Recognitions:
Oh wow, the story is over. This really was a ride!
First than all, a heartfelt thank you to all the readers. To those who got to the end, and to those who clicked the first chapter and didn't go further than that. 8362 views isn't a big number to some people, but it's a number I had never expected to reach. I'm grateful that my story was appealing to a nice fraction of that number.
Special thank you to reviewer 'TotalCyborgPineappleIsland2', for the support received during at least half of the story's run, and to Archive of Our Own reviewer Craftsdwarf, for the amazing critiques received.
Also thank you to each user who reviewed, followed, gave kudos or marked the story as favorite. Another thank you to Arcade Tokens, for the creation of the story's TV Tropes page.
General Thoughts:
When I started the story I had a more or less clear idea of how it'd go, but it wasn't completely defined. I think that, during the first chapter, the story suffered because of it. I didn't have a hold of the characterization very well, so some traits disappeared even after just a mention.
However once I got the hang of the characters, it flowed easier and the quality improved, I think. The chapters also started being longer, which I think is curious.
I literally created one hundred different iterations. Most of them didn't go into detail, they merely outlined who survived, who was a culprit, who was the victim, and other details like that. The Mastermind's identity and plan was one of the things that changed frequently. After all, there were four different graduates who, at some point, got placed as Mastermind! More details about that in their individual sections.
Take a look at the very first scenario, born when the story was starting to be planned, and compare it to the chosen one, #79. It sure is different.
Scenario #1
Main character: Akane Ogata
Secondary main character: Aya Sawashiro
Survivors: Akane Ogata, Aya Sawashiro, Masashi Sakurai, Reiji Ohmoto, Tomoe Chiba, Saburou Hikasa
Mastermind: Kaiji Kudo
Case #1
Victim: Mika Yamaguchi
Culprit: Hoshio Saitou
Case #2:
Victim: Chihiro Toriumi
Culprit: Masaru Miyata
Case #3:
Victim: Takeshi Toyogushi
Culprit: Ginchiyo
Case #4:
Victim: Yukio Ohmoto
Culprit: Ian Curtis/Masamune Toyotomi
Case #5:
Victim: Mishio Matsukaze
Culprit: Kaiji Kudo
Scenario #79
Main character: Akane Ogata
Secondary main character: Yukio Ohmoto
Survivors: Akane Ogata, Mika Yamaguchi, Saburou Hikasa, Ian Curtis/Masamune Toyotomi, Yukio Ohmoto
Mastermind: Mishio Matsukaze
Case #1
Victim: Hoshio Saitou
Culprit: Aya Sawashiro
Case #2:
Victim: Mishio Matsukaze
Culprit: Masaru Miyata
Case #3:
Victim: Masashi Sakurai
Culprit: Ginchiyo
Case #4:
Victim: Reiji Ohmoto
Culprit: Chihiro Toriumi
Case #5:
Victim: Tomoe Chiba
Culprit: Takeshi Toyogushi
Pretty different, eh? I think the change that affected plot the most was Toyotomi's death as a culprit. You may imagine how much that'd affect investigations. In fact, although most of the snippets are pretty incomplete and my memory is hazy, Toyotomi's life or death status was practically was turned around the plot in terms of how her influences the survivors' fifth and sixth trials.
So, allow me to share my thoughts on each chapter of my story.
Prologue: (Say Hello, Everybody)
Do you know how hard it was to write the prologue? It was literally the first impressions the readers would have of the characters, and I wanted them to make a good impression without revealing too much. And to this day I'm still not sure if I did it right, hahahahaha
Besides, doing the first time conversations is also pretty difficult. I mean, how to make a section like that interesting? I suppose one's expectation, as a reader, to meet the characters who would form the story is what makes it worth it. Still, despite everything, it was...nice to see my characters start their life in my story. It was that moment when I knew I had created ones from a sea of zeros, I had managed to bring them from my mind onto the paper. Or Word document. Whatever works.
First Chapter (What Did I Get Into, Damn It)
Oh man, my least favorite chapter.
