#this is such an interesting interaction because while maki is technically right she's also kind of wrong

[neodiekido]

this interaction drives me absolutely bonkers. thinking about utdp/danganronpa s maki gets me so fucked uppppppp

[ryqoshay]

OTP Ask Meme (Impatient Edition) NicoMaki

Yeah, I know the point of these things is to wait for followers to Ask questions from the list, but reading though this one got me thinking too much. And, as the title implies, I got impatient and wanted to answer them all. Right away.

Anyway, credit to @lonelypond​ for this version coming across my dash. Reblog that version if you want to do this thing correctly.

Also, just because I’ve already answered these here, I’ve expanded on some for various reasons and left others short if I believe the reasons are obvious. So if you still want to do the whole interactive thing, you can still ask for clarification or whatever.

And finally, there will be spoilers ahead for How to Handle a Nico, both scenes I’ve written and posted, as well as some that remain in my Notes and WIP Warehouse. I’ll try to remember to link to the chapters mentioned.

1. Who wakes up first?

Nico, so she can make breakfast for her Maki.

2. Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

Maki. Usually because she studies or works later and/or longer hours. She is also not above pulling Nico back into bed when she comes to wake her.

3. Who takes longer getting ready?

Usually Nico.

4. When they can’t sleep, what do they do?

Maki’s libido can pretty much always be counted on to at least exhaust Nico, if not both of them.

5. Who falls asleep while watching a movie?

Depends on who had a rough day or week at work/school, though Maki may get bored and either watch Nico or fall asleep during overly sappy romance movies.

6. Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a small affectionate smile?

Either, depending on the stresses of the prior day.

7. Who comes up with the cheesy pick-up lines?

Nico intentionally. Maki unintentionally.

8. Who gets extremely competitive playing Mario Kart?

They both are, though in different ways. This is depicted in Consolation Prize.

9. Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling?

Maki, especially if she is in an unfamiliar place.

10. Who sets the other’s ringtone to something loud and obnoxious behind their back?

Both, though Maki only in retaliation for whatever teasing Nico may have done.

11. Who rearranges the bookshelf/DVD shelf in alphabetical order?

Nico likes a proper presentation of her idol merch. Maki is too busy with other stuff to care about special organization.

12. Who does the hands-over-the-eyes “Guess Who” thing?

Nico.

13. Who points out a dog when they see one?

Either.

14. Who’s prone to road rage?

Maki, especially when she is trying to get to the hospital when called in at some odd hour, or trying to get home after a stressful day.

15. Who’s prone to wearing socks indoor (or to sleep)?

Nico gets cold easier. Warm socks help.

16. Who reminds the other to put on sunscreen before going to the beach (or pool)?

Nico, partly out of habit from doing it with her siblings and partly as an excuse to offer to help Maki put it on. Depicted in Sunscreen.

17. Who carries all the important documents while traveling?

Nico.

18. Who gets the window seat?

Nico. Maki traveled enough with her parents and is happy to let her girlfriend see the sights instead.

19. Who puts their cold hands/feet on the other?

Nico intentionally. Maki unintentionally, usually.

20. What do they argue about the most?

I don’t believe anyone has been brave enough to track the data for this.

21. Who’s clumsier?

Maki, especially in the kitchen. Nico has her moments though.

22. Who texts more often?

Nico. With heavy emoji use. (I need to depict this more in HtHaN somehow)

23. Who is better with kids?

Nico. She was the primary caregiver for her siblings for many years after all.

24. Who’s the better cook?

Nico. See above.

25. Who mistakes salt for sugar?

Maki. Even after Nico labeled the containers.

26. Who puts the fork in the microwave?

Maki.

27. Who cooks at 2 in the morning?

Nico. Maki isn’t allowed to cook without Nico’s supervision. However, this would be a rare occasion as Nico typically will prepare something ahead of when Maki is arriving home this late and leave it for her to reheat.

28. Who lets the microwave play the loud beeping sound at 1 a.m.?

Maki, when she’s reheating whatever Nico made for her after arriving home late.

29. Who licks the spoon when they’re baking brownies?

Both.

30. Who likes doing the dishes?

Nico, though it would be more appropriate to say she doesn’t dislike it.

31. Who has bigger cravings? What are they?

Nico loves her sweets. Maki loves her Nico.

32. Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

Nico is highly attentive to Maki’s preferences in food. Knowing what Maki likes in restaurants lets her know what she can make at home. And food is definitely one of the best ways to Maki’s heart.

