#2) this is a comedic manga

[shirokuro-and-her-puppies]

Sobbing at this one page in particular

[m-aximumjoy]

thank you Fujimoto for the new funniest CSM page

[moongothic]

Okay so realistically speaking, giving birth is an excruciating, painful nightmare, and from the few Crocodad fics I've seen most people seem to prefer to write realistic pregnancy and make Luffy's birth a (physically) painful thing. Because it makes sense, it might be more relatable for some writers that way etc, and that's perfectly fine (like genuinely, it's not an issue at all, this is not a critique or a complaint)

God I don't know how to make this segue- Have any of you watched Ore Monogatari!! (My Love Story)? It's a great early 2010s romantic comedy series, funny as hell, super cute and sweet, would reccomend, but that aside. During the series the protagonist Takeo's mother gets pregnant and she ends up giving birth to Takeo's baby sister. And it's that scene, where Takeo's baby sister is born, that I keep on thinking back to whenever I wonder how Luffy's birth might've gone.

Takeo and his mother alike are Sturdy Motherfuckers. Like absolute gigachads, borderline superhuman, it's great and it's funny as hell. And because of that near superhuman nature... Takeo's mother goes to give birth at 4:15 pm. And she has finished giving birth at 4:16 pm. One fucking minute is what it took for this woman to bring a child into this world. An absolute legend

The screencaps do not do justice to how fucking funny this is in the actual episode

And so like

Like we know Crocodile's been through absolute hell, being an amputee and all. And as Domino told us at the entrance of Impel Down, we also know the man did not even flinch when forced into Impel Down's traditional 200 Celsius cleansing bath (or 392F)

So Crocodile has better pain tolerance than the average person. Like, you might have to put in a bit of effort to cause him actually hurt. So if giving birth to Luffy was an absolute cakewalk for Crocodile, not only would it make perfect sense in-universe and be completely in-character for him, but also

It would be objectively funny as hell

[vero-niche]

so like. do the other prisoners just. witness all of this?? watch their 5D mental chess games like a daily tv show??? i need answers

[bull-shit-suji]

not to like wax poetic about the literary nuances of Black Fucking Butler but i feel i need to point out how insanely campy it is. oh okay cool the butler is throwing butter knives at people with guns and winning. we're battling undertaker's zombie army by starting a boy band (we actually got the idea from the ZOMBIES' boy band). theres a curry making competition and its so important it needs an entire volume and a continuing motif dedicated to it. the Grim Reaper Death Gods are all cornballs with gardening sheers. the contradiction. the unintended irony.

i think the manga is like. toeing the line of camp. like its silly yet takes itself so seriously but its not too silly. my immersion is not broken by the silliness. but the anime is uncharted levels of camp. what the Hell was going on with pluto. you're gonna look me in the eye and tell me the phantomhives own a fifty foot dog thing and no one has noticed. simply one hell of a deer. ice skating. theres opium in funtom candy. the queen of england is maybe a little girl. speaking of which, the city of london just burned down. yeah the whole thing. the fifty foot dog was there too.

it's so ridiculously out of left field and the fact that none of the characters seem to notice or care feels like being gaslit. camp so visceral it's causing psychic damage. i am constantly begging the narrative to break character just once and acknowledge its silliness but doing so would negate the lack of awareness that makes it camp. its dated and timeless. an absolute milestone in camp history.

[kuroananosanji]

I feel like I’d honestly prefer it if Toei still did filler arcs so they can properly adapt the canon arcs… coz the ways they use gags to pad out the runtime is just not it (with sanji being the victim most of the time rip my goat). Yeah there’s been “cute” moments in recent episodes which I’ll take over nosebleed monster anytime but at what cost. Ppl on my tl are fangirling over puppy sanji but I just felt like that scene was off? As I said when reading the manga sanji’s gag is actually funny like most of oda’s comedic moments, but the way toei tries to translate it to the screen is just off idk how to explain (probs coz it’s dragged out unnecessarily)

[skrunksthatwunk]

just finished s2 of kaiji and it was good i really liked it but i hope i never see that fuckass pachinko machine again!!!

