So Kuzuryuu got off on the wrong foot with basically everybody, but Austria was one of the two people that he managed that with worst. Which was bound to happen, honestly, because Kazoo is an incredibly rude little shit almost always. So he was bound to butt heads with a proper lady like Austria because he cannot STAND being talked down to. But why acknowledge the fact that there is a cultural misunderstanding at work when you can just threaten to kill somebody with a pen instead? Clearly that's the better option. So he basically immediately wrote her off as someone he wanted absolutely nothing to do with. And she seemed to do the same, so that was a-okay as far as he was concerned. And so it probably would have remained for the rest of the game...IF NOT FOR PEKO. Because apparently people can only see Kuzuryuu for the not-so-bad-after-all guy he is if Peko dies trying to save him first. It is their curse.
Kuzuryuu was pretty much 100% positive that Peko had killed Freud, which was why he objected so strongly to Austria's thing about suspects. Had it been literally anybody else, he still would have objected, but he wouldn't have been nearly as in her face about it as he was. Because he knew her background and the fact that she was pushing so hard for everyone to let her "help" just convinced him all the more that she was guilty. As far as he saw it, she had either realized there was evidence somewhere that she'd overlooked or she was trying to run a diversion so they'd run out of time. And given what his own team had managed the week before, he knew that that sort of tactic absolutely works. And he really did not want Peko to get away with this because he was so wrapped up in the idea of the DKs "winning". And if they were going to win, that meant that everybody else had to lose. At least, that's what it meant in his hyper-competitive mind, NEVER MIND THAT THERE'S NOTHING THAT SAYS THEY ALL LOSE IF ANYBODY ELSE GETS AWAY WITH MURDER? Just at that point Kuzuryuu had deluded himself into thinking that the DKs (especially himself) were everything that the Producers expect that group to be. Or what they expect them to be under more normal circumstances, anyway. He hadn't quite caught onto the fact that their group wasn't picked to be a ruthless group of killers yet. But anyway, Austria trying to champion for Peko just gave him another reason to dislike her because you dense bitch, how can you not see that she did it?
But then Peko was executed and everything was terrible. But it helped Kuzuryuu get over himself as far as Austria goes. Because here they were: having a civil conversation, even after he'd repeatedly treated her terribly and she'd talked down to him. It's possible after all! And the fact that she gave a shit about Peko meant a lot to him because her whole trial left Kuzuryuu with a LOT more guilt than he was expecting. Like enough for him to start questioning just what he was doing as a DK and if he was really cut out for it after all. But he was glad to see that people actually cared about her even though she would up being a murderer. Because even though he couldn't actually remember her, he knew enough about her position to know that that was probably something she didn't have back home. Had she died back home nobody (save for hopefully himself) would have mourned her. She wouldn't have even had a marker for people to bring flowers TO, in all likelihood. So yeah, big points for Austria there, which lead to Kuzuryuu putting forth an effort to try and patch things up. In...his own way of never admitting that he fucked up and just changing his behavior a little bit. He didn't really go out of his way to watch his tongue around Austria as much as he did Maribelle but that was because Austria didn't get on his case as much as she did. He did curb it a little bit though and he tried to be less rude.
BAKURA'S TRIAL THOUGH. GOD JUST...okay so Kuzuryuu was pissed at Bakura for a lot of reasons when the truth finally came out but the thing he was most pissed off about was the fact that he bought into the framing trick. Or well, the unintended part of it because he obviously knew that Feferi wasn't responsible for this. Because not only would she have told them beforehand, SHE WOULDN'T HAVE KILLED ANOTHER DK?? So he knew it had to be Spain or Bakura, and he thought that Spain had more to benefit off of by framing Feferi and couldn't understand at all why Bakura would have done that because he didn't know about the secret groups. SO HE WAS COMPLETELY CONVINCED IT WAS SPAIN AND HE ABSOLUTELY WOULD HAVE VOTED TO HANG HIM HAD AUSTRIA NOT DONE THE THING. And her interrogation really just had him kind of in awe? Like he honestly kind of doki'd over it in a completely non-romantic way because he's a goddamn weirdo who likes to see people assert themselves over others and really stick it to 'em. So that really got him to see her in a different light. Not only did he see her as a caring individual now, but he also saw her as insanely competent. And those are both traits that he really values/respects/admires in a person, though he's more obvious about admiring the former than he is the latter.
