#rain code chapter 0

Luckily, he soon found them..... or rather they found him. All this time Yuma wasn't far from the station, where he, Melami, Pucci, Aphex, Zange, and Zilch were supposed to meet. And while the other hunters were waiting for the last person, they noticed «the little guy who got lost in the forest».

They were surprised to know that Yuma was the hunter-in-training they had been waiting for. However, they didn’t know anything else about him. Aphex even doubted Yuma's honesty about amnesia and that he's a hunter, but the letter and the vampire hunter's badge convinced the others of his validity. They had no choice but to set out for their destination.

They spent about a week on the road. During this time, Yuma got somewhat used to his colleagues. Not everyone treated him well, but for Yuma, these were the first people he thought he could rely on.

However, there was something that scared him. A mysterious voice that he heard more and more often every day. Yuma had begun to think he was going crazy, until he saw a purple ghost in front of him.

That day, Yuma had fallen behind his colleagues and got lost. He was shocked by what he saw. The ghost said she’s Shinigami – a Death God, with whom he had made a contract, and thanks to which he could now use her powers.

Yuma's head was spinning from all he heard. He couldn't immediately accept all the new information and the appearance of the Death God herself, but he was forced to put aside his worries and questions in order to return back to the others.

However, Yuma discovers something terrible. He finds Zange, mauled and covered in blood, about to die. Yuma runs to help him somehow, but Zange only manages to say, "He wasn’t who he said he was". Yuma began to panic, realizing that somewhere nearby is the vampire that killed Zange and is going to do the same to Yuma and the others.

Unfortunately for him, he then found the torn bodies of Pucci and Melami. While searching for both his companions and answers, Yuma thought more about Zange's words and realized that the older man had meant that there was a traitor among them.

Yuma eventually found the rest of their group, though not in the way he had hoped. Aphex was lying bloody and ripped on the ground, and in front of him stood Zilch, covered in blood and with black and red eyes, staring at Yuma with a feral expression. This image felt very familiar to Yuma, causing him to panic.

Zilch looked at him with a smirk on his face and inquired if Yuma remembers him. Yuma didn't understand what Zilch was talking about, but Zilch didn't care whether he remembered him or not. In his current state, getting rid of Yuma would be much easier.

Zilch began chasing Yuma. Yuma could only run until Shinigami began telling him that he should finally use her powers, as it was the only way he could be saved at this moment. Yuma desperately called upon Shinigami, the Death God transforming into a large scythe in his hands. Now the Death God has become a tangible material. She informed Yuma that this form of hers is the ultimate weapon against vampires, from which they cannot escape. And despite his poor skills with weapons, he entered into battle with Zilch. As a result, he barely, but defeated him, piercing him with the blade of the scythe.

Yuma didn't know what to do next once the battle was concluded. His colleagues were killed, one of them was a traitor, and he didn't even know where he was. He had wanted everything to stop at that moment and give him a chance to come to his senses.

However, he heard a rustling sound close to him, which meant that someone was nearby.

As he prepared to fight again, he ran into a tall figure, which frightened them both initially. In front of him, there was a middle-aged man with blue hair and glasses of the same color, standing near a tree, scared, holding his heart.

The stranger assured him that he didn't want to cause harm and was only worried, because he saw someone running in panic. The blue-haired man introduced himself as Yakou and said that he lives in this forest and helps lost people or vampire hunters who sometimes need a place to stay for the night or day. Although he admitted that he meets the latter of the two options very rarely, but over the past month he had spent a lot of time with four hunters who arrived in a nearby village. They didn't tell him their goals, but he himself admits that he can do little to help them.

Yakou then offered to take Yuma to the village to the others, to which Yuma hesitantly agreed, full of distrust but had no other options. On the way, Yuma recounted his experiences with his first group, after which Yakou expressed his sympathies and tried to help.

—

Happy that I finally got to do something big with vampire hunters au!

Initially, I was going to do something more large, including a comic about how Yuma met Yakou. But I realized that I don't have enough energy for it, especially recently because of work (it was a hard period), so I decided to do everything in this format

I didn't want to stray too far from ch 0 of the game, but I did add some new details and hints that I hope you'll find intriguing. Do you think Yuma really knew Zilch before he lost his memory?

I also want to thank @draconicsparkle ( I hope you don't mind that I'm tagging you here) for beta reading. You really helped me a lot!

I hope you all enjoy it! I would like to see your comments and any guesses you may have (my askbox is always open)

Right off the bat, we're introduced to five other characters besides our infamous protagonist, Yuma Kokohead. Aphex Logan, Melami Goldmine, Pucci Lavmin, Zilch Alexander, and Zange Eraser. They're introduced, provide a bit of exposition to Yuma and the player, and their dynamics seem pretty solid so far. Each of them has room to develop, there's hints that Pucci might be a love interest of sorts to Yuma, and some of even show off cool powers that definitely might come in handy in later cases. But then what happens?

They're all f*cking killed. They last twenty minutes before every single one of them, including the culprit, all die off-screen.

SO YEAH. IF YOU'RE ANYTHING AT ALL LIKE ME, YOU'RE MAD. Not upset, not devastated seeing characters you like die.

F*CKING. MAD.

