#also I should've included Kaito

[the-lost-profile]

Ohedo Julia Night

Also known as Miku wearing the trans flag color.

[meimi-haneoka]

The center of gravity - Kaito/Akiho ficlet

It's time for another combo fanart + ficlet!!

You can find the full fanart inspired by this ficlet (or is it the other way around??) here.

I alllllways wanted to talk about this aspect. This time I won't explore Kaito and Akiho's future (not entirely), but rather their past.

As JP fans bought volume 16 of the Clear Card manga and came to the conclusion of this story that lasted 7 years and half, I've seen many people rejoicing about the relatively happy ending for Kaito and Akiho too. The incontrovertible confirmation (right at the last moment) that Kaito reciprocated Akiho's feelings was received positively by anyone I've seen commenting on it. And along with those comments, many expressed their desire to know more. "I wish we could've seen how Kaito came to cherish Akiho to that point".

I share their same sentiment, and I tried to visualize, both in art and words, what very likely happened on that fateful day when little Kaito saw Akiho in the glass ball. What did Kaito see in her, to the point of prompting him to act in someone else's interest? Why him, a child who never wanted anything and considered getting involved with anyone a nuisance? CLAMP haven't shown in details the "trigger", but along the years I strongly felt that the relationship between Kaito and Akiho is one of those guided by fate. After their first meeting, none of them stayed the same, and both felt inevitably drawn to one another. Of course that attraction presented itself in a variety of forms that changed throughout their journey together. And as you can well imagine, it hasn't always been romantic.

In this ficlet, Kaito is 9 years old, Akiho is 2. I also vaguely included speculations regarding the death of Lilie and her husband.

Excerpt:

He felt something snapping and stirring, inside of him. It felt as if the little girl had turned into the center of gravity of Earth and the entire universe was pushing him towards her, despite his reluctance. For the first time ever, he found himself reflected in the eyes of someone else.

Under the cut!

He had been called in again.

Without asking him if he was already busy with something else, or if it was okay with him to do it at all. They just told him "You're wanted at the rituals hall. Hurry up."

Following the orders, little Yuna D. Kaito walked down the disturbing hallways of the Magic Association's headquarters, dragging the heavy tails of the extravagant dark robe along, as he headed towards his destination.

He didn't have it in him to satisfy their umpteenth request. He never had it in him, but at the same time, he couldn't even find in him the will to leave those godforsaken hallways behind, and together with them, everyone who hung out in there too.

His core felt more empty and dead than ever, especially ever since they informed him of her passing, one year prior.

Every single day he just went through the motions of life, without truly feeling any of it. Fulfilling orders on command, eating whatever solid food he could find around - another passive response to his survival instinct. None of that came from his own will. His mind had recently started wandering to places a 9-year-old should never go.

But he didn't care. All he knew was that he just didn't care. About anything, or anyone. Not even about he himself.

The boy reached the so-called "rituals hall", a spacious room just as dark and ominous as the rest of that damned place was, if not more. A couple of Higher Mages were waiting for him at the altar. He walked past a small group of Comrades whispering among themselves - his ears passively overheard the words "it's quite weird" and "she should've shown signs by now", before reaching the altar. At the center of it, a magic glass orb rested on a crystal support. Kaito noticed they already had magically adapted it to his height.

"Yuna D., we want you to check at a distance a young child, for any possible trace of magic developing in her body."

"...Why me? It is a very simple task that any of the other Comrades could effortlessly do."

The brow of the Higher Mage who had issued the order twitched, slightly irritated by the child's insolence. Kaito's impudence was well-known among the congregation, yet the older magicians usually just ignored it in exchange for the child's services. This time was no exception, and the Higher Mage simply replied "It is a quite complex case. The ones who commissioned this task to us want to be absolutely sure of the verdict, therefore they requested for the intervention of our most powerful magician. Which happens to be you."

Kaito lowered his eyes. They had specifically requested for him, for a service apparently only he could offer. He stood out among all the other magicians of the Association for his innate astonishing abilities. He could do almost anything with no effort. The feeling stirred by that acknowledgement should've made him feel proud...appreciated...wanted. ...But it only made him feel worse. He couldn't help but hear a voice inside his head whispering...

"Am I being wanted, or...am I being used?"

But ultimately, little Kaito didn't care. That's all he knew. So he looked up and climbed the altar's stairs, reaching the glass orb. He circled it with his small hands covered by the robe, and started the spell to summon the image of the target of the check-up he was ordered to perform. The orb emitted a strong beam of light, reflecting a small figure at the center of it. A little girl, dressed in a light blue pinafore.

And then, he saw them.

Two blue eyes staring straight at the core of his soul, piercing through the thick glass.

He froze on the spot, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach.

