I wanna talk about Makoto’s use of a gun to make his arguments.
There are a lot of ways to approach the class trials and what they have to say symbolically in THH, but I want to examine class trials as a metaphor of interpersonal conflict and how Makoto navigates it.
A class trial is fundamentally a disagreement between people on an important issue. It is about the process of answering questions any issue involving more than one person should consider. What is the truth? How do you not only find what the truth is, but make it palatable? How do we get even the most disagreeable kinds of people to act on what is best for everyone? That's why the gun is so interesting to me. As a metaphor for how Naegi sees what he’s doing during trials, this is how he frames/ feels about his own voice.
It’s a weapon he’s using against people. At the beginning of the game it's a weapon he's using to protect himself, then ultimately by the end to protect the others. From Junko, from despair, from themselves--the parts of themselves susceptible to the former. It remains a weapon.
You would think it doesn’t suit someone so non-aggressive. Makoto is a bit of a jackass, and he's not immune to lashing out, but a bullet is a precise kind of harm. It’s less about aggression, then, symbolically, and more about disruption. Mr. Normal McNothingspecial visually disrupts other people's words by firing at them with a gun.
It is abnormal behavior to cause disruptions. Be polite, save face, blend in. This is what is expected of the average person in society. The flash and spectacle of a gunshot draws attention. The sharp crack of a gunshot demands attention. Makoto is making a scene. To openly disagree with someone to the point of undermining them is outside of what would be considered acceptable behavior when talking to his peers. The importance of the issue on the table removes Naegi's ability to cling to normalcy. Normal boys don’t carry bullets in their pocket, but even though Naegi doesn’t start any of these conflicts, they involve him anyway, so he can’t just nod along to whatever the majority is saying. He can’t go with the flow if it’s going the wrong way. No one is allowed the dignity of deflection or overlooking a faux pas, everything you say can and will be used against you, ruthlessly. Often, Makoto is the one using his friends' words against them.
The game is a disruption of normal life. The gun is a disruption of normal conduct.
There’s nothing civil about a gunshot wound. Getting shot overtakes your entire nervous system. It hurts like a bitch and keeps hurting. In an argumentative context, this is humiliation. Nobody wants to make their friends look bad. Nobody wants to make others feel bad. To get to consensus, everyone in the room must be on the same page, and there's not always a way to do that that doesn't hurt someone's feelings or image. Naegi cannot allow them to be wrong; openly disagreeing with them still feels like shooting them point blank. It’s so backwards to normal it can only be framed as violence.
It also plays into Makoto’s insecurities about how insignificant he feels next to people his own age, his own class even. A gun, unlike a knife or sword or fist, is an equal opportunity sort of weapon. A pop star can’t win a knife fight against an athlete. Even a loser who does their research on reddit could kill someone with a gun. There’s something to believing yourself to be powerless, and giving yourself power through a weapon anyone can wield. Load the bullet, aim, fire. See the look on your friend’s face. Reload. Any of these people could shatter you like glass if they decided they wanted to, but you can do this much. You can load another bullet into the chamber. Makoto is so insistent that his class trial performances are nothing special. He doesn’t believe he could do it if it was special; anyone can be effective with a loaded gun.
I think this leads into the concept of Makoto’s future survivor’s guilt quite elegantly. The very process of forming consensus wounds his friends. Over and over, every time a new shock to the system. He’s hurting them by arguing with them, by never letting anything slide, by disrupting discussions when they head the wrong way. Some of them couldn't handle the stress and cracked, and died. They died because he never let a bullet go unfired, except that he did.
He never shot to kill Kirigiri. He did let someone save face. He didn't use her words against her. If he could do it for her, should he have done it for the others? Would they be alive if he hadn't hurt them? Should Alter Ego have let him die? He lied, he lied, so why did his friends die and not him? Why didn't anyone shoot his own hypocrisy at him when he came back? (nothing about the killing game was anyone's fault but the mastermind's. It will still feel like he could have been kinder.)
That last segment, shooting the hope bullet, brings this rejection of politeness somewhere interesting to me. In this framework this one last shot, is not a metaphorical killing blow. In effect, he is killing Junko, but in practice, this becomes surgery. Targeting the center of his friends' fears, their worst impulses, and excising the parts of them that hurt them the most. An outlet to bleed the rot that accumulates over an adolescence's worth of trauma, over a killing games worth of despair. Sometimes, humans cut someone open to heal them. Naegi shoots his friends to inspire them. This is significant! Guns are not tools the way other weapons are, the only thing they should be able to do is injure, yet this moment defies that box. There is always hope in this world. This world where even a gunshot can be kind if the hands holding it care about you.
I think this says something else nice too. That to be truly inspiring, to change the world, (to help a friend) you can’t be afraid of disrupting the peace. Minding your own business is great for a trip to the grocery store, but when it matters? When someone you care about is looking you in the face saying some absolute nonsense? Disrupt them. Stop that thought in its tracks. Conflict with them now is a better alternative to losing them altogether later. Some things are worth causing a fuss about.
Helping your friends be their best selves is one of them. Helping yourself be your best self is one of them. Convincing people that the world can be a better place, and they can help make that happen in ways that are true to their honest selves, is part of building the future. It is how we start believing in a world where you can love being alive even if you haven’t learned how yet. It is part of being alive. You must understand this. You must imagine a tension one could cut with a knife, and shoot it instead. Shoot it into oblivion and you will emerge crying and covered in blood and victoriously alive.
