#as a peko fan i could really never hate her

[ferocioustrout]

i love you maki harukawa

[kiwibongos]

warning for ab/se & toxic relationships. and sdr2 spoilers duh

im thinking abt the remnants of despair. cause i hate how it just seemed to be like, "theyre suddenly brainwashed and then they turn evilll and they kill because they dont feel anything" like, i hate that. it feels so underdeveloped. it cant just be despair, it has to be deeper than that, i think it'd take personal angles and link with a lot of their own trauma, leaving them really vulnerable and deranged. so heres my own interpretation and headcanons for some of them

contains mikan, nagito, fuyuhiko, peko, akane, kazuichi, and brief analysis of the rest. keep in mind i havent seen the animes yet lol so this is a basic layer of it, but i just rly wanted to let this out cus i dont see it talked about. storing my brainrot here for later moments.

first of all i feel like the brainwashing would be a very slow process bc junko would definitely just manipulate everyone in her way to get what she wants. and by the time the world was plagued basically, all the remnants clearly had really unhealthy feelings related to junko specifically. they all love her, hate her, or praise her, but its all in very different ways that would be bc of their own personal backstories

we all know how mikan and nagito feel. mikan was constantly hurt by other people before junko herself, itd make sense for her to develop a very unhealthy attachment to her. mikan was extremely vulnerable and controllable, she would do anything for anyone and especially junko, just so no one is mad at her, hence why it got so twisted to the point where she wanted to keep a part of her inside forever. she wanted to be loved so badly, she would take whatever form of it she could. thats why it was so easy for junko to get her under her boot. now nagito has an odd love-hate relationship with junko imo (his mind is so messed up man) even if he praises hope in such a grossly obsessed way, the mf still TOOK her arm. i know he did it because he hated her so much and i guess to take power back, but i feel like because nagito had never really been loved, he wanted to try and feel what it could've been like out of some kind of confused desperation and fondness for her in a way, because his mind has no idea what those feelings truly are or what they mean, as hatred and love often get mixed up in his head and form this horrible amalgamation with whoever he meets, which is clear towards the survivors in the nwp anyway

fuyuhiko put junko's own eye into his own socket, and i feel like his relationship with her while in despair would be familial and extremely unhealthy. he is definitely one of the most fucked up to me. id say by my own headcanons though its heavily implied in his fte dialogues, is his parents are very ab/usive right from the start. fuyuhiko is messed up to all hell, he was constantly struck and under pressure but he had to be strong and perfect because he was the head of his clan, hence like his insane tolerance for pain. he had to make his clan, or more importantly his parents proud, or else he was a failure forever. so he clung onto that and did his best trying to be good enough for basically anyone. and even before despair he was in a really bad stubborn, mean, depressive state, leaving him far more vulnerable and more open to violent, impulsive actions as long as junko was smart enough to get him under her finger. fuyuhiko never knew what true love felt like (platonic or not), and when junko took advantage of all of that and he slowly fell into despair, shit hit the fan. he lost morality and he had come so attached to her to the point where junko was like a mother figure to him. he wanted her to notice him and be proud basically, it was moreso the idea of someone-- anyone-- being proud of him, but junko was his main focus of that by now, given his state. to him she was like the mother he never had, who seemed to be on the same terms with everything he had believed, someone who approved of him, so he wanted to make her proud, even if it was hurting him. fuyuhiko would keep digging himself a hole of desperation and self destruction, seeking more and more pain to test his endurance because it's what she wanted, and that became what he wanted, too, because pain is all he's used to. and because of that, makotos guess was right; he wanted to see her despair. it'd make sense he'd want to take a part of her, to see horrors she had witnessed so he could understand it, so she could be proud of him and part of him forever. he felt like if he did that, he would finally succeed, he'd achieve perfection, and he did. he'd done everything junko wanted him to do, while quenching his own thirst for violence itself, all via his own delusions. that was love to him and it felt real

as for peko she was definitely also treated the same in the kuzuryu family but more dehumanized obviously, so i think she'd feel a similar way; always needing to be good enough, but more specifically protecting the ones she cares about at all costs even if it results in bloodshed. i think she'd be a lot colder, forcing to suppress her feelings since she just has to follow fuyuhiko wherever he goes, and she was pretty much as insane as him as well so anything slid. i know peko doesnt want to be a tool, but she'd definitely succumb to the fact that she has to be one when they're under despair at the same time, and if she was going to be his tool, she has to be like a robot and just do what follows, because she didn't see herself as a person, her chance of being her own human was ripped away

as for akane, she grew up very poor, and didn't live a good life at all either (w/ definitely bad parents) but she always tried her very best taking care of her siblings in the past, despite everything. i think there was a lot of twisted familial love with junko whom she started to see as a sister despite being unrelated, just because of being a caretaker all her life, its just kind of instinct to protect anyone, but that just got mixed up as she fell into despair, and she would only protect junko, while chaotically killing anyone else in her way. she'd fight for her endlessly, she was one of the strongest, at least for a while, im thinkin she found her body and wanted to preserve it as much as possible by the end of everything, she still wanted to take care of her and do everything for her even if she had been too late. and with that, and barely any food in an apocalyptic world, the inevitable happens. akane would fall into a very hurtful spiral of self hate, that her starving was a sacrifice to junko so she could prioritize her first instead of herself, while also it being like a punishment to herself for her own failures and how she was failing to preserve junko

kazuichi always hated himself. he was bullied often, didn’t have a lot of friends going into high school, and he was very desperate for attention, especially from women. he’d be very notably attached to junko which would eventually evolve into romantic feelings, similar to mikan. he craved attention and validation so much, it left him very vulnerable, and kazuichi often grows attached to people who show him a sliver of kindness anyway, so junko would likely personally manipulate him and praise him, and they’d grow close, and he’d develop a very strong attachment towards her that derails into love and lust. and once he was influenced by her under despair, he would do anything for her. so, he’d get his hands on a lot of weapons, and go on mindless killing sprees, causing havoc 24/7 just to please her and keep her memory alive through despair. and deep in his mind, he probably truly thought that junko was his soulmate, that they were destined to be together, and he was fulfilling missions just for her, and in the end, they could be together

extra stuff i guess? as anyone would expect, sonia just became a corrupted leader and took advantage of her power under despair. her kingdom would try to keep her above it, but she’d fall into it somehow anyway, and probably had already been plagued by corrupt/unjust views by junko before, so she’d lead her people to worship junko the same way she does, and anyone who stood against it would be punished severely. mahiru falls into morbid curiosity because of junko and gets worse, given what she does with her camera, also both mikan and gundham would try to stitch junko up a little, and try to keep her from falling apart as long as possible. mikan is more likely to do that for her own twisted romantic purposes, but if gundham gets a hold of her before or after mikan, he would take her blood for himself, and most likely start a cult to worship her, all for like weird satanic purposes involving rituals and stuff. he’d also encourage his members or the other remnants to indulge in certain activities for the sake of praising her. gundham would probably even believe she was some demon from the underworld who granted him powers and chose him to carry on her legacy

also teruteru was just a little hungry. boys gotta eat

[funishment-time]

Love these headcannons I want five more

Question 17

YAY

17. List five headcanons for your favorite characters!

Peko loves furries and fursuits, and after a bit of bashfulness is completely Unashamed of this. she is the type of person who is not really a Furry herself but a big fan and adjacent to the fandom. she would happily accompany any fursuiting friend to a convention to spot them (in exchange for getting to give them headpats) but perhaps would be a little Overzealous in ensuring no one tries to mess with them while they're suiting

Junko actually loves animals. i know this is a very "petting the dog" kind of thing and i'm very much against Defanging DR characters, but also i don't think we ever see her or her peeps hurt a real animal. in-universe, no one notices until years later that while she destroyed Swaths of humanity, she left critters untouched, and rogue Monokuma bots still seem to be feeding zoo creatures, strays, and orphaned pets. further, Gundham was actually one of her Favorite remnants, if she could be said to feel any emotion like that; it's why his execution is more honorable than many others

additionally, Junko had set-ups for all the Executions we don't see as listed in extra DR materials like the artbooks. this does in fact mean that the Future Foundation had to go in and save a bunch of sharks meant for Hina from the Hope's Peak basement. said sharks are in pretty good condition, actually. Junko loved those fucking sharks

Kyoko and Hina take care of Celestia's pet cat post-DR3. he is exactly like Celeste in every way, down to laziness and demands of gyoza, and even requires a Place at the table during Survivor Family Games of Yahtzee. notably, however, he doesn't play; he paws at players when they're about to make a shitty move. Hina wonders if perhaps he taught Celestia all she knows

in any nice non-despair AU, Kotoko's best (older) friend becomes Sakura, who makes good on her Summer Camp promise to protect her in various ways. Sakura may hate the title ogre but she allows Kotoko to lovingly call her Monster Girl or Big Sis Monster, and even comes to enjoy it

BONUS: two misc Engineering Trio headcanons. one, Miu actually is not rude to Chihiro because that makes him cry and she gets uncomfortable when her words actually have An Effect. she is gruff and exasperated but never Rude. two, Kazuichi sees Miu as something like a Disney Channel older sister, mean in the most Immature Ways but ultimately family, and this is their relationship for all of time.

[causeitsagame]

Fic: Chaperone

Another promptfic, but a much lighter one this time. (How could it not be?) The prompt: "....hello. it's me. So Fuyuhiko hates the smell and taste of alcohol, probably rarely drinks? Little asshole mafia man taking care of a drunk friend (of your choice)? Or maybe flipside, accidentally getting drunk himself? Island party night? Idk sounds lighter than my last prompt lol -xoxo hajihiko" I read that, flashed back to how he behaved during episode 2 of DR3, and went "sure, I can work with that."

Content warning: lots and lots of alcohol and associated behaviors. Also, Teruteru.

Additional warning for Teruteru fans(?): this is a story that treats him as a general content warning.

-----

"No thanks, I'll pass."

Teruteru's shoulders sagged at the refusal of his offered drink. "But it's a custom blend! I even made my own palm wine!"

Fuyuhiko gestured to the simple juice he'd chosen, rather than the 'party punch' that the rest of the room had in hand. "I'm good with this." He saw the protest coming. "I don't like feeling my head get all fuzzy."

"You're missing out on a truly triumphant creation," Teruteru sighed, but did walk on to refill a grateful Nekomaru's glass.

Shrugging, Fuyuhiko walked to the doors along one wall of the breezy event hall. The deck beyond was blissfully quiet in comparison to the raucous interior. He'd joined this event like he never would have, before, but he could feel the itch of over-socialization pulling tight around the base of his skull.

They'd all lucked out more than they had any right to, he thought as he watched the waves roll peacefully in. At the start of the party, those waves had been perfect azure under a cloudless sky. By now, the ocean had begun a slow descent into magenta and wine, and birds were letting out their last soft calls for the evening. These islands might technically serve as a sort of prison, but much of the world would pay top dollar for this kind of "punishment."

The sight was relaxing enough that he stayed out longer than he probably should. Fuyuhiko was anti-social when necessary or by accident, now, as opposed to having it be his default state of existence. It wasn't that he meant to ignore everyone else, but it was pleasant out here, staring out over a darkening ocean. And pretty. (He wouldn't have used that word before, either.)

Eventually, feeling his capacity for socialization having recharged, Fuyuhiko turned to walk back inside.

They were acting like a bunch of goddamn drunk morons.

"The hell?" Fuyuhiko asked, blinking as he made a slow survey across the room. He hadn't been out there that long, really. Not long enough to be seeing this.

Not everyone was wasted off their ass. For one, Peko had needed his encouragement to have even one drink, with the reminder that she no longer had 'official duties.' She sat in an armchair and focused too hard on where her hands rested on her knees, but still largely seemed to have control of herself.

Someone like Ibuki, though? She was hollering louder than even she typically did, and was—

"Fuck!" Fuyuhiko yelped, and darted across the room to pull the hem of Ibuki's shirt back down when she began to lift it over her head. Pouting, she reached for his and would have done the same, if only her hands could figure out how to close properly around its material.

Pushing away from Ibuki as his face flared crimson, Fuyuhiko spun around and looked for a reasonable face. Well, 'reasonable' wasn't the right word, but 'compliant' would have to be good enough. "Don't let her undress," he ordered Mikan.

Maybe Mikan wasn't the right pick, after all. She was fanning herself with one of the old hotel brochures and had unbuttoned her shirt as far down as was possibly decent. Hell. All of them had suffered through many dark flashbacks, but until now, they'd managed to avoid recalling that humiliating day in their old classroom where their food was drugged. "S-stop her?" Mikan wondered. Ibuki's bustline drew Mikan's attention like a magnet. "But if Ibuki wants to, it… it might be rude if I try to stop…"

"Don't let her fucking do it, or you'll answer to me!" Fuyuhiko snapped. That seemed to work, at least for now, and he spun around to try to solve this problem at its root.

There he was.

"What's in the drinks?" Fuyuhiko demanded of Teruteru, who looked futilely for an exit as he was backed into a corner. "D'ya find some stuff to slip into people's food, again?"

"It's just a palm wine punch, like I promised!" Teruteru protested. "With a perfectly irrestistable blend of fruit juices!"

Fuyuhiko gripped him by his neck scarf. "And?"

Teruteru hesitated. "I also. Ah. Finally managed to distill the wine. Like I'd been hoping to figure out. It'll be another option when we entertain ourselves!"

"Uh huh. And what's the ABV of palm wine?" His clan hadn't slipped a huge amount of foreign drinks past customs, but it had been enough to give him a rough familiarity with the alcohol by volume of various liquor.

Teruteru's gaze slid off to the side as he feigned uncertainty. "Ah, er, well, I believe about five percent?"

Fuyuhiko's eye narrowed. Okay, comparable to beer, but this wasn't beer-fueled behavior. Not this quickly. "And after it's distilled?"

Teruteru's attention wandered even further afield, toward the exit door he'd clearly rather be walking through. "About… fifty."

Fuyuhiko's grip around Teruteru's ridiculous scarf tightened. "So everyone was drinking ten fucking times as much as they thought they were, 'cause you told them it was palm wine."

"In—in fairness, I said it included palm wine. I didn't say that was the only alcohol."

"Shut the fuck up! Fucking hell." Groaning, Fuyuhiko looked around to again locate a visibly unsettled Peko. She also liked to maintain control of herself, and would certainly not appreciate losing far more of it than expected. "Hey, can you come here?"

She did, though she needed to put some effort into walking straight. A quick explanation later, anger flashed through Peko's red eyes in a way that had Teruteru looking even more ready to bolt for safety. "You took advantage of us," Peko muttered. Her words were precise, but they didn't come quickly. "I have said before: when a group lives together, propriety must be maintained. And for anyone who would ruin—"

"No taking advantage!" Teruteru promised, and held up his hands. "Nothing like that! I was only trying to bring life to the party."

Fuyuhiko didn't trust that for one single second. He'd heard Hajime mutter something that implied some pretty goddamn dark behavior on the chef's part, if—thankfully—only an attempt. "I'm gonna get people to their rooms before anything worse happens. Can you watch him?"

"Gladly." Peko loomed more over her target, even as her eyes couldn't quite focus.

Fuyuhiko ignored Teruteru's pathetic whimpers and looked around the room, sighing. People had already returned to their cups; the blend was, unfortunately, probably as delicious as everything else Teruteru made. Well. He'd better start with the people who'd be the hardest to get out of here if they went much further down this road.

"Come on," Fuyuhiko ordered Nekomaru, and grabbed the man by the wrist. "Put down your drink. We're going."

"Going?" bellowed Nekomaru.

Fuyuhiko shook his head, blinking. Nekomaru could be unbelievably loud when he wanted to be. A drunk Nekomaru appeared to reach those volumes unintentionally, with every single word. "Teruteru gave you the wrong drink. Come on, you need to go sleep it off."

"The wrong drink?" Nekomaru echoed, nearly loud enough to bring down the rafters. "But I feel great!" The words weren't just loud, but sloppy and slurred, like they were already tumbling down a slope that his body would soon follow.

By the bottom of the latest glass he held, Nekomaru probably would tip over, and then good fucking luck to anyone who'd try to haul him out of here. Do I actually need to bother, for Nekomaru? Fuyuhiko asked himself, only to grimace as he looked back at Teruteru. No one was safe around that little pervert. Fucking! Hell!

"You, uh…" Fuyuhiko cast his attention around the room. "You want to set a good example, right? For the team?" Okay, good, 'team' was the magic word. Nekomaru was nodding and looking for a coaster (a damn coaster!) to set his glass upon.

"Stop drinking!" Fuyuhiko shouted at Hajime as he steered Nekomaru out the door. The last thing they needed was someone with enhanced strength acting like a liquor-brainfogged dumbass.

"I've got a fast metabolism," Hajime promised, clearly certain that he could gauge his own drunkenness better than any outsider. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on people."

Whatever. That sounded good enough for now.

