History Characters / Dominoes

* ManipulativeBastard: Yuusaku sets people against each other for his own ends, managing to turn Shinichi's friends' genuine care for Shinichi into a tool to control and hurt Shinichi from a distance, seemingly careless of the fact that the fallout of such tactics would inevitably devastate the emotional climate of Shinichi's friend group, the emotional health of everyone he used, and Shinichi himself as long as Yuusaku achieved his own ends. He also deliberately goads people into anger and then uses their subsequent emotions to argue that they're too emotional, irrational, and immature [[LogicalFallacy for their side of the argument to be valid]]. He's seen doing this both in flashbacks and in the present, mostly to Shinichi, but we witness at least one instance each in which Yuusaku also does this to Hakuba, Hattori, and Kaito.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Mostly subverted. Despite being psychologically and emotionally damaged from the abuse he recieves from his "friends" and family, Shinichi never lets it defeat him forever. [[spoiler:It looks like it might at the end of chapter nine, when Shinichi boots up into HeroicBSOD after the confrontation with his father, but even then Shinichi throws himself a line with his [[ExactWords "deal"]] with Hakuba.]] On the other hand, while Shinichi may be managing to hang in there for most o f Part 1, his reactions to interpersonal conflict are ''not'' those of a psychologically or emotionally healthy person.

* CoolLoser: Shinichi implies that he is seen as is this. Despite single-handedly running a fairly famous and accredited news site, semi-regularly being in the news himself for his scoops, easily being the greatest soccer player in the school, and being considered quite handsome, Shinichi believes the student body of Teitan High thinks Ran is too good for him, that they all expect Ran to break up with him for not being good enough, [[spoiler:and that everyone he knows will hate him for breaking up with her and automatically take her side,]] all of which implies that Shinichi doesn't really have any friends in school. It's unclear whether this is an accurate assessment, however, due to this assumption lining up extremely well with Shinichi's insecurities.

* AmbiguousSituation: Though Shinichi believes himself to be a CoolLoser far less liked than those with whom he associates, and thus asssumes third parties around him will always side against him in interpersonal conflicts, it's possible this is another example of Shinichi's nature as an UnreliableNarrator. Shinichi's issues with Hattori and his distancing from Agasa demonstrate that one of the unstated but very clear scars Shinichi bears from his father's abuse is that he seems to expect ''everyone'' to view him as lesser, unworthy, and unimportant, something unfortunately repeatedly reinforced by the fact that the contesting loyalties his father set up drive the people Shinichi loves to choose between them, and they've pretty much always chose obedience to Yuusaku over Shinichi's wellbeing, with Yuusaku thereafter even inciting those close to Shinichi to spy on him. Throughout the story Shinichi seems confused by and distrustful of the idea that people would want to be around him because they actually like him, [[AmbiguousSituation so it's unclear how accurate Shinichi's assessment of his Cool Loser status actually is]]. It's very possible that Shinichi's assumptions about how he's seen by others is a reflection of his own insecurities.

* PlayingWithFire: [[spoiler:As we learn after the fact, Satoshi had powers apparently similar to [[Franchise/FantasticFour the Human Torch]]. When they go out of control due to the Crows' experimentation, he becomes a giant seemingly made of fire.]]

** Yuusaku goes out of his way to make sure Shinichi feels ''worthless,'' up to and including creating competing loyalties with basically all of the people in Shinichi's life so that no one will side with Shinichi over Yuusaku and having all of them try to [[{{Gaslighting}} Gaslight]] Shinichi into believing everything he tries to do without his father's express permission and support is crazy, morally wrong, useless, pointless, and, again, worthless. ** He's called his son's dreams and aspirations "ridiculous" since he was a child, despite supporting others with the same dreams directly to Shinichi's face, and has encouraged others to put Shinichi down for these same aspirations, including Shinichi's peer group and the police.

*** [[spoiler:The most blatant demonstration of all of this behavior is from Chapter 9, in which Yuusaku goes on a [[BreakThemByTalking cold, manipulative diatribe]] about how Shinichi is "useless" and has proven through his acts of rebellion against Yuusaku's abuse that he isn't worth trusting or treating with respect--to Shinichi's face. It's further implied that Yuusaku is using his PsychicPowers on Shinichi during this, as Shinichi not only thinks and behaves in ways that do not align with his normal behavior, but quietly surrenders the evidence he's spent the entire story trying to obtain without being fully conscious of doing this. It also takes Shinichi a full day to begin to shake off the compulsion to view himself as his father described. Yuusaku's interaction with Shinichi here is such a [[MindRape clear-cut mental assault]] that even the most dogmatic of the Irregulars are left in StunnedSilence, only managing to react full minutes after the incident over.]]

* AbusiveParents: Yuusaku goes out of his way to make sure Shinichi feels ''worthless,'' up to and including creating competing loyalties with basically all of the people in Shinichi's life so that no one will side with Shinichi over Yuusaku and having all of them try to [[{{Gaslighting}} Gaslight]] Shinichi into believing everything he tries to do without his father's express permission and support is crazy, morally wrong, useless, pointless, and, again, worthless. He's called his son's dreams and aspirations "ridiculous" since he was a child, despite supporting others with the same dreams directly to Shinichi's face, and has encouraged others to put Shinichi down for these same aspirations, including Shinichi's peer group and the police. Yuusaku's also not afraid to ''force'' his son to behave in the manner he desires, such as when he wipes his son's memory of the previous few minutes and forces him to leave KID's heist and return home like a mindless puppet, after which Shinichi comes back to himself with no memory of encountering the Night Baron but evidence on his camera that he did. It's implied Yuusaku has done this with unfortunate commonality over the years, despite recognizing that this kind of mental coercion is damaging. Further damaging is [[spoiler: Yuusaku's tendency to bury, confuse, scramble, edit, and outright erase Shinichi's memories at Yuusaku's own convenience, taking {{Gaslighting}} to such extremes that Shinichi himself has become an UnreliableNarrator regarding any and all events that occurred prior to the story]]. [[spoiler:But in chapter 9 Yuusaku takes his cake and goes on a [[BreakThemByTalking cold, manipulative diatribe]] about how Shinichi is "useless" and has proven through his acts of rebellion against Yuusaku's abuse that he isn't worth trusting or treating with respect--to Shinichi's face. It's further implied that Yuusaku was using his PsychicPowers on Shinichi during this, as Shinichi thinks and behaves in ways that do not align with his normal behavior, including quietly handing over the evidence he's spent the entire story trying to obtain and keep away from those who would take it from him while not even being fully conscious of doing this. It also takes Shinichi a full day to begin to shake off the compulsion to view himself as his father described. Yuusaku's interaction with Shinichi was such a [[MindRape clear-cut mental assault]] on Shinichi that even the most dogmatic of the Irregulars are [[StunnedSilence shocked into silence]], finally managing to react and breaking into furious conflict over it only full minutes after it's over.]]

* MacGuffinSuperPerson: [[spoiler:As the believed true identity of "Pandora," who is sought after by various parties]].