33. How do they eat ice cream? What’s their favorite flavors?

Nico likes sundaes with lots of sugary toppings. She also likes trying new flavors and will often get multiple scoops of different flavors. Maki is fine with a single scoop cone.

34. Do they go on dates? What are they like?

As often as their schedules allow. Maki likes quite dates like walks in a park or museum or sitting up on a hillside for stargazing. Nico likes shopping for outfits and idol merch, going to movies and bustling amusement parks. But both love watching the other enjoy their hobbies so they’re willing to go along with the other’s interests as well.

35. What do they smell when they smell Amortentia?

Nico smells her father’s aftershave, strawberries, and stewing tomatoes. Maki smells Nico’s special tomato curry, Nico’s shampoo, and the cinnamon sugar of the snickerdoodle cookies the Nishikino baker made for her to leave out for Santa.

Yes, two of Maki’s are directly related to Nico. What can I say? She’s addicted.

36. Which one is the secret snuggler?

Maki. The more tired or drunk she is, the clingier she gets.

37. Which one offers their jacket to the other when they complain they feel cold?

Maki. Nico gets cold easier, so Maki is usually the one to offer her jacket.

38. Who reaches for the other one’s hand while driving?

Yes.

39. Who leaves little notes in the other one’s lunch?

Nico, because she is the only one who makes lunch for them both; Maki isn’t the type to do such a thing even if she were allowed to cook more. (Bonus: What does it say?) Usually the messages are simple affirmations of love, but she is not above getting snarky if the two had an argument recently.

40. Who is the most affectionate?

Nico in public. Maki in private.

41. Who is the big spoon/little spoon?

Usually, Maki is the big spoon as she is quite fond of hugging her Nico like a teddy bear, though Nico will sometimes jetpack.

42. What is their favorite feature of their partner?

Maki loves Nico’s smile, particularly her genuine, unforced, non-idol persona smile. Nico loves Maki’s voice, specifically her singing voice.

43. What is the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

Nico starts teasing Maki more, no longer to “put the spoiled rich girl in her place” but rather to see more of the adorable reactions. Maki actively tries to deny her feelings, even to, or perhaps especially to herself, falling back on established habits of insisting that she doesn’t have time to date, all the while quietly continuing to seek more time with Nico.

44. What are their nicknames for each other?

Both exclusively use -chan with the other.

45. Who worries the most? Over what?

Early on, both are worried about losing the other for different reasons. Nico is afraid that should a scandal occur that ruins her idol career, Maki may blame herself and leave. Maki fears that a busy schedule of studying in medical school followed by long hours at the hospital may turn away someone like Nico, whose attention seeking seems infinite. Later, as they settle into their relationship, their concerns turn to more stereotypical adult fears; traffic or transit accidents, sever illnesses, etc.

46. Who initiates kisses?

Nico in public. Maki in private.

47. Who says I love you first? How did it happen?

Nico, by accident, as depicted in Spoken.

48. Who tells their friends/family about their relationship first?

Technically Maki in both cases, though with their friends, Nico was active in the chatroom, and with their mothers, Maki only beat Nico by maybe half an hour or so. These instances are depicted in Reconstructed Reunion and Telling Mama.

49. What do they do when they’re away from each other?

Both have busy schedules, even as early as the years immediately following high school, so spending time away from each other is quite commonplace. This still did not stop Maki from going through a bout of depression during Nico’s first tour as a professional idol, as depicted in Homesick and Homecoming. From then on, Maki starts a tradition of visiting Nico during longer tours so as to break up their time away a bit.

50. Who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Nico, as the more romantic of the two. This isn’t to say Maki doesn’t value sentiment, she just has other ways of expressing it than being overwhelmed.

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.3

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

Last time as we properly began chapter 6’s investigation, the Hope’s Peak book in Kokichi’s lab was obviously planted and had nothing to do with him, a random kid in one of Shuichi’s fake flashbacks was delightfully relevant to Kaito’s issues, Kokichi’s room was a mess in both a literal and a narrative sense, his motive video at least gave some insight into how he could have been sometimes not a dick and had some vague semblance of actual friendship, Himiko was clearly thinking of Kaito as she declared herself Shuichi’s sidekick, it must have sucked to be Rantaro just before his memories were erased, and another fake flashback happened to show just how amazing Kaito was at hiding his illness.