I think the thing about Kirigiri that fucks me up in an immense way is how much of her memory has been erased in retrospect, and how extensive the memory erasure was. Out of any of the DR1 cast, Kirigiri's whole sense of self was suppressed and erased. Everyone else had retained their childhoods and the moment they walked into the school, but she basically came to the school with no recollection of her past training under her grandfather, her childhood, her parents, who she was as an Ultimate, and why she was there.
When Junko removed her memory, she removed any notion of her being a detective and her relations to Jin Kirigiri off the map, and a great deal of her life was connected to her detective work in the Kirigiri family line.
We know that her grandfather had trained her from a young age to be the best in her field, and that means so much of her tween life was put into detective work. In the Kirigiri novels, she's said to have been registered into the Detective Library at AGE 13. Even before then, even when she didn't remember the existence of her father much until she's confronted with his identity in the novels, her childhood memories probably still had remnants of his presence in there that needed to be wiped.
Now, with that in mind, a great deal of her background is gone. I wouldn't be surprised that being so integrated into detective work has caused so much of her memory to leave her disoriented on how she even found herself in an abandoned school to begin with. However, there are some areas that seem to be intact when she's given a moment to process them or when acted upon subconsciously.
When you talk to her in her FTEs, there are portions of her memories remaining — like the idea she went abroad, that her father existed, that perhaps one of her guardians was part of some secretive or governmental position — but even information like her once attending an all-girls school and being with her grandfather doesn't come up.
In addition, she isn't sure if she ever went abroad, or had a father, etcetera, since all of this information is in question marks.
The most heartbreaking part of this is that she doesn't even know who her mom is or if she even had a mom, and in the game, it is revealed that she died when Kirigiri was very young.
Another thing is that her subconscious actions and thoughts affects the way she talks about specific events and scenarios. Such as how she is calm in her deduction process, knows a variety of crime methods, can do thorough autopsies, and potentially has read detective fiction judging from when she asked Naegi about Ellery Queen.
For the more intense examples on this, we can look towards her family and loved ones, and how her subconscious behaves towards them. We know about her strong reactions to the mention of the Headmaster, but there's another one that might've flew under the radar for some.
After Sayaka leaves the Rec Room and you're given an opportunity to interact with the others after they watched their videos, this is Kirigiri's reaction.
In UDG, we find that her captive loved one is her grandfather, and if we follow the idea that every person was sent a video of their loved ones before they disappear from the screen, then Kirigiri — without any supposed knowledge of her grandfather — reacted viscerally to the sight of him when he appeared.
Regardless if her grandfather was intended to be the captive or if it was written post-DR1, her having this pained response is already similar to how she reacted to the mention of her dad even without knowledge of him, and sends warning bells that something is deeply deeply missing.
In the final FTE with her, we also get a glimpse of her getting strong feelings towards her hands' burn scars. We don't know how much Kirigiri has learned at that point relating to those specific parts of her memories, but if we go by the idea that she doesn't — since Samidare's death is closely linked in detective work — I would imagine her garnering a lot of subconscious thoughts and feelings of loss.
She doesn't know what they are. All she knows is this strong sense of mourning and pain while analyzing her hands, and that's terrifying.
Imagine how weird it is to be a stranger of your own mind and body. Your past is a swirl of feelings and hunches and headaches. You are able to hone in on the skills of detective work on instinct, that you can handle dead bodies calmly even when you're anxious on the inside, but you got no clue why, how, and when this occurred. Specific things are triggering memories, pained emotions, and your body harbors scars that you have no clue where they came from.
If Naegi and the others were able to recall why they came to this school in the first place (due to their talents or being picked by lottery), how much does Kirigiri even remember when she fainted? Did she only remember glimpses of her going to a school and then fainting? Did she think she fainted even farther back in her recollection of the timeline? How much did she know was solid memory, and what wasn't?
In addition, if Naegi harbors a strong sense of disconnect towards the interview tapes, and how his past self accepted staying in Hope's Peak out of defeat compared to who he is during post-amnesia, then that also means Kirigiri has to collect her memories as if she was witnessing another version of herself too.
She'd been ripped of every part of her identity while having to pick up the pieces of a past life that isn't hers anymore, and she's afraid of what she has lost.
And that makes the question she asks to Monokuma after Trial 3 very chilling.
Set at the beginning of @theamityelf's debate club au because I really enjoy Ishimaru being the one to bring him into things. In a normal school year setting he's the perfect one to encourage this if he's already noticed Naegi's hidden aptitude.
Komaeda was declared the winner of their debate today, and Ishimaru feels thoroughly trounced. He knows that there were flaws in his upperclassman's argument, but attempting to address them in the moment had eluded Ishimaru today, unable to satisfyingly counter one before Komaeda redirected the conversation to another (wrong) argument. If he wants to win tomorrow, he needs not only to better prepare his own case, but a new strategy entirely.
He asks Naegi to come to the debate club's next meeting. "Not to argue!" Ishimaru assures him. "I would like your assistance in my upcoming debate against Komaeda on Friday, and to better prepare, you must study the opponent with your own eyes. There's nothing more reliable than a primary source when researching!"