"This is very responsible of you!" Nekomaru cheerfully shouted as Fuyuhiko steered him toward his cottage. The hotel they'd settled on in the real world also had cottages like Mirai, though they were accessed from long walkways that ran out over the water. Herding everyone down that relatively narrow path already looked like a hellish task, Fuyuhiko realized as they approached it.

"That's me," Fuyuhiko grumbled, and pushed the massive man when Nekomaru drew to an abrupt stop for some reason that presumably made sense to his alcohol-soaked brain. "Keep walking."

Obligingly, Nekomaru set back into motion. "I really admire you, Fuyuhiko!"

"Hey, super, thanks." He jabbed Nekomaru in the back. "You're slowing down again."

Nekomaru tried to speed his pace, only to nearly stumble over his own feet.

"Nope, never mind," Fuyuhiko sighed, and relented into grabbing the (much) larger man by his wrist and steering him like a farmer guiding a team of oxen. "Just follow me."

Like that, he was able to get Nekomaru to his cottage. The man promised to sleep it off, and seemed surprised at how tired he felt after being confronted with the amount of liquor in the drinks he'd kept downing. The door closed and clicked into place, and Fuyuhiko exhaled. Okay. Biggest target down. That hadn't been too bad. Who was the next priority?

"Let's go," he soon ordered the Imposter.

"I was hoping for a pleasant buzz." Wobbling to a standing position, the Imposter unsteadily admitted, "I seem to have developed a little more than that."

"Yeah, we'll yell at Teruteru tomorrow." Fuyuhiko pointed to the door.

The plan was working. He'd get everyone closed into their cottages, nothing would happen out of bounds while everyone was drunk, and they could all bond as a group by punting that little asshole chef like a football. Great. Super. The Imposter's door was open, they were walking safely inside, and—

Fuyuhiko's hand reached out and snagged Ryota by his shirt collar before he could follow the Imposter. "No." He hadn't even noticed the guy tagging along behind them.

"It's okay," Ryota said with a disturbingly relaxed grin. He sounded to be wrapped in a warm, cozy alcohol haze, and as he looked toward the Imposter, his eyes were dilated beyond what alcohol or evening darkness would explain. "I'll stay with—"

"Nope!" Fuyuhiko ordered, reached in to grab the doorknob, and slammed the Imposter's door shut before Ryota could follow them inside. "Your own place!"

"But—"

"I don't care what the fuck you do, but do it sober," Fuyuhiko snapped as he spun Ryota around and pushed him in the opposite direction, toward his own cottage. Why the fuck did people like alcohol so much? It made you feel like shit, and if you did anything on it, you wouldn't even be able to remember it properly the next day.

Okay! Next person.

"A malevolent brew appears to have been slipped past my guard," Gundham slurred.

How are you still coming up with that bullshit to spout off? Fuyuhiko wondered as he steered Gundham down the walkway. Fortunately, the man gave him no trouble other than that, and they soon stood in front of his cottage door.

"I commend you for striking a clear path through this potion-fogged night." Gundham clasped Fuyuhiko by the arm and stared at him with unsteady intensity. "I am in your debt, son of the dragon."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll collect on that real soon," Fuyuhiko said impatiently. "Look, I gotta—"

With great solemnity, Gundham reached for something on a table next to his door, then leaned back to Fuyuhiko. "The unspeakable might of the dragon," he whispered with alcohol-slurred sincerity, and placed a gecko on Fuyuhiko's shoulder. "Yours to command."

Fuyuhiko blinked at Gundham and said nothing.

"We shall discuss the training of magical creatures upon the morn!" Gundham laughed, though his typically ridiculous cackle didn't have the same wild abandon as usual, and closed the door to his cottage.

"I'm gonna murder that fucking cook," Fuyuhiko spat as he made it back to sand and grass, and set the lizard down onto the ground. It scurried to safety as he stormed back into the event hall and yelled, "C'mere, Akane!"

That had been a mistake; it sounded like a challenge, and she decided halfway to her cottage that she wanted to wrestle. With her sober, he wouldn't stand a chance. With her drunk, she held back even less than usual. "Get in your room and stay there!" Fuyuhiko snapped as he dusted himself off.

"You're a sore loser!" Akane laughed, but she did close her door.

There were still so many fucking people to corral, Fuyuhiko miserably realized as he made another circuit into the event hall. He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. The usually ignorable pressure of his eyepatch was suddenly giving him a headache. "Peko, can you just… slap the shit out of him, or something?"

Peko looked at Fuyuhiko, then back to Teruteru. A moment later, a heavy smack sounded through the event hall.

Gasping, Teruteru clutched a hand to his reddening cheek. "Peko!" he whined. "I thought you weren't taking orders, any more!"

"I'm not." She shook the hand that'd struck him. "It was still a good suggestion."

"Do it again!" yelled Hiyoko from across the room, like some rowdy sports fan.

"Do not do it again!" Teruteru yelped.

Well, by this point, Fuyuhiko had handled the biggest problems. He might as well go with whoever was convenient. "C'mon, Saionji," he sighed, and walked over to grab her.

"I don't have to go with you!" she sneered as he tried to pull her toward the door.

His gaze flattened. "You wanna deal with me, or with Teruteru?"

Hiyoko opened her mouth, considered the question, and closed it. "Party's over," she agreed with comparatively sober precision, and gestured Fuyuhiko away. The punch probably hadn't been sugary enough for her to fully indulge herself. "I'll walk myself home. I don't want some man walking right up to my front door. Even if he is smaller than me."

Fuyuhiko was too annoyed at the world to be baited by her in particular. "You're exactly four doors down from me, but whatever." Sighing as she walked away, his attention landed elsewhere, and Fuyuhiko stormed over to the couch and snatched away Hajime's glass. "What did I say?"

Blinking, Hajime looked at his empty hands, and seemed to need a few seconds to process why they no longer held anything. "I told you," he promised Fuyuhiko in a voice more slurred than the last time he'd offered assurance. "I can handle myself. Fast metabolism." At least, that was what he tried to say; it came out more like 'fasht metabulbism.'

By now, Fuyuhiko definitely had a headache. "Don't let him drink any more," he ordered Nagito.

Nagito stared at Fuyuhiko with a glassy, awed expression. "You care so much about everyone, now," he whispered. Tears pooled.

Fuyuhiko blinked back at him, then turned to the other person on the couch. "Don't let either of them drink any more," he ordered Mahiru.

Mahiru stared back with clear comprehension, but she also wore a heavy, hollow-eyed expression. "I think I had too much."

"If you're gonna throw up, do it on Nagito. Goddamn it, Ibuki, put your fucking shirt back on!"

Ibuki cackled and swung her shirt above her head like a spinning helicopter's blade. To the side, Mikan stared at Ibuki with a wide-eyed grin.

This is not working, Fuyuhiko thought, and rubbed his temples.

Peko seemed to have control of herself, but she needed to keep watch on Teruteru. It was like one of those logic problems: how do you get the apples, goats, and foxes across the river without anything being eaten? But in this case, he had to figure out how to get everyone locked inside their cottage without someone ending up groped, hurt, or drowned when they pitched off the walkway. He couldn't send most people off on their own, but neither could he send Peko away from Teruteru, nor keep leaving this event hall while things continued to develop behind Peko's back.

Okay. Okay! He'd been training to lead a clan of thirty thousand men; he could deal with a group of friends who'd gotten drunk off their asses. Mahiru seemed sober enough to lead someone else to their cottage, and then she could probably vomit over the side of the walkway to get that out of her system. Fuyuhiko considered that, then snapped his fingers. Such a moment might send a jolt of adrenaline through their resident nurse. "Mahiru, can you get Mikan back to her cottage before she… uh…"

Mahiru eyed Mikan's hand as it slowly extended toward Ibuki's bare stomach. "Uh. Yeah, sure. But I still kind of want to—" She swallowed visibly, struggling to force down her nausea.

"Throw up if it helps, but wait until you're outside." Okay! Two more problems down, Fuyuhiko assured himself as Mahiru made her unsteady way toward Mikan and pointed her toward the door. "Nagito, do you think you can get Ibuki back to her place? And get her damn shirt back on, too."

Nagito blinked up at Fuyuhiko. Without a word, he stood, embraced Fuyuhiko, and rested his head against Fuyuhiko's like a pillow. "You've grown so much," he eventually whispered. Emotion choked his voice as he continued, "The light of hope you bring to us all… is…"

Rigid, Fuyuhiko stood there and did not make any move to hug Nagito back. He hated his life. He hated it. He fucking hated it. "Never mind," he sighed. "You're drunker than I thought. Let's go. And set down that fucking glass."

"I'm not holding anything," Hajime lied, and took another drink.

"I could always see a light shining deep inside you," Nagito slurred as Fuyuhiko led him toward the cottages. He kept trying to wander off to look at whatever sight caught his eye, and so Fuyuhiko had to grip his hand like leading a schoolchild through a crowd.

"Don't ever talk about what's 'deep inside me.' And—HEY! Get your ass back inside your cottage!"

Ryota looked up guiltily and yanked his hand away from the Imposter's doorknob.

"Inside! Right the fuck now!" Fuyuhiko bellowed, and waited until the man had followed orders. "Lock the door!" He nodded at the sound of that click, then loudly finished, "Pass the key through the window!"

It was soon slipped through the open shutters, and Fuyuhiko considered the length of the walkway as he pocketed Ryota's key. He should probably do that with some other people (Mikan), too. "Okay, Nagito, let's go."

By now, tears had actually started to spill. "You're amazing," Nagito cried.

Muttering, Fuyuhiko shoved Nagito down the walkway and into his cottage. It was far easier than it'd been with Nekomaru, but by now, his patience had worn much thinner. At least Nagito was only a door down from Mikan, so it was easy enough to make that detour and secure her key, too.

Almost there, Fuyuhiko told himself. Almost. Fucking. There. All that was left was Ibuki, Hajime, and…

He drew to a stop on the walkway. Fuck! He'd even flashed back to that old classroom day with the chemicals, and he'd never prioritized tracking down Kazuichi and Sonia? Fuck! Fuck! Fucking goddamn hell!

At a run, he set off back for the event hall and started trying to find the overlooked duo. With each passing second, unease twisted further into real worry. Where were they? Where the fuck were they? They weren't anywhere inside the main event hall, and they weren't out on the deck, nor in the kitchen.

He finally caught sight of a pink head of hair just outside of the bathrooms, and thankfully, Kazuichi was alone. "Something's wrong," he tried to whisper right against Fuyuhiko's ear, but it came out a little louder than normal volume. He smelled like a distillery.

Fuyuhiko blinked and shook his head. At least the two of them weren't together, like he'd worried Kazuichi's liquor-drenched brain would steer him toward. "Wrong?"

"She keeps saying weird things." Kazuichi's lower lip wobbled. "I can't figure out how to help. I can't do anything right. Ever. Can I?"

"Hold that thought," Fuyuhiko told him. Pathetic, weepy Kazuichi was something he could deal with in due time; Sonia's condition sounded more concerning. He rapped his knuckles against the door. "Sonia? You in there?"

Nothing. Fuyuhiko pressed his ear against the door, then covered his other ear when Kazuichi wouldn't stop whimpering about what a useless, no-good coward he was. Inside the bathroom, soft, gasping cries were barely audible; at least Sonia was still conscious and hadn't succumbed to alcohol poisoning. (Seriously, he hated the stuff.) "I'm coming in," Fuyuhiko said, and prayed that the door wouldn't be locked.

Thank fuck, Fuyuhiko thought with relief as the bathroom door swung open. He closed it securely behind him, not wanting to push his luck around this drunk duo, and knelt on the bathroom floor. By now, he was beyond caring about how dirty it probably was.

Loud drunk. Horny drunk. Confused drunk. Happy drunk. Emotional drunk. Sick drunk. Combative drunk. Sad drunk. He'd had to deal with all of those, so far, and Sonia had apparently carved out yet another kind of drunk for Fuyuhiko to deal with: paranoid. "They're going to get photos of me like this," she fretted from her crouched position in the corner. "It will ruin my coronation."

Oh fuckin' boy. "Yeah, uh, you don't need to worry about that," Fuyuhiko muttered. How, exactly, would he explain to someone drunk off her ass that her beloved homeland was now nothing but ashes?

"But I've let down my entire kingdom," Sonia insisted. None of the words came out like they should. Sticky trails of half-dried tears coated her cheeks. "And the buzzar. Buzzers. Buztards."

"Buzzards," Fuyuhiko supplied.

"With cameras would love nothing more than to capture me like this!" Years ago, in her old life, she'd be right; the former darling of Novoselic had an oddly stained outfit, with hair that was alternately frizzy and untamed or smeared with something that Fuyuhiko didn't want to identify. It was a sight designed for the gossip industry, and she clearly didn't remember that industry getting ground under the heel of the apocalypse.

Fuyuhiko sighed. They weren't supposed to joke about things like this, but fuck it, she wouldn't remember this by tomorrow. "Hey, Sonia. All those paparazzi?"

She looked up, flinching at the word. "Yes?"

He drew a finger across his throat. "All gone. My clan took care of them for you. Call it some diplomatic outreach."

It was unsettling that she took that as a positive, but he was beyond caring. They could all dig into some much-needed therapy tomorrow. "Yeah, happy coronation, congratulations," he agreed as Sonia's face crumpled into fresh tears and her tongue stumbled over a waterfall of thank-yous. "Let's go."

"What did you do?" Kazuichi demanded as Fuyuhiko led a still-crying Sonia out of the bathroom.

"Convinced her that she wasn't about to end up on the front page of a gossip rag. Shut the hell up. It's more than you managed." That was more than he should have said, Fuyuhiko instantly knew as Kazuichi's eyes filled with fresh tears and his lower lip trembled. Drawing upon every last scrap of patience left in his fragile reserves, Fuyuhiko took a deep breath. "Come on, Kazuichi."

Okay. One last plan to make. "Peko," Fuyuhiko said with rapidly growing exhaustion. "Can you watch Sonia for a second, too? I'll be right back."

Nodding, Peko gestured Sonia into her field of vision. Teruteru tried to check on her with what seemed like genuine concern, but one sharp move from Peko sent him scurrying back to a corner.

"Kazuichi. Ibuki. C'mon." Fuyuhiko grabbed both of their wrists and led them to the door, ignoring Ibuki's giggles and Kazuichi's continued pathetic noises. At least Ibuki still had a bra on.

"I tried to help," Kazuichi promised as he and Ibuki stumbled along after Fuyuhiko. "But you're right. I can't do anything. Hey. Hey. Hey. Fuyuhiko. Am I your best friend?"

"No! Shut up!"

"I knew it," Kazuichi mourned. "I bet I'm not Hajime's best friend, either. Sonia definitely hates me."

Ibuki began singing scales.

"Does Gundham hate me? I think Gundham hates me. I don't hate Gundham. I used to but now I don't."

"Be each other's best friends," Fuyuhiko seethed as he led them onward, futilely trying to block out Ibuki's singing as it rattled around his skull. "I don't care."

The singing abruptly stopped. "Besties? Me and Kaz?" Ibuki said, and giggled with clear delight over the idea. "Yeah! We can do each other's hair!"

Kazuichi nearly tripped, but got his feet back under him before he fell. "Wait, really? …Can I get streaks? Your streaks are cool."

"Great! Looking forward to the results," Fuyuhiko said as they reached the first cottage and he slammed open its door. "Inside."

Ibuki obediently went in, but immediately walked back out with a pair of scissors in hand. With a delighted grin, she snip-snip-snipped their blades against the air and approached Kazuichi.

"Tomorrow," Fuyuhiko corrected Ibuki, spun her back around, and closed the door once she was inside. "C'mon, Kazuichi."

"Do you really hate me?" Kazuichi wondered once they were alone. Unfortunately, his cottage was at the opposite end of the line from Ibuki's.

"I don't hate you," Fuyuhiko sighed as he led Kazuichi past the line of cottages. From one, Nekomaru's snoring pushed through his shutters like a sounding foghorn.

Kazuichi wiggled out of Fuyuhiko's grip on his arm and instead clutched the smaller man by his shoulders. It was an awkward way to walk, especially on such a narrow path, but it seemed too near to their destination to make an issue of it. Fuyuhiko resigned himself to being held as Kazuichi sing-songed, "You are my best friend, huh?"

"All I said was that I don't hate you. But you're changing my goddamn mind."

Kazuichi sniffled. When Fuyuhiko looked over, his tears were now only from joy. "I love you, too."

"Just get inside your cottage." After a moment, Fuyuhiko sighed more deeply than ever. "Don't hug me."

Kazuichi's grip on him tightened.

"I mean it. Get off. Now."

More than a minute later, Fuyuhiko whooshed out a determined breath and stalked back toward the event hall. Almost done. "Here's the plan," he said the instant he was inside. "Peko, I don't trust Sonia not to do something stupid. Can you stay with her tonight?"