[sepostscreencaps]

Comedic panels from Soul Eater post chapter 2

[c0rpsedemon]

it's 2023 and i'm still bitter about how kuroshitsuji, a complex slow burn mystery manga, got absolutely massacred by its shitty semi-episodic shota/fujobait anime adaptation

[sbnkalny]

Players briefly encounter the wreckage to Land in the sea after The seventh installment in the punk goes pop vol. 7 is the seventeenth compilation album in the punk goes... series by Kazuo Umezu

[tobiasdrake]

Oh shit, the reboot of Ranma 1/2 has begun airing on Netflix. I am here for this.

Like a lot of people with gender stuff, Ranma 1/2 was a major part of my formative years. It was the first anime I ever saw outside of dubbed TV broadcasts, before I really understood what anime was. And the first anime I liked so much that I ravenously devoured the manga it was adapting.

To this day, I often find myself thinking back to it. Ranma 1/2 had a lot to say about societally-enforced toxic masculinity, and also about intrinsic gender identity that doesn't change even when the body fails to match.

In a way, it was kind of ahead of its time. It came to us in a time when a lot of genderbending stuff was like, "Okay, if your body turns female, then you're a girl. If your body turns male, then you're a boy. Whatever your body looks like at the moment, that's your gender, those are your pronouns. Now let's come up with a cute little name for what we should call your opposite-gender self when you flip!"

But here was Ranma 1/2 saying, "Ranma Saotome is a man. It does not matter if his body is female or male; he is always a man at heart." He never misses an opportunity to correct people who misgender him - or to seek a cure for the gender dysphoria that his curse routinely inflicts on him.

But he also has extremely rigid beliefs about masculinity and femininity; Beliefs that cage him in a prison of his own mind. He's not ashamed, at times, to take advantage of his curse in order to indulge in things that men "are not allowed to do".

Small things like sitting around an ice cream parlor enjoying a sundae. Real Men (TM) don't eat ice cream! Ranma is proud of his masculinity, but is also a slave to it. He is proud of his gender identity regardless of the shape of his body, but nonetheless cross-dresses to escape from the gendered pressures he places on himself.

And he gave a lot of fans their trans awakening. For a lot of people, myself included, Ranma Saotome was their first experience with the idea that assigned-sex did not have to be the absolute truth of your identity. Many fans took tremendous inspiration from Ranma's curse, and carried their own interpretation of Ranma with them in their heart as they went.

The fandom is overflowing with transfem Ranmas and genderfluid Ranmas and nonbinary Ranmas, because that is what this character meant to the LGBT community of his day.

He may not have been perfect - In fact, when you get right down to it, he's basically just a macho cis regularly forced into drag for comedic effect; This is not Gay Shakespeare - but he left a mark on the community. He was a key that unlocked the identities of a lot of us.

So it's with both excitement and also a degree of trepidation that I say, "Welcome back to modern pop culture, Ranma 1/2."

[someguycalledratcliff]

I've been thinking a lot lately about why Okarun feels so fresh as a character, and I think it's because it's weirdly rare to see a well written, likeable nerd in anime. The medium is so full of nerdy characters, and YET they're so rarely actually good. There's three common pitfalls that I think nerdy characters tend to fall into, and Okarun handily avoids all of them. 1. Butt of a joke

Now Okarun is in a comedy manga/anime, but the reason he's very much not *just* there to be funny. Yeah his interests are played for laughs, but they're also part of a backstory that's very much meant to be taken seriously. He's respected as character in his own right. 2. Obnoxious pervert or straight up sexual harasser

It goes without saying there's just... so many perverted characters in anime, but I feel like nerdy or dweeby characters are all the more likely to do this, and do it in a more aggrevated way. The less you're supposed to take a character seriously (hence, comedic characters, which nerds often are), the more likely they are to be just... terrible to women. Okarun though? He's like. Aggressvely not perverted. I think about that scene where Momo is changing, where the joke is that he keeps staring at the wall longer than he needs to. He's seen her in her underwear like... honestly a lot (now that's a part of Dandadan I don't love, but that's a discussion for another day...), but he's never weird about it. This is a low ass bar, but it's just nice to have character who's awkward, but not a rancid pervert. 3. Power fantasy wish fulfilment

