#dr kirigiri does a better job with that

[aparticularbandit]

Kyoko in DR3 looked at her impossible task - solve the murders before she and Makoto both die - and then, when forced to make a choice between save herself or save the person she loves?

Made the same choice Yui did.

And that's Yui's influence.

Pre-Black Challenge Kyoko could never. Her family creed is to put the case first, even above family (which is why Jin split - because Grandpa Kirigiri wouldn't let Kyoko go see her dying mother because they were on a case, and Mama Kirigiri died - and Jin was right for splitting, but he was wrong for leaving Kyoko there).

During DR Kirigiri, we see Kyoko making the comment that sometimes you have to let people die to solve the case, and every time she makes that claim, Yui rebukes her. No. We try and save everyone. We save as many people as we possibly can. Like them or not, we go to save them, even at the risk of our own lives.

Saving victims is the most important thing.

And we see Kyoko learning from this in vol. 6 - we maybe can't win the sniper game, but we can try to keep everyone from getting on the island. (Except there are flaws in that plan which she quickly brings up.)

Kyoko doesn't pull Makoto into her investigations because then he would be at risk from the mastermind, made most blatant when Junko bops him on the head and steals the Hope's Peak yearbooks.

Junko is playing a game with Kyoko.

Makoto becomes alibi and bait.

DR3 and Kyoko's choice to sacrifice herself to save Makoto, even though he might not be able to figure things out, is an homage to Yui and what she learned from her.

(It's also her way of saying that she's tired of other people dying for her. That she's taking the bullet this time.)

This is how you recontextualize canon.

[whiskeylucciano]

I definitely should be working rn but im having dangan tma au thoughts so. i'm making that tumblr's problem

hajime is the mc, a regular guy with no life plans or friends who gets a job at the institute of hope (hpa but its focused on the research instead of the school) to have something to put on his CV. gets archivist-ed

he's a part of the junior department. its basically an internship program. the other members are -

murasame soshun : fellow regular guy ! no supernatural encounters yet but has an irrational fear of ghosts. the (unofficial) manager. helps hajime around to begin with and they get along well. probably the most mentally well in the group though he definitely overworks himself hard + puts other people's needs ahead of his own. depending on how i decide to have the story go, he gets lonely'd

fujisaki chihiro : tech support. bit of a recluse. in a constant battle to get anything in the archives recorded on something that isn't paper, so she ends up helping hajime in sorting the archives fairly often. not totally sure if i want her to end up as an avatar? if i did though it would probably be eye, flesh or spiral

gekkougahara miaya : ok she's here i haven't planned very far beyond that. i'm thinking she does a lot of the online research on statements? her and chihiro often work together on both of their jobs though. she probably stays human. i think nwp trio needs at least one human lol

matsuda yasuke : end avatar w/angsty backstory. love making my favs suffer. more of a forensic pathologist than a neurologist in this au, but just as self-taught. technically a part of the junior department but doesn't leave his office/lab area unless forced to.. which is mostly when the proper ioh workers need him for shit. soshun, chihiro and miaya visit him because they actually somewhat get along with him. hajime, however-

there's also their actual boss, kirigiri jin, and chisa/kyosuke/kouichi/etc work in the main part of the facility. juuzou exists but probably works elsewhere (probably as a cop or sth). jin is an eye avatar (+ probably kouichi too), kyosuke is a lonely avatar, im not certain about the rest yet. desolation juuzou seems fitting i think?

i have some characters who i want to have join the archival team later in the story but i also haven't planned most of that story yet so. lol. sato joins after an end encounter (twilight syndrome murder case-adjacent, kuzuryuus are end-aligned). i'm not sure if shinobu gets employed there but. she's a journalist ! she has connections ! just don't worry about her family i'm sure there's nothing weird happening there (togami corp is buried-aligned, but shinobu is eye-aligned if anything). nagito isn't an archival assistant but he's a vast avatar, and the first avatar that hajime knowingly interacts with. he collects leitners and provides info to hajime but he's also kind of a prick. he still self-depreciates he just also kinda worships the fears and considers all human life worthless. and he doesn't THINK he's being that rude but wow this hajime guy sure is sure of himself better remind him of his (unimportant) place in the universe. also he's very much rooting for the guys carrying out the fear rituals so thats fun.

+ you can't forget the former archivist, who had to be kirigiri kyouko. who else would it be. born to the kirigiris who run their own eye-aligned info-gathering organisation (their detective agency), and mostly raised by fuhito to be the heir of it. befriends samidare yui in a way basically the same as in dr kirigiri (but with more . supernatural crimes), and over time comes to question her family's dealings with the fears. comes to the institute of hope to figure out what happened to jin, but leaves mysteriously w/yui and nobody has heard from them since.

and thats it for the main cast ! there's other characters i have plans for (i have an imposter statement planned, and i want sayaka to start a stranger ritual... junko is also important i'm just not 100% sure how im going to handle her part in the story and how much of what i have planned i want to put in a summary post. and so on)

maybe i'll actually write some of this as a fic later. Who knows

[potatotrash0]

Your DR magic AU, hand it over 🤲

Okay I have two other anons and I’m just gonna split the character ideas among the three asks. I don’t quite have a plot thought out, and most of these characters’ concepts have only existed in my head up until now...bare with me skdjksjfkd

Mm I talked about them briefly in Prom’s ask? But here’s a more in-depth thing of the THH fighting styles.

Makoto is a mage-type. (I used fighter, support, and mage to describe the various adventurer types it’s temporary just roll with it) Again, he can’t really hold magic for very long? He’s got a large mana reserve but it’s hard to activate and harder to control, so he’s currently working on mastering the little bullets. In the future, I imagine large barrages of bullets would sort of circle around him like they would in the barrel of a gun.

He probably got in accidentally? I’m not entirely sure about this, but I think there’s an entrance exam for Reserve Courses and he was probably forced in on Komaru’s behalf for some reason.

He was basically running the entire time until the very end when he panicked and suddenly the entire field was wiped clean from him waving his arm. HPA saw that, decided that he was worth training, and put him into the Main Course. He doesn’t feel very good about getting in that way, but HPA isn’t exactly empathetic like he is. Again this is like one of three ways I think he could’ve gotten in with the rest of the cast because I’m indecisive skdjsjf

Kyoko is another mage-type, in general the Main Gangs of each game have various themes. THH’s trio has a magic theme, they all use magic. She doesn’t use a weapon, though I’m thinking her gloves act as a limiter of sorts?

As a general rule, more mana means less control, and being half-demon gives her a lot of it. Her gloves help her regulate her mana output so that she doesn’t use too much of it when attacking and tire herself out. Later in the timeline, I imagine there might be a scene where she takes them off and fights off some enemies to buy the rest of the class time to escape something? She would get trapped in the process, but I think this would happen after she’s worked with Makoto for a while and she would trust him enough to believe he would come back for her if she didn’t return.

Oh this isn’t related to her fighting style but on the topic of her being half-demon, that’s mainly because I thought it was boring for everyone to be human and I’m a big sucker for fantasy species so yeah. She’s a cambion.

She has purple-tinted skin, horns that curl up and are fairly close to her head, a thin pointed tail, pointed ears, her pupils are slitted, she’s got carnivore-style teeth, her nails are longer and sharper by default. Whenever she uses the full extent of her magic, her scleras turn dark purple and her irises turn white. Oh yeah her scars came from an accident she had when she was young where her magic got out of control and burned her hands. Her mom’s the demon by the way, for no particular reason, I just thought that the Kirigiris would stay human in this and I don’t know anything about her mom’s side of the family.

I just realized I never said Makoto’s race skdjks he’s human!! He and Komaru just happen to be a special case and have a lot of mana. Most other humans in this AU aren’t so lucky. (cough hinata cough cough)

Byakuya, again, uses magic. He’s the only one who uses a weapon in the Trio, he uses a staff specially made by the Togami family. He also knows how to use a sword and a bow.

I haven’t put too much thought into him, but I know for a fact that his adventuring outfit would have a big sweeping cape later in the timeline. In the beginning though, he just has a stupid expensive suit. The cape comes in later as he, Kyoko, and Makoto start to group up more and more.

I’ve decided that adventurers in this AU group up just as often as they go solo, and while Byakuya would initially be solo, he would deem Makoto and Kyoko strong enough to work with whenever they’re taking on a difficult job.

Groups would change to have matching designs the longer they’re partnered up, and capes/cloaks happen to be the THH Trio’s Thing, as in all three of them would have a cape/cloak of some sort. Byakuya because he’s pretentious, Makoto because he thinks it looks cool, and Kyoko because she uses the cloak for practical reasons like storing things and keeping a low profile when needed. Oh and Byakuya’s bloodline is of royal elven descent, their business is selling spellbooks, runestones, potions, reagents, any magical item you could think of.

Sayaka is a half-siren mage! She mostly uses charm and illusionary magic, as well as healing so that she can support her allies. Later on, she might learn water magic so she can actually deal damage as well. I haven’t decided on her weapon of choice, perhaps she uses a lyre or casts spells from a book. I’m also debating having her learn hand-to-hand combat instead of water magic?

I just like the idea of someone coming up and trying to challenge her, thinking they’ll beat her easily, and barely getting a hit in before she kicks their legs out from under them and tosses them over her shoulder like they weigh nothing. She deserves to take out people twice her size and be menacing, as a treat for the amount of disrespect she gets in the fandom. And I want her to take Leon down a peg because he definitely acts a little like a cocky frat boy sometimes.

Speaking of Leon, we’ve got our first fighter-type!!! I could have him use a baseball bat but that’s boring so I’m thinking he might utilize items as well as a weapon? Bombs or grenades that look like a baseball and explode on impact, baseballs that ignite when thrown and act as fire balls. Alas, I don’t think about him much so this is all just me throwing ideas to see what sticks.

Whatever the case, the main thing I know would happen is that he frequently gets help from Kazuichi and Miu because he just cannot for the life of him stop breaking his equipment. He’s reckless and rushes into battle and now that he doesn’t have Kanon to stop him from setting stuff on fire all the time, he gets detention a lot. (And no she isn’t into him like in canon, I refuse to acknowledge that she ever was.)

Chihiro......they can’t fight djfjsjfjjf. They specialize in making tech and weapons, and in the beginning, would mainly use robots that they programmed to support their allies. Though, they do end up training with Mondo, Sakura, and Aoi to help them become better at combat, and eventually they join everyone else on the front lines as a ranged fighter/support type.

Also, the robots would kinda follow them around like pets. Cute little guys that can also shoot lasers. The robots are powered by mana crystals and each one has a different personality and magic type! Sometimes they follow around different people, the electric one took a liking to Mondo and you’ll see it floating around while he works out. They’re buds.

On the topic of Mondo, he’s another fighter-type! He’s more hand-to-hand combat. A controlled berserker, if you will. Probably started out fighting guys in his hometown and progressed to clearing out monsters when Daiya got concerned about his temper? Perhaps. Maybe. I do not think about Daiya I apologize.

Oh wait hold on. I’m looking at his character art and he’s got a hammer.........it’s decided he uses a warhammer, the biggest one they’ve got, and it’s probably a mana-based weapon. Specifically electric. He and that lil robot wipe the battlefield with their opponents >:D

Taka is probably a fighter-type? I can’t for the life of me find where I read this, but apparently he’s really good at self-defense so I imagine he does hand-to-hand combat as well as sword-fighting for the Noble Paladin Aesthetic.

Hifumi was originally a mage-type, but upon second thought, I’m making him a support-type who uses items and potions and stuff! I like the idea of him making fun little bottles and potions themed after his favorite animes and mangas..........he also definitely helped everyone design their adventurer outfits. He’s the only reason that Makoto’s outfit isn’t boring as hell.

Celeste is, of course, a mage-type. She’s Miss Lolita of course I have to make her an ethereal magic user alright also I love her and I love mages let me have this skfjdkjf. As for her weapon, my first thought was her having playing cards that she throws HxH style?

Or she could summon goons to fight for her, playing into the whole loyal servant dream she has. They would be vaguely themed after the cards, so there would be a jack, king, queen, and joker, all of different magic types depending on the suit of the card she throws. Electric for a spade, fire for a heart, ice for a diamond, something along those lines.