He would've recognized those facial features anywhere. That ash blonde hair, those eyes resembling blue topaz stones. Nobody told him the name of the little girl beforehand, nor which clan she belonged to, but he didn't need any of that. He immediately knew who she was.

It's easy, when in your whole young life you've only met one person who didn't look at you like a property to exploit or a menace to keep at arm's length. And suddenly, his mind played back the images of a pregnant Lilie, eyes glowing with a peculiar light, while she proudly informed him that she carried a very precious love inside herself. Love born out of love, she said. He remembered staring at the baby bump, confused as it always happened when it came to whatever that powerful magician said. She invited him to touch the little bump, but he refused, grossed out by the idea. That was the last time he saw her.

Kaito quickly estimated the toddler could be about 2 years old, which matched with the other info he had. He had heard the baby Lilie had given birth to wasn't even one year old when the incident happened.

The boy peered deeply into those blue eyes and the knot in his stomach slowly turned into a cold grip when he realized something was off. Way too off.

The little girl's eyes held emotions he never saw on Lilie before. She wasn't smiling like her mother always did, and frankly she looked quite confused and scared by the examination she was being subjected to. She looked lost. Rootless. Lonely. Just like.....

He felt something snapping and stirring, inside of him. It felt as if the little girl had turned into the center of gravity of Earth and the entire universe was pushing him towards her, despite his reluctance. For the first time ever, he found himself reflected in the eyes of someone else.

From outside, Kaito looked as deadpan as ever. But inside, he felt that organ that barely kept him alive beating much faster than he had ever experienced in his pathetic, dull life.

A comrade snapped him out of his trance, soliciting him: "So, what about the fragments of magic?" Kaito remembered why he was there in the first place and activated another spell. His eyes sparkled while he analyzed throughly the toddler reflected in the orb.

He searched and searched...and as an alien feeling took possession of his body, making him feel anxiety for the first time, the world came crushing down on him.

None of it. Not a single speck of magic in the child's body. Not a sign she would ever develop any, even in the future.

He knew it. He knew what that meant, for that ruthless clan composed by nothing but greedy, heartless people. Shame and contempt. An affront to a centuries-old lineage of brilliant magicians. A blemish on the one thing they could take pride on.

This little girl's life had barely just began and she was already condemned to suffer a shame she had no blame for.

But it didn't have to be that way. Not if he could help it. For the first time in his life (oh, how many first times he experienced in a handful of minutes just because of those sad blue eyes) he felt compelled to actually do something. Something more than the mere warnings he used to give to the mother of this little child, warnings that for his entire life he would be afraid to find out were warranted and connected to the powerful magician's early demise, and that of her beloved husband.

He would've just needed to tell the truth. Because the thing her blood relatives would've most likely done, once they found out she didn't have any trace of magic, was to kick her out of their clan. And as despicable as that sounded, it actually seemed like liberation to him. An innocent girl without magic powers like her had no means to defend herself against the greed of the rest of her family. But out of that toxic environment, she would've been able to live a normal life. She could've had a chance to live a life where she would've been blessed with the love of a family who truly appreciated and respected her. That love that Lilie always used to talk about and that was stripped from this child too soon. That love that he still couldn't understand and, so early on at this stage of his life, he was resigned to never completely grasp for himself.

He didn't really know this little girl and he probably wouldn't have seen her ever again, but for the sake of the only person who treated him like a human being, and for those familiar blue eyes he felt he could relate to, he knew he wanted something better for her. So he turned around, feigning condescension:

"There's nothing at all, here. She's just like a 'blank book' ".

── ･ ｡☆*☽*☆ﾟ.──

Kaito groggily opened his eyes, finding himself reflected in another pair of eyes that were staring back at him.

Those beautiful eyes, blue like topaz stones. The same ones he saw in the dream that revisited his childhood.

"Akiho-san....?" he said, his voice hoarse from the heavy sleep.

Akiho was lying on her left side, on Kaito's bed, right in front of him. "I'm sorry...I came to check on you after your seizure and when I saw you didn't answer at the door, I realized you were still sleeping...but I couldn't stop being anxious. So I came in...and decided to wait here for you to wake up."

Kaito could spot traces of unrest in her eyes. She had been afraid to lose him, once again.

She lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry for taking the liberty".

"Nothing to apologize for", he answered with a drowsy smile. She looked up again, her own face breaking into a beaming smile.

He could feel it again, that irresistible pull towards her, like she was Earth's center of gravity. She was the answer to the question that haunted him a lifetime ago. She was the one who wanted him, not used him.

