#《mekakushi🐍》

[yumeko2sevilla]

Toxic

[Context; Mekakushi was SA by Yuzu for almost his 3 first months in Night Raven College. And he couldn't say no.]

WARNINGS: SA, Inapproriate touches, Seducing, Heavy topic..

During lunch

Mekakushi: *Eating his lunch when Yuzu comes to sit with him.* Oh-Oh hey, Sakamaki-san...

Yuzu: Aww~ Come on Mekakushi, don't be nervous! *Touches his butt cheeks.*

Mekakushi: *Flinchs.* Please Sakamaki-san.. We're at the campus..

Yuzu: Ooo~ ? Then we shall do this in a more.. approriate way, yes?

Yuzu then kisses Mekakushi in the lips.

Mekakushi: *Stands up and step back.* What.. are you doing..?

Yuzu: Showing to others that you are a slut who can only moan when I snogged you, of course!

Mekakushi: Sakamaki-san...?

Yuzu: *Leans closer to Mekakushi as she squeezes his butt cheeks.* Now, be a good meat and let me use you like the sextoy you're meant to be. Alright~?

Mekakushi: No.. No.. Stay away, stay away from me...

Yuzu: What's wrong, Mekakushi? You're making me sad...

Mekakushi:... I don't-

Yuzu: If you don't want to, then it's fine.. *Fake tears.* I thought we were friends..

Mekakushi: I- *Looks away.*

Yuzu: Then we shall do this, alright?

Mekakushi:... *Grips his pants as Yuzu starts touching his private places.*

@queen-of-twisted @writing-heiress @achy-boo @yukii0nna @abyssthing198

[stepswordsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne Ticket Commission by Mire 🖤💙🐍🐇

Kuroha (Saeru) and Ene Ticket Commission by Mire (@/miremiremire)

Mire's Instagram: (X)

Mire's VGen: (X)

Intro

Dance of Love in the Midst of Chaos (*)

"The world can never tear us apart, we will always meet again." (*)

"I'll let you taste the biting fangs of love, and the intoxicating poison of pleasure…"

"I'll take you even further… I'll push you to the brink, and let you fall with me into the abyss. Ene..."

"Now... Shall we dance again?"

I commissioned KuroEne wearing formal wear in a Gothic ballroom with a Snake and Bunny theme, while they're surrounded by their flowers: Black Higanbana (Cluster Amaryllis) and Blue Star Milkweeds (Tweedia) 🖤💙🐍🐇💐

I asked for Kuroha to be drawn in his Design Poll outfit, and for Ene to be drawn in her Seek at Mekakucity outfit 🥰

I asked for a Snake wrapping around a bunny with hearts, sparkles, and roses, and provided the ticket info, including the seat numbers and quotes.

Thank you to Feila for helping me discuss and come up with ideas 💗 Feila came up with the title (live concert name) and quote used in the commission, which I marked with an asterisk (*)

"Dance of Love in the Midst of Chaos" = Live Concert Name

"The world will never end, we will always meet again" = Quote

I'm glad you were able to share your thoughts with me!

I also thought of using quotes from my KuroEne AU for the commission, but they wouldn't fit, given the space, so I just decided to include them here.

Ene's Mekakushi Dan number code is 6, and Kuroha is known as XX/XXX since he's not apart of the Mekakushi Dan.

So I thought it'd be a neat reference to include in the Ticket info~ The seat/row/gate numbers are a genius combination.

I chose Black Higanbana and Blue Star Milkweeds as KuroEne's flowers based on their Hanakotoba meanings. The colours and flower symbolisms suit them very well. So I asked for them to be included in the comm.

Kuroha: Higanbana - The Flower of Death, Death and the Cycle of Rebirth

Ene: Blue Star Milkweeds - Happy love, hearts that believe in each other

Mire drew both a long and short hair version of Ene's hair! I love both versions, but I love how flowy her hair looks in the 1st one. I feel like it fits very well with the composition.

Mire included Kuroha's yellow circles on the Oshi mark of the snake wrapping around the bunny. Oh my god... I love the inclusion of the thorned roses as well... 🌹

The snakes wrapped around Saeru and the bunnies around Ene... Cute... 🥺

There's SO much detail and effort put into this...

Thoughts

I'm SUPER happy with how my commission turned out! 💗✨ Everything is so breathtakingly beautiful! Mire's art style, colours, rendering, and attention to detail are so amazing! I was awed by how detailed the background is~

My commission is SO stunning! I'm still in awe by the commission! KuroEne look SO pretty in Mire's style! 🥺😭💗💘💞

Mire perfectly captured the couple's themes and expressions 🥺💖 I love how the small chibis on the ticket came out too~

Mire first sent me a message a few days ago to check in with me asking if any revisions need to be made.

Mire was very accomodating with minor colour and detail fixes, such as with Kuroha and Ene's headphones, Kuroha's yellow circles, Ene's digital facial structures, and the snake on Kuroha (which I asked to change from a white snake to a black snake with red eyes)

The changes fit them a lot more so I'm very grateful!

Great communication and very quick with updates. I'll definitely be back to commission Mire again in the future! ✨

Mire seriously outdid my expectations tenfold...

How detailed the gothic ballroom is, the flowers (black higanbana and blue star milkweeds), the snake and rabbit around them, the ticket design with the little chibis, and icon of a snake curling around a bunny…

The ticket design is CRAZY good, along with the colours and rendering OMFG

I wasn't expecting the little chibis… They're such a nice touch

I was so surprised too because the turn around time was way faster than I expected... I sent the comm form around Oct 19

Feila pointed out that event tickets are usually printed on thermal paper, so I'd love to print out my commissions for personal use.

Misc Rambles

OH MY GOD MY HEART JUMPED WHEN I FIRST SAW THE ART

THE DETAIL IS CRAZYYYYY... THE CHIBIS ARE SO CUTE~ THE COLOURS AND RENDERING ARE SO GOOD AND THE FLOWERS AND BGS ARE SO WELL DRAWN!!! I'M OVER THE MOON!!!

I'M GETTING EMOTIONAL 🥹😭💗💘💞🫶✨

THEY LOOK SO GORGEOUS I'M ON THE FLOOR

HELLO I NEED TICKETS PLEASE

KUROENE INVITE ME TO YOUR WEDDING!!! 💥💥💥

ENE MY WIFE!!! MY PRINCESS!!! MY ANGEL!!! 💙💗💘💞✨

I LOVE HOW FLOWY HER HAIR LOOKS

MIRE MADE THEM LOOK SO GOOD THEY'RE SO PRETTY

THEIR EXPRESSIONS AND THE COLOURS AND RENDERING TOO!!!

THE ART IS SUCH VISUAL EYE CANDY...

ENE LOOKS LIKE SUCH A PRINCESS HERE... MY BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS

MY WIFE AND HER CRAZY ASS SNAKE BF

I'M OVER THE MOON ABOUT THIS 😭💗💞💘🫶

I LOVE YOU KUROENE 🖤💙

My Message

This was the message I left for Mire!

KuroEne look SO pretty in your style! 🖤💙🐍🐇 You perfectly captured their themes! I'm so happy with how my commission turned out! 💗💞💘 Everything is so breathtakingly beautiful 💓

The chibis and Snake/Bunny Oshi marks on the ticket are SO cute! The hearts, sparkles, and thorned roses fit them so well! 🌹💖✨

Your art style, colours, rendering, and attention to detail are amazing! I'm in awe by how gorgeous the commission is 🥹💘💞

The colour scheme (black, gold, blue and white colours) harmonize so well in the artwork! I love how you drew their expressions~ The way you draw eyes in your art style is so pretty! 🥰

The background elements, such as the flowers (black higanbana and blue star milkweeds), and golden frames and black gothic ballroom, are so well drawn! 💐

The ticket design is amazing and has such good graphic design. The arts and chosen fonts go so well together! It's honestly one of the most creative commission formats I've seen.

I love both versions of Ene's hair you drew 💙 Thank you for the wonderful commission, and for being understanding with minor detail and colour changes as well! 🙏

I will definitely be back to commission you again in the future! 💗✨

Commission Rambles

Kuroha and Ene's Design Poll outfits by Sayuki

Ene's Seek at Mekakucity outfit by Satou Mahiro

I love Kuroha/Saeru's changshan inspired outfit by Sayuki 🖤💛

Ene's Seek at Mekakucity outfit is so pretty, I just knew I had to commission her in it 💙

You can read more under the cut if you're curious on the ideas that Feila and I came up with! We were coming up with ideas of what should be included in the commission.

We spent 3 days coming up with ideas and discussing the specifics (Themes, Background Elements, Ticket Info, etc.) before I sent the commission form.

Commission Rambles

This was the commission form I sent

Definitely the most detailed form I've ever written

I usually just describe the design details and poses and expressions, and then hand a Google Drive link of visual references. I included a folder of KuroEne's refs, and some photos of the flowers and gothic ballroom as inspiration

I just like to be detailed with my commission forms cuz I find it helps the artist

For the last SS, we drafted ideas for potential flowers, then narrowed it down to the two we chose. So we didn't include it in the final form

Feila mentioned that higanbana are also poisonous flowers... Fitting for a snake 🐍

Higanbana is PERFECT in symbolism for Kuroha/Saeru, especially since Awakening Eyes manifests as black snakes and aura spirals.

The Kagerou Daze VII -from the darkness- illust by Sidu draws him with black aura spirals that coincidentally look just like the spindles of higanbana.

Blue Star Milkweeds and Red Higanbana

Black higanbana doesn't exist IRL, so it's just wilted red higanbana.

I haven't posted it yet, but I'm in the middle of writing a post on KuroEne and Flower Symbolisms (based on my own picks). I mentioned this more in depth there

I considered putting Snake of Clearing Eyes or Saeru, but I feel like KuroEne looks the best as a ship name so I went with that.

The comm form basically describes our ideas. I could talk about our ideas a lot more in detail eventually (but in a different post)

[stepswowdsen]

Kuroha/Saeru Joker Playing Card: Golden Apple Symbolism 🖤💛🐍🃏🍎

The Golden Apple and Immortality

Kuroha Joker Playing Card by Sidu My Edit (Upscaled Version)

Ene and Konoha: 6 and 9

Haruka and Kuroha: Jack and Joker

Glitter Can Badge Merch (Upscaled Versions)

My Icon PFP Edits (OG Colours)

My Icon PFP Edits (Colour Edits)

Kuroha (クロハ), officially known as The Snake of Clearing Eyes (目が冴える蛇, Me ga Saeru Hebi) or Black Konoha (黒コノハ, Kuro Konoha) when possessing Konoha’s body, is the main antagonist of KagePro who causes the “Tragedy” of the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang) members.

Now that we've started off with that little character summary... I've been thinking about Kurohoe again /pos /endearing

Because of course. He's KagePro's main villain and antagonist with a banger design and incredibly interesting to me.

I put the upscaled versions of the KagePro: Playing Cards set above! You can also find it in the Drive folder of my Notion page: (X)

I felt like I should post this today since I have this post already written. I'll post the rest of my JuAli dialogue script ideas tomorrow

The Kuroha Joker Playing Card by Sidu made me wonder about the use of yellow in this illust.

Sidu very well could've used red here for Kuroha's eyes and the apples, cuz Kuroha's eyes can also glow red, as seen in the Outer Science MV. Kuroha's eyes glow red in the last chorus of Outer Science. Eye Ability users' eyes glow red when using their Eye Abilities.

Main Eye Colour (Yellow)

KagePro Wiki Screenshots of the Outer Science MV

Eye Colour (Red)

But yellow has more visual contrast against the dark blacks and grays used in the composition of the Kuroha Joker card art.

Like, I was wondering if she coloured the apples yellow just because it's the same colour as Kuroha's eyes, and if there was any symbolism attached to the Golden Apple.

So I looked it up, and there is. The Golden Apple symbolizes immortality (in Greek and Norse mythology), and it was believed that eating a golden apple will grant you immortality.

Source: (X)

Considering Kuroha's motivations/goals in KagePro, this is interesting.

Kuroha/Saeru, as KagePro's main villain, kills the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang) and wants to make Marry into his new master so that she can use her powers as a Medusa to rewind the world (due to her strong desire to be with her friends again), thus causing a "never ending tragedy" in which he can keep living forever.

