#And I have a lot of plans for Kazumi so it was time he moved - Ash too! <3

[beanieman]

what are your thoughts on an 'everyone survives au', what they would do after the death game?

(Before I get into separate headcanons, I want to add that I think every single one of these characters would be struggle with paranoia. I mean, they were put in a death game.)

Sara Chidouin - Sara ends up staying at Joe's place a lot considering her Father was taken down with the company. It's easier for her to hang out with him then to stay at home, but she still calls her Mother daily to make sure she's alright. Other than that she continues going to class and her near death experience has only made her more determined to get good grades so she can go to a good school. She also finds a local kendo and joins as a student.

Joe Tazuna - Joe finds a lot of comfort with Sara staying at place. It makes him feel more secure that they're together, and the whole experience has certainly made him value their friendship. But outside of her, he keeps going to school with the intention of getting his diploma. He's not sure of what he wants to do after high school, but his experience has left him more determined then ever to live life in the moment.

More Undercut

Gin Ibushi - Gin goes back home and gives his Mom a big hug. He missed her a lot, and he's very glad to be home safely with Mew-chan. He was walked home by Sara and his Mother ensures that he can still see big sis Sara and all his other new friends. Despite his new connections his Mother is still worried for his safety, so she moves him to a private school that is much smaller. He gets a lot more help here and makes some good friends his own age, but he's still always excited to see Sara and Joe when they come to tutor him after school.

Keiji Shinogi - Keiji is forced to finally get therapy considering his friends around him know that he can't keep ignoring his issues. He gets a lot of encouragement from them, but he knows that the healing process takes awhile. While he works on himself, he gets a job as private investigator and helps people that the police won't. Also he dyes his hair a different color to symbolize a fresh start. (Also because the person writing this post hates his hair color.)

Alice Yabusame - With ASU-NARO's grip loosened, Alice is released from jail within a few months time. He doesn't go back to making music considering Reko already has an established band and he feels like he's intruding, but he still gets what he really wants. He gets to play music with Reko again. This time for fun without the pressure of stardom. As for his career...well it comes to him while he's reapplying hair dye. He decides that he would make a great hair dresser, and Reko supports him whole heartedly.

Reko Yabusame - With a near death experience to change her life, she decides to send Alice a letter in prison and offer a chance at reconciliation. He takes it, of course, and she's glad that she's the first one to great him once he's released. Outside of Alice, she decides to tour with her band. Life is short, and she wants to play as much music as she can in that time!

Nao Egokoro - Nao goes back and finishes her collage education. That's what's most important to her, but after her education is said and done she works out a plan with Mishima to become his official mentee. She wants to teach art to some day, but in the meantime, she's more than happy to attend all the shows Reko invites her to.

Kazumi Mishima - He goes back to teaching as that's his passion. Yet now he tells his story to his students as both a cautionary tale and a tale of persevering despite all odds.

Q-taro Burgerberg - Q-Taro goes back to playing sports. It's what he loves, and he's not going to let a death game slow down his passion. He also keeps in contact with Gin and frequently takes him to watch his games.

Kai Satou - With parts of both his families taken down with ASU-NARO, he is left having to live for himself. He gets a job as a chef and his own apartment in the middle of town. It's all very new to him, as is his friendship with the rest of the group. He talks to Q-Taro and Sara the most, often checking in on them to make sure that they're doing okay. He's even let Sara crash at his place a few times if Joe wasn't around and she needed a break from home. He really feels like she's family, and it fills some of the hole Mr. Chidouin left behind.

Kanna Kizuchi - Kanna is very glad to be home with Kugie and her parents. She's also glad that she has Sara and Shin's number and can call them anytime if she wants hangout. They both frequently come to pick her up to get ice cream, and they pick her up from school so she doesn't have to walk home.

Shin Tsukimi - Shin doesn't handle being put into a death game well. Even though he survived despite all odds (or percentages) he still struggles with shaking the fear. Anyway, let me elaborate on my AU about this exact scenario where Shin ends up traveling and living in hotels so no one can truly track his location. Also very important note that he keeps with Kanna and they eventually find out that they're bio siblings after he meets Kanna's parents and they recognize the name of his parents.

Dolls

Ranmaru Kageyama - Ranmaru gets Sara's, Joe's, and Anzu's number before he leaves the death game. Despite it all, it feels...refreshing to have new friends in his life that are happy to talk with him. He spends a lot of time texting with them, and when he's not doing that he relaxes with the knowledge that he has genuine friends.

Naomichi Kurumada - He's proud of everyone that they were all able to win, and he has a new outlook on teamwork considering they were all able to win together. He continues to box, but now he has new friends coming to watch him from time to time.

Anzu Kinashi - Anzu goes back to business as usual. She likes being a funny clown girl and wants to continue her craft. She would like to see her mentor again to tell him all that's happened, but she'll be happy preforming either way.

Mai Tsurugi - Mai goes back to the bakery and uses her near death experience as a way to make money. Anytime anyone comes in she goes "I just had the roughest time,🥺" so she will get better tips.

Shunsuke Hayasaka - Shunsuke tries to find a different job that doesn't tangle him up with ASU-NARO. He figures he'll try to get some kind of desk job, but in the meantime, he enjoys taking his morning jogs again.

Hinako Mishuku - It depends on how the participants escaped the death game. If ASU-NARO was running then she'd stay with the company and wonder what was next. Maybe it would be another death game, or maybe they'd do something new, but she is loyal since ASU-NARO presumably wouldn't get the chance to betray her in this route. However, if ASU-NARO was destroyed, then she'd have to find an entire new path in life. Where that could take her I couldn't say with as little as we know about her real personality now.

[cardrisen]

Apologies for being largely spaced out for the last month! I’ve made it no secret this isn’t my main main blog, @sworntolight​ currently is, but July was also a month full of trauma and illness and I’ve yet to even really start recovering, hence the large radio silence. But with the start of a new month comes a desire to try and work on things, so I’ve done the following:

~Ash has been removed from the muse list! Not because I’ve lost interest in him but simply because...

~Ash now has his own blog! I’m gonna reblog the promo for it in a bit, but anyone interested in Ash, be it through a YGO verse or something unrelated, can now find him at @genierisen​! <3

~Kazumi has been moved to the secondary tier! I’ve been enjoying my portrayal of Windy’s origin and after a lot of thinking and low-key plotting with/idea bouncing off @duelrisen​, I’ve decided it’s time he came off of the tert/testing category. I have a lot in store for my windy dork and he’s gotta be a more regular muse for that to happen, which means Kazumi no longer requires request to thread with. Have at him if you’d like!

~This blog is now the main to my GX/ARC-V OC, Aoi Sakazaki. I’m trying to keep all my ygo stuff together in as few places as possible, so Aoi’s blog, @getyouraoion​, has been moved to be a side to this one. She’s getting a bit of a rehaul and facelift at the moment, but will be available to poke at in a few days. I’ll eventually be moving one of my other blogs related to her here as well, but that’s a bridge crossed when I get there. <3

I’ll be getting to actual replies in the next couple days; catching up with Mako and Kiku comes first, but things will hopefully be returning to regularly scheduled programming here soon enough. <3

[datastate]

What's your favorite thing about each main game participant in ytd?

ohhh this is a lot x] let's see... i'm assuming you mean the main twelve humans we know? technically, kazumi isn't in the main game but... he's still dear to me so i'm throwing him on here ghsmgsgs

sara - i actually really admire her personality, in general. not only because it makes actually playing through the game a lot more entertaining & emotionally connecting, but just. i really like seeing characters who balance out that weird humor with actual responsibility. even though i don't think she should've had to take on as much responsibility as she has now, esp with keiji having the chance to step in, i really appreciate seeing her persist, not just for herself, but the group as a whole. she's just... such a fun & sympathetic character (for the player) i think. a great choice for a protagonist and still a character i'd appreciate if we weren't playing as her.

jou - ohhh man. again, a personality thing, but his social intuition is very important to the game and is the main reason why sara was able to connect with the rest after his death at all. this is mainly mentioned because of jeremy (@/fantasticvoyage), but especially in the main game where he weighs their choice on whether or not they'd take the "safe" vote (selfishness) or if they'd let him live if he asked them to, just to see whether or not they were awful people anyway who would've killed a kid for their own skin... he's just such a smart guy and i appreciate how. set he is in a lot of what he does and how intensely he cares about people (even nao, someone he just met, who lost her mentor figure - though there he did go about it in the wrong way... but he couldn't have known)

keiji - definitely brings a lot of interesting topics into the game :0 i'm usually interested in the whole hades incident (which jou's father / mr. p was supposedly looking into, before he was killed...) or the little theoreticals he entertains (particularly with mishima's head or miley's involvement... it's interesting!) or asunaro's influence on the outside world in general !

kanna - gahhh she's so sweet ;_; she grew so much throughout the game... arguably, she and nao have similar character arcs (with nao more focused on moving on to open up to her allies here; and kanna coming to terms with the people she cannot leave behind, lives she carries with her to push her to act... because she is still alive. in sara's favor for her sister (& to keep the intended murder from haunting sou), or to offer herself up as the one to study sou, knowing that she influenced the main game to kill kai, so she at least wants to take on this responsibility and find the information that she wanted sou alive for. and so on...) she's a smart kid too... just. cares deeply about other people. i want to hug her so much.

q-taro - this is silly but it was actually a bit comforting seeing a guy who may not ethnically be japanese, but was still treated with decency instead of being singled out, even if his dialect was a bit strange at first for people to process. i just like mixed characters, and esp w his backstory, it's fun... but personality-wise it is. relieving? in a way, to see him be so blunt about what he thinks of the whole situation, and go as far as to offer himself up in the first main game if it has to come to it (though he definitely doesn't have intentions to let himself die...) & then of course for his first trade in the second chapter where he outright says he's planning on getting an escape ticket (with best intentions at the time...) and doesn't mind if sara denies him this, bc she's got a right to be wary... he's a reasonable guy!

tsukimi - SIGHS yeah okay i'm not immune to liking sou on an objective level... he's a very interesting character, and i really love what nankidai did with him... it's the first time i cared for a character like him, really. there are some things he did that were just. uncalled for (like purposefully triggering sara's recent trauma), but i do like how nankidai wrote out tsukimi's genuine desperation & had his first trial literally be physiological, to set him against sara from the start... the story could've so easily been from sou's pov and still made as much sense with what info you were given.

reko - ough. she cares so much about everyone ;_; i do appreciate that she was shown to not always be such a... compassionate person? but that she, like kazumi, made that choice to begin to open up rather than stew in it... and she's still got those complicated feelings toward the inciting incident that made her change her tune - with alice... people do say that reko may have accepted the bongos, but i personally think even if she was there that she would've had to take a few to actually regain herself before denying or accepting it. she wouldn't break it, but it'd still be such a sore spot and i love how she's written around that topic, the reasonable fear and denial mixed in with the doll reko's shown resentment... gah. part of that being born from her compassion, even if at the time she was much more hesitant to accept that as the reason (openly). also she's pretty, and i love her dearly.

nao - her arc... mentioned this briefly in kanna;s point, but getting to see nao grow and show her actual potential, making the choice on her own to step away from the professor's ai so she could stand on her own, just. it breaks me every time. in the first chapter, i felt bad for her, sure, but the second chapter really solidly secures her as an amazing character to me. one of my favorites in most media i've gone through... she acknowledges that she's not as much of a 'leader' type of person as sara is, but still wants to support [yabusame] in the wake of ch2-1 because she knows she's able to help here, at least, and it's one less thing for sara to worry about. seeing the two truly connect after sara actually loses someone (and isn't just trying to comfort nao, like she did on floor one) and work through that grief is just so. sweet. i can't really put all my thoughts here concisely, but she really shines in ch2. i love her.

kai - looks at my entire blog. he's a fucked up guy! i love... everything about him ahgmsgs the introduction to what asunaro can be, its decisiveness in its ideology, even once disconnected from the death game... his tragedy, his little humor, the absolute autism... i mostly got attached to him for what he brought into the story, but he is a charming character in his own right.

gin - little catboy... i don't really think about gin as much as i do the others, but he is very sweet. little sassy kid. deserves the world.

alice - points. the transgenderism. ahgmgsgs no but really, i think he's just. a really funny guy? similar to kai, he's got a charming personality - though it doesn't show at first. i began to open up during the first main game when he stood up for reko, but i quickly became fond of him as soon as the second chapter rolled around and we actually get to see him be a bit more vulnerable with the group, esp with reko... it's not like he's necessarily hiding that he cares so much, but he's just very. hesitant about it. because he knows how much he hurt reko, and the 'family' of the person he killed. so he goes out of the way for her comfort and it's just ;_; he really is such an older sibling... i've got a lot of thoughts but... cannot talk about alice at length right now x] but the tl;dr is that siblings (esp those w complicated relationships) will always, always get to me.

kazumi - already mentioned this in reko's, but it's definitely the proof that he's made an active change to improve upon himself. we do see hints of who he used to be, with his ai being manipulated for it, but... knowing who he really chooses to be, is just very... inspiring? in a way? he is like... actual proof that just bc you grow up, or something goes wrong, that it doesn't mean that your life is irrevocably fucked up. you always have a chance to change. and that's a message that i think a lot of people need. i love him a lot... and i also think he'd give great hugs.

[hajimeme-hinata]

for the yttd ask game; Kazumi Mishima and Kai Satou!

Kazumi Mishima: Who do think should have been the first to die, logically or emotionally in your opinion?

Logically when I replayed yttd everyone should’ve voted for Sou. Like there’s nothing stopping them from voting for Sou when Kai is begging for his life saying to vote Sou bc he’s the sage and they know who the sacrifice and keymaster are from that so like they could have. If he’s causing problems there’s a way to stop that yknow. Emotionally Q-taro. I’m sorry I still don’t care about him... you had a good arc though...

Kai Satou: Which dead character is having their death badly handled by the game (yttd) or by other characters?

Idk if I'm alone in this but the way the game handles Sou's death in the Kanna route feels... weird. Not even taking into consideration the actual character's responses, the game itself leads you to feel like the Kanna route is the good route and the Sou route is the bad route, like it's rewarding you for killing a specific person off. This is something I particularly hate bc the Reko/Alice split is completely neutral no matter what you did and there's no punishing aspect, even if the Reko route events are objectively darker. It never makes you feel like you've made the right choice, you just made the choices that you did. That's what I wish they did with the Kanna/Sou split. And I have no problem with having feelings of guilt when you choose the Sou route! I actually really like that part of the route, the small little comments about whether he was the right decision really add the the somber and darker tone to the route. Of course you would feel guilty over choosing Sou over a kid, that's the point! But what I don't like is the almost happy tone to Kanna's route. You just directly chose someone to die, is that really what you'd be feeling? Relief and upbeat? I want there to be guilt of a different kind: was it right to go against logic just so I feel like I'm doing the right thing? Bc that's why you saved Kanna, so you wouldn't kill a kid. But is that a better outcome for the group? Or will it come to bite you later? I want something to come up that would work far better if Sou were there, but he... isn't. Your decision to not plan for the future has led to the sacrifice of someone or something and you think, "Did I make the right decision?" Idk I think it'd be a good way to even out the routes. Self sacrifice should be treated the same way on both routes, and I don't think it should be celebrated.

Just an add on: it feels kinda weird that Sou has a full breakdown and announces revenge for Kanna’s death but Kanna seems to just not. care? that Sou just sacrificed himself for her. Like she doesn’t even seem that upset and then just kinda moves on. I know that’s simplifying things but if the tone wasn’t so upbeat I think it would be something that feels intentional to the character rather than a writing choice. Like Kanna only spent three days with him, of course that’s not a lot of time. Especially when she just lost her sister! Of course she could take a positive message from it (whether or not she should is up for debate). But with Sou, even though he was blatantly manipulating her, she still believed in him until the end and got kind of close to him, and was probably the first person in a long time to do that. I think the juxtaposition could be kinda cool to explore if it didn’t just feel like she feels that way bc the route is supposed to be happier.

