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takonei · 4 years

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Beta AU - Main story, Chapter 4, deadly life (Part 3)

Note of the author: This trial is becoming a meme and I’m not complaining.

Chapter 4: Dance, dance, hanged puppets - Deadly life

...

"So, where do we even start?" Kaito broke the silence.

"For now let's just recap what we know about what happened." Kiyo suggested.

Kirumi put a finger on her chin. "We know the culprit used the execution as a murder weapon. They made us waste more and more time, made Tsumugi unable to reach her lock and thus breaking the rule of the motive."

Shuichi nodded. "And they tampered with the building for this by blocking all entrances."

Kokichi fiddled with his sleeve. "Perhaps... we should focus on that first?"

Miu cracked her knuckles. "Sounds good to me."

Rantaro briefly raised his hand. "We should focus on the main entrance. That's the first one that was blocked."

"We basically turned the handle, and the moment we started opening the door we heard a weird noise, then an explosion and we rushed outside." Ryoma explained. "I tried to investigate that earlier but everything was buried under rubble."

That wasn't good. They were already short on clues, they didn't need an unsolvable mystery. But they couldn't give up now.

"Still, an explosion doesn't happen like that, there's something you must have activated!" Kaito put his hands on his podium.

Rantaro shrugged. "Well, I don't know what I could possibly have activated by turning the handle."

Kokichi started thinking. "... Are we sure this isn't a normal trap?"

That couldn't be possible, Shuichi knew it.

"The pattern of the traps was different today, remember?"

Miu perked up. "Yeah! Nothing activated unless we passed a card on our locks!"

"Which makes it impossible for the door to have exploded 'naturally'." Rantaro gestured quotation marks.

"So then what happened?" Kokichi asked.

"Someone must have trapped the door." Kiyo concluded.

How does one trap a door? They would probably have more clues if everything wasn't under rubbles. There weren't a thousand ways to do so, right?

"I was thinking..." Shuichi started. "This morning, when Kiyo and I got to the love hotel for his lock, the cable exploded... Perhaps it has something to do with it?"

Kaito nodded. "I saw that with you earlier and yeah, I don't see anything else that could possibly be used as a way to make shit explode."

"An explosion with a cable? Considering the number of wires hanging around the building I wouldn't be surprised." Kirumi thought.

"And yet we simply turned the handle and pushed the door just a little when the explosion happened." Ryoma frowned.

The violinist didn't know much about mechanics, unfortunately. "But... Perhaps it was enough to activate the thing?"

Kaito was nervously tapping his finger on the podium. "The only thing I can see working is by connecting two wires together to activate something..."

Shuichi pondered.

Maybe...

"What if by pushing the door, the cables moved? That could work, right?" he suggested.

"If both cables are separated and Rantaro simply pushes the door..."

"... The cables would connect, right?"

Ryoma shook his head. "That's a little too convenient, don't you think?"

Shuichi frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What were the odds the correct door would be opened? If Rantaro pushed the other door, nothing would have happened. That plan requires a perfect placement. And whoever did this would have probably needed to test it."

Kiyo nodded. "That's a good point. Considering the number of precautions the blackened took, I doubt they would let this one pass."

"But still, that's the closest we have to a solution." Rantaro noted.

Perhaps there was something he forgot in his theory. There was definitely a way to connect both cables. That's the only possible solution.

Think!

...

Maybe... Did they really need to connect the cables? All they needed was to allow the current to pass through them. Perhaps there was a way to make it happen?

A way to make electricity run without direct contact...

"... That's it!" Shuichi perked up. "Water conducts electricity, right?"

Kaito's eyes widened. "Yeah! You mean..."

"If someone created a puddle of water, then precision wouldn't be necessary! No matter which door you push..."

"... The cable would touch the water, and the electricity would flow!"

Kirumi nodded. "That sounds plausible if you put it that way. But could those two cables really have created an explosion?"

She was right... They assumed that both wires connected would create an explosion but would it really be enough?

"Well..." Rantaro pondered. "Considering the amount of damaged wires we saw in the building, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of mechanism that would make it possible."

"That sounds too convenient, don't you think?" Kiyo narrowed his eye.

Shuichi didn't know what to say. A part of him said the therapist was right, but another was yelling at him to consider the medic's theory.

Just thinking about what happened that day... The traps had gone wild, almost always exploding in their faces. He remembers the destroyed cable near the love hotel. The dining hall had several cables that were cut. And the whole building had hanging wires everywhere. What was the culprit even trying to achieve?

Supposing they cut the cables, that must have done something!

"Hey... We know the culprit destroyed a large amount of cables in the building, so..." Shuichi started. "What if the culprit tried to deactivate the traps by cutting the wires?"

Miu frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well... The traps had lots of cables connected to them, right? Perhaps the culprit tried to deactivate them by cutting everything?" he suggested.

Kirumi put a finger on her chin. "Which means they managed to deactivate most of them, but what about those with the locks, then?"

Rantaro was nervously tapping his finger on his arm. "Perhaps by activating a lock, there's some kind of signal sent through the cables, but since they were not connected anymore, a backup mechanism activated, and that's what we all experienced this morning."

That sounded more than plausible. None of them had tried to destroy the traps, but surely Monokuma would have something to back things up.

Less frequent traps, but stronger ones. Like several of them activating at once.

At least they knew the reason why the pattern of the traps was so strange.

"Quick question though..." Kaito raised a hand. "When did they do all that?"

Miu bitterly chuckled. "It's a tradition to prepare everything at nighttime, isn't it?"

Unfortunately, she was right. Shuichi would probably never see night the same way.

That is, if they ever survive the trial.

He tried to brush off the thoughts.

...

"Um... What does all of this have to do with the door?" Kokichi asked.

Shuichi was starting to have a better idea of the situation. "Well... Supposing activating locks created bigger and more dangerous traps, perhaps reconnecting cables would do the same."

Rantaro nodded. "And since we talked about a quota of traps, the system would try to respect it by activating several of them at once."

Ryoma agreed. "That sounds like a solid pattern. I can see one of those traps being an explosion."

At least the mystery of the main door was solved.

By separating cables and make sure two of them would connect by pushing the door, the traps that were supposed to be activated in normal circumstances all activated at once...

... And thus created the explosion and blocked them out.

"I think I get it..." Miu muttered. "But what about the dining hall?"

"Well..." Kokichi frowned. "They used the same method, right?"

Rantaro shook his head. "Nope. Something doesn't add up."

Huh? Why couldn't they?

Maybe...

"You mean the nighttime rule, right?"

Ryoma crossed his arms, thinking. "The dining hall is closed at nighttime. They couldn't have entered it to tamper with the wires."

Then how?

Shuichi thought back at when Kirumi and him investigated here.

He had pulled the wire going up to the ceiling and pulled it- only for them to fall down.

"Perhaps they were cut from somewhere else?" he suggested.

"The culprit may have cut a lot of wires, but how could they be sure that they actually cut the right ones?" Kirumi countered. "You couldn't have known unless you entered."

There must be a way somehow.

He saw Rantaro checking his monopad. "... The rules say that the dining hall and the gymnasium are closed at nighttime. But are they locked?" he turned to the bear.

Everyone more or less did the same.

"Well?"

"Puhuhu... You shall ask, then I shall answer!~" he laughed.

"The rules forbid anyone from stepping into those rooms! But they are not locked!"

The medic slowly turned back to the group. "We have a plausible explanation, then."

"The killer could have opened the door and checked by pulling the wires from outside."

Miu frowned. "Aren't those wires attached to the ceiling? How can you pull a wire and check the dining hall at the same time?"

Kiyo put a finger on his chin. "My guess would be some sort of cane. But do any of your labs have this?"

Kaito perked up. "Yeah! There's a crowbar in my lab!"

At least this was solved.

* B i n g *

The clock ringed once more. This time the noise was a bit higher-pitched and less loud, thankfully.

5:30 PM.

It was pretty normal for a clock to ring at this time. It just felt weird to hear a bell in the middle of a trial.

Especially those trials.

The others tried to ignore it.

"Anyway..." Rantaro broke the silence.

"So the killer opened the door, used Kaito's crowbar to pull on cables to check which ones were linked to Kirumi's lock in the dining hall, and cut the correct ones?" he summed the situation up.

Shuichi nodded. "And when I pulled the wires, they came down pretty easily."

At least this mystery was solved.

And considering how many cables were cut, it was normal for the door to lock itself.

The culprit must have known that so many cut cables would block the entrances.

They were very smart, he thought.

"Say..." Kokichi raised a hand. "We've been talking about cutting cables but... Was there a way to do so?"

Kaito nodded. "There are a lot of wire cutters in my lab, and they were in different places. That must be where they got them from. One was even broken."

To think the killer took time to do all this when the academy was considered a nightmare... That was a terrifying thought.

"So, what now?" Ryoma asked.

"Now the window at the pool area." Rantaro replied. "We couldn't open it, so we had to destroy it."

Miu had suggested earlier that there was a possibility it always was unmovable but... Perhaps they should still investigate.

"Did any of you inspect it? I was out of the building the entire investigation..." the biker asked. "Besides I don't know if I would have been able to climb the rope anyway..." he muttered the last part.

"From what I've seen, there were two parts that probably shouldn't be together if we wanted the window to open." Kirumi explained as Miu nodded.

"Yeah! That was weird! But I don't even know if the handle was just some kind of decoration or if someone actually managed to do something to the window."

Rantaro hummed. "I see..."

"Um... May I ask..." Kokichi shyly raised a hand. "I'm sorry if this sounds dumb but... How can you even tamper with a window?"

Shuichi started thinking. "Well... Perhaps it has something to do with what Kirumi said?"

Kiyo narrowed his eye. "What material is it?"

Kirumi scratched the back of her neck. "Steel. Or at least metal. I'm not an expert in that field."

Then what could have been done... Think!

...

"Kaito, you did mention something about a used welder, right?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah... Someone used the welder from my lab! You think someone used it to fuck up the window?"

He nodded. "How else could someone have tampered with a metal window?"

Kirumi hummed. "That sounds more than plausible. If two parts were fused together, then there was no way for us to move it."

"It wasn't moving a millimeter when I tried. That must be it." Ryoma confirmed.

The more they went through the trial, the crazier things went.

What kind of person would do this? What kind of person would go out of their way to make all those ingenuous plans to make someone die?

Why was this happening to them?

It was hard to believe someone in this room actually did this.

He thought back at Tsumugi, when she last spoke to Rantaro.

You're smart and I always did my best to explore all the possibilities... to make sure you didn't create a giant complicated scheme. I know you are smart enough to do so. Heh.

...

Was it-

No. Now was not the time to accuse people over this. Focus.

But please let it not be Rantaro. Please.

...

Why was he hoping that it wasn't someone? What was the point? If they were here, that meant one thing.

Someone is going to be executed.

They would leave with seven people in the elevator. Not eight.

He should be used to it by now as Rantaro said but...

That was still a terrifying thought.

For now, he should focus on the trial.

"I have one question, though..." Kiyo raised a hand. "We all agreed they tampered with the window but..."

"How did they get here?"

Shuichi perked up.

"That's right..." Ryoma continued. "I was barely able to climb on top of the deckchairs and got here with the help of Kirumi."

The mercenary nodded. "Indeed. And the sole reason I was able to get here was because of my physical abilities, even though my shoulder still hurt because of yesterday."

No one knows about her condition aside from him and Rantaro. He almost forgot.

"And I couldn't have stacked the deckchairs by myself before any of you ask."

"None of us could have." Kiyo shook his head. "They must have used something else, then."

"Unless the window was truly unmovable in the first place and forgot it existed." Ryoma added.

"Considering how carefully they planned everything, I doubt so." Rantaro shook his head.

Kaito turned to the street artist. "Hey Miu... Don't you have a stepladder in your lab?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I mean yeah I have one but... I may or may not have gotten a lock and a key to lock the paint lab. The stepladder was in there."

Shuichi nodded. "Then we can rule out the stepladder as the way they climbed up..."

Then what?

There aren't a lot of ladders in the academy.

"What about the stepladder in the library?" Kirumi suggested.

"Ain't that thing super heavy? I know whoever did this was probably really determined but still..." Miu frowned.

Rantaro hummed. "That's not impossible, though."

Perhaps they should settle with this theory for now.

"Hey... I... have a question though..." Kokichi asked.

"How did they get out?"

Shuichi turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." he started. "They couldn't go by the dining hall or the gymnasium because of the nighttime rule, and they must have made the trap on the main door inside... So how did they get out?"

That was... Actually a good question.

Kirumi shook her head. "I don't think it would be that difficult."

"The culprit had a crowbar, right? If they simply stabilized the cable as they slightly opened the door to slip out, they could have left without a trace."

"Fair enough." Ryoma spat.

The courtroom went silent for a moment.

There are still a lot of things to find out. After all, they only talked about the blocked entrances.

From the rest of the traps, to everything else that happened.

Shuichi couldn't help but feel afraid.

These past few days, he thought they were finally getting together. They were finally becoming a solid group, helping each other up.

Miu... Kokichi... Kiyo... Kirumi... Kaito... Ryoma... And even Rantaro despite the 'incident'...

They were all getting together to combat despair. To fight Monokuma.

What happened to these times?

These times they were eating together in the dorms?

When they were playing cards in the only safe spot of the academy?

When they talked to each other about their own issues?

Why did this have to happen?

Why did anyone have to do all this?

Why-

* B O N G *

The bell startled them all once more, waking Shuichi from his thoughts.

He instinctively turned to the clock.

6:00 PM.

What was the deal with that thing?

Shuichi was starting to think it was specifically made to throw the doubt.

Monokuma was grinning, as always.

As for the others, it seemed that they were starting to think about this strange addition to the courtroom as well.

But now was not the time to talk about a piece of decoration.

They still had a lot to figure out, after all.

#ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 au #beta au #main story

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monomonomagines · 4 years

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Powered Alternate Forms for my Ask

Kaede Akamatsu : Kaede’s alternate form is made of light pink glowing crystals, almost fractal-like in their complexity. While she’s still humanoid, her features are almost entirely hidden due to her crystal’s shape. Her form’s ability is simple - while in motion, her crystals hum, almost sing, and her light glows stronger. Move fast enough, and it could be almost deafening, and blinding, as well. Here’s the thing though - the music formed by her motion is so beautiful that it often compels people to look, in a pseudo-mind-control deal, even when she’s shining like the sun. Her form’s flaw is equally simple - she’s fragile. Not that fragile, thank goodness, but a strong hit on the arm that might only bruise some could cost her her hand.

Shuichi Saihara : Shuichi sinks into himself, almost melting into the floor, until he finds himself in his alternate form - a shadow, with visible, if cartoonish eyes separating it from actual shadows. In his form, he gets several advantages - in the dark, he gains perfect clarity of sight, as well as being practically invisible. As well, as a 2 dimensional being, he can easily access places others can’t. However, his form’s flaw is inherent to it’s own being - as a 2 dimensional creature, he now lacks the ability to “interact” with the world, outside of speech, and people, likewise, can’t really interact with him - outside of, like trying to touch him in shadow form.

Kirumi Tojo : Kirumi got it worst than most - she’s not even shaped like a person in her new form. Instead, she became a hollow mass of quicksilver webs twice as big as the average person. The downsides are obvious - the webs are weak - struggling to pick up something even as heavy as a glass of water. For the Ultimate Maid, it must be something akin to a torture. Her abilities are two-fold, in this form. First, she can quickly and easily coordinate her webs for movement- essentially, multitasking, allowing her to put the strings that now make up her body to good use. Second, of someone enters the hollow inside of her, she can constrict - forcibly taking over their body, for as long as she wants.

Kaito Momota : The Luminary of the Stars got lucky, and became them - Kaito becomes a constellation, a collection of “stars” about an inch in diameter, forming the approximate shape of Kaito Momota. While stuck in this form, he loses the ability to touch others, lest he risk burning them with his powerful heat. However, he in exchange, he gains high speed flight, and the ability to slightly manipulate the “position” of his stars relative to himself.

Himiko Yumeno : Himiko seems to almost shrink down even smaller, and speeds up - she becomes a fairy of sorts, even growing wings. Magic really is real, huh? The downsides of this form are self-evident - she’s much smaller, only a foot high - and the form’s unrelenting speed contrasts with her, shall we call it, relaxed nature. However, aside from the ability to hover, these wings also grant Himiko the ability to release “fairy dust” - a glittering dust that puts people who inhale it straight to sleep.

Ryoma Hoshi : This form is kind of a cruel one for Ryoma - A violent one, underlying his criminal past. Specifically, this form appears to be made of pure “force” - visually, this looks like a 3-dimensional grid, in the shape of Ryoma. This form reflects - things that Ryoma picks up, or that touch him, at first sink in, before being blasted away at high speeds. However, with mental effort, this can be restrained. Of course, if being a reminder of how you murdered a ton of people isn’t bad enough of a disadvantage for you, this form has another issue - it even “reflects” light and sound - if Ryoma isn’t mentally putting effort in to turn off his form’s ability, he’s blind, and deaf.

Maki Harukawa : Both Maki’s lie, and the truth about her is reflected in this alternate form. Suited towards sneaking around, and killing, this form initially looks unsuspecting - essentially, it looks like if Maki were a Muppet - stuffing, plush, and all. However, this form can unfold itself to reveal an assortment of knives, daggers, and blades, which can be fired at high velocity. The downsides to the form honestly aren’t too bad, too - It’s just the generalized lack of self respect due to being a goddamn stuffed animal.

Rantaro Amami : While this boy is lacking in the memory department, that just means his form can give some hints! The form that Monokuma forces Rantaro Amami into could be described as something akin to an armored ATV - but made of a smooth, glossy material. While in this form, Rantato can’t move normally - it’s essentially like driving a car. However, in exchange, he’s gifted a perfect sense of direction, and, unbeknownst to him, he has no weak points - if you wanted to kill him in the ATV form, you’d have to grind it to dust.

