#dororou

Looks like everyone was called away before Dororou could actually be of much use in terms of investigating - though he was able to meet some cool folks and even a fan, and even though he was still upset, talking with them managed to put him back to his normal self (ignoring the tear stains). So along with the others he happened to come across made his way to the park. He had yet to be here, but it was actually really nice and peaceful, and the natural vibes ever so slightly eased his worries.

Then the ground had to go and open up.

As he made his way to the podium, he was slow to catch up with all that was happening. Barely able to keep track of all the talk of tripwires, drugs, and magic, though that the victim wasn’t one of the students was somewhat bittersweet. Sure none of his classmates died, but someone still did die, and one of the students had been at fault.

When Hideo mentioned speaking to the bot at the front desk, Dororou could be heard muttering something bitterly under his breath about rules, but he didn’t actually speak until Arisa mentioned about the trash chute.

“Oooh, the trash chute! It has a nice echo, eh Duval-dono? But anyway I know I personally can’t fit in it, let alone be able to climb up…”

From there he tried to process everything that had been presented so far. He tried to let everyone else handle it, but then the with the tape recorder came to, and with all the aggression that happened so far with… certain individuals, Dororou wouldn’t stand for it any longer, especially directed towards someone like Kei. Not wanting to shout and make things worse, Dororou tried to get simply through the way he knew how - being himself. With that he placed in a vote for himself.

“I’m under the voting age anyway, so now that I have everyone’s attention, let’s kick it back a notch shall we? Mifune-chan, you talked about the footprints, but did you happen to check how big they were, since you had helmet-head’s shoe and all. With everything going on I doubt the killer would have worn shoes other than their own, and with the variety of people here it'll cut back the suspect list.

As for Duval-dono, you might want to play the recording before we drop to conclusions. You were the one who used the word tape in particular before it was even brought up, and since you know so many languages and so many words it makes one wonder why you chose to use that one in particular.”

((CW: Swearing))

Dororou would try to help Kojima up when he asked - but he sure wasn’t gonna stop latching on to him like a Koala bear. He didn’t trust the others enough to actually not pull anything and like he said; He’s not letting anybody else die here - they’d have to pry him off!

Unfortunately for him, the crowbar came in the form of Arisa Oshiro. He didn’t expect anything at first… he was all caught up with everything that was going down he didn’t even notice her approaching. Even after it happened - the sharp pain caught him off guard to the point it didn’t register for a couple seconds. Once it did everyone knew - the guttural laughter of the broken yeen was enough to get the point across.

“GYAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

He let go almost immediately to try to get her off, but luckily Tomomi’s words - whatever they said, since he was a little preoccupied - did the trick. No real damage was done but it still hurt like the dickens… and now the old man was free to do whatever - er… more everyone was free to do whatever to the old man. But of all the things to come next - freaking decapitating Ike was not what he expected. He definitely was still on edge from it all, and he had to choke back a sob again before he descended into a sobbing mess once more.

The fact that the execution was still on didn’t do much to help the matter. He didn’t want to watch, and unlike time and time before he actually was actually able to look away. That is, until a familiar voice draws his attention back in. That was… those were… it had worked? But this wasn’t the way he wanted to see them again - they acted so cruel and cold that Dororou couldn’t help but feel sick. This was the exact opposite of what he wanted - were these really the people he once knew? He wanted to cry but stronger emotions were much more prominent - he wanted to shake them back to their senses, and just cherish the fact they were back again. But it was just a screen he was watching. Even though he wasn’t all that familiar with the events ten years prior, seeing Otome still brought back bad memories from what happened not long after they discovered them. It was over in a flash, yet still felt so long. The two people - the one person who holds blame for everything ended up being responsible for the death of one another… that says more about the original Keiichi Kojima’s than most of what he said.

The whole thing just further added onto the pent up emotions that’ve been building up all along - emotions with no specific cause nor outlet. He was irritated and felt guilty - as if he didn’t do enough. There was one person he could blame for now though… a certain cheerleader. Had she just stopped him from delaying the inevitable? Perhaps, but ‘you never know until you try’ and she took that chance from him. Once things finally seemed to slow down, he glared at her - his tearstained face contorting into an angry expression that under most circumstances would have seemed foreign.

“You… what the hell is wrong with you!? Do us all a favor and rah-rah rot in hell, b*tch. You try and say ‘you aren’t replaceable’ when your even more synthetic than Keiichi! At least they had to take the time to give him a heart… Tell me this - did you ever even like Tomomi, or did you just see your own goddamn reflection in their tv screen!?”

