Welcome to Part IV of my Teruya Otori character analysis mini series!!! Warning: this analysis is fucking SOMEHOW longer than Chapter 4's analysis. So long in fact, that it needs to be split into the comment section because it's over the 40,000 character limit. I don't know how I managed to do that, but I did (probably because I also covered the flashback scenes which happen in Chapter 6...). If you're new here, you can find the first part here, the second part here, and the third part here. As usual, I'll put the thesis statement here for reference.
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Thesis Statement

Teruya Otori is the embodiment of the human spirit, heart, and experience; to hope is to never give up, to be unique is to be strong, and to move forward through hardships is proof of being human.

1 Teruya's arc being an homage to the three DRA1 Survivors as a representation of self growth

2 Teruya's narrative parallels to Iroha, Yuki, Sora, and Mikado (he has ties to other characters that I will discuss but they're not as prominent as those four)

3 Teruya's legacy and impact on those around him (especially after his death in Chapter 5)
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Part IV: The Resolve Of Teruya Otori, The Ultimate Merchant

Introduction

Picking up right where we left off, Sora asks Teruya to input his reset code so he can recover his memories. However...Teruya refuses to, but more precisely says that he can't, "But... even after losing my memories, I know very well that I'm a member of the Kisaragi foundation. And yet I threatened and imprisoned you, when I should have been working hard to save you." He grits his teeth, holding his hand to his head, "Nikei obstructing everything with his plans, Shinji getting caught up in it and dying... It's all my fault. And you think I could stand up to Mikado just from recovering my memories after all that? ...I don't have the right to." Unsurprisingly, Teruya still feels immense guilt for not only letting so many people die, in his mind at least, but also for his direct hostile actions in Chapter 4. However, it's not as simple as that, as these lines also tie into the process and results theming; every single time Teruya has tried to do something right, whether it be acting carefree in Chapter 2, acting in isolation in Chapter 3, or acting as a tyrant in Chapter 4, he tried to force the result he wanted with little to no regard for the process. So to him, regaining his memories will just be the same story over again; he will force a result by recovering his memories, he will fail, and people will die. However, Sora responds coldly in an attempt to wake him up, "So? So you're just going to give up and turn your eyes away?" While she is absolutely right, this line is deeply ironic considering how tunnel-visioned Sora has been since falling through the floor in Chapter 4, averting her eyes from her true identity, even brushing off Yoruko when probed on what she clearly knows. Sora doesn't stop there though, shattering through Teruya's doubts, telling him something that she had told him before in Chapter 3, "Don't try to take all the responsibility by yourself. 'I'm responsible for this, I'm responsible for that.' Why are you so fixated on that? Your responsibility and what you did doesn't matter now! We need your help right now. This is the time you should stand up for us!" This call to action from Sora leaves Teruya completely speechless, but she continues, by quoting his flawed logic, "By your logic, I don't have any right to say anything to anyone right now. You may have just let Nikei do his thing, but I actually stabbed Shinji. I was the one who let Shinji die. I'm a murderer." She knows that what she's done is awful, and wants to atone for it, but first wants to get back at Mikado for everything he's done and save everyone; and to do that, she needs Teruya's help. By saying this, she also takes on some of the heavy burden Teruya is carrying by himself, placing the responsibility for Shinji's death on herself and not him. Unfortunately, before Teruya can give a response, Monocrow interrupts their discussion with an announcement for all to come to the harbor. Teruya ends the conversation by asking for more time to think about the reset codes, and they depart.

Once they arrive at the harbor, Mikado spontaneously explodes the Monocruise, and announces they'll be heading to fifth island via the newly constructed bridge. Given that Teruya is the only one actually old enough to drive (other than Shobai who takes off with a motorbike Ghost Rider style), he is forced to assume his role as a mentor/leader once again, even if it's only for something as trivial as driving across a bridge. After a very silent and awkward car ride, contrasted with Teruya's supposed reckless driving skills, they arrive on the island, with everyone going their separate ways, leaving only Teruya and Sora behind. Teruya, having noticed the awkwardness, especially between Sora and Yoruko, asks if she's alright. Sora says it's nothing, that it's her fault anyway. Teruya is silent for a moment, before speaking with a calm voice, "...Sora, maybe you should just sleep for tonight. It's been a rough day after all. Not just for me and you, but for all the others." Even after everything he's been through, but especially how the last trial shattered him, he still acts gentle and kind, displaying his pure humanity. He refuses to let anyone around him falter, if he can help it. A luxury he tragically never affords himself. He then makes a final request of Sora, "About the reset codes... Can I talk to you about them tomorrow morning? Give me one night to think about it. And after I think everything through, tomorrow morning... We can talk about everything there is to talk about." I really love this moment from Teruya, since unlike before, he's actually willing to go through the process the slow way, even if it feels wrong. In Chapter 2, he was going through the process of gaining everyone's trust but lost sight of it in Chapter 3. Teruya immediately isolated himself after seeing the photo. Even though a day passed between him seeing the photo and making his declaration, he had passed out and didn't take the time to think things through. Then in Chapter 4, he immediately went for the gun at the top of the tower and enacted his dictatorship. And now in Chapter 5, after so many failures due to recklessness, he finally takes it slowly again, as he had learned to in DRA1-6.
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A New Promise

