#danganronpa character rewrite

[sammylbir]

Rewriting The Most Hated Danganronpa Character (Haiji Towa)

No need for an introduction, eh? We know Haiji Towa. Mr Pedro Phillips, the guy who made Monaca, into who she is today and the guy most fans loathed. In my life, I only met 3 people who liked him as a character and even they don't like his infamous "Like em Younger" shtick. Thankfully.

Now, I made a poll and asked, if I should make a rewrite post for this POS. And all of you said Yes. Which does give me more faith in humanity. Even though I really don't want to do this post.

Welp. How about we remove the "I like em younger" line and leave it at that. Okay?

.....No, you want more? Okay fine. Let me do my best then. As always this is my personal opinion and you can feel free to disagree with me.

Appearance:

Honestly, in canon, this is probably the best part of his character. He has a very cool design and I do think that there should almost nothing be changed about it. Emphasis on "Almost".

What I would add is that the fact that his injured arm, is not actually injured at all. It's hiding a cybernetic prosthesis with a chainsaw attached to it that he can activate, in order to take down Monokumas. Said prosthetic was actually a result of an accident he had in the Towa factory as a kid. He uses his false injury, in order to lure his victims into a false sense of security.

The idea is taken from his concept art, back when he was gonna be the Deutagonist of UDG and not Toko. Good thing that didn't happen.

Personality:

Okay then, time for this part. Haiji is still unpleasant and is a huge jerk, hiding his true persona behind a brotherly and chill demeanor. He has a huge temper and can be quite authoritative. But he also cares deeply for his group members and is traumatized over the fact that he lost so many comrades over the years. He has survivors guilt and suffers from PTSD, to the point where any sight of a child sets his alarm off and makes him even more aggressive.

He did abuse Monaca like in canon, but for different reasons which will be explained later. Even so, he does regret what he did to her deep down, hating himself for the fact that he pushed her into Junko's arms. And he also misses his dad, feeling guilty that he survived over him.

Past:

Okay first of, he is not a pedophile. He is not attracted to kids.

Like in canon, Haiji was not a good brother figure to his sister Monaca. But the reason why he hated her, was due to the fact that his mother neglected him and was disappointed when he was born. She expected a girl and thanks to that, she treated him with contempt. His dad also belittled him and often verbally abused him, while praising Monaca's intelligence. This made him feel frustrated towards his younger sister and he hurt her a lot, in order to feel better about his lack of talent. Of course, Mr. Towa also was not nice to Monica and mocked her for being a woman and for trying to act like "a man".

His mother eventually left the family, thanks to the mob chasing her for unpaid debts. This made Haiji and his dad even more frustrated, treating Monaca even worse. Haiji only stopped, when he thought that he paralyzed her, something he deeply regrets to this day.

When Junko hired Haijis dad to make Monokuma Robots, Haiji spoke out against it and was therefore disowned by his dad. The rest happened like in canon and Haiji became the leaders of the adults. He is willing to kill every child, if it meant to stop the war in Towa City once and for all. Haiji did start out as more heroic, but the more the war went on, the more jaded and extreme he became, until at the end of the game, he'd turn into nothing more than a vengeful murderer, driven by the death of his comrades, friends and father.

This version of Haiji is more like A Fallen Anti-Hero/Knight Templar. He believes that what he is doing will help everyone, but deep down all he wants is revenge.

I can imagine him eventually becoming a boss in UDG, the moment Komaru refuses to break the controller, before being knocked out by Big Bang Monokuma. Whether he'd die in the process or not, remains to be seen.

And that's it. I am sure that this version of Haiji is much, much better than the original one and if ya liked this post, feel free to LIKE and REBLOG. It really helps a lot.

See ya!

[rewritingcanon]

my sister and i just yapped for almost three hours and we were just talking about how genuinely weird people in fandom are surrounding characters who have explicit mental illness. like they can never ever be normal. there are characters who are romanticised and glamourised for their mental illness (eren. wanda. joker. kaneki. nico. almost any danganronpa/ddlc character). characters who are consistently ridiculed for their mental illness either because it simply isn’t getting taken seriously (reiner) or because no one takes the character seriously (armin). and there are the characters that get blatantly outright DESPISED for it (basil, harry potter, korra, gale, also eren etc etc). like yes im seeing a correlation but its still so astounding how selective people are about where they draw the line with mental illness and what traits they can accept.

