#going through chapters 4-6 brings me nothing but pain so Imma go forget that happens now /lh /hj

[leviadraws]

I’m just gonna splurge some thoughts about the survivors that I need to get out of my head, feel free to ignore this I just need to ramble about them. Obvs spoilers for all of DRA and SDRA2 under the cut (it's long btw).

Usual preface, just my thoughts, not canon confirmation of anything, you're all allowed to tell me I'm wrong/disagree yada yada yada

So one of the things I both love and hate about the DRA survivors in SDRA2 is how little we know about them since the events of DRA. All we get are little quotes let slip from Teruya's POV (and later Rei). And at least in Teruya’s case they’re said so nonchalantly but are also kinda telling of their experiences as adults trying to fight against despair, and how each of them are as adults. This is mostly about what Teruya tells us about Rei and Kinjo, as we do see a lot of Teruya's own personality through the course of the game.

Let’s take some things Teruya says when told that Rei is dead in chapter 2 for example. Not only does he not believe them, but he’s insistent that a) Rei will have contingencies for this and b) they will be rescued.

The way he says it implies that things go wrong in their work, and frequently at that. Rei needs to have plans b, c, and d as plan a rarely goes smoothly.

Also, while you could take his second comment as "Rei survived a killing game too she wouldn't die so easily", considering his spotty memory of his own killing game it's more likely that they've all come near death multiple times since starting the foundation. Which makes sense, put three kids in a war (two of which don't have combat experience) and quite frankly it's a miracle they're not dead yet.

Midori says something similar in the epilogue, so we can gather that people in the foundation do die often enough that it doesn't shock anymore. And by extension, the three of them have gotten injured or close to death themselves before.

I never noticed how calm he is about that statement about being rescued. He's confident. He's been captured before, perhaps a few of them have. And he has, at least, been rescued before.

I also find it kinda funny that at first when his memory of Kinjo is not all there he's still confident they'll be rescued. As time goes on and his memories of Kinjo return he loses hope. Just thinking on that.

Speaking of Kinjo, Teruya's comments of him are...interesting. When he doesn't fully remember him, he's kinda seen the same as Rei. He's confident in Kinjo and his ability to rescue them. But when he starts to get his memories back we get this wonderful snippet.

Oh boy Kinjo. I guess he doesn't believe in rehabilitation at least.

So I think it's important to stress that Teruya truly believes that Kinjo is his friend, and I think that speaks a lot about what Kinjo is like day to day. He's not always how he is in chapter 6, I really don't believe that either Rei or Teruya would stick around for however many years if he was, boss or not.

Especially Teruya, since in Kinjo's bad state he held a gun to Teruya's head and told him to pull the trigger.

It's kinda funny to think that both Rei and Kinjo have tried to kill Teruya. Rei ratted him out in chapter 4 solely to start a fight between him and Haru so they'd kill each other, and Kinjo obvs put a gun to his head. You need better friends /j

So Kinjo is probably relatively as he was in the foundation surrounded by good people (or just not criminals), and is much more ruthless out in the field. This is probably why Teruya and Rei scout on their own, perhaps they saw someone shot down who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

On a side note, I do wonder what Teruya is referring to here. There are a few things it could be tbh. Unlike the rest of the cast, he's not been reset in a past self so he knows that what he's seen is a memory, not a current thing. I think it's to do with his dad tbh, he's holding his scarf here after all (psst psst Linuj, when are you gonna tell us what happened there?)

Anyway, back on track. So Kinjo probably isn't crazy all of the time. I personally think that he has good days and bad days and that his physical state is an indication of his mental state, but that's my head cannon I can't prove that.

Man looking through chapter 4 is painful. Am I the only one that thinks Teruya's dark sprites look kinda sad? Like he doesn't really want to do what he's doing. Which kinda makes sense when you think he's being manipulated by Nikei and the entire tower seems entirely set up to trigger him in the worst way possible.

It's at this point that he no longer believes that he's going to be rescued, despite what he tells the others. He believes Rei is dead and doesn't believe that Kinjo will come for him, which leads into something Rei says in chapter 6.

Kinjo has left them for dead before, most likely both of them too. We know that Kinjo believes that the ends justifies any means and I think they have been on the receiving end of it.

But still, (I think) he wants to live, I've seen sometimes people say he's suicidal but I don't think that's the case. It's kinda telling that Yuki yelling "I'd rather die" triggers him enough to want to shoot him. It's only really later that he loses all hope and just kinda, snaps.

I know there's that one quote from chapter 6 he says, it always felt to me that he was just so cornered but still wanted to help, so he did the only thing he could. It does match something he says earlier in chapter 4

I think he values his ability to successfully help others over his continued survival. He's kinda taken Satsuki's words too much to heart, I don't think that she meant for him to carry that guilt all those years.

There's probably an entire thing about his mental state in that chapter that someone could write but that's for another day. All I will say is I'm not too keen on chapter 4 as I felt the whole thing a tad contrived in order for the shock value to keep ramping after chapters 2 and 3.

I guess the last thing we find out about Kinjo is he's changed in the last six months or so, and that was following him confronting his father. It's kinda implied that he's more distant from the other two since that event. Assuming that his contact with Syobai happened around this time, that explains why he would be distant from the other two, as he couldn't have anyone find out what he was doing.

That said, I have a head cannon that Teruya knew he was doing something fishy, but wanted to believe that he was doing it for the right reasons. You don't siphon off Syobai level fees from the company account without the accountant noticing. And considering Kinjo's attitude towards crime I can't imagine he's well versed in covering his tracks well enough to hide it from the ultimate merchant.

Also, that he seems to have trouble discerning the real Yuki from the one he met in the killing game. Despite that Yuki repeatedly telling him so and looking rather uncomfortable about it.

I hope that Linuj covers this in omake, it would be nice for him to have that closure.

I wanna say one last thing about Rei, since she's so underused this game it's actually criminal she doesn't get a lot of screen time or insight into her personality since DRA. We can tell that she's less curt, and more caring in her interactions in the prologue and chapter 6, and that in chapter 5 she's trying her absolute best to get Teruya out. But she still has her initial drive to survive above all else, which is why she keeps the exit code to herself.

But she's also still overconfident, she doesn't tell Teruya about the exit code because she's confident that she can get him out once she's out. And she definitely doesn't or he wouldn't react the way he does when she "dies".

"overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer"

And that's her downfall in the end, she's so confident that plan b, c, or d will work that she doesn't consider what will happen if she does fail.

Last bit while I was looking at other stuff, while she is blaming Kinjo here I think she's also talking to herself. After all, she's the one who left him there without a contingency plan. As we saw before, he's always relied on her in these kind of scenarios.

It's kinda funny, the only person Kinjo saved was Rei, and the only person Rei saved was Yoruko. One each, out of 32.

Damn now I'm sad. Anyway, if you've read this far congrats I guess? As I said before this is just some personal thoughts, you are free to disagree. I just really like it when things are left open to interpretation. I love these three a lot.