#oh we missed so many events in their and kaedes lives

[abluescarfonwaston]

Wait. Kotetsu and Barnaby were partners for four years. That makes Karina like. 20. She's probably already had to struggle though explaining to her friends why she wasn't studying for her college entrance exams. Pao-Lin is 16. She's about to hit her growth spurt. (And perhaps be disappointed when she's still left as the shortest after Lara. Who pops up like a weed a few months later.)

How. I feel like i missed so much. Did they go to Karina's graduation? Did Pao-Lin have an awful acne outbreak that Nathan helped her deal with? Did they gussy up Lara for her first homecoming dance with Pao-Lin in a suit only to be called into work at the last minute? Look at each other and laugh cause at least they don't have to explain why they can't stay?

[impish-crow]

[Translation] XOXO - RUBIA Leopard Fanclub App. SS (Short Story) #7

Morning comes early for Higurashi Mikado, CEO of Higurashi Group.

He always wake up at 5 o'clock. The location is New York City.

Lightly adjust his posture, change into the prepared sportswear, and go out. He sometimes use the swimming pool for apartment residents, but what he like these days is running in Central Park.

Depending on the season, it is still gloomy, and it runs leisurely in the quiet, chilly air. After a while, the body that has just started to wake up is warm and sweat slowly seeps out, and this feeling is pleasant for him. Coming from running-only bone conduction earphones is a lively rock played by RUBA Leopard, a rock band that is gaining explosive popularity.

 As he enjoy the morning atmosphere like that, he get a phone call while pushing the song away.

“Good morning, Kaede.”

“Mikado, where are you?”

 It was Higurashi Kaede—his younger brother, two years younger. He is also a member of Higurashi Group and is drawing attention as the right arm of his brother, the CEO.

 “I'm passing by a big elm tree. Do you also want to run with me? It feels good”

“The weather is certainly nice, but not today.”

“You can even see cute squirrels”

“I'll take a walk later. More importantly, here is today's schedule.”

 While he is running, Kaede tell their daily schedule to put a plan for the day in ahead.

 “It's pretty packed today.”

“The reception Dad canceled came this way”

“Oh….I remember that.”

“Do I have to make adjustments?”

“No, it’s fine. Instead, at the end of next month.… On that day, please let my schedule free.”

“That's of course. I too would like to take a vacation on that day.”

 The "that day" they are referring to is an event in Japan next month. Apparently, RUBIA Leopard is scheduled to perform. And Akane, RUBIA Leopard’s vocalist, is the third son of the Higurashi family. He is their younger brother.

 “That's great, by the way. Even if you don't go to the venue, we can still watching live or events online.”

“Yes, it is. It can't compare to the sound and atmosphere on site, but it's much better than missing an important event.”

“It takes so long to get there and back, I don't know how many times I've given up and cried… It's a good time, isn't it?”

“Dad told me the same story and is now taking care of the sound system in our house.”

“What, is it that way? I'm sure he's taking this opportunity to buy an Internet broadcasting company”

“He did say that he decided to capitalize on one of the affiliated companies. He didn't want to do that because Akane would notice and get angry if he went as far as acquiring the company.”

“Yes, that's right. By the way, you’re as quick as ever.”

“Mikado too,  don’t buy any stock anywhere without telling me.”

“Why? It doesn't matter what I do with my money.”

“That’s not it, I also want to join in.”

“So, that's what you mean? Okay, I promise I won't do that alone.”

 The two older brothers who live far away——No, the Higurashi family is doing a big business around the world, supporting the youngest more than anyone else.

 **********************

 “What does this mean?”

Tobikura asked in a half-tired voice, looking alternately at Iwahara, who leaned his back weakly against the office chair, and a video with narration played on the PC.

“Just now, Higurashi-san, the CEO of the group, sent it himself. Ask for permission to use Rubire's song or something. I think he's working on a documentary.”

“That's great…By the way, why directly to Iwahara-san?”

“I don't know. Well, it's a big welcome to have more exposure than music”

While grumbling, the phone rings, and seeing the name on the screen makes the chatter chill. Iwahara got up saying ‘sorry’ to Tobikura, and ran to the next meeting room to answer the phone.

 “Hey, manager-kun.”

“It’s been a while, Higurashi-san”

“I'll get right to the point. Have you seen the video I sent you?”

 Indeed, the current CEO of the Higurashi Group that has an impact on the world. Putting aside whether the CEO himself needs to use his own hands, the process is too fast.

 “I just watched it.”

“It’s pretty good, isn't it? I bet Akane will shed tears of joy when this is broadcasted.”

 It sure looks like it will tremble when you look at the screen. However, in a different sense from emotion.

 “Um… I'm very sorry to tell you this, but I'm a little concerned about some of the content.”

“Okay, tell me.”

“That…., if you could tell the broadcast production company to contact our contact person….”

“You and I are good in term, aren't we? You don't have to hesitate. Just say it.”

 Iwahara held back, just before he was about to say, ‘What kind of a relationship are you two having?’

 “I just wanted you to stop talking about next month's event..”

“Why? It's a national broadcast. It would be good publicity if we could show a scene or two.”

“You are right, but I am sorry. Due to various circumstances related to the promotion, we are unable to make a decision on this matter solely on our own…”

 It's a vague excuse to him, but Iwahara is afraid Mikado will do something else great if he elaborate, so he is going to be vague.

'More importantly, how do you know about the event?'

There is only one event scheduled to air online at the end of next month. But he has only been confirmed to perform internally, and Iwahara hasn't told the band members the details yet, not to mention any external promotions.

 “Hmm…… I see. If that's the case, I'm sorry, but I'll change the scene.”

“I'm really sorry..”

“No. If it gets in the way of business, it's the end of the line. So, here's the main point.”

 Iwahara once again had to endure the line, Wasn't that the main point of the conversation?

 “What is it?”

“How is my brother doing?”

“….It seems to me that he's working quite energetically."

“Oh.. is that so?”

"If you're concerned about that… why don't you ask him directly?”

“I have a lot of desire to do so. I'm not sure if it's because I'm embarrassed that he only don’t care about me or because he doesn't seem to be able to be honest with me. I guess you could call it a late rebellion.”

“Huh?”

“It is said that ignorance is good news, but yes, I am the type of person who accumulates things unexpectedly. Manager-kun, I hope you are taking care of this.”

“I understood.”

 ‘I see, so this is the main point.’

Iwahara can't help but smile at the mouth. He is glad this is not a videocall.

 "That's right, Manager-kun. Did you hear anything from Kurono?”

"From Kurono? No, not really”

"I see. Then, it's not for me to say that."

"? What is it?"

"No, it's nothing serious, so please relax. When he tell you something, I hope you support him as much as you can."

"Of course"

"Thank you. He's like family"

 With that, after a light greeting, Mikado hung up.

“To think that he called me with an excuse, well, I'm glad he did.”

His love is a large scale, but he is genuine in his concern for his brother.

'It's been a while since I've had that guy over for dinner.”

Chuckling at the CEO's huge impact and at himself for being sensitized by calling him for just a few minutes, Iwahara searched the phone book to call his own brother.

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

.

Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

.

Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

.

Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

.

Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

.

UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

.

Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

.

Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

.

No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

[flyswhumpcenter]

Per Lacrimas Splendemus [Whumptober Day 14: Tear-Stained]

We Shine Through the Tears

Summary: Four partners are linked by the most meaningful tears they've ever been soaked in on a fateful day. 

Fandom: Danganronpa V3 (non-despair AU) Ship: Established/married Kaede/Maki/Kaito/Shuichi

Wordcount: 1.741 words

Content Warnings: Non-descriptive childbirth, mentions of death in childbirth (ain’t happening tho, don’t worry). Of course the characters are all adults here, we ain’t having teen pregnancy here

Notes: Yep. Went with the OT4 again. It's too much flavor and I can't stop. Also, this oneshot deals with childbirth. If it makes you uncomfortable, this is not the place for you, even if I'm describing anything in details or in any graphic manner inside this story. This is a warning advising for reader discretion.

The prompt left me a little confused, not going to lie. It's very descriptive, picturesque almost, and writing an entire work about it didn't seem like the most obvious thing. Still, my muse finally came through and unlocked me out of this place with this very specific idea of an OT4 oneshot. Oh well, I love them, I need to provide more content for them, and it was fun to experiment with different things to soak in this very specific context. I hope you guys will like it as much as I liked writing it. To my surprise, this didn't make me feel dysphoric, at least not for the most part. I suppose I'm entirely fine with it if it's not involving guys. 

Event hosted by @whumptober2019

AO3 version available here.

-------------

Maki’s hands were stained with tears coming from someone else’s eyes. Water dropped from her fingers and palms, trailing on her wrists and forearms. She’d have usually minded the ugly sight, disgusted by such a display of weakness; but these were different. They carried with them the strength of what a dear person was going through, an experience she’d have wished on nobody she had ever cared about, a trial of a lifetime that had taken away some loved ones before.

Evaluating the risks and witnessing first-hand her wife crying out loud was heart-wrenching, even for a soul such as hers which had gone through terrible ordeals such as abandonment before. Now that she had found her family, she was faced with the possibility of losing a major part of it while bringing another to the world. Perhaps she should have endured it herself: she’d have been able to carry it on her shoulders too. She should have shouldered it.

Alas, it was much too late for regrets; and so, instead, she let her sleeves and hands be stained by tears that weren’t hers, whose meaning gave her worry and admiration all the same, and she missed the warmth of her partner’s smile. The sky was clouded, that day, hiding the sun away from the earth: this much, she was sure of, even if she was the night herself. The moon couldn’t live without the sun, couldn’t shine without its light, after all.

They were three moons whose sun was going through the hardest time in her life, for the sake of all of them at once, powering through an ordeal that had stolen the lives of many before her. This much she could only respect and wish it was in her capacity to truly help out. Instead, all she did was whisper words of support that felt too clumsy on her lips and give both of hands out, one for support and one to dry a cherished one’s cheeks. She put her faith and trust into her wife’s hands and bore on her shoulders a measly part of her burden.

 ____________________________________________________

 Kaito’s shirt was stained with someone else’s tears. He didn’t mind, quite the opposite: it was a sign that he was helping out, that he had been useful at least at some point. Staying here, helpless and useless, was nothing short of nerve-wracking: there must have been something he could to more than that, right? Much more than lending a hand as support and having something to stain, that was: this he had already done and was still gladly giving; yet left him unsatisfied and far, far away from peace of mind.

