#*edit wording

What especially bothers me about this, looking back at it, is that Takumi has been narrating his life despite it being such a 'mundane time'. The way this kind of self-narration happens in the first two Danganronpa games is that it marks a significant event from the outset- being in awe at coming to a famous academy for the first time. The third Danganronpa game has the protagonist stuffed in a locker and spacing out of her existence when she talks to herself, which puts a highly dissociative spin on that 'meta self-talk'- and well it would, she was kidnapped and possibly drugged for all we know.

In the Hundred Line prologue, we are introduced to the complex's emergency siren through Takumi and for all we know about his life until that point, that's the first time he's ever heard it, the way he pauses in shock to take in the message. But it's not. He's heard it many times, so many in fact that you'd expect him to roll his eyes and move Karua to hiding if he was really that nonchalant. His narration then proceeds to explain the presence of the sirens as 'something the society has accepted as normal', which is... a bit strange for someone who has accepted the presence of them without any issues.

Well. First thing is first: he lies, rather often, so using words out of context to 'prove' he 'wants bullying all the time' is just... backwards. Especially since he's sarcastic at times- and what's more, he is so in that same scene, when he turns around to be like 'oh did you hear that? I'm just talking to myself' after saying something about not cooperating in plain sight (go figure why he'd have things made that remove security cameras). And it turns out... he had said what is important to the group's survival. Of course he wants to maintain enough distance with his mask in order to put on his mastermind-y airs, but he also wants to communicate things and be taken seriously.

Second, you'll know by Chapter 5 that he does this shit as a means to an end, but this behaviour also goes hand-in-hand with the childish way he acts in other modes, too. He maintains a similar kind of neurosis, not letting people in on himself, holding back on his emotions, et cetera. Hence, why it's necessary to point out that in fact, he may have been hated even outside of the game, and that this tendency carries over into the main game. Where it becomes apparent, that from the time he announces himself as a 'liar' and 'Supreme Leader' (whatever reasons he has for doing that, that's up in the air), people have been biased against him even when he's serious. This is something we can see play out as early as the Death Road of Despair- he's visibly very upset at Kaede forcing the group over and over, but Tenko tells him he's being 'selfish'.

Also... funny expression to make when you're totally unserious, huh.

Clearly, Shuichi is taking the reins on the technical side of things. But okay, let’s suppose that he was suspicious Miu might be the mastermind, and selective about what to tell her. It’s still rather odd to suggest that extremely basic cameras will do much to ‘keep Monokuma under surveillance’...

In any event, his behaviour regarding the warehouse alone is... suspect.

Firstly, the fact that he went to the back of the warehouse without Kaede - thus, scrutinising that area without our viewpoint - and the second time-

-saw Kaede, standing in front of the shotput balls he already breezed past. 

It’s odd enough for a detective, and one accustomed to keeping an eye out for possible crime to... not take notice of them when he was out there on his own for business (as opposed to when they were together for introductions, in the Prologue). Yet being there another time, and then seeing someone loiter around these heavy balls, noting this without further thought...?

On top of this, he omits the issue of the interval times from Kaede, saying he didn’t think much of it. Making himself extremely suspicious when called out.

This is bad enough on its own, though it’s dismissed by Kaede’s suggestion that there was ‘too much going on’ and it’s possible that he forgot. Setting aside that Kaede is known to dismiss or deny genuine issues, and the interval times were by no means a trivial detail or under his control, there’s also-

-a video camera being present in the warehouse. Shuichi doubtlessly would have seen more variations of cameras than just disposable ones, and the Ultimate Inventor of all people would have no issues modifying any of them.

If I was being generous, I’d surmise he thought it would take too long to modify more complex devices, that digital data could be deleted accidentally, or that his capability with electronic devices is lacking. Still, we barely know what was even going through his head nigh the entire chapter, and since even Kaede hid her part in the plot from us, I’d say that’s more than enough cause for concern. Especially when the plot was engineered and motivated by Shuichi himself.

Indeed there are some things here: a familiar katana, a kitsune mask and...

Sparkling... Justice...

Yeah, this one doesn’t bode well to me; good chance is that Shuichi had ‘some sort of feeling’ that he could have lived a better life with more loving parents, but given his ‘’sheltering’’ he wasn’t able to fully process what the nagging feeling was. When I think of it like that it’s awfully depressing, because not only does his uncle ultimately control what he becomes - as Shuichi says, he didn’t even want to become a detective - but potentially his entire life has been just like this, kept at an arm’s length for God knows what reason, even led from one thing to another without a clear idea as to how, or why he even got there.