Moleman

## The Moleman

**The Moleman** (ひきこもり *Hikikomori*) is a major character featured in Danganronpa: Togami. When the World Domination Proclamation started, he was thrust into chaotic events, featuring locked room mysteries, and trying to survive against such chaos alongside Satomi Aoba.

## History

### **Prior Life**

The Moleman, in his youth, was obsessed with attending Hope's Peak Academy, particularly wanting to become someone that was recognized for writing novels. It was to the point that he would drop out of school, only to re-apply in hopes of a talent scout visiting his school and inviting him to Hope's Peak. The turning point was when a talent scout arrived at his school, but walked past the Moleman in favor another student to invite him as the SHSL Cook (someone who would later graduate and become imperial chef for the emperor).

Believing that he simply wasn't talented enough, the Moleman snapped into heavy bitterness and became a recluse. Moving into a small town in Prague, the Moleman shut himself in his room, eating away at junk food whilst occasionally glancing at new Hope's Peak students with pure resentment.

### World Domination Proclamation

The day of the event, the Moleman internally narrates his food plan (which is just a slog of fast food) stating how the conveniences of food has brought on some advances. He reveals his routine as him browsing the net, checking on talents related to Hope's Peak, and falling asleep to repeat the cycle. The scene then skips to him in the future outside, connecting with someone over a meal despite his claims.

Another scene skip to the past reveals that with a quick search, plenty of SHSL talents pop up, with him claiming that it makes 'talent itself almost worthless'. He recounts his bitterness over not being talented, and his dislike over people still being happy by latching onto something someone else made. He believes that dreams, hope and those who believe that come true should just go to hell.

This Moleman also noticed the satellite explosion, having been woken up with screams outside, he checks his window to find nothing. At first he thought it may have been the Despair Disease. With that, he attempts to turn on the TV, connect a phone but the lines were down. Initially, he is content to just stay inside. However, once the world goes quiet, he gives in and then decides to head out for something other than food.

He expected the outside be littered with destruction and death, only to find that the area looked almost the same as ever, according to his observations; Excluding the fact that there was no people to be seen anywhere. Without any reason he starts running until his out of shape body gives in, before then being hit by a suitcase. In response to the threat he struck out with his leg, apparently connecting with a girl going under the name of Satomi Aoba.

Apologizing for the attack, Satomi asks what happened to the town, in which he explains that he does not know, the two then conversing for a while before Satomi explains what has happened while he was asleep; Bringing up Byakuya Togami and his *World Domination Proclamation*, stating that if no one kills him, he is going to take over the world. To add in his 'proof', he crashed a satellite into an island in the Mediterranean. The Moleman goes on a rant on Byakuya's character and his attitude, then wishing he was enrolled in Hope's Peak, stating he has no talent, but a dream when asked by Satomi. She then relayed the events, with the Moleman stating that he was asleep when the 'World Domination Proclamation' was declared.

The Moleman then raises three questions: Why target in the middle of nowhere? Why did the townspeople disappear, and why did Satomi hit him? When he asks, Satomi replies she's on a trip to forget about her broken heart and attacked him because she wasn't sure if he was an enemy. As for why the townspeople disappeared, she was on the verge of investigating for it.

Satomi then leaves, with the Moleman tagging along to check where the townspeople vanished off to. Breaking into a house, they both entered a room, not before a crucified student was found suspended with scissors on a wall. The same search for other houses yielded the same result, with a student each killed in a similar fashion. Satomi concluded that the first victim was like Genocide Jack's doing, while the Moleman remarks that the second's was in line with a killer under the name of 'Stabbin' Jack'. The Moleman notes that the police and even the Zero Class Detectives registered under the Detective Library were unable to solve those cases, and rumors say that some of the cases were passed onto the JDC- Japan Detective's Club, or the ER3 Comprehensive Research Center. He notes it was likely this was all done as a result of a copycat killer.