“Y- You little bastards just love a- acting innocent in all of this now, don’t you…?” Kojima couldn’t help but growl as he tried to straighten himself. He hated feeling frustrated, especially at literal children who were in all actuality innocent in all matters. However, he was growing tired of hearing the same thing, the same kind of words without knowing anything. 

But what was the point of an explanation? What would it gain? Sympathy? Closure? A second less of trauma in their later years? Maybe for the same reasons that he had wanted to talk to Otome Ito and bring her back, just to know why his only nephew Ikumoto had been taken from him and his family so early… Maybe then he would’ve been able to offer his sister some explanation to ease her heart, even if she never wanted to resume anymore communication with him.

Kojima collapsed against the podium, trying to hold himself up as he coughed again. He hated his body so much.

“I DID try to find… some way out of this, you bastard… This experiment– my project– it was supposed to be something my company could CELEBRATE—”

He began coughing again, wiping his mouth and smearing more blood into his beard. Kojima looked faint. “It can never be justified… I didn’t think things would get this far… When I was first offered funding by our government, I thought it would’ve been a brand new start to something futuristic and incredible… But when I ONLY had an android of myself to offer, my superiors– those demons– didn’t just threaten me.”

He rose his arms, gesturing to everything around him as he screamed at Akihiko.

“My entire lab team– ALL of the employees here– my FAMILY— would’ve ALL DIED because of ME. YOU THINK I DIDN’T TRY TO FIGHT AGAINST THAT?! DO YOU BELIEVE I WANTED TO KILL CHILDREN?!”

He laughed, resting his head against Keiichi’s podium, laughing quietly. “None of you know me… These legs of mine don’t work like they used to, boy… They made sure I wouldn’t be able to run away from them…”

“And I’ve failed… That’s the cruelty of adulthood, and that… is your first lesson you all need to understand.”

Kojima looked up, his eyes swirling with something depressing- a defeated and glazy look in his eyes, that spun of black and white in his eyes. He had fallen into despair, and he knew it was a hole he would never hope to crawl out of. “Adulthood is nothing but corruption… and greed… and selfishness. The second you try to change that for the better of your future– it’ll always be at a cost. The second you try to move forward in life, hoping to achieve success with what you love– it will never be in your favor. Only for others.”

“As for your families… The government took care of that– they had forged thousands of papers and documents to make it appear that you are all safe and sound. As far as your families and friends are aware, you are in class…”

Dororou nodded as he spoke - he didn’t actually agree with him and had some thoughts(™) but  he wanted to wait until he was finished to say them… plus he wanted the cookies. When he handed them out, he tore into them and started to munch on them. Mmmm… free food was good to begin with, but old people usually have a better taste in snacks. Monch Monch.

But then Kimiko did… that, and honestly he shouldn’t be surprised by this point - this is the third trial in a row someone went after the guilty party - but he definitely was suprised still. He felt bad for Kimiko for having to go through what she went through, though he definitely didn’t doubt she had it in her anymore - not that he held it against her.

Thank god she didn’t remember the employee or Aya…

He didn’t take much care for the video, though he felt a little guilty seeing Keiichi’s mom again - he couldn’t imagine how the two felt, so luckily Kimiko had the right idea.

Then Akihiko started talking, and he mentioned the execution… oh god the execution.

“ENOUGH! Nobody‘s dying! YOU HEAR ME!? NOBODY IS DYING!”

He blurted out, rushing to the old man’s side - on his knees hugging him tightly - partly because he felt the dude needed one and partly because he didn't want anyone to pull a fast one on him. Of course it wasn't that tight considering the dude was as delicate as porcelain. Not that Dororou would be able to actually stop anything but they don’t need to know that.

“I don’t care how much of a musty curmudgeon he is - I’m not gonna stand here and let somebody else die! We’ve all made mistakes here, we’ve all done things we shouldn’t be proud of! I’m not asking you to live with them - I’m just asking you to live! Sure there’s only what, fourteen of us here - but we’re standing twenty-five strong! We can go as high up on the chain of superiors that let this happen there is, but hasn’t this wretched place taken enough from all of us?”