This is probably the hardest point to argue, but I would not say Okarun is a classic case of wish fulfilment. There are definitely elements of that, with all the women who inexplicably like him and the superpowers. Still, I'd say there are two, maybe three things that set him apart from this trope. Firstly, he never becomes cool. He gets cool moments, he gets to do cool things, but at the end of the day, he's still just a polite, awkward kid. That never goes away. Second, I think it's important that he's never the most powerful of his friends. Frankly-- he might even be the weakest! Momo alone is more capable and versatile than he is, not to mention Vamola or Jiji/Evil Eye. Frankly, Momo is even way more of a main character than Okarun is. So Okarun is not really that powerful... but what about all the girls? I would say that part is much more akin to good old wish fulfilment. But to me anyway, it doesn't really feel that way. Mostly because we all know he's gonna end up with Momo, so it doesn't feel that much like a real harem.

Watching and reading Dandadan has really made me crave more good nerdy characters... The only other ones I can name off the top of my head are Ishigami from Love Is War and Okabe from Steins;Gate. And that's not a great showing for a genre filled to the brim with nerds.

[catchingdaydreams]

Mirthrun x gardener reader

(if people like this I'll create a small fic)

Part 2 (Beach Day)

Yeah here me out. This is after the events of the Manga where Laios becomes king. Mirthrun and the Canaries stay on the island to avoid the law and all that...

Mirthrun gets lost, like a lot. No matter how many Canaries are supervising him he manages to allude them. His teleporting doesn't help either. It's not like he wants to be alone. He just gets caught up in the little finds, like a bug or some rabbit moving by and follows after them. See he's being trying/ training himself to reclaim his desires/wants back and Kabru mentioned to try to focus on a specific things to get a better understanding of his emotions onto it.

Anyway, one day he stumbles on a green house and sees a tall man there. Your minding your own business, picking the herbs from your garden, utterly unaware of the elf who just transported behind you. The first encounter was .... unpleasant. With a fright, you slapped Mithrun and cussed him out of your green house. He just trots along. You were confused at the whole ordeal, especially how the man didn't really react to you at all.

He shows up again, a couple of days later. And again you kick him out. Its almost became comedic.

He keeps on showing up to the point you don't care anymore. He doesn't do anything but bask in the green house sun, utterly in his own world, speaking no words to you.

You do ask why he shows up. His only response was a lifeless stare in deep pool his single eye casts, followed by a shrug. Not the response you want but nevertheless you keep allowing him to stay.

You notice that after a while he watches you tender the plants. You mostly strike a one-way conversation about your passion with your medical herbs but at times he does ask questions.

The first time you heard his voice you had to double take. You thought he was mute. He just cocks his head to the side , confused at you surprised acts.

Some time later you become more accustomed to his blandness and directness, able to read his emotions with subtle things like the flicker of his cut ears to the twingers of his eye. This though came with time and after finding out that he doesn't really take care of himself.

That one time you saw him passed out from dehydration wasn't a fun memory. And not wanting to relive it, you offer him tea and sweet pastries when he arrives. You found he particularly likes sour things, so lemon tarts are frequently on the menu.

He does help out with tending to your plots, though he isn't much of a green thumb, picking the ripe fruits off your small orchid helped you tones. You even gave him a basket of lemons to take home one time. It was a sight to see when he smiled at it, even though it turned quickly back to his emotionless form.

The Canaries still didn't know where he was going most of the day until he arrived back with that basket of lemons. Fleki ask where he got them from but Mithrun refuses to answer. They reach for one, but Mithrun grabbed their hand tightly. Anger distorts his face making the other Canaries surprised by his quick change in demeanor.

"Their mine", was all Mithrun said before he stormed into his room.

Eventually they were able to make out where he was heading all the time , though there was some misunderstanding. See they thought you were using him as free labor and quite abruptly came to you about the situation. Drama pursues, Mithrun gets upsets and snaps at his companions.

It just turns out the reason why he never told them where he was, was that he wanted you all to himself. He didn't want to share you with anybody.

Ah and that's it

[sophiamarieispinkbunny-chan]

More in depth analysis about the Spy x Family Manga Cover Chairs and Bonus Artworks (Or me just overthinking Endo’s decisions in everything and as always long post, please bear with me)

So I wanted to talk about something that I noticed about the various designer chairs that is featured on all manga covers.

