Everything We Know About Mai Akasaki + So Many Theories
AKA, me going insane over a character with exactly nine seconds of main series screen time so far. I checked.
At this point, it's probably fair to say that Mai Akasaki is by far the most mysterious aspect of DRDT. A character we only learn about in short, cryptic bouts of information, yet one which seems intrinsically linked with the series' plot and characters. We know extremely little about her, and what we do know, it's usually speculative.
However, it's still really interesting to talk about this funky little woman, and try to figure out what exactly her deal is. Join me in insanity land, as I compile everything I could find about her, and speculate on her story! I can practically guarantee that you'll learn something new.
WARNING: Insanely long post. I reached the 30 image limit, to give you an idea of how crazy this is.
Wait, Who?
Her! <3
(A lot of what I'm about to say come from this post by despairing-disaster and this one by akemiai, huge shout out to them!)
For the uninitiated, Mai Akasaki is the secret seventeenth student of the DRDT cast, hidden somehwere in this school wait no that's Mukuro. Her name can be found in the hidden quote in MonoTV's character profile, which itself is found by doing "inspect element" on said page.
Her name is Mai Akasaki
(I am such a hacker)
Typing in https://danganronpadespairtime.tumblr.com/maiakasaki (or clicking there) takes you to a pretty empty page, with this text:
All you have to do is ask for my hand, and I'll give it to you.
Ask for my life, and I'll give it to you as well.
Don't apologize for asking, I'll give you my forgiveness too.
As you'll see later, this quote is probably something Mai would say.
And this hidden quote:
"Are you still searching for a secret? For some explanation that will satisfy you? There's no answer I can give you that will make you happy. Maybe I should have lied instead. I'm sorry."
Note the quotes, which as far as I can tell, aren't in any of the other hidden phrases. That said, spoilers, I don’t have any idea what this means.
You may aso have noticed some highlighted letters in that first quote. Typing those in, https://danganronpadespairtime.tumblr.com/aoaviepkro, takes you to the most important page for our purposes:
(Also, you can just look it up on google nowadays)
Mai Akasaki's character profile. And yes, it's the girl Teruko remembers after being stabbed by Xander, in episode 6 of chapter 1. After that memory, Teruko thinks:
It's strange I would remember her now, of all times.
What was her name again? It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember.
Xander always reminded me of that girl. Perhaps that's why I'm thinking about her now.
They looked similar, with that same red hair and smile. And... they both wanted to help, didn't they?
Teruko and her clearly have something going on, but we'll get to it later (take a shot every time I say something like that). For now, we have to dive into the profile.
Profile of Someone Dearly Loved
Basic Info
She's listed as the "Ultimate ???", likes phone charms and dislikes silence. She's 5'8'' tall, weighing 124 lbs and with a chest sie of 30 in. I doubt anyone cares about the latter. Her birthday is February first, which you may want to keep in mind for later.
The Subtitle Quote
As every character does, Mai has a quote right under her name. In her case, "There's a way for you to be happy". Keep in mind these quotes are usually things the characters would say, and as you'll see in a moment, that fits.
However, what's interesting is that this quote was not the one originally there when Mai's page was first found. It changed. It used to be, apparently, "Anything, anything at all..."
What I don't know is when it changed, or why. The earliest reference I can find to the change is this post by stfu-sage, the 20th of March, 2023. This is just three days after the release of Ch 2 Ep 8, but that feels like quite a strange time for it to change, especially since we don’t know how many days passed without anyone checking the profile. I feel it makes more sense if it had changed either with the release of Ch 2 or with the BDA on chapter 7. Regardless, the exact time doesn’t matter much.
What do these lines mean, though? Well, starting with “Anything, anything at all”, I believe it’s related to line from the Mai Akasaki URL. You know, “All you have to do is ask for my hand, and I’ll give it to you…”, that one. When you read them together, it makes sense:
All you have to do is ask for my hand, and I'll give it to you. Ask for my life, and I’ll give it to you as well. […] [You can ask for] Anything, anything at all.
Considering the code for Mai’s profile is in the “ask for my hand” line, I think it makes sense.
Then, the changed quote, “There’s a way for you to be happy”. Considering the general time for the change, is it possible this is something Mai said to Arei, during their time at Hope's Peak? It's the best I have for now, but I feel we may need more context to know what this is about.
In any case, I can't gather much more from the subtitle quote. Although I do feel like pointing out, Mai’s quote is somewhat unique in that none of the words are highlighted. All the other characters have one or a few words highlighted (eg: Arei - secret, Teruko - no matter what), except MonoTV and Mai. Don’t think it means anything, but it’s there.
Hidden Quotes
And here we have it. The most important part of Mai theorizing. Whenever you refresh the page, a new body of text appears, which is related to a specific character via the code of the website. You can see in the screenshot I took, it says “A girl with many friends”. But here’s a full list of all the possibilities:
Teruko: Some years ago, she was searching for someone named ‘Teruko Tawaki.’
Charles: A girl who loves her family.
Rose: She remembers everything that is important to others.
Arturo: A girl who sees the beauty in everyone.
Levi: A girl with a floral tattoo on her arm.
Whit: A girl with many friends.
Eden: She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up.
J: She kept it a secret, and told no one.
Hu: A girl who wanted to keep everyone safe.
Nico: Everyone confided in her.
Ace: A girl who had a bright future.
Arei: She doesn’t like it when her friends fight.
Min: An average girl with nothing special at all about her.
Xander: She couldn’t stand to do nothing.
Veronika: A girl who didn’t foresee the consequences.
David: She forgives everyone.
MonoTV: It’s all your fault.
You may notice the order is somewhat peculiar, and it's for a good reason. It's the order the "bios" (name of the variable in the source code... I think that's how that works) are laid out in the source code of Mai's page.
... I know you can barely see and not all of them are on frame, but just trust me. If you want to check for yourself, you can go to the profile's source code (Ctrl U), and either scroll to almost the bottom, or just search (Ctrl F) for a word like "average" or "confided" which only shows up in the "bios". There's probably easier ways to go about it, but this is how I got there. I'm telling you this because it took me like an hour to find out where the hell the order came from. I am not good at computers.
However, for now, let's just ignore the order (and the tenses of the sentences, I swear I'll get there) and focus on the main points for now.
+Mai is extremely well-liked by the other members of the cast. In particular, some of the quotes compliment her based on faults the character attached to them has.
>Arturo is extremely judgemental based on ugliness, but Mai "sees the beauty in everyone".
>Charles forgot his dead brother, but Mai "loves her family".
>Rose is absentminded and often forgets things if she doesn't see them, but Mai "remembers everything that is important to others".
>The hidden quote on Ace's page has him saying "I don't know what to do with myself anymore", suggesting a lack of control over his future, but Mai "had a bright future".
>Arei constantly causes altercations between the cast, but Mai "doesn't like it when her friends fight".
However, plenty of quotes are simply good qualities, such as Hu's "A girl who wanted to keep everyone safe". The point is, everyone seemingly adored this girl.
+Mai is good at keeping secrets, as implied by J's and Nico's quotes ("She kept it a secret, and told no one" and "Everyone confided in her", respectively). Those same quotes actually seem to imply Mai likely knew those two's secrets, and possibly a lot of the others.
+Among other things, Mai is compassionate, forgiving, friendly, and generally a positive presence.
+Mai and Teruko have a particularly strange relationship. We'll come back to this.
+Mai seemingly did... something, and it brought consequences. This is implied by the quotes of Xander ("she couldn't stand to do nothing") and Veronika ("A girl who didn't foresee the consequences"). But, what was it? Well, to get a better idea, we need to take a look at... the Bonus Episodes.
A Not-So-Unnamed-Classmate
Technically-a-Theory: Mai is the Unnamed Classmate
I say "technically" because I'm pretty sure no one actually disagrees with this. Yes, technically it's never been confirmed, but it seems likely Mai is the Unnamed Classmate who shows up in both of the Bonus Episodes we have so far. The PoV character in both of those episodes has the same voice, which sounds like a girl's, and their personality seems to fit with the very little we know of Mai.
Additionally, as you’ll see, the text boxes in the Bonus Episodes are surrounded by flowers which look very similar to the ones in Mai’s tattoo, further connecting them.
It's not much, but since we don't know anyone else who could be Unnamed Classmate, they and Mai are likely the same person.
With this clarified, let's talk about Unnamed Classmate.
Bonus Episode #1
This episode is mostly focused on Min and the history of Hope's Peak, but we can still start to grasp a bit of Mai's personality. She seems generally upbeat and somewhat bubbly, and we can see glimpses of her kind and caring qualities when she comforts Min near the end of the episode.
There's also a few lines which actually tell us a few more concrete things about her, though. I won't post them in chronological order, btw.
Min: Hey! Put your textbook away! Don’t cheat!
Seemingly an insignificant joke, but it does help establish Mai as slightly mischievous/cheeky, which will be expanded upon later. Other indications of this cheekiness include Mai comlimenting Min and trying to distract her by talking about the sky and her backstory, presumably to procrastinate. I may be reading too much into it, but I really don't think Mai is as easily distracted as she makes herself out to be.
Mai: Auughh, the test is too soon, there’s no way I’ll have enough time! I’m totally going to fail!
Mai: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you to help me study--
Mai: I see. That's how you got your talent. I'm ashamed that I'm only now learning something so important. I'm sorry.
(Yes, I had to bunch a few of these images together because I ran into the Tumblr 30 image limit)
A few lines which seem innocuous at first, but when paired together, they hint at something. Essentially, I believe this implies Mai doubts her abilities and actions, and may even have a self-deprecating streak. She's at the very least much harsher on herself than she is on others. It sounds like a stretch, but I swear it's not as farfetched as it seems.
Mai: You're somebody who buys fish-shaped pastries and saves the chocolate-filled ones for me, because you know that those are my favorite.
Mai likes chocolate-filled pastries. Hey, when I said “everything we know about Mai”, I meant everything (that I could find).
Min: I suppose for someone like you who doesn't care too much about Hope's Peak and who, no offense, would never be eligible for the [Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students] with such average grades...
Min: You might not do very well in school, but you're quite sharp.
Put simply, Mai has average grades, but is still considered smart by Min. Her intelligence is visible throughout the episodes, mainly in the form of emotional intelligence and a hint of deception (that's where the mischieviousness comes in).
However, perhaps it’s the first phrase which is most interesting. Mai “doesn’t care too much about Hope’s Peak”. Which is only reiterated by the following lines.
Min: Maybe someone like you who never cared about Hope’s Peak Academy wouldn’t understand. But it’s everyone else’s dream to be an Ultimate.
Mai: Ultimates aren’t everything. As if I’m only friends with you because of your talent. There’s more to you than that.
Mai seems to have a much more laissez-faire approach to the concept of Hope’s Peak and Ultimates than what Min considers normal. By itself, this isn’t too strange, as we know there’s other people not too attached to their status as Ultimates. However, this actually may have something to do with the incident implied in Xander’s and Veronika’s quotes. I’ll get to it later (overused phrase of the day), but for now, keep this in mind.
Nevertheless, there is one more theory affected by this nonchalance towards Hope’s Peak. Except, it’s a theory I believe is actually harmed by this attitude.
Good Theory I Don’t Believe: Mai is a Reserve Course Student
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool theory! I just don’t think it works all the way.
Essentially, this theory is what it says in the tin. Mai is the Ultimate ??? because she’s actually a Reserve Course student, a la Hajime Hinata. There are many good posts on this theory, like this one by delightfullydiscordant, and I recommend you read them since they’re well put together! Some of the main points of this theory include:
>Min’s quote for Mai is “An average girl with nothing special at all about her.”, which could imply she doesn’t have a talent. However, there are other interpretations for this line, so it’s far from conclusive.
>Mai seems to be wearing a Japanese Hope’s Peak uniform (check out this post by laly-481), but the jacket around Mai’s waist is darker than the one worn by Ultimates in DR 3. Instead, it seems closer to a Reserve Course jacket. The issue I have with this is that… well, we know very little about what the Japanese Hope’s Peak in the DRDT universe looks like, so this feels a bit vague.
>
Mai: You’re not nobody. Even if I pretend that you’re not an Ultimate and that we’re not both students in Hope’s Peak Academy, you’re still somebody to me.
I’ll ask you to ignore the lesbians for a moment and focus on the beginning of the quote. If you look at it closely, it seems to imply both Mai and Min are Hope’s Peak alumni, but they’re not both Ultimates. Thereby, Mai must be a Reserve Course student.
However, I actually have a different interpretation of that quote, one which, you guessed it, I’ll get to later. But for now, if we’re going to get involved in semantics, we also have to look at this line:
Mai: The US Hope's Peak Academy takes in college-age students, and there's two of them, and we have this really weird curriculum, and there's a bunch of other things, and...
Min: Remember that we’re East Class 27, so that means that Hope’s Peak is how many years old?
Min: Look at what our classmates are doing now. They're Ultimates too. They're all doing things relevant to their career, if not actually out working.
Min saying “we're class 27" could be interpreted as her simply referring to herself and the other Ultimates, but even then, referring to "our classmates" while talking to Mai implies they're in the same class. Also, Mai saying "we have" a weird curriculum feels odd unless both she and Min have the same curriculum, meaning both of them likely attend the same classes, thus again, both are Ultimates.
