#So it completely throws off the game and what junko planned to happen

[princescar]

spoilers in tags for TPYP but:

Something I hammered hard into the og writing for TPYP was that Junko didn't predict the outcome.

I'm a big believer in the idea that she knew what would happen in THH, what each motive would bring out which killers and victims, and it was about the despair and death not so much the unpredictability of the game.

But one thing that Dr0 has taught us is that she can't fully predict everything Ryoko will do.

And because of that, even when she fed the script to ai Junko and Mukuro, she still lost in the end. Because Ryoko did one thing that Junko didn't factor and that completely changed the story.

Then I add in Remnant Matsuda-

And it completely recontextualized the entire fic.

[semitransparent-glob]

i will ask questions on the condition that you never use the pleading meat emoji again (please). what're the motives? what's the puzzle/solution you're most proud of? do you incorporate dr traditions like a double murder in ch3 and the buff one dying in ch4? what character made you the most sad to kill off?

LMAOOO ok i promise <33

tysm for sending questions 🥰🥰🥰🥰

I think i am going to put this under a readmore bc i am going to ramble so so much

I definitely followed conventions of the 3 visual novel dr games, and studied the trials and motives to make my own motives and trials. I found as many consistencies as I could and tried to stick to them for my fangan, just to give myself a framework to work off of and I thought it would be fun :^))

For the motives: I have all of them planned out pretty well except chapter 4 and 5, which need some ironing out but i have some ideas.

Chapter 1: The motive is the idea that one among them has already killed someone, but since the person wasn't a student, there will be no trial. What actually happened was that one of the people working for the mastermind was killed by the mastermind, because that person was planning to betray the mastermind. The mastermind then staged her body in a spot where the students could find it, and claimed that one of the students had killed her in secret. But because none of the students actually killed her, they aren't able to figure out who among them did kill her, and so they just keep throwing accusations and tensions rise, leading to a killing on false suspicions.

Chapter 2: This motive is kinda specific to Shin, my Ultimate Ghost Hunter, but because the mastermind has all information on the students, she can do something like this. Basically, there's a horror movie that follows a serial killer butcher, but throughout the movie there are subliminals that activate a curse/pact Shin has with a demon that he made in the past. The deal is, he has to kill someone or else he will die horribly from the curse, and he has a time limit. So this leads to him killing someone, and then staging it like the movie to frame my ultimate Butcher character. (this follows the "revealing a serial killer" convention (even tho it's fake))

Chapter 3: The motive this time is a time limit, but its so that if they don't kill anyone, they get to go free, but they will all have their talents completely erased from their brains, and will have to live as talentless people. Junichi, who can't stand the thought of losing his talent and livelihood, ends up killing two people to keep it.

Chapter 4: for this one I have a sort of end goal in mind, where the Real goal was to create a complex murder and prolong the trial as long as possible so that one of the people working for the mastermind can work behind her back while she's distracted to slip information to the students. There needs to be something more to push for a murder, and i'm still working on that

Chapter 5: Like v3's chapter 5, the motive this time is to create an unsolvable murder in order to break the killing game. I also think that Kazuya may be getting too much info at this point, and the mastermind may cook up a motive to put a target on his head specifically, like how Junko did to Kyoko in chapter 5. I am still workshopping this one as well.

OK for puzzles, i am still working on my trial puzzles, and honestly not super confident in those, BUT i am kinda proud of some of the hints for the bigger mystery. I think the ch 3 motive is one of them, the indirect hint being that if Monokuma has the power to just. take away someone's talent, that might say something about the talents and their legitimacy. (foreshadowing for the fact that their talents are fake like in v3)

To add to that, Kazuya (my lesbian komaeda clone) starts the killing game not knowing his talent, but later finds a letter of acceptance to Hope's Peak in his room that wasn't there before, and it claims that he is the Ultimate Lucky Student. He will tell this to Emiko (main character) and say that the fact that it was clearly intentionally placed there might mean something; basically, this is information that the mastermind *wants* him to know, and he is aware of that.

In the end, it will be revealed that Kazuya was originally supposed to be the Ultimate Character Designer, and that is foreshadowed by his drawing gloves >:^) (that was an idea from a friend hehe <3)

HONESTLY i was sad to make any of em die, but i think the one that's gonna hurt me the most to write is Rokurou's death, not only because I am very attached to his character but because he's a killer and is gonna get executed </3. I wanted his death to mirror Gonta's in a way, and dear god that trial Hurted me.

but also just look at him. He's a sad cowboy who does math.

ALSO KAZUYA. like i knew the moment i made him he had to die but also like. I like him so much ...

[drippingviolets3]

Danganronpa AU (not really but there’s no better word for it): School mode timeline

This is a AU I sort of have been working on for the most part, and the best part about it is that no one does :D yaaaaay, no more getting emotionally attached to anyone only for them to end up dying!

Anyways, this is more of a timeline I created to try and connect the school/island modes together and have a AU where no one dies except like, a bunch of nameless background characters and Junko, but that’s not important

This is your spoiler warning for the canon game and school mode. You have been warned

Anyways, let’s get started:

Trigger happy havoc: The beginning

It starts off with how school mode starts off. The kids are awoken in classrooms, find out they’ll have to participate in a killing game, etc. But also like in school mode, Junko forgot to make copies of Monokuma for the killing game, and forces the students to team up and build a copy. Instead, they end up building Usami, Usami destroys Monokuma, ba bam school mode is completed.

But once they leave, they find the world in ruin. Everyone is obviously confused, but that’s where Mukuro steps in. She reveals that she isn’t actually Junko but her twin sister, and explains the situation to them, including the tragedy what lead up to it, everything. She explains that she was originally teamed with Junko, but after spending time with them and forming bonds with everyone, she didn’t want to be on team despair anymore.

Obviously they’re about to fall into despair, but then low and behold Makoto unlocks his talent as the Ultimate hope, and with the help of now hopeful Mukuro, they save the class and go to save the world

They all form a survival group at first, each having certain jobs (Sakura defends them from Monokuma bots, Mondo being their escape driver, Taka helping heal any other survivors to the best of his abilities, etc) until they’re found by the future foundation, who takes them in and returns their memories of their previous school life.

There, the students are able to be of more help, especially with Mukuro’s knowledge of the remnants and Junko. Chihiro is also a huge help due to the training he’s getting from the stronger members and his computer skills thrown in as well. This isn’t that important I just wanted to throw in some Chihiro love-

Ultra despair girls: The second part of the timeline

This is really short because there really isn’t much to say. With the help of Chihiro’s hacking skills and the Future Foundation, everyone finds out that there’s hostages that were going to be used against them in the killing game. Byakuya goes in to save them, gets kidnapped, cue the events of UDG. After the events of it, the Future Foundation takes in Kotoko since she’s the only survivor of the WOH, and after getting betrayed by Monaca, she agrees to work with the Future Foundation. But only with Toko and Komaru (in this AU she kinda clings to them like they’re her older sisters)

Goodbye despair: The third part of the timeline

Now that Kotoko is also on their side, with her knowledge and Mukuro’s they’re able to learn some extra information about the remnants. The Future Foundation plans to kill them like in SDR2, but Makoto gets his class together to help him try to redeem the remnants instead of killing them. So Chihiro helps them create the Neo World Program, and once that’s set up and they’re able to run a few tests on it, sneak it to Jabberwocky Island, and make sure there aren’t any life risking bugs, they go onto the hard part. Getting the remnants.

By now though, you’re probably wondering what the fuck is up with Junko. And to answer that thought, she’s alive, and is conducting attacks towards the Future Foundation, who are trying to kill her (except class 77 that is), but this makes their goal near impossible now.

So yeah as stated, Junko is making the task reeeeaaally hard, especially since she’s stronger then she looks. So how did they defeat her? I actually imagine it was thanks to Kotoko they took her down. She knew how to work the Monokuma robots, and so she used the stronger students as a distraction for Junko as she got one of the Monokuma robots, found it’s control panel, and forced to attack Junko. I also imagine she has a angsty breakdown as she forces it to tear apart Junko, crying about the betrayal she felt and how she never cared about her (I actually might write a one shot on that-) but anyways, long story short Kotoko kills Junko :)

Once Junko is dead, they risk their lives (a lot) but eventually manage to convince (and force) the remnants into the Neo World Program (which was a lot easier thanks to Mukuro) and create a AI based on a dead classmate of theirs, Chiaki. There, the students all loose their school memories and work together to gather all the hope fragments with Usami, who (along with the goal at hand) was based on the robot and goal they had themselves. The remnants get reverted back to their old selves now that they’re free of Junko’s brainwashing. Once they’re out of the program however, the class has to explain to them what the fuck happened to the world and now has to give them therapy.

They stay on the island for a while to stay under the Future Foundation’s radar, and after some time go to their base and tries to show that they’ve changed and want to help fix the world. It takes a lot of trial and error, but they end up getting recruited.

And that’s all I have so far. That’s just the basic timeline of it, obviously there’s gonna be some more issues along the way and I still have a lot of stuff to sort out about it (and finish V3 so I can figure out how to tie that in) but that’s it essentially. Tell me if you like it or not and if you want to see me write for it (which I’ll probably do anyways tbh)

[save-the-spiral]

PLS PLS LIST THE SWAPS!! TELL ME ABOUT THE SIBLINGS AND ALSO HIFUMI BECAUSE I LOVE HIM (IF YOU WANT!) I will also send more questions in the morning too, excited to see what you’ve been working on!!

OK OK OK !!!!! AHH! So, before assigning talents, I swapped the pools, so for the first game, I use the talents from the second game, and vis versa! For some i listed gender, sexuality, or neurodivergencies, though this isn’t all of them, and I haven’t developed them all to the same level!

This is SO long. I didn’t even bother mentioning things like my plans for the killing games. (I have DR1 planned out in full, but only parts of DR2 and the v3 anime)

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT IN HAPPINESS WHEN I SAW I HAD NEW ASK NOTIFS!!

LIST:

Trigger Happy Havoc (first game)

Kyoko Kirigiri- Ultimate Luckster- Mastermind (: Sometimes lesbians can be evil okay! was trained as a detective like everyone in her family and didn’t get the ultimate :) she’s definitely not mad about that :) her luck cycle depends on how far she plans things ahead. her good luck is when she’s spontaneous! She hates when ‘normal’ people are accepted by ultimates.

Makoto Naegi- Photographer (Mostly wildlife and nature photography, with Sayaka helping him for some animal photography (: trans and bi <3 One of sayaka’s birds nests in his hair like all the time)

Kiyotaka Ishimaru- Ultimate Swordsman (AUTISTIC ICON, has trained in kendo since he was a kid, then was essentially given away to the Fujisaki clan by his very stressed dad. Semiverbal, rarely speaks.)

Chihiro Fujisaki- Ultimate Yakuza (Taka is her bodyguard! His family is in debt to hers, the Fujisaki clan is the most powerful in Japan. trans icon, of course, dates Sayaka! Very direct, though she’s far more delicate and polite when talking to taka, her best friend)

Sakura Oogami- Ultimate Nurse (Works as an EMT- her clan still is in martial arts, so she’s still very buff, she assists in injuries at the family dojo. Autistic Icon)

Asahina Aoi- Ultimate Gamer (ULTIMATE ADHD. streams and has a ton of fun, will ramble while breaking records, demigirl who loves her girlfriend sakura :)

Mukuro Ikusaba- Ultimate Chef (Works best with ‘cheap’ food, and making them taste good. a byproduct of growing up on the streets with junko, and junko being bored of the same old food they dug out of the trash. now works closely with junko for her teams’ nutritional needs! autistic and sapphic.)

Junko Enoshima- Ultimate Team Manager (there are SO many sports she can never get bored, and the professional scene is always changing! prefers coaching womens’ teams, because being an ultimate brings them more publicity and usually higher pay :)

Mondo Oowada- Ultimate Prince (OH MY BOY. trans adhd icon. now the crown prince of Novoselic, with a reagent in his place until he comes of age. His service dog Chuck is a maltese and an absolute sweetheart. Chihiro takes him under her wing to teach leadership. also dates taka later OF COURSE, though they’re poly and I may add more ppl to their relationship later.)

Celestia Ludenburg- Ultimate Musician (specializes in violin, most strings, though she can play any instrument. grew up poor, dedicated herself to an instrument and persona to cope)

Byakuya Togami- Ultimate Musician (Yep. two musicians. two catty trans gay icons about to throw down. they HATE each other and grew up as rivals. specialize in classical, they literally tore a professional orchestra full of grown adults apart trying to make them side with who was the best musician. they’re so good that they’re matched, and Hope’s Peak accepts them as one student and combined ultimate. they room together. they fight. Literally if one of them gets expelled, the other does too, so they’re STUCK. eventually they become literally inseparable and insufferable together like the WORST siblings. I love them.)

Sayaka Maizono- Breeder (animal handler) (Specializes in birds!!!!!! has songbirds on her shoulders all the time. will give unsettling animal facts without realizing they’re unsettling. sends her songbirds to serenade chihiro when they start dating <3)

Yasuhiro Hagakure- Gymnast (you see this tall goof who acts like an older brother to everyone and wonder HOW he’s a gymnast. he’s completely different in competitions, though still lighthearted. becomes a big brother figure to mukuro and junko especially <3 also trans bc i say so.)

Leon Kuwata- Traditional Dancer (he just. kinda hates it. it takes SO much work and effort but he takes to it naturally. his cousin kanon is NOT like in canon, instead she’s helpful. he’d literally rather be doing anything else. doesn’t know how to do anything like... basic either. can’t cook. cant do his own laundry. everything was dedicated to traditional japanese dancing before he attended HPA.)

Toko Fukawa- Engineer (writes schematics and is very good at it. gets VERY upset when her plans go wrong. her notes are orderly and perfect. host for their system!)

Syo- Mechanic (a factive of genocider syo, NOT an actual killer. she’s a protector mainly, and also is more adept at hands on skills when it comes to fixing things, her hands are less shaky. Her notes are a disaster and she does it to spite Toko.)

Hifumi Yamada- (???) (reserve course) Protagonist! My BOY. HIFUMI IS GOOD OKAY. He’s autistic and loves anime and gaming! he’s not particularly ultimate-leveled at them, or anything else! Attending Hope’s Peak as a reserve course student! At one point he joins the student council as a reserve course representative even if he’s only a freshman :) He’s also a moderator in Hina’s livestream chat, under the username of JusticeHammer, fastest ban hammer this side of the internet. He's internet friends with hina and sakura, and doesn’t realize Oh We Go To the same SCHOOL until he bumps into them. and realizes hina doesnt know what he looks like. but sakura does. its hilarious. he’s aroace, and during the year they’re locked in HPA, is in a queer platonic partnership with Hina and Sakura, while they’re dating each other. it’s great.)

Goodbye Despair! (second game)

Peko Pekoyama- Lucky student (ohohoh. her luck relies on her conviction. if she has doubts her bad luck strikes HARD. trans!, was taken in by Fuyuhiko’s family when she was a baby, grew up as just another kid in the family. They all expected Fuyu to go off to HPA on his own and then BOOM acceptance letter)

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu- Programmer (He. gets so angry while coding. He has an array of rubber ducks to talk to and work through his coding issues with. trans of course. Very protective of Peko when people say she doesn’t have a ‘real’ ultimate. ADHD and Autistic)

Sonia Nevermind- Writer (Literary Girl) (Her family immigrated to Japan when she was young! She writes a lot of serial killer novels, murder mysteries and horror and all that! Trans and bi :)

Gundham Tanaka- Detective (YEAH my guy is a detective. still talks Like That. Trans and bi and he and Sonia were kinda-dating (t4t autistic power couple in the making) when things started happening. He spends some time with his cool older sister who he looks up to a LOT. He and Sonia talk through things together a lot, they both have those red string walls, one for murder cases, another for a fictional plot lmao.)

Mahiru Koizumi- Moral Compass (my GIRL. autistic. Her morals rely a lot on people taking responsibility and being reliable, and she ends up having to work through some biases she didn’t realize she had when she arrived at HPA. Is still protective of Hiyoko, though that protectiveness is spread a bit thinner to extend to the rest of the class.)

Hiyoko Saionji- Clairvoyant!!! (HI YES I COULD TALK ABOUT HER FOR DAYS. Has actual visions in dreams and when she suddenly faints, but doesn’t really realize they’re uhh Real Visions for a WHILE. uses her status as an ultimate clairvoyant to trick and bully kids when in school for a LONG time, though her homelife wasn’t great with her grandmother trying to find ways to make her visions more consistent. SHES ALSO 12 WHEN SHE JOINS THE 77TH CLASS. she’s just so advanced in academics and her ultimate is so interesting hope’s peak cant HELP but scout her early. she has SO many issues guys no one appreciates hiyoko enough, autistic gifted kid hiyoko my beloved.)

Akane Owari- Gambler (started gambling to help out her family and Got Good at it. is very very conscious of money and food like all the time. Runs the hope’s peak betting pools once she arrives. these ultimates bet on a lot of things. she ALWAYS wins. until she doesnt!!!)

Mikan Tsumiki- Martial Artist (ohhhh Mikan. Still anxious and clumsy (though not like THAT in canon) and literally no one looks at her and thinks Oh The ULTIMATE martial artist?? it isn’t until you see her in the ring that you understand. She started learning self defense as a kid because her (bad) parents essentially said she had to rely on and protect herself and no one else would help.)

Kazuichi Souda- Pop Idol (OH TRANS ICON? he’s nervous and paranoid about Everything still, though now it’s like. oh the entire world is always watching my every move this is Okay (: has the brightest neon album eras. he literally keeps up a like. weird chad persona when interacting with people because he’s masking how hard he’s constantly just internally screaming.)

Nagito Komaeda- Soldier (AHAHAH my mans got issues problems disorder he’s a messssss, this trans guy, this absolute gay. this boy leveled a city of thousands of people with his own hands and some bombs. Still has medical issues, but most of his like. treatments and medicine is hold hostage as long as he stays in line. believes the ends justify the means and anyone who dies to him is obviously weak, because look at him! he’s weak, but that doesn’t matter because he doesn’t have to be the strongest, he just has to be stronger than the weakest scum.)

Chiaki Nanami- Heir (OOF. Agender, uses any pronouns. Doesn’t really. enjoy being the heir. grew up with Byakuya in the same circles. she treats the economy and stock market and stuff like games. enjoys gaming but isn’t good at them. collects so many things. has halls full of collections. Her parents stopped controlling her once she was able to prove she had more money than them and could literally bankrupt them if she wanted.)

Hajime Hinata- Baseball Star (Chiaki’s best friend, his family was upper middle class until he hit it BIG as a baseball star. wants to do BIG things and wants to attend hope’s peak more than anything!! Doesn’t really think of baseball as his THING, just a means to an end! trans :)

Teruteru Hanamura- Biker Gang Leader (started with shaking down some jerks who didn’t pay their food and drink tabs at his mama’s restaurant. now he RUNS their tiny town. His siblings are essentially gang mascots, he works hard to keep them out of trouble (while bringing them to like. meetings where he ends up beating a dude almost to death. its fine). most of what he does it to get more money to keep the restaurant afloat and care for his mama with her health conditions.)

Nekomaru Nidai- Fashionista (the drama. the CHAOS. most people are like ohhh we can never understand this artistic genius when he’s literally just. vibing and has ADHD and a love for coffee. Works a lot on accessible clothing lines for disabled people! Also he and Kazuichi work together sometimes, Nekomaru is good at calming Kaz down and seeing like, the root of whatever problem and making it better. ALSO A TRANS ICON and just flaunts it.)

Imposter- In the hope’s peak days they are impersonating Ryota Mitarai, as a part of the 77th class. In the Killing Game they impersonate Mondo Oowada as the Ultimate Prince. They’re doin’ their best.

Ibuki Mioda- (???) (Izuru Kamakura) Protagonist! Gundham Tanaka’s older sister (though they’re in the same school year). Nonbinary and using just. an array of pronouns alongside she/her, and jokingly fights with gundham for neopronouns like MOM said it’s MY TURN on the rawrself pronouns. She attends the reserve course to stay at her brother’s side. She dresses loudly and acts even louder because !!! she wants to stand out!! in the middle of this drab reserve course hell!!  but when things go down, she wants to be someone, to be worthy of being her amazing brother’s big sister. so she accepts some offers.

NON-KILLING GAME:

Ryota Mitarai- Ultimate Analyst (stays in his room. He’s terrified of the outside world but fascinated by it. watches hope’s peak academy through security feeds, picking up on little details. he just wants to understand things but never looks at the big picture.)

Chisa Yukizome- Ultimate Boxer (Homeroom teacher!! She’s working really hard and believes in everyone! Some are intimidated by talent, but she’s never hurt anyone outside of the ring! Dating Kyosuke)

Juzo Sakakura- Ultimate Student Council President (Has anger issues, though his work at reigning them in assisted in becoming an Ultimate. Was responsible for security and the Hope’s Peak student council. Dating Kyosuke)

Kyosuke Munakata- Ultimate Housekeeper (Meticulous, works himself to the BONE even if he’s good enough to not have to do that. Is working on establishing another Hope’s Peak! Dating Chisa and Jozu!!!)

Seiko Kimura- Ultimate Blacksmith (GIVE MY GIRL KNIVES!! She’s an anxious gal, always wearing a facemask that filters the air in her forge because she has some respiratory problems. she prefers making more decorative pieces like an artist, but sometimes can create utilitarian pieces or tools to fit specific needs. Still a doormat)

Ruruka Ando- Ultimate Pharmacist (She constantly asks Seiko for new tools for her developments in medicine, saying its all for the advancement of humanity, so Seiko denying any request is SELFISH, though she never thinks to make anything for seiko’s health issues. Dating Izayoi. Specializes in medicine for mental health. Not Doing Great :)

Sonosuke Izayoi- Ultimate Confectioner (He loves sweets. LOVES them. Creates things that look plain, ordinary. but taste so GOOD you CRY and maybe ascend for a little bit. sometimes Ando makes cool new drugs to put in the sweets, who knows! It’s a mystery! He always has like. a huge refrigerated case of fresh cakes, and constantly has a lollipop in his own specialty recipe in his mouth.)

[exclamaquest]

Why don't you explain our epic niche au? 😊

THANK U FOR THE OPPORTUNITY MIDNIGHT!!!

aight so.

-this is a spinoff of powers au where they are in a killing game!

-3rd trial goes on as planned! however, celestia wins

-she does this by manipulating hiro with strings (her power)

-he truly believes that it’s his fault!

-she turns more and more people to her side

-(this all goes with we both reached for the gun)

-hiro is SO insistent that it’s all his fault, so the 3rd trial goes COMPLETELY off the rails incredibly quickly

-just keeps saying it’s okay guys, vote for me

-(this all lines up with we both reached for the gun from chicago [specifically the movie version])

-eventually, everyone has been taken in by it except for naegi, togami, and kirigiri

-naegi is the first to fall into the trap--but celestia has to physically manipulate him by grabbing his strings and guiding him

-after she’s done with him, she can turn her attention to kirigiri, who is MUCH harder to win over

-this coincides with the point in the song where billy flynn (celeste) throws roxie hart (hiro) to the ground in favor of dancing with mary sunshine (kyouko)

-the PAIN of hearing kyouko start to be won over!! someone who was just fighting against the control so hard suddenly going “understandable..understandable...yes, it’s perfectly understandable..”

