#thinking about how him bothering shuichi and maki into training was actually a really good move

[neodiekido]

kaitos diabolical machiavellianist scheme to stop his classmates from hating themselves

[its-nebula]

V3 Boys x Pregnant S/O in the Killing Game

Warning: DRV3 Spoilers

“S/O is what?!”

He panics and freaks out.

Calms down as soon as you tell him that you’ll get through it with him. It’s just all the more reason to survive.

“But Gonta… no can put child in this hell!”

He has a fire in his eyes that you honestly wouldn’t expect from him. You have to try your hardest to convince him not to fight Monokuma, out of fear of him being punished.

“Gonta will try to survive…for Gonta and S/O’s kid.”

He carries you everywhere from now on, not wanting you to strain yourself. If you ask, he puts you down, but will hold you and keep you close by.

During Class Trials, he immediately shuts any suspicion down.

“S/O can’t be culprit! Was with Gonta!”

You tell him to be wary of Kokichi, as you think Kokichi doesn’t have good intentions with your boyfriend. He just gives you a smile.

“Kokichi wants to end killing game just as much as Gonta!”

When all of you go in the simulation, Gonta makes sure you’re okay and that the baby’s okay. You don’t exactly look pregnant in the simulation, but he still makes sure. After that, he goes off to watch Kokichi, and you’re left to explore on your own.

To make a long story short, when Miu was killed, you noticed Kokichi giving you the side-eye, but didn’t say anything to him. You could tell he knew something that you didn’t.

During the Class Trial, the “Killing Game Busters” were revealed. You didn’t want to believe it was Gonta. You really didn’t. He would never hurt someone like that without a purpose…

“S/O, take care of Gonta’s baby. Gonta will be watching over you and baby!”

You sobbed as you watched his execution. The father of your child was burned alive, and he was never coming back.

Instantly, you unleashed all your rage onto Kokichi and his crocodile tears. Several people had to pull you off of him, claiming that the stress wouldn’t be good for the baby.

Besides, you could hit Kokichi with all the punches in the world, but nothing would bring him back…

 Laughs when you tell him about it.

Laughs the second time you tell him about it.

“It is even funnier the second time!”

Doesn’t laugh the third time.

“Wait a minute. You can’t be serious-?!”

Hope you valued your alone time while it lasted, because that is now a thing of the past!

MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!

Lets everyone know that they’re not even allowed near you. He keeps you in his room at all times, you barely even get to sleep in your own bed anymore.

He only really lets you out during Class Trials, and even then he convinces Monokuma to put his podium next to yours.

Constantly talks about how happy he is that he’s going to be a father, to the point everybody knows. Even the Monokubs are a little bit annoyed.  So much for keeping it a secret.

“Hmm, nope! It can’t be me, sorry! I was too busy spending time with my child and my girlfriend~”

His logic is that since you’re pregnant, maybe nobody would kill you because they would feel too bad, so he doesn’t really mind screaming it to the world.

The longer the game goes on, though, the more fucked up things he feels compelled to do, in his efforts to try and stop the killing game.

You practically scream at him when he pretends to be dead.

“Aw, don’t worry your pretty little head! I’m alright, aren’t I?”

Maki keeps sending her threats for him to you.

“If you want to raise the child with a stable 2-Parent family, I suggest you calm your boyfriend down.”

During the fifth trial, things are very tense. Either way, your boyfriend was either dead or going to die. You knew it was all a part of his scheme, but you still thought this was a step too far.

When Kaito was revealed in the Exisal, you bawled your eyes out.

Even as Shuichi explained Kokichi’s thought process, it made nothing better.

You didn’t even get to say goodbye…

And your child would never meet his father.

Wait, you’re what?

Oh no.

In a killing game?!

Oh no.

And he’s the father???

Oh NO.

You’re surprised that he doesn’t faint, by the way he’s acting.

“S/O, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, really!”

You tell him that it’s okay, because you know he’ll make a great parent. You’ve made him a little more confident, but not by a lot.

“We should probably keep this a secret for now. You can never really be too careful in these circumstances.”

Everyone can tell something’s off with him, because he gets really bad Couvade syndrome.

He still tries to help you as much as he can. If you’re craving something he brings you it almost immediately.

If your stomach moves even a tiny bit, he assumes the baby is coming even though he knows better. You have to tell him that it’s only a kick and he needs to take it down a couple of notches.

“Heh…sorry.”

His anxiety is through the ROOF.

Still tries to work on it. He’s got to be strong for you.

Trains with Kaito to help him become stronger, and brings you along with him.

“Hey Shuichi, don’t you think S/O might want to train with us?”

“It’s okay Kaito, S/O gets really sleepy during this time.”

Tries his hardest during class trials. He can’t afford to take shit from anybody and risk getting you killed. Hits the killers with the hard facts and evidence.

Investigates with you by his side.

“Now the baby can see his father in action!”

At the 6th Trial, he reveals your pregnancy, even though Tsumugi already knew.

Nobody else did. How? Guess they weren’t paying attention to your ever-increasing stomach.

When everyone ducks under rocks, Shuichi shields you with his body for extra protection. After the two of you make it out alive, along with Maki and Himiko, the 4 of you go off to start a new life together.

“WHAAAATTTT?!”

Thinks you cheated on him.

He’s very hurt.

You spend almost an hour convincing him that he’s the only one you’ve ever been with. He still doesn’t really believe it, but there’s only one thing to do.

The two of you consult Miu to figure out what in the hell is going on.

“Miu! I never wanted to actually have sperm and be able to create life! Now our child is going to be born in such horrible conditions!”

“Well, be more fuckin’ clear next time, and wrap it up when you get your dick wet, why don’t you?!”

Looks on the bright side.

He was able to get you pregnant, something no other robot was able to do before! That’s a complete win!

You’re still stuck in this school, though, and this was no place to raise a child.

“Robots aren’t allowed to hurt humans, and I can’t risk you killing someone and losing the trial…”

He helps you the best that he can. He gives you any medicine that he can find, and he lets you use him as a heating pad.

Scans daily to see your state of health. Sometimes more than necessary…

“I just did this scan 5 minutes ago? Oh, I hadn’t noticed…”

Takes pictures of your stomach every day to monitor your growth.

Kokichi always makes fun of the two of you.

“Well, I guess that answers my question! Robots do have dicks! Hey S/O, was it all cold and metallic?”

“…that’s not funny.”

When it was revealed during the 6th Trial about Danganronpa, he was conflicted.

The voices in his head– the audience– told him all different things. He was tired, he just wanted to be free. He didn’t want your child to grow up in a world like this.

“S/O, if this continues, and the kid we created joins a future season, I’d never forgive myself. It’s time to end this. Please, when you see them, let them know their father loves them so.”

He sacrificed himself by blowing up the school. As he saw his friends and his significant other huddled beneath a rock, he grinned, knowing they were going to be okay.

Scoffs.

“Well, that’s just my luck that I would cause you to have to bring a new life into this horrible world.”

He’s honestly pretty upset over the whole thing for at least a couple days.

But then he realizes it; he can raise them to be better than he ever was or had a chance at being. He can teach them to do better.

This makes him happy, and he apologizes for being so stand-offish.

“Looks like… we’ve still got a ways to go.”

When the two of you lay down together, he always lays down in a way that his ear is directly pressed against you stomach.

He talks to the child a lot.

“Don’t worry, little one. We’ll get you and everyone else out of here and to safety. I love you so much.”

Truth be told, he’s a little scared that he’s a  threat to the kid. After what happened in his past, what happened to his family, what happened to his lover…

You tell him to try to not think about it, and you know that he’s learned from the past.

The two of you only tell a couple people that you trust; namely, Shuichi and Kirumi. They’re both really happy for you!

Kirumi helps out a lot by getting you whatever you need for the day. She doesn’t get at all bothered by your morning sickness, and even offers to clean.

After the motive videos come out, Ryoma watches his and though he’s a little hurt, it doesn’t stop his determination to leave.

While she’s cleaning Ryoma’s room, Ryoma confides in her for advice.

“I feel like…I won’t be enough for our kid. Look at me now, I’m nothing more than an empty shell. I just… want to be enough for our family.”

SLAM!

Ryoma fell to the ground with a light thud, and that was the last anybody ever heard from him.

Crying out as you saw the piranhas tear away his flesh, you fainted on the spot.

You didn’t even have time to investigate, because the Class Trial had started.

You appreciated how seriously Kirumi was taking this trial. She kept making glances at you, but you assumed it was because she felt bad that your child would have to be without a father.

Until…

No, it couldn’t be. She’d gained your trust, only to betray you in the end? What kind of sick joke was this?!

As she was executed, you looked down at your stomach, rubbing it.

“Looks like we’ve still got a ways to go, kid…”

Wildly switching between happy, sad, and terrified.

On the one hand, he’s happy to be a father to your child. You were the love of his life, and he wanted to do his part and take care of the kid.

On the other hand, when you tell him the news, he paces back and forth, trying to find a way to get you to be as safe as possible. He already survived one killing game, how hard could it be to let the two of you be the last survivors again?

He asked Monokuma to see if you could have the easy way out.

“Monokuma, I know you probably want me to still participate, but my girlfriend, she’s pregnant now, so can you please just-”

“Puhuhuhu~! All applications made are final, buddy! It looks like we may just have another member in a short 9 months! Well, the more the merrier!”

Shit.

After that “lovely” conversation, Rantaro was more determined than ever to find a way out of the game.

He’d already lost his sisters, and he wouldn’t dream of losing you and the child too.

When the countdown motive for the first murder is introduced, he parts with you for just a few minutes, to record the videos that you and your other classmates would later find. He wanders in the library in order to do something, but he’s distracted when a shot put ball falls behind him. As he goes to pick it up, he’s struck in the back of the head.

Finding his body, you wanted to throw up, and not from morning sickness. 

Nobody knew of your pregnancy yet, so nobody really knew how deep into despair you’d fallen.

Though, they still felt sorry for you, because it was obvious the two of you were together.

You didn’t feel right being angry at Kaede when she was revealed as the culprit, especially as she showed deep remorse.

“I didn’t mean it, S/O. I’m so sorry…”

Tears pricked your eyes as she was snatched back by the chains.

You forgive her.

Over the moon at first.

Yes, that’s a pun. Shut up, I know it’s bad.

This man is DANCING while he’s celebrating.

“WOO! I”M GONNA BE A FATHER!”

He’s loud enough that everyone knows within 10 minutes of you telling him.

Well.

When he has some alone time, he frowns to himself. He’s sick, What if he doesn’t live long enough to see their smiling face for the first time? Hear their first laugh?

These invasive thoughts clouded his mind, as he started to cough up blood.

“D-Damn it…”

Kaito decided not to tell you, not just because he’s an idiot, but he doesn’t want you to stress and possibly cause damage to the child.

He talks to your stomach everyday.

“What’s up, my little star!”

He’s extremely proud and isn’t afraid to show you off.

The more ill he gets, the more hope he has that you’ll be just fine. You have to be!

After he’s locked in the bathroom, he tries to find a way out. Any way out, he needed to make sure you were safe. Kokichi couldn’t keep him locked up forever! 

When he and Kokichi make their deal, he does it in your interest.

“If Monokuma can’t solve the murder, I’ll finally get to walk out of here and start my family! Right?!”

But their plan failed. As you watched his execution, you screamed, pounding on the screen, begging Monokuma to let him go, please. You’d do anything! Soon, his coughing got worse, and he was soon on the ground, pink all around him. He’d died of his own accord.

You smiled happily at the bittersweet moment. He died of his own accord, no longer a part of Monokuma’s twisted game.

You knew he was above, watching you from the stars.

“Did you say you’re pregnant…? My, what an interesting turn of events!”

Did this man just say it was interesting?

You told him that this was serious, and that you needed to find a way out of here now.

“Keheehee... you don’t really think I’d let anything happen to you, do you? It’s clear Monokuma won’t let us go, even under these circumstances. Besides, I have my own kin developing inside your body, you need extra attention now!”

He will literally give you a tsunami of compliments everyday about how your body seems to be handling the pregnancy.

“S/O, your body is just so radiant today!”

Tells you stories about motherhood in other cultures.

Knows the best herbal remedies to calm symptoms such as headaches or nausea.

Nervous that you keep having to go to the bathroom, guides you there and back.

You really don’t know why he completely lost his shit by killing Angie and Tenko.

You convinced yourself that it was because of the oppressive student council, but why Tenko?

As he revealed his true self, you were horrified. He...was a serial killer?

The Korekiyo you came to love was a serial killer?

You were thrown into despair as you came to terms with his true colors. Nothing made sense anymore. Not only was your boyfriend and father of your first-born child dead, but he’d been batshit insane this entire time?

Maybe the next time you see red rope and hear a promise of “pleasure like you’ve never experienced”, you’ll politely decline.

[momota-kaiharem]

i wish we as a fandom talked more about kaito’s flaws. i don’t mean like, the supposed homophobia or the toxic masculinity-- well, maybe sort of the toxic masculinity? but what i mean is the deep insecurities he has that come out in chapter four, when everyone is calling him an idiot and boosting shuichi.

i talked about it a little in my last analysis-y post but i think that kaito has very low self esteem, despite how he presents himself. if you do kaito’s ftes a lot of what he tells you about himself are complete lies-- just, children’s stories of adventures that almost definitely never happened. kaito’s self image is largely built on lies about himself, being a hero, helping people who went on to do amazing things, conquering parts of the earth and the sea. which in itself isn’t too worrying, it just shows that he’s a bit childish, but if you consider the way that he reacts when he’s put down, with anger and indignation and then eventually really genuine upset, i think it really seems like kaito doesn’t have a lot going for him in that department.

as much as it sucks that kaito doesn’t seem to think very much of himself, this comes in as one of (if not the largest) his largest flaws. as i mentioned in my training trio analysis, part of the way kaito snaps at shuichi is due to the fact that shuichi never stood up for him in chapter four. but a lot of it also stems from kaito’s own insecurities, and the fact that in that context, shuichi has a lot more practical use to the group. i mean, of course he does. he’s a detective. how is an astronaut supposed to be more useful than a detective during an investigation? but kaito isn’t coping with it well, and it shows during the investigation how much kokichi’s shit is wearing on him, and how much the constant praise of shuichi (and constant putting down of kaito) is upsetting him. there’s even a scene where tsumugi and someone else(?) tell kaito he was sort of useless and kaito asks shuichi to say something in his defense. :(

it shows during the trial, too. shuichi starts explaining a concept and kaito interrupts him, without letting him finish, explaining why his theory is impossible. it just straight up isn’t true, and kaito’s objection only comes up because he didn’t let shuichi finish. the dude was about to explain. it’s really fucking embarrassing actually kaito stop

i think that kaito’s sort of fall from grace in chapter four comes less from his upset at what happened with gonta. i mean, obviously he’d be upset about gonta, but if anything i think he would ordinarily blame kokichi for that more than he’d blame shuichi, given that shuichi was just the messenger. just doing what he had to. they all would’ve died if he hadn’t pulled the plug, and kaito knows that. eventually you have to stop spouting idiotic speeches and face the truth, and kaito was able to face the reality of kaede being the culprit, so again!!! i don’t think it was entirely about gonta.

no, i think kaito was upset because it was everything. it was because shuichi was right over and over, and he was wrong, and he was useless, and shuichi booted him from the simulation without asking because he was that useless during the investigation, and kokichi called him an idiot over and over again during the investigation and trial, and shuichi didn’t stick up for him, and then when kokichi pulled up this theory that kaito hated, shuichi sided with him, AGAINST kaito, and didn’t bother telling kokichi to lay off of kaito. and when kokichi punched kaito in the gut and kaito fell over coughing, where was shuichi? not by his side. he decided to get in this Epique Combacke(tm) instead of being there helping kaito to his feet. then he suddenly decides he wants to support kaito now, after letting everyone take the piss out of him all this time? nah nah nah nah nah.

the chapter five conflict isn’t shuichi’s fault, i want to be clear. a big chunk of it is just kaito punishing shuichi for being smarter than him, for circumstances that were out of control, and in chapter five when they speak through the bathroom window, kaito acknowledges this, saying that he was jealous and out of line and it wasn’t shuichi’s fault. but shuichi could’ve done a lot to prevent what happened, had he once made it clear how valuable kaito’s help is to him, or even told kokichi to fuck off when he was continuously calling kaito a moron, maybe things would’ve gone differently. i don’t know.

i realise this was supposed to me talking about kaito’s flaws but i ended up ragging on shuichi again shuichi my main man i’m so sorry (head in hands) i’m a kinnnie and it shows.

one other thing i want to say, which isn’t really going to help in the area of no longer taking the piss out of shuichi, is that i think it took a lot of maturity for kaito to like... acknowledge what he did wrong and apologise. obviously, when you do things wrong (which kaito did, by putting shuichi through the wringer over things that were out of his control) you’re supposed to apologise, but nobody talked to kaito. nobody told him what he did wrong. maki and everyone else sort of just looked at kaito and shuichi and went “yikes that’s awkward” and decided to let them work things out on their own. but after kaito went in the hangar he probably had a lot of time to think, or maybe just time to get the fuck over himself, and he owned up to what he did to shuichi, and apologised for it. it was a good apology, too!!! kaito my beloved.

i’m a bit disappointed by that part of the game, just because i wish that kaito’s fall from grace had been completed? i mean, kaito exposed a Huge flaw there, you’d think that shuichi would take off the rose tinted glasses and go “oh, he’s not perfect” but he,, didn’t, really? i mean, kaito dies, and then shuichi and maki just carry on idolising him like before. i don’t know that i’d hold this against shuichi though so much as i would the writing of the game. it’s just so dissatisfying. you’re gonna give me this sexy flaw moment with kaito and then no payoff??? dude.

anyway. i’m. going to make a shuichi appreciation post after this. i can’t have my six followers thinking i’m a shuichi hater. love that twink. but yeah talk about character flaws they are so cool okay see you later

[elyvorg]

So… I was talking about aspec V3 headcanons? Well then, let me lay down the facts.

Maki Harukawa is on the aromantic spectrum. Yes, even though she explicitly develops a crush on Kaito, and no, I’m not trying to dispute that part.

This is basically canon. Let me tell you why.

Maki is aro

For this, we need to consider the conversation Maki has with Shuichi in the first training session in chapter 4, while Kaito has temporarily disappeared to the bathroom. On one level, this conversation exists to be the only actual meaningful indication* that Maki has romantic feelings for Kaito until she goes and confesses them. Someone like Maki wouldn’t care about asking Shuichi if he “liked” Kaede (in that annoying loaded meaning of the word “like” that specifically refers to romantic attraction) unless she was trying to come to terms with the idea that she also “likes” someone else in the same way, and the only plausible candidate for that is Kaito.

But even more striking about this conversation, far more so than the general implication that Maki would only bother asking this if she happened to be crushing on a certain spiky-haired space dork, is the way Maki approaches and thinks about this whole topic in general. Take a look:

Maki:  “Well… I assumed you didn’t, because that would be weird. […] Liking someone you just met… especially in a situation like this…”

Shuichi:  “… Then tell me… under what circumstances is liking someone *not* weird?”

Maki:  “…Huh? I… don’t know. I don’t… really understand what that is.”

I, as an aromantic person myself, fully agree with Maki that it just seems weird to start romantically liking someone you’ve only just met, especially in a life-or-death situation where surely there’s way more important things to be focusing on. But apparently, most people do not find this thought weird at all – love at first sight is supposedly a real thing that can happen, and something something dangerous situations can bring out more hormones and passion???? sounds fake but okay – and so opinions like mine and Maki’s here are very much outliers.

And not only that, not only does the thought of crushing on near-strangers bewilder Maki to the point of disbelief, but she also can’t even come up with an answer to when crushing on someone would ever not be strange and bizarre. Like the whole concept is just alien to her. She can barely even wrap her head around how “liking” someone in that way even works. The very reason she’s even asking Shuichi about this is because she doesn’t understand why she’s feeling this way about Kaito.

This is how an aromantic person would view this kind of thing. It doesn’t sound even slightly like something an alloromantic person would say in this situation. That’s not up for interpretation – that’s just the truth about these views that Maki is expressing. Again: I’m aromantic. I would know.

Even from a character who then does turn out to nonetheless have a crush on someone, these statements are pretty much as canonically confirmed arospec as you can get short of them straight up using the word "aromantic" or a variant.** And, well, obviously Maki isn't about to go calling herself that. From the way she’s questioning this, she clearly doesn’t realise that her perspective is the outlier, so she’s probably never even heard of the term. Besides, she most definitely has way bigger hurdles to be getting over first in terms of her self-acceptance before she's ever going to particularly care about figuring out labels for her orientation of all things.

Aros with trauma are still aros

Now, granted, I severely doubt that Maki being arospec is what the writers intended to convey. Haha, deliberate aro representation in mainstream Japanese media, especially something more complex than vanilla aro, that's a funny joke. What the writers probably meant by writing this conversation I just discussed is to suggest that Maki is viewing things this way a result of her trauma.

But hey, guess what? Even if it is because of her trauma - and I'm not denying that it probably is - that doesn't make Maki any less aro. Some people are arospec because of trauma, and that's equally as valid a reason to be arospec as without. Maybe Maki would have grown up alloromantic if she hadn't been scouted as an assassin, but that's irrelevant, because that's not the Maki who exists now.

In writing this conversation, the writers were presumably attempting to communicate that Maki is so messed up by having been manipulated and abused and moulded into a soulless killing machine that she can no longer comprehend the idea of how or why anybody (especially not herself) would fall in love with someone when they'd only just met, or even really in any circumstances at all. …And in doing that, the writers unintentionally wrote a character who, as a result of her trauma, is aro(-spec). This is an objective fact about the canon story that does not change just because the writers probably weren’t aware enough about aromanticism to actually realise this.

Aros who feel romantic attraction are still aros

So, of course, Maki does in fact come to romantically love Kaito despite this. That fact becomes very important to her, and me lengthily explaining here that she’s actually arospec is not remotely trying to diminish that. But it’s also very important to me that people realise that Maki’s romantic love for Kaito comes from an aromantic perspective. She eventually chooses to embrace those feelings not remotely because it just feels to her like the natural way things should go, but despite every single conscious part of her insisting that this is weird and illogical and doesn’t make any goddamn sense to even be happening at all. She is not going to suddenly fall into all the boring romantic cliches and stereotypical alloromantic approaches to love just because she does in fact happen to be experiencing romantic attraction. There’s nothing alloromantic about Maki’s crush on Kaito.***

As for the specific flavour of arospec that allowed Maki to fall in love with Kaito anyway? This part is somewhat more up for interpretation because there’s no real explicit indication of this in particular, but I personally like to go with the idea that Maki is demiromantic. It feels appropriate for Maki’s character and trauma to imagine that she can only begin to potentially feel romantic things towards a person when she has an emotional connection with them – when she trusts them and knows that they trust her. It doesn’t necessarily have to take very long – she’d only been friends with Kaito for a handful of days before that telling conversation with Shuichi – and she may not even have to have consciously admitted to herself that she trusts them, but she needs to have that bond. She’s normally so guarded and has such strong automatic barriers up during her interpersonal interactions that seeing most people in a romantic light literally isn’t even an option in her brain.

Maki’s confession of her feelings for Kaito does read as rather strongly demiromantic, I think. She makes a point that this is about who Kaito is and what he’s done for her, before even getting to the part where she admits to having fallen for him. And she says she “fell for” him, not that she was always in love with him or anything to that effect. This happened somewhere along the way during their friendship, because of their friendship, and because of Kaito being his incredible trusting supportive self towards her when she needed it most.

Maki Harukawa is demiromantic, and she’s wonderful.

  ---

[some grumpy Amatonormativity and Aro Erasure 101 footnotes, can you tell I am bitter about this kind of thing]

(* When I say “actual meaningful indication” of romantic feelings, I mean something that isn't just the narrative infuriatingly pointing at things that are actually perfectly platonic in nature and going “ooh look how romantic~!”. Newsflash: worrying about somebody and wanting to rescue them when they're sick and injured and have been kidnapped by someone you think is an evil sadistic mastermind is not somehow proof of romantic feelings. That is a thing that friends do. And on the same note, teaching somebody how to build a crossbow is not some kind of deep metaphor for romance; it is literally just a lesson in how to build a goddamn crossbow. Maki would have done both of these things in exactly the same way if her crush on Kaito didn’t exist.)

(** It's exactly like how characters can be considered canonically confirmed same-gender-attracted when all they've done is show attraction to the same gender****, without them actually needing to explicitly refer to themselves with the word “gay”, or “lesbian”, or “bi” or whatever else. Anyone who tried to insist that was necessary in order for it to “count” would instantly be written off as homophobic. So if that’s the case, then a character explicitly saying something such as “I don’t understand what it means to like someone that way” equally constitutes them being confirmed aro, and trying to argue that it doesn’t “count” without outright hearing the word itself is, guess what…?)

(*** This also inherently means that there’s nothing straight about Maki’s crush on Kaito either, since societally-expected “straight” attraction is allo as well as hetero. I gather that some people in this fandom like to devalue and erase Maki’s crush (and potentially also Maki herself) because they feel that it’s an Obligatory Forced Straight Romance and don’t like that, or something along those lines. Well, good news! It’s literally not that, actually, because Maki isn’t straight.)