[beetchy-keen]

I have concluded that even tho I’ve reset the game and gone through all the leveling again, I still am bad at tekken 🤣😂😭

The whole point was to get better at doing more moves than just kicking everyone around and while this go around I’ve been better about blocking that attacking straight off, I still am only using like 4 moves and Miguel actually has a pretty good list! Maybe it’s a case of memorizing how to do them? Maybe if There was a slow motion option in practice so I can see the moves? That might actually help because everyone has a couple combos that can hit high and low and blocking is pretty hard when I don’t know the other character’s moves. There was something else too… I forget.

I suppose I’ll just reset the game again. This time I won’t smoke through the Kyu levels so I can see what I’m dealing with before I actually level up. Practice only goes so far, even on hard mode the CPU seems to be more forgiving than in a treasure match.

Can I also safely bitch about Kazumi? Just a little, just to blow a little steam? Specifically devil Kazumi. How the hell are you meant to deal with her god damned tiger? As soon as the cat’s sent out I know I’m losing. I get she’s a boss! I’m just bitching, also is there a way to deal with her attacks that involve the tiger? I do have a problem human Kazumi and her tiger too BUT it’s not as bad and I also get she’s one of the oldest characters (right?) so the tiger is a WELL established part of her.

I figure out the best way to fight CPU Kunimitsu and now I’ve gotta figure out a LOT of other characters… I think I’ve got Eliza figured out for the most part too… Steve continues to be a bitch to beat, Lili has been handing me my ass pretty regularly, I dread the sight of King (especially in the higher levels good GOD)

Sorry, I know it’s another bitch fest about the same things. I do that a lot. But I’ve got a plan and I HOPE that it’ll work. Besides, all the extras I get aren’t bought with real money, so it’s not like I’m throwing cash down the toilet. It’s kinda fun getting it all back! (Also don’t ask me why I’m so fixated on getting good at this game. Maybe it’s the fantasy of being a streamer… even though my forte is more sandbox/ open world RPGs that I can mod the crap out of. Tekken really is a big step out of that box for me but I do like it!)

Also since I’ve disabled my Instagram this is the only place I can rant endlessly. It’s a beautiful thing honestly.

I did draw Dante today! I explored a different type of facial hair for him and I really like him with a bigger beard. He’s great like that though. He can look like he’s Street wear ready, a hipster and a… hm… daddy I suppose. Zaddy just isn’t a word I feel completely using, I feel like it’s not for me to use. Of course the beard I gave him gives him more of a Pan/devilish appearance which strangely I gravitate towards.

[chemicalmagecraft]

Taiyuu OCT Round 4

Character Nicknames: Nii-chan: Takeda Ryuji Mulan-sensei: Jailong Chen Mushu-chan: Firecracker Boron: Nerva Rekka Buck-sensei: Kazumi Shunsuke Akai-chan: Naishin-Sunomu Seisho Akai-obaachan: Seisho's grandmother (I do not know her full name and you probably don't either)

@taiyuu-oct

x x x

Yukino hummed to herself, grabbing a quick snack from the pantry. She'd participated in the UA entrance exam a few days ago and to be honest she was still a little drained from it. Still, she felt like she did pretty well. No way she wasn't getting into the hero course.

"Yuki-chan!" her brother shouted, running into the room with an envelope in his hands. "It's the letter from UA! It looks like you got in!"

"Oh?" she said, opening up a granola bar. "You didn't open it, did you?"

"Oh no," Nii-chan said, "it just looks like the one I got when I was accepted." He tossed the envelope to Yukino. "Now, just remember that, when you get into UA, you should be on your best behavior."

Yukino rolled her eyes and groaned. "Do you really think I won't behave?"

He shrugged. "I'm just making sure. I know some of the teachers at your old school had a tendency to... look away when people with 'heroic' Quirks acted up."

Yukino snarled, clenching her fists. "What, and you think I'm like those bullies?"

Ryuji winced. "N-no, I just meant that UA has higher standards than that, and you should-"

Yukino threw the now-frosted acceptance letter on the floor. "Know what?" she said coldly. "I changed my mind. Gonna see what other hero schools there are before I restrict myself to UA."

"Yuki-cha-" Ryuji started to say, but shut up when Yukino glared at him.

"Goodbye, Ryuji," she growled, then stormed off.

x x x

Mulan-sensei had spent the last half-hour berating the entire class about safety. Odd, Yukino didn't think any of the teachers actually cared about that by now. Finally, she was getting to the point of this exercise. "So today you'll be doing a mock rescue exercise." She pointed behind her, at the same dirt cityscape they'd used the last time Mulan-sensei dragged them out to do an exercise. Except this time it was ruined, like there was a massive supervillain attack or natural disaster or something. Wow, did they really have the budget to destroy one of their dirt training course mockups?

"You'll lose points for any injuries that occur, both to yourself and the mock victims. And you get points for every victim you rescue. We're not telling you how many points you have, lose, gain, or need to pass, so you don't simply stop when you have enough to make it. Heroes don't stop saving people until they're sure that there's nobody left to save, so neither will you. Of course, the ruined state of the cityscape means that parts of it might not be safe."

Yukino scoffed. Here Mulan-sensei was telling them to be safe while admitting she was sending them into somewhere dangerous. At least make sure nothing would collapse and kill someone!

"Because of that, my Quirk effects will be flying around the area." She pointed to Mushu-chan, who was floating around her head, when she said 'Quirk effects.' "If anyone gets injured they are to whistle so they can be rescued."

Yukino bit her lip. 'Quirk effects...' She'd tried to ignore it before, but... Mulan-sensei calling her dragons that was starting to really bother her.

"Mommy! What's that big lizard thing doing here?" "Ugh, did the demon woman have to come?" "Sorry, we don't want any weird monsters in our club!"

Maybe Yukino was making connections where there were none, but... The way Mulan-sensei called Mushu-chan and the others Quirk effects and stuff like that, only begrudgingly referring to them by their actual names... It felt disgustingly familiar to the sorts of dehumanizing remarks she and her family occasionally received due to her grandfather's Quirk and the mutations he passed down. Now, normally Yukino would at least try to talk to her about how the language she was using concerned her, but... Yukino glared at Fuwa-chan... the last time Yukino brought her concerns up to a teacher she didn't feel like it was properly addressed. So she just added it to the list of reasons she would be leaving this half-baked, understaffed, ill-funded travesty of a hero school and never look back. Mulan-sensei was still talking, but Yukino couldn't bring herself to listen at the moment. Hopefully it wasn't anything too important.

She did manage to tune back in when Mulan-sensei was starting to wind down, though. "And remember," her final point was. "You'll all be doing this at the same time! You'll lose a lot of points for fighting with each other, but there's no penalty for collaborating. It's encouraged, even. Now, go!" Mulan-sensei blew her whistle, causing most of the class to run to the ruined city. Yukino was among that crowd, though she was towards the back of the group because she couldn't really get that far into the crowd without getting trampled. The group quickly thinned out, thankfully, as people split off, either to go down side streets, climb up the buildings, or take to the skies. She looked around, trying to spot any of the fake civilians.

There! A vaguely-humanoid figure roughly hewn from what appeared to be stone, trapped under what appeared to be a streetlight made from dirt. They... probably didn't say anything about property damage, right? Typically in a situation where things were already this destroyed nobody really cared if heroes had to break a few more things to save someone's life. Yukino quickly tapped the 'streetlight' on both sides of the fake civilian, using Cryokinesis to freeze two segments and then cleave them apart to free it up. She lifted the cut segment off of the civilian, then concentrated on her Quirk. She'd had an idea for a special move, or at least a new usage of Cryomancy if it didn't exactly count as a special move... She chilled the air around her a by few degrees, extending the effect out in a pulse. Yukino could, if only for a moment, feel anything that she was chilling even if she didn't freeze it below zero. It was a little murky, but she could tell differences between things by temperature and texture. It'd have been a bit easier to detect the civilians if they were warm bodies and not made of cold stone, but at least it was something.

The reason why she'd found a civilian first, though, was because she wanted to have an example of what she knew the civilian might feel like to compare the surroundings to. And using the special move produced... mixed results, honestly. For one, it took a small bite out of her body heat, but she was expecting that. She felt like her sense might've gotten a bit too spread out towards the end, which was hopefully something she could work on, but she did notice two more civilians in a nearby building. The door was blocked by a bit of dirt building, but that really wasn't much of a hindrance to a telekinetic as potent as she. Yukino patted the ground next to her civilian, using her Quirk. "Hang in there a bit," she said despite the fact that it was an honestly creepy-looking rock and not even anything resembling a person. Then she walked up to the door, brushing off the rubble with her Quirk.

Yukino quickly froze the ground under the two civilians inside the building, thankfully not obstructed aside from the rubble over the door. She carefully lifted all three civilians on the impromptu telekinetic stretchers she made from the ground under them, then walked out the building. She walked out of the dirtban area, the three civilians in tow. Yukino noticed Boron down the street carefully carrying two civilian stones in the same direction she was going. "Hey, Boron," she said, waving.

"Hey," he said, though he was still concentrating more on trying not to drop the heavy stones.

Yukino, because she wasn't really burdened as much by her charges thanks to her telekinesis, reached the area where everyone seemed to be dropping off their civilians. She gently set them down, still on their platforms, and nodded to Mulan-sensei. She jogged back to the cityscape, slowing down a bit when she passed by Boron. "Trade ya when you get back," she said, then sped back up again. She walked around the city, not using her sensory skill again but just checking under rubble when she saw a spot where a civilian might be hidden. She'd managed to find one civilian that way by the time Boron found her.

"You said you wanted to trade?" he asked.

Yukino nodded. "I chill you off, you warm me up. Also, I have something I wanna try, if you'll warm me up again when I'm done."

He smiled and summoned some fire. "Sure, let's do it!"

After Yukino cooled him down and ate his fire in return, Yukino tried her idea. She sent a pulse of cold off in one directing, hoping that narrowing it down would let her sense a bit more. It was a success, so she, with Boron's help, sent pulses off in three other directions, turning roughly ninety degrees each time. She had a pretty good idea of where all the civilians nearby were, at least for the moment, so...

"There are some civilians that way," Yukino said, pointing. It was true, of course, but there were a few more in another direction that Yukino planned on taking. "Of course, I can't guarantee our classmates won't scoop them up." With that said, she went after the civilians that she'd felt.

x x x

After... maybe an hour or two of the exercise, Yukino saw two people in suits talking to Mulan-sensei and some other teachers as she brought some more civilians out.

"What are you two doing here?" Mulan-sensei asked, looking somewhat miffed.

"We're here about the outstanding debt of Chikyu Tane," one of the suited men said.

When she heard that, something inside Yukino just... snapped. She faintly heard the civilians she was carrying thud to the ground, but she didn't care at that point.

It made... a disturbing amount of sense. But still, learning that Chikyu-’sensei’ apparently got into debt making a shitty-ass seventh-tier dirt school that couldn't properly care for its students? It was all Yukino could do to keep from exploding then and there, instead gritting her teeth and seething at the situation until one of the teachers, she didn't notice who, gently ushered her back to the dorms.

When she was back at the dorms she immediately walked to her room, slamming the door open, and stormed over to her belongings. She immediately grabbed her scratching block, which she usually kept somewhere easily accessible in case of a situation like this where something (or someone) caused her emotions to spike severely. She sat down and growled to herself as she started furiously ripping into it. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down, but it ended up shallow and not helping at all.

"Are you okay?" a quiet, nervous voice asked. Yukino jumped to see Yuu-chan standing at the doorway.

She was about to shout at him, but sighed. He didn't deserve it. "I'm... really angry," Yukino spat out. She snarled. "It's... by itself it's petty, but this is just the latest in a string of issues I've had with this damn school. And to be honest? I'm fucking out. Bye." Yukino got up, still scratching at her block. She walked to the door, letting Yuu-chan get out of her way first. "And... for what it's worth," Yukino stopped to say before she left, "you and the other friends I made here... are pretty much the only good thing I got out of this school. I'd like to keep in touch, if that's cool with you."

"Yeah," he said, though he still sounded a little somber. "I'd like that..."

"Thanks." Yukino left, searching for a teacher. She quickly found Goudalone-sensei, trying to calm down some students.

"I-I'm sure Laccadaisy will get back soon!" they said.

That statement hit Yukino hard. Chikyu wasn't even fucking there? Goudalone-sensei probably was trying to keep the students from getting riled up, but all it did was anger Yukino further. "Who do I have to talk to to leave?" Yukino shouted at them.

"A-ah! Takeda-chan!" they winced. They got really nervous when they saw her, and the students they were talking to backed away a bit. "Um... We'd prefer that you didn't leave the island at this time..."

"Not what I meant," Yukino growled, clenching her fists. "I want out of Taiyuu. I was trying to be patient, but whatever's going on now is the last straw!"

"U-um..." they trembled a bit under Yukino's fury. "Y-you'd have to talk to Buckskin about that, but he's... looking for Laccadaisy with Ryujin at the moment... They're... probably on the mainland."

Yukino's hands shook. A few wisps of white vapor rolled off of her as she tried to keep herself from lashing out. "Okay then," she said coldly. "But I'm leaving. Now. I'll contact... Kazumi-sensei about that later." She stormed off, pulling out her phone and opening her contacts. She tapped one of the first contacts, pressing the 'call' button. She went to an area with no people, trying to get some privacy.

"Yuki-chan! What's up!" Nii-chan picked up almost immediately.

Yukino sighed, trying to compose herself.

Nii-chan picked up on her silence. "This isn't an 'I love my brother so much and wanted to talk to him' call, is it?"

"No," Yukino muttered, unamused.

He sighed. "Okay, you here to vent or do you want my help with something?"

"I'm leaving," Yukino told him. "I don't care if you don't want me to, I don't care if you aren't there when I get off the train, hell, if the train isn't available I don't care if I have to use my Quirk to leave!"

"Okay," Nii-chan said. "Wow. Did... did something illegal happen?"

Yukino snorted, a bit of white vapor puffing from her nose. "Supposedly not, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised at all."

"Yeah, you sounded pretty... serious. Okay, luckily my shift just ended, so I'll try to be there to pick you up. If I'm not there when you get off, please wait until I arrive. And if you can't take the train, call me. I should be able to arrange something a little less... technically illegal."

"Thanks, Nii-chan," Yukino muttered.

"Love you, kiddo. Be there as soon as I can!" *Click.*

Yukino put her phone away and headed for her room.

x x x

Yukino hefted her backpack. She'd put some of her clothes, electronics, toiletries, and valuables in her bag but unfortunately had to leave most of it behind for when she could get it later. Luckily Yuu-chan was still in their room, so Yukino apologized for everything and asked him to make sure nothing happened to her stuff until she came back. With that taken care of, she was heading out. But before she could get to the door, she heard a calm voice.

"You're leaving, Takeda-kun," Akai-chan remarked. It wasn't really a question.

"Yeah," Yukino said. "I just... can't take this shit anymore." She'd already vented to Akai-chan about how she'd been having a lot of doubts about Taiyuu, and how she was considering leaving even before this most recent incident.

The much taller girl nodded. "Would you want me to leave with you?" Yukino noticed that she also had her backpack.

"That... that sounds great, but only if it's what you really want..."

"Of course," she said. "I imagine the incident with the debt collectors is what set you off? It does seem very suspect."

Yukino gave her a small, nervous smile. "Let's go, then."

