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zevzevarainai · 4 years ago

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Hey! You ever end up doing essay on the kazumaji gifs? (I'm highly interested because it's always majima o' clock where I live)

it’s always majima o’clock here too; maybe we live in the same area... but lmao i didnt write the essay on my kazumaji gifs because i didnt think anyone would want to hear it so i meant it more as a per request kind of deal. and you’re requesting. I want you to know you did this to yourself, my friend

below the read more for everyone’s well being. welcome to my first official majima analysis essay

ok so in those tags i said something like majima is softest with kiryu because it is absolutely the truth (unless you count makoto, which i love them too, but majima has moved on or at least is making an effort to. and that was pre-tacky snake skin jacket and pre-mad dog persona.)

the prompt for the gifset was “maybe something about majima being stupid and unhinged but like, in a sweet way” and the whole point of this rambling is that kiryu is really the only one we see who causes the mad-dog persona to slip. kiryu says he can never get a read on majima but just because he is unpredictable doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand that he isn’t just batshit crazy. he trusts majima, and finds comfort in his lack of predictability, keeping kiryu’s life exciting and providing distraction from the insane amount of tragic shit that happens to kiryu. and majima has a similar experience of idolizing the yakuza lifestyle as teens/young adults only to have the yakuza drag them through hell. But this is supposed to be about Majima.

ANYWAY what GETS ME is again that mad-dog vibe slipping around kiryu. the only time we really only see it again is with Saejima when he comes back from jail. i’m gonna talk about that later too. LET’s GET TO THE GIFS i’m going in chronological order not the order i put them in

Ok so as an audience, we don’t really know what happened between Kiryu and Majima between Yakuza Zero and Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami. Yes, we get that tiny ending scene of Majima going KIRYU-CHAN for the first time and Kiryu smiling at him. But we are given nothing as to how they met or why Majima started calling him Kiryu-chan. It is left completely to the audience’s interpretation. Because then it goes straight to the first scene with Majima in Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami after Kiryu gets out of jail. It implies that they already knew each other, and arguably that they were somewhat close -- close enough for Majima to “miss him.” (What was majima doing for those 10 years, i don’t know, but he clearly wasn’t in a great place, missing both kiryu, makoto, and saejima, we ignore y5 lore in this household or make up shit to fill in the giant gaps) You could argue that Majima missing Kiryu is just Majima being “crazy haha woah” but his character is so much deeper than that, and it’s proven in this gif’s scene. Yes he is fighting Kiryu with all his men. But if you are reading this you understand that them fighting physically all the time is a secret love language. They never intend to severely hurt each other. Fighting is how they know that they have an equal, someone else who was modeled into a weapon because of the Tojo Clan.

And yes, “He belongs to me!” is an extremely gay thing to say. He doesn’t even need to say that, though. One of his men didn’t understand that he doesn’t actually want to hurt Kiryu. The guy picked up Majima’s knife and tried to actually hurt Kiryu. Majima willingly gets stabbed so Kiryu doesn’t get hurt. That’s a handful of gay subtext right there. Majima’s first scene in y1 is about how the world is a horrible, shitty place that will chew you up and spit you out if you care. Then he goes and gets stabbed. Self-sacrificially. He cares about Kiryu, even if it hurts.

This one isn’t as deep. It stems of the same concept of them fighting each other as equals. Majima explicitly says more than once that strength is the most admirable trait, Goromi says that it only matters that a man is strong. Kiryu is the only person who presents a challenge to him. He admires him.

(As a disclaimer, I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with Goromi. I’ve also seen a lot of non-binary, gender-fluid, etc. people project on Goromi and Majima, and I feel like that can only be a good thing. Obviously they deserve more and more quality representation. I think the people who dislike Goromi are valid as well, but for the sake of this argument we are going to see Goromi as the people who project on her do and I’m going to use she/her pronouns when talking about Goromi.)

Regardless on your stance on this whole little side quest, the player has the choice to go along with Goromi which creates actually a lot of subtle connecting between the two of them. Even in just talking to her, we see the mad-dog mask slip. She talks about how much she cared about the girls at Club Shine and wonders how they’re doing. Literally says “all part of my tragic-ass backstory.” And Kiryu sympathizes with it. Says he sees through the “i hated it” bullshit and sees Majima/Goromi’s true self, which is that the cabaret job was hard for Majima because he cared about the women and didn’t like using them as a source of income and knew it would be his fault if they got hurt.

Also, Goromi says that "When I’m with a guy, it’s all about if I’m having enough fun. That’s why he’s gotta be strong.” Sound like someone we know? Someone who we are talking about in the last gif with i-just-got-the-shit-beat-out-of-me-and-it-was-awesome bliss on his face?

Anyway, the scene in the gif is near the end of the session. Kiryu is talking about how he’s been in prison for 10 years, and Goromi says that now that he’s out he should try to relax and and a little fun. Arguably, “since you’re so lonely right now, I’m gonna give ya a hand!” is most of Majima’s role in YK1. Kiryu gets out of prison. Majima wants to fight him all the time and says it’s because he’s gone soft and needs to train. Majima Everywhere presents excitement in his life when everything else is hard and shitty and traumatizing. Yes, Majima kidnapped Haruka. But there isn’t a lot of info on that. Majima says he did it so they could fight but it very likely could have been an order from the Tojo Clan or even Nishiki. Until he develops a bond with Haruka, Majima is, in a way, all he has. Nishiki is mean now. Yumi is ???. Kazama is i don’t even remember but he certainly isn’t any emotional support. He’s lonely. Majima is the only person he has from before prison, and quite possibly the only person who understands what he is going through.

YK2, Kiryu has yeeted out of Majima’s life as Kiryu does, but he’s trying to protect haruka so I’ll let it slide. And what does Majima do now that Kiryu’s not there? Leaves the Tojo Clan. Yes it’s because he doesn’t like the 5th chairman’s style and to make up for Kawamura, but the point is he’s bored. The use of “MY Kiryu-chan” is obviously written there because “haha majima he’s crazyyy” but come on. Majima left the Tojo Clan after Kiryu stepped down as the 4th chairman. Because he was bored. Because he couldn’t trust his own men. The only person he considered an equal just wasn’t there anymore and he found it difficult to adjust. (That’s YEARNING, fellas)

So yes, HIS Kiryu-chan came home, but what is home in this context? It clearly isn’t the tojo clan, so I guess it could be Kamurocho in general. But if the clan doesn’t make it home, what does make it home? Perhaps a certain triangle shaped man??

Oh boy silly Majima wants to fight Kiryu again hahaha weeeeeeeee NO listen, LISTEN, he does want to fight kiryu again, because 1) the man has been bored for a year 2) FIGHTING IS THEIR LOVE LANGUAGE 3) Majima is once again surprising Kiryu in a world where nothing surprises him anymore, where kiryu expects people to be vile and only want him for gain. Every single goddamn game it’s “Kiryu plz save the Tojo Clan plz” and Kiryu NEVER gets anything in return unless you count, i don’t know, Daigo and Haruka’s safety? But Majima doesn’t give a shit about any of that. Majima is one of the only people who consistently does things for Kiryu (even if they’re presented in an abnormal way). Majima is really the only one who makes sacrifices for Kiryu. But this fight, it kicks off YK2 of “hey, i missed you but i won’t admit it because we’re manly yakuza, please let me try to make you smile.”

THE kazumaji scene. Going off of Majima being the only one to make sacrifices for Kiryu, here’s a perfect example. Majima first aids the Tojo Clan which he swore to leave literally only because Kiryu asked him to. Then, here, he get beaten within an inch of his life because he promised Kiryu he would protect Kamurocho from Ryuji. Majima does not give a shit about the Tojo Clan at this point. Yes, Majima LOVEEESSSS beating people up, but he’s fatally wounded. This is not a Majima who would die for the Tojo Clan. This is a Majima willing to die for Kiryu. After warning Kiryu about being to trusting, too.

And of course, we get the Majima collapsing on the pavement and Kiryu rushing in to CRADLE him in his arms like a damn fanfic. You’ve even got the “I did it for you” which everyone knows is basically an “I love you.” Look at Majima’s face in the gif. Bless the Kiwami 2 graphics, first of all. He’s looking at Kiryu like he wants him to be the last thing he sees, like he wants him to know that he’s going out for Kiryu, that despite the fact that he’s about to cough up blood he needs Kiryu to have the information he needs to save the clan and Kamurocho. He’s telling Kiryu all this with labored breath because he promised. Kiryu “One-Expression” Kazuma is viably worried as hell, the little nod in the gif kills me because Kiryu needs him to know he’s touched and he’s so grateful. The only reason Kiryu left him was because there was danger elsewhere and he trusts Kaoru enough to take care of him. (Side note: I love Kaoru Sayama, but I still feel like she’s good enough a character on her own and doesn’t need to be a romantic interest for Kiryu. Like it was like oh... she’s Girl so she needs to fall for the Big Strong Male Protag.... If Majima was a cis girl they would have made out in this game, maybe even y1.)

7) Speaking of sacrifices, Yakuza 3, the game where Majima literally joined the Tojo Clan again because Kiryu wanted him to protect Daigo. That’s a huge lifestyle change, Majima.

Yes, this scene is funny because Majima is riding in a Barbie-ass truck like a 15 year old driving on a learner’s permit in a downpour (yet proves he can drive stick seconds later) and thinks he hit Kiryu while he purposely hit everyone else. Look, Majima needs this ok y3 he looks like he’s been crying since kiryu left no one No One is going to hurt Kiryu now

That truck is likely stolen, he’s driving erratically as fast as he can because Kiryu is in danger, how did he even know that Kiryu was in danger is it like some kind of 6th sense... If you didn’t already know, I would take a bullet for Majima’s voice actor; his delivery of “Kiryu-chan! Where are you?!” could have just been like haha oops kiryu did i hit you ;3 but instead it’s this raw cry of genuine panic, like did his actions get kiryu hurt, Majima could not live with himself if he was the reason Kiryu got fatally hurt

8) Ok I’ve hinted at the fact that I have beef with the Hot Mess that is yakuza 5, wasn’t huge on Y4 and Y6 was fine but it was heavily based on the events of Y5. In my head I’ve got an entire fix-it fanfic in which Majima yeets out to Okinawa with Kiryu after Y3 I could write that upon request too ANYWAY here’s another sacrificial majima...

Despite not caring for Y5, THIS SCENE is RAW. Maybe he’s not super “unhinged” in this scene but it’s just so much. Majima, who Kiryu brokedown in his taxi bc he thought he got killed (because Kiryu made him stay in the tojo clan haha we’re out here crying), chooses Kiryu over Saejima. Saejima, Majima’s oath brother, Saejima. We love Saejima, Majima loves Saejima, but 25 years is a long ass time. Majima changed. Saejima changed. For awhile he had Makoto, but then Kiryu was all Majima had for a good chunk of Saejima’s time in prison. This is the man Majima got his eye stabbed out for defending. But the BaD GuYs that arent memorable enough for me to even look up the names of are like look, we want to watch the world burn because we are Bad Guys, so either you are going to fight your brother to the death or we are going to snipe Kiryu’s daughter in the fucking head. Obviously he doesn’t know that Baba is going to betray them, so he has to pick between Saejima and Haruka. He chooses to potentially kill Saejima for Kiryu’s happiness. I’m sure if things didn’t change, Majima would have held back and let Saejima kill him. Majima would rather die than see Kiryu in pain. Majima would rather kill Saejima/let Saejima kill him than let Haruka die. If that’s not a giant declaration of unconditional love and devotion, I don’t know what else to tell you.

Anyway, thanks so much for indulging me and listening to my yakuza opinions if you made it this far you the mvp :’’’’)

#i can't believe i sat down and wrote this monster #thank you so much for the ask #i love talking about majima and i have no one to discuss it with #distinguishedkingdomwolf #ask #kazumaji

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anzifansupport · 5 years ago

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Anzi Christmas - Live Report

Held at Keystone Club in Roppongi, a jazz bar on the 2nd floor. I arrived just after 18:00, my friend was already there and shortly after the flowers arrived. They were so beautiful!

For this live, we didn't have numbered tickets, however once we got inside we drew for which table we would sit at. I drew table 2, which most people would be envious as it's right in front of the stage, however being an introvert it was stressful. No matter how much I begged my friend to switch with me, she was table 6 in the back, she wouldn't.

Also available at the door was the music cards Anzi had spoken about, I purchased two. After sitting down, and trying to get comfortable with the closeness, my friend told me where we can give our presents. A relief!

Also to note with this draw, we would be sitting with random people, I had three lovely ladies with me, who were patient and helpful (どうもありがとうございます!!!)

