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spectralreplica · 5 years ago

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Hey love your PMM DRv3 au, I was wondering who do you think out of the magical people would witch out first? Additionally, assuming Kokichi wasn't the first and learned that he would one day become a witch, do you think he'd handle that well? Love your work~

Okay, so first, thank you so much! I love hearing when people like my work!

Second, sorry for this novel I wrote in response, but whatever, I had a lot to say!

Short answers: Ryoma or Kokichi would probably witch out first, then Kaito. Kokichi never handles things well.

Long answers under cut.

Wildcard option: Kiibo already witched out from the start and Miu “brought him back” a la Kazumi. Not sure if this is “canon”, but I kind of like the idea.

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Putting that aside, probably Ryoma. I assume Kyubey would approach him after his family and girlfriend were already dead, right when he was looking for revenge, so his killing spree would probably be magically-assisted. If he still went to jail for it, then he’d witch out really fast with no access to Grief Seeds. If he wasn’t caught or went on the run, then he’d still be in bad shape considering the massive trauma, lack of a support system, and suicidal thoughts.

I think his low self-worth and general lack of motivation would lead to him either not seeking out witches to fight or pulling a Sayaka and running himself ragged in a self-destructive rampage. Either way, his days would be numbered. If Miu’s group managed to pull him in (probably after Kaede joins/takes over) then he’d do better, but considering the way he tries to push others away…

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The other top choice is Kokichi because he’s fighting alone and thus using lots of magic and at constant risk of injury, but also traveling with DICE, so he can’t move freely and has to worry about collateral damage and others targeting them to get back at him. So, the worst of both worlds. (And don’t even suggest that they should contract too or he’ll–) He’s nomadic, so he has no safe home base, and he’s constantly poaching off other people’s territories, so he definitely ends up fighting them and wasting more magic.

He’s also way too paranoid to have made a wish in any circumstance but an utter emergency, so he knows he got a raw deal even if he tries to pretend otherwise, and there’s no way he wouldn’t notice stuff like the similarities between Soul Gems and Grief Seeds and the way certain magical people just seem to disappear right as a new kind of witch appears. I think he’d sort of treat Kyubey like Monokuma (pretending to get along and have complementary goals, not openly working against him) and avoid directly asking him for confirmation so that he can keep on living in denial. But eventually he’d run into someone desperate, someone who’d really needed that Seed he took or someone who had nothing left and just wanted to take out their emotional pain on an intruder, and then…

How would he handle this knowledge?

Badly.

Specifically, I think he’d keep repressing his feelings, but even harder. It’s not like he didn’t know before, but now that he knows…. Well, his Soul Gem probably isn’t looking too great.

He would absolutely never tell DICE about this (just like he’s not telling them about the Familiar thing, or the literal Soul Gem thing, or how he can’t seem to keep his Gem as bright as before, or…), but he might end up mockingly telling another magical if they got him pissed enough and kept asking questions. He hates being cornered, especially about something he genuinely finds upsetting.

If confronted by someone else who already knew or just found out, he’d fake having always known and totally not caring at all. Just keep faking it even harder, hiding everything better, and escalating to more outrageous and insensitive behavior until everyone wants to fight him on sight. So, basically a time bomb.

Despite all this, I’m not sure he’d actually witch out.

He really dislikes murder, being controlled or forced into bad situations, and other people messing with his head, not to mention that DICE would probably be the first people caught in his labyrinth, so turning into a witch would be like the ultimate nightmare scenario. The clear better option would be to destroy his Soul Gem before he transforms.

But I also see him as afraid of dying and only willing to do that when all other options have been exhausted. He’s also totally willing to let or make others hurt him, but doesn’t tend to directly hurt himself. So, he’d be running at the Soul Gem equivalent of 5%-20% battery for weeks or even months, trending downwards but not willing to definitively say that this is the point where he has to give up and die.

Of course, living with your Soul Gem clouded impairs your thinking and makes all your negative emotions worse, so he’d get more paranoid, more secretive, more confrontational, more out of control…. Eventually he’d be avoiding everyone, and then just realize in some back alley that he has no Grief Seeds left and he’s at the point of no return.

I think at that point it’d all depend on who, if anyone, found him and how quickly they reacted. He might get them to kill him, kill himself, get caught/distracted and witch out, or even get out of it alive if someone is really fast with a Grief Seed (or relatively clean Soul Gem, if you go for that headcanon…) and good with rapid-fire, improv therapy sessions.

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Kaito is probably the next most likely to witch out because he also tends to repress his emotions, keep up an image for others, and try to handle things on his own. He’d probably be dealing with some jealousy over Shuichi’s growth and some stress over keeping up with school while hunting Familiars and Witches, but I think he’d manage right up until he starts to learn the kind of stuff Kyubey didn’t mention.

He’d persevere through the ‘Soul Gem is your soul, body is essentially dead’ thing (especially if his body was previously not that healthy….), but not the witch thing. I feel like he would stubbornly insist that witches come from “curses” and refuse to even consider any other options right up until someone witched out in front of him. So, a huge, ideal-shattering revelation followed immediately by a surprise fight against an enemy he doesn’t want to kill, then guilt over not saving that person, guilt over killing all the other witches, terror at the thought of telling Maki and Shuichi, fear of transforming and hurting more people…

He would absolutely pretend the person just died fighting the witch, and avoid mentioning the revelation to Maki and Shuichi at all costs. I think he would honestly delude himself into believing he could just hold out and magically make everything better right up until he broke down and witched out in front of them.

(New timeline Kaito would probably be fine with the Law of Cycles thing as long as he can frame it as a heroic sacrifice/reward kind of thing. Maybe even a little tempted by the Godoka cult stuff?)

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Kaito witching out might just take out the whole group, but if the others manage to not sink into depression (or just straight out get killed by his witch…) and to follow what Kaito tried to teach them (Not what he did, mind you. What he told them to do.), then they’d probably end up forming a permanent group with the HimiTen duo.

They’d do alright as long as Tenko realizes that she can’t always prioritize cleaning Himiko’s Soul Gem over her own and stops trying to hide when she needs it more. I think Shuichi and Maki would actually tell them about the origin of witches, and it would be really upsetting and stressful, but not totally devastating like finding out right as someone you love becomes a monster you have to kill.

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Meanwhile, the Kaede, Miu, Gonta, and Kiibogroup (Kamigoki?) is shockingly stable. They have enough people to not send everyone to every fight, so they can manage the other parts of their lives, and they have a wide enough territory to support all of them Grief Seed-wise. Also, strategy-wise, they have close and long range plus whatever tools Miu invents, and Kiibo can fly to gather info or get a better angle to shoot.

Kaede is pragmatic enough to accept that sometimes you have no options besides killing people and Miu prioritizes her and her own over strangers, so I think they’d be able to withstand the witch revelation even if they weren’t happy about it.

Kiibo tends to go along with the group unless he has major objections, and he kind of has this stubborn belief that things will turn out fine in the end if you can get through all the terrible things happening now, but he was already sensitive about being perceived as non-human…. He might go no-antenna mode and decide to destroy Kyubey to end the system or even pull a Mami and try to take out everyone’s Soul Gems before they witch out, but I honestly think the others could stop him and talk him down before any major damage came of it (Killing Kyubey is a group project!)

Gonta would be really upset, but could probably be convinced that defeating the witches is the best they can do to honor the people the witches used to be. Also, fighting witches and familiars is still tangibly doing something that stops people from being killed, so he wouldn’t feel useless and get desperate like in the game.

Ryoma wouldn’t be that affected because he already saw himself as a killer (plus blunted affect from depression). I mean, he wouldn’t be in a great place mentally, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a worse place than usual.

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Angie’s cult (Angie, Tsumugi, Kirumi, Rantaro, and Korekiyo) already know about the witch thing, and the Familiar thing, and the soul outside of body thing…. And probably the entropy thing? They’re really co-dependent and groupthinky, but stable. I also see them as having really useful special powers (something like Oriko’s for Angie, illusions or transformation for Tsumugi, finding/tracking things or people for Rantaro… maybe healing for Korekiyo if he wished to cure his sister?) and getting paid in Grief Seeds to use those powers for other magicals.

They generally believe that witching out is just part of the balance of life. Every wish has a curse, you hurt as many as you save, etc. (New timeline beliefs are probably more along the lines of proving yourself worthy to ascend from this world and join Godoka). Rantaro is a little unhappier when thinking about how that applies to his sisters, and Korekiyo is very, very interested in other people’s reactions when they find out, but none of them is in danger of experiencing it first-hand unless they get separated.

I feel like the group could withstand one or two of the members witching out (as long as they weren’t Tsumugi and Angie) without losing faith, but any more than that would permanently destabilize them. None of them could actually last on their own at this point, although it might be possible to join another group.

#Ask #Anon #Long Post #DRV3/PMMM AU #Suicide tw #Not graphic or anything #But discussed

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commentaryvorg · 6 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 1.1

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, Kaede and Shuichi went around meeting everyone else, giving me a chance to summarise how much and in what way each character is likely to be a feature of this commentary, the most noteworthy points of which are that Kokichi is fairly interesting but not at all selfless, and that Kaito is like half the reason this commentary exists and I will never have enough things to say about him. Then the killing game officially began. With all that necessary introductory stuff out of the way, we can finally start having an actual story unfold.

My Class Trial, Our Class Trial

Hee! This title means so much when you know what’s going to happen. I was going to say that I like it more than the Japanese title, “Me and My Class Trial”, until I learned that that’s a very literal translation of the Japanese title that doesn’t properly get across its point. It’s actually using two different words for “me” – the feminine version that Kaede uses, and the more masculine version that Shuichi uses. So it’s both Kaede and Shuichi’s class trial. In some ways that’s better than the English version, since it’s more clear that it’s referring to Shuichi rather than just everyone, but the localisers still did a good job of getting across the meaning given that it couldn’t translate directly.

The chapter starts where the prologue left off, with Monokuma having left the gym after announcing the killing game. Everyone’s reading the rules that just showed up on their Monopads.

“The killing game and class trials will continue until only two surviving students remain.”

This rule is very arbitrary and I never quite understood the point of it. I get that you can’t have a class trial with only two people so that’s the minimum number they should stop at instead of going down to only one, but why is it also the maximum? We learn in chapter 6 that even if someone manages to uncover the mastermind and reach “endgame” mode before there’s only two people left, they’re still only allowed to have two people survive. And that’s really arbitrary, since the actual practical reason for the two-survivors rule doesn’t apply at that point. What if Shuichi and Kaede had figured out that Tsumugi was the mastermind during chapter 1? Would she still have insisted they abide by that rule and that fourteen of them must be punished for a random two people to escape? That’s bullshit!

“Your Monopads are very important items. Please do not damage them.”

This is the only other rule that’s significantly different from any of the previous games. There were sometimes rules about not destroying school property, but never only about the e-Handbooks. So it’s a little odd that the out-universe writers would bother to put this rule in here unless it had a specific narrative purpose – and in fact it has a single, solitary one, which it is about to serve right now.

Kaito: “Q-Quit screwing around… Killing game… School Regulations… To hell with all that crap! Who’d go along with something like that!?”

(Kaito raised his Monopad as if to smash it on the ground.)

That purpose being: here’s Kaito very nearly getting himself killed barely half a minute after the killing game has officially started. This is such a brief moment, yet it is literally the only out-universe reason the Monopad rule exists, so really the out-universe writers put more thought into this than it might seem.

Because this is why Kaede becomes the leader and not Kaito. Kaito has just as much desire to encourage everyone to work together as Kaede, and while Kaede mostly ends up rallying everyone together without really meaning to, Kaito is the kind of person who would actively want to. The existence of the Monopad rule suggests that the out-universe writers absolutely knew this and put active thought into giving a reason why Kaito didn’t just immediately take charge, since the point of this chapter is to have that be Kaede’s role. Kaito’s problem is that he has much more of a tendency than Kaede to be reactionary and get riled up. He’s just as scared as everyone else at suddenly finding himself in a killing game, but he can’t admit that to himself or to anyone else and has to cover it up by lashing out in anger without thinking about the consequences.

…then Miu calls him a dumbass and naturally he has to react to that too, giving the more level-headed Kaede the opportunity to be the one to yell at everyone to stop fighting already.

Kaede: “We shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves. Right now, we *need* to work together. Honestly… I’d probably be more inspiring if I played a song than gave a speech…”

There goes Kaede not realising just how inspiring and encouraging she is again. Simply being the first one to say they should work together is already making a big difference and snapping everyone else out of their individual panic.

Kaede: “Whoever trapped us here wants us to fight each other… So let’s show ‘em that we’re not gonna let that happen! We’re *not* gonna fight each other! We’re gonna work together! Okay!?”

Look at her go. She’s really good at this.