We’ve finished investigating Rantaro’s lab, and Himiko has now left to go check Rantaro’s dorm room for the other part of his Survivor Perk that he mentioned in the video. (This is the same oversight the writers made with Kokichi’s dorm room in that nobody should be capable of entering it without Keebo blowing up the door. And while Monokuma could potentially have forgotten to lock Kokichi’s door in all the confusion of case 5, Rantaro’s door has been very explicitly locked since the end of chapter 1.)

Shuichi is about to go and head to the library next, since Keebo can blow open the hidden door for him, but before he can, Tsumugi shows up to tell him to come and see something in Kaito’s lab instead. Possibly she’s trying to distract him in the hopes that he’ll never have time to get around to the library, but it’s probably mostly just that she really wants him to see some totally relevant evidence that totally isn’t a red herring. It is very telling that the thing Tsumugi helps you investigate in this chapter is the one thing that’s related to the in-universe story about the Gofer Project and the spaceship, while everything that everyone else helps you find is related to the real truth of the situation that proves that story false – that Kokichi wasn’t a Remnant of Despair, Rantaro’s previous killing game, etc.

(It’s rather misleading that they describe Kaito’s lab as being on the sixth floor, when we’re currently on the fifth floor and so you’d think that the way there would be to go up. But nope, the only way to Kaito’s lab is all the way back down to the first floor and then up the spiral staircase behind that one door. Of course Kaito’s lab just had to be special, that dork.)

(I also messed up dealing with an Exisal that was in the way. While obviously the Exisals here won’t actually kill Shuichi if you don’t call Keebo to get rid of them quickly enough, they do have an animation which implies Shuichi gets picked up and thrown backwards into the nearest wall, which is neat. So, uh, that happened a couple of times here. Sorry, Shuichi.)

As soon as we enter the cold sleep room that’s been blown open behind Kaito’s lab, there’s another flashback, and it’s… everyone we care about! Well, sort of. This never really happened and is just Tsumugi’s fanfiction of how they would have interacted while meeting each other and preparing to go into cold sleep, but at least she gets them in-character. Or maybe it’s just some kind of simulation based on the data about their personalities in the Flashback Light computer. …Not that it’s super hard to get them right in this context, because this isn’t a very complex conversation and so they’re mostly just displaying their most recognisable character traits.

This is supposedly everyone meeting for the first time, which is the only point at which it actually matters that they were apparently all in different classes at Hope’s Peak, making that a very unnecessary plot point of the previous Flashback Light. Even if they were in different classes, though, wouldn’t each Gofer Project member have sought out the other ones after hearing they’re in the project together, to get to know them better? They’d especially want to talk to that one guy who’s already an astronaut; surely he’d have some interesting thoughts on this situation and would be able to tell them what it’d be like on a spaceship.

Kaito:  “But y’know, it’s a man’s dream to leave Earth behind and travel across the stars!”

Oh, Kaito, of course it is. Mostly just for the kind of man that you are, though. Curiosity!

(grrr I know this isn’t really Kaito and is just a display of some of his most obvious character traits, but I miss him.)

There’s all kinds of stuff here reminding us of old character interactions – Maki jabbing at Kaito even before they were friends, Kaito reacting to being called an idiot, Kokichi being a dick to Keebo (you know, that thing that made him so lovable), Kiyo hinting at being a fucking serial killer (ditto), which, to at least some extent, really does bring back fond memories of when everyone was alive and things weren’t so bleak. There’s also lots of Kaede, being her adorable optimistic self!

Kaede:  “We’re friends from here on out.”

Kokichi:  “Hmm… Even though you just met us and you don’t even know what we’re like?”

They even managed to fit Kokichi’s trust issues in there.

Kaito:  “No matter how many times we fight, we smile in the end… That’s what true friendship is.”

I would say this is also Kaito being good, but… I’m not completely sure that this is something the real him would have said, actually. It sounds a bit too simplistically waxing-lyrical-about-friendship with nothing distinctively Kaito about it. Especially when you consider the fact that Kaito very rarely referred to Shuichi and Maki as his friends because he was so hung up on the whole hero-and-sidekick thing.

But regardless, because this at least seems on the surface to be the characters we know and (mostly) love, this is the one flashback which actually does inspire hope for us in the audience too! And it probably gives more hope to Shuichi than any of the others did, because this one is based on the people who were real and he genuinely cared about instead of only feeling like he cared about them in the first place through fake memories. These are the people he’s already said are his source of hope, and it’s almost like he’s seeing them all again.