[sayakxmi]

Love the "Kokichi is on good terms with everybody but his own classmates", so my humble offering abt Chihiro, Sayaka, Leon and Makoto (kinda mostly Chihiro, but a little bit if them all). (Erased the read more cuz it's not that long).

Love the idea of Kokichi being an awesome emotional support for Chihiro – he's good at dealing with ppl who struggle with self-image, and he's somebody who also happens to be small and squishy, so he also gets their fears, even if he wouldn't admit it openly (to be fair, what would he admit besides being a liar). My take on Chihiro & gender is that they're closer to genderfluid or some other flavor of Both, and Kokichi could help them figure this stuff out, or point them at the right direction to start.

Kokichi teaching them his scary expressions & inviting them to play with him & Chiaki (and Nagito outside of school), and in general just having a lot of fun & helping Chihiro open up more (their classmates are doing that, too, but shh, it's a Kokichi post).

It kinda leads to Sayaka, bc I love the idea of Kokichi getting himself involved in her practice at HPA, and he drags in Chihiro, and then he drags in Leon who wants to play music, and then he drags in Ibuki to play, have fun bc she's doing pretty badly like the rest of class 77, and also give Leon tips, and then he drags in "Mitarai", subtly hinting that He Knows, bc a liar knows a liar. Everybody ends up having a lot of fun.

He tried to get Kaede involved & she even agreed, but somebody ended up telling her it's probably a prank, and needless to say Kokichi's class had pretty low opinion on him & she never showed up. Shame. But who ended up showing up was Tsumugi, bc she saw Kokichi in his idol outfit & makeup, and she's a cosplayer, so she knew, and she ended up doing everybody's make up & helping with outfits.

Maybe also Hiyoko got involved, and Mahiro who recorded one of the rehersals.

Anyway, the class 78's KG was definitely hard to watch, and Kokichi hates how the world was likely to remember Sayaka as a backstabber, when she was a kind person who wanted to make people happy, but was simply scared, or barely remember Leon at all, when he was a pretty fun guy to be around who just wanted to make his own path unrelated to his talent, but ended up killing in self-defence. Worse was knowing that they didn't remember how close they were back in school, but Kokichi did, so seeing that was just painful. Chihiro was even worse, even though he probably expected them to become a victim early on – their skill was too useful to keep around, and they were simply too soft.

Anyway, at some point he meets Makoto post Class 78 KG, and he ends up telling him abt HPA days, bc Makoto's memories are still a bit scrambled, and it's nice if sad. And Makoto appreciates Kokichi so much for seeing his friends as people and grieving for them, because he knows how others viewed them if they even cared in the first place. But Kokichi offers them respect and compassion most were unwilling to.

(Makoto promised not to give up on Kokichi's classmates, so he felt inclined to offer him something in return, but in general Kokichi softens a little during the Tragedy.)

[calliphone]

v3 redesigns for a video i’ll finish. eventually.

[gontagokuhara]

Just went on Instagram to look at more DR art (because tumblr won't let me see a lot of DR art for some reason) and saw hinanami discourse out in the wild which made me say, out loud, "oh, are we still doing this 💀"

Like idk if I've just aged out of the fandom (on Instagram) but just seeing that hinanami rant made me realize I've been spoiled by the DR community on Tumblr bc I'll scroll on here for 2 minutes and see a text post that will literally SHIFT my entire view of a character/ship and CHANGE my LIFE in just a small analysis that was probably written by op while they were on the toilet💀

Anyway it made me think of the post about Maki and Chappel Roan that I actually recited by memory out loud to my friend last night [gooning over wlw content together after watching Muriel's Wedding], And also that one post abt Monomi and Monokuma being Junko's satire of her own rivalry with Mukuro, and Junko not liking that her friends don't appreciate her fursona doing stand-up 💀💀 and like compare that to Instagram discourse and it's like "Komahina is stupid bc hinata isn't straight" like 💀