Kaito: “Heh… I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it… You’re exactly right! We can’t give up so easily!”

See, Kaito really would have said the same thing. He just needed a minute to calm down and stop lashing out with reactionary anger. He’s not saying this just to try and make himself look good, no matter how much it might seem like that on a first time through when you haven’t seen enough of Kaito to know what he’s really like.

(Well, probably on some level he is saying this to save face because he’s embarrassed that he wasn’t as level-headed as Kaede and so she ended up encouraging everyone first, but.)

Rantaro: “Seems like everyone looks up to you.”

Kaede: “L-Looks up to me? C’mon, that’s ridiculous. I… just spoke from the heart, is all.”

Rantaro: “So it just comes naturally to you, then. That’s even more cool.”

It is really great that this is just how Kaede naturally is and she’s not even consciously thinking about getting people to look up to her. There’s a difference between her and Kaito, ha.

Rantaro: “They’re going to come for you, Kaede. With everything they’ve got. I’m a little worried about you. You’re just so… straightforward.”

Well that sure is ominously foreshadowy of you, Rantaro. I wonder if something similar happened to someone similar in his previous game and it’s subconsciously making him feel this way about Kaede.

Shuichi: “Being strong-willed could get you into a lot of trouble around here…”

Kaede: “…”

Shuichi: “Ah, s-sorry… I didn’t mean to sound so negative at a time like this.”

Aww, look at Shuichi worrying and overthinking things, even this early on. (He’s not precisely wrong, though, since this kind of is what gets Kaede killed.)

So they all head to the manhole that Gonta spotted and find the totally-not-suspicious secret tunnel marked “Exit”.

Kaede: “No need to worry! It looks a bit dangerous, but we’re all Ultimates here! As long as we work together, everything will work out just fine!”

They’re going to call back to this speech when we’re here again in chapter 5 and I love it. And guess who’ll be the one to give the equivalent speech in that chapter?

Kaito: “That’s exactly what I was gonna say! We’re really on the same wavelength, Kaede!”

Again, he’s not just saying this to make himself look good, he really means it!

…And then he asks her for a hug, which, yes, comes across as kind of sketchy. But I really don’t think he means anything sketchy by it. He’s just actually a big awkward goof when it comes to interacting with people on a normal, down-to-earth level.

Kaito: “Hey, you don’t gotta hold back! We’re two of a kind, you know!”

He seems really excited to have met someone else as optimistic and inspiring as he is – he’s obviously very quickly noticed their similarity himself – and doesn’t know how to express it in a way that doesn’t come across as offputtingly forward. And, of course, it seems even more forward and awkward because as of right now Kaito hasn’t actually done anything to prove that he’s the same way as Kaede and isn’t just saying this with ulterior motives.

Shuichi: “Ah, if we all… work together… it’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.”

Aww, Shuichi’s nervous but also agrees that working together is good!

Kokichi: “Nee-heehee… I am *the* master of hide-and-seek. As the supreme leader of an evil organisation, I’m always on the run from the law…”

Yes, totally, that is definitely why your organisation has made you good at hide-and-seek. Not because you and your members like to play hide-and-seek with each other because you’re all basically kids or anything.

Ryoma: “Even if this is a trap… all we need to do is fight and struggle our way out of it.”

Ryoma really is very optimistic for a man with no reason to live. Despite having given up on himself, he still cares about everyone else trying their best to survive.

Kaede: (There’ll be an exit at the end of this… And once we reach it, it’ll al be over… I just know it!)

Kaede is trying really hard to cling to that thought so she can stay optimistic. You know, it’s probably for the best that they never managed to reach the end, heh.

(Or, actually, they’d have reached it but been unable to do anything about the control panel without an Electrohammer anyway.)

It’s pretty vague what’s really happening to them when they get eliminated in the minigame. I guess they get knocked out, but then how do they end up back at the beginning? And also, Kaede should refuse to continue once any one person gets eliminated, since she would never want to reach the exit without everyone there.

Monokuma: “Puhuhu. And if at first you don’t succeed… try, try again. Try as many times as you want until you accept reality!”

Monokuma and his cubs are definitely encouraging everyone to keep trying so that they can all thoroughly lose hope in this idea. And in Kaede.

Himiko: “But… isn’t getting out of here impossible?”

Kaede: “No, it’s not. It may take one more try or a lot more tries, but it’s not impossible.”

Kaede: also a strong believer that the impossible is possible and you just have to make it so!

Kaede: “And once we get out of here and make it to the outside world… Why don’t we all stay friends?”

Guhhhhh Kaede why are you so pure and lovely. I wonder if she hasn’t actually had many real friends before because everyone was too dismissive of her piano obsession.

Kaede: “I mean, it’s not every day you get to meet other Ultimates…”

Again, it seems like she’s hoping other people equally obsessed with something won’t be as dismissive of her.

Ryoma: “Hmph… that might not be bad.”

Even Ryoma agrees with being friends when they escape! Ryoma! That’s a reason for you to live!

Kaito: “Anyway, it doesn’t matter if Monokuma says it’s impossible! We’ll show him what we can do!”

Naturally, Kaito agrees that it is not impossible, hee.

Kokichi: “Yeah, let’s work together! We messed up last time, but I’m sure it’ll go well this time!”

Meanwhile Kokichi doesn’t believe this at all and is just acting this way to try and make everyone see how ridiculous and empty this kind of talk sounds once they fail.

(Man, this minigame is so hilariously stacked against the player. Totally deliberate.)

Kokichi: “Not yet! We’re just getting started!”

Again with the insincere bullshit that’s just there to make everyone else’s current comments seem hollow once they all give up.

Gonta: “Gonta gonna escape. Become friends with everyone. Gentlemen… never give up!”

Okay but consider: Gonta has probably never had human friends before. He must be so desperate to do this so they can all be friends!

Kaede: (With every attempt, we repeated the words ‘this time’ over and over again…)

This is probably part of why everyone’s about to lose faith in Kaede. This isn’t a realistic way to approach this. Assuming what they’re going through is as ridiculously stacked against them as the minigame we play is, then pretending they’re definitely going to make it all the way through “this time” is way too likely to be wrong and just discourage everyone further. What she should be saying is just “this time we’ll get a little bit further than we did before”, so that they realise they’re making progress and will get there eventually if they keep trying. Presenting it as an all-or-nothing like she’s doing isn’t helpful.

Kokichi: “You’re free to keep trying on your own, but forcing us to join you is basically torture.”

Kaede: “T-Torture?”

Kokichi: “You know what really hurts? Being denied the right to give up in an impossible situation… You won’t let us give up and no matter what we say, you have the moral high ground… That… doesn’t sound like torture to you? When you say we can’t give up, you’re not inspiring us, you’re strong-arming us!”

This is… probably reasonably sincere, by Kokichi’s standards. He’s certainly enough of a coward to not want to keep going with something so exhausting that has such a slim chance of success.

Because, despite that he has something of a point, this is still cowardice. If the tunnel really is the only way out, which is what they currently believe, then no matter how gruelling it is, it is indisputably better to continue to try at this than to give in and play the killing game. Maybe not right now when everyone’s exhausted, but they shouldn’t just write it off as not worth it any more. But thanks to Kokichi’s words, they’re going to.

In short, everyone gave up on their only (apparent) route of escape because Kokichi was, A, a coward, and B, selfish enough to voice that cowardice and try to make everyone else feel the same way when half the group were still trying to be brave.

{Later addendum edit: Of course, Kokichi totally doesn’t have any experience at all with trying to give himself the moral high ground so that nobody can question what he says. That’s definitely not a thing he ever does all the freaking time and certainly not exactly what he’s doing right now.

Like, literally, he’s twisted things around so that if Kaede tries to make the perfectly reasonable point of “but we can’t just give up on getting out of here”, Kokichi can turn around and go “but you were torturing us, you horrible person, so you don’t get a say”. All so that he doesn’t have to confront the fact that he's being a coward by giving in so easily.

So to add on to the reasons of why everyone gave up on their only apparent escape route, it’s also because, C, Kokichi is so selfish that he doesn’t even want to look or feel like a coward, to the point of twisting it to sound like he has the moral high ground instead. If it hadn’t been for this last part, others could have protested, “okay, but you’re being a coward, we don’t want to listen to that kind of talk, we shouldn’t just give up here.” But as it is, several of the others agree with Kokichi’s point without ever realising this is cowardice.}

Granted, Kaede could also have gone about this better. No-one was going to be able to manage the tunnel while exhausted and emotionally drained. To stand a chance, they’d need to take breaks and attempt it only a few goes at a time and accept the fact that it’s going to take many, many tries for them to get good enough at dodging the traps. Kaede got so wrapped up in her determination to escape right now that she failed to notice what it was doing to everyone until it was too late.

Keebo: “Given the circumstance… the most logical course of action would be to give up…”

I’m surprised Keebo’s inner voice isn’t telling him to keep clinging to hope. Then again, that inner voice does actually want the killing game to happen, so.

Maki: “I knew this was impossible from the start.”

It’s telling how Maki, despite being one of the more emotionally resilient people there, is part of the group who’ve given up. She’s used to resigning herself to an inescapable awful situation.

(She will learn a thing or two about the impossible, though, in time.)

Meanwhile, by elimination, the people who haven’t given up are: Kaede, Kaito, Gonta, Tenko, Rantaro, Kirumi, Shuichi, and Ryoma. Most of those are very naturally determined people, but I like that Shuichi is there despite his anxiety and nervousness because he believes in Kaede, and also that Ryoma is, despite his lack of a reason to live!

(Also it’s neat that they’re split exactly eight-to-eight. Can we get a Debate Scrum over this?)

Kaede: “I’m sorry… this is my fault. I’m so sorry…”

Shuichi: “No, Kaede…”

Kaito: “I-Idiot! What’re *you* apologising for!? It’s not your fault at all!”

Kaito is so good. This and the conversation he has with Kaede after everyone leaves firmly establishes how he feels about the concept of apologising, which will be important multiple times later on.

Kokichi: “Since the dining hall opens at 8.a.m., how about we meet there at that time?”

It’s surprising to me that Kokichi of all people is the one to suggest meeting in the dining hall in the morning. But given, well, literally everything else he does, I find it difficult to believe he does this with the genuine intent of helping everyone co-operate. He probably feels safer with people keeping an eye on each other than if everyone is off on their own doing who knows what shady backstabby things.

Kaito: “Hey, why did you apologise before? You didn’t do anything wrong, y’know?”

Kaede: “Well… when we tried to escape, I felt like we were united behind a common goal. But after I put everyone’s lives at risk, that unity is gone now.”

Kaito: “Shut up! That’s just the stupid end result! It’s not like you wanted it to go that way! Listen up. Don’t apologise for something that’s not your fault! It’ll just make you feel bad!”

It’s not that Kaito thinks you shouldn’t apologise ever. He believes you shouldn’t apologise if you didn’t do anything wrong. Even if it didn’t work out as well as you’d hoped, even if other people try to make you feel bad for it, if you still believe that the choice you made was the right choice to make in that situation given the information you had, then you shouldn’t apologise. Doing so would just be wallowing in your failure and making yourself feel bad. Since Kaito’s all about encouraging people to try and stay positive and determined no matter what, of course he’d be against something that would make people feel bad for no good reason!

Kaede: (Thank you, Kaito.)

And Kaede appreciates Kaito supporting her, aww.

Also of note is the fact that both Kaito and Shuichi stay behind to have an extra conversation with Kaede here (the above being Kaito’s one), and you can talk to them in either order, with each of them leaving after finishing what they have to say. There’s nothing that indicates which order is the canonical order that Kaede talked to them in and therefore which of Kaito or Shuichi was still there to overhear what the other said. Still, since it was less that Kaede started a conversation with them and more that they both had something to say to Kaede, just going by their personalities it was most likely Kaito who spoke to her first, while Shuichi was also there. I’m mentioning this because it will be somewhat relevant, way, way later on in the story that Shuichi should have overheard Kaito’s views on apologising here, so, uh… try to keep this in the back of your mind?

Shuichi: “You weren’t pressuring us. At least, I don’t think so.”

It’s nice that Shuichi thinks this, despite him not being one of the naturally-determined people here. He wouldn’t have had the strength to attempt the tunnel so many times without her encouragement, so she definitely influenced him, but he doesn’t see it as her influencing him in a bad way, because he wanted to be able to be stronger than he is. Makes me wonder how many of the group who’d given up would ever actually have voiced their complaints if Kokichi hadn’t set them off. Surely they must have all wanted to believe they could escape that way. Except Kokichi, apparently.

Kaede: (I thought we would achieve our goal as long as we didn’t give up. That had always been my mentality whenever I practiced the piano… But… maybe playing piano is easier… because I’m blessed… with that talent.)