(**** …This only applies so long as it actually is very clearly romantic or sexual attraction and not just people deciding platonic affection is totally romantic thanks to the disease that is amatonormativity. Because, you know. That happens. Literally all the time. (Even from V3’s narrative itself; see footnote 1.))

[truth-and-lies-drv3-imagines]

Hey! Can I request Rantaro, Kokichi, and Shuichi with a female S/o that is wearing their clothes and pretending to be them but then the boys walk in on her? I hope this makes sense. Thank you!

Gotcha, that makes perfect sense! they are very drippy, good choice lol

-mod Hajime

Rantaro-

Rantaro was incredibly smart, yes. But a complete scatterbrain at the same time. He always lost things due to the fact that he would leave them lying around. You being his kind beloved, you always brought back the misplaced item if you found it.  

You had spent half the day with him at the pool the day before and Kirumi had let you know she found his shirt and a couple of his rings there after her routine sweeps. 

You thought about bringing it straight back to him but something inclined you to slip on his shirt and rings right where you stood. Kirumi gave you a confused look and you naturally struck one of Rantaro’s poses where he held his arms out menacingly. 

Getting the typically stoic Kirumi to let out a sniffle of a laugh made you feel pretty good about yourself so you kept going. Kirumi politely excused herself all of a sudden and you wondered what you did wrong, opening your mouth to ask but only a gasp escaped you as you felt arms wrap around your waist. 

“I see you found my shirt.” Ah, there it was, that deep, sultry voice you lived for. “We need to work on your survival skills, someone could’ve easily snuck up on you like I did just now with intent to kill.”

You rolled your eyes, turning your head to see Rantaro smiling back at you,“and you need to stop losing things.”

He chuckled at the retort, “I think next time I’ll lose my whole outfit just to see you in it.”

Kokichi-

The night before, you’d gotten into a heated argument, ending with both of you yelling “maybe you should walk a day in my shoes, huh?!” Maybe you shouldn’t have said that because now you were staring at your closet in awe with all your outfits gone and a row of Kokichi’s outfits hung up in their place.

And it was just your luck that you’d already taken a shower and thrown your clothes in the hamper. Annoyed and still slightly irked with yesterday’s bickering with the boy, you put on the clothes, turning side to side to admire the fit for a second.

“Little bastard,” you scoffed, pressing a finger to your mouth mockingly and forcing a taunting smile and adding a higher pitch to your usual tone, “I’m the Ultimate Supreme leader, come join me, blah blah blah blah, blah-”

Too preoccupied with mocking him, you failed to notice Kokichi walk through the door (as he did regularly without permission because as your certified boyfriend, he reserved the right to break into your room whenever he wanted) and hear your entire imitation monologue. 

He caught your attention when he gagged loudly, “do you really think I sound like that?”

You turned around to make a snarky remark but he caught you off guard with him wearing your clothes, and confidently at that. “I know, I know. I can pull just about anything off. You on the other hand...” he eyed you up and down and you couldn't help the flustered and irritated blush that rose on your cheeks.

“I’m still mad at you.”

Kokichi frowned, walking closer to you “I was just kidding! Here, let me retie that scarf, you did it all wrong.”

Still feeling rather hot seeing him in your clothes, you let him slowly unwrap his checkered scarf and tie it back, his fingers grazing the back of your neck a few times and in that momentarily silence, you forgot about your stupid little squabble. 

He patted your head when he was done, dusting off his hands as if he’d done something laborious, “now it’s time to show everyone how absolutely adorable we look.”

You were planning on avoiding people until he gave your clothes back so that you wouldn’t have to deal with the teasing and that did end up happening but hey, at least Tsumugi liked it. 

Shuichi-

When you two weren’t sleeping or using the restroom, you were together. So it made sense that you were in Saihara’s room during nighttime just before his nightly training session with Kaito and Maki (to which you refused to go to because there was now way you were going to do 300 pushups). 

With Saihara gone and you bored out of your mind, you explored his room until a funky idea hit you. In the excitement of it all, you didn’t bother to lock the door, it’s not like anything dangerous ever happened at the Academy for Gifted Juveniles right? 

Maybe it was because he carried himself like a dork but when you saw it on yourself, you finally appreciated how fashionable his outfit actually was. You grabbed his old hat just to add the cherry on top and smiled to yourself contently before changing your demeanor to imitate Saihara’s.

You looked silly, walking around the room and making animated (and accurate, dare I say) impressions of Saihara in different situations. 

You froze immediately upon hearing the click of the door. For some reason, the first thought you had was I’m gonna get murdered in Saihara’s clothes!

But lo and behold, it was just Saihara, and somehow that made it worse?

He was so awkward about it, he stood there for a full two minutes just staring at you wide eyed, breathing heavily from the intense workout. “U-uh...”

You were about to explain yourself when he quickly sped to his bathroom, mumbling under his breath something along the lines of, “you can keep it.”

[dangan-meme-palace]

Rewatching a let's play of V3 and post-5th trial, Shuichi apologizes to Maki for what happened to Kaito, and basically says it's like back then with Kaede, he always hurts the people he likes.

A big part of the way Kaito helps him is by supporting the actions that Shuichi has to take as the detective. Their first training session is telling him that Kaede's sins are hers and beginning to get him out of the mindset that he was responsible in some way for her fate. This is a recurring pattern that continues in the trial where he encourages Shuichi to face Kirumi even if she's appreciated by the cast for everything she does from cooking to cleaning, even if her motivation to save her people reads as selfless. I don't exactly remember the exact words, but in Kaito's final FTE, when Shuichi tells him about the murder case he solved that traumatized him, Kaito wonders why Shuichi is blaming himself or feeling bad and ends the conversation by telling that he'll punch everyone who will bother his sidekick.

We're near the end of the game and Shuichi is exactly the same as right after Kaede's death: blaming himself for the consequences of trials (Kaede's and Kaito's executions) that are the result of Kaede's own actions, (and Mugi's) or Kaito and Maki's own actions for the 5th trial, despite having gone through character development, despite Kaito's help, and I'm left thinking that... Kaito wasn't able to help him at all or solve his issues?

Given how much Kaito is lauded as a supporting figure, by the fandom, and by the writing (I lost count of how many times Shuichi says "Kaito you helped me so much...") this is really disappointing.

(I think there's also something to say about how the writing, with Kaito's character, encourages the player/Shuichi to hold Kaede and Kirumi or others accountable when Shuichi feels shitty about convicting them or having convicted them. And here, again Shuichi blames himself for Kaito's fate and... that amounts to nothing. There's no in-game commentary about Kaito and Maki's decisions whatsoever. It's even more surreal because Maki is in front of him as he's saying this and she could say something...)

...Frankly I feel terrible because everyone treats Kaito and Maki coming in Shuichi's life like some sort of blessing, and Shuichi's character development as the best thing, but... people are idealizing their friendships and what they accomplished for each other a lot. I feel terrible for Shuichi dammit he's hating himself forever

I've talked about this in the past, actually, and I still agree with what I said:

Kaito never actually tangibly helped Shuichi or developed his character positively, the trio is over-hyped with little canon substance to back up how the fandom sees them, and the only meaningful impact (lasts longer than 5 minutes) we can actually see Kaito actually have on Shuichi's character are all negative traits which are not only harmful to Shuichi and the cast but actively retcon his prior (good) development and unmake all the lessons he has previously learned that other characters had to literally die to teach him, wasting their sacrifices (and a chunk of our time) entirely.

Narratively, emotionally, and logically Kaito degrades Shuichi's character and destroys any potential he might have had both as a character in need of development (seriously how could you flop on the main protagonist's development holy shit) and as an apprentice detective trying to learn how to do his job better or else everyone will die.

[kaweeella]

Hi, if you still want writing requests, a Danganronpa idea would be Himiko's magic going awry and making Maki swap bodies with Miu for a day.