I’m also considering having her little...finger armor thing? I’m thinking of having that cross into her magic, where she attacks with claw-like things formed out of mana. Of course she could also just. Use the cards to cast spells directly skdjksjfkhf

Sakura is definitely a fighter-type. Again, hand-to-hand style, but I imagine she’s more controlled and strategic than Mondo. I can’t see her using a weapon, so I guess she’s like one of the only characters to fight exclusively with fists.

Mukuro’s a ranged fighter-type, but she can also do melee. She uses magic-based guns, ones that shoot mana infused bullets. They have a variety of effects depending on the type of bullet and magic. (I’m not a gun person so take this with a grain of salt.)

Bullets that break apart might be laced with electric magic so that they can shock a target from several points, or fire magic if she’s aiming to start a fire quickly. Exploding bullets are usually used with fire magic, but she might switch to ice if she wants to create a barrage of ice shards for...some reason, I don’t know. There’s more combinations I could probably make, but I’m. Not here to spend an hour researching guns. Not right now at least, who knows what I’ll want info on in the future.

Mmmmmm I’m starting to lose patience here so forgive me for the shorter explanations. I might throw in a fun fact about them for ✨ flavor ✨

Junko’s a fighter/mage-type! She uses a scythe and laces the blade with magic. She could combine it with fire magic to create a flaming scythe and go nuts with it, or she could just channel general mana and slam the blade into the ground to create a big crack in the ground.

There’s about an 80% chance she gets several weapons later in the timeline. Her scythe, a spear, possibly a gun. Monokuma probably exists, I like to think Junko ran into a smarter monster and tamed it and kept it as a slightly feral pet.

Also, yes, she’s still a big adrenaline junkie who gets off on despair. If you see her fighting things she knows are out of her league, mind your business.....actually, call someone to help before she gets herself killed. Please.

I haven’t decided what Aoi will be just yet? I’m veering towards fighter/mage-type, she could use water magic and maybe a leg-based fighting style. Possibly judo or taekwondo. I.....do not have any ideas for her. However I do know that she and Sakura would have a bunch of combo moves together dkfjkejfkdjjd

Toko is a mage-type! She probably uses a book to cast spells from. Or just uses her hands. She would fight ranged, I don’t think she’d want to be up in the action. Too much stress for her, y’know? I

As for Syo, she fight differently than Toko! She technically uses dual swords, but the swords can also connect to create a giant pair of scissors. Again, this is just sort of a fun character thing, but she gets to hate Byakuya in this AU. They have arguments and get on each other’s nerves a lot, but I think the rest of the class usually separates them before anything serious happens.

At some point after Toko befriends Komaru, I like to think that Syo gets a proper fight scene with Byakuya where she rips into him. I don’t think Toko would want to hurt anyone though, even him, so Syo would probably leave him with a few minor cuts at most.

Afterwards, I think Byakuya would quiet down with the insults with Naegi and Kyoko’s requests. (Well. Naegi asked him to try and be nicer because he was worried that they might fight again. Kyoko just bluntly told him that he needed to stop being a jerk and start considering everyone else’s feelings.)

Skfksjfkdh ah. I also like to think Komaru and Toko were initially partnered up by HPA for a job. They were assigned to deal with a couple of school kids wreaking havoc on a nearby city with some monsters they semi-tamed?

But after finishing the job, they decided to partner up permanently on their own. They probably have a few combo moves that Komaru came up with, Toko tweaked them to make them actually possible with their skill set and weapons.

Hiro is...possibly a mage/support-type? He’s probably a bit cowardly and freaks out when on the front lines, but he can use a crystal ball to attack from afar. I’m also considering giving him tarot cards so that he can toss them and attack from several points at once?

Or the ball could shatter at some point during the story and he could just roll with it and spread the shards out during battle to attack from several points at once. They could also be used to create a magic cage of sorts, like electric fence but only electricity.

Okay that’s everybody oh my god. I have plenty more stuff about this au, this isn’t even half of it trust me lmao. I’m sorry about this being so long I didn’t realize it’d be this wordy!!!!!

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoldretired]

some general thh headcanons (some of these are stupid as shit asdkfjaklsjdf)

ok so like a lot of these are minor things or dumb but they also relate to the fact that the dr kids are like. kids. and do their own dumbass kid things. 

kirigiri is obviously an emotional person, as displayed in the second half of thh and every time she chastizes byakuya for being a douchebag. but i also hc that in hs she used to act out bc of jin’s hardassery on her, but she did a real good job at hiding it. 

this is related to my hcs that kirigiri is a barb and also smokes w/ leon and yasuhiro. she’s not nearly as straight-laced as some might believe at first, not bc she’s scene like crime scenes, but bc she has her own normal kinds of teenaged rebellion.

listen i will live and die by the fact that nagito komaeda has a vape. maybe it’s like an essential oil vape or like medically prescribed cbd/thc for illness reasons. but i just. think its so funny if he’s going on a despair rant or absolutely fucking up a trial and blowing sick clouds while doing

the asahina family are 100000% the disney family. so many trips. so many fast passes.

mukuro does not sleep but instead exists in an energy-drink haze. this is for a number of reasons. the threat of war. ptsd. needing to do weird tasks in the middle of the night. energy drinks taste good. 

i will always stand by the fact that leon and sayaka dated in hs in pg!hopes peak. nothing like serious, they probably broke up before the tragedy and stayed apart during the year in isolation, but stayed friends.

in no way do i think they should date in game or like. any afterlife au. but they were clearly close as shown in all the class photos, and they were always created to go together as a pair. and it would make sense they wouldn’t remember dating bc if they did, that means they knew each other, and then lead to confusion about hope’s peak. 

also like. he clearly cares for her and makoto. he is the one to offer to carry makoto back even tithout knowing  him, and he expresses admiration for sayaka’s music. he says that she’s his type, and says he changed his whole personality for a girl but kept it vague. could it be the girl WAS sayaka? 

also like he shows no anger towards her, when tricking to kill him, when trying to calm him down, when he finds out about 11037. he literally only wants to help her. 

im a big believe that in any of these brainwashing scenarios, parts of the original personality stay in tact, whether you realize it or not. like mahiru and hiyoko’s bond, or taka and mondo. if they really hated each other or weren’t close in any way, he wouldn’t have done that shit. 

related, hagakure and leon dated in the year of isolation as a romance of circumstance/comfort and it makes ultra despair hagakure w/ kanon REAL awkward.

taka has never had soda before

mondo cracks his gum and it piSSEs taka off

another taka/mondo one, during pg!hopes peak mondo was actively in therapy for trauma related to daiya’s death, as encouraged by taka, and was actually showing improvements. this was, of course, erased when junko said death game time. 

chihiro was actually out about his identity to a select few friends (probably the leon/mondo/taka friend group) in pg!hopes peak. again. it was erased by junko.

BASICALLY i believe that the kids were, overall, a lot less traumatized bc at hopes peak they had the resources to get the help they needed, so they did. but when junko erased their memories of hopes peak, with it went any heckin progress.

also FULLY believe that junko altered events to make the traumatizing things a lot more traumatizing for all of them. ahaha. fuk u junko

celeste really works hard to learn different languages and takes lessons in french, spanish and english. 

i can also see her and byakuya being as good of friends as u can be with those two douchebags in hs (togami gets better as an adult but hs he’s a bit insufferable) (but also maybe thh reflects an erasure of two years of growth+added altered trauma as i just established) 

anyways she’d get byakuya to help her study.

hifumi is actually pretty interested in western animation bc of his whole thing with 2d animation. given this, he is a brony. hifumi is a brony and u can’t tell me otherwise

[roseluwakcoffee]

Chick-Fil-A Celesgiri AU! (Click for better quality I’m begging)

An alternate universe where there is no Hope’s Peak Academy, but the students all live nearby each other in the same town and plan to pursue their talents in different ways after high school! Some of the students work at various stores and restaurants, and at one such slightly cursed Chick-Fil-A not too far from the nearby college, Taeko, Kyoko, Hina, Leon, and Chihiro work together in fast-food harmony. I even wrote an ongoing fic for it! (x)

My best/worst au yet, more info under the cut!

Team Members:

Taeko Yasuhiro: A begrudging employee at Chick-Fil-A. Is actually an underground gambler known as Celestia Ludenberg, but uses the job as a cover. Claims that she’s going to college online, but that’s a lie. Usually works nights, doing a lot of closing. Tends to work in the dining room. Tries her hardest(not really) but is somewhat clumsy and just not emotionally invested in the problems of the customers.

Chihiro Fujisaki: A student at the nearby college, going to major in computer science. Works during mid shifts, usually at the front counter or dining room. Struggles to pour tea and lemonade pitchers, but is pretty fast and good with customers, even though he’s a bit shy.

Shift Leaders:

Kyoko Kirigiri: Responsible for running shifts, has a flexible schedule but often works dinner rushes and closes. Usually bagging or on headset in drive-thru. Not very enthusiastic but does the job with precision and manages to say the right things to please customers. Currently going to school for forensic science, possibly considering being a detective. Always saves Taeko from accidentally getting herself killed on shift.

Certified Trainers:

Aoi Asahina: Helps train new team members. Started the same day as Taeko, very motivated and fast worker. Also works mid shifts and closes, usually does drive-thru or takes orders outside. Is currently on a swimming team in college, looking to become a competitive swimmer in the future.

Kitchen Team Members:

Leon Kuwata: Works in the kitchen, usually does the food prep and frying. Works in the mornings and opens. Is going to school on a baseball scholarship, thinks that working in the kitchen is attractive to girls. Somehow hasn’t gotten in trouble for having a beard yet.

Miscellaneous Info:

Taeko fell in the dumpster once and now there’s a rumor with the students of the nearby college that the Chick-Fil-A is cursed because it’s being haunted by whoever fell in there.

The restaurant is near a college so they get a lot of students, usually other DR characters! Makoto is a regular who everyone knows pretty well, and Hiro shows up at various weird times late night. All of the other students come in but not consistently.

Like every fast-food restaurant, they have a terrible manager by the name of “That Bitch Helen.” She’s the marketing manager and acts like she’s better than most of the employees even though she couldn’t do any job in the drive-thru correctly. She’s a bitch.

Hina, Taeko, and Kyoko close together pretty often, and sometimes go out late night to an arcade or bowling alley, or the equally cursed 7-Eleven nearby for slushies.

Chihiro and Taeko almost always work together in the dining room on Saturdays during lunch. Chihiro is a really fast server and Taeko is the dining room leader because she’s good at telling other people what to do.

Kyoko isn’t a detective yet in this AU, and didn’t experience the event that left her hands scarred. Her hands do still have burn scars from a milder incident however, so they’re not as severe, and appear on her arms a bit too.

Sometimes Taeko comes into work with very dramatic makeup, usually only when she’s been gambling the night before and hasn’t taken it off. Otherwise she doesn’t wear any.

Leon does a lot of food prep in the back of the restaurant, so he’s closest when Chihiro, Taeko, or Hina can’t reach a box and always helps them out. He also helps Chihiro throw compressor trash bags in the dumpster, because they’re insanely heavy.

Leon should have gotten in trouble for having a beard long ago, seeing as it’s against Chick-Fil-A policy, but he wears a tiny hairnet over it while he works and no one has said anything about it?

The biggest debate of the restaurant’s history has been over whether strips or nuggets are superior. Taeko, Kyoko, and Chihiro have sided with nuggets, while Hina and Leon are adamant on strips. (Strips are better, honestly)

Kyoko sometimes drives Taeko home after work because they live in the same direction.

[jinjojess]

DR Kirigiri Vol. 5 Summary Part I

God, does it feel so nice to back with the characters and storyline that’s arguably my favorite of the franchise.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

So to refresh your memory of DRK4, Yadorigi--seeking revenge for the death of his partner Uosumi in DRK2--solved a case with a bunch of mystery dweebs at an old abandoned school in the mountains and was picked up by Lico via helicopter, Samidare felt up some girls who were tied up in coffins in an abandoned girls’ school, and Kirigiri figured out that Tsutsumi had done a sloppy job of setting up a mystery at the Center for Twin Research which forced him to call her bluff and crash his car off a bridge. Last we left, Babygiri was unconscious and at the mercy of a literal killer.