The following morning, Sora opens her e-handbook+ in anticipation, only to find that Teruya hadn't sent a message to meet up and talk. Deciding to look for him herself, she goes to leave her hotel room, finding the door blocked, by none other than Teruya himself. Before Sora can even comprehend what's happening, Teruya asks her to just listen, as he'll only say these words once: he makes true on his promise, explaining what he knows about Akane Taira. He minces no words, stating that Akane Taira was the co-conspirator to the real mastermind, Utsuro who disguised himself as Yuki Maeda, of the killing game he participated in. Sora, bewildered by this information, asks Teruya if he input his reset code, and to open the door so they could talk face to face. He stays silent for a moment, before speaking again, "Sora, I told you before, remember? That I'd protect you no matter what. ...This is my final promise. I still don't understand everything... But I must do my duty as a member of the Kisaragi Foundation. Even if that means the end of me." Teruya, as he did once before in post trial of Chapter 3, makes a bold promise to save and protect everyone. But in contrast to his Chapter 3 promise, this one is different in two distinct ways; firstly, the condition he states is different, "Even if that means the end of me." compared to "No matter the cost." While he's always been prepared to forfeit his life subconsciously, as we saw in Chapter 4 when he jumped in front of Iroha to block her from Nikei's gunfire, his priority in Chapter's 3 and 4 was first and foremost to stay alive while protecting everyone. And to the end, he was willing to throw away everything, especially his true self and his endless compassion, kindness, empathy, and humanity, all in favor of false personas and ideals that weren't his own. But here, the condition is the end of his own life, should the situation call for it. He's now putting himself first and making the declaration based on his own beliefs. The second distinct difference ties along with the first, that this promise is visibly born of true responsibility and leadership, as opposed to the promise before which was born of desperation and recklessness. With that promise made, he stops speaking and walks away. Sora dashes out the door to further talk with him, but the only thing she finds behind the door is emptiness; Teruya has disappeared entirely. Whatever he intends to do to prove and fulfill his final promise, he intends to do it alone, keeping everyone out of harm's way. This is another parallel to DRA1 that I love, as the true canon ending of the game doesn't have Yuki returning as himself and giving hope to everyone, it is Yuki accepting his fate and trusting in everyone he grew to know and love being able to create that hope themselves, even for the masterminds of the killing game, Utsuro and Akane. Teruya, with his memories fully returned, has finally dispelled the smoke and mirrors and vows to finish this mission with the methods and ideals he learned after the events of DRA1. While group cooperation was essential to the DRA1 survivors making it out alive, the one thing they could never do was rely on someone else to create hope for them. They had to find the courage to do it themselves; something which Sora rejects and doesn't think she has the right to do...yet, at least.
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Tunnel Vision & Reconciliation

In comparison to Teruya's calm and responsible response, Sora reacts panicked, hyper focused on finding Teruya again so he can give her more information, giving her more "hope" so that she doesn't have to confront her own issues and create hope herself. So much so, that when she encounters Yoruko a day or two later, instead of apologizing for emotionally locking herself down, she asks of Teruya's whereabouts, that they just need to find him and they'll be saved. Even after Chapter 4 showed her and the group in general that activity should take priority over passivity, she again falls back into passivity with Teruya's promise; it's similar to Nikei's confession in the last chapter, which acted as a beacon of hope and stagnated everyone. And if we look at this chapter from start to finish, Sora is the ONLY one who acts passive, at least until the end of daily life. Later on, Yoruko attempts to kill Yuki to stop the killing game. Yuki attempts to kill himself to end the killing game. Teruya, even if we don't know his exact actions right now, is most likely doing something behind the scenes. Mikado is enacting a final plan. Shobai clearly knows a lot and exits the simulation for some purpose. Even Iroha, the most passive character so far, is being more active than her, even if it's under duress and pressure from Mikado. This passivity comes to a head right before Yuki's attempted suicide, when Sora calls out the name that has been repeated by the Voids many times, "Master Utsuro". Yuki and Yoruko go through the process of struggling to create hope, through their attempted murder and suicide respectively, and thus they're able to reach the result of reconciling with Sora. Teruya was right in trusting them to create hope for themselves while he makes his move. And now, it is Sora's turn to experience the process before achieving the result she's been trying so hard to reach.