But that’s only a minor problem. In truth, there are other reasons I believe Mai has a talent, and I even have a guess of what that talent may be. But the main one is what we just established: Mai never really cared about Hope’s Peak.
I admittedly may be missing some context, since I’ve never watched DR 3, but from what I know, Reserve Course students are usually characterized as people who desperately want to be Ultimates and are obsessed with Hope’s Peak, which doesn’t fit Mai at all. You could argue maybe she went to Hope's Peak to search for Teruko as Teruko's quote implies, but the problem with that is that Teruko remembers Mai, at least a little bit (see: dream sequence), which means they should have reunited before Hope's Peak, since the last thing Teruko remembers before the "amnesia zone" is going to Hope's Peak's entrance ceremony.
Not to mention, we… can’t even be sure the Reserve Course exists. For as much info as we got from the Bonus Episode #1, that course was never even mentioned. And seeing this is a post-Tragedy world, the Reserve Course may not even exist. Especially when Min also says that actually being an Ultimate is considered more important than going to Hope’s Peak in the US.
So, final verdict on this theory? While it’s quite interesting and I definitely think it’s more plausible than many of the other things I’ll bring up, I don’t find it to be the most likely, again because Mai’s disinterest in Hope’s Peak pushes her away from the standard Reserve Course student, and because I prefer a different theory about her talent.
And with that, we’re done with the first Bonus Episode for now! Let’s see what the second one brings.
Bonus Episode #2
This one, surprisingly, has fewer lines which gives us info about Mai. However, what it does give us is arguably some of the most important intel we have so far.
Mai: No, it’s fine. Don’t think you’re making me come with you. I'm here because I want to be here.
Mai: [Xander reimbursing her for the trip]'s silly. I can pay for it myself. Besides, you're letting me stay at your place for a week, so if anything, you're doing me a favor.
The first just reiterates that Mai is compassionate and wants to help whenever she can. As for the second, it seems to imply Mai doesn't struggle too much with money, which is info I guess. However, she also says Xander is doing her a favor by letting her stay over. I think that just means the expenses of living wherever she's living for a week exceed the expenses of the trips? I don't see any other reason that would be considered a favor in that aspect. I considered maybe Mai could have a bad home life, but in the secret quotes:
Charles: A girl who loves her family
So, I don't think that's the case. I think it really is just a money thing, and we don't have to overthink it too much.
Mai: 'Oh, speaking of Hope's Peak. I need to ask Xander if he found that document I asked him to look for.'
Mai: 'I didn't want to unload the work on him, but he's much better at digging up stuff than I am.'
Mai: 'But it's definitely not something I should bring up in a public place. I'll remember to ask him later'.
And here we are. The single biggest Mai-related reveal in the Bonus Episodes. Her and Xander were involved in some sort of secretive operation related to Hope's Peak. In particular, seemingly during their trip to visit the graves of Xander's family, Mai asked Xander to retrieve a document related to the Academy, a document they shouldn't discuss in public. In fact, right after this, Mai changes the subject to Xander's eyes so as to not talk about it, again showing she can be somewhat deceptive when she needs to.
This might be related to Teruko's claim that "[Xander and Mai] both wanted to help", but it seems impossible for her to remember anything which happened during HPA (Hope's Peak Academy, got tired of writing it out) time, so I still don't know what she actually meant by that.
Nevertheless, it's pretty obvious that whatever this is, it would be bad news for HPA. I mean, if Xander's involved, there's no way it's good for an institution. But it also ties back to Mai's critical view of HPA and the Ultimate title.
However, messing with something as powerful as HPA could be pretty dangerous. Thus, I believe this little operation is likely what's being referred to in Xander's and Veronika's quotes.
Xander: She couldn’t stand to do nothing.
Veronika: A girl who didn’t foresee the consequences.
(By the way, Xander's quote in particular is why I don't quite believe the theory that the document mentioned here is only to get Teruko into HPA somehow. It's a cool theory, but Xander's quote feels a bit too dramatic for that to be the end goal of Mai's plans)
I mean, for one, it's Xander saying Mai did something, and messing with HPA could have quite drastic consequences, from what we know. Thus, from now on, I will henceforth call this vague action against HPA "the HPA Operation", because saying "that thing Mai did which Xander's and Veronika's quotes allude to" is gonna get tiring.
What exactly the HP Operation was, I obviously don't know, we're on chapter 2 of the series and this is quite clearly a mystery which may last until chapter 6 (assuming a standard DR formula).
However, I can tell you one thing. It may not fully be Mai's idea.
Mai: If you set out to do something, then never give up on that, no matter what obstacles may stand in your way. Even if it's risky or against the rules, as long as it's for a good cause...
Mai: I'll trust that you know to do the right thing.
Xander: Yeah, of course (NOT PICTURED)
Xander: That's why I've come to Hope's Peak, isn't it?
The lines about the HPA document appear right after this, although Mai does seem confused at first by Xander's claim that "that's why [he's come] to Hope's Peak". So although Mai is the one who asked Xander to find the document, it's possible the basic idea to go against HPA came from Xander. After all, remember. Mai never cared much about HPA, so it seems unlikely she paid enough attention to it to notice its flaws as quickly as Xander would. Ultimate Rebel, and all that.
However, even if Xander was the one who planted the idea of revolution in Mai's head, she's clearly invested in it. She tells Xander to never give up on anything he sets out to do, even if it's risky or against the rules.
So, there it is. So far, what we know about the HPA Operation is:
>Mai and Xander were heavily involved.
>It may have originally been Xander's idea, but Mai seems to have taken the role of tactician at some point.
>HPA likely wasn't too happy with it.
>It likely had horrible consequences for Mai.
And that's all we had for a while, as Chapter 2 Part 1 didn't add anything to the conversation. Well, except maybe a thought Teruko has when Arei starts crying after her breakdown in the playground:
That pitiful crying... It reminds me of...
Of...
That could be about Mai, but I really don't know what it could mean, so I'm sorta ignoring it for now.
So, yeah. Nothing new.
Until it came out.
Going (Literature Girl) Insane
Yeah, the David MV. Mai is listed in the cast list as a secondary character, though her name is crossed out. This likely refers to the portrait of her seen in the background.
The portrait of Mai is labeled "portrait of someone dearly loved", while Teruko's is labeled "portrait of someone dearly unloved", the words flipped. This is one of many things which seem to imply Teruko and Mai are meant to be opposites of each other.
There is also that one image of a girl whose identity is unclear.
It doesn't look like Mai, but maybe that's my prosopagnosiac ass assuming different hair = different person. Generally, people assume this is "Diana Chiem", if she even exists, though I somewhat lean on it possibly being the mysterious name out of frame in the cast list. You know, the name which vaguely looks like "Ms Naegi". However, I'm showing you the image to get a second opinion on something.
You see the hand Mystery Girl is holding? Doesn't it look like it's wearing a glove? Because of the white line in the wrist. Maybe I'm going insane, that could just be a bend of the wrist, but... I kinda don't see it? It makes a bit more sense to me as a glove. And since it doesn't seem to be cut off at the fingers like Xander's, it would have to be Mai's. Other characters also wear this type of glove, but they’re not on the cast list.
The counterpoint is that it looks like you can see the nail of the PoV person's thumb, but I'm not sure that's the case? That part of the sprite is really strange and seems to be different in all three of the Mystery Girl images, so I can't tell. Anywyas, if any of you have ideas, tell me. Again, it's most likely I'm overthinking and that's just a bend of the wrist.
Anyways, enough dillydally, let's get to the big stuff.
The Roman numeral
As you may or may not know, during the MV we’re shown a crossword puzzle which is solved with the characters’ names, and this assigns each character with a different Roman numeral. This numeral later shows up attached to some kind of phrase, which in turn relates that character back to the phrase. I made a post talking about all of them, but I'll go more in detail about Mai's in this post than I did in that post.
Solution by raspbeyes
In the crosswords, Mai intersects Arei and Levi. I don't think this means much by itself, since the way the names intersect doesn't seem to be too important in general. Like, yes, if you squint you can see things like Whit only intersecting Charles, but there's also things like Min only intersecting Arei, Eden only intersecting Rose, Veronika intersecting everyone and their morther... My point is, the exact position in the crosswords doesn't tend to matter much.
What's more important are the numerals. Mai's is XI (11), a number which, from my research, is related to leadership and bringing out the best in others, as well as nobility or higher conciousness and spirituality and knowledge and new beginnings- Okay, the point is, I found mostly inconclusive stuff, but a lot of this sort of relates back to Mai, so we take it.
And the phrase itself:
XI. God is dead
What could this mean? Well, in philosophy, the phrase "God is dead" refers to the breakdown of ethical and sociocultural structures as christianity and religion in general became less universal. So, loss in faith in an institution leads to changes in the status quo. One way to interpret this in the context of this numeral is that Hope's Peak is the "God", and Mai's actions involved a loss on faith on HPA, and everything which comes with it. This could even be related to the phrase which directly follows this numeral in the song, "become brainwashed: go do it!". If HPA's propaganda which makes everyone love Ultimates can be considered brainwashing, anyways.
...
But that's not what any of us first thought when we read that, is it?
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Is Mai Dead?
Yeah, we gotta talk about the elephant in the room.
You'll have noticed, lots of the hidden quotes on Mai's profile speak about her in the past tense. This already had people thinking she was dead since it was first found, but the MV really drove the point home. Considering how the characters think about Mai, it's not impossible to imagine Mai is the "God" here, and "God is dead" has a far more literal meaning.
But, let's hold our horses here, no need to kill her so quickly. There is a chance she's alive.
Coping With the Quotes
Like I said, some of these quotes speak about her as if she's dead, but some of them actually talk about Mai in the present tense. Here, I sorted them out.
Referring to a past event:
Teruko: Some years ago, she was searching for someone named ‘Teruko Tawaki.’
Eden: She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up.
J: She kept it a secret, and told no one.
Xander: She couldn’t stand to do nothing.
Veronika: A girl who didn’t foresee the consequences.
These are phrases which can't be used to determine Mai's status, since they talk about a specific thing which she did. Even if she's alive, these would still be in the past tense. Teruko's is explicitly talking about years ago; J and Eden are talking about things Mai probably did during her time at HP; and Xander's and Veronika's talk about the HPA Operation. These are inconclusive.
Miscellaneously inconclusive
Whit: A girl with many friends.
MonoTV: It’s all your fault.
MonoTV's line doesn't refer to Mai at all, so it's not useful here. And I put Whit here because... frankly, I wouldn't trust him to tell us even if Mai really is dead. "[His] mother is dead, [he] omit[s] this truth", and all that. Though his quote does seem to imply she's alive, for what it's worth.
Present Tense
Charles: A girl who loves her family.
Rose: She remembers everything that is important to others.
Arturo: A girl who sees the beauty in everyone.
Levi: A girl with a floral tattoo on her arm.
Arei: She doesn’t like it when her friends fight.
Min: An average girl with nothing special at all about her.
David: She forgives everyone.
Admittedly, some of these don't actually have verbs, so putting them in "present tense" is a bit of a misnomer. Still, all of these seem to imply Mai's alive. Notably, David's line is right after Xander's and Veronika's in the code, so he might be saying this after the HPA Operation fell through? Take that as you will.
Past Tense
Hu: A girl who wanted to keep everyone safe.
Nico: Everyone confided in her.
Ace: A girl who had a bright future.
I was surprised by how few of these lines actually speak of Mai strictly as if she's died. They are all together, too, and separated from Xander's and Veronika's by Arei's and Min's in the code. But what's even more important is that these are still inconclusive.
When Hu says Mai "wanted to keep everyone safe", she could be talking specifically about the HPA Operation, and the phrase would be in the past tense even if Mai survived that.
When Nico says "everyone confided in her", that could mean everyone at one point or another told her their secrets, and again, it would be in the past tense even if Mai is alive.
And although Ace says Mai "had a bright future", we don't know why she no longer has one. It's possible the consequences Veronika speaks of only ruined Mai's future, but didn't get her killed.
With all this in mind, it actually seems like the quotes lean on the side of Mai being alive! That's still inconclusive, and MonoTV's quote is a bit too ominous for me to say they definitively confirm her status.
Especially because... well, the quotes aren't the only part of this discussion.
The MV Killed the Hope's Peak Star
Let's start with the biggest issue, the flowers of an unknown species.
As pointed out by delightfullydiscordant in this post, those flowers appear to be the same ones on Mai’s tattoo and Unnamed Classmate’s text boxes. And as the comments point out, they seem to be camellias.
The issue is that the MV confirms they’re white. And white camellias, in Japan, are popular funeral flowers and are associated with death. Yeah.
Now, let’s not bury the girl yet. White camellias also represent adoration and respect in a more platonic way than, say, red camellias, for example. They can also represent purity, beauty, and even hope. Yeah, we’re dropping the H word.
I also tried looking for literary references with white camellias, in the spirit of the MV. However, the only thing I found was that they show up in “To Kill A Mockingbird”, a book which if I recall correctly is never mentioned in the MV. And it’s a good thing, too, since they apparently represent racism in that book. I don’t think that’s related to Mai, frankly.