The stains were drying, then renewed, and the cloth continued sticking to his skin. The existence of those bothered him immensely for a reason that really wasn’t about the shirt itself: it was the tears, their reality, that annoyed him. It was unfair of life to have reserved this for someone as courageous as his wife: bringing someone to the world shouldn’t have been this painful for anyone to go through, shouldn’t have been a danger that had left all of them nervous.

He was certain she’d pull out of it, of course. She was doing superbly already, doing everything she was told to with perfection and no trouble, but the issue still remained: she was getting put through the worst aspect of a miracle he had been looking forward too for months on hand, excited like a child yet ready to finally feel like an adult with the closest people to his heart. If he could have shared the pain with her, he’d have without any hesitation; but it wasn’t not possible, at least not yet, and that was the current limit they had to stop in front of with all the disappointment and frustration in their spirits.

The most he could do was to let her borrow his hand, even if it’d mean for her to break it, and give her his shirt to dry her eyes into like a tissue that lasted for far longer. It was the least he could do in his mind, but the most in practical terms, and the dichotomy was pissing him off: it should have been a happy time, in his mind. Nature was fucked up, sometimes, and this was an instance of it, much to his dismay and everyone’s around him.

 _______________________________________________________

 Shuichi’s forearms were stained with tears that weren’t his, patches of darkened blue spreading to the white shirt he had under them, sweater rolled to his elbows and hands covered in water. The discomfort brought by the soaked fabric was nothing to mind, he thought as he looked at the growing puddles on his clothing, then remembered why they were here and why there was no reason, no excuse to complain. It wasn’t about him and the petty discomforts brought onto him on this very special day, it was about his wife going through a hardship he couldn’t even imagine experiencing for himself.

It was just water anyway, for him at least. Water whose meaning was so much more important and impactful than just feeling discomfort. He wished from the deepest of his heart that he could have been doing something more, something meaningful about the situation; but he remained there, frozen, unable to provide any true help to the situation. Things were this way and it was infuriating to realize that as acutely as he was right at that moment; yet it wasn’t like he, or anyone in this room, could change the order of the world, no matter how much they wanted it.

This was supposed to be the best day of their lives, the day where they’d add someone new to their little household and brighten their daily routines with. He had felt a mix of anxiety, fear of the unknown, excitement and impatience until the fateful day, the one he was currently sitting through with a washcloth in his hand and a bucket of water at his feet. He’d occasionally dab a little water on his wife’s face to whip it from the sweat, sometimes allowing himself a peck on the top of her head. Knowing this was all he could do frustrated him to no end.

He had to put his faith in his wife’s hands, instead. They could all trust her, she was strong and powerful, having borne all of this until this point. She was doing great, he knew it, he was more than certain she’d succeed. Still, for the time being, the situation was wracking his nerves and made his spirit ache in anticipation: would it be alright? What if something was to go horribly wrong? Then, what would they do? Would they even be able to do anything about it?

Nothing was truly certain, if he thought about it too hard; so he stopped overthinking things and went back to actively supporting a loved one.

 __________________________________________________________

 Kaede’s face was stained with her own tears. The pain was too much for her not to let a tear out, eyes watering like a fountain and without her consent to it, leading her to resembling a sobbing, soggy mess. She knew it’d get ugly really quickly, was prepared to look her worst on a day that should have been nothing but sunshine and rainbows. She hadn’t made herself delusional into thinking this’d have been any better than pure pain and a bloody mess: she had been right to remain weary, even if it didn’t exactly make the ordeal any smoother to sail through.

It was like getting torn apart from the inside by a force not to reckon with, a faceoff she was neck-deep into, hair soaked in sweat and body heat rising to high degrees she had only experienced as fevers before. This was the end, the grand finale, the climax of the opera and she could only scream for it. Her voice sounded broken, vocal cords damaged from the amount of yelling she had done until now. There was no soothing music playing inside her mind, only a cacophonic piano disaster going on an eternal crescendo.

She played the partition blindly, unable to say what notes would come next, listening to the conductor’s orders. She alternated whites and blacks, rests and plays, trying to immerse herself in a melody she didn’t understand, a tune she didn’t like. Her fingers were clutching her partners’, thoughts going through her mind about how she didn’t want to hurt them, yet the primal instincts roared supreme over her: she kept crushing them under her touch. Neither of them told her they minded, only telling the opposite, despite the pain she was surely inflecting on them.

Nonetheless, she was determined to pull through the suffer and the tears blinding her vision. She could barely see anything unless Maki’s fingers or Kaito’s shirt came to absorb the water, each time trying to thank them with a smile, even with the pain pulsing through her body. She always tried to give Shuichi a nice word for cooling her burning skin, usually without success, but she was thankful, truly much so; and it was a shame she couldn’t really express how grateful she was at that moment.

That was one of her main motivations for leading this ordeal to a good outcome: her partners, their love, and the one they were about to bring to the new members of the household. They were trusting her, entirely, remaining by her side despite the smell of blood, sweat and tears and despite the discomfort of sitting on a chair or standing by a bed for a long period of time. She had been gifted by three amazing persons and a lucky life, she could only show they were right to trust her, right?

And so she continued playing for the concert of her life, fingers firmly pressing the piano keys laid before her.

 ________________________________________________________

 Their prides and joys, peacefully resting on Kaede’s chest, was leading every single one of them to shed a tear, a sigh of relief escaping most of their mouths. It was all over and, now, they were looking at the fruits of an excruciating labour.

“Was worth it,” she eventually commented, exhausted, “if you ask me…”

“Absolutely worth it,” Kaito confirmed, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve, speak for the three of them, Shuichi and Maki nodding along.

Worth the tears indeed, they all thought in silence.

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shuichi: “Ah, true, but…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maki:  “…I knew you would come here.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shuichi:  “Could you do that right now?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Motherkuma:  “…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Survivor Perk Monopad:  —Rantaro Amami

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

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

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

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

[Maki runs off]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shuichi:  “…Let’s use the Exisal.”

Keebo:  “What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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[Next post]

[sarah-writes-stories]

Chapter 14: Living Legend

A Post-Canon Inuyasha Romance/Adventure Epic

Find it on: Fanfiction.net / AO3 / Wattpad

Words: 2,254

Prologue  •  Chapter 1  •  Chapter 2  •  Chapter 3  •  Chapter 4  •  Chapter 5  •  Chapter 6  •  Chapter 7  •  Chapter 8  •  Chapter 9  •  Chapter 10  •  Chapter 11  •  Chapter 12  •  Chapter 13  •  Chapter 14

⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯

Kagome and Inuyasha stayed with Miroku and Sango's till after lunch. But eventually, Kagome remembered that Kaede had wanted to speak with her and had asked her to return.

"I think it's time we should be heading back to Kaede's," she said aloud to the room.

"So soon?" Sango didn't try to hide the disappointment from her voice.

"Yeah, Kaede wanted to talk to me about something and asked me to come back."

"Ah, okay, well, will we see you tomorrow?" Sango asked hopefully.

Miroku smiled at his wife. It had been hard for her to be without her closest friend all these years. If for no other reason than the happiness that Sango felt at having Kagome returned to her, Miroku wanted to celebrate the young Miko's return.

"Of course, Sango!" Kagome moved to give Sango a swift hug and a reassuring smile before she and Inuyasha waved at the rest of the family, calling out some quick goodbyes before heading out the door and back into the street.

But the walk back to Kaede's was nothing like their earlier walk had been. Now it was the middle of the day and life in the village was in full swing. Men and women came and went along the dirt road, as children ran and played in front of the homes that they passed.

And here and there, Kagome could also see small groups of men and women huddled together, speaking in hushed tones. She sighed, clearly the gossip and whispers of her return had spread like wildfire.

Sure everyone was very polite, calling out greetings to the great Lord Inuyasha and Lady Kagome, but it was the slack-jawed staring that really did Kagome in, until the now-legendary Priestess began feeling very much like a freak on a side-show stage.

'I've walked through this village hundreds of times before,' she thought. 'But it was never like this.'

Before, she'd been something of an oddity, with her strange future clothing and the fact that they all knew she was Kikyo's reincarnation. But this? The unadulterated awe at her very presence was just too much for Kagome. It felt wrong.

"Who's that, mama?" Kagome heard a little girl ask as she pointed toward the pair.

"Hush, child, and do not point!" It was an older woman, likely the child's grandmother spoke. "Ōji-sama and Miko-hime will hear you!"

Inuyasha could smell Kagome's discomfort as he watched her shrink in on herself. He stopped walking.

"Hey."

"Come on, Inuyasha, let's just hurry and get back." She tried to grab his hands and hurry him along, but it was like trying to hurry a mountain. He didn't budge.

"Hey." He said again, trying to get her attention enough for her to look at him.

"What?" She finally looked him in the eye.

"Remember what I said yesterday? You just gotta ignore it. You can't let it get to you. You're still you, just like I'm still me. It doesn't matter what they think."

His gaze bore into her, willing her to accept the truth of his words.

"I know it's just… When I came back, I wasn't expecting everything to be so different, but now I have all of this new power and the people here think of me as some kind of living legend… But I didn't ask for this." She signed before continuing. "Last night, in your– our hut, when I said that I didn't care what the villagers said or thought about us, I guess I was expecting anger or bigotry. I wasn't expecting this."

She waved her hand as though to encompass everything, then gave Inuyasha a small smile before continuing, "Sometimes I forget that you're a prince."

He growled at that. "I ain't no prince."

"But you are, Inuyasha. It doesn't matter that your mother's family cast you out or that your brother rejected you. You've always carried yourself with the nobility and honour of the royal houses that bore you. That sense of honour and the strength behind it is just one of the many reasons why I fell in love with you. Not because it makes you a prince, but because it makes you you."

She was thoughtful a moment before continuing. "Part of me always wondered if that was why, after a while, Sesshōmaru stopped trying to actually kill you. Maybe, hanyou or not, he realized that you were an honour to your father's blood."

Inuyasha really wasn't sure what to think of Kagome's words. He felt pride swell within him at the faith she had in him, as though seeing himself through her eyes for the first time. And he wasn't so dense that he hadn't noticed the change in Sesshōmaru , but he hadn't really given much thought as to what might have been behind it.

He shook his head though, "I doubt it. I think any change in that bastard has more to do with Rin than it does with me."

Kagome considered this. "Maybe. Maybe not. Or maybe it's a bit of both–"

"Lord Inuyasha! Lord Inuyasha!" Kagome was stopped from saying anything else by a man's voice approaching. She looked up.

