The Official KS Headcanon Thread

[Liminaut]

The route heavily implies that it's also the anniversary of the fire, even if it doesn't say it.

Does it? As far as I know, the only time it's suggested is when Hisao's speculating, but he himself acknowledges it's not more than that.

When Hisao calls Lilly about Hanako's birthday in Lilly's route, Lilly says that she thinks Hanako's birthday problems have something to do with the fire. As near as I can tell, that's the only connection between Hanako's birthday and the fire.

What I'm taking from that scene is that despite years of strong friendship, Hanako was still withholding a lot from Lilly.

[Valjean Lafitte]

He would probably mellow out after leaving Yamaku.

In one of Cpl_crud's fanfics not only did Kenji totally mellow out, he also married Yuuko and had a kid!

https://cplcrud.wordpress.com/4ls-era-f ... le-part-1/

I know it's not canon, but I like to think that having one of the writers names attached to it makes it at least semi-semi-semi-canon.

Hanako wants interaction on her own terms, but that doesn't mean that exclusion can't hurt her - in fact, exclusion 364 days of the year is part of (most of?) why she has such trouble with social interaction.

That's one of the more frustrating things about Hanako, at least until you get to know her better: that, yes, she wants interaction on her own terms, but no one knows what those terms are. And she has a tendency to assume the worst whenever anyone tries to be friendly to her, which makes her difficult to deal with for people like Miki, who is implied had tried to make friends with Hanako at some point in the past.

[Liminaut]

Speaking of headcanon around Hanako ...

If people being false-faced was enough to give people PTSD we'd all be basket cases. So I'm imagining something much more elaborate than that.

<headcanon>
At the orphanage, the nurses there would first make Hanako write invitation cards to all the other children, thanking them for being wonderful friends over the last year. This despite all the children basically bullying Hanako all year. Then during the birthday itself, she would be the center of attention the whole time. That goes over well. Afterwards Hanako was made to write thank-you cards to all the children.

There may be another aspect to Hanako's birthday depression. She's going to be having survivor's guilt, of course. She may also be thinking that if she was never born, her parents might have escaped the fire.
<\headcanon>

[Munchenhausen]

There may be another aspect to Hanako's birthday depression. She's going to be having survivor's guilt, of course. She may also be thinking that if she was never born, her parents might have escaped the fire.

What I personally think happened, is that Hanako's parents decided to have a small family-only birthday party before her actual official birthday party. Being as their family is so small, it was literally just Mummy, Daddy and little Hana-chan.

With all the lights turned off for dramatic effect, Papa Ikezawa brings the birthday cake through from the kitchen with the candles lit and sings the traditional Happy Birthday song. In the darkness, he accidentally grazes the cake too close past the curtains and it catches fire. Because it was just one of the candles touched the curtain, it was a pretty small fire... Papa Ikezawa does what he shouldn't have done. He underestimates it and nonchalantly walks into the kitchen to get something to put it out with, laughing about the "Big, Bad House fire" whilst Mama Ikezawa shouts at him for being too laidback with something as dangerous as this.
When he returns, the entire curtain is ablaze and much too large for the tea towel he brought to smother it out with.

Upon realising this, he starts to panic. With both mother and father shouting and screaming, Hanako flips her shit and runs upstairs to the 'safety' of her bedroom. Nobody realises she's gone until the whole room in engulfed in flames.
The rest is history.

To this day, Hanako blames herself for the death of her parents because it was her birthday cake that caused it all.

[KSPuff]

With both mother and father shouting and screaming, Hanako flips her shit and runs upstairs to the 'safety' of her bedroom. Nobody realises she's gone until the whole room in engulfed in flames.

That's a pretty good theory for how things played out but I think you overlooked something (if I reading it right).

Hanako survived the fire thanks to the sacrifice of her mother who shielded Hanako with her body against the flames, protecting most of her body.