So, good news! It’s still not conclusive! Well, but there’s more. In particular, take a look at footnote 20.
This shows up directly after Mai's numeral and the brainwashed phrase I mentioned earlier. It’s a definition of the model of the five stages of grief, with the footnote itself simply claiming it is considered by many to be outdated. Also, there’s an emoticon of someone sticking out their tongue. Don’t know what else that would be, and I don’t know what to make of it.
But the fact it’s a model of how people deal with grief, usually related to death, and that it shows up directly after Mai’s numeral, seems to imply Mai’s dead.
And then there’s the problem of her numeral! Mai has one of the only ones numerals which is colored, in this case gray. The others are mostly just white, with the only other exceptions being Xander's (translucid, "(the world of abnormal sentiment dances)") and Min's (pink, stylised as the X of a death portrait, "democratic-ly" and the rules of class trials). It doesn't bode too well for Mai to have something in common with 2/3 of all confirmed dead people, I have to say.
However, it being gray specifically could be a direct reference to her death as well. Color theory (don’t question it for now) connects gray with the depressed persona of David, though, so this isn’t very conclusive.
And finally, edging into more “confirmation bias-y” territory, you remember how I said the position in the crosswords doesn’t really matter? Well, yeah, but. Mai’s name, as it goes over the A in Arei, also happens to cross the Roman numeral IV (4), a number related to death as per footnote four. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s why Arei has it. You know, the third dead person. Nevertheless, again, crosswords positioning is usually not important, so take that with a massive grain of salt.
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So, what’s the conclusion? I think it’s still up for debate, but I lean more on the idea of Mai being dead. The flowers and the model of stages of grief are pretty damning, and I don’t think most of the quotes being in present tense can really be trusted.
Anyways, let me continue a bit with the idea of her being dead.
Sub-Theory: Shot Through the Heart, Xander’s to Blame
You remember how the MV claims there’s six bullets around? But it also tells you it’s impossible to find them all? I made a post about it, where I found the five bullets which I think are the only ones which i can be found.
My conclusion in that post, which I sort of stand by, is that if there’s six bullets, but only five are visible, the last one is likely loaded in the gun. It’s labeled “(not) a prop gun”, so it’s apparently real, but still connected to Xander.
The issue? That gun is sorta pointed directly at Mai’s portrait.
This kinda fits with the pieces I’ve been putting together. Mai (possibly) died because of the HPA Operation, but Xander may have been the one who originally planted that idea in her head. Or at least enabled her plans by finding documents. In that sense, one could argue it’s Xander’s fault Mai died. So, it kinda fits! I’m going with that.
The question now would be who blames Xander for Mai’s death. After all, I sorta doubt he’s the one who actually killed her. My original instinct was David, since that’s the guy the MV is about, but that doesn’t quite fit. David idolizes Xander a fair bit, so it feels odd to think he’d blame him for this.
Instead, if this theory is true, I think it makes more sense for Xander to blame himself for Mai’s death. Survivor’s guilt is a huge part of his character (see: the Bonus Episode and the quote on his page), so if he survived the fallout of the HPA Operation when Mai didn’t, he’d be quite heartbroken by it. And thus, he may end up blaming himself for dragging her into the whole mess.
So, that's about it for what we know about Mai's status. But would you believe it if I told you we're not done with the MV yet?
Color Theory
Color theory in the context of the MV refers to this post and reblog by accirax, where she went over every colored lyric in the MV and assigned each color a character based on the characters' color scheme and the lines themselves. I recommend checking out her whole post, it's really good and I won't talk about everything she brought up.
For our purposes, the important color is Mai's. And I agree with accirax that Mai is likely black (the color, not the skin tone). Although the color doesn't show up much in her color scheme, she's a generally cryptic character with a generally cryptic color. But the lines work with Mai better than practically anyone else:
>"You" x3: As pointed out by accirax, everyone is obssessed with Mai, so it sorta fits.
>"The track to the ideal country ->" The arrow points to a passage from "Utopia", btw. This makes sense with the HPA Operation. It's a vaguely revolutionary operation which seeks to improve the world, so you could consider that "the track to the ideal country."
However, we have to talk about the elephant in the room. Her color scheme would still set her up to be red. Maybe yellow if you count her eyes, but red is an important color for her. It wouldn't be unheard of for an important character to have two colors, since David has two. But red is a special color for color theory... because it's completely nonsensical.
Red is by far the most overrepresented color in the MV, having practically double the amount of lines any other colors do. And considering the color, you'd imagine it would either go to Mai, Xander or Veronika. However, no character fits all the lines that well, as explained by accirax in her posts. I explained in this reblog what I believe about this in detail, but essentially, I believe red is intentionally ambiguos, and any given red line can belong to any of the three characters I mentioned.
I'll quickly go over the way I would assign the red lines, but I'll only explain the Mai lines, since I already went into detail on the other ones in that reblog I linked to before. Keep in mind some may apply to multiple characters.
Unassignable: Aa, ah, isn't it?!
Veronika: whatever; go mad x3; broken; go insane?; won't change; original; you've killed so many; medicine; self-denial confessions; self-delusion.
Xander: are all just idiots (final verdict); Bye x2; Goodbye; escape!; together; are all just idiots!; ignorant; great applause!!!; won't change; original; and disappear!; 1; medicine; revolutionary; idiot; self-delusion
Mai: Bye x2; Goodbye; broken; God; and disappear!; medicine; revolutionary, self-denial confessions
I will mention, you can also give her all the "idiot" lines Xander has, as well as "won't change; self-delusion" and all that, since David (the guy presumably "singing") may be somewhat skeptical about Mai and her revolutionary ideas.
>Bye x2, Goodbye, broken, and disappear!: She's probably dead, so. I also inexplicably think "broken" works with her death, but not Xander's. I have no idea why.
>God: The biggest reason why Mai has to be included, the others just aren't as God-ish as Mai (hey, it's like that song!). Not much to say; it's connected to Mai via numeral XI, and I already explained why she could be "God" here.
>Medicine; revolutionary: She's a revolutionary thanks to the HPA Operation, and you could argue that means she's the "medicine" of society.
>Self-denial confessions: Mai works better with this line's original context (revolutionaries being coerced into going back on their ideals) than Veronika, but it still leaves behind the question of what exactly she's denying. Maybe denying the ideals of Ultimates, when she herself is (probably) an Ultimate? Something like that. I guess that could also work with Xander in hindsight.
So, there we go! Full interpretation of Color Theory as it relates to Mai. Wow, that was a lot for very little new info!
We're almost done with the MV, but first, we have to talk about the man himself.
David's Relation to Mai, and his Potential Involvement in the HPA Operation
But first, a side note.
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Does David remember Mai?
There's a theory floating around that David might remember parts of his time at HPA, including Mai's existence. Check out this post by anderscim and reblog by xmicrophonyx if you want a full explanation, but I'll cover the main points here. It's a really good theory, and it's not any less plausible than some of the other theories I'll mention later in the post, but I don't quite believe it.
See, the main evidence for this theory is that the Literature Girl MV includes Mai's face in the portrait and an image of Xander with two eyes, as well as things like the morse code and possibly tally 5 which seem to reference David and Xander's relationship during HPA time. And that's my first issue with the theory, I just don't think the MV can be used for this.
Of course, it comes down to interpretation, but the way I see the MV is as an abstract form of storytelling, not a completely 1:1 view of David’s mind. Essentially, while a lot of it is spoken from the perspective of David, it’s not actually a reflection of his real mental state, but rather a representation for us the audience. It’s hard to describe :v
The main thing that I want to bring up in support of my interpretation is the youtube comments scene, I hope you know what I’m talking about. There’s no way David would be aware of these comments, such as the one referencing the J and Arei swap theory. In particular, the comment talking about (presumably, the names aren’t explicitly written) Teruko as a protagonist is impossible for David to conceive, since there’s no way he would know we see her as the protag; and the ones that namedrop Byakuya, Nagito and Kokichi are practically impossible as well, as Veronika has claimed not to remember any other killing games before the one in DRDT. Kokichi in particular would be problematic depending on your interpretation of V3.
What does this mean? This means that the MV isn’t beyond showing us the audience things outside of David’s own mind, for the sake of storytelling. It’s not hard to imagine, then, that the scene with Xander having two eyes is meant to show us that they had a good relationship in HPA, even if David doesn’t remember it. Same with calling Mai “someone dearly loved.”
There’s also a few things about other characters which don’t quite match what David would know about them in the killing game. For example, Rose’s numeral: II. Ego cogito ergo (turbatus) sum. (I think therefore I am disturbed). This only really makes sense in the context of Rose’s conversation with Teruko and Nico, where she admits to having trouble separating reality from her memory and her dreams. But David wasn’t there for that. Another example is Teruko’s: XIII. or not to be? Which seems to reference her suicidal tendencies, implied in that one thing she said to Arei. Again, that’s not something David would be aware of during the killing game.
Either David remembers way more about HPA than implied in the theory, or those are also examples of the MV going beyond David’s mind to continue telling us things about the story.
In xmicrophonyx’s reblog, she also brings up the pre-chapter dialogue as possibly being David’s. I… don’t see it, frankly. The pre-chapter 1 dialogue seems to fit Teruko more, imo.
“Half-remembering is worse than forgetting. Her name, his face…”
We know Teruko doesn’t remember Mai’s name based on the CH 1 EP 6 dream sequence from before, and the “he” could be her brother. Prosopagnosia, and all that.
And while the chapter 2 dialogue could fit David and his feelings towards Xander better, there’s nothing which explicitly implies he remembers anything about HPA before the killing game.
I still miss you.
I miss you so much that I wish you had never been part of my life.
The worst part is, even though you left me like this, there’s nothing I can blame you for.
Also I think that’s Eden but that’s besides the point.
And finally, now that you understand why I don’t think the evidence for isn’t very good, we have to address the evidence against. Mainly, the fact that David doesn’t seem to recognize Xander during his introduction. At all. He even explicitly says, “... I don’t believe we’ve met before”, and calls Xander “sir”. There was no indication at that point that they’d be missing memories, so David has no reason to pretend he doesn’t know who Xander is. In fact, I imagine that if he did remember Xander as having two eyes, and he sees him with an eyepatch, he would react to it in some way, right?
In conclusion, although I like the theory, I don’t think it’s very likely that David’s kept any memories from HPA time.
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Anyways, back to my speculation. There is relatively little reference to Mai in the MV, so it's not like we can get much here, but there is still one thing I want to talk about. And that's the morse code at the end of the MV. As translated by dav-suburbiia:
“YOU STILL BELIEVED IN ME DESPITE EVERYTHING I’VE DONE.”
“BUT THAT’S JUST FANTASY, ISN’T IT?”
“I SIMPLY CHOSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU DID.”
“AFTER ALL, I’M INCAPABLE OF BEING SOMEONE WITHOUT YOU.”
Now, most people assume this is about Xander, which is perfectly understandable seeing the context of the MV. However, I think there's an argument to be made that this is actually about Mai.
The main thing here is the apparent contradiction which rises if we assume this is about Xander. The "you" in this code knows what David "has done", but they also seemingly aren't around anymore. If we assume the first is referring to David's "manipulation" thing, then this would have to be about HPA Xanvid, since we've never heard of David confessing his issues to killing game Xander. However, if the "you" really isn't around anymore, this would have to be for killing game Xanvid, since Xander only died in the killing game. Am I making sense?
This isn't conclusive, mind you. You could say the code never explicitly says the "you" is actually gone, just that David can't be someone without them. Or, alternatively, that David did reveal "everything [he's] done" during the killing gmae. But it's still an odd way to phrase all this.
So, is there any evidence this is actually about Mai instead? Well, if you squint. The code is directly followed by footnote 22: "The rest is silence". Silence is the dislike stated in Mai's profile. Word association coming in clutch.
But perhaps more interesting is the phrase "You still believed in me despite everything I've done", combined with:
David: She forgives everyone.
The "you" in the code forgave David, and Mai evidently forgave him as well. It's not conclusive either, but it could be a connection.
Under the interpretation that this is about Mai, it would be related to HPA time. Mai still believed in David, or at least, at one point David believed Mai believed in him, and apparently gave him a purpose in life.
The worrying part about this code is actually the middle. "But that's just fantasy, isn't it? I simply chose to believe that you did". Apparently, it's possible Mai never actually trusted or forgave David, another reason I believe it's possible this isn't actually talking about Xander. As established, Mai can be deceptive when she wants, so it could work. We're missing a lot of information, so what exactly this all would mean is up in the air.
But in any case, it's possible that if David was given purpose by Mai or Xander, he would be involved in the HPA Operation, though how exactly is obviously impossible to know. I know this is really weak, but...
Okay, can we talk about Tally 5 yet? I kinda have to talk about Tally 5. Don't worry, I won't actually post the image.
!!!TALLY 5 SPOILERS (NO IMAGE)!!! SCROLL IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF TALLY 5!!!