KuroEne Rambles 🖤💙

His main goal is to fulfill Azami's first, original, strongest desire, the one that created him - she wanted to know and understand exactly who she was. And by doing this, he can continue to prolong his life by causing the tragedy. He seeks immortality, basically.

Before Ene lost her human body and became Takane, she wanted a body that wouldn't need to eat or sleep in response to her chronic illness that would cause her to fall asleep and faint and feel groggy even if she slept for long hours.

KuroEne technically have a character parallel going on.

Kuroha's Eye Ability is Clearing Eyes (目が冴える, Me ga Saeru)

(Quotes from the KagePro Wiki)

"The Snake of Clearing Eyes seems to hold power over 'knowledge' itself due to the nature of the wish that created it."

"In the Novel Route, Shintaro refers to it as 'a living encyclopedia with a full grasp of everything from the start of civilization up to modern science'"

"The Snake of Clearing Eyes seems to be able to retain memories of past Routes through its power."

Ene has a pseudo immortal body due to her Eye Ability, Opening Eyes (目が覚め, Me ga Sameru). It allows her to split her consciousness from her body. Through this power, she became a cyber being that resides in and possesses electronic devices.

Kuroha/Saeru kills the Mekakushi Dan, Marry's friends, to spur on despair in Marry (due to the Tragedy), and the strong desire to meet with her friends again.

Kuroha/Saeru wants to preserve his own life, by killing Marry's friends and forcing her to rewind (reset) the world back to the very beginning, and live forever through countless routes (infinite, repeating time loop resets), and continue living on, at least until his purpose (of fulfilling Azami's original desire) is fulfilled.

Kuroha and Ene have an interesting character parallel. One seeks immortality, and one has a pseudo immortal body.

The Mekakushi Dan wants a future. And they want the "Tragedy" caused by Kuroha/Saeru to finally end, and for the Snake of Clearing Eyes to finally be put to a stop. And Kuroha robs them of a future.

KuroEne Rambles (Continued)

(Copy pasting these from last time)

As said before, Kuroha/Saeru inevitably has a power imbalance with every character he's paired with (ie. power in terms of physical strength, and power over knowledge), so that's why you NEED to tread carefully with his ships. Imo, it can definitely still be done, though.

That's why making Ene more assertive and dominant in the ship just fits so well with Kuroha/Saeru cuz it helps alleviate the power imbalance slightly and balances it out more

Kuroha's ships have the potential to be really interesting though, when depicted/portrayed with care.

Cuz his character context with being the main antagonist/villain and main source of tension/conflict of the series, his knowledge of the time loops, combined with his S/O's context, and their current and previous loves, makes for such delicious angst fuel

The one who's the main instigator of the "Tragedy" who insists on the inevitability of fate, as someone who was created even before the creation of the world, and has known the world since the very beginning, and possesses knowledge of the many paths that the world has taken throughout all the timelines… The one who's observed the world since the very beginning

And the ones trying to fight back against it and escape the cycle because they want to have a future, past all the tragedy… Ooooogh

ShinAya and Paper Crane Symbolism

It seemed pretty likely to me that the usage of the Golden Apple is intentional in Kuroha's Joker Playing Card art, since KagePro's hanafuda card sets are filled with hidden meanings and symbolisms, like how Ayano's character and the ShinAya ship are associated with paper crane symbolism due to the symbolism attached to the crane, a mystical and holy figure in Japanese culture.

The crane symbolizes healing, loyalty, recovery, and a long life. In modern times, it's given to those who are seriously ill to wish for their recovery.

Senbazuru (千羽鶴, lit. "One thousand cranes") refers to the tradition of folding 1000 origami paper cranes.

It was traditionally believed that folding 1000 paper cranes would make the person's wish come true, so that's why Ayano always folded paper cranes for Shintaro (even taping back his ripped up test papers)

KagePro Lore Context (Summary)

(Summarized from the KagePro Wiki)

Azami is a Medusa, the original creator and Master of all the Eye Ability Snakes. She originally unintentionally created the world with the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes, as a place for her to be able to learn about and understand himself.

Saeru was created by her first, original, strongest desire - she wanted to know and understand exactly what she was. She was also tricked by Saeru into creating the Kagerou Daze, a never ending world.

Azami despaired at the prospect of outliving her human husband (Tsukihiko) and her daughter, Shion, who were human and half-Medusa/half-human respectively.

Saeru told her to create the never ending world, Kagerou Daze, in order to allow her to be with her family forever, but she eventually ends up going into the Kagerou Daze alone because she believed she was bringing misfortune to her family.

Her existence/nature as a Medusa caused humans to fear her as a "Monster" (which led to humans targeting Tsukihiko and Shion as ways to try and hurt Azami)

Saeru detests the world for changing Azami's wish (the one that created him in the first place) of wanting to know and understand exactly what she was, to wishing to be with her family forever.

Because to him, it felt like the wish/desire that had given him life and meaning in the first place had been replaced.

So, everything HE had wanted, ended up coming to fruition. Saeru successfully tricked Azami into entering the Kagerou Daze and trapping her there, since he believes the world is unfit for her.

Centuries later, Azami witnessed Shion and Marry's deaths at the hands of humans in the real world. She ordered the Kagerou Daze (Heat Haze Daze), the never ending world, to take them in and save their lives, because time doesn't flow properly in the Kagerou Daze.

Azami gave Marry the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes, in order to allow her to be sent back to the real world. Azami lost control of the Kagerou Daze after losing the Queen Snake, so the Kagerou Daze now swallows up all people who die on the same day that Shion and Marry did, August 15th.

The Outer Science MV confirms that everytime Marry rewinds the world, it goes all the way back to the beginning. This means that the beginning of each new Route starts with Azami creating the world with the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes.

Misc Rambles

I think I mentioned this before, but that's insane to me... So, does that mean every single Route has to go through thousands or millions of years of history just to get to the modern age???

Dude (Kuroha) must've been having the time of his fucking life... Cuz he knows that as long as he keeps doing this, he can keep on living forever

Especially when there are an unspecified (XX) amount of Routes, aside from the main known ones (ie. Music Route, Manga Route, Novel Route, Anime Route, etc.)

KagePro's present day plot across all Routes starts on the faithful date of August 15th, Kagerou (Heat Haze) Day.

Kuroha/Saeru is so interesting. Kuroha's selfish, twisted, nature and dark urges... A character who's so inherently dark and selfish and twisted like that, manipulative, dangerous, cruel, sadistic, and bloodthirsty, like that...

A completely unapologetic villain who's fun to watch and cathartic. He's definitely one of KagePro's most interesting charas imo.

[yumeko2sevilla]

Mekakushi_ runaway medusa

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ

"When I try, the result was always the same: Failed."

_Mekakushi- the test subject

Full Name: Mekakushi Kisaragi Hirohana

⤿Mekakushi (メカクシ): A name of Japanese origin, meaning 'blindfold.'

⤿Kisaragi (如月): A name of Japanese origin, meaning 'February'. It was supposed to refer to the Kisaragi Station myth.

⤿Hirohana (寛花): A name of Japanese origin, combine between '寛' meaning 'generous, tolerant' and '花' meaning 'flower'.

Japanese: 寛花 如月 メカクシ

Other Name(s):

↳Mekakushi-san/ Kisaragi-san_ By All

↳Little Medusa_By Tsukuyomi 'Shinonome'

↳Kushiragi/ Eki_ By First Years

↳Meka_ By Minako Sakamaki (@/queen-of-twisted)

↳Future Meat / Snake Freak_ By Yuzu Sakamaki (@/queen-of-twisted)

↳Monsieur Serpents / Monsieur Artiste_ By Rook Hunt

↳Sea Lotus_ Shīrōtasu_ By Floyd Leech

↳Child of Afterlife_ By Malleus Draconia

Twisted From: Shimomura Naoki_ Confession_Minato Kanae + Riishu_ The Apothecary Diaries+ Mahiru Shiinai_ Milgram

Voice Actor(s):

↳Japanese_ Shun Horie_ Haruka Sakurai_ Milgram

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Age: 17 (Appearance Wise)_ Unknown

Gender: Non-Binary (He/Him Pronouns)

Birthday: February 5_ Pisces

Species: Undead Medusa

Height: 193 cm

Hair Color: Light (Gray-ish) Red-Pink

Eye Color: Crimson Red

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Homeland:__

Family:...

Dormitory: Ramshackle

Grade: Freshman

Class: 1-A_ No. 28

Club: Art Club

Best Subject(s): Musicology, Alchemy, Art

Hobbies: Drawing, Reading, Hanging out with his friends, Drinking mint tea, Hairstyling, Napping.

Favorite Food: Chocolate Mint Icecream

Least Favorite Food: Meat

Talent(s): Singing, Hairstyling, Multilingualism, Weapon Mastery, Fashion Designing

❝Simply a Medusa that has been running away. A seemingly cold first year of Ramshackle who turns out to be very.. soft.❞

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ───╯

┌──═━┈━═──┐

ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ

Mekakushi.. What a sweet boy he is.

Judging from his whole appearance, you may as well think him like someone who's hard to talk with. In some cases, it's correct somehow but that's the totally different case for him.

..Mekakushi may not be cold. At all.

To people, Mekakushi is a person who keep his voice slienced. But to others who knows him, he is a very naive guy who just want to see the world.

It's just that,, Mekakushi is quite the people-pleaser, no?

Doing others' works and helping people despise he doesn't want to.. That sounds quite uncomfortable isn't it? But to someone like Mekakushi, he has already adapted to this new personality of his. He has grew up like this, after all.

Mekakushi is described to be naive in human eyes. He always finds postive traits of even the worst people around him, even if that payed him a cost. But he seems to apologise often, for what he didn't do.

Mekakushi is very kind. That he gets taken advantage of his kindness by most people around him. Whilist he knew that he was being manipulated, that people were guilt tripping him, he couldn't say 'No.'

And that was a weakness of him, honestly.

Sometimes, Mekakushi felt an unexplainable anger inside him, one that burned his heart up alive.

But he couldn't release that outside. He can't.

†•°•══════ஓ๑✬๑ஓ══════•°•†

✬Unique Magic: Ultamarine Hymm (群青讃歌 )

'Since we've already said farewell to the us of yesterday, only the wonderful world has all the answers in its grasp. Ultamarine Hymm!'

↳ The user is capable of boosting others' UM. When using this ability, a faint blue light will be surrounding allies, that it will expand their UM's ability into someing greater. However, it can also debuff enemies and even the user themselves if they were on the verges of Overblot.

†•°•══════ஓ๑✬๑ஓ══════•°•†

↳Backstory: [TBA]

↳Main Theme: Tokyo Getto • Ultamarine Hymm_ Eve

↳Mekakushi used to be the test subject in the same project KAFU was involved. However, he ran away sooner than them for a month, and then got transported to Night Raven College through a gate.

↳He likes to refer himself as 'Mekakushi Kisaragi' rather than 'Mekakushi Hirohana.' The reason was because due to personal issues regarding his family. However, some said that 'Hirohana' was his mother's name.

↳Being a Medusa, Mekakushi also has the ability to open a timeloop called 'Kagerou Daze.' But until this time, he doesn't know it.

↳Mekakushi was SA by Yuzu Sakamaki multiple times.

↳He can speak Swedish, Japanese, Russian, English, and a few more languages.

↳Mekakushi is implied to have PTSD.

↳He has lifeless and cold eyes. Although that, he seems prefers to act than talks.

@queen-of-twisted @achy-boo @writing-heiress @yukii0nna @abyssthing198

[stepswordsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne/SaeEne 🖤💛💙

【KagePro】 KuroEne/SaeEne 🖤💛💙

【カゲプロ】 黒コノエネ/クロエネ/冴えエネ

My shadow wants to swallow up this dream of yours.

KuroEne was baby Sen's 1st ship that I was OBSESSED with as a 12 year old, and after 10 years, the KuroEne obsession is here to stay.

Snake x Bunny 🐍🐇

Ene's twintails look like bunny ears 💙

I came back to KagePro in April and got obsessed with Kuroha and KuroEne again, exactly as I predicted. Turns out I'm not immune when my meow meow mf gets handsy with my wife.

B*tches when Snake of Clearing Eyes. I'm b*tches! /lh

I first got into KagePro when I was 12 when I watched the Outer Science MV. Sidu's MV aesthetics and Kuroha's design drew me in immediately. Great design and song~

I'm obsessed with Meow meow mf charas. Black and white colour scheme and design aesthetics. Causes problems on purpose. Sen-core bastard cat. Smug chaotic edgy evil asshole character. Violent, unhinged, bloodthirsty and murderous. Arrogant with a huge ego that distances them from humanity (or social interactions).