Endo did say that he thought about how each chair matches the personality of the character, regarding it’s style, design or the color.

But I like to talk about something different about the chairs-it’s size or the seating capacity and how it reflects the characters relationship with others or their views about relationships. Also, I’m going to share something significant about the comedic bonus arts that also feature the chairs.

This focus mainly about Loid, Yor and Anya‘s Chair (including Fiona’s Chair) and the bonus illustrations that came with it.

Volume 1-Loid’s Chair: Le Corbusier LC2

There are two versions of this chair in the manga/anime, the love seat and the one seater. Loid is seated in the one seater chair in this cover, it means no one can sit there with him that reflects how reluctant he was in letting other people in his life. He wasn’t open for relationships (You can notice that those who are like him, intelligence assets; Franky, Fiona, Handler all sit in one seating capacity chair).

The bonus artwork was Anya sitting on the chair copying his pose. She’s the most fitting person to be in this seat because she can see through Loid’s mind, she basically knows who he really is and she likes him for that. Anya was fond of spies and she was excited about being part of his mission.

Volume 2-Anya’s Chair: Marshmallow Sofa

Anya’s chair has a large seating capacity and she was sitting at the middle, waiting for the empty spots on her both sides to be occupied. This depicts Anya’s anticipation for forming relationship with other people, about her wanting parents, a family, to be there for her.

The bonus artwork was drunk Yor lying face flat on Anya’s chair. This artwork, for me, reflects Yor’s unwavering affection for Anya and Anya’s appreciation of Yor. Even drunk, she’s determined to protect her, as if she was her real daughter as seen during the castle chapter. She is fond of Anya.

Volume 3-Yor’s Chair: La Chaise (Featuring Fiona’s Heart Cone Chair)

This is the chair I wanted to talk about and I have to use Fiona’s Chair for this analysis for Endo said that Fiona is designed to be Yor’s contrast and we can clearly see it in their chairs.

The seating capacity of Yor and Fiona’s chair greatly differ. Yor’s chair was big, Endo pointed how it didn’t even fit the cover, and even though Fiona’s chair is big too, she’s the only person who could sit in it. Other people can fit Yor’s chair but not with Fiona. I analyze this as Yor being open to genuine relationships and selfless while Fiona being closed off and selfish.

We know Yor’s motivation for being an assassin was for Yuri, for the sake of other people, and what is Fiona’s motivation? Clearly it was mainly for Twilight to marry her, love her and it was evidently show with all that stuff hiding behind her chair. I’m sure she experienced a lot of traumatic stuff that led to her being a spy but I don’t see other praise worthy and selfless motivations from her that was aside Twilight’s affection. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an interesting character and she isn't a bad person but I’m not really a fan of her personality just like I don’t like Yuri’s obsession with her sister.

In Yor however, she has nothing under or behind her chair. Just that blood that wasn’t even behind or below her chair. She wasn’t faking anything about her personality. It’s true that she accepted her marriage to preserve her assassin job but she genuinely wanted to marry Loid because he was the one who acknowledged her selflessness and that was enough for her to completely entrust her life to him. She welcomed Loid and Anya to her life because her longing for a companion to share her life with is as big as the size of her chair.

The bonus art in Volume 3 was Loid sitting on her chair. Despite the comedic set up of these illustrations, I think the people who tend to sit on the chair on the bonus arts were the ones who gets the person on the cover the most.

That is why Anya is in Loid’s (Because she can read his mind) Why Yor is in Anya's (Because Yor lost her parents at a young age too and she knows how to care for Anya because she did that to Yuri) and why Loid is in Yor’s chair (Because Loid understood her self sacrifice because he too, is the same as her) Also why Anya and Bond are in the bonus of Volume 4 because the two of them get each other, being both experimented on.

I also have some analysis about Volume 5-12 and the bonus artworks as well, but I might post them in another time since I haven't seen the translated bonus artworks in Becky and Emile and Ewen's Volumes.

But let me know if this analysis makes sense to you.

[burstfoot]

Hello! Here's an update on all of Arknights' currently accessible auxiliary material as of May 2024! There's plenty to check out, so I hope this is helpful for some!