The coupl- pair left the dorm building together, heading for the trains. Luckily, the train was there and it seemed like it was running. Akai-chan spoke to the operators for Yukino while she texted her brother to let him know that the train was running and she was coming with a friend. The operators agreed to take the two back to the mainland after they were assured that there was an adult back there waiting for them. Apparently the operators were going to pick someone on the mainland up anyways, which certainly helped. Yukino and Akai-chan took their seats on the otherwise-empty train, sitting next to each other near the front with their bags in the seats next to them. Yukino leaned on Akai-chan as the train started. She sniffled and rubbed at her eye. Akai-chan put an arm around her.

x x x

Yukino and Akai-chan got off the train as soon as the doors open. When they did, they saw Jailong-sensei about to enter the train.

"Hey," Yukino said coldly.

"Ah, hello, kids," Jailong-sensei said nervously. "I... can guess why you're here."

"Sure, it could be the fact that our 'beloved' principal up and ditched us to dodge the debt collectors," Yukino shrugged. "That was pretty upsetting, but are you sure it isn't the severely cheap and often times literally made from dirt facilities that reek of the sort of budget you can't run a school on? Or perhaps it's the understaffing issues that made it hard to get a proper education? Or maybe, just maybe it was the fact that the girl with the 'uncontrollable'" (Yukino made sure to use her snarkiest air quotes when she said 'uncontrollable') "memory-erasing Quirk was allowed to just erase everyone's memories for a few months with no question or even making the students aware that there was such a student at all? Ooh, or maybe it was all of the shitty things above!" Okay sure, it might've been a little harsh to dump all that on Jailong-sensei, but Yukino was feeling petty at the moment.

Jailong-sensei sighed, looking a little weighed down by the contents of Yukino's rant. "...I can concede most of what you just said, but not your problems with Kayaki."

Yukino snarled. Whatever guilt she had over venting at Jailong-sensei suddenly evaporated. "What the fuck are you on about?"

"It's... it's classified," Jailong-sensei said.

"Oh?" Yukino asked. "Classified? How can I be sure you're not just covering up for her?"

Jailong clenched her fists. "There wasn't a good solution to her problem that wouldn't have negatively affected Kayaki's education."

Yukino cocked her head at the 'teacher.' "So letting her negatively affect everyone else's education was totally fine, then? And to be honest I can think of a few solutions that would've probably only made her a little uncomfortable, as opposed to your amazingly brilliant solution of 'ignore it even though it's probably gonna make over half the school even more uncomfortable than Zuruko would be if we just did literally anything about it.' Did you even try to think of a solution? No Quirk is omnipotent, there had to have been a better way!"

"Quirks can be unpredictable," Jailong deflected. "We couldn't have been sure anything would work..."

Yukino scoffed and crossed her arms. Did she even realize what she was saying? "There are so many holes in that argument I almost mistook it for a thin slice of Swiss cheese. Oh, no, sorry, excuse would be a better word for it. Doing anything is better than nothing, you know. And most Quirks aren't nearly that unpredictable. You're an outlier, you know that, right? Most Quirks aren't sentient beings, just supernatural biological functions and stuff like that. They're not so unpredictable that they can't be dealt with, or that trying isn't worth it!" Yukino uncrossed her arms and jabbed a clawed finger at Jailong. She could feel herself start to heat up, white wisps curling off of her. "Though to be honest from how you talk about your dragons I wouldn't be surprised if you don't think they're alive! You know what your problem is!? You pretend that your Quirk is a thing when it's LIVING BEINGS! ZURUKO HID BEHIND AN ACTUAL THING AND PRETENDED IT WAS THIS BIIIG SCARY MONSTER SO SHE DIDNT HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MEMORIES IT ATE! YOU KNOW WHAT'S NOT UNPREDICTABLE, THOUGH!? KEEP THE HURTY FIELD AWAY FROM PEOPLE AND IT'LL STOP HURTING THEM!! FUCKING!! MAGIC!!!" She let all the hurt, anger, and pain she'd been feeling over this pour into her words.

Jailong scoffed. "You think we should've kept Kayaki isolated? I didn't have a lot of records to work with, but I do know that her Quirk only affects memories of herself and blurs her into the background. I fail to see how that's worth that amount of vitriol, and you clearly disliked her to begin with." Seeing Yukino's glare, for whatever reason, not get any better from being told that her feelings weren't valid and that she was overreacting, Jailong sighed, her face softening. "No, I shouldn't accuse you of anything. But you should know that I did what I could, and I wasn't dealing with just her. Taiyuu was barely equipped to handle a class of completely normal people, and you and I both know that hero schools don't attract just normal people. To say I'm embarrassed by how poorly this went all down would be putting it lightly."

Yukino snarled, starting to see red. Not even a fucking apology. Jailong belittled her feelings, made excuses for her own shoddy work, and didn't even fucking apologize. And now she was making out that she was the one that was hurt by this. A lot of thoughts ran through Yukino's head, none of them polite. "You really think that makes it okay?" "Don't condescend me you fucking prick!" "You covered up for a fucking villain, don't act like I'm the asshole here!" "You're a villain, not a hero!" "Shut the hell up!" "Die, die, die, die die die diediediediediedie!"

Yukino felt someone grab her now-cold shoulder. She looked up at Akai-chan, her breath ragged. Akai-chan... didn't really smile or anything, but she gave her a look of sympathy. Yukino got her breathing back under control, then rubbed at her face with her sleeve. She glared at Jailong, but kept her tone cold. "It's... I can't believe you're looking down on me, when you're the one who didn't do anything when I was panicking over the holes that kept popping up in my memory." She shoved her hands in her pockets, partially to keep them from shaking. "But whatever helps your negligent ass sleep at night, hero." She spat out that last word with so much venom that she was honestly surprised that Jailong didn't die on the spot. If there was one thing she could think of Jailong as at the moment, 'hero' definitely wasn't it. She started to walk past Jailong, Akai-chan right by her side, but stopped when they were behind Jailong.

"Oh, and for the record," Yukino said, feeling like throwing one last barb in, petty as it was. "I hate just about everyone who spends months letting their mind-altering quirk permanently erase my memories about equally, regardless of how well they can directly control their Quirk. It's concerning that you, the pro 'hero' here, don't see what the big deal is. Though at least I know where Zuruko must've learned that self-centered attitude about how I'm not allowed to be angry about my memories of her vanishing, now." She smiled sardonically. "But hey, I guess you probably don't care about what a 'quirk effect' like myself might be feeling. Goodbye."

Jailong didn't have anything to say to that. Good. Before Yukino could start walking again, though, she heard a sound like a firecracker popping. "Hey!" A voice... was that Mushu-chan? He sounded angry, in any case. "You don't know anything about what she's like!"

Yukino snorted. "Ain't that the fuckin' truth. Good to know you've got your 'user's' back despite her repeatedly calling you a 'thing,' I guess." She started walking to the exit of the underground boarding area for the train.

"You kno-" Mushu-chan started to shout, but stopped.

Yukino turned back to see Jailong holding her hand up, probably having stopped Mushu-chan's rant with a silent command. "It's not worth it, Firecracker."

"Yeah," Yukino said flatly. "You've got a train to catch and our ride's probably here by now. I'd say this was a nice talk but, well, I don't wanna lie." Yukino was very tempted to say 'unlike you,' but she was probably pushing it already... She started walking to the exit again. Jailong didn't try to dig herself any deeper, she just sighed and got on the train. Yukino walked up the stairs to the exit, seeing her brother's car when she got to ground-level.

Nii-chan got out of the car, a worried expression on his face. It looked like he hadn't even taken time to change because he was still in his hero outfit. "Yuki-chan, are you okay?" He ran up to Yukino, sweeping her up in a hug. "I'm so sorry, Yuki-chan. I don't know what you've been dealing with, but..."

Yukino hugged him back, hard. It was like a dam burst and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She buried her head in her brother's chest, sobbing.

x x x

The next couple minutes were a bit of a blur to Yukino. She vaguely recalled being gently led somewhere, Nii-chan and Akai-chan talking about something. But she spent most of that time crying into Nii-chan's costume.

Eventually Yukino calmed down a bit... or maybe just ran out of tears. At some point Nii-chan had taken her to a nearby bench and sat her down. Yukino rubbed her now-wet face off on her sleeve. The tears on her sleeve turned to frost almost immediately. For whatever reason, despite the fact that Cryomancy wasn't technically an ice-based Quirk, her tears were cold and would freeze onto anything other than her. Apparently her grandmother, who had an actual ice Quirk, had the same effect. Even though she was only reminded of it when crying, knowing that she had a similarity like that with her grandmother tended to make Yukino feel... pleasant, at least a little.

Speaking of... Yukino looked at the surface she'd been crying into. Flame-retardant fabric with a scale-like design, covered in frost and, at some parts, outright ice. "Ah, s-sorry," Yukino muttered to her brother.

He gave her a smile, squeezing her back a bit before letting her go from his hug. "It's okay. My costume is made to give me a bit of resistance to cold, remember? While I'm thawing my shirt out, though, do you need some fire?"

Yukino nodded. "Yeah, I might need a recharge..."

Nii-chan took a breath, conjuring fire from his hands. He held one of his flame-wreathed palms over his icy shirt, melting and evaporating the ice, and held the other out to Yukino. Yukino held her hands over the fire, sucking the familiar-tasting heat from it. Nii-chan didn't say anything as she ate her fill of his Dragon Fire, and when his shirt was dried off he let the hand on his chest fall wordlessly, still keeping the fire he was feeding to Yukino up.

"Done," Yukino said when she had her fill, pulling her hands away. "Thanks."

Nii-chan let his fire go out, a slight hitch in his breathing. "I'm... sorry, by the way," he said after a while.

"For what?" Yukino asked.

"This whole thing is kind of my fault..."

"It's literally not, but go on," Yukino said flatly.

"Yeah, but..." He sighed. "I mean, yeah, I didn't cause... whatever happened there, but... you turned down UA because I was a jerk to you all that time ago."

Yukino snorted. "I turned down UA because I overreacted to you giving me valid criticism and decided to do something stupid."

Nii-chan put his hand on her shoulder. "It was criticism, but in hindsight I wouldn't call it valid. I was too harsh on you, and I ended up pushing you away..."

Yukino shrugged, though she didn't shake his hand off. "I still probably should've..." She sighed. "Let's just say we both did something stupid."

He chuckled and ruffled her hair. Yukino pulled away a bit, but grinned. "Yeah, I guess if we're both in agreement..." He looked over Yukino's shoulder. "Hey, kiddo!" Yukino turned to see Akai-chan standing around awkwardly a bit away. "I still want you to call a parent or guardian before I take you anywhere, but once you do that we can get lunch, my treat!"

"I'll need to borrow on of your phones," Akai-chan said. "My Quirk interferes with electronics, so my phone is only for emergencies and usually uncharged."

Ryuji's brow furrowed. "There's really nothi-" He stopped, looked at Yukino, then sighed. "No, no, it's your Quirk," he muttered, "you probably know best... Okay, Yuki-chan, can you give her your phone? I wanna call our parents so they know you're alright." He pulled out his phone.

"Yeah," Yukino nodded. "Though... I don't know if I'm ready to talk with Mom and Dad yet... Honestly I only called you because I needed your help..."

Nii-chan nodded understandingly. "Yeah, I get it. I still have to talk to them, but I'll explain that to them. I'll go call them in my car, give you two some privacy." He did as he said, getting inside his car and calling someone on his phone.

Yukino pulled out her phone. "I can go somewhere else, if you want some privacy," she offered.

"It's okay," Akai-chan said. "Could you please dial the number in and hold the phone for me? I would prefer not to destroy your phone."

"Yeah, that's cool. Gimme the number."

Yukino dialed in the number Akai-chan gave her, then put the phone on speaker for her. It sounded like it was her grandmother who picked up. Akai-chan told her that she'd left the school, and how it was probably not going to be a school much longer. Akai-obaachan asked how Akai-chan's stepsibling was (still on the island and apparently better off that way, which concerned Yukino...) and then suggested she start looking for another school. Then she asked where Akai-chan was and said she couldn't pick her up.

"I'm with... a friend and her older brother right now," Akai-chan answered.

"A friend?" Akai-obaachan asked, clearly interested in what Akai-chan would say next by her tone of voice.

"...Yes," Akai-chan answered.

"Is she the short blue girl with ice powers that you like a lot?"

Akai-chan's ears turned a little red. "...Yes," she muttered.

"And her brother is a pro hero, right? He should be trustworthy. You may stay with them for a while, but please go either here or your home by nightfall."

"Okay, Obaachan," she agreed. "See you soon."

"Bye, Sei-tan," Akai-obaachan said. "I'll tell your mother about this for you." She hung up.

Yukino smirked at her. Akai-chan, probably realizing what that smirk meant, blushed slightly harder in anticipation. "So I'm the short blue girl that you like a lot, huh?" She turned off her phone and put it back in her pocket.

Akai-chan gave a small nod. "That's right."

Yukino smiled at her. "I'm flattered."

"You're... you're welcome, I guess."

Nii-chan got out of his car, stopping Yukino from pressing Akai-chan any further. Probably for the best. "You guys done? I can take your orders if you want!"

"We are, thank you," Akai-chan said.

x x x

"Thanks for this, by the way," Yukino said as she sat down on the bench. They'd gone to Dad's family restaurant for the food, as Yukino thought, but Nii-chan had made it a takeout order and taken them to the park nearby instead of going inside to eat. Yukino had stayed in the car, but Nii-chan relayed the well-wishes of Dad and the employees she was closest with.

"No problem, kiddo," Ryuji said with a grin. He handed out the containers to Yukino and Akai-chan, then opened his. "Smells so good..." he said after giving it a sniff.

Yukino and Akai-chan opened their food, too. Nii-chan and Yukino both ordered the Da'long Katsukare, a special dish that they both liked a lot, and Akai-chan ordered it too because she liked spicy food anyway and didn't have as much of the menu memorized as the siblings.

"It tastes delicious," Akai-chan said after taking a few bites. It was, as the name suggested, a katsukare dish with the tonkatsu shaped and decorated to look vaguely like a dragon. It was also very spicy, as Nii-chan had warned Akai-chan before relaying her order to the restaurant. "Though if I may ask, was it named after Takeda-san's hero name?"

Nii-chan smiled at Yukino. "Really, Yuki-chan?" he asked, his voice dripping with exaggerated joy. "Your girlfriend already knows my hero name?"

Akai-chan's cheeks turned a very adorable shade of red at that comment. "Ah, uh..." she stammered out.

Yukino snorted. "Yeah, that's right Akai-chan," she said. "When Nii-chan chose his hero name, Dad decided to name a dish after him in support."

"And he naturally picked katsukare," Nii-chan added, "because it's kinda one of my favorite foods." He ate some of the curry-covered pork, then sighed in delight. A small, deliberately dragon-shaped puff of fire escaped from his lips when he exhaled. "Plus, it's so spicy that it makes you feel like you're breathing fire, like my Quirk."

"That... sounds nice," Akai-chan said.

Yukino grinned. "And when I finally debut, though unfortunately it seems like it's gonna be a while still, Dad's gonna name something after me."

Nii-chan chuckled. "Yeah, can't wait to see that, huh?"

"I'd love to see it," Akai-chan said.

"Thanks, Akai-chan." Yukino smiled and leaned on Akai-chan's side. "So are you gonna try to get into another hero school after this?" Yukino asked. "I'm planning to try to transfer into UA. Nii-chan's been looking into how to do that for me and could probably help you, if you want to as well."

Ryuji faux-pouted. "Don't volunteer my help without asking, Yuki-chan..."

"Love you too, Nii-chan," Yukino smirked at him.

"Thank you for the offer," Akai-chan said, "but I think I'm going to go into medical school after this, not resume the hero course."

"Oh that's cool," Yukino said.

