#gonta lovers please don't find this (but if you adore angst then maybe do)

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Kokichi ??? Protag + Kaito Supreme Leader Talentswap

So we have a pretty clear lead going on in the poll right now. I'd be surprised if another choice manages to surpass this one, but if one does I'll get to that one next!

I'll start by covering my notes for the overall explanation, Ch. 1, and Ch. 2 of this concept; I thought I'd be able to do it all in one go but it's getting really long (both in word length, and in the amount of time I've spent putting this together!)

Let's get into it!

Preamble:

So Kaito has pretty insane influence over the whole DRV3 group (except Kokichi). I mean, after viewing the Chapter 3 Flashback Light, all it takes is for Kaito to say he doubts it for everyone else in the group to disbelieve it as well (...except Kokichi, because of course he doesn't care what Kaito thinks). Same with Kaito swaying everyone to use the first Flashback Light in Chapter 2. All in all... he's honestly pretty terrifying to me. And that's when he's supposed to be your ally! So with this in mind, I started thinking of a talentswap where Kaito takes on an antagonistic role as the Ultimate Supreme Leader!

In other words, the core concept behind this talentswap is: Kaito as Supreme Leader. Spoiler alert: he's terrifying

Now at the start of brainstorming this story concept, I actually did mention how "we can't ever have Kokichi as a protagonist. That just doesn't work, he's not protagonist material. It's the kinda lame thing Kokichi fans who like him too much do" and well guess what I am now

Jokes aside, this is probably the one concept where I could see a Kokichi protag working, since we'd need someone capable of standing up against Kaito to be our protagonist. The next best candidate is Kaede, I'd say, but she's had her chances (I came up with the Kaede Assassin protag talentswap before this one, too). Plus, Kokichi's talent (or rather, lack of known talent) makes him particularly vulnerable and forces him to rely more on others than he'd do otherwise, allowing him to be more protagonist-like, so to speak.

And before we get into things... I, completely on accident, set up this talentswap to be very self-indulgent. By that I mean I came up with this talentswap with my sibling Sebec and I started assigning talents and roles excitedly until Sebec pointed out "hey. Doesn't this basically set up your favourite ship?" and the realization led me to scream in agony for 30 minutes

So, without further ado...

Concept: Prologue + Ch. 1

Obviously we have the usual: wake up in a locker, meet everyone, oh my god killing game

Where things really begin to diverge is when Kaede starts trying to take charge.

In canon, during his free time events with Kaede, Kaito actually mentions that he would've started leading the group himself if Kaede hadn't beaten him to it. While she's alive, he's nice enough to not obstruct Kaede's efforts at least (although his peers bash him the whole time for seeming lazy for it)

In this talentswap, Kaito is not nearly as nice. Evidently, an Ultimate Supreme Leader with his personality wouldn't want to be shown up by any of his peers. So from here, we have a split in the group as they become divided into two; like a more extreme, exciting, and prolonged version of canon's Chapter 3.

Our two teams are as follows:

Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Supreme Leader

Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Detective

Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Cosplayer?

Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Tennis Pro

Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate (Makeup) Artist

Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Magician

Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Anthropologist

Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Entomologist

Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Aikido Master

Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Prisoner

and...

Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Adventurer

Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate ???

Keebo, the Ultimate Inventor (still a robot, as I tend to do with my talentswaps)

Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Survivor

Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate Child Caregiver

Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Maid

Turf wars!! Woohoo!!! So obviously, with Chapter 1 comes the First Blood Perk. And Kaito Momota does not like the First Blood Perk. Kaito Momota wants an exciting killing game, with an exciting class trial. Thus, he decided to cause problems on purpose.

That's right! Kaito Momota engineered the first case by targeting the Ultimate Prisoner, Gonta Gokuhara. But he can't just kill Gonta because then he'd miss the rest of the killing game! Here's where the content warning comes in; do be careful reading the next two passages (please).

Unfortunately, Mister Gokuhara is very unaware of his own strength. As in, he is prone to manslaughter level unaware. He was raised by prison family! Sometimes they went away, but they always came back... (kill me)

Kaito, being a benevolent Supreme Leader who spreads the truth, took it upon himself to inform Gonta that he was a danger to society. And with this knowledge, Gonta took his life into his own hands; thus bypassing the First Blood Perk.

(I think??? this is dark humour??? god I feel like a sadist right now)

In the first class trial, Kaito insinuates that the culprit must be someone who wants the whole group dead, hence they didn't take the First Blood Perk. This leads Maki to point the direction of doubt towards Tenko, the Ultimate Survivor. Unlike canon's Rantaro, Survivor Tenko had full knowledge of what being the Ultimate Survivor meant. Alongside that, she shared that knowledge with the group. Maki reasons that the Ultimate Survivor doesn't just want to escape the killing game; rather, they play the game to win.

So from there Kokichi and co. have to fight back and reveal the truth, etc. Though I don't have details brainstormed for this segment, I would like to throw in that Kokichi's class trial gameplay would feature a lie detection mechanic; ironically, this would replace V3's gameplay element of lying, meaning Kokichi doesn't end up lying in class trials. Fun, huh?

I envisioned that you'd be prompted to pick out a statement as a lie out of a section of the trial's transcript, so to speak, but could pick many of the statements with only one being correct. Other statements would send you down winding branching paths, with some leading back to the correct path after detecting enough lies, and some being dead ends which might give a clue to the right answer. Kind of like extreme versions of the back routes.

On to Chapter 2!

After the first class trial, Kokichi heads out for a walk in the courtyard at night, as he is wont to do. For some reason he's really restless at night. Never really feels like sleeping.

Now, what Kokichi doesn't know is that someone's watching him!! That someone is on the second floor of the academy, and they are an excellent sniper. This would be the Ultimate Assassin, Shuichi Saihara, who used his skill in disguise to claim the title of Ultimate Cosplayer. Mister Saihara has been put up to eliminating Kokichi by none other than Kaito Momota. Our assassin friend figures he can just put a few bullets through Kokichi and call it a day.

So he shoots him once.

Kokichi seems rather resilient, though, and isn't knocked down.

So Shuichi shoots him again. And again. He shoots Kokichi through the head. He has to be dead now, he's even fallen onto the ground.

So Shuichi stops shooting and leaves to retrieve Kokichi's body, hoping he can hide it to avoid a class trial.

...Kokichi is not dead.

Mostly because he was never alive to begin with.

When Shuichi stops shooting him, Kokichi drags himself to the dorms and knocks on the Ultimate Inventor, Keebo's, door.

And y'know what Keebo says to him?

"... Y-you... are not human."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed."

Kokichi Oma is actually the Ultimate Robot, so realistic that he could pass for human. And Keebo finds that not only has he sustained heavy damage from being shot a couple dozen times, he is also low on battery. It's a good thing he figured out he was a robot before he ran out of power.

Apparently that's the most notable event of Chapter 2. I wrote in my notes that Rantaro was killed, but I didn't specify by whom; just know that it's someone on Kaito's side.