“Can’t we just go back, can’t we just live out our lives the best we can - keep going for the ones who can’t… in the end hurting him isn’t going to bring them back! So the best we can do is just… live life while we got it - because like Kojima along with the rest of us learned - things change, nothing is certain. You never know how long we got to do what we do best - and the answer to that isn’t to break the laws of nature or something wild, it’s just to make the best out of what you got! Like you could literally have just kept up your job as a math teacher - it’s literally not that hard to make a lasting legacy that’s positive,”

That last point was muttered under his breath but the point still remains - next he tried to address the two robros - with the stuff that just happened they probably weren’t feeling all that swell. He wiped the tears out of his eyes, he was trying to stay strong but this was taking so much out of him. 

“...And don’t think that doesn’t extend to the two of you either! Keiichi, you may be him, and if there’s anything to take from that - it’s that there is some good there! Last time we were here you were willing to die so that Duval-chan… Heloise could live! If that doesn’t say anything I don’t know what does! As for you, Ike. You’re cool - you can hang with us bros once we get out… but you definitely need to get away from the geezer,”

He turned and snapped at the bear - he, on the other hand, doesn’t get off so easy.

"Ishiguro-san and I weren't married," Kojima stated to Arisa, crossing his arms to try and maintain his composure. Keiichi stared at him wide-eyed, but he didn't say anything. In fact, Keiichi and Ike were both staring at Kojima with two wildly different emotions- shock and then anger. This didn't stop the Mastermind from staring at Arisa blankly, then repeating, "... Sentience. And no, Ishiguro-san's involvement wasn't an attempt of recreating sentience. Your classmate, Keiichi-kun-- that was his main purpose in this project, and more..."

Keiichi rubbed his neck, still sniffling quietly. He was surprised to see Dororou approaching him, then actually going to hug him. Keiichi didn't hesitate to hug him back tightly, returning the brohug with much relief. He nodded at his words.

Ike wasn't the type for that sort of jazz though- as much as he loved the performance of it. He sighed as Dororou, placing his hands in his pockets as he stared at him. His eyes did seem to soften a bit, especially when he pulled out a ridiculous pair of glasses.

"You're lucky that your one of my favorites, big man."

Surely.

Kojima seemed to be sitting on Arisa's and Dororou's words for a while now. Not with any sort of emotion of self-reflection upon the game and his actions, but very obviously frustrated. As if he was trying to pick his words now... It was difficult, though, as he knew that if he tried to dance around it, Ike would definitely try to cut in and explain.

He would have to do something about him sometime soon.

"... You're... making points of things that have already been done. I had asked Hope's Peak Academy if they would lend me their help, before my project had progressed to... this point. They had declined, due to the impact that... the Akedo incident had left. The idea of having another incident occur by another student was too risky. At that moment, I had agreed and respected their decision."

"Back then, the purpose of my project was more or less a dream of just... being able to keep an everlasting image of young, thriving talent that would continue to learn and improve, during a better age. The life of an adult is... repetitive and tragic- following an everyday cycle while suffering to meet the most basic needs, while growing older and weaker. Even as an HPA alumni, my reputation meant nothing to the world if it wasn't flashy or impressive."

"... I didn't... have a choice about this game exactly.." He was straining on his words, "I... was instructed to get results... as fast as possible. I couldn't leave a trace of... anyone else behind, or there would be serious consequences. I had attempted to go around this by attempting to revive Otome Ito out of... hm..."

He bit his lip.

"... I guess you could say... I saw a small part of myself in her, and I felt she had deserved more out of her life. That idea had failed me."

"I was losing time, and I was being demanded more than just the androids I have now. I wasn't given time to decide how to go about it once Keiichi-kun was recruited to Hope's Peak as the Super High-School Level Android... I knew what my superiors had expected out of me."

"..."

After divulging such information... Kojima couldn't help but to stare again blankly at Dororou for his request of more cookies. He furrowed his brows, hesitating to respond with a no... before digging in his pocket and pulling out another wrapped packet of cookies and tossing them to him.

"The timer is meant to be a deadline for this project. The second it goes out, the entire district will be destroyed. Simple as that. That is why I had became aggressive at the last moment once everyone began turning against me and my system."

He offered no apologies. He already knew that he was too far gone.

Dororou felt horrible - he had been the only one who voted along with Keiichi, not for him… and he seemed to be taking it bad - not that he wasn’t more than entitled to. All the suffering they have gone through let them to this moment, but was it worth it if all it led to is more suffering?

Not that it lasted that long, with Keiichi abruptly shutting down - leaving in his place a husk… and another? He pretty much just like their Keiichi - but with a radically different style. He was loud and angry… Dororou hoped the ‘funnies’ he talked about was himself - but other than that he wasn’t a fan.

