local Nikei enjoyer

they/them, gonna use this blog mostly to scream about SDRA2

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Chapter 4 if Syobai retained his beta personality probably

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Sometimes you just gotta give yourself your own bday present (it's on the 16th but work keeps me from drawing during the week)

Also yes I did already make this joke. But I drew it this time. Watch out next time I might even add colour to it.

[leviadraws]

Ik you said it's hella subjective but I'd love to see why you assigned each card for each character, i always find it fun to see what goes behind artist's minds n stuff :]

Oh go on you've pulled my leg /lh, I do have some notes on what's to come. Some of my picks might be considered a little ...spicy?

I was gonna put in the ones I'm more solid on but I ended up getting carried away and putting them all down haha. Yes I got way too involved reading into this, under cut as it's long and contains some spoilers.

Fool - Kiyoka: So you could likely argue either Yuki as the fool, since the tarot is often called the fool's journey. But I'd just taken the interpretation as the beginning, so I picked Kiyoka as the beginning of the series.

Magician - Syobai: I can hear it already, why isn't it Mikado? He's a literal wizard! But like while you could stretch the heaven and earth thing to be the real world and virtual one the kinda core traits of the magician don't really match up with him.

The magician is all about using everything in your arsenal to move forward, and taking every chance you get, and to me that reminds me of Syobai's journey from abandoned to the cut-throat person he ends up being.

High Priestess - Mikako: The priestess represents knowledge or a lack thereof, so it felt like it suits Mikako because she has her memories and knows who's responsible. There's also an element of mystery to it, so it works in the way that she can't reveal what she knows.

There's also a line for the reversed card about choosing to trust someone against your intuition or what others say, which is kinda like what happened with her and Utsuro + Akane when they're in hope's peak.

Empress - Setsuka: The empresss pretty much boils down to being kind to yourself and others, so I picked Setsuka as the big sister of the group and her battle to keep the group together.

Emperor - Shiji: So this one was harder, since the emperor is a little stoic and reversed emperor is tyrannical, such that Tsurugi would fit better. That said, the positive parts of it are more leaning towards Shinji and his role with the gang (Yuuki especially), he's their rock and their guide. It also means we get big bro and sis as empress and emperor which is kinda cool

Hierophant - ???: It feels like I should pick Kinji for this, seeing as he's the religious figure and this is the religious figure card. The hierophant is about taking the well-trodden path, do things by-the-book per say. Someone who's a good colleague or mentor. So I guess that could be Kinji?

Lovers - Haru + Satsuki: This one is kinda self-explanatory, there's not a lot of depth to this one haha. That said, there's a section of this card that's about finding out what's important to you by looking inside yourself so it fits nicely anyway. It's kinda the opposite of the hierophant, who find their way through established outside paths.

Chariot - Rei: The chariot is about having the willpower to overcome obstacles without distraction, so that fits Rei and her mentality to reach her goals no matter what pretty well.

Strength - Ayame: Strength is strength when facing adversity specifically, remaining calm even when facing a horrible struggle. Reversed strength is about insecurity, and a lack of confidence in one's self too, so I really like it on her.

Hermit - Sora: While the hermit can be associated with someone who likes to be alone, the whole thing about finding your inner self works nicely with her amnesia and drive to figure out who she really is.

Fortune - Yuuki(SDRA2) + Utsuro: I feel this one is more obvious, but the fortune refers to swings of good or bad luck. Reversed fortune feels particularly apt for SDRA2 Yuuki, as it's about uncontrollable change, and he's constantly a puching bag for all the horrible things that are out of his control.

Justice - ??? I feel like Kakeru is a cop-out here, and the theme doesn't actually suit him all that much. Justice is kinda the karma card, if you've done something bad your comeuppance will come, if you've been wronged your time for justice will come to you.

I've considered Kizuna for this one, as she has both done some awful things, been kinda in denial (or pretended to be) about those things, and shown that she was willing to take steps towards change. I'll likely come back to this one at some point

Hanged man - Teruya: The hanged man is someone who realises that sacrifice is necessary to move forward, this was one of the first ones I had decided on /lh

Death - Tsurugi - the reason Tsurugi isn't emperor or justice is because he fits this a lot better, the death card is about change or the resistance to change when reversed.

Temperance ???: Calm, someone calm who stays in safe waters and doesn't push the boat out.... I'm not sure tbh, possibly Kanata?

Devil - Kanade: Beyond the obvious, the is a theme with the devil card to addiction and obsession. You get the idea

Tower - Hibiki: Kinda funny that they're next to each other, the tower is like a huge change causes your life to fall on top of you. While the card itself isn't that drastic it works nicely for Hibiki.

Hajime also works well with this card, as a tower can represent a looming disaster and what you can do to avoid it too.

Star - Yoruko: I originally had this one as epilogue Yuki/Sora, but as the only survivor to not be as fucked up or on the run I think Yoruko sutis. The star is about hope and carrying on with your life after the events of the tower card.

Moon - Yuki (DRA) : So this one was kinda hard, I chose Nikei for this for a while, but his motivations are more rage related and don't really line up with the theme of the card. The moon is a card about taking the uncertain path, hidden truths and self-deception.

Sun - Yamato: What we're told at least of Yamato matches up with the sun a fair bit, someone with deserved confidence and success. I'm not very confident on this one, but I'm struggling to pick someone who hasn't been picked yet.

Judgement - Akane: Based off chapter 6 mostly, and her choice to save the others in the end. But also her choices in the start and how much she seems to regret them

World - Mikado: do you have any idea how much it pains me to give the wizard a card? /hj

That said, the world is completion and achievement, and so I wanted to give it to Mikado as someone who believed that had completed everything as planned, but had the wrong goal post from the start. It also felt apt for him to have the last card in the deck.