So clearly we pick back up with Samidare at the girls’ school, because why wouldn’t we?

Honestly, I’m pretty happy with this, since I don’t want the Kirigiri plotline resolved too soon in this book (remember, I need Samidare to think she’s dead for awhile and grieve) and Lico and Yadorigi wasn’t a huge cliffhanger or anything.

Anyway, when we last left Samidare, she had discovered two high school girls tied up in coffins at Libra Girls’ Academy after chasing a black-caped suspect into the room only for them to disappear.  The two girls in question are Nada Tsukiyo, a loud-mouthed brat with traditionally Japanese features like long black hair and pale skin, and her friend and classmate Tooakitsu “Naz” Nazuna, the red-headed, bob cut-sporting calm and polite one. Their physical appearances are both supposed to be ironic given their personalities. Another classmate of theirs, Takezaki Hana, was found dead by Samidare right after she woke up.

Chapter 1 The Mania of Existence: Libra Girls’ Academy - Samidare Yui

In this book, Samidare spends a few moments musing over what the hell Ryuuzouji’s true goal is with these cases, which I also want to know about as well since, as I’ve pointed out before, the rules here make no sense from a dude trying to win or even be fair. Samidare remembers a few things that Ryuuzouji said to her in DRK3 when he wanted her to become his apprentice, like how they both hate evil and will do anything to stop it, and how to do the right thing, sacrifices must be made.

Samidare thinks that’s bullshit though. She hates evil, it’s true, especially since her sister’s death, but she’s nothing like Ryuuzouji. His whole “sacrifice is necessary for the greater good” kind of thinking only makes sense if you’re operating on the kind of genius-level a Triple Zero detective would have; to regular old Samidare, she thinks there are better alternatives.

This is actually really interesting, not only because in the last book Yadorigi has that self-introspection moment where he acknowledges that he’s becoming just as bad at the Committee in the name of vengeance. It’s also because there’s that implication that Samidare could have gone to Kibougamine if she’d continued in high jumping/athletics in general, but she chose not to in order to be a detective, which she considers much more fulfilling given the whole sister abduction trauma she’s got going on. It really highlights the whole culture of excellence that the DRverse is subsumed in and I like that DRK is tackling similar issues as the rest of the mainline series but in a more subtle and personal choice-based way.

It makes Samidare kind of like the anti-Hinata in a way--she rejects her natural talents to do something else she feels is right. I just find that fascinating.

Anyway, Samidare suspects that part of the challenge in these twelve cases is to prove that she’s distinctly different from Ryuuzouji in world view, but she’s got to solve the case in front of her before she can do anything else.

While last time Tsukiyo and Nazuna were accusing Samidare of being the one who tied them up, this time they decide to try and figure out what the last thing they remember is. Turns out, both of them remember hopping a taxi to get to school because of bus delays and not wanting to be late to school. Samidare posits that the Committee might have been behind the traffic jams so that they could get both girls into cabs driven by their operatives and bring them here.

Privately, Samidare considers Nazuna a little too calm and rational under the circumstances, which makes her suspicious, but there isn’t much else to go on at this point.

Tsukiyo muses over why anyone would want to kidnap her. Is it because her parents have money? “You’re rich?” Samidare asks, to which Tsukiyo replies that there are richer people around her. Nazuna also reveals that Takezaki, the victim Samidare found when she woke up, was in the lower caste of their class, so it doesn’t make much sense why she’d be targeted. Samidare also muses that shitty cliques between girls are apparently ubiquitous.

Nazuna is also not believing that Takezaki is really dead without seeing a body, but she can’t exactly stroll over to the other room with her hands and feet bound as they are. Tsukiyo demands that Samidare let them free, but the issue is that the key is nowhere to be found. Samidare tells them to be good while she goes to search for a key.

“What else are we going to do? Hurry up. And while you’re out there, look for a bathroom. You’d better not make me hold it,” Tsukiyo adds.

On her way out of the room, Samidare notes a couple of interesting things: first, the door is a sliding door that closes on its own, similar to sliding doors in hospitals; and there’s no sign of a keyhole or locking mechanism. Since the sliding door rail is on the inside of the room, Samidare wonders if maybe the culprit put a bar in to keep the door closed after they ran inside, but there was no sign of anything holding the door open in the room. And it couldn’t be that the caped figure was just holding the door closed, since Samidare was pulling on it the entire time and they wouldn’t have time to hide.

Huh.

The girls start to yell at her to get going already, so Samidare takes stock of the building. There’s the small, round room with the coffins, connected to the larger chapel with a small hallway. Directly across the way is another narrow corridor that leads to the other round room with the corpse where Samidare woke up. At six o’clock there’s the main entrance, boarded up with thick planks Samidare doesn’t think she could pry off by herself. The chapel itself has about twenty pews plus a pulpit and a raised area with a statue of the Virgin Mary on it and a cross on the wall. There’s also two bathrooms, for men and women, each of which have windows, but they’re boarded up as well. There are no windows anywhere else, all the light provided by bulbs set into the walls.

Samidare notes that the building is in a cross shape, which is common in religious buildings (I personally see it more as an upsidedown capital T, but hey.)

The fact that she’s trapped with no phone or any other way to contact the outside world could be worse, Samidare thinks, since they have that check in call thing set up from the last book around midnight, and once she doesn’t check in, the others will come to her aid. 

Well, so long as every other detective on this case isn’t ALSO trapped in the Duel Noir venue.

Shit.

Congrats, Samidare! You lasted ten whole pages to start worrying about Kirigiri!

...Was Kirigiri-chan okay?

There probably wasn’t any reason to worry she wouldn’t solve her own case. Then I remembered that something bad might happen to her during her dogged pursuit of truth and started worrying again.

I figured it was stemming from my fear that she might disappear forever someday.

I’d get out of here somehow and Kirigiri-chan and I would go back home to the dorm together.

I needed to hurry up and solve this case.

Oh, I’ve missed you, you big insecure gay disaster.

All this thinking of Kirigiri suddenly has made Samidare remember what she said to her on the train before they parted ways in a melodramatic fashion in the last book--keep an eye on zodiac signs.

Oh yeah, guys, did you forget that Ryuuzouji is a Homestuck? Cause I didn’t.

This causes an issue though, since Tsukiyo’s birthday is July 30th and Nazuna’s is August 21st, which makes neither of them Libras. The victim isn’t a Libra either, so either their student ID cards are forged/incorrect, or none of them is the culprit. 

Could it be that the zodiac signs don’t have anything to do with the case? But if Kirigiri has given the theory such serious consideration, Samidare can’t just ignore it.

Trying to figure out where the culprit in the black cape could have gone, Samidare checks under the pulpit at the front of the chapel, but to no avail. She inspects the Mary statue next, only to find that oddly enough this Holy Virgin is sporting some bling...oh no, wait, it’s a key!!

...Too bad the chain is in too small a loop to fit over Mary’s head.

Samidare considers bringing the other two girls into the chapel to the statue, but it would tricky to use the key on such a short chain and such a raised platform on their hands AND feet, so there has to be another way.

Maybe I could get the key if I broke the head off the statue?

There was no way I could do something so blasphemous, though. The Virgin Mary watched over all the students at the school I attended too, so I mentally couldn’t bring myself to break her.

Jesus Christ, Samidare. 

Junko: Which will you choose, Yui-san? Kirigiri or this statue of the Virgin Mother? One of them is going into this volcano one way or another.

Samidare: Errrr...

Kirigiri: Onee-sama, are you serious?

Samidare: Leave me alone! I’m thinking!

Anyway, the good news for Samidare’s eternal soul is that there’s a wheeled platform in the corner that she use to transport Mary into the other room with the key.

The only problem is that when she gets back, announcing she has the key, both girls are missing.

Before she has time to process this though, Tsukiyo tackles Samidare to the ground and shouts for Nazuna to steal the key from her. They’re both pretty shocked and upset to see that Samidare doesn’t have a key on her (though good on them for getting back at her for the unsolicited pat down).

“There’s no key? So you lied to us?”

“It wasn’t a lie,” I groaned. “If you hadn’t attacked me like this, I’d have just handed over the key!”

“Quit your complaining, you kidnapper!”

“I’m not a kidnapper!” Of all the things in the world I could be accused of, that was the one thing I wanted to be called least. “I’m a detective!”

I shoved Tsukiyo off of me and stood up. She gazed up at me from the floor, cowering and looking terrified. Nazuna also looked upset, kneeling on the floor.

Dusting off the sleeve of my coat, I adjusted my collar and took a deep breath to collect myself.

“My name is Samidare Yui. I haven’t told you yet, have I? You may not trust me, but...honestly, I still find the two of you pretty suspicious. So let’s keep an eye on each other and call a truce for now. Is that okay?”

The other two nodded silently.

Samidare then uses the key on the Mary statue to free Tsukiyo, who thanks god and does the sign of the cross. After Tsukiyo frees Nazuna, Samidare gives them the reader’s digest version of the situation they’re in and suggests that since Takezaki is already dead but the case isn’t over and they’re still trapped, the two of them aren’t out of the woods yet and could still be targets. They need to prioritize getting out before anything happens to them.

Nazuna requests to see Takezaki’s body for herself, which Tsukiyo doesn’t seem interested in until Nazuna appeals to her by saying they owe it to a fellow classmate. 

Samidare leads the way back to the other room, chatting about the chapel and everyone confirming that they haven’t been there before, but the school looks pretty good for having been abandoned for 17 years (longer than they’ve been alive, heh...), but Samidare explains that the Committee probably spruced it up to be the set for the Duel Noir.

The two girls also say that they get the feeling that they may have felt someone else’s presence in the room before Samidare opened the coffins, but they couldn’t be sure.

Once they reach hallway to the room where Takezaki is, Samidare has this horrible feeling--she can see that the door, which should have shut automatically--is wide open and showing an empty room. There aren’t even any bloodstains or anything left behind.

Samidare starts having a breakdown about this, throwing out the possibility that the culprit moved the body while she was checking the bathrooms, while Tsukiyo gets disgruntled and wants to look for a way out so she can make her violin lesson on time. 

Too bad the door to the small room isn’t opening.

Nazuna tries it too but can’t open it either.

Tsukiyo at this point loses her shit.

“Th-This can’t be happening? We’re trapped in here, with no TV or phones or anything?” Tsukiyo said, aghast. “Ah, I didn’t even get to go to the bathroom yet!”

“Uh oh, we may be stuck in here for the whole time...”

“What do you mean ‘the whole time’? How long is that?”

“Worst case scenario...six days.”

If the other detectives didn’t come to my rescue, and the culprit intended to win by time out, then we might have to resign ourselves to being stuck here for six days.

“NO! If we stay here for six days, I will die!” Tsukiyo pounded her fists on the door in a panic. “At least bring us food and water! But not hard tap water! Make it soft mineral water! And let me go to the toilet first!”

Nazuna meanwhile is more puzzled by how the door isn’t opening given it doesn’t have a lock on it. That’s when Samidare notices that unlike the other room, the track for this door is on the outside, on the hallway side. She and the girls muse that the caped culprit locked them inside by setting up a bar to prevent the door from being slid open.

Well then.

Samidare’s ego is taking quite a blow.

I guess I really couldn’t do anything by myself.

What would Kirigiri-chan do in this situation?

She was always thinking one step ahead.

And she’d never stopped her trek toward the truth.

That’s right, she’d never avert her eyes from the case in front of her...

I couldn’t give up.

I had to get up and keep going.

“The only thing I can think of is that the culprit’s using some kind of trick.” I stepped away from the door and looked around the room. “I don’t think the body going missing and us being trapped here are unrelated. There’s got to be a secret hidden here that we haven’t found yet.”

“A secret?” Tsukiyo and Nazuna asked in unison, looking over their shoulders at me.

I nodded.

“I will definitely figure out the secret to this mystery,” I announced, not only to myself, but to the culprit who could also be listening.

Part 1 End

I’m so glad the moral of this chapter was WWKD (What Would Kirigiri Do).

Apologies for any typos or anything you may find. I’ll edit a bit later on.

Guys, I am having so much fun reading DRK again. This was a good plan.