"That man, he looks familiar…"

"He should," said Inuyasha. "That's Rikichi, the village headman. I'm sure you met him at some point during the hunt."

Kagome thought back. Yes, she had met this man several times, though she hadn't known he was headman at the time. In fact… "I think– I think he was there when I came out of the well the first time."

"That would make sense," Inuyasha agreed. "That's kinda his job, after all, overseeing stuff."

Inuyasha couldn't say he liked Rikichi much, though he was an honourable man who held his position in the village with great respect. He knew that Rikichi valued Kaede's wisdom and experience and had often followed her lead when it came to dealing with their Pack during the shard hunt – heck, it was probably why he had invited them all to settle here – but a headman was still a headman. It was their job to uphold the traditions and laws and to oversee the smooth proceedings of life within a village. Inuyasha knew from his decades of experience that it usually meant that most headmen were, if not closed-minded, then at the very least very conservative in their opinions… And Rikichi was no exception.

Finally reaching them, he stopped and gave them a bow and a good-natured smile. "Good day to you, Lord Inuyasha. I see that the rumours are true and that the great Lady Kagome has returned to us!"

Rikichi had been there in the field beside the well when the great Miko had been pulled into the Meido. He'd seen the Bone-Eater's Well disappear only to reappear several days later. When he'd asked, Lord Inuyasha had said that the Miko was safe, but the headman still had many unanswered questions, and it was his job to be informed in all things that affected his village.

Rikichi began, "May I ask, Lady Kagome, how did you escape the Meido? We thought you lost to the underworld!"

Kagome glanced at Inuyasha. She wasn't impressed by these pointed questions. The villagers knew that she travelled through the well. However, they didn't know that she travelled through time, and she wasn't about to explain one of the most painful experiences of her life to an all-but-total stranger.

"Well… Inu– Inuyasha saved me."

"I see, I see. And where you have been all these years."

Kagome seemed taken aback by his bluntness. "Uh, me? I've been… home… with my family."

Rikichi pressed on. "Your home? Is that where the well takes you when you jump into its depths and disappear?"

Inuyasha started to growl. He knew exactly why Kagome was hesitant to answer Rikichi's questions. "Look Rikichi–" He began, but Kagome cut him off with a gentle hand on his arm.

"I thank you for being concerned about what happened to me and where I've been, Rikichi-san, but all that matters now is that I am fine and I am here… and here is where I intend to stay." She hoped that the finality of her statement was enough to stop the curious headman from asking any more unwanted questions.

Her statement seemed to catch the headman's attention, "Is this true, Lady, that you will be settling permanently in our village? What a blessed event this is! I would ask for your blessing that we might prepare a great feast in celebration of your return if you would allow us."

Kagome gathered her frayed nerves. After this morning's announcement fiasco, she was the one who'd demanded she be allowed to announce their engagement to everyone else. She glanced at Inuyasha before clearing her throat and continuing.

"Thank you, Rikichi-san, for the kind offer and for your warm welcome. But might I suggest that you delay your offered feast for six days?"

"Eh?" Rikichi seemed confused. "Why delay?"

"Well, in six days time, it will be my 19th birthday. It will also be the anniversary of the first time I ever set foot in this village, the day I released Inuyasha from the Goshinboku… and… well… Inuyasha and I have chosen that to also be the day of our wedding."

Rikichi was dumbstruck at her words. He'd known that the hanyou lord and the young Miko were close comrades and travelling companions, and he'd sensed that Inuyasha had sorely missed the girl when she hadn't returned even after the well had reappeared, but he had not been expecting this.

"But… But…" He stammered. "You are the Shikon Miko!"

"Yes?" Kagome didn't see his point.

"Mikos do not marry." Rikichi shook his head.

After the stress of his earlier questioning, Kagome found his presumptuous statement highly annoying. "Oh yeah? Well, this Miko has every intention of marrying."

Rikichi didn't seem to take the hint, "But is not your power tied to your…ahem… purity?"

Kagome felt her face turning red, though not in embarrassment this time. She could have the patience of a saint, but when she came to the end of it? Well, the number of Inuyasha shaped craters that lay scattered around Edo could attest to what usually happened next. None of this was any of his business, but somehow he was weighing in with an opinion about her love life?

'Oh, HELL no.' she thought.

The power of Kagome's aura swirled around her slightly, just enough to lift her hair and give her body a shimmering pink glow.

She began, her voice rising in pitch the longer she spoke. "I don't see how that is any of your business, Rikichi-san, headman or not. And even if it was, even if being with Inuyasha meant that I'd lose every drop of power that I have, I'd still make that choice a thousand times over! He is the only reason I returned to this place and I intend to marry him six days from now, whether you like it or not!"

Her aura swirled even more, the pink glow would likely now be visible to anyone, whether they had spiritual powers or not.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha tried to warn her what was happening, but his throat closed when he looked at her face and realized that her eyes had been engulfed and were also glowing a bright pink.

Kagome glared hard at the man who had insulted her. She felt a bit weightless, as though she might, at any moment, start floating up off the ground. It was almost as though she could look inside Rikichi… look right through him.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha finally grabbed her arm, singeing his hand slightly. But it was enough to release her from whatever strange trance she'd begun falling into.

She panted, taking a few deep breaths, before biting out the word, "What?"

Inuyasha gave her a strange look before Rikichi finally recovered from his shock enough to speak. He broke the silence with a faltering voice. "It is as you say, Lady Kagome. I apologize for any offence I may have caused. Good day to you both."

Rikichi turned and quickly walked away from the couple. The young Miko was clearly even more powerful than the stories of the final battle with Naraku had ever let on. He had never in his life experienced a reiki aura of that much intensity and power. No, Rikichi would not make the mistake of questioning her or her authority again. Better to have her as a powerful ally and member of the community than as an enemy, curiosity be damned.

A number of people had stopped with curiosity to watch the exchange between the great Miko and the headman, but they hadn't expected this. They all silently stared at Kagome, as though none of them were willing to even breathe.

Finally, as her rage subsided, she felt their combined gazes on her and began to squirm uncomfortably, looking around at the gathering crowd.

After a moment more, she looked at Inuyasha, and in a quiet voice only he could hear, she asked, "Why are they staring at like that? I wasn't that rude was I? Do you think it was something I said?"

[ryouverua]

The Final Lab

.......... is really, really weird.

just what I’d expect from someone who may or may not have set up the love key system tbh

Is it weird to consider this the Mastermind’s Lab? .... Maybe?

Oh. Oh, that’s what you meant. Also, damn - does it spread out as far across as the AV room too?

Sure they are. Yup. They’re definitely here. Oh, hiding? ....... I don’t know if I’d go that far.

OH THE MUSIC CHANGE

I did think it was weird that the music hadn’t changed when we walked in there!

.... this is so oddly conspicuous.

OH IS THAT WHERE THAT THING FROM THE JUNKO-SCENE WAS THIS WHOLE TIME

Wait, what? We were supposed to find this room???

.......

The, uh. The what now.

I... guess there’s no denying that this is connected to the old games then. Btw, totally random, but I like that little ‘tinny’ filter they have on Monokuma’s voice. It’s a nice touch.

- says Sweetcheeks, to the giant Monokuma head

I mean, I know he means ‘are you the Monokuma that’s been in charge of everything this whole time or are you a separate entity’ but it just sounds kinda funny that’s all. 8′D

Anyway, it confirms that but goes on -

.... IS THIS YOUR WAY OF TRYING TO DIVERT MY ATTENTION FROM THAT WHOLE ‘WE HAVE TO PROTECT OUR REAL MOTHER’ FROM CHAPTER 4. 8/ I’M NOT BUYING THAT THIS IS THE MOTHER YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT.

Though with that said, uh, what’s with the sudden ‘maternal’ imagery???

I wonder if the Monokubs were made there too... they’re separate from Monokuma, but they were obviously replaced. Also, that... doesn’t... look like a machine that could make new Monokuma, but I’m going to choose to believe this for now only because it’s something that was brought up in Chapter 1 too. I can’t think of a reason why this could be untrue...

That’s a good point. I mean, unless there’s a hidden area behind there that have pre-made Monokumas that just need to be activated or something? That would make more sense...

“Duh-doi.”

That’s true. This is... weird. I’m just - I’m just getting a weird vibe in general.

WHY WOULD YOU ASK HIM TO DO THAT WHEN THERE IS LITERALLY A ‘MONOKUMA ET ALL VS STUDENTS’ WAR RIGHT NOW

S T O P

ASDL;KFJASDF okay I actually laughed

also thank god, honestly

oh god it has a good point

DUDE DON’T SAY IT LIKE THAT THAT’S WEIRD

What is happening right now are we trying to call his bluff but what if it isn’t a bluff WHAT IF IT ISN’T A BLUFF -

GUYS PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT THAT’S REALLY CREEPY

But at the same time, why would it lie now? What if the deadline had come way back in Chapter 1 and there wasn’t any firepower to back it up? There... had to have been a way to back up that threat. .... Right? Right? oh god please don’t say Kaede killed for nothing -

“THIS IS WHY WE KEEP GETTING BLOWN UP BY K1-B0, SHUICHI!”

Wait, what? That’s a Monopad? I couldn’t tell from the original angle. ..... A Monopad with blood on it??? And is that a handprint....

WHAT

W H A T

Wait, I’m trying to remember... didn’t he have a Monopad on him when he died? We talked about this already, right? So he started the game with two? hey rantaro why does monokuma let you have two monopads -

ahaha lol bye necklace!perk theory

.... Wait, if it has his handprint on it, isn’t that the one he was holding in the picture?

WHAT HE GETS AN ENHANCED MAP THAT’S CHEATI - oh I guess that’s part of the perk. But still. Still.....

.... Man this would have been so helpful to have from the beginning. 8′/

But there it is - the reason Rantaro knew the exact location of the library door. It was literally laid out for him. The mastermind really did lure him there...

Oh my god this literally spells out what memory he’ll learn next. The mastermind’s moves. Literally everything that would perfectly position him to the perfect spot - this almost seems like it was designed that way! To prey on his paranoia from his missing memories! This wasn’t a hint, this was a fucking set-up from the start!

.... And yet, it was written by him. But it had to have been approved by the mastermind, right? Or at the very least, the mastermind knew about it...

HONESTLY I FEEL LIKE HE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT

Man, past!Rantaro screwed over future!Rantaro really well.

I’m so fired up at how unfair this all was for him ffff he was set up to fail under the guise of it being a perk what the hell, he wasn’t even given a fighting chance at all - ?!

JUSTICE!!! JUSTICE FOR RANTARO!!!!