If you've been living under a rock under the past month or so, Tally 5 refers to an image you get to by solving a code related to the "correct/incorrect" code in the David MV and inputting it into a webpage accessed via the QR Code in the MV's books. I won't talk about the puzzle itself here, so if you want to solve it, maybe go do that or just scroll past this part of the post.
Anyways, as I imagine you know by now, Tally 5 shows David holding Xander's jacket with the following quotes under it:
I became a villain in pursuit of your dream.
I threw away my humanity for an ideal that I couldn't understand.
But I don't regret it. To "regret" is to imply that I could have done anything else.
I never told you, but the truth is, I wasn't capable of ever becoming human in the first place.
So in the end, you're always-
Listen, I'm not gonna pretend I have some sort of infallible exaplanation of what this means. I have several theories about it, and to give you an idea of how insane it is, one of my theories involves quote 3, the one about regret, being said by MonoTV. Don't ask. I might have to do a completely different post about all this, but I'm sorta waiting until I can read some other peoples' thoughts about it.
But for the purposes of this post, this, to me, heavily implies David was involved in the HPA Operation. He's probably talking about Xander here, and Xander's dream would be the HPA Operation, since as I said, it may have been his idea in the first place. That's the ideal David can't understand: an ideal to change a world David sees as immutable.
Now, the lone jacket would imply this isn't the case. It would seem David is saying this in the killing game, after Xander's death, as holding his jacket seems to imply he's gone. However, I don't know what the dream would be in that case. Killing Teruko? It's possible, but I find that unlikely.
So, yeah. Combined with the morse code, here's a full interpretation of what this could mean in relation to Mai:
Mai or Xander somehow learnt of David's true feelings and the way he sees his own actions. She/he forgave him, or at least pretended to forgive him, and this gave David hope. Mai/Xander then introduced David to the HPA Operation, and asked him to do something which would turn him into a villain, asking him to throw away his humanity for an ideal he couldn't understand. What exactly that would be is obviously impossible to know. David accepts, and even when the plan fell through, he doesn't regret doing what he did, because he feels he couldn't have done anything else.
Am I confident in this interpretation? Not really, but it's a plausible interpretation which is related to Mai and the HPA Operation, so I wanted to bring it up. There's a lot there which is probably wrong, but it's what I have for now.
!!!TALLY 5 SPOILERS OVER!!! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU WERE AVOIDING THEM!!!
And with that, we’re officially done with the MV! I mean, I may reference it later, but now the bulk of it is gone. Surely this means we can get to some lighter theorizing and-
Teruko Tawaki
Yeah, we gotta talk about the other elephant in the room. Mai and Teruko are clearly connected in an important way.
The first thing to note with them is that they’re generally set up as opposites. Of course, the most straightforward thing is the “dearly loved/dearly unloved” portraits in the MV, but it goes much deeper. Also in the MV, Teruko’s numeral appears right after Mai’s, if that counts for anything.
Another thing is their color scheme. Teruko is mainly associated with green, while Mai is mainly associated with red. And these colors are complimentary; they’re opposite in the color wheel. Not to mention, taking Teruko’s redesign into account, one could associate her with black and Mai, thanks to her uniform and the white camellias, to white. In particular, it’s notable white camellias actually have a white flower, but a black stem. They’re even the same height, at 5’8”! It’s so they can kiss each other in the lips more easily
Additionally, their attitudes from what we’re seeing are also opposite. Mai “forgives everyone”, which means she’s really trusting, while Teruko is (for now) very distrustful. That one’s a bit looser, but eh. May I even go so far, as to say that right now, Teruko represents despair while Mai represents hope? Alright, now I’m reaching, but it fits. Teruko is someone resigned to her horrible fate (luck), while Mai constantly fought for a better world. In fact, Xander, someone Teruko associates with Mai, calls our protag out on her hopeless view of fate… right before stabbing her.
Hell, practically all good things said about Mai? Not true of Teruko (at the moment).
Charles: A girl who loves her family.
Teruko’s an orphan, and doesn’t remember her brother.
Rose: She remembers everything that is important to others.
Well, you could consider people’s faces something important to them, but Teruko has prosopagnosia.
Arturo: A girl who sees the beauty in everyone.
If you watched chapter 2, you know this isn’t true of Teruko.
Honestly, I could keep going like this, but I feel you get the point. There’s no reason for me to dwell on this further when you can just read the quotes and figure out how Teruko isn’t described by most of them.
Well, one possible exception is Levi.
Levi: A girl with a floral tattoo on her arm.
Yeah, time to talk about this theory.
Theory I Absolutely Believe: Teruko and Mai are Tattoo ‘Bud’dies
(Get it? Because flowers and buds- Yeah, no)
So shoutout to cider-est for first pointing this out in this post, but it’s true. Teruko’s left arm is always fully covered, either by bandages or by her jacket sleeve. Which is especially odd, considering her right jacket sleeve is always rolled up.
And it’s especially odd, because her left arm is covered even in the jacket-off reference picture.
And yes, there is a suspicious question mark next to Teruko’s left arm. It ain’t even subtle.
But if there’s still any doubt left in your mind, let skulemojee dispel it in this post, where they point out this image from Ch 2 Ep 2:
Yep, you’re seeing that right. Those black lines on Teruko’s left arm look a suspicious lot like the stems of Mai’s tattoo. It's not perfect, since we can't see any flowers and that may just be scars, but we never get a good enough look at the back of Mai's left arm to know if the flowers are tattooed on the forearm, or if only the stems reach that far.
(Also, Teruko in this scene says she doesn’t remember that scar in her back. Part of me thinks it’s related to Mai and the time of the missing memories, but the more rational side of me tells me I need to chill and stop seeing Mai everywhere)
It's also worth noting this would explain the choice of camellias for the tattoo. Remember, although they represent death in Japan, they mainly represent platonic adoration and respect. A very pretty thing to get matching tattoos with your bestie. But since they're not colored they could be interpreted as red and thus romantic for the shippers
So, yeah. I believe they share a tattoo. Which gives a whole lot of context to the quote.
Teruko: Some years ago, she was looking for someone named 'Teruko Tawaki'
In case it wasn’t clear before with the way Mai smiled at Teruko in that dream sequence, or the way Teruko associated Xander with Mai before she got stabbed by him, the fact they possibly share a tattoo implies they knew each other for a while and had a good relationship with each other. Another indication is that Teruko's favorite color, in the latest Q&A, is stated to be red by association. Sorry Xanruko shippers, that's clearly about Mai, since Teruko associates Xander with Mai in the first place.
What exactly the timeline of this mess is, is... complicated if the tattoo thing is true. Because that would require Teruko and Mai to have gotten the tattoo when at least Teruko was 18, both in Japan and the US. In some states of the US, she would be able to get it at a younger age if she got parental consent, but... what parents? She's an orphan.
In fact, when does that dream sequence take place? Is it Hope's Peak time? Can't be, because Teruko wouldn't remember it. Actually, why doesn't Teruko remember Mai's name is Mai had been searching for her for a while?
Yeah, I can't pin down anything specific about their relationship. Obviously I can't, this is a big mystery and we're only in Chapter 2. The best I can give you is that their relationship was clearly very positive, even before HPA.
...
Which is what makes this line so weird.
Mai: Hang on, "real Ultimate talent?" You're the Ultimate Student! I mean, it's not like you're a "Lucky Student" who was picked by lottery.
This line is really odd, isn't it? It seems uncharacteristically mean for Mai, to dismiss someone else's talent so readily. And Teruko's in particular, when again, they clearly liked each other well enough before HPA. This almost reads more like something Mai would say about herself rather than someone else...
Huh.
Theory: Mai, the Second Ultimate Lucky Student
As established before, Mai has a slight self-depricative streak, where she says things about herself she would never say about one of her friends. So, the fact she's so quick to dismiss the Ultimate Lucky Student as a concept could imply she is the Ultimate Lucky Student. (ULS)
Of course, the first question is how this would work with Teruko. A HPA class only has one ULS, and Teruko's there. I've seen others suggest perhaps Mai was the ULS at Japan's HPA, which is apparently still a high school, so it's possible for her to go there and then go to US HPA, which is more like college.
However, I actually think there's an easier explanation. Mai and Teruko both went to US' HPA at the same time. They just went to different ones.
Mai: The US Hope's Peak Academy takes in college-age students, and there's two of them, and we have this really weird curriculum, and there's a bunch of other things, and...
Yeah! Did you forget there's two HPAs in the US?! Because I sure did! I swear, I rewatched that Bonus Episode like 5 times before I caught that. How does this thing keep spawning in information?
I believe this is why Min specifically calls their class East Class 27. Seeing as this is in the US, I imagine there's likely an East Coast HPA and a West Coast HPA. But what would be the point of splitting the school like this? There's no reason the dev couldn't just keep them as just one HPA... unless there's a reason.
Because with two classes of the same age, there has to be two ULS of the same age.
Now, of course, it's possible West Class 27 is completely irrelevant to the story, but if you assume Mai is East Class 27's ULS and Teruko went to west coast HPA, a lot of things start to make sense. Have you ever wondered how Mai could have been in the same class as everyone else, when HPA usually only have 16 students? Well, it's because one (or more, possibly) just went to another class.
This also explains why we have to get this particular detail from a Bonus Episode. Although all the characters have talked about going to HPA, no one ever mentions which HPA they were invited to. It seems like a weirdly specific detail to omit, unless there’s a reason for it. Because if most of them were part of East Coast HPA, and one of them wasn’t, it would immediately stand out as strange to the cast.
And Mai does have some connections to luck. I mean, of course she does, her story is closelly intertwined with Teruko. For example, remember her birthday? February 1st? I told it'd be relevant, right? Well, as pointed out by fuji-iri in this post, on that day, there's 333 days left of the year. 3 is a number associated with bad luck, but there's also associations to "parting ways" and the three stages of life (birth-marriage apparently-death), again explained in the post I linked. That works with Mai and Teruko splitting up... whenever that happened, as well as Mai possbly dying, but the luck thing in particular is notable.
Now, the main reason I believed this before was just that "it's not like you're a 'Lucky Student' line", but as I researched this, I may have found something else? Except, it may just be me being horrible at code and getting really confused. If anyone can confirm or deny this, it'd be great.
Here's what happened. I noticed that when you look up Mai's name in Google, the text under the link to her page had Teruko's hidden quote: "It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust no one at all." So I went into the code again.
First, I right-clicked on the title (Mai's name) and clicked "inspect". I expanded the "<head>" section (God I'm bad at this), and found this under <meta name>.
meta name="descripttion" content="Mai Akasaki Ultimate ??? "There's a way for you to be happy." It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust no one at all. The protagonist. Despite having the Ultimate title of "Lucky..."
Now, at first, I assumed this was just a coding quirk where for some reason, I was seeing the text of the next character or something.
But, I checked some the other characters, and none of the ones I checked have the same style of text. Look, I'll transcribe some.
Teruko:
meta name="descripttion" content="Teruko Tawaki Ultimate Lucky Student “I will survive this, no matter what!” The protagonist. Despite having the Ultimate title of “Lucky Student,” it seems like the only luck Teruko has is bad luck..."
Xander:
meta name="descripttion" content="Xander Matthews Ultimate Rebel “Screw the rules!” Loud in both voice and personality, Alexander “Xander” Matthews earned the title of Ultimate Rebel through his consistent tendency to go against the..."
MonoTV:
meta name="descripttion" content="MonoTV “Ultimate TV Show Host” “I’m the most beloved character in the cast!” A strange robot with a television for a head. MonoTV claims to be the “Ultimate TV Show Host” who is in charge of an..."
I also checked Veronika, Whit and Nico, but didn't check any more since the pattern's easy to see.
As you can see, usually this section of the code just has the name, the subtitle quote, and part of the body text. None of them have the secret quote, unlike Mai's, which has the quote which is supposed to be Teruko's. But Teruko's name or subtitle quote is never brought up in Mai's "meta name" thing.
Again, maybe I'm missing something, but it really looks like that is meant to be some kind of description of Mai.
It sort of fits. Teruko's quote about trust can fit Mai, hell, is completed by Mai. Teruko usually shows the failing of trusting no one, but Mai may be meant to show the failing of trusting everybody. Mai is also important enough that calling her "the protagonist" is fitting enough.
And, if that really is about Mai, then the final portion is confirmation. "Despite having the Ultimate title of "Lucky..." If this is about Mai, then Mai is unequivocally an ULS.
Again, I don't consider this conclusive because I am an idiot and could very easily be wrong. The wording is exactly the same's as Teruko's, so again, it may be a coding oddity. But with all the other stuff I mentioned, I can at least say this is the theory for Mai's talent I believe the most: She's East Class 27's ULS, while Teruko went to West Coast HPA as their ULS.
Anyways, anything else about Teruko? Oh, yeah, a final sub-theory on her.
Sub-Theory: Shot Through the Heart, Teruko's to Blame
Take a look at the 2nd Anniversary picture.
[The three frames of the 2 year anniversary "video"]
Okay, I know you can't see shit here, but I'm running out of the 30 image limit. Check out lacunasweven's post where she discovered this (to my knowledge), and stfu-sage's reblog where he solved the code.
