozorne, the "leftover prince" with secret ambitions. Together, these three friends forge a bond that will one day shape kingdoms. And as Ozorne gets closer to the throne and Varice gets closer to Arram's heart, Arram realizes that one day—soon—he will have to decide where his loyalties truly lie. In the Numair Chronicles, readers will be rewarded with the never-before-told story of how Numair Salmalín came to Tortall.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (15 checkouts) Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him—and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (15 checkouts) The fates of teens Tasha, Catherine, Ambrose, and March, whose lives would never intersect, are intertwined in a war between kingdoms.
I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (13 checkouts) Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from everyone he has ever loved, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City with a backpack, a desperate plan, and nothing left to lose. When a fateful accident draws these three strangers together, their secrets start to unravel as they begin to understand that the way out of their own loss might just lie in helping the others out of theirs.
Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi (13 checkouts) It's been sixteen days since Juliette Ferrars killed the supreme commander of North America and took over as ruler of the Reestablishment on the continent...Juliette thought she'd won. She took over sector 45 and now has Warner by her side. But she's still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and with so much power in her young hands, the world is watching her every move, waiting to see what happens next.
The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan (13 checkouts) The Greek god Apollo, cast down to earth as the ungifted human teenager Lester Papadopoulos, and his demigod friends must go through the Labyrinth to find the third emperor—and an Oracle who speaks in word puzzles—somewhere in the American Southwest.
I Stop Somewhere by T.E. Carter (11 checkouts) After she is raped and murdered, fifteen-year-old Ellie Frias, who felt invisible in life, finds herself caught in Hollow Oaks, New York, observing other brutal attacks, the police investigation, and more.
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (11 checkouts) Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy.
Furyborn by Claire Legrand (11 checkouts) When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first. One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable—until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire's heart is more terrible than she ever imagined.
The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth (11 checkouts) When Cyra's father Lazmet Noavek, a soulless tyrant thought to be dead, reclaims the throne, Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are desperate to stop him from igniting a barbaric war.
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (10 checkouts) When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. She’s an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.
Not if I Save You First by Ally Carter (10 checkouts) Six years ago Maddie lived in Washington D.C. with her father, a Secret Service agent assigned to the President's family, and her best friend was Logan, the President's son; but after her father was wounded in an attempted kidnapping the two of them moved to a remote cabin in Alaska and Logan never replied to her letters—but now he has suddenly turned up on her doorstep, and, while she has no intention of forgiving him for his silence, she soon realizes that first she has to save him from the winter wilderness and the men who are pursuing him.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (10 checkouts) Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.  Now laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.  Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do.  But it's not a life Jane wants.  When families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy...and the restless dead are the least of her problems.
Bloom into You, Vol. 4 by Nakatani Nio (10 checkouts) The script for the student council play is finally finished! To make sure it is a success, the council holds a practice camp during summer vacation. Touko, Sayaka, and Yuu soon find themselves faced with sleeping together in the same room. Whatever happens at camp, it promises to be three days of super-charged emotions!
Whisper by Lynette Noni (10 checkouts) A girl known as Jane Doe who has the power to change reality has been held in a secret government facility for more than two years, but everything changes when she gets a new handler, the mysterious but kind Landon Ward.
Top Books Published Any Year:
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (33 checkouts, 2 copies)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (29 checkouts, 2 copies)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (20 checkouts, 2 copies)
Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 1 by Sui Ishida (19 checkouts)
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus (19 checkouts)
Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 2 by Sui Ishida (17 checkouts)
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (16 checkouts)
Project You: More than 50 Ways to Calm Down, De-stress, and Feel Great by Aubre Andrus (16 checkouts)
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce (16 checkouts)
La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (16 checkouts)
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (15 checkouts)
The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (15 checkouts)
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (15 checkouts)
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