Thank you for requesting! I hope you like it!

~~~

It started as a good day, it really did.

Maki sat at a bench, Himiko was showing off her magic to Tenko and Angie across the path, and Miu was talking to Kaede by the stairs. It was one of the only times she let herself lower her guard.

Never again.

“And for my next trick,” Himiko said. “I will make Miu and Maki switch places!”

Maki stirred only a little at the mention of her name, but she kept watching the clouds. It was likely going to be a warm training session that night.

Himiko spun her stave, a dark red glow appeared on one side and a pink one on the other. She twirled it faster as the two lights snaked down to the other ends.

She excitedly looked over to them, only to be met with disappointment. Maki was still on the bench and Miu was still by the stairs, though she stumbled some, holding onto Kaede so she wouldn’t fall over.

“Nyeh…”

“It’s alright, Himiko! It still looked cool!” Tenko tried to reassure her.

“I’m sure you’ll get it next time!”

“Hey, what just happened?” Maki walked over to them.

“I tried to make you and Miu switch places, but-” She tried to explain but quickly got cut off.

“What are you, a dumbass?”

“Maki!” Tenko stood up. “That’s really rude!”

“Are you blind? I’m not Maki.” Not Maki said.

“What’s going on?” Miu said coldly as she and Kaede approached them.

“What the fuck?!” Not Maki exclaimed.

“Himiko, I think your spell did really work!”

“Nyahahaha!” Angie laughed. “Good job, Himiko! God smiles upon you!”

“What the fuck did you do?” Not Maki asked.

“Well I tried to cast a spell to switch Miu’s and Maki’s places, but if Tenko’s right, then I guess it didn’t switch you physically.”

“If you’re going to use me in one of your shows, at least ask first.” Maki- real Maki- said, venom in her voice.

“So you can fix this, right?” Kaede asked.

Himiko nodded and spun the stave. It started glowing again, though the lights didn't move.

“Enough with your shitty glowstick, I don’t want to be stuck as this flat fuck.”

“Do you want to die?” Maki looked at her. Even if she wasn’t in her body she’s scary as hell.

Himiko tried to block out the talking. If she strained her eyes she could see the lights moving towards the other ends at a snail’s pace. She stopped spinning it and examined them. Even though she stopped she could still see the light moving down at an agonizingly slow speed.

“What’s wrong, Himiko?” Tenko asked.

“Nyeh…” She shuddered and looked at Maki to read her expression. There were none. “I have good news and bad news.” She shrank in on herself a little. “I can’t undo it right now, b-but it’s temporary.”

“Fucking dumbass! Try harder!” Miu reached out to grab the stave.

“Nyeh! Stop! You might make it worse!”

“Nothing could be w-aaa!” Maki grabbed her by the pigtails and yanked her back.

“When are we going to be back to normal?”

“When the two lights reach the other side.” She pointed at the stave.

Maki hummed. “How long do you think it’ll take?”

Himiko looked at it in thought. “At the rate it’s going, maybe about a day?”

“Maki-Roll!” Kaito ran up with Shuichi not far behind him.

“Great…” Maki muttered.

He wrapped Miu in a bear hug. She panicked and…

“Ow!” … she kneed him. “Maki-Roll why’d you do that?”

“Because that’s Miu. I’m Maki.”

The two look confused. Like they were doing a hundred calculations at once in their heads.

“Himiko fucked up her spell.” Miu said.

“It’s temporary!”

It was quiet for a minute before Kaito spoke up again. “So are you still on for training tonight?”

“Training, huh? What kind of training do you do together late at night, huh?”

“Me and Shuichi exercise. Kaito mostly just sits there.”

“Hey!”

“Riiiiight. Well whatever it is, leave me and my body out of it.”

“It’s probably for the best. It’s going to be warm tonight and I’m not in the mood to listen to Kaito whining. And…” She looked down at ‘herself’. “I’m not quite used to training in these conditions.”

Miu snickered some before coming to a realization.

“Miu what are you thinking?” Shuichi asked, though he had a pretty good idea of the answer.

“Why don’t you try some training with me? I’ve always wanted to know if I’m good in bed.”

“Do you want to die?”

“Oh come on, it felt so nice when you pulled my hair.”

Maki stared daggers into her.

“What, you got nothing?”

“I’d strangle you but you’d like it too much.”

“Now, now, we should not resort to violence. As long as we have God on our side all will be well!”

“Right! Besides, it could be worse. You might’ve switched with a degenerate man.”

Maki sighed. She was right, there were worse people but Miu wasn’t a great option to be the one piloting her body.

“Don’t think I’m happy to be in this situation either. I want to be back in my own gorgeous body.”

“This is so weird.” Kaito whispered to Shuichi.

“Nehehe~! What do we have here?” Kokichi strolled over.

“Not now, Kokichi.” They told him.

“Just go away, we’re busy right now and the last thing we need is a little shit fucking around.” Miu said.

“No I…” He paused. “Maki, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear before.”

“Do you want to tell him?” Kaito whispered.

“Tell me whaaaat?”

“No, he can figure it out on his own.” Maki said.

“Come on, Miu. A dumb slut shouldn’t be-” Before he can finish Maki grabs him by the neck. “Hey,” He stammered, “I’m not into that. Or you.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“What, dumb or slut?”

“Both.”

“Why~? They fit you so-” She tightened her grip.

“Maki-Roll, calm down you might actually kill him!”

“Maki?” Kokichi asked with strained breaths.

She dropped him. “Yeah. Maki, and never call me a dumb slut again.” She leaned down to his eye level.

“It’s kinda hard to take you seriously when you look like this.”

“Maybe you’ll take this seriously.” She grabbed his scarf and headbutted him, the goggles left marks on his forehead.

“Damn, don’t break my shit!” She looked at the goggles. When she saw that they’re unbroken she nodded before breaking out into laughter. “You got him pretty good. Serves you right you little bitch.”

“So,” Kokichi sat up. “Maki is Miu and Miu is Maki. What. The fuck.”

“It’s magic!” Himiko said.

Maki sighed. “I’m going to go lay down.” She grabbed her key off of Miu and headed off to the dorm.

“See you, Maki-Roll!”

“Hey Miu,” Shuichi said. “Did Maki give you your key?”

She thought for a moment. “She has my fucking key!” Miu ran after Maki.

“No matter what she looks like, she’s a dumb bitch.”

“Hey!” Miu yelled as she reached Maki. “Give me my key.”

“Right.” She paused. “Where do you keep it?” She dreaded the answer.

Miu reached down into her shirt and took out her key. Maki looked at the shirt.

“How do you keep it in there? I could hardly feel it.”

“An inner shirt pocket. With it you can sexily and comfortably store things in your cleavage.”

Maki thought for a moment. “That’s pretty clever.”

“Huh?! I mean… of course it is! I thought of it.”

“You can’t even see the stitches. This could’ve been pretty useful in my missions.”

“I’m gonna take that as a good thing!”

“Yeah. Honestly your inventions don’t really make sense to me but they do tend to be pretty good, when it isn’t used for sexual purposes.”

“My inventions are always incredible!”

“I feel like the underwear remover is a bit unnecessary.”

“Everything I make is entirely necessary!”

“Ah! Maki!” They saw Tsumugi running toward them. “Maki, I have a photoshoot, do you have a weapon I could use?”

“Are you planning to use a real weapon for a photoshoot?”

“No! No! Of course not. I just wanna be as authentic as possible so I’m gonna use it as a reference point. So can I?”

“No.”

“Huh? But I’m asking Maki-”

“Alright, here's what’s happening, Four Eyes. Himihoe fucked up her spell and now I’m Maki and she’s me.”

She stood for a moment then gasped. “This is like something straight out of an anime! How do you reverse it? A special item? Words of true caring? A kiss?”

“Himiko said it would likely take roughly a day.”

“Of course! A timer. In most anime the pair have to pretend to be each other, leading to weird situations that some find hard to watch, but instead of that you two hardly have any hesitance telling me. Though even if you did try to act as each other it’d still be plainly obvious, no offense.”

“Right.” Maki said. “I’m going to bed.” With that she continued to the dorms.

Kirumi was cleaning in there and looked over when she entered.

“Ah, Miu, you look tired. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No.” She went over to her dorm and Kirumi gave her a strange look.

“You do know that is Maki’s room, right?”

“I know who’s room it is.” She didn’t look back at Kirumi before she went in and closed the door. She fumbled taking off the boots and laid down. She wasn’t even going to bother with anything else.

“Strange.” Kirumi muttered to herself.

It felt like an eternity. She stared at the ceiling, just thinking, until there was a knock at the door. It was Miu. She looked behind her, noticing that Kirumi was no longer there and it was dark out.

“What is it.”

“Well, I was hoping you’d let me stay in here… with you?”

“Why?”

“What does that matter?”

“It matters a lot if you want to sleep in my room.”

“Well if you really care that much… being in my room when I look like this upsets me.”

“It upsets you to be in your room when you look like me.”

“Well…” She fidgeted. “I base a lot of myself and my life on how I look, and my room is a reminder that I’m no longer that.”

Maki wasn’t expecting that. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t that.

“Fine. I’m going to need help taking these belts off anyway.”

“Oh you wanna undress me~?”

“I can’t sleep with them on.”

“Really? You slept just fine when Kaito came by to get you. Had to be physically restrained to stop pushing the fucking button.”

“I didn’t realize I went to sleep.”

“Well you did. Wow, your room is pretty empty.”

“I don’t keep many things. Not where I live.”

“Right, your assassin thing. Have you ever seduced your mark?”

“No.”

“Well of course, no one could have my sex appeal.”

“Miu. Miu we are teenagers.”

“What of it?”

Maki threw a pillow at her. “Just go to sleep.”

The night was uneventful. Miu had some trouble adjusting to the pigtails but when she did she fell asleep quickly.

When Maki woke up, she found she was on the other side of the bed when she tried to get up. She looked over and saw Miu. Miu as Miu.

“Hey, get up.”

“Huh? What the fuck do you want?”

“For you to go back to your own room. We’re back to normal.”

She grumbled some. “Fine.” She dramatically got up, grabbed her key and boots and headed out the door, though she paused in the doorway. “Hey Maki? Thank you for letting me stay over.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean it.” Maki smiled, though she had her back to Miu so she couldn’t see. “You can be the first to test my next invention!”

“That’s unnecessary.”

[takonei]

Just a wonderment of mines.. but like.. what would the Beta!Au be like in a HPA!AU???

I have to know if the babies will be happy, I have to.

I’m supposed to write chapter 5 what the fuck

But if what you wish is a decent amount of happy chemicals for them, then here we fucking go, all the HCs that came to my mind. Will contain spoilers up to the end of chapter 4.

Back to Hope’s peak with the Beta AU crew!

Shuichi Saihara

Was scouted like a normal human being

Could take a break from some of the annoying clients, so he gladly accepted

He doesn’t have a specific group of friends, he hangs out with everyone

Although the ones he hangs out with the most are Miu and Kaito

Usually gets average grades (but excels in history and literature). Not that smart but he ain’t a full dumbass.

Had a crush on 70% of his class at some point

But no one knows that of course. Except Miu because mom knows all.

He is happy here, and less lonely than before since he gets to see nice people more frequently.

Rantaro Amami

At first, refused the invitation

Then his crew mates insisted he at least gets a proper education and friends

After some time, he finally accepted

He met Ryoma, his best friend, who accepted to help him create improved ways to transport tools and do operations

He is on good terms with everyone in the class, surprisingly (or not) and is often the one trying to solve conflicts

Class representative. Gets good grades in biology and English and that’s it because he is an uncultured swine.

Will absolutely fucking not retire from his war medic career after school.

Miu Iruma

Also refused the invitation at first

“I have a kid to take care of, screw yall”

She accepted when HPA offered to give her a slightly bigger dorm room for both her and her son.

HPA thought about getting him to the elementary section of the school but he was just a normal kid

She still sometimes gets out at night to do her artworks, although less than before

Still has a crush on Rantaro, although she tries to get past it because she knows better than to try to get into a romantic relationship with an aromatic person

Huge fangirl crisis when she realized Kaito was in her class

She became the mom of the group and adopted like 90% of them

Dumbass but decent in literature, for some reason.

Kaito Momota

His gang was very supportive when he got the letter

That boy will make the family proud

Never tried to hide his prosthetic leg

Not like he could, since he had to take different PE classes adapted to him

Huge fanboy crisis when he realized Miu was in his class

Big bro(tm)

Actually gets along pretty well with Tsumugi, who helps him be better at scientific mechanical stuff.

Above average in science, but is a legit dumbass in the rest of the classes

Kaede Akamatsu

Gladly accepted the letter.

After all, Hope’s Peak is such a great high school! She couldn’t refuse.

She tries to be friends but isn’t that good at it. She appreciates everyone, but mostly hangs out with Maki and sometimes Tenko and Shuichi.

Still an absolute disaster lesbian with a crush on Maki.

The two end up like how you would expect them to be. Pining but never actually asking.

She sometimes asked Kirumi for advice (she doesn’t know why her specifically, though. According to Kaede she’s the only one who would give nice advice despite having 0 experience in romantic relationships).

After countless tries they finally end up together, which was absolutely not a surprise.

And anyone not supporting them will feel the wrath of 4 experienced fighters + karma.

She’s very glad she got to meet them all.

Overall nice grades in everything that isn’t science.

Will remain a writer after high school since this is her passion.

Maki Harukawa 

Accepted, although a bit hesitant to leave her siblings.

But it’s fine, they said. They can still see Maki on week-ends.

She isn’t the social type, and ends up hanging out with only Kaede and sometimes Tenko and Shuichi.

Still very gay, although she takes a lot of time figuring out her feelings for Kaede. Good thing Tenko exists.

She likes the ambiance of the academy, even though she gets to practice her talent a bit less.

Sometimes the others come to her to ask for additions to their uniforms. It doesn’t bother her to do so as long as they are not rude.

She actually recreated the vest for the uniform to feel more comfortable.

Average grades, but does better in literature, for *cough* some reason.

She will gladly continue her hobby after graduation and perhaps create her own fashion brand.

Tenko Chabashira

Joyfully accepted the invitation!

She may have trained a lot already, but surely Hope’s peak would have athletes to help her train, right?

She loves to talk with the others! It feels like a great class.

She is usually the one organizing events, Rantaro approving most of the time.

Much like Shuichi, she tends to talk to everybody, not just a specific person.

Although she is closer to Gonta, Shuichi, and sometimes trains with Kirumi.

Her grades are a bit below average except in PE, where she excels.

Tenko is aiming for the Olympics after graduation, to perhaps win a gold medal. Her classmates really encourage her for this since she is more than capable of it.

Kokichi Ouma

Still has 100% of his trauma, unfortunately

Immediately accepted the letter

At least he would have a stable place to live and could easily avoid other, people, right?

Wrong.

Himiko is here all the time to help him get through this

And he partially manages to! But that’s also thanks to Kiyo.

His classmates also do their best too

And that’s how all rodents got banned from the class.

They tried to ban them in the entire school but apparently they can’t, to everyone’s dismay

He doesn’t really know what to do after graduation. At least Himiko will help him make a decision.

Grades not that good but he is doing his best

What did you expect from someone who never went to school, honestly?

Himiko Yumeno

Oh, to study astronomy a place that isn’t a hospital room? Sign me up!

She was so happy to meet new people

And immediately became friends with almost everyone

Her parents were worried her condition would not be taken seriously but she presented Rantaro to them.

It’s not his expert field but he can still get stuff done

She spends most of her time with Kokichi, trying to help him with his issues.

She also suggested him to open a nice and cozy coffee shop after graduation but he refuses because of the possibility mean clients will get karma’d.

But it’s okay, she will still help him find his path.

Science nerd, good grades but sucks at history

Basically a “Intelligence 100 Wisdom 0″ person.

Korekiyo Shinguji

Although he was a bit hesitant at first because he didn’t want to leave his sister, he accepted the letter anyway.

He still continues to see her almost on a daily basis to make sure she holds up well.

The others were a bit hesitant to talk to him at first due to his creepy aura, they learned how to trust him.

He often has people come to him for advice, mostly Kokichi, Himiko, Angie, Kaede and Shuichi.

He may not show it, but he really appreciate the others’ presence.

Overall good grades.

Tsumugi Shirogane

Was not surprised to see the letter coming to her home.

After all she was already considered ultimate prodigy, she just didn’t officially have the title.

Her colleagues regretted seeing her go but it was for the best. After all it’s only 3 years.

She actually likes it a lot here. They let her do her own research.

The classes are pretty useless for her since she already learned everything, but still goes because the principal told her she had to, to her dismay.

She gladly accepts to help someone, the only condition being that they must be motivated for this.

Excellent grades everywhere except PE. It’s very rare to see her have a grade below 95.

She will go back to the science facility she worked in after high school.

Ryoma Hoshi

Took some time before deciding to go to HPA.

After all he couldn’t leave his crew mates that easily. But just like Rantaro, they insisted he get a proper education and friends.

He doesn’t warm up that much to others, aside from Rantaro.

He still enjoys it here. Too bad the inventors and mechanics tended to be a bit too eccentric for his taste.

He helps Rantaro bringing back better stuff on the battlefield.

Smartass in science and English. Much less in literature and history. 

Won’t retire after high school. After all, his place is on the battlefield, not in a factory or a lab in the city.

Kirumi Tojo

She accepted the letter quickly. She could take a break from the exhausting missions.

She still sometimes had to take up to a month long break from school to get a mission done from time to time.

Unlike Maki in UTDP, she didn’t hide her talent to everyone. She told everyone rather soon that being a maid was just a cover.

The others still have doubts about her, but they got to warm up to her enough with time.

She still hid her CIP from everyone but Rantaro, though.

The more time she spent at the academy, the more she started to think she could retire after.

To perhaps have enough money so she could be settled for life.

That’s not an easy task for sure. But perhaps HPA could help her with it.

Good grades in most of the fields. Especially PE.

Angie Yonaga

owo what’s this? A possibility to get a life outside my island? LET ME IN-

Finally a possibility to settle in somewhere else and get a better life

Especially in Japan! She is really interested in seeing the culture here.

She still considers the culture from her home very important despite her past, but she tries to mix it with Japanese culture when working.

After all, she is the ultimate craftswoman! This is no hard task!

Thinks she will open her own shop here after graduation. Where people could appreciate foreign culture.

She doesn’t have grades that good, but tries her best!

Gonta Gokuhara

To be scouted by Hope’s peak was the achievement he didn’t expect.

But hey, he wasn’t complaining!

He really likes it here and can study more than he ever could.

Unfortunately he couldn’t study rodents due to... complications.

More accurately, he preferred studying them when he was absolutely sure Kokichi couldn’t see him. Mostly at night in his own dorm room.

He has rather nice grades, especially in biology and PE.

He knows he will continue with his talent after high school, which isn’t a surprise.

K1-B0

Has no clue what he is doing here.

There are better robots out here, he’s sure of it.

But whatever. Being scouted here is good too.

He sometimes try to warm up to his classmates, but he is pretty antisocial.

Most of the time it’s with Ryoma, though.

What is he even going to do after graduation? Who knows.

Gets grades generally above average.

Took me long enough! Hope that’s what you were looking for~

[princeasimdiya12]

That anon is an asshole. Why do you hate Shuichi? I think he fits the theme of truth and lies, but his character development is a complete joke as he has zero struggles after his waifu dead. He never once second guess his actions in class trials and doesn’t even think of major consequences (killing the de facto prime minister and not noticing a serial killer is amoung them). His stans over analyze his actions and try to justify everything he does.

They were quite a jerkhole. I can imagine that most stans would be protective of their favorite characters if anyone were to express disapproval.

And thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my personal feelings on the matter anon. And those are some interesting reasons to dislike him but I have some other reasons.

My answers will be hidden under the “Read More” because they’re long answers. But these are my thoughts and reasons for why I hate Shuichi Saihara.

Reason 1: The Protagonist Switch was Lackluster

Right off the bat, I personally dislike that we were promised a unique and compelling protagonist like Kaede only to switch her with a generic insecure protagonist like Saihara. The use of the protag switch isn’t a bad plot twist and it can be clever, it’s just that the result of switching Kaede for someone like Saihara left a bad taste in my mouth.

I loved Kaede because she was unique as a DR protagonist. Along with having a colorful design and talent, she was assertive, confident and willing to take charge. She was actively involved in the story by stepping up as the group’s de facto leader and trying to motivate them. She was also flawed in the sense that she was quick to butt heads with others and she didn’t completely trust others or practice her own beliefs of trusting in friends. And personally, I’m not even upset that she tried to kill someone. It’s still considered something different for a DR protagonist to do, especially if it was for the greater good. 

But when we get Saihara, he continues the trend of being a generic sad boy who feels insecure about his talents and wants to be stronger. Most of his screentime is spent moping about his problems and how he doesn’t feel good enough. He doesn’t have the same presence as Kaede and just stays in the background while the rest of the cast move the story as much as they can.

In all honesty, if they had introduced Saihara as the new protagonist, or at least make it so that his predecessor wasn’t as compelling as Kaede, then I wouldn’t have been too upset. At the very least I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up for a protagonist who was actually different compared to the past protags.

Reason 2: Waifus In Refrigerators 

For those that don’t know, fridging is the concept of (brutally) killing off a fictional female character in order to create an emotional impact for her male love interest and his character development.

Kaede’s death and how it impacted Saihara is textbook fridging.

I strongly detest fridging since it robs a female character of her agency and role in the story. It treats her as a tool meant to motivate her male love interest to either avenge her death or grow as a person. Kaede’s death along with her final wish is what pushes Saihara to try and beat the killing game. And from then on, Saihara will take the moment to reflect on Kaede’s tragic end and how he inspired him with her kindness. Kaede loses her identity as a complex leader who was willing to commit murder for a greater good. Everyone just remembers her as Saihara’s innocent dead love interest who inspired him to keep on fighting. It’s also worse in the 6th case when it’s revealed that Tsumugi took advantage of Kaede’s trap to kill Amami which further pushes Kaede into the image of an innocent angel that did no wrong.

And it’s also frustrating since this isn’t the only time that the Danganronpa series has killed off its female characters in order to develop their male love interests.

In SDR2, Peko dies trying to save Fuyuhiko which in turn motivates him to stop acting like a jerkhole and be more cooperative with the group.

In DR3 Future Side, Chisa is the first victim of the killing game which pushes her boyfriend Munakata to become a more direct antagonist towards Naegi for protecting the Remnants.

In the same series, Kyoko allows herself to be poisoned in order to protect Naegi. It’s through her death that Naegi decides to confront Munakata in a final showdown. And while Kyoko does get brought back to life at the end of the show, it should be noted that she was only brought back just to be part of Naegi’s happy ending package. She loses her agency and is brought back just to be his newly revived girlfriend.

In DR3 Despair Side, Chiaki is brutally killed in order for her classmates to become Remnants of Despair. But it’s her final heartwrenching moments with Izuru that inspire emotion inside of him aswell as deciding to turn against Junko.

So Kaede being killed for Saihara’s development is the fifth fridging example in this series and it sucks that Kodaka and his crew rely on this trope throughout Danganronpa.

Reason 3: The Narrative Forces You To Like Him

Another issue that I found irritating about Saihara is how everyone began praising him.

Just after the first case, everyone constantly praises and coddles Saihara for being such a great detective and for growing so much. For me, that praise feels undeserving since he barely did anything to earn it. Thinking back to each of the past protagonists, they didn’t have everyone’s respect in the beginning. They each had to work had and face adversity throughout their stories in order to earn their praise and respect. Even Kaede, who despite being a confident leader, had to deal with people frequently judging her leadership and actions. So I find it questionable that Saihara already earned everyone’s respect after solving only one case. 

By having all the characters praise Saihara, the narrative pushes you to accept him as the new protagonist and recognize how awesome it is to have him. But for me, it just makes me dislike him even more. I refuse to like something just because everyone else does and it won’t take away my admiration/love for Kaede.

It’s also jarring since anytime a character has the spotlight, it somehow has to involve Saihara.

“Wow Himiko! You’re much more expressive now than before. Just like you Saihara!”

“Man, it sounds like you had a harsh life growing up Harumaki. Just like you and your detective work, eh Shuichi?”

The narrative can’t help but force Saihara to be around and praised by the people around him despite the spotlight not being on him in that given moment. 

Reason 4: He’s Not a Good Detective

While Saihara’s role as a detective may fit the theme of Truth and Lies, that doesn’t mean he was good at the job. My issue being that he was unproductive and biased for the role.

While he did set up that trap in Chapter 1 to catch the mastermind, he doesn’t do anything as proactive in the later chapters. He spent most if not all of his time going to training with Kaito and moping about his problems. It goes on like this for 4 chapters and it takes Kiibo threatening to blow up the school before he actually gets to work on solving the mystery of the killing game. As a detective, you’d think he would put more effort into actually solving the mysteries of the killing game or try to put some thought on who the mastermind could be.

The biased part comes with how he interacts with others and how he’s more critical of people based on how they treat him. Saihar has a tendency to be very judgmental towards the students and doesn’t look at the entire picture. 

He writes off Ouma as the embodiment of lies and doesn’t bother trying to learn more about him or his true motivations. 

And on the opposite side, he openly praises his friends while blatantly ignoring the problematic things they’d done throughout the story. 

He considers Kaede to be an inspirational role model despite how she betrayed him and wanted to commit murder behind his back.

He worships Kaito and treats him as a perfect hero despite never noticing his ongoing illness or the fact that Kaito didn’t trust his friends enough to reveal his own insecurities.

He deems Maki a reliable friend despite the fact that she went behind his and everyone’s back in order to kill Ouma and was willing to gamble everyone else’s lives if it meant taking revenge on the supreme leader.

Shouldn’t a detective be more persistent when presented with a mystery while also acknowledging all the sides (both good and bad) of a given person? If his personal bias was treated as a flaw by the narrative, then that would actually give his character significant depth. Especially if he worked on managing his biases and learning to acknowledge all the sides. But it isn’t treated as a bad problem.

For me, the fact that he’s supposed to be a detective who “grows stronger” and is so good at his job despite all of this really rubs me the wrong way. If anything, it shows me that he’s really bad at the job.

Also, I would like to bring up that I don’t count him investigating the murder cases as being a good detective. Why? Because Hajime and his class in SDR2 were able to solve their class trials without a detective figure. Being a detective, or having one, doesn’t make solving the class trials any easier.

Reason 5: An Unnecessary Cliche

Personally, I really see no reason for why Saihara’s character needed to be the generic insecure protagonist for this particular installment of Danganronpa. It’s the same cliche storyline featured in a grand majority of anime and light novels. It’s repetitive and irritating knowing that so many stories focus primarily on a sad generic boy who doesn’t feel good enough and wants to be stronger. 

It’s also worth mentioning that in comparison, the past protagonists at least had narrative reasons for why they were generic and insecure in the first place.

For Naegi, he was the first protagonist of the installment and his normalcy was meant to contrast the extremely talented and radically different students he’d be involved with. As the game progresses, he uses his normalness to bond with the students and rally them together in the name of hope.

For Hajime, he’s treated as a deconstruction of the generic insecure protagonist. It’s because his feelings of inferiority and longing to be special that he decides to accept Hope’s Peak’s experimentation and become Izuru Kamakura: an incredibly talented super-being who lost his humanity.

For Komaru, she was regarded as an ordinary girl that had the potential to lead others which is recognized by the adult resistance and Monaca. So throughout the game, both sides were pushing her into becoming either the next symbol of Hope like Naegi or next symbol of despair like Junko. But she ultimately decides to be neither of them and wants to be her own person.

There were reasons for why each of these protagonists were considered generic and insecure as it contributed to the narratives. But for Saihara, there’s really no solid reason for why he’s the only normal one of the V3 cast. And everyone is more than happy to praise him as the best one out of the cast despite doing so little to earn it. At most, Tsumugi reveals that Saihara being an insecure boy who grew stronger thanks to his friends was for the sake of a fictional storyline. Obviously it was meant to mentally break him but it honestly feels like a weak reason to keep the trend of a generic insecure sad boy. Not to mention there are other reasons for why I believe this doesn’t work.

The setup for the “Danganronpa is a fictional TV show” twist didn’t have enough buildup so it doesn’t make the cliche that strong.

Saihara still continues the role of the insecure boy who grows strong and saves the day. While Tsumugi states that his role was written for him, Saihara still continues the tropes of his archetype by saving the day. It’s ultimately because of him that he’s able to convince his friends and the viewing audience to give up on Danganronpa. It was the writer’s way of having their cake and eating it.

