[ooc] balance app

[diffidentive]

	Shuichi Saihara: The knowledge it took to solve that case... became the foundation for my detective work. And...I was so happy to be of use to someone. I can still hear her "thank you" to this day.
	APP HMD CHEMIST KATAR

Player Name: Katar
Age: 29
Contact: robokatar
Timezone: US Central
Other character currently in game: none, I am fresh meat

Character name: Shuichi Saihara
Age: 17
Canon: Danganronpa V3
Canon point: Chapter 5, the day after finding out the "secret of the outside world"
History: Wiki link

Three key adjectives: passive, intelligent, observant

Influential Events: SPOILER WARNING
▹Welcome to the Academy for Gifted Juveniles

It goes without saying that the killing game itself is the most influential event as far as Shuichi's development goes. It is, after all, the entire point of the game and the vehicle for the plot. However, the killing game of V3 is unique among the Danganronpa games in a way that makes it especially significant for those who participated. At the end of V3, it's revealed that the entire killing game was a work of fiction...including its participants. They were all just normal people who had their memories erased and were given completely new memories, personalities, and SHSL talents in order to participate in the pop culture phenomenon run by Team Danganronpa. Shuichi was designed to be "the weakest SHSL Detective ever", leaving plenty of room for character development over the course of the game. Which is precisely what happens to him, though perhaps not entirely in the way that Team Danganronpa had planned out, as the 53rd killing game ended up going off-script from the get-go. Because of his canon point, Shuichi has no idea about any of this, but it's still an important part of why he developed the way he did.

▹The SHSL Detective's Fabricated Backstory

Like all Super High School Level Students, Shuichi's title was given to him by the government. Though, unlike most Super High School Level students, Shuichi feels that his title is undeserved. He works as an apprentice in his uncle's detective agency as a way of thanking the man for looking after him while his parents, a famous actor and screenwriter, are working overseas. Though he seems to enjoy detective work itself well enough (and has quite the knack for it), Shuichi's not exactly crazy about becoming one professionally. Mostly because he finds the idea of making a living by uncovering other people's secrets to be distasteful. Though it's worth noting that he DOES enjoy the research that goes into solving cases, as well as being of use to people by helping them find things they may be missing. He prefers solving cases of missing persons and pets, rather than murder or investigating infidelity. But by solving a difficult murder case before the police, his mind is sort of made up for him by the government, who felt that the feat was deserving of a SHSL title. But that case did more than force him further down the detective's path, it also did a number on his already low self-confidence. Since the culprit murdered out of revenge, many people believe his actions were justified and think rather poorly of Shuichi as a result. He's been told on multiple occasions that he was wrong to have solved the case. The culprit himself gave Shuichi such a look of loathing as he was taken away that the young detective was left with a fear of both eye contact and uncovering the truth. And as Shuichi himself says: "What kind of stupid detective is afraid of finding the truth?" All-in-all, being given a SHSL title had a negative impact on Shuichi, rather than the positive one you see in most cases.

▹Trusting Kaede Akamatsu

Choosing to trust someone is one of the most dangerous things you can do during a killing game, but that's exactly what Shuichi does with Kaede Akamatsu. A charismatic and confident girl, it's little wonder that Shuichi is drawn to her from the start. She embodies many of the qualities which he lacks and admires, namely confidence and determination. Plus, she's incredibly kind to him (and everyone else), complimenting him on numerous occasions and also working to boost his abysmal self-confidence. And so, he decides to confide in her, telling her about his suspicions of a mastermind and his plan to capture them. This backfires spectacularly, as Kaede uses his plan to try and kill the mastermind instead of capture them. She ends up killing an innocent student instead, which not only starts the killing game she was trying so hard to end but also earns her a cruel execution.

Naturally, Shuichi is devastated once he figures out what Kaede did. So devastated that he actually attempts to hide the truth once he figures it out in the middle of the trial. Even when he becomes the prime suspect, he refuses to speak to defend himself or to shift the blame onto Kaede. Despite all her pep talks beforehand, Shuichi still wants to run away from the truth and the pain that goes along with it. But Kaede won't let him run. Though she didn't intend to be, she cruelly forces Shuichi to face the truth and reveal what she did. She also forces her wish (for all of them to escape and stay friends afterwards) onto him and essentially makes him take her place as the protagonist. After she dies, Shuichi is left depressed and devastated but unable to sink into either of those emotions and give up, as he would like to do. Because Kaede's actions and words left him feeling as though giving up would be breaking his promise to her. so he resolves to change, to never run away from the truth, and to never give up. And while these are all things that he needs to learn...he's denied the time he needs to properly develop into them. He's forced into action that he's really just not ready for. But, alas, such is the way of the killing game, which steals time as well as life.