Anyway maybe it was the same on tumblr before [it probably definitely was] but now that I'm older I'm really appreciating mature convos/takes about danganronpa because good fanfiction/fanart/fan interpretations are truly adapting the story+characters in much better ways than the creators could ever imagine circa 2010 [pointy objects] [peaches and cream] [anything w/autistic nagito] [anything w/transmasc hajime]

number one rule of modern fandom experience (at the very least with media that has a propensity to draw Certain Crowds [looking especially hard at danganronpa and p5]) is CURATE YOUR OWN SPACE AND STRAY NO FARTHER ‼️‼️‼️ i personally escaped the early era dr fandom (pre v3 localization/the 2019 Danganronpa Renaissance) but time capsule posts tell me i dodged something of a bullet there ❤️ in that vein 2019/2020/covid era discourse was still crazy insane (<- was a part of it for sure LMFAO) but it had a much different Flavor than it did way back when. and the same is true of present-day: still a little kooky if you search hard enough (insta/tiktok/twitter/tumblr all have their own demons). but at least This go around i have largely avoided that by picking my people that i trust not to be Weird and just living in my own bubble wrt the dr fandom at large. and thats served me very well the past year+ since i got back into dr <3 and i have also seen MANY of those perspective-altering posts in that little curation circle that has deepened and made better my experience THE GOOD IS OUT THERE ‼️‼️‼️

THE JUNKO FURSONA POST ALSO LIVES IN MY BRAIN its so real and just one of many takes i’ve seen fly by in a post and been like This is so real and it’s mine now. many such cases <3 i follow people like that and simply block people expending energy on discourse i DOOOOOONT care about. like simply enjoy kmha (I SURE DO ‼️‼️‼️) if you like it and ignore hnmi/kmnmi if you dont (cant relate I LOVE YOU TOO HINANAMI + KOMANAMI ‼️‼️‼️) and live your life happy not angry ❤️

like re: maki lesbianism (which was written on the toilet no lie) she is The most lesbian of all time i could write 10,000 scholarly articles on her comphet + traumatic past of being made to hurt people keeping her from fully coming to terms with herself as a lesbian and as someone who wants to Protect the people she loves (an integral pillar of butchness!!!!!!!!) and it is so important to me. and MANY people disagree! and i simply just dont worry about it <3 but i DO think about the people that agree (and the people who i Influence to agree…..that makes me so happy to hear you talking about it with people :D) and that makes fandom FUN!!!!! not arguing over word of god or whatever that isn’t going to change anyone’s opinions anyway 😭

there is a LOOOOOT of good discussion and character/scene analysis and genuinely fun unique takes on tumblr (+ im sure other places but i rly only interact with dr on her & Occasionally by liking a twt post on my main) and that’s where i’ve made my niche <3 people having fun with the media they enjoy and trying to salvage its shortcomings and missteps because they love it!!

and putting little old Me up amongst the dr goats (transmasc hajime) (autistic nagito)………..framing this ask tbh the HIGHEST honor 4 me……..thank you my beloved cider as always KISS MWAH MWAH

[review-anon]

I hate Kotoko too. I can’t stand her personality type and the worst part is that Kotoko never apologized to Komaru and Toko are for repeatedly trying to kill them and especially the incident that she did to Komaru. The only sort of good thing Kotoko did is stop Komaru from breaking the controller, but I’d rather have Nagisa be the one to do that instead. I feel the writers only let Kotoko live is because she’s a little girl character.

To be fair none of the Warriors of Hope died as I think if literal children were killed off, Spike Chunsoft would recieve hell.

What makes Kotoko espeically bad is that she's a prime example of the abused becoming abuser. Again since her backstory is all levels of uncomfortable, I don't want to talk about it here, but let's just say it makes what she does even worse.

I also hate how she had to go on a 10 minute explanation obviously kinda leaning on the fourth wall why this is apparently okay. Which felt like a case of "Please don't send the watchdogs on us."

I am so glad that she recieves actual consequences for this in DTFA and that Komaru does not forgive her one bit. Its to the point where while Komaru is often used to channel the spirits of the Warrior of Hope's parents, Future Foundation are thinking of someone else to ease Komaru the pain.

[goblin-the-clown]

Woohoo more danganronpa remake stuff! I kinda forgot about this project for a while whoops. But anyways I'm back and I drew Ally again bc she's first on the list of characters that I have written down. She's also one of the few that I have actual designs for but my plan over the next few days is to do a character sheet for all of them so I'll be drawing all of them.

[violetspots-2007]

"Before we continue further, I should introduce myself. My name is Daisuke Yoshida and I am the Ultimate Class Representative."

Daisuke is more or less what you'd expect from a class representative: Responsible and no nonsense, but will always stand up for the little guy. He has a natural ability to keep people in check with just a glare (though he doesn't realize it half the time). Despite this, he lacks a proper filter so he can come off as meaner than he intends, especially when it comes to his opinions of others.

