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mirrortouchedsea · 1 year ago

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⬛⬛⬛ was seven years old when his mother died. He remembers being sad, mourning her sudden loss in the way children process death. He stayed by her bedside as she took her last breath, holding her hand and crying, begging her to stay. She loved him. She had spent her last moments making sure he knew that he wasn’t alone and never would be, as long as he could keep her in his memory.

He remembers crying out as her casket was closed for the final time, lowered into the ground. Something snapped in him and he was begging her to stay again, begging them to not take her away.

⬛⬛⬛ didn’t come out of his room for weeks afterwards. He sat in his room, cradling a photo of his mother in his hands. His father would leave food for him and he would eat it, never taking his eyes off the photo.

So when his father came home after only two months of his mother being dead, ⬛⬛⬛ was not what one would call happy. Even though he’d started going back to school a few weeks ago, he wasn’t ready for someone else to take her place. Nobody else could ever be his mother.

He got into an argument with his father that night. At seven years old, ⬛⬛⬛ decided that he couldn’t bear to live in a house with a man who could so easily replace the woman he claimed to love. He didn’t know where he was going but he took the clothes on his back, the photo of his mother, and some cash he’d been saving up and just walked out.

He made his way to the bus stop and got on, thinking about where he would even go. He wasn’t sure he could make his way to his mother’s family on his own, as they lived on the other side of the country, and he definitely didn’t want to see his father’s family. So he stayed on the bus as long as the driver would let him stay.

Eventually though, he did have to get off. It was sprinkling out, not enough to make him uncomfortable, but it was a sign of heavier rains to come. ⬛⬛⬛ made his way from the bus stop to a restaurant that looked like it was about to close, but still had the lights on and maybe they could give him some shelter from the rain, at least for a while. He stepped inside and stared at the workers cleaning up the dining room. They looked…concerned that a child his age was alone at night, especially in this part of town, one would say.

They asked him what he was doing out, if he lost his parents, if he was from the area. It’s not safe out here for kids like you, they told him. He doesn’t remember responding, but he must have because they shuffled him to the back of the restaurant to their boss and asked what to do with him. None of them could really afford to take a child in but he hadn’t told him where he was from or where his parents were. They suggested calling the police, but ⬛⬛⬛ started crying at the suggestion, not wanting to get them involved. I can’t go home, he told them, my father is a bad person.

The restaurant manager agreed to allow him to stay for a bit, giving him a meal on the grounds that he’d leave by the end of the week. ⬛⬛⬛ agreed, scarfing down the food like it was the best thing he’d ever eaten.

Over the next few days, ⬛⬛⬛ bid his time by doing dishes, greeting customers, learning to read from the menu. The staff treated him kindly, but they felt distant, unsure of what to do with him, though by the time the weekend came, he hadn’t figured out where he wanted to go. A few of the staff pointed him towards an orphanage in town, but one of the cooks slipped him a one way train ticket to a few cities over, somewhere he could get out of that area, a note attached with directions on where to go to meet someone who would take him in.

He held the ticket in his hand, scanning it as he walked through the station to the loading area, the note clutched in his hand. ⬛⬛⬛ was practically shaking as he entered the train by himself. A few adults asked if he was okay, if he knew where he was going. Yes, he said, I’m just not used to traveling by myself, but my uncle is going to meet me at my stop. That was a lie he’d rehearsed on the way there but they let him be. He had to fight himself to keep from falling asleep and missing his stop, but he must have succumbed to it at some point, as one of the adults next to him gently shook him awake as they approached his destination. He thanked them and hopped off his seat, getting ready to depart the train car and start his new life.

He stepped onto the platform and was greeted by a bustling crowd. It was overwhelming to say the least, so many strange people just going about their day. ⬛⬛⬛ made his way to the staircase where someone came up from behind him, introduced himself as the person who would be taking care of the young boy. He could call him “Priest”, as his true name was of little importance. He asked if the young boy had a name, which the boy muttered under his breath. When asked to repeat it, he said he wished to give up his name, as he no longer wanted to be associated with the person who gave it to him. The Priest agreed with him and said they’d find a suitable name for him soon enough. There were many names in the world, but for now he’d be referred to as the Prodigal Son, or simply the Son for short. The Son found this amicable and agreed to the change. He remembers wondering what that meant, as he had never heard of the word “Prodigal” before, but he would come to understand it in due time.