All of my top fave masc charas are like this. There's literally no one with more obvious and predictable tastes than me LMAO 😭

Kuroha/Saeru, the embodiment of "Knowledge/Wisdom" as a dark evil cunning and malicious entity in KagePro, and the main source of conflict and tension in the plot, is so interesting to me.

With Ene, I'm very enamoured with her chara and design. The way the way she acts so cheery and self-centered in the hopes of Shintaro to open up more, how she wants to be someone else's friend to subside their loneliness, the same kind of loneliness she'd always felt back then… It also feels like over-compensation for her past regrets, wahh, Ene… ;_;

Rough sketch WIPs. I love their expressions here sm~ I started playing around with Gradient Maps cuz I love picking colours. My works tend to lean more saturated with high contrast, so I ended up going with a more saturated palette.

This shows my process for picking colours. The final one I ended up picking is the 1st one. It has a blue hue shift on Ene, red hue shift on Kuroha, and generally more saturated colours and higher contrast. The last one shows the colours I started with.

The more red + purple toned Kuroha has really nice visual contrast against Ene's cool colours (blues) in her design tbh~

I started off with a more muted palette (different from what I'm used to), but ended up going with more saturated colours cuz I think it fit the mood of the piece more. Though I think it'd still be fun to do both a Muted Colours and Saturated Colours version!

These doodles aren't refined, and just me roughly filling in the base colours on my sketches to get an idea of colours. Since Idk when I'll get to refine these drawings and clean up the sketch and lines

Shadow gate to love by Guilty Kiss is sooo Sen ship-core. It basically works for every Light/Darkness, Angel/Devil, and Narrative Opposites ship of mine. Oh baby shadow gay~ 🌈

KuroEne has such a unique context as a ship cuz it uses HaruTaka and KonoEne (my no. 2 KagePro ships), as a basis. Ene has a "special" relationship with the person that Saeru uses as his vessel.

KuroEne is like the equivalent of the evil sleep paralysis demon (in this case, evil sadistic parasitic snake) possessing past love (Haruka), or the person that you're conflicted about, but still have a certain kind of tenderness for (Konoha). Sadistic parasitic evil snake bf and computer virus gf

Ene already gets flustered around Konoha who is airheaded. So with Saeru, the teasing would just be merciless, cuz Ene is easy to rile up. ENE BELOVED…

I'll talk about the setting of my KuroEne AU. I'll put the rest of my rambles under the cut! I copy pasted these rambles from my side blog since it's pretty long.

KuroEne AU: Set-up

Source: KagePro LN: 7 - from the darkness - Colour Illustration Source: Sidu's Mekakushi Dan Members Colour Illustrations

Ok, I'm just gonna ramble about the setting of my KuroEne AU.

I also included a summary for context just in case my non-KagePro mutuals want to tune in to read these rambles.

I just wrote this quickly before I go to sleep. I have more to say but I think this is a good starter.

In official KagePro media, the present day plot starts after 2 years, on the fateful day of August 15th (Kagerou/Heat Haze) Day.

The Kagerou Daze, the never ending world, swallows up people who die on August 15th, and gives those with especially strong desires, who are compatible with an Eye Ability, a substitute life so that they can return to the real world.

In most Routes, Saeru ends up orchestrating Haruka and Takane's deaths. One thing you'll learn about KagePro is that this guy (Kuroha) is responsible for almost everything bad that happens

Because killing them so that they'd come out with an Eye Ability, is a part of his plan to get the rest of Azami's snakes out of the Kagerou Daze and into the real world.

Haruka's death leads to the creation of Konoha, and Takane's death causes her to lose her human body and become a cyber girl named Ene

There are multiple different ways that a KuroEne AU could go, depending on the Route. KuroEne AU Routes are so fun to write, because any time I get a new idea, I can just put into a different Route (timeline) to explore all the "What if" scenarios that don't fit into a single Route.

Kuroha's Plan and KonoEne

Source: @/x0401x

Mekakushi Dan Clear Files: (X)

Normally, the rest of the Mekakushi Dan members meet each other in the present day plot after 2 years, the fateful day of August 15th, the day Kuroha/Saeru plans to kill everyone.

Kuroha/Saeru's plan is to gather all the snakes with a new Medusa in the real world (bringing the rest of Azami's snakes out of the Kagerou Daze to the real world), and killing all Eye Ability users.

Then, he forces Marry, "the next Master," to rewind the world using the power of the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes.

In official media, Kuroha/Saeru usually possesses Konoha's body at the end of a Route on August 15th, the day he plans to proceed with the "Tragedy" and kill everyone.

I imagine that in my KuroEne AU, Kuroha/Saeru possesses Konoha's body MUCH earlier. Like, anywhere within the timespan after Takane and Haruka's deaths (1 - 2 years)

Because of this, Konoha and Ene usually end up meeting and befriending each other earlier. Ene recognizes Konoha as Haruka's game avatar from back then, and mistakes him for Haruka. Konoha asks if she has the wrong person, and Ene gets heartbroken at Konoha's seeming amnesia and inability to remember her.

Ene imposes a sense of distance around Konoha due to her conflicting feelings (he resembles the person she loved but isn't him).

In my AU, KonoEne establish a relationship dynamic of some kind (which varies depending on the Route), which either progresses to an acquaintance-ship, friendship, or intimate relationship.

Kuroha introduces himself to Ene for their first meeting in a Route

Source: Sidu's 2016 Calendar Hanafuda Set

And then, at some point, Kuroha/Saeru possesses Konoha's body. At this point, when he introduces himself and makes himself known to Ene for the first time, he can choose what information he wants to reveal, and how much.

For example, Kuroha can choose if he wants to introduce himself as Black Konoha, and/or "Saeru," or whether to reveal it for later. (And he also chooses whether he wants to reveal his true identity as the Snake of Clearing Eyes.)

Ene later nicknames him "Kuroha" and "Saeru" to shorten the name.

He knows that the 1st one would be more familiar to Ene. To introduce himself with the 2nd one would make Ene more distrusting/suspicious of him.

He most likely doesn't reveal his true intentions (to kill the Mekakushi Dan) so soon, because he knows that if he does, Ene is (obviously) not gonna want to "play the game" (of being intimate with him) anymore, cuz it means that he is literally putting her and her friends' lives in danger.

Though, across multiple Routes, he probably does play around and experiment with the timing of when he reveals certain information, and how much.

I think in most Routes, Ene is suspicious of him at first, and asks about his intentions and what he's really after, and Kuroha/Saeru just tells her that it's too early to say yet, and that she will find out soon.

(Though, Kuroha could probably quell her suspicions with enough convincing, due to the massive amount of knowledge he carries)

KuroEne AU: Context

Source: Mega Man Battle Network 6 (Rockman.exe 6)

In my KuroEne AU, Kuroha/Saeru, who has messed around with human technology and innovation, has been able to develop a humanoid android/robot body with human flesh that Ene can transfer into.

This concept is inspired by Mega Man Battle Network (Rockman.exe), specifically, the NetNavis (humans' companion AIs in this universe) from MMBN/EXE.

NetNavis can transfer into CopyBots (android bodies) for limited amounts of time, to move around in the real world. These CopyBots take the appearance of the NetNavi that transfer into it.

In my KuroEne AU, I imagine it's battery powered, but with every Route, he gets better and faster at making it. Like he improves the battery life over time, so it goes from lasting an hour to lasting a whole day, etc.

According to the KagePro LNs, Kuroha/Saeru has knowledge from everything from the start of civilization...

Shintaro in the KagePro LNs compares Saeru to "a living encyclopedia with a full grasp of everything from the start of civilization up to modern science."

That LN bit confirms that Kuroha/Saeru carries knowledge of the history of mankind and its technologies over (probably) millions or thousands of years.

Especially when scientists have made developments regarding wrapping living human-like skin onto a robot that can heal when cut.

If he carries knowledge from the start of civilization, so much knowledge that it's unfathomable to the average person, then yeah I definitely think he could get it done (especially for the sake of my AU).

KuroEne's Intimacy

Source: (X)

Scan: @/ayara-resara

Kuroha proposes that he has a solution for Ene not being able to move around in the real world, and introduces the little invention that he made, for her to test out, which Ene eventually agrees to, out of curiosity.

Ene feels a sense of gratefulness to him for allowing her to move around in the real world since it gets lonely in the cyber world, not being able to feel or touch anyone on the outside…

Kuroha gets to know and bonds with Ene, anywhere within this 1 - 2 year timespan, and at some point, Kuroha and Ene get intimate with each other.

Ene gives into the sense of longing/yearning that she feels for Kuroha/Saeru, a yearning for warmth and touch after being stuck alone in the cyber world for so long (in spite of everything - if she knows about his true identity at this point), which is in part caused by his vessel (being Konoha, who's in Haruka's body).

Kuroha knows how to react to her and what to say to her and how to act around her due to his knowledge, and so, seduces his S/O and tempts her with carnal pleasures, and they indulge in "the game/dance" of being intimate with each other.

Because Kuroha/Saeru keeps memories of previous Routes, he remembers memories of being with the Enes of previous Routes, and thus, knows how to react to her when talking/chatting with her normally, knows how to appease Ene's behaviours and whims, goes along with what she wants, knows how to get the responses he wants when he wants something from his partner (so he knows how to seduce them), and knows how to satisfy his partner in the context of intimacy.

Because of the knowledge he carries, he knows the context, past, Eye Abilities, vulnerabilities, etc., of every Mekakushi Dan member, and that includes Ene. So he'd definitely know about Haruka and Takane, and Konoha and Ene's context and relationship together.

The person who's her greatest enemy (whether she knows it at this point or not), very literally knows everything about her.

Kuroha's Nature

Source: COSPA - Tsumamare Series (Keychains and Rubber Strap Charms)

Not only does he weaponize Konoha's body by using Konoha's body as a murder weapon to kill everyone at the end of a Route, he weaponizes words, too. Kuroha/Saeru uses "knowledge" as an advantage over his partner, and weaponizes knowledge. Actually staggering advantage. Because he knows almost everything.

Kuroha ships are like the only time I have ships where one party in the ship has THIS much of an advantage over their partner.

Therefore, as I said before, Kuroha/Saeru ultimately has a power imbalance with his partner (any Mekakushi Dan member that he could be paired with).

He has an overwhelming advantage over his partner due to his role (set-up as an antagonist constantly killing the cast) and capabilities. It is ultimately in his favour.

That fact in itself, that the power imbalance exists, isn't inherently a bad thing, it just means that you NEED to tread carefully with portraying Kuroha's ships. I always make sure to depict my ships with as much care as possible, and as healthy as possible.

Ene is one of the characters who is a really good match with him. Because making Ene more assertive and dominant in the KuroEne ship, and making them take turns in leading intimacy, with having Kuroha letting Ene take control through their bedroom intimacy at times, helps alleviate this power imbalance slightly.

Kuroha is literally so fucked up dude cuz even his twisted form of affection that he holds for his S/O (the Mekakushi Dan member who he's paired with), is still in a twisted, selfish, self-serving way.

Due to his twisted nature, he embodies Koi (恋), "Selfish love," "loving someone for their own sake."

Even when he caters to his partner's pleasures, it still ultimately caters to his pleasures the most. That makes him interesting, though. Someone so inherently dark and twisted and sinister, with selfish desires like that… 🥰💖✨

Misc Rambles

So I imagine, in most KuroEne AU routes, he reveals his true intentions either approaching the fated day of August 15th, or right on the day of August 15th.

There's absolutely a sense of betrayal that Ene would feel following the reveal of his true intentions - he built up a relationship with her, on purpose, just to drop the worst possible scenario imaginable.

Like let's be real. The reveal of "I've been killing you and your friends throughout multiple Routes (timelines)" just sounds like a nightmarish scenario, especially if you've been fucking this guy, like come on. 😭

And something that would make Ene get especially pissed at him, is if he decides to reveal that he was responsible for orchestrating Haruka and Takane's deaths in the first place.