No, Kaede! You’re so talented at the piano precisely because you never gave up and kept practicing so hard! Of course escaping isn’t necessarily something that you can do in a single day just so long as you don’t give up �� it took you your whole life to get this good at piano! Don’t give up on this just because it didn’t happen as quickly as you wanted it to!

Oh, Monokuma Theater. I’m only going to talk about it when I think it’s saying something actually meaningful and interesting, which is… not often, and not today.

Next morning, everyone gathers at the dining hall.

Kokichi: “By the way… are you okay, Kaede?”

Kaede: “Huh? What do you mean?”

Kokichi: “Well… you looked really bummed out after everyone started blaming you yesterday.”

Tsumugi: “H-Hey… what are you doing all of—”

Kokichi: “Seriously, you guys are so mean. Poor girl… She tried her best to encourage everyone, and you sore losers got mad at her anyway.”

What a hypocritical, insincere dick. He was the one who blamed her first yesterday, and now here he is acting like it is remotely believable that he actually thinks blaming her was the wrong thing to do. At least Tenko calls out his hypocrisy, and most everyone else doesn’t seem to have time for his bullshit either, but Keebo was letting it get to him a little. I guess Keebo is pretty easily manipulated, with his inner voice and all.

Kaito: “But it’s true. Everyone blamed Kaede without taking any responsibility themselves.”

Kaito, on the other hand, has every right to say this because he wasn’t saying the complete opposite yesterday. It’s also very like him to put the focus on taking responsibility – even if Kaede was the one encouraging them, they still all made their own decision to keep going into that tunnel. Kokichi steered them all into running away from their own responsibility for their suffering by blaming it entirely on Kaede.

Kaede: “It’s just… I should’ve been more considerate of everyone’s feelings. I was too focused on the tunnel. So, I’m sorry…”

Kaito: “… Alright, well… If you’re okay with it, then so am I.”

However, Kaede has accepted what her actual mistake was – not the decision to go into the tunnel in the first place, but getting so fixated on it that she overlooked how everyone was feeling – and apologises for that. And seeing that Kaede has accepted and apologised for an actual mistake, Kaito accepts things too and drops it.

Keebo: “But you did blame her first, didn’t you?”

Kokichi: Well, that was a lie. Y’know, one of those lies to make us more united or whatever.”

Like hell it was. Whether it was sincere or not, there’s no conceivable way in which him blaming Kaede like he did in front of the tunnel last night was an attempt to unite everyone – all that was ever going to do was split them apart.

Kokichi: “Did you know half my lies are actually told with good intentions?”

Nope, don’t believe you. And even if that were true, it’d still mean the other half are told with bad intentions, so you’d still be at least 50% a dick.

Monokuma shows up as soon as Kaede starts steering the topic towards ways to escape again. He really is about to give the First Blood Perk motive specifically to try and throw a wrench in Kaede uniting everyone.

Maki: “…Motivation to kill?”

Interesting how Maki’s the first one to question the idea of being given a motive.

Monokuma’s taking a pretty big risk with this motive. The class trials are what everyone watching this really wants to see, but if the First Blood Perk actually gets taken then they’ll lose two characters without even doing one! He is clearly getting desperate already.

Miu: “Huh? That’s all? We just gotta kill someone to get outta here!?”

It’s also interesting to see Miu being the most visibly tempted by this motive, given that she does eventually end up attempting murder solely to escape and not because of any additional motive. Having that escape be even easier by removing the class trial would be ideal for someone who just wants to get the hell out of here and doesn’t care about anyone else.

Kaede: “Do you really think I’d kill someone just to get out? In your dreams!”

Of course she wouldn’t! Not merely for her own escape and survival, not ever! This is such wonderful foreshadowing.

Kaito: “Why you… bastard!”

Hee, Kaito has already realised that this motive makes it much more likely that someone will forego their co-operation to commit murder – it’s so much easier to do so if there’s no danger to you and you’ll only be killing one person instead of indirectly fifteen – and he’s scared, and therefore covering it up with anger.

Rantaro talks about how Monokuma just made this into a non-co-operative game, and he’s right, but it already was one in the first place. Monokuma just made the “betray” option a lot more appealing by taking away most of its drawbacks.

Kaito: “His objective doesn’t matter! I’m through letting him have his way! I’ve had enough!!!”

(Kaito lunged towards Monokuma to grab him, but…)

All this continuing conversation about how much more likely it is that people will stop co-operating and start killing each other now has clearly scared Kaito enough that he’s lost control and stopped being sensible. So here he goes, almost getting himself killed for the second time in twenty-four hours.

Kaede: (At that moment, we heard menacing mechanical noises. The Exisals charged…)

[the whole screen turns bright red]

*smash!*

With the way this scene is presented, it really does seem like Kaito has actually died for a moment there. I’m pretty sure that this is deliberate and that, regardless of what the in-universe writers are planning, the out-universe writers want you to feel like Kaito is very expendable.

(oh hey look it’s Kaito’s friend the red Exisal again)

I mention the in-universe writers’ plans because there’s a lot going on with the fact that Kaito doesn’t die and Monokuma ends up getting “killed” instead.

On my first time through I thought Monokuma’s supposed death was obviously deliberately staged for some specific purpose and was frustrated when none of the characters even considered this possibility. Knowing the full story, this still makes sense, given the conclusions Shuichi comes to when a spare Monokuma shows up and the fact that that’s exactly what the mastermind wanted him to do. We’ll get into that next time.

Plus, the gamemakers shouldn’t want to kill Kaito here if they can avoid it. The aim of this game is to tell an entertaining story, and it really would have been a huge waste of the potential Kaito’s character had if he’d just died here due to being too reckless. The in-universe writers intend for Kaito’s role to be to support Shuichi through his character development, so they shouldn’t want to kill him off before he’s even started doing that. But they also wouldn’t want to make it obvious that they’re actually kind of reluctant to kill people off, so presenting Kaito’s survival as a lucky accident seems like a logical way to go about it.

Yet it’s still kind of hard to believe that it really turned out this way on purpose, because the Monokubs really are just that incompetent and genuinely do seem to think Monokuma is permanently dead. If there had been some kind of plan to deliberately “kill” Monokuma, they’d probably have ended up blabbing about it. That said, it could be possible that Monokuma subtly put himself in the way of the Exisal’s foot, and none of the students noticed it because they were too focused on Kaito.

There’s also the fact that they shouldn’t have actually had the right to kill Kaito, whether they wanted to or not. He was about to assault Monokuma, but he didn’t get that far, and so he hadn’t broken the rule. At least going by what’s established in DR2’s killing game, simply saying you’re going to break the rules isn’t breaking the rules. Based on the Monokubs’ lines when they jump in, it seems they got a bit overenthusiastic about protecting their daddy and getting to use the Exisals to kill someone. Possibly Monokuma put himself in the way (if he did that) because he’d rather do that than have to awkwardly explain to his kids that they’d be breaking the rules if they killed Kaito before he did anything wrong.

Rantaro: “Monokuma’s just a robot. There has to be someone controlling him.”

Rantaro, at least, knows this isn’t over. And I mean, he literally knows; he’s not just guessing or being subconsciously influenced by his erased memories here.

Kokichi: “Ah-ha, don’t be such a worrywart! Everything’s definitely over now! With the mastermind gone, continuing the game is pretty much impossible. Which means… we win!”

The way Kokichi says this makes me pretty convinced that he also doesn’t think anything is over. And yet, by being the one to say this, he’s also the one to manipulate some of the others into assuming that it really is over and start celebrating.

While most characters are celebrating that everything’s supposedly over, Kaito, who you’d think would be the first one to be joining them, is unusually quiet. I’m betting he’s a lot more shaken up by his close brush with death than he’d want to let on.

Kaede: “W-Wait a minute! We don’t know that yet—”

Kokichi: “Kaede, quit being such a buzzkill! Everyone’s still annoyed about what you did yesterday!”

Despite how much she wants everyone to escape, Kaede also doesn’t think they’d be let off this easily. But apparently Kokichi can’t have everyone actually listening to Kaede, even though he (probably?) agrees with her that it’s not over. So instead he’s manipulating everyone into turning against her and continuing to blame her about the tunnel, and it actually works on a few people. Because we couldn’t possibly let everyone co-operate to figure out what’s going on with Monokuma’s unexpected demise, that would be far too much in everyone’s best interests. I’m not really sure what Kokichi’s actual goal is by doing this, if he even has one other than just being a dick, but there is no conceivable way to me in which he could genuinely think that he’s doing this for everyone’s sake.

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 1 #daily life #commentary

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lore-a-lie · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 3, Act 2: From the Diary of a Fly on the Wall

Daily Life

Kaede was feeling much better the next day at the dining hall. She felt a little bad that she hadn’t told Gonta about the flashback light Kaito and Ryoma had found, but it wouldn’t take long to explain. It wasn’t like she was really in the mood to have seen the memories either, after getting what she needed to hear out of Korekiyo, so she was glad Angie and Tenko pushed for them to wait a day.

It was really fucked up, don’t get her wrong. But assuming he was being honest, and he hardly seemed to have a reason to lie with how he kept trying to set her off to see what she’d do, she had her closure.

Not that it made seeing him any easier, as Korekiyo was still one of the first people there along with Kaito and Ryoma. It looked like they were taking over for Gonta right now, since he wasn’t here yet. Neither was Kokichi for that matter. Odd that she hadn’t seen him at all today. Unless he was trying to avoid her.

“Ey, Kaede! Bright and early again I see,” Kaito said, beaming like he normally did as he encouraged her to take a seat by Ryoma. However given his current company his chipper mood was returned with a poorly disguised facepalm by his short companion and a dark glower from his supposed ward.

Seeing such a harsh contrast Kaede couldn’t help but weakly giggle a bit as she sat in the open chair. She was pretty sure Ryoma was giving Kaito a glare, but she couldn’t really tell from this angle without making it obvious she was staring. Probably because of how close it put her to Korekiyo, and rightly so.

I mean I don’t really know how I should be reacting to this either. If they still see me shaken they might lose faith in my ability to lead or make decisions, and if I’m too openly angry or spiteful that might be considered as me being too biased against him or risk someone killing him and lead to a trial. But on the other hand if they wanted me to be more decisive about him I might be seen as too soft right now.

“I could say the same to you. Anything going on?” she asked, trying to avoid looking Korekiyo as much as she could to help keep herself calm. Which was made harder by him being the first to answer.

“You mean aside from there being a thief among us?”

“According the serial killer.” Ryoma quickly brushed him off.

“Why should that matter? Items are missing from my lab and you can’t deny that! Besides, last I checked that applies to both of us and only you earned a tabloid name for it.” (Boy he’s heated over this. Good.)

“What about “Ladykiller”?” Kaito jokingly suggested, also ignoring the possibly more serious subject.

“... That was not a request to be given one. Do try to learn some tact. You’re worse than Kibo.” With the exasperation in Korekiyo’s tone, he was probably gesturing to her to prove his point. Not that Kaede risked looking at him to know for sure.

Though as if to remind her what kind of people she was still dealing with, Korekiyo ended up derailing his own train of thought with another tabloid tangent. “Why must they all have “Killer” in them anyway? Considering our own “Killer Tennis” and how “ Kirakira ” sounds like “Killer-killer”. Though at least we aren’t misusing the word “Genocide” again, like the Genocide Jack fiasco. How could anyone ever think that was a decent name for a possibly female murderer, given her choice of victims, is beyond me.”

“ENOUGH PLEASE! Do we know the objects being missing means they’ve been stolen? I mean if someone’s watching this game then maybe Monokuma’s meant to take away pieces of evidence so they can’t be used in later cases. You know, to keep later murders from being too similar to the others and keep things interesting?” (God I hope he buys this. I mean if stuff related to crimes is going missing and it isn’t Monokuma it’s probably Kokichi’s handiwork. Or it could just be him tormenting Korekiyo.)

“I didn’t say the relics that are no longer present were ones related to any of the murders from before.” His tone sounded like he was suspicious of how Kaede knew that. But as far as she knew she did nothing wrong so she swallowed and tried to keep her voice level as she explained herself best she could.

“Sorry, I was just guessing. I mean I saw that the katana was still missing from its sheath before and I wasn’t sure I saw that mask back in its case when I stopped by yesterday. What else is missing then?”

“You did what?” Ryoma seemed shaken by that admission. But even though the question was probably directed at her it was Korekiyo he turned to glare daggers at.

“Yes, she visited to give Gonta some more “pleasant” company. Likely to make sure I hadn’t bored him to death with my old books. Nothing you need to worry about, Ryoma.” Korekiyo lied as easily as breathing, and Kaede had no reason to want to correct him. It’d only upset Ryoma and Kaito more, she was sure. He turned to face her as he addressed her question. “Your guess was largely correct, however I’m not sure if the book I was going to use for the would-be seance murder should’ve counted as evidence in that case. However this theory does seem fairly plausible otherwise, as the syringe and other supplies related to Himiko’s death haven’t been returned to Miu’s lab either last I checked.” (KOKICHI LIVES ANOTHER DAY!)