I think this was pretty flawed. Nothing I had planned to differentiate my story from other Fangan Ronpas had made its appearance yet, besides the fact these were graduates and not students, so I had to go and make it pretty orthodox and frankly, I think it is very average. Nothing special.
At least it worked for me to get used to the characters' voices and feelings. It was a rough moment, as I was blank at times, trying to think of stuff they'd really say. I think that there were a few moments that didn't fit the characterizations very well, but it was the start of the story. I was confident that, with time, I'd get better.
And I think I did get better, but the damage was done. I'm sure that a lot of readers, once they got to the end of the first trial, decided they had enough of my story.
I'm not sure how the second story will go; in terms of if the first chapter will have the same problems than in Graduate Meeting. We'll see when we get there.
Second Chapter (Diavolos Avante Ahoy)
Loooooook, there's ploooooot!
I'd say in this chapter was when my writing started to flow better. I did find easier to write, and I think it's because I was finally getting into the main plot points in my story, by example, Diavolos Avante and Volkos. Those parts were something I had hoping to write soon, and what was I had planned the most.
Also it was a blast to plan the murder, or as you know by now, the not-murder. When I was planning it I knew it'd be a big part of the final trial, but I couldn't make it obvious. I had aimed towards creating a case that was plausible yet felt strange, like something was off, even after it was revealed how it had happened.
One of my reviewers, Craftsdwarf, had noticed a few things, such as the signal interceptor's malign properties, and understandably he expressed some annoyance over it. It was something that came totally out of the blue! Details like that were what I had the most trouble with, and what I had used in order to achieve what I wanted. I'd say I was successful with that.
You know something I regret? Not giving Diavolos Avante a bit more of screen time before Chapter 6, and even then, the Main Board are pretty much minor characters. After all, Diavolos Avante were relegated to the end of those chapters, so their presence was minor.
Third Chapter (The Chapter Where Reiji Was an Asshole)
I said the second chapter was when the writing started to flow better, but in my opinion, this is the chapter where the story truly started and was something I was truly satisfied of.
It was a complicated murder scheme, too, and I was afraid it would be too farfetched. At least it didn't go bad.
This was also the chapter where I, for the first time, received some really praising reviews. I had grown used to simply post and let people read, and I was satisfied with merely seeing the number of views grow, so reviews hadn't been an important part so far. However after the plot twist about Reiji winning the trial was revealed, I received four reviews, two in this site and two in the other. It was unexpected, to say the least! I had never thought it'd be so well received it'd warrant reviews.
That kinda added some pressure on me, as I now had to finish the trial with the same level of quality the plot twist had, or better. Apparently I did do it correctly, eh.
Also Diavolos Avante continue being a non-entity, being away and still sitting around waiting for anything to happen. Your cue will come later, guys, please be patient, that's what I kept telling myself.
Fourth Chapter (The Attack of Akane's Hallucinations)
Oooooh, fourth chapter. The introduction of the dead people coming back to life in Akane's mind. I'd say that was my weakest subplot, and it's rather possible I went too far with it in Chapter 4. I received one comment through email that said it was strange she could replicate them mentally despite knowing them for so little time, mostly a few days. I couldn't say it just after I received it, because the reader hadn't finished reading the story yet, so I can say it now:
I had intended it to be a little and easily missed piece of foreshadowing: it indeed is hard for that to happen. Then what if she had known them for more time than what the story had shown so far?
Leaving that aside, this was a murder kinda hard to pull...making everybody be in a concrete place in a short span of time. I think I did rely too much on coincidences on this one. And those in Fanfiction couldn't have known about the hair chopsticks, as it was something shown in the character illustration. And even then, they didn't look like they were hard and pointy enough to piece somebody's neck either, so it could be said this was unexpected in terms of being poorly presented.
Also Reiji died, hah. Do you know something? Scenario #80, the one directly after that, had Yukio dying instead of Reiji. Scenario #80 was the one I almost chose, but I went with #79 because I had grown to like Yukio more than Reiji, and I wanted the Assistant to survive.
