#I’m always down to talk about remnant Kaito lol

[spittyfishy]

Hi hello big fan of you giving the V3 cast a corruption arc via the Remnants AU. Have you gone into how Kaito fell into despair, since I think you mentioned he was one of the first ones to go?

Hi there! I’m so glad you like the AU! And yesss corruption arcs are top tier

It’s sort of been mentioned a few times in passing, and I plan to touch on it a bit in the fic I’m trying to write for the au (you know, if my dumb brain can be convinced it’s ok enough to actually post) but no, I haven’t gone into too much detail about how Kaito fell to despair…. until now!

So! Part of that is because unlike some of the others like say, Ryoma, I don’t think there was one big inciting incident that got Kaito into despair. I think it was a much more gradual, slow, methodical deconstruction of him and his ideas until Junko and despair was all he could possibly be. Junko used her skills as a master manipulator to do a targeted character assasination Kaitos perception of himself, his relationships, and his very dreams until he had absolutely no hope left.

Kaito does think he was the first to get turned, which has a big effect on how he interacts with the other remnants (he isn’t actually right, unbeknownst to him Tsumugi was the first in the class to be brought into despair. But in part because of her talent, she is a Very good actress, and since she’s quite plain (you know, according to the games, despite Tsumugi having one of the best designs in all of danganronpa), no one else noticed she was in despair until much later, and so Kaito genuinely thinks he came first.

A core part of Kaitos character is wanting to be seen as a hero, and while a great deal of that was corrupted beyond recognition in despair (doing more and more almost cartoonishly evil things so he’ll be seen as a villain to the general public), with the other remnants he still tries to take on that leader role. He wants to be looked up to, he wants to keep them working as a team, he wants to keep them doing their best to keep Junko’s vision alive, and he wants to be the one responsible for that. If he isn’t going to be a hero he’ll be a champion to the villains!

It’s likely one of the main reasons he’s so often at odds with Kokichi. Kokichi’s ultimate puts him in the perfect position to usurp Kaito as de facto leader. (Side note: whether any of the other remnants actually see Kaito as a leader is debatable. Kirumi, Angie, and Ryoma all have much larger followings that extend beyond the core remnants themselves, as does Kokichi, and many like Tenko only recognize Junko’s authority and no one else’s, but Kaito sees himself as the leader of everyone.)

He’s Junko’s favourite after all right! (He wasn’t.) Why else would she have picked him first? (She didn’t.) So why shouldn’t he be in charge? (He isn’t.) Kaito honestly has a lot of issues with self worth and his own self imposed importance, and those are likely the qualities Junko exploited most.

Oh yeah! And sort of just a general note for Kaito, he’s not gonna have any variation of his illness at any point in the AU. I myself have a lot of health complications irl so I don’t really feel like tackling something like that in an AU that’s just for fun lol (don’t worry I’m fine, it’s just a hassle lol)

Thanks for this ask, it gave me an excuse to prattle on about Remnant Kaito lol

[magioftheseas]

Year In Writing (DGRP Version)

2020 was a hell of a fucking year. But I still got several fics out. I’m gonna be splitting them up a little, and will start with the dgrp fics since there’s more of them. Won’t include any nsfw/m-rated stuff just to make things slightly easier on me.

About That Guy (Hope’s Peak Academy Arc-focused)

I guess technically this started in 2019, but it still was the first thing updated in 2020. Written for the Hinata Hajime Project, this fic is a collection of shorts all from other characters’ perspectives regarding...Hinata! And Kamukura. Also World Destroyer. Many characters get focus, including all the sdr2 survivors, so it was quite the experimental piece!

World Constants and Conditionals (sdr2.5)

Written for the Hinata Hajime Fanzine! I don’t actually remember if it was written in 2020, but I assume so? How old can it be, rip... Anyway! Hinata makes the World Destroyer. It’s a prologue, you can say, to the OVA. Comes with a beautiful illustration.

Take Me Back, Back, Back (sdr2/dr3-zhen rewrite)

This is a commission and set in a zhen rewrite by @gothitelle-goddess. It’s a fun time loop idea in which Komaeda tries to prevent Hinata from partaking in the Kamukura Project. Sometimes, it ends messily.

Bumblings of a Brainiac (dr0/Hope’s Peak Academy Arc-focused)

Written for the Matsuda Yasuke Fanweek I hosted. I decided it’d be a lot of fun to write various short fics in which Matsuda interacted with different characters. Includes an AU where he does not die. I like it a lot when he does not die.

The Recollection Of Ryouko (dr0)

Written for the Ryouko Otonashi Memory Week. These are all ficlets to be more manageable, but they’re also all first person. A fun experiment and some of these actually turned out rather well. I’m pleased with myself.