The morning after the explosive situation the previous night, Sora, Yuki, and Yoruko plan to meet up to have discussions, make confessions, and officially reconcile with each other. Shobai does temporarily derail things when he kidnaps Sora to question her on her identity, specifically if she's Akane herself, but the situation ends peacefully with him seemingly coming to a decision and then disappearing into thin air; implying he exited the simulation. Once Yuki and Yoruko come to her rescue, they have their discussion at the hotel. Sora confesses everything she knows: her identity of Akane Taira, who Utsuro is, why the Voids are trying to revive Utsuro, and how divine luck works, among other things. After a whole game of her rejecting her identity, noticeable as early as Chapter 2 as we saw in my analysis, she finally accepts who she is and acknowledges her memories. But unlike Teruya, she doesn't do so positively, instead having a panic attack when she questions why she's alive and if she even has the right to change, or act like the good guy now. Yoruko takes her by the shoulders, snapping her back to reality with words that Teruya himself follows in this chapter: "Just because you accepted the outcome, doesn't mean that it still has to end that way!" At the start of this chapter, Teruya questioned what the point of regaining his memories would even be if the outcome would be the same, just as Sora is doing so now. When he decided to recover his memories, he accepted the potential outcome of it, no matter how scared he was. But he refused to let that outcome come true. He refused to let hope come to him, he vowed to create that hope himself, just as Satsuki had done in DRA1, and just as Sora will go on to do even after his death.
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The Ensnarement

However, not everyone follows these words; once we move past Sora's acceptance, now the only character who is acting passively is Iroha. In fact, she's been passive the whole chapter; even though I said she was being active, her mindset itself was passive. Going all the way back to the start of this chapter, Iroha is visited by Mikado in her room, who rudely lies in her bed, an elated attitude radiating from him. Despite her very poorly thought out plan of pushing Sora off the ledge in the tower, he actually congratulates her, calling her Voids' savior, a subtle form of manipulation to ensnare her in the trap he's about to set. Iroha, for once in a while, seems pretty happy and/or proud of herself as she's receiving this praise. However, as is his modus operandi, he can't help himself from playing with her and her emotions like a doll; so he follows up his praise in the most backhanded way possible, "Objectively speaking, I have never seen a plan as idiotic as yours. Seeing all you could think of was pushing a random person from the top of a tower... I was almost impressed by how much of a pathetic moron you are." Iroha goes completely silent, as Mikado then reiterates several times that she had saved the plan and that Nikei was a pretty big threat despite everything, and how happy he is, "I wanted to share this overwhelming sense of happiness with a teammate." After hearing this, Iroha actually stands up to Mikado, asking if that's why Mikado had Nikei executed. Mikado plays it off, forcing Iroha to directly bring up the new rule, and then he answers, "Are you perhaps thinking of going down the same path as him?" Mikado utilizes yet another form of manipulation by threatening her with what happened to the last person who betrayed him, forcing her back into submission and inaction. She quickly backtracks, making the excuse that she wondered what Monocrow's role would be with that new rule. Mikado settles down, "Haha! No worries, Iroha. We may have struggled in the past, but now things are playing out in our favor. So Iroha, would you mind assisting me in this last step?" Along with the teammate comment from earlier, this third and final form of manipulation, using the plural subjects "we" and "our" to create a sense of inclusiveness for her, snaps the trap shut, down on her already shaky heart.

Shifting our focus back to Teruya himself, after his conversation with Sora, he makes his move. He attempts to exit the simulation and warps into thin air right after Sora pushes open the door to run after him. While it's not explicitly stated how Teruya knew how to log out, I believe that he was probably given the administrator code by Shobai in Chapter 4 (since Shobai has his memories back and was working as a double agent for the foundation) when he was buying food off of Shobai, but he just didn't know how to use it then. Regardless, instead of exiting the simulation like planned...he ends up in the Broadcasting building's west storage room, and is promptly apprehended by Mikado, who's waiting there on scene to ambush him. He grabs Teruya by the throat and reveals the trap he's been crafting, "You arriving here means you've unlocked your reset code. And after all that, fufu... You still fell into my trap." Teruya gasps for air, tightly gripping onto Mikado's hand, trying to break free, but Mikado continues... "It's still too early for you to die... Even though you're already dead, there's a possibility that it'd complicate things further if you actually died... I decide when you die." Mikado then lets go of him, tying him up just how Teruya had done to him in Chapter 4. Teruya begins panicking and snapping at Mikado, "Shut your damn mouth! This isn't the time for that... I should be in the real world, with Rei..." Not only is it heartbreaking that he's been completely blocked out of finding a safe way home with Rei, one of the few people to actually understand and truly love him, another sad aspect here is some visual storytelling. A few select characters, like Teruya, get new sprites which debut surprisingly late in the game in Chapter 6; one of which is shown with the previous line, the expression on his face full of complete panic and blindsided-ness. Mikado replies to Teruya's franticness, dropping the horrible and tragic bombshell onto him: "There we have a problem. If you disappeared from the virtual world, my firewall would disappear too. ... To put it simply, congratulations! You are now the world's first human firewall to block access to the real world! As long as you're inside of the virtual world nobody else will have access to it from the real world. It's impossible to leave or to enter as long as you exist!" Mikado laughs maniacally, letting the despair overtake his victim. But he decides to twist the knife in further, "How ironic. You're in a situation where everyone's rescue is impossible because of you, it's all your fault." Mikado has spent this entire killing game since Teruya's reintroduction messing with him; from the marts on every island with accompanying stock lists, Satsuki land, his snide remarks, and his physical and mental abuse. But this takes it to an entire other level, playing off of and taking advantage of Teruya's strongest trait: his humanity and compassion, his desire to help and protect those around him. This information also retroactively makes Teruya's previous methods in Chapters 3 but especially 4, full to the brim with dark irony. In Chapters 3 and 4, Teruya was very passive, stating multiple times that they just had to wait for the foundation themselves to come to the rescue; when in reality, his very existence made their intervention impossible even when they were probably trying their absolute hardest to crack through the security and rescue everyone. Teruya, in desperation, denies it. But Mikado won't let him: "If I'm lying, why did you end up here instead of disconnecting from the virtual world like planned? If I'm lying, why isn't the Kisaragi foundation here after such a long time? ... You don't even know yourself? Just how stupid are you? Hahaha!" As he did before with Iroha, Mikado excels at prodding into someone's most vulnerable parts of their heart, and Teruya is no different, with Mikado laughing right in his face. Mikado finishes the exchange off by calling in Iroha, who follows his command like a loyal servant, "Come here, Iroha. You haven't eaten yet, so I'll leave the food here. I'll even free one of your hands so you can enjoy your meal. Things would be difficult if my firewall died due to hunger, fufu..." Iroha, funnily enough, also shows up with not one, but two new sprites that debut in Chapter 6, where she looks incredibly nervous, stressed, and heartbroken as she sets down the rice. Mikado then bids Teruya farewell, with only a bowl of rice at his feet, and walks off with Iroha in tow.
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The Resolve Of The Ultimate Merchant

