Okay but If My count is correct, the academy has 16 members if you include Eva. So it would divide neatly into a tournament arc. I feel like that'd be fun to plan out.
It would! We should have a proper tournament arc!
Here's a bracket decided completely at random.
Round 1 - Ima vs. Takemaru
Takemaru's advantage is that he's a big guy with muscles and probably some experience in a scrap. Ima's advantage is that Takemaru's soft heart and good nature.
Takemaru's going to go into this fight with a sense of good sportsmanship, and might be inclined to go easy on the kid. Ima, on the other hand, is ruthless and cutthroat. He will try to take full advantage of Takemaru's good nature to lure him into a sucker position, then capitalize without hesitation.
However, in a formal "BATTLE BETWEEN MEN" scenario, I'm not sure Takemaru would be quite so willing to give Ima that inch. They're in this ring for one reason and one reason only, and it's something that's dear to Takemaru's heart: Throwing hands with his bros.
Push comes to shove, I think Takemaru takes the win because the context of the tournament mitigates Ima's best hope for victory.
Round 2 - Gaku vs. Takumi
Gaku goes down immediately. Takumi is a straightforward and uncomplicated attacker, and Gaku needs time to psyche himself up that Takumi's unlikely to give him.
Not to mention Gaku's own insecurity towards Takumi. Gaku sees Takumi as a bro, but also feels inadequate next to him due to Takumi's self-confidence.
So Gaku needs time to psyche himself up, but just entering that ring and seeing Takumi across the ring is going to psyche him out instead. Gaku's going to start this fight utterly convinced of the inevitability of his defeat, which will quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
He may bitterly ask Takumi to throw the fight and just let him have this one. Takumi will not give him that.
Round 3 - Darumi vs. Moko
On the surface, Moko seems like the clear winner. She's an experienced pro wrestler and Darumi's a lanky dweeb who stays up all night playing Danganronpa games and stuffing her gob with candy.
In any given fight with Moko, there is one critical question: If Moko flips you over and sits on you, do you have an answer for that?
But Darumi actually has an answer for that. Her Class Weapon is psychic telekinesis knives, which means she can attack an opponent even from a pinned state.
Darumi has the Joker Advantage. She's batshit. Her pain tolerance and self-destructive tendencies make her incredibly tenacious. Where others might say "Oh shit, I'm bleeding, I should back off," Darumi's inclined to say "OHOHOHOHO LOOK AT ALL THE BLOOD!!!"
Darumi has no survival instinct. Even if she's bleeding from the face, she will try to keep fighting until she's unconscious or dead. And with telekinetic weapons, she is entirely capable of doing exactly that.
This strikes me as a pretty close fight, but I'm inclined to think that Darumi's offputting unpredictability is going to give her enough of an edge for an underdog win when maneuvers that would quite reasonably put down a fellow wrestler end up setting Moko up for an unexpected counter from a bloody half-carcass that refuses to tap out.
Round 4 - Eito vs. Nozomi
Nozomi goes down immediately.
Nozomi never had any serious hope of winning this tournament. She's just here to try her best and make sure everyone has a good time.
Eito is cruel and calculating. He might feign sportsmanship to Nozomi but only to set her up for a crushing fall. This is a totally unfair match and Nozomi got absolutely screwed by the randomized roster.
Round 5 - Shouma vs. Kako
Shouma isn't really built for a 1v1 like this. His biggest weakness is that he can't throw a punch without immediately incapacitating himself. His strength is that he can absorb damage and then send it back, which works well for crowd control. But for a duel setup like this, his only hope is being able to reflect enough damage to his opponent before they can overwhelm his generous defenses.
Kako is the highest single-target damage-dealer in the SDU as long as she can take her time and line up her shot. And because Shouma is incapable of making directly offensive moves, Kako has all the time in the world. If anyone can pierce Shouma's defenses, it's Kako Tsukumo.
Round 6 - Eva vs. Kyoshika
Like Nozomi, Eva got absolutely screwed by the randomized matchup. Kyoshika is her hard counter. Even in her transformed state, Kyoshika is the key to making Eva eat dirt in record time.
Kyoshika and Eva are both well-suited to an environment like this. Eva's light on her feet, preferring to keep moving and use stealth to her advantage where possible while Kyoshika's trained as a samurai, which makes this seem like a classic shinobi vs. samurai matchup.
But Kyoshika's samurai training seems to have included an awful lot of shinobi trappings and philosophy, and Kyoshika often exhibits very un-Samurai philosophies. She's as much an assassin as Eva is; She just carries herself as a samurai.
So this is really shinobi vs. shinobi.
However, in addition to Kyoshika being Eva's hard counter, I'm also inclined to give this to Kyoshika due to a difference in mindset. Kyoshika's fighting to win. Eva, as a participant in this tournament, is liable to be here under one of two circumstances:
1 - She's been brainwashed, which makes her docile and compliant.
2 - She hasn't been brainwashed, which makes her sympathetic to the children of the SDU.