Budding (Hope’s Peak Academy-focused)

Matsuda gets along with not only Komaeda but also the Warriors of Hope. Has a sort of TDP-esque setting where everything is relatively happy. It was part of a trade but was a lot of fun. I love these terrible kids.

Held (sdr2/dr0)

Matsuda Lives Again! An introspective fic about Matsuda’s messy as hell relationship with Junko and with people in general but one that segways into his relationship with Komaeda. Just a lotta codependency with our resident brainiac. Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo.

Scars To Burden (sdr2/dr0)

Ghost!Matsuda harasses Hinata post-canon. I’ve always wanted to write something like this. Hopefully I managed alright, considering this was for a trade in addition to the Bad Things Happen Bingo.

Far From Love (sdr2.5)

Komaeda is a bit more stubborn when it comes to staying in his fantasy world, much to the World Destroyer’s chagrin. Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo.

Soul-Crushing (sdr2)

Soulmates AU. However, Komaeda and Hinata are not soulmates despite being the main relationship. Messiness ensues. An old-ass WIP that I randomly decided to complete for Komaeda’s birthday. I was just in a mega yearning mood. A lot of my wips from way back when involve yearning, some to think of it.

Please Take Good Care Of Me (sdr2)

Komaeda’s rendered almost mute after getting attacked by one of the other remnants. Kamukura takes care of him afterwards. Pretty straight-forward. Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo.

Flights and Guilt (sdr2)

Komaeda deals with not just nightmares but also survivor’s guilt. Hinata helps him through this. Also straight-forward. Also written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo.

Soft Trauma (sdr2)

A really old WIP that’s a Post-Canon AU, but had been started way before Kodaka even dreamed dr3 up. It’s focused on recovery in which Komaeda struggles but Naegi’s there to help. It’s super messy. Super yearning. Please mind the tags.

You're The Woooorst~! (v3)

Sick fic. Kaito gets sick and who’s there to take care of him but the resident liar? Pretty simple premise. I love Oumota a lot.

Look Look Look (v3)

Saihara and Ouma are hanging out/dating but solely to get Momota’s attention. It doesn’t go well for Saihara, so he breaks things off. I also love Saioumota a lot and want more of that OT3 focusing on the space boy. This is a pretty bitter fic because Saihara is a bitter, bitter boy.

Can’t Even Trust (v3)

Technically Salmon Mode but is really just a non-killing game au. Ouma still exposes Maki as a killer. Kaito still takes Maki under his wing. Ouma is very annoyed by this.

KomaHina Exchange + Week Fics

Between The Sky’s Grasp (sdr2)

Idol!Kamukua and Fan!Komaeda, except Kamukura is going undercover. Written for the KomaHina Secret Exchange. I love idol stuff, especially more dubious idol stuff. So, I was excited to write this one.

For Fools Rush In (sdr2/dr3-zhen)

A Kamukura/Hinata Twins AU in which they split the talents. Kamukura is then assigned babysitting duty for Class 77-B. Also for the KomaHina Secret Exchange, which means there’s a bit of a sibling love triangle going on. A very weird AU, but still pretty fun.

Feelings To Write About (sdr2/udg)

Post-Canon. Komaeda and Hinata play a kids’ board game and then talk about the kids that Komaeda babysat once upon a time. Melancholy, morose, but a bit hopeful. Written for the exchange. I love the kids.

The Sun Sets (sdr2)

Despair!Hinata AU. Written for the exchange. Was definitely a favorite of mine because I love Hinata when he’s villainous. Characterizing him was a blast. It took some inspiration from the song Ready As I’ll Ever Be, which is a good fucking song. I love that song. I even love how this fic turned out.

Reserved (sdr2/dr3-zhen)

Childhood Friends KomaHina during HPA days. Probably one of my favorite things written. It’s angsty and emotional and I’m proud of it. This dynamic of affection and resentment on Hinata’s end was very fun. 

It’s Easier (sdr2)

Soulmates AU set during sdr2. A little self-explanatory. Unsurprisingly, a killing game is not the best setting for soulmates to meet.

Joyous Occasion (sdr2)

Cisswapped/Genderflipped. Hinata is pining for Komaeda while she’s getting married to her sister. Sometimes, you just gotta write gayngst. You just gotta. Gaygnsting Gals.

Twisted Branches Entwined (sdr2)

Talentswap AU. Swap!Hinata and Swap!Komaeda have a sit-down and talk in a post-sdr2 setting. Pretty simple. Kinda clumsy.

The Farce of Hope (sdr2/dr1)

Fantasy AU. Demon Lord Hinata is sent to target Hopeful Hero Naegi and gets distracted by Hapless Healer Komaeda! Definitely a fun idea. I’ve always wanted to write one like it since the Tropical Despair Carnival has a similar idea, I believe. It’s more set-up than a full fic, but I still hope you like it.