Fifth Chapter (Are We Starving Yet?)
We're, going to starve, we're going to starve, we're going to starve. That's something I had said several times during the story, and it was just in this chapter where it was finally a real threat. And...well, I think it wasn't that big in the overall scheme of the story. Despite, you know, it being on the story summary and all. Huh.
It was surprisingly difficult to try to frame Kudo, you know. I mean, you know how in so many stories, one thinks that if there are so many clues pointing towards somebody, that person is innocent? That's what I feared here. I wanted to leave enough evidence that could point towards Kudo being guilty, but not too many for readers to think he was innocent. Although in Chapter 3 I had done that with Reiji and I did make him guilty, so I hoped that'd make people think twice about Kudo's innocence.
Also Chiba died, my dear Chiba. Poor woman. And Toyogushi died too. They were well-received characters, so I was feeling somewhat anxious about killing them both in the same case. It didn't go so well, eh? I mean, Toyogushi's death came because somebody had to die! Sure, the reasoning I had when I was writing it was that Matsukaze wouldn't mind killing somebody for flimsy reasons, but I wasn't entirely convinced myself.
Sixth Chapter (Loads and Loads of Evidence)
This chapter had almost as double the number of evidence than Chapter 4, the one with the most evidence until this one. It's fun to juggle so many things, but not so fun when you feel you're leaving one or more out of the big spiderweb that is the logic behind the story.
Finally Veritas did something else besides sitting around and grumbling about Volkos! Which was nice to finally write, I had been waiting for that. Sure, Valkyrie, Vieiras and Wolfenmaus were still minor until the end, but I do plan for them to be more meaningful to the plot in Diabolical Contest.
It was...amazing to tie every plot thread. For moments like that is that I'm a writer, a mystery and crime writer. There's something very satisfying in seeing everything you have written until now get together and create a train of logic that makes sense. I'd say this, and the third trial, were my best.
Also, revealing Matsukaze as the Mastermind was something I greatly enjoyed. I had hammered so much the stuff about Volkos that I hoped readers wouldn't notice that it all relied on something: Matsukaze's investigations. If they crumbled, then everything about Volkos crumbled.
Epilogue (The Sequel Hook)
Well, this chapter was mostly to set up the motions for Diabolical Contest. There isn't much to say on that regard, besides Akane and the rest joining the Future Foundation. They'll be back at some point, that much is sure.
So now that the chapters have been mentioned, let's go for the characters, okay? Also, the number you see is the number of times it has happened in the scenarios I had scribbled.
Akane Ogata
Main character: 25
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 25
Victim: 55
Culprit: 20
Akane was the character with the most times as the Main Character.
It was kind of hard to choose what talent the protagonist should have. I didn't it want to be too helpful in regards to investigations; I preferred it to be something unrelated. However I didn't want the main character to be completely helpless! So a profession that involved analyzing and using your brain was fitting, in my opinion. After considering several options, I decided that Akane the Chemist would be the best one. That doesn't mean I didn't consider other options, though!
However it's kinda curious. The only times I had her surviving were the times when she was the main character, and as you can see, she was more times the victim than the culprit.
It was kinda hard to try to write a main character that wasn't flat and uninteresting, and I don't think I was quite successful on turning her into a real character. However I am satisfied on her roles in the trials, I think I did a relatively good job stringing her thoughts in the trials and gave her appropriate reactions in certain moments.
As some of you may have noticed, the characters have the voice actors' family names. Akane received 'Ogata', for her main character status. 'Akane' means deep red, which I gave her because of her red eyes, not much other than that. I'm fond of red eyes, you see. Sure, they're often linked with threatening characters, but they don't have to be like that all the time, right?
Yukio Ohmoto
Main character: 17
Secondary main character 95
As Mastermind: 16
Survives: 29
Victim: 25
Culprit: 29
Yukio was the character who was the deuteragonist the most times. Is Deuteragonist a word? Secondary main character, let's leave it at that. He was known as the SHSL Law Assistant, after all! That wasn't a coincidence.