Tenko Chabashira : Tenko was already skilled at the practice of Neo-Aikido. This form was tailored to best fit the martial art- at the cost of everything else. The form is essentially a large mass of limbs - hands and legs alike. While stuck like this, Tenko gains a perfect grasp on the concepts behind both classical Aikido, and her master’s Neo-Aikido, and can perfectly pull it off, as well. On the other hand, it perfectly follows the principles following that of the original Aikido - she can’t permanently damage anything, like this.

Gonta Gokuhara : Gonta finally gets the point of view of the insects he loves so much - becoming an insectoid version of himself. Aside from gaining a beetle’s shell, and antenna, Gonta also gains multiple arms, and compound eyes. The form gives him enhanced durability, thanks to the shell, and a form of danger sense and emotion reading, thanks to his enhanced antenna. However, this form is highly over-stimulating - especially due to Gonta’s new compound eyes, which his brain isn’t wired for.

Tsumugi Shirogane : Even someone who subsists off of references to other things must have something unique about them to become their form - In Tsumugi’s case, it’s her skill with costumes themselves that inspire this form. Tsumugi’s form is simply one of the mannequins that she uses so much, to display her art, and to glorify the characters she references. However, these mannequins can instantly summon any kind of clothing Tsumugi can think of, down to the last detail - However, these clothes are inevitably “stamped” with her - stitching ends up in the shape of her face, details end up referencing her - the like.

Kokichi Ouma : What is an Ultimate Supreme Leader without followers to lead? This form allows Kokichi to run his talent to it’s limit. At first, it may seem that Kokichi hasn’t changed at all. However, that assumption can soon be proven wrong - In fact, Kokichi’s alternate form makes 10 “ghostly” versions of himself, all of which can “overlap” each other, while still affecting the real world, giving him quite the numbers advantage. However two things hold him back here. First - the copies are weak - 1/10th the strength of the original, to be exact - together, they form exactly 1 Ouma. Secondly, it’s not a hive mind - Each Ouma has their own memories, and they can often lose time arguing amongst themselves, even though they’re all the same Kokichi Ouma.

Angie Yonaga : An artist making works for a god, this form gives Angie the opportunity to become her own greatest work. The form itself is a perfect life sized wooden sculpture of Angie, made with absolute detail. In this form, while Angie is completely immobile, she can “channel Atua’s miracles.” This takes the form of the ability to teleport from room to room, as well as the ability to “fire the word of Atua”, shooting beams of gold that, on contact, implants the memories of Angie speaking to you - after all, as a wooden statue, she can’t speak for herself.

Korekiyo Shinguji : An anthropologist studying humanity, this form encourages his studies in the outside world - too bad he’d have to murder to get out. Korekiyo isn’t too bad off, all things considered - He still has his human form - it’s just that his head is hollow now, and he has a hole where his face should be. No blood, or anything like that - it’s just a hole all the way through. Also, no hands. In exchange for that, however, he gains the ability to “see the past” in an item, seeing it in its prime, how it was used, and things people have said around it.

Miu Iruma : Bold and brash in one moment, quiet and submissive the next, this form was made to fit Miu’s personality to a T. At first, this form is just an amorphous mass of golden slime - Miu moves slowly, and it’s generally just a pain to be in. However, by putting a lot of mental energy into designing a robotic form for herself, she can shapeshift the golden slime she inhabits to an actual robotic body - the more complex the addition to herself is, the more mental energy she needs to expend to do so however. Put too much into the form, and she’ll end up with migranes from the effort. But limitless possibility needs a damper- can’t have one player getting too strong, after all. Here’s the thing. Every night, at 3 in the morning, all changes Miu has made to herself will revert back to nothing. She’s slime again. It sucks, but that’s how motivations work. Harsh on some, easy on others.

Keebo : Just a sweet robot boy, who wanted to be treated with respect as a human. This form twists that wish. Keebo was proud of being a robot - he wanted respect, not to “be human”. Therefore, his new form is that of a completely average human boy. However, to be human is to suffer - Keebo, every hour, gains symptoms of a different disease, losing the ones of the last hour. His power, on the other hand, is the ability to temporarily “pass on” his symptoms to someone else for the rest of the hour by touching them. Keebo definitely deserves better than this, but what can you do?

#ref for imagine #not an imagine #reference #goes to the previous imagine #submission

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tigerintokyo · 4 years

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Izumi Mitsuki [RabbiTube] RabiTV - Episode 1

Izumi Mitsuki [RabbiTube] RabiTV

Episode 1: Spending Time with Mitsuki

(other cards / parts in the directory)

Translation under the break.

Staff: .......That's all for the outline of "RabbiTube."

Staff: I'm planning to introduce a part of the video in "NEXT Re:vale" as well!

Staff: We are hoping to show a side of you that people usually can't see on TV. We leave it in your hands!

Momo: I'm looking forward to it!

Yuki: Really anything, it's okay to strip down and show everything.

Mitsuki: Hahaha, please be gentle with me! I'll have to take a look and study up a bit....!

Gaku: You know, Tenn, you were watching videos on RabbiTube the other day, right? It could be helpful as a reference. Did you figure anything out from it?

Tenn: .........I was just watching a cat video.

Gaku: What, it was just a cat video? That's not helpful.

Ryunosuke: .....No, the cat videos could be helpful too! Like with what kind of behavior can entertain or give people a sense of healing.....

Gaku: Wait, Ryuu. We can only use a few of them as reference.

Yuki: .....Cat Gaku, that would be nice.

Tenn: ..........Hehe.......

Gaku: Hey, Tenn, were you laughing at me just now?!

Riku: A cat......! Like, a video of Iori going to a cat cafe?

Iori: Please stop. Why would it be me?

Yamato: Wait, if it is a video like that, I don't want to do it......

Tamaki: I wanna do "Terrific Pudding"!

Sogo: ........If we're choosing, I want to try doing "The Top 100 Spices in the World".....

Nagi: I want to have a Kokona watch party!

Mitsuki: Isn't that just the same as always for you guys?!

Iori: .....wait.... a video petting animals is a little cliché, but it has a certain charm to it.....

Riku: Did you say something, Iori?

Iori: No, I didn't say anything.

Momo: Hahaha! Great! You all have some great ideas!

Momo: This is what I am talking about! I hope to show off the "everyday you" on RabbiTube!

Yuki: Well, I'm looking forward to working with you all this year as well.

IDOLiSH7 & TRIGGER: Thank you for this opportunity!

Riku: This year's birthday project is to become a RabbiTube creator......!

Sogo: We always have so much fun hanging out in the RabbiChat. I might miss doing it like that.

Mitsuki: ....... I might miss it too. Even though it's nice we can give a video to fans, I still want to celebrate with all of us together!

Yamato: Well, we've been doing it all this time, haven't we?

Nagi: ...... But, we've been doing a lot of work separately lately. I can understand how difficult it could be to schedule it....

Tamaki: So we can't eat the cake Mikki makes for us?

Mitsuki: I will definitely be making a cake! Right, Iori?!

Iori: Yes, of course. I’ll help you.

Riku: Hm.... Celebration....... celebration....

Riku: Aha! Okay, well, how about we take the birthday person somewhere? We can all plan it and go out together.

Riku: It might be hard to all go out together...... Let's ask the managers to schedule it so then the ones who can make it can all go out together!

Mitsuki: Going out.... Until now we've been partying in the RabbiChat, so it could be fresh and new!

Yamato: It would be a shame if we all can't go, but maybe deciding where to go together could feel like a party too.... For me, a beer brewery would be good.

Mitsuki: You can't just choose by yourself!

Tamaki: Then, we can take a lot of photos and videos for the ones who can't go. We could send them in the RabbiChat.

Nagi: OH! That's a wonderful idea. It'll make it feel like we are partying together.

Iori: People might be happy if we upload it on Rabbiter (twitter).

Sogo: Sounds like fun.....! How about talking to the manager about it tomorrow?

Riku: OK! ...... It's going to be another year of fun birthdays!

Mitsuki: Awesome....! I didn't realize there was a festival this close to us with outdoor theaters this big!

Iori: There are also food stalls and other small attractions.

Iori: Nii-san, I hope you can do something here with a movie that you like.

Mitsuki: .....Thanks, Iori, Yamato-san. You've really put a lot of thought into it for me.

Yamato: I didn't do anything. Ichi came up with the idea, since you're so into movies.

Iori: .....Nikaido-san was the one who came up with the festival though? So, I'm the one who didn't do anything.

Yamato: No, no, if you didn't have the idea, then I wouldn't have searched for it, Ichi.

Iori: But, all I could think of was like going to the movies or doing a pilgrimage of Nii-san's favorite movies.

Mitsuki: Iori...!

Iori: Ahh...

Mitsuki: Well, that doesn't change that you both really thought about it, right? Thanks! Really!

Iori: .....no...... As long as you enjoy it, Nii-san, then everything is OK.

Yamato: Ichi and I already did the RabbiTube video, so we had a lot of time on our hands. We can fully enjoy it.

Mitsuki: It's kind of funny that I'm going to be entertained by the two of you.

Yamato: Wait, do I have to entertain you?

Iori: Leave it to me. I've done a lot of research.

Tsumugi: I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting.... The parking lot is really far away....

Mitsuki: Oh, hey! Manager, you made it! Isn't it great?! Iori and Yamato-san found this festival for me!

Tsumugi: .......Wow.....! It's a really amazing place! It's really calm even with all these people! I can even hear the movies being played.

Tsumugi: It's the perfect festival for a movie lover like Mitsuki-san.

Mitsuki: Right? To be honest, I thought we would be going to a cooking studio or a futsal [1] field.

Yamato: Ichi was obsessed with finding a great movie.

Tsumugi: Did you have a reason for that?

Iori: ....... When I was young, I went to the movies with Nii-san, and I was really annoying to him.

Mitsuki: Huh? I don't remember what happened....!

Iori: The theater was so loud and dark, I cried and caused a scene.

Mitsuki: Ah........ I think I remember that! You really have a good memory!

Yamato: From that, it sounds like a really funny story.....

Iori: ..... Because I started crying, we had to leave in the middle of the movie, so we couldn't watch the movie Nii-san liked.

Iori: That was the last time I went to the movies with Nii-san.

Mitsuki: ........Iori.....

Iori: You might have not thought it was a big deal, but for me, it was really important.

Yamato: Alright, so today you'll have your revenge.

Tsumugi: So you had that kind of reason for all this....

Iori: Yes. I've already researched all the attractions and booths perfectly.

Iori: Nii-san, if there's something you'd like to eat or do, just let me know.

Mitsuki: .......haha. This place feels even more special than it did just moment ago.

Mitsuki: Iori, let's have fun today!

Iori: OK.....!

Yamato: Uh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I? It's alright for me to be here?

Iori: Far from it. Nikaido-san, you'll have an important role to play.

Yamato: Eheh........

Iori: They have a theater zone that is 18+.

Iori: I can't go in, so you'll have to take my place.

Yamato: There's a zone like that? Well, would you want the manager to go in with him?

Tsumugi: What?!

Iori: ......I'm not sure what you're thinking now, but it's a place that older people can also enjoy. It's not anything weird, like you're thinking.

Yamato: What the heck.....

Mitsuki: You don't have to be so obviously let down!

Mitsuki: Is it okay to go to that theater zone without Iori, though?

Iori: Yes. In the meantime, I have some things to get ready with our manager.

Mitsuki: What would that be?!

Tsumugi: You'll have to wait to find out! .....Alright, everyone, let's all enjoy this wonderful place together....!

Mitsuki: Ha....... It's like I'm in a dream or something....

Iori: The set recreation exhibition was really amazing.

Tsumugi: Yamato-san, thank you for saving a spot for us.

Yamato: Oh, I think I got a really good spot. You can look forward to it.

Mitsuki: Oh, Yamato-san, try this one!

Yamato: Wow, what is this? It's completely brown..... noodles?

Iori: It's a mix of two different types of noodles, stir-fried and topped with block-cut meat.

Mitsuki: A movie meal! They're selling recreations of the food in movies!

Yamato: Th--thanks for the food. ............ It's good!

Mitsuki: Right? This is so exciting!

Iori: Let's make this one at the dorm later.

Mitsuki: Good idea! We should call over Yaotome or Yuki-san!

Iori: That would be a lot of fun.

Yamato: It's like a movie club. I don't want to get involved, so I'll just hole up in my room that day.....

Iori: Nikaido-san, did you get a tent space in the theater zone?

Yamato: Wow, you already knew? There was a spot open that looked like a camping spot, so I reserved it. I heard you could play whatever you want in your own tent?

Iori: You got it.....! Thank you. I could attack you with a hug right now, Nikaido-san.

Yamato: What? It's that great?

Iori: Well, I won't actually hug you, though.

Yamato: I feel like I just got rejected.

Mitsuki: Oh, what would we do there, in that place you were just talking about?

Iori: .....I would like to show you a video that Nikaido-san, our manager, and I have prepared.

Yamato: Ah, that's what you're talking about....!

Iori: I'm surprised that Nikaido-san is so bad at guessing, but we've been recording birthday messages for Nii-san from a lot of different people.

Mitsuki: Eh..... But how? You guys have been so busy lately....

Tsumugi: Everyone has been really supportive, and they all wanted to say happy birthday to you, Mitsuki-san.

Tsumugi: Mr. Shimoka, especially, was into it....!

Yamato: It was good that you could do all this, Ichi.

Iori: No, this time it just went really well and it was the right time and place.

Mitsuki: ......Th--thank you.... really.... I, I don't know what to say....

Iori: Nii-san, all you have to do is smile. That's the best thank you.

Mitsuki: Haha..... ...... OK!

Yamato: Save your tears until you actually see it.

Tsumugi: Hey, let's all take a picture together to remember this moment....!

Tsumugi: OK, cheese....!!!

-end of Episode 1-

T/N

Futsal is an indoor soccer-like game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal

Please do not use my translations without my permission.

#i7 #IDOLiSH7 #izumi mitsuki #i7 cards #my translation #ainana #rabbitube

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commentaryvorg · 5 years

Text

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 5.9

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, almost everyone was in so much despair that they were legitimately suicidal, Maki definitely was not and cannot possibly have been okay with helping everyone die before they’d rescued Kaito, then the plot continued to be one massive lie as they saw the Hope’s Peak Flashback Light, which was a terrible piece of in-universe writing to pander to the audience, that had to be semi-brainwashing the characters to make them even care and fill them with a meaningless “hope” that’s nothing close to the actual point of the word.

We left off kind of mid-conversation as they were talking about this meaningless hope, specifically because things are about to become a lot more meaningful right here.

Maki: “We have to… save Kaito, too.”

Because finally, someone is talking sense!

Himiko: “He’s so stupidly positive. He’s just the kind of guy we need at a time like this.”

Keebo: “With Kaito by our side encouraging us, then even if we are the only people left… I think we can still find a new hope.”

Shuichi: (Yeah… that’s exactly right. I knew that… even in a situation like this, he’d think of something!)

And now it seems like they’re shifting slightly towards the actual definition of hope. They’re assuming that, with Kaito’s incredible levels of optimism, he’ll be able to think of some way this situation can end positively, some outcome that they’ll actually be able to hope for.

(And technically, in deciding to rescue him, they’ve now found something to actually hope for already – they’re hoping they can get their friend back! It’s just a more minor hope that doesn’t fix their overall situation yet.)

Maki mentions that she happened to see Kokichi leaving the Exisal hangar yesterday, which is how she knows they’re both in there.

Tsumugi: “By chance? Really? I bet the truth is you were worried about Kaito and were watching the hangar all day.”

Of course she was worried about Kaito, they’re friends, you moron. Anyone would be worried about their friend in a situation like this if they weren’t in too much despair and depression to find the energy to do so – which Maki was not, because she’s been through so much awful stuff in her past that it’s given her a certain level of resistance to that kind of feeling now. Shuichi was worried about Kaito too, and if he’d magically not been in despair then he would also have been watching the hangar yesterday and trying to figure out a way to rescue him.

Some lines a little bit later will make it clear that Tsumugi (and perhaps also the narrative) is trying to imply that the only reason Maki is worried about Kaito is because she has romantic feelings for him, but no, fuck off, that’s amatonormative as all hell and the fact that she does happen to have romantic feelings for him doesn’t change that.

Maki: “…”

Shuichi: (Looks like that was the case.)

Maki is blushing, because apparently she picked up on Tsumugi’s implication about the romantic feelings and is still not ready to admit to that part. Makiii, don’t let yourself get caught up in that nonsense; you did it because Kaito is your friend and nothing else is relevant here. This is exactly the kind of bullshit that could pressure people into thinking they totally must have romantic feelings for their friends when they genuinely don’t, which is not okay.

Maki: “It’s not like I was worried about Kaito or anything. I just… had nothing else to do.”

Maki has always worried about Kaito since they became friends and has even more or less admitted to it a few times. She’s only denying it so insistently now because Tsumugi is implying that if she’s worried about him then that’d mean she’s obviously in love with him because it’s not like you can possibly be worried about your friend at all. Ugh. Ugh.

Maki: “Also… I’m used to watching others, so it wasn’t any trouble. It’s important for assassins to watch their targets, and think of ways to kill them—”

I like how this starts out sounding like she’s talking about being a child caregiver, and then… oh. (I bet she did watch the kids a lot while she was caring for them in the orphanage, though.)

Maki: “…We’re going to wait until tomorrow morning? What about the hangar?”

…

Shuichi: “Maki… I know that you don’t want to wait a single minute more than necessary…”

Maki is really fixated on getting Kaito back as soon as possible. As it happens, there is a time-sensitive aspect here and sooner would be better, but she’s not aware of the fact that Kaito is dying and yet still seems to think time might be of the essence. She’s still worried about what Kokichi might be doing to him, isn’t she.

Maki: “Fine, that’s what we’ll do then… This time, we’ll definitely kill him.”