Peko nodded, and Sonia burst into fresh tears at the reassurance that she'd have a bodyguard's protection.

"And as for this asshole: you cause one single problem more," Fuyuhiko snapped at Teruteru, "and tomorrow, we all take a hike up to the top of the volcano."

Teruteru went paper-white. "That is in incredibly poor taste."

Fuyuhiko's answer was a wordless snarl.

Rounding on Hajime, Fuyuhiko gritted his teeth as he saw an empty glass dangling from his loose grip. "Hajime," he began in a barely-controlled voice as he walked over. "Did you have another drink?"

Hajime looked up at him blearily. "'M good at. Tracking." He appeared to think hard about the next addition to the explanation he'd indicated before, that he was uniquely suited to monitor his own metabolism. "Good at. Tracking."

Too tired to protest, Fuyuhiko just let him stumble slowly through it. Very, very slowly.

"Good at tracking. Talents," Hajime added emphatically, like that explained it all. "Tal. Ents."

Fuyuhiko pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hey. Supergenius. How drunk was that brain of yours when it decided everything was under control?"

Hajime stared back at him, red eye and green eye equally fogged. He needed a long, silent moment to work through Fuyuhiko's question, but eventually realized, "Ohhh."

"Yeah, 'ohhh,'" Fuyuhiko sighed, and tried to figure out how best to haul Hajime up off the couch. "No!" he instantly snapped when Teruteru approached to offer help, and pointed toward the door with his free hand. "You! Go!"

Grumbling, Teruteru followed Sonia and Peko into the night.

Damn, he could have asked Peko for help. At least Sonia could walk on her own. "Come on," Fuyuhiko muttered, and tried to haul Hajime to his feet. "Can you stand?"

"I can stand," Hajime promised, right before he nearly fell over.

Great. "My place is closer," Fuyuhiko sighed as he inched an unsteady Hajime toward the door. "You'd better not throw up on anything."

"S-sorry," Hajime managed once they'd made it down the few broad steps outside the door, slowly and carefully. "'M not supposed to do this."

"No," Fuyuhiko said shortly, strung drumskin-tight with the night's annoyances. "You're not."

"Yeah." Hajime's already apologetic mood cratered further with each step. "'M supposed to be in charge. Right?"

"In charge? Heh." That finally earned a smile, if a very small and tired one. "Says who? I'm not gonna listen to you."

Hajime's clouded gaze grew increasingly distant, and even more despondent. "That's what they made. What they put together. In a lab. Right?"

Oh.

Fuyuhiko stayed quiet for a while, and adjusted his grip when Hajime's unsteady weight angled against him wrong. "Don't worry about it. You're just a guy like anyone, and you pulled a dumbass move like they did. You're not the only one. Trust me."

"Really?" The question was tremulous, vulnerable.

"Really," Fuyuhiko promised him with a sigh, and leaned over to open his door. He gestured toward a loveseat and began, "You can take—"

Before Fuyuhiko could finish, Hajime collapsed gratefully onto his bed and closed his eyes.

Of course.

Too depleted to even complain, Fuyuhiko shut his door, locked it, and took the loveseat for himself.

He knew he'd been right to steer clear of parties for most of his life. They were more trouble than they were worth, especially when trouble-makers entered the mix. Or when alcohol did, or trouble-makers deliberately supplied that alcohol to everyone.

Before exhaustion could take him, he ran through everyone in his mind and checked off their conditions. Aside from the hangovers from hell that were certainly coming, every last person on the island was safe in their cottage, protected from themselves and others. No one would do anything they'd regret, no one would decide to challenge themselves to a midnight swim a mile offshore.

Alright. Good. They'd better appreciate this, because it was the last party he'd ever risk attending.

For if there was one thing that Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu clearly was, it was anti-social.

[dragbunart]

A jealous reserve course student spreads a rumour about Kaede cheating on Shuichi with a picture of Natsumi kissing her current romantic partner while wearing one of Kaede's dresses.

It got everyone gossiping except the Ultimate students because even the ones that don't know Kaede that well know that the pianist would never cheat on her boyfriend.

This leads to most of the ultimates debating whether the beloved blonde is being set up by an evil clone or she has a secret twin.

That is fucking hilarious, and TOTALLY how Kaede would be outed as a Kuzuryu

Also technically Kaede would have a secret twin. I bet Celeste put money on the secret twin option.

quick note: I headcanon Kaede is neurodivergent so that will play a part in the story. with sensory over load.

Kaede was passing by the reserve course to pick Chiaki and Mahiru up, and totally not check on her twin. While it was pretty well known that the pianist had better ears than most people, it seemed the reserve course hadn't received that news. As she could hear their whispers as she passed by.

"Is that her?" "I think so. I can't beleive someone so sweet looking would cheat."

"I mean have you seen her boyfriend? Can you blame her?" That comment earned a glare from Kaede, one signature to her family.

Who do they think they are!? Me? Cheat? On Shu? He may have self-esteem issues, but other than that he's the best boyfriend ever! Kaede's steps became very aggressive and stompy.

"Everything ok?" Chiaki asked looking up from her game. Hajime waved nervously to the main course student.

"People think I'm cheating on Shu!" Kaede stomped immaturely. Hajime blinked.

"What? But like, you two are one of the most sickeningly sweet, couples in either course?" Hajime interrupted.

"Honestly I have a good idea who it was. This guy confessed to me last week, claiming to have been a fan of mine for the longest time, but I turned him down since, you know, Shu."

"Maybe he mistook you for someone else," Mahiru said dragging Sato behind her.

"I hate to mention it, since Natsumi is literally the worse..." Sato suggested. "I'm pretty sure the rumor says Kaede's cheating with Natumi's most recent hookup."

"Oh! You two do look really similar from behind!" Mahiru agreed. "When we first met I totally thought you were Natsumi trying to mess with me! You two could pass for twins if you tried."

Kaede tried to shrug the comment off, but Hajime in particular didn't miss the slight flinch at the 'twin' comment.

"It's probably why Fuyuhiko is nicer to you than most people." Chiaki yawned.

"He's nice to Peko too!" Kaede defended. Chiaki and Mahiru both stared at Kaede with a 'We all know why he treats her nicely' look. "Yeah, if he were any more obvious there would be a neon sign."

"And Peko would probably still miss it." Mahiru joked.

"Why don't you talk to Natsumi? She can confirm if the girl kissing the guy was her or not?" Hajime suggested. Everyone else seemed in agreement except...

"There's no need! I'm sure things will work themselves out!" Kaede tried to stop. Mahiru's gaze softened.

"Kaede, I know the Kuzuryu family can be scary, but you'll have everyone in 77-A and B backing you up!" Mahiru grabbed her hands.

"I'll get Fuyuhiko to invite Natsumi to lunch tomorrow." CHiaki helped.

and thus Kaede's fate was sealed.

------

Somehow class 78 got roped into the 'Clear Kaede's name team'.

Shuichi squeezed Kaede's hand. He could tell she was nervous and knew that the whole 'cheating' rumor had bugged her, even if everyone knew it was just a rumor.

"I can't believe that degenerate spread a rumor because you said no! I'll kick his ass!" Tenko shouted.

"I can see how the rumor started though," Rantaro stated. "I mean, Kaede wears a dress just like that a lot so seeing another blond of similar height and build from behind in it? I would've had to do a double take."

Peko merely nodded, not saying anything, and rubbed Kaede's back. While she knew why inviting Natsumi was making Kaede nervous she couldn't do anything to stop it. She could just sit here and help try to calm her.

Fuyuhiko and Natsumi entered the room.

"What the fuck is everyone doing here?" He groaned. Kokichi immediately started causing trouble.

"WOW! If I didn't know any better I'd think you were Kayayde's twin! Do you want to be my evil queen too? You'd certainly fi-" "Move asshole." Natsumi pushed her way past Kokichi. "I can't believe you hang out with people like this." She said to Fuyuhiko. "It's bad enough you're in a class with that loser," SHe nodded toward Mahiru who glared. "But this is a new low."

"My, my, genetics are a very curious thing!" Kiyo circled Natsumi who seemed off put. "I can see why people confused you for my class rep."

"Mistaken fo-" finally Natsumi connected the dots. She had heard a rumor about one of the Detectives in the main course getting cheated on. And she had borrowed Kaede's dress the other day.

That's why Fuyuhiko's class rep insisted he invited her to lunch today. They were confronting her because they thought she was trying to ruin Kaede's life. She looked at Kaede who seemed to be a nervous wreck about everything; the rumor, being outed...

If these people weren't truly looking out for Kaede's best interest she was about to lose all her friends. And there was nothing Natsumi could do to protect her.

"Sorry about them all." A rather stylish boy approached Natsumi, gently pushing Kiyo and Kokichi to the side. "We do want to have lunch with you, we just need a small favor."

"I don't do favors." Natsumi looked passed him.

"YOu owe Kaede one! You nearly ruined her relationship!" Mahiru shouted. "And this isn't the first time someone mistook you for each other!"

"Green and purple are two different colors. It's not my fault people didn't do a double take." Natsumi's normal bite wasn't in her words.

"You're hiding something," Celeste stated. "Kokichi and I noticed the minute you walked in."

"I don't owe you punks anythi-" Soon she was bombarded with different people threatening or begging, all to try and get her to clear Kaede's name from the rumor. And finally, she broke as she watched sensory overload take over Kaede and the onset of a meltdown. "Oh shit!" She pushed past everyone and covered Kaede's ears. "Where are your headphones? In your bag? Where is it?" "I dunno," Kaede mumbled. "I feel itchy and I can't breath." "Ok.. Ok..." Natsumi looked around, locking eyes with Shuichi, who she only recognized through Kaede's description. "Where's her bag?"

"Over by the wall..." Shuichi nodded he didn't look like he wanted to leave Kaede in such a state.

"She'll be fine, but she needs her headphones so she can regulate the sound in the area," Natsumi explained. Shuichi blinked but nodded and ran over. Fuyuhiko ran over with a water bottle handing it to Kaede.

"It's ok, we got you." Fuyuhiko gently soothed. No one knew his voice could get that soft.

Oh. oh.

That little lightbulb in everyone's heads went off. And Mahiru realized why Kaede seemed nervous.

"Anyone else curious how the sperm and egg factory that spit out fuckin' Baby GodFather somehow also produced lil miss 'Perfect'?" Miu interrupted to mood.

Everyone let Kaede regulate herself before they asked too many questions.

"So... I guess introductions are in order," Kaede spoke as if she hadn't had a meltdown 15 minutes ago. "Everyone I'd like you to meet my Twin sister Natsumi... Who is no longer allowed to borrow my outfits."

"I'm going to kill the motherfucker that started that rumor!"

[chihirolovebot]

I'm doing well! I hope you are too, dear/p

Forgive me for asking if you won't do it, but may i get a a few of Kokichi and Fuyuhiko relationship headcannons? They're my soft spot haha <3

Also, no need to rush. I can wait if you need me to.

-🍡

KOKICHI AND FUYUHIKO RELATIONSHIP HEADCANONS.

featuring. kokichi ouma, fuyuhiko kuzuryu / gn reader.

content. fluff, kissing, cuddling, weapons mention, comfort.

notes. 🍡 ur taste is spectacular. these are my favourite boys too :')

FUYUHIKO.

f. first of all. he's so romantic on the side.

like oh my god he's rlly just very soft, especially around you.

he actually confesses pretty quickly, just because he hates making a fool of himself pining for you.

cause like. you know he's not slick. he brushes pretty easily, he trips over his words, he zealously avoids you so he doesn't make an idiot of himself in front of you.

he takes you for a nice lowkey expensive dinner then gets the family car to drive you home. right as you pull up to your house he starts fidgeting like. um. so. hey, funny thing.

it's pretty hard to confess when peko is staring at the both of you from the backseat like ( : ౦ _ ౦ : )

but he does it because he's NOT afraid smh.

he's so protective. he will absolutely kill and die for you.

if someone so much as looks at you funny he's getting in their face like "huh? huh??? did you say something?? wanna speak up??" and peko is already drawing her sword.

he's not a fan of pda - it makes him shy - but he always has an arm or hand on you when you're out in public together in the nature of your safety. he's never fully at ease until you're fully in his sight and under his protection.

gifts you weapons and thinks it's hot when you carry them around NSHSHW.

the king of flustered if you steal his clothes. his jacket, hat, tie, name it. will grumble and complain but then if you try and give it back he'll just be like "tch... keep it if you want it so bad. cheapskate."

flicks you on the forehead or raps you about the head when you annoy him lol.

he likes going out but privately he likes quiet evenings in just as much. having the two of you just lying in bed or on the couch with your back to his chest </3 yeah

it makes the two of you feel so safe.

buys you stuff all the time. clothes specifically tailored to make you look gorgeous, flattering jewellery (nothing tacky, he is a man of taste), expensive shoes. if you get your hair or nails done, he pays for that too.

please..... please give him massages.... he's so stressed don't you wanna help him out a lil :((

gets his bouts of insecurity, but rarely confides in you about them. instead he'll retreat into himself and get bitter, maybe even lashing out before he's confronted with the very real fear that you could leave him all alone again.

look me in the eye and tell me he can apologise without crying. he's can't. he gets all teary and then he's angry about crying and then he's crying cause he's frustrated and aaahhhehe give him hugs.

he only says the really soft shit in the dark. the lights off with you two curling into each other, his hands tracing soft shapes into your skin, and he presses his face into your shoulder.

"don't ever leave me." and if it was anyone else that would sound threatening but it's fuyuhiko and you know it's born from a place of fear and insecurity. "please."

you bring his hand to your mouth and press your lips to it gently, not commenting on the bodily shudder that wracks through him at the motion. you can feel the raised scars on his hands beneath the skin of your mouth.

"i won't. never."

"... love you."

"i love you too."

KOKICHI.

.....

okay. alright. okay.

im gonna assume you're a very patient person because you're gonna need it.

you gotta read between the lines with everything this mf says.

honestly though,, once you figure it out, it's not too hard.

he doesn't exactly confess? you just have to figure it out.

and if you're too dense to do that, he'll just kind of announce that you're dating and let you take it from there.

he's like, surprisingly possessive. not in an overly controlling way - like, he'll never try and stop you talking to someone or cut them off unless they're genuinely overstepping their boundaries, but

he's gonna make it very obvious you're with him.

and unlike fuyuhiko, he has no shame. he is overly affectionate in public, an arm around your waist, squeezing your hips to make you jump, wrapping around your middle from behind and pressing his face into your back.

the type to sigh obnoxiously loudly when he's bored and droop all over you, head in your lap, arm around your shoulder, leg twined around your ankle. he's like a housecat.

please just. hold him. he loves casual affection, it makes him feel very wanted.

teaches you to play a ton of games! card games, chess, board games, all of them pretty complicated. he likes when you lose and he can lord it over you but honestly, he loves it even more when you get good enough to make it a real challenge for him.

he puts on the sore loser act, but he's secretly fucking thrilled. he literally finds you so attractive when you beat him at stuff.

stealing his clothes? non non. kokichi steals your clothes.

your hoodies, jeans, socks, shirts, you name it, he's taking it. he's very lightfingered and it takes you a while to realise he's taken something of yours.

but if you try and ask for it back he'll be all "huh? what are you accusing me of?! i bought this with my own hard-earned money and you're trying to make me out to be some kind of common criminal!"

basically guilts you into letting him keep them. little sewer rat.

fun dates!! the arcade, amusement parks, aquariums so he can look at the weird fish and say some out of pocket shit to make you concerned.

"sighhhh, i wish i was a jellyfish."

"??? do you need to talk to someone??"

jokes aside. you're one of the few people he completely trusts and it shows.

sincerity happens at the end of the day when the house is dark, when you're both made soft by exhaustion and he's just. tired and small and happy to have you here to take care of him sometimes.

you're both just lying down ready to sleep when he pokes you in the back. "y'know, if you ever leave me i'm gonna have to have you killed. you know too much."

"hm? good thing i'm never going anywhere then."

"... right. just as well."

"night, kichi."

"neheehee, you're so dependant on me. night!"

<3

[owo-shenanigans]

(burrito) hello can i request a yandere one for sayaka, peko, and mikan from danganronpa who has a crush on the reader (romantically) and finding out the reader also likes them? :)

-

Ye sure. Mikan is banned atm though so check the blacklist in the future.

Yandere Sayaka and Peko finding out reader likes them

Sayaka Maizono

She had never considered for a moment that you didn’t like her back. Oh, she wasn’t sure at the beginning, when she’d only just discovered her feelings and she was awkward and stilted whenever you snuck up on her, but once she’d examined her feelings and plotted out a plan, she knew it was inevitable.

Sayaka wasn’t egotistical- far from it. As hard as she had worked to make her dreams come true, the hours and hours of work every day to get routine perfect, to rhyme words, to sing in pitches low and high, she knew half of it had been luck to get her noticed as a candidate, and then luck again that her debut song was released at the best time to become an instant hit.

