catboyebooks

[catboyebooks]

(realizes i haven't posted at all yet this year) hi, sorry, i should explain — i got busy with a combination of real-life stuff and other projects, and then on top of that i've been playing hundred line ever since it came out (still got over 80 endings left, so that'll be a while). i'm not abandoning this blog / the whole danganronpa replay liveblogging endeavor i've been doing, i'm still very much committed to it, it's just been on the back burner!

i'm going to make a pinned post that'll probably have this info in it too but for now here's my rough plan for the future of this blog:

finish dr:if

ultra despair girls (this'll probably also include reading ultra despair hagakure, which unlocks once you've beaten the game — i do want to talk about it here lol)

dr0, maybe? i haven't read it in ages and don't remember it well... which is probably all the more reason to revisit it, honestly

dr3 (the anime). we will be watching in release order, not chronological, in case that was a question people had (edit: this includes 2.5 ofc)

ndrv3

i may also continue FTEposting or talk about school mode / island mode but i'm not holding myself to any sort of schedule with that, that could pretty much happen whenever. i also don't have a definitive plan for what (if anything) i'll do with this blog once i'm done with the danganronpa stuff, but i do have some ideas!

[catboyebooks]

immediately monokuma reveals that the whole "shsl hacker besshiki madarai" thing was made up. he has a little back-and-forth with kirigiri during which it comes out that the undisguised use of chihiro's code in monokuma's programming was an intentional hint — kirigiri suspected this previously, assuming this was because either A) junko actually wants them to solve the mystery because learning the truth will be despair-inducing or B) junko wants to give them a fighting chance at stopping her because she'd enjoy the despair of being defeated. monokuma claims it's actually C) his plan was to allow this hint to be discovered if chihiro made it to the end of the killing game (i.e. only five people left. not really possible to keep running this killing game with fewer than six participants). personally i think that D) all of the above are true.

anyway, monokuma announces that it's now time for the graduation exam! if they pass, they'll all graduate, but if they fail, they'll get memory wiped again and the killing game will restart. this of course does not go over well. togami demands that junko stop this nonsense and show herself (she refuses), hagakure still has no clue what's going on, and ishimaru insists that nobody here would ever commit murder no matter what. this gets maizono feeling very guilty and monokuma immediately takes advantage of this, asking her quietly (he directly approaches her, the others can't hear this) why she went to naegi's room at night before anything strange had happened. was she really having an inappropriate relationship with a boy? what would her fans say? or could it be that she was there for... some other reason? was she perhaps trying to do something to naegi, her close friend for the past two years? maizono begins to break down and falls to her knees, but suddenly a flying object strikes monokuma's face at great speed and sends him hurtling towards the nearest wall. leon, worried that monokuma was about to take maizono hostage or something, has just grabbed hagakure's crystal ball and thrown it at the bear. he runs over to maizono to make sure she's okay and she tells him there's something she ought to confess to him later — not just to him, but to naegi and everyone else, except leon doesn't hear that part because he's already decided to interpret this as a love confession. great. maybe we should just let him think that.

mukuro doesn't know what to say when faced with naegi and the others. she feels awkward and guilty, understandably. but before there can be a long uncomfortable silence naegi thanks mukuro for saving his life. he literally took a spear for her earlier, i'd say that they're even, but we all know what this guy is like. too fuckin nice.

unable to make eye contact, mukuro asks naegi why he's thanking her. surely kirigiri told him that she's part of shsl despair? why isn't he treating her as the traitor that she is? naegi is like oh well yeah i guess you have a point but you've also saved my life a bunch the past two years and you're my friend :) the despair thing is bad but you could try doing something else with your life maybe? and i help?

mukuro asks naegi point-blank "do you really think i can walk another path at this point?" and he gives her an optimistic but noncommittal answer about how the process of trying to find a path is probably more important than actually finding one. it's pretty similar to what he said to her during her final FTE (when he thought "junko" was just musing about whether she ought to quit modeling) and this causes mukuro to have a bit of an internal "wow, he really is just like that, memory wipe or not" moment. naegi also starts to say that this applies to junko too and she can still turn her life around if she wants but he's interrupted by monokuma showing up.

