#Shameless SaeBaba shipping

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Please now I am desperate for a Baba breakdown from you. Favorite part of him? Least favorite? What would you change? What do you think is unchangeable? *pleading face*

Oh, I see I’ve sparked an interest ^^; Of course I’ll talk about the best little whore in all of Japan, Baba Shigeki xp 

I joke, but like... have you seen Y5? He’s not leaving much up to interpretation, tbh : | And I love that! Baba is a really fantastic and well-executed RGG character and it’s a shame so much of fandom is sleeping on him. (I know mostly it’s that it takes people awhile to get to Y5 ^^; )

Baba occupies a really important space in the Yakuza universe, the assassin. He’s an important reminder that not Everyone in this universe is a moralistic do-gooder. People like Majima and Kiryu are in fact in the minority. Most of the yakuza are thugs, people ready and willing to hurt others and even kill. And we’ve had assassins before in Kazama and Sera, but they’re mostly out of our hand. We don’t know them too well personally. and that makes sense, they’re the previous generation, their values and choices are reflective of a different time. Our time is largely shaped by Kiryu, he is the yakuza messiah. But just because he’s king god of the criminal underworld doesn’t mean that the underworld isn’t still... y’know, dark and harsh. Especially since Kiryu renounced his throne. 

And Baba is the stark reminder of that. I had been waiting for a long time for us to come into contact with a yakuza member who didn’t fall in line when we finally got to Baba. Because, as we all like to point out, Kiryu’s version of this job is pretty rose-colored and naive. HE might be able to only fight bad people and to use his power to help others, but so few of us are in that position. Kiryu is king god, there are no challenges for him, there’s nothing stopping him, literally. So he CAN just do whatever he wants, up to and including being a good person. Most of us aren’t that lucky, just look at Majima. But even Majima, after a time, gets to be a good person and amasses enough power that he can be nice without it being a death threat. But they’re gods, legends. Your average yakuza member is some punk kid who grew up to being a punk adult who has a shitty boss to answer to and dues to pay. Sometimes there isn’t a convenient bad person to pick on. Sometimes, to save your own neck, you gotta take money from people smaller than you. Sometimes you gotta intimidate and scare people. Sometimes you gotta do unpleasant things to please the boss, to make ends meet, to hold up your end. Not all of us have the luxury of making moral choices. 

And Baba is in a worse position than most. Baba isn’t big and tough. He doesn’t have the physical might to be a brawler, so he can’t be some street thug. His options in life likely weren’t great. Probably an orphan, probably had no one to look after him. So he grew teeth fast and figured out quick that ain’t nobody gonna take care of him, he was gonna have to take care of himself. With a body and face like his, he could easily enter sex work of some kind but that job is punishing for a whole other list of reasons. And Baba’s no dummy, he’s canny, he’s strategic. No, he’s smart enough to use his body to dupe others. He knows people trust his angel face. And there’s more money and more security to be had in a job of violence than selling himself to the highest bidder and forever being at someone else’s beck and call. My bet is Baba’s plan was to make enough money as an assassin that he could retire and live out his life in peace where no one would bother him. And his training as n assassin would keep people off his back. Baba decided a long time ago it is MUCH better to be feared than loved. Can’t rely on love, can’t trust it. But fear, people listen to fear. 

So I LOVE that we finally get the perspective of someone who didn’t get any breaks in life, who wasn’t blessed with divine strength, or lucked into a special position. Baba had to struggle for everything and it made him sharp and it made him paranoid. He doesn’t like killing people, it’s not fun, but he’s so scared of what will become of himself, he can’t bear to stop. He can’t afford to make moral choices. He has to survive, above all things, he has to survive. So another assignment in a prison? Sure, why not. Get close to a guy he has to take out later? Sure, he’s done it before. He’s a great spy, a great flirt. And it makes him feel better to sneer over people too stupid to see through him. They get what they deserve if they believe his honeyed lies. He doesn’t have to mourn his actions if they deserved it. Wash his hands, move on to the next mark. 