When solved, that code translates to “It’s all your fault”, which you may remember as MonoTV’s line about Mai.
So, Teruko reaches out for Mai, then “it’s all your fault” appears for a frame or two, and then suddenly Mai’s gone. It’s not exactly hard to imagine that this means Teruko is at fault for Mai’s death, or at least whatever consequences the HPA Operation had. How exactly is impossible to know, because again, it’s a mystery we’re not meant to solve yet. I have a gut feeling it’s probably related to Teruko’s luck, but that’s all it is, a gut feeling.
This doesn’t conflict the “Xander’s at fault” idea, if you’re curious. It’s possible for multiple people to consider themselves at fault for Mai’s death. Xander for bringing her into the HPA Operation, Teruko for her luck or whatever else happened.
Although… yeah, we gotta talk about that right? The scene before the prologue.
I can’t say anything definitive, because again, not something we’re meant to figure out at the moment. But I can tell you what I think.
First, the PoV character is probably Xander. There’s a bloody fork there, and while I’m not the one who came up with the idea, (see: anderscim's post about this) that’s likely the weapon which was used to take out his eye. His wounds do look suspiciously fork-like, though I struggle to explain it without images, and I’m already stretching thin to make the image limit. I’ll have to ask you to look it up yourself.
Anyways, that may be Xander, and this may be the incident where Xander lost his eye. The reason I’m bringing it up is that, since Xander is involved, there’s a chance this is somehow related to the HPA Operation. Here’s a full transcript of what’s said:
...
Fuck!!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, this really hurts...
Ouch... I really wasn't expecting her to attack me like that.
I made a massive mistake to trust them. I can't rely on anyone.
All by myself... I have to end the killing game.
And even if I can't do that...
I have to kill Teruko Tawaki.
No matter what.
So, a woman attacked Xander unexpectedly, managed to overpower him and stab his eyes out with a fork, then presumably ran away. And this all seemingly happened in some form of killing game. And Xander already wanted to kill Teruko.
I doubt Teruko was the one who attacked Xander. Because Xander calls her out by name at the end, and also because, how would Teruko be able to overpower Xander? Unless you “divine luck” your way into an explanation, I just don’t see it. In any case, it’s probably a different woman. Without knowing anything about the previous killing game, we can’t know much about this situation.
However, the fact that Xander already wanted to kill Teruko here is notable because it seems to imply this killing game happened after Mai's death. After all, Mai and Teruko had a good relationship, right? So Xander wouldn't have a grudge against her until after the HPA Operation fell through. The final conclusion here is that Teruko somehow caused Mai's death, which somehow led to the pre-series killing game. I think? Obviously, it's impossible to say anything conclusive here, and I don't even know what exactly the connection would be between Mai's death and the previous killing game.
And with that, we finish discussion of Teruko.
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Quick Side Note: The Mai-stermind Theory
I’m not funny.
So, in case it isn’t clear yet by the fact I keep assuming she's dead, I don’t think Mai is the mastermind of the killing game. I’m aware it’s a possibility, seeing as she’s very mysterious and all that, but frankly, I just have never seen anyone seriously bring up this possibility, since there’s essentially no evidence. It’s also important to note, even if she is a mastermind, she can’t be the only mastermind, since we know one of the participants of the killing game is a mastermind as well.
To be fair, I did notice some connections to MonoTV while researching. Like I mentioned at one point, they’re the only characters without any highlighted words in their subtitle quotes. And the secret quote in MonoTV’s page is “Her name is Mai Akasaki”, but frankly that feels a bit too… unsubtle. Also... no, actually that’s kinda it.
I’ve also seen some people attribute the “teacher” speech to Mai, but I really don’t think that’s her. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the text in the code of the About page for DRDT on Tumblr. Here’s a post about it by delightfullydiscordant. I won't go into their theory on it, since it's unrelated to Mai. As you'll see, there’s nothing intrinsically relating the speech to our girl, and nothing in the text suggest she’s the one speaking, so I don’t think it’s related.
With what we know of Mai, I don’t think it makes sense to call her the mastermind. I’m only bringing it up now to be thorough, and because I didn’t know where else to put it :v
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Other Characters, Miscellaneous Connections
Essentially just me talking about all the characters I haven’t covered yet, to see if any of them could have a connection to Mai or the HPA Operation than what may seem at first.
Already talked about: Xander, Teruko, David
No Evidence of Connection Beyond ‘Classmates’: Rose, Arturo, Levi, Hu, Nico, Ace, Arei, Min
What this means is that while it’s technically possible these characters are related to Mai and the HPA Operation, right now we don’t have any indication of it. Sorry. That doesn’t mean I don’t have things to say about them.
Arturo is usually so mean that, honestly, the fact he says anything positive about Mai at all makes me wonder if he may actually be related. Reminds me a bit of David’s quote, I guess. But maybe I’m just biased because I want this guy to be plot-relevant.
I guess Levi mentioning the tattoo in his line could be important, but unless he has the tattoo too (which is possible I guess, but I don’t quite see it), I don’t know what it could mean.
I could actually see Hu’s and Ace’s lines implying a connection to the HPA Operation, honestly. Seeing as they’re some of the only people who actually talk about her in the past tense, I think it’s possible they were involved. Hu would want to help Mai if she felt she “wanted to keep everyone safe”, for what it’s worth. I sorta hope Hu is plot-relevant too.
Even if Mai is talking to Arei in her current subtitle quote, I don’t see much evidence Arei would be involved in the HPA Operation.
You may be wondering about my old theory about the Sleepy MV and how it could tie back to Mai, and while I still think it's a possibility, I frankly don't believe it anymore. It requires a very specific reading of the song which I don't think is entirely accurate, and there isn't actually much connecting the MV to Mai. I still think Min's line being so overly insistent on Mai being "an average girl with nothing special at all about her" could imply their relationship may have broken down because of the HPA Operation, which makes sense. If Xander engineered the plan, obviously Min will dislike it on principle. But that's probably me trying to make Min more plot relevant than she actually is.
Only Connected via “Original Killing Game” Theory: Charles, J, possibly Ace and Arei
What the hell am I talking about? In the Color Theory reblog I mentioned earlier, I described a wild theory that quite a few of the characters we know were actually involved in that pre-prologue killing game, and we can learn who those characters are thanks to the word "original". Sound insane? It is. I won't go over the reasoning here, I'll ask you check the reblog I linked.
This is the "Original Killing Game" Theory, and it's one of the most far-fetched theories I've ever enginereed. But since it's sorta connected, I thought I'd mention it. The characters involved are Charles, Veronika or Ace, David, Teruko, J/Arei, Xander, MonoTV, Whit. I’ve already talked about some of these, and don’t think MonoTV is worth talking about, frankly.
So, why am I only bringing up Charles and J for now, as well as potentially Ace and Arei since they could actually be part of the theory depending on how you interpret the colors? Well, these are the only ones in the “original killing game” theory who I don’t think have any evidence of being connected with Mai any further. Since that theory is already insane to start with, and it’s possible Mai was already dead when that killing game started, I don’t think it tells us anything.
Although sometimes I wonder if J’s quote is talking about something other than Mariabella, but at the moment, I have no clue what that would be. So that’s still the likeliest possibility.
Eden: Eden
Eden, huh? In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been sorta dancing around Eden’s line a bit, because… like, what in the actual fuck does it mean.
Eden: She kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up.
It’s such an odd line. It’s nothing like the other ones, which you’d think would make it significant, but it’s just… cryptic. I’m sorry, but while I think this probably means something, I don’t have a good answer of what it could be.
… Well, there is the one thing.
—————————————————————————���————————
Crack Theory: Mai the Girl Kisser
This theory states that Mai is the girl mentioned in Eden’s secret, the one the Clockmaker kissed.
See? Theorizing’s easy! Just grab a random character we don’t know anything about, and slap Mai on top of it like a bandaid!
I’m aware the dev has sorta poked fun at people like me who see an unknown face and instantly jump on Mai, but at least this one has a bit more reasoning. Mainly, that I just don’t know what else Eden’s quote could be referring to.
Consider this concept: Eden and Mai kiss at some indeterminate point before HP, and Eden freaks out. She gets extremely worried about how Mai’s going to react, and she runs away. Mai tries to contact her afterwards, but Eden was avoiding her. Still, “[Mai] kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up”.
Is this essentially just fanfiction at this point? Practically, yeah, but I have nothing else.
On the insane off-chance this is true, it would come with certain implications. It would mean Eden and Mai had met before going to HPA, which is… uh, something. If it helps, that would mean their relationship would have a “new beginning” at HPA, and Eden’s character has some themes of new beginnings. Her birthday is on December 31st, so New Years, and her favorite color is daffodil yellow, when daffodils represent new beginnings. It’s small, but it’s there.
(And if you know who I am, you know I believe Eden killed Arei to reunite with the girl of her secret (long story). Mai helps here because of course she would have enough rizz to make a good girl go bad, have you seen how everyone talks about her? She would get all the bitches!)
Anyways, again, this is extremely silly, but it’s sort of the only thing I can think of for Eden’s line, so for now, have it. If anyone’s got better ideas, I’m more than open to hear them.
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A Connection is More Plausible: Veronika, Whit
In no particular order, these are the characters, apart from Xander and Teruko and David, which I think have an actual chance of being involved with Mai and the HPA based on what we know so far. Let’s go a bit more in depth.
Veronika’s Peculiar Problem of Popping Up Fucking Everywhere
It is insane how many times I’ve brought up Veronika in this post without being able to pinpoint why exactly she keeps appearing. She shares the color red with Xander and Mai in my version of Color Theory, though admittedly that may just be her hair. She’s in the “original killing game” under that theory. Hell, she’ll show up again when I talk about Whit.
But by far, the most concerning thing about her is her line in the Mai page.
Veronika: A girl who didn’t foresee the consequences.
I’ve mentioned this line before, of course, because it’s clearly related to the HPA Operation’s fallout. In fact, it’s the only line apart from Xander’s and MonoTV’s which explicitly reference it. This could easily imply she was involved somehow, either as someone helping Mai and Xander, or actually going against them in some way. Whatever is more entertaining for her, I imagine.
There are two issues with this. One, I cannot discount the possibility that Veronika got that creepy and ominous line because she’s the creepy and ominous character, and it doesn’t actually mean anything for Veronika herself. It’s a very real possibility.
Two, even if she is involved, there’s nothing we have which could help narrow down what she did. Again, she’s too unpredictable.
In other words, while I’m putting Veronika here with the vague idea that she could be connected to it all, I don’t have any concrete theories.
Though maybe I should address the one Veronika-Mai theory which exists, for the sake of completion.
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Crack Theory: Veronika Is Mai
To be clear, I don’t believe this. It’s pretty clear to me that Veronika is her own character with her own backstory. But I still want to point out some connections to show you how insane I’m going writing this.
+They’re both the same height (5’8”) and have long red hair. This is enough for my prosopagnosic ass to confuse them if they change hairstyle. Their weights and birthdays are different, but weight can change and birthdays can be lied about. Their chest sizes are different, though, so I’m pretty sure that rules out this theory already.
+Speaking of birthdays, August 7th, Veronika’s birthday, happens to be 7 months away from Teruko’s birthday on January 7th. 7? Lucky number. Lucky Student. Word association -> Mai.
+Veronika covers both her arms, so no tattoo would be visible.
+Veronika asks Teruko if she would recognize her were she to wear contacts, a wig and different clothes. This could imply she is, and would therefore be Mai.
+Her pose in the character profiles is vaguely similar to Mai’s, but flipped. This is interesting because no other character’s pose is even close.
+She wears a small earring given to her by someone named “Alyssa Belyaeva”. This by itself means nothing, but the earring is a small green triangle she considers a good luck charm. Luck?! And triangles have three sides. 3?! That number we said was unlucky and related to Mai before? And green. Green?! Teruko! Auasfruryg- <- short-circuiting from thinking too much.
+Veronika has plain brown eyes. Come on, have you seen this cast’s eyes? Those are absolutely contacts.
+Her hidden quote about people being broken could refer to the hopeful Mai being broken into Veronika as a result of the HPA Operation’s consequences.
Yeah, most of this is pretty silly, but again, I don’t think this theory is very likely, so I’m just poking fun at how suspicious Veronika can be at times.
——————————————————————————————————
Whit and Tetraphobia
At first, it doesn't really seem like Whit is too involved in this. I mean, his quote is pretty inoffensive:
Whit: A girl with many friends.
And sure, he is the Original Killing Game Theory, but even if that's somehow true, it's no guarantee he's involved in the HPA Operation or anything. Nothing really seems to connect him to Mai...
Except the one thing.
XV. Remaining ignorant, isn't that "happiness"¹⁵?
XV is Whit's Roman numeral, and again it isn't too strange on its own. Other than being the only numeral to ever show up alongside another numeral, in this case Veronika's because of course it's Veronika's.
The issue is the background text. It's hard to see, but there's faint pink text saying "subtract 4, due to tetraphobia⁴". Footnote 4 simply defines tetraphobia, which is the practice of avoiding the number 4, as it's considered a number related to death, and is seen as unlucky. Of course, the fours themselves are colored green for Teruko, presumably.