Yukio was one of the three most popular characters, judging from the messages I have received publicly and privately. I was happy to hear that, and overall, I think I was more successful in making Yukio an appealing main character. I wish Akane had been more memorable, though.
I'd say Yukio is the one graduate who caused Graduate Meeting to happen. He was the only graduate whose free times were completed in the story, and the only reason for that is because of the eventual reveal in Reiji's journal about the events in Hope's Peak's Council, which in turn was what led Reiji to be SHSL Despair. It was also him, and Reiji, who won the Delacroix case and made Matsukaze be rejected from Hope's Peak, which led several years later to seek revenge, although Diavolos Avante's Main Board had a hand on pushing him to do it.
It was fun to write him, I enjoyed it. Originally, I had planned to make him meeker, in contrast to Reiji's confident behavior, with both behaviors being facades to continue pretending their supposed talents were real instead of swapped, but Yukio's trait disappeared quickly. One could say he put it aside because hello, they were trapped in a shelter, who cared about appearances, but I didn't think of that until much later, and it was too late to backtrack. It had disappeared way too quickly to explain.
As you can see, he was the Mastermind in several scenarios. In them, it was similar to Matsukaze's Mastermind scenarios, just that instead of winning the Delacroix case, they lost it. However Matsukaze and Reiji got called to Hope's Peak, while Yukio was left aside. However I decided to not to use them because I couldn't think of a good explanation for Reiji to be chosen and Yukio to be left behind.
Yukio received 'Ohmoto' thanks to his status as the sidekick. I know Maizono, the character whom Makiko Ohmoto gave her voice to, wasn't really Naegi's assistant, but the point still stands. 'Yukio' has several meanings. There were two reasons I chose it. One, with him as the Mastermind, as it can mean "he who gets what he wants". You know, that being the base for his role as Mastermind, because he couldn't get it. That fits Matsukaze, but I chose not to give it to him because I read somewhere that it can also mean something along the lines of "he who had to wade through a lot of snow", paraphrasing. It's metaphorical, all that metaphorical snow that filled his life after Hope's Peak. Snow as in obstacles. Yeah, sorry for explaining.
Ian Curtis/Masamune Toyotomi
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 65
Victim: 26
Culprit: 9
Masamune Toyotomi, hah. The Artist who was an artist but not the kind of artist they thought he was.
I have the nagging feeling that he was pretty much the least important graduate, with the least screentime, during the first half of the story, except in his small time as one of Akane's defenders in the first case. However when the fourth chapter started and I was getting ready to reveal who he really was, I got him more into the story. And maybe there being less graduates to keep track of helped too.
He was pretty much the first character I created when the story was first born, when I was planning the reasons behind the graduates' presence in the shelter. At first I hadn't planned for him to use an alias, but later I thought that it could add some intrigue if Toyotomi, the person who had called them to the shelter, wasn't present. So that's how the identity 'Ian Curtis' was created. I also gave him a strange color scheme because hey, he's a Prosthetic Makeup Artist, not somebody expert on being unnoticed around. Pink hair, cyan beanie, and a skin tone that made those stand out? Not exactly somebody who stays in the background. I had intended that appearance to be very artificial, while his authentic hair and skin tone represented the real him.
I'm pretty fond of Toyotomi, and the moment of his reveal was something I liked to write. He survived so many times because he was the one to induct the survivors into the Future Foundation, which in turn leads to the events in the third story. I thought he, as the one who called them to the shelter, was better for the induction, instead of Chiba or Kudo.
'Ian' was the name chosen, as a way to say 'I am Curtis'. 'Curtis' is a friend's surname, nothing big about it. 'Masamune Toyotomi' is an amalgamation of two Japanese daimyos, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Masamune Date. I gave him those for his essential role as a Future Foundation member.
Saburou Hikasa
Main character: 14
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 25
Victim: 46
Culprit: 29
Another graduate I had considered for main character, but it never worked very well.
He was basically the token strong character, in the body sense, and...I think it never went too far from that. I'd say he overall was the least developed character in the story; even Saitou was more developed and planned than him.