If the reveal was meant to be a shot at how it’s become a cliche, then why not live up to it? If they wanted to show how Danganronpa was running for too long or how it’s cliches were getting old, then why not commit to those ideas? Instead of having everyone praise and worship Saihara, make them question if they’re really going to depend on a generic guy to save them. Instead  of being just a cute quirk, actually show the negative sides of Saihara’s anxiety and depression and how they would hinder him from participating in trial discussions. Maybe even have Kaito lose his temper at Saihara because of how much he mopes around.

There’s so many ways they could have gone with deconstructing Saihara’s stereotype or showcasing how it’s become old and stale. So it feels disappointing that they never went that far.

And another reason for why I dislike his characterization is because it brings to mind Ryota Mitarai from the DR3 anime. Just like Saihara, Mitarai is a main character who’s described as generic, insecure and spends most of his time whining about how useless he is. Despite this, he manages to survive the killing game since the other more unique characters are killed or move the events of the story. I personally found Mitarai to be a frustrating character. I detest characters who constantly whine about how useless or miserable they are as a means of getting sympathy from the audience. So having to deal with Saihara who more or less shares multiple characteristics with Mitarai felt very exhausting.

Conclusion

So those would be my reasons for why I hate/strongly dislike Saihara. I can admit that alot of these reasons weren’t so much because of Saihara or his actions but how he was written throughout the story. He still did alot of things I didn’t like don’t get me wrong, but alot of fault can be traced to the writers and how they decided to write him and Kaede’s characters. I still find his archetype as a generic insecure boy who mopes around to be an unappealing archetype but I’m sure most of his fans would suggest otherwise.

If you’ve managed to read everything here, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do so. I can’t imagine many people would want to read a critical post targeted towards one of the most beloved characters in Danganronpa. So thank you for doing so.

And as always, if you agree or disagree with anything I’ve written, you’re more than welcome to reblog this with your comments. I’m always up for friendly discussions. 

[lynneshobbydomain]

Starlit Love (Momoharu Week Collection Day 1)

((Thank you sunflower_8 for betaing me. This is my first time attempting to write this pairing so hopefully everyone enjoys.))

Prompt: Confessions/Yearning

Rated: G

Summary: Kaito just wants Maki to have friends and be happy, but he’s unsure if he can include himself in that since he wants more.

You can read under the cut or at my AO3

Kaito watched as his two sidekicks were talking on the other side of the classroom during lunch period. Everyone else had scattered into their usual groups, and the different conversations blended together made a white noise that drowned out whatever the two quiet ones were talking about. He noticed that Maki and Shuichi were looking grim around the faces too. Shuichi actively was pulling his hat over his eyes as he was speaking, though Kaito did see that he was attempting to make eye contact with Maki. Which of course meant that he was improving! If just a bit slightly. Maki was also deep in the conversation, pulling on her pig tail with her cheeks puffed up and a cute pout on her lips. That was also a huge improvement too! His sidekicks were working hard at trying to improve and communicate with each other and Kaito couldn’t be more pleased.

He understood that the rest of their classmates couldn’t begin to understand them, and no one really wanted to try to get underneath Maki’s layers too much. They all saw what happened to Kokichi when he outed her on the second day of school when he broke into the teacher’s lounge. It hadn’t been a very cool thing for the rascal to do, but it helped Kaito understand who Maki was and the situation only renewed his determination in trying to make sure both her and Shuichi stopped trying to put up so many guards. Maki had so many different walls that needed to be broken down. For as someone as honest and caring as she was, she was careful to make sure that her honesty was cold and her caring was superficial at best. It took a long time for her to open up about the orphanage, about her life, about how she lived. Shuichi had more information on her than Kaito did, but that was because Shuichi was an awesome detective and dug for his own information. Even if Shuichi called it “selling secrets for money”, it was more than just that. It was about revealing who people were genuinely underneath and he could say without a doubt that if Shuichi was friends with Maki then she really wasn’t all that bad.

She wasn’t all that bad. She had a dry sense of humor. She had a way of smiling without smiling. If you knew her tone of voice just right, it was easy to determine a fond “you’re an idiot” and a deadly “do you want to die”. Maybe it was just him though. Maybe he was one of the few that actually paid attention to the small things like that. Or maybe it was because of Maki that he paid attention. He wondered how many people knew that her tugging on her hair was more than just a nervous tick. She did it when she was embarrassed or annoyed to the fifth level. He wondered how many of his classmates understood that when Maki told them it “was whatever”, she was actually feeling a little hurt by whatever comment or story she was forced to partake in.

It was hard to discern what her feelings were to him though. Kaito knew that he was an idiot to her, impulsive and brash. He also knew from her own words that he was enthusiastic. He just...couldn’t tell exactly if she liked him as a friend, liked him as a brother, or if she felt the same way and thought that he was cool the same way he thought she was cool. 

That being said though their conversation was going for a long time, and both parties were looking as though they didn’t want to be discussing what they were discussing and yet had to do so anyway. Kaito momentarily thought about getting into the middle of it before things got too rough, but he also had to remind himself that they were communicating and it would be rude to just jump in just because he thought they needed it. Chances were, they were talking about something that was extremely important to the both of them. It kind of hurt that they weren’t talking to him, but he shoved that down. It was important that they learned to rely one each other and grow closer together as friends! He was grateful that Shuichi was opening up the way that he was, and it was important for Maki to be exposed to good things rather than all the bad the orphanage and the cult put her through.

“You’re worried too?”

Kaito looked over to see Kaede standing next to him, looking over at the two who were still in deep conversation. “Nah, they got it! They’re my sidekicks! Whatever problem they're talking about, I know they can solve it together and if they need my help they know I’m here ready to listen.” Kaito gave Kaede a thumbs up. “I just don’t like that Shuichi’s doing the turtle thing again though. I thought we got over that…”

Kaede giggled. “You mean him looking like he wants to hide underneath the table? I wonder what it is that Maki’s trying to talk to him about. I mean, I know it’s easy to embarrass him, but...Maki doesn’t usually poke fun like that, does she?”

Kaito wasn’t sure. Shuichi and Maki were on two whole other wavelengths that Kaito couldn’t grasp and honestly didn’t want to. That was their space and he wanted them to have that. It...did make him a little nervous though. Maki was a cool girl, and Shuichi had more of a head on his shoulders than he did ninety percent of the time. It...wouldn’t be all that surprising really if this conversation was about relationships and feelings though…

He would’ve thought Shuichi had eyes on Kaede, if the red cheeks were anything to go by when they spoke about their classmates.

Did he misunderstand or was he right on the money? He’d have to ask after this was over. “Whatever it is, it seems serious. So we should be ready to support no matter what!” Kaito told Kaede, punching his fists together across his chest, a grim determination set on his features. “They’re probably trying to figure out how to talk to us about whatever it is that’s bothering them. We gotta keep our shoulders straight if we want to do anything.”

“Wait, when did I get into this?” Kaede asked, looking a little taken aback. Then she thought about it, “Well, no, you’re right. I talk to Shuichi sometimes and Maki...and whatever it is that they’re concerned about should be something that we should be worried about too...but...I wonder if it’s that kind of serious conversation.”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Kaito asked, putting his hands down.

“It’s just...I’m not good at reading body language like Shuichi is, but...they don’t look like they’re afraid or concerned. It’s more...like they’re uncomfortable.” Kaede explained. “So whatever this conversation is it looks like it’s not something that’s easy to discuss.”

“You think so, huh?” Kaito turned back to look over at his sidekicks and made a mental note to check in on them and maybe get them outdoors for late night training. Whatever it is that was bothering them surely could be pushed back with a distraction. Shuichi worked better when his brain was focused on something other than his failures, and…he wasn’t sure if Maki was getting anything out of their training sessions besides the company. That wasn’t bad of course, he wanted to see her flourish with more people around. He wanted to see her smile more. He wanted her to have friends and be able to rely on others besides just herself. It was good to see her getting out of her shell for sure and he wanted to continue to support that! She didn’t deserve to feel like she was an outcast just because she had a talent that involved other people getting hurt. It wasn’t her fault that was the way life went. Now it was just about fixing what went wrong. 

                                                          X

“You’re not subtle.” Maki approached Kaito at the end of the day being the last two that were finishing up with the cleaning duties for the classroom. Kaito tilted his head slightly and she continued. “You and Kaede were both staring at Shuichi and me through lunch. What? Did we have something on our faces or something?”

“Just worried about you Maki Roll.” Kaito grinned at her. “You two looked like you were talking about something serious. Is everything okay? You can rely on me too you know.”

Maki fell silent. Sometimes, Kaito wondered if she believed anything that he said. She poked at his enthusiasm and optimism more than a few times, but he knew better than to take it personally. It was hard for people to accept genuine things sometimes, and Maki didn’t exactly have any examples of that. At least, none that he knew of. “We were talking about him and Kaede.” Maki finally said after a moment. “As well as about the orphanage.”

“Shuichi is still determined to look into that huh?” Kaito mused thoughtfully. “I suppose he can’t help the curiosity, but I don’t want him to get too badly hurt.”

Maki didn’t say anything for a moment. He knew that she was agreeing with them though. Shuichi’s determination was wonderful; it was his naivety sometimes that worried them both. Not that Kaito was much better. His impulse control has been a source of plenty of Maki’s wrath and Shuichi’s panic. “It’s whatever.” She said after a moment. “I can’t stop him. He’s not going after the assassin part, so I’m grateful for that. I told him before the world needs us, and he could reduce the chances of us being used to the point where I don’t have to be one.”

“Knowing Shuichi, he’d do that and beyond! My sidekicks are just amazing, you know that? You both are trying so hard to make life better in any way that you see fit!” Kaito assured her. “I’m proud of you both!”

Maki stared at him for a moment, “I don’t think being an assassin would make anyone’s life better.” She stressed the last word and Kaito mentally winced at himself. Right idea, poor choice of words. “Though...I suppose there were some people that I got rid of that the world was better off without.”

“You also outlast us during training, you kick our asses everytime!” Kaito pointed out to her. There were more positives than what she was saying and he wanted her to understand that. “It sucks you had to go through it. But you can use those skills for the better now for sure.”

Maki just sighed softly, “An idiot as usual.” She murmured, but Kaito caught the small fond smile that was just right there on her lips. It was usually hard to see, and most people would mistake it as mockery. He understood it as her just acknowledging him in some way. Even if it sounded bad. 

“Wait what do you mean by that? Also you mentioned Kaede and Shuichi were having problems.” Kaito frowned deeply. “Do I need-”

“Stop.” Maki held a hand up before Kaito could go do….something. Kaito felt himself freeze at her request, less out of fearful obedience, but more of concerned listening. It was important to get the full story before he went off, he knew that. “It wasn’t like that.” She shook her head. “Let him figure himself out. He had to deal with me today too.”

“Deal with you?” Kaito echoed back, feeling a little lost. 

“I’m not good with this.” Maki started to tug on her pigtail, her cheeks puffed in annoyance. Kaito knew that was mostly at herself. Emotions weren’t...something Maki allowed herself to show. She couldn’t let them show. It was detrimental to her job and Kaito knew that. Still he took a little pride in knowing that she was annoyed, and he took even more pride that she was showing it rather than keeping up a facade. It made communication easier...even if it was still unstable sometimes. “....we should get dinner.”

“It’s not nighttime yet,” Kaito blinked a little loss. “Are you still hungry? You and Shuichi didn’t eat much at lunch, I noticed. I should’ve stopped you guys from chatting an-”

“I’m asking you out.” Maki replied bluntly, her cheeks tinting pink. “Because I know you won’t.”

“.....Like a date?”

“Do you want to die?” Maki deadpanned, staring at him. “Yes. Like a date. Like I just said.” There was a beat and she took a small step back. “That expression is gross, what are you doing?”

Kaito was pretty sure that he was beaming brightly from ear to ear and he was also certain that if Tsumugi was around she’d proclaim that he had sparkles flying all over him. He took a step forward and grabbed her into a hug. “Of course! No, that’s awesome!” He let her go, looking at her sudden blank expression. She was shocked! Hopefully in a good way, otherwise Kaito wasn’t sure about how awkward the rest of the conversation was going to go. He should’ve thought about boundaries before he went off and hugged her. “I’ll be happy to go out with you! I mean, I thought I was going to confess first, but I guess I was dragging my feet too much. I’m sorry, that wasn’t very...manly of me, but yeah! For sure!”

“Idiot.” Maki replied fondly. “I don’t know where we could go...I didn’t think that far.”

“I’m fine with anything, Maki Roll. As long as you’re with me? I could eat anything.” Kaito beamed. “Tell you what, since you asked me out, let me handle the plans.”

“I...don’t think that’s how that’s supposed to work.” Maki blinked. “But I’m not going to stop you.”

Kaito grinned as he gave her a thumbs up. “Leave everything to me Maki Roll. Just get ready around seven or so.”

“Or so?” Maki echoed, but Kaito was already putting away his cleaning supplies and headed out of the classroom. He had a date to plan.

[thepetulantpen]

(Valentine’s Day fic to match @fancy-kryptonite ‘s art. Little late, but here it is!)

Shuichi is realizing, slower than he should, that this plan is going horribly wrong. 

He saw the signs, even had the feeling before he started that this wouldn’t work, but the stubborn parts of his mind insisted that it would work and that he just has to keep watching. Keep waiting, have faith. 

And yet, his faith does not keep Kaito from walking, very enthusiastically, in the wrong direction. Not just the wrong direction- the opposite direction.  

He’s wandered from his lab to the courtyard and is, astoundingly, heading back again towards… the gym? Shuichi can’t even tell from this angle. He’s supposed to be in the kitchen, with the chocolates and the second clue. 

Shuichi is almost grateful he’s watching from the roof of the main building, out of range to even consider helping. Almost grateful, if it wasn’t for the anxious itch to help that’s developing into a tension headache. He just wants to guide Kaito in the right direction but Kaito is- well, Kaito is Kaito, and Kaito doesn’t want the help. 

Maki is propped up on the rail beside Shuichi- or, really, in front of him. Shuichi is safe behind the rail, thank you very much. She turns back to him, smug and right as ever. 

“I don’t know what you expected. I told you this would happen.”

“I just- I thought he would get a little farther than this. To the second clue, maybe.”

Maki gives him a side eye that could mean anything, from judgment to agreement, and adds on that vaguely dangerous smile of hers. Too sharp to be mischievous. 

“Time for plan B?”

Shuichi sighs, long-suffering. “I guess so.”

Maki hops gracefully off the rail, perching herself carefully on the ledge of a several story drop. “I’ll get him to the finish line. Just make sure you’re in place.”

“Ok,” Shuichi gives her and the ledge a look, then glances back to the stairwell, “I’ll just, uh, take the stairs.”

“Good plan.”

And with that, Maki disappears from sight, descending silently and invisibly down the wall. Shuichi would watch, should watch to make sure she’s safe, but even the thought of looking straight down makes him nervous, so he turns and does his best to stop worrying about it.

It doesn’t work. He worries about Maki and Kaito and, well, everything. 

The best he can do is channel the nervous energy into perfecting- no, surviving the rest of this day. 

…

Kaito is pretty sure he’s killing it at this game. Who’d have thought he’d be so good at riddles, in addition to his many other talents? 

The first clue had been almost too easy, he hadn’t even needed to read it more than once. Less sophisticated than what he expected of Shuichi, honestly. 

Look for your next clue where you’ll find something dark, round, square, big or small, seen on Valentine’s Day and loved by all. 

A window, he thought, the view from which points him directly toward the courtyard. It makes sense that Shuichi would point him here, where they did all their training and spent so much time together. It’s beautiful this time of year, too, the bushes have bloomed with all colors of flowers. 

But mostly shades of orange, a very particular shade of orange that reminds him of gym floors. From the training courtyard, to the gym. Not a difficult to jump. 

Though, now that he’s arrived, he will admit he’s a little stumped. There’re no obvious clues, no pieces of paper holding additional riddles, but he should’ve expected that Shuichi wouldn’t be so straightforward.

He’ll have to think outside the box for this one, which means dismantling the box first, which means… well, he’s resorted to prying things off the walls. It feels vaguely wrong, like it should be against the rules for Shuichi to hide clues behind puzzles that require brute force. 

Although, Shuichi does know how strong he is. Maybe he counted on this, and wanted to provide a test of strength, to complement the test of skill and intellect. 

An entire panel of wall comes off with a satisfying, metallic thud. The sound almost distracts him from another noise, a much softer thump behind him, but nothing gets past Kaito’s superior senses of observation. 

Spinning around, he spots a small bundle sitting on the floor where there wasn’t one before. Or he thinks there wasn’t one, though he can’t be sure, with all the clutter lying around. 

His first impulse is to look up, but a cursory glance into the vast darkness of the rafters doesn’t reveal anything. Looking closer feels, again, like cheating, like he’s looking behind the curtain at a magic show. Maybe there’s a Rube Goldberg machine of some sort hidden up there, triggered by the panel.

That must be it, he decides, and nearly forgets about the bundle in his introspection. 

Wrapped up in heart-printed cloth is a box of chocolates with a note attached. Scrawled in strangely slanted handwriting- Shuichi must have written this in a rush, to make it look so different from his usually neat print- reads a simple message.

Find your next clue in the hallway outside classroom 2-B.

Kaito frowns at the paper, unsure what to make of this clue that’s not really a clue at all. He holds the paper up to the light, checking to see if there’s hidden ink, maybe, or a trick to the material. Nothing reveals itself, though he recalls something about lemon juice, for invisible ink. 

No, that might be the wrong idea. Too far out of his way.

Probably just a code, then. What else could 2-B mean? A police code? Music note? Come to think of it, he’s pretty sure there’s a star named-

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees something move. He spins around, expecting to confront an intruder of some sort- maybe a built-in obstacle to the scavenger hunt, wouldn’t that be exciting- but finds only the open doorway and a stuffed bear sitting in the hall. 

It’s very cute, holding a star instead of the traditional heart. Kaito picks it up, then, because it’s already on his way, thinks that it can’t hurt to at least stop by classroom 2-B. On his way to solving the real clue, obviously. 

Maki watches him go from the rafter just above his head. The depths of stupidity these boys manage to explore continue to astound her. Really, there should be a study on the neurological phenomenon of boys in love. 

At this point, she’s worried she’ll run out of Valentine’s Day related items to guide Kaito like a child with a trail of Cheerios. Or, worse, that she’ll lose her balance next time she has to wave to get his attention and make him turn around. 

A concussion will make this scavenger hunt more complicated, though not by much with how much Kaito is overthinking it. It’s almost painful to watch and Maki has no idea how Kaito hasn’t given himself an aneurysm. 

Still, whatever he’s decided on in that mysterious mind of his is leading him confidently, and quickly, through the hallways. If she doesn’t get going soon, she’ll get left behind.

Maki sighs, but doesn’t bother to keep the smile off her face. There’s no one around to hide it from.

… 

Shuichi has been waiting for the better part of an hour, crammed in a locker. It wasn’t technically necessary for him to stay in his hiding place the whole time but he was so worried he wouldn’t hear Kaito coming that he didn’t want to risk ruining the surprise. 

Now, he realizes that was a silly concern. Kaito’s footsteps are heavy, and he runs nearly everywhere; Shuichi knows he’s coming before Kaito even turns into this section of the hall. And, if the footsteps weren’t enough, Shuichi can also hear him loudly talking to himself.

“Could it have anything to do with galaxies? Maybe the Milky Way- could he have meant the kitchen?”

Kaito’s footsteps pause and Shuichi nearly bangs his head against the locker door. Of course, now he wants to go to the kitchen. 

The hesitation does give Maki the opening she needs to sneak past Kaito- though sneak is a generous term. Shuichi can see her even through the narrow slat in the locker as she just walks around Kaito, who’s sufficiently distracted by staring off into space. 

Maki gives him a knowing look- she’s spotted him because of course she has, her sense for hidden things is near supernatural- and slides into a locker across the hall. On her way in, she rattles it dramatically, but gets it shut before Kaito turns his head at the noise.

Luckily, Kaito does decide to investigate the sound- though it’s a close thing, Shuichi can see in his expression the moment he considers ignoring it- and takes enough steps in the right direction to see the large heart drawn in the center of the hallway, in front of 2-B. 

Originally, the heart had been part of a larger riddle a few clues down the line but right now Shuichi will settle with Kaito getting anywhere near the target. He waits with bated breath for Kaito to cautiously approach the heart, circling it as if touching it will trigger a trap or contaminate it in some way. 

Ideally, he’d stand on the heart, but beggars can’t be choosers. Shuichi opens the locker doors when Kaito is approximately in front of him and throws his arms around him before he can think to turn around. It feels less like the warm hug he’d imagined and more like he’s keeping Kaito from escaping down another rabbit hole, but he’ll take it. 

“Shuichi!” Kaito looks at him over his shoulder and forces the surprise off his face, replacing it with smooth confidence. Like he’d expected this, even seen it coming. “Does this mean I did it? Did I win?”

Shuichi laughs against his back and lets him go, giving him enough space to turn around and face him. His smile is as brilliant as it always is, but Shuichi can see the lingering confusion in the crinkle around his eyes, gaze still darting back to the hallway like he’s anticipating there to be a twist ending and another riddle to solve. 

“Yes, you did. Solved everything in record time, actually.”

It’s almost true. Kaito did cut out a significant amount of time by skipping the majority of the scavenger hunt, but there’s no need to damper the mood with semantics. 

Kaito, oblivious, beams. “Of course I did! My brain is bigger than the average astronaut’s, you know?”

“I know, Kaito. I underestimated you, honestly. But,” Shuichi almost laughs at Kaito’s expression, suddenly less confident at the implication there could be more puzzles, “There is one more surprise.” 

Shuichi pushes Kaito toward the classroom door, lagging behind a step to shoot Maki a grateful look. He’ll have to thank her properly later, when she’s not hiding in a locker. Without her, Kaito would still be wandering the school.

2-B has been cleared of anything that might identify it as a classroom. Instead, it’s dressed up to be a mixture of an observatory and a pillow fort- fairy lights in the shape of stars on the walls, star-printed blankets and pillows strewn across the floor- with enough snacks and games for a respectable sleep-over. There’s even a little telescope he had Maki “borrow” from Kaito’s lab. 

The classroom, however, is unique in one way. The huge window has the best view of the night sky in the whole school- Shuichi should know, he spent a week scoping out every classroom- minus Kaito’s own lab. 

Kaito steps up to the window and looks out at the school beneath them, then up the stars slowly coming to life above them. His expression, for once, is unreadable.  

“Did you set all of this up?”

“I had a little help. I thought it’d be nice to have a night in, under the stars but without the cold. Some relaxation, after all the hard work of the scavenger hunt.” Shuichi picks at his hair, tugging at a strand in absence of a hat to pull down. “Do you like it?”

There’s a pause that makes Shuichi more aware of his nerves than he would like to be. Infectious overthinking jumps from Kaito to Shuichi, forcing his thoughts to chase themselves in circles. It works him up to taking a step back, to leave, when Kaito grabs his hand and hauls him forward. 

Using his momentum to drag Shuichi with him, Kaito plops down on the pillows in front of the window and, with his free hand, slings a blanket around them like a cape. Shuichi looks up at him like he would the stars and finds Kaito’s smile, more brilliant than the faded constellations. 

“It’s perfect.”

[spectralreplica]

So I loved your response on who would be most likely to witch out in the PMMM/DR v3 au, but id love to ask, what did they all wish for? (Bonus: Also did those wishes backfire?)

So, these are my thoughts for right now, but if I actually planned more of the “story” for this AU, some of them might change. For some of them I kind of cheated and came up with the power first, but in my defense it’s hard to come up with wishes without having planned more of the plot, since Kyubey tries so hard to get people to make spur of the moment wishes during times of stress.

Kokichi: I see him as totally paranoid (rightfully so) over how Kyubey’s trying to trick him but still obsessing for weeks over the perfect phrasing for a wish just in case, and then suddenly a witch traps him and DICE in a Labyrinth and he ends up contracting with a totally spontaneous wish. Something like “saving my friends” or “being strong enough to protect my family.” For maximum irony, he’d end up with powers that get stronger when fighting with/to protect others but keep trying to fight alone anyway due to not trusting other magicals and not wanting to put DICE in danger. He’d also tell people he wished for other things like, “to rule the world from the shadows,” or “an infinite supply of scarfs.” As for backfiring, he does save everyone that one time, but they’re in more danger since other magicals end up targeting them when Kokichi poaches from their territories, plus they’re in the line of fire if/when he witches out.

Kaito: Like in the game, Kaito is terminally ill and wishes for something along the lines of “being healthy enough to achieve his dreams,” but he totally lies and says he wished for something like “being strong enough to help others.” He gets the power to temporarily boost other people’s powers and/or make their bodies regenerate from wounds. He kind of avoids using the healing part at first because it’s a little suspicious with his alleged wish and then pretends it’s a thing he’s been practicing. It doesn’t really go bad for him, and I don’t think he’d regret making the wish, even when he finds out about the Soul Gems controlling your body thing. Maybe when he realizes there are no witches in space? But even then I think he’d be in denial…

Shuichi: Shuichi ends up involved in a really serious case and just can’t find the piece that ties it all together even though everyone is counting on him. At the height of his anxiety, Kyubey approaches him, and he wishes to find the truth. He basically gets super intuition/lie detection with a (mental) visual interface sort of like the DR trials (truth bullets plus the mini games). This creates drama with certain other magicals who are hiding something (cough, Kokichi and Kaito) and makes him doubt his skills since he’s relying on magic to cheat.

Maki: Still an orphan, still approached by a cult, but then approached by Kyubey. She wishes that the cult would never bother anyone at the orphanage again, and they all end up arrested, dead, or mysteriously vanished. She basically gets the power to make things/people “go away” to a pocket dimension only she can access, and this makes other people sort of forget those things/people exist while they’re inside. She sees her wish as a necessary sacrifice, like her becoming an assassin in canon, so she is Not Happy when Kyubey approaches some of the other orphans.

Kaede: Honestly not sure???? She doesn’t really have anything in her backstory that would be a catalyst for Kyubey to approach her, so I see it as more of a random chance, situation-based thing, like Madoka healing the cat. Maybe she was trapped in a Labyrinth and wished for the power to fight survive, or to save a friend? Just know it’s not related to her piano playing. That’s all practice, and she likes it that way.

(Joke answer: Kaede gets super mad at someone from a distance and wishes she could slap them across the face for being an idiot. She gets the power to telekinetically smack anything around from across the room.)

Himiko: Intrigued by the idea of real magic but not intrigued by the idea of having to fight witches. Ends up wishing for her mentor to be more popular. Not as mind-controlly as Kyoko’s wish; basically, people just find him really cool and talented and can’t look away from his shows, but they don’t like, form a cult? Sort of derails her own career as a magician (both because the audience likes her mentor more and because she has to sneak off and fight witches) and doesn’t really fix the problems in their relationship, but he doesn’t leave and never return. Anyway, she gets the power to make herself and anyone she touches more or less noticeable/popular. Really good for stealth or drawing aggro. Also for convincing people to do her favors.

Tenko: She recently moved to the city after living in a temple since she was a child, and is finding it hard to adjust. One night, when she’s out acting as a “hero of justice” like her Master taught her and preventing a suicide, she ends up trapped in a Labyrinth and saved by Himiko. She ends up really, really attached and sort of accompanies her on hunts for a while until something goes wrong, and she ends up wishing to protect Himiko. She ends up with sort of a sense when Himiko needs help and is really good at putting up shields/barriers.

Miu: Still in a bad car crash leading to a coma, butthe surgery doesn’t go as well. Kyubey approaches her in the hospital right after she’s been told she’s facing permanent brain damage. She almost wishes to put her brain back to normal but then decides, why stop there? She wishes to be a genius with a super-brain that can solve any problem, and ends up with super inspiration, mostly aimed at turning any materials around her into an invention that will help her. She can use magic to substitute for missing materials and speed up the development time, but this uses a lot of magic at once, and the finished product won’t work for anyone else. Freaks out when she learns her body is now essentially hardware, but then she realizes the possibilities for improving things… Then everyone else freaks out.