But her intimate knowledge of her limits gave her a clear view of her positive traits- her instinct was to be kind, she enjoyed rambunctious people (as long as it wasn’t extreme) and the looks of others were the last on her mind as she met new people. Those weren’t all, but suffice to say she was a catch, as her fans would say.

She knew it was inevitable.

But it was nice to get confirmation. The love letter had been placed in her shoe locker, tucked to the side. Her name written in your hand that you’d adorably tried to disguise. Inside it detailed the things about her that you adored, and in shaky hand at the bottom, it said, ‘And… I would really love to date you and be able to call you my girlfriend. If you’re not interested, just put a letter under my door. - (Y/N)’.

She giggled to herself softly. As if she would ever turn you down! Already she was thinking about where your first date could be, and what she would be wearing. Nothing too formal, but she had to look her best!

Peko Pekoyama

It had taken her weeks to accept her feelings, and the fact that she held them in the first place. Fuyuhiko had had to yell at her that she was a real person, damnit, and she could protect him even if she wasn’t his tool. It took more discussions between them, long and difficult and his admitting that they probably couldn’t tell his parents the truth, but by the end of their first year Peko was trying to settle into the fact that she was human, and emotional, and loved you.

Emotional was a strong word. Her poker face was exceptional, and she struggled to show her feelings in a way others could comprehend. With you, though, a faint smile could be seen on her face when you weren’t looking.

Peko is the kind of yandere who will do you many favors that you almost don’t notice. She has a spare pencil whenever you need, she makes sure to get an extra serving of lunch so you don’t need to deal with the line, spare notes for when you drifted off in class… The favors that she makes sure you don’t notice are bloodier, but in her eyes no less helpful.

She’s content, almost, with the dynamic you have. She’s fine with never growing close to you, so long as no one else becomes your partner. She’d rather this than risk you hating her.

But then you ask her to meet you by the benches at the back of the school after classes are over, a spot that’s secluded without having to go too far out. The whole day she’s worrying that you’re going to tell her that you don’t want her so close to you, that she’s been bothering you and you’ve been sick and tired of her. She would never leave you alone- but not even being able to exchange glances with you would kill her.

But she arrives early, hands in her lap and her only physical tell is her adjusting her glasses every few seconds. You show up, and confess that you’ve grown feelings for her, and that she doesn’t have to reciprocate but you just had to tell her somehow.

Peko is silent long enough you start to feel nervous before she leans over to take your hands, and confesses that she’s held feelings for you for months, and that while she doesn’t have any experience, she would love to be your girlfriend.

The two of you leave for the dorms hand in hand, the faint smile on her face mirrored by the one on yours.

[gregrulzok]

The Danganronpa fandom is really gross for treating Korekiyo as creepy or disgusting, and it shows how little sympathy people have for male victims of abuse. 

More under the cut, spoilers for DRV3 (just Kiyo’s story)

TW: Mentions/Non-graphic discussion of Abuse, SA/Child SA, Inc*st, Murder

To put it plainly: Korekiyo was abused and assaulted by his older sister. 

This is never directly stated... But it doesn’t take a lot to figure out, either. 

Korekiyo talks about his now-deceased older sister in a state of almost feverish adoration. He clearly holds her in high regard, but the way he reminisces about her is clearly meant to be romantic or even sexual, which is something that the fans quickly picked up on. Justifiably enough, this was universally seen as gross and creepy. 

What the fans apparently DIDN’T pick up on is the context to the story. While the ages of V3 characters are ambiguous, the implication is the Kiyo was a child when his sister died, and therefore was a child when their relationship started. She, meanwhile, was an adult, or at least close to one, as evidenced by the fact that it’s said their parents weren’t there and she had to raise him.

It’s ALSO implied that their relationship was, physically or verbally, abusive. In Kiyo’s execution, his spirit excitedly reaches towards her, only for her to put salt on him (this is probably supposed to be an exorcism), clearly hurting him and laughing in the process. This, in an of itself, could be a fabrication by Monokuma, but the way Korekiyo himself talks about and “to” his sister implies to me that she at least was controlling and overbearing, as he always defers to her. 

Either way, what we’re seeing is a grown/near grown woman entering a sexual and romantic relationship with her younger brother, someone who had no choice but to rely on her for protection and care in the absence of parents. She took advantage of his reliance on her and her own power over him - she could color his worldview however she saw fit, and she clearly used it to make him feel like their relationship was normal and beautiful. 

Korekiyo loves his sister, yes, but he also never had a choice. She was the only one who was ever there for him, she raised him, she taught him how to look at the world. 

So, again: Korekiyo was abused and assaulted by his older sister. 

And the fact that the fandom has the audacity to turn around and call Korekiyo a freak, a weirdo, creepy and gross for the way he talks about her disgusts me. 

A victim of abuse and assault from the other person he trusted is seen as the gross one.

Kotoko gets sympathy from the fandom. Akane gets sympathy from the fandom (albeit less, since she isn’t very popular in the first place). Mikan gets sympathy from the fandom. Tenko gets sympathy for assault that was never even canonized, same with Miu. 

What makes Korekiyo different?

Don’t answer that, you know as well as I do. 

A man can be a victim. A man can be abused, and assaulted, and manipulated, and hurt. A man can be a victim to a woman, abused and assaulted and manipulated and hurt by a woman. 

And the fact that the entire fandom decides to sweep that under the rug in favour of seeing HIM as the disgusting weido, a pervert, a freak, is trully and utterly repulsive to me. 

...

And don’t even try to give me the “But he’s a murderer” spiel. Don’t even try. So is Syo, and she’s generally loved. So are Junko and Mukuro, who aren’t looked at with disdain. So is Maki, and she’s generally well-liked. Fuyuhiko and Peko are in the yakuza, are any of you concerned about that?

Korekiyo’s murdering is so swept under the rug that there is literally no chance in hell that anyone in the fandom would care if that was all there was to him. 

You don’t care that he’s a murder, I don’t care that he’s a murderer, no one cares that he’s a murderer. 

People hate him because they can’t be bothered to feel sympathy for a male victim. 

[m-y-fandoms]

1 Thing I Love & 1 Thing I Hate About EVERY Danganronpa Character Part 1

Part 2

SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE MAIN GAMES

I’d love to hear our opinions as well in the comments or my inbox or DM’s! If you try this trend with DR characters, tag me!

Sayaka Maizono

♡ Her passion for her career and friends.

✘ The way she tries to screw over Makoto when the game had just begun. Like wait and see what happens before screwing over such a great guy? Leon didn’t deserve it either.

Leon Kuwata

♡ His voice actor (English), and how real and human his execution was in that we all would be so scared and irrational. It was just so iconic and sad as it’s our first introduction to the death in this series and we all think: “shit, this is real... they are really killing these kids.” I didn’t think it would be that brutal, just seeing his body limp at the end with the haunting music.

✘ His design is disgusting. I hate how he looks.

Chihiro Fujisaki

♡ So innocent, so kind, so intelligent

✘ Shouldn’t have been killed for such a stupid reason, also they did Mondo dirty with that motive for killing as well. Just a mess. As for the actual character, Chihiro cries right off the bat when you do your introductions and that was kind of annoying to me personally.

Mondo Oowada

♡ He has a lot of respect, understanding and emotions for someone I thought would be a hard-ass douche biker.

✘ The worst motive to kill ever in a game where you know you’re getting executed if you’re found out. Like you’d be extra careful and that’s his reason to kill? Lazy writing.

Celestia Ludenberg

♡ Bad bitch energy and her goth lolita design.

✘ Manipulation and double murder. Bad bitch energy only goes so far. Confidence is different then selfishness. Also, of all the chapter 3 triple murders... the worst motive to kill.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

♡ Emotions: secure in his masculinity, able to cry, show emotions, and apologize when he’s wrong. He’s funny and likable.

✘ The Ishimondo white hair thing was stupid. Taka was fine on his own.

Hifumi Yamada

♡ Writing takes talent, fan fiction as much as any other style or genre. Also the talent of his voice actor (who also voices Kiibo/K1-B0).

✘ Literally everything else about him.

Sakura Oogami

♡ I love everything about her. I love her wisdom, loyalty, design, voice etc. Just step on me, mother.

✘ Why the hell would she ever agree to be a spy even if it meant the end of her dojo? I just don’t think she would do that rationally because she isn’t selfish. The others would suffer for her spying. She remedies this with redemption in her letter in chapter 4 but still she should’ve said no off the bat. Everyone had something to lose. The dojo wasn’t worth spying for monokuma. Also I just don’t think she would commit suicide. She can’t help the remaining students survive and redeem herself truly if she’s dead.

Kyoko Kirigiri

♡ Bad bitch energy, calm and collected when I could never be.

✘ Especially in future arc of the anime, damn can you show some emotion please? Through your words and expressions not just your actions. Sure she was willing to “die” for Makoto but like I just want more emotion from her sometimes, even in THH.

Makoto Naegi

♡ So pure. I Love Bryce Papenbrook. Makoto reminds me of Sora and I love his design.

✘ In THH I didn’t mind his innocence but in the Danganronpa 3 future arc anime, when people started straight up abusing him and accusing him, he needed to grow a little backbone.

Byakuya Togami

♡ Love my dad, king shit, also love how over the progression of the games and animes he becomes a little more kind to his friends.

✘ Why the fuck did he mess with Chihiro’s body? Just so cruel and disrespectful.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

♡ Funny magic man. Sexy voice.

✘ Please. Please Hiro use your brain just once. Why do we have to prove Kyoko isn’t a ghost?!

Toko Fukawa

♡ Character development in UDG and I love Genocider.

✘ Putting down herself and others constantly gets old in THH.

Aoi Asahina

♡ Love her voice actress and her personality

✘ We really just gonna get everyone killed in chapter 4 huh? Surely you know they don’t all deserve that.

Junko Enoshima

♡ A very memorable villain with great hair and design.

✘ I just can’t stand her. I hate her so much.

Mukuro Ikusaba

♡ Her mercenary background is super cool as a concept.

✘ Too bad it wasn’t explored nearly enough.

Hajime Hinata

♡ Seeing the protagonist be a little less naive, innocent and positive than Makoto was a refreshing change, although I loved Makoto. I liked Hajime’s cynicism and expressions that sometimes just screamed “this shit again, huh?”

✘ I enjoy the way Izuru looks but I hate him as a character. He is sexy to look at but Hajime is just a better character overall

Teruteru Hanamura

♡ His love for his family and mother especially is so cute and heart breaking if you know the full story.

✘ He needs to know when to dial it back and quit with the perversions. And no it’s not just how he looks, Miu needs to chill at times, too.

Twogami

♡ I feel like he genuinely cares about his friends, just hides it well

✘ His death felt like a cop out and poorly written. It just didn’t sit right with me. Also his design is disgusting to me, his outfit and such.

Mahiru Koizumi

♡ Loyal to her close friends.

✘ I just have no interest in her as a character and I find her boring.

Peko Pekoyama

♡ Loyalty. Loyalty is something I value very highly in every form of relationship. Peko is also very hot.

✘ Come on girl... I know how you were raised but you should’ve known Fuyuhiko didn’t think of you as just a tool and you two should’ve expressed your true feelings long ago. Like even in secret. How do you live like this? Also I feel like killing Mahiru could’ve been avoided with a calm talk.

Ibuki Mioda

♡ Cute design, positive vibes.

✘ Cringe sometimes in the way she talks.

Hiyoko Saionji

♡ Beautiful character design and some very good insults and snarky remarks at times.

✘ Just irredeemably mean and annoying. Even when you do her free time events she is just so annoying.

Mikan Tsumiki

♡ I like her design as well as her hair, expressions, sprites and clothing.

✘ I hate her. I just hate her whether she’s in her true psycho form or timid stuttering form. She’s just annoying in my opinion.

Nekomaru Nidai

♡ So supportive, can hold my drink at a party. Respects everyone and wants the best for them.

✘ Bro Mechamaru was a stupid plot point. I just couldn’t stand looking at him and couldn’t take it seriously. Still sad when he died though.

Chiaki Nanami

♡ From chapter 5 of sdr2 on she is impossible not to love if you didn’t already. Just the selflessness, the sadness of the reveal and execution, how she returns to help Hajime at the end???? I love her. I love her hair design, color palette, her personality, everything.

✘ I’m bitter and miserable about her being the only class member to actually die (the despair arc anime) also her falling asleep at random times is kind of odd and she doesn’t seem to be like that later on in the game??? Like it seemed like a cheap joke but not actually who she is? Hard for me to explain.

Gundham Tanaka

♡ King shit, couldn’t praise him enough. He’s sexy, loves animals, and is funny as hell sometimes. His voice actor is a saint and a cool dude and I named my guinea pigs after the Dark Devas (yes I know they are hamsters in the games.)

✘ Come on dude. I get that being from Hell and magic and having evil powers is your shtick, but we all know that you and Nekomaru sacrificed yourselves so the others wouldn’t starve. We know you care about your classmates. There comes a time when it’s time to let personas and facades fade and be true to your heart. I just feel like him denying he cared at the end hurt. We all know he cared. I didn’t like how he was haughty until the end. He deserved better. I love him.

Nagito Komaeda

♡ I love him so much. So cunning and intelligent, always a step ahead. And he’s big sexy.

✘ Him killing himself in chapter 5 hurt me so bad I was like in denial for days. Also hate how Bryce Papenbrook gives him a raspy stoner psycho voice in the game then a light airy higher-pitched voice in the despair arc anime. It just bothers me. I love his voice still but the inconsistency just hurts my OCD

Sonia Nevermind

♡ I love that she’s so interested in her passions and love her feelings for Gundham

✘ Her outfit and bow are atrocious. Also why didn’t she start liking and talking to Gundham sooner on? Their romance bloomed late and it would’ve made for a better chapter 4 ending if they were a bit closer.

Kazuichi Souda

♡ Cool design and outfit, love his voice (also voices Kaito in V3) and his backstory is relatable at times. He’s also very human in that he’s scared a lot of the time or insecure or blames others in panicked situations. It’s not always a good thing but it’s human and realistic.

✘ Gosh he can be so annoying. Sometimes flirting or whining too much is well... too much.

Akane Owari

♡ Strong-willed and definitely someone I would be friends with

✘ What the hell is her outfit? Gymnasts and athletes don’t wear that shit. Stop objectifying her when it doesn’t even make the product or plot better. Like there’s absolutely no point to making her dress that way. I was a gymnast for 15 years. Even those who do parkour (which Akane seems to do more often than actual gymnastics in the anime and game) don’t wear what she wears. Also she’s underrated.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu

♡ I love him. He’s the DR character I’m most like out of all the games and anime. Tenko is a close second. I think he’s adorable, love his character arc, development, redemption, and love his voice.

✘ In the anime/despair arc, Fuyuhiko is not done justice. He doesn’t get enough lines, has a different voice actor, just doesn’t give off the same vibes.

Izuru Kamakura

♡ Sexy man long hair good.

✘ Boring character. I wish he were just Hajime.

Kaede Akamatsu

♡ Loyalty and leadership are such attractive qualities in her. Also she faced her death with such class and dignity and I respect her because I could never.

✘ Some of the voice lines Erika does for her are just weird and cringe. Just random moans or grunts... I don’t know it’s like when Ann Takamaki from Persona 5 (also voiced by Erika) makes suggestive noises as well. Just grinds my gears. Also hate her outfit down to the hair pins.

Shuichi Saihara

♡ I love his nasally voice. I love his design and he’s so adorable. I love how emotional and compassionate he can be. He ties with Makoto for favorite protag of mine.

✘ That sprite where he sniffs his hand. And his ugly ass hat.

Rantarou Amami

♡ Sexy man, sexy voice, sexy piercings

✘ Ugly outfit, and wasted potential

Ryoma Hoshi

♡ I respect him and feel bad for his outlook on life and for how poorly he views himself. I love his little hat as well and he’s the first “different styled” character (Hifumi, Bandai, Teruteru) that I liked the design of.

✘ I hate when he says “got a long ways to go,” it’s overused and annoying, and wish he gave himself more credit. Also hate that when you first meet him he warns you that he’s killed people and is dangerous to be around. Come on buddy, you know you wouldn’t hurt your friends. Stop pushing them away.

Kirumi Tojo

♡ Competence, well rounded, skillful

✘ Boring as hell. I wouldn’t waste one free time event on her.

Angie Yonaga

♡ Dark skin, super cute, love her talent as an artist myself.

✘ Gives religious people a bad name and is super manipulative which I hate.

Tenko Chabashira

♡ I relate to her and feel bad when she’s misunderstood. She’s a good person deep down. Also love her sprites.

✘ There’s more cunning, funny and clever ways to write her digs at men.

Korekiyo Shunguuji

♡ I’m in love with this man. Long hair, voice, mystery, mask, intelligence, passion, talent.