The truth is that I don't even have much to say about him. His most outstanding role was as Ginchiyo's pairing, which was supposed to lead to some drama in the third trial, however they had known each other for a short amount of time, I didn't think a full blown tantrum and despair would have been logical there.
'Saburo' is a name given to third sons, which was something part of his backstory that was scrapped, which involved him straining himself to be strong in order to fight back abusive older brothers. That would have been interesting, eh? I'm not sure why I didn't use that. 'Hikasa' was more of a process of elimination. At the beginning he was going to be 'Saburou Matsukaze', and the other was 'Mishio Hikasa', but I swapped the family names for reasons explained in Mishio's section.
Mika Yamaguchi
Main character: 11
Secondary main character 3
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 32
Victim: 57
Culprit: 11
Yamaguchi, Enoshima's work partner in fashion. That had potential, didn't it? I think that if she had stayed as the main character I could have milked it for what it was worth, you know, somebody close to Enoshima fighting as the heroine of a mutual killing game...but at the end I went with Akane as main character, so Yamaguchi's relation with Enoshima was a minor thing in the story.
Originally she was also going to be one of the main red herrings for Mastermind, using that relation as the base for that, which was also a reason for her to die often. However I decided to throw her a bone and make the graduates not ostracize her or kill her, instead turning this into Yamaguchi being paranoid she would be hated for being Enoshima's work partner in the past.
'Mika' means 'beautiful fragrance', which is a feminine name meaning, fitting for somebody feminine as Yamaguchi. Sure, in the story it wasn't like her femininity was flaunted around, but that was the main reason behind the name. 'Yamaguchi' was for Hifumi Yamada, and was assigned it as some sort of parallel for her relation with Enoshima, as the one who was under the manipulator's will.
Hoshio Saitou
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 22
Victim: 51
Culprit: 27
First victim in the real scenario, and more than half of the times he was the victim in the rejected ones was because he had attacked somebody else.
You know, I was mortified when somebody made me notice I had inadvertently enforced the 'black guy dies first' trope. I should have realized before, but eh...should I really feel guilty? I don't know, to be honest...this is a complicated thing. To make it worse, most times he died in Chapter 1, whether it was as the culprit or the victim.
I think that all his characterization practically came from his free times, as it gave the reasons behind his personality. Without the free times, I think he comes as pretty unlikable. That isn't a sign of good writing, I'd say...
'Hoshi' means star, and he's the star of his family and in the world of salesmen. After all, he got pretty far in both worlds, and at such a tender age! Sure, you could say that for everybody else as well, but I think that was defines him as successful was that he had achieved what he wanted, and that's why I assigned 'Hoshi' to him and not to anybody else. 'Saito' was for Asahina. Originally he was going to be more similar to Asahina in personality, but I scrapped that, hah.
Aya Sawashiro
Main character: 9
Secondary main character 2
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 18
Victim: 59
Culprit: 23
Sawashiro was the sidekick in the first scenario, and she was supposed to use her medium powers in the trials to help.
However there were several problems with her power...especially if she was going to survive, after all, would it be believable that five different people to not to know who killed them, or be misled about it? And if she didn't use her powers at all, it's very likely people would be wondering why the hell she wasn't doing it; she had medium powers, why doesn't she call the victims. That's how she ended as the first culprit, and several times, as the first victim. More often than not, the first Chapter involved Sawashiro killing Saitou or viceversa.
It's a shame, because I liked Sawashiro. Oh well.
'Aya' means color, but that wasn't why it was given to her. She was given it for Aya-Gozen, half-sister to Kenshin Uesugi. You see, originally, Sawashiro was going to have more Buddhist influences, and Aya-Gozen was linked to Buddhism. 'Sawashiro' is for Fukawa, in terms of originally being more or less inspiration for the character in a sense, at least physically. She was going to look more like her, but the design strayed from that.
Mishio Matsukaze
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 24
Survives: 48
Victim: 28
Culprit: 0
Matsukaze is the only character to not to have killed anybody...with his own hands.