See you soon!

NEXT PART >

[crazynekochan]

(Time travel au prt 1) After dying Juzo felt guilty as he watched fromthe afterlife how much self hatred Kyosuke was inflicting onto himself for letting his best friends die. To make sure it doesn’t happen he and Chisa who’s back to normal find a way to go back in time and change everything. So they did and Juzo was sent back by Chisa except he was sent too far back and into his high school years with Kyosuke and Chisa. Yeah it was kinda a screw up but it gave him a lot of time to prepare.

Juzo’s reaction must have been golden when he expected to return to the time where he is working at Hope’s Peak, but instead ends up in Hope’s Peak as a student again. But as you said he then at least has time to prepare and stop Junko before she can even do anything (or learns to walk, depending how much older they are to the main cast)

Which includes coming out to Kyosuke to avoid blackmailing, even if he fears that Kyosuke might reject him and that his friendship with him and Chisa might end (Though the part with the sex came fast ^^” But whatever rows their boat I guess, I’m not one to judge)

The explanation about the time travel probably took a lot of convincing because it’s almost impossible to prove it, especially when his mission was to change the future

Though I do wonder one thing. How does Juzo know about the Steering Committee and Hajime? No one ever learned about the project aside from Junko and the Remnants. I mean Makoto and co had been shocked to learn the truth about Izuru and what happened to Hajime and had absolutely no clue about it, which was way after the FF had any form of contact to the Remnants. Not even Chisa ever heard about Izuru and even if, her memories would had been wiped about him just like from the rest of the Remnants from Izuru himself

They would need to keep Mitarai under constant surveillance and make sure that Junko would never get close to him, since he is also the Ultimate Brainwasher (unofficially) thanks to his talent and Junko would stop at nothing to get her hands on his talent; no matter if he has to blackmail him like in canon or straight up kidnap him

The same with the whole Reserve Course, which includes that Sato never kills Natsumi, before having Peko and Fuyuhiko kill her in revenge, which would end as fodder for the Reserve Course revolt

Tengan would probably only be a side thought, since he is only dangerous if they don’t manage to stop the tragedy from happening. But better safe than sorry (Though Jin wouldn’t be at the school yet and instead work as a Kirigiri detective right? He left when Kyoko was somewhere between her childhood and teenager years, so I’m genuinely not sure as I have no clue just how much older Juzo is to the main cast)

The WOH would he a harder topic because at that point they wouldn’t even been born yet I believe or are literally still toddlers. So they would need to first find them if they even exist at that time and find a way to get them out of their homes before their abuse can even start

Though the hardest part would be getting to Mukuro, since he could overpower Kyosuke with no problem and trying to get close to her would raise suspicion of super genius Junko. But if they act early enough (again depending on how much older the three of them are) they might be able to snatch her up before she can join Fenrir and hopefully also avoid her extreme guilt for abandoning her twin sister, since from her side Junko didn’t really start abusing her yet (Really DR should do a better job at deciding on the age differences of their characters. I mean like with Komaru, in one source she is multiple years younger than Makoto and in the official art book she is only one year younger. Same with Natsumi who is in the same class as Hajime, but is several years younger than Fuyuhiko who is also in the same year as them? Nothing makes sense here @.@)

[kimmysfandomblog]

FF7 crossover I’m never gonna write

-A Final Fantasy 7-type AU. I say “type” because it’s going to have to change a lot to fit the different personalities hahaha

A very long (and messy) post because the idea is in my head, but I don’t want to really write it in a more structured manner XD

In short:

Cloud- Hajime

Tifa- Nagito

Aerith- Chiaki

SHINRA- Togami

JENOVA- JUNKO

Sephiroth- Kamukura

Under the cut is the details, put there for length and FF7 spoilers?

Characters are matched not by personalities, but on their roles in the story. This means that some events in the story don’t happen the same way.

Hinata is the main character. His childhood neighbor, who is the child of the mayor and his crush, is Nagito Komaeda. Hinata goes from Nibelheim to Midgar in order to join SOLDIER, but ends up in infantry.

Enemies:

Sephiroth is of course replaced by Kamukura. Kamukura was actually a test tube baby instead of born, like Sephhiroth had been. Hajime’s mother was the donor, so he is actually Hajime’s older brother (It’s very tragic). Hajime hears of this hero who is only a few years older than him and strives to be just like Izuru Kamukura.

The big bad JENOVA is replaced by JUNKO, the alien who wishes to destroy the world.

The evil corporation is the Togami Corporation, with Rufus Shinra being replaced by Byakuya Togami, mostly just because they really match.

Dr. Hojo is replaced by Monokuma- but humanized? He is completely unrelated to Izuru, but his obsession with Junko remains. One of his rivals, and the one Izuru actually liked, is Taichi Fujisaki.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu is the head of the Turks, taking place of Tseng

the other Turks are just going to be Saionji, Mahiru, and Mikan

Palmer, Heideger, and Scarlet are replaced by Kaito, Shuichi, and Maki (Togami probably has blackmail on them or something?) Kaito has the space program (that never gets funding), Maki has the Weapons Department, and Shuichi is manager of the Turks and internal affairs. He is like a detective and is kept on mostly because he’s good at deducing who goes against the company. None of them like their jobs, but Maki is resigned to do it. Shuichi and Chihiro are actually working together in attempts to thwart Shinra. Kaito just wants funding for the Space Program because he truly believes the world can be saved that way and he’s a bit blind to the corruption since he was off in Rocket Town for most of his career.

To kind of balance it out, though, I’m adding Toko Fukawa as leader of the SOLDIER/Infantry Departments

The friends who join:

Multiple people technically take the role of Barret. The members of the terrorist group (Future Fighters as opposed to AVALANCHE) don’t all die. The ones who survive are Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri, and Aoi Asahina. Nagito joined them after Nibelheim burned down. Sakura Oogami, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and Mondo Oowada perish with the fall of the plate.

On a side note, Asahina is basically the Barret of this story. She loses her brother to the explosion at Corel, she and Sakura had escaped from there.

Chiaki Nanami takes the place of Aerith, but rather than just an Ancient, it was more like she has abilities that really affect technology. Her father was Taichi Fujisaki, and she’s totally unaware that her half brother was so close to her.

In the game, Nanaki/Red XIII is an intelligent animal trying to go back to their tribe... in this one his role will have to be taken by Kiibo instead, who tries to go back to his “grandpa” Dr. Idabashi.

Chihiro Fujisaki is going to take the place of Reeve with Usami being Cait Sith (no need for the mog)

The obvious choice for Cid is Kazuichi Souda, but he won’t be getting any addictions! His best friends, Gundam and Sonia, stop his rocket because it was too dangerous to fly. (and they all become a happy trio)

Now for the optional characters, Kokichi Ouma takes the place of Yuffie because he’s mischievous and would totally play pranks.

Peko Pekoyama would be the Vincent Valentine, but the twist is that she and Fuyuhiko used to be partners in the TURKS (instead of Vincent and Veld). She hides her real name by calling herself Sparkling Justice and hidin her face with a mask, but she mostly still fights the same, making Fuyuhiko especially mad when she’s around

Additional notes:

-Chiaki and Chihiro are going to be half-siblings, with Chihiro actually being older because I’m basing this mostly on Alter Ego. Taichi’s first wife dies in childbirth, and he falls in love with Chiaki’s (unnamed) mother. Chihiro and Chiaki are taken from him, with Chihiro being told that if he doesn’t cooperate, Chiaki and his stepmother would be killed. Chiaki is completely unaware she has a half-brother, however he’s always kept an eye on her through her plush toy. This is ultimately why he spies on the group, but he’s also the leader of Urban Development

-Kamukura does not see Junko as his mother. She promises him the excitement he can’t get anywhere else by causing Despair, and he becomes obsessed with the idea that destruction will relieve him from boredom. He loses his mind to Junko in this AU, but he’d been close to redemption at the end, knowing the truth of Junko’s corruption and how he’s actually related to Hajime.

-Makoto and Kirigiri grew up in the orphanage at Midgar under the plate. Makoto has a vision of a better world, and she joins him. This is especially so when she finds out she has a personal reason for going against Togamis. Her father lead a rebellion against the corporation and dies. Together, with other orphans who are affected by the Togami COrps, Mondo (brother dies because of Togamis) and Ishimaru (he was reluctant to start but the common people are suffering and he’s against the cruelty, plus his whole family was forced underground because of the Togami Corps) found a new group they called the Future Fighters. Aoi Asahina and Sakura Oogami join them shortly after. Nagito Komaeda is found and taken in by Makoto. Makoto is against the fighting, but he’s in agreement that Togami Corps need to be taken down. He mostly gets information, being a decent spy/detective. Kirigiri is the gunslinger, but she’s also the strategist. Asahina and Sakura are the “monk” types. Komaeda usually uses guns, but he is also the one who makes the bombs. Hajime, when he briefly joins, uses a sword.

-Chiaki is the healer/magic user, however her affinity with technology often acts up and can be used against enemies. Kiibo uses built-in guns and laser eyes (but h absolutely cant be in water or struck by lightning). Usami is a magic user, mostly using buff on the team or casting status effects. Kazuichi can still be the dragoon type since there’s no real reason Cid ended up with spears. Ouma is still gonna be a ninja. Pekoyama uses the sword rather than a gun. (and Gundham and Sonia are both magic users, both summoners, but Sonia is also really good at white magic while Gundham is reall good at Dark magic.

-instead of the Golden Saucer, there is Towa Park. Haiji is the Dio of this AU, and instead of Dyne, there are the Warriors of Hope (all of them only a little younger than Asahina). None of them die, but Monaka gets crippled through her own stubborness. She hates Asahina for the death of her mother and the fall of Corel. She was left with her abusive dad and stepbrother until she fakes crippled legs. Each of the other kids were stuck in homes of paid actors who forced them to call them parents and abused them.

-Chiaki has no “Zack” in the same sense Aerith did. Her “Zack” was Kamukura, who did not fall from the roof, but rather landed gracefully in front of her from the roof and protected her from monsters. He came down mostly because of the flowers being something he hasn’t seen before, at first, but he genuinely liked her eventually, up until he goes missing. Chiaki never really forgot him, but finds a boy who falls down from the roof that really reminds her of Kamukura, even if he doesn’t act a lot like him. (Does this mean he kills Chiaki? UHHHH)

-The one who saves Hajime before the events of the game, Hajime’s “Zack,” who was somewhat friends with Kamukura but not especially close, is First Class SOLDIER Nekumaru Nidai. the experiments on Nidai ended in him being mostly robot because they tried to use Junko’s cells on him, whereas Hajime seemed to barely have any influence from it. Nekomaru is trying to go back for his not-girlfriend (yet) Akane Owari, a martial arts teacher that travels the world, but has laely been based in Midgar (partly because of him, if she were honest). He doesn’t make it, and she never knows he’s dead. She eventually leaves Midgar when the plate drops, which is suspected to be because of the Togamis. She meets up with the main group in Gongaga, where Nidai had been from. Komaeda reacts to her and this village when she talks about him.

-Pekoyama was given a solo mission mostly because Mr. Togami (Byakuya’s brother) was suspicious of the Turks at that time. Kuzuryu and Peko are loyal members of the Turks at this point and there’s been rumors that ther leader, Jin Kirigiri, is thinking of defecting. spreading the Turks out and eliminating some of them in “accidents” seemed like a good way to go about things. Kuzuryu was able to earn the company’s loyalty, but he did it to find Peko, who had been successful in stopping a terrorist attack, but only through a cost of grievous wounds. Dr. Monokuma gets to her and experiments on her, and she ends up in Nibelheim labs, waking up a monster. She seals herself up to await her death.

