That Which Does Not Kill Us Makes Us Stronger

I'm not ready to give up yet. I have failed them once. This is my second chance, and the only one I will get. I will succeed this time... For their sake. This is my time. And I will seize it. ~Affiliated with Astral Cabal: Diamond and Platinum~ Status: Dead Credit to Vega for art~

[shsldebater-blog]

Yoooo stars are a thing? Send me some of those. I’ll probably get to them after endgame too because who knows what will happen, but even if you’re a Pearl kid hit me up. I promise Masato will talk a lot as usual.

[synantisi-blog]

Jack Black Holds Up A Stop Sign | Masato | MM Post 6 Re: Yuki

“There. I’ve voted. You’re only trying to resort to low tactics to mess with my head and make me question my gut. But I know I’m right. And for fuck’s sake, stop calling me that.”

[synantisi-blog]

Allow Me To Explain | Masato | MM Post 5 Re: Harue, Yuki

Of course Yuki talked in circles about it. He teased. He played games. Murder games, apparently.

“When I first met Yuki Nakahara, I knew him as Shinji Nakahara. He spoke of his parents as Polish politicians, contradicting the file that was in the computer. I spoke with him alone fairly early in the game, which corresponds with the time stamp of the logs, which mention me directly. Yuki Nakahara has demonstrated a thirst for information similar to that described in the logs, even going so far as reading my goddamn notebook after murdering me. Yes, I am still ‘salty’ about that Yuki Nakahara. Which my murder, by the way, was driven by the fact that I was getting in his way. And he shared an interesting bit of history about how his uncle wanted to groom him into a ‘filthy criminal’ and mentioned a still-unknown secondary occupation. I doubt Hope’s Peak would ignore that, Yuki Nakahara, which explains its absence from the computer files. Only a mastermind would be able to tamper with those files and hide something like that.”

“I understand there is a bias from me. But I have discussed this at length with Haruki and Stella, and their opinions align with mine. Yi-san I know has a theory on who the Louloudia mastermind is, which I’m certain he’d like to elaborate on. But Yuki Nakahara, the evidence is pointing to you for the mastermind for Ifaisteio. Quit talking in circles, and tell us what the hell Astral Cabal is, and what they hired you to do.”

[synantisi-blog]

Let's Stop Talking in Circles | Masato | MM Post 4 ATTN: Yuki

(Tw: suicide mention, casual ableism)

Masato took the presentation of the mastermind clue from Miyako and the cue from Stella to start wrapping this up. She took a step forward and delivered this monologue.

“It takes someone who is five kinds of crazy to orchestrate a game like this. Someone who is smart, has no empathy. A sociopath. When I arrived in the Synantisi base, I had no idea that I could even investigate anything to do with the mastermind. I didn’t even know where to begin. I didn’t know who had the clue from Nuiko Matsushida’s murder, which still remains unsolved. But I found out that Yuki Nakahara had a notebook brought to them by Monobear in the tower, and they had brought it with them to the base. Of course I went and investigated this, and said on the condition that I made sure that Stella had it, despite my being dead, they would give me the mastermind clue they had. Ikumi-San just read it for you.”

“This mastermind clue implies we’re working with a foreign national who is the mastermind. Someone not from Japan. From the Ifaisteio site, the foreign nationals of the group are Stella, Williams-san, Meijer-san, and Yuki Nakahara. However, I find it odd that the clue was tampered with and country scratched out. This means that at some point, this clue was in the possession of someone who didn’t want us to find the mastermind. Perhaps the mastermind themself.”

She looked around at the group, making eye contact with 49 other people in the room.

“But we know one person who would match the rest of the description. This person who is known to not empathize, even admitted it themself in the trial for Kei Katsuya, whose history is mysteriously unknown and seems to be way more than meets the eye. Someone who likely is five types of crazy, and is also a foreign national, from the nation of Poland. Their execution showed a lot about them, but nothing at all, and only deepened the mystery that people quickly dismissed because they were dead. It showed that they are afraid of love, which stops creativity in its tracks, explaining the death of creativity. That explains a motive behind the games.

“The logs I found also matches with things this person has said to me personally. This log mentions the suicide of a brother, allegedly hired by Astral Cabal. This individual told me their brother committed suicide from a financial crisis, which was likely a cover story. They also told me that they did have a secondary occupation, which likely means a secret SHSL. They mentioned to me that this occupation was a ‘filthy criminal.’ Another thing that implies they are five kinds of crazy.”

“But who is this person?’ you might ask. I can tell you right now.”

She looked around the room for dramatic effect one more time before nailing the last word in the coffin. “Yuki Nakahara, SHSL Pizza Delivery Boy.”