They later investigated fifteen more houses and found fifteen more corpses killed in a bizarrely different fashion-, with the only similarity being a locked room scenario. They then left to an empty supermarket, going wild with their grabbed supplies. Satomi initially wanted to part ways with the Moleman, believing her had no use to her. Desperate, the Moleman insisted that he knew the geography and how to drive as a way to prove his worth. Satomi suggested that they go elsewhere, but then he claims he has no car to transport her with, but knew how to resolve it. Nearing an old Toyoto Corolla, he bent some wire into a fish hook shape, using that as a tool to unlock the car and start it up, not before a sound emerges from the distance, with Satomi following it. It seemed that the noise was a couple of children discussing about dismembering a corpse. As they reached the European styled room, the rest of the group switch places as they introduce themselves, going by the name of ' Hope's Peak Academy Affiliated Junior High School Mystery Research Society' which consists of the Club President (SJHSL Mystery Maniac), Vice President (SJHSL Mystery Fan) and a girl that acts as the club's Treasurer.

The Moleman laughs at this, stating that although Hope's Peak has other schools affiliated with it, even after 'graduating' from those affiliated schools there still is the barrier of being scouted, and even still, many go onto a completely normal high school afterwards. The kids of the group are perplexed by his laughter, and Satomi speaks up, asking if they are related to the terrorism. They explain that Byakuya is like an upperclassman to them, and how they can spread 'salvation' to the world by doing what they do. They also explained that they copy crimes from mystery novels as well. To top it all off, they concluded that they kill for their sake of the 'Operation: Global Locked Room Transformation'. Their motives utterly baffles the Moleman for how utterly insane it was.

As the Club President starts to talk about how they will kill the two, the Vice President interrupts him. The Vice Prez identifies Satomi as being an idol from Sayaka Maizono's group and starts gushing about her. He starts going on about her popularity, in a rather insensitive manner, but Satomi is able to kepe her cool (though the Moleman believes she's just used to people badmouthing her). The Moleman then takes the distraction as an opportunity as flips the table in order to make their escape. Satomi remarks that what the Moleman did was rather cool, with him internally agreeing with her.

Later on, they are still driving off in the car, listening to Satomi Aoba's CD recording of 'It's Gotta Take Some Skill to Be an Idol', a song that Satomi was particularly proud of given that it was the time (though Moleman can't stand given its theme on talent). Satomi notes its the first time she's been on center stage and it was to counterattack against other idol groups like S-nery and Mix Juice. They've been on the run for two hours, stopping by supermarkets and hospitals in search for life, only to find none. The general plan for the Moleman is to head to the airport, though Satomi is somewhat unsure the airport would be running. When they talk about potential destinations, Satomi mused on how she broke the rules in order to leave, not caring about her destination, but got wrapped up in the Proclamation as a result.

They go into talks about dreams for the future, with Satomi being a believer in them and believing without the drive of jealousy against those already in high ranks, one can't make their dreams come true. In turn, the Moleman was quite disillusioned and notes that while Satomi is clearly great as an idol, she must not have as much talent for it compared to the likes of Sayaka and the two above her in terms of rank. There's silence, but Satomi chuckles and states she never once thought of herself as inferior. He muses over this, believing his life as a 'moleman' was better since he couldn't be hurt. However, he contemplates that if the world is in disarray at the moment, he could theoretically do whatever he pleased. Yet, he was still driving safely. He notes that it wasn't because of laws, but rather because he wanted to.

The Moleman contemplated on his past and the concept of regret. He looks back on his life, stating that he had his hopes 'crushed' by Hope's Peak. He used to believe in his own talent, waiting patiently for the opportunity, even dropping out to begin the process over again. On the day of his graduation ceremony, a talent scout arrived, only to pass by him and extend their opportunity to a first year who then was enrolled as the SHSL Cook. Satomi then repeated her advice to him, stating that his lack of willpower was the problem.

Following hearing a press conference from Hope's Peak Academy on the proclamation, the Moleman states that the speech was 'the worst thing he's heard'. He says that it was nothing honest and it was only to suppress a scandal, politically operating. Their car has garnered a fair amount of distance into a town, in which a strange sight of a few people caused both the Moleman and Satomi to laugh in relief. Unfortunately another car veers into their way, with his consciousness fading. He then recovers after an unknown amount of time, setting sights on Satomi's injured state of body, heavily bleeding.