“Aww, Gonta if you were that lonely you could have just locked Kiyo up in there and hung out with me~” Kokichi’s teasing drawl came from the hallway doors, and Gonta stood by his side, looking troubled at the group. They must have overheard, but if Kokichi picked up on Korekiyo’s lie he was content to let it slide. Gonta didn’t point it out either for whatever reason as he took to sitting on Korekiyo’s other side as Kokichi took to Kaede’s.

“Gonta sorry he late! He forget Kiyo also get up early, and Kokichi wanted to teach Gonta about-”

“Not talking to strangers in weird creepy masks!” Kokichi pointedly cut him off as he pointed at Korekiyo and gave him an exaggerated glare, getting only a skeptical look in return. But Korekiyo chose to play along with the obvious lie, as if returning the favor of Kokichi not calling his own out.

“I may be strange, but is it still right to treat me as a stranger? We all knew each other too well for that sort of false distance yes?”

“Gonta pretty sure Kokichi right if Kiyo treats bugs as candy.” (WHAT?! EW, NO! NO. NONONONO. No.)

“Reptites don’t? That’s a surprise, I’d figure they’d have at least one similar recipe considering how many “ethnic” sweets may go into such territories. But not to worry. I wouldn’t dare touch any of your beloved specimens for such a petty treat I promise. No matter how well candied crickets would go with my tea.”

“WHAT THE FUCK, I WAS LYING TO HIM! I mean, it’s not like I haven’t used licensed candies like that for some pranks, but seriously? Whyyyyyy?” Kokichi whined and flailed about, which seemed to help keep Gonta from having a clear shot at Korekiyo if the gentle giant lost his temper. But aside from some breathing exercises and tensing on his part Gonta took the news pretty well! (What a shame.)

“Beggars can’t be choosers when looking into other cultures, and as said they can be quite tasty.”

“Not when people are eating please!” Kaede complained, and possibly a bit too loudly at that.

“ARE YOU BULLYING KAEDE OVER THERE?! Kaede I’m sooo sorry, I had no idea I had left you alone with these immature ruffians!... And Gonta.” (... Did she just- Is she making an exception for Gonta? YES!)

Tenko was quick to run to Kaede’s side to give her an overblown hug as she looked at the boys as if they had done something horrible to her. Tsumugi and Angie were a ways behind her, along with a… pigeon?

It was definitely a pigeon that flew by and sat itself on Tenko’s head, and since she wasn’t overreacting to this Kaede could only assume this was some sort of normal. (One of Himiko’s doves maybe? I haven’t seen any lately. Not since the party come to think of it- ACK, that was days ago! Oh dear, are they okay?)

“Yup, yup! We’re sorry, so sorry, Angie just wanted to try swimming with Himiko’s fishies during feeding time! They enjoy Tenko’s daily blood sacrifices nearly as much as Atua does, so cute~”

“Please stop calling Himiko’s piranha “fishies” Angie, it really downplays how dangerous that could be!” Tsumugi scolded, still obviously distressed by whatever had happened in the dojo.

“It’s fine, it’s fine~ Nothing to worry about!”

“Tenko’s going to make a swear jar for you misusing that phrase at this rate.”

“Can we make one for all the third-person people too? OH, or how about catchphrases, like Ryoma’s?”

“Pretty sure your “it’s a lie” spiel should count enough too if you wanna go there kid.”

“Or it could merely be a genuine swear jar. Kaito would end up paying handsomely for that I imagine.”

“H-hey, come on dude don’t be like that. How’d you like it if we went with a purple prose penalty, huh?”

“Gonta not sure what that mean, but if it make Kiyo talk simple Gonta support it!” (Get back on topic!)

“Knock it off you guys, it’s not like money even really matters if we don’t bring it up. But I didn’t know Tenko was taking care of Himiko’s pets, why didn’t you say anything? I could help sometime if you want.”

“Didn’t I tell you? I guess that was just a student council thing, when I was asking if we could take out the pool’s chlorine thingies so Himiko’s fish could have some more room to swim around. But if you want to help there is something I was going to ask you girls! … And guys, if you agree to take things seriously.” (...I’m sorry what was that? Come on Tenko, I mean I know you can’t use the pool but why would you try to ruin that for the rest of us too?! Even if the water level looks way too low for normal swimming.)

“Kibo isn’t here and Kokichi is so I’m not sure we can honestly say we all will. But go on, shoot.” Ryoma deadpanned with a smirk, to which Kaito jokingly hit him in the shoulder in response to that verbal jab.

“This dove’s been pretty chummy with me for a while now, but I don’t really know what to name her. And before you ask yes I know for sure it’s the same bird! I even gave her a little tag on her foot, see?”

The bird in question did have a little red tie on her left leg, as she hopped from Tenko’s head to her hand at the girl’s prompting to aid in this display. As she began pecking at said tie a moment later, despite Tenko’s attempts to convince her to leave it be, it didn’t look like she was too keen on keeping it though.

“Gonta going to ask how Tenko knows it a girl bird. Birds hard to tell, if boy birds aren’t pretty colors or girl birds aren’t really big. Harder than bugs sometimes, and bugs no always have boys or girls at all.”

“What are you talking about, just look at this face! Of course she’s a girl dove!” (I don’t think that’s how this works.)

“Well what about “Himiko”? She’s probably heard the name enough to recognize it at least, right?”

“I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with that. Like maybe “Yumeno” or “Yumeko” would work, but not just “Himiko”. Not yet.”

“Right, sorry Tenko.”

“Not to worry! Thank you very much for your suggestion Kaede, it was really nice. Maybe that’d work for another bird, later. Like a… sleepy one, or something.”

“Well, if we’re starting this off with dead name suggestions why not we go with the most innocent victim of all: Hedwig!”

“Hey, watch your spoilers Kokichi! And that’s too soon…”

“Oh my god Tsumugi that was years ago, get over it already!”

“You do realize she was named for the patron saint of orphans yes? It really isn’t fitting for this at all.”

“Definitely not using it then. I don’t even know what show you all are talking about.”

“Okay, so something more light-hearted and fitting… How about “Oko-san”? I mean yeah he was a fantail, but out of everybirdie he looks the most like her and that name should be gender neutral enough.”

“I’d prefer not naming her after some degenerate bird if I can help it, but that could work! If nothing better comes up I’ll consider it. Thanks, Tsumugi!”

“If a feminine name is needed how about “Inanna”? After the Sumerian goddess of the many aspects of both love and war, due to her association with doves. I think invoking her suits you.”

“... That’s actually kinda pretty but I hate you so no.” (Thanks for that Tenko, I hope he’s disappointed.)

“Well, there was no harm in trying. You did ask for at least one of us to take your dilemma seriously.”

“H-hey we can take this seriously too! How’s about “John Coo”?”

Some distinct groans came from Tsumugi and Kokichi upon hearing it, but Kaede didn’t get the joke. Tenko did at the very least, but she also didn’t seem to appreciate Kaito’s suggestion. Ryoma however looked like he was very valiantly trying to keep himself from laughing, with the weird grin he was making.

“What, no! I just said she was a girl dove you degenerate male!”

“Um, why’s everyone groaning?”

“A bad pun I assume?”

“Seriously Kiyo? I mean a girl not getting it is one thing but what sort of man doesn’t know John Woo!?”

“And that would be?” Kaede tried to push for an actual explanation.

“That action director guy with the weird pigeon fetish!” Kokichi chimed.

“Then that would be the sort of person who doesn’t enjoy such exhausting displays of overstimulation. And here I thought such a description was limited to Tesla.”

As Kaito and Tenko were distracted arguing Gonta made a sort of chirping to get the bird to come over to him. With the small white dove perched on his finger he made another series of coos at it, to which it seemed to be responding. (I guess he really can talk to animals, huh?)

“Uh, Tenko? Birdie say she like the name John Coo.”

“Well there we have it, John Coo it is! Of course she’d like the name given to her by the Luminary of the Stars!”

“I said no!”

“Aww, I was kinda hoping that she’d at least insist on being called “Miss” John Coo or something.” Tsumugi mumbled to herself. Kaede wasn’t sure how a pigeon could really “insist” on that though.

Ryoma had apparently worked his way through his laughter for now and was the very picture of serious as he gave his two cents on the subject. “Any good pet parent would know to respect her wishes. John Coo is a lovely young lady and this should be her decision to make, not yours.”

“But it’s dumb!”

“Don’t say that in front of her Tenko, you’ll hurt her self-esteem. This is a delicate time in her life and John Coo needs you to support her right now.”

“HOW CAN YOU SAY ALL OF THIS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE RYOMA!?” (Pfft. Of course our only decent gambler has the best poker face. How can he do that over something so silly?)

“Easier for me than you I’m sure.” He replied with a wink and one of the most self-satisfied smiles Kaede has ever seen on his face. She, Tsumugi, Kiyo, and Kaito were all obviously trying to hide their laughter, as opposed to Angie and Kokichi who dissolved into a pair of giggling idiots. Gonta didn’t seem it get it.

“... You’re all horrible and Tenko wants you to know she hates you.” Tenko grumbled. (I can live with this.)

“Nyahahaha, that’s okay because John Coo still loves us! Just like Atua, John Coo is too pure to judge~”

“Only because she’s a bit... slow.”

“Just like both of her mommies!”

“I WILL END YOU KOKICHI-”

“Uh, am I interrupting something?” Kibo’s voice came from the door, looking ready to walk back out of it if the answer was “yes”. Tenko took the opportunity to gather herself and sit back down, with John Coo flitting back to her which helped calm her down.

“Nope, you just missed the christening of John Coo the lovey dovey. Say “Hi” John.” Kokichi chimed, and John did actually give a coo at the command. Or it may have been her attempt to complete her name, if that’s how a pigeon could insist on that. Tenko still seemed sour about it all as she pet the little dove.

“I… See. Sorry if you were waiting for me to use the flashback light. We are actually using it right Angie?”

“I guess… Atua still disagrees with this though.”

“Wait, no one tell Gonta flashback light found yesterday! Why no one get him or Kiyo?” (Because of me.)

“After the mess with the last video we decided to give a delay before we all see this one together again. Since not everyone thinks we should use them, but things could get difficult if we learn something big,” Kaede summed up best she could. No one appeared to have much to add to her explanation, and while Korekiyo understood why the knowledge gap could become a problem Gonta looked a bit confused.

“In case it becomes relevant the last video indicated we all may have been part of the same school, despite us all now having the uniforms from whatever highschool we attended before then. There may also be some sort of government program we tried to hide from, which was why we saw that funeral.” Korekiyo supplied, which made enough sense to Gonta that he didn’t look nearly as lost anymore. Angie and Kibo were more troubled by this information, but Tsumugi and Tenko accepted it without question.

And so, despite the concerns against it, Kaede took the light from her backpack and thumbed the switch.

Again she became nearly overwhelmed by the sense of vertigo with the world warping itself around her. But this time the onslaught of memories it unlocked within her were far from pleasant or comforting. It was like the motive videos all over again.

Meteorites had plagued the world, and led to a significant amount of damage to her hometown. The chaos and sense of end times it caused so many people to feel, as if the sky was literally falling around them. How could she have ever forgotten something this important? Or anyone else for that matter.

This explained the state her house was in though. She and her family had left it long before her kidnapping, so of course it would be a mess now. And this fit Kaito’s “natural disaster” theory from before too, for how so many people could be facing some horrible future outside of these walls at the same time.

It sounded like everyone’s experiences were a little different with this batch of memories, unlike before.

The only one who really seemed to have been in a similar situation to her own was Tsumugi, whose hometown also suffered greatly and had been faced with similar fatalistic groups causing havoc. Not that they were they were the only ones who remembered the cults with their flyers declaring that “mankind deserves damnation” and the other violent gangs that sprang out; Kaito and Kibo clearly saw those too.

As Kibo explained his it sounded like he and his professor were rather protected from the event itself, as he remembered more of the news reports and Internet buzz about them than the actual impacts. Tenko and Gonta seemed similarly disconnected, as they had also only heard about the civil unrest it caused.

Angie’s people were mostly faced with rising waters caused by the meteor impacts, which had led to her being sent to Japan as she could recall, but she couldn’t quite grasp why yet. Korekiyo offhandedly mentioned the madness everyone was facing could be part of why he could get away with killing as many girls as he did, as many people had gone missing, but when pressed he only admitted the number was greater than ninety.

He did also remember that the meteorites seemed to have been the cause of a deadly new disease that sprang up. He had encountered it in his travels rather often too, but never showed any symptoms himself. His sister wasn’t so lucky, and that was what had caused her to cough blood when they saw her film before.

