I BET YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT ABOUT THIS HUH? GUESS WHAT. I DIDN'T. But I am still sorry that this is so late because HOLY SHIT. Anyway, LET'S DO THIS. So this CR kind of caught me by surprise. I had a feeling that there was no way these two would get off on anything other than the right foot in the beginning, which was honestly a big part of the reason I tagged Maribelle in the first place. Which...feels weird to say BUT THERE YOU GO. I wanted to try throwing him at people who wouldn't just kind of meekly put up with his bad attitude bullshit; people who, unlike his castmates, might be less likely to instantly forgive him when he inevitably decided to start acting like a decent human being. And from what I could tell being canonblind, Maribelle seemed like she might be a good fit for that. So I said WHY THE HECK NOT and that was that. And it ended up being so much better than I could have possibly hoped because Kuzuryuu could not stand Maribelle in the beginning. Because the one thing he hates above all else is when people talk down to him or treat him as a child/inferior. Hence why it took him like...all of a minute to threaten to kill her. What a guy. So he just wrote her off as a dumb, snooty bitch and had no intention of dealing with her ever again.
After the first trial, Nanami more or less ordered Kuzuryuu to start behaving himself and play nice with the other kids because THERE WAS ONLY SO MUCH THE DKS COULD DO TO PROTECT HIM AND HIS DAMN MOUTH. So he kind of started trying to make amends with Maribelle. Sadly, it wasn't because he genuinely WANTED to make amends or get to know her better. He still had no intention of ACTUALLY befriending anybody, especially outside of the DK group, and his plan was basically to just fake it. Which...didn't end up panning out because Kuzuryuu just doesn't have that sort of thing in him. But he felt like...as long as he and Meribelle very obviously did not get along then he could never even consider her as a target because it would be too risky. So the plan was just to start being civil to her so that if the opportunity to kill her presented itself, he could actually take it. Yeah he...totally bought into this whole DK thing for like the first two weeks. THEY WERE A FINELY-TUNED MURDER MACHINE AND THEY WERE GOING TO KILL ALL Y'ALL AND WIN THIS GAME SO HARD. IT WAS GOING TO BE GREAT. [laughtrack plays] So that was his plan and that was why he initially started watching his tongue around her and actually gave her the time of day. TOO BAD HE ACTUALLY CAME TO GENUINELY ENJOY TALKING TO HER, that is totally what ruined his plan and had nothing to do with the fact that he is ill-suited o being a DK. That conversation they had in the library about Lissa was kind of the turning point in a really strange way. Because that conversation didn't do anything to make him like or respect her, what it did was make her seem very human. He wasn't fully aware of it and like hell would he have acknowledged it if he was, but basically it made him want to like...I'm going to say "counsel" her, just because I can't think of a better word right now. But he saw her overprotectiveness as kind of a bad thing and he wanted to try and help her stop thinking like that because that sort of mentality isn't healthy for anybody involved. WHICH HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN FIRST HAND IF HE HAD ONLY REMEMBERED PEKO. But alas...
Team Autopsy just further helped things because that proved that Maribelle was ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT AND USEFUL, which are both traits that Kuzuryuu likes. Maribelle actually has a lot of traits that Kuzuryuu likes, which is something he gradually started to pick up on as he talked to her more and more. HE STILL THOUGHT SHE WAS TOO SNOOTY FOR HER OWN GOOD BUT NOBODY IS PERFECT, HE GUESSES. He actually felt kind of guilty when he talked to her the first hostage week. Because he was only pretending to be worried, while Maribelle...wasn't. Since his sister was also his DK incentive, she couldn't die as a hostage so he knew a few hours after the motive was announced that she was safe. But if he didn't at least SEEM worried, he would draw suspicion. So he had to pretend, which just made him feel like shit when he was faced with genuine worry from somebody else. ESPECIALLY from somebody who has protectiveness issues. But in spite of this, he did try to get her to open up about it with him thinking that would help her work through it. Which was honestly one of the bigger signs of how Peko's death had impacted him. Had this motive come into play before Peko went, he likely would have tried to subtly nudge Maribelle towards murder. Because that was part of the DKs' game plan so none of them would have to go more than once. BUT AFTER WHAT HAPPENED TO PEKO WHEN HE PULLED THAT BULLSHIT ON HER, HE SWORE IT OFF. So Maribelle ended up getting the exact opposite approach of what Peko got. SO ANYWAY, suffice it to say, his plan to fake friendship completely backfired. He got attached and instead of making her a viable target, she actually wound up becoming an impossible target. Maribelle had every right to be completely unworried following Sebastian's report.