While every character in the flashback had at least one line, most of them didn’t have much more than one or two, except for Kaede and Kaito, who had the most. I wonder if this is just because they would be the two most talkative while meeting a new group of people and trying to encourage them all to get along, or whether it’s because we’re seeing a version of this scene which is tailored to Shuichi specifically and therefore puts the most emphasis on the people he cared about the most (and, for example, Himiko’s version gave Tenko and Angie more lines).

Flashback over, the reason Tsumugi really brought us here, of course, is a document about the Gofer Project participants that just happens to be here (why would this have even been left in the cold sleep room of all places?). Specifically, she wants us to see the part of it that claims Kaede had a twin sister.

Tsumugi:  “It said her sister was adopted by a relative and they barely had any contact, but…”

This serves as a convenient excuse for why Kaede never mentioned having a twin. If they didn’t live together, this twin would be functionally more like a cousin to her and not a significant enough part of her life for Kaede to be likely to bring her up unless she was specifically asked about extended family.

But, really? I don’t think Kaede even had a twin at all. Obviously, technically her entire family wasn’t real and was all fake backstory, but I mean in the sense of Kaede thinking she had a twin and remembering that as something about herself. I don’t think she did. This is a desperate last-minute red herring of Tsumugi’s that goes nowhere; if she’d had this idea in mind from before Kaede’s creation then you’d think she’d have gone somewhere with it and made it into an actual thing.

Tsumugi:  “I’m still a little worried. Because Junko Enoshima also had a twin sister.”

Shuichi: “Ah, true, but…”

Tsumugi:  “On top of that, Junko used her twin sister to run her killing game from behind the scenes. I mean… it’s probably just a coincidence, but I thought I should mention it to you, Shuichi.”

For her supposedly thinking it’s probably nothing, she sure is pressing this point that Junko was the same as if she’s trying to get him to think this isn’t nothing, now, isn’t she.

Shuichi:  (This is the first time I’m hearing that Kaede has a twin. But is that… relevant? It doesn’t really matter, does it?)

But Shuichi knows exactly what the fuck is up. This is not remotely relevant, and the fact that Junko had a twin doesn’t change that. The only actual relevance this has is to hint towards the real mastermind’s identity, since Tsumugi was so insistent about telling us this.

As some bonus dialogue, Tsumugi wonders where Maki and Himiko are.

Shuichi:  “Maki is in Kokichi’s room at the dorms.”

Tsumugi:  “Kokichi’s dorm room? Why’s she there?”

Heh, Tsumugi looks slightly worried at this, almost as if she’s afraid they might have seen Kokichi’s motive video and realised he wasn’t a Remnant of Despair at all.

Next, Shuichi and Tsumugi head to the library together and find Maki already there.

Maki:  “…I knew you would come here.”

Maki’s smiling as she says this! She’s friends enough with Shuichi that she’s come to understand him pretty well, and she’s happy about that fact!

Huh, I’m pretty sure that if you ever came back to the library at any point during earlier chapters past 1, the books Kaede set up had been put back to the mess they were in before. But in this scene, they’re still organised. Guess that’s another minor oversight.

Maki:  “I found a design that worried me a little. It was drawn with *too* much detail…”

If you think about it, Kokichi shouldn’t have needed to draw such a detailed blueprint in order for it to be something Miu could make. Miu is the inventor; she should be able to take someone’s idea of “I want a thing that can do this” and figure out the blueprints and how to build it herself. The writers could have had Maki identify a relevant design simply from the fact that it seems actually buildable and potentially useful compared to all his other childish ideas, without the blueprint needing to be detailed.

This blueprint was for the Bugvac, which Maki then grabbed a finished prototype of from Miu’s lab. Despite it being a prototype, it has apparently already been used a few times, which begs the question of how much Kokichi knew about this. If he was the one who used it, he should have known he wouldn’t be able to see these “tiny bugs” for himself and should in theory have gone to Gonta to ask if he could see them. It’s quite possible this did happen, and Kokichi was able to confirm how Monokuma’s surveillance worked and be sure an Electrobomb would knock out the cameras. (Of course, if so, he still never told anyone else about this because lol what is being helpful, that might compromise his plan.) Or it’s possible he just never got around to this – maybe this was the last thing Miu built, and by the time Kokichi realised it was finished, Miu and Gonta were already dead thanks to him, good job Kokichi.