(In official media, Ene sees Konoha for the first time, on August 15th, 2 years after Haruka and Takane's deaths)

Though, there are probably KuroEne AU routes where Konoha and Ene don't get the chance to meet each other - Routes where Kuroha/Saeru possesses Konoha's body before the two can actually meet, so when Ene sees who she thinks is "Konoha" for the first time, it's actually Kuroha/Saeru. With this kind of setting, he could even pretend to be Konoha, if he wanted.

And then on August 15th, he proceeds with killing the Mekakushi Dan with sadistic glee (and even his S/O - though if he's feeling nice, then he can spare them, since he doesn't need to kill everyone), and forces Marry to rewind the world.

Thankfully, due to the nature of Ene's body and predicament, she won't feel physical pain when he kills her. And then, a new Route (timeline) begins.

Previous KuroEne Posts

In my new post (this one), I wrote more about the set-up of my KuroEne AU.

My old post has some more rambles regarding some general ideas of my KuroEne AU (since I didn't feel the need to copy paste the same stuff here too)

Shadow gate to love by Guilty Kiss

Source: (X)

These lyrics work so well for ships like LimGuda, XanLena, IdaTatsu, and KuroEne.

The song sung by the sub-unit, Guilty Kiss, in Love Live! Sunshine!! My favourite version of Shadow gate to love is this fan-edit that pitches down the song to match the original voice actors’ voices, compared to their characters’ voices (which are higher in pitch)

Shadow gate to love is sooo Sen ship-core. It basically works for every Light/Darkness, Angel/Devil, and Narrative Opposites ship of mine.

It’s my song to fall back on if I can’t think of any other songs for my ships. I think it fits these 4 the best, though.

Oh baby shadow gay~ 🌈

The lyrics of the song works for all of my meow meow mfs in general.

In KagePro, though, the mention of "Strong scented eyes" takes on another meaning cuz of the emphasis on EYES, particularly the Eye Abilities.

I also love the emphasis on the Light/Darkness aspect and seduction in the lyrics.

KuroEne: Kuroha seduces Ene by tempting her with carnal pleasures, and keeps the secrets of his plan to commit the Tragedy (killing the Mekakushi Dan on August 15th, Kagerou Day) hidden from her. He tells her "beautiful lies" in order to keep up his facade.

He decides to act tamer prior to the fated date of August 15th, catering to her desires and befriending and bonding her and spending time with her and actually getting to know her. They'd do soft and fluffy stuff like go to the amusement park together, play video games together, and eventually, get intimate with each other.

Due to his inherently dark and twisted nature, Kuroha/Saeru prioritizes his own desires and desire for immortality, and constantly keeps causing the Tragedy by killing the Mekakushi Dan, Marry's friends, forcing the time loop resets. He also believes that doing this allows him to be with his partner forever, because he can continue to come and meet them forever and ever.

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne AU: Ene confronts Kuroha 🖤💙

Intro

Kuroha/Saeru + Uroboros Symbolism 🐍

KuroEne AU: Ene confronts Kuroha (Dialogue Scripts)

For the 2nd one, I imagined a scenario where, after Saeru's revealed his true intentions, Ene and Mary sneak into his underground lab and Ene finds his design/plans on the android body he made her and confronts him about his motives. I only posted a bit of it for now

Kuroha/Saeru reminds me of the imagery/symbolism of Uroboros (Ouroboros)

The imagery of a snake devouring its own tail to represent the cycle of destruction and rebirth

I've been meaning to make a post about this but I forgot

I was just thinking of how much this imagery/symbolism fits him...

F: I've heard of Uroboros from a game and the meaning, I never thought about associating it with Kuroha-

Tho it does fit, he destroys the future of the MekaDan and then the rebirth part is Mary reseting the world

Me: Destruction of the eyes at the end of a Route (destruction of the world) and rebirth (world rewinding back to the beginning)

Me: It would be nice to draw him with the Uroboros symbol 💗 I was thinking about how much it fits him with the context of KagePro!

Misc Rambles

When I first came off priv on this side blog, I was debating whether to use hashtags on my ramble posts or not.

I used to be on priv on my side blog cuz I was used to having priv accs for rambles with Twt and Insta, but then I came off priv when I realized how limiting Tumblr priv blogs were.

So I started using Tumblr as a public archive to remind myself of which rambles I've posted on my socials, since I copy post the rambles from my Notion docs

At first I was wondering whether to tag my posts (doodles or rambles) or not, but whenever I tried searching for stuff to ref old posts, I couldn't find them even with key words

I mainly started tagging my posts cuz Tumblr's search function was so dogshit I couldn't even search and find my own posts without them

Tumblr's search engine is ASS without hashtags

So I started using them to sort my interests and ref my posts

Ig the other option would be saving the links in a Notion doc and putting a header of what the post is about

Quote Bots

Me: Douman (FGO) and Idate (WATGBS AU) taught me that cannibalism can be a metaphor for intense love (in fiction) 👍

Me: OMG. LIMGUDA??? THIS QUOTE BOT FUCKS

THIS IS ALSO SO KUROENE OMG

I NEED TO CAPTION A LIMGUDA AND KUROENE ART POST WITH THIS

C: OP of this bot: Haha Cannibal gay esque quotes go brr

You, an intellectual: My demon meow meows are resonating with this

Me: 👍

Basically before Twt's bot API died, some accounts were gathering their favourite quotes from poets and literature and such, to post as tweets. And people would QRT with the quotes that vibed with their fave characters/ships

Not only LimGuda, but ngl this quote also fits sooo perfectly with KuroEne cuz of the symbolism of Uroboros, a snake always swallowing its own tail.

"Ouroboros (Uroboros): a circular symbol that depicts a snake or dragon devouring its own tail and that is used especially to represent the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth"

Which is exactly what Kuroha/Saeru's role is by destroying the "Eyes" (killing the Mekakushi Dan who are represented by their Eye Abilities) and forcing Mary to use her powers as a Medusa to reset the timeline, causing a never ending time loop tragedy (hence, an eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth)

I first saw the Uroboros symbol in KHR with Mammon when I was 11

It reminds me of how in KHR, Mammon, who is the Mist-flame Illusionist of the Varia, has Fantasma as their frog familiar but it turns into a snake swallowing its own tail when Mammon uses their powers to fly/get more serious with their powers

Also FMA as well

F: I wouldn't call this cannibalism, just endless physical mess 😭 The fact both the moebius strip and Uroboros represents "endlessness" really shows a lot

Me: Oh yeah I meant that just in general, the quote bot mainly posts Cannibal/Ship esque quotes

KuroEne Dialogue Scripts

KuroEne AU: Kuroha joins the Mekakushi Dan and pretends to be one of them, and proceeds with the plan to kill everyone on August 15th. Mary and Ene are the only ones left and team up against Kuroha. They sneak into Saeru's underground lab, trying to come up with a plan. Ene finds his designs and plans on her body while searching through his lab and confronts Kuroha when he finds her, and Kuroha tells her how he gave her everything she wanted.

These are still WIPs but I was thinking of something like this

Not the whole thing obviously, cuz this Route is REALLY LONG. This is a snippet of KuroEne's exchange

...

KuroEne AU: Mary and Ene team up against Kuroha. Ene confronts him when they’re alone together

So I imagined this scenario would happen when Ene confronts Kuroha. Basically, Ene stalls for time while Mary goes to search the other rooms, and Ene asks him everything she's wanted to know that he kept a secret from her up until this point

(The details of his android body, how he made it, his goals/motives, why he chose to do all of this and play the game with her, etc.)

Kuroha decides to indulge her curiosity & give her answers since it's the grand finale (of their game)

Me: Was watching recent FGO story - Ordeal Call 3 (OC3) so I got inspired to write this

F: SHE CLAPPED BACK

Clock that snake

Even Kuroha brings up the fact he did give her everything she wanted

I've always HC'ed that KagePro takes place during 2014

Me: That fact's pretty much deniable. He made all her wishes come true, even if it came at a heavy cost

Yeah I imagine it probably takes place around 2010s - mid 2010s

F:

Your KuroEne AU Final Route idea of Kuroha being a helper for the Kozakura family would be such a good idea of him being able to move onto the future together, despite him revealing his evil intentions

The idea of Kuroha living along with the MekaDan and the rest of the world…

F: That's when KagePro started anyway ✨

...

Yeah I honestly think this would be the perfect ending for them

Though some things need to get fleshed out since HaruTaka are supposed to reunite in the end

It'd be nice if he uses his knowledge of tech to make a body for himself to inhabit

Maybe this time he can live out his life/existence putting his knowledge to good use instead as a guardian figure to Azami/Mary's family

Though admittedly, I'm much more interested in the XX amount of Routes in a KuroEne AU than the Final Route

Since I like exploring their endless possibilities. But a good end for KuroEne is fun to think about

F: True, KagePro doesn't end

Let them keep being reunited in multiple routes until the world ends, which is impossible-

Me: The world being constantly rewinded to the beginning means they'll get to meet again forever and ever ✨

F: Infinite sex glitch wtf 😭

Me: If I were to do a Final Route for KuroEne, I'd have to come up with a less stupid way for him getting defeated

One that's actually feasible, and not bland/boring/generic/badly written like MCA was

No way would the "embodiment of knowledge" get defeated by the power of friendship so easily…

Though right now I'm more interested in writing many KuroEne Routes

F: DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE.

Me: He's going to hang onto his concept of eternity as much as he can

The only solution that I can see for this is that Kuroha uses his knowledge of tech to occupy an immortal body himself, (maybe HaruTaka gets reunited?), but he makes himself an Ene to be with

F: My guy coded a robot girlfriend props to him 😭😭

...

Also let's be fr, Kuroha would like being called "evil" and "the most evil person in the entire world" by Ene. Because it's an acknowledgement of him and his true nature

He had been pretending to be nice up until this point for the sake of the game, but Ene acknowledges him by calling him by his true name (after he's revealed all his cards and true intentions/betrayal)

He'd take it as a compliment. He'd be especially delighted at being called "the most evil person in the whole world..." It's an ego boost for him lmao

(Just gonna use this for phrasing cuz it's hard to put a defining term on their r/s in my KuroEne AU)

Like their r/s in my KuroEne AU is like lovers in a way...? But it's really messy

...

Me: Oh one thing I thought about is that he'd like getting called evil by Ene. He'd take it as a compliment. Especially getting called "The world's greatest evil" and "An evil monster"

F: I KNEW IT

Like it's an ego boost for him

"I'm so evil even my wife calls me evil I'm so good at being evil-"

Me: RIGHT

He'd brag about being evil and how they can't kill/defeat him

"Look at me I'm so evil even my wife calls me evil!"

(I'm evil and in your way)

Trying very hard to Impress gloat/call attention towards him

It strokes his ego

Me: I was debating whether I should use the term "Evil to Humanity" or "Threat to Humanity" but that's specifically a FGO term for Beasts

The Beasts in FGO are beings that manifests as calamities that threaten human history (and represent mankinds' greatest Sins/flaws)

Me: So I didn't want it to be too on the nose. It would fit him tho

Me: Especially for him to be called "The world's greatest evil" like he'd be smug at Ene saying there's no one more evil than him

F: It's like her admitting that's he's good at being evil 😭

Tbh he'd laugh at every negative comment she makes about him

Me: Like he'd be like "My cute cheeky wife is calling me evil wwww"

"Doesn't it prove how good I am at it?"

F: Him proposing to Ene in the middle of this mess would be funny to imagine (idk why I just came up with that) 💀

Me: HWHDHSHDS IT WOULD BE

Like in a lighthearted casual way

His form of "marriage proposal" would be like "I may have killed all your friends (collateral damage who cares), but I gave you everything you wanted, didn't I?"

/lh /j

KuroEne Rambles

KuroEne is one of my top fave ships (I tie all of them as no. 1), but I definitely do approach them differently from my other faves.

KuroEne is my case study ship like it's fascinating to me

I'm studying them like a hamster spinning on a wheel

My mad scientist brain (or maybe Kuroha/Saeru's mad scientist brain?) is going off the rails /lh

Every other fave ship of mine, I want them to be happy. My ship AUs are generally fluffy and focused on the ship and their character interactions and intimate moments and them spending together. Building moments of emotional rapport.

It isn't KagePro without tragedy y'all 👍

So that's why KuroEne's relationship ends up being super angsty (angst up the wazoo). I mainly write fluff for my other ships, but I clearly have a lot of fun writing angst too

It's inevitable with Kuroha's character that his ships would all be tinged in tragedy/angst

Once my faves are past the initial animosity/hostility, getting to know each other, I could definitely see my other ships in actual romantic relationships. KuroEne is different though

I see them as the type that's not really in a usual romantic relationship, but that they will meet and cross paths with each other and meet and engage in intimacy with charged sexual tension.

