☆ i love yuji matsumoto. also uh... thoughts on her actions in the game? and their Similarities
IM TELLIN YOU CAM THIS IS A BAD IDEA HE’s CLEARLY A TRASH MAN BUT HERE HE IS
“…I seriously don’t. Mean it as an insult when I said we were like. What I meant was that I…understand what you’re saying. I don’t…blame you. Not at all.”
“Friendly” was about as much as he really got out of her while they were both alive in the school. Piney was friendly, Ailani was friendly–Piney was also accessible, as far as signing and writing things down, just as a general mascot thing, which eased interactions. Amicable.
Probably the most memorable thing was that her dead face was the one he was mainly stuck staring at for the hour before the Collective found him. It…took a little for him to calm down from that. Longer still to be able to look at a picture of her face without losing it.
Wig off was easier. A lot easier. Seeing her alive again, smiling at their note passes, sledding down the hill on the log (in that big lipped alligator moment of a time), that was good for his psyche but it was. MUCH easier to talk to her after they found themselves breaking ice. As Yuji and Youji. They shared a lot more similarities in thought than Yuji thought– he held immediate kinship with someone who too, saw the practicality and the bitter sensibility of being a coward who trusted no one. And things like seeing her push the truth for her life once she realized her accident had wound up hurting the rest of the class? That hit home REAL hard.
But by that point too, he’d already realized the extent of what he’d done. As soon as he realized what his part in all this had become, he realized he’d betrayed everyone before he even got the chance to promise them otherwise. So when Ailani gave her ultimatum during the norm days before trial…he knew what he was accepting when he agreed. He knows in near full the kind of trust he’s betraying, and he knows how it feels.
He expects nothing short of a knife in the throat for what he’s done, if not outright dismissal. He knows if he had Morishige at arm’s reach with a gun what HE would do.
“What I don’t get about Ailani or whatever her name actually was, why did she lie about being a robot? Like, why even bother with that?? Also apparently she got into HPA despite not having a talent, what the hell. She’s like, insanely mysterious. And it will be a mystery left unsolved, because I will never talk to her again. Ever.”
Besides Andrew being all “WOAH A REAL LIFE ROBOT, RADICAL DUDE” during her reveal, the two never interacted much? He only observed her from a distance and thought she was a pretty ok gal? Kinda cool? Too cool for him to be sure. So he kept that distance between them and just accepted that Ailani probably hated him completely, like he thought everyone else did. Then she said she was a robot and Andrew was like, WOW! I should talk with the real life robo-girl! Then he died because has a massive fit! RIP! Then he discovered at some point while dead that she wasn’t actually a robot and got mildly grumpy about being bamboozled like that.
His initial opinion was high! Holly was fond of Ailani, so... she was fine in his book. Since they never interacted, that was all he went off of (and... that applies to like 90% of the da6 cast).
Then she claimed that she was a robot and he was just 👀. Because that’s interesting! ...That sorta overlaps with his “real” thoughts, but yeah. He wanted to know more about her because wow a robot.
And then that ended up not being true, so his opinion just went back to neutral/nothing.
And then her real identity was revealed and the fact that she apparently didn’t have a talent? Interested piqued once again. How Did She Get Into HPA. Obviously he didn’t pursue trying to find out more about that but he’s very curious indeed.
Actual Mash:
Like I said this overlaps with the first section but Masashi didn’t really care or think much of Ailani until she claimed she was a robot. And then when her identity was revealed. Since he doubts she’d tell him anything about it, and waning interest in doing so, anyway, he really just... doesn’t care about Ailani. That’s the case with most of the class, though, so...!
Oh also he really enjoyed the “““““disaster”““““ of Yuka’s case and how it accomplished little so her gf died for nothing. i’m sorry for him
Yuka has super duper complicated feelings about Ailani! Yuka has a massive crush on her, and finds Ailani to be a good and strong and smart counterpart! Yuka still has such massive trust issues though, so basically like??? In the outside world, Ailani has 100% a CHANCE to win Yuka’s heart fully. Yuka is a complicated girl ok!!
But. To put it simply. While Yuka isn’t quite sure about ‘love’, the feelings she felt for Ailani in the moments of the game were extremely real. She really hopes she and Ailani can find each other again in the future, and perhaps pursue something a little more real? Something that isn’t like bombarding them all the time with stress. No more killing game stuff! Yuka hopes they can become Real Gf’s.
Final thoughts? Ailani is one of the highest ranking people in Yuka’s friend-squad.
Ailani is kind of the worst. In Kazuko’s opinion, she’s kind of like that awful cousin that everyone in the family hates, but still feels bad for when they loose their job and have a shitty Christmas. She didn’t want bad things to happen to Ailani, but she insulted one of her friends, which is unforgivable.
Initially, she thought the other was really cool and would have loved to speak with her. Originally, she wanted to see if she could pick up some sign language from her, something that she was sure would become useful later. However, since they didn’t really interact she didn’t form a solid opinion until after the merge.
Final Score: Cool girl’s annoying girlfriend we tolerate