If I manage to get through all of them in like, a year(? most optimistic timescale ever haha) I'd like to do the minor arcana too, I'd like to end up with every character represented at least once

I'm likely to redecide on these at least 50 more times over the course of this project lmao

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Ooooooh, this is all very fun. I know little about tarot cards but I am now going to give you my unsolicited opinion on the ones you are unsure of (and a couple of the ones you decided too, because I just can't help myself)

The first one I thought about was Justice, because it fits the Void in general, I think? Mostly because of what Hajime said in the Void Theatre about them deserving their end for the murder they committed- I think you could probably either put Hajime here or Mikado himself as a representation of Void as a whole (and therefore swapping him out with Utsuro for the World- I think it would make sense to end it on Utsuro too, considering how instrumental he is in both games)

Yeah the Hierophant is very much the Kinji card- though depending on how much you want to make the Hierophant a guy or not, I feel like you could put Rei as the Hierophant, since the Hierophant is also an educator, the 'Teacher'. And also I personally live for Rei/Mikako parallels and these two cards are always compared to one another. (Though Rei as the Chariot also makes a lot of sense) You could also put Shinji here, because of his role as a support and guide to Yuuki in the game, if you want to stick to less of a religious and more of an educational meaning without the gender change.

Talking about Shinji- while I understand your reasoning for putting him there, I feel like Nikei is such a no-brainer for the Emperor role. He fits the Emperor ESPECIALLY in its reversed state, considering his desire to always remain in power and to not have it questioned in any way, but I feel like you could also consider him to be the rock that the CoU relied on... before Mikado came and fucked up everything, of course. Also Setsuka and Nikei being the Empress and Emperor is cute, iltsm

Temperance is probably the hardest one to decide on... it's hard to be a stable person when you are stuck in a killing game, after all. Kanata is a good option, Kinji could fit Temperance, too...yeah sorry I got nothing.

Anyway that's all I have to say. Good luck on the project!

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Sometimes I think about how Syobai was supposed to be the very first victim and like. Did Linuj change his mind about Syobai's role in the pre-game after he made that change or was that always the plan?

I'm just imagining playing through chapter 6 in that version of the events where Yuri (supposedly?) is a survivor and every five minutes we have Linuj pretty much telling us "Yo remember that Sex Pest™ that died in chapter 1? He was actually the one helping the mastermind the entire time. He did like, 70% of the prep work for the killing game and everything. He's actually one of the most important characters lore-wise and Hajime squashed him on the floor 4 hours into the game. Ain't that wacky?"

(unsure if the change in personality came with or before Linuj's decision to make him survive. Either way there is a timeline where Beta Syobai existed, did everything in the pre-game, was gross and then got the Yuri Kagarin treatment.)

Tbh I don't think that detail would have fixed the inherent problems that chapter 6 has (I could probably go on a whole tangent about just. How bad that chapter is but this isn't the post for that) but it at least would have been funny.

Also tbh beta Syobai dying first makes sense storywise- he is the ONLY person in the game that knew everything that was going on (unsure how much Mikado knew about Syobai's involvement with Tsurugi and Nikei before chapter 6, but it's implied he had no idea and connected the dots later) but that means he is basically as dangerous as Kokoro- and beta Syobai seems a lot more... volatile? Than canon Syobai. Like, you can easily control him if you give him enough money- pay him to shut his trap, and he'll keep quiet. Beta Syobai? Idk what the fuck is up with that guy but he has no allegiance. You can't buy him. He is unpredictable and Mikado (supposedly) hates unreliable factors so he would DEFINITELY order Hajime to kill beta Syobai first.

Idk where this post is going tbh. I just yap and you people read my insane ramblings.

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

List of possible reasons for Nikei's hand obsession because he is a weird little guy

1. Played an important role in him being able to leave his Tragic Backstory™ behind. This might be in different ways, but the most likely ones are him somehow managing to kill his abuser with it (he held whatever weapon in it) or he managed to grab something with it that managed to get him out of that situation non-lethally (I'm partial to baby Nikei committing a murder tbh look at him. He has killed before)

2. Utsuro probably held his hand when they met that one time that started the entire process of him escaping his Tragic Backstory™. Comes prepackaged with Nikei seeing Utsuro as some sort of Christ-like figure and having his hand therefore be 'blessed' by being touched by him. Overall a win for the 'Nikei is a boy kisser' crowd because imagine having a boy hold your hand exactly once and you immediately start to see him as God on Earth.

3. It's a JoJo reference. Which tbh it might be still one even if it's revealed that either of the two above is canon. There is a character in part 8 named Yoshikage Kira that is obsessed with his own hands, so much so he has statues of them in his home. It is never really explained why he is so into his own hands (the character seems to have obsessive-compulsive tendencies in general)- mostly because it's supposed to parallel ANOTHER character- Yoshikage Kira, from part 4. THIS Kira is a serial killer who developed a hand fetish after seeing the Mona Lisa and started to kill women to then keep their hands as his 'girlfriends'. I don't think Nikei is a serial killer mind you, but hey. Might as well bring that up.

Would be insane if Linuj decided to go full JoJo reference mode and have Nikei collect his fingernails in little jars labeled by date, too. For now it's just ambiguously a JoJo reference.

You thought this was a serious post about Nikei's hand obsession but it was I, Dio! Just wanting to talk about some nifty JoJo parallels.

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if I just posted this instead of the actual pic

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Nikei Yomiuri Headcanons part 2: dog edition

Because this guy has been living inside my brain since 2019 which means I unfortunately have a lot of Thoughts about him

He is a certified dog person. He doesn't hate cats or anything like that (I doubt he feels that strongly about ANY animal) but he likes dogs more than anything else due to their loyalty to their owners

He used to have a dog once. Well, he never technically owned one, but there was this one old, ugly neighbourhood dog tied to a pole that scared off all the other kids but him, and Nikei always brought it food, so he considered him 'his' dog.

He named him, too! He has always been bad at naming things, though, so he named him Inukui. (For the non-Japanese savvy, that's just the word for dog and ugly smashed together. I translate it in English as Pugly)

Inukui was the type of dog to growl at anyone that got too close, but baby Nikei had mastered that 1000 yards stare of his and petted him anyway

Cue Inukui immediately nuzzling up to him (his right hand obsession might have been spurred on by this event)

Whenever Nikei had free time, he would sit by Inukui's side while doing his homework. He couldn't exactly play with him, but the dog seemed more than happy just laying there, getting all the scratches.