Himiko then also shows up, but is hesitant to say what she found in Rantaro’s room.

Himiko:  “If I say I didn’t find anything, you’re gonna decide I’m useless, aren’t you…? I-I won’t let that happen…”

Aww, don’t worry, Himiko, you’re still a good sidekick. Someone­ had to search Rantaro’s room to confirm there’s nothing in there, and that’s still a useful clue in itself! I do like this little bit in this chapter of Himiko wanting to be useful. After seeing so many others try so hard to make a difference, she must have realised she hasn’t really contributed much herself, and she wants that to change!

Himiko:  “You’ve got guts to label me, the legendary mage, useless!”

This is… perhaps a little bit Kaito of her? It’s not quite exactly like him, because Kaito would never pull out his Luminary of the Stars line when confronted with how useless he felt (he was probably aware how empty and desperate that’d sound), but he did often try and act like he was a much better investigator than he definitely knew he was and what do you mean he’s useless. Himiko having started to feel useless and wanting to be more help in investigations without knowing how is, after all, rather Kaito of her too.

(Why yes, I am also going to be finding every excuse possible to bring up Kaito in this chapter even when the game isn’t directly referencing him, and you can’t stop me here either.)

Himiko:  “Maybe… the mastermind is hiding behind this hidden door?”

Maki:  “Then, if we kill them… we can end this killing game…”

Shuichi:  “No, I told you, we can’t kill them. If you do that, we’d be the same—”

Listen to Shuichi, Maki Roll! And remember what happened the last time you tried to kill the mastermind! It’s so sad that this is still her ingrained go-to method for solving any problem that doesn’t have an easy solution.

Maki:  “…You don’t have to tell me. I’m not going to kill… I’m just going to get revenge. It’s weird… Sometimes, you’re just like him, you know?”

But she’s fighting against that ingrained instinct! She is learning from what Kaito taught her! And even though anyone would not want their friend to kill someone, Maki associates that sentiment with Kaito in particular because he was always so adamant about saving her from ever killing again.

I also like the way she just says “him”, because she knows Shuichi will know exactly who she’s talking about. He’s still so important to them.

Maki:  “I’ll go in first… I’m the only one who can fight if anything happens.”

And she’s realising that she can fight to protect people! She wasn’t able to use her skills to protect Kaito in the end, but at least she still can for the rest of her friends!

Motherkuma:  “Puhuhu… You found me. Or rather, you just found a place that you were meant to find.”

Sort of. Motherkuma definitely didn’t plan for things to enter “endgame” mode just yet, but since Keebo’s gone rogue and there’s nothing he can do about that, I suppose he does now want to give them hints that’ll help them figure out the mastermind so that the story can be entertaining.

Motherkuma explains that he’s the machine that can make spare Monokumas, and everyone thinks it’s too convenient that he’s just admitting this, which I suppose is a reasonable excuse for why they all then try and get him to prove it.

Shuichi:  “Could you do that right now?”

Tsumugi:  “Yeah! Try and make a new Monokuma!”

Tsumugi is the first one to directly ask, before Motherkuma has brought up the word “birth”. Because of this, it doesn’t seem so out of place that she doesn’t use that word.

Motherkuma:  “I can’t birth a Monokuma for someone who doesn’t love me.” […]

Himiko:  “Whatever, just give birth to a Monokuma!”

Motherkuma:  “No! I won’t do it! I’m not gonna birth one for someone I don’t like just cuz they tell me to!”

Maki:  “…Hurry up and give birth to a Monokuma.”

Motherkuma:  “…”

Shuichi:  “…Are you listening? We said to give birth to a new Monokuma.”

And then once Motherkuma uses the word, everyone else who asks phrases it that way. Which honestly is still pretty forced – that’s not the usual way you’d describe a robot making a copy of itself – but it’s at least somewhat reasonable why they all used that word when Tsumugi did not. And of course Tsumugi doesn’t chip in on this sudden train of people awkwardly saying “birth”, because she’s totally already asked him to do that, right?

I say this is awkwardly forced that everyone says “birth” like this, but even so, I absolutely did not catch the significance of this at all, even after Motherkuma later explained that the word “birth” was important. If Tsumugi had only asked after everyone else had said “birth” and had not used that word, it would probably have stuck out, but because she went beforehand, it’s genuinely pretty innocuous even if everyone else using the word seems a bit odd.