.... I-I mean, I have no idea who it could belong to.

Oh, he knows. He 100% knows. This is him just living by ‘measure twice, cut once’, a proverb I wholeheartedly subscribe to btw.

And she knows it too.

MAN literally the moment anything Kokichi-related comes up she is up and running to it. It’s a shame she hasn’t been able to shake that ‘KILL THE MASTERMIND!!!’ attitude that caused all the problems in the first place, but at least she seems incredibly determined to make it up to Kokichi’s memory personally...? 8′D or am I reading too much into it again

insert laugh track

INTROVERT BUDDIES :D

I’m sorry WHAT -

what - ?!

It’s just... laying here? In the trash, with nothing else? Another thing we’re supposed to find???

Is that from Kaede’s sweater?

This... is a continuation of the set-up? Just, just leaving this shotput ball here like Kaede just ~has~ to be lurking around here - ??

It... has to be Tsumugi. Between her ‘finding’ the cold room, Kaede’s profile, Kaede’s ‘twin’, just leaving Rantaro’s Monopad out here for us to find, Motherkuma handing out convenient clues and ‘evidence’ of her living in here... it’s all too convenient?

... No, this is a set-up. She’s trying to set up Kaede as the mastermind. And she even had Kaede’s clothes at one point, didn’t she??? For the cospox scene? Did - did Shuichi just realize it was Tsumugi too, then?

...

omg I just remembered Tsumugi being incredibly pissed at Rantaro when he basically made her third-wheel in the nailpolishing scene that was totally going to be the Kaemugi Magnum Opus and telling him to, what was it? ‘Backflip into a landmine and die?’ shinjaeba - it was right there. it was the first comparison I made in my head. I should’ve known in that moment.

That is so darkly hilarious in hindsight, though I still wonder how she knew to count on Kaede’s plan. What if Shuichi hadn’t found the door? Wait, if the Survivor’s Perk ended up here after Kaede’s trap was triggered, does that mean she darted out and nabbed the Survivor’s Perk afterwards??? But... how did she get past everyone in the first place......... Maybe with Monokuma lying in wait in this room, then? If she had an extra in here and Rantaro had opened the door anyway, it would be easy enough... maybe...???

I HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS...

oh Tsumugi is encouraging me to continue looking around too

YOU LEFT MORE CLUES TO POINT A FINGER AT THE THEORETICAL MASTERMIND!KAEDE, DIDN’T YOU

So as long as you were quick enough, you could dart in and out of the room via the automatic door to... say... grab a Survivor’s Perk. Got it.

So you mean... it might not matter if you happened to put the receipt signed tape dust on the reader if the mastermind had already gotten in the room, so there’s potentially a chance that it was accessed if Shuichi’s timing/luck was bad?

H-Himiko plz

C-Can we also talk about how while Mother Monokuma is confirming that this is the ‘Remnants of Despair’ room, Tsumugi is the one that keeps pushing for that comparison... she’s, uh, way too hyped about them. I’m just sayin’.

“Well, they are now - oh, crap. Uh. Um. Just. Forget I said that.”

“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAY ‘NO’ WE PRACTICED THIS - I MEAN -”

I know the context is inaccurate but seeing Tsumugi sweating like this right here is making me lol - and I think I can stop saying ‘assuming I’m right’, because... I’m... starting to feel pretty confident tbh.

I feel like Motherkuma’s attitude is a bit different than Monokuma’s? Or am I just imagining things? It seems a lot more relaxed about the mysteries of everything than the other one, and certainly the Monokubs. They literally almost blew the students up for trying to get in here!

IT HAS TO BE LOOPING, THERE’S NO WAY YOU COULD SAY THAT IF IT WASN’T LOOPING IN SOME FASHION

Because it would have to end if there were only two people left, but clearly it wouldn’t if there was! And Rantaro is proof that it didn’t end with him, either!

The question is, why is it looping????

HOW MANY MORE CAN THERE BE

oh god they really are getting faster i barely captured anything from this

WAIT WHERE IS EVERYONE ELSE

So... Monokuma is still a recognized figure.

It would have been before Shuichi’s time though, yeah? And of course it would have been recorded as a significant event. I was curious so I looked up what our real life ‘most watched’ events in TV history were and they’re mostly positive, tbh - but not all of them. There were some significant funerals. Anything planned, basically.

'Like they usually do?!’ Okay, they are seriously emphasizing the ‘this game is looping’ angle here - and apparently Shuichi should be aware of this fact? Monokuma’s explaining it all, but it sounds like it’s more of a recap than anything!

He recaps it conveniently for us:

Gofer Project, the state of the world, that they’re the last survivors, their promise to be friends...

Was it like this with the original class? It looks like Shuichi was the last one to be woken up, too. I wonder if that’s significant...?

Wait, but hadn’t they not met each other before this? Or I guess they just forgot their ‘first’ meeting and that was enough...

“Well tbh I was hoping you would monologue about your evil plans for a bit in case I conveniently remembered these memories later, but fine.”

...What a great name for the light. right right shouldn’t be giving the murder-bear props for anything, sorry -

With that said, the flashback in the helmets still bother me -unless that was supposed to be them losing their talents in the first place. .... I’m not... entirely convinced of that, though. I don’t think that image has been confirmed to be associated to the talent-loss, so I’m not going to write it off as that yet.

“That’s oddly specific and is giving me a different set of high school flashbacks - can you get rid of those memories too while you’re at it oh shIT -”

tell me you don’t see sweetcheeks getting shoved into a locker at some point in his life though

Are you sure??? Are you sure?

Again, mass-induced memories - but unlike the ones in the pod room, they didn’t seem to be triggered by anything specifically. I wonder, actually - did the others get that memory as well? Tsumugi apparently did, but -

That’s not your fault!!

aaaaaw she wants to find a clue too 8′D

LMAO you, uh, weren’t ready for the responsibility yet, huh. She wears her anxiety on her sleeve. 8′D

ATTAGIRL!!!

You’ve got this, Himiko! You don’t know this yet, but the meta is on your side! You’ll definitely find something!

Ah, the rare serious Himiko..

So, interesting. We’re splitting up again - Maki’s ahead, Himiko’s behind, and we’re still with Tsumugi. Why are all signs pointing to her so much right now??? Am I going crazy here??? I mean, she’s also the least developed out of everyone left which isn’t helping and we still haven’t seen her cosplay yet (outside of potential!Junko) so....??? So, my girl? Will we ever get to see the power of EVA foam in your capable hands?

[evilback-wards]

Top Candidate  [Pre-DRV3]

Chapter Eight

Length: 2070

Rating: 16+ish?

Prefer AO3 format? Click here. Otherwise, below the line lovelies!

Today was painful. All of a sudden TS decided to give us back our full memory. It’s been difficult to cope with the constant personality changes within me. It’s sorta bullshit that I had my personality replaced in the first place. Who did that blue-haired cunt think she is? My body felt worse  once I had been introduced to my old memories. During scenes we ran today, I kept switching between normal me and this fictional persona of me. My body often struggled to follow through with what I actually wanted. For example, TS had to drag me here today because I refused to leave my room. Oh, yeah, we have rooms now. Apparently of all the high tech things they can do, they can’t organize what our rooms for the killing game will look like. I kept mine simple. Our talent rooms, however, were designed by high-end roleplayers from across the world. Mine happened to be a pretentious fuck that “ironically” decorated my talent room with things to use to kill others. Poison, the most stupid killing device ever in a video games, was put in my room without a second thought.  After getting really pissed off there, I was dragged off by TS into a classroom. After that, Kokichi was walked here with Rantaro(Kodaka likely is on the panel for whatever this fucking audition entails).

The classroom had been strange, the desk arranged in a circle. The chalkboard wasn’t a traditional one; it had been replaced with a high tech board with a blue landing screen. I hadn’t been let near it due to TS insisting we needed to take pictures before the auditions tomorrow. Well, whatever tomorrow comes. Time was hard to track here. My old personality had nothing to help or offer when it came to getting my bearings in such a weird electronic space.

Another weird quirk about the current classroom I was in was the desk arrangement. All of the desk were arranged in a circle, with lighting fixtures all around them. Kokichi and I sitting next to each other, the light from all the equipment starting to piss me off.

“I bet they’re setting up for our headshots for the audition,” Kokichi said, smiling as he adjusted his scarf, “I think we’ll at least be shot fairly this way.”

“Then where’s the blonde bitch then,” I questioned, my eyes scanning the room for other personnel. It appeared empty besides the two of us. I didn’t understand this at all. It would be helpful if those assholes running this could give us clear directions. But, no, apparently this would all lead up to some big despair-inducing event.  I looked over at Kokichi now, whom seemed to have frown on his face. What was the matter with him? Kokichi placed both of his hands on either one of my shoulders, his face staring up at mine.

“Ah, don’t talk to your lover like that! She’s yours, remember,” Kokichi stated, his lips frowning. He looked serious. Was Kokichi being a dick or did he actually not regain his memory of our past?

“Er, sure for the game. But, in reality…” I said, leaning closer to Kokichi’s face. I watched as his face turned scarlet, closing his eyes as we met for a kiss. I heard several cameras flicker as our lips met, my eyes opening and looking around at the flashes.

Once my eyes settled from the brightness, I saw TS and Kokichi standing next to each other. I looked to see who had really been in front of me. Of course, it had to be the blonde bitch instead of my actual person of interest.

“There we are! We have all the pictures we need for your picture reference book! Are we excited for auditions, everyone,” TS asked, morphing into Sayaka.

“Why give us back our memory if we’re just going to lose it again,” Kaede said, seeming just as upset as I am.

“Yeah, and at least warn me before I’m forced to kiss blondie,” I added, exchanging intense glares with Kaede and TS. TS just laughed. Her eyes felt cold when she looked at me with a serious stare. I tried to glare back at her in attempts to show something of a backbone. I was tired of playing the pantsy they oh so desired. When I saw that TS was moving her shoulder, my eyes followed her hand.

On the desk in front of TS lay a black-and-white folder with a Monokuma plastered on the front. TS placed her index finger over the eye, causing the file to blink red before being absorbed into the desk.

Before I was able to voice further complaints, I felt the area around me shift.

A surge of heat and cold collided in my body, my vision blurring to darkness. The cold of a summer night had overtaken my exposed skin, my body holding something warm, small, and squishy...my eyes tried to focus, but the most I could make out is purple hair.