Here it is, dear Mastermind, the brightest investigative mind of the century. Originally I hadn't planned him to be the villain, but after a few scenarios with Kudo as the Mastermind I got this idea, and it appealed to me more! Interestingly, every time he was a victim he was killed by Kudo or by somebody Kudo manipulated.
It may be bad to have a Detective in a story like this and it not being the main character, especially a super detective like SHSL ones, but it works when done right...I think Kirigiri had worked well, and I strived to do the same with Matsukaze. However, the only investigation written was the one in Chapter 1, so all in all, it was something nobody will see.
Yeah, I had planned him to be some sort of distant expy to Kirigiri, to the point where he also had a nice lavender tone as his hair, and a relatively stoic demeanor as well. It seemed fitting, in my opinion, since it went well with Kudo's character.
'Mishio' means 'man with the strength of three thousands', which I had turned into 'man with the mind of tree thousands', because investigative mind of the century. 'Matsukaze' wasn't the original family name. It was Hikasa, fitting for the Kirigiri expy, but when I started planning seriously for this character to be the Mastermind, I changed it to Matsukaze for Hagakure. Mainly because it amused me. Hagakure was pretty much the one Mastermind option in the game that nobody considered seriously; apparently fans and players thought he was too much of an idiot to be it. So, the Mastermind is the one with the family name related to Hagakure.
I'm so pleased with myself, hah
Masaru Miyata
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 52
Victim: 41
Culprit: 7
Oh, this prick.
I'm a generally amicable person, so it's somewhat hard for me to write characters like Miyata. However this is the type of person who is mostly all bark and no bite, and his culprit tally shows it.
When he survived he was supposed to have one of those epiphanies that show that if he didn't cooperate, he'd die, but that's cliché, eh? Didn't stop me from planning it many times. But I decided to make him some sort of pawn for Matsukaze/Yukio, being invited to the shelter to attract Diavolos Avante's wrath when this kid died.
It's unrealistic for a thirteen year old to have a successful and legitimate company AND be invited to Hope's Peak, I suppose. However I had a reason for that and it was mainly a way for him to be as socially awkward as possible. Being younger than his peers in Hope's Peak would have led him to be seen as different, which in turn would have led to his problems with people. But I didn't mention it, I think.
'Masaru' goes for 'victory'. Victory, you succeeded at an early age, kid! That's exactly why I gave him that name. 'Miyata' was for Fujisaki, in the sense that they were both the smallest and weakest of the group. And when compared to adults, the youngest of them being around 24 years old, a teenager such as Miyata would definitely be considered the weakest.
Masashi Sakurai
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 69
Victim: 18
Culprit: 13
This is the character who survived the most times.
The reason for that was obvious: luck. I had planned at first to play straight his luck, as in being overall lucky, but after a while I thought it was unoriginal, so I focused on other ways to be lucky. I settled on being lucky when learning, avoiding accidents and noticing faults far easier than anybody else. That's a kinda farfetched type of luck, but I think it's better than mere good luck.
Hum. Not much to say.
Masashi means 'righteous aspiration', and this guy had a lot of aspirations, which is why he was seeking to learn all those talents. Being a jack of all trades is really a big aspiration, right? Sakurai goes for Kuwata, an easygoing person who wanted to be recognized for something else than his talent. Or something like that.
Ginchiyo/Madoka Nakai
Main character: 17
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 21
Victim: 64
Culprit: 15
Ginchiyo, the student who bought the 'best student ever' title inadvertently. It may be somewhat strange, but for a moment I considered making her sister Shizuka the Mastermind. However I considered it'd be bad.
I think I went a bit overboard with her guilt about Shizuka. It has been years since the whole thing happened, would a thirty-something adult be crying like a child when her sister's name was uttered? I chalked it up to trauma, but that doesn't hold any water.
Other than that, I had considered putting her as the main character as a way to develop her out of that guilt through hardships such as the mutual killing game. However it didn't work very well.