He starts taking in the destruction of the area, their current situation being as a result of the imposter Byakuya dropping a satellite in their vicinity, alongside dealing with Satomi's continuous bleeding. He attempts to use one of her shirts to wrap around her wounds, speaking to her in an attempt to calm her. Satomi could only weakly joke he should have called her name a bit sooner and tells him not to touch her hand before passes out. A Jeep caught up with them and in it was the Myst'ry Research Society. The president gloats of their time fleeing as their opposition pleads for help, wanting to save Satomi from bleeding out.

The rest of the group gloats over his soon to be loss, before revealing the Despair Novel. Just by the sight of its very little thickness, he almost suppresses his laughter if it turned out that the pages were all blank, according to his thoughts. The president claims that Hope's Peak was the 'root of all evil'. He also goes on that if Hope's Peak never existed then a catastrophe would still happen regardless. The Moleman then contemplates the situation, imagining himself in various situations and scenarios. The club president of held up the Despair Novel, almost bringing it out to tell him to read it.

The child then goes on to ramble about Hope's Peak and the way they handle situations, stating that even if wars and despair were to spread, it wouldn't mean the end of the world to the school. He also states that they are hyper-fixated on talent to the point of uncaring about ordinary people. He also states that they have used the Reserve Course's funds to create the Super High School Level Hope, but with the state of the world, he assumes it to have failed. The boy then explains the Despair Novel's intent, which its methods mirror the 'Complete Manual of Suicide', in which it both acts as a tool to end one's life and to save it; A cheap paradox stripping away the power from the act of suicide itself.

The Despair Novel acts the same way. Upon reading it, each and every type of despair would make the reader all the more hopeful. The Myst'ry Research Society stole that system, and abused it. They scattered it, waiting for the effects to spread. They also proclaimed that Hope's Peak will soon reach its limit, and collapse. From there the Moleman begins to understand that the club is acting this way as a way to maintain identities for themselves after the Hope's Peak is gone. The club president then handed the Moleman the novel, wanting to see his despair due to his past experiences. He then contemplates whether to read it or not, with his final decision being to refuse.

He rips apart the Despair Novel and the group of kids simply just accept it as they jeer from the Jeep's backseat, taunting the Moleman with Satomi's critical condition as he speeds off to save her.

The Moleman drives into the nearest city, only to be met with another traffic jam on the way to the hospital, in which he gives up and dashes to the hospital by foot, realizing that the interior was full, he gave in and left. Attempts to search for more yielded the same results. Driving along another road, he identified a female Hope's Peak Academy student on a one way street, uncaring as he runs her aside with the vehicle. Getting out of the vehicle, the Moleman loses it and begins to assault her, beating her down with stomps to her head and stabs with a survival knife from the vehicle's dashboard onto her arm. Just as the sight of blood meets him in response, the girl regained her composure and retaliated by kicking him in the crotch. This left the Moleman defenseless to struggle against her grip. When asked to name himself by the girl, Blue Ink, he does so as his vision goes black:

## True Identity

 *Main article: Suzuhiko Ōtsuki*
In actuality, Moleman was merely Suzuhiko's split personality that took over in order for the hitman to get closer to his target in an easier fashion (albeit, Moleman seemed unaware of such a fact or that he was a split personality). During the fight with Blue Ink, the main personality took over entirely and for the rest of the Proclamation, thus putting an end to Moleman's involvement in the matter.

### K2K System

Due to Suzuhiko's *Ambush Technique* also misrepresenting the dialogue from his perspective (which in itself may also be a K2K fabrication), it is unknown how much of the above text is fabricated.

## Appearance

Aside from being a man in his late-twenties, the appearance of the Moleman is unknown.