Here's how I would change the ending just a bit:

At some point during the fight, the mother realized her daughter was missing, went to get her from her room and out of the house. While trying to get Hanako to out of a state of panic, the house started falling flames, trapping them in Hanako's Room. In the struggle to getting into the room and save his wife and daughter, he perished in the fire somehow. Knowing they can't escape, her mother then used her body to protect Hanako until she was rescued.

[brythain]

I think of Hanako as a collateral victim of a hit on her father, who was a white-collar Yakuza professional.
In the words of Miki Miura (in my own Miki arc):

For me it all begins in the streets, sort of. Not a Family princess, me; I’m a cop’s daughter. And my dad, he’s not just a cop, he’s a detective. If people find out, they go, “Hey, you’re like Ibarazaki!” I just smile, my smile that’s hiding bitter and showing funny, and I say, “Naw, that’s not it at all.”

They get all confused and go away. But you know, the Yamaku Foundation is a funny beast. There’s four kindsa people studying there: Family children, cop kids, kids with disabilities, charity kids and such to make up the numbers. It’s not so hard to find people with the same background, except we don’t want to know, and we don’t want to say.

But sometimes, if you’re like Ooe, Inoue or Ikezawa, you have that natural nosiness that lets you see things you wouldn’t normally see. Yeah, I know, Ikezawa’s a saint and so on, but that’s cos she knows and won’t tell. She married what’s-his-face in the end, big win all round, good for her. I’ve always liked her for the fact she keeps secrets well. Did you know who her parents were? Heh, there you go.

Me, I’m Miura’s kid; I’m the one and only daughter of the Nagasaki Fist. Kinda ironic, that. But you’re probably wondering, what’s with all the missing parents in this deal? Now I’m a lot older, it’s easier to tell the truth.

Sometimes, the Families have problems with the older kind of Family. Or with the cops, especially the special units. Things get messy. People die—mysterious fires, drownings, suicides, accidents of all kinds. But all the Families have their idea of honour, and Yamaku is where a bunch of them have decided to park the leftovers, the victims of what they call ‘collateral damage’.

So here’s a secret. The one person who never ever bitched at Hakamichi? Me. I found out her Family, they were the ones who looked after the orphans. And that hard-assed ex-classmate of mine, she’s the best of them now. Gotta give her credit for that.

[Liminaut]

He would probably mellow out after leaving Yamaku.

In one of Cpl_crud's fanfics not only did Kenji totally mellow out, he also married Yuuko and had a kid!

https://cplcrud.wordpress.com/4ls-era-f ... le-part-1/

I know it's not canon, but I like to think that having one of the writers names attached to it makes it at least semi-semi-semi-canon.

My personal term is 'apocrypha'.

[Guest Poster]

There may be another aspect to Hanako's birthday depression. She's going to be having survivor's guilt, of course. She may also be thinking that if she was never born, her parents might have escaped the fire.

What I personally think happened, is that Hanako's parents decided to have a small family-only birthday party before her actual official birthday party. Being as their family is so small, it was literally just Mummy, Daddy and little Hana-chan.

With all the lights turned off for dramatic effect, Papa Ikezawa brings the birthday cake through from the kitchen with the candles lit and sings the traditional Happy Birthday song. In the darkness, he accidentally grazes the cake too close past the curtains and it catches fire. Because it was just one of the candles touched the curtain, it was a pretty small fire... Papa Ikezawa does what he shouldn't have done. He underestimates it and nonchalantly walks into the kitchen to get something to put it out with, laughing about the "Big, Bad House fire" whilst Mama Ikezawa shouts at him for being too laidback with something as dangerous as this.
When he returns, the entire curtain is ablaze and much too large for the tea towel he brought to smother it out with.

Upon realising this, he starts to panic. With both mother and father shouting and screaming, Hanako flips her shit and runs upstairs to the 'safety' of her bedroom. Nobody realises she's gone until the whole room in engulfed in flames.
The rest is history.