He prides himself on being able to "keep his emotions in check" (which just means bottling them up), but he'll occasionally have small bursts of rage if pushed to that point, but these are few and far between.

Even with all that, he does try to be understanding towards his classmate's, even if some get on his nerves. He does his best to help them and is determined to keep them alive in this killing game for as long as possible.

He likes mystery novels, the ocean, and penguins.

He dislikes troublemakers, loud noises, and petty drama.

If you have any questions on this character, ask away!

[dangan-kagura]

Things I Wanted to Include for My V3 Rewrite - Part 15: Truth Bullets for the 5th Trial

So I promised that next time I would share a list of truth bullets for the 5th trial in my fanfic. I had to watch the original class trial to make sure I would get everything I wanted. Keep in mind that some of these are the same truth bullets from the original game. And let me point out that my OC is named “Daisuke”. If I’m up for it, I’ll write a blog on what kind of a person he is.

Monokuma File 5 (Victim 1) - The victim is Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid. The victim was found lying on the ground in the hangar where the Exisals are stored. The only injuries are scars as if she was cut by some type of blade. The time of death is unknown. No other injuries were found.

Monokuma File 5 (Victim 2) - The victim’s body is unknown, but based on the remaining survivors, the victim is presumed to be Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader. The victim’s right arm which has now been dismembered is the only remains of the victim. The remaining body is presumed to be crushed by the hydraulic press. Because the wires to the hydraulic press have been cut, the victim cannot be fully identified.

Hydraulic Press - The hydraulic press’ controls are a short distance away from the device itself. There are two buttons labeled “Up” and “Down”. It also features a safety function.

Safety Function - The hydraulic press’ safety function causes it to stop when its infrared sensor detects a living thing.

Kokichi’s Arm - Kokichi’s right arm was found dismembered next to the hydraulic press. The sleeve is still on which suggests that Kokichi had his shirt on when he was dismembered.

Blood Stained Katana - A bloody katana was found sitting next to the hydraulic press. The katana is not the same one from Korekiyo’s research lab.

Hatch’s Electronic Lock - The two Exisals at the scene of the crime. One was in storage with its cockpit closed. The other was in the middle of the hangar with its hatch open and its cockpit exposed. There is enough space in the cockpit for one person. There is an electronic lock on the hatch that only the Monokubs can open.

Electrobomb - When used, it scatters particles that interfere with electromagnetic waves, rendering electronic communication and sensors unusable. Lasts for about two hours and covers an area of about 50 yards. Each can only be used once. Of the three that were made, Kokichi had two and Maki had one.

Hangar’s Front Shutter - It is protected by an electric barrier and if someone approaches it, an alarm will sound throughout the academy. The alarm can be disabled with the alarm remote. The control panel for the electric barrier is next to the shutter.

Used Electrohammer - Found on the ground near the three Exisals in the Cyber Courtyard. Electrohammers can disable any electronic device they’re used on. However, they run out of power very quickly and a single use on an Exisal will completely drain an Electrohammer. After being drained, they require 24 hours of charging to be usable again.

Exisals Protecting Monokuma - The day before the body was discovered, the Exisals surrounding Monokuma in the courtyard were given commands to observe his movements via the remote control Kokichi had.

Kokichi’s Disappearance - No one had seen Kokichi during the entire investigation or up until the start of the class trial.

Buzzsaws - Buzzsaws from Miu’s research lab were found in the Exisal hangar. Some of them had a little bit of blood. When investigating Miu’s research lab, the buzzsaws weren’t there. How did they move from Miu’s research lab to the Exisal hangar?

Chain rope - A chain was found next to where Kirumi’s body was found. The chain is long enough to be used as a rope.

Syringe - A syringe was found on the floor where Kirumi’s body was found.

Small Empty Bottle - Found in the hangar next to the syringe. The label is stained with blood so the only visible word is “Insomnia”. The origin of this bottle is unknown.

Daisuke’s Nightmare - Daisuke explains to Kaede about how Kirumi was executed in his nightmare. He notes that the position of how Kirumi’s body was found is too similar to how her body was by the end of her execution. (Note: He has this nightmare in the Chapter 2 Prelude, it’s not to be confused with the other nightmare I wrote a few blogs ago)

Killing Game Script - A copy of the script of how the killing game was planned to have been written. It is written that Kokichi was scripted to be the 5th victim and Kaito was his killer. It is also written that Kirumi was scripted to be the 2nd culprit and Ryoma was her target. The script even confirms that what Daisuke saw in his nightmare is how Kirumi was scripted to be executed.