Sweet Poison (sdr2)

Chapter 5-focused. Sometimes you just gotta write Komaeda fantasizing about better things with Hinata as he lays on the floor dying. You just gotta.

I Hope Our Future Is Beautiful (sdr2/dr3)

Post-Canon fluff to make up for the largely angsty as hell week of stuff that came before it. Yep. Not much else to say here lol.

[toxicpineapple]

is there a specific reason u dont like oumota?? or do u just Dislike it

oh boy anon you’re really gonna have me go into that kinda conversation alright... i guess it’s no secret that oumota is my least favourite pairing, so i don’t mind talking about it. all that aside please keep in mind that these are my opinions and i have a lot of respect for people who ship any pairing (aside from the problematic ones, obviously, pro-ship dni) and i have zero desire to start any fights with anybody.

i’ve never been a fan of enemies-to-lovers as a trope. i think it’s good to start there. one of my earliest fandoms was the death note fandom, and there was a LOT of lawlight (l x light) content. still is, i’m sure, i just haven’t been by the fandom in a while. i just, i absolutely hated it. i was in fifth grade at the time so i was a bit... oblivious, to chemistry between characters as a whole, but also, it just didn’t make any sense to me! they hated each other! why would you think that’s a good relationship! light LITERALLY wanted l dead and i’m not gonna say any spoilers in case i have followers who haven’t seen the show yet but the way things go down... it just didn’t make sense to me. there was the homoerotic foot rubbing scene, of course, and l tells light that they’re friends, but light was being ACTIVELY MANIPULATIVE the entire time. i didn’t see why people would want to ship people who are enemies. i couldn’t wrap my head around it.

after being in fandom for a bit longer, i think i’ve managed to figure it out, lol. i am (and will always be) of the belief that any pairing can be done well, given enough time and attention. (again aside from the problematic ones i’m not here to engage with incest or pedophilia okay that shit is nasty and i don’t need your “it’s fiction!” bull that kind of mindset perpetuates abuse.) if you can sell me on it, then damn, sure, i’ll be into it. i’m still not big on enemies-to-lovers, that fifth grade mindset of “it’s so weird to ship people who hate each other” hasn’t really gone away, but i’m open to it. if you can sell it, i’ll buy it! that kind of thing.

i still prefer friends-to-lovers though. in the danganronpa fandom, i’ve always prefered naegiri and hinanami over naegami and komahina. (oumasai and saimota are the exception, i go back and forth on them but ultimately i love them equally, ouma being my favourite antag and all) i just think that positive interactions are healthier, and communication is easier when you’re not at each other’s throats all the time. this is obviously my opinion, subject to debate and all that, yadda yadda yadda. i’ll take shy smiles across the breakfast table over homoerotic pauses in the middle of arguments any day of the week.

i think you’re starting to get the reason why oumota isn’t my cup of tea. still, i like naegami and komahina, like, a LOT. enough that i would write them on my own time, extensively, just because i feel like it. there are pairings where i wouldn’t be so willing, where i’d just shrug and do it if requested but ultimately keep to my side of the playground. even if i don’t immediately jump to shipping people who dislike each other, that doesn’t mean i should have an avid hate for this pairing! so what gives?

it comes down to this, anon: ouma and momota HATE each other in canon. with a lot of enemies-to-lovers things, there’s like, a brief moment of mutual appreciation to give people steam. byakuya and makoto have that!!! byakuya is there to help makoto as much as he can after their killing game, and from post-chapter four onwards byakuya is unreservedly on makoto’s side. they work together!!!! at the end of the game byakuya says he’ll help if people need it!!!!! (through the byakuya translator ofc.) and then he DOES!!!!!!! he went into the neo-world program to help makoto!!!

and komahina has that too!!! all of chapter one, for example? nagito’s ftes? at the end of nagito’s ftes hajime starts to really, truly understand why nagito is the way he is. he doesn’t agree with his actions but he gets it! and he feels BAD for him!! so bad that nagito lies and says what he’s been talking about didn’t really happen. not to mention 2.5, and post-canon, all the potential for slowburn while the remnants are living together on jabberwock island.... they make me soft.

saiouma has that too, i mean, i wouldn’t call saiouma enemies-to-lovers necessarily if only because shuichi is so passive for most of the game, but they have those, like, those small moments. ouma calls shuichi his beloved, and i do believe his behaviour in chapter four was just manipulation, but still, y’know, he was flirting. ouma’s love hotel shows that shuichi is LITERALLY his ideal, and shuichi puts up with all these death threats and games throughout ouma’s ftes in an attempt to understand him-- the final fte is so sweet, how shuichi bandages his finger after he cuts himself.... pique chaotic dumbass energy but they’re adorable as hell.