Inukui unfortunately passed away not long after the beginning of their friendship. Nikei still considers him to be the closest thing to a friend that he has ever gotten.

Nikei never got a pet after him, not because he didn't want to, but because he knew he wouldn't be able to look after one consistently due to his hectic work schedule.

He very much does stop everything he is doing whenever he sees a dog pass him by.

His right hand exists to pet all the dogs. All of them.

If he could... he would definitely adopt another dog. Probably more than one.

He doesn't discriminate but he personally would prefer a big dog

He craves for the scary dog privilege

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Can you tell us more about how Nikei might have PTSD? I am intrigued

Okay, before I actually answer this, I do have to make a note- I mayyy have used the wrong term before.

What I think Nikei has is actually DTD aka developmental trauma disorder (the main difference being that PTSD is normally something that develops after a traumatic experience, while DTD develops due to a prolonged exposure to specifically childhood-related trauma).

They have a lot of overlap, but they aren't the exact same thing.

I do still think that just. Having to live through the Tragedy (which is canonical to the Another universe) is enough for anyone to develop PTSD, but I can't really go that much more in depth about it since that would just become headcanon territory.

But yeah, I am still confident enough about the DTD diagnosis, mostly because there is a lot of overlap with DTD and BPD- disturbed sense of self, low self-esteem, poor emotional regulation, problems with impulse control, aggression, attachment issues... which are all things I have already gone over in the BPD post, so I won't go much more in depth here than just stating that Nikei DEFINITELY shows all of those symptoms.

There are other symptoms, like tendencies to dissociate, cognition problems (which can often mean subjects with DTD get an ADHD diagnosis) and also medical issues. People with DTD often struggle with sensory and/or motor dysfunction, and may also suffer from somatization (which is basically when your body expresses emotional or psychological distress through physical symptoms. Which is one of the most common sign that someone may have anxiety, too)

Those are slightly harder to prove with canon material but also, look me straight in the eyes and tell me that Nikei doesn't have enough repressed emotions to suffer from somatization. You cannot.

But yeah, that's about it. Remember that I am not in any way an expert on this sort of stuff and I might get stuff wrong, and you are always free to believe anything you want.

(also, before anyone asks- yes I do believe that Emma also has DTD)

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Happy prudence

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Syobai Hashimoto as a character is so so funny because you could tell me he is actually some dude from another world that got isekai'd and I would 100% believe you.

Except it isn't the usual 'normal ass dude gets hit by Truck-kun and suddenly finds himself in a fantasy world and also any woman that sees him wants him' but specifically it's a SVSSS sort of situation where he has a System constantly on his ass and if he doesn't do what it tells him to do he just keels over and dies again. Also he is stuck in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world (because that's what the Danganronpa world is like post-Tragedy and as a society we should talk about that more I think).

OG Syobai was probably some overworked, depressed economics major that (as any good ol' SVSSS au requires) played probably beta Sdra2 and fucking hated it and then he tripped over a wire and ate total shit before he woke up in the body of some middle aged broker that never got an actual name in the beta game so he just repurposed his real name for him.

The System just starts to tell this very confused man shit like "okay now you have to agree to kill Mikado Sannoji so the game story can start and if you refuse to you immediately die again and after the mission I'll give you points you can spend in the game shop to gain abilities and power ups but also I will dock points if you act OOC and if your points reach 0 you also die" (paraphrased) and all Syobai can do is tentatively ask "can I just act like a regular asshole then, I do not want to become a sex pest" (because again, remember how beta Syobai is)

Except Syobai fucking SUCKS at being a brooding guy and he keeps either revealing shit accidentally when he talks (thankfully everyone else is too out of the loop to pay any mind to the weird shit he says) or he just says the most cringe worthy things because he genuinely thinks they sound cool. Also insert here whichever character you ship him with so you can Syobai Hashimoto brainrotting about his favourite character being real and right in front of him and also navigating creating a tentative relationship with them while also juggling with the OOC filter so he doesn't die while talking to them.

Also he keeps getting relationship updates with all the characters and has to deal with the constant loss of 'friendship' points from everyone except like. Mikado and whoever he winds up romancing. And also Kokoro because she is annoying to deal with due to her brain powers and so I made the executive decision to also have her be some isekai'd chick.

Syobai and Kokoro become frens :)

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Nikei Yomiuri has BPD: the masterpost

So I've been formally requested to make a post on why I believe Nikei has BPD- so strap in, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

I want to preface this with, I am in no way a mental health expert, I am in no way qualified to actually diagnose anyone with anything, but I am a weirdo who likes to read the DSM-5 for kicks who also happens to think about Nikei Yomiuri a lot. Everything I say needs to be taken with a grain of salt, yadda yadda yadda, you know how that all goes.

TW for discussions of sui, CSA and SH. I am not planning to discuss any of these topics in depth (except for the first one, due to just. Nikei being Nikei), but if the topics distress you in any way, I would advise simply not reading this. Look after yourself.

So, firstly, I would like to discuss how BPD develops. Though there are many possible causes, such as genetics, affecting the on-set of BPD symptoms, one of the most common causes is childhood abuse, especially CSA. We currently do not yet know Nikei's backstory and how he was 'saved' by Utsuro, but it is commonly believed that it had to do with CSA. It both explains some of his behaviors- the weird hypersexual tendencies and his extremely negative reaction to being touched by Mikado from behind, for example- and 'fits', so to speak, Void's tendency in everyone there suffering some sort of child abuse. This is mostly to explain how Nikei fits the common parameters of someone in whom BPD could develop.

Now, as for the diagnostic criteria: the DSM-5 dictates there are 9 major symptoms of BPD, and in order to qualify, the patient needs to fulfill at least 5.