It was hard to tell who was more distressed by this particular addition, Kaito or Korekiyo, but only the latter gave them an explanation for why as he tried to keep himself from having another panic attack.

Apparently her doctors couldn’t be sure if she had caught it on her own or if he unintentionally served as an asymptomatic carrier. He was confirmed to have been conventionally immune to the disease, but that was no comfort if it meant he might have been the cause of his sister’s untimely death.

Ryoma suspected a similar immunity may also have been why his prison let him out early, if only to use him as a means to help others through this calamity, considering it a form of “community service”. Tenko and her master also helped out wherever they could, but she didn’t seem as sure whether some of the “degenerates” they fought in the name of justice she remembered were parts of any larger movements.

Gonta also remembered there was a scientist who claimed that, based on a similar event happening millions of years ago, if nothing could be done all life on earth could be wiped out in an event worse than the end of the dinosaurs. Ironic considering he was raised by some of the few surviving descendants of that time.

Kaito was the first to remember the plan that was humanity’s last hope. The “Gofer Project”. With an “f”, as in the trees used for Noah’s ark, rather than the animal as Korekiyo pointed out, as it unsettled him. Like even with all the countries of the world working together they wouldn’t be able to save many from the metaphorical “flood” they were being faced with. (Of course, he’d worry more about the cultures that could be lost. Not the actual people or animals that could die or go extinct in that. The heartless bastard.)

Not that it mattered how many they were hoping to protect, if Kokichi’s memories about it “failing” somehow were true. But no one else seemed to have memories that elaborated on that.

“... What if that’s the project we were hiding from before? From the previous memory.” Ryoma asked, as no one else provided any theories for it.

“Hmm, maybe! Maybe it wasn’t really a school uniform you saw everyone in back then either.” Angie said, still smiling like she didn’t have a care in the world despite everything.

“No, it was definitely a school’s since it had an emblem on the blazers and everything. I don’t think people would waste the resources on making a uniform for this sort of thing anyway. And how else would we explain why we’re all around the same age?” Kaede replied.

“What if Angie was right before then? About why we should stay in here instead of focusing on the “outside world”. I mean this could be part of the Gofer Project right? So being here’s a good thing. Especially if we’re all here because we’re “immune”, since Kiyo hasn’t made any of us sick yet!” As Tenko spoke about their possible immunity, Korekiyo looked over at Kaito rather specifically for some reason.

Kaede probably wouldn’t have noticed when it happened, since Korekiyo was still recovering from his panic attack, if not for how Kaito went out of his way to avoid making eye contact with him. She had no idea what this could mean though, since Kaito wasn’t acting too differently otherwise.

“Hmmm, I wouldn’t really say that. Though I suppose you missed most of the “dude eats bugs” thing.” Kokichi’s attempt at a horrible joke was enough to pull Korekiyo from his thoughts, much to Kaito’s relief.

Not that his new thoughts were better. “If you value your life I would refrain from making jest of this.”

“H-hey I thought you said you wouldn’t kill me! ‘Cause I’m a guy.”

“... True. Though it will be more difficult trying to keep things from turning fatal with our lack of medical supplies. Even when the warehouse was open Kaito was right in pointing out so many things we lack.”

“Y-yeah, which is also why this probably can’t be that government project anyway! No matter how much they had to rush they wouldn’t forget to install something that important in here, especially not with the risk of a disease mutating into something we wouldn’t be immune to anymore. Assuming we really are.” Kaito exclaimed, but Korekiyo started giving him an odd look again when the disease came up. (Why?)

“O-oh, yeah that’s a good point.” Tsumugi began, before mumbling “Didn’t really think about that,” mostly to herself again. After calming down enough to stop her stuttering she had a new thought. “But without someone who really knows about that sort of stuff would facilities like that matter anyway?”

“I dunno, I mean things are pretty high tech. Who knows what science can do if they can make Exisals. Maybe we don’t have med stuff ‘cause they injected us with nanomachines to keep us healthy. Or maybe these “flashback lights” aren’t exactly what they say on the tin.” Kokichi suggested as if trying to make the rest of us catch up to him.

“What are you talking about this time Kokichi? I will not appreciate being “trolled” by you again.” Kibo warily complained.

“Sure is convenient how none of us have ANY idea about what we “remember” with these lights before they’re triggered, huh? Kinda like how the motive videos triggered something in Kirumi and Kiyo in a way that was super convenient for keeping a killing game going for as long as they were still in it, riiiight?”

“W-well, of course, they were “motive” videos after all-” Kibo started again before Kokichi cut him off.

“And yet, both of these things came from the same source, didn’t they?”

“Atua agrees that He thinks these lights may be doing us more harm than good! Angie’s not really sure if He means brainwashing though. It could just be undoing some type of hypnosis, and if it is than it only shows us what we all had to agree to have suppressed in the first place.”

“Oh yeah, Himiko told us during our sleepover! Hypnosis only works on people who want it to work and don’t really object to what they’re being asked to do anyway. But… Does this mean we shouldn't use them anymore? I mean they still are our only clues to get out of here right? If we all still really want to.”

“Right. Besides, we can’t really prove any memories are wrong yet,” Kaede said. “Most of them seem to line up well enough, and if this isn’t related to the Gofer Project there could be a reason for the missing medbay. These still seem to be a risk that’s worth taking for us to find out what’s going on and get out.”

Tenko seemed convinced by Kaede’s reasoning, but Angie and Tsumugi still seemed a bit wary of the idea. No one else expressed any explicit objections though, not even Kokichi who cast doubt on them at all. (Guess he’s just expressing some paranoia? Or maybe he was just lying about that for some reason?)

“It does make sense to use a place that doesn’t have any means to help save lives for a killing game, doesn’t it? No reason to base a project meant to “save humanity” on a prison school anyway. This killing game could be all this was built for, for all we know. It’d explain the death road too.” Ryoma pointed out, the unpleasant reminder never letting him forget the school’s unusual design for long. It was all too easy for the rest of them to overlook it over time, that even Kaede stopping being as aware of it at points.

“True. No sane designer of anything would make something that difficult to get through, not to mention the many codes and regulations it intentionally breaks. It’s clearly made to keep those on the inside from escaping, based on the false “Cleared” message we found. It wouldn’t read right going the other way.” Kibo said, looking bothered but contemplative.

“So… We still no know much?”

“Well, we do maybe have a better idea of what the world’s like outside. That’s a start, ain’t it big guy? Things can’t be as bad as they looked though, since this place hasn’t felt any impacts or anything! And look at all the plants still growin’ in here, that scientist probably just exaggerated things so folks would really know to prepare for the worst. Better set positive expectations low than high right?” Kaito said to try and cheer Gonta, and everyone else, the best he could.

“I doubt the greenery we see here does genuinely reflect outdoor conditions, as the environment was made to at least support us so by extension plant-life would also be capable of thriving. We haven’t ruled out this being a sealed space yet, like an underwater facility, despite how old it seems to be.”

“Well as I doubt anything more can be gained from this I will be heading to the computer lab if anyone needs me.” Kibo excused himself, and everyone else began to part ways.

Kaede made her way to the fifth floor with Kokichi and Ryoma in tow, intending to visit Shuichi’s lab again. Tsumugi wasn’t the only other person heading that way though this time.

“Gonta going to take Kiyo to see 5th floor, since we no saw it yesterday, okay?”

“Oh, that’ll be great! I can show you my lab now, so if there’s any sort of outfit you’d like me to make you I can definitely do it now. I’m pretty sure even a plain ol’ tux would suit you, mask or no mask.”

“Huh, really? Yes, Gonta like that idea! Many gentlemen have tuxedos. And fancy hats and masks.”

“Do you want to come Kaede? I nearly finished that pair of slacks you asked for~” (As long as HE stays far away from me and keeps quiet for once in his miserable life. I can’t just say no, that’d be ungrateful.)

“Sure, I can stop by! I was just going up there anyway to look into Shuichi’s lab again.”

“For the record Gonta, under no circumstances is Kiyo allowed in that room, got it?” Ryoma glared at Korekiyo as if to emphasize his point. But it was hard to say if he was just saying that or threatening him.

“Oh? Whatever for? And I was so looking forward to seeing if it also invoked victorian era design in much the same way Kirumi’s lab did, given the proliferation of murder mystery series set in that period.” (Because murderer or not he deserves better and why the hell would any of us trust you in his lab now?!)

“Hm… It okay for Kiyo to just look in then? No need to go in room to see that, right?”

“Fineeee, I guess I’ll keep it open for that long.”

“You’ll keep it open? What do you mean?”

“Ah, right you both bailed before Monokuma gave his spiel. Apparently if a student dies before their lab is open, like Shuichi, the lab’s supposed to remain locked. Lucky for us, the way they are locked can still be picked open, so I’m your handy dandy gatekeeper now! Since I always pick it back shut to be safe.”

“What about Rantaro’s lab? Gonta thought it be up there too.”

“Maybe, if it’s behind that big ol’ door thingy, but there’s no way to open that yet. Believe me, we tried.”

Gonta looked confused again by his mistake, but quickly got sucked into Kokichi’s ramblings so it didn’t bother him for long. It was about that point that Tsumugi seemed to realize that by inviting Gonta into her lab Korekiyo would end up being with them as well, as she started nervously glancing between him and Kaede.

In an effort to help ease her mind Kaede tried racking her brain for shows she watched as a kid to find an anime Tsumugi could use as a launching point for her own rants but was coming up empty. Ryoma had better luck with “Prince of Tennis”, and having something to talk about seemed to do the trick.

Apparently he read a lot of series like that back when he still played, and Tsumugi got particularly enthralled by his admission about basing some of his moves off of ones the heroes would use in their works. “Bringing the fiction he loved to life in his own way” as she put it, much like her own passion.

But then she started talking about something called “shunpo” and lost him too, not that she noticed.

When they got to their desired floor Kokichi and Ryoma broke off to go to the Ultimate Detective’s lab like they originally planned and the rest followed Tsumugi.

Gonta and Korekiyo were taken aback by just how big it turned out to be, before Tsumugi led the entomologist to her sewing station and Korekiyo went to look into some of her established sets.

With a flourish she showed off to Kaede the “rule 63 slacks” she designed, whatever that meant. They were nice though! When Kaede tried them on in one of the changing areas they fit well, despite barely giving Tsumugi any really reliable measurements, and while they were different they still suited her.

The color wasn’t too unlike her normal skirts, but instead of music notes they had a bar of piano keys running up either side, adding a bit more black and white to the look. At closer inspection the plum color was pinstriped with the color of her socks, which Kaede tried to ignore as it reminded her of Shuichi, and the bars actually had all 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, instead of just being a pattern for pattern’s sake.

And now I won’t need to worry about flashing anyone if I need to be more active than usual! Or just walk up stairs or ladders like what happened with Shuichi before. Wait… this means I don’t have any more training excuses either. Oh well. Maybe situps are easier than push-ups? This is gonna suuuuck.

“Thank you Tsumugi, I love it! I hope you don’t mind if I don’t wear them all the time though.”

“Not at all, I’m used to making things people may only use a handful of times! But making “original” stuff is like this is a weird feeling. But so’s my lab having a set focus over a sewing one at all, so it’s plain to see I just gotta get used to it. It’s a shame it opened so late, this would have been great for the talent show.”

“The nature of these sets also strikes me as odd, would you truly need these? The bar for example isn’t terribly unlike the one that already exists in the casino. Even the false labels on the bottles are all the same, and this is supposed to be a high school setting we are in, is it not?” (Okay, so I can leave now! I just need to keep it from being too obvious, so Tsumugi doesn’t feel offended. I need a good moment.)

“W-well, the ones I have here should be non-alcoholic so that isn’t really against any laws I think? Besides, that set there is a lot more like one of my part-time jobs so it’s kinda comforting to have.”

“Why Tsumugi work at bar?! Alcohol bad for young people! Shouldn’t let young lady in. It dangerous.”

“Cosplaying’s expensive work, especially if you want to work with the best materials. Girl’s gotta make a living somehow, you know? It’s not like I’m the only one here who may have faked an ID or two anyway. Kaito pulled something similar for his astronaut test stuff right? And who knows about Kokichi.”

“With how unkind either genetics or puberty has been to him one of those could be how he got here.” Korekiyo suggested, probably as a joke given the look in his eyes. Or at least she hoped that’s all it was.

“Hey, Kokichi looks like he could really be 15 at least.” Kaede said as Korekiyo simply chucked. “... Okay, maybe not much older than that, unless he’s a really late bloomer. Which could also fit Himiko!”

“Gonta pretty sure Kokichi older than Gonta.” Gonta said while lightly scratching at his cheek. When he noticed all the blank stares he was getting from his friends he seemed confused, but didn’t elaborate.