and i’m sorry to say this, but in my opinion and as far as i can remember... oumota...... doesn’t have that. not once does either ouma or momota show anything but cool distaste for one another. momota PUNCHES OUMA IN THE FACE in chapter four, which is the first real time you see the two of them like.... interacting? (aside from kaito begrudgingly, secretly agreeing with kokichi about people watching the motive videos, but that’s not shipping fuel imo.) and it only gets worse from there. throughout chapter four kokichi goads kaito, trying to pick at his insecurities-- not to mention he tries to get closer to shuichi, someone who kaito has been very close to this entire time!!! he insists that shuichi investigate with him, rather than with kaito, and keeps egging him on throughout the entire trial, mocking him and praising shuichi, the like. and after the trial kokichi PUNCHES KAITO IN THE STOMACH!!! AND KAITO HAS A COUGHING FIT SO BAD HE FALLS TO HIS KNEES!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!! sorry i’m trying not to be akdljflk about this it just... gah. i dunno. ouma absolutely SLAUGHTERS kaito and shuichi’s relationship, deliberately picking at kaito’s insecurities in order to tear down the group as a whole, and i just... it rubs me the wrong way.

chapter five is even worse for me. i know it’s like the biggest shipping fuel people have for them, and i,,, i get it? it’s poetic, the villain and the hero, these two purple dudes who represent opposing ideals, in this scandalous romance behind the exisal or whatever. i just can’t with it, though.

let’s talk about what ouma does to kaito in chapter five :)

-he knocks him out with an exisal and takes him hostage -he sends all his friends (except maki, beautiful, erratic maki) into a DEPRESSION so that the audience will get bored and stop watching the killing game -sorry i already said this but he KIDNAPS KAITO!! HE KIDNAPS HIM!!!! AND TRAPS HIM IN THE EXISAL HANGAR!!!! -he forces kaito to be indebted to him by pretending to drink the antidote and then giving it to him -he THREATENS MAKI!! HE THREATENS HER LIFE!!! IF KOKICHI DIES MAKI WILL BE EXECUTED AS THE BLACKENED AND KAITO KNOWS THIS!!!! i don’t care if you ship momoharu those two had A relationship regardless of whether you saw it was romantic or platonic and kaito cared about her??

he essentially held both maki and kaito hostage and BLACKMAILED kaito into going along with his plan. at the end of the chapter five trial kaito states that he went along with it because he thought it was brilliant, not because kokichi threatened maki, but i still just... it kind of horrifies me.

(i want to be perfectly clear that i LOVE kokichi ouma, he’s a brilliantly morally ambiguous character who did a bunch of fucked up things to try to achieve a noble cause and in no way is this me shitting on him, i’m just saying that given the things kokichi did to kaito i just, can’t get behind it.)

i should also address that even after kokichi did all that, even started BREAKING DOWN in the exisal hangar, kaito maintained that kokichi was a bastard who was difficult to understand. kokichi was being perfectly clear about his intentions. he wanted to end the killing games. i don’t think he ever wanted anything else, in the game. after all of that, for some reason, kaito still just didn’t get it. and i don’t think it’s because kaito is stupid-- kaito is NOT stupid, as funny as the memes are-- i just think that he was genuinely unwilling to try to understand kokichi ouma. he was sympathetic towards a lot of people. shuichi and maki and kaede and gonta and all of them. but he just, he didn’t like ouma. and i feel as though (this is just my speculation so don’t take this as anything real) kokichi never held anything towards kaito except resentment, either. because here’s this THICK DUMBASS who is ruining EVERYTHING that he’s trying to work towards-- not only that, but everyone absolutely adores him, the one thing that kokichi can not, no matter what, hope to achieve. because in order for his plan to work, he needs them to hate him.

all this is canon-compliant, though. i think ouma would’ve been a lot more mild in a non-despair au. i still don’t like the pairing in any aus though, regardless. i just don’t feel like they have the right kind of chemistry. ouma is, he’s like, he’s childish! he likes picking at people, trying to get reactions out of them. y’know who’s easy to get reactions out of? kaito. and not because he’s some funny stupid man, because he has CRIPPLINGLY LOW SELF ESTEEM. kaito is DEADASS afraid of ghosts and i know it’s a funny haha but he nearly shits himself whenever they’re so much as mentioned and ouma is the type of person who would just continue to bring them up to get the reaction out of him. it’s like shipping hiyoko and mikan, y’know? mikan gives hiyoko the reactions she wants and mikan takes it because she’s desperate for attention of any kind. they both feed into each other’s worst tendencies. kaito is easily challenged. all you have to do is imply he’s not a man and he’ll do whatever you want. that’s not HEALTHY!! and ouma would take advantage of it. not because he’s a bad person, but just because, he like,,, he messes around and he takes things too far because he’s a child and he hasn’t seen any real repercussions. that’s what i believe.