✘ He definitely was a victim of abuse and a lot of people refuse to see that and just hate him. Team Danganronpa should’ve given him a redemption arc where he realized his sister abused him and changed.

Gonta Gokuhara

♡ I love his design except for his suit. Also he’s so cute and naive. I cried for his trail.

✘ No need talk like caveman. Better way to do this.

Kokichi Ouma

♡ Like Nagito, I value his intelligence and crazy cunning.

✘ Shouldn't have died. Also shouldn’t have manipulated Gonta. That was just cruel.

Miu Iruma

♡ She has her hilarious moments and her death surprised me and was sad.

✘ Sometimes she lacks basic empathy, i.e. calling Tenko “Tencrotch” when she just fucking died.

Maki Harukawa

♡ Amazing character development. Didn’t see her surviving until the end at the start. Also her love and passion for Kaito.

✘ “Do you wanna die?” gets old.

Kaito Momota

♡ Just the overall best bro you could ever have.

✘ Has some toxic masculinity issues and anger issues.

K1-B0

♡ Pretty much everything about him. His design, his attitude and personality, especially how amazing and cool he is chapter 5 onward, his execution made me so sad. He’s so innocent and funny without trying.

✘ When you do his free time events he’s very arrogant and just talks about himself a lot... it seems odd and not similar to the Kiibo we see throughout the game.

Himiko Yumeno

♡ Super cute design, love her voice and “Nyeh...” and her sprites. Her character development is great as well.

✘ Why did they take so long to make her important and likable?

Tsumugi Shirogane

♡ An excellent and well hidden reveal

✘ I hate her. So annoying, from the voice to the references and her personality.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

I just realized something... Since Teruteru had canonically interacted with Seiko off screen to get those boosting/doping drugs. You'd think he ask for her to help cure his sick mother instead of aphrodisiacs(for a cheap gross laugh)? I mean it would be nice if Teruteru made a off comment in the anime about how the Ultimate Pharmacist successfully curing his mother. Because then it would mean his mother wasn't dead when he was in the simulator. Effectively making the audience know she never passed away during SDR2, meaning he unknowingly killed for someone who was okay. It would've add to his character a bit. Also I wouldn't mind him mentioning about him apologizing to his siblings after his sick mother was cured. Also his siblings should've gotten different talents having them being escorts is incredibly gross.

The guy had so much potential but they squandered it for a near s*xual assault joke that the fandom hates him for.

//YES! THIS! ABSOLUTELY!

//I know this is probably meant for the characters, but it’s really the fault of the DR writers that Teruteru isn’t expanded into the greatness that he could have been had his potential been explored. ESPECIALLY the writers of DR3, and all these ridiculous plotholes.

//Also, I am fairly sure that Teruteru’s mother died because HE killed her in his fit of Despair, so regardless of whether that be the case or not, she would have died, but it is stupid they never brought it up.

//As for his siblings, the way I think about them is the way that they’re presented in ASooT. Not necessarily escorts or underage prostitutes, but more like the concept of Rent-A-Girlfriend where you pay someone to have a date with you.

//That being said, Rent-A-Girlfriend is an anime I have always had moral issues with, so that’s not really helping the case at all for me.

//It makes me feel a lot of shit because only the REAL DR fans, like me, who are ride or die on this series, know full well just how good Teruteru could be if he was explored, and that’s why I write him the way I do in DR Survivor. If you want my opinion, in terms of writing and potential, the absolute BEST selection of characters to explore are EASILY the DR2 cast.

//Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Sonia, Kazuichi, Akane, Twogame/Imposter/Ryuji, Teruteru, Mahiru, Peko, Hiyoko, Ibuki, Mikan, Nekomaru, Gundham, Chiaki and Nagito. All of them are hands down the best characters the series has to offer, bar none.

-Mod

[danganronpa-21]

Rating: General Audiences (I… think?)

General Warnings: N/A

Relationships: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu/Peko Pekoyama (mentioned), Sonia Nevermind/Gundham Tanaka (implied), Phoenix Nevermind & Natsumi Kuzuryuu

Additional Tags: Character Study (if you can say that when it’s your own OC?), Post-Danganronpa 3 Hope Arc, Jabberwock Island, Future Foundation

Word Count: 1,347 words

Summary: A character study on my Danganronpa fan child, Natsumi Kuzuryuu, and how she grew into a student worthy of the newly built Hope’s Peak Academy. 

Read it on AO3.

From a young age, Natsumi Kuzuryuu knew that there was no world for her out there. 

It seemed like a cruel thing, for her parents to have told her that when she was no more than a child, but she never could find it within herself to blame them for it. She certainly wasn’t the first child to have a difficult conversation with her parents, talking over the finer points of people hating you for things you cannot control. The two of them were just trying to do whatever they could to keep their daughter safe, especially at a time where they were still being monitored so closely.

 The Future Foundation agents that remained on Jabberwock were proof enough of her parents’ claims. The memories of their disdain surfaced any time she so much as thought about the places they had made their base, even in the years after they had left her family to repent in peace. She could recall the wrinkled noses, the pitying eyes, the disapproving shaking of the head, the tension that consumed their bodies the moment they made eye contact with her or Phoenix. They were the very proof she needed to substantiate the claims of her loved ones. They were the first people to hate her for being her parents’ child, and they most definitely would not be the last.

 “I can’t believe they even allowed those people to reproduce,” she recalled hearing one of them mutter once, glaring at her and Phoenix as they plucked seashells from the island’s sandy beach, “The Ultimate Despairs have no business around children.”

 “I worry sometime they’re just going to slaughter those poor things,” another agent had sighed. “Naegi-san says they’re trying to repent and reform, but who’s to say that they won’t go back to their savage ways? He always was too merciful.They can’t be trusted.”

 “The kids would be much more suited to being on the mainland. Just give them new identities, new families… Don’t make them live with the monsters they call Mom and Dad.”

 Blood had rushed to Natsumi’s face at the comments. One of the seashells she held in her hand had actually cracked from the tightness of her fist, doing everything she could to keep her rage within her little body. If there was one thing that she had learned from experience, it was that letting her anger get the best of her in front of these agents always led to problems. Her father insisted that she remain calm as possible in their presence, lest they take her reactions for malice.

 They may have spoken of pity for her and her companion, but that could change at the first sign of hostility.

 Despairful parents bred despairful children, or so their narrative went. Never mind that her mother and father hadn’t been full of despair for years.

 If the situation bothered Phoenix, he never said much about it. In their youth he cried many tears over their words, but as he grew older, he didn’t voice much more. The only sentiment he ever expressed was love for their family, and insistence that he believed that Natsumi would be a good person. He never wondered aloud whether he would belong in the hope-hungry world of the mainland, or whether he would ever be able to live a life apart from the crimes of his parents. He just wanted peace.

 To some degree, Natsumi could understand that. A life well lived was all that anyone wanted for themselves and for their loved ones, really. What need did they truly have to care for what others thought of them? They were wrong about the kind of people their parents were. And they were wrong about the kind of people that she and Phoenix would turn out to be. That was enough for him. At least, she always thought it was.

 But part of her, a small part of her, always knew that Phoenix longed for more for them. The same hunger that settled into her own bones thrived within his. Though different, their minds were far too intertwined for the situation to bring anything but that. He understood why she was the way that she was, just as she understood the very same things about him.

 So when he saw her on the beach, staff ablaze, he watched with a careful eye. He corrected her form when she needed it, shouted his praise when she pulled off a challenging trick. He stood by for each moment that he felt he was needed, and not a moment longer.

 Twirl, spin, catch. Twirl, spin, catch.

 The repetitive motion drove their future forward every day she practiced. If Phoenix was the one who could make the world fall in love with him just from his spirit, then she would be the one who would dazzle the world with her talent.

 Twirl, spin, catch. Twirl, spin, catch.

 “You don’t need to prove anything to anyone, Natsumi, you know that, right?”

 Her father had been insistent, far too insistent, that this was the case. For all the crimes that others wanted her to answer for on his behalf, Natsumi’s father never asked that she try. As far as she was concerned, she was her own person before she was his daughter. She resented the fact that the world out there wouldn’t actually work that way.

 “I know,” she had said in reply, lying through her teeth, “You tell me all the time.”

 Twirl, spin, catch. Twirl, spin, catch.

 Sometimes she felt she was the only one that saw the world out there with an honest pair of eyes. Half the time it was as if the others just wanted to be blind. What use was there in pretending that the world would look at them fairly? Why should she act like people would forgive her for her crime of being born just like that? Nobody would forget that she was Fuyuhiko and Peko Kuzuryuu’s daughter. Even if they did, she wouldn’t. Even if everything had gone as the Future Foundation agents wanted, she would never forget. In her heart she would always know herself as a child of despair, and there was nothing anyone could do to make her change that.

 She wasn’t ashamed of being her mother and father’s daughter.

 But the world out there was. It wanted to teach her shame. It wanted her to know that she was stained by the brown blood that once ran red upon their fingers.

 Twirl, spin, catch. Twirl, spin, catch.

 They could say whatever they wanted. They could pretend she was whatever they wanted. It didn’t matter. The fact of the matter was that a lot of the people, out in the world out there, they would never trust her. She would always be someone who should despair at the fact of her being alive.

 But even with that cynicism, that harshness that tainted the nature of other human beings, Natsumi found herself back on the beach, staff in hand, moving her body like her life depended on it. By now she had grown to master many different types of fire dancing, but the staff was her favourite – her staff was the one that dazzled all eyes that saw it. She could still remember being a younger girl and performing, first for her family and then for the agents, and showing them that there was more to life than the simple prejudices they bore. On those days, even those who thought to loathe her would look at her with new light in their eyes.

 That staff was her anchor. It was what would get her through everything. Though the world would look upon her with shame, she would bathe herself in warmth and light. She would twirl and spin and sing and dance, whipping the fire all around her body, igniting their perceptions with new flame. Perhaps most of the world out there would never come to love Natsumi Kuzuryuu…

 But the fire that burned within her burned too brightly to be extinguished by a few angry eyes.

[rovelae]

Behind the Scenes of “Hologram”

           Today marks exactly one year since I posted arguably my most popular fic. “Hologram” is a postgame Saiouma one-shot about escapism, loneliness, and running away from the past. I put a lot of myself into this fic and I’m blown away by all the love it’s received, not only on AO3 but in Discord servers and other social media. All that excitement made me keep thinking about it, so I thought I’d share a (very self-indulgent) behind-the-scenes of sorts about how I wrote it, as well as what I think of the story.

           This essay will contain spoilers for the whole fic, so if you’d like to read it first, you can find it here. Of course, if the tags scare you off, that’s valid, but you might want to skip this post too since I’ll be quoting it throughout (so, just to be safe, expect the warnings I’ve posted on AO3 to apply here too).

           If you’re a Lorde fan you’ll recognize the lyrics in the fic summary – “Nothing’s wrong when nothing’s true,” from “Buzzcut Season.” The inspiration for this fic came to me while I was on my way to an early shift at work, and I needed a good song in my head to give me the will to live for the next eight hours. Not sure why I chose that song in particular, but maybe part of it is because I like imagining stories to go along with the songs I listen to, like AMVs playing in my head, and I’d never been able to pin down exactly what this song reminded me of.

           The mood of the music is really what compelled me – there’s something lonely about it, and the lyrics sound like the singer’s trying to convince herself that everything’s okay even when all evidence points otherwise. There are “explosions on TV”, and “The men up on the news / They try to tell us all that we will lose,” but “we live beside the pool / Where everything is good.” Despite everything going wrong, despite the notes of fear creeping into the pre-chorus, the character will “play along… in a hologram with you” and “never go home again.”

           From there, it was an easy jump to “postgame Saiou” and that was that.

             There’s a cloud of seagulls hovering in the air around him, and a dozen or so more standing just out of reach, staring him down with beady black eyes. Kokichi takes a slice of bread from the loaf he’s holding and tosses it to one of the birds, watches it catch it and stumble under the weight, watches its head bob as it tries to swallow the whole thing at once. It gets remarkably far before four other birds descend on it, shrieking wildly.

           “Mine, mine, mine,” he mumbles into his folded arms, wondering if Shuichi would get the reference.

           He really wishes Shuichi was here.

           Kokichi upends the rest of the loaf of bread onto the sidewalk and laughs at the resulting chaos until his chest aches.

             To start off, I wanted to create the same lonely mood from “Buzzcut Season” in Kokichi’s simulation. He’s not exactly trapped there, but he’s refusing to leave, because as long as he’s on the fake Jabberwock Island, he can pretend the killing game never happened. The trade-off to that escapism is that the only people he can talk to are the NPCs, who aren’t complex enough to be remotely interesting to him, and Usami, who… well, tries her best, but is more of an informational / moderation program and can’t offer him what a therapist could.

           The only thing Kokichi has to look forward to is Shuichi, who he’s convinced is an extremely lifelike computer program rather than the real thing, because the real Shuichi would definitely hate him for everything that happened during the killing game. He’s so locked into this line of logic that he doesn’t let himself consider that Shuichi has forgiven him – he doesn’t even have a good answer for why the Future Foundation wouldn’t just keep the supposed Shuichi AI on indefinitely, believing it’s their way of baiting him into leaving the simulation.

           It’s not a healthy or sustainable lifestyle in the slightest, but Kokichi stubbornly refuses to do anything but wander the islands aimlessly, passing the time with ice cream and feeding seagulls until the next time he can see Shuichi.

             He dreams that DICE is here in the simulation with him, smiling and carefree as they explore the weird music venue. One of them has gotten the karaoke machine working, and another found a box of kazoos and maracas in the back room. Kokichi already pities anyone unfortunate enough to walk by the building tonight.

           “Not going to sing, Joker?” one of his DICE asks (over the sound of their youngest member shrieking through seven kazoos at once), sitting on the bench next to him.

           “Some games are more fun to watch than play,” he answers, leaning back on his hands and sighing.

           “Like a killing game.”

           The warm dream-atmosphere turns cold then, and Kokichi’s head snaps over to look at him—but his brother is gone and Kaito’s looking back at him instead, blood in his teeth and face ashen pale.

           “You... we don’t have to do this, man,” Kaito says, but it’s a lie and they both know it, and he doesn’t want to look behind him because he knows the machine’s looming over him with its unyielding steel and slow slow slow descent—

           “You’re not real,” he snaps at dream-Kaito, who doesn’t respond except to lift him up again. “Nothing’s real, none of—PUT ME DOWN! LET GO OF ME! DON’T PUT ME BACK IN THERE!”

           “Death is more mercy than you deserve,” Kaito says, and Kokichi claws and bites and kicks his way out of Kaito’s grasp like a wild animal, only to end up in front of a prison cell full of—

           DICE, his beloved DICE, trapped and hurt and afraid, bloodied and beaten and helpless.

           “Why didn’t you save us, boss?” says his second-in-command, clutching the bars with bleeding hands. “Why didn’t you do more? Now we’re all dead and it’s because of you.”

             Moments like this are my reference to Buzzcut Season’s pre-chorus, where the not-okay starts to creep into the illusion. Despite Kokichi’s valiant efforts to forget, he’s still dealing with the aftermath of seeing his family hurt and in danger, watching his friends die, orchestrating the deaths of two of them, being killed himself— and then being told every bit of it was made up to entertain an audience who sees nothing wrong with that picture. Running away is not the way to heal from trauma, and one day soon it’s all bound to come crashing down around him.

             “Do you know what this … island paradise represents, Kokichi?” [Hinata] asks, and Kokichi’s really not in the mood for a lecture but he continues anyway. “Jabberwock Island … was the setting for the fiftieth season of Danganronpa. The golden anniversary, they called it. It was my season.”

           Kokichi hunches over, hugging his arms over his torso and stifiling a scream. He does not want to think about this right now��

           “They wanted it to be the best season of all, which, unfortunately for us, meant it was also the bloodiest,” Hinata says. “Twice as many participants, deadly traps hidden across each of the islands— they even changed the way the motives worked, like when they told Fuyuhiko to cut out his own eye so Peko could have a quick death instead of suffering for days.”

           “Do I look like your therapist, porcupine-head?” Kokichi hisses. A sharp pain is pounding into his skull, and there’s a bitter, metallic taste at the back of his throat. A taste like poison and blood.

           “There was so much going on that the simulation malfunctioned,” Hinata says. “When people died, their Ultimate talents downloaded themselves into me. I’m told that the stress of so many personality grafts came close to liquefying my frontal lobe. I’m lucky I woke up at all… especially considering more than half of the others didn’t.”

           “Why are you telling me this?” Kokichi grates out through the static building in his head. If he opens his eyes, will he see the beach or the dull chrome of the machine closing in on him?

           “Because I know how much you want to forget about what happened,” Hinata says. “Believe me, I get it.”

           ….

           “These things that happened to us… we can’t erase them, no matter how much we want to. Some things have to be remembered.”