During the course of the evening I was trying to use the translator app for more of the difficult questions they asked, however the app made such bad translations that we all had a good laugh. Thinking back, I think I was supposed to switch to the Japanese side of it (stress).

Anzi began the event on time, it was so good to see him again! When he first started talking, his voice was a bit shaky, then he got into it and it was so wonderful how much he talked during the whole night. I wish I could have understood it better, however I'm only at the beginner level and only could pick out a few words.

He introduced Kota Sayama san, a truly gifted pianist, and he played some wonderful music for us while we ate. I'm so sorry that I didn't take a picture of the food to show everyone, it was delicious!!! Great choice!! Two of the songs that I recognized Sayama san playing was Beauty and the Beast and I believe was a Cinderella song, interesting choices.

Anzi also mentioned that he will be coming around to each of the tables to talk with fans. Ehhhh?? Where do I hide?? Panic mode.

When he gets to our table, he crouches down on my right side, (honestly I wish I could have understood Japanese better) but I'm guessing he was asking how are we enjoying ourselves and the usual small talk. After which we clinked our glasses.

After his rounds, Anzi came back to the mic, he asked for requests for music that Sayama san would play as a sample, a few classical pieces and some jazz (I think?)

Dessert came out, it was so cute!! Very delicious and with a chocolate Santa, that I had to take a picture of! Then Anzi popped by again, he talked about the cake, I think he was mentioning he wanted a chocolate cake and then talked about the Santa and tree chocolate toppers. After he talked with the others, then he started asking me questions. I'm so sorry Anzi I couldn't understand you *hides under a blanket for the rest of my life* thankfully the lady right beside me helped translate a bit. He asked me where I'm from how long I was staying, which I told him and then he tells me I should stay here. If I had any courage I would have said "Only for you, I would stay."

Once dessert was finished, then the mini live started! Our set list was We Wish You a Merry Christmas, A RAY OF HOPE, RED, Neon City (new song), Excelsior and Tomorrow is Another Day.

The first few notes of A Ray of Hope and Red got me teared up. To hear all these songs played live AND to be matched with the piano, oh I could have died right there and have no regrets! It was so magical and wonderful, I truly didn't want it to end. (Anzi I can't wait to hear more music from you if you choose to do another live like this!)

After the end of the live, I found out that Anzi would sending us off (thank you again ladies for the explanation!!). He handed us a photo of himself with his guitar, and he spoke to me in English, it was so cute! I thanked him in English and Japanese and said our goodbyes.

Wow, I was truly grateful to be able to attend such an event and honestly hope there might be more in the future if Anzi would be be so kind.

#anzi #live report

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galahadwilder · 6 years ago

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Ultraman: Stage Fright

The roof is falling in again. She can’t remember how she got here—she hasn’t been able to set foot on a stage or in an arena since the incident, not without her knees going weak and her heart going overdrive. But here she is, onstage again, and her fans are out in the crowd screaming. The ceiling cracks. Overhead lights fall. She knows Ultraman is coming, she knows he’s going to catch the falling heavens and lift them away like he always does—but he doesn’t. She’s in New York and Shinjiro is an ocean away—there’s no one to catch it. No one to save them.

The roof falls in on the audience, and she can only watch helplessly as they’re all crushed to death.

She wakes up screaming. It takes her a moment before she remembers it’s not real, that she hasn’t been in an arena since Japan, that only one person in the audience died, that the two Ultramen arrived in time to save everybody else. But her breathing won’t slow down, her heartbeat is still the loudest thing in her ears. She can still feel the alien’s blood splashed across her face—the first time she ever saw another sentient die, and he’d come there to protect her.

How many people died because of her?

Her father keeps telling her it’s not her fault. The alien had been an obsessive, murdering anyone who spoke ill of her online, but the guilt still eats away at her. The guilt of bringing all of those people together where the armored creature could drop the ceiling on them is... she’s not sure if it’s worse. Nobody died, sure, but they’re lucky. If Ultraman hadn’t just learned to fly...

She picks up her phone and checks the time. It’s the middle of the night in New York City, but in Japan, it’s mid-afternoon. Shinjiro is probably done with school for the day by now.

She barely thinks before calling him.

He picks up after two rings. “Rena?” he says. “It’s the middle of the night where you are—is everything all right?”

She’s crying into the speaker. “I—I had the... the nightmare again.”

He’s silent for a moment. “The stadium?”

”Mhmm.” She nods, not trusting her voice. She knows he can’t see her, but it doesn’t matter—he told her he salutes her text messages sometimes, before he remembers that he’s not sending video, so this is hardly the least embarrassing thing either of them has done. “Can you... stay on the line? For a few minutes?”

”Yeah,” he says. “No emergencies today. I’ve got time.”

They sit for a few minutes in companionable silence, and her heart rate finally begins to slow down. “How’s Rocket?” she says, finally.

She’s not supposed to know the names of any of the Ultramen, not even Shinjiro, but he wasn’t particularly good at hiding that. To keep him from accidentally spilling the identities of the others, they’ve agreed to call them by nicknames: Ultraman Blade and Ultraman Rocket. Rocket’s been out of commission for a few weeks, but Shinjiro won’t say why; something about a mission gone wrong. He was quick to assure her that everyone was fine but he’s definitely worried about his younger partner.

”I don’t know,” Shinjiro says. “I haven’t seen him since... you know, since the mansion. He’s in good hands though.”

Rena giggles. “You always say that.”

”Edo says we’ve got word he’s recovering,” Shinjiro says. “Can’t share the source, but...”

”I know.” She draws her leg up to her chest. “I heard you caught a building yesterday.”

”Small one,” he responds immediately, making her laugh. It’s so Shinjiro, to think that’s no big deal. “Only three floors.”

She smiles. She knew this was exactly what she needed. ”Still saved twelve people.”

”I... guess I did.” He sighs. “Your Agent still trying to get you to go back on tour?”

”Not very hard,” she says. “He knows I’m still a little delicate right now, so... no Sayama for a bit.”

”Delicate.” She can practically hear Shinjiro smirking. “The first time you met Ultraman you called me out while I was holding up eighteen tons of ceiling. Onstage. In public.”

”In front of all your fans.”

”Those were very definitely your fans, they paid to see you.”

She smiles. “I might agree to share them.”

He scoffs. “But yeah, there I am in front of two Aliens that want me dead, I’m stuck holding up an entire arena ceiling, and all of a sudden this tiny pop star starts yelling at me.”

”Cut me some slack!” she laughs. “I was terrified!”

”What, and I wasn’t?” he responds with a smile in his voice. “Before then I’d never lifted anything heavier than a car!”

They lapse into silence for a minute, long enough for Rena to realize that she’s calmed down entirely, before Shinjiro speaks again. “Dad’s healing up,” he says. “He says he’s thinking about getting back into the field.”

She chuckles at that. “I can’t picture Defense Minister Hayata putting on red armor and punching aliens.”

”Yeah, well, he used to do it in spandex. While 80 feet tall,” Shinjiro responds, dryly. “I watch videos of the old Ultraman sometimes and I just think, ‘I spawned from that?’”

They laugh together, before growing quiet. Rena yawns.

”I should probably let you go,” Shinjiro says.

”No, wait,” she says. “Um... I’m thinking of maybe coming back to Japan soon. Do you... want to get coffee? Maybe?”

He’s silent for a moment and she’s worried that he’s somehow offended. “...Oh! Um... sure! I’d love to!”

She smiles. Oh my God, he’s such a dork. “Not as Rena Sayama, you understand. You don’t want to get mobbed when you’re not in the helmet.”

”Oh! Yeah, of... of course,” he stammers. “That... yeah, that makes sense.”

”Just Rena Endo and Shinjiro Hayata, two normal teenagers,” she finishes. “Having coffee together.”

”Um... about that,” he says. “Might want to find a better disguise than glasses and a hat.”

”Not all of us can wear carbide helmets to hide our identities.”

”You do realize I saw through your ‘normal teen’ disguise immediately.”

She giggles. “I’m sure my agent will think of something,” she says, then yawns again. “You’re probably right,” she murmurs. “I should get back to sleep.”

”Night, Rena,” Shinjiro says. Soft. His voice is so soft.

”Night, Shinjiro.” She ends the call and places her phone gently on the nightstand.

Normal teenagers. Right. She’s never had that in her life. Over here in New York, she may just be Rena Endo, average teen, but in Japan no matter where she goes she’s Rena Sayama, pop idol. “Normal” isn’t exactly in her vocabulary.

Besides, she muses as she sinks back into her pillow, what’s normal when you’re in love with a boy who can fly?

Read this and more fics like this on my AO3!

#ultraman #ultraman netflix #rena sayama #rena endo #shinjiro hayata #season 1 spoilers #ultraman spoilers #ultraman season 1 spoilers #fic #my fic #original content #drabble #drabbles #oneshot #oneshots #renjiro #rena x shinjiro #shinjiro x rena

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toku-explained · 2 years ago

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The Last Chair is Left Empty

Decker: Kanata and Ryumon have come to a research facility developing Breeder reactors, meeting with Hiyama, after Spheres were detected. It turns out their new reactors are thanks to harnessing a Sphere carcass, Kanata is furious, but there's nothing they can do. Agams is nearby, and Hiyama orders accelerated development as TPU will doubtlessly put pressure, the Sphere recovers and absorbs the Breeder reactor, becoming Sphere-Geomos and on its own summons Spheresaurus. Nursedessei was downed. GUTS-Select reconvene, they detected a space time distortion when Spheresaurus appeared. They need to destroy both at once. Mid operation to lure Sphere-Geomos to positions, Agams confronts Kanata, saying this event is just proof of humanities foolishness. The Nurse S Cannon destroys Spheresaurus, but Sphere-Geomos survives, absorbs it, and starts summoning another one. Kanatanhas lost confidence in the future thanks to Agams, and won't transform, but Ultraman Dyna, wo Decker told Kanata about, stops that one, Agams calls Terraphaser to fight him. Kanata regains his resolve as Decker Dynamic, Dyna drives Terraphaser off, then grants Tiga and Dyna power to Decker. After Sphere-Geomos is destroyed, Dyna leaves with encouragement that the future is Kanata's too make.

Geats: Michinaga sees the opportunity to eliminate Ace at long last. In the next Jamato attack, the girl appears and becomes Bishop, making Buffa see the riders as itself, while Tycoon thinks he hears Ginpen's voice from one of the Jamato Riders, and another the gardener is growing as a right hand man, dubbed rook, has a pretty robust vocabulary. Hareruya gloats to Ace that he has no stake in this, he didn't bother with a wish and was promised his ID Core back, only for the Game Master, as punishment for leaking their connection, to say he'll only get his memories back if he wins. He rushed back in a panic, Tsumuri tells Ace and he goes to help him. Neon had asked John & Ben to investigate her father, and they call having doing ID Cores in his room, and remembered that they were Kamen Riders once (congratulations Tom and Michael), and that Kurama Zaibatsu sponsored DGP. Hareruya tells Ace that his grandfather's company also sponsored DGP, and got him his role. He knows of Ace's mother, Mitsume, the navigator before Tsumuri. Ace reveals he engineered Buffa taking his driver to try to get in a position Hareruya would leak info, and Hareruya has confirmed his suspicion of the Game Master's identity. The riders defeat the Jamato Riders, but only Tycoon with the Command form is left standing to fight Bishop. Ace and Hareruya get to the Drivers, but Girori confronts them after Hareruya grabs his Driver, and uses the Vision Driver to become Kamen Rider Glare. PunkJack fights him, but Glare takes control of him, he thus keeps Ace from getting the other Driver until after Tycoon defeats the Bishop, and thus, Ukiyo Ace is at last eliminated from the DGP.

Donbrothers: I don't recall if we heard killing the Juto while the original was trapped would kill the original or not. Murasame decides he's learnt enough from Sonoza and leaves, Mother telling him to test himself against a Noto enemy. Haruka has been in driving instruction for a month, she is not very good. Murasame fights Inuzaka, badly beating him. Sononi decides initially the only thing she can do for him is kill him herself, but then can't do it, his vision is temporarily wrecked, so she pretends to be Natsumii and leads him away from Murasame, learning more about his feelings and taking a couple of bad hits, first from Murasame, who loses power and decides to go, and then Sayama, who manages to grab hold of the Ninjark Sword when it goes to fly away. The plots collided briefly with Haruka happening to drive into Murasame and, going nuts, fighting him for a bit, her instructor then becomes possessed by MiraiKi. Inuzaka hugs Sononi, which seems to confirm feelings in her, but he realises the truth, and only doesn't abandon her because he realises she was hurt protecting him. The others fight MiraiKi while InuBrother and Sononi fight Sayama, InuBrother tries to use Sayama to reenter the Juto realm, Sononi shoots Ninjark Sword from Sayama, and InuBrother instinctively uses it to cut down Sayama. He then gets dragged away to fight MiraiKing. In gratitude for being saved Murasame swears fealty to Inuzaka, while Sononi tells him he can save Natsumii by cutting down her Juto with Murasame. Haruka scares the others with her desperation to drive them.