this is more of a petty, unrelated reason, but i also used to follow this really annoying oumota shipper who was constantly shoving the pairing down everyone’s throat and absolutely slaughtering kaito’s characterisation in the meantime. in a lot of fics i read before becoming actively against it, i saw ouma being a sniveling crybaby, totally unable to defend himself from anything, and kaito being this callous asshole who was mean to everyone but ouma. i just, i don’t see it? and then maki is always portrayed as so abusive, threatening and hurting ouma all over the place because kaito likes him and not her and shuichi is borderline obsessive if not outright creepy, either jealous of kaito or kokichi because there’s no grey area with these people, and they just, they make shuichi and maki so unsupportive and mean and i just... i don’t like it, not at all. the fastest way to make me hate a thing is by vilifying my favourite characters.

sorry for the long answer, anon. i know i have followers who like oumota, and i respect you for it! it’s just a MAJOR squick for me and i try not to engage with it if i can avoid it! thanks for the question!

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - Revisionist History, Pre-Accusation (2)

AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?!

Trial: 1

So last time on YGO I was getting a bit full of myself because everything was pointing to me being right about the mastermind, and then I proceeded to get clothes-lined by Shuichi’s conclusion about the first trial:

Sweetcheeks is taking revenge on me for all the times I got ahead of him in the trials. It’s okay I’m here for it -

TFW you’re called on in class and you were barely paying attention to what was going on -

Also yes any excuse to beat down on the Monokubs I will welcome with open arms THANK YOU DRV3

“Also hey, player controlling me right now? Fuckin’ duh.”

It’s okay Shuichi, I’m more than happy to have been wrong on this one.

... which also could have doubled as planted evidence to frame Kaede as the mastermind I-I’M JUST SAYING okay maybe not 100% over it -

But okay, ‘I’m getting carried away. The important thing is that there is no doubt that this shot should be associated with Kaede. She and Miu rocked that pink look, after all.

whispers I miss you Kaede; I’d like to think you’re with us in spirit right now

MAN Sweetcheeks is making this look so easy in hindsight! When I originally thought it was just part of the frame job, I didn’t consider the implications of having a clean shotput there with the fiber. After all, if it existed, the bloody version complete with the fiber would have worked just as well!

I’M SHOOK

But... but Kaede didn’t know that, did she? That’s why things went the way they did. She believed she was the killer the whole time. And that’s part of the genius of the plan...

And what, she - they got away with it? With all the groundwork and clues pointing to Kaede, it was just fine for Monokuma to accept that wrong conclusion? Does that mean if they had ever come to a wrong conclusion in any of the other trials - well, wait. No, the actual killer would know that they had gotten away with murder....

....

What..... if Monokuma had pulled a similar stunt in a different trial, but executed an innocent person anyway? I wonder how the killer would react to the idea that they wouldn’t be freed after all - and how they would continue living with everyone with that hanging over their heads. Well, I guess we know how Korekiyo would probably deal with it, but what about Kirumi or Miu, for example? Would they kick up a fuss or accept it quietly and bide their time with the knowledge that there wasn’t any way to truly graduate? Hell, what if they had chosen Kokichi for the 4th blackened and Monokuma accepted the ruling, and a totally oblivious Gonta survived with the rest of the cast to Chapter 5?

sorry don’t mind me just speculating...

Tsumugi adored Kaede, but she just couldn’t bring herself to trust her, huh. Did she have back-up plans for all of the murder plans or just this one?

STOP KILLING THE ONLY TOLERABLE MONOKUB!!!!

BLOW YOURSELF UP NEXT TIME SMH

because he made a great play to steal her potential girlfriend in a super cute nail-painting scen - I-I mean -

yeah that seems more likely somehow

But Kaede folded first...

Are you telling me that after all that planning, all that work, all that effort, all that agonizing -

she....

SHE MISSED?!

The goal wasn’t to kill them off.... well, of course it wasn’t. Rantaro even aid at the beginning that if they wanted them dead they could have killed them off with the exisals. It was always about the game.

So the plan fails, and because Tsu - the mastermind was keeping tabs on Kaede and Shuichi’s plan (for obvious reasons! I wonder if she was ready to deal with someone else finding the door aside from Rantaro?) she was able to prepare a second backup shotput and take things into her own hands... with Kaede none the wiser that she had failed.

Attempted murder and murder by proxy aren’t considered equal - Chapter 4 was proof enough of that. And yet...

‘Played along’ - again, talking about him like he’s a completely separate entity and that he should be treated as such.

“The moment you let murder into your heart, you lost.”