Then she found out about his secret sweet tooth and she...DIDN'T? LAUGH AT HIM? FOR IT??? Which he did not expect at all, because obviously there's a REASON he kept that hidden from people. Because it's not something that a tough guy should like and he tries SO HARD to project an image of manly toughness. So he was confused why she seemed to feel like that was something she had to hide too because...she's a woman? It's okay for girls to like sweet things? He couldn't wrap his head around why people would judge her for something like that. But the fact that she not only didn't laugh at him but also indulged him and didn't tell anybody else about it just continued that upward trend in his opinion of her.
Then everything changed when the demon butler attacked. Okay well no, it wasn't quite that dramatic of a change BUT KUZURYUU SURE WORRIED THAT IT WOULD BE. He was convinced that everyone would immediately change their opinion of him back to something even WORSE than it was when this whole mess started. Because there was no way they wouldn't believe that a guy like him was just trying to play them and hadn't actually meant anything that he'd said. Which...in the beginning, he kind of HAD been trying to play them. Nanami had told him that he needed to start acting nicer or else he was going to wind up dead in some way or another. There was no way the DKs could protect him from being Ian 2.0 if he wasn't careful. So, initially he had been doing it more out of self-preservation than anything genuine. But that very quickly changed because Kuzuryuu really is a caring person way deep down and he did genuinely come to like a lot of the people in the castle, Austria included. So it became harder and harder for him to keep himself emotionally distant from them. So even though he'd abandoned that for more genuine friendships very early on, he was sure that the report was going to make it LOOK like it had all been a lie. And considering just how rocky of a start he'd had with Austria, she was one that he was incredibly worried about having turn on him. He could all to easily see it happening. But...then the opposite happened. Not only did she NOT turn on him, but she turned out to be the one with the strongest desire to help them.
When she invited him over for secret cake party times, he was fully expecting the conversation to eventually turn to his DK involvement. Maybe she mistakenly thought he would be able to say more in private, or be able to confide his secret in ONE person as opposed to admitting it in front of the whole group. Obviously, he could do neither of these things but he still went anyway because free cake who the hell is going to turn that down? Oh yeah and also he liked Austria too, there was that. So he was suspicious when he showed up and was pretty much just waiting for that inevitable shift. But when it finally DID come, it wasn't quite what he expected. And he probably should have been a little more concerned about her wishing she could help him with "what you struggle with." Which, he absolutely knew she meant his DK involvement there and not the trivia. But really didn't worry about it as much as he SHOULD HAVE. But hey, hindsight is 20/20 and the minute Austria showed up on the suspect list, he knew what she'd done.
That trial ended up being the absolute worst that Kuzuryuu had dealt with. Or ever would deal with, frankly, even his own trial wasn't nearly as hard on him as Austria's. Because this was nothing like when he KNEW it was Peko, because he didn't care about Peko. This time he KNEW who did it and not only did he like the person and not want to lose them, but they also did it ENTIRELY FOR HIS SAKE. Or so he believed, because he really couldn't see any other reason for Austria to have killed her lover ESPECIALLY GIVEN HER INCENTIVE. So no, it had to be that she wanted to protect the DKs but needed tools and obviously wasn't going to kill a child like Maribelle when she could kill Spain. So he spent basically the entire trial just being slowly consumed by despair because he had no idea what to do. He didn't want Austria to die, especially not for his sake, so he thought his best course of action was to just...not help with this trial and leave it to everyone else. And sit there and come up with ridiculous double-poisoning theories. IDK IF YOU SAW HIS THREAD WITH NANAMI BUT THAT WAS LITERALLY HIS THEORY ON HOW SHE DID IT. He thought she poisoned herself with the slow-acting poison and transferred it to Spain by kissing him because THAT IS COMPLETELY NORMAL AND TOTALLY WHAT PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY WANT TO POISON SOMEBODY. If this had come out publicly, maybe people would have been quicker to believe that he was a-okay with blowing himself up because CLEARLY SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT WITH THIS KID but anyway, Nanami eventually managed to talk him out of it and get him to snap out of it and start helping but...then he ended up being right about the culprit and their motive anyway.