My ship AU for KuroEne is focused on their character interactions and intimate moments too, but for KuroEne, I want their infinite XXX amount of Routes to keep on going forever so I can keep writing their endless possibilities cuz it's so fun to think of

All the different outcomes with them fuels my creative juices (irt art and writing)

There are some ships where I'm like "I don't think of them in terms of being in a usual romance/relationship, I just think they're interesting"

And yeah. KuroEne engage in intimacy, but their r/s would be soooo complicated and messy, and that's what makes it fun.

Like I ship KuroEne mainly because they're my faves and cuz I think their dynamic/relationship potential would be interesting to explore.

I also love that Ene is really confrontational and aggressive and assertive with him (but would still be able to have a certain tenderness/softer side towards him too in their interactions)

Cuz imo KuroEne works better as a ship than KuroTaka. Their personalities mesh better together

KuroTaka still works but even though Takane/Ene are the same person, KuroTaka has much more personality clash.

She would react differently to him as Takane and clash way more with him (bite heads and get really aggressive and violent wtih him)

KuroEne is more appealing cuz their personalities balance each other out rather well. KuroTaka's personalities together is much more imbalanced

I have more thoughts on this, but, Haruka is the perfect counter to Takane, and Kuroha is the perfect counter to Ene (who has trouble being honest with her feelings and desires)

He is generally knowledgeable and good at reading people and figuring them out/their emotions/desires...

KuroEne is a different case from my other ships tho because of Kuroha's role/setup as the instigator of the time loop tragedy constantly killing the cast who retains the knowledge/memories of previous Routes...

So in these XXX amount of Routes, they get reset back to 0 at the end, everytime, and then they meet again... And so the cycle of eternity continues. And Saeru remembers all these encounters.

Their relationship is filled with conflict and tension, desperation, love, obsession, passion, yearning, desire, attachment.

KuroEne is definitely different from my other ships, cuz, in the context of a ship AU, Kuroha/Saeru loves mainly for his own sake due to his nature and selfish, twisted desires. The emotions are real, but it lacks pure, genuine love.

I imagine that the KuroEne AU started cuz he wanted to prove his theory that humans will do anything for love.

Irt how the KuroEne AU starts

He first questions humans' desire for love (that he probably mistook as lustful pleasure) then he decided to test his experiments on Ene (due to his vessel). Takane/Ene is more affected by Haruka & Konoha than anyone else. And that's how he comes up with the whole idea of the "game" with her, their trysts. And that's when he approaches her with the proposal to make her a body...

He pulls off his elaborate scheme in the most roundabout convoluted way, lol

One that he presents to the other party as being an equal trade, but ultimately benefits himself, mostly.

When he proposes the game to her, he makes an unfair trade that mostly benefits him the most, but he sees it as fair because it "benefits both parties" and the benefits/advantages of his game far outweigh the collateral damage

He considers it fair because he gives his partner everything they want... But he robs them of a future at the end.

Though it is true that Kuroha/Saeru grants all of Ene's wishes in their relationship... He caters to her wishes and appeases her personality and whims, takes her out wherever she wants, gives her gifts, and love and affection...

Kuroha gives her everything she wanted (even if it comes at a heavy cost)

That heavy cost being - He kills everyone at the end.

He gives her everything except for what she truly wants (getting to move onto the future with everyone and have a happy life)

And he gets to satisfy his desires for accumulating more knowledge (with getting to build the android body and improve on it)

It's filled with a very ILL affection, cuz he is at his core, ill.

Even Douman can be very genuine/show more tender sides...

When he reveals himself to Ene, the betrayal's gonna sink in... Like, if you spend that much time getting to know someone then the betrayal from him revealing his true intentions is gonna be devastating

I imagine they were basically living together for 1 - 2 years in one of Kenjirou's spare homes so they're constantly around each other

I imagine that he genuinely enjoyed his act of playing pretend with his S/O (and to the rest of the MekaDan, if he decides to join them and act nice) and enjoyed the time he spent with them, and that's exactly why he won't give it up.

Like...... He's gonna push back against the idea of Ene proposing moving onto the future with everyone as much as possible for the sake of his own immortality (above all else), and then, on a secondary level, for the sake of the game - the love that's keeping him fulfilled and fueling his obsession

I wrote dialogue scripts for this up above - Kuroha/Saeru immediately pushes back against Ene's ideas/notions of moving on with everyone (what he deems as foolish)

Though said dialogue scripts are still a WIP

Like. No. He gets everything he wants this way, why should he give that up and settle for anything less?

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 -from the darkness- 🖤💛🐍

Doodles

Outer Science is the 14th song of the Kagerou Project series, and Kuroha's main appearance. You can check out the Outer Science MV here!

Intro rambles

Kuroha/Saeru (Me ga Saeru Hebi, "Snake of Clearing Eyes") is my fave KagePro chara. Murderous mad man!

Inspired by the Outer Science MV, and my fave Kagerou Daze (LN) cover: Vol. 7 -from the darkness-

I'll clean this up later 🙏

Outer Science: Intro rambles

This rearrange cover ft. Kagamine Len is my fave Outer Science fan-cover~ I honestly prefer it over the OG cuz the tuning is better and the adlibs and robotic tones/voice effects really add sm. Has so much more oomph than the OG.

Ty vgperson for carrying the Vocaloid, KagePro, and RPG Maker games communities. Their TLs are so good.

KagePro: Intro rambles

KagePro is a multimedia project/franchise that originally started as Vocaloid songs. It also has a light novel, manga, and (shitty) anime adaptation. These music videos would tell the story of a group called the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang), teens who died on August 15th and entered the never-ending world called the Kagerou Daze (Heat Haze Daze) and came out with an eye ability.

Kuroha (Dark Konoha) or The Snake of Clearing Eyes (Me ga Saeru Hebi), is the series' big bad antagonist. He is one of Azami's snakes who possesses humans' vessels. He usually possesses Konoha's body, and kills everyone in the Mekakushi Dan to force Marry, the current holder of the Queen Snake (and granddaughter of the original Medusa, Azami), to reset the timeline, thus, forever repeating the "never ending tragedy."

I'm still amazed by Sidu's MVs. Outer Science is still my fave KagePro song and MV. Sidu's art style is so nice and their MVs are gorgeous. Sidu really appealed to my aesthetic tastes when I first saw this MV in 2013 as a 12 year old, I was immediately enamoured with it. They have such great aesthetic sense.

The colours and chosen visuals… How every single scene has so much attention to detail and connects to the story…

My origins with KagePro

I first got into KagePro when I was 12, so Kuroha was my 12 year old self's big fave~ KagePro was my kid self's first fandom interest.

12 ~ 16 y/o me was OBSESSED with this mf and the KuroEne ship 😭 Ene my wife… 🥺💙 Cuz I shipped them when Kuroha was originally thought to be a dark alter ego of Konoha/Haruka. That got debunked but the ship brings such great angst fuel

The Kuroha liker in me coming out with the unhinged anime man / meow meow mf core taste, HAHA.

I love smug evil bitches with black/white design aesthetics 🐈‍⬛ I love his expressions ✌️ And Kuroha has a great song and MV too~

The Kuroha (2013), Saeran (2016), Judar (2022) pipeline!

Art Inspiration

I did a quick Kuroha doodle. God the lowkey buff-ification is happening just like with Unknown/Saeran, but oh well LOL

Oh I think I also want the KagePro LNs 🙏 Sidu's gorgeous Kagerou Daze VII (7) cover with Kuroha on the cover 🖤💛 This will always be my favourite cover. Sidu's art style is IMPECCABLE I love their aesthetics sm… The pose and blood splatters and Kuroha and Azami's expressions… AHHH IT SLAPS SO HARD

I thought of a composition where all the "Keep out" tapes bind around his hands and arms just like in the LN cover.

It's based on the "Welcome to my womb" (Youkoso waga tainai he) line in the Outer Science MV and my fave Kagerou Daze (LN) cover -from the darkness- 🤭✨

I remember drawing fanart of it when this LN first got announced and came out in 2016, but my old art looks like frigging doodoo so I did a quick doodle redraw of it. I wanna draw JuAli, Saeran/MC, and KuroEne, soon, but grrr school!

Sen's KuroEne AU 🖤💙

The first ship I was obsessed with as a 12 year old was KuroEne cuz it was based off the popular fan-theory that Kuroha was a dark alter ego/corrupted form of Konoha, and so, that would've given the ship a connection (due to HaruTaka and KonoEne)

It got debunked by MCA (Mekakucity Actors), the KagePro anime, in 2014, since Kuroha was revealed to be Saeru, the Snake of Clearing Eyes, so ever since, I preferred dealing with KuroEne in lighthearted AUs instead.

But I also like thinking of KuroEne in canon-verse angst AUs where Kuroha messes around in the routes (timelines) and pretends to be Konoha. He decides to befriend the Mekakushi Dan members before k*lling them this time, and Ene projects her feelings for Haruka and Konoha, onto Kuroha (who she thinks is Konoha…)

2 years ago, before Ene lost her human body and became a cyber girl, she was Takane, a special needs student who had a chronic illness that would cause her to constantly faint and feel tired no matter how much she slept.

She was put in the same special needs class as Haruka, her friend and classmate who she eventually fell in love with. She never got the chance to tell him her feelings before she died. When she entered the Kagerou Daze and gained an eye ability, she gained a body that never needed sleep in response to her wish back when she was alive.

Haruka was an artist, and designed game avatars for them back then - Ene and Konoha. In the present day, 2 years later, when she meets Kuroha, she recognizes his appearance, and thinks he's Konoha. After seeing Kuroha, who she thinks is Konoha, she's surprised to see "Konoha" in the flesh...

In my KuroEne AU, Ene thinks that Kuroha is Konoha with Haruka's memories, because Kuroha/Saeru remembers previous routes (timelines) and thus knows her true name (Takane) and context.

I'm insane LMAO. I love angst!

I'm just thinking about how much I mellowed out over the years, cuz my ship AUs for LimGuda (Douman/Ritsuka), IdaTatsu (Idate/Tatsumiya), XanLena (Xanxus/Selena), JuAli (Judar/Alibaba), etc., are super fluffy and focused on the characters' relationship development and moments of emotional intimacy, building rapport and connection... These AUs are overall happy/have a happy ending! I want my faves to be happy <3

But the ship AUs I made when I was a kid, like for KuroEne (Kuroha/Ene), were angsty as hell. I think it's just cuz Kuroha's setup and role in KagePro's plot, as the big bad murderer that kills the entire Mekakushi Dan, just makes it so that any KuroEne AUs (and Kuroha ships in general tbh), that take place in canon-verse, will always end tragically. Good thing I still got it in me to be able to write angst/tragedy... hehe.

Ofc, I will delve into light-hearted AUs with them too that take place outside of canon~ I want to write/draw KuroEne in a much more fluffy and lighthearted setting too.

My fave screenshots from the Outer Science MV!

[yumeko2sevilla]

Masterlist

"Now, now welcome to my Station."