-Nagito is the Nibelheim mayor’s only son, who’s had a crush on Hajime for a long time, but was never allowed to hang out with Hajime, specifically after Hajime is accused of endangering Nagito after he went off alone to Nibelheim Mountains to find his mother when she passed away. He begins to think it is better if people aren’t close to him, seeing as his mother died through an accident involving him and the town is starting to get superstitious about his family being cursed. So, while respected, he keeps his distance. Hajime does manage to convince him to meet, the night before he leaves for Midgar. A promise is made that Hajime would come back and tell him all about his adventures as SOLDIER. He jokingly says Hajime should save him from harm one day. When the catastrophe that is the day Kamukura burns down the village happens, Nagito is saved by luck. His personal tutor find him and takes him to Midgar, staying with him for a while. However, he ends up dying in terrorist bombings, and rumor has it that the Togamis are responsible for that, too. Komaeda decides he wants revenge and through some lucky finds in the black market, is able to teach himself to create bombs. Kirigiri, when the group finds him, is able to teach him to use guns as well.

-Hajime is found by Nagito at the train station. Although Hajime claims he is SOLDIER First Class, he also says that he was at Nibelheim when it burns. Nagito is concerned by this, but given Hajime’s clearly distressed state, doesn’t dispute it. He instead invites him to the terrorist group that goes against the Togami’s, mostly to be able to keep an eye on Hajime and eventually figure out how Hajime knows what happened at Nibelheim when Nagito knows the one who is supposed to be there is Nekomaru.

-The Turks, lead by Fuyuhiko, are only him, Hiyoko, Mahiru, and the newest member, Mikan. normally, the Turks are comic relief characters, and they still can be, but the jokes would have to be different for sure. Hiyoko’s the “dancer” who buffs the team and causes static effects, but she can truly pack a punch. Mahiru is the magic user, her element being lightning. She’s pretty good with close-range/mid-range weapons. Mikan is healer, but also great at magic in general. Fuyuhiko, of course, only uses guns, but he uses it really well (However you never fight Tseng in the games I guess, so you only see him use guns)

-Hajime can “date” one of these people, depending on the choices made by “players”: Nagito, Chiaki (they have the highest chances with him, just like Tifa and Aerith), Makoto, Asahina, Kokichi, Pekoyama, and Kiibo (the rest are the not-exactly-romantic and harder to achieve options, just like Barret, Nanaki, and Yuffie. While you can’t date Vincent Valentine.... I wish it were possible XD)

-All that date stuff said I’d honestly be down for Nagito, Hajime, and Chiaki together I mean they don’t have to fight. Aerith and Tifa never fought and actually could get along and AerTi is a ship that people like too so three doesn’t have to be a crowd

-There are a few things I am unsure of, like Chiaki’s reaction that Kamukura is evil? Does Kamukura recognize her and still kill her? What about that plot thread where she and Chihiro are related? What is up with Kuzuryu and Peko like why is she fighting against him and does he ever figure out it is her? And I want Kamukura redeemed but how?? I have way too many characters as well and Makoto and Kirigiri technically don’t have to be there but I just wanted them to be there XD And for whatever reason they are building bombs and detonating reactors... joy... And why are Kaito, Shuichi and Maki working for a guy they don’t like and doing evil things? (I mean I genuinely like them so what gives, Kimmy?)

I gave this AU a lot of thought, but it comes with so many plotholes and inconsistencies in story and/or characters XD

But listen... FF7 is a great game. And because of it I haven’t been able to sleep until I finished thinking about this AU XD

[kokichi-and-co-imagine-blog]

I would absolutely love to see more of that Naegiri PMD AU! It was great! Also, I want to know what Pokemon the other characters were, if you thought that out.

Anon: Mod kirigiri, what pokemon was byakuya and the others in the mystery dungeon AU if you dont mind me asking?

…This Mystery Dungeon thing’s gotten more attention than I anticipated.

Not saying that’s a bad thing, just… a bit overwhelming. With how much I love PMD, I’m actually kind of excited about it all. 

Given that I’m moving currently, this seemed like an easier request to tackle. I have a few others relating to it that I’ll get to once things have settled down a bit. Some of these will have more detailed/defined description than others. Keep in mind this is kind of a developing AU, so things are subject to change with time and refinement.

Some of these are based on a previous Pokemon ask I handled, actually the first ask I handled, (which you can find here) others are changed to fit them being a Pokemon more. I mostly tried to avoid Pokemon that were major NPC’s in previous games, but what happens, happens.

Mystery Dungeon AU Pokemon:

Detective Society: The Detective’s Society functions in a similar way to the Explorer’s Guild or Exploration Society does in the other games. Their primary goal is to help rescue Pokemon that have gone missing in Mystery Dungeons and to track down criminals. Despite the name, not all of its members are ‘detectives’ per se, but they all share a similar goal of helping other Pokemon through similar means.

(I don’t actually have names for all the teams yet, but the names bunched together are on a team together.)

Makoto: RockruffMakoto is this story’s human turned Pokemon. With a memory that’s hazy at best, he’s unsure of what he’s doing in this world, but wants to figure it out. By a stroke of luck, the first other Pokemon he meets is Kyouko, who is willing to help him out in investigating his missing memory in exchange for his cooperation in getting her into the Detective’s Society. The two of them get off to a rocky (mind the pun please) start, but the bond they form over the course of their adventure, as they discover Makoto’s purpose and lost memories, is undeniable.Kyouko: EspeonAn aloof Espeon that’s a detective by blood and shrouded in mystery. She has no interest in joining the Detective Society for usual reasons, rather they have information that can only be accessed by its members that she wants. She agrees to help Makoto with his missing memories in exchange for him forming a team with her in the Society. Her blunt words and sometimes cold attitude can sometimes turn others away (as was her intention with Makoto), but with time and patience, she warms up to Makoto to form one of the best teams the Detective Society has ever seen

Hina: BuizelAn energetic former athlete turned Detective Society member. Hina found herself finally reaching the top of the game in athletics and wanted a new challenge, so she decided her next goal would be to make a change in the world that she wanted to see. She’s not exactly the best investigator on cases, but actually taking down outlaws is no challenge for her and her partner Sakura. She especially loves to lead water based investigations and rescuesSakura: MachokeReferred to as the ‘Most Powerful Pokemon’, Sakura decided to use her skills to fight for a good cause. Being the slightly more level-headed of her team, Sakura is a good balance to the ever energetic Hina. Neither she or her partner serve as the best investigators, but are useful allies in rounding up and arresting running outlaws. Her team are some of the closest allies to Makoto and Kyouko.

Taka: RuffletTaka became a member of the Society in order to better the world and clear the air about his family name. His passion and dedication often frighten people off, which made him incapable of keeping a partner for very long until Mondo was assigned to him. Although they initially seemed like the worst enemies, one overnight case seemed to make them the best of friends. After adding Chihiro as officially a part of their team, Taka does his best to lead his team towards the truth on all their cases.Mondo: ScraftyMondo used to lead a gang with his brother, but an accident that led to his death turned him away from that life. Now he wants to use his position to help steer others away from such a path that he took in his life. He tries his best at investigating, but he’s willing to admit that the hunting criminals part is more his speed. Still, he and his team work to the best of their ability to solve the cases presented to them.Chihiro: JoltikChihiro isn’t much of a fighter, preferring to run some behind the scenes things within the Detective’s Society or help investigate some of the smaller cases. Out of the three, he’s the best at investigating, however lacks confidence in his abilities. Chihiro is also responsible for running maintenance on the equipment of the Detective’s Society, including the map, bulletin board, tracking systems, and computers. It seems like a lot, but he handles it all in stride.

Byakuya: PersianThe heir to the Togami family, Byakuya is simply a part of the Society out of necessity. His family funds the Society and is tasked with keeping a watchful eye on it’s activities. He’s certainly a competent investigator in his own right, but he’s much less invested in each individual case and less tactful about how he goes about things, and even has used manipulation in the past get things within the society to go his way (with the one exception seeming to be getting assigned a different partner) He finds Makoto “useful, but bothersome” and has occasionally forced him to go along with him on cases.Touko: SneaselA very timid Pokemon with a stutter, Touko doesn’t like to go out to the field often. She prefers to handle other tasks like filing through the requests to post onto the bulletin board and keeping records of completed cases. However, if Byakuya asks (or even if he doesn’t) she will run out to hunt down criminals without a second thought regardless from her. There are moments, however, when she seems to relish in hunting down criminals and even has to be restrained to prevent injuries to them. There are whispers of another, darker personality at play, although few buy into them.

Junko Enoshima: TeddiursaThe one exception to the Society’s team rule due to having lost her previous partner in a tragic accident. Despite the loss, Junko is a very happy and cheery personality, always willing to assist when she can. Often she surprises people with her own combat abilities and her powerful moveset. However, there are some that claim that there’s something off about her, often claiming to hear or see her in more than one location at the same time.Mukuro Ikusaba: ???The former partner of Junko who lost her life in a tragic accident long ago. Little is known about her beyond the fact that she was a powerful foe and not one to go down without a fight.

Not everyone is a part of the Detective’s Society! Some simply live in the town of Hope’s Peak and run businesses or have other jobs

Hiro: EggxecutorSimilar to his DR counterpart, he is a fortune teller (If this were a game he’d also serve the purpose of unlocking treasure boxes with his abilities) He’s not officially a member of the Society, he’s not really good at investigating, but his services are sometimes used by the Society on particularly difficult cases. He’s also on good terms with several members and can often be found lazing about with some of them.

Sayaka: MeowsticSimilar to her DR counterpart, Sayaka is a well known pop idol in this world who befriends Makoto. She ends up being the first client of Makoto and Kyouko after they form their team together and afterwords tends to assist them when she can with her own abilities. Kyouko isn’t entirely trusting of her though, although she’s not quite sure why.

Leon: Monferno Leon is the first criminal caught by Makoto and Kyouko when they are officially Detective Society members. After he’s caught and revealed his intention was only to try and afford reaching his musician aspirations, he is given a chance to reform himself by working with Sayaka. Although a bit brash and hot tempered, he tries his best to help out those in need when he can.

Celeste: GothitelleShe runs a popular cafe in Hope’s Peak known mostly for it’s strange atmosphere and excellent teas. It’s a popular hotspot for Society members to find work when the bulletin board is a little sparse.Celeste herself however, is rather elusive. Those that have met her have described her with one key word: Frightening, and highly recommend to watch your wallet around her.

Hifumi: SmeargleHifumi is a popular artist the frequents Celeste’s cafe to gather inspiration for his work. He’s most well known for creating exaggerated tales about some of the Society members adventures that he overhears while at the cafe, but he dabbles in other works too when commissioned. (If this were in game, he’d probably serve a similar role that Smeargle does in the rescue team games with the flags and such)

As I said, details on this are subject to change and refinement, this is just what I have upon my preliminary drafts for all this. I’d like to also eventually include the SDR2 cast in this AU as well, but I’m not quite sure how to work them in yet.

...The Mystery Dungeon AU is kinda becoming a thing now, so if you have a request that isn’t part 2 of the original post (and I only say that because it’s already being worked on) then shoot em at me.

[mugionthewater]

Ranking the V3 dub cast against their original DR roles!

Erika Harlacher (Kaede Akamatsu - Kyoko Kirigiri)

I’m not a huge fan of Erika Harlacher’s outing as Kirigiri- she sounds vaguely congested and doesn’t come close to conveying the iciness that should seem the obvious fit for a character like her. Kaede, on the other hand, is earnest and soulful and it comes across well in the dub. It’s a role that plays much more to her strengths, I think, and I’m happy she came back for a more flattering performance!

Kaede > Kirigiri

 Grant George (Shuichi Saihara – Leon Kuwata)

I’ve seen Grant George’s turn as Shuichi Saihara compared unfavorably to someone’s voiceover in a car commercial, which is honestly fair. It sticks out in the emotional monologues in the class trials, but a year later it’s that horrible generic “ah, um” voice clip that gets used approximately 5,000 times in the dub that keeps me up at night. It’s almost enough to forget he did a pretty solid job as Leon in 2014. Leon’s probably the least challenging role in the franchise, admittedly, but he played a solid douchey teenager with an entertaining breakdown.

Leon > Saihara

 Lucien Dodge (Kiibo – Hifumi Yamada)

A tossup here. Both roles are perfectly competent at what they are. The nasally voice for Hifumi was probably more demanding, but the Kiibo voice does a good job combining the Shounen protagonist with the robophobia conscious rigidity.