#toku explained #avataro sentai donbrothers #ultraman decker #kamen rider geats

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misomilk · 7 years ago

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To: Maddy ( @brokuro ) Fr: Lea ( misomilk ) for @oofurixmas 2017

Hello, Maddy! Merry Christmas to you! I hope your Christmas Eve has been filled with lots of food and love and cheer, and may your Christmas day be filled with those even more! I’ve got 10 drabbles for you here, each of them concentrating on a Nishiura member + bonus or two (It’s a surprise!). I hope you enjoy all of them, and I hope the boys will be as in-character to your liking. Please have lots of fun while reading these!

Again, Merry Christmas! :)

Rating: G Total Word Count: ~9000 WARNING: hint-y abe+mihashi, pre-relationship. not much shipping aside from them

10.

After the loss against Sakitama, Nishihiro had fallen sick. Though he had been substituted in as a game-changer by the 6th inning in place of Mizutani, and he had redeemed himself for getting on base, he could not convince himself he had been able to give it his all. Getting sick right after the game doesn’t help much either. With nothing to do, and all the time in the world in his hands, he cannot stop himself from sinking further into negative thoughts. Like, maybe it would be alright to just… leave the club, especially when he’s this useless. Useless against Sakitama, who they once managed to beat in a called game. Even more so against Bijou-dai Sayama months ago.

He shakes his head violently to chase those thoughts away, the memory of that last at-bat making him shake to the bone.

No, he tells himself. I can contribute better to this team.

With his head pounding, and his eyes falling closed on their own, he lets sleep claim him.

***

Nishihiro feels as if he’s being pulled away from his dreams, he hears murmurs of a bunch of people. Though they’re mere buzz to his ears, he can tell they all sound familiar, and they feel so close, like home. He feels himself floating to the surface of his dreams, rising to be awake but his eyes refusing to open. The light blares even beneath his eyelids.

“Sssh, Tajima. Where in the world have you been?” says that kind, but firm tone of their shortstop. Sakitama wouldn’t have won if Nishihiro had caught the ball Suyama so accurately threw towards him. But it slipped through Nishihiro’s grip.

“There was so much manga in that room down the hallway. I even saw some about baseball. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” Their fifth batter’s voice breaks from excitement.

“You shouldn’t walk around people’s houses so freely.”

Tajima laughs. “Suyama, you sound like Yuuto… But really, we’re talking manga here. Baseball manga!! It’s the coolest!”

Another pair of voices converse, muffled stomps of feet sounding against the floor of his room.

“O-O-O-Oki-kun, I g-got ice from Ni-Nishihiro-kun’s mom.”

“Thanks, Mihashi. Place them into the basin so we can change the towel on his head.”

Right as Nishihiro feels weight come off his forehead, he slowly opens his eyes. He hears a choir of gasps around the room. Silence passing them as he takes a look on each of his guests.

“Y-you guys…” Nishihiro speaks weakly, not so much because of how his body aches, but because of an energy that fills his bones and his chest. His eyes sting, heart feeling warm. He’s never been visited by friends while he was sick before. Before Nishihiro could ask them why they thought of coming, Suyama beats him to the punch.

“Sorry for waking you up.” Nishihiro watches Suyama walk closer to his bed and sits on floor upon his knees. “Everyone wanted to come check on you, but we were afraid of overcrowding your place, so it’s just us. How are you feeling?”

“Better than before I slept, I think.” Nishihiro manages to laugh weakly. He feels weight on his forehead. He looks up to see Oki has placed the cold towel there. They share a moment, smiling at each other like they do sometimes when they’re passing papers to the front in class after a test. A moment of shared relief. He looks sideways to see Mihashi, fidgeting like usua,l but with wide eyes filled with concern for him, and Tajima, looking at him with his wide, relaxed smile.

It feels good. His whole body suddenly feels good. Like he’s been given a power up because his teammates came to visit him. His whole team wanted to visit him.

“That’s good that you’re feeling better.” Suyama nods, dependable big brother smile on his face. “Rest well and drink lots of fluids so you get better faster.”

Nishihiro sees Tajima nudge Mihashi, turning his attention to them.

“Y-yea!” Mihashi chimes in, nodding his head. “Ni-Nishihiro-kun, p-please get better soon. We’re-- All-- We’re-- Everyone-- We’re waiting-- For you. So. Come back.” Mihashi swallows, then tries to catch his breath. “Quickly.”

“That’s right!” Tajima grins. “We’re not a complete team without you after all.”

Nishihiro widens his eyes, surprised at what their once cleanup has said. For Tajima of all people, of all their members to say that-- It weighs a lot in his heart, and further increases his happiness.

“Thank you, guys.” Nishihiro wipes his eye, preventing teardrops in their attempt to escape. “Thank you. After Sakitama’s game-- I-- I really thought...” I really thought you guys would never want me back.

“PLUS BEAM!” Oki shouts. The other four in the room look towards him, and see his arms in a plus sign. “You’re not allowed to say that, Nishihiro. P-PLUS BEAM!”

Nishihiro smiles, his heart beaming with renewed vigor. He feels like he can be 100% better tomorrow, even with the power of his mentality alone. He needs to go back to his team, after all. They’re all waiting for him. He puts his hands in a plus sign. “Plus!”

They’re all waiting for him.

******

It’s funny how quickly days have turned to weeks, to months, to years. Though it just seems like just yesterday when he was tricked by Abe into a Three At-Bat challenge against Mihashi, here they stand, all ten of them, taking in the sights, the smells, the feel.

Koushien’s soil is soft, yet firm beneath his spiked shoes. This is it.

Finally. This is it.

They had placed top above everyone else in their prefecture, beat champion high schools, and finally they earned the chance to stand here, among the best of the best.

“I know,” he starts his speech to his teammates, the original ten. His second family. He has to shout when the chatter of more than 60,000 people in the stands can challenge the buzz of a bee right beside one’s ear. He can see the excitement and fear in all their faces, standing built with power in their arms, legs and torsos. “I know how you’re all feeling. We’ve come so far.”

The crowd cheers wildly, announcements starting. The vibe is immense, but they won’t crumble to this pressure.

“We’re thinking ‘This is it! This is the first of the last few steps towards our goal!’ But let us remember…” He pauses, closing his eyes, preparing the voice in his chest to shout out their ale. He can feel how tightly they cling onto each other, for this first team circle they have against other top teams.

How far will they go? How many more matches are left for them to cheer in this circle until this last year together comes to a close?

He breathes, taken back to the baseball field at home, the cool misty mornings, teammates’ hands warm within his own. He opens his eyes, observes each of his teammates, pride swelling warmly in his chest. They’ve all changed since they were younger. They’re all much stronger now. They’ve come so far. So far.

Then he yells, their usual spell for a good game. “Don’t focus on last time!”

“OH!”

“Don’t focus on the future!”

“OH!”

“Don’t let your guard down!”

“OH!”

“We will play with?”

“PLUS THINKING!”

“NISHIURAAAAAA! FIGHT!”

“OOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!”

******

A slump. This has to be it. Like he’s sinking even though he can see with his two eyes that his feet are solidly planted onto the ground. This is definitely a slump.

It started with their first game for the summer competition of their second year, and continued on to their third game. The opponent teams have been on high guard for Nishiura’s lead-off hitter. He’s established the record of getting on base, and scoring runs far more often than any opponent would desire.

Then again, if it’s put that way, then it isn’t much of a slump at all, he realizes. The teams they play against--they’re all heavily guarded against him, meaning he’s that valuable of a player to his team. But-- But he shouldn’t let himself be caught by their trap, by their strategies, by their adjustments to limit where he can bat. He can’t keep losing to them. There’s got to be a loophole. There has to be. And he has to train his eyes harder to see it, and train his arms so he can swing the bat and take the ball farther than they can imagine.

It’s tough, being trusted to be good, yet not the best. It’s a comfortable space to be, that he has the freedom and flexibility to grow at the rate he wishes. But it’s tough. It’s tough. Seeing how the top two of their team are far from his own capabilities.

“Kou-chan!” Tajima grabs him, an arm hooking over both his shoulders as he pulls Izumi down. Izumi’s grown close to two inches the past year, Tajima’s height is pretty much the same as their first year.

“What?” Izumi asks, normally as he would. He closes his eyes when he sees Tajima’s finger going towards them, but instead of feeling the finger jab his eye, he feels it jab the in-between of his eyebrows.

“You’re thinking too much.” Tajima lets him go and slaps him hard on the butt. It makes Izumi yelp. “You’re losing your cool, Suke-kou~”

Izumi groans. He’s told him countless times to stop twisting his name that way. “Yuu, don’t you dare.”

“Suke-kou’s gonna stay Suke-kou until Suke-kou loosens up.”

“Yuu, I swear--” Izumi dashes off, his words lost to the speed of him running. His feet quickly go one in front of the other to chase Tajima who’s had a fraction of a second headstart. (It’s funny how scared Tajima looked before he started running.) They run, towards the right field, hearing Hanai call out after them but they don’t pay him any mind. Izumi feels this burning need pulsing in his veins to catch Tajima--number one skilled player, quickest feet, running effortlessly enough that he’s laughing while he’s running.

Izumi runs. He runs. He runs. He has to. He has to catch up, otherwise he feels like he’d stay in this slump forever. They run towards the center field, where Izumi manages to outrun him, aiming to trap Tajima rather than grab him, but Tajima manages to stop on his tracks. They reach a draw, Izumi blocking off Tajima’s path wherever he tries to move, but then Tajima manages to trick him with a sidestep, making him able to run towards the bases again.

“Hah, hah~ Can’t catch me, Suke-kou~” Tajima taunts as he runs away towards the third base now.

“You guys, come back here!” Izumi hears Sakaeguchi call out from the distance, but his focus stays on Tajima.

Then for a moment, Izumi feels like his feet feel lighter, and his legs feel smoother. Like he’s a tin man whose joints have been oiled. It’s easier to bring each foot forward, like he leaves fire in his wake at the speed he runs. He runs. He runs. He runs. And just before Tajima manages to step onto the home plate, Izumi grabs him by the back of his uniform, and pulls him back, preventing him from landing the base.

“No!! Let me go!”

“I will not. Just who are you calling Suke-kou, huh? HUH?” Izumi manages to grab the sides of Tajima’s head and noogie him the way Abe used to do to Mihashi.

“Ow, ow, ow, OW! OUCH!! Stop! Stop! Okay! I’ll stop!”

“Hey, you two. Stop horsing around.” Hanai walks over to them. “Tajima, I told you to stop running around so freely. You haven’t even properly warmed up yet.”

“But it was Kou-chan that threatened me. I was running for my dear life, you know! He’s got the intense aura of a monster when he’s angry.” Tajima walks off with Hanai, following him to the bench.

“Then why tick him off in the first place?”

Izumi stays in place, heaving with breath, internalizing what Tajima had just said. His aura? Does he mean his presence? A presence powerful enough that makes even the fearless Tajima cower and run away. It brings pleasing jitters across Izumi’s skin, and a smile on his face.

“Kou-chan,” Mihashi approaches him. Izumi looks to him to see he’s handing him a bottle of water, which he gratefully takes and drinks from. “You’re f-f-feeling better?”

“Ahhh,” Izumi heaves a deep, refreshed sigh as he finishes the contents of the bottle, topping it with a smile. “Yeah, Ren.” He chuckles as ruffles Mihashi’s hair. He walks to the bench where Hanai and Tajima are still (friendly) arguing to refill his bottle.

A presence immense enough to scare even Tajima. Izumi grins again as he refills his bottle with water (not knowing he’s made Tajima flinch, caught by surprise at the sudden intensity coming from him). Maybe he can work with that.

He’s not as tall and capable as Hanai, nor is he small and naturally-gifted with talent as Tajima, but he can have this. He can scare the fielders and pitcher alike with his presence, so they won’t even dare challenge him. Make them cower so that they’ll forget how to deal with him, and give him the loopholes in their defenses that Izumi had been so trained to do.

This could get very interesting.

******

Mizutani stands at the batter’s box, the score at a comfortable 2-0 at the bottom of the third inning. Comfortable--that is, for him, because he thinks his team can totally win against the opponent, but for Momokan who’s looking pretty aggressive as she’s signing at him from the dugout, she’s extremely hungry for more points.