Shuichi: (Kill…?) “No, Maki, you can’t! Even if he��s a Remnant of Despair, that doesn’t—”

Maki: “But if we kill him, then everything will end. We have no other choice. For that reason… I will kill him.”

Maki Roll, no! I would say that this is Maki getting caught up in the incorrect buzzword-y definition of “despair” and believing that “despair” still exists as long as Kokichi is alive, even though that’s bullshit because despair is a feeling and not a person and they’re already no longer feeling it right now. But there might be more to it than that, because she did indicate earlier that she’s not convinced Kokichi is really going to leave things here. So long as she believes that Kokichi might do something else to try and hurt them and make them feel despair again, it is somewhat more justified that she wants this. At least in her fucked-up worldview where she’s been raised to believe that killing people is the go-to method of solving problems that don’t have an obvious peaceful solution.

Shuichi: “But… Kaito said that killing is wrong… remember?”

This is a really inappropriate way of putting it that makes it sound like killing is only wrong because Kaito said so. What Shuichi really should be saying here is two completely separate things: that killing is wrong, full stop – and also that Kaito in particular doesn’t want Maki to kill anyone and would be upset if she did. Merging the two ideas together makes it come out incredibly not right.

Maki: “… …Fine. If everyone thinks that way, then I’ll listen to you guys.”

Maki Roll! I wish this wasn’t a lie but it is! In fact, the fact that everybody doesn’t want her to kill him is possibly what spurs her to try and kill him alone, in the middle of the night, because it seemed that until then she was planning to do it when they storm the place tomorrow morning.

Maki: “But if it seems like anything dangerous is going to happen, then I’ll definitely kill him.”

This is a slightly more reasonable mindset – self-defence, if he was about to hurt someone. But she could still definitely do that by just knocking him out. Dammit, Maki, you and your fucked-up upbringing that’s made you think this way.

Himiko: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a heated Maki Roll.”

Himiko gets glared at for it this time, but we’re slowly working towards Maki being okay with Himiko calling her that!

Shuichi: (I didn’t think we’d be able to stand together as one again. And… it’s thanks to Maki. While we were sedentary, feeling sorry for ourselves, she was planning…)

Yep! Turns out being written with the most tragic backstory ever can actually be useful in terms of making you desensitised to horribly despairing situations that would break anybody else’s spirit.

Shuichi: (I suppose it might also be thanks to Kaito… Because Kaito was worried about her, she promised to work hard to do her best…)

Of course! If it weren’t for Kaito, Maki wouldn’t be trusting and co-operating with everyone like she is now!

(Although I wonder if this is a mistranslation and the original actually meant to say “because she was worried about Kaito” – and if that’s what it means, then that’s less relevant. She would have been up and about regardless because of her resistance to despair, and it’s only because of that that she was then able to spend time worrying about Kaito. Shuichi is worried about Kaito too, but that alone wasn’t enough for him to fight off the despair.)

Maki: “…Let’s do our best. Then the three of us… can train together again.”

NO. DON’T DO THIS TO ME, GAME. Not when they’re not ever going to be able to train together as a trio again, because no matter what happens from here, Kaito is not going to make it. Aaaaaa.

In his room, Shuichi decides that there’s still something he can do, namely scouting out the Exisal hangar.

Shuichi: (And… I’m worried about Kaito. He’s hurt, and… he’s sick… I’m sure he doesn’t want me to worry about him, but… I have to.)

Aww. I love how Shuichi has picked up on the fact that Kaito hates it when people worry about him – but of course Shuichi can’t help worrying about Kaito anyway, Kaito is his best friend, how could he not.

And look at how Shuichi is perfectly aware that Kaito is still sick. Kaito’s claims of being back at 100% at the beginning of this chapter really did not fool anyone.

It’s also lovely that it’s not even occurring to Shuichi that Kaito might still not want to talk to him. So many awful things have happened that their falling out is barely relevant to Shuichi any more next to the fact that he just wants to see Kaito again and know that he’s okay, and he’s unthinkingly assuming Kaito would feel the same. (Which, of course, he does.)

If you try and head somewhere unrelated, in which the game always gives you a line that’s its way of saying “this isn’t what you should be doing, go progress the plot already”, the line that serves that purpose during this particular part is a repeat of most of what Shuichi just thought here, about how Kaito wouldn’t want him to worry but he has to. So it seems like being worried about Kaito is really the main thing on Shuichi’s mind and scouting out the hangar is mostly an excuse to get the chance to see if he’s okay.

(It’s almost like being worried and wanting to check on them is the natural response to your sick and injured friend being held captive by the big bad evil mastermind and not an inherent indication of anything other than platonic feelings. Fancy that.)

Oh, man, I decided to examine a dead student’s door to see what Shuichi had to say about them, except I happened to randomly choose Gonta’s:

Shuichi: (Gonta… I finally understand your pain. I understand the despair you were holding inside. If you had known… that you were a symbol of hope… maybe we could have helped…)

I didn’t know this was here! It’s so lovely that this exists to acknowledge that Shuichi understands now what Gonta went through! Aww.

Knowing that he was a symbol of hope should not have changed anything about the despair he was feeling and the fact that he wanted to save everyone else from feeling that despair, though, just like it shouldn’t have changed anything about how Shuichi feels. I wonder if Gonta, with his more simple and straightforward outlook on things, would have been able to pick up on this. Maybe he’d have been kind of confused by all this stuff about symbols of hope and epic battles and would still have been simple-mindedly focused on the fact that everyone they knew is dead.

…But then again, even if he felt that way, if everyone else told him that he’s a symbol of hope and that he can still make a difference by holding onto some vague, nebulous “hope”, Gonta would almost certainly have been spurred to do his best anyway. Whenever someone told Gonta he could be useful, he’d always cling to that without questioning it, after all.

Keebo: “We must rescue Kaito, no matter what… If we’re to defeat despair and find a new hope for ourselves… I’m certain we’ll need him by our side.”

At least Keebo realises that Kaito genuinely is a source of hope.

Shuichi: “…Yeah, you’re right. It was thanks to Kaito that we’re all working together again!”

It’s interesting that Shuichi says this; he’s apparently talking about the last time Kaito rallied everyone together, which was before this whole mess happened, but that’s still important to him! Have I mentioned that Kaito is still a hero even though he never has any idea what he’s doing.

During this bit where you can walk around as you head to the hangar, Himiko is hanging out in front of Tenko’s lab, which is cute. I wonder if she went to apologise to Tenko for having given up for a little while.

Tsumugi: “Maki, who was so tsundere in the beginning, is now the one pulling us along. But, it’s probably because of Kaito’s influence.”

Shuichi: “Huh? Why do you think that?”

Shuichi, you should know that Maki’s helpfulness is thanks to what Kaito has done for her, you shouldn’t be asking this. Apparently he is awkwardly being twisted into asking this as a setup for the bad writing that is about to ensue.

Tsumugi: “Huh? Why? You can tell just by looking… Maki’s interested in Kaito.”

Because this is not the fucking point! Maki would have changed just as much thanks to Kaito’s encouragement and training whether or not she had any romantic feelings for him, and that is obvious. Just because Tsumugi happens to be right doesn’t mean that her coming to this conclusion for these reasons makes any kind of sense.

I also cringe at the phrasing “interested in Kaito”, as if Maki’s trying to get something from Kaito, like she’s entitled to it just because she feels this way. Admittedly that phrasing is just a product of general background amatonormativity in the way things like this are usually talked about and not necessarily inherent to what the game’s doing here. Still, I’m pretty confident that Maki in particular would not actually be thinking like this just because she has feelings for him, since she is seemingly on the aromantic spectrum and doesn’t see things in that usual way, and is also horrendously selfless and never thinks that what she might want is ever important.

Tsumugi: “Otherwise, she wouldn’t be watching the hangar the whooooole time like she is.”

Yes, because it’s not like she could possibly be worried about him and staking out the hangar to figure out Kokichi’s movements and the best way to rescue Kaito if they were “~just~” friends, right???? Shut up.

(Shuichi, you’d better not tell her that you’re about to go scout out the hangar too since you’re also worried about Kaito. That might just give her even more Stupid Assumptions.)

Tsumugi: “Huh? Are you shocked? Were you guys in some reverse love triangle situation?”

(Or possibly Tsumugi is also heteronormative and that wouldn’t occur to her; I’m not sure who she’s implying Shuichi is into here. At least this one she goes on to admit is a joke, but, ffff.)

Tsumugi being like this is incredibly frustrating, but it makes a certain amount of sense, because the point of her character is that she’s a fan, and this is exactly the kind of thing fans do. (And shouldn’t. Shipping itself is totally fine, ship whatever you want if it makes you happy, but insisting that perfectly platonic things are definitely proof of romantic feelings is amatonormative, please don’t. People can care about each other to the ends of the earth without being in romantic love, and this needs to be acknowledged more.)

Tsumugi is also going to insist later that Maki’s feelings for Kaito are totally her doing, which she might already be trying to sow hints at here, but I’m of the firm belief that that’s bullshit, too. I’ll talk about that more in chapter 6.

Maki is the only one who’s not out and about somewhere during this part. The fact that she apparently doesn’t want anyone to see her right now is a little concerning.

The Exisals are guarding Monokuma. It’s entirely possible they were doing that from the moment Kokichi came back from the tunnel, making this the reason why Monokuma hasn’t been there for the announcements and hasn’t been able to try and influence the game since then.

Note how it is only four Exisals doing this – the fifth one (the red one) is still inside the hangar, because Kokichi is preparing to execute his plan and knows it’s going to be needed. Even if Maki wasn’t going to storm in and complicate things, he is already ready to do this.

And now to talk to Kaito!

Kaito: “Don’t shout, stupid! Kokichi will hear us!”

Kaito says this, but this isn’t going to stop him from sometimes talking quite loudly during the rest of this conversation anyway.

Shuichi: “Tomorrow morning… we’re all coming to rescue you.”

Kaito: “All of you?”

Kaito’s voice sounds so surprised and moved to hear that it’s all of them, as if he never expected the others to care enough to make the effort to rescue him. But of course it’s not just your sidekicks who care about you, Kaito! You’ve had a huge impact on everyone!

Shuichi: “We had all given up. But not Maki. She did everything she could to get you back. …It’s because she believes in you, Kaito.”

I mean, really it’s because Maki is resistant enough to despair that she hadn’t given up, and from that position the most useful thing she could be doing was working on rescuing Kaito, but. She still does believe in him. That is still a very true statement.

Shuichi: “She knows that you would never give up, no matter how bad things got.”

Kaito: “Y-Yeah! Of course! I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! Even if the world has ended and humanity has gone extinct, I can’t give up!”

Of course not! But of note is his slight stutter as he begins to say this, and the fact that he only even says it after hearing that Maki believes he wouldn’t give up. Kaito is definitely having a much harder time staying optimistic about this than he would like to, and he only starts forcing it through once he hears that one of his sidekicks is expecting it of him. He has to keep living up to that expectation, no matter what.

Kaito: “It’d be a crappy story if the hero gave up so easily!”

He’s still trying his hardest to be a hero, even after all of these incredible hardships he’s been through! In fact, I think this might be a sign that Kaito has stated to shift his view of heroes just slightly – that he’s realised that the most important thing for a hero isn’t necessarily that he succeeds, but just that he never gives up no matter what’s thrown at him. What makes a hero story crappy isn’t that the hero struggles, just if those struggles cause the hero to give up and lose.

(Also, the “story” part is quite relevant. Kaito’s thing of seeing himself as like a hero in a story is delightfully appropriate to the game’s theme.)

Shuichi: “Yeah, that’s right, Kaito.”

Shuichi agrees! Both that Kaito is still a hero, and, I like to think, that good hero stories involve the hero never giving up. Shuichi likes novels, after all, so he’d know – far better than Kaito ever used to – that the heroes who struggle and suffer make much more compelling and inspiring stories than the heroes who effortlessly win at everything.

Kaito: “Don’t you worry! I’ll do something about all this! That’s a promise!”

Kaito, you wonderful moron, you don’t need to! Shuichi just told you they’re all coming to rescue you! All you need to do is sit tight and wait!

Kaito: “All you guys are working so hard, so I can’t just sit back and relax!”

But of course he can’t just do that – he always feels the need to do something about the situation, and to do it himself so that he can feel like he’s making a difference. He’s still supposed to be the hero, isn’t he?

This hasty promise of his culminates in his basically inconsequential attempt to fight back against Kokichi with the crossbow tonight. But note that he clearly hasn’t actually thought of that plan yet, or he’d be asking Shuichi to go and bring him a crossbow instead of having to ask Himiko later.

Shuichi: (There’s… something I want to ask him… I don’t care if he’s overconfident, or acting… I just want to hear him say, ‘Don’t worry, it will be okay.’)

See, Kaito really is still a hero to Shuichi! Shuichi still needs and benefits from Kaito’s encouragement and optimism, even when he’s perfectly aware that it’s all a façade. Sometimes just hearing those words even when you know they’re not true is all you need, and Kaito is the best at giving them. Since he knows they’re not true but is choosing to invest in them anyway, Shuichi isn’t seeing Kaito’s words as lies, but as an inspiring fiction. (Kaito sees them more as lies, though, because he thinks they’ll only work as long as Shuichi believes they’re true.)

Kaito: “It’s just… I’m happy you guys wanna save me, but stay safe, okay? Getting close to an Exisal is dangerous, even if you’ve got an Electrohammer.”

Oh, Kaito, of course you would still worry about everyone except yourself in this situation. He’s glad they care about him, but he still doesn’t like the idea of them risking themselves just for him.

Shuichi: “Ah, by the way… are you feeling okay? Apart from the injury, obviously.”

Yes, that very vague and nebulous injury where we never actually know what kind of injury it even is. But that aside, what Shuichi is actually asking here, albeit indirectly, is, “How’s your health?” He totally knows that Kaito is still sick.

Kaito: “Who, me? Yeah… of course. It’s nothing.”

But of course it’s fine. Of course it’s nothing. It’s definitely not so horrendously bad that he’s barely even going to last a day from here, nope, he can’t have Shuichi worry about him at all or risk ruining his high spirits, especially not at a time like this.

Kaito: “Anyway, Kokichi should be back soon, so we better end our chat.”

Shuichi: “Ah, okay… Sure. … And hey, Kaito… About what happened with Gonta—”

It’s appropriate that Shuichi only awkwardly brings this up when they’re supposedly about to end their conversation. He’s just had this whole chat in which Kaito is happily talking to him again, so things seem fine, but he still doesn’t want to end it without trying to address what happened between them. Perhaps the fact that Kaito is finally talking to him again is what gives Shuichi the confidence to bring it up, even though he’s still not sure exactly what to say (because I certainly hope Shuichi isn’t about to try and apologise for the absolutely nothing that he did wrong).

Kaito: “Shuichi, I leave the rest to you.”

This is the first time Kaito has said Shuichi’s name since pushing him away at the end of chapter 4. And yes, you guessed it – in Japanese, this is him using the name “Shuichi” again, and not “Saihara”. He is immediately letting Shuichi know that everything is okay between them.

To talk specifically about Japanese-Kaito a bit more, because this thing with Shuichi’s name is a delightful bit of extra nuance which is sadly (but unavoidably) missing in the English: I imagine that Kaito regretted calling him “Saihara” from the moment he said it, because that gave the implication of “I don’t care about you any more,” which he must know would have hurt Shuichi and he never wanted to do that. But he’d have also spent early chapter 5 not feeling like he deserves to call him “Shuichi”, because that’s a mark of the close, trusted friendship that he feels like he’s broken by letting him down. So Kaito’s inability to talk to Shuichi would have been somewhat convenient for him in this regard, because it gave him a perfectly good excuse to not address Shuichi by either name when both of them would have hurt to use.

Shuichi: “…What?”

Shuichi is so bewildered that this is how Kaito chose to respond to this. He was preparing himself for a painful, heavy talk about what happened to Gonta, but instead Kaito is just… praising him…?

Kaito: “While I’m gone, you gotta support everyone. Especially Maki Roll… She can be reckless sometimes.”

The “while I’m gone” part could sound on the surface like he’s just talking about until they rescue him, but… I think we all know what he really means by that. He means, “When I’m gone”. Because he knows he won’t last much longer and that Shuichi is going to have to take charge and keep fighting without him when the time comes.

This is also not the first time Kaito has asked Shuichi to support Maki while he’s not able to do so himself, as if Maki still needs some support with her issues and Shuichi is a hero enough that he’d be able to give it.

(And I am amused by Kaito having the audacity to remark on her being reckless sometimes. Look who’s talking.)

Kaito: “You’re an impressive detective, through and through.”

…Yep, Kaito’s response to Shuichi bringing up Gonta very much is all about him telling Shuichi how awesome he is. This may sound like he’s just shifting the topic away from the Gonta issue, but in fact this is Kaito responding to that in the best way he ever could. Because the core issue of that trial was never what happened to Gonta and was never about Kaito being angry at Shuichi for doing what he did. It was about Kaito not being able to accept that Shuichi is stronger and more of a hero than him. And that’s exactly what he’s able to do now. By praising Shuichi’s strength and reliability, Kaito is essentially saying that he’s no longer letting himself be upset by that and Shuichi shouldn’t worry about it any more.

That said, that message doesn’t really get communicated to Shuichi here, because Shuichi never realised the problem was on Kaito’s end in the first place, and Kaito is still not actually admitting to having been jealous or apologising for lashing out quite yet. Still, Shuichi can at least tell from Kaito’s positivity and encouragement (and using his given name in Japanese) that things appear to be good again and therefore Kaito apparently isn’t angry at him any more (even though he never was in the first place, you idiot).

But one thing that unfortunately doesn’t ever really get covered is why Kaito is okay with this now. It’s a pretty significant shift for him, but he’s been offscreen for almost two ingame days so we never get to see any hints of how that shift occurred (and he’s certainly never going to talk about it, because he’s Kaito).