A few days pass. When Mikado arrives to deliver rice yet again, he notices that Teruya has been starving himself. He implores him to eat, but Teruya tells Mikado to get lost. Mikado, seemingly unbothered, tells Iroha to do whatever she wishes with that day's food and walks away. Iroha and Teruya look at each other, but she turns her eyes away and looks downward. After a few seconds, with a nervous smile upon her face, Iroha sets down the rice, "H-Hi......I'll put today's food here...." The cogs and gears in Teruya's mind have been turning and turning in synchrony with each second of time that's been passing; trying to find an out or at least some critical information. The food, Mikado's words, Iroha and Mikado's attitude towards his actions...he's finally found something. And so, just as Rei had interrogated Mikako Kurokawa for information, he opens his mouth and performs his own interrogation, against Iroha: "Iroha. ...I'm not surprised, but are you really the last Void...?" A tragic detail here is that when he asks this question, his sprite switches from one with tired, vacant, annoyed eyes, to one with soft eyes and an inquisitive/downcast expression. Even after everything Iroha has done as a member of Void, from what she did before they even entered the killing game, to her distrusting and verbally abrasive attitude after his tyranny, to her aiding of Mikado in tying up and imprisoning him; even after ALL of that, Teruya STILL treats her with compassion and doesn't even admonish or blame her. He just calmly asks her if she's the last Void. Iroha reacts with surprise that he's talking to her at all, but he continues, "...Is Mikado trying to kill me?" She says no, but he refutes, "...Even a fool like me can tell. Mikado said if I die, things would be difficult for him. He'd expect I'd do something like this after hearing that... It's all another lie. Yeah. He wants me to refuse to eat and starve myself to death." Teruya's self inflicted starvation not only shows how he was falling for Mikado's lies, but also his tremendous growth since his days in DRA1-4; he would never willingly starve himself back then, in fact, he tried to convince others to starve themselves, just as Mikado is subtly encouraging him to do now. But after two games worth of development, he's willing to physically deteriorate himself if it means derailing Mikado's plans. Iroha says she doesn't know anything, but Teruya keeps speaking, "....Or is it reverse psychology? If me dying would really cause such a problem, why aren't you forcing me to eat...? Why are you just standing there, watching me starve? ...That's the problem. I'm refusing to eat and you're both acting like it's according to plan." Whether it's to throw him a bone or confuse him even more, Iroha actually engages in the conversation, "A-And that's weird... if he wanted to kill you, he could do it any time... and if he wanted to starve you, he wouldn't bring you meals like this..." It then hits Teruya like a flash of light, "I think... the meals are insurance. You've poisoned the food, haven't you...?" Whereas before in Chapter 3 he was completely emulating Rei's methods without a regard to the process or the consequences it would have, Teruya finally trusts himself to think for himself, on his own terms, based on his own beliefs. He still channels Rei, as he looks up to and loves her, but at his core, these are HIS own beliefs molded with her methods. Iroha frantically panics, inadvertently revealing the truth, and Teruya jumps on it, "...If I'm weak in spirit, I'll succumb to hunger and eat the food, and if I do that I'll die from the poison anyway. It doesn't matter if I starve or get poisoned. Either way, it's definitely a trap to kill me. It's only natural when you think about it. If I'm alive, then nobody can go back to the real world. So what would you both do when this is all over if you can't leave? In the end, that bastard would end up killing me one day." In this moment, he accepts the outcome. No matter what he does from here on out, the outcome is that he dies. But he doesn't have to die from starvation or succumbing to injecting the poison for the rice underneath, and in fact he refuses to: "And he's trying to hide it by bringing me food. He said I'm already dead and that he decides when I die. I know what that means...he's going to kill me, but it's not time yet. He's trying to predict when I'll die by manipulating my actions." Mikado's delivery of the poison rice not only serves to hide his true intentions, but I also believe to taunt and torture Teruya if he does somehow figure it all out; 'Are you really going to poison yourself, hmm? Do you have the guts to do it? Just one bite, and you can maybe save everyone. Or, you can starve yourself slowly and take the cowards way out!' Teruya has already shown that he heavily doubts his actions and if what he's doing is the right thing, so an ultimatum like the bowl of rice, in Mikado's mind, would paralyze Teruya and make him unable to make a choice in time. It also directly parallels Teruya's own ultimatum with the sacrificial ballot. But Mikado made one mistake; severely underestimating his greatest strength which he only saw as a weakness: his compassion, love, and resolve Teruya Otori holds in his heart. "But what if Mikado made a mistake in his plan? ...What if he isn't as smart as he thought? For example, if I stay alive, nobody can get out, and you can't contact the outside... What if you're only focused on your front and not your back, and I eat the rice?" Yet again, Teruya finally decides to trust himself. In Chapter 4, he emulated Kinjo's ideals and ways of thinking, without the proper process, and it severely cost him. But here, Teruya molds his unique beliefs with Kinjo's methods to look at his solution ethically, under the mantra Kinjo always followed, to "sacrifice the minority for the majority". Kinjo looked at that code of ethics very callously and arrogantly, viewing the subjects from a purely numerical point of view; for example, in DRA1, he considers Kinji, Kizuna, and Rei as potential criminals who he would blame if they should die, not himself, in favor of the larger group. But Teruya sees all the individual people he could be saving as real people with their own lives to live, all for the small price of his own. Kinjo also liked to use this mantra at the drop of a hat, at the smallest obstacle. And Teruya himself also followed this attitude in Chapter 4 when he gripped the gun and held strong in his tyranny, even when he had many other options. However, Teruya now understands the purpose of the belief; to sacrifice something small for something big, in the event that there are no other options left. And with the only two options being slow starvation or desperate poison ingestion, he has no other options left; this is his last stand. As Iroha watches his hand move to the fork, her eyes widen as she realizes what he's about to do, "....Huh....? ....T-Teruya, you wouldn't..." He picks up the fork, and softly smiles back at Iroha, "...I bet it's really delicious. Bon appetite." Teruya over the course of the game has been a wonderful character, emulating those he loves, but this triad of wonderful moments is earth-shattering in its emotional and narrative impact. Teruya thought over the problem by himself for a few days, then logically sought out a solution just like Rei would, ethically evaluated the solution just like Kinjo would, and finally emotionally executed his solution just like he himself would. As the Ultimate Merchant, he does the one thing that most would be terrified to do, but only he has the true resolve to; trade his own life as the currently to buy everyone else's safety and mortality. It is also incredibly dark but very ironic that the way he dies is by eating food, the one thing he was so obsessed with in DRA1-4, even as far as to hoard as much as possible for just himself.