[catboyebooks]

mukuro doesn't know what to say when faced with naegi and the others. she feels awkward and guilty, understandably. but before there can be a long uncomfortable silence naegi thanks mukuro for saving his life. he literally took a spear for her earlier, i'd say that they're even, but we all know what this guy is like. too fuckin nice.

unable to make eye contact, mukuro asks naegi why he's thanking her. surely kirigiri told him that she's part of shsl despair? why isn't he treating her as the traitor that she is? naegi is like oh well yeah i guess you have a point but you've also saved my life a bunch the past two years and you're my friend :) the despair thing is bad but you could try doing something else with your life maybe? and i help?

mukuro asks naegi point-blank "do you really think i can walk another path at this point?" and he gives her an optimistic but noncommittal answer about how the process of trying to find a path is probably more important than actually finding one. it's pretty similar to what he said to her during her final FTE (when he thought "junko" was just musing about whether she ought to quit modeling) and this causes mukuro to have a bit of an internal "wow, he really is just like that, memory wipe or not" moment. naegi also starts to say that this applies to junko too and she can still turn her life around if she wants but he's interrupted by monokuma showing up.

[catboyebooks]

continuing. so at this point the story gets us caught up on what's been happening with the rest of the group while mukuro was fighting off the monokumas. basically, naegi woke up and started talking about the two years' worth of memories he's just recovered. the group had already seen the video of kirigiri questioning mukuro in the nurse's office, and they're skeptical, but naegi goes on to demonstrate a knowledge of his classmates that proves they aren't strangers to each other. he knows about the promise sakura made to her boyfriend kenichiro, he knows about the doujin yamada's planning to write next (because yamada wrote it already and made naegi help him ink it), and he knows that celes once tried to sell his organs to the kuzuryuu family. yknow, heartwarming stuff that proves that this group all used to be friends.

togami remains skeptical because he doesn't believe he would ever befriend any of these people, and declares it more likely that they're all secretly working together, but he does concede that naegi isn't a terrorist after all.

the narration points out here that naegi sharing his memories with the group and getting them all generally on board with the idea that they've been memory wiped was only possible because mukuro fighting the monokumas kept junko distracted and bought them time, although that wasn't something mukuro did on purpose.

[catboyebooks]

ok so obviously when mukuro thinks about wanting to cause junko despair, that means something specific. she wants to destroy junko's plans while having it be for junko's sake still. it's not just about literally wanting to make junko feel the emotion of despair it's about wanting her to experience The Greatest Possible Despair via ruining her evil keikaku. so one could argue i am missing the point a little if i highlight this passage from the earlier scene with junko in her mastermind room:

bc like yes, junko does experience despair because of mukuro here but not in the way that mukuro intends — junko's basically just getting her nut off watching her sister fight and thinking about how she's a disappointment and only good at violence. it's got nothing to do with mukuro ruining her plans at all, her plans aren't even ruined yet. however i think we can also look at this a lot more broadly: mukuro is trying to cause junko despair because junko will enjoy it, and in the above screencap junko is indeed filled with despair because of mukuro and enjoying it. enjoying it tremendously, at that! and it's not enough, because a few sentences after this junko is bored. and it's like, that's how this would go in any scenario. if mukuro managed to destroy all junko's plans and cause her sister the greatest despair in the history of human emotion, it still wouldn't satiate junko. it wouldn't make her treat mukuro any better either. it's not that mukuro is failing in her mission to fill junko with despair, or that she's doomed to fail, it's that it literally doesn't fucking matter if she succeeds or fails because either way it's still never gonna be enough for junko!

i think also if we take dr:if as being a narrative about struggling to break free from one's abuser (which it is), this is pretty easily read as being about the futility of trying to repair an abusive relationship vs the possibilities that arise from trying to form new relationships with other people. but i should probably move on and save the analysis shit for later, we've still got a good bit of story to get through here

as they approach the dorms, sakura's there, and she gets between the motorcycle and the monokumas. several of the others are keeping watch from a safe distance, and, as mondo brings the motorcycle to a stop in front of the cafeteria, mukuro sees that kirigiri and naegi are here too. naegi's not only awake, he's somehow back on his feet, albeit leaning on kirigiri for support.

the last couple lines of this section are about how unfortunately mukuro wasn't able to fill junko with despair, but instead she had planted the seeds of hope in her classmates. hey wait a second i think we need to talk about this before i continue

[catboyebooks]

as they approach the dorms, sakura's there, and she gets between the motorcycle and the monokumas. several of the others are keeping watch from a safe distance, and, as mondo brings the motorcycle to a stop in front of the cafeteria, mukuro sees that kirigiri and naegi are here too. naegi's not only awake, he's somehow back on his feet, albeit leaning on kirigiri for support.