-togami is the last one. due to his ability he isn’t affected.

-he has to watch his classmates be turned over and over into these puppets nodding along with celestia pulling their strings

-..he’s the only one who votes for celestia. everyone else votes for hiro.

-everyone suddenly realizes what they just did. hiro is innocent. celestia  however pushes her own mirth and joy and gleefulness into them and they feel...relieved and elated even though they should be horrified, but they’re bowing and laughing and she’s holding the strings and AOUGH its good

-then comes the execution. i’m going to leave it up to @midnightdemonhunter (hi midnight! this is your question!) to talk about that but it’s based off of cell block tango, with celestia conducting, set in a big old theater

-at the end she gives hiro an option, since he’s the last one alive. stay and live and know what he did or die?

-hiro chooses to die

-the curtains close 

-...and there’s a standing ovation from junko, who is the only person in the audience

-anyway haven’t figured the rest out yet but celesjunko happens and also celestia joins the remnants (supervillains) 

-its super unhealthy but what can you do its interesting to think about

-junko COULD just tell her about the memory wipe at any time :) but she’s not going to! :) 

-then again when she gets bored she might. watching celestia realize that the people she killed were her friends is a special kind of despair.

[piyoduki]

Hinata and Kamukura

(wow what a creative title)

Just a place for me to dump my thoughts on these two, and why they are so important to each other... This is another really long essay analysis thingy.

Spoiler warning for... everything. :p

1. Reserve Course

Hinata is an ordinary guy who loved and admired Hope’s Peak Academy. He loves talent, and wishes he could attain a talent and become someone recognised by society.

Hinata always calls himself normal, and says there’s nothing noteworthy about him. But unlike Naegi, Hinata was not satisfied with being normal. Hinata was obsessed with talent, because he believed he needed one to become someone he could be proud of, to be acknowledged by others. That was why he wanted to enter Hope’s Peak Academy so much.

(Horror game protagonist?)

DR’s society is one that puts talented individuals, the best of the best, above everyone else. SDR2 and DR3 give us a look at just how the other people in this world, the ones who were not chosen by Hope’s Peak Academy, feel. Hinata is the one who represents the hopes and despairs of the common people.

Hinata’s hopes about the school were quickly dashed when he realises just how they were treated in comparison to the Main Course students, aka the Ultimates. It’s also interesting that despite claiming to love the school, Hinata doesn’t actually know how the Reserve Course differs from the Main Course. It appears that Hinata believed that he would be able to get a talent and become an Ultimate even if he entered through the Reserve Course. Either the school hid the dark reality of the Reserve Course (which wouldn’t be surprising), or Hinata didn’t actually dig deeper in his research. Especially considering he did not even try to apply for the position of Ultimate Luck (he did not even know about that, actually), I believe that Hinata is someone who doesn’t like to confront his greatest fears or worries, and by choosing to remain ignorant, he can hold on to his rosy image of a school that can make his dreams come true. 

Of course, he can’t be ignorant of the truth once he’s actually in the school. Already, he can see a clear difference in how they were treated. The Main Course students are allowed to move between schools easily, but he (and the other Reserve Course students) get beaten up just for trying to enter the building? When his friend and classmate gets murdered by another Reserve Course student, that student then gets murdered by a Main Course student... who never got any sort of punishment? Two Reserve Course students lost their lives and the Main Course student who committed the same grave crime got their crime covered up? (Off-topic but isn’t it weird that Komaeda gets expelled for property damage but Fuyuhiko gets no punishment for MURDER... are the yakuza that powerful? Or more like why does DR3 want to make fun of Komaeda so much?)

And those are just what we see on screen. There is clearly some animosity between Main and Reserve Course students given Hinata’s class seemed very annoyed and hostile towards Koizumi when she went to visit Sato. The whole atmosphere of the Reserve Course is gloomy and depressing, compared to the Main Course where they were skipping class, throwing parties and playing games... We can infer what other micro-aggressions and unfair treatment the Reserve Course students felt when compared to the Main Course.

I have seen some people say that Hinata went through with the Kamukura Project because he wanted to impress Nanami... which I strongly disagree with. If anything it looked like he wanted to avoid her because he knew she would try to stop him. Hinata was fed up with being treated like second-rate trash. Not to mention he already has the pressure of his parents having to pay high school fees (that the Main Course most likely didn’t need to, given there are a few students in debt), so dropping out would disappoint them (and Hinata is stubborn and doesn’t give up easily once he’s decided to stick to something). Natsumi dying was simply the last straw. When he’s given the chance to become the person he’s always dreamed of becoming, a person full of talent, at this point where Hinata was at his lowest, there isn’t anything holding him back anymore. He is no longer afraid of something going wrong, because he’d already seen his classmates DIE, and the perpetrator with an Ultimate talent got to walk away scot-free. If he doesn’t take this chance now, he might end up the same way.

And he most likely would have, given all 2375 Reserve Course students committed a mass suicide. 2357 people who were not even named, or treated as individuals, who were just lumped into one number without any identity beyond having no talent.

By deciding to take part in the Kamukura Project, Hinata was able to live.

2. Kamukura Izuru Project

Or not really, because Hinata got his memories and consciousness erased. Can walking around as an emotionless shell really be called ‘living’? Junko implied that some messed up stuff happened to Hinata during the process, and I don’t know much about brain surgery... but we can imagine it was very painful and not ethical. Like Junko said, in order to completely rewrite Hinata’s personality, the researchers would have to go through drastic measure to accomplish something like that.

When did Hinata stopped being Hinata and when did he become Kamukura? We don’t know. But Hinata could feel everything when he was still Hinata. The fear, anger, regrets, pain, isolation... the feeling when he starts to realise he’s becoming numb. The feeling when he realises he can’t remember certain things. Soon the time will come when he can’t even remember anything. And he doesn’t even care anymore, because his emotions had been repressed to such an extent. (Does he even need anaesthesia to be operated on if he doesn’t feel pain? Hmm.)

He is now called Kamukura Izuru by the scientists who created him. Just like the other Reserve Course students, Hinata’s identity was erased and discarded. 

In V3′s UTDP, Kamukura introduces himself in this way, basically showing he doesn’t really feel like he has a sense of identity either.

Kamukura is the proud product of the scientists’ hard work. Yet he is a secret who cannot be shown to the world, not just yet. The school claims it is to protect such rare talent, that he would somehow be mankind’s saviour. But it would surely tarnish Hope’s Peak Academy’s reputation, if the rest of the world knew what kind of lengths they went through to create such artificial hope anyway. And who knows just how much more they could push Kamukura’s talents? If Junko didn’t take over the school and call out to him, who knows what would happen to Kamukura? Would they dispose of him once their success was recorded and it might be too dangerous to keep a human experiment around? Would they fear the very being that they had created, that could easily overpower them if he wanted to? Would Kamukura, who had no motivation or reason to live, even care if he were to get killed...?

Kamukura was locked up in a dark room with just a bed. We can assume he was only let out to undergo tests and such. He was given the bare minimum for survival, and because Kamukura had no motivations, he did not want or need anything else... but he was extremely bored. Kamukura’s whole life was confined to his empty room and the lab. He could definitely escape if he wanted to, but what point was there in leaving? He could predict everything that would happen. To him, the outside world was probably as boring as the world inside the lab, or at least not worth the effort of sneaking out or escaping. (Although he did sneak out once in the DR3 anthology... and as you might have guessed, he found it boring.) 

Junko is the one who gave Kamukura a motivation. She promised him the thrills and excitement of a world filled with despair. Kamukura had nothing to lose by going along with her plans, and in the best case scenario she would be correct and perhaps he might just feel something through despair. 

Despite being apathetic and having all the talents... Kamukura does want to feel something. Because nothing surprises him, because he can predict everything, because he doesn’t feel challenged by anything, because he finds everything boring, Kamukura wants to find that something that can make him feel. And Junko promised he could find it through despair.

So she puts him into the Student Council Killing Game where he just... stands around and watch them. It isn’t until the very end when a bullet grazes his cheek where he gets somewhat surprised, and kills the student in self defence.

Junko uses him as a scapegoat to blame the killing of the student council on, and Kamukura starts to show signs of annoyance at being used. Eventually Junko kills Nanami, and Hinata’s subconscious reacts to the death of yet another of his friends, causing Kamukura to tear up. Although he is confused by the reaction, he holds on to her hairpin as a reminder. Hinata was still not truly gone, and he caused Kamukura to feel the most emotion he had felt in his short years of existence. 

In UDG, Kamukura aggressively rips out Junko’s AI in annoyance, showing that he isn’t truly emotionless and he does dislike being used in such a matter. It’s also possible he was disappointed as despair did not really make him feel much. Still he goes along with her plan to infect the NWP and turn it into a killing game, but mostly to use it as a final showdown between hope and despair.

I say ‘final’, because the two options would both lead to Kamukura being erased and replaced by a different person.

3. Neo World Program and the Virtual Killing Game

Kamukura knew that he would not be able to take part in SDR2′s killing game, and told Komaeda that in Chapter 0. He knew that his previous self (Hinata) would be used as the avatar, so once again he could only watch from afar (was he even conscious?).

Kamukura went in knowing that if the rehabilitation of the Remnants of Despair was a success, then Hinata would live on as Hinata, and his memories and identity of Kamukura Izuru might be suppressed and erased (sound familiar?). If Junko’s plan succeeded, then she would upload her AI into all of the Remnant’s bodies and continue spreading despair. 

Kamukura, before that point, had barely found a reason to live. But it still wasn’t strong enough to convince him. So if he were going to die, then at the very least he wanted to see if hope or despair could really excite him. If not, then at that point, would there be anything that could make him feel anything? Perhaps nothing would change even if he were to disappear. If he were to just keep being used by others to achieve such a boring, predictable hope or despair, then maybe he didn’t mind just dying. Perhaps, since death is what made him able to feel something, by putting himself in such a situation, he might even feel the fear of death itself?

And so Kamukura Izuru hijacked the NWP and Hinata Hajime was pulled out from the deepest recesses of his mind, and was able to live in the NWP.

But this Hinata isn’t the Hinata that is all too aware of the reality of being a talentless person in a world loved by talent. This Hinata is a fellow student in a class full of Ultimates. SDR2′s Hinata wanted to believe that he has a talent. When he sees the rest of the students, how they act, how some of them got to the school of his dreams through something like luck? Helped by Komaeda’s supportive words, Hinata believes that he must have just forgotten his talent due to the shock of suddenly waking up on a deserted island. Not to mention his memory of entering the school felt fuzzy in the first place, so it must be true. Since he was surrounded by Ultimates, he had to have one too. 

That’s why, in SDR2, Hinata presents himself as a person who is more confident in himself. He sees himself as an equal to all the Ultimates, compared to Komaeda who clearly views himself as beneath the others. Hinata is able to feel comfortable making sarcastic remarks and comments about the others, because he believes he is just like them. But as the game progresses, Hinata starts to doubt himself. In Chapter 3, he starts to have some hazy memories that he tried to suppress.

It’s possible that he might have contracted the Despair Disease from Tsumiki and was starting to remember his past, before he entered Hope’s Peak Academy. Either way, as usual, Hinata continues to ignore his problems and negative thoughts.

When he hears about the traitor, while he did not want to believe it, he started to think it might be him. After all, he was the only one here who did not remember their talent. If he forgot something so important, perhaps it’s possible that he forgot he was the traitor as well. Despite his attempts to fit in with everyone, Hinata still felt left out from the others. 

But Hinata continued to believe he was not the traitor, that his talent would come to him eventually, because he didn’t want to face what would happen IF he were the traitor. In Chapter 4, he reacts negatively to Komaeda and Souda suspecting him of being the traitor. He started acting more depressed and impulsive, not helped by the fact he had gone without food and being trapped in the Funhouse for a few days. Not to mention, he was the one who pushed everyone to go to the Funhouse so they could find the truth of their missing memories, in other words his talent. 

Hinata became desperate, when he heard that there was a chance he might find out the truth through the Final Dead Room, he was ready to risk his life and go inside, but Nanami stopped him just in time. It’s very possible Nanami knew about his past to be better equipped to help him in his recovery. Or at the very least, it’s likely she knew he did not have a talent, and did not want him to get hurt if he found out the truth. 

Unfortunately for them, Komaeda does get access to the secret files by playing roulette at Komaeda-level difficulty. Besides the details about them being Ultimate Despair, Komaeda also finds out the true talents of the Imposter and Hinata, which he promptly rubs in Hinata’s face probably in an attempt to make himself feel better about being the very embodiment of what he hates. 

Hinata is shocked and in denial about it for a short while, because it came so suddenly, and from Komaeda, no less. But he could not run away from the truth forever. He should have expected it, being the only one who did not know his talent was just too suspicious. He should know better than anyone, how much he wanted a talent, how much importance he placed on talent. Forgetting was just a convenient excuse to make himself feel better. But that did not make it hurt any less. He was a fraud, a nobody, and this reality crushed Hinata’s fake confidence. The act he put up around the class crumbled. Komaeda constantly bringing up his lack of talent, mocking and insulting him did not help. But he had a murder to solve, and a genocidal Komaeda to deal with the next chapter. Hinata had no time to mope about and take it all in, he had to keep fighting for his survival.

Hinata had already lost hope when he found out about his lack of talent, but Komaeda starts tp be more aggressive in trying to expose the traitor’s identity. And once again Hinata starts to wonder if he were actually the traitor.

Komaeda gave them no time to rest and immediately told the remaining students about his plan to blow up the island. So they worked together to stop him, and found his gruesome dead body, and worked to find the murderer.

In the middle of the investigation, we once again see how pained Hinata felt when he confirms that he was in fact a talentless Reserve Course student.

“Why... why am I here with the other Ultimates?” 

Eventually, they find out Komaeda’s death was not just a simple suicide, and they found out Komaeda’s true plan was to expose the traitor and execute them (which they later found was the exact opposite of what he wanted). Because Hinata knew Komaeda’s true personality, he knew that Komaeda wouldn’t die in such a meaningless way, so Hinata suspected there had to be something more to his death. Hinata was forced to expose Nanami as the traitor, through Monomi’s diary that included that moment that only Nanami should know about... Nanami, who noticed he was feeling anxious and being suspected of being the traitor, who left her group to find him because she was worried for him, who convinced him not to take the risk and leave the Final Dead Room, who told him not to listen to Komaeda mocking him. 

Also, when Hinata saw that scene in the diary, he pretended not to acknowledge it and thought he shouldn’t bring it up to Nanami, because he wanted to avoid a potential problem once again, until he was forced to confront it in the trial. 

With both Komaeda and Nanami gone, Hinata and the others are left exhausted and empty. But the time was up, and they could finally leave...? Even if Hinata wanted to completely give up now, the doors to freedom were (supposedly) finally open and it would be a waste not to at least give it a look. 

A tired Hinata enters the mysterious Future Foundation building, and slowly pieces together the truth behind this killing game. In the final trial, we finally learn about Hinata’s backstory through Junko happily telling him that he is not merely a talentless Reserve Course student, but also a human experiment and his real self is no longer the same person standing in the class trial. The Future Foundation members are also shocked that Hinata and Kamukura were apparently the same person. Hinata’s first reaction is understandably denial, who would believe that they would go through something so messed up for the sake of hope and talent? Especially after Junko adds that Kamukura was the one who killed the student council members and kickstarted the tragedy.

But the seeds of doubt were already planted into Hinata. Junko easily uses Hinata’s fears to deter him from going along with the Forced Shutdown sequence. After all, by going through with it, he and the others would lose their memories of the virtual killing game, meaning he would go back to being Kamukura Izuru. For Hinata, this means that he would cease to exist. Again. 

Junko brings up the fact that the Future Foundation want them to do the Forced Shutdown for their own desires, wanting to stop her from taking over the world, but is it really worth the cost of sacrificing their own lives and memories? 

Hinata has a breakdown because how is he supposed to choose? Between sacrificing himself or saving the world, just because some people say so? He is afraid. He doesn’t want to disappear. He suddenly got put into this spot where the only choices are to die or destroy the world. Both Junko and the Future Foundation are only thinking of their own goals. The Future Foundation might give false reassurance that everything will be fine even if they go back to being Ultimate Despair, but will it really? They conveniently don’t bring up the fact that Hinata won’t even exist anymore in an attempt to convince them to go along with their plan to defeat Junko. As Junko mentioned, do these people even care about him and the others?

Hinata refuses to choose, because he cannot handle it anymore. The burden is too great, and Hinata would rather just give up. Once again, he is unable to face his issues head on and chooses to avoid them. 

Hinata imagines an ending where the class is happy and back on Jabberwock Island. But Nanami snaps him out of it and confronts him. Hinata tells him his worries, tells him that he wants to give up, and adds that if they go through with the Forced Shutdown, everyone would forget about her too. Nanami tells him that no matter what, the future she and everyone fought for would still remain, and that Hinata should believe in himself and stop being so indecisive. Nanami tells him that they are the only ones who can decide their own future, and if they can’t choose one of the two options, to create their own future. 

Hinata confronts his impression of Kamukura, or rather, his own negative feelings projected onto Kamukura’s avatar. His feelings of being talentless, being useless, being unable to change anything, being betrayed, his denial of being Kamukura Izuru. Hinata finally faces his own feelings head on and realises how uncool he is to act like that and keep moping about.

Thanks to Nanami’s encouragement, Hinata was able to overcome his feelings and awaken. Finally, Hinata has stopped running away and has decided to fight for a new future. He says that he is not Kamukura Izuru, but Hinata Hajime, and argues that they don’t have to stick to the two choices presented to them, that they can and will create their own future that they can be proud of. Hinata convinces the other survivors to do the same, and they go through with the Forced Shutdown sequence. Usami appears and defeats Junko, and the survivors wake up from the NWP.

3.5. World Destroyer

This technically happened before DR3, so I’ll put this here. With Kamukura’s talents, Hinata was able to create the AI of World Destroyer, who was given Kamukura’s personality to be as efficient and ruthless in his job as possible. And he was modelled after Hinata’s avatar because... well there are a lot of theories, but personally I think it’s because Kamukura’s hair physics would be a bigger pain to work with then Hinata’s short hair.

Okay that was a joke, but my interpretation the reason is that they wanted to pick someone who is distant from the other students, so that they wouldn’t get too attached or get emotionally hurt when WD shoots them and wakes them up. So they went with Hinata since the students won’t have any memories of him before the killing game (which seems to be where their minds are trapped within). 

It’s possible that Hinata might sometimes feel as if he were not truly a part of the class, as everyone except him shared some memories of their time in Hope’s Peak Academy or being Remnants of Despair (that they may or may not have regained). We already know he thinks that he is different from everyone else. Not to mention, he might have also felt responsible for causing them to die in the NWP since it was Kamukura who injected Junko’s AI into it, so he tried to wake them from their coma. 

Hinata (and Kamukura) had to shoulder the huge burden of saving these people, with the hopes of all the other survivors resting on him. Did he think, he was the only one who could do something like that? With all these talents, he could finally be of use to his friends? Despite people like Nanami constantly telling him that it’s okay not to have a talent, it’s only because he became Kamukura, that he obtained all this talent, that he was able to bring everyone back to life.

Having to deal with the pressure that you will be responsible for all these people’s lives, knowing that it’s your fault but not really that they ended up like this, having to deal with living the rest of your life with another person in your mind, knowing that you finally got what you always wanted but you caused so many people and yourself so much pain... That is something only Hinata Hajime would feel.

4. Kamukura, Hinata and the Future

(This section will contain a lot of rambling headcanons based on how they get along after the events of SDR2/DR3. Also me being confused by DR3′s writing.)

When Hinata wakes up from the simulation, it is heavily implied that Kamukura’s personality is still present within him, as he occasionally mentions being bored (like when the Future Foundation members come after them). Even though he cut his hair, and continues to mainly present himself as Hinata, he retains Kamukura’s talents and shares a body and mind with him.

There are a few confusing things about SDR2 and DR3, such as the fact Naegi and friends don’t know Kamukura and Hinata were the same person, even though Naegi would have likely needed to meet Kamukura to ‘capture’ him, and in the visions Kamukura retained his appearance when talking to Komaeda on the boat to the real Jabberwock Island. It would be kind of suspicious to see that Kamukura was not present in the simulation but instead a completely different person, yet the Future Foundation talk as if they did not know Kamukura even existed...? Why would a random Reserve Course student be in the simulation instead? You would think they would know the identities of who they were going to upload into a rehabilitation programme... or at least put two-and-two together and do some research into this Hinata Hajime person? Anyway I digressed.

I believe that Kamukura was able to also get what he wanted. While he might also have known about the Forced Shutdown sequence, I feel like he might still see it as a non-answer (it may be the Future Foundation’s hope, but he and the other Remnants would go back to being despair anyway). But I don’t think he would have expected Hinata to retain his personality (and possibly memories of the killing game) as well. (Or is it just Kamukura acting as Hinata? We will never know why it seems like the SDR2 cast reverted to their in-game personalities despite the Forced Shutdown being unable to retain those memories...) Either way, I think Kamukura would not have predicted such a thing, because it... defies logic. Seriously how did they even fuse? Why does Hinata have heterochromia?? Did the program malfunction and a miracle happen?? I guess so.

Hinata can still feel emotions, but probably a lot less than he would before, because his brain has been messed with to suppress emotions. But for Kamukura, who had felt nothing his entire life, to be able to feel what it is like to ‘feel’, even just a little, is exactly the kind of stimulus he had been looking for. 

And for Hinata, to go from being a talentless nobody, to becoming possibly the only survivor of the Reserve Course, to be suddenly equipped with all these skills and talents... I imagine it must have overloaded him, to suddenly wake up and feel so foreign in your own body. To suddenly realise there is someone else besides him, in his own brain, and that someone be an emotionless, apathetic, harsh, judgemental person... but still a person.

As I mentioned before, I think Hinata felt responsible for putting the class through the killing game. Even if it wasn’t technically him, because it was him that became Kamukura, he caused them to suffer to such an extent... But at the same time, because it was him, because it was Kamukura, he was able to use his foreign talents for something he wanted to do - to save his friends. For once, his identity as the Ultimate Hope was not being taken advantage of by someone else, but he was able to use it for his own wishes. For once, Hinata was able to regain control of his, of Kamukura’s, talents. Because of Kamukura, Hinata was able to live, face his regrets and save his friends.

For Kamukura, I think that he has finally found a meaning to his life. To be able to feel Hinata’s conviction in wanting to rescue his comatose friends. To want to use his talents that he previously would find boring. To want to live and keep existing. Hinata has shown him that things that he can’t predict do exist. Because of Hinata, Kamukura was able to find his purpose. 