Iroha completely falls apart in front of this sight: a man, who stuck in the worst possible situation where he's placed in check, decides to forfeit his own life for others; something she could never fathom doing herself. Teruya takes note of this, "Why are you so surprised? You brought it for me to eat. It's kinda awkward to eat with one hand, but... Mmm~! Delicious!" She continues panicking, stuttering and stumbling over her own words. Teruya then asks her his last question, "...Iroha, why did you bring me this?" But he doesn't ask it in an accusatory way, and in fact, during these last few lines, he's still smiling at her and talking to her gently; just as he had in Chapter 2 during their rainbow discussions or to dry her tears in the wake of Emma's execution. Even as he's facing down the face of his presumed killer, he acts as her Oak tree one more time, trying to comfort her, but also to give her space to exposit her own pain and suffering, in the wake of him committing suicide right in front of her eyes. She can't handle the horror of watching someone die, nor the guilt of watching the one person who should hate her guts still act kindly, nor the heartbreak of watching the last person truly on her side leave this mortal coil; so she runs away, screaming that she doesn't know, abandoning the path to atonement, mourning, accountability, and passage of grief. Teruya smiles while looking down, "You're a terrible liar. But... I'm the same." Even with his acting, he's no Emma Magorobi in terms of skill. Despite making the courageous choice of self-sacrifice, his instinctual human fears of dying shone through anyway, and Iroha, always paying attention to him, easily noticed. But even with a deep uncertainty of what consequences his action will have, he doesn't regret it, "I don't even know if I did the right thing. But..I think this is what Kinjo would've done. If it was Rei, she'd have been swearing at the food, right? Haha." He thinks of his friends and how they would have confronted this situation, in an effort to comfort himself. But the comfort doesn't last soon as the poison almost immediately takes effect, and he begins coughing blood. But with impending doom, comes enlightenment. He finally feels acceptance towards his survivors guilt, understanding why Satsuki and Haruhiko had done what they had, as he himself is now in that very position, with the power to create true hope. And while we have reached the emotional climax of Teruya's arc, the narrative climax comes crashing in with his following words: "Yeah... I should have done this in the ballroom... Looks like I've grown up a bit." While incredibly bittersweet, this line, if not any before it, solidify that Teruya has reclaimed his humanity. He makes one final wish and plea towards his friends, before slowly passing away, "...I don't know how much time I've given them by doing this, but...I hope....I helped them....it'd be great. ...I'll...leave it all to you. ....Rei. ....Kinjo. Ple...ase..." Teruya ultimately dies alone, but only physically; he is filled with the love and compassion he shared with others that has shaped and formed him as a person. And his wish will not go unanswered. As a certain grey haired conman is on his way to grab the torch Teruya just passed on; to pick up where he left off, even if it's for purely selfish intentions instead of selfless ones.
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Silent Mourning

