It would be a better plot twist if Shuichi is the rival or even more interesting Shuichi is the co mastermind. He plays as the beloved protagonist of the killing game to be most favorite character of all time. He wants to someone special. He’s someone relatable, but unsympathetic at the same as he’s willing to sacrifice his friends to help his ‘development’. In game he had this self centered attitude that’s never been called out on. If it were actually negatively affected him.
That would be super interesting, and I was actually thinking about that a little when writing the last response. What if the character we were playing as was the mastermind, or someone working with the mastermind? It would be like Kaede’s attempted murder, but on a much larger scale.
Yeah, taking his pre-game personality (or what’s presumed to be it) into account, he would be all about his character’s development within the game. He wouldn’t care how it was done, or who it hurt. All he wanted was to be someone special.
There are so many ways people could write Shuichi like this, I’m surprised there isn’t more content of it online.