History TearJerker / Monark

* Kokoro's backstory is a depressing look into how gifted children, especially ones with {{Ambiguous Disorder}}s, can end up suffering as a result of circumstances, their talents and advanced intelligence be damned. Due to a combination of unresolved personal issues, lack of resources for the ''expensive'' education and support that Kokoro requires, and social pressure from how Kokoro was [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation isolated from her peers because of how much smarter she is compared to them]], Mrs. Surugudai just up and leaves the family, leaving Mr. Surugudai to raise Kokoro alone. Things don't get much better in the friends department: Kokoro had but one friend who tried to reach out to her, but they ended up getting severely bullied and mocked for being so "average" compared to Kokoro, which eventually leads them to stop being her friend. Kokoro's intelligence managed to propel her to a prestigious college overseas in her early teens... but her severe lack of social skills and all the lingering trauma of being so ostracized and isolated, coupled with her inability to read social cues causing all manner of awkwardness and negative interactions, causes her to drop-out, return to Japan, and enroll in Shin Mikado instead. After being so alienated and unable to connect with anyone despite her strong desire to make friends and be normal, is it any wonder that she initially just wants to live somewhere totally disconnected from the world, where she'll never be hurt or hurt anyone again?

!The Pactbearers Outside the True Student Council

!!Irreversible Fidelity (Pactbearers of Lust Arc)

!The True Student Council

* '''Intermission: Dusk''' follows after the depressing conclusion of '''Recurring Twilight''', the Pactbearer of Greed arc, where Sora formally disbands the TSC as the enemy Pactbearers have been dealt with and only the Vice-President, Ryotaro, and Kokoro remain. The Vice-President looks for any way they can avoid fighting each other, but no one is willing to budge an inch. So how does the Intermission end? By trumping Kakeru's death by '''killing off Chiyo'''. The Vice-President is so overwhelmed in grief after taking her to the nurse's office, thinking she's still alive, that he collapses and faints in shock. The scene is made far worse by the fact that the Vice-President's lines are [[SuddenlySpeaking voiced]], and both Japanese and English tracks do a terribly good job at vocalizing just how bad Chiyo's death is hitting them.

!!Kokoro

!!Ryotaro

!!Shinya

!!Nozomi

* It turns out, it's not just the Tono twins who were victims of Haruka's womanizing. One of Haruka's exes confronts him while holding a knife, tearfully begging to know why he broke up with her and asks if she just wasn't good enough or she crewed up (her Alter Ego reveals she even had dinner dates planned for the two prior their break-up and tears up every time she looks at it). Haruka at first tries to make half-assed lame excuses why he suddenly dumped her [[KickTheDog before calling her a nuisance]] to her ''face''. Haruka tries to justify himself, saying it's what his first girlfriend did to him and he doesn't know why he keeps doing it, but Shinya calls him out on it. The worse, more meta part is how realistic this is, as abuse is often a cycle of one abuser creating a victim who eventually becomes a new abuser themselves.

* Remember how, in "Blind Fool's Hope" it was mentioned Nozomi left her best friend for dead? Well, she reveals the incident, and suffice to say, it was equal parts horrifying and AdultFear for everyone involved. Nozomi's best friend, who was the braver and more courageous of the two, went into a park that was supposedly haunted because a bunch of kids bullying Nozomi hid her backpack there. Nozomi waited hours for her friend to return, and when it got dark, she called the police. It turned out the park wasn't haunted, but was inhabited by a serial killer, who murdered Nozomi's friend Hikari. Nozomi blamed herself for what happened, as did Hikari's parents. Is it any wonder she puts herself down or thinks she's a "fake" for trying to emulate her friend?

* During Shinya's route, he finally opens up to the Vice-President about his [[AbusiveParents abusive birth parents]] and all the serious emotional, psychological, and possibly physical trauma they've subjected him to. It all culminates with his birth mother ''literally begging him to ask all of his relatives to adopt him'' "if he cared about" his mother, with all of them declining. As he tries to justify the abuse he's gone through as just his birth parents' way of showing their love, the Vice-President cuts through the cognitive dissonance, leaving Shinya reckoning with the fact that his birth parents never loved him and crying as he asks, was it too much for a child to want to be loved by their parents?

!!Nozomi

** Hayate was once a kind man who wanted to be the sort of man Ryotaro's grandfather Taro was. In pursuit of his dreams, he managed to become the dean of a prestigious academy, only for his family to leave him because of his {{Workahloic}} tendencies. Worse, when he lost his position as dean, he lost all his political clout and contracted a crippling, terminal disease. In other words, in living a selfless life for the sake of others, he had no one when the time came he needed someone.