Naegi reluctantly attends the Wednesday debate. Komaeda and Koizumi are against each other first, and Naegi mostly pays attention. He might let his mind wander and doodle in the margins in the middle there, but debate for the sake of it just isn't really his wheelhouse. Then, it is Ishimaru's turn to debate Komaeda and Naegi witnesses a car crash. They're supposed to be talking about the effectiveness of national vs local environmental policy to combat deforestation--how on earth did they get to arguing over whether efforts can ever surpass born talent???
At first, Naegi only feels uncomfortable in a vaguely insecure way. Then Komaeda just keeps talking and he forgets to take any notes entirely because he's completely flabbergasted. The school has to know he acts like this, right? Why are they letting him walk around like this? After club is over Ishimaru asks what he thought of Komaeda's presentation and Naegi can only say, "Healthy people don't talk about other people like that. Do you think Hope's Peak would pay for therapy? Because that guy needs it."
"I will bring your concerns up to the staff at a more appropriate hour! However, I insist we return to the topic at hand. Perhaps crushing his arguments will be enough to change his despicable mindset!"
Naegi doesn't think it likely. He follows Ishimaru to the library anyway to compare notes. Mostly, Ishimaru shoves his own extensive notes at Naegi, every argument Komaeda made in frenzied handwriting on page. "How would you refute this first argument, Naegi?"
Ishimaru really wants this, Naegi thinks. This matters to Ishimaru more than he realized. He doesn't really get it, the drive his classmates all share to win, but he's never needed to understand to lend them a hand. Naegi musters up the energy to really attack this.
"First off, your strategy of taking down one point at a time would actually be better served if you start by pointing how none of these arguments make any sense together."
"Huh?"
Makoto points to the first bullet point, and then somewhere halfway down the page points to another argument. "These two things don't belong in the same conversation, let alone a coherent argument. Let Komaeda make his points, as many as he thinks he needs to, and then find the ones that don't make any sense together. Press him on it, make him justify why those two things aren't contradictory. They are, so whatever he comes up with will be nonsense. Use that reason to frame all of these, and they'll all come up short by his own reasoning."
"It appears I was missing the forest for the trees. I was so focused on how contradictory his statements were to my own beliefs that I didn't notice how contradictory they were to his own previous words." Ishimaru looks over the arguments list more closely, and points to five eleven and twelve. "Not all of them are, though. These two work quite well together, and strengthen his previous argument here. He is not an incompetent opponent, so how would you dismantle this reasoning?"
They talk it over. Ishimaru rarely gets to see Naegi like this. He'd asked for his help specifically based on previous averted disasters where Naegi has successfully talked his classmates out of foolish behavior, but he hadn't anticipated that Naegi would go all out for this challenge.
Ishimaru loves it when his classmates give their all to something. It's both motivating and reassuring when his peers show the initiative needed to be upstanding citizens. He himself will need to be his best to keep up with them, and more personally, he enjoys taking note of what they're passionate about. However, Naegi doesn't often show passion for things. It's somewhat disappointing, but Ishimaru can admit that his willingness to never take anything too personally is a boon in their class of eclectic and often headstrong personalities. He's honored, in that light, that his classmate took Ishimaru's request for assistance so seriously.
Ishimaru utterly destroys Komaeda on Friday. He knew Naegi was the right person to ask about this, the look on the club members faces when putting into practice this alternative style he'd studied is very, very satisfying. Arguing with his rival usually feels like attempting to walk uphill in a landslide, but today Ishimaru has felt more in control of of conversation than ever.
Komaeda compliments him on his victory. "I'm glad that I was able to push you to new heights. It only makes sense that I was thoroughly beaten today."
"Yes! This is the power of effort, you know. I studied Naegi's strategy for hours in preparation for this moment, and such hard work paid off!"
"...Naegi's strategy?"
"Naegi Makoto, Class 78's own lottery winner. He is very persuasive when he feels the need to be, and I requested his advice on how to better reject your ridiculous world view. He was very helpful!"
Komaeda would like to debate with Naegi directly. Naegi would prefer that not to happen, but since when does that ever mean anything?
This is so delightful and so in-character for everyone involved. Thank you for enjoying and embellishing on my AU!
Yeah, I love a situation where Nagito zeroes in on Makoto as a formidable debate opponent. (It occurs to me that this AU almost feels like a prequel to one of my fics where that is largely their dynamic, but I digress.)
Makoto has the perfect amount of reluctance here. I love that he's going to be dragged into the mix anyway, lol.
I’m glad you like it! I have to imagine that at first Nagito just wants to know if Makoto is like him or just happened to be useful this one time, but once Makoto really brings it he can’t help but be genuinely intrigued.
Makoto is just awkwardly standing behind the podium fiddling with his jacket beforehand and Taka gives him a motivational speech that is a little too enthusiastic. At some point he tells Makoto to debate like his life depends on it, which makes Makoto even more sweaty until Nagito actually starts talking and he’s like, oh, yeah. This guy.
I can’t decide if I like the idea of Makoto genuinely trying to talk him out of his spiral and ending up really shining, or him doing his best because ‘Maybe if I win I won’t have to come back?’ lol
I like the idea of it starting from a place of, "Taka asked me to do it, so I guess I'll try," and then getting to the point of "Hey, this guy isn't okay and no one seems to really be meaningfully saying anything to him."