"Med school is certainly a great goal," Nii-chan agreed. "People tend to glorify pro heroes, but doctors save lives too."

"Thank you," Akai-chan said. "For what you just said, and for the lunch as well."

Nii-chan gave her a smile. "You're welcome! It was nice meeting Yuki-chan's... friend."

He didn't say 'girlfriend,' but Akai-chan still blushed again.

"That's enough teasing, Nii-chan," Yukino said. "Let's eat before our food gets cold, huh?"

"Ah, right," Akai-chan muttered. She quickly took a large bite of her katsukare, probably to give herself an excuse to not engage in the conversation. Yukino smiled and had some katsukare as well.

"Aah~" Nii-chan sighed once they were all done with their food. "That was delicious~"

"Yeah~" Yukino agreed with a smile. She was feeling a lot better after some good food.

"It was good," Akai-chan said, putting her container down.

"So what are we doing now?" Yukino asked.

"We can do something else in a bit, but for now..." Nii-chan pulled another container out of the bag that the katsukare was in and handed it to Yukino. "Sorry if this... probably isn't the best time for it, but Dad and I both thought you might like a little pick-me-up."

Yukino quietly opened the container, revealing... "Is that a meringue?" Yukino asked. It looked like a lightly browned meringue, shaped into a scale pattern somehow.

"Take a bite," Nii-chan said, handing her a spoon.

Yukino took a spoonful of the dessert, revealing ice cream and a brownie under it. A warm feeling spread in her chest. "Oh, it's a baked Alaska," she realized. Her father had made her and Nii-chan the hot-and-cold dessert a few times when they were younger (once he even enlisted Mom's help and Quirk to make it right in front of them). Yukino chuckled. "Haven't had this in a while... What's he calling it? Baked Kuraokami?"

Nii-chan shrugged. "He hasn't told me the name yet, but he's been preparing to add it to the menu since you told us your hero name."

Yukino smiled, taking another spoonful. The meringue and brownie were only a little warm and the ice cream was starting to melt from the wait, but it still tasted delicious. A cold, but not sad, tear came from her eye. She quickly wiped it off, making sure it didn't get in her ice cream. "It's good," she said once she swallowed it. "Remind me to thank Dad."

Nii-chan smiled. "I will."

[mocha-sim]

“Old AU/fanfic ideas I’m probably never going to write” dump

(Long post warning)

---

“Full Circle”, first fic I came up with when I got into the fandom around early 2018, your basic next-gen fic except the main focus is on the student council, who all somehow wind up involved in the case of Ayano’s daughter, Kataba (which is a dumb name in retrospect). Kuroko is Kataba’s teacher, and Akane is the guidance counsellor. Aoi and Shiromi don’t actually appear until after the first rival is killed (pretty early in the story), when Aoi - a bodyguard at Saikou Corp. - is sent to the school to watch over Megami’s son, and Shiromi is a detective/journalist assigned to the case. Weirdly enough, Megami’s son Haruki ends up being the one to trigger the “senpai effect” in Kataba

I had some ideas for rivals:

Haruki’s close friend Emiko, kind of a flirt. Gets stabbed to early in the story for the audience to really get to know her

Rikuto, leader of the gardening club, and a very emotional guy who may or may not have been suffering abuse at home. Iirc Kataba drops something heavy on him in the shed to kill him

Kano, leader of the (now-official) gaming club, grumpy and rude but has a soft spot for cute things, kind of a depressed attitude and maybe has drug problems. Gets driven to suicide

Kazumi, leader of the art club, an energetic girl who’s popular around the school, but a daydreamer. Suffering from an unwanted pregnancy

Chika, leader of the science club, cold and distant personality, others call her “ice queen”, looks up to Kaga who now has his own huge corporation. Kataba sabotages her experiment (a small robot) to quite literally blow up in her face at a science convention, which kills her

Isamu, leader of the school’s kickboxing team. I never really fleshed him out tbh

Tamotsu, leader of the delinquents, infamous throughout the school and has the kind of personality you’d expect a delinquent to have. I don’t remember the details of how I planned to have him eliminated but I think Kataba found some way to get him killed by a rival gang

Sadashi, a timid and quiet new student who moved from elsewhere in the country and is struggling to adjust to life at Akademi. Again, I don’t think I fleshed her out as much as the others, but there was something about her trying to get into the student council

Masumi, Haruki��s childhood friend whose family is constantly moving around for business reasons, but is always texting and video-chatting with him. Just like Haruki, she’s extremely rich and is one of the only people who can really relate to him. A very calm and polite girl. If I'm remembering right, I think she actually survives, but gets kidnapped and tortured by Kataba and never really recovers from the trauma

The tenth rival is actually Haruki’s bodyguard, Aoi. By this point in the fic it’s all gone to shit, there’s a missing person’s report out for Masumi, Akademi is in a state of panic and many students have stopped coming to class, and there’s been talk about shutting the school down permanently. The focus is kind of split between everything that’s going on (Masumi, the state of the school, Shiromi’s investigation, Taro and Ayano’s marriage falling apart, Kataba trying to kill Aoi) instead of just focusing on the current rival

I think had one idea for a student who’s not a rival: a Midori-like student called Tsuki Muun... but she was a gag character more than anything

There are other canon characters who appeared in the story, like Ayano and Taro, Megami (though she doesn’t play a major role), Info trying to help Kataba for her own benefit (I had a vague idea about her going undercover as one of Shiromi’s coworkers and trying to sabotage the investigation), possibly Osana and/or Hanako, and I considered having Oka show up as a ghost

Taro is kind of an ongoing obstacle for Kataba and is the one who rescues Masumi from the basement (he also hits Ayano with a chair when she tries to stop him from taking Masumi to the hospital by threatening him with a knife. King behaviour)

Kataba is actively trying to sabotage Shiromi and her coworkers. Early on in the story she kills Shiromi’s search dog as a “warning” to her

Shiromi and Taro end up becoming close friends whilst she’s investigating his daughter’s crimes. Ayano gets kind of suspicious but I don’t really remember where that ended up going. Also there’s this whole scene where they break into Kataba’s room while she’s out to find her bulletin board with notes/pictures of all the rivals and how to eliminate them

Aoi is not only Haruki’s bodyguard but his godmother as well, and he calls her “auntie”

There’s some conflict between them because he feels that she’s too overprotective and, being a teenager who wants to hang out with his friends, he doesn’t want some middle-aged woman lurking over his shoulder all the time

Over the story they start to resolve things and grow closer. Aoi supports him when he feels insecure about not living up to the “perfect” image of his family

Since the story would take place around 20 years in the future I think I was going to take some liberties with technology and stuff like that, especially during Chika’s week

Akademi’s uniform also changed over the years to something more fitting for a high school, the number of students attending grew much larger, and their sports club/martial arts club were replaced with something closer to actual high school sports teams

---

Supernatural creature AU, where everyone except Taro and Hanako is some kind of monster/creature/etc. 

Taro is oblivious to everyone around him being monsters and thinks the school he attends just has a lot of weird students, but he’s an accepting and non-judgmental person so he just takes it in stride. Hanako, however, knows what’s going on and has to constantly keep Taro from walking straight into danger

Ayano is a demon who Taro unknowingly sold his soul to in exchange for a bag of chips, and now she wants her repayment. She and Hanako are almost constantly at odds with one another, but on occasion they team up to protect Taro from a “greater threat”

Instead of an occult club (because I think that would be kind of obsolete in this AU), there’s some kind of support/therapy group for undead creatures like zombies, ghosts, vampires, etc. Oka decided to start it because of the struggles she’s faced as a zombie

The sports club are all aquatic monsters of some kind. There’s at least one merman in there

The science club are aliens and/or have some kind of “artificial human” theme going on (robots, Frankenstein-esque creatures, etc.)

The gardening club are all fairies - the kind who do things like tending to flower gardens and cleaning around your house

Shiromi, on the other hand, is more of a “trickster” kind of fairy who steals shiny things/valuables, gets people lost in the woods for fun, and may or may not eat human flesh (Hanako makes the assumption that she does and tries to save Taro from her). She doesn’t get along too well with most of the gardening club

Akane is a banshee who ends up serving as the student council’s “alarm” for when someone is dying

Aoi is some kind of reptilian/dragon creature who can breathe fire, but probably can’t fly

I don’t think I ever got anything set in stone for the rest of the student council. I was thinking of making Kuroko or Megami a seraph but that doesn’t really fit in with the “monster” theme

One of the bullies is a shapeshifter of some sort

At least one of the delinquents is a werewolf

Iirc the existence of monsters/supernatural creatures wasn’t common knowledge even in this AU and Akademi was created as a “safe” school for them to get an education without the threat of being discovered by humans. How Taro and Hanako got in... nobody knows. Maybe someone thought the two of them were a little too average and had to be hiding something

Most of the other students at Akademi are aware that the two of them are humans, and some find them fascinating or like to mess with them. Others are wary around them and try to avoid them out of fear that they’ll react badly. The rest of the students are just horribly confused and trying to figure out what they are

---

Aoi x Shiromi biker/mechanic AU

Aoi is part of a biker gang, but her bike is an absolute rustbucket that’s constantly breaking down and there’s only one reliable repair shop in the small town she lives in. The mechanics keep suggesting that she gets a new bike but she has a sentimental attachment to her old one and doesn’t want to get rid of it. She’s gonna get fined for driving it eventually

Aoi doesn’t get along with her family in any AU it seems, and trying to stay away from the house as much as possible led to her getting involved with the biker gang (probably with the martial arts club members). Luckily, the gang she’s a part of is much more benevolent than the other major gang in town and mostly acts in defense of themselves or others. They’re politically active more than they are actually criminal, and the illegal things they do basically amount to protests and the like

The “rival gang” is the delinquents. They’re the ones who commit more crimes like theft, vandalism, drug trafficking, etc., and usually do what they do for money. They’re not afraid to use physical intimidation and violence to get what they want. Both gangs often wind up in trouble with the law for collateral damage during their fights

The delinquents hate Aoi more personally than the other members of her gang because of a) the amount of problems she’s caused for them and b) a rivalry with their leader, Osoro, which dates way back to high school. Aoi gave Osoro that scar on her face, and Osoro damaged Aoi’s eye badly enough that it had to be removed

Kaga and Shiromi’s parents died at some point when Shiromi was in high school. Kaga was already an adult at that point, plus a mechanical genius, and was old enough to take over the repair shop. He taught his little sister everything he knows so that she could help him after she graduated. They live in a small apartment right above the shop

Shiromi usually winds up being the one to repair Aoi’s bike (or at least helping) and the two of them start bonding over that

Most of the people around Shiromi’s age (19-ish in this AU) left town to attend college somewhere better, or get a job elsewhere, so she’s found herself lonely a lot since she graduated high school. Sure, there are the other employees at the repair shop who she gets along well with, but they’re all significantly older than her and she can’t really connect with them the same way she could with her friends from high school. She’s grateful for the opportunity to talk to someone close to her own age for once and potentially make a new friend (though Aoi doesn’t really want anything to do with that at first)

At some point Aoi comes in seriously injured after a fight, but denies that she’s hurt. Shiromi convinces her that she needs to go to the hospital and gets her there

Kaga already has some protective-older-brother tendencies (which Shiromi hates), but it practically doubles when she starts hanging out with Aoi and the rest of Budo’s gang. She knows Kaga just wants her safe and uninvolved in gang conflicts, but by this point she’s really attached to Aoi and wants to keep seeing her, so Kaga backs off under the condition that Shiromi stays on her guard and doesn’t go out at night

As Aoi and Shiromi start hanging out outside of the repair shop more often, the delinquents realize that Aoi has someone close to her that they can use to hurt her

They start making threats against Shiromi just to provoke Aoi, or otherwise messing with the two of them. After a fight in which Umeji suffered a major head injury that hospitalized him, and Osoro’s gang lost the drugs they were trying to sell, Osoro makes the decision to kidnap Shiromi to lure Aoi in and beat up/possibly kill her. They succeed in the kidnapping, but it falls apart when Shiromi tricks the guy who’s supposed to be guarding her and escapes on her own before Aoi even shows up

After this incident Kaga is full-on freaking out and forbids Shiromi from seeing Aoi, blaming her for Shiromi getting kidnapped. The two of them keep communicating through text and Shiromi sometimes sneaks out to see her

Before the story takes place Aoi wasn’t super close with the other members of the gang - they were acquaintances more than anything. Over the course of the story she gets closer to them and starts to learn more things about them (like the fact that Budo is/once was in the same situation as her - in love with a girl (cough-Oka-cough) whose family wouldn’t let her near him because of his lifestyle)

There’s a whole arc focusing on Aoi’s parents trying to get Aoi out of the gang, not because they’re genuinely worried for her safety but because they think their daughter being part of a gang reflects badly on them. They possibly try to get the other members of the gang arrested

After this arc, Aoi moves out into her own place near the repair shop, and Shiromi and Budo help her move in

Aoi and Shiromi end up happy together, Kaga and Shiromi resolve things between them, Aoi no longer has to deal with her parents, Budo ends up with Oka, the other gang members resolve their own character arcs, and the delinquents end up in jail

---

Magical girl AU which, tbh... I never really fleshed out. It was mostly an excuse to draw cute magical girl outfits. But I did have some stuff down for it!

The placeholder club leader/now the empty demon is the “Kyubey”-type thing that gives all of them their powers

I never really figured out whether I wanted to take a dark route or a more light-hearted one with this. I think my favourite idea would probably be something in between, though - not super grimdark and edgy, but not all sunshine and rainbows either

All of them got not only powers and weapons, but also enhanced physical abilities like running faster, jumping higher, increased strength, increased durability, and more stamina. But those abilities would only take effect while transformed. I was thinking one of them would get used to having enhanced abilities and keep trying to do things they can’t actually do in their normal daily life, which eventually gets them hurt

Kuroko has some sort of rifles and the ability to form hard-light shields to protect herself or others

Akane’s weapon is a bow for which she can produce as many arrows as she has energy for. She also got the power of flight/levitation

Aoi has a sword, like a really heavy broadsword type of thing that she can somehow lift with one hand, and the ability to breathe fire

I think I was planning on giving Shiromi a weapon at some point, but I don’t remember what it was... My other idea was her not having one single weapon, but being able to produce as many small projectiles like throwing knives, shuriken, etc. as she needs. She can also become completely invisible

I don’t think I really had anything fully decided for Megami tbh. I had a vague idea of what kind of outfit she would wear but I never drew any designs (at least, not that I remember)

They definitely have to do some travelling around Japan at some point

Ayano may or may not have been an “evil magical girl”, I don’t really remember

---

Another one I didn’t flesh out a whole lot: the fic where a bunch of Akademi students go on a camping field trip

Info attends school as a normal student in this AU and is part of the group that goes camping

It’s Ayano, Info, Osana, Megami, Kuroko, Akane, Aoi, Shiromi, Osoro, Kaga, Taro, Umeji, Budo, Itachi, and Tsuruzo

There’s a scene where they’re all gathered around a campfire telling horror stories. Kaga offers to hold Megami if she’s afraid. Megami is not afraid, is sick of his shit, and tells him to go sit somewhere else

At some point they need more wood for the fire, but nobody wants to go into the woods to get it, so Shiromi tells the boys that whoever brings back the most wood can have a date with Akane. It gets most of the boys off of their butts for sure, but Kuroko scolds her for it. Shiromi just says that, once they’ve got the firewood, it’s not like they actually have to go through with their end of the deal. Kuroko heads off into the woods to collect some herself

Kuroko ends up bringing back the most wood and waves Akane off, saying that she just did it so that she wouldn’t have to go to dinner with one of the boys, but Akane insists on giving her that date when they get home

Everything is going great with the camping trip until they wake up one morning to find Osana missing from the girls’ cabin. They spend hours searching before someone finally finds her dead in the lake

Everyone is certain that this wasn’t an accident and the mood immediately plummets. Almost everyone has their suspects and is at each others’ throats. The teachers who are supervising decide that they’ll all pack up and be ready to leave tomorrow morning

However, Itachi and the delinquents want to figure out who killed Osana and bring them to justice. One thing leads to another and all the students end up lost in the woods. At some point the delinquents suspect Info and attack her, which injures her and splits the group in two

After that I’m not really sure where things go, but everyone is trying to get back to the main camp and get home safely. Aoi is in the same group as Info and is hella suspicious of her as well so not everything is peaceful. There are some people in Umeji and Osoro’s group who are pissed at them for attacking Info and splitting the group. Taro is extremely upset by Osana’s death and Megami comforts him, which leads to Ayano plotting to kill Megami as well while they’re still here, and possibly hindering the group/trying to isolate Megami as a result.