Animation

Arknights Prelude To Dawn (S1) and Perish in Frost (S2): [Crunchyroll]

An adaptation of the main story, up through Chapter 0 to Chapter 6! It's much more fast-paced than the in-game story, so I wouldn't use it to replace actually reading it, but it's very cool to see some of these scenes in full animation. Season 3, Arknights: Rise from Ember, has been announced! Lee's Detective Agency: [Youtube]

A mini-series animated in a chibi style with a comedic tone. Focused on the adventures of the Kuroblood-illustrated Lee's Detective Agency! Distributed by Crunchyroll globally, but entirely free to watch.

Closure's Secret Files: [Youtube]

A cut-out styled series of shorts hosted by Closure which outlines a lot of the game's basic mechanics!

Holy Knight Light: [Youtube]

A short OVA focusing around Penguin Logistics delivering a package, celebrating Arknights' first anniversary. Officially posted to Youtube!

Kay's Daily Doodles: [Youtube]

Another free, comedic Youtube mini-series, posted to the offical Arknights Youtube account and focused around Ceobe! Here's some additional animations! Each event usually also has a 15 second 2D animated preview of the event, but there's so many of those that I can't list them all. Anniversary Event 3D Animations: Zwillingstürme im Herbst So Long, Adele Lone Trail Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow Il Siracusano Ideal City Stultifera Navis Invitation To Wine Near Light Dossoles Holiday Under Tides Bonus 3D Animated Shorts: Legend of Chongyue Arknights Special - IL Siracusano Lo Scontro Youtube Shorts: Ch'en and Lin's Watermelon Splitting Game Part 1 Ch'en and Lin's Watermelon Splitting Game Part 2 Amiya's Siracusan Food Guide Part 1 Amiya's Siracusano Food Guide Part 2 Amiya's Special Gift Doctor's Gifts in Return 1 Doctor's Gifts in Return 2

Comics, Manga, Manhua

Officially Translated:

Rhodes Island's Records of Originium: Rhine Lab: [Offical Source]

A canon manhua centered around the circumstances that lead to Silence falling out with Saria and joining Rhodes Island with Ifrit, as well as Ifrit's attempt to save a dying infected stowaway on the landship. Essential reading for understanding the Rhine Lab storyline and characters - read it right after Mansfield for when it was chronologically released! One of the characters, Darya, is mentioned in both Ifrit's module and briefly in Lone Trail.

Rhodes Island's Records of Originium: Blacksteel: [Official Source]

A short story focusing on the lives of the Blacksteel operators aboard the landship. While it often gets overshadowed by the Rhine Lab manga which is bigger in scope, this is a great read especially if you're interested in Franka or Liskarm.

Rhodes Kitchen -TIDBITS-: [Official Source]

An anthology story related to the cuisine that's important to a variety of operators. While it might seem unassuming, the art is gorgeous and it's really well-written! The Blacksteel, Rhine Lab, and Rhodes Kitchen manga have all been sold in physical copies, if you're interested in having them in print!

Prelude Suite: Cadenza Virtuosa: [Official Source]

An epilogue to Hortus De Escapismo focusing on Arturia's background, with the second chapter serving as a prelude for Zwillingstrume im Herbst! An excellent read to get better insight into Arturia's character.

Angelina: Sketches of this Messenger's Journey: [Official Source]

A more comedically focused manwha, centered on the adventures of Angelina travelling across Terra as a Messenger! Currently updating, with recent chapters focusing on Sami and Siesta!

Unofficially Translated

The Dagger's Inheritors: [Youtube]

A 15-minute short 3D animated film about W's past and relationship with Theresa, released for the 5th Arknights anniversary. Arknights Comic Anthology: [Mangadex]

As the title says, a series of non-canon anthology stories regarding the cast of Rhodes' Island! Some of the chapters on Mangadex for the later volumes of the Comic Anthology specifically have been machine translated, but the same is not true for the other manga shared here. Chapters are hit-and-miss, but the whole series is generally a fun read! See the original post for specific chapter suggestions.

123 Rhodes Island: [Mangadex]

A series of non-canon gag comics for the CN server, usually updated when new operators or events release!

Arknights: Operators!: [Mangadex]

A compilation of shortform manga posted on the official ArknightsJP twitter account! Thank you to @sleepywoodscans for their work on personally translating these!