Maybe with the added drama of the debate being considered "over" before Makoto feels he's really resolved anything with Nagito, so Makoto is getting congratulated for winning and he's just like "Haha yeah thanks, anyway can we actually keep talking about this please, maybe as just a side thing? I don't enjoy arguing, but I am worried about you."
Ah, yeah I like that. Maybe Komaeda gets dragged away by his classmates before Naegi actually gets to ask him about talking more. He’s still uneasy about the whole thing, so he goes back to debate club, but he doesn’t get paired with Komaeda for any of the debates. So he goes again and does get put across the aisle from him, only for Komaeda to start a tangent about some other wild thing entirely and Naegi just can’t help himself from falling for the distraction. No, that’s wrong. Just so wrong, he’s heard Hiro say more sensible things, is Naegi being pranked right now?
(Maybe being friends with Kirigiri has made him a little more inclined to expose the truth of a matter. Or Togami has finally rubbed off on him a little lol)
Eventually, he does get to bring up the whole ‘could we maybe talk more about your very concerning ideology. Did I mention it’s concerning? I’m concerned.’
By then it’s too late, though. The other debate club members like having him on the team. They expect him to keep showing up, and when he tells someone he won’t be going next Friday Ishimaru or someone else informs him that yes he will. Naegi we’re doing pairs on Friday you have to be on my team, c’mon man.
Set at the beginning of @theamityelf's debate club au because I really enjoy Ishimaru being the one to bring him into things. In a normal school year setting he's the perfect one to encourage this if he's already noticed Naegi's hidden aptitude.
Komaeda was declared the winner of their debate today, and Ishimaru feels thoroughly trounced. He knows that there were flaws in his upperclassman's argument, but attempting to address them in the moment had eluded Ishimaru today, unable to satisfyingly counter one before Komaeda redirected the conversation to another (wrong) argument. If he wants to win tomorrow, he needs not only to better prepare his own case, but a new strategy entirely.
He asks Naegi to come to the debate club's next meeting. "Not to argue!" Ishimaru assures him. "I would like your assistance in my upcoming debate against Komaeda on Friday, and to better prepare, you must study the opponent with your own eyes. There's nothing more reliable than a primary source when researching!"
Naegi reluctantly attends the Wednesday debate. Komaeda and Koizumi are against each other first, and Naegi mostly pays attention. He might let his mind wander and doodle in the margins in the middle there, but debate for the sake of it just isn't really his wheelhouse. Then, it is Ishimaru's turn to debate Komaeda and Naegi witnesses a car crash. They're supposed to be talking about the effectiveness of national vs local environmental policy to combat deforestation--how on earth did they get to arguing over whether efforts can ever surpass born talent???
At first, Naegi only feels uncomfortable in a vaguely insecure way. Then Komaeda just keeps talking and he forgets to take any notes entirely because he's completely flabbergasted. The school has to know he acts like this, right? Why are they letting him walk around like this? After club is over Ishimaru asks what he thought of Komaeda's presentation and Naegi can only say, "Healthy people don't talk about other people like that. Do you think Hope's Peak would pay for therapy? Because that guy needs it."
"I will bring your concerns up to the staff at a more appropriate hour! However, I insist we return to the topic at hand. Perhaps crushing his arguments will be enough to change his despicable mindset!"
Naegi doesn't think it likely. He follows Ishimaru to the library anyway to compare notes. Mostly, Ishimaru shoves his own extensive notes at Naegi, every argument Komaeda made in frenzied handwriting on page. "How would you refute this first argument, Naegi?"
Ishimaru really wants this, Naegi thinks. This matters to Ishimaru more than he realized. He doesn't really get it, the drive his classmates all share to win, but he's never needed to understand to lend them a hand. Naegi musters up the energy to really attack this.
"First off, your strategy of taking down one point at a time would actually be better served if you start by pointing how none of these arguments make any sense together."
"Huh?"
Makoto points to the first bullet point, and then somewhere halfway down the page points to another argument. "These two things don't belong in the same conversation, let alone a coherent argument. Let Komaeda make his points, as many as he thinks he needs to, and then find the ones that don't make any sense together. Press him on it, make him justify why those two things aren't contradictory. They are, so whatever he comes up with will be nonsense. Use that reason to frame all of these, and they'll all come up short by his own reasoning."
"It appears I was missing the forest for the trees. I was so focused on how contradictory his statements were to my own beliefs that I didn't notice how contradictory they were to his own previous words." Ishimaru looks over the arguments list more closely, and points to five eleven and twelve. "Not all of them are, though. These two work quite well together, and strengthen his previous argument here. He is not an incompetent opponent, so how would you dismantle this reasoning?"
They talk it over. Ishimaru rarely gets to see Naegi like this. He'd asked for his help specifically based on previous averted disasters where Naegi has successfully talked his classmates out of foolish behavior, but he hadn't anticipated that Naegi would go all out for this challenge.
Ishimaru loves it when his classmates give their all to something. It's both motivating and reassuring when his peers show the initiative needed to be upstanding citizens. He himself will need to be his best to keep up with them, and more personally, he enjoys taking note of what they're passionate about. However, Naegi doesn't often show passion for things. It's somewhat disappointing, but Ishimaru can admit that his willingness to never take anything too personally is a boon in their class of eclectic and often headstrong personalities. He's honored, in that light, that his classmate took Ishimaru's request for assistance so seriously.