“... I am heavily inclined to doubt that. Though in terms of mental development I can see where this could be coming from. He is mature for his age, when he wants to be. It is odd how our profiles don’t actually list our ages, only our birth dates. I wonder if that could be relevant to our predicament at all.” Korekiyo began to theorize. (He has a point though. But no one's ever asked me about that either. Neither have I come to think of it, I’ve just assumed most of us here are my age-ish. Except Kokichi and Himiko, of course. Ryoma, Kirumi, and Korekiyo too I guess since they all feel like they could be adults.)

“I don’t think so. I mean it’s not like ages really matter in highschool right? Especially not if we can’t have any upper or lower classmen dynamics to work with.” Tsumugi spoke up, still working with Gonta through some measurements. She had to stand on a chair to do so, with how big he was, but if she hadn’t said anything Kaede would have assumed she was too focused on her work to hear them at all.

Content with what she had down she took a break as she skipped off to the working bar that started this conversation. “If anyone would like to try a cocktail I know I could make one right now if you’d like? I can make anything from a Blue Fairy to a Gut Punch! Or to a Sunshine Cloud, if we want to stay alphabetical.”

“WHY TSUMUGI PUNCH PEOPLE?!”

“It’s just the name of a drink, don’t worry. She isn’t actually threatening anyone.” Kaede comforted him, which only seemed to work a little bit since the nature of this work still worried him.

“I would have talked about a Bad Touch instead, but with that one the alcohol isn’t optional.”

“Not exactly the “classiest” bars you worked at I take it?” Korekiyo asked with what could be a grin.

“Nope, not at all. But it was fun and paid the bills!”

Kaede turned down the drinks and took the chance to catch back up with Ryoma and Kokichi. Gonta and Korekiyo didn’t make any attempts to follow her though, as Gonta still wanted to help Tsumugi where he could and Korekiyo took up her drink offer. Only after agreeing that either she or Gonta would take the first sip of her creations though, as he was still cautious around beverages after Angie’s earlier stunt.

Seemed he got to rambling about alcohol’s relevance to other cultures, reflecting drinking ages and whatnot, so Kaede was glad to be out of there. Though Tsumugi sounded like she was having some fun with it, bringing up some sort of “Shrine Maiden Saki” or something from one of her anime, and falling into her own tangent, as a Kunihimo cord from it caused her a lot of issues since the length wasn’t clear.

It was only after she got to the Detective's doors that Kaede realized how lost Gonta must feel with the way those two could talk, and the waves of guilt and regret poured in. (But there’s no saving him now.)

Shuichi’s lab felt so wrong to be in. She couldn’t put her finger on it but something about it was off, beyond how much more dangerous this lab was from some others. But as Kokichi pointed out the first time they got in it made sense for a former blackened’s lab to feel more like Moriarty than Sherlock.

Assuming Shuichi really wasn’t framed by the mastermind, so that someone would die without ending their sick game. Not that it would change the fact he was dead, and they were the ones who killed him.

Kokichi was messing around the chem cabinets as she entered, wearing the silly bowler hat they first found on the small round table instead of the hat rack. Ryoma was keeping him company and Kaede was a bit surprised Kaito hadn’t joined them yet. The tennis pro looked content though, sitting in the rocking chair by the fire with a book in his hands.

“Heey Ka-yay-de~ What can we do you fer this fine mornin’?” Kokichi asked as if he was trying to imitate some British potion seller or bartender as he pocketed another vial for who knows what.

“Depends, did you find another laxative?” Kaede had asked to see how their first experiment went in order to test if this threat could be neutralized by just getting rid of the contents, or at least the dangerous ones; Kokichi had found a “prank worthy” harmless bottle and took it to see if it would stay missing.

She chose not to ask if this stunt had any connection to Angie spiking Korekiyo’s tea earlier, as she figured no answer would really be comforting to her in this situation.

“Yup! So it really does restock everyday. It’s a real bummer, it means we can’t just smash all of these.”

“Not that we should have considered that an option anyway, since some could be air activated for all we know,” Ryoma blankly stated as he flipped another page, as if resigned to being Kokichi’s voice of reason.

“... Oh. Riiiiight. Good catch. But that’s why you were put on Kokichi-watch duty! Nee-heehee~”

“Am I being paid for this?”

“You get to keep your peace of mind, does that count?” Kokichi offered with an otherwise “innocent” grin and a gleam in his eyes.

“Eh, I’ll take it.” Ryoma said with a shrug as he put his book down to address Kaede. “So were you going to look through the files again today?”

“Yup! I mean if this isn’t the first killing game these may be related somehow. It’d make sense for the detective's lab to have clues regarding our biggest mysteries for this game right? Especially since it was meant to be sealed, if he was going to be executed regardless of whether he killed Rantaro or not.”

That didn’t narrow down which files would actually be related though. With 52 to sort through, 5 full rows of ten files with the sixth only having 2 as if waiting for more entries, they couldn’t possibly all be real and even them having drawn crime scenes or photographs wasn’t helping to narrow things down.

She initially sorted them into groups based on which had “Ultimate Detectives” leading their cases, like “Kyoko Kirigiri” from the first and third files with the help of her partner “Makoto Naegi”. But then she noticed that the third kept making reference to the second, headed by “Hajime Hinata” and his partner “Nanami Chiaki”, which also dealt a lot with missing memories and how returning them triggered a killer.

That was also a double murder in fact, but both were done by the same culprit that time. Not two parties similarly affected by memories acting during the same case period. (Almost more like the first file’s 3rd case’s double murder. And this was the 3rd case for this group too. Is this an intentional pattern? I’m not sure how anyone could control something so specific, so this may be a sign of these files just mocking us.)

As a result most of the day before had been spent reading through those connected files best she could, and then trying to find out when the files got close enough to the present that the pictures changed from anime inspired illustrations to photos. No matter which format they were in though the blood kept showing up as pink rather than red for whatever reason. Probably to stress how “fake” this all could potentially be.

She knew she couldn’t really trust these, there were way too many Ultimates and scenarios that got even more outlandish than what her group has faced yet, but there could still be some truth hidden in them. Like they were never outlandish enough for the cases themselves being unfeasible. One in the second file even involved a robot with the same emergency shut off button on the back of his neck like Kibo did, so they were all dangerous to have lying around.

These files and the various poisons was why no one was allowed to be in here alone, and why Kokichi kept it shut at all other times. And if this was how bad Shuichi’s lab was she doesn’t want to consider what Rantaro’s may be like. They didn’t even know what his talent was.

Kaede lost track of time as she poured over the notes, covering murders from monsterous to mundane. The suicides and accidents almost came as a pleasant surprise when they came up, but then there were files that barely had any cases in them. They still had the culprits and how they did it listed, but it was different. Like the person investigating wasn’t the one who caught them, and they got away with it.

At some point Kaito showed up to regroup with Ryoma, so he and Kokichi would bicker when the latter got bored sorting through which poisons had antidotes and how dangerous they were. Kaito helped her sort through the files, but he didn’t really have the stomach for reading them much like Ryoma didn’t.

The background noise was comforting in its own way, much like the sound of the fire was despite her growing urge to just throw a lot of these papers into it in disgust. Sometimes she wasn’t sure if it was because of the actual cases or at herself for not finding any leads to get out of there.

There was another knock at the door as she took something of a rage break, and she was surprised to see Kibo there instead of Gonta and Korekiyo, as she had been expecting.

He looked a lot happier than she had seen him in a while too. “Hello everyone! I have great news!”

“Well this can’t be good.” Kokichi deadpanned as he started looking at a corner again with a smirk. (Is a camera actually there? I don’t see anything, but why else would he keep doing this? What am I missing?)

“H-hey it is! Please don’t be so quick to dismiss my efforts! I finally got the last of the bugs out of the main program the computer lab was made for. So everyone can safely use it now! I’m sure you’ll all really enjoy it if you give it a chance.”

“Of course we would Kibo, I was thinking about taking a break anyway.” Kaede told him with a smile. She was a bit curious what it could possibly be, with how long its set up took, and she didn’t want to waste his efforts. No matter how potentially dangerous anything Monokuma gave them could be.

Kokichi wasn’t convinced though. “Are you sure-”

“Yeah we’re sure, don’t be a brat. Kibo’s been practically married to that thing since he got it, and it’s his first computer project too right? Of course we’ll give it a look!” Kaito urged the boy forward as he stressed how important this was for their friend, all smiles. Despite the floor it would be on.

“Do you need me to get anyone else for you while you go set things up?” Ryoma asked.

“No need, Tsumugi already offered to do so! Gonta and Kiyo should be on their way down there as we speak, so let’s go join them, shall we?”

It was hard to say no, with how happy and excited he was to show off his pet project. So they all followed the robot to see what he had in store for them.

And hopefully find some more clues to what’s going on, since my other leads are coming up empty.

First Chapter Previous Chapter Index AO3 Version Next Chapter

#New Danganronpa V3 #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers #drv3 #drv3 spoilers #drv3 fanfiction #fanfic #multi chapter #kaede akamatsu #kokichi ouma #korekiyo shinguji #kaito momota #K1-B0 #tenko chabashira #ryoma hoshi #tsumugi shirogane #gonta gokuhara

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dangan-ronpa-v3-imagines-blog · 7 years ago

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NDRV3 Girls who let their S/O have a puppy but returns home to 20 puppies

This was quite nice and adorable to do to be honest! ~Mod Kiibo

Kaede Akamatsu

~ When you asked Kaede to have a puppy to have and keep, of course she agrees

~ After all it's just a small, cute puppy right? No harm done and if it makes her S/O happy then she's happy too!

~ When you finally get the puppy you instantly name it and thank her for it

~ She's delighted that you are happy

~ She leaves you to take care of it to go to one of her piano recitals

~On her way back she picks up some dog supplies for your guys puppy not knowing the outbreak in store for her

~ When she got back though she found about twenty puppies surrounding you on the couch reading them a book

~ She squeals quite loudly after seeing the cuteness in both of your guys home

~ She pets all of them one by one and the puppies love her back

~ After a while she questions why there is twenty puppies in their home instead of the one and you just reply with “Because why have one when you can have twenty?”

~ She doesn't mind nonetheless though, they are all so adorable but it will take some time getting more stuff for them since they only have the stuff for one dog

~ You two also name all of them as well, they all have very cute names

~ Also a lot of cuddling sessions with them all as well just a big hug pile of dogs, Kaede and her S/O

Miu Iruma

~ Oh? You want a puppy? HmMmM Sure!

~ It's just a puppy it's not like it's going to be one the cutest thing she has ever seen

~ Holy fUCK SHe WAS wRoNG

~ When you get the puppy she tries her hardest not to squeal and all

~ You both gather supplies for the little puppy you bought and you decided to go home while Iruma does some of her own shopping for a while

~ It takes a while since she has certain things she must have for the both of you and that it needs to be in high quality because of course nothing else will do for her gorgeous self!

~ When she does get home to her lovely S/O she's greeted by twenty puppies??

~ As soon as she walks in she's bombarded by them all, everything she bought is everywhere

~ Not paying attention to the...things she bought, her S/O immediately tries to get them all of Iruma but all they can hear is Iruma laughing

~ After all the puppies are off her, her S/O helps her up and apologies for the dog attack that just happened

~ She says that she doesn’t care about that and that the puppies already like her of course because she’s a gorgeous genius and they knew that from the moment she stepped in

~ You then reluctantly asked her if you could keep them since you didn’t really wanted to take them back and she agrees!

~ You have to stop her from using them to help on her inventions once in awhile

~ But overall it’s nice to have them all interact with each other like a family of some sort

Tsumugi Shirogane

~ You wanted a puppy? Of course! As long as it doesn’t mess up her work

~ You swear that you’ll keep a close eye on it so she lets you get one, you are ecstatic when you hold them

~ Tsumugi thought she will help with this dog so when she was coming back home from what she was doing, she picked up some basic stuff for the new puppy

~ And some materials so she can dress it in little pet costumes which would be adorable

~ When he gets home she is greeted with not one puppy like you said you bought but twenty puppies

~ “I thought you were only buying one puppy S/O”

~ “I had a change in plans…”

~ She’s not mad at all since that means more costumes for the pets but that means you two have to go back the store to get supplies, a lot of supplies in fact

~ When she does have time, Tsumugi dresses up the puppies in little costumes of all sorts

~ She’s very proud of her work and gives them treats after every costume she puts them in

~ She enjoys their company as well and sometimes play with them too but they can’t go anyway near her important cosplays but she doesn’t mind of her pet ones since she made them especially for them

Tenko Chabashira

~ When you ask that can you get a puppy without hesitation she says yes

~ She’s so excited for when she gets home to see the cute little puppy!