the last couple lines of this section are about how unfortunately mukuro wasn't able to fill junko with despair, but instead she had planted the seeds of hope in her classmates. hey wait a second i think we need to talk about this before i continue

[catboyebooks]

anyway mukuro is of course upset by the concept of being memory wiped and forced to participate in the killing game as a regular participant, mainly because this would well and truly sever the connection between her and junko. hm, i'm beginning to think that there's nuance to the situation and it would have pros and cons. monokuma continues expanding on the idea and also takes the opportunity to lean on the fourth wall a bunch, which i'll spare you but it is amusing. at one point he alludes to the various execution traps that have been prepared, including the motercycle used in the canon timeline to execute mondo, and shortly afterwards mukuro hears a rumbling sound approaching. monokuma is going to run her over with a motorcycle!

before the bike can reach mukuro, though, mondo intercepts it and hops on the bike himself. he manages to avoid hitting mukuro by popping a last-minute reverse wheelie. hell fuckin yeah. the monokumas pinning down mukuro are knocked out of the way, and mondo holds out a hand to help mukuro to her feet. she takes it.

junko gets back into character as "besshiki" and starts demanding that mondo explain why he's siding with a terrorist. mondo says he doesn't know which one of them is lying, but he's not gonna just stand around "while some idiot gangs up on a girl." junko continues trying to argue but mondo just tells her to shut the fuck up before he and mukuro drive away down the halls of the school, pursued by a horde of monokumas. really powerful mental image, this is some inspired stuff

mukuro tries to ask mondo why he saved her but the noise from the motorcycle makes it difficult to have a conversation. mondo does say that it's not because he trusts mukuro, but it's because he does feel like he can trust "him," which is clearly about naegi, so i guess naegi is awake now

next we cut to junko in her gay little mastermind room watching the fight unfold between mukuro and the monokumas. this has been going on for a while and junko has increased the numbers so that mukuro's now fending off 100 at a time, but there's no stopping mukuro, she's in some sort of combat flow state and hasn't even sustained a single injury during all this. the narration (again, we're in third person, but we do change narrative perspective depending on what character we're following and this is pretty clearly junko's thoughts) goes on and on about how mukuro has transcended humanity and become a perfect killing machine, and it's apparent that junko is enjoying watching this — the specific word choices here make it pretty clear she's getting off on this actually but, like, we could also have probably just assumed that by now — but then, as junko is wont to do, she gets bored. and so she uses monokuma's speakers to address mukuro in her own voice again. this time all she says is mukuro's name.

cut back to mukuro's perspective. the second she hears her sister say her name, mukuro loses her rhythm — the way the narration puts it is that she stops being a force of nature and becomes a person again. after being thrown off like this she's unable to completely avoid the next attack, and, though she's not badly hurt, she does scrape herself up in an attempt to get away. suddenly mukuro hears another voice screaming her name and telling her to watch out. it's naegi's voice. this completely short circuits her for a brief moment before she realizes that junko just played back the sound of naegi yelling from earlier when he pushed her out of the way of the spears. before she can regain her composure, several monokumas tackle her and pin her to the ground. via yet another monokuma junko taunts her sister by threatening to memory wipe everybody again and start the killing game over. except doing the exact same thing twice would be boring so maybe this time mukuro will be forced to participate as herself, and memory wiped so that she doesn't remember her involvement with shsl despair. fascinating concept i'd love to see that "what if?" scenario too tbqh

[catboyebooks]

next we cut to junko in her gay little mastermind room watching the fight unfold between mukuro and the monokumas. this has been going on for a while and junko has increased the numbers so that mukuro's now fending off 100 at a time, but there's no stopping mukuro, she's in some sort of combat flow state and hasn't even sustained a single injury during all this. the narration (again, we're in third person, but we do change narrative perspective depending on what character we're following and this is pretty clearly junko's thoughts) goes on and on about how mukuro has transcended humanity and become a perfect killing machine, and it's apparent that junko is enjoying watching this — the specific word choices here make it pretty clear she's getting off on this actually but, like, we could also have probably just assumed that by now — but then, as junko is wont to do, she gets bored. and so she uses monokuma's speakers to address mukuro in her own voice again. this time all she says is mukuro's name.