I'm not kidding when I say that Austria blowing herself up was literally the thing that kept him from just having a full on despair-break and going off the deep end. If she had just marched to her execution after that, it would have broken him because her death would have accomplished nothing. She would have died for him and the rest of the DKs for absolutely no reason because they were STILL going to have to go and it was still IMPOSSIBLE for them to get away with it thanks to the report. But no. She had an ace up her sleeve and bought them more answers and went out on her own terms. Which was like Bakura Interrogation ramped up to 11 as far as admiration levels go. THE WHOLE SWEARING LOYALTY TO THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE THING WAS ALSO BASICALLY NOT MUCH OF A JOKE, OKAY, HE WAS INCREDIBLY ENRAPTURED WITH AUSTRIA AFTER ALL THAT. She just embodied so many of his ideals in her final moments that she almost became some kind of entity as opposed to a person. I'M REALLY NOT SURE HOW TO PUT HIS FEELINGS ABOUT HER BLOWING HERSELF UP IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T SOUND COMPLETELY NUTS. It was almost like...reverent in a way? He eventually did dial it back a notch after she actually died but immediately leading up to and following her death he was just... I don't even know. But I do know that he was all too happy to take her torch and run with it after that.
By...y'know...mass DK suicide. Haha... THIS IS WHAT YOUR SACRIFICE BOUGHT, AUSTRIA. ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TRIED TO PROTECT DYING TO PROTECT EVERYBODY ELSE... Look, he knew you wanted them all to live but, from the beginning, they were never meant to survive. SORRY. But also, NOT SORRY because he knew this was what needed to be done if they truly wanted to break the game. Which (obviously) mattered to him more than his own life did. Thankfully, she wasn't actually THAT mad at him, he's no sure what he would have done if Austria had disapproved of his actions. Like...he really didn't care what anybody else thought because both he and the DKs thought it was the right thing to do, and that's all that mattered to him. But Austria was different because of that elevated, weirdly reverent status he kind of still held her to. I'm really kind of fumbling all over the place trying to explain this and I'm sorry but it's hard to put his feelings into actual words in this case. Because Austria is important to him in a way that he doesn't really even express well IC'ly? Like he still more or less treats her the same but mentally it's a completely different story and it JUST SOUNDS REALLY WEIRD AND VAGUELY CREEPY WHENEVER I TRY AND DESCRIBE IT. I'M SORRY, KAZOO IS JUST REALLY GODDAMN WEIRD. But basically, having her approval (or at least not having her be wholly disappointed) meant a LOT to him. Because he felt like she'd passed on her will to him in her final moments (even if that's not actually what she was doing, that's certainly how he took it) and if he'd disappointed her after that, it would have been The Worst Thing.
As far as now goes, things I guess go back to "normal" until they all manage to go back home. Austria is still kind of on this pedestal of respect, but I can't really say for sure if it's something that people will be able to pick up on or not. Because Kuzuryuu is actually capable of being subtle about some things. But nobody is allowed to talk shit about Austria or hurt her if he has anything to say about it. I ACTUALLY HAD TO JUST...SAY HE HAPPENED TO BE OUT OF THE ROOM AND MISS THAT WHOLE THING WITH STILES BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO JUST RUDELY KIND OF THROW MYSELF IN THERE. Because Kuzuryuu would have been livid and probably would have just straight up shanked Stiles for the stuff he was saying to her and I really didn't want to have to make anybody deal with that. BUT FROM HERE ON, IF SOMEBODY SAYS SHIT LIKE THAT WHERE HE CAN HEAR IT...IT WON'T BE PRETTY. Congrats, Austria, you've managed to get yourself a tiny yakuza attack dog. ANYWAY BACK TO MY ORIGINAL TRAIN OF THOUGHT, he honestly won't really treat Austria herself any differently despite the fact that he thinks this of her? And...weirdly enough he won't be AS upset about never being able to see her again once they all leave and go back home. Like, he won't be happy about it? Just more okay with it, which I think has something to do with the fact that she's a country. He still doesn't understand that whole thing really, but he does understand that they're Different From Humans on some importantly fundamental level. She's had an impact on him that he'll never forget, even after they part ways, but he won't really be sad to say goodbye. ONCE AGAIN: I'M NOT SURE HOW TO EXPLAIN THIS EMOTION HE'S FEELING WITH ACTUAL WORDS, GOMEN.