But the important part is, what does this mean? The most straightforward idea is to subtract four from the numerals on screen, or perhaps the footnote?
For the footnote: Subtracting 15 - 4 = 11, quick math, and that's the footnote which talks about being an only child and that (presumably) Diana Chiem never existed. I... don't think that makes too much sense for this scene, frankly.
For Veronika's numeral, subtracting XIV (14) - 4 = 10. That's Min's numeral, which shows up in the part of the MV most directly tied to class trials. This could simply imply she enjoys the trials and the bloodshed, and it also looks somewhat mastermind-y, but that's not really new for Veronika. You could also do this one more literally, taking out 4 from 14 and ending up with 1, connecting her to Xander, and at this point I'm not surprised.
But, of course. The tetraphobia line only shows up when Whit's numeral does, and it's colored in the pink associated to him via Color Theory, though of course, being background text, the tetraphobia line isn't actually included in that theory. That would seem to imply it's about him, right?
Well, in the same vein as before, if you subtract XV (15) - 4 = 11 (XI). And... that's Mai's numeral, attached to the line "God is dead". So, uh-
Sub-Theory: Shot Through the Heart, Whit's to Blame
The idea that maybe Whit was somehow involved in Mai's death. By the end of the series, I'm gonna end up blaming half the cast for this, apparently.
So, the tetraphobia thing is the most straightforward piece of evidence towards this possibility, but there's a bit more. For one, in the recent Q&A, it was stated that Whit's least favorite color is gray because it's boring, and that's the color of Mai's numeral. Remember how I pointed out it's actually one of the only numerals to be colored? Yeah.
Furthermore, Whit's numeral appears right before Mai's, but that may just be the way the song works out, since LGI wasn't made for DRDT. However, remember that "become brainwashed: go do it!" line I said was directly after Mai's numeral? Yeah, the word brainwashed is color coded pink, connecting it to Whit via Color Theory. And, if that wasn't enough, in the section for footnote five, the one with the Japanese characters? The word blood shows up, in pink, as the song speaks about revolutionaries. Yes, DR blood is pink usually, but there is red blood in the MV (near the snake), and the characters canonically see it as dark red (since that's the stated reason why dark red is Xander's and Charles' least favorite color). My point is, the dev could have made the blood red there, and/or just written the symbol for blood in red, but since it's pink, Color Theory ends up connecting it to Whit.
All of this could point to Whit as another culprit of Mai's death, but don't jump to conclusions. For one, since we have no clue about the circumstances, perhaps he only accidentally caused the death. We've seen that Teruko is also likely to blame in some way, probably in a similar fashion. And because it may have been accidental, this also doesn't mean Whit has to be the mastermind. It makes him look oddly suspicious, sure, but nothing too damning.
And of course, there's a huge chance I'm reading too much into things. There are other explanations for brainwashed and blood, and it's still totally possible that the tetraphobia thing refers to Veronika or even the footnote.
A Summary of Her Story, So Far
To end things off, I'll go over everything I've concluded with what we know so far, though of course I know we're missing a lot, and that a ton of this is also probably wrong. Here's how this is going to work.
Regular text means this is something we pretty much know for sure.
Italics means it's a theory I'm quite convinced of.
[Brackets mean I'm relatively unsure about something]
*Asterisks mean the theory is insanely unlikely, and it can probably just be assumed false*
{Braces are for flavor text, you can ignore this for theorizing purposes}
Closing Argument
>Mai was born February 1st, 20--, to a nice family she loved. We know little about her childhood, but [it's possible she was friends with or somehow got interested in a girl named Teruko Tawaki. However, fate kept them apart for years]. But Mai was not easily deterred, she would search for and find Teruko, no matter what.
>*As she searched for Teruko Tawaki, she met a girl named Eden Tobisa. They kissed, but Eden freaked out and ran away. Mai tried contacting her, she kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up.*
>At some point before Hope's Peak, her and Teruko reunited. *Even when Teruko couldn't recognize her and even struggled to remember her name*, Mai still remembered everything that was important for Teruko, as she always did.
>Mai and Teruko, loving each other so much, decided to get matching floral tattos on their arms. White camellias, a symbol of adoration and respect.
>{But fate really didn't like to see them together.} Soon, Teruko received a letter, teling her she was chosen as the Ultimate Lucky Student of Hope's Peak's [West Class 27]. This was uncharacteristically good luck for Teruko, who before had to hop around schools, always stealing uniforms, just to get an education.
>{The problem?} At the same time, Mai received a letter that she was invited to join Hope's Peak's East Class 27 as their Ultimate Lucky Student, on the other side of the country. Mai never really cared much about Ultimates or Hope's Peak, {but Teruko insisted it was too good of an opportunity for either of them to pass up. They decided to keep in contact,} as Mai headed to East Coast Hope's Peak.
>Alexander Matthews is scouted as the Ultimate Rebel. David Chiem is scouted as the Ultimate Inspirational Speaker.
>At Hope's Peak, despite being an average girl with nothing special at all about her, she quickly became a girl with many friends. She saw the beauty in everyone, and everyone agreed she had a bright future. Everyone confided in her, J even telling her about her mother, something which Mai kept secret, and told no one.
(Okay, maybe fitting in all the quotes isn't as easy as I hoped it'd be)
>*She even reunited with Eden, and they decided their relationship would have a new beginning*.
>However, she also met a very interesting boy: Xander Matthews. He had gone to Hope's Peak with one goal in mind: revolution. He confided in her, as they all did, his issues with Hope's Peak and the system it was built upon. Mai was revolted by the truth, and asked what she could do to help. She couldn't stand to do nothing. She wanted to keep everyone safe.
>With that, the HPA Operation started.
>They started small; stealing a few documents here and there. [But their plans grew bolder over time.]
>[Along the way, they discovered something shocking]. David, who always spoke of change and hope, was hiding his true feelings. He didn't see himself as human, not being able to relate to his peers as the others did. He saw himself as a manipulative bastard for lying to all the people he gave speeches to. He hated himself, and expected Mai and Xander to hate him, too.
>[But they didn't. Xander still saw the best in him, and Mai? Well, Mai forgives everyone. And to make him see the good in himself, they asked him to help in the HPA Operation]
>He didn't understand it, not really. The world wouldn't change, no matter what Mai and Xander told him. But even though he didn't understand, he still wanted to help them.
>As the popular Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, David had more connections and influence than a simple Rebel or Lucky Student. That meant he could offer things to the Operation the other two couldn't, even if it was through... less than moral means. But to David, that was no object. He would become a villain in pursuit of their dream, throw away his humanity for this ideal. It's not like he could have ever been human, anyways.
>*Not everyone was as receptive, though. Min in particular, after finding out about the plan somehow, got quite angry with Xander and Mai. It wasn't unusual for the Student and the Rebel to disagree, but Mai still didn't like it when her friends fought*
>Mai knew it was risky, she really did. But nothing could prepare her for what was about to happen. She didn't foresee the consequences.
>[When Teruko was visiting], the HPA Operation faced a huge issue. A plan gone wrong, a variable miscalculated. And, with Teruko to blame, [and possibly Whit] *and Veronika, who got dragged into this mess at some point*, Mai died.
>{Chaos ensued. Mai's death broke the class, reverberating through the students like the rumbling of a fallen god's corpse. "It's all your fault!" Xander screamed at Teruko,} hiding that he felt responsible for her death as well. After all, he was the one who had dragged her along. And now, he was once again left alive to mourn a death he himself narrowly avoided. Talk about survivor's guilt.
>[One thing led to another, and a killing game was set up]. Xander and Teruko got stuck in it, with Xander losing his eye as he tried everything he could to end the game, or at least kill Teruko. *Charles, Veronika/Ace, David, J/Arei and Whit might have also present in this killing game, ran by MonoTV.*
>More stuff happened, and finally, the students all lost their memories and wound up in the killing game we follow throuhout the series.
>A shattered dream, a tragic fate, a broken hope. Though mystery continues to shroud her existence and her role in the story, for now, this is my final conclusion on the story of: Mai Akasaki, the Ultimate ???
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Holy hell this was pain to write. I don't want to make another post this complicated for a while. Jesus. This broke my soul.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my insane ramblings, if you really were strong enough to put up with my madness for this long. I still want to hear any thoughts you may have, since this character is really interesting and cool and fun to theorize about.
But for now, I leave. Thanks for reading! If you made it this far, then just know, Mai would be proud of you! And you should know, because you should practically be a scholar on her by now. Take care!
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Sugary love ———— Lloyd x reader
𝖲𝗈𝗇𝗀- 𝖮𝗇𝗅𝗒 𝖻𝗒 𝖫𝖾𝖾𝗁𝗂
Originally this was posted on my Wattpad (Kaiya_ninjago) as an au one-shot for my Ninjago oc Kaiya Yoshida, however I’ve decided that I’ll upload it to tumblr but turn it into a Lloyd x reader fic, enjoy <3
Key: reader is gender-natural
e/c- eye colour
h/c- hair colour
Y/n- your name
l/n- your last name
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
The eyes the same hue as e/c captivated him.
They drew him in commanding him to admire every aspect of them, of the way her h/c haired bounced as she walked through the café trays filled with drinks and sweet treats in hand, how they continually had a smile that felt like the sun was rising whilst they greeted the varying customers, or how he could hear the soles of their converse connecting to the ground as they weaved her way through the café like it was second nature to them.
Everything y/n did had Lloyd falling more and more in love with the them.
The movement of a hand quickly moving in-front his face brought his attention back to the real world, he had forgotten he wasn’t alone, he forgot he was meant to be hanging out with his friends, and they certainly noticed his day dreaming. He already had a suspicion that they knew what or who was on his mind, and that was something he didn’t want to admit them again so publicly especially not when the person who occupied his thoughts was near.
“Hellooooo earth to hopeless romantic” Kai, the one who had moved his hand infront of Lloyds face spoke up, a sneaky grin on his face as he watched the blond snap himself back to reality. His other friends snickered at Kai’s choice of words, and Lloyd was quick to correct his posture and stare eyes wide at the brunet friend.
“I am not!” He loudly whispered, his eyes glanced behind him to make sure y/n wasn’t within hearing distance, his cheeks were a faint pink at his friend exclamation of him being a hopeless romantic. Thankfully the person constantly on his mind was preoccupied talking to a customer, dimples on show, laughing at something they had said, he wondered what they had said, wondered when he could hear the sweet symphony of their laugher embracing his ears, wondered when the moment would come for him to be the reason for that symphony.
“Oh so, your mind wasn’t focused on little mr/miss/mx waiter/waitress over there” Jay teased, a sickeningly sweet grin on his face and his eyebrows wiggled mockingly. Lloyd nearly leapt across the table to cover the lightning ninjas mouth, his cheeks darkened at his words and at being bluntly called out by his friends for him daydream.
“Shush! Shut it, not another word” Lloyd mumbled once again glancing behind him to check that the h/c person hadn’t snuck up behind him and had overheard Jay’s tease. They were still on the opposite side of the room blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place at his table, he wanted it to stay that way.
The clothed navy blue and white stripped elbow of Nya nudged Jay, a somewhat serious expression explored her features though Lloyd couldn’t help but see the small smirk growing, her cupids bow making itself more apparent “Why don’t you just tell them how you feel dude”
Colour had never rushed to Lloyds cheeks that quickly before, and it took everything in him not to slam his head onto the table and complain at Nya’s words, that would’ve caused quite a scene and alert y/n to his distress. He’d prefer to deal with his friends teasing than for his crush to see him like this.
“Yeah sure and while I’m at it, I’ll make a new realm” Lloyd chided, his eyebrows raised mockingly at them whilst his hand lifted his cup of hot chocolate towards his lips. The beverage itself had an outline of a funky looking frog sketched into the chocolate, the sketch wasn’t by choice. All of his friends glanced at each other at his words, only one of them decided to speak up.
“Technically it isn’t impossible for you to create a new realm, you’re the grandson of the First Spinjitsu Master and are the closest elemental wise in becoming the succeeding…” Zane explained, his tone remained monotone whilst he spoke, his tinted aquamarine Nindroid eyes stared at Lloyd. The rest exchanged a bewildered expression with one another, Nya silently reminded herself that she really needed to upgrade his sarcasm levels cause this was getting embarrassing.
The grandson in question was quick to intervene his eyes narrowing at the titanium friend, he slowly shaked his head, the hot chocolate carefully placed back onto the table “I was being sarcastic Zane” Lloyd leaned slightly onto the table resting his elbows onto the wooden furniture, he didn’t miss the way the Nindroid silently told him to move his elbows of the table, mother hen.
“It’d be good to get it off your chest, just gotta rip it of like an old bandaid” Cole encouraged a warm smile explored the earth ninjas face, as well as crumbs from the Black Forest gateau he had been devouring simply moments ago. Lloyd titled his head at Cole’s words, did he compare y/n to a band aid? And an old one at that.
A loud groan left Kai’s and Jay’s lips both of them squinting their eyes at the ninja with frosting around his lips, Lloyd saw how a few customers in the café slightly turned to look at the infamous ninjas when the noise escaped the fire and lightning ninja.
