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DRT1.5.2: Me and the School and I (The Second Half), section 2
Find previous chapters at the Navigation Index.
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
2
"This is no myst'ry, and even if it were, we would be nearing the solution right about now, so there's no harm in revealing the culprit, is there? Hope's Peak Academy is the root of all evil. This is all despair invited by Hope's Peak." The President stood and picked up the Despair Novel, the town behind him looking like the charred interior of a grill.
The book didn't look very thick. I was gonna lose it laughing if it turned out that the pages were all blank.
"Byakuya Togami-shi, the M.R.S., and the Despair Novel all originate from Hope's Peak. Despair originates from hope. How's that? Quite the despair-inducing plot twist, isn't it?"
"So if only Hope's Peak had never existed, the world would still be shrouded in hope..." I couldn't give more than a thoughtless answer while watching over Aoba.
Aoba. As Aoba lay slumped in her car seat, her life was pouring out of her. The bleeding in her side couldn't be stopped, and a pool of blood had formed below the seat. By now, she no longer had even anguish in her expression, and the only thing that distinguished her from a corpse was the occasional sound of her breathing.
"If Hope's Peak had never existed, the world would be shrouded in hope? Don't make me laugh," the President laughed. Sitting in the jeep, the Vice President and Treasurer laughed in the same cadence, too.
Yeah, keep laughing. Laugh all you want. You may be laughing now, but this is gonna be you a few years down the road.
"What a way optimistic what-if," the Vice President said, turning towards me with a smirk. "If Hitler's mother never died of cancer, then he never would have become a politician, and so then WWII never would have happened, and so then Mutsuo Toi would have never become a mass murderer, and so then The Village of Eight Graves would have never been written... That's basically what you're saying."[1]
"All ri-hi-hiiiight! Then Village of Doom wouldn't have been written either!"[2]
"But aren't I right?" I stuck to my guns. "Without the introduction, there's no development or twist or conclusion either."[3]
"1940." The President named a year. "The Second Sino-Japanese War had become a quagmire, and Sapporo's Winter Olympics vanished as if they were a dream. However, it became decided that they would host thirty-two years later in 1972, through the people's hard work and passion."
"Where did this come from?"
"We do not know if it will be one year later or a hundred years later, but one day a major earthquake will hit, and one day a plane will crash, and one day an epidemic will sweep through the population, and one day war will begin. The Sun will die in 5 billion years, taking the Earth with it. The bodhisattva Maitreya should arrive in 5.67 billion years, but if the Earth is gone by then, I'm not sure what he plans to do."[4]
"...Seriously, where are you going with this?"
"That which is meant to happen will always inevitably happen."
"Here's the deal," the Vice President followed up. "He means that even if the thing we call Hope's Peak never existed from the start, a catastrophe like this one would definitely still happen someday."
Aha. Then, if Hope's Peak didn't exist, how would my life have turned out? Maybe somewhere out there, there existed Me #1, the diehard corporate cog working in the big city; or Me #2, the farmer out in the boonies; or Me #3, the novelist working his ass off to make it.
I couldn't really imagine it. Even if Hope's Peak had never destroyed my hopes, I felt like I would still be in this same situation. I'd still be hopeless, my dreams would still never come true, and I'd do things like read books, and not read books, and go out into the world, and not go out into the world, and live, and not live.
I was me. I wasn't Me #1 or Me #2 or Me #3. What made me me wasn't a hypothetical. It wasn't a process. It wasn't a talent. It wasn't a job. It wasn't a life.
I was me because I was there in that moment. There was meaning behind me being me.
"Let me present you with a story just for you." The President lifted the Despair Novel in his hands, almost as if he were sympathizing with my feelings. "The plot is simple. Your wounded heart that has tormented you all this time. Your desire for approval that has complicated your life all this time. By reading this Despair Novel, you will resolve those issues—and that's the story."
Translator's Notes
[1] from Hitler to The Village of Eight Graves - Hitler interrupted his art career to tend to his dying mother. It goes without saying he was a major player in WWII. Mutsuo Toi, perpetrator of the Tsuyama massacre, was motivated in part by being denied service in WWII due to his tuberculosis. The Village of Eight Graves was a mystery novel written by Seishi Yokomizo, starring the famous detective character Kousuke Kindaichi, based partially on the Tsuyama massacre.
[2] Village of Doom - a more direct, nonfiction novel adaptation of the Tsuyama massacre, written by Bou Nishimura. (That's the localized title of the movie adaptation. The original Japanese is a difficult-to-translate cultural reference to the equivalent of the witching hour.)
[3] introduction, development, twist, conclusion - this sequence is called kishoutenketsu, the traditional East Asian template for narrative structure. The narrator is showing his literary roots.
[4] Maitreya - in Buddhist tradition, Maitreya arrives to end our current age and usher in a new one.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!