Ishimaru utterly destroys Komaeda on Friday. He knew Naegi was the right person to ask about this, the look on the club members faces when putting into practice this alternative style he'd studied is very, very satisfying. Arguing with his rival usually feels like attempting to walk uphill in a landslide, but today Ishimaru has felt more in control of of conversation than ever.
Komaeda compliments him on his victory. "I'm glad that I was able to push you to new heights. It only makes sense that I was thoroughly beaten today."
"Yes! This is the power of effort, you know. I studied Naegi's strategy for hours in preparation for this moment, and such hard work paid off!"
"...Naegi's strategy?"
"Naegi Makoto, Class 78's own lottery winner. He is very persuasive when he feels the need to be, and I requested his advice on how to better reject your ridiculous world view. He was very helpful!"
Komaeda would like to debate with Naegi directly. Naegi would prefer that not to happen, but since when does that ever mean anything?
This is so delightful and so in-character for everyone involved. Thank you for enjoying and embellishing on my AU!
Yeah, I love a situation where Nagito zeroes in on Makoto as a formidable debate opponent. (It occurs to me that this AU almost feels like a prequel to one of my fics where that is largely their dynamic, but I digress.)
Makoto has the perfect amount of reluctance here. I love that he's going to be dragged into the mix anyway, lol.
I’m glad you like it! I have to imagine that at first Nagito just wants to know if Makoto is like him or just happened to be useful this one time, but once Makoto really brings it he can’t help but be genuinely intrigued.
Makoto is just awkwardly standing behind the podium fiddling with his jacket beforehand and Taka gives him a motivational speech that is a little too enthusiastic. At some point he tells Makoto to debate like his life depends on it, which makes Makoto even more sweaty until Nagito actually starts talking and he’s like, oh, yeah. This guy.
I can’t decide if I like the idea of Makoto genuinely trying to talk him out of his spiral and ending up really shining, or him doing his best because ‘Maybe if I win I won’t have to come back?’ lol
+ More DR characters as Pokemon! Explanations for each choice below the cut :)
I've been really enjoying watching through DR2, I think Im about halfway through the game. I also started playing pokemon again which is what brought upon this idea!
Sonia - Shiny! Galarian Ponyta; She's foreign so it makes sense she's a regional variant Pokémon, also she's definitely a unicorn. And how perfect is it that Galarian Ponyta's shiny colors match up perfectly with Sonia!!
Kazuichi - Poocheyna; He had to be a dog of some kind and Poocheyna's teeth fit him perfectly. I almost chose Rockruff, but I'm happy I went with Poocheyna. (Trust me if there was a steal type dog, it would have been my first choice)
Nagito - Absol; Its pokedex reminds me so much of Nagito. It's seen as a doombringer when it really is just well meaning with a calm demeanor. Which might not be 1 to 1 with Nagito, but it fits well to me. Also Absol is a fairly iconic pokemon and Nagito is one of the most iconic DR characters.
Gundham - Glaceon; AS THE SUPREME OVERLORD OF ICE, HE WAS ONLY WORTHY OF BEING AN ICE TYPE!!! Also Glaceon was definitely the Pokémon easiest to mix the design with and totally not because Gundham is my favorite character and Glaceon is apart of my favorite Pokémon's evolution line. (Its for both reasons)
Sayaka - Shiny! Sylveon; Sylveon is my favorite Pokémon I couldn't not involve Sylveon in a Pokémon crossover c'mon who do you think I am? Someone normal? Sayaka fits Sylveon in my opinion because of both Sayaka's IRL Cute Charm ability, but because she's not to be underestimated. I mean Sylveon is nicknamed the dragon slayer Pokémon because of its pokedex. Also normal Sylveon reminds me of Sayaka's pop idol outfit!
Leon - Litleo; Leon literally means 'lion'. Also if anyone is 110% a fire type, its Leon. I almost chose Vulpix cause I like Vulpix and its cute, but Leon's design translates better into Litleo! (I think he'd have both on his team tho if he were a trainer)
Makoto - Eevee; SOMETHING ABOUT MAKOTO GIVES PURE EEVEE. HE'S 5'3, NORMAL, BUT SOMETHING ABOUT HIM IS CHARMING!! I'd think he'd be like Chole's Eevee in Horizon's and not be able to evolve but Copycat moves from his friends! (Might make Hajime an eevee too, but idk, feel free to give me spoiler free suggestions!)
Byakuya - Ninetales; He's 100% fox energy, and Ninetales is a very sophisticated looking pokemon to me :)
Set at the beginning of @theamityelf's debate club au because I really enjoy Ishimaru being the one to bring him into things. In a normal school year setting he's the perfect one to encourage this if he's already noticed Naegi's hidden aptitude.
Komaeda was declared the winner of their debate today, and Ishimaru feels thoroughly trounced. He knows that there were flaws in his upperclassman's argument, but attempting to address them in the moment had eluded Ishimaru today, unable to satisfyingly counter one before Komaeda redirected the conversation to another (wrong) argument. If he wants to win tomorrow, he needs not only to better prepare his own case, but a new strategy entirely.
He asks Naegi to come to the debate club's next meeting. "Not to argue!" Ishimaru assures him. "I would like your assistance in my upcoming debate against Komaeda on Friday, and to better prepare, you must study the opponent with your own eyes. There's nothing more reliable than a primary source when researching!"