“Koki..chi? I think I just woke up from a bad dream,” I muttered, noticing the low battery notice flash on the vita screen. I saw the purple hair turn into a face. As it got closer, it did turn out to be him. I could feel a smile form from my lips, and for the first time, I actually *felt* real. I could feel the warmth from inside my body, blood pumping from and to all corners. I could feel the weight in my eyelids, struggling to stay awake. I could feel my hands securely around Kokichi’s waist.

“I don’t want to waste time. After this, our lives will be at the whim of some stupid adults...this is the only moment we get,” Kokichi whispered to me. As Kokichi adjusted himself in my hold, I could feel his body begin to pin me down against the treehouse wall.  Despite his small stature, Kokichi seemed stronger than usual.

“Take me, detective,” Kokichi said, his voice soft but demanding.

I could feel fingers pull at the buttons on my uniform. I wanted to grin, but for some reason, it felt like something was overriding my body. My hands stayed at their sides, only moving when Kokichi slipped off my shirt.

I could feel Kokichi shift to straddle one of my legs, his knee grinding against my groin. I jerked back, hitting the wooden wall of the treehouse several times before Kokichi held me steady against his knee.

As much as I wanted this, to say all the things I wanted to when Kokichi wasn’t ready, it felt like there was cotton in my mouth. I hadn’t been the slightest bit nervous. My hands wanted to explore many areas of Kokichi. Before all of this, before we were thrown into this madness...it was Kokichi who was too scared to do anything. He kept ranting and raving about parent paranoia, the stink in the treehouse, if Keebo or Rantaro stopped by and watched, and any bad scenario in between the spectrum.

But, as Kokichi’s knee teased me, my body felt helpless to his touch. I was beginning to suspect there being an error with porting my consciousness back into my human-esque body when my hands jolted to slap Kokichi’s back, grinding his knee further against my groin. I let out a soft groan, looking up top the treehouse. How much of this would I end up remembering? Why were we giving up so easily to the team and doing stuff like this instead?

I felt Kokichi’s lips glide against my neck now, leaving bite marks along the way.

“I better make sure that cunt Kaede knows who you belong to,” muttered Kokichi between bites, before crashing into my lips.

I hadn’t wanted to give up, but I also didn’t want to miss this chance. Kokichi was always too nervous to go further than 2nd base with me. I guess, with the prospect of dying in front of us, we had to make due with whatever freedom they gave us.

.   .  .

“Are you sure it’s ok to let  #154 and the top candidate use their bodies for the night? What if they decide to run off,” asked #2002. I scoffed at such a question, pounding my cane into the marble flooring. Around me were people scrambling to get the place looking just right for tomorrow. My throne room had to be best, of course, passed down 52 generations. My help staff had to help the current event staff, which could easily surpass one thousand. But I couldn’t retain a dedicated team like last cycle, or else disaster may strike. I needed to keep tasks as spread out as possible to avoid any colluding. If  this cycle was anything like the last, I’d make a mockery of who I am. Who I stand for. What I believe in.

The throne chair was being polished as I sat down, multiple teams of mine were rushing about and discussing different sections of tomorrow.  

The blue haired, glasses wearing, oddly average girl in front of me was on one knee. It was tradition for candidates and participants to address us like this. Otherwise, they’d be killed off or otherwise disposed off. Her eyes appeared distant as they stared at the marble flooring underneath her. If she hadn’t been in cahoots with Team Danganronpa, I would’ve killed her on the spot. And, I guess, I saw her as worthy of going through auditions. We can’t let cycle 52 be repeated at any cost. I’m anxious, ok? What if we fuck up and let a fucking, er, I won’t spoil it. Not to myself and not for anyone out there who like secrets. I needed to keep my head cool and confident. I had to find the perfect vessel to make this the best killing game yet.

“Duh. Those two boys think they’re gonna die tomorrow. What’s the point of speeding up that process? I’m not gonna like let #154 die a virgin with what promise he’s shown during training,” I answered, a few of my assistants crowding my hair. Guess I am  cutting it a bit close with my personal presentation. They’re using those ultra-HD cameras this year so any imperfection will be viewed for the entire black market.

“Perfect and impeccable as usual, dear Junko.When should I fetch their data for tomorrow?” #2002 asked, her eyes still to the floor.

“Promptly at 5AM. Once their data is loaded back in, they will likely forget the event ever happened. Despair inducing, right? To force them into their old bodies, let them fuck, and then have them forget it ever happened?” I replied, laughing loudly. I listened as that laugh echoed onward, between those who worked for me and the natural good acoustics of my throne room. Ah, how beautiful it feels to be alive and living on the Junko legacy.

“Yes, understood. Andyes, very despair inducing...perhaps, something we could incorporate that in the killing game?” #2002 said, starting to stand on her two feet. I wasn’t expecting her to keep rattling on, but, she did make an interesting point. Besides Cycle 27, there had been no legal cotial relations setting for the participants. And the despair that could come from it...it would be a possibility good enough for any remaining funds post production. I couldn’t let  #2002 get away with leaving her respectful position. A smirk curled up from my face, a cutsy look overtaking my persona.

“Ah. Speaking out of turn, I see?” I said, pressing a button on the side of my throne. Large spikes shot from the ground, scrambling the data and pixels of #2002.  

“Y҉ę͚̣͇͇̻͇̤s̛͉̯͇̮͙̪,̘̥͓͈̝̝̬͠ ̮͍̕I͍͇̥͔̖̺ ̷̙̖̱̭̲͎̦lo̤̙͚͞ͅv̹̱e̙͇͢ͅ ̴t̪͉͍h̬͇̜̦̱̙͜i҉̰͎̖͙͙̜ͅs͔̰̤̩͢

͕̰͉̥͡

͕̜̜͇̼D̵͖̹̠̘͇E͕̼͎̬͍̞S̖P҉͔̰̳̮͖̞A͓̗̦͠I͉͝R͖Ḑ̯̹͖̬̥̬E̪̫̥̱S͈̫͎̩P̖A̞̣̥͓I̠R̲̯̙͉͡D̵̰Ȩ̟͉S̱̦̱̕P̩͕̩̗̪̙͟ĄỊ̳̥̮͠RD͉̱̠͖E̱̱̣͉̼̭S̰͍̖̝̮̜P̫̺̻͜AI͇̙̖̥̳̝͈͘R̮̫D̪͕̜̼͎̗ͅE͚͎̜͓͔͚S̖̖̞P̧̭̝̩͈̙̖A̖͈̘̬͎͍I̬͙R̥D̜E̯̞̫̹͍ͅS̡͔̳͙͈P̧̦̗̻A͔̣I̟̤̩͚͉͈̘R͕” #2002 voice still managed to speak out, the dead pixels causing her voice to sound more like some sort of vaporwave song. Huh. I guesss I should fix her. She does need to load back in #154 and the top candidate.

“Assistants, fix #2002 so she can proceed with wor--” I began to say, but the dumb cunt couldn’t stop saying despair. Her words were beginning to dirty my throne room, random black pixels scattering against the marble floor. It was disgusting but….so despair inducing. So beautiful. So honest.

“Also, advance her roster to the 2nd audition,” I added, footsteps rushing across the room with their fair share of paperwork. This should prove to be interesting.

[blueseadespair]

Danganronpa v3 Alternative Mastermind AU Chapter 1 Day 3 and 4

Disclamer: I don’t own danganronpa. Same as the others  Also I made my own CGs, I apologies for the bad art. Also this one is a long one.

Day 3 

I woke up to the morning Monokuma announcement, and another short skit by the Monokumars.  After that it was time to prepare for the events of that day.  Ryoma would be hosting a tennis match today.  I decided to head towards the Cafeteria and get some breakfast. It was agreed that it would happen 1 hour after, and that everyone could participate.  I still had some time, was there anyone I could hang out with?

 Once the time for Ryoma’s even was held we all headed over to his talent room.  All the machinery had been pushed back into a corner and the court was wide open. Ryoma was there standing in the middle. Kaito and Gonta were already there finishing with the last set ups.  After everyone gathered in the room, Ryoma spoke up.

 Ryoma: Well now since you’re all here, who wants to go first?

Kaito: I’ll go.  I might not be a challenge to you, but I swear, I’ll score a point.

Kokichi: Nishishi, this is going to be interesting.

Tenko: Well, either way I expect a good game from you two.

Ryoma: Of course, say is anyone willing to be referee?

Kirumi: I will if you don’t mind Mister Hoshi.

Ryoma: No, not at all, thanks.

Angie: Well~ is the match going to start now?

Ryoma: Sure, sure, get ready Kaito I’m not going to go easy on you.

As he said that he lobed a ball to Kaito’s side with amazing speed.  I could hear the wind crackle in the air.  The speed that Ryoma moved was amazing, epically with his side.  When it was Kaito’s turn to serve, he moved in the corner in an instant.  I could hardly believe my eyes.  Everyone else was also in awe at his performance.  He truly was the SHSL Tennis player.  It kept on going until Kaito lost 10 matches.

 Kaito: (pant, pant.)  Well you sure do live up to your name.  I can’t even seem to come close to even hitting back one shot from you.

Ryoma: Heh, how about having a teammate to cover some more ground?

Gonta: Then if you don’t mind then Gonta will like to take part!

Ryoma: Hm, sure. Get ready.

Gonta: Thank you for this opportunity!

Kaito: Get ready, he’s going to come in fast!

 After that, they were able to at least hit it back and forth a quarter of the time, but Ryoma kept on overwhelming them.  As I continued to watch I could feel my palms getting sweaty and my heart racing faster.  I could feel the hot energy coming off of the court, and it almost engulfed me.  It seemed to not only affect me either, everyone watching was getting into it as well. Even those who had no interest in it at first like Maki and Himiko.  Miu and Tenko decided to try and they immediately got crushed.  Tenko ended up breaking a tennis racket out of frustration. Miu threatened Ryoma by suggesting to make the machines face him.  Then Kaito and Gonta stepped back in.  

It finally ended with Kaito and Gonta making a combination attack and scored one point. Ryoma seemed satisfied with that, and the event ended.  I still felt that energy afterward, as I headed back into my room.  I still had some time to prepare before my event, I wonder who I could talk to.

 As I was preparing my music Selection, I went to check on what the others were preparing for tomorrow.  I decided to stop by Angie’s studio first.  When I stepped in I was greeted with what looked to be a replica of me and some of the other people.  Angie was busy working on these replica models.

 Angie: Eh~, Did Kaede need something?  

Kaede: Huh? No not really.  I just wanted to see what you were up to.

Angie: Well Angie was making wax statues of everyone!

Kaede: So there wax huh?