What Kodaka seems to have forgotten when writing Chapter 0, is that there's a reason the deaths in the Danganronpa series work. THEY EXPLICITLY PUT THE IDEA OF MURDER INTO YOUR HEAD. From the very moment Monokuma is introduced in DR1, he says directly, without any sugarcoating, that the only way the characters can get out of permanent imprisonment is to kill someone and get away with it.

The writers don't say who will die (ignoring the whole 11037 thing), because they don't NEED TO. They know the player is smart enough to use context clues and figure out, "Hey, Sayaka and Makoto have been getting awfully chummy, chances are she's probably kicking the bucket." It makes sense, there's payoff, and the moments leading up to that are meant to build connection between the player and the characters.

WHAT PAYOFF IS THERE IN RAIN CODE CHAPTER 0'S TWIST?!

There is none, because Kodaka forgot to give us, the player, any semblance of a hint aside from the chapter's title that maaaaaybe these characters aren't gonna live much longer so try to avoid getting attached.

And no, saying "it's made by the same people who made Danganronpa so it's on you for not expecting that" does not suffice here. Even if Rain Code were established to be part of the same universe or whatnot (it's not), why didn't they give us a bit more warning?

WHAT IS THE POINT OF INTRODUCING THESE CHARACTERS IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THEY'RE ALL GONNA DIE WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES OF MEETING THEM?

The short answer is: shock value.

Take a look at Kodaka's writing, and you'll find that he adores shock value. Between the protagonist swap in V3, the divisive "it's a lie!!" ending, and a handful of deaths throughout the series (Taka, Hiyoko, Yuta Asahina), and it becomes entirely clear that payoff isn't his top priority. It's pulling the rug from under our feet, watching us land on the floor, and when we say, "WTF Kodaka?!", his response is probably, "IDK what to tell you fam, you really should've seen that coming."

No, my dude. Of course I didn't see this twist coming. Because you did a terrible job with your foreshadowing. You introduced five characters whose only purpose is to improve your marketing by showcasing a bigger cast on the game's cover art, vaguely hinted at potential development in later chapters, and then did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH THEM.

As a writer, I despise shock value. Not hinting at a twist properly beforehand almost never works, and when it does, it falls in line with what we know about the story and the stakes. But by the time the stakes are set up in Rain Code, Aphex and the others are already gone, so their deaths don't really matter.

If Aphex, Melami, Pucci, Zilch and Zange didn't exist, THIS STORY WOULD'VE PANNED OUT THE EXACT SAME WAY. Nobody mentions these characters again anyway, SO WHY DO THEY EVEN EXIST?

Oh, and I've barely discussed the culprit himself, "Zilch-Alexander-but not-really-it's-just-some-unnamed-hitman-who-looks-and-sounds-exactly-like-him."

You mean to tell me that the real Zilch just happened to look EXACTLY LIKE THIS RANDOM HITMAN? A hitman who, much later in the game, is revealed to be old pals with Yomi Hellsmile, the symbolic leader of Amaterasu?

You're telling me this isn't actually a hitman, he's an insider from Amaterasu who managed to not only get out of Kanai Ward, but only left to kill four detectives, use some intricately designed train to pull off their murders, and then frame the trainee who just happened to have amnesia so his alibi is already pretty shaky?

You're telling me he got past all of the security regulations that Kanai Ward had in place preventing people from getting in or out, and instead of taking this opportunity to spread Amaterasu's influence, HE WENT STRAIGHT BACK THERE AND EXPECTED TO BE GREETED WITH OPEN ARMS?!

Are you starting to get why I have issues with this chapter?

It would've been so much simpler to say "Zilch was bribed by Amaterasu to betray the WDO". Melami or Aphex could even mention something along the lines of, "Not all detectives care about the truth. Some only care about lining their own pockets and making themselves look better in the eyes of the WDO." Which would make it easier for us to understand that detectives don't always have everyone's best interests in mind.

And if it's absolutely necessary for the sake of the plot, to fuel Yuma's desire to solve injustices and learn how to use the Mystery Labyrinth to uncover the truth, why can't it just be ONE DEATH INSTEAD OF FOUR?

I discussed this with a friend of mine on Discord, but rewriting this chapter so that only Zange dies would be incredibly easy. Zange realizes their drinks are drugged, and when everyone else falls asleep, he confronts Zilch. Of course it ends badly, and by the time the others realize he's dead, Zilch's status as the traitor becomes even more apparent. One Mystery Labyrinth later, and Swank kills Zilch for blowing cover, saying something like, "You said this would go off without a hitch." It would make Amaterasu seem more like a threat, since they're willing to go to such extreme lengths to compromise the WDO's involvement in Kanai Ward. Aphex, Melami and Pucci would all join the rest of the detective gang along with Yuma, and the story would proceed as normal.

Do you see how easy that was? I'm not trying to say this would've been better than how it actually played out, but I certainly would've enjoyed the game a bit more, at least.

Anyways, I digress. Rants are exhausting, but I definitely feel better getting all of this off my chest. Of course, you're free to agree or disagree, but I'd really prefer not to be called an egomaniac just because I disliked Kodaka's galaxy brain storytelling on this one.