Naegi reluctantly attends the Wednesday debate. Komaeda and Koizumi are against each other first, and Naegi mostly pays attention. He might let his mind wander and doodle in the margins in the middle there, but debate for the sake of it just isn't really his wheelhouse. Then, it is Ishimaru's turn to debate Komaeda and Naegi witnesses a car crash. They're supposed to be talking about the effectiveness of national vs local environmental policy to combat deforestation--how on earth did they get to arguing over whether efforts can ever surpass born talent???
At first, Naegi only feels uncomfortable in a vaguely insecure way. Then Komaeda just keeps talking and he forgets to take any notes entirely because he's completely flabbergasted. The school has to know he acts like this, right? Why are they letting him walk around like this? After club is over Ishimaru asks what he thought of Komaeda's presentation and Naegi can only say, "Healthy people don't talk about other people like that. Do you think Hope's Peak would pay for therapy? Because that guy needs it."
"I will bring your concerns up to the staff at a more appropriate hour! However, I insist we return to the topic at hand. Perhaps crushing his arguments will be enough to change his despicable mindset!"
Naegi doesn't think it likely. He follows Ishimaru to the library anyway to compare notes. Mostly, Ishimaru shoves his own extensive notes at Naegi, every argument Komaeda made in frenzied handwriting on page. "How would you refute this first argument, Naegi?"
Ishimaru really wants this, Naegi thinks. This matters to Ishimaru more than he realized. He doesn't really get it, the drive his classmates all share to win, but he's never needed to understand to lend them a hand. Naegi musters up the energy to really attack this.
"First off, your strategy of taking down one point at a time would actually be better served if you start by pointing how none of these arguments make any sense together."
"Huh?"
Makoto points to the first bullet point, and then somewhere halfway down the page points to another argument. "These two things don't belong in the same conversation, let alone a coherent argument. Let Komaeda make his points, as many as he thinks he needs to, and then find the ones that don't make any sense together. Press him on it, make him justify why those two things aren't contradictory. They are, so whatever he comes up with will be nonsense. Use that reason to frame all of these, and they'll all come up short by his own reasoning."
"It appears I was missing the forest for the trees. I was so focused on how contradictory his statements were to my own beliefs that I didn't notice how contradictory they were to his own previous words." Ishimaru looks over the arguments list more closely, and points to five eleven and twelve. "Not all of them are, though. These two work quite well together, and strengthen his previous argument here. He is not an incompetent opponent, so how would you dismantle this reasoning?"
They talk it over. Ishimaru rarely gets to see Naegi like this. He'd asked for his help specifically based on previous averted disasters where Naegi has successfully talked his classmates out of foolish behavior, but he hadn't anticipated that Naegi would go all out for this challenge.
Ishimaru loves it when his classmates give their all to something. It's both motivating and reassuring when his peers show the initiative needed to be upstanding citizens. He himself will need to be his best to keep up with them, and more personally, he enjoys taking note of what they're passionate about. However, Naegi doesn't often show passion for things. It's somewhat disappointing, but Ishimaru can admit that his willingness to never take anything too personally is a boon in their class of eclectic and often headstrong personalities. He's honored, in that light, that his classmate took Ishimaru's request for assistance so seriously.
Ishimaru utterly destroys Komaeda on Friday. He knew Naegi was the right person to ask about this, the look on the club members faces when putting into practice this alternative style he'd studied is very, very satisfying. Arguing with his rival usually feels like attempting to walk uphill in a landslide, but today Ishimaru has felt more in control of of conversation than ever.
Komaeda compliments him on his victory. "I'm glad that I was able to push you to new heights. It only makes sense that I was thoroughly beaten today."
"Yes! This is the power of effort, you know. I studied Naegi's strategy for hours in preparation for this moment, and such hard work paid off!"
"...Naegi's strategy?"
"Naegi Makoto, Class 78's own lottery winner. He is very persuasive when he feels the need to be, and I requested his advice on how to better reject your ridiculous world view. He was very helpful!"
Komaeda would like to debate with Naegi directly. Naegi would prefer that not to happen, but since when does that ever mean anything?
It is an inadvisable time of night. Time to post an au.
Okay, so there's this fic called Ultimates that is a very cool sci-fi AU where all of the 78 kids are human experiments created to work as a team--you should really read this one. The lore of that fic doesn't apply for the purposes of this tumblr post, but chapter 19 lives in my head rent free. Anyway, just know that I'm cribbing Seashell's conceptualization of a neural network.
In my scenario Junko and Makoto were created to serve the same function--connecting/disconnecting their fellow experiments to the network, a headspace of complete compliance to whoever is the head of the connection at the moment. The heads function to coordinate the group and give them their orders; the other students can hear Junko/Makoto in their minds and vice versa, but they cannot hear the thoughts of anyone else even if they're also connected. There are two heads for failsafe reasons. Their authority doesn't work on each other, except when they willingly submit themselves to the network.
It was also for practical reasons. 14 other experimental metahumans makes a pretty big team, and not every skill needs to be on every shady paramilitary mission. If there are two networkers, you can run two missions concurrently. Makoto usually gets stealth missions; in-and-outs that require considerate precision and minimal violence.
Junko gets the bloody ones. She throws an absolute fit if she has to head "boring" missions. After the second time she foiled her own stakeout by blowing up the building she was supposed to watch, their handlers stopped pressing the issue.