Ginchiyo goes for Ginchiyo Tachibana, a strong woman who led her family clan until her marriage. However that strong name hid Madoka, somebody who was going in circles inside her guilt, with no way out. That's what 'Madoka' means, round. Nakai goes for Oowada, a seemingly strong person who hid their internal weakness.
Reiji Ohmoto
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 3
Victim: 93
Culprit: 4
Reiji was the most common victim, and how wouldn't he be. He was SHSL Despair. That was the main reason behind most of those deaths; some graduate got paranoid and killed him.
As somebody with a strong relationship with my own brother, it was hard to write about Yukio and Reiji's relationship and how it fell. That's because I always have a fear that I'll become my brother's enemy. Hopefully that won't ever happen.
Curiously enough, despite being SHSL Despair, he only killed in four scenarios, including #79, but as you can see, he was the main force behind four of the five murders. I think that was the correct way to write his influence, him leading people to kill without getting his hands dirty. SHSL Despair doesn't mean being mindless, after all. It's pushing people to despair and enjoying the consequences of that.
Reiji means 'orders, govern', which was for his title as supposed Law Master. Ohmoto wasn't for any reason, it was merely because it was Yukio's family name and they were brothers.
Chihiro Toriumi
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 33
Survives: 20
Victim: 44
Culprit: 3
Yes, Toriumi was the one with the most scenarios as the Mastermind.
I had planned some sort of natural selection thing, where only the strong ones survived. If nobody was strong, then they all died, and that was going to be Toriumi's role as the Mastermind, to oversee it. The Tutor was weeding out the bad students and making the best continue ahead in life.
However I ended favouring more Matsukaze's scenarios because they fit better the overall story of the trilogy, but sometimes I wonder how Toriumi as the Mastermind would have been received.
It was much easier to write Toriumi than Miyata or Reiji, and it's because she isn't that bad of a person. Sure, she's ruthless and cold, but she can also be protective and caring about her friends. That diminished the difficulty of doing it.
Chihiro was given to her because it's the Japanese mind of Ace Attorney character Mia Fey, another mentor character. However, personality wise, they have nothing alike, hah. 'Toriumi' is for Ishimaru, characters involved in school activities. Ishimaru for Hall Monitor, Toriumi for tutoring.
Tomoe Chiba
Main character: 7
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 0
Survives: 60
Victim: 39
Culprit: 1
Chiba, my favorite character. Also only killed once, and that was herself.
It was hard to write her death, because as I said, she's my favorite character. At least I wanted her to leave in a memorable way, and a suicide out of despair and being misled to think she was part of a Mastermind duo fit the bill.
Originally she didn't have an execution planned, but a while after I started writing I suddenly got an idea for that, and despite there being no chance of ever using it, I wrote it down, because I thought it was good.
In the sixty scenarios she survived, she, sometimes alone, sometimes with Toyotomi, she was the one to lead the survivors into the Future Foundation, but I relegated that role to Toyotomi, meaning I canned all scenarios where she was the main character or she survived. This narrowed down sixty scenarios in one go, only leaving forty to choose from. It's strange how a simple detail like that could influence so much.
Tomoe can mean 'friend' and 'blessed', which I think fits her well. Chiba is one of the two family names who aren't related to any voice actor...it was merely a name I liked.
Takeshi Toyogushi
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind:
Survives: 1
Victim: 53
Culprit: 46
Toyogushi is the character who survived the least time. I feel bad for his son. Surprisingly, he was one of the three most popular characters in the story.
I had originally intended him to have narcolepsy, something somewhat inconvenient for a stuntsman, but I toned it down to merely getting drowsy from inactivity.
As the oldest graduate, he was supposed to be level-headed and calm in most situations, which I achieved well, I'd say. However I'm not sure if I made good reactions and characterization in the fifth trial...the parallel between his wife's death and Chiba's death was going to be the main point there, did I do that right, I wonder...