To this day, Hanako blames herself for the death of her parents because it was her birthday cake that caused it all.

Except the VN states that the fire broke out when the three of them were asleep. They probably didn't wake up until half the room was already ablaze.

[Valjean Lafitte]

My personal term is 'apocrypha'.

Ah, now that's the word to use!

Someone should collect all the fanfics and apocryphal statements made about KS by 4LS all into one place.

[brythain]

My personal term is 'apocrypha'.

Ah, now that's the word to use!

Someone should collect all the fanfics and apocryphal statements made about KS by 4LS all into one place.

Yes, a subset of the Yamaku Library would be good for one set; the rest are mainly in the Ask thread.

Edit: 'apocrypha' (works containing dubious material) isn't the only word; the other one is 'pseudepigrapha' (works claiming dubious provenance).

[Munchenhausen]

Except the VN states that the fire broke out when the three of them were asleep. They probably didn't wake up until half the room was already ablaze.

Yeah, but that's boring

[bhtooefr]

There's some things in this scene that contradict the released VN, but I use this to form quite a lot of my headcanon regarding the fire, as well as Hanako's core personality traits: http://cplcrud.wordpress.com/4ls-era-fa ... 93-future/

In my headcanon, Hanako takes after her mother quite a lot, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, and the characteristics that made her mother make her life's work architecture are definitely something Hanako inherited. Architecture is something that requires a lot of creativity, yet also the analytical, engineering mindset, and I can see both of those things being reflected in Hanako - although I don't think Hanako will follow in her mother's footsteps, that's not where her passions lie. Also, architecture is an extremely male-dominated space, and it's my headcanon that Hanako got her ability to keep going through life from her mother's stubborn refusal to quit, as well.

[Atario]

a visual novel where all the visuals are indistinct?

A Visually-Impaired Novel

Suddenly, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall several times while trying to choke her. Thankfully, he was yelling at her in a mad anti-medical rant which alerted my parents to what was happening. My father barely managed to stop him as my mother called police were called and, long story short, is currently spending several years in jail for attempted murder. He could chose to going to mental hospital but he took the jail time instead.

Holy fucking shit, dude.

How does he feel about psychotherapists? Because he needs one.

At the orphanage, the nurses there would first make Hanako write invitation cards to all the other children, thanking them for being wonderful friends over the last year. This despite all the children basically bullying Hanako all year. Then during the birthday itself, she would be the center of attention the whole time. That goes over well. Afterwards Hanako was made to write thank-you cards to all the children.

Change "orphanage" to "school" and you may be onto something. I believe she said the orphanage was a fairly pleasant experience for her.

I think of Hanako as a collateral victim of a hit on her father, who was a white-collar Yakuza professional.

Oh, you do not.

[KSPuff]

Suddenly, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall several times while trying to choke her. Thankfully, he was yelling at her in a mad anti-medical rant which alerted my parents to what was happening. My father barely managed to stop him as my mother called police were called and, long story short, is currently spending several years in jail for attempted murder. He could chose to going to mental hospital but he took the jail time instead.

Holy fucking shit, dude.

How does he feel about psychotherapists? Because he needs one.

He considers them the worse doctors of all since they don't do physical work on people. Just screw with their minds to make them think they're people worse than they are while reaping huge profits on sessions and unnecessary pills. I do agree with you but he made his choice in the end.

[Mahorfeus]

I'm gonna say that Kenji is about as harmful as a puppy trapped in a paper bag.

Yamaku is probably his kryptonite. Being trapped in a relatively small community that was predominantly female (if only by a hair) probably made him paranoid. Especially since the entirety of the school government had virtually no male representation. (I do fancy that one fic where Hisao talks him into running for president.) It's particularly telling that Yuuko was not a Yamaku student, meaning that she was basically an outsider. She was outside of the "system," so she could by no means be part of the feminist conspiracy.