cut back to mukuro's perspective. the second she hears her sister say her name, mukuro loses her rhythm — the way the narration puts it is that she stops being a force of nature and becomes a person again. after being thrown off like this she's unable to completely avoid the next attack, and, though she's not badly hurt, she does scrape herself up in an attempt to get away. suddenly mukuro hears another voice screaming her name and telling her to watch out. it's naegi's voice. this completely short circuits her for a brief moment before she realizes that junko just played back the sound of naegi yelling from earlier when he pushed her out of the way of the spears. before she can regain her composure, several monokumas tackle her and pin her to the ground. via yet another monokuma junko taunts her sister by threatening to memory wipe everybody again and start the killing game over. except doing the exact same thing twice would be boring so maybe this time mukuro will be forced to participate as herself, and memory wiped so that she doesn't remember her involvement with shsl despair. fascinating concept i'd love to see that "what if?" scenario too tbqh

[catboyebooks]

not that the fight scene isn't very cool and all but, again, hard to summarize, details don't really matter, the important part here is that mukuro is absolutely in her element and feels as though junko, in fighting her like this, is finally conversing with her on her level. it makes sense, unfortunately; mukuro can't defend herself against her sister's verbal abuse, but she can certainly hold her own in a fight. there's an interesting sort of reverse metaphor here where mukuro fending off literal bullets is being likened to the central gameplay mechanic where bullets are used as a metaphor for arguing.

though mukuro manages to destroy monokuma after monokuma, their numbers don't decrease; more and more join the fight until, instead of the thirty we began with, there are nearly fifty of them. this doesn't discourage mukuro, though. again, she's in her element here. the narration says she's experiencing an emotion here that is neither hope nor despair but tbh it kind of just sounds like both at once. "she learned despair from being abandoned by junko, and she learned hope from her acts of violence." this story could not possibly be any more on the nose about how horribly mukuro is being abused, god, no wonder reading this is what made me finally realize i have PTSD

anyway — in response to that the two monokumas pretend to discuss the matter amongst themselves, as a distraction while a third monokuma swoops in for an attack. mukuro leaps out of the way in the nick of time. a fight sequence commences. i think fight sequences are more trouble to summarize than they're worth (nothing against this scene, it just doesn't really work in summary. the details don't matter anyway) so i'll kinda skim through this. one of the monokumas detonates during the fight and mukuro is surprised this doesn't attract the attention of her classmates, but monokuma says that everyone else is in the cafeteria after he told them (still pretending to be "besshiki" i guess) that they're going to be rescued by the police. he adds that "everyone else" includes kirigiri and naegi and that togami is probably going to torture naegi for information when he wakes up. the room is filled with smoke after the bomb went off so mukuro can't see clearly what's going on, but slowly she realizes that there are more and more monokumas speaking in unison (the way this is represented in the text is with an extra set of quotation marks being added around monokuma's dialogue every time another one shows up. i'm not gonna lie, i think that's pretty fun).

eventually the smoke starts to clear and mukuro can see that she's now facing down thirty monokumas, who are all moving in sync with each other. it's also revealed in narration here that mukuro doesn't know how many monokuma units junko has total — she obviously knows there are multiple and that they're positioned throughout the school so that junko can effectively have monokuma pop up at a moment's notice whenever and wherever she wants, but she has no idea what the actual number is. junko has the monokumas address mukuro ten at a time (showing off her ability to control them i guess? the narration speculates as much) and she says, through them, that as long as everyone lives she can keep memory wiping the group and restarting the killing game as many times as she wants. this is obviously an upsetting notion but mukuro can tell this is an attempt at distracting her prior to another attack, and so she's able to avoid being shot to death when the turrets by the entrance activate and start firing bullets everywhere crazy style. this is the part i mentioned previously where it begins to read like mukuro is playing irl bullet hell as she's now rapidly dodging both bullets and monokumas (who are moving in perfect sync so as to not be hit by the bullets themselves). she also, during this, thinks about how junko is putting on this huge show of her power/skill all for her sake, and so she quietly thanks her sister. not enough therapy in the world etc etc