Angie: Yup, God had the inspiration, and then these wax statues were born!

Kaede: R-really.   But I have to say these wax statues sure do look life like.  It’s a little creepy.

Angie: They’re supposed to be, I’m even making them joints so that they are able to move like real people!

Kaede: Is that so, that really is impressive.

Angie: It is all thanks to God.  With out him, Angie would not be able to do what she does.

Kaede: Well I’ll leave you to you creations.

Angie: Bye, bye~

 After checking with Angie, I headed over to Tsumugi’s room. There I saw her preparing multiple different costumes.

 Tsumugi: Ah, Kaede you arrived just in time.

Kaede: Oh, I did?

Tsumugi: Yup, I finished your outfit for tonight!

Kaede: I see thank you.

Tsumugi: No problem, It was hard to choose from but I decided to from that one character that’s in a school idol group!

Kaede: School idol?

Tsumugi: Yes! School idol.  You certainly have that kind of feel about you, so I thought about going with something like that!  It is from a school idol group that has 9 people and they were trying to save the shut down of their school.  They also have many different costumes to choose from for reference, so It was hard to choose from.

Kaede: I-I see.

Tsumugi: Their song are also good, and there is one character that helps to create those songs, and you will be cosplaying in one of her Live costumes! Oh, its going to be so great!

Kaede: You sure are fired up about this aren't you.

Tsumugi: Of course, it is one of my biggest dreams that someone wear my costumes and acts out that character.

Kaede: So that is your passion huh?

Tsumugi: Ya, I don’t really like to wear cosplay, but I like to see others wear them.  But they must embody the character, or I won’t be happy.  It would be a huge disrespect, and I won’t stand for it.

Kaede: Is that so, well then, can I ask were my outfit is?

Tsumugi: Oh, its in that box over there.

Kaede: Ah, thank you.  See you later tonight!

 As I said that I picked up the box and headed to my room. I pulled out the costume and blushed a little.  The costume was reveling, but it would disrespectful if I didn’t put it on like she wanted me to.  It was my first time wearing something like this.  It fit perfectly, and I was embarrassed to wear it.  I shook my head; no it’s going to be all right.  As soon as I start playing all of that won’t matter anymore and only my music will.  With that I set up some chairs in my room and practiced until it was turn for my event. When it was my turn I opened the door to let the people in.  As I did, got a few gasps.  I blushed hard.

 Shuichi: Y-you look nice.

Kaede: T-thank you.

Miu: Kek look at these two love birds!  Where are you even looking Shuichi?  If you want to stare at something stare at mine, you virgin!

Maki: Shut up. Move, your in the way.

Miu: Eek, sorry.

Kokichi: Nishishi~ Miu-chan seems to have an easy on off switch.

Miu: Stuff it runt!

Rantarou: Well you certainly do look nice.

Kaede: I-I do?

Tsumugi: Well of course she does.  She is wearing my outfit.

Angie: You sure did make an interesting one~

Kirumi: It would defiantly seem to fit Miss Akamatsu very well.

Tenko: Tenko agree, Kaede looks beautiful!  Tenko will make sure to protect you from any guys who would try to make a move on you!  I’m looking at you space boy!

Kaito: M-me!? Why me?  I wouldn’t do anything.

Tenko: You say that, but Tenko knows your type.  Tenko will not let you try anything!

Kaito: But I wasn’t going to!

Gonta: What are you guys talking about?

Kaito: Nothing that you need to know about!

Korekiyo: In any case things seem to be playing out quite well. I look forward to seeing what else there is in store for us.

Himiko: So when is it going to start?  I don’t want to waist too much of my time.

Tsumugi: Now, now don’t be so rude.

Ryoma: Well looks like everyone’s here.  We’re ready when you are.

Kaede: Thank you.

 As soon as it quieted down I started to play.  At first I would start of with a nice light song, then I would move into a softer song.  As I played I poured my emotions into my song and before I knew it everyone had their eyes on me.  They seemed entranced with my melody.  I decided to create my own song that I would call “Bonds” something that would tie us all together.  

When I finished I received lots of compliments, and was left with a warm feeling in my heart.  As soon as the day closed, we headed back to our dorms, some of us staying up to discuss what would happen tomorrow.  It seems like every thing was going well.  I feel asleep looking forward to tomorrow.  Little did I know that tomorrow was when everything was going to change, and my friendship fantasy would be shattered.  Things would never truly be the same after that.

Day 4

Another day I woke up to the Monokuma announcement, and Monokumars short skit.  It was hard to believe that he wanted us to kill each other.  I definably didn’t seem like he was trying to do anything to get us to kill each other for the time being.  Maybe the whole thing was a prank and we were actually supposed to get along with one another.  As I headed to the Cafeteria I saw Tsumugi rush past me in the direction of her talent room.  She must need to do some last minute preparations I thought.  The Cafeteria was empty for the most part.  Only Kokichi, Rantarou, Maki, Saihara, and Kirumi were there.

 Rantarou: Oh, Kaede you're here, everyone else seems to be busy getting ready for their own events.

Kaede: Is that so, well, may be I should help.

Kirumi: Please, Miss Akamatsu, try to relax, you have already done plenty of work.

Kaede: But-

Shuichi: You should listen to Kirumi, it’s no good to push yourself.

Kaede: O-okay.

Maki:  This is what you get for being a miss busy body all the time.

Kokichi: In my organization, its always important to take recreational breaks~.

Kaede: Is that true?

Rantarou: It would seem so, it’s help make sure that everyone is fit and able to do their job.

Kokichi: Nishishi~, Yup Rantarou-chan is right.

Shuichi: I heard of evil organizations, but I don’t ever remember hearing one like yours.

Kokichi: Will if you knew then it wouldn’t be a secret now would it Shuichi-chan?

Shuichi:…

Kirumi: Well it seems like it is almost time for Tsumugi’s event.  Shall we head out?

 As she said that we all headed out and to Tsumugi’s talent room. There it seems like she was holding something similar to a cosplay café and had everyone cosplay different characters. It was interesting to see everyone playing as different characters.  It was almost surreal.  All the drinks that were served were non-alcoholic and everyone was having a great time.  We still had some time before Angie’s event so I headed towards my room.  When It was time to go, Angie was out in the halls walking with Gonta.

 Kaede: Angie?  What are you doing here?

Angie: Angie is going to ask Gonta if he can help her open up the door to her talent room.  It seems like evil spirits are keeping it shut closed.

Gonta: Gonta will help and try and open Angie’s room. We are going to try and get more people.

 We ran into Kaito and Kokichi and told them what had happened.  Kaito ran at the mention of spirits and Kokichi just laughed at him, and offered to help us.  Along the way we ran into Maki and Kirumi, and they offered to help.  When we got to Angie’s room, I could hear a faint voice. It sounded familiar.  When we finally got the door open, we were greeted with a slightly dark room.

 Angie: Don’t worry Angie will find the light switch.

Gonta: Thank you!...Wait…Does anyone smell anything?

Kokichi: Like you?

Gonta: No, not Gonta, it smells like flesh.

Maki: You mean like humans or something else?

Gonta: Like blood.

 As soon as he said that the light flicked on. And what stood there I couldn’t believe.  There Amongst wax statues on strings was a corpse on strings.  No, it can’t be, I was just talking to them earlier. But their they were hung with wires. Was Tsumugi Shirogane the SHSL Cosplayer. And then I heard a voice that I soon dreaded.

 Monokuma: A body has been discovered! After some investigation a class trial will begin! Upupupup, I can’t wait, I can’t wait.

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 2.3

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

Last time in chapter 2, it was Kaito time all the time (my favourite kind of time), kicking off Shuichi and Kaito’s soon-to-be-epic friendship by hanging out with him all day and learning about astronaut training, communication, and the overactive imagination he had as a kid and hasn’t really lost. Then, thanks to his motive video showing up, I discussed the merits of the “Kaito’s parents died” train over the alternative, and how simply “living” is only an effective motive for murder in this killing game when you’re dying.

This time, we’ll continue talking about the motive videos but in a less Kaito-centric way, as Shuichi rushes to discuss them with everyone else.

Shuichi:  “Ah, I’ll think about that stuff later! I should hurry and tell Kaito!”

It’s pretty adorable how Shuichi just immediately jumps to thinking that Kaito deserves to know this information about his most important people, not even considering that knowing might make Kaito more inclined to murder someone and maybe it’s better not to tell him.

I’m a little surprised Shuichi doesn’t also wonder about his own video, though. On my first time through, I thought this was actually the point of mixing them up – that watching anyone’s video and seeing the format of “here’s the most important people in your life, oh no something bad’s happened to them” would make everyone think “but what about my most important people? Surely they have to be okay, right?” and be desperate and potentially willing to kill simply to see their own video and confirm whether or not their own loved ones are safe.

Bahaha, if you examine any room other than Kaito’s when Shuichi is trying to find him…

Shuichi:  (This isn’t Kaito’s room! Come on, calm down, get a hold of yourself…)

I like the game justifying the player goofing off by trying to play it off as part of Shuichi’s frantic mental state.

Shuichi:  “Hey, has anyone seen Kaito!?”

Kiyo:  “You seem in a panic. Over the Kubs Pad if I’m not mistaken.”

Good job making it obvious to everyone in the dining hall whose video you have, Shuichi.

(Man, I wonder who got Kiyo’s. You’d think that his would have raised some red flags about him. Makes me think that it has to have been Tsumugi, because she’s the only person who wouldn’t have tried to act upon that and warn everyone about the fact that he’s a serial killer. Or he got his own too.)

Important thing to bear in mind from now on: Kirumi has seen her own motive video and is now plotting murder.

Kiyo:  “Kaito and Keebo went to gather everyone else so that we may discuss our plans.”

Of course Kaito would have been one of the people who’d volunteer to do that. This is about co-operation, after all!

(I bet Kaito was the one who went to drag Maki here from her lab.)

Maki:  “I ignored it because I figured it was something stupid.”

This is so wonderfully Maki. Of course she’d think it’s dumb and not want anything to do with it, especially if it seems related to the Monokubs. It’s actually a somewhat-necessary plot point that she never watches Ryoma’s video, but the writers didn’t even remotely have to force it for her to not do so.

Gonta:  “Y-Yeah! Why Gonta get Tsumugi’s video—”

So either the videos’ creators put more effort than was necessary into Tsumugi’s video given that they were supposed to only be seen by their intended recipient anyway, or Tsumugi’s video was kind of suspect but only in a subtle way that went over Gonta’s head. (Then again, Kokichi’s going to see it too eventually, so probably not the latter.)