It kind of scares Mizutani, the way she’s glaring, granted Oki had batted an almost clean grounder before him, just that the opponent team’s pitcher was way too good and was able to throw to first faster than Oki could run. (Oki has been putting a bit more of muscle lately. Which makes Mizutani himself realize he should really gear up and take his own efforts to the next level.)

He’s lost in his own thoughts however, that by the time he looks away from Momokan to look at the pitcher and assume the proper batting position he should, his mind goes black.

Uhm.

What did Momokan sign to him again? Was he supposed to bunt? Was he supposed to hit? A grounder? Or let the ball fly? Wait, he’s supposed to look at positions of the batters-- Oh, no! The pitcher threw!!!!

‘I gotta hit it!!’ Mizutani thinks as he swings, his mind full of panic. He misses, of course. He could feel the ball swoosh way over where he swung his bat.

“Strike!”

Mizutani tries to breathe as he adjusts his position, swinging his bat. What is he so nervous for? This is their third game of the season. He’s gotta summon ‘Nice batting’ Mizutani. Come on. Come on.

He looks over at Momokan, her face in a more relaxed vibe, though the glint in her eyes shows: What are you doing? That wasn’t what I told you to do.

Momokan is scary. She always is. She’s terrifying, and it makes him respect her so much. He reads her signs. To wait for this pitch, and watch where the ball goes. Okay. He can manage that.

He does as told, and holds his stance, though he was extremely tempted to swing his bat. Surely enough, the pitch is a “Ball!”, towards the outside.

Alright. Moment of glory coming up. He’ll definitely get on base. He looks over at Momokan, determined to do what she tells him to.

***

“Ahhh, that tired me out, man.” Mizutani sighs when he gets to the dugout. He’d gotten on base during his at-bat, ran to second during Mihashi’s, and now he had just ran home after Izumi hit a double. The score at 3-0 now.

“Nice run!” Sakaeguchi pats him on the back as he changes his glove. The others remain by the railing, shouting out cheers towards Abe.

“Thank you.” Mizutani sighs again.

“What’s wrong?”

Mizutani moves closer to whisper. “Doesn’t it bother you sometimes how detailed Momokan’s signs are?”

“Eh? Not really?” Sakaeguchi replies, his eyebrow raising. “It helps a lot that she’s so specific with her strategies.”

“I agree.” Suyama chimes in, getting ready to go into the next-batter’s box. Mizutani looks at him while he grabs himself a drink. “What she tells me to do really helps me focus on what my role is for that at-bat.“

“Really? Hmmm,” Mizutani crosses his arms, leaning against the railing. “Well, that is true. But don’t you forget sometimes which signs mean what?”

Sakaeguchi laughs softly. “Are you serious?”

“Super serious.”

“Oh.”

“Well, more like I’m mixing some signs from last year with this year. I guess? I don’t know!” Mizutani sobs a little, wiping his face onto his arms. “I’m sorry! It’s really hard!”

”Ahahaha. It’s alright, Fumi.” Sakaeguchi pats him on the back. “Do you want me to go over the signs again with you?”

The sound of a ball hitting the bat clanks. Abe gets to first base. The team cheers together, “NICE BATTING!”

Mizutani takes another gulp of water as he watches Momokan sign to Suyama. “Yes, please. Teach me, Yuuto.”

“Of course.”

Reference: The batting order I thought they went with in this game: Izumi - Abe - Suyama - Hanai - Tajima - Sakaeguchi - Oki - Mizutani - Mihashi. Just in case it got confusing. XD

******

6. (ref)

Before the start of classes on their second year, while the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the Nishiura boys and Shinooka planned to get together to watch the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Suyama is on his way to their meeting place now, seated on the train, basket of food that he prepared on top of his lap. He hopes his teammates will really like all the food that he prepared. They’re on break from club activities that Saturday to give them rest until club activities start again the following Monday.

He watches the scenery on the other side of the train, barely changing as the train whips past farmlands and wide open areas. He closes his eyes, remembering how different it had been when they were on the train to Koushien, with buildings zooming by. Funny how long ago that already is. It’s been months since they went there as a team. Hopefully, this coming summer, they’ll get to go again. This time, as actual participants of the matches.

Suyama feels the train come to a stop. He doesn’t bother opening his eyes, knowing that his stop won’t be for another five stations.

A surprised “Hm? Suyama?” is what makes him opens his eyes. His eyes refocus for a moment, and after he blinks a few times, he realizes Nishihiro is standing in front of him.

“Nishihiro?”

His teammate nods his head in warm greeting. “May I sit beside you?”

“Of course!” Suyama pats the seat to his left, and lets Nishihiro sit down, watching him put his own basket--half the size Suyama carries--on his lap, too. A few moments pass in silence as the train starts to take up speed again. Suyama turns to Nishihiro to talk. “What a surprise to see you ride the train from there. You don’t live in that area, right? I don’t think we had to ride our bikes this far out when we came to visit you in November.”

“Ah, yeah.” Nishihiro laughs softly. “My mom had me drop off my little sister at our grandma’s.”

“Ooh,” Suyama nods his head. He snickers, teasing. “What a responsible older brother you are. Handling her alone all the way out here.”

“Tell me about it.” Nishihiro sighs, acting tired, but then a warm smile is on his face. “She kept going on and on about getting off at the park a few stations back.” “Right. The one with the big red slide you can see from the train.”

“Yeap. It was hard keeping her from crying. But I’m sure she’ll have fun with grandma. Grandma likes spoiling her.”

Suyama smiles. It’s nice getting to know about his teammates lives outside of baseball like this.

“But wow, Suyama. You sure have a big basket with you today.”

The shortstop smiles, toothy this time. “Sure do. I made a ton of dishes for you guys to eat, so I hope you’ve all got empty stomachs.”

“Whoa! What-- Wow. Really? You made all of that?” Nishihiro’s eyes widen, though when the light from the other side of the train flashes at his eyes he closes them for a moment, then shakes his head. “That’s amazing.”

“Well, my mom helped me out a lot once it was getting too late into the night.”

“But before that?”

Suyama laughs, a little embarrassed he has to admit how much effort he put into these dishes. “I made them by myself, since I got home from practice. That was around 9 o’clock, I guess. She didn’t help me until around 11:30.”

“WOW!” Nishihiro grins wide, like when he catches fly balls. Suyama appreciates the genuineness of it. “That’s seriously amazing. I definitely couldn’t handle cooking that late. And after practice, too!”

“It helps that I just really love cooking. I haven’t had much time to because of practice.”

“Yeah, I can tell from the food you sometimes bring to share with us that you really must love cooking.” Nishihiro nods his head, the compliment making Suyama feel really nice. Like a warm fluff in his chest. “I look forward to eating your food later, Suyama.”

“Good. You better stuff your face with ‘em.” “Of course!”

They laugh for a while, then Suyama points out the basket on Nishihiro’s lap. “Did you make this, too?”

“Oh! Oh, no. Actually, it’s from grandma. I picked it up when I dropped my sister off.”

“I see.”

“I’ll give you the biggest serving, Suyama. In return for always giving us such delicious food.” Nishihiro smiles at him.

“Oh, come on.”

The five stations seem to pass in just a few seconds, now that Suyama’s waiting with someone. When they get to Kawaracho station, where they all agreed to meet up at, most of the members were already there. Only Abe and Oki aren’t there yet. Tajima’s already being rowdy with Mihashi, laughing out loud, with Hanai trying to keep him quiet. It seems the brotherly duo had been driven there by Mihashi’s mom, and Tajima was talking about Mihashi’s funny antics then. Aside from Suyama and Nishihiro, Mihashi and Mizutani were carrying baskets, too. Though by the look of things, it seems that Mizutani’s only carrying the basket Shinooka had brought. The others have coolers, and Sakaeguchi had a huge shopping bag with the blue film they’ll be sitting on.

When the last two members arrive, they walk together towards the park. Though they decided to meet up as early as 8 o’clock, there were barely any spots left where they could sit near the station. They needed to walk a long way, perhaps more than three-quarters of the stretch of cherry blossom trees and rapeseed flowers--a long walk that none of them seemed to mind. They were all busy talking to each other on the way, filling the would-be silence with random stories, new things they learned, and asking for bat swinging tips. None of them could keep quiet, not even Mihashi--who talked excitedly between his stutters.

Once Tajima started running off to an area a few meters away, they realize he’s running to an empty area near the side of the road that should be big enough space for all of them. Half of them followed suit to hurriedly take claim of the area before anyone else could.

“It looks good!” The team says together once they’ve laid down the sheet, and set down the food. “Let’s eat!”

Suyama watches the pleasant smiles on his teammates’ faces as they eat the food he made. He told Nishihiro he was able to stick to cooking so late in the night before simply because he loved cooking, but maybe he had something pushing him a little more than that. Seeing his teammates’ faces--the sparkle in Mihashi’s eyes as he eats the bacon-wrapped vegetables, the loudness of Tajima’s “WOW” when he ate the eggplant stuffed with tomato, Izumi’s wide grin as he compliments Suyama’s take on teriyaki sauce. He could go on and on, noting every smile, every sparkle, and every seldom wince when they find something they don’t like eating in the food (and then the satisfaction that comes right after when they realize they like how Suyama seasoned that disliked food). Suyama’s cheeks dust a little pink when Shinooka tells him he’d make a great husband, knowing of course she doesn’t necessarily mean she wants him to be her husband. But it’s a great deal of a compliment.

With the cherry blossoms floating in the wind, their laughter riding the relaxing sounds of a nearby river, they spend a few hours there--simply enjoying each other’s company, sharing experiences besides baseball, and strengthening their bond to last them even way beyond their high school years.

******

“HANAI!” Tajima shouts out to him on their way up the stairs. The entire team is currently heading to the table tennis room, since they have already rested a bit after dinner. It’ll be a good, light workout for their bodies, said Shigapo.

“What?” Hanai shifts his body to look back once he’s at the top of the stairs. Tajima rushes past his other teammates. (Sakaeguchi calls after him, “Tajima, don’t be too reckless!”) “Whoa, hey, be careful!”

Tajima arrives at the top of the stairs beside Hanai with a grin that goes from cheek to cheek. He grabs Hanai’s arm. “Let’s play together.”

“What? But-- Hey, wait!”

There’s nothing Hanai could say to argue as he’s pulled quickly towards the table tennis room.

“Come on, come on!” Tajima pushes the doors open and rushes to the container where the paddles and balls are kept.

Hanai, who’d been left at the door, holds the door frame to balance himself. It takes up so much energy to be whipped around by a storm like Tajima.

“Here you go.” Tajima hands him a paddle, then rushes over to the farthest table.

Hanai walks after him, taking the opposite side of the table. He watches Tajima practically bounce as he waits for Hanai to take his stance. “You know, Shinooka told Mizutani and me we should be free after dinner. I think she’s going to--”

“It’ll be okay, okay~? She’s still eating with the moms. Which means we should compete for the highest score before she comes up. Come on!” Tajima bounces the ball onto the table, getting ready to serve.

“I really don’t think I should--”

Whoosh. The ball whips past Hanai’s right side. Tajima had served, and it bounced on Hanai’s side of the table before he

Tajima laughs out loud, and grins, his chest puffed out in pride. “Hah, one point for me.”

Hanai looks at the ball that bounced off the wall, now rolling towards the bottom of the table. He should feel cheated that he’d lost a point right when he wasn’t ready, when he hasn’t even summoned his game spirit. However, he finds that he isn’t irritated at all. But there is this certain fire burning in him, that call to compete with Tajima that he can rarely back down from pumping in his veins. “Alright. Fine. You asked for this.”

Tajima watches Hanai’s face shift to a competitive smile, and it makes him grins even wider. That’s right. That’s how Tajima likes Hanai most. When Hanai doesn’t back down, and gives his all--that’s when they can have the most fun together.

“Here it comes.”

They get the ball to go back and forth for quite a few minutes after Hanai serves, and it ends as Tajima’s first point. When they’re tied at 9-9, their rally goes over four minutes.

“Wow, those two have been at it for a while.” Izumi says from the other side of the room.

“Yeah, they’re still on that rally even though Suyama and I have been on, hmm,” Sakaeguchi counts with his fingers. “Three? Rallies?” Suyama laughs light. “Yeah.”

The other pairs stop their own playing to watch the two’s rally. Another minute passes, and they’re still going. “Stay sharp, Hanai!” Izumi teases.

“G-Go, Tajima-kun! Ha-Hanai-kun!” Mihashi cheers.

The rest of the boys start cheering and teasing, and the room grows noisier.

“Hanai-kun? Mizutani-kun?” Shinooka peeks her head into the room before she walks inside and calls for them. She’d just finished eating dinner.

“Oh, Shinooka!” Mizutani waves at her to come closer. They’re all huddled around the table where Hanai and Tajima are still playing. The ball still hasn’t fallen.