Despite the 'blank book' comment in the end had backfired tragically, the dream made him realize that ever since his eyes met hers in the glass orb, that fateful day of many years ago, there hadn't been a single moment he hadn't loved her. Even when he still didn't know what love was, even when he still hadn't understood what love entailed. Even when it still wasn't the "love" everybody praised endlessly in their romantic songs, the one he certainly was feeling now. It wasn't that love, but he now was sure it was a kind of love nonetheless. His love for her changed and evolved from the very first moment and had the power to change him too, along with it.

Ever since he met her, he felt the inexplicable urge to act in her interest. That gravitational pull shook him from the torpor of his depression, proactively participating to the dance called "life", rather than going through the motions. How or why he came to feel that way didn't matter, it just happened. And he would've been grateful for it for the rest of his life.

"You changed several expressions on your face while you were sleeping. What were you dreaming about?" Akiho inquired with curiosity, propping herself up on her elbow.

Kaito stared tenderly at her.

"The center of gravity of my world"

[akiumzeno]

Hot take: I wish the villains in Soul of Yokai had more of a point

It would've been way more nuanced than just "Yokai think humans bad and they're wrong".

Spoilers ahead

Considering the main theme of the VN is about prejudice and racism, I think there were fumbles in the narrative to make humans completely innocent (from what we've seen).

The idea that Yokai just hate humans with little-to-no reason is sort of odd. We're given very little explanation. Onimaru made one comment that they took over their resources but that's vague and opens up questions that never get answered. And Nami's betrayal could've fed into the hate but I doubt that she was the original reason Yokai hate humans. (If Sakuya was a well-known figure that news would've spread like wildfire, that is).

I would've liked the idea that humans actually did do something against the Yokai. We all know how much human in real life are racist and prejudiced. It's not hard to believe that humans wouldn't have treated Yokai different when they tried to make contact with humans.

I imagine that it happened like centuries ago, around the time where Japan was isolating itself from the rest of the world. So when the Yokai made contact with humans through the Cave of Time, they were met with hate and fear and told to go back to where they came from (some Yokai probably got hurt or died). This, of course, leads to the Yokai hating humans.

However, years have passed since and humans are more tolerant (not completely since there are racist people out there). But their actions have not been forgotten (likely because the Yokai who were there are still alive).

See how this gives a reasonable perspective to why the Yokai don't like the humans? It would've made their hate more nuanced, especially because the protagonist isn't a Yokai. It gives more of the Yokai perspective and why they're so unwilling to accept them. I feel like it's easier to just write racism and prejudice concerning villains and make them hate them for the sake of hating them than just making a nuanced and more grey angle to their hate. It's just boring to write in this prejudice and never really explain it nor have any Yokai question why they're hating humans if there's very little reason.

And I'm going to say it, but I think Nami also should've played a part in this. I feel like season 2 just wiped out any aspect that humans can be bad and left the story without nuance. Sure, there's Kaito but only Hayato meets him who's half human and Kaito is never really known by the other cast (with the exception of Tamen).

I think having a genuinely bad human should exist in Soul of Yokai. Humans are shitty. Humans even treat other humans like shit. I think Nami would've been proof that not all humans are good and shown just as much Sakuya, Onimaru and Hebionna are awful, there are humans who are the same. And I think it would've served a better arc for Sakuya to realise that not all humans will accept him/treat him nicely but that's no reason to wipe out all of them, including the ones who will accept and love him and to not let one bad human ruin the rest of them for him.

[the-kings-of-games]

If you're still doing the sending in of opinions, we should've had another zexal character in arc-v. I liked seeing Kaito as much as the next guy but I feel we missed the opportunity to send in one of the others. Pardon my use of the English names- grew up on the English dub and forgot the Japanese names- but I feel it would have been cool to include Cathy or even one of the Arclights. Or they add in Haruto as an actual character instead of someone shoved to the side- seeing how the others interact with Haruto would've been cool

No worries, bud, I use dub names out of love and spite.

Idk if you saw my reply on the first Arc-V opinion, but again dead horse. (Send me something a bit more interesting, or relatviely new take. Conspiracy theories, lol.) Arc-V's plot was too big for the runtime, and they spent way too long on the Synchro Dimension.

But still, the Xyz Dimension arc was kinda written tightly, idk how you'd add in another character without diverging from the main plot—Kite already Shay, Yūto, and Lulu as their fiend, so they all personal stakes fighting each other. Add Cathy to do what? As much as I love her, she's a gimmick character. The Arclights? Their whole thing took, like, a whole arc or two in the original series, Arc-V don't got time for that, lol.

I will say that it would've been nice for them to show Hart at least once (and also Faker), but would it really add anything too? Honestly, with how they handled legacy characters—erasing their original histories, not including other characters and thus erasing their bonds (this is really important here, especially with the 5D's legacy characters which makes me Big Sad™)—maybe it's better they didn't show him, kek.

At least we got the Tyler sisters. 😩

I'm bored, send me your YGO opinions(s) and let me judge you!