Saejima should have been no different. And for awhile, it’s easy. Saejima’s a big dumb hunk of meat. All Baba has to do is bat his pretty eyes and look like he needs help. Piece of cake. But Saejima... is different. Oh, he’s duped, sure enough, he’s gentle and sympathetic and protective, all the things Baba needs, but... One of the reasons Baba hated his past marks so much and felt no remorse killing them, is they all wanted something from him. Every last one of them thought they could get something from him, usually his body, but sometimes not. Every one of them was a selfish piece of shit who would have used him just as surely as Baba is using them right back. But Saejima... Saejima doesn’t want anything. He doesn’t try anything. Even when Baba flirts, even when Baba offers, Saejima acts like he doesn’t understand. The fuck??? It starts to anger Baba, the way Saejima just looks at him blankly and shrugs off invitations. Who does this guy think he is, think he’s better than him? Baba will make him understand, make him want him. Still Saejima is stunned and still he seems to only respond because Baba is asking him to, not because deep down Saejima was trying to use him to. 

Baba can’t... he can’t accept that. That can’t be real. If Saejima really was just helping him because... because he likes him or something, because he’s nice... no, that’s wrong. No one’s good and no one’s nice. Everyone’s out for themselves. No one goes out of their way for each other. Because if they did... then why did no one ever help Baba before? He wraps himself in sureness that Saejima’s just stupid and his selfish instincts are really in there, they’re just slow to appear. He’s just like all the others, he’d kick Baba to the curb the same as anyone else and then... Baba doesn’t have to feel bad about killing him. Then Baba can pull the trigger and all of this will be done. 

He’s sure, without a doubt in his mind, when he feels his hands slip off Saejima on that snowmobile and he’s sent flying, his last conscious thought is that he’ll die here. He’s almost happy. Because then he’d be right. Saejima will have left him and he’d be right. And, maybe just a little, he’s happy that he won’t have to kill Saejima either. Maybe this is best. 

It is the shock of his life when Baba wakes up. He wakes up and he’s warm and indoors and there’s a fire going and weak broth and Saejima hovering over him with a spoon going “You’re awake!" Baba starts crying and Saejima assumes it’s the shock and holds him, actually fucking holds him and... Baba doesn’t think he can do this anymore. How is he supposed to kill the one person who’s ever been nice to him? How is he supposed to look Saejima in the eye and shoot him? Oh god, Saejima should have left him there to die, he should have, he should have... why is Saejima so fucking stupid, why doesn’t Saejima suspect? 

The next couple of weeks are some of the worst Baba’s ever spent. Saejima’s nicer than ever, cuddly and affectionate and warm, and Baba feels sick with guilt. See, this is why he only kills stupid people. This is why he only killed people who deserved it. He can’t... bear this. Pointing the gun at Saejima is the hardest thing he’s ever had to do. But he has to, his whole life has been about this, his life above anyone else’s. If he can’t kill Saejima then... what was it all for? What had it all been about? He’s crying. He’s actually fucking crying like a little bitch and he can’t stop. It’s weak, it’s pathetic, but he just wants Saejima to take the gun out of his hand, to tell him it’s going to be okay, to take him home. Saejima screams at him and Baba falls apart. Saejima swoops in on him, holds him close, takes the gun and tells him it’s all going to be okay. It won’t... in the back of his mind, Baba knows even if he fails here, he still has half a job to do. But the fact that... everything out in the open, true colors showing, Saejima is still hugging him and refusing to let go... Baba sinks into that for a minute and believes that maybe there is something else he could do with his life. 

Oh... I have feelings about Baba Shigeki ^^; I love him to death I wouldn’t change a thing. The only thing I want is for Saejima to take Baba home and bring him into the Tojo and then we’re all a weird dysfunctional family together ^^; That’s my dream. Friends and family for Baba X3