---

I had a pirate/mermaid AU for Aoromi but I never wrote anything down for it - I just had a few really, really old sketches I never posted

Iirc, the general plot was that Aoi’s crew was struggling after the betrayal of Ayano and the death of the former captain Megami + many other crew members, and couldn’t really do anything but run from other crews who tried to attack them, their only advantage being that their ship was still the fastest. Then they fish up a mermaid, Shiromi, who they plan on selling for money to hopefully try and get back on their feet, but end up getting emotionally attached to her

---

Superhero AU which I think I’ve mentioned before but

Anyone with superpowers is legally required to work under the government to defend the citizens whenever they’re called, but they don’t get any pay or significant benefit from it so they also have to work other jobs in their civilian lives. This causes huge amounts of stress

There are some who formed their own group to rebel against this system, which eventually evolved into trying to establish a new society in which they are above those without powers. Info is their leader. Her powers revolve around hacking, not just technology but people as well (though the latter is a lot more complicated and difficult)

Hanako is a sort of “sleeper agent” who doesn’t actually know that she has any powers, let alone that she’s one of the most powerful. Info finds out before she does and brainwashes her. Hanako constantly finds herself “blacking out” and then waking up in her room hours later with no memory of what happened. Meanwhile, a new member of Info’s organization shows up under the name “Nemesis”

Kaga doesn’t actually have any powers, but works for Info and her organization anyway. He’s a technological genius who built himself some kind of Iron Man-esque robotic suit to fight alongside them. He believes that if he works with the “winning side”, when they eventually take down the government, he’ll be spared/treated better than the others. Spoiler: he won’t. Info is planning on discarding him as soon as he outlives his usefulness to her

Also Kaga’s codename was “Dr. Bluescreen”. Clearly the most intimidating name ever.

Homu is a robot and one of Kaga’s inventions. She ends up developing sentience and emotions

Seiyo and Ajia are rivals in both their civilian and superhero lives. They work as waiters at the same restaurant

Being born with powers also comes with enhanced abilities like speed, power, endurance, etc. Ayano doesn’t have any actual powers, but has all the other enhancements (maybe even more so than the others) and is considered one of them anyway

Megami’s power is to calculate her opponent’s weaknesses and adjust her own powers accordingly. It sounds good, but it’s not so great when facing off against more than one person at a time

Aoi has fire-related powers and is in constant conflict with the fire department

Kuroko can produce toxins from her body, Akane can fly, and Shiromi can camouflage herself or other objects/people

Info and Shiromi go way back and Info is constantly trying to convince her to come over to her side. Info may or may not brainwash her at some point which sort of sets off Kaga because opposite sides or not, that’s still his little sister

At some point I was thinking of adding a “middle group” who don’t want to work under the government but don’t want to put themselves above people without powers, either. Maybe the delinquents

---

[thebladeblaster]

Pokémon: the Dark Circuit (AKA Vanguard Descends season 2)

Chapter 2 Stranded

Aichi’s current team

Level 80 Ahmes (Gallade) psychic/fighting

Moves:

Close combat

Solar blade

Swords dance

Future Sight

Level 79 Wingal (Lycanroc (dusk)) rock

Moves:

Stealth rock

Crunch

Stone edge

Play rough

Level 77 Llew (Golisopod) water/bug

Moves:

Sucker punch

Blizzard

Liquidation

First impression

Level 78 Gancelot (Lucario) fighting/steel

Moves:

Focus blast

Stone edge

Meteor mash

Dragon pulse

Level 85 Soul Saver (Haxorus) dragon

Moves:

Outrage

Iron tail

Dragon dance

Scale shot

Level 100 Alfred (Aegislash) ghost/steel

Moves:

Sacred sword

King’s shield

Iron head

Shadow Claw

In Galar…

Gin sat on top of his throne looking rather unimpressed. He tapped his foot against the ground. Leon bowed before him alongside Oliver who glared at him.

“I don’t see him with you.”, Gin pointed out the obvious.

“This psychopath thought it was good idea to hit him with a tsunami.”, Oliver said.

“Ahem...the tsunami was supposed to bring him to Galar, but it seems something intercepted it and changed his destination.”, Leon said, coughing nervously knowing that their master was rather upset.

“Do you know where he is now?”, Gin asked.

“From what I was able to detect. It’s likely that he ended in Alola considering the direction he was going in.”, Leon answered, trying to stay composed.

“Then, the Quatre Knights shall go to Alola to retrieve him.”, Gin replied, making Leon lower his head.

“I will bring 003v back to us I swear!”, Oliver vowed.

“Also, I have this. In case he’s not there we have a way to flush out 003v.”, Leon said as he raised up a dark ball.

Somewhere tropical...

“Show no mercy…”, Aichi mumbled as he rolled around in his sleep and a small smirk formed on his face.

The place where he was seemed rather tropical. Palm trees dotted the landscape and there was a beach in the distance. He was under the shade of one of the palm trees. It was rather humid, making Aichi sweat uncomfortably. He felt a searing headache through his skull. He felt something rub up against him. Aichi’s eyes cracked open to see what was rubbing up against him. It was Soul Saver rubbing her head against Aichi worriedly. She had a puppy look in her eyes which brightened when she saw him wake up.

“Soul Saver…”, Aichi whispered, looking down seeing a makeshift blanket made out of leaves over him being held together by something.

He looked over to see Gancelot sitting down, almost like he was on watch duty on the ground and he looked over to Aichi. It was Gancelot’s aura holding the makeshift blanket together.

“Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus! (You're finally awake mommy!)”, Soul Saver cheered, hugging him tightly.

Aichi accepted the hug sweated dropping. He was still extremely confused as to what was going on. He started to try and get up after being released from Soul Saver‘s hug. He suddenly froze when he realized…

“Luca-Lu...lu...Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (Wait-oh...Uh...you're naked I was about to warn you. Though, it looks like you’ve already realized that.)”, Gancelot said.

“I-I’m naked!?”, Aichi questioned as he blushed embarrassedly, holding up the makeshift blanket almost like a censor bar over himself.

“Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus.Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus.Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus.Haxorus. Haxorus. (I don’t get why humans get so flustered about being naked. I’m naked all the time and I don’t get all red.)”, Soul Saver said cluelessly.

“Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario...Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (Your clothes are drying up there. They were soaking wet after well...we got hit by a wave.)”, Gancelot informed as he pointed up.

His clothes were hanging from a makeshift rope made from vines.

“Are they dry yet?”, Aichi asked, stills feeling rather flustered.

Gancelot got up feeling the clothes to see if they were dry yet.

“Lucario.Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario.Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (Yeah. They feel kinda hot though. I think we may have underestimated how hot this place is.)”, Gancelot replied.

Aichi instantly grabbed his clothes, getting what Gancelot said. His clothes were kinda hot like when you left a cold drink in a car in hot weather. Aichi simply put on his red turtleneck and jeans. He tied his white shirt around his waist because it was way too hot to wear. He rolled up his jeans and the sleeves of his turtleneck to alleviate some more heat.

“Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus?Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus? (If your clothes are making you too hot why are you wearing them?)”, Soul Saver asked cluelessly.

“B-because! Humans are expected to wear clothes. And it’s illegal to walk around naked.”, Aichi replied.

“Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus.Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus.( I haven’t seen any humans around here besides you.)”, Soul Saver replied.

“Still I shouldn’t be naked!”, Aichi replied, blushing nervously.

“Haxorus. Haxorus. (Humans are weird.)”, Soul Saver commented.

“A-anyway where’s the others? Where...are we exactly?”, Aichi asked.

“Lucario.Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario.Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (The others are out looking for people and food. As to where we are from what I’ve heard from the local Pokémon, Alola.)”, Gancelot answered.

“Alola?...Alola!!!”, Aichi replied, blinking, realizing something before freaking out.

“Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus? Haxorus. Haxorus. (What’s wrong with this place? It’s really warm and sunny.)”, Soul Saver asked.

“Well...first of all it's really far from Kakusa. Second…”, Aichi trailed off as he looked around.

“I thought this place had become inhospitable after Team Asteroid...they used it as an example to the other regions when they started their plan to take over the world. They shot a bomb here, some sort of special bomb that released radiation that killed all the humans here, but not the Pokémon.”, Aichi explained.

“Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. Haxorus. (Sure humans are weird, but shooting a weird bomb like that to kill them is just mean.)”, Soul Saver replied in a sad tone.

“Yeah, really mean. Considering that umm...how am I still alive?”, Aichi questioned.

“Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (I don’t sense any radiation. It must have been cleared.)”, Gancelot replied.

“That’s a relief. People have been too scared to come back here to check to see if it was gone...it’s really sad. This region used to be a very popular place to vacation. It brought a lot of joy to people.”, Aichi replied.

Gancelot looked down like he wanted to say something.

“Is something wrong?”, Aichi asked.

“Lucario…Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario.Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (It’s Ahmes he...he isn’t here with us. He wasn’t here when we woke up I mean. I can’t sense him anywhere nearby.)”, Gancelot answered a bit nervous.

Aichi froze as he heard the news. His eyes widened and Gancelot became increasingly nervous as felt Aichi’s aura change. Soul Saver flinched feeling the same strong emotions through the link. The restraint braces on Aichi’s arms glowed brightly in response now very visible due to rolled up sleeves. A massive negative aura of anger emitted from him. He shook trying to get a hold of his emotions as a dark blue aura leaked out of him. He hugged himself as if trying to contain something within himself.

“Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! Lucario! (It’s going to be alright, Aichi! I’m sure we can find him! He might be somewhere else in the region! I'm sure he’s okay!)”, Gancelot assured.

Aichi sweated nervously nodding as the dark aura started to recede into himself.

“I-I’ve just got to be calm...I can’t let myself freak out like this. I’ll just cause more trouble if I do that.”, Aichi told himself.

Aichi took deep breaths trying to calm down his own anger and worry.

“It was because I was so weak this happened. I should have had my guard up against 002f! I should have…”, Aichi thought.

“Show no mercy.”, Aichi heard the voice of his father ring throughout his mind.

Aichi grabbed his head and shook his it trying to clear the thought out of his mind. His heart banged loudly against his chest.

“N-no! I shouldn’t be listening to him! I’m not 003v! I’m Sendou Aichi!”, Aichi thought.

“Haxorus? Haxorus? (Are you okay mommy?)”, Soul Saver asked worriedly.

Aichi lowered his arm looking between Soul Saver and Gancelot.

“Yeah…”, Aichi replied.

In Kakusa…

“So, this is the team to recover the champion?”, Kyou questioned.

By Misaki’s side was Kamui and Miwa.

“Well, to be fair she did say it was supposed to be a small team.”, Kazumi replied.

“You can count on us to find bro!”, Kamui said as he pointed at himself.

“Well Emi and her little friend wanted to help, but Misaki refused.”, Miwa said, before Misaki stepped on his foot.

Miwa cringed in pain, grabbed his foot and hopped on one leg.

“Aichi wouldn’t want her to get involved and she has only one Pokémon.”, Misaki explained.

“One mythical Pokémon.”, Miwa replied, before Misaki stepped on his foot again.

“Mythical?”, Mamoru questioned.

“Celebi.”, Misaki replied.

“You know that flying grass not fairy fairy.”, Gouki said.

“Not fairy fairy. So, like how Charizard looks like a dragon type and should be, but isn’t?”, Mamoru asked.

“Yeah, just like Charizard basically.”, Gouki replied.

“That’s not important anyway. What’s important is that we’re going to find Aichi.”, Misaki said.

Kourin fidgeted but said nothing. Suiko and Rekka had knowing looks at Kourin.

“Do you want to help them out, Kourin?”, Suiko asked, before Kourin looked away.

“It’s fine if you come along. If you're not busy with your idol duties.”, Misaki said.

“Yeah, you’ve helped out bro lots of times!”, Kamui added.

“I never said anything…”, Kourin mumbled, still looking away.

“That’s because we all know you love him.”, Rekka whispered smugly.

This caused Kourin to blush embarrassingly and Takuto chuckled.

“Why not go along with them Kourin?”, Takuto joined with a knowing smile and Kourin looked mortified.

The others sweat dropped at Kourin’s reaction.

“You are so tsundere, girl.”, Rekka whispered.

“F-fine! If you want me to come so badly sure!”, Kourin replied.

“...Uh good I guess.”, Misaki replied awkwardly, sweat dropping.

In Alola…

Wingal flinched in pain when he tried to run away from a Beware coming his way. Llew scooped him up running with him under his arm. Llew turned his head back at the Beware shooting water at it. The Beware fell over slipping as it became covered in water.

The area around them had some buildings that looked like they were being slowly eroded away and reclaimed by nature.

“L-lycanroc. (S-sorry.)”, Wingal apologized.

“Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod.Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. (It’s fine. You were really hurt from the tsunami. You are weak to water after all.)”, Llew replied.

“Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc.Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc. (I just wanted to do something useful. Though it looks like I’m more of a burden in my condition.)”, Wingal replied, looking down.

“Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod.Golisopod. Golisopod! Golisopod! Golisopod! (I don’t think you're weak. You beat a freaking legendary for Peet’s sake!)”, Llew replied.

Alfred suddenly flew in and they looked to him.

“I found a castle up ahead. It’s hard to see through all the greenery but it’s there and it looks like there’s actually people there.”, Alfred said.

Wingal and Llew perked up at the news.

“Golisopod.Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. Golisopod. (See this wasn’t for nothing. Now we have good news for Aichi when he wakes up.)”, Llew said.

“Lycanroc. (Yeah I guess so.)”, Wingal replied.

A camera that looked newer than everything else caught the Pokémon on it’s feed. It seemed to be relaying this back to somebody.

On a screen a shadowed figure sat in a chair. The decor around him looked rather lavish. He held a wine glass in his hand and took a small sip. Another screen showed the feed of a drone flying bits away from Aichi, Gancelot, and Soul Saver.

“To think such an interesting thing just washed up on my doorstep.”, the figure said.

With Aichi…

He shook off his little episode, and focused on finding some way to find Ahmes and a way home.

“Alright, can you lead me to the others Gancelot?”, Aichi asked.

Gancelot nodded, gesturing to Aichi and Soul Saver to follow him. Gancelot suddenly stopped as a palm tree just swung at them. They hastily ducked before the ‘tree’ shot out blue dragonic energy. Gancelot punched at the ‘tree’. This caused it to shake and growl?

[euphorianyx]

Status : Complicated ~6~

Pairing: Dori Sakurada & MC Genre: Smut / Romance Summary: Me and Dori Sakurada were somehow involved. He was not my boyfriend. He never desired to be anything at all. I knew I meant nothing but just some of his time. It was like a storm taking over and there was no way making it to the end without traces. Though, I did not mind the situation at all. At least I thought so...

I bit down my lip and wished I would never call Kazumi. Even if Dori ended the call he must have heard when he said my name and thought we were here. I tried to find something to say but before I came up with anything I heard Dori’s deep voice.

