eway app.

[realitybytes]

Name: Juri
DW username: fritillaria
E-Mail: robert.haydn at gmail.com
IM: N/A
Plurk: contrariante

Other Characters: Harrison Wells

Character Name: Chiaki Nanami
Series: Super Danganronpa 2
Timeline: Before the fifth trial

HEY MODS and anyone else who likes hitting up the eway app page I guess — this application (links et all) will have some unavoidable spoilers for the Danganronpa series, including the "big reveal" for this particular game and I would feel like an incredible tool if I didn't slap a warning somewhere about that. Hilariously, though it's necessary to spoil it for the application (as it's what her character is built on and explains a lot about what she does and why she does it), the spoilers will be entirely avoidable in game and I do have a plan of action in mind in that regard.

Canon Resource Link: here!

Character History:

Hope's Peak Academy was seen as one of the most exceptional and exclusive schools in the country, as it only accepted the best of the best — the "super high school level" (or "ultimate") students, who excelled at one talent in particular. Students would vie for slots at the school and were seen as the "hope" of the country. Chiaki Nanami was recruited into the school's 77th class as the Super High School Level Gamer, given that she excelled at a number of different genres and systems across the board. Soon after the school year began, the class is whisked away on a school trip to the scenic Jabberwock Island by their teacher (allegedly), Usami, who claims they were on a trip to make friends and have hope grow. It's all fun and games and cute bonding scenes until a black and white bear appears and turns everything to shit.

Which is to say, the bear, Monokuma, immediately takes over the proceedings, re-christens Usami as "Monomi," his useless, worthless sidekick, and informs the rest of the students that they would have to participate in a killing game if they want to escape the island. The rules are simple: if you manage to kill someone and get away with it, then you would be allowed to escape and "graduate" from the island. However, after each murder, there would be a class trial where the remaining students would discuss the crime and debate amongst themselves before settling on a culprit. If they manage to find the killer, then the killer would be executed. If they were wrong about the killer, then they would all die and the killer would escape.

Cue mass hysteria and rampant paranoia.

Chiaki, however, seems to be relatively calm about all of this, as she doesn't believe anyone would actually cave to Monokuma's games. She serves as the quiet, airy voice of reason at first, like she's in her own world half the time. She keeps to herself for the most part at first, not really getting involved and allowing for one of her fellow classmates, Byakuya Togami, to take charge and calm the masses. When Togami plans a party, Chiaki agrees to stand guard outside of the lodge along with Monomi to make sure that Monokuma doesn't interfere with the festivities. It's because of this that Chiaki misses the first murder, when Togami is stabbed during a freak blackout.

"Moving forward, we should put aside all unnecessary preconceptions and just choose the answer . . . I think."

The trial itself is an ordeal. The 77th class finds themselves at a loss at first when trying to sort out who the culprit is. With Togami dead, Hajime Hinata reluctantly steps up to the plate and takes charge, working to uncover the killer. They all quickly narrow in on Nagito Komaeda, a relatively unhinged classmate of theirs, but it's Chiaki who helps nudge them back to the right path, catching on quickly that there was much more to the murder than meets the eye. Together with Hinata, the two of them manage to logic their way through the case and uncover the actual killer, then witnessing the first execution with the rest of the class. Throughout it all, Chiaki remains unshaken, doing everything she can to help get her classmates through the trial.

After a brief respite, Monokuma provides the class with the next motive — something to motivate someone into killing another classmate — in the form of an arcade machine with a game called "Twilight Syndrome." Chiaki is immediately excited to see it, though her excitement dampens when they all realize that the game itself is meant to be the motive. She declares that she won't let another killing happen — the most assertive and forceful she's been up until this point. If there's one thing Chiaki is absolutely determined to do, it's to get the rest of her classmates through the Killing School Trip and back home safely.