At least, not until she’s halfway through the room. That’s when the boys started shouting “OOOOHHH!!!!!!!!” Tajima had Hanai in a corner, relentlessly assaulting him with fast, sharp returns. Hanai can barely keep up, but he’s staying on his toes. It isn’t until Tajima swipes the ball towards the opposite corner where Hanai is, letting it bounce off almost at the edge of the table, that Hanai’s knee makes him tumble to the floor. He was unable to return it. The rally had ended. Point to Tajima.

The rest of the team applauds them for that amazing rally.

“Good game?” Tajima heaves for breath, smiling that ear-to-ear grin of his as he holds out a hand to Hanai. He’s so content. He always has so much fun competing with their captain. He doesn’t even care that he won 10-9. Just the thrill of it makes him so happy.

“Good game.” Hanai takes his hand and shakes it, the other boys dispersing as they talk about their favorite moments from that intense rally. “Next time, I’ll definitely wipe the floor with you.”

Tajima laughs. “Gotta see you try.”

“Hanai-kun!” Shinooka calls out to him. She’s standing by the wall with Mizutani beside her.

“Alright, I’m coming. Let me just get a drink.”

“Okay!”

Tajima watches Hanai walk away, smiling. Still completely content. His attention veers away from Hanai when Sakaeguchi stands opposite to him.

“Had fun?” Sakaeguchi asks him as he picks up the ball from the floor.

Tajima grins at him. Yes, he’s had fun. Yes, he’s still feeling super giddy from that rally. He hopes he can play like that with Hanai again. “Had loads of fun! I won’t back down from you either, Sakaeguchi!”

******

Amidst battling through small-time spring tournaments in their second year, his mother’s death anniversary passed without Sakaeguchi having time to visit her grave. That Friday, before they leave for their Golden Week training, Momokan announced they will end practice early on Saturday, supposedly to give them time for all the packing they need to do for the coming week. The corners of Sakaeguchi’s lips curve a bit upward, happy he can use the time to visit his dearest mother. He was supposed to go on the day they all arranged for a picnic together, but they ended up spending that whole day together, that he found it difficult to excuse himself.

This time, for sure. He’ll go to her.

***

Friday’s practice session ends, the stars shining high above them as they change clothes in the benches.

“Yuuto,” Suyama approaches him, already in his uniform.

Sakaeguchi is in the middle of buttoning up his shirt as he turns to Suyama. “Yeah?”

“Remember we were talking about shopping for new shoes? I was wondering if we could go do that tomorrow, since we’re ending practice early.”

“Ooh, new shoes?” Mizutani chimes in after he’d just pushed his head through his undershirt. He tucks it into his school slacks as he speaks. “I wanna come, too! Mine have been so worn out.”

Suyama smiles toward Mizutani. “It’ll be a nice start to the new year ahead of us. And the training camp will be a great chance to break it in.”

“That’s true. I’m in!!” Mizutani laughs.

“Alright.”

“Actually…” Sakaeguchi finally finds the right timing to cut between them. The two look towards him, a questioning look on their faces. “Sorry, guys. I’ll have to pass.”

A moment passes them. (A moment when Abe’s “Ren, have you eaten the extra onigiri I had Shinooka make? You need the energy to pedal home.” and Mihashi’s excited “Y-Yeah!” echoed loudly through the bench area.)

“Is something wrong?” Suyama asks, his voice laced with concern. “You look a little troubled.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Shouji.” Sakaeguchi smiles as he resumes changing. He places his arms through his school shirt and buttons it up. “I’m really happy you’re inviting me to shop, but tomorrow’s-- Well…” He pauses to breathe. “See, I’m going to visit my mom tomorrow.”

“Oh… Right.” Suyama nods his head, understanding immediately what he meant. Sakaeguchi had mentioned it to him in their first year, how he had lost his mom in spring of his 2nd year in middle school. How whenever the cherry blossoms bloom he remembers her warm smile, the echo of her ‘Welcome home, Yuuto’ no matter how late his practices got, and the delicious picnic food she used to make for them to watch its beautiful petals fall. Most of all, her unfaltering support for him and his love for baseball.

Mizutani looks from Suyama to Sakaeguchi, and back. “Is his mom not at home? Is she at the hospital?”

“No, Fumi. She’s--” He breathes, deep. Sometimes, it’s still hard for him to say it. Strange, when he’s gotten used to going home to just his siblings and his dad. How they’re already well accustomed to housework, taught well by their mother before she left. “She’s already passed away.”

“OH!” Mizutani shouts out loud, alarming the others in the bench. “Oh… S-Sorry. I--I didn’t mean to--”

“It’s alright.” Sakaeguchi smiles, finished dressing up. “It’s okay now. My family and I-- We’re all okay.”

She took care of them so well, they were able to adjust to her absence. It wasn’t easy. It still isn’t. But it’s nice to see that though she may be physically absent, she’s embedded in every chore, in every thought, in every conversation between the three of them. She’s still alive within them.

“But yeah, I wasn’t able to go visit her grave on her anniversary, so I thought I’d like to go tomorrow.”

“Why don’t we all go, then?” Suyama suggests, Mizutani smiles wide at him, then excitedly nods his head towards Sakaeguchi.

“Yeah! What do you say, guys?” Mizutani extends the invitation to the rest of the team, explaining to them when they reacted with “What?”s and “What’s happening?”s.

Sakaeguchi feels a pat on his shoulder, and when he looks over, he sees it’s Izumi. “Let’s meet at the gate after school, then we can all ride our bikes to the station, then ride the train from there. Right, Yuuto?”

“Eh? Eh? Really?” Sakaeguchi looks around his team, an overwhelming happiness coming over him. “Is it really alright with you guys? You don’t have to--”

“Of course, it’s alright.” Hanai nods his head. (Tajima yells to him teasingly, “What about your cram school, Azusa~?” “SHUT UP, TAJIMA!”) The captain clears his throat, calming himself from the sudden outburst at Tajima. “We’d all love to go with you and greet your mom. That is, of course, if it’s alright with you and your family.”

Sakaeguchi is left speechless, tears welling in his eyes. “Ye--Yeah. I’d be so honored. I’m sure she’d love to meet you all. Thank you, really. Thanks all of you.”

The team smile at each other, then disperse as they walk to their bikes, bags slung over their shoulders. Mihashi walks beside Sakaeguchi, asking about his mom.

“She must have b-b-been very kind.” Mihashi says, wide-eyed with wonder and his lips curved deep into a smile. “Because-- Yuuto-- You’re a-- a very nice person.”

Sakaeguchi laughs, warmth filling his heart as he ruffles Mihashi’s hair. “Thanks, Ren. That’s really sweet.”

“Uhehe.” Mihashi laughs, blushing deeply at being praised.

The following day, once they’re all at Sakaeguchi’s mother’s humble grave, they stack package over package of mochi before her, each of them having brought one to offer her. Sakaeguchi smiles at her, his hands and eyes closed in prayer.

Because you supported me playing baseball, I found these wonderful friends. Thank you, mom.

******

Clang.

The sound of his bat hitting the ball. It’s clear, loud, and rings in his ears--delicious as success. He watches, mouth agape, as the ball keeps going, going, going and going. For a moment, everything is silent. His breath still. All he can feel is a warmth spreading throughout his body, a certain high incoming.

He can’t hear the cheers of the stands. The cheers of his teammates. If only he would look towards the dugout, he would see his coach looking at him with much pride.

The ball goes, and goes, and goes.

It falls, hits the metal of the scoreboard that’s right above center field.

A homerun.

It’s a homerun.

He remains standing there, in disbelief. Had he been the one to bat that? Is all this for real? Is this a dream?

“KAZU!!!” yells Tajima, who had stood at second base when Oki hit that homerun.

He hit a homerun.

Tajima hugs him tight from when he’s run past third base and came back home, where Oki remains standing, struck with shock.

“KA!!! ZU!!!!” Tajima yells again, shaking him. He slaps his buttocks to snap Oki awake. Oki looks down towards their fifth batter, who’s grinning widely, ear to ear. “Go run and have the crowd cheer for you, damn it!!! That was so cool!”

Tajima slaps his buttocks one more time before he starts running.

Oki jogs to the first base, seeing the Nishiura crowd on the stands doing a huge wave. He jogs to the second base, finally hearing all the loud cheers, “GREAT JOB, OKI!” from the stands and the “NICE BATTING!” from the dugout. He jogs to the third base, seeing the despaired look on the opposite team’s faces. He quickly looks away from them. He looks forward, towards home--he glances left to his team, all wide smiles and loud cheering.

That’s when it hits him.

He hit a homerun.

He helped turn the game around on the bottom of the eighth.

Him. Shy and not as outspoken as the others as he is. He’s built strength in his arms, and swung the bat hundreds of times each day for this.

For this.

When he gets to their dugout, everyone ruffles his hair. Everyone is so happy. Everyone has been filled with renewed hope. Oki mentally pats himself on the back, knowing he did good today.

No.

He did great.

******

Too close.

Way too close.

Abe wonders how is it that the year previous, Mihashi and Kanou clearly knew each other but stayed at the distance of acquaintances, yet now they’re buddy-buddies? Look at Kanou, laughing with Mihashi, calling him “Ren” with his arm over his shoulder, laughing about things Abe is so damn curious to know, but he knows he can’t squeeze himself in and ask. Had those two been that close before things went down at Mihoshi? The mere thought makes Abe’s blood boil.

“Takaya,” Tajima calls out.

Abe immediately turns his head towards Tajima, fire in his eyes, unable to hide the embers of jealousy burning within. “WHAT.”

“You’ll scare Ren off.”

Abe tsks loudly to let off the steam, loud enough for Izumi and a few others a bench away from them to hear.

(“What’s with him?” Suyama asks.

“Ren problems.” Izumi replies.)

***

“100! Alright, that’s it. Nice pitching.” Abe says as he walks up to Mihashi from the bullpen. Mihashi giggles in that unique way of his whenever he gets praised, with his arms waving like jelly. He looks like a jellyfish about to float away, and though if Mihashi had done this in the past, Abe would’ve been irritated, now he finds it quite endearing. “Time to do your counter weight lifting.”

“O-okay!”

They make their way to the benches where they’d set up a similar weightlifting area to that at school. Mihashi positions himself to start lifting the weight with his left hand. ‘Slowly’ he seems to remind himself, as he starts a slow beat.

Abe watches him, making sure his body’s not awkwardly positioned anywhere. Once Mihashi’s around the 50 count, Abe’s thoughts start straying away. It’s quite unlike him to dare think of something else while observing Mihashi, but his mind cannot help wandering back to Mihashi and Kanou being so close. What makes Kanou so special? he wonders. He may have known Mihashi longer, but it’s Abe himself that helped bring out Mihashi’s potential.

The catcher’s eyes seem to burn with his rage, alerting Mihashi--who thought he must be doing something wrong to warrant himself that glare.

“It’s nothing! Don’t worry about it.” Abe says, harsher than he intended. “Keep going.”

“Oh! O-o-okay.” Mihashi nods, and continues on.

Abe groans. He tries to shift his focus back onto Mihashi lifting. 70. 71. 72. Kanou’s arm over Mihashi’s shoulders. 75. 76. 77. 7… How nice would it feel if Abe puts his arm over Mihashi’s shoulder?

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” Abe shouts out loud, utterly embarrassed by the image he created in his head. How utterly warm his chest felt, and how his stomach tossed and turned pleasantly. Mihashi yelps at the sudden noise, incredibly alarmed.

“Ah, s--sorry. Sorry, Ren.” Abe apologizes to Mihashi, but he keeps his eyes away from him.

“I-I-It’s okay.” Mihashi says, though his eyes seem to still be spinning in circles. “A-a-are you okay?”

Not really. “Yeah.”

“Okay!” Mihashi nods his head again, and continues. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

“Hey, Ren.”

“Y-Yes?”

“You still haven’t called me by my name.”

Mihashi stops his weight lifting with a shudder. And then silence follows.

Abe shifts his weight onto his other leg, bringing his hand up to his hip. He waits, and waits, and waits. He watches Mihashi struggle, mumbling to himself, seeming like he’s wondering if he should say his name now or not. And if Mihashi is about to say his name, Mihashi surely looks like he’s having a difficult time with it.

Why? When it’s so easy for him to call Kanou by his name?

The catcher tsks loudly before sighing. “Never mind. You’re at 85 lifts. Keep going. Slowly, alright?”

“O-okay…” Mihashi continues lifting. 86. 87. 88. And his mouth keeps flapping open as if to say “Ta”.

Abe tries to keep his excitement to himself. When Mihashi finishes 100 lifts, he doesn’t bring up the name topic again.