[synantisi-blog]

A Terrifying Reality | Masato | MM Post 3

“The student files indicated that these people were survivors of those mutual killing games held before. This begged the question of why they’re helping the Astral Cabal to begin with? Why orchestrate something so horrifying that you already survived to put someone else in? That I don’t know. But the files in the archives made it sound like these students were a threat. I found their talents pretty non-threatening though.”

She opened her notebook where she listed them off.

“Choreographer… electronic musician… Sengoku enthusiast… retro gamer… Private investigator… Salesman… Demonologist… Sukeban… And an electronic engineer.”

“Let’s focus on the electronic engineer and the private investigator. The electronic engineer would have the talent to build the technology that has made it so you can see me and the saviour procedure that allowed me and the other dead to glitch out of the first location and into the base.”

“The private investigator likely did his research on us. He found all sorts of history on all of us, including Fukui-san’s talent, and that information is stored on the office computer. I asked Haruki to print that information out for me, but I would like for him now to give out each file to the corresponding student. However, please withhold these students’ files for a moment.”

She showed him a list in her notebook, and gave him time to do as she asked.

[synantisi-blog]

Set the Stage | Masato | MM Trial Post 2

Masato came up to the ring of podiums where the living kids were, standing next to Haruki for easier access to the files he had with him.

“One thing I’d like to do first is establish a brief history of the two masterminds as we know it. In the control room, there was a computer that contained a saviour program associated with a group known as the Astral Cabal. Beside that computer was a note mentioning hologram programming associated with something known as Tountra and Okeanos. This kind of programming is likely the reason I can speak with you all today.”

“However, I decided that this mysterious Astral Cabal, where “cabal” can be defined as a secret organization, needed to be looked into. I went to the archives, and discovered nine student files of people who could be associated with this group, coming from Academia, Tountra, and Okeanos. They had SHSLs and various notes on each one. And some places in these files mentioned a phrase we have come to know and loathe: mutual killing.“

"And here I came to realize a horrifying truth: we are not the first mutual killing games to exist. And according to logs from the mastermind of Ifaisteio on the office computer, the masterminds were hired by the Astral Cabal, and were instructed to let these games keep running until they were stopped.”

[synantisi-blog]

Take the Power Back (MM Post 1) | Masato | Re: Votes ATTN: Haruki, Hyun-min

Wakana Ito put in the 10th official vote, and with that she had enough.

She ignored Tsubaki’s childish screeching. She couldn’t deal with that right now, because honestly, there was a lot to cover.

“Excellent. 10 votes. Thank you for your cooperation, everyone. I apologize for speeding over Kurosawa-san’s murder, however my thought is that the faster we can get through this trial and prove the identities of the masterminds, the faster we can get out of here and go home. However, working quickly does not mean working sloppily.”

“Since I can’t interact with items, I asked Haruki to bring copies of the files I found on a computer in the office. Haruki, if you would please bring them out when I ask for them. Also, Yi-san, Stella mentioned you had some files as well. If you could show those when they’re relevant as well, that would be lovely.”

Get ready for 9000 long posts from Masato.

[synantisi-blog]

Pick your battles, Tsubaki | Masato | Re: Tsubaki

Masato shot a look at the… oddly dressed girl who was shouting at her.

“Because I don’t want us to lose the chance to do it, and I don’t want more people to die. This game has gone on far enough, and I’m ending it. I have the evidence to prove the identities of both masterminds. The only time you can call a mastermind trial is during the trial for someone’s murder; that’s in the rules. Now, if you want to know what ‘authority’ I have, Tsubaki Fukui, SHSL Precognition, I suggest you speak to anyone from the Ifaisteio Research Center. They can testify to the fact that I do my research; I find my clues, and I do my best to bring justice to each and every kill.”

“Now. If you don’t mind, I’d like to bring the true justice to the people responsible for every kill in this game, including my own and that of Kurosawa-san. Perhaps the murderer of Kurosawa-san will become clear as we discuss. Now, I suggest you shut your mouth unless you have something meaningful to contribute.”

Banter with Yuki has made her patience about this kind of thing a lot shorter than usual. Please don’t argue with her.

[synantisi-blog]

That Murder was Cute and All, but... | Masato | ATTN: Everyone

Masato walked into the trial room when trial was called with a serious demeanor on her face. She looked… sharper than usual. Like she had tidied herself up more than she usually did.

She had. This was a special occasion, after all.

She looked around the room, letting everyone get in their places.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Masato Maeda. I am the SHSL Debater, and I am from the Ifaisteio Research Center. I understand that this murder is a very… interesting case. However, I have another idea in mind. One that is much bigger and much more interesting than that.”

“I move to call for a mastermind trial. According to the rules Monokuma told me, this requires a simple majority vote. If 26 of you, including the living, vote yes, we will move into mastermind trial proceedings and discuss evidence several of my classmates and I found that identifies the masterminds behind the mutual killing games in Ifaisteio and Louloudia.”