Arknights: A1 Operations Preparation Detachment: [Mangadex]

Part of the Terra Historicus website and not yet officially translated, focusing on Fang, Kroos and Beagle before they join Rhodes Island, and a catastrophe striking the Columbian city of Tkaronto. Thank you to @pooce-art for their translation work!

Other:

Arknights Ambience Synesthesia: [Youtube]

A series of concerts (4 so far), focused around Arknights' music! A live performance has been done every year, with skins released in-game for the concert's theme & 3D animations produced featuring the skin's cast in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Monster Siren Records: [Spotify] [Official Website]

Arknights' official (and-in-universe) record label publishing game OSTs, themes for almost every 6 star operator that releases, and occasional bonus songs.

Arknights: Endfield: [Twitter]

An upcoming 3D action gacha game from Hypergryph, set in the far future of Arknights' universe on another planet. Currently in closed beta testing for both EN and CN servers!

UNOFFICIAL:

Some fandom-developed tools that might be of use to you are: The Arknights Terra Wiki. While it is a very accurate source for in-game data, take the explanation of in-game story and some specific claims with a grain of salt. The FANDOM version of this wiki is currently no longer mantained and subject to vandalism! Given you can translate or read Chinese, PRTS.wiki is the current best resource for game assets!

As well, the Arknights Story Reader can help you catch up on stuff you don't want to or can't read in game! Jacob Moreau on Youtube provides voiceover readings of many in-game stories as well.

Finally, Aceship's Toolbox provides access to a variety of tools, including a levelling calculator, a calculator to ensure the best recruitments, and all the CGs, backgrounds and character sprites that are available in-game as of So Long, Adele (as far as I'm aware, the sprite/cg gallery is no longer being updated.)

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading! I hope this provided some new information to you or is an easy reference source in the future. Some things, such as merch (i.e. board games) or the official lore book have not been included due to not being accessible or translated for EN players. I'm happy to continue to provide more information like this to make the art surrounding this series more accessible! If you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask.

[lilacxquartz]

BEYOND HELLFIRE

true form sukuna x f!reader

plot: back when you were still alive, sukuna had once surrendered a lifetime of peace for you. when he had you incarnated for his return, however, it all went wrong — a/n: canon divergent culling games up ahead, this isn’t canon-compliant to make the story work, but still, major manga spoilers up ahead anyway!

summary: the incarnation was successful, but your memories didn’t retain. now, sukuna had to fight you, or did he?

chapter 2 of 4 < previous chapter • next chapter > • masterlist • on o3

Chapter 2. Present Day

Centuries later, when he was incarnated and then finally broken away from his initial vessel, Sukuna basked out in the open, retaining the glory of his fully awakened form. The world was truly at his disposal and he was eager to break it all apart and watch it burn.

The fights he found himself thrown into were either everlasting or not at all, but one thing remained clear—the casualties were devastating—if not cataclysmic. All of that came to a halt though, from the moment he finally saw you.

It was about time, he figured, as he was already growing bored from the drawl of the same fight without pause. The battlefield was littered with the bloodied remains of the opposing sorcerers who were foolish enough to brave an audience with him; the king of curses. No matter how much of a fight they all put up, they all bled out the same way regardless. Rinse, repeat. Ending their misery as if on clockwork.

At first, though, your appearance barely registered to him. You had to get a lot closer than it was safe for you to do so for him to lock onto the once familiar, stubborn glint present in your eyes. Your body was different, so Kenjaku must have brought you back as an incarnated soul. As soon as he recognised you, however, it was almost comedically clear. That all too familiar way you tilted your head off to the side in annoyance, your slightly crooked posture when you stood, the grimace in your face as you assessed the situation. It was all so… undeniably you.

Fuck. He could have sworn that he cycled through all of the fools that were otherwise thrown at him thus far—you were just next in line, huh? You stood there before him before breaking forward with a calm, measured stride in a vessel that didn’t even suit you. Sukuna found himself scoffing at the sight, his lips twitching to reveal an amused smile, feeling something odd form in the pit of his stomach. What was it? Hunger? Fondness? Or, maybe even, nostalgia? It was a familiar feeling that left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.