“No... You are not but she is leaving.”

I could sense something was up and I just had to leave like Dori said. I tried to take a step but Kazumi was still on my way. He caught me by the wrist and took a look at my hand for a brief moment. I tried to get away from his grip but he did not let me. A chuckle that sent chills down my spine left his lips.

“When I saw those rings I thought they were for you and Mina but now I understand it.”

The word ring lingered in my ears and my eyes were glued to Dori to see his reaction. Dori furrowed his eyebrows.

“That is none of your business.”

Kazumi’s tight grip on my wrist was finally gone. I knew I should have left but I could not. I wanted to know.

“First at the party, now this... It was never Mina. It was her and you bought those rings for you two.”

My eyes were wide with utter shock. This was stronger than everything he has done. Tears forming in my eyes I asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Dori averted his gaze as he sighed. Our mutual steps ended when we were just inches away from each other.

“I just thought we could wear them so people would know but then it did not make sense.”

Hugging him I smiled.

“You idiot...”

I went through a lot for the last couple of hours but his arms around me lifted all the weight. Dori caressed my hair and nuzzled my neck before he pulled away.

“Go home now... We will talk through it all tonight, okay?”

Looking at him in the eyes I simply nodded. Kazumi took a look at Dori’s side for a moment and finally moved aside from the door. I threw him a glare before I made my way out. My heart, my body, my soul all felt lighter. I could not erase the smile from my face for the entire way home. 

I stopped by the convenience store to buy something. I wanted to cook a delicious steak and have a glass of wine along with it. I was excited about the evening. I marinated the meat and set the table. Everything was almost ready but there was no sign from him. Even if I hesitated for a moment I called him.

He did not pick up and I thought he was on his way. I waited, waited but it was already ten and my hope was fading away. I foolishly never thought he would not show up but there I was all alone. I opened the bottle of wine I bought and drank. After the third glass, I was cursing at Dori for everything he did to me, Mina for being such a bitch and Kazumi for being such an ass and not a nice option I could go with.  

“Ring huh, put that ring under your nose...”

I said while putting the empty glass down. Thinking of Dori with a septum piercing I was a giggling mess. His face was still alive before my eyes. Not even aware of what time it was I finally hit the bottom of alcohol. Hardly keeping my eyes open I turned my phone off and dragged my feet to my bed. I almost fell on my face. The soft fabric was comfortable but my thoughts were not. Still thinking about why Dori did not come or at least call me I drifted into a deep sleep.

I felt the bed was warmer than it should be. Shifted a little I opened my eyes and saw his arm wrapped around me. He was here? When I turned around to face him Dori was still sleeping. Well, at least that was what I thought. I allowed my fingertips to gently feel his soft hair. All of a sudden his hand caught mine then he opened his eyes.

“You are a trouble, aren’t you?”

I scoffed before I rolled my eyes.

“You are the one to tell...”

He tugged my hair behind my ear.

“Sorry...” his deep voice melted through my ears. “I had to take care of something.”

I wanted to ask but my instincts stopped me. Deep inside I knew it was about Mina but I was not going dig it. What was the use except for pain? Dori was here with me and that was the matter. Then I realized him being here was nearly impossible because I did not give him keys.

“How did you get in?”

Dori had a smirk on his lips when explained.

“I was planning on breaking the door but since it would be too loud I brought a locksmith after you did not answer my fifteenth call.”

I could not help but chuckle at his words. He reached for the drawer and grabbed a pair of keys.

“These are for your new lock and I got the other pair.” 

Only then I realized he was serious about the locksmith and probably breaking the door. Then he placed them back only to have a black card between his fingers.

“And this is for my room.”

Biting my lips I tried to proceed how he just went from keeping everything from me to giving me access to his room. Dori slowly leaned in towards me. His lips lured me in for a sweet yet passionate kiss. He tasted better than everything as I lost myself while our tongues danced with each other. We took our time as long as our lungs allowed. When he pulled away he seemed serious.

“Don’t do such a thing again. I was going out of my mind.”

My lips crashed his again before I smiled widely.

“If I am going to wake up with you I will do that anytime.”

When he gave me a glare that sent shivers down my spine I averted my gaze. Then his deep voice filled my ears again.

“Won’t you ask me about yesterday?”

I shook my head looking down for a second. After the sweetest smile I got from him Dori left the bed. When he appeared with a small box in his hand my eyes widen. The rings... He sat beside me while he opened the box.

“This means my promise...”

He took the smaller one. My fingers laid on his hand light like a leaf. His long fingers did not hesitate to put it on mine. Biting down my lips I took the bigger ring. I could feel his eyes on me while I slide it down his finger. We raised our hands to take a look at the elegant white gold. Dori’s fingers intertwined with mine in the air as he sighed.

“Too bad... It seems everyone will know I am taken.”

I arched an eyebrow at him.

“I know a lot of women would not mind that when they see you. I warn you Dori Sakurada if you even think about it, I will...”

His index finger was on my lips to stop me from talking. I was smiling until I heard the sound of keys at my door. A sharp knock followed along with my mom’s gentle voice.

“Sweetie I can’t open the door.”

Dori and I stared at each other with wide eyes.

[erenaeoth]

Hey Eren, Tifanny here with a new prompt :-) Kazumi, torn. I absolutely loved the short story about Hei. I think this one could be situated before those tragic events. But, you're the author ;)

Sure! you guys keep handing me tragic words though, so you get angst in return! Here is some soft but melancholy Kazumi and Heihachi.Also on A03 here.

———————

Kazumi slid the door shut behind her and stepped slowly and noiselessly down the wooden corridor. She opened another door at the end and closed this behind her too. She breathed out a pent up breath.

“Is Kazuya sleeping?” Heihachi sat cross-legged on the tatami, not looking up from the paperwork he was reading. He sipped from a small cup of sake then set it back down on a low, ornate table before him.

“Yes.” Kazumi knelt and folded her hands in her lap. Heihachi looked up. Kazumi waited until she had his gaze. “He’s asking after his grandfather again.”

Heihachi’s face fell into a frown. He regarded her from under thick, dark eyebrows but said nothing.

Kazumi’s heart sunk. She closed her eyes.

“I told you,” Heihachi said, “my father left on some urgent business. He may be away for some time. Business is like that sometimes.”

“I know you fought with him. I know he opposed you taking over his corporation and challenged what you were doing with it.”

“Nothing much gets passed you.” Heihachi’s glower broke into a soft smile.

Kazumi did not return it.

“This isn’t the right path to walk down, my love. I know running this corporation means a lot to you, but it will come to you eventually. Make up with your father, give the Mishima Corporation back to him. Kazuya misses his grandfather. And I miss my sweet Heihachi.”

Heihachi’s face darkened again.

“It’s called the Mishima Zaibatsu now. And it’s already expanded far beyond the meagre plans of my father. I will make the Mishima name a global empire. My father was slow and took no risks. He was afraid of progress. The Zaibatsu is flourishing under me. And my lieutenants love me as they never loved him.”

“Lieutenants? Is this a business or an organised crime syndicate?”

“Kazumi!” Heihachi said sharply, “I’d ask you not to speak like that. I may have a more efficient approach than my father, but that doesn’t mean there’s any illegality to it.”

“What happened to there being no secrets between us, my love? Have you forgotten that I read your features as I might an open book? You’re changing. Taking over this corporation has not done you good. It is setting you on a path that will end in darkness. Not just for yourself, but for your father, for me, for our son.”

“I’m doing this for all of us! This is the beginning of a golden age for the Mishima! Kazuya will inherit an empire! Would you deny him an inheritance like that just because my father has some old-fashioned business ideas?”

Kazumi let out a deep sigh.

“You’re not hearing me, Heihachi. It is you I am frightened for. Can you not hear me when I say you’re changing? The things you want… the things you’re willing to sacrifice… the things you’re willing to do… You need to take stock, and think about what’s happening. Did you know Kazuya was afraid of you today?”

Heihachi’s resolve faltered. He set his paperwork down, concern in his eyes.

“What-… what do you mean?”

“He says he went to show you a move he’d practiced, but saw you shouting at someone in your study. He came to me, frightened, asking why you were angry. He wouldn’t let go of my hand for most of the morning.”

“That’s not-… I was only-… He wasn’t meant to see that. There was just a hiccup earlier. One of my lieutenants-”

“Does it matter what it was about? You’re scaring your family.”

“I’m doing this for my family!” Heihachi insisted, eyes flashing.

“You’re not doing it for your father. You’re not doing it for Kazuya. You’re not doing it for me. Who are you doing this for, other than yourself?”

Heihachi rose suddenly to his full height, his expression terrible and storm dark. Kazumi watched him with a solemn, steady gaze and sorrow pooling in her heart.

“You will see,” he said softly. “The future will be glorious. The whole world will know the Mishima name. In ten years time, we will look back on this moment and laugh at the idea that you wanted to confront me over this. Our family will have all it could ever have wished for and more. Mark my words.”

He collected his papers together and stalked off to his study.

Kazumi was left sitting alone, torn.

[wow-thisismylifeiguess]

a fic concept 4 (dad edition)

(Okay, this one got...hella long. Like, I wrote it in a notebook ‘cause I thought of it during class and it turned into eight pages, so read at your own discretion)

(Also, I’m not entirely proud of this one and there’s probably a lot of shit that doesn’t make sense/seem feasible, but listen...this idea wouldn’t go away and I had to get it out somehow. Enjoy eight pages worth of not well planned/developed fic.)

An AU in which Izuku doesn’t get OFA and ends up going to a different high school and becomes a cop/detective under the mentorship of Tsukauchi. Two years after graduation, Katsuki goes out to celebrate being in the top ten with his friends and meets a girl. He’s drunk, and she’s pretty, so he takes her home. A bad decision. Drunk Katsuki is a Katsuki who makes mistakes, and they end up forgetting something important...a condom. The next morning, Katsuki is dismissive to the girl and they leave it at a one night stand, only that it ends up having some lasting effects. She’s pregnant but in no place to raise a child, and desperately, she abandons him in front of the police department. 

Izuku is the one to find the child and there’s nothing on them except for a slip of paper with an apology and a name. The boy’s name is Kazumi. Izuku instantly loves this child--he’s got pretty ash blond hair and lavender eyes. After some sort of process, Izuku becomes his legal guardian and the boy becomes Midoriya Kazumi. Izuku is the best dad ever and Kazumi grows up loved and cherished, and when he turns four, Izuku nearly has a whole panic attack when his son is revealed to be Quirkless. Kazumi doesn’t care because Izuku is Quirkless and if he can save people without a Quirk, Kazumi doesn’t need one either. Izuku loves his son. 

And then one day, Izuku is at work, dealing with a hostage situation that requires hero backup, and who shows up none other than Bakugou Katsuki? Izuku is not prepared and Katsuki is intimidating but surprisingly less aggressive than he used to be. He’s now in the top five heroes and Izuku has been keeping track of Katsuki, even after all these years. Katsuki wants to catch up but Izuku declines, he has a son he has to go home to, and Katsuki is shook, but Izuku reschedules. They meet up that weekend while Shinsou (who is very much Izuku’s best friend) watches Kazumi, and they catch up. There’s a weird tension between them because damn, Katsuki is hot, and holy shit, Izuku filled out. They push it aside and Izuku gushes about his son while Katsuki talks about work, and Izuku offers for Katsuki to come with when he goes to pick up Kazumi. When they arrive, Izuku notices how much the two look alike. 

Kazumi doesn’t like Katsuki almost immediately. He’s five and he’s got a protective streak a mile fuckin’ wide and he’s hella stubborn. Shinsou is amused by a five year glaring down a pro hero. Katsuki ends up having to rush and leave and Shinsou makes a joke.

“Yunno, I went to school with that guy. He’s explosive, kinda reminds me of Kazumi’s temper. What if they’re related, lol.”

Izuku overthinks this (obviously). But, he doesn’t think it’s possible. Katsuki is kind of an asshole, but he wouldn’t abandon a child on the street. Days go by. Izuku and Katsuki start hanging out more often and even Kazumi starts getting used to Katsuki’s presence. 

On Kazumi’s sixth birthday, Izuku gets a letter from someone asking if they can meet. He’s suspicious ‘cause they mention Kazumi but also curious. Katsuki watches Kazumi and Izuku takes Shinsou with him and ends up meeting Kazumi’s mother. Izuku is initially pissed, but she explains

“I was young, naive, and in no place to raise a child. And Kazumi...I would have no idea how to raise a child as special as him, especially with who his father is.”

Izuku asks what happened to Kazumi’s birth father. 

“As a pro hero, I doubt it would have done me any good showing up at his agency claiming he was the father of my child. Ground Zero is a little too busy for people like me.”

Izuku...is SHOOK. Shinsou is SHOOK. Kazumi is Katsuki’s son. Fun. Kazumi’s mother apologizes and hands Izuku a letter, saying he doesn’t have to give it to Kazumi but she hopes he does. She leaves and Izuku proceeds to freak the fuck out. Shinsou convinces Izuku not to do anything yet because they don’t know if she’s telling the truth and mentions doing a DNA test, just to check. Izuku agrees after calming down.

Things continue to be weird for a while and at the same time, Izuku and Katsuki continue to get closer before full on making out on the couch one night. Katsuki stays the night and Izuku guiltily swabs his mouth. The test takes a week to come back.

Kazumi is Katsuki’s biological son. Things sorta make sense, from the way they resemble each other to even their temper. Izuku panics and calls Shinsou who tells him he has to tell Katsuki because if he somehow finds out from someone else, he may react terribly. Izuku plans to tell him that night but at the same time, Katsuki plans a dinner to formally ask Izuku on a date.

Katsuki picks Izuku up and they have a nice but somewhat tense night and Izuku is over the moon about the date but terrified about what comes later. When they get back to Izuku’s apartment, Izuku goes into the bedroom to change so they can sit comfortably on the couch, and Katsuki spots a book that has Kazumi’s name on the front with a file stuck halfway through it. He reads it. Izuku walks back into the room. Things are not okay. CUE THE ARGUMENT! 

“How long have you know...Deku? How long have you been hiding my son from me?”

“Kacchan? This isn’t what you think!”

Katsuki thinks Izuku’s known this entire time. The book Izuku had is documentation of everything that’s happened in Kazumi’s life since Izuku adopted him. Katsuki threatens to take Kazumi away because he’s the actual father and Izuku breaks DOWN

“Do you even think you can, Katsuki?”

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“He’s QUIRKLESS! We both know how well you treat people without a Quirk!”

“What makes you think I’d do that to my own son?!” 

“It doesn’t matter that you did it to me? Did I mean that little to you when we were kids?!”

Izuku is crying and they’re both screaming. Katsuki unconsciously activates his Quirk causing Izuku to flinch and pull back, and Katsuki realizes he’s made a bad move. He tries to step closer, but Kazumi, who was sleeping and is now very much awake, runs across the living room and stands in between the two of them. He’s six, but with all the authority he has in his body, he demands that Katsuki leave. Katsuki tries to protest, but Izuku is unresponsive. He leaves, residual anger making him slam the door on his way out. 

Kazumi tries to move Izuku but he reacts to nothing, so Kazumi calls Shinsou who shows up and manages to use his Quirk on Izuku to get him into bed.

The next day, Katsuki shows up at the police department but before Izuku can spot him, Shinsou sees him first and drags him outside, demanding to know what he wants. Katsuki is dismissive to Shinsou but ends up talking anyway ‘cause Shinsou is not here to play around. He had been quick to judge and he realizes after thinking things over all night that Izuku had done nothing wrong. Early that morning, he’d found the person who did the DNA test and realized Izuku had only just found out, he hadn’t known all along, and he wants to apologize. He’s realized that he’s not fit to be a father to anyone, nor even the boyfriend to the only person he’s ever loved. Shinsou rolls his eyes and says that Izuku never planned on keeping Kazumi away from him. He was just (rightfully) frightened of Katsuki’s reaction and he had planned to tell him last night. 