─────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────────

⤿ OC contents

__Yukiharu Shirokami_ Outsider Of Wonderland

Yukiharu's Old BIO

Yukiharu's Updated BIO

Shirokami Lore/Content

Tags:

#yukiharu shirokami / yukiharu🌧️_ All Yukiharu Shirokami contents

#shirokami family_ All Shirokami Family contents

__"Kuemori 'Yukikaze' Aoi"_ Observant Conductor

'Kuemori''s BIO

'Kuemori''s Lore_Contents

Tags:

#kuemori aoi_#kuemori❄_ All Kuemori 'Yukikaze' Aoi contents

#<conductor's stories>_ All Kuemori 'Yukikaze' Aoi Lore contents

__Erin Asakura_ Cybernetic Compass

Erin's BIO

Erin's Lore_Contents

Tags:

#erin asakura🎤_ All Erin Asakura contents

#the virtual journey_ All Erin Asakura's Lore contents

__KAFU_ Hermit Wanderer/ Secondary Prefect

KAFU's

KAFU's updated BIO

KAFU's Family Tree

Tags:

#kafu☄️_ All KAFU contents

#hermit family_All KAFU's Family contents

__Irene Anasaki_ Eyes Of The World

Irene's BIO

Irene's Lore (WIP)

Tags:

#irene anasaki👁️_ All Irene Anasaki contents

#favoring stories_ All Irene Anasaki's Lore contents

─────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────────

⤿ TWST AUs

Project:Mirage Masterlist (WIP)

Monochromatic Dreamers (WIP)

TWST Time Loop AU (WIP)

TWST Rumors AU (WIP)

Twisted Sacrifices AU

─────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────────

⤿ Other OCs

Kotoha Shirokami neé Hakurei #kotoha✂️

Divianta

Tsukuyomi

Soraru Shirokami

Anonymous Dreamcatcher

Amaterasu

Asterine Marlais #asterine🌨️

Inazami Hitoriyama #inazami📷

Hibiki Yamashita #hibiki🎈

Marianne Ayamary #marianne🌂

Namiya Sunoberu #namiya🎶

Yurei Hajimari #yurei🦊

Chifuyu Hakaine #chifuyu🖌

Koyuki Amemiya #koyuki📖

Riliane Campanella_Mirai Onizaburo#riliane📜_#mirai🕛

Mekakushi Kisaragi #《mekakushi🐍》

─────────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────────

⤿ Stories Cybernetic Aquarium

⤿ Series: Kizuna Memories _Masterlist.

(Pixel banners: @arcdiris

Profile Layouts heavily inspired by @rosietrace)

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne Doodle WIPs + Kuroha teases Ene (NSFW) 🖤💙

KuroEne WIP 🖤💙

Ok this one isn't NSFW but there are a few I did in the batch that is so watch out

Chose a more muted colour palette than I usually would

Did these yesterday!

Wanted to do a quick rough colour draft to get an idea for colours...

I'm not sure when I'll get to refine this (clean up the sketch) but it's one of my fave drawings I've done so I wanted to add quick colours on it

Picked a muted colour palette for Kuroha and a more vibrant colour palette for Ene so I think I need to coordinate the colours later

First one's the OG

I'll probably do both a muted + saturated colours version

I'd have to mute the colours on Ene for a muted version

(+) Slight hue shift on Ene

KuroEne doodle version where I brightened the colours on Kuroha

I actually got to record me doing the rough colour drafts for this one, I just haven't edited it yet. I'll be posting the Speedpaint sometime soon?

(CW: NSFW)

Kuroha teases Ene with a forked snake tongue.

Heehee ty everyone! 🥰

KuroEne Doodle (NSFW)

KuroEne doodle. Evil snake bf and smol bunny 🖤 💙 🐍 🐇

After my gardening class ended, I started thinking of how Kuroha/Saeru, while possessing Konoha's body, could use Konoha's Eye Ability, Awakening Eyes to change his body to whatever he wants and… yeah.

The evil snake bf changes his body so that he gets a long forked tongue, fitting of a snake

The Ene is based on this 😂 Did it in like 5 minutes and I started laughing to myself

Kuroha is usually referred to as "No. XX" in merch (while Konoha is No. 9, and Ene is No. 6)

No. XX feels like teasing his gf who has twintails that looks like bunny ears!!! 🐇

Also as said before, "XXX" sounds like an innuendo

Btw I drew this lil doodle because I wanted to do a comic based on my previous ideas

Drew this yesterday night~

I didn't get the chance to draw the whole thing, but here you go.

I imagined a comic idea in my head where Kuroha uses Awakening Eyes to change his tongue into a longer forked snake's tongue and teases Ene with it

Long Version:

Posted about it here!

Short Version:

THE ENE IS SO FUNNY TO ME WHDSHHSDH LIKE IT FITS HER PERFECTLY

Her twintails do look like bunny ears...

KuroEne Rough Colour Draft Tests

OG

(+) Hue shift on Ene

(+) Red Hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Gradient map that increases saturation of the skin and darkens the colours slightly

(+) Brightened colours on Kuroha

(+) Brightened colours on Kuroha

(+) Red hue shift on Kuroha

I got to test these today!

(+) Red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Light purple (Multiply Layer Mode) @ 40% Opacity that darkens the colours a bit on KuroEne

(+) Red hue shift on Kuroha

(+) Brighter colours

(+) OG but with slight red hue shift on Kuroha

I've been having fun playing around with colours, seeing which layers to turn off and such.

I've been playing around with Gradient Maps and Hue shifts and slightly different colours

The purple/red toned Kuroha one is also really nice cuz it has nice visual contrast against all the cool colours (blues) in Ene's design

Red vs. blue contrast <3

Plus, it fits Kuroha to be tinted with red...

Outer Science MV

Considering the shots in the Outer Science MV that's tinted in red and he smears the Mekakushi Dan members' blood over his face

It's so neat that Sidu chooses the shot to be red with black for visual aesthetics

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne and KonoEne Rambles 🖤💛💙

✨ Sen's Resources ✨

Made a Notion page. It's a Drive folder that contains resources for my various interests. It contains scans, doujinshi pictures, fan-made colour edits of official art, upscaled images, etc. I'll be adding to it whenever I get time~

I made a Google Drive folder to put my KagePro resources (upscaled versions, edits, eventual scans) in that my mutuals can have access to! I'll be cross-posting it to my socials.

I'm not done adding to the KagePro ones yet for now cuz there's literally sm to go through. I'm prioritizing archiving 9/6 and all related ships (Takane/Ene x Haruka, Konoha, Kuroha) due to my favouritism. My wife Ene and her Haruka lookalike harem 🖤💛💙

And KHR has endless merch that releases almost daily. So this will be an archive over time 🙏

I think most of Magi's official arts are scanned online, so for FGO and Magi, I'll mainly be putting LimGuda and JuAli's ship doujinshi that I've collected from EA/JP artists, eventually.

Outer Science MV: Comparison

Original MV

KagePro Wiki

"Welcome to my womb" (Youkoso waga tainai he) "Love and ego's final destination" (Ai to ego no shuuchakuten)

Original MV

KagePro Wiki

"Lives, give praise; (Oukashiro yo seimei yo) As love and ego press hands together" (Ai to ego no gasshousai)

Outer Science (Original MV): (X)

Outer Science (English Fan-Translation by vgperson): (X)

Rambles

The KagePro fandom wiki has clearer screenshots than what I can get from the Outer Science MV... I ripped the YouTube videos myself, but comparing the screenshots, they're lighter and clearer than the Original MV posted online...

The only thing that makes sense to me is if the people managing the Wiki (who are also the main scanners/archivers in the KagePro fandom) have access to the Mekakucity V's Blu-ray/DVD that contains the original KagePro Song MVs, and that the Blu-ray (BD) edition has colour corrections applied to it to make certain details easier to see

Like you can actually see the straps on his sleeves, the lines and colours, and the cracked glass texture that's overlayed on the entire MV, much better

The Original MV posted online is already in HD but I imagine it has to be compressed for web upload? It makes me so curious about the Blu-ray cuz the Blu-ray versions would definitely have them in the highest quality possible. Ultra HD.

It's lighter so you can actually see the lines/details better on his clothes (like you can see the lines of the straps on his sleeves) and the details are much clearer

I recently got my hands on Sidu's artbooks and the Mekakucity V's Blu-Ray through secondhand resellings, so I'm SO excited for when it finally arrives <3

KagePro Playing Cards by Sidu 🖤💛💙

KUROHA JOKER CARD OH MY GODDDDDDDDD 🃏💖

The composition in this is so cool... It sucks we don't have this in HD... This will do, though 👍

I knew my fave was jester themed. Another evil gay jester for the bag! <3

Ene matching with her bfs~~ All three of them! 🖤💛💙

Ene = 6

(Mekakushi Member no. 6)

Konoha = 9

(Mekakushi Dan member no. 9)

Haruka = Jack

Kuroha/Saeru = Joker

Icons Credit: @/lowenklasse

Idk how people are making Kuroha PFP icons with this art cuz the preview's rather small but the composition and expressions are so good in this...

Love you bizz natch~ 🫶🖤💛🐍

You have the coolest art compositions in KagePro

Also DMM region locking who can view the previews to JP only users??? Bruh... Ig I can use a VPN later

KuroEne/KonoEne: daze MV Outfit Charms 🖤💛💙

Sidu's Artbook Scans Credit: @/ayara-resara

Mekakushi Dan (and Secondary Charas) Concept Arts by Sidu

Takane, Haruka, Konoha, and Kuroha Concept Arts by Sidu

Sidu's Artbook Scans Credit: @/ayara-resara

Takane/Ene and her bfs. All three of them 🥰🖤💛💙

NOT RIGHT NOW BUT JUST WAIT UNTIL I EDIT KUROENE NEXT TO EACH OTHER... 🙏💘💞

My ship logic is that I don't need my ships to be canon to be king 👑

I know what they are in my heart 🫶💗

Also looks like concept art Ene had one thigh high longer than the other? They're symmetrical (black thigh highs with a blue dot and line) in her current/finalized design

Kuroha's Concept Art by Sidu (My Edit)

I did a quick edit of OP's scans and edited Kuroha's clothes just for fun

I also edited out the note Sidu made that marked the height of Kido's older sister, Rin, who is 165 cm

Takane/Ene = 157 cm (5'1") Haruka, Konoha, and Kuroha/Saeru = 182 cm (6'0")

It was a manual edit I did using CSP's Copy Stamp tool

You can select an area and copy the pattern to do touch ups. It works great.

Depending on the art, Kuroha's either drawn with all black colours that are the same colour, or black outer clothes and a collar, inner shirt, and boots that are a darker black.

I personally prefer the 2nd (with the inner clothes and his collar and boots being darker) cuz it adds more visual contrast to his design, which uses mainly black, gray, and yellow colours.

KagePro Playing Cards: Upscaled Versions (My Edits)

Upon further inspection, I looked at the Kuroha Joker card PFP icons and saw that it must've been from the DMM image preview cuz there was still a bit of the grain/pixelated-ness, just blurred

So I think I know what they did. They upscaled the image so that it gets the image in higher resolution. It blurs the lines subtly, but it reduces noise (smooths out the grain/pixels on the image). It must be the same method that manga scanners use to upscale manga.

Ok, I got it now 👍

Kuroha Joker Card (Upscaled Version) 1160 x 1160 px (OG) -> 2320 x 2320 px (Upscaled)

I made a Google Drive folder to put my KagePro resources (upscaled versions, edits, eventual scans) in that my mutuals can have access to! I'll be cross-posting it to my socials.

I also upscaled more arts! You can check it out in the KagePro Drive folder. Link is at the very top.

[stepswowdsen]

Intro

Your posts were really interesting to read!

Didn’t have the time to reply to this last night so I definitely wanted the time to write a proper post about it.

I wrote this post back when I used to be on priv on my side blog, but I came off priv when I realized how limiting Tumblr priv blogs were, so I didn’t really pay attention to some of my old posts.

I definitely would’ve edited the OG post to add onto my rambles otherwise, but I guess I can do that now.

Things I wanna talk about:

Kuroha/Saeru: Golden Apple and Silver Branch Symbolism

Ene’s Iron Cheeks (Digital Structures)

Kuroha/Saeru’s Similarities with Tamamo Vitch Koyanskaya (FGO)

Kuroha/Saeru: Golden Apple and Silver Branch Symbolism 🍎🌿

This time, I also want to note the usage of Golden Apples and Silver Branches in the Kuroha/Saeru Joker art.

These links also note the symbolism and associations of Golden Apples and Silver Branches. These symbols are sometimes paired together, too.

Silver branches are a symbol that represent “entry into the Celtic otherworld (land of the deities and possibly also the dead)” in Celtic mythology

The last link describes "Entry into the Celtic otherworld without dying" (Couldn't fit it due to Tumblr's image limit)

"The golden apples hidden/stolen by a monstrous antagonist" is also interesting to think about 🐍🖤💛

The mention of the world of rebirth after death also reminds me of the existence of the Kagerou Daze, though Tír na nÓg was described as a paradise. The SS below describes other Otherworlds as having “horrible shapes”

Apple: Knowledge, wisdom, immortality, temptation, the fall of man, sin, forbidden fruit (evil)

Golden Apple: Immortality, selfishness and distraction, lust for the impossible and transitory (immortality and beauty), greed

Silver Branch: Entry into the Celtic Otherworld (Tír na nÓg)

Golden Apples: (X) (X)

Apples: (X)

Silver Branches: (X)

Celtic Otherworld: (X) (X) (X)

...