Hinata, who had always doubted himself, his identity, had to suddenly wake up as two people in the same body. He had to come to terms with the fact that he was different from everyone else, that he had gone through some things people would never be able to understand. He had to learn how accept this was how he would be for the rest of his life, to accept Kamukura as a part of himself. And similarly, Kamukura would also have to accept Hinata as a part of him, rather than just his past that did not matter, Hinata exists and is here right now. 

Also, since Kamukura technically only existed for a few years, despite having so much knowledge, he is still lacking in experience. So Hinata would still have things to show and teach him. I also think that Kamukura has low energy due to his lack of motivation, which was why he barely moves about, only sees the value in ‘efficient’ actions, prefers to stand back and observe others, and that is why Hinata is the one that takes the lead in their body after SDR2. 

(Stealthy edit but I totally missed this part in the OVA, but Hinata confirms they are both him, meaning they’ve both come to terms with each other and has accepted the other as a part of themselves. :D)

Hinata needs Kamukura, and Kamukura needs Hinata. Without one of them, the other would not exist, and they make up for what the other lacks. 

Bonus: Cute Stuff

To end this off, here are some miscellaneous cute facts about these two!

Kamukura talks in a more polite way than Hinata

They have two colours of underwear, blue and red/pink with white sakura patterns

Kodaka made a tweet that suggested Hinata Hajime’s name could be read similarly to Kamukura [Hi (ka) -nata (muku) Hajime (kura)]

Kamukura’s hair follows a similar pattern to Hinata’s hair (ahoge, the one pointy middle strand)

Hinata’s stop/cancel sign in his eyes transforms to a target sign when he becomes Kamukura (two prongs) and awakened Hinata (three prongs!!)

Hinata’s official watch has black and red clock hands... :]

Anyway, thanks for reading if you somehow made it this far! This ended up being.... extremely long and rambly... and I might have repeated my points a few times... but I hope you still enjoyed it! :’D

[dr-imagines-modfuyuhiko]

Reader helps Nagito in his plan to expose the traitor

Came up with this one on my own, just something for you guys to see my style of writing for if you want to request :)

Category: Angst Imagine

Specifics: GN!reader, obviously takes place in chapter 5, reader is Ultimate Actor

Warnings: Gore, swearing

I legit finished this but forgot to save and had to rewrite it all over again-

Nagito had told his lie of planning on blowing the island up. You, of course, saw through his bullshit, there was no way he had more than one bomb from the Ocagon. And he had just used it. So when you had stopped him walking away from the restaurant and confronted him, he let himself take his chances.

The boy had decided to confide in you after a minimal amount of convincing. There was no use in lying to you, especially when his time to execute his plan was limited. He told you what he knew. Absolutely all of it.

He told you how you were all Remnants of Despair, the 78th class’ killing game, Hajime’s “identity crisis”, about Junko Enoshima, everything. He even shared the fact that you had your left eye replaced with Junko’s while some other classmates, including himself, had other body parts.

While his claims were unbelievable at first, you could tell he wasn’t lying. He took you to his cottage and showed you the book he had received in the Octagon and he got some sort of poison. It was insane, yet it explained so much: Mikan’s behavior, Hajime being talentless, the swirls in Nagito’s and Mikan’s eyes when they got despaired, and so much more.

However, with this explanation, you had also gotten a hope/despair rant of how you all deserved to die for being Remnants. And for the first time, you actually agreed with his ideas. This part seemed to shock him slightly before he chuckled and explained what had to happen.

Whilst everyone else was on a wild goose chase for the bombs, the two of you got to work. You were told of the traps he already set up the night prior. He had you tie a spear above him, tie his legs and arm, and finally, made sure no one could hear him through the duct tape. You weren’t completely aware of why he needed that last point, but you guessed you would find out soon.

When leaving the warehouse to “meet up” with the others, his last words before you left had sent chills down your spine;

“Just make sure no one can hear me screaming, Y/n..”

——————

You had finally met up with your classmates just after they left the plushie factory where Nagito set his video message. You discreetly led them to the warehouse, using your talent as a shield of sorts. The domino fire trap had been set off, then they found the grenades in the break room, all according to plan. You made sure to stay back and not throw any of the grenades in case you screwed it up and took the poisoned one.

Once the fire died down, you had entered the next phase of this plan, the part you had to complete alone. You carefully led the group to Nagito’s body, not having to act as the shock of his self-mutilation took over you. Quickly shaking the nerves off best you could, you focused on the rest of the plan. Before you knew it, everyone was in the trial grounds being led by your lies.

That is, until a certain protagonist decides to call you out.

“Y/n, you don’t usually speak up so much during trials,” the boy gulped a bit and suspiciously looked to you. “Especially since you weren’t there until after we found the video.”

“I just want to help as much as possible,” you bit the inside of your lip nervously, “and like I said, I was in my cottage the whole time to avoid being blown up.”

“Then how did you know to lead us outside of the warehouse?”

Shit, shit, shit...

“I-I..” You had to think fast. So you did the only thing you could think of. Besides, all they had to do was vote incorrectly, right?

Lowering your gaze, you let your voice take on a dark tone, forcing a visible smile to tug at your lips.

“Because I killled Nagito.”

The room went dead silent for a moment. It was almost amusing. But you had to finish this plan out.

“I think we can start the votes now Monokuma, I killed Nagito-”

“No that’s wrong!”

Hajime’s voice rang out like an annoying alarm. You looked towards him and raised a brow for an explanation.

“Y/n, I don’t think you killed Nagito. I think you’re covering for something.” Hajime was getting closer to the truth, but thankfully your classmates were short tempered at this.

“What the fuck do you mean?! They already confessed!”

“Buddy, they already said they did it!”

“Hajime, they have just confessed their crime!”

“I don’t get the fuss, just start the voting!”

Their voices tangled together, most ready to start the vote. Unfortunately for you, Hajime apparently had backup.

“Y/n, if you did kill Nagito,” Chiaki’s voice had silenced the others, “then please give an explanation of what exactly you did.” You felt your chest tighten but remained calm on the outside.

Taking a breath in, you relaxed and focused on using your talent to complete your mission.

“When Nagito told us he’d blow up the whole island, I could tell he was lying, so I went to confront him. I knew there was no way he’d get a bomb large enough to take out the whole island. At least, not without any of us knowing beforehand. Plus he already used a bomb, and there was no way he had a second.”

You stated with a truth as you always did before delving into your lies, carefully weaving the two together. You were ready for this rebuttal battle.

“He refused to tell me anything, so I dragged him to the warehouse and tied him up. There, I tortured him to tell me the truth. When that didn’t work, I threatened a painful death.”

The thoughts of having to commit the actions you were describing caused you to pause for just a moment before continuing your faulty explanation.

“He began to mock me, saying I wouldn’t do such a thing. I decided to prove him wrong. I stole the key to his cottage off him and forced him to hold the spear above him. To keep him from screaming for help, I covered his mouth in tape.”

You felt yourself grip your trial stand just a bit tighter.

“I took the poison from his room and placed it in a granade for later. From there, I had set up the rest of the traps like Hajime said. All I had to do then was lead you all along and throw the grenade with the poison into the room-”

“I’ll cut through those words!”

Ignoring the odd word choice Hajime had been using in every trial, you turned to him, annoyed and nervous.

“Y/n, you’re the only one who didn’t throw a grenade,” the ahoged boy pointed out.

“Hey wait a sec- Hajime’s right!” Kazuichi joined in, “You were standing behind us the whole time!”

“So why the fuck are you lying to us?!” Fuyuhiko swore.

“They’re acting a bit like Nagito in the first trial..” Sonia was quiet but you still heard her.

“Do you know who the culprit is or not?!” Akane shouted from across from you.

Now you knew you were in deep shit. If you couldn’t keep the culprit’s identity safe, you would’ve failed. You would’ve failed to keep the world safe from the remaining Remnants.

After a few moments, you had your next course of action planned out. You lifted your head once more and smiled sickingly sweet. You were going to follow what Sonia had said.

You were going to play Nagito.

“Heheh..” Keeping the same dark but nonchalant tone as he always did, you continued, “Yes and no, Akane..”

“What do you mean, Y/n?” The plain boy seemed confused as ever.

“Well you’re the smart one Hajime, so I’ll give you one hint that should pull this together for you..”

The group had gone silent once again, awaiting your words.

“He used our talents to find a certain someone.”

Your head tilted to the side in false glee. Hajime had gone into his own mind for a minute, processing your claim. Once he figured what you meant by that statement, he turned to the group in shock.

“You’re telling us, that Nagito set this up?” He almost looked scared to say such a thing.

“Indeed I am,” You gave a crazed look, “I’m sure you know who the culprit is now, Hajime, don’t you?” The boy gulped once more.

“It’s the traitor.” Hajime looked down, “He was trying to kill the traitor.” At that, you erupted into Nagito’s signature laugh.

“Not quite, Dating-Sim-Protag.” You let out one more chuckle at your teasing. “It wasn’t the traitor he wanted to kill. It was everyone but the traitor!”

You continued your cackle. Having to laugh in his way made you feel guilty for your actions and words. You were hurting everyone. But what had to be done had to be done.

“They’re messing with us like Nagito did!” Kazuichi seemed more freaked out than everyone, as per usual. “Just tell us who the traitor is!”

“Not so fast, Kazuichi,” Chiaki once again calmed down the commotion, “I think Y/n isn’t lying. Nagito wanted the traitor to kill him and be the blackened, right?”

“Y/n,” Hajime kept his gaze towards the floor, “did you really know where the poison was?”

“In the grenades? Yes.” You felt this as your chance to come clean, convinced they couldn’t find the traitor. “Which one, however? I had no clue.”

“Then how would the traitor have known which one it was in?” Sonia was so close to getting it, but Hajime sealed their deal.

“They didn’t, Nagito used his luck.”

“Correct.” You decided to drop the Nagito facade, deeming it unnecessary now. Your face instead fell solemn.

“Why the hell did you help him, Y/n?!” Fuyuhiko’s voice called out.

“I’m sorry, I really am,” You let yourself speak the truth, “but it was what had to happen for the world to be safe. Safe from-”

“Ah, ah, ahhhh!!” Monokuma jumped in, “We wouldn’t want spoilers, now would we!”

You grit your teeth, feeling even more horrible that you couldn’t explain your actions. Although there would be no need to once the vote had started.

“Just..” Your voice fell weak, “..know all but one of us deserve painful deaths. And we’re about to get those as I assume the traitor wouldn’t reveal themselves.”

The room was completely silent. Even Monomi kept her usual whimpering to herself. Monokuma probably would’ve jumped up again if it weren’t for said traitor speaking up.

“I killed him.”

Chiaki’s voice made your head snap up. She must be lying right? No, there’s no way she’d help you and Nagito.. right?

“Chiaki what are you talking about?” Your voice trembled, knowing you won’t know if she’s helping you or everyone else until after the vote.

“I’m the traitor.” She smiled sadly, “Hajime, you want to do your usual run down of the case?”

Hajime’s face was in complete shock along with the rest of us. He quickly shook himself out and nodded. You could tell he didn’t want to vote on his (what you assumed to be) girlfriend. Nevertheless, he gave the story of it all.

“Here’s everything that happened: The person who actually arranged this incident was... the victim, Nagito Komeada. He kept a specific item inside his cottage that he needed for his plan. Monokuma's Special Poison, which he brought with him from the Octagon.

“Using the gloves and gas mask that he got from he military base... Nagito swapped the contents of a fire grenade he took from the Plushie Factory break room with that poison. When he did that, a specific item was left as evidence: the blue aluminum seal on the grenade.

“With that, Nagito finished making the poisoned fire grenade, took it with him to the factory... and put it back with the rest of the grenades in the break room.

“The next morning, Nagito appeared before us and declared that he hid a bomb somewhere... However, one of us wasn’t fooled. That person was Y/n L/n. Through some sort of convincing, Nagito had told them his plan and the two of them got to work.

“While we were looking for the bomb, that's when Nagito and Y/n headed over to the goods warehouse. In order to set up a fire, the two arranged the Monokuma panels in a line going from the door... to the curtain, and placed an oil lighter in front of it. From there, Nagito set his insane plan in motion.

“First, he hung the spear that he took from Nezumi Castle from the ceiling girder by its cord... then he had Y/n tie his arms and legs at the back of the warehouse with rope. However, they burnt off the rope on his right arm beforehand.

“In doing so, they made sure that only his right hand was free while his remaining arm and legs were tied up... As he gripped the tip of the rope hanging over the ceiling girder with his left hand... He laid down face-up, just beneath the dangling spear.

“But this was just the beginning of Nagito's plan, and then...he did something no one could've predicted. First, he covered his mouth with duct tape, and after making sure he was unable to scream... He made Y/n leave and stabbed himself with the knife multiple times in his left arm and in both of his thighs.

“Finally... He propped the knife on the plushie, and slammed his right hand onto the blade! He didn't just want us to think he was tied up, he also wanted us to think he's been tortured... Through all this, Nagito never let go of the spear. His plan still wasn't over...In fact, it was just about to begin.

“Meanwhile, we finally arrived at the plushie factory and found Nagito's message... After seeing his message, we instantly made our way to the warehouse, Y/n leading us there even though they had shown up after we left... But that was part of Nagito's plan. We opened the door to the warehouse, which inadvertently started the Monokuma panel domino effect...

“The panels fell, one after another, until they reached the lighter, tipped it over, and ignited the curtain. Shocked by the sudden fire, we rushed to the factory's break room to obtain some fire extinguishing grenades.

“We then aimed for the fire's origin point, which was the curtain, and unloaded the entire supply. It never occurred to us that one of those grenades was the poisoned grenade that Nagito had prepared... But because Y/n knew it was there, they made a crucial mistake in Nagito’s plan and their later lies... they didn’t throw a grenade.

“The poison sank to the floor, instantly vaporizing due to the intense heat, and spread everywhere... The poison gas quickly drifted to the curtain at the back of the warehouse, where Nagito was. Also, Monokuma's poison has a unique quality in which it becomes heavier than air when vaporized. That poison gas completely surrounded the area where Nagito lay face-up on the floor.

“There, Nagito inhaled the poison, and if it didn't instantly kill him, he certainly lost consciousness... Which caused him to let go of the rope in his left hand, and the falling spear plunged into his stomach.

“But even then, his plan wasn’t completely over as his accomplice, Y/n, had to lie in order to voting wrong. Unfortunately for Y/n, the traitor did something they couldn’t expect... the traitor revealed themself.

“This is all the information related to Nagito's plan. His true intention was to set one of us up as the killer... At the time, we didn’t know who the killer was... Because the killer wasn't aware they killed someone. Try as we might, if the traitor hadn’t revealed herself as Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer, we could not reach that truth... That was Nagito's trap.”

You could feel yourself shake as the rest of the trial went on. You didn’t trust your voice to not get all shaky if you attempted to speak. Instead, you simply listened as arguments were made on Chiaki really being the traitor. As well as the insults occasionally thrown your way.

Soon, though, the guilt of failing Nagito and the world settled in as Monokuma declared that Chiaki was indeed the traitor, and possibly worse, correctly voted as the blackened.

———————

As soon as Chiaki’s execution had ended, you made your way out of the trail room and to your own cottage. You didn’t want to end up tied in the warehouse like they did with Nagito in the restaurant so many weeks ago. So when there was knocking at your door, you didn’t answer it.

The knocking continued, but you stayed in your curled up position on the bed. When the knocking finally ended, you sighed in relief, that is, until you heard Hajime’s voice.

“Y/n.. please come out and eat.. you haven’t had anything since this morning..”

That certainly wasn’t what you had expected to hear. You expected scolding, anger, anything other than concern. Hearing a sigh from outside the door, you decided to slip out for just a moment.

When you did open the door, you saw Hajime as he was about to turn and leave. His form seemed stressed, like he’d definitely been crying.

“You aren’t gonna tie me up, are you?” You tried to joke, but your voice was hoarse, your own crying to blame. Even so, Hajime let out a tired chuckle.

“No, I did have to stop Kazuichi and Akane from trying though..” He scratched the back of his neck. A small, breathy laugh of your own forcing it’s way out of you.

“Why aren’t you siding with them?” You looked downward towards your shoes. “I mean I did quite literally act as Nagito and try to get us all killed..” At that, you felt a hand on your shoulder, forcing your gaze back to Hajime.

“If your reason behind doing that was good enough for Monokuma to stop you from revealing it, I think it’s justified.” He gave a weak, but reassuring smile, “The others agreed with me once I pointed that out.”

“Let me guess,” you attempted to lighten the mood once more, “Sonia agreed with you so Kazuichi just magically changed his mind and Akane was forced to join?” The two of you shared a small laugh as he pulled his hand away and to his side. There was a short, awkward silence that followed before Hajime spoke again.

“Just.. please help us figure out what’s going on. With the information you now have, you may not be able to directly tell us, but you can help so much more.”

You felt yourself nod, slightly ashamed. “In that case, there’s something I need to show you and the others. I can go get it-”

“Let’s wait till you get something to eat, okay?”

Hajime, no, everyone was really willing to give you a second chance after you essentially killed two classmates? You couldn’t believe it. But it was the truth. A small smile made it’s way to your mouth and you nodded once more, this time more assured. This made Hajime smile in return.

“Now how about we go eat something before Akane gets to it all, Y/n?”

[prompt-master]

Sato Mastermind anon Survivors would have to change. Perhaps make it Mahiru, Hajime, Komeada, Fuyuhiko, and Akane. The reason for this change is because Mahiru has prior history with Sato and if she's the protag allows for a more unique and personal confrontation. Allows Fuyuhiko to confront the killer of his sister. Nagito is there cause I believe him having the revelation that the mastermind is only a reserve course student sounds interesting like his whole mindset on talent is shattered.

Sato Mastermind anon, Personality wise is the most interesting to me. I do not want diet Junko at all. However, I remember Junko telling the DR1 cast she did it cause she loved them so much which I thought was bullcrap since no hints are shown on that. Yet with Sato we already knew she was possessive and defensive of Mahiru to the point of murder. So let's say the reveal happens and Sato reveals to Mahiru that she did this all for her bizarre idea of protection.

So perhaps sato founds out what happened to Mahiru and eventually finds the Junko Ai with instructions on how to use it so Sato makes modifications to it. Then DR2 happens kinda similar to before but with a different reveal and motivation. Sato wanted to kill the remaining remnants and keep Mahiru alive so she gives her two choices, either they can be together and stay inside the NWP forever or return to the real world with her and risk completing Ai Junko's plan.

I also don't want Matermind Sato to be all "lol xd" random and quirky personality switching like Junko. Instead I want her to be very reserved like she's pretty calm overall initially, I want her to act very amiable like she's the best friend who always has your back. This would throw people off as to the kind of mastermind they would expect. As the final trial goes on Mahiru would start to see that Sato is no longer her best friend but is now abusive and toxic control freak.

————————————————–

Couldn’t agree more on the survivors change. Doing so would also fully fit the theme of all the survivors having someone to mourn. Maybe that is why Koizumi is the protag, she understood this feeling since before the game began. Even without Sato dying you cannot Sato seemed to be a different person after the murder.

I think a twisted version of protection is absolutely perfect for Koizumi. Perhaps Koizumi has some sort of immunity programmed onto her that no one but Sato is aware of. Thank you for not just twisting her into Enoshima, I find that very boring and it’s part of my beef with dr3 despair arc. 

This AU definitely has a lot to work and play around with! 

[marshmallow-phd]

Sins of the Father

Genre: Mafia Au

Pairing: Junmyeon x Reader

Summary: Soon after your second birthday, your parents were killed and you were adopted by your father’s best friend, taken away to their home country where you lived your life in peaceful ignorance. As far a as you knew, your parents simply left you large fortune to be released to you once you reached your twenty-third birthday. At least, that’s all you thought you were inheriting. When a famously ruthless mafia boss discovers your existence, you are left at his mercy. While under his roof, you learn more about your father than you ever wished you had, including the part of your inheritance that made you the most valuable person in the underworld. Hidden in a bank in New York City were files that held the darkest secrets of the mafia families and everyone in their pocket. With another terrifying leader’s eyes trained on you, you’ll learn to watch your back… and guard your heart, before your father’s past becomes your doom.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I Final

**

Chen plopped down on the couch, loosening his tie and throwing off his jacket almost as soon as you were through the door of the penthouse.

“I hate wearing this,” he complained.

Snorting, your mood was slowly lifting now that you were back in a place you deemed safe. “You think you have it bad?” You motioned to the dress you were still stuck in and the shoes that you had kicked off the moment you walked through the door. “I’m getting out of this right now.”

Chen raised an eyebrow cheekily. “Right here in the living room?”

Throwing a shoe at him playfully, you warned, “You’d better watch what you say. Junmyeon might shoot you.”

The grin slipped from his face. Clearing his throat, Chen scratched the back of his neck. “You’d better go get changed. If you want, we can watch a movie until the others get back.”

In all honesty, you’d watched more movies than you ever thought you would care to since being here, but you didn’t have the energy to do anything else nor did you really want to shut yourself in your room. You were too wired up to try and sleep. A small part of you wanted to stay up for Junmyeon, to see if he’d had another run in with Junko.

Once you were in a much more comfortable oversized T-shirt and sleep shorts, as well as washed your face and brushed your teeth, you went back into the living room. Grabbing the blanket that was thrown on the recliner, you sat down next to Chen. You’d grown so used to platonic affection with the boys that you were confused when Chen scooted over, creating a large space in between you rather than letting you rest into his side like normal.

You pouted a little, thinking that now would be the time for any of the boys to give you a little bit of comfort after the night you’d had. Perhaps you’d just grown too used to them doting on you and now they were getting bored or uncomfortable with it.

Not caring about the selection, Chen put on some melodrama involving a fighter and a blind woman. You didn’t pay too much attention to the couple’s plight. Instead, you tried to figure out why Junmyeon made you go tonight. Why did he say that he needed you there? He didn’t keep you by his side - in fact he dropped you off like a child at daycare as soon as you arrived. Your only guess was he knew that Junko would be there, but hadn’t meant for things to escalate like that.

You made it through the first movie just to see that Chen had fallen asleep. His face was innocent in his sleep, like most people, and you kind of preferred it to his usual flirty demeanor.

Getting warm, you kicked off the blanket and placed it over Chen, careful not to wake him. It was well past midnight now and still no one had come back from the event. Chen had said they usually stay out well into the night, but you decided you would wait up for them, just to make sure that nothing bad happened.

**

Junmyeon could hardly concentrate on what the man across the table from him was rambling on about. They were supposed to be brokering a deal on a weapons shipment, but Sehun was having to do most of the talking. The man would have gotten away with an extra million won if Sehun hadn’t stepped in.

Junko’s threat plagued his mind. Would he really go that far for a conversation that had taken place twenty years ago?

Junmyeon would do everything in his power not to let anything happen your adoptive family, but Junko had resources that Junmyeon could only dream of. It wasn’t going to be easy to keep his promise.