“I don’t like you, Baugou Katsuki. But you’re the love of my best friend’s life and the father to the only kid I’ll probably ever love. You get one more chance and if you fuck it up, I’ll be the one to personally ruin your life. Got it?”

They come up with a plan together. A week later, Katsuki does the cheesiest thing and buys Izuku flowers and chocolates. He also does the creepiest thing and cooks dinner...in Izuku’s apartment. Izuku comes home (Kazumi is staying the night at a friend’s house) and he’s hella surprised but Katsuki gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness. There’s a whole speech that Shinsou approved. He asks for forgiveness. Izuku says no. Katsuki is dejected. 

“Let’s have dinner first. Then I’ll decide.”

They eat, it’s pleasant. Izuku explains everything that happened surrounding how he came to adopt Kazumi and how he found out about Katsuki’s involvement. By the end of it, they haven’t really talked about their own relationship and Katsuki thinks it’s too late. He goes to leave, but Izuku stops him and leads him to the bedroom without a word. When they’re tucked in,

“We need to talk to Kazumi about this, but I forgive you, Kacchan...”

They pick up Kazumi the next morning together and get breakfast. Kazumi is suspicious and annoyed and speaks before anyone else can. 

“I don’t like you,”

“That’s the second time I’ve heard that this week...”

“Listen. I don’t like you, but my dad does, which means I’ll give you a chance, but, if you hurt him... I may be Quirkless, but I’ll hurt you. Got it?”

Katsuki’s been given the shovel talk by Shinsou and now a six year-old. He agrees and breakfast goes pleasantly. 

It’s like...a few weeks later when Izuku remembers the letter Kazumi’s mother handed him. He gives it to his son and Kazumi reads it. It’s simply an apology and explanation of what happened, and while she doesn’t know what Kazumi will be like in the future, she’s sure he’ll be a wonderful person. She asks him if he’d like to meet and Izuku tells him it’s his choice. Kazumi says yes.

“It won’t change anything. She might be my mom, but you’re my dad. I just want to thank her, because without her, I wouldn’t have you.”

Izuku cries. They call and arrange a time, place, and day to meet. Izuku asks Katsuki if he’d like to come too. He says yes. 

“Does this mean I’m part of the family, now?”

“Sure, dad.”

Katsuki chokes on air. 

[buildridernews]

[Review] Kamen Rider Build (Overall thoughts)

It's that time of the year where Rider fans become emotional, potentially sad, potentially thinking about the future. Here, we’ll be talking about the setting, characters, plot, and really dig into that ending. 

But I guess first off, I’ll say one thing here: If you’ve followed the blog closely, you know that I really fell behind on the show a lot. That has nothing to do with the show, it’s just a me thing. When I watched, I was enjoying every episode, and kicking myself for letting so many episodes go by without watching it. 

With that said, let’s get into the reasons why I found it entertaining. 

Kamen Rider as a whole has all of these tropes and recurring themes going all the way back to the Showa era, and while Build has those things, it creates a unique setting around it. 

We're introduced to the world of Build after what is essentially a post-apocalyptic event, at least for Japan. The Skywall left them separated, with hints of a war in the midst due to the item that would grant any one of them absolute power.

At best, most Rider shows have a mysterious event took place in the past, more often an isolated incident that doesn't really have that much of an impact until the end of the show. This feels like a more impactful version of Kabuto's "A meteor previously destroyed one of our cities" opening premise, as it gives us a very unique setting where Japan is split into three types of nations, with robot sentries and abnormal mutations running around. 

More importantly, we aren't even halfway into the show when a status quo hits us and we're put into a proper war between the nations. It leaves us with empty cities for most of the show's run.

I know I commented on this a while back, and I kinda feel like it needs a followup now that the show is over: The show was dabbling in a lot of what I call "Real world monsters". Back when Gaim was going on, I recall thinking it was unexpected for a character to comment so realistically about how humans are always at war with each other, because it seemed like a heavy subject for a kid's show. Fast forward to Build where that's just the entire show. 

We spent the last year with a kids show dabbling in war and conspiracies, and when it became apparent that they were leaning heavily into these subjects, I wondered if maybe the show would take a much different direction in the end, causing us to go “Yeah it was weird when the show talked about war for about 1/3 of the story”. But as it turns out, that theme stuck and resonated in the characters. They go through a lot over the course of 49 episodes.

It's not uncommon for a Rider protag to be affected by a death, but Sento actually causes the death of a human and is legitimately haunted by his actions, not to mention the baggage of being the brainwashed creator of a combat system that started all of this fighting. It's also not uncommon for the protag to frequently hit an emotional rut that leads them to a newfound resolve, but I feel like this show really justifies it.

Sento frequently struggles with the idea of heroism because he keeps being challenged by these contradictions about himself, and the idea of heroism is constantly being mocked by the more cynical enemies he faces - even so, he kept fighting. He was once a member of Faust, he lost control and took a life, his father turned out to be one of his enemies for a bit... The dude went to hell and back, and I feel like his final form debut - as late as it was - felt so earned because of all he went through.

And this is to say nothing about his genius! I love Sento because he lives up to the hype. Before Build began, they talked about how Sento was the smartest of all the Heisei Rider leads, and it shows. He not only made his own Rider gear, as well as gear for other people, he also FREQUENTLY displayed his intelligence by planning ahead outside of battle. The dude would plan ahead by a couple episodes, even. He accounts for a lot of things and it's so satisfying to watch him get the upper hand, especially knowing just how much emotional baggage he has to carry. It’s beautiful catharsis. 

When it comes to the amnesia angle, followed by the Katsuragi reveal, I figured it was a nice twist. It makes more sense once you get further along in the show and learn more about who Blood Stalk was and why he had these powers. It was also interesting to have Katsuragi exist in Sento’s head after a while, giving him more staying power than I actually expected. I also must commend them for not only doing the “Katsuragi remembers who he is” subplot, and doing it for more than one episode. I’m just overall really pleased with how those things all worked out. 

It also must be said that the show did a great job sticking to this "The hero is created from evil" trope from the original Kamen Rider. They said from the start that this show would be focused on that idea, and they never strayed from it. Pretty much all the Riders (save for the villain) are kind of a different flavor of that idea. Just in general, I think it can be said that the show was consistent. 

And I can't talk about Sento without immediately talking about Ryuga. Along with the things mentioned about the main character, they also said that this show would be about “the feelings between these two men!” (context~), and once you see the first couple of episodes, you get what they mean. It's clever to have two leads who are such opposites, the classic Brain VS Brawn. The two played well off of each other til the very end.

Ryuga was also nice to have in the cast due to the (at the time) lack of background for Sento. The main character already had his origin story a while back, so most of the early episode were just about him doing his usual hero thing. Ryuga, on the other hand, gave us an on-screen origin story. We actually get to see his transition from a selfish hothead to a hero who wants to fight for the sake of others, and by the end of the show he goes out of his way to sacrifice himself like Sento would’ve.

Knowing where the plot eventually went with Evolt, it makes so much sense why Ryuga got this much focus, right down to the winter movie teaching him more about why a Kamen Rider fights for the sake of others. It just all worked out so well.

Kazumi was a character I was super interested in. I loved the actor in Kiva, and when he was introduced, it seemed like he’d be playing a charming character once more. But as we learned more about him, I think he turned out to be a character with more depth. Don’t get me wrong, Otoya is the best thing about Kiva, but I think of him as a cartoon character with some hidden depth, whereas Kazumi feels like a human being. 

I was a little uncertain on what they were gonna do with him at first - he was treated as a soldier of sorts who had amnesia like Sento, and his trio of Hard Smash bros seemed upset that he didn’t remember them. But as you kept going, you learn that he was just pretending to have amnesia for a reason, which is clever. 

Kazumi is tough, but you realize that he has heart once you see his friends get killed off one by one. He will show no mercy towards the people who caused him to lose his only friends, and that sense of heroism eventually made him a part of the team. 

The transition from antagonist to hero was natural, and I loved the character, whether he was being comical or serious. The actor knew how to play both. 

Gentoku is where things get a little more shaky. 

I’m sure I’ve said before, but Gentoku was a character I didn’t put much stake into because his role as Night Rogue was obvious, and to me, Night Rogue’s role in the story was obvious: He was the strongest villain we had as of episode 1, meaning he would be killed off by the first power-up Build obtains. That being said, the character stuck around, which makes sense in retrospect since Build’s not about killing. 

Gentoku went away for a while, then came back as an edgelord. While I found some part of him interesting and thought he rocked that look pretty well, the backstory was just a little too over-the-top edgy for my liking. It honestly felt pretentious in a way. I kinda just let him do his thing. 

Then they did something interesting with him, revealing that once he became Rogue, the nebula gas that made him so villainous was wearing off, and he was now starting to show some heroism as he rescued his father from the people he was taking orders from. Then once his father died in his arms, his transition into a hero would begin. 

And, okay. Okay. The comedy they use on him at this point is a bit out of place, as fun as it was. It’s one of those things where, if you want to you can form a headcanon to make sense of it, but it’d be nice if they addressed it themselves. When he was just being a good guy, I found him really endearing. 

Oh and since he was palling around with the gear bros, I guess I’ll just say that... I said what I needed to say about them in their last episode. They were badass but a little too cool to have any personality outside of being a duo, so they didn’t do much for me as characters. But they looked cool. 

Utsumi is a character i don’t have as much to say about, but since I’m talking about Riders I guess I’ll reiterate what I said before. 

Like Gentoku, I didn’t have much stake in Utsumi at first, but I figured since he was working with Gentoku, he probably had something to show. When he ended up getting shot and fell off a bridge, I thought it was a lil weird he came back without seemingly being hurt. Then that one episode addressed it by saying he was a cyborg now, a twist I was not expecting, but it was an interesting choice. 

I was honestly hoping that Utsumi would come back as Rogue, only because it’d be fitting if Night Rogue got killed off by Utsumi using a name stolen from him. But it made sense for Gentoku to be Rogue, of course, and Utsumi had some fun moments as the man giving him orders. 

Once he turned to Evolt, after seeing his mentor die, I thought it was a liiiittle forced, and honestly thought he just cracked. But once again, that one episode addressed it by revealing that he was still loyal to his mentor’s cause and was... kind of a secret hero all along. 

Utsumi turned out to be more interesting than expected, and it’s a bit of a shame he’s-- well I guess he’s fine now thanks to the ending, but I wouldn’t have minded him being fixed if we weren’t aiming for that kind of ending. 

Now... we talk about this guy. 

Okay, so, Isurugi is an interesting character on his own. He’s an astronaut! He makes coffee now! He has red shades! He was a super fun supporting character, and I think it was brilliant(ly heartbreaking) for him to turn out to be a villain. It makes up for how obvious Night Rogue was. 

Blood Stalk was definitely the more interesting villain to follow because he was playing a much different game than the other groups in the show, and he seemed to have a lot of power on his side that wasn’t totally explained for a while - a friend and I figured he was actually an alien just screwing with humans, and I can’t believe that was such a perfect prediction. 

I suppose once his role as Evolt is revealed, he sorta sssstops being interesting in that regard, because he’s no longer mysterious. A good way to put it, which I saw going around, is that he feels like a Dragon Ball Z villain. Not too much depth, just an uncomfortably strong guy that’s toying with people and will be destroying this planet once he’s had his fun. And I’m fine with that I suppose, I like a DBZ once in a while. 

About this point in the show, I saw some fair criticisms about the pacing of the plot that suggested it was getting dragged out, aaand I kinda see that but kinda disagree? It definitely feels like Build and Evol keep getting the upper hand on each other, but I think of that as a display of their intellect. They’re playing this big game of chess, and sure, that can elongate a plot, but I found it entertaining at least. 

Now if there’s any criticism I have about the show by this point, it’s that we never really get a true followup on Isurugi once Evolt leaves his body. Like, we know that he was chilling out in the hospital, unconscious, but the next time we see him is in the ending when everything has been fixed. 

Supporting characters next. 

Misora is a character I don’t have a whole lot to talk about, she was fun when she delivered deadpan comedy, her connection to Isurugi (and thus, the villain) was interesting, found the Mii-tan stuff a little unnecessary but it provided some fun banter with Kazumi... decent gal. It was heartwarming seeing her live a normal life in the ending. She’s been through as much emotional turmoil as the Riders. 

Sawa was interesting, because I expected her to just be a journalist, but she turned out to be a huge player in the villains as a spy. She was eventually caught, and I thought it was both surprising and impactful when she remarks that she was actually supposed to kill herself at one point and couldn’t bring herself to it because spending time with the heroes made her realize what it was like to have real friends. She was used cleverly, even if her backstory seemed pretty crazy. 

As for other characters, man there’s a lot. I think it’s enough to say that what I talked about in previous reviews is still applicable now. Namba was interesting, and the way they bring back previous victims is clever. I don’t think there’s anyone that didn’t serve a purpose. 

Hoo boy, been going for a while... I think it’s time we wrap this up and talk about the ending. Well, at least saying things I didn’t talk about in the last review. I’ll assume you know where all the characters are as of this change in their timeline. 

It was THE cathartic moment for the show, because leading up to the final episode, you really see everyone drop like flies. Kazumi knows his fate and goes in for one last rodeo, Utsumi sacrifices himself, Gentoku tries to live up to his father’s legacy as a man of the people, and Ryuga attempts to send Evolt away for good. Even Sento started to get some of that death aura in the final battle... 

A common complaint for a Rider show is the undoing of death. The best known example of this is in W, and I’d also put up Fourze. That moment when they kill off a character in a big dramatic way only to undo it in the next episode. It’s a tad cheap, and while you could say Build did that, I think it did it well - it creates a new world where all our favorite characters didn’t go through all this turmoil, while still making it a bit sad by not having them know each other. In that sense, they did die, but at the same time, they live. 

I guess the first thing I wanna bring up is... wow we did the Ryuki ending, huh? Ryuki is like 2002 so it should be okay to spoil. Unlike Ryuki, the protag(s) remembers what happened, so that makes things more interesting and opens the way for future crossovers, albeit without a huge cast. 

Zi-O is using time travel to work in Build (so they just went to a time when Build and Cross-Z were still rocking their first forms), we don’t know what the upcoming winter movie will be doing, so all we can look forward to for the moment is the Cross-Z movie. Very interested to see how that goes. 

I will also address that there’s some weird implications to this new timeline that unfortunately haven’t been addressed in the show, and I HOPE they do in the movie because this is a big burning question: Is the technology still the same, and did the Mars mission still happen? Because without Evolt’s presence, Mars would presumably still be a planet with life on it. 

Well, okay, I’ve done some thinking and can kinda address that, but not really. 

Namba was involved with Japan’s unmanned space probe. As we see in this new world... I guess Namba is a non-military company now, meaning they probably wouldn’t have contributed to the space mission? I dunno, that’s my best guess. It’d probably also explain why we don’t see Guardians. 

It’s a bit of a stretch if that’s the intent, just arbitrarily retconning Namba, but I guess it serves as an explanation. Still, unless life on Mars just ceased to exist a long time ago, someone has to have seen something when they looked into a telescope. 

With that burning question out of the way, I dunno if there’s much else to talk about with this new world. It exists, and I wanna see what they do with it. 

And that... finally, is all there is to Build. 

I enjoyed the hell out of this show. It was dark, it was emotional, it was funny when it wanted to be, and it was solid all the way through. Well, okay, like any show, it has flaws. But I think that when a show has so much positive stuff going for it, that can negate the flaws. I consistently had fun from start to finish and I don’t always get to say that. 