Makoto and Junko synergize surprisingly well on complicated, multi-stage missions, the rare kind that really does require all hands on deck. In all other moments of their lives, they cannot stand each other, and the only thing more fun than bickering is bickering in ways that take advantage of the fact that "can't command each other" really means "can't command each other for more than half a second". For instance, it is very fun for Junko to command Makoto to kiss her. It is very fun for Makoto to force her to say sorry. They are insufferable to everyone around them--sometimes the others bribe Sakura into physically removing one of them from the other's presence. How is anyone suppose to eat when they keep flirting right in front of everyone's lunch?
A trigger happy havoc au where everything is mostly the same, but just a little bit worse for everyone, and this results in things somehow seeming to go better before getting even worse than they would have been. Cut for length
Sayaka goes further in lulling Leon into complacency before trying to stab him. She succeeds in her original plan, and it goes poorly for her. Makoto has to see with his own eyes how willing she is to lie to everyone about him, and the trial is just that bit harder on him.
Chihiro already felt horrible about how they were "complicit" in killing Sayaka, but something else that sticks with him is Makoto's much more pronounced betrayal. The students still leave the gym without confiding in each other, after the secret motive is revealed, but Chihiro goes about overcoming his "weakness" is a different way. Chihiro tells Taka that he wants to be more honest with his classmates, and would he maybe help Chihiro choose who to train with. Taka, without consideration, suggests Mondo, and would Chihiro like Taka to accompany him when asking Mondo for help? Mondo still has his insecurity breakdown, but Taka is there to step in. Except that Taka misjudges something; in the struggle, he kills Mondo on accident. In the trial, much like Taka had the breakdown in place of the killer, Chihiro has the breakdown here. Taka barely says anything during the trial. He's in shock, until Makoto asks him to confess, and he does.
Chihiro disappears into their room for chapter three, doubling down on improving Alter Ego so it can end this awful game. They know the mastermind can see them doing this, but just can't care about being reckless at the moment. Life settles into a tense but surprisingly easy equilibrium. The money motive gets put on the table and Kyoko, with no Alter Ego to confer with right now, takes more notice of how unstable Celeste is getting. She either points Makoto at her, or tries to fumble her way through talking her out of murder. Yuri is always correct, so let's say that's what happens. Her first attempt is just saying to Celeste's face "I know you're planning a murder. Stop. Money won't buy you out of execution." She is a little perplexed when Celeste is a little too willing to agree with her. She at least holds Celeste's interest long enough to stop her from killing anyone. The thing about equilibrium is that Junko gets bored of it very quickly, a whole week goes by without any murder; on top of that Alter Ego has been assailing her systems, getting a little more troublesome every time since Chihiro makes a backup before every deploy, so killing the ai isn't even fun. Unfortunately, Junko planned for such an occasion. Sakura murders Chihiro.
I think that Sakura still leaves Kyoko a skeleton key, but she leaves it in a duffel bag with the Alter Ego laptop in it too, and before she's executed tells the group tomorrow might be a nice day for a bath. In this alternate chapter 4, Celestia kills herself instead. With all of the trouble Kyoko can get into with the key, and everyone else asking Alter Ego for answers (it doesn't have many, but they have learned some new things early), Celeste really thinks about if she believes that they can get out of here. She does not win against her stalled grief, she can't bring herself to believe in her classmates, and she plans a murder. She's also...tired. She acts out of character for this chapter as well, but in the vein of being too nice to people. She invites people to have tea with her, Kyoko, Makoto, Byakuya, even Aoi and Toko. She invites Hifumi to a cup of tea, and he doesn't suspect anything at all, since no one else has come to harm from these little parties, and she's counting on that to poison his cup. He dies more slowly than she anticipated; she is a teenage girl, she doesn't know anything about poison except that it was the weapon of nobility. He flees her room and makes an absolute scene in the hallway. Someone hears, when they get there Hifumi is in a bad way, but Celeste lies that someone poisoned her tea leaves ;o; please go get help ;o; Hifumi somehow gets his miraculous memory moment, but Celeste is the only one there to hear. He calls her by her name, and she feels...something. She goes back to her room. She writes a letter, this time, and makes one last gamble. She tells her classmates that she's usually excellent at games, even ones she's never played, but this time she'd lost just by playing. She was focused on the rules explained to her instead of seeing the larger strategy. Playing against each other is useless, only defeating the mastermind themself will win this game--please, play to win. I'm placing my final bet on you.
Resolve, hope, Mukuro Ikusaba. You know the story. Makoto still covers for Kyoko, who does not reciprocate, but Junko has executions on standby for every classmate, so instead of sticking him in Kyoko’s she can just immediately pivot to Makoto’s personal execution.