The Priest taught the Son many things, reading, writing, the history of Japan, things that he remembered being taught in school before his mother passed, but he also taught the Son many other things one would never find in a normal school. The Son learned the art of disguise, impersonation, how to manipulate his voice. Some day, the Priest had told him, he’d be called upon to use his gifts for the greater good. The Son, not knowing any better, accepted this and that his skills would be useful in the future.

The Son went through many identities in his time studying under the Priest. His hair had been cut, extended, dyed and bleached, his eyes were a dozen different colors and none of them. He could mimic any voice after observing the speaker for ten minutes. He went by many different names, though he always came back to the Son. In due time, he forgot his father entirely, but he carried the last photo of his mother with him in his pocket wherever he went. It made him feel at ease, as if she were watching over him from the afterlife still, protecting him from the harsh realities of the world. The photo had faded with time, the wear and tear on it having almost removed her face entirely, but the Son could still picture it perfectly. It had been burned into his mind on the day he watched her take her last breath.

The Son started University at age 17, younger than many of his peers in Japan, and he graduated at age 20. It hadn’t been easy, but he had honed his skills and developed them on the stage, playing off his talents as being simply that, talent and skill, not something he had used to bring about political upheaval in the past and likely in the future.

The Son had kept his distance at University though, going by another fake name and only attending the bare minimum of classes and extracurriculars that were required of him by the Priest. He had begun proper vocal training to learn how to sing, something that he had been told would be useful soon, though he had not been given the details, and further developed his voice by participating in several musical performances, though he still remained rather distant from the rest of the cast and crew, exchanging only the bare necessities of pleasantries and making excuses to get out of bonding time outside of scheduled practice hours.

The Son was a lonely man, and he knew this. He knows this. He is a lonely man. He was about to turn 23 when the Priest finally told him about his newest mission. Do you remember your father, the Priest had asked over the phone. No, replied the Son, not more than I need to, anyway. So you remember you had a father, and he had another wife after you left, the Priest continued. The Son hummed in agreement, Yes I ran away because of her, you know this. Of course I do, but I just wanted to make sure, Anyway did you know he had another son with her? What do you mean by another son? I mean that you are an older brother, and your younger brother needs help. I do not want to speak to anyone else related to that man. Oh but you’ve been training to help your brother, haven’t you, he dreams of being an idol, someone who sings and dances on stage like you. Theater performances and being an idol are two different things. Yes, well it wouldn’t exactly be easy to get you to train to be an idol with no intentions on debuting, so we had to make do. Why should I help him? Out of the love in your heart for your own flesh and blood. I do not consider that old man my father, nor that boy my brother. He has a secret he needs to keep, something I’m sure you’re familiar with of course. What secret? All in due time, Son, will you help him or not?

The Son refused to meet his brother in person for the first few months, preferring to instead communicate only by phone. He had been studying at Reimei academy, he told him, as part of the idol course. His mother loved idols, loved them so very much and it was the only memory he had of her. The Son understood his brother on that level. During their phone calls, the Son learned about his brother’s rival at the school, a boy by the name of Tatsumi Kazehaya who happened to be in the year above him. Tatsumi Kazehaya was perfect in many ways, something that his brother found infuriating. Why couldn’t he be like that? He lamented in one phone call. The Son told him that some people are simply born with talent, and Kazehaya was one of them. His brother relented and continued to update the Son on his progress.

Despite the Son knowing his brother’s name, Kaname Tojou, his brother did not know his, instead choosing to refer to him only as “Onii-chan,” a word that grated on his ears. He was not a cute older brother to be looked up to and in fact he’d rather be doing anything else than be there, and yet. He stayed calm. Once Kaname debuted and got on his feet, the Son would fade back into the background as if he never existed. That was the plan, anyway. The Priest had told him that he would be free to do as he pleased away from his watchful eye if everything went according to plan.

After a year of guiding his brother in the ways of being an idol, the Son wanted to see how he was progressing. Kaname hadn’t said anything about a performance, but since the Son was very good at keeping an ear to the ground, he had found out about a performance between Kaname and Tatsumi to be put on for the entire school. He wasn’t entirely sure what the purpose of that was exactly, but it would be a good time to gauge Kaname’s progress and how well he had followed the Son’s instructions. The Son made his way through the crowd, finding a spot near the front but not where Kaname could see him and he watched the empty stage, waiting for any sign of life.