Murder Video - A video shot with a camera from the unknown person in the Exisal. It shows the moment Kirumi, not Kokichi, was crushed by the hydraulic press. But with Kirumi’s body found, and the person claiming the video was not edited, how did Kirumi and Kokichi switch places before the hydraulic press crushed the victim? Another thing to note is that Kirumi’s dress is not torn in the video, nor does she have any scars.

Give me some time to try and figure out where all the pieces of this puzzle belong.

[forgetitbeam]

Everyone meet... APOLLO CREED!

The Former Ult. Paid Assassin and the uncle of Ayameko!

A money hungry goofer who, at first, is a charmer and talkative war vet, but is actually an manipulative ass.

He and Aya also got beef with one another.

[sammylbir]

Rewriting Danganronpa Characters: Gundham Tanaka

Hey folks! Welcome to another Character Rewrite Post and this time, we'll be going with my least favorite Danganronpa 2 Character. That being.....

Gundham Tanaka.

Yeah, sorry about it. I mean, I do see his strong points but...I just wish that he could have been better. Like....a lot. So, I will try my best to rewrite his character for the better, while respecting the original intent behind the character itself. As always, this is just my opinion and you can feel free to agree and disagree.

Well, with that out of the way, let us begin.

Personality:

His general demeanor will be the same, but I will tone down his hamminess. This Gundham will be a lot more quiet and appear more menacing, occasionally making grunts. They sound animalistic at times, which should showcase how he seems more at ease with his animals than with other people.

However, he is never really mean to anyone. Just very distant and when he does talk to other people, he speaks in his overlord-persona, with a polite tone. He does occasionally drop some menacing words into his speech, but it is less out of being mean and more for other reasons. Reasons I will discuss later on.

As in game, his "Muhahahahaha I am so evil lol" persona is a facade. In reality, Gundham is quite shy, socially awkward and pretty anxious in general. He does speak more normally in his true persona, with some tidbits of his overlord speech remaining. Why that's the case, will be addressed soon.

Appearance:

I really liked the hair design for Gundham in DR 3 and therefore, I shall give him that hairstyle. His overall oufit has a bit of darker texture than in canon and he is also wearing a bag that has a creepy design of sorts, with magic symbols on it. But ultimately this bag contains nothing, but food items for his hamsters and also some medicine for said animals, in case they get sick.

He also wears a mask, covering his mouth. This is supposed to make him look more menacing and off-putting, with the mask having a dark red color scheme. His eye on the left does no longer have red contacts, but instead a black one. This gives him a black eye with a white dot in the middle and depending on his mood, it would flash in various colors.

His built will be somewhat muscular and toned, because I do think he did have to exercise in order to tame certain animals that were difficult, like certain kinds of dog-breeds, eagles and whatnot. His hand without the bandage part, has a few bite marks. From his devas that is.

Past:

Well then, here I did a little revamp about his past. I understood the original message behind it, in the canon version, but feel it could be more fleshed out of sorts. So...here's my idea.

Like in canon, Gundham was born in a wedlock relationship. He came to be in a one-night stand by accident and he was born about several months later. And Gundham's childhood was...difficult.

His mother was very loving and patient towards him, often checking on him and seeing how he was doing. She devoted most of her time to work several jobs, to keep the house and themselves afloat. Gundam's dad was the opposite. While he was not physically abusive towards him, he was very neglectful. He himself was quite well-off and yet would only visit his son at least 2 times a year, because he was too busy with being in different countries and living the high-life. And if he did show up, it was solely for a fun time with Gundham's mom and not the boy himself.

His mom never broke up with him officially, because of his charms and the fact that he'd occasionally send her money. Gundham did see what a monster his dad was, when he once heard him brag about doing something.....monstrous to another woman. But at the time, Gundham was too scared to tell his mom, out of fear what his dad would do them and because he didn't want to break his mom's heart. Because he loved her that much.

Like in canon, his mom's cooking was quite...bad. But not in the sense that the meal didn't taste bad, but because the food she bought had a tendency to....not be good. This caused Gundham a lot of health problems and he never told her, because he didn't want to upset her. Unfortunately, he often missed schools, due to his health problems. And at the same time, he also learned from a convo of his parents, how he came to be.