Back to the present, a few days have passed since Teruya's death, but only now is it announced; when Sora, Yuki, and Yoruko depart to grab their hotel keys so they can stay in the same hotel together, a sudden announcement is made, of the broadcasting building. A gloved figure is shown slowly approaching an unconscious Teruya, knife in hand. Sora immediately dashes to the twin towers in hope that she's not too late, but the door the broadcasting room itself is locked from the inside. She bangs on the door repeatedly, when Yoruko and Iroha, who met up after seeing the announcement, arrive. A very depression detail here is that Iroha stutters much more than the usual for her, "S-S-S-S-Sora!" On a first playthrough, it's easy to interpret this as her being spooked by Teruya's body, but with what we know from Chapter 6, she saw Teruya die right in front of her only a few days ago, and that she had just come from recording that broadcast herself when she arrived. When Yuki arrives, they try to call for Monocrow to open the door; but seeing as he doesn't respond, they decide to break down the door themselves. They enter the room, witnessing a very unsettling scene; the sight of Teruya's body in the back, with a creepy slideshow reminiscent of hell itself overlayed on the back wall he's laid against. And suddenly, as they're contemplating what they're witnessing, the sprinklers suddenly activate, drenching the room. And another detail here is that Iroha herself throughout the body discovery, from start to end, is directing ALL of it. She first convinces everyone to exit the room as it's being soaked, to protect the secret of the drawing of Teruya she had made. And then, a minute or two later, she suggests going back into the room, so that the mystery of the disappearing body of Teruya is created. Deep down in her subconscious, Iroha absolutely despises that she's acting this way, even if she would never admit it; acting like a program, going from one piece of code to the next, all under the direction of the one who holds her life in the balance. Scrambling, the class plan to split up to search for where Teruya had disappeared to. Iroha, again acting as the director, suggests that perhaps he had gone out the window that she herself had smashed. After some deliberation, they split up. Sora has a sudden premonition or feeling, and heads to the broadcasting room in the other tower. And sure enough, she finds a door on the back wall there, the same as the one that had appeared after the sprinklers. Everyone else arrives, and Sora turns open the door knob with a bated breath. There, they find Teruya's body, positioned just as he had been before. And another very dark parallel to DRA1-4 is that Teruya's second body discovery announcement is EXTREMELY similar to Haruhiko's in the ballroom's arsenal; shadowed over eyes, open mouth, sitting down, back against the wall, as well as the cinematography of the video clips themselves.

Sora, in denial of the scene in front of her eyes, pleads and bargains with Teruya's lifeless body, "T-Teruya, you're awake, right? You walked over here from the west building, right? Please tell me you're still alive..." but Yoruko's tears, Iroha's silence, Yuki's frustration, and most of all the lack of color in Teruya's skin all say otherwise...that he has long passed. Even so, with the undying belief that Shinji would be the last to leave them, Sora called out Teruya's name again and again, even knowing he had already left this mortal realm, that he had been....murdered, just like that. Before starting the investigation, Sora pulls everyone aside, to have a team chant before they tackle what they assume to be their final trial in Utsuroshima. Iroha is very hesitant to join, not only because of her position as a Void member, but also because she is still under the assumption that she is the culprit. She just spent the better half of about thirty minutes executing and directing the murder plan, and more than that, she had poisoned Teruya; she doesn't deserve their compassion. With Teruya's death, just like Satsuki's, it had brought everyone together, all united under one goal: survival. Even if one in the circle's desire for survival necessitates dirty methods. Another very depressing detail is that right after you get the Monocrow file truth bullet, if you click on Iroha's chibi sprite, she only says "Teruya...." with a very sad/worried expression on her face. Even if she couldn't go through the proper channels towards accepting grief, she is mourning his death in her own way, even if she can't do so publicly or visibly. A final detail before we jump into the trial is that Mikado, the sadistic bastard that he is, redecorates the courtroom to have rainbow banners all around, right after he dies and is not there to see any of it; making a mockery of the childlike wonder that not only he had, but that Iroha still has.
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Continued in Comments :( boooo character limit

To preface, this post will be VERY VERY scatterbrained and all over the place, but I wanted to get these thoughts out of my brain/notepad and out into the world as to hopefully spark some meaning discussion about who I personally consider to be the most well written character across the whole duology (though he's not my personal favorite character, Iroha takes that spot; Teruya is still in my top 5 and will likely take #2 once I finish my second playthrough of the game). However, it will be organized as to make all my points cohesive and flow together; don't worry, it won't be walls of text and a bunch of word garbage (mostly, anyway). One last thing I want to mention is that most of these write ups will be discussing Teruya's character in SDRA2, but I will bring up his character in DRA1 when relevant. So, let's get started!