[catboyebooks]

anyway — in response to that the two monokumas pretend to discuss the matter amongst themselves, as a distraction while a third monokuma swoops in for an attack. mukuro leaps out of the way in the nick of time. a fight sequence commences. i think fight sequences are more trouble to summarize than they're worth (nothing against this scene, it just doesn't really work in summary. the details don't matter anyway) so i'll kinda skim through this. one of the monokumas detonates during the fight and mukuro is surprised this doesn't attract the attention of her classmates, but monokuma says that everyone else is in the cafeteria after he told them (still pretending to be "besshiki" i guess) that they're going to be rescued by the police. he adds that "everyone else" includes kirigiri and naegi and that togami is probably going to torture naegi for information when he wakes up. the room is filled with smoke after the bomb went off so mukuro can't see clearly what's going on, but slowly she realizes that there are more and more monokumas speaking in unison (the way this is represented in the text is with an extra set of quotation marks being added around monokuma's dialogue every time another one shows up. i'm not gonna lie, i think that's pretty fun).

eventually the smoke starts to clear and mukuro can see that she's now facing down thirty monokumas, who are all moving in sync with each other. it's also revealed in narration here that mukuro doesn't know how many monokuma units junko has total — she obviously knows there are multiple and that they're positioned throughout the school so that junko can effectively have monokuma pop up at a moment's notice whenever and wherever she wants, but she has no idea what the actual number is. junko has the monokumas address mukuro ten at a time (showing off her ability to control them i guess? the narration speculates as much) and she says, through them, that as long as everyone lives she can keep memory wiping the group and restarting the killing game as many times as she wants. this is obviously an upsetting notion but mukuro can tell this is an attempt at distracting her prior to another attack, and so she's able to avoid being shot to death when the turrets by the entrance activate and start firing bullets everywhere crazy style. this is the part i mentioned previously where it begins to read like mukuro is playing irl bullet hell as she's now rapidly dodging both bullets and monokumas (who are moving in perfect sync so as to not be hit by the bullets themselves). she also, during this, thinks about how junko is putting on this huge show of her power/skill all for her sake, and so she quietly thanks her sister. not enough therapy in the world etc etc

[catboyebooks]

i guess i don't really have anything new to say about what mukuro just said, we already know she's doing crazy mental gymnastics to reconcile wanting to break free of her sister's abuse with wanting to continue to devote herself to her sister and so she's landed on "wanting to destroy junko's plans and rescue my classmates and be with naegi is actually all for junko's sake because it'd cause her despair and she loves that" but like, i don't know if i'm ever going to just let it go without comment when this comes up because that's just so fucking much. this poor girl. she really is the most pitiful person in this whole wretched academy or whatever the narration said earlier

back to mukuro. she makes it to the entrance hall without encountering mondo or sakura, but of course monokuma intercepts her as she approaches the bulkhead. he's basically making fun of her for leaving naegi with kirigiri instead of taking the opportunity to eliminate her romantic rival. side note, this is interesting, i guess that means there was romantic tension between naegi and kirigiri before the memory wipe? i'm not surprised exactly, but i could see that one going either way. implies that either this was solely on kirigiri's end initially or that naegi got over his crush on maizono at some point (i'm leaning towards the latter interpretation lol).

mukuro manages to not react to this, so monokuma charges at her to attack her instead. she dodges but then narrowly avoids a second attack from behind. junko's sent two monokumas after her at once, and she's using both of them to speak to mukuro in unison. the monokumas ask mukuro what her plan even is — is she just going to confess her role in the situation to the rest of the group and escape with them? even though the outside world is in an apocalyptic state, thanks in part to mukuro's actions? there's no happy ending awaiting mukuro no matter what choice she makes here, and it's her own fault. oof. kind of just saying the central point of this story out loud there.

even during this, mukuro's able to stay calm and remain focused on the immediate situation. i think it's actually easier for her to remain unaffected by the things junko/monokuma says when she's focused on combat, she kind of goes into soldier mode and tunes out everything not immediately related to her own survival. the suggestion that naegi might blame her for her role in all of this does get to her but she's able to keep outwardly calm and also let's be honest that's not something she has to worry about at all. anyway. mukuro demands that junko unseal the bulkhead so that they can leave the school.

junko is evidently pretty surprised by this request, as both monokumas act very taken aback and then make a big show of acting like they're having a whispered discussion about this. mukuro ignores them and keeps talking as though she's addressing junko directly. she says the others will stop doubting naegi if she can show them the outside world; they'll know her story to be true, then. monokuma argues that the air outside is polluted, but mukuro counters that it's not so polluted they'll drop dead immediately and besides it beats the whole mutual killing game thing. monokuma then brings up how everyone agreed, pre-memory wipe, that they wanted to stay in the school. he asks mukuro if she really wants to betray their wishes. in response mukuro says... and i'm actually just going to quote this directly because this is a hell of a statement. mukuro says "i don't... really care about their feelings. you're all i need, junko. so don't worry. i'm always watching out for you... i'm going to make sure you feel despair, and i'm going to make naegi... and the others... happy. if you want to revel in your own despair that badly... then i'll trust the hope naegi gave me, and take my chances with them instead of you." this post is now over because i think we may need to unpack that statement a bit before continuing