Danganronpa Togami Volume 1: Multiple Counts of Attempted World Domination
Chapter 5: Me and the School and I (The Second Half)
2
"This is no myst'ry, and even if it were, we would be nearing the solution right about now, so there's no harm in revealing the culprit, is there? Hope's Peak Academy is the root of all evil. This is all despair invited by Hope's Peak." The President stood and picked up the Despair Novel, the town behind him looking like the charred interior of a grill.
The book didn't look very thick. I was gonna lose it laughing if it turned out that the pages were all blank.
"Byakuya Togami-shi, the M.R.S., and the Despair Novel all originate from Hope's Peak. Despair originates from hope. How's that? Quite the despair-inducing plot twist, isn't it?"
"So if only Hope's Peak had never existed, the world would still be shrouded in hope..." I couldn't give more than a thoughtless answer while watching over Aoba.
Aoba. As Aoba lay slumped in her car seat, her life was pouring out of her. The bleeding in her side couldn't be stopped, and a pool of blood had formed below the seat. By now, she no longer had even anguish in her expression, and the only thing that distinguished her from a corpse was the occasional sound of her breathing.
"If Hope's Peak had never existed, the world would be shrouded in hope? Don't make me laugh," the President laughed. Sitting in the jeep, the Vice President and Treasurer laughed in the same cadence, too.
Yeah, keep laughing. Laugh all you want. You may be laughing now, but this is gonna be you a few years down the road.
"What a way optimistic what-if," the Vice President said, turning towards me with a smirk. "If Hitler's mother never died of cancer, then he never would have become a politician, and so then WWII never would have happened, and so then Mutsuo Toi would have never become a mass murderer, and so then The Village of Eight Graves would have never been written... That's basically what you're saying."[1]
"All ri-hi-hiiiight! Then Village of Doom wouldn't have been written either!"[2]
"But aren't I right?" I stuck to my guns. "Without the introduction, there's no development or twist or conclusion either."[3]
"1940." The President named a year. "The Second Sino-Japanese War had become a quagmire, and Sapporo's Winter Olympics vanished as if they were a dream. However, it became decided that they would host thirty-two years later in 1972, through the people's hard work and passion."
"Where did this come from?"
"We do not know if it will be one year later or a hundred years later, but one day a major earthquake will hit, and one day a plane will crash, and one day an epidemic will sweep through the population, and one day war will begin. The Sun will die in 5 billion years, taking the Earth with it. The bodhisattva Maitreya should arrive in 5.67 billion years, but if the Earth is gone by then, I'm not sure what he plans to do."[4]
"...Seriously, where are you going with this?"
"That which is meant to happen will always inevitably happen."
"Here's the deal," the Vice President followed up. "He means that even if the thing we call Hope's Peak never existed from the start, a catastrophe like this one would definitely still happen someday."
Aha. Then, if Hope's Peak didn't exist, how would my life have turned out? Maybe somewhere out there, there existed Me #1, the diehard corporate cog working in the big city; or Me #2, the farmer out in the boonies; or Me #3, the novelist working his ass off to make it.
I couldn't really imagine it. Even if Hope's Peak had never destroyed my hopes, I felt like I would still be in this same situation. I'd still be hopeless, my dreams would still never come true, and I'd do things like read books, and not read books, and go out into the world, and not go out into the world, and live, and not live.
I was me. I wasn't Me #1 or Me #2 or Me #3. What made me me wasn't a hypothetical. It wasn't a process. It wasn't a talent. It wasn't a job. It wasn't a life.
I was me because I was there in that moment. There was meaning behind me being me.
"Let me present you with a story just for you." The President lifted the Despair Novel in his hands, almost as if he were sympathizing with my feelings. "The plot is simple. Your wounded heart that has tormented you all this time. Your desire for approval that has complicated your life all this time. By reading this Despair Novel, you will resolve those issues—and that's the story."
Translator's Notes
[1] from Hitler to The Village of Eight Graves - Hitler interrupted his art career to tend to his dying mother. It goes without saying he was a major player in WWII. Mutsuo Toi, perpetrator of the Tsuyama massacre, was motivated in part by being denied service in WWII due to his tuberculosis. The Village of Eight Graves was a mystery novel written by Seishi Yokomizo, starring the famous detective character Kousuke Kindaichi, based partially on the Tsuyama massacre.
[2] Village of Doom - a more direct, nonfiction novel adaptation of the Tsuyama massacre, written by Bou Nishimura. (That's the localized title of the movie adaptation. The original Japanese is a difficult-to-translate cultural reference to the equivalent of the witching hour.)
[3] introduction, development, twist, conclusion - this sequence is called kishoutenketsu, the traditional East Asian template for narrative structure. The narrator is showing his literary roots.
[4] Maitreya - in Buddhist tradition, Maitreya arrives to end our current age and usher in a new one.
Stay tuned for the next update next Sunday (PST)!
Feel free to comment, keeping these rules in mind!