Whenever a Rider show ends, I come back to my little list of shows. I’ve seen all of the Heisei Kamen Riders, so I like to make a list of which ones are my most favorite to least favorite. Here’s the top 5 of that list, in descending order. 

Gaim - Solid story, solid characters, just a fun trip all around.

Build - Unique premise, strong characterization, consistent.

W - Nicely written plot with fantastic monsters and memorible characters.

Ex-Aid - Great concept, good characterization, pretty solid execution.

Den-O - Fun and funny, interesting cast, compelling story.

It’s really lucky that the shows I’ve made blogs for are ones that I enjoyed enough to put so high above the others. And as I’ve said in the past, I’ll be stepping away from doing new blogs, especially since a big crossover show would be insanity to keep up with in the style of blog I like to do. 

With Build basically over, I’ll pop in now and again to do an occasional review of the movies/bonus material. 

Thank you for following up to this point. It’s been a fun ride. 

[aurakaura]

Windua Guardians Reborn 14

-Back at Earthirent Shaoki and Sakumi were practicing their aura abilities before they left for the next location-. (Sakumi) “Take a fiery blast” the attack was launched right at me but I have a new technique just for this. (Shaoki) “Shining Counter Stance” I was able to take in some off the excess aura from her attack. I was able to maintain it for a little bit but if enough time passes then her aura will vanish. I launched the attack back at her before the aura wore out, it took me a week to maintain the aura but it worked out. (Sakumi) “Perfect but not its my turn to over power you now Inferno Bomb” (Shaoki) “Crescent Blader”. She was able to power up her attack enough to prevent my attack from being able to break through the aura ball. I dodged the attack before it could hit me....we have both come so far since our battle against Kazumi. However I doubt we are strong enough to be able to take him on as his techniques were far above ours. I guess we should move on and find the next Guardians to try and recruit them.

(Shaoki) “Off to Tornadizla next right?” (Sakumi) “Yeah and I think we should enter a pairs tournament being hosted there. If we can make it far and maybe even win then the Wind Guardian could end up respecting our skill”. Hmm I have never entered a tournament before...I’m a little nervous about entering one. (Shaoki) “Sakumi Have you ever entered a tournament before?” (Sakumi) “I have not sadly, I’m guessing it will be your debut too. Don’t worry about it so far we have worked well as a team so I’m sure we can handle most teams”.

I decided to go buy a bunch of supplies for our trip, while in the market area I decided to ask around about Kazuki. I was curious to hear if he had any plans to take part in the tournament, if we could beat him and earn the Wind Guardians respect things would be perfect. (Merchant) “Kazuki in the pairs tournament, nah he doesn’t like to fight alongside others. He said one day he would enter if he found a worthy partner but from what I know its yet to happen”. Oh man that is great to know, it would be great to be able to beat him there by that happening would just be a fantasy. I had faith in Sakumi and my team work as we were able to briefly hold back Kazuki. I’m sure even a lot of the top teams would struggle to over power him and his earth abilities. I got back to are inn room where Sakumi had packed all of our stuff, (Sakumi) “Ready to leave?”. I nodded my head as we should have enough supplies to get through the desert again. We made our way out of the town and a couple of people said bye which was quite kind.

(Shaoki) “We should keep practicing during our journey to Tornadizla, the teams participating probably have a lot more experience than us”. (Sakumi) “Yeah plus I could do with working on my other techniques as the Inferno Bomb could be risky in some scenarios”. We may not have been a team for long but I have grown to trust Sakumi as both an ally and a friend. One day I hope to introduce her to Orichao as both of them have helped me grow as a warrior. Hopefully my first tournament experience will be a fun one.

[akiharashizuka]

Cardfight Vanguard G: Z turn 17 thoughts

Land of Descent

This time around, they dropped the name of the location. So, they went to Samarkand, a city in Uzbekistan. Which makes sense for Rive to be there, considering that central Asia is quite an arid area, with deserts. Also, an interesting thing I noticed is that Shion’s Units have an Arabic/Turkish theme to them, which are quite close to this area.

The reason for using this screenshot is because of those plane winglets. They have Cray nations flags on them: Dark Zone, United Sanctuary and Zoo. And the chosen nations aren’t even random, because Try3′s clans are from these nations. 

Makes me wonder if these aren’t actually the association’s planes.

We also find out that not only Q4 went to the North America branch, but also New Nippon and Kazumi. That’s quite a lot of people for only 2 Apostles, but I guess they don’t want to be caught unprepared.

Hmm, I kind of expected Kazumi to have a fanboying moment when meeting Q4. Well, it’s not really the time to act silly, so it’s fine. 

So, Fides came to Earth in order to seal the ZRs. I believe something about that was mentioned in one of the early episodes. I kind of wish those locations were mentioned, just because I’m curious. It would something if those location were where each Apostle host is from. However, the majority of them are most likely from Japan, except for Gaily who is from Hong Kong, and Wakamizu who is Japanese but moved in Singapore. So, it’s unlikely.

I think it’s safe to assume they were sealed in Asia though. Since it also seems that Fides only traveled on this continent and finally settled in Japan. Also, I looked it up, and the distance from Uzbekistan to Japan is  6211 km. That’s a lot. Let’s not forget it was the 15th century, so Fides most likely walked this distance. Let’s not forget that Asia has quite a variety of environments, including deserts and tall mountains, which make travelling difficult. And who knows what wars were going on at that time. No wonder Fides needed help when he arrived in Japan. 

As expected, the interaction between Rive and Chrono are so awkward xD I kind of see why Mikuru thinks they are similar. 

I like that Tokoha is the one to lecture Chrono on that xD Out of the 3, I feel like she has the best relationship with her family. 

That was the most awkward fight challenge ever xD But it was kind of cute. I like how things started to go from there. It turned into a very sweet moment, especially when Chrono remembered when he used to spend time with his father.

It was nice of Rive to take out his G zone in order to make things fair. If only this was a full fight, with a proper conclusion on-screen. I headcanon that Rive won though.

Why did Chrono had to imagine that...This is like one of Saya’s shenanigans. Gredora wouldn’t be very happy about this xD Hmm, it would be something if she sent some of her soldiers to deal with Try3, but accessing that passage isn’t that easy. Plus, she isn’t the type to underestimate others, so she won’t send the grade zeros.

On a side note, the background looks stunning.

How they chose to deal with them was hilarious. Plan 1: run away. Plan 2: imagination. Shion using a sword like always. The design was quite neat. Didn’t think he liked skull designs. Not sure why Chrono chose boxing gloves though...The large hammer is a plausible weapon, but it’s hard to believe that Tokoha can lift it so effortlessly. 

I lost it when Rive noticed his son smiling like an idiot xD

The moment Dran showed up from behind the statue was so cute. So was the reunion with Chrono.

We are also filled in with what’s happening on Cray. So, Amaruda informed everyone and so did Shiranui, who switched sides. I would have liked to know how everyone reacted to Shiranui, because I doubt he was trusted right from the beginning. I guess Amaruda was on his side, being his teammate on earth and getting to know him, so that might have helped.

Who would have thought that Tokoha’s bond with Antero would have so much relevance. Chrono is the gear Chronicle Singularity and Shion is Fides’ heir, which makes them very important for defeating Gyze. That has been established for a while. And, as I was wondering what’s Tokoha’s deal, Dran delivered it. I have to admit that it is a unique case. Otherwise, his ghost wouldn’t watch over her, or give her a card.

So, for the final battle the Zodiac Time Beasts, and I’m guessing Altmile and Ahsha as well will descend to Earth themselves. Maybe some other units as well. That’s going to be epic, if done right.

Even for this fight, I wish Ahsha and Altmile actually said something to Shion and Tokoha. 

Ok, last week I said that it bothers me how Try3 don’t have any protective clothing to travel in the desert. It still does, but seeing that car makes me think that it’s ok without it.

I remember that at the end of Stride Gate, Rive told Mikuru that he still has something to do and can’t come home just yet. This kind of annoyed me at that time, but now it is explained what that “something” was. Someone has to guard that place. 

Also, well said Chrono! He’s better come home after all this is over. 

Gotta love how Darkface is the first to kneel down, while Chaos Breaker doesn’t even bother xD

So, they are walking straight into the trap. But they are most likely very aware of that. From the preview, it seems Gyze will wait outside. He’ll probably come as well eventually.

I don’t know why, but seeing Darkface with the dynamite was funny xD And it looks like Kai and Aichi will take on Chaos Breaker. This is hype. Though, I wished Arata and Makoto were the ones to take him on. They’ve been training for that. Misaki is also going to fight. It seems she’ll be using Genesis. Regalia, to be more specific. She will probably showcase some of the new cards from G-BT 14 as well. Kinda wish Verno would have made a comeback for that, but it’s been too long since I saw Misaki fight.

[beetchy-keen]

Okay so here’s the good things to think of. Yesterday; I found a job in the city that could potentially pay $17 an hour, my eye makeup today was flawless, I managed to get two turkeys in Tekken Bowl (I think… frame 10 I got strikes for all 3 throws…), AND I beat Devil Kazumi! (YALL I forgot I had CPU set to very hard to slow me down in the beginning.)

I think I may have made my mind up about what course of action to take with my future. I really, really don’t want to be far away from my family. I need my own space to really be me, but I do need them around still (and want them around.) of course, this means I now need to look into apartments in the city, and hope I can find something I can sustain. (At least I don’t live in New York or San Francisco.) I really, REALLY miss my best friend, and I should look at taking a trip to see her and see what it’s like where she lives before I go moving states away.

I saw something on here that said something about not dreaming about escaping to a new life but fixing what you have and I do think that’s what I’m doing. It may not be the ultimate fantasy of a place in Rome, but it’s something I can actually do. Gives me more time to work on my Italian too. I need out of this job I have… until I beat devil Kazumi my head felt… overfull from the way things have been basically since the winter storm hit. I was about to rant on that but it’s fine, I will do what I need to do to fix this for myself; if it means tucking and rolling so be it. And I think my parents realized during their initial moving plan (BIG story) that they need to encourage me to see me grow. Mom even called out dad for pointing out that $15-$17 at a potentially full time job might not cover the cost of an apartment (he actually was just saying he has no idea what is out there but the gesture was thoughtful.) It feels like I’m being led down the right path. Might have taken longer that I wish it would but knowing me it’s probably better that it did go this way (lots of change all at once is not a good thing to me. Slow careful steps.)

Goodness I go on forever!

[ultimatemegax]

KyoAni Re-watch: Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions

As I was preparing for my “History of KyoAni” panel at Otakon in 2015, I started to rediscover why I started to love the Kyoto Animation works in the first place. To that end, I decided to go through a re-viewing of each work that’s on Japanese Blu-ray in chronological order to see how productions evolved. It’s time to restart this process again as we head away from the Kadokawa/TBS-ordered titles and move towards the ones chosen by Kyoto Animation. We begin anew with the first title adapted from the KA Esuma Bunko: Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions!

In the late 2000s, higher-ups at Kyoto Animation realized how much money they were making for TBS and Kadokawa by adapting titles that those companies wanted to adapt instead of choosing what they themselves wanted to make. As such, they began a few methods of expanding their choices. The first was by creating a lot of original ideas via their online staff magazine, the KyoAni Bon, in 2007-2009. Sadly none of these moved past the planning stage. The second method was to recruit outside writers to compose new ideas via award submissions for novels, manga, and/or scripts. They started the first contest for these in 2009, awarding multiple “honorable mentions” in the first Kyoto Animation Awards. Additionally, these titles would be cleaned up for publication and then published via the new KA Esuma Bunko light novel label.

The first title that was chosen to be published and later adapted was a romantic comedy by the name of Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions by Torako. Torako was a fan of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and his characters were homages to characters in that series. He wrote a simple tale of a boy, interested in a girl in his class, becoming closer to her through a series of study sessions designed to get her to pass a re-take on a math exam she flunked since he was talented at math. It was simple, yet Torako had issues with structuring and pacing the story. For example, there was a random school trip taken one day purely because the principal felt like doing something random. Regardless, you could feel the adoration that Torako had for these characters and the story still had heart.

One genre that had many successes from Kyoto Animation was romantic comedies as Tatsuya Ishihara had adapted three Key visual novels into TV series and was general manager on the romantic comedy The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Now that Kyoto Animation was going to take more risks by financing the most of any company to make a series, it made much sense to have Ishihara adapt the romantic comedy as it had a proven history of success. And so it was announced in December 2011 that Kyoto Animation would be adapting one of their novels for the first time.

Ishihara, along with series composer Jukki Hanada, used the spirit of the novel characters to tell a new story. As they had one novel to work with and that novel was mostly about studying, they expanded on the meaning of what it was like to be obsessed with a fictional superpower and how one would interact with others while feeling that way. As such, the first half of the series was heavily comedic in how Yuuta and Rikka interacted with the variety of characters. Ishihara wanted to add a normal person to bounce the comedy off of and so Kumin Tsuyuri was born. Hanada wanted another joking character and so Sanae Dekomori was created. They had Shinka Nibutani, novel character, to interact with via the creation of a club setting. The comedy aspects, in contrast to the hyper-realistic and special-effects full delusional battles, was a giant hit with fans in fall 2012.

And then Ishihara went for his dramatic finish. Having read many visual novels and cut his teeth via the visual novel adaptations, he decided to have Rikka be a more helpless character than in the novel. Novel!Rikka lived on her own and was capable of cooking/surviving via funds from her parent. Anime!Rikka had to have someone around to take care of her due to how inept she was at real world activities. While both had Rikka taking off to see her father again, the anime placed much more emphasis on her not being able to say goodbye and her poor relationships with her family in contrast to the novel where it suddenly appeared, played out in one scene, and then wasn’t brought up.

Ishihara also wanted to explore what it was like to fall in love with someone who suffered from “delusions of grandeur” as the original TBS title had it (“Regardless of my Delusions of Grandeur, I Want a Date!”). Due to that, he had Yuuta fall for Rikka and show the early start of a relationship with someone like that. He also combined it with a sudden plea to have Yuuta beg Rikka to grow out of her delusions for additional drama. This half was a sudden shift in tone from the first half and fans weren’t pleased with it. It’s tolerable, but the writing left much to be desired.

Visually, Love, Chuuibyo, & Other Delusions mixes a soft and rich pastel color scheme for the real world with a dark and sharp color set for the delusional world. Any discussion on visuals has to mention the work from the photography and effects team to help visually separate these worlds. The series has wonderful cartoon-ish animation bits, especially with the Dekomori/Nibutani rivalry, combined with more detailed animation segments in the delusional battles, especially on Yoshiji Kigami’s episode 2. Kazumi Ikeda continues her trend of making characters with soft facial shapes, but focused on adding details like lips and fingernails for the female characters this time. While it’s much improved from her adaptations of the Key VN characters, these aren’t much to my liking either.

Soundtrack-wise, Nijine had to balance everyday life, romance, and delusional battles together into one cohesive mix. He did a very good job with having a more pop-ish theme to match the softness of the main visuals. The opening theme song, Sparking Daydream, was the debut single for ZAQ as an artist for Lantis. ZAQ did a great job with the main theme as well as the opening/ending themes for the “Lite” shorts; even confusing people who thought they were sung by the main seiyuu for Rikka. The ending theme song, Inside Identity, was very popular at the time and is still featured on various song game/karaoke machines.

Re-watching it, I remembered why I enjoyed this series so much in 2012. The humor still holds up well and I now have a better understanding of why decisions were made on the drama side. It’s not the best series that I’ve seen, but it was an enjoyable one to revisit.

I also have to note that the light novels were fan-translated by yours truly back in 2012 and released during the series. I grew very fond to the characters and felt nearly like they were my own during that timeframe. It’s one of a few franchises that affected me on a deeper level than just watching a TV series, so it has a soft spot in my heart, even while I can admit it’s not the best series.