***

“Takaya,” rings in his ears, sweeter than any candy that’s ever melted in his mouth.

They’re at dinner now, and they’re seated next to each other. The chatter of the rest of the team fills the room, yet he heard it so clearly, as if Mihashi said it directly into his ear.

Mihashi had said, “Ta-Ta-Takaya, can you-- passmethesoysauce?” The latter of which softened to a mumble Abe couldn’t even hear.

All that registered in Abe’s mind was “Takaya”, and how clear he said it, even though it was after Mihashi stuttered. He’d never thought he could be so moved by someone saying his name.

“Say it again.” He requests, not realizing it’s quite an awkward thing to ask.

“S-Say? Ag--again. Uhm, uh,” Mihashi fumbles with his chopsticks. A bad habit, but Abe adores it nevertheless. “Ta-Takaya, can you pass me-- pass me the soy sauce?” Mihashi wheezes from the sheer effort of saying that without blushing too hard. “P-p-please?”

Abe grins wide, and passes him the soy sauce as requested. “Here you go. Ren.”

Mihashi takes the bottle from him, their fingers brushing a tad bit, and at that moment they both shiver, having felt an electric current run through their veins at the small contact. They both turn their heads away, and don’t look at each other for the rest of dinner, eating their meals silently as the room gets louder. Tajima joking around with Mizutani.

Takaya looks so happy. thinks Sakaeguchi, who sits across them and saw the whole thing happen. He eats his meal watching them, happy his teammates are taking forward steps, no matter how small.

******

On the New Year of his first year in high school, Mihashi and his family drove to Gunma. It was a long drive, granted many other people were on their way home to their respective provinces, too. Mihashi had planned to be asleep for most of the time they were stuck in traffic, but he was greatly distracted by his phone, and the person on the other line, sending him replies quickly after he himself has responded.

His heart beats quickly with every vibration of his phone, a notification of yet another new message. Strange how he used to feel this quick heartbeat out of fear before, but now it is all good.

Sweet. Fuzzy. Ties his stomach in nice-feeling knots.

Very good.

He flips his phone open, clicking the right buttons to open the new mail that came in from “Abe Takaya”. He reads, not expecting his heart to sink.

/Sorry, Ren. Mom’s nagging me to help out. I’ll be back soon, I think. Let me know when you get to your relatives’. Ttyl./

Mihashi blinks at his phone, wondering if he should reply. He said talk to you later, which means… they’ll start the back and forth of messages again later. Later. Not now. If Mihashi sends a message now, will that mean Abe will assume he’s already at Gunma? If so, he shouldn’t send a text. But-- But Mihashi wants to reply. Mihashi wants Abe to know he’s read the message and he understands. Say “Okay. I got it. Talk to you later.”

He types that message in, and then his thumb hovers over the Send button as he mulls over it again. Should he send it? Not send it? He’s already typed the message, so he should send it. But what if he’s bothering Abe. No. No. He never bothers Abe. He knows Abe always has the best intentions for him--baseball or not. He knows Abe will understand his intention behind his reply, that he simply wants to clear up that he understood the message. But then again, Abe probably can’t read his reply because his hands are full.

But--

So many buts. Mihashi still feels anxious. He wants to reply. He needs to reply. He still wants to talk to Abe. More and more and more and more and more.

The phone vibrates again.

/Ren. Just in case you’re freaking out, Which I hope you’re not, but just in case. It’s fine if you just reply later. I’ll leave my phone for a while, so I can’t check it anyway. I’ll text you when I’m back. But whether I’m back or not, text me when you’re at Gunma. Take care. Talk to you later./

Mihashi slams himself, face-first onto the free backseat space to his left, surprising both his parents who sit in front.

“Ren? Are you okay?” Mihashi’s mother asks him, concerned. She looks over her shoulder, as she’s seated in the passenger seat. She had driven in the first half of their trip, so now his father is driving. “What’s gotten into you? Are you feeling dizzy?”

“I--I’m okay…” Mihashi replies weakly, almost out of breath. He’s glad he dug his face into the seat, otherwise his mother would see how red his face is (granted he can feel how his cheeks are so warm), and would bombard him with questions.

“Are you sure? Do you need water? There’re a few bottles in the cooler at the back. Should we stop to get them out of the--”

“It’s okay, mom. I just-- I think I’ll go sleep.”

“Alright.”

“Sleep well, Ren.” His father says with laughter strewn into his voice. “We still have around an hour and a half to go.”

Mihashi nods, though his father doesn’t see. He keeps his face buried against the seat, still feeling his cheeks are warm. His chest feels so full. He feels like he’s going to explode from how happy he is. Abe really does know him, and Abe really does understand him so well now. He’s so happy.

He’s so happy. He’s so happy. He’s so happy he can’t quite explain it well.

Months later, when the two of them talk over these feelings that have continuously grew within them, Mihashi will understand. But for now, for now, he hums to the tunes on the radio. New love songs he’s never heard of before, but the rhythm jives with the movement of his heart so he hums.

He hums until he does fall asleep, waking up to a few texts from Abe that make him feel the full warmth in his chest all over again.

******

Bonus:

Kanou and Ruri, who sit on either side of Mihashi over dinner, exchange glances as they see Mihashi pick up his phone and happily type for at least the twentieth time since the first plate of food had been placed on the table.

‘Girlfriend?’ Kanou mouths to Ruri with an eyebrow raised in question.

Ruri overly shrugs her shoulders and winces. An exaggerated ‘I don’t know’. She’s not allowing her favorite cousin to have a girl in his life to have priority over her. Not just yet.

“Ren-ren,” she calls to him. For the fifth time since dessert has been served. No response.

Kanou snickers at her failed attempt, making Ruri huff.

“Ren-ren,” she attempts again, this time bumping her shoulder on his. This makes Mihashi look up, surprised, looking left then right and both ways again before quickly typing on his phone then putting it away.

“Y-yes, Ruri?”

She pouts at him. “Who is it that you’re texting?”

“EH!?” Mihashi almost shouts, but manages to keep his volume down low. “W-wa-w-wa-was-was it obvious?”

Kanou laughs a little louder this time, but not enough to go over the chatter of the adults. He wiggles his eyebrows when Mihashi looks over at him. “Was it obvious that you were texting someone special? Pretty much.”

“Spe!!!!!!!!!” Mihashi straightens his back, sitting up right now, looking alert. “Spe--special?? N--no. A-are they? It w-was just--”

“Just?” Ruri and Kanou say together, leaning forward to gaze at Mihashi from the front.

He looks away, shying from their gaze, with added attempt to raise his arms and hide his face. “Ta-Takaya… kun.”

A moment of silence passes the two of them. A moment to ponder “Who in the world is that?”

“A classmate?” Kanou asks.

Mihashi shakes his head violently as if to defend himself. “N-no! He’s the-- the catcher.”

“Ooh, so Nishiura’s catcher’s name is Takaya-kun.” Ruri nods her head. She’s smiling now, relieved she’s still her cousin’s #1 girl. “Wow, Ren-ren. I didn’t know your team’s already on first-name basis. Must be nice.”

“Yeah, you got us beat.” Kanou leans onto Mihashi, putting an arm over his shoulder. “We’ve already been together for more than three years, yet we all still call each other by surnames.”

“B-but you’re Shuu-chan.”

Kanou chuckles, happy to hear him call him that again. “Yeah, but remember? You were calling me ‘Kanou-kun’ for a while, Ren.”

“O-oh! R-right.” Mihashi nods his head. “I’m sorry…” “Oh, come on. You’ve got no reason to be.” Kanou pats his back twice. His attention gets stolen by his mother for a while, telling him they should be going home soon. “Hey, Ren. Can you walk me out?”

“S-sure!” Mihashi stands up with him and starts heading out of the dining room.

“What about me?” Ruri whines, trying to stand up, too.

Kanou looks over his shoulder, letting Mihashi pass first. “You stay, there, we got baseball stuff to talk about.”

“I play softball, you know!”

They make their way out of the dining room and into the hall where it’s more silent.

“Sh-Shuu-chan,” Mihashi starts the conversation first as they make their way to the front door. “Th-thank you for coming.”

“Of course. Not like my mom’s gonna go without dragging me along with her.” Kanou laughs, making Mihashi laugh softly, too. They stop at the entrance, giving time for Kanou to change from house slippers to his sneakers. “It’s really nice seeing you, Ren. You...” He stops, trying to find the words to say, trying to soften them enough so he himself won’t cry. It had been months since it last bothered him, but it really hurts to see Mihashi, his once best friend, move on with another team. But it’s the best for Mihashi, so he gathers up energy for a huge, wide smile and looks up at him. “You seem much happier now.”

Mihashi smiles back at him, wide, toothy, just like he used to. Before Mihoshi. No, even better and much happier than then. “I--I am happy.”

Kanou grits his teeth. The tears still threaten to push through his eyes, but no longer out of bitterness. He’s so, so happy for his dear friend. So happy. He stands up, finished tying his shoelaces. He slams his hand onto Mihashi’s shoulder. “Let’s both do our best, okay!? We gotta see each other at Koushien.”

Mihashi nods his head, that bright smile never leaving his lips. “Yeah!”

“But before then, see you at Golden Week camp!”

******

Bonus 2: (One extra surprise!)

The Nishiura boys are out swimming at the school’s pool for added training, the lifeguard listening to sports updates on the radio. Hanai wasn’t particularly listening in, but when the crowd suddenly cheered so loud from the radio, he had to stop midlength of the pool to hear what was happening.

“An incredible save from Karasuno’s Ennoshita! Did you see that? Running far out of bounds and returning it for their setter to reach, and then that glorious save by the new ace, Tanaka. Got to hand it to that Ennoshita. He’s really holding his ground as the team’s new captain.” says the commentator.

Hanai waves his arms in the pool to keep himself afloat in the water. It’s not just him, or fellow baseball captains out there that are trying to support their team with all their might. Even captains of other sports do, too. Doing splendid plays like that, to boost the team’s morale. It’s amazing how the word ‘captain’ can unify different sports together.

Hanai nods his head with renewed fervor. He’s going to help his team keep their spirits up this upcoming tournament, too.

******

End Notes: I hope you don’t mind (and that it isn’t too cheesy) that I added an Ennoshita mention. While stalking your tumblr, I realized how much you love him. So I thought it would be a treat to sneak him in.

Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed all of these. :) Merry Christmas! ^^

#oofurixmas2017 #brokuro #myfics #oofuri #abemiha #abehashi #otp: i'll dedicate myself to you

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kawahageshii · 7 years ago

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Karakuridoji Ultimo VOLUME 12

What’s poppin’, Ultimo friends?!!!!!!!! I got this volume on the day it came out last year, but life happened and I havent gotten the chance to read it until now. Aaaannd I’ve been inactive on tumblr for pretty much a whole year, and I come back and I see the fandom looks to be dead T-T. So I dont even know if anybody will even read this. But!! I wanna finish this little series I had where I read every volume and liveblog it lol. So LESSS GOOO

So yeah can we just talk about how beautiful this artwork is

I actually have not read any translations of the final chapters, so I’m going into this completely blind. Tbh I barely remembered what happened last volume (and this summary doesn’t really help lol)

Okayyyy I remember now. Yamato and Rune had just completed their Love Battle, then Sayama comes in all of a sudden and is about to erase Rune’s memories.

BUT YAMATO BEING THE GOOD MAN HE IS STILL LOVE HER (AND RUNE) REGARDLESS

AWWW SAYAMA LIKED YAMATO TOO. Also oh shit that’s right she’s Dunstan’s daughter and Yamato found out!

Murayama Musashi (I’ve forgotten a lot of things, but I can NEVER forget that name) knew too because of his #policeboy skills

OHHH that’s right Sayama joined Vice too! Wtf is going on I forgot everything LMFAO

Aww Sayama. So she knew this WHOLE time about her father and the experiment he was doing? She didn’t suddenly become aware of it when Eco gave all the good doji masters memories of the past? Wow that’s some heavy shit

Drag them Sayama it’s been 12 volumes and they still haven’t made any real progress

NO NOT A GOOD PLAN

Hana & Eater, Sumako & Desir, and Mizho & Paresse arrive all of a sudden!!

Aww Sayama. Yamato is such a good person.

Oh shit Dunstan and Milieu are here now!!

‘Reeducated” okay that isn’t creepy at all.

Soo Dunstan took Sayama to the year 2989 and now everyone’s fucked.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Vice is having an existential crisis it seems

Awwww this chapter cover is so nice

I love how K immediately jumps to asking about Vice’s well-being while that little brat Jun is like “dafuq is wrong with you”

Nooo Vice nooo Jun is.....seriously disturbed

I’m crying K noticed Vice didn’t poke his eyes out like he normally does. ALSO LITTLE KID K IS SO CUTE LMFAO

Deep thoughts from K’s grandma, making K realize something....but what?