Gonta: Still a feral child who got lost in the woodsand was sort of raised by wolves (not reptites, sorry), but this affects his ability to learn language and social skills much, much more severely than in canon. Wishes for the ability to understand others, which makes him fluent in all languages and sort of an empath. Also, because he sees animals as sort of on the same level as humans, this extends to animal languages in addition to human ones. Being able to speak and mimic “good manners” improves others’ opinions of him and his intelligence, but being able to feel how his birth family really feels about him is so upsetting that he eventually ends up running away and staying with Miu and Kiibo.

Kiibo: Lives with Miu. Does not remember his wish, but he has powers, so he has to have made one? Probably human. I’m still sort of torn over his backstory, but I’m kind of leaning towards a Hijiri kind of situation, where he was created by someone else’s wish. Or magic (cough, Miu.)

Ryoma: Wishes to get revenge on the mafia that killed his family and girlfriend. Basically gets enhanced strength and a sort of sense of where all of the members are. I sort of went over how his wish ends up in the other post…

Korekiyo: Wished to cure his sister’s illness and got healing powers. Currently traveling the world to observe other magicals. Like the other cult members, offers to use his powers for a price (usually Grief Seeds or information).

Angie: Starts out living on an isolated island andacting as a priestess/oracle, but begins to doubt her own abilities/connection to her god because natural disasters are getting worse and more people are leaving. She sort of interprets Kyubey as a messenger from her god and wishes to know what’s really going on/get a better sense of her destiny. She gets the power to predict the future as long as she is personally involved. She has to actively focus on a question (What happens if I do this?) or a goal (I want to achieve this) and she’ll see the most probable path. This really elevates her sense of self-importance, and makes it much easier to make others see things her way. It doesn’t prevent a tsunami from destroying her home and making everyone leave, at which point she meets Tsumugi and Kirumi.

Tsumugi: Her life isn’t bad, but she doesn’t like herself that much and feels empty and unfulfilled until she comes across the existence of actual magical girls (well, one in particular). Like an anime come to life! Tsumugi wishes for the ability to become someone else (yes, I know this was Rena’s wish too…) and gets the power to transform into other people. If they’re a magical, she can also copy a limited, weaker version of their powers.

Rantaro: Wishes to find all of his sisters and gets the ability to track people. He has an inherent sense where each of his sisters is and their general emotional state, but he can also apply this power to other people if he focuses. It works from anywhere in the world and can be based on a photograph, but it works best when the person is close by (from a country away he knows they’re alive and northwest from him, from a building away he knows they’re sitting in a chair in the back corner of the back bedroom and feeling excited but a little nervous) and he’s met them in person. He quickly discovers that tracking a sister down once doesn’t mean she’ll stay “found” and go home. Some of them also want to travel, others have bad senses of direction and always get lost again, some find his new knowledge of where they are and how they feel super creepy and avoid him, and at least one became a magical girl already… He probably finds out about the witch thing first…….

Kirumi: Part of a family that’s been serving animportant, rich family (maybe Rantaro’s? for maximum irony?) for generations. She’s been trained to dedicate her whole life to serving others and has no real prospects outside of eventually becoming head maid and training her own children to replace her. Meets Angie and Tsumugi and is immediately drawn in by Angie’s message. Wishes for the ability to instantly transport herself and others and gets the ability to teleport to any location she’s seen (photos count). It gets harder the more people she takes along, the longer the distance, and the less detail she knows about her destination. She tells everyone—and herself—that she lives to serve and wished for a convenient power to better serve the group’s needs, but she secretly wanted to escape really badly for her own sake too.

[originaldanganronpascenarios]

Sure go for it lol

Ah yes I actually lied. I ship Rantaro with everyone (With Tenko and Kirumi is my favorite tho). Alsoooo @yawnmeno I promised to tag you each time I post Amacha! (it's me justrandomgrill!)

Rantaro celebrating his birthday with each of his classmates (Ships- in most cases- okay maybe all cases)

Ryoma Hoshi

Ryoma wanted to plan everything before he does anything.

He thought that going somewhere might be nice but now where should they go? There are many good places to go to so it was a tough choice indeed.

He also thought about some nice gift. And he ended up with a journal. He thought it was a good idea and it was.

Now where should they go... There was a lot of places they could go really. But final decision was escape room.

Both of them had a lot of fun and managed to solve everything together. Rantaro thanked him for everything but Ryoma was actually the thankful one for having someone like Rantaro.

Kirumi Tojo

Kirumi was preparing perfect birthday for her boyfriend Rantaro. Day before she cleaned entire apartment (like she normally does but this time she put extra-extra effort into it).

She asked few of her classmates to come and now it was time for even more preparations.

Luckily Rantaro whouldn't be home anytime soon so she could get to work without ruining the surprise. She baked delicious cakes and prepared lost of food. Wich took few hours of her sleep.

Next day the last thing she needed to do was set up decorations and wait for guests. Wich she did quickly. In all this mess she forgot about most important thing! A worthy gift!

It was too late now since she whouldn't find perfect gift last minute! Becouse of that she was really stressed. Kaede tried to calm her down but Kirumi's perfectionist side couldn't belive she forgot about it.

But she had to deal with it. Rantaro whould be any second now.

Once he came home everyone at the party greeted him and party just went amazing.

Even though she had a lot of fun Kirumi was 1: Exhausted 2: Still very mad at herself for forgetting about gift for Rantaro.

Speaking about gifts it was time to give them and Kirumi had to apologize for not getting anything to him. He then looked at her and his expression clearly said 'are you serious???' but in a manner of 'why do you think you gave me nothing when you literally did everything for all of this to take place?' he told her that too.

He then hugged her and kissed her on the cheek adding "You have nothing to apologize for Kirumi" she smiled and felt better.

After party was over and everyone headed outside it was time to clean all mess that was made. Kirumi was visably exhausted so Rantaro was like "Don't you dare clean this now. Go get some sleep" he then picked her up bridal style and made sure she goes to sleep.

Before he went to bed however he quickly hid some leftovers in the fridge.

Gonta Gokuhara

At first he didn't knew what to do. But in the end he got everyone together and they prepared party for Rantaro.

Gonta tried to think of a good gift for him to show how much he appreciated him.

But nothing was good enough and Gonta was desperately trying to find something. And he came across a hat. A beret to be exact.

He suddenly felt like it was the gift he was looking for so he got it.

Then he came back and helped with rest of party preparations. Mostly with the decorations!

He was really excited and couldn't wait to see Rantaro's happy face once he enters the room.

Of course Gonta was the one leading him there so he tried not to tell anything. He was just happy as usual and managed to not say anything until they got there.

The party turned out great and Rantaro really loved gift from Gonta.

Miu Iruma

For his birthday she started thinking about a large amount of inventions. She thought that the best gift was practical one.

And she literally stole his camera to modify it. She knew she whould be scolded if he notices his camera gone and find out that she stole it but she just thought about scenario where she shows him his new camera and thought he'd be happy about it.

She gave it a lot of cool options and was proud of herself. Lucky for her Rantaro didn't notice that the camera was gone.

When it was his birthday she had it finished. So she approached him and gave it to him.

Rantaro was confused that she gave him exact same camera he had but then she started talking about the fact that she modified it and that she in order to do that she stole it.

He couldn't belive her at the moment but he understood why she did it so he just let it go.

K1B0

He thought a lot about his birthday really. But he had trouble thinking of what to get for him.

I mean Rantaro had pretty much everything he needed.

So Keebo tried to plan something small but fun! So they went to a cat Cafe! Believe it or not but it was their first time there.

Keebo was actually fascinated by it. He couldn't eat anything or drink but he really loved the cats.

They had very long conversation and Rantaro really enjoyed that moment.

After nice time they spent in Cafe they went on a walk and it got quite chilly. That's when Keebo remembered that he bought a scarf for him.

They shared it together on their way back.

Kaede Akamatsu

She didn't knew what to give to someone who practically has everything. So she started looking for inspiration and she got an idea wich was something she could play on the piano.

She looked for perfect song that fit Rantaro and he whould like. After thinking for a long time she finally found something perfect fitting.

Of course she thought about making something herself but she knew she whouldn't make it in time. So she trained playing what she came up with.

It was really good song but she felt like it wasn't enough so she bought her a cute gift with was a matching bracelet! It was an avocado-

When she started playing the song on his birthday he really loved the song and he could just sit back and relax. It was really calm and pleasant moment.

And then when she was finished she gave that cute accessory and he loved it. They both had it on.

Kaito Momota

Of course he planned star gazing. But it wasn't just that!

They did actually a lot of things before that. Some quick food some bowling. They were out pretty much entire day!

So when it was time for the best part things actually didn't go as he planned. It started raining so they got home as fast as possible.

Kaito didn't seemed too bothered by it. I mean when one plan fails it means it wasn't best idea right?

They ended up cuddling together while they watched some movies.

Angie Yonaga

She was making her gift obviously. And it was a painting of him and her together. It was a realistic one.

And she was great at keeping it all a secret for how long he wouldn't enter her workshop everything whould be just fine.

It wasn't a problem either since she could just shut it wich she did.

Angie really couldn't wait for his birthday! But she had to be patient.

I mean she pretty much didn't say only about the gift since she pretty much asked him if he wanted to do something together.

So they sorta just had a good time out and by the end of the day she led him towards her workshop and showed him the painting.

He was amazed by it and of course said so!

Shuichi Saihara

Ah yes. He was extremely nervous. He didn't try to prepare any surprise since he knew he whouldn't be able to hide it for long.

So they just spent time together whole day went to the cinema. Pretty basic stuff and both of them were happy to share this moments together.

Shuichi felt a little bit bad that he couldn't make this day God knows how special but Rantaro appreciated it.

After all their date was a success so why should he care if it was God knows how big or oryginal.

Tenko Chabashira

She knew his birthday was now closer with each day and she was really nervous on what should she do.

They were dating sure but they were in early stages of relationship and she tried to come up with something.

In the end she tried to find a good gift for him. No... Good isn't best way to say it. She tried to find perfect gift.

She thought about for very long time and she decided to buy him new camera! Since he travels a lot and he takes a lot of photos she thought that she can buy him one. Then she realized he had a great one already and she couldn't afford better one at the time.

Why is having a perfect rich boyfriend so hard? She literally had tons of ideas but none of them whould work.

She felt pretty much mad about it at this point. While she was walking she got small idea. Maybe she can make something? Ah who am I kidding she wouldn't be able to do anything. But trying won't hurt her so it's better this than nothing

He was slowly getting worried when he saw Tenko acting a little bit bothered so he asked her what's wrong.

She didn't wanted to ruin a surprise (she doesn't have) so she lied about some random dude being rude to her.

Rantaro put his hand on her shoulder and told her not to worry about that guy. And tried to comfort her in general.

This made her feel even worse that she can't do anything for his birthday.

She didn't give up but in the end she finally made something. She asked Angie for help and she made a bracelet all by herself. It was mostly green and blue.

She felt a bit embarrassed since it wasn't perfect but she did it in the end. She gave it to him.

Rantaro found it a cute gift and thanked her. He actually didn't expect to get anything from her but he kept wearing bracelet Tenko made for him.

Himiko Yumeno

Magic show. But not the plain one. She tried to think of least known tricks and practiced it for a shit-ton of time.

She really put a lot of effort into it but she also tried to have some rest since if she whould keep practicing she whouldn't be able to preform.

She also wanted his sisters to come and some were even assisting her.

The show was amazing and Rantaro couldn't help but smile. His sisters had a great time too!

He couldn't thank her enough.

Maki Harukawa

She didn't knew what to do since she herself didn't celebrate any birthdays.

So she came up with something basic. She cooked dinner and prepared small gift for him wich was a photo album.

The album was empty though but the photo on the first page wich was them on their first adventure together.

She smiled while she thought of that time it was very fun trip indeed.

After they ate together and Rantaro received her gift they spend rest of the afternoon looking at photos that whould fit the album.

Together they thought about how many things they went through and how fun it was.

Kokichi Ouma

He was lowkey panicking. He had no ideas on what to give his boyfriend for his birthday.

Trying to think of something Kokichi walked around the town and he thought about something.

He thought about getting him matching scarf to his. It was quite simple but he hoped Rantaro whould like it.

After getting one and when it was his birthday he tied scarf around his neck and hugged him from behind "Happy birthday Rantaro!" he added.

They spent entire day together and Rantaro didn't take off his scarf. He was actually thankful for it.

But back to them spending time they mainly walked around the town doing whatever came to mind. It was actually a lot of fun.

Korekiyo Shinguji

After dating for so long Korekiyo found it frustrating that he couldn't think of anything special for his birthday.

Expecially since he whould be cool with anything really since he just doesn't expect to do anything.

They had currently a small break from traveling so he tried to think of something small but fun.

So they went rock wall climbing. Both of them were pretty experienced with it and they loved it.

After they were finished Korekiyo noticed that he forgot to take something with him- a bag.

You see this bag was the gift he went with and Korekiyo couldn't belive that he forgot it.

However he acted cool with it and tried to mask it with invitation to his place.

Rantaro was alright with it so they went inside and Korekiyo managed to give him that bag. It was actually really cool and from that time he allways used it whenever they traveled together!

Tsumigi Shirogane

She was really excited for his birthday and she thought about a good gift.

Tsumigi actually planned this ahead and she sew for him something. It was a shit of his favorite fictional character.

She actually managed to get his size right and it fit him perfectly. She was really glad he liked his gift.

The two went to the restaurant after that and got some quite fancy dinner. They had amazing time together.

Rest of the day they spent together aswell just cuddling and watching something random on the TV.

~Mod Chiaki

[elyvorg]

Maki Harukawa: What She Wants Matters

As much as I love Maki and her character arc, I didn’t use to think there was any need for me to do a big analytical ramble about her like the one I did for Kaito. After all, Maki’s arc is very clear and in-the-open thanks to Kaito encouraging her to talk about things. Look at her opening up and making friends and learning to trust people and be trusted herself! It’s lovely to behold.

But I realised as I thought more about Maki that there is a part of her arc that’s a lot subtler and likely gets noticed and talked about a lot less, which is a shame when it’s possibly the most interesting aspect of her issues and development. I’m referring to how difficult it is for her to believe that her own feelings and desires are important in any way, and the series of events that pushes her into finally acknowledging this and beginning to embrace what she wants for herself.

So let’s talk about this. Because just like everything that goes on inside Maki’s head, it matters, and it deserves to be talked about.

Her feelings don’t matter

Throughout chapters 3 and 4, Maki gradually makes a lot of progress in opening up to Kaito and Shuichi about herself: the people she’s killed, the horribly gruelling training she’s been through, and eventually even her happy days back at the orphanage before her life became hell. But one aspect lags noticeably behind compared to her just talking about these things, and that’s her ability to acknowledge how she feels about any of this.

Maki repeatedly calls her stories about her horrible past “boring”. Really, they couldn’t be further from that – it’s heartbreaking learning how much suffering she’s been through – but she genuinely doesn’t expect Kaito and Shuichi to be having any kind of emotional response to hearing it all. She has so thoroughly convinced herself that her suffering doesn’t matter that it doesn’t occur to her for a second that anybody else might think it does – not even the people she’s just about beginning to accept are seeing her as a friend. There’s also the way she has a habit of calling Shuichi’s expression “gross”, specifically whenever he shows signs of caring about her feelings and seeing her as a person. She’s trying to write off his concern for her, because no, that’s not a thing he’s supposed to be doing. Her feelings don’t matter. Nobody else – not even someone who might be her friend – is supposed to care.

You’d think, when people found out her talent and became afraid of her, the most obvious way for Maki to defend herself would have been to explain that she never chose her profession and was basically forced into it against her will. Yet it never even crosses her mind to say that. It’s only more than a chapter later, in the chapter 4 training session where she talks about her past at length, that Maki finally fully admits for the first time that she never had a choice in becoming an assassin. But even then, she says it offhandedly, like that fact doesn’t ultimately matter or change anything.

There’s also a comment Maki makes in early chapter 5 about how killing for a living makes her no better than the evil sadist that they’re assuming Kokichi is. She genuinely doesn’t think the fact that she didn’t choose this and doesn’t enjoy murdering people counts for anything in terms of judging how good of a person she is in light of all her murders. That’s so heartbreaking? Of course that makes her a significantly less terrible person than a hypothetical sadist who kills just for fun!

There’s no way out

This whole problem is illustrated even more clearly in Maki’s final free time event. It might seem like a positive sign of progress that the event ends on Maki saying that maybe she’ll be able to quit being an assassin one day, but the way she approaches this possibility is so painfully telling about how messed-up she still is. And this FTE takes place as late in the story as chapter 5’s Daily Life, because Maki still isn’t going to get anywhere with this part of her issues until the fifth trial.

In the FTE, Shuichi offers to use his detective skills to investigate and maybe take down her assassin cult so she won’t have to kill people any more, and Maki instantly tells him that’s impossible. She explains that assassins are currently a necessary evil in this world and suggests instead that Shuichi should try to change the world enough such that nobody ever resorts to murder any more. Only then, Maki concedes, she might be able to stop being an assassin.

Which is a monumentally worse way to approach getting her out of her profession than what Shuichi was suggesting, and completely missing the point. Some assassins exist who actually willingly chose that job for whatever reason, and they should be the only people who “need” to do it. Even if assassins might be necessary, child slave assassins who never had a choice in the matter are very decidedly not. Taking down Maki’s one single child-slave-assassin-training cult is absolutely the simplest and most achievable way to help her.

But Maki doesn’t see it that way, because the fact that she personally never wanted this has never crossed her mind as relevant at all. If Shuichi asks her “but are you okay with this?”, Maki tells him that question is unreasonable and cannot answer it. It’s really a very simple question – the answer is no, obviously! – but Maki has trained herself to block out her own feelings about her situation and write them off as unimportant and irrelevant, so thoroughly that her mind just short-circuits and returns an error message when she’s asked about them.

The reason Maki’s like this, the reason that this is the hardest thing for her to change, is that this is the coping mechanism she’s had no choice but to develop. Trapped in her awful situation with absolutely no possible way out of it as far as she could see (she was ten years old), all of her thoughts and feelings about how badly she didn’t want this would have been just too painful for her to deal with. The only way she could cope was by locking those desires and feelings away and convincing herself that they don’t matter. She’s just had to resign herself to this. When there’s genuinely no escape, nobody could bear to keep fighting against it forever. It’s so much easier to just stop trying, and to forget that you ever wanted to try in the first place.

Maki has grown up telling herself that the impossible is just impossible, so she should accept it and get used to things the way they are. Trying to make it possible is futile and will only lead to more pain.

This is precisely one of the many reasons why Kaito is such a good influence for her and exactly the kind of person she needs to help her out of this!

She killed Kaito, and she definitely doesn’t care

…Or, at least, he might have been, perhaps – if she hadn’t gone and killed him.

After what I imagine was a huge emotional breakdown over the events in the hangar, Maki pulled herself together and suppressed that pain as hard as she could. She’s so well-practiced at doing so that the next morning – the morning after she killed her closest friend – she appears to be just about the same as ever. Even as they find Kaito’s body even more horrifically dead than she was expecting to see it, Maki firmly insists that his death doesn’t bother her.

It’s that same coping mechanism she always uses, for exactly the same reasons. This reality can’t be changed, and thinking about how she wanted things to be different only causes pointless unnecessary pain, so she doesn’t. She can’t. She just accepts things the way they are and convinces herself she’s fine with it.

Maki refuses to investigate with Shuichi not only because she doesn’t want him to figure out she’s the culprit, but also because Shuichi keeps infuriatingly talking as if Kaito might be alive – and as if she should want Kaito to be alive. She just can’t bear to be brought anywhere near those kinds of thoughts about what she might want when she knows that it’s already impossible.

Later in the trial, while fervently arguing that having broken into the hangar doesn’t mean she’s the one who killed Kaito, at no point does Maki ever try to defend herself on the basis that she would never want to kill him. Nobody has brought up the possibility that Kaito’s death could have been accidental at this point, so it would be a sensible argument to make. Granted, arguments about someone’s character and motives aren’t the most concrete ones to make in a class trial, but Maki has to know that it would be likely to give Shuichi pause, because there’s no way he’d want to think that Maki would do that either.

But no. Of course that’s an irrelevant argument to make. What Maki wants never matters, especially when it comes to her having killed someone. She’s just a murderer, and Shuichi should accept that she could just as easily have murdered anybody at all, even if it’s Kaito, no matter how she might hypothetically feel about it.

Even as Maki is confessing to the truth of what happened in the hangar and it becomes clear that her shooting Kaito with the poison arrow was an accident, she never actually directly mentions that she didn’t mean to kill him. She talks only very indirectly about the panic she felt while rushing to get the antidote, without properly expressing why she was so desperate. It’s only “I knew I had to do something about the poison,” and not, “I couldn’t let Kaito die.”

It just hurts too much for her to think of it that way when Kaito still died anyway because of her, and nothing will change that truth.

…Kaito’s alive!?

Until, out of nowhere, maybe something can.

If Shuichi still thinks it could be possible for Kaito to be alive, then maybe it actually is. The fact that Maki listens to him as soon as he expresses this is a subtle but huge testament to how much she believes in her friend’s detective skills. She only ignored Shuichi’s optimism earlier because she knew a lot more than he did about what happened in the hangar, and she didn’t see any possible way out for Kaito from where she was standing. But now that he knows that same information, Shuichi can still see a way out after all.

Maki puts her faith in his judgement and latches onto that tiny possibility that Kaito might be alive with everything she has. She refuses to let it go, despite Exisal Kokichi – aka Kaito himself – continuing to insist it’s totally impossible. I bet Kaito made a point of claiming it was impossible in a deliberate attempt to spur Maki to argue otherwise, and he must have been bursting with pride in her when she went and did exactly that. The impossible is possible! Maki Roll is finally believing that for herself! She’s finally trying to claw and fight her way into a better reality instead of just accepting the awful one she’s stuck in!

An equally important and absolutely lovely part of this is Maki finally expressing the fact that she didn’t want to kill Kaito, that she hates the thought that she did that. Based on her wording and her hesitant tone, it’s still difficult for her to admit it, but she’s finally doing so. It’s not quite so unbearably painful to think about when it might not be the truth after all. And it’s so wonderfully appropriate that this is the first moment we ever see Maki cry – she’s finally letting herself acknowledge and express her painful emotions and feel like they matter.

She also openly admits for the first time that she likes the nickname Maki Roll, not just begrudgingly accepting it, but actively asking Himiko to call her that! She’s desperate for anything that’ll remind her of Kaito and help her hold onto what she felt like back when he was alive, so that she can keep believing that maybe he still is. Maki is finally beginning to embrace how much she cares about Kaito and treat that fact like it’s important and deserves to be acknowledged, and it’s adorable.

Half a lifetime’s worth of forcing herself to just accept her lot as an assassin and ignore how desperately she wants to be a normal kid was always going to be nigh-impossible to break through on its own. But caring about Kaito and not wanting to lose him are new feelings that Maki hasn’t spent half her life suppressing. She only had a single night to shut away her pain over Kaito’s death and accept that he’s definitely gone – it’s far easier for that to be undone. The moment a tiny glimmer of a possibility opens up again thanks to her belief in Shuichi, Maki couldn’t ignore it if she tried.

Maki’s arguments for Kaito’s survival aren’t even all that logical. Her statements in the Nonstop Debate about the video are too caught up in what if it wasn’t Kaito? to make any meaningful suggestions like everyone else is; she insists the weird video angle “proves” a trick was used when really it only opens up the possibility; she’s the first one to hastily summarise everyone’s discussion about the video trick and just get to the point that this means Kaito’s still alive, right? Maki’s usually one of the best at taking the rational approach in trials and focusing on all the logistical details, but right now she doesn’t even care about any of that stuff, not when Kaito being alive is what she wants to be true, more than anything else in the world.

It would hurt so much for this to all be for nothing and for Kaito to turn out to be dead after all. Holding onto this hope is such a huge risk, and it’s terrifying – but it’s worth it. Even the tiniest chance of Kaito being alive is infinitely better than the alternative, no matter how terrifying it is. Whether she likes it or not, or even realises it at all, this experience is teaching Maki that fighting for that tiny possibility of something better, no matter how much it hurts, is always worth the pain.

Maki’s desperate defence of Kaito leading into her Argument Armament, though she doesn’t admit it and keeps trying to insist her argument is logical, is also her acting on her emotions. Her only real reason for it is simply that she doesn’t want to believe Kaito could have killed anyone.

And the only way for her to run away from that is to insist that she really did kill Kaito after all – which incidentally forces her to express a narrative of “this happened even though I didn’t want it to,” and not brush that latter part off like it’s irrelevant. This time it’s just a lie, but this is nonetheless a very important kind of narrative that Maki needs to learn to understand and accept. Sometimes things happen that she wishes never had, but that doesn’t mean that the fact she didn’t want it never mattered!

Losing Kaito after all

Maki is forced to learn this even more harshly at the end of the trial. Kaito’s alive, she didn’t kill him, he’s right here – but he’s dying anyway and there’s not a thing she or anybody else can do about it.

The Maki from before all this happened would have just given up, accepted it, and immediately begun insisting to herself that she doesn’t care in order to cope. Kaito is clearly a dead man walking on two separate levels – his illness and the execution – and changing his fate at this point really is completely and truly impossible. Maki is a smart and pragmatic person; she knows this perfectly well.

But the Maki who’s here now refuses to let that stop her from trying. She’s furiously determined to fight the Exisals to protect Kaito, despite knowing that even her assassin skills aren’t enough for that, despite knowing that Kaito is sick and dying anyway no matter what she does. She doesn’t want this, so she’s going to claw and scream and fight against it with everything she has, no matter how futile her efforts will be in the end. I love her line, “I don’t want this to end… I just… don’t…” – the only reason why she’s doing this is that she doesn’t want Kaito to die, and that’s the only reason she should ever need.

Amongst all this, Maki desperately admits to her romantic feelings for Kaito, because even if this can’t do anything to change his fate, her feeling this way about him still matters and she’s still feeling it and it deserves to be said. She’s not even really saying it for Kaito’s benefit like she expects a response from him about it; she’s just saying it for her own sake, because she wants to make it real.

Usually I’m the first person to roll my eyes and lose interest when romance rears its head. Yet I can actually appreciate the fact that Maki’s feelings for Kaito have a romantic aspect to them, because it makes this moment work for Maki’s arc in ways that it wouldn’t if her feelings were purely platonic.

Kaito was obviously always trying to get Maki to consider him a friend, so her having done that is still essentially her just doing what someone else wanted of her, like always, albeit at least someone who has her best interests at heart for once. But Kaito never asked or expected Maki to fall in love with him. Maki’s romantic feelings came from nowhere but herself. And while that in itself can’t quite be called her “choice” because that’s not how romantic attraction works, Maki accepting and embracing those feelings to make them a part of her and let them drive her actions is entirely her own choice. It’s a choice nobody else, not even Kaito, encouraged her to make. That’s such a huge, huge deal coming from her.