WHICH...SPEAKING OF. LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT. Or well, first let's talk about MARIBELLE BARGAINING FOR A CLUE ABOUT THE MASTERMIND. HAHA. HA. Kuzuryuu was impressed with that, but he would have been much MORE impressed had he not been a DK. But, since he was, obviously he was very worried about what that clue was going to be and what was going to happen to them. So his goal that week was to make himself as useful as possible so that he'd be on the popular list again. Because if he knew what the clue was, maybe he would be able to throw everyone off track so they wouldn't be able to figure out it was Nanami. So he was stuck in kind of this weird place of "damn you go, Maribelle" and "GODDAMMIT, MARIBELLE WHY DID YOU DO THAT." Luckily, the clue didn't point at Nanami so he figured they were safe and he wouldn't even have to try and twist the truth or something. He kind of figured the clue was useless SINCE HE WAS POSITIVE THEY HAD EVERYONE COMPLETELY FOOLED. Only they didn't and Apollo and Sebastian blew their cover. And that was really the first time since they'd arrived that Kuzuryuu was genuinely scared. Not because he thought people would kill them, though, but because he was worried what they were going to think of him. Maribelle, especially.
He was convinced that everyone would look at that list and immediately think that he'd been trying to play them all so that he could kill them more esily. You know, like he ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO DO? Yeah, that. Because, oh yeah, he's a criminal, remember? And he was such a douchebag in the beginning, clearly everything has been an act because that's the sort of people the yakuza are. This castle was the first time he'd ever made friends and he was positive that his involvement with the DKs was going to completely ruin that. With Maribelle especially, specifically BECAUSE they didn't get along in the beginning. He expected her to yell at him, cut off ties with him completely, and never trust him again. But much to his surprise, she didn't. She even seemed to believe him OVER Sebastian and Apollo, which he never would have expected in a million years. Because that's just not how people treat him, in his experience. PEOPLE ARE SCARED OF HIM OR DISTRUSTFUL OF HIM OR BOTH. So the fact that she still trusted him, even when there was really no defense he could give, was SUCH A VERY GOOD THING. And he really did want to tell her the truth but...he couldn't. Because if he revealed the group, they'd all fail. So all he could do was keep denying it and just...make sure he never did anything to genuinely betray that trust. Because he felt terrible about the fact that she trusted him this much and he couldn't even tell her the truth.
So by this point, Maribelle managed to work her way to his closest friend outside of the DK group. In all honesty, she was on the same level as the other regular DKs. Nanami was very obviously a special tier all her own at the very top, which nobody stood a chance of toppling. This is quite an achievement when you consider the fact that she was PRETTY MUCH AT THE BOTTOM INITIALLY. What a turn around. She even managed to get a single doki out of him. NEVER FORGET THE LONE DOKI. Just the one. No but in all seriousness, she was very important to him. Even if they still didn't (and probably never will) see eye to eye on how Kuzuryuu should present himself. He had really mixed feelings on that, honestly. On the one hand: he knew that Maribelle thought she was doing a good thing and the cultural barrier made it nigh impossible for her to understand why the way he acts is actually correct. But on the other: she was trying to change him. And while he knew there were some things about himself that he needed to change, he felt like his language was kind of a very superficial thing to be concerned about. So it...sort of hurt him a little but not really? Like it wasn't a huge deal but it he couldn't help but think "okay, why am I not good enough as-is?" sometimes. BUT IT WAS LARGELY IGNORABLE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS. Because he knew she wasn't doing it out of malice or anything. THE CULTURE CLASH WAS TRULY TO BLAME HERE.
And uh...then he did the thing. And got himself executed. He fully expected Maribelle to hit him for that stunt. Obviously that wasn't enough to get him to stop, because he knew it was the right thing to do. Even if it was completely terrible. Like I said before, Maribelle was second to only Nanami in Kuzuryuu's eye, which is why he entrusted Nanami's safety to her after he died. There was literally nobody else he trusted enough with that duty. And though it doesn't really seem like much, it was actually a BIG DEAL for him. Because up until that point, he'd kind of made himself to be Nanami's protector in his mind. And, to him, that was a very important job, because Nanami was Important. So the fact that he sort of tried to pass his duty along to Maribelle is a sign of just how much he actually trusted her. Because, if he were alive, he wouldn't have let anybody else have that responsibility.