If he was forced to be honest, Junko wasn’t the only thing that was making Junmyeon down the whiskey sours.

Something had stirred inside him when you had clung to his sleeve, begging not to be left alone. He’d never encountered someone who grew anxious because of large groups of people and he was at a complete loss of how to handle it.

At first, he thought you were just scared of the occupants since they were all here for illegal dealings. But then you explained how it was just the sheer amount of people in the room. It was slightly understandable considering there were over a hundred gamblers milling about.

The look in your eyes as you pleaded to not be abandoned had moved him. Or maybe it was more like a shove to comfort you. This morning had shown him a glimpse of what your lives together could be like and he’d actually enjoyed it. Earlier - before you ran to Yixing without hesitation - you’d felt so warm in his arms. He didn’t want to let you go. But he had business to attend to and he couldn’t drop it just for anyone, even you.

He kept the two of you in his line of sight, though. The way you were relaxed with Yixing as you danced slowly to the music had caused Junmyeon’s blood to boil. The doctor was just a natural comforter; he probably didn’t even realize how affectionate it looked from afar.

But if Junmyeon had noticed it, then so could have Junko. It was something he could exploit, to hold over you if needed. At least, that was the reason Junmyeon kept repeating to himself.  

Behind their buyer, Junmyeon could see Jongin at the high stakes table and they made eye contact. The master card player scratched behind his left ear, signaling to Junmyeon that he was up ahead their previously discussed amount. Junmyeon nodded, telling Jongin to walk away with the winnings.

One by one, the others wrapped up their jobs for the night and met back up near the entrance. It was past three in the morning and they were all ready for a little shut eye. Outside, Chanyeol checked to make sure the coast was clear before they walked back to the cars. They piled in like normal, but Junmyeon stopped Yixing before he could take his spot.

All the doors were closed to make the appearance of a private conversation, but he knew all them would be listening to every word and hopefully the message would get across to them all.

“What is it, Junmyeon?” Yixing asked, perplexed.

“What is the rule when it comes to (y/n)?” Junmyeon made sure that every word resonated with his authority as the leader.

Yixing frowned. “Nothing is going on with me and (y/n). I swear.”

“Good.” Junmyeon tried to not look as relieved as he felt. Yixing wasn’t one to lie and he always followed the rules. “But from now on, I don’t want you to be so affectionate with her. People will begin to talk and I don’t need anyone doubting her ties to me.” He opened the door for Yixing to get inside. “All of you get home and get some rest. I’ll see you on Monday.”

Minseok stopped him from closing the door. “Junmyeon, where are you going?”

“Just on a walk,” he replied. “I’ll grab a cab home.”

“At least have Chanyeol or me go with you.”

Junmyeon shook his head. “I’ll be alright. Get going.”

He needed time alone, time to get his head back on straight before he saw you again.

Slamming the door closed, Junmyeon walked off in the opposite direction. The engines just idled for a minute or two behind him before they finally drove off. After running his hand through his hair for about the fifth time tonight, Junmyeon took in a deep breath of mild night air, sighing.

He’d told you from the beginning that your marriage was to be purely a maneuvering choice. The files were the most important piece of his plan, everything else was just a secondary consequence.

The other side of getting married was that it proved his stability, showed everyone that he had roots and a reason to stay. A wife could also be a weakness, but Junmyeon had decided that certain measures had to be taken to assure that that would never be the case. One of those was to keep you at arms distance, to not show affectionate attachment towards you.

With a surge of rage, he kicked the brick wall of an abandoned warehouse.

Just a few weeks in, he was already losing it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get a sense of you. Normally, Junmyeon could read a person like an open book. But you... you were all over the place and he couldn’t get a grip on your thought process. At times, you could be sweet and quiet, but then you would lash out or throw some sarcastic remark his way. Perhaps it was that unpredictability that was drawing him in.

Most of the girls he’d seen in the past knew all about his line of work and the money in his pocket. They were straightforward and honest about being in it for the thrill of it or to hopefully get a hold of one of his credit cards. He knew their game and he wasn’t bothered about it. At least he wasn’t alone and they never lasted longer than a week or so, anyway.

But you didn’t care that he lived in a penthouse or had fancy cars or expensive suits. You were only there out of loyalty to your family and Junmyeon admired that. Part of him hoped that maybe there could be a small change in your reason for staying. Maybe… you could start to feel something for him?

“Now this wasn’t smart.”

Out of the shadow of an alleyway, Junko stepped out, smiling evilly at Junmyeon.

This was always a possibility when he decided to wander off on his own, Junmyeon knew it. Part of him was even hoping that it would happen. He couldn’t resist a chance to trade barbs with Junko.  

Putting his hands in his pockets, Junmyeon leaned up against the grime covered wall, not caring that it could ruin his tailored suit. “Can I help you with something, Junko?”

Taking a toothpick from his mouth, Junko twirled it between his fingers before flicking it away. “You know, our fathers hated each other, but I thought we at least could be friends.”

Junmyeon scoffed. “You’ve hated me since our days at private school. Friendship is the last thing on your mind. Now, my territory and control of the east shore, that, I’m sure, is really what you’re interested in.”

“You’re wrong actually,” Junko taunted, taking a few steps towards Junmyeon. “Sure, those things are important, but they’re not my top priority right now. You see, the first couple of years after (y/n)’s parents sadly passed away, my father kept an eye on her to make sure she grew up well... until Taegun succeeded in hiding her. She was always meant to be mine.”

“I don’t think she really wants you,” Junmyeon mocked. “Anyway, stop playing the romantic hero. We all know that you only want the rights to the files.”

Junko set his jaw. “Isn’t that why you snatched her up first?”

Junmyeon shrugged, knowing that every word that was about to leave his mouth was going to set Junko off. “The files will always be most important, but,” he added in a smirk for effect, “I am also a man. (y/n)’s not bad on the eyes, so I guess you could say it’s an added bonus. Something warm to hold at night….”

That did it.

Junko lunged, hitting Junmyeon right below the eye with his fist. Junmyeon landed his own punch on Junko’s face, connecting with his jaw. Unfortunately, the latter’s limbs were longer and he was able to land more blows than Junmyeon could counter.

Finally, the punches stopped, with Junmyeon on his knees, balancing himself on his palms. Blood mixed with saliva sprayed when he spat out the liquid that was filling up his mouth. At least he was able to leave a few cuts and bruises on Junko’s face as well.

“One way or another,” Junko heaved, “I’ll have her. And your name will never leave her lips again.” Before leaving, he landed one more kick to Junmyeon’s stomach.

Once he was alone, Junmyeon slowly stood back up to his feet, holding his side to try and ease the pain. A slew of curses left his mouth with each step he took. If he hadn’t drank so much, he might have actually been able to hold his own a bit longer.

Junmyeon knew better than to pick a fight with Junko. In their school days, fighting between the two of them was common and Junko, thanks to his height, usually came out on top.

It took a while, but he was able to catch a cab back to the apartment building. The driver kept sending him skeptical looks through the rearview mirror, but he smartly kept his mouth shut.

Back in the penthouse, the lights were still on. Jongdae and you were fast asleep on the couch, but  for once Jongdae was sitting a good distance away from you. Good. That meant he saw the daggers Junmyeon was staring at Yixing. He wouldn’t need to have a separate talk.

It took a bit of force to shake his vanguard awake. A whine escaped from the sleeping gangster, but he jumped up once he saw the face of the interruption.

“Hyung!”

“Shh,” Junmyeon hissed. “You’ll wake her up. Come on.”

Jongdae followed him to the kitchen, where the clock read that it was nearly five in the morning. Shit.

“What happened?” Jongdae whispered. “Where are the others?”

“I sent them home a few hours ago,” Junmyeon groaned, sitting down on a stool. “I just needed to go on a walk, but I ran into Junko. I guess you know what they say about poking the sleeping bear.”

“You egged him on?” Jongdae scolded. He shook his head disapprovingly. “Did you not learn anything from school?”

Junmyeon smiled. That was the strongest aspect of his inner circle. They all knew each other from when they were young; it’s what made their bond so strong. Sometimes, however, that meant they could bring up the past. Not that Junmyeon ever really could forget their school days.

“I couldn’t help it,” he shrugged. “He kept talking about (y/n) and how he was supposed to have her. I just wanted him to shut up.”

Jongdae opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of the idea and closed it.

“Go home and get some rest,” Junmyeon ordered. Nodding, Jongdae sighed and exited the kitchen.

As quietly as he could, Junmyeon stood back up and walked over to the freezer to find something cold to press to his face. Moving the perishables around, however, made too much noise. He went still when he heard footsteps echoing in the hallway. So much for not waking you up.

“Are you just now getting home?” you asked sleepily.

Since his back was still to you, Junmyeon let himself grin at your gravelly, just-woken-up voice. It was cute and it pulled at his stomach, how innocent you sounded.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I had some… things to take care of.”

Your bare feet slapped against the tile and Junmyeon had to maneuver to try and keep you from seeing his face.

“Chen said you usually get home around three,” you commented hesitantly. Your voice sounded dejected. “Did you, um, did you go somewhere else? Or maybe… never mind.”

Junmyeon frowned. “Or maybe what?”

“It doesn’t matter,” you whispered. “You should get some sleep.”

“No, (y/n),” Junmyeon tried not to be harsh. He already had a feeling as to where your thoughts were going. “What were you going to say?”

A few seconds of silence went by before you finally spoke up. “I mean, there were a lot of beautiful women there, so I thought that maybe you went home with one of them.”

By the end of the comment your voice was thick. You even tried to muffle a sniffle. Junmyeon’s shoulders dropped. Did you really care if he had gone home with someone else? The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind all evening, a first.

It was obvious that you had tried to wait up for him. You could have gone to bed, but you’d fallen asleep on the couch and had even asked Jongdae what time he usually came home. He never had a woman treat him that way. What were you doing to him?

His hand went to his face, knowing there really wasn’t any way he could hide this from you; not now or tomorrow. Turning around slowly, his eyes met yours and it was like a bolt of lightning hit him when shock and worry covered your face.

**

For a moment you were like a statue, unable to move, speak, or even breathe. Where you had expected lipstick smudges, there were bruises. Without even thinking, you ran forward, placing your hands on Junmyeon’s face, careful not to hurt him further.

“What happened?” you shrieked.

“I decided to try things your way and have a smart mouth,” he groaned, slightly bending at his waist.

As much as you wanted to hit him for that comment, you were too concerned about the split lip he was currently sporting. Shaking your head, you started moving him towards the hallway. “You need to lie down.”

It was a struggle, but you were able to hobble all the way to Junmyeon’s room, supporting as much of his weight that you could. You barely paid attention to how intricate the room was decorated as you sat him carefully down on his bed. If any blood got on the sheets, you would just wash them later.

“He might be sleeping, but I’ll call Yixing.” You started searching his pockets. “Where’s your cell phone?”

“No!” Junmyeon growled as he grabbed your wrist. His features softened at your stunned face. “I’m fine. I don’t need Yixing. There’s a first aid kit underneath my sink. Just bring that here.”

Reluctantly, you obeyed, running to the bathroom and tearing open the cabinet doors until you found the familiar white box under the sink.

When you got back to Junmyeon, he was in the middle of struggling to take off his jacket. Your heart hurt seeing the agonizing expression from such a simple action. Stepping in, you took the jacket the rest of the way off, throwing it in a random direction to be picked up later.

After you sat down next to him, you opened the kit and pulled out the peroxide. Once a small amount was soaked into a cotton pad, you gently dabbed at the cuts on Junmyeon’s skin. His eyes didn’t leave your own face as you worked at his wounds. He had his own supply of arnica gel and - learning from Yixing - you applied a small amount to the bruises on that were forming.

“Who did this?” you finally asked. The ach from seeing him so hurt was killing you.

“Your other fiancé,” he deadpanned.

“Junko,” you gasped. Your hands dropped to your lap and your eyes began to prickle. “So, this is my fault. He attacked you because of me.”

You hated how much you’ve cried in front of Junmyeon the past several hours. Why was everyone associated with you getting hurt or threatened? Why were you even affected by each injury you found on his face?

Junmyeon wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into his chest. “No, no. This is not your fault. I provoked him. I’m too cocky sometimes and I goaded him into it. No one’s to blame but me.”

When he started rubbing circles on your back you pushed away. Why was he being so kind to you? Staring up at Junmyeon in disbelief, you didn’t miss his flinching as he twisted his upper body.

You panicked. “Are you hurt somewhere else?”

He held his side, but he tried to play it like it was nothing. “I’m fine. I just need to sleep it off.”

Not putting up with his crap, you reached out and started unbuttoning his dress shirt.

He let out a noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh. “You know, all you have to do is ask if you want to go that far.”

As much as you wanted to punch him, you settled for a glare. Your jaw dropped when you opened his shirt. Dark purple bruises as large as your palm stuck out against his tanned skin. Reflexively, you reached out, letting just the tips of your fingers touch the blemishes. The skin stretched over the muscles was smooth and soft. How could he be beaten so badly if he was in such good shape?

“(y/n).”

His voice was barely above a whisper. You looked up at him and there was an unreadable expression in his eyes that you’d never seen before. He placed one hand the one of yours that was still settled on his stomach and cupped your jaw with the other.

“Are you scared?” His face was so close to yours that you could count the different shades of brown in his eyes. Unable trust yourself to lie, you nodded. The corners of his lips turned up just a fraction. “Don’t be. I’ve had worse injuries. Really, just a few hours rest and I’ll be fine.”

That wasn’t the only thing that terrified you, but you didn’t verbalize it.

“Can I–” You bit your bottom lip, surprised on what you wanted to request. You shouldn’t be this concerned. Nothing was going to happen to him, right? There wasn’t any reason you needed to watch over him, was there?

But you couldn’t help think about what if he didn’t make it through night. What would happen to you then? If there was a choice between Junmyeon or Junko, it was an easy decision. And… you wanted to comfort Junmyeon like how he comforted you back at the illegal casino. His presence was starting to do something to you. You couldn’t explain what it was, but it urged you to stick around and try to figure it out.

Junmyeon cocked his head. “Can you what?”

“Can I stay with you?” You could barely hear the words that left your mouth, but the smile on his face told you that he heard every word.

He nodded. “Of course.”

Testing out each movement, he removed his socks and belt, but kept his slacks on before dragging himself to the top of the bed. He slid under the covers and then patted the space next to him.

You could feel the heat rushing up to your cheeks. Granted, you weren’t completely clueless or inexperienced and nothing but rest was going to happen, but you were still unprepared for this kind of thing. You never imagined this situation when you first entered this house.

For a split second, you considered changing your mind and just running back to your own bed, but you didn’t want to leave him alone. Giving in, you settled down on top of the covers until Junmyeon threw you a look.

“How am I supposed to sleep if you’re holding down the comforter?” he pointed out.

Huffing, you stood up and threw the blankets back. You cautiously slipped into the bed, lying down on your back and staring up at the ceiling.

“(y/n).”

You flipped over to your side to face Junmyeon. You held your head up, resting it in your palm as you propped up on your elbow. He held out a hand and let his fingers gently caress your cheek.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

With a heavy sigh, you pursed your lips. “Well, I couldn’t just sit back and let your wounds fester. You’re too stubborn to get help from the others.”

Junmyeon raised an eyebrow. “You presume to know me so well. It’s not like you’ve been around me for very long.”

It was true that he was hardly ever around for you to get to know him, but still…. “It doesn’t exactly take an expert to see how stubborn you are. But you’re right. I know the guys better than I know you.”

A crease appeared between his eyebrows. “Why don’t we change that? We could actually try to spend time together, get to know each other some more.”

“You don’t think we might kill each other?” you joked. While you meant it as a “haha”, you wondered if it might actually happen. Even breakfast only stayed peaceful for so long before it went to crap. Okay, it was mostly your own fault and how you reacted to the ring, but could you really be entirely blamed for it?

Junmyeon scooted closer to you, rubbing your upper arm. “I think we can get along, if we try.”

You actually gave it some thought. As much as you wanted to deny it, a small bit of you was attracted to him. And he wasn’t outright suggesting any sort of relationship, just that you try to get along and find out more about each other. That could make this sham of a marriage more bearable when the time came, right?

Internally, you snorted. Try to get along. Like a couple of kids forced into a playdate. Fighting over toys and what to watch on TV was inevitable, but the moments in between, you could make tolerable, maybe even memorable.

A wall was easy to build and hard to break down, but maybe the mortar hadn’t hardened yet. You certainly didn’t hate him as much you originally thought. You’d grown soft towards him, never really being the type that was good at holding grudges anyway.

Look at you, you were already tending to his wounds and watching over him. You could be such a bleeding heart sometimes.

“Okay,” you agreed. “I think I’d like that. But right now, I think you should get some sleep.”

Junmyeon laughed and then grimaced. “You’re right. You should get sleep, too.”

“Good night, Junmyeon.”

His smiled crookedly. “Good morning, (y/n).”

[thedevillord-writes]

Zemblanity - Chapter Three

Zemblanity is the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries by design

- - -

~Present Day~

Pissed was an understatement.

What she was feeling, there was no word in any language that could describe it. All her life, those around her would get on their knees just to do her bidding. She was born to be doted on, to be served. Not to be humiliated in public by some third rate pianist and accused of something so fabricated that even Hollywood would never use as a short scene in anything.

Although no charges was pressed on Misaki's request, Junko's life had been turned upside down since the fiasco. Words traveled fast in the upper class society after all. She was no longer invited to parties and events, the interview schedules a week from now was suddenly postponed indefinitely, and all brands she was the face of terminated their contracts with her; she had never seen posters being taken down and replaced so quickly.

She did not understand, however, why she was being subjected to such treatment. In her world, they were in no shortage of fiasco. This week, two actresses could be reported fighting over a man. Next week, a CEO could be found having an affair with four different women. Drama was all around her and Junko was not the first to cause a scene. Albeit, it was not her first time causing a scene either though it was the first time she was not seen as the victim. Who was that pianist and why did everyone choose to believe her? In an attempt to save her image, Junko convinced her father to throw a charity ball to showcase her generosity and kindness.

~.~

"Are you sure about this, Misaki?"

"No, but I don't have a choice."

When the invitation for a charity ball hosted by the Inoue's came in the mail, Misaki tossed it into the trash. She never had a interest in these affairs, and she definitely lost what little interest she might have when she saw the name Inoue Junko. Misaki was not afraid, she just did not have the patience nor the time to play along with whatever game the model came up with this time. Unfortunately for Misaki, Junko was smart this time.

A day before the ball, Misaki was called to her father. He was sent an invitation, personally delivered by Junko's father. While Junichiro had knowledge of what happened between his daughter and Junko, he never reprimanded Misaki for her actions because she never brought shame to the family. If anything, her situation was in favour of the Kanemoto name. Now that her father was involved, there was no escaping for her. Whether or not she liked it, she had to attend the ball. And while wearing an emerald green sleeveless empire line dress, a professional fake smile plastered on her face with her arm in her father's, Misaki made an appearance at the ball.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary arriving at the venue. They were photographed, as always. They were escorted into the hall, as always. And always, Misaki shadowed her father while he made his round of greeting partners and friends. Half an hour into the ball, she was starting to think perhaps this was a genuine event when she was approached by Junko. She was greeted with a smile though Misaki could detect a smug instantly.

"I am so glad you could make it. I know we set off on the wrong foot and I was hoping we could make up here."

"What's your game here?" Misaki asked, her voice low enough only for Junko to hear.

"No game. I sincerely want to apologise for what happened."

Despite genuine sounding sincerity, Misaki was not falling for Junko's act. Nobody else knew what happened in the bathroom, though everybody believed every word Misaki told them. Junko, however, knew she had nothing to apologise for. Misaki was the one who tore her own dress, broke her own shoes, and pretended she was attacked. If Junko was anything Misaki came to know of, she would not be apologising for something she did not do. She had something up her sleeve and she was planning on unleashing it this evening.

"I do, however, have a favour I would like to ask of you." When Misaki did not respond, Junko continued. "As this is a charity ball, we've decided to provide some services for the guests who donated. While we have a variety to choose from, many guests heard you were coming and asked if you could play the piano for them. This is a list of songs they requested."

Almost instantly, Junko was baring her claws. She did have something up her sleeve, but she just could not keep it in long enough. Taking the list from Junko, Misaki could not help the scoff. A simple glance of the list, and she could tell that the other woman Googled 'World's most difficult piano piece' as she wrote the list. Knowing it was a trap of some sort, Misaki decided to entertain the idea.

"If you could just give me perhaps half an hour to look over the scores for these?"

"How about fifteen minutes? I wouldn't want our dear guests to be waiting too long, you see."

"Of course."

"I'm glad you understand."

Excusing herself, Misaki went to one corner and looked up the score for each of the piece on the requested list. The pieces were complicated but to a skilled pianist like herself, they were not hard with practice. Misaki did not see a problem with most of them as they were pieces she played before, though there were pieces she never touched in the mix. Junko's intention was becoming clear; she did not want to hurt Misaki, not as much as she wanted to humiliate her. She understood where the plan was headed for though she had a feeling Junko did not think it quite through. It would make more sense to have Misaki play these pieces on the violin as humiliation, rather than giving her one advantage: the piano.

Walking over the piano positioned right in the middle of the hall, Misaki sat on the stool and almost immediately, all commotion in the hall stopped and they were slowly gathering around her. Junko gave her a brief introduction and explanation before stepping aside to leave her the stage. As the applause quieted down, Misaki placed her hands on the keys and took in a deep breath.

She would be lying if she said she was not nervous before every performance. No matter how big or small, it was always nerve wrecking. The beginning was always the hardest, the first note she had to play. She remembered her first official performance, she was so nervous that her hands were shaking and she ended up playing the wrong note. She became the laughing stock that night, and her father was not pleased. She learnt from that mistake, however. Before she went on stage, she had a little ritual; texting Minato, reciting her favourite poem twice, and telling herself that Chopin was looking over her.

There was no ritual tonight.

It was the first time she did not feel nervous at all. If Junko's goal was to humiliate her in front of everyone, Misaki was not going to let her have the pleasure at all. Taking another look at the list, she started with the piece right at the top. From the first note to the last, she was confident. Once she finished the first piece, she moved on to the next, and the next, and the next. She was halfway through the list by the time she finished the pieces she was familiar with. She could feel Junko's death glare somewhere in the crowd and could not help the smirk in response. As she moved on to the less familiar, and some harder, pieces, she was approached by Junko with disappointed look on her face (though it was satisfying for Misaki).

"Hi, you're playing beautifully but some guests are starting to complain that they can't have a conversation with all this noise going on."

"But I thought they were the ones who requested for me to play?"

"Well, now they don't want to hear it."

"I have two pieces left, I'll be done soon."

"I said, stop!"