             I’d mostly like to leave Hajime’s season up to interpretation, but there are a couple things I wanted to say about it. I imagine Danganronpa is like the Hunger Games in that it’d go all out for big anniversaries. So, there were twice as many participants for the Jabberwock Island beatdown that was probably subtitled “Bloodbath Bay” or something equally appealing. The game’s formula changed from a focus on the mystery and the trials to “look at all these kids massacring each other a la Lord of the Flies,” and since the VR system wasn’t equipped to handle that many people and their deaths, it malfunctioned, giving Hajime way too many Ultimate talents and putting half the cast into comas from which they never woke up.

           Viewers either absolutely loved or absolutely hated this season, depending on whether they were DR fans because of the “blood n’ guts” factor or the “mystery and psychological thriller” aspect. Team Danganronpa faced quite a bit of backlash for actually causing the real-life deaths of half its participants, but were able to weasel their way out of serious legal repercussions because of the waivers the participants had signed beforehand (plus a lot of bribery and falling back on their longstanding popularity). So, the cast of Season 50 failed to end the killing game, but helped provide great evidence for the “Danganronpa is morally wrong” argument.

           Hajime works as a victim liaison for the Future Foundation and has been trying to take down Danganronpa since he got out of it. He’s like that in a few of my fics, actually; I like the idea of Hajime acting as a big brother of sorts to the V3 cast. It’s especially entertaining to imagine his interactions with Kokichi— though maybe not so much in Hologram, since to Kokichi he’s a representation of the past he’s trying so desperately to forget and the future he refuses to acknowledge.

             “SHUT UP!” He launches himself at Hinata, his hands wrapping around the other man’s throat as he uses his momentum to slam him to the ground. “SHUT! UP!”

           “Ko— ghk—” Hinata coughs, eyes wide with surprise, but aside from moving his hands up to grip Kokichi’s wrists, he doesn’t seem all that worried about fighting back.

           The thought only fuels Kokichi’s rage until he’s choking Hinata so hard his knuckles are white. “If you want me out of this simulation so badly, you can kill me,” he snarls. “I’m never waking up! I’m never leaving, do you UNDERSTAND ME?”

           Hinata grimaces, the outline of his avatar flickering, but he still doesn’t struggle, and Kokichi hates him all the more for it, despises him with a seething malice that festers low in his stomach. He wonders distantly if he’d actually kill this man in real life. Or if he’d be able to stop himself, feeling like this.

             Kokichi’s breakdown here is more out of fear than anger. Like I mentioned, Kokichi sees Hajime as another piece of what’s hurt him, and no matter how Hajime tries to help, Kokichi will always remember Danganronpa whenever he sees him.

             Warm yellow-orange light casts a relaxed, cozy glow over the dining hall. It’s an ambience compounded by the flickering candles on the table, which seems overly idyllic, but Kokichi will let it slide because of the adorable way Shuichi flushed when he noticed them as they sat down. Well, if he’s being honest, everything about Shuichi right now is adorable, from the way his hair keeps falling into his eyes to the way he’s nervously fiddling wth his chopsticks. Kokichi wishes he could keep staring at him forever.

           Ah, not… not in a weird way, though, just… because Shuichi’s beautiful, and when Kokichi looks at him he can forget everything bad that’s ever happened, can create some new and brighter world to exist in.

             This is an idea I wish I’d had room to explore a bit more in the story— that is, just how far Kokichi will go to pretend everything’s fine. I thought about making him border on delusional, like having him talk to people who aren’t there or forget what’s actually happening around him because he’s so lost in his fiction-within-a-fiction. It would have creeped Shuichi out a whole lot.

           Unfortunately, there wasn’t much room for that past the plot I’d already nailed down, so I focused on his loneliness and escapism instead. I do touch on it later in this scene, though— the couple paragraphs where he slips into fantasizing about being a phantom thief having a surreptitious meeting with his detective under the not-so-subtle supervision of his DICE. There would have been a lot more of that if I’d gone with the ‘delusion’ stylistic choice, to the point where even the readers would be confused about what’s real. Maybe I’ll look into writing something similar in a future story.

             Eventually, Shuichi sets down his bowl and looks away with a little sigh, and Kokichi clenches his teeth because that’s the sigh he does when it’s time for that conversation.

           “Um… Kokichi?”

           Kokichi’s only response is to exhale the breath he’d been holding in a quiet hiss.

           “I-I know you don’t want to, but… but I really need to talk to you about something,” Shuichi says. “Please?”

           “My Mr. Detective can talk about whatever he’d like!” Kokichi says with a lilt to his tone that makes it sound more sarcastic than he wants it to. He takes the last bite of curry and wishes that it burns hot enough to hurt.

           “It’s about Kaito.”

             This more serious part of the date scene is meant to reflect the little bridge in “Buzzcut Season”:

“Cola with the burnt-out taste

I’m the one you tell your fears to

There’ll never be enough of us.”

           It’s a part of the song that sounds especially bittersweet to me, a bit of self-awareness between the insistence that everything’s okay.

           Really all I think I managed was to reference it when Kokichi’s internal dialogue comments on his drink being “so sweet it tastes burnt” and then later not tasting like anything. But hopefully the mood’s still there.

             “Tell him… that I have nothing against him,” he says.

           “That’s … not a lie?” Shuichi presses.

           Kokichi shakes his head idly, still not raising his gaze. “I wanted to wreck the killing game and he wanted to save his friend. We both got what we wanted. I’d say the end more than justifies the means.”

           Was that a lie?

           (I don’t want to die Shuichi I’m sorry I’m sorry save me Shuichi please I’m sorry ithurtsmakeitstop—)

           His fingers tighten into clawlike shapes, nails digging sharply into his forearms.

             I really don’t think Kokichi would have anything against Kaito, even if here he’s not being completely honest with how much he’s affected by what happened. It wouldn’t make sense to him to hate Kaito for something he himself proposed, but I think there’d still be a subconscious barrier between them. Too much history.

             “Don’t go, Shuichi, I’m so sorry, I— that was so dumb, what I said, please don’t be sad anymore.” He’s not sure if he can’t breathe because of the exertion of running or because of the hysteria boiling over in his head. “Please don’t go, I didn’t mean to hurt you— please don’t leave, Shuichi, I’m so sorry.”

           “Oh, Kokichi….” Shuichi’s tone is strange, soft and pitying, like he sees something Kokichi doesn’t, and he shakes his head slowly as more tears follow the paths of the others.

           Kokichi goes to his knees, ready to grovel if that’s what it takes, but Shuichi follows him down, closing his other hand over Kokichi’s, and then they’re both crying and he doesn’t know why, and all he can do is repeat a mantra of I’m sorry and hold on as tight as he can.

           It’s horrible. Shuichi’s horrible. Shuichi’s wonderful, and kind and lovely and perfect and Kokichi hates him, Kokichi adores him, and it doesn’t matter because Shuichi’s not actually here but Kokichi doesn’t want to be alone, just let me pretend some more, please, please let me have this—

           “I’ll… I’ll stay,” Shuichi says at last. “I can stay a while longer.”

           You shouldn’t, Kokichi wants to say, but his mouth won’t obey him. You shouldn’t stay if you don’t want to. I don’t deserve having you here. I’m not worth your mercy.

           But there on the bridge, crying tears of relief, he soaks up as much mercy as he can get and hopes it’s enough to drown him.

             I wanted to create a contrast between them that highlights just how the isolation and trauma Kokichi’s experiencing has affected him. He has an almost unhealthy reliance on Shuichi as “the only thing that makes this world bearable,” and panics when faced with the prospect of being alone again so soon. Part of why Shuichi’s crying is because he’s realized the extent of Kokichi’s desperation. It’s not that he thinks Kokichi’s apology is insincere, but that he’s hardly heard him apologize for anything before, so Kokichi going this far has him realizing how bad things really are.

             The door rumbles and slides open when they approach, revealing the bright light of the log-out point that took Shuichi away every time, that would wake Kokichi up in his real body if he walked into it. Shuichi stops just a step away from it, biting his lip as if searching for something to say, but before he can find it, Kokichi reaches out to tug at his sleeve.

           “Shuichi?” he says, distant as the waves on the beach that he can still hear if he listens closely enough. Shuichi turns back toward him. “Before you go, can I be selfish one more time?”

           “Huh…?”

           Shuichi doesn’t move when Kokichi steps closer, reaches up to ghost his fingertips over Shuichi’s jaw and around the back of his neck. He lets Kokichi tilt his head downward, lets him hover inches away, close enough to feel their breath mingle in the night air. Kokichi pauses there to give him the chance to pull away. He doesn’t.

           So Kokichi closes his eyes and the distance between them.

             That last line is a ZEUGMA! It’s a literary device where one word refers to two more in a different way. A popular example is the hyenas’ line “Our teeth and ambitions are bared” from The Lion King. It’s my favorite grammatical trick and I’d love to see more of it in fanfic.

             Slowly, he slides his hand down to Shuichi’s shoulder, using it as leverage to push himself away. That hurts even more. He can’t seem to open his eyes, and he feels so weakened, breathless, fragile. Cracked open, hollowed out.

           When he finally does open his eyes, Shuichi’s are wide with some mix of astonishment and a dozen other emotions. Kokichi bows his head, taking a deep breath to ground himself. “Sorry,” he whispers. “I just wanted to know.”

           “Kokichi,” Shuichi breathes, like a bullet through his heart.

           “Goodbye, Shuichi,” Kokichi says, and shoves him into the light.

           Shuichi’s little yelp of surprise cuts off abruptly as he falls through the door, vanishing into the glow, and all too soon, Kokichi’s alone again in a dream that suddenly seems far too vast. Alone, with the faintest taste of Shuichi’s lips still lingering on his own.

           And he thinks, It was enough just to know you.

           It’s a lie.

             Nothing to say here except that this is my favorite scene and I’m so happy with how it turned out.

             Fake sun rises over fake ocean, fake seagulls glide through fake sky while fake wind tousles fake palm fronds. Kokichi lies on his stomach in the fake grass and talks to his fake family in the fake notebook. Gives them fake names and runs through everything he remembers about them. Apologizes, over and over, wishes he could hug each of them goodbye one last time. Wonders if it would be more painful to die or to never have existed at all.

           He leaves the notebook of his memories on the seat of one of the Ferris wheel cars on the fourth island, because one time he promised them they’d steal the London Eye together.

           He buys a can of fake soda from the fake convenience store on the first island and sits on the fake beach watching the fake waves. Wonders when he’d hit the end of the simulation if he started swimming, or if he’d drown first.

           White sand, blue sea, bluer sky. Washed out, like an amateur watercolor painting.

           He opens the soda can and raises it to his mouth, but … even the thought of drinking it makes him sick to his stomach. He sets it down in the sand and flicks it over, watching the bubbly liquid run down and sink into the sand. The color’s all wrong, like blood streaked against a metal floor.

           He walks the fake streets of the fifth island, passing fake skyscrapers and fake commuters and their fake conversations, until he finally stops outside the factory he’s never been able to bring himself to go into. Smells like oil, and metal and machines and he can hear the sounds and he’s immediately back in the hangar, dizzy on adrenaline and desperation and leaning heavily on Kaito so he doesn’t keel over and die then and there. Kaito says something about how maybe he should sit down for a minute, and Kokichi didn’t agree back then but he does now, goes down on all fours and dry heaves.

           When his vision solidifies and he can stop gasping for breath, he sits up and presses his back against the factory wall, covering his ears and hiding his face in his knees. Tries to convince himself not to imagine Shuichi’s there with him, holding his hand again, promising everything’s going to be okay.

           “I’ve got you. No one’s going to hurt you anymore,” or maybe, “Breathe with me, it’ll be over soon. You’re safe now.”

           I love you.

           He laughs until there’s nothing left in his lungs. He called these little daydreams obsession, before, but now they just seem sick and insane.

             I wanted to indicate throughout this scene that Kokichi’s gotten substantially worse. Instead of halfheartedly interacting with the NPCs or finding something to spend time doing, he’s aimlessly wandering the islands, focused on how fake all of it is. Not even talking to his sketches of DICE can make him feel better. The suicidal ideation starts to slip in even if he doesn’t realize it— a fixation on wondering what death is like, purposefully triggering himself by walking by the factory….

           The thing I want to talk about most though is the italicized I love you. I left it outside of quotation marks and dialogue tags on purpose because I wanted it to be ambiguous as to who’s saying it. If it’s Kokichi’s line, it’s sudden and almost out of place, like he couldn’t hold back from thinking it anymore. But it could be Shuichi saying it, too. Since it’s outside quotation marks, unlike the previous dream-Shuichi lines, it’s more vague, almost a whisper in Kokichi’s thoughts— like he can barely bring himself to imagine it and even feels guilty doing so, because there’s no way it could possibly be real.

           Which do you think?

           Eh, I don’t have an answer. When I hear it in my head, they say it at the same time.

             “How did you know?” he finally croaks.

           Shuichi’s breathing still sounds shaky, too. “Because you said ‘goodbye,’” he says.

           Kokichi finally looks up at him in a silent question.

           “You never say goodbye,” Shuichi says, rubbing his sleeve over his eyes. “It’s always….”

           “‘See you later,’” Kokichi finishes for him. Despite himself, a tiny huff of astonished laughter escapes him. “I didn’t even know, not until a couple of hours ago. And you figured it all out from one word?”

           Shuichi bites his lip at that. “You kissed me,” he says.

           Kokichi’s stomach twists and he looks away. “I said I was sorry—”

           “No.” Shuichi squeezes his hand into a fist and lets it fall to thump against Kokichi’s chest, like he’s trying to knock some sense into him. “It was so honest, and vulnerable, and… and I know how much you hate showing how you really feel.” Another tiny sob catches in his throat. “And so it felt like … like something you’d do if you weren’t going to s-see me again.”

           “Shuichi….” Kokichi trails off as Shuichi muffles his cries in his hand again. He’s so breathtakingly smart. There’s no one else in the world who thinks that way, no one else who could possibly be that attentive and that clever. Not a programmer, not a team of shrinks… how can an AI manage it? How is it that Shuichi always manages to take him by surprise? How can he see straight through him when he least expects it?

           Kokichi’s hand reaches up to Shuichi’s cheek. Reverently traces the path of the tears falling down it.

           “I wish you were real,” he confesses in a whisper.

             Kokichi’s stubborn. So, so stubborn. And he’s not used to being cared about, if the way he does everything by himself is any indication. So it makes sense to me that he’ll refuse to believe anything good can happen to him even in the face of convincing evidence. He’s pretty self-hating for someone so arrogant.

             Kokichi’s weak, deep down to his core, weak for this man. Already knows he’d do anything for him, and the thought is terrifying—that one person could have that much power over him, even if he doesn’t realize it.

           But what if he has realized it? Couldn’t this all be an elaborate ruse, a lie he knew Kokichi would be so desperate to believe that he wouldn’t bother questioning it?

           …Shuichi’s never hurt him, though. Only that one time, when he really deserved it. Shuichi wouldn’t … betray him, even for what he thinks is Kokichi’s own good. They’re… different from each other, that way.

           But still….

           “I’m so scared, Shuichi.” It’s barely a whisper. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

           “You won’t be.” It’s so hard to be skeptical, lost in his eyes. “I’ll be right there with you, for as long as you want. I won’t let you feel like this anymore.”

           Promise me, he wants to blurt out. Promise you’ll stay. Promise me you’ll never leave me, Shuichi, he wants to demand, but that’s wrong, that’s manipulative and selfish and everything he doesn’t want to be for Shuichi anymore.

           Shuichi, of course, says it anyway.

           “I promise, Kokichi.”

…        

           “Kiss me again,” he says. “Please?”

           Shuichi leans in close, then pauses, his brow furrowing the way it does when he catches him in a lie.

           “I’ll kiss you again in the real world,” Shuichi says. “Okay?”

           Kokichi shakes his head. “Shuichi, please.” Please, I don’t think I can do this. Please, I don’t want to wake up to a lie. Please, one last kiss for me to remember in case it was all fake.

           Shuichi reaches out to tilt his chin up and Kokichi closes his eyes, savoring every second, burning it into his memory.

           Shuichi’s soft breath ghosts over his lips.

           “Trust me,” he murmurs.        

           Kokichi’s eyes flutter back open, searching his face. Shifting him around on the white board in his head, seeing what categories he fits into this time. Weird, of course. Suspicious, maybe not. Trustworthy?

           Trustworthy….

           “I do trust you,” he realizes.

             Kokichi’s still hesitant to accept all of this— Shuichi kissing him didn’t magically fix everything. He’ll still doubt all the way to the log-out point, but at least now he realizes that this simulation is only hurting him— that if things are to get better they’re going to have to change, too. He’s got a long way to go before he’s all right, but he’s not going to have to face it alone anymore.

             And that’s a wrap!

           Once again, I’m really proud of this story, and I feel like I grew as a writer because of it. There are a few things I would change if I wrote it again, but for all its flaws it’s still my baby and I like how it turned out.