It’s true that Saeru gained the pseudo immortality that he wanted with his “creations” Konoha and Ene, since he is directly responsible for causing Haruka and Takane’s deaths in most Routes.

Saeru managed to create someone immortal by killing Takane, so that she could gain an Eye Ability and become pseudo immortal in her new digital cyber body as Ene…

Saeru also ensures Konoha’s creation in most Routes. While it’s not the explicit pseudo immortality that Ene has, Konoha counts too.

Saeru can use Awakening Eyes to make his body pseudo immortal, by his own words.

Ene’s Iron Cheeks

Mekakushi Radio

Shintaro: So what are Ene-chan’s cheeks made of?

Ene: They’re iron.

Shintaro: Eh……?

Ene: They’re iron. My cheeks are made of Iron.

...

メカクシラジオ

シンタロー：エネちゃんの頬っぺたは何でできてるんですか？

エネ：鉄です。

シンタロー：え……？

エネ：鉄です。鉄でできてます。

Quick TL by Sen (@/stepswordsen)

I was trying to fact check first, because I was so confused whether Ene’s cheeks are made of iron (metallic element) or steel (alloy of iron and carbon).

In Mekakushi Radio, Ene makes a joke that her cheeks are made of iron (鉄, Tetsu)

See the whole translation here by Yuurus (@/fuyuyuu)

Source: (X)

OP interprets it as a Fate/stay night (F/sn) parody. I’m not sure if Ene is actually serious or just joking, but I'll assume Ene is telling the truth.

It comes from Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Archer EMIYA’s Noble Phantasm chant, Unlimited Blade Works.

EMIYA:

Steel is my body and fire is my blood (English)

My blood is of iron and my heart of glass (Literal English)

血潮は鉄で心は硝子 (Japanese)

Chishio wa tetsu de, kokoro wa GARASU (Romaji)

Source: (X)

Word used for iron:

鉄 (Tetsu, “Iron”)

Words used for steel:

鋼鉄 (Koutetsu, “Steel”)

鋼 (Hagane, “Steel”)

鋼鉄 (Koutetsu, “Steel”) contains the kanji for Iron 鉄 (Tetsu, “Iron”) since Steel is made of Iron.

After seeing Ene’s cheeks get described as 鉄 (Tetsu, “Iron”), I’m going to proceed with the assumption that it’s iron. In the literal sense, it’s iron. (Also considering the UBW chant)

鉄 (Tetsu) specifically means “Iron,” referring to the chemical element, according to Kotobank, a JP dictionary. 鋼鉄 (Koutetsu) and 鋼 (Hagane) are the main words that specifically mean steel.

KuroEne AU rambles with Feila

I also chatted with my mutual, Feila, about this, so I’ll quote their rambles too.

Me:

Kuroha/Saeru: Gold

Ene: Iron

F: She's a virus, it's definitely metal at some point

F: I'm sensing something... And Ene can only be killed off if the current device she's in is destroyed. Kuroha loses sentience when everyone's wish is granted.

Me: Yeah. KuroEne has a character parallel going on irt immortality.

Gold and Iron...

Saeru’s actions ended up creating someone with an immortal body (Ene), and someone who has the capability to be immortal due to his powers (Konoha)

That’s why I’m curious about the symbolism of Gold and Iron. Wonder if it has any thematic significance but I can definitely run with it.

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, and stronger than Iron.

F: Sharpness of body and mind, but Ene has a digital body, sadge

Me: Yeah and “sharpness of body and mind” is more Saeru's thing.

Regardless, iron formed on one of his “creations” → Ene

Me: I think there’s plenty to be said about how Kuroha/Saeru wanted immortality and Ene (and Konoha) are the results of those aspirations.

F: “Longevity”

Me: “Wisdom” and “Transformation” fits Kuroha/Saeru so well considering his knowledge with Clearing Eyes and him being able to change his body with Awakening Eyes. Also “Power” and “Longevity” with his superhuman strength in Konoha’s body, and longevity with how he seeks immortality.

Me: As I said in my OG post, Gold apples also represent immortality. And also, the usage of silver branches, paired with golden apples, in that art…

Kuroha/Saeru: Golden Apples (Knowledge, Wisdom, Immortality, Temptation, Sin, Evil, Selfishness, Greed)

F: So it’s iron then? Iron iron iron... whatever I'll call it Fe

F: KuroEne: Gold and Iron (FeAu)

F: It'd be cool if underneath the iron cheek things, there are actually snake scales.

Me: Omg… Reminds me I was wondering if Ene’s digital structures are digital representations of snake scales, or if there are snake scales under there…

F: Haruka/Konoha/Kuroha’s dot circle facial markings and Ene’s digital structures… I see you 👁️

Me: For Haruka/Konoha/Kuroha, the dots are on the face near the eyes, in the same place as Haruka’s mole originally was. For Ene, her digital structures are on the cheeks… And then Azami, Mary, and Kuroha/Saeru’s MR2 form have snake skin scales on their face/cheeks…

F: Potential fanon-verse KuroEne fan-child design idea, I'll take it

F: The little bunny is done being a little bunny 🔪

Me: Is the “little bunny” (Ene) actually hiding snake skin scales? Or are her iron cheeks the digital manifestation of those scales?

Snatching from my notes again

Takane's Gamer Name:

Takane's full online gamer name was “Lightning Dancer Ene” or “Dancing Flash Ene” (閃光の舞姫・エネ, Senkou no Maihime - Ene), where Maihime (舞姫) means "Dancer girl.” The name “Ene” comes from “Enomoto Takane”

Dancing Girl (舞姫, Maihime, lit. "Dancing Princess")

Kuroha/Saeru's nickname for Ene in my KuroEne AU:

親愛なるウサギちゃん (Shin'ai naru Usagi-chan; "[My] dear/beloved [little] bunny/rabbit")

I chose "My dear little bunny/rabbit" or 親愛なるウサギちゃん (Shin'ai naru Usagi-chan; "[My] dear/beloved [little] bunny/rabbit") as Kuroha's nickname for Ene because she has twintails that look like bunny ears.

But his chosen nickname is definitely on purpose on his part, because bunnies are the prey of snakes, and he is the hunter (predator animal). So it still ends up playing up to his ego. 🐍🐇

...

F: About the symbolism of Iron tho…

F: I’m so confused about the word usage 😭 Is it iron or steel?

So that kanji alone means Iron then?

Me: Yeah I trust a JP dictionary like Kotobank that pulls from multiple JP dictionaries

F: It's just Ene being asked about her cheek things 😭 Is it safe to assume it’s Iron?

Me: YEAH IKR…

Me: Yeah I'm not sure if, in general, in translations, people tend to use 鉄 (Tetsu) to refer to steel (or metals in general) in casual convos, even though it’s actually iron in the literal sense.

Or using 鉄 (Tetsu) when they actually mean 鋼鉄 (Koutetsu). Or if it's just because steel is the most common usage of iron. Steel is one of the most common iron alloys.

Iirc, when referring to the metals specifically, 鉄 (Tetsu) should be used to specifically refer to Iron, and 鋼鉄 (Koutetsu) and 鋼 (Hagane) should be used.

Me: Now looking at things, like the UBW chant, I’m gonna proceed with it being iron in the literal sense

KuroEne AU: A Snake’s Sense of Smell

Me: Just gonna snatch this from my KuroEne AU rambles where I was discussing with Feila about my KuroEne AU route where Kuroha makes an android body for Ene (cuz his knowledge far surpasses regular humans) and indulges in the “game” with her.

Mary and Ene are the only ones left alive at the end of a Route and team up against Kuroha/Saeru to try and fend him off. MaryEne run away and retreat to come up with a plan to defeat him, find his plans (designs and sketches) of Ene's android body, then confronts him at his underground lab.

I’m mainly just including it cuz of how, with the fanon ideas that I came up with, how he could theoretically use the Awakening Eyes ability in my KuroEne AU works, to an extent beyond what’s shown in canon.

I took creative liberties for my own AU writing, since I wanna expand on characters and their relationships past what canon shows.

Using Awakening Eyes to rebuild his body and enhance it (ex. Giving himself a snake-like sense of smell in his humanoid body so that he can hunt “prey”)

Using Awakening Eyes to shapeshift into others (ex. Saeru leaves Kenjirou’s body earlier in my KuroEne AU, so he can just use Awakening Eyes to take his appearance to not cause suspicion, and create multiple fake identities to manipulate people to amass power and resources)

(I don’t see the need to write all this again so I’m just copy pasting it from our chats)

Me:

(Kagerou Daze: Ch. 66)

Kuroha: The Awakening skill... Lets me build the body I want. If I want to be immortal, I can be. If it's power I'm after, I can rip through anything... And if I want a body that no force can bind...

F: Shit is so stiff but love the dialogue here

Also he isn't wrong, Awakening Eyes can rebuild itself forever and ever so he's technically immortal, it's the fact that he'll lose sentience once all wishes are granted that makes him mortal or "temporary"

Idk—

Me: Yeah I hate how stiff and undynamic the manga art is… GOD ADHSHDSHDSH

The art looks so boring to me.

Me: Ok I just searched it up

Me: Oh, I underestimated a snake’s sense of smell. Ok but imagine Kuroha/Saeru with a forked snake tongue. That would be cool

Yeah especially since Awakening Eyes can make the body into “whatever the owner finds to be ideal.” If he wants a body that’s able to have the same heightened sense of smell that a snake can, then he can do that.

(Kagerou Daze Manga: Ch. 63)

Me: I saw MR2 Kuroha/Saeru sniff the air in Ch. 63 when he enters the MekaDan's base, so he definitely has a much stronger sense of smell (as a Snake possessing a human vessel) compared to a regular human.

He can also modify his body however he wants with Awakening Eyes to be able to make it stronger, so he could also make his sense of smell stronger as well

He sniffs the air when he crashes into the MekaDan’s hideout. He was probably trying to see if the Dan was hiding anywhere so he could hunt them down, and then realized they weren’t there and that the Dan used Concealing Eyes to help leave the vicinity. So he most likely has the heightened smell of a snake that can smell from FAR distances away.

Me: Kuroha is the one who made Ene’s android body in my KuroEne AU, which I imagine has self-healing human flesh on the outside (similar to IRL scientists’ advancements in creating robots with self-healing skin).

Since he’s the embodiment of knowledge, his creations would be much more advanced, since he has knowledge from the beginning of civilization up to modern science

F: Since Awakening Eyes fixes the body molecule by molecule, then changing his range of scents can actually work, implementing a snake's organs onto a human body.

F: Also for that last part... oh Ene, my brother 😭

Me:

Ene: WHY IS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU JUST A RECIPE FOR DISASTER!?!?!? (//>~<//)

F: Fuck, Ene has the most detectable smell due to that

A mix of metal and flesh would have a unique smell, and it'd be easier to find her too

He’d recognize the smell cuz it’d be familiar to him

F: Knew it. Molecule by molecule…

Me: I don’t think he even needs to change his organs since he can just use Awakening Eyes to wish for a body that can smell just like a snake

Me: Embodiment of knowledge/wisdom, shapeshifter (basically) who’s able to change his body into whatever he wants using Awakening Eyes, superhuman strength, can use Awakening Eyes to adjust his 5 senses and body too, etc. This is such a disaster set-up for the KuroEne AU Route I’m writing where MaryEne team up. I’ve written a lot for it, but I just haven’t posted most of it publically.

Me: And now, this begs the question of whether Concealing Eyes can manage to prevent someone like him from detecting scents, cuz I have no idea, it’s not stated. Is it only visibility related or does it work on the 5 senses too?

F: For [how he deflects] Mary's Eye Abilities... I'm guessing it's during while he's bounded, since with that he can fix both his organs and body parts and make it stronger so he could move again.

Cuz with Awakening Eyes, he can heal himself or rebuild the body to enhance it immediately

Me: HHHH YEAH LIKE HE CAN JUST HEAL THE BODY IMMEDIATELY. Like how he gets hit by a landslide in MR2 but just quickly heals the body with Awakening Eyes

Me: Also. Does his accumulation of knowledge apply to languages too? Like he MUST know the ancient language that Azami wrote in in her journal (that Ayaka was somehow able to read, to her own disbelief)

Me: Saeru tells Azami in MR2 that he’s the Ability that grants her her “wisdom”

I don't have this volume in JP yet but I wonder if the OG has it as "Knowledge"

(Kagerou Daze: Ch. 37)

KuroEne AU: Using Awakening Eyes to change into someone

KuroEne AU discussions with Feila: Route where MaryEne team up to try and fend off Kuroha after he's killed everyone and sneak into his lab to confront him and come up with a plan

I hadn't gotten the chance to post it yet but Feila and I came up with the idea that Kuroha could just use Konoha's Eye Ability Awakening Eyes to temporarily turn into Ene, then make it so that his body can shed off self healing skin (and any parts he needs). Then it makes making her android body infinitely easier cuz he'd have all the parts needed to make her body.