[catboyebooks]

back to mukuro. she makes it to the entrance hall without encountering mondo or sakura, but of course monokuma intercepts her as she approaches the bulkhead. he's basically making fun of her for leaving naegi with kirigiri instead of taking the opportunity to eliminate her romantic rival. side note, this is interesting, i guess that means there was romantic tension between naegi and kirigiri before the memory wipe? i'm not surprised exactly, but i could see that one going either way. implies that either this was solely on kirigiri's end initially or that naegi got over his crush on maizono at some point (i'm leaning towards the latter interpretation lol).

mukuro manages to not react to this, so monokuma charges at her to attack her instead. she dodges but then narrowly avoids a second attack from behind. junko's sent two monokumas after her at once, and she's using both of them to speak to mukuro in unison. the monokumas ask mukuro what her plan even is — is she just going to confess her role in the situation to the rest of the group and escape with them? even though the outside world is in an apocalyptic state, thanks in part to mukuro's actions? there's no happy ending awaiting mukuro no matter what choice she makes here, and it's her own fault. oof. kind of just saying the central point of this story out loud there.

even during this, mukuro's able to stay calm and remain focused on the immediate situation. i think it's actually easier for her to remain unaffected by the things junko/monokuma says when she's focused on combat, she kind of goes into soldier mode and tunes out everything not immediately related to her own survival. the suggestion that naegi might blame her for her role in all of this does get to her but she's able to keep outwardly calm and also let's be honest that's not something she has to worry about at all. anyway. mukuro demands that junko unseal the bulkhead so that they can leave the school.

junko is evidently pretty surprised by this request, as both monokumas act very taken aback and then make a big show of acting like they're having a whispered discussion about this. mukuro ignores them and keeps talking as though she's addressing junko directly. she says the others will stop doubting naegi if she can show them the outside world; they'll know her story to be true, then. monokuma argues that the air outside is polluted, but mukuro counters that it's not so polluted they'll drop dead immediately and besides it beats the whole mutual killing game thing. monokuma then brings up how everyone agreed, pre-memory wipe, that they wanted to stay in the school. he asks mukuro if she really wants to betray their wishes. in response mukuro says... and i'm actually just going to quote this directly because this is a hell of a statement. mukuro says "i don't... really care about their feelings. you're all i need, junko. so don't worry. i'm always watching out for you... i'm going to make sure you feel despair, and i'm going to make naegi... and the others... happy. if you want to revel in your own despair that badly... then i'll trust the hope naegi gave me, and take my chances with them instead of you." this post is now over because i think we may need to unpack that statement a bit before continuing

[catboyebooks]

mukuro decides to be honest and explain her side of the story to kirigiri, and so she lays out what's been going on for the past two years. junko's despair plan, the resulting apocalypse, etc. she also explains to kirigiri about her father being the headmaster and also being murdered badly. kirigiri's quiet as this is all being recounted to her (i think chihiro is in shock). mukuro concludes by saying she has no proof and so they don't have to believe her, and she begins to walk towards the door. before leaving the room she pauses to thank them both for listening to her story, even if they don't believe her, and she asks that they make sure naegi stays rested and give him some sports drinks from the supply room when he wakes up. get that boy a gatorade stat. kirigiri asks mukuro what she plans to do next and mukuro begins to head out the door mumbling about needing to make junko feel despair, but kirigiri calls out for her to wait. she says that she doesn't fully trust mukuro but is willing to work with her if it's in service of saving naegi's life. regardless of monokuma's true identity, he can't come after naegi if mukuro is keeping him occupied. mukuro apologizes and says she doesn't really work well with others but says she'll try her best anyway. then she leaves.

kirigiri turns her attention to chihiro, who is visibly trembling in fear, and tries to reassure them that they don't even know if mukuro's story is true. chihiro in response drops a bombshell: they've hooked up their laptop to the broken monokuma to analyze its software, and the software is theirs. not only that, but they'd anticipated that this software program needed another year of work before it was ready, and yet here it is fully completed — more evidence pointing towards the memory wipe theory.