~ You said you was going to buy things for the puppy so you had to go for now, she didn’t mind but was extremely happy for the new member of the household you two shared

~ She can’t wait to see the dog’s cute little face when she steps into the house

~ But when she does get home, she is greeted to around twenty puppies all around the place

~ At first she just thought it was the one reappearing over and over again but when she finally found you petting some of them she was confused but amazed

~ After you explained everything about basically buying twenty puppies instead of one she lets that sink in before immediately starting to pet them

~ She adores them all and basically walks them anytime they want to go outside, well it’s more like running but still

~ Tenko loves doing outside activities with them and it could last for ages but she brings them inside to take a break so she doesn’t entirely tires them out

~ She spoils them often because she doesn’t like seeing them sad at all but sometimes you have to calm her down on her gifts for the dogs

~ But you appreciate her genuine thoughts towards them and her loving them dearly so

Kirumi Tojo

~ You bring up that you wanted to have a puppy and she was hesitant at first but agreed with you nonetheless

~ After all with it's all okay because when she agreed to let you have one she was on her way to get the basic bits instantly

~ She has a whole shopping list and everything

~ She has got this in the bag I swear

~ When she does get home to you two she notices it wasn't just one puppy as she thought it would be

~ Apparently there were twenty puppies just waiting there at her home with you just trying to keep them calm and not run wild all over the place

~ She smiles at the sight of her S/O trying their best to keep them all under control

~ So as her duty calls, she helps her S/O out by calming them down and letting them play for a bit

~ She is honestly a great owner to them

~ She looks after them better than you do like she takes the out on frequent walks, feeds them the right things, has them all little beds so they can rest on and tries to play with them but that doesn't work quite well so she leaves that to you

~ Also she has a very long list just for the dogs when she goes out to buy them things

~ You find it great that she interacts with them so well

Maki Harukawa

~ So her S/O wanted a puppy? That's fine, she was quite hesitant on it first but if it pleases her S/O then she'll allow it

~ She’ll probably be quite distant from the puppy at first though

~ Well that was what she thought until when she got home she saw twenty of them

~ Now she is just confused, why was there twenty puppies surrounding you? She thought you was only getting one but now it's seems that's not the case anymore

~ She doesn't help that much for the first few days because twenty of them is quite a lot to handle at once but since her S/O seems like they are doing a good job of taking care of them it doesn't bother her

~ Then she gets used to them after a while and occasionally pets them quite gently, not that often but it's something

~ Sometimes she helps them get to sleep if they are being way too hyper

~ She looks pleased after every time she does it since it's quite a hand full

~ She does go on walks with you with the dogs as well just to tag along of course but it's quite nice of her to join in

~ When you are out shopping for you two and the dogs, she’ll watch over them while you're gone

~ She mostly has everything down about what to do if ‘blank’ happens and etc etc

Himiko Yumeno

~ You brought up the topic of having a puppy more than once to her and she agrees to it without putting much thought at all

~ She's probably asleep when you brought in the puppies into the house, surprisingly she doesn't wake up after the many footsteps of tiny paws on the floor

~ When she does wake up and head to where you are at she's surprised of how many dogs were there in the room

~ She doesn't really mind though as she loves petting them when she does actually wake up and have the energy to do so

~ One time you stepped in the room to see that she was in a cuddle pile with all of the twenty dogs just snoring away

~ It was quite cute actually and it does happen often

~ You have to do all the rest like walking them and such which is fine with you

~ Himiko does sometimes play with them and sometimes fall asleep during it so the puppies lick her face to get her awake again

~ You can mostly find them in the living room with them sleeping on the couch, floor or wherever is comfy enough for them

Angie Yonaga

~ Honestly when you brought it up she was excited as ever

~ So them you both agreed that you was going to have yourself a little puppy in the household

~ When she did find out that you bought the dog home she was delighted, she can right home after you told her about it

~ She didn't expect the many other dogs to be there to though but still she was too happy about it to care that much

~ She commented on how small and adorable they were but also how harmless and vulnerable as well

~ You wanted to question that but you let it slide since she was so in the moment

~ You already bought the things the dogs needed so you was ready as you could be

~ You do most of the caring after them but you didn't mind since you enjoyed their company

~ Angie does love to pet them and one time she let them dip their paws in paint so many multi coloured paw prints were left all around the house which was a pain to get rid off

~ She likes them to be around her since it's like a nice calming feeling to her

~ Also she has done some sculptures and paintings of them as well and they are either in her room or the living room

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commentaryvorg · 6 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 1.2

Last time, Kaede became the leader because Kaito was too busy nearly getting himself killed, Kaede lost half the group’s faith within the same day in part thanks to Kokichi being a dick, Shuichi and Kaito remained firmly on Kaede’s side regardless, Monokuma announced the first motive, and Kaito nearly got himself killed again but in the process Monokuma totally died instead, which was… probably not as accidental as it seemed.

Now that everything’s supposedly over, everyone has kind of dispersed from the dining hall.

Kaede: (I don’t know why, but once I went inside my room… I just started crying uncontrollably.) “H-Huh? Why?”

Aww, Kaede. Her lack of much success at leading everyone is getting to her. Much more than she ever wanted it to, based on her vocal reaction to suddenly finding herself crying.

Then she wipes her tears before Shuichi comes in.

Shuichi: “Kaede… are you alright?”

Kaede: “Oh, Shuichi… Um… what do you mean? I’m not sad, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Well that sure is suspiciously specific of you, Kaede. You are not a very good liar. Also it is extremely relevant to note that Kaede is actively trying to hide her pain from her friends and pretend that she’s totally fine about everything. Sounds a bit like a certain someone else who’s going to be doing that a lot later, hm?

Shuichi: “…Kaede, I know how you feel. I believe in you.”

Kaede: “What? You believe in me?”

Of course he does, Kaede! She seems so surprised to hear that. She probably didn’t think anyone would after the lack of success and half the class turning on her thanks to Kokichi.

(Don’t worry, Kaede; Shuichi’s not the only one who believes in you already. Kaito does, too.)

Shuichi wants to show Kaede something in the library, but on the way there there’s several people hanging around that you can talk to.

Kaito: “See? It’s just like I said!”

Kaede: “Huh? What’s just like you said?”

Kaito: “Sometimes you gotta be a little reckless to make your dreams a reality!”

Kaede: “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Kaito: “Huh? What do you mean? It’s thanks to me we defeated Monokuma, right? I still don’t know how to get out of here… But the number one threat is gone now!”

Yes, Kaito, you definitely saved everyone.

I love this conversation. Contrary to popular belief, Kaito isn’t stupid. He knows that he should have been killed back there and is only alive thanks to (apparently) sheer dumb luck. But his optimism is of the incredibly stubborn variety that refuses to accept any pessimistic, negative thoughts, so he’s focusing on the fact that it did turn out well against all the odds to distract himself from acknowledging how attacking Monokuma was the worst decision ever that he only made because he lost control of his emotions and if it hadn’t been for that complete fluke then he’d be dead right now.

Shuichi: “Ah, Kaito… To be honest, what you did was really dangerous…”

Kaito: “W-Well, I was a little nervous. Just a little.”

Only a little bit. Definitely not terrified for his life and momentarily convinced he was about to die or anything. He’s fine.

Kaito: “But now we know the universe is watching! That bear got the cosmic justice he deserved! The universe is always on the side of those who push the limits and never give up!”

And of course he doesn’t want to admit either that it was pure luck and not really his actions that defeated Monokuma. It was totally the universe, rewarding him for being so determined, right? He’s covering up how drastically he almost failed by insisting that he made a difference and saved everyone. (Particularly since up until now, Kaede has been much more of a hero than he has.)

But despite Kaito’s words, he did learn his lesson here. He never tries anything this idiotically reckless ever again. And really, he probably needed to have this close brush with death here to let him realise that, or else he’d probably have kept being just as insanely reckless and actually got himself killed somewhere later down the line.

Kiyo: “In any event, it means this situation is over… I can go home and spend time with Sister.”

Uh, aren’t you, like, constantly spending time with her, according to your delusions? You shouldn’t need to go home to do that.

Kiyo: “Sister is terribly lonely… I need to get back to her as soon as possible…”

Or maybe he’s just talking about getting back to murdering people for her… except, dude, you can do that here too. Only don’t, because you’re awful. Kaede get away from him right now.

Maki: “You guys are free to do whatever you want, just leave the rest of us out of it.

Maki still wants nothing to do with Kaede and Shuichi’s optimistic working together nonsense. Still, she’s totally cool with them doing that without her and isn’t about to try and stop them.

Shuichi: “…She’s kind of… unpleasant, isn’t she?”

Heh. Little do you know, Shuichi.

Shuichi: “You said there’s someone behind all this, right? That Monokuma’s just a puppet.”

Rantaro: “I did say that. But you know what? It’s just a hunch.”

It’s not, though, is it, Rantaro? His Survivor’s Perk told him that there’s a mastermind who can make more Monokumas. But it also told him to be very careful who to trust with that information, and apparently he’s not willing to trust anyone with it yet, not even Shuichi and Kaede. If only he had.

Kaede: (Like a great detective, he began to explain in exacting detail.)

Kaede has so much faith in Shuichi’s talent, aww. And it also just goes to show that Shuichi’s lack of confidence is his talent is mostly unwarranted – to everyone else, he comes across as a perfectly competent detective.

Shuichi mentions that he came back to investigate the bookcase this morning, which would have had to be before the morning announcement, since Kaede ran into him on the way to the dining hall shortly after it. And Shuichi is usually pointedly not a morning person, only waking up at the announcement itself. So… looks like he wasn’t able to sleep much at all last night, huh.

The hidden door being black and white is very on the nose. Almost like the mastermind wanted anyone who found it to think it was connected to Monokuma.

Shuichi: “If it were solely for Monokuma’s use, he wouldn’t need to hide it. He could just have the Exisals protect it and keep it in plain sight.”

Or, you know, just have it be a Monokuma-sized door that none of the students could fit through. Like a tiny little bear-flap.

Shuichi’s plan of putting dust in the card reader is falling prey to the same flaw that his later plan with the cameras is going to. That flaw is that he’s assuming the mastermind has no way of watching them and therefore of knowing about his trap. It’s very important to the plot of this game that, despite the big conspicuous monitors like before, there are no obviously-visible cameras like there were in the first two.

It would actually be possible for Shuichi to figure out that there must be hidden cameras somewhere, too, if he just thought a little about how the class trials are supposed to work – Monokuma needs a way of knowing for sure who the blackened is, after all. Alas, despite him genuinely being a pretty great detective, there’s still some things he overlooks.

And then once they leave the library, it’s… suddenly night-time, somehow. I feel like they could still have had a free time slot or two today. The dialogue before actually hanging out with people during free time is a neat way of getting a sense of what’s on someone’s mind at each point in the story (I’m going to be covering those a lot), and it would have been interesting to be able to see more of everyone’s thoughts on whether or not it’s really over right now.

Monokuma: “When a series lasts for several seasons, eventually it’ll run out of material. My memory has been awful lately. I wonder if it’s cuz of how long the series has been going. Wait… what season are we on again?”

I mean, yeah, 53 seasons is quite a lot, right? But even so, Monokuma Theater is so full of non-sequiturs that I can’t imagine it’s possible to run out of material for it.

Monokuma: “Anyway, we need new material for Monokuma Theater! Please send your manuscripts, along with a 1,000 dollar application fee! If your entry is selected, you will receive a 100 dollar gift card!”

You know, knowing how batshit the audience for this show is (people will literally die to be in it), some people are probably going to actually do that.

During a conversation with Kokichi on the way to the dining hall next morning, after Kaede calls out some of his usual lying bullshit…

Kokichi: “Oh? Wow, Kaede. You know how to stand your ground, don’tcha?”

It’s interesting to see Kokichi making note of that about her. It’s almost like the people he zeroes in on and continues to lie to and manipulate, such as Gonta and Miu, are people that he’s identified as easy victims who don’t stand their ground and fight back. People like Kaede who don’t fall for it and give him the reaction he’s after are no fun. He’s basically just a huge bully.

Kokichi: “I’m more nervous around friends who share too much than strangers, really.”

I think this is a truthful statement, and if it is, it’s very relevant to Kokichi’s outlook on things. He’s uncomfortable around people who claim to be friends and share stuff with him because he’s convinced that they haven’t really shared everything and could still stab him in the back at any moment. It’s easier for him to have everyone be openly distrustful and constantly aware of the possibility of turning on each other. That way there’s no unexpected surprises, no actual betrayal, when it does happen. He’s afraid of being betrayed, so instead of getting close to people anyway and taking that risk, he takes the coward’s way out and avoids any meaningful personal interactions altogether. I believe this is a large part of the reason why he’s constantly trying to drive everyone apart and discourage co-operation – because it makes it easier for him to deal with.

Keebo: “Plus, if the professor knew I was missing, he would not rest until he found me.”