Even as they spoke, Misaki continued playing. It was a mistake, in hindsight, though she did not anticipate Junko's reaction. Throwing a tantrum was expected of the spoiled model, but slamming the fallboard while Misaki was still playing was not. She reacted quick enough to save her right hand though her left wrist took quite a hit. Silence blanketed over the hall as no one knew how to react. Clutching her left wrist in pain, the only thing on Misaki's mind was to get medical attention. Besides her brother, her hands were her everything.

Standing up to leave, Misaki was stopped by Junko who grabbed her left wrist roughly and yanked at it, bringing tears to Misaki's eyes from the pain. Seeing the tears, however, infuriated the other woman further.

"Stop pretending! Show everyone what a fraud you are! Tell them you framed me last time! Tell them!"

"Junko!"

"Daddy! Look, she's doing it again! She's pretending to be hurt so she can blame me again!"

"Let go of my daughter."

Junichiro forced Junko to let go of Misaki though she refused to and tightened her grip, causing her more pain. Eventually, with the help of Junko's father, they were separated. The pain was so numbing that Misaki barely knew what was going on, only that she was taken away as soon as she was free. Sat in a small room, Misaki was left alone while the hotel staff went to get a first aid kit. She looked down at her hand, trying to move her fingers but no matter how hard she tried, they did not.

Many thoughts ran through her mind; how this would be the end of her career, how her father would get angry at her for being involved with Junko. Most importantly, however, she could only think of how this was her fault. She wanted to teach Junko a lesson, that she should not mess with power and status when she was not the one with complete power and status. So what if Misaki stood above Junko in society? So what if everyone would blindly believe her over the model? None of that meant anything when Junko could slam a fallboard on her hands and basically end her life. She was playing with fire, knowing perfectly well that it could burn her no matter how much she thought she knew about it.

There was a knock on the door and Junichiro walked in, closing the door behind him. Misaki looked up, though she could not read her father's expression. This was not the first time Misaki caused a scene in public, she knew what would happen next without reading her father. The last time something to this scale happened, she was sent overseas to study so as to be kept out of the spotlight and to ensure that Junichiro kept his image.

"Well done."

Her father's words were surprising, but the hand on the shoulder was telling Misaki she did not hear him wrong. "Well done? I don't understand, father...I messed up. I caused a scene. I brought shame to the family. The Kanemoto name-"

"-Is fine. You caused a scene, but you were not the instigator."

"You're not mad?"

"Under any other circumstances, I would be," Junichiro admitted. "But I've been looking for a reason to stop funding Inoue's campaigns, just never had a good reason to. Your last incident with Junko came at the right time but it still wasn't good enough. Tonight, however, was perfect. His daughter assaulted mine, and I can stop his funding. And everyone is siding with us."

Although relieved she would not be punished, Misaki could not help but feel disappointed with her father. The only reason why he sided with her this time was because it benefited him somehow. He did not care what she did to Junko, nor did he care about what Junko did to her. He could not care less about her throbbing wrist. This was her first time hearing a real praise from her father, and it was at the cost of her hand and her career.

"How's the wrist?" Junichiro asked.

"It's alright," Misaki lied, rotating her wrist while keeping the pain to herself.

"Good. But I'd like you to go to the hospital still. Get every doctor looking at it and have them describe the worst possible outcome. I want the Inoue's to suffer the consequences."

"Yes, father."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It did not take long for the headlines to start coming out.

Model freaked out on pianist!

Kanemoto Junichiro to stop funding Inoue over daughter dispute!

No doubt, father of the year!

Misaki scrolled through the articles on her phone, not clicking into any of them to read. She must say, however, that she was impressed. It was only an hour ago when Junko had her little break down and injured Misaki, but almost every news outlet already caught wind and published multiple articles covering the news; two pages of search worth. Junichiro would most definitely be delighted to see these articles, but Misaki felt like throwing up just reading the headlines for each of them.

She had no sympathy for Junko. In fact, she felt she deserved the karma. But the idea of her father using her misfortune for his own gain, it made Misaki sick to the stomach. His only concern was how he would be presented in this incident, and the benefits that came with it. Junichiro got what he wanted, at the cost of Misaki's wrist though he could not care less. He did not accompany her to the hospital, continuing the act of a good father as the media had painted him as. Albeit, that did not stop him from benefiting further. Under her father's orders, Misaki sat in the public waiting room of the hospital so she could be photographed like an animal at the zoo by the tabloids. He wanted her to seem as pitiful as possible, reining in all the sympathies.

In the ER waiting room, however, no one paid her any attention. The nurse registered her and simply told her to take a seat without even looking up from her screen. Those waiting for their turn did not have time to care about the world renowned pianist sat next to them.

Sitting about two rows in front of her was a father with a little girl in his arms. Her eyes were red from crying but her father was patiently rocking her, singing softly in her ears. It was a simple interaction, one that was expected of any parent, but jealousy was building up in Misaki. Not once growing up was she ever held so lovingly by her father. Neither was Minato. When they were sick, it was Mai who took care of them and by extension, the servants around the house. When they hurt themselves, Junichiro would look at them indifferently and told them that a true Kanemoto would never let anyone see them cry. Weakness was never accepted in their household, not unless it was to bring them benefits.

Her attention was brought away from the father and daughter when she felt someone sitting next to her. A boy, no older than eight years old, looked up at Misaki with a cheeky grin. His right arm was in a cast and sling, and he had some bandages down the right side of his face.

"Hi," he smiled.

"Hi there," Misaki smiled right back. "What happened to you?"

"Accident. I fell down the slide at the playground."

"Ouch, sounds painful."

"Yeah, it was. But I have a cast now. I'm going to be so cool in school." Misaki could not help the chuckle at that comment. If only she had his positive outlook when she was his age. He scooted a little closer to Misaki, looking up at her with his big eyes. "You're really pretty," he whispered. "My dad has been staring at you. So was that nurse. He crashed into someone just now."

Looking over to where the boy was pointing, Misaki gave his father a smile. The man was embarrassed, looking the other way as soon as they made eye contact. She was feeling miserable, feeling sorry for herself just two minutes ago, but the little boy's innocent candor lifted her mood instantly. He sat with her for the next twenty minutes while waiting for his medicine, telling her about his school and his classmates, telling her about his fall that happened earlier in the night. Misaki's mind was completely taken off her own night, speaking to the boy. She even felt a little disappointed when he was called by his father.

"I've got to go," he said, jumping off the chair. He was about to leave when he stopped himself, turning back and kissed Misaki's hurt wrist. "Mummy says that makes the pain go away."

"Thank you," Misaki smiled, sliding off the chair and was squatting next to the boy. She took his right hand in hers gently and stroked each of his fingers while chanting. "One rainbow, two sugar, three candies, four puppies, and five kisses." She ended the odd spell with a kiss to each of his fingers. "Now you are healed."

The boy happily bounced back to his father, turning around to give Misaki an enthusiastic wave until he was completely out of sight. Suddenly feeling empty, Misaki returned to her seat and let out a soft sigh. Those who did not live her life envied her, but she wondered if they would still feel the same if they knew how lonely this life was.

[ryouverua]

One last time

HE’S BACK -

Fair warning - lots of text below. Like. Lots.

... But first, just before he came to meet with us again -

So all of his classmates in turn talk about how relieve they are that they can work together without suspecting each other, but something about the way she says it rings............ false. But then again, that might be my own bias colouring things. She outright states it in a way that the others don’t, idk. 8′D

Shuichi, though... he’s realized. Maybe not with an exact name, but he knows that isn’t true. He literally can’t bring himself to pretend that it’s true at all.

Oh Himiko...

5 survivors.... or maybe 4, depending on how the mastermind goes out. That’s definitely a new, sad record. :(

I CAN NAME A REASON -

Look who’s back with a brand new ahoge! It’s got that new-hair smell and everything -

H-He was never going to outright attack any of us though, right??? Even if he was willing to let us become collateral damage (which admittedly is super Not Great either, but -). That’s a really morbid thought Shuichi - where did it come from?

And of course, now that his hairpiece is back, he’s gone back to his more deferential, timid self.

“I’m telling you, that ahoge was 95% of my impulse control! Literally!”

But the fact that he’s apologizing now, when he was completely unapologetic before... that has to be that inner voice directing him now, right? But I wonder if it influences his ‘emotions’ (or whatever the equivalent would be for him) as well. Is the voice literally telling him to apologize or does he just ‘feel the urge’ to apologize?

So it is back.

Has it always been that tall???

Maybe if Miu and Kokichi had let him talk before Korekiyo’s trial, we could have followed up on this!!

Honestly though, I’m curious about this too. Is it a literal voice that tells him what to do? Does it appear as a suggestion to him? It sounds like it isn’t ordering him around but more ‘offering suggestions’... something that wouldn’t come across as obtrusive, but welcoming. Something that wouldn’t raise any alarm bells in him. Or maybe he was programmed to accept that just the way things were supposed to be.

.......... Actually the fact that it came up around Korekiyo’s trial, someone else who was revealed to be doing things based on a voice of sorts in his head, is a very strange coincidence? That... may or may not bode well for K1-b0. Is he going to be a foil to Korekiyo, or a parallel?

The inner voice may be good after all if it helped him realize this. 8′D 

Wait, they said there was an accident when he was first created, right? And he reset? This had to have been a fail-safe because something similar to this happened...

As much as I want to comment on the fact that he’s said he can’t cry and he literally is sweating and his ‘eyes’ are ready to overflow, but fffff every single time I see this sprite my heart clenches and I kind of want to hug him. >3>

We’ve officially got everyone on the same side now! ......... well okay there’s technically one specific exception but on the surface we’re all good!

Look at Maki getting better at shedding her tsundere side! She’s getting better at being outright kind and welcoming to people, yay ~

oh my god

This is so..... blatant.... especially with Maki literally saying K1-b0 created this opportunity and Monokuma throwing her under the bus to have another trial. She.... she’s mad at him, isn’t she? And Monokuma too? 

Oh man anyone who doesn’t realize at this point probably thinks it’s one of her anime-reference non-sequiters! But it’s not! It’s definitely a distraction! And she’s totally established herself as someone whose head is in the clouds so she she says random things like this, no one blinks an eye! What other comments has she covered like this?

ARE YOU THOUGH.............

Anyway, it’s time for the trial now so - 

Yeah that’s true - we haven’t actually resolved this clue yet, have we?

I thought your eyesight wasn’t good? But okay, why not! Have a go at it, K1-b0!

Okay before plot progression though, fluff text time -

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

WHELP THIS IS A HELL OF A FLUFF TEXT

I have so many things to say about this despite the fact that I’ve definitely talked about it before, because I actually relate to the idea of feeling like a different person in cosplay - of, well, letting yourself become the role. And I’ve definitely said that the theme of ‘becoming the role’ is a huge secondary theme of the game, just under ‘truth vs lies’, which is actually why I originally had Tsumugi as my potential mastermind back in Chapter 3. It’s telling that she’s comparing K1-b0 and his ‘personality enhancement’ with her own cosplay though - she’s often said that she only finds herself interesting when she isn’t being herself, so maybe it applies here too. Is this her way of enhancing her own self? Of becoming what she thinks is a ‘better’ self, a more interesting and charismatic person?

With that reveal of ‘Junko’ at the end of the last trial and Tsumugi often comparing cosplay to ‘bringing someone to life’, ‘channeling’ and ‘and being a vessel for the gods’, that means she’s basically resurrecting Junko in a sense... or acting as her vessel? Is that what will happen here? I think it’s possible for her to bring the ‘larger than life’ Junko from history (like the way long-dead historical figures can often become their own entities that walk the line between fiction and reality) as a way to get around the cospox issue unless I’ve really been accusing the wrong person this whole time lmao. It also lines up with all the times resurrection has been brought up in the game which is A LOT - the funeral scene/reviving the Ultimates, Ryoma describing himself as an empty shell walking around (and trying to ‘revive’ himself via a reason to live, killing off the initial protagonist then reviving the role for Shuichi, the Necronomicon, the seance, Korekiyo and his sister, and lastly, Kokichi via Kaito in the exisal. Combine that with my theory of the students just being normal kids who were reborn with the memories of actual Ultimate students who already died... and them even being forced to dress for those roles... this line of hers becomes really important!

Is this going to become a showdown between personalities who died ages ago? But for what purpose? Even though it looks like there’s a decent amount of things that were made up/embellished in those lights, the clip of the funeral, Kaede wearing the helmet and the meteors were shown outside of the flashback light scene - so are we still facing a doomsday scenario?

And back to Tsumugi herself - does she not have enough conviction to follow through with these plans and Monokuma unless she’s in Junko-wear? That would explain why she and Monokuma don’t seem to be on the same page... So which one of them is pulling the strings, exactly?? They’re definitely independent entities!

Meanwhile Himiko is having a grand old time because she’s finally got a friend in Maki. Aaaaaaw ~

We’re, uh, going to have problems if that’s true.

SHUICHI REMEMBERS TOO LMAO

Strength of an old man, average or below-average agility, eyesight and intelligence... what else was there?

And it wasn’t stripped from you???

But... maybe they didn’t realize you had it. Or don’t care? It’s not a dangerous upgrade, so maybe they didn’t realize it could be used in a way that could possibly hinder them...

He says he’s accepted it, but I think it was more out of necessity. It’ll take him some time to adjust to this new state of mind... but I’m happy to hear it, tbh. Just like Shuichi, he’s really struggled with his Ultimate identity up until now, you know? And even though it’s on more of an extreme level, these talents created differences in everyone and how they related to the world, not just him. It’s just a bit more... well, obvious in his case.

It’s all about accepting the good with the bad, K1-b0! And despite some, uh, questionable actions on your part, you really did do so much for us - we never would have gotten to Kokichi’s and Rantaro’s lab, the mastermind’s room, or discovered the flashback light machine without you!

Oh???

.... Uh.

Uh. What. What are those. What.... What are those?!?!

GONTA WAS RIGHT - !

w h a t they’re so stupid and cute

Tiny.... cameras....??? They look like little camera men?

..... I.... I don’t know... if this rules out VR or not. Because if they need little these little guys with cameras, doesn’t that mean they don’t have the omniscient power of a computer program behind them....????

Again, why did they not strip you of these new functions along with the weapons???

First of all, damn, K1-b0! Getting your ahoge back didn’t kill all of that fire in you after all!

Second of all.............. your skin???? Shell??? It’s definitely changed colour? Since when has it been so human-like -

Looks like K1-b0 can still be tough with his ahoge. :D

Oh god, there’s a whole swarm of hivemind Camera-kubs all over the campus? And they’re literally everywhere?!?! wtf -

I guess that’s a similar concept to the regular Monokumas??? Sure there’s usually only one operational at a time, but they always seem to pick up where the last left off. kind of like Kyuubey

First of all, ew.

Second of all, TRAUMATIC BUZZING NOISE FLASHBACKS

THE ONES THAT I STUPIDLY THOUGHT WERE PART OF THE MONITOR SETUP AROUND THE SCHOOL

but that wouldn’t have made sense because there’s nothing like that outside -

So there’s nanotechnology that exists on such a scale............

MONOKAMERA, THE SIXTH MONOKUB, HIDING ALL OVER THE ACADEMY. THE ONE THEY CALL THE ULTIMATE CAMERA GUY. WATCH OUT FOR HER THEM....

Can we note that once again it is Maki declaring that Kokichi was correct? She is doing her damnedest to check her own prejudices against him this chapter as penance and it’s great.

It’s not ideal, but I also wonder if some of the things he uncovered were only possible using his methods. not that you probably actually are happy about that

actually I bet you were pissed about the whole chapter 5 thing too

..... I want to go back and see that tbh

TALK OF REINCARNATION AGAIN.... also lol Himiko that’s kind of mean

Monokuma thinks he’s going to win... and if I’m reading this correctly, he can still win at the expense of Tsumugi losing....? Is that why? Even if Tsumugi’s plan fails and we see past her trap of ‘Kaede is the mastermind’, identifying Tsumugi will still end up being a victory for him....?

And your sudden hope!extremism, yeah? Because that really was something. 8′D

OH GOD WE’RE GOING IN I MEAN... I’M READY BUT I’M ALSO NOT TBH, I’M NOT 100% SOLID ABOUT THE BIG MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE GAME

like

I feel like I ~get~ some stuff but there’s still something just beyond...........

“M-Maki I know you’re trying to put my mind at ease but can we not bring up dying before we’ve even tried to win -”

Real talk - I love Himiko’s spell names.

Y.... Yeah........ but why are you excited about this....?

Then again, I feel like you were actually really attached to Gonta? I mean, you were always defending him, right? Is this your way of giving him some postmortem love? ...... AAAAH I DON’T KNOW -

aslkdjf I know this was the same amount as last time but this is such a small cast left -

Man, we’re just... swinging right back to despair and hope again. Look, I know we’re appeasing K1-b0 but -

Why.... why is it back again. Why is Monokuma back again. Why did the killing game come back at all - what is the point of trying to be Junko? What’s to gain from all of this?

I remember thinking and really liking the idea that this game was completely separate from the last two, so it’s strange to have arrived at this point at the very end, but.... well. Here we go, I suppose.

Well said, Sweetcheeks.

So.... normally I’d have a drawn out map of the crime scene, but this is a pretty different situation so I made this at the trial save point:

It’s a bit small, so I’ll recap and expand on that and a few other things:

“TSUMUGI IS THE FUCKING MASTERMIND AND SHE IS TOTALLY TRYING TO SET KAEDE UP AS THE ‘FAKE’ MASTERMIND TO SCREW WITH SHUICHI’S (ET AL)’S HEADS

She set up the document saying Kaede has a twin and is trying to draw parallels to Junko (to trick Shuichi)

She planted the shot-put ball in the mastermind’s lair

She didn’t talk about ‘birthing a Monokuma’ (when everyone else did)

SHE IS THE ‘MOTHER’ THAT WAS REFERRED TO BY MONOTARO IN TRIAL 4, NOT MOTHERKUMA

So I went into some detail earlier about Tsumugi herself, and over the last few investigation posts I ended up decided on what I outlined above. On top of everything else, I think we’re going to nail her on the idea that while Kaede’s murder occurred, she went to the library via the mastermind’s lab and stole Rantaro’s Survivor’s Perk. The problem is... then what? What exactly will we do after that? Also I swear Kaede thought of the same thing, with no idea what to do once we confronted the mastermind -

As for the general situation, I’m sticking to my guns about the class not actually being the Ultimates they think they are - I saw the ‘talents’ part of the flashback light setup menu. Actually, the flashback lights themselves.... jeez. Okay. Ironically enough, my thoughts on them are that their execution in the game is similar to Kokichi’s lying style.

First the game has a cutscene that’s completely truthful. Kaede and Shuichi remember being kidnapped at the beginning of the game. The entire prologue scene. The funeral at the beginning of chapter 2. The meteors in chapter 3. Hell, the kid at the beginning of this chapter, who seems to be watching them and getting inspired by them...??? Then... that’s when the flashback light comes in and embellishes that truth with fantasy. That funeral? It was for the entire class, and they all see themselves as being part of it (picturing ‘themselves’ in those photos rather than the students whose memories they all have). The meteors? It gave rise to an entire death cult - the Ultimate Despair, in fact - and they, themselves, were hunted (which plays off of the players’ knowledge of knowing they remember being kidnapped off the streets). Or something like that....

I’m just trying to place a few things, like that picture of Kaito with his grandparents in the motive video and the flashbacks of Shuichi and Kaede in the helmets. Where do they get placed in all of this? Was Shuichi able to project the image of ‘Kaito’ he knew when watching the video, or is that part of the technomagic of the video itself? We did have a whole segment of the VR chapter talking about the mind being able to be fooled into overcoming the reality of the situation (dying via simulation murder) so is it safe to extrapolate from there? And did Shuichi and Kaede remember themselves with those helmets separately from those flashback lights, as a delayed reaction (which as of this chapter is proven to be possible) or is that real?

As for whether this is a simulation, there’s evidence for and against that. The flashbacks with the helmets - pro. The physical presence of cameras - false. Though with that said, I’ve done a bit of work in computer programs where you actually have to set up cameras in-program and when testing the animation, it’ll only capture what’s set up in the frame - so then again, maybe not??? Those computerized cameras can be programmed to move along a certain path and the lens/frame/etc itself can also be altered.... and they did counteract having blind spots by swarming the campus with them so. Hm. Honestly, it could go both ways. I don’t want to dwell too much on this only because I don’t think that’s going to be the ‘big’ reveal anyhow tbh...

Still though; roles, escapism, resurrection. That’s what I picked up on the most through this entire thing. So how does that work together...? The students were told they were replaceable, and the game will never end. Rantaro lived through one but died in the next. Did he live through a game with this same group of classmates or other people? Or, hell, were they ‘other people’ but with the same names/personalities/memories, but different physical people? And if he was willing to repeat the game again, then why? Was it for a chance to break the loop? Or is there a goal to be accomplished if he wins it properly?

Okay, I think I’m starting to go in circles here. What I know: Tsumugi is the mastermind, and she’s not in complete sync with Monokuma. She’s trying to get Kaede(’s twin) framed; Monokuma is perfectly fine with Tsumugi being identified. Tsumugi falls back on the Junko persona when she’s in mastermind mode - when she was alone, she couldn’t help but be that way with Motherkuma. It’s a role she’s able to take - maybe passed down. Anyway, the point is, she uses it to ‘enhance herself’ or maybe to ‘escape her plain self’. Almost like an emotional support thing....? I wonder...

A lot of the truth as we know it is embellished. Only things we can trust from the flashback lights are things we saw independently of them as well, I think? At the bare minimum, pre-Chapter 4. After that point we didn’t have any corresponding prologue clips to match with the lights. With that said, the students were given talents and memories to match them - I think the Ultimate students they belonged to were actually killed... by the Ultimate Hunt, perhaps. Either way, these kids were brought in as ‘replacements’, the same way the Monokids were replaced. Rantaro, at the very least, was not a replacement though - he had a chance to do this again and took it, for whatever reason... Is this a simulation for the Gopher Project? Or something else entirely? Why ‘resurrect’ the Ultimate students at all? And why is there potentially a scenario where Tsumugi loses, but Monokuma still wins? WHY DON’T I HAVE A FULLY CONFIDENT ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING FFS -

Oh, and of course, Kokichi Ouma was 25 steps ahead of everyone and had Rantaro’s figure in his room too, so that’s cool.

[oumakokichi]

I think you've already answered a question like this, but idk. What are some examples showing that Ouma is an empathic person?

Thank you so much for asking this question, because this isright up my alley, honestly.

I always love talking about Ouma’s empathy, because I feelit’s part of what really sets him apart as a character. Of course, I love the “cold,strategic, chessmaster” aspect of his personality, too—but we’ve had manycharacters in DR who are cold and ruthless and terrifying. Junko, Kamukura,Komaeda, and many others all have those traits in common, or at least verysimilar ones.

What’s less common, however, is to have a character who hasall of those traits, and who is also so very human at their core. One of the most fascinating things about Oumain my opinion isn’t the fact that he’s a genius (although he certainly is) orthe fact that he can be absolutely morally grey and downright cutthroat when hewants to be. It’s the fact that he’s all of those things and yet never onceloses his humanity, that aspect of himself which can relate to and understandhis classmates’ thoughts even if he can’t excuse their actions.

