Aki: Welcome back to the I Remember~ Q&A! Today all our questions come from Cringy_Cosplays all for Momota!

Question 1) How do you react to Defense Mechanisms?

Momota: Defense Mechanisms? Never heard of it, I'll go give it a read

Aki: No wait- DON'T!

Momota: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

Ouma: That should be me.

Harukawa: What the f-

Question 2) If you saw your pregame self through flashbacks, how did you respond?

Momota: Oh! I did actually! Not like Ouma though I think I saw him in the mirror once and that was it?

Momota: As for memories I saw a few random ones, I remembered what he used to do, he was a part of a basketball team.

Momota: He actually seemed like a pretty normal dude, bit of a hot head and he sometimes took his anger out at people by yelling but he seemed to always feel bad and apologize afterwards?

Momota: He must have had some messed up elements in his life to join but I don't remember them.

Momota: Sorry if I didn't have a good answer for you. Thanks for asking though

Ouma: Am I the only one who had to hear an annoying voice in my head for months? This ain't fair.

Iruma: Sucks to be you

Ouma: Shut up slut

Aki: OK WE'RE DONE NOW!

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GASP, what is this?! BONUS CONTENT THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR BUT I'M MAKING ANYWAY?! WOW!

Ello it's me again your favorite angst writer, or is that a lie? Who knows I can't exactly read your minds unless you comment down something.

But yeah I decided to end this off with some of the writing processes I've been putting in, I usually like writing my thought process when making a story at the ends of books however...well let me just say this is a long one and I want to write this while it's still fresh and memorable for not only me but you guys. I'll be separating the key points out with bold words so I guess you guys can skip to what you were interested in the most, or the aspects you hated me for and want to burn me at the stake for, that's fine but please remember to respect that there's been a long line building for over two years now so be prepared.

Why does Saihara hate Ouma at the beginning of the book?

Man, this was something I was scared to do, mainly because I know how many people who read my books worship Ouma, even if they aren't Oumasai shippers, so this was a decision I made knowing not everyone would necessarily like it. BUT I DID IT ANYWAY BECAUSE GUESS WHAT? I'M A REBEL!

*Enter guitar music here and cool shades, some tiger and explosions*

So knowing that I would immediately turn off people, why did I decide to say 'screw it! They hate each other!' anyway? Well, there are actually multiple reasons, first off it's because I wanted to try and break away from the mold I and other writers often write these kinds of stories.

These stories are usually about Ouma, having intense trust issues and anxieties, along with more often than not depression and other mental health disorders, these stories are not inherently bad or flawed in any way don't get me wrong, I myself have on numerous occasions wrote those types of stories which is exactly why I decided to change it up for I Remember~ to give myself a challenge.

But of course, I couldn't make Saihara hate Ouma for no reason either, so what is the reason? Because of the killing game and the decisions, Ouma made inside of the killing game.

Now, this is really going to get people to murder me, sing my prayers so I don't go down to hell people. I continue this in the next point so yeah.

Ouma did a bad....and so did Saihara.

When I first played through V3, aka watched someone play through V3 cause I can't afford that, I actually wasn't a big fan of Ouma, surprising I know since all I ever seem to do with my life now is write fanfiction on him for two years straight.

Ok actually I do other things now with my life but that's beside the point, Ouma to me was an interesting character but I didn't love him because I was CRUSHED and I repeat with pun intended CRUSHED when Gonta died.

And then Ouma cried, which made me like: OK SO HE ISN'T A SOCIOPATH AT LEAST.

Then Ouma went full-on supervillain and I was standing on the sidelines thinking, ok...this is interesting...then well he died. AND WE GOT THE COMPLETE SURPRISE OF THE CENTURY! Ouma did actually care about the others to some extent, and he was willing to die to stop the killing game!

THIS MADE ME ADORE HIM! For a week, then I went back to just liking him, till I read some fanfiction on, what a surprise, Wattpad, decided, hey I wanna do that, boom then came Life of a Liar, my worst book if Skittles didn't unfortunately exist. 

With Life of a Liar, I learned more about 'Ouma' and then came the long line of fanfiction, and slowly but surely I sort of strayed away from the source material and made my own Ouma.

It definitely wasn't on purpose, it's kind of the same for everyone I think because we know so little about Ouma, we rarely can tell what was a lie and what was the truth, what he was really thinking before he died-much less the entire game! We kind of have to guess and assume things, which makes him a great character to analyze but hard to write due to his contradicting nature.