That’s not going to stop me from thinking about this anyway! To be fair, I think a lot of it rather simply comes down to suddenly facing an even bigger, even worse problem which puts the problem between himself and Shuichi into perspective and makes him realise it’s not quite as big of a deal as he was making it out to be. The notion that he’s let Shuichi down suddenly doesn’t matter nearly as much when also the entire world has ended and they’re two of literally only seven people left alive.

I also think, though, that this would have put things in perspective for Kaito in another way. Up until then, he’d basically managed to irrationally convince himself that Shuichi is an invincible hero who doesn’t need him. But a revelation this huge and awful would be hard on anyone, no matter how heroic they are. At a time like this, everyone is going to need support from their friends, and everyone is going to be able to give it, just by being there. And the only thing someone can really offer in this situation is baseless optimism because this is too massive for anyone to “do something about it”, yet that baseless optimism is still going to help.

So, while this is all speculative because we never see any indications of what went on in Kaito’s head during these two days, I think it makes sense that the impact of what he saw outside that door would have shifted his previously very black-and-white perspective about heroes and sidekicks, and strength versus weakness. He should be able to realise now that even though Shuichi may be stronger and more of a hero than him, that doesn’t mean he won’t still need and benefit from someone else’s support, and it doesn’t mean Kaito can’t still be someone who can give that to him, even if all he has to give is words of encouragement and a smile.

Kaito: “You might not only reach the truth, but something even beyond it.”

This is a very interesting line! Apparently Kaito believes that there’s something “beyond” the truth. It’s almost like he’s also aware that what they saw outside isn’t actually the real truth.

Now, he definitely doesn’t know that for certain, or he’d be telling Shuichi he thinks so (unlike someone), but, consider. Kaito has still managed not to fall into despair from that awful supposed-truth, despite not being numb to despairing situations like Maki is, and despite not having seen the Flashback Light which filled everyone with artificial motivation. This is a testament to his ridiculously stubborn optimism, which even manages to work in a situation that’s this completely hopeless. Kaito’s is a mentality which utterly refuses to let him properly acknowledge painful things that are right in front of him – that’s why he couldn’t accept Gonta’s guilt, after all. He’d rather cling to the slightest possibility of something better, even if it goes against all reason to consider it possible in the first place, purely for the sake of not giving up.

So I think Kaito managed to keep himself together in this situation by stubbornly telling himself that maybe what they saw outside isn’t quite the whole truth after all, despite having zero actual proof that that could be the case. It’s completely baseless optimism, but a baseless optimism that he clings to all the same simply because he’s Kaito and he refuses to fall into despair. And if the outside world they saw really isn’t the whole truth, if there really is a real, less hopeless truth behind that, then Kaito sure as hell doesn’t have a clue how to prove it – but he knows that if anyone can, it’s Shuichi.

Kaito: “And don’t forget… you’re not alone! Don’t try to do everything yourself. It’s only gonna wear you out. When times are hard, you gotta rely on your friends.”

Despite how he believes in Shuichi’s potential to take charge of it all and take everything from here, Kaito still also knows that Shuichi is liable to put all of the pressure on himself and carry the burden alone. So Kaito’s still telling him not to do that, albeit in a very different way to how he was back in chapter 4. Back then, Kaito was always insisting that he was there for Shuichi, that he’d carry the burden for him – but now it seems Kaito’s finally accepted that it doesn’t necessarily have to be him, so long as Shuichi has someone and isn’t alone.

This definitely also has a lot to do with the fact that Kaito is dying and knows he’s not going to be able to support Shuichi any more before long, no matter how much he might want to. In fact, this particular sentiment is something Kaito’s going to repeat to Shuichi in the actual final conversation they have, suggesting that this is the last thing he wants to make sure Shuichi hears from him and remembers going forward.

Which implies that, even during this conversation… Kaito isn’t sure if he’s ever going to get another chance to talk to Shuichi. He’s worried that he might not make it until next morning when they’re coming to rescue him. His illness is so bad by this point that it’s a real possibility to him that it’s going to kill him before then.

And yet, that’s only half as long as he actually manages to make it from here. Kaito is so much stronger than he thinks he is – just about exactly as strong as everyone else thinks he is, in fact. The outward stubbornness and determination he gives off is really not so much of a lie, even if he doesn’t believe it himself.

(The belief that he’s dying this quickly might also be part of why Kaito insisted he was going to carry out a plan of his own when he doesn’t need to – because he’d never be able to bear the alternative of just sitting and helplessly waiting to die. He needs to feel like he’s doing something and have something to focus on and distract himself, no matter how pointless he knows it really is.)

Kaito: “I believe in you. So I’m leaving the rest to you for now.”

Kaito says this in a surprisingly subdued way for his usual standards, which actually just makes it come across as even more earnest and genuine and adorable. A lot of what he’s said here has been an overly-cheerful façade to help Shuichi stay positive – but Kaito’s belief in Shuichi is 100% the truth.

Kaito: “You got it, Shuichi?”

And then he puts a bit more enthusiasm into his last sentence here, to keep pushing Shuichi forward.

Shuichi: (Kaito… thank you. Thank you for being my friend.)

This is adorable (they are FRIENDS did you know), but it seems to be saying that Shuichi is simply grateful for Kaito generally being his friend ever since they started training. That’s not actually what this line is supposed to be about – in Japanese, Shuichi thinks, “Thank you for calling me by that name again” and is therefore specifically being grateful and relieved that they’ve made up after their falling-out. That’s even more adorable and goes to show just how hurt Shuichi was by the thought that their friendship had been broken (even though it never had; they were just both being idiots). This line could still have got that sense across in English despite the name thing not being a thing – something like, “I’m really glad we’re still friends,” perhaps.

Kaito: “Alright, now get going before Kokichi comes back!”

Shuichi: “You’re right. See you tomorrow, Kaito.”

Yes. Yes, you will see each other tomorrow, even though both of you are going to be afraid that won’t be the case at one point or another between now and then.

(Note how it’s Shuichi who says see you tomorrow, not Kaito. Right now Kaito is the one who doesn’t quite fully believe that’ll happen.)

Shuichi: (After leaving Kaito with a smile, I returned to my room.)

Awww he’s so happy that they are still friends and that Kaito seems to be doing okay (but he totally isn’t, the selfless idiot).

Meanwhile please imagine Kaito turning away from the window and just kind of collapsing against the wall as he’s hit with the full weight of the fact that this might have been the last time he’ll ever see his best friend.

(It still would have helped to get to talk to him here, though. Up until now, Kaito must have been afraid he might never see Shuichi again at all and wouldn’t even get the chance to make up with him – that he’d die while still not quite even being Shuichi’s friend. That would have been so, so much worse.)

Shuichi: “We go at dawn.” (I won’t hesitate anymore. Kaito has taught me…)

Kaito has taught Shuichi so much! If only Kaito realised that.

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 5 #daily life #commentary

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osakaso5 · 5 years

Photo

Momo Tea Party Rabbit Chat Part 2: The Great Aristocrat, Momorle

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Tsumugi: Momo-san, good work! I just reviewed the script for the Garden Tea Room short drama!

Tsumugi: Yamato-san will be joining Re:vale as a part of the Flavor Tea Team

Tsumugi: But I'm sure you'll also have plenty of scenes with IDOLiSH7 outside of that, so I hope you'll treat us kindly!

Tsumugi: And with all due respect, I decided to contact Yuki-san first today..!

Tsumugi:

Momo: I know, Yuki just bragged to me about getting you to rig the game~ lololol

Momo: Good job, Maneko-chan! I was just filming NEXT Re:vale!

Tsumugi: So Yuki-san told you about rigging the game..!

Tsumugi: I'm sorry, I don't usually pay much attention to what order I contact you in, but... ><

Momo: Sorry! It's all because me and Yuki got way too into our game of seeing who you'll message first, so don't worry about it~!

Tsumugi: So that's why you asked me if I'd contacted Yuki-san the other day ><

Momo: Yep, lololol We've been turning everything into little contests for a while now

Momo: We're even now, but it turns out that's because Yuki asked you to contact him first the next time, lol

Momo: It was right before the shoot, but we couldn't stop laughing at how unfair that was, lololololol

Tsumugi: From now on, I'll message you both at the same time...

Momo: That would be really tough! It's fine! Yuki's competitive side has been really handsome, but I think we're about done with this fad!

Tsumugi: Your fads change awfully quickly..!?

Momo: Right now, we're all about the short drama! (`・ω・´)

Momo: It seems like we'll get to spend plenty of time with both IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER, so I'm really excited for it! Let's all get along!

Tsumugi: Yes! We're also looking forward to it. We aim to learn a lot from you!

Momo: I read the script, and I was surprised that the princes don't find out that they're brothers until later!

Momo: I heard it was a comedy, so I assumed we'd be a big, happy family that shares everything and participates in friendly slapstick.

Tsumugi: That's right, all of you were born and raised separately!

Tsumugi: You first find out that you're related to the king and each other when he invites you to dine with him at the castle.

Momo: And that's when we're given the task of setting up a tea party and some kind of entertainment for the king and the other princes.

Momo: We're split into groups of 3 with a lottery, and Re:vale gets teamed up with Yamato.

Tsumugi: Yes! You three make up the Flavor Tea Team!

Tsumugi: The princes are tasked with tea parties and accompanying entertainment, which will be used by the king to determine a successor.

Momo: My character's called Momorle! It's so cute, I feel like I could turn into a sorcerer!

Tsumugi: As the son of a great aristocratic lineage, Momorle doesn't think he needs the throne, so he wants someone else to succeed it!

Tsumugi: It seems like a bit of a tricky role, but what do you think?

Momo: I guess I did think it was a little difficult, since I'm usually not the type that wants to skip out on work and let someone else handle things (￣^￣)ゞ

Momo: But I'm childhood friends with not only Tenn's character Tennard, a traveling aristocrat, but also Mitsuki's character Mitsulph, a commoner and local hero. And we have a happy reunion scene together.

Momo: So I don't think my character only cares about what benefits him.

Momo: But maybe I shouldn't think about it too hard, since it's a comedy, lol

Tsumugi: It's not in the script, but that might be true if you really try to get a grasp on Momorle's story..!

Tsumugi: It's important to flesh out your characters, and the director and production staff seemed nice enough that you can probably just ask them about it!

Momo: Hmm, you're right! Thanks!

Momo: Worrying isn't going to get me any further, so I'll get Okarin to contact them for me later~!

Tsumugi: Yes! Momorle is an interesting role, and I can't wait to see you play him!

Choices/outcomes:

1. It's a lovely comedy!

Momo: Yeah! The script was funny! As long as we're filming with all of us, I want this production to be talked about, and get even better as we go along. That's why I can't wait to get on set!

2. If you were the king, what sort of trials would you come up with?

Momo: I wonder what someone needs to become a king!? I think I'd just make them play team sports and have a drinking party together.

3. If you were the king, who would you choose as the successor?

Momo: Uuuuuuhhh, um. I don’t think he'd be up for it, but probably Yuki. I don't think I could handle seeing someone else become the king and begin ordering him around, lololol Though being made to pick Yuki-san in the first place is unbearable to me.

Momo: If I remember correctly, the Flavor Tea Team is going to hold some kind of music performance.

Momo: Yuki just put some implicit pressure on me by talking about how excited he is for that!

Tsumugi: Yes! I'm told you'll seem like an elegant orchestra at first, but quickly turn out to be more of a kindergarten concert.

Tsumugi: Yamato-san is playing the castagnettes, Yuki-san is playing the triangle, and you get a melodica!

Momo: That's right! I was wondering why Yuki didn't get the keyboard instrument, lol

Momo: When it comes to music, Yuki tends to get really serious over small stuff, so I really have to hit this one outta the park... ε=ε=ε= ε=┌(;￣◇￣)┘

Tsumugi: Yuki-san told me he was very excited see you play!

Momo: Thanks for giving me that final blow, lololol

Tsumugi:

Momo: It's fine! Momo-chan will do his best, so his darling dearest will fall in love with him all over again..!!

Tsumugi: I look forward to that, but try not to overwork yourself..! ><

Momo: You got it! I'll make it into a stunning performance that'll bring a smile to everyone's faces!

Tsumugi: That'll be just perfect!

Momo: ☆*:.。.o(≧▽≦)o.。.:*☆

Momo: Welp, I need to get back to our shoot, so bye for now! ─=≡Σ((( つ・`ω・´)つ

Tsumugi: Alright! Thank you for taking all this time to reply to me!

#idolish7 #momo #tea party #translation #re:vale #rabbit chat

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junkobears · 6 years

Text

Here Lies Dreaded V3 Discourse

So I have seemed to cause a huge kerfuffle in the hardcore Ouma conspiracy theorists standom, and a banal (if condescending, but seeing the response to it honestly justifies it more than anything now. “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it”, you better believe I can take it and will now PROPERLY dish it out right back at you) comment about one of Tsumugi’s anime references has led to someone launching a hilariously personal attack at me for Daring To Disagree With A Theory That Was Posted On A Public Website. Someone who I wasn’t even initially responding too, at that. And has now blocked me before even allowing me to respond and clarify my original comments. Don’t want to deal with the consequences of being a repugnant, rude person I guess? Shock and surprise for Tumblr.

The link to the post is here, but I’ve taken the liberty to screenshot it just in case it gets deleted later, in hope that maybe there’ll be some reflection on this person’s part that this really is not an acceptable way to respond to people who have a dissenting opinion? Anyways, I will be responding to the personal attack post and that will be the last time I interact with this group, because clearly it’s not worth it to actually have a discussion about our respective ending theories. I ain’t got time beyond this for tedious insecure fucks these days.

Anyways, my response is under the cut to save my poor followers’ dashes. Sorry to drag drama onto my blog but I can’t really let this slide. I’m also tagging @jacks-plays-drv3 just because I assume the twin comes with the other with these two, and I want my response to have been seen.

Screenshot In This Link - This post is long enough without the image taking up more space, haha.

Let’s start with this mess, shall we? And I will go into painstaking detail.

Paragraph 1: So this already starts off with a whole lot of needless aggression and projection. So I’m not even going to attempt to be nice back. But: maybe I haven’t proven anything because I literally had not typed up a response to clarify my original comments @ Jacks yet before the rabid attack dog was unleashed? Like, there was literally no attempt from you to have a discussion that was a genuine offer from me, I was not out to get you actually. I also honestly just laughed at being called shallow, JUST LIKE THAT HORRIBLE CHARACTER TSUMUGI SHIROGANE right off the bat as well. That’s a compliment really, honey. Weirdly I don’t share the same opinions as you do. Tsumugi is my fave and unlike you I actually think about and HAVE analyzed/discussed her character in detail previously, which I would’ve been happy to share had you not immediately went into Blind Raging Idiot Mode. Guess we can’t have it all, huh?

As for needing proof that she makes the Flashback Lights... nevermind the CG that literally shows her making them during Chapter 6, but do you have proof that Monokuma is the person who makes the Lights instead of just placing them for the students? I doubt it, somehow. Cuz a lot of your theories don’t actually have any concrete proof. Quelle surprise. Probably why anyone not immediately on board with your headcanon gets you so goddamn angry, huh? Cuz it’s completely baseless and you know it at heart.

As for the Ouma comments, actually I have read the assorted creator comments regarding his character even if you like to believe I’m a slobbering moron who turned my brain off as soon as I finished V3, so yes I already know that his name was chosen to sound mastermind-like. Maybe this was to emphasize and make his fake mastermind reveal appear more legit on first read? JUST A THOUGHT, SWEETIE. You know the entire fucking point of Chapter 5? You’re so slavishly devoted to your theory that you actually are incapable of reading the basic fucking text from the actual game, but again. Not a surprise. Considering what I’ve read from your blog (really, who are you again? I only knew Jacks’ blog from before all this, so you taking such a personal offense at my comments is honestly hilarious but baffling at the same time. It ain’t all about you, babe.)

As for the lab door, here’s an simpler explanation (Occam’s Razor, look it up): The star sign constellation pattern was there as a hint for the player to connect Ouma’s messages from his dorm room to the vault in Amami’s lab once its opened and you can see the star signs in there. Or perhaps it was designed like that by TDR to make the students make that connection as well in the original script and think that Ouma was the mastermind cuz of the connection to Amami’s lab? Literally, there are a lot of possibilities, cuz it’s a NOTHING DETAIL THAT DOESN’T ACTUALLY MATTER IN THE BIG PICTURE. Considering Kodaka’s track record with writing these games I don’t actually believe it’s anything major, personally. He doesn’t really strike me as the type to hide this completely separate story underneath the actual story we got, and with such vague nothing “”””””””””””clues””””””””””””. You and Jacks do yourselves (well you already do cuz you love to jack yourselves off with how CLEVER AND BETTER you are than the rest of us plebs), sure, in believing otherwise (You have way too much faith in him as a writer. Or you’re desperately trying to pretend V3 wasn’t poorly written cuz you don’t like the Ch. 6 twist) but also realize that its nothing more than extrapolation on your part that it actually means anything beyond the.... SHALLOW (horror scream) connection given in-game.

And really, who the fuck cares if it doesn’t match the title of ‘Supreme Leader’? It’s already a ridiculous talent as it stands already. The entire point of his character is that everything about him, his motives and his talent is contradictory and weird. That’s why I like him, actually. He isn’t an abused martyr who never lies like you goons believe and he also isn’t the evil monstrous chessmaster some of the fandom thinks. It’s Complex Motives™ .

Anyways moving on. Pointing out an anime reference =/= DISREGARDING PEOPLE’S ANALYSIS. Pointing out that most of the plot leads up to and supports the fiction twist =/= uncritically agreeing with everything Tsumugi says. Actually, after examining the game’s story for myself I came to the conclusion that all the clues in it really only support her version of the story, really. There are a few things I think she lied about, but it is not CONCLUSIVELY proven she lied in my opinion and so I don’t really give a fucking toss until new canon comes out and reveals more of the V3 story. Oumatwin don’t real, gurl. If there was actually anything in-game beyond one obvious joke line in the NON-CANON!!!!!!! bonus mode supporting that he existed, maybe I’d respect your theory more. Even though you don’t deserve respect after your little tantrum.