[catboyebooks]

continuing where i left off with dr:if. so while All Of That is going on in the nurse's office, syo and sakura continue fighting (i say "fighting" but from the description i think syo is just dodging all sakura's attacks). eventually togami tells syo to cut it out and calls her an "irritating pervert" and syo enjoys this so much that it completely distracts her from the fight, allowing the other students the opportunity to tie her up and lock her in her room. awesome. some students stay behind to keep an eye on her, others begin to search the school. "others" obviously includes kirigiri.

when kirigiri opens the door to the nurse's office, the first thing she notices is the destroyed monokuma and security camera. actually, on the way to this room, she and the others have noticed several destroyed monokumas and security cameras. the room looks empty, but from the bloodstains it's clear someone was here recently. mondo, sakura, and chihiro are also here, but after a brief discussion it's decided that mondo and sakura will continue searching the school while chihiro and kirigiri focus on trying to find evidence in this room. (this ofc is kirigiri's idea. she figures chihiro is the best equipped to investigate destroyed electronics.)

for the sake of kirigiri getting to have her mysterious epic detective moments, this scene is recounted from chihiro's perspective, but for the sake of this summary not taking as long to write i'll just cut to the chase and tell you that mukuro and naegi are both still in the room. naegi's been hidden under one of the beds, hooked up to a saline drip, and mukuro is hiding under a different bed clinging to the bedframe so that she can't be easily spotted. kirigiri spots her anyway, tells chihiro to get out their laptop and start recording, and begins questioning mukuro — she leads by saying that she's willing to hear mukuro out and won't judge her story, no matter how ridiculous, until she's done recounting it, and this seems to work to get mukuro talking. it also helps that kirigiri lays her own cards on the table right away and tells mukuro she's been memory wiped and made to forget her own talent.

not that this isn't a serious plot-important scene and all but there is also something very funny about these two very stoic girls questioning each other — this would normally be a very emotionally charged conversation, but with them it just isn't, at least not outwardly. definitely the funniest moment to me is an exchange that goes, very roughly, like this:

kirigiri: regardless of whether your motivations are good or evil, what matters to me is uncovering the truth. i intend to draw a conclusion based upon the observable evidence, according to the methodology i believe i have been taught. mukuro: oh yeah that's right you're like that i forgot kirigiri: so what's my talent mukuro: ... mukuro: detective kirigiri: Thank you. I understand everything now

anyway, knowing her talent quickly allows kirigiri to put together that 1) someone, or some group, made her forget her talent on purpose, so 2) mukuro or the group to which she belongs are capable of erasing memories, therefore 3) mukuro's earlier claim that they met each other two years ago might in fact be true. she explains this out loud for chihiro's benefit and says it's possible they've been at hope's peak for two years but were memory wiped for the period of time between arriving at the school and monokuma showing up. she also raises the possibility that they aren't even real shsl students but have instead been implanted with sixteen years worth of false memories. holy fuck ndrv3 took that idea and ran with it huh

[catboyebooks]

remind me also i'm going to have to track down said fanslation sometime. i've just learned (and this is not, like, A Surprise, i suspected, but it was just confirmed to me) that the official translation of dr:if had to be abridged (not sure to what extent) because of a hardcoded character limit in the game. also just in general there are signs that this translation was rushed (fair number of typos). one day i will be good enough at japanese to just read this as originally written but today is not that day

one other thing i forgot to mention. i'd have to double-check this and i'm lazy right now, but the fanslation i read back in the day kept the honorifics in and if i remember correctly, which i might not because it's been about a decade, mukuro doesn't use honorifics for junko whereas junko uses -nee and -chan and maybe even -neechan for mukuro. i can't remember how junko addresses mukuro in dr3 but i know mukuro in dr3 uses -chan honorifics for junko, so, if my memory is correct, it feels significant that she drops the honorifics in this story. but maybe i'm misremembering. i really wish they'd left the honorifics in, that's one of my primary gripes with the official translation