Kuroha is so fucked up but that makes him interesting so I say let him be. He's so fun to write for 👍

Cuz Awakening Eyes allows the owner of the body to make it into their "ideal body" and make it whatever they want. So he can do this, replicate it, and keep regenerating himself. And knowing this mf, he'd probably shed off his own skin from his body too to use as part of Ene's android body.

I want Ene to sneak into Kuroha’s lab and find his designs of the sketches and plans on her android body, and confront him about the creation of her android body (his motives/plans), why he made it, the reasons for his indulgence in their “game,” and all the parts he designed and added for his “pleasures,” etc.

Then I want him to be like, “Should I show you how I made your body?” :)

Then he just uses Awakening Eyes to turn into her (temporarily), using Awakening Eyes to give him a body that can shed off self-healing human skin like a snake, then shows her the process of a “snake shedding skin” (bits of skin cells falling off him and multiplying) right in front of her, and anything that falls off of him, regenerates on its own on his body.

And when he’s done showing her, he then changes back to his usual form as Black Konoha. He tells her that he added his own skin cells, etc., to use as part of her body, too.

Kuroha: You were made from me, and the unison of our parts, therefore, we are one ❤️

Kuroha/Saeru and Koyanskaya

This reminds me that I had a long KuroEne AU post where I mentioned Kuroha/Saeru’s similarities to Tamamo Vitch Koyanskaya (FGO), since they’re both animal beings who are close to nature, born from “the manifestation of a concept,” and have a contradictory nature of love for humanity (since they both hate and love humanity)

Koyanskaya tells the FGO protag's party everything she finds loathsome about humanity, and their virtues and vices.

They (Saeru and Koyanskaya) also utilize and weaponize mankind's technologies (ex. weapons of slaughter) better than any human can. Mocking the failures of others, just like a human would.

They acknowledge humanity’s vices and everything that makes them deplorable, while loving them (specifically their foolishness), are entertained by them, and enjoy tormenting them for fun as a pass-time out of bloodthirst and sadistic amusement.

They still have their own form of love for humanity (no matter how twisted that love may be)

Because in the end, humans are still animals that exist as part of nature.

Koyanskaya: A Nature Spirit born as an incarnation of the thoughts and feelings of animals persecuted by mankind

Saeru: Born from Azami's very first and strongest desire to know and understand herself

You can make parallels with Saeru and Koyanskaya since they were both born from the “manifestation of a concept”

Conceptual beings (animal beings) who are close to Nature and detest the world/humans but also love them in a way that threatens humanity (and/or humanity's existence)

I wanted to talk about Saeru and Koyan more but this is getting long. The contradictory nature of their love (hating while loving) is very human in itself.

Sources

History of the origins of the Kanjis of certain Metals

Source: (X)

Kotobank (JP dictionary)

Source: (X)

JP Stack Exchange

The 2 different ways to say Steel

Source 1: (X)

Source 2: (X)

Kuroha/Saeru Joker Playing Card: Golden Apple Symbolism 🖤💛🐍🃏🍎

The Golden Apple and Immortality

Kuroha Joker Playing Card by Sidu My Edit (Upscaled Version)

Ene and Konoha: 6 and 9

Haruka and Kuroha: Jack and Joker

Glitter Can Badge Merch (Upscaled Versions)

My Icon PFP Edits (OG Colours)

My Icon PFP Edits (Colour Edits)

Kuroha (クロハ), officially known as The Snake of Clearing Eyes (目が冴える蛇, Me ga Saeru Hebi) or Black Konoha (黒コノハ, Kuro Konoha) when possessing Konoha’s body, is the main antagonist of KagePro who causes the “Tragedy” of the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang) members.

Now that we've started off with that little character summary... I've been thinking about Kurohoe again /pos /endearing

Because of course. He's KagePro's main villain and antagonist with a banger design and incredibly interesting to me.

I put the upscaled versions of the KagePro: Playing Cards set above! You can also find it in the Drive folder of my Notion page: (X)

I felt like I should post this today since I have this post already written. I'll post the rest of my JuAli dialogue script ideas tomorrow

The Kuroha Joker Playing Card by Sidu made me wonder about the use of yellow in this illust.

Sidu very well could've used red here for Kuroha's eyes and the apples, cuz Kuroha's eyes can also glow red, as seen in the Outer Science MV. Kuroha's eyes glow red in the last chorus of Outer Science. Eye Ability users' eyes glow red when using their Eye Abilities.

Main Eye Colour (Yellow)

KagePro Wiki Screenshots of the Outer Science MV

Eye Colour (Red)

But yellow has more visual contrast against the dark blacks and grays used in the composition of the Kuroha Joker card art.

Like, I was wondering if she coloured the apples yellow just because it's the same colour as Kuroha's eyes, and if there was any symbolism attached to the Golden Apple.

So I looked it up, and there is. The Golden Apple symbolizes immortality (in Greek and Norse mythology), and it was believed that eating a golden apple will grant you immortality.

Source: (X)

Considering Kuroha's motivations/goals in KagePro, this is interesting.

Kuroha/Saeru, as KagePro's main villain, kills the Mekakushi Dan (Blindfold Gang) and wants to make Marry into his new master so that she can use her powers as a Medusa to rewind the world (due to her strong desire to be with her friends again), thus causing a "never ending tragedy" in which he can keep living forever.

KuroEne Rambles 🖤💙

His main goal is to fulfill Azami's first, original, strongest desire, the one that created him - she wanted to know and understand exactly who she was. And by doing this, he can continue to prolong his life by causing the tragedy. He seeks immortality, basically.

Before Ene lost her human body and became Takane, she wanted a body that wouldn't need to eat or sleep in response to her chronic illness that would cause her to fall asleep and faint and feel groggy even if she slept for long hours.

KuroEne technically have a character parallel going on.

Kuroha's Eye Ability is Clearing Eyes (目が冴える, Me ga Saeru)

(Quotes from the KagePro Wiki)

"The Snake of Clearing Eyes seems to hold power over 'knowledge' itself due to the nature of the wish that created it."

"In the Novel Route, Shintaro refers to it as 'a living encyclopedia with a full grasp of everything from the start of civilization up to modern science'"

"The Snake of Clearing Eyes seems to be able to retain memories of past Routes through its power."

Ene has a pseudo immortal body due to her Eye Ability, Opening Eyes (目が覚め, Me ga Sameru). It allows her to split her consciousness from her body. Through this power, she became a cyber being that resides in and possesses electronic devices.

Kuroha/Saeru kills the Mekakushi Dan, Marry's friends, to spur on despair in Marry (due to the Tragedy), and the strong desire to meet with her friends again.

Kuroha/Saeru wants to preserve his own life, by killing Marry's friends and forcing her to rewind (reset) the world back to the very beginning, and live forever through countless routes (infinite, repeating time loop resets), and continue living on, at least until his purpose (of fulfilling Azami's original desire) is fulfilled.

Kuroha and Ene have an interesting character parallel. One seeks immortality, and one has a pseudo immortal body.

The Mekakushi Dan wants a future. And they want the "Tragedy" caused by Kuroha/Saeru to finally end, and for the Snake of Clearing Eyes to finally be put to a stop. And Kuroha robs them of a future.

KuroEne Rambles (Continued)

(Copy pasting these from last time)

As said before, Kuroha/Saeru inevitably has a power imbalance with every character he's paired with (ie. power in terms of physical strength, and power over knowledge), so that's why you NEED to tread carefully with his ships. Imo, it can definitely still be done, though.

That's why making Ene more assertive and dominant in the ship just fits so well with Kuroha/Saeru cuz it helps alleviate the power imbalance slightly and balances it out more

Kuroha's ships have the potential to be really interesting though, when depicted/portrayed with care.

Cuz his character context with being the main antagonist/villain and main source of tension/conflict of the series, his knowledge of the time loops, combined with his S/O's context, and their current and previous loves, makes for such delicious angst fuel

The one who's the main instigator of the "Tragedy" who insists on the inevitability of fate, as someone who was created even before the creation of the world, and has known the world since the very beginning, and possesses knowledge of the many paths that the world has taken throughout all the timelines… The one who's observed the world since the very beginning

And the ones trying to fight back against it and escape the cycle because they want to have a future, past all the tragedy… Ooooogh

ShinAya and Paper Crane Symbolism

It seemed pretty likely to me that the usage of the Golden Apple is intentional in Kuroha's Joker Playing Card art, since KagePro's hanafuda card sets are filled with hidden meanings and symbolisms, like how Ayano's character and the ShinAya ship are associated with paper crane symbolism due to the symbolism attached to the crane, a mystical and holy figure in Japanese culture.

The crane symbolizes healing, loyalty, recovery, and a long life. In modern times, it's given to those who are seriously ill to wish for their recovery.

Senbazuru (千羽鶴, lit. "One thousand cranes") refers to the tradition of folding 1000 origami paper cranes.

It was traditionally believed that folding 1000 paper cranes would make the person's wish come true, so that's why Ayano always folded paper cranes for Shintaro (even taping back his ripped up test papers)

KagePro Lore Context (Summary)

(Summarized from the KagePro Wiki)

Azami is a Medusa, the original creator and Master of all the Eye Ability Snakes. She originally unintentionally created the world with the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes, as a place for her to be able to learn about and understand himself.

Saeru was created by her first, original, strongest desire - she wanted to know and understand exactly what she was. She was also tricked by Saeru into creating the Kagerou Daze, a never ending world.

Azami despaired at the prospect of outliving her human husband (Tsukihiko) and her daughter, Shion, who were human and half-Medusa/half-human respectively.

Saeru told her to create the never ending world, Kagerou Daze, in order to allow her to be with her family forever, but she eventually ends up going into the Kagerou Daze alone because she believed she was bringing misfortune to her family.

Her existence/nature as a Medusa caused humans to fear her as a "Monster" (which led to humans targeting Tsukihiko and Shion as ways to try and hurt Azami)

Saeru detests the world for changing Azami's wish (the one that created him in the first place) of wanting to know and understand exactly what she was, to wishing to be with her family forever.

Because to him, it felt like the wish/desire that had given him life and meaning in the first place had been replaced.

So, everything HE had wanted, ended up coming to fruition. Saeru successfully tricked Azami into entering the Kagerou Daze and trapping her there, since he believes the world is unfit for her.

Centuries later, Azami witnessed Shion and Marry's deaths at the hands of humans in the real world. She ordered the Kagerou Daze (Heat Haze Daze), the never ending world, to take them in and save their lives, because time doesn't flow properly in the Kagerou Daze.

Azami gave Marry the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes, in order to allow her to be sent back to the real world. Azami lost control of the Kagerou Daze after losing the Queen Snake, so the Kagerou Daze now swallows up all people who die on the same day that Shion and Marry did, August 15th.

The Outer Science MV confirms that everytime Marry rewinds the world, it goes all the way back to the beginning. This means that the beginning of each new Route starts with Azami creating the world with the Queen Snake, Combining Eyes.

Misc Rambles

I think I mentioned this before, but that's insane to me... So, does that mean every single Route has to go through thousands or millions of years of history just to get to the modern age???

Dude (Kuroha) must've been having the time of his fucking life... Cuz he knows that as long as he keeps doing this, he can keep on living forever

Especially when there are an unspecified (XX) amount of Routes, aside from the main known ones (ie. Music Route, Manga Route, Novel Route, Anime Route, etc.)

KagePro's present day plot across all Routes starts on the faithful date of August 15th, Kagerou (Heat Haze) Day.

Kuroha/Saeru is so interesting. Kuroha's selfish, twisted, nature and dark urges... A character who's so inherently dark and selfish and twisted like that, manipulative, dangerous, cruel, sadistic, and bloodthirsty, like that...

A completely unapologetic villain who's fun to watch and cathartic. He's definitely one of KagePro's most interesting charas imo.