Maki caring about Kaito as a friend is something that was already pretty apparent from her actions and never really needed to be said. But her caring about him romantically was something that nobody would have known (Tsumugi’s incidentally-right-for-all-the-wrong-reasons amatonormative bullshit aside) if Maki hadn’t decided that it mattered enough to want to express it.

Maybe she manages to admit to all this now because she hated having to suppress all her feelings about Kaito like they didn’t even matter the last time he “died” on her, helping her realise just how important these feelings are to her and that she can’t bear to just ignore that any more. Kaito has been so, so good for her; of course she wouldn’t want to lose that, nor brush it off like it’s nothing.

Seeing him about to die for real this time with no way out, Maki’s probably also driven by some desperate irrational sense that if she just explodes with all of the exact reasons why she doesn’t want this to happen, maybe it somehow just… won’t? This is the very opposite of the lock-it-all-away coping mechanism she’s been employing for a lifetime, and even as it’s heartwrenching, it’s also so lovely to see her doing this.

Maki partly tries to cover up these emotions of hers at first with her fierce assassin mask. She’s still instinctively using her usual defences to try and block out some of the pain, but it’s not enough to stop her expressing things, nor to stop her from crying as she does so. As Kaito responds to it all by showing his usual painfully selfless pride in how far she’s come and can keep going from here, making it all about her and not himself, Maki finally seems to fully accept that there really is nothing she can do to save him, and she drops the assassin mask and just breaks down completely.

Kaito is inescapably about to die, even though she doesn’t want this, and both of those facts are allowed to co-exist. She lets it hurt; she lets herself cry over his death, because no matter how painful it is, it’s worth it. It’s so much better than pretending she never cared about Kaito and all the things he did for her. Maki tried doing that once, and she’s never going there again.

In their Kaito memorial training session after the trial, it’s such a big deal that Maki is the one to nudge Shuichi into talking about how he’s feeling and how much it hurts. She’s finally realising and learning for herself that opening up about her painful feelings can help, and by sharing that with Shuichi, she’s helping him deal with his grief, too. She resolves to honour Kaito’s memory by showing how grateful she is for everything he did for her, not even because that’s what Kaito would have wanted her to do, but just because she wants to for herself.

It’s all “fake”

But losing Kaito isn’t quite the end of Maki’s arc regarding all this. There’s still a little further for her to be pushed in trial 6.

When Shuichi reveals in the trial that Kokichi wasn’t actually a Remnant of Despair, Maki is subtly the most shocked out of anybody to hear this. She never explains why, but knowing what we know about her issues with never having her own desires and always being used as a puppet by somebody else, it’s clear that that’s what this is about.

Maki thought that her decision to kill Kokichi was her own. She even still basically kept thinking of it that way even after learning he wasn’t the mastermind, and even after realising that the Flashback Light was a motive designed to make her target Kokichi. After all, she’d have chosen on her own to kill a Remnant of Despair anyway; the Flashback Light just happened to let her know Kokichi was one, right? But upon realising that none of that was true, that there was no genuine, non-fabricated reason for her to kill Kokichi at all, it shakes Maki to her core.

It wasn’t really her decision, on any level. She was finally beginning to feel, after Kaito’s trial, that her desires were her own and they meant something – but here’s a sudden revelation proving that this action of hers that she thought was entirely of her own volition was never that at all. It was nothing but her being manipulated and used as a puppet to kill by someone with far more power than her, just like she always has been.

(Maki also overlooks the implications of Kokichi’s motive video during the investigation, even though she’s in the room when Shuichi watches it, meaning she should have seen it and been able to figure out what it meant by herself. The sad truth is that because of her background of suppressing her own desires and ideas, Maki is very susceptible to manipulation. She was quite happy to believe that Kokichi was a Remnant of Despair, because it justified her decision to kill him and made the whole situation easier to deal with. There was no way she was going to question that assumption on her own.)

Similarly, when Tsumugi boasts that the Flashback Lights were being used to control everyone’s emotions and motivations, Maki again sounds more distressed by this idea than anybody else. She thought her determination to “defeat despair” was her own desire, but really, none of it was. In this instance, that’s basically true, but hearing as such is especially painful for Maki. It hits her right in her issues and the progress she was beginning to make about feeling like her own person, making her wonder if she really even is at all.

This gets even more painful for her a little later, as Tsumugi goes right for where it hurts and insists that Maki’s romantic feelings for Kaito were just artificially implanted by a Flashback Light, never truly “real”. Tsumugi probably did this because she thinks that ~romance~ is so much more important than friendship and obviously Maki must be soooo sad to lose that – but that’s not the reason why Maki’s distressed by it at all. It’s because, as I went over before, Maki’s romantic feelings for Kaito were supposed to be hers and something nobody else wanted of her and that she chose to embrace and make a part of her, all by herself. Hearing that actually they just came from some evil asshole manipulating her and using her as a puppet yet again – it tears right into all of the progress that these feelings themselves had been helping her begin to make. Maki’s emotions and desires matter after all? No, they don’t. They were never even hers in the first place. They were never even real.

Someone more self-assured than Maki (such as Kaito) would have been able to stand up for their own feelings here and call Tsumugi’s claim out as the bullshit it obviously is. Even if her feelings were implanted, they would still matter just as much because she’d still be feeling them now – but also, there’s a mountain of evidence for the fact that Maki’s romantic feelings for Kaito were in fact completely real and organically arose throughout her interactions with him. She made it very clear as she confessed to them at the end of trial 5 that this is all about the kind of person Kaito is and the things he’s done for her. That’s where her romantic feelings arose from, and all of that was entirely real and happened after everyone was created from fake memories. Maki is the only one who was inside her own head when she began to feel that way about Kaito, so she of all people should know better than anyone else just how very not-fake her feelings are!

But she can’t realise that on her own. Despite the progress she’d been making thanks to Kaito’s trial, Maki had still spent a lifetime (a fake lifetime, but those fake memories clearly still wired her brain to think this way) suppressing her emotions as thoroughly irrelevant and feeling like she was nothing but a puppet for other people’s whims. She began the killing game with absolutely no self-assurance in who she is or how she feels; of course it would be heartbreakingly easy for her to lose faith in herself and revert back to thinking that way again when given the slightest reason to.

So Maki just buys Tsumugi’s claim completely, without even questioning it. Her feelings for Kaito were fake, as was her desire to defeat the mastermind, as was everything else about who she is. Nothing about her matters, and it never did. She doesn’t even get to be a person at all.

Believing in herself at last

We don’t see Maki reacting much as Shuichi begins his impassioned argument that the pain and emotions and desires everyone felt in this killing game were still thoroughly real. But it must have helped her begin to overcome this. If you feel something, that feeling is real and important, and that’s all that matters. She believes in Shuichi’s judgement; she must have been listening to him.

Perhaps even more helpful for her is how, as Shuichi encourages Maki to stand with him on this, he urges her to believe in herself. It might sound generic at first glance, but really, that’s exactly what Maki’s arc and her struggle with these issues always needed to come down to in the end: her believing that she has worth as a person. Not only in terms of not hating herself and accepting that she deserves to have friends, but in terms of embracing the fact that her feelings are real and important and hers, and they always have been.

It’s so hard for Maki to do this. It goes against everything that’s been ingrained into her throughout her whole life (a “fake” life, but what does that matter when it’s having a real effect on her?), and everything that Tsumugi’s been spouting for half the trial. But she can do it now. Thanks to everything Kaito’s done for her, and the things she felt as she lost him twice, and Shuichi’s continued support, Maki finally makes a conscious effort to believe in everything she’s feeling. She chooses for herself to make her existence as Maki Harukawa matter.

It’s such a wonderful culmination to her character arc, right at the end of chapter 6. She’s finally reached a point where she can fully accept and embrace that she wants to believe in herself like this. Kaito would be so, so proud of her – like he once said, “The only thing that matters is what you want to believe!”, and now Maki Roll is embodying that perfectly! But as much as Kaito would have loved to see this, the best part is that she’s not even doing this to make him proud. She needed her friends’ help and kindness to be able to reach this point, but now she’s not doing this for anyone else’s sake. Maki’s doing it purely for herself.

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Bonus 4.1 - Ultimate Talent Development Plan (Mostly Kaito Edition)

This is postgame content, so people shouldn’t be reading this without having already finished the main game anyway. But just to be safe: while this is non-canon character stuff, I will sometimes be mentioning events that happened in the main story, so there will be spoilers for the main game.

First off, some of the usual preamble about how this mode even works. Functionally, it’s, of all things, a board game that serves as a companion for another bonus mode which is a dungeon crawler RPG. Characters don’t gain experience from battles in the RPG; instead, you level up characters in this mode, by playing through the board game as them. I could go on at great length about all the mechanics of this, because I got rather addicted to it at one point. (Apparently all you need to do to make me invested in the mechanics of an RPG is to put characters I already love into it, and then I will do everything in my power to figure out how to turn them into the awesomest fighters they can be. Kaito is the best tank and will take all of the hits to protect his glass-cannon sidekicks!) But we’re here for the story aspect, so I shall restrain myself.

Flavour-wise, each playthrough of the board game follows your chosen character as they live out three years at Hope’s Peak, in a non-despair AU in which the casts from DR1, DR2 and DRV3 are all in the same school year. (Well, it’s mostly non-despair – at the end of the three years, an army of Monokuma robots is unleashed under the school, and that’s the dungeon crawling part. But your heroes ultimately deal with that threat before it can cause any chaos outside.)

The board game is only a very abstract representation of this story. Each turn supposedly represents one month, but really most of the spaces on the board are just various ways to level up your various attributes and don’t have any real narrative. The only spaces that matter for our purposes here are Friendly Spaces, which will show you one of five scenes featuring your character, that I’ll refer to as “friendly events”, in which they interact with one or two other students. If you land on enough Friendly Spaces, which is easy enough to do if you’re aiming for it, you’ll see all five scenes with your character.

The other source of story here is seasonal events, which trigger automatically on a specific month in each of the three years. The character you’re playing as gets a choice of three possible things they can do for the event, each of which results in a scene with one or two other characters. Unfortunately, these choices are mutually exclusive, so to see all of a character’s scenes, you need to play as them through almost the entirety of the board game (because the last seasonal event is near the end of year 3) three times.

…But actually, that’s not all, not if you want to really see all the scenes for a single character. Friendly Space scenes are easy to see all of because they’ll appear when you’re playing as any of the characters featured in them. (Well, usually; one of Kaito’s doesn’t appear for him, but that seems to be just a programming oversight.) But the seasonal event scenes don’t work this way and only appear for the character who is given the choice of what to do. So any given character is also going to appear in a bunch of other characters’ seasonal events, and you’re only going to see those scenes by playing as those other characters. Worse, if you’re interested in a specific character’s scenes, there’s no way to even know which other characters’ seasonal events they appear in. So the only way to be sure that you’ve seen every single scene for a given character is to play through the board game three times each as *every single one of over fifty characters*. (Actually, the exact number is fifty-three, which… I think is genuinely just a coincidence. Heh.)

In short, thank god for the wiki. I do not envy but am immensely grateful to the people who went and did exactly that and got transcripts – with sprites, even – of every single one of these scenes. Thankfully, each character’s page for this mode on the wiki contains all of their own seasonal events and all of their appearances in other characters’ seasonal events, so you can see absolutely all of their scenes in one place. I am not using my Vita for this one. (I wouldn’t have wanted to anyway because the backlog function doesn’t work in this mode, but.)

While it makes things way more inconvenient in terms of actually seeing every scene, I do prefer the board game as a framing device for this AU’s story far more than the framing device for the Salmon Team AU. Salmon Team used the same interface of Shuichi walking around and talking to people that the main story had, which resulted in an impression that, in-story, everyone was just robotically standing in the same spot every day doing nothing until Shuichi came to talk to them. But this board game is abstract enough that we know none of the rolling dice and landing on spaces is really what’s happening in-story. The scenes we see give us a glimpse of the students’ school lives, but there’s clearly so much more happening offscreen that we don’t get to see. It feels like an organic and fully-realised story that the board game just happens to only give us a series of brief windows into.

Before beginning into the board game itself and seeing any of the actual scenes, you also get a single textbox from the character you’ve chosen to play as, as they get ready to enrol in Hope’s Peak.

Kaito:  “Alright! I’ll keep training while I’m here and after I graduate, I’ll go straight to space!”

Kaito’s words here raise a few questions, honestly. If he’s already started astronaut training, he should be focusing entirely on that and really should not also be attending high school. He questioned in the demo why he’d have bothered enrolling in some academy when he should just be working on getting to space as soon as possible; you’d think he’d feel the same even if it was Hope’s Peak! It seems like the writing is just desperately trying to have it be the case that Kaito is both already an astronaut trainee in order to justify his Ultimate status, and yet is also attending Hope’s Peak, even though dividing his focus like that really doesn’t seem like the right way for Hope’s Peak to nurture his talent.

However, we could get this to work by imagining that Kaito is exaggerating here about having already started his training. Perhaps what’s really going on is this: Kaito managed to impress the space program despite being way too young, so they made him a deal. They recommended him to Hope’s Peak as the Ultimate Astronaut, having acknowledged his incredible potential to be one, and if he graduates from there, then he gets to jump straight into astronaut training without also needing a college degree. After all, part of Hope’s Peak’s deal is supposed to be that you’re “set for life” if you graduate, which I can imagine would equate to getting privileges like that.

I wonder if these privileges also mean that Maki doesn’t have to be an assassin any more after she graduates. This is the one universe in which Maki has actually killed people and her assassin cult actually exists and she’s going to have to go back to killing people again once this is over, which makes me very sad. Unfortunately I really doubt the canon Hope’s Peak would have given a fuck about helping Maki out like that, and all of the scenes we see here remain very vague about what’s going to happen to Maki once she leaves. Buuuut maybe we can pretend that this AU version of Hope’s Peak is nicer and is going to abolish her assassin cult as its way of making her “set for life”? I just don’t want to imagine Maki having to go back to killing once she leaves here. I can’t imagine Kaito or Shuichi would stand for it either.

Meanwhile, in Shuichi’s little intro line, he isn’t wearing his hat, when he really should be if you think about it. Until he meets Kaito and Kaede and starts trying to be braver, he’s not going to take that thing off.

…So, if this introduction didn’t already make it obvious, I’m going to be focusing on scenes featuring at least one of our adorable training trio, with a particular focus on Kaito because what did you expect, it’s me.

Shuichi (featuring Kyoko)

Obviously one of the friendly events I’m here to talk about is one between Shuichi and Kaito!

Shuichi is already Kaito’s sidekick in this event, which is something we don’t really need to be shown coming about, not when we can easily fill in the gaps and imagine that it went roughly like it did in canon. Kaito saw Shuichi’s weakness and made it his business to help, just like Kaito always does.

…It is a little different from canon, because there isn’t the context of Shuichi needing to have his act together in case there’s another class trial, nor is there the subtle Kaito’s-issues context of him feeling like Shuichi has already been more of a hero than him and wanting to make himself a part of that in order to feel useful and not inferior. But this just goes to show that those reasons were never necessary and Kaito would have reached out to Shuichi regardless, because that’s genuinely just who he is.

Kaito:  “Why’re you looking so down now? I thought you’d been looking better than when you first got to this academy. If there’s something going on, then spit it out! It’s a hero’s job to help out his sidekick!”

Shuichi:  “It’s nothing, I just… I feel as though I haven’t used my detective skills lately.”

Kaito noticing Shuichi looking down and encouraging him to talk about whatever’s wrong is still so good. It seems Shuichi would normally have felt this wasn’t important enough to mention, but thanks to Kaito’s prodding, he’s been starting to learn that it’s okay to talk about even small-seeming problems, because Kaito will help him with anything.

(And Kaito is indeed actually right in his judgement that something was wrong, because this isn’t chapter 4 in which he’d become desperate enough to forcefully insist Shuichi needed his help when he really didn’t. No I am not going to stop mentioning the time Kaito did that in his chapter 4 FTE; it was delightful.)

Shuichi:  “I feel like… I should be doing something. I got my Ultimate talent by chance, so…”

Props to Shuichi for wanting to do something about this. Even though he feels he got his Ultimate title by chance, he’s not just going to wallow in the feeling that he doesn’t deserve it – he wants to work until he can feel like he does deserve it and can be proud of it! It’s definitely Kaito (and probably also Kaede; she’s his friend in this AU too, of course) who helped Shuichi feel this way, because this was very much not his outlook at the beginning.

Shuichi:  “But… a detective can’t work unless there’s a case to solve, or a request to fulfil.”

Kaito:  “No! Your talents are more than just that!”

Shuichi:  “Huh?”

Kaito:  “Hey, Shuichi… I’m an astronaut. Do you think I’m useless when I’m not in space?”

Shuichi:  “You’re not useless! You have good teamwork, and you always help people in need. Everyone really depends on you, Kaito.”

I really like Kaito’s approach to this. Of course he’s not useless when he’s not in space, because all of the skills he has that gave him his astronaut talent can also be applied in so many other ways! In terms of current achievements, Kaito is a far worse astronaut than Shuichi is a detective, because Shuichi has at least solved a good few cases, while Kaito’s never even been to space. But Kaito doesn’t let that get him down! There’s so much else he can do with his skills before he gets there!

Kaito:  “Then what about detectives? Are they useless without cases or requests?”

Shuichi:  “Well…”

So the same should go for Shuichi, right? Obviously!

Kaito:  “So I’ll be the hero and you be my sidekick!”

Shuichi:  “…Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

It’s… a little hard to translate the Kaito-ese here, and I don’t blame Shuichi for getting confused. But I think what he’s trying to get at is that he’ll cheer Shuichi on while Shuichi goes out there and lives up to his potential, because that’s what the hero-and-sidekick thing is really about.

Kaito:  “And when someone’s in trouble, you help ‘em out! Like, by giving them advice or something! It might be different from your usual detective work, but… Instead of rotting away like that, it’ll make you feel alive by helping out those around us.”

It’s adorable that Kaito’s basically encouraging Shuichi to be more like him, in the sense of trying to help people. After all, he knows that Shuichi’s a naturally compassionate person who does instinctively want to help others a lot. Their respective talents lend themselves to helping others in quite different ways – Shuichi isn’t necessarily going to be as great at giving advice as Kaito is – but that just means that there’s things that Shuichi can do for people that even Kaito can’t.

There actually is something of a running theme of Shuichi doing this kind of thing in some of his other scenes in this AU! The types of cases he took on at his uncle’s office were often about finding lost pets or missing people, so he’s really good at tracking things down, which can come in very handy when others have more practical problems than the kind Kaito helps people with. Just like in canon, Kaito is good at helping people with his words, while Shuichi is good at helping people with his actions.

This also comes up a little in another one of Shuichi’s friendly events, with Kyoko. Because, yes, she’s here too, meaning there’s just awkwardly two different Ultimate Detectives in the same school year somehow.

Shuichi:  “An apprentice like me doesn’t deserve to share the title of Ultimate Detective with you…”

Which, predictably, makes Shuichi feel rather inferior when comparing himself to Kyoko and her accomplishments.

Kyoko:  “Others accept that you are a detective, and have also come to rely on you, too. The other day, I saw you running all over the place with Ryoma and Peko… No doubt because they needed your insights as a detective, right?”

Shuichi:  “Ah, I was just looking for a missing cat around the academy… I’ve handled plenty of missing pet cases before, so I was able to help, but…”

This is indeed a thing that happened – there’s a scene between Ryoma and Peko (the former of whom is a big cat person and the latter of whom loves fluffy animals in general) in which they discuss a lost cat they’ve seen around school and ultimately decide to get Shuichi’s help to track it down and find its owner. That scene doesn’t actually get as far as featuring Shuichi in it, but this scene here with Kyoko confirms that he did indeed manage to help solve that “case”! It’s neat how there’s various events that are referred to in multiple scenes, to help things really feel like a cohesive story.

Kyoko:  “Do you think it’s meaningless for people to rely on you?”

Shuichi:  “…No, that’s wrong. It makes me… so happy to be helpful.”

Kyoko:  “Then I see no reason for you to compare yourself to me. Every detective is shaped by their motives, methodologies, and case histories.”

Kyoko has such a good point! She and Shuichi are very, very different types of detective and shouldn’t really be compared to each other. Kyoko is a homicide detective and takes a very objective, impersonal approach to things, whereas Shuichi handles more domestic cases that are about solving people’s problems and generally has more of a focus on helping people in the process. It’s possible that Kyoko brings up people relying on Shuichi because she actually kind of looks up to him for that, since that’s very much not something that her own type of detective work makes her suited for.

This idea gets explored a little more in another scene Shuichi has with Kyoko, as one of his seasonal events for the final year. (I’ll mostly be trying to do the seasonal events in chronological order as we go along, but there’s some final-year events, such as this one, that exist as kind of a follow-up to an earlier friendly event between two characters. So I’ll be doing those in conjunction with the relevant friendly event, even if it means we have to temporarily skip ahead to the end of the three years now and then.)

Shuichi bumps into Kyoko about to leave for some urgent business in such a hurry that she won’t even have time to tell her classmates she’s going to miss the closing ceremony, so Shuichi offers to let Makoto know for her.

Kyoko:  “If that’s the case… I’m sorry, but would you mind doing it?”

Shuichi:  “Ah, don’t worry about it! It’s alright to depend on others when you need to. I’ll give you advice someone gave me. Don’t try to do everything by yourself. Sometimes, asking for help is exactly what you need. Even if it’s something small.”

The way Kyoko apologises before asking Shuichi for something this small does suggest that she’s very much not used to relying on others at all. Kyoko is of course naturally very capable and independent and doesn’t often need help in the first place, but she can also be reluctant to rely on others even when it would benefit her to do so. Good thing Shuichi can help her a little with that, in part thanks to all of the advice Kaito’s given him!

Shuichi:  “Ah, but… I might be getting a little *too* much help from everyone…”

Kyoko is a detective who maybe doesn’t rely on others enough, while Shuichi is a detective who relies on others maybe a little too much. It’s a neat contrast.

Kyoko:  “I never meant to hold it in… That was never my intention. When you involve yourself in someone else’s business, you can easily misjudge them.”

Shuichi:  “I’m sure you’re right. There are certainly situations like that. But aren’t there times that make you think… you want to really trust someone? Even if you might get hurt?”

Kyoko at least tells herself that she tries to refrain from personal ties and relying on others in order to remain detached and impartial for her detective work. That is perhaps more important for a homicide detective than it would be for a domestic detective like Shuichi. Then again, in canon, Shuichi had to solve a bunch of murders, and he managed to do that despite also having an emotional side that willingly formed bonds and wanted to believe in people. You don’t have to throw away Kyoko Kirigiri in order to be the Ultimate Detective, Kyoko!

Also, Shuichi’s words about wanting to trust someone even if you might get hurt are definitely paraphrasing Kaito’s principles on that topic here and I love it. He’s had much less of an issue with that notion in this AU when there haven’t been any murders, but maybe instead it was the beginnings of their friendship with Maki that prompted Shuichi to ask Kaito how he could believe in people so easily.

Maki Roll (featuring Chihiro)

…And than brings us rather conveniently onto the next friendly event I wanted to cover, because of course Kaito also has a scene with Maki.

Maki is also already Kaito’s sidekick in this scene, but unlike with Shuichi, we can’t just assume this went basically how it did in canon. See, Kaito (and implicitly also Shuichi, though he’s not in this scene) knows about Maki’s talent, but nobody else does. Which is in fact a huge difference from canon that warrants some lengthy speculation about how Maki even ended up as Kaito’s sidekick in this universe at all.

In canon, it only happened because Kokichi found out Maki’s talent and told everyone. Kaito started properly reaching out to her and trying to make her his sidekick after that, and since she had nothing to lose because the worst had already happened and her secret was already out, she didn’t put up that much resistance. Kaito’s continued belief in her despite knowing her true talent let Maki realise that people knowing wasn’t the absolute end of the world like she’d been terrified it would be.

Here, though, without a class-wide bombshell revealing Maki’s identity, it’s very remarkable that Kaito even knows at all. Throughout chapter 2, Maki was so terrified of anyone finding out her secret, because she was absolutely convinced that it’d make everyone hate and fear and try to kill her and she’d end up forced to kill them in self-defence, which she did not remotely want to do. That fear might not be quite as intense outside of a killing game, nor without a whole room full of proof of her talent readily available for anyone to wander into, but it’d still be there. She’d still be reluctant to get close to anyone even under the guise of being the Ultimate Child Caregiver, not only out of a belief that she doesn’t deserve to have friends, but also out of a fear that letting someone get too close will increase the risk of them finding out her secret somehow even if she’s trying to hide it.

So obviously Kaito’s persistence and stubbornness would still have been a huge and necessary factor here. Although he didn’t know Maki’s talent and therefore just how weak she was and how badly she needed it, he must have seen her as a potential sidekick anyway. She was still cutting herself off from the rest of the class for reasons that Kaito’s instincts could tell weren’t malicious, meaning he probably figured that she was running away from something and needed help. So he’d have kept trying to talk to her and include her in things and invite her to train with him and Shuichi and generally be his incredibly stubborn self at her.

But… because Maki’s secret wasn’t already out, it must have taken way more stubbornness from Kaito here than it did in canon to finally get through to her. She’d have realised that he’s trying to figure out why she’s so closed off and get her to open up, but she would be utterly convinced that telling him the truth would only make him fear her and give up on her, and probably also warn everyone else about her talent and ruin everything.

There’s two possibilities I can think of for how Maki eventually gave in and opened up. One is that Kaito and Shuichi managed to figure it out themselves after enough attempts to talk to her, through a combination of Shuichi’s detective skills and Kaito’s intuition for people. Then they gently confronted her about it, with a very clear message of “we know this is why you’re scared, but it’s okay, we trust you, and you can trust us not to tell anyone, we only want to help you”. I’m not totally sold on this idea, though, because it would still leave Maki with the fear that she couldn’t actually trust them, not after they figured out her worst secret without her consent. (Also, hello Shuichi’s issues about accidentally figuring out truths that the subject of them hates having exposed.)

The more likely possibility, then, is that Maki did eventually tell Kaito herself, not out of openly trusting him and being comfortable with him knowing (because she would never believe that anyone could be okay with her being a killer until she’s already seen it happen), but more out of just trying to get him to finally leave her alone already. Surely knowing that she’s a killer will make even a stubborn idiot like him give up on her and realise she’s not worth getting close to, right? But that’s still remarkable, because people finding out her talent is still the worst and most terrifying scenario imaginable to Maki. So while she’d be telling herself on the surface that this is just to get rid of him, she would still have had to genuinely trust somewhere deep down that Kaito would at least respect her secret and not tell anyone else, even if he’d also totally never want to speak to her again.