Ryoma:  “Why not? They’re videos of the most important people in our lives.”

Aww, Ryoma. Look at him being desperate to see if he has any people like that.

Keebo is the most adamant out of anyone that exchanging videos would be a bad idea. I wonder if that was his inner voice telling him that, since the people behind that voice obviously have experience with motive videos in other killing games.

Ryoma:  “I’m against that.”

Tsumugi:  “Huh? Against it? Why? If you see that video, it’ll turn into a motive, right?”

Ryoma:  “That’s why I want to see it.”

Ryoma wants a motive to live!

Kaito:  “It might not matter to you whether you get killed or not, but… We’re different! We all want to live! Wake up already! You’re like some zombie wandering around with no will to live!”

If this were anyone but Ryoma, Kaito would be trying to figure out why he’s acting this way. But because it’s Ryoma, seeing him like this in the first place makes Kaito angry and he gets stuck on that and can’t see beyond it.

Ryoma:  “No will to live, huh? Hmph, if that’s how you see me, then so be it.”

Ryoma’s reaction here rather implies that he thinks Kaito’s judgement of him is wrong – after all, he wants to see the motive videos so that he can find the will to live, which in and of itself is will to live. It’s interesting – but fitting, given how he is – that Ryoma doesn’t really care what Kaito thinks about him and isn’t going to go out of his way to correct him.

Ryoma:  “But I’ve got no plans to change my opinion. That’s just not cool.”

So presumably by this, he simply means he’s not going to change his mind about wanting to see his videos, and not about having no reason to live, since he very much is hoping his video will change his opinion about that and give him a reason to live.

Kokichi:  “Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about killing or dying…”

For once, this is a true statement.

Kokichi:  “But I think it’d be better if we didn’t cooperate with each other. Actually, we *definitely* shouldn’t cooperate with each other!”

Tenko:  “We shouldn’t cooperate? Why not!?”

Kokichi:  “Think back to all of Monokuma’s actions so far. Whenever we tried to work together, Monokuma would retaliate with a plan to make us suffer. It happened when Kaede wanted us to cooperate, and again with these motive videos, right? Which means, the more we try to cooperate, the more he’ll try to make us suffer.”

This is true, but Kokichi is completely missing the point. Obviously Monokuma retaliates by inflicting suffering every time people try to co-operate because everyone’s co-operation is really bad for him! If everyone co-operates fully, there’ll be no more killings and they might manage to escape, which is exactly what he doesn’t want! This means everyone should co-operate more, not less! Sure, Monokuma will continue to try to make them suffer, but that suffering will be worth it if they keep co-operating anyway and manage to escape. Kokichi is too caught up on the fact that the initial suffering inflicted by Monokuma is bad and not focusing on the end result they’ll reach if they push through it anyway because he is a gigantic coward. This is one of the most transparently cowardly opinions Kokichi ever expresses. It’s also very similar to his mindset in chapter 1 when he discouraged everyone from continuing to try the escape tunnel (shoutout to the anon who brought this up and made me realise that they’re related) – he got hung up on the initial pain and suffering it caused them to the point of ignoring the fact that it would have been worth it in the end if they managed to get through it anyway.

…And it’s honestly a little frustrating that nobody else actually picks up on this and explains how drastically Kokichi is missing the point here. I’d have expected Kaito to potentially do that, at least.

Also remember how Kokichi hinted at this opinion of his before, after they saw the Flashback Light, and this is him now explicitly spelling it out in order to be, arguably, helpful. But the thing is, Kokichi hints at so many things he’s aware of that would be potentially helpful to everyone if he spelled them out and explained why he thought this way, but this is the only time he ever does so. Which rather makes it seem like the only reason Kokichi is spelling this out is not because he cares about being helpful to everyone else but because he’s trying to protect himself. Because even if Kokichi pointedly doesn’t co-operate, if everyone else works together and Monokuma decides to make them suffer for it then he’ll make everyone suffer, including Kokichi, and Kokichi doesn’t want that.

Kirumi:  “You are saying that if we do not rally together, we will not be made to suffer?”

Kirumi, at least, is probably semi-agreeing with him because her priorities now are to make sure her murder plan goes off without a hitch, having seen her own motive video, and the less wrenches Monokuma tries to throw into the mix, the better for her.

Kokichi:  “That’s why I had no choice but to screw with you guys.”

Yep, because you’re a huge coward who’s just terrified of what the big, bad Monokuma might do to everyone (especially you) if they actually try and fight back against him.

Shuichi:  “And you’re not lying to us right now?”

Kokichi:  “…Whether I’m lying or not, what I’m saying is still true.”

Surprisingly enough, Kokichi’s statement does make sense. He’s saying, “whether I really feel this way or not, I’m still making a valid point”. Which is the case about a lot of the things he says, really… at least insofar as his points are ever valid, which is frequently debatable, including right now.

Kokichi:  “Anyway, we shouldn’t force ourselves to co-operate. Let’s just all do our own thing.”

Co-operation is not something that people have to force themselves to do, especially not in a dangerous situation like this; it’s just human nature to do so. The fact that Kokichi thinks of it this way is pretty telling about how he really feels about co-operation, in a way that doesn’t have anything to do with how Monokuma may or may not respond to it.

Shuichi:  (It’s *because* we’re trying to co-operate that Monokuma is making us suffer…? But what about… everything we went through…? What was the point of Kaede sacrificing herself…?)

I’d ask why Shuichi hasn’t figured out how obviously Kokichi is missing the point either, but his questioning the point of Kaede’s sacrifice indicates he sort of gets it. Monokuma retaliated to Kaede’s co-operation by leading her into a trap that got her killed. But if they just agree with Kokichi here and never co-operate again, then Kaede only ever existed as an example of what not to do rather than as motivation for the rest of them to keep being brave and trying their best to escape. Kaede would have basically died for nothing.

Kokichi:  “Let’s just exchange our motive videos instead of cooperating with each other.”

Considering that Kokichi got his own video, he knows that Monokuma was not trying to make it so that nobody sees their own video and that mixing them up was an accident. So given what he also just said about co-operation, most of the reason Kokichi wants everyone to see their own video is probably because he knows that’s what Monokuma intended to happen, and he’s afraid that if everyone keeps preventing each other from seeing their videos then Monokuma will do something even worse to them to force this next murder through. He wants to prevent Monokuma’s wrath by giving Monokuma what he’s after – which is to say, another murder. (So much for him saying just a few minutes ago that it’s not that they shouldn’t care about killing or dying – there was a part of him that meant that, but here he goes, being willing to let another murder happen anyway so long as the victim isn’t him.)

But also, look at how he worded that like everyone agreeing to exchange their motive videos wouldn’t also have been a different kind of “co-operation”. Both everyone sharing and everyone not sharing would count as “co-operation”. The only thing that wouldn’t be co-operation is if only some people secretly share their videos without agreeing it with everyone else. I think that’s also partially what Kokichi’s afraid of and why he wants everyone to exchange the videos even if he’s insisting on not calling that “co-operation” because he’s allergic to the concept. He’s afraid of the idea that everyone has to trust on the surface that nobody will share the videos, when anyone could break that trust at any time and then secretly be out to kill. If everyone shared the videos, there would be no more trust necessary from anyone once it happened, which is probably why Kokichi doesn’t think of that scenario as “co-operation”.

Kokichi feeling that way about people secretly seeing their own videos is also pretty hypocritical of him given that he received his own motive video and hasn’t told anyone, giving him currently the second-most reason to kill someone without anybody else knowing that he has that. Not that he would act on it, because he’s already certain he’ll get caught and executed if he tries that, but.

Kokichi:  “C’mon, Gonta, let’s go.”

Gonta:  “What? Gonta, too!?”

Kokichi:  “We promised to think of a way to get everyone to exchange their motive videos, remember? […]”

Gonta:  “W-Wait! Did Gonta make promise!?”

No, you didn’t, Gonta! LEAVE HIM ALONE, KOKICHI.

(This kind of thing is exactly why Gonta needs to be more sure of himself.)

Kaito:  “Quit screwing around… ‘Our sake’? Yeah, right. I’ve had it with his lies.”

Kaito knows what’s up. Because you’d think, given Kaito’s extremely keen intuition regarding people, that if Kokichi really did secretly care about doing things for everyone’s sake, Kaito would be able to pick up on that even though all outward signs say otherwise. Just like how he’s going to pick up on the fact that Maki is a good person despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Kaito:  “Wait up, Ryoma! Don’t forget. We’re all struggling to get out of here alive. So don’t get in our way…”

Ryoma:  “I’ve got no intention of getting in your way. I’d never do something so uncool.”

Kaito is probably saying this because he’s worried Ryoma will also try to get everyone to swap videos and therefore increase the chance of a murder happening. But of course, Ryoma only cares about seeing his own video, and he’s very much not the kind of person who’d deliberately endanger everyone else just to get something he wants (unlike someone else here). Someone with no reason to live, but who still cares about everyone else around him, wouldn’t ever be that selfish.

Kirumi:  “My workload has increased significantly… This calls for a more tactical approach.”

Yep, on top of all the requests everyone’s just given Kirumi, she’s also got to come up with a whole murder plot now.

Really, though, let’s respect Kirumi for the fact that she continues to try and fulfil everyone’s wishes right up until she commits murder. She still cares about everyone here and doesn’t want to have to sacrifice them all to escape.

Himiko:  “…”

Tenko:  “…Wait, what’s wrong, Himiko? Are you hungry?”

Himiko is clearly too depressed to feel hungry, what with the newest motive having made the situation even more awful again. But I can understand why Tenko might assume this, since she’s probably the sort of person who gets in a bad mood when she’s hungry and she’s projecting that onto Himiko.

Shuichi:  (I wish I could do something on my own, but that’s impossible… If I screw up, it’ll be just like Kaede all over again—)

Shuichi is still beating himself up and being afraid of making the slightest mistake.

Shuichi:  (I can’t stand around doing nothing! I… promised her!)

But since he’s still desperate to try and do something, why don’t we say he’s going to do so by trying to pry Gonta away from whatever nefarious plans Kokichi has with him? By which I mean Gonta is my other free time target in this chapter, because it’s at least vaguely plausible that Shuichi might be worried about him in particular after Kokichi dragged him off like that at breakfast. (And because I really like Gonta, okay, shush.)