Again, what if Kokichi had ended up taking the fall for Gonta’s murder and Monokuma let him??? What would have happened? Would Monokuma have executed him? Would Kokichi have protested at the last minute??? And Gonta wouldn’t know better - !

It was always just killing.

The wound he got when Kaede died healed, but it was never truly gone. It’s been a few weeks at most, and it got ripped open again during the investigation. I’ll probably end up making a few small asides about how he’s only bringing up Kaede over everyone else (including Kaito who! just! literally! died!) but at the same time, he’s probably reeling at the idea that he was tricked into sending her to die. It’s not surprising that she in particular is monopolizing his thoughts right now.

“AND UH EVERYONE ELSE TOO BUT I’M REALLY OVERCOME BY FEELINGS OF SUNK SHIPS’ PAST!” okay I see like I really couldn’t resist

You know what’s really awesome to see amidst all of Shuichi’s speculation? How helpful the rest of the class is being. They’re contributing now just like they were in the investigation, in big ways! Even Himiko, who is definitely out of her element, isn’t letting herself get distracted and is trying to keep everyone’s spirits up!

With that said... hehe ~

fml that was cute

I didn’t need to keep this screenshot but I love Himiko’s spell names lmao

GRHGRKGHK

Shuichi literally blocked out the Kaede twin!theory from his mind.

“Tsumugi please - We’re not actually doing this, right? Right???”

My cousins are twins too! CLEARLY ONE OR BOTH OF THEM MUST BE MASTERMINDING A KILLING GAME SOMEWHERE -

“And all twins have at least one evil person in the set! That’s, like, science or something!”

“Well crap - I’d refute that but without the solid backing of the Ultimate Genetist, can we really say that’s not true?”

The ellipses better be leading to a ‘fuck no’, Sweetcheeks.

To think that all of those awkward ‘Himiko has a small bladder’ jokes have l had to suffer through were leading to this grand pay-off.

‘Please tell me this isn’t the answer. Damn you Tsumugi, I’ll give it 5 minutes of my time at maximum, but I will be so mad if it’s the answer.’

That noise is totally Shuichi’s inner voice, master of deadpan and silent sassy killer, breaking free from the confines of his mind to dunk on Kaede!mastermind theory one last time.

AND DUNK ON IT HE DOES. And oh boy did Motherkuma really screw Miss Mastermind over, because that line about ‘visiting the room often’ knocks that 17th person theory straight out of the park.

And honestly? That rules out a ‘faked their death’ student scenario too, for the same reason.

.... Which, just like the above, rules out a hidden student theory for a fantastic reason that didn’t really occur to me as a fully-formed thought apparently because I was nodding along with Shuichi’s reasoning, lol. There’s no use for a classroom that hides its contents for someone who could have easily set up a hidden room for exclusive use in their hiding spot. Though with that said... why not have it in the mastermind’s lab? What was the point of keeping them separate?

“Crap, you weren’t supposed to see that. Why didn’t anyone tell me he saw that???”

.......... This....... really does make it sound like he hasn’t realized who the mastermind is................

What a totally unbiased bit of speculation, Tsumugi!

I would kill to know her thoughts right now. There are moments like this where she helps out, but only with information that seems to be inevitable or easy to speculate. She needs to maintain the image of helping out. And then, of course, there are her wilder diversions offered under the guise of speculation that she’s able to throw out with that same tone of voice! What is your thought process, girl???

I think there’s a deep part of himself that’s known this from the beginning. Even if he didn’t know it was specifically Tsumugi, he knew that one of the last four people here was the mastermind. And ruling Maki (who got tricked and almost became the blackened) and K1-b0 (who literally just went berserk and had to be talked down from destroying the whole school) out, well...

The fact that Himiko is trying so hard to keep them all together and cheerful, even ending her speech like this:

... is, uh, darkly hilarious.

A WITCH!!! wait wrong series -

AND SOMEONE WHO DIDN’T PLAN ON ‘DYING’... just sayin’

I mean, the rest of them can be friends right??? Just because one of them trapped the others in a strange place, stole/potentially overwrote all of their memories and made them kill each other - wait, this is coming out wrong -

“Seriously, I’ll take any leeway I can get here.”

“Well now that you bring it up, we never actually saw Kokichi’s body and he’s absolutely, totally, 100% a Remnant of Des -”

..... Oh thank god no one actually said this. I was kinda expecting Tsumugi to try this tbh. 8′D So, um, when exactly are we going to use his motive video then?

WE’RE NOT PLAYING DR1 DAMN IT NOT AGAIN

Which Shuichi knows. Oh, Sweetcheeks definitely knows. And he remembers....