I’m pretty sure that’s roughly how this must have gone down, and that’s really incredible. Maki would have had no obvious, undeniable way to realise she could trust Kaito, not like she had in canon from the simple fact that he continued to believe in her despite knowing that she’s an assassin. Imagine the absolute persistent supportiveness Kaito would have needed to display in order for Maki to start to instinctively feel that way anyway. And consider how huge it is for Maki that she did end up coming to trust Kaito enough, even if she wasn’t admitting it to herself, that she was able to briefly lift her otherwise-unbreakable barrier of no-one must ever know, if only in what she was telling herself was an attempt to push him away. Kaito is so good, and Maki absolutely needed someone as stubbornly, recklessly kind as him to begin to get through to her.

Kaito:  “Hey, Maki Roll! You better remember our promise for tonight!”

Maki:  “Are you talking about training? You made that promise, not me. And stop calling me Maki Roll.”

These opening lines put this scene very early on in Maki’s sidekickhood. Kaito has started calling her Maki Roll, which it only took him a few days to do in canon after she’d become his sidekick (and after he knew she was an assassin and therefore that giving her the most un-assassin-like nickname would be a good way to help her). But Maki has not yet given up telling him not to, which also only took a few days.

Plus, Maki is still acting like the only reason she’s going to training is because Kaito is nagging her to and is not yet openly accepting that she’s choosing to go for her own sake. In fact, the way they talk about the promise like it’s not already a regular arrangement suggests that tonight may be the first time Maki will ever come to training, or at most the second, if it happened for the first time last night and Kaito told her to come again tomorrow.

That moment in which Maki finally gave in and told Kaito about her talent must have been no more than a few days ago, then. Kaito would of course have responded by reassuring her that he still believes in her, and that rather than pushing him away, she should be accepting his help in growing stronger, for which she should obviously start coming to training with him and Shuichi.

Kaito:  “Alright, you remember! I’ll see you there!”

Despite Maki acting like she’s only doing this because he’s nagging her, and not even explicitly promising she’ll be there, of course Kaito knows that she will definitely be there. He called it a promise in the first place because he knows that she has already made the choice to try and get stronger. And he can tell that she must already trust him on some level to have even told him her secret in the first place.

Maki:  “…Is that why you came to talk to me?”

Kaito:  “Nah, I’ve got a message from Kaede. She wants to talk about the promise you made with her. I dunno what kind of promise it is, but… since when were you guys so close?”

Maki:  “We’re not close, and I wouldn’t call my arrangement with Kaede a promise, either. She offered to play piano for the kids at my orphanage. That’s all.”

This is actually a promise Kaede makes if you do Maki’s FTEs with Kaede in the main game! It’s lovely that they also put it into this AU and made it an actual thing that happens, because man was that never going to actually be able to happen in canon for multiple reasons.

Maki is probably right to say that she and Kaede aren’t that close. If she’s this early on in being Kaito’s sidekick, she definitely hasn’t really started to open up much with other people either. But it seems that despite that, Kaede has tried approaching Maki anyway and had similar conversations with her as she has in her canon FTEs, because Kaede is lovely and always trying to make friends even with more guarded people like Maki.

Maki:  “But… I left that orphanage years ago. Kaede thinks I was the Ultimate Child Caregiver at that orphanage before I came here, but…”

This is of course the assumption Kaede was running under in her FTEs with Maki when she offered to play piano for the kids then. (Not that Kaede hypothetically learning Maki’s real identity would change anything, once she learned Maki’s reasons for it – if anything, it’d only make Kaede even more determined to do something nice for Maki and those kids. Kaede is just as good as Kaito is.)

Kaito:  “Hey, there’s no reason you can’t go to the orphanage, right, Maki Roll? So just take Kaede there with you. For the kids living peacefully there you worked so hard for… Let them hear Kaede’s music.”

It’s lovely what Kaito’s doing here. Maki is telling herself that she barely deserves to be going back near that happy life at the orphanage any more now that she’s a horrible murderer, but Kaito’s trying to reassure her that hey, none of that means she can’t at least visit and do something nice for the kids she cares about so much!

…And, okay, so apparently we’re also at a point after Maki has opened up about exactly why she became an assassin, which took several days longer than her initial decision to try and change (and happened after she’d given up protesting the Maki Roll). It’s a little surprising that she reached that point so quickly, because subconsciously trusting Kaito not to betray her talent to everyone is a lot different from actually telling him why she’s an assassin and more or less admitting that she never wanted it. So… I am starting to get the sense that the writers here maaaay not have fully thought through what they were implying with this scene’s opening lines, because those definitely gave the sense that Maki had barely started training if she was reluctant to even admit she was coming.

Unless maybe things happened in a different order in this universe, such that Maki had already begrudgingly told Kaito a few stories about her orphanage during his persistent pestering for her to open up (just like she does with Kaede’s attempts to reach out to her). Which might mean that when she finally threw up her hands and told him she’s a goddamn assassin so leave her alone, it wouldn’t be as much of a leap for her to then admit, with some more questioning from Kaito, that the orphanage stories were still true and are actually quite related to her being an assassin. Maybe.

Kaito:  “Oh! I just had a great idea too! How about me and Shuichi tag along? Yeah! Let’s do it! If Shuichi’s with us, I bet Kaede will get all psyched up!”

Aww, Kaito. It is making me very happy imagining this gathering of these four being friends at Maki’s orphanage and making the kids smile. (I bet Kaito is also very good with kids. Especially if they’re aware he’s the Ultimate Astronaut, letting him jump right into his inspiring hero role and tell them all sorts of exciting things about SPACE.)

…Kaito’s comment about how Shuichi’s presence will psyche Kaede up does imply that he might have figured those two have a bit of an unspoken romantic thing for each other. But even if that’s the case, I like to imagine that Kaito wouldn’t make any overt moves to act on this and try and set them up together without one of them directly asking him for help. After all, Kaito’s only working on a hunch here, and if his hunch happens to be wrong, then trying to push his friends into a romance they don’t actually want would be a dick move. (More on a similar concept regarding Kaito’s hunches in another scene next post.)

Maki:  “You want to tag along… and bring Shuichi?”

Kaito:  “Yeah! If there are any problems, Shuichi and I will help out!”

This is the real reason Kaito invited himself and Shuichi along, though. He can sense that Maki is uneasy doing something that comes so close to her personal life and the truth about herself when she’s including someone who doesn’t know her secret. As such, Kaito’s offering to go along with Shuichi to be there for her and help her feel safer. Since it doesn’t make much sense for there to be logistical problems with Kaede playing the piano to the kids, Kaito is really talking about the possibility of there being problems with Maki’s talent remaining secret. He’s saying that he and Shuichi will be there to cover for her, and, if worst comes to worst and her talent ends up coming out anyway, talk Kaede through the revelation and assure her that Maki still deserves to be treated like a person. (Kaede would definitely understand, of course, but she’d need some explanations, and Maki might not be comfortable giving those on her own.)

Kaito:  “Do you not want Kaede and the others to find out about your real talent? But… I know you don’t wanna distance yourself from them like when you first got here, yeah?”

Maki:  “…Don’t make assumptions about me.”

He’s right, though, isn’t he, Maki? However, she’s still not quite willing to admit that yet herself, so this is still quite early days, one way or another.

Maki:  “But… I guess I’ll give the orphanage a call.”

Kaito:  “Alright! Then it’s decided!”

Maki’s going to do it! I really, really get the sense that without Kaito’s reassurance, she wouldn’t have actually acted upon this and would have left Kaede hanging. Kaede might well have been trying to prod Maki about it herself and getting only vague uncertainty since Maki wasn’t truly comfortable doing it. That could be why Kaede asked Kaito to talk to her about it, having noticed that he seems to be closer to Maki than she is.

Maki does have a friendly event with Kaede, too, but it turns out to be more about Chihiro, who’s also in the scene. Maki and Kaede happen across Chihiro crying, and he explains that he found an injured bird that died before he could take it to Gundham to maybe save it.

Maki points out that that’s not Chihiro’s fault and Gundham might not have been able to save it anyway.

Chihiro:  “You’re… right… But when I thought about how it probably wanted to fly more, I just started crying…”

Chihiro is projecting his weakness issues onto this poor little injured bird that probably wished it was stronger, but then it didn’t manage to get any stronger and died because it was too weak! Aww, Chihiro.

Maki:  “I don’t think you should be crying over that, though… But… I do think it’s fortunate it had someone to cry for it.”

Maki looks distant during that second part, because apparently she’s also somewhat projecting her issues onto this bird. She’s acknowledging that it’s sad when someone suffers alone without anyone knowing and being able to care about it. In a very, very indirect way, she’s saying that her past suffering matters, and that she deserves to have others know and feel sorry for her about what she’s been through. That’s a big deal coming from Maki!  (And I’m sure others do know about her suffering; if she’s admitting this, then she’s probably already told Kaito and Shuichi about some of the more awful parts of her assassin training by now.)

Chihiro wants to bury the bird, so both Kaede and Maki suggest they should take it to Gundham, who’d know about how best to do this sort of thing. Maki offers to come along, which Chihiro seems surprised about.

Kaede:  “You know, Chihiro… Maki may seem edgy on the outside, but she’s actually very sincere.”

Maki:  [pouting] “…You don’t need to come with us, Kaede.”

Kaede:  “Why!? I only said the truth!”

Maki is a good caregiver! And also embarrassed at Kaede earnestly telling near-strangers how caring she is. Kaede is good and I hope she and Maki continue to be friends; she’d be able to help Maki out a lot too, even without necessarily having to know her secret.

Maki:  “I can’t just leave a crybaby like you alone. That would leave a bad taste in my mouth…”

Maki mentioned during her FTEs that her best friend from the orphanage (who is no longer alive) was something of a crybaby who tried her best to be strong. Is Chihiro reminding Maki of her friend here? Because that’s adorable.

There’s a little more Maki and Chihiro in one of Maki’s third year winter events, not precisely as a follow-up to this but I might as well cover it here anyway. Maki happens across Chihiro in the dining hall, and after some conversation about Chihiro not having the strength to open a jar (but wanting to keep trying rather than having Maki do it for him), Chihiro comments that Maki must be like a reliable big sister to the kids she looks after.

Maki:  “I don’t think… I’m that reliable.”

Chihiro:  “Huh, why?”

Maki:  “I’m not good at taking care of people and I keep secrets. You can’t rely on someone like that.”

Makiiii, you are very good at taking care of people. And you only keep your secret to protect both yourself and other people, not out of any kind of malice or intent to deceive, so that doesn’t inherently make you unreliable. I guess in this universe Kaito never got the chance to give his speech about how having secrets is just human and doesn’t necessarily make someone a bad person.

Chihiro:  “You keep secrets?”

Maki:  “Nothing. Forget it.”

Chihiro:  “Um… Uhhh… Keeping secrets might be bad… But I don’t think it’s strange… Even I… have secrets.”

Turns out this is something Maki and Chihiro have in common! Chihiro isn’t keeping his secret for a malicious reason either, nor does it make him any less worth relying on because of it!

Chihiro:  “Maki… is there anyone you talked to about your secret? Or have you not told anyone?”

Maki:  “Well… I have told someone.”

The fact that Maki says that she told Kaito and Shuichi her secret makes it all the more likely that the reason they found out really is because she slowly grew to trust them enough to tell them. I don’t think she’d word it that way if they’d been the ones to figure it out first.

Chihiro:  “Okay, then you’re fine. It’s a bit of a relief to have someone to talk to.”

Maki:  “That’s true… I actually do feel a bit relieved.”

Chihiro is saying this because, in this AU, he’s entrusted Mondo with his secret and Mondo has been training him to get stronger, a lot like Kaito has with Maki! This is a big thing they have in common, and it’s lovely to have that brought up here and see them both agreeing that it’s nice not to have to bear their secret alone.

Honestly, if Chihiro had happened to be in Kaito’s class instead, he’d probably have admired Kaito’s strength and gone to him instead with his secret to ask for help getting stronger, and damn right Kaito would have immediately taken him on as a sidekick and it would have been adorable. But instead, Chihiro has Mondo, which in some ways is essentially the same thing and in some ways is rather different, as we’ll get into later in this post.

Year 1 seasonal events

The first year’s seasonal event is the summer sports festival. There aren’t too many here I want to cover, but I might as well group them together for it anyway.

Show ‘em what you got in the three-legged race! Maybe you should talk to someone before the race. But who?

-      My sidekick, of course!

One fun thing about the way the game does these seasonal events is that the narration and the choices are written in the POV of the character you’re playing as. Kaito is so into this and so eager to talk to his sidekick – obviously he wouldn’t pick anyone else! (He did keep saying back in Salmon Team that the sidekick totally wouldn’t pick anyone besides the hero – and that at least is something that goes both ways!)

Kaito:  “Alright, bro! It’s finally time to show off the results of all our training! Don’t hesitate! There’s no way we can lose after training through blood, sweat and tears!”

Shuichi:  “Blood, sweat and tears sounds like a little too much… But it’s true that this training will give us an edge in the festival. I feel like we can win!”

Of course their training will help! Not just in the sense that it’s made Shuichi physically fitter, but also just because it means Kaito and Shuichi are so very in-sync with each other. The three-legged race is an event that relies less on physical prowess and more just on extremely good teamwork, so it’s perfect for Kaito in general, and especially for him and Shuichi since they’re such close friends. I bet Kaito signed them both up the moment he heard there was going to be a three-legged race, probably before even asking if Shuichi was up for it (because he already knew he would be).

Kaito:  “I’ve already decided I’m gonna win at everything today. So as my sidekick, you better support me!”

Kaito is still pretending like the sidekick thing is even remotely about Shuichi making him look good when really it’s literally the opposite of that. Though I suppose events like this give him an excuse to actually make things seem this way for once, so that he can set a super-awesome example for his sidekick to strive for.

Despite acting like he definitely wouldn’t have chosen to talk to anyone but Shuichi, Kaito can also talk to his opponents, one of whom happens to be Fuyuhiko. (Another event implies that Fuyuhiko’s partner in this race is Kazuichi, which means we were so close to seeing Kaito and Kazuichi interact! They do not have a single interaction in this mode and I feel incredibly robbed.)

Kaito:  “Oh hey, Fuyuhiko. Never thought I’d be going up against you!”

Kaito starts with this, so it seems he’s aware of what Fuyuhiko’s like and knows that it appears to be unlike him to be at events like this. (This is, after all, a Fuyuhiko before his canon character development in which he warmed up to everyone.)

Fuyuhiko:  “What, am I not allowed to be here or something? Did you think I’d just ditch school events?”

Kaito:  “Nah, man! I’m glad you’re here! I always thought you were the type that’d show up to this stuff!”

Fuyuhiko:  “Geez… don’t act like you’ve got me figured out. I never wanted to do any of this lame shit.”

But Kaito does have Fuyuhiko figured out, doesn’t he! Despite what he said at first, which was based on how Fuyuhiko appears on the surface, Kaito can also see past that and tell that really Fuyuhiko does want to join in with this kind of thing with his schoolmates and is just very prickly about it. And by being so forward with the “Yeah, of course you’d do this!”, he’s also trying to get Fuyuhiko to realise that it’s really not so embarrassing to want this and he should be more open with it. Kaito is so good.

Kaito’s other opponents, and last options to talk to for this event, are Hiro and Hifumi. There’s nothing of substance in that conversation other than pointing out how hilariously ill-equipped they are for a three-legged race. And since Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi are not super in-sync with each other and liable to bicker, Kaito and Shuichi definitely destroyed the competition and showed everyone what an awesome team they are.

Kaito appears in a few other people’s sports festival events, but none of them are that noteworthy. He suggests Gonta should play more aggressively at basketball, protests that his face is not dumb-looking when Mahiru decides to take photos of the three-legged race, and encourages Peko to be enthusiastic in cheering on her friends.

Kaito:  “Shout whatever you think will help. That’ll become their strength out there!”

Words becoming other people’s strength is so very luminary of him and it’s lovely to see him passing that idea onto others.

Maki has a brief noteworthy bit during the sports festival, in an event you get as Kyoko, who is one of Maki’s opponents in the girls’ three-legged race.

Maki:  “Even though sports festivals are a pain… I don’t intend to hold back. There’s someone in my class who would nag me if I don’t do my best.”

Guess who she’s talking about! Sports festivals may be just for bragging rights and not really Maki’s thing, but Kaito has managed to instil her with at least a little of his philosophy that anything and everything is worth getting passionate about and giving your all.

The sports festival happens in June, while Japanese school years start in April. Which means that, man, Kaito really got to work fast on his prolonged stubborn pestering to get through to Maki if he’s already done so in the space of only a few months. …Or, since she only says “someone in my class” and not “a friend”, maybe this is before Maki has actually told him her secret (though she’d still be reluctant to admit he’s her friend for a little while after that). But even if she’s not his sidekick yet, clearly he’s still been pestering her plenty about doing her best and getting involved in things, because of course he has.

Meanwhile, Shuichi’s events for the sports festival involve him tracking down and apprehending Monokuma, who was causing chaos for the hell of it (yes, Monokuma is here in this non-despair AU as a separate autonomous character, somehow, just go with it). Shuichi’s using his detective skills to help people, just like Kaito was encouraging him to!

Mondo (featuring heroes and sidekicks)

Another of Kaito’s friendly events, and one which is followed up on with a third year seasonal event, is with Mondo. While I am endlessly sad that there are no interactions between Kaito and Kazuichi… perhaps that’s understandable, because Kaito would have full-on sidekicked the hell out of Kazuichi and it would have been a whole thing that this mode wouldn’t have room to do justice. But I do also like Mondo a lot, so maybe Kaito’s interactions with him here are the next best thing.

Mondo:  “…”

Kaito:  “What’s up? Is something bothering you?”

Given Kaito’s intuition, he’s probably right to assume that something’s bothering Mondo here. After all, Mondo definitely has a lot of issues that he hasn’t remotely sorted out yet.

Kaito:  “Alright, then I’ll tell you about the universe! It’ll make your problems look insignificant!”

While this could read as such, Kaito is not saying this in any kind of self-centred sense of “my space stuff is more important than your issues”. Rather, he’s trying to help Mondo realise his problems maybe aren’t quite as big and as scary as he’s making them out to be. “The universe is impossibly vast” isn’t necessarily just something Kaito says to geek out about space. Perhaps it’s also a way he’s found to help put his problems in perspective (you know, when he has them, which is definitely never and why are you asking where his parents are), so he’s trying to do that for Mondo, too.

Mondo:  “You talk about space and shit all the time, but… you ain’t even been there yet, right? And even so, you’ve still got such a confident look on your face.”

Kaito:  “Of course. I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! It’s already been decided that I’m gonna go to space! Right now is just before that happens!”

This is such a straightforwardly Kaito outlook. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t been to space yet, he’s definitely going to, so he might as well carry himself like somebody who already has! He’s so good at having confidence in himself and what his future holds.

Mondo:  “It pisses me off, but… hearing you say something like that makes it sound possible. Space, huh? To have a dream like that, you gotta have some real balls, man.”

…And maybe that sort of outlook is the kind of thing that could help Mondo. Kaito presents himself the way he does not just to make himself look good, but more importantly to try and inspire others to have that same incredible confidence in themselves.

Kaito:  “Right!? I knew you’d get me, Mondo! Space is huge! It’s filled with the unknown! It’s a man’s passion to explore it, right!?”

Mondo:  “A man’s passion… Like the wind on ya when you’re riding your motorcycle at top speed? …Is it something like that?”

Kaito:  “That’s right! Just like that! It’s somewhere you’ll never reach if you live normally!”

Look at these manly dorks. Even though exploring space and riding a motorbike are two very different things, I like that Kaito agrees they basically both fall under the same principle – it’s about pushing the limits and doing whatever you’re most passionate about, no matter how out-there it is. Kaito’s concept of “a man’s passion” is somewhat different and more specific than just his general concept of manliness, and in his case, it’s all about that passion for SPACE. Still not inherently gendered, I might add.

(Mondo also has his own general concept of manliness, of course, and his is definitely very gendered, although there’s still a decent overlap with Kaito’s in terms of things like integrity and honour.)

Kaito:  “Hey, what’s your dream, Mondo? I bet yours is filled with fire and passion!”

Mondo:  “Nah, I… ain’t got something like that.”

Mondo does in fact have a dream – he wants to quit his bike gang and become a carpenter when he graduates. But it seems he’s embarrassed to admit that, perhaps because it doesn’t sound “fiery and passionate” enough next to Kaito’s dream of space.

Kaito:  “Really? Are you only looking at the past or something? You can’t move forward in life if you’re looking backwards, y’know?”

Some good advice and definitely something Mondo needs to hear! He is very stuck on the past and what happened to his brother, when he should be looking to the future and trying his best to move on from that.

(Also remember that Kaito lost his parents, and while that presumably wasn’t at all his fault like Daiya’s death kind of was Mondo’s fault, Kaito is still very much using his past pain to push him forwards rather than hold him back.)

Mondo:  “…”

Kaito:  “What? You don’t wanna tell me? Don’t compare your dream to mine, y’know? You’ll get scared by the size of the universe…”

Again, this is not Kaito doing a self-centred “my dream is better than yours”. In fact, it’s the opposite – he’s telling Mondo that he shouldn’t worry about comparing himself to others. Just because most people don’t have dreams as ridiculously huge and over-the-top as Kaito’s dream of space, that doesn’t make their own dream any less important if it’s something they’re equally passionate about! The example Kaito is trying to set as a luminary isn’t about inspiring everyone to literally share his goal of going to space, but rather to just be as passionate about their own goals as Kaito is about his!

Kaito:  “Then chase your dream with confidence! Don’t think your dream is too small or you’ll become small yourself!”

Mondo:  “Like hell I’d do something like that! I’m gonna be the best in the universe at my dream!”

Kaito:  “Heh, that’s what I like to hear!”

Exactly! Being a carpenter may be an ordinary job, but that doesn’t make it small and insignificant, not if it’s what Mondo’s really passionate about! And Kaito succeeded in getting Mondo to feel that way! He’s going to be the best carpenter ever!

Kaito is so good. Mondo has a lot of issues he needs to work out, and while Kaito didn’t really begin to get into any of them, he still managed to encourage Mondo to be more positive about his future. I always say that Kaito presents himself with so much overblown confidence to try and set an example for others to do the same, and here’s an instance of that very tangibly working on someone and helping them out.

As a brief interlude between the two Kaito and Mondo scenes, Mondo can end up serving Shuichi from the yakisoba stand he’s working at for the school festival in a second-year seasonal event.

Mondo:  “Thanks for coming, it’s on me!”

Shuichi:  “Hm? That’s… Are you sure?”

Mondo:  “Hey, don’t worry about it. Any buddy of that spaceman is a buddy of mine.”

Aww, Mondo really does appreciate Kaito’s encouragement! He didn’t need to make a thing of it in front of Shuichi at all – Kaito would never know or care that he hadn’t – but he did anyway. Mondo is a good guy. This kind of suggests that maybe he and Kaito have been hanging out offscreen a bit more than the one scene we saw – evidently not to full-on sidekick levels, but at least a little.

Mondo:  “He’s like a younger brother to me. Seriously, it’s on me, man.”

Shuichi:  “…So that’s what he is to you, huh? You’re both the same age, though.”

Yes, Mondo, that is definitely what he is to you. While he’s happy to show his appreciation for Kaito, Mondo doesn’t want to tarnish his tough-guy image (nobody must know how weak he really is!!!) enough to admit that really Kaito’s the one who’s helped him. Mondo is totally a born big brother figure, it’s definitely not like he was actually the little brother who adored and looked up to his big bro or anything.

Shuichi is right to be sceptical, not only because Kaito and Mondo are the same age, but also because he knows that Kaito is always the supportive figure and is highly unlikely to end up being treated like a younger brother by anyone.

Shuichi ends up insisting that he repays Mondo’s free yakisoba sometime and that he’ll bring Kaito along. The three of them hanging out would be adorable! It’s a shame we don’t get to see it.

Then, in one of Mondo’s third year winter events, he ends up bumping into Kaito on a nighttime walk. Most of the scene is just Kaito being very enthusiastic about space and confident about getting there one day.

Mondo:  “With that kinda confidence, I think you might actually make it up there…”

Kaito:  “Well of course! I’m the Ultimate Astronaut, y’know!? Everyone told me it was impossible… But the impossible is possible, all you gotta do is make it so!”

Ayyyy! Of course this is still a thing in this AU. Plus a very rare instance of Kaito referring to himself as the Ultimate Astronaut rather than the Luminary of the Stars, perhaps only because he’s literally talking about being an astronaut and going to space.

Kaito:  “You can always change your present and your future, as long as you don’t give up!”

Mondo:  “You’re right. I can’t change the past, but I can do something for the future.”

But Kaito also reiterates this advice from before, and it really does seem to have got through to Mondo and helped him move on from his brother’s death. This scene doesn’t add much, but it’s nice to underline what Kaito did for Mondo and show that it really did stick.

Kaito:  “Yeah, that’s the spirit! Do your best, even after you graduate, Mondo!”

Mondo:  “Don’t talk to me like that, I’m not one of your sidekicks…”

Heh, I like how this implies that they’ve had enough conversations for Kaito to have told Mondo plenty about his sidekicks, allowing Mondo to have figured out roughly what he really means by the word. Mondo isn’t exactly one of Kaito’s sidekicks, no, since Kaito hasn’t quite made it his personal business to help Mondo out in every single way he can… but since Kaito has helped Mondo out a little anyway, it’s not too far off from that.

It’s almost a shame we don’t get more insight into these conversations they had about Kaito’s sidekicks, because the sidekick thing is rather similar to what Mondo has been doing with Chihiro in this AU, in that Mondo’s been guiding Chihiro through physical training to help him get stronger. Mondo wouldn’t call it this, but Chihiro is effectively his sidekick in Kaito’s definition of the word!

So, even though scenes featuring only DR1 characters would otherwise not really belong in this V3 commentary, I am going to talk a little about the Mondo and Chihiro scenes here for the purposes of comparing their relationship to the one Kaito has with his sidekicks. When I say that, I mean specifically Kaito’s relationship with his sidekicks in canon, since in this AU he’s genuinely fine, but in canon he was not as strong as he was pretending to be, a lot like Mondo. And by “sidekicks” I of course mean particularly Shuichi, since he’s the one Kaito secretly looked up to and saw as already greater than himself, much like Mondo does with Chihiro. See? Similarities! But there are quite a few differences, too.

Mondo and Chihiro have two scenes together, the first a regular friendly event and the second as one of Mondo’s third year seasonal events. The first scene presumably happens not especially long after Chihiro has begun training, because it features him struggling to do even half the push-ups expected of him, while Mondo reassures him that he’s just got to keep working at it. The second scene has Chihiro remark that the exercise makes him feel refreshed, which Mondo points out is great progress when it used to make him feel sore all the time. Chihiro agrees that maybe he really has got at least a little stronger over the past three years, to the point that he’s starting to feel brave enough to tell everyone the truth about himself before they graduate.

Chihiro:  “Even though I can never be as strong as you, I’ve been doing my best… I feel like… I can tell everyone. And it’s all thanks to you, Mondo.”

Mondo:  “Hey, come on. I didn’t do anything special.”

Look at how Chihiro looks up Mondo as the perfect ideal of strength that he’ll never quite be able to reach and has no idea that Mondo has any kind of weakness. That sure is familiar.

Similarly familiar is the way Mondo feels like he barely did anything to help (because it was really all Chihiro’s own strength and hard work, right?). And yet, simply having Mondo there both as an example to strive for and as a friend so that he wasn’t doing this alone made a huge difference from Chihiro’s point of view. It only takes a nudge, but that nudge is vital! You did help him, Mondo!

Mondo:  “Besides, from the very beginning, you…”

Chihiro:  “Huh?”

Mondo:  “…Nah, nothing.”

Obviously, Mondo was about to say that he feels Chihiro has always been strong – stronger than him – but then backed out of admitting it. This is reminiscent of the part in chapter 3’s first training session in which Kaito almost admitted that Shuichi wasn’t weak like Maki was, but then caught himself and changed the subject. In Kaito’s case, though, I think he was only just starting to realise that he saw Shuichi this way and wouldn’t have known how to properly articulate it even if he’d actually tried to (because wouldn’t that mean that Shuichi was never really his sidekick and didn’t really need him at all? and NOPE nope abort let’s just not even think about that). But here with Mondo, I get the sense that he’s already been very consciously aware the whole time that Chihiro is much stronger than him and is simply unwilling to admit it to anyone but himself.