! The Pactbearers Outside the True Student Council

** Hayate was once a kind man who wanted to be the sort of man Ryotaro's grandfather Taro was. In pursuit of his dreams, he managed to become the dean of a prestigious academy, [[spoiler:only for his family to leave him because of his {{Workahloic}} tendencies. Worse, when he lost his position as dean, he lost all his political clout and contracted a crippling, terminal disease]]. In other words, in living a selfless life for the sake of others, he had no one when the time came he needed someone.

** The Tono twins aren't just women scorned because one got dumped by her first boyfriend and said boyfriend dated her twin sister behind her back without even formally telling her they broke up. [[spoiler:Their father was cheating on their mother, who stayed with him in a loveless, broken marriage. Further complicating matters was the twins developing incestuous feelings for each other, with Akane unwilling to reciprocate and hurting Sumire's feelings when the latter confessed.]] It gets further gut-wrenching when, in Act 2 after having their Ideals shattered, Sumire doesn't remember Akane at all, much to Akane's horror and dismay.
** The Pactbearer of Greed is perhaps one of the most sympathetic of the lot. [[spoiler:Kakeru lost his younger brother when he promised to take him out on a trip, and spent the next ten years of his life working to become a doctor. Upon making a Pact with Avaritia, he wants to use his new power to rewind time to when he could have prevented his little brother's death, even despite knowing that doing so would cover 20% of the world in Mist. The Vice-President asks if there's any way their confrontation can be avoided, but Kakeru states neither one of them is willing to abandon his Ideals and makes it clear to the protagonist he will not go down without a fight. Not that he would have lasted for very long, as Yoru dealt him a severe injury that hampered his fight with the TSC.]]

!! Irreversible Fidelity (Pactbearers of Lust Arc)

* Although he had a better upbringing than Kokoro, Ryotaro's life took a downhill turn for the worst when his mother was killed by a collapsed building. While this would understandably hurt anyone who learned or witnessed this, it was especially worse for him because Ryotaro grew up in a family business that specialized in architecture, and more or less witnessed his family's work claim his mother's. He was raised by his grandfather, who taught him everything he knew and took him around the world, but sometime after Taro Date passed, Ryotaro's father took over the Date Group and began dealing in shady business practices and favoring Ryotaro's older brother over him. Ryotaro was so disgusted by what his father and brother were doing to his grandfather's legacy he made a pact with Gula so he could have the power to oust them from their positions and take back the Date Group himself.

! The True Student Council

* '''Intermission: Dusk''' follows after the depressing conclusion of '''Recurring Twilight''', the Pactbearer of Greed arc, where Sora formally disbands the TSC as the enemy Pactbearers have been dealt with and only the Vice-President, Ryotaro, and Kokoro remain. The Vice-President looks for any way they can avoid fighting each other, but no one is willing to budge an inch. So how does the Intermission end? By trumping Kakeru's death by '''killing off Chiyo'''. The Vice-President is so overwhelmed in grief after taking her to the nurse's office, thinking she's still alive, that he collapses and faints in shock. The scene is made far worse because the Vice-President actually ''talks'' in this scene. His last few lines in the cutscene are fully voiced, and the VA's did a damn good job showing how hurt the poor guy is.

!! Kokoro

* Kokoro's backstory is a depressing look into how gifted children, especially ones with {{Ambiguous Disorder}}s, can end up suffering as a result of circumstances, their talents and advanced intelligence be damned. Due to a combination of unresolved personal issues, lack of resources for the ''expensive'' education and support that Kokoro requires, and social pressure from how Kokoro was [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation isolated from her peers because of how much smarter she is compared to them]], Mrs. Surugudai just up and leaves the family, leaving Mr. Surugudai to raise Kokoro alone. Things don't get much better in the friends department: Kokoro had but one friend who tried to reach out to her, but they ended up getting severely bullied and mocked for being so "average" compared to Kokoro, which eventually leads them to stop being her friend. Kokoro's intelligence managed to propel her to a prestigious college overseas in her early teens... but her severe lack of social skills and all the lingering trauma of being so ostracized and isolated, coupled with her inability to read social cues causing all manner of awkwardness and negative interactions, causes her to drop-out, return to Japan, and enroll in Shin Mikado instead. After being so alienated and unable to connect with anyone despite her strong desire to make friends and be normal, is it any wonder that she initially just wants to live somewhere totally disconnected from the world, where she'll never be hurt or hurt anyone again?