#sakushiro

Credit for 8bit Kenshiro

Results in order:

Sakura/Aoi

Sakura/Kenshiro

Sakura/Chihiro

Sakura/Makoto & Sakura/Mukuro

Sakura/Mikan & Sakura/Nekomaru

Sakura/Sayaka

And then.

Mf. How is this where I find out Kenshiro likely survived his terminal illness??? That he's still somewhere out there in the Danganronpa world???

Do you. Do you guys think he knows Sakura is gone? In the main plotline he was one of Monokuma's bargaining chips over Sakura iirc. Do you think her final moments were broadcasted to the dojo and to Kenshiro while they were held hostage? Feels like something Junko would do, maximum despair right?

And then, because Kenshiro was forced to watch Sakura die for him and everyone else, did that grief solidify his determination? Was that the resolve which gave him just that one little extra push he needed to beat his terminal illness?

Do you think he then sought out Sakura's remaining classmates? Do you think him and Aoi mourned her together? Do you think he acknowledged Makoto, man to man, and thanked him personally for defeating the great evil that felled "the greatest fighter and rival he ever had the honour to have fought and known"?

Do you think Yasuhiro came to him at one point, figuring if anyone deserved to punch him or yell at him, then it wasn't just Aoi, it was this guy as well? Do you think Kenshiro refused to absolve him of his guilt, but told him Sakura would've been happy Yasuhiro lived on anyway?

Do you think that's part of why Yasuhiro ended up being a Branch Officer of the Future Foundation eventually, with actual shitloads of work and a giant target on his back? It's obvious to anyone that he's in it for the fame and glory and the pay and perks too of course, and that is true as well, but. Kenshiro knows.

And he knows this because, every year, around Sakura's birthday, when he and Aoi go to visit Sakura's resting place (sometimes with Makoto, sometimes not), the air still smells faintly like that insufferable, cheap cologne Hagakure uses liberally instead of washing his hair regularly like he should.

I’ve been seeing some discourse of people hating Sakuraoi because Sakura has a canon boyfriend, and then I’ve also seen some people hate Sakushiro or ignore it’s existence due to the lack of content we HAVE of Kenshiro. But my biggest issue lies with how undermining both the existence of Kenshiro and Sakuras feelings for him effects Sakuras CHARACTER as a whole.

So as a start… Sakura and Kenshiro are not canonically together. While both having romantic feelings for one another, they never officially got together. Though it’s said if Kenshiro got better he’d confirmed they’d perhaps “be something more”, implying them becoming a romantic item. Just getting that out of the way for the people who say they’re canonically together, because they’re not- they just have mutual feelings towards each other.

But at the same time, he as a character impacted Sakuras character entirely. Most of her freetime events are even spent talking about him, she even refers to him as her “first love” as the man she could also never defeat in battle. She had feelings for him evidently, and at first felt shame over it due to how it impacted how she was SUPPOSED to be in her own eyes- that being, not feminine or weak - and she feels as if having a crush made her such. It was Kenshiro himself who told her otherwise, and that very clearly impacted how she felt both about herself and how she felt about HIM.

Naturally due to Kenshiros terminal illness, his title of the worlds strongest man was given to her- which she was holding onto (or ‘keeping his seat warm’) until he returned and got better, as he was convinced he would. She accepted the title, which I’m pretty sure eventually landed her the spot she had at Hopes Peak Academy.

Now if we review all that, it feels almost wrong to undermine Sakuras crush on him given how it impacted her story. But once again, this isn’t me saying you CAN’T ship Sakuraoi. I do, I think they definitely had something a lot more than causal, but it feels like erasing a large part of Sakura’s character to get rid of the fact she was crushing or in love with Kenshiro at all.

boys when they're bored (ft. @bestboy-seven )