Both our pairs of training buddies have a delightful thing going on where they each look up to their friend for having a kind of strength that they lack and assume that the other is stronger than them because of it. In Kaito and Shuichi’s case, they’re both types of emotional strength: Shuichi’s ability to focus on finding the truth no matter how much it hurts, and Kaito’s ability to keep being positive and upbeat no matter how bad things get. Ultimately, they’re still basically both as strong as each other, just in different ways. But with Mondo and Chihiro, Mondo’s strength is entirely physical, while Chihiro’s strength is entirely emotional, so they’re not really comparable at all. Which means that when it comes to the more meaningful kind of strength, the emotional kind, Chihiro is just stronger than Mondo.

The problem is that Chihiro doesn’t seem to realise that emotional strength is equally if not more important than physical strength. Yet Mondo clearly does, since he knows Chihiro is stronger than him – so if only he’d tell Chihiro that! That’d have helped Chihiro realise what he really needed to be striving for, and that getting physically stronger, even if it’d help him feel more confident in himself, was not really the main point. (If Chihiro had been Kaito’s sidekick, Kaito would absolutely have made that point clear and let Chihiro know that simply by trying to change he’s already grown stronger than he was before.)

Mondo wouldn’t even have needed to mention his own emotional weakness while hypothetically telling Chihiro that emotional strength is more important, so he shouldn’t have had an inherent reason not to do so. Perhaps the issue could be that Mondo was afraid that talking to Chihiro about emotional strength would lead Chihiro to probe about Mondo’s emotional strength too and realise the truth about him.

It could also just be that Mondo wasn’t at all used to this whole having-a-“sidekick” thing. Therefore he felt that the only way he could really help was by helping Chihiro with the thing he is good at, aka physical strength, and he didn’t feel like he was qualified to talk about emotional strength at all. …Essentially what I’m trying to say here is that maybe Mondo didn’t want to talk through Chihiro’s emotional weaknesses while still refusing to admit to his own because he didn’t want to be a giant hypocrite. That’s very possible. After all, he doesn’t have Kaito’s double-standard of “but I’m the hero so it’s different for me because they need me to be strong already” that caused Kaito to not even realise his hypocrisy.

See, Mondo is hiding his weakness here simply out of weakness, that same kind of cowardice that Kaito pointed out in Maki before he convinced her to face her issues and try and change. Mondo’s just too scared to bring his weakness out into the open and have everyone know that he’s not the tough guy he claims to be and that his brother’s death was his fault.

Kaito also didn’t want to admit to his weakness out of fear of shattering the image others have of him, but that was for other people’s sake and not his own, because he was convinced that he wouldn’t be able to support Shuichi or Maki or the others any more if they knew the truth. Mondo also evidently doesn’t want Chihiro to know that he’s weak, but I feel like that’s more for his own sake, because Chihiro looking up to him so much lets him feel strong and helps him continue to hide from the weakness that he’s too scared to admit to. He seems relatively willing to admit to himself that really Chihiro would be fine without him, so it’s not that Mondo thinks revealing his weakness would cause Chihiro any problems.

Although, there is some level of selflessness in Mondo hiding his weakness – not in terms of Chihiro, but in terms of the members of his gang. They all look up to Mondo as their awesome leader who bested his big bro in a bike race (even if that ended tragically, that was Daiya’s fault for getting reckless because he was about to lose, wasn’t it?). So Mondo’s afraid that if they learn the truth and how weak he really is, the whole gang will fall apart. I’d like to believe that’s not actually the case and that his gang members are good enough bros that they’d understand and be supportive of him and still look up to him anyway even if they knew. But it’s hard to be sure of that without knowing much about what they’re like, so it’s possible that Mondo actually does have a more legitimate reason to be afraid of this than Kaito ever did.

Once Mondo and Chihiro are done training in their winter scene and Chihiro has left, Mondo has one last line to himself…

Mondo:  “I wonder… if I can change too. I don’t know if I’ll ever be as strong as you, Chihiro.”

Just admitting to that desire to change is the first step, Mondo! And with that alone, in some ways, Mondo has immediately got further than Kaito ever did in canon.

Admitting it to Chihiro would be a bigger help, though. After all, even Chihiro himself needed someone else to share his problems with in order to be able to change in the way that Mondo is admiring so much. It’s a shame that Mondo can’t even use that as inspiration to find the courage to do that himself, in order to start working on his weaknesses like he so clearly wants to do. You’d only need to tell one person to begin with, Mondo! And Chihiro would keep looking up to you for your physical strength anyway, because that’s a separate thing that you still undeniably have!

(Which was totally a different thing for Kaito, since Shuichi looked up to him for his emotional strength, so surely Kaito admitting that he’s emotionally weak would have ruined that entirely! It couldn’t possibly be that he’s still emotionally strong in some ways even if he’s weak in others and Shuichi would still have every reason to admire him – if he’s weak at all then that instantly means he’s a failure as a hero, right?)

If only Chihiro had ever learned about Mondo’s weakness one way or another, he would definitely have been able to help. Even if he wouldn’t have exactly known how to, he’s an absolute sweetheart who’d have done his best anyway to try and reassure and encourage Mondo that if even Chihiro can work to get stronger and admit his secret to everyone, surely Mondo can too!

It does seem like Mondo made some decent progress over his time at Hope’s Peak, based on this winter scene with Kaito and another one with Taka in which he openly talks about his plans to quit the gang and become a carpenter (Taka is adorably proud that he wants to put in the effort and contribute to society). That’s a little bit thanks to Kaito, but also a lot thanks to simply having friends like Chihiro and Taka and having had time to reflect on things. But if only he’d been brave enough to confess his weakness and what happened to his brother to at least just Chihiro, they could have talked about it more and Mondo could have made a lot more progress on the real root of his issues. Alas.

[murdertrialimagines]

V3 Boys getting saved from a Gang by their S/O!

“Can I please request the V3 boys reactions to their s/o saving them from a bunch of gang members? And perhaps(if you're interested in writing it!), The boys find out that s/o has "dealt" with them before, and is afraid of them leaving because of this? Thank you in advance for this, love! You're doing an amazing job with your writing!”

Omg I love this idea!! I have so many ideas for each character! Story under the tag! NOTE: I made it so the V3 boy’s really go to Hope’s Peak! Also some cussing! 

Shuichi Saihara

Shuichi usually walked home from school with you, but you had some errands to run around the city today

It didn’t bother him much, it gave him a chance to just walk and listen to the sounds of his city

That is, until he came across a street that was completely empty.

He looked around, now noticing the stillness in the air. Had he taken a wrong turn?

As Shuichi turned, a hand slammed into his shoulder, twisting him back around and knocking him to the floor. He recovered from the sudden force and looked up, seeing a knife pointed at his face. Four people surrounded him, all wearing scarves to hide their faces and hoodies to conceal their heads

“You go to that Hope’s Peak, right? How much does it cost to go to a big shot school like that? Probably tons, now give us your bag!”

Shuichi grabbed the strap of his book bag, picking it up off the floor. 

“I-I don’t have any cash on me!”

The knife was thrust closer to his face, one of the boys wrestling him for his bag. “That’s a horrible lie, now give it up!”

They struggled for the backpack, and Shuichi could feel his grip on his belongings loosening. 

Right before he gave up and let them take the bag, Shuichi felt someone rip the bag from both of their hands, swinging it at the closest attacker

He watched as the familiar figure continued to beat the gang, screaming incoherent words at them until they fled

“And stay away!” Yelled his protector, as he watched the four teens run back the way he came. Shuichi took a closer look at his savior, breath catching in his throat when he saw their face

“Y/n?!”

His girlfriend gave him a sheepish smile before helping him up, returning his backpack

“Good thing your chemistry teacher made you take the textbook home today, huh? That thing is a brick!” She giggled

Shuichi stood, stunned. His girlfriend saved him?

“Y/n, I am completely thankful for what just happened, I really am, but how did you know I was here? That I would be getting attacked?”

I honestly just happened to be walking by and noticed what was going on. Haven’t you heard? Recently Hope’s Peak student’s have been getting mugged around this area, that’s why I have pepper spray. Plus, I know who those kids are, they used to mess with some friends I had.”

“Wait, you’ve fought that gang before?”

“Yea, a couple times.” She looked down at her feet. “Is that weird? I mean, I’m kinda in a feud with a local gang...and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Shuichi pulled Y/n into a hug, smiling into her hair

“It’s perfect, I’m glad you know how to protect yourself.

Kaito Momota

Kaito was used to accidentally getting into arguments, the occasional fist fight here and there

So when he got into that tiny fight with that kid on the sidewalk, he didn’t think nothing of it. Just his hotheadedness making his life slightly more difficult than it needed to be.

He had totally forgotten about it as he was on his way to Y/n’s job at a local bakery to have a Sunday lunch with her while she was on break.

He was almost there, could even see the shop when he felt his arm being tugged, and was harshly pulled into a nearby alley

“Hey, what gives?!” He regained his balance and looked up, slightly paling at the sight of four or five guys, almost immediately noticing a familiar face with a now black eye

“We heard what you did to our friend, pal, and we don’t exactly take that kind of treatment kindly around here.”

Kaito felt his hands ball into fists, already knowing his mouth was gonna cause some trouble. “Hey, your punk friend started it! I was just trying to get passed him when he decided to be an idiot!”

He felt a sudden pain on his face as his head was forcibly turned to the left, his cheek throbbing in pain. Did this guy just punch him?!

“We were gonna let you off with an apology, but it seems this tough guys needs a lesson taught to him!” 

Kaito dodged the next punch, but a kick threw him to the floor. He barely leaned out of the next kick, and managed to knock one of the guys down by kicking his legs out from under him. 

He knew that was a lucky shot, he would never be able to take on all of them at once! Another kick hit his shoulder, knocking him on his back

Before he got up he heard a yell, and a blur running over him at the people. He sat up to see his girlfriend, still in her apron and holding a fork, pushing the nearest guy back.

Kaito watched as one of them reached for her, but she quickly stepped out of the way and hit him in the nose. Kaito could see the blood running from his face as he backed out of the fight.

Another charged at Y/n, but a scream rang out. Kaito watched as the kid staggered back, fork lodged in his forearm.

As they all turned and ran, one of them shouted back. “This isn’t over, Y/n!” 

Y/n yelled back a crude insult before turning around and squatting, holding Kaito’s face. “They didn’t hurt you too badly, right? Oh, your face is all red! We can put a milkshake on it at work.” She pulled him up

He got up, dusting himself off and staring at his girlfriend. Oh, his absolutely amazing and stunning girlfriend

“Y/n, I have never been so happy to see you!” He pulled her into a huge hug. “How did you know I was...why did they know your name?!”

“I heard the fighting through the open window of the kitchen. On the whole, them knowing my name part, they tried to mug me after work once, but you know how Maki helps me train sometimes. Now I keep an eye out for anyone they try to hassle. Sorry if that scares you...does it?”

“Oh, absolutely, but I know you can handle yourself amazingly well, especially after the awesome show you just put on!”

Y/n sighed,grabbing her boyfriend’s hand. “Good, now let’s go before they decide to come back. Besides, this makes three forks they owe me back for.”

Ryoma Hoshi

Ryoma knew he was on the hit list of the mafia, but local gangs too?

He was currently being held against an alleyway wall by the collar of his jacket, tennis racket knocked away from him. Shame, this was the one night him and Y/n had time to have a proper date.

“Someone said they’d pay us big money to bring you to them, but they never said we had to bring you completely intact, so a few markings couldn’t hurt...” He watched as the one next to the guy holding him pulled out a sharp pocket knife, smirking as the blade popped out. He closed his eyes as the knife came closer to his face, ready for the stinging pain.

“Ryoma?”

Ryoma quickly opened his eyes, seeing his girlfriend standing at the opening of the alleyway. Oh, she looked stunning in that new white dress, hair done slightly, and the new necklace he had bought her resting on her neck. How the rose pendant framed her perfectly.

One of the boys laughed, turning his head towards her. “Is this your girlfriend, kid? How did you score that?” Y/n took a step back, clutching the strap of her purse tighter

“Don’t touch her!” Ryoma yelled, kicking his legs. The bad guys snickered, lowering the knife from his face. 

“Oh yea? Would doing that make you cooperate more?”

A few of them moved towards her, her words demanding them to let Ryoma go fell on deaf ears. Ryoma struggled more, until he heard one of the guys speak

“Holy shit, it’s her! I barely recognized her all dressed up!” ‘Her?’ 

Ryoma watched as Y/n swiftly pulled something resembling brass knuckles out of her purse, punching the guy nearest to her. The punk yelled and stumbled back, holding his cheek

Ryoma let out a gasp as he was dropped, all of them now trained on the girl whom they all seemed to know. What was going on?! He quickly picked up his racket and helped fight the guys, until all of them were either running away or knocked out on the floor.

“Are you alright?!” Both of them asked at the same time, resulting in a half forced laugh. Y/n nudged the collapsed guy nearest to her with her foot, him letting out a groan of pain.

“Ryoma, what happened? Why were they after you?” She grabbed his hand, holding it tightly.

After he explained the situation, and calmed the fear in her eyes, it was his turn to ask a much needed question.

“Y/n, how did they know you?”

She gave a winced smile, eyes averting to the wall. “Well, they actually tend to do this a lot, though they’re not much good at fighting. We both know I can fight, so I try to help people out when I can. They’re honestly not much of a challenge. I guess they know my face now!” She let her signature smile out, Ryoma deadpanning. Was this really a good thing?

She looked back at him, eyes going round in fear. “Is that not a good thing? Do you not want someone who does that? I know you’re already stressed by having to avoid gangs yourself, I doubt you’d wanna have to babysit me...”

Ryoma squeezed Y/n’s hand, letting out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. 

“Y/n, I love you so much, but you’re going to give me a heart attack some day. I will never leave you, got that? You sticking by my side after knowing the danger I’m in is more than enough for me to trust you with my life, let alone my heart.”

Rantaro Amami

Rantaro has had his fair share of run-in’s with gangs, especially since they knew he came from a considerable amount of money

But once he met you, and you two had started dating seriously, he tried to be extra cautious of thugs. After all, how long until one of them uses you as leverage?

He always made sure to walk where people were, but sometimes he needed some quiet to think. That’s why he had decided to take a walk around Hope’s Peak’s gardens on the weekend, knowing no one would be here besides some students studying or working on their talent

Rantaro had put earbuds in to listen to music, which is why he didn’t hear the guys sneak up on him, one covering his mouth and another restraining his arms

“Okay, rich boy, give us everything you have, now!”

Rantaro gave a small smile as they removed their hand. “Well, I can’t really give you anything when I can’t move.”

This earned him a kick to the stomach by a third man, causing Rantaro to hunch over in pain.

“Hey guys, how much do you think we’ll get in ransom for twig arms here?”

Rantaro struggled in their grasp, trying to pull free, but to no avail. How had they gotten much stronger since last time?

He listened as they laughed and prepared to drag him off when he heard a yell from a familiar voice.

“Hands off, assholes!”

He felt the grip on one of his arms rip away, and he used that leverage to pull his other one free. He turned around, ready to punch the guy who was behind him when he saw that someone had beat him to it

Y/n, his girlfriend, was kicking one of them into the dirt, the second one already on the ground.

Rantaro saw the third one standing in what seemed like disbelief or fear, before he tackled him, making sure that he didn’t try to attack his girlfriend.

Once all of them were on the floor, Y/n grabbed Rantaro’s wrist an sprinted off, him nearly tripping from the sudden speed

When they were sure they were in a crowded enough place, Y/n let out a sigh

“You’re so lucky I had to come and make up that test, Rantaro.”

He smiled lazily, putting his hand on her head

“Good job Y/n, have you been training with Tenko?”

“Nah, I started taking self defense lessons the last time they tried to get me”

Rantaro’s smirk fell. “The last time?”

Y/n froze, wide eyes looking up at her boyfriend. “Ah, well, I guess they know we’re a thing, you see, and they tried to get me.”

Rantaro moved his hand, now resting it on her cheek. “Y/n, you know I want to keep you safe, one hundred percent, I’m afraid I won’t be able to...”

Y/n moved from his grasp, looking up at him with those same wide eyes, now with a hint of fear in them. “Is this a problem? Do we have to break up?!” She grabbed his hands

“No, no no no! I’m glad you can handle yourself, but I don’t know what I would do if they got ya. I’m just saying I want you to keep an eye out too. I’m gonna hire the best self defense teacher we can find, okay? Try to stay away from the gangs, but if you can’t...” Rantaro grinned, closing his eyes in the smile

“Kick their ass.”

Gonta Gokuhara

Why anyone would target Gonta besides him being an ultimate, I have no idea

But these thugs were fairly new, and wanting to seem tough, decided to pick on someone that would definitely get them street cred

That’s why Gonta was completely caught off guard when three people approached him in the park while he was waiting for Y/n so they could have their weekly picnic

He had been silently sitting on a bench, thinking about his girlfriends great cooking when three people surrounded him, smirking. 

“So big guy, we’re new around here, how about you give us something to, settle us in, hm?” He shoved Gonta’s shoulder

Gonta looked at them, flashing them an innocent smile. “Well, there’s lot of fun things to do! You go downtown and-”

The kid slapped Gonta, which in reality did very little to affect the entomologist.

“You know what we mean, or are you just that stupid?” Gonta stood up, stepping away from the bench

“That...that’s not nice! Should respect others!”

The boys followed him up, stepping closer to him

“Geez guy you really are mentally challenged!”

Gonta was about to respond when he heard rapid footsteps, along with a familiar, out of breath voice

“Gonta! I’m so sorry I’m late! The dog took my shoe and-” Y/n paused, now having approached her boyfriend and seeing the new people. “What’s going on?”

One of the boys laughed. “Is this your girl?” He approached Y/n, whos grip on their picnic basket tightened

“How about you hang out with us instead of this loser? I bet we can have a good ti-”

The boy was cut off by a wicker basket to the face, head turning at the impact. “What the hell?!”

Y/n hit him again, this time in the stomach. Her boyfriend watched as she swung at the other two who dodged, but were still shocked by the sudden attack.

She went to swing at one of them again when the first one grabbed her shoulders and shoved her, causing her to fall with a yelp

Her basket crashed next to her, some of the food tumbling out. 

Gonta ran over to her, helping her up. When she grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes, she saw more red than she had ever seen in them.

He helped her up and handed her her basket before turning to the boys.

“You guys are not gentleman, hurting Y/n like that! Only bad guy would hurt a lady!”

The boys were trembling already, when Gonta ran at them

They all screamed and scattered, one of them tripping as they sprinted out of the park

Y/n watched Gonta’s back as it moved with every breath, shocked by how angry he had gotten. She had never seen him like that...

When he turned around, all she saw was concern in his eyes. Gonta immediately ran over and looked her over, checking for any injuries

“Y/n not hurt, right?! You fell hard!”

She gave him a soft smile, putting her hand over his. 

“I’m fine, Gonta, promise. They’re not that tough, I don’t know why they go after people they obviously can’t handle.”

Gonta sighed, pulling Y/n into a hug.

“I’m worried they come back...”

“it’s okay, I’ve beaten them before, I can do it again!”

“WHAT?!”

Gonta pulled away, holding you by the shoulders

“You’ve fought?! But you get hurt fighting!”

“I promise, I’m fine, they never land a hit on me, today they just happened to be able to.”

He pondered this, before nodding.

“Okay...but I want be with you next time you out late!”

You pulled him back into a hug

“Of course.”

Kokichi Oma

Kokichi knew it was bound to happen at some point

He was the leader of a secret organization, after all!

And by that he means he pulls pranks on people who deserve them (and sometimes they don’t).

So when a new gang showed up near Hope’s Peak, he knew he was going to have a field day

Christmas must’ve come early because this is an amazing gift!

He started off by doing harmless things, buckets of water on doors, glue and feathers, his usual game

But when Kokichi realized that this gang was actually attacking people, robbing them or beating them up, he knew they deserved worse

He started doing things to scare them, setting small (yet contained) fires in their hideouts, booby traps that end up with pencils in their legs, things that could possibly spook them enough to run out of town

So when he was walking to his organizations hideout and was pushed against a wall, he put on his best grin

“Hey now what’s going on? Can’t a boy go to his evil work and do evil things when he wants to?”

This resulted in him being pushed back harder, the grin on his face faltering ever so slightly

“Stop screwing with us, okay punk?! Or do we have to give you a real warning?”

Kokichi watched as one of them men behind the leader pulled out a pocket knife, flipping out the blade

“Awww, c’mon! We were just having fun, right? You can totally join my club if you want, and that’s not a lie!’

Kokichi grunted has a fist collided with his stomach, causing him to cough

“That wasn’t very nice!”

“Kid, we never play nice.”

He watched as the knife got closer to his face, and he felt it faintly touch his cheek when he heard a small honk

They all turned to see a toy car coming from down the sidewalk, beeping and making engine noises as it got closer

“What the hell?” One of the men picked it up while the other wandered further down the street, looking for the person

While they were inspecting the toy, Kokichi heard a yell come from the other side of the street, turning just in time to see a face he knew very well running up

Y/n, the last person he expected to see, came charging at his main attacker, what looked like their physics book in hand. She swung at him, hitting him in the neck

The man fell with a cough, wheezing out a breath at the brutal attack

Kokichi straightened up, picking up the now dropped knife and holding it

He turned to see the next two people running at him, quickly dodging and letting one run into the wall

The other ran at his girl, who easily tripped him and beat his back with the book, causing yells of pain to come from the fallen boy

Kokichi’s attacker recovered from his collision with the wall and dove at him, earning him a knife to the shoulder

The stabbed man screamed, clutching his shoulder before running off, the other two quickly following suit.

Y/n walked over to the toy car, picking it up and putting into the back that hung on her shoulders

“Are you okay Kokichi?”

“Never better! Say, why do you have that cool car? And how did you know I was here? And how did you fight them? And how did you-”

Y/n shushed him, putting her hand up in a stop motion and putting her book back into her bag as well

“I have it because I’m gonna put a stink bomb on it and drive it into Kaito’s lab. Second, I was on my way to your hideout to get said stink bomb. Third, those guys are everywhere! Constantly ruining my pranks!”

“Y/n, you’ve fought them before? That honestly worries me, I don’t want you to get hurt, and that’s a truth!”

“It’s fine, though now that they know we’re connected in a way, they’ll probably come at us again. I hope that wont change anything between us...?”

Kokichi grinned, putting his hands behind his head

“Nah, you’re stuck with me. And besides, what safer place is there than with the guy who’s specialty is getting away from things?”

Y/n giggled, pulling one of his arms down and dragging him away

“Good, now let’s go get those bombs!”

Korekiyo Shinguji

Korekiyo has had his fair share of bullying, and never really had friends

So when Y/n came into his life, he couldn’t be happier, even if he didn’t express it much! 

He still got his fair share of weird looks and rumors though, but he didn’t mind it when he knew you didn’t believe them

So it was no surprise when he was in the public library, looking at books on ancient rituals, that a few people crowded him

“Hey, freak! When are you going to realize that you’re making everyone uncomfortable?”

Korekiyo ignored them, only taking in the symbol on each of their hands. A gang sign, perhaps? It was nothing he’s seen before

The leader tried to get his attention again by smacking a book out of his hand, causing it to crash onto the floor with a thud

Korekiyo just sighed, picking it up and trying to walk away

The boys followed him. “Hey, are you deaf or something, freak?!”

One of the boys grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around.

“Cut the act, freak! You know what we want!”

“I really...don’t”

The boys laughed, the one closest to Korekiyo grabbed him by the collar.

“We want cash, kid! Now give us your wallet or you’ll regret it!”

“Don’t you know you should be quiet in a library?”

The one holding him shoved him into a shelf, causing it to shake slightly.

“I don’t give a damn! Now give us all the money you got or I swear you won’t like what happens!” I knife was flashed in front of his face

Korekiyo sighed and pulled out his wallet. This would be easier than being stabbed right?

The boy went to snatch it from him when a hand reached out and grabbed the boy’s wrist, stopping him.

“Hey, that’s not very nice.”

They all turned to see a small girl, who they all recognized.

“Y/n?!”

“Hey, why are you picking on people? Get lost.”

The kid was at a loss for words. was he really being told off by her?!

He let go of Korekiyo, who straightened the collar of his suit before stepping in front of Y/n

“I would advise you to not hurt her, she has a lot of people who could snap you in half...”

The boys still tried to shove past Korekiyo, but before he could block them Y/n stepped though, smacking the closest boy with her hand and kicking his knee, making him fall

She kicked him a couple more times before grabbing her boyfriend’s hand and running, making sure to lose the other gang members before they stopped by a small antique store

“Phew, that was close! They never learn how to actually fight, and I bet they don’t even use that knife.”

“Y/n, I’m glad you came, but how did you know how to fight him? I sense you two know each other...”

Y/n sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Yea, sort of. We went to the same elementary and middle school, and he always bullied me. I guess when I left for Hope’s Peak he must’ve turned to the gang life, and I think he still has it out for me.” She giggled nervously at the end. 

“Y/n, that doesn’t seem very safe for anyone you know, if you’re constantly being targeted like that.”

Her eyes immediately widened, fear showing in them

“Does that mean you don’t want to be with me?! I’m sorry my life doesn’t seem very safe, but I do try to keep these types of things away from the people I know, and-”

Korekiyo placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly

“Nothing like this will make me leave you, sweet heart. I assume it just means I have to learn to protect myself as well...”

Y/n smiled, holding his other hand. “Let’s go ask Tenko!”

Kiibo

Kiibo could very well protect himself from any attack, if he was prepared

The problem is Kiibo doesn’t want to hurt anyone, so he’ll try to use words to diffuse a situation

So when he was walking to Miu’s for the party she was throwing for the class, he was caught off guard when three people grabbed him and threw him into an alley, surrounding him

“So, you’re the robot, huh?”

Kiibo scanned all of their faces, not recognizing any of them

“Yes...I am the robot?”

“Heh. Well, how much would that school and your creator pay to get you back? Probably a lot, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have weapons right? I would advise not using them, or they’ll find nothing but your garbage can body in a ditch.”

“Hey, that’s a robophobic remark-”

The main boy yelled at him to shut up, pulling out a taser

“Come with us, and no one needs to get hurt, okay?”

They started walking off with Kiibo when a voice was heard at the end of the alley

“Kiibo, where are you going?”

They all turned around to see Y/n and Maki, both of them holding snacks for the party.

Y/n took a step closer. “Are you alright?”

Before Kiibo could respond, the main boy pointed the taser at Y/n, Maki pulling her back

“I recommend you walk away ladies, I don’t want to hurt girls!”

Maki set down her food, taking Y/n’s and placing it with hers

“Y/n, you run, okay? I got this.”

Kiibo tried to protest when Maki sprinted to the main boy, twisting his arm, causing him to drop the taser

He screamed in pain, falling to the floor. Maki ran for the other two, fighting them both at once. 

Kiibo watched from the dead end of the alley as Maki fought with ease. He wasn’t worried until he saw the third one get up, picking up his weapon and running at Maki

Kiibo yelled out, but before Maki could react, Y/n ran up, elbowing the boy in the neck and kicking him to the ground, snatching the taser from his hand

She pointed it at the two other gang members, who were bleeding and wounded from Maki’s ruthless attack. 

“Go away, or I will zap you!” She turned it on for a moment, the cackling sound of it causing them to bolt passed her and out into the streets

Y/n dropped the taser and ran to Kiibo, checking his body for injuries

“They didn’t fry your wires, or mess with any vital parts, right?”

Kiibo ran a quick scan, Y/n letting out a sigh of relief when he stated that there was no intense damage done to his body. 

Maki walked over, putting a hand on Y/n’s shoulder. “Y/n, how did you learn to fight like that? You’re usually so timid.”

Y/n smiled and grabbed Kiibo’s hand. “Being a Hope’s Peak kid already puts you at risk of things like this, and when you’re smaller and a girl, they see you as an easier target. I’ve had to deal with them before, but they’re nothing I can’t handle!”

Maki took note of this, reminding herself verbally to warn everyone at the party of this occurrence

Maki walked off to grab the food, and Y/n tuned back to Kiibo.

“Are you safe? I know you probably don’t feel safe...”

“Y/n, do you mean safe around you?”

She nodded, looking down

“These thing are going to happen regardless of whom we are with, and trust me when I say I’d rather be there to help you, than be safe and not be with you.”

Y/n looked up at him, his heart skipping a beat at her loving eyes

“Really?!”

“Yep!”

She smiled pulling him into a quick hug. When she let go she pulled him out of the alley

“Let’s go, I wanna tell everyone about how I beat someone up, none of them will believe me!”

________________________________________________________________

Ahh, these last few feel so rushed! I’m super sorry this took so long, I’ve been really lazy and I have a huge exam coming up and my teacher keeps piling on work! I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for requesting something so unique!