           Thanks again for all your support for “Hologram,” and thanks even more if you actually waded through all this nonsense of a director’s cut. It’s a huge confidence-boost to think that people liked what I wrote, and even wanted to hear what I had to say about it. If there’s any interest, I’d love to review some of my other fics here, or theorize or brainstorm or whatever else  you’re into. (Ask me what Byakuya’s Thing is in my superhero AU, I dare you 😉)

           I do have a WIP in my folder of bits and pieces currently titled “boy finally gets that kiss”, and it’s a post-Hologram scene from Shuichi’s point of view to just sorta… tie it all together, have them talk things over again… and kiss, of course. We’ll see if anything comes out of that.

           Until next time!

[danganronpaheadcanons]

An unpopular opinion I have is that Byakuya is the best antag compared to the other two- does his job as the role while still showing positive character development (meaning he's improved as a person) that makes him enjoyable, which I don't see as much with the others

While I agree to this (I mean, I like Nagito and Kokichi but there is a reason I choose Byakuya for my Mod Name), personally I never really saw Byakuya as an antagonist because he does not really work against Makoto and the others, (like he will screw with them from time to time, but still)

Sonosuke Izayoi (and most of the DR3 exclusive characters) deserves more love.

Yeah totally. I wish there was more content for them, so we could have get to know them better.

- My thoughts on the “Sonia should have died instead of Hiyoko” thing are “they both should have survived, just remove the double murder, and have them both live”. Heck, if I had to axe off any SDR2 survivor, it would be Kazuichi, and even then, if I were to rewrite SDR2, I would mostly just change his arc up a bit

Personally I never really heard that take, I usually see people saying Fuyuhiko should’ve died instead of Hiyoko, but I still agree. I’d like for Hiyoko to have a better arc, I think there was potential and it would’ve been nice if she had the chance to come to terms with Fuyuhiko. And yea, if I had switched one of the surviviours with one of the victims it definately would’ve been Kazuichi. I always thought he would make a good culprit.

- Akane is my favorite SDR2 girl, and her friendship with Nekomaru is more far believable than Sonia’s friendship with Gundham. (I still like Sonia and Gundham don’t @ me”

I’m neutral on this one. I like the one with Sonia and Gundam more because I like their characters more, but I also like Akanes and Nekomarus friendship and think it deserves more love.

- I want more non-mastermind characters that are just straight up evil ala Celeste. (That aren’t gross like Haiji) Like, good intentions are fine when done well, and I do like Gundham who merely acts evil when he’s just a chill guy but like. Evil cool.

I wouldn’t call Celeste straight up evil because I doubt she’d do what she did in normal circumstances, and I would say it it’s actually a good balance. You have characters who become culprits for “good” motives like Gundam who wanted to save the others or Kaede who tried to end the Killing Game, in a way you could even put Kokichi and Nagito in these categories but they are both complicated cases, but there are actually a lot characters who kill for selfish reasons.  Sayaka only wanted to get out and Leon only wanted to save himself/get revenge. Celeste also just wants to get out. Peko wants Fuyuhiko to get out, while it’s for the sake of another person it’s still kind of selfish, it wasn’t something like “safe everyone” or “end the killing”. Mikan just wants to please Junko (yeah, she was brainwashed at that moment, but still). Then there is Kiyo with his weird sister reason. Miu also just wants to get out. 

- As much as I am a “Kaede best girl” person, and wished she was the real protagonist and that Shuichi was the decoy (I won’t go too deep into why because then we would be here forever), I don’t think Shuichi was a bad protagonist. Not the best one, but still okay, and if you think he was the best protag that’s ok and understandable.

Yeah. While I’m personally not a fan of Shuichi the hate he gets for replacing Kaede is stupid, like... it’s not his fault. If you want to hate someone for that hate the writers, no a character. He didn’t do anything.

Mod Byakuya

[dadsbongos]

Insert Coin - Chapter 2.d / Series Masterlist

A/N: okay i figured something out, so uploads should deffo be a lot faster than they used to be. sorry about that, everyone!!

Knocking on the door awoke the pair, (Y/n)’s eyes drifting open with the sunlight streaming in through the cracks of the old building’s wood. She stood as quietly as possible to avoid waking Nagito, popping her back as she headed towards another rattle of knocks.

She was met with, once again, Hajime on the other side of the door. Rubbing the bleariness from her eyes, (Y/n) exited to the hall, silently shutting the door behind her as she did so.

Hajime examined the girl for any possible injuries, in total shock she’d just slept in the same room as the boy currently accountable for two deaths, “Are you hurt? Did anything happen?”

“Hajime,” she spoke sternly, but not without heart, “everything’s fine. Nagito’s doing really well, he listens. There’s no need to worry about us,” her eyes caught an error in the brunette’s attire, squinting at it before reaching up to fix his tie, “But apparently the same cannot be said for you. Did you just fight Monokuma on your way here?”

They both knew he didn’t - he’d be dead if he even tried it.

“I wanted to make sure you were safe,” he reasoned before gesturing down to his clothing, “Hence improper tie.”

“You’re sweet,” (Y/n) mockingly cooed, pulling back from her classmate and settling against the wall once she was finished, “Anything else you wanted to tell me, or did you just want to be my knight for a day?”

“Har, har, very funny,” Hajime shook his head before relenting, “but yeah, Ibuki was looking for you earlier. She needs to tell you something.”

“Oh? Okay, I’ll head over, just let me finish up with Nagito.”

After Hajime had left the building, (Y/n) turned back inside the room and approached Nagito as he slept on the floor. His eyelashes fanned over pale, rosy, cheeks and messy hair framed around his head and flushed over the makeshift pillow underneath him. She knelt beside his sleeping figure and gently shook him awake.

“Can you keep that promise you made to me last night?”

There was a beat of silence as Nagito rang around his brain to figure out what promise he’d made. Realization snuck through his expression and suddenly he was nodding tiredly.

“Okay, good,” she brushed some hair from Nagito’s forehead as he laid on his side, “I have to go, but I need you to stay here.”

“Then I will,” he affirmed, sitting up to shrug on his jacket, “Trash like me should never interfere with an Ultimate’s day.”

“You’re not trash,” (Y/n) weakly protested, already at the door, “I’ll try to be back soon.”

“Please, don’t rush,” Nagito waved off, “I can wait all day.”

Hesitance settled in her bones before washing away - Nagito was the same age as her, he could take care of himself. Besides, he didn’t come off as the type to break a promise - and as much as she hated to admit it, her status as an Ultimate probably increased his desire to keep their promise. Ibuki needed her anyway.

Before she could get too far, Ibuki herself had rushed up to the peacekeeper, slapping her hands against the girl’s shoulders and shaking her around, “There you are! Ibuki has some news for you,” the musician tossed her hands in the air, jazz-handsing it, “You’re invited to a girl’s-only beach day!”

“Aww, you’re sweet, thanks, Ibuki,” she managed to get out after stabilizing herself. (Y/n) thought it over - again, Nagito was the same age as her and seemed to have significantly calmed down from the first trial. Eventually, she nodded slowly, “Yeah, sounds fun, I’ll be there.”

Cheering to herself, Ibuki hopped in place before suddenly freezing up, “Do you know where the new diner is?”

“The second island, yes,” (Y/n) hid exactly how she knew that information.

“Great! Then come down there in an hour!” as the girl dashed off, she turned, running backward to call out, “Bring a bathing suit!”

~~

As (Y/n) arrived at the diner, she spotted Ibuki - a little early but hey, who wouldn’t want the chance to get closer to the resident rocker? “This was a great idea; lovely weather and friends.”

“Ibuki thought so,” she beamed proudly, crossing her arms under her chest, “Being on a beach with a bunch of cute girls, nothing better than that!”

“(Y/n)?!”

Turning at the sudden call, (Y/n) quirked a brow at Hajime and Kazuichi’s unannounced appearance, putting her hands on her hips, “What’re you two doing?”

Hajime avoided staring directly at the Ultimate Peacekeeper, feeling a bright crimson splatter across his cheeks at her in her swimsuit, fumbling for any words, “Kazuichi, well, he figured that- "

“Miss Sonia’s gonna be here, right?” the mechanic himself interrupted.

“Far as I know, yes,” (Y/n) shook her head once she realized what he truly meant by that, “Kazuichi, you shouldn’t intrude like this. Wanting to spend time with people is fine but- "

The princess herself came into the diner, taking focus from everyone in the room. A wetsuit covering her body from neck-to-toe, modest and fashionable - Sonia made it work well. Shortly before was Chiaki bearing only her swimsuit - also rocking her attire. Hajime and Kazuichi, for definitely unrelated reasons, were tossed into rambling, fidgeting, blushing morons as soon as the girls made themselves known. Even Akane’s bloodied form had them distracted - definitely making the girls question their peers' sense of priority between bloody and half-naked.

“You’d think they never saw a woman before.”

(Y/n) let out a small giggle, nodding along to Peko’s words - while trying to pretend the girl popping out of nowhere didn’t frighten her, “I almost feel bad for them,” upon closer inspection, she noticed something… off, “Early start on the beach?”

Peko Pekoyama was absolutely soaked.

The easy-going air around Peko faded, eyes narrowing only so much to be intense without outright convicting, just enough to warn you to not ask more questions as she reasoned, “I was on a long swim today trying to see if there was a way out via the water. However, that doesn’t appear to be true.”

“Right, sorry,” (Y/n) wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for exactly, but the swordswoman was quite intimidating when she wanted to be.

There was a soft thump against the glass, a finger pressed against the large window peeking out at the so-called parking lot outside the diner, Kazuichi responsible for it. His brows furrowed as he spoke to the rest of the group, “What’s up with her?”

Everyone was at the window now, bodies packed together to see what Kazuichi was referring to.

Hiyoko Saionji - the Ultimate Traditional Dancer - dashing towards the diner with tears and snot rippling down her face, eyes wide and chest sporadically rising and falling with her breaths as she ran.

Pushing away from the group, (Y/n) headed out to hopefully comfort the girl when her questions as to why were answered. Not with words. Not with a show. But with a sound that was telling enough.

DING DONG! BING BONG!

[clearsky]

My Top Comfort Characters/Kins and My Main HCs For Them

(Note, not all my kins/comfort characters are on here, just the ones I have more than 5 hcs for)

CW: Korekiyo Shinguji (DRV3), Himiko Yumeno (DRV3), Shinsou Hitoshi (BNHA), Kyoko Kirigiri (THH), Tsuyu Asui (BNHA), Entrapta (Spop), Ibuki Mioda (SDR2), Celestia Ludenberg (THH), Funtime Foxy (FNAF), Peril (WOF)

Korekiyo Shinguji (DRV3)

Nonbinary

He/They pronouns

Autistic

Chains and loose accessories are for stimming

Likes the feeling of silk and cotton

Can't stand the feeling of anything rough or bumpy

He likes collecting small trinkets and the bones of small mammals

Can't stand anything salty. He'll eat it but he certainly won't enjoy it

Dating Rantaro

Can flirt, but only if he doesn't try

Petnames are a hell yea

Gets sunburnt really easily

Group dates with Celesnaegiri and Ikuzono

Can't cook for s h i t

Had a scene kid phase in middle school

Went to the same middle school as Celeste and Maki

Knew them when Celeste went through her "I'm not like other girls" phase and Maki was a Band Kid™

Himiko Yumeno (DRV3)

Female

She/Her pronouns

Lesbian

Can force herself to fall asleep within seconds regardless of where she is

100% forces herself to fall asleep when she doesn't wanna listen/talk to someone

Himiko/Angie/Tenko relationship. I'm calling them the Traffic Light Trio

She likes taking naps in the forest

She prefers enclosed/tight spaces more than open ones

Has several hundred stress balls and squishies laying around

She overheats easy

Shinsou Hitoshi (BNHA)

Questioning his gender, but goes by any pronouns

Knows he's Asexual, at least

Has no clue what his romantic orientation is though

The kind of person to carry treats in his pocket just in case he runs into a cat

Will stop to pet literally every cat he comes across

Great at reading people

Doesn't talk unless it's 100% needed

Hangs with Tokoyami, Jirou, and Denki most often

Aizawa has 100% unofficially adopted him

Fosters kittens

Not a big fan of physical touch

He is 100% in the bakusquad. Anyone who says he's in the Dekusquad is a c o w a r d

He and Tsuyu vibe

Knows a bunch of random facts

Dark humour? Dark humour

*skates backwards into his therapist's room slowly sipping from an absurdly huge cup of coffee* Candice you're not gonna BELIEVE the shit I just went through

In case I forgot to mention it, he skates

Kyoko Kirigiri (THH)

Mtf

She/Her

Bi with female preference

Burns go up to her shoulders/collarbone/chest

Prefers to just listen as opposed to saying anything

Knows a ton of random trivia about everyone else in her class

She keeps a notebook she fills with all the trivia

Doesn't celebrate her birthday. She just doesn't see the point of it

Doesn't hate sugar/sweets, but if given the choice she would choose literally everything else

Cuts her own hair

A cat person

Permanent dark circles

T-Tall 😳

Like,,, 6'1 at LEAST

Only person taller than her is Yasuhiro (6'3)

Canon no longer exist

Ahahaha healthy life habits? What are those?

Can't handle horror games

She's the kind of person you'd go to if you needed to rant but didn't want any advice

Polyamourous yo

Celeste/Kyoko/Makoto

She's a dom yall are just scared to admit it

Tsuyu Asui (BNHA)

They go by They/Them

Lesbian

They and Ochaco are dating

They like to hang with Shinsou

Which mainly just means the two sitting in one of their dorms in near total silence doing whatever

Can speak English and French as well as Japanese

Learned English from cartoons

Picked up French bc they thought it'd be fun

Prefers to stay neutral in the whole Bakusquad / Dekusquad thing

They're invited to all outings/events by/for both squads

They like puns

They're a dumbass but willingly, and for fun

Like "someone says they like dark humour and they'll turn off the lights before telling a joke" kind dumbass for fun

Great at poker

Likes Disney Movies

Very touchy once you get close enough

Not in a sexual way, just likes physical contact

Especially fond of piggyback rides and cuddles

Extreme fear of needles

Entrapta (She-Ra)

She/Her or It/Its

Doesn't bother trying to figure out whether she's cis, trans, nonbinary, or what

Was AMAB though

Short as fuck (4'7)

Strong as fuck though

Cuddle game strong

Physical touch is a fuck yes

Cuddles

Piggyback rides

Hugs

Anything where she's touching someone is wonderful in her book

As long as she's the one that initiates it

Anyone else touching her without her permission makes her freak

Prefers being high up

Makes it harder for anyone to sneak up on her

An ace at video games

When it comes to sexuality she just says she's Questioning

Ibuki Mioda (SDR2)

Any pronouns + Pup/Pupself + It/Its

No idea what their gender is otherwise

Biromantic Asexual

Just likes sexual jokes

Gets distracted easily

Has severe hearing problems

She's plays her instruments as loud as possible, with the amp right next to her, without ANY ear protection

It's caused some damage

She talks so loud bc she has no idea how loud is considered acceptable

Wears hearings aids most of the time

Several piercings and tattoos

Likes hearing things jingle

She has a bracelet with a few bells hanging from it

She'll shake it whenever she's bored

LOVES hair accessories

Ribbons are a particular favourite

Occasionally she'll hang little charms from her hair "horns"

The kind of person who never takes any pills/medicine bc she keeps forgetting she has to

Frequently uses emojis

Skates everywhere but she isn't very good at it

She keeps crashing into everything

Has broken every bone in her body at least 3 times

Most of which was bc she keeps trying to kick in doors and skating down the stairs

Celestia Ludenberg (THH)

Nonbinary

Any pronouns, mainly goes by She/They

Bi, 70:30

Collects mini hand sanitizers and can tabs

Has single handedly gotten Mario Kart, Mario Party, Monopoly, Uno, and Clue banned a grand total of 17 times (and counting)

The kind of person to purposefully target someone regardless of what game was being played

Favourite victim is Byakuya (bc he gets so upset about it and she finds that hilarious)

Mains Waluigi

Celeste/Kyoko/Makoto

Has several banned Twitter accounts bc whenever she's bored she'll start discourse on purpose

Hangs with Korekiyo, Ibuki, Byakuya, Yasuhiro, and Leon most often

It's a weird friend group but everyone's sorta gotten used to it

She and Byakuya gamble together occasionally

She tries to avoid it bc he'll willingly blow his entire fortune in an attempt to beat her

Autustic

Can't stand the feeling of water

Mainly bc she can't swim for shit

Horror movies? Hates them

Gets flustered super easily

Taka is her twin brother

Kotoko, Kokichi, and Gundham are their half siblings (Same father)

Peko and Toko are their cousins

She sucks ass at go fish

Fuck canon she's 4'11 now

C h u b b y

Freckles

Once she gets comfortable enough with herself she dyes her hair in the peekaboo style