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and shareanother person’s thoughts and feelings. That’s all. It doesn’t necessarily meanforgiving the other person, or even completely agreeing with them—only that it’spossible to understand them and how they must be feeling. Looking at thisdefinition, I don’t think anyone can deny that Ouma is an extremely empatheticcharacter, given all the evidence.

Regardless of his mistakes, and regardless of his villain façade,throughout the entire game we’re provided with plenty of proof that he does understand his classmates, and thathe cares about them deeply in his own way. Unlike characters like Junko,Kamukura, or Komaeda, who were all marked by their inability to truly care orconnect with others, Ouma is someone who cares very deeply, and who inevitablylets it show despite his best efforts to put up a flawless routine.

When his classmates die, he mourns. When they’re in pain, hedoesn’t enjoy it. While I know quite a few people will disagree, I think manyof Ouma’s reactions to his classmates’ death, even the seemingly exaggeratedcrocodile tears, can be taken a lot more at face value than one might think. Often,even the crocodile tear reactions are, I think, his way of trying to mask thepain he feels. After all, his classmates expect that his reactions are a lieanyway. When no one is expecting those reactions to be genuine in the firstplace, it gives him a perfect opening to show how he really feels whilecovering his vulnerability with the usual “that was a lie, though!” routine.

I feel it’s worth noting just how quick he is to express hisemotions whenever they watch someone die, or discover a body. On pretty muchevery occasion, he’s generally either: 1.) extremely loud, shocked, anddistressed (usually with his more exaggerated, crocodile tears sprites), or 2.)very quiet and subdued, often looking either blank or depressed.

It’s clear to see how he sympathizes with the victims ineach trial—in Chapter 2, for example, he even goes as far as to demand the restof the group “apologize to Hoshi,” for letting the killing game continue againeven though they all acted like it was over. He acts really, truly angry, and calls the rest of them “abunch of liars,” though quickly reverts back to pretending to be fine whenKorekiyo turns the question around and asks if those are crocodile tears.

And in Chapter 4, it’s very clear on a reread to see howdeeply Miu’s death shook him, even though he was responsible for it. He looksextremely shaken up by her body discovery, even sweating and looking down as heremarks that “this is a killing game, and these kinds of things happen.”Clearly, no matter how much he tried to convince himself that her death was “necessary”in order to avoid either getting himself killed or the whole group gettingkilled, he couldn’t actually bring himself to justify it deep down.

This sympathy isn’t limited to just the victims, however. IfOuma truly had difficulty empathizing with others, then I think he would behavea lot more like Saionji, whose black-or-white mindset meant she empathizedpretty easily with people who she saw as “good,” but felt that those who were “bad”(usually the culprits) deserved no empathy or grief whatsoever. This mindset isdefinitely a child’s way of looking at things: the idea that sometimes goodpeople do bad things because of circumstances or factors beyond their controldoesn’t occur to someone like Saionji, and she has no interest in exploringthat train of thought.

However, Ouma has no trouble in empathizing with theculprits in ndrv3, either. While he can’t condone murder personally, he can atleast understand why the others do it, even if their inability to stopfrustrates him to no end, particularly when the killing game keeps snowballingbeyond his control. Nonetheless, he stops all his façade and gives Kaede a veryblank, forthright farewell, telling her that she “wasn’t boring.” Similarly,after Kirumi’s execution, he remarks that seeing her will to live on might have“changed his way of thinking about things a little,” and that the will to runaway and live on isn’t a bad thing in and of itself.

And, of course, there’s his reaction to Gonta’s execution, whichis the most notable out of all of them because of just how deeply Ouma was hurtby then. While Ouma’s actions are definitely inexcusable in Chapter 4, there’sno denying that his pained reactions at Gonta’s death were true. Everything,from his tears to his pleas to be executed with Gonta, was a reflection of justhow much it hurt him to throw Gonta under the bus as a sacrificial pawn.Although it was a plan of his own choosing, he very nearly couldn’t stick withit in the end—only Gonta’s request that he live on and “become friends witheveryone” was enough to make Ouma reluctantly agree to keep going.

Had he truly been lying about those tears or that pain,there was no need to keep up the façade in front of Gonta. He had nothing togain by crying in front of him, or by asking to be executed with him. In fact,if he had been even half the villain he pretended to be in the Chapter 4post-trial, he would’ve revealed his “evil villain act” a lot sooner, probablywhile Gonta was still alive to see it. After all, what could’ve hurt moredeeply as a betrayal and rubbed more salt in the wound than telling Gonta allthose things to his face, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it?

His attempt to send Gonta off instead with a “gentle lie”(as in, not telling him that their whole plan in the VR world to “save everyone”had been a ruse from the start) was done out of mercy, not malice. Many of hisactions in Chapter 4 make no sense unless looked at from the perspective thathe was faking his villain routine, and showing his honest reactions insteadwhen he broke down at Gonta’s death. His attempts to take on all the blame, thefact that he asked the others not to blame Gonta in the slightest, and, ofcourse, his dismayed, horrified silence following Gonta’s execution, all showthat he knew he was doing something horrible and awful to Gonta, and that heregretted it and hated himself for it.

This doesn’t only apply to Chapter 4, though. Many of Ouma’sactions in Chapter 5 also make no sense at all unless viewed through theperspective that he was actively trying to help the group, not hurt them.Unlike Komaeda, who made it clear as early as Chapter 1 that he would helpeither the rest of the group or the culprit at any given opportunity, dependingon which one “embodied hope the best,” Ouma exclusively helps the group fromthe shadows, providing hints, clues, and a trail of breadcrumbs, all withouttrying to make it look like he’s helping at all.

He says it himself, quite often: that he does what he does “foreveryone’s sake.” In Chapter 2, he even cheekily tacks on that even if he sayshe’s doing things for everyone’s sake, the others “probably won’tbelieve him, and will just take it as a lie, though.”

Where Komaeda wanted recognition and praise for being “thestepping stone for hope,” Ouma asks for virtually nothing in exchange for his assistance,despite being one of, if not the key reason why the survivors make it outalive. If anything, he often resorted to his villain routine in order to tryand mask his good intentions—such as in Chapter 5, when he handed the electrichammers out to the group, practically on a silver platter, then later hit themall with “the truth of the outside world” in order to try and get rid of theirdesire to go outside and stop the killing game completely.

Had Ouma lacked the ability to empathize with hisclassmates, he also would never have left the clues that he did for his ownmurder in Chapter 5. Absolutely all of those clues were things he verycarefully, deliberately planted, in order to help Saihara and the others reachthe truth. There was no need at all for him to leave Momota’s jacket stickingout from under the press, or tell Momota to flush his own shirt down thetoilet, or to hand the group the camcorder video which became the singlebiggest piece of evidence that a culprit-victim swap had occurred.

All of these clues were left to make sure that the otherswouldn’t actually be executed by Monokuma, if it came down to such a decisionin the trial. Ouma was a master at bluffing, but that’s all it ultimately was:just a bluff. He knew that although it was likely Monokuma wouldn’t be able toexecute anyone if he didn’t know who the culprit was, there was also apossibility that he’d go through with it anyway. And as someone who hated theidea of getting others killed, and who wanted to avoid repeating the samemistakes he made in Chapter 4, he absolutely refused to risk everyone’s liveson that chance, despite his and Momota’s expert bluff. Hence, the clues whichwere otherwise entirely unnecessary to making a real “catbox murder.”

Not least of all, there’s his speech during Momota’sflashback in the Chapter 5 post-trial, in which he reveals that he actuallyhated every single minute of the killing game and resented the people who putthem through it. Had his feelings of distress been limited to the frustrationof losing a game he really, really wanted to win, that would’ve been one thing—butthat’s not the case. Instead, Ouma explicitly says that he wanted to strikeback at the ringleader and the audience in order to “make them all taste truedespair,” and that it would be “perfect revenge for all the people who died.”This line stands out to me, because there was absolutely no reason for him tomention their deceased classmates here unless he really, truly did care aboutall of them.

Again, Ouma’s speech in Chapter 5 is just as genuine as hisbreakdown at Gonta’s death. There’s no real arguing this fact: his motivevideo, found in Chapter 6 almost immediately after, directly supports thisfact. Ouma and DICE were morally against killing; their most important mottowas “don’t kill people,” (just like any good phantom thief) and they wentaround pulling harmless pranks and crimes for fun. Ouma’s motive video isclearly intended as a clue to help not only Saihara, but also the playerthemselves realize that there was a lot more truth hidden in the midst of Ouma’slies than he initially let on.

All of these things truly set him apart as a character forme. He has so many similarities and parallels to a number of other DRcharacters—as I mentioned, Junko and Kamukura are also geniuses, experts atstrategizing and manipulating those around them. When it comes to these two inparticular, I feel Ouma has the added parallel of being highly implied to havesome kind of SHSL Analysis as his talent.

But unlike Junko and Kamukura both, who cannot trulyempathize with those around them, and who turn to inflicting despair on othersin order to seek out an escape from their boredom, what sets Ouma apart themost is the fact that he never actually does this.

Despite how much the word “boredom” is associated with hischaracter, despite the fact that he very likely has a variation of SHSLAnalysis, and despite the fact that Tsumugi wanted to deliberately set him upas an evil, “Junko 2.0” figure during the killing game, Ouma never once wantedto see others suffer or die. In fact, he’s the first character in the entirefranchise to take the idea of “despair” and try to turn it back on the peoplewho made him and his classmates suffer in the first place—the people who wantedto see that “despair” happen the most, in other words.

Ouma is strategic, brilliant, and absolutely cold at times,it’s true. But he’s also incredibly warm at his core, I think. He has achildish quality that the other characters similar to him generally lack (aquality which his official Famitsu profile and Kaede both note makes him “hardto hate”). His idea of seeking an escape from boredom isn’t by hurting others,or making them despair, but by seeking out fun, “interesting” things. Anythingthat surprises him, anything that surpasses his expectations, is automaticallyable to catch his interest. And that’s such a refreshing, interesting trait ina character who tries so hard to convince the characters, the players, and evenhimself that he’s actually ruthless and emotionless.

I’ve talked for long enough probably, so I’ll stop this now,but this was incredibly enjoyable to write. I hope I was able to answer yourquestion! There are so many little hints and clues that Ouma is actually an incrediblycaring and empathetic person; I’ve only just touched on the main points,really. None of this changes the fact that he can be an asshole, to be sure, orthat some of the things he does are inexcusable, but I feel that it’s importantto remember why he does what he does.

One of the key phrases in Umineko (yes, I’m bringing Uminekointo this again, sorry) is “without love, it cannot be seen.” All it means isthat your perspective on absolutely anything is bound to change drasticallydepending on whether you look at it “with” or “without love.”

If you want to view Ouma through the viewpoint of a villainand a horrible person, someone who toyed with everyone and felt nothing aboutit, it’s incredibly easy to do so—especially on a first playthrough. All youhave to do is dismiss all the evidence suggesting he’s a good person, andbelieve everything he or the other characters say about being horrible. But ifyou try looking at it from the other perspective, that he might not be sohorrible after all, your interpretation of the exact same scene can flip aroundalmost entirely, showing new insight into what he might have been thinking orfeeling.

Thank you for stopping by anon, and I’m glad I had a chanceto write about this particular topic!

[izurukamucutie]

1001 Plot Holes: Results

While I don’t personally agree with all the points added, I believe that if it was poorly explained enough that people didn’t understand or it made them unhappy, it counts for something. So, if you disagree with a point talk to the credited person - not me.

Some of these are also similar but talk about different problems with the same part so they were also included. (For example, there are several discussing Ai!Chiaki’s backstory/making, the masterminds plan not making sense, and the brainwashing)

There are some bullets with no credit. That means the person made several points in a row or one post with several points, so I put the credit to the last one in their sequence.

Some small grammar/spelling edits have been made. Some have also been cut/trimmed for length.

I also added ones that weren’t submitted to the game but were posted on tumblr. Some were submitted to people randomly (if people wanted to be anon, they couldn’t really participate here.) Other were ones brought up by several people and were known, but just didn’t ever get posted to the game.

They didn’t tell us who the 13th Branch Leader was ~ aeroflyingsky

The 77th class woke up like nothing happened at all. It invalidates SDR2′s story and even Despair arc. If there are no consequences after waking up, what’s the point of having them be ultimate despair in the first place? ~ i-just-want-naegi-to-be-ok

How did Seiko have any time at all to make the freaking cure for the poison,

How did Kirigiri get the cure and know what it was for?

How did Mikan even revive Kirigiri? She had, like, a giant syringe and that was it ~ danganronpashsltrash

Seiko could NOT have made an antidote [for Kirigiri]. Making antidotes can take months or more if you don't know the exact chemical compound of the poison. I also doubt it was a common one. Even if you do know the poison well and how to make the antidote it also takes time to 'cook' the antidote (like boiling, letting it sit, straining, etc) and that takes hours or days and it needs to be done in proper, sterile conditions or it could become contaminated. It also needs to be given in the right dosage for the amount of poison and factored for body weight/type or some antidotes can be just as dangerous as the poison. The amount for Kirirgi =/= Seiko’s amount. AND antidotes (despite what movies say) are not 100% effective. There will always be some damage even if the antidote is used before poisoning. Kirirgi still should have been critical for days with serious damage. ~Med student @dr3discourse

Junko used Mitarai’s anime in zetsubou-hen to brainwash the 77th class even though zetsubou-hen takes place during the dr:0 timeline, meaning that she could have used a SHSL NEUROLOGIST who is her RIGHT-HAND MAN and would DO ANYTHING FOR HER and was even DIRECTLY RELATED to the FIRST MUTUAL KILLING and IZURU KAMUKURA. ~ ycshiya

 It was said that they destroyed their own bodies but Komeada was the only one shown with a physical injury ~ dapplemii

Why was Monaca even in the killing game? All she did was go to space and had no further involvement. There was literally no reason for Monaca, Fukawa and Komaru other than to throw us off into thinking the traitor was Monaca ~ duckzono /  shutupaboutthetentacles

The Warriors of Hope were only shown for a minute with no explanation to how they survived dr:ae (especially Nagisa). They also weren’t shown in Kibou-hen. They need a happy ending too! ~ weirdly-obsessed-fangirl

Why no one in Future Foundation, especially Munakata, noticed the sudden lack of money caused by, you know, BUILDING AN ENTIRE UNDERWATER FACILITY WITH FUCKLOAD OF MONITORS UNDER THEIR OWN HEADQUARTERS? ~ viedzma

What was the purpose of the Yukizome torture scene and having her brain played with by Ikusaba, if we were later shown how simply seeing the Despair Video was enough to turn everyone into despair? There were many explanations they could have given, but it was never addressed and it was shrugged aside. ~ coquetteblossom

by extension to the point above, if Yukizome needed her brain to be played with the first time why did the suicide video work? Why did it work on Naegi? ~ wimallidge

 Naegi said that without Enoshima the 77th class would have been normal, an ironic statement the episode before Twilight Syndrome where three of the characters committed or were complicit in murder, but then in the finale Mitarai said that before his actions they would have led peaceful lives. ~ blackflirtlarping

What happened to Makoto’s parents? In DR:AE they’re shown “dead” in a monitor by the kids and yet when they go to the location in question there’s no one there. Komaru tells Makoto it’s still a mystery what happened to them and that they’d find them. I was hoping since DR3 would be wrapping up the Hope’s Peak Timeline, we would find out what happened to them for real. ~ unnoticedkohai

DR3 contradicts all of the other games and DR0 when it comes to how Junko recruited the ultimate despairs... (Explanation and DR1 screenshots here) ~ alexa-rynay

The gap of 6 months during komaeda’s suspension. He suddenly comes back with more knowledge than even his classmates. Kodaka may fix that 6 month gap during SDR2.5 but I doubt it since it’s 2.5 and not DR3.5 but who knows? ~ carry-me-senpai

 The pacing between episodes of the despair arc was really bad. Sometimes it was supposed to be months and then some episodes its only been a few days. Its hard to follow. &

Did dr0 even happen? They completely skipped over it even though they kept showing the characters from it. ~ crazypietalk

Why did Ryota not want people to see his NG code? Full analysis. ~ komaesa

Fact that they introduced all those lovely characters in dr3 just to kill them off for literally no reason. Tengan was a shitty villain and mitarai didn’t even upload the hope video.  ~ theguyontheleft

Juzo saved Naegi from committing suicide, but wouldn’t the video affect him too? 

How did all of the victims get to their positions when they die? Ruruka and Yukizome work, since Ruruka’s just on the ground and Yukizome could use the table and what’s in the room to climb up to the chandelier. But how did Gozu string himself up like that, smash his helmet, AND manage to stab himself? And how did Seiko embed herself in the wall?!

Why did Yukizome’s chandelier only break at the time that everyone looked up? No other weight other than her body was on it, so either something else had to be added to make it heavy enough to break the chain, when there wasn’t, or it would have snapped when Yukizome first got on the chandelier, which it didn’t.   ~ backstreetbassoonist

Why did Cure W work on Kirigiri hours after she ‘died,’ but it didn’t work on Bandai only moments after he died?   ~  korekiyothefolklorist

Mukuro calls naegi a loser when it’s said that she was in love with him and she canonically betrayed Junko for him.  (also explained here) ~ thewitchoforigins

What was the point of all those shown deaths in the opening? I mean, some of them make sense, but most don’t tbh.   ~ panta-overlord

The 77th class was never actually shown bonding with chiaki besides episode 2. It felt like the friendship was forced rather then genuine due to the time skip. this also makes their brainwashing seem less believable and forced.   ~ galaomegas

Enoshima shows concern for naegi possibly fucking up her mutual killing when in reality she didn’t show any concern ?? at all ?? it was kirigiri who she was worried about which is why she went the extra mile and erased her memory of being shsl detective.   ~  naegiapologist

 Togami survived a building collapsing on top of him,

Hagakure did nothing,

Komaru’s message to Makoto didn’t have any purpose   ~ non-suspiciousname

Enoshima had her random personalities from the end of DR1, when it was explained in the game that she went crazy being alone in the school that “she didn’t know who she was anymore”.

The police couldn’t trace her blowing up a Taxi car when she even left her rare designer bag as a bomb.   ~ bananarangcumberdongisonmydash

 How did Junko get into Hope’s Peak Academy in the first place? It said in Zetsubou-Hen that she was placed there by the board of directors. WHY? WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE PLAN FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO GO AROUND THE SCOUTING SYSTEM’S BACK AND BRING JUNKO ENOSHIMA TO THE SCHOOL?

How did Mitarai learn all those brainwashing skills in the first place?

Oh, and my favorite so far: WHY WAS THERE A BEAR IN THE CLASSROOM?   ~ ananimefanforever

 How THE FUCK DOES DESPAIR STILL HAVE WORKING PHONES AND TVS AFTER, WHAT? MONTHS?? YEARS??? OF DESPAIR AND VIOLENCE??   ~  drborderline

Most of the DR2 cast (and Mukuro) disappeared into the background for episodes at a time due to the cluttered nature of despair arc, which while probably one of the better options available still kinda stings.   ~ thedang25

Makoto said that Monokuma was recorded in advance. knowing that Tengan was participating in game and couldn’t operate Monokuma without suspicion, it was probably true. Then how exactly Monokuma was able to talk with Monomi? as far as i’m concerned, talking with other people would require, like, coming up with answers in very short span on time…   ~ viedzma

If Yukizome had been despair since Zetsubou-hen, why would she commit suicide from the despair video in mirai-hen? The only reason the other victims committed suicide after seeing the video was because they were forced into despair by it.

How is Komaeda alive and healthy at the end of DR3 when he, had cancer and dementia , his comatose body went through the mental trauma of dying, really violently, miraculously managed to awake from said coma despite his illness predetermining an early death for him ... (more here, linked for length)   ~shaiapitou

How did they get out of the NW program and remember Hajime? If their memories of the NW program were erased, then they shouldn’t know him. But if they weren’t, then they continue to live on with the fact that they killed each other. )   ~ atramentousashes

Tengan’s Motive Makes No Sense; an analysis.   ~ komaesa

The plot ’twists‘ were extremely predictable. Kirigiri surviving, who murdered Izayoi, and Monaka being related/being Gekkogahara, and more were all called by fans episodes in advance (In Monaka’s case, as soon as the character designs were released before the anime even began)       ~ izurukamucutie

 If Mikan got her memories back while in the video game, which drove her to kill Ibuki and Hiyoko, how was she still not despair when she got back into reality?       ~nagitoesdoritos

In SDR2, Sato was said to be in the main course and friend with Ibuki, Hiyoko and Mikan. In Dr3, she is in the reserve course, taking away a lot of the impact on the class (Fuyuhiko is sad because of his sister but for the rest, they just lost a random girl) and a lot of the potential impact in the segregationist system of Hope’s Peak (an Ultimate murdering a Reserve Course student without facing ‘official’ punishment)

The brainwashing technique is super inconsistent, sometimes it leads to despairgasm (Mikan), sometimes you can act 100% like normal and being Evil (Chisa), sometimes you almost seems psychotic and unaware of your surrounding (the SDR2 kids), sometimes your body isn’t controlled by your brain anymore (the reserve course student who killed himself)

AI!Chiaki’s origin story is a pile of bullcrap. We never see her meet Chihiro, Izuru talks like if HE was his creator at some point, but it’s eventually revealed then she was re-created from everyone’s memories (why was she so different from real!Chiaki then?)       ~ all-my-lovely-fics

 I never understood how Tengan asks Chisa "Oh, did you watch the Despair video?" and shes like "No" and he believes her. Like, how would she know what's on the two disks unless she's seen them?       ~ Anon at dr3discourse

How in the hell does Kirigiri not have a scar from the poison. Everyone saw that she was bleeding from her eye and her skin was purple.

With that knowledge, why didn’t Seiko save anyone with her medicine if she had that with her the entire time?       ~ doodlede88

How fucking long Juzo survived after having a spear impaled through his arm

 ...then being stabbed with a flaming sword through the middle of his chest (yea it would've cauterized the wound but he definitely would’ve died from shock)

...then CHOPPING OFF HIS FUCKING HAND like how the fuck did he even do that Munakata had both of the swordnd a you can’t damage the bracelet so beating his hand off wouldn’t have worked and finally

....then walking at least three city blocks from one side of the building all the way to the breaker room while bleeding profusely and like also wandering around looking for Naegi and the “can’t die, won’t die” squad? (counting as 3 points since each alone should have killed him)

Did we ever find out is Asahina was actually okay after getting shot in the leg?

Also, how did [Asahina] get out of the building?     ~ ding-dang-ronpa

What ability did Izuru exactly use to wake up all of class 77?