Sukuna stared at you intently, with his crimson stare boring into your form in an attempt to commit every detail to memory, unwilling to part with you again so soon. Eighty years back then. It lasted no more than a blink of an eye. Slipping through his fingers like honey. So sweet.

And yet, you didn’t look at him in that same way. Your eyes were stone cold in comparison, lacking that same recognition, replaced with clear indifference, and perhaps even something spiteful. He supposed that he did likely kill off a fair share of your allies, hell, you probably hated him. Sukuna’s smile widened at that fact. Hatred. What a strong emotion. He would have been lucky if he received anything beyond slight irritation back in the day. What an odd thing for him to focus on though, he thought, but then again, you were the only non-sorcerer that he ever found worth respecting, someone that he never had to tarnish with his touch.

For you to be thrown into the death pit as a soon-to-be-forgotten sorcerer was almost too insulting. It didn’t suit you.

Momentarily reminded of you now being a sorcerer in your incarnated form, Sukuna focused on your technique, next. Your ability seemed to stem from bandages infused with cursed energy, which he deemed to be quite fitting, given that your life-long craft was dedicated to reconstruction. He paid attention to how you bound them around minor wounds before whipping them harshly against the air, smoothing them into razor-sharp blades.

He remained standing in place as you advanced on his position, your stance wary but determined. Your bravery was nothing to applaud, not if your life could be so easily taken away, so he tutted a little as you prepared to take him on. Another foolish sorcerer, doomed to end their life within a matter of minutes—maybe even seconds—but no, he had something else planned. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t toy with you though.

He wanted to tease you.

To toy with you.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Sukuna finally broke through the silence, shattering what little remained of your strained composure. “Or who you’re up against?”

You didn’t dare to reply, figuring that it would be wiser not to engage. You were admittedly very afraid. Your existence was sudden, and imposing, and now you had to fight with a whole flurry of broken memories making up your existence in a world that no longer made sense.

Sukuna all the while, found your doe-eyed look to be endearing, wondering what exactly must have been going through your mind as he towered in front of you. He looked down at you with an expression that didn’t betray any of his thoughts, leaving you to reel at the prospect of being struck down at any moment.

He was never one to take fights too seriously, though, that was the thing. At least not to opponents who never stood a chance. When a worthy opponent surfaced, he had the time of his life, but even with you, something felt different. Sukuna didn’t want to fight you, but he wanted to provoke you. So he’d lazily punch his hand forward to test the waters—letting you dance around him as he watched—his eyes lighting up as he watched the bandages snap in the air, never once letting you break his skin.

However, just like with everything else, he quickly grew bored.

You needed to step up—or he would.

“Is that it?” he taunted, “surely you’ve got more fight in you?”

Without hesitating the next time, you lashed out towards him as he intercepted you with an open stance, allowing himself to get caught with one ribbon of the gauze to snag onto his forearm, slicing open his skin. It stung in the same way a papercut would, the sensation barely noticeable, if at all.

Sukuna barked out a laugh. “Cute.”

Your eyes narrowed in response before you broke forward in attempted retaliation with your ribbons spiraling through the air as they snaked towards him. You were quick and given the unforgiving circumstances of the culling games, you likely had plenty of experience to boot, but it still wasn’t enough to face someone like him.

Sukuna easily managed to sidestep all of your incoming attacks, predicting anything you had in mind. You were very new to this, after all, no matter how much practice you got in, you were never meant for this kind of thing. He didn’t think this to insult you, of course, that was just the way of the world. Some were born with cursed energy and others weren’t. It was just a fact of life.

Though, you caught on to him avoiding all of your attacks, perhaps finally noticing that you were still alive. “You’re not going to fight back?”

Sukuna laughed a bit more heartily that time, tilting his head back as he crossed his arms. “Fight you? Do you truly wish for me to break you so badly?” he paused, the mouth on his abdomen cracking a wide smile to match the one above. “If you insist.”

He then without a single hint nor warning—tore forward, his speed faster than what you could keep up with—with a charged fist that hurtled towards your standing form. He withheld using cursed techniques for now, knowing that he had to reserve such energy for more dire threats that lurked just over the horizon. Such an impact sent you flying, flinging you far away, hitting the ground just up ahead, hard, with the pavement splitting upon the impact. For a moment, all you could was simply lie there, with the air completely gone from your lungs, choking on the sudden surging pain.