Despite the fact that she seems to spend most of her time with her head in the clouds thinking about one game or another, Chiaki starts to bond more with her fellow classmates after this declaration. She agrees to join the rest of the girls at the beach, even going as far as to bring ice cream for the rest of them to enjoy as well as a board game for all of them to play. The board game idea is overridden and Mikan Tsumiki, the SHSL nurse, points out that ice cream is hardly a decent substitute for lunch, but Chiaki still seems in good spirits, genuinely wanting to spend time with and bond with the others even when things get horrible.

"The killer has their reasons . . . I understand that. It's really all Monokuma's fault . . . I understand that, too. But . . . even so . . . We should never forgive . . . killing."

Which is good because it's not long after that that another body is discovered at the beach house — this time of the SHSL Photographer, Mahiru Koizumi. Though several of her classmates are shaken, Chiaki is quick to look for important clues, managing to calm some of the others and pull her own head out of the clouds in the process. She and Hinata determine that the game — which she'd played through earlier herself — had something to do with the murder, and Chiaki brings him back to the arcade machine. As to be expected of the SHSL Gamer, Chiaki shows Hinata the hidden ending, which contains the true motive for murder. The two of them work together tirelessly up until the trial to gather as much evidence as possible.

Once again, throughout the second trial, Chiaki steps up to help Hinata guide the flow of the conversation, providing evidence when need be, even going as far as to have prepared a few graphs in advance to help everyone else logic their way through it. She's quick to point out when one of their classmates is being framed for the crime, including how it happened, and they all come together to piece together what really happened. Though she took an active role in the investigation itself, Chiaki seems content to step back and let her classmates take the lead once they find their legs with it all.

"Why don't you take a closer look at intent instead of focusing on appearances?"

Slowly but surely, Chiaki comes to understand her classmates more and more, standing up for Hiyoko Saionji's "clumsy" (read: extremely creepy) memorial to Mahiru while the others are completely taken aback by it. In her own way, she's quick to encourage Hinata and the others to do what they can instead of standing around and worrying about their injured classmates.

When the next motive crops up — the "despair disease" — Chiaki suggests quarantining the people infected by it, having Mikan take care of them in the hospital that they'd found on the island. When the next set of murders occur, Hinata immediately comes running to her and the others to investigate. Once again, while most of the others are freaking out over the sight of their dead classmates, Chiaki keeps a level head and helps set the tone for the investigation, with the others following her lead much more quickly this time around.

So much so that when it's finally time for the trial, they all seem to be contributing equally, and Chiaki is more than happy to sit back and let Hinata take the lead, only occasionally speaking up if she thinks they're getting off track. When they get stumped at one point, Chiaki is the one who helps them figure out an explanation thanks to her understanding of her classmates. Though she's quiet, Chiaki has picked up on a lot about everyone throughout their time on the island. It's why she's particularly disappointed when the murderer this time around is revealed to be Mikan, as it seems to be completely against her nature. Though she wants to believe in Mikan, Chiaki is also determined to see the trial through and keep the rest of them alive, so she works together with Hinata to break Mikan down. Ultimately, Mikan is found guilty and executed.

Throughout their time on the island, Chiaki does have quieter moments where she bonds with her classmates. One scolds her for playing an arcade game against him and then promptly winning with a flawless victory. Mostly, though, she spends her time bonding with Hinata, imparting her philosophy on life in respect to games in the process. To Chiaki, games should be fun — she doesn't really care about winning or losing, even though she is operating at another level entirely when it comes to them. In the process, she reveals that there's a lot of things that she doesn't quite know that she really should at her age, like what "Girl's Day" is or much in general about romance. Animals are a mystery to her as well — she confesses to Hinata that she likes games in part because success or failure is determined by numerical values, whereas animals are entirely unpredictable, and that scares her just a bit. Despite this, Hinata manages to coax her to the ranch where she musters up the courage to pet a cow.