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Kuzuryuu was pretty much 100% positive that Peko had killed Freud, which was why he objected so strongly to Austria's thing about suspects. Had it been literally anybody else, he still would have objected, but he wouldn't have been nearly as in her face about it as he was. Because he knew her background and the fact that she was pushing so hard for everyone to let her "help" just convinced him all the more that she was guilty. As far as he saw it, she had either realized there was evidence somewhere that she'd overlooked or she was trying to run a diversion so they'd run out of time. And given what his own team had managed the week before, he knew that that sort of tactic absolutely works. And he really did not want Peko to get away with this because he was so wrapped up in the idea of the DKs "winning". And if they were going to win, that meant that everybody else had to lose. At least, that's what it meant in his hyper-competitive mind, NEVER MIND THAT THERE'S NOTHING THAT SAYS THEY ALL LOSE IF ANYBODY ELSE GETS AWAY WITH MURDER? Just at that point Kuzuryuu had deluded himself into thinking that the DKs (especially himself) were everything that the Producers expect that group to be. Or what they expect them to be under more normal circumstances, anyway. He hadn't quite caught onto the fact that their group wasn't picked to be a ruthless group of killers yet. But anyway, Austria trying to champion for Peko just gave him another reason to dislike her because you dense bitch, how can you not see that she did it?
But then Peko was executed and everything was terrible. But it helped Kuzuryuu get over himself as far as Austria goes. Because here they were: having a civil conversation, even after he'd repeatedly treated her terribly and she'd talked down to him. It's possible after all! And the fact that she gave a shit about Peko meant a lot to him because her whole trial left Kuzuryuu with a LOT more guilt than he was expecting. Like enough for him to start questioning just what he was doing as a DK and if he was really cut out for it after all. But he was glad to see that people actually cared about her even though she would up being a murderer. Because even though he couldn't actually remember her, he knew enough about her position to know that that was probably something she didn't have back home. Had she died back home nobody (save for hopefully himself) would have mourned her. She wouldn't have even had a marker for people to bring flowers TO, in all likelihood. So yeah, big points for Austria there, which lead to Kuzuryuu putting forth an effort to try and patch things up. In...his own way of never admitting that he fucked up and just changing his behavior a little bit. He didn't really go out of his way to watch his tongue around Austria as much as he did Maribelle but that was because Austria didn't get on his case as much as she did. He did curb it a little bit though and he tried to be less rude.
BAKURA'S TRIAL THOUGH. GOD JUST...okay so Kuzuryuu was pissed at Bakura for a lot of reasons when the truth finally came out but the thing he was most pissed off about was the fact that he bought into the framing trick. Or well, the unintended part of it because he obviously knew that Feferi wasn't responsible for this. Because not only would she have told them beforehand, SHE WOULDN'T HAVE KILLED ANOTHER DK?? So he knew it had to be Spain or Bakura, and he thought that Spain had more to benefit off of by framing Feferi and couldn't understand at all why Bakura would have done that because he didn't know about the secret groups. SO HE WAS COMPLETELY CONVINCED IT WAS SPAIN AND HE ABSOLUTELY WOULD HAVE VOTED TO HANG HIM HAD AUSTRIA NOT DONE THE THING. And her interrogation really just had him kind of in awe? Like he honestly kind of doki'd over it in a completely non-romantic way because he's a goddamn weirdo who likes to see people assert themselves over others and really stick it to 'em. So that really got him to see her in a different light. Not only did he see her as a caring individual now, but he also saw her as insanely competent. And those are both traits that he really values/respects/admires in a person, though he's more obvious about admiring the former than he is the latter.