Either black and red or black and blonde

Haven't decided yet

I'll be doing Celesnaegiri hcs as a seperate post but I just feel it's important for you to know that she expresses her affection verbally and is a very touchy person

Went to middle school with Maki and Korekiyo

Has horrible eyesight

She wears contacts most of the time but she always puts off buying more

After the 5th or so time she ended up blindly stumbling around a week after her contacts ran out Kyoko convinced her to buy glasses as well

Religious accessories yo

Like chokers and dangly earrings with crosses and pentagrams and shit

Likes wearing wacky earrings

Can run and do all sorts of tricks in heels

She and Mukuro are exes yo

Keeps her hair short so it's easier to manage

Hair never gets longer than her shoulders if she can help it

She seems like the kind of person who'd keep her bangs grown past her eyes regardless of how frustrating or inconvenient it is

She's a sub yall just don't wanna admit it

Funtime Foxy (FNAF)

I'm going on the record to say this

Funtime Foxy is genderfluid and that is that

Goes by Funtime

Any pronouns, They/Them most commonly

Plays music (keyboard and guitar mainly)

They and Funtime Freddy (Freds) mainly play with the kids

Freds mainly tells stories with Bonbon while Funtime more so plays one-on-one

Has nicknames for everyone

Circus Baby - Ringleader

Ballora - Bells

Funtime Freddy - Partner

Bon Bon - Bun

Peril (WOF)

I like both Nonbinary She/They Peril and Mtf She/Her Peril

They're both such good concepts

She's a lesbian, Harold

She only had a crush on Clay bc he was pretty much everything she was supposed to like in a guy

Gimme a moment while I force all my mental disorders onto this poor child

Autistic, Anxiety (Social anxiety, mainly, but she has most types), Adhd, PTSD

I'd like to reiterate yet again that She's a lesbian

Sunny and Glory were her gay awakening

Peril in Book 1: Damn, Sunny and Glory sure are pretty. Anyone would be lucky to date them. Clay would probably go for them over me. He would be stupid if he didn't. I myself would willingly date them over someone like me. They're just so pretty :(

Peril waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of arc 2: WAIT-

Rarepair alert but Peril/Sora

Peril meeting Sora: "Hmmm She's attractive. I would love to date her. Too bad I'm straight and in love with her brother lmao :P"

Peril, a mere month later, waiting for Ruby to leave Jade Mountain, pacing in her cave, running face first into a wall: WAIT-

I remember reading this one amazing story where Sora taught Peril to read/write and Peril found out she set off the bomb and comforted her/convinced her her run so that's canon now

Btw if anyone can remember what that story was called/what platform it was on and could tell me I'd appreciate it very much

I'd even be willing to draw a character of your's or make you an icon or something

I usually don't accept requests bc I get burnt out easy but this is a special case

She runs into Sora again sometime between the beginning of TOP and the end

I like to imagine she just goes wandering around

Anyway she confesses like a mere few minutes after running into her again bc Peril is just subtle like that

The actual confession takes 15 minutes and the entire time Sora is just sitting here like "👁👄👁 sure"

Bam Peril/Sora

Peril plans to keep it a secret for a little while longer but she spends 3 seconds around Clay and pretty much blurts it out

Clay, who wasn't even aware that Peril was a lesbian, is just "👁👄👁"

I wanna say Clay doesn't know what a lesbian is but in my canon Sunny is a lesbian so Starflight has already told him

Anyway he's super supportive

From that point Peril is sorta open about her sexuality?

Like, she gives Clay permission to tell the rest of the D.O.D bc she isn't about to risk being in front of them when they hear the news

(When Sunny starts actively seeking her out as a hang out buddy and Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight appear to tolerate her presence just a bit more afterwards she pretends she isn't confused by the change)

She's pink, white, and blue bc I said so

If you look at a certain angle in the right lighting her eyes, mouth, fire, and under her scales all look purple

But her fire is normally white and blue bc I said so

Also she pale as fuck bc in my canon their fire just sorta burns their colour away

You know how you leave something outside for too long and it gets sunbleached? Where it gets all washed out?

Like that but more extreme

By the age of 10-12 firescale dragons are just white with pale eyes

That's right not even the eyes are safe

Ram horns :P

I'm also fond of Peril/Sunny

Or maybe Peril/Sora/Sunny

But Peril/Sora is the main thing

On the topic of that bringing in my hc that if one sib in a sib group is fire resistant all of them are

She,,, She can change her scale colour

But only slightly and only if her emotions are strong enough

Bc I don't give a fuck about Darkstalker's scroll we were robbed of hybrid Peril

Unfortunately all of Peril's emotions are strong

Rainwing ruff along her head and neck

It's like a hood

It's mainly smoothed to her sides but when she's startled it flares out

RAINWING PUPILS

Y'all will know what those look like as soon as I get off my ass :P

She,,, She can mimic bird cries

Hates the summer

She has more than enough body heat already and the outside is just hot enough to add on and make her feel sick

She can somewhat control her heat but most of the time it's based on her emotions

It can go from standing-in-the-middle-of-a-burning-building-cant-see-your-nose-smoke-is-so-thick heat (Strong emotion) to Hey-thats-a-nice-cozy-campfire heat (Calm/"weak" emotion/Sleeping)

I'm just gonna make a different post with all my Peril hcs cuz there isnt enough room for all of them here

[bullshittierlists]

Spoiler Warning!!! - This review will contain spoilers for all of SDR2 and the first chapter of DRV3 as well as slight spoilers for DR1. You’ve been warned.

I see no god up here other than me

Gundham Tanaka- His name is GUNDHam TaNAKA

Sonia Nevermind- This is my third time typing this rant. I literally don’t know why people hate her so much?? There are two main arguments that I’ve come across. The first is that she is boring and shouldn’t have survived, but that’s the same as Asahina and everyone seems to love her. (Don’t get me wrong, I also love her, but all she had were donuts and her relationship with Sakura) She’s just a cute girl with some occult-ish quirks and I don’t see why that has to be such a bad thing. The other, more prevalent, argument is that since she’s at the center of the infamous love triangle, she must be the root of all its problems. It’s really frustrating when people blame her for Kazuichi’s faults. I’ll talk more about Kazuichi later, but his terrible qualities are a result of his own actions, and Sonia shouldn’t be blamed for being the object of his affections. It’s honestly blaming the victim and I’m sick of it. Obviously, she hasn’t treated him perfectly and I understand why people are frustrated with it. The only example of this, though, is in chapter four when she goes back-and-forth between treating him coldly and praising him when she should’ve just rejected him a long time ago. However, I think I can understand where she’s coming from in this chapter. I think it was kind of a Shuichi/Kaede situation. She had already figured out that Gundham was the killer, but didn’t want to admit it to herself, and definitely didn’t want to tell everyone else even though he was more than ready to admit it. Therefore, she treated Kazuichi coldly whenever he was getting close to the truth (or treating her poorly) and praised him whenever he was leading the group in the wrong direction. I don’t have any evidence that these were the times she treated him this way, but that’s how I remember it. Anyway, Kazuichi should stop being a creep, and apologists should stop rationalizing it. Her one slip-up in this case when she was panicked and worried for her closest friend does not make up for all of the other times Kazuichi treated her terribly.

You’re the best

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu- Boss baby boss baby boss baby. Also, he’s a fantastically fleshed out character and his relationship with Peko makes me cry literally every time :)  I just wish his character development had been a bit more stretched out, instead of on-the-spot like it was. I also kinda wish his sudden development had been a result of the despair disease, but you can’t have everything.

Nagito Komaeda- Recently, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how SimpleFlips calls softlocking in SM64 “gay baby jail” and Komaeda makes me think of that.

Chiaki Nanami- I’m not quite as attached to her as everyone else seems to be, but I totally see the appeal. Cute girl, cute backpack, and plot-relevant??? Incredible.

Ibuki Mioda- She’s just so fun. I don’t typically like characters who are loud for the sake of being loud, but I can’t help but love her. This was the first game I fully voice-acted for fun (the girls, at least) and Ibuki was definitely one of my favorites. It just feels good to yell sometimes, you know?

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Peko Pekoyama- I’m a simple woman. I think of chapter two, I cry. At least, the epilogue of that case. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Twilight Syndrome Murder Case and I definitely didn’t like the, albeit fake, serial killer twist. It didn’t feel natural and just felt bad. Loved hearing Sonia say “Sparkling Justice!”, though.

Hiyoko Saionji- I totally understand why people hate her. I get it, I do. But I just can’t bring myself to hate her. She’s obviously not a good person, but I have shit taste. Byakuya and Kokichi aren’t good people, but everyone loves them anyway. I just think she’s so funny and terrible, I can’t help but get attached. I’m not usually the type to like little sister characters, or even bullies, but she’s just such a perfect combination of the two that I can’t help but love her. I also obviously am not the biggest fan of Mikan (I’ll explain, I swear) so the bullying didn’t really affect me too much.

Hajime Hinata- He’s the protagonist. I don’t really know what to tell you. I used to believe in Hajime supremacy, but I’m starting to understand the Shuichi supremacy now, so idk, Hajime might end up lower after I finish V3.

Byakuya Togami/Ultimate Imposter- He’s just such a good guy. I know that the real Byakuya is an ass, but the imposter is so nice and supportive. I can’t even take him seriously as Byakuya anymore because of how supportive he is. The real Byakuya could never. I just finished his last free-time event and he really feels like his own person now, which I can imagine is all he’s ever wanted. He isn’t Byakuya to me anymore, he’s himself. I just don’t have a unique name to call him by.

I remember you

Mahiru Koizumi- Her photography thing was cute, I liked it a lot. I don’t know the basic stance people take on her crush on Hajime, but I thought it was really cute and believable. I don’t know if I ship it, but I can see it in canon. It makes sense and works well.

Akane Owari- She’s a jock. I feel pretty neutral about jocks unless they have another prevalent thing that fits my interests.

Nekomaru Nidai- Again, a jock. I’m just not the biggest fan. I know that his backstory makes up for a lot of his inherent jock boringness, but I just can’t get into him as much as some other people can. I definitely see the appeal, though.

Usami/Monomi- She’s a mascot. Cool. Honestly preferred Monophanie.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return

Mikan Tsumiki- I told you I’d explain. First, I need to explain some personal reasons I didn’t like her, rather than objective characteristics. Like I mentioned with Ibuki, I voice-acted the whole game with each of the girls. Never before has a voice physically affected me as much as Mikan’s. In order to make her voice so high and quiet, I have to close my throat and tighten my jaw. It makes my throat, jaw, and head hurt all at the same time and it feels awful. The only time this wasn’t the case was during her breakdown and that’s because I couldn’t make her say those things with that voice, it didn’t make sense. Which brings me to my next point: her breakdown. I didn’t like it. At all. It wasn’t interesting and it didn’t make sense. I know that everyone else was sad because she was bullied a bunch and began to romanticize it, and yeah, I feel bad, but it wasn’t enough to make me like her. Her breakdown made a little more sense after watching the anime, believe it or not, but it was still not great. She could’ve been easily redeemed for me if she had a different motive for killing Hiyoko. I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not Ibuki should’ve lived longer, or even survived, but I definitely agree with Hiyoko dying during the third case, I just wish the motive had been different. It would’ve been so powerful if Mikan’s despair disease had made her remember her past with the bullying, and then she realized how much she hated it. She started to notice how Hiyoko was treating her and finally snaps. She kills Hiyoko in cold blood on purpose, instead of on accident, and covers it up in a more reasonable way instead the literal impossibility that we actually got. Then, in her breakdown, instead of pleading for forgiveness, she tries to rationalize her actions and convince everyone else that she was in the right by killing her. It would’ve been much more interesting and would’ve made much more sense. I also wish she had made use of Ibuki’s despair disease (which made her gullible) and commanded her to hang herself instead of staging the other thing, because it was a lot of extra work that was really unnecessary and it would’ve made more use of the despair disease other than a plot contrivance for Junko’s entrance. This kind of turned into my review for the third chapter, but still. Killers are always more fleshed out in their respective chapters, so their existence is often pretty much tied to the events of that chapter, since everything typically revolves around them. I might as well add here that her execution was really basic and underwhelming, but as far as I’ve seen, I’m not alone in that opinion.

Monokuma- It’s kind of an ironic hate with Monokuma. Sure, he makes me laugh, but he’s also fuel for the killing game, so... I don’t know. He pisses me off sometimes, but he’s also pretty funny at other times.

Kazuichi Souda- This is basically a continuation of the Sonia rant, so here we go. I would like to preface this by saying that in the context of Kazuichi’s free-time events, he’s one of my favorite characters. However, in the main story, I placed him here. I would normally average out my opinions of his different forms, but his optional events don’t make up for his actions that are required to be experienced. While some of his quips toward Sonia made me laugh, they still made me uncomfortable to some extent. It’s honestly frustrating to see him try so hard when she obviously isn’t interested in him. Some people choose to see this as an underdog story, but I think it’s just annoying and low-key creepy. He’s constantly fetishizing Sonia and keeps making moves on her even after she treats him coldly. He isn’t brave or cool for doing this, like the media would like you to believe, he’s creepy and persistent, and not in a good way. While I do agree that Sonia should’ve just turned him down from the very beginning, I still don’t put all of that blame on her. I’m sure she’s had her fair share of creepy guys making advances on her and she’s just had to take it, since she’s a princess and it would hurt her noble reputation. Kazuichi should also be able to think for himself and see that she’s not interested. It shouldn’t be completely up to her to get him to stop. He should be able to take a hint and back off, whether she tells him directly or otherwise. She definitely hints to him that she’s not interested in some of the later chapters, but he completely ignores it and keeps trying anyway. I wouldn’t have such a problem with him if he didn’t represent a very real issue that we are facing in the world today. Nice guys will, unfortunately, always be plaguing our society and it doesn’t look like they’re getting any better. It doesn’t help that the media continually raises them up and convinces them that they are in the right, even though they definitely aren’t. No man is entitled to any woman and people need to stop sympathizing with men who are rejected and keep pushing. In almost every post I’ve seen from Kazuichi apologists, they explain that Sonia should’ve given him a chance. Really? She did give him a chance. She gave him several chances, in fact, more than she was entitled to. The first time she acted coldly towards him was at the end of chapter 4. That’s four entire chapters, plus a prologue, of chances that she gave him. She was always polite and talked to him when he approached her. Maybe she saw this as her noble duty, but either way, she didn’t reject him outright the first time she saw him. She tried to be friends, he was creepy, and then she started to hint that she wasn’t interested. This is a natural progression for her character and is in no way wrong of her. He is not entitled to her attention and should learn to back off when he’s not wanted. The other big reason I see that people don’t like Sonia is because she basically ruined any chance of Kazuichi and Gundham having any sort of relationship other than rivals. Again, it’s not Sonia’s fault that they both liked her. It’s also not her fault for choosing Gundham over Kazuichi, since he treated her respectfully and they also shared interests. She also didn’t need a specific reason to choose Gundham over Kazuichi, because she is free to make her own choices based on anything she wants, including nothing. Even though I said all of this, I do actually wish that Gundham and Kazuichi could’ve had some kind of relationship. I think it could’ve been very interesting, but it didn’t need to be devoid of Sonia. I think it would’ve been just as interesting for Gundham and Kazuichi to talk with Sonia as it would’ve been for her to introduce them to each other more formally and get them to become friends. I think it could’ve been fun for Kazuichi to have a little playful resentment towards Gundham for getting the girl, but instead, he went completely off the deep end. If he had just backed off like I suggested earlier, maybe they could’ve had that relationship that everyone longed for. I am also obligated to say here that I think all of his free-time events were absolutely adorable and the fact that he gets motion sickness is the single best piece of comedy every written.

Teruteru Hanamura- I’ve been doing a lot of rants and I’m kind of tired of it. You know why I don’t like him, I don’t need to explain it. He’s shitty, blah blah blah. His tiny bit of plot with his mother didn’t really do anything to redeem him for me and I just plain don’t like him. Sorry, not sorry.

Wow, this took way too long. I forgot I had so many opinions on these characters. I would’ve said a lot more about Gundham, but it’s kind of my thing here to say more about my second favorite characters and characters that I don’t like than my favorite characters, and I knew there were going to be several rants, so I decided to keep his very short. My definitive favorites list is Gundham and then Sonia, with a pending Fuyuhiko in third. The four dark devas are the best characters and I’m so upset they weren’t on here. I would apologize for my Kazuichi rant, since it had two parts, both of which were very long, but it all needed to be said because I’m sick and tired of Kazuichi apologists. They keep coming across my dash and I would like to be rid of them. If you like Kazuichi, that’s fine, I actually quite like him, too, you just need to acknowledge his faults instead of just rationalizing them in a bad way. If someone wants to send me reasons why Sonia is terrible, I’ll listen, because I’m sure I’m probably being a bit of a Sonia apologist, although I feel like her actions were a lot less impactful. Sondam supremacy, thank you, goodnight.