Tsumugi:  “I wonder if the thing about the spares… was a lie after all.”

Shuichi:  (A lie, huh… But why lie about that? There has to be some motivation to lie…)

Obviously it’s not at all a lie. But even if it was a lie and Motherkuma couldn’t make spares (and there was always just the one spare Monokuma lying around for that one time at the beginning I guess?), lying about it would make perfect sense. The supposed Monokuma-making machine was exactly why Kaede ended up “killing” Rantaro, and keeping up that lie even now would help prevent Shuichi from figuring out it was all just a trap.

Survivor Perk Monopad:  Your best chance of exposing them is when Monokuma needs a spare. At that time, the mastermind will go to the library’s hidden room.

Yep. Rantaro was very much lured there by the mastermind so that (hopefully) Kaede would kill him.

Survivor Perk Monopad:  To prove this hint is accurate, I will predict something. The first thing you will remember is the Ultimate Hunt.

Still not sure how that was supposed to be any proof of credibility at all (especially since the plan was to get Rantaro killed before that Flashback Light even happened). Maybe it was purely to get Rantaro to mention it and make himself sound even more suspicious and end up feeling even less safe trusting anyone, which is exactly what happened.

Survivor Perk Monopad:  Only share this information with people who you know you can trust. How you determine that will mean your life or your death.

And they definitely didn’t want Rantaro to go trusting anyone enough to tell them about his plan in case that prevented Kaede from accidentally killing him. So here’s another part that’s trying to make Rantaro super paranoid.

Survivor Perk Monopad:  —Rantaro Amami

Yeah, no, it wasn’t written by Rantaro’s past self at all. This whole thing is simply a note, so there’s no proof it was really from him, and everything in it is designed to get Rantaro killed off in exactly the way that it happened.

Shuichi wonders about the blood on the Monopad, and Maki offers to go retrieve the relevant photo of Rantaro from Kokichi’s room since he was such a convenient mysterious hoarder.

Shuichi:  “Maki… be careful, okay? Keebo and the Exisals are fighting—”

Maki:  “Hey, who do you think I am?” [she smiles] “…Do you want to die?”

[Maki runs off]

Shuichi:  “…I’ve finally reached the point where I can tell that was a joke.”

They are friends! It’s not just that Shuichi can tell she’s joking now, but also that Maki’s become better at showing when she’s joking. I also just like Shuichi worrying about her – of course he already knows she can protect herself and she doesn’t actually need to remind him, but he still worries just a little bit about her getting hurt anyway because she’s his friend!

Shuichi:  (Inspecting it closely, I can see several pink fibers stuck to the surface of the shot.) “They’re pink…” (Wait! That means, this shot…) [he winces] “…” (…I understand. I know how to pin down the mastermind of this killing game…)

Shuichi obviously can’t directly voice what he just figured out because the players need a game to play, but regardless, I do like this moment of him realising that… Oh. Oh, shit, Kaede didn’t actually kill Rantaro, that’s awful… but at least he can use that fact to end this game and finally fulfil her wish.

Shuichi has one last flashback, about when Monokuma woke him up from cold sleep to taunt him before wiping his memories.

Monokuma:  “Although we’re meeting for the first time, you already know me… Puhuhu… Well, of course you know. I’m famous, after all.”

While Monokuma goes on to clarify that this is because everyone watched the Hope’s Peak killing game, these lines here happen to amusingly line up perfectly well with the real truth. He could have said these exact lines to pregame Shuichi, hypothetically.

Monokuma:  “The bonds of trust you’ve forged, your disgusting promises of friendship… All that’s gonna go bye-bye when the killing game starts!”

Yeah, there’s definitely not going to be any bonds of trust or promises of friendship whatsoever in this killing game, right? Hah. This is supposed to make them sad about losing those bonds, but really they forged better bonds after the killing game started than they had in that one supposed brief conversation beforehand. (It was stupid of Tsumugi to write that they were in different classes and didn’t know each other; that just makes this backstory seem even more irrelevant.)

Shuichi:  “What…? Wh-Why are you doing this…?”

Monokuma:  “There’s no point in asking me questions. You’re gonna forget everything, anyway.”

Shuichi:  “Who’s behind this!? Who *are* you!? Junko Enoshima is dead—”

Monokuma:  “Like I said, there’s no point. You’ll just forget that, too.”