The projectors came on and a video began playing, a video about the exact secret that the Son had been safeguarding even from his brother. It was a video about Kaname’s mother and how she had ruined the career of one of the best idols that had ever existed in Japan. The energy in the crowd was agitated, vibrating with anger as they waited for the two aspiring idols to take the stage. The Son wanted to run backstage, warn his brother of the impending danger, but could only watch in horror as the curtains raised and the crowd rushed forward. The Son looked on as the two young idols were yanked from the stage, a scream lost to the noise of the crowd, unable to do anything.

When it was over, he had found himself in the hospital waiting room, pacing the length of it as he went over the potential outcome of the surgery. His brother had suffered greatly, that much was obvious to the Son as they loaded the two boys into the ambulance, but how much damage was done had yet to be seen.

Someone approached the Prodigal Son while he was pacing and placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. Thank you for coming home.

#shay writes #enstars #ensemble stars #himeru #OKAY OKAY. IM JUST POSTING IT IDC I NEED TO GET THIS OUT OF MY SYSTEM #HIMERU BACKSTORY BUT I HAD TO WRITE IT LIKE SARAMAGO IDK IT JUST KINDA HAPPENED #BUT I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING IN THIS STYLE YOU HAVE NOOOOOOOOO IDEA #i edited about 3 pages of this and then was like. fuck it i cant do this anymore #hate reading my own writing hate hate hate it but yeah. oremeru backstory #theres more that i want to maybe expand upon eventually but i need more time to rotate those ideas in my mind #so like. runaway meru and then with the priest. but only a little with the priest #also idk when priest died. i know it happened slightly before the current era but idk by how much so.#to me? he was the one who got oremeru in contact with kaname and then died some time between that phone call and the current era #ik they mentioned priest being dead in one of the 1.5 tours i think the mayoshino one but blegh #or maybe it was a scout story idr its not super relevant i'll read it eventually but yeah.#okay enjoy 2.3k words of me just throwing things at the wall

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duhragonball · 2 years ago

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Dragon Ball Super manga Ch. 47-50

Man, you said it, Piccolo.

So Moro has escaped the Galactic Patrol’s prison after 10,000,000 years in confinement, and his plan is to restore his original magic power by using the Namekian Dragon Balls. He found out about the Namekians from fellow prisoner Cranberry, who was one of Frieza’s goons during the Namek Saga of DBZ. So when Moro escaped, he took Cranberry with him to lead him to the Namekians, although I’m not sure how that works, since Cranberry would have no idea how to find New Namek, or that there’s even a New Namek to be found.

Anyway, Goku and Vegeta tried to stop Moro, only to get their powers drained, and they’ve spent the last three days recovering while Moro has been very slowly gathering the Dragon Balls. Goku thinks they can stop him by hiding the one they’re with and suppressing their ki. But it turns out Moro can detect the Dragon Balls directly, so he doesn’t need to rely on Namekian life signs to show him the way.

So Goku and Vegeta decide to face him head on, since they don’t seem to have any better options. Moro is surprised to find they’re still alive, but he plans to kill them once and for all this time.

Oh, when I was complaining about how this arc just rehashes a lot of themes and imagery from classic Dragon Ball, I forgot to mention how Moro’s whole dynamic with Cranberry and his quest to restore his former power is lifted straight from King Piccolo. It’s a shame, because I want to like Moro. He has a cool look if nothing else, but they’re just not giving me anything to work with here.

So things look dire for Goku and Vegeta, until suddenly Merus shows up. Recall that Goku and Vegeta teleported to New Namek on their own because Merus’ ship was still a few days’ travel away from the planet. Well, those days have passed, and now Merus is here to lend a hand. First he reveals this new device that was designed to trap Moro temporarily. It won’t last long, but it doesn’t have to. Merus just needs Moro to hold still for the second part of his plan...

...Majin Buu, whom he brought along. The only one who could defeat Moro ten million years ago was the Grand Supreme Kai, and Majin Buu absorbed him five million years ago, so Merus has used hypnotherapy to reawaken the Kaioshin’s memories within Buu, and apparently it worked. Buu not only recognizes Moro, but he’s outraged at all the terrible things Moro did in the past.

Moro breaks free of Merus’ sticky trap, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because Buu kicks the shit out of him. Moro’s energy draining ability doesn’t seem to work on Buu at all, and Buu seems to have gotten stronger from having the Kaioshin’s dormant memories brought out. But this is all for nothing if Buu doesn’t use the magic-sealing technique that Merus needs him to use.