Then she found out about his secret sweet tooth and she...DIDN'T? LAUGH AT HIM? FOR IT??? Which he did not expect at all, because obviously there's a REASON he kept that hidden from people. Because it's not something that a tough guy should like and he tries SO HARD to project an image of manly toughness. So he was confused why she seemed to feel like that was something she had to hide too because...she's a woman? It's okay for girls to like sweet things? He couldn't wrap his head around why people would judge her for something like that. But the fact that she not only didn't laugh at him but also indulged him and didn't tell anybody else about it just continued that upward trend in his opinion of her.
Then everything changed when the demon butler attacked. Okay well no, it wasn't quite that dramatic of a change BUT KUZURYUU SURE WORRIED THAT IT WOULD BE. He was convinced that everyone would immediately change their opinion of him back to something even WORSE than it was when this whole mess started. Because there was no way they wouldn't believe that a guy like him was just trying to play them and hadn't actually meant anything that he'd said. Which...in the beginning, he kind of HAD been trying to play them. Nanami had told him that he needed to start acting nicer or else he was going to wind up dead in some way or another. There was no way the DKs could protect him from being Ian 2.0 if he wasn't careful. So, initially he had been doing it more out of self-preservation than anything genuine. But that very quickly changed because Kuzuryuu really is a caring person way deep down and he did genuinely come to like a lot of the people in the castle, Austria included. So it became harder and harder for him to keep himself emotionally distant from them. So even though he'd abandoned that for more genuine friendships very early on, he was sure that the report was going to make it LOOK like it had all been a lie. And considering just how rocky of a start he'd had with Austria, she was one that he was incredibly worried about having turn on him. He could all to easily see it happening. But...then the opposite happened. Not only did she NOT turn on him, but she turned out to be the one with the strongest desire to help them.
When she invited him over for secret cake party times, he was fully expecting the conversation to eventually turn to his DK involvement. Maybe she mistakenly thought he would be able to say more in private, or be able to confide his secret in ONE person as opposed to admitting it in front of the whole group. Obviously, he could do neither of these things but he still went anyway because free cake who the hell is going to turn that down? Oh yeah and also he liked Austria too, there was that. So he was suspicious when he showed up and was pretty much just waiting for that inevitable shift. But when it finally DID come, it wasn't quite what he expected. And he probably should have been a little more concerned about her wishing she could help him with "what you struggle with." Which, he absolutely knew she meant his DK involvement there and not the trivia. But really didn't worry about it as much as he SHOULD HAVE. But hey, hindsight is 20/20 and the minute Austria showed up on the suspect list, he knew what she'd done.
That trial ended up being the absolute worst that Kuzuryuu had dealt with. Or ever would deal with, frankly, even his own trial wasn't nearly as hard on him as Austria's. Because this was nothing like when he KNEW it was Peko, because he didn't care about Peko. This time he KNEW who did it and not only did he like the person and not want to lose them, but they also did it ENTIRELY FOR HIS SAKE. Or so he believed, because he really couldn't see any other reason for Austria to have killed her lover ESPECIALLY GIVEN HER INCENTIVE. So no, it had to be that she wanted to protect the DKs but needed tools and obviously wasn't going to kill a child like Maribelle when she could kill Spain. So he spent basically the entire trial just being slowly consumed by despair because he had no idea what to do. He didn't want Austria to die, especially not for his sake, so he thought his best course of action was to just...not help with this trial and leave it to everyone else. And sit there and come up with ridiculous double-poisoning theories. IDK IF YOU SAW HIS THREAD WITH NANAMI BUT THAT WAS LITERALLY HIS THEORY ON HOW SHE DID IT. He thought she poisoned herself with the slow-acting poison and transferred it to Spain by kissing him because THAT IS COMPLETELY NORMAL AND TOTALLY WHAT PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY WANT TO POISON SOMEBODY. If this had come out publicly, maybe people would have been quicker to believe that he was a-okay with blowing himself up because CLEARLY SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT WITH THIS KID but anyway, Nanami eventually managed to talk him out of it and get him to snap out of it and start helping but...then he ended up being right about the culprit and their motive anyway.