Before I go over which of the symptoms he fulfills, I want to start with stating that Nikei is a particularly hard character to get a read on, mostly due to him faking his personality for the greatest majority of the game, and though I do not believe everything about him that we see is 100% fake at all times, it would be presumptuous of me to discern what I personally believe to be real or not. Therefore, I will keep myself limited to:

His actions throughout the game (plus the ones he made from behind the scenes and also what he did before the actual happenings of the game)

Nikei's bouts of anger (which he is shown to be physically unable to control)

Chapter 6's Void Theatre (since Linuj has stated that Nikei was being truthful in it and was thus is 'real self')

Talking about his anger… symptom number 1, "Inappropriate, intense anger that can be difficult to control" and symptom number 2, "Rapidly shifting intense emotional dysregulation". I don't think I need to go too in-depth when talking about how he fits these symptoms. If you have played the game, you know Nikei is shown to turn easily aggressive in ways he seems unable to control. I think the scene that highlights that the most is the one in chapter 4 while everyone is in Nikei's room- right after Mikado leaves. Nikei is unable to calm himself down, and has to cut short the meeting due to his inability to regulate his emotions properly. Honestly, Nikei in the fourth trial could also be used as an example for this.

Symptom number 3, "Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment". The man's gut reaction to Emma, Hajime and Iroha 'leaving' him was to come up with a plan to fuck over the man who took them away from him. It's actually a little hard to express myself in-depth on these first points, because I feel as though it would just be me repeating the game's plot points or just. Describing his character, rather than adding anything new to the discussion… of course, it's also pretty obvious that Nikei has extremely unstable relationships (again, Void), so he fits the fourth symptom as well, "Unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships, often characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, also known as "splitting" ". He doesn't necessarily 'split' on anyone in game, unless you count the fact that he can go from developing a crush on Sora to hating her guts in chapter 4, though in that case, his sudden hatred is more than understandable, considering the context- but I have to stress, it is almost impossible for us to know how Nikei feels about people in general, since most of his relationships are technically developed off-camera. As I am talking about Nikei's relationships, I feel like it would be a disservice to this 'theory' to not bring up this specific answer to a question that Linuj himself gave:

Nikei is not healthy with his interpersonal relationships. While this comment is strictly about romantic relationships, it is not a stretch to say that he gets obsessive about others in general- ergo, his relationships are unstable by definition.

Our fifth symptom is "Markedly disturbed sense of identity and distorted self-image"- one of his most obvious characteristics as a person is his inferiority complex, which feeds into his desire for power. To this, we can also add his struggle with his own self-worth. We don't know why exactly Nikei idolizes his hand as of yet, but it doesn't take an expert to realize that no matter the reason, his obsession with it doesn't exactly give us the impression his self-image is in any way stable.

Theoretically, I could stop here, since to be diagnosed you only need to fulfill 5 symptoms, but I am an overachiever to a fault so I'm gonna go on.

Symptom number 6, "Impulsive or reckless behaviors (e.g., uncontrollable spending, unsafe sex, substance use disorders, reckless driving, binge eating)". Now this might be weird to some of you, since Nikei doesn't really show any of these behaviors in game (again, not counting personal headcanons for this, so even if I do believe Nikei is definitely a reckless driver, I can't exactly say that counts since it is 100% based on vibes) but these are all just examples of reckless behaviors- Nikei has just significantly more personalized ones. Like, say, participating in a killing game of his own free will, or using an actual stun gun on himself rather than just pretending to be unconscious, or randomly changing key details of the plan he made supposedly months prior on the fly (ie adding Teruya to the mix when his spot was originally supposed to be taken by Syobai). Assuming Nikei has BPD actually makes chapter 4 make more sense.

"Recurrent suicidal ideation or self harm"- this is the last symptom I am going to talk about, and the primary reason for the TW at the start. This is probably gonna be somewhat headcanon-y, and if anyone wants to disregard that as such I cannot exactly fault them for it, but hear me out: Nikei's plan counts as a suicide plan. Nikei is not an idiot- he would have known that, no matter how it ended up going, if he failed or not, Nikei was gonna die either way- if his plan worked and Yuki was executed, Mikado would have retaliated and killed him in revenge; if his plan worked and Yuki got away with it, he would have died in the mass execution; and if, how it happened in canon, he failed he would have been killed, too (Mikado may have said that he would have forgiven Nikei if he returned back to Void, but let's be real here- that was a bold faced lie. He was just gloating). This plan would have ended up with him dead no matter what, and he was okay with it- which I don't need to tell you, is not exactly something someone who has never considered suicide before would do.

(Also random thought that I probably wouldn't be able to fit in another post- Nikei's execution itself is fairly odd, in the sense that he was ultimately the one who killed himself. He was the one that ran up the stairs, he was the one that jumped off the building, he was the one that failed to catch the ladder- hell, jumping off a building is a pretty common suicide method. His death is unique in the sense that he brought it all to himself- he was the only executee that wasn't tied down in any way, all his actions were truly his choice. He didn't need to run away from the Monocrows, but he did. He didn't need to go up the stairs instead of down, but he did. He didn't need to jump, but he did.)

The last two symptoms are:

Chronic feelings of emptiness

Transient, stress-related paranoid or severe dissociative symptoms

Which I don't think I can apply to Nikei in good conscience, since it's pretty hard to discern how that man is feeling at all times (other than, well, when he is raging). That would wound up being wayyy too headcanon-y for even me to excuse. Like, do I believe he is depressed? Absolutely. Do I believe he has PTSD? Certainly, but I can't point to any exact action he takes in game and point to it to say that he is 100% depressed. It's mostly just vibes. And again, I don't really need to? I have already given ample evidence as to why I believe Nikei has BPD, even without these last two symptoms.

(I mean, I COULD prove that Nikei has PTSD- if we consider his more than likely sexual trauma and his reaction to him being grabbed by Mikado specifically, someone who he considers to be a threat- that certainly feels like PTSD to me. Even without that, I genuinely doubt anyone that lived through the Tragedy DOESN'T have PTSD. Anyway I am losing track of the post here-)

I don't exactly know how to end this, but yeah! That's about it. Nikei has BPD, thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Eh honestly I get why one would think that? BPD and NPD have a lot of similar traits, and due to just the shit Nikei says, I wouldn't fault anyone for hitting Nikei with the narcissist beam.