Ooooooh this is it. This is it!!! We’re finally going to the trial 1 alibis! And I know a certain someone’s alibi that isn’t going to stand up to scrutiny this time... ~

“A nice hole that we can just thrust our big, hard truth into. That was for you Miu, RII (Rest In Innuendos).”

can you imagine if we just had a little tribute to every character we lost along the way in this trial GET ON THIS SWEETCHEEKS

I cannot impress upon you all how desperately I have been waiting for this moment - !

So I let all the dialogue play. Every little bit of it. And oooooh boy, seeing Shuichi react to seeing that certain obvious part stick out....... well.

You can tell I was looking forward to this part because I was literally screencapping every bit of her dialogue lmao while also trying to maintain proper, y’know, control of the reticle.

Yup...

How very ~convenient~.

WHICH KOREKIYO BROUGHT UP SPECIFICALLY.........

WHERE IS THE GOLD TEXT

V

FUCKING

COUNTER

BABY!!!!

If he wasn’t sure before... if he even had a hint of a possibility in his mind before... there is no way he doesn’t know now. There’s no way he isn’t sure now.

HIMIKO YOU CREATED THIS CHANCE FOR US!!!

“Wow, I’m really glad I didn’t go through with murdering you after all!”

Tsumugi is absolutely standing there sweating bullets, just wondering when the hell this was discovered under her nose. You really should have tried to stick with Shuichi to mislead him further!

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS.

“No seriously, when the hell did you find the bathroom secret passage?!”

FML okay the fact that Himiko is still hoping she could find a way to defend Tsumugi is.... incredibly sad....

he placed a receipt in the doorway

he put tape on the windows

the entrance was sealed via detective’s authority

I wonder how she knew the right timing to go to the girl’s bathroom... maybe she had a similar alert set up for when Rantaro went into the library? She was only gone for five minutes - any longer would have been suspicious. Does she have a way of accessing the cameras outside of the lab, or am I just nitpicking something that has an explanation I’ve forgotten?

.... WHELP ANYWAY -

Come on, you’ve been so creative up until now - there’s no way you don’t have something else up your sleeve!

OI -

OI!!!! HAVE SOME PRIDE!

wait why am I getting defensive about this -

The ability to navigate truth and lies and know when to be relentless in pursuit of truth... is this the new Shuichi we’ve been building up to? It’s interesting, because there are similarities to the last trial where he wouldn’t be shaken off the path to the truth - but taking after Kokichi, he won’t let emotions sway him this time. Where he was gentle and tentative in Chapter 4, he won’t give an inch here.

DAMN BOY! HE’S COMING OUT SWINGING!

Neither of these two are clamouring to come to her defense, I notice.

speaking of people who can’t deal with much more heartbreak and betrayal, how about that ‘slowly slipping back into depression’ Himiko here -

“HEY DON’T INTERRUPT MY DEFENSE YOU’RE MAKING ME LOOK WAY MORE SUSPICIOUS!!!”

Er, well, about that next chapter...

What proceeded was probably Shuichi’s most aggressive, brutal and merciless Rebuttal Showdown of the entire game. Damn, Sweetcheeks!

....... yeah, they didn’t stand a chance.

“.... and it will require you all to test me and yourselves by finding ways to slip the word ‘birth’ in casual conversation around me. Or really awkward sentences! That’ll work too, I’m actually not that picky.”

LMAO WAY TO THROW HIM UNDER THE BUS

“EVEN NOW, IN THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE GAME, ROBOPHOBIA PERSISTS - “

let tsumugi say fuck

Maki gives NO FUCKS

Actually, you gotta appreciate how Maki isn’t swayed at all. Right now Shuichi really needs that steady support by his side and, with so few options left, it looks like Maki is ready to act that way for him. 

NO THIS IS TOO SAD, EVEN WHEN HE’S CREATED AN AIRTIGHT ARGUMENT HE STILL HAS A SHRED OF DOUBT IN HIS ABILITIES AND DEDUCTIONS...

But... more importantly, he’s okay with being wrong. He’s not afraid of being proven wrong and being potentially embarrassed in front of everyone the way he was before. That.... takes a lot of guts, for someone as perpetually anxious as him. Good on you, Shuichi.

And Maki is with him 100%. I think she may have already accepted Shuichi’s deduction as the real deal, tbh.

but what is there left for her to defend herself with at this point

What is going on in your head right now -

quietly skips over the random interlude where Monosuke attempts to conspicuously disrupt the proceedings and gets blown up for his trouble -

Thanks, dude.

GREEN PUKE

WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS thank atua

Also it’s interesting - they have a bit of a back and forth about Monokuma ‘loving’ the kids which, you know, has been of a running joke. But unlike during the rest of the game, he’s never actively destroyed them before... but he is now. Why? He brought them back to man the exisals and attempt to take the fight out of the students after the fifth trial, so why is he knocking them off one after the other like this? Sure they’ve been shown to be replaceable but...