Either of these contexts means Eva's not going to be as eager to strike down Kyoshika as Kyoshika may be to strike down Eva in a purely recreational "training" tournament.
So between Kyoshika being Eva's hard counter, Kyoshika not being as easy to blindside with shinobi tricks as some other SDU members are, and Kyoshika having her head in the game more than Eva would, I'm inclined to say Kyoshika takes the win.
Round 7 - Tsubasa vs. Hiruko
Tsubasa goes down immediately. I love Tsubasa and she is fucking OP in gameplay but come on.
Hiruko fucking uppercuts the hood of Tsubasa's truck with her giant goddamn battleaxe. It flips over and explodes dramatically while Hiruko walks away from the explosion in slow motion adjusting her glasses. Next fight.
Round 8 - Yugamu vs. Kurara
Battle of the indirect combat. Yugamu's poisons and stretchy limbs are incredibly potent. He's the #1 debuffer in the SDU. But with Kurara, he runs into a similar problem as with Darumi: It doesn't really matter.
Yugamu isn't just fighting Kurara and her shovel. He's fighting Kurara's weapon installations too, which care very little about his poisons.
In a straight fight, no gimmicks, I'm inclined to say Kurara takes it with her shovel.
But Yugamu's debilitating poisons turns the table. Kurara doesn't have an answer for that.
But Kurara's turrets turn the table back around. Yugamu doesn't have an answer for them either, and so the turrets take the win while Kurara's incapacitated.
Quarterfinals Round 1 - Takemaru vs. Takumi
Takemaru and Takumi have a good number of fistfights throughout the game and tend to be treated as evenly matched, so this is a real tossup. I'm inclined to give it to Takumi however based on how their Class abilities match up.
Specifically, Takemaru's biggest strength is his shielding. He's a beefy fuck whose defenses are hard to pierce. But Takumi's Class Weapon has Piercing, which is designed to cut through defenses just like Takemaru's.
Suiting up in Class Armor tips the scale in Takumi's favor.
Quarterfinals Round 2 - Darumi vs. Eito
Sadly, this is as far as my favorite character goes. There's no way Darumi wins this one.
It's a matter of mindset. At the end of the day, Darumi isn't here to win. She wants to lose. She wants to suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of a villain just like Eito, and Eito knows exactly how to play that angle against her.
Quarterfinals Round 3 - Kako vs. Kyoshika
This is as far as Kako goes too. Kyoshika isn't an opponent like Shouma. She's not going to give Kako the breathing room she needs to fight at her full potential. Kyoshika's closing distance and going straight for Kako's throat, and there's little Kako can do to prevent that from happening.
Quarterfinals Round 4 - Hiruko vs. Kurara
This is going to be another upset victory. There are few SDU members who I would say actually have it in them to take Hiruko. But Kurara's one of them.
It's a problem of speed. Kurara isn't going to win against Hiruko going axe to shovel, but she has no reason to fight Hiruko that way. Hiruko is incredibly slow on her feet to make up for her power, while Kurara is the second-fastest SDU member on the field after Tsubasa.
All Kurara has to do is maintain distance from Hiruko, using her footwork to stay forever out-of-reach while her turrets pummel Hiruko until she goes down.
If Hiruko could get her hands on Kurara, this would be over in a second. But between the slow movement and poor attack range that her heavy axe affords her, Hiruko simply can't touch Kurara.
Semifinals Round 1 - Takumi vs. Eito
You have no idea how disappointed I am that this tournament arc ended up being yet another fucking vector for these two chodes to strangle each other. But we're doing this.
It can't be stopped. In every universe they are destined to meet like this, even when the roster is decided at goddamn motherfucking random.
Anyways, Takumi pulls out whatever eleventh hour bullshit he needs to defeat Eito yet again and we move on. I'm just glad this wasn't the final round.
Semifinals Round 2 - Kyoshika vs. Kurara
Oh, that's a close one. Unlike Hiruko, Kyoshika can actually keep pace with Kurara to some extent. She's not as fast as Kurara but has some actual attack range to make up for it, so this isn't going to be decided mechanically.
This is an incredibly difficult match to call. Kyoshika is exceptionally trained with the Holy Jumonji Sword but Kurara has artillery and exceptional boxing training of her own, plus her shovel. The nature of the duel plays to Kyoshika's strengths better; Kyoshika hits harder, but Kurara is both faster and physically tougher than Kyoshika despite her meek build.
I am leaning towards Kyoshika but this could very easily go to Kurara.
Final Round - Takumi vs. Kyoshika
End of the road comes down to a blade duel, katana vs. katana.
I can think of no valid reason why Takumi should be able to outmatch Kyoshika in a straight swordfight.
Tournament Winner - Kyoshika Magadori
You know, she wasn't who I expected to land on, but I can't say I'm too surprised. She's definitely one of a handful of characters that would be likely to end up in this spot, even if Moko or Hiruko seem like the top picks.
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