But before Buu can use that technique, Cranberry summons the Namekian Dragon, and starts making wishes. Apparently he has some device that can force a Namekian to translate his wishes, which is a clever plot device, except Cranberry never made it far enough to find out that Porunga only responds to the Namekian language, so I don’t see how he would have known to use a device like this.

Anyway, Moro convinces Cranberry to wish for Moro’s magic to be restored, and then he kills Cranberry for his trouble, because he has another wish he needs granted. We don’t find out what that is right away, but stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Buu restores Goku and Vegeta to their full power and assumes the appearance and personality of the Grand Supreme Kai for the duration of this battle. I never thought of this before, but maybe Buu’s healing powers were always abilities he got from the Kais he absorbed, rather than an innate power. I guess the only way to know for sure would be if Kid Buu healed someone, but he’d never do that.

Then we get a bonus segment which reveals Cranberry’s origin story. He was the Frieza soldier who got beat up by the Namekian villagers, and Zarbon superkicked him to death. Well, Mr. Popo wished back everyone who was killed by Frieza and his soldiers, and that includes Cranberry, who managed to escape Namek’s destruction by fleeing in Vegeta’s spaceship. This probably would have been more interesting if Cranberry had gotten to do more in this story, but he’s already dead, so we know he’s done.

Moro declares victory and tries to leave the planet, but the good guys pursue, although only Buu can fight Moro in the vacuum of space. The problem is that he’s no longer a match for Moro now that Moro’s got his magic restored. He goes for that technique the Kai used 10 million years ago, but Moro figures out it’s a bluff. Buu doesn’t have the power to execute it this time. But why should that be?

Merus suspects that it’s because Majin Buu separated into two beings during the Buu Saga. Merus assumed that the good Buu retained all of the Grand Supreme Kai’s power, since he kept the Kai’s appearance, but maybe Kid Buu got some of it after all. And since Kid Buu is dead, that means the surviving Buu doesn’t have the power he needs to pull off Merus’ plan.

But it’s not all bad news. Merus’ original idea has failed, but Goku and Vegeta are confident that they can overpower Moro in a fair fight. The problem is that Moro keeps using his magic to drain their power, which spoils things. So Merus sends them back to New Namek, and he goes out to help Buu. With his sticky trap weapon and the Grand Supreme Kai’s teleportation power, they manage to bring Moro back to the planet’s surface, where they can all fight him together.

So I like that idea. Moro’s not invincible like Super Buu or Jiren. He’s got a lot of different abilities, but he still has some weaknesses, which can be exploited as long as Goku, Vegeta, Buu, and Merus work together. Unfortunately, Moro had one other trick up his sleeve.

Remember that other wish he made to Porunga? Well it was to free all the prisoners at the Galactic Patrol’s jail. He had struck a deal with them all before the story started, and now that he’s busted them out, they head for New Namek to back him up. Wait, how did they get to New Namek so quickly? It took Merus days to make the trip.

Of course, you might wonder what difference escaped convicts could make in a battle like this, but Moro uses his magic to empower them, which is also a nice touch. Moro may not be physically strong enough to defeat a Super Saiyan Blue, but he can make others stronger, and he can drain Goku and Vegeta’s powers while they take on the small fry.

Eventually, Goku and Vegeta are overwhelmed, and the good guys are forced to withdraw. Goku prepares to teleport everyone back to GP headquarters, but Vegeta decides that he’s sick of this shit and refuses to join the others. Instead, he takes off after the spaceship that brought Merus’ group to New Namek.

They make their own escape, and the pilot plans to regroup with the others at GP headquarters, but Vegeta forces him to take the ship to Yardrat instead.

And this is really the first interesting twist to the whole arc. I was getting pretty bored with Goku and Vegeta being joined at the hip, getting outmaneuvered by Moro while Merus makes all his big plans. It’s one thing when it’s just one of them, but when they’re both doing the same thing, it’s redundant, so it makes sense for Vegeta to get sick of this shit and seek out an alternative strategy. He’s sick of magic and tricks and teleportation, and he’s convinced that he can defeat Moro in a direct confrontation, so he’s chosen to take matters into his own hands. So we’ll see how it plays out.

Things have gotten a little better with these chapters, but I’m still not sold on this story. We’ll just have to see how it goes...

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #merus #majin buu #moro #cranberry #moori #piccolo #gonna be honest i sort of don't care about all the bit characters introduced here #like some of the escaped prisoners have names but who cares?#and the namekian kid is named esca but he's just a cheap knockoff of dende

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