How is Hajime able to be both himself and Izuru at the same time?     ~ noxiatoxia

 (For episode 8 of Z arc) Where the hell Komaeda’s umbrella went

What Komaeda saw when he followed Tsumiki into the passage

How he knew about the human experimentation

Why Komaeda knew about Junko and Mukuro

Why Komaeda knew that Junko was a threat that needed to be eliminated

Why he knew that Mukuro would be there, be a threat, and would need to be distracted by Pekoyama

 What Komaeda was doing on a plane

How Komaeda returned to the school after apparently being stranded

 Where he obtained the gun and why he had it on him at school

Why the scene with Kamukura occurred at all     ~ flagfighter (click text for more in-depth analysis)

 Mikan stated that Junko was her beloved because she treated her with love, but the interactions between them in dr3 depict anything but     ~ trashy-hope

 Since the despairs were shown to have the ability to make complicated machinery and Hajime obtained the highest Mary Sue status, there was literally no reason they couldn’t have built a robotic body and uploaded AI Chiaki into it, therefore saving the entire cast of DR2     ~ kozikitty

Ater falling into despair, Mikan’s personality radically changed. How come no one else’s did?   ~ babygangstas

 Also, why did the countdown in the mirai-hen opening always include an extra person?    ~ awkwardlaunch

Izayoi’s death was pointless and probably could’ve been avoided if he and Ruruka had actually checked the secret doorway first.     ~ allhailthesupernaturalbooty

Yukizome can help Chiaki make friends, but god forbid helping Mikan with bullying.

How does Hajime having heterochromia make any sense? It’s cool but-

DR:Zero is almost completely missing. Timeline?

Sato doesn’t have a last name.

What’s up with Bandai? Like A+ character development with him. What’s with that voice?     ~ knavishkitsunekasami

 How did NG Codes even fucking work? like we know Tengan died for good, plus he never had a chance to monitor things. how did they work. how did they just sense that stuff was happening. some might be understandable, like maybe a high-tech bangle near your hand can tell when its opened, or when a punch is thrown, or when its) opening a door. but how is it supposed to sense that your fucking shadow was stepped on? that you saw violence? that you moved to the right? (In DR1 and SDR2 nearly every mechanic of main plot points was explained please don’t write this off as “anime logic lol” ~ chabashira-tenko

 Are we really supposed to believe that Ruruka didn’t know how to make candy with alternate sweeteners that wouldn’t harm Seiko, even though she is the Ultimate Confectioner?

And that Seiko was able to make a drug that turns dogs giant and an antidote for a poison that she had only seen active once or twice with a set of drugs from her bag in less than 3 days, but she didn’t know how to make a sweetener that didn’t mix badly with her medicine?

And even if we accept that, how exactly is it that neither of them noticed that the whole “betrayal” thing was a misunderstanding? given that they both saw the giant dog and the boy who just so happened to be looking for a laxative? ~ lemonscentedpages (more in post)

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH TOWA CITY IN GENERALwhat happened to the captives? to the kids with monokuma helmets? ~ dottymemequeen

I know everybody hates him but where’s haiji in all of this. we know he’s alive. and he was a prominent part of DR:AE, so don’t just pretend he’s not here. ~ kokichi-ohma (more in post)

Out of all the things that happened in dr3, I'm still confused as to how they surgically implanted luck into Izuru. ~ Anon at dr3discourse

I'm confused how did Kamukura/Chihiro/whoever tf created AI Nanami know that she had a mole on her right titt  ~ Anon at dr3discourse

Why was asahina the only survivor in a separate branch?

Why was asahina sent to naegi’s trial as a proxy? Sure she’s his friend but why not send a professional?

 What happens when monaca runs out of air in space? How is she even surviving up there?

What happened to Leon’s cousin? 

WHY WAS FUYUHIKO HURT MORE FROM THE DEATH OF CHIAKI THAN HE WAS BY HIS OWN SISTER?   ~ shslaoiasahina

so ya’ll know in future arc episode 2 when naegi wakes up and find asahina’s ‘dead’ body right? and ya’ll know that the ‘blood’ on her was actually *megumi ogata voice* ‘t0mato sAUce?’, which naegi woke up to find all over his hand? can someone please explain to me how the fUCK naegi smelled his hand like that, which was like…covered in tomato sauce, and not think ‘hmmmm this blood smells an awful lot like tomatoes lol’ like i call bullshit on the idea that any brand of tomato sauce can even vaguely resemble blood even for a second, but naegi literally lifts his ‘bloody’ hand to his face and doesn’t realise that he is fucking covered with fuckin tomato puree like what in the actual fUck ~mediati0nal-field

 (In refrence to the above) NOT ONLY THAT: THE BLOOD ON HIS HAND IS GONE NEXT EPISODE ~shslaoiasahina

Why didn’t we get to see their special relationships with junko?

What happened to the junko land idea did she just drop that entirely?

How did asahina deal with yuta? Like sure it’s implied she knows what happened but naegi was the only one to say anything about it and then the topic is dropped.

 In episode 6 or something naegi and asahina make a plan to just escape the building and they never get back to that plan or mention it again so its like they just wasted a good 3 minutes explaining something that wasn’t even relevant.

No one thanked asahina for how much she risked for naegi’s safety.

 Why wasn’t asahina more concerned about the fake ketchup death? If i was her I’d be questioning that constantly.

How were the other 4 twilight syndrome girls even involved with twilight syndrome?

Why did mahiru fall into despair when chiaki died but not when sato died? They were so much closer to then than they were to chiaki like wtf.

Why did munakata think that killing everyone was going to stop the mutual killing?   ~ pkpeachbomber

The bracelets need a sixteenth person to be set off in a way that makes sense,

Monokuma’s first appearance needs a sixteenth person to make sense,

Tengan’s motivations and plan make no sense when put together.   ~ theleavesshaveeyes (Further explanation for each in the link)

What about the creators of New world program? We barely got anything at all about that!! It didn’t even show how Fujisaki, Matsuda and Gekkogahara created New world program or even how they met!!

 In the end we’ve learned NOTHING about the real Gekkogahara!   ~ xenonkunai (Further explanation in link)

When did Ryouta meet his classmates? In Kibou Hen everyone was so friendly with him and supportive but Impostor, Komaeda, Izuru and Mikan were the only ones who knew about him.   ~greedy-doppelganger

How Ruruka got that hexagonal explosion in the floor

How everyone can be so okay with the FSHSL therapist TALKING THROUGH A COMPUTER???

How did Monika get that ketchup and gag knife into the building

 WHERE DOES THE FOOD KEEP SPAWNING FROM??? MAGIC??

 How Munakata got around the building without opening a door ~ goth-albino-ange

What was the reason for wanting to reopen Hope’s Peak Academy? Is that really more important when the whole world is still a complete mess and needs to be fixed? Especially now that a majority of the main heads leading Future Foundation are all dead.   ~ princeasimdiya12

Even if we accept the fact that the rest of the 77th fell into despair by watching Nanami die,Komaeda falling into despair should not have been a thing??? cause like, he didnt even get a chance to know Nanami like the others did and yes, she and Chisa were the only ones who were nice to him but that doesnt change the fact that it feels very forced to make him fall into despair too.

HOW WAS HE ON A PLANE WHEN HE IS SCARED OF PLANES?????????????   ~ komaeda-nagito-hope (trimmed for length)

 In Hope Side, the 77th class are wearing their pre-Hope’s Peak clothes and it makes them look younger than Naegi.

Also, it feels like there’s a whole episode we missed between Future arc Episode 12 and Hope Arc.

Then, Despair Arc was more focused on Chisa, and Junko than the 77th class. PLUS it’s just to tell us: actually they were brainwashed, lol. Which contradicts SDR2! Because if they were brainwashed and Naegi saved them, it’s a fucking miracle! If they were actually manipulated and Naegi decided to save them anyway, that’s heroic treason!

Kirigiri was hinted to be alive since her ‘death’ but while she could have had a good role in Hope Arc and before, she just appears in the end like a flower and in perfect shape. ~ baka2niisan

They could’ve done so many things with Matsuda but just give him a pointless 5 second cameo to remind people about Danganronpa zero and what point we are on the timeline. So we have to assume that after Chiaki died, the events of Danganronpa Zero took place but that kind of doesn’t make sense. The class 77 students and Chisa weren’t doing anything for the past few days or weeks? Nothing happened a few weeks after the overseas location shut down? Junko was still able to get away with stuff for a few more weeks? ~ kaminagirl

We saw the SDR2 kids in despair in the first few episodes. Most of them had visual changes. Most were taller and were visibly older and most of them had changes like Gundam's face tattoos, Peko, Saionji, and Souda had new haircuts/longer hair, and other had whole new outfits like Teruteru, Nekomaru, and Owari. These were how they looked around the time the were captured by the FF. So how come in Hope arc when they came back the not only do they look like they did in high school they have the very same outfits they had on the first day of freshman year (which was 3-6 years ago)? ~ izurukamucutie

  WHERE WILL MUNAKATA GO? Still a mystery…. ~ danganhonhonhooonn

 According to junko (and syo i believe) the tragedy happened 1 year after the 78th class was inducted... but in dr3, it happened like right after they arrived?? um?           ~ Anon @ dr3discourse      

And when the hell did mukuro get close to naegi [in that time?]           ~ cheinsaw @ dr3discourse    

in sdr2 ch6 Hinata finds out from various emails that the future foundation saved the 77th class WITHOUT knowing they were the remnants of despair. in fact its stated that FF has no leads on the remnants.so whats that fight scene between Peko and Kuzuryuu etc. and Munakata and co.? they couldn't have fought the remnants because they were in their custody, and why would they fight the 77th class? they took them in! ~ cy-an

Nanami being a human contradicts several parts of SDR2. Read here! ~ mawgito

The type of brainwashing DR3 had would not have had the effect that the anime/games have shown. Read here! ~  nantendogamegirl

junko walks around with a bunch of brainwashed reserve course students and no one but munakata is suspicious

[Junko] builds an entire underground murder maze that is implied to be right around where Kamukura is held and no one notices

dr0 makes it clear jin was suspicious of mukuro but we hardly see her do anything compared to what junko does  ! ~ theleavesshaveeyes

 When Tengan told Munakata about who the traitor was, why did Munakata pretty much not bat an eye at that? I mean, yeah, he went all out and killed him and things but… did it ever occur to him that he was mastermind? How else would he have known about that?! Why didn’t he tell anyone about that?! I guess, it’s all because he’s edgy… ~ hajim8

 Nagito has to bribe hanamura with lascivious pics of an underage idol to get access to the shsl chemist, without whose help he cannot possibly figure out how to drug some talent researchers? This guy can set up a bomb without help but finding some drugs is that complicated? why did he need to drug them in the first place? I understand that he fucked up at school, this has been established, but why send him to fuck off for most of the series? ~ mawgito (trimmed)

My fav plot hole in DR3 is when they tried to explain why Komaeda and Kamukura didn't recognize each other through memory wiping, because, by the logic they used, Kamukura would've wiped his memories of Nanami, which would negate pretty much the entire plot of Despair Arc. ~ Anon@firefly20ffm

the big thing about Kamukura's motivation in DR3 that bothers me, apart from the entire thing, is like? If he wanted to see hope vs despair, why did he go inside the program, knowing he would be erased? He could have just watched from the outside; I haven't seen episode 11 so correct me if I'm wrong and this was explained but like, he went in there willingly knowing he'd be erased, he couldn't even 'see' what was happening, so how could he see whether hope or despair was more interesting? ~ shsluckymushroom@dottymemequeen

 They don't even explain how the SDR2 cast learned about the DR3 killing game. Literally all of Hope Arc is impossible since it relies on characters having info they couldn't possibly have. ~ Anon@firefly20ffm

 Tanaka fights the devil dog after entering school. (you know, the fearsome pomeranian he references in dr2 ch1? the one he has an earring named after? the one he shouldn’t be able to remember if it happened after entering school? my personal explanation is that the incident he described in dr2 was unrelated to the Expand Pom one in despair arc episode 4. I mean, there were wanted posters written by him plastered around the classroom in that episode - my assumption is that he adopted the fluffy little fucker. but you might want to make that really clear since I know people were confused.) ~ mawgito (more in post, much of it is things already put here)

The scene where Hinata meets Nanami in the New world program wasn't even close to what they showed in the game. Link to screenshot compairisons.

-The tragedy only began because Junko ran into an anime nerd at the right place and time. Ignoring how stupid that is, Junko seemed to already have a plan out for the tragedy before entering the school. So was she just banking on finding someone to help her make brainwashing technology?

And speaking of Junko and her effortless brainwashing scheme that’s EXTREMELY out of characters for her. Despair was the one thing she WOULD put effort into. Her whole deal as a villain was to prove anyone can and will fall into despair, through their own weaknesses so it’s useless having hope. But now, she doesn’t care, she just wants instant despair, ten minutes in the microwave, add a dead kid and presto! You’re in despair. She would HATE that! She didn’t stick the DR1 kids in the room and brainwash them to kill each other did she? Hell why not add them to her army, she would be perfectly capable of it. In fact, she had the power to broadcast over the entire world, why not instead of the mutual killing, she just showed everyone her despair video? Now everyone’s in despair. Oh wait she didn’t do that. She would find it excessively boring, and thus would not do it. During the killing games she set up motives to exploit people and make them fall into despair enough to murder. Sure she’s impatient, but she is NOT lazy. There is a difference.

What was the point of the 74th class investigation plot point? For something that they spent so much time on, it went nowhere. The only information they actually used was suspecting Junko, which (although that in itself is a plot hole. Munakata can find out what Junko’s doing but Kirirgiri the Ultimate Detective can’t?) even taking away from the fact Juzo was blackmailed and had to attest to innocence, he could’ve figured it out by seeing her MARCHING AROUND WITH HER ARMY OF BRAINWASHED MIND SLAVES HOW HAS SHE NOT BEEN CAUGHT YET?

Ruruka and Seiko’s conflict is hard to care about when Ruruka is so blatantly in the wrong, and Seiko didn’t even actually betray her. It’s so one-sided-Izuru in chapter 0 didn’t care about Hope or Despair and was more concerned with “Using Junko like she used him.” He wasn’t trying to test the unpredictability of anything, in fact, he said he already had predicted everything. And of that everything neither hope OR despair won it was the creation of future.

Everyone hated Nagito in Despair Arc where (to their knowledge) he hadn’t done anything wrong right? So why in Hope Arc after all the stunts that he pulled in the simulation everyone’s now on good terms with him? Yeah, it’s cool to see him be forgiven but not out of the blue without explanation. I’d hope for the OVA to fix it but looking at the trailer, it’s not likely.

Speaking of things I wanted to happen but not out of nowhere, the waking up of the SDR2 kids. So apparently Hajime’s cool new talents that he has woke up everyone (I guess now having talent IS incredibly important, and all that talking about how it isn’t was for nothing) how? What specific talents did he use? Or are we just supposed to assume TALENT and boom everyone’s fine and well?

Who’s Chiakis dad? In SDR2 it made sense that Chihiro programmed her, but now we know Chihiro DIDN’T program her, it was memory bullshit so… Who was the dad she was reffering to in her free time events? Also speaking of free time events there’s a scene where she states she’s never tripped in her life. It makes sense if she’s an AI who recently came into existence but actually she’s a human who got well into her teenage years without tripping. Once. Then there’s Hajimes scenes in chapter 6 where he’s angsting about the possibility of Chiaki being remembered by no one. But now she has plenty of people to be remembered by so those scenes were pointless. I can’t be the only person out there who sees how much of a dump the concept of Human!Nanami takes on the character from SDR2 can I?

Since when does Hajime give a fuck about video games? He seemed disinterested in SDR2-Hell the fact they play video games is counter intuitive to the relationship they had in SDR2. Hajime pulled her away from video games to show her the world. But now video games are everything. Hell its the reason everyone in the class worships her in the first place.

What is the message of SDR2 now? Hell what were the struggles of all the characters to come to grips with themselves? Nothing was of their own will anymore. I guess the message is now “don’t own up to your mistakes because you didn’t actually make them but were brainwashed into making them. Now who wants a boat?”

Ryota had no redemption arc but was the only one of the new cast who got a happy ending. Look I get that he was remorseful but he still was taking help from someone he watched beat her sister, made what caused the end of the world and attempted to brainwash everyone with hope. Couldn’t you at least do something to make him deserve a happily ever after? Sorry kid, but crying doesn’t make up for anything !  ~ notkaedekaramatsu

The mastermind’s plan in future arc makes no fucking sense. [...] All of this could of been avoided if he just fucking ask Ryota or just do it himself. Like,why forcing him to upload the video in an extreme way? Not only it’s stupid as fuck but also very hypocritical! Erasing despair by causing even more despair with all of the members trying to kill each other, yes,that’ll definitely erase despair alright… This RUINS the whole future arc for me,because I thought Yukizome made MUCH more sense as a mastermind than this sad excuse of a villain… ~ raeraebow (trimmed for repeated point)

  In Side:Despair Episode 4, it's shown that exams at HPA are basically talent shows, with students demonstrating their talents. While this makes sense for some, questions start to arise on how this applies to talents that are either far more abstract, like Good Luck, or just titles, like Student Council  ~ mutiple sources

Yasuke Matsuda is the one of the three creators of the Neo World Program and also created the memory-erasing technology Junko used on herself to test it to make sure it would work in the first killing game she set up. Matsuda has played a role in almost every Dangan Ronpa game and (counting SDR2.5) he only had two cameos, both of them happen to be still images of him. His only major role was in Danganronpa Zero, which was the novel he was introduced in. Also The Steering Committee, Isshiki, Ryouko, Yuuto, and basically every character from DR0 are all major players here and they didn’t do anything aside from a few cameos.    ~goneintothevoid

Chiaki has the same birthday as Chihiro and that always made perfect sense since Chihiro apparently created her until DR3like…Asahina and Mahiru have the same birthday but they have no connection, so in their world it’s just a coincidence. But Chiaki was supposed to be Chihiro’s creation, which is why they shared the same birthday, but DR3 changes that? so now it just…feels weird to call that a coincidence too?mmmm this probably makes no sense.   ~ kitucan

Isn't Naegi still going to be executed? Since at the end of the DR3 anime, the Future Foundation is made to believe the 77th class were behind the FF killing game, the same group Naegi technically conspired with. ~Bakabread@jinjojess  

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - (Fifty)Third Time’s the Charm, Post-Accusation (3)

Is that all we are to you? Just a vehicle to solve your cases for you?! ... you know what on second thought don’t answer that -

Trial: 1 / 2

hello darkness my old friend

What an interesting reaction. Despite the weird back and forth she’s been having with Monokuma, he still had the Monokubs jump in to defend her - though with that said, the desperation of it all probably backfired in Shuichi’s eyes. The point is, her first reaction wasn’t to protest - I mean, she will, and she did a bit weakly earlier, but it’s to withdraw into herself and think. Isn’t that how we first came across her? Thinking deeply to herself and completely ignoring Kaede and Shuichi to the best of her abilities?

A-are you attempting to plead ‘power of friendship’ right now -

“There is no time for friendship in the court of law!!!”

Clinging to that idea is the only thing he had to keep himself going all this time, too.

Also, after pushing behind the scenes for him to condemn three of the most well-meaning people in the class (and, y’know, Kirumi and Korekiyo lol), it’s interesting that she seems to think that this line of defense will work - especially considering what he’s accusing her of doing. You’ve managed to do something way beyond just murder, Tsumugi! Aside from Rantaro, you set the groundwork for everything that followed! And I feel like this game, more than the others, really pushed the idea that the survivors share some of the blame when the ‘blackened’ dies. I don’t agree with that mind you, but survivor’s guilt is very real and very powerful.

Despite all of this, he still wants to be wrong and is happy to be wrong. Being awfully, painfully right seems to be a running trend with him, with the one glaring exception hanging over his head.

BUT SHE STILL ISN’T SAYING ANYTHING -

she’s just sitting there with this worried, anguished expression and I don’t know what I was expected but it wasn’t this?? Is she trying to frantically brainstorm a way out or -

Seriously Monokuma do you actually hate her??? Despite working with her? Despite being intrinsically linked to each other???

Anyway whatever that just means it’s cute comic time, nice.

“gdmt do I have to do everything myself -”

They kept her glasses on! Oh, they kept her glasses on it for this! I don’t know why that makes me so happy.

Aaaaw look at Miu tinker away! The animation is really cute for it, tbh. Also something about Korekiyo eating all by himself with Kirumi waiting on him is kinda hilarious to me...

.........

I just realized that everyone in the dining hall were killers/wanna-be killers of the game lmao. Also, if only the nosier people had been in the room, this could have been prevented. 8′\

.... Now I really wish we knew where Kokichi had been at the time.

i just have this screenshot because Shuichi and Kaede are cute here

What was the signal that clued Tsumugi in on leaving, I wonder? Maybe she waited a certain amount of time after seeing Rantaro leave with the others? Would she have been willing to wait longer if she needed to for Kaede’s plan to either work or not work, or was she counting on it happening in that five minute span?

This was a pretty damn good set-up by Kaede.

I

CANNOT

BELIEVE EVEN NOW -

!!! New Act 5.

Also no shit he would’ve been surprised. Actually, I’d say that was an understatement. What a great expression by the artist - that is definitely the look of someone whose life or what he remembers of it is flashing before his eyes.

RANTARO

RANTARO DAMN IT

I GET YOU’RE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SHOCK BUT

oh god I was gonna say ‘did he not hear Tsumugi right behind him’ but 1) the video was still blasting 2) no, seriously, he was probably in shock and still processing that he nearly died and was a sitting duck

WOW LOOKING REALLY CREEPY THERE MISS MASTERMIND

okay now the glasses still being there is kinda hilarious but I love it

SHE REALLY WAS.... RIGHT THERE....

This is another redundant picture because.... I’m not sure. I like this group together. We didn’t know anything about them at this point in the game, but they really did try so hard - and hell, Tenko, who I never got to know that well, was already putting aside her own bias this early in the game to work with Kaito for everyone’s sake. aaah now i’m getting sad

Which was so believable because even Kaede thought it was the truth! I’m so torn. I really like Kaede, and honestly? I like the fact that she was willing to go after the mastermind so aggressively. Tsumugi did twist the truth, sure, and we convicted the wrong person - but I don’t want to lose the fact that Kaede only didn’t kill Rantaro because her calculations were slightly off and Tsumugi cleaned up after her. I keep going back to it, but that line of Kokichi’s, telling Kaede she lost the moment she let murder into her heart, does still ring true to me...

THAT POSE.... I’d been waiting for her to make that type of pose all game. IS THIS WHY IT NEVER HAPPENED? BECAUSE YOU WERE SAVING IT FOR THIS DRAMATIC REVEAL?

Damn I love this picture, and I love how we’re finally getting to see the first hints of menace in her expression (outside of the ‘backflip into a minefield and die’ lol).

So.... now what....?

DO IT I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE PRESS THE BUTTON

Aaaaw, even K1-b0 is willing to hear her out. :(

MAKI ON THE OTHER HAND LMAO

“I’m giving you 5 minutes. Oh, we’re down to 298 seconds now. Tick tock, motherfucker.”