Kiibo > Hifumi, if only because casting recasting Lucien Dodge as the real Justice Robo was brilliant

 Kyle Herbert (Kaito Momota – Kazuichi Soda)

Kyle Herbert as Kazuichi is pathetic, emasculated, and screechy, so it’s pretty much perfect. It’s all the weirder he plays Kaito as a middle-aged smoker dad. It doesn’t come close to matching the energy of Kaito’s Japanese voice. Another pretty clear winner.

Kazuichi > Kaito

 Erica Mendez (Maki Harukawa – Nagisa Momoe)

An anomalous recast considering Nagisa isn’t in V3 but they invited her back with the other recast voices anyways. Maybe Erica Mendez is just a really cool person and NISA wanted to hang out with her more? In any case, she’s good as Maki and I don’t have much to say here.

Maki > Nagisa

 Johnny Yong Bosch (Rantaro Amami - Hajime Hinata)

Not an interpretation for Rantaro Amami I was expecting; I don’t associate JYB with deeper bad boy voices and he’s a character type I’d expect a softer and lighter brand of mysteriousness for. But I liked dub Amami quite a bit. I’m still going to give the edge to his role as Hinata, since he fits him perfectly and is easily the best protagonist dub voice NISA has given us.

Hinata > Amami

 Kira Buckland (Kirumi Tojo – Hiyoko Saionji)

Of all the recast voices in this game, Kira Buckland showed off the most range with her roles. Hiyoko’s original Japanese voice and the English dub version are both pretty stock voices for that character type, but Buckland as Kirumi gets to show off maturity, warmth, and distance that I never would have expected from someone who voiced Hiyoko. If I had to cast one VA from this game, I’d want her since I’m pretty sure she could do anything.

Kirumi > Hiyoko

 Chris Tergliafera (Ryoma Hoshi – Gundam Tanaka)

So this guy is perfect in both roles and I don’t understand why his behindthevoiceactors.com profile isn’t bigger. Tergliafera can do deep very well and he was a good hire for NISA. I’m going to give the edge to his take as Gundam since that voice role is much hammier and much more memorable for it, showing off comic chops along with the sexiness, but he nails the somber moments with Hoshi and it could go either way.

Gundam > Hoshi

 Wendee Lee (Miu Iruma – Akane Owari)

Akane and Iruma are two character types who could have ended up with very similar voice performances, but Wendee Lee as Akane sounds oddly flat while Lee as Iruma is the exact level of hammy, vulgar, and cartoonish that I could hope for. It’s not hard to guess which role she probably had more fun with.

Iruma > Akane

Kaiji Tang (Gonta Gokuhara – Yasuhiro Hagakure)

Now this one is just disappointing. Kaiji Tang is great and one of my favorite dub voices in the first game, but compared to his natural comic lightness as Hagakure his Gonta sounds like he’s reading from a script the whole time. Reading the dumb Tarzan text was probably as awkward for him as it was for all of us, but it’s still disappointing.

Hagakure > Gonta

 Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Tsumugi Shirogane – Sayaka Maizono – Chihiro Fujisaki)

Our only triple cast! I kind of wish it was a more exciting vocal trio than this one. She’s fine but forgettable as Chihiro (it’s just kind of stuffy), perfectly competent at delivering an American approximation of the Kirby voice as Sayaka, and totally baffling as Tsumugi for a bunch of reasons. First of all, Tsumugi’s whole schtick is being plain; she didn’t need any kind of affect, especially not one as suspicious as the sugary helium voice. Secondly, it was probably more of a strain on the vocal cords to keep that up for six whole class trials. And thirdly, it’s just kind of obnoxious to listen to. What gives, NISA?

Sayaka > Chihiro > Tsumugi

 Derek Stephen Prince (Kokichi Oma – Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu)

(remember when English speakers saw the dub tease and got outraged hearing Oma’s voice saying “Kayayday” thinking they had recast Bryce Papenbrook? That poor man)

Another case where the voice actor is very good at both roles. DSP as Oma is probably more nuanced, since he has to be playful and trollish but also bring a hard edge when he needs to, and the angry rasp he gives Kuzuryu fits perfectly and adds a lot to the SDR2 dub. I’m going to give it to his role in as Kuzuryu just because Oma’s “neeheehee!” voice clip in V3 is horrible.

Kuzuryu > Oma

 Todd Haberkorn (Korekiyo Shinguji – Teruteru Hanamura)

So I think Todd Haberkorn’s voice is incredibly distinctive and I have very particular associations with him as a VA (I mostly know him as the lead in Rosario + Vampire, because I am the worst). Him playing a gag character like Hanamura was entirely within my expectations and is something he’s generally very good at doing. Korekiyo is the exact opposite character type and I busted a gut as soon as I heard it. Korekiyo is a better character when you don’t take him too seriously, and Haberkorn is good with the lines. I’m still more of a fan of him as Hanamura, since the garbled southern accent at the class trial breakdown is much more fun than the sister class trial breakdown, which no VA can probably save.

Hanamura > Korekiyo

 Julie Ann Taylor (Tenko Chabashira - Ibuki Mioda)

Julie Ann Taylor gives basically the same performance for both characters, but it’s a choice that makes sense considering Ibuki and Tenko have a very similar energy. Ibuki is slightly zingier and gets more memorable voice quips, but it’s another one that could go either way.

Ibuki > Tenko

 Marieve Herington (Angie Yonaga – Celestia Ludenberg)

Celes’s wacky French accent? Perfect, amazing, a hilarious and entirely appropriate addition to her character and possibly the best adaptational decision NISA made. Angie’s extremely similar wacky accent? Kind of lazy and highlights the racist parts of her character. Granted, it was probably hard to win with that one, but still. Boo.

Celestia > Angie

 Christine Marie Cabanos (Himiko Yumeno - Chiaki Nanami)

Christine Marie Cabanos as Himiko is my favorite dub voice in V3. She captures the laziness of the Japanese VA so well, nailing the gag of it but also nailing the emotional moments when it counts. What makes it great is knowing about Cabanos’s other work and how ultra-feminine magical girl types like Chiaki and Madoka Kaname are in her usual wheelhouse. Playing a character like Himiko must have been refreshing and it shows.

Himiko > Chiaki

[oumakokichi]

Do I love your analyses? Oh yes I do. In Korean DR fandom aka my another primary fangirl habitat(?), there are many factors that trigger Debate scrum, but one of the most primary topic is Momota's supposed duplicity-how he said he believed Shuuichi and his action between chapter 4~5. People found that ironic and almost reached the conclusion that Momota was looking down on Shuuichi during whole game. I challenge you to whip up an analysis about that!

I’ve decided to combine thesetwo asks because they both deal with the same sort of topic that I’d like totalk about! I hope that’s okay!

The whole idea of Momota’s “duplicity”is an interesting way to put it, because to some degree, it circles back aroundto the idea that every character in ndrv3 is a liar. Every single one of themis hiding things from themselves or from others, and this ties in with all theunderlying themes of deception and duality.

Things often come in pairsmeant to be juxtaposed in ndrv3. We have the characters’ pre-game selvesjuxtaposed with their in-game selves. Many characters have two talents, or atleast more than one. Characters like Tsumugi and Ouma have multiple façadesthey present to the group, and either one can be thought of as “two-faced” as aresult. And as with all pairs of opposing ideas or factors in ndrv3, the answeris often not that one or the other is “correct” or “the right one,” but ratherthat both are right to some degree.The middle ground is almost always the right way to go in ndrv3.

As far as Momota goes, Idefinitely believe he did mean what he said when he claimed to believe inSaihara. Momota is someone who constantly tries to challenge other people toimprove themselves; being inspirational and motivational is, after all, anecessary part of the package for any good “protagonist,” as he likes to thinkof himself. He’s an extrovert, and he enjoys meeting new people and takingcharge. To dismiss everything he ever said to Saihara or even to othercharacters like Maki as some kind of “lie” or completely devoid of goodintentions is rash, in my opinion.

But it’s also true that whilehe did have good intentions, they weren’t always necessarily the best intentions. Like most people,Momota is flawed. It’s undeniably true that he was jealous of Saihara—the main reasonI pointed it out in my other post is because he himself admits to being jealousand insecure in the Chapter 5 post-trial! In wanting to be “The Protagonist™” sobadly, Momota couldn’t help but feel somewhat jealous towards someone likeSaihara who was clearly actually becoming someone who was leading the group,keeping them all alive, and changing and developing for the better.

It’s one thing to say “youshould believe in yourself,” “you should have more confidence in your opinions,”etc. It’s another thing entirely to still mean it even when you directlydisagree with or feel jealous of a person who you thought was relying on you,hesitant or weak in some way. Momota has such a huge falling out with Saiharain Chapter 4 because despite how much he and the entire rest of the group hadbeen sort of idealizing and relying far too much on Saihara’s SHSL Detectivetalent, he couldn’t handle it when Saihara’s detective reasoning led him to aconclusion that Momota didn’t like.

Saihara doubting others, havingto point the finger at Gonta as the culprit, and in his opinion, “siding withOuma” (even though honestly Saihara didn’t want to take either side in thatconflict), was all directly contrary to what Momota had thought would happenwhen Saihara started “believing in himself.” He very much wanted to do theshounen protagonist thing of saying things with no real basis to them, relyingon blind optimism, and reaching some scenario where no one doubts or suspectsone another. But that outcome is not only impractical in a killing game, butimpossible.

It’s directly contradictory towardseverything being a detective entails. Saihara’s job is to doubt and suspect others (something Kirigiri knew verywell even from the beginning of dr1, whereas Saihara is a detective who kind ofhas to come to terms with this fact along the way). He can only truly believein himself and excel in what he does when he’s doubting others first in orderto get to know them, and that’s something Momota didn’t want to admit to at allin realizing that this method of leading the group was actually more essential tokeeping them all alive than his own much more shounen protag methods.

Again, however, just becauseMomota was jealous it doesn’t discount the fact that he clearly liked Saihara,was his friend, and wanted the best for him. The time they spent trainingtogether and getting to know one another was genuine, as was the fact thatMomota kept trying to get him to improve himself because he knew there was realpotential in Saihara. He didn’t want him to remain weak or closed off frompeople forever; if Saihara was too scared to take the first step forward toimproving himself, then Momota was willing to be the person to take the firststep instead, and let Saihara follow in his footsteps.

By the end of the Chapter 5trial, Momota clearly recognized and admitted to his own mistakes. What he hadn’tliked was the idea of Saihara not needing to follow in his footsteps or dothings the same way he did or agree with everything he said—but he definitelyrealized that this was just his own jealousness and insecurity talking. In theend, he really, truly admired Saihara as a person and as a detective; watching Saiharareason out the truth behind everything involving his and Ouma’s Exisal catboxmurder was impressive from start to finish, and left him 100% confident thatSaihara could definitely reach the truth behind everything in the killing game.

Momota’s juxtaposition of beingsomewhat jealous and resentful of Saihara being this very relied-on figure inthe group while also definitely wanting to be his friend and help him outreminds me quite a lot of what often happens with “the best friend” figures inPersona games. Like Junpei from Persona 3, or Yosuke from Persona 4, there’svery much this slight conflict between Saihara and Momota which isn’t even aresult of either of them disliking each other, but rather born from a ratherbelievable and realistic sense of unfounded jealousy on Momota’s side.

It’s not Saihara’s fault that he’s a detective, or thatdoubting people and singling them out as the culprit and exposing the truth ispart of his job. It’s not his fault that this in particular is what he excelsat more than anything else. But still, Momota winds up being jealous of him,and that’s an interesting flaw in my opinion. Jealousy is not an emotion thatanyone wants to feel necessarily, noris it something we can control. And I like and appreciate the fact that it wassomething Momota owned up to and apologized for in the Chapter 5 post-trial,because he realized that he had been taking things out on Saihara unfairly allbecause he didn’t want to revise his opinion of the situation they’re all in.

Rather than thinking Momota was“looking down on Saihara” for the entire game up until Chapter 5, I think abetter way to put it would be to say that Momota perhaps underestimated him. Assomeone who so desperately wants to prove himself by taking charge and pavingthe way for everyone as “the big shounen protagonist,” he becomes defensive atthe idea that maybe that’s not quite the right way to do things, or even thatsomeone like Saihara, who seemed so weak and dependent on him at first, wasactually surpassing his ability to lead the group on some level.