I feel like what ultimately makes me say he has BPD is more due to his relationship with Void, specifically the CoU, than anything else. In a few words, I feel like they fit more as Favourite People than as a Narcissistic Supply?

(Little explanation for anyone who runs across this for anyone that doesn't know either of those terms: Favourite Person (FP) is the term for someone the person with BPD is dependent on for emotional regulation, the one they get attention from etc and is considered special and not easily replaceable. Narcissistic Supply (NS) is, instead, the NPD version of it, though the main difference here is the objectification of the other person(s) because of what they give you (mostly attention) and their replaceability)

(Also before I go on I can't stress enough how I am not trying to make generalisations, this is all based on my limited understanding of NPD, I am not trying to demonize people with NPD here and neither should anyone reading this post.)

In short, I don't think Nikei sees the CoU as replaceable, at all. If he did, the game wouldn't have happened, honestly- Nikei's main objective in the entire game was to fuck over Mikado's plan, and he could have easily done that by getting Iroha, Hajime and Emma thrown in prison for agreeing to work with a terrorist. Honestly, it would have hit two birds with one stone: taking his revenge on Mikado and also punishing the others for committing the crime of not standing by his side.

As we all know, Nikei very much does not do that. Honestly, all I need to prove that Nikei cares way too much about the CoU is by bringing up his treatment of Iroha during chapter 4- the girl all but asks him to die in her place, and of course, he gets angry at her for the mere suggestion- I mean, who wouldn't?- but then he lets her get away with it scot free.

He had the perfect chance the next day to fuck her over by revealing her as the last Void member (it would have only done good for his cause, showing that he was well and truly on everyone else's side) and he just... doesn't. And it isn't like he didn't share who was a Void member because he wanted to use that later on in his plan- Shinji is specifically called 'a helper of Void', not a Void member. There is no real reason as to why he didn't reveal her identity other than him just not wanting to.

And again, at the end of the chapter, right after the trial, he is once again given the opportunity to fuck Iroha over AGAIN by revealing her identity and he just. Doesn't take the opportunity to. Again. (And also mega weird that Nikei lied about lying about a Void helper existing in the post trial- Syobai was literally there? Why didn't he just reveal that...?)

Not saying that people with NPD are unable to care about others, of course, but there is a difference between that and literally just letting someone walk all over you with zero consequences. That is just not something that would happen if Nikei had NPD.

Anyway so in short you're wrong and I am the only person who can understand him ever /j

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Hey i just saw your reblog to my post about void and I'd love to hear your theories/headcanons on what Nikei's backstory is like

Hey!! Thanks for the ask, I like to yap a lot and this is fantastic to scratch that itch.

I do have a bunch of theories about his backstory, but I wouldn't say I have exactly a MAIN one? Also because a lot of the theories are technically just the same theory with a few slight tweaks. I don't want to settle on one only because I don't wanna be disappointed once Linuj drops the backstory and it isn't like how I imagined it.

There isn't much in the game itself that tells us about what Nikei's backstory could be like, but we have three things you always have to consider when creating a backstory for this guy:

Nikei's family is absent by the time Utsuro saves him and he cannot reconnect to them in any way

You have to think up why exactly Nikei is so obsessed with his right hand

The picture Linuj drew 4 years ago has to fit seamlessly in it

It has to explain his fixation on power and control

So, having stated that, here's the details that I match together fairly arbitrarily when I'm thinking about Nikei's backstory:

As far as his family is concerned, he most likely lost them before Utsuro even came into the picture- he does talk about them exactly once, and it is in this specific comment:

I know it says household and not family, but I checked the Hangul and from what I've found online, the term he uses is often used in the context of expressing the social position of one's family- so, he is likely talking about his own parents here. It's a fleeting comment, not the type I would imagine one would make when talking about abusive parents- so since his family likely has nothing to do with his trauma (or at least, isn't the direct source of it), they definitely disappeared before it all started.

Personally, I believe that Nikei was probably kidnapped- either that, or he was sold off. It depends on how nice I want Nikei's parents to be. In the kidnapping case, it could happen in any context, really- on the way home from school, or even inside his own home. His family most likely died during that encounter, and Nikei was then whisked away by his future abuser. In the case of him being sold off... well, Nikei states that his family wasn't wealthy- it isn't a stretch to say that maybe they were struggling financially, made a risky contract with loansharks that clearly didn't pay off, and therefore they had to either give Nikei away to their creditors, or they just sold him off for money so they could pay the debt back. What's important here is to establish that Nikei physically cannot (or in the second case, simply wouldn't want to) go back to his family.

Either way, it ends with Nikei being taken away from his family and forced into a life of servitude by his abuser(s). Most likely, Nikei had to deal with CSA- I don't want to get into that conversation, but there are two main reasons as to why I believe that to be the case. First, Nikei fits the profile of a victim, and is shown getting stressed and fearful when someone physically threatens him- like in the case of Mikado in chapter 4, in that one CG. Also, and this reason has less to do with the story itself and more with the writing of it all- Linuj is clearly giving each Void a different type of trauma, and it wouldn't make much sense for Nikei to be 'only' physically assaulted by his abuser, since that is already a subject explored in Emma's backstory. This then would explain his need for control- it's more out of fear of being forced into that situation again than anything else.

Skipping to the meeting with Utsuro now- I like to explain away Nikei's obsession with his hand as him touching Utsuro with it, and thus believing that his hand was blessed and is the reason why everything starts to look up for him. We are never explained how or to what extent each Void meets him, so it isn't unlikely to think that they were close enough to touch. Either that, or after the meeting with Utsuro, Nikei gathered up enough courage to actually stand for himself and attack his abuser- likely killing him and therefore causing the hand obsession. It might also just be a mix of both? Either way, Nikei gets out of this terrible situation, and he then doesn't live happily ever after because even after meeting Utsuro his life objectively sucks, just slightly less than it did before.