This caused his self-image to drop and he began to view himself as a monster, something inhuman. Someone who will only hurt those, he comes the closest too and he thinks he is a burden. Due to this, he tried his best to distance himself from others, bit by bit.

He took on his "Evil overlord" persona, to drive others away. And to lift up his self-confidence and to not feel miserable all the time. For this, he studied tons of mythical books, to make his act sound more believable.

Now, why did he become an animal breeder? Well, it began when he was at the hospital. When he lied there in the bed, he noticed a hamster being all lost and confused. Gundham took care of him. He learned from the staff that the hamster belonged to an elderly patient, who suffered from dementia and passed away. Gundham took him in and named him Cham-P. He then discovered his love for animals and began to take care more of them.

As the years went by, Gundham started a blog to document his experiences with animals and at the same time, use the ads on the side to give his mom a bit of extra money. He acted more natural around his mom and said mom is still alive, before he went to Hope's Peak.

Relationship with Sonia

Now....the original game didn't really show the relationship between those two, in detail. So...let me give it a shot.

Sonia did buy into his act, but not because she liked bad boys or anything. She found his interest and knowledge of mythical and dark topics fascinating and found someone, she could connected too. She did try to open himself up to her a few times and Gundham, after hesitating, did open up to her.

Gundham at first tried to push Sonia away, but the fact that she didn't seem scared of him, made him feel more at ease. He struggled to open up to her though, out of fear that she would abandon him and then later realised, that the two were similar. Sonia wanted to be seen as normal, while Gundham wanted to be seen as dangerous. This allowed the two to confide in others and to overall, feel better about themselves.

Their relationship can be seen, as either platonic or romantic. Your choice, really.

Other Notes:

-He loves fantasy novels

-He is vegan.

-Something he can't stand in movies, is if animals get visibly injured.

-Adding to that, when an animal does get hurt by someone, Gundham would threaten to hurt said someone. Very much.

-Thanks to his dad, he has a very low opinion on those, who hit on women just because they are pretty.

-He despises zoophilia with a passion.

-His room has tons of animal plushies.

-While he can tame most of his animals, he has a hard time doing that with cats of all things, noting that they have a mind of their own.

-His favorite subject in school was biology and his least favorite, was Drama Class. The reason being is that he has stage fright.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this little rewrite of mine. Please LIKE and REBLOG for more posts. It helps out a lot and I wish you a good day.

Byeonara! :D

[unpopularshipperoboro]

Random things.

Because I can't focus on one task a day, I've now started to rewrite most DanganRonpa and some of it's characters(including designs). I won't be sharing this until years later but I just wanted to say that. It's fun.

[goshdangronpa]

We’re almost done discussing the first chapter of “I DISAGREE: An Ibuki Mioda SDR2 Protag Swap AU.” We’ve already discussed the first victim of this alternate killing game. We’ve already broken down some important parts of the trial. (Links included for newcomers who don’t want spoilers!) Now, we must reveal the story of the killer - and what happens once that story comes out.

I'm Brave but I'm Chickenshit: The First Blackened

Well, you already know it’s Kazuichi Soda. I revealed it at the end of the previous installment in this series. No surprises in this post. Nope, none at all.

When Kazuichi tries to remember the past few days, what comes up doesn’t feel like a memory. More like an off-kilter movie starring himself… or perhaps a nightmare that seems unreal but feels vivid. When he reflects, he sees some quixotic freak trying to live out a hero fantasy. Yelling for Monokuma to wrestle him, offering to restrain Chiaki while the others check up on her, attempting daring physical feats before being restrained himself - the very thought of such needless risk chills him now. But he can’t deny that this other Kazuichi was (some distorted and disturbing version of) the kind of person he always yearned to be.

Then, late last night, he awoke to a noise from outside. The chair that had been propped against the door handle had been removed. He was finally free to leave his room. When he slammed it open, he found that Chiaki’s door was open as well. This was bad news: the patient’s violent impulses had only worsened with the disease’s progression. For someone so dangerous to be outside of her ravaged room, on the loose and probably on the hunt … Kazuichi couldn’t let this stand. He needed to rally the troops and help them find her.

Suddenly, he spied, leaning against his doorway, a sword. Its origin was unknown, perhaps unknowable … maybe even divine. Yes, this blade must have been intended for him to wield against evil. No need to rouse anyone else from their slumber. He shall handle this himself.