It’s a believable, human flaw,in my opinion. We all sometimes think things that we’d rather not admit to, andsometimes we’re rude or unfair towards the people we care about. And as long asthese things are owned up to, as long as we apologize for them and try not todo them again, that means we do care about those people as our friends. Momotafeeling jealous and uncertain doesn’t mean he didn’t actually care aboutSaihara, and it shows particularly in their interactions in Chapter 5.

This is my take on it anyway,but I always took Momota’s jealousy to be something very much along the samelines as Junpei’s resentment of the Persona 3 protagonist, or Yosuke’s earlyjealousy in Persona 4. I hope this cleared up the questions you both had—thank youfor asking!

[bakaiju]

Survival at Mount Massive Asylum chapter 17

Return to the Administration Block (part 2)

This audio was more than twenty years old, an interview with Dr. Wernicke…

“Los Alamos… This means government works.” whispered Kirigiri loud enough for her partner to hear her.

“So maybe the government is really behind this, it does match those empty boxes we found earlier.” suggested Naegi.

“It does, but we don’t really know that it means government really is involved. We need more clues.”

“I think that what we need is to survive this and leave.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Also, all this interview seems border line between science and Nazi mysticism.”

“Yes… And there’s that sentence that sent a chill down my spine: ‘Only a test subject who had witnessed enough horror was capable of activating the engine’.” the brunette repeated.

“And also ‘The Engine’, the movie they’re projecting… and still projecting. It’s getting in my head… like a song you can’t stop humming. Does it do the same to you?” Kirigiri asked in a very serious voice.

“Y-yeah, actually it does!” Naegi stammered, then it dawned on him, “Y-You mean-?”

“We might be going insane without even knowing it.” she said, clearing all suspicions he had.

This is bad. This is really bad. They needed to get out of this place as soon as possible! The Variant said that the key was behind the light, so behind the projector. They looked away from the big screen and started searching for a way up. During their research, they walked through a room with lockers and inside one of them was a Variant that whispered to them that they had to find Wernicke. That it was the only way.

To what? They didn’t know.

They also found a confidential document. It was about a doctor quitting after finding Necrotizing Fasciitis around some patients, a flesh eating bacteria. At reading this, Kirigiri grimaced and said.

“I really hate this place.”

Then she said that Naegi didn’t want to know more about the bacteria. But she knew that once outside, his curiosity will make him look it up online and maybe make him puke. She’ll have to remind him to not look for that.

They found some stairs that could lead them to the projector room, so they took it. There was a locked door leading to the balcony and another one a bit farther away with ‘projector room’ written on it. They walked towards it, Naegi reached for the handle but the door suddenly was opened by a Variant who stared at them.

“Ah! Shit!” Naegi cursed as he jumped back, right before the patient closed back the door and locked it from the other side.

They had to look for another way in. So they turned around and started to retrace their steps but Kirigiri stopped them as she spotted in the dark a patient running away. And the door that lead to the balcony that was previously locked was now wide open. They walked through the door and noticed that the balcony leaded them right toward the projector’s room window.

Once in the projector room, the first thing they found was the key to ‘the House of God’, Naegi grabbed it and unlocked the door so they could go back downstairs and get out of the Theater. But when they approached the exit of the giant room, the door banged.

Kirigiri quickly dragged her fiancé to a dark corner as one of the twins broke down the door and started to look for the couple in the between the rows of chairs. Thankfully, as the room was very large, it was very easy to get around the Variant. They left the Theater and returned to the elevator and stairs. But the other Twin was there, guarding a gridded door and staring at the couple but he didn’t make a move; he was just standing there, staring.

“I’ll open the door. Warn me if he makes any move.” said Naegi before taking the key and started to unlock the stairs door.

Kirigiri stared back at the naked twin in a cold manner but the Variant wasn’t affected as he started to look at her up and down in a perverted way, licking his lips. The detective cringed in disgust at that and Naegi saw what was happening when he turned around.

“Alright, go first.” he said.

“With pleasure…” Kirigiri said back with a hint of disgust in her voice, wanting to stay far away from the creepy twin.

When she went up, the brunette pointed to the naked patient with his right then left index finger, as he remembered that he didn’t had a right index finger anymore, “Fuck off, asshole.” he threatened.

But the naked man just roared in laughter as Naegi closed the door behind him and joined his fiancée that was waiting for him with a smirk, she definitely heard that as she pecked his lips when he joined her.

They saw the elevator shaft being open so they hurried inside but it needed a key to work.

“Of course it needs a key…” Naegi sighed.

They left the elevator and walked through a kitchen then dining room, heading for the chapel that was obviously ‘the House of God’. They could have walked directly towards it, but as always, everything is locked so they have to do a detour. They walked in a room where they saw a patient praying in front of a static TV.

Naegi remembered something a patient whispered during their journey, about a Gospel of Sands.

“Is that… The Gospel? I think I heard once one of the patients whispering about a Gospel of Sand.” he quickly explained himself.

Kirigiri remembered Father Martin telling them to praise the Gospel before he knocked them out and brought them to the Prison Block.

Was that Gospel really just static? So Father Martin was really out of his mind and made everyone buy that bullshit of Gospel of Sand. Poor unfortunate souls....

Anyway, they must find a way to the Chapel. They looked around in the corridors and noticed that all rooms were open and in all of them were Variants on their knees and praying. Were they praying to God?... Or the Walrider?

They also found a note from Martin… A very worrying note:

‘I am an unworthy supplicant, who can serve our lord only by feeding our lord. Please take me, Walrider. Let my shepherd’s Apostles see it and spread it with their lies for a greater truth. Your time upon the world has come. My flesh longs for your beautiful wraith. My blood is filled with you and waiting to be set free. This is my prayer. Write your gospel in my flesh.’

“He’s going to kill himself.” the duo said.

They resumed their march to the chapel but the end of the hallway was blocked. They must find another way. In one of the room they saw that the window was open, and they could shimmy against the ledge to reach another room that hopefully would connect to the chapel.

Naegi went first, and very slowly as it was raining so it was slippery. He almost fell once and Kirigiri made sure to smack his head for almost giving her a heart attack.

They eventually made it and walked out of the room they’ve landed. On the floor of the corridors were a lot of candles, and on the walls different messages written in big bloody capital letters: ‘GOD HATES SICKNESS’, ‘GOD HATES MONEY’, ‘GOD ALWAYS PROVIDES A WAY’

And they reached it, but what a surprise it was for them to find the Twins guarding the doors. They were unarmed and staring at the couple. Then they opened the doors for the detectives to go inside the chapel. It was with a lot of hesitation that they entered the religious room, only to be locked inside as the naked Variants closed the doors behind them and stood behind it not to let them get away.

“Am I ready?” they heard someone say behind them.

“You are. You will join the Walrider in a moment.” they heard Father Martin answer the question.

The duo turned around to have a better look at the scenery inside the Chapel… on the altar was Father Martin in the middle of lots of wood planks… all around him were patients and Wariant on their knees praising him and praying… and most importantly: Martin was crucified on a giant cross. He looked at his ‘apostles’ and groaned in pain before talking.

“My Job… You two alone shall escape to tell them. This is your penultimate act of witness.” he said with a sickening smile, “The promise of the prophets was always freedom from death. And here it is!” he started to chuckle, “You will watch and record my death, my resurrection! And together, we will all be free… please raise your recording device.” he demanded Kirigiri to do so.

And she did.

“You are no longer in danger. I have fixed the elevator. It will take you to your freedom. We will all of us be free!” He groaned again then looked down to one of the patient that was holding a candle, “Now, my son.” he said.

The Variant nodded and approached him then with the candle, he lit a fire on the wood planks. And the flames spread at the speed of light as it quickly reached and engulfed Father Martin in the flames. He screamed in pain and terror for a good thirty seconds before falling limb and charred. Naegi and Kirigiri were flabbergasted as no one said a word. A Variant approached the couple and handed them the key to the elevator and wished them good luck.

They couldn’t believe Father Martin one-upped Jesus Christ himself in a shitty way to die… And they didn’t believe they will miss him. But if he wasn’t lying, they can finally get out! With a story to tell! He wanted them to spread his gospel… They will tell the whole fucking world!

To be continued…

In the next chapter of Survival at Mount Massive Asylum…

“Are they crying?”

“Oh I swear to-”

“Over there! Quickly!!”

“I’ll distract him!!”

“Goodbye, asshole!”

“We’re finally going to leave this place! Kyoko!”

[oumakokichi]

Sorry to bother you , i sent a message a few days ago but i think Tumblr or my Internet connection messed up and i wasn't sure you recieved it :( my question was : How well do you think Hajime and Naegi would have fared in ndrv3 if they were in Saihara place, in term of group dynamics and thematic shift (hope/despair->lie/Truth)? Since the others dr are so different from ndrv3, i Wonder how they would have handled it. I'm especially worried for Naegi since he can be very trusting. Sorry again!

You’re not a bother at all! I still have the original message in my inbox and it went through—I’m sorry for taking so long to answer! It’s just that my inbox is very full at this point, and between writing a lot and having to balance real-life stuff, and also still trying to go through every part of ndrv3 very carefully and translate things so I get all the facts, I get a little slow with responses sometimes. But I promise I intend to answer every question that comes my way!

As for this, this is a really interesting and fun question! It’s one thing to look at the ndrv3 characters and wonder how they would actually fare in a hope/despair setting against Junko, but it’s a very unique perspective to wonder about how our previous two protagonists would handle things if they were in Saihara’s shoes, moreso since ndrv3 even raises questions about what constitutes a protagonist.

As ndrv3 is particularly about moral grey areas and finding a middle ground between two extremes, I’m inclined to agree that Naegi would…probably not fare very well. It’s interesting, because while he’s definitely similar to Kaede in the sense of being willing to trust Kirigiri with his life the way Kaede could trust Saihara with hers in the school trial, Naegi lacks the aggressive cunning and willingness to lie that Kaede had. If Kaede is someone who couldn’t trust others until the very end despite wanting to very much, and despite making a big show of telling others to trust in each other, then Naegi is someone who trusts implicitly—too much. And that’s very, very dangerous in ndrv3.

I appreciate what dr3 tried to do (but ultimately…did a very bad job at) in calling Naegi out on this sort of blind, implicit trust, because it’s the same thing that those like Kaede and Momota wanted to do but couldn’t bring themselves to really embrace fully. Trusting people without first doubting or suspecting their motives is, to some degree, just a forfeit of thought. It’s a way of not really trying to get to know them at all, and it’s the reason bad things keep happening.

If too much doubt, suspicion, and paranoia is dangerous, then too much trust is at well, because it’s an unarguable fact that not everyone is going to be at their best in a situation as horrible as a killing game, and that people should therefore be doubted when they’re about to plan something that could get the entire group killed. To put it in Munakata terms, telling everyone to just hold hands and that no one would kill anyone and to trust everyone absolutely with no doubts is just a way of spouting platitudes. (Yes, I’m going to keep making platitudes jokes.)

This kind of thing can and would come back around to bite Naegi, probably. Moreso with how many intentional parallels there are of him with Jin Kirigiri in ndrv3, of all people. Even as a fictional character with no actual connection to the ndrv3 cast, Naegi is very intentionally set up to parallel a character whose ultimate downfall was in being too trusting. His rebuilt Hope’s Peak Academy in the ndrv3 cast’s fake memories mimics Jin Kirigiri’s in almost every way, right down to the cult leader of the Remnants of Despair having accidentally been allowed into the Gopher Plan the same way that Mukuro and Junko were allowed into the Hope’s Peak shelter plan.

Jin Kirigiri’s dislike for the ways in which doubt and suspicion were requirements of being a detective is precisely why he gave up the job and removed himself from the Kirigiri family—and it’s ultimately why he died. I can’t say I foresee Naegi avoiding the same outcome in this scenario, where refusing to doubt gets you killed just as much as refusing to trust does.

The only possible thing in Naegi’s favor though, and the only thing I could see maybe keeping him alive, is that precisely because he is such an embodiment of hope and optimism in the most literal sense of the word, and because he represents such a staple about what the original DR games are about, he might make it through to the end or at least almost the end out of the good graces of Tsumugi’s “mercy,” if you will. If Naegi is the exact thing that the audience wants out of their killing game broadcast, then that’s what they’re going to get, and Tsumugi will bend all rules and cheat like hell to give it to them.