This is the most sensible of the theories I have? Nothing groundbreaking, I know.

Allow me now to introduce you to the Nikei Grew Up In A Cult theory. This one is significantly less strong that the ones above but hey, I'm just having fun here.

So, in this theory, Nikei's family is fully entrenched in a cult- Nikei probably was born into it. The details of the cult itself aren't really important, but I'm imagining something vaguely Christianity-inspired (on one hand because it's stupidly easy to just create a cult with Christianity as a basis, but also because of the very weird relationship Nikei seems to have with specifically Christianity- I could probably make a whole separate post on that). As in most cults, the leader is a wholeass fucking clown who definitely takes advantage of the kids in his group of yes men. Nikei definitely hated everything that was done to him, but no one would listen to him or they would actively scorn him for not accepting what their leader gave him- which also definitely counts for his parents.

Nikei grew to despise being submissive to others- due to the fact that he would always be taken advantage of if he wasn't the only in control. Which influenced his desire for power- when he met Utsuro, he touched the other boy with his right hand, and after the encounter was blessed with the luck to escape the cult.

Despite hating what was done to him, Nikei had grown up fully entrenched in the cult's dogma, so it wouldn't be insane to presume that he assumed the boy he met had been an angel or even a God, that had bestowed upon him luck as a way to pay him back for his suffering. Therefore, he starts seeing his right hand as something that was touched by God, causing his obsession with it.

Then again, I'm projecting a liiiittle of my religious trauma on him with this theory. It kinda was born out of my brain assuming the True? Or False? on his shirt referred to religious doctrine. Don't take it too seriously.

Anyway, that's all I got. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[laugtherhyena]

Honestly yeah, their relationship feels 100% situational to me on rewatch. Kinda sad since i do think they could have been actual friends if things hadn't turned out so shitty (the tragedy, Mikado and the whole Utsuro situation)

I do agreed that, out of all voids, Hajime and Emma really are the only ones that feel like they're actual friends, even if he gets bothered by her goofy puns all the time. As for Nikei while I don't think he acted as their friend or maybe even saw them as such, i do feel like he cared for them to some extent given that final void theather interaction.

Iroha and Mikao tho,, eh, maybe those two are more similar than we thought, at least when it comes to how they treated the other voids (ironic, in a way)

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Got this recommended to me and as that one certified Nikei Yomiuri Overthinker™, I am contractually obligated to add my two cents.

I do agree with OP on the whole- the chapter 5 Void Theatre implies that Nikei always acted extremely cold towards them, nor did he ever have any illusions about their relationship being anything more than transactional. I do believe that saying 'he cares about them' is a gross oversimplification of the mess that Nikei's feelings towards them are, though. Honestly, I would say that he cared about them more than they could ever care about him all combined.

So, let's start with stating a couple of things about Nikei Yomiuri:

Nikei does not have ANY close relationships outside of Void

We do not know Nikei's backstory, but we know from his profile in-game that he does not have a family (it is signed as N/A just like Hajime's and Syobai's) and, from the last FTE with him, we know that he has never had someone that explicitly called themselves his friend- supposedly, not even Emma, Hajime and Iroha.

Those three were the closest thing to 'friends' that Nikei ever had- even if he never fully internalized it as a friendship.

Which means- Nikei does not have a genuine understanding about how healthy relationships are supposed to be like. How could he, when he has never experienced how those are supposed to be like? He cannot be friends with the CoU, because he doesn't even understand what being friends means.

You know what type of relationships Nikei has experience with, though? Work relationships. Again, Sora calls him out about it in his FTEs- Nikei has no work/life balance at all- everything he is, IS his job. All the connections he has ever made, have been contractual and based on how useful they were- and that's exactly how the CoU started. They were all people that were brought together by circumstance, with the same objective.

Another major difference between friendship and work relationship is that they are hierarchical- especially in Japan, there is a very strict divide between those above and those beneath, and how they are each supposed to interact with one another. So, of course, Nikei would gravitate towards recreating this hierarchy in the CoU- because it is what he knows, and the only type of relationships he can navigate.

One might wonder, at this point, why Nikei is so obsessed with power and he would put himself in the position of leader of the CoU. This brings us to statement number two:

Nikei has self-worth issues

Now, the reason why Nikei is obsessed with power is due to his backstory that we still do not know. And while I could talk about potential theories here, I don't want to get TOO headcanon-y with this post, so I'm going to leave it at that. What I can talk about, though, is that for someone to have power, they need people to exert said power onto.

Nikei has an inferiority complex. That is not up for debate, it is very explicitly stated in-game- all he did, his entire plan, was born because Mikado stole his position as leader of Void from his grasp, everyone else abandoned him to follow Mikado, and that's explicitly what caused Nikei to despise Mikado.

Some may think that this could be a symptom of Nikei being a narcissist, but I don't believe he is one, at all. That is mostly because all of his anger towards being abandoned is specifically directed at Mikado- NOT at the rest of Void. The only time he got angry at anyone other than Mikado, was first when Iroha asked him to kill in her place (therefore, to die in her place, which is a more than understandable reason to be angry at her) and then in the chapter 5 Void Theatre, where he reprimands Emma and Hajime about them following Mikado and directly causing their own deaths- which is also extremely fair.

Even when directly blaming them for this, he has to preface that it is ultimately Mikado's fault. Although... it really isn't Mikado's fault, at all, now is it?

"In the end, everything that happened, was due to my own shortcomings as a leader. I forced you all into this. I was the one that drove you to desperation like this.

I'm sorry I didn't search for Utsuro harder.

I'm sorry I couldn't prevent this from happening.

I'm sorry I wasn't enough."

How much you can say in so little words.

In the end, no matter how angry he was at Mikado, he was mostly angry at himself for being a failure.