Awww Fussa Fusataro (a name I also can never forget) is a real MVP for sticking around.

Lmfao Rage is like “Oh. Thanks. Thanks for informing me that we’re staying here. Thanks fam”

So Vice goes out and finds Ultimo all alone???

OH SHIT ULTIMO USED TIME STOP ON VICE TO KILL HIM

But was deterred because Jun is Vice’s master now so there’s extra evil to stop his attacks (right? that’s how it works? I don’t even remember fam)

OH SHIT

Omg but Vice is hesitating when attacking Ultimo

I forgot how creepy this kid was

LMFAO EVEN VICE IS LIKE “Nahhhh that’s not cool”

AWWWW THAT SELF-AWARENESS

OH SHIT ULTIMO TOOK THE CHANCE AND STABBED VICE

BUT NOW JUN IS SHOOTING VICE??? LMFAO LET’S ALL GANG UP ON THIS POOR DUDE TODAY?????

I literally said “Yaaaaaassss” out loud. K really is the hero we deserve

Vice has learned to love I’m crying (also K’s grandma actually seems to be the real hero here)

HOLY FUCK JUN SHOT K???? CAN THIS KID STOP

BUT YAMATO AND THE WHOLE CREW SHOWED UP SO NOW I GUESS WE’RE GOING TO THE FUTURE

Oh wow. It’s the final chapter.

But we still got half of the volume left??

Anyways, here’s a familiar scene

OH the ending already happened??

ULTI IS GONE IN THE ENDING?? EXPLAIN

Ohhh so that’s why Musashi has literally NO body in the future. Wow

OKAY I GUESS WE’RE GOING TO COMPLETELY SKIP OVER THE FIGHT BETWEEN VICE AND EVERYONE RIGHT AFTER THAT

Lmfaooo Mizho is speaking the truth here nothing happened to her at all. Because I can count on my fingers the number of times she has appeared in this manga. #tragic

Okayyy so they all combined and are now going to fight Dunstan

War. War never changes.

YAAAASSS YAMATO SAVE SAYAMA

YAAAASSS Universal Milieu has come into the fight

Andd wiped everyone out with Dimension Hammer lol

OH SHIT IT’S YAMATO, K, VICE AND ULTIMO FROM THE 21ST CENTURY. That’s a fucking squad right there. So I guess Dunstan destroyed future!Yamato and crew, but not our Yamato?

OH MY GOD THEY’RE COMBINING IT’S HAPPENING

That’s deep guys

OH MY GODDDDDD EVERYONE’S COMING TOGETHER

(interesting how the Evil Doji are naming their attacks after the planets?)

YAAAAAAAAASSSSSS chills

wait what?????

What

Okay the fuck is going on lol

HUH??????

So all the doji are human now....I remember learning that when I read the raw last chapter, but it’s part of the experiment? Dunstan’s endgame this whole time was to create Ideos Ultimo therefore making the doji human?????

Okay??? I guess that’s the ending???

Milieu’s face is my reaction

Okay......... I guess.... at least it was a happy ending??? (even though it was total cop-out)

so let’s move onto the profiles

Takei gives us all the God/Demon Icon forms of the doji, included their combined forms and Ideos Ultimo

Jun’s Demon Vice actually looks pretty cool. Lol @ the crossbow being included in the design

Ohhh so that’s why the Evil doji has that planet naming

Aww they even included the karakuri soldiers

And here’s a cute afterward from Takei

so....that’s it...wow. That was the final of Karakuridoji Ultimo. I’m glad it was a happy one, though I do feel it was very abrupt. But what can you do

It’s been a wild ride. A wild, and often confusing ride. But I had tons of fun reading, loving, and obsessing over this manga all these years. I already made an emotional post about how much KDU means to me, so I’ll just leave this at that. I hope this isn’t the last time we hear about this manga (anime in 2040 anyone? I predict it now),and I def hope the fandom continues to live on~

#ultimo #karakuridoji ultimo #please dont read this on mobile lol #ultimo chapter reactions #stan lee #hiroyuki takei #karakuridouji ultimo

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majimemegoro · 3 years ago

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ooh I didn’t remember that about detective sayama, and that’s a good catch with daigo, can’t believe i forgot this wonderful murderous dude lol! maybe sayama does suffer ‘narrative death’ by getting written out, but daigo sticks out as an interesting exception... unless it’s left ambiguous whether or not the many people he shoots die as a result? in which case he wouldnt count as a “confirmed” killer.

But in any case I do have a different take on why (most) killer characters die, thematically speaking! I don’t think it’s actually about punitive justice; I think it’s about the value of life. (This sounds paradoxical, I know; hear me out). *MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW*

So I read the main theme of the games, or at least of kiryu’s stories, as being fundamentally about the value of life, and this is shown in 2 ways: a) the problem of suicide: how to live when you want to die (see: Kiryu, kiryu, kiryu, Nishiki, nishiki, Mine, Ok*dera, Baba; maybe Ryuji; arguably also Mirei Park, but in a different way from the others; note also all of Dead Souls and particularly the twist re: the zombie virus). And b) the problem of murder: how to live when you need to kill (see: Majima in y0, Saejima, Baba, Ok*dera; again everything about Dead Souls: Kiryu won’t even kill the zombies at first.)

Death and killing are treated so so seriously in this series, in a way that it usually isn’t in action media. I don’t think that characters who purposely die (Nishiki and Mine being the most obvious examples I think), have their deaths presented as redemptive. I think their deaths are presented as pointless and miserable and wrongheaded; these deaths dont leave us feeling like mine and nishiki redeemed themselves! they leave us feeling hollow and terrible! and I think that’s on purpose. that’s the point.

Just like Kiryu’s self-sacrificial instincts throughout the series, there’s something noble and tragic and seductive about death-seeking, but that doesn’t mean it’s choiceworthy or good or even useful, and I don’t think the games ever present death-seeking, or any actions that contribute to death, really, as a good thing.

It’s a similar effect to the way that reprehensible characters (e.g. Awano, but others too) always get redeemed a little AS and BECAUSE they’re defeated: the player is systematically prevented from being able to really be satisfied by the death of any character! Death is awful. death is always awful. always. even when living is awful, too. and that’s the point.

the killers are terrible. and the deaths of the killers are terrible, too.

tbh i think yasuko is such an interesting character bc a big theme in the games is how far ppl are willing to go to achieve their goals or protect the ppl they love.

it comes up w/ kiryu multiple times throughout the series and w/ majima in yakuza 0 when hes struggling over whether he can kill for saejima or not.

and over and over again, most protagonist characters arent willing to kill and i esp think thats notable w/ kiryu bc i think there are so many times where if he had just... pulled the trigger it couldve saved the life of someone he cared abt.

but yasuko is willing to kill and do whatever it takes to protect saejima. and no she doesnt necessarily like killing and she isnt happy that she did, but she saw it as what needed to be done, so she did it.

and then thing that gets me is i think she mustve still been a teenager when saejima was taken from her. we dont have a canon age for her, but i think she was like 16/17 based on saejima being older. she was left all alone to fend for herself and she wasnt even an adult yet. theres so much that couldve been done w/ that, diving deeper into her backstory and exploring just why shes willing to cross that line and kill for saejima, smth that does weigh so heavily on her.

#thanks for a good discussion and getting me thinking comrades #yakuza spoilers #majimeta #memecomradeoriginal #the cross references are not systematic ive written about this a LOT lol #this is just my interpretation of course #but yeah i dont think were SUPPOSED to feel that those suicides are redemptive tbh #legendsonly #idk if any of this makes sense oh well

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ask-the-phan-site · 5 years ago

Text

Phan Cam: End of Summer

WARNING: This post may be long. Also, because I never really learned what year it was when Prince of Stride took place, most information on characters my not be accurate. (Example: The series took place in 2016 or 2017, meaning the whole Stride Club would have already graduated or that Nana Sakurai would be the only member left in her Senior Year by now. But I’ll de-age them a little so there would be a reason for all of them to be there. If there’s a next time, I’ll make it more accurate.)

>Central Street, Shibuya.

Announcer: He going, going... HE MAKES IT! Takeru Fujiwara finishes first and takes the win for Honan Academy!

>The crowd goes wild. Takeru’s team comes to congratulate him.

Way to go, Takeru!

Yes, that was great!

... I could have gone faster.

Don’t say that. You were plenty fast.

Takeru: Is that so?

True. But still, be glad we made it in 1st.

Takeru: ... Fine.

(coming up) Excuse me, do you mind if I can get an interview with you?

Ayumu: Well, I suppose I can spare a word or two.

(coming up) Just try not to say anything that could make the school look bad.

Ayumu: (suddenly nervous) Umm. Well...

?????: Fine, I’ll help.

Ayumu: (relieved) Really? Thank you, senpai.

Just helping an old teammate.

That’s true. The rest of you can rest.

Riku: Thanks, guys.

Nana: Hey, we should check in on Shiho. It’s almost the girl teams’ turn.

Hozumi: Sure. I’d love to see Suzui chan again.

Honan Runner 1: You go on ahead, senpai. We’re going to find some seats to see the race.

Riku: Right, see you guys later.

Honan Runner 2: See you.

>With that, Riku, Nana, Takeru, and Hozumi leave while Heath, Ayumu, and Kyosuke stay with the reporter and the rest of the team and their coach go find a place to watch the girls’ run.

NOTE: The name of the school Panther’s friend goes to has been changed to protect her identity.

>At the tent for the Orinpasu High School Women’s Stride Club, we came to wish Suzui good luck as they would being against... Kamigaku.

Are you doing alright, Shiho?

(only picture available) Yeah, just a little nervous.

I know. You’ve come so far. So, it’s okay. We’re here.

Shiho: I know. Thanks, Kasumi chan.

>Then, the Honan Stride Club arrives... They didn’t noticed they were followed until they looked behind them.

Nana: Dad!?

Riku: Tomoe!?

And my dad!? And his friends!?

Yeesh. You didn’t have to make it sound so dramatic.

Be nice. He’s family.

He’s got you there.

All joking aside, Nana?

Nana: Oh right. I want to wish you the best of luck, Shiho san. I hope you do well.

Shiho: Oh, thank you, Nana chan.

Riku: I wish you luck, too.

Good for you to do that, Riku. I guess good sportsmanship isn’t dead.

Isn’t it chivalry isn’t dead?

Tomoe: Same difference.

Anyway, what brings you here? I would have thought five of you would be in the stands to see the race and the three of you would be on your way home.

Jonny: Can’t a guy check on his son every once in awhile?

Ren: How did you even know I was back in Tokyo?

Orlando: Your friend dresses up like me twice on stage and I wouldn’t know about it?

Ren: I guess that’s true. Why? You’re going to sue him for copyright?

You should know, my sis is a defense attorney.

Toby: Not really.

Shiho: Then... (angry) Oh hell no! You just came to see that!

Toby: (shocked) What!? Of course not!

What do you mean?

Mr. Sakurai: Ever wondered why Stride is mostly done by boys rather than girls?

Takeru: Because in Stride, they want to see how fast your legs can go.

Hozumi: Yeah, not how high your... melons can bounce.

Panther: I can see that. If the girls at our school were allowed to do Stride, we would have a club.

Nana: What do you mean, Ann chan?

Queen: Shujin Academy almost had a Stride Club, especially after the disbandment of the track team. However...

Mr. Sakurai: Kamoshida?

Panther: That jerk was afraid that having a Shujin Stride Club would take attention away from the volleyball team. So he ‘convinced’ Kobayakawa to reject the idea. But after hearing what you just said...

Now I really can’t forgive that perverted bastard!

Queen: But now that they’re gone, it looks like Shujin will be having its Stride Club after all. After the track team regains its full momentum.

Riku: That’s great. Guess that means we might be competing against Shujin soon. Have any of you ever considered joining them?

Joker: Really? You think we might join?

Well, I can definitely see you joining, Ren.

Joker: I guess so. I mean, I train with Ryuji a lot and I work out at the gym.

>Suddenly, something grabs me... by the leg.

(only picture I could find) I see. All that training was worth it.

Hey, let go of my leg!

Besides, this leg is already spoken for.

Takeru: It is?

>Then, a shadow looms over him... And the sound of a sword unsheathing is heard.

It is. Now we humbly appreciate it if you let go.

>Cautiously, Takeru releases my leg.

Hozumi: (surprised) Whoa! Are you two... Together?

Fox: Well, other than for my art... Yes. Why?

You have something against it?

Hozumi: (scared) No! No! We have nothing against it!