[catboyebooks]

had to pause and get my thoughts in order — i wasn’t really planning into getting more meta/analytical with this liveblog before i finish the story, since it’s not that long, but i wanna at least touch on a few things before we continue. this is sort of disorganized and not a proper analysis post so i’ll just do bullet points 

regarding the dynamic currently playing out between junko, mukuro, and naegi (kind of, he’s unconscious rn so can’t really contribute to the conversation) i think i need to just acknowledge, at this point, that it basically reads like the worst love triangle of all time. to be clear: mukuro and junko’s relationship is later (in dr3) confirmed to be incestuous, here it’s just subtext, but it’s not exactly difficult subtext to pick up on. i also want to be clear when i talk about this that i wouldn’t bring the subject up if i didn’t think it was important to understanding what’s going on with these characters — there is an unfortunate tendency in fandom to treat any [potential] incest as though it’s sexy &/or romantic &/or a funny joke, and i’m aware there are people who actually ship mukuro and junko. that’s not where i’m coming from here. i’m bringing it up because dr:if makes it clear that mukuro is being abused by her sister in a variety of ways — physically, emotionally, verbally, psychologically, etc. — and so when junko makes sexually charged comments to/about her sister, or when mukuro reacts like she’s getting broken up with when junko says goodbye to her, i think it’s reasonable to infer that there’s also sexual abuse going on. probably not all that different from how junko manipulated tsumiki (another thing we’ll talk about more when we get to dr3). again, this is just one aspect of how junko is abusing and manipulating her sister and it’s not the main thing to focus on here but i do think we have to take it into consideration, it does affect how this reads. like, in a twisted way, junko might see naegi as like a “romantic rival” here and i think that’s relevant both in terms of how she acts in this story re: mukuro’s crush and in terms of how she treats naegi in the canon timeline (she makes a lot of sex jokes at his expense, moreso than for his classmates, and it’s not just because he’s the protagonist — she isn’t like that with hinata. i think she likely started doing this back when they were actually in high school in order to bother mukuro and kept it up after killing her sister)

obviously we’ve never gotten to see this much of mukuro’s character before because she dies so early in dr1 and is putting on an act the whole time, but we also haven’t gotten to see junko like this before, either, and i think i wanna talk about that first. previously we have only really had 2 scenes with junko appearing in person (1-6 trial and 2-6 trial) and those are both scenes where she’s essentially monologuing to a group of people about her evil deeds — this is the first time we get to see her interact one-on-one with another character. we already know how capital-E Evil she is but there’s something that really hits different about seeing junko act nasty to her sister vs destroying the world or forcing people to kill each other. it’s a much more mundane, more intimate, more personal type of cruelty and i think it hits harder because of that. this is something i have more thoughts on actually but i’ve decided i want to save it for when i cover dr3 

i’ve said before i have no idea where to begin unpacking the stuff with junko and mukuro trying to cause each other despair as a display of affection but like. god. the way it plays out canonically — junko killing mukuro because such a senseless act of betrayal would cause her to experience overwhelming despair as she dies, and since junko loves despair so much she thinks this is good actually and intends this not only as a show of her love for her sister but as a way to inflict despair upon herself by killing the person she loves most — is already a fucking lot. the way it plays out in dr:if — where mukuro survives, junko in response tries to manipulate mukuro into killing the guy she has feelings for and then when that fails essentially tells her “bye, i don’t need you anymore” in order to hurt her by taking away mukuro’s purpose in life and depriving her of her most important relationship, and mukuro is indeed so deeply hurt by this that she thinks “now i finally understand despair” and, knowing that this is how junko shows affection, decides to reciprocate the gesture by destroying junko’s plans — is… like, what do i even say about that? this is beyond the paygrade of every therapist that has ever existed. combined. and like, the villain who thinks bad things are good actually is a very common trope and it’s usually played for comedy (i.e. villain who says “what a horrible day!” to mean the day was good because they’re evil and like when things are bad), and it’s certainly played for comedy a lot of the time with junko, but this kind of exploration of what that would actually mean for the villain’s interpersonal relationships is something you see far less often. genuinely really compelling stuff imo

[catboyebooks]

one other thing i forgot to mention. i'd have to double-check this and i'm lazy right now, but the fanslation i read back in the day kept the honorifics in and if i remember correctly, which i might not because it's been about a decade, mukuro doesn't use honorifics for junko whereas junko uses -nee and -chan and maybe even -neechan for mukuro. i can't remember how junko addresses mukuro in dr3 but i know mukuro in dr3 uses -chan honorifics for junko, so, if my memory is correct, it feels significant that she drops the honorifics in this story. but maybe i'm misremembering. i really wish they'd left the honorifics in, that's one of my primary gripes with the official translation