'Takeshi' means fierce warrior, which...heheh, doesn't fit very well in his actual characterization. Another trait he had was that he was the type of father who would do anything to get out of the shelter in order to see his son, and that's why he was the culprit so many times, but that was scrapped. 'Toyogushi' is for Enoshima's voice actor, it was simply misspelt on purpose. After all, Toyogushi was going to be another red herring for Mastermind.
Kaiji Kudo
Main character: 0
Secondary main character 0
As Mastermind: 27
Survives: 16
Victim: 2
Culprit: 55
Kudo was the one who was the culprit the most times. So much for being a Philanthropist, and there isn't even the excuse of him being part of Diavolos Avante. Sure, some of those culprit scenarios were from his Mastermind scenarios, like the time he killed Matsukaze and Akane in the same chapter, but in others he didn't have a valid reason to kill, mainly because those scenarios were scrapped early.
His Mastermind scenarios were pretty simple, Volkos really was the villain. However...I got tempted more to not to give that straight, to make Volkos look like a villain but actually make him a relatively good person. That's why I went for a Matsukaze scenario.
He was physically supposed to be a Naegi expy, but damn I can't illustrate, hahahahaha
Kaiji doesn't exist as a name, but 'Keiji' does, which is where I got this one. Keiji means 'govern with discretion', but I distorted it thanks to his Mastermind scenarios, as he did govern, but doing mutual killing games doesn't really qualify as discreet, right? Kudo was for Taiki Kudo, character from some show in the Digimon franchise, whom if I remember right, had some sort of hero syndrome and was very focused on friendship and helping. Or something like that. I didn't research much, and it has been long since I watched that show.
Diavolos Avante: Veritas, Valkyrie, Vieiras, Wolfenmaus
Oh yeah, this faction. Frankly, they weren't very involved in Graduate Meeting. Veritas did have some hand into the plot and in the final trial, but the others were very minor. However, in the next story, the Main Board, as well as Diavolos Avante overall, will have a lot more of importance in the next story. Here is a summary for it
Diabolical Contest of Mutual Killing: Summary
When a Main Board member dies, it must be replaced as soon as possible. Everybody knew that. That's why Mitsuhiko Hikari, Hunting Demon and Kyoto Team Leader of Diavolos Avante, wasn't surprised when he received a letter stating he was being considered as the replacement, and needed to be in the Headquarters to be in a contest to define the one to be chosen.
What he didn't expect was that when he arrived he'd be thrown into a whirlwind of activity and strange happenings. It all started when that little girl appeared, then the monochrome bear made everything worse, and finally the murders started. Is all that really to choose the new Main Board member? Or was there somebody, or a whole team of them, conspiring to kill Diavolos Avante and its members? And who among the sixteen people in the headquarters is cooperating for that to happen?
Diabolical Contest of Mutual Killing: Characters
Basically, all characters are high ranking members from Diavolos Avante from different teams spread through Japan, as Kudo, the representative for Asia in the Main Board, died, it's only logical for a Japanese person to replace him. Here are them, with their very tacky titles. Veritas has no taste in titles, hah. Basically, as most members of Diavolos Avante were members of Veritas' school, he gave them a title based on the talent that got them into the school in the first place.
Mitsuhiko Hikari: Hunting Demon
Mamoru Takayama: Protective Demon
Akira Hosoya: Con Artist Demon
Kimiko Sugita: Tea Demon
Harumi Kayano: Dancing Demon
Tetsurou Koshimizu: Medical Demon
Chiyo Yasumoto: Mind Demon
Sumida Kishio: Linguist Demon
Kouhei Kobayashi: Magical Demon
Daisuke Mitsuishi: Flying Demon
Kumakichi Fukuyama: Acting Demon
Hiyoko Romi: Lyricist Demon
Kyrie Mimori: Journalism Demon
Yurie Oyama: Hacker Demon
Tohya Sasuga: Robotic Demon
Emiko Tanaka: Unwanted Demon
And so here it ends. With this chapter, Graduate Meeting of Mutual Killing is officially over. Once again, thank you all of you for reading. I'm not sure when Diabolical Contest is going to start, but I suppose it'll be around February.
See you all whenever it's time!