Thesis Statement

Now, while all of the topics I'll be discussing today do vary in their content focus, they all compile together as evidence of one conclusion: Teruya Otori is the embodiment of the human spirit, heart, and experience; to hope is to never give up, to be unique is to be strong, and to move forward through hardships is proof of being human. That may seem vague (and perhaps a little cliche) but you will understand more and more as we progress. I will be covering his arc across the game chronologically, but the three main talkings points I'll be discussing throughout are as such:

1. Teruya's arc being an homage to the three DRA1 Survivors as a representation of self growth
2. Teruya's narrative parallels to Iroha, Yuki, Sora, and Mikado (he has ties to other characters but they're not as prominent as those four)
3. Teruya's legacy and impact on those around him (especially after his death in Chapter 5)

Part I: A Cursed Legend

Let's start at what is the true beginning of Teruya's arc in SDRA2; Chapter 2, where he is officially added to the cast after (seemingly) exiting the story in the prologue alongside Rei. The first thing I want to talk about is his memory loss/amnesia, since it is something I was actually VERY skeptical about when playing for the first time. In general, I find amnesia plots to be very....hit or miss, most of the time completely missing the target and resulting in no significant character moments, just used a plot device and nothing else. However in SDRA2's use of amnesia (which is used a whopping 3 TIMES with Sora, Hibiki, and Teruya; if you don't count the widespread memory loss of most of the cast), I think it is used extremely well and actually has a purpose beyond pushing the plot forward beyond it's natural limits. I think my favorite part about it, which is also the most depressing part, is that Teruya is unable to remember the people he loved and lost in the killing game. Yes, he remembers the general atmosphere and how he felt, but those feelings are fundamentally unable to be attributed to ANY face, event, or name. He's essentially been given only the results, but NONE of the process of them. And in this aspect, I think he's very similar to Kinjo in Chapter 6 after he regains his memories; while Kinjo did remember everything, those memories are effectively things that the current killing game version of himself never actually experienced, thus he's making actions based on only half of the equation, and it's why he falters so heavily in the aftermath of DRA1 and ends the game worse than he started.

Bringing it back to Teruya, his memory loss affects him in the way that he has to go through yet another killing game again, but like Kinjo in DRA1, with only half of the equation. And I think what sells the amnesia plot the most and kickstarts the DRA1 homage aspect of his arc, was how in this Chapter, he acts like his DRA1 self (pre-Chapter 4/endgame) being loud, full of childlike whimsy, and becoming emotional over the smallest things (though, to his credit, he doesn't cry anymore...yet). One of my favorite scenes regarding this is his scene with Iroha in the dining hall when they discuss rainbows, it's so heartwarming, and other than the concert later on, it's the last time we see him this happy. However, it's not a complete one-to-one rip of his DRA1 personality, in that he's reckless and hot-headed like before; he feels quite a bit more mature here which makes this feel less like a cheap plot device to reset him completely, but to reinvent and evolve his characters in new ways we haven't seen before. While he did have a complete arc in DRA1, where he left off in the story left open a LOT of potential avenues to take his character if he were to return, and if it wasn't clear by this long ass post, I think he was developed and explored damn near as close to perfect as you can get.

Unfortunately, given that this is a Danganronpa game and no characters are ever allowed to be happy for more than two milliseconds, the joyful and carefree Teruya in this Chapter doesn't last long. Right when he gets introduced to the cast, he gets pulled aside by Kokoro, who asks him to act as her bodyguard while she investigates the Void's identities and plan in secret. Wanting to be helpful and act as the reliable and only adult in the situation, he of course agrees. And to his credit, he actually does a pretty good job at it, closely shadowing her where she goes. However, something unexpected happens at the concert that Setsuka planned as a way to bring the twins back into the group and boost morale; Kokoro decides to finally make her first move, approaching Emma to convince her to leave Void and help the class escape the killing game. Tragically, during the concert, Teruya loses sight of Kokoro and fails to intervene when things go catastrophic. For the first time since his school days at Hope's Peak, Teruya finally decides to let loose and not worry about the stress of the killing game, for just a brief moment. He lets his previous attitude from DRA1 take over, following in the footsteps of Kiyoka Maki, having fun with friends all around him. And someone gets attacked because of that. But it's fine, right? Kokoro didn't actually die, she's just sick! He can do what he can for her by bringing her meals every day, promising to cure her when they escape the island. One meal time goes unanswered. Slightly worrying, but the food is gone by the next morning so she must've just been sleeping. A second meal time goes unanswered. But it's alright, she could be recovering and needs more rest! A third meal time goes unanswered. And...the food from the morning is still there, just as they left it, completely untouched. The bell had been tolling loud and clear since the end of that concert, but ironically, that very concert had drowned out the ringing from Teruya's ears. And outside Kokoro's door, he's the only one who can hear it. "It's happened again. Someone has died. I let them die, just as I had let Kiyoka die. Just as I'd let Kizuna die. Just as I'd let Haruhiko and Satsuki die. And they were all my responsibility to keep safe." One of my favorite parts about this character moment is that he's very similar to Haruhiko in this way, with his overwhelming survivor's guilt, and the parallels to Haru will only become more apparent. But back to Teruya, what makes this hurt even more is that he tries SOOOO HARD to get his memories back, or to remember anything even remotely useful, compared to Sora who is taking it much slower and seems afraid of actively seeking out her past. Unfortunately, this unyielding persistence and perseverance only amplifies Teruya's guilt more. Despite Teruya's self doubt and guilt though, he was instrumental in solving the Chapter 2 class trial with him diligently checking the museum's item stock.