Ryoma:  “Since the motives were swapped, as long as we don’t sort them out, no murders will happen… Or so Keebo said, but… Somebody might take action because they want to see the motive…”

Hah, Ryoma’s having the same thought that I did first time around. Of course, he’s thinking this because he wants to see his own motive video more than anyone else. (Except… you really don’t, Ryoma. Trust me on this.)

Himiko and Angie are hanging out in the same place. Oh, dear.

Kaito:  “How in the world did he end up like that…?”

Kaito is still hung up on Ryoma. At least now it seems he’s progressed to the point of wondering why Ryoma feels this way. I’m… not sure if he knows about the part where Ryoma slaughtered a whole mafia. You’d think he’d have heard that from the news? But even if he did, it’s not like the news would have mentioned why, so.

Sorry, though, Kaito, I’m going to leave you to brood for now. Shuichi has a Gonta to try and pry away from Kokichi. He’s hanging out with Kokichi right now, of course.

Gonta:  “Oh! Shuichi! You here to help Gonta think of way to get everyone to trade motives?”

Unfortunately it seems that Kokichi has already convinced Gonta that trading motive videos is the correct course of action.

Gonta:  “Huh? You wanna spend time with Gonta? But Kokichi already invite Gonta…”

Kokichi:  “Oh, it’s fine. Let’s hang out later.”

Gonta:  “O-Okay! Then what should we do, Shuichi?”

There’s an exchange like this whether you hang out with Gonta or with Kokichi for each of the time slots when they’re plotting together. It’s a neat touch.

Gonta:  “Gonta very, very happy! This maybe first time Gonta spend free time with anyone!”

…except for Kokichi just now. Let’s assume Gonta doesn’t think that counts in the same way. After all, Kokichi’s spending time with him for a specific purpose and not because he just wants to hang out as friends.

But, aww, poor Gonta not having had anyone want to hang out with him before just because he looks scary.

Gonta:  “So Gonta will work hard! Treat Shuichi like true gentleman!”

Shuichi:  “Ah, it’s okay, Gonta. You don’t have to be so… intense. Just talking is fine.”

And he’s so desperate to make sure he shows Shuichi a good time so that Shuichi won’t regret hanging out with him. Gontaaaa, just getting to spend time with someone as lovely as you is more than worth it.

Gonta’s idea of a good time is racing.

Shuichi:  “Race?”

Gonta:  “Gonta good at running! Running full speed through forest so much fun! Plus, feel good to run like wind. Maybe nice change of pace.”

Because it’s the kind of thing he always used to do for fun in the forest and he doesn’t realise a lot of people in human society maybe don’t find it as fun as he does.

Shuichi:  (Gonta grabbed my hand and pulled me firmly, and I ran along behind him.) “G-Gonta! You’re running too fast!”

I’m picturing Shuichi being dragged along so fast that his feet are barely touching the ground any more as he flails behind Gonta like a banner. I keep vaguely wanting to draw this.

Shuichi ends up so exhausted that he almost trips and falls down the stairs to the basement, but Gonta catches him.

Gonta:  “No thank Gonta… Gonta make Shuichi run… This all Gonta’s fault… Sorry… Gonta not very fun after all…”

Here’s more of Gonta apologising because he’s so unsure of himself – he wasn’t sure what the best thing to do while hanging out with Shuichi was, but he picked the best thing he could think of, and yet now he’s ended up convinced that it was a terrible idea and he should never have done it. Poor Gonta, always desperately trying to do the right thing but never knowing how.

Shuichi:  “Why did you invite me? Kaito looks like he’d be better at running…”

Gonta:  “Invite Kaito? You sure? Gonta not wanna make trouble…”

This is me picking not-the-nicest dialogue option again just so that I can have a chance to say: oh man wouldn’t it be great if Gonta and Kaito did actually hang out more, though. They’re both adorable and very similar in some ways but very different in others and I’d love to see them become better friends than they do in canon.

Although really the problem here isn’t that Gonta invited Shuichi – since after all it was Shuichi who invited Gonta to hang out in the first place – but just that Gonta suggested an activity that wasn’t the most appropriate for Shuichi, because he wasn’t able to see that not everyone would necessarily enjoy it as much as him.

Shuichi:  “Ah, um, Gonta… I had a lot of fun, running with you. I’d like to do this again sometime. The next time you need another change of pace.”

Shuichi still says this, though, regardless of which dialogue option you pick! So yay. Having a change of pace and moving his body instead of using his mind is exactly the kind of thing Shuichi needs right now, even if Gonta doesn’t realise it.

Gonta:  “Gonta do anything for Shuichi! Gonta protect you! Like gentleman!”

Shuichi:  (Gonta is brimming with positivity. …Gonta really is pure.)

Exactly what I was about to say, Shuichi! He’s such a good.

Tenko:  “I can’t stop thinking about it… Who’s in my motive video? N-No, I can’t! I would be falling right into Monokuma’s trap!”

See what I mean about how I thought the real trap was people wondering about who’s in their motive video and be potentially willing to take drastic action just to see it?

Keebo:  “I also want to know what is contained in my motive video… But…”

Keebo’s video almost certainly contains his father, the professor who created him. Keebo probably already knows this and is thinking instead about what bad thing may or may not have happened to him according to the video. This is exactly what’s so dangerous about knowing your video exists and roughly what it’ll be like but not its exact contents.

Himiko and Angie are together again, this time in Himiko’s lab. We all know where this is going.

Himiko:  “Angie’s been talking to me non-stop…”

Yeah, brainwashing you. It doesn’t look like Himiko had much of her own input in the matter, either.

Gonta and Kokichi are also still together, of course.

Gonta:  “Oh, Shuichi… Kokichi say stuff that hard to understand… Make Gonta feel sleepy…”

Poor Gonta. Let’s imagine Shuichi assumes from this that he did enough earlier to prevent Kokichi from manipulating him. Totally not just because I still want to hang out with Kaito once more in this chapter or anything.

Interestingly, Ryoma is hanging out in the corridor not far from where Maki is guarding her lab. He doesn’t know she has his video yet, but he has seen hers, so he’s the only one right now other than Maki herself (and Tsumugi) who knows why she’s guarding that lab.

Meanwhile, Kaito is hanging out inside Ryoma’s lab, which means that he’s apparently still brooding about Ryoma on some level even though this time he manages not to voice it to Shuichi.

Kaito:  “Oh, Shuichi. What’s up? You wanna talk about something?”

Shuichi:  (Should I hang out with Kaito for a while?) [Yes]

Kaito:  “Yeah, that’s fine. I… was just thinking I wanted to talk to you.”

This is a little hint that Kaito is already thinking of starting to train Shuichi! Honestly it wouldn’t be surprising if he just up and started doing it now. Let’s assume he decides to wait until nighttime anyway because he prefers to train outside when the stars are out, since, you know, space. And maybe some other reasons that we’ll get to.

Besides, we still have the rest of his ridiculou – I mean, very exciting and definitely true story to hear, right?

Kaito:  “Hey! If you’re back, that means… Haha! You really want to listen to my stories, huh!? Well, if you say so!”

It’s pretty interesting that Kaito’s idea of “how to make friends with someone” appears to equate to “telling them (completely exaggerated and made up) stories about how cool and heroic he totally is”. He does not know how to have normal, down-to-earth interactions with people at all.

Shuichi:  (*You* were the one who said you’d finish the story next time…)

Again with Shuichi sounding mildly annoyed, putting this scene probably before the training. That said, Shuichi still came to hear the rest of the story, so he can’t be that annoyed.

Kaito:  “Umm, what happened after that…? Oh, I remember! Something amazing happened before I got off my boat!”

Shuichi:  (You say it was amazing, but you forgot it? …I’ll keep it to myself.)

Yeah, that wasn’t Kaito almost forgetting his made-up details or anything, because it all definitely happened.

Kaito:  “I got caught in a storm. I thought I was done for, but right when I was preparing for the worst… My boat was eaten by a whale!”

Shuichi:  “Ah. I see.”

I love how deadpan Shuichi is about this whole thing.

Kaito:  “It was a whale, man! The second smartest thing in this world after me! It probably saw my greatness and hid me in its stomach, away from the storm.”

So the whale wasn’t even a greater danger – it was a deus ex machina magically saving him from the danger of the storm without him having to overcome it himself, because he’s just that much of a hero that of course he got out of trouble effortlessly, right?

(Also please take note and appreciate that Kaito is the smartest thing in the world. Clearly.)

Shuichi:  (I didn’t expect this kind of tall tale from you, Kaito.)

…I mean, after the first half of it, what else were you expecting, Shuichi. Although I suppose this whale part is the most implausible part yet.

Next, tiny Kaito decided to conquer the land by entering the jungle.

Kaito:  “I came across something. A giant anaconda that could swallow a man whole!  […] But that was just the beginning… Defeating him opened a gate…”

Aren’t we going to hear about how you defeated the giant anaconda, Kaito? That sounds like a more exciting story to tell than simply the fact that you did defeat it because you’re just that awesome.

Kaito:  “There was a whole civilisation in a giant underground cave! I invaded their empire and made the emperor my sidekick, but…”

Apparently Kaito’s tendency to make literally everyone into his sidekick even extended back to his “heroic adventures” when he was younger. Although given that this emperor was almost certainly imaginary, it seems that back then, his definition of “sidekick” was maybe a bit closer to the normal one. This is probably why he started using that word for the actual people he made into his “sidekicks” later.

Kaito:  “But the time limit came so fast and I had to go back to my gramps’ house.”

Shuichi:  “The time limit?”

Kaito:  “Well, yeah. My summer vacation was over, duh.”

…And there we go: the actually true part. Man, tiny Kaito really knew how to entertain himself during a summer vacation, though.

Kaito:  “Huh? Why I wanna be an astronaut? Was that what we were talking about?”

Shuichi:  “Yes! That’s what we were talking about!”

I love how Kaito got so excited about telling his ridiculous story that he completely forgot the reason he started telling it.

Kaito:  “That’s simple! The universe is the final frontier for me to conquer!”

…I mean, really, Shuichi, you should have been able to figure this out yourself from the story. He conquered the sea and the land, so obviously the next step would be space!

Kaito:  “And it’s sorta cool, isn’t it!? Aren’t astronauts the best!?”

Shuichi:  “…” (So essentially, ‘because it’s cool’ was your reason…)

At first, at least. We’ve heard more from him in other FTEs, including the ones with Kaede, about why he wants to go to space now, which there’s a lot more to than just because space is cool. He probably looked into being an astronaut first because he thought it sounded cool, and then got more serious about it after learning exactly the kinds of things astronauts do that he wanted to be a part of.

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