So with I Remember~ I decided I was going to write Ouma, as Ouma. Someone who makes mistakes, someone who is willing to hurt people if it guarantees his own safety, he would regret it such as seen in the aftermath of trial four, but he still makes those kinds of decisions, someone who respects life and hates murder but at the same time values his own life and will only sacrifice it if it serves a bigger goal or purpose in his own eyes.

Someone who doesn't always make good decisions, despite his intentions.

Because yeah...Ouma in my opinion isn't a saint, he isn't a villain either but he does play an antagonistic role as Komaeda did, doesn't make him a horrible person but doesn't mean he's innocent of being criticized from some of his more questionable decisions either.

Saihara isn't a saint either, he's human and makes mistakes, he's shy and anxious about his decisions, he gets crushed by what happens after every trial, he tries his best to fulfill Akamatsu's wishes only to fail, he sometimes hurts people too.

Because he did say some pretty awful words to Ouma at the end of the fourth trial, context can help us understand why he said it but yeah, not a saint just someone like Ouma with good intentions but not always carried out in the right ways.

I hope I get that across though, that both characters got a lot to work on in this story to improve as people.

Why Saihara was a buttface, part two (and why Ouma is a buttface to Saihara) Also buttface is a really a little kid word why am I using it-

So back to why Saihara hates Ouma, it's because he feels betrayed and hurt by Ouma's actions, he can understand that he had good intentions but he can't understand why Ouma would choose actions that ultimately hurt Gonta, and put Momota in such a tough position.

Especially because in this version of the story Saihara went through all free time events with Ouma and the two genuinely became friends, which is what makes this sudden turn of character hurt so much because he feels like he's been played by Ouma and tricked. He feels betrayed which is why Saihara is much more bitter towards Ouma than he was other blackened characters, it's not just because Ouma killed people, it's because he can't understand Ouma and why he did it despite the two in his eyes at one point being close.

But then Ouma 'dies' so he buries those feelings, knowing they won't ever be resolved because Ouma was gone and he had a job to do, end the game. But that's not where their story ends cause again simulation now he has to deal with those unresolved feelings.

So he blames Ouma, he blames Ouma for some events he was directly tied to, such as Trial Four, harshly. But understandably I think, I mean I'm the author so I might be biased. Nah forget might- I AM BIASED.

Sorry.

So he's a buttface and a bitter emo in their first meeting because he wants just wants Ouma to be this villain in his mind, he wants to think that Ouma wasn't the person who played games with him, the one who claimed to have stolen his heart because then he won't have to feel betrayed and hurt anymore.

But that person who played those games with Ouma...that was Ouma. Not a lie or en elaborate trick, and that's what makes Saihara resolve to change when he eventually accepts that this is just complicated, and just yelling at Ouma isn't going to solve his own problems.

But BOY it will put a bounty on your head! Sorry, Saihara.

Course Ouma ain't gonna take getting slapped around, literally, by Saihara and uses his amazing charm and charisma to take down Saihara since well...it's Ouma, what did you expect him to do?

Ouma who in my version also has conflicting feelings bout our boy Saihara here, but that's actually normal than when compared with Saihara. 

Ouma in my version had a crush/was in love with Saihara during the game, however, in order to complete his plans and due to the trust issues he buried those feelings and made it so that Saihara would hate him by enacting his plan to pretend to be the mastermind.

Well, it worked I guess.

But then everything went horribly wrong because Ouma messed with the Space Boy and Harukawa was like HELL NO! NO ONE GETS TO KIDNAP MY MAYBE BOYFRIEND EXCEPT ME! 

So now Ouma is slowly dying gotta make that plan Z aka worst-case scenario plan and dies, only to wake up and figure out...it failed.

Because Saihara figured it out.

And because Saihara figured it out, it means that everything he worked for, every horrible action he had to do, what he DIED for was for nothing.

So he kind of has some issues.

So with those twos resentment combined we got chapter 15.

Also known as the armageddon

What changed? Will Saihara stop being a female dog? Will we ever get some nice Oumasai its been fifty chapters for god sake Aki! Will Ouma ever get that whole cake?

Probably not that last one. Sorry Ouma.

As for that well I guess we have to see, Saihara is making new efforts to get along with people and make up for what he did to Ouma.

So yeah he won't be as bad.

Key words are as bad.

Sorry mates.

As for Oumasai well- uh...we got some? I mean when Ouma was having a mental breakdown and Saihara was trying to help him get through it?

Plus pregame Ouma and Saihara had their moments. I mean they're kind of dead but they had their moments.

Soooo wait for part three? I might be able to write Oumasai?

I mean there might be a one night stand- OH WAIT I TOTALLY RAN OUT OF ROOM TO TYPE GONNA GO NOW BYE!