So when the actual Kojima came out, he was as suprised as Ike was. What a weird old man… stylin’ obviously - even though it wasn’t Keiichi per say it’s still the Keiichi Brand(™) and if Dororou thought anyone knew the meaning of taste, it was Keiichi - but definitely still weird. He did happen to take note to Ike’s change in attitude - he’s just gonna slide that in his back pocket just to be safe.

As everyone had their reactions, Dororou honestly didn’t know what to expect - sure he probably should have seen people lashing out at the person responsible for this but… but he didn’t feel the same way. Was that wrong? Even the weight of those who died only made him feel guilty for not having a similar reaction.

I mean… it still was Keiichi right? As time went on, seeing Ike and eventually Kojima show how they really felt about this - or at least about Aya’s death, made all the doubt, all the  just... vanish. Especially now that their Keiichi was back up. He wanted to go up, to tell him it’s gonna be alright - to give his bro a hug - but at the same time he was worried about what could go wrong, what the others would think about him cutting the one behind this some slack.

But this is Dororou we’re talking about, and since when did he listen to anyone but himself?

He went right on over and up to Keiichi, the one that he’d gotten to know all along, and gave him a big hug.

“I can’t say much but… I’m here for ya, you feel?”

He turned his attention to the second Keiichi.

“...Ike, was it? Listen, I can’t say that you didn’t have a hand in all this, but from the looks at things you don’t exactly agree with them either - you seem to be pretty hard on yourself about it. Nyuff, nyuff.” Dororou timing, “I don’t really know who you are, if Keiichi’s supposed to be the SHSL Android and the perfect replica; and Oji-ma over there is the SHSL Mathematician and the original - but if you’re even a fraction like the Keiichi I know, you must be a pretty cool guy - and any bro of my bro is a bro of mine.”

He pulls something out of his parka pocket - the last thing he had left from his fanny pack, his groucho glasses.

“Here, if you need some ‘funnies’ put these on instead… this bad boy will have you cracking up in no time!”

Finger guns. Lastly, there was Oji-ma himself to address. The original Keiichi Kojima, that really old dude who took one to many trips to Nostalgiaville and started a killing game. Dororou sighed.

“If you really are Keiichi, then their reactions shows way more than what you’re letting on… I hope you understand where you went wrong with all this… but it seems we’re supposed to ask questions so I have a few too. For instance, if you honestly we’re just collecting data, then what’s with the big timer? Next, Arisa had a point - why a killing game? You could’ve just asked and I’d be up for it - the more Dororous in the world the better in my book! Nyuff, Nyuff, Nyuff,”

For Dororou, the laughter that came out then was a little dry.

Dororou was getting annoyed. While things weren’t exactly making sense to him in entirely, he got the jist of it - especially that Keiichi was involved. It wasn’t until Hideo said something that he finally spoke up - he was getting rather peeved by everyone targeting his roboro.

“Yeah, everything does happen to point to Keiichi and no one else, huh? Well it just so happens that’s how it works when you all go in with a bias - you all haven’t said anything that hasn’t been about how he’s involved. We know it isn’t directly him, I trust him that he isn’t, but at this rate you all might as well vote for him now if you’re all gonna be so close-minded and be meanies - you aren’t doing him any favors by saying these things. Not that these aren’t important things to talk about eventually- we just keep talking in circles. Like how K.K. could also stand for Karoushi-Kuma for all we know, so Hideo’s right, let's move on to something else - the questions, the acronym, Rachele - anything,”

Okay, now that he’s got all that out of his system he loosens up a bit.

“Whew, okay, sorry, where were we? Questions… Mine asked about what part of the computer does all the thinking and stuff. I guessed CPU and was right, but considering the question was also ‘where did you stab my Karoushi-kuma’, it’s funny to think that the bear thinks out of its belly button, Nyuff, Nyuff, Nyuff,”

He takes a pause, before staring Oji-kuma directly in its cold, beady eyes.

“Actually, that makes a lot of sense. GYAHAHAHAHAAA!”

He could bearly keep a straight face as he said it, and once he did he burst out laughing. Normally he doesn’t like to make fun of people, but when the fanny pack came off, so did the gloves. It took him a while to get composed enough to continue, but he still had things to cover while he was at it. Wiping a final tear from his eye, he went on.