Since he’s going to forget this, Monokuma should have no reason not to explain himself anyway only to taunt him that he’ll just forget it all. But he doesn’t, because the only actual reason this exchange exists is as something Shuichi will “remember”, and they didn’t want to give him any meaningful information in it. Or rather, since there is no meaningful information in a backstory that’s all lies, Tsumugi probably hadn’t even figured out the exact supposed reason for this killing game in the context of the Hope’s Peak universe at all, so it was easier to just be vague.

Monokuma:  “I’m gonna use this light, then I’m gonna shove you all into lockers while you’re unconscious…”

So apparently everybody was in lockers at the beginning. But there aren’t sixteen lockers in this school. Damn it, this game and its thing of how any part of the story that you the player don’t need to interact with simply doesn’t exist as part of the game world.

Himiko volunteers to stay behind in the hidden room to look for more clues, since she still feels that she hasn’t been particularly useful yet.

Himiko:  “With my skills, I’ll catch the dastardly Monokuma and the mastermind!”

Shuichi:  “…I understand. Then I’ll leave it to you, Himiko.”

Himiko:  “What? W-Wait, really? Are you seriously going to leave it to me? All by myself?”

Aww. She’s not used to people actually believing in her and giving her this much responsibility! She was talking herself up like the great mage she totally is, but she doesn’t really think she’s that good at helping at all.

Himiko:  “Since you believe in me, I need to give it my all… I’ll find the clue, even if it uses up every last drop of my magic and kills me!”

Tsumugi:  “D-Don’t say such unlucky things…”

Himiko:  “I’m just letting you know how determined I am. You guys should believe in me and go on ahead.”

Shuichi:  “Thank you. That really makes me feel better, Himiko.”

She’s being a performer! She’s saying things she doesn’t quite mean in order to give people a certain impression of her and influence their mood to be more positive and optimistic! Kaito’s shoes were very big shoes, but Himiko’s doing the best job she can at filling them.

(Himiko Yumeno, Luminary of Magic. She’s trying, at least.)

Shuichi:  “We need to split up and check all the labs one more time. If we missed a clue in any of them… it would most likely be *that* one.”

We never find out which lab Shuichi is thinking about here. The only other lab I can think of that’d have anything relevant in it would be his own, thanks to all fifty-two of those very telling murder case files in there, but Shuichi never gets to have another look at that.

As soon as Shuichi and Tsumugi leave the hidden room, Keebo’s fight with an Exisal accidentally blows up the entrance, leaving Himiko trapped inside behind a pile of rubble.

Shuichi:  “…Let’s use the Exisal.”

Keebo:  “What?”

Tsumugi:  “Use the Exisal…? How? We don’t have any more of Miu’s inventions, and the Monokubs are in the Exisals—”

We should technically still have four charged Electrohammers lying somewhere near the entrance of the hangar and could run to get those. The story kind of conveniently pretended they stopped existing last chapter as soon as everyone saw the body in the press.

(We would also have an Electrobomb and the Exisal remote if only a certain someone who is under that press had ever cared about actually helping us, of course.)

Tsumugi:  “Himiko is the Ultimate Magician… I bet she’ll use her magic to find a clue in that room that’s just plain amazing.”

I wonder if Tsumugi is actually worried that she will. After all, Himiko’s talent should make her very good at finding secret mechanisms and hidden passageways.

Keebo:  “I can’t keep evading the Exisals’ attacks beyond that time limit. If we don’t settle this soon, I’ll be destroyed.”

This is the actual reason why Keebo gave us this arbitrary time limit, even though it’s still pretty flimsy that he’d apparently know exactly how long he could keep it up for.

(Oh, hey, Keebo sure would be able to keep it up longer and give us longer to investigate if someone had given us the goddamn Exisal remote, now, wouldn’t he???)

Tsumugi:  “I don’t know if I can get to all of them, but I’ll do what I can! I’ll see you later!”

So Tsumugi is in fact going to go check all of the labs for extra clues. Supposedly. Obviously she very deliberately never goes to Shuichi’s lab and points out the very relevant clues in there. She’s not going to bring back anything of note from any of the labs at all, because of course she wouldn’t want to do that.

This part here is a window of time in which it is possible that Tsumugi could in fact have gone to her own lab and used the sets in there and her ridiculous cosplay-shapeshifter skills to fake the audition videos that she’ll show us in the trial. I acknowledge that possibility, but I don’t believe that’s what happened. We’ll get to that when we see the videos.

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