The brave knight found his foe at the front entrance, struggling to unlock the door. Grinning, he leapt toward her and repelled her away, blocking her escape and protecting the other half of the island’s residents. Unfortunately, watching movies of samurai and ninja and knights doesn’t count as training in the weapon. Kazuichi’s clumsiness with the sword enabled her to dodge his parries and swings. She got behind him, then scurried up the steps that lead to the restaurant. On its other side, he realized with a gasp, there’s an outdoor stairwell that can bring her right to the cottages.

He chased. He confronted. He cornered. At last, he killed.

The victory of the moment vanished in the same instant as the target’s soul. Between blinks, Kazuichi stopped seeing a bloodthirsty fiend. He then saw Chiaki Nanami, a quiet and chill girl who got sick and acted differently. Though he couldn’t fully trust anyone under these circumstances, he’d felt that she was harmless enough, even pretty cute. Now, he was holding what looked like a sword, and it was right through her stomach, and the blood wouldn’t stop gushing down the stairs.

Terrified, he impulsively removed the blade and chucked it into the air. The splash it made as it landed in the swimming pool (from far away - guy’s got muscles!) spooked him. Afraid that the sound may have awoken potential witnesses, he fled back to his room, where he awaited his fate. Maybe he wouldn’t even make it to morning. What had prompted him to impale the girl, he recalled with a wince, was that in a last act of desperation, she’d slashed him across the chest with her nails (they’re normally filed short for optimal button-pushing, but she’d been growing and sharpening them at the hospital). He was bleeding, too ... really badly. Knowing he was dead either way, he fainted.

Morning came. Kazuichi was alive, his wound bandaged. He zipped his jumpsuit. He couldn’t breathe a word. Not until another seemingly harmless and pretty cute girl, Ibuki Mioda, urged him to damn himself.

He gets more sympathy than expected. So does Chiaki, which is good. Everyone now understood the nature of Despair Disease. Neither patient was in the right frame of mind. Neither would’ve really wanted to kill. He arguably even saved their lives at the cost of his own. Which is heroic! But, Hiyoko observes, he also failed to speak up when Peko, Fuyuhiko, and Byakuya were all this close to being falsely convicted. So he nearly negated his own sacrifice to what he would’ve known, subconsciously or otherwise, to be his benefit. A coward to the end.

“Can you blame me?” he shouts, no longer caring how he came off. “I don’t want to die, either.”

But die, he must. The votes come in. Monokuma bangs the gavel. Ready or not, it’s punishment time.

Kazuichi’s execution sees him yanked into the air by a claw and dropped roughly onto a conveyor belt. On the other end is a killing machine, a mess of gears and pointy objects and belches of flame straight out of Saw. With walls on either side, he can only run against the flow, as fast as his long legs can take him. Miscellaneous parts and machinery threaten to trip him, and Monokuma (dressed in appropriate safety gear) ramps up the belt’s speed. For the climax, you ever see that part from the movie Modern Times where Charlie Chaplin is caught between moving gears? It’s that, but less silent comedy slapstick and more horror movie mangling.

No one’s happy with this. Least of all because they still couldn’t conclude who among the staff could’ve helped him escape. Someone on the outside had to open the patients’ doors, drop off the weapon, and bandage Kazuichi’s wounds. Speculation runs wild: Byakuya must've done it because he knew where the sword was kept. Ibuki must've done it because how else could an airhead like her solve this mystery? The whole medical staff must've done it because they couldn’t think of a more painless way to stop the disease.

Ibuki takes some pride in saving everyone’s skins, but the agony of the execution and the distrust of her peers severely bums her out. She wishes she could go back to the gates of Hope’s Peak so she could turn around and leave. Or to that fateful morning when the disease first struck, so she could tell everyone what she knows now and maybe change the outcome. She’d even settle for earlier this morning, when she found Mikan beside her in bed again, looking all snug, feeling really warm …

Oh. Oh, shit.

Next week.

PREV: The First Trial

NEXT: Mikan Tsumiki, Ultimate Despair

[desperrados]

Took me 3 years, but I've done it. leveled up my character design skill like crazy. Hope to max it someday

[aparticularbandit]

You know that moment when you didn't MEAN to write something that was super shippy that would also hurt you, personally, and then that thing just. turns into something super shippy and ends up hurting you, personally.

:///

[starryluminary]

I find it funny that I’ve grown intimately attached to Korekiyo, Kokichi and Keebo not because they were good characters in canon

But because I’ve rewritten the entirety of v3 and reworked most of their characters to the point where I can’t help but love them unconditionally