[synantisi-blog]

Discussions With A De(ad)bater | Miyako | [ATTN: Masato]

[shslmidwife]

Miyako’s soft smile increased as Masato spoke with her; so, the dead indeed had existed beyond their deaths. That opened up many possibilities, many questions as to the hows and whys of it all; it also made conversation a little easier to start off from, and also brought within Miyako a wave of…embarrassment. So, not only had around twenty-two people seen her break down, but in fact around, what, fifty?

…Great. Just peachy…

(That was probably her greatest weakness, wasn’t it, her pride. Even now, after there was no point in pretending, she still felt shame and humiliation at the idea of people seeing her as she really was; weak, and fragile, and strange…)

…At any rate, Miyako’s attention turned back to Masato.

(This girl…already, she reminded her strikingly of Yumiko-chan. In that regard, maybe it was for the best they only had so much time to get to know one another.)

“I see…! And, ah…thank you, Maeda-san. I’ll…be alright, don’t worry. Like you said…soon, we’ll be able to end this. I promised I’d do my best to look out for everyone, so I just…have to keep on going for as long as I can.”

“I’ve always sworn to myself that I wouldn’t let the world take my heart away from me…I can’t let everything that wanted to make me suffer win now, of all times. I need to keep my promises…to work as hard as I can, and to look out for everyone as much as possible. If I can help as much as one single person, then…I’ll have achieved something of worth, at least.

…Ahahaha…apologies for the personal rambling, Maeda-san! Your sentiments are appreciated, nonetheless. And I’ll continue to look out for Agemaki-san, don’t worry. I’m very glad that someone like him’s still with us on the living side of things…his strength and perseverence is truly admirable, and he’s been one of the most dedicated investigators here! I’ll try to make sure he doesn’t work himself too hard, I promise.”

Looking appreciative, if a little awkward, Miyako gave herself a small shake, as if to remind herself of something.

Right. Actual questions.

Miyako was a spiritual woman, and had always believed there was another world waiting beyond this one– but, given the nature of how things were working out here, Maeda-san and the other deceased must be existing in data form, on a plane she and her fellow living must not be able to see– but how? She could make logical guesses, but it was nonetheless all very strange.

“It’s good that you’ve been able to investigate, Maeda-san! Especially since, now that the saviour procedure appears to have gone into place, both sides can exchange information. I understand that you’ve been able to view what’s going on, but to what extent are you and the others able to…interact with your environment, so to speak? I also have to wonder…what I investigated seemed to indicate that there are…data back-ups of those who have died, and that the “saviour procedure” was used before, in two other places, but…how does it all work? If the “dead” are able to interact with the environment, but the “living” can’t see them…then…there must be some sort of…

…Ah! Apologies, Maeda-san, I’m…just trying to theorise and work through everything I’ve seen so far. I hope my questions aren’t invasive! At the very least, with enough minds working together on all of this…I really do believe we might finally find our escape soon.”

[shsldebater-blog]

“No, it’s fine! I’ve been trying to answer a lot of questions of my own, but I’m happy to answer yours. Questions are among my specialty, after all. Perhaps later I can discuss some of the things I found... because it’s... interesting. I’m glad Haruki’s found a friend in you, though. He’s definitely capable, and was incredibly valuable in trials with me. I’ve been worried about him. I still am, but... at least now I can talk to him myself.”

“Let’s see... We can wander around the entirety of the base. We can interact with objects but we have to make copies of them. There can only be one copy but that does not reflect in the real world. I’ve gotten access to the computers in the office but I’m not 100% sure how that worked. I am aware of the saviour procedure, and have been doing some digging into the organization that used it. One thing to note is that those two places... and one more place... are other games like what we’re involved in now. I’m not technologically savvy, and you may want to discuss the logistics of it with Williams-san because I barely understand it myself. I suppose the next step would be to try and tinker with it to make it so we can wander in the whole base and be seen. Hopefully we can do that before the next motive... and maybe we should send one of the dead kids for that.”

[synantisi-blog]

Discussions With A De(ad)bater | Miyako | [ATTN: Masato]

Even after the reality of the current situation had settled in, as she knew it would (but oh, how illjes-san’s death still hurt and burned and made her flinch even after becoming cold hard fact), Miyako still couldn’t help but feel a little…dazed, even though she’d had a hunch to begin with about something like these holograms being a possibility. Perhaps it was because she had slept about, what, three hours total in the days since Harue-san died, or perhaps it was because it was taking time to truly hit home within her that this was it, it could happen, what could never happen with Papa and Yumiko-chan, she could talk more to those who were gone before her, she had time, she had chance. 

(It was…probably mostly the former, however. She hoped that nobody had noticed too much of the bags under her eyes.)