“Can you stop comparing relationships to an old bandaid!” Jay exclaimed, his face slightly distorted due to the annoyed expression that crossed it. If Lloyd wasn’t exasperated with the ninjas he would’ve taken a photo of Jays to remember the hilarious face he had pulled. Kai leaned over towards Cole and shaked his shoulders slightly quietly mumbling about how that is a horrible expression to use when describing feelings and that he should’ve learnt the first time not to use it. All Lloyd could do was slowly blink at his friends.
“Not my fault I can’t think of any other sayings!” Cole whisper yelled still being slightly shaken by Kai, Lloyd wanted to curl up into a little tiny ball and disappear under the table never to be seen again. He glanced behind to see that y/n had since moved away from the customer they were talking to and was now out of his line of sight, he could only assume they were now in the kitchen preparing a substance for a customer. The blond released a sigh of relief at the lack of y/n.
“Boys, back on topic” Nya sternly whispered to them circling them back to the conversation at hand, he would've preferred if the three musketeers had continued their bicker at one another which would’ve dismayed the many customers in the cafe greatly. He wished the conversation didn’t have to turn back to him, not about this topic, he laid his head onto the table his arms being used as a cushion “Lloyd”
He rapidly shakes his head not wanting to be addressed, especially not when Nya had used such a firm tone at his, as if he was once again a child and she was scolding him for a prank he had pulled or for sneaking out for a mission. Instead she was scolding him for not talking about his romantic feelings for a certain brunette, how times have turned.
“You’re gonna have to confront these feelings sooner or later” The elemental master added when she saw the swift movement of his head, unbeknownst to Lloyd all of them had a growing smirk on their faces. He regretted ever telling them about his crush on y/n, though truth be told they knew before he even told them anything, they had caught him on many occasions being trapped in a daydream admiring the h/c waitress/waiter a lovesick smile on his face. They were all none the wiser how y/n themselves hadn’t picked up on his crush yet. He was that obvious, or were they both that oblivious.
“Not when they’re literally a few feet away” was Lloyds mumbled response, it took two attempts of them all repeating the words in their heads and having a silent conversation with only their eyes to understand what he’d said. Too bad they didn’t have incredible hearing, only Lloyd got blessed with that. He could hear the distant movement of y/n in the kitchen preparing an order and the delicious smell of pastries floated through the air.
Jay glanced up to stare into the little window that showed the kitchen, he could only see the h/c of y/n’s hair, they were far enough away there’s not a chance they could hear them. The cooper curled ninja leaned closer to Lloyd the sneaky grin still on his face.
“All the more reasons to talk about them” he quietened his voice into a whisper, the teasing tone of his words flowing easily of his tongue. Lloyd lightly lifted his head up from the table resting it against his crossed elbows, his crimson coloured eyes the same shade as blood narrowed at the lightening ninja. The blond blindly aimed his foot to kick Jay, a pout formed onto the coopers face and he glanced down to the foot that had collided with his under the table “did you seriously just…”
Jay stared at Lloyd with a look of disbelief at the fact that one of his adopted brothers had kicked him, then his disbelief turned into humour. Pulling his head away from Lloyd a snicker escaped his lips and in seconds it turned into laughter tears pricked his eyes as he continued to laugh, Lloyd rested his head back onto the table with a groan. Nya quickly shot Jay a glare that instantly told him to shut up, he did as was instructed however faint snickers found their way to echo across the room he had to cover his mouth with his hand to muffle them.
“You know Lloyd, Valentine’s Day is coming up” Kai chimed brushing the out of place strand of brunet hair that threatened to ruin his entire hairstyle. A smirk grew on Kai’s face, he stood up from the table and walked over to where Lloyd was sat, shaking his shoulder the same way brothers would. Lloyd weakly pushed Kai away and back into his seat, he wasn’t in the mood for his brotherly actions, nor for trying to understand what he was implying with his sentence.
Zane who has only then finished his cup of tea, glanced down at Lloyd before speaking a smile much like the teasing expression on the others faces blessed his metallic one “Valentines day; the one day celebration of love, adoration and affection, it is common for individuals whether that be romantic or platonic to ask each-other to be their valentines. However this day is also celebrated to honour the death of Saint Valentine, a martyr who defied Emperor Claudius ban on marriage.” The Nindroid explained his eyes lifting from Lloyd up to the silhouette of y/n who was still in the kitchen, the teasing smile on his face grew “I believe Kai is telling you to ask them to be your valentines”
That made Lloyd harshly left his head up from the table, his cheeks a dark shade of pink as he returned to his original position, his eyes had also widened at the advice.
“I beg your…what!” Lloyd exclaimed his voice slightly shaky in shock and embarrassment at what had just been spoken, he could barely comprehend what had been asked of him. He glanced around the room hoping his exclamation and the words of his friends hadn’t been too loud, he didn’t wish for a specific h/c to hear this conversation.
“Yeah, and if they don’t reciprocate your feelings then you can say you meant it platonically” Cole smiled, hoping this would be seen as encouragement for Lloyd to confess his feelings to the person. It had the opposite effect, Lloyd slowly sank further into his seat a sound closing resembling a whine, that just made him not want to tell them even more.
The harsh sound of a slap on Cole’s shoulder returned Lloyds attention to his friends, Kai had taken the liberty to smack the earth elemental shoulder an amused expression of disbelief on his face.
“Dude, you’re not helping!” Kai snippily said shaking his head disappointedly at Cole, what even went through his mind to say that? Kai knew Cole had meant it from the goodness of his heart, but that was not what was needed “that probably made Lloyd not want to confess even more” Cole mumbled a quick apology at Lloyd, mentally face palming himself for even saying those words.
“I think what Cole is trying to say, is that it’s better for you to try rather than suffer in silence with your feelings. Take a leap of faith” Nya softly spoke her smile aimed at only Lloyd to see, this was an actual smile of encouragement, there was no mocking tone or anything of the sorts and it seemed that the others agreed with her words. Lloyd sighed and adjusted his posture straightening back into his original spot.
Was he really going to confess his feelings to y/n? And on Valentine’s Day of all days, a day that was merely three days away. The possibility of getting rejected was high and so was the feeling of possibly feeling embarrassed about it, but Nya was right, he had to take a leap of faith.
“Okay…okay I’ll try” Lloyd mumbled, a small smile forming on his face as his cheeks flushed a pinkish colour, he couldn’t believe he was admitting out-loud to them that he’ll try and confess to them on valentines. He couldn’t believe he was even thinking about verbalising his feelings of infatuation to the brunette that was constantly on his mind.
Jay leaned over towards him, his eyes held a teasing gleam to them as he leaned close to Lloyd and smirked. His expression made Lloyd incredibly uncomfortable “and you know, it’ll be a cute story to tell your kids that you got with them on valentines day”
Lloyd shot up from the chair in record speed, his eyes widening at the statement and his cheeks became so much more darker. He glanced behind him watching as y/n walked out of the kitchen tray in hand with sweet treats on and walked towards a table, this time when he glanced y/n looked back at him smiling warmly at him before continuing their walk to the table. Lloyd cheeks were burning at that.
“I’m waiting… outside” Lloyd quickly spoke shuffling out from his chair, tucking the chair back into the table and slowly walked away towards the exit of the café. His cup of hot chocolate remained half empty and the ninjas exploded into silent laughter.
Y/n could only spare Lloyd a single glance of confusion wondering what had made him look so on edge when they stared at him. The blond never wanted them to know about the conversation he and his friends just had, though it did achieve one thing.
He was going to ask y/n l/n to be his valentines, to confess his feelings of unbridled love to them, and that scared him to pieces.
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
Lloyd stared down at the sketchbook on his desk, the book with the engraved leather binding of his name making it look ancient and lost in time seemed to merely reflect his own stressed expression. This book held all of his most recent sketches the faint lines of where his pencil had touched the paper hidden within, in a way this sketchbook held all of his secrets, his passions, his beliefs, how he views the world. There were various sketches dotted in the books paper of his surroundings, of the people around him, of the pets that have graced the monastery over the years, only one of these sketches had blush decorating his cheek.
He flipped open the book instantly finding the page he desired, he remembers the day he drew that page as if it had happened yesterday. It was a rainy afternoon, water droplets cascading down the cafés window in groups, the café itself was relatively quiet most of the customers were inside to hide away from the rain. Y/n waltz around the room drinks and food in hand warmly welcoming people onto the quaint building to conceal themselves from the increasing storm. It had been by chance that Lloyd had ended up in the café, the dim lights softening the atmosphere around him, it was the type of atmosphere that if you weren’t careful you’d fall asleep in an instant.
His eyes fluttered across the room taking in his surroundings, though his gaze always returned to a certain brunette, his pencil brushed along the paper trying to capture the way in which the light of the candles decorated Y/n’s face, how their hair was a bit out of place, how their eyes held a softness to them whilst they talked to their customers, he tried to capture all of these little details onto the paper.
The page he was staring at was a portrait of y/n, their contagious smile frozen in time and their eyes squinted slightly in laughter all captured onto the page forever inscribed onto it. His smile, a Duchenne smile decorated his lips his finger lowering to the paper and stroking the cheek of the drawn y/n.
“What are you looking at Lloyd?” A voice from behind him brought him away from his thoughts, quickly he turned around to come face to face with purple eyes staring at him, her head titled in question, though a somewhat teasing smile was on her metallic face. Pixel was in the doorway of his room, he didn’t even realise nor hear anyone approaching, was he that stuck in his daydream.
A sheepish expression dawned his face, his cheeks decorated in a blush pink colour, Lloyd quickly cleared his throat his eyes glimpsing behind him he instantly saw the page of y/n’s portrait on full display, if Pixel even steps slightly around him she would come face to face with the portrait.
He quickly rushed to shut the book slamming it shut while Pixel’s confused expression seemed to spread. Lloyds cheeks continued to glow in its pink delight “Pix, hey!” his hand laid against the book while he turned around again to face her, he attempted to muster up the most convincing smile she would ever see.
“Why did you slam the book?” Pixel took a step further into the room keeping the shoji door slightly ajar, one of her silver eyebrows raised as she look from Lloyd to where his hand disappeared behind him. The grip of Lloyds hand tightened around the leather bound object.
“no reason, so uh need anything” Lloyd quickly replied his cheeks continued to be painted in blush, all he wanted to do was answer Pixels inquiry if she had one and then she’ll leave, he could only handle being embarrassed once today, he didn’t need it twice.
The samurai warrior stepped beside Lloyd her eyes glancing down at the book that his hand was covering, anyone could tell it was his sketchbook the leather bound around it and the fact that he was being quite protective of it gave all the clarification needed. Lloyd sighed at that, his fingers tapping against the material surrounding the sketch book, it had quite the harsh touch to it but was soothing nevertheless.
“Zane informed me of the conversation had at the café” Pixel explained, smile on her face, her eyes never left where the sketchbook was embracing the outside of it. She always found Lloyds book to be special, always found it showed her glimpses into how he sees the world and others, on the rare occasions she’s been able to get a peak at the sketches within it always amazed her just how detailed they were. How the hands of a fighter could create something so beautiful, though that might’ve been the First Spinjitsu masters family genes shining through “are you really going to ask y/n to be your valentines?”
Of course Zane had already ratted him out to the nindroids significant other, that shouldn’t have surprise him, that in a way didn’t surprise him, he was expecting Pixel to mention something about the café.
“Maybe, I don’t…I don’t know” Lloyd’s gaze diverted to the ground not wanting Pixel to see any more of the blush coating his cheeks. Slowly he lifted the sketch book up from the table and rested it against his chest, his arms crossing over it to create a protective shield around it, shielding it away from the prying eyes.
“That sketchbook of yours has always intrigued me” Pixel pointed to the book in his grasp, a smile on her face while doing so, she could only guess that there was a sketch of a one y/n l/n engraved into the page “I believe they would enjoy it”
Those were the last words Pixel spoke to the blond sending him a quick smile her lips curving upwards, she swiftly left the room after her smile as if she hadn’t just left Lloyd speechless with her words or that she hadn’t just given Lloyd an idea on how to ask y/n to be his valentines. Slowly he settled his sketchbook back onto the desk and once again found his desired page, he quickly grabbed a pencil from his desk draw which sat on the desk and began to scribble down onto the page a quick sentence.
‘‘Y/n, will you be my valentines?’
-Lloyd
He stared hard at the page, debating whether or not to gently tear the beautiful/handsome sketch of y/n out of his sketchbook, the decision weighed heavily on him disagreeing whether or not he should take a chance or remain a coward and leave it in the book. Lloyd didn’t realise that through his debate in his mind he had already teared the page out of his sketchbook, the decision had been made.
Slowly he folded the page, the pencil stained paper getting smaller after every fold, Lloyd fiddled with the sketch his mind still racing on why did he allow the ninjas to coheres him to ask y/n out so easily, he’d never asked anyone out before, never had to bare his romantic feelings out to someone, Cole was right though even if his confession to y/n went poorly he could easily say it was meant platonically.
He placed the paper onto his desk, the folded paper standing out like a sore thumb compared to everything else, tomorrow he’d give y/n the note, tomorrow the question on the paper would be answered. That knowledge frightened him.