During the fourth case, the survivors of the 77th class end up trapped in a funhouse without food by Monokuma, who claims he won't let them out until someone dies. Chiaki attempts to keep everyone calm when things start to really get out of hand, but she's also just as tired and hungry as anyone else. For the most part, she seems to keep to herself, though she looks out for Hinata when he takes interest in a puzzle room known as the "Final Dead Room." She discovers the next body along with Hinata and another classmate of theirs, though it seems to finally take a toll on her.

"No matter how much I try to stop it, this is always the result . . ."

Despite the fact that even Chiaki is starting to despair at this point, they all once again work together to investigate the murder. During the trial however, Komaeda steps up and takes the lead and instead of being his usual bizarre, hope-worshipping self, is derisive towards the rest of the group. Chiaki ignores him for the most part like the rest of them, instead working to suss out the next culprit. She's the one who points out that the murderer really acted as he did because he wanted to get them out of their predicament in the funhouse — as did the victim.

Throughout it all, the 77th class becomes keenly aware that there is a traitor amongst them who hails from the Future Foundation, a mysterious organization. What they want and why they're hiding amidst the rest of them is a mystery entirely and only comes up from time to time. Chiaki, for the most part, tends to ignore discussion of the traitor, either falling asleep where she stands or moving on. Komaeda, however, becomes obsessed with the concept of the traitor, to the point where he's hellbent on rooting them out one way or another as he antagonizes the survivors, constantly taunting and baiting them as he sees fit.

So it's no real surprise to anyone that Komaeda is the next person who ends up dead.

The investigation is a difficult one because the death is so brutal. Komaeda had claimed to have known who the killer was and made a play at setting off bombs around the island. The bombs were a bluff though and when the smoke cleared, after the remaining students went to put it out, Komaeda's body was found amidst the rubble, impaled by a spear. As the investigation and trial play out, Chiaki and Hinata both feel uneasy about the case, like there's more to it than meets the eye. What at first seemed like a brutal murder began to look more like a suicide but as they turn over the evidence more and more, the group comes to realize that it was really all a part of Komaeda's plot to weed out the traitor — and help them, even.

And so, Chiaki slowly, gently leads Hinata and the rest of them towards the conclusion that yes, she is the Future Foundation's mole and the traitor they've been looking for. And it's okay to out her as the traitor and it's okay for them to vote for her as the murderer, since Komaeda set up a whole massive plan to get the traitor to unknowingly kill him. It's okay because she believes in them, she's seen them grow so much over the last few trials and they never would have come together like that before. Even as Monokuma is dragging Chiaki and Monomi off to be executed, she goes hand-in-hand with Monomi and leaves with a smile. It's not that Chiaki wants to die — not by a long shot — but she is okay with it as a necessary step for Hinata and the others to live on and create a new future.

Because things are a bit more complicated than they seem.

"As long as everyone continues to move forward toward the future we created together . . . I will never disappear."

Because here's the thing that Hinata and the others soon learn — everything that had happened on the island really happened in a virtual world, and Chiaki was actually just a virtual observer, created to help guide the rest of her classmates through the program and hopefully rehabilitate them in the real world. Because what actually happened to the 77th class was they started school, remained at Hope's Peak, grew and bonded and were then horribly broken by Junko Enoshima when she slaughtered the real Chiaki Nanami right before their eyes, turning the rest of them into the Ultimate Despair and sending them off to wreck havoc across the country. After being subdued by the Future Foundation, the Ultimate Despair were put into the "Neo World Program" for rehabilitation, to ultimately restore them to who they were and give them hope again.

What this means is, this particular Chiaki that we've been talking about is an AI. However, because she was created by the SHSL Programmer, Chihiro Fujisaki, she is an extremely savvy AI with a genuine personality of her own. Furthermore, she states that she was created in part by the strong memories that the rest of the class had for their deceased classmate, the real Chiaki Nanami. This Chiaki was formed from all of those and came into her own and though she was an AI in a synthetic world, she came to have her own thoughts and feelings for all of her classmates.