But for now, at present, the midwife mostly found herself wandering around the Trial Room. She had so much she wanted to discuss, wanted to know, it was hard to know where to start, really.

…It was funny, how her eyes ended up resting on the tinted display of an individual who had died before they could ever cross paths.

The Super-High School Level Debater, Maeda Masato…she only knew her from Agemaki-san’s list of students, and from her latest appearance just now, but already Miyako couldn’t help but feel curious about her. She didn’t know exactly why (it was probably the rather fetching suit), but something about her struck her as capable, which piqued her interest.

And, after all, getting to know as many people as possible was always better than the alternative, was it not?

Sheepishly walking to where the hologram debater stood, Miyako cast a small smile at the other girl, chuckling a little shyly.

“…Maeda-san, isn’t it? The Super High-School Level Debater? I hope you don’t mind me speaking with you, given that we haven’t met before, but, ah…it’s a pleasure to meet you properly! I’m Miyako Ikumi, Super High-School Level Midwife, if you don’t know already…I’ve done some investigation, here and there, but I’m still not completely sure how things are, around here…!”

Try not to make things awkward, Ikumi Miyako. You do that enough with the living, you hardly need to do it with the dead, too…

Anyway. Asking some questions, that might do well.

“…Ah, Maeda-san? If you don’t mind me asking…have you been…conscious, before now, since your death? Have you been able to observe anything, or anyone else…?”

[shsldebater-blog]

Masato had been looking around, trying to decide who to be talking too next. She was kind of overwhelmed by everyone being in the same room together, but she should be used to this. She had worked rooms before, with crowds even bigger than this. She should be okay with this. Masato figured she was getting a bit rusty.

But she was approached by Miyako Ikumi. She had been watching Miyako’s actions throughout the course of the events following the eruption, and she liked the girl’s style. She never was a fan of the religion thing given how... events had happened in her life, but hey, you do you. She was still very nice, and given how she had watched out for Haruki for her, and written the notes in her notebook that were extraordinarily useful to her, well, Masato liked her already.

Her smile when she approached demonstrated that.

“Ah, Ikumi-san! I’ve actually been wanting to speak with you! It’s wonderful to finally be able to. I’ve been waiting for this since we got here.” She laughed. “I’m honestly glad someone’s been doing some investigating around here. I have as well, and I’m pleased with the results that were yielded.”

She pulled out... the same notebook Haruki had. Yeah, he got his from her.

“Yes, I have been able to watch everything that’s happened here. You’ve lost so much here... and I’m very sorry for that. I can’t say I empathize since... I guess I didn’t really have much to begin with to lose... but I wanted to thank you for... watching out for Haruki for me. I wish a lot more people could be as kind as you are. And stay that kind throughout this terrible experience. I feel horrible that it’s ended this way for you.”

“But you have my word it’s ending soon.”

[shsldebater-blog]

HEY I HAVEN’T DONE ONE OF THESE IN A WHILE.

So if you want a dead, chatty debater, Masato is here for that!  She’s got a lot to say, so message me if you’d like to read through her walls of text that’s 90% dialogue~

PUBLIC:

Miyako

[Open]

[Open]

PRIVATE:

Haruki

Stella

Mami

Harue

Ryouichi

[synantisi-blog]

Bet You Thought You'd Seen the Last of Me | Masato | Re: EVERYTHING

She’d been investigating. A lot. And there was so much to explain that she was preparing for. So much. Ryouichi and Ayane started calling for her, asking if she knew anything about what was going on. Oh, she knew enough to figure that out. But it didn’t take the shock of it all away.

But this. This was a godsend. This was something she needed, something she knew that she could use to succeed.

And also help talk to a certain food stylist.

She looked at her appearance, and looked to Jimon next to her. While she was incredibly confused about how this happened (maybe something related to ██████ █████), she decided that she needed to make the most of it.

“This… this is wonderful. I’ve really missed being able to talk to everyone. This is great.”

“There’s still a lot to do though. This will hopefully expedite the process. The more heads the merrier, I suppose, but we’ll see.”

“But let’s not dwell on that for the moment. Hello everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Masato Maeda, SHSL Debater.”

[elle-ess-ess]

May 7, 2015:

Shawn Mendes - Stitches, Handwritten (2015)

“Needle and the thread, Gotta get you out of my head”

[shsl-screamqueen-blog]

so it’s mikio tatsumi’s birthday

happy birthday you angel.

[shslsuess-blog-deactivated20200]

lon i swear

[shsl-screamqueen-blog]

fite me

[shsldebater-blog]

Masato the forever shorty

[shsldebater-blog]

wow would you look at how dead everyone looks in the trial room hot damn

Still eyeing Haruo but that middle row looks too pure

[meowoofau]

[foodstain]

thanks

[shsldebater-blog]

I think you guys need these after that roller coaster of chapter 4