“Okay, what next. That acronym huh? EIAC24… I was smart enough to figure out C.P.U. meant CUPuter” Yes he said that out loud, “so I can figure out this…  Something Something Air Conditioning? Nah. Everyone Is Awesome Club? True but not now…”

“...Something something Akedo City?”

That made sense let's go with that. He put on his imaginary thinking cap and concentrated hard… he could figure it out if he put his mind to it. Rubbing his temples, he was trying to force himself to think to try and piece it together.

“Jo, you mentioned they were trying to revive Otome Ito - they can’t do that from scratch, they’d need a base, right? Could the contents for that bot, be the AI of those who died in the Akedo City Disaster? If here built there, and Ikumoto was involved with both, they would most likely have access to that tech stuff like the chips… but if it’s a phrase then what could the e and the i mean… hmm... E… I… E… I…”

“Oh,”

The gears were starting to turn and everything was starting to piece together here. He turns back to the bear - though not to roast him again. From the look on his face and his head raised high - the confidence he radiated must have meant he was onto something… whether it was right had yet to be seen, but it was something.

“You know, the only sign of life we know of in the district besides ourselves has been the mastermind in the mansion… but there’s someone else with us - or more accurately was. It was weird how much you wanted the identity of a certain employee to remain hidden, huh you smelly ol’ bear? Going as far as to have the helmet explode when Yeichi tried to get a face… could it be you didn’t want us to recognize them? They themselves weren’t the mastermind, Yeichi said they had came in on the monorail which wouldn't go to the mansion, so from where? There weren’t any signs of life anywhere outside of the urban and suburban areas - but there was somewhere I myself never got through to… what are the odds they lived behind the door at the bottom of the cave during the game? But besides that, don’t you think someone would recognize one of the ‘Employees in Akedo City’?”

“Hideo had a point in the transference thing… if Keiichi worked in the sixties why wouldn’t his mom work now? Maybe because he actually isn’t the one success like I though... if the chip is needed for it to work, it would have to been later on once the idea was already in circulation. Which means it would have to be someone much more recent… And considering the things we know, what better candidate to revive than Ikumoto Shirosai himself?”

“Keiichi… tell us about your father, about his appearance. I think Jo was right that he’s involved, but not in the way we thought. From what I can tell Employee 29 was human - with all the stuff in his room if Yeichi didn’t sense anything off then there probably isn’t anything off. It might be the revived Ikumoto, but more likely I’m afraid to say he was another casualty here, Keiichi,”

“When you wind up dead - why give an entire district to someone who was never actually real? What reason other than you still had plans for it… “

He points triumphantly at the bear, swelling his chest in pride.

“I wonder what those plans could’ve been, Ikumoto Shirosai, Former Super High School Level Technician,  and the true Mastermind and boss to the Jokiku District?”

Well, on one hand they are holding a mastermind trial so if they didn’t mess things up - which they wouldn’t - then that meant he wasn’t getting executed, so that’s a plus. But on the other hand… what was actually happening?

“Keiichi’s how old now? I mean I got the whole transference thing for a bit here but that’s… geez… the Sixties!? I mean that explains the taste but still! I must’ve missed something, so definitely reading the newspaper out loud will help...”

Wait a minute - what are the odds that was the newspaper Karoushi-kuma was reading… the one that might have gotten burned up in the explosion… But anyway understanding or not he wouldn’t pass up this prime opportunity.

“So if Keiichi’s like sixty or whatever and still has a full head of hair…”

He turns to face Karoushi-kuma.

“Then what’s your excuse! Nyuff, Nyuff, Nyuff,”

Boom - not to mention everyone was here to witness it this time. Okay, back on task now.

“So here’s what I’m getting… Keiichi is really old, a robot, related to Ikumoto Shirosai - the dude from the letter who died in the original Akedo City Disaster - who also happened to own the city before giving it to Keiichi. Could Ikumoto himself have been a robot and really old then? Was the deed or whatever dated?  But Seishiro brings up a good point… if human Keiichi was a student, then why would robot Keiichi also be a student…”

He scratches his chin in contemplation - concentrating really hard.

“Hmmm… I’m drawing a blank as to why - the only thing that I could think of is that safeguard program - who better to trust than someone with ties to the school and the disaster itself - but Nikuyoji-kin was already the one for our class... Bah, let’s move on to something else, this is too much thinking without any progress,”

He instinctively reaches towards his waist for a snack - only to remember his fanny pack, and the bananas inside were lost forever. He’s gonna have words with the mastermind whenever they find out who it is - about the deaths of their friends mainly, but also the fanny pack.