Paragraph 2: Jesus I already am investing way too much time into this response at people who don’t actually deserve it, oh well. But laughing hard at the attempt to try and act as if you weren’t being a snobby asshole with your comments. Again, HUGE AMOUNTS OF PROJECTION at me about things I literally have never done and said. I have never interacted with you or Jacks prior to my initial comment. No fucking clue why you brought up the SaiOuma shit, cuz I don’t even LIKE Saihara as a character and don’t like that fujobait ship in the slightest? But I guess it’s easier to assume that all your critics are the exact same fucking person with the same opinions, so you can feel more persecuted, huh? You literally did not even wait for me to respond or check my blog that would’ve easily disproven these dumb-as-fuck assumptions. And get off the fucking high horse (pun completely intended), you lot are not the only people in this fandom who are capable of critical thought. How completely self-obsessed can you be?

For someone who claims to have a lot of critical thinking skills compared to this nasty fandom, you really are terrible at parsing other people’s words. You fucking know when I said “group of anime fans” that I was referring to Team Danganronpa, the organization literally mentioned in game as running the game. The group Tsumugi is part of. She literally has a company badge FFS. THEY ARE ANIME FANS. THEY ALL STARTED KILLING GAMES CUZ THEY ALL LOVE THIS SHITTY SERIES. I can’t believe this had to be explained. And the rest of this paragraph word salad is the most pedantic argument. It’s really not hard to believe an organization in this series would have access to all this tech. And yes, it’s a popular TV show in-universe, of course it’ll have funding. And the whole damn point of the ending is that the V3 world is consuming fiction the wrong way by having real-life killing games, missing the entire point of the DR series and fiction in general? What’s your actual point?

Paragraph 3: Again more assumptions, I wasn’t ‘crying’ about being called gullible. I was just pointing it out as part of your extremely unnecessary smug dismissal of my post. That you really haven’t disproved at all, btw. Honestly the childish response you both had to me just makes me laugh out of pity more than anything. And if I was really upset I wouldn’t have offered to have a discussion with you or even continued to reply after Jacks initial (vague) post about what I said. So don’t put words in my mouth. And yes my analysis was not completed in my initial comments. It’s Tumblr fucking replies, I can’t fit the entire fucking dissertation of Tsumugi opinions in there for you to jeer at in there. Again, I offered to share my opinions and got this as a response, so lol. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to trying to get people to take you and your theories seriously.

Paragraph 4: Especially since you immediately jump to PULLING THINGS OUT OF YOUR ASS (seriously, fucking snorted at this part. I want this whole diatribe on my fucking gravestone. It’s by far the most hilariously petty thing ever said about me on this site.) instead of letting me explain my position. If you just want to be in the creepy cult Oumatwin echo chamber you should’ve just said and blocked me ASAP instead of word salading vague bullshit justifications for why actually people who disagree with you are just stupid crybabies who can never hope to understand your genius. Again, my initial comments didn’t whine about not being taken seriously at all, I was pointing out the hypocrisy/rudeness is all. And again, get off the high horse about critical thinking. I have thought about Tsumugi’s character and how she relates to the over-arching plot and how truthful it is, and the overall ‘mystery’ of V3 (spoiler: there is none. it was all solved by chapter 6). I have thought about this game. In fact I dedicate too much time to critical analysis of this series that doesn’t actually deserve it cuz lately I find Kodaka to be a hack writer. Your assumptions are flat-out wrong, dear. And AGAIN. I WOULD’VE. SHARED AND DISCUSSED IN MORE DETAIL HAD I BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY. But rude fucks gonna vomit shit out of their mouth cuz they have literally no self-control and have meltdowns at the slightest difference of opinion, I guess.

Your extreme hatred for Tsumugi as a character truly shines through. Clearly no thought has been put into her from your end, even though you and Jacks rage about people not taking Ouma seriously as a character. Double standards as always with fujos. Nothing I’m not used too, she is incredibly unpopular in this fandom. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. So I’m not even mad at that. I have never said otherwise. Even you and Jacks are valid in having your own theories and thoughts. The ending of V3 is designed entirely so everyone can analyze the game for themselves and draw their own conclusions about the story and themes. That’s the whole point. Even though I personally dislike that as a writing decision on Kodaka’s part because I would prefer the story to be conclusively ended and the epilogue is a giant turd that misses the entire point of Chapter 6 and enables shit (anal pun intended, dumbass) like this to start spreading as “Analysis”. But hey, to each their own.

However I will not be interacting with either of you again after this post though, even though I was willing to discuss beforehand, because you both have shown yourselves to be incredibly vile with the way you approach other people in this fandom, and especially those who don’t share your conspiracy theory. Despite the absolutely ironic comments I’ve seen from Oumanous in their later, also terrible posts about how you need to understand your opponent before engaging, which they literally failed entirely to do before engaging the firing squad at me and other commentators who responded. So much for the sanctity of discussion, huh? Enjoy your circlejerk. Everyone else who follows me in this fandom though? Please consider blocking these two if you are also a sane human being who is capable of polite discussion/disagreements. They are not worth your time otherwise. They were really not worth my time writing this post, but I felt I had to say something.

In conclusion: Out with the both of you.

#fandom drama #V3 spoilers #long post #i cant believe i have ended up in dr fandom discourse #i have sunk so low lmfao #allowed to reblog this post also I dont mind #unless you are the two chucklefucks this post is about #out. with you.#but I will not be afraid to stand up for myself when I get shit like this #anyways its done bridge burned

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oumakokichi · 7 years

Note

Wait where did the thing about Ouma getting to the Amami's vault come from? Pretty sure the messages were already there and he just found then at one point (after trial 1 most likely) and used one to help in his plan to make people think he was the mastermind and the other he just didn't mentions until after he knew he could die. Heck if he knew Amami's real talent he would have said something to Kaito before getting pressed but he only talked about then being watched by a audience

It’s not a definite thing that happened, but just a theory! In fact, there aren’t really a lot of definitive answers about what was going on with Amami’s lab, or with Ouma when he falls completely off the grid for the first half of Chapter 5.

But the thing is, the second clue (“b is twins” / “ro wa futago”)definitely doesn’t seem to be there in the boiler room in the earlier chapters,both when you play as Kaede and when you play as Saihara. You can’t investigatethe wall directly, but you can take a look at it from afar, and it looksdecidedly different from Chapter 6 where it’s clear that there’s somethingwritten on it. If that clue had actually been there all along, then some partof it would’ve shown, regardless of whether there was an “investigate” optionor not.

The first clue (“a is horse” / “i wa uma”) is clearlypresent as early as Chapter 2, as the characters keep commenting on it everytime Gonta notices something new about it, but the second one isn’t. Also, thenote left within Amami’s lab (“There’s a clue hidden somewhere in the school”)seems to indicate only one hint, rather than multiple. This means that ifanyone left the second clue at all, it would have to be Ouma. Tsumugi had noreason to leave a second clue to the puzzle in Amami’s lab after Amami himselfdied, moreso when she seems to be particularly strict about how those clueswere “meant for his eyes only.”

It’s also worth noting that the two clues don’t necessarilyseem related in the original Japanese version of the game. “A” and “b” might bea logical connection for English-speakers, but there’s no automatic jump from “ro”to “i” in Japanese. Had these two clues been left separately by Tsumugi forAmami’s sake, it would’ve been very difficult to know that they even led to thesame thing, or that they were part of the same puzzle—at least not withoutseeing the dials for oneself. It wouldn’t make much sense for Ouma to leaveclues for the entire group’s sake leading them to those clues, and to thesecond clue very deliberately right after his death, unless he knew exactlywhere they would lead.

This is just my own opinion, but without having seen Amami’slab for himself at least once, I don’t think Ouma could’ve known that thoseclues were absolutely necessary for everyone else to find if they wanted to piecethings together. On their own, they just seem like nonsense, or perhaps twoclues to two separate puzzles, and neither of them seems particularly vital tothe group’s survival. But it turns out that they are, in fact, extremely vital—Amami’s lab and therevelations Saihara discovers in it are arguably the most important clue theyfind, in fact, as it not only clues them in on the existence of other killinggames but on the “two-person rule” as well.

There’s no guarantee at all that Ouma would’ve told Momotaanything about Amami’s lab or talent. In fact, there’s quite a lot he didn’t tell him, both because he wasparanoid and played things close to the chest even at his death, and probablybecause of time constraints as well (he really didn’t have a lot of time towork with before dying, due to both the bomb and the torture poison). He didn’tmention anything at all to Momota about the bug-vac or other inventions he washaving Miu work on at the time, nor did he say anything about the evidence hepiled up in his room. He certainly didn’t seem to have told him anything aboutthe suicide note he left in his room leading to the other clues.

He also, in fact, died under the press while stillpossessing the last remaining bomb, and the remote control that could hijackthe Exisals, though I put this down as much to Kodaka probably thinking, “Welp,everyone would be way too overpoweredif I let them keep this stuff.” But either way, it’s clear that Ouma didn’tgive Momota all of his trump cards or tell him absolutely everything about hisplans, and that he went to his death still keeping much of what he knew asecret.

One reason I suspect he told Momota his theory about thegame being a show for people to watch is precisely because I think he watchedAmami’s video message. It’s clear that he suspected people were watching themas early as at least Chapter 2 or 3, where he makes comments to that effect.However, it’s not until after seeing Monokuma bend over backwards to go alongwith his plan to make the game “more interesting” in Chapter 4, as well as theevents of Chapter 5, that seem to have cemented his opinion that yes, it wasdefinitely a show. Seeing Amami’s video for himself and realizing that Amamihad participated in another killing game before (one that stuck just as closelyto its own rules) would perfectly explain why he would have a lot morecertainty about it.

Again, there’s nothing directly shown that can prove Oumawent in there and saw Amami’s lab for himself. This is all only a theory. Butgiven that it was foreshadowed in Chapter 3 that he has no problem enteringlocked research labs, and that we know he attempted to investigate every singlearea of the school as much as possible, using Miu’s technology and his ownabilities, I think it makes much more sense to assume that he went in there assoon as he could, rather than to assume that he left it completely alonewithout even trying to investigate it.

I think the most solid point suggesting this though is stillthe second clue, about the twins dial. This clue definitely doesn’t seem toappear anywhere in the boiler room prior to when Saihara goes looking for itafter reading Ouma’s letter. If it wasn’t there in the earliest stages of thegame, or foreshadowed even once, then that suggests Ouma wrote it there himselfin order to provide the second piece of the puzzle. And the only way he could’veknown what was on the second dial, or what that clue led to, was if he saw itfor himself.

This is all just my take on it, anyway. It’s certainly notdefinitive! But there’s nothing to directly disprove it at the moment (unlessKodaka comes out with some new side story about what Ouma was up to whenever hewas off-screen) so I think it’s a fun guess to have until we get more concreteinformation. I’m personally inclined to think he had to have checked Amami’slab out at least once, given how openly curious he was about his memories andhis talent, as well as the fact that he could pick locks and had plenty ofopportunities to go in there when he was hiding from the rest of the group.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope I could clear up yourquestion a little more!

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #i wasn't sure whether to put this in the meta tag or not #but i guess since it got pretty long it's okay #blackgohda

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takonei · 4 years

Text

Beta AU - Main story, Chapter 4, deadly life (Part 6)

Note of the author: Fuck this trial and fuck everything

Chapter 4: Dance, dance, hanged puppets - Deadly life

...

After a short silence, Shuichi took a deep breath.

"Perhaps... We should make a quick sum up of what happened?"

Kirumi nodded. "From my understanding, the blackened sabotaged the building at nighttime, messed with the traps, and made sure we couldn't get here. During the morning, they went along with us as we tried to find a way to enter the main building. When Tsumugi finally started making her way to her lock, Ryoma and Kiyo were in the main building as well. One of them activated the fire by connecting cables, but we do not know who."

Kaito shrugged. "Perhaps there are some things we missed?"

The violinist thought back at what they found in the building. It's not like they could use alibis, because both refuse to talk. He was starting to fully understand Rantaro's frustration but now was not the time.

Something they hadn't talk about yet...

"Hey, Kirumi... Do you remember the dried blood on the second floor?"

"I do, yes. Do you think this could be a clue?"

Miu frowned. "You two found dried blood?"

Shuichi nodded. "Yeah, according to Kirumi it had been here for at least a few hours before we got here."

Kokichi pondered. "But we didn't have access to the building this morning..."

"Which means it was before this morning, then!" Kaito exclaimed.

The two suspects remained silent.

"Hold on..." Miu leaned forward. "Kirumi, you had your shoulder injured at some point, right? Is it from there?"

She shook her head. "The incident was on the third floor, not the second. Rantaro can testify to that."

"Yup." the medic confirmed. "Besides, the injury was caused by a spear shot from a wall. There was no blood on the floor. It was only on the wall."

If it wasn't Kirumi, then what?

"Um..." Kokichi hesitantly raised a hand. "Maybe the blackened got themselves injured while preparing the traps last night?"

That sounded like a solid theory.

"Which means the culprit has an injury, then!" Miu exclaimed.

Rantaro put his elbows on the podium, head on his hands. "Considering Kirumi got a spear shot from a wall and no blood was on the floor, then we can assume the trap injured a lower part of his body. Most likely below the waist."

Then they just had to check-

Shuichi turned to Ryoma, who was adjusting his socks to cover his legs as much as possible.

As for Kiyo, his pants were covering his entire legs, so it was useless to try and check.

He didn't miss the glare Rantaro sent Ryoma.

"... Still not willing to help us, then."

The weapons maker stood back up. "Nope."

Did they have even something else to base their theories on?

It looked like they were out of clues.

He glanced at the others, still trying to figure out what happened.

The clock was still ticking. The noise was making Shuichi more and more nervous by the second.

They didn't know what the clock meant. Nor why the two were so stubborn. It felt... odd.

Perhaps they should think about something else? If the concrete evidence was missing, they would have to use their instinct.

That's what got them through the second trial, after all.

Not now.

"Maybe we should go back on this morning's events? I don't know how we can find any other solution otherwise..." he suggested.

"Agreed." Rantaro immediately replied. "Not like we got any other choice at this point."

Everything started when Rantaro and Ryoma went to the main entrance.

"Rantaro, was Ryoma acting strange when you two went out?" Miu asked.

He thought for a moment. "He was behaving normally, from what I had experienced. I did open the door because I was closer to it at the time. He didn't show any strange behavior when I did. We simply rushed out of the way, as normal people would."

Could this be a proof he was... innocent?

It was way too soon to give a proper judgment. Perhaps they should continue.

The others nodded and agreed it was indeed too soon to vote.

"Next was the dining hall, right?" Kokichi asked. "It was Kiyo and Kirumi in there..."

Kirumi tapped her finger on her arm. "Ryoma had suggested we go to the dining hall, but I do not think it has anything to do with the case. It was our only possible access at the time."

Kaito pondered. "Ryoma did insist on going there himself, though."

"And Kiyo insisted on the fact that he shouldn't go." Rantaro added. "Which doesn't help us."

"I did insist on going here. From my riddle, I knew there was a chance I could activate my lock." Kirumi continued.

Shuichi frowned. "But Kiyo insisted on going with you..."

The medic eyed the taller man. "Would it be to make sure his plan was going fine?"

The therapist didn't answer.

"... I don't even know why I asked." he spat.

Both insisted on going. Ryoma had backed down, but does it really prove Kiyo is the culprit?

They both tried to think about every single time the two had even said a word since this was all they could get out of them.

Both were acting normally, from what he can remember.

"Kiyo was the one suggesting we all get the locks before trying to get to the main building, right?" Kokichi noted.

Rantaro narrowed his eyes. "I do remember, yes. We may have all agreed at the time but I can see why this looks strange, now."

Once again, Kiyo didn't reply.

"Hey... Rantaro, Shuichi..." Miu turned to the two. "You two were with Ryoma and Kiyo when we went our own separate ways to get our locks, right?"

Rantaro nodded. "I was with Ryoma. Yes."

He pondered for a moment. "However his attitude was still the same as ever the entire time."

His eyes were kept on the weapons maker, trying to decipher even the slightest bit of emotion on his face. Kiyo was a master at reading people, so perhaps he could have done something if it wasn't for the fact that the two were working together.

Disgustingly ironic.

"What about you, Shuichi? Did you find something strange about Kiyo?" Kaito asked.

"Well..." He started thinking. "He did suggest how we should proceed but... Nothing about that seemed to have impacted the case. He recommended a path that would help us not waste time, though."

... Although that would be natural for him -culprit or not- to suggest the quickest solution. So that didn't mean anything.

He perked up. "But... Now that I think about it... When I mentioned the possibility that the pattern of the traps changed, he quickly dismissed it by mentioning the main door but... That probably doesn't mean anything either."

Rantaro glanced at his left. "I see."

His voice carried the same heaviness from before. The only difference was the fact that he composed himself enough to continue the investigation. But it was clear he was still affected by what happened.

Kiyo, much like Ryoma, was still silent.

"But... In the death road of despair I..." Shuichi continued. "... Nevermind. That's probably not important."

"Every single piece of information could be important. Even if it takes slightly more time, we need all the details." the mercenary advised.

He hesitated for a moment.

"... When I went down the ladder, Kiyo had told me he would be here just in case but... When I activated the lock, when the floor collapsed and when I came back up he was away... Even though he told me he would be right here." He nervously chuckled. "It's stupid, I know..."

There was a silence that made him even more uncomfortable. He knew it was stupid. He knew his hunch was just out of cowardliness. He was just-

"But still... Kiyo, the therapist who always offered his help, not being directly here..." Miu looked at the ground. "... It doesn't feel right."

Why was he even away? He had seen him approach the manhole from the back of the 'room'. What was he even doing?