And... she has nothing. Pretty much nothing. I mean, I guess she manages to throw the word ‘plain’ out one more time - literally just, “it’s plain to see I didn’t do it” - and that’s... it. Not exactly what one would expect of the mastermind who was able to throw this all together...

NO NOT THAT THING

“Tsumugi I swear to god -”

THAT’S NOT A GOOD REASON AT ALL!!! THAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF A GOOD REASON!!!

;LKDFJAS;KJ

SDKFLJ

kalsdjfsljf;sfj

f m l    that’s actually

amazing

thank you based tsumugi

Where are you going with this????

???????????

I think everyone who‘s played the game has this scene seared into their memories and for good reason.

HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME AGREE WITH MONOPHANIE DRV3 -

oh thank god

Wait no, Tsumugi. Wait. No, we’ve had something good going on between us, right? Right? Tsumugi please - please don’t -

TSUMUGI I AM BEGGING YOU

NO

TSUMUGI

TSUMUGI WHY

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

......

WAIT DID YOU LITERALLY JUST CHANGE IN THAT CLOUD OF DUST

HOW -

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT shit she really is the Ultimate Analyst

Wait, the 53rd???

THE 53RD??? THERE’S BEEN 53 OF THEM??? HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN UP YOUR MANTLE -

NO FUCK YOU IT’S TSUMUGI GIVE HER THE CREDIT SHE DESERVES

HOW DARE YOU

U-UM

UM WHAT JUST HAPPENED

first of all BITCH -

second of all HOW DID YOU

SWITCH BACK SO FAST WHAT IN THE WORLD

third of all, which is really just an expansion of first of all, I actually still managed to keep liking her despite everything! Even that damn love hotel scene! DESPITE ALL THE ODDS I STILL EXIST -

“I’m pretty sure Kokichi copyrighted that. You gotta wait at least 25 years before you can use it yourself, y’know.”

hHGHGH MEGANE MASTERMIND SPRITE

omfg they

they’ve been holding back on this pose for the entire game

just for this moment

just for glasses!junko

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

fml I’ll allow it but I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT

Also I... I still want to believe that this Junko persona was born from Tsumugi and not the other way around....

Wait, does that mean Maki and the others know what Junko sound like? How? Were there recordings of the final trial or something? This just makes me more curious about the time separation between the last two games and this one! Especially with the number ‘53′ dropped - that would mean someone’s picked up the mantle 53 times, right??? So shouldn’t it be at least 53 years? but then how old was Naegi in that flashback, and that’s assuming every person that took the role would last no longer than a year, but then - wait -

No, if I’m going to stick with the idea that these students were made to replace actual Ultimates... then maybe this is a lot farther back than I initially thought...?

DOES SHE HAVE A V   3 IN HER EYES

....

WAIT A SECOND

Which is why she’s calling herself the 53rd... So Junko Enoshima is a title that can be passed down. It’s officially bigger than the person herself - the same way ‘Ultimate Despair’ belonged to Junko (and she pretty much defined it), but was also a title that could be earned by other people... right?

“You literally keep bringing out your glasses. You can’t even see us properly from over there, can you?”

EXCEPT FOR YOUR DAMN EYES I CANNOT BELIEVE -

SHE’S THE 53RD JUNKO WHICH SHE HAS A V3 IN HER EYES BECAUSE V3 IS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT 50 + 3 DAMN YOU DRV3

“Please, Shuichi? Please? Can I do it now?!”

omfg Maki why is the answer to everything murder ARE WE REALLY GOING TO DO ROUND THREE HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING -

......... b u t  on the other hand we actually do have the confirmed mastermind here. H M M M M ....

AAAAH IT’S THAT TSUMUGI POSE EXCEPT NOW IT’S OMINOUS AND SHE’S LOOKING AT US OH GOD

Sweetcheeks is staying on track! You’ve got her right where you want her, kiddo! :D

“..... like, do you wanna go get some food or coffee after this, or....?”

“I DON’T NEED YOUR STUPID COFFEE I NEED A GODDAMN NAP AND A CHANGE OF SCENERY!!!”

I’m... suddenly getting a terrible feeling that things won’t be that simple. We’re definitely not far enough into this trial for it to end...

W-Why do I feel like I’m facing a Tsumugi-Junko tag team right now?

FML I really like this transition between her initial sprite and this menacing one!

I-I... I guess we’re just going to let her exposition-dump now? O-Okay...

Ffffffuuuu where do the weird memory shenanigans mix into this and what part of this is the truth? Because Tsumugi clearly feels a deep connection to Junko (lmao inner Junko) but the flashback light machine showed us that we could literally choose scenarios where people other than us survived!

MAKI

MAKI NO

I THOUGHT WE HAD FINALLY GOTTEN SOMEWHERE ON THIS

.... Whoa this sprite looks really different from the rest. It’s ripped straight from the first game, right? I don’t know if the colours quite match up with the others. 8′D

I didn’t realize I could hate the Remnant of Despair Kokichi theory more than I already did but then he, with the supposed talent Supreme Leader, was relegated to a mere follower. 8′D

Unrelated but I lowkey love this ^ line.

... Do you ever just realize how small Kokichi was in a moment like this.

Anyway I thought we’d already drop-kicked Remnant!Kokichi into the sun but apparently we have to do it in-trial now. Or, well, soon, anyway.

Himiko and the others are trying to stay on track though - on the idea that there are viewers to the madness. At first I thought, ‘oh, that’s a bit of a tangent though’ then I remembered Kokichi was the one who gave us the tools to get all the evidence to prove that so it actually does make sense to bring it back up now!

Bullshit.

An intriguing line of thought, but bullshit.

THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG HERE THAT I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN -

so thank god for Shuichi, who can help us get started.

[ryouverua]

The Despairingly Hopeful Flashback Light

“It’s been days since I’ve had a chance to insult people so do me a favour and line up in a row so I can have a go at each of you in turn.”

“Just.... enough energy... to pick that low-hanging fruit...”

Have you even slept at all since this all began?!

She... she’s fully ready to do this? I know it’s not participating in the killing game, but this still not how I want you to use your talent! Not at all!

Just before I go onto the good stuff, I wanted to bring it back over to Himiko’s fluff text because it’s so bittersweet to have her thinking about Tenko in this situation.

It’s hard to say though, Himiko - I think she would have difficulty accepting the situation in general and would try and encourage you to at least enjoy the time you have left. Would she be mad at you though? Mad, no. Sad, absolutely.

That is... exceedingly odd. We’ve only ever found them before by searching - but then again, who would be searching for anything now?

Maybe, but didn’t he say he wasn’t going to interfere with us anymore? I suppose that could be a lie too, but I can’t imagine why he would do anything like this now.

Closure is better than nothing I suppose. Though I’d argue that was... sorta, kinda what Kokichi gave us, in a way?

That’s the, uh, attitude? 8′D

“They don’t call me the Ultimate Assassin for nothing, kid.”

omae wa mo shindeiru

Alright then... well, let’s see it. She’s right, honestly. What’s the worst that could happen at this point? They’re days away from committing mass suicide! 

FLASHBACK LIGHT! FLASHBACK LIGHT! FLASHBACK LIGHT!

Is it the colours? Are the colours why I love this animated sequence so much?

Wait, Hope’s Peak Academy?

WAIT A SECOND ALL THOSE WORDS LOOK SUPER FAMILIAR

So it officially is now??? I always thought it might be in a small way (I mean, come on, Monokuma is there), but literally everything???

Hope’s Peak Academy, you absolute bastard.

Man, we’re really just going over everything, aren’t we?

~The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History~, which was then renamed to being the second most awful because METEORS RAINED FROM THE SKY AND WIPED OUT EVERYTHING -

Here’s Junko -

The Ultimate Catalyst. >>

Aaaw crap though, if she’s being brought up now... they can’t possibly bring her back for a third time, right? Right???

Now the 78th class’s killing game, most significant to history because that was what led to Junko’s death, I imagine -

We really are getting the Cole’s notes version of events, aren’t we!

I guess they can’t outright talk about Danganronpa 2 here, huh? Fair enough, honestly! Might as well give people a chance to play it without spoiling it too badly!

You gonna expand on that champ? ...... No? Uh, okay?

NO SERIOUSLY WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT CAME TO A SUDDEN END THAT ANIME WAS CALLED ‘END OF HOPE’S PEAK’ NOT ‘END OF THE HOPE VS DESPAIR WAR’ 

Wait are you seriously telling me the cult is the Remnants? I... I don’t know if I’m super happy about that, but okay... I guess it makes sense for them to try and latch onto something like this when their side has lost so much ground. Does that mean there were still a bunch of them lingering, left over from when their fight came to a so-called abrupt end?

Wait, Makoto did this? Would he be in his 40s or 50s then? I was hoping this would take a good deal after the other events, so I guess that’s one way to do it!

though with that said you didn’t have to literally chuck meteors at the prequels and burn them to the ground that is some serious overkill

hope hope hope hope hope hope hope

.......

Oh right, before I forget -

hope.

Please don’t sound so happy about that Shuichi, I thought it was actually nice for you guys to be from different schools. 8′/ Though I guess the whole reason were were considered ‘Ultimates’ was because you were selected as a representative of your specialty to attend Hope’s Peak, but still.

Applied? Weren’t they scouted? I guess Makoto changed the rules or something? 8′D

????? Am I just completely remembering things wrong because I swear it was a scouting process and not an application process...

Oh, that I like at least! Wait, does that mean there were 16 classes going on at the same time for a single year of students??? The logistics must have been a nightmare.

because Makoto’s normal meter has been completely, utterly destroyed by his own old class

.....

.....

LMAO

THAT

THAT WORKS TOO

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

eyes Kaito

......... Are you, now? Exactly... what are the symptoms of the virus, exactly?

Oh hey, it’s a new ‘New World Order’! Long time no see!

I MEAN... LIKE.... THIS ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS.... BUT RAISES MORE....

I know I said I thought we were missing information that would help gel some things together, and this would explain why Monokuma is overseeing this game again, but I still feel like there’s more. I mean, also because even now we’re still in Chapter 5, but that’s beside the point.

Damn it the ‘h’ word is out of the bag and it��s like the game is trying to make up for lost time. 8′D

Weirdly enough, having the cult be the Remnants of Despair makes me more suspicious of Kokichi’s claims of being the mastermind? Is that just me? 

FML HOW DARE YOU BE SO CUTE AT A CRUCIAL MOMENT LIKE THIS damn you’re so small

So timeline-wise are we far enough away from Junko’s life and death for her to have become both a historical figure as well as a symbol? Do I have that right?

Mm, I mean, if we hadn’t had that whole ‘sister’ reveal I could see ‘let me witness the beauty of humanity in the most extreme of circumstances’ Korekiyo Shinguuji being a good, if slightly obvious, choice just off the top of my head, and without any relation to the Remnants. 8′D 

That I can actually agree with! There’s way too much of a coincidence between how things are being held for it not to be related to them, at the very least.

HEY EXCUSE YOU WE HAD A PERFECTLY GOOD ‘TRUTH VS LIES’ THEME GOING ON DON’T GO SHOVING THIS HOPE-SHAPED PEG IN WHERE IT DOESN’T BELONG

Literally my biggest question!!!

That.... That just seems like such a handwave answer! I know one of Junko’s things was how bored she got, and sure, Kokichi talked about how boring a lot of things could be, but the game was literally how Junko got her kicks! She was quite happy to see it until the end, and I’m pretty sure if Kokichi was following her script he would do the same!

Eeeeh? But like... Junko’s plan was ruined by Naegi, Kirigiri et al., right? She didn’t just throw it all away the way Kokichi has. Doesn’t that seem weird to any of you guys at all??

T... The number of times the word ‘hope’ has been said in the last twenty + minutes is leaving me dizzy.

“WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HOPE WITH THAT HOPE??? AND WOULD YOU LIKE TO UPSIZE THAT HOPE? IT’LL COME WITH AN EXTRA SIDE OF HOPE!!!”

Normally I’d love to hear more about your inner voice but right now I’d love for you to put it on mute. 8′/

I love you two but I am debating the pros and cons of pushing you both down the stairs leading to Kaito’s lab r/n

say hope or despair one more time

Aaaaw Himiko! My tiny shining light in this sea of hope and despair talk!

I am glad she was revitalized though - it was pretty scary watching her talk about having Maki kill her!

NO SHUICHI NOT YOU TOO

K1-B0 HOW TF DID YOU MANAGE TO GET THEM BOTH IN ONE SENTENCE LIKE THAT!

Sweetcheeks I am judging you inner monologue right now? Do you hear me?! I am judging you right now!!!!

If he’s the mastermind, it was probably a reward for getting so far, right? “Here’s everything else you need to know about the world that I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”

But if he’s not the mastermind aka lying about it, it seems like this is a way to disrupt his new power? Would he have really done this? Would he be able to access the flashback lights as the new king of the school, if he isn’t the mastermind? I mean, it’s not out of the realm of possibility - he’s got control of the exisals, and that shouldn’t be possible if he isn’t controlling everything - but if he also has the ability to give out flashback lights, why would he do it now? Is this is attempt to make them more interesting again?

Hypothetically, yes... though that conclusion does seem to be based on Kokichi = Mastermind. I guess to say everything I blabbed earlier more concisely, does Flashback Light Access = Mastermind, or does Flashback Light Access = Control of the School?

you wizarding nerd he’s not going to pop up if he hears you say his name

Or... would he? If he’s the mastermind, he should have access to whatever method of surveillance being used this game. This seems like a good time to pop up now in that case - gotta quash the rebellion before it starts - but he hasn’t yet.

Yes!!! Rally around Kaito’s safety!!!

SAIMOTA HAS BEEN REVIVED, BABY!!!

He did say he wanted the remote for the hangar and that he would be keeping Kaito there! So Kokichi periodically leaves to get food and supplies? I guess with an exisal, there isn’t much any of the students can do to stop him. 8′D

TSUMUGI IS THIS REALLY THE TIME

“Look guys, if I see a ship, I call it.”

also I’m a bloody hypocrite re: my saimota comment earlier

“SHIT SHIT SHIT WHY AM I SUCH A TYPICAL TSUNDERE TSUMUGI I’LL KILL YOU -”

TSUN

OOOOKAY that’s uh tmi, anyway thank you for your contribution!!!

?!?! :O Oh shit, when in the world did you get that? Did Miu have extras in her lab?

Oooooooh oooooh how clever of you!!! Damn girl, you’re good!

A;LKDSJF HIMIKO

AND NOT THE KLEPTOMANIA PART?!?!

Alright - so despite Kaito not being there, they’re able to hammer out a pretty good battle plan. Sorry Kaito, looks like you’ve been relegated to the ‘damsel in distress’ position! That’s... sorta close to being a hero? Related? Or something? anyway if you don’t think Kaito being a damsel in distress makes me incredibly happy you don’t know me at all

So they’ll be charging the exisal hangar tomorrow (gotta charge those hammers!) with an electrobomb to disable Kokichi’s access to the exisals and hammers to disable the shutter lock and as a back-up. It’s a good plan, all things considered!

.... But..... why do I have a terrible feeling that someone is going to be dead when they get there? For that matter, I don’t know why I’m saying it in such vague terms - I’ll be shocked if someone isn’t dead either by the time they reach the hangar, or while they’re in there. I posited the idea that Maki’s lab could be an alternative spot, or even Shuichi’s lab, but with both Kaito and Kokichi in there I don’t think there’s any doubt left. I also feel like the ‘potential victim’ list has been cut to the two of them too.... D: 

MAKI THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT WE DON’T WANT ANY MORE DEAD BODIES

Is this not just so incredibly reminiscent of what happened with Kaede? It’s incredibly tempting, I understand that, but we can’t make the same mistake twice! I also feel like this will be another case of 'wrong target’ but that’s a separate issue

Well said, K1-b0!

FINALLY a chance to use the nerdmugi tag again! It’s been so long! I’ll let that use of the word ‘despair’ slide this time, but only because of that.

C-CAN WE NOT NEUTRALIZE HIM

RYOMA’S CHAINS OR TENNIS NET CORD

KOREKIYO’S CAGE

GONTA’S INSECT NET

MIU’S GENERAL BONDAGE DUNGEON THAT I’M 99% SURE EXISTS UNDER HER LAB

THERE MUST BE SOME OPTIONS

Despite being embarrassed about being rescued by the others, I bet Kaito would be so proud to know that Maki reached out to the others like this and is working together with them to rescue him! She’s spent so much time caught up in her own emotional walls she created around her heart, you know? And now, finally, she’s letting some people in!

Okay now Maki this may not be integral to the plan or anything but I do insist that if the impossible happens and nothing goes wrong, you carry Kaito outside of the hangar bridal-style. Okay? Okay.

It’s wishful thinking, all things considered... but we can hope.

but first, time to get a certain robot’s underwear.

[oumakokichi]

How were Ouma and Momota bluffing about sacrificing everyone and what then were both of their motives for choosing to sacrifice themselves?

Well, their motives were mostly what I’ve mentioned before:they still wanted to take a shot back at the ringleader and to try and end thekilling game. Regardless of whether their plan succeeded or not, the act ofdefiance itself was pretty much the objective—and their plan in Chapter 5counted as a huge metaphorical middle finger to the audience, considering allthe ways in which they managed to undermine Tsumugi and Monokuma’s authorityand credibility.

The thing is, neither of them ever actually wanted tosacrifice everyone else’s lives. Doing so went against both their values. Oumawas fundamentally against killing due to his motto with DICE, and that includedrisking everyone else’s lives without their consent. Momota was largely thesame; he agreed to cooperate with Ouma’s plan willingly and of his own accordbecause of the opportunity it presented for getting back at the ringleader, buthe would never have agreed if it had been necessary to get everyone else killedin the process.

The fact that they both ultimately created a solvable murdermystery, rather than a completely unsolvable catbox, is proof of the fact thatthey wanted everyone to live. If they had seriously been willing to riskeveryone else’s lives in order to strike back at Monokuma and the ringleader,then they wouldn’t have left the amount of clues behind that they did. Leavingmore clues was less beneficial for them, after all. The more clues they left,the more chance there was of Monokuma himself putting together the pieces andguessing the correct answer.

So many of the clues in Chapter 5 were clearly left theredeliberately. There was no need for the sleeve of Momota’s jacket to stick outfrom under the press. In fact, if they’d wanted to make it a complete and uttermystery as to who was there, they wouldn’t have left any clothing visiblewhatsoever. Even if the jacket sleeve made the other characters more inclinedto think Momota was the victim and Ouma was the culprit initially, that ploywas also what tipped them off later on to the fact that they were being pushedto think in a certain way.

Similarly, it was completely unnecessary for Ouma to discardhis shirt or tell Momota to flush it down the toilet on purpose. If he didn’twant his shirt sticking out from under the press, he could just as easily have toldMomota to carry it with him into the Exisal instead. But he didn’t. Instead,smart as he was, he instructed him to flush it, and I think it’s safe to say thatknowing just how smart and calculating Ouma was, there was no way he didn’tpredict that it would come back up sooner or later and provide the group with ahuge hint. That shirt had his bloodstains all over it, and was the biggest clueto the fact that he’d been attacked by Maki. So clearly, he wanted it to befound.

Finally, I’d say the biggest piece of evidence to the factthat they clearly wanted the rest of the group to solve their mystery was thecamcorder itself. Just like Momota’s jacket, the camcorder recording of Momota “beingkilled” under the press was initially the biggest “proof” of the fact that “Momotawas the victim and Ouma was the culprit.” But that recording, and the briefpause before the press came down, was the single biggest piece of evidence tothe fact that there was a victim and culprit swap. Without it, I don’t thinkSaihara or anyone else would have fully pieced anything together.

The fact that Momota and Ouma literally handed thatrecording on a silver platter to the rest of the group helped to keep themalive and made it easier, not harder, for them to solve the mystery. Everysingle clue they left was one more breadcrumb to lead Saihara and the others tothe answer.

Without any of those clues, it’s true that the mystery wouldhave been far more ambiguous, but I think it’s safe to say that pretty much everyonewould’ve still assumed that Momota was the victim and that Ouma killed him.That was the logical conclusion from Maki’s testimony, before any of the otherfacts were presented, and clearly it was what even Monokuma and Tsumugi wereinclined to believe, before they got a hold of the rest of the facts.

A truly unsolvable catbox would’ve been unfair from amystery standpoint, but it also would’ve provided the best chance at creatingan impossible-to-solve mystery, therefore undermining Monokuma’s credibilityand preventing the killing game from going any further. If that happened, thentheoretically, no one could’ve been executed for voting wrong, because Monokumahimself would’ve voted wrong as well, and his authority as the game masterwould’ve been stripped away.

However, since the rules of the killing game are stillsomewhat arbitrarily added, and since we as the players know that both Junko and Tsumugi have been willing to breakand bend their own rules before, it makes sense that neither Ouma nor Momotacould feel completely safe betting everyone’s lives on a chance that Monokuma might not execute everyone. Logically,of course, he shouldn’t—but there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t do soanyway just out of spite and resentment at being played for a fool.

Ouma and Momota were both people who were willing to puttheir own lives on the line for what they believed in, but neither of them wastruly capable of pushing others to do the same. Betting everyone else’s liveswithout even informing them of what they were getting into or the fact thatthey might actually die as a result would’ve been unfair, and far too risky,and so neither of them took that chance.

Instead, they carried out their plan in the hopes of tryingto throw a wrench into the ringleader’s plan for even a short amount of time.Even just disrupting the ringleader’s and the audience’s wishes was probablyextremely satisfactory by that point. Ultimately, the main goal of their planwas to inspire Saihara and the others to eventually uncover the ringleaderthemselves, rather than relying solely on their plan in Chapter 5. While theycouldn’t simply bet other people’s lives, they could at least work together inorder to show that it was possible tooutsmart the ringleader, and to try and encourage the rest of the group touncover the truth for themselves.

Both Ouma and Momota knew there was no real way out for themselvesin Chapter 5, and therefore made the conscious decision to sacrificethemselves. Ouma could easily have survived if he had wanted to, by throwingMomota and Maki under the bus and drinking the antidote for himself—but hechose not to do so, demonstrating that he would rather lay down his life to tryand stop the killing game than stain his hands with more blood the way he haddone in Chapter 4.

And Momota, knowing that he hardly had any time left to livedue to his illness and feeling like Ouma’s plan genuinely stood a chance atworking, decided to do the same. He agreed with Ouma’s plan willingly in theend, feeling like it was better to use his life to try and stop the killinggame than to die on someone else’s terms.

Their plan ultimately succeeded too, as Kiibo, Saihara, andthe other survivors do decide to lay down their lives for the sake of stoppingthe killing game in Chapter 6. The weight of Ouma and Momota’s sacrifice trulystuck with them, as did all the things they learned about how someone wasclearly watching them, and that the ringleader therefore had to abide by therules of their own game to some extent.

I hope I was able to answer your question, anon! Thank youfor stopping by!