Sukuna otherwise tilted his head in mild disappointment, not expecting you to be subdued so soon.

He then stepped forward, his imposing build looming over you, as his eyes once ablaze with fiery rage, settled into something tranquil instead. His gaze crossed your face, taking note of how you were at the cusp of losing consciousness, confirming your pulse was still present before taking a step back.

“Makes sense,” he snorted to himself, deciding to move further into the battlefield away from where you lay, deciding to continue this when he had settled another matter, “you were never cut out for fighting.”

He could fix you up later with his reverse cursed technique if need be, but the rise and fall of your chest told him all that he had to know. You were alive. You would be fine.

Sukuna then took a step back, thinking back to the remainder of the enemies that remained. Suddenly, carrying out Kenjaku’s will seemed all the more motivating. He had you back. If he brought forward a target that made him seem like nothing more than a fly-head curse, then he could likely make a subtle exit to bide some time if need be. It didn’t quite matter to him that you didn’t remember him just yet—he would make you if he had to.

Sukuna after all, was sentimental, that much was clear when he considered Uraume and it was clear when he considered any such matters with you, too.

Tucking you away somewhere hidden for later retrieval, he adjusted his plans. Given the slight shift in energy, he determined that Kenjaku was likely down. That’s why the remaining brats in the city ruins likely looked as hopeful as they did. Poor them. They didn’t account for this whole plan being accounted for centuries, planned sooner before they could even comprehend. Sukuna knew the signal perfectly well if his ally was down, the issue beforehand being, that he was simply too selfish to finalise the plan. What irony it was that he was moving forward with the merger for equally selfish reasons in the end.

Sukuna next considered the possibility of Yuta. A familiar cursed energy could be detected from the sorcerer, so he determined that it was very likely that Rika had consumed Kenjaku and stolen his power. The will to carry out the plan, however, was tied to a binding vow, so in theory, if he called for Rika during a fight, then it was still possible to activate the condition needed to succeed.

The main issue was everyone else who stood in the way.

(But he had to try.)

This fight wasn’t about elimination for fun anymore, it was about seeing something through to the end—like you—before you dared to slip away without saying goodbye again.

Making his intentions abundantly clear, Sukuna beelined towards Yuta right away, the young sorcerer’s eyes flashed with realisation, with his grip tightening around the hilt of his weapon, hoping to slash away his advancing presence.

Sukuna however, had him figured out from the start. He moved behind him within a beat, aiming straight for the back of his neck, in an attempt to draw Rika out, and just as predicted, he found himself being pushed back by the emerging vengeful spirit. Her form churned into the open, materialising into overhead space above where the younger sorcerer stood, all the while Yuta quickly caught onto what Sukuna might have been trying to do.

In an attempted halt, Yuta cried out, “Rika, wait—”

However, it was too late. Rika wouldn’t stop if it meant that Yuta would potentially risk getting killed in the process. Sukuna smiled as he was met face to face with her, facing his palm upwards to meet her form with an extended punch laced with cursed energy burning from the cusp of his fists. Before anyone else, be it a bystander or any sort of backup could respond, Sukuna’s cursed energy shifted into something else—something suffocating—impossibly dense, as if the law of space and time was bending under the weight of his will.

With surging energy, he launched accumulated cursed energy to drive forward, drowning out Rika’s presence, and silencing all attempted attacks that she would otherwise attempt to dish out in retaliation. All Sukuna had to do was connect with a certain type of energy, activating exactly what Yuta had Rika consume to prevent the cataclysm of.

“Rika, please, fight it,” Yuta urged, only for her to slowly dissolve, letting the conditions activate and take its place, her body expanding rapidly as if threatening to explore.

Sukuna faded into the smoke as the merger seemed to successfully activate, not paying too much mind as something otherworldly branched out of the detonated mass, nor the rumble of the streets, with gravel rising, trembling in the air at the possibility of something irreversible rising from the aftermath.

None of it mattered anymore.

Not when he had you to watch the world end with him.

this is part 4 of lilac’s bite sized yandere nightmares

a/n part 2: set up the scene a bit to make him extra yan coded by the next chapter 🫶