With Naegi around, this begs the question of if Kiibo would still even be an intentional audience proxy or if he’d be given an entirely different personality while serving as cameraman. Kiibo’s “inner voice” that he can hear, which is actually the result of the audience voting and telling him what to do all at once, also bears extreme similarities to Naegi. It’s very clear that the audience wants a Naegi-like protagonist more than anything, because that itself is the whole point of having a hope vs. despair showdown, and if Junko appears in every single season, it would make sense that they’d want at least one character to “be the Naegi,” too. If the real Naegi were there, poor Kiibo would probably suffer quite a few demotions. Basically, Naegi might get to live out of sheer popularity with the audience.

Hinata…now that’s extremely interesting to wonder about. Hinata is extremely complex and well-written in his own right, and is my absolute favorite sdr2 character precisely because he was one of the first characters to succeed in fleshing out the hope vs. despair argument at all. His struggles with self-worth and value in a talent-based society are similar to Saihara’s and the ndrv3 characters’, but also different, and I feel like there’d be a lot of interesting results with having Hinata as the protagonist in this game.

As someone who “can’t remember his own talent,” Hinata as the ndrv3 protagonist would be exceptionally interesting because this time around, the likelihood is that they all are actually completely normal people who never had any talents in the first place. This is still just a theory of course, but if the killing game is some kind of way to dangle talent on a stick and play with the lives of talentless “losers” in a society in which SHSL talents are on the top and people without any are at the very bottom rungs, then Hinata would actually be the best to represent the toll that that sort of sick game takes on normal people.

No one better represents the idea of an individual who has had their self-worth trampled on so much and come to value themselves so little than Hinata, because Kamukura was the ultimate embodiment of what I feel ndrv3 does on a lighter scale. In trying to give Kamukura every single talent imaginable, and making him SHSL Hope, it was a way of saying that normal people, the Hinatas of the world, are extremely worthless. And that’s quite literally what the prologue seems to imply society is like for the ndrv3 characters.

As someone who is ordinary, and who has always been at much more of a middle ground between hope and despair because he was constantly torn between both, Hinata would be much less naïve and blindly trusting than Naegi. Like Saihara, I think he would recognize the need to doubt others in the situation, even if he wasn’t doing so as a detective. And I think his potential for surpassing “the role he was given” and taking charge even when he hardly seemed like the type to do so would interest the other characters, and the audience as well.

The only pitfall Hinata might fall into is with Tsumugi’s remember light in Chapter 5, the one that she used to fool the entire group into thinking they were actually students of Hope’s Peak Academy even though they weren’t, and even though the DR universe is entirely fictional in ndrv3. If Hinata fell for that particular bait hook, line, and sinker, and if he even “remembered” that he was supposed to be SHSL Hope without quite remembering the full extent of the Kamukura Project, he would fall into the hope vs. despair trap very easily at that point even after avoiding it thus far.

And if there were still the big reveal later on about how all their talents are “lies,” and how DR as a whole is a fictional franchise and they never attended Hope’s Peak, the impact this would have on Hinata would probably be far more crushing than on someone like Saihara, who was interested in the pursuit of the truth as a detective, or even than it would on Naegi, who really didn’t think of himself as doing anything particularly special to get into Hope’s Peak in the first place, since he just won a raffle. To someone like Hinata, Hope’s Peak was everyone, and the idea that he was ordinary and miserable and talentless would be absolutely horrifying, precisely because of the way in which SHSLs are this grand unattainable thing that make normal people seem pathetic by comparison.

In sdr2, Nanami remained as a presence of support in order to remind Hinata that he had value as his own person when this reveal happened. But as ndrv3 has a cast that really does lack that fundamental leader figure who trusts in everyone no matter what, it’s hard to tell if there would be anyone around who could actually help Hinata see himself as his own person or someone worthy of respect, or get him to go back into protagonist mode. Tsumugi might very well have a perfect game over by the end, although the audience might not like it too much since it would be one in which “despair” would win.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the matter, but it’s really fun to consider! I wouldn’t mind actually seeing this kind of thing in a fanfiction of sorts; it’d be really interesting! I hope I answered it well, and again, I’m sorry for taking so long! I promise I’m never ignoring the messages I get, it just takes me some time to get around to them!

[oumakokichi]

Could you explain Shiroganes character and her role in the plot? And the meta aspects of her being a fan in regards to Danganronpa?

Of course! I’ve talked a little bit on Tsumugi here, andwhat I think personally it means that so much emphasis was given to the factthat was plain and unassuming and generally flew under everyone’s radar for thefirst few parts of the game.

I still personally am just relieved that we finally, finallyhad a mastermind who wasn’t Junko. Or Tengan, for that matter. People’sopinions on Tsumugi as a mastermind have been very polarized, but I’m of theopinion that nothing could ever be worse than the Tengan twist, and the fact thatthere was actual foreshadowing and that Tsumugi was very clearly a lovingreference to Junko but also a subversion all the way through made me like herinfinitely more than I could ever like Tengan.

Junko has worked well as an antagonist for years now, she’smemorable and she’s incredibly smart and she’s terrifying to boot, but I thinkit’s been time for a while now to at least set her on the back burner for awhile and let someone else take the stage for a change. And that’s exactly whatthey did with Tsumugi and not only did she take the stage, but she also did soin such a way that she was clearly a subversion of everything that being Junkoentailed.

Tsumugi is certainly smart and ambitious, but that’s aboutwhere the similarities end. Where Junko was essentially infallible and no onein the entire world except Naegi and his SHSL Hope could ever throw any sort ofwrench into her plans or cause things to happen that she couldn’t foresee,Tsumugi messes up, a lot. Her plainand unassuming nature allows her to fly under most people’s radars, and hercosplaying talents and attention to detail mean she can carry on a fairly goodact, but the fact that she gets ignored so often and barely registers as anyoneworth talking to for most people is precisely what leaves her so hungry for atwist and a variation from the daily grind and routine of “normal, everydaylife.”

And where Junko could or might lie depending on thesituation and the rules of her game, she was very usually trusted implicitly tobe word of god, because the universe was essentially hers, and as it was all her despair movement, her plans, and herforesight that led to everything, she pretty much had to be taken at her wordabout everything. By contrast, Tsumugi is a knowing figurehead set up to be themastermind from before—she’s hardly  aneffective puppetmaster, and she knows it, but she’s so emphatic about wantingto see a progression of events that she sort of takes the reins and getscarried away in the grand scheme of things regardless.

I’m pretty pleased with her ability to carry on an act, too.Junko was always implied to be this fantastic actress who could fool anyone andanything and managed to get the whole school to overlook the fact that she wasSHSL Despair before unleashing chaos on everything and killing everyone, but it’slike…we’ve never actually seen much of Junko’s super incredible acting skills.She switches moods and behaviors erratically, to be sure, but pretty mucheverything she ever does is so undeniably tinged with this aura of pure evil that I’m still just mindboggled at how those like Munakata or Jin Kirigiri looked at her, were like, “Yes,she’s pretty much literally the onlyguess we have at who could be behind everything, and we totally absolutelythink she’s SHSL Despair,” and then just…shrugged and let her do as she pleasedanyway.

At least with Munakata there’s the somewhat moreunderstandable aspect of both Chisa and Juzo having told him directly that Junkohad nothing to do with it (although if you have literally only one lead and youstop pursuing it just because other people tell you it doesn’t seem right andthey don’t even have any evidence, I don’t think it’s wise to, you know, just give up). With Jin Kirigiri, there’sliterally no reason for him to have allowed two girls whom he openly suspectedof being SHSL Despair inside the shelter program, and yet he did it anyway, andI still rub my temples over that fact to this day.

Junko was supposed to be an incredible actress, but as amastermind she mostly operates from the shadows. Mukuro was the actress in herstead, and not a very good one at that (she so frequently gets out of characterin her FTEs and in moments of surprise or agitation). So ultimately, we’llnever really know exactly what kind of charade she put on around the dr1characters while fooling them all into believing that she was their friend,because we’ve never actually been shown how she acted whenever she was activelytoning down the whole “incredibly evil, destroyer of the universe” vibes.

Tsumugi is, I think, the kind of mastermind many DR fanshave been asking for when saying they wanted a mastermind who isn’t Junko, orwhen trying to conceive of mastermind AUs for other characters in otherscenarios. It’s just that the fact that her being a DR fan is so intrinsicallylinked to her SHSL talent and her motivations that people are having aninstinctive negative reaction to it.

But I personally really, honestly appreciate that Tsumugi asa mastermind was there from start to finish, and that she was foreshadowedwithout completely coming out of left field, and that she pretended almostuntil the very end to care about the other characters around her and did aconvincing enough job to where she nearly wasn’t found out at all.

Her being a fan of the series has many meta implications, ofcourse, but I don’t think it’s meant to be quite the attack on fans that peopleare taking it as. I’ve been part of many fandoms for many, many series now forsome time, and I’ve seen a variety of responses to fan criticism and faninvolvement, both positive and negative. And having seen extremely negativeresponses with completely unjustifiable, irredeemable plots (Harry Potter andthe Cursed Child, to list what I think is a perfect example), ndrv3’s endingstrikes me as considerably tamer. Iwould even say that it felt more to me like Kodaka was trying to make a pointof poking fun at both himself and the fanbase, as well as make a few validcriticisms from a more meta perspective.

Tsumugi is not supposed to be what I would call a stand-in orrepresentative for the collective DR fandom. After all, the fandom is huge.There are many, many different people within the fanbase, both from Japan andfrom the west, and there are many people with differing opinions, takes on theseries, favorite characters, etc.

Rather than representing all of the fanbase and condemningeveryone for liking the series or “thinking deaths and murders are fun,” I feelTsumugi is meant as a cautionary warning about the dangers of throwing oneselfinto fiction so far that the lines between it and reality become blurry—as is aconstant theme with much of ndrv3. Tsumugi and the presumed audience of ndrv3 aren’t“normal” fans or the typical portrayal of a fanbase. They’re a fanbase who hasbecome so immersed in the desire for “excitement” or “variation from the norm”that they have completely thrown themselves into anything that promises todistract from their daily lives, and begun to like something passionatelywithout thinking critically about it.

I don’t think the implication of this was that anyone wholikes a series or franchise ever for the sake of just liking it casually is “bad”or “evil.” Rather, I feel the overall theme is more about how critical thinkingis still necessary even within the interests and the hobbies we take, becauseotherwise these things spiral out of control and snowball in such a way thatpeople no longer keep in mind the ways in which fiction can, in fact, alterreality itself, because fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

The fans aren’t even the true enemy in ndrv3. Tsumugi is afan of the series, yes, but so were the other characters of the cast accordingto her own testimony. And despite Tsumugi’s claims, it’s clear that by Saiharaand the rest of the survivors’ own accounts, none of them truly “wanted” or “askedfor” the suffering that happened to them. If anything, the true antagonist ofndrv3 is “Team Danganronpa” themselves—and if that’s not Kodaka trying to pokeimmense fun at himself and tease at the way that authors do, in fact, makethese decisions to do horrible things to the characters or write a story fullof suffering, I don’t know what is. And the characters set out at the end toput a stop to Team Danganronpa andthe ways in which they keep trying to rehash the same old story with the sameold twists and the same inherent need to make the characters within thosestories suffer.

In the end, I can see why people don’t like the endingthemselves or are conflicted on how to feel about it! It’s a story that took alot of risks and, for better or worse, it took a stance on the ways in whichfiction can impact the world around us. Personally, I think if dr1 or sdr2 werecoming out for the first time right now, people might find just as much faultwith the sort of undertones of “but maybe girls who wear fashion and make-upare just lying to us all” or “maybe technology is inherently evil and can beused for brainwashing and maybe will replace our entire personalities and makeus into mindless drones” that could be read into those games.

Again though, if people don’t like the ending that’sentirely fine! Liking or not liking something is always a personal choice.These are just my personal thoughts and opinions and a little bit on how I readTsumugi in the ending, and it’s perfectly okay with me if people don’t agree!