Not that he could ever allow himself to share that with anyone though. I mean, he was their leader, right? Leaders are supposed to be strong and commanding, to always know what to do and to never waver. How could he ever open up to his subordinates about this, without them judging him for it? That's why he allowed himself to say sorry only at the very end- because even if they were to judge him, it wouldn't matter anymore.

Which is why Nikei's first reaction to Hajime saying that they could have all been friends, is to immediately be aggressive. And despite stating that he was going to be honest, he is pretty obviously in denial- in fact, the moment Hajime and Emma don't immediately retract their statements, instead confirming that, yes, they were happy in the CoU-

He immediately denied it, of course, but we all know Nikei has a penchant for lying, especially if it's about his own feelings. And that is because of statement 3:

Nikei wants friends, but ultimately doesn't believe he could ever have them

Nikei is used to relationships based on how useful you can be to each other. It's exactly this way that his relationship with Emma, Hajime and Iroha started. He made himself the leader, and yes, that was due to his desire for power, but also so he could feel needed- Emma, Hajime and Iroha work beneath him, yes, but only because he is useful to them. The moment they find someone better, they would gravitate towards them- which is exactly what happened.

Nikei never believed that they were more than coworkers, because he ultimately believed that no one would stand by him without him offering something back. He would have wanted them to be friends, but because of how their relationship started, he never dared to hope for more. And then Hajime just says it so casually? That they could have been friends? What a sick joke.

(Just look, instead, how he reacts when Sora approaches him in the FTEs, constantly showing that she is interested in him, without having nothing to gain- they started by being equals, and that allowed him to fully bask in the joy of having someone genuinely caring. I could talk about this for even longer but this post is already VERY long so I'm just leaving it at that.)

I don't doubt for a second that Nikei cared about them, even more than seeing them as colleagues- after all, if all he wanted to do was fuck Mikado over, then he didn't need to join the killing game, right? He could have just gotten the traitors to be incarcerated, and that would have ruined the plan. But no- he instead created a convoluted plan that would ultimately leave the CoU largely unaffected. He wanted to protect them. He truly did.

So yeah, if I had to make a list going from person that cared the most to person that cared the least, it would be Nikei >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hajime >> Emma >>>>> Iroha > Mikado.

I would explain them more thoroughly but this post is already long as it is... sorgy

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Fucking love Syobai Hashimoto man, bro really just named himself 'perv' as his work alias

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

Nikei Yomiuri has BPD: the masterpost

So I've been formally requested to make a post on why I believe Nikei has BPD- so strap in, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

I want to preface this with, I am in no way a mental health expert, I am in no way qualified to actually diagnose anyone with anything, but I am a weirdo who likes to read the DSM-5 for kicks who also happens to think about Nikei Yomiuri a lot. Everything I say needs to be taken with a grain of salt, yadda yadda yadda, you know how that all goes.

TW for discussions of sui, CSA and SH. I am not planning to discuss any of these topics in depth (except for the first one, due to just. Nikei being Nikei), but if the topics distress you in any way, I would advise simply not reading this. Look after yourself.

So, firstly, I would like to discuss how BPD develops. Though there are many possible causes, such as genetics, affecting the on-set of BPD symptoms, one of the most common causes is childhood abuse, especially CSA. We currently do not yet know Nikei's backstory and how he was 'saved' by Utsuro, but it is commonly believed that it had to do with CSA. It both explains some of his behaviors- the weird hypersexual tendencies and his extremely negative reaction to being touched by Mikado from behind, for example- and 'fits', so to speak, Void's tendency in everyone there suffering some sort of child abuse. This is mostly to explain how Nikei fits the common parameters of someone in whom BPD could develop.

Now, as for the diagnostic criteria: the DSM-5 dictates there are 9 major symptoms of BPD, and in order to qualify, the patient needs to fulfill at least 5.

Before I go over which of the symptoms he fulfills, I want to start with stating that Nikei is a particularly hard character to get a read on, mostly due to him faking his personality for the greatest majority of the game, and though I do not believe everything about him that we see is 100% fake at all times, it would be presumptuous of me to discern what I personally believe to be real or not. Therefore, I will keep myself limited to:

His actions throughout the game (plus the ones he made from behind the scenes and also what he did before the actual happenings of the game)

Nikei's bouts of anger (which he is shown to be physically unable to control)

Chapter 6's Void Theatre (since Linuj has stated that Nikei was being truthful in it and was thus is 'real self')

Talking about his anger… symptom number 1, "Inappropriate, intense anger that can be difficult to control" and symptom number 2, "Rapidly shifting intense emotional dysregulation". I don't think I need to go too in-depth when talking about how he fits these symptoms. If you have played the game, you know Nikei is shown to turn easily aggressive in ways he seems unable to control. I think the scene that highlights that the most is the one in chapter 4 while everyone is in Nikei's room- right after Mikado leaves. Nikei is unable to calm himself down, and has to cut short the meeting due to his inability to regulate his emotions properly. Honestly, Nikei in the fourth trial could also be used as an example for this.

Symptom number 3, "Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment". The man's gut reaction to Emma, Hajime and Iroha 'leaving' him was to come up with a plan to fuck over the man who took them away from him. It's actually a little hard to express myself in-depth on these first points, because I feel as though it would just be me repeating the game's plot points or just. Describing his character, rather than adding anything new to the discussion… of course, it's also pretty obvious that Nikei has extremely unstable relationships (again, Void), so he fits the fourth symptom as well, "Unstable and chaotic interpersonal relationships, often characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, also known as "splitting" ". He doesn't necessarily 'split' on anyone in game, unless you count the fact that he can go from developing a crush on Sora to hating her guts in chapter 4, though in that case, his sudden hatred is more than understandable, considering the context- but I have to stress, it is almost impossible for us to know how Nikei feels about people in general, since most of his relationships are technically developed off-camera. As I am talking about Nikei's relationships, I feel like it would be a disservice to this 'theory' to not bring up this specific answer to a question that Linuj himself gave:

Nikei is not healthy with his interpersonal relationships. While this comment is strictly about romantic relationships, it is not a stretch to say that he gets obsessive about others in general- ergo, his relationships are unstable by definition.