▹Training with Kaito Momota

Though Shuichi resolves to change after Kaede's death, he really only manages to do so because he is, once again, helped by another student. Had Kaito not decided to intervene and help Shuichi because he was so weak, the latter would have almost certainly failed to keep his resolve to change. He managed to remove his hat on his own and make a valiant effort towards changing himself for the better, but the minute he was alone, he'd find himself plagued with intrusive thoughts in the form of doubts, regrets, and self-blame. Though he'd decided to embrace his talent, his fear of uncovering the truth lingered along with all his other doubts. Basically, left to his own devices, Shuichi's change would mostly have been talk, with nothing but forced attempts to change with minimal success. But Kaito's personality and bizarre, illogical way of looking at things was able to push Shuichi into action and success. He was able to help him fight back against his "enemy" which, in Shuichi's case, is his own doubts and fears. It's through his training with Kaito that he also came to be close to Maki, whom Kaito also forced to become his sidekick. And the two of them were both able to change for the better, together, because of this interference. And her friendship and support becomes indispensable to Shuichi (and vice versa), as Kaito does not survive the killing game, and never stood a chance of doing so since he had an unnamed deadly illness from the get-go. Shuichi and Maki, on the other hand, are two of only three survivors of the killing game.

▹The Killing Game Trials

Individually, none of the trials after the first one really had a big enough impact on Shuichi to be singled out as a key influential event. However, collectively they definitely made a difference. With each passing trial, Shuichi becomes more confident in his abilities as a detective and begins to doubt his deductions less. His talent itself also becomes better, simply because he's putting it to use. True, it's not the way he would have preferred to gain experience, but there's nothing he can really do about that.

It's during the trials that he also learns the lesson that ultimately allows him to end the killing game for good: "sometimes, it's okay to run away." Though this happens after his canon point, it's still worth mentioning as it's an integral part of his core character. Because he isn't a true Danganronpa protagonist (that would be Kaede, Shuichi really only ever took her place in name), he is able to give up at the end, rather than stubbornly refusing to do so in the name of Hope. That hopeful determination is what allowed the game to continue on for 53 seasons. Until Shuichi came along, no protagonist was ever willing to just give up and say they didn't want to fight anymore. That Hope can be just as bad as Despair and sometimes should also be rejected. Despite the fact that Shuichi was so heavily influenced by people like Kaede and Kaito who so both completely embodied the Danganronpa "never give up, keep hoping" protagonist attitude, when it comes to it, he's able to give up when it's wiser to do so. His weak personality is still there.

▹Learning the Secret of the Outside World

The "secret of the outside world" is that it's completely destroyed and the students of the Academy for Gifted Juveniles are the only humans left alive. Or, at least, that's what Team Danganronpa wants them to believe. In reality, this is a lie and the outside world is completely safe and peaceful. But when Shuichi and the others open the exit hatch in chapter 5, they're met with a scene of complete and utter devastation that sense them all into the depths of despair. For Shuichi, this is especially bad since he's a pretty depressed and pessimistic person by nature. The "truth" he learns thanks to Kokichi is enough to undo pretty much all the development he's gone through and puts him in a depressive state even worse than the one that followed Kaede's death. He spends an entire day just laying in his room in a haze of negativity and despair and wondering if it wouldn't just be better to kill himself. The mastermind is only able to pull him out of it by overwriting his memories with ones that are so full of (completely fictional) hope, he has no choice but to drag himself out of bed and take up arms against Kokichi with the other surviving students. But he'll be coming to balance before that memory overwrite, unsure of exactly why he bothered to take the Director's hand when it was offered to him.

Link to Samples: Link to Sample 1; Link to Sample 2

Chosen path: Chemist
5 Abilities: Concoct, Herbalism, Careful Hands, Inquire, and his Super High School Level Detective talent (gives a +1 to all investigation-related rolls)
Why this path?: An INT-based support class is kind of a no-brainer for Shuichi, given his personality. But I've chosen chemist specifically because of his Super High School Level talent. Shuichi never really wanted to be a detective, and his SHSL title was something that was kind of forced upon him. There are several aspects of the job that he doesn't really like, chief among them is the fact that he's "only useful after it's already too late." As a detective, Shuichi is unable to do anything to stop his friends from dying, he can only investigate their deaths and find the truths behind them. The opposite is true of chemists, who use their knowledge and concoctions to help and save those in need. Even if he's once again having a path forced upon him, Shuichi would be immeasurably happier as a chemist and would work hard to become a good one. Additionally, his lab in canon (a room specially made for him by Monokuma where he was supposed to develop his SHSL talent) was full of poisons and antidotes.

blurb code by photosynthesis