## Personality

The Moleman is a bitter and pessimistic man, someone that was completely disillusioned with the concepts concerning talent and believing that he lacked it himself. He looks down on those who obsess over celebrities or interests, or even trying to put on airs of what they don't have, thinking that they were merely the masses of untalented people trying to fill the void in their own lives. He was immensely jealous of those that were scouted for Hope's Peak and critical of those who the school allowed to attend, going about his days learning more of about the potential Ultimates. Overall, he has a love-hate relationship with Hope's Peak himself, on how he genuinely wanted to be apart of it, but was left with a grudge following his failure. Still, upon learning it was shutting down, he fell into despair upon losing something he had made part of his identity for so long. Afraid of being hurt over trying to go about his ambitions again, the Moleman thought it was easier to become a shut-in rather than achieve something. In truth, he was immensely lonely and pained individual who, when given the opportunity to be with someone benevolent, is desperate to show he's useful and stick by a potential friend.

When it comes to interacting with others, he does try to keep up an air of maturity or being stern, though most tend to see through it (be it friend or foe). Still, his cynical disposition and dislikes of fanatics persists heavily, best shown when he mocks the Myst'ry Research Society when they introduced themselves of being in the junior division of Hope's Peak. Over the course of the event, his mood gradually softens thanks to Satomi's advice and he comes to realize its really his mindset that has been holding himself back over doing what he wants. By the end, he refuses to take the easy way out with insanity, showcasing this by ripping up the Despair Novel, and tries to continue on with reality, in hopes of saving his friend.

Given his interest in novels and wanting to become the SHSL Novelist, the Moleman has extensive knowledge of literature. It's also because of this interest that he occasionally brings up obscure facts or or relate things to certain books themselves. His hotwiring skill also suggests a proficiency, and interest, in terms of mechanics. Likewise, his poor diet also showcases how little he cares for himself. When pushed to the brink of frustration, jealousy and despair, the Moleman can violently lash out, as shown when he attacks Blue Ink during his search for a place to treat Satomi. It's implied that this aspect of him stems from his main personality resurfacing.

### Satomi Aoba

Despite their clashing personalities, both Satomi and Moleman developed a solid bond towards each other. Initially, they got off to a rocky start considering Satomi attacked him and didn't consider him all too useful to stick around with. However, after some convincing, Moleman was able to get her to change her mind. Moleman, while he did think Satomi was beautiful, he was critical of the girl's positivity towards her life and belief that things could work out. However, over the course of the event, he is gradually influenced by her optimistic mindset to change his way of thinking and make an attempt at challenging life instead of hiding.

While Satomi pokes fun of his cynicism or his 'inexperience', she will be forward when he does do something cool. Satomi usually tries to advise him to move forward or be positive in life, in spite of its challenges or it seemingly being useless. Both strove to get away from the destruction in Prague and escape via an airport. Unfortunately, following the accident, Satomi is left extremely wounded, which causes the Moleman to become quite worried over her life. The Moleman valued his new friendship to the point that he rejected the society's attempts at converting him with the Despair Novel and desperately went looking for a place to treat her.

Upon his main personality taking over, while his memories of her did briefly carry over to Suzuhiko, the main personality held little care for her and would have murdered her if given the chance.

**Enemies**

### Myst'ry Research Society

Given their responsibility in slaughtering the Moleman's village, being apart of the instigators behind the World Domination Proclamation, and how they wanted to kill him, The Moleman is opposed to the society and their actions. The Moleman laughed at and was critical of the society, since he believed the affiliated schools were pretty on the same level of having no talent as the Reserve Course. He was immensely confused over their motivations, but by the end was able to understand during their presentation of the Despair Novel, namely how they were doing this as a way to carve out new identities once Hope's Peak fell. In turn, the society disliked how the Moleman mocked them and were keen on killing him before the Vice Prez started to gush about Satomi. When they caught up to Moleman, they had no qualms in mocking his dire situation with Satomi, but were also willing to try to relate their feelings concerning Hope's Peak to him. By the end, while they doubted he would succeed and still mocked him, they respected the Moleman's decision not to read the novel and attempts to save Satomi to the point of even letting him use their Jeep.

## Trivia

* The Moleman knows how to hot-wire a car, as evidence from him doing so to a Toyota Corolla in the novel.
* The Moleman names McDonald's, Domino's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken as apart of his usual diet.