...

Was he checking something? A part of his plan? There was no other possible solution, right?

Right??

"From what I'm seeing, there is more evidence of Kiyo being the culprit than Ryoma." Rantaro bluntly said.

And yet that evidence felt flawed. There was nothing concrete. Only assumptions.

"Do you think it is enough to proceed to the vote?" Kirumi asked.

The medic narrowed his eyes. "... It's not like we have that much evidence. So-"

"One minute."

Kiyo raised his hand, speaking for the first time in a while.

"Are you really willing to gamble your lives on such a bet? I know the situation is desperate, but this isn't like you guys."

"Who are you to talk? Do you have something to hide?" Rantaro glared at him.

"You are willing to put your lives at risk on assumptions, and no concrete evidence. I am simply saying it would be dangerous for you."

Why speaking now? What was Kiyo trying to achieve?

"He is right, though." Ryoma added. "Without any concrete evidence that he did it and not me, there is still 1/2 chances you vote wrong. Or more accurately..."

"2/3 chances you vote wrong. Either I am the blackened, he is the blackened, or we are both the blackeneds."

Shuichi's heart skipped a beat. He was right. 1/2 chances to make them all die was already a lot, but 2/3 chances was way too much.

What kind of evidence did they even have?

Shuichi thought back at all the evidence he had collected until now. He went to Kaito's lab, near the love hotel, in the dining hall, explored the main building and Rantaro's lab. Surely there was something he missed.

...

Hold on. A concrete piece of evidence... That's it!

"I'm not letting you guys bet your lives like that."

His attitude was strange. Way too strange. But with that, he perhaps can prove them all who the real culprit is.

He had to convince them. He can do it!

Argument armament start!

"All of you are willing

to bet your lives

on assumptions!"

"You all seem to

have lost your minds."

"Without any kind of concrete evidence..."

"You are simply marching to your deaths!"

"You are all assuming

I did it because

of my 'attitude'..."

"When Ryoma could simply

have been an excellent actor!"

"We both could have done the deed, not only me!"

"You are dismissing way

too many parts in this!"

"We are accomplices,

we might as well

have worked together

for this!"

"There is no concrete evidence Ryoma never participated in this plan!"

Used welder in Kaito's lab

"The welder in Kaito's lab!" he exclaimed. "Ryoma is an expert in engineering, right?"

Kaito's eyes widened. "You mean-"

He nodded. "If Ryoma really participated in the plan..."

"... He would have replaced that part of the welder you mentioned back then. But that wasn't the case."

Rantaro looked at the weapons maker. "Which means whoever did this was not a pro when it comes to mechanics."

"So Ryoma never actually participated in the plan, then..." Kokichi muttered.

...

They had it. The final piece of evidence.

He noticed Kiyo was eyeing the clock a lot. 8:20 PM.

They still hadn't figure out everything about this trial but... They had their culprit. And that's all that mattered.

"Perhaps... We should recap the entire case." he suggested.

-Closing argument-

The culprit started putting their plan in place yesterday, during nighttime.

Their goal was to make sure Tsumugi would not access any of her locks and thus get her executed due to the motive's rules. In other words, making sure she wouldn't be able to reach her lock before 3 PM.

They explored the entire main building to see which locks were available from here. I'm not sure if Tsumugi was supposed to be the victim or if she was simply unlucky to be the one with both locks here.

They started by cutting an enormous amount of wires in the main building, using the wire cutters from Kaito's lab.

They used the trap quota to their advantage. If they restrained the traps, then a lot of them would activate at once if they activated just one, like a chain reaction.

However, the culprit made a slight mistake when messing with the traps. They must have accidentally activated one, injured themselves in the process, and left a bloodstain on the ground of the second floor.

But that didn't make them give up. They were already way too far in their plan to stop.

They then proceeded to lock all the entrances to the main building.

To lock the dining hall, they used a crowbar from Kaito's lab to check which cables were linked to Kirumi's lock, because they couldn't enter the room due to the nighttime rule.

By cutting the right ones, they knew activating the lock in the dining hall would result in the door being locked, and making us unable to get to the rest of the building.

Then, they took care of the window at the pool area, since it was also a way to enter the building.

They couldn't do much to it, so they used the welder from Kaito's lab to fuse together two parts of the main structure, making it impossible to open. The only solution we had was to break the glass.

Ironically, that welder was the proof of the identity of our culprit, since they didn't know they had to replace certain parts.

To get to the window, they used the stepladder in the library. It was heavy, but not impossible to move.

They then trapped the first room in which Tsumugi would go to get her lock: Rantaro's lab on the third floor.

The culprit cut all types of cables in there and added gasoline- which was from Kaito's lab too, I suppose.

That was made as a plan B, in case we managed to get to the main building.

The culprit, wanting to put all chances on their side, also made sure nothing could be used as a way to get to the window.

Which is why they checked Gonta's lab. It did have a wooden ladder in here, so they took saws from Angie's lab to cut it into pieces and hide them in one of the barrels in front of Kaito's lab. Because surely, we wouldn't try to search through them.

The next and final step of their plan they had to do in the main building was to trap the main entrance.

Since they couldn't trap it using a lock, they had to proceed differently.

Instead, they put two cables on the ground and created a puddle of water.

One cable was in the water, and the other was dry and waiting for the door to push it in the water. The water would allow the current to pass between both cables and thus activating a lot of traps at once.

They then left the main building, having no other business here.

However, they went back to the pool area to use the same type of trick in the storage room. That way we would have even less equipment to use to help us get to the window.

They didn't need to use water due to the door having only one way to open it. They simply placed the cables to make sure they would connect once someone opens it.

Their plan was finally put in place, and they could go back to sleep as if nothing happened.

The next morning, today, we all went to get our locks, not aware the entire academy had been sabotaged.

First, Rantaro and Ryoma went to the main entrance. But just as Rantaro opened the door...

... The first trap activated. The cables behind the door connected, and the saturation of traps created an explosion due to too many of them activating at once, completely destroying the main entrance. We lost our first way to get to the main building.

Then, the culprit and Kirumi went to the dining hall to check if the entrance was okay for us to use. The culprit insisted to go with Kirumi to make sure their plan worked.

And it did. Once Kirumi passed her card, the lock activated another good amount of traps and thus locked this door. And that's how we lost our second way to access the main building.

The culprit acted as if they found the situation strange, although knowing full well what had happened.

The last way we had to enter the main building was by using the window in the pool area.

The culprit suggested we get our locks first just in case because they didn't want us accessing the main building. That was also a way for us to waste time.

There wasn't much to do at this point, so they went along with us as if they didn't know what was happening.

I was with them at the time, and I didn't notice anything strange...

When we got to the pool area, we checked the storage room to see if something could help us. However, just as Kirumi opened the door, the cable trap activated and ruined our chances to use anything that was here.

After she had managed to still get to the window thanks to the deckchairs, we realized we couldn't open it.

We then got on our search for tools to get us all in the main building. However, due to the huge amount of traps activated, it took Kirumi, Rantaro, Kaito, and Ryoma an insane amount of time to get back, which was exactly what the culprit wanted.

Once they got back, we managed to create a way to the main building, and Tsumugi was finally able to reach her lock. However, this was not over in the slightest.

The culprit had a plan B to make sure Tsumugi wouldn't get her lock.

They, along with Ryoma, went inside to help us find another easier way to get to the building.

But that was a ruse. They pretended to follow Ryoma for this cause, but that was not the case.

That was actually to connect the cables and activate the explosion.

They had installed everything in Rantaro's lab and knew which cables to connect to activate it. I do not know if Ryoma was a witness or not, but in either case, they managed to get this part done.

After the explosion happened, everyone rushed outside, Ryoma and Rantaro helping Tsumugi get out.

The culprit knew the monokubs would intervene to extinguish the fire, which would take an insane amount of time. And we were all stuck outside, unable to do anything.

3 PM arrived, and Tsumugi hadn't been able to get her lock at all. That's when Monokuma came to execute her.

The culprit had used Monokuma's execution to plan a murder, making them the real blackened, and didn't have to find any sort of alibi for the murder since they did not kill Tsumugi themselves.

Because their murder weapon was Monokuma.

And the real blackened...

... Is you, Korekiyo Shinguji, the ultimate therapist.

"..."

Everyone fell silent, staring at Kiyo.

"I'm... I'm right, aren't I?" Shuichi hesitantly asked.

"Now hold on a moment."

Ryoma got the attention back to him.

"I could have just not replaced the necessary parts of the welder because I knew it would incriminate me. That doesn't prove anything."

"Ryoma, please shut up." Rantaro spat.

Kiyo was starting to panic even more, that much was obvious by now. "That's right. That's what I meant by 'actor'."

"Still not giving up, aren't you? Just admit it already."

Kiyo slammed his hands on the podium. "I told you I am not-"

* B i n g *

The clock rang. Indicating 8:30 PM, and 36 seconds.

Kiyo froze, staring at the clock for a moment.

"..."

"It's... fine. It's over."

He turned to the others. "You are right. I am the one responsible for Tsumugi's death."

Shuichi's eyes widened. Why give up all of a sudden? Did the clock have anything to do with this?

"Kiyo, are you sure about this?" Ryoma looked at him, concerned.

"It's fine. It's not like I can do much by now. I do have to thank you for your help, but everyone knows the truth, now."

"I am the blackened."

Rantaro narrowed his eyes. "Prove it to us then."

"Show us the injury from when you messed with the traps."

The therapist nodded.

He put a knee down and pulled his pants up to show his leg. And true to his words, there was a bandage stained by dried blood.

He slightly took it off to show the injury to Rantaro. "... You can guess this is a recent injury."

The medic stared at the leg for a moment.

"... I believe you."

Shuichi could only stare at him with wide eyes.

Kiyo, the therapist who always volunteered to help them psychologically handle their issues, was the one responsible for Tsumugi's death.

He couldn't believe it.

The others were looking at him in both shock and confusion. This sudden change of attitude was... Not normal.

He had spent the last 4 hours defending himself and making sure no one discovers the truth, Ryoma helping him prove his innocence, and now, he gives up without complaining?

Ryoma looked unsure. Surprised even. Like he didn't even expect him to radically change his position.

What exactly was his role in the trial? If Kiyo planned all of this alone, why was Ryoma even helping him now?

He tried to think.

...

"Let's get this over with." the therapist muttered. "Monokuma, you can start the vote."

Shuichi perked up. He slammed his hands on the podium. "Wait, hold on-"

"One can do!~ It's... Voting time!" The bear cheered.

He panicked. Somehow it felt wrong to vote. But he didn't have a choice. The others seemed to feel the same- except Rantaro, who didn't hesitate.

He clicked on Kiyo's icon.

“Now then, it seems the voting has finished. Let’s see the result.”

The screen turned on, letting them see everyone's icons.

8 votes for Korekiyo Shinguji.

“Who’ll be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!?” Monokuma exclaimed.

VERDICT

The wheel turned for a few seconds before slowing down… And landing on Korekiyo.

The coin machine let out its amount of monocoins and its distinct jingle.

"Well, look at that! You voted correctly! Congratulations, you guys!"

Korekiyo was looking at the ground, refusing to face anyone.

"The blackened who killed Tsumugi Shirogane is Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate therapist!”

#ndrv3 #danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 au #beta au #main story

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commentaryvorg · 5 years

Text

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 5.4

Last time, in chapter 5’s first day of free time, which should by all rights have finally been a segment with barely any Kaito focus, multiple invitation dialogues had me talking about heroes and sidekicks, we hung out with Maki and heard adorable stories of her best friend from the orphanage and the sacrifices she made for her… and then Himiko’s FTEs somehow managed to be an incredibly fitting metaphor for what’s been going on between Shuichi and Kaito, which may or may not be on purpose on the writers’ part but I sure had way too much fun with it regardless.

Shuichi: (It’s nighttime. I *would* have been training…)

You could train without Kaito! You’ve done it before. Buuuut I don’t know how much good that would do to take Shuichi’s mind of his problems in this situation, because his biggest problem right now is intrinsically connected to the training itself, so he’d just be constantly reminding himself of it and worrying about it more.

*ding-dong!* *ding-dong!*

Unnecessary hypothetical tangent time! I’ve seen a few blind Let’s Players respond to this by wondering if it could be Kaito having come to talk to Shuichi. To which my immediate thought was “don’t you know it obviously can’t be Kaito; the doorbell didn’t ring a million times”.

But! Then I thought about it some more. If this was hypothetically Kaito having mustered up the courage to talk to Shuichi about what happened in the trial, he would still be convinced that Shuichi feels let down by and ashamed of him. Kaito would believe that Shuichi wouldn’t want to talk to him, and therefore that Shuichi probably wouldn’t answer the door if he knew it was Kaito. So Kaito would not want to make it clear it was him at the door by ringing it incessantly and would only ring the normal-person amount of times, to make Shuichi think it was somebody else. Which would be a fun reversal of the time in chapter 3 when Maki deliberately mimicked Kaito’s doorbell habits because she still felt that Shuichi wouldn’t answer the door if he knew it was her.

Anyway, that’s all a total hypothetical and Kaito does not in fact have the courage to face Shuichi whatsoever. It’s Maki at the door.

Maki: “Kaito asked me earlier… to show him my research lab.”

Shuichi: “Huh? Your lab?”

Maki: “I might as well show him, since I know he won’t take no for an answer… So you have to come, too.”

She just says Shuichi “has” to come without explaining why that’s so apparently necessary. This is all about her trying to get Shuichi and Kaito in the same space so that they can potentially talk to each other and sort things out between them, but she’s not mentioning that here. Maybe she thinks that if she tells Shuichi that then he won’t want to come.

She then leaves after saying this without checking if Shuichi is actually coming with her. Clearly she has learned that if you tell Shuichi to do a thing in an assertive enough tone, he will probably do it. Kaito taught her that one.

Shuichi: “…” (Maki invited me, so… I should go.)

Implying that he’s only going because Maki invited him and he doesn’t want to disappoint her. Meaning that he doesn’t want to go for Kaito’s sake and the chance of making up with him, like he’s just expecting everything between them to continue to be painful and awkward and there’s nothing he’d ever be able to do to fix that.

Tsumugi is hanging out in the courtyard looking up at the stars, and reminds Shuichi of what Gonta said once before about them looking different. She could have reminded us of this at any time up to this point, but she’s choosing to do so now. It’s almost like this is finally the chapter where all of the hints about the space thing are being dropped at once and she’s deliberately adding to that.

Tsumugi: “With all the horrible things happening, I was always looking down… I need to thank Gonta.”

She’s still committed to her thing of caring about Gonta, at least. She didn’t drop that once he died (even though she’s one of the people responsible for his death). I guess he really was her favourite character.

Shuichi: “Ah, sorry I’m late…”

Kaito: “Hm? O-Oh… so you came, too…”

Kaito was not mentally prepared to suddenly be in the same room as Shuichi right now, was he.

Shuichi: “Y-Yeah…”

Kaito: “…”

Shuichi: “…” (Silence.)

So much for Maki hoping that this would magically get them to talk to each other. They are both still convinced that the other doesn’t want to talk to them, so this was never going to happen just because they’re in the same room.

Maki: *sigh*

(As if utterly bored by the painful silence, Maki started up a conversation.)

She is so frustrated at her friends continuing to be idiots like this.

Maki: “Why did you ask to see my research lab so suddenly, Kaito?”

Kaito: “Well… I just wanted to see what kind of weapons were here.”

Maki: “What? Why would you want to see my weap—”

Kaito: “But wow! There’s a ton of stuff here!”

Because he’s going to need a bunch of weapons for his brilliantly heroic plan that he’s been working on, of course! It’s a little surprising that he doesn’t mention that that’s what this is for here, especially the way he seems to deliberately cut off her question about it. Maybe he’s worried that Maki is going to try and talk him out of doing something reckless if he tells her the plan right now.

Kaito: “But there’s no swords of any kind here – Japanese or western – right?”

Maki: “I don’t use swords of any type. Not after I botched a mission with my katana.”

Which Kaito should already know, but that was an optional scene so we’re awkwardly pretending like he doesn’t.

Kaito: “Either way, I don’t feel like weapons really suit women.”

Aaand here’s the final Misogyny Bullet to hit its mark. This one I can’t actually prove to be something that is objectively out of character for Kaito to think, because we’ve never heard anything about his thoughts on weapons at all up until now. But based on the fact that every other comment of Kaito’s like this was provably out of character, we can assume that this isn’t something we should take to heart as being a defining point about him either.

(This final one is literally only the fourth instance of this in the whole game. Four single lines. Just picture how absolutely tiny that molehill is, compared to the mountain of everything else Kaito ever says and does throughout five chapters of being one of the most prominent characters, all of which thoroughly contradicts him being that kind of person.)

Maki: “Care to explain why you wanted to see my weapons?”

Kaito: “Didn’t I tell you this morning? I’ve got a plan all figured out. Oh! What’s in that black case over there?”

(As if backing away from the conversation, Kaito headed to the far bookcase…)

He still seems to be trying to avoid talking about his plan as much as possible, probably because he doesn’t want Maki to question him on it and learn that he does not, in fact, have anything “all figured out” at all.

I also get the sense that Kaito “backing away from the conversation” like this is him finding a distraction that’ll give him an excuse to not have to talk to Shuichi either. Kaito knows perfectly well why Maki invited him, after all.

Kaito: “Hm, so when you put them together, they become a crossbow. Looks interesting.”

Kaito is so curious and interested in anything and everything! Even when it’s a weapon, which he just said… well, let’s pretend he just said he doesn’t really like weapons in general. (It would make sense for Kaito to think that, since he’s all about people working together and communicating and using human creations to achieve great things, not using the fruits of human ingenuity to hurt each other.)

And Kaito’s really only interested in the crossbow for curiosity’s sake, rather than in terms of his plan, because he doesn’t include any crossbows in his big pile of weapons in the gym tomorrow.