I'm not kidding when I say that Austria blowing herself up was literally the thing that kept him from just having a full on despair-break and going off the deep end. If she had just marched to her execution after that, it would have broken him because her death would have accomplished nothing. She would have died for him and the rest of the DKs for absolutely no reason because they were STILL going to have to go and it was still IMPOSSIBLE for them to get away with it thanks to the report. But no. She had an ace up her sleeve and bought them more answers and went out on her own terms. Which was like Bakura Interrogation ramped up to 11 as far as admiration levels go. THE WHOLE SWEARING LOYALTY TO THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE THING WAS ALSO BASICALLY NOT MUCH OF A JOKE, OKAY, HE WAS INCREDIBLY ENRAPTURED WITH AUSTRIA AFTER ALL THAT. She just embodied so many of his ideals in her final moments that she almost became some kind of entity as opposed to a person. I'M REALLY NOT SURE HOW TO PUT HIS FEELINGS ABOUT HER BLOWING HERSELF UP IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T SOUND COMPLETELY NUTS. It was almost like...reverent in a way? He eventually did dial it back a notch after she actually died but immediately leading up to and following her death he was just... I don't even know. But I do know that he was all too happy to take her torch and run with it after that.
By...y'know...mass DK suicide. Haha... THIS IS WHAT YOUR SACRIFICE BOUGHT, AUSTRIA. ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TRIED TO PROTECT DYING TO PROTECT EVERYBODY ELSE... Look, he knew you wanted them all to live but, from the beginning, they were never meant to survive. SORRY. But also, NOT SORRY because he knew this was what needed to be done if they truly wanted to break the game. Which (obviously) mattered to him more than his own life did. Thankfully, she wasn't actually THAT mad at him, he's no sure what he would have done if Austria had disapproved of his actions. Like...he really didn't care what anybody else thought because both he and the DKs thought it was the right thing to do, and that's all that mattered to him. But Austria was different because of that elevated, weirdly reverent status he kind of still held her to. I'm really kind of fumbling all over the place trying to explain this and I'm sorry but it's hard to put his feelings into actual words in this case. Because Austria is important to him in a way that he doesn't really even express well IC'ly? Like he still more or less treats her the same but mentally it's a completely different story and it JUST SOUNDS REALLY WEIRD AND VAGUELY CREEPY WHENEVER I TRY AND DESCRIBE IT. I'M SORRY, KAZOO IS JUST REALLY GODDAMN WEIRD. But basically, having her approval (or at least not having her be wholly disappointed) meant a LOT to him. Because he felt like she'd passed on her will to him in her final moments (even if that's not actually what she was doing, that's certainly how he took it) and if he'd disappointed her after that, it would have been The Worst Thing.
As far as now goes, things I guess go back to "normal" until they all manage to go back home. Austria is still kind of on this pedestal of respect, but I can't really say for sure if it's something that people will be able to pick up on or not. Because Kuzuryuu is actually capable of being subtle about some things. But nobody is allowed to talk shit about Austria or hurt her if he has anything to say about it. I ACTUALLY HAD TO JUST...SAY HE HAPPENED TO BE OUT OF THE ROOM AND MISS THAT WHOLE THING WITH STILES BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO JUST RUDELY KIND OF THROW MYSELF IN THERE. Because Kuzuryuu would have been livid and probably would have just straight up shanked Stiles for the stuff he was saying to her and I really didn't want to have to make anybody deal with that. BUT FROM HERE ON, IF SOMEBODY SAYS SHIT LIKE THAT WHERE HE CAN HEAR IT...IT WON'T BE PRETTY. Congrats, Austria, you've managed to get yourself a tiny yakuza attack dog. ANYWAY BACK TO MY ORIGINAL TRAIN OF THOUGHT, he honestly won't really treat Austria herself any differently despite the fact that he thinks this of her? And...weirdly enough he won't be AS upset about never being able to see her again once they all leave and go back home. Like, he won't be happy about it? Just more okay with it, which I think has something to do with the fact that she's a country. He still doesn't understand that whole thing really, but he does understand that they're Different From Humans on some importantly fundamental level. She's had an impact on him that he'll never forget, even after they part ways, but he won't really be sad to say goodbye. ONCE AGAIN: I'M NOT SURE HOW TO EXPLAIN THIS EMOTION HE'S FEELING WITH ACTUAL WORDS, GOMEN.