7,777 Years of Bad Luck
The thing is, if he had killed someone, it would play out differently. Here, when he’s going to die for something he didn’t even do, but fully believes Kyoko didn’t do either, he fights. He knows he’ll lose, he's not an exceptional person, but maybe he can at least draw it out long enough for the mastermind to get annoyed. Monokuma always says more than he means to when he’s bothered. The abbreviated description of what I'm picturing is a room of mirrors, and I mean floor to ceiling including the floor and ceiling themselves are mirrors. Makoto is lowered from a line on a winch to the middle of it, and the second his feet are lowered to the floor, the glass cracks. Thousands of mirrors shatter around him over the course of this scene, but the shards wear through the rope tying him up, and Makoto refuses to die. He flips his hood over his head and dodges the larger glass pieces the best he can. It's inelegant...it almost looks like he'll live. There are only so many mirrors left to throw at him or fall on him and he's still standing. Then, Monokuma stabs him through the middle with a long, sword like shard from behind. Makoto looks down at the glass sticking out of him, and only wryly calls Monokuma "Cheater" before collapsing. Monokuma is very over-the-top offended by this, and HERE is where Kyoko makes her bargain in this au, right in the trial room, because she's at just the right angle to see that Makoto is still breathing. It's a lot less triumphant than the beginning of chapter six, but Kyoko's points stand--there's an audience watching, and if you let Makoto die here you lose your own game. She proposes that she be given as long as it takes Makoto to recover to investigate--the more vindictive the mastermind is with Makoto's care, the longer Kyoko will have to gather evidence against them for Mukuro's murder. Monokuma concedes to get Makoto only as physically well as he has to be to stand at his podium for the duration of the climactic trial. Kyoko believes him, since Makoto fainting in the middle of the debate would kind of ruin the tension of this epic battle the mastermind wants to give the world.
Possibly, for fun, Monokuma kick Makoto in frustration, and Makoto wakes up yelling. Monokuma despairs, "why are you s t i l l alive ugggh" and Makoto just says "fuck you that's why". If this happens, Monokuma teases him for being mean, he can't believe Kyoko is dumb enough to go out on a limb for such a loser, and he's like ??? she--he manages to sit up enough to find her, and mouths something to her, to which her eyes widen, and Monokuma scoffs in disgust. Monokuma twists the glass shard inside of Makoto, and he immediately passes out again. The kids are chased off to the elevator, they need to leave, since apparently he's got a call to make.
(Here is the part where my daydreams of Makoto getting to talk to despair Mikan could go if we wanted to get twistier, but that's a whole other thing)
There is a moment, where they are all rather hastily shoved to the elevator, that everyone is processing, and Hiro of all people is like, look Kirigiri, I didn't understand half of that, but you need to chill out. I don't have time for that. Toko is the one who says she has three minutes. You have to ride the elevator., that's three minutes of non-negotiable downtime. Even idiots know you can't bottle up everything or it will explode later, so explode now before you lose your cool later and you're useless. The door dings. I have a vision for this but it's kind of saccharine so imagine a camaraderie moment here.
I think alter ego is able to tell them that they were normal classmates before. Everyone has had time to be shocked and acclimate to knowing, but they have no idea why they’ve forgotten or what exactly. This makes the original pictures ineffective at turning them against each other--it’s not that big of a deal, because having the time and bandwidth to process that Makoto knew Kyoko was lying and, if he’d been wrong about her, sentenced them all to death by covering for her, upsets them just fine for a lot of the investigation. In this confusion, Monokuma gives them a different kind of bait. Everyone save Kirigiri is given class pictures where only Makoto is noticeably absent, rather than they themselves. This along with the elevator confession incline them to cooperation with Kyoko during investigation, but pile on Makoto for the first leg of the trial. He’ll have to prove he’s not the mastermind before they get to who is.
I’m going back and forth between Aoi being the one to help Kyoko with her father’s password. They’re not close like that, but she’s emotionally intelligent enough to make the same guess as Makoto, I think. Maybe this pre-trial time Kyoko actually integrates into the class more closely than she had any desire to before. Instead of disappearing around every corner, Aoi does get to accompany her to the principal’s office. Byakuya offers something he found without bitching for ten thousand years about it or just waiting until trial. Possibly a joke scene where Kyoko needs something on a shelf that’s too high for her to reach and she’s already planned her route to the nearest classroom to get a chair to stand on, and Hiro walks by and just. Gets the thing down for her.
An announcement. Times up. Makoto is waiting for them at the elevator, leaning against the wall. Kyoko asks if he’s really alright, did Monokuma keep his end of the deal or—no, he did. I’m gonna have some wicked scars, but I’ll be alright. His other friends are less glad to see him bc of the pictures thing but they’ll get over it lol. Makoto is like what now, and Kyoko says she has no idea because she didn’t take the bait. She asks if Monokuma gave him any information, but no, he induced a coma, so Makoto is walking into this entirely blind.
"Sorry."
"Don’t apologize. I’m…glad you’re here at all." Then, she smirks at him and says, "I've got this, Makoto, I am the ultimate detective, after all." Ultimate detective! Then the door opens and she has to help him walk to his podium. Later, when they get into things, adrenaline will let him hit his Pose, but at the start of the trial he is so sore get that boy a chair.
Once Junko is confirmed the mastermind, and she gets into the Tragedy, she doesn’t describe the Tragedy in any more detail than in canon, but she really twists the knife on their school life together. She shares anecdotes, she laments the friends she sacrificed, she tells them multiple times that she loves them. When it ramps up to the final vote, she promises that the outside world is dead and hates them, but she loves them so, so much. So much she'll give them their memories back if they let her kill Makoto for real. Kyoko points out that she has no reason to stay true to her word. Makoto points out that they can't get that time back either way. Trading the future for the past is not worth it, not when they can make new memories. Once the whole thing is settled and they make it to the entrance hall door, they stumble out into a wasteland. It's a long few weeks of living rough and running for their lives, but they still end up where they always would have, just a little to the left. Makoto maybe needs a smoothie diet for a while.
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