Kaito: “Hey Maki Roll… can you teach me how to put it together?”

He’s not even planning to use the crossbows on Monokuma and he has no idea he’s going to want to use one later either! He just wants to learn a cool thing!

Maki: “And then, put that other part in the opposite way… Ah wait. That’s wrong.”

Kaito: “Oh, my bad. It goes this way.”

Maki: “Mmhm. Then, next it’s—”

It’s pretty cute to see Kaito being the one in the role of student, messing up sometimes and having Maki guide him and fix his mistakes. That’s a role Kaito is not usually comfortable putting himself in at all. Presumably he’s okay with this here because this is just an intellectual thing and there’s always more to be learned in that regard. This is quite separate from the kind of emotional and personal growth that he is always supposed to be in the teacher role for and definitely never need any help with himself.

Shuichi: (While watching those two, the memory of a similar scene came to my mind.)

Shuichi’s talking about himself and Kaede, specifically the time she held his hand and encouraged him to be braver about his issues of facing the truth. Which… doesn’t have anything to do with Maki teaching Kaito how to build a crossbow? The only vague similarity is that Maki is giving Kaito guidance, but I just talked about how it’s a completely different type of guidance from emotional support and therefore not really that analogous at all. Any moment in which Kaito was encouraging Shuichi or Maki to fight their “enemy” earlier in the story would have been a far more appropriate moment for Shuichi reminiscence about this – after all, Kaito, rather than Maki, is the one who’s really parallel to Kaede.

The only other similarity is that there happen to be romantic feelings involved in both cases, which is clearly what the game is actually trying to get at. And that’s annoying. It makes no sense to try and link them together just because of that when they are otherwise completely different – they both involve two people bonding in some way, perhaps, but they’re completely different kinds of bonding and neither are inherently romantic and could just as well have happened if all the feelings involved were nothing but platonic. Maki certainly isn’t thinking about what she’s doing as some kind of peak romance. She’s just teaching Kaito how to build a goddamn crossbow. The fact that she incidentally happens to have feelings for him is completely irrelevant, and there’s nothing in her behaviour that suggests that’s on her mind right now.

The narrative’s treatment of Maki’s thing for Kaito can occasionally get a little amatonormative, which frustrates me. (It’s still pretty minor, though – I see far, far worse all the freaking time.) But Maki herself never makes as big of a deal about it as the narrative does, which is appropriate for her character and which I appreciate. The writing is slightly awkward about it, but it’s not the writing of Maki which is awkward, just the writing around her, so I don’t have an inherent problem with the fact that Maki feels this way.

Kaito: “Whoa, since I built it, it became an extra-cool crossbow!”

Naturally. A Luminary of the Stars crossbow! He’s such a dork.

(And, given the state of mind he’s been in lately, he’s almost certainly completely faking his overblown opinion of himself now.)

Kaito: “It seems like it’s a bit complicated… but I think I can do it by myself next time.”

You’re not even currently planning on there being a next time, Kaito!

Maki: “…Shuichi, do you want to learn, too?”

While Maki started teaching Kaito because he asked, she offers to do the same for Shuichi out of nowhere. I get the sense that she’s trying to include him in what’s happening and give him and Kaito some common ground to maybe, just maybe, actually start a conversation over and slowly begin to close the gap between them.

(And the fact that she offered this to Shuichi goes to show that teaching someone how to build a crossbow is, funnily enough, not some kind of deep metaphor for romantic feelings.)

Shuichi: “Ah, no, that’s alright… I sort of understand from watching anyway.”

…But it seems Shuichi doesn’t quite want to be included in this way and possibly brought closer to having to maybe talk to Kaito. Dammit, Shuichi, you’re not helping the situation here.

Maki: “Then let’s put it away. You can easily take it apart by reversing the steps.”

Kaito: “Wait, do I have to do it?”

Maki: “Who else is going to do it?”

Kaito: “Yeah… s-sorry… I don’t… feel too good again…”

Maki: “…Huh?”

Kaito: “It seems like I’m not at 100%! So I’m gonna go back first!”

This is not about Kaito not wanting to put the crossbow away. He has never actually been as lazy and flaky as he can sometimes come across – and most of the times that he has come across that way, it’s really been because of his illness. This is because of his illness too. He’s probably started to feel another blood-coughing fit coming on and desperately doesn’t want to be around them for it (and we are indeed going to see him coughing up blood soon after this). So he’s using not wanting to put the crossbow away as his cover for leaving – and since being lazy and unreliable is not something it’d be in his character to admit to so he can’t just claim that outright without it sounding like an obvious excuse, he’s making it sound like he’s using his illness as the obviously-fake excuse to get out of that.

He’s making the truth sound like a lie in order to convince everyone that it’s not really the truth at all. That is some Kokichi-level deception there. Kaito is getting really desperate.

Shuichi: (Ignoring Maki trying to stop him, Kaito fled the room.)

“Fled”. That sure is a word to describe it, Shuichi. Somehow I don’t think having to put a crossbow away and tidy up after yourself is something anyone would ever have a reason to flee from.

Maki: “I knew he wasn’t the type to clean up, but I never thought he’d run away with a crappy lie…”

It worked. He convinced them that the illness part was the lie and not the other way around. Maki even remarks that it doesn’t seem like him to lie about that, yet she still bought that that’s what he did. God damnit, Kaito.

Maki: “…How frustrating. He’s the worst.”

I love her pouty face as she says this. Why does she care about this idiot so much. (Because he still saved her, even though he’s an idiot.)

Shuichi: “Ah, well, that’s just Kaito…”

Is it, Shuichi? I thought you were always the one to stand up for him when he couldn’t train because he was phobia-sick and Maki acted like he was just making pathetic excuses. Shouldn’t you be standing up for him here in that same way, since you know Kaito never really makes excuses like that? Apparently not, because that would mean suggesting that Kaito really is still sick and that wasn’t just an excuse. Even though it was clear at breakfast that nobody was convinced Kaito was really back at 100%, Shuichi still does not want to suggest out loud that this could be the case.

Maki: “I’m sure you know why I invited you, right?”

Shuichi: “Y-Yeah… I do. You were trying to get Kaito and me to make up.”

Of course Shuichi knew that as well. They both did – they just didn’t want to acknowledge it because that would mean admitting that they should be trying to talk to each other.

Really, Maki was going about this in a very unhelpfully indirect way that was just giving both of them plenty of excuse to continue to awkwardly ignore each other. What she really should have done is just talk about it, explicitly bringing attention to the fact that they should be talking to each other and try to force them to do so one way or another. If she was willing to be less indirect, I can honestly see her just declaring that she’s not letting them leave until they’ve talked to each other, then shutting them in here and guarding the door from outside. Granted, Kaito would probably immediately decide he’s not going to say a word in the hope he can out-stubborn Maki and get her to give up and let them out, because doing that would seem less painful to him than actually talking to Shuichi about this. But Shuichi at least would attempt to talk to Kaito for lack of anything else to do (he doesn’t think he can out-stubborn Maki), and in the process Kaito would start to realise that he’s completely misunderstanding Shuichi’s whole state of mind here and they might actually get somewhere.

If only Maki had realised that just them talking to each other in any shape or form would immediately start to fix things.

Maki: “It’s not like he hates you or anything.”

Very correct! I’m glad she knows this much at least. (If she thought Kaito really did (inconceivably) hate Shuichi now, there’d have been no point her even trying to get them to make up here.)

Maki: “He’s just being stubborn.”

…Less correct. Stubbornness would mean that this is about his principles and he’s stubbornly sticking to them even if it means shunning Shuichi. As I went over countless times during the trial, that was never truly the point. But the fact that Maki thinks it is explains why she doesn’t realise how easily talking would solve things – she thinks talking would just make it worse as long as Kaito’s still in this stubborn mood and it’s instead a case of needing to slowly wear down his stubbornness, hence her completely unhelpful indirect approach.

Shuichi: “But… I just don’t know what to say to him.”

He doesn’t say anything else before this “but”, so he never specifically agrees that he knows Kaito doesn’t hate him. Shuichi, please tell me you at least know Kaito doesn’t hate you. You can’t be that painfully wrong, surely?

Shuichi: “I-I had no choice! Gonta… If I didn’t do something, everyone would have died… I… I don’t think it’d be right to apologize for that…”

*very deep breath*

EXACTLY! Of course you shouldn’t apologise for that when you didn’t do anything wrong! This is precisely Kaito’s opinion on apologising! It is not possible that he could be expecting an apology from you!

This right here is the other reason I kept stressing Kaito’s principles on apologising so much – because it proves beyond a doubt that it does not make any kind of sense for Kaito to be angry at Shuichi here and wanting some kind of apology before he’ll talk to him again.

This isn’t something that necessarily requires multiple playthroughs to appreciate, either. I noticed during this moment on my first time through that what Shuichi said matched Kaito’s previously-stated opinions exactly and therefore Shuichi was wrong to be assuming Kaito wanted him to apologise. This is the biggest, most unambiguous clue that would let someone pick up that there’s more going on with Kaito here than meets the eye, but apparently most people still don’t, and it makes me sad. I’ve watched several blind LPs of this game – probably something like ten by now – and out of all of them, only one eventually sort of vaguely wondered if there might be more to this than just Kaito being angry. The real truth of this situation is so compelling, and it doesn’t deserve to be written off as its apparent face value and nothing more.

There’s also the part where Shuichi was almost certainly witness to the time Kaito most clearly expressed his opinions about apologising, to Kaede back in chapter 1 after the tunnel incident. You may recall how I awkwardly went out of my way to point out that despite how Kaito and Shuichi each leave after having their optionally-ordered conversations with Kaede there, it makes the most sense to think that Kaito canonically said his bit first and so Shuichi would have overheard it. This is the future point at which that is relevant that I promised back then. Buuuut, even though Shuichi probably heard Kaito’s speech that time, apparently he forgot about that, because if he remembered then he should be able to realise that Kaito can’t possibly want him to apologise here. I guess we can put that down to the fact that at the time his dependency was focused on Kaede and he wasn’t really paying attention to Kaito that much, so the things Kaito said weren’t necessarily likely to register or stick in his mind.

Something else interesting to note is that while Shuichi had a tendency to apologise unnecessarily in front of Kaede a lot, he never did so in front of Kaito, not even earlier on. He can’t have done, because if he had, Kaito would have given him the whole don’t-apologise-when-you’re-not-in-the-wrong speech and he’d definitely have remembered that. “Don’t make yourself feel bad unnecessarily for something that isn’t your fault” was in fact the general gist of a lot of the advice Kaito was giving Shuichi near the start, since that was Shuichi’s biggest problem. But Kaito never specifically mentioned apologising during any of that advice, so Shuichi never picked up on that part of his philosophy in particular – and I wonder how deliberate that was on the writers’ part in order to get this chapter to work.

It’s also quite remarkable that Shuichi is self-assured enough to be able to stand by what he did here and be sure that he shouldn’t apologise. That chapter 1 Shuichi who apologised too much to Kaede, and maybe also the early-chapter-2 Shuichi who blamed himself for Kaede’s death, would almost certainly have caved into telling himself he was in the wrong about this. And that growth from Shuichi is most likely thanks to Kaito’s influence anyway, albeit in a more indirect way that he’s less consciously aware of. Shuichi’s become able to think this way at least in part because some of Kaito’s general conviction and self-assuredness has rubbed off on him, even without him needing to follow specific words of advice.

Shuichi: “I’m sorry, Maki. I just… need more time…”

You’re not the one who needs it, Shuichi. The responsibility to fix this isn’t on you. If you could figure out what was going on in Kaito’s head and manage to help him, that would be really good… but you shouldn’t have to.

The reality of it is that Kaito was the one whose actions in the trial were in the wrong, not Shuichi. Kaito ended up making things more painful for Shuichi in a way that could have been avoided if he hadn’t acted the way he did. It’s like a worse version of the time he punched Shuichi at the end of Kaede’s trial, which was him losing control of himself and lashing out when he never really wanted to, and he apologised for that the morning after. Kaito is the one who owes Shuichi an apology here, and there’s no way he’s not aware of that. This is the one time in the story that Kaito shows an exception to his principles about apologising in the opposite direction from usual: not apologising when he has done something wrong. It’s not that he doesn’t think he should – it’s just that the thought of how badly he failed Shuichi during the trial hurts him so much that he doesn’t have the strength to accept it and face Shuichi and admit that he messed up.

The problem isn’t that Kaito is being stubborn, but rather that right now he’s basically being a coward. Which has a very different ring to it than all the times I’ve called Kokichi a coward, because Kokichi is almost always a coward and nopes away at the slightest sign of anything he doesn’t like. But Kaito is usually able to be pretty damn brave and face unpleasant things head-on – that even seems to be one of his general principles, like when he was encouraging Himiko to face up to Tenko’s death. So the fact that he can’t bring himself to face this even slightly just goes to show how absolutely terrified he must be about admitting this failure to Shuichi.

(Ready for an even-more-overthinking-it and somewhat personal tangent? Kaito concluding that he’s obviously failed Shuichi is very much a result of his issues about heroes and sidekicks, and I don’t want to sound like I’m about to diminish the importance of that. But the fact that this perceived failure is then apparently so unbearably painful to him that he simply cannot face it suggests to me that Kaito is also dealing with a thing called rejection sensitivity dysphoria, which amplifies this type of emotional pain to far more intense levels (and has a somewhat misleading name because it can also be about failure as well as rejection). This is one of the lesser-known symptoms of ADHD, and once this occurred to me, I then thought of everything else about Kaito and realised that huh, this actually makes a lot of sense. So ADHD Kaito is a pet headcanon of mine, one which totally doesn’t have anything to do with me having realised that I have ADHD and researched more about exactly what it is while being hyperfixated on Kaito. I have a lot more thoughts about this that don’t belong in this commentary because they aren’t really relevant to the story – the only point at which this headcanon potentially impacts the story, hence why I’m even mentioning it here at all, is right here in early chapter 5. I can confirm from experience that RSD sucks and makes even seemingly innocuous things hurt like hell, so if Kaito really does have ADHD and this really is contributing to his pain right now, holy crap I do not blame him one bit for not being able to face this.)

Maki: *sigh* “I didn’t realize you two would require such high maintenance.”

I love the way Maki puts this, like she’s unintentionally wound up taking care of two very difficult children. She’s such a good child caregiver!

Shuichi: “S-Sorry…”

Not your fault, Shuichi. Well, okay, slightly your fault for being so oblivious, but one can’t really blame you for what you’re not aware of. It is definitely far more Kaito’s fault for not having the courage to do what he knows he should be doing to put this right.

Shuichi: (I didn’t realize… Maki would be so concerned about us.)

And speaking of you being oblivious, Shuichi! How do you not already know by this point that Maki is a very caring person who would obviously worry about her friends when they’re being like this?

Shuichi: (In the end, I was the one who ended up disassembling the crossbow.)

So Maki did end up teaching him how to do it (albeit backwards) after all. Sort of beside the point though when the reason she offered in the first place was to try and encourage him and Kaito to talk to each other here, and it’s too late for that.

Shuichi: (And then there’s the… thing with me and Kaito…) “I need to make up with him… For us… and for Maki.”

Shuichi is still assuming it’s his responsibility to do this and not having it even remotely occur to him that actually maybe Kaito’s the one who needs to take action. But it’s nice that he sees it as even more important to do now he realises it’s not just hurting the two of them but also Maki as well. This is definitely something Kaito would realise too after tonight… not that that’s going to be enough to give Kaito the push he needs to do something, so he’s just going to be feeling even more guilty and awful about his cowardice now.

Shuichi: (I fell asleep thinking about it…)

This is the first time in a while Shuichi has gone to sleep while thoughts of his current problems have been going around and around in his head. Kaito’s training was supposed to help him not do that! But here we are again… thanks to Kaito’s mistakes.

Meanwhile, Kaito is helplessly coughing up blood outside, presumably in some hidden corner of the courtyard where Shuichi and Maki wouldn’t have accidentally happened across him on their way back.

Kaito: “Wh-Why…? Why… now? Why… me?”

This “why me?” is the closest Kaito ever gets to expressing the sentiment that it’s not fair that he’s the one who has to go through this. No-one else is dealing with anything like this; he’s the only one who has to carry this unimaginably heavy burden on top of everything else. Kaito would never directly voice the idea that he doesn’t think it’s fair, because that would centre things around himself – he’s bad enough at thinking that his suffering even matters at all, never mind putting it above everyone else’s. He is far too painfully selfless to ever consciously think that way, even beneath the façade he puts on for others – Kaito would sooner go through this a thousand times over than wish it upon anybody else in his place. But even so, there is a tiny part of him that does still feel that injustice that manages to come through here, just subtly enough that he probably doesn’t even register it, while he’s alone and no-one will ever see him feeling this way.

Also, though, why Kaito indeed? There’s three different answers to this question depending on the level of fictionality you look at it through.

In the most fictional sense, in terms of the in-story story about the meteorites and the virus that everyone on the Gofer Project was supposed to be immune to, it’s because he’s the astronaut. If they’re going to be flying in a spaceship and reaching a new world, an astronaut is the one talent they’d benefit from more than anything else, to the point that they’d be willing to take compromises over the immunity thing in order to get Kaito on board. An astronaut who’s only partially immune to the virus and who will be sick and drop dead a few weeks into the trip is still better than no astronaut at all. If any of the students was going to turn out to be only partially immune to the virus despite having been chosen for the Gofer Project, the most plausible one for it would be him.

In a less fictional sense, on the level of this being a story written by Team Danganronpa, it’s because Kaito was written to be the figure of support for Shuichi’s character arc of being a weak Ultimate Detective who grows strong. In aid of that, they wanted Kaito to give him that push in the first place, but then for Shuichi to have to slowly learn to stand on his own without Kaito. First they did this by extremely lazily nerfing Kaito’s effectiveness in chapter 3 with his arbitrary phobia. And now they’re nerfing Kaito in the most comprehensive way there is, by killing him. It’s possible that he would have gotten killed by the killing game at some point anyway, but the in-universe writers couldn’t leave that to chance and wanted to be sure Shuichi would eventually lose him, so they made sure Kaito was dying no matter what for an external reason that could be conveniently tied into their backstory.