While the previous section is the bulk of the analysis I'll be doing for Chapter 2, the last thing I want to mention and discuss are the relationships that Teruya has with the students in this chapter, specifically Iroha, Mikado, and indirectly, Sora (I will cover his ties with Yuki at a later time). Let's start with the side dish first: with Sora, he comments that he's seen her before, or that she feels familiar, and while that is clearly referring to his vague memories of Akane Taira, I also like it as a nod to them being in very similar positions, both having amnesia, as I mentioned before. But something else I find interesting here is that Sora actually brushes his comments off as him hitting on her, despite her already having been shown to be decently emotionally intelligent; another sign that she is consciously pushing away the idea of pursuing her past in the face of Teruya actively seeking it out.

Now onto the main course: Iroha and Mikado. Let's cover Mikado first. First of all, it is incredibly fucked up of Mikado to take advantage of Teruya's need to feel responsible, especially after his growth in DRA1, to introduce him as the school trip guidance teacher. Even if Teruya didn't already want to act as a mentor for the others with his previous experiences, killing game or no, Mikado has already subconsciously started subtly manipulating Teruya to do exactly what he wants with just his introduction. And it doesn't stop there. While the mart was on the first island, and Teruya doesn't get introduced back into the cast until Chapter 2, I find it interesting how it was explicitly labeled as a mart. That naming convention was present in Goodbye Despair, but it becomes a lot less of a coincidence when you consider that Teruya is the successor to the big conglomerate that is Otori Mart; by having them named a Mart, that also manipulates Teruya's actions. Given his speciality in mental arithmetic, taking on the responsibility of checking item stocks both in his time as a merchant and in the DRA1 killing game, he will no doubt do the same in this killing game. And this, along with his unhealthy need to be the "adult" in the situation, it will make the moments where he *does* screw up that much more harrowing of a feeling for him. Mikado not only shows his excellence in being a mastermind with a grand plan, like those of canon, but also in his ability to inconspicuously move people like pawns on a chessboard with his actions and words.

Now, onto Iroha. This one could take a while (and I'm now realizing that this post should probably be split into two parts so I can say everything I want to say...), but regardless, here we go. I already covered his childlike personality coming out with Iroha, but something else I absolutely love is that he also acts as a mentor for her. After the conclusion of the second class trial, in the wake of Emma's true motive and subsequent execution, Iroha breaks down in tears, crying out how long they'll have to do this. To which Teruya tells her to stop crying; but not in an aggressive way like how other students have told Iroha to chill out, he does so in a much more calm tone and use of language. And that tracks, since Teruya's been in Iroha's EXACT position before: crying, frequent emotional outbursts, saying things they don't mean in the heat of the moment, etc. but one of my favorite parts is in their character design. Teruya went from one of the shortest characters in the duology straight to one of the tallest, while Iroha is similar in height to where Teruya was in DRA1. Not to mention, both of their designs do prominently show some green; to me this reads as Teruya being the great Oak tree, with Iroha being the young sapling, full of potential. While Iroha does go on to intentionally waste and push away this potential, I do think this dynamic is incredibly interesting and she acts as a dark mirror to what Teruya could have become if he hadn't reflected on his actions and attitude in DRA1-4. I also think that if Teruya had NOT lost his memories, he could've acted as a stalwart mentor for Iroha, and though it would've taken a lot for her to push past her trauma and break out of that bubble, her becoming a better person just like him is definitely a possibility in that scenario.

Overall, Teruya's character in Chapter 2 is one of childlike whimsy into an unreasonable self-imposed responsibility; a conclusion which will only become more apparent once we move into Chapter 3. He also acts as a mentor for the cast, but especially Sora, indirectly, with his unyielding desire to seek out his past, and Iroha, directly, with his words of encouragement during their rainbow discussion and words of comfort in the aftermath of the second class trial. Ironically, Sora initially rejects this mentorship, while Iroha accepts it. But the script flips as the game goes on, but specifically right after his death; Sora begins to seek out her past, no matter how scared she is, while Iroha rejects all of it in favor of selfishly seeking survival, and nothing else.
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After some thinking (and realizing how fucking long the analysis already is, holy shit I'm yapping so much), I've decided to stop the analysis here on Chapter 2 for now, and come back later with the other parts! But I hope y'all have enjoyed what you've read so far. :D

So I've seen plenty of discourse around the album, but one factor I don't think I've seen anyone talk about is how incredible the drums are. I think my favorite moment would be the fast tom fill when Troy screams "THE JACKAL!" but in general I love how much Brann plays around with ghost notes on the snare. Inspiring to me as a drummer myself, makes me want to pick up the sticks and try my hand at a Mastodon song again.

Warning: we yap for a while