“Lloyd mission time!” Cole called out to Lloyd as he passed by the now open shoji doors that connected his bedroom to the Monastery corridor. The blond was already a-dawning his signature Green GI, where one of the sleeves were brown whilst the rest was a dark green. Lloyd sighed and glanced one more time at the folded paper.
He rushed out the room, his mind already fixating on the upcoming mission, though the paper and y/n remained in the back of his mind.
They always found a way back into the four front of his mind throughout the mission.
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
The café had never felt so silent before, even with Lloyds incredible hearing there was not a sound of customers chatting to be heard, the distant sound of a radio playing faint jazz music echoed across the room. It was just after the lunch rush and only a few patrons were in the café most of them being elderly citizens enjoying their own company, Lloyd must’ve been the youngest person in that café as he admired the decor that surrounded the walls and how the faint pinks and yellows mixed perfectly to make such a calming atmosphere.
He stood beside the door, the slightly broken bell singing on his arrival, Lloyd wasn’t going to be here for long, all he needed to do was hand y/n the note wait for their response and then leave. His hand fidgeted with the folded note that was concealed in his Green hoodie, rocking on his heel as he heard the faint laughter of y/n from the kitchen.
Soon they walked out of the kitchen and to the counter, a wide smile on their face. Lloyd took that moment to admire he features, to admire her h/c hair which had been tossed into a high ponytail/or however your hair normally looks to avoid it from ruining the batter, their front hair hiding parts of their alluring e/c eyes that they had to sweep away to put her eyes on full display once again, a cream coloured apron tightened around their waist and the faint smell of pastries drifted into his direction. In his eyes y/n was the definition of perfect, and if he could he’d admire them the entire day, for the rest of his life if he could.
Y/n turned their head when they felt eyes staring at them and they flinched slightly at seeing Lloyd standing silently beside the door, he sheepishly smiled at them causing a chuckle to smoothly leave their lips “you really do live up to your profession, don’t you?” They jokingly shakes their head and a smile once again graced their lips, Lloyd wished he could ingrain that smile into his brain.
“What can I say, it’s part of the job description” The blond took that as his cue to walk up to the counter, the awkward smile still remaining on his lips while the paper continued to be fidgeted with in his hand. This was going surprisingly better than he had thought, though he didn’t plan on accidentally frightening them, he forgot just how quiet he could be.
“Mhm, nearly gave me a heart attack” y/n grabbed a rag from the side and began wiping down the counter, a half smile still on their lips even when doing this mundane job, they glanced up to their blond haired friend who still looked slightly on edge, they decided to ask about his uneasiness in a bit “on pick up duty again? Well sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you have to order your stuff first before coming in to grab it, my boss almost threw a fit the last time you came without ordering first and I just gave you the food.” A smirked grew on y/n’s lips before they lowered her voice into a whisper and added “though I can always sneak you a little something from behind the counter”
Lloyd shakes his head at y/n’s word, the nervousness leaving his body for a brief moment he chucked at their words, the h/c raised an eyebrow at Lloyd not fully believing his head shake.
“Really, well that surprises me” y/n mumbled, finishing with the rag and placing it back onto the side of the counter, they rested her body weight onto the black serving counter. He fidgeted with the paper once again before quickly signing, a confused expression found its way ontop y/n’s face tilting their head slightly at his tense stance.
“Are you…busy?” He quietly asked his question sounding more like a mumble than actual words, the fidgeting of the paper in his pocket increased and y/n placed a hand onto his clothed shoulder to calm him. It didn’t calm him, not in the slightest, the action made him think that his heart had skipped a beat and pink coated his cheeks.
“No I’m not busy, is everything okay Lloyd?” Y/n softly responds with a question of their own, keeping their hand firmly on his shoulder and rubbing her thumb gently across it, they were no doubt going to be the death on him, if was so then he didn’t mind going to an early grave.
“Yeah, yeah I’m okay just wanted to…” Slowly he began to pull out the folded paper his palms sweating while doing so he hid the paper away from their eye-line, there was no doubt that the paper was getting slightly wet from his palm. He cut himself off halfway, swallowing loudly and running over the words in his head one last time. Y/n patiently waited for him to continue.
Steadily he opened his mouth preparing himself to pass y/n the folded paper and final have his question answered, that didn’t happen, one of the customers decided at that moment to come up to the counter “excuse me, are you busy?” The h/c glanced at Lloyd quickly an apologetic look in their eyes before mouthing the word sorry and removing their hand from his shoulder focusing their attention onto the customer.
Lloyd stood there crestfallen, was that a sign from the First Spinjitsu Master that it wasn’t worth asking them, that it wasn’t meant to be. He stared harshly at the ground slowly shaking his head at himself, at his stupidity, why did he even think to trust his friends, why didn’t he decline their idea immediately and never even think about asking y/n to be his valentines, it was a stupid thought really that he’d even have the courage to ask them. Lloyd shoved the paper back into his hoodie pocket his arms hanging limply at his side.
A few minutes later and the customer retreated back to their table, a few minutes too late for Lloyd he’d already scrapped the idea of asking y/n to be his, scrapped the idea of giving them the folded paper. Quickly y/n returned their attention back onto their crimson eyed friend an apologetic smile on their face.
“Sorry about that, what did you want to say Loy?” Y/n rubbed the back of their neck in sympathy and properly stared at Lloyd, only then did they notice the annoyed expression on his face and the slight scowl that made its way onto his lips, what had happened in those minutes that had made him look so upset.
“Nothing important” Lloyd monotonously responded, his voice quiet and his eyes refused to meet her staring anywhere but at her. Quickly he turned away from them and walked towards the door “better let you get back to work”
Y/n opened their mouth to speak, to try and stop him from leaving and for them to understand what had happened, however he was already out of the café door it swinging harshly open and walking out of the café swiftly away from her, the bell nearly broke of from its stand as he exited. The few customers stared at his loud exit in confusion, the most confused of them all was Y/n themself, quietly blinked at the door before opening the flat of the counter to go and adjust the bell back to its normal place.
Once they had walked out from behind the counter did their eyes catch the sight of a folded and slight crumpled paper on the floor, in curiosity y/n crouched onto the ground and picked up the paper walking with it in hand as they made their way to the bell. They didn’t know where it had come from and it felt wrong them for to go snooping at other peoples belongings, but they really wanted to know what was on it.
Slowly they opened the folded paper and they were instantly meet with themselves, or at least a sketched version of themselves. Y/n marvelled at the drawing, they weren’t a massive art fan but everything about this sketch drew them in, the way whoever drew them captured them blew their breath away, it was mesmerising. Their eyes scanned the sketch searching for some type of initial that would reveal of the mystery of who’d drew this for them, the art style seemed recognisable to them for some reason but she couldn’t understand why, only when their eyes caught sight of the scribbled writing did they know who it was.
Their breath hitched as they caught sight of Lloyds name at the end of the six letter question, their cheeks becoming a rosy pink hue that there was no doubt that if any of the customers even glanced over at them then they’d be confused by their expression. That was what he had wanted to ask, that was why he was so quick to leave, that was why he looked so nervous, their entire interaction with Lloyd made so much more sense. They softly smiled at the sketch and refolded it placing it into their apron pocket, they had some planning to do, and they couldn’t wait for Lloyds next visit to the café, they only hoped it would be before Valentine’s Day.
Lloyd didn’t notice that the sketch was no longer in his hoodie pocket until the very next day.
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
Lloyd was practically dragged once again to the café, this time however it was by his mother insisting that this was what he needed to get him out of his funk. He blankly stared at his mother in annoyance, he didn’t tell her that the reason he was in his funk was because he was going to ask y/n to be his valentines in that very café but the universe clearly didn’t give him any signs that he should, he didn’t dare tell his mother that reason, that would’ve only given her more reason to bring him here.
“I’m not in a funk mum” Lloyd harshly whispered to his mother the moment she opened the café door, the bell announcing his arrival, his eyes glancing to the floor the moment he saw y/n h/c hair. Mistako guided the two of them to an empty table, a warm smile on her face while she adjusted her glasses.
“Nonsense, you normally love going to this café. Gets you right out of your sour moods” His mother beamed picking up a menu from the table to scan over the items on offer. Yeah, normally it would help his sour moods but not when the person he wanted to ask to be his valentines is in his vicinity, it was the day before Valentine’s Day and he had lost his sketch, those three factors did not equal a perfect place to help him “what do you want son? I’ll be paying”
“Debating whether or not to pick the most expensive item for revenge on you dragging me here” Lloyd chided in a mumble, his eyes narrowing when his mother passed him a menu, she lightly smacked him on the back of the head and huff leaving her lips, the café certainly hadn’t fixed his mood, she didn’t even know what had made him so prickly.
“Behave you” Mistako strictly whispered with a raise of her eyebrow, from the corner of her eye she could see y/n making their way to the table notepad in hand. Maybe they’ll be able to right her son’s sour mood, Mistako didn’t notice how Lloyd swiftly turned his attention away from the approaching y/n nor the pink that dusted his cheeks.
“Long time no see, what’ll it be?” Y/n smiled at the two of them, their smile lingering longer at Lloyd than at his grey haired mother, their eyes closing slightly in delight. Mistako was quick to say her order and was about to poke her son to tell him to say his own order, however y/n had already spoken again “your usual Lloyd?”
The way their question seemed to easily leave their lips left his cheeks rising in blush more, his eyes turning to glance at them slowly he began nodding his head “uh…yeah…yeah I’ll have that” he kept it brief and quickly turned his gaze back to the closed door, it was difficult trying to ignore the person you’re hopelessly crushing on, his mother once again lifted an eyebrow at his nervous and swift tone but she never commented on it.
Y/n smiled and walked away claiming the orders will be out shortly, it was once again only Lloyd and Mistako at the table.
“What was that about?” She humorously asked the moment y/n had disappeared into the kitchen, the older women moved the menu out of Lloyds hand and to the side of the table, a quiet laugh leaving her lips at his pink cheeks, she never realised Lloyd had a crush on y/n, now she was more glad that she had brought Lloyd here.
“Not important mum” Lloyd quickly whispered, his eyes wide as the words flowed from his mouth and he rested his head onto his elbow, his eyes glued to the door once again avoiding any eye-contact from his mother or from y/n. Mistako opened her mouth once again wanting to add onto her previous statement, though the quick glare her son gave her quickly prompted her not to and to instead sit there quietly and wait for their beverages
Ten minutes later and y/n returned two drinks in hand for the two Garmadon family members, the warm smile persisted on their lips even when they placed the drinks down for the respective person. Lloyd glanced down at his hot chocolate expecting some sort of disfigured drawing of a type of animal, only this time it was none of the sorts, instead on the top of his cup sketched into it via cream was a heart, must’ve been a valentine special for the day before and on Valentine’s Day.
“Oh Lloyd” y/n spoke reaching into the packet of their apron and grabbing out a familiar piece of folded paper, Lloyd froze the moment he saw that paper, of course he’d left it here, of course they’d seen it, he didn’t want them to see it anymore, he didn’t want to feel the taste of embarrassment, of humiliation. The h/c placed it beside Lloyds hot chocolate “You left this here a few days ago”
Lloyd wanted to bang his head onto that very table, he wanted to run out of that café with what little dignity he had left, he wanted to rip that paper into a million tiny pieces. Y/n didn’t stay for long after they gave Lloyd his folded paper back smiling warmly at him before going back to the counter, he could still feel her gaze even when she was no longer beside him.
The blond let out a slight groan at the folded paper picking it up from the table and holding it in his hand, he narrowed his eyes at it as if scolding the paper for falling onto the floor and ending up in y/n’s hand. Mistako glanced down at the paper to her son silently telling asking him what on earth was that paper for, he never responded.
With a quick movement of his fingers he unfolded the paper, he might as well see if the sketch was still intact even if the small question that laid unanswered on it would haunt him. Slowly but cautiously he unfolded the paper, the sketched eyes of y/n staring at him, he unknowingly smiled at being reunited with the sketch though as his eyes surveyed the page he noticed that something had been added, his eyes widened when he realised what it was.
‘Yes, I’d love to ♡︎’
-y/n
In seconds he was quickly placing the paper back onto the table, his mother raising an eyebrow at him at his fast reaction unaware of what was on the paper.
“They said yes” Lloyd whispered in disbelief, pink slowly becoming more evident on his cheeks and the tip of his ears, once again he grabbed ahold of the pencil stained paper and looked over her written reply, he saw that underneath their name y/n had written down a number, their number, he had y/n number “oh my wojira” Lloyd sank into his seat, a dreamy smile on his face while his hot chocolate became forgotten, he couldn’t believe he had a valentines, that Y/n L/N was his valentines.
Lloyd glanced behind him and there they were smiling at his reaction, their own blush decorating their face, they lifted their hand up to her ear and did the call me sign. He sheepishly smiled at her rubbing the back of his neck, guess he was no longer free tomorrow, tomorrow he was with y/n, on a date.
He was going to cherish that sketch forever
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
Green machine:
Guess who’s got a valentine!
sent 11:30am
Sparky:
You all owe me £10
sent 11:31
♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎❤︎︎♡︎
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