Two different entities with different goals, I’m telling ya!

The moment of truth..... it’s finally here.

It’s. It’s finally here.

Well then.........................

here we go.

Looking like she would rather be anywhere but here...

How strange.... to see the accused so rattled like this. Not crying like Gonta, not angry or upset like Kirumi and Korekiyo - and just think of the last game too, where they were resigned, resolute or just accepting - she just looks.... scared in a different way. And decidedly not ‘mastermind’-like. So where are we going to go from here?

“Any last words?”

“Goku didn’t die for this.”

[ryouverua]

apeironstella replied to your photo:                    Oh, I think he could have easily ‘won’ the entire...               

so much spoiler-y talk about Kokichi and the game itself below, though this is more AU discussion at this point -

   O o f y e s, the idea of how Ouma would handle/try to handle being RoD/“Leader of RoD” memories especially given this would take place right after Chapter 4, is a really intriguing thought to be honest? I do wonder how far Tsumugi would have to go to even have a chance of that working. And well, it was said that flashback lights are more like information that gets sent to their brains via light that triggers a deja-vu like sensation, so again, it is not /complete/ mind  control, so that would be tricky, yes. But at the worst case scenario, in case it didn’t work or even if it “worked”, as in Ouma started to believe he /might/ be the mastermind also given Ch 4 guilt plus all the details, even his own research lab pointing to him being the one who set things, even his clothing to theme to etc. even if he believed he is the mastermind, he might have ended up just being so done and disgusted with it and not go for a “final trial” really?    Or he could go for one to pull a Junko and be executed basically, but that would be playing right into Tsumugi’s hands scenario and sounds least likely. In case he was not tricked though, who is to say Tsumugi couldn’t have just gone “I was a RoD too and if boss is not ending this game properly, I will!”, like she could keep the “he is the leader of RoD” while also simultaneously getting a final trial, or “blow her own cover” saying she was Junko’s truest follower, and pulling something similar to what she did at the finale of the series, except no meta-fiction thing? I mean, they could sense the discrepancies also partly due to Kokichi and Kaito not remembering Junko, and if Kokichi himself was framed to be the mastermind, with no Chapter 5 situation to prove he wasn’t the Big Bad Evil, or if he survived via the antidote, they could have easily dismissed whole Motive Video thing as “he was pulling a Ryoko on himself” sort of thing?    It is just. Added to what Keebs controlled by the audience do as well, there was so, so many ways this could go and I’m sad that I couldn’t find any fics dealing with Ouma dealing with “being the leader of RoD past Ch 4 events” fic even when looked for it, bc that’s a really, really intriguing thought?    

I love dealing with the topics of other selves, struggling with returning memories and just the concept of having a darker self whispering in the back of your head in general - all pretty obviously from a certain other fandom/favourite characters of mine, lol - so the idea that it hasn’t been looked at is pretty surprising to me! One of the first ideas for a fic I immediately started tossing around after the big meta-reveal was the concept of Kokichi having a bad reaction to the flashback lights. I won’t go so far as saying an allergic reaction, but the idea is that, just like anything else (and maybe a nod to Chapter 4′s Alter-Gonta), there’s always that .0001% of the population that has an averse reaction to a routine procedure and pregame Kokichi is the (un)lucky kid. Maybe just watching him struggle with these two sets of disparate memories internally while outwardly using these personas to masterfully trick the others, having him deal with a similar paranoia to Rantaro, and just watching as this ‘other side of him’ slowly recovers all of these memories with everyone else - but this would have to bank on the idea that it did overwrite some of his actual self, because if he remembered ‘Danganronpa’ it obviously wouldn’t work...

Anyway, it would obviously need to be work-shopped which is why I haven’t really brought it up before this on here, but add that on with him getting a third revelation - that his apparent ‘true’ persona is the Remnant of Despair, when he’s already struggling with the idea of whether he’s just some regular kid or leader of DICE - would just be the icing on the cake.

Besides my nonsense though, I’m a bit shocked that even something short about him struggling with ‘DICE vs Remants’ in his own mind hasn’t been done! They’d be two warring sets of memories for him to deal with, and it could be great fodder for a post Ch 5 AU! If he survived and went to his own lab, which is a load of contradictions itself - DICE emblazoned above the throne and the clown masks, but also the Hope’s Peak book (and maybe even a ‘subservient’ Monokuma treating him like a partner and being the one to guide him down there away from Shuichi, Himiko, K1-b0 and Tsumugi) - what choice would he make? Would he think he had been compelled to ‘take over’ as mastermind because he was actually the mastermind? Would he decide to, like you said, eventually believe that he set this up but then choose to take a different path anyway? what would he do has no one written about this at all how can this b e

there is so much potential here fhgh