Keebo’s relationship with his father figure the professor is one of the most compelling parts of his character; it’s a shame it doesn’t come up more. Then again, it’s a shame that the professor doesn’t actually exist and his real creators are the people in charge of this killing game, so.

Tsumugi is hanging around in front of the girls’ bathroom. This is just before we all head to the dining hall and discover that Monokuma’s spare has appeared. Hmmmm.

Everyone is excited about their supposed imminent rescue… except Rantaro.

Rantaro: “It’s nothing… I figure no one would listen to some guy who can’t even remember his own talent, right?”

He’s probably considering whether or not he should share the information he has, but it’s not just a case of who he should trust with the information, but whether those people will trust him. And happening to be the only one who doesn’t remember his talent isn’t really helping his trustworthiness. (As I said, him having had the memory of his original talent erased was most likely intended as a handicap.) He’s probably afraid of coming across like the mastermind to anyone else who’s figured out there is one. Which, uh, ends up being exactly what happens.

Kaede: “But… is this really how this ends?”

Kaede, on the other hand, is less cautious about blurting out her worries that this isn’t over, even though she promised Shuichi not to tell anyone precisely why they think that.

And of course, it isn’t, and Monokuma shows up again.

Kaito: “H-He’s still alive?”

Kaito does not seem happy to find out that his “heroics” yesterday didn’t actually achieve anything at all. (There was definitely already a part of him that suspected this, but his stubborn optimism would have refused to let him acknowledge that possibility.)

Tsumugi: “Ah, geez… It’s such a low-level cosplay, I can’t bear to look.”

Okay but who’s betting Monokuma cosplaying the mascot of Yo-Kai Watch for this non-sequitur bit was Tsumugi’s idea.

Monokuma: “…then every student participating in this killing game will die!”

Aaaaand here we have an example of failed communication on the part of this game’s multiple localisers. This line here is actually supposed to say “every student forced to participate in this killing game will die”, since Shuichi brings that up later and uses it in his deductions. But it looks like two different people translated those two lines, and this one here didn’t get the memo that the phrasing was intended to imply something specific, and that it’d come up later. Oops.

Monokuma: “Mauled to shreds by countless Monokumas from the rumored Monokuma-making machine!”

This is very important and deliberate. The Monokubs follow it up by asking why they aren’t going to be doing the killing with their Exisals, since that’s supposed to be their job, and Monokuma brushes them off with some very handwavey banter without actually explaining why he doesn’t want them to do it. It’s because the point isn’t how the students are going to be killed (especially since he doesn’t even really want to kill them). The point is how certain students might try to go about stopping it. If the threat were the Exisals, there’d be no clear way to deal with that. But if the threat is the mastermind activating a Monokuma-making machine, then certain people who are aware of a certain hidden room that contains that machine can take action by stopping the mastermind from getting in there. And that’s exactly the trap that Monokuma is very deliberately leading Rantaro, Shuichi and Kaede into.

Rantaro’s Survivor’s Perk note specifically mentions that the mastermind will be vulnerable when Monokuma needs a spare, and that they’ll head to the hidden room at that time. And the note is just that – a note. There’s no proof that it was actually written by Rantaro’s past self like it claims to be. I don’t think it was. I think it was deliberately written by the mastermind as part of this trap. His Survivor’s Perk was never a perk – it was a handicap designed to get him killed off first.

Monokuma: “So unless you wanna end up as pink smears…”

This line is absolutely great, because of how delightfully subtly it hints at what’s really going on. How does Monokuma know the blood is pink? In-universe, it’s still red. No character in this story, not even Monokuma himself, should have any idea that the people on the other side of the fourth wall see the blood as pink. But it makes perfect sense given that this Monokuma knows about the original Danganronpas that were fiction in this universe, in which the blood appeared pink to the players. He’s making a little nod to that that he knows the in-universe audience (and of course also the out-universe one) will get.

I actually caught this line on my first time through and immediately thought it must be significant somehow, yet I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how Monokuma could actually know that. Yet by the end of the story, it made perfect sense! I love it.

Monokuma: “Geez, why’d you guys even come to this school if you’re not gonna do the killing game?”

And here’s Monokuma implying that everyone came here specifically because they wanted to do the killing game.

Kaito: “Y-You bastard!”

This is a very similar reaction to what Kaito had yesterday, and he seems just as angry – if not more so, because this motive is far worse than the previous one. But this time, he’s not going to be so reckless as to almost get himself killed again. He’s learned.

Kaito: “W-We can’t panic about something like this. I’ll… do something about it.”

Keebo: “…Did you have a course of action in mind?”

Kaito: “I’m… gonna start thinking of one right now!”

Oh, Kaito. Of course he can’t just lie down and accept the fact that they’re all going to die! Of course he would want to take action and do something about it rather than just giving up!

And yeah, of course he hasn’t actually thought of anything yet – it’s only been like a minute, geez – but that doesn’t change how strong his intent to do so is, strong enough that he wants to let everyone know. He’s aware that people are liable to panic and is trying in his own way to calm everyone (including himself) down by asserting that he’s not giving up.

Maki: “…Figures. I didn’t expect anything from you in the first place.”

Hee, Maki making jabs at Kaito. She’s definitely the kind of person who prefers people to think before they speak and only make statements after they’re able to back them up, not before.

Gonta: “W-We gotta fight back, then!”

Tenko: “Y-Yeah! If we strike them with some sneak attacks, we might have a chance at winning!”

Naturally it’s these two who are the first to suggest straight-up fighting Monokuma, in keeping with how they end up being some of the participants at Kaito’s eventual strategy meeting and, along with Kaito, the people who try and physically protect Kaede from being executed. It’s interesting that Kaito isn’t also immediately suggesting they fight, too – it seems he was maybe hoping he’d come up with something a bit more clever and less straightforward than that, but then didn’t and fell back on his strategy meeting at the end because he was desperate to do something. (And, you know, having had his brush with death just yesterday, he’s more viscerally aware of how incredibly dangerous fighting back is than the others are.)

Kokichi switches from appearing to be scared and desperate to being flippant and unbothered about the whole thing in a heartbeat. He does this kind of thing quite a lot, and I feel like this is one of his defence mechanisms – he is genuinely scared to some degree, but he makes it seem like the part where he was scared was the lie, often overexaggerating it to make it seem even less believable, to lie to everyone but mostly to himself that he’s totally having fun with this.

Honestly I find that part of Kokichi pretty compelling in principle, and I’d be inclined to really like him for it if he wasn’t still also a gigantic unnecessary dick most of the time.

Kokichi: “Maybe I’ll go back to my room and just think things over. Alone.”

Miu: “A-Alone in your room? What do you mean by that? Are you invitin’ me to come kill you?”

Interesting that Kokichi would say something that gives off that impression – kind of in line with what I discussed earlier, it might be that he actually feels safer by being really up-front about the possibility that someone could come and kill him, since someone might do that anyway whether he tells them he’s an easy target or not and he’d rather at least be expecting it.

Also, here’s Miu again seeming tempted by the idea of killing someone, given that she’s one of the weakest and most self-absorbed people here. (But I mean that in a good way, in that this is actually her being an interesting character unlike how she is most of the time.)

Rantaro: “So what else is part of his plan? Is my memory part of it too? If it is, then… can I even trust myself?”

No, Rantaro, you can’t. Because that message from “yourself” was not from yourself and very much is a part of Monokuma’s plan.

Rantaro: “Does the term Ultimate Hunt ring a bell for anyone?”

On a first time through, this line implies that Rantaro remembers the Ultimate Hunt that everyone else has currently forgotten. But the thing is, he actually doesn’t. He’s only mentioning it because his Survivor’s Perk said, as a supposed sign of its credibility, that that would be the first thing they all remember. (Not that it’s clear how that’s meant to prove the credibility of the supposed past-Rantaro’s words, though, since how would past-Rantaro necessarily know what order they’d remember things in?) It seems Rantaro is a little unclear on how exactly the remembering will work – no-one’s seen a Flashback Light yet – and maybe he thinks everyone else has already remembered it and is trying to confirm that here.

But of course no-one remembers it and he only ends up making himself look more suspicious. He really must be horribly confused and stressed out.

Kirumi: “People cannot kill others so easily… Especially when they harbor no malice. Even when one’s life is in danger, it is quite difficult to follow through on the act itself.”

This is so meaningful coming from Kirumi. Even when she becomes determined to commit murder herself in order to save everyone outside, she still can’t bring herself to do it unless her target is the only person here who has no reason to live.

Kaito: “I’ll… do something about this. I just dunno what yet… But I’ll definitely do something about it!”

Kaede: (We don’t have a plan either… And I wanna trust him, but he doesn’t seem too reliable…)

Heh. Give him a chance, Kaede. He’s trying his best and refusing to give up, just like you are.

Tenko: “To be honest, I’m not too great at thinking… But I’ll twist my brain into knots for your sake!”

Tenko is pretty similar to Kaito in terms of her determination to take action versus her ability to think up decent plans… except that she’s actually willing to be honest about her lack of planning ability.

Kaito notices Kaede and Shuichi whispering about heading to the library and asks them what it’s about, but then…

Kaede: “S-Sorry… All I can say is… I haven’t given up. I’ll show you guys that we can escape from this place. You can count on it!”

Kaito: “I see… Well, if that’s how it is, then I’ll believe in you.”

…he believes in them! He trusts that whatever they’re whispering about isn’t malicious and they have a good reason for not being able to tell anyone else. (And that their plan is probably going to be better than whatever he’ll manage to come up with, not that he’d actually admit that part.)

Kaede: (It’s not like me to give up anyway… I’ve always believed that my wishes can come true if I just work hard enough!)

Kaede is so determined and so good.

Kaito: “I’ll believe in that heart of yours that never gives up, alright?”

And so is Kaito! He has so much respect and admiration for Kaede, because to him the ability to never give up is one of the most important qualities a person can have, and he’s seen that Kaede has it in spades.

If you talk to everyone else left in the dining room again after Kaede has announced that she hasn’t given up, several of them say something equally uplifting and encouraging – Kirumi and Gonta are happy to help with the plan if needed, and Keebo says he’s going to keep thinking of another plan himself just in case.

So the dust is gone from the card reader behind the moving bookcase, and from this and the mention of the Monokuma-making machine, Shuichi deduces that said machine is in the hidden room and the mastermind used it last night. This is the other half of the mastermind’s trap. Because, given the passageway in the bathroom, Tsumugi should never need to use the door with the card reader at all. And thanks to the Nanokumas, she knows that Shuichi put dust in the card reader and would be using it as a sign of someone entering the room. So she entered the room using the library door deliberately this time to make Shuichi come to this conclusion.

All this because this game’s surveillance cameras aren’t visible, so Shuichi assumed the mastermind wouldn’t know about his dust trap and would blindly walk into it like this.

Monokuma: “…then every student forced to participate in this killing game will die!”

And here’s where the correct version of this line comes up. Shuichi uses it to back up his deduction that there’s a mastermind, but really there’s more to it than that. Technically, except for maybe Keebo (though you could claim that Keebo counts as the audience, and the audience is definitely participating willingly), no-one was forced to participate, at least if you make the argument that they’re the same people as their pregame selves who signed up for this (even though they’re not, really). So by saying that, Monokuma is leaving himself a loophole where he doesn’t have to kill anybody when the time limit is up. But even so, he really doesn’t want it to reach that point if he can avoid it, because he doesn’t want to have to reveal the fact – or at least, cause Shuichi to deduce the fact – that everyone involved signed up for this once upon a time.

Kaede: (I can’t believe the person responsible for our suffering could be among us… It’s hard to accept, but if it’s true… I can’t forgive them…)

Whoa, Kaede, careful with where that train of thought might lead, there.

And then Shuichi falls right into the mastermind’s trap by assuming that they’ll come to the hidden room to make more Monokumas just before time is up and deciding to try and catch them in the act.

Shuichi: “Ah, but… Kaede, this is just *my* deduction, it’s possible that I’m wrong…”

Putting aside the fact that he actually is wrong, because that’s not remotely easy to figure out with only the information he has, aww look at Shuichi having so little faith in himself. He just went out of his way to share his deduction with Kaede, and now he’s acting like he expects her to dismiss everything he just said. The fact that he told her means he clearly wants her support with it, but he still doesn’t have the confidence to stand behind his words and ask for her help.

Kaede: “You told me about this, so that must mean you trust me, right, Shuichi?”

Exactly, Shuichi! Kaede knows what’s up.

Shuichi: “Thank you, Kaede. You… have a way of encouraging me.”

She has a way of encouraging everyone, Shuichi. But also I think it does work particularly well on Shuichi because he’s someone who’s so lacking in confidence and in need of encouragement in the first place.

Kaede: “And when this is all behind us, we’re gonna stay good friends! That’s a promise, okay!?”

Aww, Kaede. She’s adorable.

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