Our fifth symptom is "Markedly disturbed sense of identity and distorted self-image"- one of his most obvious characteristics as a person is his inferiority complex, which feeds into his desire for power. To this, we can also add his struggle with his own self-worth. We don't know why exactly Nikei idolizes his hand as of yet, but it doesn't take an expert to realize that no matter the reason, his obsession with it doesn't exactly give us the impression his self-image is in any way stable.

Theoretically, I could stop here, since to be diagnosed you only need to fulfill 5 symptoms, but I am an overachiever to a fault so I'm gonna go on.

Symptom number 6, "Impulsive or reckless behaviors (e.g., uncontrollable spending, unsafe sex, substance use disorders, reckless driving, binge eating)". Now this might be weird to some of you, since Nikei doesn't really show any of these behaviors in game (again, not counting personal headcanons for this, so even if I do believe Nikei is definitely a reckless driver, I can't exactly say that counts since it is 100% based on vibes) but these are all just examples of reckless behaviors- Nikei has just significantly more personalized ones. Like, say, participating in a killing game of his own free will, or using an actual stun gun on himself rather than just pretending to be unconscious, or randomly changing key details of the plan he made supposedly months prior on the fly (ie adding Teruya to the mix when his spot was originally supposed to be taken by Syobai). Assuming Nikei has BPD actually makes chapter 4 make more sense.

"Recurrent suicidal ideation or self harm"- this is the last symptom I am going to talk about, and the primary reason for the TW at the start. This is probably gonna be somewhat headcanon-y, and if anyone wants to disregard that as such I cannot exactly fault them for it, but hear me out: Nikei's plan counts as a suicide plan. Nikei is not an idiot- he would have known that, no matter how it ended up going, if he failed or not, Nikei was gonna die either way- if his plan worked and Yuki was executed, Mikado would have retaliated and killed him in revenge; if his plan worked and Yuki got away with it, he would have died in the mass execution; and if, how it happened in canon, he failed he would have been killed, too (Mikado may have said that he would have forgiven Nikei if he returned back to Void, but let's be real here- that was a bold faced lie. He was just gloating). This plan would have ended up with him dead no matter what, and he was okay with it- which I don't need to tell you, is not exactly something someone who has never considered suicide before would do.

(Also random thought that I probably wouldn't be able to fit in another post- Nikei's execution itself is fairly odd, in the sense that he was ultimately the one who killed himself. He was the one that ran up the stairs, he was the one that jumped off the building, he was the one that failed to catch the ladder- hell, jumping off a building is a pretty common suicide method. His death is unique in the sense that he brought it all to himself- he was the only executee that wasn't tied down in any way, all his actions were truly his choice. He didn't need to run away from the Monocrows, but he did. He didn't need to go up the stairs instead of down, but he did. He didn't need to jump, but he did.)

The last two symptoms are:

Chronic feelings of emptiness

Transient, stress-related paranoid or severe dissociative symptoms

Which I don't think I can apply to Nikei in good conscience, since it's pretty hard to discern how that man is feeling at all times (other than, well, when he is raging). That would wound up being wayyy too headcanon-y for even me to excuse. Like, do I believe he is depressed? Absolutely. Do I believe he has PTSD? Certainly, but I can't point to any exact action he takes in game and point to it to say that he is 100% depressed. It's mostly just vibes. And again, I don't really need to? I have already given ample evidence as to why I believe Nikei has BPD, even without these last two symptoms.

(I mean, I COULD prove that Nikei has PTSD- if we consider his more than likely sexual trauma and his reaction to him being grabbed by Mikado specifically, someone who he considers to be a threat- that certainly feels like PTSD to me. Even without that, I genuinely doubt anyone that lived through the Tragedy DOESN'T have PTSD. Anyway I am losing track of the post here-)

I don't exactly know how to end this, but yeah! That's about it. Nikei has BPD, thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

So I was thinking about Nikei (normal kind of behaviour) and chapter 4 in general and just. How much of it Nikei kinda changed on the fly? It's kinda funny actually how Linuj had to change the murder plot that was also changed in game.

Because, Teruya wound up being a pretty important part of the set up to the murder, right? But Nikei couldn't have possibly known that Teruya would be in the game before he actually found himself having to deal with him in chapter 2 (Mikado himself said that the Kisaragi Foundation presence wasn't a certainty- and I doubt Nikei would have known more than Mikado on this front) and even then, he couldn't have known for SURE that Teruya wouldn't have been killed before they all arrived to the fourth island.

So, Nikei decided at the last moment to manipulate Teruya into locking everyone in the tower. The obvious question is, if Teruya was not in the original plan, then who was originally going to take his spot? I mean, it's pretty clear that it had to be Syobai's job.

What I don't get is- why did Nikei change his plan at the last second? Not that I think he traded down by having Teruya be the jailor, but it's just very weird that he would do something as risky as that at the last possible moment. There is no real logical explanation as to why he would swap for Teruya- at first I thought it could have been a matter of trust, that Nikei didn't trust Syobai- but then there is literally no reason as to why he would 'protect' Syobai later on by lying that there was never an helper of Void after the trial.

I literally am at a loss here, Nikei why did you do that lol. I could chalk it up to bad writing or to Nikei's obvious BPD, but that's boring, so if anyone has any clue, hmu

Also random Nikei old ass doodle

[nikeiyomiurioverthinker]

I bring in the heat every two to five business months and then disappear back into the void (not the group, I mean the fun type of void)

Anyway Nikei Yomiuri Madoka Magica AU h e l l y e a h .

Tbh I have only really thought about the CoU in terms of magical girls, since... ya know. Luck and all that.

In this au, instead of Utsuro bringing them luck, they all sold their souls to Kyubey (or like. Monocrow. Idk that detail is still a WIP) in order to solve their problems as children- and somehow managed to live on into adulthood, when they all finally met and became a team.

Which is exactly when shit hits the fan.

Also sorry Emma fans. I did ya girl dirty.