FROM HERE ON OUT, things will probably just continue much the way they have, to be honest. Though he does still want to try and help Maribelle get over her overprotectiveness thing as far as Lissa is concerned. And to help Lissa herself because he feels like they have some stuff in common and now that he has all his memories back HE IS JUST FULL OF WISDOM HE IS READY TO IMPART ON PEOPLE WHO WILL HEAR IT. And he thinks both of them need it. Kuzuryuu you are not the protag, stop it. And when they finally manage to leave and all go back home, Maribelle will be one of the ones that he misses the most. But he has stuff to do back home so he couldn't possibly go to any other world AND HIS WORLD IS SHIT SO HE COULDN'T POSSIBLY ASK ANYBODY TO COME WITH HIM. But he's really not looking forward to having to say goodbye. NOT THAT HE'LL MISS HER OR ANYTHING, B-BAKA.
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After the first trial, Nanami more or less ordered Kuzuryuu to start behaving himself and play nice with the other kids because THERE WAS ONLY SO MUCH THE DKS COULD DO TO PROTECT HIM AND HIS DAMN MOUTH. So he kind of started trying to make amends with Maribelle. Sadly, it wasn't because he genuinely WANTED to make amends or get to know her better. He still had no intention of ACTUALLY befriending anybody, especially outside of the DK group, and his plan was basically to just fake it. Which...didn't end up panning out because Kuzuryuu just doesn't have that sort of thing in him. But he felt like...as long as he and Meribelle very obviously did not get along then he could never even consider her as a target because it would be too risky. So the plan was just to start being civil to her so that if the opportunity to kill her presented itself, he could actually take it. Yeah he...totally bought into this whole DK thing for like the first two weeks. THEY WERE A FINELY-TUNED MURDER MACHINE AND THEY WERE GOING TO KILL ALL Y'ALL AND WIN THIS GAME SO HARD. IT WAS GOING TO BE GREAT. [laughtrack plays] So that was his plan and that was why he initially started watching his tongue around her and actually gave her the time of day. TOO BAD HE ACTUALLY CAME TO GENUINELY ENJOY TALKING TO HER, that is totally what ruined his plan and had nothing to do with the fact that he is ill-suited o being a DK. That conversation they had in the library about Lissa was kind of the turning point in a really strange way. Because that conversation didn't do anything to make him like or respect her, what it did was make her seem very human. He wasn't fully aware of it and like hell would he have acknowledged it if he was, but basically it made him want to like...I'm going to say "counsel" her, just because I can't think of a better word right now. But he saw her overprotectiveness as kind of a bad thing and he wanted to try and help her stop thinking like that because that sort of mentality isn't healthy for anybody involved. WHICH HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN FIRST HAND IF HE HAD ONLY REMEMBERED PEKO. But alas...
Team Autopsy just further helped things because that proved that Maribelle was ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT AND USEFUL, which are both traits that Kuzuryuu likes. Maribelle actually has a lot of traits that Kuzuryuu likes, which is something he gradually started to pick up on as he talked to her more and more. HE STILL THOUGHT SHE WAS TOO SNOOTY FOR HER OWN GOOD BUT NOBODY IS PERFECT, HE GUESSES. He actually felt kind of guilty when he talked to her the first hostage week. Because he was only pretending to be worried, while Maribelle...wasn't. Since his sister was also his DK incentive, she couldn't die as a hostage so he knew a few hours after the motive was announced that she was safe. But if he didn't at least SEEM worried, he would draw suspicion. So he had to pretend, which just made him feel like shit when he was faced with genuine worry from somebody else. ESPECIALLY from somebody who has protectiveness issues. But in spite of this, he did try to get her to open up about it with him thinking that would help her work through it. Which was honestly one of the bigger signs of how Peko's death had impacted him. Had this motive come into play before Peko went, he likely would have tried to subtly nudge Maribelle towards murder. Because that was part of the DKs' game plan so none of them would have to go more than once. BUT AFTER WHAT HAPPENED TO PEKO WHEN HE PULLED THAT BULLSHIT ON HER, HE SWORE IT OFF. So Maribelle ended up getting the exact opposite approach of what Peko got. SO ANYWAY, suffice it to say, his plan to fake friendship completely backfired. He got attached and instead of making her a viable target, she actually wound up becoming an impossible target. Maribelle had every right to be completely unworried following Sebastian's report.