(Oh, man, if Kaito ever learned that the reason he’s dying, on the truest level that matters to him, is simply that the mastermind just wanted him out of the way and out of the “story” so that Shuichi could take the spotlight and be the real hero who doesn’t need his help anymore… fuck, that would be vicious. That’d stab Kaito exactly where he’s already hurting the most. Maybe it’s a good thing he never actually learns the truth.)

But on the not-at-all-fictional level, it’s because the real, out-universe purpose of Kaito’s story isn’t just to be the mentor for Shuichi’s development, but also to be a deconstruction of those kinds of heroic mentor characters. (I can think of four other characters in other works of fiction who remind me of Kaito in that they seem like perfect heroes but know that their best friend can become even stronger than them and inspire said friend to reach that potential – and all four of them die.) In order to deconstruct that, Kaito needed to be, on some level, not okay with only being there to inspire Shuichi and then die, and to do that he needs to know that he’s going to die. Kaito would already have been messed up to some extent by his percieved inferiority to Shuichi even if he weren’t dying, but the helplessness caused by his impending death and how he tried to deal with it by clinging to the feeling that at least Shuichi needs him only to lose that too has made his breakdown far more spectacular than it would have been otherwise. Kaito’s entire character arc is delightful and his looming inevitable death is a vital part of it, and the out-universe writers know exactly what they’re doing. (The in-universe writers don’t, though. I really believe they only see Kaito as a disposable crutch for Shuichi’s development and not as someone to have a character arc of his own. Boy were they wrong. Boy are most of the best parts of this story not something the in-universe writers had planned at all.)

Kaito: “Damn it… I’m running… outta time.”

Not for himself. He already said this morning he was going to get “you guys” and not “us” out of here. He’s running out of time to finally make a difference and be a hero to everyone else after how badly he feels he’s failed so far.

Kaito: “I can’t die like this… Like hell am I gonna… die here…”

“Like this”, meaning he can’t die the way he currently is, as a failure. “Here”, meaning he can’t die while everyone’s still trapped in here and at least wants to see them escape and know they’re going to be okay before the end.

Kaito: “I… I still… haven’t gone… t-to space… Damn it…”

Final reminder: Kaito cannot die before he has gone to space. Five times he says something to this effect. It is So Important.

…But this time, I don’t think Kaito really believes he’s going to manage it. I think this is him brokenly lamenting the realisation that he’s never going to make it to space after all. Everything else he wants is for others. This is the only thing he wants that’s purely for himself, and it’s the one thing he knows is already a lost cause.

I really like how the illustration here is framed such that the background behind Kaito is the stars he thinks he’ll never get to reach.

This is almost the same illustration as the scene at the end of chapter 3, except there’s a lot more blood, and his expression is even more anguished, to the point that he’s crying. The previous times Kaito cried, it was for other people who’d died, for all of the pain that everyone had been feeling in general. Here, Kaito is only crying for himself. So it’s only natural that he’d only ever do this when nobody else will see him.

Also, mad props to Kaito’s voice actor for this scene. You can hear every bit of his fear and helplessness beneath his desperate attempts to still sound determined, and it’s wonderful.

(His Japanese VA’s performance here is equally good, mind you; do recommend checking out both.)

Also also, props to the out-universe writers for even including this scene? This is one of not many times that Shuichi’s POV is broken, and that usually only happens during chapter opening/ending stingers. And we already know full well by this point that Kaito is definitely dying, so it’s not like this tells us any new plot information that we didn’t otherwise have. We’re shown this solely because it’s important for us to understand how Kaito is feeling about this, that the façade he puts on in front of the others is very much a façade for the others and he isn’t able to lie to himself about the way he really feels. Even if he has trouble admitting it to himself in words, because that would be tantamount to giving up, he is clearly quite consciously aware of how bad things are beneath it all. (This is, of course, in contrast to Kokichi, who was still thoroughly lying to himself about everything when we saw him alone at night.) The writers care so much about getting Kaito’s character arc across as much as is possible considering how much he hides from the surface and how oblivious Shuichi is to it all, and I’m so glad they do.

On a related note, it’s time for my favourite Monokuma Theater! Which happens to be the only one of the actually-meaningful ones whose meaning should be readily apparent on a first time through.

Monokuma: “Recklessness is a beautiful thing.”

Because he’s obviously talking about Kaito.

Monokuma: “It’s so beautiful, I want to print the words ‘Reckless Beauty’ on a t-shirt.”

(I low-key want there to be Danganronpa fan creators out there who have actually made t-shirts like this.)

Monokuma: “Because recklessness is the stuff that dreams are made of.”

Dreams like going to space, no matter how impossible that might seem!

Monokuma: “It’s what makes you run at full speed, with no regard for your limitations.”

It’s what makes you cheat your way in and take a test you know you’re too young for, with no regard for what might happen if you get caught, all so that you can get to space that much sooner! It’s what makes you keep giving it your all to support your friends, with no regard for the fact that you’re dying!

Monokuma: “It’s what makes you excited by anything.”

Like space! Like snow! Like crossbows! Like every single kind of human endeavour imaginable! Like magic and made-up kids’ games you know aren’t true but who cares because pretending they are is fun!

Monokuma: “Some say it’s foolish, but recklessness is what causes new events to unfold.”

Like encouraging everyone to risk using the first Flashback Light when most of them were too scared to try it! Like reaching out to a lonely assassin who would have remained alone without your help because nobody else wanted to risk getting close to her! Like taking action to fight back even though you have no idea what you’re doing, because if you don’t then no-one else will!

Monokuma: “So while you’re still alive, live your life so recklessly that it makes you immortal.”

And maybe if you live so recklessly in the time you have left, with such brazen disregard for your limits and weaknesses, maybe it’ll help you feel like you aren’t really weak and dying at all.

Monokuma: “And if haters laugh at you, let them. They just don’t appreciate reckless beauty like you do.”

Stick to your convictions! Be true to yourself! Never stop being you, no matter how much everyone else tells you you’re an idiot! You know your recklessness is beautiful, so who cares what others think!?

This whole thing is clearly written to celebrate so many of the things that are great about Kaito, and I love it.

---

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#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 5 #daily life #commentary

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osakaso5 · 6 years

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Ryunosuke Tsunashi TRIGGER Police Rabbit Chat Part 5: Relaxing With Re:vale And TRIGGER!?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Tsumugi: Tsunashi-san, good work! I look forward to your shoot today!

Ryunosuke: Tsumugi-chan, I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused the other day!

Ryunosuke:

Tsumugi: I'm just glad it was resolved without any more problems!

Ryunosuke: Tell Nagi-kun that I'll go see that anime movie with him soon, like I promised.

Ryunosuke: But since he's having everyone who bothered him treat him to a movie, should all of us really go see the same movie with him separately?

Tsumugi: Yes! Nagi-san says he wants to have a complete collection of the postcards that are randomly distributed at each showing!

Ryunosuke: I don't really get why he’d do that, but if that’s all it'll take to cheer him up, I'm fine with it! It must be tough to have to watch so many movies just to get a postcard!

Choices/outcomes:

1. How would you sum up that incident?

Ryunosuke: It was a rare chance for all of us to get together for drinks, so it's a real shame I can't remember most of it!

2. Who do you think was the key player of that incident?

Ryunosuke: Yuki-san, maybe? We were at his house, and this drinking party happened because he invited Gaku, and Tenn actually wanted to join in for once.

3. What was the most delicious thing Yuki-san cooked for you?

Ryunosuke: Ah! He served this side dish that was minced white fish stuffed inside steamed goya with a thick sauce! It was the first time I ate something like that, but it was delicious. I was going to make some myself, but I forgot...

Tsumugi: You really had a rough time...

Tsumugi: I managed to compile a detailed account of that incident at you and Re:vale's meeting the other day, so I'll share it with you now!

Ryunosuke: I was so busy feeling bad about what I'd done that I had no time to put all the event in order... And since I can't remember much, I'd like to know what happened.

Tsumugi: A dinner party begins at Yuki-san's house. Along with his home cooking, the guests are treated to wine and some sake they'd brought with them.

Tsumugi: Urged by Momo-san, Tsunashi-san steadily empties his glass until he's blackout drunk. He begins speaking exclusively in Okinawan.

Tsumugi: This is where Tsunashi-san's recollection of the events stops.

Ryunosuke: Huh, already!?

Tsumugi: So I've been told ><

Ryunosuke: I didn't know it was that early! But, I guess I'd been drinking pretty heavily by that point.

Ryunosuke: I think Momo-san was probably still avoiding Yuki-san, because he just kept talking to me.

Ryunosuke: I wanted to support him somehow, so I drank when he told me to. I know I got drunk right away, but I wonder if I was of any help?

Tsumugi: Momo-san's key phrase was "Aren't you going to drink when Re:vale's offering? (lol)"

Ryunosuke: Yeah, the way he was offering me drinks didn't feel like his usual self. I'm worried he might feel depressed later...

Tsumugi: Tsunashi-san begins making Momo-san drink just as much as he's drinking. Their alcohol consumption increases drastically.

Tsumugi: Unable to communicate due to both their drunkenness, Momo-san calls Nagi-san in to translate.

Tsumugi: This is where Momo-san and Gaku-san's recollections of the events stop.

Tsumugi: Momo-san's comment: "Things were awkward between me and Yuki, so I kept clinging to other people. I couldn't stop drinking. Ryunosuke turned into an alcohol beast."

Tsumugi: Gaku-san's comment: "I had fun."

Ryunosuke: I had fun, too!

Ryunosuke: ...Or at least I think I did.

Ryunosuke: I must've been a huge pain to get called an "alcohol beast"... A real pest...

Tsumugi: Nagi-san tries to reject Momo-san's invitation, but is forced into a taxi by Yamato-san and Mitsuki-san, who tell him to spend more time with other groups.

Tsumugi: Yamato-san's comment: "I thought I'd repay Momo-san for helping me out with a scene I didn't want to do. I messaged Yaotome asking him to look after Nagi as a fellow leader, and thought it'd be fine since he messaged me back and told me to leave it to him."

Ryunosuke: It's amazing how responsible Gaku can act while he's drunk!

Tsumugi: Mitsuki-san's comment: "Nagi doesn't trust guys outside of IDOLiSH7, so I wanted to help him overcome it. I thought it'd be fine since Momo-san, who's good at handling drinking parties, would be there."

Ryunosuke: Is that part about Nagi-kun true!? I always thought he treated us a little coldly. I wonder if we can use this chance to become friends. But, what did he come over to translate?

Tsumugi: Nagi-san arrives at the scene and is unable to translate the non-stop flow of Okinawan. Not being able to keep up with the drunkards, he tries to leave altogether.

Ryunosuke: Ah, so it was me! I feel bad that he had to go through that.

Tsumugi: Hearing that Sogo-san and Iori-san are good at quizzes, Yuki-san starts testing them over rabbit chats.

Tsumugi: Whenever they get something right, he toasts them on his end, and eventually decides to send gifts he thinks they'll enjoy to the dorm in the taxi that is supposed to take Nagi-san home. Unable to shake off the guests who want him to stay, Nagi-san gets left behind at the party.

Tsumugi: Iori-san's comment: "We received Tsunashi-san's clothes even down to his pants, how was he able to get home? The fountain pen that was meant for me has Re:vale's name engraved on it, so I'll return it to them later."

Ryunosuke: I wonder if they got that fountain pen to celebrate becoming a record store best seller? TRIGGER's had some made, too.

Ryunosuke: I saw one in the box with Momo-san's stuff, so the one Iori-kun got must be Yuki-san's.

Ryunosuke: Momo-san might've been upset that he'd give out a memento like that as a prize...

Tsumugi: This is where Yuki-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san's comment: "They were really obscure music questions, so I was happy they managed to answer them."

Ryunosuke: Yuki-san's so collected! I'd like for him to worry about his partner a little more!

Tsumugi: You're right...

Ryunosuke: Momo-san's pretty bothered by it. A few days ago, we were drinking and he kept complaining "He's acting like we're on the same wavelength, but we're actually not!"

Tsumugi: Noticing Nagi-san's displeasure, everyone begins talking about Cocona-chan. Drunk, Gaku-san and Yuki-san try to style their hair to look like Cocona's.

Tsumugi: Momo-san posts a picture of it online, and although Okazaki-san rushes to delete the post, screenshots of it are still making rounds online.

Ryunosuke: I saw that photo too, it was really funny!

Tsumugi: Okazaki-san gives up on trying to control the situation and drowns his sorrows in alcohol.

Tsumugi: This is where his recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Okazaki-san's comment: "We're a small agency, so I thought I'd let Yaotome Productions do something about it!"

Ryunosuke: We even caused trouble to our president... He was really mad at me and Gaku.

Ryunosuke: At times like these, Gaku starts sulking like my little brothers do, so I'll suffer through this with him.

Tsumugi: Around this time, an imitation contest begins.

Tsumugi: Team Hure Hure: Kujo-san, Gaku-san, and Yuki-san

Tsumugi: Team MATSURI: Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, Momo-san, and Okazaki-san

Tsumugi: Team L&G: Tsunashi-san, Nagi-san, and Anesagi-san

Ryunosuke: I don't remember any of it, but apparently I was really excited, probably because I always thought MATSURI looked really fun.

Ryunosuke: Still, they didn't wear fundoshi for the grand re-opening shoots, did they? I wonder what made us wear them...

Tsumugi: The last bastion of reason, Anesagi-san, suddenly gets extremely excited during the taking of the L&G pictures, and passes out drunk instantly.

Tsumugi: This is where Anesagi-san's recollection of the events stops.

Tsumugi: Anesagi-san's comment: "I regret nothing."

Ryunosuke: I wonder if Anesagi-san wanted to sing L&G, too? That's a little embarrassing!

Tsumugi: The topic shifts to the fact that Re:vale used to live together. Gaku-san, Tsunashi-san, and Okazaki-san keep casually suggesting that they move back in together, and they keep bashfully rejecting the idea. This goes on for the next 30 minutes.

Tsumugi: Then suddenly, Momo-san erupts with a "Do you hate being with me that much!?", and Re:vale begins arguing.

Ryunosuke: Here! I remember a little bit of this part, since they were arguing a lot even though they're usually so nice. It was really scary.

Ryunosuke: Nagi-kun said it was like they were having a rap battle, so I remember trying to yell "HEY! YO!" in between their arguing. Nobody laughed at it, and I feel like the room was colder afterwards...

Tsumugi: Momo-san declares that he will move into the IDOLiSH7 dorm, and begins gathering the things he keeps at Yuki-san's apartment.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san responds with "I've always thought I should rescue him from the Kujo family, so I'll start living with Tenn-kun."

Tsumugi: Thinking that he's going too far by bringing up Kujo-san's delicate family situation, TRIGGER begins booing.

Ryunosuke: Were we really booing?

Tsumugi: Momo-san comes to the conclusion that “Yuki, Tenn, and Sogo's uncle are the types Kujo will go after", and discusses forming an "Anti-Kujo front" with Riku-san and Tamaki-san. Tamaki-san agrees.

Tsumugi: Tamaki-san's comment: "I think he's in danger, but when I told So-chan, he started scolding me and we had a fight. We still haven't made up."

Tsumugi: Sogo-san's comment: "Although I'm honored, I think it's outrageous to compare me to Kujo-san or Yuki-san. If anything, I think it'd be an insult to them. I don’t think I'm in the wrong here, but I'm planning to apologize to Tamaki-kun."

Ryunosuke: Huh? This even made MEZZO" fight!?

Tsumugi: As he's being asked about possible vacancies in the dorm, Riku-san finds out about Kujo-san's potential move.

Tsumugi: Riku-san's comment: "If he can go live with Yuki-san, then he can come back home, too! He should just live with me!!!"

Ryunosuke: Riku-kun's always so cute!

Tsumugi: At this point, Kujo-san loses his composure. He makes everyone except Nagi-san kneel on the floor and think of what they've done.

Tsumugi: Nagi-san's comment: "Tenn-nii is an angel."

Ryunosuke: Nagi-kun was behaving better than anyone else back there. I should treat him to some food when we go see that movie...

Tsumugi: Final report. Nagi-san slept in Yuki-san's bed, while Tsunashi-san slept on the floor next to it. Yuki-san fell asleep while still kneeling on the floor. Anesagi-san took pictures of Nagi-san's sleeping face. Momo-san fell asleep while gathering his things into a cardboard box. Gaku-san and Okazaki-san fell asleep mid-drink.

Tsumugi: Kujo-san's comment: "I guess you could compare this to being a zookeeper for a day?"

Ryunosuke: That was even more wild than I expected...

Tsumugi: It really was...

Ryunosuke: I never knew I start speaking Okinawan when I get drunk!

Tsumugi: Huh, that's what you're surprised about!?

Ryunosuke: But I guess I've been told that before?

Ryunosuke: By the way, apparently Re:vale made up. Momo-san let me know that much.

Tsumugi: Thankfully, this seems to have brought them closer ><

Ryunosuke: I really appreciate Tenn for cleaning up after us as the only sober person there. When I said I'd treat him out to dinner as an apology, he told me Gaku had offered to do the same.

Ryunosuke: He made fun of us for being so predictable!

Tsumugi: That's a good thing, so I'm sure he didn't mean it! I'm willing to bet Kujo-san's looking forward to dinner with you!

Tsumugi:

Ryunosuke: Thank you. Next time we should do something Tenn likes, without alcohol. As I thought, TRIGGER's the most important to me!

Translator’s notes..?

next up: tamaki and momo’s shuffle talk rabbit tvs!

#idolish7 #ryunosuke tsunashi #trigger police #translation #trigger #rabbit chat

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