As a side note — though she shares the same name and appearance as the "real" Chiaki Nanami, there are subtle differences that set the two apart immensely (thank youuuuu dr3 anime!). The real Chiaki seems more in touch with reality (for obvious reasons) while AI Chiaki often frames things like a video game. While the real Chiaki was the class representative and highly knowledgeable about a number of things, as a young AI, this Chiaki doesn't know nearly as much about the world around her. She knows a lot about technology, of course, but things like where milk comes from or what romance is really like are still beyond her.

Her canon point will be from before the fifth trial and her subsequent execution/erasure. Chiaki is well aware of what she is, but never brings it up (as it could shatter the whole illusion of the program).

Abilities/Special Powers: As the Super High School Level Gamer, Chiaki is extremely good at any and all video games (except for dating sims).

Third-Person Sample:

If she were anyone else, Chiaki might be concerned with how easily she had accepted being whisked off to another location entirely. But then again, when she thinks about it, it makes sense, doesn't it? First, she'd gone from being in a classroom to the scenic shores of Jabberwock Island. Now, the sand beneath her feet had somehow, at some point, instead become more solid dirt and the bridges between islands were replaced by a different scenic view, with a large mansion looming ahead. She tilts her head to one side curiously, considering it. This could be concerning and really should be to anyone with an ounce of sense. Instead, Chiaki nods to herself after a moment, moving to step inside. "Yup. This is fine."

It could be worse for a number of reasons, and she should probably be worried that she was walking into a rather stylish mansion instead of the familiar court room. But if she hadn't been expecting this — and this definitely wasn't a part of Jabberwock Island, as a helpful pamphlet confirmed — then odds were that neither was Monokuma. Anything that threw a wrench in his plans couldn't be all that bad, right?

Yup. This really is fine.

Chiaki lifts a finger to her cheek, tapping at it idly as she puffs them out and scans the area. "Let's see . . ." she murmurs to herself. Any good RPG protagonist would immediately check all the drawers for anything useful that they could add to their pack, right? She takes a step forward and experimentally tugs at a few knobs, only to find that they were just for decoration and nothing more. "Guess they don't wanna bog the frame rate down, huh . . ."

Eventually, her eyes settle on a staircase. The first order of business for most people would be something practical — like finding where they'd get their meals from or tracking down a place to rest. If they were even more tenacious, they might even attempt to locate someone else and grill them further about their surroundings.

"I wonder if maybe they have a game room around here . . ."

Chiaki Nanami is not "most people." The hint of a smile passes over her face as she lowers her hand, adjusting her backpack briefly before pressing on towards the stairs. Game room first. Practical stuff . . . eventually.


First-Person Sample:

[ When the video starts up, the image is very unfocused at first — mostly because it seems like the person in question is constantly adjusting it as she stares down into it blankly. After a moment or two, she settles, putting it down on a flat surface, and slowly begins to smile just a bit as the image comes into focus. ]

That looks about right . . . I think.

[ She tilts her head to the side, tapping at her cheek briefly with one finger before continuing to speak. ]

Anyway, hi. I'm Chiaki Nanami, the Super High School Level Gamer. I thought I was on an island for a school trip, but . . .

[ At that, her voice drifts off as she looks pensive. Idly, she picks up something nearby — a pamphlet — and flips through it briefly before looking back up at the camera, giving a firm nod. ]

I guess not, huh. So, it's Wonderland, right? That's kind of strange, I guess. But . . . mm, maybe not much more strange than an island or any other place.

[ There's another pause as her eyes drift off to the side. She looks like she's maybe just about to fall asleep when she yawns, addressing the feed again. ]

Hey, if this is Wonderland, then maybe it'd be okay for us to go down the rabbit hole a bit, right? So . . . [ a beat, and then she gives the camera an inquisitive look. ] Hmm, what's everyone's favorite type of game genre?