WHICH...SPEAKING OF. LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT. Or well, first let's talk about MARIBELLE BARGAINING FOR A CLUE ABOUT THE MASTERMIND. HAHA. HA. Kuzuryuu was impressed with that, but he would have been much MORE impressed had he not been a DK. But, since he was, obviously he was very worried about what that clue was going to be and what was going to happen to them. So his goal that week was to make himself as useful as possible so that he'd be on the popular list again. Because if he knew what the clue was, maybe he would be able to throw everyone off track so they wouldn't be able to figure out it was Nanami. So he was stuck in kind of this weird place of "damn you go, Maribelle" and "GODDAMMIT, MARIBELLE WHY DID YOU DO THAT." Luckily, the clue didn't point at Nanami so he figured they were safe and he wouldn't even have to try and twist the truth or something. He kind of figured the clue was useless SINCE HE WAS POSITIVE THEY HAD EVERYONE COMPLETELY FOOLED. Only they didn't and Apollo and Sebastian blew their cover. And that was really the first time since they'd arrived that Kuzuryuu was genuinely scared. Not because he thought people would kill them, though, but because he was worried what they were going to think of him. Maribelle, especially.
He was convinced that everyone would look at that list and immediately think that he'd been trying to play them all so that he could kill them more esily. You know, like he ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO DO? Yeah, that. Because, oh yeah, he's a criminal, remember? And he was such a douchebag in the beginning, clearly everything has been an act because that's the sort of people the yakuza are. This castle was the first time he'd ever made friends and he was positive that his involvement with the DKs was going to completely ruin that. With Maribelle especially, specifically BECAUSE they didn't get along in the beginning. He expected her to yell at him, cut off ties with him completely, and never trust him again. But much to his surprise, she didn't. She even seemed to believe him OVER Sebastian and Apollo, which he never would have expected in a million years. Because that's just not how people treat him, in his experience. PEOPLE ARE SCARED OF HIM OR DISTRUSTFUL OF HIM OR BOTH. So the fact that she still trusted him, even when there was really no defense he could give, was SUCH A VERY GOOD THING. And he really did want to tell her the truth but...he couldn't. Because if he revealed the group, they'd all fail. So all he could do was keep denying it and just...make sure he never did anything to genuinely betray that trust. Because he felt terrible about the fact that she trusted him this much and he couldn't even tell her the truth.
So by this point, Maribelle managed to work her way to his closest friend outside of the DK group. In all honesty, she was on the same level as the other regular DKs. Nanami was very obviously a special tier all her own at the very top, which nobody stood a chance of toppling. This is quite an achievement when you consider the fact that she was PRETTY MUCH AT THE BOTTOM INITIALLY. What a turn around. She even managed to get a single doki out of him. NEVER FORGET THE LONE DOKI. Just the one. No but in all seriousness, she was very important to him. Even if they still didn't (and probably never will) see eye to eye on how Kuzuryuu should present himself. He had really mixed feelings on that, honestly. On the one hand: he knew that Maribelle thought she was doing a good thing and the cultural barrier made it nigh impossible for her to understand why the way he acts is actually correct. But on the other: she was trying to change him. And while he knew there were some things about himself that he needed to change, he felt like his language was kind of a very superficial thing to be concerned about. So it...sort of hurt him a little but not really? Like it wasn't a huge deal but it he couldn't help but think "okay, why am I not good enough as-is?" sometimes. BUT IT WAS LARGELY IGNORABLE IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS. Because he knew she wasn't doing it out of malice or anything. THE CULTURE CLASH WAS TRULY TO BLAME HERE.
And uh...then he did the thing. And got himself executed. He fully expected Maribelle to hit him for that stunt. Obviously that wasn't enough to get him to stop, because he knew it was the right thing to do. Even if it was completely terrible. Like I said before, Maribelle was second to only Nanami in Kuzuryuu's eye, which is why he entrusted Nanami's safety to her after he died. There was literally nobody else he trusted enough with that duty. And though it doesn't really seem like much, it was actually a BIG DEAL for him. Because up until that point, he'd kind of made himself to be Nanami's protector in his mind. And, to him, that was a very important job, because Nanami was Important. So the fact that he sort of tried to pass his duty along to Maribelle is a sign of just how much he actually trusted her. Because, if he were alive, he wouldn't have let anybody else have that responsibility.
FROM HERE ON OUT, things will probably just continue much the way they have, to be honest. Though he does still want to try and help Maribelle get over her overprotectiveness thing as far as Lissa is concerned. And to help Lissa herself because he feels like they have some stuff in common and now that he has all his memories back HE IS JUST FULL OF WISDOM HE IS READY TO IMPART ON PEOPLE WHO WILL HEAR IT. And he thinks both of them need it.
Kuzuryuu you are not the protag, stop it.And when they finally manage to leave and all go back home, Maribelle will be one of the ones that he misses the most. But he has stuff to do back home so he couldn't possibly go to any other world AND HIS WORLD IS SHIT SO HE COULDN'T POSSIBLY ASK ANYBODY TO COME WITH HIM. But he's really not looking forward to having to say goodbye. NOT THAT HE'LL MISS HER OR ANYTHING, B-BAKA.