Nana: He’s right. Believe it or not, we have guys at our school who are in those kinds of relationships, too.

Tomoe: She’s right. The same goes for Kakyoin.

(sheathing his sword again) Good. Anyway, I think introductions are in order.

(whisper) Thank you.

(also whispering) You’re welcome.

>Suddenly, a reporter comes in through the crowd.

Reporter: Finally, I’m in. Excuse me, Tomoe Yagami, can I have a word with you?

Tomoe: (unhappy) If it’s about that, then yes... Bug off!

Reporter: (insistent) Come on, everyone want to know about ToTo.

Riku: (angry) You heard my brother, there is no ToTo! Now leave!

Reporter: But...

>Then, Mr. Sakurai and Jonny walk up to the reporter with an intimidating aura.

Mr. Sakurai: Do you really want these two gentlemen to repeat themselves?

Jonny: That’s right, it would be unbecoming.

Reporter: (defeated) Alright. I’m leaving.

>And he does.

Tomoe: Thank you, sensei.

Mr. Sakurai: It was nothing.

Royal: (confused) Could someone please explain what this ToTo thing is?

You didn’t hear? There’s a rumor going around that Tomoe san is secretly going out with Tomoe Sayama of Kanamin Kitchen.

Royal: Really? I know you two have the same first names, but wow. You and Tomomin?

Tomoe: But I’m not going out with her... I’m actually going out with Kanami.

Hozumi: (shocked) Are you serious!?

??????: He is.

>We look to see Kanami Mashita.

Riku: Hey, Kanami chan. How are things?

Fine, Riku kun.

Holy shit, it’s really Kanamin!

Queen: So the two of you are dating?

Kanami: That’s right. But I guess also kinda my fault everyone thought Tomomin was dating him.

Joker: How so?

Kanami: As you probably know, it was just discovered that Tamamin (Tamami Uesugi) and Tassun (Tasuku Senoo) have been secretly dating ever since they opened a Junes in Sternbild City.

Queen: Tasuku Senno? Of the Saisei Stride Club?

Kanami: And a member of the idol group, Galaxy Standard. When they were discovered, a lot of stuff started happening. The press wouldn’t leave them alone. As the leader of Kanamin Kitchen, I had to deal with it. It was exhausting.

Tomoe: As a friend of my brother, I thought I would help with Tasuku and Saisei. And that’s how me and Kanami pretty much met.

Kanami: After everything, we found ourselves just talking with each other. Before we knew it, we had gotten pretty close. We even started meeting up for coffee.

Tomoe: We got to know each other a little and everything just... It just...

Kanami: (smiling) Clicked into place.

>They both smile at each other.

Tomoe: It was then, we knew. But we never actually announced anything. We decided to keep it to ourselves for the time being.

Kanami: Then, one night, Tomoe kun took me back to Takura Productions after I got pretty tired. Tomomin was waiting for us.

Tomoe: Me and the other Tomoe went outside together so she could thank me for helping Tasuku and Tamami. And to also thank me for helping Kanami as well... Unfortunately, someone saw us and jumped to the conclusion that me and Tomoe were together... That made things even more hectic.

Kanami: But at least they finally took their attention away from Tamasun. But now, they’re getting the wrong idea about Tomoe.

Riku: Tomoe convince me that he wasn’t going out with the other Tomoe... But I still couldn’t believe it when he told me about who he was really interested in.

Nana: Why didn’t you tell us, Riku?

Riku: Tomoe made me promise not to tell anyone as they wanted to announce it themselves. Besides, you guys never would have believed me. I know I couldn’t.

Nana: (souding reassuring) Riku, you’re our friend and teammate, I’m sure we would have believed you and keep it a secret, too.

Riku: (happy) Thank you.

Tomoe: (getting close to Kanami) Tomorrow, me and Kanami have decided to go on our first date. But for today, since Galaxy Standard can’t perform, partly because they’re still under fire for Tasuku and Tamami’s relationship and partly because most of them aren’t even part of the group anymore because they already graduated, Kanamin Kitchen will be performing in their place.

Kanami: Although, Tamamin will only be doing one song with us.

Noir: I see. I hope things will be okay.

Kanami: (smiling) I’m sure they will. I actually support their relationship.

Tomoe: (also smiling) So do I.

Nana: Congratulations on both accounts.

Announcer: Attention, all runners to your positions, please!

Shiho: I better go. I’m the staring runner.

Good luck out there, Shiho.

Shiho: Thanks, Ann.

>With that, we leave... Admin stayed behind.

Admin: Hey, Suzui chan?

Shiho: Yes, Mishima?

Admin: (a little nervous) Well... Umm...

Shiho: (curious) Yes?

Admin: ....

Win for all of us.

Shiho: (actually disappointed) Oh, I see... Hey, Mishima?

Admin: Yes?

Shiho: I just... (starts getting nervous) It’s just...

Yes?

Shiho: ... Thank you. Yes, thank you for everything.

Oh, okay. Well, see you.

Shiho: See you.

>With that, they leave.

Announcer: ... And now, let’s introduce our runners! Our starting runners are... Shiho Suzui of Orinpasu High and Miki Makimura of Kamigaku High!

>The crowd cheered at Suzui and Miki took their position.

Hey Suzui chan, I just want to wish you luck.

Shiho: Same to you. Thanks.

>Somewhere else in the city, Miko Kuroda is waiting in her position.

(thinking) I’ll show her. I’ll show them all... I’m the real Miki.

>Watching live on his laptop in his and his boyfriend’s room at the Wilton Hotel, Moyuru Koda was starting to get a little worried.

Kuroda, don’t do it. I know the Demon Slayer and the Charmed One already went home, but still...

>Back at the starting point.

Announcer: On your marks... Get set... GO!

>With that, Suzui and Miki take off.

>On the stands, my father pulls me aside to talk to me.

Joker: I know you think that I spend more time here than I do with you and Mom. Don’t worry, I still love you both. Will always love you. It’s just that... I feel I can get along well here in Tokyo.

All my friends and my boyfriend are here.

Jonny: Is that all? ... I would have thought you would say teammates.

Joker: ...

Jonny: Look, I know as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, you have to look after your team, but it never hurts to at least drop me and your mother a line once and awhile. Come visit us. We miss you.

Joker: I’m just too busy. I really do try to find time to send you a message when I can. But with everything that’s happened...

Jonny: Ren, I’m not saying that you have to come home. It’s your decision. You’re almost a man now. And I can tell you really have something going on with that artist. Still... Just don’t forget about us.

Joker: I do.

Jonny: Ren, do you remember the story I told you about before you were born?

Joker: Yes. You said you and Mom wanted a child...

Who would be just like Uncle Vince.

Jonny: (laughs a bit) We got our wish alright. From the gender to... The hair.

Joker: Yeah... You have Mom’s people to thank for that. For them, birth is about more than making life...

It’s also about making art.

(who heard us) I like the way your mother’s people think.

Joker: Yeah, maybe that’s why I feel close to you. And why I knew it was a good idea to dress you up as my father.

Fox: No, it was because you helped me out of my slump and made me realize the beauty and ugliness in everything...

And you are especially beautiful.

Thank you.

Jonny: Glad to see the two of you happy.

Joker: I’m happy, too. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you, Mom, or my uncles and aunts. If only you and Mom were home when my friends brought me back after my probation ended, it would have made things even more wonderful.

Jonny: I blame the spaceship when we went to visit your Uncle Vincent and Aunt Rin. I can’t believe I made a rookie mistake about renting vehicles. Then again, this was a spaceship we’re talking about, not a car.

Joker: Guess you still have a lot to learn.

Jonny: No kidding.

Joker: By the way, how are Uncle Vince and Aunt Rin?

Jonny: Fine. They would have loved to come for Dream FES, but Rin’s scheduled keeps him and Vincent really busy. But I’m sure you’ll seem them again at the party for the American release of Catherine: Full Body.

Joker: I guess...

But only if you guys show up at the Culture Festival at Shujin. We’ll be celebrating the release of Persona 5: Royal.

Jonny: (smiling) That sounds like a plan to me.

>I can sense Dad’s understanding. And he can understand mine.

I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh they chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Daylight Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…

Confidant: Chief

Arcana: Daylight (This Arcana is made up for this Confidant.)

Rank: 1

Ability: Test Drive

Jonny will let you drive a car from his dealership as a test.

Panther’s voice: Hey you guys, Shiho’s about to make the connection!

Joker: Let’s go.

>We return with the others.

>At the relationer booth, Akira Fudo is directing Miki to Miko next to Suzui’s team relationer.

You’re almost to Miko, Miki. Just jump that next turn and you should be there.

Miki’s voice: Right, I’m on it!

Orinpasu Relationer: Suzui, the fence that you’re close to isn’t that high. You can hop over it.

Shiho’s voice: I see it. I’ll try.

>At Miko’s position, she can see Miki jumping the turn and approaching her.

Miko: (thinking) Here she comes. Let’s do this!

>With a clap of their hands, Miko is off. She runs off and suddenly moves at high speed... Almost like a beast.

>At the Wilton.

Koda: Crap!

>Koda quickly puts on his shoes and heads to the door.

Koda: Junichi, I’m going out! I’ll be back soon!

Junichi: (calling from the bath) While you’re out, do you think you can pick up a wrench for my leg?

Koda: (smiling) It’ll be the first thing on my list.

>With that, he runs out of the room.

>A little later, Koda (after stopping to buy a wrench) stop at where Miko would run by. He looks around and finally spots her.

Koda: Good, she hasn’t connected yet.

>As soon as Miko got closer, Koda begins to run.

NOTE: If you wish to see them run, please click the link. But you may wish to ignore it. I’d tell you why, but that would lead to trouble. The choice is yours.

https://imgflip.com/gif/2gz8ih

>Miko notices Koda and can make out what he’s saying.

Koda: Kuroda, what the hell!? I told you, you can’t do that! You can’t use your power! It’s wrong and you could be exposed!

Miko: So what? I’ll prove to everyone that I’m the best. That I’m the real Miki and not Makimura.

Koda: This isn’t about you. This is about retaining whatever normality or humanity you have left.

Miko: You would think the same if you were me. Didn’t you try to use your own power to win a track meet.

Koda: True. At first I thought that human or demon, I would be on the winning side. But then I realized something... Would I truly be happy with that? To only be thinking of myself rather than what others feel? Because, now that I think about it, that sound pretty selfish... I was lacking independence. But now I know better. Instead of choosing which side would most likely be the winner... I should choose which side feels right to me and stick with it... So, which will you choose? Pride and envy or a friend who loves you more than anything?

Miko: ...

Akira’s voice: Miko, you’re at the half way point. There should be a ledge you can go over.

>Miko really wanted to keep running onward and not rely on shortcuts. However, she knows Koda is right. She does love Miki and this would be an insult to her.

Miko: (defeated) You just won’t quit, will you?

>With that, Miko slows down and jumps the ledge. Because she slowed down, everyone noticed Koda running as he too slowed and stopped.

Announcer: It looks like someone was chasing Kuroda. Is that... Yes! It’s Moyuru Koda, the Super High Schooler! I wonder why he was doing it.

Koda: (noticing a drone recording him and smiles and waves) Just wanted to make sure Kuroda keeps her promise! ... To him!

>He was point at...

How did you... I mean, yes, that’s me!

Koda: See ya!

>With that, Koda runs off.

>Miko finally reached the third runner and connected and the third runner.

>After the connection was made with the anchor, I texted Koda.

I saw what you did on the monitor.

You did, did you?

Look, I’m not going to pry, but it looked like Miko Kuroda was doing something you didn’t like.

Pretty much. She was doing something that might as well be cheating.

You mean...

No, I don’t want to know.

Probably for the best. Her friends don’t know and it’s better to keep it that way.

You really wanted to make sure she didn’t do any wrong. Not just for her... But you did it for Kukun’s sake.

I could tell that he really likes her. Even that rap he did for Open Mike Nite proved it.

No doubt. It sounds like you know Kukun. How?

That is an interesting question. Maybe someday.

I see. Still, it’s good that you stopped her.

I just didn’t want to see her in trouble. I knew how she felt. I just don’t know how to deal with thinking that power means everything.

You could remind yourself about love. Someone you love could help you realize what is right.

Yeah, I suppose. I already thought of it, but being reminded is sometimes good too. Thanks for that.

You're welcome.

>I know we’re just texting, but I can feel like I understand Koda a little more.

Rank Up!

Confidant: Moyuru Koda

Arcana: Balance

Rank: 3

See you at the EOS after party?

Definitely.

>End text.

>After a while, the anchors finally arrived at the end... Kamigaku takes the victory. Still it was a day we won’t forget. And it was still Summer Break until September 2. A Summer we won’t forget.

#phantom thieves cam

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